Coronation ceremonies and the democratisation : Changes of Swedish coronation ceremonies between 1772 and 1873

This essay is a study of Swedish coronation ceremonies in the nineteenth century. The purpose is to answer questions about how coronations where used to demonstrate and legitimise power, and how these ceremonies where changed when the structure of power went through the dramatic changes of the nineteenth century. The coronations that I have chosen to study for this essay starts with the coronation of Gustav III in 1772, then Charles XIV John in 1818, Oscar I in 1844 and the last coronation in Sweden: Oscar II’s in 1873. The essay also makes connections to Gustav V’s choice not to have a coronation when he became king of Sweden in 1907, a choice that marked the very end of coronations in swedish history. The result of this study shows the connection between coronations and political power, and it supports the theory that ceremony and power where in fact very close. It shows how the coronation ceremonies represents a social structure and a distribution of power, which leads to the conclusion that when these two changes so does the ceremonies. Eventually the change of society reached a level where the coronation ceremonies became obsolete as it could not be adapted to the new structure of power