Court and Public in Late Eighteenth-Century Stockholm: The Royal Urban Life of Duchess Charlotte, c. 1790

Abstract

This article analyses the everyday urban sociability of Duchess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte, sister-in-law to Gustav III of Sweden. It is a detailed account of social practice through a wide array of the Duchess's papers, namely her political journal and letters, informal notes to friends and household accounts. The study also includes royal theatre box subscription lists as a way to identify the composition of the theatre audience. The claim of this article is that the Swedish royal family maintained its authority in a period of political challenge, by maintaining an urban presence. Through a carefully ritualised sociability, the court preserved social exclusivity by means of urban encounters, such as daily walks in the gardens, weekly appearances at the royal theatres and balls at the Stock Exchange.

Notes

1 A ‘duchess’ in a Swedish context always refers to a royal woman. Her formal title was Duchess of Södermanland. An earlier version of this article first appeared in Swedish as ‘Hertiginnan, hovet & staden i det gustavianska Stockholm’, Sjuttonhundratal: Nordic Yearbook for Eighteenth Century Studies (2013), as a part of my doctoral thesis in history, defended the same year.

2 In the original French: ‘Elle a deffanes [défense] expres de j'ame [jamais] aller à aucun endroi qui est regarde comme borigen par consequent elle ne peut faire nul visite au Chaot n'y [ni] dans ma maison elle ne peut aller a aucun Spectalque n'y a promener au Jardin du Roi n'y au Parque n'y a Carlberg elle a de plus deffanes de venir chez la Duchesse et Chez moi pas mémé a la Campanig n'y partout ou nous somme enfin elle est deffendu daller a la Bourse et au Spectalque mémé de Senborg et partout ou elle peut croiser et risquer de renconter le Roi’, Sophia Albertina to Caroline Ehrencrona, 5/2 1790, Princess Sophia Albertina's collection, vol. 3, Ericsbergsarkivet, Stockholm, Riksarkivet [henceforth RA]. All translations from French are the author's own.

For the purposes of this article, I will use the following simplified references to my source material: all references are to be found in Riksarkivet (RA), the National Archives in Stockholm. The accounts are in vol. K295. References to the diary are as ‘Lettre’, followed by the month and year. The diary is kept in the collection of Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta, Ericsbergsarkivet, RA, vol. 1 (1775–1787) and vol. 2 (1788–1793). All references to ‘undated notes’ are taken from the collection in Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 27, unless otherwise specified. When referring to a letter, a full reference is used.

3 See for example, Maria Berlova, Performing Power: The Political Masks of King Gustav III of Sweden (1771–1792) (Stockholm 2013); Richard Engländer and Martin Tegen, ‘Den gustavianska operan’, in Karl Ralf, ed., Operan 200 år: jubelboken (Stockholm, 1973), pp. 7–13; Beth Hennings, Gustaf III: en biografi (Stockholm, 1957), p. 179; and Anna Ivarsdotter and Marie-Christine Skuncke, Svenska Operans födelse: studier i gustaviansk musikdramatik (Stockholm, 1998) pp. 22–5.

4 Klas Nyberg and Eva Eggeby, ‘Stad i stagnation 1720–1850’, in Göran Dahlbäck and Lars Nilsson, eds, Staden på vattnet. D. 1, 1252–1850 (Stockholm, 2002), p. 189.

5 In addition to biographical depictions of Gustav III, the monarchy has in recent years been investigated by Mikael Alm, Kungsord i elfte timmen: språk och självbild i det gustavianska enväldets legitemitetskamp 1772–1809 (Uppsala, 2002); Annie Mattson, Komediant och riksförrädare: handskriftcirculerade smädeskrifter mot Gustaf III (Uppsala, 2010); and Henrika Tandefelt, Konsten att härska: Gustaf III inför sina undersåtar (Helsinki, 2008). For a spatial analysis of the social composition of eighteenth-century Stockholm, see Mats Hayen, Stadens puls: en tidsgeografisk studie av hushåll och vardagsliv i Stockholm, 1760–1830 (Stockholm, 2007); and Karin Sennefelt, Politikens hjärta: medborgarskap, manlighet och plats i frihetstidens Stockholm (Stockholm, 2011).

