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The Library

of the

University of Wisconsin

From the collection

of the late

Qiester H. Thotdarson

\^nis

DENMARK AND SWEDEN

THE STORY OF THE NATIONS

23.
24.

25.

26.

27.
28.
29.

30.

31-

32.

33.
34-

35.

By Arthur Oilman, M.A.
The Jews. By Prof. J. K. Hosmer.
OtmuAy. By Rev. S. Baring-
Gould, M.A.
Oarthftfe. By Prof. Alfred J.

Church.
Alexander's Impure. By Prof.

J. P. Mahappy.
The Xoore in Spein. By Stanley
Lane-Poole.

By Prof. George

Prof. ARMiNirs
By Arthur Gil-
Hod. Emily

Andent Sffypt

Rawlinson.
Honfarj^ By

Vambkry.
The Baraeene.

tlAN, M.A.
Ireland. By the

Lawless.
Ohaldea. By Z^kaYde A. Ragozix.
The Ooths. By Henry Bradley.
AMapitL, By Z^naTdb A. Ragozin.
Turkey. Bv Stanley Lanb-Poole.
Hollvkd. By Prof. J. .£. Thorold

Rogers.
MeduBTal France. By Gustave

MASJ^N.

Penia. By S. G. W. Benjamin.
Phoenieia. By Prof. G. RA\VLIN^o\.
Media. By Z^.naTde A. Ragozin.
The Hanta Town*. By Helen

ZlMMERN.

Early Britain. By Prof. Alfred

J. Church.
The Barhary Oenatri. By Stanley

Lank-Poolk.
Koaaia. By W. R. Morfill. M.A.
The Jews under tne Bemana. By

W. D. Morrison.
Sootland. By John Mackintosh,

LL.D.
SwitMTland. By Mrs. Lina Hug

and R. Stead.
Mexico. By Susan Hale
Portugal. By H. Morse Stephens.
The Jformana. By Sarah Orme

Jewktt.
The Byiantine Empire. By C. W.

C. Oman.
Sicily : iPhoenician, Greek and

Boman. By the Prof. £. A.

Freeman.
The Tuacan Bepubliea. By Bella

Duffy.
Poland. By W. R. Morfill. M.A.
Parthia. By Prof. George Raw-

LINSON.

The Auatralian Commonwealth. By
Greville Tregarthen.

36. Spain. By H. E. Watts.

37. Japan. By David Murray. Ph.D.

38. South Africa. By George M.

Theal.

39. Yenioe. By Albthea Wibl.

40. The Oraaadea. By T. A. Archer

and C. L. Kingsford.

41. Yedie India. ByZ. A. Ragozin.

42. The Weat Indiea and the Spaniah

Main. By James Rodway.

43. Bohemia. By C. Edmund

Maurick.

44. The Balkana. By W. Miller,

M.A.

45. Canada. By <Sir J. G. Bourinot,

LL.D.

46. Bntiah India. By R. W. Frazer.

LL.B.

47. Modem Eraaoe. By Andr6 Le

Bdn.

48. The Franka. By Lewis Ser-

geant.

49. Austria. By Sidney Whit&ian.

50. Modem Enfland. Before the Re-

form BilL By Justin McCarthy.

51. China. By Prof. R.K. Douglas.

52. Modem Ttngland. From the Reform

Bill to the Present Time. By
Justin McCarthy.

53. Modem. Spain. By Martin A. S.

Humk.

54. Modern Italy. By Pietro Orsi.

55. Horway. By H. H. Boyesen.

56. Walea. Bv O. M. Edwards.

57. Mediayal Home. By W. Miller,

M.A.

58. The Papal Monarchy. By William

Barry. D.D.

59. Mediaeval India under Mohamme-

dan Bule. By Stanley Lane-

60. Buddhist India. By Prof. T. W.

Rhys-Davids.

61. Parliamentary England. By Ed-

ward JBNKS. M.A.

62. MedisBtral Enfland. By Mary

Bateson.

63. The Coming of Parliament. By L

Cecil Jane.

64. The Story of Greece. From the

Earliest Times to a.d. 14. By
E. S. Shuckburgh.

65. The Story of the Boman Empire.

Cb.c. 29 to a.d. 476.) By H.
Stuart Jones.

66. Denmark and Sweden, with Ice-

land and Finland. By Jon
Stefansson, Ph.D.

London : T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., i Adelphi Terrace

GVSTAWS ADOU^HVS DG. REX SVEC GOTH: »
FT VAND. MAGNVS PRINCEPS FINLANIXC DVXETC.

P«4.f-

-H

,|«l.l«. l>yci fmni

-x-v-

DENMARK AND
SWEDEN with

ICELAND AND FINLAND

By JON STEFANSSON, Ph.D.

LECTURER IN ICELANDIC AT KINg's
COLLEGE, LONDON

WITH A PREFACE by VISCOUNT BRYCE, O.M.

LONDON

T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD.

ADELPHI TERRACE

First published in igi6

A^,-^ 734254 ^

\0^l2^

PREFACE

Among all the countries of Europe, it is with those of
the Scandinavian North and with Holland that we in
^ Britain are most nearly connected by blood, by reli-

^ gion, and by similarity of ideas and habits. Yet most

^ of us in this country have very scant knowledge of the

^ ^ history of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland,

I although the political relations of both Great Britain

3 and Ireland were constantly affected by all these four

n countries during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh

^ centuries, and though in quite recent times our

^ commercial and also our intellectual intercourse

r*^ with them has attained a constantly increasing im-

portance. Accordingly, the appearance of a new
sketch of their history, brief, but perhaps all the
more likely to be generally read because it is brief,
deserves a welcome. The motive which specially
prompts me to write these few lines of preface to the
book of Mr. Jon Stefansson, is the fact that he is
an Icelander, and that I have long known him as a
scholar who has brought his knowledge of the lan-
guage and history of his own isle to illustrate the
early history of the British islands by a study of our
place-names, which he has shown to be, especially

X PREFACE

along our coasts, very largely of Icelandic or Old
Norse origin. As he is qualified by his knowledge
of Iceland to present an outline of its history, so
he has also the advantage, in writing of the other
Scandinavian countries, of being able to treat their
annals with an impartiality which might come
less naturally to a Dane or a Norwegian or a
Swede. Iceland is, to be sure, a part of the
dominions of the Danish Crown, but on the other
hand the people of Iceland are by race an offshoot
of the people of Norway, so that an Icelander like
Mr. Stefansson stands in his sympathies midway
between Denmark and Norway* Denmark had in
the more distant past many a war with Sweden, and
Norway has, in more recent tim/2s, had some friction
with Sweden, but Iceland never stood in any but
friendly relations with Sweden.

It IS a distinctive feature of this little book that
more space is in it allotted to the annals of Iceland
than one finds in other books devoted to the Northern
countries. Now Iceland is a country of quite excep-
tional and peculiar interest, not only in its physical
but also in its historical aspects. The Icelanders are
the smallest in number of the civilized nations of the
world. Down till our own days the island has never
had a population exceeding seventy thousand, yet it
is a Nation, with a language, a national character, a
body of traditions that are all its own. Of all the
civilized countries it is the most wild and barren,
nine-tenths of it a desert of snow mountains, glaciers,
and vast fields of rugged lava, poured forth from its
volcanoes. Yet the people of this remote isle,

PkEPACB XI

placed in an inhospitable Arctic wilderness, cut
off from the nearest parts of Europe by a stormy
sea, is, and has been from the beginning of its
national life more than a thousand years ago, an
intellectually cultivated people which has pro-
ducecl a literature both in prose and in poetry that
stands among the primitive literatures next after
that of ancient Greece if one regards both its quantity
and its quality. Nowhere else, except in Greece,
was so much produced that attained, in times of
primitive simplicity, so high a level of excellence
both in imaginative power and in brilliance of
expression.

Not less remarkable is the early political history
of the island. During nearly four centuries it was
the only independent republic in the world, and a
republic absolutely unique in what one may call
its constitution, for the government was nothing but
a system of law courts, administering a most elaborate
system of laws, the enforcement of which was for
the most part left to those who were parties to the
lawsuits.

In our own time Iceland has for the student of
political institutions a new interest. After many
years of a bloodless constitutional struggle between
its people and the Danish Crown, Denmark con-
ceded to Iceland a local legislature, and an autonomy
under that legislature which has greatly improved
the relations between the two countries and furnished
another argument to those who hold that peace and
progress are best secured by the application of the
principles of liberty and self-government. It is

xn PREFACE

much to be desired that the Russian Government
should appreciate the value of these principles in its
dealings with Finland.

As regards that much larger part of Mr. Stefan-
sson*s book which relates to the Scandinavian countries
of the mainland, it is enough to call attention in a
very few words to the interest which their most recent
history has for us, since I cannot attempt to enter
into those more distant centuries which are illustrated
by the great names of Norse, Danish and Swedish
kings, from Olaf Tryggvason of Norway and Cnut
of Denmark and England, down to. Gustavus
Adolphus and Charles XII of Sweden. In our time
Denmark has become a perfectly constitutional State,
after a long dispute which in the last generation
divided the Crown from the people. She has also,
by the application of the principle of co-operation
and by the use of scientific methods, become one of
the most prosperous agricultural regions of Europe.
Sweden's industries also have been immensely de-
veloped, while her political life has passqd, under a
reformed parliamentary system, into new and striking
phases. Both these countries have been adorned by
brilliant poets and novelists, as well as by scientific
investigators of the first rank.

The history of all the Northern countries well
deserves far more attention from Englishmen than
it has hitherto received.

BRYCE.^
July 17, 1916.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE

xix

PART I

DENMARK

CHAPTER

I. ORIGINS — THE VIKING AGE

II. CNUT THE GREAT

III. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGE

IV. THE AGE OF THE VALDEMARS (l 1 5 7- 1 24 1 )
V. CIVIL WAR

VI. VALDEMAR ATTERDAG (134O-75)

VII. QUEEN MARGARET — THE KALMAR UNION-
THE OLDENBURG DYNASTY .

VIII. CHRISTIAN II .

IX. THE REFORMATION

X. THE SEVEN YEARS WAR (1563-70)

XI. CHRISTIAN IV (1588-1648)

Xn. ABSOLUTISM — GRIFFENFELD

xiii

3
10

23
31
36

50
67

73
78
87

XIV CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XIII. ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . 94

XIV. CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEE . /• IO4

XV. FREDERICK VI DENMARK AND ENGLAND —

THE LOSS OF NORWAY . . • ^S

XVI. CHRISTIAN VIII — SLESVIG AND HOLSTEIN . I27

XVII. FREDERICK VII — THE CONSTITUTIONAL MON-
ARCHY — THE FIRST SLESVIG WAR . • 133

XVIII. CHRISTIAN IX AND HIS SUCCESSORS — THE LOSS

OF SLESVIG — CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLES . 1 43

PART II

ICELAND

XIX. ICELAND . . . . 157

PART III

SWEDENi

XX. ORIGINS — THE VIKING AGE AND THE EARLY

MIDDLE AGE . . . -175

XXI. UNION WITH NORWAY (1319-7T) AND WITH

DENMARK (1389-1521) . . , I91

XXII. GUSTAVUS VASA (1523-60) — THE REFORMATION 203
XXIII. ERIC xiy , . . . , 231

CONTENTS XV

CHAPTER PAGE

XXIV. THE REFORMATION POLAND . . . 240

XXV. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS . . . . 247

XXVI. SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER . . 276

XXVII. CHARLES XII . . . . . 296

XXVIII. PARLIAMENTARISM FREE AND UNFETTERED . 308

XXIX. GUSTAVUS III . . . -314

XXX. GUSTAVUS IV — THE LOSS OF FINLAND . 328

XXXI. BERNADOTTE AND HIS SUCCESSORS— THE
UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSO-
LUTION ..... 337

PART IV

FINLAND

XXXII. FINLAND AFTER ITS SEPARATION FROM

SWEDEN (1809-I914) . . . 355

SVNOCHRONISTIC TABLES OF EVENTS IN

SWEDEN, DENMARK, AND NORWAY . 371

INDEX 381

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS Frontispiece

THE JELLINGE STONE . . . . . . .7

ORNAMENTS, CHIEFLY BUCKLES, OF THE VIKING AGE . 8

DANISH COINS FROM THE REIGN OF CNUT THE GREAT,

MINTED AT LUND, ROSKILDE, RINGSTEAD . . 13

CANUTE AND EMMA. From a miniature reproduced in

'' Liber VitcB'' {Birch) 14

CHALICE AND RING OF ABSALON 26

QUEEN MARGARET'S SARCOPHAGUS 45

CHRISTIAN II 51

THE STOCKHOLM MASSACRE .60

THE STOCKHOLM MASSACRE ...... 62

KRONBORG, ELSINORE, IN SHAKESPEARE'S TIME . . 75

THE KRONBORG TAPESTRY MENTIONED IN " HAMLET " :

FREDERICK II AND HIS SON 76

CHRISTIAN \Y 80

HESSELAGERGAARD CASTLE 85

CAROLINE MATILDA 106

STRUENSEE 112

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 1 39

ARNI MAGNUSSON 167

la ^"

XVlll ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

JON SIGURDSSON 171

OLAF SKOTT-KONUNG'S COINS 1 78

GRAVESTONE OF THE ENGLISH PATRON SAINT OF

FINLAND, BISHOP HENRY 1 83

LAWMAN BIRGER'S GRAVESTONE 1 89

SEAL OF STOCKHOLM 1 97

GUSTAVUS VASA 205

STOCKHOLM. From an old print 211

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS LANDING IN GERMANY . . . 259

SEAL OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 264

DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AT LUTZEN. A Dutch

print 271

GRAVE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, RIDDARHOLM CHURCH,

STOCKHOLM 274

SIGNATURE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS . . . .275

AXEL OXENSTIERNA, CHANCELLOR OF SWEDEN . . 278

CHARLES X 282

D\HLBERG 285

MARCH OF THE SWEDISH ARMY OVER THE ICE . . 287

THE SWEDES STORM COPENHAGEN, FEBRUARY II, 1659. 290

CHARLES XII. By Wedekind 298

DEATH MASK OF CHARLES XII 306

GUSTAVUS III 316

BERNADOTTE (CHARLES JOHN) . . . . . .336

FIVE FINNISH LEADERS 361

INTRODUCTION

It has often been stated that Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway come late into European history and are
factors of little importance for the balance of power.
Yet we find that at the dawn of their history, in the
ninth and tenth centuries, the Scandinavian peoples
exercised a deep and lasting influence on Western
and Eastern Europe. They helped to build up the
Empires of England, of France, of Russia. These
early Empire-builders had discovered the value of
sea-power and used it to conquer and settle many
shores. They imparted their seafaring and colonizing
genius to the Anglo-Saxon stock. The Vikings con-
tributed virile and adventurous elements to the
composite stock of the English. In France they
became crusaders and builders of cathedrals. They
sent out leaders of men, not only on the Seine and
the Thames, but also on the Dnieper. They gave
Russia her name and governed her, few though they
were in number. They broke the Mongolian yoke.
Rurik's last descendant died as Tsar in 1 598.

The Anglo-Scandinavian Empire of Cnut the Great
was short-lived, but the Scandinavian mind clung to it
with tenacity. Harald Hardradji of Norway, Saint

XX DENMARK AND SWEDEN

Cnut of Denmark, tried to revive it. Even as late
as the middle of the fourteenth century Valdemar
Atterdag negotiated with France about his claims
to the English Crown and planned the conquest of
England It has remained a dream which can only
be realized if the Scandinavian kingdoms should enter
a Federated British Empire for their own safety and
security.

Though the smallest in extent of the three Scandi-
navian kingdoms, Denmark was the most powerful of
them during the early Middle Ages. At the time of
the Valdemars she held the hegemony of the North.
She held sway over the Wends and Esthonians on
the shores of the Baltic. But soon the naval and
commercial domination of the northern seas by the
Hanseatic Cities ousted all competitors. The Baltic
Empire of Denmark crumbled easily. Through civil
feuds she sank into disorder and degradation, and
seemed to be on the verge of sharing the fate of
Poland. Valdemar Atterdag i-estored her to her
pristine state. It was his daughter, Margaret, who
brought about the first union between the three
kingdoms of the North. Her contemporaries greatly
marvelled at the strength and wisdom of the woman
who accomplished what men had in vain striven to
do. But it was only a dynastic union, not a union of
the three peoples. Denmark continued to be the
predominating Power and ruled the two other countries
in her own interest. This was contrary to the stipu-
lations of the Kalmar Union, drafted at Kalmar, 1397,
by nobles representing the three kingdoms, according
to which they were all to be on an equal footing, while

INTRODUCTION XXI

each of them was to retain her independence as a
sovereign state. As a symbol of this union Margaret's
grand-nephew was crowned with the triple crown of
the three kingdoms at Kalmar in 1397. A coronation
in any of the three capitals of Denmark, Norway, or
Sweden would have been a breach of their status of
equality. This was the theory, but in practice the
union worked far otherwise. Margaret, desirous of
curbing the power of the nobles, never promulgated
the terms of the Kalmar Union. Danes held office
in Sweden and in Norway contrary to the stipulations
of the Union. The national spirit of the Swedes rose
against the Danish yoke. Norway lacked leaders.*
The flower of her nobles had been killed off in civil
wars and in blood feuds. The union between Denmark
and Sweden gradually broke up, though it lasted
nominally till 1523, The Vasa dynasty ascended the
Swedish throne. They raised Sweden to the highest
pinnacle of power which has been reached by any of
the three sister nations.

In a series of fratricidal wars Denmark and
Sweden struggled for supremacy in the North.
Denmark aimed at the dominion of the adjoining
seas, the Baltic, the North Sea, the Polar Sea. She
insisted that all foreign men-of-war should dip their
topsail irt her seas. She emblazoned the three crowns
in her Arms as a symbol of her supremacy. She
exacted customs duties not only in the Sound but
also fo^ ships rounding the North Cape. This finally
led to the Swedish seizure of the Sound provinces,
Scania, Halland, Blekinge. Holland, which desired
that the Northern Dardanelles should not belong tO;

XXll DENMARK AND SWEDEN

one Power supported the two rival Powers against
each other. In the course of half a century these
fertile provinces became thoroughly denationalized
and wholly Swedish.

The aim of Swedish statesmen was to create a
Baltic Empire. By holding the southern and eastern
coasts of the Baltic, with the outlets of the great
rivers, they held the master-keys to the future
destinies of Germany and Russia. When Gustavus
Adolphus defended religious freedom against Pope
and Emperor, he proposed a Scandinavian alliance
to Christian IV. They were fighting for the same
ideals, but distrust and jealousy won the day.
Christian refused. But ever since attempts have
been made from time to time to realize the dream
of a united Scandinavia. In the latter half of the
seventeenth century Griffenfeld and Gyllenstierna, a
great Danish and a great Swedish statesman, both
saw that the invincible Swedish army and the
splendid Danish navy, united, would enable their
countries to act the part of a Great Power in Europe.
Unfortunately, Denmark in the eighteenth century
was secretly leagued with Russia against Sweden,
and England systematically made use of the
hostility of these two Powers to Sweden to counter-
poise the influence of France in the Baltic where she
had important interests. Again, at the time of the
North American War of Independence, Denmark
and Sweden drew nearer to each other. In 1780,
1794, and 1800 Dano-Swedish fleets cruised in the
Baltic and in the North Sea, commanded in turns
by a Danish or a Swedish admiral, to protect and

INTRODUCTION XX III

convoy their joint commerce. But this comradeship
in arms, the Armed Neutrality, came to an end in
1801. The Danes had .to fight Nelson single-handed
in the battle of Copenhagen. The Swedish fleet
lay at Karlskrona, ready to join them, but its com-
mander disobeyed the orders of his king. It was
the same admiral who surrendered the impregnable
Sveaborg to the Russians in 1809. It has been
held, though there is no proof of it, that he accepted
bribes on both occasions. Bitterness and distrust
replaced mutual confidence between the sister
nations. After the dethronement of Gustavus IV
(1809) the Crown Prince of Denmark was a candidate
for the vacant throne of Sweden, and he might have
united the two countries under one sceptre had he
been less obstinate and narrow-minded. Bernadotte
thought that the acquisition of Norway was of more
value to Sweden than the loss of Finland, the tenure
of which would always be unsafe and at the mercy of
Russia, while only one-tenth of its population were
Swedes. He judged from the map. The two
nations, inhabiting the same peninsula, were joined
together, 1814-1905, and during that time the
changes that took place were mainly in the direction
of differentiation from each other.

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century the
students of the Scandinavian Universities began to
hold joint meetings and draw together in various
ways. During the Danish wars with Germany
(1848-50 and 1864) hundreds of Swedish and
Norwegian volunteers joined the Danish army, and
it was only with difficulty that Sweden-Norway

XXIV DENMARK AND SWEDEN

could be held back from joining in the war. It
is now known that Bismarck had made a secret
arrangement with Russia. If Sweden-Norway assisted
Denmark with their armies, Russia was to invade
the northern parts of these kingdoms and seize
certain ice-free ports. Sweden wisely remained at
peace and in safety.

The three Scandinavian nations have instituted a
common coinage and postage. Certain members of
their three parliaments hold inter-parliamentary
meetings and conferences at stated intervals, in
which they discuss how to bring their legislation and
other matters into closer conformity. Their rules of
neutrality have been made identical. Never has
their feeling of close kinship and their sense of the
need of standing by each other in time of danger
like one nation been stronger than it is at the
present time.

Sweden is not only the largest in area, population,
and wealth of the three kingdoms. She is also the
one who has played a great part on the stage of
European history. No other country in the world
has had a succession of hero kings, one after the
the other, as she has. Gustavus Adolphus and
Charles XII dazzled their contemporaries even more
than or as much as Napoleon. Charles X, in a
reign lasting only six years, filled the pages of history
with heroic deeds. Charles IX and Gustavus Vasa
laid the foundations of the greatness of Sweden as
the leading Protestant Power in Europe. Gustavus
III saved his country from the fate of Poland, and,
almost single-handed, carried through a revolution

INTRODUCTION XXV

without shedding one drop of blood. Sweden had
been governed by parliamentary majorities, without
honour and without patriotism. The highest bidder,
the Russian or the French Ambassador, could have
their votes, and bribery was thoroughly systematized,
a regular source of income. To such degradation had
Swedish nobles come !

Sweden had tried successively various forms of
government. The oligarchy of the nobles broke
down through its own inefficiency and was supplanted
by absolutism. When Charles XII, by his autocratic
obstinacy, ruined the Baltic Empire of Sweden,
royalty was constitutionally shorn of all power. Un-
fettered parliamentary government led to such
abuses that it, too, in its turn, broke down. Even
now, under the constitutional regime of the Barna-
dottes, the King of Sweden has powers, rooted in
tradition, which have lapsed in Denmark. Recently
Gustavus V was able to dismiss a ministry which
represented a parliamentary majority, because they
disagreed with him on military matters, and the sub-
sequent elections proved that the King had correctly
gauged the opinion of the Swedish people. Swedish
kings have often, in the hour of need, appealed to the
proud and free Swedish peasantry, whose spirit has
never been cowed by villenage, as in Denmark.

During the last five hundred years Danish kings
have not stood forth as the leaders of their people in
the Swedish way. Christian I and Christian IV
essayed it, but did not succeed. The Danish nobles
at every election of a king encroached on the royal
privileges and domains. Though they held in fief

XXVI DENMARK AND SWEDEN

the larger half of Denmark tliey exempted themselves
from taxation. The peasants on their estates were
treated like serfs. Just retribution came in due time.
After the loss of the provinces east of the Sound
Frederick III, in 1660, introduced an absolute auto-
cracy, the most thoroughgoing and logical that the
world has seen. The real author of the Lex Regia was
a statesman of genius, Griffenfeld. He determined
to carry out the " L'^tat, c'est moi" of Louis XIV
to its utmost limits and consequences. The new
autocracy was at first more efficient than the oli-
garchy, but it killed and chilled all independence
and initiative and soon degenerated. One of its first
victims was Griffenfeld himself, who died in prison.
Mediocre kings, some of them alienated from their
people by a German Court, ruled a meek and humble
nation. Even the loss of Norway in 1814 did not
shake their simple trust in the godlike wisdom of
their monarch. The mad freaks and the dissolute
scandals of the insane Christian VII did not affect
his popularity. He reigned forty-two years.

The liberal movements that spread like fire through
Europe ih 1848, also reached Denmark. Frederick
VII, at the pressing request of his people, gave up his
absolute power, and in 1849 Denmark was granted
the Constitution which, with some alterations, is in
force to-day.

The Danish peasants had in the course of centuries
sunk down to a lower status than those of Sweden.
Since the Peasant Reforms in 1788 their recovery has
been rapid. At the present time they are more
prosperous, more enlightened, more progressive, more

INTRODUCTION XXVll

ready to turn to practical use the latest discoveries in
science than the farmers of any other country. Their
co-operative institutions are studied and imitated by
other countries. They have set themselves to make
good the loss of Danish territory in 1864 by putting
under cultivation an area of equal extent within the
borders of the kingdom.

Danish Slesvig is being Prussianized by force and
violence. This wound is still open and bleeding.
Nowhere does Danish patriotism burn with such a
bright and steady flame as among the Danes in
North Slesvig. Separated from their countrymen
economically, administratively, and politically, yet
they are tied to them to-day by even stronger bonds
than half a century ago ; they are, as it were, a living
human wall that acts as a frontier guard to the
motherland. Their prudence and self-restraint is
such that every measure of Germanization merely
intensifies their national feeling, and thus has the
opposite effect of what was intended. Unconquer-
able, they patiently await the day of deliverance.
Amid all party strife in Denmark Slesvig has been a
rallying-point for the best and strongest elements
of the nation. Since the parallel with Finland and
Sweden is often drawn, it should be stated that the
dissimilarity is greater than the resemblance.

Finland is struggling to preserve historic rights
which gave her a status as an internally independent
nation within the Russian Empire. Dominated, led,
and civilized by Swedes for centuries, she is still
under their spell, but they are a dwindling and
decreasing minority. A thousand years of common

XXVlll DENMARK AND SWEDEN

history makes every Swede feel the Russification of
Finland as a blow struck to denationalize a branch
of the Swedish race. Only second to that is the
danger to Sweden caused by the elimination of
Finland as a buffer state. It is to ward off this
danger that the impregnable fortress of Boden has
been built in the high North. Unreasonable or not,
these Swedish fears exist, as they did at the time of
the Crimean War. There is a regret that the
November Treaty of 1854, by which England and
France engaged to defend Swedish and Norwegian
territory against Russian encroachments, is no longer
in force. Sweden has, in the course of centuries, lost
so much territory to Russia that she fears the process
may not bie at an end yet, and she cannot look on
unmoved at events happening in Finland. At the
same time she is forming new cultural and commercial
ties with the Russian Empire, whose statesmen have
more than once urged that her fears are groundless.

Iceland stands on her historic rights. The Ice-
landic Republic entered into a personal union with
Norway in the thirteenth century, the monarch being
the common link. Later, Denmark took the place
of Norway in this union. Iceland is still striving to
get Denmark to acknowledge her historic rights,
and to modify her constitutional relations accord-
ingly. At the present time it is debated whether the
Minister for Iceland should attend the meetings of
the Danish Cabinet or not. Denmark is gradually
coming to see that she can give way without losing
any advantage or prestige. The intense national
feeling of the Icelandic people has behind it a history

INTRODUCTION XXIX

which is the common heritage of all the Scandinavian
nations. As the treasure-house of the past of the
Scandinavian nations, Iceland deserves to have,
apart from its historic rights, a unique and separate
status of its own, unassailed by petty constitutional
quibbles. The essence of the movement towards
unity of the Scandinavian nations is closely bound up
with Iceland, for all Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians
are equally proud of their historic past, which, through
the Icelandic Eddas and Sagas, has been preserved
for all time. Even now Iceland is awaking from the
sleep of centuries, and advancing, economically, by
leaps and bounds. Denmark should be proud to
assist in the renaissance of* the little nation in the
North Atlantic, whose stubborn spirit has survived
the oppression of man and of nature, on the verge of
the Arctic Circle. The new University of Iceland at
Reykjavik will again lift the torch of culture and
learning which burnt so brightly in republican
Iceland. New Iceland-owned steamers are crossing
the Atlantic for the first time in 1915. New energies
are springing up in many directions. They have
been to some degree roused by the colony of Ice-
landers, New Iceland, founded under the British
flag on the shore of Lake Winnipeg. None of the
Scandinavian nations have such strong^ English
sympathies as the people of Iceland, whose nearest
neighbour in Europe is Great Britain. It was an
Englishman, William Morris, who said that as Hellas
is holy ground to the nations of the South, so should
Iceland be a Hellas to Northern Europe.
A united, free, and federated Scandinavia is no

XXX DENMARK AND SWEDEN

longer a dream of the distant future. The world-
historic events through which we are passing have
brought it nearer to realization. The meeting of the
three kings, so closely related to each other, proves
that all ill-feeling engendered by the separation of
Sweden and Norway in 1905 is at an end. The very
selection of a meeting-place, Malmo, was suggestive
of the meeting at Kalmar in 1 397.

Sweden, possessing a larger army and a larger
navy, alone, than Denmark and Norway added
together, would have to bear the burden of defence
to a higher degree than either of her sister nations.
The only neighbours whom the three countries fear
are Russia and Germany, and their joint resistance to
either of these two Empires would be no insignificant
factor in a European war. Sweden and Norway are
by nature well adapted for defence against superior
forces.

The literature and art of Scandinavia has influ-
enced Europe. Ibsen's art has revolutionized the
drama of every country. The music of Grieg has
strengthened the national strain in European music.
Thorvaldsen made an epoch in sculpture. In science
Scandinavia has contributed far more than her share.
She has sent out explorers who have been the only
serious riiKils of the English. Norway has more
shipping in proportion to her population than any
other country. Denmark, the size of an English
county, has an East Asiatic steamship line, and
controls the Great Northern Telegraph Company's
lines that extend to the uttermost ends of the Asiatic
Continent. The metallurgy and mining of Sweden

INTRODUCTION XXXI

can hold its own with those of any other country.
European civilization and culture would be the
poorer if it were to forgo the contribution made to
it by the Scandinavian countries.

The influence of England on the Scandinavian
countries begins with the dawn of their history.
Christianity with civilization in her train penetrated
slowly from the British Isles to the North. Cnut the
Great drew the two peoples nearer to each other in
his Empire.

Elizabeth, in her correspondence with the kings of
Denmark, brooks little interference with the important
commercial and economic interests of England in the
Baltic. James I, Charles I, and Cromwell favour
Sweden, the great Protestant Power fighting on
behalf of all Protestant nations. In the tangled
web of alliances of the latter half of the seventeenth
century Sweden, as a rule, was found on the side
of France, and Denmark among her opponents.
Charles XII, after the seizure of Bremen ^nd Verden
by Hanover, was at war with George I as the Elector
of Hanover, but at peace with him as King of Eng-
land. Sir John Norris cruised in the Baltic with the
British fleet as a neutral. Still, Sir George Byng
blockaded Gothenburg in the spring of 17 17, to
prevent a Jacobite raid on England by Charles XII.
In the eighteenth century English policy favoured
Denmark, as Sweden was for the most part the
satellite of France. England attacked Denmark
twice during the Napoleonic wars, in 1801 and 1807.
A seven years' war with Denmark came to an end in
1 8 14. Since then economic interests have knit close

XXXll DENMARK AND SWEDEN

ties between England and Denmark. Denmark sends
the whole of her large exports of agricultural produce,
over twenty million pounds' worth, to the British
market. Sweden is imitating the example set by
Denmark in an ever-increasing degree.

PART I

DENMARK

CHAPTER I

ORIGINS — THE VIKING AGE

The earliest references to Denmark are found in
classical writers. The Cimbrians, who were beaten
by Marius at Vercelli, loi B.C., have left traces of
their name in a district of Jutland, the present
Himmerland (Himmer-, earlier Himber-). Ptolemy
in his geography, A.D. 130, mentions the Cimbrian
peninsula, and Pliny the Elder, about A.D. 70, writes
that he sailed round it. About the time of the birth
of Christ the citizens of Ankyra (now Angora), in
Asia Minor, built a temple dedicated to the Emperor
Augustus and the goddess Roma. On its marble
wall the following inscription, chosen by Augustus
himself, was engraven : " My fleet sailed from the
mouth of the Rhine eastward to the country of the
Cimbrians to which no Roman had ever penetrated
before that time by sea or by land and the Cimbrians
and the Charydes and the Semnones and other
German peoples in these regions asked for my
friendship and that of the Roman people, through
legates."

. I The ethnic name of the Danes is first recorded by
the historian Prokopius, A.D. 550, while King Alfred

4 STORY OF DENMARK

the Great is the first writer who records the name
Denmark (Denemearc in old English) in the account
of the travels of Ottar and Wulfstan, which he
inserted in his translation of Orosius, a.d. 890.

Denmark was the first Scandinavian country to
adopt Christianity. Willibrord, the English mis-
sionary who converted the Frisians, preached in
Denmark shortly after 700 A.D., and took thirty
Danish boys with him when he left. When
Charlemagne Christianized the Saxons by sword
and fire, their leader, Widukind, sought refuge in
Denmark. Thus Christianity approached Denmark
as the enemy of its freedom and independence, and
King Godfred set out with two hundred ships to
attack Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, but he was
assassinated while raiding the coast Heming, his
successor, made peace with Charlemagne in 811.
The river Eider was to divide Denmark and the
Empire. In 826 the Danish king, Harald, came
sailing up the Rhine to visit the Emperor Louis
Debonnaire, and was baptized at Ingelheim, near
Mainz, with his queen and his son and a large
retinue. He apparently changed his faith in order
to seat himself more safely on the throne of Den-
mark with the assistance of the Emperor, to whom
he did homage. Ansgax (" the Apostle of the North ")
sailed with him down the Rhine to convert Denmark.
Ebo, Archbishop of Rheims, had been on a fruitless
mission to Denmark in 823. Ansgar was born in
Picardie in 801. He entered the Prankish monastery,
Corbie, and moved to New Corvei in Saxony,
founded in 822 by the Corbie Benedictines. Ansgar

ORIGINS 5

established a school at Hedeby (Slesvig), but he had
to flee the country in 827 when King Harald was
expelled. At the request of certain Swedes the
Emperor sent him on a mission there in 829. When
he arrived at Birca, the chief city of Sweden, King
Biorn permitted him to preach. The baptized
chieftain, Hergeir, built a church in Birca. After
eighteen months Ansgar returned to Germany, and
was appointed Archbishop of Hamburg in 831, with
Scandinavia for his mission-field. In 845 King
Horik of Denmark sailed up the Elbe with six
hundred ships, plundered Hamburg and burnt
Ansgar's church and monastery and his Danish
school. But in 848 the Emperor made Ansgar
Bishop of Bremen, yet retaining the title of Arch-
bishop of Hamburg. About 850 the first church
in Denmark was built in Slesvig. The next church
was erected at Ripe (now Ribe), these two churches
being the only ones in Denmark long after Ansgar's
death. News reached him from Sweden that his
missionaries had been expelled, and in 853 he went
there a second time. Single-handed he succeeded
in persuading King Olaf and a hostile assembly to
tolerate the new faith. Ansgar died in Bremen, 865,
sixty-four years old, and his successor and pupil,
Rimbert, wrote his Life. St. Ansgar — he was
canonized — was a noble and winning character, full
of self-sacrifice and burning zeal. A visionary who
realized his visions in life, who lived on bread and
water, and wore a hair shirt next to his body. He
deserves his name, " the Apostle of the North."
The history of Denmark during the next century.

6 STORY OF DENMARK

down to the middle of the tenth century, is shrouded
in obscurity. As Adam of Bremen says : " Whether
of all these kings or tyrants in Denmark some ruled
the country simultaneously or one lived shortly after
the other is uncertain." Saxo gives the names of no
less than fifty kings of Denmark who reigned before
the Viking Age. King Gorm raised a runic stone
at Jellinge in memory of his queen, Thyri, with the
following inscription : " King Gorm set this monument
after his queen, Thyri, Denmark's guardian {tan-
markar but)'' She was called thus because she
built the Danevirke (Danework) in three years, each
province of Denmark building the part assigned to it
of the wall of earth turf, stones and timber, stretching
from the Bay of Slien to the river Eider, almost ten
miles in length. It served to defend the southern
frontier. ^Ethelfled, the Lady of Mercia, the sister
of Alfred the Great, had a little earlier built similar
works in England against the Danes themselves.
The earliest occurrence of the name Denmark in
Denmark itself is on Thyri's stone.

Gorm's son, Harald Bluetooth (940-86), is the first
Christian king of all Denmark. The Saxon monk
Widukind of Corvey, writing in 970, relates how the
German priest Poppo converted the King by carrying
red-hot iron in his naked hands, unhurt, about 960.
But already about the middle of the century Arch-
bishop Adaldag of Hamburg began to organize the
Danish Church by appointing bishops, Hored of
Slesvig, Liufdag of Ripe, Reginbrand of Arus (now
Aarhus). Harald subdued Southern Norway and
Earl Hakon became his vassal but refused to adopt

THE VIKING AGE

the new faith. As Harald says with pride on the
runic stone he raised at Jellinge in Jutland : " King
Harald bade make this monument after Gorm, his
father, and after Thyri, his mother, that Harald who

THE JELLINGE STONE.

conquered all Denmark, and Norway, and made the
Danes Christians." Harald lost Norway before his
death, and was killed in a war against his son
Sven, 986.

ORNAMENTS, CHIEFLY BUCKLES, OF THE VIKING AGE.

THR VIKING AGE 9

Sven Forkbeard (989-1014) laid siege to London
in 994, unsuccessfully, wintered in Southampton
994-95, and was bought off with Danegeld. It was
probably on his return to Denmark that he let the
moneyer Godwin strike coins in imitation of a coin
of Ethelred the Unready. It is the first real coin
struck in Denmark, and bears the name of king
and moneyer. No other coins dating from his reign
have been found, but English coins, i.e. Danegeld,
have been found in abundance.

In league with King Olaf of Sweden, and with
Eric and Sven, the sons of Earl Hakon of Norway,
he defeated King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway in the
famous battle of Svold, off the coast of Riigen, in
A.D. 1000. Sven had put away his Polish wife,
Gunhild, and married Sigrid the Proud, the widow of
Eric the Victorious, King of Sweden. Olaf Trygg-
vason had been one of her suitors, but when she
refused his demand that she should be baptized he
called her " heathen like a dog," and struck her in
the face with his glove. " This will be your death,"
Sigrid exclaimed. She had egged on her new
husband to avenge the insult. Besides, Sven*s sister
who had run away from her husband, the Duke of
Poland, had married the King of Norway without
Sven's consent. Norway was then divided bet\yeen
the three conquerors.

CHAPTER II

CNUT THE GREAT

After the massacre of the Danes in England on
St. Brice's Day, November 13, 1002, one of the
victims of which was Sven's sister Gunhild, wife
of an ealdorman, Pallig, King Sven made a vow
to wrest England from Ethelred. For years he
ravaged and raided till Ethelred fled to Normandy.
Sven became master of England in 1013, but he died
on February 3, 1014, at Gainsborough. Adam of
Bremen relates that priests and bishops came from
England to preach in Denmark during Sven's reign,
among them Bishop Godebald to Scania. It is
significant that the Danish Odinkar, Bishop of Ripe
(Ribe), had all Jutland for his diocese during Sven's
reign, as Sven would not appoint German bishops to
the vacant bishoprics. Cnut was now elected king by
the Danish army in England. He had to leave, but
returned (1015) with a huge fleet. Harald, Sven*s
eldest son, succeeded Sven in Denmark and, with his
brother Cnut, brought their mother, Gunhild, home
from her exile in Poland. Cnut had to conquer
England over again. The deaths first of Ethelred
and then of Edmund Ironside (six months after

CNVT THE GREAT II

dividing England with Cnut) in 1016 left Cnut in
possession, after a severe struggle. The twenty-two
years old viking leader ruled England, not as a
conqueror but with greater wisdom and justice than
its native kings. He married Ethelred*s widow,
Emma. He sent his Danish army out of the country
and retained only his trained household troops, the
house-carls, a standing army of 3,000 men. He
wished England to be governed by Englishmen.
After 102 1 Earl Thorkil the High, his chief adviser,
yields place to an Englishman, Godwine. Cnut's
ideal seems to have been an Anglo-Scandinavian
Empire, of which England was to be the head and
centre. In 1018 he succeeded to the throne of
Denmark, after the death, of his brother Harald. In
1028 he sailed to Norway with 1,400 ships and seized
it without a sword-stroke. When King Olaf attempted
to reconquer his country, he was slain by the
Norwegian bonder in the battle of Stiklastad, July
29, 1030. Sven, the son of Cnut and Aelfgifa, was
appointed viceroy of Norway. At Christmas, 1026,
Cnut and his brother-in-law, Earl Ulf, bandied high
words over a game of chess at Roskilde, the royal
residence in Denmark. Next morning he ordered
one of his men to slay the Earl wherever he found
him, and he ran the Earl through when kneeling
down in the choir of Trinity Church. Next spring
Cnut went on a pilgrimage to Rome, not only to
expiate his sin but also for State reasons. He was
the first Scandinavian king to enter the Eternal
City. On Easter Day, 1027, the Emperor, Conrad II,
after his coronation by the Pope in St. Peter's,

12 THE STORY OF DENMARK

walked out of the Cathedral with Cnut to the right
and the King of Burgundy on his left side. Cnut*s
noble conception of kingship stands out in the letter
sent by him from Rome to his English subjects : ** I
do you to wit that I have travelled to Rome to pray
for the forgiveness of my sins and for the welfare of
the peoples under my rule. . / , I have vowed to
God to rule my kingdoms justly and piously. I
am ready, with God's help, to amend to the utmost
whatever heretofore I have done, in the wilfulness
and negligence of youth, against what is just. My
officers-shall administer justice to all, rich and poor,
nor do wrong for fear or favour of any man, on pain
of losing my friendship and their own life and goods.
I have no need that money be gathered for me by
unjust demands. I have sent this letter so that all
people in my realm may rejoice in my welfare, for, as
you know, never have I spared — nor shall I spare —
to spend myself and my toil in what is needful and
good for my people."

In Cnut's reign churches were built and the earliest
monasteries founded in Denmark. He sent bishops
from England to Denmark, Gerbrand to Roskilde,
Bernhard to Lund, also Reginbert. All these names
are Prankish. Abbot Lyfing, who accompanied
Cnut to Denmark and to Rome, was his adviser
in establishing the Danish Church, which Cnut
wished to be subject to Canterbury. The Arch-
bishop of Bremen tried in vain to prevent the
Anglicizing of the Danish Church. Peter's pence
was introduced in Denmark. The first regular
Danish coinage dates from Cnut's reign, and Eng-

CNUT THE GREAT

lish moneyers worked for him in several Danish
towns. English civilization and culture struck root
in Denmark. Cnut died on November 12, 1035,
thirty-seven years old, and is buried at Winchester.
The Norwegians, dissatisfied with his son Sven, called
Magnus, the son of St. Olaf, to rule Norway.

" Cnut," says the Icelandic Knytlinga Saga^ "was
of great size and strength, and very handsome except

DANISH COINS FROM THE REIGN OF CNUT THE GREAT,
MINTED AT LUND, ROSKILDE, RINGSTEAD,

that his nose was thin, high, and slightly bent. He
had a light complexion and fair, thick hair, and his
eyes surpassed the eyes of most men, in beauty and
in keenness." His contemporaries called him Cnut
the Mighty, ruler as he was of England, Southern
Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and of the Wendish
(Slavonic) lands along the south coast of the Baltic,
including Jomsborg, the stronghold of the Baltic
vikings. He subdued the Baltic coast in 1022. In

[IF

•"-■ ■ ■ ■■■/Si" ^ (y-l ^'^'^

CANUTE AND EMMA.

(The King and Queen are presenting a golden cross to Winchester Abbey,
New Minster.)

From a miniature reproduced in Liber Vita (Birch).

CNUT THE GREAT I 5

1026 he beat back the attack which the allied Kings
of Sweden and Norway made on Denmark in his
absence. Posterity has called him Cnut the Great.
His Anglo-Scandinavian Empire crumbled at his
death. His life was too short to lay its foundations
stable and sure. The violent viking temper in him
has its outbursts, but he devotes much care to the
Church, to education, and to the poor. As the Ice-
landic historian, Snorri Sturluson, says: '"In his
Kingdom was so good a peace that no one dared
break it." The greatest of Danish kings, he has
only his equals in Alfred and Elizabeth as ruler of
England.

CHAPTER III

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGE

Hartha-Cnut, his son by Emma, succeeded him in

Denmark, where he had been viceroy since 1032.

After the death of his half-brother, Harald Harefoot,

King of England (1035-40), he reunited England and

Denmark. He ordered Harald's body to be dug up

and flung into the Thames. In 1042 he fell down

dead as he stood at his drink at a wedding-feast in

Lambeth, As the chronicler says, " He never did

anything royal." Thus the incapacity of Cnut's

sons dissolved the union of England and Denmark,

and the dream of an Anglo-Scandinavian Empire

vanished. Edward the Confessor succeeded to the

English throne, and the son of St. Olaf, Magnus the

Good, King of Norway, succeeded to the throne of

Denmark.

Sven Estrithson (1047-76) was the son of Earl Ulf

and Estrith, daughter of Sven Forkbeard, after whom

he is called, since it was owing to her royal birth that

he was elected king. Of him the Knytlinga Saga says

that "he was handsome, tall and strong, generous

and wise, just and brave but never victorious in war."

Born in England about 1018, he was educated there.

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGE 1 7

His father governed Denmark when Cnut the -Great
was absent. After the murder of his father he took
refuge on the large estate left him by his grandmother
Sigrid, in Sweden. Hartha-Cnut gave him the title
of Earl, but at his death in 1042 Magnus the Good,
King of Norway, succeeded to the Danish throne in
accordance with the Treaty of Brenneyjar between
him and Hartha-Cnut. Magnus created; Sven Earl,
though his leading chieftain, Einar, called out to
him : " Too mighty an Earl, too mighty an Earl, my
foster-son ! '/ Sven took the name of king, and rose
more than once against Magnus, but was always
defeated. On his death-bed in 1047 Magnus the
Good gave Denmark to Sven, who for seventeen
years had to defend it in long wars against King
Harald Hardrada of Norway. He suffered.numerous
defeats, but he never despaired, and in 1064 he had
wearied Harald out, and was allowed to keep Den-
mark in peace. After the Conquest Sven* prepared
to take England from the Conqueror. His brother
Esbern, who had been outlawed from England in the
reign of Edward the Confessor, commanded a fleet of
240 ships,, which sailed in August 1069, to conquer
England. Cnut and Harald, Sven's sons, were on
board. Esbern rowed up the H umber and seized
York. When the Conqueror approached with an
army he could not reach them on board their ships
in the river, and merely ravaged the country. Esbern
left for Denmark in June, 1070, bribed or bought off,
it is supposed ; at any rate he was exiled by the
King on his return. In 1075 ^ second expedition of
two hundred ships, commanded by Cnut, failed for

iS THE STORY OF DENMARK

lack of support by the Danes of the Danelag. Cnut
brought the relics of St. Alban with him to Den-
mark, and deposited them in the church of Odense.

About 1060 Sven completed the organization of
the Danish Church. He divided Jutland, which was
then under one bishop, into four bishoprics, Ripe
(Ribe), Viborg, Aros (Aarhus) and Vestervig (later
Borglum), and founded the bishoprics of Lund and
Dalby in Scania. Dalby was soon joined to Lund in
one bishopric. According to Adam of Bremen,
Scania had 300 churches, Siaelland 150, Funen 100.
Sven favoured the Church, and the building of the
Cathedral of Roskilde began in his reign.

Sven had nineteen children — fifteen sons and four
daughters — all illegitimate but one, a son who died in
infancy. Five of his sons were Kings of Denmark
successively. He was compelled by Archbishop
Adalbert of Bremen to divorce his queen, Gunild, the
widow of the Swedish king Anund Jacob, because she
was a daughter of a half-sister of Sven's mother,
Estrith. Adam of Bremen, in his " History of the
Archbishops of Hamburg," which reached to about
1072, quotes Sven as one of his chief sources, since
**^he held the whole history of the barbarians in his
memory, as it were in a written book." Sven told
him Danish history by word of mouth.

Harald Hen (the Gentle, 1076-80), the eldest of
Sven's sons, was succeeded by his brother Cnut,
(1080-86), who took up the plan of his youth, the
conquest of England ; an immense fleet of 1,000
ships assembled in the Limfjord, among them ships
from his brother-in-law, Olaf the Quiet, King of

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGE IQ

Norway, and his father-in-law the Count of Flanders,
but Henry IV of Germany compelled Cnut to guard
his southern frontier, for the Emperor's enemies fled
to Denmark. The fleet waited for Cnut all the
summer of 1085, and when provisions failed dis-
banded. Cnut punished them with fines which he
wanted to commute into tithes for the clergy. A
general rising took place in Jutland and Cnut fled
to Funen. On July 10, 1086, at evensong, in the
wooden church of St. Alban at Odense, Cnut, his
brother Benedict and seventeen warriors, defending
him, were stoned and speared. His character
resembles that of Gregory VH, and,he became the
Protomartyr of Denmark less owing to sanctity of
his life than to his patronage of the Church. He was
succeeded by his brother, Olaf, nicknamed Hunger
(1086-95), because Denmark suffered from bad
seasons and famine in his reign — the vengeance of
God, it was believed, for the murder of the Saint.
Olaf transferred the bones of Cnut at Easter, 109S, to
a stone church. After a general fast of three days
his grave was opened and at that very moment two
days' unceasing rain stopped, the sun shone in a blue
sky and all joined in a Te Deum. Cnut's bones
were laid in the crypt of the unfinished stone church
the foundation of which he had laid and which was
then called St. Cnut's Church. He was enshrined at
Easter, iioi, after Pope Paschalis H had canonized
him. King Eric the Evergood (Eiegod) in 1098 went
on a pilgrimage to Rome in order to get his brother
Cnut canonized and to get an archiepiscopal see
established at Lund. Urban II granted both his

i6 THE ^TOUY OF DENMARK

requests at the Church Council of Ban. Eric met
Anselm of Canterbury there, and visited Duke Roger
of Apulia, who was married to Edel, St. Cnut's widow.
Edel sent precious stones for the Saint's shrine.
In A.D. iioo Eric sent for twelve monks from
Evesham-on-Avon, who settled in the first monas-
tery built in Denmark, close by St. Alban's
Church.

King Eric the Evergood (1095-1103) had eight
men's strength and was taller than other men. He
was the first king in Europe who went on a
pilgrimage to Palestine ; it was in penance for homi-
cide. He died in Cyprus on July loth, St. Cnut's
Day, in 1103, but his queen, Bodil, continued the
journey to Palestine, where she died. Paschalis H
sent Cardinal Alberic with the archiepiscopal pallium
to Bishop Asser of Lund, a nephew of Queen
Bodil, in 1 104. Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury
in a letter, extant, congratulates Asser on being
appointed Primate of the North, but no papal bull
establishing the archbishopric is preserved. Thus
the Scandinavian nations were freed from German
Primates who did not know their language. Niels
(1103-34), the fifth of the brothers who reigned as
king, appointed Cnut, son of Eric Evergood, Earl or
Duke of Slesvig, 1 1 1 5. Hereafter the Earls of Slesvig
were called Dukes {Hertog), Cnut was then twenty-
one years old. He was beloved by the people, and
he was called Cnut Lavard (the Middle English form
of English lord) ; he was elected alderman of St.
Cnut's Guild at Hedeby. He was married to
Ingeborg, daughter of Grand Duke Mstislav of

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGE 21

Novgorod. Cnut had been educated at a German
Court and he brought German culture to Denmark. >

Archbishop Asser began to build a cathedral at
Lund, in spite of peasant riots caused by the enforce-
ment of the celibacy of the priests. Aelnoth of
Canterbury, one of the St. Cnut's Friars at Odens^,
wrote a Life of St. Cnut, soon after 1120, and
dedicated it to King Niels.

Cnut Lavard became Prince {Knes) of the Wendish
tribes near the Danish frontier. He was invited by
King Niels to spend Christmas at Roskilde in 11 30.
In vain he was warned not to go by Cecilia, a
daughter of St. Cnut, whose brother, Charles the
Dane, had been murdered, kneeling before the altar,
in U27, in the same way as her father had. been
slain in 1086. Cnut Lavard was assassinated in a
wood on January 7, 1131, by Magnus, King Niels'
son. As the Chronicle says : " Magnus, King; Niels'
only son, at the instigation of the devil, slew, in
treacherous peace, Cnut, son of King Eric, a chaste,.
and temperate man, gifted and eloquent." "Purple
does not ward off sword-strokes," Cnut's cousin bad;
said to him, alluding to his foreign dress. " Sheep-r
skin does not, either," Cnut answered.

Cnut's widow, Ingeborg, gave birth to his post-
humous son on January 14, 1131. She called him
Valdemar, after her grandfather. Grand Duke Vladi-
mir. Civil war ensued, the bloodstained clothes of
Cnut being exhibited at public assemblies. In the
battle of Fotevik, in Scania, on Whit Monday, June
4, 1 134, Magnus, Niels' son, five bishops, and sixty
priests were killed, and the victor, Eric, a half-

22 THE STORY OF DENMARK

brother to Cnut Lavard, was called Emune (Ever-to-
be-remembered) afterwards. King Niels fled to
Slesvig, and was killed on June 25th by the guild-
brothers of St. Cnut, who were bound to avenge the
death of their alderman. Eric Emune (1134-37), a
tyrant who put to death his brother and his
nephew, was assassinated at a public assembly.
Eric Lamb (1137-47), a grandson of Eric Evergood,
by his daughter, succeeded him as the three princes
nearest to the throne were only from six to eight
years old. Eskil, Asser's nephew, succeeded him as
Primate of the North in 1137. The gentle but
feeble Eric abdicated in 1147 and retired to a
monastery. Civil war raged from 1 147-57 between
Sven, the illegitimate son of Eric Emune, Cnut, son
of Magnus, and Valdemar, son of Cnut Lavard.
They divided Denmark between themselves. Sven
assassinated Cnut at a banquet at Roskilde while
Valdemar, with his foster-brother, Absalon, was
wounded and barely escaped assassination. Sven
was defeated and killed in battle by Valdemar in
1 1 57.

CHAPTER IV

THE AGE OF THE VALDEMARS (l 1 57- 1 24 1 )

Valdemar I, later called the Great (i 157-82), healed
the wounds of the civil war. He appointed an
Englishman, Radulph, his chaplain, and made him
subsequently his chancellor, and then Bishop of
Ripe (Ribe). There was an open rupture between
the King and Archbishop Eskil ; they supported
rival Popes during the schism. Eskil at last had to
go into seven years* voluntary exile at the Abbey of
Clairvaux. He was a pupil of St. Bernard. In 1 178
Eskil abdicated as archbishop and retired, to end
his life at Clairvaux in 11 82. Absalon whose
Danish name. Axel, was thus Latinized, had been
Bishop of Roskilde since 1158, and was now fifty
years old. He was solemnly elected Primate in
the Cathedral of Lund, but refused to accept, though
the King, Archbishop Eskil, and his clergy and the
people pressed it upon him, and his clothes were
torn in the attempt to force him into the archi-
episcopal seat. Finally the Pope commanded him
to accept, on pain of excommunication, but per-
njitted him to continue Bishop of Roskilde. Den-
mark has never produced a greater personality than

24 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Absalon. He was equally eminent as statesman,
warrior, and churchman. For a generation he guided
Denmark in peace and war with supreme ability.
When Valdemar came on the throne, about one-
third of Denmark lay wasted and depopulated by
the continual irruptions of the heathen Wends.
Absalon beat them off, and for ten years he was
engaged in a series of crusades against them to the
south of the Baltic. At last in 1169, with Valdemar,
he stormed the inaccessible Wendish temple strong-
hold of Arcona, on the northern promontory of
Rugen. The four-headed, gigantic wooden statue
of their chief god, Svantovit, was demolished in the
presence of hundreds of temple priests and chopped
into firewood for the Danish camp. The Wendish
capital, Garz, was taken and the seven-headed
Riigievit suffered the same fate. The Wends were
baptized, and the island of Riigen was annexed to
the bishopric of Roskilde.

To protect the fishing village of Havn (Haven,
Hafnia) — first mentioned in Knytlinga Saga^ 1643 —
on the Sound against pirates, Absalon built a strong-
hold, in 1 168, Castrum de Havn, on the site where
now stands Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen.
King Valdemar made a grant of the future capital
of Denmark to the see of Roskilde, and the bishops
gave it municipal privileges, subsequently confirmed
by royal charter. It was called Kaupmanna Havn
(Chapmen's or Merchants* Haven) because of its
trade,' and the city is still called Copmanhaven in
Elizabethan English. The modern Danish is Koben-
havn, while modern English Copenhagen is borrowed

THE AGE OF THE VALDEMARS 2$

from German Kopenhagen. Absalon's statute on
horseback, a battle-axe in his right hand, stands
to-day near the site of his castle.

On June 25, 1170, the solemn enshrinement of
Cnut Lavard as a Saint took place at Ringsted
simultaneously with the coronation of Cnut (VI), the
seven years old son of Valdemar. It was the first
coronation of a Danish king. Valdemar I died
suddenly, forty-seven years old. The lines on his
epitaph at Ringsted Church run : " Primus Sclavorum
expugnator et dominator, patrie liberator, pacis
conservator." As the Chronicle says : " He was
lamented by all Denmark for which he fought more
than 28 battles in heathen lands and warred against
the pagans to the glory of God's church so long as he
lived."

Cnut VI (i 182-1202) conquered Pomerania and
Mecklenburg, with Absalon's help. In 1184, on
Whit Sunday, Absalon annihilated the Pomeranian
fleet in a great battle. As Cnut added all the lands
of the Wends from the Vistula to the Elbe to his
dominions, he assumed the title of Rex Sclavorum,
King of the Wends or Slavonians, in 1185, a title
retained by the Kings of Denmark to-day. Cnut
defied the German Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa,
and refused to render him fealty for the land south to
the Elbe conquered by his brother. King Philip
August of France, when he married Cnut's sister,
Ingeborg, in 1 193, wanted Cnut to make over to him
the claims of the Danish kings to the English crown
and to have the full use of the Danish army and
navy to enforce these claims. Philip August put

26 THE STORY OF DENMARK

away his queen in a nunnery for years, but was
compelled by Innocent III to take her back. Of
Cnut VI the Chronicle says : " He was not given
to whispering conversation or fun, during mass, as

CHALICE AND RING OF ABSALON.

some are wont, but held his eyes fixed on the psalter
or prayer book, in meditation."

