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THE 


HISTORY  or  THE  SWEDES, 


BY 


ERIC  GUSTAVE  GEIJER, 


t  .    A 


•<3r 


HISTORIOGRAPHER   ROYAL    OF    SWEDEN, 
AND    PROFESSOR   OF    HISTORY    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    UPSALA,   &C. 


TRANSLATED    FROM    THE    SWEDISH, 

WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION  AND   NOTES, 

BY 

J.  H.  TURNER,  ESQ.  M.A. 


n 


o 


\ 


'V' 


THE  FIRST  PORTION, 

(comprising   THE   FIRST    THREE    VOLUMES   OF    THE    ORIGINAL,) 
FROM    THE    EARLIEST    PERIOD    TO    THE    ACCESSION    OF    CHARLES    THE    TENTH. 


LONDON: 
WHITTAKER  AND  CO.,  AVE  MARIA  LANE, 


TRANSLATOR'S   INTRODUCTION. 


Professor  Geijer's  History  of  the  Swedes  (Svenska  Folkets  Historia)  was  published  at  Oi'ebro  in 
1832-36  ;  a  Gennan  version,  by  Dr.  Leffler,  made  under  the  autlior's  supervision,  was  published  con- 
temporaneously at  Hamburg.  The  work  possesses  a  European  reputation  ;  all  competent  judges  admit 
that  the  writer  has  added  one  to  the  scanty  list  of  great  national  histories,  and  achieved  on  behalf  of  the 
literature  of  his  country  and  his  own  fame,  an  emprise  to  which  Dalin,  Lagerbring,  and  other  annalists 
of  the  last  century,  were  unequal.  The  present  volume  comprises  all  of  the  original  which  has  hitherto 
appeared  ;  the  continuation,  which  will  bring  the  history  down  to  a  more  recent  date,  is  in  an  advanced 
state  of  preparation  ;  and  its  appearance  will  be  welcomed  by  all  who  delight  in  historical  studies,  or  are 
capable  of  appreciating  the  important  relations  of  the  subject.  But  the  work  is  even  now  more  com- 
plete than  either  of  the  two  older  referred  to  ;  the  former  of  which  comes  down  only  to  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  Charles  IX.  in  161 1,  while  the  latter  breaks  off  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Some  notice  of  the  author's  life  may  be  expected  by  those  who  are  unacquainted  with  his  position 
and  labours.  He  was  born  on  the  12th  January',  1783,  at  Ransater,  in  the  province  of  Vermeland  ; 
entered  the  University  of  Upsala  in  his  seventeenth  year,  and  at  twenty  obtained  the  chief  prize  of  the 
Swedish  Academy  for  eloquence  in  composition.  In  1806  he  took  the  degree  of  ]\I.  A.,  and  after  visit- 
ing England,  was  appointed  in  1810  Lecturer  on  History  at  Upsala,  and  in  1817  Professor,  on  the  death 
of  Fant,  whose  pupil  he  had  been.  Subsequently  he  was  charged  by  King  Charles  John  with  the 
superintendence  of  the  studies  of  the  Crown-Prince  Oscar,  now  King  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  to  whom 
the  original  of  the  present  translation  is  dedicated.  In  1824  he  was  nominated  one  of  the  eighteen  in 
the  Swedish  Academy  ;  and  in  1826,  on  his  return  from  travels  in  Denmark  and  Germany,  member  of 
the  Commission  of  Public  Education.  In  1828  he  was  created  by  his  sovereign  Knight  of  the  Order  of 
the  Polar  Stai',  and  chosen  to  represent  the  University  of  Upsala  in  the  Diet.  In  1840  he  was  again 
elected  to  the  same  trust,  from  which,  in  the  present  Diet,  he  has  retired.  While  be  remained  a 
member  of  the  legislature,  he  filled  one  of  the  foremost  places  in  the  councils  of  his  country  ;  and  was 
distinguished  as  the  friend  of  every  well-considered  liberal  measure.  Being  in  orders,  the  Bishopric  of 
Linkoeping  was  offered  to  his  acceptance  in  1833,  and  in  1834  that  of  Carlstad  ;  but  he  is  understood  to 
have  declined  both.  During  this  long  and  brilliant  career,  his  official  duties  and  the  engrossing  con- 
cerns of  politics,  did  not  prevent  him  fi-om  rendering  the  most  important  services  to  the  literature  of  his 
country.  He  assisted  in  editing,  with  Afzelius,  the  old  popular  poetry  of  Sweden  ;  and  with  Archbishop 
Lindblom  and  Schi'oeder,  was  appointed  by  royal  warrant  to  prepai'e  for  the  press  the  great  collection  of 
the  Sci-q^fores  Rerum  Suecicarum,  which  appeared  at  Upsala  in  1818  and  1828.  He  was  editor  or  chief 
contributor  to  the  Swea  and  Iduna,  reviews  established  in  imitation  of  those  of  Britain  ;  he  is  also 
a  poet  as  well  as  a  critic  and  philologer,  and  those  who  have  read  "  The  Pirate,"  will  probably  not 
question  his  claims  to  the  Scaldic  laurel.  In  1825  appeared  a  volume  of  Dissertations  on  the  Early 
History  and  Antiquities  of  Sweden  (the  Swea  Rikes  Hafder),  full  of  the  most  curious  and  recondite 
learning,  conveyed  in  a  popular  and  eloquent  mode  of  exposition  *.  Finally,  in  the  "  Litteratur  Blad"  or 
Literary  Journal  for  1838-39,  there  appeared  fi-om  his  pen  a  series  of  Essays  on  the  Poor  Laws,  and 
their  Bearing  on  Society,  which  testify  to  the  wisdom  of  his  political  views  and  the  extent  of  his  in- 
formation. Of  these  one  of  the  principal  objects  was  to  advocate  the  liberation  of  labour  and  trade  in 
Sweden  from  the  fetters  of  corporate  restriction,  and  the  adoption  of  a  liberal  tariff  on  foreign  produce 
imported.     Such  is  a  brief  and  imperfect  summary  of  the  public  services  and  honours  of  this  celebrated 

'  This  the  translator  hopes  to  be  able  to  issue  in  a  future  volume. 

A    2 


TRANSLATOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 


man.  The  great  writers  of  our  own,  no  less  than  of  the  continental  literatures,  are  familiar  to  him,  and 
Englishmen  will  be  pleased  to  recognize  in  him  a  kindred  genius,  who  belongs  to  the  same  generic 
school  of  metaphysical  and  political  speculation.  Second  to  none  among  European  scholars,  the  learned 
of  Germany  have  long  since  discovered  his  merits,  and  promptly  profited  by  them  ^  ;  for  though  their 
soil  is  not  fertile  in  historical  talent,  nor  their  alacrity  in  acknowledging  foreign  obligations  remarkable, 
yet  their  quickness  of  adaptation  is  not  to  be  denied. 

To  the  present  translation,  which  originated  in  the  desire  to  make  known  to  the  English  public  a 
historical  work  of  singular  excellence,  the  author  has  given  his  sanction.  The  task  was  begun  with  a 
perfect  consciousness  of  its  difficulty,  and  the  wish  that  it  might  be  performed,  ab  alio  pot'msquam  a 
me;  a  me  pot'msquam  a  nemine.  The  translator  had  been  led  by  curiosity  to  seek  information  on 
Swedish  history,  and  regretted  the  entire  absence  of  any  work  on  the  subject  in  our  own  language. 
This  deficiency,  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  has  certainly  not  been  removed  by  the  recent 
ajipearance  in  an  English  form  of  a  portion  of  Fryxell's  Stories  from  Swedish  History  '  ;  a  book  which, 
meagre,  unsatisfactory,  and  feebly  written,  can  lay  claim  to  no  serious  consideration  as  one  of  any 
authority  or  weight. 

It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  present  translator,  in  essaying  an  English  version  of  the  only  work 
deserving  to  be  regarded  as  the  standard  of  Swedish  history,  to  present  a  faithful  and  accurate  image  of 
the  style  of  the  original;  to  render  as  exactly  as  possible  every  shade  of  meaning  and  vai'iety  of  diction. 
A  translation  should  be  close  without  stiffness,  free  and  spirited  without  paraphrastic  license.  Whether 
these  objects  have  been  attained  in  the  present  case  it  is  for  others  to  determine.  I  by  no  means  assent 
to  a  theory  often  maintained,  which  supposes  true  translation  to  be  impossible,  because  nice  distinctions 
of  meaning,  and  still  more  idiomatic  forms  of  expression,  are  necessarily  evanescent,  and  leave  but  a 
caput  mortuum  to  mock  the  toil  of  conversion.  I  believe  it  to  be  possible  to  reproduce  in  our  language  a 
just  presentment  of  any  prose  composition  in  another;  and  to  ti'ansfuse  the  ideas  in  similar  diction  with- 
out loss  of  force  or  grace.  If  the  attempt  fail,  it  must  be  ascribed  not  to  its  impracticability,  but  to  an 
imperfect  command  of  the  resources  of  the  English  tongue  in  the  individual.  With  the  noblest  and 
most  comprehensive  of  modern  languages  as  our  instrument,  it  must  be  possible  to  find,  even  in  the  most 
difficult  cases,  (of  course  those  springing  from  some  radical  difference  in  the  things  symbolized  are 
excepted,)  expressions  of  equivalent  siguificancy,  and  more  or  less  identical  in  the  verbal  meaning. 
Some  changes  of  collocation  and  structure  must  be  permitted. 

Whenever  doubt  was  felt  as  to  the  true  sense  of  the  original,  recurrence  has  been  had  to  the  Ger- 
man version'';  which,  though  containing  many  minor  inaccuracies^,  avoided  in  the  following  pages,  fulfils 
by  its  general  fidelity  and  vigour  of  style  all  the  essentials  of  a  translation.  In  some  passages  of  the 
Swedish  original  variations  from  the  German  are  observable,  apparently  proceeding  from  the  author's 
own  pen;  in  these  the  former  has  been  followed.  The  notes,  it  will  be  seen,  are  numerous;  but  they  are 
never  necessary  to  the  text,  and  should  be  regarded,  like  those  of  Gibbon,  in  the  light  of  corroborative 
matter,  which  may  be  read  or  not  at  pleasure.  A  few  turning  on  minute  topographical  or  technical 
points  (chiefly  in  Chapters  II.  and  X.)  have  been  omitted  or  abridged,  as  possessing  only  domestic  in- 
terest; those  supplied  by  the  translator  are  brief  explanations  of  points  on  which  many  English  readers 
might  possibly  feel  at  a  loss.  It  was  originally  intended  to  give  a  map  of  Scandinavia;  but  the  idea  was 
abandoned,  because  maps  are  now-a-days  easily  procured,  and  maps  of  Germany,  Poland,  and  Russia 
would  have  been  scarcely  less  necessary. 

Professor  Geijer's  style  bears  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  mode  in  which  the  old  English 
writers  thought  and  expressed  themselves, — a  circumstance  coincident  with  the  expectations  we  should 
be  inclined  to  form  from  affinities  of  race,  and  analogies  of  language"  and  situation,  nor  likely  to  prove 
a  discommendation  to  English  readers,  especially  at  the  present  day.     Its  peculiar  quality  seems  to  be 

2  As  for  instance  Gfriirer,  the  librarian  of  Stuttgart,  in  his  "  History  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  his  times."  Much  of 
the  first  two  books  is  little  else  than  an  abridgment  of  Geijer.  It  is  continually  possible  to  trace  not  only  the  ideas,  but 
the  phraseology. 

3  Berattelser  i  Svenslca  Historien.     Published  in  London  under  the  title  o[  History  of  Sweden. 

■*  A  French  version  likewise  exists  by  a  Swedish  resident  of  Paris ;  but  this  I  have  not  had  the  advantage  of  seeing. 

'  It  would  be  easy,  but  for  the  reluctance  to  enter  on  an  invidious  olTice,  to  give  proofs  of  this  assertion. 

•i  In  grammatical  structure  the  English  and  Swedish  languages  have  perhaps  a  closer  aflSnity  than  any  others  of 
Europe.  More  examples  of  verbal  identity  might  be  produced  than  even  in  the  case  of  the  German.  It  often  happens  that 
■words  which  have  dropped  out  of  use  in  the  written  language  of  England,  though  still  existing  in  the  Scottish  or  provincial 
dialects,  find  their  correlatives  in  that  of  Sweden.  I  may  specify  a  few  instances  out  of  hundreds.  Grele,  pr.  gratte,  to 
weep;  Sv/ed.  grata.  Toom,  empty;  Swed.  torn.  Side,  meaning  long  or  down-hanging;  Swed.  sid,  and  length  or  side- 
ness,  sidd.  Hemman,  the  word  tr.inslated  "grange"  in  the  following  pages,  is  obviously  the  same  with  the  Anglo-Saxon 
hum,  meaning  a  croft,  or  piece  of  ground  adjoining  to  a  house,  also  the  house,  farm,  or  village  itself;  whence  hampsel, 
hamlet.     Hem  is  home,     ien/i:,  to  play ;  Swed. /cA-a. 


TRANSLATOR'S   INTRODUCTION. 


suggestive  power.  The  figurative  language  he  sometimes  employs,  though  always  sparingly  and  with 
discrimination,  not  only  adorns  the  subject  with  the  graces  of  imagery  and  fancy,  but  is  an  instrument 
admirably  adapted  to  extract  its  essence,  and  to  impress  the  mind  of  the  reader,  by  a  few  words,  more 
forcibly  than  by  pages  of  disquisition.  His  narrative  is  rapid,  animated,  and  striking;  while  ho  excels 
not  less  in  deciphering  the  faint  and  imperfect  records  of  the  past,  and  lighting  up  the  dim  obscurities  of 
history  with  the  gleam  of  truth,  than  in  relating  the  best  ascertained  facts  of  the  clearest  pei'iods,  stand- 
ing upon  unquestioned  testimony.  This  will  be  acknowledged  by  such  as  compare  the  first  two  chapters 
of  the  following  history,  or  the  ten  of  the  Scandinavian  Antiquities,  which  are  in  the  nature  of  an  inquiry, 
with  his  account  of  the  reigns  of  the  later  sovereigns.  In  the  caution  and  sagacity  with  which  he  tracks 
his  way  through  the  mysterious  gloom  of  the  mythological  and  traditionary  period,  constructing  a  sym- 
metrical and  harmonious  fabric  of  verisimilitude  from  the  poetical  legends  of  the  sagas  and  the  scattered 
hints  of  foreign  annalists,  the  same  analytic  faculty  is  exhibited  which  Niebuhr  brought  to  bear  on  the 
darkness  of  the  early  Roman  history,  conjoined  with  an  ai'tistic  method  and  felicitous  eloquence  which 
we  vainly  desiderate  in  the  Gei'man  writer.  Of  the  heathen  and  Catholic  periods,  for  which  the  authori- 
ties are  few,  brief,  and  unsatisfactory,  his  exposition  is  necessarily  succinct  and  undetailed.  Here  he 
follows  in  some  passages,  as  the  safest  course  in  dealing  with  imperfect  evidence,  the  exact  language  of 
the  original  writers'^;  which  indeed  is  sometimes  the  vehicle  best  calculated  to  imbue  the  inquirer's 
apprehension  with  the  spiiit  of  the  age  or  subject.  In  his  progress  to  the  names  and  events  which  have 
gained  a  world-wide  celebrity,  and  demand  a  breadth,  force,  and  grandeur  of  narration,  not  unequal  to 
the  theme,  he  displays  these  qualities  in  an  amplitude  of  measure  that  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  ; 
crescit  aim  magnitudine  rerum  vis  ingenii.  At  times  there  is  a  scriptural  energy  and  solemnity  which  in- 
dicate one  of  the  models  he  has  followed,  and  impart  to  his  own  narrative  the  same  features  that  stamped 
the  mind  and  style  of  the  ancient  heroes  of  Sweden.  Not  unfrequently,  like  all  the  chief  northern  writers, 
from  the  Icelanders  to  the  modern  poets  of  England,  he  blends  the  elements  of  comic  and  tragic  emotion, 
or  illustrates  elevating  truths  by  familiar  things.  In  the  occasional  inborn  and  homebred  pith  of  his 
expressions,  drawn  from  the  stores  of  demotic  feeling  and  fancy,  is  poui'trayed  the  free,  plain-spoken, 
and  vigorous  spirit  of  the  people  whose  story  he  relates. 

The  study  of  Swedish  history  is  not  only  necessary,  as  an  integrant  part  of  general  history,  and  in- 
teresting in  itself,  because  fertile  in  memorials  of  heroic  exertion,  lofty  achievement,  and  patient  triumph 
over  difficulties  manfully  encountered;  it  is  also  indispensable  to  the  right  comprehension  of  the  mutual 
relations,  and  even  the  intrinsic  import  of  other  departments  of  European  history.  For  the  pomp  and 
grandeur  which  gild  the  medieval  story  of  nations  such  as  France,  England,  and  Spain,  whose  numbers, 
opulence,  and  power  have  thriven  under  advantages  of  situation,  soil,  and  climate,  denied  by  nature  to 
the  remote  north,  we  must  not  look  here.  Yet  there  are  many  elements  which  lend  the  subject  a  cha- 
racter of  elevation  aad  dignity  beyond  any  that  could  be  conferred  by  mere  magnitude  of  material 
resources,  and  amply  compensating  their  deficiency.  And  above  all,  the  history  of  Sweden  possesses  a 
unity  of  interest,  wanting  in  those  of  both  Germany  and  Italy,  where  the  student's  attention  is  distracted 
by  the  multiplicity  of  constituent  parts,  arising  from  the  political  divisions  of  these  countries,  or  even  in 
that  of  her  neighbour  Denmark.  Down  to  our  own  day,  her  power  and  consideration  in  Europe  have 
ever  exceeded  the  due  proportion  of  her  population  and  means,  as  was  also  the  weight  which  she  could 
at  times,  as  in  the  seventeenth  century,  throw  into  the  scale;  results  ascribable  partly  to  the  talents  of 
her  sovereigns,  and  partly  to  her  comparative  freedom  from  the  religious  divisions,  and  other  distracting 
causes,  which  tore  contemporary  states. 

Although  the  opinion  once  so  generally  spread,  that  Scandinavia  *  was  the  home  and  dwelling-place 
of  the  Gothic  tribes  which  subdued  the  Roman  empire,  has  been  overthrown  by  the  more  critical  learning 
and  precise  inquiry  of  modern  days,  its  claims  on  our  curiosity  need  not  be  rested  on  any  such  factitious 
grounds.  In  its  indigenous  religion,  institutions,  and  manners,  the  purest  type  of  the  ancient  Gothic 
mind  exhibited  itself,  and  exercised  its  constructive  faculties.  These  exemplify  the  original  form  of 
society  among  all  the  kindred  of  the  Gothic  stock.     They  are  not  less  deserving  of  investigation  in 

!■  See  instances  in  the  accounts  of  Ingyald  Illrada,  Ivar  Widfamne,  Ragnar  Lodbroc,  and  Earl  Birger,  as  well  as  many 
subsequent  passages.  Compare  in  the  latter  case  specified,  the  description  of  Birger's  conduct  on  his  return  from  Finland, 
at  p.  48  of  tlie  following  volume,  with  that  in  Lawrence  Peterson's  Swedish  Chronicle,  p.  72,  in  the  Script,  ^.er.  Suec. ;  and 
the  account  of  his  legislation  with  that  given  in  the  Great  Rhyme  Chronicle,  ibid. 

6  The  name  Scandia,  Scondia,  Scandinavia,  seems  probably  to  come  from  Scania,  Sconia  (Skane),  the  appellation  of 
the  southernmost  province  of  the  peninsula,  the  meaning  of  which  is  explained  by  Professor  Geijer  in  the  first  note 
to  Chapter  II.  This  was  the  only  part  of  the  country  distinctly  known  to  the  ancients;  and  as  they  were  igno- 
rant of  its  extent,  the  application  of  the  name  by  tliem  was  indefinite.  Both  Scandia  and  Scandinavia  are  found,  for 
the  first  time,  in  Pliny.  If  the  via  in  the  latter  were  any  thing  more  than  a  protraction  of  the  termination,  it  might  perhaps 
be  analogous  to  the  German  wegen  in  Norwegen,  and  the  English  ivay  in  Norraway  or  Norway. 


vi  TRANSLATOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 


themselves,  than  from  the  iUustration  they  throw  on  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  various  nations 
that  compose  this  great  family  of  mankind.  In  the  sacred  books  of  the  Icelandic  Scalds,  which  record 
the  mythological  lore  of  northern  heathenism,  we  may  find  no  consistent  or  satisfactory  system  of 
doctrine,  but  many  speculations,  that  must  be  regarded  as  most  ingenious  and  profound,  when  we 
consider  the  age  and  circumstauces  in  which  they  were  produced  ;  and  we  trace  unmistakeably  the  germs 
of  the  later  Teutonic  poetry,  the  dawniugs  of  that  intellect  which  expanded  into  the  radiance  of  so  bright 
a  day  in  England  under  Elizabeth,  in  Germany  almost  within  our  own  generation.  From  the  same 
authorities  we  derive  the  only  full  and  credible  account  of  the  religious  belief  of  our  own  Pagan  ancestors, 
those  wild  worshippers  of  Odin,  who  poured  into  Britain,  dispossessed  its  Celtic  population,  and  occupied 
its  fair  domain  ;  where  their  descendants  were  to  build  up  an  empire  bearing  sway  over  the  East  and 
the  West,  to  give  laws  to  distant  people  and  unexplored  continents.  For  in  the  wide  extent  of 
Scandinavia  Proper,  on  the  coasts  of  the  North  Sea  and  the  islands  of  the  Baltic,  not  less  than  in  the 
forests  of  north  Germany  and  Jutland,  we  must  seek  for  the  incunabula  gentls  AngUcoe^.  Again,  in  the 
venerable  precepts  of  the  Scandinavian  legislators,  we  find  the  best  comments  on  the  principles  of  our 
own  jurisprudence;  for  on  this  foundation  has  been  reared  the  vast  fabric  of  English  law.  In  like 
mode,  their  social  and  military  institutes,  their  habits  and  manners,  elucidate  those  of  the  so-called 
Anglo-Saxons,  and  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Danes  (so  our  old  WTiters  terra  them)  whose 
marauding  hosts  afterwards  came  to  reinforce  their  numbers  and  dispute  their  heritage;  and  with  those 
of  the  Normans,  who  wrested  from  the  crown  of  France  some  of  its  noblest  provinces,  and  would  not  be 
satisfied  until  they  had  established  their  power  among  their  insular  kinsmen,  by  the  armed  bands  of  the 
Conqueror  and  his  followers.  In  the  primitive  forms  of  the  Gothic  monarchy,  when  the  king  speaks  to 
the  assembly  of  the  armed  people,  or  the  estates  confer  with  each  other  at  the  diet,  we  discover  the 
sources  from  which  the  usages  of  the  modern  constitution  of  England,  familiar  to  us  in  its  daily  workings, 
have  sprung.  And  even  in  the  Sweden  of  the  present  day,  we  see  perhaps  a  picture  not  unlike  what 
England  might  have  presented,  had  not  the  progress  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  been  arrested,  and  their 
peculiar  civilization  disturbed,  by  the  admixture  of  foi-eign  elements.  For  while  Scandinavia  has  sent 
forth  in  ancient  days  hosts  of  emigrants  and  conquerors,  she  herself  has  never  received  a  foreign  yoke. 
The  basis  of  society  there  is  the  "  allodial  right  of  property  acquired  by  labour,  for  Swedish  soil  was 
never  won  by  conquest.  Even  the  old  legend  of  the  immigration  of  Odin  and  the  Asae,  speaks  of 
peaceful  colonization,  not  of  forcible  subjection.  War  has  certainly  had  but  too  great  an  influence  on 
the  Swedish  cultivator,  but  the  law  of  arms  has  never  divided  his  land,  nor  made  him  a  labourer  under 
foreign  dominion  *."  During  the  middle  age  also,  the  Swedes,  unlike  the  Germans,  clung  to  the 
traditions  and  habitudes  of  their  ancestral  freedom,  and  refused  to  surrender  their  liberties  into  the 
jceeping  of  princes  and  nobles;  and  hence  the  institutions  of  this  cognate  people,  like  our  own,  though 
under  very  diffex'ent  conditions,  reached  their  natural  development  in  a  free  polity.  Even  as  the  seed 
sown  in  autumn, — "  beautiful  type  of  a  higher  hope," — survives  the  storms  of  winter,  its  vitality  covered, 
but  not  extinguished,  by  the  snow. 

In  this  view — and  perusal  of  the  following  pages  will  show  that  it  is  neither  forced  nor  exaggerated — 
it  would  be  difficult  to  point  out  any  country  which  has  more  solid  or  legitimate  claims  on  the  attention 

9  The  share  which  the  Scandinavians  must  have  had  in  the  Saxon  colonization  of  England,  though  passed  over  by 
many  of  our  historians  from  their  defective  information,  seems  as  clearly  established  as  we  can  reasonably  expect.  Danes 
(Danai)  and  Jutes,  as  well  as  Rugini  (no  doubt  the  classical  Rugiior  inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Rugen,  and  the  coast  of  the 
adjacent  mainland),  are  mentioned  along  with  the  Saxons  proper  by  Bede.  See  Hist.  i.  15  ;  v.  10.  Now  the  appellation  Jutes 
is  merely  another  form  of  that  of  the  Goths ;  Jutar  and  Gbtar,  or  Giitar,  are  almost  identical  in  sound ;  and  the  Jutes  who 
occupied  the  Cinibric  Chersonese,  and  gave  their  name  to  it,  are  supposed  to  have  come  from  Swedish  Gothland.  This  view 
derives  countenance  from  the  authority  of  Gibbon  ;  for  it  had  not  escaped  the  sagacity  of  that  greatest  of  historians.  "  This 
contracted  territory,"  he  says  in  Chap.  XXV.  of  the  Decline  and  Fall,  "was  incapable  of  pouring  forth  the  inexhaustible 
swarms  of  Saxons,  who  reigned  over  the  ocean,  who  filled  the  British  island  with  their  language,  their  laws,  and  their 
colonies.  .  .  .  The  solution  of  this  difficulty  is  easily  derived  from  the  similar  manners  and  loose  constitution  of  the  tribes 
of  Germany;  which  were  blended  with  each  other  by  the  slightest  accidents  of  war  or  friendship.  ...  It  should  seem 
probable,  however,  that  the  most  numerous  auxiliaries  of  the  Saxons  were  furnished  by  the  nations  who  dwelt  along  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic.  They  possessed  arms  and  ships,  the  arts  of  navigation,  and  the  habits  of  naval  war;  but  the  difficulty 
of  issuing  through  the  northern  columns  of  Hercules  (which  during  several  months  of  the  year  are  obstructed  with  ice)  con- 
fined their  skill  and  courage  within  the  limits  of  a  spacious  lake."  (Of  this  latter  assertion,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  there 
is  no  proof;  and  compare  Geijer,  Chap.  II.  ad  init.  for  notices  on  this  subject.)  "  The  rumour  of  the  successful  armaments 
which  sailed  from  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe,  would  soon  provoke  them  to  cross  the  narrow  isthmus  of  Sleswig,  and  to  launch 
their  vessels  on  the  great  sea.  The  various  troops  of  pirates  and  adventurers,  who  fought  under  the  same  standard,  were 
insensibly  united  in  a  permanent  society,  at  first  of  rapine,  and  afterwards  of  government."  Scarcely  consistent  with  this 
just  and  penetrating  strain  of  reflection  is  another  sentence  soon  after  following,  which  is  rather  incautiously  expressed: 
"  The  fabulous  colouies  of  Egyptians  and  Trojans,  of  Scandinavians  and  Spaniards,  which  fiattered  the  pride,  and  amused 
the  credulity  of  our  rude  ancestors,  have  insensibly  vanished  in  the  light  of  science  and  philosophy." 

'  Geijer,  Poor  Laws,  Essay  V. 


TRANSLATOR'S  INTRODUCTION.  vii 

of  the  English  student  of  history  than  Sweden.  For  this  purpose  it  is  superfluous  to  refer  to  the  link  of 
a  common  extraction  in  remote  antiquity,  established  no  less  by  the  internal  evidence  of  language  and 
institutions,  than  by  the  probable,  if  not  certain,  testimonies  of  historic  records.  To  those  who  delight 
to  investigate  the  origin  of  nations,  and  track  through  the  course  of  ages  the  winding  currents  of  their 
strangely  diversified  destinies,  the  reflection  is  not  without  its  charm,  that  the  Swede  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  races  of  men  whose  vocation  in  modern  times  has  been  so  different,  were  brothers  in  the  cradle, 
so  to  speak,  in  the  elder  day  of  the  world.  The  birth-place  of  the  Goths,  it  seems  to  be  now  established, 
was  the  mountain  chain  of  the  Caucasus,  in  the  very  heart  of  that  wild  land  of  Circassia,  where  their 
descendants  are  now  engaged  in  a  struggle  of  life  and  death  against  the  aggressions  of  the  Slavonic 
race  ^.  Such  researches  and  speculations  have  an  elevating  influence,  as  connecting  the  remote  past 
with  the  absorbing  present,  illustrating  the  affinities  of  nations,  and  recommending  to  our  informed 
reason  those  inspired  accounts,  so  often  attempted  to  be  discredited,  of  the  unity  of  the  human  family. 
It  may  besides  be  wrong  to  suppose  that,  though  referring  to  a  distant  age,  they  can  throw  no  light 
on  the  subsequent  transactions  of  history;  and  as  applied  to  modern  times,  are  no  more  than  fanciful 
recollections  or  baseless  dreams.  How  else,  for  instance,  than  by  accepting  the  theory  which  makes  the 
Circassians  a  branch  of  the  Gothic  race,  is  the  secret  of  that  gallant  and  hitherto  successful  resistance  to 
be  better  explained  ?  None  but  the  descendants  of  so  brave  a  stock,  pei'haps,  would  have  defied  with 
equal  intrepidity  the  slaves  of  the  Russian  colossus. 

The  Swedes  are  acknowledged  by  the  most  ancient  records,  as  they  have  appeared  in  modern  times, 
to  be  the  chief  of  the  Scandian  nations.  The  character  of  the  people  has  ever  been  marked  by  depth  of 
feeling,  strenuous  self-reliance,  and  the  capacity  of  ardent  endeavour,  which  shine  out  at  every  period  of 
their  annals.  Their  military  achievements  were  signalised  by  desperate  gallantry  and  brilliant  success, 
often  against  overwhelming  superiority  of  force;  of  the  sagacity  and  boldness  of  thought  which  distinguished 
their  politicians,  the  following  pages  contain  many  proofs  ^.  That  which  some  of  the  northern  antiquaries 
liave  styled  their  heroic  age,  offers  few  names  that  have  preserved  wide  celebrity ;  among  them,  those  of 
Ragnar  Lodbroc,  the  scourge  of  the  British  coasts,  and  Olsten, — the  same  in  name,  at  least,  with  the 
most  formidable  of  the  sea-kings,  whom  our  English  chroniclers  call  Hastings,  an  appellation  which  has 
sometimes  proved  a  stumbling-block  to  inquirers, — possess  some  interest  for  us,  apart  from  their  home 
fortunes.  But  it  is  not  in  the  days  of  barbarous  anarchy  that  we  should  seek  for  the  true  heroic  age 
of  Sweden.  The  events  of  the  Union,  which  led  to  her  temporary  subjugation  by  Denmark,  a  country 
of  inferior  size  and  population,  but  with  energies  better  concentrated,  powerfully  enforce  the  lesson  of 
the  evils  of  domestic  dissensions;  the  story  of  the  liberation  by  Gustavus  Vasa  possesses  the  interest  of 
romance,  and  forms  a  noble  document  of  popular  energy  and  patriotic  devotion.  It  has  sometimes  been 
supposed  that  the  memory  of  Christian  II.  has  been  unjustly  loaded  with  the  charge  of  wanton  cruelty; 
liis  apologists  have  even  represented  him  as  anxious  to  break  the  power  of  the  Swedish  nobility,  and  by 
raising  the  peasantry  and  improving  their  condition,  to  rest  upon  their  support  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Danish  sway.  It  is  true  that  he  acted  upon  a  somewhat  similar  policy  in  his  own  kingdom  of 
Denmark;  but  there  cannot  be  a  more  baseless  theoi*y  as  respects  its  application  to  Sweden.  It  rests 
indeed  on  an  entire  misconception.  The  Danish  interest  depended  mainly  on  the  support  of  the  nobles 
and  clergy;  and  the  Swedes  only  knew  Christian  as  a  bloody  and  remorseless  oppressor,  who  scrupled  at 
nothing  for  the  gratification  of  his  own  lusts  and  caprices,  frenzied  as  they  often  were. 

The  feudal  system,  in  that  full  development  which  it  attained  in  other  countries  of  Europe,  did  not 
exist  in  medieval  Sweden,  but  with  the  termination  of  the  great  civil  war  following  the  introduction  of 
Christianity,  and  the  seizure  of  regal  power  by  the  Folkunger  Earl,  the  ascendency  of  the  nobles  appears 
established,  with  results  for  the  government  and  community  analogous  to  those  elsewhere  produced. 
"  This  was  the  introduction  of  the  feudal  principle  in  Sweden,  which  manifested  itself  here  in  a  peculiar 
form,  more  tenacious  of  life  than  might  be  supposed.  We  know  the  origin  of  feudalism,  from  the  warlike 
trains  of  the  soldier-kings  and  the  magnates.  A  powerful  nobility  had  arisen  during  the  contest  of  the 
rival  kingly  houses,  and  surrounded  itself  with  bands  of  men-at-arms,  which  king  Magnus  Ladulas,  by 
the  institution  of  a  royal  equestrian  militia,  endeavoured  to  draw  into  the  service  of  the  crown.  The 
whole  was  an  attempt  to  organize  in  a  royalist  spirit  an  armed  force  of  nobles*."  With  this  view 
exemption  from  taxes  was  granted  by  the  king  both  to  the  barons  and  knights,  and  the  inferior  gentry 

2  See  this  view  briefly  stated  by  Geijer  in  Chapter  I.  of  the  following  work,  and  more  largely  in  the  Scandinavian 
Antiquities,  already  referred  to.  The  case  of  the  Saxons  is  supported  with  strong,  though  perhaps  less  convincing 
evidence,  by  Mr.  Sharon  Turner,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

^  See  the  speeches  of  the  kings  or  their  ministers  in  the  diet ;  the  memoirs  of  Swedish  envoys  as  to  the  social  state  of 
■Russia,  Denmark,  &c.  In  the  saying  of  the  chancellor  of  Gustavus  Vasa  on  the  subject  of  church  property  (p.  Ill),  we 
have  perhaps  the  first  clear  and  distinct  enunciation  of  a  principle  so  keenly  contested  at  the  present  day. 

*  Geijer,  Poor  Laws,  Essay  V. 


viii  TRANSLATOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 

or  franklins,  in  return  for  military  service  to  be  performed  by  them.  "  All  of  the  commonalty  who  chose  or 
were  able  to  do  service  on  horseback,  were  also  ennobled,  an  appendage  to  the  nobility ;  the  I'est  remained 
unennobled,  ofr'dlse,  a  word  in  its  proper  sense  meaning  un/ree,  but  which  could  not  here  receive  its  full 
acceptation.  For  feudalism  in  Sweden  wanted  its  proper  foundation,  namely,  a  people  precipitated  by 
conquest  into  bondage.  With  us  it  has  been  organized  from  above,  by  the  king  as  the  first  nobleman. 
The  fiefs,  here  in  general  never  legally  hereditary,  (although  by  the  earldoms  and  counties  of  Eric  XIV. 
they  became  so  in  part,  and  otherwise  often  enough  through  abuse,)  were,  at  least  the  more  considerable 
of  them,  attached  to  the  command  of  the  royal  castles  and  fortresses,  to  which  the  surrounding  common 
people  were  bound  to  render  certain  services  ^."  On  these  relations  turns  much  of  the  controvei-sies 
between  the  nobility  and  the  other  estates  of  Sweden.  The  obligation  to  military  service  was  never 
fully  performed,  and  fell  by  degrees  into  desuetude  ;  while  the  immunities  of  the  nobles  entailed  manifold 
grievances  and  oppressions  on  the  commonalty,  and  Charles  IX.,  as  will  be  seen,  made  repeated 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  obtain  their  surrender,  offering  in  exchange  releasement  from  a  merely 
nominal  burden. 

The  accession  of  the  dynasty  of  Vasa  to  the  throne,  through  the  abilities  and  services  of  its  founder, 
marks  the  commencement  of  the  modern  period  of  Swedish  history.  By  the  measures  of  Gustavus  I. 
society  was  remodelled;  and  the  impulse  given  to  the  national  industry,  with  the  augmentation  of 
resources  during  a  period  of  comparative  peace  under  his  reign  and  that  of  Charles  IX.,  prepared  the 
way  for  that  series  of  brilliant  achievements  which  gave  to  Sweden  a  high  rank  among  the  nations  of 
Europe,  and  crowned  the  radiant  brow  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  with  undying  glory.  Never  was  a  country 
more  fortunate  in  its  leaders  than  Sweden  under  the  three  great  princes  of  the  house  of  Vasa;  never 
were  there  monarchs,  perhaps,  who  so  thoroughly  fulfilled  the  ideal  of  royalty,  as  the  active  and  efficient 
rulers,  yet  not  the  autocrats,  of  their  kingdom,  guides  of  their  subjects  in  peace,  and  champions  in  war. 
The  crown  of  the  Vasas  derived  its  strongest  support  from  the  people.  To  Gustavus  I.  the  tide  of 
popular  fervour  which  had  placed  and  sustained  it  on  his  head,  brought  an  accession  of  influence 
which  enabled  him  to  carry  on  the  government  in  the  face  of  foreign  enmities  and  domestic  revolts 
encouraged  by  strong  factions  among  the  nobility  and  the  clergy;  augmenting  the  regal  power  in  Sweden 
proportionally  as  in  other  monai'chies  about  the  same  time, — in  England  under  Henry  VII.  and 
Henry  VIII.  (with  whose  character  that  of  Gustavus  has  some  points  of  resemblance),  in  France  under 
Louis  XL,  in  Spain  under  Ferdinand  and  Charles,  From  the  same  cause,  Charles  IX.  derived  force  to 
set  aside  the  legitimate  claims  of  Sigismund,  backed  by  the  arms  of  Poland,  to  change  the  order  of 
succession,  and  settle  the  state  under  a  strong  central  government,  animated  by  respect  for  popular 
rights.  Under  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  love  of  his  subjects,  continued  and  heightened  by  his  own  great 
qualities,  imped  the  wings  of  victory,  and  the  increment  of  dominion,  enabling  him  to  defy  the  combined 
hostility  of  the  other  northern  powers,  to  grapple  with  and  overcome  the  house  of  Austria,  to  vindicate 
the  rights  of  Protestantism,  and  the  freedom  of  Europe.  Greatness  and  warlike  glory  are  promised  by 
one  of  the  most  acute  and  knowing  political  thinkers  to  princes  who  advance  the  prosperity,  and  cultivate 
the  favour  of  the  masses.  On  this  principle  these  fii'st  two  sovereigns  of  the  house  of  Vasa  acted  ;  and 
the  realization  of  the  subtle  Florentine's  prophecy  came  in  full  measure  with  the  third. 

Sweden  had  been  better  prepared  for  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, — its  reception  was  also 
more  necessary,  than  in  some  other  countries  of  Europe.  It  is  calculated  that  in  the  Cathohc  period 
the  Swedish  church  possessed  fully  two-thirds  of  the  soil  of  the  country;  such  was  likewise  the  statement 
of  the  high  chancellor  Anderson  at  the  diet  of  Strengness  ^.  Its  vices  were  not  unproportioned  to  its 
wealth.  The  bishops  were  the  most  powerful  men  in  Sweden;  they  had  always  appeared,  along  with 
their  clergy,  as  the  supporters  of  foreign  interests  in  the  country,  and  had  taken  a  peculiarly  obnoxious 
part  in  rivetting  the  yoke  of  Denmark.  These  and  other  political  motives  had  doubtless  a  great  share 
in  facilitating  the  Refonnation,  and  in  determining  Gustavus  I.  to  throw  his  weight  into  the  scale  of  the 
adherents  to  the  new  doctrine.  But  however  the  social  revolution  was  brought  about,  the  Swedes  soon 
embraced  the  religious  tenets  of  the  Reformers  with  the  ardour  of  conviction,  and  stood  by  them  with  a 
zeal  and  constancy  which  made  Sweden  under  Gustavus  Adolphus  what  England  had  been  under 
Elizabeth,  and  ceased  to  be  under  the  Stuarts — the  head  of  the  Protestant  interest  in  Europe.  The 
reign  of  that  monarch,  one  of  the  greatest  among  soldiers  and  statesmen,  and  perhaps  the  only  righteous 
conqueror,  has  an  epic  grandeur,  the  solemnity  of  which  is  deepened  by  the  sad  recollection  of  his 
untimely  fall.  Cut  off  in  the  bloom  of  years,  the  maturity  of  intellect,  and  the  full  career  of  victory,  he 
closed  on  the  field  of  Lutzen  a  life,  which,  if  prolonged,  might  have  changed  the  destinies  of  modern 
Europe,  given  unity  to  Germany  under  a  Protestant  emperor,  and  reconducted,  with  more  enlightened 

5  Geijer,  Toor  Laws,  Essay  V.  "  See  Chapter  IX.  infra. 


TRANSLATOR'S  INTRODUCTION, 


policy  and  nobler  intentions,  the  conquering  arms  of  the  North  to  the  Tiber  and  the  Bosphorus ''.  "  The 
a,t  once  aristocratic  and  military  monarchy,"  says  Geijer,  in  the  essay  already  quoted,  "now  spreads 
itself  forth  glittering  to  our  view  under  one  of  the  world's  greatest  heroes  and  warriors.  Posterity 
cannot  know,  scarce  guess,  all  that  to  his  eagle  eye  that  monarchy  was  destined  to  be.  The  eagle  fell, 
arrested  in  its  course.  But  that  course  had  been  directed  towards  the  sun.  And  though  war  yet 
rolled  to  and  fro  its  bloody  tide  for  many  a  year  over  the  spot  where  he  fell,  the  place  is  sanctified  by 
the  triumph  of  light,  and  there  is  breathed  the  peace  of  mankind  *," 

"  Then  did  the  great  men  of  Sweden,"  he  continues,  "  study  to  deserve  the  name,  Sweden  has  not 
had  Axel  Oxenstierna's  match  in  the  council;  and  in  Torstenson  beyond  all  others  lived  the  genius  of 
his  master  in  the  field.  Against  them  and  their  colleagues  but  one  I'eproach  can  justly  be  made.  They 
thought  that  they  could  establish  the  state  of  Sweden,  even  for  the  future,  upon  a  war-footing,  however 
burdensome  it  might  be  to  the  people.  Thus  war  became  even  after  peace  a  necessity.  Christina 
evaded  it.  The  hero  Charles  Gustavus  submitted  to  it  not  unwillingly,  gathering  at  length  in  his 
victorious  course  Sweden's  most  useful  conquests — now  all  that  remain  to  us, 

"  We  have  seen  that  the  Swedish  nobility,  during  the  period  of  conquest,  was  representative  of  the 
army  of  Sweden,  which  again  in  the  world  represented  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  They  had  at  the  head 
of  this  army  done  good  service,  without  forgetting  their  own  advantage  ;  and  under  a  new  weak 
regency,  after  the  early  death  of  Charles  Gustavus,  every  one  had  large  opportunities  of  caring  for  it. 
This  led  to  contentions  within  the  nobility,  foreboding  division  and  fall,  whilst  they  were  deaf  to  the 
general  discontent  which  was  fermenting  below  them.  In  the  meanwhile,  pretensions  were  for  the  first 
time  distinctly  asserted,  which  had  heretofore  been  rather  in  use  than  declared,  but  now  sounded  par- 
ticularly ill  in  the  ears  of  the  people  ;  for  instance,  the  proposition  of  the  nobility  in  the  year  16G4, 
'  that  they  could  not  be  outvoted  by  the  other  orders  at  the  diets.'  Almost  without  knowing  how, 
a  government  tottering  betwixt  alliances,  and  from  want  of  subsidies,  plunged  the  kingdom  into  a  war, 
which,  owing  to  degenerate  military  discipline  and  deficient  resources,  was  universally  unsuccessful, 
save  where  the  youthful  Charles  XI,  himself  maintained  the  honour  of  the  Swedish  arms, 

"  He  came  out  of  this  war  with  a  deep  feeling  of  the  deficiencies  of  the  public  condition,  and  with 
the  determination  to  found  the  martial  power  of  Sweden  not  upon  subsidies" — (a  resource  hitherto 
employed  among  others) — "  but  upon  the  country's  own  well-husbanded  resources.  To  recover  what 
the  crown  had  thus  lost,  an  end  which  was  accomplished  by  means  of  the  Reduction^,  absolute  power 
was  requisite  ;  and  it  was  given  by  the  unnoble  orders,  who  were  glad — as  the  younger  nobility  were 
not  sorry — to  see  the  power  of  the  envied  grandees  now  crushed.  To  render  Sweden  ready  for  war, 
and  the  crown  absolute  and  rich,  became  from  1680  the  chief  object  of  Charles  XI.  during  the  peaceful 
remainder  of  his  reign.  Thus  Charles  XII.  felt  himself  at  once  unrestrained,  and  fully  equipped.  Con- 
spiring neighbours  challenged  him.  Then  marched  he  forth  over  the  old  Swedish  battle-fields  to  others 
far  distant,  whithersoever  the  hope  of  victory  beckoned  him,  braving  first  fortune,  then  misfortune, 
until  his  country  had  no  more  sons  to  give  him  ;  and  with  the  fall  of  Sweden's  power,  a  hand  from 
amongst  its  ruins  was  turned  against  his  life." 

With  this  sovereign  another  period  of  historic  splendour  was  still  to  come  for  Sweden.  In  the 
struggles  against  Russia  under  the  princes  of  the  Palatine  House,  we  often  find  cause  to  regret  a  spirit 
less  well-balanced,  and  a  policy  less  far-seeing,  than  in  the  elder  monarchs  of  Sweden.  Onwards  from 
this  date  her  history  perhaps  ceases  to  possess  an  interest  so  universal ;  yet  it  has  aspects  which,  viewed 
in  connexion  with  the  recent  politics  of  Europe,  lend  it  enhanced  attx'action.  It  would  be  here  out  of 
place  to  speculate  on  the  lofty  destinies  to  which  Sweden  may  yet  again  be  called,  amidst  the  changeful 

7  Such  anticipations  were  certainly  current  in  the  camp  of  Gustavus  himself.  Witness  his  follower  Monro,  who,  with 
homely  hut  honest  enthusiasm,  says :  "  From  Denmark  our  expedition  by  water  (having  taking  service  anew,  under 
the  Lion  of  the  North,  the  invincible  King  of  Sweden,)  did  continue  towards  Spruce  (Prussia);  from  thence  to  the  Baltic 
coast  again,  and  from  thence  to  the  river  of  Danube,  that  runs  from  the  foot  of  the  Alps  in  Swaubland  to  the  Adriatic  Sea. 
And  had  our  master  of  worthy  memory  lived,  we  had  crossed  the  Alps  into  Italy,  and  saluted  the  Pope  within  Rome.  But 
the  loss  of  this  Lion  to  lead  us,  was  the  loss  of  many,  and  of  this  old  regiment,"  &c.  i.  6.  See  other  better  informed 
evidence  in  the  notes  to  Chap.  XVII.  infra. 

8  "  Sweden's  most  glorious  time  was  a  time  of  great  life-giving  ideas,  and  also  one  of  forcibly-compelling  circumstances. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  may  he  likened  to  a  sower  from  an  onspeeding  war-chariot ;  wherefore  of  that  which  was  sown, 
some  fell  upon  the  rock,  and  some  among  stones,  and  other  among  thorns.  He  belioved  to  have  means  for  the  wars, — 
and  the  course  of  commerce  had  to  adjust  itself  accordingly.  He  took  the  trades  into  his  own  hands,  directly,  by  means 
of  monopolies  for  the  crown;  or  indirectly  by  companies,  leases,  and  privileges,  all  with  a  view  to  effect  an  earlier  gain, 
required  by  circumstances,  than  the  natural  increment  could  alTord."  Ibid.  The  beauty  of  these  passages  must  be  my 
apology  for  quoting  them,  especially  as  they  are  imbedded  in  essays,  which  necessarily  are  less  attractive  in  the  whole  to 
readers. 

9  "  Thus  the  act  was  termed  by  which  Charles  XI.  was  empowered  by  the  estates  to  resume  all  the  alienated  lands  of 
the  crown  in  the  year  1680."    This  passage  is  from  Mr.  Lewin's  Translation  of  the  Essays. 


TRANSLATOR'S  INTRODUCTION. 


and  perplexed  currents  of  human  affairs.  Within  the  last  century  and  a  half  new  nations  have 
appeared  on  the  scene  ;  new  empires  have  sprung  into  life  and  gi-eatness,  and  now  rear  their  giant 
heads  over  the  ruins  of  fallen  thrones  and  decayed  monarchies.  During  the  same  period  the  Scandina- 
vians, jealous  and  disunited,  deprived  of  the  assistance  of  more  powerful  kindred  nations,  at  times  almost 
shut  out  from  the  councils  of  Europe,  and  robbed  of  a  portion  of  their  heritage  amidst  the  tempests  of 
the  French  revolution,  struggled  against  unpropitious  fortunes  to  maintain  their  rank  among  nations, 
and  make  head  against  the  encroachments  of  ambitious  neighbours  and  rival  races.  A  new  era  of  peace, 
of  rapidly  advancing  prosperity ', — perhaps,  too,  if  the  aspirations  of  ardent  patriots  carry  trustworthy 
pi'csages,  one  of  Union,  in  which  the  three  nations  of  the  northern  peninsula  will  present  a  compact  and 
united  front  that  may  bid  defiance  to  any  foreign  aggression — has  now  risen  upon  them.  To  Sweden, 
whose  power  has  but  relatively  declined,  while  absolutely  it  is  much  greater  than  ever,  the  foremost  place 
will  no  doubt  be  yielded  ;  and  a  brilliant  prospect  opens  which  will  yet  be  realized.  Meantime,  honour 
and  regard  should  wait  on  this  ancient  and  warlike  nation,  which  keeps  watch  by  the  Polar  lights  over  the 
portals  of  the  East  Sea  and  the  West.  To  her  are  committed  the  keys  of  Europe,  the  vanguard  of 
civilization.  And  if  ever  the  day  should  arrive,  when  the  legions  of  the  Muscovite  shall  march  to  con- 
flict with  those  of  the  west  and  south,  her  post  will  be  one  of  danger,  and  doubtless  of  glory.  Once  she 
was  the  arbiter  of  the  European  system  ;  she  may  yet  be  its  preserver. 

But  I  detain  the  reader  too  long  from  pages  more  worthy  his  attention.  My  apology  must  be  the 
apparent  necessity  of  attempting  to  explain  the  general  character  of  a  department  of  history  hitherto  too 
little  known,  as  well  as  of  a  style  which  some  may  find  unfamiliar  in  its  treatment.  Let  us  listen  then 
to  the  words  of  a  great  scholar  and  politician,  who,  from  the  stillness  of  that  distant  retreat  of  the 
Northern  Muses,  speaks  to  us  with  a  voice  of  gentleness,  yet  of  authority  and  force. 

'  The  kingdoms  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  united  since  1814,  contain  the  immense  surface  of  281,358  square  miles 
English.  The  population  of  the  former  in  1S39,  according  to  the  Geographical  Almanack  of  Berghaus,  was  3,111,067;  that 
of  the  latter  in  1840  was  1,243,700.  They  form  now  the  fourth  maritime  power  of  the  world,  coming  after  Great  Britain, 
the  United  States,  and  France.  The  number  of  their  ships  I  have  seen  stated  at  5450,  and  the  tonnage  at  471,772,  though 
I  am  at  a  loss  for  the  reference.  The  population  of  Denmark  in  1840  was  2,194,950.  That  of  the  grand  duchy  of  Finland, 
severed  from  Sweden  by  Russia  in  the  reign  of  Gustavus  IV.,  and  whose  inhabitants  are  far  from  having  forgotten  their  old 
connexion,  is  1,393,727. 


ERRATA. 


Page  1,  col.  2,  line  17,  for  "  reollections,"  read  recollections. 

Page  31,  col.  1,  note  9,  for  "  mundok,"  read  mutid  ok. 

Page  34,  col.  1,  line  14,  for  "  Gothland,"  read  Golllaud. 

Page  38,  col.  2,  line  23,  for  "  befel,"  read  befell. 

Page  45,  note  9,  for  "  Juta,"  read  Jutar. 

Page  81,  col.  2,  line  11,  place  the  ,  after  conflict. 


Note. — Sti  in  Swedish  sounds  like  sh ;  j  like  ?/,  as  also  g  before  ci  or  a.  I  have  not  in  all  cases  rigidly  adhered  to 
the  Swedish  orthography,  sometimes  using  the  Latinized  form  instead.  The  mark  '  generally  placed  over  e  tinal,  is  to  be 
considered  as  merely  arbitrary,  for  the  purpose  of  reminding  the  reader  that  it  should  be  sounded. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

'     INTRODUCTION. 

Notions  of  the  Ancients  on  Scandinavia.  Cliaracter 
and  Relations  of  its  History.  How  tirst  made  known 
to  Modern  Europe.  Saxo  Grammaticus.  The  Ice- 
landers. Scaldic  Poetry.  Snorro  Sturleson.  Swedish 
History  compared  with  Norwegian  and  Danish.  The 
Subject  divided 

CHAPTER  I. 

TRADITIONS   OF    THE    NORTH. 

Inland  Seas  ;  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Baltic 

Seat  of  the  Teutonic  Nations ;  their  Irruptions 

The  Suiones  of  Tacitus 

The  Gothic  Tribes 

Notion  of  their  Scandian  Extraction  ;  its  Explanation  . . 

Idea  of  the  Northern  Mythology 

Supposed  Divine  Descent  of  the  Kings 

Extent  of  Odinism 

Annals  and  Destiny  of  Gods  and  Men 

Spiritof  Northern  Paganism;  its  Heroic  Odes 

Legendary  Account  of  the  Establishment  of  the  Swedish 

Monarchy 

Odin;  his  Actions  and  Character.    The  Asae 

Niord  and  Frey.      The  Ynglings.      Fiolner,  the  First 

The  Ynglingasaga.     King  Anund  the  Leveller.     The 
Upsala  Kings.     Feast  of  Ingyald ;  his  Tragical  End- 
Origin  of  the  Swedes 

Odin  probably  a  Real  Personage.  Traditions  as  to  him. 
The  Asaj  or  Alans,  a  Tribe  dwelling  in  the  Caucasus  .... 
Piiorily  of  the  Goths.     Goths  and  Swedes  two  distinct 

The  Second  Dynasty.  Ivar  Widfamne,  its  Founder ;  his 
Conquests 

Harald  and  Sigurd.     Battle  of  Bravalla •••■ 

Eastern  Conquests  of  the  Swedes.  Russian  Monarchy 
founded  by  Ruric.  Statement  of  Nestor.  Vaners  and 
Varangians 

Swedish  Wars  in  Russia 

Ragnar  Lodbroc;  his  Adventures 

Fate  of  Ragnar's  Sons ■"■"T 

Accounts  of  him  compared.     Invasion  of  the  Northmen 

Settlement  in  Switzerland.    Hasslidale  ;  its  Inhabitants 

CHAPTER  II. 

LAND    AND    PEOPLE    FROM    THE    HEATHEN    PERIOD. 

Scania ;  its  Produce  and  Commerce.  Towns  ;  Inhabit- 
ants  •. r'll!' 

Provinces  of  the  Southern  Coasts ;  Occupations  of  the 
Inhabitants ••••" ■." 

West-Gothland  and  East-Gothland ;  Notices  of  them  m 

the  Sagas 

Gothland  and  Swedeland;   their  Boundaries 

Sudermaniaor  Suthermanland,  Nerike,  Vermeland 

Description   of  Sweden   by    King  Alfred   and    Snorro 

Sturleson 


3 

id. 

4 
id. 
id. 

5 
id. 
id. 
id. 

6 

id. 
id. 


9 
id. 
id. 

10 

id. 
11 


12 
13 
id. 
U 
id. 
15 


16 

17 

18 
19 
id. 

20 


PAGE 

The  Folklands  ;  Upland.  Meaning  of  these  Appel- 
lations.   Westmanland ^1 

Ancient  Topographical  Divisions.  Settlement  of  the 
Swedes  round  the  Shores  of  the  Malar.  Upsala,  Sig- 
tuna  or  Birca ■." 

Mining  Tracts  ;  Dalecarlia.  State  of  its  Inhabitants  in 
the  Twelfth  Century ^3 

Progress  of  Settlement  and  Culture  to  the  North.  Norr- 
land,  Helsingland,  Gestricland 24 

Medelpad  and  Angermanland.  Finnmark  ;  Charac- 
ter of  this  Region ^5 

Voyage  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten.  Biarmaland.  Fennic 
Tribes f 

Carelians  and  Tavastrians.    Finns  and  Lapps ^t 

Their  probable  Common  Extraction,   and  Present  Di- 

28 

versities 

Expulsion  of  these  Nomadic  Races  by  Swedish  Settlers. 
Vestiges  of  them  in  Middle  and  Southern  Sweden 29 

Notices  of  them  by  Old  Writers 30 

Ancient  Polity  and  Manners  of  the  Swedes id. 

Odin  and  his  Council  of  Twelve.  The  Tings.  Social 
Life  in  Heathen  Times.     Wedding  and  Funeral  Rites     31 

Formation  of  the  Original  Commonwealth ;  its  Digni- 

The  Lagman"or"judge.     Free  and  Unfree.     Houses  and 

Occupations  of  the  People ^3 

Fruits  and  Belies  of  Paganism •'"* 

CHAPTER  III. 

ESTABLISHMENT     OF     CHRISTIANITY.       CONTESTS   OF    THE 
SWEDES    AND   GOTHS    FOR   SUPREMACY.      A.D.  800—1250. 

Anskar,  the  Apostle  of  Sweden.  His  Mission  by  the 
Emperor  Lodovic  the  Pious 

His  Visits  to  Sweden.  Partial  Success  of  his  labours. 
His  Character.     Rimbert.     Relapse  to  Paganism 35 

King  Eric  Edmundson  and  his  Conquests.     Scandina- 
vian Enterprises  in  the  Ninth  Century.     King  Eric    ^^ 
the  Victorious "■.■■" 

Olave  the  Lap-King  ;  his  son,  Olave  Tryggwason,  King 
of  Norway;  League  against  him •• ••••• 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Sigfrid  preaches  the  Gospel  to  the 
Swedes  and  Norsemen.     Baptism  of  Olave  the  Lap- 

id. 

King 

St.  Olave  of  Norway.     Embassy  from  him  to  Olave  of 

„       ,  38 

Sweden ••••; 

Extinction  of  the  Second  Dynasty.  Effects  of  the 
Religious  Changes.  Ascendancy  of  the  Gothic  Popu- 
lation.    Stenkil  chosen  King  by  them 40 

Civil  Wars  between  the  Goths,  who  had  espoused 
Christianity,  and  the  Swedes,  who  remained  Pagans. .    41 

Reign  of  Inge.     Hostilities  with   Norway.     A  Danish 

Prince  chosen  by  the  West-Goths •••••••• 

Ascendancy  of  the  Christians.     King  Swerker.     Intro- 
duction of  Monks.     Visit  of  a  Papal  Legate.     Reign    ^^ 
of  St.  Eric < 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

His  Crusade  in  Finland,  Deatli,  and  Cliaracter.  Charles 
Swerkerson  first  King  of  tlie  Swedes  and  Goths. 
State  of  the  Church 44 

Successors  of  St.  Eric.     Feud  of  Eljaras 45 

King  Eric  Ericson.  Results  of  tlie  Civil  Wars.  The 
Folkungers.  Usurpation  of  the  Regal  Power  by  the 
Earl  of  Sweden 46 

Disorders  of  the  Clergy.  Synod  of  Skenninge  convoked 
by  a  Papal  Legate.     Its  Measures 47 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    FOLKUNGERS.      A.  D.   1250 — 13G5. 

Augmented  Power  of  the  Crown  and  the  Nobility id. 

Dawnings  of  Literature 48 

Waldemar,  son  of  Birger,  Earl  of  Sweden,  chosen  King.    id. 

Revolt  of  his  kinsmen,  the  Folkungers  ;  its  Suppression  id. 

Power  of  Earl  Birger;  his  Legislation 49 

Foundation  of  Stockholm  ;  Foreign  Trade id. 

Waldemar's  Quarrels  with  his  Brothers  ;  his  Pilgrimage 
to  Rome id. 

Dethronement  of  Waldemar.  Magnus  Ladulas  crowned 
King 50 

His  Regulations  for  checking  the  Power  and  Turbulent 
Spirit  of  the  Magnates 51 

Extensive  Claims  of  Regalities  referred  to  this  Reign. 
Their  Unsoundness  proved.  Payment  of  Land-Tax 
to  the  Crown  not  incompatible  with  complete  Allodial 
Right  of  Property.  Nobility  and  Freehold  Tenure  by 
Equestrian  Service 52 

Benefactions  of  Magnus  to  the  Church.  His  Death. 
Ascension  of  his  son  Birger 53 

Swedish  Law.  Functions  of  the  Lagman.  Provincial 
Codes.     Revision  of  the  Law  of  Upland 54 

Marriage  of  King  Birger.  Jealousy  and  Ambition  of 
the  Royal  Dukes id. 

Tlieir  Revolt  and  Seizure  of  the  King's  person.  Com- 
pact of  Helsingborg.  The  Dukes  treacherously  made 
prisoners  at  Nykceping 55 

Their  tragical  fate.  Flight  of  Birger  to  Denmark. 
Magnus  Ericson  chosen  King 56 

Aristocratic  League  for  the  Support  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment. Land's  Law  of  King  Magnus  Ericson  ;  Con- 
gress of  Warberg 57 

Crusade  in  Russia.  The  great  Plague.  Magnus  and 
his  Son  Eric  alternately  Kings 58 

Dethronement  of  Magnus  by  the  Swedish  Nobles.  Offer 
of  the  Crown  to  Albert,  Duke  of  Mecklenberg 59 

CHAPTER  V. 

FOREIGN    KINGS.      THE    UNION,    UNTIL    THE    ABMINIS- 
TRATION    OF    THE    STURES.      A.D.  1365 — 1470. 

The  Union  Age.  Dislike  to  the  new  King.  German 
Favourites 59 

Invasion  by  Haco,  King  of  Norway,  Son  of  Magnus  Al- 
bert's surrender  of  Power  to  tlie  Lords  of  liis  Council. 
Margaret  of  Norway.  The  Crown  offered  to  her  by 
the  Executors  of  the  High  Steward 60 

Battle  of  Falkoeping  and  Captivity  of  Albert.  Piracies 
in  the  Baltic.  Eric  duke  of  Pomerania  elected  King. 
Treaty  of  Calmar  for  the  Union  of  Scandinavia,  July 
20,   1397 61 

Philippa  of  England.  Oppressive  Exactions  by  the  new 
King's  Government.  Tyranny  of  the  Royal  Lieutenants     62 

General  Rising  of  the  People  under  Engelbert  Eiigel- 
bertson.     His  Encounter  with  the  Council 63 

Success  of  his  Army.  He  is  chosen  Administrator ;  and 
Assassinated,  April  27,  1436 , 64 

Charles  Canuteson  Bonde  chosen  Administrator.  King 
Eric  retires  to  the  Isle  of  Gottland.  Oscillations  of 
Parties.  Choice  of  Christopher  of  Bavaria  to  the 
Throne 65 

Charles  Canuteson  High  Steward.  Jealousies  of  the 
Magnates.  Design  to  surprise  Lubeck.  Death  of 
Christopher 66 


PAGE 

Election  of  Charles  Canuteson  to  the  Crown.  Attempt 
on  Gottland.  Burning  of  Wisby  by  the  Danes.  Nor- 
way adheres  to  Christian  of  Oldenburg 67 

Hostilities  of  Charles  and  Christian.  Danish  Incursion. 
Public  Calamities C8 

Unpopularity  of  Cbarles.  His  Feud  with  the  Archbishop 
and  Flight  to  Dantzic.  Christian  of  Oldenburg,  King 
of  Denmark,  admitted  to  the  Crown 69 

Quarrel  of  Christian  and  the  Archbishop.  His  Depar- 
ture to  Denmark.  Recall  and  Death  of  Charles 
Canuteson ^^ 

CHAPTER  VI. 

STENO  STURE  THE  ELDER.  KING  JOHN.  SUANTO  STURE. 
STENO  STURE  THE  lOUNGER,  AND  CHRISTIAN  THE 
TYRANT.       A.D.   1470—1520. 

Steno  store  the  Elder  chosen  Administrator.  Danish 
Invasion  under  Christian  1 71 

Battle  of  Brunkeberg,  and  complete  Defeat  of  the  Danes. 
Internal  Tranquillity  after  their  Expulsion 72 

University  of  Upsala  founded.  Renewal  of  the  Treaty 
of  Calmar.    Its  Non-fulfilment 73 

War  with  Russia.  Indecisive  Movements.  Charges 
against  the  Administrator.  King  John  of  Denmark 
invited  into  Sweden  by  the  Council 74 

Opposition  of  the  Administrator.  His  Compromise  with 
King  John ^^ 

Desertion  of  the  King  by  the  Nobility.  Death  of  Steno 
the  Elder.     Suanto  Sture  chosen  Administrator 76 

Hostilities  with  Denmark.  Peace  with  Russia.  Al- 
liance with  Lubeck.  Steno  Sture  the  Younger  chosen 
Administrator ^7 

Accession  of  Christian  H.  in  Denmark.  Continuance 
of  Hostilities.  Papal  Ban  and  Interdict  on  Sweden. 
Invasion  and  temporary  Reduction  of  the  Country  by 
the  Danes ^8 

Demand  by  the  Archbishop  of  Satisfaction  for  Injuries 
sustained  from  the  Administrator.  Massacre  of  Stock- 
holm.    Cruelties  of  Christian 79 

CHAPTER  VII. 

LAND    AND    PEOPLE    DURING   THE    CATHOLIC    PERIOD. 

General  Character  of  this  Period.  The  Monarchy  a 
Federation SO 

Strength  of  the  Popular  Element.  Mode  of  Election  to 
the  Crown.     The  Ericsgait Si 

Elective  Customs  of  the  West-Goths.  Privilege  of  the 
Upper  Swedes 82 

The  Yeoman  and  his  Rights.  Law  of  Inheritance. 
Birthrights 83 

Protection  of  Private  Char.icter  by  the  Law.  Outlawry 
of  Homicides.     The  Man-bote 84 

The  Ordeals.  Compurgators.  Judicial  Office  and  Power. 
Mulcts 85 

Measures  of  Police.  Punishments.  Influence  of  the 
Church  in  ameliorating  Manners.  Early  Abolition  of 
Serfage 86 

Social  Customs  and  Observances.  The  Land's  Law. 
Court  Laws 87 

Jurisdiction  of  the  Nobility.  Towns  and  Burgesses. 
Seats  of  Trade.     Crown  Revenues 88 

Taxation.  Tithes.  Royal  Domain.  Boundaries  of  the 
Kingdom.     Mines 89 

Cultivation.     Traffic.     The  Gottlanders 90 

Commercial  Privileges  of  the  Germans.  The  Coinage; 
its  Depreciation 91 

Produce  of  the  various  Provinces.  Fisheries.  Institu- 
tion of  Guilds.     Prevalence  of  Immorality 92 

State  of  Knowledge.  Introduction  of  Printing.  Do- 
mestic Manners  and  Old  Usages 93 

Education  of  Youth.     Popular  love  of  Freedom 94 

Catalogue  of  Kings .■■•    95 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

GUSTAVUS   VASA.      THE    LIBERATION.      A.D.  1520 — 1523. 

Birth  and  Parentage  of  Gustavus 97 

His  Scliool-days  and  youthful  Exploits  ;  his  Captivity  in 
North  Jutland,  and  Escape  to  Lubeck 98 

He  repairs  to  Calmar;  attempts  to  raise  the  Smalanders 
against  the  Danes 99 

State  of  Sweden  under  the  Danish  Governors ;  the  latter 
favoured  by  the  Bisliops  and  Nobles.  News  of  the 
Massacre.     Flight  of  Gustavus 100 

His  Wanderings  in  Dalecarlia ;  Agitation  against  the 
Danes 101 

Rising  of  the  Dalesmen ;  Gustavus  chosen  for  their 
Captain;  Apathy  of  the  Helsingers  ;  Zealof  the  Stock- 
holm Magistracy  for  tlie  Danes 102 

Unsuccessful  attempt  to  quell  the  Revolt  by  Archbishop 
Gustavus  Trolle  and  the  Danish  Authorities  ;  Rout  of 
Brunnebeckor  Brunneburn 103 

Successes  of  the  Patriot  Force;  Combats  of  Westeras 
and  Upsala 104 

Narrow  Escape  of  Gustavus.  Siege  of  Stockholm  begun. 
He  is  elected  Administrator  at  a  Diet  in  Vadstena....  105 

Progress  of  the  War.  Cruel  treatment  of  the  Wives  and 
Children  of  the  Swedish  Nobles  by  Christian.  At- 
tempts of  the  Danish  admiral  Norby  to  relieve  Stock- 
holm.    Its  Capture lOG 

View  of  Christian's  Policy  and  Character.  His  Flight 
from  his  Dominions.  Gustavus  elected  King  at  a 
Diet  in  Strengness 107 

CHAPTER  IX. 

GUSTAV0S   VASA.      THE    REFORMATION.      A.D.  1524—1543. 

State  of  the  Country  at  the  close  of  the  War.  Dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union.  The  Nobles  and  the  Commons. 
Temper  of  Men's  Minds 108 

Position  of  the  Church.  Pecuniary  Claims  of  the  Lu- 
beckers.     Gottland  held  by  Norby  for  Christian  II.  ...  109 

Expedition  fitted  out  by  Gustavus  against  Gottland. 
Treachery  of  its  Commander.  Introduction  of  Luther's 
Doctrines  into  Sweden  by  Olave  and  Laurence  Peter- 
son   110 

Financial  Statement  made  by  Gustavus  at  Westeras. 
Debts  to  Lubeck.  New  Taxes.  Prevalence  and 
Severity  of  Distress Ill 

Anabaptist  Riots  in  Stockholm.  The  King's  Rebuke  of 
the  new  Preachers.  New  Bishops  appointed.  Their 
Intrigues 112 

Plots  for  the  House  of  Sture.  Punishment  of  the  de- 
linquent Bishops 113 

Gustavus  and  Bishop  Braske.  The  King  invades  the 
Property  of  the  Monasteries,  and  assumes  the  Direc- 
tion of  Ecclesiastical  Affairs 114 

The  False  Sture ;  his  Impostures.  Rebellion  in  the 
Dales llo 

Diet  of  Westeras  assembles  ;  its  Composition.  Speech 
of  the  High-Chancellor  Anderson  on  the  State  of 
Affairs IIG 

Disputes  between  the  King  and  the  Nobles ;  Ferment 
among  the  Common  People ;  the  Royal  Demands 
granted , 117 

Measures  of  the  Diet  respecting  the  Church  Tempo- 
ralities.    Bishops' Castles  sequestrated  118 

Assize  of  Tuna  in  Dalecarlia.  Suppression  of  the  Mo- 
nasteries.    Decrees  of  the  Synod  of  Orebro 119 

Revolution  in  West-Gothland  and  Smaland,  instigated 
by  the  High-Steward  Thure  Jenson.  Meeting  on 
Larfs  Heath 120 

Plot  of  seven  West-Gothic  Barons  j  their  Chastisement. 
Steps  for  the  Payment  of  the  Debt  to  Lubeck.  Bell 
Sedition 121 

Movements  of  Cliristian  II.  He  Lands  in  Norway,  and 
is  acknowledged  King.     Attempt  on  Sweden 122 


PAGE 

Surrender  of  Christian.  His  Imprisonment  by  Frederic 
of  Denmark,  and  Sufferings.  Conference  of  Gustavus 
with  the  Insurgent  Dalecarlians 123 

Designs  of  Lubeck.  Rupture  with  its  Government. 
Relations  with  Denmark 124 

Conspiracy  in  Stockholm ;  its  Detection  and  Punish- 
ment. Establishment  of  the  Reformation.  Measures 
of  Church  Discipline 125 

Rebellion  in  Southern  Sweden.  Its  dangerous  Character, 
and  Suppression 126 

CHAPTER  X. 

GUSTAVUS    VASA.      THE    HEREDITARY   SETTLEMENT. 
A.D.  1544— 15G0. 

Settlement  of  the  Crown  of  Sweden  in  the  House  of 
Vasa.     Internal  Tranquillity 127 

Effects  of  the  Recess  of  Westeras.  Confiscation  of 
Church  Property 128 

Increase  of  the  King's  Power  hy  his  Ecclesiastical  Mea- 
sures. Assertion  of  Claims  of  Regalities  over  Com- 
mons, Waters,  Fisheries,  and  Mines 129 

Character  of  the  King's  Administration.  Popular  Me- 
thods of  Government.     Conrad  Von  Pyhy,  Chancellor  131 

His  Pestilent  Influence;  and  Ruin.  The  King's  Avarice 
and  Covetous  Devices 132 

His  Domestic  Economy,  and  Plans  of  Improvements  ...  183 

Popular  Regard  for  Gustavus.  Finance  and  Agricul- 
ture    134 

Mines  and  Forges.     Foreign  Commerce 135 

Steps  to  its  Extension.     Regulation  of  Internal  Trade..  13G 

Military  Force.     Navy.     Education 137 

Condition  and  Manners  of  the  Upper  Classes  and  Clergy. 
Misunderstandings  with  Denmark 138 

Hostilities  with  Russia.    Last  Years  of  the  King's  Life    139 

Misconduct  of  his  Son  Eric.  The  King's  grave  Dis- 
pleasure   140 

Eric's  Love- suit  to  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England.  Con- 
test in  Livonia 141 

Designs  of  the  Princes  Eric  and  John.  Diet  of  Stock- 
holm   ^ 142 

The  King's  Farewell  Speech  to  the  Estates.  His  Last 
Illness  143 

His  Death.  Account  of  him  by  his  Nephew,  Count 
Peter  Brahe 144 

CHAPTER  XI. 

ERIC    AND   HIS    BROTHERS.      A.D.  1560 — 1569. 

Accession  of  Eric.  His  Accomplishments.  Power  of 
the  royal  Dukes  John  and  Charles 145 

Characters  of  the  Princes ;  their  Disagreements  with 
the  King 146 

The  Coronation.  Creation  of  Hereditary  Counts  and 
Barons.     New  Supreme  Court  established  147 

Administration  of  Justice.  Eric's  Overtures  of  Marriage  148 

His  Profusion.  Submission  of  Estland  to  Swedish 
Rule.  John's  Views  on  the  Crown  of  Poland.  Hos- 
tilities with  the  Poles.     John  imprisoned 149 

The  King's  Intentions  towards  him.  Tyrannical  mea- 
sures of  Police.     George  Person 150 

Atrocities  of  the  Royal  Court.     War  with  Denmark 151 

Swedish  Invasion  of  Norway.  Eric's  Account  of  the 
Military  Occurrences 152 

Severity  of  the  Conscription.  The  King's  Persecution 
of  the  House  of  Sture 153 

Cruel  Treatment  of  Nicholas  Sture.  Supposed  Con- 
spiracy in  tlie  Interest  of  that  Family 154 

Investigation  of  the  Charge.  Arraignment  of  Six  Lords 
at  Stockliolm.  Adjournment  of  the  Trial  to  Upsala. 
Murder  of  Nicholas  Sture  there  by  the  King  and  his 
Attendants 155 

Frenzy  of  Eric ;  Discussion  of  its  Nature 156 

His  Insane  Deportment  to  Duke  John ;  his  Marriage. 
Incursion  of  the  Danes  into  East-Gothland 157 

Frivolities  of  Eric.  Design  against  his  Brothers' Lives; 
the  Dukes  take  up  Arms 158 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Eric  brought  to  Trial  before  the  Estates,  and  Deposed. 

His  Imprisonment  and  Sufferings 159 

Plots  for   his  Release.     Resolution  of  the  Council  of 

State  to  despatch  him IGO 

He  is  poisoned  by  the  Servants  of  Duke   John.     His 

Widow  and  Children 161 

Fortunes  of  his  son  Gustavus  in  Poland  and  Russia 162 

CHAPTER  XII. 

JOHN    AND    CHARLES.      A.  D.    1569 — 1592. 

