Privileges
The noble estates are not abolished in Sweden, but their privileged position has been weakened step by step since 1680. The nobility's political privileges were practically abolished by the reformation of the Riksdag of the Estates in 1866, and the last rights of precedence to certain governmental offices were removed in the 1920s. By then the last tax exemption privileges had also been abolished. However, some minor privileges remained up until 2003, including the right to be beheaded by sword, when the law granting these noble privileges was completely abolished and the government no longer has the right to call the heads of families to be assembled in session.
The prerogatives of nobility today are limited to protection of noble titles and certain elements and styles used in their coats of arms: a helm with an open visor, a coronet showing rank, a medallion and the use of supporters. Modern Swedish law makes no distinctions on the basis of nobility.
Read more about this topic: Swedish Nobility
Famous quotes containing the word privileges:
“Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges ... which are employed altogether for their benefit.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“Solomon’s ... excess became an insult upon the privileges of mankind; for by the same plan of luxury, which made it necessary to have forty thousand stalls of horses,—he had unfortunately miscalculated his other wants, and so had seven hundred wives....
Wise—deluded man!”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969)