“Write in no Foreign Language, but Solely and Only in Swedish”

In the eighteenth century, Swedish diplomats were required to report in Swedish, but occasionally used French and, in rare cases, German. This essay asks to what extent these parallel uses of languages occurred and explores how the linguistic practices of internal, diplomatic correspondence evolved in Swedish diplomacy. The first decades of the century witnessed decreased multilingualism and a development towards almost exclusively Swedish communication in the reports to the Royal Majesty. On the contrary, in reports sent to the chancellery president, the majority of legations used French alongside Swedish from the 1720s. The correspondence thus testifies to an ongoing balance between top-down language policy requirements within the framework of the early-modern state and the allure of an ‘international’ prestige language.