John  acknowledged  King.  Position  of  Duke  Charles. 
Charter  of  Privileges  to  the  Nobility 163 

Congress  of  Stettin,  and  Peace  with  Denmark.  War 
with  Russia 164 

Successes  in  Livonia  and  on  the  Finnish  Border.  The 
Crown-Prince  Sigismund  elected  King  of  Poland 1G5 

Design  of  John  to  restore  Popery.  Arrival  of  Jesuits 
in  Stockholm 166 

State  of  the  Church,  and  the  Popular  Belief.  Pro- 
visions of  the  Kirk's  Ordinance 167 

Machinations  of  the  Jesuits.     King  John's  Liturgy 168 

His  Embassy  to  Rome,  and  Proposals  to  the  Pope. 
Abandonment  of  Papistical  Tendencies 169 

Exasperation  of  the  Differences  between  the  King  and 
Duke  Charles.     Division  of  the  Royal  Patrimony 170 

Dispute  between  them  as  to  the  Government  of  Livonia. 
Intentions  of  Gustavus  I.  respecting  the  Government  171 

Crown-rights  over  the  Nobility.  The  Equestrian  Ser- 
vice. Views  of  the  Swedish  Nobles  in  this  Age  illus- 
trated from  the  Treatise  of  Count  Brahe 172 

Disputes  as  to  the  Civil  and  Ecclesiastical  Government 
of  the  Duchy 173 

Reflections  on  the  Character  and  Policy  of  King  John. 
'     His  Second  Marriage.     Affairs  of  Poland 174 

Statutes  of  Calmar,  for  the  future  Union  and  Govern- 
r"    ment  of  Sweden  and  Poland 175 

Family  of  Vasa.  The  King's  Suspicions  of  Treason  in 
't     the"  Council 176 

Regulations  of  the  Mines.  Improvements  of  Duke 
Charles  in  Vermeland 177 

Mismanagement  and  Profusion  of  the  Court.  John 
determines  to  visit  his  son  Sigismund 178 

The  King's  Departure,  and  Stay  in  Reval.  Remon- 
strances of  the  Council  and  the  Army 179 

The  King's  Return;  his  Disgust  with  the  Council 180 

The  Estates  convoked.  Arraignment  of  Six  Lords  of 
the  Council  for  their  Conduct  at  Reval,  and  Design 
to  annul  the  Hereditary  Settlement id. 

Despotic  Conduct  of  the  King;  his  Harshness  towards 
the  Accused.  The  Russian  War.  Horn's  Heroism, 
Unjust  Condemnation,  and  Pardon 181 

Illness  and  Death  of  John 182 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

CHARLES    AGAINST    SIGISMUND.      A.  D.    1592 — 1598. 

Education  of  Sigismund  by  bis  Father  in  the  Catholic 
Faith.  Proceedings  of  Duke  Charles  in  his  absence. 
Pardon  of  the  Accused  Lords.  The  Duke's  Covenant 
with  the  Council 183 

Synod  of  Upsala.     Abrogation  of  John's  Liturgy 184 

The  Calvinists  declared  Heretics.  Fears  as  to  the  ad- 
mission of  the  King.  Mission  of  Thure  Bielke  to 
obtain  Guarantees  from  Sigismund 185 

The  King's  arrival.  Disorders  at  Stockholm.  Diet  of 
Upsala.     His  acceptance  of  the  proposed  Conditions..  186 

The  Coronation.  Opinion  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  as  to 
Sigismund's  Conduct  and  Policy.  Renewal  of  the 
Abuses  of  the  former  Union.    Postulates  of  the  Nobles  187 

Sigismund's  Charter  of  Privileges  to  their  Order.  Ar- 
rangements for  his  Departure  to  Poland 188 

Quarrels  of  the  Poles  and  Swedes.  His  Embarkation. 
Position  of  the  Council ;  vast  Infeudations  to  several 
of  its  Members 189 


PAGE 

Pretensions  of  the  new  Lieutenants  to  Independence 
of  the  Duke.  Re-erection  of  the  University  of  Up- 
sala. Peace  with  Russia.  Disturbances  raised  by 
Fleming,  the  Governor  of  Finland 190 

Convention  of  the  Estates  by  Duke  Charles  at  Siider- 
kceping.     Measures  against  the  Catholics 191 

Kirk-inquest  by  the  Archbishop.  Distress  and  Dis- 
content. Letter  of  the  Dalesmen  in  support  of  Duke 
Charles.     Civil  War  in  Finland 19.3 

The  Duke  renounces  the  Government,  and  convokes 
the  Diet  of  Arboga 193 

Announcement  of  Sigismund's  purpose  to  return. 
Decrees  of  the  Estates  in  favour  of  the  Duke.  Ar- 
rival of  Sigismund.  Negotiations  and  Hostilities. 
Fights  of  Stegeborg  and  Stangbridge 194 

Treaty  of  Linkoeping.  Flight  of  Sigismund.  Charles 
declared  by  the  Estates  Hereditary  Prince  Regnant....  195 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

CHARLES    IX.      A.  D.    1599 — 1611. 

Consequences  of  Sigismund's  Flight.  Disorders  in 
Upper  Sweden 196 

Severities  against  the  King's  Adherents.  Execution  of 
John  Sparre,  brother  of  the  Chancellor,  and  others. 
Diet  of  Linkoeping.  Arraignment  of  the  Royalist 
Nobles 197 

Condemnation  of  the  Accused,  and  Execution  of  their 
Chiefs.  Banishment  of  other  Nobles  of  the  King's 
Party 198 

Offer  of  the  Crown  by  the  Estates  at  LinkcEping  to  the 
Duke.  Military  Operations  in  Livonia.  Negotiations 
with  the  Poles.     Visit  of  Charles  to  Finland 199 

Condition  of  the  Peasantry  of  that  Province.  Re- 
flections on  the  Career  and  Position  of  Charles.  His 
Generous  Conduct  to  his  nephew,  Prince  John 200 

Diet  at  Stockholm.  His  View  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
Famine  and  Plague.  Refusal  of  the  Crown  by 
Charles.     New  Council  appointed 201 

His  Religious  Opinions,  and  Controversy  with  the  Arch- 
bishop.,...   202 

Projects  of  Religious  Union.  Rebukes  to  the  Clergy. 
Correspondence  of  Charles  with  the  University  of 
Upsala 203 

Acceptance  of  the  Crown  by  Charles  in  1604.  Heredi- 
tary Settlement  of  Norrkoeping.  Measures  for  the 
Organization  of  the  Military  Force 204 

The  King's  Relations  with  the  Nobility.  Projects  for 
the  Amendment  of  the  Law 205 

Correction  of  Judicial  Abuses.  Regulation  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Governments  and  Magistracy 206 

Commercial  Measures.  Import  and  Export  Duties. 
Mines  and  Manufactories.     Survey  of  the  Country....    207 

War  in  Livonia.  Revolutions  of  Russia.  Disputes 
with  Denmark.     Invasion  by  Christian  IV 208 

The  King's  Negotiations  with  Foreign  States.  His 
Death.     Spirit  of  his  Life  and  Reign 209 

CHAPTER  XV. 

GUSTAVUS    II.     ADOLPHUS.      HtS     INTERNAL    ADMINISTRA- 
TION.     A.  D.    1611—1632. 

Sketch  of  the  Early  Life  and  Education  of  the  King  by 
Chancellor  Oxenstierna 210 

His  First  Campaign  against  the  Danes 211 

His  acknowledgment  by  the  Estates,  and  Accession  to 
the  Government.  View  of  the  effects  of  the  Heredi- 
tary Settlement 212 

The  Royal  Warranty ;  Restrictions  stipulated  on  the 
Power  of  the  Crown.  Legal  Rights  and  Obligations 
of  the  Nobility 213 

Policy  of  former  Kings  with  regard  to  the  Feudal  Pres- 
tations ;  Efforts  of  Charles  IX.  and  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus to  give  the  Order  a  Military  Character 214 

Prevalence  of  the  Military  Spirit  In  the  Government 215 

Aristocratic  and  Democratic  Parties ;  Oxenstierna  and 
Skytte 216 


PAGE 

Backwardness  of  the  Nobility  in  performing  Military 

Service 217 

New  Charter  of  Privileges.     House  of  Barons  erected; 

Consequences  of  its  Institution 218 

Its  Objects  and  Organization;    Representation  of  the 

Army  in  the  Diets 219 

Order  of  Proceeding  in  General  Diets ;  instances  of  Pro- 
vincial Diets 220 

Taxation  ;  uncertainty  of  the  Mode  of  Imposition,  and 
Irregularity  of  the  Amounts 221 

Frequency  of  Diets  in  this  Reign.  Commissions  of 
Estates.     Supplies  granted  to  the  Crown 222 

Equality  of  Assessment  endeavoured  by  the  King; 
Declarations  of  the  Estates  against  Privileged  Im- 
munities.    Collection  of  the  Taxes 223 

Disturbances  occasioned  thereby.  The  Conscription ; 
Method  of  enforcing  it  by  Commissioners.. 224 

Conduct  of  the  Levies  throughout  this  Reign.  Allo- 
cation of  the  Soldiery  for  their  Maintenance 225 

Improvement  and  Extension  of  the  System  by  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  Resources  of  the  Country;  Extraordinary 
Means 226 

Loans,  Sales,  and  Monopolies.    Commercial  Associations  227 

Influence  of  the  Government  on  the  National  Character. 
Contemporary  Account  of  the  People  by  a  Belgian 
Merchant 228 

Strength  of  the  Army.  Measures  for  the  Improvement 
of  the  Mines,  Forges,  and  Manufactories 229 

New  Towns  Founded.  Rise  of  Gottenburg.  Regu- 
lation of  Foreign  Commerce  and  Inland  Traffic 230 

New  Administrative;Offices.     Supreme  Court  erected....  231 

Its  Functions  and  Influence.  Royal  Interference  with 
the  Course  of  Justice.     Rarity  of  Litigation 232 

Condition  of  the  People  during  a  period  of  War.  State 
of  the  Church  ;  Proposition  for  a  General  Consistory..  233 

State  of  the  University  of  Upsala.  The  King's  Solicitude 
for  its  Prosperity  and  the  Promotion  of  Learning 234 

His  Munificent  Grants  to  the  University  and  Schools....  235 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

GUSTAVUS     II.     ADOLPHUS.      THE     DANISH,     RUSSIAN,     AND 
POLISH    WARS.       AD.    1612—1629. 

Military  Position  of  Old  Sweden.  Theory  of  the  War- 
like Measures  of  Gustavus  II 236 

Campaign  of  1612  against  the  Danes.  Desperate  En- 
gagement in  Smaland.     Elfsborg  taken  by  the  Danes.  237 

Danish  Invasion  of  Gothland  under  Christian  IV.  and 
Rantzou  defeated.  Attempt  on  Stockholm.  Peace 
signed;  its  Conditions 238 

Alliance  with  the  Netherlands.  Affairs  of  Russia. 
Embassy  from  Novogorod  to  solicit  a  Swedish  Prince 
for  their  Czar 239 

Campaign  of  1615.  Peace  of  Stolbova;  The  King's 
opinion  of  the  Terms 240 

Internal  State  of  Russia,  described  by  Memoirs  from 
Swedish  Agents.  Polish  War.  Connexions  and  In- 
trigues of  Sigisraund,  King  of  Poland,  against  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus 241 

His  Preparations  for  active  Hostility.  Humanity  of 
Gustavus  towards  the  Inhabitants  of  Livonia  and 
Esthonia,  the  seat  of  War 242 

Articles  of  War  issued  for  the  Swedish  Army.  Courts- 
Martial 243 

Military  Discipline  and  Punishments.  Muster  of  the 
Army  before  Gustavus  and  his  Family  on  the  Mea- 
dow of  Orsta.  Embarkation  of  the  King,  and  Sailing 
of  the  Fleet  for  Livonia 244 

Siege  of  Riga ;  Surrender  of  the  Town.  Death  of  the 
King's  brother,  Duke  Charles  Philip 245 

Campaign  of  1622.     Three  Years' Truce.     Campaign  of 

I   1625;  Reduction  of  Livonia  and  Courland 246 

Winter's  Campaign ;  Battle  of  Wallhof.  War  removed 
into  Prussiain  1626 247 


PAGE 

Occupation  of  Pillau  and  other  places.     Occurrences  in 

Livonia.     Home  Affairs 248 

Second  Campaign  in  Prussia.  Actions  before  Dantzic.  249 
The  Poles  supported  by  the  Emperor.     Armistice  and 

Negotiations  for  Peace 250 

Third  and  Fourth  Prussian   Campaigns.     Junction  of 

the  Imperialists  with  the  Poles 251 

Battle  of  Stum.     Mediation   of  France  and   England. 

Six  Years'  Truce 252 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

GUSTAVUS    n.    ADOLPHUS.      THE     GERMAN    WAR. 

A.  D.  1628—1632. 
Overtures  of  the  Protestants  of  Germany  to  Gustavus 
Adolphus.     Views  of  the  King  as  to  Swedish  Inter- 
vention  in  the   Conflict  between  the  Catholics  and 

Protestants 253 

State  of  Germany;  Political  Changes 254 

Power  and  Designs  of  Wallenstein.     Importance  of  the 

Baltic  Harbours 255 

Danger  of  Stralsund;   the  King  determines  to  rescue 
it.     Its  Siege  by  the  Imperialists;  Conclusion  of  an 

Alliance 256 

The  Estates  engage  to  support  the  King  in  his  Mea- 
sures.    Discussion  of  a  Plan  of  Operation  for  the  War  257 
The    King's  Argument  for  an  Offensive  War.     Inter- 
ruption of  Good  Understanding  with  Denmark 258 

Apprehensions   of  Hostility  from  that  Quarter;    Pre- 
cautions against  it 259 

Diet  of  1629.     Deliberations  in   the   Council.      Nego- 
tiations for  Peace  at  Dantzic.     Intrigues  of  Richelieu.  260 
Preparations    in    Sweden.     Assembly    of    the    Fleet. 

Number  and  Composition  of  the  Army 261 

The  King  takes  leave  of  the  Estates,  and  embarks  for 
Germany,   May  30,    1630.     Voyage    to    Pomerania. 

Landing  on  the  Isle  of  Usedom 262 

Occupation  of  Stettin.     Cruelties  and  Oppression  of  the 
Imperialists.     Position  of  Affairs   at   this   Juncture. 

Strict  Discipline  of  the  Swedes 263 

The  King  joined  by  several  German  Princes ;  his  Em- 
barrassments from  deficient  Supplies 264 

Plans   for  the  Ensuing  Year.     Winter  of  1630.     Con- 
tinuance of  Operations 2G5 

Treaty  with  France.     Reduction  of  Pomerania.     Storm- 
ing of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder 266 

Efforts  to  relieve  Magdeburg  frustrated.     Its  Capture. 

Barbarities  of  the  Imperialist  Forces 267 

Pusillanimous   Conduct  of  the   Protestant  Electors  of 
Saxony  and  Brandenburg.     Exigencies  of  the  Army. 

Entrenched  Camp  at  Werben 268 

Repulse   of  Tilly's  Assault.     Ravages  of  the  Plague. 

The  Saxon  Troops  join  the  Swedes 269 

Battle  of  Leipsic.     Complete  Defeat  of  the  Imperialist 

Army  under  Tilly 270 

Defence  of  the  Policy  of  the  Operations  subsequent  to 
the  Victory.     Question  as  to  their  direction  against 

Austria,  or  to  Upper  Germany 271 

Plan  for  a   Defensive  War;  its  Abandonment.     Rapid 

Successes  on  the  Mayne 272 

Progress  to  the  Rhine.    Tilly  declines  Battle.    Collision 

with  the  Spaniards  at  Oppenheim 273 

Entry  into  Mentz.  Compacts  with  the  Protestant  States 

of  the  Empire.     Proposals  of  Peace 274 

Backwardness  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg.     War  in 

Bavaria.     Passage  of  the  Lech 275 

Occupation  of  Augsburg  and  Munich.     The  entrenched 

Camps  at  Nuremberg ;  Wallenstein  against  Gustavus  276 
The  former  threatens  Saxony.     State  of  Aflairs  at  the 

break-up  from  Nuremberg 277 

Positions  of  the  hostile  Armies.     Plans  of  Wallenstein  ; 

his  Irruption  into  Saxony  ;  Measures  for  its  Defeat ...  278 
The  King  overtakes  Wallenstein,  and  is  deserted  by  the 

Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick 279 

The  hostile  armies  in  presence  of  each  other  on  the 
field  of  Lutzen.  Their  Stations,  and  probable  Strength  230 


XVI 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Order  of  Battle  and  Preparations.  The  King's  address 
to  liis  Troops 281 

Desperate  Cliarge  of  the  Infantry  ;  temporary  Repulse. 
The  King's  Fall 282 

The  Duke  of  Weimar  takes  the  Command.  Arrival  of 
Pappenheim  with  Reinforcements  to  the  Imperialists  283 

Final  Attack  and  Triumph  of  the  Swedes.  Recovery  of 
the  King's  Body 284 

Reception  of  the  News  in  Sweden.  The  Duke  of  Lauen- 
burg  suspected  as  the  author  of  the  King's  Death 285 

Inquiry  into  the  Probability  of  the  Charge  ;  its  Ground- 
lessness evinced 286 

Reflections  on  the  Life,  Character,  and  Intentions  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus 28? 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Christina's  minority,    the  guardians. 
A.  D.  1633—1645. 

Correspondence  of  the  Chancellor  with  the  Council  of 

State  upon  the  King's  Death 288 

Views  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  as  to  the  Organization  of 
the  Ministry.     Proposed  Alliance    and  Match  with 

Brandenburg 289 

Oxenstierna's  Draught  of  a  Constitution.     Diet  of  1633. 

Acknowledgment  of  Christina 290 

Regency  of  Guardians  appointed ;  their  Oath.  Preten- 
sions of  the  Polish  branch  of  the  Vasas  revived 291 

The  Chancellor's  Form  of  Government  adopted  by  the 
Diet.     The   five  Administrative  Colleges.     Prefects 

and  Judges 292 

Obligations  of  Official  Persons  to  render  an  Account  in 

yearly  Courts  of  Inquest 293 

Character  of  Oxenstierna.  His  Memorial  to  the  Council. 

Financial  Measures  recommended  by  him 294 

His  Suggestions  for  the  Improvement  of  the  Towns, 

and  the  Abolition  of  Burdens  on  Trade 295 

His  Views  upon  the  Conduct  of  the  War.     Negotiation 

with  the  Saxon  Court  at  Dresden 296 

The  Chancellor  appointed  to  the  Supreme  Directory  of 

the  War.     Protestant  League  of  Heilbronn 297 

Project  for  investing  the  Chancellor  with  the  Electorate 

of  Mentz,  and  marrying  his  son  to  the  Queen 298 

Mutiny  among  the  Officers  of  the  Army  of  the  Danube. 

Dissensions  of  the  Swedish  and  German  Generals 299 

Operations  on  the  Weser  and  in  Suabia.  Ratisbon  taken 

by  the  Imperialists 300 

Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  and  Horn  defeated  at  Nord- 
lingen.  Bad  Faith  of  Wallenstein.  His  Assassina- 
tion   301 

Inquiry  into  the  extent  of  his  Guilt.     Dissensions  of 

the  Protestant  States  of  Germany 302 

Peace  of  Prague.  Change  in  the  Prospects  of  the  War. 
Negotiations  with  Denmark  and  Poland.  The  Swed- 
ish Ministry  inclined  to  Peace 303 

Rising  Influence  of  France.     Policy  of  Richelieu.    Visit 

of  Oxenstierna  to  him  to  settle  terms  of  Alliance 304 

Fruitless  Efforts  of  Oxenstierna  for  Peace.    John  Baner, 

the  new  Commander-in-Chief 305 

Tlie  Saxons  take  part  actively  against  Sweden.  Opera- 
tions on  the  Oder 306 

Invasions  of  Bohemia  and  Bavaria.     Baner's  Retreat 

from  Ratisbon,  and  Death 307 

Ratification  of  the  Alliance  with  France.    Oxenstierna's 

Home  Administration 808 

New  Levy.     Inquiry  into  Abuses.     New  Division  and 

Allocation  of  the  Army 309 

Reforms  in  various  Departments  of  the  Public  Service. 

Torstenson  General-in-Chief 310 

Military  Discontents  after  Baner's  Death.     Dangerous 

Jealousies  among  the  Generals 311 

Invasion  of  the  Emperor's  hereditary  Dominions.  Ad- 
vance to  Vienna,  and  successful  Retreat 312 

Reinforcements  arrive  from  Sweden.  Second  Battle  of 
Leipsic 313 


PAGE 

Campaign  of  1643  broken  off.    Rupture  with  Denmark. 

Resolution  for  War 314 

Torstenson's  Instructions  for  Operations  against  Den- 
mark.    He  evades  the  Imperialists 315 

Account  of  Denmark  In  this  Age  by  a  Swedish  Minister. 

Its  Military  System 316 

Public  Revenue.    State  of  Norway.    Description  of  the 

other  Provinces 317 

The   Nobility,   Clergy,   and  Burgesses.     Reduction  of 

Jutland.     Design  on  Zealand 318 

Maritime  Operations  and  Engagements.     Defeat  of  the 

Imperialists  under  Gallas 319 

Naval   Victory.      Peace  of    Brbmsebro.      Cessions  by 

Denmark.     Grants  to  Oxenstierna 320 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Christina's  government  and  abdication. 
A.  D.  1644—1654. 
Assumption  of  the  Government  by  the  young  Queen. 
Diet  of  1644.     Report  made  by  the  Guardians  to  the 

Estates 32 1 

Approved  by  the  Queen.     Sentiments  of  the  Estates  as 

to  the  Constitution 322 

Youth  and  Education  of  the  Queen ;  her  Learning  and 

Accomplishments 323 

Her  Character  and  Manners  described  by  Chanut,  the 

French  Ambassador 324 

Concluding  Period  of  the  AVar.     Invasion  of  Bohemia 

by  Torstenson.     Great  Victory  of  Jankowitz 325 

Want  of  Co-operation  obliges  him  to  retreat.     Effect  of 

his  Successes.     Congress  of  Oanaburg 326 

Instructions  of  the   Chancellor    to  the  Swedish  Com- 
missioners at  the  Congress 327 

Desolate  Condition  of  Germany.      Wrangel  appointed 

Commander-in-Chief 328 

Campaign  of  1646.     Junction  with   the  French  under 

Turenne.     Truce  concluded  with  Bavaria 329 

Instructions  of  the  Ministry  to  Wrangel.     Campaign  of 

1647.    Last  year  of  the  War 330 

Devastation  of  Bavaria  by  the  Allies.  Peace  of  West- 
phalia.    Acquisitions  of  Sweden 331 

Immediate  effects  of  the  Peace.     Consequences  of  the 

Alienation  of  Crown  Estates 332 

Liberties  of  the  Yeomanry  endangered  by  the  increased 
Power  of  the  Nobility.     Evil  enhanced  by  the  excess 

of  the  Royal  Bounty 333 

Count  de  la  Gardie,  the  new  Favourite.    The  Queen's 

Displeasure  with  the  Oxenstiernas 334 

Temporary  Retirement  of  the  Chancellor.     Causes  of 

the  Decline  of  his  Influence 335 

Jealousy  towards  the  Nobility  among  the  other  Estates. 
EflSsrts  of  the  Clergy  to  procure  an  extension  of  their 

PrivUeges 336 

Uneasy  state  of  Public  Feeling.  Controversy  on  Popular 

Rights 337 

Claims  to  New  Privileges  by  the  Nobility  refused. 
Solemn  Protest  of  the  Three  Unnoble  Estates  calling 

for  the  Resumption  of  Crown  Lands 338 

Imminent  Danger  of  Civil  War.     Suit  of  Prince  Charles 

Gustavus  for  the  Queen's  hand 339 

Its  Rejection.     She   proposes   to  the  Council  that  the 

Prince  be  declared  her  Successor 340 

Announcement  of  her  purpose  to  abdicate.  Its  Causes, 
Political  and  Personal.  Bent  of  Thought  and  Specu- 
lation in  this  Age 341 

Influence  of  Foreign  Opinions  and  Literature.  Intrigues 

to  precipitate  the  Queen's  Abdication 342 

Their   Detection  and   Punishment.       Dissipation  and 

Profuseness  of  the  Court 343 

New    Favourites.      Popular    Disaffection.      Appanage 

settled  on  the  Queen.     The  Abdication 344 

Departure  of  the  Queen  from  Sweden.  Her  subsequent 
Conduct 345 


Supplementary  Notes. 


346 


HISTORY   OF  THE   SWEDES. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  Scandinavian  North,  almost  entirely  unknown 
to  the  cultivated  nations  of  antiquity,  did  not,  until 
a  late  period,  find  a  place  in  history.  Thule,  of 
which  Pytheas  received  information  in  Britain, 
about  300  years  before  the  Christian  era,  as  the 
most  northerly  region  of  the  earth,  yet  not  wholly 
unsettled,  nor  without  tillage,  was  in  all  likelihood 
Western  Scandinavia.  Report  spoke  of  an  island 
of  prodigious  magnitude,  comparable  to  a  conti- 
nent, not  far  from  the  Scythian  shore,  on  the  am- 
ber coast  ;  referring  probably  to  the  southern 
portion  of  thegreat  peninsula.  These  dark  rumours, 
however,  were  soon  lost  in  oblivion,  or  were  thought 
to  be  fabulous ;  and  if  the  Greek  had  learned  some 
truth  from  them,  it  did  not  long  dwell  in  the 
memory  of  the  Romans.  Pliny  was  well  acquainted 
with  these  accounts,  and  had  himself  visited  the 
shores  of  the  North  Sea;  yet  he  relates,  as  a 
novelty,  that '  immense  islands  had  been  of  late  dis- 
covered, beyond  Germany ;  of  these,  the  noblest 
was  Scandinavia,  of  yet  unknown  magnitude ;  the 
inhabitants  styled  it  another  world  * '.  He  speaks 
of  Nei'igon,  (Norige,  Norway,)  as  an  especially 
large  island,  without  conjecturing  that  it  might  be 
only  a  part  of  the  former.  It  is  not  till  half  a 
century  after  the  birth  of  Christ  that  these  names 
appear,  and  shortly  afterwards  Tacitus  tells  us  of 
'  the  communities  of  the  Suiones  in  the  Ocean,  strong 
in  men,  arms,  and  ships.'  The  geographer  Ptolemy, 
in  the  second  century,  knew  of  Goths  and  Danes 
inhabiting  the  southern  division  of  Scandia.  These 
well  known  names  resound  to  us  in  the  voice  of  an- 
tiquity, with  more  that  are  unknown,  and  that,  for 
us,  must  remain  unknown 

Intercourse  with  Pagan  or  with  Christian  Rome, 
with  the  old  Empire  or  the  Popedom,  brought  most 
of  the  nations  dwelling  in  western  or  northern 
Europe  on  the  stage  of  history ;  and  when  at 
length,  in  right  of  culture,  they  became  domes- 
ticated there,  Roman  influences  had  already  inter- 
vened between  them  and  their  earliest  recollections, 
of  which  little  that  was  primordial  remained.  This 
is  true,  not  only  of  the  nations  whose  language  was 
Romanized,  but  in  a  great  measure  even  of  those 
Germanic  peoples,  who  preserved  their  own.  All 
we  know  of  Pagan  Germany  comes  to  us  through 
Rome  ;  its  antiquity  is  without  really  aboriginal 
recollections ;  a,nd  if  attempts  have  been  made  in 
more  recent  times  to  supply  this  deficiency  by  art, 
yet  can  we  by  no  means  affirm  that  they  have  suc- 
ceeded.     We  descry  a  temple  wherein  learning 

1  Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.  iv.  13,  (ed.  Bipont,  27.)  Alteram 
terrarum  orbem.     (Compare  also  ii.  108,  iv.  16.     Trans.) 

2  Transeuntibus  insulas  Danorum  alter  mundus  apeiitur 


worships  its  own  idol,  but  we  miss  the  voice  of  the 
people. 

The  youngest  brother  of  this  great  stock,  is  he, 
whose  destmies  we  have  taken  upon  iis  in  part  to 
relate ;  the  youngest,  reckoning  from  his  appear- 
ance in  history,  but  the  one  who  has  sojourned 
longest  in  the  house  of  his  fathers,  and  should  have 
most  to  tell  of  its  ways.  Of  alien  influences  he 
knows  least,  and  extraneous  impulses,  in  times 
foregone,  he  more  freqviently  imparted  than  re- 
ceived. Old  Rome,  in  her  decline,  was  to  him, 
perhaps,  better  known  than  ever  he  was  by  her- 
self ;  and  a  thousand  years  of  the  Christian  era 
had  sped  away,  before  he,  the  terrible  foe  of 
Christendom,  was  numbered  among  the  sons  of  the 
Romish  church. 

The  reoUections,  then,  which  Scandinavia  has  to 
add  to  those  of  the  Germanic  race,  although  of 
later  date,  are  yet  the  most  antique  in  character, 
and  comparatively  the  most  original.  Tliey  offer 
the  completest  remaining  example  of  a  social  state, 
existing  previously  to  the  reception  of  any  influences 
from  Rome,  and  in  duration  stretching  onwards  so 
far,  as  to  come  within  the  sphere  of  historical  light. 
Thus  the  history  of  the  North  resembles  its  physical 
nature,  in  whose  rocks  and  mountains  the  primitive 
formations  lie  open  to  the  daj',  while  in  southern 
lands  these  are  covered  by  more  recent  deposits. 

We  have  pointed  out  the  relation  of  the  northern 
history  generally  to  that  of  the  kindred  races.  We 
will  add  some  remarks  upon  the  mutual  relations 
linking  the  elder  history  of  the  three  northern 
kingdoms ;  taking  occasion  also  shortly  to  comment 
upon  the  sources  whence  it  is  to  be  illustrated,  in  so 
far  as  our  subject  demands. 

Scandinavia  was  first  laid  open  to  the  rest  of 
Europe  by  Christianity.  Missionary  accounts  of 
the  progress  of  the  gospel  among  races  whose 
names  had  long  been  the  terror  of  Christendom,  as 
well  as  the  peaceful  intercourse  gi-adually  following 
upon  the  conversion  of  the  north,  at  length  shed 
light  upon  these  remote,  and,  till  then,  little  known 
countries,  ■vN'hich  even  by  the  first  Christian  teachers 
were  likened  to  a  new  world  ^.  After  a  connection 
with  the  church  of  Rome  had  led  to  acquaintance 
with  their  leai-ning  and  language,  this  was  applied 
by  the  clergy,  here  as  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  in 
the  cr)mposition  of  Latin  chronicles.  In  those 
laboui's  Denmark  stood  foremost,  and  the  history 
of  her  middle  age  is  generally  more  copious  than 
that  of  her  sister  lands.    Saxo  alone  is  worth  many 

in  Sveoniam  vel  Normanniam,  quae  sunt  duo  latissima 
aquilonis  regna,  et  nostro  orbi  fere  incogTiita.  Adam.  Bremen, 
de  Situ  Danise,  c.  60,  ed.  Lindenbrog. 

B 


Saxo  Gramniaticus.     The  Ice- 
landers.    Scaldic  poetry. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 


Swedish  history  compared  with 
Norwegian  and  Danish. 


writers.  For  times  near  his  own  he  is  an  unexcep- 
tionable witness  ;  in  describing  tliose  more  remote, 
he  e-xhibits,  under  a  leai'ned  and  ornate  garb,  the 
shape  in  whieli  tlie  reminiscences  and  fables  of 
the  heathendom  survived  among  the  people  in  the 
twelfth  century.  From  him  we  learn  the  wealth  of 
that  store  of  national  remembrances  extant  from 
ancient  days,  and  the  old  popular  ballads,  in  which 
Denmark's  middle  age  is  most  rich,  show  us  the 
form  usually  adopted  for  the  transmission  of  these 
remembrances.  Saxo  drew  with  greedy  hands  from 
the  living  well  of  popular  tradition.  Nothing  which 
such  materials  could  supply  is  left  imtold ;  nothing 
seems  to  him  incredible.  He  appears  only  per- 
plexed how  to  arrange  all  this  into  a  regular  history 
of  the  kingdom  from  the  earliest  times  ;  wherein  he 
succeeded  accordingly. 

What  Denmark  is  for  the  history  of  the  Christian 
middle  age  in  the  north,  Norway  is  for  that  of  de- 
clining heathenism  ;    less,  however,  owing  to   its 
own   literary  records  than   to   those  of  the   Ice- 
landers, who  may  with  reason  be  denominated  a 
people   of  saga-writers.      Scandinavian    colonists, 
for  the  most  part  men  of  birth  and  consequence, 
discontented  with  their  lot  at  home,  or  retreating 
from  the  oppression  of  the  powerful,  had  foimded 
a  new  republic,  in  the  period  from  874  to  934, 
upon   this   distant   island.      For    400   years    they 
maintained  their  independence,  and  continued  in 
active  intercourse   with  the   mother  country,  es- 
pecially with  Norway,  whence  most  of  the  settlers 
had  come,  and   to  whose   domination   the   island 
was  eventually  subjected.      In  Scandinavia  itself 
the  Icelanders  were  regarded  as  being  pre-emi- 
nently the  depositaries  of  the   old   poesy  of  the 
north,  and  having  the  most  ample  knowledge  of 
its  antiquity  ;  the  earliest  Scandinavian  chroniclers 
attest  this  unanimously.     In  Iceland  was  longest 
practised  that  venerable  Scaldic  art,  whose  origin 
was  ascribed   to   Odin  and  the   gods  ;   although, 
being  inspired  by  Paganism,  it  assumed  a  charac- 
ter always  more  artificial,  when  the  faith  which 
had  given  it  vitality  became  itself  extinct.     For  a 
considerable  time  after  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  Scald,  who  was  also,  according  to  an- 
cient custom,  the  historiographer,  still  maintained 
his   place   at   the   courts  of  the  northern  kings  ; 
and  this  office,  we  find,  was  in  almost  all  cases 
filled   by   natives   of   Iceland.     The  songs  of  the 
Scalds,  originally  committed  to  memory  only,  were 
therein  the  more  solicitously  preserved.     When  a 
song  was  recited,  some  one  of  the  company  learned 
it  by  heart,  and  there  are  examples  of  the  usual 
honorary  being  refused,  if  the  maker  did  not  re- 
main at  court  sufficiently  long  for  that  purpose^. 
To  these  songs   were   attached  narratives,  which 
constituted,  equally  in  popular  assemblies  and  in 
courts,  a  univei'sal  and   highly  valued  source  of 
enjoyment.     Thus  were  formed  the  elder  Icelandic 
legendary  histories  (sagas)  of  the  chief  insular  fa- 
milies, and  of  the  northern  kings,  more  especially 
the  Norwegian.     They  rested  on  the  testimony  of 
the  Scalds,  and  are  easily  distinguishable  by  their 
character  from  the  later  and  purely  fictitious  sagas. 
Somewhat  more  than  two  hundi-ed  and  forty  years 

3  MUller  Sagabibliotek,  Snegle  Halls  Thatter. 
"i  Norriges  Konungasagor. 

■^  Of  ViilundandHelge,  of  Sigurd  and  Brynhilda,  Folsungs 
and  Niflungs.  See  the  whole  second  part  of  Saemund's  Edda. 


elapsed  from  tlie  settlement  of  Iceland,  ere  the 
sagas  began  to  be  written  ;  and  as  the  more  old 
are  interwoven  with  lays  of  Scalds,  the  notation  of 
the  songs  was  at  least  not  later.     Thus  the  oral 
transmission  of  ancient  recollections,  in  rich  store, 
we  may  well  suppose,  and  nurtured  by  the  care  of 
art,   passed  soon  away  into  a  regular  literature, 
betimes  remarkable  for  its  exclusive  use  of  the 
mother  tongue,  and  in  the  same  language  which 
was  then  spoken  in  all  the  three  kingdoms  of  the 
north.     Its  most  important  name  is  that  of  Snorro 
Sturleson,  born  in  the  year  1178,  judge  (lagman) 
in  Iceland,  earl  (jarl)  in  Norway,  and  contempo- 
rary with  the  last  party  conflicts  of  Icelandic  free- 
dom, of  which  he  was  the  partaker  and  the  victim. 
He  wrote  the  Chronicles  of  the  Norwegian  kings  *, 
or,  as  he  himself  says  (for  he  is  rather  collector 
and  compiler  than  author),  embodied  in  his  work 
ancient    legends  of  the  sovereigns  of  the    north, 
after  the  Scaldic  songs,  the  genealogies  of  princes 
and  chieftains,  and  the  naiTations  of  well-informed 
men.      The   so-called   younger   or    prosaic    Edda 
also  bears  his  name,  although   this  collection   of 
mythes  of  gods,  and  explanations  of  the  types  and 
metres  of  the  heathen  poetic  language,  was  gra- 
dually formed  by  the  labours  of  several  writers. 
It  was  intended  for  the  instruction  of  the  young 
Scalds,  and  shows  that  the  old  poetry  of  the  Ice- 
landers was  cultivated  in  the  end  as  a  learned  art. 
The  old  mythic  odes  cited  in  the  younger  Edda — 
among    which    we    distinguish    the    song    of    the 
northern  prophetess  (Voluspa),  and  the  so-called 
high  song  (Havam^l),  ascribed  to  Odin,  are  for 
the  most  part  extant.     They  are  to  be  found  in  the 
elder,    poetical,   or    Saemund's    Edda,    so   named 
from  the  priest  Saemund  the  Wise,  who  died  in  the 
year  1133,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  its  com- 
piler.    The    Edda  of  Saemund   contains  likewise 
several  heroic  ballads  ^,  the  fragments  of  an  epic 
cycle,  having  its  root  mainly  in  recollections  of 
the  great  migration.     Hence  remains  of  this  saga 
are  found  among  many  nations,  though  in  a  shape 
modified  by  Christianity,  and  no  where,  save  in  the 
north,  retaining  their  original  Pagan  form.     These 
mythic  and  heroic  songs  of  the  northern  heathen- 
dom are  older  than  any  of  the  Icelandic  poetry, 
and  from  this  cause  anonymous  ;  for  otherwise  the 
Icelanders  are  very  exact  in  stating  the  names  of 
all  the  Scalds  since  the  colonization  of  the  island. 
In  compass  of  thought  and  depth  of  feeling,  in  au- 
dacity of  conception  and  peculiarity  of  character, 
in  rude  but  grandiose  simplicity,  they  are  far  su- 
perior to  all  the  poetical  efforts  of  the  Icelandic 
court  poets. 

Sweden,  in  respect  to  its  history,  stands  in  nearly 
the  same  relation  to  Scandinavia  generally,  as  the 
latter  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  It  came  latest  in 
contact  with  the  European  world.  Of  its  heathen 
period  there  remaui  no  such  complete  accounts  as 
those  of  the  latter  days  of  heathenism  in  Norway  ; 
its  middle  age  receives  less  of  the  light  of  history 
than  that  of  either  Norway  or  Denmark.  In  its 
more  recent  annals  it  has  cast  both  into  the  shade, 
and  obtained,  what  neither  of  them  possesses,  fame 
and  rank  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  only  for  a 
moment  indeed  through  its  great  Gustavus  Adol- 

We  find  the  same  subjects  more  copiously  and  prosaically 
treated  in  the  Folsunga  Saga,  the  Noma  Gests  Saga,  the 
younger  Edda,  and  tlie  Vilkina  Saga 


Two  inland  seas 
of  Europe. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  Teutonic  nations ; 
their  irruptions. 


phus,  jet  long  enough  lor  uudyuig  remembrance. 
Still  the  oldest  legends  which  tell  of  the  north,  re- 
ports rather  than  reminiscences,  relate  to  Sweden. 
The  name  of  Suiones  in  Tacitus  already  denotes  a 
powerful  people  ;  that  of  the  Goths  soimded  over 
all  the  earth.  With  Sweden  Snorro  begins  liis 
chronicles  of  the  ancient  kings.  In  old  Suithiod 
Odin  and  the  gods  had  ruled  over  Manhem,  the 
home  of  men.  The  Aste,  immigrating  fi'om  the 
east,  greeted  the  land  with  this  name,  which  per- 
haps was  not  unknown  to  Pliny. 

In  the  first  part  of  this  history  following  we 
propose  :  I.  To  consider  the  accounts  transmitted 
to  us  of  the  ancient  period  of  Sweden,  down  to  the 
preaching  of  Christianity  in  the  north,  or  the  mid- 
dle of  the  ninth  century.     II.  To  give  a  summary 


view  of  the  state  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants 
at  the  end  of  the  heathen  age.  We  will  then,  III. 
describe  the  transition  to  Christianity,  and  its  in- 
fluence on  the  old  form  of  society,  with  the  contests 
of  the  Swedes  and  Goths  for  dominion,  to  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century  ;  IV.  the  age  of  the  Folk- 
ungers,  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  ;  then,  V. 
the  reigns  of  the  foreign  kings,  and  the  union  of 
the  northern  crowns,  till  the  times  of  the  Sture, 
or  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  ;  VI.  the  Sture  as 
administrators  and  popular  leaders,  till  the  massa- 
cre of  Stockholm  in  1520  ;  at  which  point  we  will, 
VII.  pause  to  contemplate  the  condition  of  the  land 
and  people  at  the  end  of  the  catholic  period.  In 
the  next  part  we  will  proceed  to  the  more  recent 
history  of  Sweden,  beginning  with  Gustavus  Vasa. 


CHAPTER  I. 


OLDEST   TIMES. 


TRADITIONS  OF  THE  NORTH. 

LEGENDS  OF  NORTHERN    MIGRATIONS.       MYTHOLOGY.        CHRONICLES  OF  THE    KING.S. 
AND  GOTHS.      VARANGIANS  AND  NORTHMEN. 


SWEDES 


If  it  like  us  to  be  contented  with  probabilities  on  a 
topic  in  which  certainty  is  unattainable,  Scandinavia 
is  by  no  means  to  be  placed  among  the  latest  settled 
countries  of  our  quarter  of  the  globe.  Its  situation 
on  a  great  inland  sea,  which  receives  vast  streams 
from  the  continent,  could  here  create  no  exception 
from  the  couclusion  of  universal  experience,  that 
maritime  countries  receive  inhabitants  before  the 
interior  of  a  great  continent,  and  that  the  sea  and 
large  rivers  are  the  mother's  milk  of  primal  culti- 
vation. The  Mediterranean  and  the  Baltic  have 
nursed,  each  after  its  own  fashion,  the  infancy  of 
the  elder  European  nations,  and  those  historically 
the  most  important. 

Around  the  Mediterranean  flourished  the  civili- 
zation of  the  classical  world,  wliich  had  its  birth  in 
Asia.  For  this  the  Alps,  with  their  continuations, 
long  formed  a  wall,  beyond  which  its  circle  of  vision 
did  not  extend.  Savage  races,  most  of  whom  sub- 
sequently disappeared,  partly  of  Celtic  origin,  had 
descended  from  those  heights  into  Italy,  and  car- 
ried devastation  to  Rome,  to  Greece,  and  to  Lesser 
Asia,  or  wandered  beyond  the  mountains  in  wastes 
and  interminable  forests  ^.  On  the  islands  of  the 
Baltic,  again,  and  its  southern  coasts,  we  perceive 
indisputably  the  earliest  European  dwelling-places 
of  the  great  Germanic  race  '.  Here  also  these  are 
not  without  recollections  of  the  east,  although  to 
southern  Europe  they  were  in  a  manner  unlaiown, 
until  the  Romans,  as  they  approached  nearer  to 
Lower  Germany  and  the  North  Sea,  instead  of  the 
nomadic  hordes  who  now  and  then  animated  the 
wilds  of  the  inner  highlands,  fell  in  at  all  points 
with  numerous  and  brave  nations,  indomitable  from 
the  fii-m  and  martial  structure  of  their  institutions. 
Then  the  name  of  Gei-mans  was  first  heard.  Rome, 
unable  to  subdue  their  tribes,  admitted  the  danger 

6  Deserta  Helvetiomm,  Bojorum,  Getarum,  which  at  a 
later  period  were  partially  occupied  hy  the  Germanic  popu- 
lations immigrating  from  the  north. 

7  Teutons   and   Goths    (Guttones)    inhabited   the   Baltic 


I  into  her  own  bosom  by  purchasing  their  services 

I  with  money  or  land,  till  at  length,  whether  from 

[  this  or  from  other  causes  extrinsical,  or  led  by  the 

I  spirit  which  urges  nations  evermore  towards  the 

south,  they  broke  through  the  mountain  bulwark. 

And  now  the  waves  of  the  great  migration,  rolling 

[  over  the  corruption  of  the  old  woi-ld,  prepared  a 

1  new  scheme  of  culture,  of  which  the  natural  energy 

of  the  north  laid  the  foundation,  and  the  Christian 

religion  supplied  the  nutriment. 

If  the  Thule  mentioned  by  Pytheas  were,  as  may 
be  conjectured,  a  part  of  the  Scandinavian  penin- 
sula, it  had  already  inhabitants  and  agriculture 
several  centuries  before  the  birth  of  our  Saviour. 
Certainly  the  condition  which  Tacitus  describes  a 
hundred  years  after  Christ,  supposes  cultivation  to 
have  long  subsisted.  The  states  of  the  Suiones — 
so  he  was  informed — were  powerful  by  the  number 
of  theii-  people,  their  fleets,  and  arms  ;  their  vessels 
were  especially  serviceable  for  rivers  and  coast 
navigation  ;  riches  they  held  in  honour ;  the  sea 
encompassing  them  prevented  sudden  attacks  by 
their  foes'.  What  he  adds  therewithal,  that  the 
Suiones  were  ruled  by  a  single  person  with  un- 
limited power,  and  even  that  arms  were  not,  as 
with  the  rest  of  the  Germans,  free  to  general  use — 
this,  so  unlike  all  we  know  of  the  manners  of  our 
ancestors  from  other  sources,  seems  only  to  be  ex- 
plained by  supposing  that  the  governing  persons 
also  exercised  a  higher  power,  founded  upon  re- 
ligion, which  was  not  unlimited,  but  might  well 
appear  so  to  distant  observers.  Here  we  are  re- 
minded, that  the  appellation  '  monarch  ^ '  given  to 
the  early  Swedish  rulers,  by  no  means  implied,  in 
the  north,  the  possession  of  unrestricted  power.  It 
in  general  denoted  him  who  held  the  supreme  au- 
thority among  a  whole  people,  here  consecrated  by 

coasts  from  the  time  of  Pytheas.     Compare  Mannert,  Geo- 
graphy of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 

s  Germania,  c.  44. 

9  Envaldshofding,  sole  ruler.    T. 

b2 


The  Suiones.     The 
Gothic  tribes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Notion  of  their  Scandian  ex- 
traction :  its  explanation. 


the  belief  of  a  divine  origin,  and  the  inheritance  of 
priestly  sanctity.  This  authority,  derived  from  a 
warliUe  religion,  was  yet  favourable  to  peace  in  tlie 
intestine  relations  of  the  people.  By  it  the  use  of 
arms  might  be  interdicted,  a  regulation  observed 
within  the  places  of  sacrifice,  wliich  were  liept 
imder  the  seal  of  peace.  Common  ]iarticipation  hi 
the  great  .sacrifiees  was  a  sign  as  well  as  a  bond  of 
peace  among  the  different  communities  of  ancient 
Suithiod.  Of  tiiese  many  are  enumerated,  both  in 
domestic  and  extraneous  accounts,  and  the  so-called 
monarchy  of  Tacitus  embraced,  as  he  himself  men- 
tions, several  states.  It  is  remarkable  that,  ac- 
cording to  the  same  historian,  the  Goths,  of  all  the 
German  tribes,  most  nearly  resembled  the  Swedes 
in  respect  to  this  disposition  of  supreme  power '. 

Through  the  migration  of  the  Germans  to  the 
south,  Scandinavia,  unknown  before,  at  once  at- 
tained widely  greater  consideration,  and  by  tliem 
its  renown  was  diffused  as  the  parent  land  of  many 
nations.  The  Goths  and  Lombards  even  declared 
that  they  had  themselves  come  forth  from  this  far 
extending  region.  Such  is  the  account  given  us  by 
their  own  oldest  historians,  of  whom  the  one  ap- 
peals to  the  historical  ballads  of  his  people^,  and 
the  other  shows  throughout  his  whole  exposition 
that  he  based  his  nari-ative  upon  similar  ballads  '. 
When  after  the  emigration  of  the  Gothic  tribes,  the 
Franks  and  Saxons  became  powerful  in  Northern 
Germany,  and  thence  extended  their  dominion 
further,  the  same  tradition  is  repeated  ;  both 
derive  their  origin  from  the  northern  nations*. 
The  notion  of  Scandinavia  as  a  cradle  and  work- 
shop of  nations^,  recurs  in  like  manner  perpetually 
for  centuries  onwards  in  history.  It  gained  strength 
from  the  predatory  expeditions  of  the  Northmen, 
and  is  not  yet  extinct  in  the  Alps,  where  the  in- 
habitants of  Haslidale  still  assert  their  Swedish 
descent. 

A  tradition,  bruited  in  so  many  quarters,  de- 
mands some  explanation.  Nothing  authorizes  us 
to  conclude  that  the  northern  countries  have  ever 
been  more  populous  than  they  are  now  ;  rather 
the  contrary  might  safely  be  laid  down.  But  it  is 
not  the  less  certain  that  Scandinavia  formerly  con- 
tained, if  not  a  great,  yet  a  redundant  population, 
larger  than  the  land  was  able  to  support,  and 
that  this  warlike  multitude,  of  whose  lofty  stature, 
strength,  and  fecundity  so  many  witnesses  speak, 
deemed  themselves  therefore  necessitated  to  live, 
and  in  gi-eat  part  actually  lived  at  the  cost  of  the 
rest  of  the  world.  Piratical  expeditions  formed 
the  business  of  the  summer.  Every  year  the  sea- 
kings  went  forth  with  the  first  open  waters  ;  and 
the  great  spring  sacrifice  in  ancient  Sweden  was 
always  offered  for  victory.  From  the  same  cause 
proceeded  those  dreadful  consequences,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  accounts  we  have,  followed  upon  a 
bad  year  ;  famine,  civil  conflicts,  immolation  of 
kings  to  propitiate  the  gods  (for  this  was  the  fate  of 
two  of  the  Yngling  hue),  and  migrations  in  quest 
of  new  dvvelling-places. 

'  Gotones  regnantur,  paulo  jam  adductius  quam  casterae 
Germanorum  gentes,  nondum  tanien  supra  libertatem. 
Germania,  c.  43. 

*  Jordanes  de  rebus  Geticis. 

3  Paullus  Warnefridi  de  Gestis  Longobardorum.  In  nei- 
ther case  has  ill-applied  learning  been  able  to  hide  the  living 
fountain  from  whicli  tlie  author  drew  his  narration. 


We  are  told  of  the  Norman  expeditions,  that  on 
account  of  the  redundancy  of  population,  an  old  law 
or  custom  obtained  in  the  north  for  those  of  the 
young,  on  whom  the  lot  should  fall,  to  seek  their 
fortune  abroad.  It  is  said  also  that  the  father 
usually  drove  out  his  sons  who  had  grown  up  to 
years  of  manhood,  with  the  exception  of  one  who 
inherited  his  estate".  The  Swiss  legends  of  migra- 
tion contain  the  same  statement,  in  which  those  of 
the  Lombards  and  Goths  also  agree.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark,  and  confirmatory  of  the  foregoing,  that 
no  account  of  these  migrations  makes  mention  of 
any  very  large  mass  of  folk,  as  having  come  out  of 
Scandinavia  Proper.  The  Northmen  were  at  all 
times  more  formidable  from  boldness  than  numbers 
in  their  warlike  enterprises.  The  Lombards  are 
first  noted  as  a  not  very  numerous  band  of  Scandi- 
navian youth,  driven  out  by  lot  from  an  island  of 
small  extent',  and  with  low  shores,  whence  it  is 
conjectured  to  have  been  one  of  the  Danish  isles*. 
The  Goths  are  said  to  have  issued  from  Scandi- 
navia in  three  ships  only  ".  Certain  it  is  that  not 
until  these  had  united  with  their  kinsmen  who 
dwelt  on  the  southern  shores  of  the  Baltic,  and 
afterwards  probably  with  an  elder  branch  of  the 
same  stock  on  the  Miseotis,  did  they  grow  up 
into  that  miglity  people,  who  made  themselves  the 
terror  of  Rome. 

Thus  even  in  this  most  famous  emigration,  ac- 
cording to  the  tradition,  whether  literally  imder- 
stood  or  not,  the  numbers  were  by  no  means  large. 
But  if  all  this  places  the  movements  themselves  in 
a  new  and  truer  light,  the  question  will  still  remain 
how  the  leaders  of  these  warlike  migratory  swarms, 
even  if  impelled  by  the  same  headlong  passion  for 
adventures  which,  in  the  Norman  expeditions  of  a 
later  age,  was  able  to  found  new  empires  with  in- 
considerable means,  should  have  been  hailed  by 
the  consent  of  whole  nations  as  fathers  of  their  race. 
Now  if,  in  the  olden  time,  the  descent  of  the  kings 
was  held  ascribable  to  their  people  likewise,  and 
was  traced  up  to  gods  adored  by  both,  whose  chief 
abode  was  deemed  to  be  in  the  north,  the  question 
would  receive  an  answer  consonant  with  the  spirit 
of  the  ancient  sagas.  Scandinavia  would  be  termed 
in  the  elder  legends  of  the  migrations  the  parent- 
land  of  so  many  peoples,  as  being  the  principal 
seat  of  a  widely-spread  worship,  the  nursery  of 
princely  families,  who  claiming  to  be  descended 
from  divine  ancestors,  and  appearing  at  the  head 
of  wandering  tribes,  had  either  themselves  really 
come  out  of  Scandinavia,  or  were  derived  by  the 
saga  from  that  central  home  of  ancient  Paganism. 
Every  thing  shows  that  the  accounts  of  the  northern 
extraction  of  so  many  populations  are  connected 
with  the  belief  that  their  kingly  houses  were  sprung 
from  Odin.  With  the  tradition  of  the  northern 
kindred  of  the  Saxons  another  was  intertwined, 
that  the  same  Odin  whom  they  revered  in  common 
with  the  Northmen,  was  also  the  father  of  their 

''  Witichindus,  de  rebus  gestis  Saxonum.  Hrabanus 
Maurus  in  Goldast.  Rer.  Alaman.  Script,  ii.  67.  Nigellus, 
de  baptismo  Haraldi,  in  Langebek,  Script,  rer.  Dan.  i.  400. 

5  Otlicina  gentium,  vagina  gentium. 

^  Dudo  and  Willelmus  Gemeticensis,  in  Duchesne,  Script. 
Norm.  pp.  62,  217.     Saxo,  1.  ix.  p.  171,  ed.  Steph. 

^  Paul  Warnefrid,  c.  2,  7. 

8  Or  Scania,  as  is  said  in  the  popular  songs  of  Gothland 
upon  the  outset  of  the  Lombards. 

'  Jordanes,  c.  17. 


God-descended  kings. 
Extent  of  Odinisni. 


IDEA  OF  THE  NORTHERN  MYTHOLOGY. 


Annals  and  destiny 
of  gods  and  men. 


roj'al  line.  Anglo-Saxon  authors,  some  of  whom 
wrote  while  the  north  was  still  Pagan,  denominate 
him  '  the  primogenial  Woden,  from  whom  the 
kingly  families  of  well-nigh  all  the  barbaric  tribes 
derive  their  origin'  ;  '  the  prince  of  the  barbarian 
multitudes,  whom  the  deluded  northern  heathens, 
Danes,  Normans,  Swedes,  to  this  day  worship  as 
God^.'  According  to  the  chronicles  of  the  northern 
kings  and  the  Edda,  the  same  '  Woden,  whom  we 
call  Oden,'  had  set  his  sons  to  rule  over  Saxonland  ; 
the  Edda  adds,  also  over  Fraukland,  and  derives 
from  thence  the  famous  lineage  of  the  Folsungs. 
Although  among  the  Franks,  who  embraced  Chris- 
tianity earlier,  no  confirmation  of  this  legend  re- 
mains, it  is  nevertheless  probable  that  the  '  race 
of  gods,'  mentioned  among  them,  was  that  of 
Odin  2.  We  have  irrefragable  testimony  tliat 
Woden  was  adored  as  a  god  by  all  the  German 
nations^,  and  this  is  besides  expressly  stated  of 
the  Vandals,  Lombards,  and  Suevers  *.  The  last- 
named  tribe  was  a  branch  of  the  Goths.  Arises, 
which  is  rendered  by  demi-gods,  was  the  term  ap- 
plied by  the  Goths  of  the  south  to  their  kingly 
lineage,  celebrated  in  the  same  songs  which  per- 
petuated the  memory  of  their  Scandinavian  extrac- 
tion ^.  The  word  is  the  same  in  all  its  meanings 
with  the  northern  Asar ;  the  formal  variation  being 
merely  one  of  dialect,  which  reappears  similarly  in 
other  instances  ^. 

All  these  nations,  therefore,  traced  their  royal 
families  to  the  same  gods,  and  were  connected  by 
the  same  religion.  Yet  we  would  by  no  means 
maintain  that  the  whole  northern  mythology,  as  it 
has  been  transmitted  to  us,  was  ever  common  to 
the  Germanic  race.  Much  of  it  belongs  exclu- 
sively to  the  north,  some  equally  to  other  nations, 
especially  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  in  the  end  it 
received  from  the  later  court-Scalds  and  the  Ice- 
landers a  kind  of  over-elaboration,  which  however 
is  observable  more  in  an  artificial  poetic  phra- 
seology than  in  the  substance.  In  its  essential 
features,  and  the  themes  of  which  it  chiefly  treats, 
it  is  a  lore  as  venerable  for  age  as  rich  in  interest, 
a  not  unworthy  exponent  of  the  views  embraced 
by  a  great  and  noble  race  of  men  in  their  first 
contemplations  on  the  universe.  Its  historical 
compass  and  extent  of  diffusion  are  attested  by  its 
own  oracles.  The  Odin  of  the  north  is  also  ex- 
plicitly represented  as  the  god  wandering  far 
among  the  nations,  who  adore  him,  according  to 
a  declaration  ascribed  to  himself  by  an  old  bard', 
under  many  names  and  in  various  guises.  In  the 
Scalds  he  appears  under  the  most  diff'erent  appel- 

•  William  of  Malmesbury,  Ethelred. 

2  Nee  de  deorum  genere  esse  probatur,  is  the  answer  of 
Chlodwig  to  his  wife,  when  she  first  exhorts  him  to  acknow- 
ledge the  God  of  the  Christians.     Greg.  Turon.  1.  ii.  c.  29. 

3  Wodan  sane,  quem  adjecta  litera  Gwodan  dixerunt,  ipse 
est  qui  apud  Romanos  Mercurius  dicitur,  et  ab  universis 
Germanise  gentibus  ut  deus  adoratur.     Paul  Warnef.  c.  9. 

■•  Id.  c.  8.  Vita  S.  Columbani,  in  Duchesne,  Script. 
Franc,  i.  556. 

5  Jordanes,  c.  1-3. 

6  As,  in  the  old  Northern  speech  God,  also  hero,  or  a  man 
endowed  with  god-like  qualities,  means  likewise  a  beam, 
column,  prop.  The  Irminsul  (universalis  colurana),  adored 
by  the  Saxons,  was  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  The  Gothic  anses, 
demi-gods  in  Jordanes,  would  give  in  the  nominative  singular 
ans,  which  in  Ulfilas  likewise  signifies  a  beam.  Ans  is 
changed  into  As,  as  Gans  to  Gas,  Anst  to  Ast,  and  so  with 
other  words. 


lations,  taken,  among  many  others,  from  light, 
from  fire,  the  Runes,  the  shades  of  the  dead,  vic- 
tory, the  battle-field,  and  the  Gothic  name.  But 
in  his  loftiest  significancy,  he  is  father  of  all, 
fatlier  of  gods  and  men,  father  of  time  ;  the  earth 
born  of  night  is  his  progenitress  ;  the  earth  irra- 
diated by  the  sun  is  his  daughter  and  spouse,  when 
with  his  brethren  he  has  subdued  and  disiiosed 
Matter,  typified  by  the  body  of  the  giant  Ymer, 
slain  in  the  abyss.  The  twelve  divine  Asse,  a 
bright  and  beautiful  kin,  form  his  council  of  gods. 
In  conjunction  with  him  they  are  also  the  first 
priests,  the  first  lawgivers  and  judges  upon  earth, 
builders  of  the  first  temple  and  the  first  towns. 
Their  chief  city  is  Asgard*,  of.  ancient  days,  lying 
in  the  centre  of  Midgard^,  or  Manhem,  the  world 
of  men,  divided  by  a  wall  from  Jotunhem,  the 
home  of  the  giants,  at  the  end  of  the  earth,  where, 
under  the  uttermost  root  of  the  world-tree,  in  the 
realms  of  darkness  and  of  cold,  the  dwarfs  too 
have  their  abode. 

There  was  a  happy  time,  when  the  gods  in- 
vented the  arts  most  indispensable  to  man's  life, 
wrought  metals,  stone,  and  wood,  possessed  abun- 
dance of  gold,  showed  in  all  things  their  divine 
power,  sported  and  were  merry  ;  until  their  bliss 
was  disturbed  by  the  arrival  of  certain  giant  maids 
from  Jotunhem,  the  peace  made  with  the  race  of 
giants  was  broken,  Odin  hurled  his  spear  amidst 
the  people,  and  the  first  war  was  kindled.  Then 
began  the  victorious,  but  direful,  strife  against  that 
evil  race,  of  which  some  scenes  are  celebrated  in 
Pagan  odes  yet  preserved  *.  When  the  gods  re- 
tired to  heaven,  it  was  continued  by  the  heroic 
families  of  earth  who  sprung  from  them.  During 
this  struggle,  Odin  calls  home  the  fallen  to  himself 
in  Valhalla,  in  order  with  them  to  advance  to  the 
last  combat  of  Ragnarauk  (the  twilight  of  the 
gods).  Then  at  length  are  burst  the  bonds  which 
chain  the  powers  of  natm-e,  subdued  in  the  begin- 
ning of  time.  Cold  and  heat,  from  whose  inter- 
mixture this  world  arose,  send  their  demons  out  of 
Nif'elhem  and  Muspelhem  to  a  war  in  which  the 
gods  themselves  are  overthrown.  Then  after  the 
conflagration  of  the  world,  a  new  earth  arises, 
verdant  with  self-sown  fields,  the  home  of  a  race 
whose  lives  are  unvexed  by  toil ; 

All  evil  vanishes  away. 

Back  comes  Balder, 

And  dwells  with  Hoder  *, 

In  Odin's  ti'iumph-hall. 

Bright  in  the  sacred  seat  of  high-throned  gods. 

Understand  ye  yet,  or  how  ? 

?  In  the  Grimnismal  of  the  elder  Edda,  strophe  49. 

s  Lit.  The  Court  of  Gods.    T. 

5  The  Gothic  Midjungards  in  Ulphilas.     (Lit.  Midyard.) 

1  As  in  the  Hostlanga  of  Thiodolf,  scald  to  Harald  the 
Fair-haired,  the  same  whose  ballads  form  the  basis  of  the 
Ynglingasaga. 

2  The  blind  demigod,  who  withoirt  fault  of  his  own  had 
slain  Balder  the  Good,  Odin's  gentlest  and  wisest  son,  whom 
afterwards  the  tears  of  gods  and  men,  and  all  things,  could 
not  free  from  Hel's  subterrene  dominion.  See  a  fuller  view 
of  the  northern  mythology  in  the  Svea  Rikes  Hafder  (In- 
quiries into  the  Ancient  History  of  Sweden)  of  the  author. 
(Nifelhem  is  the  source  of  cold,  the  home  or  world  of  fogs 
(tef  6\t),  Ger.  nebel)  and  shade ;  Muspel  or  Muspelshem  (of 
which  the  etymology  is  uncertain),  the  heaven  or  empyreal 
world,  nearmost  to  the  heaven  of  blessed  light,  whose  in- 
habitants, at  the  ruin  of  our  world,  are  to  devastate  it  with 


Spirit  of  Northern  pa- 
ganism.    Heroic  odes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Odin,  his  actions 
and  cliaracter. 


It  is  the  voice  of  the  northern  sibyl,  in  the  prophecy 
of  Vala,  to  which  we  have  chiefly  listened  througliout 
the  foregoing  exposition.   But  this  receives  manifold 
confirmation  from  the  ancient  odes,  as  well  as  from 
the  chai'acteristics  and  types  of  the  Scaklic  poesy. 
Such  is   an  outline  of  that  old  religion  of  the 
north,  which  may  well  be  left  to  its  own  witness. 
In  esoteric  force,  in  depth  and  significancy,  it  is  in- 
ferior to  no  theory  of  human  origin  on  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  things  which  found  acceptation 
in  the  world  of  antiquity.     To  some  of  these  the 
present  approximates,  for  such  systems  have  gene- 
rally  much   that   is   common,  but  on  no    one    is 
originality    of    character    more   clearly   stamped. 
Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  oriental  my- 
thology, can  hardly  doubt  that  this  lore  was  derived 
from  the  east  ;  nor  can  we  fail  to  observe  that  the 
adoration  of  nature,  which  it  expresses,  agrees  with 
that  ascribed  by  Tacitus  to  the  ancient  Germans. 
Here,  as  with  them  ^,  this  nature-worship  is  pecu- 
liar in  its  kind,  penetrating  with  prophetic  vision 
into  the  inner  mystery  of  the  perishableness  of  this 
sensible  world.     Hence  that  notion  of  immortality 
so  deeply  rooted  in  the  minds  of  our  forefathers, 
which  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ascribed  equally  to 
all  the  northern  races,  "  happy  in  their  error,"  as 
a  Roman  poet  professed  to  think*.     Without  doubt 
the  most  recondite  and  essential  featm'e  of  this 
creed  was  its  defiance  of  annihilation,  even  in  the 
worship  of  a  transitory  universe,  and  of  gods  whose 
reign  was  not  to  be  eternal.     Thus  is  explained 
the   freedom   asserted  by   the   inhabitant   of    the 
north,  even  towards  his  deities,  and  that  principle 
of  tragic  irony  which  pervades  this  whole  mythical 
scheme.     That  gloom  and  terror  which  lies  at  the 
core  of  every  form  of  heathenism,  even  when  con- 
cealed, as  with  the  Greeks,  under  a  blooming  ex- 
terior, in  the  north  stalks  forward  undisguised,  and 
breaks  out  every  where,  in  its  heroic  poetry  as  well 
as  its  divine.     As  this  concludes  with  the  ruin  of 
the  gods,  in  conflict  with  the  insurgent  powers  of 
universal  nature,  so  does  that  celebrate  in  all  its 
manifold  shapes  but  one  master  theme,  the  deeds, 
the   crimes,  and  the   fall  of  famous    chiefs,   and 
kingly  dynasties.      We  refer  here  chiefly  to  the 
heroic   songs  of   the  old  Edda,  those   fragments, 
petrified  as  it  were  by  time,  of  a  gigantic  poesy, 
each  a  hieroglyph,  revealing  to  us  from  the  by- 
gone times  of  the  north  the  heroic  deeds,  recollec- 
tions, and  manners  of  the  great  migrations  in  the 
full  energy  of  primeval  paganism.     The  period  to 
which  they  belong  is  discovered  even  by  the  mul- 
titude of  national  names  which  find  a  place  in  them. 
For  just  as  the  old  mythic  songs  afford  but  one 
general  appellation,  which  denotes  both  the  people 
of  the  gods  and  the  Goths  ^,  so  in  the  heroic  songs, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  names  of  many  races  occur, 
Swedes,  Norsemen,  Danes,  Franks,  Saxons,  Lom- 

fire.     By  the  combination  of  these  principles  it  was  formed  ; 

by  their  hostility  it  will  be  destroyed.  See  Finn  Magnusen, 
Veterum  Borealium  Mythologiae  Lexicon,  518,  .')23.   Tkans.) 

3  Deorumque  nominibus  appellant  secreluin  illud,  quod 
sola  reverentia  vidcnt.     Germania,  c.  9 

•<  Felices  errore  suo.  5  Gothiod — Gotar — Gotnar. 

8  Minor  gods  and  goddesses.    T. 

7  See  the  proofs  of  this  in  the  Svea  Rikes  Hafdar. 

8  The  Konungasagor  of  Sturleson,  which  contain  the 
Ynglingasaga,  now  known  to  the  English  reader  by  Mr. 
Laing's  excellent  version.     T. 

9  Or  Holnigard;  under  which  word  Ihre  mentions  that 


bards,  Burgundians,  Goths,  Huns,  Finns.  Of 
their  own  destiny  these  songs  predict  that  '  they 
will  endure  in  all  lands,'  and  that,  by  comparis(jn 
with  the  fates  they  celebrate,  "every  man's  heart 
shall  be  lightened  ;  every  sorrow  of  woman  shall 
be  assuaged." 

Their  antiquity  is  also  declared  by  the  fashion 
in  which  they  expound  the  northern  mythology. 
That  peculiar  adoration  of  nature  which  was  its 
basis,  the  form  it  first  assumed,  and  preserved  at 
all  times  by  preference  in  the  popular  belief,  is 
much  more  distinctly  set  forth  in  these  old  hero- 
songs,  than  in  the  scalds  of  a  later  age  of  heathen- 
dom. The  sun,  the  day,  the  godlike  powers  of 
light,  the  night,  and  the  many-nourishing  earth  as 
the  daughter  of  night,  sacred  waters,  stones,  and 
birds,  are  invoked  together  with  the  Asse  and 
Asyns^,  and  are  the  objects  of  vows,  prayers,  or 
worship.  To  die  is  beautifully  called  "  to  pass 
away  to  another  light."  The  transmigration  of 
souls  appears  as  an  older  doctrine  that  once  ob- 
tained belief  '.  We  find  Odin  reappearing  in  more 
than  one  age,  a  conception  probably  founded  upon 
that  doctrine. 

The  chronicles  of  the  kings  ^  represent  Odin 
and  the  Asse  historically  as  founders  of  the  north- 
ern monarchies  ;  they  likewise  claim  to  know 
whence  these  fathers  of  nations  themselves  derive 
their  origin.  They  came  from  the  bounds  of  Asia, 
out  of  the  land  of  Asahem,  beyond  the  Tanais,  in 
which  lay  the  city  of  Asgard,  a  great  place  of  sa- 
crifice, where  lived  Odin,  a  victorious  chief,  sur- 
rounded by  twelve  priests  of  sacrifice,  who  were 
styled  Diar  (gods)  and  Drottnar  (rulers),  and 
were  judges  among  the  people.  The  immigration 
took  its  course  through  Gardarike  (as  the  West- 
ern Russia  of  modern  times  is  called  by  the 
scalds "),  into  Saxonland,  Denmark,  and  Sweden, 
where  Odin  took  up  his  abode,  near  by  ancient 
Sigtuna,  upon  the  Maelar  lake,  built  a  temple  to 
the  gods,  and  sacrificed  after  the  manner  of  the 
Asse.  His  chiefs  were  named  after  the  gods,  and 
like  them  were  honoured  ;  they  received  dwelling- 
places  which  had  then-  appellations  from  the 
heavenly  mansions  of  the  deities  ',  and  the  land 
was  called  Manhem,  to  distinguish  it  from  God- 
hem,  the  country  of  the  gods.  From  Odin  and 
the  AsEe  all  the  knowledge  and  art  of  the  northern 
regions  was  said  to  be  derived.  But  as  Odin  in 
the  mythology  is  highest  of  the  gods,  so  in  the 
chronicles  he  is  the  greatest  and  most  revered  of 
the  oldest  priestly  rulers.  His  people  believed 
that  he  determined  victoi'y  in  combats.  His  war- 
riors went  forth  into  the  battle  like  men  frenzied, 
without  armour  of  fence,  and  neither  fire  nor  iron 
could  wound  them  ;  this  was  called  the  Berserkers' 
race  2.  Odin  was  fair  to  view,  so  that  he  gladdened 
part  of  the  comitry  about  the  river  Duna  was  called  in  his 
day  Cholmgorod  by  its  inhabitants.     T. 

1  Niord  in  Noatun,  Heimdal  at  Himingbiorg,  Thor  at 
Thrudwang,  Balder  at  Brejdablik.  Upsala,  where  Frey 
dwelt,  is  the  only  historical  name,  hut  it  is  also  applied  ge- 
nerally to  a  temple  or  palace. 

2  In  the  Narrative  of  the  Burmese  War,  by  Major  Snod- 
grass,  London,  1S27,  it  is  mentioned  that  a  division  of  the 
Burmese  armj',  during  the  war  of  the  English  against  this 
nation,  was  called  "  The  King's  Invulnerables,"  who  were 
thought  to  be  secured  against  wounds  by  enchantment,  and 
before  the  fight  incited  themselves  to  frenzy  by  opium, 
provoking  the  enemy  by  war  dances.      Some   of  the   hill- 


The  lives  of  Niord 
and  Fiey. 


THE  FIRST  KINGS. 


The  Ynglings:  Fiolner, 
the  first  king. 


all  hearts  when  he  sat  among  his  friends  ;  but 
he  appeared  terrible  to  his  foes.  He  was  eloquent, 
so  that  all  he  said  was  believed  to  be  true,  and  all 
his  discourse  wore  the  garb  of  poetry.  He  first 
practised  and  taught  the  art  of  song,  the  mystery 
of  the  Runes,  and  the  knowledge  of  divination.  For 
the  rest,  his  human  character  is  pourtrayed  not 
dissimilarly  to  his  mythological  ;  he  is  at  once  god, 
hei'o,  poet,  lawgiver,  and  the  Asiatic  Shaman  or 
magician,  frequently  transforming  his  outward 
shape.  In  Sweden  he  established  the  same  law 
which  had  been  observed  by  the  Asa;.  He 
enjoined  that  the  bodies  of  the  dead  should  be 
consumed  with  fire  ;  the  more  property  was  heaped 
with  them  upon  the  funeral  pile,  the  richer  should 
they  arrive  in  Valhalla.  In  memory  of  dis- 
tinguished men,  sepulchral  mounds,  now  called  by 
the  people  kin-barrows  (atte  hogar),  were  to  be 
erected  ;  and  memorial  stones  (banta-stenar)  be- 
sides, to  every  man  who  had  shown  himself  valiant. 
Three  sacrifices  yearly  he  commanded  them  to 
offer  ;  one  towards  winter  for  a  good  and  pi'ospcr- 
ous  year,  a  second  at  mid-wiuter  for  the  harvest, 
the  third  towards  summer  for  victory.  Over  all 
Suithiod  the  folk  paid  tribute  to  Odin,  for  which 
he  was  bound  to  defend  the  land  from  hostile  as- 
sault, and  to  sacrifice  for  a  good  harvest.  Odin 
died  a  natural  death  in  Suithiod,  and  on  his  death- 
bed he  caused  himself  to  be  gashed  with  spear- 
points.  Afterwards,  to  do  this  was  called  to  give 
oneself  to  Odin,  or  mark  oneself  for  him.  With 
that  he  devoted  to  himself  all  men  falling  in  battle, 
and  said  that  he  would  repair  to  the  laud  of  the  gods, 
and  there  entertain  his  friends.  But  the  Swedes 
supposed  that  he  had  gone  to  Asgard  of  ancient 
days,  and  would  there  live  for  ever.  They  believed 
in  him  and  sacrificed  to  him,  and  often  when  war 
impended,  Odin,  as  they  deemed,  revealed  himself, 
dispensiug  victory  to  some,  and  calling  home  others 
to  himself ;  both  seemed  to  them  a  good  and 
happy  lot. 

After  Odin,  Niord  assumed  dominion,  and  main- 
tained the  sacrifices.  He  was  born  in  the  land  of 
the  Vaners  on  the  Tanais,  and  before  the  journey 
to  the  north  had  been  received  with  his  children 
among  the  Asae.  During  his  sway  there  were 
happy  times,  so  that  the  people  believed  him  to  be 
the  dispenser  of  prosperity  to  men.  In  his  days  most 
of  the  gods  died.  Niord  too  died  a  natural  death, 
and  caused  himself  to  be  marked  for  Odin.  The 
Swedes  burned  his  body  and  lamented  over  his 
grave. 

Frey  his  son  obtained  the  supreme  power  after 
him,  and  was,  like  his  father,  rich  in  friends  and 
the  gifts  of  the  year.  He  erected  the  great  temple 
in  Upsala,  mider  wliich  he  deposited  all  his  pro- 
perty, and  chose  this  place  to  be  his  chief  town. 
Thence  arose  the  Upsala  estate  (Upsala  ode),  first 
a  possession  of  the  temple,  then  of  the  Swedish 
kings  3.  In  Frey's  time  was  peace,  when  in  all 
lands  the  years  were  plenteous.  The  Swedes  looked 
upon   Frey  as  the  author  of   their  felicity*,   and 

tribes  living  near  tlie  Chinese  frontier  were  led  on  by  three 
young  and  beautiful  females  of  high  rank,  who  pretended  to 
the  power  of  making  the  English  bullets  harmless  ;  all  three 
were  slain.  These,  therefore,  were  Oriental  Berserkers  and 
Valkyrias.  (Of  berserk  there  are  various  derivations ;  the 
most  obvious  is  probably  the  true:  bar,  bare;  and  serk, 
shirt.  T.) 
3  Upsala-audr,  (from  uppsalir,  the  lofty  halls,  as  the  temple 


worshipped  him  on  that  account  more  than  other 
god.s.  Frey  fell  sick.  Then  his  men  erected  a  great 
barrow,  and  when  he  died,  they  placed  him  secretly 
within  it,  but  they  told  the  Swedes  during  three 
years  that  he  was  alive,  and  they  boi-e  the  yearly 
tributes  to  the  mound.  Peace  and  prosperity 
nevertheless  continued.  When  at  length  it  became 
known  to  the  Swedes  that  Frey  was  dead,  and  yet 
the  times  of  abundance  did  not  cease,  they  believed 
that  it  would  always  continue  so,  while  Frey  ve- 
mained  in  Suithiod.  For  that  reason  they  would 
not  burn  his  body,  but  called  him  the  god  of  the 
world,  and  sacrificed  to  him  for  peace  and  the 
blessings  of  the  year.  Among  other  names  given 
to  him  is  that  of  Yngve,  which  became  a  poetical 
appellation  for  king  in  general,  and  hence,  in  after 
times,  tlie  oldest  Swedish  dyna.sty  was  staled  the 
Ynglings.  Freya,  his  sister,  who  survived  him, 
and  superintended  the  sacrifices,  was  the  last  of 
the  deities. 