Absalon died on March 21, 1201. He had
studied at the University of Paris, where a college
for Danes (Collegium Dacicum) had been founded.

THE AGE OP THE VALDEMARS 2J

He was a patron of literary men, and encouraged his
secretary, Saxo, later called Grammaticus, to write a
history of Denmark; Gesta Danorum^ which comes
down to about A.D. 1 185. Sven Aggeson, a contem-
porary, also wrote a history of Denmark, ending in
the same year. The Icelandic Knytlinga Saga^ a
history of the Kings of Denmark froni Harald Blue-
tooth to Cnut VI, also ends in 1185. Saxo's history
is only known so far from the text printed in 1514,
but for some fragments of what is probably his own
MS. of the history, discovered at Angers in 1877.
The first history of Denmark written by a Dane is
the Roskilde Chronicle, from the time of Eric Lamb,

1137-47.

Valdemar II, the Victorious (Sejr), (1202-41) was
a brother of Cnut. Before his accession to the
throne, while he was Duke of Slesvig, he had con-
quered Holstein and the territories south to the Elbe,
and after his coronation he was recognized by the
German Emperor as Lord of Northalbingia (i.e. the
territory between the Eider and the Elbe). Liibeck
and Hamburg were now subject to Denmark.

In 1206-10 Valdemar seized the island of Oesel,
off Esthonia, in the Baltic. When the Bishop of
Riga appealed to him for assistance, he set out on a
crusade against the heathen Esthonians. He had a
great armada, 1,400 vessels in all, and sailed with
about 1,000. The city of Reval opened its gates to
him. Tradition relates how in the battle of Lyn-
danise, near Reval, in 12 19, the Danes having lost
their banner and being hard pressed, a red banner
with a white cross in the centre dropped from the sky,

28 THE STORY OF DENMARK

when the Danes at once rallied and gained a victory.
The Pope may have sent a consecrated banner to be
used in this crusade. The Danebrog (Danes' cloth)
has ever since been the national banner of Denmark.
It is seen in the arms of the city of Reval which rose
round the fortress built by Valdemar, who estab-
lished a bishop there. The Baltic was now almost a
Danish lake, for Denmark held its southern coast
from the Elbe to Lake Peipus. No monarch in
Northern Europe, except the King of England, held
sway over a wider dominion. Since Cnut the Great
Denmark had not attained such a pinnacle of power.
Yet in one day this Empire, apd with it the hegemony
of the North, crumbled to dust. One of Valdemar's
German vassals. Count Henry of Schwerin, had a
grievance, as a portion of his fief had been taken from
him by the King. On May 6, 1223, Valdemar and
his eldest son were hunting on the little island of
Lyo, south of Funen. Count Henry was their guest,
but in the middle of the night, May 6th to May 7th,
he seized them asleep in their tent, and carried th^m
off to a dungeon in Dannenberg on the Elbe, a castle
in Germany belonging to him. Thereupon the North
German vassals of Valdemar rose against Denmark
and defeated the Danes. After an imprisonment
lasting two and a half years Valdemar was compelled,
on November 17, 1225, to pay in ransom for him-
self and his son 45,000 marks silver, all the Queen's
jewels, and costly apparel for one hundred knights, to
cede all his conquests except Riigen, to give hostages,
and take an oath to keep these conditions. Thus in
one night the conquests made by three kings in

THE AGE OF THE VALDEMARS . 29

sixty years were lost. The Pope absolved Valdemar
from his oath, but in the battle'of Bornhoved, July22,
1227, Valdemar's final attempt to retrieve his for-
tune, he was defeated with the loss of one eye. He
now' formally ceded Northalbingia to the Emperor.
He had lost Esthonia, too, in the fatal year 1227, but
recovered it in 1238. Of his Wendish (Slavonic)
Empire on the Baltic he only retained the island of
Rugen. He now applied himself to internal adminis-
tration and the codifying of laws, and is called the
Lawmaker (legifer) in the next century. The Ltier
Census Daniae^ a kind of Danish Domesday Book,
was drawn up in 1231. There were even then 420
houe^ i.e. German homesteads in the crown-lands of
Slesvig, which was then wholly Danish. The Scanian
law had been written down soon after 1200, but
Valdemar codified the Zealand (Sjaelland) Law, and
the Jutland Law Code was only completed a few
days before his death on March 28, 1241.

He was first married to Dragomir (Danicized
Dagmar), a daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia,
and then, after her death, to Berengaria (Danicized
Bengerd), a daughter of King Sancho of Portugal.
His first queen was beloved by the people, and cele-
brated in folksongs and ballads ; the second was
unpopular. Valdemar's four sons all became Kings
of Denmark, but the eldest, Valdemar HI, died in
1 23 1 as co-regent of his father.

As the Ryd Monastery Annals say : " At the
death of Valdemar \\ the crown fell off the head of
the Danes. From that time forth they became a
laughing-stock for all their neighbours through civil

30 THB STORY OF DENMARK

wars and mutual destruction, and the lands which
they had honourably won with their sword were not
only lost but caused great disasters to the realm and
wasted it." The next century (i 241-1340), is a time
of decline, when nearly all Danish kings die a
violent death.

CHAPTER V

CIVIL WARS

Eric Plogpenning (Plough-penny)' (1241-50) was
called thus because he levied a tax on every plough-
share in the kingdom to defray the expenses of a
crusade to Esthonia. His brother, Abel, Duke of
Slesvig, refused to do homage for his fief; after pro-
longed hostilities they were reconciled, and the King
was his brother's guest in the ducal palace near
Slesvig. In the night he was seized and taken in a
boat out on the Slien, allowed to make his confes-
sion, beheaded, and then sunk with heavy chains into
deep water. Some fishermen found the body; it
was taken to a monastery, the monks attested the
miracles wrought at his tomb, and after a time he was
canonized by the Pope. Abel (1250-52), the fratri-
cide of whom his contemporary, Matthew of Paris,
says, " Abel only by name, by deed Cain," purged
himself of all guilt by his own oath and that of
twenty-four nobles, as compurgators. Abel enacted
many wise measures and encouraged trade with the
Hansa cities. He fell in a battle against the Frisians,
1252, and his brother, Christopher I (1252-59), was
elected King. His reign was a struggle with a

32 THE STORY OP DENMARK

Danish Thomas k Becket, Jacob Erlandson, Arch-
bishop of Lund since 1253. The Archbishop con-
vened a Church Council in 1256, which decreed that
if any bishop should suffer any injury by order, con-
nivance, or assent of the King, the kingdom should
be laid under interdict, and divine worship sus-
pended. The Primate threatened to excommunicate
any bishop who should dare to assist at the corona-
tion of the King*s son, Eric, which was thus foiled.
The Archbishop was now seized at night, February
1259, and carried off to a dungeon, chained, with a
cap of foxes' tails on his head. The country was
then placed under an interdict, and Christopher died
suddenly three months later, May 1259 ; the contem-
porary suspicion that he had been poisoned by a
monk seems to be groundless.

Eric Klipping (1259-86) (Klipping, a clipped sheep-
skin) was hardly eleven years old when he came to
the throne, and the Queen-mother, Margaret, governed
on his behalf. The struggle with the Archbishop
continued, with many vicissitudes. A papal legate
came to Denmark to settle the dispute, and he
excommunicated the King and his mother and laid
the kingdom under interdict, as they did not attend
before him. The interdict was removed in 1275,
after it had remained in force with varying degrees
of rigour for sixteen years, but the Primate
had died the year before on his way back to his
archiepiscopal see, and Crown and Church came to
terms.

On March 19, 1282, at Vordingborg, Eric, with
the " best men of the realm, lay and learned," enacted

CIVIL WARS 33

a Constitution which in its extended form, enacted at
Nyborg, July 29, 1282, is the Magna Carta of Den-
mark. The ** parlamentum quod hoff dicitur" (the
Parliament, called Danehof in the fourteenth century)
shall be held once a year in mid-Lent, and its time
and place shall be made known one month before-
hand. No one shall be imprisoned unless lawfully
found guilty. Eric granted charters of incorporation
to many towns, and favoured the guilds and enacted
guild statutes. On the night of November 22, 1286,
Eric retired to sleep in Finder up Barn in Jutland,
tired after a day*s hunting. His dead body was
found next morning with fifty-six wounds. A con-
temporary ballad brands the atrocious deed done by
Danish nobles. At the Parliament of Nyborg, 1287,
Eric Moendved (1286-1319), the twelve years old son
of Eric Klipping, with the help of his mother, regent
during his minority, and of the Duke of Slesvig, his
guardian, selected a grand jury to determine the
guilt of the regicides. Nine were found guilty and
sentenced to perpetual banishment and the con-
fiscation of their goods. The assassins had fled to
Norway and harassed Denmark from their robber
nests in islets on the coast, while the protection given
them by the Norwegian Court caused a long war
between Denmark and Norway. The regicide out-
laws are the heroes of the ballads of this time. The
new Archbishop, Jens Grand, was their secret ally,
and in April 1 294 he was arrested and lingered in a
dungeon, where he was treated as the lowest criminal
with every circumstance of ignominy till December
129s, when he escaped. The King was summoned

34 THE STORY OF DENMARK

before Boniface VIII, who received the Primate as
a martyr, since " there was many a saint in heaven
who had suffered less in the cause of God." A
cardinals* court sentenced the King to pay the
Archbishop 49,000 marks of silver as indemnity,
an interdict to be laid on the kingdom, and the
King to be excommunicated until the sentence was
complied with and all their rights restored to the
clergy. Eric vainly tried to defy the Pope, but finally
made an abject submission, in an autograph letter :
" Let the Vicar of Christ restore to his servant his
lost ear that the holy sacraments being again
restored, he may again freely hear the Word of God,
and whatever burden your Holiness may impose
upon his shoulders, how heavy soever, he will not
refuse to carry the same. What more can he say ?
Speak, Lord, thy servant listens." The interdict was
removed, the indemnity reduced to 10,000 marks,
and the Archbishop translated to a benefice in
Germany. Civil war broke out repeatedly, owing
to Christopher, the King's brother, and his treason
and treachery. Eric died childless and with a large
part of his kingdom mortgaged. Christopher II
(1320-32), the most faithless and useless ruler
Denmark has ever had, was compelled to sign a
capitulation, on his election as king, safeguarding
the rights of clergy, commons, and parliament.
Twice he was driven from his kingdom and the
twelve years old Duke of Slesvig was king (1326-30),
under the guardianship of Count Gerhard III of
Holstein. The monarchy was divided among foreign
princes, and the King died in extreme poverty 1332.

CIVIL WARS 35

Gerhard occupied Jutland, and laid it waste with his
mercenaries. After a lawless interregnum of eight
years (1332-40), Gerhard was slain at night in his
camp at Randers by a Jutland nobleman, since
famous in folksong, Niels Ebbesen, 1340.

CHAPTER VI

VALDEMAR ATTERDAG (134O-75)

Valdemar IV, Atterdag, the youngest son of Chris-
topher II, was educated at the Court of the Emperor
Lewis of Bavaria (1326-40). He married Helvig, the
sister of Duke Valdemar of Slesvig, and with her
dowry recovered Northern Jutland. Denmark was
sunk to the lowest depth in its history, and all its
provinces were held by foreign intruders, when he
was elected King. He was only about twenty years
old, but already then he possessed all the dogged
and unscrupulous energy, all the cool calculation and
determination to gain his end by any means which
made him the " Restorer of Denmark." He had
only the revenue of one county in Jutland to keep
himself and his Court, and recover a Denmark
partitioned among mortgagees, mainly the Counts of
Holstein. Yet by 1349 he had recovered all Den-
mark west of the Sound, except part of Funen and
Jutland. He sold Esthonia to the Teutonic Knights
in 1346 for 19,000 marks silver, with which he re-
covered alienated royal domains. The Black Death
raged in 1349-50, and Jutish noblemen rose against
him. This enabled him to seize many estates. With

VALDEMAR ATTERDAG 37

his restless energy he wished to reassert the old
claims of the Danish Crown to England. During
his negotiations with King John the Good of
France, then involved in the Hundred Years' War
with England, he offered to invade England with
1 2,000 men if France paid him 600,000 florkis ;
Valdemar's son was to marry a French princess to
strengthen the alliance. These fantastic plans
(1354-56) came to nothing, but Edward III of
England took Valdemar's enemies, the Counts of
Holstein, into his service. Valdemar won a great
victory over the Holstein Counts in Funen in 1357.
His wars were brought to a close in the Parliament
(how called Danehof) at Kallundborg (1360), when
he had recovered all Denmark west of the Sound.
In the pacification issued there, King and people
promised to mutually aid each other to pacify
Denmark. In 1360 he recovered Scania, South
Halland, and Blekinge from Sweden by craftiness
and sharp practice. He now became master of the
herring fisheries in the Sound, off Skanor and
Falsterbo, where 40,000 boats and 300,000 fisher-
men were stationed to catch and salt the Lenten
fare, a new and rich source of revenue for the
Danish Crown.

A contemporary crusader, the French nobleman
Philippe de Maizieres, has described these fisheries :
" As God hath commanded, the herring pass, yet only
for two months in the year, namely, September and
October, from one sea to the other, through the
Sound, in such multitudes that it is a great miracle,
and so many that in several places in this Sound,

38 THi, STORY OF DENMARK

fifteen leagues in length, one may cut them in two
with a sword. The second miracle is that 40,000
boats with crews of six to ten men, from all Germany
and Prussia, gather here solely to fish herring for two
months. Also 500 large ships do nothing but salt
the herring in barrels. ... At the end of these
two months not a boat or a herring will be found
in the Sound. It takes many to catch so small
a fish, over 300,000 men do nothing else for two
months. ... I wrote this so that God's grace to
Christendom manifested in the abundance of herring
for Lent might be recognized, for poor people can
buy a herring but not big fish." The Crown revenue
of the Scanian fisheries was larger than all the other
revenues of the Crown.

In July 1361 Valdemar took Visby, the proud
Hansa town in Gotland, with its forty-eight towers
rising from the city walls and an immense booty in
gold and silver. He then assumed the title of the
King of the Goths, which all his successors on the
Danish throne have borne. The conquest of Gotland
led to war with the Hansa League, but their fleet was
beaten by Valdemar off Helsingborg, 1362. In the
winter of 1367-68 a formidable coalition of 77 Hansa
cities — yy geese as Valdemar called them derisively —
Sweden, Mecklenburg, and Holstein agreed to divide
Denmark while, at the same time, the Jutish nobility
rose in arms. Valdemar went abroad for over three
years (1367-71) and left the Royal Council to avert
the danger. Peace was made at Stralsund (1370)
on humiliating conditions. The Hansa acquired the
revenues of West Scania for sixteen years and no King

VALDEMAR ATTERDAG 39

of Denmark must be elected without their consent.
Valdemar recovered nearly all Slesvig before his
death, October 24, 1375. His surname, Atterdag^
springs from a Low German oath he often used,
*•' atierdagCy des dages'* (i.e. By George!); it was
symbolic, for with him it became "day again" in
Denmark, which he restored to its pristine state.
With him the male line of Sven Estrithson became
extinct, and his daughter, the twenty-two years old
Margaret (Margrete), the Queen of Hakoti VI of
Norway, procured the election as King of Denmark
of her five years old son Oluf in 1376, to the
exclusion of Albrecht of Mecklenburg, the son of
an elder daughter of Valdemar. While she was
occupied in resisting the claims of his grandfather,
Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg, the Counts of
Holstein seized Slesvig.

CHAPTER VII

QUEEN MARGARET— THE KALMAR UNION —
THE OLDENBURG DYNASTY

At once on her accession Margaret comes forward
as a ripe political genius whose iron will and patient
tenacity overcome all difficulties. Married at ten, in
1363, to the much older Hakon VI, she was sent to
Norway thirteen years old, to be educated by Merete
Ulf 's daughter, a daughter of the famous St Birgitta.
In 1370, at seventeen, she gave birth to her only
child, Oluf. An accidentally preserved letter written
by her at»the age of nineteen to her husband shows
that already then she had her way not only in Court
matters but in government affairs. Her genius was
precocious. On the death of Hakon VI (1380) Oluf
succeeded him as King of Norway, and thus united
Denmark and Norway. They remained united till
1 8 14 — 434 years. Margaret now seized the reins
of government as Regent in both kingdoms. She
compelled the Hansa League to surrender their
strongholds in Scania. In 1385 her son Oluf came
of age, being fifteen years old, and she made him

assume the title " true heir to Sweden." This was a

QUEEN MARGARET 4I

hostile act against King Albrecht of Sweden. She
conciliated the Courits of Holstein by offering them
Slesvig, which they had already seized, as a hereditary
fief, and they recognized her as their suzerain, 1386.
Oluf died suddenly 1387. She was at once elected
" Our Sovereign Lady, the Guardian of the Realm,"
in Denmark, and in 1388 in Norway. Hereafter she
ruled in her own name as " The Right Heir and
Princess of Denmark/' The discontented Swedish
noblemen and State Councillors met her and elected
her " Sovereign Lady of Sweden " on very onerous
conditions for theniselves. King Albrecht was made
prisoner in the battle of Falkoping, 1389. Sweden
lay at her feet. "God gave an unexpected victory
into the hands of a woman," says a contemporary
chronicle. "All the nobility of Denmark were
seized by fear of the wisdom and strength of this
lady," says the Chronicle of Detmar. The childless
Queen, whose authority should have vanished at the
death of her son, now ruled the largest monarchy in
Europe.

Since the royal power was the link that held her
three kingdoms together, her aim was to make it as
strong as possible. She had her grand-nephew, the
son of her sister's daughter, Eric of Pomerania,
proclaimed King of Norway, 1389, at the age of
seven, and elected King of Denmark and Sweden,
respectively, in 1 396. She curbed the power of the
State Council and of the nobility. She bent her
energies to recover the Crown-lands in Denmark and
in Sweden. At the assembly of Nykoping, 1396,
the Swedish nobles consented to give up all Crown-

42 THE STORY OF DENMARK

lands acquired by them since 1363 and to pull down
all strongholds built by them since that date. The
Danish nobility gave up all Crown-lands acquired
since 1368. She left the highest offices of state
vacailt and moved about her kingdoms to see to
the right administering of law and justice herself,
gathering all authority in her own person. She
introduced new silver coins, "Sterlings" or "Eng-
lish," which ousted the debased copper coins then
curretit.

In June 1397 she summoned a meeting of the
temporal and spiritual lords of the three kingdortis at
Kalmar. On Trinity Sunday, June 17th, Eric was
crowned as King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
by the Archbishops of Lund and Uppsala. It was
symbolic of the union between the three kingdoms
that he was crowned simultaneously king of them all.
Thereupon the lords assembled sat for weeks to draw
up the conditions of the union of the three kingdoms.
The result of their deliberations were two documents.
One dated July 13th testified to the coronation and
did homage to the King, Eric. This was on parch-
ment with seals attached, while the second document,
drawn up on July 20th, was only k draft, written
oh paper and never ratified. Of the seventeen State
Councillors who are said to have issued this draft
only ten have put their seals to it, seven Swedes,
three Danes, and no Norwegians. It was to this
effect :

There shall be eternal and unbroken peace and
union between the three kingdoms under one
sovereign. Should their sovereign leave sons, one of

QUEEN MARGARET 43

them shall be elected King. Should he die without
issue the State Councillors of the three kingdoms
shall meet and elect his successor. If one kingdom
should be attacked the two others shall defend it with
all their forces. The King with his State Councillors
of the three kingdoms shall have the right to conclude
foreign alliances and make decisions binding on all
three kingdoms. Each kingdoni shall be governed
in accordance with its own laws and privileges, no
law or privilege to be witheld from one kingdom to
the advantage of the other.

Margaret herself was not anxious to have this
draft ratified, as it decreased the authority she had
already acquired in Sweden arid Norway. Danes
and Germans held fiefs and high offices in Sweden
and Norway contrary to the stipulation that in each
kingdom only natives should hold them. Margaret
gave Swedish fiefs to Danish noblemen as she could
not trust the Swedish nobility, and she desired that
the succession should be hereditary in Denmark and
Sweden as it was in Norway. Thus it was only
Denmark that gained by the Union of Kalmar. It
was a dynastic union, not a union of three nations,
and Denmark had the supremacy. The three
kingdoms 'were governed as one State.

No monarchy in Europe equalled in extent
Margaret's empire, which stretched from the Gulf of
Finland to the Varanger Fiord on the Polar Seas
and southward to the Eider, with the islands of
Orkney, Shetland, Faroe, Iceland, and Greenland in
the Atlantic. It embraced twice the area of the
German Empire. ;

44 T'AT/i STORY OF DENMARK

Margaret bought Gotland from the Teutonic
Knights in 1408 and set King Eric to govern the
island ; he had married, in 1406, Philippa, the
thirteen years old daughter of Henry V. Eric was
given a share in the government, but he turned out
to be rash, violent, and obstinate.

Gerhard, Count of Holstein, who had been vested
with the Duchy of Slesvig, 1386, was killed in fighting
the Ditmarsken peasants, 1404, and left three infant
sons whose guardianship, with the administration of
the duchy, gave rise to disputes between his widow
and his brother. Margaret used this family feud to
recover Slesvig, partly by purchase and barter, but
the impatience of Eric caused a war with Holstein,
1410, which lasted till 1435. Margaret was mediating
when she died on board her ship in Flensborg
Harbour, October 28, 141 3, four days after she had
received the homage of the citizens of Flensborg.
Her patient policy and strenuous statesmanship
succeeded where her predecessors and successors on
the throne failed. By her womanly tact she bent the
defiant and mutinous nobles to her will, and the
common people, though heavily taxed, got justice.
Deeply religious as she was, yet the Church had to
give back ill-gotten goods. Less brilliant than Queen
Elizabeth, she is a ruler of the same type, a virile
intellect, yet with all the subtlety and accomplish-
ments of her own sex. She had a dark complexion
and was somewhat masculine in appearance. Her
policy aimed at weakening the power of the nobility
by the help of the Church. She worked for the
canonization of St. Birgitta, and inscribed herself in

QUEEN MARGARET

the Vadstena Convent as one of the Birgittine
sisters.

Eric continued the war in Slesvig, but with little

success. As he tried to break the commercial
monopoly of the Hanseates by favouring the English
at their cost, and as he claimed dues at Elsinore

46 THE STORY OF DENMARK

(where he built a stronghold, Krogen, to command
the passage) from ships passing through the Sound,
thus introducing the Sound Tolls, 1425, the Hansa
cities joined his enemies. He recovered Copenhagen
(then Copmanhaven) from the Bishop of Rosl^ilde,
1 41 6, gave it a charter, 1422, and often resided there.
His queen, Philippa, a sister of the victor of Azincpurt,
acted as regent in his absence, 1423-25. She shewed
her brother's courage in repulsing a Hanseatic attack
on Copenhagen, 1428. She was inscribed ^s a
Birgittine sister in Vadstena Convent, where she died
childless in 1430 and where she is buried. Discontent
with the heavy taxation and misrule of Eric jnow
began to grow louder. As all his three kingdoms were
seething with discontent, he departed in disgust,
1438, and settled with his favourite mistress in
Visborg Castle in Gotland, where he lived ten ypars,
chiefly by piracy. Handing Gotland over to
Denmark, 1449, he spent his last ten year^ in
Pomerania, where he died 1459. i

Denmark elected his nephew, Christopher of
Bavaria, King; Sweden elected him in 1440, Norway
in 1442. Though he was crowned separately in pach
kingdom, the Kalmar Union was thus renewed., ! He
repressed peasant risings in Jutland with severity,
and the Danish peasantry gradually sank into a kind
of villenage or serfdom, the " Vornedskab," for the
oppression grew worse after every rising. He Was
known in Sweden as the " Bark King," for the
peasantry were compelled to mix birch bark in their
bread during a famine in his reign. He made
Copenhagen the permanent royal residence after

THE OLDENBURG DYNASTY 47

i'443. To complaints of the piracy of Eric in Gotland
he answered, " My uncle must h've, too."

On Christopher's death (1448) the Crown was
offered to Duke Adolphus of Slesvig^ who trans-
ferred it to his nephew, Count Christian of Olden-
burg, descended through his mother from Eric
Klipping. Christian I married Dorothy of Branden-
burg, the widow of his predecessor. The Kalmar
Union was dissolved, though it continued to exist
nominally till 1523. Karl Knutsson, King of Sweden,
was King of Norway, too, November 1449 to May
1450, when the State Councillors of Denmark and
Sweden agreed that Norway should fall to Christian I.
The Norwegian and Danish Councillors signed a
compact at Bergen, 1450, that Denmark and Norway
should hereafter be for ever united under one king.
They remained united till 1814. Christian I was
King of Sweden 1457-64, but his defeat at Brunke-
berg, 1 47 1, lost him Sweden, where he was nicknamed
the "Bottomless Purse." On the death of Duke
Adolphus, the male line of the Holstein Counts be-
came extinct, 1459. Christian I was elected Duke of
Slesvig and Count of Holstein on March Sth at Ribe.
He promulgated first at Ribe, then at Kiel, a consti-
tution or charter of privileges. He conceded to the
estates the right to refuse to elect any Danish prince
who should not undertake to confirm their privileges,
while they bound themselves to elect one of his
heirs. He promised to keep these countries in peace
and that they remain forever united and undivided
{unde dat se bliuen ewich tosamende ungedelt, in the
Low German original). Thus the union between

48 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Slesvig and Holstein was officially recognized by
Denmark though Holstein continued to be a German,
Slesvig a Danish fief. Christian has been blamed for
not incorporating Slesvig in Denmark, but his con-
temporaries praised him for acquiring Holstein. In
1474 Christian went on a pilgrimage to Rome,
accompanied by 150 nobles and knights. At
Rothenburg he met the Emperor, Frederick III, who
erected Holstein, Stormarn, and Ditmarsken into a
Duchy. The free peasants of Ditmarsken were
not subdued till 1559.

The Hanseates monopolized the entire commerce
of Norway, chiefly through their great factory at
Bergen, where they were governed by their own
statutes. Their overbearing behaviour culminated \x\
1455, when the Governor of Bergen took sanctuary
against them in a famous monastery, which they
burnt down and killed him and the Bishop of Bergen.
This outrage Christian dared not punish, and, on the
contrary, renewed their monopoly and prohibited
their rivals, the English and the Flemings, from
trading in Iceland and North Norway. On the
marriage of his only daughter, Margaret, to James III
of Scotland, 1469, he agreed to remit the arrears of
the quit-rent due to Norway for the Hebrides and to
pay a dowry of 60,000 Rhenish florins, as a security
for which he pledged to James first the Orkneys, then
Shetland. The dowry was never paid, but the claims
of Denmark-Norway to redeem the islands were from
time to time reasserted. Queen Dorothy got the
papal permission at Rome to establish a university
at Copenhagen, which was inaugurated in 1479.

THE OLDENBURG DYNASTY 49

King Hans(i48i-i5i3)shared Slesvigand Holstein
with his brother Frederic, and succeeded in Denmark
but not in Norway till 1483, when he had to extend
the privileges of the aristocracy.

CHAPTER VIII

CHRISTIAN II

Christian II (Christiern, as he signed himself, like
Christian I) (1513-23) was possessed of uncommon
intellectual powers, of courage and energy, of great
statesmanlike ideas, of strong sympathies with the
common people. But his fine qualities were vitiated
by the crafty cruelty and revengeful suspiciousness
ingrained in his character. As viceroy of Norway
(1506-12), he had shown much ability. He stamped
out rebellion with severity, replaced Norwegians by
Danes in high office, curbed the insolence of the
Hanseates at Bergen and curtailed their privileges.
It was at Bergen that he met the beautiful Dutch
maiden, Dyveke (i.e. little dove) at a ball which he
gave to the city. He danced with her all the even-
ing and fell in love head over ears. " In that dance
he danced away the three kingdoms of Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden," says the Chronicle of Arild
Huitfeldt. Dyveke's mother, Sigbrit, pgssessed strik-
ing sagacity and common sense. The viceroy estab-
lished them both at Oslo, the capital of Norway,
and, when he ascended the throne, they moved to
Copenhagen.

'^^V '*^V1iTIE'«o|k■

CHRISTIAN II.

52 THE STORY OF DENMARk

He had to subscribe, first, the charter submitted to
him by the joint Councils of Denmark and Norway :
the Crown to be elective, not hereditary, in both
kingdoms ; the privileges of the nobility to be
extended and all the higher offices of State to be
held by them : should the King break the charter and
then refuse to listen to the " instructions " of the
Council, it should have the right to take action (i.e. to
coerce him). Christian had, also, before his acces-
sion, to receive absolution, kneeling down in church
before the bishops, for the crime of keeping the Nor-
wegian Bishop of Hamar in prison. To ensure the
succession and to satisfy his ambition. Christian
negotiated a marriage with a princess of the Imperial
House of Habsburg, Isabella of Burgundy, a grand-
daughter of the EmpA-or Maximilian, who promised
a dowry of 250,000 florins, the greater part of which
was never paid. Christian was married by proxy to
his thirteen years old bride at Brussels, 15 14, and in
1515 the Archbishop of Norway sailed with a fleet
to escort her to Denmark. Meanwhile, news had
reached Brussels of the liaison with Dyveke, and
negotiations with reference to King Christian sending
her away took place between the Archbishop and
the Queen's tutor, the later Pope Adrian VI. The
marriage was solemnized at Copenhagen in August
1515, and though the Queen was twenty years
younger than her husband, she was a good wife to
him in his evil days. Dyveke had only been moved
a few miles out of Copenhagen, and in 15 16 the
Emperor demanded that she should be sent out of
the kingdom, but Christian defiantly sent the Queen's

CHRISTIAN II S3

Dutch Court ladies back to the Netherlands, and
installed Dyveke and Sigbrit in Copenhagen in a
house near the royal residence. Dyveke died sud-
denly at Elsinore in 1517. There was a suspicion
that she had been poisoned by some cherries sent her
by Torben Oxe, the Governor of Copenhagen Castle
— in revenge, it was said, for her rejection of his
advances. He was only arrested by the King's
order, to be acquitted by his peers in the State
Council. " If I had as many kinsmen in the Council
as he has, he would never have been acquitted,"
Christian burst out in hot anger. A court of twelve
peasants then declared, " Not we but Torben's own
deeds find him guilty," and death was the penalty.
It was in vain that the whole State Council, the
bishops with the papal legate at their head, even the
Queen at the head of the noble ladies of the land
pleaded for the prisoner's life, on their knees, before
the King. Torben's head fell on November 29,
1 5 17. His execution signifies a breach between King
and aristocracy. Henceforth Sigbrit was his chief
adviser. She hated the privileged classes. She was
an administrative genius. She had studied alchemy
and medicine, and acted as midwife when the Queen
gave birth to her first son. Like Paracelsus, she
believed herself to possess telepathic powers, and
"the King mu^ do all she wanted if he was within
fifty miles." No wonder that she was looked upon as
a sorceress whose armoury of bottles was filled with
evil spirits. The King appointed her Controller
of the Sound dues, and soon she took charge of the
exchequer, in which capacity she displayed abilities

54 THE STORY OF DENMARK

of the highest order. She favoured her own class at
the expense of the aristocracy, and formed with her
circle an inner council more influential than the State
Council. Bitterly as the nobles hated her and her
coarse mother-wit the breach with them would have
come to a head but for the war in Sweden.

An old, bitter family feud existed between Sten
Sture, the Regent of Sweden, and Gustavus Trolle,
the Archbishop-elect of Uppsala ; the latter refused
to do homage to Sture, and entered into secret
correspondence with Christian II. Sture laid siege
to the Archbishop's castle. Stake, and defeated the
army sent by Christian to relieve it. In 1517 an
assembly of nobles at Stockholm decreed that the
Archbishop should be deposed for high treason, and
Stake be razed to the ground. The nobles present
declared themselves jointly responsible for this
decree. Each of them sealed it with his seal. The
Bishop of Linkoping, Hans Brask, however, cautiously
put a slip, on which he had written, " To this I am
forced and compelled," under his wax seal. The
Archbishop's stronghold. Stake, was razed to the
ground, and he himself was ignominiously imprisoned
in a monastery. In the summer of 15 18 Christian II
landed with a strong army and besieged Stockholm.
Sten Sture defeated him in the battle of Brannkyrka,
at which his young kinsman, Gustaf Eriksson Vasa,
carried Sture's victorious standard. After a fruitless
six weeks' siege of Stockholm, Christian entered on
negotiations. He invited Sture to meet himself on
board his fleet. When Sture refused, suspecting
treachery, King Christian offered to meet him ashore.

CHRISTIAN 11 55

on condition that six Swedish nobles were sent on
board as hostages, Gustaf Vasa and Hemming Gad
to be included among these. Sture sent the hostages,
but he awaited the King's appearance in vain. King
Christian treated his hostages as prisoners, and sailed
for Denmark. A papal legate, Arcimboldus, came to
Scandinavia and collected money for the building of
St. Peter's at Rome, by the sale of indulgences. At
the assembly of Arboga, Sweden, 1518, he tried to
mediate between King Christian and Sture, but those
assembled declared unanimously that they refused to
treat with a man who had broken " a solemn com-
pact which the very heathen used to respect."
Whereupon Arcimboldus deposed the Archbishop
in favour of himself, and was elected by the chapter
at Uppsala. Meanwhile he got the news that King
Christian had confiscated the large sum of indulgence
money he had left in Denmark, and ordered his
arrest, after his secretary, Didrik Slagheck, had in-
formed Sigbrit of all his master's doings in Sweden,
and even entered the King's service. The Pope,
indignant at the deposition of the Archbishop, ex-
communicated Sture and his men and laid an
interdict on Sweden, to be enforced by Christian,
at his own suggestion. Arcimboldus fled to Liibeck,
where he found the papal Bull nailed on the church
doors, but he succeeded in clearing himself at Rome,
and died as Archbishop of Milan.

Christian II made great exertions in fitting out
his third expedition against Sweden ; he borrowed
money, collected new taxes, and claimed part of the
dowry due to him through his marriage with the sister

56 THE STORY OF DENMARK

of Charles V. His huge army, mainly German
mercenaries, included two thousand Frenchmen and
two thousand Scotchmen. This time he wanted to
ensure the subjection of Sweden. He crossed the
border soon after New Year, 1520, and the Bull of
excommunication which he was called upon to
execute as the representative of the temporal power,
was nailed on the church doors as he proceeded. In
a battle near Bogesund, on the frozen Lake Asunden,
Sture riding at the head of his army was mortally
wounded in the thigh by a bullet at the first onset.
His leaderless men stood at bay manfully, and de-
fended the forest passes behind felled timber, but
had to fall back before superior forces. Sture
himself died on February 3, 1520, while crossing
the ice of Lake Malaren in his sledge on his way
to Stockholm. In the confusion that followed, some
noblemen in the Council decided to negotiate with,
and do homage to, Christian. But Sture's young
widow, Christina Gyllenstierna, did not lose heart;
she rallied all patriots, took command of Stockholm
Castle, and fired the defenders of the city with her
splendid courage. The Danish army ravaged the
country, and as it approached Uppsala, Archbishop
Trolle and nine members of the Council sitting there
did homage to Christian II as representatives of all
Sweden. The Danish generals, empowered to act
for their King, granted in return full indemnity .and
forgiveness for the past. The King would govern
Sweden according to old Swedish customs, laws,
and liberties. This vaguely worded indemnity was
ratified by Christian II, but no reference was made

CHRISTIAN II 57

in it to crimes against the Archbishop and the Church.
Whether this loophole was international or not will
never be known. Christina refused to agree to this
surrender, and at her fiery words the sturdy peasants
rose to expel the invader. The Danes suffered losses
here and there, and on Good Friday the peasants
routed their main army near Uppsala,. In the bitter
struggle the Danish commander-in-chief and some of
his generals were repeatedly wounded. Secure, the
peasants set about plundering Uppsala, when the
Danes rallied and cut them down. Thousands of
dead peasants covered the fields by the Fyris River,
but their own Archbishop would not have them
buried, as they were heretics and his enemies, while
honourable burial was given to all the dead Danes.
In the spring Christian laid siege to Stockholm by
sea and land. Christina made a spirited resistance
all summer, and when the autumn storms began
Christian was willing to negotiate and to grant
terms. Her demand was a detailed, explicit, and
absolute amnesty, to cover all acts committed by
the Stures and thos^ named in it. On these con-
ditions the City Council, on September 7th, surrendered
the keys oT Stockholm to King Christian. He made
a triumphal entry, and after a short visit to Denmark
returned with his new and sinister favourite, Didrik
Slaghecfc. He summoned the Swedish councillors,
nobles, and representatives of towns and provinces
to Stockholm, to take the oath of allegiance and
attend his coronation. On the hill of Brunkeberg,
close by Stockholm, surrounded by German men-at-
arms, they swore allegiance to Christian as hereditary

S8 TMk STORV Ofi DENMARK

sovereign of Sweden. They yielded to brute force,
for the Swedish Constitution distinctly provided that
the royal succession was by election. On November
4th Christian was crowned and anointed by Arch-
bishop Trolle in Stockholm Cathedral. In his
coronation oath he swore to defend the Church, to
love truth and justice, to rule Sweden solely through
Swedish-born men, and to keep the laws. A special
envoy from the Emperor Charles V invested the
King with the Order of the Golden Fleece before
the high altar in the Cathedral. He wished to
impress his new subjects as an absolute monarch
by God's Grace. During the great festivities of the
three following days he knighted many Danes and
Germans, but his herald proclaimed that no Swedes
would be included since they had fought against him.
Dark designs were in his mind, and on Wednesday,
November 7th, " a banquet of another kind began "
— as the Swedish reformer, Olaus Petri, words it.
The Senate, the City Council, Christina Gyllenstierna,
the nobility, and the clergy were all summoned to
the King's presence in the audience hall of the royal
palace. Here Archbishop Trolle stepped before the
King, who was seated on his throne ; he cited the
words of the coronation oath : to defend the Church
and demanded the punishment of Sture and certain
of his adherents as heretics, inasmuch as they had
imprisoned him and two other bishops, razed his
castle to the ground, offered himself personal violence,
and compelled the priests to celebrate mass during
his imprisonment, thus violating the canonical law.
He demanded a large sum as compensation.

CM Rt St! AM n 59

Christina then rose and protested that the alleged
outrages against the Archbishop and the Church
could not be imputed solely to her late husband
and- the other accused, since they were decreed by
a national assembly, all the members of which had
declared themselves jointly responsible. In proof of
this Christina produced the decree of the said
assembly. It seemed to be unknown to both King
and Archbishop. It was issued in the name of all
Swedish freemen. It was signed by nearly all the
members of the Senate present in the audience hall.
This document acted like a bombshell. A storm of
explanations and protests burst forth. Bishop Brask
cleared himself by revealing the written slip hidden
under his wax seal. While this went on the King
withdrew. Probably it was settled at a secret con-
ference in his room which persons were to be
arrested. After dark two Danish noblemen, accom-
panied by armed soldiers with lanterns and torches,
entered the audience hall and seized, one by one, all
those found on the Archbishop's list. They were
led away and locked up. " We were like a flock
of sheep led to slaughter," says Olaus Petri. , At
nine o'clock next morning, November 8th, an
ecclesiastical court, sitting in the audience hall and
presided over by the Archbishop himself, declared
that the accused must be held to be manifest
heretics. Meanwhile, Didrik Slagheck was making
the necessary preparations for their execution. At
midday the prisoners were taken to the Central
Square and publicly beheaded, ringed round by the
royal guards. They were not even permitted to see

THE STORY OF DENMARK

a priest. " The King wished to slay not only their
bodies but also their souls." Two bishops laid their
heads first on the block, next fourteen noblemen,

THE STOCKHOLM MASSACRE.

Christian II and the Archbishop take Counsel.
The Bishops arrested.

three burgomasters, fourteen town councillors of
Stockholm and more than twenty of its citizens.
The executioner stated that eighty-two persons were

CHRISTIAN II 6l

decapitated the first day, but the executions con-
tinued next day. The streets ran blood. The
bodies lay about unburied till Saturday, when they
were burnt in a heap. Sten Sture's body and that
of a child born to him during the interdict were
taken out of the grave and burnt too. Sacrilege
against heretics was no sacrilege in the eyes of
the King. Christina Gyllenstierna, with other
noblp ladies, was sent as prisoner to Denmark.
Thu3 Christian II murdered his enemies under the
pretence of defending the Catholic Church — which
he no longer believed in — and it is the dishonesty
of the Stockholm Massacre, as it is called, which is
the worst feature of it. Instead of coming forward
in his true colours as a strong ruler, striking off the
heads of turbulent and self-seeking noblemen for the
good of the common people, he issued a proclamation
to the Swedish people, saying that the execution of
these heretics was necessary to prevent a new papal
interdict. At the same time he wrote to the Pope
that his men had unearthed a conspiracy against his
life, land that the two bishops had been killed by
mistjake. Contemporaries laid the blame for the
masjsacre on Didrik Slagheck, who was made Bishop
of ^kara, and, on the King's return to Denmark in
December, Regent of Sweden, with a Council by
his side, of which Archbishop Trolle was a member.
Christian's journey home through Sweden was
marked by gallows and executions en route. He
thought he had utterly cowed the proud spirit of
the Swedish people, but he had only roused it by
his atrocities. Among the murdered noblemen were

THE STORY OF DENMARK

the father and brother-in-law of Sweden's future
liberator, Gustaf Vasa. • The Swedes rose and made
an end for ever of Danish dominion in their country.

THE STOCKHOLM MASSACRE.
Execution of the Bishops.

Didrik soon left, and Christian then made him
Archbishop of Lund, but a papal legate arrived soon
after to inquire into the murder of the bishops. The

CHRISTIAN II 63

jCing put all the blame on the new Archbishop, who
was put to the torture and publicly burnt in
Copenhagen.

From June to September 1521 Christian visited
the Netherlands, where he was welcomed as one of
the greatest of European monarchs. He was deeply
impressed by the high culture and civilization of the
wealthy Flemish towns. It was in a talk with
Erasmus about Luther that he declared : " Mild
measures avail nothing ; the medicine that gives the
whole body a good shaking is the best and surest."
His brother-in-law, the Emperor Charles V, recog-
nized his suzerainty over Liibeck and granted to him
Holstein as a fief. It was on his return to Denmark,
at the pinnacle of his power, that he initiated his
sweeping reforms. A code of laws for towns and
country was published in which Dutch influence is
clearly visible. The custom which prevailed in the
islands "to sell and buy Christian men (i.e. the
peasants) as if they were brute beasts " was abolished.
The transfer of the peasantry from one feudal lord
to another without their consent was prohibited,
and they were permitted to migrate from one manor
to another in case of oppression. Feudal lords were
forbidden to profit by shipwrecks. Such property
should, if unclaimed, fall to the Crown. The nobles
and the higher clergy found their privileges shorn
and restricted. Better education was provided for
the lower clergy. The royal authority was increased
throughout, in spite of his democratization of towns
and trade guilds. The whole island of Amager was
leased to 184 Dutch families to teach Denmark

64 THE STORY OF DENMARK

horticulture. New taxes were imposed to raise an
army against Sweden. Discontent was rife and
rampant. The bishops and nobles of Jutland formed
a secret league against Christian. In a document
drawn up at Viborg on December 21, 1522, they
declared that his tyranny and misrule had cast the
three kingdoms into great misery, renounced their
allegiance, and later offered the Crown to his uncle,
Frederick, Duke of Holstein. The King negotiated
and promised redress at an assembly which he had
summoned. The crisis of his fate found him weak
and vacillating as if his passionate outpouring of
energy had exhausted his vitality in a few years.
To the astonishment of the towns and peasantry
which stuck to him, he embarked at Copenhagen,
April 1523, with his family, Sigbrit and a few faithful
adherents, and sailed for the Netherlands to seek the
assistance of Charles V. Copenhagen was besieged
June 10, 1523, to January 5,1524, by Frederick I
and Johan Rantzau. For eight years Christian lived
in exile, vainly seeking help to recover his dominions.
At Lier in the Netherlands he became so poor that
he had to pawn his jewels, his faithful queen died in
1526, and his three children were taken from his
custody to be n[>ade Catholics. By this time the
Danish towns and peasantry longed sorely for his
return. In the words of a ballad of the time, the
Eagle Song, they looked to the "eagle far away in
the wilderness " to protect them against the hawks—
the birds of prey that would " pluck out their feathers
and down," i.e. the nobles. The Norwegian bishops
called him in. He bound himself to Charles V to

CHRISTIAN II 65

restore Catholicism in his kingdoms in return for
ships and money to invade Norway, whereupon he
abjured his past errors in the presence of a papal
legate. He sailed from the Netherlands with 10,000
men, October 1531, but overtaken by tempestuous
weather, landed in Norway with less than half his
force. Archbishop Olaf and many nobles and
prelates swore allegiance to him and his son.
Denmark, Sweden, and the Hansa were united against
him. During his fruitless siege of Akershus, Bishop
Guildenstern (Gyldenstjerne) arrived with a Danish
and Hanseatic fleet and they agreed at Oslo (now
Christiania) that Christian should be escorted to
Copenhagen, under a safe-conduct, to negotiate
further with his uncle. The safe-conduct was
broken, partly on the pretext that Guildenstern had
exceeded his instructions. As the prisoner of the
German and Danish senators he was imprisoned in
Sonderborg Castle in the island of Als in August
1532. Before the outbreak of the " Count's War" he
was literally walled up in solitary confinement.
Seven years the lonely King whiled away mainly by
walking for hours round his table. Deep dints in the
stone flags of the floor showed where he stepped.
After 1 540 he was better treated. He survived two
successors, PVederick I and Christian HI, and died at
Kallundborg, where he spent his last ten years, in
1559, seventy-seven years of age, twenty-seven of
which he lived in prison.

He was an enlightened humanist who delighted in
long talks with Erasmus Rotterodamus, with Albrecht
Durer who painted his portrait, with Lucas Cranach,

66 THE STORY OF DENMARK

and with Luther. He and the Queen became
Lutherans. He occupied himself in translating the
Old Testament from Luther's German into Danish,
and had the New Testament translated into Danish
by his companions, Hans Mikkelsen and Chr. Vinter
in 1524.

There was a strain both of genius and of madness
in his character. He was centuries ahead of his
contemporaries in his high aims and great designs.
He wanted to make Copenhagen a free staple, the
centre of a Scandinavian Hansa, to break the yoke
of Liibeck — over which he claimed the suzerainty of
the Valdemars — and the yoke of the German Hansa.
His policy fostered trade and art, culture and
agriculture. He desired to put a benevolent State
socialism in place of the galling yoke of clergy and
nobility. Splendidly equipped as he was with the
gifts of mind and body, yet withal he was crafty,
cruel, obstinate, and suspicious. He expiated his
crimes during the long years when he was eating
Qut his heart, first in exile, eight years, then in prison
twenty-seven years, a figure of more enthralling
interest than any that has ever sat upon the throne
of Denmark.

CHAPTER IX

THE REFORMATION

On the death of Frederick I, April 1533, the Pro-
testants wished to elect his elder son, Duke Christian,
a fervent Lutheran, while the Catholics were in favour
of his twelve years old brother Duke Hans. The
election was postponed till the summer of 1534 to
consult the Norwegian Council. About this time the
Lutheran democracy at Liibeck got the upper hand
and elected Jiirgen Wullenwever burgomaster. This
ambitious statesman planned to dominate all the
Scandinavian kingdoms and dismember Denmark,
which was threatened with anarchy and civil war.
He allied himself with the leaders of the burgesses
and peasants, the burgomasters of Copenhagen and
Malmo, nominally in order to reinstate Christian H,
whose kinsman, Count Christopher of Oldenburg, was
engaged as commander-in-chief; after him the war
is called "The Count's War." In a few weeks
this military adventurer made himself easily master
of all Eastern Denmark, in June and July 1534,
while an assembly of nobles in Jutland elected

Duke Christian of Holstein King as Christian III

68 THE STORY OF DENMARK

in July 1534. Sweden was Christian's ally against
Liibeck, The Jutland peasants rose under Skipper
Clement and defeated the Danish nobles at Sven-
strup, October 1534, but the able general, Johan
Rantzau, reconquered Jutland in one month and
stormed Aalborg, where he put two thousand peasants
to the sword, December 18, 1534. The yeomen were
reduced to bondage and became tenants. Skipper
Clement was executed. Christian III was proclaimed
King at Viborg in March 1535. Rantzau wholly
defeated Count Christopher's army in the battle of
Oxnebjaerg in Funen, in which Archbishop Trolle
was mortally wounded, June I53S» The Dano-
Swedish fleet under Peder Skram annihilated a
Liibeck fleet, and Christian III could now cross to
Sjaelland and lay siege to Copenhagen, July, 1535.
Liibeck, after these disasters, reinstated the old
patricians in place of Wullenwever, and, by the
Treaty of Hamburg, February 1536, recognized the
title of Christian III to the Crown. Copenhagen
held out stubbornly, expecting succour from the son-
in-law of Christian II, the Count Palatine, and from
Charles V. After suffering all the horrors of a
famine, Copenhagen surrendered on July 29, 1536,
after a twelvemonth's siege, July 18, 1835 to July 29,
1536. Walking bareheaded on foot with white staffs
in their hands to the royal camp, where they knelt
down. Count Christopher and other officers were
pardoned and a general amnesty granted* The
supremacy of Liibeck in Scandinavian waters which
had lasted two centuries was gone for ever. The
Catholic Church in Denmark was doomed, and the

THE REFORMATION 69

peasants and burgesses were deprived of their political
power by the nobility.

The two years' civil war was ended. With a
victorious army at his back, Christian III decided
to follow the example of Gustaf Vasa in Sweden
and consficate the estates of the bishops* But
Rantzau with his officers urged him to finish all
with one blow and secretly. During the night
preceding the King's birthday, August 12th, the
Archbishop and the prelates present in Copenhagen
were arrested, and at eight o'clock on August 12th
the temporal Councillors were compelled to sign
a document, abolishing the temporal power of the
bishops, the Crown to take possession of their estates
and castles. The other bishops were arrested in
their dioceses. A national assembly of 1,200 repre-
sentatives, the largest that had ever met, sat at
Copenhagen in October 1536. On October 30th
it enacted a recess which established a national
Protestant Church. Bishops were to be abolished,
and sorcalled superintendents, learned Lutherans,
were to take over their dioceses and to teach and
preach the gospel. All episcopal property was to
fall to the Crown and be used for the good of the
kingdom. The King was to be the Head of the
Church and make all appointments.

The royal charter was issued the same day ; such
stress was laid on the hereditary right of the family
of Christian III to the Crown that it was only in
name that Denmark continued to be an elective
monarchy. Members of the State Council were to
have the exclusive right to hold the fiefs of the

70 THR STORY OP DENMARK

Crown. Regarding Norway, the charter contained
the following Article, which altered the status of
that country: —

" Inasmuch as the Realm of Norway is now so
reduced in power that the inhabitants thereof are
unable by themselves to maintain a sovereign and
king, and the said Realm is nevertheless joined for
all time to the Crown of Denmark, and the greater
part of the State Council of Norway, above all Arch-
bishop Olaf, now the chief head of that kingdom,
has twice within a short time risen against the
Realm of Denmark, now therefore we have promised
the Council and the nobiUty of Denmark that, if
Almighty God should so dispose that the said Realm
of Norway or any part of it shall return to our
dominion, then it shall hereafter be and remain
subject to the Crown of Denmark like our other
provinces, Jutland, Funen, Sjaelland, or Scania, and
hereafter shall not be or be called a kingdom apart
but a member of the Kingdom of Denmark, subject
to the Crown of Denmark for all time."

This sentence of death on the kingdom of Norway
was drafted by the Danish nobles, but it remained a
dead letter. The King had a hereditary right to
Norway which, in all State papers, continued to be
referred to as a separate kingdom. Still, though
Norway retained its own laws and administration,
Danish nobles held all the most lucrative offices
in the country. The last Catholic Archbishop of
Norway, Olaf Engelbrektsson, entered into treason-
able correspondence with Charles V and Frederick,
Count Palatine, the son-in-law of Christian II, but.

THE REFORMATION 7 1

after a brief struggle, he fled the country about
Easter 1537. He took with him the treasures and
archives of Trondhjem Cathedral, and sought refuge
in the Netherlands. All Norwegian bishops resigned
their offices, but only one of them became a renegade
and was appointed Lutheran superintendent of two
dioceses.

Bugenhagen was called from Germany to organize
the Church and to crown the King. The Protestant
conqueror set himself to reconstruct the Church from
top to bottom. After the confiscation of the monastic
property the revenues of the Crown were tripled.
Administration was put on an economic and orderly
footing. A new class of efficient officials was
created. A pious and cautious common sense
characterized the King, who found Denmark racked
and ruined by civil war, religious quarrels, and class
hatred. When he died, on New Year's Day, 1559,
he had by his wise and conciliatory policy recreated
a new and stronger Denmark which held the
hegemony of the North and dominated the Baltic
with her new-built fleet.

In 1544, he divided the Duchies of Slesvig and
Holstein with his brothers, Duke Hans and Duke
Adolphus. The possessions of the three Dukes were
scattered here and there in the Duchies and were
since called the Gottorp, Sonderborg, and Haderslev
divisions after the most important castles in each part.
Until 1539 the German nobles of the Duchies who
had put Christian HI on the Danish throne had
most influence with him, though they could not be
members of the Council or hold castles and fiefs,

72 THE STORY OF DENMARK

according to the charter. The Danish nobility
having won the King over to their side, granted him
one-twentieth of their property to pay his debt to
the Holstein nobility. Christian III allied himself
with Sweden and France against Charles V, who
continued to regard him as merely the Duke of
Holstein. A state of war existed between them,
1542-44, without actual hostilities. By the Treaty
of Speier, 1544, the claims of the daughters of
Christian II on the Danish throne were abandoned.
The new Church Ordinance was promulgated on
September 2, 1537, on the same day as the seven
superintendents who took the place of bishops were
consecrated by Bugenhagen who was only a priest.
Thus the apostolical succession was lost by the
Danish bishops ; the old name " bishop " soon came
back into use instead of " superintendent."

CHAPTER X

THE SEVEN YEARS WAR (1563-70)

Frederick II, 1559-88, had in his youth been
prevented by his father from marrying the niece of
his tutor, Anna Hardenberg, with whom he had
fallen in love ; he took this so much to heart that
he refused to come to his father's death-bed or to
marry during the first half of his reign. At last his
aunt, the Duchess of Mecklenburg, induced him,
1 572, to marry her daughter, and though the Queen
was twenty-three years younger than the King the
marriage turned out to be a happy one.

Soon after his accession Frederick, in league with
his uncle, the Duke of Holstein, undertook to subdue
the stubborn peasants of Ditmarsken. They had
utterly routed a large Danish army under King
Hans in 1500 and captured the royal standard, the
Dannebrog. An army of 20,000 men under the
consummate leadership of Johan Rantzau, invaded
Ditmarsken, the heroic resistance of the peasants
was overcome and their country was divided by
the conquerors, but they retained most of their old
liberties.

The so-called Seven Years War, with Sweden,

74 ^^^ STORY 0^ DENMARK

1563-70, broke out when the Swedes suddenly
attacked and defeated a Danish fleet oflF Bornholm,
1563. The Kings of the two countries had both
quartered the three Crowns in their arms. Swedish
ambassadors and Swedish ships had been molested
and detained. Lubeck and Poland joined Denmark
in this war. Frederick, marching through Halland,
captured the fortress of Elfsborg and cut Western
Sweden off from her seaboard. The Swedish army
suffered a defeat in Halland, while at sea the
Swedish fleet more than held its own against the
united squadrons of Lubeck and Denmark. In 1564
the Swedes occupied the Norwegian provinces, Jamt-
land and Herjedalen, which became Swedish in
1645 ; they even held Trondhjem for a time. The
war degenerated into raids with barbarous atrocities,
plunder, and slaughter of women, children, and
prisoners. The Danes asserted that they were only
retaliating for the insane acts of Eric XIV who had
given orders to burn and ravage foot by foot and
who gleefully noted in his diary the cruel wiping
out of village after village.

In 1565 the Swedes won two decisive naval
victories over the Danes whose heroic admiral,
Herluf Trolle, was mortally wounded. Klas Kris-
tersson Horn, the greatest naval hero of Sweden,
again defeated the united fleets of Denmark and
Lubeck, in 1566, dominated the Baltic, and levied
duties on all ships passing through the Sound. But
on land Daniel Rantzau was victorious time after
time over superior forces pitted against him. In the
winter of 1567-68 he penetrated far inland into

THE SEVEN YEARS WAk

Central Sweden and, outnumbered, made one of the
most famous retreats in the military annals of
Denmark, through difficult, hostile country ; he was
killed during a siege in 1 569. Tired of this fruitless

^Jntcrwr drcis majn^icc I nda

KRONBORG, El.SINORE, IN SHAKESPEARE's TIME.

war, Denmark and Sweden made peace at Stettin,
December 1570. The Kings of Denmark and
Sweden mutually renounced their claims on each
other's territories. Sweden was to pay 150,000

THE STOkY OF DENMARK

rixdollars for the surrender of Elfsborg, and the
right to quarter the three Crowns was to be arbi-
trated upon. Denmark had vindicated her pre-

dominance in the North. To mark her dominion in
northern seas all foreign ships passing through
them were forced to strike their topsail to Danish

THE SEVEN YEARS WAR jy

men-of-war. The Castle of Kronborg was built at
Elsinore to guard the Sound and take toll of the
ships that passed through it. Frederick II appre-
ciated and employed ability when he found it, and
gathered round himself a circle of accomplished
servants of State. He bestowed the island of Hveen
in the Sound, a pension, a canonry and the income
of an estate on Tycho Brahe (i 546-1601), the great
astronomer who built the splendid observatory of
Uranienborg, where James VI visited him. Tycho
Brahe spent his last four years in exile at Prague.
After long negotiations with regard to a marriage
between James VI of Scotland and his eldest
daughter, on which occasion he was to get back
Orkney and Shetland, Frederick II, tired of Scotch
dilatoriness, married her to the Duke of Brunswick.
James then turned to his next daughter, Anna, and
at length, after an ultimatum sent by the Danish
Council, the espousals were signed. Anna, on her
way to Scotland, was driven back to Norway by
witchcraft, it was believed, and the phlegmatic
James stole out of his kingdom and celebrated
their wedding in Norway, 1589. Frederick II died
1588.

