Carl Fredrik Pechlin

Who was Carl Fredrik Pechlin?

Baron Carl Fredrik Pechlin was a Swedish politician and demagogue, son of the Holstein minister at Stockholm, Johan Pechlin, and brother of Johanna Lohm. After moving to Sweden at age six, he was educated in Sweden, and entered the Swedish army. He rose to the rank of major-general, but became famous by being the type par excellence of the corrupt and egoistic Swedish parliamentarian of the final period of the Age of Liberty; he received for many years the sobriquet of 'General of the Riksdag'.

Pechlin first appears prominently in Swedish politics in 1760, when by suddenly changing sides he contrived to save the Hats from impeachment. Enraged at being thus excluded from power by their former friend, the Caps procured Pechlin's expulsion from the two following Riksdags. In 1769 Pechlin sold the Hats as he had formerly sold the Caps, and was largely instrumental in preventing the projected indispensable reform of the Swedish constitution. During the revolution of 1772 he escaped from Stockholm and kept quietly in the background.