Fiolner,  son  of  Yngve  Frey,  is  the  first  Yngling. 
We  have  seen  that  in  the  chronicles  as  well  as  in 
the  mythology,  on  the  establishment  of  the  power 
of  the  gods  a  period  of  prosperity  ensues.  This,how- 
ever,  ends  under  Fiolner,  the  first  pui'ely  mortal 
ruler,  and  two  daughters  of  the  giants  are  again  the 
cause  of  its  interruption,  as  the  younger  Edda  adds. 
Being  female  slaves  in  the  house  of  the  Danish 
king  Erode,  they  sung  in  the  mill,  and  the  burden 
of  their  strain  was  of  gold,  and  peace,  and  happi- 
ness. But  when  the  king  urged  them  too  harshly 
to  labour,  they  sang  of  war  *,  and  turned  the  mill- 
stones about  so  swiftly  that  they  broke  in  pieces. 
War  came  ;  the  king  fell  ;  and  so  ended  the  peace 
of  Frey.  But  Fiolner,  before  the  happy  time  de- 
parted, had  closed  his  days  in  the  lap  of  abundance. 
At  a  feast  with  king  Erode,  he  fell,  in  his  drunken- 
ness, into  a  vat  of  mead,  and  met  his  death  "  in 
the  windless  lake,"  as  the  old  poet  sings. 

According  to  an  ode  of  Thiodolf,  the  court-scald 
of  king  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  in  which  the  an- 
cestors of  that  monarch  to  the  thirtieth  degree  are 
celebrated,  the  Ynglingasaga,  whence  we  have 
taken  the  preceding  sketch,  was  written  in  Iceland. 
Suorro  Sturleson  placed  it  at  the  head  of  the  old 
chronicles,  and  augmented  it,  as  he  states,  by  the 
relations  of  intelligent  men.  The  poem  contains 
short  accounts  of  the  Swedish  kings  of  this  race, 
corroborated  for  the  most  part  by  the  citation  of  the 
scald's  own  words.  We  give  in  an  appendix  its 
catalogue  of  kings,  but  can  by  no  means  venture  to 
make  a  record  in  which  truth  and  fiction  are  so 
closely  intermingled,  the  foundation  of  a  chronology. 
As  in  all  mythical  systems,  the  regal  stock  is  traced 
by  the  poet  to  the  gods  ;  it  is  also  clear  from  the 
sequel  that  the  older  sagas,  from  which  he  bor- 
rowed his  account,  formed  a  kind  of  poetic  whole. 
Again  we  perceive  the  same  theme  which  the 
heroic  lays  of  the  north  delight  to  commemorate, 
the  fall  of  a  famous  dynasty  from  inborn  discords, 
foredoomed  by  a  curse  denounced  of  old.      This 

itself  was  called,  and  audr,  property,)  means  the  domain  of 
the  temple,  the  -renevoi  of  the  Greeks. 

■•  Frey,  called  by  Saxo  Fro,  is  the  Moeso-Gothic  Fraiija, 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Frea,  the  old  German  Fro,  and  means  lord. 
(Frode  is  another  form  of  the  name.  The  Frode-fred,  or  peace 
of  Frey,  is  the  golden  a^e  of  Scandinavian  mythes.  Frode 
in  modern  Swedish  means  fatness  or  fertility  ;  /rd  is  seed.  T.) 

5  The  song  is  quoted  in  the  Skalda,  and  is  called  Grot- 
tasaungr  (mill-song). 


8 


King  Anund  clears  the 
woods.  Feast  of  Ingiald. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  tragical  end. 
Odin  a  real  personage. 


destiny  of  woe  was  sealed  when  the  sons  of  king 
Wisbur,  in  order  to  wreak  revenge  on  their  father, 
submitted  to  the  conditions  proposed  to  tlieni  by 
the  sibyl  Huld,  queen  of  the  witches  of  Northland, 
whose  power  still  dwells  in  the  pojiular  memory^. 
Then  it  was  decreed  that  the  line  of  the  Yngliugs 
should  in  days  to  come  be  extirpated  by  their  own 
swords.  Thereafter  the  throne  is  dyed  by  the  blood 
of  brothers  and  sons,  shed  by  their  nearmost  rela- 
tives, until  by  the  crime  of  Ingiald  Illrada  against 
his  own  kindred,  the  Yngling  dynasty  ef  Sweden  is 
overthrown.  As  it  approaches  this  event,  the 
saga  throws  some  light  upon  the  condition  of  the 
land  and  its  inhabitants.  A  portion  of  the  narra- 
tive we  will  give  in  its  own  words.  Braut  Anund 
was  of  all  the  kings  happiest  in  friends,  and  during 
his  time  were  good  harvests  and  peace.  In  those 
days  Sweden  was  still  a  great  forest  land,  with 
wildernesses,  the  passage  of  which  required  many 
d;iys'  journey.  King  Anund  bestowed  much  labour 
and  cost  in  uprooting  the  woods  and  cultivating  the 
cleared  spots.  He  caused  roads  to  be  laid  down 
over  the  wilds.  Open  glades  too  were  then  found 
in  the  forests.  There  were  formed  large  shires 
(harads),  and  the  laud  was  settled  far  round  about, 
for  the  numbers  of  the  people  overflowed.  In 
every  shire  of  Suithiod,  king  Anund  caused  houses 
to  be  built,  and  made  progresses  of  pleasure 
throughout  the  land.  He  was  called  Braut  Anund, 
because  he  made  ways  to  be  levelled  (bryta) 
throughout  Suithiod.  When  once  in  harvest-time 
he  was  travelling  between  his  houses  with  his 
court,  a  rock  falling  overwhelmed  him  in  a  moun- 
tain gien,  and  buried  him  with  his  train. 

Thereafter  Ingiald,  son  of  Anund,  assumed 
sovereignty  over  the  Swedes.  The  Upsala  kings 
were  lords  paramount  in  Sweden  since  Odin  iniled 
over  the  land  ;  but  there  were  at  the  same  time 
many  shire  kings.  He  that  bore  sway  in  Upsala 
was  monarch  (envaldshofding)  over  the  whole 
dominion  of  the  Swedes  until  Ague  died  ;  then 
first  was  the  realm  divided  among  the  brothers. 
After  his  time,  realm  and  kingship  were  ever  the 
more  dismembered  as  families  spread  into  new 
branches,  so  that  when  Ingiald  became  sovereign, 
his  state  was  sorely  diminished.  He  caused  there- 
fore a  great  banquet  to  be  set  out  in  Upsaia  when 
lie  was  to  enter  upon  his  inheritance  after  his 
father.  He  built  a  new  hall,  large  and  splendid,  as 
for  the  king's  palace  ',  and  named  it  the  hall  of  the 
seven  kings.  Then  sent  Ingiald  over  all  Suithiod, 
to  bid  kings,  and  earls,  and  other  men  of  great 
place  to  his  feast.  Six  kings  came  and  took  their 
high  seats  in  the  new  hall,  where  their  attendants 
were  likewise  gathered  together.  It  was  then  the 
custom,  at  a  funeral  feast  held  for  king  or  earl, 
that  he  who  gave  the  banquet  and  was  to  take  the 
inheritance,  should  sit  on  the  footstool  before  the 
high  seat,  until  they  drunk  the  toast  which  was 
called  the  Brage-beaker  *.  Thereupon  must  he 
stand  up  to  the  Brage  cup,  make  a  vow,  and  drink 
out  the  goblet.  Then  he  was  led  to  the  high  seat 
which  his  fathers  had  filled,  and  now  he  had  cora- 

*  She  is  called  Dame  Hylle. 

7  Uppsalr  is  here  the  name  of  the  palace.  Uppsala  forms 
the  fienitive  plural  of  this  word. 

6  Bra^e-bagar  or  Brage-full.  This  was  a  solemn  cup  drunk 
upon  making  a  vow  to  perform  any  feat  of  gallantry,  or  to  the 
health  of  any  person  held  in  peculiar  reverence.  Brage  was 
the  god  of  eloquence  and  poetry.     T. 


pletely  entered  upon  his  heritage.  So  it  came  to 
pass  that  at  the  drinking  of  the  Brage-beaker,  king 
Ingiald  rose  up,  took  the  great  deer-horn,  and  vowed 
to  enlarge  his  realm  one-half  towards  all  the  four 
winds  of  heaven,  or  therewithal  to  die,  whereupon 
he  drank  off"  the  horn.  The  vow  was  fulfilled 
when  at  even-tide  he  caused  the  six  kings  to  be 
seized  and  burned. 

This  was  the  burning  at  Upsala,  of  evil  renown. 
With  several  other  kings  Ingiald  dealt  no  better, 
for  he  set  governors  of  his  own  over  their  do- 
minions. Twelve  kings  in  all,  he  is  said  treache- 
rously to  have  put  to  death.  For  this  reason  he 
was  called  Illrada  (the  ill-ruler),  and  it  was  said 
that  he  had  been  made  cruel  by  eating  a  wolf's 
heart  in  his  childhood.  His  daughter  Asa  shared 
her  father's  surname  and  qualities.  He  had  given 
her  in  marriage  to  Gudrod,  king  of  Scania.  At 
her  instigation  Gudrod  murdered  her  brother 
Halfdan,  but  was  afterwards  himself  murdered  by 
Asa,  who  fled  for  safety  to  her  father.  Thereupon 
Ivar  Widfamne  assembled  a  host,  and  marched 
into  Sweden  against  Ingiald,  who  knew  himself  to 
be  detested, and  too  weak  to  offer  effectual  resistance. 
At  the  approach  of  Ivar's  army,  therefore,  Ingiald 
and  Asa  made  all  their  people  drimk  with  liquor, 
and  then  set  fire  to  the  king's  palace,  which  was  con- 
sumed with  themselves  and  all  who  were  therein^. 

After  Ingiald,  continues  the  Ynglingasaga,  the 
Upsala  power  went  from  the  family  of  the  Yng- 
lings,  so  far  as  their  line  can  be  reckoned  in  un- 
broken succession,  for  the  whole  people  of  Svea 
rose  against  king  Ingiald's  kith  and  kin.  His  son 
Olave  found  a  refuge  in  the  wastes  of  Vermeland, 
where  he  rooted  out  and  burned  down  the  forests, 
and  thence  received  the  name  of  Trafalja  (the 
wood-cutter).  His  posterity  went  over  into  Nor- 
way, which  was  first  united  into  one  kingdom  by 
Harald  the  Fair-haired  (harfager),  a  descendant 
of  the  Swedish  Yuglings. 


The  chronicles,  it  will  be  observed,  in  two  re- 
spects modify  the  point  of  view  from  which  we 
set  out.  They  give  us  a  historical  instead  of  a 
mythical  Odin,  and  for  the  renowned  Gothic  emi- 
gration, an  account  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Swedish  monarchy  by  an  immigrating  race. 

When  in  the  seventeentli  century  the  Icelandic 
sources  of  information  upon  northern  antiquity  be- 
came better  known,  our  historiographers  set  aside 
at  once  the  expeditions  and  achievements  of  the 
Goths,  on  which  our  mediseval  chronicles  dwell, 
grounding  their  system  of  ancient  Swedish  history 
chiefly  upon  the  Ynglingasaga,  the  rather  that  a 
domestic  catalogue  of  our  kings,  framed  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  agreed  with  the  testimony  of 
that  poem  i.  Odin  and  the  Asse  they  pronounced 
to  be  the  human  archetypes  of  the  gods  of  the 
north ;  although  those,  on  the  contrary,  appear  in 
the  saga  itself  as  priests  and  representatives  of 
deities  who  were  ah'eady  acknowledged.  Hence  it 
is  also  stated,  that  the  Asae  whom  king  Gylfe  re- 
ceived into  Sweden,  after  he  had  made  trial  of  their 
wisdom,  took  to  themselves  the  names  of  the  old 

9  This  is  said  to  have  happened  at  Ranninge,  now  a  ham- 
let on  the  isle  of  Fogd  in  the  Maelar  lake,  where  an  extra- 
ordinarily large  ring-wall  of  heaped  up  stones  is  still  caJled 
Kjinningeborg. 

'  Catal.  Reg.  ii.  Script,  rerum  Suecic.  med.  sevi,  t.  1. 


Traditions  as  to  Odiii. 
The  Ass. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Their  Asiatic  extraction. 
Age  of  Odin. 


9 


demi-gods^,  and  there  were  traditions  of  more  than 
one  Odin,  nay,  of  a  false  Odin,  who  arrogated  to 
himself  the  consideration  and  power  of  the  true  ^. 
That  pagans  were  even  found  who  had  little  re- 
vei-ence  for  Odin,  although,  it  is  said,  they  were 
worshippers  of  Thor ;  that  Odin  had  temples  in 
Sweden  indeed,  but  neither  in  Norway,  nor  in  Ice- 
land, which  was  chiefly  settled  by  Norwegians, 
although  at  the  sacrificial  feasts  cups  were  quaffed 
in  honour  of  him  before  any  of  the  other  gods  ;  all 
this  seems  to  prove  that  the  Odin  of  history  had 
not  succeeded  universally  and  com])letely  in  trans- 
ferring to  himself  the  veneration  which  in  the  older 
religion  was  paid  to  the  father  of  the  gods. 

More  recent  inquirers  have  denied  all  historical 
weight  to  the  beginning  of  the  Ynglingasaga,  and 
refused  to  see  in  the  immigration  any  thing  but  a 
learned  fable,  and  the  more,  that  the  preface  to  the 
new  Edda  gives  suflRcieut  ground  for  suspicion  by 
tracing  the  ancestors  of  Odin  through  the  Trojan 
heroes  up  to  Noah.  The  importance  of  Odin  as  a 
fabulous  divinity  has  been  recognized,  while  it  has 
been  considered  that  to  enter  upon  the  question  of 
his  historical  personality  would  not  repay  inquiry. 
But  this  opinion  places  its  supporters  at  variance 
with  the  mythology  itself,  in  which  Odin  is  un- 
doubtedly both  a  godlike  hero  and  a  prophet 
among  the  people ;  a  view  that  wants  not  con- 
firmation from  other  quarters,  and  is  connected 
by  other  testimony  than  that  of  the  Ynglingasaga 
with  the  belief  of  his  oriental  extraction.  Tacitus 
had  already  heard  that  in  Northern  Germany  a 
wandering  hero  was  worshipped  from  the  most 
ancient  times,  on  whom,  according  to  usage,  he 
bestows  a  Roman  name  *.  Paul  Warnefrid  relates 
that  the  same  Odin,  to  whom  the  Lombards,  like 
the  rest  of  the  Germans,  paid  divine  honours,  had 
sojourned  in  Greece  (a  name  commonly  given  by 
the  Northerns  to  several  eastern  countries),  before 
his  arrival  in  Germany.  The  Anglo-Saxons  point 
to  a  Troy,  instead  of  the  Oriental  Asgard ;  in  Saxo 
this  is  called  Byzantium.  With  the  Franks  a 
similar  learned  garb,  not  only  for  their  own  but 
the  northern  legends  of  descent  was  so  usual,  that 
an  old  chronicler  relates  how  the  Northmen  who 
ravaged  France  themselves  declared  that  their  peo- 
ple were  of  Ti'ojan  extraction  *. 

Again,  the  name  As^  is  historical  in  the  east. 
Strabo  places  an  Asia,  in  the  narrower  sense,  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Mseotis,  and  in  the  same 
quarter,  a  people  whom  he  styles  Aspurgians,  li- 
terally the  inhabitants  of  Asburg  or  Asgard.  The 
Alans  were  a  people  nearly  akin  to  the  Goths,  who 
formed  a  junction  with  them  on  the  Black  Sea,  and 
also  boasted  of  a  royal  line  whose  ancestors  were 
gods.     Arabian  geographers  of  the  tenth  century 

2  Epilogue  to  the  Edda. 

3  Saxo. 

■>  Ulysses;  "  interpretatione  Romana,"  as  Tacitus  ex- 
presses himself  in  another  place  in  respect  to  the  appellations 
of  the  German  gods.  Asciburg  on  the  Rhine  was  said  to  have 
been  founded  by  this  Ulysses,  and  named  after  him.  In  Pto- 
lemy, also,  this  name  appears  upon  the  Lower  Rhine,  and  it  is 
believed  to  be  still  extant  in  Asburg,  a  village  not  far  from 
Xanten  on  the  left  bank,  the  site  of  a  Troja  Francorum,  accord- 
ing to  the  statement  of  Fredegarius,in  the  second  chapter  of  his 
summary  of  the  Chronicle  of  Gregory  of  Tours.  If  we  rather 
derive  the  name  of  Asciburg  from  Ask  (ash),  this  was  the 
sacred  tree  of  Odin. 

'  Dudo,  in  Duchesne,  Hist.  Norm".  Script,  p.  63. 


speak  of  this  people  as  dwelling  northwards  of  the  ' 
Caucasus,  under  the  name  of  Alans  or  Asse^.  They 
extended  formerly  to  the  Tanais,  where  their  re- 
mains, blended  with  those  of  the  Goths,  are  men- 
tioned by  travellers  in  the  fifteenth  century,  as  still 
settled.  It  is  added,  that  they  styled  themselves 
Asse,  and  in  their  own  estimation  had  been  deni- 
zens of  this  region  longer  than  the  Goths,  who  had 
come  in  as  conquerors '. 

Now  if  Goths  were  in  fact  anciently  seated  (as 
may  be  proved)  upon  both  sides  of  the  Baltic,  of 
whom  a  great  branch  afterwards  moved  in  a  south- 
easterly direction  towards  the  Black  Sea,  and  there 
formed  a  union  with  their  kinsmen  of  the  ancient 
stock  ;  it  is  at  least  not  improbable  that  an  inter- 
course was  carried  on  conversely  between  these 
and  the  Northerns,  by  which  the  tradition  of  eastern 
descent  may  have  been  originated  or  revived  in 
Scandinavia.  Later  examples  of  such  communi- 
cation, attested  by  history,  are  not  wanting.  A 
band  of  Herulers,  also  a  Gothic  people,  appearing 
first  on  the  Black  Sea,  marched  at  the  end  of  the 
fifth  century  from  the  Danube  to  Scandinavia,  and 
the  division  which  remained  in  the  south  after- 
wards sent  thither  in  order  to  procure  a  prince  of 
their  royal  blood.  The  fact  is  related  by  a  con- 
temporai'y  witness  *. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  arrival  of  the  Goths  in 
Scandinavia,  but  that  of  the  Swedes,  which  is  de- 
scribed in  the  Ynglingasaga ;  races  nearly  allied 
indeed,  and  now  blended,  yet  in  the  olden  time 
separate,  and  first  united  under  a  common  spiritual 
head.  The  chief  seat  of  their  worship  was  placed 
among  the  Swedes,  a  preference  which  they  owed 
to  Odin,  and  the  great  sacrifices  instituted  by  him 
in  Upsala.  This  prerogative  was  already  acknow- 
ledged in  the  days  of  Tacitus,  since  in  his  account 
the  Suiones  stand  for  the  whole  commonwealth.  If 
we  allow  a  reasonable  time  for  the  establishment  of 
this  superiority,  the  Swedish  Odin  may  be  fairly 
removed  to  a  period  beyond  the  Christian  era.  To 
this  conclusion  the  Anglo-Saxon  genealogies  cannot 
be  adduced  as  repugnant,  seeing  that  they  are  so 
little  in  imison  as  to  derive  their  princes,  who 
crossed  over  into  Britain  during  the  latter  half  of 
the  fifth  century,  sometimes  in  the  fourth,  some- 
times in  the  tenth,  twelfth,  or  thirteenth  generation 
from  the  same  Odin  ^.  Among  his  ancestors  they 
enumerate  a  god  bearing  the  Gothic  name  ^  ;  who 
is  himself,  perhaps,  referrible  to  one  still  older. 
Probably  the  arrival  of  the  Swedes  in  Scandinavia 
occasioned  the  emigration  of  the  Goths.  At  all 
events,  the  latter  does  not  ascend  to  the  antiquity 
to  which  Jordanes,  by  confounding  the  Goths  with 

5  Histoire  des  Mongoles,  depuis  Tchinguiz-Kan  jusqu'a 
Timour-Lane,  Paris,  1824,  i.  693,  696.     By  D'Ohsson. 

7  Viaggi  fatti  da  Vinetia  alia  Tana,  Vinezia,  1545 ;  by  the 
Venetian  Josaphat  Barbaro,  who  resided  sixteen  years,  from 
1436,  in  these  regions.  See  also  the  travels  of  the  Franciscan 
Jean  du  Plan  Carpin,  who  was  sent  in  1246  by  Pope  Inno- 
cent IV.  to  the  khan  of  the  Mongols,  where  this  people  is 
named  Alans  or  Asee  (Alains  ou  Asses).  Voyages  en  Asie. 
Hague,  1735,  i.  58.  Procopius  in  the  sixth  century  calls  these 
Alans  a  Gothic  nation,  and  Jordanes,  who  was  of  Alanic  ex- 
traction, styles  himself  a  Goth. 

8  Procopius,  de  Bello  Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  14,  15. 

9  Compare  the  Anglo-Saxon  genealogies  in  Suhm's  Tables 
to  the  Critical  History  of  Denmark. 

1  Geat,  quem  pagani  jamdudum  pro  deo  venerati  sunt. 
Compare  Langebek,  Script.  Rer.  Dan.  i.  8. 


10 


Priority  of  the  Goths. 
Two  rlistinct  races. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Ivar  Widfamne. 
His  conquests. 


Getes  and  Scythians,  removes  it,  but  is  to  be  as- 
signed apparently  to  the  commencement  of  the 
Ctiristian  era^. 

In  our  judgment,  the  Goths  who  gave  their  name 
to  tlie  southern  and  earlier  settled  portion  of  the 
peninsula,  are  the  elder  people  in  Scandinavia. 
That  the  Gothic  kingdom  possessed  the  higher  an- 
tiquity, was  an  old  belief  in  Sweden  ^  ;  and  in  the 
Edda  it  is  said  that  the  name  of  Gothland  was 
older  in  the  north  than  either  the  Danish  or  Swe- 
dish dominion.  Further  up  in  the  mid  region  of 
the  land,  the  kingdom  of  the  Swedes  was  founded 
in  Suithiod,  properly  so  called,  for  the  name  has 
both  a  wider  and  a  narrower  application  *.  Still 
higher  towards  the  north  was  Jotunhem,  the 
abode  of  wild  and  wandering  tribes.  The  poets 
style  them  Jotuners,  giants  (j  attar),  mountain 
wolves,  sons  of  the  rock,  the  hill-folk,  the  folk  of 
the  caves  of  earth ;  enemies  of  the  Asse,  they 
gathered  round  the  altars  of  old  Fornjoter,  which 
Thor,  the  thunder-darting,  is  said  to  have  over- 
thrown. Their  leader  is  called  the  chief  of  the 
Finns  (Finnehofding)',  and  their  country  afterwards 
Finnmark,  embracing  the  northerly  part  of  the 
peninsula.  The  hills  and  woods  of  Kolmord  and 
Tived  formed  the  boundary  between  Suithiod  Pro- 
per and  the  Gothic  kingdom,  as  they  do  now  be- 
tween Swedeland  and  Gothland  ;  hence  these  pro- 
vinces were  formerly  known  as  the  land  north  and 
south  of  the  forest  (Nordan  och  Sunnanskogs). 
The  separateness  of  the  two  peoples  appears  clearly 
marked  even  subsequently  to  the  introduction  of 
Christianity.  The  annals  of  our  middle  age  are 
occupied  in  great  part  with  contests  between  the 
Swedes  and  Goths  for  the  possession  of  a  right  to 
give  a  king  to  the  whole  country.  Even  at  the 
present  day  the  dialects  of  the  Gothic  provinces 
are  distinguished  by  broader  and  fuller  verbal 
forms,  and  a  more  plentiful  use  of  diphthongs  ;  in 
Upper  Sweden,  on  the  other  hand,  words  and 
sounds  are  more  abbreviated,  though  the  latter 
does  not  hold  without  some  exceptions.  The  dia- 
lect of  the  Dalecarlians  on  the  one  side,  and  that  of 
tlie  Scanians  or  Smalanders  on  the  other,  exhibit 
the  two  extreme  points  of  variation. 

The  Ynglingasaga  does  not  reckon  Gothland  as 
part  of  the  dominion  of  the  Ynglings ''.  A  line  of 
independent  Gothic  kings  is  mentioned,  descending 
from  Gaut  (a  name  of  Odin),  from  whom  Goth- 
land is  said  to  have  received  its  appellation '.  Ice- 
landic writers  know  in  general  little  of  these  Gothic 
kings,  although  domestic  traditions  refer  to  kingly 
families  much  more  numerous  in  Gothland  than  in 
Sweden  Proper.  Nor  have  all  these  disappeared 
from  history  without  leaving  any  trace  of  their  ex- 
istence. In  them  probably  we  may  discern  the 
many  kings  of  Sweden,  unknown  to  the  Icelanders, 
of  whom  Saxo  tells  us  ;  for  all  cannot  have  been 
the  product  of  his  invention,  and  the  vicinity  of 
Denmark  would  naturally  make  its  inhabitants  bet- 
ter acquainted  with  the  kings  of  Gothland. 

On  the  subject  of  tlie  ancient  relations  between 

2  Compare  Svea  Rikes  Hafder,  i.  111. 

3  Chronica  Erici  O'lai,  Decani  Upsaliensis. 

■•  In  the  historical  sagas  it  is  called  "  Suithiod  Sjalf," 
Suithiod  Proper. 

5  These  outlines  are  wholly  taken  from  the  old  heathen 
poems  Hijstlanga  and  Thorsdrapa. 

s  Ynglingasaga,  c.  29,  43. 

7  Id.  c.  38. 


the  Swedes  and  Goths,  we  have  the  testimony  of  an 
Anglo-Saxon  poem  preserved  to  us  ;  the  unknown 
author  of  which,  though  a  Christian,  is  yet  de- 
monstrably older   than   the    Icelanders,  while   he 
agrees  with  them  in  the  peculiarities  of  the  northern 
poetic  language,  in  references  to  the  my  thes  of  the 
Edda,  and  in  his  portraiture  of  northern  manners. 
The  scene  of  this  poem  lies  in  Denmark,  Gothland, 
and   Suithiod,  and  episodically  also  in  Jotunhem, 
the  king  of  which  is  named  Finn  ;   its  hero  is  a 
Gothic  champion,  Beowulf,  the  relative  of  Higelac 
(Hugleik),  king  of  the  Goths,  and  his  first  achieve- 
ment is  an  expedition  to  Denmark  for  the  dehvery 
of  its  king,  Hrodgar,  from  the  danger  which  me- 
naces him.     The  latter  is  the  only  personage  whose 
name  at  least  may  be  recognized  in  the  old  cata- 
logues of  the  Danish  kings,  which  style  him  Hroar  ; 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  as  in  northern  sagas  he  is  bro- 
ther of  Helge,  son  of  Halfdan,  descendant  of  Skold, 
whence  in  both  the  kings  of  Denmai-k  are  termed 
Skbldingers.     In  the  Ynglingasaga,  Helge,  brother 
of  Hroar,  is  contemporary  with  Adil,  the  Upsala 
king.     Consequently  the  otherwise  unknown  per- 
sons and  events  of  which  the  poem  speaks,  must 
belong  to  the  times  of  the  Yngling  family  in  Swe- 
den, although   to  the    Icelandic   saga  neither   of 
the  Swedish  kings  here  mentioned  is  known.    These 
are  represented  as  Skilfingers  by  family  ;  and  in  the 
Edda,  Skilfing  is  a  name  of  Odin.    They  are  at  war 
with  the  kings  of  the  Goths,  and  from  the  relations 
here  subsisting  between  these  and  the  Swedes,  ge- 
nerally hostile  in  their  tenor,  it  results,  that  com- 
munity of  descent  and  religion  in  both  nations  did 
not  prevent  mutuality  of  either  independence  or 
enmity  *. 

"  IvAR  Widfamne  "  (says  Snorro)  "  brought  all 
Sweden  under  his  own  sway.  He  made  himself 
master  also  of  the  Danish  kingdom,  and  a  great 
portion  of  Saxonland,  besides  the  eastern  lands  and 
the  fifth  part  of  England.  Of  his  lineage  were  the 
Swedish  and  Danish  kings  who  came  after."  The 
dynasty  which  now  succeeded  in  Sweden,  therefore, 
takes  its  name  from  Ivar,  although  descended  from 
him  only  on  the  mother's  side.  It  is  called  also 
the  line  of  Sigurd,  from  Sigurd  Ring,  or  that  of 
Lodbroc,  from  the  famous  Ragnar.  Its  history  is 
obscure  ;  even  the  order  of  succession  of  the  kings 
cannot  be  determined  with  certainty.  Respecting 
the  earUer  times  only  broken  notes  of  legendary 
song  have  reached  us,  which  soon  become  indis- 
tinguishable amidst  the  sanguinary  confusion  of  the 
Norman  expeditions.  These  accounts  relate  chietty 
to  the  fight  of  Bravalla  (the  Brafield),  of  yore  so 
famous  in  the  north,  and  the  exploits  of  Ragnar 
Lodbroc  and  his  sons.  Upon  this  battle  a  frag- 
ment of  an  Icelandic  saga  is  preserved.  Herein 
we  find  Ivar  Widfamne,  as  king  of  all  Sweden, 
busying  himself  with  designs  for  the  subjugation  of 
Zealand,  by  sowing  dissension  and  bloodshed  in 
the  royal  house  of  Denmark.  His  daughter  Aud, 
queen  of  that  country,  flies  from  the  face  of  her 

8  We  follow  Grundtvig's  edition  of  this  Anglo-Saxon  poem  : 
Pjowulfs  Drape.  Et  Gotisk  Heltedigt  fra  fbrrige  aartusinde. 
Copenhagen,  1S20.  Thorkelin,  who  entitles  it,  Poema  Da- 
nicum  dialecto  Anglo-Saxonica  de  Danorum  rebus  gestis,  sec. 
iii.  et  iv.  Havn.  1815,  has  mistaken  the  sense  in  several 
passages,  and  gives  a  false  view  of  the  whole,  whence  we 
were  debarred  from  quoting  this  highly  interesting  poem 
before  we  became  acquainted  with  the  labours  of  Grundtvig. 


Harald  and  Sigurd. 


THE  SECOND  DYNASTY. 


Battle  of  Bravalla. 


11 


father  with  her  young  son  Harald  to  Gardarike  ^, 
the  king  of  which,  Radbard,  becomes  lier  second 
husband,  and  Ivar  collects  a  great  army  from  Swe- 
den as  well  as  Denmark,  in  order  to  take  his  re- 
venge. King  Ivar  was  then  very  old.  On  his 
arrival  eastward  in  the  Carelian  gulf ',  where  the 
dominions  of  king  Radbard  commenced,  and  the 
landing  was  to  take  place,  Ivar  had  a  dream,  for 
the  interpretation  of  which  he  applied  to  his  foster- 
father  Hordr,  who  having  come,  climbed  a  pre- 
cipitous rock,  and  refused  to  go  on  board  to  the 
king,  obliging  the  latter  to  hold  a  parley  with  him 
from  the  ship.  Hordr  said  that  his  great  age  had 
rendered  him  unfit  to  interpret  dreams,  but  it  ap- 
peared to  him  that  the  Danish  and  Swedish  king- 
doms would  soon  fall  asunder,  and  that  Ivar,  in- 
satiable in  conquest,  would  die,  without  being  able 
to  transmit  his  power  as  an  inheritance  to  his  pos- 
terity. The  king  further  asked  of  his  ancestors 
among  the  Asoe,  and  received  for  answer  that  he 
was  abhorred  both  by  his  own  forefathers  and  the 
demi-gods,  who  compared  him  to  the  snake  of  Mid- 
gard.  Ivar  in  wx-ath  called  out  that  Hordr  himself 
was  the  worst  goblin  of  all,  and  challenged  him  to 
go  in  quest  of  the  gi'eat  serpent.  Both  the  old  men 
threw  themselves  headlong  mto  the  sea,  one  against 
the  other,  and  vanished.  As  this  enterprize  came 
to  nothing  by  the  king's  death,  Harald,  son  of  Aud, 
was  supplied  by  his  step-father  with  men  and  ships, 
repaired  to  Zealand,  and  was  there  received  as 
king.  In  Scania,  which  had  formerly  belonged  to 
his  mother's  kin,  he  found  support ;  and  thence 
marching  to  Suithiod,  he  subdued  all  Swedelaud, 
and  Jutland  besides,  which  is  said  to  have  been 
possessed  by  his  grandfather  Ivar.  Harald  was  at 
this  time  fifteen  years  old :  by  the  charm  called 
Seid  he  had  been  made  invulnerable  against  all 
sorts  of  weapons.  Because  he  was  a  great  warrior, 
men  called  him  Hildetand  (from  hildur,  war,  and 
tand,  tooth). 

Aud,  the  mother  of  Harald,  had,  in  her  latter  wed- 
lock, a  son  named  Randver,  married  to  a  Norwegian 
princess,  and  father  of  Sigurd  Ring.  In  his  old 
age,  Harald  Hildetand  is  said  to  have  appointed 
the  son  of  his  step-brother  king  in  Upsala,  and 
to  have  given  him  all  Suithiod  and  West  Goth- 
land, reserving  to  himself  Denmai'k  and  East 
Gothland.  In  respect  to  the  war  between  these 
kings,  the  Icelandic  fragment  on  the  fight  of  Bra- 
valla ^  agrees  generally  with  Saxo.  The  latter 
specifies  as  the  source  of  his  information  a  song 
still  remembered  in  his  day,  and  ascribed  to  the 
old  warrior  and  bard  Starkother,  who  is  himself 
said  to  have  taken  a  share  in  the  combat ;  his  nar- 
rative itself  also  bespeaks  a  poetic  origin.  Odin 
appears  in  the  form  of  Brune,  a  councillor  pos- 
sessing the  confidence  of  both  Harald  and  Sigurd, 
who  instigates  the  kinsmen  to  war.  Harald  lent 
all  the  readier  ear  to  his  incitements,  that  his  great 
age  made  his  life  a  burden  both  to  himself  and  to 
his  subjects.  Better  for  him,  he  deemed,  to  die  in 
battle  than  on  a  sick  bed,  that  he  might  arrive  in 
Valhalla  with  an  ample  retinue.  He  sent  there- 
fore messengers  to  king  Sigurd  Ring  that  they 
should  meet  one  another  and  fight.  Great  prepa- 
rations were  made ;  Sigurd  assembled  an  army 
from  all  Suithiod  and  West  Gothland,  and  many 

^  Part  of  modern  Russia,  lying  over  against  Gothland.    T. 

'  The  Gulf  of  Finland.     T. 

2  Bravalla,  lit.  brave,  braw,  or  fair  field.    T. 


Norwegians  gathered  beneath  his  banner,  so  that 
when  the  fleet  of  the  Swedes  and  Norsemen  passed 
through  Stock  Sound,  where  Stockholm  now  lies, 
the  number  of  the  ships  was  two  thousand  five 
hundred.  King  Sigurd  himself  marched  south- 
wards by  the  Kolmorker  forest,  which  divides 
Suithiod  from  East  Gothland,  and  when  he  had 
come  out  of  the  wood  to  the  bay  of  Bra,  he  found 
his  fleet  waiting  his  arrival,  and  pitched  his  camp 
between  the  forest  and  the  sea.  King  Harald's 
power  was  from  Denmark  and  East  Gothland  ; 
many  troops  from  Saxony  and  the  countries  east 
of  the  Baltic  also  joined  him,  and  his  army  was  so 
large  that  their  barks  covered  all  the  Sound  be- 
tween Zealand  and  Scania  as  with  a  bridge.  The 
hosts  encountered  on  the  shores  of  the  Bra  wick. 
The  most  eminent  champions  on  both  sides  are 
enumerated,  and  among  them  shieldmaids  and 
Scalds.  The  names,  arranged  alliteratively  by 
Saxo,  as  they  were  in  the  ballad  he  followed,  are 
nearly  the  same  in  his  account  as  in  that  of  the 
Icelanders,  and  the  agreement  extends  also  to 
various  minor  features.  King  Harald,  old  and 
blind,  is  borne  in  a  chariot  into  the  battle  ;  he 
inquires  how  Sigurd  had  planted  his  battle-aiTay, 
and  being  told  in  the  wedge-like  formation  *,  cries 
out,  '  I  had  thought  that  there  were  only  Odin  and 
myself  who  imderstood  that.'  At  length,  when  vic- 
tory appears  to  have  declared  for  the  foe,  he  causes 
his  horses  to  be  m-ged  to  their  utmost  speed,  seizes 
two  swords,  and  cuts  desperately  among  their 
ranks,  till  the  stroke  of  a  mace  hurls  him  dead 
from  his  car.  Odin  himself,  in  the  form  of  Brune, 
was  the  slayer*  of  Harald.  The  empty  chariot 
tells  Sigurd  that  the  old  king  has  fallen ;  he  there- 
fore orders  his  men  to  cease  from  the  fight,  and 
searches  for  the  body  of  his  relative,  which  is 
found  under  a  heap  of  slain.  Then  he  causes  a 
funeral  pile  to  be  raised,  and  commands  the  Danes 
to  lay  upon  it  the  prow  of  king  Harald's  ship. 
Next,  he  devotes  to  his  ghost  a  horse  with  splendid 
trappings,  prays  to  the  gods,  and  utters  the  wish 
that  Harald  Hildetand  might  ride  to  Valhalla  first 
among  all  the  troops  of  the  fallen,  and  prepare  for 
friend  and  foe  a  welcome  in  the  hall  of  Odin. 
When  the  corpse  is  laid  on  the  pyre,  and  the 
flames  are  kindled,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  war  walk 
round  lamenting,  king  Sigurd  calls  upon  every  man 
to  bring  gold  and  arms,  and  all  his  most  costly  or- 
naments, to  feed  the  fire  which  was  consuming  so 
great  and  honoured  a  king ;  and  so  all  the  chief- 
tains did.  But  Sigurd  Ring  was  king  after  Harald 
Hildetand,  over  Suithiod  as  well  as  Denmark,  and 
his  son  Ilagnar  grew  up  in  his  court  the  tallest 
and  goodliest  among  men. 

Ragnar  Lodbroc  is  the  most  renowned  hero  of 
the  Norman  expeditions  ;  but  before  we  pass  to 
the  exploits  attributed  to  him  or  his  sons,  it  will 
be  proper  to  glance  at  the  less  known  expedi- 
tion of  our  forefathers  to  a  difTerent  quarter. 

The  oldest  military  enterprises  of  the  Swedes 
were  directed  to  the  east.  Ingwar,  a  king  of  the 
Yngling  line,  as  well  as  Ivar  Widfamne,  Harald 
Hildetand,  and  Ragnar  Lodbroc,  are  said  to  have 
warred  and  made  conquests  in  Easterway  (Oster- 
veg),  or  the  east  realm  (Osterrike),  as  the  countries 

3  Tacitus  speaks  of  this  order  of  battle  among  the  Ger- 
mans ;  acies  per  cuneos  disponitur. 
■»  "  Baneman." 


12 


Tlie  Vaners.     Statement 
of  Nestor. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  Varangians ; 
their  exploits. 


beyond  the  Baltic  are  denominated.  The  Yngling- 
asaga  makes  the  Swedes  renew  their  acquaintance 
with  the  regions  whence  Odin  came.  Svegder, 
an  Upsala  king,  is  said  to  have  visited  his  kinsmen 
in  that  part  of  the  world,  and  to  have  chosen  him- 
self a  wife  in  tlie  land  of  the  Vaners. 

Vaner,  like  Jotuner,  is  the  mythical  appellation 
of  a  foreign  race  which  is  opposed  to  the  people  of 
Manhem,  tliat  is,  to  men  ;  for  the  northern  mytho- 
logy, in  this  resembling  every  other,  sets  out  by 
elevating  the  people  who  acknowledged  its  creed 
into  the  representatives  of  humanity  :  and  this  is 
the  reason  why  the  indigenous  names  of  so  many 
nations  mean  nothing  else  than  folk  or  men  pre- 
eminently*. But  just  as  Manhem  has  a  less  ex- 
tensive sense,  and  then  takes  the  name  of  Suithiod, 
so  both  the  alien  races  above-mentioned,  although 
in  the  mythology  they  lie,  as  it  were,  without  the 
domain  of  humanity,  and  appear  in  forms  of  phan- 
tasy, have  yet  some  historical  significancy.  We 
have  seen  that  Jotun  and  Finn  are  to  be  explained 
as  one  and  the  same  type,  and  a  key  to  the  import 
of  the  term  Vaners  may  be  found  in  the  interpre- 
tation which  refers  the  name  to  the  Slavonic  stock. 
According  to  this  view  both  these  mythical  deno- 
minations belong  to  the  two  alien  races,  with  whom 
our  forefathers  came  oftenest  into  collision.  By 
the  Finns,  the  Russians  are  still  called  Vaners 
(Viinalaiset),  and  with  this  an  old  name  of  the 
Slavons,  Venedi,  Veneders,  corresponds.  Vanadis, 
as  Freya  is  called,  would  then  mean  the  Vendish 
goddess  ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the 
Slavons  of  Dalmatia  worshipped  the  good  Frichia, 
and  the  Morlachers  at  the  present  day  still  sing  her 
praises  in  their  nuptial  ceremonies  ^.  The  Swedes 
again  are  called  by  the  Finns  Russians  (Ruotso- 
laiset),  probably  from  Roslagen,  Rodeslagen,  Ro- 
den,  as  the  Swedish  coast  lying  nearest  to  Southern 
Finland  was  anciently  called  ;  and  this  Finnish  ap- 
pellative for  the  Swedish  people  receives  a  remark- 
able historical  confirmation. 

Frankish  annalists  inform  us  that  in  the  year 
839,  ambassadors  arrived  from  the  emperor  Theo- 
philus  of  Constantinople  to  the  Frankish  emperor 
Lodovic  the  Pious.  With  these  came  certain  per- 
sons, who,  according  to  their  own  statement,  be- 
longed to  a  people  called  Rhos.  They  had  come  as 
ambassadors  from  their  king  Chacanas  (Hakon  ?) 
to  the  Greek,  and  wished  to  return  to  their  country 
by  the  route  they  had  now  taken.  Lodovic,  it  is 
added,  found  on  closer  examination  that  these  men 

5  Thus  the  Germans  said  that  they  were  sprung  from 
Man  (Mannus),  son  of  the  god  Thiiisco,  who  again  was  born 
of  the  earth.  (Tacit.  Germ.)  In  the  latter  name  probably 
lies  the  word  Thiod,  Thiut,  Teut,  people;  from  which  the 
old  national  name  of  Teutons,  and  the  modern  one  of  Teutsche, 
are  derived.     Tuisco  is  the  first  Teuton. 

6  Karamsin,  History  of  the  Russian  Empire,  i.  69,  71.  In 
the  Bohemian  language  Freg  is  the  name  of  the  goddess  of 
love.  Hallenberg,  Remarks  on  Lagerbring's  History  of 
Sweden,  ii.  233. 

'  Comperit  eos  esse  gentis  Sueonum.    AnnalesBertiniani. 

"  From  wara,  vaere,  pactum. 

'  Jordanes  de  Reb.  Get. 

'  Id.  Suethans  is  the  Swedish  name  in  the  old  Gothic 
form,  agreeing  with  Godans,  Thiuthans,  and  from  this  it  is 
plain  that  the  <  is  a  radical  letter  in  the  name  ;  although  the 
Icelanders  say  Sviar,  the  Anglo-Saxons  Sveon,  which  is  the 
Suiones  of  Tacitus.  But  as  the  Anglo-Saxons  write  the  name 
of  Sweden  both  Sveoland  and  Sveodland,  Sveon  would  appear 
to  he  contracted  from  Sveodan.     The  name  itself  then  may 


were  Swedes  ''.  Nestor,  the  oldest  Russian  anna- 
Ust,  about  tiie  year  1100,  relates  that  daring  and 
gallant  conquerors,  named  Varagians,  had  come 
across  the  sea,  and  made  the  Finns  and  Slavons 
tributary  to  them.  After  two  years,  the  natives 
drove  out  their  masters,  but  in  tlie  end,  weakened 
by  intestine  quarrels,  they  voluntarily  determined 
to  subject  themselves  to  their  sway.  They  sent 
therefore  across  the  sea  to  the  Varangians,  who 
were  called  Rus,  declaring  to  them  "  our  land  is 
broad  and  good,  blessed  with  every  desirable  thing, 
and  wanting  order  alone  ;  come,  be  our  princes, 
and  reign  over  us."  Three  brothers,  with  their 
families,  were  accordingly  chosen,  who  took  with 
them  a  numerous  train  of  followers,  and  vveut  to 
the  Slavons,  the  eldest,  Ruric,  settling  in  Novo- 
gorod.  '  After  these  new  comers  of  the  Varagians, 
and  from  that  time  (says  Nestor)  the  land  took  the 
name  of  Russland,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Novogorod 
are  still  of  Varangian  descent  ;  before  they  were, 
and  were  called,  Slavons.'  This  is  said  to  have 
happened  in  the  year  862. 

These  Russian  Varagians  are  the  Varangians  of 
the  Byzantines,  the  northernVaringers  ;  according 
to  the  literal  meaning  of  the  word,  soldiers  who 
serve  by  agreement  or  bargain  *,  and  the  name  is  thus 
synonymous  with  fosderati,  as  the  Gothic  soldiery 
in  the  service  of  Rome  from  the  time  of  Constan- 
tine  the  Great  were  called.  It  is  by  no  means  im- 
probable that  the  inhabitants  of  the  north  had  early 
taken  part  in  this  military  service,  as  we  have 
historical  proofs  of  an  intercourse  subsisting  be- 
tween Scandinavia  and  Southern  Europe  as  early 
as  the  first  part  of  the  sixth  century.  A  Scandi- 
navian king  visited  the  great  Theodoric  in  Italy  ^. 
Costly  furs  were  brought  to  Rome  through  many 
nations  from  the  people  of  Suethans  '  in  Scandi- 
navia. Procopius,  the  historian  of  the  Gothic  war, 
had  spoken  with  the  natives  of  this  land  of  the  ex- 
treme north.  He  gives  it  the  name  of  Thule,  an 
enormous  island,  inhabited  by  several  nations, 
among  whom  the  Gauts  were  the  most  numerous, 
but  the  Scridfinns  the  most  savage^. 

It  is  certain  that  the  later  Byzantine  historians, 
who  first  make  mention  of  the  imperial  body-guard, 
under  the  name  of  Varangians,  a  people  who  are 
said  to  have  been  from  an  early  period  in  the  service 
of  the  emperors,  allege  that  the  Varangians  were 
natives  of  the  remote  north,  and  had  come  from 
Thule,  which  in  Procopius  incontestably  denotes 
Scandinavia^.     Assiu-edly,  too,  the  Vai'angians  of 

he  derived  from  the  Icelandic  Sveit,  or  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Sveot,  (read,  suit,)  which  means  an  army,  and  Suithiod  would 
thus  be  literally  the  host-folk.    (See  Note  A.) 

2  Procop.  de  Bel.  Goth.  1.  ii.  c.  15,  ed.  Maltret,  Paris,  1662. 
In  the  Latin  translation  of  Grotius  the  name  Gauts  has  dis- 
appeared, in  consequence  of  an  incorrect  reading.  Paul 
Warnefrid  says  the  Scricfinns  were  so  named  from  their 
art  of  sliding  {skrida,  to  skir,)  on  incurvated  pieces  of  wood 
used  by  tliem  in  the  chase.  He  describes  this  skating,  and 
the  reindeer,  from  the  information  of  persons  who  themselves 
knew  the  country.  He  had  also  seen  one  of  the  rough  jerkins 
of  reindeer  skin,  such  as  we  call  a  lappmudd,  used  by  these 
Finns. 

3  The  name  Fargani,  Varangi,  first  appears  with  the  Byzan- 
tines in  the  year  935,  but  they  are  said  to  have  served  from 
of  old  in  the  body-guard.  They  are  said  to  have  come  partly 
from  Thule,  and  partly  from  England  ;  but  most  of  even  the 
Englaiiders  appear  to  have  been  Danes,  of  whom  Ordericus 
Vitalis  relates  that  many  quitted  England  on  the  Norman 
conquest,  and  took  service  at  Constantinople.     The  Danish 


Ruric.     Swedish  wars 
in  Russia. 


THE  SECOND  DYNASTY. 


Ragnar  Lodbroc ;  his 
adventures. 


13 


Russia  were  Swedes  *,  although  it  is  not  very  pro- 
bable that  their  power  could  have  been  established, 
as  we  are  told,  at  one  blow.  This  improbability  is 
heightened  by  the  fact  that,  contempoi'aneously 
with  the  assumed  foundation  of  the  Russian  empire 
by  Ruric,  they  were  already  powerful  enough  to 
appear  in  the  guise  of  enemies  before  Constanti- 
nople^. Nestor  himself  intimates  that  the  track 
from  the  country  of  the  Varangians  to  that  of  the 
Greeks,  which  he  describes,  had  been  long  in  use  ". 
This  is  the  same  which  is  mentioned  by  a  Greek 
emperor  in  the  tenth,  and  by  the  first  historian  of 
northern  Christianity  in  the  eleventh  century'. 
Both  this  way  down  the  Dnieper  to  the  Black  Sea, 
and  another  more  to  the  eastward  by  the  Volga  to 
the  Caspian,  were  continually  traversed  by  the 
Swedes  after  the  foundation  of  the  Russian  mo- 
narchy for  the  purposes  of  war  and  commerce. 
This  is  proved  irrefragably.  as  well  by  the  multi- 
tude of  Runic  stones  in  Sweden,  ei'ected  to  the 
memory  of  travellers  to  Greece,  as  by  the  large 
number  of  Arabic  coins,  especially  of  countries 
lying  south-east  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  which  are  found  on 
Swedish  soil.  The  sea-kings  of  the  Ros  and  their 
squadrons  threatened  Constantinople  by  the  Black 
Sea  on  more  than  one  occasion,  and  they  concluded 
with  the  Greek  emperors  a  treaty  in  which  the 
names  are  purely  Scanduiavian,  hardly  one  that  is 
Slavonic  being  found.  History  also  knows  that  the 
same  people  even  waged  war  with  the  Arabs  on 
the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea*.  An  Italian  bishop, 
ambassador  at  the  Greek  court,  was  contemporary 
with  another  expedition  which  was  undertaken 
against  Constantinople  by  Igor,  or  as  he  is  termed 
both  by  the  bishop  and  the  Byzantine  ^VTiters 
Ingor  (Ingvar),  the  son  of  Ruric.  We  have  it 
confirmed  by  his  authority,  that  those  who  were 
called  Russians  by  the  Greeks,  were  in  reality 
Normans,  a  name  at  that  time  common  to  the 
Scandinavian  populations^. 

The  results  above  stated  may  serve  to  throw 
light  on  the  question,  in  how  far  the  testimony  or 
silence  of  the  Icelanders  should  of  itself  determine 
what  belongs  or  does  not  belong  to  the  older  history 
of  Sweden.  Of  all  this  they  know  nothing.  What 
they  have  preserved  to  us  is  highly  valuable,  but 
must  be  explained  and  employed  solely  in  con- 
nexion with  the  accounts  we  derive  from  others.  It 
is  thus  we  have  ti-eated  their  mythology  and  their 
Ynoflinffasaga.  Their  allusions,  whetherin  the  earlier 
or  later  Scalds,  to  tlie  old  connexion  of  Scandinavia 

battle-axe,  as  it  was  called  in  England,  was  the  principal 
arm  of  the  Varangians,  who  are  hence  called  axe-bearers, 
ne\vKo<p6pot.  Compare  Stritter,  Varangica,  Memoriae  Po- 
pulonim,  ex  Script.  Byzant.  t.  iv. 

'>  According  to  both  Schliizer,  the  critical  editor  of  Nestor, 
and  Karamsni,  in  the  seventeenth  century  tbe  tradition 
was  still  preserved  in  Novogorod.  When  tliere  was  a 
question  of  electing  the  Swedish  prince  Charles  Philip  to 
be  czar,  he  was  recommended  by  the  Archimandrite  Cy- 
prianus  on  the  ground  that  Ruric  had  been  a  Swede.  Wide- 
kindi,  Thet  Svenslia  I  Ryssland  Tijo  ahrs  krigs-historie. 
Stockh.  1671.  (History  of  the  Ten  Years' War  of  the  Swedes 
in  Russia.) 

^  Schlbzer  maintains,  without  any  ground,  that  this  attack, 
of  which  the  Byzantines  themselves  speak  under  the  year 
S66,  was  made  by  an  unknown  people  named  Ros,  who  after- 
wards disappeared.  But  Nestor  declares  them  to  have  been 
the  same  people,  as  is  to  be  seen  by  the  name  of  their  leader 
Askold ;  and  a  Byzantine  writer  says,  that  these  Ros  were 


with  the  east,  and  of  Sweden,  from  its  position,  in 
particular,  can  be  regarded  a.s  valuable  and  im- 
portant, only  after  a  historical  groundwork  has 
been  laid.  This  eastern  theatre  of  achievement  for 
the  old  northern  champions,  albeit  from  distance 
of  space  and  time  the  most  obscure,  is  yet  not  alto- 
gether lost  to  history.  That  of  the  west  is  better 
known,  for  here  the  expeditions  of  the  Northmen 
shine  out  through  the  gloom  ;  although  the  crowd 
of  enterprises  incessantly  renewed  perplexes  the 
order  of  events.  One  example  of  this  confusion  is 
presented  in  the  actions  of  Ragnar  Lodbroc  and 
his  sons,  as  they  are  related  both  in  the  Icelandic 
sagas,  and  by  Saxo,  Denmark's  Latin  saga-writer, 
as  also  by  foreign  annalists. 

In  the  saga  of  Ragnar  Lodbroc,  we  find  his 
father  Sigurd  Ring  mentioned  only  as  king  of  Den- 
mark, where  Ragnar  is  made  to  succeed  him. 
King  Eisten,  or  Osten,  according  to  the  Hervarar- 
saga,  a  son  of  Harald  Hildetand,  reigns  in  Upsala 
over  Sweden.  He  is  depicted  as  powerful,  wicked, 
and  a  great  sacrificer  ;  the  chief  object  of  his 
adoration  is  a  cow,  the  lowing  of  which  is  said  to 
have  scared  his  enemies.  He  is  represented  at 
fir.st  as  being  on  terms  of  good  understanding  with 
Ragnar.  This  chief,  by  encountering  and  over- 
coming a  terrible  serpent,  had  won  Thora,  daughter 
of  Herraud,  who  is  called  earl,  or  by  some  king,  of 
Gothland.  From  the  rough  breeches  in  which 
Ragnar  was  clad  when  he  performed  this  exploit, 
he  is  said  to  have  received  his  surname  of  Lod- 
broc. After  the  death  of  Thora,  Ragnar,  resolving 
never  again  to  take  a  wife,  chose  out  men  to  govern 
his  kingdom  conjointly  with  his  sons,  and  returned 
to  his  original  pursuit,  the  victories  and  perils  of 
the  sea-king's  life.  Once  in  time  of  summer,  as  it 
befel,  he  entered  with  his  ships  the  harbour  of 
Spangarhed  in  Norway,  and  landed  his  meatp-ur- 
veyors  to  bake  for  his  men.  But  these  came  back 
with  their  bread  burned,  excusing  themselves  on 
the  ground  that  they  had  seen  a  maiden  of  such 
surpassing  beauty  as  to  render  them  incapable  of 
minding  their  work.  She  was  called  Kraka,  was 
the  fairest  among  women  ;  and  her  hair,  like  silk,  so 
long,  that  it  reached  down  to  the  ground  about  her. 
Ragnar  finds  favour  in  her  eyes,  and  she  becomes 
his  wife.  After  she  has  born  four  sons  to  him,  he 
visits  king  Osten  in  Upsala,  where  he  is  persuaded 
to  betroth  himself  to  the  daughter  of  the  Swedish 
king.  On  his  return,  Kraka  discloses  to  him  that 
she  is  really  Aslaug,  daughter  of  the  famous  Si- 
gurd Fofnisbane,  by  Brynhilda,  and  relates  the  iu- 

of  Prankish,  that  is,  generally  Germanic  race.  Stritter  Rus- 
sica,  ii.  C97. 

6  Schlbzer's  Nestor,  88. 

'  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  de  Administ.  Imp.  in 
Stritter,  1.  c.  982.  Adam  of  Bremen,  Hist.  Eccles.  ii.  c.  13. 
In  the  narrative  of  the  emperor,  the  cascades  of  the  Dnieper 
are  mentioned  with  both  the  Slavic  and  the  Russian  (Scandi- 
navian) name.  Afterwards,  in  Russia  as  in  Normandy,  the 
rulers  were  blended,  in  language  and  manners,  with  the 
governed  people. 

8  Des  peuples  du  Caucase,  from  Arabian  authors,  by  M. 
C.  D'Ohsson.  Paris,  1828.  In  this  expedition,  which  took 
place  in  the  time  of  Igor,  they  drew  their  boats  from  the  Don 
to  the  Volga,  at  the  point  where  the  distance  between  the 
streams  is  least.  This  expedient  was  common  in  the  enter- 
prizes  of  the  Northmen. 

9  Luitprandi  Episcopi  Cremonensis  Historia,  1.  v.  c.  6,  in 
Muratori,  torn.  ii.  He  was  twice  ambassador  to  Constanti- 
nople, in  the  years  9i6  and  968. 


14 


Fate  of  Raguar's 
sons. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Accounts  of  him  compared. 
Invasions  of  ihe  Northmen. 


cidents  both  of  her  mother's  life  and  her  own,  as 
they  are  represented  in  the  old  Volsuiigasaga.  In 
proof  of  the  truth  of  her  story,  she  jjredicts  that 
the  son  of  whom  she  is  pregnant,  will  be  born  with 
the  mark  of  a  snake  round  the  eye,  which  accord- 
ingly came  to  pass.  Ragnar  believed  her ;  and 
nothing  came  of  the  Swedish  marriage,  but  a  war 
instead  with  king  Oaten.  This  is  carried  on  by 
Eric  and  Agnar,  sons  of  Ragnar  by  his  first  mar- 
riage, of  whom  the  latter  falls  in  battle  ;  the  former 
is  made  captive,  and  by  his  own  desire  thrown 
upon  spear-points,  on  which  he  sings  his  death 
song.  Their  loss  is  avenged  by  the  other  sons  of 
Ragnar,  conjointly  with  Aslaug  ;  she  herself  takes 
part  ui  the  war,  which  ends  wdth  the  fall  of  king 
Osten.  Ragnar's  sons  next  spread  desolation  far 
and  wide  in  the  southern  lands,  and  their  renown 
is  noised  throughout  the  whole  world.  They  molest 
even  Italy,  and  plan  a  march  to  Rome,  but  turn 
back,  deceived  by  erroneous  information.  Ragnar 
is  incited  by  the  fame  of  his  sons'  actions  to  re- 
peated voyages  of  adventure  ;  and  in  order  to 
augment  his  own  glory  by  braving  dangers,  he  at- 
tempts a  mai'auding  enterprise  on  the  English 
coast  with  only  two  ships.  Here  his  crew  are  cut 
off  in  a  fight  with  king  Ella  ;  he  himself  is  taken 
captive,  refuses  to  tell  his  name,  and  is  thrown  into 
a  pit  of  snakes,  where  he  chants  a  song  on  his  own 
deeds  and  on  the  expected  joys  of  Valhalla,  and 
dies  smiling  under  the  bites  of  the  serpents.  His 
sons,  of  whom  Biorn  Ironside  reigned  in  Sweden, 
exact  revenge  for  his  death,  and  die  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  their  sire  ;  one  causing  himself  to  be 
burned  on  a  pp'e  made  of  the  sculls  of  his  slaugh- 
tered foes,  the  other  ordering  his  barrow  to  be 
erected  on  that  coast  of  his  kingdom  which  was 
most  exposed  to  hostile  assaults. 

The  poetical  contexture  of  this  saga  discovers  it- 
self at  once  by  the  circumstance,  that  Ragnar 
Lodbroc,  by  marrying  the  fair  unknown,  is  made 
the  good-son  of  Sigurd  Fofnisbane,  an  old  champion 
celebrated  in  fable,  while  the  songs  of  the  Edda 
and  the  Volsungasaga  give  us  stories  respectmg 
another  daughter  of  Sigurd  Fofnisbane  ^,  which 
with  nearly  the  same  circumstances  and  names  are 
found  in  Jordanes,  taken  from  old  Gothic  legends. 
•  The  death-song  ascribed  to  Ragnar,  and  mentioned 
betimes  by  Saxo,  is  still  extant,  but  disagrees  with 
the  saga  in  many  particulars.  Saxo,  who  has  de- 
voted wellnigh  a  whole  book  of  his  history  to  the 
actions  of  Ragnar,  also  differs  considerably,  al- 
though, no  doubt,  in  this  as  in  other  cases,  the 
popular  legends  so  rife  in  his  time  lie  at  the  founda- 
tion of  his  highly  decorated  narrative.  Scattered 
fragments  of   legends  relating  to  this   hero   long 

'  Svanhild,  in  Jordanes  Sonilda  (de  Reb.  Get.  c.  24.)  Com- 
pare in  the  Edda  the  songs  "  Godrunar-hvata,"  and  "  Hara- 
dismdl  en  forna,"  where  her  death  is  avenged  on  king  Jor- 
raunrek  by  the  brothers  Saurle  and  Hamdir,  as  in  Jordanes 
the  brothers  Sarus  and  Ammius  exact  the  same  revenge  on 
king  Hermanaric. 

2  Other  songs  of  the  Feroes  are  echoes  of  the  heroic  odes 
of  the  Edda.  The  whole  cycle  of  Sigurd  Fofnisbane's  saga 
consisting  of  ballads,  some  of  which  contain  more  than  200 
stanzas,  has  been  lately  recovered,  in  some  parts  more  co- 
piously than  even  in  the  elder  saga,  from  the  recitations  of 
the  people  of  these  lonely  islands,  which  received  their  in- 
habitants from  Scandinavia.  Odin  from  Asgard,  Frigga,  and 
Loke,  appear  in  other  popular  songs  of  the  Feroes.  See 
Fceroiske  Quceder  om  Sigurd  Fofnersbane  og  bans  oet,  sam- 
Jede  og  oversatte  af  Lyngbye   (Lays  of  the  Feroe  Isles,  upon 


continued  to  dwell  in  the  popular  memory.  In  the 
southernmost  part  of  Norway,  where  Spangarhed, 
the  place  at  which  Ragnar  found  Aslaug,  is  situated, 
Torfaeus  and  Schoning  heard  ballads  on  their 
story.  The  hill  on  which  she  is  said  to  have 
tended  her  flocks  bears  her  name,  and  the  people 
of  the  Feroe  islands  in  the  present  day  still  sing 
lays  of  Ragnar  and  Aslaug  ^. 

If  we  compare  the  northern  saga  with  the  ac- 
counts which  foreign  chronicles  give  us  of  more 
than  one  Ragnar,  of  a  Lodbroc  who  was  killed  in 
England,  and  of  the  terrible  and  protracted  devas- 
tations inflicted  by  Lodbroc's  sons  both  in  France 
and  England,  the  memory  of  the  most  destructive 
period  of  the  expeditions  of  the  Northmen  in  the 
nmth  century  appears,  in  these  countries  as  well  as 
in  the  north,  to  be  bound  up  with  this  name  ; 
while  the  impossibility  of  chronologically  recon- 
ciling the  different  narratives,  shows  at  the  same 
time  that  the  exploits  of  several  persons  have  been 
cumulatively  ascribed  to  one.  Ragnar  himself 
probably  belongs  to  the  eighth  century,  towards 
the  end  of  which,  a  statement  in  the  English 
chronicles  gives  some  reason  for  supposing  that  his 
dismal  end  may  have  happened  ^.  The  name  and 
exploits,  however,  have  been  transplanted  likewise 
to  that  which  succeeds,  while  the  saga,  on  the  other 
hand,  places  him  in  connexion  with  the  heroes  of 
a  bygone  age.  It  is  also  easy  to  conceive  that  the 
wars  waged  by  his  sons,  or  other  descendants  so 
termed,  might  have  been  incessantly  retold  anew, 
since  the  desolating  incursions  of  the  Northmen 
continued  for  so  long  a  period  to  harass  Europe. 

In  the  ninth  century  the  terrors  of  these  inroads 
were  at  their  height.  Their  causes  were  partly 
the  weakness  and  divisions  of  the  European  states 
in  that  age,  and  partly  the  foundation  laid  about 
the  middle  of  this  century  for  an  extension  of  mo- 
narchical power  in  the  northern  kingdoms,  which 
drove  out  larger  swarms  of  warlike  adventurers. 
The  evil,  however,  was  in  its  essence  one  of  far 
higher  antiquity.  It  had  already  found  a  channel 
in  the  great  national  migrations,  until  when  these 
ceased,  and  Christianity  began  to  change  the  man- 
ners of  the  barbarians,  while  the  north  remained 
as  of  old,  the  warlike  attitude  of  Scandinavia  to- 
wards the  rest  of  the  world  became  more  con- 
spicuous and  alarming. 

Earlier  probably  than  to  France,  England,  and 
Ireland,  countries  m  which  the  Northmen  even- 
tually attained  more  or  less  sway,  their  expeditions 
were  directed  to  Scotland,  where  the  dialect  of  the 
Lowlanders  still  bears  the  most  striking  resem- 
blance to  the  northern  tongues.  Yet  the  inhabit- 
ants of  that  region  camiot  be  derived  from   any 

Sigurd  Fofnersbane  and  his  race,  collected  and  translated  by 
Lyngbye).     Randers,  1822. 

3  In  the  year  794,  a  king  of  the  northern  heathens  (his 
name  is  not  mentioned),  who  had  some  time  before  plundered 
the  monastery  of  the  isle  of  Lindisfarne,  on  the  coast  of 
Northumberland,  near  the  Scottish  border,  was  taken  and 
put  to  a  cruel  death.  Princeps  eorum  crudeli  nece  est 
occisus  ab  Anglis.  Roger  de  Hoveden,  Annal.  The  death- 
song  composed  in  Ragnar's  name,  in  which  he  recounts  his 
achievements,  informs  us  that,  previously  to  his  capture  by 
the  Englanders,  he  had  ravaged  the  firths  of  Scotland,  and 
mention  is  made  just  before  of  '  the  sword-games  of  Lindi- 
seire.'  Another  legend  makes  Ragnar  a  man  of  princely 
birth,  who  was  fraudulently  put  to  death  in  England  in  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century.     Matthew  Westm. 


Hasslidale. 


SETTLEMENT  IN  SWITZERLAND. 


Its  inhabitants. 


H 


Anglo-Saxon  immigration  of  such  old  date  known 
to  history,  and  must  be  regarded  rather  as  being 
of  Scandinaviaif  descent.  The  poems  of  Ossiau  at- 
test the  presence  and  wars  of  the  Scandians  in 
Scotland,  and  Lochlin,  the  name  by  which  that 
bard  designates  their  country,  is  the  same  under 
which  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Irish  annals'*. 

Before  we  quit  this  subject,  it  will  be  proper  to 
touch  upon  a  tradition  which  still  survives  in  an- 
other region.  In  the  inner  valleys  of  the  Alps, 
severed  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  dwells  an  in- 
considerable tribe  which  still  asserts  its  Swedish 
extraction.  At  present  this  legend  is  confined  to 
Hasslidale,  in  the  canton  of  Berne,  but  it  was  once 
general  among  the  inhabitants  of  Schwytz  ;  and 
in  old  times  it  was  still  more  widely  diffused. 
King  Gustavus  I.  mentions  it  in  a  public  ordinance 
as  a  proof  of  the  former  dense  population  of  Swe- 
den, and  Gustavus  Adolphus  refers  to  it  in  his 
negotiations  and  letters  to  the  Swiss.  The  written 
record  of  this  tradition  is  not  very  ancient  ^,  and 
abounds  in  chronological  and  other  errors.  Set- 
ting aside  these,  its  contents  may  be  thus  de- 
scribed. The  legend  begins  by  assigning  the  usual 
cause  of  northern  emigrations,  namely  a  famine,  as 
the  motive  of  the  journey  ;  but  the  points  of  de- 
parture are  both  Sweden  and  Friesland.  The  pil- 
grims march  from  a  place  called  Hasle,  along  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine  •■ ;  in  their  progress  a  Frank- 
isli  army  is  encountered  and  defeated,  and  they  at 
length  arrive  m  the  Alps,  where  they  form  a  set- 
tlement, because  the  land  seems  in  their  eyes  to 
resemble  their  own  country.  In  our  judgment 
this  event  falls  within  the  age  of  the  northern  ex- 
peditions ;  in  the  first  place,  because  Friesland 
really  was,  during  tlie  greater  part  of  the  ninth 
century,  subject  to  the  Northmen,  and  their  or- 
dinary domicile,  whence  their  expeditions  issued. 
Next,  because  a  contemporary  Norman  chronicle ' 
relates  that  in  881  they  ascended  the  Mosel,  and 
wintered  in  a  fortified  camp  at  a  place  called  Has- 
low  ^,  from  which  they  broke  up  in  the  following 

4  Annals  of  Ulster,  in  Johnstone's  Antiquitates  Celto- 
Normannicae.     Copenhagen,  1786. 

5  '  Extract  from  a  parchment  manuscript  of  the  year  1 534, 
preserved  in  Upper  Hasle,  in  the  canton  of  Berne,  in  Switzer- 
land, and  enrolled  also  among  the  records  of  the  land-registry 
there,  concerning  the  northern  origin  of  this  branch  of  the 
Swiss.'  Published  by  the  author,  after  a  manuscript  com- 
municated from  the  spot,  along  with  the  '  East-Prison  song 
of  the  Upper  Haslers,'  in  a  Dissertation  :  De  Colonia  Sueco- 
rum  in  Helvetiam  deducta.     Upsal.  1828. 

5  Hasle  is  a  common  name  in  Sweden,  often  denoting  old 
battle-fields,  for  it  was  formerly  usual  to  mark  the  scene  of  a 
combat  by  hazel-stangs,  which  was  called  hazeling  the  field 
(att  hassla  vail). 

'  Duchesne,  Script.  Nor. 

8  Haslou  and  Haslac  in  the  Chronicles.  Now  the  hamlet 
of  Elsloo,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Maestricht,  on  the  way  to 
Ruremonde.  I 

9  Ed.  Copenhagen,  1825,  i.  p.  138.  | 
'  Also  called  Avenche  ;  the  ancient  Aventicum.  i 
2  Ut  acquirant  sibi  spoliando  regna,  quibus  possent  vivere  j 

pace  perpetua.     Dudo,  in  Duchesne.  i 


spring,  defeated  a  Frankish  army  that  was  brought 
against  them,  and  carried  their  devastations  along 
the  Rhine.  Old  chronicles  mention  that  they  pene- 
trated as  far  as  Worms.  Thirdly,  because,  accord- 
ing to  the  saga  of  Olof  Tryggwason  ",  the  sons  of 
Ragnar  Lodbroc  took  part  in  this  expedition  ;  for 
this  must  be  the  same  in  which,  as  Ragnar's  saga 
relates,  they  arrived  at  Wiflisburg  ^,  in  Switzer- 
land. And,  fourthly,  because,  as  so  many  circum- 
stances agree  with  the  Swiss  tradition,  its  con- 
cluding allegation,  that  a  settlement  followed,  is  by 
no  means  improbable.  The  acknowledged  end  of 
the  Norman  expeditions  was  not  merely  plunder, 
but  the  acquisition  of  a  new  home  ^ ;  and  this  the 
smaller  portion  of  the  Norman  army  might  have 
remained  to  select  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps,  while 
the  rest  returned  upon  hearing  the  rumour  that 
the  emperor  Charles  the  Fat  was  collecting  a  great 
army  on  the  Rhine  to  oppose  them. 

Even  Swiss  historians  see  in  the  inhabitants  of 
these  Alpine  dales  a  peculiar  race  *,  and  there  also 
recurs  the  old  Swedish  federative  system.  It  is 
plain  fi'om  legends  which  still  survive  among  them, 
as  to  the  manner  and  order  in  which  they  first 
peopled  the  land*,  that  their  settlement  m  it  is 
comparatively  new,  and  it  is  also  Imown  that  for  a 
long  time  they  were  few  in  number  *.  That  at  the 
end  of  the  ninth  century  there  were  still  heathens 
in  these  regions  to  whom  it  was  necessary  to  preach 
Christianity,  will  cease  to  awaken  surprise  if  the 
opinions  we  have  advanced  respecting  their  origin 
be  admitted  to  have  congruity  to  truth. 

For  the  share  of  the  Swedish  name  in  this  Swiss 
legend  of  migration,  besides  that  this  may  be 
couched  in  the  appellation  of  Normans,  then  com- 
mon to  all  the  people  of  the  three  Scandian  king- 
doms, it  is  to  be  remembered  that  those  Northmen 
who  accompanied  Biiirn  Ironside  (a  son  of  Ragnar 
Lodbroc,  and,  according  to  the  northern  saga,  a 
Swedish  king),  are  also  called  in  extraneous  ac- 
counts West  Goths,  and  consequently  Ln  part  came 
from  Swedish  West  Gothland  ". 

3  '  They  (the  first  Schwytzers)  were  a  peculiar  race,  and 
may  after  so  long  a  time  be  best  recognized  in  the  remarkably 
handsome  people  of  Upper  Hasli,  and  the  neighbouring 
higlilands.'     Miiller,  History  of  Switzerland,  i.  419,  n.  7. 

■1  '  The  old  men  of  the  highland  valleys  still  tell  how  in 
former  centuries  the  people  moved  from  mountain  to  moun- 
tain, and  from  valley  to  valley.'  Miiller,  i.  421.  '  This  the 
old  shepherds  stated  tons  in  the  years  1777 — 1780.'  Ibid.  n.  15. 

'  '  At  first  the  Swiss,  few  in  number,  dwelt  far  from  one 
another  in  the  waste  places  of  the  mountains.  In  the 
whole  land  there  was  but  one  church,  and  afterwards  two.' 
'  Then  the  valleys  of  Schwytz,  Uri,  and  Underwald,  became 
gradually  independent  of  each  other,  from  the  increase  both 
of  churches  and  courts ;  yet  they  kept  united  against  fo- 
reigners.' '  The  country  people  of  Upper  Hasli,  and  their 
neighbours  in  the  mountains  of  the  highlands,  were  at  last 
alienated  from  this  ancient  confederation.'  Miiller,  i.  436. 
'  Tradition  says  of  the'Underwalders  that  they  were  the  last 
to  be  Christians.'  'At  the  end  of  the  ninth  century  VVigger 
is  mentioned  as  the  apostle  of  Switzerland.'     Ibid.  n.  37. 

6  Visigothi.     Compare  Langebek,  Script.  Rer.  Dan.  i.  525. 


16 


Scania ;  its  produce: 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Towns ,  Inhabitants. 


CHAPTER  11. 


LAND  AND  PEOPLE  FROM  THE  HEATHEN  PERIOD. 

VIEW  OF  THE  COUNTRY,  AND  THE  PROGRESS  OP  SETTLEMENT.       POLITY  AND  MANNERS. 


With  the  ninth  century,  the  light  of  history  rises 
more  bright  over  the  north.  In  the  dawning  of 
tliis  light  which,  emanating  from  a  new  age  and 
the  approach  of  Christianity,  casts  its  rays  even 
upon  the  last  days  of  the  heathen  period,  let  us  in- 
quire :  what  were  the  land  and  the  people  m  times 
of  old  ?  To  this  question  we  will  attempt  an  an- 
swer, not  drawn  from  uncertain  conjectures,  which 
might  have  free  play  upon  a  boundless  field,  but 
founding  ourselves  upon  the  testimony  of  a  definite 
age,  historically  known  at  least  in  its  general  cha- 
racter. Subsidiary  evidence  may  be  educed  from 
other  sources ;  we  will  seek  for  it  in  the  ex- 
terior nature  of  the  north,  and  in  the  graves  of  our 
forefathers.  The  former,  with  us,  does  not  easily 
change  its  original  aspect,  while  the  latter  cover 
our  land,  mai'king  the  old  dwelling-places  of  its 
inhabitants,  and  the  shades  of  the  bari'ows  are  yet 
to  be  summoned  forth  by  the  spell  of  love  and 
knowledge.  We  will  consult  nature  as  well  as 
memory,  and  search  the  land  of  the  dead  that  we 
may  judge  of  that  of  the  living.  Thus  we  may  per- 
chance succeed  in  combining  many  scattered  fea- 
tures into  the  picture  of  a  whole  which  may  be 
consonant  to  the  truth,  and  may  contrive,  from 
what  is  known,  to  shed  some  light  upon  the  more 
remote,  the  darker,  the  unknown. 

