revered King Gustav II Adolf; for example, it revived the posts of Lord High Chancellor and Lord High Steward, which had once been among the Great Offices of the Realm but had fallen out of use in the previous century. On the other hand, large parts of the Instrument were also inspired by recent Enlightenment ideas, in particular Montesquieu's notion of the separation of powers. This concept would also be one of the main principles behind the US Constitution, drawn up four years later, and indeed Gustav was an avowed admirer of the nascent United States. However, while Gustav may have admired republican concepts like the separation of powers in theory, in practice he tended to rule as an enlightened despot, akin to contemporaries such as Joseph II of Austria and Frederick the Great of Prussia, rather than as a constitutional monarch. The phraseology of the Instrument of Government was rather vague, in part due to its having been written in haste in the aftermath of the coup, and although it invoked ideas like the separation of powers, it provided few practical checks upon the king's power. Moreover, in 1789 Gustav removed many of the few limits which did exist upon his power by compelling the Riksdag to pass the Union and Security Act, which revised the Instrument of Government in a more nakedly authoritarian direction. Details Significant provisions of the Instrument of Government included the following: The king governed the civil service and Parliaments were assembled only at the king's will when the king had to raise taxes and legislate (legislation was regulated in articles 40-43). An offensive war also had to be approved by Parliament (article 48) and also new taxation (articles 45-46). The Privy Council's justice department (), functioned as a fairly independent Supreme Court (the king had two votes in this Court's judgements, as in all decisions by the council in the Age of Liberty). The Privy Council did not however function so much as a political institution as in the Age of Liberty, and in these matters the king could put it aside and listen to other advisors and councillors as the king also often did. The king however, had to listen to the advice of the Privy Council in cases concerning treaties about peace, armistice and alliances with foreign powers and (state) visits to other countries. In these cases the council also could veto