a leader of the 1809 coup d'état that deposed the absolutist Swedish king Gustav IV (Gustav IV Adolf), and a champion of liberal political, economic, and social causes in the first half of the 19th century.

Unlike many other “men of 1809,” Anckarsvärd did not retreat from his liberal principles when a democratization of society became a practical possibility. Although a member of the largely conservative noble estate in the Riksdag (estates general), he fought for free trade, open government fiscal policy, a modern parliament, and mass public education. While the experience of the 1848 revolutions caused him to doubt the benefit of universal suffrage, which he had formerly favoured, his efforts were vital to the achievement in 1865 of a modern parliamentary system.