First,  in  what  form  does  the  land  reveal  itself  to 
our  view  through  the  twilight  of  the  old  sagas  ! 
Commencing  with  the  south,  Scania  at  this  time 
presents  an  already  ancient  cultivation,  surpassing 
even  that  of  more  southerly  adjacent  countries. 
Originally,  as  the  name  seems  to  intimate  i,  a 
marsh-land,  where  the  ure-ox,  the  elk,  and  the 
rein-deer  once  roamed  in  primeval  woods,  of  which 
the  roots  are  still  dug  up  in  the  dried  mosses  of 
the  levels,  it  was  famed  for  the  fertility  of  its  soil, 

■  Skaun,  in  Icelandic,  means  a  marshy  country.  The 
word  indeed  is  pronounced  Skcen,  while  Skane,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  formerly  pronounced  Skaune,  as  the  inhabitants 
still  do;  but  such  vocalic  changes  are  not  unfrequent.  Thus 
the  word  gang  was  formerly  written  gaung  and  g'ong ;  the 
word  lang,  both  long,  laung,  and  long.  The  old  name  is 
Skin-ey,  the  island  of  Skane,  Sconia  insula  in  Adam  of 
Bremen,  since  it  is  surrounded  by  the  sea  on  three  sides. 

2  Sconia  armataviris,opulentafrugibus,  divesquemercibus. 
Adam.  Breraens.  de  situ  Daniae. 

3  Terra  salsuginis  et  vastae  solitudinis.  Porro,  cum  omnes 
tractus  Germaniac  profundis  horreant  saltibus,  sola  Jutland 
caeteris  horridior.  1  c. 

''  A  Seland  in  Scoiiiam  trajectus  multo  brevissimus  in 
Halsingeburg,  qui  et  videri  potest.  1.  c.  57.  Helsingiaborg 
is  mentioned  (about  993)  in  Nial's  Saga,  c.  83 ;  and  in  the 
same  decennary  also  Hiostad  (Ystad),  in  Scania.  Torfaeus, 
Hist.  Norv.  iii.  3.  Helsingbr  is  without  doubt  the  same 
Halseiri  in  Denmark,  which  is  called  in  the  Fcereyinga 
Saga,  c.  i.,  the  greatest  market  of  the  north.  Ualsa  means 
to  take  in  sail  and  lie  into  the  land.     Hence,  and  not  from 


the  variety  of  its  staple  wares,  and  the  number  of 
its  martial  inhabitants  ^,  while  the  interior  of  Jut- 
land was  still  a  wilderness^,  and  Germany  was 
covered  wdth  dense  forests.  In  the  Soimd,  of  the 
shortest  passage  across  which  at  Helsingborg  we 
find  ancient  mention  *,  every  summer  of  the  ninth 
century  saw  the  fleet  of  the  Islesmen  ^,  which  drew 
an  ample  freight  offish  from  the  teeming  coasts,  or 
brought  back  meal,  wheat,  and  honey  from  the 
then  celebrated  Scanian  fair  which  was  held  in  the 
autumn.  About  the  same  time  Lund  is  mentioned 
as  a  place  of  considerable  trade,  surrounded  with 
a  wooden  barrier,  where  gold  or  other  property 
gained  by  piracy  was  stored  up  for  security ", 
although  itself  a  mark  for  the  attacks  of  the 
sea-robbers  who  swarmed  every  where  in  these 
waters. 

Scania,  from  which  Ivar  Widfamne  is  said  to 
have  issued  to  conquer  both  Sweden  and  Denmark, 
was  at  first  a  kingdom  in  itself,  but  is  reckoned  as 
belonging  to  the  Danes  in  the  oldest  short  descrip- 
tion of  the  northern  countries  at  the  end  of  the 
ninth  century  ^.  Afterwards  it  is  called  the  fairest 
part  of  Denmark,  although  sometimes  severed 
from  its  dominion,  bearing  the  yoke  reluctantly, 
successfully  resisting  the  whole  Danish  force,  and 
excelling  Zealand  and  Jutland  in  men  and  wea- 
pons *.  Halland  and  Bleking  are  distinguished 
as  oftshoots  of  Scania  ^ ,  stretching  towards  Nor- 
way 1  and  Gothland,  and  were  comprehended  un- 
der that  name  '^,  sometimes  even  after  the  Danes 
established  their  dominion  in  this  quarter.  Halland 
is  spoken  of  towards  the  end  of  the  heathen  age  as 
a  poor  district,  offering  small  allurement  even  to 
the  rapacity  of  the  sea-robbers  ^  ;  in  the  eleventh 
century,  oak  and  beech  woods  abounded  *.  In  the 
ninth,   Bleking  is    still  reckoned  as  belonging  to 

any  migration  of  Helsingers,  the  name  Halsbre  or  Helsingor, 
Halsingborg  or  Helsingborg,  as  well  as  Halsehamn  to  the 
north,  on  the  point  of  the  Scanian  promontory  named 
KuUen. 

5  Eyrarfloti.  Egils  Saga,  Havn.  1809,  p.  78,  79. 

"  Civitas  Lundona,  aurura  ibi  plurimum,  quod  raptu  con- 
geritur.     Ad.  Brem.  56. 

7  Narrative  of  the  Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten,  given  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  translation  of  the  History  of  Orosius,  as- 
cribed to  king  Alfred  ;  last  edited  by  Rask. 

8  Viris  et  armis  praestantior  esse  probatur.  Helmold 
Chron.  Slav.  1.  i.  c.  85. 

"  Hallandia  et  Blekingia  ab  integritate  Sconiae,  ceu  rami 
duplices  ex  unius  arboris  stipite  promeantes.      Saxo,  Praef. 

'  At  the  time,  that  is,  when  Norway  extended  to  the 
Gbta-elf.  Gotelba  tiuvius  a  Nordmannis  Gothiam  separat, 
says  the  Scholiast  upon  Adam  of  Bremen,  de  Situ  Dan.  60. 

2  The  Knytlinga  Saga  speaks  of  Halland  in  Scania  (Hal- 
land i  Skdney). 

■''  Var  land  ecki  audigt.     Egils  Saga,  p.  246. 

'  Knytlinga  Saga,  c.  28. 


Southern 


TOPOGRAPHY,  SF^TTLEMENT,  AND  CULTURE. 


Provinces. 


17 


Sweden*.  The  barbarians  of  Bleking'*  were 
dreaded  pirates,  by  following  which  trade  they 
amassed  wealth  and  had  abundance  of  captives.  At 
the  same  time  the  islands  of  Oeland  and  Gottland 
are  already  Swedish  possessions '.  Travellers 
passed  from  Scania  to  Gothland  through  deep 
forests  and  precipitous  hills,  and  it  appeared  doubt- 
ful whether  the  journey  by  land  or  the  voyage  by 
water  was  attended  with  greater  dangers  *.  The 
mountainous  district  bordering  upon  Gothland, 
and  considered  as  forming  part  of  it,  was  anciently 
called  Smaland  (small  land) '.  Eastern  Smaland 
sti-etched  to  the  sea,  and  sent  forth  pirate  chiefs  *. 
More  is  named  a  part  of  it  so  early  as  the  ninth 
century  2.  Mention  is  made  betimes  of  Calmar  as 
a  port  ^,  and  afterwards  as  a  place  of  trade.  The 
middle  and  southern  portion  of  Smaland  was 
called  Verend  ;  it  was  girt  romid  by  the  densest 
foi'ests,  but  a  fruitful  country,  abounding  in  game 
and  streams  peopled  with  fish,  swarming  with  bees 
and  honey,  adoi-ned  with  rich  fields  and  meadows  *. 
Western  Smaland,  towards  the  borders  of  Halland, 
was  long  called  the  Finn  waste,  the  Finn  weald, 
the  Finn  mooi",  and  also  Finland  *.  This  Fiim 
wold  appears  in  old  times  to  have  stretched  for  a 
great  distance,  and  to  have  embraced  those  wide 
forests  separating  West- Gothland  fi-om  the  present 
Bohus-lan,  and  covering  Dalslaud,  which  then  was 
only  known  by  the  name  of  the  Marks,  that  is,  the 
woods,  as  far  as  the  present  frontier  of  Norway. 
Formerly  that  country  stretched  to  the  Gota- 
elf.  In  the  eleventh  century  it  was  maintained 
that  the  ancient  border^  had  been  the  Gota  from 
the  sea  to  Lake  Vener  ;  then  the  Marks '  to  the 
forest  of  Eda  ;  and  lastly,  the  Kiilen  mountains. 
Yet  the  boundary  was  disputed,  and  it  could  not 
be  otherwise,  when  the  wildei'ness  was  still  the 
frontier.  The  Swedish  kings  extended  West-Goth- 
land to  Swinesund  along  the  sea  ;  the  Norwegians 
on  the  other  side  claimed  all  the  land  to  the  west- 
ward of  Lake  Vener.  The  borderers,  independent 
of  both  parties  in  their  forests  and  mountains,  gave 
little  heed  to  these  pretensions.  The  people  of  the 
Mark  country,  who  had  come  from  West- Gothland, 

'  Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten,  where  it  is  called  Bleking's 
Island,  Blecinga-ey. 
f  Barbari  qui  Pleichani  dicuntur.     Ad  Brem.  1.  e. 

7  Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten  (or  Otlier  and  Wulfstan). 

8  Words  of  Adam  of  Bremen,  I.e.  "  Per  ardua  montium, 
per  abrupta  petrarum,  per  condensa  silvarum,"  says  the  le- 
gend of  St.  Sigfrid,  speaking  of  the  same  way.  Ilistoria  S. 
Sigfridi.  E.  Benzelius,  Monumenta  Hist.  vet.  ecclesiae  Su. 
Upsal.  1709,  p.  4. 

9  The  plural  ending  Smdlbnd,  (pronounce  Smaulbnd,  as 
the  Smalanders  still  do),  was  formerly  usual. 

'  Nials  Saga,  c.  30,  83. 

2  Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten. 

3  Kalmar  naze.  Heimskringla,  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  128. 
This  in  1020.  A  hundred  years  after  Calmar  is  called  a 
trading  town.     Heimskr.  Saga  of  Sigurd  Jorsalafarar.  c.  27. 

••  Historia  S.  Sigfridi  (written  about  1205).  Benzelii 
Monumenta,  4. 

■"'  Fineyde  in  the  Knytlinga  Saga,  Finwid  in  the  West 
Gothic  Laws,  Finhid  on  the  Rhunic  stones,  Terra  Finlandias 
in  Eric  Olaveson.  The  inhabitants,  whom  Saxo  calls  Fin- 
nenses,  are  manifestly  the  same  Finwedi,  inhabitants  of  the 
Finn  wold,  who,  Adam  of  Bremen  says,  dwelt  with  the 
Vermelanders  between  Norway  and  Sweden,  and  belonged 
to  the  diocese  of  Skara. 

6  So  said  the  peasants  to  the  messengers  of  St.  Olave, 
about  1019.     Heimsk.  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  59. 

7  That   is,   Dalsland,  and  probably  also   the   contiguous 


ultimately  preferred  subjection  to  Sweden,  were 
regarded  as  belonging  to  West- Gothland,  and  in 
later  times  were  denominated  West  Goths,  west  of 
the  Vener. 

The  district  now  bearing  the  name  of  Bohus-lan 
was  formerly  called  Ranrike  *,  or  Elfwar-fylke  ^ 
(river-district  j,  Alfliem  '  and  Wiken'''.  The  wick 
and  elf-men  ^  were,  from  the  very  character  of 
their  country,  Wikingers,  a  hardy  and  stubborn 
race,  who  lived  by  the  sea,  and  bore  no  good  re- 
putation. Here  in  the  interior  the  saga  placed 
the  descendants  of  the  demons  (Troll)  and  elves 
(  Alfvar),  more  hateful  than  all  other  men.  Here 
by  the  TroUhtetta,  whose  cataracts  still  roared  in 
solitude,  Starkother  had  fought  in  the  days  of  old 
with  the  demon  champion  Hergrim  and  won  Ogn, 
daughter  of  the  Elfin,  who  preferred  death  to  be- 
coming the  property  of  the  victor.  Trade  joined 
with  piracy  was  carried  on  at  an  early  period  along 
the  coast  of  Wiken,  and  the  great  stream  of  the 
Gota,  which  pours  the  water  of  so  many  floods 
from  the  Vener  into  the  sea,  presented  facilities 
for  both  which  were  not  neglected.  Of  the  island 
Hisingen  which  the  river  forms  at  its  mouth,  one 
half  was  in  possession  of  the  Swedes,  the  otlier  in 
that  of  the  Norwegians.  On  the  island  of  Brenn, 
which  lay  somewhat  further  to  the  south,  and  was 
formerly  a  haunt  of  the  sea-chiefs,  much  dreaded 
by  trading  vessels,  or  upon  the  Dana-holms,  « Inch 
lay  near  thereto,  the  boundaries  of  the  three 
northern  kingdoms  met,  so  that  old  West-Goth- 
land reached  from  the  Gota-elf  southwards  to  the 
sea.  Ships  ascended  the  stream  to  Konghall  *, 
which  had  its  name  from  the  frequent  conferences 
of  kings  held  there,  or  even  higher,  to  old  Lbdose  '. 
The  wick-men  drew  their  supplies  of  corn  and 
malt  from  abroad  ^  ;  here  were  vended  salt,  her- 
rings, and  wadmal  or  home-woven  woollen  cloth  ', 
necessaries  which  were  conveyed  inland  ;  so  that 
the  West  Goths  were  malcontent,  when  hostilities 
with  Norway  broke  off  this  intercourse.  Falkoeping, 
of  which  mention  is  made  thus  early  *,  and  Skara, 
probably  a  place  of  sacrifice  in  the  heathen  time  ', 

North  Mark  in  Vermeland,  where  the  wood  of  Eda  now 
begins. 

8  This  name  applied  to  the  country  from  the  Giita-elf  to 
Swinesund.     Heimsk.  Olof  Tryggwason's  Saga,  c.  130. 

3  Elf,  river,  whence  the  name  of  the  German  Elbe.  Also 
elf,  or  goblin.     T. 

>  This  embraced  all  the  land  between  the  Raum-elf  and 
the  Gota-elf.     Hervara  Saga,  c.  1 . 

8  The  whole  countiy  about  Opslo  Bay,  in  Norway,  and 
thence  to  the  Gota,  was  formerly  called  so. 

3  The  inhabitants  are  styled,  Wikwerir,  Wikweriar. 
Helms.  Saga  of  Harald  the  Fair  Haired,  c.  35,  44.  Elfarar, 
Nials  Saga,  c.  78.  Elfwagrimar,  the  bad  grim  elves.  Saga 
of  Magnus  Barefoot,  c.  8. 

■*  Now  Kongelf. 

'  Lying  in  Aleharad  on  the  West-Gothic  side.  "  To  the 
trading  town  at  Liodliusuni  is  four  days  by  the  river."  Rim- 
begla.  Both  Konghall  and  Loddse  are  mentioned  in  the 
tenth  century.     Ni;ils  Saga,  c.  3,  83. 

6  Eigils  Saga,  c.  81. 

7  The  Icelander  Rut,  the  favourite  of  the  Norwegian 
queen  Gunnliild,  who  was  called  Mother  of  Kings,  sent  to 
her  at  Konghall  100  ells  of  wadmal  in  961.     Nials  Saga,  c.  3. 

^  Saxo,  when  enumerating,  after  Starkotter's  Ode,  the 
warriors  at  the  fight  of  Brawalla  (1.  vii.  p.  144),  mentions,  to- 
gether with  Findar  of  Wicken  (Fiiidar  rnaritimo  genitus 
sinu),  Bersi,  born  in  Falkoping(apud  Falu  oppidum  creatus). 

9  The  trading  town  at  Skiirum  or  Skaurum  (Saga  of  St. 
Olave,  c.  70,  96)  is  mentioned  early  in  the  eleventh  century. 

C 


18 


Their  condition 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


in  early  times. 


were   trading    stations    in    inner  West-Gotliland, 
which  must  have  received  their  wares  from  Wiken. 

But  what  was  the  appearance  of  this  commercial 
route  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  ?  It  passed 
through  a  great  forest,  two  days'  journey  longi, 
partly  over  rocky  mountains.  The  wares  were 
packed  cross-ways  upon  horses.  The  journey  was 
dangerous,  the  way  easily  missed,  and  the  forest 
was  the  haunt  of  footpads  (stigman)  and  robbers. 
Even  peasants  were  sometimes  known  hardened 
enough  to  take  part  m  this  bloody  work,  and  if  the 
stroke  of  the  axe  announced  to  the  tired  wanderer 
some  lonely  clearing  or  the  vicinity  of  an  inhabited 
place,  the  night's  lodging  gi'anted  to  his  prayer  was 
sometimes  paid  for  with  his  life.  In  the  midst  of 
the  wood  was  a  safety-house  (salohus)  as  it  was 
called  2,  one  of  those  otherwise  untenanted  lodges 
for  travellers  and  their  goods,  which  were  main- 
tained where  roads,  especially  those  frequented  by 
traders,  penetrated  rough  and  uninhabited  wastes. 

Such  was  then  the  condition  of  the  frontier  tracts 
interspersed  between  the  cultivated  districts.  In 
the  list  of  these  West-Gothland  is  to  be  reckoned, 
as  undoubtedly  one  of  the  earliest  settled  provinces 
of  Sweden.  At  the  end  of  the  heathen  age  we  find 
the  West  Goths  disputing  supremacy  with  the  upper 
Swedes  (Upp-Svear),  but  soon  becoming  the  more 
powerful  from  their  adoption  of  Christianity.  The 
ascertained  popidousness  of  their  territory  in  the 
succeeding  period,  makes  it  probable  that  its  occu- 
pation could  not  be  recent,  although  in  old  times 
broad  woodlands,  hard  to  pass  through,  are  said  to 
have  existed,  and  the  forest  region  of  West  Goth- 
land, still  considerable,  was  much  more  extensive 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  embracing  districts  where 
we  now  see  the  high  level,  the  heath,  or  the 
ploughed  field. 

East-Gothland,  during  the  heathen  times,  lies 
more  dark,  and  in  Scandinavia  generally,  during 
this  period,  the  shadows  deepen  towards  the  east. 
The  neighbourhood  of  the  Western  Sea  supplied 
the  means  of  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  the  world, 
at  least  that  part  of  it  upon  which,  in  the  north, 
historical  light  most  falls.  On  the  inner  side,  by 
the  Baltic,  reigned  obscurity;  beyond  it  thick  gloom. 
Thus  we  know  less  of  East  than  of  West  Gothland  in 
old  times,  and  even  if  the  saga  lays  here  the  scene 
of  any  imj)ortant  event,  it  is  silent  on  the  condition 

1  See  the  Account  of  the  journey  made  by  the  West  Goth 
Audgils,  in  company  with  Hallfred  Wandrada  Scald,  in  997, 
from  Konghall  to  the  interior  of  West  Gothland,  in  Olof 
Tryggwason's  Saga,  Skalholt  edition,  part  2,  c.  31 ;  and  from 
this  source,  in  Torfasus,  Hist.  Norv.  ii.  476. 

2  Such  a  safety-lodge,  roomy  enough  to  alford  quarters 
for  the  night  to  twelve  travellers  with  their  wares,  is  men- 
tioned as  existing  on  the  way  between  Trondhem  and  Jemt- 
land.  Heimsk.  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  151.  It  was  regarded 
as  a  duty  of  succour,  obligatory  on  the  traveller,  to  leave  be- 
hind him  at  least  split  wood,  in  order  that  those  who  came 
next  might  be  able  to  warm  and  dry  themselves  without 
delay.     Olof  Tr)'ggwason's  Saga,  1.  c. 

3  The  eastern  boundary  towards  Smaland,  when  the  latter 
formed  a  province  in  itself,  went  '  to  the  middle  of  Holawed.' 
Uplands  Lagen  (Law  of  Upland),  Kon.  B.  ii.  Holveden 
means  the  hilly  wood,  from  the  old  word  hoi,  hill,  which  the 
Dalecarlians  still  use  in  this  sense. 

^  Kolmirkr,  Myrkwidr,  the  black  or  mirk  wood.  See  the 
Fragment  on  the  Fight  of  Urawalla,  s.  120.  The  name  now 
used  is  Kolmarden,  which  is  found  in  the  law-book  of  West 
Gothland. 

■>  Rimbegla,  p.  332.     A  rast  is  a  length  of  road  equal  to 


of  the  country.    The  oldest  East-Gotliic  settlements 
were  perhaps  in  the  midmost  tract,  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  in  Sweden.    East-Gothland's  southern  forest 
district  stretched  formerly  much  higher  up  from 
the  hilly  territory  of  Smaland.     It  was  a  solitude 
difficult  of  access  ;  for  no  stranger  ventured  beyond 
the  forest  of  Holawed  ^.      Its  northern  woody  and 
hilly  district  above  the  Motala  stream  was  long  a 
wilderness,  as  both  the  nature  of  the  country,  and 
the  scantiness  of  ancient  remains  plainly  indicate. 
Here  lay  the  great   Kolmorker  forest  *,  now  the 
Kolmard,  which,  continued  by  that  of  Tiwed,  and 
stretching  westwards  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Vener, 
increased  in  breadth  and  difficulty  in  the  interior  of 
the  country.    So  late  as  the  year  1177,  ki"g  Suerre, 
journeying  from  East-Gothland  to  Vermeland,  wan- 
dered in  its  wide  and  unknown  wilds  for  six  or  seven 
days,  without  finding  a  refuge  against  hunger  and 
cold.     Still  later,  the  Tiwed  is  said  to  be  '  twelve 
rasts  broad  ^.'     On  the  East-Gothland  side,  nearer 
the  Vetter  lake,  the  wood  was  for  a  long  time  so 
difficult  to  pass,  and  like  all  the  frontier  forests  so 
notorious  for  robbers,  that  in  the  Christian  age 
travellers  who  wished  to  pass  into  Nerike,  used  to 
commend  their  souls  to  God,  in  the  chapel  which 
formerly  stood  at  Husby  Fell  ^.      Hence  in  former 
times  the  great  forest  was  ordinarily  traversed  by 
its  eastern  border  on  the  coast,  where  the  road  from 
Norrkoeping  to  Stockholm  now  rims.     Here  where 
from  a  rising  of  the  Kolmard  the  noblest  prospect 
over  the  fertile  and  well-watered  plains  and  woods 
of  East-Gothland  opens  to  the  view  of  the  traveller 
from  the  north,  Sigurd  Ring,  in  the  eighth  century, 
descended  with  his  army  to  contest  with  Harald 
Hildetand  the  field  of  Bravalla,  formerly  the  most 
renowned  of  northern  battles.    Here,  in  the  eleventh 
century,  was  the  usual  passage,  by  a  long  circuit, 
from  West-Gothland  to  Upper  Sweden.    Travellers 
went  from  Scania  upwards,  not  through  East-Goth- 
land, where  the  hilly  region  of  Smaland  presented 
the  greatest  difficulties,  but  through  West-Gothland 
to  .Skara,  a  distance  which  was  traversed  in  a  week. 
For  the  journey  thence  to  Sigtuna  by  Telje,  three 
weeks  more  were  required,  so  that  the  whole  occu- 
pied a  month  '.    As,  according  to  the  accounts,  such 
a  journey  was  performed  partly  in  boats,  and  great 
wastes  which  intervened  had  to  be  crossed *,  the 
route  probably  lay  on  the  side  of  West-Gothland 

what  a  man  usually  travels  without  resting,  and  answers 
to  what  the  peasants  understand  by  the  old  wood  mile 
(skogsmil),  about  half  a  Swedish  mile  (three  English  miles). 
*6  Broocman,  Beskrifning  bfwer  Ostergotland,  p.  176.  The 
intrenchment  to  be  seen  on  a  hill  in  the  parish  of  Hamraar, 
Nerike,  as  old  persons  relate,  was  erected  as  a  defence  against 
the  attacks  of  the  East  Goths.     (Palmskbld  Collections.) 

7  A  qua  (Sconia)  ferunt  diebus  septem  perveniri  usque 
ad  civitatem  Gothorum  magnam  Scarane.  Ad  Brem.  1.  c.  60. 
Si  per  terram  eas  a  Sconia  per  Gothorum  populos  et  civitatem 
Scaranen,  Telgas,  et  Birkam,  completo  mense  pervenies 
Sictonam.    Ibid.  62. 

8  So  is  described  the  journey  of  Ansgar  and  his  compa- 
nions, who  after  their  shipwreck  were  probably  obliged  to 
take  this  long  way  by  land.  Cum  gravi  difficultate  pedibus 
per  longissimam  viam  incedentes,  et,  ubi  ingruebat,  inter- 
jacentia  maria  navigio  transeuntes,  tandem  ad  portnm  regni 
ipsorum  qui  Byrca  dicitur  jjervenerunt.  Vita  S.  Ansg.arii, 
c.  10.  The  Lagman  Edmund  also,  in  the  time  of  Olave  the 
lap-king,  takes  his  way  from  Skara  to  Upper  Sweden  and 
Upsala  through  East  Gothland.  Heimsk.  Saga  of  St.  Olave, 
c.  96. 


Gothland. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  SETTLEMENT,  AND  CULTURE. 


Swedeland. 


19 


across  lake  Vener,  then  along  the  stream  of  the 
Motala  to  Brawick,  and  thence  over  the  Kolmard. 

We  now  stand  on  the  boundary  between  Sweden 
Proper  and  Gothland  (Svea  and  Gotaland),  a  divi- 
sion which  is  as  old  as  our  history.  The  Kolmard 
and  the  Tiwed  still  separate  them,  and  from  this 
circumstance  in  former  days,  the  kingdom  was 
divided  into  the  land  north  and  south  of  the  forest  ^. 
Although  the  great  woodland  formed  the  border, 
the  old  line  of  demarcation,  perhaps  from  that  very 
reason,  differed  as  much  from  the  modern,  as  the 
cultivation  of  early  from  that  of  later  times.  The 
day  has  been  when  the  great  forests  of  Tiwed  and 
Kaglau  nearly  met ',  when  Nerike  depressed  be- 
tween hill-peaks  connected  them,  and  the  whole 
extent  of  its  low  lying,  rich  grassy  meadows  con- 
sisted of  moor  and  moss  ^  ;  when  Sudermania, 
varied  with  so  manifold  beauty  of  bay,  lake,  hill 
and  dale,  was  little  else  than  a  group  of  islets,  the 
chief  seat  of  the  sea-kings*  of  Upper  Sweden,  and  a 
border  land  in  the  occupation  of  both  Swedes  and 
Goths;  and  it  is  perhaps  on  this  account  that 
the  oldest  historian  of  Christianity  in  the  north  *, 
reckons  it  as  belonging  to  East-Gothland,  thus  ex- 
tending Gothland  to  Lake  Maelar.  As  a  people 
anciently  of  several  different  stocks,  congregated  in  a 
border-land  on  the  sea,  the  Sudermanians  show  few- 
est provincial  peculiarities.  Yet  the  settlement  of 
their  country  is  old,  as  is  evinced  by  the  abundance  of 
laemorials  remaining  from  the  times  of  heathenism. 

Nerike  '"  is  of  more  recent  occupancy  ;  yet  it  was 
probably  settled  by  Braut  Anund,  and  is  perhaps 
the  scene  of  the  death  of  the  greatest  king  of  the 
Yngliug  line  ^.  Through  Nerike,  by  lake  Hielmar, 
and  the  place  where  Oerebro,  formerly  Oeresund  ', 
now  lies,  Sigurd  Ring  marched  over  the  Kolmard 
to  the  fight  of  Bra  valla. 

On  the  west,  Suithiod  Proper  was  encompassed 
by  old  Gothland,  which  sti-etched  along  the  border 
of  the  former  in  indefinite  extension  towards  the 

9  Sweden  Proper  was  called  the  land  north,  Gothland  that 
south  of  the  forest.  Nordanskog,  Sunnanskog.  Landslagen 
(the  land's  law),  of  1442.     K.  B.  c.  1. 

'  There  is  an  old  saying  that  the  Tiwed  once  filled  up  the 
distance  of  ten  miles  between  Mokyrka,  south  of  Mariestad, 
and  Mosas,  near  Orebro.  Lindskog,  Beskrifning  om  Skara 
Stift  (Description  of  the  Diocese  of  Skara),  iv.  67.  On  the 
East-Gothland  side  also  a  similar  tradition  is  current,  that 
for  a  long  time  there  was  no  church  between  Ask,  south  of 
Motala,  and  Mosas  in  Nerike.  (Broocman,  Description  of 
East-Gothland,  681.)  The  forest  filled  up  the  interval.  The 
traditions  confirm  each  other. 

2  A  district  of  this  character,  still  too  marshy  for  cultiva- 
tion, traverses  great  part  of  the  province. 

3  Before  Olave  Haraldson  entered  Lake  Malar  with  his 
ships,  he  had  to  fight  with  the  Vikings  of  Sijdermanland.  At 
Sotaskar  (Sola  Rock),  he  overcame  the  Viking  Chief  Sote. 
Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c-  5.  The  name  is  still  extant  in  the 
Hundred  of  Sotholm.  Wingaker  in  Sbdermanland  was  for- 
merly called  Wikingakir  ;  the  old  district  of  Wingaker  em- 
braced both  the  parishes  of  that  name  with  Osteraker  and 
Malm.  This  district,  which  is  even  now  so  well  watered, 
still  communicates  with  the  sea  by  Nykoeping  river,  which 
carries  off  the  vale-streams  of  the  great  lakes  Yngarn,  Lang- 
hals  n,  and  Bafwen.  These,  with  branches  running  deep 
into  the  country,  form  one  of  the  great  systems  of  water 
communication  in  Sweden. 

■*  Adam  of  Bremen.  He  derived  much  of  his  materials 
from  the  relations  of  the  Danish  King  Sueno  Ulfson  (mag- 
nam  materiam  hujus  libelli  ex  ejus  ore  coUegi.  Hist.  Ecc. 
p.  48),  who  passed  several  years  of  his  youth  in  military 
service  in  Sweden.     lb.  31. 


north.  Verheland,  where  Olave  the  Treefeller 
(Tratalja)  when  the  hate  of  the  Swedes  had 
driven  him  from  his  refuge  in  Nerike,  fii'st  laid  the 
a.xe  to  the  root  of  the  primitive  forest,  was  held 
both  in  old  and  modern  times,  to  belong  to  Goth- 
land in  the  wider  sense,  in  so  far  as  it  was  taken  into 
account  at  all.  For  Vernieland  was  a  debateable 
territory  between  the  Swedes  and  Norwegians  *, 
subject  to  both  kingdoms  alternately,  which 
proves  that  the  settlers  of  Olave  confined  them- 
selves to  the  western  part  of  Vermeland,  bordering 
on  Norway.  The  first  occupiers  kept  close  to  the 
streams  which  took  their  course  to  lake  Vener, 
through  the  wide-extended  valleys  of  the  country, 
and  soon  arrived  at  well-being  s.  Between  the 
dales  were  forests  and  mountains  ;  the  whole  of 
eastern  Vei'meland  was  a  wilderness.  The  settled 
districts  were  separated  from  Norway  by  the  waste 
wood  1,  in  the  recesses  of  which  robbers  lurked  in 
ambush  for  those  who  undertook  the  dangerous 
office  of  carrying  the  tributes  of  Vermeland  to  the 
king  of  Norway  ^.  Towards  Gothland,  forests 
alone  formed  the  frontier  on  the  eastern  as  well  as 
the  western  side  of  the  Vener.  This  great  lake,  on 
whose  banks  rose  the  holds  of  the  sea-kings,  its 
proximity  to  the  coast  of  Wiken,  and  to  Norway, 
with  the  border  conflicts  and  adventures  which  its 
shores  often  witnessed,  allured  the  eye  of  old 
poetry  betimes  to  this  region  ;  and  the  waves  of 
the  Vener,  its  ice-fields,  as  its  i-slands,  were  the 
scenes  of  many  a  combat  whose  memory  the  sagas 
have  sung.  Above  Vermeland,  in  the  eleventh 
century,  Skridfinns  or  Finn-Lapps  still  wandered 
in  the  wilderness*  ;  for  the  name  of  Dalecarlia 
was  not  yet  known. 

We  now  ascend  to  old  Swedeland,  which  has 
given  its  name  to  the  monarchy  of  Sweden 
(Sverike),  formed  in  the  age  of  Paganism  by  the 
junction  of  Swedeland  and   Gothland  ■*.      Swede- 

'  Explained  as  Nederrike,  the  nether  realm.     T. 

6  It  is  related  in  the  Ynglingasaga,  c.  ,39,  that  King  Braut 
Anund  with  his  train,  visiting  his  manors  in  time  of  harvest, 
was  killed  by  a  land-slip  between  two  precipices,  at  the  place 
called  Himmelshed  (Himminlieidur,  heaven's  heath).  An 
old  Swedish  catalogue  of  kings  stales  that  Brattoniund  was 
slain  by  his  brother  Sigward  at  a  place  called  Himmelshed 
in  Nerike  (in  Nericia — loci  vocabulum  interpretatur  ca-li 
campus.  Cat.  Reg.  ii.  Script.  Rer.  Suec.  s.  i.);  and  the  Lesser 
Rhyme-Chronicle  gives  the  same  account,  but  calls  the  i)lace 
HJigahed.  So  the  great  ridge  in  Nerike  is  named,  which 
commences  at  Tarsta  in  the  parish  of  Skyllersta,  and  goes 
through  the  parish  of  Swennevad.  The  wood  is  called 
Brtiten  (from  irrt/((,  way).  Braut  Anund  is  said  to  have  been 
buried  near  the  high  stone  half  a  mile  south  of  Swennevad 
on  the  road. 

7  The  place  was  also  formerly  called  Eyrarsund  and  Eyrar- 
sundsbro.  Hence,  it  is  plain  which  Oresund  is  meant  in  the 
description  of  the  march  of  Sigurd  Ring,  in  the  fragment  of 
the  saga  on  the  battle.  Compare  Svea  Rikes  Hafder,  1. 
539. 

8  Inter  Normanniam  et  Svioniam  Vermelani.  Ad.  Brem. 
I.  c.  61. 

9  Ynglingasaga,  c.  46.  (Among  these  streams  is  the  Verm, 
whence  the  name  of  the  territory.     T.) 

'  Eida  Skog.  The  name  still  remains  in  the  parish  of 
Eda  in  Vermeland,  and  Eidskong  in  Norway,  through  which 
the  road  into  that  country  has  long  passed. 

2  See  the  minute  account  of  such  a  journey  from  Verme- 
land, about  944,  in  Eigils  saga  c.  74.  54.3.  Saxo  relates 
another,  1.  vii.  140. 

3  Ad.  Brem.  de  situ  Dan.  Gl. 

■<  Land's  Law  of  king  Christopher,  K.  B.  c.  1.     Sverike, 
02 


20 


Describcii  bv 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Alfred  and  Snorro. 


land,  Suithiod,  (in  the  Latin  of  the  middle  ages 
Svedia,  Suecia,  Sueonia,)  has  therefore  a  double 
import,  and  was  from  an  early  period  applied, 
sometimes  only  to  Upper  Sweden  as  distinguished 
from  Gothland,  Gauthiod,  Gothia,  sometimes  to 
the  whole  realm  of  Swkden  ^.  In  the  latter  ac- 
ceptation, which  is  undoubtedly  derived  from  the 
former,  Gothland  is  included,  and  with  it  Blekiug. 
In  the  ninth  century,  king  Alfred  says,  the  Swedes 
(Sveon)  had  on  the  south  the  Baltic,  on  the  east 
(across)  the  Sarmatians,  to  the  north  beyond 
the  desert,  Quenland,  north-westward  the  Skrid- 
finns,  and  westwards  the  Norsemen.  The  country 
of  the  latter  was  long  and  narrow,  broadest  in  the 
south  and  east,  decreasing  in  width  towards  the 
north  ;  it  was  mountainous,  all  that  could  be  used 
for  cultivation  and  pasture  lay  upon  the  sea  ;  to 
1  the  east,  in  equal  extension  with  the  cultivated 
land,  lay  rocky  mountainous  wastes  of  varying 
breadth  ^,  so  that  for  crossing  them,  in  some  places 
two  weeks,  in  others  six  days,  were  required.  In 
this  wilderness  dwelt  the  Finns.  Beyond  the 
mountains  and  the  wilderness  which  was  parallel 
with  Southern  Norway,  lay  Sweden  (Svealand) 
stretching  to  the  north  as  far  as  Quenland  '.  The 
eleventh  century  gives  us  the  following  picture ; 
'  To  those  who  have  passed  by  the  Danish  islands 
(so  the  historian  of  Christianity  in  the  north  ex- 
presses himself),  another  world  opens  itself  in 
Sueonia  and  Normannia,  the  two  most  extensive 
kingdoms  of  the  north,  almost  unknown  to  our 
part  of  the  world.  Respecting  these  the  Christian- 
minded  king  of  the  Danes  ^  has  related  to  me,  that 
Norway  may  with  great  labour  be  traversed  in  one 
month,  but  Sweden  hardly  in  two  ;  which  he,  as  he 
said,  had  himself  foimd,  during  twelve  yeai's  war- 
fare in  these  lands  under  the  Swedish  king  Anund 
Jacob.  Both  countries  are  encompassed  by  very 
high  mountains,  especially  the  land  of  the  Norse- 
men, which  surrounds  with  its  Alps  that  of  the 
Swedes.  There  are  many  populations  in  Sweden  ; 
they  are  remarkable  for  strength  and  skill  in  arms, 
and  are  reckoned  among  the  stoutest  warriors  both 
by  sea  and  land ;  hence  they  appear  able  with 
their  power  to  break  all  the  rest  of  the  north.  Of 
the  people  of  Sweden,  the  West  Goths  are  next  to 
us,  whose  land  borders  on  Scania  ;  the  East  Goths 
are  other.  The  Goths  stretch  their  bordei-s  as 
far  as  Birca  ;  then  (from  Lake  Malar  upwards) 
the  Sveons  over  a  vast  extent  of  country  to  the 
land  of  the  Quens ".'      A  hundred  and  fifty  years 

as  it  was  still  written  in  the  sixteenth  century  (for  example 
in  the  chronicle  of  Olave  Peterson),  is  contracted  from  Svea 
Rike.  Instead  of  Sverike,  the  softer  pronunciations  Sverige, 
Sverge,  became  usual.  (Note,  that  hence  is  taken  the  old 
Scottish  name  of  Sweden  : 

Swadrik,  Denmark,  and  Norraway, 

Nor  in  the  Steiddis  (States)  I  dar  nocht  ga. 

Dunbar,  Bannatyne  Poems,  p.  176.     Trans.) 

5  Sueonum  et  Gothorum  populi,  in  Adam  of  Bremen. 
Gauthiod  is  the  Gautigoth  of  the  Gothic  historian  Jordanes, 
acre  hominum  genus  et  ad  bella  fortissimum. 

6  In  the  original,  vilde  moras,  wild  morasses.  But  mor  in 
Anglo-Saxon  means  forest  as  well  as  morass  and  mountain, 
or  wilderness  generally. 

7  Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten. 

8  King  Sueno  Ulfson,  before-mentioned.  His  father,  earl 
Ulf,  was  a  Swede  by  birth  (Saxo,  1.  x.  p.  103),  and  brother-in- 
law  of  king  Canute  in  Denmark.  When  the  latter,  after  the 
fight  of  Helgea,  caused  earl  Ulf  to  be  assassinated,  the  .son 


later,  Snorro  writes  in  reference  to  the  establish- 
ment of  Christianity  in  Sweden  ;  '  The  Swedish 
dominion  (Svia-welldi)  has  many  divisions.  One 
is  West-Gothland,  with  Vermeland  and  the  Marks, 
and  what  lies  near,  and  this  realm  is  so  large,  that 
under  the  bishop  who  is  set  over  it  there  are 
eleven  hundred  churches  *.  Another  landlot  is  East 
Gothland,  which  is  also  a  bishopric ;  to  this  now 
belong  Gottland  and  Oeland,  and  all  these  together 
make  a  still  larger  bishopric.  In  Suithiod  Proper 
is  a  landlot,  which  is  called  Sodermanland  ;  this 
is  a  bishopric.  Next,  that  which  is  called  West- 
mannaland  or  Fiadhrundaland  is  a  bishopric. 
Tiundaland  makes  the  third  division  of  Suithiod 
Proper,  the  fourth  is  called  Attundaland,  the  fifth 
Sioland  (Sealand)  and  what  is  adjacent  thereto,  all 
eastwards  to  the  sea.  Tiundaland  is  the  principal 
and  best  cultivated  part  of  Suithiod.  To  this  the 
whole  kingdom  is  subjected  ;  there  is  Upsala,  there 
the  king's  seat  and  that  of  the  archbishop,  and 
hence  the  name  Upsala  Ode.  For  so  the  Swedes 
call  the  estate  of  the  Swedish  kings  ;  they  name  it 
Upsala  Ode.'  Comparing  these  descriptions,  the 
first  shows  the  name  of  Sweden  extending  generally 
to  the  whole  kingdom  ;  the  second  uses  it  likewise 
in  the  narrower  sense,  for  the  regions  above  the 
Malar  Lake,  according  to  the  third  it  embraces  the 
districts  around  the  Malar. 

But  however  ancient  that  name  may  be  in  the 
first-mentioned  larger  application,  it  must  have  been 
yet  more  so  in  the  narrower ;  and  the  accounts 
remaining  leave  us  at  no  loss  where  to  seek  for  the 
oldest  Suithiod.  In  the  land  upon  the  M  JiLAR,  but 
above  that  lake,  the  first  Swedish  kingdom  was 
founded,  whose  leaders  traced  their  progenitors  to 
the  gods.  Here  Odin  erected  his  court,  and  first 
sacrificed  after  the  manner  of  the  Asae,  where 
the  place  now  called  old  Sigtiina  lies,  says  the 
Ynglingasaga  (one  of  more  modern  date  therefore 
existed  when  it  was  written)  ;  and  he  took  posses- 
sion of  the  land  round  about,  yet  not  very  far,  oniy 
so  that  the  land  itself,  as  well  as  the  temple,  was 
named  Sigtuna  2.  Here  was  the  oldest  "  property 
of  the  kings  of  Sweden,"  as  the  Upsala  estate  was 
called  after  Frey,  the  dispenser  of  fertility,  re- 
moved the  place  of  sacrifice  to  Upsala.  Under  his 
sceptre  the  peace  of  Frey  and  plenteous  years 
prevailed  in  all  lands,  so  that  in  his  days  the  coun- 
try people  were  richer  than  before  through  the 
seasons  and  the  peace ;  hence  the  Swedes  also 
worshipped  Frey  as  the  god  of  harvests,  and  paid 

fled  to  king  Anund  Jacob  in  Sweden  in  1031.  Saga  of  St. 
Olave,  c.  163.     Saga  of  Magnus  the  good,  c.  23. 

3  Supra  eam(Sconiam)  tenso  limite  Gothi  habitant  usque 
ad  Bircam,  postea  longis  terrarum  spatiis  regnant  Sueones 
usque  ad  terram  foerainarum.  Ad.  Brera.  That  the  terra 
fa-minarum  which  suggested  to  this  author  the  fable  of  the 
Amazons,  arose  from  a  misapprehension  (quinnornas  land, 
the  country  of  women,  instead  of  Quenernas  land),  we  have 
elsewhere  shown.     Svea  Rikes  Hafder  1.  422. 

1  An  amount  demonstrably  too  great.  According  to  the 
West-Gothic  Law,  the  number  of  the  churches  in  the  diocese 
of  Skara,  which  included  also  Vermeland  and  Dalsland,  was 
592.  Smaland  and  Nerike  are  not  named.  The  Ynglinga- 
saga (c.  4C)  does  not  reckon  the  inhabitants  of  the  latter 
among  the  Swedes.  One  of  the  editors  of  our  old  laws  sug- 
gests to  me  that  this  statement  has  crept  in  from  a  clerical 
error,  xi.  instead  of  vi.  Yet  the  Rimbegla  has  the  same 
number. 

-  Ynglingasaga,  c.  5.  , 


Folklands. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  SETTLEMENT,  AND  CULTURE. 


Upland. 


21 


him  higher  revei-ence  than  the  otliei"  deities. 
From  this  point  cultivation  was  extended  over 
regions  wliich  formerly  lay  waste,  and  from  the 
oldest  Suithiod,  also  called  Manhem,  arose  the 
Folklands  (Folklanden)^,  the  domicile  of  the 
Swedes  properly  so  called.  Afterwards,  when 
their  name  and  power  was  more  widely  spread, 
these  possessed  the  right  of  giving  a  king  to  the 
whole  realm,  and  when  this  privilege  was  invaded 
by  the  claims  of  the  other  provinces,  they  still  con- 
tinued to  give  the  first  vote  in  the  election  of  a 
king,  whensoever  a  Swedish  elective  diet  was  con- 
voked, up  to  the  days  of  Gustavus  Vasa.  The 
Folklands,  which  for  so  many  centuries  preserved 
this  relic  of  the  prerogative  of  the  old  Sweons, 
compi'eliended  Tiunda,  Attimda,  Fierdhundra,  and 
in  general  what  was  anciently  called  Upland,  which 
however,  in  the  wider  sense,  denoted  all  the  settled 
region  above  Lake  Malar,  at  the  time  when  even 
Westmanland  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  Folk- 
lands*.  The  inhabitants  were  called  Upper 
Swedes  (Upp-Svear)  in  the  heathen  period  ;  a 
proof  that  they  were  not  the  only  Swedes,  but  that 
others  were  already  settled  beneath  them,  that  part 
namely  of  the  population  of  Sudermania  and 
Nerike,  whose  Swedish  forefathers  had  passed  the 
forests  of  Kaglan  and  the  Malar.  The  Folklands 
were  the  chief  seat  of  the  Swedes,  as  the  Gothlands 
were  of  the  cognate  race.  Between  both,  Suder- 
mania and  Nerike  were  border  tracts,  which  re- 
ceived their  inhabitants  from  both  sides,  the  former 
perhaps,  through  its  sea-kings,  from  many  different 
quarters.  They  were  called  Gothic  or  Swedish  as 
the  points  of  view  differed,  but  were  at  length  con- 
sidered as  belonging  definitively  to  Swedeland. 
They  were  nover  included  among  the  Folklands, 
from  the  list  of  which  Westmanland  also  dis- 
appeared, when  by  the  extension  of  cultivation  it 
was  parted  from  Fierdhundra,  and  formed  a  pro- 
vince in  itself. 

Legends  of  horrors  in  the  night  of  paganism  are 
blended  with  these  earliest  accounts  of  the  occu- 
pation of  old  Suithiod.  The  same  Frey  who  reaped 
perhaps  the  first  harvests  of  the  land,  is  said  to 
have  also  introduced  human  sacrifices.  Of  the  old 
king  Ane  it  is  related,  that  to  protract  a  life  which 
had  already  lasted  its  full  space,  he  sacrificed  nine 
of  his  sons,  one  after  another,  to  Odin.  According 
to  their  numerical  succession  he  is  said  to  have 
named  the  Hundreds  of  his  kingdom,  and  Tiunda- 
land  received  its  name,  because  the  tenth  son, 
whom  the  people  rescued,  had  been  destined  for 
the  same  fate.  We  find,  however,  that  afterwards 
in    the  Christian   age,  Tiundaland   contained   ten 

3  The  term  Folkland  first  appears  in  the  law  book  of  Up- 
land, K.  B.  1.  But  the  three  shires  which  made  the  Folk- 
lands  are  already  named  in  the  Ynglingasaga.  The  district 
of  DroHtheim  in  Norway  was  also  divided  into  Fylkes  called 
Folklands;  both  words  indeed  mean  the  same.  (Olof  Try- 
gywason's  saga,  ed.  Skalh). 

••  Hence,  the  law  book  of  Westmanland  speaks  of  the  ting 
or  court  of  the  Folklands,  Manhelgs,  B.  civ.,  and  of  a  survey 
of  the  Folklands,  B.  B.  L.  li. 

5  In  the  Registrum  Upsaliensej  a  collection  of  deeds 
formerly  belonging  to  the  cathedral  of  Upsala,  made  in  the 
year  1344  by  command  of  archbishop  Hemming  and 'the 
chapter  of  Upsala,  up  to  the  present  time  only  partially 
printed. 

^  It  holds  this  place  in  the  Registrum  Upsaliense. 

'  From  ar,  year,  in  the  meaning  of  aring,  year's  growth, 


hundreds  (hundari),  Attunda  eight,  Fierdhundra 
at  first  probably  four ;  and  here  doubtless  we  dis- 
cover the   true  origin   of  the  names,  which  thus 
appears  to  be  of  earlier  date  than  the  introduction 
of  Christianity.      The  division  into    Hundreds,  or 
Harads,  arose  out  of  the  oldest  structure  of  society 
among  our  forefathers.    Tiunda,  as  well  as  Attunda 
and  Fierdhundra,  are  already  mentioned  under  the 
Yngling  line.    The  divisions  of  former  days  are  not 
in  all  cases  the  same  with  those  of  later  ;  but  the 
Hundreds  composing  the  three  old  Folklands  may 
still  be   ascertained,   if  we  compare   the  detailed 
statements  we  possess  respecting  them,  from  the 
earlier  half  of  the  fourteenth  century  ^  with  the 
nature  of  the  country  and  with  earUer  accounts. 
The  earliest  settlement  in  Upland  was  made  where 
Odin  founded  that  Sigtuna  which  the  Chronicles  of 
the  Kings  call  the  former  ;  whence  the  neighbouring 
district  was  called  at  first  Sigtuna,  afterwards  Habo 
Hundred,  anciently  the  first  in  Tiundaland  ^,  and 
defined    by  natural    boundaries,  being    even    now 
almost  wholly  an  island  surrounded  by  the  Malar 
lake.      Beyond  the  narrow  bay  of  the  Malar  called 
Skarfwen,  which  already  receives  this  name  in  the 
old  sagas,  and  on  which  Sigtuna  rose,  the  oldest 
cultivation  of  Upland  stretched  south  and  north, 
from  Arland  to  Oland  ',  originally  terms  denoting 
arable  land  and  wilderness.    Out  of  the  first,  in  the 
confined  acceptation,  was  formed  the  hundred  of 
Arland  *,  now  Erlinghundra,  which  was  reckoned 
as  belonging  to  Attundaland.     The  latter,  still  the 
extensive  hundred  of  Oland,  was  formerly  called 
Olanda-mor,  or  the  untilled  wood,  and  extended 
north  to  the  sea^.     Its  middle  and  northern  part 
contained  the  mining  district  (bergslag)  of  Upland, 
still  thickly  wooded,  in  which  cultivation,  thus  pro- 
duced, was  of  late  origin  ;   its  southern  part  was 
cleared  so  early,  that  a  saying  of  the  country  makes 
the  boundary  of  Tiundaland  go  on  tlie  one  side 
through  the  present  parishes  of  Skefthamraar  and 
Vendel,  and  mentions  Oresundsbro  and   Staket  as 
border  points  on  the  other  side.    We  attach  weight 
to  this  tradition,  as  agreeing  with  lines  of  division 
fixed  by  nature  herself.     This  northern  boundary 
still  forms  the  general  line  of  demarcation  between 
the  chief  agricultural  district  of  Upland  and  its 
hilly  woodlands,  and  is  at  the  same  time  the  ridge 
which  separates  the  waters  flowing  to  lake  Malar 
on  the  south,  from  these  which  run  to  the  Baltic  on 
the  north  ;  the  southern  border-points,  on  the  other 
hand,  rest  upon  lake  Malar.     Between  these  boun- 
daries lay  old  Tiundaland,  and  its  ten  Hundreds  can 
still  be  pointed  out  within  these  hmits,  although 
those  of  the  north  were  not  then  so  extensive  as 

whence  arja  to  plough ;  found  often  in  similar  compounds, 
as  for  example,  ar-bot,  ar-madr,  &c.  Oland  ( lit.  un-Iand)  is 
the  opposite  of  Arland,  and  the  meaning  is  still  preserved 
in  the  adjective  oliindig,  incapable  of  tillage.  The  country 
people  use  both  liindig  and  oliindig  to  mark  the  quality  of 
the  soil. 

8  In  the  Register  of  Upsala,  both  Arland,  and  the  Hun- 
dred of  the  Arlennings,  or  Arlanders. 

9  Olanda-mor,  in  the  Register  of  Upsala,  properly  answers 
to  the  parish  of  Morkarla  in  the  Hundred  of  Oland.  The 
forest  went  through  Uanemora  and  Tegelsmora,  as  the 
names,  and  through  Lofsta  and  Hallnas,  as  the  situations 
evidence.  71/or,  in  old  Swedish,  is  a  forest.  The  Morakarl 
(inhabitant  of  the  parish  of  Mora  in  Dalecarlia)  still  says 
'  ga  till  moren',  to  go  to  the  wood,  where  the  eattle-staUs 
stand. 


22 


Westmanland, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Lake  Ma;lar. 


they  afterwards  became '.  Above  the  northern  fron- 
tier, tlie  productive  territory  of  Ui>laiul  stretched, 
not  iu  a  due  northerly  direction,  wliere  the  present 
mining  district  appears  for  a  long  time  to  have 
been  almost  wholly  untilled,  but  sideways  to  the 
westward,  along  the  stream  which  runs  from  lake 
Temnar  to  the  sea.  Here,  in  the  heart  of  the 
forest,  a  settlement  was  formed,  within  the  heathen 
age,  at  Tierp,  following,  as  old  remains  prove,  the 
course  of  the  water  with  scattered  habitations. 
Here  must  be  placed  the  connnon-wood  (Almiin- 
nings-skog),  which  separated  Tiuudaland  from 
Gestrieland.  In  this  manner  the  coast  too  was 
gradually  occupied.  A  roaming  life,  the  parsimony 
of  nature,  and  the  piracy  of  the  Finlanders,  long 
made  it  impossible  for  the  inhabitants  to  submit  to 
the  regulations  of  civic  order  and  fixed  partition. 
The  eight  districts  of  Attundaland  reached  in  the 
eleventh  century  to  the  sea  ;  that  of  Sea  Hundred 
(SEehuiidari)  indicates  the  Sealand  of  which  Snorro 
makes  mention.  Yet  to  this  name,  more  general  as 
used  by  him,  a  definite  meaning  attaches  only  in  so 
far  as  it  marks  a  portion  of  old  Suithiod  distinct 
from  the  Folklands.  Lying  eastwards  on  the  sea, 
as  his  words  imply,  it  is  Suithiod's  coast  territory, 
Roden,  a  name  remaining  in  Roslagen,  as  its  im- 
port is  preserved  in  the  still  subsisting  division  of 
this  tract  into  ship- cantonments  ^.  The  islets  south 
of  lake  Malar  appear  to  have  been  formerly  in- 
cluded under  it ;  Toren,  now  Sodei'torn,  mentioned 
in  the  Ynglingasaga,  and  by  the  scald  Thiodolf  ^, 
was  in  later  times  still  reckoned  part  of  the  juris- 
diction (lagsaga)  of  Upland.  The  four  Hundreds  of 
Fierdhundraland  are  undoubtedly  the  three  lying 
between  Orsundsbro  and  the  Saga  stream,  with 
Thorsaker  in  the  west.  With  the  advance  of  culti- 
vation, the  limits  of  this  shire  extended  ;  after  three 
other  Hundreds  had  been  added  to  the  four  oldest, 
it  appears  to  have  been  once  called  Seven  Hundred- 
land  *,  and  embraced  old  Westmanland  as  far  as 
Westeras^.  Beyond,  to  the  end  of  lake  Malar 
and  the  forest  of  Kiiglan,  all  that  part  of  West- 
manland which  was  cleared  and  brought  into  culti- 
vation was  called  and  foi'med  Two  Hundreds'*. 
What  is  here  said  of  the  course  and  extent  of  culti- 
vation in  old  Westmanland,  is  confirmed  by  me- 
morials remaining  from  the  heathen  age.  Tracts 
of  ancient  occupancy  iu  Sweden  are  every  where 
marked  by  the  barrows  which  indicate  the  graves 
of  those  who  once  tilled  the  soil.  These,  common 
in  the  Folklands,  are  also  numerous  in  Westman- 

'  They  are  enumerated  in  the  Register  of  Upsala,  with 
two  others,  afterwards  added. 

2  These  are  of  old  standing,  for  some  are  mentioned  in  the 
Register  of  Upsala,  and  in  a  diploma  of  1280.  Rodslag  and 
Skeppslag  have  the  same  meaning,  for  the  Chancellor  Axel 
Oxenstiern,  in  a  protocol  of  the  Council,  of  the  year  1640, 
says,  '  Rodslagen  was  so  called,  because  rookarlar  (Oarmen) 
or  mariners  dwelt  upon  the  coast ;  for  our  forefathers  were 
wont  to  assign  to  the  seamen  particular  districts,  which  they 
called  skeppslag.'     Palmskbld,  xiv.  Topog.  v.  22,  p.  1157. 

3  In  the  relation  of  Ague's  death,  c.  22.  With  the  origin 
of  the  name  I  am  not  acquainted. 

■•  Siuhunda,  a  name  preserved  in  the  district  of  Siunda  or 
Siende. 

5  Western  Aros.  Arcs  is  the  mouth  of  a  stream.  Eastern 
Aros  is  the  mouth  of  the  water  of  Fyris  in  Lake  Malar  at 
Upsala.  Western  Aros  is  the  mouth  of  the  Swart  water 
(Swarta)  in  the  Malar  at  Westeras,  which  thence  received 
its  name. 

s  Tuhundra. 


land,  especially  from  Thorsacre  onwards,  in  the 
south,  and  near  the  boundary  of  Upland.  Farther 
on,  they  follow  the  shores  of  the  Malar,  ascending 
the  water-courses.  In  this  shire  they  are  scattered 
over  the  south  and  middle  districts  ;  in  the  forests 
of  the  north  none  are  found  '. 

Thus  did  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Sweden  es- 
tablish themselves  on  both  sides  of  the  M.elar. 
This  spacious  and  noble  lake,  branchmg  with  so 
many  arms,  and  garlanded  with  isles,  into  whose 
basin,  to  use  the  words  of  the  saga,  all  the  running 
waters  of  Suithiod  fall,  in  their  progress  to  the  sea 
(whence  it  is  also  sometimes  called  a  bay  or  outlet 
of  the  Baltic),  formed  in  the  heart  of  the  kingdom 
the  principal  channel  of  internal  and  external  traffic, 
of  friendly  as  well  as  hostile  intercourse.  Its  en- 
trance was  in  all  times  narrow*;  its  interior  is  stud- 
ded continuously  with  island  groups,  presenting 
several  go<jd  harbours,  of  which  Birca  was  formerly 
the  best  known.  This,  we  are  told,  was  a  town 
lying  in  the  centre  of  Sweden,  not  far  from  the  tem- 
ple of  Ufsala,  the  most  famous  of  all  among  the 
Swedes  ;  in  the  place  where  a  bay  of  the  Baltic  or 
Barbaric  Sea  stretching  towards  the  north,  forms  a 
desirable  haven  for  the  nations  dwelling  round  ;  the 
navigation  was  very  dangerous  to  those  who  were 
careless  or  little  conversant  with  the  localities,  for 
the  inhabitants,  exposed  to  the  frequent  assaults  of 
sea-robbers,  had,  by  sinking  masses  of  stone  for  a 
great  distance,  made  the  passage  dangerous  both 
to  themselvesand  the  enemy  ;  yet  here  was  the  safest 
haven  in  the  Swedish  rocks,  and  the  ships  of  the 
Danes,  Norsemen,  Slavons,  and  Sembers,  as  well 
as  of  other  people  of  Scythia,  used  to  assemble  here 
to  a  staple,  and  barter  their  wares  ".  From  Scania 
to  Sigtuna  or  Birca  was  five  days'  sail  *.  Lastly,  it 
is  expressly  said,  that  Birca  was  situated  near 
Sigtuna  ^,  and  from  thence  to  Upsala  was  only  one 
day's  journey  *. 

This  description  is  not  suitable  to  the  little  island 
Biorko,  in  the  Malar,  where,  from  the  resemblance 
of  names,  our  antiquarians  have  wished  to  find 
manifest  traces  of  the  old  town,  although  the  author 
fi'om  whom  we  have  extracted  the  above  account 
adds,  that  when  he  wrote  (in  1072),  Birca  was  de- 
solate and  razed  to  the  ground,  so  that  hardly  a 
vestige  of  it  was  to  be  seen.  But  we  may  appeal  to 
witnesses  who  had  seen  it  two  hundred  years  before, 
in  the  days  of  its  prosperity.  Ansgar,  the  apostle 
of  the  north,  visited  it  twice  ;  his  successor  and 
biographer,  Rimbert,  also  saw  it  *.     They  call  it  the 

7  The  parish  of  Enaker,  stretching  to  the  Dal-elf,  is  an 
exception. 

f'  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  6. 

3  Birca  est  oppidum  Gothorum,  in  medio  Sueonise  posi- 
tum,  non  longe  ah  eo  templo,  quod  celeberrimum  Sueones 
habent  in  cultu  deorum,  Upsola  dicto;  in  quo  loco  sinus 
quidam  ejus  freti,  &c.  Ad.,Brem.  Hist.  Ecc.  1.  ii.  c.  48. 
Birca,  here  called  oppidum  Gothorum,  is  styled  by  the  same 
writer  in  another  place  Birca  Sueonum  (de  situ  Dan.  p.  54). 
The  Sembers  are  the  inhabitants  of  Samland  in  Prussia. 

'  A  Sconia  Danorum  navigantibus  ad  Bircam  quinque 
dierum  babes  iter.  Scholiast  to  Adam  of  Bremen  de  sit. 
Dan.  p.  59,  not.  80. 

2  A  Sconia  Danorum  per  mare  velificans  quinto  die  per- 
venies  ad  Sictonam  vel  liircam,  juxtaenim  sunt.  Ad.  Brem. 
1.  c.  62. 

3  Sictona  civitas  distat  ah  Ubsola  itinere  unius  diei.    Ibid. 
''  Compare  Vita  Ansgarii  per  Rimbertum,  and  Vita  Rim- 

berti,  which  Adam  of  Bremen  had  before  him.  He  mentions 
that  Rimbert  also  had  been  in  Birca.     Hist.  Ecc.  i.  50. 


Birca. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  SETTLEMENT,  AND  CULTURE. 


Mine-tracts. 


23 


port  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  a  village  where  were 
rich  traders,  abundance  of  goods  of  all  sorts,  and 
many  treasures.  Near  Birca  there  was  then  cer- 
tainly another  town  or  castle  with  some  fortifica- 
tions, although  of  no  great  strength  ;  m  this  there 
were  temples  of  idols,  or,  as  the  pagans  said, '  many 
and  powerful  deities' ;  there  the  inhabitants  and  traf- 
fickers of  Birca  sought  a  refuge  from  hostile  assaults, 
and  sacrificed  to  their  gods  or  '  evil  spirits',  for  help 
against  peril.  The  town  here  not  named  is  evi- 
dently SiGTUNA,  which,  as  has  been  shown,  lay  near 
Birca  ;  the  same  Sigtuna  where  the  Ynglingasaga 
makes  Odin  establish  sacrifices,  and  build  his  court, 
and  which,  according  to  the  Edda,  he  chose  for  his 
'  castled  town'  ^.  This  word  may  be  viewed  partly  as 
a  translation  of  the  name,  since  tun  means  fence,  en- 
closure ;  but  of  what  nature  the  fortification  was, 
may  be  judged  from  what  has  been  mentioned 
above  of  the  wooden  retrenchment  surrounding  the 
town  of  Lund.  The  name  Birca,  also,  which  we 
first  hear  of  in  authors  of  Saxon  birth  ^,  though 
writing  in  Latin,  was  probably  derived  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  form  of  a  northern  word '  of  similar 
meaning.  Here  there  was  not  only  vichiity  of  place, 
but  community  of  names  ;  and  it  is  not  otherwise 
to  be  explained  how  the  old  Icelanders  should  never 
speak  of  Birca,  although  it  probably  was  not  yet 
destroyed,  when  they  began  to  visit  the  coast  of  the 
Malar ;  and  in  any  case,  the  memory  of  a  town  then 
so  celebrated  could  not  be  lost  for  them  *.  Re- 
mark therewithal  that  they  mention  two  Sigtunas  ; 
for  one  of  them  is  called  the  "former,"  and  it  is  in 
this  quarter  we  must  also  seek  for  Birca.  • 

In  almost  all  the  metallic  districts  of  Sweden, 
mining  operations  first  paved  the  way  for  agri- 
culture ;  this  applies  in  great  part  even  to  the 
Mine-Canton  of  Upland,  and  still  more  extensively 
to  those  of  East  Vermeland,  Nerike,  and  West- 
manland.  For  although  this  whole  mountainous 
tract,  interposed  between  the  greatest  water-courses 
and  lakes  of  Sweden,  was  anciently  not  without 
inhabitants,  who  lived  dispersed  in  the  forests  ; 
yet  the  commencement  of  its  cultivation  may  be 
dated  from  the  opening  of  the  mines  during  the 
Christian  middle  age  ;  nay,  it  is  mostly  far  more  re- 
cent, dating  from  the  new  impulse  given  to  mining 
pursuits  under  Charles  IX.,  and  the  great  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  All  this  is  a  new  country,  and  so  too, 
comparatively,  are  the  districts  of  Sala  Silfverberg 
and  Stora  Kopparberg.  The  southern  part  of  the 
province  of  Dalarna  (Dalecarlia)  is  of  older  set- 
tlement, although  it  does  not  appear  under  the  same 
name.  As  the  great  streams  generally  drew  to 
their  banks  the  oldest  population,  so  was  it  with  the 
mighty  Dal-elf,  here  united  in  one  channel.  Near 
its  watei's  cultivation  existed  since  pagan  days,  as 
the   historical  Sagas  inform  us,  and  in  part  even 

5  Borgstad. 

s  Adam  of  Bremen,  and  Helmold,  who  in  liis  Chronicon 
Slavorum,  100  years  later,  copies  the  former  in  reference  to 
Biica. 

"  Borg,  castle,  Anglo-Saxon  Byric,  latinized  into  Byrca  or 
Birca. 

8  Icelandic  Scalds  visited  the  Malar  so  early  as  the  time 
of  Eric  the  Victor,  and  shared  in  the  fight  of  Upsala  against 
StyrbiiJrn  in  983.  (Svea  Rikes  Hafder,  1,  204,  20G.)  At  least 
47  years  before,  Birca  was  still  in  existence,  for  Unni,  arch- 
bishop of  Bremen,  died  there  in  936.  Ad.  Brera.  Hist.  Ecc. 
i.  51.  If  the  town  had  been  destroyed  in  tlie  interval  {this 
probably  happened  in  the  next  century),  it  could  not  have 
been  yet  forgotten. 


earlier,  as  always  where  sepulchral  mounds  are 
seen '.  Here  likewise  is  the  Jernbaraland  (iron- 
bearing  land)  of  the  heathens,  and  the  present 
Eastern  Muie-Canton  ',  the  oldest  of  the  Swedish 
mining  districts,  in  so  far  as  the  term  is  applicable 
to  days  so  remote.  Jerubai'aland  extended  thence 
to  Western  Dalecarlia,  and  the  name  was  even  given 
to  the  Eastern  division.  Thorsang  (Thors  Haugh) 
is,  doubtless,  one  of  the  oldest  places  in  Dalecarlia  ; 
and  there  are  relations  yet  existing  which  describe 
how  the  inhabitants  spread  their  farms  into  the 
highlands  of  Kopparbei'g,  Falun,  Sundborn,  and 
Svai'dsio.  Over  these  tracts  lay  the  course  of  St. 
Olave's  expedition  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1030, 
through  Helsingland  and  Jemteland  to  Norway.  He 
marched  out  of  Upland  through  the  forests,and  came 
to  Jernbaraland,  thence  through  woods  and  wilder- 
nesses, often  across  great  floods,  between  which 
the  boats  were  carried  :  huts  were  erected  for  the 
night  campings,  which  long  afterwards  were  called 
Olave's  booths.  A  still  more  adventurous  journey 
was  made  150  years  later.  On  his  flight  from 
Southern  Norway,  king  Sverre  ^  marched  with  a 
band  of  robbers,  who  chose  him  for  their  captain, 
through  the  twelve-mile  wood  (tolfmila  skog)  ^  to 
Eke's  hundred  in  Vermeland  ■•;  then,  through  a  still 
larger  wood  in  Western  Dalecarlia,  to  Malung,  a 
place  which  had  even  then  a  name,  and  inhabitants 
who  lived  by  the  chase  '.  Thence  the  road  lay 
over  a  country  of  incredible  difficulty,  at  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  ice,  through  fifteen  rasts  of  wood  and 
wildei'ness,  where  the  travellers  lived  on  the  flesh 
of  the  reindeer  and  birds,  till  they  arrived  in  Jern- 
baraland, which  is  here  Eastern  Dalecarlia,  perhaps 
Elfdal  or  Mora.  What  aspect  did  this  remote 
territory,  afterwards  so  celebrated  from  the  actions 
of  Gustavus  Vasa,  present  dm-ing  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury ?  The  people  were  still  heathens  ;  they  had 
never  seen  a  king  in  their  country,  and  scarcely 
knew,  it  is  said,  whether  such  a  one  was  a  man  or 
a  beast,  never  having  quitted  their  forests  to  min- 
gle with  other  men.  Yet  they  gave  Sverre  a  good 
reception,  and  aided  him  on  his  journey,  which  lay 
through  wildernesses,  forests,  and  morasses,  over 
streams  and  lakes,  from  Jernbaraland  eighteen  rasts 
to  Herjedalen,  and  farther  over  Jemteland  to 
Drontheim  (Trondhem);  during  which  the  adven- 
turers had  often  nothing  for  food  but  the  rind  and 
juice  of  trees,  with  berries,  which  had  been  covered 
by  the  snow  throughout  the  winter.  This  was  in 
1177;  and  in  the  following  year,  Sverre  again 
proceeded  with  a  band  of  retainers  through  Jern- 
baraland. The  peasants  now  made  retrenchments 
to  oppose  his  passage,  saj-ing  they  were  not  used  to 
such  kingly  ])rogresses,  and  wished  to  know  nothing 
of  them.  Yet  he  got  through,  and  arrived  this 
time  at  Alfta  in  Helsingland. 

9  There  are  no  barrows  to  be  found  northwards  of  the  Dal, 
except  in  Nasgard  parish,  and  in  eastern  Dalecarlia  none,  so 
far  as  is  known  to  the  author,  except  in  Mora. 

1  bsterbergslagen.  (For  some  further  account  of  Dalecarlia, 
see  note  B.  at  the  end.     T.) 

2  Sverre's  Saga,  c.  12. 

^  It  is  still  so  called,  as  the  frontier  forest  towards  Dale- 
carlia is  called  the  ten-mile  wi'od.  (The  Swedish  mile  is 
somewhat  more  than  six  and  a  half  English.     Trans.) 

■f  Eikis  Herat.     So  the  Copenhagen  edition. 

5  Molungr.  The  name  is  supposed  to  have  been  given  from 
the  snaring  of  the  marten,  which  is  here  called  mol.  The 
inhabitants  still  subsist  by  the  preparation  of  skins. 


24 


Helsingland. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Gestricland. 


Sweden's  southern  region  was  inhabited  by  Goths 
as  far  back  as  our  information  reaches ;  of  tlie 
occupancy  of  the  middle  division  by  the  Swedes  an 
account,  half  mythical,  half  liistorical,  has  been  pre- 
served ;  the  settlement  of  the  northern  part,  which 
is  still  proceeding  at  the  present  day,  falls  entirely 
within  the  range  of  history  ;  although  heathenism 
was  not  extinct  when  the  old  nomadic  inhabitants 
of  this  vast  territory  already  began  to  be  driven 
back  by  the  new  settlers.  All  that  portion  of  the 
present  province  of  Norrland  which  lay  along  the 
coast  from  the  mouth  of  the  Dal  ^  to  above  Norr- 
botten,  was  still  called  in  the  fifteenth  century  by 
the  general  name  of  Helsingland.  In  the  west, 
nearer  the  mountains,  lay  Herjedale  and  Jemte- 
LAND.  Of  the  first  settlement  of  these  countries  the 
Chronicles  of  the  Kings  give  the  following  account. 
*  Ketil  Jamte  was  the  son  of  earl  Anund  of  Spa- 
rabo  in  Drontheim  (or  Trondhem).  He  fled  before 
king  Osten  Illrada  eastwards  from  the  mountains 
of  Kiolen  ;  he  cleared  the  woods  and  cultivated  the 
ground  in  the  district  now  called  Jemteland.  East- 
wards to  him  fled  many  who  dwelt  in  Dron- 
theim, by  reason  of  the  troubles,  when  king  Osten 
was  vexing  them  with  taxes  and  set  his  dog  called 
Saur  over  them  to  be  king.  Thorer  Helsing  was 
grandson  of  Ketil ;  after  him  Helsingland  is  named. 
There  he  tilled  the  land,  and  when  Harald  the 
Fair-haired  grasped  the  whole  dominion  for  him- 
self, many  from  Drontheim  and  Nauradale  again 
joined  him.  Further  settlements  were  made 
eastward  of  Jemteland,  and  pushed  on  through 
Helsingland  to  the  sea,  those  who  abode  there  be- 
coming subject  to  the  king  of  the  Swedes,  and  car- 
rying on  a  trade -with  Sweden.'  Haco  the  Good, 
king  of  Norway,  established  a  commercial  inter- 
course between  his  subjects  and  the  settlers  of  this 
region'.  This  addiction  to  trade  is  noted  as  cha- 
racteristic of  the  first  Non-landers ;  and  for  this 
they  continue  to  be  remarkable  at  the  present  day, 
cattle-breeding  and  the  chase  supplying  their  mate- 
rials of  exchange.  So  permanent  are  relations 
which  spring  out  of  the  nature  of  the  country.     Of 

"  Quas  regiones  fluvius  Elf  distinguit  a  Suecia.  Ericus 
Olai. 

7  Saga  of  Haco  (Adalsten's  fosterson),  c.  14. 

8  Merkisman. 

j        9  Schcining,  Norges'  Hist.  1.  435. 

I  '  Hulphers,  Dalresa,  on  Herjedalen,  p.  43,  47.  In  the 
vallies  of  Liung  and  Liusne,  parish  of  Hede,  there  are 
barrows  called  goods-mounds  and  heathen-mounds,  in 
whicli  hoards  of  silver  are  said  to  have  been  found.  Only 
two  barrows  are  mentioned  by  Hulphers  in  Jemteland,  and 
a  single  Runic  stone  upon  the  isle  of  Frosoe,  in  memory  of 
dstmader,  son  of  Gudfast,  who  is  related  to  have  introduced 
Christianity  hffre.  Dalecarlia  had  but  one  Runic  stone, 
which  was  formerly  at  Hedemora.  Among  eleven  such  in 
Helsingland,  there  are  five  which  are  marked  with  the  so- 
called  Helsini^-Runes. 