CHAPTER XI

CHRISTIAN IV (l 588-1648)

Christian IV (1588-1648) was ten years old on
his accession to the throne. The State Council
nominated four regents to govern in his name till he
came of age in 1 596. The real rulers of the elective
monarchy were the nobility ; exclusive, selfish, and
decadent they preferred $aste privileges to the
welfare of the country ; yet they possessed one-half
of all lands and estates and the peasants were
gradually becoming their bondsmen. The young
King was an indefatigable worker, full of superabun-
dant energy and of zeal for reform. He explored
outlying parts of his dominions ; he sailed round the
North Cape into the White Sea. He examined with
his own eyes all details of the administration. But
his great gifts were vitiated by a pleasure- loving
nature, prone to excesses. With his great personal
courage and military and artistic talents, he was a
full-blooded Renaissance type. After the death of
his queen, Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, he
married, morganatically, Christine Munk, a lady of
noble birth, by whom he had twelve children ; she
was sent away for infidelity, and one of her maids

CHRISTIAN IV 79

supplanted her as the King's openly acknowledged
mistress. The quarrels between his natural children,
among themselves and with his legitimate children,
caused the King much grief and misery. The
daughters of Christine Munk were married to high
officers of State and created countesses.

Christian IV founded and rebuilt many towns in
Denmark, Norway, Scania, and Holstein. He drew
up himself the plans for, and laid out, the new
capital of Norway, Christiania (so called from his
name), to which he moved the iphabitants of the old
city of Oslo in .1624. Copenhagen was enlarged and
embellished, and his splendid Dutch Renaissance
buildings are still the pride of that city. Industry
and trade were fostered in many ways. A number
of chartered companies were established, the Danish
East India Company at Tranquebar, a Danish pos-
session in India, the Westindia Company, the
Icelandic Company. Fine ships were built for the
navy from his own designs. He increased the navy
to three times its strength. But his army consisted
mainly of mercenaries, with levies from the peasants
on the royal estates.

When Charles IX of Sweden; at his coronation,
assumed the title of King of the Lapps of " Nord-
land " — which included Northern Norway — and
granted to the inhabitants of the newly founded
city of Goteborg (Gothenburg) the right to trade
and fish in those parts, Christian IV forced the hand
of his State Council by declaring that he would
make war on Sweden as Duke of Slesvig and
Holstein if the Council refused to do so.

CHRISTIAN IV.

tHRiSTJAN IV 8 1

The Kalmar War, 1611-13, is called thus from
Kalmar, the chief fortress of South Sweden ; it was
captured by the Danes after a three months' siege,
in August 161 1. Charles IX, exasperated by this
loss, challenged Christian to single combat, sword in
hand. " Herein if you fail we shall no longer con-
sider you an honourable king or soldier." Christian,
in his reply, advised the " paralytic dotard," as he
termed the old King, to stay by his warm fireside
with his ntirse. Charles did not long survive this
ignominy, and his successor, Gustavus Adolphus,
offered to give way on the questions in dispute, but
Christian rejected all peace terms. In 161 2 he
captured the fortress of Elfsborg, defending the only
western outlet of Sweden. Some hundreds of the
Scottish auxiliaries of Sweden were cut down by the
peasants of Gudbrandsdal on their march across
Norway to reach Sweden. Sweden had to yield on
most points in the peace of Kna^rod, 161 3.' It
was the last time that Denmark triumphed over
her rival.

Christian was jealous of Gustavus Adolphus
acquiring the dominion of the northern seas, and set
himself to get his younger sons appointed to the
secularized North German bishoprics in order to
become master of the outlets of the Elbe and the
Weser. He succeeded in this by promising to help
the hardly pressed Protestants. Urged by England
and France, ill-supported by his German Protestant
allies, trusting to vain promises, he invaded the
Empire with a mainly German army, 1625. His
' See Sweden.
7

S^ TH^ StORV OF DENMAkK

vigour was impaired by a fall from his horse on a
rampart, which rendered him unconscious for a time.
He was opposed by Tilly, later joined by Wallen-
stein, and was beaten in a decisive battle at Lutter
am Barenberg, near Brunswick, August 27, 1626.
His German allies abandoned him. In 1627 Wallen-
stein overran Holstein and Slesvig, and the entire
peninsula of Jutland fell into the hands of his
mercenaries who ravaged and plundered the lands of
the " heretics " to their hearts' content, with wanton
cruelty. Christian, in F*unen, was quarrelling with
his State Council and looked on, helpless to avert
disaster. The Emperor now began to aim at
dominating the Baltic and extirpating the Lutheran
heresy. Wallenstein was nominated " General of the
Baltic and Oceanic Seas " and vested with the
Duchies of Mecklenburg. Jutland was to become
Spanish, Poland was to be helped against Sweden,
and the Dutch trade was to be excluded. In 1626
Stralsund, which was important for the ** Baltic
General," was besieged, and the Kings of Denmark
and Sweden forgot their jealousy and jointly sent
reinforcements to relieve the garrison while Christian
with the combined fleet captured the adjacent islands
and kept the sea open. Wallenstein had boasted
that he would take Stralsund " though it were slung
with chains between earth and heaven," but the
garrison, animated by Sir Alexander Leslie who
commanded the Scoto-Swedish auxiliaries, defended
themselves so gallantly that Wallenstein was com-
pelled to retire with heavy losses. At a peace
conference in Liibeck, from which the Swedish

CHRISTIAN IV 83

ambassadors were ignominiously excluded, ex*
orbitant demands were raised at first by the
Emperor, but Wallenstein granted better terms in
May, 1629. The conquered provinces were restored
to Denmark, which renounced the secularized bishop-
rics and all right of interference in the Empire,
abandoning its allies and the Protestant cause.

Among the King's sons-in-law the most prominent
were the brilliant Korfits Ulfeld, Lord High Steward,
married to Leonora Christina, the most gifted of the
royal daughters, and Hannibal Sehested, who showed
great ability as viceroy of Norway. While they
supported the King at first, they turned against him
when he came into collision with the discredited
aristocracy. Christian tried to mediate in favour of
the Emperor during the Thirty Years War to
prevent Sweden from becoming too powerful in the
Baltic. He refused exemption from Sound customs
to Sweden's new provinces, and hampered her trade
and navigation. Oxenstierna saw that Denmark
stood in the way of Sweden's hegemony of the
North, and that the moment to strike had come. He
sent secret instructions to Torstensson, who marched
from Moravia and crossed the Danish frontier in
December, 1643. With the rapidity of lightning he
occupied the whole peninsula of Jutland in a few
weeks. In this danger Denmark was only saved by
the personal exertions of the sixty-seven years old
King who spent days and nights in equipping his
Navy and levying men. In April 1644 a Dutch
fleet sailed to help to transport Torstensson to the
islands ; the King beat it on the west coast of Slesvig

84 THE STORY OF DENMARJ^

and it returned to Holland. In June 1644 a
Swedish fleet of forty sail came to take Torstensson
to the islands. Christian met it in a hard-fought ten
hours' battle off Kolberger Heide. His heroism on
this occasion has been celebrated in the Danish
national hymn, written by Evald. A gun exploded
on the quarter-deck where he stood, and splinters
of wood and metal wounded him in thirteen places,
destroyed one eye, and felled him to the deck. He
rose at once, said he was not hurt, and remained
on deck encouraging his men until the Swedish fleet
withdrew into Kiel Bay, where it was blockaded, but
escaped, and the Danish admiral who was to blame
for this was shot by the King's orders. A combined
Dutch and Swedish fleet attacked a Danish fleet
near Laaland and took or destroyed fifteen out of
seventeen ships ; the Danes were outnumbered by
more than two to one. Christian was now forced
to make peace at Bromsebro, on the Swedish frontier
on August 13, 1645. The oft-contested provinces,
Jamtland and Herjedalen, and the islands of Osel
and Gotland were ceded to Sweden, and Halland for
thirty years, as a security for the exemption from
Sound custom dues of Sweden and her new
provinces. These customs decreased to one-fourth
of their earlier volume. The nobility had a great
share in this disaster, and in his bitterness the King
said, "They care not for God, King, or country,
but only for their own selfish interests." His own
son-in-law, Ulfeld, humiliated him and triumphed
over him. He died in 1648, after a reign of fifty- two
years, at the age of seventy-one. His heroic valour

HESSELAGERGAARD CASTLE.

86 THE STORY OF DENMARK

and devotion to the welfare of his country was a
gleam of hope in the disasters and misfortunes which
overtook Denmark. The maritime genius of the
Danes was embodied in him, who had a marvellous
knowledge of the minutest details of shipbuilding
and navigation.

CHAPTER XII

ABSOLUTISM— GRIFFENFELD

Frederick 1 1 1 was not elected till four months after
his father's death, when he had signed a charter
which still further curtailed the royal power. He
was learned, taciturn, and reserved, utterly .unlike
his father. His ambitious queen, Sophie Amalie of
Brunswick, at once quarrelled with Leonora Christina
and Ulfeld, the leaders of the aristocracy. Hannibal
Sehested, another of their leaders, was found guilty
of peculation and surrendered his huge estates and
his seat in the Council to get a pardon. Soon after
Ulfeld and his wife fled to Holland, July 165 1, on
account of similar charges, while he was thought to
be implicated in a fictitious plot to poison the King
and Queen. The King took foreign affairs into his
own hands when he had succeeded in disgracing
these leaders of the nobility. He seized the oppor-
tunity when Charles X was beset with difficulties
in Poland to declare war on Sweden, though he had
only vague promises of support and his army was
ill-prepared for war.^

The heroic defence of Copenhagen by King and

' For the war, 1657-60, see Sweden.

88 THE STORY OF DENMARK

commons had discredited the nobility still further.
Its exemption from taxes grated on the public con-
science. Frederick III saw that the time had come
to strike a decisive blow at the oligarchy of nobles.
His chief helpers in the revolution which made
Denmark an absolute monarchy were Burgomaster
Hans Nansen and Hans Svane, Bishop of Sjaelland.
The Estates assembled in September 1660. The
burgesses and clergy claimed that the new indirect
taxation should apply to the nobles who, after bitter
resistance, were forced to yield to " slaves who ought
to keep within their limits," as they called them.
After securing the garrison and the armed citizen
forces, the Estates of Burgesses and of the clergy
offered Denmark as a hereditary monarchy to the
King in return for his deliverance of it during the
war, and called on the nobles and the Council to
concur, but they refused ; their leader, meeting burgo-
master Nansen in the street, pointed to the State
prison and asked if he knew it, but the burgomaster*s
answer was to point to the alarm bell of Our Lady's
Church which was used to call the citizens to arms.
The guards were doubled, the gates closed, the
citizen forces armed, whereupon the King asked the
Council to give an answer quickly ; his threat cowed
them and on October 13th they concurred with the
other Estates and made over Denmark as a heredi-
tary monarchy to Frederick III and his heirs male
and female, the privileges of the Estates to be main-
tained. A commission was named to discuss the
question of the charter and the coronation oath ; the
charter was surrendered to the King and he was

ABSOLUTISM 89

released from his oath. Supreme power was placed
in his hands and he was asked to issue a new con-
stitutional charter, according to his good pleasure,
" as to His Majesty should seem best for the general
welfare." On October i8, 1660, the solemn cere-
mony of homage to the hereditary monarch was
performed by the different orders and ranks in an
amphitheatre erected in the public square opposite
the Royal Palace ; he promised to rule as a Christian
hereditary king and gracious master and as' soon
as possible to give a Constitution, fair and just to all
classes. Every one kissed the hands of the King and
Queen and a great banquet at the palace inaugurated
the new absolutism. The promised Constitution was
never heard of any more after that day and the
Estates of Denmark did not meet again for nearly
two centuries. The archives of the State Council
were removed to the Palace, as a sign that it had
ceased to exist. In January 1661 a document was
drawn up and circulated for signature throughout the
Danish dominions by which the signatories declared
that they conferred on the King and his male and
female heirs absolute government and sovereignty
and rendered him homage as their hereditary abso-
lute lord and sovereign. The nation abdicated in
favour of an absolute monarch, above all human laws.
The new Constitution of the absolute monarchy, Lex •
Regia, was written by the King's secretary, Peter
Schumacher; it was signed by Frederick III on
November 14, 1665, but kept secret till his death
in 1670.

It conferred on the King personally the whole

go THE STORY OF DENMARK

legislative, executive, and judicial powers of the State.
He, acknowledging no superior but God in affairs
civil and spiritual, holds the sole and exclusive
authority of making, repealing, amending, and inter*-
preting the laws, with the right of exempting any
one he pleases from obeying them. The only re-
striction on his absolute authority was his profession
of the Protestant religion according to the Augsburg
confession and maintenance of the kingdom undi-
vided. By Article 26 the Lex Regia Was declared
to be irrevocable, and all persons attempting to alter
or infringe it guilty of high treason.

This was indeed the logical carrying out of abso-
lutism to its last consequences. . Lord Molesworth,
the British Ambassador at the Danish Court, in his
" Account of Denmark as it was in the Year 1692 "
says the Danish people hug their chains, " the only
comfort left them being to see their former oppressors
in almost as miserable a condition as themselves, the
impoverished nobles being compelled to grind the
faces of the poor tenants for their own subsistence."
The administration was reorganized and divided into
five colleges, i.e. boards or departments of State, a
centralized bureaucracy. But all matters of import-
ance were decided by the King, who consulted at his
pleasure one of the members of the newly established
Privy Council. Lucrative posts formerly held by
the nobility were filled by men of low birth who
were the most obedient instruments for executing
the will of the autocrat. Korfits Ulf^ld, after being
subjected to ignominious treatment in prison, fled
abroad; one of his intrigues against Frederick III

ABSOLUTISM 9 1

was his offer of the Danish Crown to the Elector
pf Brandenburg. For this he was beheaded and
quartered , in effigie in Copenhagen and a pillory
erected on the site of his house, which was pulled
down., He died in exile. His noble and gifted wife,
Leonora Christiana, was delivered up by Charles H,
having fled to England, and for twenty-two years
suffered harsh indignities in a dungeon from which
she was only released at the death of her rival. Queen
Sophie Amalie. Her memoirs of this time bear
witness to her high-minded fortitude of soul.

Peder Schumacher, Denmark's greatest statesman
since Absalon, was the son of a wealthy citizen in
Copenhagen. Extraordinarily gifted, he was sent
abroad to study at universities and Royal Courts,
1654-62. He resided in Germany, Holland, and
then (1657-60) at Queen's College, Oxford. He was
an eye-witness to the Restoration, and Hobbes*
views impressed him deeply. He was in Paris
when Louis XIV laid the foundations of the cen-
tralized monarchy whose administration and culture
was imitated all over Europe. On his return
Schumacher became librarian of the newly founded
Royal Library, then the King's secretary. He was
steadily rising in- the King's favour, the only stepping-
stone to power.

Frederick HI wobbled cautiously between the
va!rious coalitions in Europe in 1660-70; during
the Anglo-Dutch War the Dutch East India fleet
found a safe retreat in the harbour of Bergen
against the squadron of Lord Sandwich sent to
intercept it

92 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Frederick III died in 1670, and on his death-bed
said to his son, " Make a great man of Schumacher,
but do it slowly." The first act of the weak,
shallow, vain Christian V (1670-96) was to appoint
Schumacher secretary of the Privy Council, when
he handed him the secret Lex Regia, confided to
him alone by the late King. He became Privy
Councillor and was ennobled as Count GrifFenfeld,
from the griffin surmounting his arms. In 167 1
the titles of Count and Baron were introduced, and
an ordinance of rank was issued which graduated
all honour and precedence ; the order of Dannebrog
was instituted to mark the royal favour. The new
aristocracy of merit — and of favour — was to oust
the old aristocracy of birth. The administration
was systematized and made efficient. The Privy
Council was to consist of the heads of the Govern-
ment boards ; the administration under Griffenfeld's
superior insight and direction became more efficient.
In 1673 he was created Knight of the Order of
the Elephant — otherwise reserved for royal persons
—and Grand Chancellor ; thereafter he devoted
himself to foreign policy. His aim was to keep
peace, recover the power and prestige of Denmark,
and secure her by her alliances which brought sub-
sidies without sacrificing neutrality. Christian V
and his generals chafed at his temporizing and
dilatory policy ; they were eager to reconquer the
lost provinces from Sweden. The King one day
submitted to his all-powerful Chancellor fifteen points
as to which he desired him to be more cautious in
future. On March u, i6j^6, Griffenfeld was arre^tedi

GRIFFENFELD 93

The charges against him were mainly of pecula-
tion ; the most serious one was a note in his
private diary : " To-day the King talked like a child
to the ambassadors/' His written appeal to the
King for mercy, his marvellous defence before an
extraordinary court, composed of his enemies,
availed nothing. He was sentenced to lose life,
honour, and goods. His escutcheon was broken
asunder on the scaffold, but as he lay there await-
ing the death-blow of the executioner's axe, the
King's pardon and commutation of the sentence to
prison for life arrived. " May God forgive you, I
was so ready to die," he broke out ; a lingering
death of twenty-two years in a severe prison,
deprived of writing materials, was the end of a
statesman of whom Louis XIV said he was with-
out his peer in Europe. Danish autocracy broke
the genius who laid its basis and foundation ;
Griffenfeld's cruel* and undeserved fate was the
most grievous loss that absolutism could inflict not
only on its own efficiency but on the rank that
Denmark held among the nations of Europe.

Ole Romer (1644-1710) discovered the velocity of
light, and was a pioneer in the invention and im-
provement of astronomical instruments. The laws
of Denmark were codified and published in 1683.^

' For the Scanian War, 1675-79, see Sweden.

CHAPTER XIII

ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Frederick IV (1699-1730) was twenty-eight years
old when he ascended the throne. He had been so
badly educated that he was not even able to write
German, the language spoken at Court, correctly,
and still less Danish or French. His scanty stock
of knowledge hampered him a good deal in later life.
At twenty-one he went on a long journey to Italy,
and acquired a love for art which found expression
in his efforts to embellish Copenhagen. In spite of
his numerous amours he worked diligently for the
welfare of his subjects, and won his people's love by
the way in which he, the absolute monarch, could
talk to his humblest subject and sympathize with
him.

Relations with the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp soon
became strained. Duke Frederick IV was married
to a sister of Charles XII, and his policy was wholly
anti-Danish. Frederick IV of Denmark, a month
after his accession, made an alliance with Augustus,
King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, joined later
by Peter the Great, against Sweden and invaded the
Duchies early in 1700. He took Gottorp but the

ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURV 95

sudden descent of Charles XII on Sjaelland forced
him to make peace at Travendal, August 1700. He
conceded full sovereignty to the Duke with the right
of building fortresses in Slesvig, and paid a war
indemnity. The Duke was killed in the army of
Charles XII at the battle of Klissow in Poland, 1702.

Denmark now enjoyed some years of peace. The
king tried to create a national army and to form a
permanent militia ; he built the forts of Trekroner
and Provestenen to defend Copenhagen from the
seaside, put the Navy on a better footing and
introduced economy into the public finances.

For a long time the " Vornedskab," a kind of
serfdom, had existed among the peasants and
tenants in Sjaelland, Lolland, Falster, and Moen ;
tenants were not allowed to leave the estate on
which they were born, and they were bound to take
the dwelling-house or the work assigned them by
the landlord. This was doubtless favourable for
agriculture, but not for the peasants. The Vorned-
skab was introduced to promote agriculture, and
even free peasants could be compelled to stay on
their farms and till the land. The Vornedskab
cannot be compared with Russian serfdom, and it
did not extend to women. Frederick IV realized
itis injustice, and in 1702 he abolished it for all
peasants born after his accession. But soon it was
found that their emancipation was too sudden ;
instead of tilling the land they left their farms.
Then the " Stavnsbaand," which existed till 1788,
came into use ; it resembled villenage, and was
worse than the Vornedskab.

96 THE STORY OF DENMARK

To form a militia, the King ordered that, in pro-
portion to their lands, landed proprietors should
provide recruits, who were to serve six years for
military service. The men inscribed on the military
rolls wQre not to be allowed to leave the estate
where they were inscribed without the landowner's
permission. Christian VI abolished the militia
ordinance soon after his accession, but reintroduced
it in 1733 ; all men between fourteen and thirty-six
years of age were to be inscribed on the rolls and
thus bound to the soil. In 1764 it was extended to
the age of four, peasants' sons being inscribed at
that age. The masters decided which peasants were
taken for military service, and they often refused
them permission to leave the estate. Even after
doing military service the peasant was bound to
take the farm his master chose to ^w^ him, as he
could punish him with more military service if he
refused. Thus the peasant had no incentive to
be industrious, and became a lazy laggard. And
the Stavnsbaand which was established to promote
agriculture gradually had the opposite effect.

Frederick IV again declared war against Sweden
in her hour of need in 1709. He wished to break
the alliance between Sweden and Holstein-Gottorp
in order to recover Slesvig. He made a journey to
Italy in 1708, and concluded an alliance with the
Kings of Poland and of Prussia on his way back^
He thought the moment favourable with Charles XII
as a fugitive in Turkey after Poltava, and landed
\x\ Scania with 15,000 men in 1709; successful at
first, he was beaten in a battle near Helsingborg by

ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY gj

the raw peasant levies of Count Magnus Stenbock
and evacuated Scania. The war then moved to the
German provinces of Sweden. Stenbock again beat
the Danish army at Gadebusch, in Pomerania,
advanced into Holstein and burnt Altona, December
1712. Then the Saxon and Russian allies of the
Danes came up, and Stenbock, outnumbered, sought'
shelter in the fortress of Tonningen, which he sur-
rendered for lack of provisions. Whereupon Den-
mark occupied the Duchies. At sea the Danish
fleet was triuniphant, especially after the great
Norwegian naval hero, Peder Wessel, ennobled and
known as Torenskjold, came on the scene. In
1716 he destroyed the transports of the Swedish
army in Dynekilen, and in 17 19 he took, by a coup
de main, the impregnable rock fortress Karlsten, and
the city of Marstrand.

In July 17 16 Peter the Great arrived in Sjaelland
with 30,000 men to join the 23,000 men provided by
Frederick IV, to invade Scania under cover of the
English, Danish, and Russian fleets. After two
months of mysterious delay by the Danes, the
mutual suspicion of the Allies grew so strong that
Peter postponed the invasion,* while it was with the
utmost difficulty that Frederick IV was able to
persuade his troublesome guest to leave Sjaelland
at all. After the death of Charles XII in Norway-
peace was concluded with Sweden on July 3, 1720,
at Frederiksborg. Denmark retroceded her con-
quests in Germany, Riigen, Further Pomerania to
the Peene, and Wismar in return for a war indemnity
of 600,000 rixdollars. Sweden promised not to

98 THE STORY OF DENMARK^

meddle in the aflfairs of Holstein Gottorp. Great
Britain and France, joined later by Russia and
Austria, guaranteed, in separate treaties, that Slesvig
should for ever remain in the possession of Denmark.
In 1 72 1 Slesvig was, by a special Act, incorporated
as a dominion of the Danish Crown. This was an
important result of this inglorious wan
-Denmark was afflicted by a series of national
c-alamities in this reign: the plague in 171 1, the
inundations of 17 17 which devastated the western
Coasts of Slesvig and Holstein, and the fire that laid
iwoTthirds of Copenhagen in, ashes in 1728. Un-
daunted, the King husbanded the resources of the
country,, reduced the National Debt, built a large
number df, schools and the castles of Fredensborg
dnd , Frederiksborg, introduced a regular postal
service, opened the first Danish theatre in Copen-
hagen, ^722^ sent missionaries to the East Indies,
tp^ Fiiamark and to Greenland, where Hans Egede,
^ the") apostle of Greenland," did noble and grand
wotk among the Eskimos.

• In 169s the King had married Louise of Mecklen-
burg, by whom he had five children ; but during the
Queen's life he married to his left hand, morganati-
cally,* Helene von Viereck, in 1703 ; after her death
her place was "taken by Charlotte Schindel Next
he fell in love with the young Countess Anna Sophie
Keventlow. He abducted her, and was married to
her morganatically for nine years during the lifetime
of his; queen, thus committing bigamy a second
time. When the Queen died, he married Anna
Sbphie Reventlow two days jifter the funeral, this

ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 99

time to his right hand, and then crowned her as his
Queen, in spite of the angry opposition of the Royal
Family. His • ideas of the sacredness and absolute
power of Royalty led him to suspect his ministers
and the old Danish nobility of trying to encroach
on his privileges. With all his faults he was loved
by the common people who loathed his son,
Christian VI.

Christian VI was thirty-one when he ascended the
throne. His whole appearance was unsympathetic.
His voice and his face were equally disagreeable.
His tutor and his Lord Chamberlain, Count Holstein,
the later Premier, were Germans, serious and deeply'
religious men who gave him a good, pietistic,
German education. He was sorely aggrieved when
his father married Anna Sophie Reventlow while his
mother. Queen Louise of Mecklenburg, was still
alive. He hated the young Countess whom his father
niarried immediately after the Queen's death. He
himself married Sophie Magdalene of Braridenburg-
Kulmbach ; she was pious and religious but at the
same time ambitious and extravagant, of weak
health, sulky and fretful. The Court was a dull place
where people were bored to death. Christian VI
had the best will in the world to make "his children,."
as he called his subjects, good Christians and good
citizens, but he had not the gift to please them. He
was shy and awkward, and became more and more
inclined to a melancholy pietism which considered
all amusements to be sinful ; balls and plays were
prohibited a;t Court. He. moved from one palace to
another, strictly guarded. The people were kept at

lOO THE STORY OF DENMARK

a distance from the Palace by heavy iron chains, and
they had to uncover when passing near the Palace,
and consequently seldom approached it.

Denmark was not involved in war during his reign.
He rebuilt the University, burnt down in 1728, and
gave it a new and greatly improved charter, 1732,
founded the Academy of Sciences, 1742, and built
a School of Arts. But all literature, even scientific,
was subject to the censorship of pietistic clergymen.

He developed the Navy and commerce and navi-
gation, but his efforts to protect Danish manufactures
were not always successful. All work was prohibited
on Sundays and on all holy days. Attendance at
church was compulsory; those who failed to attend
were fined or put in the stocks which were provided
at every church. In 1736 the confirmation of
children by clergymen was introduced, and in 1737
a General Church Inspection College was established
in order to supervise the teaching and the conduct
of every clergyman and teacher, and see that people
attended church, also to censor books before publi-
cation. As its members were fanatic pietists, it
gave rise to general hypocrisy and demoralization.

To gratify the whims and caprices of the Queen
Christian VI spent huge sums in building splendid
palaces ; he pulled down the new-built Copenhagen
Castle and erected in its place Christiansborg Castle,
which was on too large a scale for his kingdom.
Hirschholm Castle was built at great cost on a
swamp merely because the Queen so desired ; she
lived there for fourteen years after the King's
death as Queen Dowager. No Danish Queen saw

ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY lOI

SO little of her subjects, but she gave freedom to the
peasants on her estates, the present Horsholm.

Frederick V (1746-66) had been educated in this
narrow German pietism, but, as a natural reaction,
he became a total contrast to his father. He took
no interest in religious matters, and his subjects were
much relieved to find that he abolished all restric-
tions on their joys and pleasures and intellectual life.
Pleasure-loving, kind, and good-natured, he soon
became a popular favourite. At the age of twenty-
one he married Louisa, daughter of George II of
England. Her beauty and charm won the heart of
the Danish people. The Royal Theatre which had
been closed for sixteen years was reopened, and the
plays of Hoi berg, the Danish Moliere,were acted again.
A joyous time had succeeded the age of kill-joy.

The King took little interest in affairs of State,
and Denmark was governed by prominent statesmen,
Count Bernstorff, Count Schulin, and Count Moltke.
Peace was maintained, though the danger of a war
was great in 1762. Peter III of Russia was Duke
of Holstein-Gottorp when he succeeded to the throne
in 1762, and his one idea was to take revenge on the
secular enemy of his Duchy, Denmark. The
Russian army advanced through Mecklenburg, but
Denmark took up the challenge and sent 40,000 men
into Mecklenburg to meet them, while her large and
well-equipped fleet dominated the Baltic. The
hostile armies were within touch of each other when
Peter III was suddenly dethroned by Catherine II,
July 9, 1762. She was wholly averse to this war, and
made peace with Denmark.

I02 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count of Bernstorff, was
the chief ruler of Denmark in 1750-70. He was not
only a great foreign minister, but one, of the ablest
and most upright ministers Denmark ever had the
good fortune to possess. He came of a Mecklenburg
family, settled in \ Hanover, and never learnt the
Danish language. He did much to assist and
promote industry, agriculture, commerce, science and
art. It was natural that he looked to Germany for
light and leading. He invited men of letters and
scientists from abroad to settle in Denmark, Klopstock,
Basedow, Oeder, Mallet, and others. Danish literature
was resuscitated by the genial favour of the Court,
and the Norwegian dramatist, Ludvig Holberg, " the
father of Danish literature," had free scope for his
activity. The Asiatic or East India Company
flourished under royal protection, and as a mark
of gratitude erected a fine statue of the King on
horseback in the Palace Square.

Unfortunately the King was prone to low pleasures
and excesses, and even his marriage to the beloved
Queen Louise did not make him give up that life.
They had five children. She died in 1751, deeply
mourned by King and people. Frederick V now
wished to marry a daughter of Count Moltke, with
whom he had fallen in love, but Moltke, then
Premier of Denmark, refused his consent, and
hurriedly arranged a marriage between the King and
Juliane Marie of Brunswick, 1752. Their son, Prince
Frederick, was the father of the later Christian VIII
of Denmark. Frederick V died of an illness caused
by excesses in drink, 1766, at the age of forty-two.

ABSOLUTISM IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IO3

He appointed a Commission to improve the lot of
the peasants, and men like Bernstorff and Moltke
introduced hereditary leaseholds on their estates.
But, for reasons of economy, the royal estates, where
the peasants were comparatively well treated, were
sold to German and Danish noblemen, and the
position of the peasantry became gradually worse
and verging on serfdom.

CHAPTER XIV

CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEE

Christian VII succeeded his father at seventeen

years of age, in 1766. His mother died when he

was but two years old, and his father neglected his

education. He was a handsome boy, weak and

nervous from his earliest childhood, with a bent for

vices inherited from his father. His character was

shallow and superficial and easily influenced. His

tutor, Count Reventlow, was brutal and ignorant.

He beat and punished the timid, capricious boy who,

to escape punishment, concocted a whole system

of deception and simulation. Under this guidance

he inevitably deteriorated. When the Swiss, Reverdil,

was appointed tutor, he saw that the boy was

mentally abnormal and had been cruelly treated ;

he tried to gain his confidence by kindness, but it

was too late. All his good natural qualities had

been poisoned by ill-treatment, and he took a

malicious delight in cunning deception and pretence

and in trickery. He had been forced to learn the

Bible in a mechanical soulless way, and in consequence

religion was ridiculed by him. Many of the young

pages at Court, his playmates and comrades, were

104

CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEE I05

depraved and dissolute and made him a debauchee.
His bright vivacity and natural gifts juight have been
turned to good account by careful guidance ; now
they all turned into symptoms of madness and
imbecility. A boy of seventeen, depraved in mind
and body,.was thus the absolute monarch of Denmark
and Norway.

For a few months after his accession it seemed as
if he realized his responsibility. He abolished the
villenage of peasants on certain Crown estates, and
asked his father's ministers to stay in office. But
soon his vicious habits reasserted themselves. He
spent days and nights in the company of drunkards
and loose women, dancing along the streets in wanton
revelry, breaking windows and waking up peaceful
citizens. He liked to show his power as an autocrat
by discharging old and tried servants ; he dismissed
his old minister, Count Moltke, in 1766, and in 1767
the very able and efficient heads of the Army and of
the Navy, and his faithful tutor, Reverdil. The only
person for whom he- still had some respect was Count
Bernstorff, who was sorely grieved to see the future
of Denmark entrusted to such a king.

A marriage was arranged between Christian VH
and his cousin, the English Princess Caroline Matilda.
She was the posthumous child of the Prince of Wales
and a sister of King George HI. Despite her own
will she became, at the age of fifteen, the queen of
a king barely seventeen years old of whom many evil
reports had reached England. She had never seen
Christian VH when she was first married to him
by proxy ; then she was married on her arrival in

CAROLINE MATILDA.

CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEB lO/

Denmark, November 8, 1766. The cororicition of
the royal couple took place on May i, 1767. The
young Queen possessed all the charm and innocence
of youth, and the Danish people greeted her with
an outburst of joy and delight.

Caroline Matilda on her arrival in Denmark was
a mere child, unable to wield an influence over the
King, who after a short honeymoon began to loathe
her. Inexperienced, without friends, environed by
a corrupt Court in a foreign country, she did not
know how to treat the King, whose conduct went
from bad to worse. After the depraved Count Hoick
became his most intimate friend he abandoned
himself to low dissipation ; with his drunken
comrades he visited bars and public-houses, where
His Majesty used to break glasses, bottles, and
furniture to pieces and throw them out of the
windows. Even the birth of an heir to the throne
early in 1768 made no difference in the King's
conduct. The young Queen, who was spied upon
by Hoick and his circle, was lonely and unhappy
in the midst of these revels.

Soon after the birth of his son, the later Frederick
VI, the King went on a journey to the Courts of
Europe* On his way a German doctor at Altona;
Johann Friedrich Struensee, was introduced to him J
he was so pleased . with him that he proposed he
should accompany him on his tour as his physician ;
on the King's return to Denmark Struensee was
retained as Court physician. The King's journey
to England and France, May 1768 to January 1769,
proved a great success. Both in' Paris and Londoa

I08 THE STORY OF DENMARK

it was held that this charming, witty, generous and
openhanded King had been much maligned ; he was
neither imbecile nor insane. On his return his
behaviour towards the Queen changed completely
for the better. This was no doubt owing to the
strange influence that Struensee had over him ; he
restored his health and the King obeyed him.

At first the Queen disliked Struensee, who was
known as an atheist, of dissolute life and elegant
manners. He was thirty-one years old, gifted and
handsome and intellectual and spoilt by women. But
she acknowledged that the change in the King's
conduct was owing to his influence. Her authority
increased as the King sank gradually into hopeless
imbecility. She began to admire Struensee, who
preached to her the gospel of Rousseau and the
Encyclopaedists. He courted her and won her heart.
She fell deeply in love with the libertine and adven^
turer, for whom she was but a means to snatch to
himself the supreme power in the State. Already in
January 1770 he had become her lover. The King,
for whom Struensee seemed indispensable, desired
him to live at the Royal Palace. He was appointed
reader to the King and secretary to the Queen. He
increased her influence over the King, and he was in
her eyes the greatest statesman in the world, ready
to reform the old monarchy and modernize it from top
to bottom. In the summer of 1770 Struensefe isuc-
ceeded in his ambitious plans. Christian VH agreed
to send away his boon companion and the Queen's
enemy, Count Hoick, and on September 13, 1770, he
dismissed the great minister who had deserved so well

CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEE IO9

of Denmark, Count Bernstorff. He stood in the way
of Struensee, who now appointed his friend, Enevold
Brandt, to look after the person of the imbecile auto-
crat and guard him so that no one should be able to
approach him. The Press censorship was abolished
the day after Bernstorff was dismissed, and this gained
Struensee popular favour. He soon got tired of the
complicated machinery of the State, and in December
1770 he abolished the Council of State and appointed
himself " Mattre des Requites." All reports from
the departments of State! to the King were to pass
through his haiids first. He was the medium through
which the King made known his, i.e. Struensee's, will.
He aspired to a still higher pinnacle. On July 14,
1 77 1, he was appointed " Geheimekabinetsminister,"
i.e. practically sole minister or dictator, and a few
days later he was created a Count. He was given
authority to issue Cabinet orders in the King's name,
with the seal of the Cabinet ; they were to be as valid
as royal ordinances with the royal signature, and it
was his duty to put in writing the verbal orders of the
King. . As if to show that he and not the King was
the real ruler he ordered all letters and petitions to
the King to be sent to the secretary of the Geheime-
kabinetsminister.

Struensee had now more power in his hands than
any private person in Denmark below the throne had
ever wielded. He and the Queen were the unre-
stricted and absolute rulers. The King signed every
document that he was asked to sign. Still he had
lucid intervals! He hated Brandt, who sometimes ill-
treated- him in his fits of frenzy. He was apparently

I lO THE STORY OF DENMARIC

aware of the relations, between Struensee and the
Queen which were known to all ; he sometimes ridi-
culed both them and himself for that reason. In the
summer of 177 1 the Queen gave birth to a daughter,
Louise Augusta, and a Te Deum was ordered to be
sung in the churches as a thanksgiving, but every-
where the congregation walked out of church when
it was to be sung, in the firm belief that the child
was Struensee's. Even the King made difficulties in
acknowledging the child as his daughter.

Struensee was a fanatical adherent of the ideas of
enlightenment and reform promulgated by the Ency-
clopaedists and Rousseau, and he wanted to put them
into practice in what he thought was an effete monarchy
which needed revolution, root and branch. Believing
fn freedom for the peasants he appointed a Commis-
sion to improve their conditions. But his sweeping
reforms were based on abstract principles, with lack
of statesmanlike knowledge and regard for ingrained
customs and prejudices. Being himself a German
who never learnt Danish he did not try to understand
the needs and wants of the Danish people.. He
wanted to force his will upon them and thus caused
resentment ; he often chose wrong ways and means
to do good. Moreover, he was devoid of moral
principles, fond of pleasure, and of a domineering
character.

For about sixteen months he was absolute master
of Denmark, and during that time inaugurated
numberless reforms ; though many were unmade at
his fall, yet they have have left their mark on
Danish history. He saw the necessity of exact

CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEE III

control of the income and expenditure of Court and
State, and established a Finance Board to deal with
and unify/such matters. He abolished judicial tor*
ture, and capital punishment for theft, and demo-
cratized the law courts, and the Copenhagen
municipal council. He laid down certain qualifica-
tions for holding public posts ; formerly they were
often given, as a favour, to the servants of men of
influence. He carried reforms too quickly and with
a high hand. He dismissed the staffs of public
departments, to raise their efficiency and save money,
without pensions, and put in new men. During
the last thirty-eight weeks that he^ held absolute
power he issued, in his reforming zeal, no less
than 1,069 Cabinet orders. But he had the prudence
to leave foreign affairs in the hands of Count Osten,
and did not meddle with them.

Soon the number of his enemies increased, while
public opinioi^ was disgusted and contemptuous.
He outraged the moral and religious sense of the
people when he issued an ordinance that adultery
and unchastity should not be punished in future,
established foundling institutions, converted a chapel
into a hospital for venereal diseases, permitted public
masquerades in their -worst form, introduced State
lotteries and permitted gambling. The Danish nobi-
lity detested the German adventurer who had made
German the indispensable medium of communication
with the Government. It was found more than once
on the occasion of riots that he lacked personal
courage. A powerful secret conspiracy against him
was formed by the Queen Dowager, Juliane Maries

il2 THE STORY OF DENMARK

the King's stepmother, her son Prince Frederick, the
later Premier, Guldberg, the officer commanding the
regiment guarding the Court, and others. At five
o'clock in the morning of January 17, 1772, after a
bal masqui in the Palace, the conspirators burst into

STRUENSEE.

the King's bedroom and made him sign an order
to arrest Struensee, Brandt, and several others, and to
send Queen Caroline Matilda to Kronborg Castle.
The imbecile King rubbed his hands, delighted that
he was now taking revenge for ill-usage of himself,
and he was actually adclaimed by the people as he

CHRISTIAN VII AND STRUENSEE II3

was driven round in state next day. Struensee was
next arrested in his bedroom and chained to the wall
in his prison. He was prosecuted for usurpation of
the royal authority, for lese-majeste,, and for injury
to His Majesty's honour. He denied everything at
first, but learning that the Queen, too, was a prisoner
he confessed the nature of his relations with her.
He and Brandt — for personal violence to the King
— were sentenced to a barbarous and vindictive
mode of execution. On April 28, 1772, first the
right hand was cut off, next the head, whereupon
the head was set on a pole and the body drawn
and quartered.

The Queen, at that time not yet twenty-one years
old, was imprisoned in Kronborg Castle at Elsinore
with her infant daughter. She shielded Struensee,
but, confronted with his confession, she confessed
the truth. On April 6th an extraordinary court of
thirty-five members sentenced her to be divorced
from the King, but her imprisonment for life in a
Danish fortress was prevented by her brother,
George HI of England, who believed her innocent
He demanded that she should be treated as an
English princess, and an English man-of-war arrived
at Elsinore to escort her, but alone, without her infant
daughter, to her brother's Electorate, Hanover, where
she resided for the rest of her life in the old castle
of the town of Celle. She was loved by the towns-
people, and she lived there for nearly three years.
Plans by British and Danish malcontents, in con-
sultation with her, to depose Christian VH by a
military pronunciamiento and seize the reins of

114 ^^^ STORY OF DENMARK

government at Copenhagen came to nothing. She
died of smallpox on May lO, 1775, not yet twenty-
four years old. At twenty her career as Queen
which began with her triumphal entry in Copenhagen
at fifteen, was over.

CHAPTER XV

FREDERICK VI — DENMARK AND ENGLAND— THE
LOSS OF NORWAY

The Danes were Jubilant over the revolution, riot
realizing that in reality it was a reactionary mieasure
and that the new men were anti-progressives. They
continued to govern by Cabinet orders, and Gufdberg
himself, though he was the moving spirit of the
Government, 1772-84, held no office but that of
secretary to the King and later State Secretary.
His character was conservative to a degree, and he
, abolished the reforms of Struensee, the good with
the bad. The Danish language took the place of
German in the Civil Service and in the Army. The
liberty of the Press was confined in narrow bounds
and the condition of the peasants deteriorated.
A. P. BernstorfT, who had the statesmanlike gifts of
his uncle, was made Foreign Minister, but Guldberg
favoured Russia and was unfriendly to England,
while BernstorfT was a great admirer of British insti-
tutions. They disagreed, and when Denmark joined
the League of Armed Neutrality at the bidding of

Russia in 1780, the Russian Ambassador persuaded

115 ' - . . -

Il6 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Guldberg to have Bernstorff dismissed because of
his friendly attitude to England.

Discontent with Guldberg's reactionary tendencies
grew rife, and the first act of the sixteen years old
Crown Prince, Frederick, on taking his seat in the
State Council, April 14, 1784, was to have him
dismis^d ; thlis was a complete surprise for
Guldberg.

The Crown Prince, born in 1768, had a very un-
happy childhood. Struensee tried to harden the
weak constitution of the boy in various painful ways.
After his mother's divorce from the King no one
cared for or was kind to him. The Queen Dowager
neglected his education and detested him. Though
shy and awkward he was very industrious and took a
deep interest in national, Danish matters. Even
while he was a mere boy he mused on assuming the
reins of government. After consultation with A. P.
Bernstorff he succeeded, on April 14, 1784, in getting
his father's signature to a document by which Bern-
storff was appointed Premier and Guldberg who '
only eight days before had assumed that office was
dismissed. Assisted by such men as Bernstorff,
Reventlow, Schimmelmann and others the Crown
Prince Regent ruled Denmark during the King's
insanity, 1784 to 1808.

A happy and successful period of reform began.
Commerce flourished as never before, and Bernstorff
steered the ship of State through the storms of war
and revolution that raged in Europe. Though the
Crown Prince believed in the sacred rights of
Royalty he worked hard for the welfare of his

DENMARK AND ENGLAND WJ

people. He was anxious to free the peasants as
soon as possible. A Commission, guided by Revent-
low and Colbjornsen, inquired fully into the question,
and on June 20, 1788, the " Stavnsbaand " was
abolished. The grateful peasants erected the so-
called "Liberty Column" in Copenhagen in 1792
in memory of their emancipation and in gratitude
to the Crown Prince.

In 1780 Russia promulgated a code of maritime
law maintaining the principle, "a free ship makes
the cargo free," and refusing to recognize the right
of search for contraband in neutral ships. Denmark
and Sweden joined Russia in a League of Armed
Neutrality, an alliance for the protection of neu-
trals. Their cruisers convoyed and protected their
merchantmen. In 1794 a separate alliance was
concluded between Denmark and Sweden for the
same purpose. On July 25, 1800, the Danish frigate
Freia^ with the merchantmen it convoyed, was taken
into the Thames, after a fight against English
cruisers. After the convention of August 29, 1800,
between England and Denmark, the Freia was
restored and the convoying of ships ceased. The
Armed Neutrality League of 1780 was renewed in
December, 1800, by Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and
Prussia. England laid an embargo on all Danish
and Norwegian ships on January 14, 1801, two days
before Denmark ratified the Neutrality Treaty with
Russia. The Russian Emperor, Paul, expelled the
Danish Ambassador because he was not sufficiently
anti-English.

England's answer was to send a fleet of 53 sail,

Il8 THE STORY OF DENMARK

including 20 ships of the line, to the Baltic, under
Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Nelson. It passed
the Sound off Elsinore on March 30th, unharmed by
the guns of Kronborg Castle. On April 2, 1801,
Nelson, with 35 ships, including 11 ships of the line,
"1,192 guns, and 8,885 men, attacked 7 dismasted
blockships, two ships of the line, and some floating
batteries and gunboats, with 5,063 men and 630 guns,
under Olfert Fischer, in the port of Copenhagen.
We must add the fort of Trekroner with 66 guns
and 931 men. Most of the Danes were raw recruits
and University students, but Nelson declared after-
wards it had been the hottest fight he had ever been
in. After five hours' deperate fighting, when six of
his ships of the line were aground, exposed to the fire
of Trekroner, he sent a message to the Crown Prince
with a letter : " He would spare Denmark when no
longer resisting, but if the firing were continued he
would be obliged to set on fire all the floating
batteries he had taken with their brave crews." The
letter was addressed : " To the Brothers of English-
men, the Danes." The Crown Prince at once agreed
to a truce of twenty- four hours. Nelson now wrote :
" that he will ever esteem it the greatest victory he
had ever gain'd if this flag of truce may be the happy
forerunner of a lasting and happy union" between
England and Denmark. The Danes had 375 dead
and 670 wounded, Nelson 350 dead and 850 wounded.
The eighteen years old Peder Willemoes fought
Nelson's flagship in a little gunboat for four hours,
and lost 80 out of 120 men. Nelson declared to
the Crown Prince that Willemoes deserved to be

DENMARK ANt> ENOLAND IIQ

made an admiral for his masterly manoeuvring. On
April 9th an armistice of fourteen weeks was con-
cluded. Denmark ceased to be a member of the
Neutrality League. On April 8th news reached
Copenhagen that the Emperor Paul had been
assassinated in his bedroom in the night between
March 23rd and 24th. Thus in less than six months
the Armed Neutrality League was dissolved. There
was an outburst and a renascence of poetry and
of national pride in Denmark after April 2, 1 801
(Grundtvig, Oehlenschlaeger and others).

Napoleon himself spoke in enthusiastic terms of
the heroic defence of the Danes to the assembled
foreign ambassadors, and declared that the Danes
had reminded the English that they were their old
conquerors.

The British Order in Council of January 7, 1807,
prohibiting neutral merchantmen from trading be-
tween French ports or the ports of the allies of
France, ruined the flourishing commerce of Denmark,
especially in the Mediterranean. In July, 1807,
Napoleon and Alexander I agreed, by the Treaty of
Tilsit, that France and Russia should jointly call on
the Governments at Copenhagen, Stockholm, and
Lisbon to close their ports to, and declare war on,
England ; any of the three Governments that refused
to do this was to be treated as an enemy. On
August 3, 1807, Napoleon wrote to his ambassador
at Copenhagen that Denmark must now break off all
intercourse with Great Britain. There is little doubt
that the Crown Prince Regent who was with the
Danish army, guarding the southern frontier of

120 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Holstein, would have refused this demand which
infringed Danish neutrality, but, before it actually
reached him, his hand had been forced by England.
Relying on a demonstrably false rumour that the
Danish fleet was fitting out against England, and
disregarding the advice of his own ambassador fn
Denmark, Canning secretly sent a fleet of 25 sail of
the line, 40 frigates, and 377 transports to the Baltic ;
30,000 soldiers under Lord Cathcart, with General
Wellesley (Wellington) as second in command, were
on board. The fleet, commanded by Admiral
Gambler, arrived in the Sound early in August 1807.
A special ambassador proffered the English demand
of alliance or war at Copenhagen. The decision,
however, lay with the Crown Prince Regent at Kiel.
If England had only waited a few days more.
Napoleon's peremptory demand would have reached
him first and compelled him to side with England.
But Canning sent the high-handed Jackson to Kiel,
where he demanded from the Crown Prince the
delivery of the Danish fleet into English hands to
remain there till the close of hostilities ; offering him
simultaneously the choice between alliance or war.
Jackson bandied high words with the Crown Prince,
and gave him eight days' grace. The Crown Prince
hurried to Copenhagen and put it in a state of
defence, but when Jackson arrived there he had gone
back to Kiel, Jackson, on the expiry of the ulti-
matum, went on board the fleet August 13th,
Sjaelland was blockaded, and siege was laid to the
ill-prepared Copenhagen, which was garrisoned by
13,000 untrained men, mostly volunteers. To hasten

DENMARK AND ENGLAND 121

its surrender the city was bombarded, September
2nd to 5th. The University, the Cathedral, and
300 houses were burnt or destroyed. Copenhagen
capitulated on September 7th. All ships, stores,
ammunition, and naval fittings were delivered to the
English, and all its arsenals were emptied; 17 ships
of the line (14 of them of 70 guns and over), 12
frigates, 8 brigs, and 35 gunboats, valued by Gambier
at ;^2,ooo,oc)0, were carried away to England. The
British expedition was to leave Sjaelland within six
weeks of the armistice. English ships continued to
cruise round Sjaelland, and the Danish island Anholt
was occupied by an English garrison, 1809-14.

Filled with righteous anger at this unprovoked
attack, the Crown Prince concluded an alliance with
Napoleon, October 31, 1807, whereupon England
declared war on Denmark, November 4th* A
Franco-Spanish army under Bernadotte, stationed in
Jutland and Funen, was prevented by British ships
from crossing to Sjaelland in order to invade Scania,
and in August 1808, 8,800 Spanish troops escaped
on board English ships to assist in the rising of their
countrymen against Napoleon.

The poor lunatic Christian VII had such a bad
shock at the sight of the French and Spanish soldiers
marching through the town where he resided in
Holstein, that he died soon after, March 13, 1808,
and the Crown Prince, who had been Regent since
1784, now succeeded him as Frederick VI, at a fatal
moment in the history of Denmark.

When a Russian army marched into Finland on
February 2|, 1808, Denmark, bound by the terms of

122 THE STORY OF DENMARK

her Russian alliance, was embroiled with Sweden,
and compelled to declare war on her, February 29th.
Norwegian troops under Prince Christian August,
the viceroy of Norway, were victorious in many
small skirmishes in the Norwegian border territories,
but a tacit and informal truce was arranged when
Adlersparre marched to Stockholm to depose
Gustavus IV, March 1809. Frederick VI planned
the re-establishment of the old union between
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway through his election
as King of Sweden. He might have succeeded, if
he had been willing to give up absolutism and grant
a free Constitution to all three kingdoms. Far from
that he was the ally of Russia with whom he had
secretly schemed to conquer and retain possession
of South Sweden. Prince Christian August was
therefore elected heir to the Swedish throne, but on
his sudden death Frederick VI was again a candidate
for the throne. He had made peace with Sweden in
December 1809 on the terms oi status quo.

All Europe was leagued against Napoleon, and
little Denmark was his only faithful ally who did
not desert him, even after his disastrous campaign
in Russia, King and people were filled with resent-
ment against England. The Danish merchantmen
were swept off the seas by Britain, but Danish
privateers and improvised gunboats seized many
British ships, their prizes in 1 8 10-12 being valued at
nearly four million pounds* The total prohibition
of the import of British goods and the exclusion of
all ships touching at British ports ruined trade and
industry. On the ist of January 1813, Danish bank-"

THE LOSS OF NORWAY 123

notes had sunk in value to one-fourteenth of their
face value ; Denmark was in a state of bankruptcy.

Meanwhile the new Crown Prince of Sweden,
Charles John (Bernadotte), had induced Alexander I
of Russia to help him to win Norway as a com-
pensation for the loss of Finland. It was held out
to England, August i8 12, as an inducement to agree
to this that she might occupy Kronborg Castle at
Elsinore and make it into a Gibraltar of the North.
Norway suffered from famine, all communications
with Denmark by sea being cut. Discontent was
rife and separatist tendencies were voiced openly.
The heir to the Danish throne, Prince Christian
Frederick, crossed to Norway in a fishing boat, dis-
guised as a fisherman, May 181 3, and took over the
viceroyalty. Handsome and splendidly gifted, he
became a great popular favourite. By a new treaty
of alliance with Napoleon July 10, 18 13, Denmark
undertook to contribute 12,500 men to the French
army in North Germany.

After the battle of Leipsic, Bernadotte marched
into Holstein. The Danes fought bravely in a
skirmish at Sehested, but Frederick VI bowed to
the inevitable. By the Treaty of Kiel, January 14,
1 8 14, he ceded Norway, except Iceland, Greenland
and the Faroes, to Sweden and the Isle of Heligo-
land to England which gave back the Danish
colonies she had conquered. In return Denmark
received Swedish Pomerania, Rligen, and one million
rixdollars. Rugen and Pomerania were exchanged
in 1815 with Prussia for the Duchy of Lauenburg
and two million rixdollars.

124 THE STORY OP DENMARK

The impoverished Danish people had bitter feel-
ings against the King, who was largely to blame
for these disasters as he clung so obstinately to the
alh'ance with France. Denmark was dismembered
through the loss of Norway, which had been united
with her for more than four hundred years ; she was
utterly humiliated by the abduction of her splendid
Navy and she was bankrupt. Frederick VI personally
attended the Congress of Vienna in the hope of
getting better terms from the Allies ; he did not
succeed, but he attracted a good deal of sympathy.
Hard-working as he was and conscientious according
to his lights he was received like a victor by his
Danish subjects on his return.

It was a relief in the midst of the prevailing
gloom that literature flourished. The Golden Age
of Danish literature reached maturity in the
generation of 1810-30. The names of Oehlensch-
laeger, Grundtvig, Baggesen, Soren Kierkegaard,
H. C. Andersen are among the greatest in the
history of Danish literature. But Frederick VI
himself took no interest in literature. He did his
best to heal the wounds of the war and put the
finances on a sound footing, and the nation began to
recover slowly. The people had hoped that the King
who had given freedom to the peasants would also
realize the necessity for giving a free Constitution to
the nation. Absolutism seemed to them to be out
of date. But for years their hopes were destined
to disappointment. After the July Revolution^
1830, the stagnant waters began to move. In 1831
the King promised to establish consultative pro-

THE LOSS OF NORWAY 1 2$

vincial chambers or estates. They began to sit in

1834.

Frederick VI, who was small of stature and sickly,
though hardened by training, had an engrossing
interest in military matters. He established a public
school system for Denmark in 1814, which was one
of the first in Europe. The Court language had long
been German, and he was the first really Danish king
for centuries. He spoke Panish and loved it. A
reaction against the use of German sprung up
among the Danish people. German had been more
frequently used than Danish by the higher officials.
The nobility conversed in German, and the Germans
of the Duchies considered themselves the more
cultured and civilized part of the monarchy. But
with the Golden Age of Danish literature the people
began to be proud of their language and nationality.
No officials unabl6 to speak Danish were any longer
appointed in Denmark or in Slesvig. King and
people were at one in reinstating and upholding
Danish nationality.

The consultative estates were four, one for the
islands, one for Jutland, one for Slesvig, and one for
Holstein. A supreme court for the Duchies was set
up at Kiel and a central administration for the
Duchies at Gottorp. This tended to strengthen the
bonds between the Duchies. It ran counter to
the fact that Slesvig was an old Danish province
while Holstein was a German Duchy, governed by
the King of Denmark as Duke of Holstein.

The Liberals, dissatisfied^ with the consultative
estates, still pressed for a free Constitution, but

126 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Frederick VI was a thoroughgoing Conservative.
To a deputation petitioning him against a proposed
h'mitation of the liberty of the Press, he declared :
** We alone can judge what is truly for the good
of our kingdom and people." He abhorred Con-
stitutions. Still he was sincerely mourned at his
death, 1839. Narrow-minded and obstinate, he was
a hard, honest worker all his days. One may smile
at his fondness for, and imitation of, the militarism
of Frederick the Great, but his fifty-five years on the
throne had endeared him to his subjects, and he
worked diligently to repair the disasters of his reign.
He had eight children, of whom only two daughters
survived him ; the elder married Prince Ferdinand,
a brother of Christian VHI ; the younger married
Frederick VU, the son of Christian VII L

CHAPTER XVI

CHRISTIAN VIII— SLESVIG AND IIOLSTEIN

With the accession of Christian VIIl a new era was
inaugurated. Bom in 1786, he was handsome and
highly gifted, a man of learning, a lover of art and
science. During his travels abroad he met the
beautiful Princess Charlotte Frederike of Mecklen-
burg-Schwerin. He married her in 1806, but
divorced her in 1809 on account of her infidelity.
They had one son, the later Frederick VH. As
a prince he loved Norway and favoured the estab-
lishment of a University at Christiania in 181 1.
Frederick VI therefore appointed the popular Prince
viceroy of Norway in May, 181 3, thinking thus to
knit new and strong ties with his Norwegian subjects.
After hairbreadth escapes from English cruisers
Prince Christian landed in Norway, and in a short
time wholly won the hearts of the Norwegians. He
refused to accede to the Peace of Kiel and was
elected King of the restored kingdom of Norway
on May 17, 1814. After a reign of five months
he was compelled to abdicate and leave Norway.^
Frederick, loyal to his treaty engagements, was

* See Norway.
127

128 THE STORY OF DENMARK

angry with the Prince and called him back. After
his return to Denmark Prince Christian married
Princess Caroline Amalie of Augustenborg, 1815.
They travelled abroad for four years, and at home
gathered round themselves a distinguished circle
of men of letters and of scientists. The Prince
was made a member of the State Council in 1831 ;
he took a warm interest in the establishment of
the consultative chambers. The Liberals felt con-
vinced that he would grant a free Constitution on his
accession, and were much disappointed when he
showed no intention to do so, and even refused it
when asked. He re-established the Icelandic
Althing.i Denmark prospered in his reign ; art and
science, agriculture and manufactures flourished and
the first railways were built.

