Sweden, or the Kingdom of the Swedes

From that time (to say nothing of earlier events), constantly provoked by their neighbors, at times warring with all of them together, and more often with one or two, they have exhausted both them and themselves; and in the meantime, they have had no ten-year peace from any quarter, and have sometimes even flared up in civil discords.

There are six estates of the Swedish Republic: Hereditary Princes, Nobles, the Ecclesiastical Estate, Soldiers, Merchants, and Peasantry.

The eldest son of the King is the heir to the kingdom. If he has more sons, a Duchy is provided for them by testament, while for the daughters, a dowry is determined by the constitutions of the kingdom—namely, one hundred thousand Joachimsthalers—given not from the royal treasury, but by the contribution of the Estates. Although the succession of kings has now been changed in such a way that those who were once chosen by suffrage are now hereditary, they nevertheless swear to the Religion of the Augsburg Confession and the laws of the kingdom.

In this place, I cannot pass over in silence that wise institution of the founders of the Swedish Republic, who, considering with Jethro that the burdens of the empire could not be borne on the shoulders of one man, established a Senate of the kingdom to relieve those same heavy burdens, which might advise the King in difficult