2  Jemteland  bears  on  its  arms  an  elk  with  a  wolf  at  its 
gorge  and  a  falcon  on  its  back.  The  arms  of  the  provinces, 
although  of  late  origin,  yet  often  throw  light,  by  the  repre- 
sentation of  natural  objects,  on  the  pursuits  of  the  inhabitants 
and  their  relations  with  each  other.  Gestricland  also  bears 
an  elk  on  its  arms,  although  its  earliest  seal  has  a  crowned 
bust  with  a  drinking-horn  reversed  in  the  hand,  and  the 
inscription  '  Sigillum  commiinitatis  Gestrikiae.'  It  might 
be  supposed  from  this,  that  the  province  had  its  name  from 
the  time  when  the  Upsala  kings  first  visited  it  in  demand  of 
guestrites  (gastning),  which  was  one  of  the  most  ancient 
methods  of  levying  tribute.     The  oldest  seal  of  Dalecarlia 


the  settlement  of  Herjedalen,  again,  the  following 
relation  is  preserved  :  '  Heriulf  was  banner-man  " 
to  king  Halfdan  the  Black,  father  of  Harald  the 
Fair-haired,  and  stood  high  in  his  favour.  At  a 
feast,  he  struck  another  courtier  so  rude  a  blow  in 
his  anger  v\'ith  a  silver-mounted  drinking-horn,  that 
the  horn  broke,  and  the  man  whom  he  struck  died. 
For  this  cause  was  Heriulf,  who  thence  had  the 
surname  of  horn-breaker,  banished  from  the  land  ; 
he  was  well  received  in  Sweden  by  king  Eric 
Edmundson,  and  was  for  a  long  time  his  man.  At 
last  he  enticed  the  king's  sister  Ingeborg  to  love, 
fled  with  her,  and  settled  in  the  wild  valley  south 
of  Jemteland,  which  after  him  received  the  name  of 
Heriulf's  dale,  or  Herjedale^.'  The  people  of  this 
district  still  show  the  spot  where  the  fugitive  pair 
are  said  to  have  dwelt,  and  the  mound  where  Heri- 
ulf's ashes  and  treasures  were  buried,  near  the 
stream  of  Herje,  four  miles  west  of  the  church  of 
Lillherdal  parish  ^  They  still  tell  of  a  daughter  of 
this  personage,  and  four  sons,  two  of  whom  slew 
each  other  in  a  quarrel  respecting  a  fishery.  T\\o 
sons  of  Heriulf  are  mentioned  as  under-kings  in 
Norway,  and  one  of  his  grandsons  was  among  the 
first  colonists  of  Iceland.  Elk  hunting  ^  and  the 
chase  were  the  first,  and  long  the  principal  occu- 
pations of  those  who  fixed  their  abode  in  these 
territories ;  they  traded  with  their  furs  to  Norway, 
with  whose  inhabitants  both  their  extraction  and 
vicinity  of  situation  disposed  them  to  amity.  But 
eastwards  on  the  sea,  observes  Snorro,  the  Swedes 
had  settled  Helsingland',  and  generally  the  original 
popilation  ascended  from  the  sea  the  waters  of  the 
valleys.  In  Gestricland,  it  followed  partly  the  sea, 
and  partly  the  stream  of  the  Gafel  (from  which  the 
fishing  village  and  town  of  Gefle  received  its  name) 
to  the  lake  Storsio  *,  the  country  round  which, 
especially  in  the  parishes  of  Ofvansio  and  Thors- 
acre,  was  occupied  in  the  heathen  age.  From 
Helsingland  Proper,  Gestricland  was,  and  is  still, 
separated  by  the  forest  of  Odmord,  fonnerly  so 
large,  that  although  in  the  fourteenth  century  a 
new  parish  had  been  formed  within  its  bounds*, 

bore  an  axe,  a  tree,  a  bow  and  an  arrow,  with  the  words, 
'  Sigillum  Communitatis  Terrs  Dalecarlorum.'  This  was 
lost  in  Finland,  in  the  time  of  Steno  Sture  the  elder,  when 
that  leader  was  encamped  there  with  the  Da'ecarlians 
against  the  Russians;  upon  which  the  province  received  its 
present  armorial  bearings,  two  dale  arrows  crossways.  So 
the  crossed  arrows  of  Nerike  refer  to  the  chase  of  its  forest 
animals,  the  three  burning  mountains  of  Westmanland  to 
its  mines,  and  the  goat  of  Helsingland  to  the  cattle-rearing 
of  this  province. 

^  Saga  of  Haco  the  Good,  c.  14. 

•=  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Storsib  (great  lake)  of 
Jemteland.. 

5  The  Forest  tSkog)  parish  of  Southern  Helsingland  was 
anciently  a  wood  commonable  to  six  adjacent  parishes  in 
Helsingland  and  Gestricland,  which  had  their  cattle-stalls  in 
it.  These  pasture-lands  being  soon  cultivated,  and  dwell- 
ings erected  upon  them,  were  transferred  by  the  occupiers 
to  their  children,  while  they  themselves  inhabited  their  own 
granges  in  the  old  parishes.  Contests  soon  arose  between 
the  new  settlers  and  the  old  proprietors,  the  latter  of  whom 
claimed  a  right  to  the  clearings,  although  these  had  been 
already  alienated  by  will  and  paid  tax  to  the  crown.  The 
new  settlers  therefore  prayed  that  they  might  be  allowed  to 
form  a  separate  parish,  wliich  was  granted  to  them  by  king 
Magnus  Ericson.  The  land-marks  were  now  fixed  by  a 
judicial  writ,  issued  at  a  general  ting  or  court  held  at  the 
South  Hill  of  Helsingland  in  1343.  II  is  preserved  in  the 
church  of  Mo.     {Georgii  et  Justus  Dissertatio  de  Halsingia, 


Angermanland.  TOPOGRAPHY,  SETTLEMENT,  AND   CULTURE.  Finnmark. 


25 


the  traveller  was  yet  obliged  to  rest  in  a  safety- 
lodge  in  the  midst  of  the  wood,  an  arrangement 
probably  subsisting  from  the  heathen  age.  This, 
like  every  other  border  forest,  was  notorious  for 
the  acts  of  robbery  and  violence  perpetrated  in  it ; 
the  boundary  line  was  formed  by  the  Mordback 
(murder-brook)  ".  To  this  point  the  law  of  Upland 
was  obeyed,  beyond  it  that  of  Helsingland.  That 
places  of  common  interment  and  sacrifice  were  the 
points  of  union  for  the  first  settlers  is  shown  by  the 
old  appellations  ;  Mound  of  the  South  path.  Mound 
of  Sundheath  (from  which  Gusta\-us  Vasa  addressed 
the  Helsingers),  Mound  of  the  North  path  '.  These 
names  were  also  given  to  lands  belonging  to  the 
estate  of  Upsala,  by  which  the  divisions  of  Helsing- 
land were  formerly  regulated.  The  north-western 
part  of  Helsingland  is  probably  that  which  was  peo- 
pled by  Norwegians  from  Jemteland  and  Herjedalen, 
who  having  passed  the  forest,  advanced  here  and 
there  to  the  sea-shore.  Agriculture  was  more  an- 
ciently practised  in  the  southern  part  of  Helsing- 
land than  in  either  of  these  provinces,  but  the 
rearing  of  cattle,  the  chase,  the  fisheries  of  the 
Baltic,  and  the  sea  fowl  (for  wild  geese  are  the 
oldest  Helsingei-s)  *,  no  doubt  at  first  supplied 
the  most  available  means  of  subsistence.  This  was 
to  a  still  greater  extent  the  case  with  the  provinces  of 
Medelpad  and  Angermanland,  lying  to  the  north, 
in  which  the  population  adhered  yet  more  closely 
to  the  coast.  In  the  former,  deriving  its  name  ^ 
from  its  situation  between  the  considerable  streams 
of  Niurunda  and  Indal,  the  southerly  valley  of 
Niurunda,  as  ancient  remains  prove,  was  settled 
before  the  inner  dale,  or  district  of  Indals-elf '. 
The  herring  and  sprat  (stroming)  fisheries  upon 
this  coast  are  as  old  as  the  name  of  the  parish  of 
Silanger  ^.  Employment  was  furnished  to  the  An- 
germanners  (men  of  the  creeks  or  rocks)  by  the 
salmon  fisheries*  among  the  clusters  of  islets  formed 
by  the  Angerman  river,  the  largest  in  Scandinavia, 
at  its  mouth,  where  Hernosand  is  spoken  of  in  the 
fourteenth  century  as  a  haven  and  staple.  Where 
the  road  enters  West  Bothnia  the  last  barrow  is 
perceived  *.  Heaps  of  stones,  such  as  are  sometimes 

Ups.  1772).  From  this  example  may  be  leariieil  the  history 
of  the  progress  of  cultivation  in  Norrland,  nay,  throughout 
Sweden.  Pasturage  was  every  where  the  beginning  of  culti- 
vation. New  settlements  (nybyggen)  were  made,  and  new 
granges  (hemnian)  detached  from  the  old.  This  is  at  the 
present  day  the  course  of  settlement  in  Norrland. 

8  Said  to  have  had  its  name  from  the  murder  of  St. 
Stephen,  the  apostle  of  the  Helsingers,  if  it  was  not,  rather, 
from  the  word  tnor,  wood,  which  is  found  in  tlie  name 
Kolmord,  Odmord  (waste  wood). 

7  Sunnanstigshogen,  hiigen  i  Sundheden,  hbgen  i  nord- 
stigen.    ■ 

8  Helsing,  from  he!si  (collar),  is  the  name  of  a  sort  of 
wild  duck  or  goose  with  a  ring  round  the  neck. 

s  Medelpad,  in  the  country  itself,  is  pronounced  Melpa, 
which  appears  only  a  careless  utterance  of  Midelfva. 
Midelfvaland  is  the  land  between  the  rivers.  Two  streams 
are  shown  on  the  armorial  bearings  of  the  province. 

•  In  Southern  Medelpad  many  barrows  and  Runic  stones 
are  to  be  seen.  In  Angermanland  not  a  few  of  the  former 
are  found  along  the  river  Angermanna,  but  only  a  single 
Runic  stone  is  mentioned. 

2  This  parish  has  two  herrings  on  its  seal,  and  the  name 
was  formerly  written  Sillanger.  (Asp  and  Genberg,  Dissertat. 
de  Medelpadia  antiqua  et  hodierna.  Holm.  1734;  Hiilphers 
on  Medelpad.)  Our  oldest  antiquarians  derived  the  name 
from  sail,  happy,  and  found  here  the  islands  of  the  blessed. 


found  m  the  mountainous  districts  of  other  parts  of 
Sweden,  are  beyond  this  point  the  only  grave 
marks,  and  the  names  of  the  rivers  now  become 
Lappic  ^.  Salmon-fishing  in  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer allured  the  Norwegians  across  the  mountains 
to  the  mouths  of  these  streams ;  a  few  remained 
throughout  the  winter ;  the  number  of  inhabitants 
received  accessions  of  Swedish  incomers,  and  the 
Lapps  were  driven  from  the  sea-coast.  In  the 
former  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  settle- 
ments thus  begun  reached  to  Skeldepth  ^,  now 
Skelleft  river.  Above  this  limit  stretched  the 
wastes  of  Lappmark,  though  the  trading  peasants 
(Bircarls'  as  they  were  called)  visited  this  upper 
region,  especially  Tornea,  to  fish  and  trade  with  the 
Lapps ;  whence  the  archbishop  of  Upsala  at  this 
time  extended  the  limits  of  Helsingland,  which 
formed  part  of  his  diocese,  into  Finland,  as  far  as 
the  Ulea  stream  in  East  Bothnia.  Settlements  ex- 
isted as  far  as  the  Umea,  or  perhaps  further  along 
the  Western  coast,  from  heathen  times,  but  these 
are  here  proportionably  more  recent  than  in  other 
quarters. 

Northern  Scandinavia  was  called  Finnmark. 
This,  according  to  an  ancient  authority,  was  a 
territory  of  vast  size,  having  upon  the  west,  north, 
and  east,  the  sea,  with  many  great  firths  ;  in  the 
interior,  wild  regions  of  mountains  and  dales,  with 
enormous  waters  ;  also  near  them  spacious  forests, 
and  the  great  ridges  which  are  called  the  Keels  *, 
running  along  the  waste.  Finnmark  commenced, 
in  the  ninth  century,  above  Halogaland  in  Norway, 
and  extended  across  to  the  White  Sea,  almost  as 
far  south  on  that  side  as  Halogaland  on  the  other, 
or  to  the  sixty-fifth  degree.  The  Norwegians 
levied  tribute  from  the  wild  inhabitants  of  Finn- 
mark,  till  the  Swedish  setlers  were  numerous 
enough  to  follow  the  example  in  Swedish  Lappmark. 
Such  phrases  as  Finn-tax,  Finn-faring,  Finn-trade', 
indicate  the  relations  subsisting  between  them  and 
their  neighbours.  Of  these  and  of  the  aspect  of 
the  country,  the  manner  of  life  and  adventures  of 
a  northern  settler  of  former  days,  old  accounts  still 
remain.     From   the   most   ancient   of  them '    we 

Angr  means  wick,  tongue  of  land,  layer  of  rocks,  or  gene- 
rally a  narrow,  broken  place  ;  hence  the  name  of  AngermaA- 
land.     (Sill,  herring.) 

3  Angermanland  has  three  salmon  in  its  arms. 

■•  In  the  parish  of  Umea,  and  hamlet  of  Klabbble,  there  are 
said  to  be  barrows,  which  some  think  of  natural  formation. 

6  So  the  names  of  the  Ume,  Lule,  Pite,  Raune,  Kalix,  and 
Tome  streams.  In  the  Lappic,  Ubme-ano  (from  umome, 
wood,  and  ano,  elf  or  stream) ;  Luleano  (eastern  elf),  Pitoma- 
ano  (perhaps  the  forbidden  or  sacred  river,  from  pjettom, 
prohibition) ;  Rauna-ano  (reindeer  river,  from  radn,  reindeer- 
calf,  or  radno,  the  young  doe) ;  Kalas-ano  (from  the  Fennic 
kala,  fish,  or  the  Lappic  kala,  ford).  Torne,  formerly  a  fish- 
ing village,  now  a  town,  seems  to  have  had  its  name  from 
a  tower  (torn)  built  there;  whence  its  arms  have  that  figure. 
Tower  in  Lappic  is  torne,  probably  borrowed  from  the  Swedish. 
The  river  is  called  by  the  Lapps  Tome  ano.  It  may  be  men- 
tioned as  an  example  of  priestly  invention,  that  the  parish  of 
Kalix,  from  the  similarity  of  name,  carries  a  chalice  (kalk)  in 
its  arms,  although  the  name  incontestibly  has  the  Lappic  or 
Fennic  origin  above  stated. 

s  In  the  Lappic  Sildut,  forss,  waterfall  or  torrent. 

'  An  account  of  the  Bircarls  is  given  in  Scheffer's  History 
of  Lapland,  p.  63.     Oxford,  1674.     T. 

s  Kiilama.     Saga  of  Egil,  c.  14. 

9  Finn-skatt,  Finn-fard,  Finn-kop. 

'  Narrative  of  the  Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten. 


2G 


Voyage  of  Ottar. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Fennic  tribes. 


quote  a  passage  contaiuing  a  description  of  a 
voyage  from  Halogaland  to  the  North  Cape  and 
the  moutli  of  the  Dwina  on  the  White  Sea.  The 
Norseman  Ottar,  who  left  Norway  about  the  year 
870,  said  to  his  lord  king  Alfred  of  England,  that 
he  dwelt  among  the  most  northerly  of  all  the  Nor- 
wegians, on  the  Western  Sea,  but  that  tlie  land 
stretched  much  farther  towards  the  north  ;  that 
here  all  was  a  waste  :  only  the  Fuins  sometimes 
made  a  stay  in  certain  places,  for  the  chase  in  win- 
ter, and  the  fishery  in  summer.  Once  he  resolved 
to  search  how  far  the  land  extended  towards  the 
north,  and  whether  men  dwelt  beyond  this  wilder- 
ness. Then,  he  sailed  towards  the  north  along 
the  land,  having  the  desert  country  the  whole 
way  on  the  starboard  (to  the  right),  the  open  sea 
on  the  larboard  (to  the  left),  till  after  three  days 
he  arrived  as  far  northwards  as  whale  fishers  ever 
used  to  pass.  He  sailed  yet  three  days  to  the 
north  ;  there  the  land  bent  along  with  the  sea  to 
the  East,  for  which  reason  he  was  obliged  here  to 
wait  for  a  north-west  wind,  and  then  he  sailed  four 
days  to  the  East  along  the  coast.  Here  he  waited 
for  a  due  north  \\  iud,  since  the  land  and  sea  now 
curved  towards  the  south,  and  in  this  direction  he 
sailed  five  days  along  the  land,  till  he  and  his 
followers  came  to  a  great  stream.  Beyond  this,  the 
wliole  country  appeared  to  be  cultivated,  and  this 
was  the  first  inhabited  laud  they  had  met  with  since 
their  departure  from  home,  for  the  whole  interve- 
ning coast  lay  waste,  and  they  observed  only  some 
hunters,  sea-fowl  catchers,  and  fishers,  who  were 
all  Finns.  This  was  the  condition  of  the  wilderness 
of  the  Terfinns  ;  but  upon  the  great  flood  dwelt 
the  Biai-mers,  in  a  well-settled  country.  Ottar 
did  not  dare  to  land  there,  but  some  of  the  inhabi- 
tants came  on  board  to  him.  Their  speech  seemed 
to  him  like  that  of  the  Finns, — which  he  therefore 
understood, — and  the  Biarmers  told  him  much, 
both  of  their  own  and  the  surrounding  countries  ; 
how  much  of  it  was  true  he  knew  not,  because  he 
had  not  himself  seen  it.  He  had  visited  the  coun- 
try, partly  from  a  desire  to  see  it,  but  chiefly  on 
account  of  the  walruses,  whose  tusks  furnished  the 
finest  bone,  and  of  these  he  gave  some  to  king 
Alfred.  Their  skins  were  very  useful  for  ships' 
ropes,  and  this  whale  fish  was  much  smaller  than 
others,  not  above  seven  ells  long.  But  in  Ottar's 
own  land  was  the  best  whale  fishery ;  there,  whales 
were  found  forty-eight  ells  long,  and  the  largest 
fifty  ells.  Of  such  he  said,  that  with  six  ships  he 
had  killed  sixty  in  two  days.  He  was  rich  in  such 
possessions  as  were  their  wealth,  that  is  in  the  wild 
animals  called  reindeer.  When  he  came  to  the 
king  he  had  600  unbought  tame  reindeer,  and 
among  them  six  decoys,  on  which  the  Finns,  who 
caught  wild  deer  with  them,  set  a  high  value.     He 

111 

was  one  of  the  first  men  of  his  country,  yet  he  had 
no  more  than  twenty  cows,  twenty  sheep,  and 
twenty  swine,  and  he  ploughed  a  small  piece  of 
arable  land  with  horses.  The  greatest  means  which 
those  of  the  country  possessed,  consisted  in  the 
tribute  paid  by  the  Finns,  in  skins  and  feathers, 
whalebone  and  cordage,  the  latter  prepared  from 
the  whales'  hides  and  seal  skins.  Every  one  paid 
according  to  his  substance  ;  the  chief  men  paid 
fifteen  martens'  skins,  five  reindeers,'  one  bear's 
hide,  ten  sacks  of  feathers,  and  besides,  a  jerkin  of 
bear  or  otter  skin,  with  two  ships'  ropes,  one  of 
morse  hide,  the  other  of  seal  skin. 


If  we  substitute  the  salmon  and  seal  fishery  for 
that  of  whales,  we  observe  also  in  this  description 
the  Norrland  peasant  of  former  times  on  the  gulf  of 
Bothnia,  his  manner  of  life,  pursuits,  and  the  rela- 
tions in  which  he  stood  to  the  Lapps.  The  kmgs  of 
Norway,  since  the  time  of  Harald  the  Fair-haired, 
claimed  exclusively  the  produce  of  the  tributes  and 
trade  of  Finumark,  and  were  able  to  maintain  this 
claim  along  the  coast  2.  The  Biarmers  were  a  Fen- 
nic ]>eople,  and,  it  would  appeal-,  more  civilized 
than  their  cognate  tribes.  The  description  of  their 
country  shows  that  they  practised  agriculture.  Old 
Biarmaland  stretched  from  the  Dwina  to  the  Volga 
and  Kama,  and  was  the  seat  of  an  extensive  trade. 
Caravans  from  Bokhara  brought  thither  the  wares 
of  the  east.  A  voyage  to  Biarmaland  was  regarded 
as  a  very  gainful  enterprize  in  the  north,  partly  on 
account  of  the  traffic,  in  which  the  furs  of  the  sa- 
ble, the  beaver,  and  the  minivere  were  exchanged, 
and  partly  on  account  of  the  plunder  collected  on 
the  way,  for  a  trading  voyage  was  often  also  a 
piratical  expedition.  The  sacred  place  of  this  peo- 
ple was  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dwina  in  a 
great  forest;  their  deity  was  called  Jumala,  the 
name  by  which  the  Finns  and  Lapps  now  designate 
the  Supreme  Being.  This  idol  had  on  its  knee 
a  large  silver  cup  full  of  silver  money,  and  a  costly 
chain  round  the  neck.  Here  too  was  their  place  of 
interment,  in  the  hillocks  and  soil  of  which  much 
gold  and  silver  was  stored ;  for  when  the  rich  were 
bui-ied,  a  part  of  their  wealth  was  consigned  to  the 
tomb  along  with  them.  Round  the  sanctuary  was 
a  palisade  with  the  gate  closed ;  and  six  men  kept 
watch  alternately  every  night. 

Several  other  Fennic  tribes  are  mentioned  in  old 
accounts  of  the  north.  An  inroad  of  the  Kures 
and  Quens  into  Sweden  is  mentioned  in  the  time  of 
Sigurd  Ring,  and  the  last-named  people  as  well  as 
the  Laplanders,  were  neighbours  of  our  forefathei-s 
in  the  present  Swedish  Norrland.  '  The  Swedes,' 
says  king  Alfred  in  the  ninth  century, '  have  Quen- 
land  on  the  north  of  their  country  beyond  the 
wilderness,  the  Scridfinns  on  the  north-west,  and 
the  Norsemen  on  the  West.'  But  Scridfinns  and 
Quens  were  intermingled  in  these  Northern  tracts, 
for  we  are  told  of  Quenland,  that  it  lies  near  the 
Northern  part  of  Norway,  and  the  Quens  roamed 
as  far  as  and  across  the  frontier.  They  carried 
their  small  light  boats  overland  to  the  great  lakes 
which  lie  among  the  hill  tops,  and  made  predatory 
inroads  upon  the  Norsemen,  as  these  did  upon  them; 
yet  they  sought  help  from  the  Norwegians  against 
their  enemies.  Faravid,  prince  of  the  Quens,  about 
the  year  877,  sent  a  messenger  to  Thorolf,  the  com- 
missioner of  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  charged  v.ith 
the  levy  of  the  tributes,  to  entreat  assistance  against 
the  Carelians  who  had  ravaged  his  country,  which 
was  granted,  Thorolf  stipulating  that  he  should 
have  an  equal  share  of  the  booty.  The  law  of  the 
Quens  was,  that  the  king  should  have  a  third  part  of 
the  plunder,  and  in  addition  as  many  skins  of  beaver, 
sable,  and  minivere  as  he  chose  to  take.  Thorolf 
marched  eastwards  towards  Quenland,  he  with  a 
hundred,  the  king  with  three  hundred  men.  They 
proceeded  m  company  to  Upper  Finumark,  en- 
countered and  beat  the  Carelians  in  the  mountains, 
and  won  a  very  rich  spoil.  Thereupon  Thorolf 
returned  to  Q,uenland,  crossed  the  Kcilen   moun- 

2  Butter  and  pork  were  in  great  demand  in  Finnmark. 


C'arelians. 


TOPOGRAPHY,  SETTLEMENT,  AND  CULTURE. 


Tavasters. 


27 


tains,  and  arrived  in  Norway  at  Wefsen  in  Haloga- 
land.  This  powerful  Halogalander,  who  was  an 
active  sea-chief,  at  this  time  drew  great  profits 
from  the  productive  herring  and  cod  fisheries  of 
Lofoden  and  Vaage.  Over  how  wide  a  tract  the 
Q,iiens  were  once  spread,  is  shown  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  whole  North  Sea  was  once 
called  the  Queii  sea,  and  all  Finland,  Quenland  ^, 
though  the  latter  name  has  also  a  narrower  ap- 
plication. We  find  it  mentioned  as  lying  between 
Helsingland  and  Finland*,  and  it  comprehended  in 
this  sense  the  whole  of  Bottenland,  or  the  inland 
territory  upon  both  coasts  of  the  gulf  of  Bothnia, 
till  the  Swedish  settlers  displaced  the  Quens,  first 
from  West,  and  afterwards  partly  from  East 
Bothnia,  the  Fennic  name  of  which  (Kainu)  re- 
minds us  of  its  former  possessors. 

Another  wild  race,  the  Carelians,  appear  some- 
times at  war,  sometimes  in  league  with  the  former, 
addicted  to  war  and  piracy,  supporting  themselves 
otherwise  by  their  herds  and  the  chase.  They  had 
spread  from  the  inner  side  of  the  gulf  of  Fin- 
land (called  from  them  the  Carelian),  over  Eastern 
Finland  to  the  extremity  of  Finnmark^  ;  roaming 
also  into  Swedish  Norrland,  where,  about  1350, 
twenty  Laplanders  and  Carelians  of  Kemi  and 
Simo  were  baptized  in  a  great  vat  at  Tornea 
by  a  Swedish  archbishop.  South  of  the  gulf  of 
Finland  we  come  upon  the  Esthouians  (Esterne). 
This  name,  taken  from  their  easterly  situation 
in  reference  to  Scandinavia,  was  once  applied  to 
the  whole  country  between  the  Vistula  and  the 
gulf  of  Finland  ",  occupied  at  different  times  by 
various  tribes,  Goths,  Finns,  Letts ;  it  remained 
at  length  with  the  Fennic  race  still  so  called, 
which  in  ancient  times  extended  through  Cour- 
land  into  Prussia^.  The  old  sagas  represent  in- 
tercourse between  the  Swedes  and  Esthouians  as 
very  early  established.  Through  the  country  of 
the  latter  king  Suegder  marched  when  he  repaired 
to  the  East  in  quest  of  Odin;  Yngwar  ravaged 
Estland,  and  was  slain  in  battle  with  the  natives ; 
his  followers  erected  his  barrow  on  the  sea-shore, 
'  that  the  waves  of  the  Baltic  might  chant  their 
songs  to  please  the  king  of  the  Swedes.'  When 
they  were   delivered   from    the   fear   of  Swedish 

3  King  Alfred  and  Fundin  Noregur. 

■i  Egil's  Saga,  c.  14. 

'••  The  coast  of  Russian  Lapland  was  formerly  called  Kare- 
lastrand,  also  Tre  and  Tre-nase,  whence  the  name  of  Trelinns 
or  Terfinns. 

6  In  the  ninth  century  Estland  still  stretched  to  the  Vis- 
tula.    Travels  of  Ottar  and  Ulfsten. 

"  Thunmann  (Untersuch.,  &c.),  Inquiry  into  the  ancient 
History  of  some  Northern  Peoples,  p.  18—20.  "  We  find  still 
both  in  Kurland  and  Semgallen,  considerable  remains  of 
these  old  Finnish  inhabitants." 

f  Permisti  Estonibus  Chori.     Saxo,  xiv.  p.  329. 

«  Compare  Porthan,  Paul.  Just.  Chron   49—50. 

1  First  spoken  of  under  this  name  in  the  bull  (jf  Pope  Gre- 
gory IX.  of  December  9th,  1237.  The  name  is  here  written 
Tavesti,  and  in  the  great  Rhyme-Chronicle  often  Tavester, 
in  which  beyond  doubt  lies  the  tribual  appellation,  Ester. 
The  first  syllable  Tav  is  more  bard  to  explain.  It  is,  perhaps, 
a  translation  of  Hiime,  the  indigenous  name  of  Tavastland, 
from  Hiim,  in  the  Esthoni.in  tongue,  wet,  marshy.  The  same 
notion  lies  in  the  Icelandic  Tha  (read  thau),  which  means  not 
only  a  thaw,  but  also  thawed,  miry  ground.  Some  memorials 
of  the  piracy  of  the  Esthouians  and  Tavasters  are  met  with 
in  Sodermanland,  for  instance  Esta-skar,  Esta-klippa  (Est- 


domination,  the  Esthonians,  leagued  with  the  cog- 
nate tribes  of  the  Kurians^  and  Carelians^,  harassed 
the  Swedish  coasts  with  their  piracies. 

Such  are  the  Fennic  tribes,  whose  memories 
have  survived  from  the  heathen  ages  of  the  north. 
One  still  remains,  a  branch  of  the  Esthonians,  the 
Tavesters  or  Tavastrians  ',  mentioned  by  this  name 
in  Swedish  records  of  a  later  day.  They  are  not, 
however,  to  be  regarded  as  younger  in  Finland  than 
the  cognate  populations ;  every  thing  seems  rather  to 
show  that  they  were  the  main  stock.  They  inhabited 
the  southern  and  most  fertile  division  of  the  coun- 
try 2,  where  agricultm-e  was  first  introduced,  and 
whence  it  extended,  by  steps  so  slow  as  to  be 
easily  traced,  to  northern  and  eastern  Finland  ; 
and  opened  an  intercourse  with  Sweden,  by  way  of 
the  Aland  isles  and  Roslagen,  earlier  than  any  of 
their  brethren.  To  their  territory  the  name  of 
Finland  was  applied  ;  in  distinction  from  the  more 
savage  Finnmark,  which  may  be  proved  to  have 
once  reached  farther  south  than  is  stated  in  any  of 
the  sagas,  to  Upper  Tavastland  *.  These  occu- 
pants of  Southern  Finland,  apparently  somewhat 
advanced  in  culture  beyond  the  Carelians  and 
Quens,  are  not  mentioned  under  the  heathendom  by 
any  distinctive  appellation  ;  they  were  designated 
by  our  forefathers  under  the  general  name  of 
Finns,  and  in  their  present  dwelling-places  they 
are  at  least  as  old  as  the  furthest  period  to  which 
the  recollections  of  the  north  extend. 

The  name  of  Finns  was  from  a  very  early  time, 
and  is  still,  common  to  an  important  branch  of  the 
population  of  the  north  ;  it  included  not  only 
several  Fennic  races,  properly  so  called,  but  the 
Lapps,  who  were  styled  Finns  by  the  Norwegians 
and  Icelanders.  Many  have  maintained  that  the 
name  originally  appertained  only  to  the  Laplanders. 
The  Finns  of  Tacitus,  it  is  said,  were  really  Lapps, 
as  were  the  Finns  of  Scandinavia  itself,  mentioned 
by  Icelandic  and  Norwegian  writers,  and  the  name 
was  only  extended  by  confusion  to  the  rest  of  the  so- 
called  Finnish  tribes  in  Finland  Proper.  If  such 
occurred,  it  is  at  least  in  part  imputable  to  the 
nations  themselves.  Even  at  the  present  day,  both 
Finns  and  Lapps  give  themselves  the  same  national 
appellation,  Suome,  Same,  a  word  signifying  pro- 
skerry,  Est-cliff ),  and  the  Tavesta  Sconce  in  the  parish  of 
Skyllinge.  Russian  Chronicles  mention  the  Tavastrians 
under  the  year  1042,  but  with  the  name  of  Jiimer,  which  is 
the  Russian  pronunciation  of  their  own  Hame. 

^  That  Finland  Proper,  with  Tavastland  (and  afterwards 
also  a  part  of  East  Bothnia),  in  a  word,  South  and  West  Fin- 
land, were  tenanted  by  one  and  the  same  Fennic  race  (the 
Tavastic),  distinct  from  the  Savolaxars  and  Carelians,  is  a 
conclusion  confirmed  by  the  dialect.  Porthan  ad  Paul. 
Just.  87,  88. 

3  •'  The  Lapp-rings  (Lappringarne),  or  circles  of  loose  stones, 
which  abound  in  the  forests  throughout  a  great  part  of  Upper 
Finland,  are  manifestly  vestiges  of  the  habitations  of  Lappic 
families.  The  stones  are  placed  in  a  circle,  exactly  as  usual 
in  the  Lappic  kata  (cot),  where  the  Lapp  has  his  hearth, 
round  which  he  and  his  family  sit  and  lie.  Many  such 
circles  are  found  in  Orihwesi  and  other  parishes  adjacent  to- 
wards the  north,  but  none  further  south.  This  seems  a 
clear  proof  that  the  Lapland  or  Skritefinnia  of  former  days 
stretched  to  this  point,  and  that  the  land  of  the  Tavastrians, 
who  practised  agriculture,  began  here."  Lencquist,  on  the 
former  sojourn  of  the  Lapps  in  Finland,  Abo  Transactions 
for  1778,  p.  142—143.  We  can  besides,  as  has  been  remarked, 
trace  the  extension  of  agriculture  from  Lower  Tavastland 
upwards. 


28 


Finns  and  Lapps. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


state  and  character. 


perly  morass  ■*.  Ssum  in  old  Russian,  is  the  same 
word,  and  is  likewise  applied  to  both  Finns  and 
Lapps  *.  The  Feuni  of  Germany,  spoken  of  by 
Tacitus,  the  Finnar  of  Scandinavia,  are  but  trans- 
lated names  expressing  the  same  idea,  which  re- 
curs besides  in  the  denominations  of  several  Fennie 
tribes'",  marking  the  nature  of  their  original  dwell- 
ing places,  and  applicable  to  them  m  a  great  degree 
at  this  day.  This  national  name  is  therefore  really 
of  common  application ;  it  belonged  even  of  old  to 
all  Northern  Europe.  Although  Tacitus,  accord- 
ing to  his  conception,  places  the  Finns  nearly  in 
the  present  Lithuania,  and  Ptolemy  stations  his  on 
the  Vistula,  this  need  not  prevent  us  from  sup- 
posing' that  the  Fenuic  population  extended  to  the 
extreme  north,  for  the  whole  of  Northern  Europe 
had  no  existence  for  the  Romans,  and  the  reports 
which  reached  them  as  to  its  inhabitants  relate  to 
regions  lying  much  farther  to  the  south.  As  the 
geographical  knowledge  of  the  ancients  increased, 
the  I"'inns  appear  further  to  the  north,  inhabiting 
the  Thule  of  Procopius  and  the  Scanzia  of  Jor- 
danes,  and  in  the  account  of  the  latter  are  divided 
into  several  stems.  It  is  difficult  exactly  to  dis- 
tinguish Lapps  and  Finns  in  old  times,  since  only 
the  latter  general  appellation  is  employed,  as  well 
from  the  incompleteness  of  the  accounts,  as  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  question,  affecting  a  race 
of  men  whose  antiquity  has  no  history  apart  from 
that  of  their  neighbours.  If  we  look  to  their  pre- 
sent condition,  a  marked  diversity  appears.  The 
Finns  still  refuse  to  acknowledge  theii*  consan- 
guinity to  the  Laplanders  ;  the  latter  think  it  an 
honour  that  they  can  claim  kindred  with  the  Finns. 
Every  man  who  has  himself  resided  among  these 
races  in  Northern  Scandinavia,  must  have  received 
a  lively  impression  of  the  great  differences,  both 
physical  and  moral,  prevailing  between  them. 
Whatever  weight  may  with  reason  be  laid  on  these 
variations  of  aspect,  still  the  admitted  and  indis- 
putable affinity  of  their  languages  evinces  on  the 

••  Fenn  in  old  Swedish.  Compare  Ancient  History  of 
Sweden,  415. 

5  Lehrherg  (Untersuch.  &c.),  Inquiry  into  the  Ancient 
History  of  Russia,  223,  212.  No  one  is  more  given  to  perplex  a 
simple  subject  than  this  otherwise  meritorious  writer.  The 
Lapps  are  said  to  have  translated  the  Scandinavian  Fenn  bythe 
Finnish  Suomi,  and  taken  the  latter  (pronounced  Same),  for 
their  own  name ;  but  when  the  Finns  learned  this,  they 
took  the  word  from  the  Lapps,  and  made  the  name  their 
I  own.  This  is  nearly  the  result  of  the  views  advanced  by 
Lehrberg,  1.  c.  p.  210—212. 

5  Suomi,  of  which  the  Lappic  Same  is  only  a  varied  pro- 
nunciation, is  an  abbreviation  of  Suomenmaa,  and  this  again 
of  Suomithenmaa;  closely  translated,  the  land  of  the  marsh- 
dwellers,  from  suo,  marsh,  mies,  gen.  miehan,  man,  and  maa, 
land.  Riihs,  Finland  and  its  Inhabitants  ;  augmented  by  A. 
J.  Arwidson,  Stockholm,  1827,  ii.  1.  Hence  the  Finns  of 
Finland  call  themselves  Suoraalaiset ;  the  Esthonians,  So- 
melassed ;  the  Lapps,  Sabmelads.  The  same  idea  lies  in 
Kaiimlaiset,  from  kaino,  low,  as  the  Finns  of  Kajana,  and 
Hiimelaiset,  as  the  Tavasters  style  themselves.  Karjalaiset, 
the  indigenous  name  of  the  Carelians,  conies  from  karja, 
cattle,  whence  karjainen,  herdsman  (laiset  is  a  termination 
answering  to  ish). 

7  Joh.  Cajani,  Account  of  the  Visitation  in  the  Parish  of 
Paldamo  in  Ififio.     Abo  Transactions,  177",  p.  127. 

s  Walilenberg  on  Kemi  Lappmark,  25. 

0  From  the  Fennie  loppu,  finis,  extremitas.  Tornaeus, 
ScliefTer,  and  also  Lehrberg  look  upon  this  derivation  as 
probable.    In  the  Lappic,  lapp,  lappa  means  a  cleft  or  cavity 

I 


other  baud  that  both  belong  to  the  same  stock.  A 
singular  mi.xtvire  of  selfishness,  mistrust,  and  } 
childish  feeling  characterizes  the  Lapp  ;  a  decided 
and  energetic  temjierament,  with  a  warineiBS  that  is 
often  sullen,  the  Finn.  "  The  man  by  his  tongue, 
and  the  ox  by  his  horn,"  says  the  Finnish  j)ro- 
verb.  The  energy  of  the  Finns  applied  to  cultiva- 
tion, and  clearing  the  ground  by  fire,  a  sort  of  no- 
madic agriculture,  appears  to  have  been  practised 
by  them  from  very  early  times.  The  Lapps  of 
the  mountains,  on  the  contrary,  are  so  engrained 
in  their  primitive  wildness,  that,  despite  the  pro- 
vident spirit  of  Christianity,  and  the  cares  of  a 
paternal  government,  they  otter  the  spectacle  of  a 
people  dying  off  before  cultivation.  Yet  the  pro- 
cess of  transition  from  one  state  to  the  other  may 
be  observed.  The  old  Q,uens  and  Carelians  lived 
in  the  forests  after  the  fashion  of  the  Lapps,  chiefly 
on  the  products  of  the  chase,  and  from  this  cause 
raha,  skin,  is  used  at  present,  both  in  the  Finnish 
and  Laj)pic  tongues,  to  denote  money,  the  chief 
representative  of  value.  Not  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  the  Finns  in  the  interior  of  East 
Bothnia  and  Kajana  lived  with  their  rein-deers 
almost  after  the  fashion  of  Laplanders  ^.  Fisher 
Lapps  as  they  are  called,  often  of  Finnish  extrac- 
tion, are  still  found  in  Kemi  Lappmark  *.  Lapps 
are  first  heard  of  within  the  limits  of  Scandinavia 
in  the  twelfth  century ;  this  a[)pellation  seems  to 
have  originated  with  the  Finns  themselves,  and  is 
probably  oldest  on  the  other  side  of  the  Baltic. 
Lapps,  as  a  frontier  people,  which  is  implied  in  the 
word^ ,  have  been  found  among  and  near  the  Finns, 
as  far  south  as  Esthland,  and  afterwards  in  Fin- 
land, from  the  inner  side  of  the  gulf,  to  the  Icy 
Sea.  From  Upper  Finland  they  were  driven  out  by 
the  Tavastrians  chiefly,  in  times  not  yet  very  dis- 
tant ;  this  is  that  expulsion  from  Finland,  of  which 
the  Lapps  themselves  retain  the  tradition  ^.  In 
Noi'them  Scandinavia  we  again  meet  with  them, 

(probably  the  same  word  with  the  foregoing),  and  lappot,  to  be 
lost.  The  Lapps,  as  is  known,  dislike  this  name,  but  are 
pleased  at  being  called  Finns. 

1  Missionaries  in  Esthland,  from  Riga,  mention  a  "  pro- 
vincia  extrema,"  named  Lappegunda,  in  the  year  1220. 
Gruber,  Orig.  Liv.  148.  In  a  bull  of  Gregory  IX.  of  12.30, 
the  heathens  of  Carelia,  Ingria,  Lappia  and  Vatlandia,  are 
forbidden  to  carry  arms,  in  order  that  they  may  be  debarred 
from  practising  cruelties  against  the  Swedish  Christians. 
Thus  the  Lapps  are  here  mentioned  with  the  Carelians,  In- 
grians,  and  Vatlanders  (the  last  belong  to  the  district  of 
Koporia  and  Ingermauland),  all  of  them  unquestionably 
Finns,  and  must  have  been  situated  in  their  vicinity.  In 
Finland  the  former  presence  of  Lapps  is  often  discoverable 
from  the  names  of  places,  as  Lappinjarwi  (Lapp  lake),  Lap- 
pinsalmi  (Lapp  bay),  Lappinkangas  (Lapp  ridge),  Lappin- 
linna  (Lapp  tower),  Lappinrauniot  (Lapp  cairn),  Lappin- 
ranta  (Lapp  strand,  also  called  Wildmanstrand) ;  and  in  the 
Swedish  parishes  Lapptriisk  (Lapp  marsh),  Lappfiard  (Lapp 
firth);  Lappwik  (Lapp  bay),  Lappdal  (Lapp  dale),  &c.  From 
Tavastland  upwards,  their  remains  and  memorials  are  nu- 
merous. 

2  This  tradition,  among  the  Swedish  Lapplanders,  has  a 
two-fold  reference.  They  speak  partly  of  an  expulsion  from 
Finland  (Scheffer,  Tonieeus),  partly  of  one  from  Sweden 
(Hogstriim).  According  to  the  latter,  they  maintain  that 
the  Swede  and  the  Lapp  were  originally  brothers.  A  storm 
burst  ;  the  Swede  was  affrighted,  and  took  shelter  under  a 
board,  which  God  made  into  a  house ;  but  the  Lapp  remained 
without.  Since  that  time  the  Swedes  dwell  in  liouses,  but 
the  Lapps  under  the  bare  sky.     See  Note  C. 


Vestijjes 


TOPOGRAPHY,  SETTLEMENT,  AND  CULTURE.  in  Swedtn. 


29 


blended  with  other  Finns,  although  in  a  subject 
state.  Among  the  inhabitants  of  Finnmark  are 
expressly  noted  several  races  of  "  Finns,  with 
Lapps  and  Carelians  ',"  whence  it  appears  that  the 
Finnish  name  was  used  in  a  more  comprehensive, 
as  well  as  a  restricted  application.  Below  Finn- 
mark  was  Quenland,  where  the  Kajaners  or  Quens 
roamed,  but  among  them  too,  and  in  contact  with 
them,  Lapps  are  found,  for  in  an  inroad  by  the  for- 
mer tribe  into  Norway,  these  are  represented  as 
opposing  them  and  being  defeated  *. 

Among  these  nomadic  races  the  first  Swedish 
settlers  in  Non-land  shew  themselves,  at  first  par- 
taking, afterwai'ds  levying  tribute  upon  the  pro- 
duce of  their  hunts,  herds,  and  fisheries,  but  from 
the  beginning  distinguished  by  fixed  dwelling- 
places,  liusbandry,  and  trade  ;  wherefore  the  Lapp 
deduced  the  name  by  which  he  spoke  of  the  Swedes 
from  the  relations  under  which  these  first  became 
known  to  him  ^.  Expulsion  was  the  lot  reserved  for 
the  wanderer,  but  the  process  was  of  gradual  ac- 
complishment. The  new  settlers  mostly  followed 
the  coast-line,  and  the  interior  long  remained 
ill  the  same  condition  as  of  old.  In  the  eleventh 
century  we  find  a  Swedish  prince  going  to  dis- 
possess the  Quens",  and  in  the  same  age  Hel- 
singland  was  still  called  the  main  seat  of  the 
Skridfinns  '.  They  roamed  over  wide  tracts  of 
wilderness  into  the  forests  of  Vermeland  ^,  and 
were  probably  the  same  with  those  Lapps,  of 
whom  memorials  and  traces  are  still  to  be  found 
in  Dalecarlia*.  That  Lapps  and  Finns  therefore 
were  found  formerly  as  at  present  in  Norrland 
and  the  Lappmarks,  does  not  admit  of  doubt. 
Probably  this  also  applies  partly  to  middle  Sweden, 
although  their  position  is  more  obscure,  cultivation 
being  here  older,  and  the  nomadic  life  passing 
away  before  it  was  reached  by  the  dawning  light 
of  history.     The  isles  of  Aland  and  Quarkeu  have 

3  Ancient  History  of  Sweden,  463,  n.  4. 

•'  Fundin  Noregur. 

*  A  Swede  generally  is  styled  in  the  Lappic  tongue  Ladde- 
lats,  which,  both  by  application  and  derivation  means  land- 
dweller  ;  also  Taro,  tarolats,  tradesman,  from  tarrohet, 
taret,  to  sell.     (Tariff?  Tnrj,  Swed.,  requirement,  want.) 

6  Scholiast  to  Adam  of  Bremen,  de  sit.  Dan.  p.  78,  in 
Lindenbrog,  Script.  Septentr.  p.  59.  Quenland  is  here,  by 
the  same  misapprehension  as  in  Adam,  styled  Terra  foemi- 
narum. 

7  Quorum  (soil.  Scritefingorum)  caput  Helsingaland  Adam. 
Brem.  That  the  Swedes  had  already  begun  to  settle  upon 
the  coasts,  is  attested  both  by  Adam  and  Sturleson ;  for  his 
expression  as  to  the  Suiones,  "  longis  terrarura  spatiis  reg- 
nant," that  is,  far  above  Birca,  would  be  imsuitable,  if  they 
had  not  already  before  his  time  crossed  the  Dal  river,  and 
begun  the  colonization  of  Norrland. 

8  Vermilani  cum  Scritefingis.     Adam.  Brem. 

9  At  the  cattle-stalls  of  Finnbo,  near  Lake  Hinsen,  in  the 
parishes  of  Svardsio  and  Sundborn,  there  are  graves  of  small 
size  overgrown  with  grass,  which  the  inhabitants  call  Lapp- 
graves. 

1  Among  the  islands  of  Quarken,  -which  even  on  the  Fin- 
nish side  have  most  of  them  Swedish  names,  thout;h  with 
some  Fennic  among  them,  the  so-called  Lapp-oren  (Lapp- 
isles),  lie  at  the  outermost  point;  and  in  the  Aland  isles,  on 
the  Finnish  side,  in  the  midst  of  Fennic  and  Swedish  names, 
we  find  Lappvesi  and  Lappii. 

2  Aland  has  a  great  number  of  barrows,  in  which  burned 
earthen  jars  have  been  found,  and  many  names  preserve  the 
memory  of  Lappic  and  Fennic  inhabitants  ;  for  example, 
Lappbijle,  Koskinpa,  Jomala;  Finnstrom,  Finnby,  Finno, 
Finnbo,  Finholm.   Compare  RadlofT  (Beskrifning  om  Aland), 


been  from  early  times  stations  of  transit  between 
Sweden  and  Finland.  Swedish  colonies  found  their 
way  by  this  passage,  some  along  the  Gulf  of 
Finland  to  Nyland  and  Russia,  others  to  East 
Bothnia ;  and  earlier,  in  remote  antiquity,  Lapps 
and  Finns  had  crossed  by  the  same  route  to 
Sweden  *.  Aland,  with  a  Swedish  population 
which,  as  the  graves  show,  existed  in  the  age  of 
cremation,  is  full  of  traces  of  Lappic  and  Finnish 
inhabitants  still  more  ancient  ^.  From  these 
islands  they  arrived  in  Roslagen,  and  Northern 
Upland,  to  many  places  in  which  they  have  given 
names*,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  Finns,  properly 
so  called,  spread  farther  into  the  country.  Their 
former  intercourse  with  Roslagen  is  the  more  un- 
doubted, as  they  applied  this  name  to  the  whole 
of  Sweden  *.  That  during  the  middle  age  they 
were  still  to  be  found  in  the  interior,  may  be 
inferred  from  the  tradition  which  ascribes  to  the 
Finns  the  discovery  of  the  chief  mines  of  middle 
Swerlen  ^.  Their  manner  of  living  in  the  forests, 
where  the  mining  districts  were  afterwards  formed, 
gave  currency  to  this  notion.  The  preparation  of 
marsh-iron  was  known  to  them  from  an  early 
period  ^  ;  an  old  Finnish  Rune  sings  of  the  birth  of 
iron  '.  In  the  Fennic  tongue  every  handicraftsman 
is  called  a  smith ',  and  Finnish  swords  are  men- 
tioned in  the  Icelandic  sagas.  The  most  famous 
smith  known  to  the  ancient  north,  and  celebrated 
in  the  Edda,  is  the  son  of  a  Finnish  king  on 
the  borders  of  Suithiod  8,  and  in  later  times  the 
Finns  retained  the  praise  of  excelling  in  the  labours 
of  the  forge.  The  most  southerly  vestige  of  Finns 
Proper  in  Scandinavia  is  to  be  found  in  the  saga  of 
the  discovery  of  Norway  ;  which  represents  a  chief 
of  the  Quens  as  finding  kinsmen  on  the  little  island 
of  Lesso  in  the  Cattegat. 

Yet  the  Lapps  and  Finns  appear  to  have  stood 
in  dissimilar  relations  to  ancient  Suithiod.  That 
intercourse  subsisted  at  an  early  period  between 

Description  of  Aland.  From  the  name  of  Jomala  (God),  it 
may  be  inferred  that  here  was  a  Finnish  altar.  Yet  several 
barrows  are  found  in  this  parish,  and  of  this  manner  of  in- 
terment I  know  of  no  example  among  the  Finns. 

3  In  Roslagen  and  Northern  Upland  are  found  the  names 
Finnsta,  Finnaker,  Finnsibn,  Finskog ;  and  in  the  parish  of 
Hafverd  the  so-called  Lapp-pits. 

■*  Ruotzi  or  Ruotzimaa,  Sweden  ;  Ruotzilainen,  a  Swede. 
Among  the  Lapps,  who  adopted  these  appellations,  Ruothi 
and  Ruotteladz. 

*  Thus,  according  to  tradition,  the  mine  of  Falun  is  said 
to  have  been  discovered  by  a  Finn  from  Thorsang.  The 
silver  mine  at  Sala  was  also,  it  is  said,  discovered  by  Finns, 
who  kept  it  a  secret ;  and  the  town  of  Sala  had  its  name  from 
the  Fennic  salan,  to  hide,  or  sala,  secret.  An  old  mine  at  this 
place  is  still  called  Finn-pit,  and  Finns  inhabited  the  miners' 
village  to  the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  Finns  now 
living  in  the  forests  of  Dalecarlia  are  the  descendants  of  later 
immigrants,  who  all  received  letters  of  denization  from 
Charles  IX.  and  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

5  For  marsh-ore  (myrnialm),  which  our  ancestors  called 
grasjem,  the  Finns  have  a  native  appellation,  h'alvi'd.  Iron 
in  the  Fennic  and  Lappic  is  called  rauta,  route,  and  the 
hundred  of  Rautalambi  in  Finland  has  its  name  from  rauta 
and  lammi,  lake  or  marsh — thus  from  marsh-iron. 

"  Rautan  synty.  Compare  Schrbter,  Fennic  Runes.  An 
incantation  song  in  general  is  called  synty  (birth),  because, 
according  to  the  popular  notion,  in  order  to  cast  out  evil,  we 
must  first  be  able  to  ttU  its  origin. 

"  Seppa. 

9  Compare  Volundar  Quida  in  the  elder  Edda. 


30 


Described  by 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


old  writers. 


the  Swedes  and  both  these  tribes  is  manifest,  if 
only  from  the  influence  of  our  language  on  those 
spoken  by  them,  which  radically  differ  from  it  so 
widely ;  an  influence  remarkably  great  on  the 
Lappic  ',  and  important  also  on  the  Fennic,  which 
has  borrowed  from  the  Swedish  all  words  having 
reference  to  civic  government,  and  culture  ^.  All 
the  Finns  Proper  who  have  been  found  in  Scandi- 
navia immigrated  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  gulf 
of  Bothnia  and  out  of  Finland.  This  can  be  said 
only  in  part  of  the  Lapps,  who  consider  themselves 
as  the  aboriginal  denizens  of  Sweden  ^  and  Nor- 
way ■",  but  whom  history  cannot  accompany  so  far 
back.  The  Norwegians  and  Icelanders,  from  whom 
the  oldest  accounts  have  come  to  us,  became  earlier 
acquainted  with  them  than  with  the  Finns  of  Fin- 
land, with  whom  on  the  other  hand  the  old  Swedes 
were  oftenest  brought  in  hostile  or  amicable  con- 
tact. By  the  former,  therefore,  the  name  of  Finns 
was  applied  chiefly  to  the  Lapps,  and  such  were 
the  Finns  whom  they  speak  of  as  scattered  in  the 
ninth  century  along  the  whole  frontier  between 
Sweden  and  Norway.  Such,  consequently,  were 
also  the  Scridfinns  whom  Adam  of  Bremen  places 
northwest  of  the  Swedes  above  the  Vermelanders, 
and  therefore  in  the  present  Dalecarlia.  So  too 
the  Finns  whose  first  abode  was  in  the  old  frontier 
forests  of  West-Gothland  *,  after  whom  the  Finn 
heaths  or  wolds  of  Smaland  were  already  named  in 
the  sixth  century  ^.  Old  Sweden  had  thus  its 
Finn  woods,  like  that  of  modern  days.  In  these 
he  Lapps  retained  their  stations,  and  the  Fiuns 
also  partially  occupied  them,  until,  surrounded  and 

'  Of  1 1 ,433  words  contained  in  the  Lexicon  Lapponicum 
of  Lindahl  and  Ohrling  (Holm.  1780),  about  one  tenth,  by 
computation,  are  borrowed  from  the  Swedish,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fundamental  dissimilarity  of  both  languages. 

2  For  example ;  kuningas  (konung,  king),  tuomari  (domare, 
judge),  valtakunta  (valde,  power),  ruthinas  (drott),  esivalta 
(authority),  sakko  (sak,  boter,  plea,  fine),  kaupungi  (kbping, 
place), tori  (torg,  market), mar kina(marknad,  fair),  and  others; 
also  the  names  of  most  handicrafts  except  of  the  smith  and 
weaver  (kanguri).  On  the  other  hand,  the  terms  for  cattle- 
breeding,  hunting,  navigation,  agriculture,  are  indigenous. 
Though  the  northern  sagas  speak  of  Finnish  kings.  It  is  only 
by  a  transference  of  this  name  to  the  ideas  of  father  of  a 
family,  overseer,  ruler,  for  which  there  are  Finnic  words. 

^  Compare  Ancient  History  of  Sweden,  419,  n.  9. 

■•  The  Lapps  of  Norway,  especially  those  with  fixed  abodes, 
who  desire  to  be  called  Finns,  and  contemn  the  Norsemen, 
as  well  as  the  wandering  Lapps,  maintain  that  they  are  the 
true  old  inhabitants  of  all  Norway.  Rask  on  the  Ancient 
Northern  Language,  p.  114. 

'  In  Adam  of  Bremen,  Finnvedi.  Compare  above.  In 
Kind's  Hundred  of  West-Gotliland,  one  parish  still  bears 
the  name  of  Finne-kumla. 

*  FinnaithcB,  in  Jordanes,  is  so  like  Fineyde,  that  we  can 
recognize  their  identity.  It  has  been  objected,  that  in  the 
Finnwold  (Finn  heden).  there  are  no  Fennic  or  Lappic  names 
remaining;  some,  however,  may  be  found.  Sulivara,  a  vil- 
lage in  the  parish  of  Angulstad,  may  be  named.  Even  were 
this  the  only  example,  it  should  be  considered  that  names  of 
estates  and  granges  matter  little  in  this  question.  Those  of 
mountains,  forests,  lakes,  streams,  the  original  features  of 
nature,  are  of  greater  importance,  although  even  their  appel- 
lations are  changed.  Tlie  Swedes  were  always  and  from  of 
old  peculiarly  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  and  with  tlieir  labour 
they  everywhere  baptized  it,  even  where  others  had  preceded 
them.  I  am  myself  from  a  province  (Vermeland),  where 
there  have  been  Finn  woods  from  the  time  of  Cliarles  IX., 
when  Finns  were  brought  from  Savolax  in  Finland  to  Verme- 
land, a  kind  of  colonization,  of  which  there  seem  to  have 
been   prior   examples    here ;    but    Swedish   names   always 


cut  off  by  advancing  cultivation,  they  were  either 
extirpated  or  blended  with  the  Swedes,  of  which 
several  later  settlements  of  Fennic  immigrants  in 
the  forests  of  Sweden  furnish  examples.  So  late  as 
the  eleventh  century,  eye-witnesses  relate '  that  the 
mountainous  tracts  of  Sweden  had  other  inhabit- 
ants than  the  cultivated  districts.  In  those  dwelt 
a  wild  people,  who  sometimes  yearly,  and  some- 
times every  third  year,  broke  from  their  unknown 
lurking  pljices,  and  spread  devastation  over  the 
levels,  iniless  vigorously  opposed,  retreating  with 
equal  haste.  These  remnants  of  Fennic  races  are 
demonstrably  the  Jotuners  or  Jotuns  of  the  heathen 
Scalds  *  and  of  Snorro  Sturleson  ^ ;  and  probably 
also  the  Huns  of  later  ])opular  legends,  to  whom  the 
names  of  so  many  places  in  Southern  Sweden  refer. 


Of  the  Swedish  polity  we  will  here  merely 
sketch  the  outlines,  deferring  their  further  deve- 
lopement  until  we  approach  the  consideration  of 
the  old  laws,  which  in  their  present  shape  belong 
to  the  Christian  period,  although  resting  on  princi- 
ples of  higher  antiquity. 

Among  all  the  Germanic  races,  the  Scandi- 
navians pre-eminently  retained  the  conception  of 
the  divine  origin  of  the  first  social  union.  Their 
earliest  rulers  are  styled  Diar,  Drottnar,  denomi- 
nations applying  in  common  to  gods,  priests,  and 
judges.  With  twelve  such  did  Odin  sit  in  judg- 
ment, and  with  twelve  of  the  wisest  men  the  Up- 
sala  king  uttered  his  decrees  in  his  court '.  The 
great  yearly  sacrifices  assembled  and  united  the 
people.     At  the  place  of  their  celebration  peace 

sprung  up  with  Swedish  settlements,  so  that  few  or  no  Fennic 
appellations  were  preserved  in  those  quarters  where  were 
formerly  settlements  or  wolds  of  the  Finns  ;  even  real  Fin- 
nish villages  of  the  parishes  of  Ny  and  Dalby  in  Vermeland 
bear  among  their  Swedisli  neighbours  names  quite  different 
from  those  of  the  Finns  themselves.  In  Norrland,  also  in 
the  parish  of  Nether  Tornea,  where  the  Finns  are  most  nu- 
merous, the  Swedish  names  of  the  hamlets  are  often  trans- 
lations of  the  Fennic.  This  custom  with  our  ancestors,  of 
changing  Fennic  into  Swedish  appellations,  is  so  old,  that 
the  Sagas,  though  full  of  intimations  as  to  the  Intercourse  be- 
tween the  two  races,  have  not  preserved  a  single  Fennic  name. 

7  Ab  his,  qui  hsec  se  vidisse  testantur.  Ad.  Brem.  Hist. 
Eccles.  c.  232. 

8  Thor  is  called  by  the  heathen  Scalds  the  "  overthrower 
of  the  altars  of  the  Fornjolic  god,"  "  the  conqueror  of  the 
mountain  god,"  "  the  slayer  of  the  mountain-wolves,  the  hill- 
folk,  the  sons  of  the  rocks,  the  Jotnar."  He  cast  to  the 
ground,  they  say,  "  the  king  of  the  people  of  the  earth-holes, 
and  the  chief  of  the  Finns  on  the  fells."  See  the  passages 
cited  in  "  Ancient  History  of  Sweden,"  274. 

9  Heimskr.  Saga  of  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  c.  25.  Many 
proofs  may  be  brought  to  shew  that  this  was  generally  the 
meaning  of  the  Icelanders.  So  for  example  Snorro  says  that 
Norway  stretched  from  the  Gbta  river  to  Finmark ;  Heimskr. 
Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  59.  This  is  manifestly  the  same 
boundary  line  given  in  the  Fundin  Noregur  (in  Bibrner,  p. 
6),  where  it  is  said  that  Norway  is  the  name  of  the  whole 
country  from  Jotunheim  southwards  to  Alfheim.  Jotnnheim 
and  Finnmark  were  therefore  one  and  the  same.  But  the 
first,  which  was  the  mythic  denomination,  receded  con- 
tinually towards  the  north-east.  Jotunheim,  as  the  opposite 
of  Manheim  or  Suithiod,  originally  bounded  the  latter  on 
the  north,  and  embraced  even  Swedish  Norrland,  formerly 
inhabited  by  Quens  and  Lapps.  Here,  too,  lay  the  fabulous 
Hunaland,  which  in  Ketil  Heng's  Saga,  c.  6,  is  mentioned  in 
connexiim  with  Gestricland,  although  this  Hunaland,  like 
.Jotunheim,  was  removed  higher  to  the  north.  The  Huns  of 
the  popular  legends  mean  heathens  or  barbarians  generally. 

'  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  96. 


Social  life 


ANCIENT  POLITY  AND  MANNERS. 


in  heatlien  times. 


31 


was  enforced  *,  and  mere  participation  therein  im- 
ported peace  between  the  rival  races  ^.  Under  the 
shield  of  peace  the  sacrifice  with  the  attendant 
banquet  was  prepared ;  deliberations  were  held, 
sentence  passed,  and  trafKc  conducted,  for  which 
reason  Ting,  the  old  name  of  these  conventions, 
means  both  sacrifice,  banquet,  diet,  assize,  and 
fair  *.  Odin  it  is  said  took  possession  of  the  land 
by  erecting  a  temple  and  sacrificing  after  the 
manner  of  the  Asae,  and  the  people  paid  tribute  to 
him,  that  he  might  sacrifice  in  their  behalf  for  a 
plentiful  harvest.  Thus  the  right  of  property,  as 
well  as  agriculture,  proceeded  from  the  gods. 
The  herds  of  our  forefathers  constituted  their 
principal  wealth  ;  whence  they  used  the  word  (fa, 
cattle)  as  synonymous  with  property  in  general, 
and  sought  for  no  other  standard  of  value.  Upon 
the  celebration  of  the  great  national  sacrifices  in 
Upsala  was  founded  the  claim  and  right  of  the 
Swedes  to  give  a  sovereign  to  the  whole  realm,  for 
the  Upsala  king  was  guardian  of  the  holy  altar,  as 
the  heathen  Scald  calls  him  *.  The  household  no 
less  than  the  commonwealth  was  based  upon  the 
worship  of  the  gods,  and  therefore  the  particle  ve, 
vi,  occurring  in  the  name  of  so  many  places, 
means  both  a  dwelling  generally  and  a  sanctuary  *. 
The  father  of  a  family,  on  the  pillars  surrounding 
whose  high  seat  were  carved  the  images  of  the 
gods',  was  called  himself,  like  the  prince,  Drott, 
and  was  priest,  judge,  and  leader  for  his  household. 
Marriage,  as  conformable  to  law,  was  distinguished 
from  irregular  connexions,  but  did  not  exclude 
them.  Along  with  his  wedded  wife,  who  was 
called  Adalkona  ^,  a  man  might  without  blame 
keep  concubines  ;  but  the  heritable  estate  passed 
to  the  legitimate  children,  although  the  illegitimate 
were  not  otherwise  excluded  from  all  inheritance. 
As  with  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  among  all 
Pagans,  the  father  was  free  either  to  expose  or 
bi'ing  up  a  new-born  child  ;  in  the  latter  case  he 
raised  it  from  the  earth  in  his  arms,  and  had  it 
sprinkled  with  water  and  named  in  the  presence 
of  his  chief  kinsmen.  A  purchase  concluded  with 
the  father  or  the  nearest  relative  (though  it  was 
rather  a  sjTnbolical  expression  for  contract  gene- 
rally), was  the  legal  form  of  matrimony,  and  made 
the  children  legitimately  born  (lagfijdda).  The 
legally  married  spouse,  as  distinguished  from  the 
woman  who  had  been  seduced  or  stolen  away  in 

2  A  place  thus  set  under  a  seal  of  peace  was  called  Helgi 
stadr,  holy  place,  and  Gritha  stadr,  place  of  peace,  even 
among  the  gods,  who  likewise  kept  their  court.  Edda, 
Damisaga,  49. 

3  The  participation  of  the  Fylkiskings  in  the  sacrifices  was 
a  proof  that  they  were  at  peace  with  the  over-king  or  drott. 
Ynglingasaga,  c.  42. 

■•  Hence  the  word  "ting"  still  occurs  in  the  names  of 
several  fairs. 

''  Thiodolf,  in  the  Ynglingasaga,  c.  24. 

s  Compare  Hallenberg  (AnmSrkuingar,  &c.),  Remarks  on 
Lagerbring's  Swedish  History,  ii.  285.  If  it  were  a  temple, 
the  name  of  the  god  to  whom  it  was  dedicated  was  prefixed, 
as  Odensvi,  Frbsvi,  Thorsvi,  &c.  The  terminations  lund,  sal, 
hog,  in  local  names,  also  generally  mark  old  places  of  sacrifice. 

?  Eyrbyggia  Saga,  c.  4. 

^  More  frequently  there  was  only  one,  but  there  are  ex- 
amples of  kings,  as  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  having  several 
wives. 

9  Medh  mundok  medh  maeli.  Law  of  West-Gothland, 
Arf.  B.  f.  7.  Mund  was  the  gift  or  purchase-money,  answer- 
ing to  hemfylgd,  the  portion  which  the  bride  received  from 
her  parents. 


war,  was  said  to  be  won  '  by  gifts  and  speech' ',  or 
was,  as  in  Homer,  bought  with  presents  '.  The 
gods  took  to  themselves  wives  after  the  same 
fashion  ^.  Titer's  hammer,  laid  upon  the  loiee  of 
the  veiled  bride,  inaugurated  her  into  her  uew 
destiny  ^,  as  the  same  sign  consecrated  the  funeral 
pile  on  which  the  dead  were  burned  *.  The  god's 
mace  is  probably  symbolized  also  by  the  wedge- 
shaped  pebbles,  so  often  met  with  in  old  graves, 
and  called  by  tlie  common  people  Thor's  wedges 
(Thorviggar).  Adoration  of  the  gods,  as  among 
almost  all  nations,  was  united  with  the  commemo- 
ration of  the  dead.  Hence  their  assemblies  for 
religious  solemnities  were  called  hoga-tings  ^,  as  the 
sacrifices  were  for  the  most  part  offered  at  the 
baiTows  in  which  their  relics  were  inclosed.  Here 
also  were  held  the  kemp-games,  athletic  sports  of 
a  jovial  and  martial  character ;  whence  the  sagas 
speak  of  the  play-grounds  (leke-valla)  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  ting-sites,  of  which  names  and 
customs  still  observed  in  some  places  revive  the  re- 
membrance. After  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
too,  we  find  the  churches,  in  allusion  to  this  old 
usage,  not  unfrequently  built  in  the  vicinity  of 
heathen  places  of  burial.  For  this  life  as  for  that 
to  come,  an  oath  was  regarded  as  the  strongest 
bond.  After  death,  the  perjurer  wandered  with 
the  murderer  and  the  adulterer  "  in  streams  of 
venom,  at  the  strand  of  corpses  remote  from  the 
sun,  in  the  castle  which  is  woven  of  the  spines  of 
snakes  ^,"  and  among  the  common  people  of  Sweden 
a  sapng  yet  holds,  that  no  grass  will  grow  on  the 
grave  of  a  perjurer. 

The  same  religion  which  in  certain  conjunctures 
lent  its  sanction  to  peace,  made  veugeance  for 
bloodshed  the  holiest  of  duties ',  and  thereby  gene- 
rated incessant  feuds,  the  bitterness  of  which  was 
little  mitigated  by  the  determinate  fines  through 
which  the  laws  opened  a  path  to  reconciliation.  A 
violent  death  was  deemed  so  pleasing  to  the  gods, 
that  it  was  not  sought  for  in  the  field  of  battle  only  ; 
"  to  gash  oneself  to  Odin  with  the  sword"  was 
deemed  better  than  to  die  of  sickness  or  of  old  age. 
Those  who  were  advanced  in  years  precipitated 
themselves  from  lofty  cliffs,  which  thence  received 
the  appellation  of  kith-rocks,  and  so  "  fared  to  Val- 
halla ^."  Three  such  cliffs  in  West- Gothland  and 
Bleking  still  bear  the  latter  name  ^,  and  to  another 

1  Mundi-keypt. 

2  Frey's  consort  was  gulli-keypt,  gold-bought,  .^gisdr.  in 
the  elder  Edda,  str.  42.  This  too  is  Homeric.  When  Vul- 
can surprised  Mars  and  Venus,  he  demanded  back  the  bride- 
gifts  from  Jupiter.     Odys.  viii.,  318. 

3  Hammarsheimt  in  the  elder  Edda,  str.  .32. 

''  Thor  consecrates  with  his  hammer  the  funeral  pile  of 
Balder. 

5  On  the  Hiiga-ting  see  Heimskr.,  Saga  of  Harald  Gylle,  e. 
2.  Hence  some  barrows  are  still  called  Tingshbgar,  as  for 
example  one  by  Old  Upsala.  To  wrestle  on  these  barrows 
is  a  custom  not  yet  extinct.     See  Note  D. 

6  Voluspa,  str.  44,  45.  , 

'  The  heritage  could  not  be  taken  possession  of,  or  the 
funeral-feast  held,  before  the  slain  man  was  avenged.  Vatns- 
daela  Saga,  c.  23. 

'  jEtte-stupor.  Compare  GBtrek's  and  Rolf's  Saga,  c.  1, 
2,  which  mentions  one  such  in  West-Gothland.  The  word 
is  from  stapi,  rock. 

"  Hard  by  the  parish  church  of  Hellaryd  in  Bleking  is  a 
steep  rock  called  Valhall,  down  from  which,  as  the  tradition 
runs,  men  formerly  threw  themselves  into  the  Val  loch, 
which  lies  at  its  foot.  A  similar  precipice  is  found  upon  the 
hill  of  Valhall  by  the  lake  Strengen,  in  Kylingared  parish  of 


32 


Formation  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


original  commonwealth. 


the  remarkable  statement  attaches,  that  the  people, 
after  dances  and  sports,  threw  themselves  headlong 
from  its  top  into  the  lake  ',  as  the  ancients  relate 
of  the  Hyperboreans  and  Scythians  2.  Domestic 
legends  even  inform  us,  that  if  a  man  became  bed- 
ridden and  frail  with  age,  his  kinsmen  would  as- 
semble and  put  him  to  death  with  a  club  ^. 

The  joys  of  Valhalla  were  reserved  for  the  free- 
born,  and  especially  the  noble  and  rich  warrior. 
To  arrive  in  Valhalla  with  a  numerous  and  well- 
approved  escort,  was  honourable.  To  come  with 
great  property  secured  happiness  ;  for  so  much 
wealth  as  a  man  brought  with  him  to  the  funeral 
pile,  or  was  buried  in  the  earth,  the  like  happiness 
he  enjoyed  in  a  future  life,  and  as  no  inherited  but 
only  acquired  treasures  were  allowed  to  accom- 
pany the  dead  man  to  the  grave,  it  was  this  belief 
which  induced  the  inhabitant  of  the  north  to  devote 
so  great  a  part  of  his  life  to  robbery  and  piracy. 
On  the  other  hand  "  it  was  not  good  to  journey 
poor  to  Odin  * ; "  so  that  there  was  reason  to  doubt 
whether  the  poor  man  was  considered  worthy  of  a 
place  in  his  hall,  in  case  he  came  not  from  the 
field  of  battle  in  the  bloody  train  of  a  great  lord. 
Slaves  at  least  were  decidedly  excluded,  and  after 
death  were  relegated  to  Thor  *. 

In  their  capacity  of  members  of  the  common- 
wealth, the  people  were  recognized  only  as  bear- 
ing arms  ;  they  were  called  Sveahar,  or  the  host  of 
the  Swedes*,  and  Suithiod  means  the  army-folk. 
The  great  Ting  of  Upsala  was  called  Allslidrjarting, 
that  is,  an  assembly  of  the  whole  army,  whereof 
part  every  year  marched  to  war,  after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  spring  sacrifice,  under  the  command  of 
its  princes.  Therefore  Upland,  the  chief  seat  of 
Odin's  followers  and  the  first  Suithiod,  was  pre- 
eminently the  land  of  the  people  or  the  army,  and 
embraced  the  three  so-called  Folklands.  To  the 
same  warlike  polity  appertained  the  division  into 
Hundreds  or  H'arads,  words  which  have  the  same 
meaning  ' ;  a  like  arrangement  is  mentioned  by 
Tacitus  among  the  Germans  s.  But  for  the  know- 
ledge of  the  ancient  social  fabric  of  the  north,  the 
best  illustrations  are  supplied  by  the  Icelanders, 
among  whom  we  see  this  constitution  again  re- 
viving as  it  were  before  our  eyes,  in  a  multitude  of 
small  associations  united  among  themselves,  and 
established,  as  in  the  mother-land,  for  purposes  of 

West-Gothland.  At  Halleberg  in  the  same  province  the 
upper  part  of  the  hill  is  called  by  the  people  Vahlehall  ( Val- 
hall),  and  it  is  said  that  those  who  threw  themselves  over 
were  afterwards  washed  in  a  pond  now  almost  overgrown, 
called  Onskalla,  Odin's  fountain. 

'  See  the  account  of  the  rock  Stafva  Hall  in  Lindskog, 
Description  of  the  diocese  of  Skara,  iv.  106. 

2  Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  iv.l2.  Pompon.  Melade  Situ  Orbis,  iii.  5. 

3  Such  a  club  (called  jette-klubba,  kith-club),  with  the 
tradition  of  the  purpose  to  which  it  was  formerly  applied, 
was  long  preserved,  and  perhaps  still  is,  at  the  farm  of 
TruUerum,  in  the  parish  of  Noira  Vi,  Hundred  of  Ydre,  in 
East-Gothland. 

■<  Gbtrek's  and  Rolf's  Saga,  c.  2.  (Valhalla  is  hall  of  the 
chosen  or  wale.     T.) 

5  Harbardsliijd  in  the  elder  Edda,  str.  32. 
"  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  96. 

7  Har  was  a  term  for  a  number  of  at  least  a  hundred.   Edda. 

8  Centeni  ex  singulis  pagis. 

9  Such  a  band  following  a  particular  leader  was  called 
Sveit,  Suet  (Law  of  East  Gothland,  B.  B.  f.  8.)  or  Suit. 
From  suit,  war  following;,  army,  and  Ihioti,  people,  the  name 
of  Suithiod  was  probably  formed. 


common  defence,  judicature,  and  worship.  When 
the  first  colonist  approached  the  shores  of  Iceland, 
he  threw  the  props  of  his  high  seat  into  the  sea, 
and  vowed  to  settle  in  the  spot  where  they  should 
come  to  land ;  and  this  proceeding,  by  which  the 
gods,  as  iu  old  Suithiod,  first  took  possession  of 
their  new  home,  was  said  to  be  done  after  the 
ancient  manner.  When  a  place  of  abode  had  been 
selected,  fire  was  usually  carried  round  the  tract 
which  was  to  be  occupied,  and  this  was  called  '  con- 
secrating the  land  to  oneself.'  The  leader  now 
divided  the  land  he  had  chosen  among  his  re- 
latives, friends,  and  followers.  The  rank  which 
he  had  filled  on  ship-l)oard  among  the  crew  followed 
him  to  land,  and  remained  hereditary  to  his  de- 
scendants, although  with  some  admixture  of  the 
elective  principle.  From  his  band  of  warriors, 
now  settled  around  him^,  the  hundred  was  formed; 
a  temple  was  erected,  and  maintained  by  common 
contributions,  at  which  the  Ting  was  held ;  the 
legal  oath  was  taken  at  the  altar  on  a  ring  dyed 
with  the  blood  of  the  victim,  and  with  invocations 
of  the  gods ' ;  in  the  public  assemblies  the  chief 
wore  this  ring  on  his  hand ;  and  from  his  priestly 
functions  arose  his  title  of  Godordsman  (the  man 
of  God's  word),  that  is,  speaker  in  the  name  of  the 
gods,  and  therefore  judge  and  reconciler.  In  this 
description  we  recognise  the  chiefs  of  the  Hundred 
in  old  Suithiod,  and  their  Hundred  Courts,  where, 
as  among  the  Greeks  of  the  heroic  age,  who  have 
so  much  in  common  with  the  old  Scandinavians, 
the  judges  sat  under  the  open  sky  in  a  holy  circle 
upon  stones  2.  The  old  title  of  this  functionary  was 
Herse  ^  ;  a  higher  office  was  that  of  Jarl.  Both 
bore  the  title  originally  attached  to  princely  rank  *, 
and  were  hence  also  called  kings  of  the  hundred. 
Conjointly  they  formed  a  kind  of  nobility ;  for 
Konung  denotes  in  our  old  language  a  man  of 
birth'.  The  kings  of  Upsala,  when  this  title  had 
become  usual  instead  of  that  of  drott,  were  dis- 
tinguished from  the  rest  by  a  paramount  sovereign 
authority ;  and  it  was  the  attempt  to  outroot  the 
various  subordinate  princes  which  overturned  the 
dynasty  of  the  Ynglings.  Under  that  of  Ivar  they 
ceased  to  exist  as  rulers,  but  there  was  still  no 
scarcity  of  kings,  for  all  the  sons  assumed  the  title, 
even  though  without  the  dominion.  It  was  their 
prerogative  to  gather  around  themselves  a  retinue 

'  This  oath  was  called  baug-eid  (ring  oath).  Havamal. 
str.  112.  Also  temple-oath.  The  Chronicon  Saxonicum  ed. 
Gibson  relates  that  the  most  solemn  oath  of  the  northern 
heathens  who  ravaged  England  was  taken  upon  the  holy  ring. 

2  Iliad  xviii.  504.  The  old  Domare-ringar,  or  doomsters' 
rings,  so  often  met  with  in  Sweden,  and  the  expression  of 
the  old  laws,  '  to  come  to  ting  and  ring'  (Law  of  Westman- 
land,  Manb.  B.  f.  75.)  are  evidences  of  this  custom.  (See 
Note  E.)  The  inner  ring  was  surrounded  by  an  outer  one  of 
hazel  stangs,  bound  together  with  willow  rods,  called  vebiind, 
the  holy  bands.  Whosoever  broke  them  was  a  violator  of 
the  sanctuary.  From  Egil's  Saga  we  learn  that  a  judicial 
process  might  be  annulled  by  such  an  occurrence.  (The 
harads  hlifding,  and  hdrads  ting  of  the  text  are  now  the  judge 
and  court  of  a  district.    T.) 

