Axel Gustav Adlercreutz

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Axel Gustaf Adlercreutz
Prime Minister for Justice
In office
1870–1874
Preceded byLouis Gerhard De Geer
Succeeded byEdvard Carleson
Personal details
Born(1821-03-02)2 March 1821
Skara, Sweden
Died20 May 1880(1880-05-20) (aged 59)
Stockholm, Sweden
SpouseCountess Hedvig Levenhaupt

Axel Gustaf Adlercreutz (2 March 1821 – 20 May 1880) was a Swedish

Parliament 1847–1866 and 1877–1880, Prime Minister for Justice 1870–1874.[1][2]

In 1853 he married Baroness Hedvig Lewenhaupt, with whom he had ten children.

Life

Axel Adlercreutz was born in

Louis De Geer
, despite the fact that Adlercreutz had opposed the abolition of the Parliament of the Estates, a minor revolution that had been the work of De Geer. One explanation for the King's choice was a desire to placate a Parliament that had adopted a cool attitude toward the Government after the Representation Reform Act of 1865–1866. The Second Chamber was dominated by fiscally conservative farmers who adopted cuts in the Government's budget proposal, backed up by the First Chamber where resentment toward the Representation Reform still lingered.

When the criticism did not abate, De Geer also lost the support of the King and resigned. As the strongest figure in the Privy Council, Adlercreutz now became

Oscar II
.

In 1873, the issue of defense policy was solved by a compromise engineered by De Geer in his capacity as Chairman of the Parliament Defense Committee. Nevertheless, conflict arose the following year over a question concerning the organization of the Army, over which Adlercreutz to some surprise demanded a vote of confidence and lost.

Upon his resignation he was appointed Governor of Malmöhus County. In that district, he was returned to the bicameral Parliament of 1877, after having been absent since the abolition of the Parliament of the Estates, wherein he had belonged to the Estate of the Nobility. After his resignation he became an outspoken critic of the policy of the De Geer Cabinet; among other issues he opposed the abolition of the duty of conveyance which the major part of farmers owed the King. He tabled motions on legislation against lotteries.

Axel Adlercreutz was of a hot-tempered and courageous nature. He never hesitated to give as good as he got on the floor of Parliament. Count Henning Hamilton, used to being treated with great deference, was nonplussed when Adlercreutz rebuked him for his gibes. When De Geer lamented the coarse tone of the debate, Adlercreutz replied that it was only the final powerless twitches of the defeated. With his undaunted spirit and naïveté, he also passed quite unscathed through Parliament despite all attempts to bring him down. He was small and brave as a weasel, Carl Wadenstierna, his colleague in Parliament, said of him.

Axel Adlercreutz died on 20 May 1880 in Stockholm at the age of 59.

This article is to a large extent a translation of the equivalent article in the Swedish-language Wikipedia.

References

  1. ^ Kings, Rulers and Statesmen. 1967.
  2. ^ Wieselgren, Harald (1880). "216 (Ur vår samtid)". runeberg.org (in Swedish). Retrieved 2021-02-07.

External links

Preceded by Prime Minister for Justice
1870–1874 		Succeeded by
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