6 Nevertheless, the ducal couple never had any children that survived infancy, whereas the Queen, Sophia Magdalena, did eventually give birth (to the future Gustav IV Adolf) in 1778. On the diplomatic considerations before the Duchess's marriage, see Ludvig Manderström, Recueil de documens inédits concernant l'histoire de Suède sous le règne de Gustave III. 2, Mariage du duc de Sudermanie (Stockholm, 1849), pp. viii–xi.

7 ‘C'etoit toujours un grand homme et un homme de genie, mais ce nétoit pas un bon Roi’, Lettre au mois d'avril 1792, p. 157.

8 On the high politics and the monarchy of Sweden in this era (in English), see for example Mikael Alm, ‘Royalty, legitimacy and imagery: the struggles for legitimacy of Gustavian absolutism’, Scandinavian Journal of History, 1 (2003); Erik Lönnroth, ‘Gustavus III of Sweden: the final years: a political portrait’, in Åke Holmberg, Scandinavians: Selected Historical Essays (Göteborg, 1977); and Pasi Ihalainen, ed., Scandinavia in the Age of Revolution: Nordic Political Cultures, 1740–1820 (Farnham, 2011).

9 For further analysis of the Duchess's political writings, see My Hellsing, “‘que dumoin apres ma mort la verite perse”: La duchesse Charlotte, journaliste à la cour de Suède’, in Anne Coudreuse and Catriona Seth, eds., Le temps des femmes: Textes me?moriels des Lumie?res (Paris, 2014).

10 The Duchess wrote her Journal in French, the courtly and literary language of the Gustavian court. In the early twentieth century, the journal was translated and published in nine volumes as Hedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbok / öfversatt och utgifven af Carl Carlson Bonde (Stockholm, 1902–42). Other parts of her comprehensive personal archives remained largely unknown, and thus became the primary focus for my doctoral thesis: ‘Hovpolitik: Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte som politisk aktör vid det gustavianska hovet’ (Örebro Universitet, 2013).

11 See Michael North, Genuss und Glück des Lebens: Kulturkonsum im Zeitalter der Aufklärung (Cologne, 2003), pp. 171–2, 190.

12 This view of early modern European monarchy is called a ‘political total theatre’ in Thomas Lyngby, Søren Mentz and Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, Magt og pragt: envælde 1660–1848 (Copenhagen, 2010), p. 79; or the ‘performance of authority/staging of politics’, in Hannah Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714–1760 (Cambridge, 2006), p. 218.

13 See for example Hannah Greig, ‘All Together and all Distinct: Public Sociability and Social Exclusivity in London's Pleasure Gardens, ca 1740–1800’, The Journal of British Studies, 1 (2012); Andrew Hann, Victoria Morgan and Jon Stobart, Spaces of Consumption: Leisure and Shopping in the English Town, 1680–1830 (New York, 2007), especially pp. 77–98; Benjamin Heller, Leisure and Pleasure in London Society, 1760–1820: An Agent-Centred Approach (Oxford, 2009); and Sennefelt, Politikens hjärta.

14 On the British court and the ‘public sphere’, see Smith 2006, pp. 232–8; and Nicolas Henshall, The Zenith of European Monarchy and its Elites: The Politics of Culture, 1650–1750 (Basingstoke, 2010), pp. 193–205.

15 For a more detailed discussion of gender, royal position and the inner dynamics of the Gustavian court, see my doctoral thesis, Hellsing, Hovpolitik.

16 See Lettre au mois de mars 1789, p. 351; Lettre au mois de fevrier 1790, p. 574; Lettre au mois de decembre 1790, pp. 662–3; Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Jeanna von Lantingshausen, 18/8 1790, 9/6 1791, and 12/6 1791, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, vols 24–25.

17 Lettre au mois d'Avril 1781, p. 131; Lettre au mois de Juin 1785, p. 20; Lettre au mois de fevrier 1789, p. 345.

18 Lettre au mois de Mai 1778, p. 114; Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Sophie Piper, 19/9 1779, Stafsundsarkivet, Smärre enskilda arkiv, RA, vol. 13.