3  So  for  example  in  the  Landnama  Saga,  one  Gorm  is 
mentioned,  married  to  Thora,  daughter  of  king  Eric  of  Up- 
sala, as  a  powerful  Swedish  Herse. 

■i  The  Tignar-name,  or  title  of  dignity.  Kings  of  the 
harad  or  fylke  (district,  explained  by  some  to  be  the  same 
word  as  folk). 

'  iiTrj^r  means  a  man  of  birth;  Kniiung,  his  son.  (Hence 
by  abbreviation  also  kung  or  knvg.    T.) 


Free  and  iinfree. 


ANCIENT  POLITY  AND  MANNERS. 


Houses ;  occupations.         33 


of  champions  and  waniors ;  they  were  called  host- 
kings,  sea-kings,  and  wore  in  right  of  their  birth 
leaders  of  those  warlike  bands  which  devastated 
the  European  coasts.  This  uninterrupted  devotion 
to  war  in  the  remaining  houses  of  kingly  rank,  ap- 
pears to  have  induced  the  people  to  elect  from 
their  own  number  guardians  of  their  interests,  for 
their  defence  against  the  arbitrai-y  violences  of 
the  sovereign. 

Thus  arose  the  power  of  the  Lagman  ^,  which 
attained  such  great  importance  towards  the  end  of 
the  heathen  period.  They  were  chosen  by  the  peo- 
ple, but  did  not  venture  to  assume  the  Tignar 
name,  which  began  to  be  confined  to  the  officers  of 
the  royal  household.  The  Lagmen,  themselves 
peasants,  stood  at  the  head  of  this  class  in  their 
own  province,  and  had  the  chief  voice  in  its  court 
(land-ting),  where  they  expounded  the  law  with 
the  best  skilled  and  most  discreet  of  the  people. 
They  spoke  also  in  the  name  of  the  people  to  the 
king,  in  the  great  assemblies  of  the  nation '. 

The  odalbonders,  or  free-born  yeomen,  composed 
the  body  of  the  nation,  or  more  correctly  of  the 
different  nations,  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  various 
provinces  became  dissociated  from  one  another  by 
distinct  codes  of  laws,  administered  in  each  by  its 
own  justiciary.  There  were  besides  unfree  persons 
and  slaves,  for  the  most  part  captives  in  war  ; 
these  were  beyond  the  pale  of  the  law  and  the 
land's  right,  and  dependent  on  the  good  pleasure 
of  their  masters.  This  might  raise  them  to  wealth 
and  power  ;  and  we  find  the  slave  Tunue,  treasurer 
of  king  Ann  the  Aged  in  Sweden,  powerful  enough 
to  rise  against  his  son  and  successor ;  but  they 
could  neither  contract  legitimate  marriages,  nor  in 
general  acquire  property,  although  their  condition 
was  tolerable  under  a  good  master.  It  is  related 
of  Erling,  a  Norwegian  herse,  that  he  had  pre- 
scribed to  his  slaves  a  fixed  day's  work,  after  the 
completion  of  which  they  were  allowed  to  labour 
in  the  evening  on  their  own  account  till  they  had 
earned  their  ransom,  and  there  were  few  who  did  not 
redeem  themselves  within  three  years.  With  the 
price  of  their  liberty  Erling  purchased  other  slaves ; 
his  freedmen  he  employed  in  the  herring  fishery 
and  the  like  gainful  labour,  or  permitted  to  build 
cots  and  settle  in  the  forest  *. 

The  first  teachers  of  Christianity  describe  old 
Sweden  as  a  fruitful  territory,  with  wide-stretching 
woodlands  and  waters,  rich  meadows,  abounding  in 
honey  and  herds  of  kiue,  which  were  often  tended 
by  the  best-born  men  of  the  land  *.  Rye  and  bar- 
ley-fields are  spoken  of  iu  the  sagas ;  oats,  which 
according  to  Pliny  the  Germans  cultivated,  must 
also  have  been  early  known  in  the  North  ;  wheat 
we  find  as  an  article  of  traffic.  Mention  is  made 
also  in  ancient  records,  and  sometimes  even  in  the 
mythic  songs,  of  ploughing  both  with  horses  and 
oxen,  of  sowing  and  harvest,  of  the  brewing  of  beer 
and  mead,  and  the  bakmg  of  bread.  Malt  and  but- 
ter formed  part  of  the  tributes  paid  to  the  king  at 
Christmas  ^  ;  to  eat  raw  flesh  was  held  a  mark  of 

c  Lit.  Lawman,  now  the  judge  of  a  province. 

7  In  the  Icelandic  republic,  which  presents  to  us  the 
Scandinavian  constitution  without  a  king,  the  highest  office 
was  that  of  Lagman.  In  the  earliest  times  he  was  called 
alsherjargode,  priest  of  the  whole  people.   (See  Note  F.) 

s  Heimskr.  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  123. 

9  Ad.  Brem. 

1  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  253. 


barbarism '.  At  the  sacrificial  feasts,  to  which  the 
peasants  brought  victuals  and  beer,  when  the  vic- 
tims had  been  slaughtered,  the  idols,  the  walls  of 
the  temple  within  and  without,  and  the  assembled 
people,  were  besprinkled  with  blood  ;  the  boiled 
flesh  and  broth  were  then  eaten.  Food  and  drink 
were  blessed  with  Thor's  hanmier-sign  ^.  The 
houses  and  likewise  the  temples  were  for  the  most 
part  of  wood,  surrounded  with  a  palisade  or  fence. 
In  the  dwellings  of  the  principal  men  there  were 
upper  chambers  under  the  roof,  corresponding  to 
the  sleeping-rooms  in  the  houses  of  the  country 
people  in  modern  times.  It  was  from  such  an 
apartment  that  king  Fiolner  fell  into  the  vat  of 
mead.  The  more  indigent  were  sometimes  reduced 
to  live  in  caves.  In  the  houses  the  floor  was  of 
earth,  covered  on  solemn  occasions  with  straw  ; 
the  fire  burned  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and 
the  smoke  obtained  vent  through  an  aperture 
called  the  wind-eye  (vindogat)  in  the  roof  or  wall. 
By  the  walls  stood  long  benches  with  tables  before 
them ;  on  the  inner  side  of  these  the  guests  sat, 
and  drank  to  each  other  across  the  chamber,  the 
beer  being  sent  over  the  fire.  The  king  and  queen 
sat  on  the  chair  of  state  in  the  midmost  jilace  of 
the  bench  which  was  tm'ned  towards  the  sun.  On 
the  bench  overagainst  them  was  placed  the  prin- 
cipal guest  *  ;  men  and  women  sat  in  pairs  and 
drank  with  one  another.  This  was  the  manner  of 
peace  ;  but  the  usage  of  the  Vikings,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  to  exclude  women  from  the  drinking 
parties  ^. 

Knitting  and  weaving  were  as  usual  the  occu- 
pations of  the  female  sex.  Brynhild  wove  in  gold 
the  famous  exploits  of  Sigurd  ^.  Raguar  Lodbioc's 
standard,  with  the  figure  of  a  raven,  to  which 
honours  almost  divine  were  paid  by  the  northern 
pagans,  was  wrouglit  by  his  daughters'.  Examples 
are  found  of  splendour  in  arms,  raiment,  and  or- 
naments, but  generally  wadmal  (the  woollen-cloth 
above-mentioned)  was  an  acceptable  present  even 
to  a  queen.  The  arts  of  divination  and  medicine 
were  also  practised  by  women,  w  ho  were  not  entire 
strangers  even  to  the  fatigues  of  war.  The  shield- 
maiden  (skolde-mo)  was  dedicated  to  Odin,  and 
forbidden  to  wed  ;  her  love  brought  calamity. 

The  artists  most  highly  esteemed  were,  as  in 
Homer,  the  poet,  the  soothsayer,  the  leech,  the 
armourer.  The  weapons  and  fleets  of  the  Vikings 
show  that  iron  was  in  use  at  an  early  period.  Pre- 
viously, arms  were  made  of  copper  or  a  metal 
mixed  with  copjier,  and  the  oldest  of  stone.  The 
implements  of  flint  stone  found  in  graves  are  often 
religious  symbols. 

In  the  exercise  of  northern  hospitality,  the  old 
Swedes  surpassed  every  other  people.  Piracy 
brought  into  the  country  abundance  of  foreign 
wares  * ;  and  the  hoards  often  dug  up  show  that 
gold  and  silver  could  not  have  been  scarce.  The 
poor  were  so  few,  that  the  first  Christians  could 
only  find  a  use  for  their  alms  in  foreign  countries^. 

-  Compare  Orvar  Odd's  Saga. 
3  Heimskr.  Saga  of  Haco  the  Good,  c.  16,  17. 
^  Gunnlaug  Ormstungas  Saga.     Copen.  1778,  s.  138. 
''  Ynglingasaga,  c.  41. 

'^  Songs  of  Sigurd  and  Brynhild  in  the  elder  Edda. 
7  Asserus,  Vita  Alfredi. 
P  Ad.  Brem. 

'■>  Quia  hie  minus  pauperes  inveniuntur.  Vita  Anscharii, 
c.  17. 


34 


Fruits  and  relics 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


of  Paganism. 


{ 


A.  D. 

826. 


The  manners  of  the  people  were  martial  and  sim- 
ple, but  through  piracy  and  the  traffic  in  mcMi,  whieli 
was  united  with  it,  they  were  often  hardened  into 
cruelty.  In  the  latter  days  of  heathenism  they  be- 
came more  and  more  savage,  as  the  hoi'rid  cruelties 
of  the  expeditious  of  the  Northmen  and  their  out- 
rages upon  women  prove  *,  Human  sacrifices  were 
not  seldom  the  prelude  of  such  an  enterprize^; 
they  were  commonly  a  punishment  for  malefactors, 
but  sometimes  the  shedding  of  noble  blood  was 
deemed  requisite,  even  the  nearest  and  dearest. 
"  In  that  time,  when  men  believed  in  groves  and 
mounds,  in  holy  places  and  palings  " — it  is  said  in 
the  appendix  to  the  old  law  of  Gothland — "  then 
sacrificed  they  to  the  heathen  gods  their  sons  and 
daughters,  and  their  cattle,  with  meat  and  drink." 
A  Cliristian  related  that  he  had  seen  seventy-two 
dead  bodies  of  immolated  men  and  animals  hanging 
in  the  sacred  grove  of  the  temple  at  Upsala,  which 
shone  with  gold,  and  in  the  interior  of  which  were 
set  up  the  images  of  Odin,  Thor,  and  Frey  ^. 
After  a  thousand  years  which  have  passed  away 


since  the  first  preaching  of  Christianity  in  Sweden, 
Odin  is  yet  remembered  in  the  popular  creed, 
although  only  as  an  evil  spirit.  "  Go  to  Odin,"  is 
a  curse  which  is  sometimes  heai'd  ;  and  the  miser 
who  hoards  treasvn-e  is  said  to  be  serving  Odin. 
When  unknown  noises  are  heard  in  the  night,  as  of 
horses  and  waggons,  Odin,  it  is  said,  passes  by*. 
Of  his  hunt  and  his  horses  there  are  stories  cur- 
rent in  several  provinces,  for  example  in  Upland, 
in  Smaland,  so  rich  in  recollections  of  the  heathen 
time,  and  also  in  Scania  and  Bleking,  where  it  was 
usual  among  the  peasants  when  reajiing  to  leave  a 
sheaf  behind  them  in  the  field  for  Odin's  steeds*. 
Of  Odin,  Thor,  and  his  battles  with  the  giants, 
legends  resembling  the  mythes  of  the  Edda  have 
been  transcribed  from  the  recital  of  the  Sma- 
landers  ^.  The  thunder  is  termed  by  the  Swedes 
Thor's  din';  hills,  fountains,  and  groves,  or  other 
spots  named  after  Thor,  Odin,  and  Frey,  are  met 
with  in  every  quarter  of  the  land,  and  a  plant,  of 
which  the  Edda  says  that  it  is  light  as  Baider's 
eye-brow  *,  is  still  called  in  Scania  Baider's  brow  ^. 


CHAPTER  III. 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY.     CONTESTS  OF  THE  SWEDES  AND  GOTHS 

FOR  SUPREMACY. 

CONVERSION    TO    CHRISTIANITY.        EXTINCTION    OF    THE   OLD    DYNASTY    OF    UPSALA.        STENKIL    AND    HIS    HOUSE. 
SWERKER,    ST.    ERIC,    AND    THE   PRINCES   OF    THEIR   FAMILIES. 

A.  D.  800— 12.'^0. 


To  the  emperor  Lodovic  the  Pious,  we  are  told, 
came  messengers  from  the  Swedes,  who  announced 
among  other  tidings  that  many  of  their  people 
longed  to  embrace  the  Christian  ftiith,  that  their 
king  was  not  disinclined  to  give  audience  to  the 
teachers  who  proclaimed  it,  and  it  was  their  wish 
that  such  persons  might  be  sent  into  their  country. 
Ill  that  day  lived  Anskar,  a  Frank  by  birth,  who 
was  devoted  at  an  early  age  to  the  monastic  life, 
and  became  rector  of  the  school  attached  to  the 
old  convent  of  Corbey  in  Picardy,  and  afterwards 
in  that  of  the  more  I'ecent  foundation  of  the  same 
name  in  AVestphalia.  He  was  a  zealous  preacher, 
and  from  his  childhood  had  felt  a  lively  call  to 
dedicate  himself  to  the  conversion  of  the  heathen. 
Therefore,  when  in  826  Harald  king  of  Jutland 
received  baptism  in  Mentz,  and  no  one  would 
venture  to  follow  him  to  his  dominions  to  preach 
the  gospel  in  Denmark,  Anskar  readily  consented 
to  accompany  him  on  that  errand  ;  but  when  this 
prince  was  forced  to  flight,  and  could  no  longer 
give  him  protection,  he  opened  a  school  upon  the 
frontier  of  the  Pagans.  In  tliis  he  gave  instruction 
to  youths,  whom  he  had  himself  redeemed  from 
captivity  and  slavery,  and  probably  he  now  ac- 
quired a  knowledge  of  the  Northern  tongue.  Thus 
more  than  two  years  passed  away,  until  the  request 
of  the  Swedish  envoys  again  fixed  the  attention  of 
men  upon  the  young  and  ardent  preceptor.  Anskar 

■  Compare  Sermo  Liipi  ad  Anglos,  in  Langebek,  S.  R. 
Dan.  ii.,  witl\  the  accounts  of  tlie  manners  of  the  Russian 
Varagians  in  Karamsin. 

2  Dudo  in  Ducliesne,  Script.  Norman. 

3  Ad.  ]!rem. 

''  Loccenius,  Anti(|Uit.  Snco-Ootli.  c  .3. 


was  not  yet  twenty-eight  years  old ',  when  he 
was  summoned  to  the  presence  of  the  emperor 
Lodovic,  who  questioned  him  whether  he  was  will- 
ing to  visit  the  distant  north,  heretofore  almost  un- 
known, or  known  only  as  the  terror  of  Europe,  in 
order  to  preach  the  faith  of  Christ  to  its  inhabitants. 
Accepting  the  mission  gladly,  he  obtained  a  par- 
taker of  his  labours,  a  pious  brother  of  his  convent 
named  Withmar,  who  was  still  alive  when  the  life 
of  Anskar,  from  which  we  extract  this  account, 
was  written.  They  journeyed  in  the  company  of 
traders ;  and  probably  the  Swedish  envoys  were 
themselves  men  of  this  class,  who  from  their  con- 
verse with  Christians  had  conceived  an  inclination 
for  the  Christian  faith,  and  had  found  in  their  own 
vocation  a  motive  for  wishing  to  open  a  peace- 
ful intercourse  between  their  country  and  the 
Christian  world.  Traffic  was  still  conducted  with 
arms  in  the  hand  of  the  merchant,  as  the  envoys 
experienced  to  their  cost  ;  for  on  their  return  they 
were  exposed  to  repeated  attacks  fi'om  the  pirates 
who  swarmed  in  the  waters  of  the  Baltic.  In  the 
last  of  these  combats  the  traders  were  over- 
powered, and  losing  their  ship,  were  obliged  to 
flee  to  the  land.  Anskar  shared  the  same  fortune, 
but  he  was  undismayed  by  calamity  and  continued 
his  journey.    He  passed  sometimes  through  forests, 

5  A  similar  custom  among  the  peasants  of  Mecklenburg  is 
mentioned  by  Frank.     Old  and  New  Mecklenburg,  p.  57. 

6  See  Topographica  on  Smaland,  in  the  Palmskiild  manu- 
script collections  in  the  Library  of  Upsala. 

7  Thordcin. 

"  Daemisaga,  22. 

9  Baldersbia.     Anthemis  Cotula.     Svensk  Botanik,  429. 

'  Chronologia  Anschariana,  in  Langebek,  1.  496. 


A.  D. 

829. 


J         Mission  of  Anskar.  INTRODUCTION   OF  CHRISTIANITY.  His  character. 


35 


sometimes  in  a  boat  over  great  lakes,  which  the 
narrative  Ukens  to  the  sea,  until  with  his  com- 
panions he  reached  Birca,  a  haven,  or  as  it  is  also 
called,  a  staple  and  village  upon  the  Mtular  lake, 
where  rich  merchants  resided.  Here  he  was  wel- 
comed by  king  Bioi'n,  and  found  the  statements  of 
the  messengers  confirmed.  For  many  Christian 
captives  lived  in  these  regions  who  longed  eagerly 
for  teachers,  and  these  had  imparted  the  knowledge 
of  Christianity  to  others  also  who  desired  instruction 
and  baptism.  Among  them  was  a  chief  man  of  the 
place  and  the  king's  councillor,  Hergeir,  a  zealous 
disciple  of  the  gospel,  who  erected  the  first  church. 
This  first  journey  of  Anskar  to  Sweden  was  made 
in  the  autumn  of  829;  and  the  following  year, 
which  he  passed  there,  was  the  first  of  his  Chris- 
tian labours  among  the  Swedes. 

This  king  Biorn,  to  whom  Anskar  came,  is  with- 
out doubt  the  same  called  Biorn  of  the  Hill  (at 
Haugi)  by  the  Icelanders,  who  have  indeed  pre- 
served only  his  name,  with  the  addition  that  one  of 
the  most  famous  heathen  Scalds,  Brage  the  Aged, 
dwelt  in  his  court.  They  assign  him  a  colleague 
in  his  office,  Edmund,  of  whom  we  shall  have  more 
to  say.  Returning  from  Sweden,  Anskar  was  in- 
ducted into  the  archbishopric  lately  erected  in 
Hamburg  for  the  conversion  of  the  north,  but 
found  this  new  dignity  more  fertile  in  danger  than 
profit.  Hamburg,  at  first  only  a  village,  with  a 
castle  founded  by  Charles  the  Great,  among  the 
forests  on  the  bank  of  the  Elbe,  was  surprised  by 
the  Northern  sea-kings  and  destroyed ;  the  arch- 
bishop was  obliged  to  abandon  his  charge.  Gaut- 
bert,  who  had  been  despatched  to  Sweden  as  a 
missionary,  was  at  the  same  time  expelled  ;  Nithard 
his  nephew  was  killed,  and  the  Christians  were 
persecuted  by  the  above-mentioned  king  Edmund, 
who  having  been  restored  from  exile  by  Danish 
assistance,  had  eventually  reconciled  himself  to  his 
countrymen.  From  his  new  archiepiscopal  seat  of 
Bremen  Anskar  continued  the  work  he  had  begun, 
and  when  no  one  else  would  undertake  the  perilous 
adventure,  revisited  Sweden  himself  in  the  year 
853.  There  was  now  another  king  in  Birca,  who 
was  called  Olof,  and  the  Swedes,  assembled  in  their 
diet  (ting),  had  resolved  to  adopt  one  of  their  for- 
mer rulers,  named  Eric,  among  the  gods  of  their 
country.  Anskar's  ancient  friends  advised  him  to 
save  his  life  by  flight  ;  he  succeeded  however, 
using  even  gifts,  in  winning  the  king's  favour, 
who  promised  to  lay  his  petition  before  the  people  ; 
"  for  such  is  their  custom,"  says  the  biographer 
and  follower  of  An.skar,  who  accompanied  him  in 
this  journey',  "  that  all  public  affairs  hinge  more 
upon  the  concoi'dant  will  of  the  people  than  upon 
the  power  of  the  sovereign^".  It  was  determined 
in  the  diet  that  by  means  of  the  sacred  lots  (a  sort 
of  oracle  which  Tacitus  mentions),  the  old  gods 
should  be  consulted  respectmg  the  new  faith.  The 
answer  is  said  to  have  turned  out  favourably  to  the 
request  of  the  Christian  teachers,  and  in  the  diet 
an  old  man  stood  up,  and  spoke  to  this  eifect : 
"  Hear  me,  king  and  people.     Of  this  God  it  is  not 

~  Compare  Vita  Anscharii.  c.  24,  and  Vita  Remberti,  c.  9. 

3  Sic  quippe  apud  eos  nioris  est,  ut  quodcunque  negotium 
publicum  niagis  in  populi  unanima  voluiitate,  quam  in  regia 
consistat  potestate. 

■*  Formerly  a  famous  staple,  now  a  village  {Wyk  te  Duer- 
stede),  near  Utrecht.  (The  Anglo-Saxon  Willibrord,  apostle 
of  the  Frisians,  was  appointed  metropolitan  of  their  country 


unknown,  that  he  helps  those  who  put  their  trust 
in  him,  a  thing  which  many  of  us  in  the  dangers  of 
the  sea  and  other  perils  have  proved.  Wherefore 
then  should  we  reject  what  is  needful  and  profit- 
able for  us,  or  seek  afar  off  that  which  is  offered  to 
us  at  home  ?  For  some  of  our  people,  for  the 
sake  of  this  faith,  have  journeyed  even  to  Dorstad  *. 
Therefore  do  I  advise  that  we  should  receive 
among  us  the  servants  of  this  God,  who  is  mighty 
above  all,  and  whose  grace  will  stand  us  in  good 
stead,  if  our  own  gods  should  prove  unfavourable  to 
us."  When  the  people  had  given  their  consent,  the 
king  expressed  his  conciu'rence,  yet  with  the  con- 
dition that  in  the  other  part  of  his  dominion  (pro- 
bably the  Goths),  the  matter  should  be  proposed 
and  approved  by  an  assembled  diet ;  which  was 
accordingly  done,  and  the  Christian  teachers  were 
permitted  by  a  decree  to  reside  and  give  instruc- 
tion in  the  country.  A  church  was  founded  whilst 
Anskar  remained,  and  after  he  had  finally  departed, 
he  continvied,  as  long  as  he  lived,  to  make  provision 
for  the  supply  of  instructors  to  the  Swedes.  He  in- 
culcated on  them  the  maxim,  to  ask  of  no  man's 
goods,  but  to  labour  with  their  own  hands  for  sup- 
port, and  he  himself  used  to  twist  nets  ^.  Though 
simple  and  meek  of  heart,  he  was  a  man  of  lofty 
courage.  His  revenues  he  employed  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  indigent  and  the  ransom  of  captives, 
and  he  was  generally  surrounded  by  youth  whom 
he  had  redeemed  from  slavery,  and  was  instructing. 
He  brought  back  with  him  from  Sweden  persons 
who  had  been  thus  dragged  from  their  homes  into 
thraldom,  and  his  biographer  mentions  the  emotion 
with  which  he  restored  to  a  mother  the  son  of 
whom  she  had  been  robbed  by  Swedish  freebooters. 
Among  the  neighbouring  Saxons  north  of  the 
Elbe  ^,  he  abolished  the  shameful  traffic  in  men, 
with  which  those  so-called  Christians  defiled  them- 
.selves.  He  regarded  his  dreams  as  prophetic,  was 
full  of  reverence  for  the  miracles  of  the  saints, 
and  was  himself  after  death  venerated  as  a  saint ; 
but  it  was  said  of  him  while  he  lived,  that  "  so  good 
a  man  had  never  been  seen  on  earth."  That  his 
own  labours  in  Sweden  were  not  barren  of  fruit,  is 
proved  by  such  examples  as  those  of  Hergeir  and 
Fridburg ',  and  m  all  likelihood  the  sparks  kindled 
by  him  were  never  entirely  extinguished,  although 
a  century  and  a  half  elapsed  before  Sweden  re- 
ceived a  Christian  king,  and  another  period  of  the 
same  duration  passed  away  in  the  contest  between 
Paganism  and  Christianity. 

After  the  death  of  Anskar  in  865,  no  Christian 
teacher,  his  immediate  successor  Rimbert  excepted, 
ventured  during  seventy  years  to  Sweden ;  and 
when  after  the  expiring  of  this  period  Unne 
archbishop  of  Bremen  came  to  Birca,  where  he 
died,  the  people  seem  to  have  relapsed  into  heathen- 
ism. At  this  time  the  king  of  Sweden  is  said  to 
have  been  called  Ring,  who  to  the  Icelanders  is  as 
little  known  as  the  Olave  already  mentioned ;  yet 
the  latter  was  powerful  enough  to  win  by  arms  a 
kingdom  in  Denmark  for  himself,  and  to  transmit 
it  to  his  sous  *.      This  is  the  same  Olave  of  whom 

by  pope  Sergius  in  696,  and  received  the  castle  of  Utrecht 
for  his  arohiepiscopal  seat  from  Charles  Martel.  SteLingard, 
History  and  Antiquities  of  the  Anglo-  Saxon  Church,  c.  xiv.  T.) 

5  Vita  Anscharii,  c.  30. 

6  The  Nordelbingers. 

7  Vita  Anscharii,  c.  16,  17. 

P  Ad.  Brem.  Hist.  Eccles.  i.  c.  51,  40. 
d2 


36 


Scandinavian 
enterprises. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Eric  the  Victorious. 


r     A.  D 

1 885— y; 


983. 


the  life  of  Anskar  relates,  that  he  undertook  an  ex- 
pedition against  the  Curians  who  had  thrown  off 
the  Swedish  yoke,  and  I'educed  their  country  again 
to  pay  tribute.  Within  this  period  also  fall  the 
conquests  of  the  Swedisli  king  Eric  Edmundson  in 
the  East,  where  he  is  said  to  have  subjugated  Finn- 
land,  Carelia,  Estland,  and  Courland  (Kurland), 
which  were  in  aftertimes  called  the  old  depen- 
dencies of  Sweden  ^.  These  statements  coincide 
with  Nestor's  account  of  the  foundation  of  Varan- 
gian rule  iimong  the  Slavons  and  Finns.  Thus 
these  recollections  illustrate  each  other,  and  stand 
in  undoubted  connexion.  For  although  the  names 
neither  of  Ruric  nor  his  brothers  are  known  to 
northern  poetry,  the  sagas  afford  no  exact  catalogue 
of  the  Swedish  kings,  in  a  period  when  royal  birth 
and  a  warlike  retinue  conferred  the  title  on  every 
leader,  and  the  sea-kings  swarmed  in  all  waters. 

We  find  ourselves  now  in  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century,  which  forms  in  several  respects  a 
new  epoch.  The  first  seeds  of  Christianity  in  the 
north  were  sown  amidst  the  tempest  of  the  northern 
invasions,  which  at  this  time  raged  most  fiercely,  and 
made  the  conversion  of  the  Northmen  the  common 
interest  of  all  Christendom.  The  Danish  monarchy 
was  founded  by  Gorm,  who  united  Denmark  under 
one  head.  The  royalty  of  the  old  Upsala  kings, 
oi'iginally  resting  on  their  sacerdotal  character, 
now  appears  more  firmly  established  over  both 
Swedes  and  Goths,  for  the  jiowerful  Eric  Edmund- 
son  is  mentioned  as  the  undisputed  sovereign  of 
both  nations.  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  a  descend- 
ant of  the  Yngling  line  which  had  been  overthrown 
in  Sweden,  broke  the  power  of  the  inferior  princes 
in  Norway,  and  first  raised  liimself  to  the  master- 
dom  over  its  entire  territory.  The  new  sway  pro- 
duced an  extensive  emigration  of  malcontents  and 
fugitives,  one  division  of  whom,  under  Rolf's  com- 
mand, established  themselves  in  Normandy,  whence 
England  was  conquered  and  the  thi-one  of  Naples 
erected.  To  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  islands  of 
the  Western  Sea,  fresh  bands  of  warlike  adven- 
turers streamed  forth  upon  the  well-known  track. 
Swedish  Norrland  received  new  settlers ;  Iceland, 
one  of  whose  discoverers  was  a  Swede,  and  to 
which  several  sons  of  Swedish  princes  removed, 
was  colonized,  and  the  coasts  of  Greenland  and 
North  America  were  soon  visited  from  this  point 
by  maritime  adventurers.  Among  Icelandic  fires 
and  snows  a  new  focus  of  northern  poetry  was 
kindled,  while  the  number  of  contemporary  wit- 
nesses from  the  time  of  Harald  the  Fair-haired 
imparts  greater  certitude  to  the  testimony  of  the 
sagas.  Snorro  Sturleson^  who  observes  a  long 
silence  regarding  Sweden  subsequently  to  the  fall 
of  the  Yngling  line,  now  sometimes  removes  liis 
narrative  to  Swedish  gi'ound,  and  for  the  his- 
tory of  the  north  we  begin  to  obtain  a  determi- 
nate chronology.  Eric  Edmundson,  having  sub- 
jected to  his  power  that  part  of  Norway  which 
formerly  made  part  of  Ragnar's  dominions,  was 
stripped  of  it  by  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  and  con- 
tinued at  war  with  him  to  his  death  for  the  posses- 
sion of  Vermeland ;  he  died,  says  Snorro,  when 
Harald  had  been  for  ten  years  sovereign  of  Nor- 
way. If  we  reckon  from  the  year  in  which  the 
latter  acquired  the  whole  of  Norway  ',  the  decease 
of  Eric  Edmimdson  will  fall  in  885. 

9  Ska/tlander,  tributary  countries. 


He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Biorn,  whose  whole 
history  is  contained  in  the  honourable  testimony 
which,  eighty  years  after  his  death,  the  Speaker 
(Taleman)  of  the  Swedish  commonalty  bore  to  his 
memory  in  the  assembly  of  the  general  diet,  that 
it  had  fared  well  with  the  realm  of  Sweden  while 
king  Biorn  lived.  He  is  surnamed  the  old,  and  as 
the  Icelanders  give  him  a  reign  of  fifty  years,  we 
may  conclude  that  he  died  in  935.  Eric  and  Olave 
were  his  sons  and  successors ;  since  the  foi-mer  was 
alive  in  993,  they  were  probably  in  early  youth  at 
their  father's  demise.  This  is  also  the  time  in 
which  Ring,  with  his  sons,  is  said  to  have  reigned 
over  Sweden.  As  their  names  are  not  mentioned 
in  the  contest  which  afterwards  arose  within  the 
royal  family,  he  must  either  be  placed  as  regent 
under  the  minority  of  the  legitimate  heii's  to  the 
throne,  or  both  he  and  his  sons  belong  to  the  cla-ss 
of  petty  kings  which,  notwithstanding  the  attempt 
of  Ingiald  to  suppress  them,  we  find  long  after- 
wards subsisting  in  Sweden. 

Eric  and  Olave,  after  they  had  assumed  the 
government,  reigned  conjointly  until  the  latter's 
death.  He  left  a  son  who  is  known  under  the 
name  of  Styrbiorn  the  Strong.  When  the  yonng 
prince  had  reached  his  twelfth  year,  he  refused  all 
further  attendance  at  his  uncle's  board,  and  placed 
himself  on  the  barrow  wherein  the  ashes  of  his 
father  were  deposited,  for  a  token  that  he  chal- 
lenged his  mheritance.  Eric  promised  that  upon 
attaining  his  sixteenth  year,  he  should  have  pos- 
session of  that  part  of  the  kingdom  which  fell  to 
him  by  right ;  meanwhile,  as  he  did  not  cease  to 
instigate  his  friends  to  revolt,  sixty  ships  with  their 
crews  were  given  to  him,  that  he  might  practise  him- 
self in  warlike  and  distant  enterprizes.  Thus  fur- 
nished, Styrbiorn  distinguished  himself  as  a  rover 
by  the  extent  of  his  devastations,  and  became  at 
length  captain  of  Jomsburg,  on  the  Pomeranian 
coast.  This  was  the  most  notorious  seat  of  the 
northern  Vikings,  forming  a  completely  military 
republic,  the  constitution  of  which  reminds  us  of 
the  West  Indian  buccaneers  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. Thence  he  sailed  with  a  great  fleet  to  Swe- 
den, compelling  Harald  Gormson,  king  of  Denmark, 
to  attend  him,  who  therefore  afterwards  abandoned 
him  in  the  hour  of  danger.  But  Styrbiorn  caused 
all  his  ships  to  be  burned,  in  order  to  exclude  every 
hope  but  that  of  victory,  and  marched  towards 
Upsala.  At  Fyrisvall  (a  plain  on  the  stream  of 
Fyris,  in  the  environs  of  Upsala),  was  fought  the 
famous  battle  of  three  days'  duration,  which  gave 
king  Eric  his  surname  of  the  Victorious.  Styrbiorn 
sacrificed  to  Thor ;  Eric  went  in  the  night  to  the 
temple  of  Odin,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  god, 
after  an  interval  of  ten  years  should  have  elapsed. 
Styrbiorn  and  almost  all  his  followers  fell  in  the 
conflict.  When  the  victory  was  won,  Eric  ascended 
an  eminence  by  Upsala,  and  made  enquiry  whether 
any  man  would  recite  an  ode  of  triumph  for  a 
guerdon  from  the  king's  own  hand.  Then  Thor- 
ward  Hialteson  stepped  forward,  poured  forth  the 
song,  and  received  from  his  sovereign  a  golden 
ring.  It  is  remarked  that  he  endited  no  poetry 
either  previously  or  subsequently ;  but  the  two 
strophes  rehearsed  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and 
the  army  have  been  preserved  to  our  own  days  ^. 

'  On  the  year  of  the  battle  in  Hafur's  Firth,  see  Torfaeus, 
Hist.  Norv.  ii.  97. 
2  Thattr  om  Styrbjorn,  in  Miiller's  Sagabibliothek. 


Olave,  his  sun, 
+  A  u.  1024. 


THE  SECOND  DYNASTY  CONTINUED. 


League  against 
Norway. 


37 


The  battle  of  Fyrisvall  was  fought  in  983.  The 
share  which  the  Danisli  king  Harald  Gormson, 
although  against  his  own  will,  had  taken  in  the 
contest,  aftei'wards  pi'oduced  a  war  between  Swe- 
den and  Denmai'k,  in  consequence  of  which  the  son 
of  Harald,  Swen  Fork-beard,  was  driven  from  his 
dominions,  and  Eric  remained  in  possession  of  both 
kingdoms  until  his  death  ^.  This  sovereign  was 
certainly  one  of  the  most  powerful  who  governed 
Sweden  during  the  heathen  age,  yet  he  remarked 
to  an  envoy  from  Norway,  speaking  of  a  rich  pea- 
sant his  subject,  who  had  given  shelter  to  a  fugi- 
tive Norwegian  princess  ;  "  He  is  more  powerful 
than  I  in  many  matters,  and  it  was  not  long  ago 
that  he  had  more  to  say  than  I,  when  we  were  at 
strife  *."  Adam  of  Bremen  also  says,  "  The  Swedes 
have  kings  of  ancient  lineage,  but  their  power  is 
dependent  on  the  people.  What  these  resolve  is 
confirmed  by  the  king  ;  sometimes,  although  re- 
luctantly, they  renounce  their  own  opinion  for  his. 
At  home  they  pride  themselves  on  their  equality  ; 
when  they  go  into  the  field  all  obey  the  king." 
The  first  consi^rt  of  Eric  the  Victorious  was  Sigrid, 
named  the  High-minded,  on  account  of  her  haughty 
disposition.  Although  the  king  separated  from  her, 
she  continued  to  be  a  personage  of  importance,  and 
her  voice  after  his  death  was  most  potential.  She 
contracted  a  new  marriage  with  king  Swen  in 
Denmark,  who  through  this  alliance  in  the  end 
recovered  his  father's  kingdom. 

Olave,  the  son  of  Eric  the  Victorious  by  Sigrid, 
was,  it  is  said,  still  an  infant  in  his  mother's  lap 
when  the  people  offered  their  homage,  and  thence 
received  the  surname  of  the  Lap-king  (skot-ko- 
nung) '.  If  this  were  so,  the  ceremony  must  have 
been  performed  during  his  father's  life-time  ;  for 
the  war  in  which  Olof  bore  an  active  part  shortly 
after  his  accession,  proves  that  he  was  then  no 
longer  in  his  childhood.  In  Norway  a  great  change 
had  taken  place.  The  dominion  of  Harald  the  Fair- 
haired  was  divided  among  his  many  sons,  who  de- 
stroyed each  other  in  mutual  contests.  At  length 
the  Norwegian  earl  Haco  invited  over  Harald 
Gormson,  king  of  Denmark,  who  became  the 
nominal  ruler  of  the  country,  while  Haco  himself 
really  exercised  the  supreme  power.  The  boy 
Olave  Tryggwason,  saved  in  his  mother's  arms 
upon  her  flight  from  Norway,  had  meanwhile 
grown  up  to  man's  estate  amidst  many  singular 
chances,  and  by  his  exploits  in  foreign  lands  had 
gained  himself  a  great  name  for  bravery  and  for- 
tune. He  returned  to  Norway,  overthrew  the 
power  of  earl  Haco,  and  preferred  his  claims  to 
the  crown  as  a  descendant  of  Harald  the  Fair- 
haired.  The  earl  was  killed  by  his  bondsmen  ;  his 
sons  fled  to  Sweden,  and  found  a  protector  in  Olave 
the  lap-king.  About  995,  Olave  Tryggwason  es- 
tablished himself  on  the  Norwegian  throne,  though 
one  portion  of  his  subjects,  dissatisfied  with  this 
revolution,  as  well  as  with  the  headlong  zeal  with 
which  he  sought  to  enforce  Christianity,  seem  to 

3  Ad.  Brem.  ii.  c.  21,  26,  27. 

<  Olof  Tryggvason's  Saga.     Stockholm,  1691,  p.  11. 

''  Olave  is  said  to  have  endowed  the  church  with  lands. 
His  .surname  lias  also  been  referred  to  the  verb  skota,  donare, 
from  skot,  sinus  (because  transference  of  property  was  ac- 
complished by  delivering  an  armfull  of  turf),  and  would  thus 
be  explicable  as  the  donor-king.     T. 

6  Id.  p.  170. 

~  Adam  of  Bremen  was  so  informed  by  the  Danish  king 


have  placed  tliemselves  under  Swedish  superiority  ". 
This  prince  had  been  a  suitor  of  the  powerful 
queen  Sigrid  of  Sweden,  and  had  found  greater 
favour  in  her  eyes  than  his  kinsman  Harald 
Grenske,  whom  she  caused  to  be  seized  and  burned 
alive,  in  order,  as  she  declared,  to  unteach  the  petty 
kings  from  their  habits  of  wooing.  But  when  he 
had  obtained  her  consent,  Olave  demanded  that  she 
should  receive  baptism,  and  on  her  refusing,  he 
struck  her  on  the  face  with  his  glove,  accompanying 
the  act  with  insulting  expression.s.  "  That  will  be 
thy  death,"  exclaimed  Sigrid,  and  she  did  not  lose 
sight  of  her  menace.  She  espoused  afterwards,  as 
already  mentioned,  king  Swen  of  Denmark,  whose 
sister  was  given  in  marriage  to  Olave  Tryggwason. 
The  latter  some  j'ears  afterwards  resolved  upon 
an  expedition  against  the  Veneders,  or  Vandals,  of 
Pomerania,  at  the  desire  of  his  wife,  in  order  to 
win  back  domains  she  had  formerly  possessed  in 
that  territory.  Sigrid  now  formed  an  alliance  be- 
tween her  husband  king  Swen  of  Denmark,  her 
son  king  Olave  of  Sweden,  and  the  sons  of  earl 
Haco,  and  a  plan  was  laid  to  attack  the  Norwegian 
king  on  his  return  with  their  united  forces.  A 
great  fleet  under  the  command  of  the  allied  princes 
was  assembled,  his  ships  were  unexpectedly  sur- 
rounded, and  after  a  desperate  resistance  over- 
powered. Olave  himself,  that  he  might  not  fall 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  plunged  into  the  sea, 
and  was  seen  no  more.  The  battle  was  fought  near 
the  isle  of  Swolder  (probably  Ruden)  on  the  Pome- 
ranian coast,  in  the  year  1000.  Norway  was  divided 
among  the  conquerors,  who  invested  the  sons  of  earl 
Haco  with  the  government  of  the  largest  portion. 

Olave  the  lap-king,  it  is  said  in  the  catalogue  of 
sovereigns  annexed  to  the  old  law  of  West  Goth- 
land, was  the  first  Christian  monarch  of  Sweden, 
and  was  baptized  in  the  well  of  Husaby  in  West 
Gothland  by  the  holy  bishop  Sigfrid.  Christian 
teachers  had  visited  Sweden  from  time  to  time, 
some  of  them  Danes  sent  by  the  archbishop  of 
Bremen,  others  Englishmen,  prompted  by  their 
own  spontaneous  zeal.  Sigfeid  was  invited  frojn 
England  by  Olave  ;  he  had  probably  become  in- 
clined to  embrace  Christianity  during  his  stay  in 
Denmark  with  his  father,  who  had  received  bap- 
tism in  that  country,  though  he  afterwards  re- 
lapsed^. This  missionary,  the  second  apostle  of 
the  North,  for  next  to  Anskar  Sigfrid  deserves  that 
name,  devoted  a  long  life  to  the  preaching  of  Chris- 
tianity among  the  Swedes  and  Norsemen  *,  and 
died  at  a  great  age  in  the  hundred  of  Verend  in 
Smaland,  where  upon  his  arrival  he  had  first 
planted  the  cross".  Olave  was  bajitized  before  the 
year  1000.  That  he  had  become  a  Christian  pre- 
viously to  the  battle  of  Swolder  is  plain  from  the 
statement  of  Adam  of  Bremen,  that  when  Swen 
regained  his  kingdom  by  Olave's  help,  its  resto- 
ration was  accompanied  by  a  covenant  between  the 
kings,  whereby  Swen,  the  former  foe  of  Christianity, 
bound  himself  to  the  diffusion  of  the  faith  *.     His 

Swen  ;  Hericum  post  susceptam  Christianitatem  denuo  re- 
lapsum  fuisse. 

S"  Sigafridus,  qui  et  apud  Svedos  et  Nordmannos  juxta 
praedicavit;  isque  duravit  usque  ad  nostram  setatem.  Ibid. 
He  lived,  therefore,  to  the  time  of  Adam  of  Bremen. 

9  Historia  S.  Sigfridi  (written  in  1205),  Script.  Rer.  Suec. 
Medii  Mw\,  ii.  344. 

'  Olaph,  qui  post  obifum  patris  sui  Herici  regnum  super 
Sueones  accepit,  cum  exercitu  supervenitns  infelicem  Svein 


38 


St.  Olave  of  Norway. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Embassy  from  liim. 


sanguinary  cruelty  in  England,  where  the  long  con- 
tinued ravages  of  the  Danes  had  at  hist  led  to  the 
subjugation  of  the  country,  was  little  consonant 
with  such  a  purpose.  He  maintained,  however, 
a  good  understanding  with  the  Swedes,  of  whom 
several  are  mentioned  as  taking  part  in  the  wars 
of  England.  When  Swen's  son  Canute  undertook 
his  first  ex])edition  to  England,  Olave  the  lap-king 
was  his  ally,  and  foreign  chronicles  speak  of  a 
Swedish  king  who  accompanied  Canute,  although 
his  name  is  unknown  to  our  domestic  records  2. 

Hostilities  with  Norway,  on  the  other  hand,  of 
long  duration,  embittered  Olave's  life  and  reign. 
Olave  Haraldson,  afterwards  so  well  known  under 
the  name  of  the  Saint,  a  descendant  of  Harald  the 
Fair-haired,  had  like  northern  princes  in  general 
passed  his  youth  in  piratical  expeditions.  In  the 
course  of  his  career  as  a  sea-rover  he  was  led  to 
Sweden  ;  and  on  one  occasion,  being  blockaded  by 
Olnve  the  lap-king  in  the  Malar  lake,  he  is  said  to 
have  made  his  escape  by  excavating  a  new  channel 
to  the  sea.  After  sharing  in  the  English  wars  he 
returned  to  his  country,  drew  together  a  party, 
assumed  royalty,  and  put  an  end  to  the  domination 
of  the  Swedes  and  Danes  in  Norway.  Olave  ot 
Sweden,  too  proud  to  yield,  yet  took  no  measures 
to  secure  his  own  frontiers,  and  the  discontent  of 
the  people,  roused  by  this  negligence,  at  length 
broke  out  at  the  general  diet  in  Upsala,  where  Nor- 
wegian envoys  were  in  attendance  under  the  escort 
of  Kagwald,  earl  of  the  West  Goths,  to  solicit 
peace  and  obtain  a  bride  for  the  king  of  Norway  at 
the  Swedish  court.  We  follow  the  chronicles  of 
Sturleson  in  our  relation  of  the  event. 

In  Sweden,  says  Snorro,  it  was  the  custom  of 
the  laud  in  the  heathen  times,  that  the  great  sa- 
crifice should  be  held  at  Upsala  in  the  hornmg- 
month  (February)*.  This  is  the  Ting,  or  great 
court  of  all  the  Swedes,  when  they  sacrifice  by 
their  king  for  peace  and  victory,  and  it  is  likewise 
a  fair  and  time  of  traffic.  But  after  Christianity 
had  come  into  Sweden,  and  the  kings  removed 
their  seat  from  Upsala,  a  Ting  and  fair  were  still 
held  there  at  Candlemas.  The  dominion  of  the 
Swedes  embraces  many  provinces,  and  every  one 
has  its  own  court  and  its  own  law  in  many  chap- 
ters, and  every  law  has  its  judge  (lagman),  the 
chief  among  the  yeomen.  He  answers  for  all, 
when  the  king,  the  earl,  or  tlie  bishop  holds  a  diet 
with  the  people  ;  him  they  all  follow,  so  that  the 
great  ones  hardly  dare  to  betake  themselves  to  the 
court  without  the  consent  of  the  judge  and  the  pea- 
sants. The  chief  justicer  in  Sweden  is  the  lagman 
of  Tiundaland  ;  he  was  now  called  Thorgny  ;  a 
name  which,  as  well  as  the  office  itself,  had  long 
remained  in  his  family.  He  was  reckoned  the 
wisest  man  in  Sweden,  and  was  foster-father  of 
earl  Ragwald,  whcretVire  the  earl  first  repaired  to 
him  with  the  Norse  envoys.  They  came  to  his 
estate,  on  which  were  large  and  pleasant  mansions. 
In  the  chamber  sat  an  old  man  on  the  high  seat, 
whose  like  for  tallness  they  had  never  seen  ;  his 
beard  reached  down  so  far  that  it  lay  on  his  knees. 

iterum  a  regno  expulit  et  Daniam  obtinuit.  Restituitque 
eum  Olaph  in  regnum  suum,  eo  quod  matrem  Euam  habuerit 
uxorem.  Fecerunt(|ue  pactum  ad  invicem  firmissimuni, 
ut  christianitatem  in  regno  sue  plantatam  retinerent  et  in 
extcras  nationes  efTundereiit.   Ad.  Brcm.  ii.  c.  29. 

2  Ann.   lOH.      Svanus    Tyrannus    post  innumerabilia  et 
crudelia  mala  qua  vel  in  Anglia  vel  in  aliis  terris  gesserat, 


This  was  Thorgny  :  the  earl  stepped  before  him 
and  greeted  him,  was  well  entertained,  and  after  a 
while  mentioned  the  business  on  which  he  and  the 
envoys  had  come,  at  the  same  time  expressing  their 
fears  lest  the  king  should  receive  them  ungraciously, 
seeing  that  Olave  the  la])-king  would  never  hear 
Olave  the  Norseman  sjjoken  of.  Thorgny  an- 
swered, "  Strangely  ye  comport  yourselves,  ye  that 
bear  the  Tignar  name.  Wherefore  didst  thou  not 
bethink  thee  ere  thou  camest  on  this  journey,  that 
thou  Wert  not  strong  enough  to  speak  to  our  king 
Olave  ?  To  me  therefore  it  seemeth  not  less 
honourable  to  belong  to  the  peasants,  and  to  have 
freedom  of  speech  even  when  the  king  is  near." 
He  accompanied  the  ambassadors  to  the  great  folk- 
mote  at  Upsala.  The  first  day  wlien  the  diet  sat, 
they  saw  there  king  Olave  on  his  chair,  and  all  his 
court  around  him.  Overagainst  him  on  the  other 
side  of  the  diet  sat  earl  Ragwald  and  Thorgny  on  a 
bench,  surrounded  by  the  followers  of  the  earl  and 
Thorgny's  serving  men  ;  behind  stood  the  common 
sort  in  a  ring,  some  upon  the  barrows  that  lay  by, 
to  see  and  hear  how  all  befel.  Now,  after  the 
king's  affairs,  as  the  usage  was,  had  first  been  dis- 
cussed in  the  mote,  one  of  the  Norse  messengers 
stood  up  and  preferred  his  request  with  a  loud 
voice  ;  but  the  king  sprang  from  his  seat  in  wrath, 
and  broke  off"  his  speech.  Earl  Ragwald  declared, 
in  the  name  of  the  West  Goths,  the  same  desire  for 
a  reconciliation  with  the  Norsemen,  but  he  met 
with  no  better  a  reception.  Thereupon  was  deep 
silence  for  a  while.  At  last  Thorgny  rose,  and  with 
him  rose  all  the  peasants,  and  there  was  a  great  din 
of  arms  and  tumult  in  the  crowd.  When  audience 
was  granted,  Thorgny  thus  spi  ke  :  "The  kings  of 
the  Swedes  are  now  otherwise  minded  than  once 
they  were.  Thorgny,  my  grandsire,  well  remem- 
bered Eric  Edmundson  king  in  Upsala,  and  was 
wont  to  tell  of  him,  that  while  he  was  in  his  prime 
he  marched  every  summer  to  the  war,  and  sub- 
dued to  his  dominion  Finland,  Kyrialand,  Eslh- 
land,  Kurland,  and  the  eastern  countries  far  and 
wide,  where  are  yet  to  be  seen  earthen  walls  and 
other  large  works  of  his.  Yet  did  he  never  deal  so 
haughtily,  that  he  would  not  endure  discourse  from 
those  who  had  aught  to  propound  to  him.  My 
father  Thorgny  was  near  king  Biorn  a  long  time, 
and  therefore  knew  his  manner  well ;  in  his  time 
things  went  prosperously  with  the  realm,  for  there 
was  no  dearth,  and  he  was  affable  to  his  people.  I 
myself  freshly  remember  king  Eric  the  Victorious, 
for  I  was  with  him  in  many  of  his  enterprises.  He 
augmented  the  Swedish  dominion,  and  warded  it 
stoutly,  yet  was  it  easy  to  come  to  speech  with  him. 
But  this  king  who  is  now,  will  let  none  speak  with 
him,  and  will  hear  nought  but  w'hat  is  pleasing  to 
himself,  which  indeed  he  presses  with  all  heat. 
His  tributary  lands  he  lets  slip  from  him  by  his 
carelessness,  and  yet  would  he  rule  over  Norway,  a 
thing  that  no  king  of  the  Swedes  before  him  has 
coveted,  for  which  many  must  live  in  unpeace. 
Wherefore  we  peasants  will,  that  thou,  king  Olave, 

miserabill  morte  vitam  finivit.  Simeon  Dunelmensis,  in 
Twysden  Hist.  Ang.  Script.  Sveno  tumulato  Chnutus  filius 
magna  cum  classe,  addiictis  secum  Lachiman  rege  Suecorum 
et  Olao  rege  Noricorum,  Tliamisiam  intravit.  Leges  Ed- 
wardi,  and  the  chronicle  following,  in  Wilkins.  This  Lachi- 
man was  perhaps  a  Swedish  lagman. 

2  (Goje-manad,  the  month  when  the  deer  shed  their  horns, 
corresponding  to  the  hornung  of  the  Germans.     T.) 


Its  consequences.       THE  SECOND  DYNASTY  CONTINUED. 


King  Anund  Jacob. 


39 


sliKuIdst  make  up  thy  quarrel  with  Norway's  king, 
and  give  him  tliy  daughter  Ingegerd  in  marriage. 
If  thou  wilt  win  back  those  lands  in  the  East  which 
belonged  to  thy  kinsmen  and  parents,  we  will 
attend  thee  thither.  But  if  thou  heed  not  our 
words,  we  will  set  upon  and  slay  thee,  and  will  not 
suffer  lawlessness  and  trouble  at  thy  hands.  For 
so  did  our  fathers  before  us  ;  they  threw  five  kings 
into  a  well,  that  were  puffed  up  with  arrogance  hke 
thee.  Now  say  forthwith  what  thou  wilt  choose." 
Then  a  great  clashing  of  arms  again  resounded 
from  the  people.  But  the  king  rose  up  and  granted 
their  prayer,  adding,  that  so  the  kings  of  Sweden 
had  ever  done,  in  taking  counsel  of  the  peasants. 

Breach  of  his  promise  on  the  king's  part,  had 
well  nigh  produced  the  consequences  threatened  in 
this  speech.  The  peasants  were  already  assem- 
bled, and  deliberating  upon  the  king's  dethrone- 
ment, because  he  had  broken  the  decree  of  the  great 
Folkmote  (allsharjardom).  The  Lawman  of  the 
West  Goths  contended  that  they  should  renounce 
for  ever  the  old  line  of  princes.  Certain  chiefs  of 
the  Upper  Swedes,  who  had  remained  true  to 
Olave,  turned  this  circumstance  to  the  advantage 
of  his  cause.  They  conferred  with  their  fellows, 
and  said, "  If  the  matter  have  gone  so  far  that 
Olave,  the  son  of  Eric  the  Victorious,  must  be  de- 
prived of  the  kingship,  then  it  seemeth  to  us  that 
we  Upper  Swedes  should  have  most  to  say  thereto  ; 
for  so  it  has  ever  been,  that  what  the  chiefs  of  the 
Upper  Swedes  have  determined  among  themselves, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  other  provinces  have  con- 
sented to,  and  our  ancestors  never  needed  to  take 
counsel  of  the  West  Goths  as  to  who  should  bear 
rule  in  the  realm  of  Sweden."  Thereupon  they  led 
forth  the  king's  young  son  among  the  people.  He 
had  been  named  Jacob  at  his  baptism,  which  pleased 
the  Swedes  ill,  for  never,  said  they,  had  there  been 
a  king  of  Sweden  called  Jacob.  Now  they  gave  him 
the  name  of  Anund,  and  took  him  to  be  their  king, 
stipulating  that  he  should  stand  upon  the  rights  of 
the  peasants,  if  his  father  would  not  comply  with 
their  desires  ;  for  the  old  king  was  still  continued 
in  the  government,  on  condition  that  he  should 
fulfil  his  engagement.  Ingegerd,  however,  the 
daughter  of  the  Swedish  king  promised  to  Nor- 
way, had  already  been  married  to  the  Russian 
grand  duke  Jaroslav  *,  and  her  sister  Astrid 
had,  although  against  her  father's  wishes,  given 
her  hand  to  the  Norwegian  king.  It  remained 
only  to  conclude  peace,  which  was  arranged  at  a 
personal  interview  of  the  two  sovereigns  at  Kung- 
hall.  Two  years  afterwards  died  Olave  the  lap- 
king,  as  the  sagas  state,  when  Olave  Haraldson  had 
been  for  seven  years  king  of  Norway,  which  fixes 
the  date  of  the  former's  death  in  1024.  He  had 
ceded  Denmark  to  his  stepfather,  and  was  obliged 
to  transfer  his  conquests  in  Norway  to  his  son-in- 
law  ;  he  was  also  reproached  with  having  allowed 
the  eastern  dependencies  of  Sweden  to  be  lost.  On 
the  other  hand  the  Norwegian  settlers  in  Jemt- 
land  and  Helsiagland  submitted  themselves  to  the 
superiority  of  Sweden.  Olave  the  lap-king,  al- 
though a  Chiistian,  yet  loved  the  old  heathen  poesy. 
Not  less  than  four  Scalds  are  mentioned  as  residing 

^  Her  monument  still  exists  in  the  churcli  of  St.  Sophia  at 
Novogorod,  with  an  inscription  wliich  states  105)  as  the  year 
of  her  death,  though  itself  more  recent.  Anund  Jacob  was 
her  full  brother;  Astrid,  her  half-sister,  being  born  of  a 
Veneriian  mother. 


at  his  court,  and  an  account  is  preserved  of  a  poeti- 
tical  contest  which  took  place  between  two  of  them 
in  the  king's  presence. 

Anund  Jacob  was  now  sole  ruler  ;  what  is  known  of 
his  reign  chiefiy  relates  to  the  share  he  took  in  the 
affairs  of  Norway  and  Denmark.  He  was  the  faith- 
ful confederate  of  his  brother-in-law  Olave  of  Nor- 
way,and  defended  him  against  the  powerful  Canute, 
now  lord  both  of  Denmark  and  England,  who  had  not 
abandoned  his  claims  on  Norway.  These  were  the 
more  dangerous,  as  Olave's  violent  zeal  for  Christi- 
anity, and  his  rigorous  punishment  of  the  Norwegian 
pirates,  who  plundered  even  their  own  coasts,  had 
created  many  enemies.  He  was  obliged  at  length 
to  flee  from  his  kingdom,  of  which  Canute  took  pos- 
session, and  he  only  returned  from  Russia  and 
Sweden  to  lose  his  life  in  battle  against  his  former 
subjects  at  Stiklarstad, — though  he  was  afterwards 
revered  by  them,  m  common  with  the  whole  North, 
as  a  saint.  His  son  Magnus  the  Good  was  re- 
called from  Russia  where  he  had  been  educated, 
ascended  with  Swedish  aid  the  throne  of  his  father, 
and  became  at  last,  after  many  and  singular  vicis- 
situdes of  fortune,  king  of  Denmark,  on  the  death 
of  Canute  and  his  sons.  Of  the  family  of  the  latter 
monarch  Swen  only  now  survived,  the  son  of  his 
sister  Estrid,  who  remained  long  in  Sweden,  and 
received  support  from  that  country  in  his  j)reten- 
sions  on  Denmark,  which  were  at  length  admitted 
upon  the  death  of  Magnus. 

Adam  of  Bremen  knew  Anund  Jacob  from  the 
account  of  Swen  Estridson,  and  remarks  of  him, 
that  no  prince  was  ever  so  loved  by  the  people  of 
Sweden.  Yet  the  old  catalogue  of  kings  in  the 
law  of  West-Gothland  declares  that  he  was  severe 
in  his  judgments.  He  was  surnamed  Kolbranna, 
because  he  burned  down  the  houses  of  malefactors, 
a  penalty,  which  both  in  the  north  and  among  the 
Normans  of  France,  was  attached  to  such  offences 
as  entailed  the  outlawry  or  banishment  of  the  crimi- 
nals '.  The  year  of  his  death  is  not  known  with 
certainty,  though  it  is  evident  that  he  was  alive 
after  1036,  in  which  it  is  placed  by  various  later 
annalists,  from  a  misapprehension  of  a  passage  in 
the  sagas.  Adam  of  Bremen  states  that  king 
Anund  died  in  Sweden,  after  the  sons  of  Earl  God- 
win had  reached  their  highest  power  in  England, 
while  king  Edward  retained  only  the  name  of 
sovereignty.  The  peace  by  which  Godwin  and  his 
sons  compelled  that  prince  to  replace  them  again 
in  their  former  dignities  was  concluded  in  1052, 
and  in  the  following  year  their  father  died  ^.  With- 
in this  limit  falls  also  the  end  of  Anund  Jacob's 
reign  and  life. 

Edmund,  surnamed  Gamnial  (the  old),  because 
he  did  not  become  king  till  late  in  life,  succeeded 
his  brother.  Although  he  was  the  elder  of  the 
two,  his  brother  had  been  preferred  to  him  as  being 
of  nobler  birth  ;  Edmund,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
born  of  a  mother  taken  captive  in  war,  the  daughter 
of  a  Venedic  chieftain,  who  is  called  the  king's  hand- 
maid. Edmund  was  brought  up  among  foreigners 
by  the  relatives  of  his  mother,  and  gave  himself 
little  solicitude  about  Christianity '.  Dearths  vexed 
the  land  in  his  days,  a  calamity  for  which   the 

^  Du  Fresne,  Glossarium,  v.  Condemnare. 

5  Simeon  Dunelmensis  ad  ann.  1052.  The  "  Historia  Ar- 
chiepiscoporum  Bremensium"  gives  1051  as  the  year  of 
Anund  Jacob's  death. 

7  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  89. 


r" 


40 


Effects  of  the  religious 
innovations. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Stenkil  cliosen  bj'  the  West- 
Goths  ;    +  A.  D.  1060. 


Swedes  vvei'e  wont  to  hold  their  khigs  responsible. 
The  Catalogue  of  Kings  already  referred  to  styles  him 
the  bad  (slemme),  and  charges  him  with  harshness 
and  avarice  *.  To  him  also  our  chronicles  attri- 
bute the  disgrace  of  agreeing  to  a  boundary  by 
which  Scania,  Halland,  and  Bleking,  were  severed 
from  the  Swedish  dominion.  The  last  province  was 
an  ancient  possession  ;  the  two  former  had  been 
conquered  by  Eric  the  victorious ".  Edmund's 
reign  was  short,  says  the  api)endix  to  the  Hervarar 
saga  ;  in  his  time  the  Swedes  observed  Christianity 
ill,  and  after  his  death  the  kingdom  passed  from 
the  old  royal  family.  He  had  a  son  named  Anund, 
lost  in  an  expedition  against  the  Quens,  who  are 
said,  by  poisoning  their  wells,  to  have  cut  off  the 
whole  army  sent  against  them. 

When  Edmund  died  is  unknown.  He  was  the 
twelfth  aud  last  in  succession  of  those  old  Upsala 
kings  who  descended  from  Sigurd  Ring  on  the  male 
side,  and  whose  dynasty  is  styled  the  line  of  the 
Upper  Swedes  ;  "  sacred  to  the  gods  *,  and  revered 
belore  all  others  in  the  northern  lands,  because 
they  descended  from  the  gods  themselves  ;"  "  and 
long  had  they  guarded  the  race,  (said  a  Pagan  coun- 
cillor of  Olave  the  lap-king,)  although  many  had 
now  fallen  away  from  the  old  beliefs." 


Every  new  doctrine  bears  in  itself  the  seeds  of 
strife,  and  that  which  is  pre-eminently  the  religion 
of  peace  had  doubtless  to  contend  with  the  greatest 
obstacles  in  the  north.  By  its  influence  was  first 
abolished  that  condition  of  incessant  war  with  all 
the  world,  which  had  its  roots  so  deep  in  the  habits 
of  northern  life,  that  the  long  fostered  elements 
of  evil,  hitherto  turned  in  an  external  direc- 
tion, now  spent  themselves  in  a  domestic  field  of 
action,  generating  civil  discord  and  war.  Chris- 
tianity, besides,  dissolved  the  effective  bond  of  the 
old  social  institutions.  Olave  the  lap-king,  as  being 
a  Christian,  refused  to  be  styled  Upsala  king  ^,  be- 
cause this  title  denoted  a  guardian  of  the  Pagan 
sacrifices ;  he  therefore  lost  all  consideration  among 
the  Upper  Swedes,  who  were  still  mostly  heathens. 
On  the  other  hand  the  new  title  of  Swede- king  ap- 
pears to  have  displeased  the  Goths,  among  whom 
the  Christians  were  most  numerous.  The  long- 
continued  hostilities  with  Olave  of  Norway  led  to 
an  outbreak  of  this  discontent.  It  was  the  justi- 
ciary of  West-Gothland,  who  at  the  assembly  of 
the  people  m  Upsala  ventured  to  propose  that  the 
old  dynasty  should  be  set  aside,  and  who  when  he 
could  not  induce  them  to  consent  exclaimed,  "  Ye 
of  Upper  Sweden  have  for  this  time  the  control  of 
the  decision  ;  yet  I  say  to  you,  and  the  future  will 
show  it,  that  those  who  will  now  hear  of  nought 
else  than  that  the  kingship  should  remain  in  the 
old  line,  will  Uve  to  see  the  day  when  it  shall  pass 
with  their  own  consent  to  another  race ;  and  this 
will  have  a  happier  issue."      The  fulfilment  of  this 

8  So  too  Adam  of  Bremen;  Edmund  GamalPessimus.  See 
].  Hi.  c.  ir. 

9  The  account  of  the  boundary  line  which  is  inserted  in 
the  law  of  West-Gothland,  makes  him,  however,  contem- 
porary at  the  time  of  the  transaction  with  Swen  Fork-Beard, 
king  of  Denmark,  which  would  refer  it  to  the  time  of  Olave 
the  lap-king,  unless  this  Swen  was  confounded  with  Swen 
Estridson.  The  so-called  bull  of  Pope  Agapetus  of  954, 
adopting  and  confirming  this  boundary,  but  with  many 
blunders,  is  manifestly  a  fabrication. 


prediction  now  presents  itself  to  our  observation, 
and  the  new  dynasty  is  of  Westgothic  origin. 

Stenkil,  who  was  now  raised  to  the  throne,  was, 
however,  related  through  several  channels  to  the 
old  line  of  kings.  His  father  Ragwald,  earl  of 
West-Gothland,  was  cousin  of  Olave  the  lap-king. 
Stenkil  himself  was  son-in-law  of  Anund  Jacob, 
and  step-son  of  Edmund  the  old.  Earl  Ragwald 
had  been  twice  married  ;  first  to  Ingeborg,  sister 
of  king  Olave  Tryggwason,  by  whom  he  had  two 
sons,  Ulf  and  Eilif,  mentioned  as  leaders  in  the 
war  between  king  Anund  Jacob  and  Canute  the 
Great,  in  Deimiark  ;  afterwards  to  Astrid,  a  dame 
of  royal  birth  in  Norwegian  Halogaland,  who  bore 
to  him  a  son  named  Stenkil,  and  contracted  a  sub- 
sequent alliance  with  king  Edmund  Gammal.  Sten- 
kil, who  is  styled  a  powerful  and  far  descended  earl 
in  Suithiod,  had  already  shown  himself  during  the 
reign  of  his  predecessor  a  zealous  Christian.  His 
election  to  the  crown  is  the  first  sign  of  the  undis- 
puted preponderance  of  the  Christian  party  ;  thus 
too  the  expression  in  the  old  Table  of  Kings,  that 
"  he  held  the  West  Goths  dear  before  all  the  other 
men  of  his  realm,"  and  that  "  the  West  Goths  re- 
joiced in  him  as  long  as  he  lived,"  evinces  by  what 
part  of  the  country  this  preponderance  was  main- 
tained. West-Gothland  had  been  the  chief  seat  of 
Christianity  since  the  time  of  Olave  the  lap-king. 
Here  this  sovereign  received  baptism,  and  founded 
in  Skara  the  first  episcopal  see.  When  the  hea- 
thens demanded  that  he  should  clioose  some  pro- 
vmce  of  Sweden,  whichsoever  he  preferred,  for  the 
exercise  of  his  religion,  and  leave  theirs  on  the 
other  hand  unmolested,  forcing  no  man  to  be  a 
Christian,  he  selected  West-Gothland.  By  ad- 
hering throughout  to  the  observance  of  this  cove- 
nant, Stenkil  in  like  manner  maintained  him- 
self on  the  throne.  Olave  had  already  meditated 
destroying  the  old  temple  at  Upsala,  but  he  was 
withheld  from  his  design  by  the  above-mentioned 
decree.  When  the  Christian  teachers  now  again 
insisted  on  the  mea-sure,  Stenkil  answered  them, 
that  the  only  consequence  of  complying  with  their 
request  would  be  for  them  death,  and  for  himself  the 
loss  of  his  kingdom ;  his  subjects  would  expel  him 
as  one  who  had  brought  malefactors  into  the  land, 
and  heathenism  would  anew  become  dominant  *. 
The  contextshowsthatit  was  chiefly  the  inhabitants 
of  Upper  Sweden  who  excited  these  apprehensions  ; 
since  we  are  told  that  the  same  teachers,  Adelward, 
bishop  of  Skara,  and  Egino,  bishop  of  Lund,  had 
destroyed  the  idols  everywhere  among  the  Goths 
without  incurring  any  danger.  It  is  also  worthy 
of  remark,  that  Goths  alone  are  mentioned  as 
taking  part  in  the  otherwise  unimportant  war  with 
the  Norwegians  under  this  king's  reign.  Stenkil, 
it  is  said,  died  at  the  same  time  as  the  Norwegian 
king  Harald  Hardrada  (hard-ruler)  fell  in  Eng- 
land 5,  which  happened  in  1066,  shortly  before 
William  the  Conqueror  became  master  of  England 
by  the  battle  of  Hastings. 

'  So  the  race  of  Ivar,  their  ancestor  on  the  maternal  side, 
is  termed  in  Hyndla's  song  in  the  elder  Edda. 

2  Ad.  Brem.  iii.  17.  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  96.  Olave  the  lap- 
king  reckoned  himself  the  tenth  of  this  dynasty.     Ibid.  71. 

^  According  to  the  appendix  to  the  Hervarar  Saga,  Olave 
changed  his  title  into  that  of  Swede  king  (Sveakonung). 

''  Ad   Brem. 

■''  Appendix  to  Hervarar  Saga.  Saga  of  M-.gnus  Barefoot, 
c.  13. 


A. 

1066 


-8..} 


Civil  wars  of  Pagans 
and  Christians. 


ESTABLISHMEiNT  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


Reign  of  Inge.     Trou 
bias  in  Swedeland. 


41 


A  great  civil  war  now  broke  out  in  Sweden. 
"  After  the  death  of  that  most  Christian  king  Sten- 
kil,"  says  Adam  of  Bremen,  "  two  kings,  both  bear- 
ing the  name  of  Eric,  contended  for  the  throne,  and 
in  the  war  between  them,  all  the  chief  men  among 
the  Swedes,  and  the  kings  themselves,  are  said  to 
have  fallen.  When  in  this  way  the  royal  house 
had  become  extinct,  the  condition  of  .the  realm  was 
so  utterly  changed,  and  the  Christians  were  so  mo- 
lested, that  from  fear  of  persecution  no  bishops 
dared  to  enter  Sweden.  Only  the  bishop  of  Sca- 
nia directed  the  congregations  of  the  faithful  in 
Gothland."  A  single  Swedish  chief  is  mentioned  as 
a  defender  of  Christianity.  This  is  the  sole  account 
preserved  to  us  of  these  intestine  commotions,  and 
it  deserves  the  more  attention,  as  proceeding 
from  almost  the  only  contemporary  witness  to 
whom  we  can  appeal  for  the  events  of  those  times. 
Who  these  contending  princes  were  that  drew  down 
with  them  in  their  fall  the  chief  men  of  Sweden, 
no  other  source  informs  us.  They  belonged  to  the 
old  reigning  family,  as  we  may  infer  from  the 
statement,  that  with  them  the  royal  lineage  became 
extinct ;  for  thiscaimot  apply  to  the  house  of  Sten- 
kil,  since  he  left  two  sons,  both  of  whom  afterwards 
filled  the  throne.  We  observe  here  the  first  vio- 
lent outbreak  of  those  civil  wars,  often  subsequently 
renewed,  and  extending  over  a  long  period,  but 
which  both  in  the  motives  immediately  producing 
them,  and  in  their  progress,  are  but  imperfectly 
known  to  us.  The  great  general  causes,  however, 
lie  before  our  eyes ;  in  them  was  fought  the  last 
struggle  between  heathenism  and  Christianity  ;  in 
them,  after  the  federal  association  founded  on  the 
ancient  religion  was  dissolved,  the  rival  peoples 
combated  for  predominance.  That  this  was  a  war 
waged  between  the  Pagans  and  the  Christians  is 
proved  by  the  sufferings  which  the  Christians  are 
said  to  have  undergoue,  but  it  appears  also  to  have 
been  a  contest  against  the  new  sovereign  house. 
Another  nearly  contemporaneous  account  informs 
us,  that  when  the  contending  princes  had  perished 
in  their  mutual  hostility,  both  the  sons  of  Stenkil, 
one  after  the  other,  were  raised  to  the  throne,  and 
expelled  therefrom,  after  which  a  king  named 
Haco  was  chosen  *'. 

This  Haco  is  also  mentioned  after  Stenkil  by 
Snorro  Sturleson.  The  old  Table  of  Kings  in  the 
Westgothic  Law,  on  the  contrary,  assigns  him  a 
place  before  Stenkil,  and  names  him  Haco  the  Red, 
but  communicates  no  other  particulars  of  his 
history,  than  that  he  had  been  king  for  thirteen 
winters,  and  that  he  died  in  West- Gothland  at  the 
place  of  his  birth.  He  probably  possessed  the 
name  and  dignity  of  king  in  this  province  during 
the  period  when  the  remainder  of  the  country  was 
torn  by  civil  discord,  for  both  these  troubles  and 
the  thirteen  years'  reign  of  Haco  fall  between  1 066 
and  1081.  The  first  is  the  year  of  Stenkil's  demise  ; 
in  the  latter  we  already  find  his  sons  Inge  and 
Halstan  reigning  conjointly  ;  for  they  are  doubt- 
less the  same  "  kmgs  of  the  West  Goths"  whom 

«  The  Scholiast  on  Adam  of  Bremen,  iv.  15.  He  calls 
them  Halstein  and  Anunder,  which  latter  must  mean  Inge- 
munder,  as  Inge  the  elder  was  sometimes  named.  This 
writer  states  himself  to  have  been  a  contemporary  of  that 
prince. 

7  Celse,  Apparatus  ad  Hist.  Sviog.  Sectio  Prima  Bullarii, 
p.  2.3. 

8  Karamsin,  after  Nestor. 


Pope  Gregory  VII.  in  a  rescript  of  this  date,  ex- 
horts to  protection  of  the  Christians,  and  submission 
towards  the  Church  ^. 

Inge,  who  is  also  called  Ingemunder  and 
Anunder,  is  said  to  have  been  invited  over  from 
Russia.  In  the  course  of  more  than  two  centuries 
from  the  foundation  of  the  Russian  empire  by  the 
Varangians,  both  the  Russian  and  Scandinavian 
annals  contain  manifold  proofs  of  the  closeness  of 
the  ties  which  connected  our  forefathers  with 
Russia.  About  980,  in  the  reign  of  Eric  the  victo- 
rious, the  Russian  grand-duke  Vladimir  (in  the 
sagas  Valdemar)  the  Great,  sought  and  obtained 
help  beyond  the  sea  among  the  Varangians,  and  if 
any  further  proof  were  required  that  these  Russian 
Varangians  are  the  same  who  in  the  nortli,  from 
their  service  in  the  imperial  body-guard  at  Constan- 
tinople, were  called  Vterings,  it  would  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  Vladimir,  designing  after  his  object 
had  been  attained  to  rid  himself  of  his  dangerous 
auxiliaries,  induced  them  to  repair  to  Constanti- 
nople, at  the  same  time  requesting  the  Greek 
emperor  not  to  permit  their  return  to  Russia'. 
With  the  assistance  of  the  Varangians,  Vladimir's 
son  Jaroslav  afterwards  consolidated  his  power, 
and  chose  for  his  bride  a  princess  of  their  nation, 
the  daughter  of  Olave  of  Sweden.  She  was  accom- 
panied to  Russia  by  Earl  Ragwald,  father  of  king 
Stenkil.  Ragwald  and  his  son  Earl  Eilif  are  both 
mentioned  among  the  chiefs  of  the  Russians,  and 
with  them  Inge,  who  was  now  called  to  the  throne, 
passed  a  portion  of  his  youth  ^. 