Christian VI II did little to check the growing
danger of a racial struggle in the Duchies ; during
his reign the relations between Danes and Germans
in Slesvig became more and more strained. Danish
policy with regard to Slesvig had led to its gradual
Germanization. It had been incorporated in
Denmark in 1721, England and France guaranteeing
to the Danish Crown the perpetual possession of it.
South Jutland, as it was originally called, had thus
come back to Denmark, but it was no longer wholly
Danish. The Danish language was not used in its
administration, before the law courts, or at church,
but, notwithstanding^ the common people continued
to speak Danish and the linguistic frontier between
German and Danish receded only slightly north-

' See Iceland.

SLESVIG AND HOLSTEIN 1 29

wards. The Danish kings were not interested in
maintaining the Danish language and nationality.
Frederick IV, after the incorporation of Slesvig,
made no attempt in this direction. Again in 1767
Catherine II resigned the claims of her infant son to
Gottorp and to Holstein and ceded them to Denmark
in exchange for Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. This
treaty was finally ratified in 1773. Still German
continued to be the official language of Slesvig, and
all the highest posts and offices continued to be held
as formerly by Germans from the University of Kiel.

When the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by
Napoleon in 1806, Frederick VI, the Crown Prince
Regent, declared Holstein to be hereafter part of the
Danish monarchy, and, after the Congress of Vienna,
he entered the newly established German Confedera-
tion in his capacity as Duke of Holstein and Lauen-
burg. Thus Germany acquired a right to interfere
in the aflfairs of Holstein, and, indirectly, of Slesvig.
The nobility of Holstein, who possessed most of the
landed estates of Slesvig, promulgated the view that
the two Duchies had been united, not only in law,
since 1386 and 1460, but from time immemorial.

Relying on a promise given when the German
Confederation was established that all the states
composing it were to be granted Constitutions the
Holstein nobility demanded a Constitution not only
for Holstein but also for Slesvig. When their request
was refused by Denmark, they complained to the
Federal Parliament, which, however, declared that
Slesvig was wholly outside its domain, as it did not
belong to the German Confederation. Nevertheless

130 THE STORY OF DENMARK

the serious mistake was committed of establishing
a common government for the Duchies at Gottorp
and a court of appeal, common for both, at Kiel.
Germanization went on apace, aided by the authori-
ties ; the flood was only stemmed by the sturdy and
intelligent peasantry of North and Central Slesvig,
who rallied to patriotic leaders and saved the Danish
language in South Jutland.

Duke Christian of Augustenburg and his brother,
Prince Frederick of Noer, the leading family in
Slesvig, were enemies of Denmark. Though only
great landowners and not reigning Dukes, they were
related to the Danish Royal Family. Their intrigues
for the succession to the Danish Crown were based
on the fact that the sister of Frederick VI, who,
though really Struensee was her father, was regarded
as a legitimate Danish princess, had married their
father Duke Frederick Christian of Augustenburg.
Through their mother they had thus hopes of
succeeding to the Danish throne, as Frederick VI had
no sons. They wished to be entrusted with
governing the Duchies, and when their uncle appointed
another man in that coveted position they allied
themselves secretly with the German Separatist party,
much as they disliked its democratic tendencies.
In 1830 Uwe Jens Lornsen formulated the programme
of this party according to which the Duchies were
independent and united states, subject to the Salic
law, in personal union with Denmark under a
common sovereign. He was imprisoned and died in
exile in Germany.

At the end of his reign Frederick VI desired to

SLESVIG AND HOLSTEm I3I

learn the real facts about the status of German and
Danish in the Duchies, and called for reports, but the
German officials acceded to his wishes in such a way
that the true reports never reached him.

Christian VIII tried to hold the scales evenly
between German and Danish, in a vague and
irresolute way. In 1842 he committed the un-
pardonable mistake of appointing Prince Frederick
of Noer Governor of the Duchies and head of the
administration at Gottorp. He may have wished
to attach the sympathies of the Augustenburg family
to Denmark, but, on the contrary, the new Governor
became a centre of disaffection against Denmark.
National feeling in Denmark was roused. . Peder
Hjort Lorenzen was excluded from the Slesvig Diet
in 1842 for attempting to address it in Danish, his
mother-tongue. The National Liberal party in
Denmark now turned all its sympathies to Sweden
and Norway. United Scandinavia was its pro- .
gramme. But Christian VIII did not look with
friendly eyes on this new " Scandinavism."

To pacify the Germans and prevent quarrels in the
consultative chambers, he decreed in 1844 that
deputies were only permitted to speak Danish in
the Diet of Slesvig, if they were able to prove that
they were not conversant with German. The Danes
were angry at this decree. Europe must now think,
they said, that Slesvig was a wholly German country.
The decree did not even satisfy the Germans in the
Duchies. The Danes in Slesvig realized that they
must depend upon their own strength, if their Danish
nationality was not to be utterly lost.

132 THE STORY OF DENMARK

The . Slesvig-Holstein Separatists held that only
the male line of the Danish Royal Family were the
rightful heirs to the Duchies. The question of the
succession was highly important, as Christian VIII
had only one son, the later Frederick VII, and he
had been twice divorced without having any children
in either of his two marriages. Since there were no
other male members of the Royal Family, it was
necessary to elect the nearest successor of a female
line, unless the Crown Prince had issue. The
Separatists pointed out that consequently the Duke
•of Augustenburg was the rightful heir to the Duchies,
as a male descendant of the ducal line of the Royal
House. Christian VIII, anticipating this danger,
published an open letter in 1846 to the effect that,
as the result of an examination by a Commission of
the question of the succession, the order of succession
in Denmark was valid for Slesvig and Lauenburg,
but doubtful as regards Holstein. He also promised
not to change the old Constitution of Slesvig or its
union with Holstein. This declaration caused much
discontent. The Duke of Augustenburg protested
against it, and the Prince of Noer resigned as
Governor of the Duchies. The Holstein Diet com-
plained, though in vain, to the German Confederation.
The Separatists took the royal declaration as a
recognition of their claims. Christian VIII at last
saw the necessity for granting a free Constitution,
and he was planning it when he died, January 1848.

CHAPTER XVII

FREDERICK VII — THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY
— THE FIRST SLESVIG WAR

His only son of the marriage with Charlotte Frederike
of Mecklenburg-Schwerin succeeded him, thirty-nine
years old, as Frederick VII (1848-63). His parents
had been divorced, and when his father was viceroy
of Norway the good-natured but wilful boy'was
handed to strangers who were unfit to educate him.
When his father remarried and went on long
journeys, he was again spoiled and pampered and
petted by his supposed tutors. He was sent abroad
to complete his education, but with his ingrained
hatred of learning and books and lessons, all he
learned was new pleasures. In 1828 he married his
cousin, Vilhelmine, the daughter of Frederick VI.
Their marriage was very unhappy. They had no
issue, and he behaved so rudely to his gentle and
kindly wife that Frederick VI separated them after
a six years* marriage, and they were divorced. He
was sent in exile to Iceland, and then to a garrison
in Jutland. Christian VIII, his father, called him
back, on his accession, and made him a member of
the State Council. In 1841 he married Princess

133 ,

134 T'HR STORY OF DENMARK

Marianne of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. This marriage
also proved unhappy. He fell in love with a ballet
girl, Louise Rasmussen, and at the same time formed
an intimate friendship with her lover, Berling, who
became his private secretary. His wife left Denmark,
1844, and they were divorced 1846. Unworthy as
these relations were of the future King of Denmark,
yet that simple girl and her friend prevented him
from sinking lower in the scale of degradation.

When he ascended the throne he wanted to marry
Louise, but this was prevented by his ministers. In
1850, however, he created her Countess Danner and
married her, in defiance of his ministers. She
influenced him strongly in a democratic direction,
and his rough good-nature and accessibility won him
the love of the people, in spite of his vices. He had
often expostulated with his father /or his delay in
granting a Constitution and had himself drafted one
in 1847.

On his accession, January 1848, Frederick VII
asked his father's Ministry to continue in office. He
was determined to grant a free Constitution ; this
had been his dying father's last advice to him.
Already, on January 28, 1848, he made known his
intention to give a free Constitution, common to all
parts of the monarchy. But it pleased neither the
Danes nor the German Separatists, the " Slesvig-
Holsteiners,'* as they were called.

Open insurrection broke out at Kiel in March
1848, instigated by the success of the revolution in
Germany, a provisional Government was formed, the
claims of Slesvig-Holstein as a single constitutional

THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY I3S

State within the German Confederation were formu-
lated and deputies were sent to Copenhagen to lay
them before the King. Meanwhile the citizens of
Copenhagen demonstrated in a body before the
Royal Palace against the Ministry, and their address
to the absolute monarch closed with these words :
" We implore Your Majesty not to force the nation
to the self-help of despair." The King yielded,
declared he would lead the Danish people on the
paths of freedom and honour, and appointed a new
Ministry whose programme was to make Slesvig to
the River Eider an integral part of Denmark and to
grant a democratic Constitution. The constitutional
demands went farther than he had intended, but he
divested himself of his absolute power with good
grace and became the first constitutional King of
Denmark. ^The Constitution was delayed because
of the rebellion in the Duchies. The Slesvig-
Holsteiners desired to belong to the great German
Fatherland, where the revolution had triumphed ;
they made no distinction in that respect between
the half-Danish Slesvig and the wholly German
Holstein ; both were to become part of the German
Confederation,

The Prince of Noer was a member of the pro-
visional Government at Kiel while the Duke of
Augustenburg was persuading the King of Prussia
to regain his popularity by taking *up the cause of
the Slesvig-Holsteiners. The rebels occupied the
fortress of Rendsburg without resistance as the
German-speaking troops of the Duchies deserted
their Danish commander, but they were badly

136 THE STORY OF DENMARK

beaten on April 9, 1848, by the Danes at Bov, near
Flensborg, in Slesvig. Prussian and German Federal
troops and volunteers, under Wrangel, now marched
into Slesvig, and Wrangel with 30,000 men beat
10,000 Danes in the hard-fought battle of Slesvig,
on Easter Day, April 23, 1848. The Danes retired
to Dybbol and the island of Als while the rest of
Slesvig was occupied. Denmark appealed to the
guarantors of the union of Slesvig with Denmark
proper ; England and Russia, with a view to prevent
the rise of German naval power in the fine ports of
the Duchies, protested at Berlin, and Sweden-Norway
transported 15,000 men to Funen ; they were to join
in the war if Denmark proper were invaded. A
menacing Russian Note caused Wrangel to evacuate
in a hurry the part of Jutland he had occupied.
Prussia and Germany suffered from ^the severe
Danish blockade of their Baltic and North Sea ports
and the capture of their merchantmen, and concluded
a seven months' armistice with Denmark in August
1848, at Malmo. The Duchies were to be evacuated
by the troops of the contending parties and to be
governed by a mixed Commission of five members.
But the Slesvig- Holsteiners had it all their own way
and some Danish peasants rose against their oppres-
sion. Denmark therefore denounced the armistice
and the war was renewed on April 3, 1849. Superior
Federal forces reoccupied Slesvig and, partly, Jut-
land, and a Slesvig-Holsteiner army invested
Fredericia. The garrison at last made a sally on
July 6th and captured the entrenchments of the
rebels, with all their artillery and 2,000 prisoners ;

THE FIRST SLESVIG WAR 1 37

the Danish loss was 2,cxx) men and the brave General
Rye. An armistice was then concluded. Slesvig
was to be administered by a joint Commission com-
posed of one Dane, one Prussian, and one English-
man, North Slesvig to be occupied by Swedish-
Norwegian troops, South Slesvig by Prussian troops.
The joint administration of Slesvig and Holstein
ceased to exist. But, gradually, with the secret con-
nivance of Prussia, the Slesvig- Holsteiners reduced
the Commission to impotence and helplessness.
Under pressure from Russia and Austria, Prussia
made peace with Denmark on July 2, 1850, at
Berlin ; the status quo ante bellum was' to be restored
and all antecedent rights to be reserved. The rebels,
left to their own resources and reinforced by
numerous German officers and volunteers, invaded
Slesvig. At Isted their army, 33,000 men under
the Prussian General Willisen, were wholly beaten
in a bloody and obstinate battle, July 25, 1850, by
38,000 Danes. This victory cost the Danes 3,600
men. After heavy losses sustained by the rebels at
the siege of Frederikstad their army dissolved, and
the Three Years War, the first Slesvig War, was at an
end. The German Confederation was ready to carry
out the Peace of Berlin. Holstein was governed ad
interim by Austro-Prussian commissioners. The
difficulty of administering Slesvig had become more
serious as the German nationalism in South Slesvig
had been strengthened by the war. The customs
frontier of Denmark was moved from the river sepa-
rating Slesvig and Denmark south to the Eider River,
the frontier of Slesvig and Holstein. The common

138 THE &TORY OF DENMARK

administration of the Duchies was abolished. Slesvig
had her own minister and her own court of appeal
at Flensborg. Many Danes were appointed in the
places of disloyal officials who had been dismissed.

Denmark had emerged victorious from a war
with Germany, and she hastened to repair past
mistakes. Formerly German had been the official
language at church, in the schools, and before the
law courts, even where the population was wholly
Danish. Slesvig was now divided into three linguistic
districts or belts, to be administered separately — one
purely Danish, one purely German, and a mixed
or bilingual district. It was unavoidable that the
linguistic frontier should in some places be somewhat
arbitrary. Complaints, mainly exaggerated and
unfounded, reached Germany of Danish tyranny
and superciliousness. The national self-confidence
of the Danes had been heightened by a victorious
war, and they wished to set free again the down-
trodden Danish nationality in Germanized Slesvig
which was originally wholly Danish.

Meanwhile a constituent assembly had been sitting
at Copenhagen October 1848 to June 1849, to work
out the free Constitution of Denmark, and the new
" Fundamental Law," which made Denmark one
of the freest countries in Europe, was signed by the
King on June 5, 1849. The absolute King, in full
harmony with his people, surrendered his absolute
power, of his own free will. He took as his motto,
"The love of my people is my strength," arid the
people in their enthusiasm overlooked his many
faults.

THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.
The Constitution of June 5. 1849.

140 The story o/* DkNMAkK

The members of the Lower House (Folkethiilg)
were to be elected through a general franchise, those
of the Upper House (Landsthing) partly to be
elected by a limited electorate with a high census,
partly to be nominated by the Crown. All the
privileges of the Danish nobility were abolished.

By means of an exchange of Notes in 185 1-2
Denmark came to an agreement on January 28, 1852,
with Austria and Prussia. Denmark, Slesvig,
Holstein, and Lauenburg were each of them to
have a separate administration but also a common
Constitution for affairs common to the whole
monarchy. Slesvig and Holstein were to be quite
separate, but Slesvig was not to be incorporated in
Denmark, This was accepted as a satisfactory basis
of the future Constitution of the monarchy and
Holstein was then restored to Denmark. A common
Constitution for the Danish monarchy was elaborated
in 1855, but on the representation of the German
Powers it was repealed as regards Holstein and
Lauenburg in 1858. The Eider policy, according to
which the frontier of Denmark proper was the south
frontier of Slesvig, the River Eider, was the lodestar
of the Danish National Liberals, who carried the
country with them. The " Unitary " party, who were
in favour of placing Holstein in the same relation
to Denmark as Slesvig, and linking the whole
monarchy together by a common Constitution, had
lost their hold on the Danish people.

As Frederick VH had no children and was the last
scion of the Oldenburg family, the succession to the
throne had to be provided for. At a Congress of the

THE FIRST SLESVIG WAR I4I

Great Powers in London Prince Christian of Slesvig-
Holstein-Sonderborg-Gliicksborg was accepted as heir
to the throne of Denmark, May 8, 1852. The Duke
of Augustenburg resigned his claims in return for a
money payment. The Tsar of Russia had already re-
nounced his claims. Charlotte, landgravine of Hesse,
sister of Christian VIII, transferred her rights to the
throne and those of her son, Prince Frederick, to her
daughter Louise, who had been married to Prince
Christian in 1842, and transferred all her rights to her
husband. On July 31, 1853, Frederick VII signed a
bill, vesting the succession to the Crown in Christian,
" Prince of Denmark," and his heirs male.

Endless squabbles with the German powers about
the relations of the Duchies followed. The steady
British support of Denmark was weakened by the
strong German sympathies of Queen Victoria and
the Prince Consort. Finally Hall, Danish Premier
1857-^3, proposed to cut the Gordian knot by detach-
ing Holstein and giving a common Constitution to
Denmark and Slesvig. Germany considered this a
breach of the conventions of.1851-2. This so-called
November Constitution was passed by the Chambers
on November 1 3, 1863. Two days later Frederick VII
died, without having signed it, at a fateful hour in the
history of Denmark.

His reign was a happy time for Denmark. There
were no internal dissensions. The people were full of
vigour and enthusiasm for their new-born freedom.
King and people were as one. Trade and commerce
progressed by leaps and bounds. Sweden-Norway
was a faithful ally against German aggression. It

142 THE STORY OF DENMARK

is true the King's morganatic marriage, which was
celebrated by the Bishop of Sjaelland, was extremely
unpopular. The Danish nobility did not appear at
court, and his secretary, Berling, was sent away, owing
to demonstrations in Copenhagen. Frederick VII
died on a visit to GlUcksborg, November 15, 1863,
mourned by his people.

CHAPTER XVIII

CHRISTIAN IX AND HIS SUCCESSORS — THE LOSS OF
SLESVIG— CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLES

His successor, Christian IX, was born at the Castle
of Gottorp on April 8, 1818. His parents were Duke
Wilhelm of Slesvig-Holstein-Sonderborg-Glucksborg
and Princess Louise of Hesse, a sister of the queen
of Frederick VI and a grand-daughter of Frederick V.
This ducal line, the Sonderborg line, descended from
Duke Hans the Younger (t 1622), a son of Christian III.
Christian IX was thus distantly related to the Olden-
burg family. On the death of his father, who was
an officer in the Danish Arniy (1831), Frederick VI
became the guardian of the Prince and his eight
brothers and sisters. He entered the Army 1835 ; in
1848 his eldest brother, Charles, bore arms against
Denmark while he himself was faithful to king and
country. The London protocol, in virtue of which he
ascended the throne, is to the effect that : " Since the
preservation of the integrity of the Danish monarchy is
of high importance for the maintenance of peace, and
whereas an arrangement which, excluding females, vests
the succession in all the countries now united under the
^ceptre of the King of Denmark, would be the best

143

144 7'^^ STORY OF DENMARK

means to assure the integrity of this monarchy," the
Great Powers and Sweden-Norway bound themselves,
in case of the extinction of the male line of Frede-
rick III, to recognize Prince Christian and his direct
male descendants by his marriage with Princess Louise
as " heirs to the throne in all the countries now
united under the sceptre of the King of Denmark."
Christian IX ascended the throne under difficult
circumstances. The victorious war of 1848-50 had
inspired the Danish people with over-confidence.
The defences of the country and the equipment of
the Army had been wholly neglected. The Prussian
Army had just been armed with a new rifle. Those
who ventured to call attention to the hard facts and
counsel a yielding mood were denounced as traitors.
Christian IX realized that his signature of the
November Constitution would cause a war with
Prussia and Germany. The ambassadors of the
Great Powers informed him that he could expect no
assistance on their part if he signed and war broke
out in consequence. For three days the King refused
to sign, but the pressure of the National Liberal
Cabinet of Hall and demonstrations in Copenhagen
forced him to do so on November i8th rather than
abdicate. The Danes thought his refusal was owing
to his German sympathies, and for a time he was
extremely unpopular. Posterity has done him
justice; he was more clear-sighted than his ministers.
Bismarck, now Prussian Premier, and the German
Confederation demanded the withdrawal of the
November Constitution, the Duke of Augustenburg
transferred the rights he had solemnly renounced in

THE LOSS OF SLESVIG 1 45

1 85 2 to his son who proclaimed himself Frederick VIII,
Duke of Slesvig-Holstein, and German troops
occupied Holstein without resistance from the Danes,
December 1863. The Federal execution was in
consequence of the denial of the right of Christian IX
to succeed in the Duchies. Bismarck then induced
Austria to join Prussia in occupying Slesvig as a
pledge for the observation by Denmark of the con-
ventions of 185 1-2. The new Cabinet of Monrad in
Denmark remained defiant in the hope of joint inter-
vention by England and France, but Napoleon III
refused the armed intervention proposed by Palmer-
ston. Bismarck who, as he declared later in his
Memoirs, always meant to annex the Duchies to
Prussia, sent a forty-eight hours' ultimatum to Copen-
hagen within which time the November Constitution
was to be withdrawn. An Austro-Prussian army of
56,000 men crossed the Eider on February i, 1864.
A Danish army of 40,000 men stood behind the
Danevirke, badly armed and equipped ; for fear of
being surrounded it retreated secretly during the
night between February sth and 6th in severe
winter weather. The Austrians hurried in pursuit,
and one Danish brigade held the enemy at bay
with great bravery while the army got safely away
to Sundeved and Als ; part of it retreated to North
Jutland. The Danes worked hard at the unfinished
trenches at Dybbol, where they defended themselves
with admirable courage and stubbornness for over
two months, outnumbered, outranged by artillery
and rifles far superior to theirs. In March 1864
England invited the signatories of the Treaty of

146 THE STORY OF DENMARK

London to a peace conference in London, but
Austria and Prussia refused to negotiate till Dybbol
had been stormed. At the end of March the
Allies made an unsuccessful attack on the trenches.
On April 2nd a regular bombardment began which
utterly demolished the Danish entrenchments. The
Danish commander-in-chief was prohibited by the
ministry at Copenhagen, for political reasons, from
retiring his worn-out troops from Dybbol to the
island of Als. On April i8th overwhelming Prussian
forces stormed the Danish entrenchments, now mere
rubbish-heaps. It was a hard-contested struggle ;
the Danish loss was 4,700 in killed, wounded, and
prisoners, the Prussian, 1,200 ; but the brave defence
of the bridgehead leading to Als enabled the army
to escape to the island.

A peace conference assembled in London on
April 25th, and an armistice was concluded on
May 9th. That very day a Danish squadron under
Admiral Suenson defeated a Prusso-Austrian squad-
ron under Tegethoff off Heligoland. At the con-
ference Prussia and Austria proposed a personal
union between Denmark and the Duchies. This
was rejected by Denmark, and so were the various
proposals by England, by France, and by Germany
for the partition of Slesvig and its delimitation into a
German and a Danish Slesvig. On May 12th Prussia
and Austria declared themselves no longer bound by
the London Treaty of 1852 after the war. They now
proposed that the Duchies should be governed by
the Duke of Augustenburg as a state in the German
Confederation. As no agreement was reached war

THE LOSS OF SLESVIG 1^7

was resumed on June 26th. At two o'clock in the
morning of June 29th Prussian troops crossed in flat»-
bottomed boats to the island of Als, and the. little
Danish army evacuated the island with a loss of three
thousand men. All Jutland to the Skaw was then
occupied by the allied troops. Petjmark, . foiled in
her hopes of European intervention, had to sue for
peace, which was finally signed at Vienna October 30,
1864. Denmark ceded Slesvig, Holstein, and Lauen-
burg — that is, more than two-fifths of Jier territory
and population.

Prussia and Austria then maintained that the
Duchies, now theirs by right of conquest, had right-
fully belonged to the Danish Crown, and not to: the
Duke of Augustenburg. Prussia was to administer
Slesvig and Austria Holstein, but ^fter the war of
1866 Austria, by the Treaty of Prague,, ceded all her
rights to Prussia. Napoleon III intervened, with the
result that paragraph V of th<2 Treaty of Prague
reads as follows: "His Majesty the Emperor .of
Austria transfers to His Majesty the King of Prussia
all the rights acquired by him in the Peace of Vienna
October 30, 1864, to the Duchies of Slesvig and
Holstein, with the reservation that the inhabitants of
the northern district^ of Slesvig shall be. reunited to
Denmark if, by a free plebi3cite, they express the
wish therefor."

This paragraph is the great hope to which the
Danes in Slesvig cling, even to-day. After the
Franco-German War (1870-71) Prussia had her hands
free, and, without consulting Denmark or the Danish'
population in Slesvig, came to an agreement with

148 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Austria in 1878 to rescind the promise in para-
graph V of the Prague Treaty to retrocede North
Slesvig. In spite of the abrogation of paragraph V
the hopes of 140,000 Danes in Slesvig are still centred
in it. Under such leaders as Gustav Johannsen, J.
Jessen, and H. P. Hansen, this fine peasantry not
only held its own against attempts at Germanization,
but actually gained ground. They were forbidden to
use their mother-tongue at school, at church, in the
law courts ; they were forbidden to sing Danish
songs, to wear Danish colours ; Danish lecturers and
actors were expelled. All this petty persecution was
like fuel that made the fire of their patriotism burn
all the brighter.

In the Peace of Vienna, 1864, it was decided, in
paragraph XIX, that the Danes in Slesvig were to
be permitted to "opt" — i.e. choose whether they
desired to be Danish or Prussian subjects, within six
years — i.e. till 1870. If they should elect to be
Danish subjects, they were to be considered Danish
immigrants, settled in Prussia but not naturalized.
Many Danes "opted" for Danish citizenship and
crossed the frontier, in expectation of the plebiscite
promised in 1866. After the abrogation of para-
graph V in 1878 most of them returned to their
lands and estates in Slesvig. Thereby they lost
their Danish citizenship, and could not, after 1870,
acquire Prussian citizenship. These unhappy " home-
less" people, as the Germans called them, became
the victims of the violent Germanization of Slesvig.
They possessed no political rights and were treated
like " outlaws," at the mercy of German officials who.

CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLES I49

if they showed the slightest sign of sympathy with
the Danish national movement, molested them with
domiciliary visits and expulsions over the frontier at
twenty-four hours' notice or less. This disability
was transmitted to their children. Parents and chiU
dren on either side of the frontier were prohibited
from visiting each other. The notorious von K5ller,
Governor of Slesvig-Holstein 1898-1900, expelled no
less than one thousand people of the poorer classes.
Feelings between Danes and Germans were daily
embittered, and people in Denmark at times boy-
cotted German goods to express their displeasure.
At last, after the visit of Frederick VIII to Berlin in
1906, the "Optant" convention between Denmsirk
and Prussia, signed on January 11, 1907, put an end
to this intolerable state of things. The children and
descendants of Danish optants were to have the
right to acquire Prussian citizenship. Thus there
will be no optants after the present generation. No
less than four thousand at once became Prussian
citizens. The Germans, embittered by this strength-
ening of the Danish element in Slesvig, redoubled
their efforts. They bought Danish estates and settled
Germans on them. But the stubborn Danes checked
all their moves by counter-moves. Every new elec-
tion shows that North Slesvig is more Danish than it
ever was in its history before. The last German
move is to enforce the use of the German language at
all public meetings, though a delay of some years
is granted in the Danish districts before Danish is
prohibited at meetings there.

The loss of Slesvig necessitated the revision of

150 THE STORY OF DENMARK

the Constitution. The revised Fundamental Law
6f Jurte 5, 1849, was promulgated on July 28, 1866.
It sowed the seeds of future discord. The electoral
right for the Upper tlouse was restricted and com-
plicated, and equal powers were given to the two
Houses on the joint Finance Committee in case of
disagreement between them on the Budget. This
reactionary revision of the constitution caused the
Danish democracy to engage in a long struggle
to assert the suprertiacy of the Folkethin^ over the
Upper House, the Landsthing. This began in 1872,
when the democratic parties adopted the name " the
Left," the Conservatives calling themselves " the
Right*' party. For nineteen years (1875-94) J- B* S.
Estrup governed 'Denmark against the- will of the
majority of the Folkething, supported by the King
and the Landsthing. He tried to establish the
complete equality of the two Houses,' and he fortified
Copenhagen with money which had been,' not voted
but refused, by Parliament. All legislation was
paralysed and iat a standstill and provisional financial
decrees took the place of budgets rejected by the
Folkething, more than four-fifths of which were in
opposition to him in 1884 -and subsequent years.
There* was talk of a revolution, and some people
refused to pay taxes which had not been granted
by Parliament ; an unsuccessful attempt was made
on the life of the Premier. Finally, in 1894, the
Opposition made a compromise- with Estrup. He
was to retire, but the illegal use of money to fortify
Copenhagen, and the provisional financial decrees,
were to be regularized. One Conservative Ministry

CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLES 1 5 1'

succeeded the other in 1 894-1 901, and the struggle
between the two Houses continued. While the
" Right " (Conservative) party disintegrated more and
more, the "Left'* grew stronger in the country at
every election. At last Christian IX consented to
ask Deuntzer to form a Ministry of the "Left," the
first parliamentary Cabinet in Denmark. The new
Government proposed to sell the Danish West
Indies, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. Jean, to the
United States, but the Bill was rejected by the Lands-
thing in 1902 by an even vote. Differences between
the Radical and Moderate members of the Cabinet
came to a head in January 1905, when Deuntzer and
three of his Radical colleagues resigned. J. C.
Christensen, as Premier, reconstructed the Cabinet
and also took over himself the Ministry of Defence
(the Army and Navy). The Radical members of
the " Left " formed the Opposition against the
Government, which in their opinion was too prone
to compromise with the Conservatives.

Christian IX died suddenly, on January 29, 1906,
in his eighty-eighth year, full of days and of honours,
happy in the love of his people. Frederick VIII,
popular in his youth, was sixty-three years old on
his accession ; he, also, suffered from a weak heart.
He had married Louise, the only child of Charles XV
of Sweden and Norway, in 1869, and they had
four sons and four daughters. His eldest son is
the present King of Denmark, Christian. X, his
second son Charles, King of Norway since 1905 as
Haakon VII, married to Princess Maud of England.
Crown Prince Frederick was called home from his

152 THE STORY OF DENMARK

studies at Oxford University when Christian IX
ascended the throne, 1863 ; he was in Slesvig during
the war, and was for years a member of the State
Council. Frederick VIII continued the policy which
his father inaugurated in 1901, and was a strenuous
upholder of parliamentarism. By a visit to Sweden
he tried to conciliate the Swedish people, whose
feelings had been ruffled through the acceptance
of the throne of Norway by his son. He induced
the Icelandic Althing to visit Denmark and a Dano-
Icelandic Commission was appointed to determine
the constitutional relations between Denmark and
Iceland, but the result of its labours was not accepted
by the people of Iceland at a subsequent election.
He visited Iceland with forty Members of the Danish
Parliament and enjoyed a larger measure of popu-
larity there than any Danish king.

The elections of 1906 increased the parliamentary
strength of the Radicals and the Socialists, and the
Cabinet of J. C. Christensen lost the absolute majority
it had over all other parties together. The Minister
of Justice, Alberti, resigned in 1908, and six weeks
later gave himself up for fraud, forgery, and embezzle-
ment on a scale unheard of in Denmark. The
Ministry was compelled to resign, and a new Cabinet
was formed by Neergaard, of the Moderate Left.
A Commission which was appointed in 1902 to decide
by which means Denmark could best defend her
neutrality reported in 1908. Neergaard laid a
Defence Bill before Parliament, but he soon resigned
and a Cabinet formed expressly for the purpose by
Count Holstein-Ledreborg carried the Defence Bill

CONSTITUTIONAL STRUGGLES 1 53

through both Houses in 1909. Copenhagen was to
be strongly fortified on the sea side and detached
advance forts were to be burlt ashore, in support, but
the old illegal land fortifications erected by Estrup
were to be left standing till 1922, when it is to be
decided by a referendum of the people whether they
shall be demolished or not. Stress was to be laid
on torpedoes and coast defence by the Navy, which
was to have a fortified point dappui in the Great
Belt. New taxation, confined to the well-to-do
classes, was introduced to meet the increase in
military expenditure. Two ex-ministers, J. C.
Christensen and Berg, were impeached and, respec-
tively, censured and fined for the lack of supervision
that made the embezzlements of Alberti possible,
while Alberti was sentenced to eight years* penal
servitude.

The next great measure was the constitutional
Reform Bill, which, though it had the support of all
parties except the Conservatives, could be held up
by them as long as they retained their majority in
the Upper House. It proposed that the parliamen-
tary suffrage and the eligibility as Member of Parlia-
ment should be given to every man and woman at
the age of twenty-five. The Upper House was to
be elected on a more democratic franchise. The
King was to cease to nominate part of its members ;
they were to be co-opted by the elected members,
in future. The revised Constitution was signed by
the King on June 5, 191 5.

Frederick VHI died suddenly in Hamburg in
May 191 2. Christian X, the present King, is married

154 T'^^ STORY OF DENMARK

to Alexandrine, daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-
Schwerin and sister of the Gernfian Crown Princess.
He follows faithfully in the footsteps of his father
as a constitutional King, and has endeared himself
to his subjects by frequent and informal visits to the
most outlying parts of Denmark. The resistance
of the Conservatives to the constitutional Reform
Bill has weakened, and it is obvious that they will
yield in the end. It was passed in the Lower House
by 107 votes against 6 and the Radical Cabinet
of Mr. Zahle, in power since the elections in May
19 1 3,' after many vain efforts in a joint cortimittee
of the two Houses, has at last succeeded in carrying
it by the common consent of all parties. Democratic
progress in Denmark will then meet with no
hindrance on the way to its goal to make the country
the freest and best governed in Europe. Already
it sets the example to others in agriculture and
dairying. The Danes have reclaimed waste land
within their borders equal in area to Danish Slesvig,
and .their country is prosperous beyond their wildest
dreams of thirty years ago.

PART II

ICELAND

CHAPTER XIX

ICELAND "

The first undoubted account of the discovery of
Iceland is found in Chapter VII of " De Mensura
Orbis Terrae," by the Irish monk Dicuil, written in
A.D. 825. He states that thirty years ago (i.e. in 795)
some monks told him of their stay in Iceland — Thule,
as it seems to have been called by its earliest Celtic
discoverers. The heathen Norwegian settlers who
came to Iceland in the ninth century found books,
bells, and croziers left behind by the monks who fled
from the island at the approach of the vikings. A
few place-names in the east of Iceland, such as Papey,
Papyli, Pap6s, are the only traces left of these early
settlers who were called Papar by the Norsemen.

The first Scandinavian discoverer of Iceland was
Naddod or Gardar — the sources differ — about A.D. 860.
Raven Floki, who let loose three ravens in mid-ocean
and sailed in the direction in which they flew, was
the next. He called the country Iceland {Is4and,
the land of ice) because from a mountain-top in
North-west Iceland he saw a fiord filled with Polar
ice. The first Norwegian settler of Iceland was
Ingolf Arnarson, about A.D. 874. When after the

* Students of the early history of Iceland may be referred to Vis-
count Bryce's luminous essay on the Icelandic Republic in his " Studies
in History and Jurisprudence," Oxford, 1901.

157

158 THE STORY OF ICELAND

battle of Hafrsfiord, 872, Harald Fairhair became
the undisputed King of all Norway and subjected
its free chieftains to taxation, they preferred to
emigrate. For sixty years a stream of men of the
highest and best blood in Norway landed on
the shores of Iceland. Chieftains took with them
earth from below the temple altar in the motherland,
and placed it in the new temple which they built in
the new land. Each chieftain ruled his district or
land-take {land-ndm^ as it was called. Iceland was
settled in 870-930, partly direct from Norway, partly
by Norsemen and Celts from the northern parts of
the British Isles. We possess the records and
genealogies of many hundreds of the most prominent
of these settlers in the Book of Land-takes {Land-
ndinabSc), No other nation possesses so full and
detailed records of its beginnings.

The chieftains, Godar (singular Godi\ presided at
temple feasts and sacrifices, and were, at the same
time, the temporal and spiritual heads of the people.
They sent l)lfli6t to Norway to make a Constitution
for the Icelandic Commonwealth. He accomplished
this in three years. In 930 a central Parliament for
all Iceland, Althing or Alihingi, was established at
Thingvellir in South-west Iceland, and a Law Speaker
was appointed to " speak the law." In 964 the
number of chieftaincies {Godord) was fixed at thirty-
nine, nine for each of the four quarters into which
the island was divided, except for the north quarter,
which was allowed twelve chieftains instead of nine.
The Althing, as a court of appeal, acted through four
courts, one for each quarter. There was also a fifth

ICELAND 1 59

court, instituted in ICXD4, which exercised jurisdiction
in cases where the other courts failed. For legis-
lative purposes the Althing ^cted through a
Committee of 144 men, only one -third of
whom, viz. the thirty-nine Godar, and . their nine
nominees, had the right to vote. These nine
nominees were elected by the Godar of the south,
west, and east quarters, three by each quarter in
order to give each of them the same number of men
on the Committee as the north quarter had. Each
of these forty-eight men then appointed two assessors
to advise him ; one was to sit behind him, the other
in front of him so that he could readily seek their
advice. The whole Committee was called Logretta
(The Amender of the Law). After the introduction
of Christianity the two Bishops of Iceland were
added to the Z^^r^//«, over which the Law Speaker,
the sole official of the Commonwealth, used to
preside. It was his duty to recite aloud, in the
hearing of all present at the Parliament, the whole
law of Iceland, and to go through it in the course of
the .three years during which he held office. The
annual meeting of the Althing, towards the end of
June, generally lasted a fortnight. The Speaker
had also to recite annually the formulas of actions
at law. As no laws were written down till 11 17, he
had to rely solely on his memory. For his labours
he received an annual salary of two hundred ells of
woollen cloth, and one-half of the fines imposed at
the Althing. He was the living voice of the law, and
his decisions were accepted as final. The Godar and
their nine nominees sat on the four middle benches

l6o THE STORY OF ICELAND

arranged round a square in the centre, twelve on
each bench, while the two assessors appointed by
each of them sat, one on a bench behind, the other
on a bench in front of the Godar by whom they were
nominated.

At the Althing in a.d. igoo a debate took place
about adopting Christianity as the religion of the
country. Christian chieftains supported this proposal
of the envoys of King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway.
To avoid civil war the heathens agreed to abide by
the decision of the heathen Law Speaker as to
whether the new or the old religion should prevail
in Iceland. For three days and three nights the
Speaker lay in his tent pondering over the two
religions. On the fourth day he stood forth on the
Law Mount and declared that the Icelanders were
to be baptized and to be called Christians, the temples
to be pulled down, but those who liked to sacrifice
privately in their homes to the old gods might
continue to do so, and some of the heathen customs
were to be permitted. This met with acceptance
as a wise political move ; the hot springs in the
neighbourhood were used for the baptism (i.e. immer-
sion) as the men of Northern and Eastern Iceland
stipulated that they should be baptized in warm
water.

Two bishops, St Thorlac of Skdlholt and St. John
of H61ar, were, by a public vote at the Althing,
declared to be saints, after a thorough and searching
inquiry into the miracles they had wrought. The
Icelandic Church was a Church of the people for
the people. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

ICELAND l6l

six Benedictine and five Augustinian monasteries
were founded, all of them centres of learning and
culture; a great part of the old Icelandic literature
is supposed to have been written, or at least copied,
in them. Two Benedictine monasteries in North
Iceland, founded 1133 and 1155, were the earliest.
The Icelandic monks wrote in Icelandic, and not
in Latin, as all their brethren on the Continent did.
They were intensely national, and handed down with
scrupulous care even the records of the heathen faith.

The two centuries and a half which followed the
introduction of Christianity were the greatest period
in the history of Iceland. A great literature sprung
up in the twelfth and thirteen centuries at a time
when the rest of Europe had nothing better to show
than dry annalists, with the single exception of the
Provengal Troubadours. At the Courts of Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Dublin, and Orkney, Icelandic
poets were the only singers of heroic deeds. It was
an outburst of literature such as the world had not
seen since the downfall of Rome.

Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241) came of the great
Sturlung family, and was for many years Law
Speaker of the Commonwealth. He wrote the Lives
of the Kings of Norway down to A.D. 1177, a work
commonly called Heimskringla, from words at the
beginning of the text. His critical acumen and
balancing of evidence, his power of character-drawing,
his vigorous and spirited narrative, his humorous
touches, put him in the forefront of the historians of
all time. His Edda is a key to the poetry and
mythology of the North. He succeeded in dissuading

l62 THE STORY OF ICELAND

Earl Skule of Norway from sending a military
expedition to Iceland, and became the liegeman of
King Hakon, but, siding with the Earl in the quarrel
between him and the King, he was murdered at his
farm in Iceland on September 22, 1241. His two
nephews, Sturla Thordarson and Olaf Thordarson,
were the best poets of the time. Sturla (1214-84)
wrote '* Islendinga Saga," a history of the civil wars
in Iceland, unique for minute details, clear narra-
tive, and faithful impartiality, even to his enemies
among his contemporaries. He also wrote the
Lives of King Hakon and of King Magnus, of
Norway.

The Icelandic clergy were national, and many
chieftains were learned men — both things unique in
Europe 'at this time. The first Bishop of Iceland,
Isleif, was ordained at Bremen in 1056, and estab-
lished the episcopal see at his family seat, Skdlholt.
Adam of Bremen, writing about 1070, states that
"the Icelanders treat their bishop like a king,
for with them there is no king but the law."
Gissur, the son of Isleif, succeeded him as bishop ;
he was so beloved that "young and old, rich and
poor, all wanted to sit and stand as he liked." He
introduced the tithe in 1096. A census taken about
that time gives 4,650 yeomen {bonder^ boendr)^ each
of whom had to pay a tax if he failed in his duty
to attend the Althing. Gissur, at the desire of the
people, established another episcopal see .at H61ar,
in North Iceland, to which J6n Ogmundsson was
appointed in 1106 by the Metropolitan at Lund.
J6n built a cathedral and founded a grammar school

ICELAND 163

at H61ar, and every person in his diocese had to visit
him once a year. After his death in 1121 he was
declared a saint by the Althing.

The Constitution of the Commonwealth did not
provide for any central authority which could enforce
obedience to the laws and hold lawbreakers in check.
By degrees the chieftaincies passed into the hands
of a few great families. In consequence some chiefs
became masters of large districts, and, like feudal
lords, rode to the Althing with an armed body of
retainers, numbered by hundreds. The old blood-
feuds became little wars, and armies of more than a
thousand men sometimes took the field. Continual
civil wars raged throughout the first half of the
thirteenth century, and some of the great families
who had monopolized the chieftaincies were exter-
minated in them. Rome and Norway took the
opportunity to assert their supremacy. Gudmund
Arason, surnamed the Good, Bishop of H61ar, ex-
horted thereto by the Archbishop of Norway^
demanded the right of jurisdiction over his clergy.
The chieftains refused to admit the claims of the
Church, and a long and bitter struggle ensued.
The Kings of Norway had always held that the
Icelanders as Norwegian colonists ought to own their
supremacy, though they had in vain tried to induce
the Althing to hold this view. King Hakon Hakons-
son (1217-63) began to summon Icelandic chieftains
to Norway in order to settle their disputes as if he
were their suzerain. He interfered, and set chief
against chief. Sturla Sighvatsson entered into a
secret league with Hakon to conquer Iceland for him

164 THE STORY OF ICELAND

and hold it as his liegeman. He attacked chief after
chief and sent them to Norway. He, his father, and
brother were slain in the battle of Orlygsstad in 1238,
by Gissur Thorvaldsson. In the same year the two
Bishops of Iceland died and the Archbishop refused
to consecrate the bishops elected by the Icelanders,
and appointed instead two Norwegians to the sees
of Skdlholt and H61ar.

Snorri Sturluson, the great historian who wrote
the Lives of the Kings of Norway, was foully
murdered on his homestead Reykjaholt by his son-
in-law Gissur Thorvaldsson, at King Hakon's insti-
gation, 1 241. He had been won over by the King,
who promised to make him Earl of Iceland.
Through bribery and persuasion and by sending
emissaries through the island the King brought about
that the Icelandic Parliament passed a Treaty of
Union with the Crown of Norway in which they
accepted its supremacy ; it was agreed to by the
different parts of the country at the Althing in the
years 1262, 1263, and 1264.

The Treaty of Union enacted that an Earl should
represent the King of Norway in Iceland, that
the Icelanders should keep their own laws and
retain the power of taxation, that they should have
all the same rights as Norwegians in Norway, and
that *' if this treaty is broken and is deemed to be
broken by the best men (in Iceland), the Icelanders
shall be free of all obligations towards the King of
Norway." This treaty has down to the present day
remained the charter of liberty of Iceland.

After the death of Gissur Thorvaldsson in 1 268 no

ICELAND 165

other Earl was appointed. The old code of laws
(Grdgds), elaborate as the Codex Justinianus, was
replaced in 1271 by a Norwegian code of law.
Two Lawmen were to govern the country and the
Logretta was limited to its judicial functions. The
Althing did not favour the new code and a com-
promise code, called Jdnsbok, after the Lawmen who
brought it from Norway, was passed in 128 1, with
some changes. Iceland was divided into syslur,
counties administered by sheriffs {syslunienn) ap- .
pointed by the King. The estates of the greatest
house in Iceland, the Sturlungs, were confiscated by
the King. After Norway became united with
Denmark through marriage in 1380, the Treaty of
Union was often disregarded and the Icelanders
were so hard pressed that they meekly submitted.
The Black Death, languishing trade, volcanic erup-
tioos and Polar ice blockading the coast brought
Iceland to the verge of ruin. The fifteenth century
is the darkest age of Icelandic history. The port of
Bergen in Norway had been granted a monopoly of
the Iceland trade. About 141 2 the English began
to fish and trade in Iceland in spite of repeated
prohibitions by the Danish Government. Soon the
English buccaneers took the law into their own
hands, plundered and killed, carried one Governor of
Iceland off to England and killed another. They
even built a fort in the south of Iceland, and about
1430 the two Bishops of Iceland were both English-
men. By favouring the Hanseatic traders, mainly
from Hamburg, Denmark succeeded in ousting
English trade from Iceland in the course of the

1 66 THE STORY OF ICELAND

sixteenth century. But the so-called " Iceland Fleet "
continued to fish for cod and ling in Iceland
.waters, and the House of Commons in a petition to
Henry VIII states that the kingdom will be undone
unless the Danish prohibition of English fisheries in
Iceland be rescinded. Henry VIII negotiated with
Denmark in 15 18 and 1535 about buying Iceland for
a sum of money.

The Reformation and the Church ordinance of
Christian III were not accepted by the Catholic
Bishops nor by the Althing. The Danish Governor's
secretary was slain for violience to the aged and
blind Bishop of Skalholt, who was carried off to
Denmark by two warships in 1541 and died the next
year. In the diocese of Skalholt a new Protestant
bishop sought to enforce the unpopular new faith
which was now accepted by the Althing. On his
death (1548) the Catholics and the Lutherans elected
a Lutheran and a Catholic bishop for Skdlholt.
Christian III , supported the Lutheran, Bishop J6n
Arason of H61ar the Catholic, bishop. J6n Arason,
a chieftain in the old style and a fine poet, called
for and received promises of help from Pope and
Emperor. Solemnly, before the high altar of his
cathedral, he swore that he would die before he
betrayed Holy Church. He fortified his residence,
seized the Lutheran bishop and imprisoned him
there, administered the Skalholt diocese, restored
the hionasteries confiscated by the Danes, and
expelled the Danish Governor, 1550. During an
attack on a chieftain in West Iceland he was sur-
prised and captured. At the instigation of the

ICELAND 167

Governor's secretary he and his two sons were
beheaded at SkAlholt on November 7, 1550, but the
secretary and others guilty of this judicial murder
were slain in revenge by the people. The New
Testament in Icelandic, secretly translated by Odd
Gottskdlksson, was printed in Denmark in 1 540 ;
J6n Arason had imported a printing press and

ARNI MAGNCsSON.

printers ^ome years before. The first complete
Icelandic Bible was. printed at Holar, 1584. The
Old X^stament was translated by Bishop Gudhrand
Thorlaksson, and all the fine woodcuts arid part of
the fount of type were made with his own hands.
At the end of the sixteenth century there is a
Renaissance of Old Icelandic literature. Arngrim
J6nsson (died 1648) rediscovered the treasures of the

1 68 THE STORY OF ICELAND

past and, in his Latin works, brought them to the
knowledge of Europe. His " Brevis Commentarius,"
1593, and "Crymogaea" (i.e. Iceland), 1609, were
quoted and translated all over Europe. Thormod
Torfaeus (Torfason, 1636-17 19), the Icelandic
historiographer of the King of Denmark, continued
this work. The Icelandic antiquarian, Arni Mag-
niisson (died 1730), diligently rescued every scrap
of old manuscript to be found in Iceland and founded
the magnificent Arna-Magnaean Collection of MSS.
in Copenhagen, devoting all his life and all his
money to it. To him it is due more than to any
single man that the classic literature of Iceland has
been preserved. -

The Hanseatic trade was succeeded by a Danish
monopoly of trade which, lasting 250 years, com-,
pleted the economic ruin of Iceland. It was
instituted by Christian IV in 1602 who granted
this monopoly to certain merchants in Copenhagen,
Elsinore, and Malmoe. Algerine pirates appeared
off the coast in 1627 and carried off hundreds of
people into slavery. Smallpox carried off one-
third of the population, in 1707, famines raged, and
volcanic eruptions, especially that of 1783, killed
cattle and sheep, reduced the population, and laid
waste large tracts of the island. Nature seemed to
be in league with man for the utter perdition of the
little nation on the verge of the Arctic Circle.
During the war between England, 1807-14,
English privateers prevented Danish ships from
reaching Iceland with corn and other necessaries,
but Sir Joseph Banks, who visited Iceland in 1772^

ICELAND 169

persuaded ministers to issue an Order in Council
exempting Iceland from the war.

The Althing at Thingvellir was abolished in 1800,
and replaced by a High Court at Reykjavik. The
two episcopal sees were united, and the Bishop of
Iceland was to reside at Reykjavik.

The national movements in Europe reached the
shores of Iceland, and a band of patriots began a
struggle to win back the old freedom. Skiili
Magniisson and Eggert Olafsson were the fore-
runners in the eighteenth century. On March 8,
1843, the Althing was re-established as a deliberative
assembly, and when Denmark had become a con-
stitutional monarchy, a national assembly met at
Reykjavik in 1851 to draft a Constitution. Denmark
proposed to extend her Constitution of 1849 to Ice-
land, which was to send six members to the Danish
Parliament, but a Committee of the Althing, under
the leadership of J6n Sigurdsson, declared that as
Iceland, by the Treaty of Union (1262-64) entered
of her own free will into union with the Danish
(Norwegian) Crown, she claimed, not provincial
autonomy, as proposed by Denmark, but a sovereign
status, the right of taxation, and ministers responsible
to the Althing — in short, a status closely approach-
ing personal union with Denmark. The national
assembly was at once dissolved and military inter-
ference was threatened. The constitutional struggle
went on, under the leadership of J6n Sigurdsson
(181 1-79), equally eminent as historian, antiquarian,
and politician, until the King of Denmark, Chris-
tian IX, visited Iceland in 1874 and granted a

I/O THE STORY OP ICELAND

Constitution, on the occasion of the celebration of
the millennial anniversary of the Settlement of Ingolf
Arnarson in Iceland. It gave to the Althing legis-
lative power, and divided it into two Houses, a Lower
House of twenty-four members, and an Upper House
of twelve members ; thirty of the thirty-six members
of both Houses were to be elected by the people at
large, and to elect, from among themselves, one-half
of the Upper House, i.e. six members ; the other
half to be nominated by the Crown. A Governor
[landshdfdingi^ chieftain of the land) was to represent
the King in Iceland and lay Government Bills before
the Althing. The Danish Minister of Justice was to
act as minister for Iceland. This compromise did
not work well. From 1 874-1900 more than fifty
Bills passed by the Althing were vetoed by the King
on the advice of the Danish Minister in Copenhagen.
The new Liberal Government of Denmark granted
the demands of Iceland in the main. The new
Constitution was successively passed by two Althings,
the last time in 1903. The Minister for Iceland is to
be solely occupied with Icelandic affairs. He is to
be present at the sittings of the Althing to which he
is responsible, and his tenure of office ceases w^hen
he is no longer supported by the majority in Parlia-
ment. He must be familiar with the Icelandic
language, that is, in practice, be a native of Iceland.
He resides at Reykjavik, though he keeps an office
in Copenhagen, where he goes periodically to submit
Bills passed by the Althing for the signature of the
Sovereign, and to get his sanction for ,new, proposed
Bills. All measures of importance are to be laid

JON SIGURDSSQN,

172 THE STORY OF ICELAND

before the King at Cabinet Councils. The Minister
for Iceland has a seat in the Cabinet only on such,
occasions, and the Danish Ministers have no. voice
in Icelandic affairs unless they concern Denmark too,
nor has the Icelandic Minister a voice in purely
Danish affairs. As Iceland does not contribute to
the Civil List, the Army or the Navy, foreign affairs
are wholly left to Denmark. The Althing was
enlarged ; thirty-four members are elected by the
people, and they elect from among themselves eight
to sit in the Upper House, leaving twenty-six to
form the Lower House ; six members of the Upper
House are nominated by the King ; thus the Lower
House appoints more than one-half of the fourteen
members of the Upper House. The tenure of office
by the Icelandic Minister is determined by the
majority in the Lower House. In 191 3 a Com-
mission was appointed to decide what should be the
national flag of Iceland. A white cross with a
stripe of red, in a blue field, has won the royal
assent.

The revised Constitution of Iceland, sanctioned
by the King on June 19, 1915, gives the suffrage to
women.

The rebirth of Iceland is above all owing to the
great leader, Jon Sigurdsson, on whose monument in
Reykjavik his grateful countrymen have put the
inscription : ** Iceland's beloved son, her honour,
sword and shield." The centenary of his birth (191 1)
was kept as a great national festival. Seldom has
it been given to one man to renew the youth of his
nation in so many departments of human activity.

PART III

SWEDEN

CHAPTER XX

ORIGINS— THE VIKING AGE AND THE EARLY
MIDDLE AGE

The first historical record of Sweden and the Swedes
is found about A.D. lOO in the Germania of Tacitus.
According to him the Suiones (Old Norse Sviar, Old
English Sw^on) possessed a powerful fleet which
secured their safety from invasions. Ptolemy
mentions the Goutai (Old Norse Gautar, Old English
G^atas), the Goths after whom Gotland is called,
Jordanes both Swedes and Goths, Prokopius the
Goths (Gautoi), the poem of Beowulf the Geatas.
According to Snorri Sturluson the early Swedish
kings were called Ynglings, i.e. descendants of
Yngvi, son of Niord, one of their gods. They
resided at Uppsala with its great temple, thus
described by Adam of Bremen in his " History of the
Archbishops of Hamburg " (Book IV, chap. 26) about
A.D. 10^0. It was of great splendour and covered
with gilding. In it stood statues of the three chief
gods: Thor, Odin, and Fricco(i.e. Frey). Every nine
years a great festival was celebrated there to which
embassies were sent by all the tribes of Sweden. Of
every kind of animal, nine were sacrificed on such

175

176 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

occasions and their blood offered to the gods. Near
the temple was a grove of peculiar sanctity in which
the bodies of the victims, among them human beings,
were hung up. Even kings were sacrificed by the
people to pacify the gods.

Ansgar preached Christianity at Birca, the chief
city and port of the Swedes, situated on an island in
Lake Malaren, in the reign of King Bern (Biorn),
about 830, for eighteen months, and also in 853, under
King Olof, but the churches founded by him did not
long survive his death.

Swedish vikings made themselves masters of the
Eastern Baltic. Swedish settlements were found on
the south-west and south coast of Finland long before
the beginning of the Christian era. The Russian
Empire owes not only its foundation but its very
name to Swedish vikings, called Rus in Slavonic,
adopted from Finnish Ruotsi^ the name which the
Finnish coast tribes gave to the rodds-va^n or rowing
men from Sweden. ^ According to the Russian
chronicles three brothers, Rurik, Askold, and Dir,
came across the sea to the Slavonic tribes south of
Lake Ladoga about 860 and founded a kingdom
there. Rurik (Hroerek), the eldest, ruled at Novgorod
(Old Norse Holmgard). The vikings founded
another kingdom at Kiyev on the Dniepr. The two
kingdoms were united about 900, with Kiyev for
their capital, and their inhabitants were called Rus,

* Roslagen is to-day the name of the coast of Uppland, only.
Ro(dd)slag was a ship district, i.e. a district bound in time of war to
provide a certain number of ships, manned with rodds-karlar (rowing

THE VIKING AGE AND EARLY MIDDLE AGE 1 77

or Ros, after their rulers. This kingdom, called
Gardariki by the Norsemen (from Norse gard^
Russian gorod^ a walled town), carried on an exten-
sive trade with Constantinople and the East along
the Dniepr — whose rapids bear Swedish names
to-day — and the Black Sea. Their fleets in the
Black Sea threatened Constantinople (Miklagard).
Many vikings took service in the Emperor's life-
guards, the Vaerings, Hence they were called
Varyags in Slavonic. Gotland was the centre of
this trade, and its. soil to-day is richer in finds of
treasure and foreign coins than any part of Sweden.