19 For an example in which the term ville may be somewhat broader: Lettre au mois de Janvier 1791, p. 19. On the social practices and overlapping between ‘court’ and ‘city’, see also Antoine Lilti, Le monde des salons: sociabilité et mondanité à Paris au XVIII^e siècle (Paris, 2005), pp. 73–80; Eric Auerbach, Vier Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der französischen Bildung (Bern, 1951), pp. 12–16.

20 Gudrun Andersson, Staens dignitärer: den lokala elitens status- och maktmanifestation i Arboga 1650–1770 (Stockholm, 2009), p. 217. See also Heller, Leisure and Pleasure, p. 279.

21 Sennefelt, Politikens hjärta, pp. 29, 39–40, 86.

22 Greig, ‘All Together and all Distinct’.

23 Nils Wollin, ‘Kungsträdgården i Stockholm II’, Samfundet Sankt Eriks årsbok (1924), pp. 106–07, 116–18.

24 It is possible to conclude that these events were organised by private individuals rather than the court from the Duchess's ledgers, in which she made specific records. See for example, 1/1 1788, ‘For tickets to the masquerade’; 6/4 1788, ‘The Stock Exchange Assembly’; or 6/5 1787 and 17/7/1787, ‘For Spectacle Tickets’. See also Mikael Alm and Bo Vahlne, Överkammarens journal 1778–1826: ett gustavianskt tidsdokument (Stockholm, 2010), p. 91.

25 Marie-Christine Skuncke, ‘Gustaviansk teater’, in Tomas Forser and Sven Åke Heed, eds, Ny svensk teaterhistoria. 1, Teater före 1800 (Hedemora, 2007), 211–12.

26 See Alm and Vahlne, Överkammarherrens journal, pp. 66–9.

27 On the parterre, see for example, Auerbach, Vier Untersuchungen, pp. 23–31; Jennifer Hall-Witt, Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780–1880 (Durham, 2007), pp. 62–4, 108–11. That the boxes and stalls served to display the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie respectively in a Swedish context as well emerges from the following letter, in which the Duchess writes that ‘il y a eut des aplaudisment sans fin est sans cesse à l'entrée du Roi non seulement le partere mais les Loges aussi’, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Jeanna von Lantingshausen, 1/9 1790, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 24.

28 Hall-Witt, Fashionable Acts, p. 60.

29 Hall-Witt, Fashionable Acts, pp. 57–81; Judith S. Lewis, Sacred to Female Patriotism: Gender, Class and Politics in late Georgian Britain (New York, 2003), p. 113. On sociability in the eighteenth-century theatre, see also Gillian Russell, Women, Sociability and Theatre in Georgian London (Cambridge, 2007); and Hannah Greig, The Beau Monde: fashionable society in Georgian London (Oxford, 2013), pp. 80–94. The comparative study for France is Martine de Rougemont, La vie théâtrale en France au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1988).

30 Hall-Witt, Fashionable Acts, pp. 61–76.

31 Laurent Turcot, Le promeneur à Paris au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 2007).

32 Frédérique Leferme-Falguières, Les courtisans: une société de spectacle sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris, 2007), p. 247.

33 See Hayen, Stadens puls, passim.

34 See for example the Duchess's undated note: ‘j'irais de bonne heure à Frescati, ce seras vers les 11 heures que j'y serais […] si au Contraire Hedda [de la Gardie-Armfelt] eut des empechemens, et que le tems soit beau nous nous verons à Carlberg comme dernierement’. In her accounts is a record of a payment made ‘by Fiscartorp’ in June 1790, an excursion that is also mentioned in the Duchess's letter to Jeanna von Lantingshausen, 7/6 1790, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 24. Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm chose the same routes and excursions as the Duchess, see ‘Gustaf Adolf Reuterholms dagbok från åren 1775–1776. Meddelad av Alma Falk’, Personhistorisk tidskrift (1923), pp. 190–91, 223–4, 226.

35 ‘s'il fait moin de vent demain qu'aujourd'hui je sortirais, je ne sais encore si ce seras en caleche ou à pied mais j'irais toujours mon ancien chemin de la Rue de la Reine’ (undated note).

