ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the era that directly followed the failed coup of 1756, up to 1770, and which proved to be perhaps the most exciting period in the Swedish Age of Liberty. The succession of Diets (1760–1762, 1764–1766, and 1769–1770) embodied the increasing politicization of the Estates with a degree of radicalism and political violence never reached before in the Age of Liberty. These Diets, additionally, gave the opportunity to Louisa Ulrika not only to bounce back, but also to sharpen her political skills. The queen tirelessly pursued her quest to increase royal prerogatives. Her enterprises met with more or less success. For the very first time in the Age of Liberty perhaps, the Diet opened with two main parties defending two different political conceptions and two visions for Sweden's future.
