Axel Gustaf Adlercreutz (2 March 1821 – 20 May 1880) was a Swedish politician, civil servant, President of the Göta Court of Appeal, Minister in the Cabinet, Member of Parliament 1847–1866 and 1877–1880, Prime Minister for Justice 1870–1874. In 1853 he married Baroness Hedvig Lewenhaupt, with whom he had ten children. Life Axel Adlercreutz was born in Skara in present-day Västra Götaland County, the son of Lieutenant General Gustaf Magnus Adlercreutz and Margareta Elisabeth Charlotta von Arbin. He received a Bachelor of Laws degree at Uppsala 1845 and then made a typical and successful career in the civil service: clerk at the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency and at the Bureau for Justice Affairs (), then a notary at the Svea Court of Appeal, Deputy District Judge () 1848, Public Prosecutor () 1850, Assessor 1853 and Justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden 1860, finally becoming President of Göta Court of Appeal 1868. Adlercreutz barely had time to take up his office before King Charles XV appointed him Minister for Civil Service Affairs in the Cabinet of Louis De Geer, despite the fact that Adlercreutz had opposed the abolition of the Parliament of the Estates, a minor revolution that had been the work of De Geer. One explanation for the King's choice was a desire to placate a Parliament that had adopted a cool attitude toward the Government after the Representation Reform Act of 1865–1866. The Second Chamber was dominated by fiscally conservative farmers who adopted cuts in the Government's budget proposal, backed up by the First Chamber where resentment toward the Representation Reform still lingered. When the criticism did not abate, De Geer also lost the support of the King and resigned. As the strongest figure in the Privy Council, Adlercreutz now became Prime Minister for Justice. The King now intervened more openly with Government affairs, which undermined the position of the Privy Council. Charles announced in his Throne Speech that he intended to summon an extraordinary Parliament in order to solve the issue of defense policy. Not even all members of the Council had been notified in advance. When, at this extraordinary Parliament, the Government lost the vote on defense policy, all members of the Privy Council requested to be relieved of their office. While the King attempted to compose a new government, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Wachtmeister suffered a stroke in the street and fell