36 See also Sennefelt, Politikens hjärta, especially pp. 38–125.

37 See for example Lettre au mois de mars 1789, p. 370, and undated notes, and notes in Löfstadsarkivet, Vadstena landsarkiv, BXXV a:3. See also Greig, ‘All Together and all Distinct’, p. 73.

38 ‘je sortirais vers les 11 heure j'irais par la douanne du nord, et me rendrais à la grande porte du Jardin de Carlberg je laisserez ma voiture à quelque distance du Jardin, vous sortirez à la même heure apeupres ou plus tard si vous voulez ou plustot, c'est égal vous irais le chemin tout droit à Carlberg arreterez du cote de la maison du Jardinier laissée votre domestique à la porte et je vous y trouverez nos gens ne sauront pas que nous nous y sommes vues et ceux qui me suivron j'en repons car ce seras ou Sophie ou quelqu autre de mes Dames qui n'en parleront pas et Bruse donc je puis repondre, dailleur comme il n'y a guerre les matin à Carlberg nous pourons nous y voir sans gêne pourvue que le tems veuille nous favoriser.’ See also the following example: ‘si demain vous voudriez vous trouver dans le jardin de Carlberg à 11. heure vous irais comme dernierement par l'entré aupres du Jardinier, et pour qu'on ne voye point ma voiture j'irais droit au Chateau trouvée moi parconsequend du Cote de l'etans […] j'espère qu'il n'y aura pas d'autre rencontre.’ Both undated notes.

39 ‘La prochaine fois si je vous rencontre et que nous sommes 4 ou 5 personnes je me campe par terre dans la Rue une Princesse ne peut y être assise ce ne seras pas moi parconsequend et je pourais vous parler à l'aise’, undated note.

40 See for instance the Duchess to Jeanna von Lantinghausen, 4/7 1791, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 25.

41 On the use of incognito at various European courts, see Lucien Bély, La société des princes: XVIe-XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1999), pp. 469–535.

42 It emerges from the Duchess's household accounts that alms were the most frequent of her personal expenditures, but that the total sum was modest. The amount remained fairly constant from year to year. Reviewing the Duchess's personal accounts shows that for the years 1787 to 1790, the total sums given to charity were 145, 197, 174 and 200 riksdaler respectively, while the total sums for her recorded expenses varied between 7,002, 7,625, 3,313 and 5,213 riksdaler respectively.

43 Account records 8/11 1787, 18/3 1788, 12/3 1789 and 5/4 1789.

44 Account records 2/7 1787, ‘For a Poor Boy for Clothes and Support’; 30/6 1788, ‘For a pauper who will later receive the same sum Quarterly’; 18/8 1788, ‘Miss Strokirch for the poor’; 4/11 1788, ‘Support for a Poor Boy’; 14/3 1789, ‘For Money for the Poor on Sunday’; June 1790, ‘Miss Strålenhielm’, ‘For Miss Strålenhielm once’; and in December that year, ‘For a Miss Strålenhielm usual Half year’; June 1790, ‘for Count Löwenhielm for a poor nobleman’; June 1790, ‘A Wounded Guardsman’; July 1790, ‘ditto [Collection] for General Duval’.

45 On the political and social dimension of charity among the female elite, see also Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste, ‘Une consommation aristocratique et féminine à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Marie-Fortunée d'Este, princesse de Conti, 1731–1803’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Limoges, 2010), pp. 427–33; and Lewis, Sacred to Female Patriotism, pp. 86–7. Marja Taussi Sjöberg observes the same small but regular gifts to the needy in her study of a wealthy bourgeois woman in late eighteenth-century Stockholm. Marja Taussi Sjöberg, Släkten, pengarna och Caroline Gother: en grosshandlarsläkt i Stockholm under tre generationer 1740–1836 (Stockholm, 2009), pp. 176–7.

46 Known as the ‘Franska Spektaklet’ in Swedish, adapted from ‘Spectacle François’. On the history of the Gustavian opera houses, see Erik Gustaf Rödin, ‘Operahusen’, in Karl Ralf, ed., Operan 200 år: jubelboken (Stockholm, 1973), pp. 19–28.