Soon  after  the  accession  of  this  prince,  discon- 
tents broke  out  anew  in  Upper  Sweden.  It  is 
stated  in  the  appendix  to  the  Hervarar  saga,  "  Inge 
was  son  of  Stenkil,  and  the  Swedes  took  him  next 
for  their  king^.  His  reign  lasted  a  longtime  ;  he 
was  blessed  in  his  friends,  and  was  a  good  Chris- 
tian. He  abolished  the  sacrifices  in  Suithiod,  and 
enjoined  that  all  folk  should  be  christened,  yet  the 
Swedes  put  great  trust  in  their  heathen  gods,  and 
held  firm  to  their  old  customs.  They  deemed  that 
Ingd  violated  the  old  law  of  the  land,  because  he 
annulled  much  that  kuig  Stenkil  had  allowed  to 
subsist.  '  At  a  diet  which  the  Swedes  held  with 
Ing^,  they  proposed  to  him  two  alternatives,  either 
to  follow  the  old  law  or  to  abdicate  the  kingship. 
Inge  answered  and  said,  that  he  would  not  reject 
the  faith  which  was  the  truest.  Then  the  Swedes 
raised  a  cry,  pelted  him  with  stones,  and  drove  him 
out  of  the  diet.  Swen,  the  king's  brother-in-law, 
the  most  powerful  man  in  Suithiod,  remained  be- 
hind him  in  the  meeting.  He  offered  the  Swedes 
to  maintain  the  sacrifices,  if  they  would  grant  him 
the  kingship,  and  to  this  they  all  consented.  Then 
Swen  was  made  king  over  all  Suithiod.  A  horse 
was  led  forward  in  the  assembly,  cut  in  pieces,  and 
divided  for  the  sacrificial  feast,  and  the  tree  of 
victims  (the  idol)  was  besprinkled  with  the  blood. 
Then  all  the  Swedes  again  rejected  Christianity, 
began  to  sacrifice,  and  drove  out  Inge,  who  re- 
paired to  West- Gothland.  Blot  Swen^  was  for 
three  winters  king  over  the  Swedes.     Thereafter 

5  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  95.     Saga  of  Harald  Hardrada,  c.  2. 

1  This  narrative,  which  ends  with  the  sons  of  Halstan, 
and  was  probably  written  not  long  after  these  occurrences, 
knows  of  no  king  Haco,  although  the  sagas  occasionally 
mention  him  as  successor  of  Stenkil.  He  was  probably 
never  acknowledged  by  the  Swedes. 

*  Blot  Swen,  from  bMa,  to  sacrifice. 


42 


Hostilities  with  Norway. 
Masjiius  Barefoot. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


A  Danish  prince  chosen 
by  the  \Vest-Goths. 


(ad. 

11129. 


Inge  marched  with  his  household-men  and  an 
army,  altliough  but  small  in  number,  eastwards  to 
Smalaud,  thence  to  East-Gothland,  and  so  on  to 
Suithiod.  He  marched  continually  day  and  night, 
and  came  unexpectedly  upon  Swen  one  morning, 
surrounded  the  house,  set  tire  thereto,  and  burned 
all  that  were  within.  Swen  came  forth  and  was 
there  slain.  Then  Inge  again  recovered  the  king- 
ship over  the  Swedes,  and  raised  up  the  Christians 
anew,  governing  the  realm  to  his  latest  day,  and 
dying  a  natiu'al  death.  Halstein  was  also  son  of 
Stenkil,  and  was  king  together  with  his  brother 
Inge."  It  is  doubtless  by  this  relation  that  more 
recent  historians  liave  been  induced  to  ascribe  to 
the  king  the  destruction  of  the  idol  temple  in 
Upsala,  altliough  of  this  old  writers  say  nothing. 

Inge  waged  war  with  the  Norwegian  king,  Mag- 
nus Barefoot'',  who  claimed  the  land  between  the 
Vener  lake,  the  (iota  river  and  the  sea,  as  be- 
longing to  Norway,  and  obliged  him  to  abandon 
tliis  pretension.  At  a  personal  conference  of  the 
three  Scandian  sovereigns  (Eric  Eiegod  of  Den- 
mark was  also  present),  held  in  Konghall  in  the 
year  1101,  a  peace  was  concluded*.  This  reconci- 
liation was  strengthened  by  the  marriage  of  Mag- 
nus with  Inge''s  daughter  Margaret,  who  thence 
received  the  surname  of  Fridkulla  (the  maid  of 
peace).  Another  of  his  daughters  was  married  to 
a  Russian  grand-duke  *.  To  what  period  his  life 
was'prolonged  is  not  known  ^.  Probablj' the  defec- 
tion of  the  Jemtelanders  to  Norway  in  the  year 
1111,  would  not  have  been  left  unpunished  if  it 
had  occurred  under  his  reign.  The  sagas  cele- 
brate him  as  a  gracious  and  mighty  king,  the 
strongest  and  tallest  of  men.  The  Upper  Swedes 
rose  in  rebellion  against  him,  alleging  as  their 
grievance  that  he  did  not  keep  to  the  old  law  of 
the  land.  The  West  Goths  allege  that  he  ruled 
over  Sweden  with  rigorous  hand,  but  never  vio- 
lated the  laws  observed  in  each  individual  pro- 
vince '.  The  testimonies  of  Pagans  and  Christians 
differ  upon  this  point.  His  brother  Halstan  sur- 
vived him,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  own  sons, 
whence  it  is  probable  that  the  son  whom  some 
accounts  give  to  Inge  died  before  him. 

The  sons  of  Halstan,  who  reigned  conjointly  after 
their  father  and  uncle,  were  called  Philip  and  Ingo, 
but  have  left  to  history  little  beside  their  names. 
The  former  died  in  1118";  the  year  of  the  latter's 
decease  is  unknown,  but  in  i  129  he  had  already  a 
successor.  That  conspii-acies  were  formed  against 
him  may  be  concluded  from  the  manner  of  his 
death.  He  expired  of  poison,  "  brought  to  his  end 
by  an  ill  draught."  He  was  the  last  of  his  house 
on  the  male  side,  and  with  him  the  progeny  of 
Stenkil  became  extinct,  of  whicli  the  Table  of  Kings 
in  the  Westgothic  law  attests  that  it  had  ever 
gone  well  with  the  realm  of  Sweden  so  long  as  this 
family  reigned. 

3  So  named  because  in  his  wars  in  Scotland  he  adopted 
the  garb  of  the  Scottish  Hifrhlanilers. 

■1  See  the  Chronology  to  the  third  volume  of  the  Sagas  of 
the  Kings,  Copenhagen  edition. 

5  Mistislav.  The  sagas  call  hira  Ilirald.  The  Russian 
annals  inform  us  that  his  wife  Christina  died  ii\  1122. 

o  His  tombstone  in  the  Abbey  Churcli  of  Warnhem  in 
West-Gothland,  which  invents  a  date  for  his  death,  in  1064, 
is  of  a  much  more  recent  period. 

7  Table  of  Kings,  W.  L. 

s  Are  Frode,  Scheda^. 


In  the  royal  house  of  Denmark  there  still  existed 
descendants  of  this  line  on  the  female  side,  through 
Margaret  Fi'idkuUa,  daughter  of  Ingo  the  elder, 
who  after  a  long  and  childless  wedlock  with  the 
Norwegian  sovereign,  her  first  husband,  married 
Nils  Swenson,  king  of  Denmark,  and  bore  him  a 
son  called  Magnus.  This  prince,  of  traitorous 
memory,  by  the  hereditary  estates  of  his  mother, 
and  his  descent  from  the  family  of  Stenkil,  ac- 
quired in  West-Gothland  influence  sufficient  to 
procure  his  election  to  the  throne  upon  the  death 
of  Inge',  a  choice  which  incensed  in  the  highest 
degree  the  people'  of  Upper  Sweden.  Saxo,  who 
wrote  towards  the  end  of  the  same  century,  and 
whose  testimony  respecting  these  times  is  perfectly 
trustworthy,  sa}  s  ^  ;  "  The  Goths,  venturing  to  offer 
the  supreme  power  to  Magnus,  and  passing  over 
the  Swedes,  who  alone  possessed  the  right  of  con- 
ferring it,  attempted  to  raise  their  own  importance 
at  the  expense  of  the  prerogative  of  their  neigh- 
bours. But  the  Swedes,  despising  this  usurpation, 
did  not  suffer  their  own  privilege  to  be  diminished 
by  the  envy  of  an  inferior  people.  Fixing  their 
gaze  on  the  shadow  of  their  ancient  power,  they 
declared  the  title  of  king,  prematurely  usurped,  to 
be  invalid,  and  themselves  elected  a  new  sovereign 
who  was  forthwith  slain  by  the  Goths,  and  by  his 
death  left  the  kingship  open  to  Magnus."  Who 
this  sovereign  was,  the  old  catalogues  inform  us  ; 
they  mention  after  Ingo  a  king  Ragwald,  surnamed 
Short-head  (Knaphoide),  of  whom  they  remark, 
that  he  came  audaciously  and  arrogantly  to  the 
diet  of  the  West  Goths,  without  receiving  their 
hostages,  and  not  as  the  law  prescribed,  and  there- 
fore they  slew  him  for  the  disrespect  he  had  shown 
to  the  nation.  This  befel  in  the  year  1129  ^  He 
was  a  son  of  Olave  Naskoimng,  who  himself  appears 
as  king  in  some  catalogues,  and  thus,  notwith- 
standing the  power  of  Stenkil's  family,  must  have 
governed  independently  some  portion  of  the  king- 
dom. The  Danish  prince  appears  hardly  to  have 
reached  the  threshold  of  his  reign  ;  he  murdered 
in  1131  his  cousin  Canute  Laward^,  who  was  vene- 
rated as  a  saint  after  death,  and  fell  three  years 
afterwards  in  the  civil  war  which  this  homicide 
produced  in  Denmark.  But  in  1133  a  new  election 
had  already  taken  place  in  Sweden,  by  which 
SwERKER  was  called  to  the  throne. 

By  the  conversion  of  Blot-Swen's  family  to  Chris- 
tianity the  Pagans  had  now  lost  the  last  su])port  of 
their  cause.  This  prince,  set  up  by  them  as  the 
antagonist  of  Ingo  the  elder,  had  a  son  named  Kol, 
who,  notwithstanding  the  disastrous  fate  of  his 
father,  obtained  after  some  time  the  sovereignty 
of  Upper  Sweden  ;  for  he  is  mentioned  as  king, 
with  the  remark  that  the  Swedes  styled  him  "  happy 
in  harvests,"  to  denote  the  plenty  which  they  en- 
joyed under  his  reign.  He  is  said  to  have  become 
a  Christian  in  his  old  age,  and  to  have  died  in  East- 


9  L.  xiii. 

'  Of  the  two  dates,  1130  and  1139,  given  for  this  event,  the 
latter  is,  beyond  doubt,  an  error  ot  the  pen  for  1129. 

"  Laward  is  lord  (Hlaford,  Anglo-Sax.).  Canute  was  son 
of  Eric  Eiegod  (the  good),  duke  of  Sleswick,  and  king  or 
prince  of  the  Obotrites,  or  Slavons  of  Wagria.  Magnus  wa.s 
jealous  of  his  designs,  real  or  pretended,  on  tlie  Danish 
crown.  His  son  was  afterwards  Valdemar  I.  of  Denmark, 
called  the  Great.  See  Dahlmann,  History  of  Denmark,  i. 
218—228.    Trans. 


A.    D.        J 

1133—55.$ 


Choice  and  fate  of 
King  Swerker. 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY.      ^'- H'i''iwi%'l!fil? ''^     43 


the  Upper  Swedes. 


Gothland '  ;  and  according  to  the  most  probable 
accounts,  he  was  the  father  of  Swerker,  whom  the 
East  Goths,  moved  by  tliefearof  havnig  a  foreigner 
to  rule  them,  first  raised  to  the  throne  *.  The 
West  Goths  delayed  to  acknowledge  him,  and  wei-e 
for  some  time  without  a  king,  for  we  are  told  that 
after  the  death  of  Ragwald,  "  the  justiciary  and  the 
chief  men  of  the  districts  governed  West-Gothland 
well,  and  were  all  faithful  to  their  charge."  The 
first  monasteries  in  Sweden  were  founded  in  the 
time  of  king  Swerker ;  the  oldest  were  Alvastra, 
Nydala,  and  Warnhem.  Monks  of  Clairvaux  in 
France  were  sent  tiiither  by  St.  Bernard,  who  had  at 
first  to  contend  with  great  difficulties  ^.  A  Romish 
legate,  the  Cai'dinal  Nicolaus  Albanensis,  who 
himself  subsequently  filled  the  papal  chair  under 
the  name  of  Adrian  IV.,  visited  the  North  at  this 
period,  and  arrived  in  Sweden  in  1 152  ®.  Upon 
this  occasion,  the  contribution  to  the  see  of  Rome 
linown  by  the  name  of  St.  Peter's  pence  was  esta- 
blished, and  prohibitions  were  issued  against  the 
universal  and  constant  practice  of  carrying  arms. 
The  legate  designed  to  erect  an  archbishopric  in 
Sweden,  as  he  had  already  done  in  Norway  (in 
Denmai'k  one  had  been  established,  at  Lund,  since 
1103)  ;  but  a  quarrel  arising  between  the  Swedes 
and  Goths,  who  disagreed  both  as  to  the  person 
and  the  place,  obliged  him  to  postpone  the  measure  '. 
Swerker  was  an  unwarlike  king,  yet  he  lived  to  see 
many  troubles  in  his  old  age.  His  son  John,  who 
had  made  himself  by  his  excesses  an  object  of 
hatred,  and  had  occasioned  hostilities  with  Den- 
mark, fell  a  victini  to  popular  indignation.  King 
Swerker  was  assassinated  by  his  groom  while  on 
his  way  to  church,  upon  Christmas  day,  1155. 

We  are  now  arrived  at  the  times  of  St.  Eric,  the 
first  sovereign  who  saw  Christianity  firmly  esta- 
blished in  Upper  Sweden,  and  may  cast  a  glance 
retrospectively  upon  its  slow  progress.  Regular 
ministers  were  first  appointed  in  Gothland,  where 
episcopal  sees  were  speedily  erected  in  Skara  and 
Linkoping.  The  measures  previously  taken  for 
the  diffusion  of  Christianity  in  Swe(leland,  were 
confined  to  Birca  and  its  environs.  While  Chris- 
tianity had  attained  ascendancy  in  Gothland,  the 
old  sacrifices  were  still  continued  for  a  long  time  in 
Upsala,  and  the  first  Christians  were  compelled  to 
purchase  exemption  from  the  obligation  of  attending 
at  their  performance  and  contributing  to  their  sup- 
port *.  ("onformably  to  a  public  decree,  both  re- 
ligions liad  been  recognized  by  law  since  the  time 

3  The  parish  church  of  Kaga  is  said,  according  to  a  tradi- 
tion in  the  neighbourhood,  to  have  been  built  by  him.  He 
is  also  named  Kornuba,  or  Kornike,  which  latter  is  mani- 
festly a  corruption  of  koinrike,  corn-rich. 

•1  Saxo. 

s  Compare  Langebek,  S.  R.  D.  iv.  458. 

5  This  was  Nicholas  Breakspeare,  the  English  pope.     T. 

?  Saxo,  1.  xiv. 

8  Ad.  Brem.  de  Situ  Dan. 

9  "  At  this  time  were  found  in  Swedeland  many  heathens 
and  bad  Christians ;  for  there  were  some  kings  who  rejected 
Christianity  and  maintained  the  sacrifices,  as  Jilot-Swen 
and  Eric  Aorsell."  Keinisk.  Saga  of  Sigurd  the  Pilgrim,  c.  27 

'  It  was  not  in  the  spirit  of  Catholicism  to  destroy  the  old 
idol-houses;  on  the  contrary,  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  at 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  England,  enjoined  "that 
the  temples  should  not  be  demolished,  but  consecrated  and 
turned  into  Christian  churches,  after  the  idols  were  broken." 
Henr.  Huntingdon,  Hist.  1.  iii. 


of  Olave  ;  the  same  edict  remained  in  force  under 
his  sons,  and  even  Steiikil  found  himself  obliged  to 
observe  its  provisions.  This  peace,  or  truce  of  long 
duration,  terminated  in  the  civil  war  which  followed 
his  death,  and  the  change  in  the  relations  of  parties, 
appears  clearly  from  the  attempt  of  Ingo  the  elder 
to  abolish  the  sacrifices,  the  ensuing  revolt  of  the 
Swedes,  and  the  election  by  the  heathens  of  counter- 
kings^. 

These  commotions  extended  to  Gothland  and  the 
rest  of  the  Nnrth.  Sigurd,  king  of  Norway,  and 
Nils  of  Denmark,  had  concerted  in  1123  a  crusade 
against  the  heathens  of  Sraaland,  which  however 
was  only  carried  into  execution  by  the  former  ;  and 
the  Danish  prince  Magnus  Nilson,  the  same  who 
afterwards  procured  himself  to  be  chosen  king  of 
the  Goths,  boasted  of  plundering  a  temple  con- 
secrated to  Thor,  among  the  islets  of  the  coast  of 
Swedeland,  whence  the  Swedish  Pagans  held  him 
in  abhorrence  as  a  robber  of  sanctuaries.  Mean- 
while Christianity  was  advancing  among  them 
through  detached  efforts  of  individual  zeal,  and 
almost  every  province  of  Sweden  had  its  own 
apostle.  Thus  the  Westmanlanders  reverenced  St. 
David,  the  Sudermanians  St.  Botwid  and  St.  Askill, 
the  Norrlauders  St.  Stephen.  Most  of  them  were 
English,  and  all  those  we  have  mentioned,  except- 
ing the  first,  died  the  death  of  martyrs.  Gradually 
the  sacrifices  were  abolished,  and  Christian  churches 
sprang  up  in  the  former  seats  of  idolatry'.  The 
festivals  of  heathenism  were  replaced  by  those  of 
Christianity,  observed  about  the  same  periods  as 
the  former  ^  ;  and  when  at  last  the  old  Folklands, 
which  had  been  the  chief  stronghold  of  Paganism, 
embraced  the  faith  of  the  gospel,  they  retained 
their  old  prerogatives  under  the  new  religion,  and 
elected  a  Christian  monarch,  to  whom  both  divi- 
sions of  the  kingdom  paid  obedience.  Thus  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  Upper  Swedes  "  placed  in  the 
royal  chair  of  Upsala"  Eric,  called  after  his  death 
the  Saint,  although  the  Eastgothlanders  chose  for 
their  king  Charles  the  son  of  Swerker. 

Eric's  father  was  called  Edward,  "  a  good  and 
wealthy  yeoman,"  says  the  old  Swedish  chronicle^  ; 
his  mother  Cecilia  was  sister  of  Eric,  already  men- 
tioned as  reigning  in  Swedeland.  He  was  himself 
married  to  Christina,  daughter  of  the  younger  Ingo, 
or  as  others  state,  the  grand-daughter  of  Ingo  the 
elder.  Three  things  did  holy  king  Eric  endeavour — 
says  the  old  legend — to  build  churches  and  reform 
religion,  to  govern  the  people  as  law  and  justice 
pointed  out,  and  to  overcome  the  enemies  of  his 
faith  and  realm.    The  establishment  of  Christianity 

2  It  is  related  of  Sigurd  Thorson,  a  rich  Norwegian,  that 
"he  had  the  custom,  while  heathenism  existed,  of  keeping 
three  sacrifices  every  year;  one  at  the  commencement  of 
winter,  the  second  in  mid-winter,  and  the  third  towards 
summer.  But  after  he  had  embraced  Christianity,  he  pre- 
served the  custom  of  giving  entertainments.  In  harvest  he 
kept  with  his  friends  a  harvest-home,  in  winter  a  Christmas 
revel,  and  the  third  feast  he  held  at  Easter  ;  and  many  guests 
were  gathered  at  his  board."  Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  123. 
Haco  the  Good  of  Norway  had  removed  the  pagan  Yule, 
formerly  observed  as  midwinter's  night  (midwmtersnatten), 
called  also  hawk's  night  (hokenatten),  and  kept  at  the  be- 
ginning of  February,  according  to  the  Harvarar  Saga,  to  the 
catholic  Christmas.  Saga  of  Haco.  c.  15.  Candlemas,  cele- 
brated at  the  time  of  the  old  winter  sacrifice,  is  still  called 
in  some  provinces  I,ittle  Yule. 

3  Script,  rer.  Suec.  i.  246. 


.  .         Crusade  in  Finland.     Eric's 
*■*  death  and  character. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Charles  Swerkerson.     State 
of  the  Swedish  church. 


C      A.  r. 

J  Iiei— C7. 


in  Upper  Sweden  was  undoubtedly  his  work.  Be- 
fore him  there  were,  even  at  Upsala,  neither  priests 
nor  a  conveniently  built  house  for  the  congre- 
gation, wherefore  he  first  applied  himself  to  com- 
plete the  Church  "  now  called  Old  Upsala,  and 
appointed  clerks  for  the  ministry  of  the  altar*." 
An  old  table  of  kings  denominates  him  the  Law- 
giver, and  the  rights  of  Swedish  matrons  to  the 
place  of  honour  and  housewifedoni,  to  lock  and 
key,  to  the  lialf  of  the  mai-riage-bed,  and  the  legal 
third  of  the  property,  as  the  law  of  Upland  ex- 
presses it,  are  said  to  have  been  conferred  by  the 
law  of  St.  Eric.  Against  the  heathens  of  Finland, 
whose  piracies  harassed  the  Swedish  coast,  he 
undertook  a  crusade,  and  by  introducing  Chi-isti- 
auity,  as  also  probably  by  transplanting  Swedish 
colonists  thither,  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  con- 
nection which  so  long  subsistsd  between  Sweden 
and  that  country.  St.  Henry,  the  first  bishop  of 
Upsala,  of  whose  active  exertions  in  propagating 
Christianity  history  has  preserved  some  record, 
accompanied  the  king  on  this  expedition  ;  he  was 
the  first  apostle  of  the  Finns,  and  suffered  at  their 
hands  the  death  of  a  martyr.  At  last,  Eric  was 
unexpectedly  beleaguered  in  Upsala  by  the  Danish 
prince  Magnus  Henryson,  during  the  celebration  of 
divine  service.  The  king  heard  the  mass  out,  and 
marched  against  tlte  enemy.  After  a  short  but 
valiant  resistance  he  fell  dead  covered  with  wounds, 
at  East  Aros,  the  present  Upsala,  on  the  18th  of 
May,  1160.  His  virtues,  and  the  austerity  of  his 
life,  procured  him  after  death  the  reputation  of 
a  saint.  He  was  reverenced  as  the  Protector  of 
Sweden  ;  his  banner  waved  in  the  field  to  en- 
courage the  Swedes  in  battle  with  the  enemies  of 
the  realm  ;  the  anniversary  of  his  death  was  kept 
sacred  throughout  all  the  provinces  ;  the  town  of 
Stockholm  bears  his  effigy  on  its  arms,  and  the 
cathedral  of  Upsala  still  preserves  his  relics,  once 
the  objects  of  veneration.  By  the  Church  he  was 
never  canonized,  although  a  hundred  years  after 
his  death,  the  papacy,  informed  of  the  homage 
which  the  people  continued  to  pay  to  his  memory, 
exhorted  the  devout  to  make  pilgrimages  to  his 
tomb.  The  Romish  court,  however,  was  far  from 
being  well-inclined  to  him  at  a  period  nearer  his 
own,  for  in  a  papal  rescript  of  1208  his  family  is 
represented  as  having  violently  usurped  the  crown, 
to  the  injury  of  the  house  of  Swerker,  its  legitimate 
owners.  The  old  accounts  unanimously  assign  him 
a  reign  of  ten  years  ;  he  was  therefoi-e  raised  to 
the  crown  in  1150,  five  years  before  the  death  of 
Swerker.  His  sovereignty  at  first  extended  only 
over  Sweden  Proper  ;  indeed  he  was  acknowledged 
but  for  a  time  in  Gothland,  whose  inhabitants  liad 
nominated  Charles  Swerkerson.  The  latter  is  said 
to  have  held  real  possession  of  the  government  for 
two  years  before  the  death  of  St.  Eric  *,  and  is  even 
accused  of  having  been  a  party  to  the  plot  against 
him. 

The  Danish  prince  Magnus  Henryson  was  de- 
scended  from    Stenkil   by   his   mother,  who   was 

•<  Life  of  St.  Eric,  ibid.  ii.  273.  From  the  account  of  his 
death,  it  appears  that  he  also  built  a  church  at  East  Aros,  or 
the  present  Upsala. 

s  Chronica  Erici  Olai. 

"  Saxo,  1.  xiv. 

'  Margaret  marned  the  Norwegian  king  Sverre  in  1185. 

s  Liljegren,  Swenskt  Diplomatariuni,  p.  95. 

9  In  a  letter  from  Pope  Alexander  III.  in  IICI. 


daughter  of  the  elder  Ingo's  son,  and  was  thereby  a 
coparcener  of  those  hereditary  estates  in  West- 
Gothland  devolving  on  the  Danish  royal  family, 
which  accoi'ding  to  Saxo  were  the  source  of  so 
mvich  strife.  It  is  expressly  said  that  Magnus 
claimed  the  throne  as  his  inheritance  in  right  of 
his  mother,  and  that  he  obtained  a  powerful  native 
party  of  supporters.  If  we  consider  that  he  al- 
ready possessed  by  his  descent  the  strongest  claim 
on  the  attachment  of  the  West  Goths,  and  that  the 
latter  had  once  before  called  a  Danish  prince  to  the 
crown  upon  a  like  occasion,  we  shall  probably  con- 
clude that  this  was  the  last  attempt  at  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Westgothic  dynasty.  Magnus  Henry- 
son, who  is  charged  with  having  been  privy  to  the 
murder  of  the  old  king  Swerker  ^,  was  in  effect 
elected,  and  the  Westgothic  catalogue  of  kings 
mentions  him  as  the  fourteenth  Christian  sovereign 
of  Sweden.  He  was  not  long  allowed  to  remain  in 
the  enjoyment  of  his  new  dignity  ;  the  people  re- 
volted, and  Charles  Swerkerson  also  turning  his 
arms  against  him,  he  was  defeated  and  slain  in  the 
year  1161.  Canute,  son  of  St.  Eric,  was  con- 
strained to  flee  into  Norway,  where  two  of  his 
sisters  afterwards  married '  ;  he  had  a  brother 
named  Philip  *  of  whom  nothing  is  known. 

Charles  Swerkerson  is  the  first  whom  we  find 
mentioned  as  king  of  the  Swedes  and  Goths  ^  ;  he 
is  hkewise,  so  far  as  is  known,  the  first  Swedish 
king  who  bore  the  name  of  Charles.  In  the  fabu- 
lous and  partly  invented  list  of  sovereigns  of  early 
ages  given  by  Joannes  Magnus,  Charles  Swerker- 
son was  made  the  seventh  of  his  name  among 
Swedish  kings,  a  computation  which  usage  after- 
wards sanctioned  ' .  During  the  reign  of  Charles  was 
established,  in  1 163,  the  archbishopric  of  Upsala.  Bi- 
shops of  Skai-a,  Lmkbping,  Strengnas,  Westeras,  and 
shortly  afterwards  of  Wexio  and  Abo,  are  mentioned 
as  suffragans  of  his  see  ;  and  he  was  himself  subor- 
dinate to  the  archbishop  of  Lund,  who  bore  the  title 
of  Primate  of  Sweden.  This  precedence,  however, 
was  afterwards  brought  into  question,  and  finally 
abrogated.  Papal  briefs  to  the  archbishops  and 
their  suffragans  begin  now  to  throw  some  light  on 
the  condition  of  the  Swedish  Church.  Complaints  are 
made  that  secular  persons,  at  their  own  caprice  or 
for  money,  and  without  the  consent  of  the  spiritual 
authorities,  often  ordained  as  priests  runaway 
monks,  homicides,  or  other  malefactors  ;  that  they 
embezzled  the  revenues  of  the  churches,  especially 
during  the  vacancy  of  benefices,  and  even  broke 
open  and  plundered  the  sacred  buildings  ;  that 
they  cited  the  cleigy  to  appear  before  secular  tri- 
bunals, subjecting  them  to  the  ordeals  of  battle, 
red  hot  iron,  or  boiling  water,  and  if  they  refused 
to  obey  the  summons,  burning  down  their  houses. 
Repeated  mention  of  these  remonstrances  shows 
that  the  disorders  complained  of  long  continued. 
Bequests  to  the  Church,  in  particular,  furnished  in- 
cessant matter  of  dispute.  Pope  Alexander  III. 
had  himself  enacted  that  no  man  should  be  allowed 
in  this  way  to  dispose  of  his  whole  property,  but  only, 


1  Just  as  St.  Eric  is  styled  Eric  IX.,  although  this  is  in 
some  measure  defensible,  if  we  include  all  the  heathen  kings 
of  this  name  in  the  calculation.  He  was  himself  the  first 
Christian  king  of  the  name,  whence  his  grandson  is  called  in 
the  old  chronologies  and  catalogues  Ericus  Secundiis,  and 
his  son  again,  Eric  Ericson,  actually  entitles  himself  Ericus 
Tertius. 


A.  D. 

1167—1216 


i 


Renewal  of  the  troubles. 
Feud  of  Eljaras. 


SUCCESSORS  OF  ST.  ERIC. 


Swerker  II. 
Eric  Canuteson. 


45 


if  he  chose,  of  the  main  portidii  ;  the  heirs  de- 
manded that  no  part  should  be  allowed  to  be 
alienated  without  their  consent.  PajTnent  of  tithe 
was  enjoined,  and  we  find  it  introduced  before  the 
end  of  the  century,  yet  complaints  were  still  made 
in  ]'232  that  it  was  withheld  by  the  peasants  at 
pleasure.  The  Christian  ceremony  of  wedlock  was 
yet  far  from  being  in  general  use  ;  marriages 
were  contracted  and  dissolved  after  the  barbarous 
fashion  of  the  Pagans,  and  the  heathen  practice  of 
exposing  children  had  not  yet  ceased.  We  observe 
too  that  the  first  monks  tilled  their  fields  with  their 
own  hands  ;  that  they  introduced  horticulture, 
constructed  water-mills,  boiled  salt,  and  opened 
mines.  To  build  bridges  and  level  roads  were 
looked  upon  as  works  beseeming  good  Christians, 
and  in  these  the  bishops  set  the  example. 

Charles  SwERKERSoNjwho  is  said  to  have  governed 
the  realm  sagaciously  and  with  good  intent,  was 
slain  in  1167  on  the  isle  of  Vising  ^  by  Canute,  son 
of  St.  Eric,  who  returned  from  Norway  after  a 
three  years'  exile.  A  civil  war  ensued,  in  which 
Kol  and  Burislev,  sons  of  the  brother  of  Charles, 
were  raised  "  one  after  the  other  to  be  kings  against 
Canute ;  but  he  overcame  and  slew  them  both. 
It  may  certainly  be  presumed  that  Canute  had 
with  him  the  men  of  Upland,  who  chose  his  father 
to  be  king,  and  the  followers  of  Charles  who  opposed 
him,  had  on  their  side  the  East  Goths,  and  pei'haps 
several  other  provinces."  Such  are  the  expres- 
sions employed  by  Olave  Peterson  *  respecting 
these  intestine  troubles.  In  the  Westgothic  cata- 
logue of  kings  it  is  said  of  Canute  Ericson,  that  he 
had  won  Sweden  with  the  sword,  bereft  three  kings 
of  life,  and  fought  many  battles  before  he  possessed 
the  realm  in  quiet ;  afterwards  he  proved  a  good 
king,  and  reigned  twenty-three  years.  These  how- 
ever are  not  to  be  reckoned  from  the  death  of 
Charles  Swerkerson,  but  from  the  end  of  the  civil 
war,  which  therefore  lasted  five  years  ;  for  king 
Canute  Ericson  died,  according  to  the  most  credible 
accounts,  in  the  autumn  of  the  year  llOS*.  By  a 
Swedish  wife  he  had  four  sons. 

Although  the  king  had  previously  to  his  death 
caused  his  subjects  to  pay  homage  to  one  of  his 
sons  as  his  successor  elect  *,  yet  Swerker  II.,  son 
of  Charles,  who  was  carried  while  a  child  at  his 
father's  death  to  Denmark,  where  he  obtained  pro- 
tection, was  now  raised  to  the  throne.  In  the 
fourth  year  of  his  reign  (1200),  this  sovereign  ex- 
empted the  clergy  from  suit  to  the  temporal  courts, 
and  freed  the  estates  of  the  church  from  all  ser- 
vices due  to  the  crown.  Under  the  year  1205,  the 
short  chronologies,  which  are  for  the  most  part  the 
only  sources  for  the  history  of  this  peiiod,  make 
mention  of  the  so-called  massacre  of  Eljaras  in 
West-Gothland,  at  which  all  the  sons  of  Canute 
Ericson,  except  one  who  -escaped  by  flight,  were 
put  to  death.  Some  writers  denominate  this  trans- 
action the  "feud  of  Eljaras."  A  papal  brief  of 
1208  contains  an  account  of  the  event,  fi'om  which 
it  appears  that,  the  sons  of  Canute  having  revolted 
against  Swerker,  three  of  them  had  lost  their  lives 
in  one  encounter,  while  the  fourth   fled,  but  re- 

2  In  the  southern  part  of  lake  Wetter,  in  Gothland.     T. 
^  Or  Olaus  Petri,  the  chronicler.    T. 

•>  A  letter  of  this  king  of  the  year  1199,  quoted  by  Lager- 
bring,  has  demonstrably  an  incorrect  date. 
5  Celse,  BuUarium,  p.  45. 
c  Saga  of  K.  Inge  Bardson,  c.  20. 


turning  after  some  interval,  succeeded  in  expelling 
the  king  from  his  throne.  Swerker  took  refuge  in 
Denmark,  whence  he  brought  back  an  army  to  aid 
him  in  asserting  his  rights,  but  after  an  utter 
defeat  at  Lena  in  West-Gothland  in  the  year  1208, 
he  saw  himself  again  compelled  to  flee.  The  me- 
mory of  this  bloody  engagement  was  long  preserved, 
and  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  field  of  battle  it  is 
not  j'ct  forgotten  ;  children's  children,  says  the 
Swedish  chronicle,  yet  spoke  of  the  deeds  done 
that  day.  A  Norwegian  account  represents  the 
spirit  of  Odin  as  present  (for  the  last  time)  in  this 
conflict  ^.  Monkish  verses  celebrate  the  victory  as 
won  over  a  doubly  superior  number  of  Danes.  An 
old  Danish  ballad  asserts  that  the  preponderance  of 
force  was  on  the  Swedish  side,  and  that  of  eight 
thousand  men  who  marched  out  of  Denmark  only 
five  and  fifty  returned,  representing  the  combat 
likewise  as  one  of  a  civil  war,  in  which  the  nearest 
kinsmen  bore  arms  against  each  other.  The  gain- 
ing of  the  victory  is  ascribed  to  the  peasants  of 
Upland  ;  and  a  Swedish  chronicle  informs  us,  that 
the  Upper  Swedes  were  animated  by  a  profound 
haired  of  Swerker,  on  account  of  the  fate  which 
had  befallen  the  sons  of  king  Canute  '.  Gothic 
records,  on  the  contrary,  attest  that  the  memory  of 
Swerker  held  a  high  place  in  tlie  popular  affec- 
tions*. He  made  a  fresh  attempt  to  regain  the 
crown,  but  fell  in  another  battle  which  was  fought 
atGestibren  in  the  same  province  in  the  year  1210, 
it  is  said  by  the  hands  of  his  own  kinsmen,  the 
Folkungers.  His  second  wife  Ingrid  was  of  this 
powerful  family,  a  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Swede- 
land,  Birger  Brossa.  By  her  Swerker  had  two 
children,  Helen  (whose  abduction  from  the  convent 
of  Vreta  an  old  Swedish  song  describes),  and  John, 
who  at  his  father's  death  was  still  of  tender  years. 

Eric  Canuteson  had  resided  during  his  exile  with 
his  kinsmen  in  Norway,  and  succeeded  to  the  go- 
vernment by  his  victory  over  his  competitor.  He 
essayed  to  invest  liis  office  with  new  sanctity,  for 
he  is  the  first  Swedish  sovereign  who  is  mentioned 
as  having  been  crowned.  That  he  augmented  the 
privileges  of  tlie  clergy  we  learn  from  his  charter 
to  the  monastei-y  of  Risberg  in  1212,  empowering 
the  convent  to  receive  from  its  vassals  the  royal 
share  in  the  amercements  fixed  by  law  for  offences. 
A  reconciliation  with  Denmark  was  solemnized  by 
a  marriage  between  Eric  and  Rikissa,  sister  of  the 
Danish  monarch,  Waldemar  II.  Sweden  was  still 
deficient  in  many  of  the  conveniences  of  life  which 
had  already  been  introduced  into  Denmark.  The 
Danish  princess,  arrived  on  the  coast  of  Sweden, 
complained  that  she  must  climb  on  horseback,  and 
could  not  have,  as  in  her  father's  country,  a  car 
and  a  driver  ;  but  the  Swedish  dames,  we  are  told, 
made  answer  ;  "  Ye  shall  bring  us  no  Jutish  cus- 
toms here  ^."  Eric  Canuteson,  who  from  the  abun- 
dant harvests  which  marked  the  seven  years  of 
his  peaceful  reign,  is  called  a  good  harvest-king, 
died  in  1216,  his  son  Eric  being  born  after  the 
father's  death. 

The  Swedish  prelates  and  magnates  now  elected 
John  son  of  Swerker,  called  the  young  or  the  pious. 


"  Chronica  Erici  Olai. 

8  Table  of  Kings  in  the  Westgothic  Law. 

9  See  the  popular  song  referred  to  this  time  in  Peder  Syv, 
p.  212.  (The  name  Jutes,  Juta,  pron.  Yutar,  seems  to  be  n 
mere  variation  of  Gtitar,  Goths,  pronounced  Yotar.     T.) 


46 


Kric  Ericson.     Results 
of  the  civil  war. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Papal  legate  aiipointed.    f      a.  d. 
Disorders  of  the  clergy.   {  1216 — 48. 


to  fill  the  tlirone,  though  he  was  still  a  child.  On 
his  coronation-day  he  freed  the  estates  and  property 
of  the  churches  from  contribution  to  the  crown, 
and  granted  to  the  bishops  the  right  of  levying  all 
fines  from  the  peasants  holding  land  of  the  church. 
These  privileges  he  confirmed  iu  1219,  the  third 
year  of  his  reign,  by  a  special  brief  setting  forth  as 
his  ground,  that  '  since  our  first  father's  transgres- 
sion, all  human  memory  is  frail  and  perishable 
without  the  undying  evidence  of  letters.'  Against 
the  election  of  the  Swedes  king  Waldemar  appealed 
to  the  papal  chair,  alleging  the  hereditary  right  of 
his  nephew,  the  young  prince  Eric,  to  the  throne, 
in  preference  to  John  '.  On  the  other  side,  the 
princes  of  Swerker's  family  style  themselves  in 
their  letters  hereditary  kings  of  the  dominion  of 
Sweden  2.  Considering  tiie  frequent  civil  wars, 
which  only  died  away  because  the  competitors 
were  of  too  tender  age  to  appear  in  person  at  the 
head  of  their  followers,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose 
that  in  the  so-called  partition  of  the  kingdom  be- 
tween the  houses  of  Swerker  and  Eric,  there  was 
any  other  compact  between  the  parties  than  what 
might  be  extorted  by  arms,  and  written  in  cha- 
racters of  blood. 

After  John,  the  last  of  Swerker's  lineage,  had 
died  in  1222,  the  young  Eric  Ericson,  called  "the 
halt  and  the  lisper,"  w^as  in  fact  raised  to  the 
throne,  which,  however,  was  scarcely  to  prove 
a  more  tranquil  possession,  although  the  family 
which  had  so  long  struggled  with  his  had  now 
descended  to  the  tomb. 

The  contests  between  the  Gothic  and  Swedish 
ruling  houses  had  gradually  effaced  the  old  generic 
diversities  among  the  population.  At  the  same 
time  they  powerfully  contributed  to  elevate  the 
magnates  of  the  country  at  the  expense  of  the 
kingly  power,  and  one  circumstance  which  marks 
their  growing  importance  is,  that  in  papal  briefs 
they  are  separately  addressed  as  the  lords  and 
princes  of  Sweden  *.  One  family  in  particular  at- 
tained great  influence  in  affairs,  that  of  the  Folk- 
UNGERS.  Their  ancestry  ascended  into  the  heathen 
times  ;  they  were  nearly  related  to  all  the  three 
royal  houses  of  the  north,  and  had  held  the  rank  of 
Earl  of  Sweden  since  the  days  of  Birger  Brossa, 
who  died  in  1202  ;  for  this  ancient  princely  dignity 
had  now  become  the  chief  office  at  coiu't,  and 
thereby  also  in  the  government  of  the  country.  Its 
holder,  who  is  called  Earl  of  the  Swedes,  Earl  of  the 
Swedes  and  Goths  ^,  Duke  of  Sweden  by  the  grace 
of  God  *,  is  named  in  the  public  documents  next  in 
order  after  the  king,  and  was  destined,  like  a  simi- 
lar high  officer  among  the  Franks  in  former  times, 
speedily  to  usurp  the  power  and  place  of  the 
sovereign.  Canute  Johanson,  called  the  Long,  a 
member  of  this  family,  espoused  the  king's  sister, 
and  was  powerful  enough,  both  from  natural  en- 
dowments and  the  alliances  he  had  formed,  to 
assert  claims  to  the  throne  against  a  sovereign  yet 
in  his  minority.     Old  wTiters  denominate  him  the 

1  Celse,  Bullarium,  .56. 

2  So  king  Swerker  II.  entitles  himself;  Ego  Swerco,  filius 
Caroli  regis,  rex  Sweorum,  ejusdem  regni  monarchiam,  Dei 

]   gratia,  hereditario  jure  assecutus. 

3  Proceres  Svethia;,  Magnates,  Principes. 

••  Dux  Sveorum — dux  Sveorum  et  Gothorum. 
5  In  a  Swedish  charter  of  1248. 

^  The  records  have  Olustrom  and  Alvastrum,  wliich  are 
manifestly  the  same. 


Folkunger  king  ;  he  took  up  arms,  and  with  him, 
says  the  Rhyme  Chronicle,  "  all  the  rout  of  the  Fol- 
kungs  ;"  and  he  in  effect  filled  the  throne  from  the 
fight  of  Alvastra"  in  1229,  which  compelled  the 
young  king  to  flee  into  Denmark,  till  12.H4,  when 
the  victory  of  Sparfatra  (near  Upsala),  won  by  the 
king's  party  after  his  return,  ended  the  power  of 
the  usurper  with  his  life.  Eric  recovered  his 
crown  upon  his  rival's  death,  although  his  in- 
fluence in  the  government  was  really  less  than  that 
of  the  Folkunger  Ulf  Fasi  ',  who  had  already  been 
earl  under  his  kinsman  Canute,  and  retained  the 
office  under  Eric.  Holmgeir,  son  of  Canute,  fled 
to  Gestricland,  and  held  his  ground  against  the 
king  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  country.  So 
late  as  1248,  a  papal  legate  who  visited  Sweden  in 
that  year  speaks  of  intestine  war  between  the  king 
and  the  magnates  as  continuing,  and  the  conflict 
was  brought  to  an  end  at  this  time  partly  through 
the  mediation  of  the  legate  himself ,  after  the  revolter 
Holmgeir  (who  is  nevertheless  reckoned  among 
Swedish  saints),  had  been  made  prisoner  and 
beheaded. 

This  papal  legate  was  the  Cardinal  William, 
bishop  of  Sabina,  who  had  repaired  thither  to  settle 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  The  fii'st  laws  of  the  Swedish 
Church  were  framed  in  the  republican  spirit  which 
reigned  in  the  old  political  constitution,  therein  not 
at  ail  contravening  the  usages  of  elder  Catholicism, 
before  the  hierarchy,  swelling  in  greatness,  demanded 
the  separation  of  the  Chxrrch  from  the  state  ^.  In 
Sweden  tiie  priest  was  an  officer  of  the  people, 
elected  by  them  with  the  consent  of  the  bishop, 
who  was  himself  chosen  by  the  voices  of  the  faith- 
ful, and  inducted  into  his  office  by  the  king,  who 
delivered  to  him  the  crosier  and  ring.  But  if  the 
Church  was  thus  more  closely  incorpoi-ated  with 
the  state,  her  members  from  this  very  cause  took 
in  times  of  violence  a  more  prominent  share  iu  the 
disorders  of  the  temporal  commonwealth.  There- 
fore, when  the  popes  make  complaints  of  the  "  un- 
tamed hardness"  of  the  people  of  Sweden,  these 
in  effect  apply  not  less  to  the  clergy  themselves 
than  to  the  laity.  We  find  the  former  as  well  as 
the  latter  charged  with  homicide,  outrages,  dis- 
orderly and  vicious  lives.  Priests,  who  were  bound 
to  keep  aloof  from  the  secular  tribunals,  appeared 
in  the  diets  to  plead  as  advocates  for  others  ^  ;  in- 
stead of  husbanding  the  property  of  the  Church,  they 
appropriated  it  to  their  own  use,  and  transmitted 
it  as  a  heritage  to  their  children,  whence  the  sons 
of  priests  often  made  solicitation,  and  with  success, 
to  be  appointed  to  their  fathers'  office.  From  the 
scarcity  of  preachers,  little  strictness  could  be 
exercised  in  their  selection.  While  the  upper  pai't 
of  the  kingdom  had  too  few  churches,  their  number 
in  West-Gothland  was  already  so  large,  that  in 
1234  the  junction  of  the  smaller  pai'ishes  was 
decreed  i.  For  their  privilege  of  contractiug 
marriage   the  Swedish  priesthood  appealed  to  an 

"  Compare  the  Saga  of  Haco  Hakanson,  c.  259. 

>*  Aniiquiores  canones  habent,  quod  consensus  honorati- 
orum  in  civitate  requircndus  et  admittendus  sit  in  electioni- 
bus  episcoporum.  Disputatum  est  de  illo  canone  acriter 
postea.     Celse,  Bullarium,  37. 

9  This  was  forbidden  under  the  penalty  of  excommunica- 
tion by  a  brief  of  Pope  Gregory  IX.,  in  1234,  to  the  bishop  of 
Skara. 

'  Diplomatarium  Suec. 


A,  D. 
1248-50. 


Measures  of  the  legate. 
Synod  of  Skenninge. 


THE  FOLKUNGERS. 


Birger,  Earl  of  Sweden. 
The  king's  death. 


47 


old  papal  grace  ^.  In  the  Scanian  revolt  of  1180, 
it  was  one  of  the  demands  of  the  peasants,  that 
their  priests  should  be  allowed  to  mari'y.  Those 
of  the  clergy  whose  marriages  were  not  connived  at, 
generally  formed  instead  irregular  connections  ; 
and  if  the  bishops  were  zealous  against  all  this,  we 
find  the  priests  on  the  other  hand  entering  into 
bonds  to  pay  no  obi'dience  to  their  mandates,  and 
imposing  penalties  on  those  who  should  not  make 
common  cause  with  their  colleagues  in  this  respect. 
Remonstrances  were  also  made  by  the  minor  clergy 
as  to  the  burden  of  the  expensive  episcopal  visita- 
tions, as  well  as  the  disagreements  between  the 
various  classes  of  the  spiritualty  ;  for  great  ani- 
mosity prevailed  among  the  secular  priesthood 
against  the  monks,  of  whom  the  numbers  in 
Sweden  were  now  augmented  by  the  introduction 
of  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans,  or  the  so-called 
Gray  and  Black  Friars. 

At  the  Synod  convoked  by  the  Cardinal  at  Sken- 
ninge in  1248,  which  was  also  attended  by  the  earl 
and  several  temporal  lords,  marriage  was  forbidden 
to  the  Swedish  clergy  on  penalty  of  excommunica- 
tion, and  abolished ;  the  study  of  the  canon  law 
also  was  enjoined,  and  in  conformity  to  its  rules 
every  episcopal  election  was  to  be  managed  by  the 
chapter,  all  laical  interference  being  excluded.  To 
this  end,  in  all  cathedral  churches  which  did  not 
already  possess  them,  capitular  bodies  were  to  be 
formed.  As  is  generally  the  case,  the  execution  of 
the  law  did  not  correspond  to  its  letter.  Ten  years 
afterwards  we  still  hear  the  complaint,  that  the 
ordinance  respecting  chapters  had  had  no  results  ; 
these  were,  however,  gradually  founded,  and  the 
prebends  endowed  with  revenues.  How  the  pro- 
hibition of  clerical  marriages  was  obeyed,  may  be 
inferred  from  the  circumstance,  that  for  a  long  time 
after  the  synod  of  Skenninge,  the  provincial  laws 
retained  their  enactments  regarding  inheritances  by 
sons  of  priests  and  bishojis.  In  consequence  of 
this  prohibition  also  a  papal  bull  was  issued,  by 
which  the  penalties  against  irregular  connections 
of  cler'gymen  were  mitigated. 


Earl  BiRGER  the  younger,  elevated  to  this  dignity 
in  1248,  and  like  his  predecessor  Ulf  a  Folkunger, 
was  manned  to  the  sister  of  king  Eric.  The  gi-eat- 
ness  of  his  power  is  attested  by  the  words  of  the 
papal  legate  ;  "  By  him  is  this  land  wholly  go- 
verned." After  the  synod  of  Skenninge,  measures 
were  taken  for  the  restoration  of  harmony  with 
Norway,  which  had  been  for  a  long  time  back  dis- 
turbed by  the  frequent  interference  of  the  Vernie- 
landers  in  the  Norwegian  troubles,  and  a  Norse 
inroad  thereby  provoked.  The  earl  next  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  crusade  against  the  Tavasters 
of  Finland,  who  had  relapsed  into  Paganism, 
practising  the  most  horrid  cruelties  against  the 
Christians  residing  in  that  country,  and  often  an- 
noying the  Swedish  coasts  in  conjunction  with  the 
Carelians  and  Esthonians.  Birger  subdued  the 
Tavasters,  and  compelled  them  to  embrace  Chris- 
tianity ;  he  also  founded  the  castle  of  Tavasteborg, 
and  transplanted  Christian  settlers  into  the  country. 
To  him  is  ascribed  the  location  of  the  Swedish 
colony  in  East  Bothnia,  as  that  in  Nyland  is  to  St. 
Eric.  The  Rhyme  Chronicle  asserts  that  Tavast- 
land,  now  become  Christian,  had  formerly  been 
subject  to  Russia.  It  is  certain  that  the  Swedes 
made  an  incursion  into  Russia  shortly  before  or 
during  this  war  ^  ;  but  they  were  driven  back,  as 
the  Russian  annals  tell  us,  by  the  grand  duke 
Alexander  Newsky.  He  is  alleged  to  have  wounded 
Birger  in  the  battle  *,  wherein  the  earl's  son,  per- 
haps his  natural  son  Guttorm,  is  said  to  have  been 
also  pi'esent. 

King  Eric  Ericson  died  on  the  2nd  February, 
1250  ;  a  grave  and  righteous  prince,  say  the  old 
writers,  but  little  versed  in  martial  exercises.  He 
had  been  married  since  1243  to  Catherine,  whose 
parents  were  the  Folkunger  Sune  Folkerson,  and  a 
daughter  of  Swerker  II.  ;  but  she  gave  her  husband 
no  heirs,  and  after  his  death  entered  a  cloister.  A 
hundred  yeai-s  after  St.  Erie  had  been  chosen  king, 
his  line  upon  the  Swedish  throne  became  extuict 
with  Eric  Ericson  *. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  FOLKUNGERS. 


earl  birger  and  his  sons. 


KING    BIRGER   AND    HIS    BROTHERS. 

A.  D.  1250— 1303. 


MAGNUS    ERICSON    WITH    HIS   SONS. 


The  accession  of  the  powerful  family  now  elevated 
to  the  throne  betokens  a  new  epoch,  as  well  for  the 
authority  of  the  crown  as  the  power  of  the  aris- 
tocracy. Both  gained  increase  of  strength  at  the 
cost  of  the  people,  agreeing  themselves  in  but  one 
object,  that  of  curbing  the  mass  into  obedience  ; 
hence  an  age  of  absoluteness  for  the  powerful,  is 
also  one  of  legislation  for  the'  people.  This  legisla- 
tion, taken  literally,  shows  the  old  fedei'ative  system 
confirmed  by  the  kings,  but  above  its  level  two 
privileged  classes  are  created,  raised  beyond  the 

2  The  pope  alleged  that  he  knew  nothing  of  it. 

3  The  pope's  letters  exhort  to  crusades  as  well  against  the 
Tavasters,  who  had  apostatized  from  Christianity,  as  against 


law  in  their  most  important  representatives,  and 
usurping  the  place  of  the  people  in  council  and  in 
the  transaction  of  public  affairs.  At  the  same 
time,  the  contests  which  formerly  divided  the  peo- 
ple are  now  transferred  to  a  higher  grade,  and 
waged  between  their  legislators.  These  remind  us 
of  builders  who,  when  they  have  reared  some  lofty 
fabric,  precipitate  each  other  from  its  walls. 

Laws  associated  with  such  recollections,  how- 
ever, are  not  the  only  memorials  which  this  age 
has  transmitted  to  us.      The  great  Rhyme  Chro- 

the  unbelieving  Russians,  to  whose  assaults  the  Christians 
of  Finland  were  exposed. 

•1  Compare  Karamsin. 

^  Chronica  Erici  Olai. 


48 


Choice  of  Waldemar. 
Discontent  of  Birger. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Revolt  of  liis  kinsmen. 
Its  suppression. 


5       A.  D. 

1 1250— i 


■55. 


nicle,  the  main  source  for  the  history  of  Sweden 
during  the  latter  period  of  the  middle  age,  begins 
with  the  revolt  of  the  I'olkungers  against  king 
Erie  Ericson.  It  is  the  production  of  several  writers 
nearly  contemporary  with  the  events  it  describes, 
though  for  the  most  part  unknown  by  name,  of 
whom  the  oldest  lived  about  the  year  1319.  The 
best  treatise  of  morals  or  politics  which  the  Swe- 
dish middle  age  affords,  upon  "  the  government  of 
kings  and  princes  ^,"  was  also  composed  under  this 
dynasty.  The  autlior,  who  is  imknown,  had  pro- 
bably like  many  of  his  countrymen  in  this  age 
studied  at  Paris ',  where  the  dissertation  of  ALg\- 
dius  Romanus  *,  composed  it  is  said  for  Philip  the 
Fair  of  France,  afforded  him  a  model,  although 
his  work  has  much  that  is  peculiar  to  itself.  He 
seems  to  have  written  under  a  king  who  was  still 
in  childhood,  and  probably  under  the  minority  of 
Magnus  Ericson.  He  is  by  no  means  zealous, 
though  himself  in  all  likelihood  a  clergyman,  for 
the  ascendancy  of  the  church  in  temporal  affairs  ; 
and  seems  to  have  learned  from  the  dangers  of  an 
elective  monarchy  and  the  tyraimy  of  an  unbridled 
oligarchy,  to  advocate  a  hereditary  throne  and  a 
kingly  power  foi-tified  by  the  law  and  the  people. 
The  language  is  admirable  for  its  olden  simplicity 
and  force,  and  its  antique  character  affords  the  best 
proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  work.  Tlie  great 
GusTAvus  Adolphus,  by  whose  order  the  book  was 
first  published,  valued  it  so  highly  that  he  desired 
it  to  be  used  for  the  instruction  of  his  daughter,  and 
designed  to  introduce  it  as  a  text  book  in  the  public 
schools.  From  this  age  also  have  come  down  the 
greatest  number  of  our  old  popular  ballads.  It  was 
the  age  of  knighthood  in  Sweden  ;  the  romances  of 
chivalry  now  found  their  way  to  the  North,  and 
there  are  copies  of  some  existing  in  the  Swedish 
language,  of  which  the  German  and  French  ori- 
ginals are  lost '. 

Earl  Birger,  who  in  the  last  days  of  Eric  Ei'icson 
was  already  the  real  possessor  of  supreme  power, 
was  absent  on  his  crusade  against  the  Finlanders, 
when  the  throne  became  vacant.  It  was  suddenly 
filled  by  the  election  of  the  earl's  eldest  son,  young 
Waldemar,  brought  about  chiefly  through  the  influ- 
ence of  the  lord  Ivar  Bhi  of  Griineborg,  a  powerful 
baron,  whose  object  in  this  expedient  seems  to  have 
been  to  avert  a  civil  war.  To  elevate  Waldemar  to 
the  throne  was  to  deliver  the  government  into  his 
father's  hands  ;  yet  Birger,  having  returned  with 
his  army,  manifested  no  small  dissatisfiiction,  and 
demanded  in  wrath  who  it  was  that  had  dared  to 
appoint  a  king  ?  "  That  have  I  dared,"  was  lord 
Ivar's  answer  ;  "and  if  thou  rest  not  content  here- 
with, we  know  right  well  where  stands  a  king."  The 
earl  was  silent  for  a  while,  and  at  last  exclaimed, 
"  Whom  then  would  you  have  to  be  lung  1"  "  Under 
this  mantle  of  mine,"  Ivar  replied,  "a  king  might 
well  enough  be  found  at  need."  With  that  earl 
Birger  was  fain  to  be  content,  and  Waldemar,  yet 

6  Um  Styrilse  Konunga  ock  Hbfdinga.  First  published  by 
Joh.  Bureus,  1634. 

'  A  letter  of  John,  archbishop  of  Upsala,  in  1291,  contains 
instructions  for  the  Swedes  studying  in  Paris,  who  inhabited 
a  particular  house  in  that  city  bequeathed  for  their  use,  and 
received  a  fund  for  their  support  from  the  tithes  of  the  see 
of  Upsala. 

8  Peregimineprinripum.  ,The  edition  I  have  used,  Leyden, 
12mo.  1630,  is  published  under  the  name  of  Thomas  Aquinas. 

"  As  for  example,  the  Swedish  Saga  of  Theodoric  of  Berne 


a  child,  who  with  his  brother  was  under  the  care  of 
a  preceptor,  was  crowned  at  Linkoping  in  1251. 

They,  whose  rivalry  for'power  the  earl  had  really 
to  dread,  were  his  own  kinsmen.  In  those  times,  it 
is  said,  the  Folkungers  were  powerful  for  every  ill 
deed,  and  roamed  through  the  land  with  their  armed  j 
bands,  like  robbers  rather  than  nobles  '.  The 
sagas  of  the  Norwegian  kings  inform  us,  that  great 
dissensions  were  produced  in  Svv'eden  by  the  elec- 
tion which  had  been  made,  because  there  were 
sevei'al  claimants  who  regarded  themselves  as 
having  an  equal  title  to  the  crown.  The  heads  of 
the  malcontents  were  Philip,  son  of  the  Folkunger 
king,  overthrown  under  the  former  reign  ;  Canute, 
son  of  the  powerful  Magnus  Brok,  by  a  daughter  of 
king  Eric  Canuteson  ;  another  Philip,  the  chief 
abettor  of  Holmgeir,  who  was  beheaded  in  1248  by 
order  of  earl  Birger ;  lastly,  the  young  and  brave 
Charles  Ulfson,  whose  father  had  been  earl  of  Swe- 
den before  Birger.  These  were  all  Folkungers, 
and  the  first-named  two  were  also  pretenders  to  the 
crown  ;  the  last  is  termed  the  most  powerful  of 
Birger's  enemies,  although  he  took  no  part  in  the 
revolt  of  his  kinsmen.  Philip  and  Canute  sought 
foreign  assistance,  first  unsuccessfully  in  Norway, 
next  with  better  fortune  in  Denmark  and  German}-. 
Thence  they  returned  with  levies  of  troops,  and 
made  a  descent  on  Upper  Sweden,  where  probably 
the  greatest  number  of  their  partisans  was  to  be 
found,  as  especial  mention  is  made  of  the  Up- 
landers  in  their  army.  The  earl  met  them  at 
Herrevad's  Bridge  in  Westmanland,  and  proffered 
peace  and  reconcilement.  The  insurgent  leaders 
crossed  the  bridge  unarmed  to  hold  a  conference 
for  the  purpose  of  adjusting  terms  of  agreement, 
but  Birger  had  them  seized,  and  caused  them  to  be 
immediately  beheaded.  This  is  the  accoimt  of  the 
Rhyme  Chronicle,  with  which  the  sagas  of  Norway 
agree,  adding  that  the  earl,  for  this  deed,  had  to 
bear  much  blame  ^.  Tidings  of  it  were  brought  to 
Charles  Ulfson  in  Norway,  whither  he  had  con- 
ducted Birger's  daughter  to  be  the  bride  of  king 
Haco's  eldest  son.  Dreading  on  his  return  home 
that  he  might  fall  a  victim  to  the  machinations  of 
the  earl,  he  quitted  the  kingdom,  and  fell  in  a  cru- 
sade against  the  Lithuanians.  From  this  time  no 
man  in  Sweden  dared  to  rise  against  earl  Birger. 
In  1255,  the  earl  solicited  and  obtained  per- 
mission from  the  pope  to  confer  u]3on  his  other 
sons  as  well  as  Waldemar  the  government  of  cer- 
tain portions  of  the  kingdom,  which,  as  is  said,  had 
legally  devolved  upon  him  as  duke  of  the  Swedes. 
His  design  in  this  was  to  exalt  his  family  above  all 
other  competitors  ;  but  while  he  succeeded  in  this, 
he  also  threw  the  torch  of  discord  into  his  own 
house.  His  first  consort,  mother  of  four  sons, 
whose  dissensions  broke  out  over  their  father's 
grave,  had  died  in  1254.  Birger  contracted  a 
second  marriage  with  Matilda,  widow  of  the 
fratricide  king  Abel  of  Denmark,  where  he  had 
also  chosen  a  wife  for  his  son  in  the  daughter  of 
the  murdered  king  Eric  Plowpenny  ^.     Waldemar 

(distinct  from  the  Icelandic),  and  the  poetical  roraaunt, 
"  Duke  Frederic  of  Normandy,"  published  in  the  Journal 
Iduna,  Nos.  9  and  10. 

'  Rhyme  Chronicle.  Joannes  Magnus  Goth.  Sueonumque 
Historia. 

-  Saga  of  K.  Haco  Hakanson,  c.  269. 

3  (Plogpenning.  So  called,  orfi??ridinm,  from  ataxorgavel 
imposed  by  him  upon  every  plougliland.     T.* 


A 

J2G2 


— 7y.  I 


Foundation  of  Stockholm. 
Death  of  Earl  Birger. 


THE  FOLKUNGERS. 


Dethronement  of 
Waldemar. 


49 


was  distinguished  for  the  beauty  of  his  person,  and 
was  now  in  liis  twentieth  year  ;  his  nuptials  with 
the  Danish  princess  Sophia  were  solemnized  with 
great  pomp  at  Jenkoeping  in  12(52.  At  this  time 
earl  Birger  made  the  law,  that  a  sister  should 
inherit  half  as  much  as  a  brother  *,  for  before  this 
time  the  daughter  only  inherited  wlien  there  was 
no  son  ;  in  other  cases  the  law  said,  "  cap,  come  in  ; 
hood,  begone  '."  By  him  was  also  introduced  the 
general  land's-peace,  called  Edsore,  because  "  it 
was  confirmed  by  the  oath  of  the  king,  and  all  the 
principal  men  of  the  realm  ^."  By  this  covenant 
was  guaranteed  under  sevei'e  penalties,  the  peace 
of  the  domestic  hearth,  of  women,  of  churches,  of 
courts  of  justice,  and  the  exercise  of  irregular 
revenge  was  forbidden,  for  the  power  of  the  law 
did  not  yet  extend  further.  Whosoever  broke  the 
pact,  was  to  be  proclaimed  throughout  the  kingdom 
as  having  lost  his  peace  ;  he  forfeited  all  that  he 
possessed  "  above  ground,"  and  was  not  allowed  to 
atone  for  his  transgression  by  fine  without  the 
intercession  of  the  complainant.  To  earl  Birger's 
legislation  appertains  also  the  abolition  of  the 
ordeal  by  red-hot  iron  as  a  legal  proof,  and  the 
interdiction  of  gift-thralls  (gaftralar),  as  those  were 
called  who  had  voluntarily  given  themselves  up  to 
servitude,  with  several  other  ordinances,  which  the 
Law  of  East-Gothland  more  especially  has  pre- 
served. 

The  foundation  of  the  town  of  Stockholm  has 
also  been  ascribed  to  Birger,  although  a  settlement 
had  been  in  progress  upon  this  site  since  the  de- 
struction of  Sigtuua  by  the  Finnish  pirates  in  1187. 
The  little  island  lying  between  the  two  outlets  of 
lake  Malar,  which  contained  the  first  town,  was 
now  fortified '  for  defence  against  the  piratical  in- 
cursions of  the  Finns.  These  were  still  so  formid- 
able in  this  age,  that  a  papal  bull  of  the  year  1259 
exhorted  the  kings  of  Sweden  and  Denmark  to 
make  a  joint  effort  to  check  the  ravages  of  the 
pirates  on  the  Swedish  coast.  Stockholm  was  a 
castle  before  the  Malar,  says  the  Rhyme  Chronicle; 
its  earliest  author  enumerates  seven  towns  upon 
the  banks  of  that  lake,  and  the  rise  of  these  is  also 
attested  by  several  commercial  treaties.  With 
Lubeck  and  Hamburg  reciprocal  freedom  of  trade 
was  established,  which  was  not  long  afterwards 
extended  to  Riga.  In  the  renewed  treaty  wdth 
Lubeck,  reference  is  made  to  the  alliance  which 
had  already  subsisted  between  Sweden  and  the 
German  towns  since  king  Canute  Ericson's  time. 
Birger  sought  also  to  form  connections  with  Eng- 
land. In  the  disputes  of  Denmai-k  and  Norway 
his  mediation  was  received  with  defei-ence,  and  he 
afforded  shelter  in  his  court  to  a  Russian  grand 
duke  *.  Eai'l  Birger,  king  without  the  name,  the 
last  and  most  powerful  of  the  earls  of  Sweden,  died 
on  the  21st  of  October,  (a.  d.  1266,)  lamented  after 
his  death,  whatever  blame  might  have  attached  to 

1  This  was  called  "to  inherit  by  the  new  law."  East- 
Gothland  Law,  Aerf.  B.  f.  2. 

5  The  law  of  East-Gothland  uses  this  form  of  words,  to 
express  the  preference  given  to  males  in  the  rights  of  in- 
heritance. 

6  So  king  Magnus  Ladulas  expresses  himself  in  the  con- 
firmation of  his  father's  peace-laws.     Edsore  means  oath. 

^  "  With  towers  and  walls,"  says  Olave  Peterson.  But  the 
walls  were  of  wood,  as  were  those  with  which  the  town  was 
still  encompassed  in  1317,  as  is  remarked  in  the  Script,  rer. 
Suec.  i.  sect.  i.  p.  5G. 


many  of  his  actions  during  life.  Old  and  young,  it 
is  said,  mourned  for  him,  and  the  women,  whose 
rights  and  peace  he  had  taken  under  his  guard, 
prayed  for  his  soul. 

Waldemar  now  began  really  to  reign,  but  he 
now  also  yielded  up  the  provinces  which  his 
father  had  allotted  to  his  brothers.  Magnus  ob- 
tained Sudermania  with  the  castle  of  Nykoe[iing  ; 
in  Waldemar's  time  he  alone  among  the  brothers 
bore  the  title  of  duke.  Eric,  whose  fief  is  not 
specified,  did  not  receive  the  title  before  the  acces- 
sion of  Magnus,  and  died  shortly  afterwards,  in  the 
year  1275.  Bennet,  the  youngest,  who  entered 
the  spiritual  state,  is  styled,  during  the  reign  of 
Magnus,  his  brother's  chancellor  ;  he  was  made 
duke  of  Finland  in  1284,  bishop  of  Linkoeping  two 
years  afterwards,  and  died  in  the  possession  of  these 
dignities  in  1291.  He  was  mild  and  well-beloved, 
and  sought,  though  vainly,  to  preserve  harmony  be- 
tween his  brothers,  of  whom  the  elder  two  were 
speedily  at  strife  with  the  king.  Waldemar  thought 
only  of  his  own  enjoyments  ;  the  queen  scofted  at 
her  brothers-in-law.  Eric,  whom  from  his  insignifi- 
cance, she  nicknamed  Good-for-nought,  repaired  to 
Noi'way,  and  made  the  king's  ear  the  receptacle  of 
his  complaints.  Magnus,  who  was  lean  and  dark- 
complexioned,  she  called  Tinker.  But  he  kept  a 
far  more  splendid  court  than  the  king,  and  his 
numerous  retainers  excelled  in  all  knightly  ex- 
ercises. A  love-intrigue  at  length  lost  Waldemar 
his  crown.  His  consort  Sophia,  who  had  already 
brought  him  several  heirs  ^,  received  in  1 273  a  visit 
from  her  sister  Jutta,  who  left  her  cloister  and 
came  to  the  Swedish  court,  "  fair  as  an  angel  from 
heaven,"  as  the  RhjTne  Chronicle  has  it.  Her 
guilty  intercourse  with  the  king,  of  which  a  child 
was  the  fruit,  produced  discord  in  his  house,  de- 
graded him  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and  drew 
down  upon  his  head  the  censures  of  the  church. 
That  he  was  obliged  to  expiate  his  offence  by  a  pil- 
grimage to  Rome  is  probable,  as  the  bull  of  January 
9,  1274 ',  by  which  the  pope  forbids  the  choice  of 
another  king  in  Sweden,  appears  to  have  been  pro- 
cured by  Waldemar  during  this  journey.  No  let- 
lers  from  Magnus  with  the  kingly  title  are  found  of 
earlier  date  than  the  beginning  of  1275,  but  as  in  a 
subsequent  document  he  mentions  the  year  1285 
as  the  twelfth  of  his  reign,  he  seems  to  have  in- 
cluded in  it  his  regency  during  the  absence  of 
Waldemar.  The  duke  felt  by  no  means  inclined 
to  restore  the  reins  of  power  to  the  king  on  his  re- 
turn. A  conference  of  all  the  four  brothers  took 
place  in  the  summer  of  1274,  at  which  the 
youngest,  for  the  promotion  of  amity,  vainly  offered 
to  renounce  his  governments.  It  led  to  no  salutary 
result ;  and  in  the  following  year  intestine  war  broke 
out.  Magnus  and  Eric  concluded  a  league  with 
king  Eric  Glipping  in  Denmark,  who  assisted  them 
with  troops,  they  engaging  to  pay  six  thousand 
marks  sOver.     The  royal  ai'my,  consisting  chiefly 

s  Andrei  Jaroslawitsch,  brother  of  Alexander  Newsky. 
Compare  Karamsin. 

9  Namely,  a  son,  Eric  (an  elder  of  the  same  name  had  died 
in  1268),  and  two  daughters,  Richissa  and  Marina,  of  whom 
the  former  married  Duke  Primislaus  of  Kalisch,  afterwards 
King  of  Poland;  the  latter  (of  whose  marriage  a  romantic 
tradition  is  preserved,  compare  S.  R.  S.  i.  s.  2.  12),  Count 
Rudolph  of  Diepholt.  Another  daughter,  Margaret,  was,  ac- 
cording to  Eric  Olaveson,  a  nun  in  the  convent  of  Skenninge. 

'  Celse,  BuUariuni. 

E 


50 


His  brother  Maijiius 
crowrieil  kintr. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Revolts  of  the 

FolkuiiKcrs. 


I       A.  D. 
[  1279—90. 


of  levies  of  country-people,  took  post  at  Hofva  in 
West-Gothiaud,  to  defend  against  them  the  en- 
trance of  the  Tiwed  forest.  Waldemar  with  his 
court  remained  in  the  rear  at  Ramundeboda,  in 
the  heart  of  the  wood,  and  abandoned  himself 
to  complete  security.  The  king  slept,  it  is  said,  the 
queen  was  playing  chess,  and  made  herself  meri-y 
respecting  duke  Magnus,  when  a  blood-stained  mes- 
senger announced  the  overthrow  and  flight  of  the 
army.  Waldemar,  with  his  consort,  and  a  son  three 
years  old,  tied  through  the  forests  of  Vermeland 
into  Norway.  He  returned,  was  made  prisoner, 
and  obliged  to  submit  to  the  conditions  imposed  by 
Magnus,  according  to  which  he  was  to  be  left  iu 
possession  of  Gothland.  Magnus  was  crowned 
in  1279,  at  Upsala,  whither  the  archiepiscopal  see 
had  been  removed  from  old  Upsala.  Waldemar, 
indeed,  made  some  endeavours  to  recover  his  domi- 
nions by  Norwegian  mediation,  and  when  the  king 
of  Denmark  embraced  his  party,  by  Danish  co- 
operation, but  he  soon  gave  up  all  for  lost,  and  con- 
soled himself  with  a  new  mistress.  An  old  account 
says  :  In  the  year  1279,  Waldemar  delivered  his 
part  of  the  kingdom  into  the  hands  of  his  brother 
Magnus,  and  betook  himself  to  Denmark,  moved 
by  his  love  for  a  certain  woman  called  Christina. 
After  this  we  find  him  deserting  his  wife  for  the 
arms  of  three  successive  paramours,  renewing  more 
than  once  both  liis  claim  to  the  throne,  and  his  re- 
nunciation, and  at  last,  in  1288,  consigned  to  im- 
prisonment in  the  castle  of  Nykoeping.  His  captivity, 
howevei',  was  at  no  time  rigurous^,  and  became 
still  more  easy  after  the  death  of  Magnus  ;  though 
his  son  Eric  was  now  also  arrested,  and  obliged  to 
share  his  own  lot.  Waldemar  died  in  prison  in 
1302  ^.  Thereafter  his  son  was  released,  and  re- 
sided for  some  time  in  Norway  ;  he  is  styled  duke 
in  Norwegian  records  *,  and  was  in  1322  one  of 
the  councillors  of  king  Magnus  Ericson. 

Magnus  had  been  first  elevated  to  the  throne  by 
the  Uplanders,  an  appellation  by  which  the  Rhyme 
Chronicle  designates  the  inhabitants  of  Sweden 
Proper  generally.  These  appear  to  have  forgotten 
neither  their  former  privilege  of  nominating  and 
deposing  kings,  nor  their  old  spirit  of  contentious 
turbulence,  tor  we  find  them  taking  up  arms  in 
evei-y  rising  of  the  Folkungers.  Magnus,  as  well 
as  his  father,  had  to  quell  one  of  these  insurrec- 
tions after  the  close  of  the  war  with  Denmark, 
which  was  confined  to  mutual  predatory  inroads. 
The  favour  and  confidence  wliich  he  lavished  on 
foreigners  in  preference  to  his  own  countrymen, 
was  intolerable  to  the  Upper  Swedes,  and  the 
more,  that  this  partiality  was  not  unfi-equently  re- 
warded with  ingratitude.  Peter  Porse,  an  exiled 
Dane  who  had  won  his  good  graces,  made  the  king 
prisoner  in  the  very  castle  of  which  the  royal  con- 
fidence had  entrusted  to  him  the  custody,  in  order 
to  enforce  payment  of  a  debt  which  he  claimed. 
Magnus  is  said,  nevertheless,  to  have  remained  as 
much  attached  to  him  as  before.  Ingemar  Nilson, 
another  Danish  knight  whom  the  king  favoured, 
and  had  married  to  his  kinswoman  Helena,  was 
the  object  of  universal  hatred.     The  Folkungers 


2  He  subscribed  his  attestation  to  a  rescript  of  Magnus  a 
short  time  before  the  latler's  death. 

3  H.  R.  S   i.  s.  1,  27. 

*  Siihm,  History  of  Denmark  xi.  673.      Those  who  have 
made  him  court-cba])laiii  to  Haeo  Magnuson  of  Norway  are 


excited  fresh  disturbances.  Proceeding  from  me- 
nace to  violence,  they  slew  Ingemar  Nilson  (a.  d. 
1278),  seized  the  king's  father-in-law.  Count  Gerard 
of  Holstein,  who  had  come  on  a  visit  to  his  daugh- 
ter, and  compelled  the  queen  to  take  refuge  in  a 
convent.  Apparently  they  were  not  indisposed  to 
replace  Waldemar  on  the  thi-one,  and  Magnus, 
who  felt  the  danger  of  his  position,  resorted  to  dis- 
simulation, and  endeavoured  to  mollify  the  revolters 
by  caresses  and  promises.  Letters  and  records  of 
this  time  attest  his  seeming  intimacy  with  Birger 
Philipson,  one  of  the  insurgent  chiefs.  He  ac- 
cepted their  hospitality,  and  invited  them  to  his 
manor  of  Galaquist  near  Skara.  Here,  where  the 
assassination  of  the  king's  favourite  had  taken  place, 
they  were  seized  and  thrown  into  prison.  After- 
wards they  were  removed  to  Stockholm,  where  four 
of  the  ringleaders  were  beheaded  in  1280,  many 
others  also  losing  life  and  property.  It  is  with 
some  surprise  we  find  the  Roman  law  of  treason 
adduced  against  the  rebels  on  this  occasion  ^.  This 
\\as  the  third  and  last  insurrection  of  the  Folk- 
ungers during  three  successive  reigns.  Of  that 
dreaded  name  we  no  longer  hear  anything,  although 
it  is  known,  that  besides  the  branch  which  was 
elevated  to  the  throne,  other  important  members 
of  the  family  had  survived  their  last  fatal  disaster. 
This  seems  to  prove  that  it  was  latterly  used 
oftenest  as  the  appellation  of  a  party,  denoting  tlie 
most  powerful  of  those  military  leagues  and  factions 
which  the  long-continued  civil  wars  had  generated. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  subsequently  (a.  d. 
1285),  the  king,  in  the  ordinance  of  Skeiminge, 
forbids  under  the  severest  penalties,  all  party  asso- 
ciations or"  secret  confederacies,"  especially  among 
the  nobility,  as  a  deeply-rooted  evil,  of  which  the 
kingdom  had  had  painful  experience.  Whosoever, 
by  writing,  oath,  or  in  any  other  mode  should  give 
consent  to  such  an  union,  his  estates  should  be 
wasted  and  he  should  be  declared  to  have  lost  his 
peace  for  ever,  unless  the  king's  pardon  were  in- 
terposed. 

