Editing Axel Oxenstierna (section)

==Impact and legacy==

===The modernization of Sweden===
Axel Oxenstierna is perhaps most remembered for the establishment of a uniform administrative system.<ref name="Nationalencyklopedien" /> He was ever-present during the vast reforms of the 1610s and 1620s, when the Swedish government was hugely modernized and made more effective. This was necessary for the war policies that would build the Swedish Empire. Among the areas reformed were army and navy organization and recruiting, trade and industrial policies, regional and local administration, the system of higher education, and the judicial system.<ref name="Trettioåriga kriget"/> The boundaries of the administrative [[counties of Sweden]] still to a large extent follow the boundaries established by Oxenstierna in the 17th century.

===Relationship with King Gustavus Adolphus===
Oxenstierna would not have had such an impact unless he had won the king's trust. From 1612, when Oxenstierna was appointed Lord High Chancellor, until 1632, when King Gustavus Adolphus died, the two men struck a long and successful partnership. They seem to have complemented each other. With Oxenstierna's own words, his "cool" balanced the king's "heat". More than once, the chancellor had to realize plans of the king, plans that sometimes were highly spontaneous and far from ready to be implemented in reality. When it came to entering the Thirty Years' War, Oxenstierna was not as enthusiastic as the king, but since the king's will was decisive, Oxenstierna accommodated himself to Gustavus's wish. At times, Oxenstierna stepped in to ease tense relations that the harsh behaviour of the king had caused.<ref name="Trettioåriga kriget"/> He regularly received the highest praise for his work from the king and there was almost no area in which King Gustavus did not consult his Lord High Chancellor Oxenstierna.<ref name="Nordisk Familjebok - Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna" />

[[File:Porträtt av Axel Oxenstierna - Livrustkammaren - 65091.tif|thumb|Portrait of Oxenstierna by [[David Beck]]]]

===The mind behind the Instrument of Government of 1634===
The Chancellor made large contributions to the Standing orders of the House of Knights (''riddarhusordning'') of 1626.<ref name="Nationalencyklopedien" /> After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, Oxenstierna was the mind behind the [[Instrument of Government (1634)|Instrument of Government of 1634]], in which, for example, the organization of the five [[Great Officers of the Realm]] was clarified. Five governmental branches, of which the Great Officers became heads, were established.<ref name="Nationalencyklopedien"/><ref name="Nordisk Familjebok - Riksämbetsmän (1916)">{{cite web|url=https://runeberg.org/nfcc/0217.html|title=Nordisk Familjebok – Riksämbetsmän|year=1916|work=Nordisk Familjebok at runeberg.org|language=sv|access-date=4 July 2009}}</ref> Oxenstierna pushed through the Instrument of Government, but not without opposition. He claimed that the new form of government reflected the will of the late King Gustavus, making himself the interpreter of the king's thoughts and wishes, and leaving the opposition no possibility to control the truth in this.<ref name="Trettioåriga kriget"/>

===Opinions===
Oxenstierna is regarded as a brilliant pragmatist, willing to reconsider his positions. There are examples of discussions within the Privy Council when Oxenstierna rejected laws he himself had earlier introduced, admitting that he knew better now. His way of examining, reconsidering, testing, and sometimes rejecting his earlier opinions constitutes his legacy more than his ideas on particular points of policy.<ref name="Populär Historia" />

When he discovered that there were too few young noblemen to staff governmental positions, he worked to make it easier for boys outside the noble families to gain higher education, and gave them the possibility, eventually, to be raised to the nobility themselves. He could therefore be considered the father of Swedish meritocracy.<ref name="Populär Historia" />

Oxenstierna was also a supporter of [[mercantilism]] and a believer in immigration and free enterprise.<ref name="Nationalencyklopedien"/>

In Germany, Oxenstierna became a fear-evoking character in a derived version of the popular German lullaby [[Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf|Schlaf, Kindlein, Schlaf!]], in which he is referred to as "Ochsenstern".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/stn/page/detail.php/2199406 |title=Ochsenstern im Wiegenlied "Schlaf, Kindlein, Schlaf!" |language=de |access-date=12 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202223254/http://content.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/stn/page/detail.php/2199406 |archive-date=2 December 2013 }}</ref>

====Opinions about Oxenstierna====
Dutch jurist and philosopher [[Hugo Grotius]] considered Oxenstierna "the greatest man of the century". French [[Cardinal Richelieu]] called him "an inexhaustible source of fine advice", while Richelieu's successor, [[Cardinal Mazarin]], said that if all ministers of Europe were on the same ship, the helm would be handed to Oxenstierna. Pope [[Urban VIII]] claimed that Oxenstierna was one of the most excellent men the world had seen.<ref name="Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon - Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna" />