King Eric the Victorious was called thus from his
victory on the River Fyris, near Uppsala, about
983, over the united army of the famous Jomsborg
vikings and the Danes, commanded by his nephew,
Styrbiorn the Strong, who was slain. It is said Eric
obtained victory by a vow to give himself to Odin
at the end of ten years, and he died about 993, after
seizing Denmark from King Sven, who was fighting
in England. Eric's son, Olaf Skot-Konung or
Skott-Konung, made peace with Sven, who married
his mother, Sigrid the Proud. The allied kings
defeated and slew King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway
in the battle of Svold, A.D. 1000, and became joint
suzerains of Norway till Olaf Haraldsson (later St.
Olaf) won it from Earl Sven in 1015. Olaf of
Sweden is said to have been baptized by Sigfrid,
an Englishman, at Husaby, in West Gotland, about
1008, and, after the conquest of England by his
stepfather, Sven Forkbeard, in 10 13, moheyers frorri
Lincoln coined money for him at Sigtuna. He. was

178

THE STORY OF SWEDEN

preparing for war against Norway when a Norwegian
embassy appeared at the Uppsala mid-winter as-
sembly in 1018 to offer peace and friendship and
ask for the hand of his daughter, Ingigerd, on behalf
of Norway's king. The assembly was held in the

OLAF SKOTT-KONUNG's COINS.

open ; in the middle the King was seated on a chair,
surrounded by his court, while the bonder stood
round, in a circle. The Norwegian Ambassador
delivered his message, but the Swedish King inter-
rupted him and called Earl Ragnvald of West
Gotland a traitor when he supported his suit. Then

THE VIKING AGE AND EARLY MIDDLE AGE 1 79

the old Lawman of Tiundaland, Thorgny, rose to
speak for the bonder: "Otherwise are the Kings
of Sweden minded now than they were of yore.
For then they were friendly and accessible to the
people, but the King that now reigns wishes to hear
only that which pleases him, and is bent on ruling
Norway which no Swedish king ere now has
coveted. This we bonder will stand no longer, but
demand that you make peace with Norway's king
and give him your daughter in marriage. But if you
will not do as we say we shall attack and slay you as
our forefathers used to do with self-willed kings.
Now declare at once which you choose ! " The
bonder acclaimed this speech loudly, and the King
gave way. Ingigerd was betrothed to Olaf of
Norway (later St. Olaf), but Earl Ragnvald then
substituted her half-sister, Astrid, who was married
to Olaf without her father's knowledge, while
Ingigerd married Jaroslav, Grand Duke of Novgorod,
with whom Earl Ragnvald found refuge.

The Icelandic historian, Snorri Sturluson, to whom
we owe this picture of a genuine democracy, writing
about 1220, says: "Tiundaland (i.e. the land with
ten hundreds or districts, part of modern Uppland)
is the best and most nobly peopled part of Svithiod
(Sweden), all the realm is subject to it, Uppsala
is there, and the king's seat, and the archbishop's
see, and thereby is named the Wealth of Uppsala.
The Swedes call the Swedish King's estates Upp-
sala Wealth. Each of these parts of the country
has its own Law-Assembly, and its own laws in
many respects. A lawman rules each law-district

l80 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

and he has great power with the bonder, for that
shall be law which he declares. And if a king, or an
earl, or bishops journey through the kingdom and
hold a meeting with the bonder, then the lawman
answers on behalf of the bonder and they all back
him in such manner that the mightiest in the land
hardly dare to come to their assembly without the
leave of the bonder and the lawman. But whenever
the laws disagree, they must all yield to the Uppsala
law, and all other lawmen shall be under the Law-
man of Tiundaland."

. To save his throne Olaf had to take his son for
co-regent, but first the Swedes changed his name,
the biblical Jacob, into Norse Anund. Sole king
on the death of his father, 1022, he died about 1050
after an uneventful reign, succeeded by his brother
Edmund the Old, at whose death, about 1060, the
male line of the old Royal Family of Uppsala was
extinct

Stenkil Ragnvaldsson, Earl of West Gotland and
Edmund's son-in-law, was now elected king. Chris-
tianity gained a footing and Adalvard (Ethelwerd)
founded the first Swedish bishopric at Skara. Stenkil
frustrated a Christian plot to burn the temple of
Uppsala. After his death in 1066 civil war raged
between the heathen and the Christians. His son,
King Inge, was deposed at the Uppsala Assembly
because he refused to sacrifice to the heathen gods,
but the heathen king who was elected in his place was
burnt with his house by Inge, who thus regained the
Crown. The male line of the Stenkil dynasty came
to an end in 1125. tn 1060-1125 two English .mis-

THE VIKING AGE AND EARLY MIDDLE AGE l8l

sionaries, David and Eskil, one German, Stephan,
and one Swede, Botvid, converted the Swedes to
Christianity. But the three last-named died the death
of martyrs and many heathens were still found at the
close of the twelfth century in the less accessible parts.
To many baptized Christians Christ was merely a new
god, more powerful than the old gods. About 1130
Sverker, a chieftain in East Gotland who had married
the widow of the last descendant of Stenkil, was
elected king. He asked St. Bernard of Clairvaux to
send Cistercians to Sweden, and they founded the
monasteries of Alvastra, Nydala, and Varnhem, each
of them a centre of civilization and culture. The
Pope sent an Englishman, Nicholas Breakspeare,
Cardinal Bishop of Albano, as his legate to organize
the Scandinavian Church. After founding the Arch-
bishopric of Trondhjem in Norway, he summoned the
first church council in Sweden at the newly established
episcopal see, Linkoping (1152). But the rivalry of
Swedes and Goths with regard to the site of the
proposed archbishop's see prevented its establishment.
The Archbishop of Lund became the Primate of the
Swedish Church, and Sweden agreed to pay Peter's
pence to the Holy See. Sverker only ruled over Gothic
Sweden when he was assassinated on Christmas Eve,
1 1 56, for about 11 50 the Swedes had deposed him
and elected Eric, son of Jedvard (Edward), " a good
yeoman," king. Eric IX showed burning zeal in
spreading Christianity, assisted by Henry, the first
Bishop of Uppsala known with certainty and an
Englishman by birth. Eric issued, it is said, important
laws about married women's rights to share property.

1 82 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Henry accompanied Eric on his crusade in Finland^
about 1157. Eric defeated the heathen Finlanders
and compelled them to be baptized. Henry, with
Swedish settlers, remained in Finland, whose patron
saint he became after dying the death of a martyr.
Eric, while attending mass in the church of East
Aros (the present Uppsala) on May 18, 1160, was
surrounded by a Danish army. He refused to cut
short the divine service, and then came out and
fought his last fight against overwhelming odds. He
was slain, but miracles happened at his grave and he
became Sweden's patron saint. St Eric's Mass was
celebrated annually on May i8th, and his bones were
enclosed in a silver shrine Which is still preserved ift
the Cathedral of Uppsala. The holiest of oaths was
" By God and St. Eric," and his standard became the
royal banner during the Middle Ages. After aveng-
ing Eric's death on the Danes Karl (Charles), son of
Sverker, was elected king, 1161, by all Sweden —
Swedes and Goths. He is the first Swedish king of
this name, though later he ranks as Charles VH.
From 1 161 to 1250 kings of St. Eric's and of Sverker's
lineage reign by turns, as a rule. Pope Alexander HI
established an archiepiscopal see at Uppsala and a
Cistercian, Stephan of Alvastra, was consecrated as
the first Archbishop of Sweden by the Archbishop
of Lund, at Sens in France, in the Pope's presence,
1 1 64. In the same year the Swedes penetrated up
the Neva to Lake Ladoga and fought the Russians of
Novgorod. Cnut, Son of St. Eric, killed King Karl
by a surprise attack in 1167. During Cnut's reign,
in 1 1 87, heathen pirates, Esthonians and Carelians,

GRAVESTONE OF THE ENGLISH PATRON SAINT OF
FINLAND, BISHOP HENRY.

184 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

rowed up Lake Malaren, burnt and plundered towns
and cities, and even killed the archbishop. A strong-
hold was then built on the islet of Stockholm (the
name probably means an islet defended by palisades,
stock) to defend the inlet giving access to the lake
from the sea. This was the foundation of the capital
of Sweden. On the death of Cnut in 1 195, Sverker,
son of Karl, was elected king owing to the influence
of Earl Birger Brosa, whose family, the Folkungs, was
the most powerful in Sweden, related by marriage to
all the Royal Houses of the North. Sverker, who was
Earl Birger's sonT»in-law, granted to the bishops juris-
diction over the clergy in 1200. By this time tithe
had been introduced all over Sweden. After Earl
Birger's death ia 1202 civil war broke out between the
sons of Cnut and Sverker, who took refuge with
King Valdemar the Victorious of Denmark, but Eric,
son of Cnut, defeated Sverker's huge Danish army
in 1208, and killed him in another battle in 12 10.
Eric X (1208-16) is the first Swedish king of whom
it is known with certainty that he was crowned. He
married Rikissa, a sister of Valdemar the Victorious.
His posthumous son, Eric, succeeded John, the last
king of the House of Sverker, in 1222, though he
was only six years of age. In his reign a Papal
Legate, William of Sabina, summoned a church council
at Skeninge, 1248, at which the organization of the
Swedish Church was completed. The celibacy of the
clergy was introduced. Bishops were to be elected
by the chapters, the canons of the episcopal sees.
The study of canonical law was enjoined on the
bishops. The weak King Eric, who was nicknamed

THE VIKING AGE AND EARLY MIDDLE AGE 1^5

" the Lisping and the Lame," w'as actually dethroned
for some years and sought the support of the House
of the Folkungs, the leading member of which,
Earl Birger of Bjalbo, had married his sister. Birger
suppressed all revolts and ruled Sweden in all but
name.

After 1240 the Christians in Finland and the
Swedish settlement round the city Abo, a bishop's
see, were hard pressed by Carelians and Russians,
and Alexander Nevski was victorious against the
Swedes. The Pope exhorted the Swedes to go
on a crusade to Finland, and Birger carried it out
in 1249. He conquered and Christianized Tavast-
land and buih the fortress of Tavastehus. After
his crusade the Swedes held Abo province, Nyland,
and Tavastland, but the news of the death of King
Eric, 1250, called Birger home from his unfinished
conquests. Before he returned his son Valdemar
had been elected king, since not Birger himself but
his wife was of royal birth. The angry Birger asked
the noblemen how they dared elect his son king
without his knowledge. The chieftain, Joar, then
declared that if Birger were dissatisfied they could
easily elect another king. " Whom will you then choose
for king?" asked Birger. Joar answered: "From
under my cloak here I, too, might easily let a king
come forth." As Valdemar was a child of age his
father ruled the kingdom. Revolts by pretenders
to the crown were suppressed. Trade flourished.
He made a commer<:ial treaty with Liibeck. German
immigrants taught mining and industrial arts.
Stockholm rose to be the chief city of Sweden.

1 86 tHt sTokY oP :^WBt>M

Birger fortified it and walled it in. He was a great
law-maker. At Valdemar's wedding he promulgated
the law that a sister shall inherit equally with a
brother and share equally. Ordeal was abolished
and certain degrees of slavery. Every breaker of
the home peace, the women's peace, the Church
peace, and the assembly peace was to be outlawed.
Birger married Mechtild, the widow of the Danish
king Abel, while his son Valdemar married the
Danish princess Sophia. Birger created his son
Magnus Duke of Sodermanland. It is the first time
the title of "duke" occurs in Sweden. Birger is the
last, as he is the greatest. Earl of Sweden, the first
of its rulers who deserves to be called a statesman.
He died in 1266.

King Valdemar lived wholly for his own pleasures,
and his brother, Duke Magnus, after defeating him
in battle with Danish assistance, was elected king,
1275. He assumed the title of *' King of the Swedes
and Goths," instead of the usual " King of the
Swedes." He married Helvig, a daughter of the
Count of Holstein. German knights were in such
favour at his splendour-loving court that Swedish
noblemen joined in a conspiracy against them ; but
Magnus had the leaders executed, 1280. The
peasants called him Ladulas (the one who locks the
barns), because he abolished the custom that the
nobles when travelling with their retinue through
the country took from the larders and barns of the
peasants all that they needed without paying for it.
This was enacted by the Alsno Assembly, 1280;
and also that all who performed military service on

THE VIJCINC AGE AND HAkLV Mlt>bLE AGE 1 87

horseback should enjoy freedom from taxation
{frdlse) for themselves and their estates. The
armoured knights in possession of this privilege
soon became a military caste. He also exempted
Church property from taxation. Under him Sweden
gained such predominance in the North that the
isle of Gotland, till then independent, subjected
itself of its own free will to Magnus in 1285.
Gotland had been for centuries the centre of the
Baltic trade, and Visby on its west coast was the
largest and richest emporium of trade in all Scandi-
navia. It was a member of the Hanseatic League,
and inhabited by German merchants. On the death
of Magnus, 1290, Torgils Cnutsson acted as regent and
as guardian of his eleven years old son, King Birger.
Torgils was a statesman of the type of Earl Birger
and Magnus Ladulas. The latter half of the thirteenth
century, during which they successively ruled Sweden,
was a glorious time, a parallel to the age of the
Valdemars (1157-1241) in Denmark. The great
provincial laws were taken down in writing. The
threats of Pope Bonifacius VIII against the
encroachments of the Crown on the Church were
ignored. Eastern Carelia was continually disputed
by Russians and Swedes. Torgils went on a crusade
to Finland, 1293, subdued the Carelians, and founded
the city of Viborg. On his second expedition to
Finland he penetrated to Lake Ladoga, drove back
the Russians of Novgorod, and built a stronghold
at the mouth of the Neva. Thus he completed the
civilizing work of St. Eric and Earl Birger in
Finland. He arranged an intermarriage with the

1 88 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Royal House of Denmark, King Birger marrying
Margaret, sister of King Eric Maendved of Denmark,
who, in his turn, married Ingeborg, Birger*s sister.
Eric, Duke of Sodermanland, and Valdemar, Duke
of Finland, had designs upon the throne of their
brother. Duke Eric betrothed himself to Ingeborg,
the two years old daughter of King Hakon V of
Norway, and the heir to his throne, to support his
cause. The Dukes found that they were always
worsted by Torgils, and persuaded Birger that he
was the cause of their feuds. The three brothers
arrested Torgils, and by the King's order he was
publicly beheaded at Stockholm, 1306. "This will
disgrace you everlastingly while you live, Lord King,"
he said when arrested, and his words came true.
The Dukes threw ofif the mask a few months later,
and took the King and his famil)'' prisoners while
they were his guests at the royal farm, Hatuna,
1306. After hostilities lasting four years Sweden
was partitioned between the three brothers, through
the mediation of the Kings of Denmark and Norway,
1 3 10. Duke Eric had now married the Norwegian
princess ; their son Magnus was heir to Norway, and
Sweden would be his, when Eric had dethroned
the weak Birger. But Birger took revenge on his
brothers by treachery even blacker than theirs.
In 1317 he invited them to a splendid banquet at
Nykoping Castle. In the middle of the night he
entered their bedrooms with armed retainers, who
loaded them, half-naked and bleeding from inflicted
wounds, with chains and cast them into the deepest ,
dungeon of the castle, Birger meanwhile taunting

LAWMAN BIRGER's GRAVESTONE.

I90 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

them with their "joke at H4tuna." This took place
in the night between the loth and i ith of December,
1 317, and after lingering half a year the two brothers
died, it is surmised of hunger, in 1318, the King
having thrown the keys of their dungeon into the river
flowing past the castle. All Sweden rose to avenge
the heinous deed. Birger's chief adviser was
executed, and when his innocent son. too, was put
to death, to expiate his crime, Birger died of grief
in his exile in Denmark, 132 1. He is the only
Swedish king buried in Danish soil, at Ringsted.

CHAPTER XXI

UNION WITH NORWAY (1319-71) AND WITH
DENMARK (1389-1521) '

In May 13 19 all Sweden elected the three years old
Magnus, Duke Eric's only son, king. When his
grandfather, Hakon V of Norway, died, the same
year, the child-king succeeded him. But this union
between Sweden and Norway was a union only in
name. The State Council of each kingdom ruled it
independently of the other. The Swedish nobility
elected Matts Kettilmundsson regent during the
minority of Magnus. They formed a league, in 1322,
to deprive the King's mother, Duchess Ingeborg, and
her Danish favourite of all power. For the next
two centuries (1322-1523) the aristocracy generally
usurped the royal power, and ruled Sweden. The
war against Novgorod, which had continued since
the time of Torgils Cnutsson, ended in the first peace
treaty ever concluded between Sweden and Russia —
the Peace of Noteborg, 1323. Western Carelia and
Savolaks were ceded to Sweden. The Finnish tribes
in Esthonia and Livonia were enslaved by the Teu-
tonic knights, while Finland, sharing in a higher

culture and freedom through its close union with

191

192 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Sweden, rose in the scale of civilization. Even the
Lapps in the extreme north acknowledged Swedish
suzerainty. When King Magnus came of age (1322)
he found the treasury empty. Denmark was on the
verge of dissolution, and in 1332 the Scanians rose
against their German masters and joined Sweden,
whereupon the Count of Holstein ceded Scania and
Bleking to Sweden for a large sum of money. After
an interregnum of eight years Valdemar Atterdag,
King of Denmark (1340-75), ceded to Magnus
Halland, in addition to his rights in Scania and
Blekinge, for 50,000 mark silver (15 million "kronor,"
or ;^840,ooo in the money of the present day).
Magnus mortgaged and borrowed and got head over
ears into debt to pay Valdemar this sum. He caused
such discontent in Norway, which he hardly ever
Visited — though he was to divide his time equally
between the two kingdoms — and wholly neglected,
that the State Councils of Norway and Sweden, in a
joint meeting at Varberg( 1 343), elected his younger
son, Hakon, King of Norway ; his father was to
govern that kingdom in his name until Hakon VI
came of age in 1355. Eric, his elder son, was elected
Heir to the Swedish throne, 1344.

Magnus appointed a committee to unify the law^
of Sweden into a code of law, common for the whole
country. This was finished in 1347, and thereupon
accepted province by province. According to it the
king shall be elected by the lawmen and by twelve
men, " wise and good," from each law district, who
iare tb rtieet at the Mora stones near Uppsala for
this election. The elected king shall first take the

UNION WITH NORWAY AND WITH DENMARK I93

royal oath, standing on a Mora stone. Then ride
his Eriksgata, i.e. the royal journey to receive
homage in each province. At the boundary of each
province its yeomen welcome him solemnly and
accompany him on horseback to their Assembly,
at which homage and fealty are sworn and gifts
exchanged, whereupon they follow him in a body
to the boundary of the next province. (It was on
his Eriksgata that Magnus abolished slavery where
it still existed.) Thereupon the king shall be crowned
by the archbishop. He shall nominate spiritual and
temporal lords to form a Council. In the royal oath
he promises to rule the kingdom as advised by the
Council, to uphold law and justice, to protect .the
poor as well as the rich, and to defend the country
against its enemies. No new law must be promul-
gated without the consent of his people. If a new
tax were necessary each province by itself was to
decide how much it would grant.

St. Birgitta (1303-73) was the first Swede who
attained European fame and influence. Her father
was Lawman Birger, her mother related to the Royal
Family, her husband, Ulf, a member of the State
Council. On the death of her husband, about 1343,
" She took Christ for her bridegroom," and what she
saw and heard in visions was written down by herself
and her confessors in no less than eight books of
** Revelations." Mistress of the Robes to the young
Queen of Magnus, Blanche of Namur, she reproved
the frivolous life at the Court, and warned Magnus
against Valdemar of Denmark, "This flatterer who
pipes to catch the bird." Her prophecy came true

194 ^^^ STORY OF SWEDEN

in 1360. She went on a pilgrimage to Rome through
the horrors of the Black Death, took up her abode
there, and set herself to reform the abuses of the
Church. She poured her wrath, like Isaiah, over the
head of the Pope at Avignon, and it was partly
owing to her that the Popes returned to Rome. She
died in Rome, on her return from a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, seventy years old (i 373), and was canonized
and inscribed in the Golden Book of Saints by the
Pope in 1 39 1. In 1370 she at last got the Pope to
approve the monastic order of the Birgittines, for
whom she had provided the monastery of Vadstena,
which became the richest and most famous in the
North. Nuns and monks lived side by side in the
Birgittine monasteries, which sprang up in every
country in Europe. They favoured literary studies,
and laid stress upon using the native tongue both for
writing and preaching ; they used a language common
to all Scandinavia. Vadstena was a kind of inter-
Scandinavian university, and had the largest library
in the North.

Magnus gained no glory, only new debts, from his
wars against the Russians (1348-50), at a time when
the Black Death killed off over one-third of the
population of Sweden (1350), as it did in Denmark
and Norway. He borrowed money from the Pope,
w^ho excommunicated him for non-payment of it.
He mortgaged the herring tolls of Scania to cele-
brate the wedding of his sister, Euphemia, to Duke
Albrecht of Mecklenburg. At last the nobles rose
against him, with his son Erik at their head (1356),
and father and son divided kingdom and kingship.

UNION WITH NORWAY ANt) WITH DENMARK 1 95

Magnus became sole King of Sweden again in 1359,
when Erik died, of poison it was rumoured.
Valdemar of Denmark was bent on winning back
Scania, and in 1360 he seized Helsingborg by
treachery, and became master of Scania, Bleking,
and South Halland. The lost provinces thus came
back to Denmark after one generation. In 1361
Valdemar ravaged Gotland and seized an immense
booty in Visby. The nobles had set King Hakon
of Norway against his father, too; but, after being
elected his father's co-regent and King of Sweden
(1362) Hakon supported him against the nobles,
assisted by Valdemar of Denmark. The Swedish
Council compelled Magnus to betroth Hakon to
Elizabeth, a daughter of the Count of Holstein, but
she was shipwrecked on the Scanian coast on her
way to Sweden and the Danish Archbishop detained
her on the pretence that her marriage would be a
breach of the canonic law. Then Magnus and Queen
Blanche (of Namur) took Hakon to Copenhagen
and betrothed him to King Valdemar's six years old
daughter, Margaret (13S9) ; Valdemar promised
Magnus Helsingborg. Hakon was married to the
ten years old Margaret in 1363.

The nobles, angry at the pusillanimity of Magnus
and at the loss of Scania in 1360, offered the Swedish
Crown to Albrecht, the son of Duke Albrecht of
Mecklenburg and Euphemia, Magnus* sister. The
Duke accepted, surprised his unsuspecting brother-
in-law, seized Stockholm, and had his son elected
King of Sweden at the Mora stones, 1364. Civil war
now raged for years. Albrecht beat Magnus and

196 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Hakon in a battle at Enkoping (1365) and took
Magnus prisoner. Hakon's father-in-Iavv, Valdemar,
occupied North Halland and Gotland, ostensibly for
Hakon, but really for himself. The Swedish peasants
now rose against the German oppressors, and Hakon
marched with an army to Stockholm, but the nobles
on both sides then came to terms at the expense of
their kings (1371). Albrecht was to remain King as
a mere puppet of the Council of Nobles, a Council
empowered to appoint its own members itself and to
grant all fiefs. Magnus was released on recognizing
Albrecht as King, and was drowned, in 1374, in
Norway. The Swedes nicknamed him Smek (the
effeminate). After half a century (13 19-71) the
union of Sweden and Norway was thus dissolved.
At first the German influence predominated in
Sweden, but it was soon ousted by the Swedish
Council ; the chief justiciary {drots) of Sweden, Bo
Jonsson, held in mortgage, or as fief, all Finland and
two-thirds of Sweden. This immense wealth was
gained by fraud and violence, for the lawless noble-
men plundered and killed with impunity. When Bo
Jonsson died in 1386 the King appointed himself
executor of his will, but the ten State Councillors
whom the deceased had designated as executors took
possession of his estates and appealed for help to
Margaret (Margrete), Regent of Denmark and
Norway. On condition of being elected Regent of
Sweden and getting possession of a large number of
Bo Jonsson's estates, she agreed to assist them
against Albrecht (1388). King Albrecht used insult-
ing words about the " trouserless king," assumed the

UNION WITH NORWAY AND WITH DENMARK I97

title of King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and
brought a German army over from Mecklenburg. In
a battle near Falkoping (1389) he was defeated and
taken prisoner by the Queen's Dano-Norwegian-
Swedish army. But the Germans still held Stock-
holm, whose German burgesses made themselves

SEAL OF STOCKHOLM.

sole masters of the city, getting rid of their Swedish
fellow-citizens by murder and arson. German pirates,
who called themselves Vitalians (i.e. Victuallers, as
they pretended to be carrying victuals to the besieged
Stockholm), infested the Baltic for eight years, and
Gotland became a nest of these robbers. The

198 THE STORY OF SWEDEN '

Hanseates brought about the conclusion of a compact
at Lindholm, where Albrecht was imprisoned, in
1395 J he was released on condition of either paying
Margaret a ransom of 60,000 mark silver within three
years, i.e. in 1398, or surrendering Stockholm to
her, the Hanseates to hold Stockholm in the
meantime. Margaret ^ took possession of Stockholm
in 1398, as Albrecht failed to pay his ransom; the
same year the Teutonic Knights conquered Gotland
and put an end to the piracy of the Vitalians.

Eric of Pomerania (1396-1439) rarely visited
Sweden, and the royal officers there, almost all of
them Danes, could act as they pleased, and per-
petrated cruel extortions. He offended the Swedish
Church by appointing as Archbishop of Uppsala a
dissolute Dane, who had to be deprived of the
archbishopric. Eric then made him Bishop of
Skdlholt in Iceland, where he was pulled from the
high altar of the cathedral in full canonicals and
drowned, with a bag over his head, in a river, by
his congregation, 1433. The Swedish peasants were
oppressed.

It is reported that the Dane, Josse (Jens) Eriksson,
after seizing the horses of the Dalecarlians for arrears
of taxation, harnessed the men to the ploughs and
their wives to the carts. The freedom-loving Dale-
carlians were in danger of being enslaved like the
Danish peasants.

A N Dalecarlian of noble birth, Engelbrekt Engel-
brektsson, came forward in his country's need. He
personally laid the complaints of the Dalecarlians

' For the reign of Margaret (1389-1412) see Denmark.

UNION WITH NOJRWAY AND WITH DENMARK 1 99

before Eric, until the King burst out in anger : " Do
not come before my eyes again with your continual
plaints." Engelbrekt replied : " I shall come back
once more, but only once." The Dalecarlians were
put off with false promises by the Swedish Council,
and they rose at midsummer, 1434. Stronghold
after stronghold fell before their fury, determined as
they were to drive their oppressors over the border.
With fiery eloquence Engelbrekt implored the State
Councillors sitting at Vadstena to save the people
and depose King Eric. As they refused, he seized
some of them by the neck and threatened to hand
them over to the angry Dalesmen waiting outside.
Thereupon they all signed the Act deposing King
Eric which Engelbrekt laid before them. In less
than four months all Sweden, except a few strong-
holds, was freed from the foreign yoke. Tradition
tells that no peasant lost as much as one hen*s value
in the whole campaign. Engelbrekt called a Parlia-
ment at Arboga, January 143S, which elected him
regent. It was the first Parliament in Sweden to
which burgesses and peasants were summoned. Eric
was deposed by Parliament in 1436, and the nobles,
fearing the popularity of the great leader, elected
Karl Knutsson regent. Engelbrekt was foully and
treacherously murdered by the son of a State Coun-
cillor, when on his way to Stockholm and ill from
over-exertion, on April 27, 1436. He was struck
down with an axe, and his dead body, pierced with
arrows, was buried by peasants in tears. In less than
two years the " Liberator " made a deep and enduring
mark on Swedish history. When he called to life

200 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

the national feeling of all classes and of all provinces
in defence of freedom, he made the Swedes a nation.
He re-established the old independence of the
Swedish peasantry, and, like Simon de Montfort, he
was the first to summon burgesses and peasants to
represent the nation in Parliament

The Swedish nobles now had it all their own way.
After negotiations with Eric, Karl Knutsson was
elected Regent (Riksfore-Standare), 1438. It was
the first time this title was used, the earlier being
rikshqfvitsman, Eric was finally deposed in 1439,
and Christopher of Bavaria elected King, 1440.

On Christopher's death (1448) Karl Knutsson was
elected King of Sweden, and in November 1449
he was crowned King of Norway in Trondhjem
Cathedral by the Norwegian Archbishop. The
Norwegian Act of allegiance declared : " These two
kingdoms, Sweden and Norway, which God has so
closely joined by land, shall never be sundered."
Yet within six months twelve Danish and twelve
Swedish State Councillors had agreed, in a joint
meeting at Halmstad (1450), that Norway should
belong to Christian I of Denmark, who had been
elected King of Norway by the Norwegian State
Council, June 1449, while the one of the two kings
who survived the other should be king of the three
kingdoms. This was enacted against the will of the
Swedish King, and a long war broke out between
Sweden and Denmark. Finally, the Swedish Arch-
bishop deposited his crozier on the high altar of his
cathedral, and, swearing not to carry it till all was
changed in Sweden, donned armour and wounded,

UNION WITH NORWAY AND WITH DENMARK 20I

the King in a surprise attack, so that he fled to
Germany (1457). But after seven years of the rule
of Christian I, and of heavy taxation, the Swedes
rose (1464) and called King Karl back ; after six
months, however, the Archbishop compelled him to
resign the Crown, but he was King again 1467-70.
On his death-bed (1470) Karl nominated Sten Sture,
a son of his half-sister, as his successor, but warned
him not to wear the crown, since it had brought him
only grief and unhappiness. Sten Sture, the hero
of many battles, was then elected Regent. He
defeated Christian I in a hard-fought battle at
Brunkeberg, October 10, 1471, by sheer bravery and
by superior tactics. Christian was wounded, and
the flower of the Danish nobility lay dead round
the royal standard, the Danebrog, which fell into the
hands of the Swedes. Thereafter Denmark left
Sweden in peace for a generation.

Sten Sture was great in peace as in war. The
University of Uppsala was founded in 1477, two
years before the Copenhagen University, owing to
him and the Archbishop, who also favoured the
printing of the first books in Sweden, 1483.

Sten Sture the Elder, as he is called, was com-
pelled by the nobles to acknowledge the sovereignty
of King Hans of Denmark over Sweden, in 1483 ;
but it was only nominal, except during 1497-1501,
and in spite of an unlucky war with Russia, Sture
held his own till his death in 1503.

Svante Sture, Regent 1503-12, was succeeded by
his son, Sten Sture the Younger, Regent 1512-20, on
whom the great qualities of his namesake seemed to

202 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

have descended. The family feud between the Sture
and the Trolle famih'es reached a crisis when Gustaf
Trolle, elected Archbishop of Uppsala in 15 13,
refused to do homage to the Regent, and allied
himself with Christian II of Denmark.'
* See Denmark, Christian II.

CHAPTER XXII

GUSTAVUS VASA (1523-60)— THE REFORMATION

GUSTAVUS VASA was born in Uppland on, probably,
May 12, 1496. His father, Erik Johansson, member
of the State Council, came of a noble family who
took the name of their estate, Vasa. His mother
was Cecilia Man's daughter, a half-sister of Sture's
wife, the heroic Christina Gyllenstierna. The family
. generally took the Danish side in the wars of the
fifteenth century, but after the intermarriage With the
Stures they defended the national cause. Gustaf was
eighteen when he came to the Court of Sture to com-
plete his education. He was his standard-bearer in
the victorious battle of Brannkyrka, and was one
of the six hostages delivered to Christian and
treacherously carried off to Denmark, 15 18. It was
this treachery which saved his life. For a twelve-
month he was the prisoner of a distant kinsman of
his, Erik Ban^r, in his castle on the island of Kalo,
Jutland. In September 15 19 he escaped, disguised
as a horsedealer, to Lubeck, to fight against the
Danes. Lubeck refused extradition, and Ban^r had
to pay Christian II 1,600 florins as forfeit money.

The magistrates of Lubeck helped Gustaf to slip

203

204 ^^^' STORY OF SWEDEN

away, and on May 31, 1520 he landed near Kalmar,
then besieged by the Danes. A hunted exile, he
wandered through his country. In vain he tried to
dissuade his brother-in-law from attending Christian's
coronation. He was in hiding at Rafsnas on Lake
Malaren, his father's estate, when the news of the
Stockholm Massacre was brought to him by a peasant ;
his father and his brother-in-law publicly executed ;
hi3 mother and sisters imprisoned ; a price set
upon his own head. But he forgot his own woes.
Like Engelbrekt and the Stures he decided to make
an appeal to the yeomen of the Dales, the Dalecar-
lians, to rise in arms to save their country. Dis-
guised as a Dalecarlian, seeking work, he set off on
foot, with an axe over his shoulder — single-handed
against the mighty ruler of three kingdoms — at the
end of November 1520. He took service with a
school friend, but he dared not harbour him, and the
squire in whose house he next found shelter would
have earned the reward set on his head but for the
presence of mind of his own wife, who packed Gustaf
off in a sledge. The sleeping-room at Ornas where
he was betrayed to a Danish bailiff is still preserved
as a national relic. He was now hunted like a wild
beast from one hiding-place to another, travelling in
trusses of hay, and sleeping on a bed of withered
leaves in the forest.

A cluster of legends has gathered round his many
miraculous hairbreadth escapes. By Christmas 1520
he reached Lake Siljan, in the heart of Dalecarlia,
the nursery of patriotism, which time after time
had risen acfainst alien dominion and shaken

GUSTAVUS VASA.

206 THE STORY OF SWEDE iV

off foreign yoke. At Rattvik and at Mora he
ventured to speak to the peasantry assembled after
church. In eloquent moving words he described
the atrocities of Christian and the dire need of
Sweden, reminded them of the great deeds of their
fathers, and called on them to save themselves from
serfdom. But they were weary of the cqntinual
wars. They thought it was only the lords and the
nobles that Christian wanted to massacre, not the
common people. They turned deaf ears to Gustafs
eloquence. Disheartened, despairing, he started on
snow-shoes through the wide tracts of forest on the
borders across the mountains into Norway. But a
week after he left Mora fugitives arrived who brought
the news of further atrocities by King Christian,
that he would pass through Dalecarlia on: his journey
of homage and that gallows were to be* erected at
every manor-house on his route. Besides, on his
return journey to Denmark in , December 1520 he
had imposed a new tax on agricultural produce, to
be levied in kind, and ordered that all peasants
should deliver up their arms. The Dalecarlians now
repented that they had not listened to Gustaf, and
sent two swift runners on snow-shoes, travelling night
and day, to call him back. They overtook him in
a village near the frontier. He returned to Mora,
where the leading men of East and West Dalecarlia
assembled. In January 1521 they elected him
" Lord of the Dales and of Sweden." King Christian
had not yet left Sweden. Two hundred . young
Dalecarlians joined him at once, but the number
increased every day and some old men-at-arms

GUSTAVUS VASA 20y

trained them. At the Kopparberg, he seized the
goods of the German merchants as the tax-gatherers
treasury, whereupon Southern Dalecarlia joined him.
Some of the neighbouring provinces joined, others
hesitated. The Danish Government at Stockholm
at first thought they could quell the rising by
admonitory letters. Not till April did Didrik
Slagheck and Archbishop Trolle set out with six
thousand Danes and Germans and French and
Scotch mercenaries against the peasants. At Brunn-
back ferry on the Dalelf (Dale River) they saw
thousands of peasants on the north bank of the
river, and the Swedish nobles told the Danish bishop
Beldenak that all these peasants drank little but
water and were content to eat bark bread. The
bishop then declared that " Men who can eat wood
and drink water will not yield to the Devil himself,
much less to mere men ; my brethren, let us decamp
at once." But the Dalecarlians followed the retreating
Danes, and defeated them. Gustaf now ventured
to march against the fortress of Vesteras with
nearly 15,000 men. On April 29th the Danish
cavalry dashed at the despised peasants, not dream-
ing they would make a stand, but repeated charges
failed to break the serried ranks of peasants with
outstretched pikes. The Danes were driven off with
heavy loss, and lost their artillery. As Gustaf had
no artillery this v/as a great gain. After this victory
he sent out detachments to besiege fortresses and
bring about risings in various provinces. Uppsala
fell, and he asked the canons of the cathedral
chapter whether they were Swedes or Danes ; they

208 THE STORY OF SWEDES

consulted the Archbishop, to whom Giistaf wrote,
asking him to forget family feuds in order to save
Sweden. The Archbishop's answer was to surprise
him at Uppsala with an armed force. Gustaf was
nearly drowned in crossing a river as he fled for
his life. At midsummer he encamped outside Stock-
holm and laid siege to it. But he had hardly any
means of taking fortified places except by famine,
and his undisciplined peasants during a long siege
would now and then return home to look after their
fields and crops. He had no ships, and could only
invest Stockholm by land. The siege was raised
after successful sallies by the Danes. Equally slow
was the siege by raw peasant levies of the castles
held by the Danes. The rest of Sweden now ren-
dered homage and fealty to Gustaf, province by
province, and eyen Bishop Brask of Linkoping joined
him. The Danish Regent of Sweden, Didrik Slag-
heck, was hated as the reputed author of the
Stockholm Massacre. He was full of talk about
hanging and quartering and other atrocities : Arch-
bishop Trolle and Bishop Beldenak complained of
him to King Christian, after the defeat at Vesteras.
He was recalled, but did not go. Trolle took the
reins of government and summoned an assembly at
Stockholm. Meanwhile the Estates of Southern
Sweden met at Vadstena and elected Gustaf Regent
of Sweden {riksfdrestandare), August 23, 1521. All
Sweden except the principal strongholds had now
done him homage. The siege of Stockholm still
dragged wearily on ; it was well defended by Didrik
Slagheck's brother, while Admiral Soren Norby,

GUSTAVUS VASA 20g

one of the naval heroes of Denmark, continually
reinforced and reprovisioned it from his safe retreat
in the isle of Gotland. Without a fleet Gustaf had
no hope of reducing Stockholm. He therefore
turned to the Hansa city, Liibeck, which was already
hostile to Christian II. He wished to exclude
Liibeck from the Baltic trade, in favour of his own
subjects.

In June 1522 ten warships from Liibeck well filled
with' horsemen and ammunition arrived, and Stock-
holm was then invested and cut off by land and
sea. Even Dantzic joined the league against
Christian. An attempt by Admiral Norby to relieve
Stockholm was repulsed, in spite of all his hardihood
and bravery. Christian's own subjects rose against
him, and Gustaf occupied one Danish and one
Norwegian province, as the ally of Frederick I, who
headed the insurrection against Christian. As soon
as Gustaf heard of Christian's flight from Denmark
he summoned a national assembly of all estates at
Strangnas. On June 6, 1523, a canon of Vesteras
delivered a speech in Latin to the assembly. It was
necessary to elect a king to prevent the new King of
Denmark from claiming the throne. None was so
worthy of being the highest in the Jand as Gustaf
Eriksson. The assembly was unanimous in favour
of Gustaf, but he himself raised strong pbjections.
" He was weary of the heavy burden which already
rested on his shoulders, would they not," he prayed,
" relieve him of it, and elect one of the elder nobles
in the Council ; he would then be the first to render
him homage and fealty.'* This was no make-believe,

2IO THE STORY OF SWEDEN

no pretence on his part. But the Assembly unani-
mously entreated him for the love of Sweden, which
would fail utterly without him, to accept the crown ;
he yielded and was proclaimed " King of the Swedes
and Goths." The Council notified his accession to
the throne to foreign monarchs in a State docu-
ment containing a full account of the cruelties of
Christian II. Archbishop Trolle was sent into exile.
The representatives of Llibeck demanded from the
new King greatly enlarged privileges as payment for
the valuable assistance rendered during the war,
privileges which made the Hansa the sole master of
the whole trade of Sweden, free of customs and
duties. Not only was a heavy debt owing to them,
but their help was still required to take Stockholm.
They would make their own terms with Frederick I,
the new King of Denmark, who was willing to grant
them all their old privileges in Denmark, Sweden,
and Norway, unless their demands were complied
with, was their threat. Gustaf conceded all their
demands, yet with a sore heart ; for he saw clearly
that these conditions were fetters laid on his country.
"Kingship has more gall than honey in it," he
remarked, as he signed the Compact which even
some members qf the Council refused to sign. After
a siege of two years the half-depopulated Stockholm
surrendered on June 20, 1523, its sufferings from
hunger and pestilence having become unbearable.
The number of tax-paying citizens had sunk to one-
fourth, and Gustaf grafted citizens from every town
in Sweden under compulsion to Stockholm to repair
the losses. Bv October the last fortress in Finland

212 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

had fallen, and Admiral Norby now only held the
Isle of Gotland for Christian II. When hard pressed
he surrendered the island, not to Gustaf, but to
Frederick I of Denmark, in 1524, and when the two
kings met at Malmo, Denmark through the media-
tion of the Hansa obtained Gotland and Blekinge and
Sweden Bahuslen for some years only (1524). The
war of liberation was at an end. Christian II had
paved the way for Gustaf by killing off his rivals
among the aristocracy. Nearly all the bishoprics
were vacant. Freedom was won, but money and
men were wanted to evolve order from the waste
and desolation left by the Danish wars. The
revenues of the Crown did not cover half the daily
expenses of the Government. The young King of
twenty-seven carried the whole burden of adminis-
tration on his own shoulders. He had to look into
every matter personally and travel from one end of
the kingdom to the other, investigating, collecting
information, advising ; whether it was translating
the Bible, building a warship, repairing a shed,
reforming the Church, he gave his personal attention
to it all. He was literally the hardest worked
servant of his country, a king in very deed, not only
in name. The liberator became the regenerator of
his people. He was hampered by want of tools.
On one occasion he could not find an ambassador
with knowledge of German to send to Liibeck,
on another he found no one to whom he could
dictate a letter in German to Christian III. Thus
it came about that he had to employ foreign
adventurers for doing purely clerical work, which

GUSTAVUS VASA 213

Otherwise he must do personally for want of com-
petent assistance.

A strong monarchy was necessary, but the proud
peasantry of Sweden brooked little authority. They
had saved Sweden. And they knew it. They were
as self-willed and unruly in peace, as they were
brave and dauntless in war. They thought they
could unseat the new King as easily as they had
seated him on his throne. The Dalecarlians drew
up a letter to Gustaf concerning their complaints,
dated May Day, 1525. It is characteristic of their
sturdy common sense. They reminded him how he
had wandered as an outlaw in the woods, how they
helped him to drive his enemies out of the land, how
they had seated him on the throne, whereupon he
" had oiade light of good Swedish men, and bidden
Germans and Danes come into the country." Con-
trary to his royal oath he had levied unchristian
taxes on churches and monasteries, and taken out
of them chalices and treasures dedicated to the
service of God. They had ere now humbly begged
him "to get for them a better value for their goods,
but the longer tliey waited the worse it grew, and
they would no longer stand this." If King Gustaf
would not listen to their complaints they would no
longer keep their oath of allegiance to him. " We
see that you mean wholly to destroy us poor
Swedish men, which with God's help we will prevent
— take note hereof and act accordingly." Gustaf
wrote back that he could not believe they seriously
meant to break their allegiance, and warned them
not to go too far. At the same time he offered his

214 T'^^ STOHY OF SWEDEN

abdication to a national assembly at Vesteris, if
they were not satisfied with his rule, and the
assembly had almost to go down on their knees
to persuade him to stay. When he visited Dale-
carlia in the autumn, 1525, his old comrades in war
begged to be forgiven, as they had been misled.
The second revolt of Dalecarlia broke out in 1527,
mainly because the King favoured Lutheranism. It
is true he had been democratic enough to consult
them even on affairs of state before he discussed
them with the Council, but the failure of crops must,
they thought, be caused by the ungodliness of the
King. An impostor claiming to be a son of Sten
Sture led them. They complained that the King
had become "a Lutheran and a lieathen." Gustaf
wrote back that he had only commanded that God's
word and Gospel were to be preached so that the
priests should no longer deceive the simple folk ;
they did not wish their deception to be known, and
had therefore spread the false report that he wished
to introduce a new faith, "Luthery"; he was
astonished that the good Dalecarlians should trouble
themselves about matters which they did not under-
stand at all, and which did not concern them. The
Dalecarlians in their reply demanded that no new
faith or Luthery should be introduced, and that
"at Court hereafter there should not be so many
foreign and outlandish customs with laced and
brocaded clothes," and that " the King should burn
alive or otherwise do away with all who ate flesh
on P>iday or Saturday." Gustaf at last got im-
patient and wrote he was not going to listen to

GUSTAVUS VASA 21 5

lectures by them " as to how he was to clothe his
bodyguard and servants ; he preferred to model
himself upon other monarchs, such as kings and
emperors, that they may see that we Swedes are no
more swine and goats than they are." At an inter-
view with the King, representatives of the Dale-
carlians became convinced of the imposture practised
upon them by the pretended son of Sten Sture, who
fled to Norway, but they remained stubborn and
intractable. In 1528 Gustaf entered the Dales with
an army, and the ringleaders of the revolt were
executed, in spite of a promise of safe conduct, in
the midst of an assembly of all the Dales ; whereupon
the others on their knees begged him to spare their
lives. The third rebellion of the Dales took place in
1531. To pay off instalments of the heavy debt
to Liibeck it was enacted that every parish church
was to surrender a bell, gr if it had but one redeem
it at half its value. The Dalecarlians refused to
part with their bells, and wrote the King a threaten-
ing letter. After vainly calling a general assembly
to protest against the King, they offered to pay two
thousand mark instead of surrendering their bells.
The King accepted this, as he was threatened by
an invasion from Norway under Christian II. The
danger over, he came with an army to Dalecarlia,
and on their knees, surrounded by men-at-arms, the
Dalesmen listened a whole day to the angry speech
of the King. He would no longer be their play-
thing. If the Dales were not henceforth obedient to
him, he would lay them waste so that from that day
one could not hear a dog bark or a cock crow in

2l6 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Dalecarlia. The leaders were executed, and this
was the last rising of the Dalesmen, who even sent
two thousand men to assist the King to suppress the
Smaiand rebellion, the last and the most dangerous
of the risings during his reign. It was caused by
the harsh proceedings of the royal officers, whose
task it was to confiscate superfluous gold and silver
plate and other treasures in the churches. The
peasants rose under the leadership of Nils Dacke,
after whom it is called the Dacke War (1542). The
royal troops were repeatedly beaten back, Dacke
was promised help from Germany, but was defeated
and killed (1543).

The Swedish Church was rich, and Gustaf desired
it to supply his pressing financial needs. All the
bishoprics but two were vacant. Archbishop Trolle
was an outlawed exile, and two bishops had been
beheaded in the Stockholm massacre. The Papal
Legate, Johannes Magni, sent from Rome by
Adrian VI "to extirpate the Lutheran error," was
elected Archbishop of Uppsala by the Chapter,
September 1523. The Swedish State Council had
already petitioned the Pope for another Primate, and
Gustaf now wrote him to ask his confirmation of this
election instead of " that rebellious and bloodthirsty
traitor Gustavus Trolle." The Pope ordered the
immediate reinstatement of Trolle. Gustaf, in
righteous anger, wrote back that, unless the election
of Johannes Magni as Archbishop were confirmed
by the Holy See, he was determined, of his own
royal authority, hereafter to order the affairs of
the Church in his kingdom to the glory of God and

GUSTAVUS VASA 21/

the satisfaction of all Christian men. When the
Pope appointed an Italian to the See of Skara,
disregarding the choice of Gustaf and the Chapter,
the King wrote that, if the Holy See refused or
delayed to confirm the election of his bishops, he
would have them confirmed by the one and only
Head of the Church, Christ, rather than allow
religion in Sweden to suffer by the negligence of
the Holy See. He refused to recognize the Pope's
foreign bishop ; His Holiness might depend upon it
that he would never allow foreigners to be bishops
in Sweden. The new Pope, Clement VH, continued
to be obdurate.

But the time was at hand when Olavus Petri,
Olof Petersson, the Swedish reformer, came forward.
Born at Orebro (1493) he was educated in a Carmelite
monastery, studied at the University of Wittenberg
(15 16-19), took his degree as Magister Artium there,
and became a fervent disciple of Luther, whom he
resembled in his eloquence and impulsiveness. On
his return to Sweden he became deacon and secre-
tary to the Bishop of Strangnas, after whose death
he was teacher at the Cathedral school and a member
of the Chapter. There he won a friend in the learned
Canon Laurentius Andreae (Lars Andersson), who
was converted to the new faith by him, and who
all his life acted as a break on the ardent temper of
the fifteen years younger Olavus, in the way that
Melanchthon acted to Luther. During the National
Assembly at Strangnas (1523) Gustaf heard sermons
by some disciples of Olavus, and was much impressed.
He had talks with Olavus, who boldly declared that

21 8 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

the Pope was Antichrist, while Laurentius told the
King that Luther had "clipped the wings of the
Pope, the Cardinals, and the Bishops." Gustaf was
more pleased than surprised at these views, and with
his clear common sense he remarked that " God sent
His sheep into the world to be pastured, not to be
shaven and shorn." The wealth of the Church must
be pressed into the service of the country. He called
Laurentius to Stockholm to .be his chancellor or
private secretary, and Olavus to be town clerk and
preacher. Olavus denounced Popery and Popish
errors so violently in his sermons that stones and
mud were thrown at him. The blame was laid on
him for the excesses of the Anabaptists, who attacked
and desecrated the Catholic churches of Stockholm.
The peasants threatened to come and purge that
corrupt Gomorrha, Stockholm, of all Lutherans and
heretics. Gustaf expelled the Anabaptists from
Sweden. Olavus' writings spread like wildfire,
written as they were in strong, nervous Swedish.
Bishop Brask, the only leader left to the old Church,
asked the King to suppress Luther's writings, but the
King refused to persecute any man for his religious
convictions ; all new doctrines must be tested by
Holy Writ, and subjected to full and free discussion.
The Bishop continued to attack the " Lutheran " or
" Luciferan" heresy in pastorals, but with little effect.
Olavus, though a deacon, married in 1525 ; Bishop
Brask denounced him to the King for this breach of
celibacy. Gustaf replied that Olavus had, before the
King, declared himself ready to defend his breach
of celibacy before any lawful Court, and it seemed

GUSTAVUS VASA 219

strange to him (the King) that marriage, which the
law of God had never forbidden, should cause a man
to be excommunicated, while the immorality of the
priests was not punished by the Pope. It was true
he (the King) had used the property of the Church
for the good of the State, but he had been driven to
do this by necessity. A translation of the New
Testament into Swedish, mainly from the pen of
Olavus, was published in 1526. The King now
openly sided with the Reforiflers, and declared he
would not desert the new faith " as long as his heart
was whole and his blood was warm." He complained
that there were too many unnecessary priests, and
that the monasteries were filled with monks who
were little better than vermin, since they consumed
all the kindly fruits of the earth, the people's heritage.
In 1526 he began to suppress and sequestrate the
monasteries; even the weak and pliable Archbishop
could no longer serve him ; he was accused of high
treason, and was glad to get out of the reach of
danger when he was sent with an embassy to Poland.
As soon as he landed he wrote to Bishop Brask
asking him to take charge of the archbishopric. He
never saw his native land again.

Still more high-handed was the King's treatment
of two prelates, Petrus Jacobi and Master Knut. He
deposed them for disobedience to his commands ;
after fomenting rebellion in Dalecarlia, they sought
safety in Norway, under the protection of the last
Catholic Archbishop of Trondhjem, Olaf Engel-
brektsson. After long negotiations they were extra-
dited and paraded through the streets of Stockholm,

220 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

seated backwards on broken-down hacks, Jacobi with
a crown of straw on his head, Knut with a mitre
made of rushes, mocking jesters running beside them,
shouting to the crowd that here sat the men who
would rather be traitors than approve the teaching
of Luther. The King prosecuted them for treason,
and they were sentenced to be hung, though four of
the judges withdrew from the Court as being illegal.
In 1526 two-thirds of the tithes were applied to the
payment of the natfbnal debt. Old Bishop Brask
had to stand up against the King almost single-
handed. In despair he wrote: "The King's heart
is in the hands of God, who can always make Saul
Paul." Backed by the peasantry he dared to resist.
The King ordered him to destroy his printing press,
from which many anti-Lutheran pamphlets issued.
Brask then moved his press to Copenhagen, where-
upon the King forbade him to print and circulate
among the common people anything not previously
submitted to himself Gustaf determined to make
an end of the religious disorder in his realm, and
summoned an assembly of all classes, burgesses and
commons, priests and nobles, in the hall of the Black
Friars Monastery at Vesteras, in the middle of June,
1527. The bishops previously held a secret meeting
in a locked church, and bound themselves by oath to
protest against any resolutions against the Pope and
for Luther. This secret league of protest was un-
known till the written protest was found under the
floor of the church in 1542. The Chancellor first
read to the assembly the King's account of the state
of Sweden ; he reminded them how he had worked

GUSTAVUS VASA 221

and suffered for his country, he assured them he had
never wanted to introduce a new faith, but only to
have the pure Word of God preached and to cleanse
the priests of their worldliness. No government was
possible in Sweden unless the revenues of the Crown
were increased, he urged. Brask was the first to
answer, and declared that the Church was subject
to the Holy See in spiritual matters, and could not
without its permission alter any doctrine or surrender
any property. The Council and the nobles assented
to this. Gustaf then burst into an angry speech full
of reproaches against his people for their ingratitude.
" I have no desire to be your king on such conditions.
I am not surprised that the common people are
maddened and disobedient ; they take after such as
you. When they lack rain and sunshine, they blame
me for it ; dearth, famine, pestilence, I am blamed
for it all. For all my trouble my sole reward is that
you would like to see an axe sticking in my head,
though none of you dare hold its handle. And
though I am your lord and king all of you want
to be my masters and judges. Who would be your
king under such conditions ? Not the worst off in
hell — still less any human being. I tell you straight
I will not be your king any longer ; you may choose
any good man you like in my place. Therefore, be
ready to pay me back what I have spent of my own
upon the kingdom ; I will then take my departure,
and never come back to my ungrateful fatherland."
Whereupon the King burst into tears and rushed out
of the hall to the castle. The Estates were thrown
into utter confusion and dismay. The first day they

222 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

adjourned without a result ; the second day of the
debate the Bishop of Strangnas declared that, what-
ever might be the fate of the Church, King Gustaf
w^s indispensable to the kingdom. The third day
the Estate of Peasants compelled Olavus and Lau-
rentius Petri to go up to the castle to implore the
King to come back. The burgesses and peasants
clamoured for him. Even the nobles exhorted the
Council and the Bishops to concede his demands.
Deputation after deputation was sent by the Estates
to the castle, imploring the King to come back. For
four days he was immovable ; he wanted to make
them realize to the full how indispensable he was.
On the fourth day — June 24, 1527 — he returned, and
all his demands were granted by the Estates, and
"they nearly kissed his feet, in tears," says the
Chronicle. The Vesteras Recess contained three
main points: (i) The Bishops' castles and the sur-
plus revenues of the Bishops, the Cathedral chapters,
and the monasteries should be transferred to the
Crown to provide for its needs ; (2) the nobles
should recover from the Church all lands given and
granted since 1454, once held by themselves — hereby
Gustaf won the support of the nobles for the
reformation ; (3) the Word of God shall be preached,
pure and plain, all over the kingdom. In addition
to the Recess the Vesteras Ordinance defined the
relations of the Church and State. The King be-
came the supreme head of the Church instead of
the Pope ; Bishops-elect were not to be confirmed
by the See of Rome ; Peter's pence was to go to the
Crown instead of to Rome, and all clergymen were

GUSTAVUS VASA 22$

to be amenable to the civil courts only, in temporal
matters. The episcopal castles were immediately
seized. The last leader of Catholicism, Bishop
Brask, went into exile and died (1539) in a Polish
monastery. The new Bishops were consecrated by
Per Mansson, Bishop of Vesteras, who had himself
been consecrated at Rome. Thus the apostolic
succession was preserved, while it was lost in
Denmark, though Per Mansson acted against his
own convictions at the bidding of the King in
January 1528. All the Bishops were present at
the King's coronation at Uppsala (1528), but they
ceased to be members of the State Council. In
1529 the Synod of Orebro declared Holy Scripture
to be the sole norm of doctrine, and regulated Church
ceremonies and discipline. The reformation won its
way gradually. The monasteries were deserted or
converted into hospitals. Olavus wrote and pub-
lished a Catechism, a Prayer Book, and a Book of
Psalms in Swedish, and a Swedish Missal was
published, authorizing Communion in both kinds.
In 1 53 1 Gustaf had a new evangelical Lutheran
Archbishop elected by the Bishops, Laurentius
Petri, Rector of the School of Uppsala, a brother
of Olavus. This gentle reformer was more liked
by the King than his fiery and outspoken brother.
^^ 1539-41 Gustaf sent "Visitors" round Sweden to
sequestrate the movable property of the Church ;
the holy vessels and vestments were plundered, and
the peasants were goaded into rebellion ; even the
Lutheran Bishops protested against these violations
of the Vesteras Recess. Gustaf took no heed ; he

224 T'HP' STORY OF SWEDEN

had saved Sweden, and had the right to rule it as he
liked. He favoured foreigners, especially the German
adventurers, Conrad van Pyhy and Georg Norman.
Norman became Superintendent of the Church with
jurisdiction over the Bishops, Pyhy Chancellor. The
two reformers were too independent for the King.
He took offence at the sermons of Olavus ; certain
expressions about swearing and blasphemy he re-
sented as allusions to his personal habits. He
became still more angry when it was reported that
Olavus had called him a tyrant, and explained an
eclipse of the sun as presaging calamities which the
King's sins would bring upon the country. Olavus
and Laurentius Andreae were both accused of high
treason at the assembly of Orebro, before a court
mainly composed of foreigners. The principal
charge against them was that of keeping to them-
selves the knowledge of a conspiracy against the
King's life, because they acquired it in the con-
fessional. Both the reformers were sentenced to
death on this trumpery charge, January 1540, but
the sentences were commuted to huge fines. Olavus
regained the King's favour, and died as a clergyman
in Stockholm (1552), the same year as his fellow-
reformer.

When the last peasant rebellion had been put
down Gustaf summoned an assembly of the Estates
at V,esteras, 1544. To show their gratitude to the
liberator the Estates declared the Crown of Sweden
hereditary in the family of Gustaf I and of his male
descendants. The Estates also abolished the remain-
ing Catholic ceremonies and completed the estab-

GUST A VUS VASA 325

lishment of the Lutheran Church. The Bishops
were to be called superintendents and to be ap-
pointed by the Crown, without an election by a
chapter as had been customary.

Gustaf bad now accomplished three things, epoch-
making in Swedish history. He had freed his
country from the Danish yoke. Though forcing the
reformation upon an unwilling people, he had
cleansed religion of many abuses and made use of
the wealth of the Church for the gobd of the entire
nation. By making the Crown hereditary in his
family he had founded a central power strong enough
to keep peace and order in Sweden. The Vasa
family was no longer merely one of the noble families
of the kingdom.