47 The Opera was closed in the autumn of 1784 because Gustav III was rebuilding the boxes. According to the Duchess, many courtiers then went to the Stenborg theatre instead. In a letter to Sophie Piper dated 3/10 1784 (Stafsundsarkivet, Smärre enskilda arkiv, RA, vol. 14), she recounts who had been there. One would assume therefore that the Duchess was there herself, but this is uncertain. For three days later, 6/10 1784, she wrote to Jeanna von Lantinghausen that she never went there (Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 24). Nevertheless, in the Duchess's accounts, there are several entries for payments for entrance fees and a box at the Stenborg Theatre during the 1787–90 period, presumably for herself.

48 ‘Les Spectacles de Stenborg et de Ristrel sont également remplie, on à beaucoup parlée de la Fausse Angnes que l'on joue chez Ristrell; mais que j'ai le mauvais gout de trouver abominable, au fait à ce Spectacle il y à tout une autre classe de Personnes des phisionomie qu'on ne voit nul auter pard, au lieu que chez Stenborg tout le Beau monde y va, la Reine y a été hier en Fioquis avec le Pr: Royal quand ma tous ceras un j'irais aussi un jour, presque touttes les Dames connue y sont tout les jours ou Second jour de Spectacle’, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Jeanna von Lantingshausen, 8/11 1787, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 24.

49 The Duchess to Jeanna von Lantingshausen, 8/9 1791, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 25.

50 Sven Åke Heed, ‘Efter maskeraden’, in Tomas Forser and Sven Åke Heed, eds, Ny svensk teaterhistoria. 1, Teater före 1800 (Hedemora, 2007), pp. 262–3; Alm and Vahlne, Överkammarherrens journal, p. 299.

51 This emerges from the Duchess's undated notes.

52 ‘Le Prince Frederic est revenue Lundi au Soir, il est venue à l'operas dans la Loge de La Princesse tout de suitte, ensuitte il est rentré dans celle de La Reine, et à donnée rendez vous à La Princesse et à moi pour hier au matin’, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Sophie Piper, 24/9 1788, Stafsundsarkivet, Smärre enskilda arkiv, RA, vol. 15. See also Lettre au mois de novembre 1787, p. 156, and Lettre au mois de mars 1790, p. 594.

53 The Duchess to Sophie Piper, 29/9 1788, Stafsundsarkivet, Smärre enskilda arkiv, RA, vol. 15.

54 Lettre au mois d'avril 1783, pp. 114–18; Lettre au mois de mai 1783, pp. 119–22; Lettre au mois d'octobre 1784, pp. 159–60; Lettre au mois de decembre 1784, pp. 161–2 ; Lettre au mois de janvier 1785, pp. 11–12 ; Lettre au mois de mars 1785, p. 16. In the light of the Duchess's involvement in the opposition against Gustav III, the prominence she gives these conflicts might be interpreted as a symbolic refusal to partake in his power ploys, and part of a larger pattern of political symbolic acts (this is detailed further in my thesis). However, the Duchess herself denies this in Lettre au mois de mars 1785, p. 16.

55 ‘ce Spectacle a été donnée deux fois, à la Seconde representation, il y avoit une si prodigieuse quantite de monde que si des vrais acteur auroit joué la Salle, n'aurais pas pue être plus remplie, celas à choquée beaucoup de personnes, et je ne nierais pas que j'en ai été tres etonnée; surtout comme la salle étoit remplie de filles et de gens de moindre espece, celas et d'autems plus etonnant, que les acteurs eux même distribuoit ce jour les Billets d'entrée’, Lettre au mois d'Avril 1783, pp. 113–14.

56 ‘pourvue qu'il ny ait qu'une Sociéte choisie qui fut Spectateur, car ajoutaije je ne trouve nullement desent pour des femmes de Condision, et encore moin pour la Belle Sœur du Roi de monter le Theatre quand toutte la ville y est admis […] le Roi repliqua que nous serions maîtresse de distribuer les Billets nous mêmes’. Duke Charles's comment, which is reported in connection, casts further light on the event: ‘j'exige de vous ma chere amie […] que vous ne dansiez point à Ulrichsdal à Gripsholm tant qu'il vous plairas mais il n'est pas decent si proche de la ville, puisquil y a toujours trop de monde’, Lettre au mois d'Avril 1783, p. 115.

