Honour, Masculinity and Corporality in the Officer Corps of Early Eighteenth-Century Sweden
Abstract
Military honour and physical commitment to serve king and fatherland played a central role in the ideals of the army of Charles XII of Sweden. These ideals were formed within a culture in which the role of the warrior, dictated by a code of honour, was constantly challenged. My main empirical primary sources consist of the archivale records of the Swedish Diet, which included Placement Committee records from the Diet of 1723. An honourable man had the right to a livelihood and a respectable position in society. My aim is to show that, in order to obtain such a position, a military man had to present himself as someone who had offered his body in the service of his king and country. An appeal to one’s merits in battle was the best way of defending a claim to a post, because bravery in combat was the most respected virtue in military life. Those officers who had clear proof of their bravery, especially in the form of combat wounds, were in the best position. In this sense, honour and the body were closely linked.Since 2013, 1700-tal publishes all content online, currently with a one-year delay after the printed version is distributed.
Copyright on any content in 1700-tal is retained by the author(s).
Authors grant 1700-tal a license to publish their contributions in print and online or any other medium and to identify itself as the original publisher.
Authors give 1700-tal the right to distribute their contributions freely under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This implies that any third party has the right to use the contribution freely, provided that its original author(s), citation details and publisher are identified.
For more information on the Creative Commons Attribution License see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Authors have the right to self-archive their contribution in its final form (publisher’s PDF) as soon as the printed version has been distributed.