He confiscated most of the glebes and Church
lands, so that at the end of his reign more than
twelve thousand of these had come under the Grown.
The largest part of the rent and income of these
he used to establish the first Swedish standing army,
15,000 well-equipped men, and the first Swedish
Navy, 25 large men-of-war. He saved money; so that
he left behind as his private property no less than
a sum equal to ;^i,200,ooo in our times, in ready
money and in silver, unusual at that time, and more
than 2,000 farms, since called the "Gustavian Estates."
He scrutinized -closely the accounts of the royal
bailiffs. He taught his people agriculture, mining,
and trade, being an agriculturist, miner, and trade!*
himself on a larger scale than any one else. On
his own model farms he personally instructed the
peasantry, by word of mouth and in writing, how to

226 THE STOKY OF SWEDEN

till their fields and drain them. Slothful farmers
were punished, and of neglected farms he declared :
"Then they belong to us and to Sweden ! " German
miners and blacksmiths were called in to teach. He
was himself the largest merchant in Sweden, and
his ships were instructed to trade in England, France,
and Portugal. He was indeed a sort of general
providence for all his subjects, and he stamped his
people with the stamp of his mighty personality,
his restless and passionate energy. He governed
all Sweden as if it were his own private estate.

The schools were in a sorry state, for Protestants
with little learning had superseded the Catholic
priests and teachers. Still, Olavus Petri laid , the
foundations of Swedish literature. He was not only
the chief translator of the Swedish Bible, but he wrote
the first history of Sweden in Swedish (a rhymed
chronicle) and the first play in Swedish.

Gustaf had allied himself with Denmark in the
Count's war to throw off the commercial yoke of
Liibepk. In 1537 a truce was concluded. Liibeck's
trade monopoly in Sweden was limited to four ports
where she was to trade free of duties, and she re-
nounced her claims for arrears of debt. Fearing the
hegemony of Charles V, Gustaf made an alliance
with Denmark in 1541 and with France in 1542.
But nevertheless the old suspicion and hatred of
Denmark burnt with a steady flame in his heart, and
he gave vent to it on every occasion. A few months
before his death he wrote to his son Erik, the Heir
to the throne : '* We have now for nearly forty years
learnt to know the Danes. . . . Almighty God

GUSTAVUS VASA 22/

knows how faithfully and sedulously we have through
all our days warned and advised both old and young
against the falseness and deception of the Danes."
Among various complaints and grievances on both
sides was the question of the three crowns. When
the Swedish Crown was made hereditary in the
family of Gustaf in 1544, Christian III of Denmark
retaliated by quartering on his shield the three
crowns of Sweden. They were the arms of Sweden
since the time of Magnus Eriksson. King Albrecht
had three golden crowns in blue, so that blue and
yellow in time became the national colours, used the
first time as the flag of the Royal Navy under Gustaf I.
To the Swedes the three crowns were the symbol of
the Scandinavian Union, the renewal of the Union
under Danish supremacy. As a demonstration
Christian III flaunted the Danish, Norwegian, and
Swedish arms on the occasion of his daughter's
marriage to Duke Augustus of Saxony. Gustaf
complained in a letter to Christian III, and reminded
him what he owed to his assistance in the civil war.
Christian III wrote back that the three crowns
meant, not Sweden, but the three kingdoms and their
quartering on his shield was only a reminiscence of
the Union. Gustaf called this a dishonest explana-
tion, but peace was unbroken till the death of the
two old kings. In 1556-57 the young Tsar of
Russia, Ivan IV Vassilievitch, carried fire and sword
into Finland, and in 1557 a truce of forty years was
concluded at Moscow, the frontiers to be regulated
according to the treaty of 1323.

In 1560 Gustaf felt that his powers were failing.

228 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

He therefore summoned the Estates to assemble in
Stockholm to hear his account of his stewardship,
his incessant and anxious labour for the good of the
people for thirty- seven years, to bid them a solemn
goodbye and to set forth his last wishes. Surrounded
by his sons, Erik, the Heir to the throne, and the
three Dukes, John, Magnus, and Charles, he stood
in the great audience hall of the palace on June 26,
1560. The father of the Swedish people spoke his
last word to his children. He thanked them for
coming at his call. He passed in review his long
reign of thirty-seven years. He told them of their
sufferings at the hands of the Danes, and their
deliverance from Christian the tyrant, whom God
alone had thrown down and punished. God used
him as an instrument for His divine help. " What
indeed was I that I could think of driving out so
mighty a monarch, who was not only the ruler of
three kingdoms, but the friend of the powerful
Emperor Charles V. . . . But God did the work,
and made me His miracle-worker through whom His
almighty power should be made manifest against
King Christian, as also these forty years. God gave
David victory over Goliath and made him king.
Thus He did with me, unworthy as I am." Never
a thought of this could he have had as possible when
forty years ago he stole, hiding from the bloodthirsty
swords of the enemy, through forests and mountain
wastes. He begged his beloved, kind Swedish men
to forgive him whatever faults and shortcomings his
rule might have had, for they had not arisen from
malice but from human weakness. He knew that in

GUSTAVUS VASA 229

the thoughts of many he had been a hard, severe
king, but the time might come when they would be
fain and glad to tear him with their nails out of the
earth, if they only could. " My time is soon up. I
have no need of starcraft or other prophecy thereof,
I know the signs in my own body that I shalj soon
depart." Then the Estates approved his will ; he
exhorted them to be obedient to his sons and live
together in peace and unity. Finally he commended
them to God and gave them his blessing ; the tears
rushed from the old man's eyes as he walked out ;
the Estates were equally moved. His forebodings
were right. He died on September 29, 1560, and
was buried in Uppsala Cathedral. He is described
by a contemporary, his nephew, as well proportioned,
strongly built, of middle height, with . handsome
features, keen blue eyes, hair the colour of yellow
silk, a long, flowing, wavy beard, a ruddy complexion,
small but wiry hands and feet, "a body as fitly pro^
portioned as any painter could have painted. He
was of a sanguine, choleric temperament ; when
untroubled and unvexed, bright and cheerful and
easy to talk to, and however many happened to be
in the same room with him, he was never at a loss
for an answer to every one of them." He was fond of
singing and music and simple pleasures. He sang
and played himself, especially on the lute, when
sitting alone of an evening. His memory was extra-
ordinary ; he could remember persons and things
which he had only once seen and heard after ten or
twenty years. With his clear common sense, his
marvellous capacity for taking pains, hampered by

230 THE STORY OP SWEDEN

no learning, he saw through things. He had his
faults; he could be irritable, violent, hard to his
enemies, and morbidly suspicious. He was first
married to Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg, by whom
he had one son, Eric, born 1533, the unhappy fruit
of an unhappy marriage. Then he married Margaret,
Erik's daughter, Lejonhufvud, who bore him ten
children. Three sons, Duke John of Finland, Duke
Magnus of Ostergotland, and Duke Charles of Soder-
manland, survived from childhood, while his five
daughters were married to German princes. In his
old age he married a third time, Catherine, Gustafs
daughter, Stenbock ; she was then only sixteen, and
survived her husband more than sixty years.

He laid the foundations of the future greatness
of Sweden. " God's miracle-worker who built up the
kingdom of Sweden from basement to roof and gave
his people a Protestant fatherland against their will,"
he has been called by a Swedish poet. He was the
master builder of the Swedish nation in all essentials,
as well as in many details and particulars.

CHAPTER XXIII

ERIC XIV

Eric XIV (1560-68) was twenty-seven years old
at his father's death. Like all the sons of Gustaf I,
he was well educated and trained, mentally and
bodily. The French Ambassador Dangay describes
him as a very handsome, well-built prince, marvel-
lously accomplished, speaking French, German, and
Latin like his mother-tongue, excellent in drawing,
singing, violin playing, and mathematics. But these
fine qualities were vitiated by vanity, licentiousness,
cowardice, cruelty, and a morbid suspicion bordering
on insanity. He was about to embark for England
personally to press his suit for the hand of Queen
Elizabeth, which went on for years, when the news
of the death of Gustaf I reached him. He hurried
back for his father's funeral, and subsequently at an
assembly of the Estates at Arboga, 1561, got their
assent to the so-called Arboga articles which
strictly limited the powers of the three royal Dukes
in their Duchies, with their own consent. Thereupon
his coronation took place at Uppsala, with a pomp
and splendour never seen before in Sweden ; it made

232 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

an inroad upon the saved-up hoard of his father. At
his coronation he introduced the titles of Count and
Baron to heighten the splendour of his Court. His
nearest kinsmen among the nobility, Svante Sture,
Per Brahe, and Gustaf Johansson, were created Counts.
They received fiefs corresponding to their dignity.
Eric continued his suit for the hand of Queen
Elizabeth. His agents in England, it is said, tried to
poison or assassinate his successful rival, the Earl of
Leicester. At the same time he was suing for the
hand of Mary Stuart. Then he tried his luck with
Renata of Lorraine, the granddaughter of Christian 1 1
and heir to his claims on Denmark and Norway ; he
wrote by turns to her and to Christina of Hesse.
The ambitious Eric seized the first opportunity for
conquest. The Order of the Teutonic Knights had
lost its hold upon Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland,
and the neighbouring states, Russia, Poland,
Denmark, and Sweden, all tried to seize a piece of
this territory. Russian hordes under Tsar Ivan IV
poured into the unhappy country, which sought
protection from Poland, Denmark, and Sweden. The
island Osel was taken under the protection of
Denmark. The Master of the Teutonic Knights,
von Kettler, put himself under the protection of
Poland, and became the first duke of a Polish fief.
But the old Hansa town of Reval, being strongly
Protestant, feared the union with Catholic Poland
and turned to King Eric. Klas Kristersson Horn,
equally eminent as admiral and statesman, persuaded
I he city of Reval and the nobles of North Esthonia to
lake the oath of fealty to Eric (1561), and to drive out

ERIC XIV 233

the Poles. This was the beginning of a century of
Swedo-Polish wars and of Sweden's Baltic Empire.
Sigismund I, the King of Poland, set about making
Livonia a Polish province, and in order to win over
Duke John of Finland, Eric's brother, he offered him
in marriage his sister, Catherine Jagellonica. Eric
forbade his brother the marriage, and, as Sweden and
Poland were at war in Livonia, he wished to enforce
the prohibition. In spite of this, John was married
at Wilna, October 1562, and lent his brother-in-law
a sum of money, receiving in return seven fortified
castles in Livonia as security. This was a breach of
the Arboga articles. Eric suspected the Duke of
open rebellion, and summoned him to appear within
three weeks in Sweden to answer a charge of high
treason. As he did not appear, the Estates assembled
at Stockholm sentenced him to lose his life and goods
for treason to the Crown. A Swedish army was sent
to Finland, and after a month's siege of Abo castle
Duke John surrendered (1563). He was not executed,
but taken to Gripsholm Castle with his consort, and
both were prisoners of state for nearly four years,
while many of their adherents were beheaded.
About the same time Duke Magnus became insane,
and, as Duke Charles was not yet of age, all the
three duchies were now in the hands of the King.
Eric had from the beginning of his reign had a
favourite, Goran Persson, his secretary, in whom he
had absolute confidence. A pupil of Melanchthon
Goran was the illegitimate son of a priest.; with his
unquestioned ability, his cruelty and cunning, he
influenced his master against the nobility. At his

234 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

suggestion a High Court, the King's Court, was
established, representing the Crown, in which Goran
acted as public prosecutor, so that it became a kind
of Star Chamber by which noblemen were heavily
fined or sentenced to death for political offences. It
was an attempt to centralize the government, curtail
the power of the nobility, and democratize the
administrative procedure. But the sinister influence
of Goran nullified the good results expected. The
morbid imagination of Eric was aroused and his
suspicions fell on the Sture family; which had so often
saved Sweden from foreign domination and stood
nearest to the throne, after the Vasa family. Svante
Sture was married to Marta Leijonhufvud, a sister of
the second wife of Gustaf I. Their son, Nils Sture,
had shown himself to be possessed of the great gifts
of his family as diplomatist and soldier. Through
his tutor, Beurreus, Eric had acquired a taste for
astrology ; he read in the stars that a light-haired
man was to dethrone himself, and applied it to Duke
John and to Nils Sture. In 1566 Nils Sture and his
brother, who had been killed in a naval battle in 1565,
were publicly proclaimed traitors and knaves in the
central square of Stockholm, whereupon Nils was
sentenced to death by the King's Court for charges
of neglect of duty brought against him by Goran. But
this was commuted to a degradation worse than
death. On a broken-down hack, with a crown of
straw on his head, Nils Sture, battered and bruised,
was led in a mock procession through the streets of
Stockholm ; yet a few days later he was released
from prison and sent as ambassador to Lorraine to

ERIC XIV 235

conclude the negotiations for Eric's marriage with
Renata. Eric sent him word that his slight and
" merciful " punishment was due to the advice of
wicked men, and he should therefore acknowledge it
to be just and promise not to take revenge for it.
Nils would give no such promise, but departed on his
embassy.

For seven years (1558-65) Eric had been writing
love-letters to Queen Elizabeth ; he offered to fight
his successful rival, the Earl of Leicester, in a duel
on French or Scottish soil, and wrote to his
ambassador in London that he wanted to be rid
of Leicester, even if it cost ten thousand pounds. All
his matrimonial negotiations with various princesses
failed, and he married below himself at last He fell
in love with the daughter of a corporal, Karin Min's
daughter. She came to Court as his mistress. The
State Council granted his request that, since all
his matrimonial negotiations had been fruitless, he
should marry any one he pleased — of the ladies
of the nobility. He was enraged with the nobles
for their opposition to his marriage with the beautiful
Katarina (Catherine, Karin). ^

The year 1567, which Eric in his diary called
his " unhappiest year," began inauspiciously. In
the spring he was at Svartsjo Castle, the
victim of a deep depression, while Goran was
collecting proofs of a conspiracy of the nobles
against him ; they consisted of vague and false
rumours. Eric compelled Count Svante Sture and

' For the Seven Years War, 1563-70, between Denmark and
Sweden, see Denmark.

236 THE STOI^Y OF SWEDEN

Sten Leijonhufvud to declare that as certain persons
had stood in the way of his marriage negotiations
abroad, in order to extirpate his posterity, it was
his duty to marry any one he pleased, noble or
non-noble, and they promised their help to punish
those who attempted to thwart his marriage. An
assembly was summoned at Uppsala to discuss the
matter. The leading nobles were the King's guests
at Svartsjo, on their way to Uppsala, when they
were arrested and brought before the King's Court,
charged with treason. They were taken to Uppsala,
where the assembly, consisting almost solely of
the non-noble classes, was opened by Eric in a
speech wholly dealing with the imaginary conspiracy
against himself Nils Sture arrived with the ring
of Renata of Lorraine, who consented to marry
Eric, but was thrown into prison by Goran before he
saw Eric. The next day Eric was informed of the
result of the mission, and wrote to Count Svante
Sture that he disbelieved all the charges against
him ; next morning he visited the Count in his
prison, and on his knees begged him to forgive
all the wrong he had done him. But on the
very same day he rushed into Nils Sture's prison
in Uppsala Castle, and with the words, " There
thou art, traitor ! " thrust his dagger through his
arm and a spear into his breast, while his men-
at-arms finished him. Thereupon he rushed away
into the countryside, and cut down his tutor,
Beurreus, when he tried to remonstrate with him.
He sent word to the castle that all the prisoners,
*' Except Herr Sten (Mr. Sten)," should be put

ERIC XIV 237

to death. Half-drunk soldiers foully murdered
Count Svante Sture, his son Eric, Abraham Sten-
bock, a brother of the Queen Dowager, and
one more nobleman, while the lives of the two
noblemen called Sten was spared since it was un-
certain which of them was " Herr Sten." Before
these murders were known Goran got the Estates
to declare, in writing, that the accused were traitors
and deserved the sentences already passed or about
to be passed on them. Only on the third day
after the murders Eric was found wandering in
peasant's dress about the country, and only Karin
Man's daughter succeeded in restoring calm to his
troubled mind. He released the two remaining
prisoners and tried to effect a reconciliation with
the families of the murdered men. To the Countess
Sture, whose husband and two sons he had assassi-
nated, he wrote a letter saying that her son had
been too hurriedly slain and that he was highly
displeased that the slight difference between them
should have been thus handled, but she demanded
that the " venomous " persons who inspired the crime
should be punished. Goran was tried for peculation
and perjury and sentenced to death, but was mei*ely
kept in prison. Eric now released his brother John
from prison. The Council appointed a regency,
for Eric's * mental derangement was such that he
thought his brother John was the king. They were
reconciled on condition that John recognized the
legality of Eric's marriage to Karin and his children
by her as lawful heirs to the Crown. Eric then
recovered. Goran was set free and declared innocent,

238 THE STORY OF S WED Elf

and he regained his influence. Eric proclaimed
that the murdered noblemen had been justly
sentenced for the crime of lese-majesty. As none
of the noblemen were secure of their lives, the King's
brothers, John and Charles, now headed a conspiracy
against him. They did not appear at Eric's marriage
on July 4, 1568, to Karin, or at her coronation, by
the Archbishop Laurentius Petri. Her son was
proclaimed Heir to the Crown. But the nobility
was ominously absent. Eric ordered a general
thanksgiving for his delivery from the assaults of
the devil, one of the strangest documents ever issued
by a king. He was at first victorious against the
army of the Dukes, but when they stood before
Stockholm, the King's men surrendered to them the
hated Goran, who was tortured and then executed.
Thereupon the Dukes entered the city, Eric gave
himself up against a promise of good treatment and
John HI was proclaimed king, September 30, 1568.
In January 1569 the Estates formally deposed Eric
and his descendants ; he was to be imprisoned for
life, yet in a princely prison. He was at first ill-
treated in prison. His wife and children were
allowed to share his prison until he began to be
moved about alone from prison to prison. Three
conspiracies in his favour were discovered, the most
dangerous being the one by the Scotch mercenaries,
under De Mornay, Archibald Ruthwen, and Gilbert
Balfour in 1 574 ; they were executed except Ruthwen,
who died in prison. King John was to be stabbed
during a Highland sword dance at the Royal Palace.
King John got the State Council to declare that

ERIC XIV 239

Eric should be put to death in the case of a new
rising in his favour. Eric died suddenly in Orbyhus
prison February 24, 1577, probably poisoned by
the new governor of the prison at the request of
his brother, John III.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE REFORMATION — POLAND

John III (1568-92) was a learned theologian,
deeply read in patristic literature. His queen was
a Catholic, and he desired to be fair to Catholicism
and Protestantism and bring Sweden back to the
primitive Apostolic Church of the Fathers. At .
synods in 1574 and 1575 articles tending in this
direction, drawn up by him, were accepted, and in
1576 he issued a new liturgy, modelled on the
Reformed Roman Missal and drawn up by himself
and his secretary, the so-called Red Book. The
Duke of Sodermanland would not allow it to be
used in his Duchy, but in spite of some Protestant
opposition it v/as adopted by the Estates in 1577.
The Pope struck while the iron was hot. Two
Jesuits from Louvain persuaded John to send
messengers to Rome to negotiate^ for reunion, but he
laid down conditions — such as communion in both
kinds, a married clergy, the partial use of Swedish
in the liturgy — unacceptable to Rome. A Papal
Legate, Antonio Possevino, was sent to convert the
King, and in 1578, after much argument, the King

made his confession to him and received absolution

240

THE REFORMATION — POLAND 2^1

and communion in the Roman manner. A Jesuit
catechism was substituted for that of Luther in the
schools ; young Swedes were educated in Jesuit
seminaries abroad ; Crown Prince Sigismund openly
avowed himself a koman Catholic ; but the Holy See
rejected John's well-meant attempts to bridge the
gulf between Protestantism and Catholicism. His
attempts to force his hturgy on the Swedish Church
were frustrated by his brother Charles whose Duchy
became a centre of the opposition against the
Romanization of Sweden. After the death of Queen
Catherine in 1 584 the Romanist tendencies abated, but
relations between King and Duke grew vvofse until
they came near breaking-point. They wer& recon-
ciled before the King's death, being united in their
struggle with the aristocracy and the Council. In
foreign policy John tried to play - Poland an<l'5lussia
off against each other. After the'' peade' \vith
Denmark in 1576 ^fhe Swedes carried^ on an inter-
mittent and unsuccessful war of "e^eii quest against
Russia in Livonia and Esthonia, with Reval as their
basis. In 1578 John concluded an alliance with
Poland against Russia, and the allies defeated the
Russians at Vehden (1578). While Stephen Bathory,
King of ■ Polahil'j invaded Russia, the Swedes
recovered the lost parts of Esthonia and Livonia ;
Ingrio and Narva fell into their hands. In 1583
Ivan the Terrible made a truce with Sweden which
was to retain all her conquests.

On the death of Stepheal Bathory, December 1586,
eight months of intrigue by the candidates for
the Polish throne followed. Owing to Chancellor

242 THE STORY OF DENMARK

Zamoyski, and to the Polish Queen Dowager, a sister
of his mother, Si^ismund, the Heir to the Swedish
throne, was elected King of Poland on August 9,
1587. In September 1 587 the statute of Kalmar was
signed by the two kings, father and son, before
Sigismund sailed for Poland with a view to define the
prospective personal union of Sweden and Poland
under Sigismund. There was to be full equality and
full independence in religion, foreign policy, laws
and government, and the Pope himself was declared
unable to release Sigismund from any provision of
the statute. When Sigismund was in Poland
Sweden was to be ruled by a Council of seven
members, six to be nominated by Sigismund and
one by Duke Charles. On Sigismund's arrival the
Poles refused to do him homage before Esthonia
was ceded to them, but finally it was postponed and
Sigismund was crowned, December 1587. John
III repented and spent two months with King
Sigismund at Reval in 1589, trying to persuade him
to abdicate and come back to Sweden. The
Council thwarted his plans. He died 1592,
reconciled to his brother, Duke Charles, through
their joint struggle against the power of the nobles.
During his reign Finland was raised to the dignity of
a Grand Duchy.

Sigismund I (1592-9) was a fervent Catholic,
educated by Jesuits whose dream was to regain
Sweden for the Holy See. Duke Charles and the
Council took the reins of government and summoned
a synod at Uppsala to formulate the national confes-
sion of faith of Sweden so as to leave no loopholes

THE REFOkMATtON — POLAND 243

( 1 593)- These zealous Lutherans elected as speaker a
prelate who had been imprisoned for refusing to use
King John's liturgy. The national covenant which
they adopted provides that Holy Scripture and the
three primitive Creeds are to be the guides of Faith,
that the Augsburg Confession is the sole right inter-
preter of Holy Writ, that Luther's Catechism should
be re-adopted, and King John's liturgy no longer
used. Abraham Angermannus, of the extreme
Protestant party, was appointed Archbishop. The
Protestants next tried to get a written guarantee of
the Uppsala Covenant from Sigismund and to
prevent him from landing in Sweden till he had
satisfied them. They kept back the fleet, but Sigis-
mund crossed on ships provided by the Governor
of Finland ; a Papal Legate, De Malaspina, Jesuits,
priests, and Polish nobles came with him (1593).
Guarantees of the Uppsala Covenant were demanded
of him before the coronation, but he would only
promise to give them after being crowned. A bitter
struggle ensued for four months until the Estates
formed a union to defend the Covenant, and Duke
Charles with three thousand men-at-arms sent an
ultimatum expiring in twenty-four hours to Sigis-
mund, who was compelled to accept all their demands
and recognize the heretical Archbishop (February 16,
1594). He protested secretly to the Jesuits that his
coronation oath, to maintain- the Augsburg Confes-
sion in Sweden, was extorted from him by com-
pulsion. Catholics, including Sigismund himself,
had to worship in secret, and sermons were preached
against them in the churches. Sweden breathed

^44 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

more freely when Sigismund left for Poland, August
1594, after a ten months* stay. Charles now ruled
Sweden in all but name/ He concluded the peace of
Teusin (May 18, 1595) with Russia, which ceded
-all her rights to Esthonia and Narva while Sweden
retroceded the Kexholm district in Finland. As
Sigismund refused him the title of Regent he sum-
moned the Estates to meet at Soderkoping (October
1595) to fix the form of government during the
King's residence in Poland. He was appointed
Regent by the Estates and Council. All Catholic
priests were to be expelled from Sweden, all Catho-
lic laymen to be disqualified from office. The Duke
himself expelled the Birgittine nuns from Vadstena
convent and confiscated their property. The rabid
Protestant Primate conducted visitations, in the
course of which men and women were flogged and
whipped and punished for clinging to the old customs.
The scandal became so great that the visitations were
"suspended. Charles broke with the Council which
refused to make war upon the Governor of Finland
who remained loyal to Sigismund. Sigismund now
authorized the Council alone to govern and inhibited
the assembly of the Estates at Arboga (February
1597). In the absence of the Council the Peasant
King, as Charles was called, got the Estates to
vest the government in himself and confirmed the
statutes of Soderkoping. Matters now reached a
state of open war. In 1597 Charles sailed to
'Finland and took Abo. In July 1598 Sigismund
landed at Kalmar with an army. Cities opened
their gates to him and many nobles flocked to hi

THE REFORMATION — POLAND 245

standard. Already the Catholic world saw in
spirit a new Armada issue from the Catholic Nortii
to conquer England. Then Sigismund was defeated,
by Charles at Stangebro (September 25, 1528). By
the armistice at Linkoping Sigismund surrendered
the fugitive members of the Council to Charles
and agreed to abide by the decision of the Estates
between them. He broke faith as before, fled to,
Poland, and declared he would conquer Sweden.
Charles saw that he could not be trusted. In
July 1599 Sigismund was formally deposed by the
Estates at Stockholm as a papist, an oath-breaker,
an enemy of Sweden, while his son Vladislav was
to retain the Crown, if he were sent to Sweden
within twelve months, to be educated as a Protes-
tant. As no answer came from Poland the Estates
assembled at Linkoping, March 1600, declared that
Sigismund and his descendants had forfeited the
Swedish Crown. Duke Charles, who since February
1599 had worn the title "Hereditary Prince of
Sweden," was acclaimed as King Charles IX. At
the same time he appointed an extraordinary tri-
bunal of members of the Estates to try the nobles,
whom he accused of treason ; merciless in his ven-
geance he had the fugitive members of the Council
publicly beheaded in the market-place of Linkoping.
He showed the same severity in Finland, where
the son of the Governor was executed as his dead
father was beyond the King's reach. Charles did
not call himself king till 1604, when Duke John,
Sigismund's half-brother, renounced his birthright
c^qd w^s not i^rovvqed till 160^. Charles began th§^

246 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

long war of succession with Poland, 1600-60, by
invading Livonia (August 1600). Next year he was
master of the country except Riga and Koken-
hausen. But in 1601 to 1605 Poland's great general,
Chodkievicz, recovered fortress after fortress and
the Swedes were defeated from time to time.
Their greatest defeat was when Charles with 16,000
men attacked Chodkievicz with only 5,000 at Kirk-
holm, near Riga, and left upon the field nearly
twice as many dead as the whole number of the
Polish troops. Sigismund did not follow up the
victory. The Swedes took the fortresses when
the Poles were quarrelling at home, but lost them
again to Chodkievicz. In 1609 Charles concluded a
treaty of alliance with the Tsar against Poland.
Jacob De la Gardie entered Moscow with an army of
mercenaries (1610), but at the battle of Klutsjino
(June 1610) his mercenaries deserted, the Russians
fled, and the Poles entered Moscow. Vladislav,
Sigismund's son, was proclaimed Tsar. Soon the
Russians rose against their new ruler, De la Gardie
stormed Kexholm in Russian Finland, 161 1, and
Novgorod in July 161 1. He made a treaty with
Novgorod that Charles Philip, the brother of Gusta-
vus Adolphus, should be recognized by the city as
Tsar. It was in this year that the Danish war began.
Charles IX died, sixty years of age, October 30, 161 1.
He has been called a cruel and vindictive tyrant and
a harsh fanatic, but he showed courage and states-
manship in a difficult time of transition. The Pro-
testant foundations laid by Gustavus Vasa he handed
pp to Qustayus Adolphus greatly strengthened.

CHAPTER XXV

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS

Qustavus Adolphus (i6 11-32) is the greatest name
in Swedish history, one of the greatest of all
time. He was born on December 9, 1594, at
Stockholm Castle. His eloquent tutor, Johan
Skytte, gave him a humanistic education based on
the Bible and the classics. He grew up with Swedish
and German for mother tongues, but Latin, Italian,
Dutch, Russian, Polish, Spanish were also mastered
by him. With equal ease he learnt the science of
war and all chivalrous accomplishments. His mind
and body were so early developed that at thirteen
he discussed state affairs with foreign ambassadors,
at fifteen he opened Parliament with a speech from
the throne, and administered his own duchy. At
sixteen he practically held the reins of government
with his father as co-regent, and won his spurs
by a daring feat in the Danish war. He took the
fortress of Christianopel with a few men by surprise
(June 161 1 ). His father wished to let him learn in the
school of life, not of books. Immense were the hopes
which centred on his dazzling natural gifts. All men

were swept off their feet by his winning charm, his

247

248 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

fiery high-mindedness, his eager thirst for knowledge.
His father used to say of him : Illc facict, he will do
it — i.e. accomplish all he could not accomplish.
When he uttered these words he never dreamt they
would come so true as they did.

When Charles IX died, October 30, 161 1, his
successor was not yet t -seventeen years. Danger
surrounded him on all sides. At war with Russia ;
Poland, then the largest kingdom in Europe, wanting
to drive the Swedes from their footholds on the
shore of the Baltic ; Sweden bal*^ly holding her own
against the Danes, who were in possession of her two
chief fortresses. There was at fiist^ashc^ll interval
of regency by the Dowager Queen arid Duke Johrij
Though Gustavus had been recognized as the heir to
the throne by the Norrkoping decree, yet by natural
law of descent, which Parliament could not override,
the son of John III had his rights. At the Nykoping
Parliament, December 161 1, Duke John surrendered
his claims to Gustavus, with his blessing. The young
King was declared of age though he was only
seventeen, not eighteen, the full age, and fealty was
sworn to him (December 26, 161 1). He gave a royal
charter extending the privileges of the nobility and'
the Council, and promised not to declare war,
conclude peace or alliances, impose taxes or make
laws without the consent of the Council, the Estates,
and the people. He pardoned the noblemen whom
his father had exiled and won the hearts of the
nobility. - All classes closed their ranks round the
young King. Its strong hereditary monarchy and
its sturdy peasantry saved Sweden from the disasters

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 249

into which the rule of the nobih'ty plunged Denmark.
Gustavus omitted frdm his title the words " King of
the Lapps," the chief cause of the Danish war, but
Christian IV rejected his terms. During a raid in.
Scania Gustavus was surprised by an overwhelming
force at Wittsjo, February 161 2, and had a narrow
escape ; his horse fell through the ice"^ in crossing
a river, and he himself was pulled out with difficulty
by a faithful 'soldier. In the summer of 161 2 the
Danes took Elfsborg and Oland and penetrated
into Central Sweden. The Protestant Powers tried
to negotiate peace. Through the mediation of
James I, the brother-in-law of Christian IV, Danish
and Swedish statesmen met at Knared, in Halland,
to discuss terms, and peace was signed there on
January 20, 1613, on onerous terms for Sweden.
Sweden renounced her claims to Finmark, the country
of the Lapps, and conceded to Denmark the right
to quarter the three crowns in her arms. In return
Swedish vessels were to be exempt from customs
and^dues in the sound. Conquests on both sides
wire^. to be mutually restored immediately, except
Elfsborg, which was to be redeemed by Sweden for
one million rixdollars, and together with seven
counties of Vastergotland to be held by Denmark
for six years within which the above sum was to be
paid in equal instalments. Denmark had for the
last time vindicated her hegemony in the North,
and Sweden had a second time to redeem her only
port in the west. This war indemnity pressed
heavily on the people, and Gustavus had to send all
the royal silver plate to the mint to be nvelted into

250 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

coins, for Christian IV would only accept ready
money for every instalment. Every Swedish home
had to give up some treasure, and this has ever since
rankled in Swedish memories.

In Russia the Swedish arms were ever victorious.
Jacob de la Gardie conquered Ingria and compelled
Great Novgorod, the richest city in Russia, and all
North-western Russia, to recognize Duke Charles
Philip, a younger brother of Gustavus, as Tsar.
He was carving out a new empire, stretching to the
White Sea and to the Ural, under Swedish suzerainty.
But Charles Philip arrived too late to his empire.
In February 1613 the Russian people elected a
native Russian, Michael Romanov, Tsar, and the war
against Sweden was now carried on with more
energy. De la Gardie continued to win victories
over superior forces, but nevertheless he was insecure
in the midst of a hostile population. Gustavus twice
crossed the seas and conducted operations at the
seat of war. After raising the siege of Pskov he
returned through Finland ; during his stay there he
convoked the first Finnish diet (Landtdag) in
January 1616. Again King James I mediated at
the request of Russia, and after eighteen months of
negotiations peace was concluded on February 27,
16 17, at Stolbova. Russia ceded to Sweden Eastern
Carelia (Kexholm province) and Ingria. The key
to Finland, Noteborg on the Neva (the later
Schlusselburg), became Swedish. Sweden retroceded
all other conquests and acknowledged Michael
Romanov as Tsar ; Russia paid a war indemnity of
20,000 rubles and renounced her claims on Esthonia

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 25 I

and Livonia. Trade was declared free between the
two countries. At his coronation soon after the
peace, Gustavus spoke to the assembled Estates
about the great advantages won through this peace.
Russia had been excluded from the Baltic, and the
eastern frontier of Sweden was now protected by
a barrier of morass, rivers, and lakes, among them
the huge Ladoga Lake : *' I hope to God the Russians
will not find it easy to skip over that brook." He
understood fully that when Russia became aware
of her giant strength and pushed forward to the sea
Sweden could hardly hope to hem her in ; her
population numbered less than one-thirtieth of that
of Russia, and she could only defend her foothold
on the Baltic against the Russian Empire by sheer
heroism.

Four years of peace followed the peace of Stolbova.
The truce with Poland was renewed. No Swedish
king except Gustaf I has done so much for Sweden
in times of peace as Gustavus Adolphus. He took
the initiative in all matters, starting afresh or com-
pleting the work of his father and grandfather. In
1617 he enacted rules and regulations for the Estates,
England being the only other country in Europe
that had a parliamentary procedure. The King,
supported by the Council and the highest officers of
State, addresses the four assembled Estates. He
elects a nobleman to be the spokesman of the
nobility, the first Estate, who is called Landtmar-
skalk (Marshal of the Diet). The Primate of Sweden
is the spokesman of the three lower Estates. Each
Estate debates the royal proposals or bills laid

252 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

before it in its own chamber separately, but the
reply of each is handed to the King in common
session. If the King and the Estates should differ,
they met each other to adjust matters ; but if the
Estates differed among themselves, each Estate was
to defend its own opinion before the King, who. could
accept the opinion he liked best. The Constitution
of the House of Nobles (Riddarhus), instituted by
Gustavus, was given in 1626. Only the families
who had access to that House were recognized as
noble, they and their descendants ; the nobility was
divided into three classes: (i) counts and barons,
(2) descendants of State councillors, (3) knights.
As each class voted as a separate body, the highest
nobles, though few in number, prevailed in that
House. But if the nobility had great privileges,
Gustavus demanded much from them ; every noble-
man must need serve the State, in peace or in war.
The nobility were carried away by an irresistible
current of devotion, of gratitude, of affection and
admiration for the genius in whom was seen that
rarest of combinations — strength and gentleness
They abandoned many of their privileges and sub-
mitted to be taxed like other classes, for a time.
Class egotism could not live near the great King
who inspired them with his example.

He put the whole administration on a new footing.
He established a Supreme Court at Stockholm, 1614,
from which an appeal lay to the King. He addressed
the judges thus : " If any judge acts with a view to
please the King or any one else, the King will have
him flayed, his skin nailed up in court, and his ear^

GVSTAVUS ADOLPHVS 253

on the stocks." Taxation was simplified and regu-
lated, and the first State Budget of Sweden was
issued. He founded fifteen new towns. Gothen-
burg (Goteborg), destroyed in the Danish war, was
rebuilt on its present site, 16 19. The Dutch
millionaire, Louis De Geer, was called in- to start
ironworks and mining on a large scale. 'Gufetavus
gave to the University of Uppsala the whole of his
patrimony, all that remained of the Gustaviiah
estates, over three hundred farms, even to-day the
chief source of income of that university. Klas
Fleming created a Swedish Navy numbering about
sixty men-of-war. Famous foreigners entered his
service, Hugo Grotius, Van Dyck, Rutgers.

King Sigismund of Poland claimed the throne of
Sweden by right of primogeniture, and contemp-
tuously gave Gustavus the title of Duke of Soder-
manland in their negotiations. To Gustavus a war
against Poland was a war of religion. Poland was
to him a dangerous member of the Popish League.
The truce between Sweden and Poland had been
renewed from year to year. In 162 1 Poland was
involved in a war with Turkey, and after Sigismund
had rejected the offer of Gustavus to allow him to
assume the title of King of Sweden, Gustavus sailed
with a large fleet and an army, July 162 1, and laid
siege to Riga. The King directed the siege of this
strong city with consummate ability ; to encourage
the soldiers he and his brother worked with spades
in the trenches. After a month's valiant defence
Riga surrendered and the greater part of Livonia
swore fealty to Gustavus. His brother, Duke Charles

254 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Philip, died in January 1622, of dysentery which was
making great ravages in the Swedish army. The
fame of Gustavus spread in Europe and all Protes-
tants looked to him to right the cause of the German
Protestants against Catholic tyranny. He wanted
to unite all the Protestant Powers in a league, of
which he was to be the leader. But Christian IV,
jealous of the rising power of Sweden, took the lead
single-handed against the House of Habsburg in
the disastrous war, 1625-29. Gustavus, after the
expiry of a truce (1622-25), continued his war in
Poland, in 1625. He completed the conquest of
Livonia, won his first pitched battle at Wallhof,
January 1626, without losing a single man, after
crossing the frozen Dwina, and invaded Courland
and Lithuania. In his next campaign, in the summer
of 1626, he transferred the war to the Prussian
provinces of Poland. He wished to secure the
control of the Vistula, like that of the Dwina, in
order to force Polatid to make peace. His brother-
in-law, the Protestant Elector of Brandenburg,
Georg Wilhelm, held East Prussia as a fief from
Poland, and the Protestant city, Dantzic, would,
Gustavus thought, support him against Catholic
Poland. But the cautious Elector feared the threats
of his suzerain, Sigismund of Poland, and dared not
ally himself with Gustavus for fear of losing his
fief, East Prussia. Dantzic, too, besides enjoying the
fullest religious liberty, had free trade with her
suzerain, Poland. In June 1626 Gustavus arrived
with his fleet before Pillau. This place commanded
the Vistula, and from it duties could be levied on all

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 255

Prussian trade. It belonged to the Elector, but
Gustavus occupied it for strategic reasons. Axel
Oxenstierna became the first governor of the con-
quered territory in the delta of the Vistula.

The wealthy Hansa city of Dantzic was now
invested by land and sea. The siege dragged on,
and the Swedes were harassed by the brave Polish
guerilla leader, Koniecpolski. In his second Prussian
campaign, 1627, Gustavus beat the Poles in many
.actions ; under fire he often went ahead of his men,
and was twice dangerously wounded by bullets, and
so disabled in one shoulder that he could never wear
armour again. Meanwhile, in 1627 Wallenstein's
armies ravaged all Jutland, and occupied the Baltic
coast. Wallenstein aimed at dominating the Baltic
with a strong fleet, after seizing the Danish islands.
The Emperor nominated him " Captain-General of
the Baltic." Austria and Spain were thus on the
point of crushing Protestantism in the North. After
Denmark it would be the turn of Sweden. Gustavus
saw that war between himself and the House of
Habsburg was inevitable, and prepared for it. The
Parliament of 1627 granted him subsidies to continue
the war. A secret committee of the Estates advised
him to resist the domination of the Baltic by the
Emperor and assist Denmark. The Netherlands in
vain attempted to mediate. Sigismund continued to
refuse Gustavus the title of King. Then Gustavus
took a decisive step. Early in 1628 he made a
treaty of alliance with Denmark for the defence of
the Baltic, and also with the Hansa city of Stralsund,
then besieged and hard pressed by .Ws^llenstein.

256 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Stralsund was so strongly reinforced by Danish and
'Swedish troops that it held out against Wallenstein.
Gustavus counted on the assistance of Denmark to
make Germany the seat of war, and met Christian IV
in February 1629, in a parsonage on the border of
Halland. In eloquent words he begged Danes and
Swedes to stand together to defend their liberties
and their religion against the tyranny of the
Emperor and the Catholics. Christian IV said
Gustavus had better leave the Emperor in peace.
Gustavus then burst out in anger : " Your Highness
may be sure of this, that be it who it will, wh^
acts thus against us, Emperor or King, Prince :"<»
Republic, or thousand devils, we shall seize onfe
another by the ears so hard that the hairs shall
stand on end." The interview was without result.
By concluding peace at Llibeck on favourable con-
ditions the Emperor detached Christian IV from
his ally. The delegates of Sweden were refused
access to the peace negotiations by Wallenstein.
During Gustavus' fourth Prussian campaign in 1629,
ten thousand Imperial troops under Johan von
Arnim, joined the Poles against him. From his
entrenched camps in the delta of the Vistula he
defied their superior forces. In a surprise attack
by Koniecpolski near Stuhm, Gustavus several times
narrowly escaped death or capture. Poland was
tired of the continuous war, and accepted the
mediation of France. A six years* truce was con-
cluded at Altmark on the Vistula, 1629. During
this truce Sweden was to retain Livonia with Riga,
in West Prussia, Elbing, Braunsberg, and a huge

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 2 $7

slice of the delta of the Vistula, and in East Prussia
Pillau and Memel. Axel Oxenstierna became the
first Governor-General of the conquered Prussian
provinces. Most important were the large customs
duties levied at the Prussian ports by Sweden ; they
produced a larger sum than the whole revenue of
Sweden herself, and the control of Germany's
principal trade routes to the Baltic also assisted
Gustavus in the arduous enterprise for which he
was making anxious and elaborate preparations. A
nation numbering a little over a million set out to
measure itself against the greatest military Power
of the time. The little Swedish army of hardy
yeomen was to measure itself against armies
numerically many times superior, and commanded
by generals reputed to be invincible. We can read
Gustavus' mind in his correspondence with Axel
'Oxenstierna. Since war was inevitable, it was best,
he argued, to make Germany the seat of war. The
Swedish fleet was too weak to blockade the Baltic
ports. It was safer to seize and fortify them, and
so prevent the Emperor from building up in the
Baltic a sea power threatening the independence
both of Sweden and Denmark. This could only
be done by offensive war in the heart of the enemy's
country. It was true the risk of being overwhelmed
by huge armies commanded by the greatest generals
of the age, Tilly and Wallenstein, was great, but
" one lost battle would give the Emperor's prestige
a bad shaking," and one success would win allies
and assistance in Germany itself. Deeply religious
as Gustavus was, he regarded himself as the divinely

258 THE STORY Oh SWEDEN

appointed instrument of delivery for his fellow-
Protestants in Germany from "the murder of their
souls by tyranny." He was intensely convinced
that God would help his cause, the cause of
humanity, yet fully aware that Sweden might
through him win the hegemony of Protestant
Europe, Sweden, which after all occupied the largest
part of his heart. Thus, even in the highest of
mankind, motives are mixed.

When he was ready, he summoned the Estates to
Stockholm, and solemnly took leave of them on
May 19, 1630, holding in his arms his only child,
Christina, then three years old. He committed the
Heir to the throne to the keeping of his faithful
subjects. He declared to them, as he stood there \n
the sight of the Almighty, that he had not entered
upon this war out of desire for war, " as many will
certainly impute and imagine," but in self-defence,
driven thereto by the hostile acts of the Emperor
and by the prayers of oppressed fellow-Protestants.
He wished to lay bare his motives. He addressed
each Estate separately with words of encouragement
and advice. He finally uttered memorable words,
filled with the foreboding that he was never to set
eyes on Sweden again. " Since it generally happens
that the pitcher goes so often to the well that at last
it breaks, thus also it will fall out with me that I,
who in many dangers have needs shed my blood for
the welfare of Sweden, though hitherto God has
spared my life, yet at last I must lose it. Therefore
I do commend you all to God's protection, wishing-
that after this troublesome life we may all meet each

C/)

H
en

D
O

26o THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Other with God in the heavenly immortal life." When
he had foretold his own death in these simple words,
all eyes were filled with tears. But their hearts were
full of high hopes, and they shrank from no sacrifice.
The Secret Committee of the Estates granted him
subsidies for three years in advance.

On Midsummer Day, 1630, the Swedish fleet
arrived oflf the .island of Usedom, on the Pomeranian
coast. Gustavus landed his army, 13,000 men, at
Peenemlinde. He was the first to step ashore, where
he knelt down in silent prayer. Round him knelt
hfs officers, Swedish noblemen whose names were
soon to be emblazoned on the roll of the great
military commanders of the time. The sunny and
stimulating influence of Gustavus drew out the great
qualities in the men around him. Single-handed
against the mighty empire on whose threshhold they
stood, they faced the odds with confidence. The
Swedish garrison in Stralsund, commanded by Leslie,
had taken Riigen ; the King now occupied Usedom
and Wollin, and in a few months, by means of
reinforcements, he commanded 40,000 men, one-half
of them Swedes. He began to penetrate into
Germany along the line of the Oder. Stettin was
the key to it, but Bogislav IV, Duke of Pomerania,
sat neutral in his capital. Gustavus suddenly stood
before Stettin and compelled the old Duke to receive
a Swedish garrison and leave his Duchy in the hands
of the Swedes. There was . no resistance, for the
Pomeranians received him with open arms as a friend
and deliverer ; Stettin became the base of operations
to clear Pomerania of Imperial 'troops, which was

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 26l

finished by the end of the year. The strict discipline
of the Swedes won them the confidence of the
inhabitants, who were used to the roughness of
the mercenaries of every nationality who served the
Emperor. The name of the "gracious, gentle
master " became a household word in every German
home. The people welcomed him, but the German
Protestant princes were held back by petty jealousies
and fear of the Emperor. Fortunately, amidst all
this pusillanimity the Emperor dismissed Wallenstein
and reduced his army at the bidding of the Catholic
League, August 1630. Gustavus had refused the
offer of an alliance by France until Richelieu treated
him as an equal. At Barwalde, on January 13, 1 631,
an alliance with France was concluded by Gustavus,
who undertook to restore the status quo ante in
Germany and maintain there an army of 26,000
men, in return for an annual subsidy of 400,000 rix-
dollars. The leading Protestant princes of Germany,
the Elector of Saxony and the Elector of Branden-
burg, shilli-shallied and tried to induce Gustavus to
turn back. A Protestant congress sat for three
months at Leipsic, and the result of all its verbiage
was nil. But Magdeburg had openly declared for
Gustavus in August 1630. He promised to protect
this great city, which undertook to hold the passage
across the Elbe open for him. He sent one of his
ablest officers to organize the defence of the city,
which was besieged by the Imperial troops. He had
given his royal word to relieve Magdeburg, the key
to South-west Germany, his only ally. He made
two attempts to relieve her by way of Mecklenburg.

262 THE STORY Oh SWEDEN

Meanwhile food and ammunition was running short,
and despairing appeals reached Gustavus, who, in
order to arrive in time to save the city, demanded
of the two Protestant Electors (Brandenburg and
Saxony) a free passage through their territory and
the union of their troops with his, since the besieging
army under Tilly was double the strength of that
of Gustavus. He was compelled to dictate terms to
the Elector of Brandenburg at the gates of Berlin,
May 14, 163 1 ; the Elector was to pay monthly
subsidies to him and leave his two main fortresses
in Swedish hands till Magdeburg was relieved. The
Elector of Saxony, however, barred the ford on the
Elbe at Wittenberg, the nearest way to Magdeburg,
and Gustavus had to take a longer route. On the
very day he had to turn back, May 20, Magdeburg
had been stormed, plundered, and fired by the hordes
of Tilly. The wealthiest and most populous city of
North Germany was reduced to a heap of black
ruins, and Tilly's army had to retreat southwards, in
a famished condition. Gustavus had solemnly held
the Elector of Saxony responsible at the time for
what evil might befall Magdeburg, but the blame of
its fate was, nevertheless, laid on himself. He now
entrenched himself at Werben, at the confluence of
the Havel and the Elbe. His army was too weak in
numbers till the German Protestants joined, but he
beat off Tilly's superior forces with ease in his
trenches. The Emperor, by ordering the disband-
ment of the troops of the Protestant princes and the
execution of the sequestration decrees against them,
forced them out of their neutrality. Landgrave

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 263

William of Hesse-Cassel and the Dukes William
and Bernard of Saxe- Weimar, tried warriors, joined
Gustavus in his camp. Even the Elector of Saxony
was forced out of his neutrality. Tilly ravaged his
territory when he refused to declare himself friend or
foe. Courier upon courier reached Gustavus implor-
ing his assistance, and a treaty was concluded which
made him master of Saxony and its army. He
could now take the field as the recognized leader of
all German Protestants. Tilly awaited him in the
plain of Breitenfeld, one mile north of Leipsic. The
opposed armies were almost equally strong, but the
Imperialists stood on the edge of rising ground. The
invincible Spanish tertiaries were massed together in
huge squares, fifty men deep. The Swedish lines
were only six men deep. Gustavus, a master in the
art of war, introduced two changes which marked the
difference between medieval and modern tactics. He
substituted light columns and shallow lines of soldiers
for the fighting in heavy masses. He introduced
flying artillery ; up till then artillery was stationed
in a fixed position, as Tilly's was at Breitenfeld.
The flint-lock muskets of Gustavus were light to
handle, while Tilly's muskets were so heavy that they
had to be rested on iron forks in the ground when
the burning matches were applied to them. The
King himself commanded the right wing, Gustavus
Horn the left, Lennart Torstensson the artillery.
Gustavus, reining in his horse in front of his troops,
bared his head and said in a loud voice: "From a
distant land, from beloved homes, are we come here
to battle for freedom, for truth, for Thy Gospel.

264 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Give US victory for the sake of Thy Holy Name.
Amen I "

The battle lasted from sunrise to sunset of Sep-
tember 7, 1 63 1, and was hotly contested. The

SEAL OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.

Saxons, on the extreme left, "took to their heels
by companies," as Gustavus said afterwards, at the
first onset, and the victorious Imperialists, with over-
whelming forces, took Horn in the flank, but he

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 265

coolly reformed his front in the midst of the action
and beat them off. On the right wing the famous
cavalry leader, Pappenheim, charged no less than
seven times with his irresistible dash and bravery, and
was repulsed each time by the cool, steady fire of the
Swedish infantry under Ban^r, who reformed his
ranks during a life and death struggle against superior
forces. Gustavus stormed the hill on which Tilly's
guns were placed, and after capturing them turned
them against his centre. This decided the issue of
the battle. The Imperialists scattered in wild flight.
Wounded in three places, Tilly was only saved by
the invincible Spanish tertiaries, which stood like a
wall, under a deadly artillery fire, in the square
formed round him, till sunset, and then retired slowly.
The slaughter was great ; seven thousand Imperialists
killed arid five thousand prisoners ; their camp and
artillery and the military chest fell into Swedish
hands. The Swedes lost seven hundred men, and the
Saxons two thousand. It was the first pitched battle
fought by Gustavus after his landing and it marks a
turning-point in the Thirty Years War. The defeat
of the invincible Tilly saved the German Protestants
from being crushed by the House of Austria; it
raised Sweden to the rank of one of the Great Powers
of Europe. Good Catholics refused to believe in the
victory of Gustavus, as if " God had suddenly turned
Lutheran."

Two main roads stood open to Gustavus in follow-
ing up his victory, south-east to the Austrian Crown-
lands, or south-west into Franconia. At a council of
war Oxenstierna was in favour of dictating peace

266 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

at the gates of Vienna, but Gustavus thought it unsafe
to leave Tilly in his rear and decided to liberate and
arm the Protestants in South-west Germany. He
sent the Saxon Elector into Bohemia, while he him-
self, now master of the line of the Elbe, marched to
the Rhine. His journey was more like a triumphal
progress than a campaign. Rich towns and fortresses
surrendered at his approach on his way through the
Main valley. Marienburg-on-Main was carried by
storm and sacked ; its valuable library was sent to
Uppsala, and the Swedish soldiers counted their gold
coins by the hatful. He crossed the Rhine and
cleared the Palatinate of its Spanish garrisons. At
Mayence he established his winter quarters, while he
resided at Frankfort-am-Main, where he was joined
by his queen and his chancellor. All the Protestant
princes of Germany and ambassadors and diploma-
tists from all Europe flocked to his Court. At Christ-
mas, 163 1, his armies numbered 100,000 men, only
one-fifth of them Swedes. His front extended from
the Rhine and Neckar to the Moldau. For the Saxon
Elector had occupied Prague. Gustavus planned a
League of all the Protestant princes of Germany, under
the headship of Sweden. The Baltic Empire, neces-
sary for the existence of Sweden, was to be established
by members of the League guaranteeing to Sweden
her possession of the Baltic coast of Germany.
With the object of alienating his ally, France, still
more gigantic plans were attributed to the "Protestant
Emperor," as he was called, namely, that after the
conquest of Germany he wished to subdue France
with the assistance of the Huguenots and even to

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 267

extirpate Catholicism in Europe by crossing the Alps
and seizing the keys of St. Peter.

Early in the spring of 1632 Tilly advanced from
the Danube against Horn, who commanded one of
the four armies which Gustavus had raised, and
reoccupied Bamberg. The King now set out from
the Rhine with the main army, leaving Oxenstierna
to guard his conquests there, and repulsed Tilly who
retired into Bavaria. On his way he visited the free
Protestant city of Niirnberg where costly gifts and
honours were showered on the liberator. The capture
of Donauworth opened to him the passage across the
Danube, but he found Tilly awaiting him in a strongly
entrenched camp on the opposite bank of the River
Lech. Under the protection of a heavy artillery fire
he forced the passage of the Lech ; a cannon-ball
shattered Tilly's leg early in the action, and his
dispirited troops fled from their entrenchments pur-
sued by the Swedes. Tilly died a fortnight later,
being spared the disgrace of resigning his command
to Wallenstein. Bavaria now lay at the feet of the
conqueror ; city upon city, freed from its Catholic
garrison, did homage to him, and in May 1632 he
entered Munich without opposition. He was now
master of territories that extended from the Alps —
his trobps had occupied the Alpine passes — to the
Arctic Ocean. Never before had Sweden been raised
to such a pinnacle of power and glory.

Meantime Wallenstein had been sulking in
Bohemia, after his dismissal, and even entered into
secret correspondence with Gustavus. The Emperor
now appealed to him. He would only take com-

268 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

mand on condition that plenipotentiary powers,
military and political, independent of the Emperor,
were conceded to him. He took the field with forty
thousand men, stamped out of the earth by the
magic of his name, occupied Prague and cleared
Bohemia of the Saxons with great speed. Then
he marched into Franconia to draw Gustavus north-
ward and avert the danger that threatened Austria.
He tried to win over the Elector of Saxony by
offering him his own terms. Gustavus hastened
north, but after the junction of Wallenstein's army
with that of Maximilian of Bavaria had raised it
to sixty thousand men his army was less than one-
third of the Imperialist forces, and he therefore
retired within the walls of Niirnberg, which he con-
verted into a strongly fortified camp. Wallenstein,
on his part, entrenched himself on the neighbouring
hills in a camp twelve miles in circumference in order
to blockade the King in the city. From June 30th
to August 2 1st they laid siege to each other, watching
closely every movement. Reinforced with fresh
troops drawn from his scattered armies the King,
after vainly offering battle to Wallenstein, stormed
Alte Veste, the main position of Wallenstein's camp
(August 24th), but had to withdraw with heavy
losses. Torstensson was made prisoner and Ban^r
wounded in the desperate climbing of this steep
hill. As famine and disease raged in the city and
in his camp, Gustavus marched away southwards
and Wallenstein had to leave for the same reasons.
Both had endured all the horrors of a siege and lost
nearly thirty thousand soldiers, with no decisive

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 269

results, for it was a drawn game. Wallenstein now
invaded Saxony to compel the Elector to abandon
the Swedish alliance, and Gustavus had to return
from the Danube, by forced marches, to prevent the
vacillating Elector from being won over by the
enemy. As he passed, in towns and villages, the
inhabitants flocked together to gaze upon 'the
*' Liberator," kneeling and struggling for the honour
of touching the sheath of his sword or the hem of
his garment. Duke Bernard of Weimar joined him
and he decided to surprise Wallenstein, who had
sent Pappenheim with ten thousand men away.
Wallenstein consulted his astrologers and, finding
the stars hostile to Gustavus, determined on battle
on the plain of Liitzen. Owing to delay in the
Swedish advance Wallenstein found time to collect
his forces, more than equal in strength to the
Swedish army. Pappenheim, called back, arrived
in time for the battle.

