Sweden's Constitution of 1772 took effect through a bloodless coup d'état carried out by King Gustavus III, establishing a brief absolute monarchy in Sweden. This was a response to perceived harm wrought upon Sweden by a half-century of parliamentarism during the country's "Age of Liberty". The 1772 Constitution, though criticised as authoritarian, and in 1789 amended in a still more autocratic direction, was relatively liberal compared with the situations in contemporary European states (with the notable exception of the May 3, 1791, Constitution in Poland).
It was in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland, created in 1809 from the eastern third of Sweden, that the amended 1772 Constitution was first replaced (July 17, 1919). In Sweden, the loss of Finland resulted in both a new royal dynasty and a rewriting of the constitution.
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