57 On eighteenth-century actors and their relationship with the royal family, see Johanna Ilmakunnas, Ett ståndsmässigt liv: familjen von Fersens livsstil på 1700-talet (Stockholm, 2012), pp. 182–3.

58 There are ten extant listings in the archives of the royal theatres between October 1786 and March 1788, for the Royal Opera and the French Theatre in the Bollhuset.

59 In my compilation (Table 1), I refrain from making any kind of biographical formation of the box holders, since a more precise categorisation might have entailed errors and potentially obscured connections between different individuals.

60 Box holding coincided with the diplomats’ exercise of their office. For instance, when the marquis de Pons returned back to France, his box was taken over by his substitute, de Gaussen (an exception to this was the Spanish minister in the summer of 1787). This meant that the ambassadors should have been present at the theatre during the periods that they hired their boxes. With one exception, their boxes were also rented at a fixed price.

61 Charlotta Wolff, Vänskap och makt: den svenska politiska eliten och upplysningstidens Frankrike (Helsinki, 2005), pp. 209–10. See also Alma Söderhjelm, Sverige och den franska revolutionen: bidrag till kännedom om Sveriges och Frankrikes inbördes förhållande i slutet av 1700-talet. 1, Gustavus III:s tid (Stockholm, 1920), p. 111, which quotes the French ambassador, the marquis de Pons, whose only opportunity for deliberations with Gustav III in 1788 was precisely at the opera.

62 It emerges from Alm and Vahlne, Överkammarherrens journal, pp. 90, 118, that you could join the gallery and stalls together.

63 A tentative analysis of subscription patterns in Stockholm differ from results provided by both Michael North and Jennifer Hall-Witt. North places the princes on the first row, the wealthy bourgeoisie, officials, scholars and artists on the second and third rows, while the stalls were filled with military men and travellers. Craftsmen, journeymen and servants sat separately in the gallery (Genuss und Glück des Lebens, p. 190). The principle of a showcased social segregation of the auditorium through the architecture of the theatre building was nevertheless the same (Ibid.).

64 See Alm and Vahlne, Överkammarherrens journal, passim.

65 ‘elle ceras toutte Blanche la grande loge d'appresent ceras coupé en 6 Partie ou il y aura 6 loges et à dire pour la Reine le Pr: Royalle les Ducs la Pr: et moi mais chaque loge ne feras que de la grandeur que tres comodement il puisse s'y tenir 3 ou tout au plus 4 Personnes, comme il n'y aura pas de Grande loge dutout cuex qui sont à notre suitte et même ceux qui sont de la Garde de la Reine n'auront point place quen achetant des Billets le Roi au reste une loge ou L'amphithéâtre et Presentemens voila du nouveaux mais de l'incomode car on ne perd pas volontiers un droit qu'on a eut jusqu'ici, aussi cela fait il bruit et sensation’, Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Jeanna von Lantingshausen, 2/9 1784, Rålambska stiftelsens arkiv, RA, vol. 24.

66 I have found a total of nineteen entries in the Duchess's personal accounts of payments for the chamber women's boxes at the Opera between March 1787 and October 1790. However, the Duchess's accounts and the Opera's accounts do not correspond, either by date or figures.

67 Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta to Sophie Piper, 27/9 1784, Stafsundsarkivet, Smärre enskilda arkiv, RA, vol. 14.

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My Hellsing

My Hellsing holds a post-doctoral position at the Department of History at Uppsala University, Sweden, having defended her thesis in 2013, published as Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte, hertiginna vid det gustavianska hovet (Atlantis, 2015). Her current research project analyses the political elites of Stockholm in the Age of Revolution, c.1780–1820. She is the Swedish reviews editor of Sujttonhundratal: Nordic Yearbook for Eighteenth-Century Studies.