On the morning of November 6, 1632, at dawn,
all was in readiness and in full order of battle, but
a thick autumn mist which covered the plain
retarded the Swedish attack till noon. The Swedish
foot were in the centre, commanded by Nils Brahe,
the right wing was led by the King in person, the
left by Duke Bernard. King and army knelt down
in prayer, whereupon the King, clad in a leathern
doublet, his wounds not permitting him to wear
armour, rode along the ranks, to animate and inspire
his soldiers. The mist began to clear. The signal
to advance was given. Against the deadly fire of
musketry and artillery frpji) the trenches the Swedes

270 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

pressed forward across the high road with deep
ditches, which ran along the front of the Imperiah'sts ;
they carried a battery and trained its cannon against
the enemy. Overwhelmed by superior numbers
they were driven back, with the loss of the captured
battery, leaving the trenches strewed with their dead.
When the Swedish infantry were repulsed Gustavus
brought up cavalry and passed the ditch. By this
time the autumn mist again obscured the battlefield.
Victorious again Gustavus learned that Pappenheim
was overwhelming his left wing. Placing himself
at the head of the Smaland horse he rode hurriedly
to the rescue, but owing to the lightning speed at
which he rode only three attendants and the Duke
of Lauenburg could keep pace with him. In the
fog he came close upon Austrian cavalry ; in the
hand-to-hand fight his horse was wounded and his
arm was shattered by a musket-ball. Overcome
with pain, he requested the Duke to lead him out
of the melee, but was shot through the back when
moving off; as he sank from his horse his page
tried to help him to mount another when the
Croatiaft horsemen came lip and dispatched him
with shot and sword as he lay on the ground. The
royal steed, its empty saddle covered with blood,
galloping along their ranks, announced to the Swedes
the death of their leader. The fate of their beloved
hero inspired them with a mad thirst for revenge,
and the soldiers demanded loudly to be led against
the enemy; exhausted as they were, they threw
themselves on the Imperialists in an irresistible
charge. The enemy retired in confusion and their

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS

271

batteries were taken. But overpowered with fresh
numbers the Swedes were driven beyond the
trenches ; whole regiments were cut down and Nils

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through the heart, searching for Gustavus in the
hostile ranks, but he learnt the news of his death

272 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

before he closed his eyes. Finally Wallenstein
retreated under cover of darkness, leaving his
artillery on the battlefield which was covered with
more than twelve thousand dead and wounded.
The lifeless body of the Hero King was discovered
buried under a heap of dead, stripped stark naked,
covered with blood from nine wounds, trampled
by horse-hoofs almost beyond recognition. The
battle was celebrated as a victory by Austria and
Spain, Te Deums were celebrated at Vienna, Madrid,
and Rome, and a miracle play, " The Death of the
King of Sweden," was acted before the Spanish
Court.

At the height of his fame and power, in the flower
of his age, thirty-three days before he completed his
thirty-eighth year, he died the death on the battlefield
he always had in view. Rarely had one man's death
made a deeper impression. The jubilant Catholics
could not withhold their admiration, and even in
their portraits his heroic figure stands forth luminous.
A deliverer, true, wise, pure, and noble, he is one of
the few who have wrested round the course of the
world. Yet he died full of aspirations which were
still unsatisfied, marvellous as his achievements had
been. As Oxenstierna says in his letters, to be a
Protestant Emperor, a Scandinavian Emperor of a
Baltic Empire >yith Sweden for its centre, this was
his aim. " He saved religious liberty for the world,"
says the German inscription on the stone at Breiten-
feld. Even the down -trodden Greek at the sound
of his name dreamed of freedom. Religion and
policy were with hini closely intertwined. If religious

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 2/3

liberty was destroyed in Germany, it could not live
in Sweden, and Germany lay prostrate at the feet of
the Jesuits, " the enemies of God and man." In the
midst of success and prosperity he looked upon
himself as an instrument in the hand of God. The
British Ambassador at the Swedish court, Sir
Thomas Roe, writes to London on August 1 6, 1630,
of Gustavus : ** How necessary he is to the general
welfare of Christendom as if he were elect of God
for the great work." When Oxenstierna warned him
not to expose himself so rashly in battle, he said :
" God the Almighty lives, though I die." As for his
statesmanship he met as an equal the statecraft of
Richelieu. Napoleon said of him he had revolution-
ized the art of war, and his military reforms were
adopted by all armies, but he remained a comrade of
his soldiers, by whose side he fought and prayed.
He was the bravest soldier in his army. He shared
their hardships and their humble fare. Scotch and
English volunteers flocked to his standards and
formed whole regiments, no less than eighty-seven
British officers, mainly Scotch, serving in his army.^
The earliest account of the death of Gustavus is found
in a letter written on November 22nd, sixteen days
after Liitzen, by an Englishman, Fleetwood, to his
father. Leslie, Ramsay, Sir James Spence, Ruthwen,
Stewart, Johnston served Gustavus. Hamilton,
Douglas, Gladstane, and others remained and founded
families in Sweden after the war. Drummond of
Hawthornden wrote an elegy on Gustavus's death.

* " Rob. Monro : His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment
calPd Mackey's," London, 1637.

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GUSTAVUS ADOLPHVS

A nobler figure never stood in the forefront of a
nation's life. Tall and broad-shouldered, with the
fairest of fair hair — " il re cToro" the Golden King,
the Italians called him — he loved soft music and
simple songs, and would sit, lute in hand, in his
camp composing religious poetry. But he was not
devoid of a strong temper, and he knew it. When
he complained of the hot temper of his Scotch
officers, he added, " but then they have to bear
with me likewise." In broad humanity and tolerance
he was centuries ahead of his time. But idealist as
he was he made sure of his ground at every step and
knew the skill and resources of his enemies.

SIGNATURE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.

CHAPTER XXVI

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER

A MASTER mind had fallen, but his spirit lived on in

warriors and statesmen, trained under his eyes who

continued his work. The ruler of Sweden till

Christina, then six years old, came of age in 1644,

for twelve years, 1632-44, was Axel Oxenstierna, a

genius little inferior to the King himself Though

only eleven years older than Gustavus, his cool,

calm prudence guided the fiery genius of his young

master. " If my heat did not add warmth to your

coldness, we should all freeze to death," said the

King. ** If my coldness did not cool Your Majesty's

heat, Your Majesty would already be burnt to death,"

said Oxenstierna. This anecdote is characteristic of

the intimate way in which the two great men worked

together, each supplying the other's deficiencies.

Oxenstierna had studied at German universities, and

Charles IX, who discovered him, sent him on diflficult

diplomatic missions, and made him a State Councillor

when he was only twenty-six years old. He was

made the guardian of the royal children and the

head of the regency which was to govern till

Gustavus came of age. Their lifelong friendship

276

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 2/7

began early, and the first act of Gustavus on suc-
ceeding to the throne was to make Oxenstierna
chancellor. Gustavus once declared he would rather
lay down the Crown than govern without Oxen-
stierna. Oxenstierna was appointed Legate Pleni-
potentiary in the Holy Roman Empire. The Estates,
in July 1634, gave a new Constitution to Sweden. A
number of Departments of State (Kollegium) were
established, subordinate to the Council and Crown.
Administration was centralized and made more
efficient. Chancellor Oxenstierna had to spend
most of his time in Germany to keep attached to
Sweden tJie German Protestant princes and direct
Sweden's various armies. Till the assassination of
Wallenstein, February 1634, the war was conducted
with little energy on both sides. On September 6,
1634, the Swedish main army was almost annihilated
by General Gallas at Nordlingen.

Immediately the Protestant princes began to
desert what they thought the sinking ship. Sweden
made a twenty-six years' truce with Poland at
Stuhmsdorf, September 1635, to buy off one foe,
and yielded the Prussian customs. Oxenstierna met
Louis XIII and Richelieu, acquired enlarged sub-
sidies from them, and appointed John Baner com-
mander-in-chief; he soon re-established the Swedish
nimbus of invincibility by a great victory at
Wittstock over superior forces (October 1636). But
he was soon enclosed on all sides by Imperial armies,
each of which was superior to his. For four months
he held them at bay in his entrenched camp at
Torgau. His retreat back to Porperc^nia with 14,009

AXEL OXENSTIERNA, CHANCELLOR OF SWEDEN.

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 2/9

men, on his heels 60,000 men, cutting him off at
river-crossings, driving him into a corner, while he
continually outwitted them, is one of the most
wonderful marches in the annals of Sweden. This
was in the summer of 1637 ; thereupon lie acted on
the defence in Pomerania for over a twelvemonth,
and then marched south, defeated the Imperialists in
Saxony in the spring of 1639, and took up his winter
quarters in Bohemia. 'Meantime the French invaded
South Germany and, with French reinforcements, he
invaded Bavaria and nearly captured the Emperor.
He died on May 10, 1641, having worn himself out
by his exertions. He was succeeded by Lennart
Torstensson. He invaded Silesia, 1642, and re-
established the military supremacy of Sweden by
the victory of Breitenfeld, November 2, 1642, where
the Imperialists lost 10,000 men. Next spring, 1643,
he invaded Moravia, and was called back, when on
his way to Vienna, to settle matters with Denmark.^
Christina, after the Peace of Bromsebro, made him
Count and granted him large estates.

Christina came of age on December 8, 1644, her
eighteenth birthday, and was enthroned as Queen
of Sweden. In face and in brilliant qualities of mind
she resembled her father, though she was far more
learned. She had had a masculine education and
been instructed in politics by Oxenstierna. Her
library was one of the finest in Europe, and there
she used to discuss problems of philosophy for hours
with Descartes starting at five in the morning.
Scholars from all Europe flocked round her and were

^ See Denmark.

28o THE &TORY OF SWEDEN

pensioned by her. Yet at the same time she was
the most daring and tireless horsewoman and hunter
in all Sweden. Her pride of intellect was such that
she despised her own sex and thought marriage
intolerable slavery. Her inordinate vanity caused
her to be jealous of the great Oxenstierna.

The Thirty Years War was conducted by fits and
starts. Torstensson, after overrunning the Imperial
Crown-lands, won a great victory over the Imperialist
army at Jankovitz, near Prague, March 6, 1645, the
general staff and the artillery falling into his hands.
He captured the bridgehead on the Danube opposite
Vienna, but his army was too small to take the city
by assault. Rakoczy of Transylvania joined him
with an army which brought the plague into his
camp, whereupon Rakoczy made peace with the
Emperor. Torstensson suffered so much from gout
that in December 1645 he resigned his command to
Wrangel, who in 1646 joined Turenne, who had been
campaigning in Bavaria. The mutual jealousy of
the French and Swedish generals hindered and
hampered their campaigns. Meanwhile another
Swedish army captured Prague, when the Codex
Argenteus (the Gospels in Gothic) was sent to
Uppsala University with other spoils of war. Soon
after peace was concluded. The peace negotiations
had begun in March 1642 at Osnabriick, between
Sweden and the Emperor, at Mlinster between
France' and the Emperor, to prevent quarrels about
precedence between the negotiators. The congress
did not actually begin till April 1645. The Catholic
negotiators resided at Munster, the Protestants at

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 28 1

Osnabriick. Sweden was represented by Oxen-
stierna's son and by Salvius, who was supported by
Christina, who wished to hurry the negotiations,
while Oxenstierna wanted to protract them and hold
out for better terms. The quarrel was bitter, not
only between the two plenipotentiaries, but also
between Queen and Chancellor. Finally on October
24, 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was signed
simultaneously at the two cities. Sweden's share
was : Upper Pomerania with the islands Riigen,
Wollin, and Usedom and a strip of Lower Pomerania
on the right bank of the Oder, including Stettin and
certain other towns. The city of Wismar and
districts near it. The secularized bishoprics of
Bremen and Warden. Five million rixdollars.
Full civil and religious liberty to be granted to all
German Protestants. Sweden's German possessions
were to be held as fiefs of the Empire, and Sweden
therefore could vote on their behalf in the German
Diet. Sweden and France were to be joint guaran-
tors of this peace and to carry out its provisions.
Thus, though the territories won by Sweden after
eighteen years of war were small in extent, yet she
now held the mouths of the three greatest rivers
in North Germany, the Oder, the Elbe, and the
Weser.

Charles X Gustavus (1656-60), son of the Count
Palatine of Zweibriicken and Catherine, sister of
Gustavus Adolphus, was born in 1622. He served as a
volunteer under Torstensson, from whom he learnt the
art of war. He was a suitor for the hand of Christina.
She would not marry him, but appointed him com-

282

THE STORY OF SWEDEN

mander-in-chief of her armies in Germany, shortly
before the Peace of Westphalia, and as Swedish
plenipotentiary at the executive congress which

CHARLES X.

followed it, he became an expert in the tortuous
ways of diplomacy. Christina, importuned by matri-
monial projects, had him proclaimed as her successor
in 1649, in spite of the opposition of the Council and

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 283

Oxenstierna. Popular discontent with the Queen
made his position as heir-presumptive precarious, and
he isolated himself in the isle of Oland till Christina
abdicated (June 6, 1654). The same day he was
crowned King in the cathedral as Charles X
Gustavus. He married a daughter of the Duke of
Holstein Gottorp in order to have an ally against
Denmark. Sweden was in dire financial distress
owing to the reckless expenditure of Christina. The
nobles were curbed by Charles, who at the parliament
of 1655 proposed that a commission should hold an
inquiry about the alienated Crown-lands and a war
subsidy should be levied on all classes proportion-
ately. A secret committee presided over by himself
was won over by him in three days to the belief that
a war with Poland was a necessity for Sweden. He
sailed in July 1655 with 50,000 men and fifty war-
ships. In a few weeks he had occupied Warsaw and
the whole of Great Poland. -Cracow, the Coronation
city, fell after a siege of two months, valiarttly
defended by Czarniecki. King John Casimir lived
as a fugitive in Silesia. Poland was conquered and
blotted out from the map of Europe. Suddenly the
tide turned. A Swedish army besieged the fortified
monastery of Czenstochowa, October-December
1655 ; it was defended for seventy days by seventy
monks and 150 soldiers, and, through a miracle
wrought by the Mother of God of Czenstochowa, as
the Poles believed, the Swedes were driven off with
heavy loss. The national and religious spirit of the
Polish people burst into flame throughout the length
and breadth of the land as they learnt of this wonder.

284 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

King John Casimir returned from his exile early in
1656 and put the reorganized army under the com-
mand of Czarniecki. Charles first compelled the
Elector of Brandenburg to become his ally, and
then tried to subdue the Poles anew. It was a
guerilla war with endless pursuits and marches over
a vast territory in winter. He made a masterly
retreat from Galicia to Warsaw with a few thousand
men across marshes and rivers guarded by superior
forces. Warsaw surrendered to the Poles, after its
Swedish garrison was reduced from 4,000 to 500.
The joint forces of Charles and the Elector of
Brandenburg, 18,000 men, defeated the Polish army
numbering 100,000 men in a three days* battle at
Warsaw (July 18, 19, 20, 1656) and reoccupied the
city. But though Charles granted the Elector the
full sovereignty over East Prussia — thus laying
the foundation of the kingdom of Prussia — and allied
himself with Rakoczy, Prince of Transylvania, yet
their help was of little value and he made no head-
way. He could not break the spirit of the Poles,
when suddenly Denmark's declaration of war against
Sweden (June i, 1657) extricated him from his diffi-
culties. He could now leave Poland with honour.
He marched with the lightning speed of Torstensson,
at the head of 8,000 veterans, into Holstein. The
Danish troops retreated and dispersed. The main
army took refuge in the fortress, Frederiksodde (now
Fredericia), on the Little Belt. The Duchies and
Jutland were now occupied by the Swedes, but at sea
the Danes drove their fleet back into Wismar after a
two days' battle. The Duke of Gottorp openly sided

'SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER

285

with the Swedes. In the night of October 23-24,
Wrangel, at the head of 4,000 Swe.des, stormed
Frederiksodde, which was defended by 6,000 Danes,
in one hour and a half, taking more prisoners than
his own men numbered, with stores and artillery.

DAHLBERG.

In January 1658 the Emperor and the Elector of
Brandenburg joined Poland against Sweden. Charles
was prevented from crossing to the islands by the
Danes who were masters at sea. Then the severe
frost in December 1657 ^"d January 1658 bridged

286 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

the sea for him. The sea was covered with a solid '
bridge of ice, and the scouts who tested its firmness
every night found it would bear save only a small
rent five feet broad, which they bridged over by
planks and hurdles. On January 30, 1658, it was
calculated that the ice would be strong enough to
carry the army. The Swedes made for the peninsula
of Iversnaes, in Funen, via the island of Brandso.
They led their horses as far apart as possible where
the ice was weak and galloped across the safe parts.
Safety lay in rushing on since the danger behind was
greater than in front. Two companies sank through
the ice, fighting the Danes who barred their passage.
The whole island of Funen was occupied by Charles,
who wanted to march across the sixteen miles broad
Great Belt. One night the daring Dahlberg came
back from his journeys on the ice and declared he
could take the army across it via Langeland, Laa-
land, and Falster, a more roundabout but safer route,
with a shorter traject across ice than the direct route
to Sjaelland. At a council of war summoned in
the middle of the night all the assembled generals
dissuaded from running this extreme risk. Charles
hesitated, but at last resolutely accepted Dahlberg's
plan and explained : '' Now we shall talk together
in Swedish, brother Frederick ! " The army started
on the night of February 5th, and reached Laaland
next afternoon. The men waded through deep
sludge and the ice looked very rotten where cavalry
had passed. Terlon, the French Ambassador with
Charles, says : " It was a horror to walk at night
a^cross the frozen sea ; the horses' tramping had

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288 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

thawed the snow so that the water rose one or two
feet on the ice ; every moment we fearejl to find the
sea open somewhere to engulf us." Dahlberg showed
the way. On February 8th Charles reached Falster,
on February nth Sjaelland. The elements had
helped him to accomplish a deed of daring unique
in history. " Naturae hocdebuit uni " he inscribed on
the medal struck to commemorate it. Frederick III
sent plenipotentiaries to sue for peace at any price.
They dared not accept the hard conditions of Charles,
but at last signed the peace preliminaries at Taas-
trup, near Copenhagen.

By the terms of the Peace of Roskilde, February
26, 1658, Denmark ceded Scania, Halland, Blekinge,
arid Bahuslan — which have been Swedish ever since
— the province of Trondhjem and the island of
Bornholm. Hostile fleets were to be excluded from
the Baltic. The Duke of Gottorp was to be free
of Danish suzerainty. His title and estates were
restored to Ulfeld, the traitor, who was one of the
peace commissioners. Subsequently the King of
Denmark entertained the victor at a sumptuous
banquet that lasted three days.

Charles convened the Estates and Council at
Gothenburg to deliberate on the war in Germany
and Poland. Denmark was unwilling to assist
Sweden in preventing the entrance of a Dutch fleet
into the Baltic. Charles repented that he had not
annexed a country which was his secret enemy.
He suddenly landed with an army in Sjaelland
without declaring war. Holland now became openly
his enemy. The patriotism of the Danes was roused.

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 289

With the courage of despair the citizens of Copenhagen
repaired their walls and prepared to defend them-
selves to the uttermost Kronborg surrendered. In
October a Dutch fleet approached to bring succour tc
the sorely pressed Danes. 'After six hours' obstinate
contest the Swedish fleet, under VVrangel, who acted
alternately as general and admiral, was compelled
to retire to Landskrona. Copenhagen received the
Dutch fleet with transports of joy. Charles en-
camped ten miles from the town, after raising the
siege. An army of Poles, Austrians, and Branden-
burgers occupied Jutland. Trondhjem and Born-
holm freed themselves from their Swedish garrisons.
When the winter frosts set in and ice rendered the
fleet useless, Charles determined to storm the city.
On the night of February 11, 1659, the Swedes, with
white shirts over their dress to prevent their being
visible in the deep snow, scaled the slippery," icy
ramparts. Their plans had been betrayed to the
Danes, who hurled them back in a murderous
struggle ; women poured boiling water on the
Swedes, who withdrew with a loss of 1,500 men.
In the spring of 1659 an English fleet under
Montague arrived in the Baltic to watch the Dutch
and enforce an armed mediation between the belli-
gerents. Oliver Cromwell, and after him his son
Richard, were friendly to Sweden. The Dutch and
English Ambassadors (one of them was Algernon
Sidney) called on Charles in his camp, and he was
very angry at the pretensions of the two republics
to dictate terms. Montague was called back to take
part in the Restoration (of Charles II) in England,

290

THE STORY OF SWEDEN

and the Dutch transported the army of the Allies to
Funen, where it defeated the Swedish troops at
Nyborg, General Stenbock escaping in a boat.

Charles did not lose courage, but convened the
Estates at Gothenburg to obtain men and money
for an invasion into Norway. During these pre-
parations he was seized with a fever, and died at

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 29 1

the age of thirty-seven, February 13, 1660. On his
deathbed he appointed a regency for his four-year-
old son, Charles (XI), and advised them to make
peace with Sweden's enemies. Peace was concluded
with Poland at Oliva, April 1660 ; this ended a war
of succession of sixty years between the Catholic and
Protestant branches of the House of Vasa. John
Casimir of Poland renounced his claim to the
Swedish Crown, and ceded Livonia. The Treaty of
Copenhagen with Denmark (June 1660) confirmed
the Peace of Roskilde, except that the province of
Trondhjem and the isle of Bornholm were restored
to the Danes. The Peace of Kardis put an end to
the war with Russia, which restored her conquests.
Sweden had reached her natural frontiers, and in
half a century the conquered Danish provinces
became denationalized and Swedish.

The Regency which governed Sweden (1660-75)
was composed of conservative aristocrats, who neg-
lected the administration of the country and were
grossly corrupt. They accepted secret annual
subsidies from foreign Powers for their support,
always favouring the highest bidder. Charles XI
came of age at seventeen in December 1672. The
Regents had utterly neglected his education, and he
spent most of his time in manly sports, often in
bear hunting. Louis XIV, by holding out hopes of
increased subsidies, induced De la Gardie, the most
important member of the Regency, to send a Swedish
army of 13,000 men against the Elector of Bran-
denburg. In June 1575 the Elector defeated the
Swedish army, reduced by sickness to 7,000 men,

292 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

under the old field-marshal Wrangel, at Rathenow
and at Fehrbellin. It is true these defeats by a
superior force were only skirmishes, but the invinci-
bility of Swedish troops ceased to be believed in.
The criminal neglect of the Regency was seen by the
young King, and a commission was appointed by his
Coronation Parliament to inquire into their conduct.
Meanwhile the Emperor, Denmark, and the Nether-
lands declared war on Sweden, and the young King,
not yet twenty, now showed his sterling qualities,
working single-handed with his secretaries to save
the country. The Swedish fleet, badly equipped as
it was, was defeated off Oland on June i, 1676, by
the combined Dano-Dutch fleet. The Danish army,
under Christian V, occupied Scania, whose inhabi-
tants, still Danish in sympathies, raised a guerilla
war against the Swedes. The first gleam of light
was the annihilation of a Danish division of three
thousand men in Halland by Charles himself
During the autumn of 1676 the Swedish army
suffered much from hunger and cold, and dwindled
to half its number. During the night of Decem-
ber 4, 1676, Charles raced the Danish army for the
possession of a ridge of hills north of Lund. Vic-
torious here he hurried back to help his left and
centre, overpowered by the Danes, and turned the
defeat into a brilliant victory. About one-half of
both the opposing armies lay dead on the battlefield
after this obstinate engagement. Charles XI, who
had fought at the head of his men ever since, kept
the anniversary which gave him back Scania and
restpred to ^weden her nimbus of invincibility by

SWEDEN AS A GREAT POWER 293

shutting himself up in his closet in prayer. In 1677
the Swedish fleet was twice beaten by the Danish
naval hero, Nils Juel, who dominated the Baltic.
Charles was successful in recovering Scania, while
the German possessions of Sweden were wholly lost.
Louis XIV, at the peace congress of Nimeguen
(1677-79), dictated terms, and in 1679 forced the
Elector of Brandenburg to retrocede all his conquests
to Sweden except a small strip on the right bank of
the Oder. Denmark, too, was compelled to restore
all her conquests, first by the Peace of Fontainebleau,
then at Lund. The negotiations were ended by a
treaty of defensive alliance between Denmark, Nor-
way, and Sweden. This was owing to the Swedish
statesman, Johan Gyllenstierna, who also brought
about the marriage of Charles XI to the Danish
princess, Ulrica Leonora. Gyllenstierna died in
1680, and Charles XI proceeded to carry out his
ideas — to save Sweden from becoming the needy
satellite of Louis XIV, and to turn it into a
centralized monarchy.

Parliament met in October 1680, and one of its
first acts was to decide that a commission nominated
by the King should try the Regents. The Estate of
Peasants then petitioned the King for the recovery
of Crown-lands from the aristocracy. The Estates
of Burgesses and of Clergy joined them, but the
Estate of Nobles debated the motion without result
until it was declared carried over their heads by
their speaker. All countships, baronies, domains,
and manors, producing an annual rent of more than
;^70, reverted to the Crown.

294 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Next the Estates declared that the Council of
State shared the guilt of the Regents ; and, in answer
to the King's inquiry, stated that he was not bound
by the Constitution but only by the laws, was not
bound to consult the Council, but was a sovereign
lord, responsible to God alone for his actions. The
King changed the title of the Council of State to
Royal Council, implying that they were henceforth
the King's servants, not his colleagues. Sweden did
not become an absolute monarchy by force and fraud
as Denmark in 1660, and the Estates continued to
meet and to be consulted. The Parliament of 1682
declared that the King had the right to grant and
take back fiefs, at his own will. The Estates also
gave to him the right to interpret and amend the
laws and statutes of the kingdom. Possessed of
absolute power, Charles XI set himself to construct
a new system on the ruins of the old. The Commis-
sion of State found the Regents and the Council
guilty of extravagance and sentenced them to pay
the Crown a huge sum. The commission for the
recovery of Crown-lands was turned into a permanent
department of State under the personal vision of the
King. The inquisition into claims was harsh and
rigorous. Any owner of landed estates might be
called upon to furnish proof that they had not at
some time belonged to the Crown. Yet it was not
till 1690 that Sweden could actually pay its way.
Charles substituted an extended military tenure of
land for conscription and created a standing army
of 38,000 men. He provided Sweden with a huge
arsenal at Karlskrona and a fleet of forty-three men-of-

SWEDEN AS A GkEAT POW^k 29$

war. All the departments of State were reconstructed
and rendered more efficient. Foreign policy he left
entirely in the hands of Count Oxenstierna, who
supported Holland and England against the over-
weening ambition of Louis XIV. After the death of
his Queen, Charles XI, broken by his incessant
labours, began to fail in health, and died, forty years
old, in 1697. He worked himself to death ; travelling
incognito, dressed in his grey cloak, he looked after
the efficiency of his officials all over Sweden, in
person.

CHAPTER XXVII

CHARLES XII

Charles XII was born on June 17, 1682. He had

been most carefully educated and trained, mind and

body. Eleven years old he shot his first bear, and

he had a genius for languages and mathematics. His

father took him everywhere and his character was

deeply influenced by him. The Regents appointed

by his father to rule during his minority only governed

Sweden for seven months. In November 1697 the

Estates asked him to assume full sovereignty. He

not only assented to this, but at his coronation he

omitted the coronation oath and placed the crown

on his head himself, as a mark of absolute autocracy.

One of his first acts was to abolish judicial torture,

against the advice of his Council. Meanwhile a

Livonian nobleman, Patkul, had been secretly forming

a league against Sweden. In the autumn of 1699 an

offensive alliance for the partition and dismemberment

of Sweden was concluded by Denmark, Saxony, and

Russia. A Danish army advanced against the ally

of Sweden, the Duke of Gottorp, and the Saxons

and Russians invaded Sweden's possessions on the

Continent. The Danish fleet protected Sjaelland,

296

CHAkLES XII 297

but by passing through the eastern channel of the
Sound, held to be unnavigable by sailors, Charles
XII was able to unite his ships with an Anglo-Dutch
squadron. Superior at sea to the Danish fleet,
hemmed in at Copenhagen, he landed a few miles
north of that city. Denmark, alarmed, made peace
at Travendal, August 18, 1700, conceding full
sovereignty to the Duke of Gottorp, paying him an
indemnity and promising never henceforth to join the
enemies of Sweden. In the autumn Tsar Peter laid
siege to Narva in Ingria with 40,000 men. With less
than 8,000 men Charles hurried to its relief against
the advice of his generals. During his long march
through boggy and desolate country he captured a
pass defended by 6,000 horsemen with 400 Swedes.
It was on November 20th that the tired Swedes
immediately on their arrival threw tliem^elves on
the Russian entrenchments at 2 p.m. in a raging
snowstorm. Peter had left the night before,
leaving a foreigner 'in command. At night the
camp was in the hands of the Swedes, whose
prisoners far outnumbered themselves. This great
victory spread the fame of Charles over Europe, but
it inspired him with contempt of the Russians who
would not make a stand and of Tsar Peter. He
now cleared Livonia and Courland of the enemy, and
in 1702 deposed the Elector of Saxony from the
Polish throne, defeated the united Poles and Saxons
at Klissow, and captured the fortified coronation city,
Cracow, with only a cane in his hand, by sheer
audacity. In 1704 the Elector was formally deposed
and a scratch assembly, manipulated by Count Arvid

300 ffiE ^tORV OP SWEt>El^

reached, and his generals advised Charles to await
Lewenhaupt with reinforcements and stores, but he
marched southwards to join the Hetman of the
Dnieper Cossacks, Mazepa, who had promised him
100,000 horsemen and large stores of provisions. Now
one disaster succeeded another. Lewenhaupt joined
Charles empty-handed, having been defeated in a
two days' battle against fourfold odds at Lesna,
where he lost all his stores. Mazepa joined him
as a fugitive with 1,300 attendants. The Cossack
capital and country had been turned into a charred
wilderness by the Tsar. Now the elements joined
the Russians in fighting the invincible Swedes,
engulfed in a trackless wilderness. The winter of
1708-9 was the coldest known for a century.
Already by November firewood would not burn in
the open, and the Swedes warmed themselves over
fires of straw. But the worst was to overtake the
devoted and dwindling host in the exposed, endless
steppes of Ukraine. In January 1709 wine and
spirits froze, birds on the wing fell dead, and many
soldiers lost hands, feet, ears, noses. Yet " though
earth, sky, and air were against us," they followed
blindly their leader, whom they looked on as
divinely inspired. He twice defeated tenfold odds
of Russians with a few hundred men, and single-
handed upheld the spirit of his men, who were on
the point of succumbing to their terrible hardships.
His army was reduced to less than one-half, or
nearly 20,000 men, when the spring floods made it
impossible to march farther for two or three months.
In May 1709 he began to lay siege to the fortress

CHARLES XII 301

of Poltava, but lack of gunpowder hampered opera-
tions. Peter with 80,000 Russians lay on the other
side of the river Vorskla, but dared not cross it
until he heard that Charles had been wounded in
the foot by a bullet, when he entrenched himself
on the Swedish side of the river. At a council of
war Charles decided to attack the Russian en-
trenchments on June 27, 1709, Rehnskold taking
the command because of his wound, while Charles
was borne on a litter in the hottest melee. The
Swedes carried everything before them on both
wings, but owing to a misunderstanding the flower
of the army, the Guards, were annihilated by the
French guns of the Tsar, which could fire five
times to the Swedes' once. Lacking powder, the
Swedes were mown down as they tried to come
to close quarters. Charles with 1,500 men escaped
to Turkish territory, while 14,000 men, exhausted
and starved, surrendered at Perevoloczna on the
Dnieper.

On learning of the disaster at Poltava, the Elector
of Saxony formed a new alliance with Denmark in
order to confine Sweden within her boundaries, and
the Poles rose against Leszcynski, who fled to
Swedish Pomerania. The Danes invaded Scania
in November 1709, but Count Magnus Stenbock
with hastily collected peasant levies defeated the
Danes in the battle of Helsingborg, March 10, 17 10,
and drove their army out of Scania. Meanwhile
the Tsar took the Swedish possessions on the
Eastern Baltic foot by foot, invaded Finland, and
seized Viborpj. fie degiancJed tjie extradition of

302 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Charles from the Sultan, who held him in high
honour. Swedes and Russians vied with each other to
bribe the Grand Vizier till Peter declared war, March
1 710. He ventured too far south, and was sur-
rounded with 38,000 men in July 1710 by 190,000
Turks on the banks of the Pruth. The Grand
Vizier, who followed a plan of campaign drawn up
by Charles, allowed Peter to make the Peace of
Pruth, July 22, 1710. Peter was to allow the King
of Sweden a free passage to his dominions, evacuate
Poland, and demolish two fortresses. Charles stayed
on, and induced the Sultan to declare war on Russia
in 1711 and in 1712, with little result. The Turks
now wanted to get rid of Charles, and 10,000 men
attacked him with his few hundred men in his
camp at Bender, and after an incredible resistance
took him prisoner by burning the house over his
head. Still he stayed on, waiting for an escort to
take him back, until in response to despairing
appeals from Sweden he left on September 20, 17 14.
Riding on horseback day and night without chang-
ing his clothes, he arrived at midnight, November
22, 1 7 14, at Stralsund ; his top-boots, which had
not been removed for sixteen days, had to be cut
off his legs. Inspired and animated by his example,
soldiers and citizens held out for more than a twelve-
month against overwhelming forces of the Danes,
Prussians, Saxons, and Russians in superhuman
endeavour, until Stralsund was a heap of ruins.
Just before Christmas 1715 Charles escaped in a
small boat past the batteries and fleets of the Allies
to Sweden, whereupon the town surrendered. The

CHARLES Xfl 303

Elector of Hanover had in the autumn of 17 14
ascended the throne of England as George I, and
he did not scruple to buy from Denmark the
Swedish bishoprics of Bremen and Werden, which
she had occupied, for 600,000 rixdollars. Sweden
was to be dismembered by a league between
England, Hanover, Prussia, Saxony, Denmark, and
Russia. Tsar Peter arrived at Copenhagen with
30,000 Russians in July 17 16, in order to invade
Scania with his Danish ally, under cover of the
Danish, Russian, and English fleets. The lion was
at bay, with 20,000 men in his entrenched camp in
Scania, and neither Danes nor Russians were anxious
to beard him in his den. Long delays in attacking
him led to mutual suspicions. Russians and Danes
suspected each other of a secret understanding with
Charles. The Tsar postponed the expedition, and
Denmark was much pleased to get rid of its trouble-
some guest. George I, on the other hand, saw in
it Muscovite designs on North Germany, and both
he and the Tsar tried to circumvent each other by
making separate terms with Sweden.

Charles had now in his service the astute and
audacious Baron Goertz, a former minister of the
Duke of Holstein Gottorp. He believed with his
master that though the battle was lost there was
time to win a new one, in spite of the exhaustion
of Sweden, and he skilfully played on the mutual
distrust of England and Russia. In January 1717
the Swedish Ambassador in London, Count Gyllen-
borg, was arrested ; from correspondence seized
(now included in the Stuart papers in Windsor Castle)

304 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

it appeared that the Jacobites had arranged with
Goertz that Charles should invade England "to
maintain English liberties and reduce George (I)
to be nothing more than an Elector of Hanover."
The Swedish Ambassador in Paris was one of the
conspirators. Goertz, who conducted negotiations
at The Hague, received sums of 60,000 and 100,000
francs from the Pretender; "ten thousand men would
do the business " in the spring, 1717. The expedition
was to sail from Gothenburg and on landing at fixed
places in Scotland and England was to be joined
by leading noblemen in the Army and the Church
with their adherents. The Pretender was to come
to clinch the matter, but Charles was not privy to
any plan of invasion, and disavowed the machina-
tions of Goertz, when he knew them. Goertz was
arrested in Holland and kept in custody for a time
while Gyllenborg was in custody from January 29
to August 1717, when he was exchanged for Jackson,
the English Resident at Stockholm. Byng was to
blockade Gothenburg in April 17 17 to prevent the
expedition from sailing, but Charles was busy with
other plans.

He invaded Norway in 17 17, and in 171 8, in order
to recover part of his lost German dominions in
exchange for territory occupied in Norway, Goertz
strained Sweden to the breaking-point. Every
able-bodied man was taken for the Army, and the
country was inundated by paper-money and copper
coinage; forced loans and other extreme measures
were resorted to. Meanwhile Goertz began nego-
tiations with Russia in th? A^^4 !^^^4^ !^ May

CHARLES XII 305

17 1 8. The Russians soon found that Goertz dared
not let Charles or the Swedish people know the
Russian conditions. Charles was besieging Frede-
rikshald in Norway. He had captured one fort
and was in the approaches to another fort, Frede-
riksten. As usual he exposed himself recklessly on
his daily inspections. On December 11, 17 18, as
he was looking over the parapet of a trench a cannon-
shot struck him and passed through both temples.
He was found standing erect, having gripped his
sword in the moment of death. A monument has
been raised on the spot where he ended his life.
The British Secretary of State, Craggs, writes to
Lord Stair, on December 29, 17 18, on hearing of
the death of Charles : ** The death of the King
of Sweden is a plain declaration that our Cause is
a just. one, since God has so visibly espoused it."
Great was the impression made in Europe by
the death of the hero at the age of thirty-six years.
He had all the virtues and vices of the viking
temperament, and indeed had the sagas read aloud
to himself in his camp. His keen sense of honour
and his belief in ultimate victory of right and justice
lay at the root of his obstinacy. He possessed
intellectual abilities of the highest order. He would
have done still greater marvels with his Ironsides
and founded an empire instead of losing one, if he
had lived seven centuries earlier. Sweden broke
off negotiations with Russia and concluded peace
at Stockholm with England- Hanover, to which she
ceded Bremen and Werden, and with Prussia to
which she ceded Stettin with some territories

DEATH MASK OF CHARLES XII.

CMARins xtt 307

Denmark, too, by the Peace of Frederiksborg retro-
ceded all her conquests for 600,000 rixdollars, but
Sweden was to give up her alliance with Holstein-
Gottorp and her exemption from Sound dues.
Sweden had hoped that the British fleet in the Baltic
would assist her against Russia, but it stood by
inactive during repeated Russian raids on the
Swedish coast ; five towns, hundreds of villages
and farms, and millions worth of property were burnt
and destroyed. Bowing to" the inevitable, Sweden
concluded peace at Nystad, August 30, 1721 ; she
ceded her Baltic provinces, Ingria, Livonia, and
Esthonia, and of Finland Carelia with Viborg for
2,000,000 thaler, free trade in the Baltic and a
non-interference in her internal affairs ; the rest of
Finland was retroceded to Sweden. The bullet that
killed " the Lion of the North " killed autocracy
in Sweden. The Swedish people had suffered
grievously during his reign, which was one long
campaign. The first victim of the long pent-up
passions now set free was Baron Goertz, the astute
diplomatist, who for three years had upheld his
master's crumbling empire. He was arrested the
day after the death of Charles XII. "The King's
death is my death," he exclaimed; he had only
verbal orders from him for the extreme and un-
popular measures he had taken. Sentenced on
February nth, he was beheaded under the gallows
on March 2, 17 19.

CHAPTER XXVIII

PARLIAMENTARISM FREE AND UNFETTERED

Ulrica Leonora, the sister of Charles XII, abdi-
cated at the beginning of 1720 in favour of her
husband, Frederick of Hesse, who was elected King
as Frederick I (1720-51). At the same time anew
Constitution deprived the King of every vestige of
power. He could not even appoint members of the
State Council, but had to appoint one of the three
pointed out to him ; he presided at its meetings, but
had only a casting vote. The four Estates were like
four separate parliaments, but the H6use of Nobles
held the reins of government through the Secret
Committee, in which they always had a majority
against the other Estates. The Speaker of the
House of Nobles presided in this Committee which,
during the session, held the executive legislative and
judicial power of the State in his hands. Tenure of
office by ministers depended on its will ; it directed
the foreign policy of Sweden, and prepared all bills
and acted, also, as a kind of court of appeal from all
courts in the country. No peasants were, as a rule,
members of this Committee. Thus in reality the

supreme power was held by the House of Nobles,

308

PARLIAMENTARtSM FREE AND UNFETTERED 309

which was composed of the heads of the noble
families ; many of the poorer sold their proxies to
the highest bidder, and thus their right to sit in the
House of Nobles was a regular source of income to
them.

Count Arvid Horn was the prudent and cautious
ruler of Sweden during the nearly twenty years of
peace that followed the Great Northern War. His
policy was to avoid war almost at any cost, and to'
develop the resources of the country in peace ; his
ideal was England, English industries and English
institutions. He held aloof from France. Soon a
party arose in thq House of Nobles which ridiculed
the timid and inglorious pursuit of peace by Horn
and his men, and nicknamed them " Night Caps,"
or " Caps," while they took the name ** Hats " them-
selves as men who were proud to restore Sweden to
her pristine glory as a Great Power. They were the
allies of France which provided them with subsidies.
They were the enemies of Russia. These party
rtames, " Caps " and " Hats," were generally used till
the revolution of 1772.

In the session of 1738 the Hats, under the leader-
ship of Count Tessin, dominated the Secret Com-
mittee and consequently foreign policy ; Count Horn
resigned. He was an honest and God-fearing man,
under whose wise and fostering rule Swedish in-
dustries prospered and the wounds of the war were
healed. The Hats came into power through whole-
sale bribery with French gold and through superior
organization. They openly avowed their desire to
recover the provinces ceded to Russia. The deaths

310 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

of the Emperor Charles VI and of the Empress
Anne of Russia seemed to give them a favourable
juncture. The assassination of a Swedish envoy,
Major Sinclair, on his way with dispatches from
Constantinople to Stockholm, by Russians, gave the
Hats a pretext for declaring war, 1741. The
Speaker of the House of Nobles^ Lewenhaupt, com-
manded the army in Finland which was unready
and ill-provided ; the officers were politicians who
were sometimes absent in Stockholm. The Russians
captured General Wrangel and the frontier fortress
Villmanstrand, and when Lewenhaupt crossed the
frontier, he soon withdrew, according to secret com-
munications with Elizabeth, who became Empress
through a Court revolution. After the expiry of a
truce the demoralized Swedish army retreated from
position after position till by the Convention of
Helsingfors, 1742, it evacuated Finland. The old
martial spirit was sadly lacking. The Empress
Elizabeth, to prevent the election of the Prince Royal
of Denmark as Heir to the Swedish throne, consented
to restore Finland on condition that Duke Adolphus
Frederick of Holstein Gottorp should be elected by
the Estates as Crown Prince of Sweden. By the
Treaty of Abo, 1743, Finland was restored to Sweden
with the exception of the territory east of Kymmene
River. The Duke was duly elected, but the discon-
tented peasantry were not pacified by the trial of
two of the generals who had brought dishonour on
the Swedish arms in Finland ; thousands of armed
Dalecarlians, adherents of the Danish prince, marched
on Stockholm and encamped in the central square

PARLIAMENTARISM FREE AND UNFETTERED 3II

of the town. After all other means had been tried
the troops engaged them, and a number were killed
and the rest pardoned. Two of the generals respon-
sible for the misfortunes of the war were then tried
and executed. The Empress Elizabeth was willing
to restore Finland if her cousin, Adolphus Frederick
of Holstein, was elected heir to the Swedish throne
by the Estates. Queen Ulrica Eleonora had died
childless, and King Frederick was old and infirm.
The Hats were glad to agree to any terms, and in the
Peace of Abo, May 1743, Finland was retroceded
with the . exception of a district east of Kymmene
River.

Adolphus Frederick, a nonentity like his pre-
decessor, was married to Louise Ulrica, sister of
Frederick the Great, an ambitious and gifted woman
whose French sympathies made her incline to the
Hats. Their leader. Count Tessin, was her friend,
philosopher, and guide until he arranged a betrothal
between her infant son, Gustavus, and a Danish
princess to counter-check the Russo-Danish alliance
and the pro-Russian Caps. In this he acted directly
against the wishes of the King and Queen. On the
death of Frederick I, 175 1, Adolphus Frederick
succeeded to the throne. The Estates and Council
were determined to show for how little royalty
counted in a state which was an oligarchic republic
in all but the name. A name-stamp, with his
signature, was made, to be used by the Council in
case he should be recalcitrant or refuse to sign any-
thing submitted to him. All State appointments
were made by the Council, even those of members of

312 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

the royal household. The tutors engaged for the
royal children by their parents were sent away
and their places taken by Hat partisans. The
Queen formed a Court party and planned a revolu-
tion against this to her intolerable tyranny (1756),
but the conspiracy was discovered prematurely
and the noblemen who assisted her were executed
for high treason or fled the country. The Queen
was admonished, and the Speakers of all the Estates
handed the King an instruction which he was to
hand to the new tutor of the Crown Prince. The
whole duty of the King of Sweden was there set
forth, that he must not think he is more than any
other man because the State, for its own sake, invests
him with splendour, that in a free state he is a mere
figure-head that is tolerated, and other humiliating
remarks which His Majesty had to pocket.

Linnaeus (Carl von Linne) (1707-78), the great
botanist, taught at Uppsala University in this reign.
His collections, books, and MSS. are in the Linnean
Society in London. Svvedenborg (1688-1772),
scientist and mystic, anticipated many of the results
of modern research.

Sweden was dragged into the Seven Years War
in the orbit of 'France. After a series of inglorious
campaigns in Pomerania (1756-62), the Hats made
peace on the status quo ante bellum (1762). Their
recklessly wasteful government came to an end in
1765, when the Caps came in on a retrenchment
programme and reduced the National Debt. They
introduced freedom of the Press. But, peaceful as
they were, they were closely allied with Russia and

PARLIAMENTARISM FREE AND UNFETTERED 313

depended on Russian subsidies. Catherine II
intended that Sweden should share the fate of
Poland, and secretly leagued herself with Denmark
and Prussia to guarantee and support its free Con-
stitution as the means best adapted for its future
partition.

Discontent with the parsimony and retrenchment
of the Caps was rife, and the Council decreed that
criticism of the Estates should be punished with
fines and imprisonment. The King urged the
Council to summon the Estates to adopt measures
of relief. When they refused he formally abdicated,
forbidding the Council to make use of his name.
For six d.ays, December 15 to 21, 1768, Sweden had no
Government. The public officials sympathized with
the King and refused to obey the orders of the
Council with the royal name-stamp ; the Treasury
refused to pay out money and the colonel of the
Guards declared he could no longer keep his troops
in hand. The Council then yielded and summoned
the Estates for April 1769. Norrkoping was to be
its meeting-place because there the Russian fleet
could overawe the deputies ; the Russian Ambassador
supplied the Caps^with money enough to bribe all
waverers. The French Ambassador supplied the Hats
with 6,000,000 francs in return for a written under-
taking to reform the Constitution into a real monarchy.
The elections gave the Hats a majority in all the
Estates, and the Hats took the place of the Caps in
the Council. The Estates moved to Stockholm and
closed their ten months* session without the reform
of the Constitution promised.

CHAPTER XXIX

GUSTAVUS III

Crown Prince Gustavus was in Paris when his
father died, February 177 1. France promised him
a subsidy of 1,500,000 francs a year. He had
fascinated everybody by his brilliant qualities.
French was to him a second mother-tongue. With
his graceful wit, his charm of manner, his passion
for dramatic display, he transplanted these master
qualities of the French spirit to Swedish soil. He
was only twenty- five when he came back to Sweden,
June 1 77 1, in order to save his country from being
a second Poland, the victim of factions corrupted by
foreign gold. He was welcomed with enthusiasm.
He opened Parliament with a speech whose eloquence
reached the high-water mark of. Swedish oratory.
He held it the greatest honour to be the first citizen
of a free people, and urged them to sacrifice party
animosities to the common welfare. Through his
endeavours a composition committee was formed to
divide the spoils of office between Hats and Caps
and deal with them firmly and squarely. But the
Caps had things their own way, and Gustavus was
compelled to borrow more than 3,000,000 crowns

GUSTAVUS III 315

to procure the election of a Hat as Speaker of the
House of Nobles by means of bribery. Catherine H,
however, spent a large sum to give the Caps, the
Patriots as she called them, a majority in the Secret
Committee. The Coronation Oath (Royal Assurance)
drafted by them contained new clauses, binding the
King to reign uninterruptedly (to make abdication
impossible), to abide by the decision of the majority
of the Estates — to enable the three lower Estates to
prevail against the House of Nobles, and to be guided
solely by merit in making appointments — thus
abolishing a privilege of the Nobles. After endless
debates and discussions, the House of Nobles agreed
to the new Coronation Oath in February 1772, and
the King, weary and disgusted, appended his
signature to this perpetuation of the anarchy which
was upheld by Russian bribery until the moment
came to pounce on her prey.

As he was revolving schemes of revolution in his
mind he was approached, first by Colonel Magnus
Sprengtporten, a nobleman from Finland, and then
by J. C. Toll, a ranger from Scania, men of equal
ability and audacity, enemies of the Caps. Sprengt-
porten proposed to seize Sveaborg and sail with the
royalists of Finland to compel the Estates by force
to accept the King*s conditions ; Toll to seize the
fortress of Kristianstad in Scania when Charles, the
King's brother, was to pretend to crush the revolt with
a southern army, but in reality was to join Toll and
march upon Stockholm to attack the Estates simul-
taneously with Sprengtporten. This plot developed.
Toll won over the officers of the Kristianstad garrison

GUSTAVUS III.

gVstaVus III 317

by sheer blufif ; Sprengtporten did the same at Svea-
borg, but head winds prevented him from sailing for
over a week. The English Ambassador communicated
news of the plot to the Council, and their Commis-
sioner in Scania arrived in Stockholm on August 1 6th
with the story of the revolt at Kristianstad. The
Council at their meeting were in favour of arresting
the King, and only refrained till they had proofs of
his guilt. The courier from Prince Charles with the
official news. of the revolt for the Council brought a
secret letter sewn into his saddle for his brother, the
King. Alone in the midst of his enemies, hundreds of
miles from his fellow-conspirators, Gustavus resolved
to strike the blow himself. He had already won over
the cavalry patrols in the streets by his personal
charm. On August i8th he sent secret orders to all
royalist officers in Stockholm to meet him at ten next
morning in Arsenal Square. He stayed up all night
sorting papers ; he drew up an order for the arrest of
the Council ; he copied his draft of the new Constitu-
tion on vellum, and wrote a letter to his brother not
to avenge his death if he were killed. At 6 a.m. he
received the sacrament from his chaplain, who took
his private papers in a casket to the Spanish Ambas-
sador. He communicated the news of the coup cTeiat
to the corps diplomatique on the back of a ten-dollar
note. At 10 a.m., August 19th, he was on horseback
at Arsenal Square and about two hundred officers
joined him. After the parade the King said in a loud
voice: "As all these gentlemen return on foot I may
as well do so, too." This was the prearranged signal
for the revolution which was not to take place that

3l8 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

day, if the King mounted his horse again. The officers
accompanied him to the Guards' Room where, in a
glowing speech, he won over the Guards. "If you
will follow me as your forefathers followed Gustavus
Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus I will venture my life-
blood for the safety and honour of my country."
While he sent an officer with thirty Guards to arrest
the State Council, who were holding a meeting in the
Palace and were tamely locked in, he dictated a new
oath of allegiance to men and officers in the Guards'
Room, binding them not to obey the Estates but
only their lawful King, Gustavus III, and to defend
him and the new Constitution he would give them.
The Governor of Stockholm was arrested. The
members of the Secret Committee fled. Gustavus
occupied the Arsenal, and at the artillery yard he
tied a white handkerchief round his left arm as a
royalist badge which he asked his friends to
adopt. Instantly the whole population of Stockholm
fluttered the white handkerchief. Making a com-
plete tour of the city Gustavus was hailed as a
deliverer by huge crowds everywhere. A blood-
less revolution had made him master of Sweden
in a few hours. The city gates were closed and
strong guards were posted at night. The Russian
Ambassador tried in vain to foment a counter
revolution.

On August 20th heralds proclaimed throughout
the city that the Estates were to assemble at 4 p.m.
next day, and that every absent deputy would be
counted an enemy of his king and country. On
the 2 1st the Life Guards were drawn up on both

GUSTAVUS III 319

sides of the main street. The Hall of the Estates
was surrounded by artillery, the men standing by
their guns with lighted matches. Instead of the
usual State procession headed by the four Speakers
with their maces before them, the frightened deputies
sneaked one by one to their places, running the
gauntlet of rows of bayonets. Whereupon the King,
crown on head and sceptre in hand, took his seat
on the throne and delivered what is considered by
many to be the greatest masterpiece of Swedish
oratory. Not since 1527, at Vesteras from Gustavus
Vasa, had a Swedish Parliament listened to such
language from the throne. " Liberty has been trans-
formed into aristocratic tyranny. Parties are united
only in mangling and dishonouring their common
fatherland. The majority is above the law and owns
no restraint. Rid yourselves of fetters of foreign
gold and domestic discord. If honour is dead in
your hearts, my blushes ought to make you feel into
what contempt the kingdom has been thrown by
you. If there be any here present who can deny
the truth of what I have said, let him stand up ! "
In their hearts they knew, every man of them,
that these stinging reproaches were well deserved.
Thereupon he had the new Constitution read out
to the dumbfounded deputies and, without granting
them one minute for deliberating on it, demanded
if they would solemnly bind themselves to keep it.
They answered in the affirmative, unanimously,
repeating their "yes" three times. The Constitu-
tion was signed by the Speakers. The King signed
his new Coronation Oath. Thereupon he laid aside

320 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

his crown, drew a psalm-book from his pocket and
made a sign for all to join in chanting a Te Deum
to thank God for knitting together again the old
ties between King and people. In a few hours a
weak and faction-ridden republic, the prospective
prey of its neighbours, had been changed into a
strong, constitutional monarchy. No harsh measures
of any kind were adopted. The captive State
Councillors were treated more like guests than
prisoners in the Palace, and all kissed his hand on
their release. A proclamation forbade the use of
those odious and abominable names, Hats and Caps,
which had " smitten Sweden with the worst abuses
ever known in a Christian country."

The new Constitution restored the ancient
monarchy in Sweden, in abeyance during the Age
of Freedom or Anarchy, 1720-72. The Crown alone
could call together and dissolve the Estates, and
they could only debate measures and proposals
laid before them by the King. The Crown again
became the depository of honours and appointments,
of foreign affairs and of the supreme command of
the Army and Navy. The right of appointing and
dismissing State Councillors and the four Speakers
was taken from the Estates and again became a
royal prerogative. But large powers were still left
with the Estates. Their consent was necessary for
an offensive war and for war subsidies ; they retained
the power of taxation in their hands and controlled
all expenditure. But the State Council became
wholly dependent on, and responsible to, the King.
Judges were made immovable to prevent the mis-

GUSTAVUS III 321

carriage of justice owing to party interest. But the
mutual limits of the powers possessed by Crown
and Parliament were vague and ill-defined.
Catherine II was furious at the escape of the
Swedish prey from her clutches, but refrained from
a war. to restore the old Constitution; her hands
were full with the partitioning of Poland and with
the Turkish war, but she renewed her secret alliance
with Denmark, to intervene when the time came
to undo the Swedish revolution.

The period 1772-86 is filled with liberal and much-
needed reforms, in most of which the King is the
prime mover and spirit. Judicial torture is abolished,
freedom of the Press introduced, the currency regu-
lated, the administration of justice reformed, the
national defences pulled out of the slough of
despond into which they had sunk. Maladminis-
tration of justice was so rife that the King prosecuted
one of the Supreme Courts of Sweden before the
State Council and presided himself at the trial ;
more than one-half of its judges were found guilty
and disbenched. Abuses in the Army, which was
honeycombed with politics, were sternly repressed.
Toll was the guiding spirit in reforming the Army.
A new Navy was rapidly built by an English-
man in the Swedish naval service, and huge docks
were built at Karlskrona. Ehrensvard built the
impregnable fortress of Sveaborg on the coast of
Finland outside Helsingfors; it could easily hold
in its harbour the large galley flotilla which was
to defend the rock and islet-studded coast of
Finland against Russia. In every department of

322 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

State sweeping reforms " were carried out by able
men chosen by the King.

He called the Estates together in 1778 and ren-
dered account of the great work done. There was
no room for anything but admiration and approval of
the monarch, who fascinated every one who came
under his personal influence. Still they sorely missed
the francs and roubles which used to be doled out so
liberally. The vote of a member had a market value
which in critical times could reach a large sum. Now
their gracious and gentle master wore an iron hand
in a velvet glove. Their power had departed from
them to him. The Estates were summoned again in
1786. By that time the disaffected nobility had
succeeded in fomenting discontent in the country.
The presentation to ecclesiastical benefices for money
and gifts, interference with private distillation of
spirits and attempts to make it a Government mono*
poly, the increase in taxation and other reasons con-
tributed to make the Estates so refractory that they
threw out the royal bills or mutilated them so as not
to be acceptable. They were curtly dismissed by the
King. He now no longer relied on the Estates but
on the co-operation of selected men, brilliantly gifted,
ruthless royalists, ready to carry out his designs,
constitutional or not. Gustavus strained every nerve
to prepare for the final reckoning with Russia.
Catherine H had secretly leagued herself with Den-
mark to intervene to restore the republican Swedish
Constitution of 1720. He seized the opportunity
when she was at war with Turkey. In the spring of
1788 he demanded an explanation of the Russian

GUSTAVUS III 323

military preparations in Finland. Catherine returned
a meek and reassuring answer. As he could not
begin an offensive war without the consent of the
Estates, he got the Council to approve his action
by telling them that Russia was on the point of
invading Finland with a large army — which was not
true. He sailed for Finland with a large and well-
equipped army at midsummer, 1788. At the same
time in a letter to Catherine he demanded the cessiun
of Carelia and Livonia to Sweden, of the Crimea to
Turkey, and the instant disbanding of the Russian
troops. Consternation and anger reigned in Peters-
burg. Catherine prepared to defend herself against
this " madman '' and punish his insolence. Petersburg
was saved by a mutiny in the Swedish army. The
Swedish officers of the nobility, "citizens first and
soldiers afterwards," were dead against an " unconsti-
tutional " war, and joining hands with Finnish troops
they had won over they forced the King to march
back across the frontier. Whereupon the mutineers
wrote to Catherine 1 1 that this war had been begun
for none, or insufficient, reasons, that Swedish and
Russian Finland joined in one independent Finland
would be the best guarantee of a lasting peace, and
that Her Majesty's gracious and early reply would
determine whether they, the true spokesmen of the
Swedish people, would discontinue the war or not.
In answer Catherine, without committing herself to
anything, praised the patriotism of the Finnish people
and vaguely promised that their representatives
should meet to deliberate on the future status of
Finland, under the protection of Russia. At Anjala

324 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

the leaders of the rebels drew up a declaration
addressed to the King, protesting against this uncon-
stitutional war which it was their duty to the nation
to bring to an end. Gustavus was forced to be a
passive spectator of these treasonable proceedings, on
board his yacht on the Kymmene River. At the
news of a Danish invasion of Sweden he exclaimed :
" We are saved." He could now depart to rally his
people in the hour of danger, without seeming to
desert the Army. As he embarked the Anjala
Declaration was handed to him ; he returned it
unopened, with the words : " I do not treat with
rebels." He hastened to Dalecarlia and appealed to
the sturdy peasantry who so often of yore had saved
Sweden. Thousands of volunteers flocked to his
standard. Meanwhile a Danish army was advancing
from the Norwegian border on Gothenburg, then the
greatest commercial city of Sweden, which was in a
panic and prepared to surrender. Suddenly at mid-
night on September 25th Gustavus, having ridden 250
miles on horseback in forty-eight hours, appeared
alone at the city gates. As by magic he put the city
in a state of defence and raised volunteers, while
reinforcements of Dalecarlians arrived hour by hour,
so that all thoughts of surrender vanished. Hugh
Elliot, the British Ambassador in Copenhagen, inter-
vened so energetically in the Danish camp that the
Danish troops evacuated Sweden, in November 1788.
Gustavus convoked the Estates in 1789. The three
lower Estates were filled with admiration at the
patriotic courage of the King, while about three-
fourths of the 950 nobles who sat in the House of

GVsTAvas III 325

Nobles were Anjala men, self-styled patriots, who
defended the mutiny. A whole literature of ballads
and pamphlets sprung up contrasting the cowardice
and treason of the noble officers with the patriotism
of the non-noble classes. Met with obstruction in
the granting of supplies by the nobles at the outset,
the King laid before the Estates an Act of Union and
Security which amended the Constitution and gave
the King the full control of peace and war and of
foreign affairs. After arresting twenty-one of the
leading men among the Anjala nobles on Feb-
ruary i6th, he introduced in person the new Con-
stitution to the Estates assembled in Congress on
February 17th. In response to his question, thrice
repeated, whether the Estates accepted it the loud
ayes of the lower Estates drowned the noes of
the nobles, and the Act was passed over their heads.
The grant of supplies for the war required the con-
sent of all four Estates ; the three lower Estates
readily agreed, but in the House of Nobles the King
took his seat in the Speaker's chair, made a fervid
appeal to the House, put the question and declared it
carried in spite of overwhelming opposition. By
this high-handed proceeding, at the danger of his
life, he earned the undying hatred of his nobles.
The abolition of the Council or Senate in May 1789
and the arrest of the leaders of the Anjala conspiracy
followed.

In the summer of 1789 the Russians were defeated
in no less than three pitched battles in Finland.
At sea, though the fighting was indecisive, the victory
also inclined to the Swedish side. In 1790 Gustavus

326 THE STORY OP SWEDEN

planned a simultaneous attack on Petersburg by land
and sea. His brother, Duke Charles, advanced as
far as Cronstadt with his fleet, and the thunder of the
Swedish guns was audible to Catherine, who spent
sleepless nights in her palace. But the Swedes
ventured too far into the land-locked waters of
Viborg, and after being hemmed in by overwhelming
forces for some weeks, made a desperate effort to
escape through a narrow channel where they had to
run the gauntlet of the enemy's fire. They escaped
with the loss of ten men-of-war and many galleys.
This was the battle of the Viborg Gauntlet, July 3,
1790. About a week later in Svensksund, Gustavus
gained the greatest naval victory recorded in the
history of Sweden. The Russians lost fifty-five ships
captured, a number were destroyed, and their loss
in killed, wounded, and prisoners was nearly 14,000.
Sidney Smith fought with the Swedes. Peace was
concluded on August 14, 1790, at Varala, on the
Kymmene River. Conquests and prisoners were
mutually restored, but the status quo was agreed to
on the understanding that Russia would hereafter
abstain from intervention in the internal affairs of
Sweden. Gustavus now bent all his energies to
form a league of European princes to join in a
monarchical crusade against revolutionary France.
He formed an alliance with Catherine for this
purpose. He was to land in Normandy with a
Russo-Svvedish army and march on Paris. He called
the Estates together at Gefle, and carried everything
with his impetuous eloquence. During its session
aristocratic conspirators waited in vain for an

ausTAVus ni 327

opportunity to assassinate him. He was shot in the
back with a pistol at a masquerade in the Opera
House at Stockholm, about midnight on March 16
1792. He lingered for. twelve days, and begged that
the authors of the crime should not be punished,
and hoped that his death would reconcile all parties.
He was an active and eager patron of literature,
science, and art. His dramas from Swedish history
have literary merit. His inaugural orations on
various occasions touched the high-water mark of
Swedish oratory.

CHAPTER XXX

GUSTAVUS IV— THE LOSS OF FINLAND

His assassin, Anckarstrom, was whipped through
the capital and pilloried in irons for three days ; his
right hand was cut off and he was beheaded, drawn,
and quartered. But the equally guilty aristocratic
regicides were merely sent out of the country. This
was owing to the influence of Reuterholm who was
the ruler of Sweden during the regency of Duke
Charles, 1792-96. He was a disciple of Rousseau ;
he removed all the brilliant monarchists who had
formed the Gustavian Court. He was on friendly
terms with the French Republic even after the
execution of Louis XVI ; the Republic was officially
recognized by Sweden, which accepted subsidies
from France and flouted the opinion of Europe.
The Gustavian monarchists conspired against a
regime which seemed to be dangerous for the very
existence of the throne ; Russia was going to support
the revolution. Reuterholm discovered the plot in
time by opening private letters. Arm felt, the guiding
spirit of the conspiracy, escaped to Russia, but his
mistress, who had rejected Duke Charles as lover,

was pilloried in Stockholm, and public opinion in

32S

GUSTAVUS IV. 329

Sweden turned against the mean and vindictive
spirit of the Government. Frightened, the advisers
of the Duke Regent became reactionary. The Press
was forbidden to refer to the Constitution of France
or the United States, and republican literature was
prohibited. Yet Sweden had , officially recognized
the French Republic and received a subsidy. In
the autumn of 1796 Gustavus IV visited Petersburg
with a view to marrying Alexandra, the granddaughter
of Catherine II, but as his Lutheran scruples would
not allow his bride to worship in her Greek Orthodox
Church after the marriage, the betrothal festivities
were broken off. Catherine was much aggrieved
and died two months later. Gustavus IV came of
age on November i, 1796, and his first act on taking
over the Government was to dismiss Reuterholm.
The brilliant entourage of Gustavus III came back
and resumed their places in the Government. The
King's narrow-minded obstinacy was hidden away
under his deeply religious sense of duty. His
marriage to a princess of Baden intensified his hatred
of the French republic. His reactionary zeal was
such that he put off his coronation till 1800 rather
than summon the Estates. The House of Nobles
passed the Act of Union and Security under com-
pulsion, some of its members being afraid that their
complicity in the assassination of Gustavus III
might be revealed.

Twice — 1794 and 1800 — Sweden joined the lleague
of Armed Neutrality of the North, whose ships jointly
patrolled the seas to protect their merchantmen against
being searched by the British. Friendship sprang up

330 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

again after so many fratricidal wars. " Scandinavia
reunited " became the watchword of the day. In 1801
Nelson, after the battle of Copenhagen, was proceed-
ing to Karlskrona, which was only saved by the
timely assassination of the Tsar. The execution of
the Due d'Enghien, who was seized in Baden,
brought the King's anger against Napoleon to a
head ; be saw in him the "Beast" of the Apocalypse
whom he was destined by God to slay. Le Moniteur
in Paris printed an article on Gustavus IV, that
weakling who "had inherited nothing from Charles XII
but his folly and his boots," and Gustavus immediately
handed his passports to the Emperor's representative
in Stockholm, since after the "insolent observations
of Monsieur Bonaparte" in his journal he would
have no further intercourse with him. Gustavus
joined the third coalition against Napoleon, and took
the command of 13,000 Swedish troops in Pomerania,
where he remained inactive owing to a quarrel with
the King of Prussia. Meanwhile, after Austerlitz,
the coalition came to an end. Again in 1806 he
remained inactive while Napoleon crushed Prussia ;
the French seized Pomerania, 1807, and though beaten
back at first with loss from the siege of Stralsund,
took it later in the year. The Swedish troops retired
to Riigen, from which they were allowed to sail for
Sweden with all their armaments intact. According
to the Treaty of Tilsit, Sweden was called upon by
France and Russia to close her ports to England and
join the Continental System. On February 21, 1808,
Russian troops invaded Finland without any declara-
tion of war. The regular Swedish troops tamely

THE LOSS OF FINLAND 331

retired north to Uleaborg, and the impregnable
Sveaborg with 2,oco guns and immense stores,
guarded by 6,000 men, surrendered to a force of
10,000 men with 46 guns. Cronstedt,. its com-
mandant, was one of the Finnish traitors who
thought Finland would prosper under Russia.
Meanwhile all the Swedish troops were stationed
in Scania and on the Norwegian border to ward
off Danish attacks. Denmark had declared war on
Sweden at the instigation of France and Russia, and
in the hope of acquiring a large part of Southern
Sweden. Sir John Moore, with 10,000 British troops,
lamded at Gothenburg, but Gustavus wasted the time
in senseless quarrels with him and even placed him
under arrest After two months of this Moore sailed
for England in disgust. No succour was sent to
Finland until too late, and then in driblets. After
retreating for two months in deep snow and bitter
cold the starving and ill-clad Finnish army took the
offensive under Adlercreutz. For about six months
the heroic army of Finland held its own against a
fourfold and fivefold number of Russian troops, and
won several hard-fought victories. In spite of every
discouragement these devoted men thrust back the
Imperial eagles with superhuman bravery and ten-
acity. Leaders worthy of such men arose among
them, such as Dobeln and Sandels, whose bare
presence was equal to whole regiments. The
Swedish-Finnish poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, has
sung this epic struggle in his " Fanrik Stals Sagner."
But the reinforcements from Sweden were insuffi-
cient, and arrived in a planless and haphazard way.

33^ *^HB STOJRY 6P' SWEDEN

The Finnish forces dwindled more and more from
wounds and sickness. After their defeat in the
fourteen hours' battle of Oravais they acted on the
defensive and finally abandoned the hopeless struggle
and, by the Convention of Olkijoki, November 19,

1808, evacuated Finland and retired behind its
boundary, the River Kemi. Alexander I had added
Finland to his dominions, but his ambitions went
further. By investing Stockholm from the north and
the east, while his Danish allies invaded Sweden from
the west, he wished to partition Sweden as a new
Poland. It was a fateful hour. Then a number of
officers in high command conspired to dethrone the
obstinate King and save their country. Adlersparre,
one of the officers in command of the army on the
No/wegian border, made a secret truce with Christian
August of Augustenburg, the Commander-in-Chief
of the Dano-Norwegian army, and promised him the
succession to the Swedish Crown. Whereupon he
marched on Stockholm. The King had news of his
march and made ready to leave Stockholm and join
the Scanian army. To prevent this, which would
have meant civil war, Adlercreutz, the hero of the
Finnish • war, with six officers, entered the King's
apartments unannounced in the morning of March 13,

1809, and declared he had come to prevent his
journey. The King drew his sword and called for
help but was immediately disarmed. A little later
the King escaped through a secret passage, but was
seized as he ran across the courtyard and carried
back to his room. He was taken as prisoner to
Drottningholm, outside Stockholm. Duke Charles,

TliE LOSS OF FINLAND 333

his uncle, was proclaimed Regent, and summoned the
Estates. Not a drop of blood was shed during this
revolution. The King abdicated on March 29th,
hoping that his son would take his place. But the
Estates thanked the leaders of the revolution for
their patriotism and declared that Gustavus IV and
his descendants had forfeited the Crown of Sweden.
The King and his family were then exiled from the
country. He called himself Colonel Gustafsson, and
died in poverty in Switzerland in 1837. His son
called himself Prince of Vasa, and died in 1877
without male heirs.

A constitution committee drafted a new Constitu-
tion in a fortnight. It was passed by the Estates on
June 5, 1809. On the following day Charles XIII
received the Crown from them and signed the Con-
stitution. Sweden had thereby become a limited
constitutional monarchy as it is to-day. Prince
Christian August of Augustenburg was, owing to
the efforts of Adlersparre, elected Heir to the throne.

Russia made three attacks on Sweden : one army
entered Sweden by land via Tornea; Barclay de
Tolly marched across the Bothnian Gulf, over the
ice, where it is at its narrowest ; a third army seized
the Aland Islands, and the Cossacks galloped across
the ice and plundered near Stockholm. Bafcilay de
Tolly soon marched back to Finland, but the remains
of the heroic Finnish army capitulated to the northern
Russian army at Kalix and were permitted to return
to their homes. Negotiations for peace were opened
at Frederikshamn. In order to get better terms the
Swedes secretly landed 8,000 men north of the

334 ^^^ STORY OF SWFDEN

Russian army, which was at to Umei, intercept its
communications, but they were beaten twice and
compelled to re-embark. Nothing remained but to
submit to the humiliating terms of the victor, and on
September 17, 1809, Sweden signed ^^ Frederikshamn
the hardest peace in its history. It ceded more than
one-thira of its territory, namely, all Finland, the
Aland Islands, the outposts of Stockholm, and
Vasterbotten and Swedish Lapland as far as Torne&
and Muonio Rivers. The new status of Finland had
already been settled in March 1809.^ Peace was
made with Denmark at Jonkoping, December 10
1809, on the basis of the status quo ante bellunty and
with France at Paris, January 6, 18 10. Pomerania
was given back to Sweden on condition of her joining
the Continental System and closing her ports to
English ships and goods.

The new Crown Prince, Charles Augustus, as he
was called, arrived in Sweden early in 18 10, and
soon became extremely popular except among the
Gustavian party. He died suddenly at a review of
troops in Scania, May 18 10, and the false rumour
spread that he had been poisoned by the leaders of
the Gustavians. At his State funeral in Stockholm
on June 20, 1810, the Court Marshal, Count Axel
von Fersen, was stoned in his carriage by a raging
mob, dragged out of it and battered to death, while
the troops, owing to secret orders, looked on without
interfering.

Adlersparre wished to elect the brother of the late
Crown Prince, the Duke of Augustenburg, and the
' See Finland.

THE LOSS OF FINLAND 335

KjnCT and his ministers were won over to tjiis view.
Napoleon was informed of this and did not object.
Others wished to re-establish the Union of Scandi-
navia by electing the King of Denmark. One of the
Swedish couriers in Paris was Lieutenant Baron Otto
Morner. Like many of his fellow-soldiers, he thought
that a French general on the throne might recover
the prestige of Sweden and retake Finland. Marshal
Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo, was popular in
Sweden for his generous treatment of S\{^edish
prisoners. On his own personal initiative Morner
offered the Swedish Crown to Bernadotte, who
ridiculed the offer, but told him he would accept if
he were elected. Morner hurried back to Sweden
to work for his election. He was placed under arrest
by the Swedish Government, whose candidate at the
meeting of the Estates at Orebro was still the Duke
of Augustenburg. But admiration for Bernadotte
and a belief that Napoleon favoured his candidature
and would assist in recovering Finland turned all
heads. The Government turned right-about, and on
it3 proposal Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of
Sweden unanimously by all four Kstates, August 21,
1810.

BERNADOTTE (CHARLES JOHN).

CHAPTER XXXI

BERNADOTTE AND HIS SUCCESSORS — THE UNION
WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION

Jean Bernadotte was born at Pau, 1763. He rose,
from a simple soldier through all grades to be
Marshal of France and Prince of Ponte Corvo. He
and. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon*s brother, were
married to sisters. Yet he had often dared to
disagree with Napoleon, who suspected him to
harbour secret plans against himself. He took the
name Karl Johan (Charles John) and arrived in his
new kingdom in the autumn, 18 10. Equally brilliant
as a. statesman and soldier, he at once assumed
control of government and especially of foreign
affairs. Though he firmly intended not to be the
vassal of Napoleon, yet he was compelled to declare .
war against England at the dictation of the Emperor,
because Sweden continued to import British goods
in spite of the Continental System. The British
Government was secretly informed that the war was
not seriously meant. Not a shot was fired and
smuggling flourished. As Napoleon continued to
humiliate Sweden, Bernadotte adopted a new policy.
He gave up the fond hopes of the Swedes

23 ^37

338 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

to reconquer Finland with the help of Napoleon.
He saw that Sweden could not hold Finland in the
long run against the might of Russia. Norway
would be worth more to Sweden than Finland.
With the help of Alexander I, and the consent of
the anti-Napoleonic coalition, Denmark could be
forced to cede Norway. When Swedish Pomerania
was occupied by French troops in January 1812,
Bernadotte hesitated no longer. By a secret treaty
at Petersburg, April 181 2, Alexander guaranteed to
Sweden the acquisition of Norway in return for the
assistance of 30,000 Swedish troops againt Napoleon
in Germany. An extraordinary parliament at Orebro
granted all that Bernadotte deemed necessary for
the war. When Napoleon invaded Russia, he met
Alexander at Abo, August 181 2. They became
lifelong friends. A Russian army corps was to be
put under Bernadotte's command to conquer
Norway. By a secret article (family compact) they
bound themselves to assist each other against every
attack. Bernadotte feared the old Royal Family.

After Napoleon's retreat from Russia, England
also promised to assist in the acquisition of Norway
on condition that Bernadotte first assisted the Allies
in the overthrow of Napoleon. In the spring of
18 1 3 Bernadotte landed in Germany with 30,000
Swedish troops. During the armistice which
followed upon the initial defeats of the Allies, he
drew up a new plan of campaign at a conference
with the Tsar and the King of Prussia. The forces
of the Allies were divided into three armies. He
took command of the Northern army and beat oflF

UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 339

successfully the attempts of Oudinot, and of Ney,
at Gross-Beeren, and at Dennewitz, to break through
the ring of iron which closed round Napoleon. He
was at Leipsic October i6th, i8th, and 19th, and
there, as elsewhere, he spared the Swedes, sending
only the artillery into action. Part of the Northern
army followed the Allies to France, while he marched
north into Holstein to force Denmark to cede
Norway. There was little resistance, and Frederick
VI soon lost courage. By the Peace of Kiel,
January 14, 1814, Norway was ceded to Sweden as
a kingdom in union with it ; it was to pay its share
of the Danish debt, and Iceland, the Faroes, and
Greenland were to remain with Denmark, which
acquired Swedish Pomerania. Thereupon Berna-
dotte marched back to assist his allies, but stopped
in Belgium as he was against the restitution of the
Bourbons. Yet Sweden was one of the seven
signatories with France of the Treaty of Paris.
Guadeloupe, which England had given to Sweden,
was handed back to France, England paying a
ransom of 24,000,000 francs to Sweden.

The Norwegians had been released from their
allegiance to Frederick VI. They were filled with
patriotic pride at being again a free and independent
people, and refused to be forced, unasked, into a
union with Sweden. A party led by the ablest
statesman of the day, Count Wedel Jarlsberg, was
for union with Sweden, but the large majority were
for restoring the old independence of Norway. They
rallied round their popular viceroy, Prince Christian
Frederick, and refused to acknowledge the Treaty of

340 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

Kiel. Christian Frederick assumed the reins of
government, and called the representatives of The
nation to meet in a national assembly at Eidsvold,
near Christiania. They met on April lO, 1814, and
a Constitution modelled on the Constitutions of the
United States, France (179O, and Spain (1812) was
drawn up. This "Fundamental Law of Norway"
wa's passed on May 17th, and the same day Christian
Frederick was elected King of Norway. This de-
claration of independence was attended by great
risks. The Great Powers threatened Norway and
advised her to yield, but, single-handed, she was
determined, though ill-equipped, to wage a struggle
against the most consummate general of the time.
He invaded Southern Norway. The Norwegians,
fighting bravely, retired behind Glommen. Berna-
dotte, with wise moderation, after hostilities had
lasted a fortnight, concluded the Armistice and
Convention of Moss. Christian Frederick undertook
to summon the Storthing, the Parliament of Norway,
and lay down his crown in its hands, while
Bernadotte promised to recognize the new Constitu-
tion of Norway with the modifications necessitated
by the union with Sweden, if such a union were
assented to by the Storthing. The Storthing met at
Christiania, and on October loth Christian Frederick
resigned his crown into its hands. Negotiations
were conducted with Swedish commissioners with
regard to the necessary alterations in the Constitu-
tion ; they gave way on every point. On the eve
of the expiration of the armistice the Storthing
assented to the union with Sweden, almost unani-

UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 34!

mously. The amended Constitution was finally
passed on November 4th, on which day the Storthini,^
elected Charles XIII King of Norway. Norway was
to be " a free, independent, and indivisible kingdom,
united with Sweden under one king." Foreign
affairs were to be in the hands of the King and a
joint Swedish-Norwegian Council. Three Norwegian
ministers were to be in attendance on the King
when he resided in Stockholm. He may appoint
a viceroy in Norway during his absence. The
Norwegian Army or Navy not to be used abroad
without the consent of the Storthing. The Storthing
was a one-chamber parliament which constituted
one-fourth of its own members as an Upper House,
Lagthing, which together with the Supreme Court
formed a Court of Impeachment. According to
paragraph 79 of the Constitution, a Bill passed by
three successive Storthings becomes the law of the
land, even without the assent of the King. That
this suspensive royal veto did not apply to changes
in the Constitution itself was held by the Swedes,
but even so it was a powerful weapon of democracy.

The Act of Union, August 181 5, passed by the
Parliaments of the two countries, lays down in its
preamble that the Union was accomplished, not by
force of arms but by free conviction. Norway was to
have full equality within the Union which resembled
an offensive and defensive alliance, though Sweden
came to be the predominant partner.

Soon it was found that Norway claimed full
political equality with Sweden, and its democracy
began that long struggle against the royal power, thQ

342 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

chief link in the Union, which finally led to its dis-
ruption. Norway refused to pay its share of the
Danish National Debt as it did not acknowledge the
Treaty of Kiel, and made counter-claims for the
restoration of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes.
Only under strong pressure from Charles XIV John,
as Bernadotte called himself after his accession to
the throne in 1818, did the Storthing agree to pay
three millions but of the seven-million " daler " claimed
by Denmark. The Storthing abolished the privileges
of the nobility against the wishes of the King.
May 17th, the Norwegian day of independence, was
celebrated as a national festival, though the King tried
to prevent it. Yet he, personally, was extremely
popular, while the appointment of Swedes to be
viceroys or governors of Norway was looked upon as
a mark of inferiority, and after 1 829 no Swede was
appointed to that post. The King's idea was that
the Union should become as close as the union of
Scotland and England, but the differences between
the two peoples were too deep-rooted for them to
grow into one people. In foreign policy the King
was very successful. Son of the revolution as he
was, he distrusted Liberal ideas and drew nearer to
Russia. In 1826 he ended a series of negotiations
with Russia by a treaty in Petersburg, according to
which the districts in Finmark hitherto occupied in
common by Russians and Norwegians were partitioned
between the two countries, and he thereby stopped
the unceasing advance of Russia towards the ice-free
Atlantic in that direction.
Sweden made rapid material progress under

UNION WITH NOkWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 343

Charles XIV. The Gota Canal, connecting Stock-
holm and Gothenburg, took twenty years and over
twenty million " daler " to construct. New industries
sprang up and Sweden became a grain-exporting
country. In spite of the great prosperity of Sweden
an opposition, which numbered in its ranks the most
talented and gifted men in the country, arose against
various reactionary measures of the King. He never
learnt Swedish, and was dependent on his intimate
friends for knowledge of his subjects. " The censorship
of the Press was unjust and inefficient. Riots took
place in Stockholm on the occasion of the imprison-
ment of an editor. The last meeting of the Estates
in his reign (1840) compelled the King to adopt
various administrative changes and reforms and, out
of spite, to pay out of his own pocket a large sum
used without warrant on the diplomatic service. But
when he died at eighty-one, in 1844, his people,
remembered how much he had done for Sweden.
" No one has had a career like mine," he exclaimed.
He, the great warrior, was the first King of Sweden
who reigned without war, the first who lived to see
sons and grandsons of his own, and he was older than
any of his predecessors at his death. Esaias Tegner,
the national poet, author of Frithiof s Saga, Geijer,
the historian, Ling, the founder of modern gymnastics,
and the chemist Berzelius, shed lustre on Sweden in
the reign of Charles XIV.

. One of the first acts of Oscar I (1844-59), a
cultured Liberal, was to sanction the use of the Nor-
wegian national flag as a naval flag, with the mark
of the Union in one corner. He laid many schemes

344 "^fi^ STORY OF SIVEDEJ^

of reform before the Estates, but most of them were
whittled down or put off. A proposal to modernize
the antiquated and cumbersome procedure of the
Estates was defeated by themselves. Various bonds
and shackles that bound trade and industry were
removed. Oscar I was a strong adherent of a united
Scandinavia confronting German aggression. During
the first Dano-German war Swedish and Norwegian
volunteers flocked under the Danish standard, and a
Swedish-Norwegian Army was stationed in Scania,
while five thousand men were sent to Funen. Yet
Sweden remained neutral. Oscar I leant on the
Western Liberal Powers, France and England, and
when Russia, in 1851, attempted to acquire fishing
rights for the Russian Lapps on the Norwegian coast
of the Varanger Fiord, he refused to allow Russia to
get a footing and a settlement there. Russia in
return closed her border to the Norwegian Lapps.
Fortunately, soon after Russia had her hands full
•with the Crimean War. Sweden, though her relations
with Russia were not friendly, remained neutral, but
in 185s concluded the November Treaty with France
and England, according to which these Powers bound
themselves to assist Sweden and Norway with all
their forces in case of any encroachment by Russia on
their rights or their territories. In the Treaty of
Paris (1856) Russia undertook not to fortify the
Aland Islands, the outposts of Stockholm. Industry
and commerce advanced by leaps and bounds, and
Sweden built her main railways. It was a time of
great material progress.

Charles XV (1859-72) was a genial - artist, poet,

UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 345

painter, and musician, extremely popular and beloved
in both his countries. While he did not see his
way to abolish the Norwegian viceroyalty, as the
Norwegians and he himself desired, owing to the
hostility of the Swedes, he appointed no viceroy
during his reign. Proposals for the revision of the
Union and the deliberations of Union committees
came to nothing, as the Norwegians did not con-
sider that they had the full equality which they
demanded.

The greatest achievement of his reign was the
reform of the Estates, carried by Baron Louis
de Geer. This was passed by the Estates, after a
stubborn resistance, in December 1865 and pro-
mulgated on June 22, 1866. Parliament was to
consist of two chambers. The First Chamber,
elected for nine years by the Communal Councils,
composed of unpaid members over thirty-five years
old, landowners or possessors of a taxable income
of 4,000 kroner. The Second Chamber was
elected for three years by electors with a property
qualification. In certain cases of disagreement
the two chambers were to vote together in com-
mon, especially in questions of supply.

Charles XV had personally promised support to
Denmark in the war of 1864, but his ministers refused
to risk a war without the active support of one of
the Great Powers. Demonstrations of sympathy
and numerous volunteers was all the help Sweden
and Norway could give. In 1872, on the death
of Charles XV, he was succeeded by his brother,
Oscar II, a man- of exceptional culture and know-

346 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

ledge, gifted in many ways. One of his first acts
was to abolish the viceroyalty in Norway (1873),
which made him popular in that country. In
Sweden the opposition between the First Chamber
dominated by the nobles and the great landowners,
and the Second Chamber, dominated by the Agra-
rian party (landtmannapartiet), of parsimonious
peasant proprietors, hindered many useful reforms
and wrecked various defence schemes. The peasant
deputies cut down the Civil List and compelled the
King to be crowned at his own expense, and made
military reform dependent on the abolition of land
taxes connected with military tenure. Only in
1885, at the cost of a reduction of 30 per cent, in
these taxes, did they pass a first instalment of army
reform. The next instalment was in 1892, when
in return the remaining land taxes were abolished.
Universal conscription, compulsory service, was intro-
duced in 1 90 1. The impregnable fortress of Bod en
was hewed out in granite in Norrland, near the
Finnish border, since Finland was. no longer a
buffer state. New forts were built to defend
Gothenburg. The struggle between Free Trade
and Protection led to the victory of the latter in
1888, when duties on corn were introduced, and
duties on industrial imports followed in 1892. The
leader of the Agrarian party, E. G. Bostrom, was
in power as Prime Minister of Sweden, 1 891-1905,
with an interval, 1900-2. During the last years
of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth
century Sweden began to export dairy produce
instead of corn. The rich iron ores near Gellivara

UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 347

and Kiruna in Norrland were tapped by the northern-
most railway in the world, running from Lulea on
the Bothnian Gulf to the Norwegian port, Narvik,
on the Atlantic. A great industrial era has dawned
for Sweden with its vast water power. Already
more than one-third of the population lives by
industrial pursuits, and in 1909 a general strike,
which failed, brought untold misery. Sweden has
more railways and telephones in proportion to its
population than any other country.

When the army reform had been finally settled
franchise reform became a burning question. In
1905 the first Liberal Ministry in Sweden was
formed by Staafif. His Franchise Bill was thrown
out, and the Conservative Ministry of Lindman laid
proposals for proportional representation in the
election for both Chambers before Parliament. The
Bill was passed by the Second Chamber on condition
that the municipal franchise was reformed so that
a democratic element entered the communal councils
which elect the First Chamber, the members of which
were to be paid and elected on a lower census. The
franchise reform was finally passed in 1909. A
powerful Labour and Socialist party has sprung
up under the leadership of Branting.

The Liberal party in Norway, under the leadership
of Johan Sverdrup, aimed at " concentrating all
power in the Storthing," as he declared on one
occasion. Soon there came a test question. The
Storthing passed three times — 1874, 1877, 1880 — a
Bill that the members of the Cabinet should partici-
pate in its debates. The King each tinje refi^sec}

348 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

sanction. He declared that, as this was a change in
the Constitution of Norway, he had an absolute not
a suspensive veto in this matter, and his view was
upheld by the Faculty of Law of Christiania Univer-
sity and the Conservative party. The Storthing
now declared that its Bill had become a statute of
the realm without the King's sanction, being passed
the third time with the necessary majority, on June 9,
1880, and requested its publication by the Govern-
ment. The Ministry refused this. The conflict
grew in violence. During the election in 1882 the
poet Bjornson and others spoke in favour of Norway
as a free republic. The Liberals numbered 83 in
the new Storthing, the Conservatives 31. The
eleven ministers of the Cabinet of C. A. Selmer were
then impeached by the Storthing before a Court of
Impeachment, composed of the Lagting and of the
Supreme Court. After a trial lasting ten months
Selmer and seven ministers were sentenced to be
deprived of office, and three of them to be fined, in
February 1884. Oscar II did not follow the advice
of his entourage to disregard the sentence, though
he continued to assert the unimpaired royal prero-
gative. Selmer resigned, and after some attempts to
form a Conservative Ministry the King was compelled
to ask Johan Sverdrup to form a Cabinet. Supreme
power had passed from the hands of an alien king to
the Storthing which, to save appearances, passed a new
resolution, which he sanctioned, regarding the parti-
cipation of ministers in its debates. Various joint
commissions were appointed by Norway and Sweden
to revise the Act of Union. The Swedes, who had

UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 349

entirely monopolized the Department of Foreign
Affairs, offered to let the Foreign Minister be either
a Swede or a Norwegian ; but the Norwegian Radicals
went further. They maintained that since Norway
had the largest commercial fleet next to England —
Germany has since taken her place — she was entitled
to have a separate consular service, which according
to their Constitution they could establish without
the consent of Sweden. In February 1905 Norway
broke off the last negotiations about a separate
consular service, and its new Ministry deliberately
prepared the disruption of the Union. The offer of
the Swedish Crown Prince, April 1905, acting as
Regent during his father's illness, was rejected ;
it was a belated attempt to put the two countries on
the same footing. The Storthing resolved to estab-
lish a separate consular service, and when King
Oscar refused to sanction this his Norwegian
ministers resigned. Oscar II refused to accept their
resignations, being " unable at the moment to form a^
Ministry" as all parties in Norway stood behind this
demand. All the ministers stuck to their resigna-
tions, and at a special meeting of the Storthing on
June 7, 1905, it was unanimously declared that "as
King Oscar II has announced that he is unable to
form a Government, he has thereby ceased to reign."
In this strange way the Union of ninety-one years
was dissolved. The retiring Ministry were retained
at the head of aflfairs. Anger and indignation rose
high in Sweden. The Swedish Parliament, in an
extraordinary session, laid down certain conditions to
be fulfilled by Norway before it would recognize the

350 THE STORY OF SWEDEN

dissolution. This resulted in a conference at
Karlstad, in Sweden, in which four members of each
Government took part. Meanwhile troops stood on
both sides of the frontier ready to cross it. War
hung in the balance. After several hitches the con-
ference reached an agreement on September 23rd. A
narrow strip on both sides of the frontier, reaching from
Skagerak to the 61 degree of latitude was constituted
as a neutral zone between the two countries, within
which no fortifications must exist nor any troops be
stationed. Norway was therefore compelled to dis-
mantle a line of forts stretching from Frederiksten
to Kongsvinger, all built within the ten years that
preceded the conference. The time-honoured rights
of the nomad Lapps to reindeer pasturage on both
sides of the frontier were temporarily secured, and so
was the right to export Swedish iron ore by the way
of the Norwegian port, Narvik. Disagreements
arising out of the Karlstad Treaty were to be sub-
mitted to The Hague Arbitration Court. The treaty
was agreed to by the Swedish Parliament and
approved by Oscar II on October 26, 1905.. Since
then the two peoples have been gradually drawing
together, and in case of Russian aggression they will
stand shoulder to shoulder.

Sweden acceded to the Baltic and North Sea
Convention, guaranteeing the possessions of the
contracting Powers on the coasts of these seas, in
1908. She is at present engaged in strengthening
her defences, impelled thereto with the fate of Fin-
land before her cy^s. On the death of Oscar II in
1907 he was succeeded by Gustavus V, who ha

UNION WITH NORWAY AND ITS DISSOLUTION 351

made a personal appeal to his people to make
sacrifices for their Army and Navy.

The Liberal Cabinet of Mr. Staaff appointed a
Commission of Inquiry on National Defence. The
alarmist Russophobe pamphlets of the famous
traveller, Sven Hedin, were one of the signs of grow-
ing discontent with this shelving of the question.
A procession of 30,000 peasants marched to the
Royal Palace in Stockholm to demand a decision.
Gustavus V in a speech acceded to their demands.
The Staaff Cabinet, not having been consulted,
resigned. A non-party Ministry with Conservative
leanings took its place with the solution of the defence
question as its sole programme. At the elections
held subsequently the Liberal party lost many seats,
chiefly to the Conservatives. The new Ministry
remained in power, supported not only by the Con-
servatives but by many Liberals for patriotic reasons.
The action of the King had thus been vindicated by
the course of events.

Recently, Gustavus V took the initiative to a
conference of the three Scandinavian Kings, accom-
panied by their Foreign Ministers at Malmo, in
Sweden. The old idea of a United Scandinavia
stands out stronger than ever in the hour of
danger.

PART IV

FINLAND

CHAPTER XXXII

FINLAND AFTER ITS SEPARATION FROM SWEDEN
(1809-I914)

The invasion of Finland by a Russian army and
the heroic defence of the Finnish army have been
related.^

All armed resistance was at an end, but Finland
had not been ceded to Russia when certain repre-
sentatives of its four Estates were received in Peters-
burg by the Tsar. At their suggestion he summoned
the Finnish Diet to meet at Borga, March 1809.
On March 15th Alexander I issued at Borga an Act
of Assurance to the people of Finland. " Providence
having placed Us in possession of the Grand Duchy
of Finland We hereby confirm and ratify the religion
and fundamental laws, rights and privileges of its
inhabitants, according to their Constitution, and
promise to maintain them firm and unchanged in
full force." He reiterated this promise in the speeeh
with which he opened the Diet, and when the Estates
took the oath of homage to him as Grand Duke of
Finland in the Cathedral the Act of Assurance was
read out and solemnly handed to the nobles. It

' See Sweden.
355

3S6 THE STORY OF FINLAND

was also read out in every church in Finland. His
popularity was still more increased by the speech
with which he closed the Diet in July 1809. "I
have kept watch and ward over the independence of
your opinions. This brave and loyal people will be
grateful to Providence, which has brought them to
their present status, placed from this time forward in
the rank of nations {plac^ disormais au rang des
nations) under the sway of its own laws." The
doubts thrown by Panslavist writers on the inten-
tions of Alexander I are dispelled by the instructions
which he gave to the first Governor of Finland. " It
has been my aim to give the people of Finland a
political existence so that they shall regard them-
selves, not as subject to Russia, but attached to her
by their own manifest interests."

After the cession of Finland by the Treaty of
Frederikshamn, September 1809, the Government of
Finland was organized on the basis of the two
Constitutions given by Gustavus III in 1772 and
1789. The province of Viborg, which had been part
of Russia since 1721, was reunited to Finland (181 1).
A Council of State was established, one-half of whose
members formed a Supreme Court. In 1816 its
name was changed to ** Imperial Senate of Finland "
and the senators were appointed by the Tsar. The
Governor-General presided at their meetings. A
Secretary for Finland in Petersburg formed the link
between the Tsar as Grand Duke of Finland and the
Diet. The Senate prepared all Bills to be laid before
the Diet, though they were only submitted on the
initiative of the Tsar. Constitutional reforms

FINLAND AFTER SEPARATION FROM SWEDEN 357

required the consent of all four Estates, all other
Bills only the assent of three Estates. The Diet was
not convoked during ther reigns of Alexander I and
Nicholas I, but Alexander II opened it in person
(1863). Three years before, in i860, he had granted
Finland a separate coinage. In his speech from the
throne he reiterated the assurances of Alexander I as
to the constitutional rights of Finland and made
use of the terms "state" and "nation." A commis-
sion was appointed to codify the statutes of the
Finnish Constitution. The Diet was to assemble
every five years. This Diet met at Helsingfors, to
which the seat of Government had been moved
from Abo in 1821. The University of Finland was
moved from Abo to Helsingfors in 1827.

In 1877 the Russian War Minister desired to
extend to Finland the system of general conscription
introduced in the Empire. A Bill to that effect was
laid before the Diet which made certain changes in
it ; universal service was accepted on condition that
the Finnish troops were only bound to serve in
Finnish regiments under Finnish officers, and only
bound to defend the throne and their country,
i.e. Finland. The Diet wished to avoid the Russian-
ization of the Finnish Army, but the Russian War
Minister maintained that Finlanders were bound to
defend the whole Empire, not only Finland. The
Finnish guards fought with great^ valour in the
Russo-Turkish War in 1878.

For years there was a bitter struggle between the
Fennomans, who demanded equality for Finnish
side by side with Swedish, and the Svecomans

3S8 THE STORY OF FINLAND

who upheld the predominance of Swedish. The
Tsar enacted that the prevailing language of each
commune should be its official language, and soon
the two languages were on an equal footing, but the
Svecomans declared that the Fennomans had called
for assistance from Russia in a wholly internal matter
and thus sown the seeds of future interference.

The Panslavists worked for the political and
economic solidarity of Finland and Russia. In 1890
two Commissions were appointed in Petersburg to
bring Finnish coinage, customs, and postage into
greater conformity with that of the Empire.
Separate Finnish postage was abolished in 1899.

Greater changes were contemplated. In July
1898 an extraordinary session of the Diet was called
to meet on January 19, 1899; on August 24th the
Tsar issued his Peace Manifesto, and six days
later, August 30th, he appointed Bobrikoff Governor-
General of Finland. This was a blow in the face
of the "right and justice" invoked by the Tsar in
his Peace Manifesto, for Bobrikoff was notorious
for his terroristic rule of the Baltic provinces.
On January 19th he laid a Bill before the Diet
to bring the Finnish Army into conformity with
that of the Empire. The Finnish Army was to
be four times larger and to be Russianized and in-
corporated in the Russian Army. Bobrikoff told
the Diet the . Bill must be passed. This was
a breach of the Constitution. The motives of the
Bill were drafted by the War Minister, Kuro-
patkin, and by a commission presided over by
Pobjedonoszev, the leader of Russian Panslavism.

FINLAND AFTER SEPARATION FROM SWEDEN 359

The Bill was to be submitted to the Imperial Council
'*as a matter of concern to the whole Empire of
which the Grand Duchy of Finland is an inseparable
part." The Diet was willing to contribute its quota
of men and money in proportion to other parts of
the Empire, i.e. about 20,000 men at an annual
cost of ;^ 1, 000,000, on condition of keeping the
Finnish troops separate from the Russian Army.
But while the Bill was being debated the Imperial
Manifesto of February 15, 1899, came as a bolt from
the blue. It was a coup cteiaty an abrogation of
the Finnish Constitution. All Finnish matters of
Imperial interest were hereafter to be dealt with by
Russian institutions, the Tsar to decide which matters '
were Imperial or exclusively local and Finnish. By
ten votes to ten the Senate published this manifesto
under prote3t. The Diet declared itself ready to
double the number of Finnish troops, and stated that
the new military Bill could not become law without
the concurring consent of the Emperor Grand Duke
and the Estates ; it published an exposd of Finland's
relations to the Empire and the rights of the Diet.
The Tsar gave an ungracious answer to their
remonstrance.

All strife between Fennomans and Svecomans
now ceased. Like one man the people joined in a
petition to the Grand Duke. This was read from the
pulpit of every church in the country and signed in
every parish. On March 13, 1899, five hundred
representatives of the people, one from every parish,
assembled in Helsingfors to take the petition, signed
by over 520,000 people, to Petersburg. In the depth

36o. THE STORY OF FINLAND

of winter, in a fortnight, these signatures had been
collected, even in the highest North, beyond the
Arctic Circle, by runners on snowshoes. When the
deputation arrived in Petersburg, the State Secretary
for Finland told them from the Tsar " to return to
their homes at once, though the Tsar was not angry
with them." A member of the deputation declared
in memorable words : " We are inured to the visita-
tions of Nature, but such a night frost as that of
February i sth we have never known. With one stroke
of the pen the dearest treasure we possessed and
hoped to hand on to our children was destroyed that
night. Can His Majesty afford to throw away the
loyal love of this people, can he bear the responsi-
bility of its utter ruin before Almighty God and the
judgment of history?" It was all in vain. The
Tsar also refused to receive a European deputation
of professors of law and men of science who wished to
protest against the coup detat.

Bobrikoff was exasperated at the tough passive
resistance to his measures for the Russification of
Finland, and decided to bully and goad the people
into rebellion. Newspaper after newspaper was
confiscated. The Finnish Army was dissolved, and
Russian troops sent to protect him and his tools.

Russian and Carelian pedlars, who were agents and
spies in his service, wandered round the country,
ostensibly with their wares. Governors of provinces,
judges, burgomasters, and other officials were
dismissed, without pensions, and their places were
filled by Russians or by pro-Russian Finnish adven-
turers utterly unfit to hold office. Domiciliary visits,

FIVE FINNISH LEADERS.

362 THE STORY OF FINLAND

expulsions, and arrests, occurred daily. Leading
men of influence were first harassed and then exiled.
Russian was made the official language for all
correspondence. Bribery was resorted to on a large
scale. Servants in families were often spies in the
secret service of the police, the cost of which was
increased at the expense of the Finlanders, against
their own will ; detectives were about everywhere,
listening to conversations and sending in reports on
trivial matters. Russian Cossacks and gendarmes
were imported " to keep order," while they themselves
were the only danger for public safety and often
guilty of crimes of violence.

The Senate was a helpless tool in Russian hands,
for it had been carefully weeded out, and consisted
of the creatures of Bobrikoff. The Russians made
use of the racial antagonism and systematically
incited the Finnish working-men against their
Swedish employers. Daily life was full of fear and
suspicion and insecurity. People spoke in whispers,
and kept under lock and key every piece of written
paper for fear of police thieves. The most innocent
actions could be distorted into anti-Russian actions ;
a party of cards might be called a political meeting,
a ball a conspiracy. The only hope left was a
revolution in Russia.

On June 16, 1904, Eugen Schauman shot Bobrikoff
with a pistol as he was entering the Senate House,
and immediately afterwards shot himself. Schauman
was the son of an ex-member of the Senate and came
of a distinguished family. He sacrificed a young
and promising life for his country.

FINLAND AFTER SEPARATION '

The new Governor, Prince
ciliatory. He allowed most o
to come back. In October <
general strike in Russia wreste
promise of a Constitution. Fi: i
likewise. From October 31st
general strike took place in Finl;
General and the Senate resigne
and the so-called Young Finn
operation with the Swedes agi
danger — formed a " constitution
a petition to the Tsar His ar :
festo of November 4^ 1905, w 1
manifesto of February 1 5^ 1 89^
develop the rights of the Finnish
of their Fundamental Laws, refi
ized. The Senate was rccon ;
posed of constitutionalists with
their head. A conciliatory
Gerard, was appointed. The Die 1
of the Diet, There was to be * :
consisting of two hundred membt ,
years. Every man and woman
years of age had the right to vt \
for the Finnish Parliamentj and \
member of it. Proportional repi
ing to the d*Hondt system, was
This was the most democratic \
world. The number of voters w
100,000 to 1,250,000, and 25 \vrt
in the first elections to sit in th
Thus the Finlanders were the fin

364 THE STORY OF FINLAND

to give parliamentary suffrage to women, but to give
them seats in Parliament.

The Tsar had not time to spare for Finland. He
was grappling with revolution at home, and the first
and second Duma were not obsequious. As soon
as he had got a Duma after his heart the Russian
Press began to attack Finland for hatching dangerous
revolutionary plots. Questions were asked in the
Duma whether Russian authority extended to
Finland. Stolypin answered, in May 1908, that
the autonomy of Finland was a spontaneous gift of
the Tsar which could be taken back if misused.
Russian interests must predominate in Finland, whose
relations to Russia were wholly determined by the
Treaty of Frederikshamn. In vain Milyukoff
defended Finland eloquently against the reaction-
aries in the Duma. On June 2, 1908, the Tsar
issued an ordinance that all Finnish questions should
be laid directly before the Russian Ministerial
Council, who were to determine which of them were
Imperial and discuss them. The Secretary of State
for Finland was no longer to report separately to the
Tsar. This was an abrogation of the Finnish Con-
stitution, against which Senate and Diet both pro-
tested. When the Speaker referred to it in his
opening speech the Diet was dissolved.

The first Diet elected by universal suffrage, in
1907, had eighty Socialist members, who in 1908
were able to carry a vote of no confidence against
the Senate, the Fennomans not voting. The Tsar
declared that his decision was final, and all petitions
were in vain. At the beginning of 1909 a Russo-

FINLAND AFTER SEPARATION

Finnish Commission, pomposed <
five Finns, began to sit in Peter
which matters were to be withd:
petence of the Finnish Diet as bei
The appointment of the assistant
as Governor-General of Finland, i
anti-Finnish tendency. In 191C 1
On March 27th the Tsar issued a
ing proposals for regulating la^
Imperial importance concerning
was given of Imperial and not (
matters, based solely on the rep t
majority of the commission, as
land's share of the Imperial e^
taxation relating thereto ; (2) c^ =
military matters ; (3) the rights c
in Finland who are not Finnish ci !
of the language of the Empire^ It 1
(5) the execution in Finland o,
the courts and authorities of tht
principles and the limits of the se^ .
of Finland ; (7) keeping order in \
organization thereof, justice, edi :
clubs, societies, press laws and the i
literature, customs, coinage, post
railways, pilotage. The Russian r i
sends the Bill to the Finnish Sena :
opinion, to be given within a cert i
Bills'* only were to be sent to the I i
before the Duma and Council. Tht
one representative to the Imperial C :
the Duma, in which the Russians \\

366 THE STORY OF FINLAND

be represented by one member. The Diet now sent
a petition to the Tsar explaining why " a change in
the Fundamental Laws of Finland without the consent ^
of the Diet cannot be held valid. The conflicts
arising from their enforcement will bring suffering
on us, but fear of suffering does not justify betrayal
of the Constitution. We implore you to save our
laws and our rights, and keep the most law-abiding
of your subjects loyal." But the Duma passed this
abolition of the Finnish Constitution without change,
and Nicholas II signed it on June 30, 1910. The
Russification of Finland, its annihilation as a separate
State, now proceeded apace. The contribution of
Finland to the military expenses of the Empire,
which was ten million mark, was to be raised to
twelve million mark in 191 1, and to rise by one
million mark annually until it reached twenty
millions in 1919, which was to be the annual sum
thereafter. Russian residents in Finland, including
soldiers, were to have the same political and com-
munal rights as Finlanders, and Finnish officials who
disobeyed this law were to be prosecuted before
Russian courts. The Senate became a tool of
Russification which blindly followed the directions
given to it, without regard to justice or law. All the
nineteen members of the Viborg High Court were
sentenced by a Russian judge to sixteen months'
imprisonment in a Russian prison for disobedience
to the law giving Russians equal rights with the
Finlanders in Finland ; they regarded it as illegal, as
it had not been passed by the Diet. But all Russian
attempts to exasperate the Finlanders and goad them

372

SYNCHRONISTIC TABLES OF EVENTS

SWEDEN

1293 Third crusade to Finland.

1306 Torgils Knutsson, Regent
1 290- 1 306, executed.

1306 The Ilatuna surprise.

131 7 The Nykoping banquet.

1323 Peace of Noteborg. Fin-
land Swedish.

1332 Scania joins Sweden.

1350 Sweden's first general code
of law. The Black
Death.

1360 Scania lost to Denmark.

1 36 1 Gotland Danish.
1363-71 Civil war. Albrecht

and Hakon.

1389 The battle of Falkoping.
1390-98 The Vitalian pirates.

1397 Eric crowned. The Kal-

mar Union.
1 398-1408 Gotland held by the

Teutonic Knights.
1410-35 King Eric at war with

Ilolstein and the Ilansa.

1434-35 Engelbrekt liberates

Sweden.
1435-36 The first general

assemblies (parliaments)

of Sweden.

1463-70 Civil war.

147 1 Battle of Brunkeberg.

DENMARK

1 326-40 Denmark dismembered.
1346 Est land sold.

1 36 1 Visby taken.

1386 Slesvig a fief of the Counts

of Holstein.

1387 Margaret Regent.

1396 Eric of Pomerania king.

1438 Eric in exile.

1443 Copenhagen a royal resi-
dence.

1460 Christian I acquires Ho}-
steii^.

374

SYNCHRONISTIC TABLES OF EVENTS

SWEDEN DENMARK

1 629
1630

1626 Battle of Lutter am Baren-
berge.
Truce of Allmark. 1629 Peace of Lubeck.
Gustavus lands in Ger-

1631
1632
1634

many.
Battle of Breitenfeld.
Battle of LUtzen.
Battle of Nordlingen.

1635-41 Johan Baner Com-
mander-in-Chief.

1641-45 Torstensson Com-
mander-in-Chief

1643-45 War with Denmark.

1645 Peace of Bromsebro.

1648 Peace of Westphalia.

1654 Christina abdicates.

1655 War with Poland.

1658 Peace of Roskilde.
1660 Peace of Copenhagen and
of Oliva.

1675-79 War with Denmark and

Brandenburg.
1676 Battle of Lund.

1679 Peace of Lund, Nijmegen,

St. Germain.

1680 Absolutism.

1700 The Great Northern War
begins. Battle of Narva.

1702-06 Charles XII in Poland
and Saxony.

1709 Battle of Poltava.

1710 Battle of Helsingborg.

1 7 1 3 Stenbock capitulates.

1714 Charles returns from Tur-

key.
1 716-18 Goertz in Sweden.

1643-45 \Var with Sweden.

1657 War declared against
Sweden.

1660 Absolutism introduced.

1665 The Lex Regia.
1675-79 The Scanian war.

1683 Code of Christian V.
1700 Peace of Travendal.

1 70 1 -2 Serfdom abolished.

1709 War with Sweden.

376 SYNCMRONISTIC TABLES OF EVENTS

SWEDEN DENMARK

1835-36 Consultative Estates
meet.

1842 Iliort Lorenzen \ speaks
Danish in the Slesvig
Estates.

1848-49 The Free Constitution.

1849-50 The Slesvig-Holstein
war.

1852 Succession Treaty of Lon-
don.

1855 The November Treaty.

1865-66 Parliamentary Reform.

1887 Protectionism introduced.
1905 Separation from Norway.
1909 Parliamentary Reform.

1864 War with Germany and
Austria. Slesvig and
Holstein ceded by the
Peace of Vienna.

1866 Revision of the Constitu-
tion. Paragraph 5 in the
Treaty of Prague.

1874 The Constitution of Ice-
land.

1875-94 Estrup Premier.

378

HEtGNS OF JCtNOS ANb REGENTS

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38o

kP.JGNS OF K'lXGS AND REGENTS

SWKDEN
Engelbrekt, 1435-36.
Karl Knutsson, 1436-40.
Christopher, 1440-48.
Karl Knutsson (King), 1448-57.
Christian I, 1457-64.
Karl Knutsson, 1467-70.
Sten Sture the Klder (Regent),

1470-1503.
(Hans, 1497-1501).
Svante Sture (Regent), 1503-12.
Sten Sture the Younger (Regent),

1512-20.
Christian II, 1520-21.

The Vasa Dynasty.
Gustaf I (Regent), 1521-23 ;

(King) 1523-60.
Erik XIV, 1560-68.
John III, 1568-92.
Sigismund, 1592-99.
Charles IX (Regent), 1 599-1 604 ;

(King) 1 604-1 1.
Gustavus (II) Adolphus, 1611-32-
Christina, 1632-54.
Charles X Gustavus, 1654-60.
Charles XI, 1660-97.
Charles XII, 1697-1718.
Frederick I, 1720-51.
Adolphus Frederick, 1 751-71.
Gustavus III, 1771-92.
Gustavus IV Adolphus, 1792-1809.
Charles XIII, 1809-18.

The Bernadotte Dynasty.
Charles XIV John (Bernadotte),

1818-44.
Oskar I, 1844-59.
Charles XV, 1859-72.
Oskar II, 1872-1907.
Gustavus V, 1907-

THE UNION

DENMARK
Eric of Pomerania, 1396- 1439.
Christopher, 1440-48.

The Oldenburg Dynasty.
Christian I, 1448-81.

Hans, 1481-1513.

Christian II, 1513-23

Frederick I, 1523-33.
Christian III, 1534-59.
Frederick II, 1559-88.

Christian IV. 1 588- 1 648 (Regency
to 1596).

Frederick III, 1648-70.
Christian V, 1670-99.
Frederick IV, 1699-1730.
Christian VI, 1730-46.
Frederick V, 1746-66.
Christian VII, 1766-1808.

Frederick VI, 1808-39.

Christian VIII, 1839-48.
Frederick VII, 1848-63.
Christian IX, 1863-1906.
Frederick VIII, 1906-12.
Christian X, 1912-

NORWAY
Haakon VII, 1905-

3»2

INDEX

Cnut Lavard, 20-J, 25

Cnut VI, 25-6

Copenhagen, 24-5, 46, 48, 64, 66,

68, 79, 9S» 98. "7, 153. 289-
91 a.o.

Dalecarlia, Dalecarlians, 204-7,

213-16, 310-11, 324
Danebrog, Dannebrog, 27-8
Danes, 3
Dantzic, 254-5
Denmark, 4
Dicuil, 157
Dybbol, 145-6
Dyveke, 50-3

Ebbesen, Nils, 35

Eider, 4, 27, 135, 145

Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, 198-

200
England, 9-18, 37, 48, 115-23,

303-5, 33 r. 344
Eric Emune, 22
Eric the Evergood, 19-20
Eric XIV, 231-9
Eric Klipping, 32-3
Eric Lamb, 22
Eric Moendved, 33-4
Eric Plogpenning, 31
Eric of Pomerania, 198-200
Eric, St., King of Sweden, 181-2
Eskil, Archbishop, 22-3
Esthonia, Esthonians, xx, 27, 29,

36, 232, 244, 307
Estrup, 1 50- 1

Fehrbellin, battle of, 292

Finland, xxiii, xxvii-xxviii, 182,
185, 187, 191, 242, 250,301,307,
310-11, 321, 323-4, 330-4, 346,

355-67
Fredericia, battle of, 136-7
Frederick I, Denmark, 64-7

Frederick I, Sweden, 308-11
Frederick II, 73-7
Frederick III, 87-92
Frederick IV, 96-9
Frederick V, 101-3
Frederick VI, 115-26
Frederick VII, 133-42
Frederick VIII, 151-3
Frederiksborg, peace of, 97-8
Frederikshald, siege of, 305
Frederikshamn, peace of, 334

George I, 303-4
Goertz, Baron, 303-7
Gorm, King of Denmark, 6
Gothenburg, 79, 324
Grand, Jens, Archbishop, 33-4
Griffenfeld, xxvi, 88-93
Gustavus I, Vasa, 203-30
Gustavus (II) Adolphus, 247-75
Gustavus III, 314-27
Gustavus IV, 328-33
Gustavus V, 350-1
Gyllenstierna, Johan, 293

Hamburg, 5, 6, 27
Harald Bluetooth, 6-7
Hartha-Cnut, 16
Hedeby, see Slesvig
Heligoland, battle of, 146
Helsingborg, battle of, 310
Ilelsingfors, 357, 359
Horn, Count Arvid, 309

Iceland, x, xi, xxviii-xxix, 79, 123,

128, 152
Ingeborg, Queen of France, 25-6
Ingria, 307
Isted, battle of, 137

John III, 237-42

Jonkoping, peace of, 334

Jutland, 10, 18. 29, 35, 64, 68, 255

384

INDEX

Stniensee, 107-13

Sture, 54, 201

Sturluson, Snorri, 15, 161-2, 175,

178-9
Sveaborg, 331
Svtfn Forkbeard, 9
Sven Estrithson, 16-18
Svensksundy liattle of, 326
Sverdrup, Johan, 347-8

Thyri, Queen of Denmark, 6
Tilly, 257, 262-7
Torgils Cnutsson, 187-8
Torstensson, Lennart, 83-4, 263,

279-80
Travendal, peace of, 297
Trolle, Gustavus, Archbishop, 54-61,

207-10

Ulfeld, Korfits, 83, 87, 90, 91,
I Uppsala, 175, 177, 179

I Vadstena, 194, 199, 208

Vaerings, 177
[ Valdemar I, the Great, 21-5
' Valdemar II, the Victorious, 2

Valdemar Atterdag, 36-9

Valdemar, King of Sweden, 18

Varala, peace of, 326

Viborg Gauntlet, battle of, 326

Vienna, peace of, 147

Visby, 187, 195

Wallenstein, 82-3, 261, 267-72
Warsaw, battle of, 284]
Wends, xx, 24
Westphalia, peace of, 281

Printed in Great Britain by
V'NWIN BROTHERS, LIWTRP. TH^ fiRpSHAW PRESS, WOKJNG A^'P tONDOJ

M9092647026a

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