Much  light  is  thrown  on  the  condition  of  the 
Country,  by  the  statutes  that  were  now  passed,  after 
the  cessation  of  civil  discords.  These  perhaps 
have  been  regarded  too  much  as  the  offspring  of 
a  legislation  novel  in  its  principles  ;  though  they 
relate  rather  to  an  order  of  society  previously  sub- 
sisting, and  it  is  chiefiy  in  this  point  of  view  that 
they  are  instructive.  It  is  usually  stated  that  king 
Magnus  introduced  diets  of  lords  (herredagarna) 
for  the  transaction  of  public  affairs,  and  thereby 
deprived  the  people  of  their  legislative  rights,  which 
had  been  exercised  in  the  old  general  assemblies 
(allsharjarting).  But  these  had  for  the  most  part 
disappeared  with  the  ancient  sacrifices,  and  could 
not  again  be  revived  in  the  form  of  diets,  so  long  as 
the  contests  regarding  religion  and  the  throne  con- 
tinued. Amidst  the  disputes  and  counter-elections 
of  opposite  parties,  and  the  struggles  of  rival 
dynasties,  the  real  power  ad  already  long  j^assed 
into  the  hands  of  the  magnates.  Surrounded  by 
bands  of  martial  followers,  between  whom  a  slight- 


in  error.  The  words  "  Magister  capellarum  nostrarum," 
which  in  the  signatures  of  the  charter  mentioned  by  Suhni, 
id.  613,  follow  after  the  words  "  Dominus  Ericus  Waldemari 
quondam  regis  Sveorum  filius,"  relate  to  another  person. 

^  In   legem  Juliam    niajestatis  incidetunt.     Letter  of  the 
king's  brother  Bennet,  July  2o,  1282. 


A 

1279 


D.       > 

—90.  J 


Enforcement  of  peace. 
Oppressions  of  the  nobles. 


KING  MAGNUS  LADULAS. 


Claims  of  regalities  proved 
to  be  unsound. 


51 


ing  word  might  cause  a  di.'aJly  strife,  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  proliibition  by  king  Magnus  of  in- 
jurious expressions,  they  employed  their  depend- 
ents in  mutual  feuds,  and  made  use  of  their  in- 
fluence on  the  common  people  for  the  instigation  of 
revolts.  Dangers  of  this  kind  threatened  especially 
when  the  king  convoked  the  men  of  his  realm  to  a 
parley,  on  which  occasions  likewise  the  multitude 
of  men  that  was  assembled  and  claimed  to  live  at 
the  king's  charge  produced  delay  and  heavy  ex- 
pense. It  is  thus  we  understand  the  strict  injunc- 
tions issued  by  king  Magnus  for  the  preservation  of 
general  peace  in  every  place  where  the  king  should 
come  to  hold  a  conference,  the  cessation  of  all 
deadly  feud  at  the  same  time  between  individuals, 
"  howsoever  highly  born  they  might  be,"  and  even 
the  removal  of  all  weapons  of  strife,  under  penalty  of 
lo.ss  of  property  and  perpetual  banishment  ;  thus  is 
to  be  explained  the  prohibition  against  appearing 
on  such  an  occasion  without  a  summons,  or  with  a 
greater  retinue  than  the  king,  and  the  right  of 
legislation  which  he  claimed  to  himself  "  with  his 
council  and  his  good  men  (goda  man)"  in  various 
cases  which  were  "not  guarded  against  bj'  the  law, 
nor  set  down  in  it  f"."  In  that  age  this  was  an  im- 
provement, and  was  so  deemed  by  the  people,  for 
this  power  it  was  which  enabled  the  king  to  give 
new  force  to  the  laws,  passed  by  his  father  for 
the  maintenance  of  peace,  in  virtue  of  which  he 
took  under  his  especial  protection  widows,  father- 
less children,  and  old  men,  especially  those  who 
had  done  service  to  him,  and  issued  edicts  agamst 
exacting  quarters  from  the  peasants  by  force,  or 
against  "  that  abuse  which  had  long  existed,  that 
all  who  travel  through  the  country,  be  they  ever 
so  rich,  demand  entertainment  without  paying  for 
it,  and  spend  in  a  little  while  what  the  poor  man 
has  earned  by  the  labour  of  a  long  time '."  By 
these  laws  and  the  general  strictness  of  his  admin- 
istration, king  Magnus  acquired  the  surname  of 
Ladulas  (barn-locker),  because  he  was  a  lock  for 
the  peasant's  barn.  "  And  this  name  of  Ladulas," 
says  Clave  Peterson  in  his  Swedish  Chronicle,  "  is 
an  honourable  title,  which  has  conferred  greater 
praise  and  fame  on  king  j\Iaguus,  than  if  he  had 
been  called  a  Roman  emperor.  For  there  be 
found  not  many  in  the  world,  who  can  be  styled 
barn-lock  ;  barn-breaker  has  ever  been  more 
common." 

It  is  necessary  not  to  forget,  that  both  the  great 
rulers  who  enacted  laws  to  secure  the  maintenance 


s  These  words  are  quoted  from  the  ordinance  of  Skenninge 
in  1285. 

?  Ordinance  of  Alsno  in  the  same  year.  A  purveyor  was 
to  be  named  for  every  village,  who  should  provide  sustenance 
for  travellers  upon  payment  being  made.  No  man  could  de- 
TTiand  a  horse  without  the  king's  letters.  Bishops'  and  no- 
blemen's mansions  were  freed  from  the  obligation  of  enter- 
tainment. (The  offence  of  valdgastning  above  described,  is 
that  of  sorning,  or  exacting  free  quarters  by  intimidation,  a 
practice  common  in  former  ages  in  Scotland  and  Ireland.  T.) 

''  So  called  because  it  was  alleged  to  liave  been  agreed 
to  at  a  folk-mote  held  on  Helgeand's  Holm  (or  Isle)  at 
Stockholm.  The  memorial  was  laid  before  the  Royal  Chan- 
cery and  Chamber  of  Accounts  by  one  Paine  Erifson  (Rosen- 
strale),  a  flatterer  of  King  John  III.  This  person  is  styled 
in  an  inscription  on  the  document  in  another  hand,  "a 
capital  liar,"  and  the  memoir  itself,  "  Paine  Ericson's  ima- 
gined information." 

'■>  Compare  the  edict  of  1485,  upon  the  dues  which  the 


of  public  peace  in  Sweden,  had  themselves  stained 
their  hands  with  blood  treacherously  shed ;  as 
Magnus  seems  not  to  have  reflected  upon  the 
transactions  attending  his  own  accession  to  the 
crown,  when  he  obtained  from  the  clergy  assembled 
at  the  Synod  of  Telje  in  1279,  a  declaration,  that  in 
future  every  man  who  offered  violence  to  the  per- 
son of  a  crowned  king  of  Sweden,  should  be  placed 
under  the  ban  of  excommunication,  and  never  be 
acknowledged  as  a  legitimate  sovereign.  But  his 
age  is  incontestably  distinguished  by  new  and  ex- 
tended ideas  of  the  rights  and  power  of  the  sove- 
reign, a  spirit  which  shows  itself  so  manifestly  in 
all  directions,  as  long  afterwards  to  allow  of  several 
ordinances,  fabiicated  in  the  same  view,  being  im- 
puted to  Magnus  Ladulas  with  some  appearance  of 
probability.  This  is  the  case  with  the  so-called 
statute  of  Helgeand's  Holm  *,  whereof  no  one  had 
heard  anything  till  in  1587  an  individual,  other- 
wise notorious  for  his  striving  after  court  favour, 
produced  a  memoir  on  the  subject.  According  to 
this,  the  crown  obtained  in  1282  an  exclusive 
right  of  possession  over  all  mines,  all  fisheries  in 
the  great  waters  and  streams  of  Sweden,  all  settle- 
ments upon  unenclosed  forests  and  lands,  whereon 
a  general  assessment  of  taxes  was  asserted  to  have 
been  ordered  and  carried  into  eff'ect,  on  the  ground 
that  the  estate  ofUpsala  was  no  longer  adequate  to 
the  supply  of  the  king's  necessities  and  the  public 
expenditure  in  general.  This  statement,  although 
its  truth  was  doubted  almost  from  the  first,  at- 
tained a  kind  of  prescriptive  credit  in  our  history, 
which  however  cannot  be  sustained  against  in- 
dubitable evidence.  Mines  in  Sweden  were  for- 
merly, as  now,  demonstrably  the  property  of 
private  persons ".  So  too  were  fisheries,  as  for 
example,  those  in  the  great  streams  of  Norrland  ', 
although  there  were  instances  in  which  property  of 
this  nature  was  held  by  our  kings.  With  regard 
to  common  forests  a  similar  tenure  prevailed.  In 
the  provincial  laws  these  are  said  to  be  the  pro- 
perty of  tlie  several  parishes,  although  common 
(allraenning)  is  also  sometimes  mentioned  as  be- 
longing to  the  king  ^,  and  where  no  right  of  pro- 
perty existed,  the  crown  naturally  bestowed  an 
authorized  possession,  as  may  be  seen  even  in  the 
time  of  the  Folkungers,  from  royal  ordinances  con- 
cerning the  disposal  of  the  waste  tracts  surrounding 
the  upper  portion  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia.  Touch- 
ing the  general  assessment  of  the  taxes,  that  repar- 
tition of  the  ground,  which  is  said  to  have  served 


crown  might  claim  from  mines,  and  the  rights  of  the  pro- 
prietor. If  a  pit  was  commenced  upon  ground  liable  to  the 
taxes,  the  proprietor  was  to  pay  "tithe  and  rate  to  the 
crown,  as  heretofore  hath  been  wont  in  the  case  of  oiher 
mines;"  if  the  ground  were  tax-free,  the  crown  could  claim 
no  dues  upon  the  procedure.  The  decree  of  1396,  by  which 
the  whole  of  the  Kopparberg,  with  the  exception  of  the  por- 
tiim  belonging  to  the  bishop  of  Westeras,  was  pronounced 
to  be  crown  property,  is  directed  against  the  heirs  of  the 
high-steward  Bo  Jonson,  and  appears  not  to  have  been  put 
in  execution.  In  the  time  of  Charles  IX.  the  crown  still 
possessed  only  a  fourth  part  of  the  mine  at  Falun. 

'  King  Eirger  Magnuson's  ordinance  of  1297,  respecting 
the  tithes  payable  by  the  Helsingers  from  salmon,  herring, 
and  seal  fisheries,  lays  claim  to  no  right  of  "  property''  in  the 
same  on  the  part  of  the  crown. 

2  Common  is  spoken  of  as  crown  property  in  the  Law  of 
East-Gothland.     Egnas.  i.  2. 

e2 


52 


Taxation      Freehold 
tenure  of  land. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Footing  of  the  old 
nobility.. 


f         A.   I), 

i  1279—90. 


for  its  basis  ^,  is  just  as  certainly  older  than  the 
reign  of  Magnus  Ladulas,  as  it  is  clear  that  tributes 
already  existed  beforo  his  time.  Originally  these 
were  benevolences  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
yearly  sacrifices,  and  for  the  warlike  expeditions 
of  the  king,  which  formerly  for  the  most  part  took 
place  every  year,  or  his  progresses  of  pleasure 
through  the  country  ;  but  various  contributions  for 
the  occasion,  accruing  in  some  cases  fi'om  the  soil, 
in  others  from  personal  taxes,  hiid  gradually  as- 
sumed under  dissimilar  appellations  in  different 
provinces  the  character  of  permanent  taxes.  For 
every  new  impost  the  consent  of  the  people  was 
requisite,  although  in  this  respect  many  abuses 
even  in  these  times  existed,  as  we  learn  from  the  in- 
junctions of  Magnus  to  his  governors  (Lansmen), 
not  to  levy  gavel  against  the  will  of  the  commonalty, 
and  from  his  own  apologies  to  the  Helsingers  for 
the  demand  of  various  extraordinary  imposts,  which 
they  had  paid  "  of  grace  and  not  of  obligation," 
and  which  he  "  humbly  for  God's  sake  prays  them 
indulgently  to  judge  and  to  pardon,  bearing  in  re- 
membrance on  the  other  hand  whatever  good  he 
might  have  effected  in  his  day  * ''.  Even  this  king 
nevertheless  looked  upon  the  crown  taxes  as  his 
private  property,  and  gives  assignments  on  their 
produce  to  furnish  means  for  the  rich  endowments, 
which  he  beijueaths  by  his  will  to  churches  and 
monasteries. 

It  is  an  essentially  false  theory  of  the  tenure  of 
taxed  lands  in  Sweden,  which  gave  importance  to 
the  pretended  statute  of  Helgeand's  Holm.  It  was 
observed  that  from  ancient  times  the  settler  on 
commonable  ground  acquired  by  payments  to  the 
crown  a  public  recognition  of  his  right  of  pro- 
perty, and  the  conclusion  was  thence  drawn,  that 
the  crown  had  always  been  the  possessor  of  the 
soil  ;  although  when  the  common  previously  be- 
longed to  a  determinate  parish,  the  payment  of  gavel 
(skatt)  to  the  crown,  as  old  law  cases  in  which  the 
point  was  tried  establish,  was  a  method  by  which 
the  new  settler  freed  himself  from  the  dependence 
in  which  he  had  stood  towards  that  parish  ^.  From 
this  position  there  was  but  one  step  to  another, 
that  liability  to  taxation  was  generally  incom- 
patible with  a  full  right  of  pi'operty  in  the  soil,  or 
that  the  latter  always  belonged  to  the  receiver  of 
the  taxes  ;  an  opinion  which  has  been  asserted  in 
Sweden,  as  it  has  also  been  triumphantly  refuted ''. 
In  itself,  it  is  irreconcileable  with  the  municipal 
law  of  Sweden,  which  is  a  stranger  to  the  ideas 
that  in  other  countries  sprang  out  of  a  feudal 
system  founded  upon  conquest '.  Such  a  system  was 
always  foreign  to  Swedish  institutions,  and  hence 
these  relations  have  but  an  external  resemblance 


3  As  the  coins  were  classed  by  the  mark,  the  ore,  theortug,    , 
so  the  cultivated  ground  was  reckoned  by  markland,  tires- 
land,  brtugland.  Another  division,  by  eighths  (attingar),  was 
followed  chiefly  in  Gothland,  though  it  is  found  also  in  Upper 
Sweden.     Compare  Diplomat.  Suec.  i.  179. 

*  Quare  vobis  universis  ac  singulis  humiliter  in  Domino 
supplicamus,  quatinus  in  hoc  velitis  nobis  parcere,  et  sic 
vestris  de  cordibus  omnino  dimittere,  ut  non  nobis  hoc 
coram  surami  Jiidicis  oeulis  imputetur. 

■'■  A  whole  parish,  that  of  the  Forest  (Skog),  in  South  Hel- 
singland,  was  formed  in  this  way  by  a  judgment  given  in 
1343,  granting  a  right  of  independent  property  to  persons 
settling  there. 

«  Edward  Ehrensfen  (councillor  of  state  in  1683),  wrote 
in  the  last  years  of  Christina's  reign  the  excellent  "Proof  I 


to  those  which  are  found  in  otlier  countries.  This 
holds  true  especially  of  the  distinction  between  free 
and  unfree  (Frtelse  and  Ofraelse),  defined  no  doubt 
more  sharply  under  Magnus  Ladulas,  but  still 
denoting  only  the  exemption  from  or  liability  to 
payment  of  taxes  to  the  crown  ;  the  latter  as  well 
as  the  former  being  conjoined  not  only  with  per- 
sonal freedom,  but  with  the  full  right  of  property 
in  the  soil. 

Maunus  extended  to  their  complete  develope- 
meiit  the  immunities  and  privileges  of  the  Swedish 
clergy,  and  granted  to  the  secular  nobility  their 
first  charter  of  exemption  from  taxation  ;  although 
this  privilege  was  originally  intended  less  to  in- 
crease the  power  of  the  nobles  than  that  of  the 
crown.  It  may  be  properly  described  as  an  attempt 
to  transfoi-m  all  nobility  into  the  feudatory  class, 
or  to  make  the  performance  of  service  the  con- 
dition of  possessing  its  immunities.  Exemp- 
tion from  tribute  was,  without  doubt,  anciently 
among  the  rights  of  the  so-called  '  king's-men,'  who, 
to  use  the  words  of  Magnus  himself,  "attended 
him  with  rede  and  help,  and  therefore  wei-e  worthy 
of  greater  honour."  They  were  likewise,  for  the 
most  part,  men  of  birth  ;  at  least,  none  but  free- 
born  could  attain  to  the  distinction  of  being  the 
king's  comrade  in  arms ;  but  this  nobility  was 
essentially  personal,  not  hereditary.  There  was 
besides  a  nobility  of  birth,  acknowledged  by  gene- 
ral consent,  older  than  all  charters,  and  powerful 
enough  to  be  able  to  dispense  with  them,  although 
the  crown  made  attempts  betimes  to  transform  this 
into  a  courtly  or  feudal  nobility.  The  members  of 
this  old  aristocracy,  originally  sprung  from  famihes 
either  themselves  of  royal  condition  or  allied  with 
royal  houses,  are  styled  in  the  records  of  those 
times  "  the  great  *,"  "  free  barons  and  nobles  of 
the  realm ^,"  "high  and  well-born  men."  These 
too  were  surrounded  by  martial  retainers,  wliose 
numbers  had  been  augmented  in  the  intestine  trou- 
bles of  the  country,  who  used  their  power  as  the 
measure  of  their  freedom,  and  probably  wanted  as 
little  the  will  as  the  ability  to  shake  off  their  due 
share  of  taxation.  That  the  "  greater  honour" 
which  household  service  obtained  was  not  confined 
merely  to  the  king's  court,  may  be  seen  from  the 
higher  value  which  the  laws  set  upon  the  life  of  a 
courtier,  whether  the  person  were  in  the  service  of 
an  earl,  a  bishop,  or  like  great  baron,  who  main- 
tains at  least  forty  serving  men  in  his  household  '. 
In  the  measure  by  which  Magnus  exempted  from 
payment  to  the  king  "  all  persons  serving  on  horse- 
back, in  the  service  of  whomsoever  they  might  be  ^," 
there  is  an  evident  design,  partly  to  array  in  defence 
of  the  crown  bands  of  warlike  yeomen,  who  dis- 

against  the  Nobility's  Claim  of  right  to  assessable  Lands 
granted  in  fief;"  printed  at  Stockholm,  17G9. 

?  Thus  the  Folkland  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  (so  called  as  dis- 
tinguished from  land  granted  in  fief),  was  in  time  called 
terra  regia,  or  crown-land;  and  the  false  view  that  the  king 
originally  possessed  the  whole  land,  jure  coronae,  insinuated 
itself  into  the  English  laws  from  the  Norman  couquest. 

8  Magnates,  majores  in  old  letters.  Iviherra  (overlords), 
in  the  Law  of  East-Gothland. 

9  Barones  Sueciee,  nobiles,  in  Eric  Olaveson. 

1  Law  of  East-Gothland,  Drap.  B.  14.  Whatever  was  paid 
above  the  usual  fine  for  the  life  of  a  freeman  was  called  in 
those  cases  thukkabot  (shame-bote),  because  it  was  to  atone 
for  the  shame  put  upon  the  servitor's  lord. 

2  Ordinance  of  Aslnii,  I28.'i. 


A.  D.       7 

1279— 90.  J 


Magnus'  justice ;  benefac- 
tions to  the  church. 


KIjNG  MAGNUS  LADULAS. 


Dying  wish  of 
Magnus. 


53 


tinguished  themselves  by  more  costly  and  brilliant 
equipment  ;  and  partly,  to  establish  service  gene- 
rally as  the  condition  of  earning  the  privileges  of 
nobility.  Thus  was  instituted  the  tenure  "  of  knight- 
service  3,"  by  which  every  man  who  served  on 
horseback  against  the  enemies  of  the  kingdom, 
furnished  at  his  own  cost,  gained  exemption  from 
taxation  for  himself  and  his  estate,  on  conditions 
which  were  more  exactly  defined  in  the  sequel. 
This  was  called  "  to  serve  for  a  freehold"  (tjena 
for  fraelsc't),  in  contradistinction  to  "  paying  taxes 
and  dues  as  a  peasant."  But  the  peasant  might 
acquire  his  freedom  from  tallage  by  the  like  ser- 
vice, and  many  of  them  actually  did  so  gain  it ;  as, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  knight,  according  to  the 
letter  of  the  law,  forfeited  his  freedom  by  neglect- 
ing to  render  his  service  *.  Knighthood,  which 
Magnus  was  the  first  of  the  Swedish  sovereigns  to 
confer,  had  become  in  Sweden  also  a  personal  dis- 
tinction for  the  nobility,  whose  whole  classification 
at  this  time  was  formed  upon  the  model  of  chivalry. 
In  public  documents,  after  the  bishops,  the  knights 
are  always  first,  and  they  alone  are  styled  lords  (her- 
remen);  next  the  arm-bearers  (vapnare)  or  squires- 
at-arms  (svenar  af  vapen),  literally,  the  serving 
nobility  '.  Both  are  included  under  the  denomina- 
tion of  well-born  men,  which  again  was,  seemingly, 
not  extended  to  the  mere  free  proprietors  or //-ae/sf;- 
men,  who  had  earned  their  freedom  from  taxes  by 
horse-service. 

After  the  termination  of  the  civil  war  and  the 
hostilities  with  Denmark,  Magnus  enjoyed  a  tran- 
quil reign.  By  his  neighbours  he  was  held  in 
great  respect,  and  he  had  alliances  with  several 
German  princes  ^.  In  the  quarrel  between  Nor- 
way and  the  Hanse  Tow-ns,  in  which  the  "  Germans 
of  Wisby  "  appear  on  an  equal  footing  of  mdepend- 
ence  with  the  other  parties,  Magnus  acted  as  arbi- 
ter, and  having  adjusted  (in  1288)  the  disputes 
between  the  peasants  of  Gothland  and  the  burghers 
of  Wisby,  he  re-established  the  old  Swedish  rights 
of  sovereignty  over  the  island.  His  court  was 
brilliant,  and  enlivened  by  the  continual  practice 
of  knightly  exercises.  The  Marshal  (marsk)  and 
the  Steward  (drots),  officers  of  the  household  who 
are  very  anciently  mentioned,  attained  at  this  pe- 
riod so  great  influence,  that  the  holders  of  those 
dignities  resembled  in  power  and  consequence  the 
former  jarls.  Magnus,  during  his  reign,  checked 
the  excesses  of  the  nobles.  The  powerful  family  of 
the  Algotsons,  of  whom  one  had  carried  off"  a  bride 
by  force,  expiated  the  offence  by  exile,  imprison- 
ment, or  death '.  In  bounty  to  the  church  he  was 
surpassed  by  no  one  who  ever  sat  on  the  Swedish 
throne,  whence  he  is  sometimes  called  the  Holy 
King  Magnus.     He  founded  five  monasteries,  and 


3  Adeliga  rusftjenst,  hone-service  of  the  nobles.  The  word 
is  from  rus,  ros,  which  in  old  Swedish  means  horse  (hast). 

■*  Compare  Magnus  Ericson's  ordinance  of  1345 

'  Sven  means  servant  (swain). 

6  The  Margraves  of  Brandenburg,  Otho,  Conrad,  and  John, 
who  with  Gerard,  Count  of  Holstein  and  Schauenburg,  bound 
themselves  to  furnish  him  with  assistance  wlien  necessary. 
Tlie  last-named  received  in  consideration  of  this  a  yearly 
sum  of  600  marks  in  money,  which,  according  to  Olave  Pe- 
terson, at  this  time  amounted  to  200  marks  (pounds  weight) 
silver. 

!■  Algol,  the  father  of  the  culprit,  was  lagman  of  West- 
Gothland.     Joannes  Magnus,  x.x.  8.  T. 


from  his  testament,  which  was  framed  in  1285,  we 
learn  that  he  had  made  a  vow  of  a  crusade  to  the 
Holy  Land,  for  the  delivei'ance  of  which  a  separate 
tithe  was  raised,  during  five  years,  by  Papal  en- 
voys. 

By  his  maiTiage,  in  1276,  with  Helviga  of  Hol- 
stein, who  survived  him,  he  had  several  children, 
of  whom  one  son  and  one  daughter  died  in  mfancy, 
while  the  rest,  at  the  death  of  their  father,  had  not 
yet  passed  their  childhood.  Three  of  his  sons, 
Birger,  Eric,  and  Valdemar,  of  whom  the  first- 
named  bore  the  title  of  king  during  his  father's 
life-time,  the  others  that  of  duke,  were  one  day  to 
contend  for  the  crown.  Of  his  daughters,  Ilikissa, 
while  yet  a  child,  had  been  placed  with  great 
solemnities  in  the  convent  of  St.  Clara  at  Stock- 
holm ;  Ingeborg,  in  129G,  was  married  to  King 
Eric  Menved,  in  Denmark,  where  her  memory  was 
long  affectionately  cherished.  When  Magnus  felt 
his  end  approaching,  he  called  his  grandees  toge- 
ther, recommended  his  children  to  their  care,  and 
appointed  tlie  marshal  Thorkel  Canuteson  guar- 
dian of  his  sons.  He  died  in  the  isle  of  Wising*, 
December  18,  121)0,  and  was  interred  in  the  burial 
place  which  he  had  set  apart  for  himself  in  the 
Franciscan  monastery  at  Stockholm,  expressing 
his  hope  that  "his  memory  might  not  die  away 
with  the  sounds  of  the  bells  over  his  grave." 

Birger,  who  had  been  chosen  in  1284,  when  but 
three  years  of  age,  to  succeed  his  father,  was  now 
placed  upon  the  throne,  while  Thorkel  Canuteson 
assumed  the  functions  of  government.  By  his  re- 
gency, the  marshal  won  for  himself  so  famous  a 
memory,  that  according  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle, 
"  things  stood  so  well  with  Sweden,  that  better 
days  would  scarcely  come  ;"  yet  it  opened  with  a 
universal  calamity,  famine  and  great  mortality  pre- 
vailing, and  most  severely  in  1291.  Thorkel  Ca- 
nuteson completed  the  work  begun  by  St.  Eric  and 
earl  Birger  in  Finland,  establishing  Christianity 
and  Swedish  dominion  in  the  eastern  part  of  the 
country,  whence  the  heathen  Carelians  continued 
to  issue  on  their  devastating  forays,  which  were 
marked  by  hideous  cruelties  ^.  In  a  crusade  under- 
taken in  1293,  the  Carelians  were  .subdued,  made 
tributary,  and  again  brought  to  Christianity,  at 
least  in  name  ^.  For  the  security  of  the  conquest 
Wiborg  was  founded,  by  which  the  Swedes  were 
placed  in  immediate  contact  with  Russia.  In  effect 
this  Finnish  crusade  also  produced  a  war  with  the 
Russians,  m  the  course  of  which  the  Swedes  took 
and  fortified  Kexholin.  This  place  however  was 
again  lost,  as  was  some  years  afterwards  Land- 
scrona,  founded  by  the  marshal  himself. 

Sweden  yet  possessed  no  code  of  laws  collected 

s  Lying  in  the  great  lake  Vetter,  and  containing  one  of 
the  royal  mansions.     T. 

3  In  a  letter  of  king  Birger  to  Luheck  and  several  Hanse 
towns,  renewing  the  prohibition  against  exporting  arms  to 
the  Finns,  it  is  said  that  the  Carelians  spared  neither  sex, 
age,  nor  rank,  and  martyred  their  captives  by  flaying  them 
alive  and  tearing  out  the  entrails.  Such  cruelties  (see  a 
brief  of  Gregory  IX.  in  1237)  had  occasioned  the  crusade  of 
earl  Birger  against  the  Tavasters. 

'  The  Russians,  according  to  Karamsin,  maintain  that 
they  had  previously  baptized  them  in  1227.  Pope  Alexander 
III.  remarks  that  the  Finns,  when  menaced  by  a  hostile 
army,  always  engaged  to  eml)race  Christianity,  but  on  its 
departure  renounced  their  profession  and  persecuted  the 
Christian  teachers. 


51 


Functions  of  the  Lawman. 
Provincial  cotles. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Revision  of  the  Law 
of  Upland. 


-1 


1291 
1319. 


and  ratified  by  royal  authority.  The  legal  customs 
observed  in  the  diiierent  provinces,  out  of  which 
our  old  provincial  laws  were  formed,  were  indeed 
generally  confirmed  by  every  king,  wlien  after  his 
election  at  the  ]Mora  Stone  he  made  his  Eric's  gait 
(Eriksgata),  or  ordinary  progress  of  homage 
throughout  the  country  ;  but  the  conservation  of 
the  laws  was  left  to  the  personal  care  of  the  justi- 
ciaries, whose  duty  it  is  stated  to  have  been,  to  make 
yearly  proclamation  of  them  before  the  people  2. 
In  the  earliest  times  these  appear  to  have  consisted 
of  short  rules  for  the  aidance  of  the  memory,  em- 
bodied in  verses  framed  after  the  fashion  then  in 
use,  as  the  alliteration  found  in  our  ancient  law 
language  proves  ;  and  a  collection  of  legal  rules  of 
this  nature  was  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
Flock,  which  means  a  collection  (ov flock)  of  verses. 
As  it  is  expressly  stated  to  have  been  the  function 
of  the  justiciaries  "to  make  and  promulgate  the 
law  ^,"  while  we  cannot  ascribe  to  them  any  right 
to  enact  new  rules  of  their  own  authority,  this  may 
be  so  understood  as  that  it  belonged  to  them  from 
the  first,  not  only  to  bear  in  remembrance  beyond 
others  the  judiciary  customs,  but  to  clothe  them  iu 
the  form  best  adapted  for  recollection,  and  declare 
them  in  such  sijrt  before  the  people.  Therefore  the 
earliest  legislation  was  uttered  by  speech,  and  not 
iu  writing.  The  law  is  spoken — a  lagsaga,  or  law- 
saying  "^  ;  and  the  oldest  law-giver  was  a  judicial 
poet — lagayrkir,  a  law-maker.  Such  was  Wiger 
Spa  in  the  days  of  heathenism  *,  the  preface  to  the 
law  of  Upland  tells  us ;  his  law  is  called  Wigers 
Flockar,  or  Flocks,  and  forms  the  basis  of  the  law 
of  Upland  ^,  as  the  law  of  the  heathen  Lumb  was 
adopted  for  the  framework  of  that  of  West  Goth- 
land. It  was  late  before  tlie  laws  were  transferred 
from  the  custody  of  memory  to  the  records  of  or- 
dinary scription ;  since  it  is  certain  that  what  was 
called  in  the  North,  after  the  introduction  of  Chris- 
tianity, "  to  reduce  the  law  to  writing  "  (att  komma 
lag  i  skrift),  refers  not  to  the  Runes,  although 
these  were  even  earlier  employed  for  short  inscrip- 
tions on  stone  or  wood,  but  to  the  manner  of  wri- 
ting now  in  use,  which  was  introduced  by  the  clergy. 
Christianity  itself  supplied  matter  for  new  legis- 
lation which  occupied  the  first  place  ;  for  the  West- 
gothic  code  says,  "  through  Christianity  the  name 
of  Christ  first  came  into  our  laws."  Thus  was 
formed  the  so-called  Christian  or  Church  section 
(Kristnubalk,  Kyrkobalk)  in  the  books,  and  with 


"  Legislatores  regni  annis  singulis  tenentur  coram  populo 
legem  consuetudinis  publicare.  Letter  of  pope  Innocent  IIL 
to  the  Swedish  bishops,  March  fi,  1206,  complaining  that  the 
justices  upon  such  occasions  forbade  death-bed  bequests  to 
be  made  to  the  church  without  the  consent  of  the  heirs.  Of 
all  this  king  Swerker  U.  had  informed  him. 

3  See  the  catalogue  of  the  justices  of  West-Gothland,  at 
the  end  of  the  law-book.     Giira  och  framfora  lagen. 

*  So  Wiger's  law  is  called  in  the  preface  to  the  law  of 
Upland.  Lagsaga  afterwards  meant  the  circuit  of  a  juris- 
diction. 

*  Spa,  probably  instead  of  spamadr,  soothsayer  (spaeman), 
vates. 

8  The  statement  concerning  Wiger  Spa  in  the  preface  to 
the  printed  law  of  Upland,  "  that  he  was  sent  out  by  Ingjald, 
king  of  Sweden,"  is  not  found,  according  to  an  observation 
obligingly  communicated  to  me  by  Dr.  Schliiter,  in  the  old 
text ;  yet  this  interpolation  has  been  the  cause  of  the  history 
of  Swedish  law  being  commenced  with  a  code  of  the  time  of 
Ingjald  lllrada. 


the  establishment  of  the  Edsbre,  or  general  land's- 
peace,  the  ordinances  deriving  therefrom  became 
common  to  them  all  '.  Particular  alterations  were 
also  introduced  by  St.  Eric,  Canute  Ericson,  Eric 
Ericson,  earl  Birger,  and  Magnus  Ladulas.  Mean- 
while tlie  laws  mostly  remained  in  scattered  collec- 
tions ',  without  any  other  arrangement  than  what 
the  individual  text-writer  had  applied  to  them  for 
his  own  use,  till  in  1295  the  law  of  Upland  was  re- 
vised and  amended  by  the  Justice  of  Tiundaland, 
Birger  Pederson  ^  of  Finsta,  with  the  aid  of  twelve 
assessors  from  all  the  three  Folklands.  The  law  in 
its  new  form  was  proclaimed  in  the  judicial  motes, 
"  approved  by  all  men,"  and  lastly  it  received  the 
written  confirmation  of  king  Birger.  The  style 
given  to  the  lagman  in  the  act  of  confirmation, 
"the  king's  true  servant,"  shows  that  these  judges, 
from  being  men  of  the  people,  had  now  become  the 
men  of  the  king.  From  this  time  they  continued 
to  be  members  of  the  royal  council. 

In  the  year  1298  were  celebrated  the  nuptials  of 
king  Birger  with  the  Danish  princess  Martha,  who 
had  been  betrothed  to  him  from  her  childhood,  and 
educated  at  the  Swedish  court ;  four  years  sub- 
sequently, the  coronation  of  the  royal  pair,  and 
the  union  of  duke  Waldemar  with  the  Marshal's 
daughter.  The  condition  of  the  land  was  pros- 
perous, and  the  joy  of  the  people  at  the  harmony 
prevailing  between  the  three  brothers  universal. 
But  in  the  following  year,  when  the  marshal  laid 
down  the  guardianship,  and  the  princes  were  to 
enter  upon  possession  of  the  dukedoms  assigned  to 
them  by  Magnus  Ladulas,  "  they  began  to  recollect 
how  their  father,  when  himself  duke,  had  dethroned 
his  brother  Waldemar,  and  took  counsel  thereupon 
with  one  another'."  The  king  prevailed  upon 
Thorkel  Canuteson  to  continue  in  his  service  ;  the 
others  placed  their  affairs  under  the  management 
of  the  lord  Ambiorn  Sixtenson  (Sparre),  steward  of 
duke  Eric.  The  magnates  arranged  themselves  in 
parties  on  either  side,  and  then  were  sown  those 
discords  which  were  to  have  so  fatal  an  end.  The 
continued  influence  of  the  marshal  gave  especial 
umbrage  to  the  clergy.  The  war  with  the  Carelians 
and  Russians,  the  pomp  and  expense  with  which 
the  marriages  of  the  royal  family  had  been  solem- 
nized, the  cost  of  maintaining  several  courts,  of 
which  the  marshal's,  after  his  marriage  with  a 
countess  of  the  German  empire  ^j  seems  to  have 

'  Comiiiled  into  a  so-called  edsores  balk,  or  king's  balk. 
Balk,  properly  a  beam,  or  block,  means  also  generally  a  di- 
vision or  section.  Hence,  the  partition  of  the  laws  into 
balks,  which  again  comprise  several  flocks  or  collections. 
(From  what  is  above  stated,  the  explanation  which  has  been 
given  of  the  term  flocks,  as  originally  "  flakes,  planks,  or 
tablets,"  engraved  with  Runic  characters,  appears  to  be 
erroneous.  See  the  article  on  the  Ancient  Laws  of  the  Scan- 
dinavians, in  the  Edinburgh  Review  (xxxiv.  184),  probabl> 
by  the  late  Mr.  Allen.  The  common  meaning  of  flock, 
which  is  the  same  word  as  our  own,  and  never  occurs  in  the 
sense  supposed,  is  all  that  we  need  look  to.     T.) 

8  See  king  Birger's  confirmation  of  the  Law  of  Upland. 

9  Of  the  same  family  afterwards  called  Brahe. 

•  The  words  of  Eric  Olaveson.  Eric  had  been  nominated 
in  his  father's  lifetime  duke  of  the  Swedes  (Svearnas  hertig), 
a  title  corresponding  to  the  former  one  of  earl.  He  possessed 
also  his  father's  duchy  of  Sudermania,  and  a  portion  of  Up- 
land besides.  Waldemar  is  named  duke  of  Finland,  from 
1302. 

-  Helviga,  daughter  of  Otho  IL,  count  of  Ravensburg. 


A.  D.  1201 
—1319. 


\ 


Fraternal  dissensions. 
Coniluct  of  ttie  dulces. 


REIGN  OF  KING  BIRGER. 


Tlieir  (reaclierous  seizure 
liy  tlie  Iving. 


55 


been  not  the  least  brilliant, — all  this  had  occasioned 
the  imposition  of  new  taxes,  frona  which  tlie  clergy 
themselves  were  not,  according  to  the  usage,  ex- 
empted. A  portion  even  of  the  tithes  was  confis- 
cated to  the  public  necessities,  and  the  king,  in- 
stigated by  Thorkel  Canuteson,  entertained  a  design 
of  incarcerating  the  prelates  who  proved  refractory. 
The  bishop  of  Westeras,  the  former  ally  of  the 
marshal  in  his  Finnish  crusade,  fled  into  Norway. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  same  year,  the  succession  of 
Birger's  son  Magnus,  who  was  still  of  tender  age, 
was  guarnnteed,  with  the  consent  of  the  dukes  as 
well  as  of  the  bishops  and  nohles,  and  the  king 
engaged  by  a  proclamation  never  to  separate  his 
interests  from  those  of  the  marshal,  or  to  prefer 
any  other  to  him.  In  1304  the  dissensions  between 
the  brothers  at  length  openly  broke  out.  The 
dukes  were  obliged  to  give  surety  that  they  would 
not  leave  the  kingdom  without  the  royal  permis- 
sion, nor  appear  in  the  king's  presence  without 
summons,  or  with  a  greater  retinue  than  he  should 
appoint,  and  never  enter  into  any  plot  against  him, 
his  consort,  or  his  children.  In  no  long  time  there- 
after they  were  called  before  the  king  ;  Eric  was 
the  only  one  who  ventured  to  appear.  Several 
heads  of  complaints  were  read,  upon  which  the 
king  angrily  bade  him  begone  from  his  sight,  and 
soon  afterwards  commanded  both  his  brothers  into 
banishment.  Intestine  war  ensued,  in  which  the 
dukes  were  supported  by  Norway,  and  the  western 
provinces  of  the  kingdom  were  plundered.  Next 
year,  however,  a  reconciliation  was  effected,  of 
which  Thorkel  Canuteson  was  the  sacrifice.  The 
marshal  was  seized  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and 
the  dukes,  and  exclaimed  to  Birger,  "  For  this 
shame  will  be  your  part,  lord  king,  so  long  as  you 
live."  He  was  thrown  upon  a  horse's  back,  his 
feet  being  bound  under  its  belly,  and  so  was  drag- 
ged night  and  day  to  Stockholm,  where  his  head 
fell  under  the  axe  of  the  executioner  on  the  sixth 
of  February,  1306.  Duke  Waldemar  repudiated 
his  wife,  the  marshal's  daughter,  under  the  pretext 
that  they  were  within  the  bounds  of  spiritual  affinity, 
her  father  having  held  the  duke  at  the  baptismal 
font. 

Scarcely  had  eight  months  passed  away  since  the 
death  of  Thorkel  Canuteson,  before  king  Birger  was 
the  prisoner  of  his  brothei's.  On  a  friendly  visit  to 
the  royal  mansion  of  Hatuna  in  Upland,  having 
secretly  brought  with  them  a  train  of  armed  fol- 
lowers, they  fell  upon  the  king  and  took  him  cap- 
tive with  his  wife  and  children,  the  crown  prince 
alone  escaping  in  the  arms  of  a  faithful  servant, 
who  carried  him  into  Denmark,  and  placed  him  at 
the  knee  of  king  Eric  Menved.  Connected  by  a 
double  tie  of  affinity  with  Birger,  the  Danish  mon- 
arch made  his  cause  his  own,  and  assailed  the 
dukes.  In  consequence  of  this,  Bii'ger,  who  had 
been  meanwhile  kept  close  prisoner  in  the  castle  of 
Nyktiping,  was  liberated  in  1308,  and  declared 
himself  satisfied  to  retain  that  portion  of  his  king- 
dom of  which  the  dukes  might  leave  him  the  posses- 
sion. Immediately  on  his  release  he  repaired  to 
Denmark,  and  returning  with  his  father-in  law  at 
the  head  of  a  Danish  army,  he  advanced  to  Nykoe- 
ping,  and  laid  siege  to  the  place.  Duke  Eric  had 
in  the  mean  time  quarrelled  with  Haco,  king  of 

^  Both  were  named  Ingeborjr. 

<  Tlie  legal  value  of  a  cow,  in  the  law  of  Upland,  con- 


Norway,  for  the  possession  of  North  Halland,  and 
the  war  had  already  commenced  upon  this  side,  when 
a  conference  was  held  at  Ilelsingborg  (a.  d.  1310), 
the  three  kings,  the  Swedish  dukes,  and  several 
princes  being  present,  and  a  treaty  was  concluded. 
By  this  compact  the  kingdom  was  in  fact  divided 
between  Birger  and  his  brothers,  who  acknowledged 
him  indeed  as  their  feudal  superior,  but  were  other- 
wise to  be  independent  in  their  several  duchies. 
Not  long  afterwards  the  misunderstandings  with  j 
Norway,  which  had  again  broken  out,  were  removed  j 
by  the  marriage  of  duke  Eric  with  a  daughter,  ana  I 
that  of  Waldemar  whb  a  niece  of  the  Norwegian 
king  3,  amidst  festivities  of  which  the  contemporary 
description  recalls  all  the  pomp  of  the  age  of  chi- 
valry. '•  Yet  these  dukes,"  says  Eric  Ohiveson  in 
his  chronicle,  "  who  violently  grasped  at  dominion, 
brought  manifold  plagues  upon  the  land  by  their 
feuds  and  liarryings,  by  the  intolerable  sorning,  or 
rather  hostile  incursions  of  themselves  and  their 
companies  of  vagabond  followers  ;  by  the  heaviest 
imposts,  obliging  the  peasant  sometimes  to  pay 
thrice  in  a  year  a  contribution  to  the  amount  of 
one  mark  each  time  (which  was  double  the  price  of 
a  cow  *)  ;  wherefore  these  lords,  though  they  are 
styled  bounteous  and  pranksome,  were  so  to  the  ex- 
treme misery  of  the  poor."  Yet  they  seem  to  have 
been  less  disliked  by  the  people  than  was  the  king. 
The  Helsiugers  expelled  his  bailiff;  the  Gottland- 
ers  on  one  occasion  seized  his  person  ;  the  Sma- 
landers  elected  a  prince  of  their  own,  whom  Birger 
eventually  succeeded  in  cutting  off". 

Thus  several  years  passed  away  in  general  dis- 
tress, aggravated  by  failure  of  the  crops  and  a 
pestilence,  but  without  any  eruption  of  public  hos- 
tilities between  the  brothers.  Towards  the  close 
of  1317  duke  Waldemar,  journeying  from  CEland 
to  Stockholm,  took  his  way  to  Nykoeping,  where 
Birger  usually  held  his  court.  His  welcome  by  the 
king  and  queen  appeared  so  cordial  that  he  pro- 
mised to  visit  them  anew,  and  also  to  persuade  his 
brother  to  bear  him  company.  The  dukes  arrived, 
although  they  were  warned  by  the  way  not  to 
deliver  themselves  together  into  the  hands  of  the 
king,  and  the  seeming  warmth  of  their  reception 
so  totally  removed  every  suspicion  from  their 
minds,  that  they  caused  all  their  people  to  take 
quarters  in  the  town,  while  they  themselves  re- 
mained in  the  castle.  After  they  had  betaken 
themselves  to  rest,  heavy  with  wine,  king  Birger, 
late  in  the  night,  caused  his  men  to  arm,  and 
ordered  the  dukes  to  be  seized.  Of  three  Swedish 
knights  who  refused  to  execute  the  order,  two 
were  themselves  laid  in  fetters.  There  were  othere 
who  showed  greater  willingness,  foreigners  for  the 
most  part,  of  whom  many  served  in  the  courts  of 
all  these  princes.  The  dukes  were  seized  and 
bound,  the  king  himself  being  present,  "  with  glar- 
ing eyes,  and  sorely  enraged,"  and  demanding  of  his 
brothers,  "  whether  they  remembered  the  game  of 
Hatuna?"  Thereupon  they  were  thrown  into  the 
castle  dungeon,  and  chains  riveted  upon  their 
limbs.  When  the  plunder  taken  from  them  and 
their  companions,  who  were  imprisoned  in  the 
town,  was  divided,  the  king  clapped  his  hands  as 
one  in  ecstasy  ',  blessed  the  counsels  of  his  queen, 

firmed  in  1296,  is  half  a  mark,  but  the  value  of  the  coin  had 
since  fallen. 
5  "  Jnst  as  were  he  an  Aniblode,"  says  the  Rhyme  Chro- 


56 


Tragical  fate  of 
the  dukes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Choice  of  a  new 
king. 


{ 


A.  n. 

1319. 


and    exclaimed,    "  Now   have    I    Sweden   in   my 
hand  !" 

From  the  middle  of  December  (a.  d.  1317),  when 
this  came  to  pass,  the  dukes  remained  about  four 
months  in  prison  ^,  until  Birgeu,  yet  more  exaspe- 
rated by  the  revolt  which  was  spreading  on  all 
sides,  caused  the  dungeon  tower  to  be  locked,  and 
the  keys  to  be  thrown  into  the  stream,  and  taking 
to  flight,  left  his  brothers  to  die  of  hunger.  It  is 
related  that  Eric,  who  had  been  beaten  and  wounded 
beforehand,  lived  but  three  days  longer,  and  Wal- 
demar  eleven.  The  former  was  upwards  of  thirty 
years  old,  the  latter  youngex*.  The  cruel  fate  of 
these  princes  awakened  the  profoundest  horror 
througliout  the  north.  The  ballad  upon  their 
death,  so  well  known  throughout  Sweden,  Den- 
mark, and  Iceland,  imputes  it  to  the  treachery  of 
the  steward  John  Brunke.  Contemporary  accounts 
are  full  of  their  praises,  and  extol,  especially,  the 
beauty  and  knightly  grace  of  the  "gentle  duke 
Eric."  Posterity  has  not  had  the  heart  to  blame 
those  who  were  the  victims  of  so  fell  a  disaster  ; 
they  have  had  this  compensation,  that  their  faults 
have  died  with  them,  and  only  their  virtues  have 
survived  in  the  memory  of  men. 

At  the  first  rumour  of  the  imprisonment  of  the 
dukes,  their  partisans  took  up  arms.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  several  provinces  revolted,  to  set  them  at 
liberty,  and  Norway  prepared  to  afford  them  suc- 
cour. Stockholm  cl<jsed  its  gates  against  the  king, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  flee  from  Nykopiug,  which 
was  besieged.  The  royal  gan-ison  of  the  castle 
exposed  the  dead  bodies  of  the  dukes,  covered  with 
cloth  of  gold,  on  biers  outside  the  castle  gate,  in 
order  to  convince  the  besiegers  that  those  for  whom 
they  fought  were  no  longer  alive.  This  had  no 
other  effect  than  that  of  still  further  incensing 
them ;  the  castle  was  taken,  and  razed  to  the 
ground.  In  vain  Birger  endeavoured  to  win  the 
clergy  by  the  privileges  he  confered  upon  them, 
and  to  defend  the  crown  by  the  troops  brought  by 
his  son  from  Denmark.  After  a  short  war,  marked 
on  his  side  by  new  acts  of  perfidy,  he  saw  himself 
compelled,  with  his  wife  and  two  daughters ',  to 
seek  refuge,  first  in  Gottland,  and  afterwards  in 
Denmark.  The  crown  prince  Alagnus  was  obliged, 
after  a  valiant  resistance  in  the  castle  of  Stegeborg, 
to  surrender  to  the  enemy.  The  steward,  John 
Brunke,  was  made  prisoner,  in  a  desperate  attempt 
to  relieve  the  prince,  and  shortly  thereafter,  with 
two  of  his  accomplices  in  the  murder  of  the  dukes, 
beheaded  and  broken  on  the  wheel  at  Norrmalm 
by  Stockholm,  on  the  sandhill,  which  from  the  cir- 
cumstance is  to  this  day  called  Bruukeberg. 

nicle,  which  Ihre  has  e.xplained  by  the  context  as  frenzied. 
But  this  Amblode  is  undoubtedly  Saxo's  Amlethus  or  Am- 
blethus,  the  Hamlet  whom  Shakspeare  has  immortalized, 
and  the  words  quoted  show  how  generally  known  in  Sweden 
at  this  time  the  legend  of  this  Danish  prince  was. 

6  Their  testament  is  dated  January  18,  1318.  In  a  deed  of 
the  18th  April  in  the  same  year  they  are  mentioned  as  cap- 
tives though  still  living  ;  in  another,  the  duchesses  entitle 
themselves  their  relicts.  The  deaths  of  the  dukes  must 
therefore  have  fallen  between  the  1 8th  April  and  6th  May, 
1318. 

7  Agnes  and  Catherine.  Suhm,  History  of  Denmark. 

*•  Eric  Olaveson.  The  Rhyme  Chronicle  does  not  name 
them. 

'  Stora.  Upon  the  mode  of  election,  Olaus  Magnus  says, 
"  The  glorious  constitution  of  our  ancestors,  handed  down 


Two  years  subsequently  (Oct.  28,  1320),  prince 
Magnus  Birgerson,  the  designated  successor  to  the 
throne,  was  executed  by  the  sword  at  Stockholm, 
in  his  twentieth  year,  although  he  was  innocent  of 
his  father's  misdeeds,  and  had  received  assurance 
of  his  life  by  compact.  Grief  for  this  calamity 
brought  the  fugitive  king  Birger  to  his  grave  in  the 
following  year.  Thus  the  revenge  exacted  was  not 
less  fearful  than  the  crime  itself.  Justly  do  the 
old  writers  observe,  that  since  the  settlement  of 
Sweden  a  more  miserable  time  had  hardly  been 
known  than  during  the  fraternal  war  which  deso- 
lated the  house  of  king  Magnus  Ladulas. 

The  survivor  of  these  scenes  of  mutual  destruc- 
tion was  a  child  of  three  years  old,  who  was  now 
acknowledged  as  the  sovereign  of  two  kingdoms. 
On  Midsummer-day  of  the  year  1319,  the  mag- 
Hates  of  the  realm,  the  bishops,  the  nobility,  and 
burgesses  of  the  towns,  who  are  now  first  men- 
tioned as  participating  in  the  management  of  public 
affairs',  together  with  four  peasants  from  every 
hundred,  met  at  Upsala,  to  proceed  to  the  election 
of  a  new  king.  Matthew  Ketilmundson,  a  knight 
who,  having  signalized  himself  in  the  wars  of  the 
foregoing  years  by  the  most  chivalrous  valour, 
had  eventually  risen  to  be  the  leader  of  the  ducal 
party,  presented  himself  before  the  people  assem- 
bled on  the  meadow  by  the  Mora  stone.  The  voices 
of  the  magnates  ^  had  raised  him  in  the  past  year 
to  the  office  of  Administi-ator  i,  and  he  now  carried 
in  his  arms  MAGiNUS,  the  orphan  son  of  duke  Eric, 
who  was  proposed  and  elected  king,  receiving  at 
the  same  time  the  Norwegian  crown,  as  his  inhe- 
ritance from  his  maternal  grandfather  king  Haco, 
not  long  before  deceased  without  male  issue.  Se- 
veral lords  of  the  council  ^  were  despatched  to 
Norway,  in  order  to  express  assent  to  the  elevation 
of  Magnus  to  the  throne  of  that  country,  "  in  the 
name  of  all  Swedish  men."  Administrations  were 
arranged  in  both  kingdoms  to  conduct  affairs  during 
the  minority.  The  Swedish  government  lasted  till 
the  year  1333,  and  is  highly  lauded  by  the  chroni- 
cles ;  it  restored  peace  to  the  people  '■',  extended  its 
bovmds  by  the  redemption  of  Scania,  and  at  first 
even  watched  over  the  rights  of  the  commonalty. 
In  effect,  however,  it  strengthened  the  power  of 
the  magnates,  and  for  a  hundred  years  to  come 
Sweden  was  governed  chiefly  by  ai'istocratic  asso- 
ciations. 

On  the  very  day  of  the  new  king's  election,  the 
principal  spiritual  and  temporal  lords,  together 
with  the  justiciaries,  entered  into  a  bond  to  support 
with  rede  and  deed  the  High  Steward  Matthew 

by  successive  ages  and  generations,  prescribes  in  the  outset 
that,  the  inhabitants  of  Sweden  being  about  to  elect  a  king, 
the  senators  and  nobles,  and  messengers  of  all  the  provinces, 
communities,  and  towns  of  the  realm,  shall  be  bound  to 
assemble  in  Upsala,  not  far  from  which  is  a  great  field- 
stone  (lapis  campeslris  amplus),  called  by  the  inhabitants 
from  immemorial  time.  Mora  sten,  having  twelve  stones,  of 
somewhat  smaller  size,  fixed  in  the  ground  in  a  circle,  whither 
the  aforesaid  senators,  or  councillors  of  the  realm,  and  mes- 
sengers, are  wont  to  resort."  On  the  meaning  of  the  word 
Mora,  see  note  p.  21  of  this  volume.  See  also  Chap.  VII.  T. 
'  Riksfbrestandare. 

2  Radsherrar. 

3  The  war  with  Denmark  for  Birger's  sake  ended  in  1319, 
on  the  death  of  his  brother-in-law  king  Eric  Menved.  Some 
warlike  movements  took  place  on  the  Russian  frontier  in 
1322,  but  were  quieted  by  a  peace  in  the  same  year. 


A. 

1319 


D.       ) 

—43.  J 


Aristocratic  league. 
Influence  of  foreigners. 


MAGNUS  ERICSON. 


New  general  law. 
Congress  of  Warberg. 


57 


Ketilmundson,  or  whosoever  should  be  appointed  in 
his  stead  to  conduct  the  government  until  the  king 
should  be  of  age.  Promises  were  made  to  the 
people,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  arbitrary  tallages 
by  which  some  of  the  preceding  kings  and  princes 
had  violated  the  old  liberties  of  the  kingdom, 
should  be  no  longer  imposed,  and  that  all  should  be 
left  in  possession  of  their  former  rights.  Should 
the  defence  or  welfare  of  the  state  require  a  new 
tax,  it  must  be  proclaimed  to  the  people  by  the 
confederate  lords  ;  in  case  it  were  approved,  it  was 
to  be  collected  by  their  commissioners  with  the  aid 
of  two  peasants  from  every  province,  and  ajjplied 
only  to  its  declared  purpose.  The  true  nature  of 
these  leagues  is  still  more  clearly  explained  by  the 
union  of  Skara,  which  took  place  in  1322.  By  this 
act,  thirty-five  spiritual  and  temporal  lords  con- 
federated to  govern  the  realm  in  such  a  fashion, 
that  they  might  be  able  to  answer  it  before 
God  and  the  king.  They  engaged  to  defend  one 
another  like  brethren,  to  submit  their  mutual  dis- 
putes to  the  judgment  of  the  league,  from  which 
they  were  on  no  pretext  to  separate.  This  associa- 
tion, which  throws  so  much  light  on  the  nature  of 
those  older  confederacies  among  the  nobility,  for- 
bidden by  Magnus  Ladulas  under  heavy  penalties, 
is  remarkable  in  other  respects.  It  was  an  act  of 
reconcilement  between  the  royalist  and  ducal 
parties*,  and  contains  an  engagement  mutually  to 
counteract  the  influence  of  foreigners  in  public 
affairs.  This  latter  condition,  produced  chiefly  by 
the  circumstance,  that  many  foreigners  had  in- 
sinuated themselves  into  favour  at  court,  since  the 
time  of  Magnus  Ladulas,  and  taken  an  active  part 
in  the  intestine  commotions  of  the  country,  was 
du-ected  especially  against  the  partiality  which  the 
young  king's  mother  cherished  for  Canute  Porse, 
a  powerful  foreigner,  who  liad  been  raised  by  king 
Christopher  II.  to  the  ducal  rank,  and  governed 
South  Halland.  Banished  from  the  kingdom  by  a 
compact  with  the  confederated  lords,  to  which  the 
duchess  acceded  in  1.326,  he  nevertheless  received 
her  hand  in  the  foUowmg  year.  Both  parties  for- 
feited by  this  step  all  influence  in  Sweden,  and 
death  shoi'tly  afterwards  set  bounds  to  the  ambition 
of  the  duke.  The  counts  of  Holstein  at  this  time 
ruled  with  absolute  sway  in  the  internally  divided 
and  dissevered  kingdom  of  Denmark.  The  pea- 
sants of  Scania,  impatient  of  its  yoke,  revolted,  and 
slaying  or  expelling  the  Holsteiners  (a,  d.  1332), 
submitted  themselves,  with  the  inhabitants  of 
Bleking  and  South  Halland  ',  to  the  dominion  of 
Sweden.  Yet  for  the  redemption  of  these  pro- 
vinces from  the  claims  of  Count  John  of  Holstein, 
as  well  as  for  the  pajTnent  of  other  pressing  debts, 
so  considerable  a  sum  was  required,  that  to  procure 
it,  the  Swedish  government  was  obliged  to  levy  new 
taxes,  to  appropriate  the  tithes,  and  to  mortgage  a 
large  share  of  the  crown  revenues. 

Magnus  Ericson,  who  now  styled  himself  king 
of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Scania,  personally  assumed 
the   government  in  133-3,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 

*  Therefore  we  now  find  Canute  Jonson  appointed  to  the 
dignity  of  king's  steward.  He  had  before  filled  this  office 
under  king  Birger,  and  was  one  of  those  who  refused  to  take 
any  part  in  the  seizure  of  the  dukes. 

*  The  northern  part  had  been  annexed  to  Sweden  by  duke 
Eric's  marriage. 

*  Both  the  old  chronologies  which  state  the  year  of  his 


and  two  years  afterwards  rode  his  Eric's  Gait,  on 
which  occasion  he  declared,  for  the  honour  of  God 
and  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  "  for  the  repose  of  the 
souls  of  his  father  and  uncle,"  that  in  future  no 
one  born  of  Christian  parents  should  be  or  be 
called  a  slave.  In  1336,  Magnus  was  crowned  with 
his  consort  Blanch,  Countess  of  Namur,  and  in  the 
same  year,  died  Matthew  Ketilmundson  ",  a  man, 
in  whom  the  king  is  said  to  have  lost  his  best 
counsellor,  and  the  strongest  prop  of  his  throne. 
Nils  Ambiornson  ^  was  named  steward  with  autho- 
rity almost  unlimited.  Not  only  did  the  kmg  him- 
self defend  him  and  all  his  partisans,  but  twenty- 
three  barons,  as  well  as  the  king's  sister  Euphemia, 
subscribed  a  similar  engagement.  Renewed  ordin- 
ances against  the  violation  of  the  land's  peace,  and 
the  roving  of  ai'med  bands  for  plunder  throughout 
the  country,  as  well  as  the  complaints  made  by  the 
king  himself,  that  no  man  guided  himself  by  his 
wishes,  whether  he  prayed,  exhorted,  or  threatened, 
all  this  shows  the  independence  assumed  by  the 
magnates,  and  after  what  fashion  they  were  ac- 
customed to  observe  the  laws  that  had  been 
enacted. 

In  respect  to  legislation,  the  present  reign  is  not 
destitute  of  memorials.  During  the  minority  of 
the  sovereign,  the  law  of  Sodermanland  was  re- 
vised and  amended,  and  in  1327  it  received  the 
royal  sanction  for  all  its  sections,  that  concerning 
donations  and  legacies  to  the  Church  excepted, 
upon  which  head  it  is  I'emarked,  that  the  clergy 
and  laity  had  not  been  able  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment. The  same  obstacle  was  encountered  twenty 
years  afterwards,  when  the  work  of  preparing  a 
general  code  to  replace  the  various  provincial  laws 
was  at  length  really  completed.  At  the  baronial 
diet  of  Orebro,  in  1347,  the  clergy  entered  their 
protest,  and  the  whole  matter  fell  to  the  ground. 
Nevertheless  the  Land's  Law  of  king  Magnus  Eric- 
son,  excepting  the  section  on  the  Church,  gradually 
obtained  acceptation,  and  became  of  established 
authority. 

At  the  congress  of  Warberg,  in  1343,  where 
king  Magnus,  king  Waldemar  of  Denmark,  to- 
gether with  the  councillors  of  Sweden  and  Norway, 
and  deputies  from  the  newly  acquired  Swedish 
provinces  were  assembled,  II  acq,  the  younger  son 
of  Magnus,  was  proclaimed  king  of  Norway,  and 
Eric,  the  elder,  his  successor  upon  the  Swedish 
throne.  The  annexation  of  Scania,  Halland,  and 
Bleking  to  Sweden  was  confirmed,  and  Waldemar 
absolutely  renounced  all  claims  upon  these  terri- 
tories. 

Hitherto  the  reign  of  Magnus  had  been  one  of 
almost  unbroken  tranquillity,  yet  the  people  were 
burdened  with  such  oppressive  imposts,  that  the 
king,  acknowledging  that  many  landowners  had 
been  obliged  to  abandon  their  estates,  in  order  to 
escape  from  the  weight  of  them,  granted  in  1346 
exemption  from  the  taxes  to  all  who  would  return 
and  again  cultivate   their  fields.      In  one  of  the 


decease  have  1326,  probably  a  clerical  error  for  1336  ;  the 
rather  as  the  conclusion  of  the  king's  marriage,  which  took 
place  in  1335,  is  mentioned  in  the  Rhyme  Chronicle  as  the 
last  public  transaction  in  which  Matt.  Ketilmundson  was 
concerned. 

'  Son  of  the  Steward  Ambiorn  Sixtenson  Sparre,  formerly 
mentioned.  The  son  assumed  the  arms  of  his  mother's 
family  of  Oxenstierna. 


58 


Crusade  in  Russia. 
The  great  plague. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  king  and  his  son 
at  variance. 


J       A.  D 

ilS43— 


59. 


public  apologies  isssued  by  him,  couched  in  very 
humble  terms,  he  attributes  this  evil  to  the  ransom 
of  Scania ;    but  othei's  were   inclined   to  lay    the 
blame   rather   upon    his    own    carelessness  which 
sufl'ered   the   crown   to   be   robbed   of  its   proper 
patrimony,  in  his  profusion,  and  in  that  depraved 
partiality  to  young  favorites  which   procured  hira 
the   repulsive    sui-uarae    of  the    caresser   (Smek). 
His  manners  gave  general  scandal,  and  drew  upon 
him  the  reproaches  of  his  contemporaries,  especially 
of  his  famous  kinswoman  St.  Bridget.     Siie  pre- 
dicted the  fate  which  would  overtake  him,  saying 
that  he  was  but  a  child  in  understanding,  which  he 
returned  by  calling  her  revelations,  dreams.  Under 
his  minority,  a  considerable  loan  had  been  granted 
to  him  from  the  tithes,  for  the  purpose  of  making  j 
war  upon  the  unbelieving  Russians,  who  are  still 
denominated  heathens  by  the  popes  themselves,  as 
also    by   the  Swedish    Chronicles.     To    fulfil    this 
engagement,  as  well  as,  apparently,   to  raise   his 
sinking  reputation,  Magnus  in  1348  undertook  in 
person   a   crusade    of  great  magiutude  and    cost 
against   Rus.sia,    offering   the  Russians   the   alter- 
native of  death  or  the   pope,  and  causing,  as  the 
Rhyme  Chronicle  declares,  all  whom  he  could  lay 
hold  of  to  cut  oft' their  beards  and  receive  baptism. 
But  the  Russians  soon  showed,  it  is  added,  that 
their   beards    had    grown    again     ;inevv,  and    sur- 
rounded the  king  and  his  army,  so  that  he  escaped 
with   difficulty   and    great   loss.     Count    Henry   of 
Holstein,  who    accom[)anied  him,  made  demands 
which  he  was  obliged  to  satisfy  by  the  grant  of 
territorial    fiefs  ;     the    foreign    mercenaries    who 
clamoured  for  tlieir  pay,  plundered  the  country  ; 
fresh  loans  granted  by  the  Church  for  the  expenses 
of  the  war  *,  which  still  remained  unpaid  after  the 
lapse  of  ten  years,  drew  down  an  excommunication 
on  his  head  ;  and  now  his  dominions  were  about  to 
be  visited   by  that  terrible  pestilence,  which  in  the 
middle  of  this  century,  coming  from  the  uttermost 
bounds  of  India,  traversed  the  woi'ld  in  its  devas- 
tating course. 

This  plague  was  brought  from  London  to  Bergen 
in  Norway  by  a  ship,  whose  crew  had  every  man 
peinshed,  the  cargo  being  imprudently  landed. 
From  Norway,  where  scarcely  a  third  part  of  the 
population,  it  is  said,  remained  alive,  the  contagion 
spread  to  Sweden,  raging  there  with  extreme  vio- 
lence in  1350.  This  year  was  marked  by  great 
drought,  and  the  next  is  likewise  mentioned  as  being 
one  of  scarcity  '.  The  malady  discovered  itself  by 
spots  on  the  breast,  vomition  of  blood,  and  boils, 
killing  both  men  and  animals  in  a  fearfully  short 
time.  Many  quarters  were  utterly  desolated  ' ;  after 
a  long  time  churches  were  discovered  in  the  midst 
of  forests,  as  is  related  of  that  in  the  hundred  of 
Eke,  in  Vermeland.  In  the  mine-district  of  that 
province,  only  a  young  man  and  two  maidens  are 
said  to  have  survived.     In  Upland,  scarcely  the 


"  From  the  computation  of  the  amount  of  these  loans  in 
silver  made  by  tlie  papal  treasury  ^see  Celse,  BuUarium,  i. 
109,  127),  we  learn  that  a  mark  of  silver  at  this  time 
amounted  to  almost  five  marks  of  Swedish  money. 

9  S.  R.  S.  i.  1.  29.    Suhm,  History  of  Denmark,  xiii.  240. 

>  Ramus  in  his  description  of  Norway  (Norges  Beskrivelse, 
166),  relates  after  an  old  tradition,  that  Justedale  in  the  dio- 
cese of  Bergen  was  now  first  settled  by  persons  flying  before 
the  infection,  who  all  perished,  one  little  girl  only  excepted, 
who  grew  up  in  solitude,  wild  as  a  bird,  and  thence,  when 


sixth  part  of  the  inhabitants  was  left  ^.  The  plague 
I'eached  Western   Russia  in  the   spring    of  1352, 
often    breaking   out    anew    in    the     same    region 
throughout  an  entire  century,  as  it  did  more  than 
once  in  the  rest  of  the  north.     Sweden  was  again 
visited  in  1360,  by  the  same  or  another  pestilential 
disease  which  attacked  the  young  more  particu- 
larly ^,  and  was  therefore  called  the  child's  death. 
It  was  otherwise  generally  designated  as  the  great 
mortality.       An    ordinance    of  Magntis     Ericson, 
issued  in   1350,  yet   remains,  prescribing  days  of 
public   prayer   and  penance   to   be   observed   for 
deliverance    from    the    plague.      In   it    the   king 
declares,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  in 
the  countries  lying  to  the  west  had    been  swept 
away  by  this  sudden  death,  which  was  now  running 
through  all  Norway  and  Halland,  and  approaching 
Sweden  with  such    virulence   and   speed   that,  as 
was  notorious,  people  fell  dead  in  crowds,  and  the 
living  were  not  able  to  bui-y  the  dead. 

Amidst  such  calamities,  Haco,  the  younger  son 
of  Magnus  (a.  d.  1350),  personally  assumed  the 
goverment  of  the  greatest  part  of  Norway,  and  at 
the  same  time  his  eldest  brother  Eric  was  raised 
to  the  Swedish  throne  by  the  malcontent  party.  A 
civil  war  now  broke  out  between  the  son  and 
father,  or  rather  between  the  former  and  Bennet 
Algotson,  one  of  the  king's  youthful  favourites, 
who  had  found  means  likewise  to  insinuate  himself 
into  the  good  graces  of  the  queen,  and  thereby  be- 
came a  duke,  and  the  most  powerful  man  in  the 
kingdom.  The  war  terminated  in  the  banishment 
of  the  favourite,  and  Magnus  now  relinquished  to 
his  son  a  portion  of  his  dominions,  along  with  the 
newly  acquired  provinces,  which  he  was  suspected 
of  intending  to  cede  to  Denmark,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain its  support.  King  Waldemar,  the  ally  of  Magnus, 
also  broke  into  Scania,  and  the  war  between  the 
father  and  son  was  about  to  be  rekindled,  when  in 
1359  the  latter  suddenly  died.  Eric  himself 
declared  on  his  death-bed  that  he  was  conscious 
that  he  had  been  poisoned  by  his  mother's  hand  **  ; 
the  Icelandic  annals  again  state  that  the  prince, 
with  his  wife  Beatrice  of  Brandenburg,  arid  two 
children,  fell  victims  to  the  pestilence.  Aftei- 
Eric's  death,  Magmus  was  agam  acknowledged  as 
king,  upon  condition  that  the  favourite  should  not 
be  recalled.  This  notwithstanding  was  done  *, 
and  Scania,  Halland,  and  Bleking,  were  actually 
ceded  to  Denmark,  in  1300,  upon  a  promise  of  sup- 
porting Magnus  against  the  Swedish  council.  At 
the  very  time  when  the  rumour  of  this  tran.saction 
excited  among  the  people  the  most  bitter  exaspera- 
tion agamst  their  sovereign  ^,  Oeland  was  ravaged 
by  the  Danish  king,  whom  Magnus  called  his  friend, 
Gottland  was  captured  after  the  loss  of  three 
battles  by  the  peasants  of  the  country  and  the 
burghers  of  Wisby,  which  town  was  so  completely 

she  was  discovered,  received  the  name  of  Rijia  (the  grouse). 
She  was  in  time  wedded,  and  lier  descendants  were  called 
the  Ripa  family. 

^  Vix  sexta  pars  houilnum  remansit.  Script.  Rer.  Suec.  i. 
1.  29. 

3  Ibid.  In  1361  mention  is  again  made  of  the  plague  in 
Denmark. 

'*  The  Rhyme  Chronicle.  See  Torfa?us,  Hist.  Norv.  iv.  484. 

*  Bengt  Algotson  was  at  this  time  slain. 

^  The  Rhyme  Chronicle  says  that  both  young  and  old  spat 
upon  him,  pelted  him  with  rotten  cabbage,  and  sang  lam- 
poons upon  him. 


A 

1359 


.  D.       1 

)— 65.  5 


Magnus  dethroned. 
Tlie  union  ape. 


ALBERT  OF  MECKLENBURG. 


Dislike  to  the  new  king. 
German  favourites. 


59 


sacked,  that  it  never  recovered  its  former  pros- 
perity. 

The  Swedish  council  now  induced  the  king's 
younfjer  son,  Haco  of  Norway,  to  seize  his  person 
"(a.  d.  1361),  to  break  off' his  own  betrothal  to  Marga- 
I'et,  daughter  of  Waldemar,  who  afterwards  became 
so  famous,  and  choose  instead  Elizabeth,  sister  of 
Count  Henry  of  Holstein,  for  his  consort.  The 
new  bride,  while  on  her  voyage  to  Sweden,  being 
driven  by  a  storm  on  the  Danish  coast,  was  detained 
there.  Haco,  now  elected  also  king  of  Sweden,  re- 
conciled himself  nevertheless  with  his  father,  and 
concluded  the  marriage  he  had  formerly  resolved 
upon  with  Margaret,  after  which,  Magnus  banished 
twenty-four  of  the  most  powerful  among  the 
Swedish  barons.  These,  repairing  to  Gennany, 
offered  the  crown  of  tlieir  native  country  to  Albert 
Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  a  son  of  Euphemia,  sister  of 
king  Magnus.     Thereupon  he  set  sail  with  a  fleet 


for  Sweden,  where  he  arrived  escorted  by  the 
exiled  lords.  Albert  was  chosen  king  in  Stock- 
holm, on  the  30th  of  November,  1363,  and  in  the 
following  year  he  received  the  homage  of  his  sub- 
jects at  the  Mora  Stone.  Both  Magnus  and  his 
son  were  declared  to  have  forfeited  the  crown, 
and  they  were  unsuccessful  in  an  attempt  to  assert 
their  cause  by  arms,  losing  the  battle  of  Enkoping 
in  1365.  Magnus  was  made  prisoner,  and  did  not 
recover  his  liberty  until  the  peace  with  Norway,  in 
1371.  Subsequently  he  received  certain  revenues 
which  were  allotted  to  him  in  Sweden  for  his  sub- 
sistence ;  he  spent  the  residue  of  his  days  with  his 
son,  and  was  drowned,  in  1374,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Bergen.  The  Norwegians,  over  whom  he 
had  reigned  in  peace,  if  we  e.\cept  some  disturb- 
ances in  1339,  styled  him  Magnus  the  Good.  Thus 
ended  the  power  of  the  Folkunger  family  in 
Sweden. 


CHAPTER  V. 


FOREIGN  KINGS.    THE  UNION,  UNTIL  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STURES. 

ALBERT  OF  MECKLENBURG.       MARGARET  AND  ERIC  OF    POMERANIA.       EnGELBERT.      CHRISTOPUEK  OF    B.WARIA. 

CHARLES  CANUTESON  AGAI.nST  CHRISTIAN  OF  OLDENBURG. 


A.  D.  13C5— 1470. 


In  the  Swedish  commonwealth,  the  place  of  the 
sovereign  was  now  really  vacant.  The  name  in- 
deed was  still  retained,  and  the  magnates,  who 
could  not  endure  that  one  of  their  own  number 
should  wear  the  crown,  imposed  a  succession  of 
foi'eign  princes  upon  their  countrymen.  The  do- 
mination of  the  stranger  made  even  such  a  king  as 
Magnus  Ericson  to  bo  regretted,  and  for  a  long 
time  after  his  death  it  was  common  to  hear  the 
people  extol  his  government,  when  they  compared 
it  with  the  tyranny  of  tlie  foreigners.  The  fate  of 
the  throne  and  the  country  was  decided  by  the 
holders  of  power  from  the  casual  motives  of  tem- 
porary interest,  and  by  such  was  the  famous  union 
of  the  three  northern  kingdoms  produced — a  mere 
mcident,  which  bears  some  resemblance  to  a  de- 
sign. But  of  a  consciousness  of  what  such  a  union 
was,  or  of  what  it  might  become,  no  glimpse  is  to 
be  perceived,  either  among  its  founders  or  in  any 
other  quarter.  Hence  external  colligation  produced 
division  within,  and  the  union  is  only  a  great  name 
which  has  passed  away  without  a  meaning.  The 
fountains  of  history  flow  more  plentifully  in  this 
troubled  period.  The  narrative  of  the  great  Rhyme 
Chronicle  becomes  more  copious  ;  Eric  Olaveson '' 
in  his  Latin,  the  brothers  Olave  and  Lawrence 
Peterson  in  their  Swedish  chronicles*,  afford  much 
valuable  light  for  the  explanation  of  the  period  of 
the  union,  which  was  in  part  their  own.  Even 
Joannes  Magnus,  however  much  he  may  have 
invented  in  his  account  of  the  more  ancient  period, 

'  The  Chronica  Erici  Olai,  in  the  Script.  Rer.  Suec.  t.  ii., 
comes  down  to  the  year  146-i.  The  author,  who  was  dean 
and  professor  of  theology  at  Upsala,  diod  in  1486. 

8  First  printed  in  S.  R.  S.  t.  i.  ii.  They  come  down  to  the 
massacre  of  Stockholm  in  1520.  The  chronicle  of  Laurentius 
Petri  is  a  compilation  from  that  of  his  brother,  omitting  such 
passages  as  gave  offence  to  Gustavus  I.,  and  adding  the  his- 
tory of  the  kings,  and  military  achievements  of  the  e.\tra- 


may  for  the  annals  of  that  which  we  are  now 
approaching,  be  consulted  with  profit,  if  with  cau- 
tion. The  works  of  his  brother  Olaus  Magnus  are 
of  importance,  with  reference  to  the  knowledge  of 
old  nortliern  manners  ^. 

Albert's  victory  over  his  rival  did  not  leave  him 
master  of  the  kingdom.  The  deposed  sovereign 
had  still  during  his  captivity  a  strong  party,  and 
the  governors  of  most  of  the  castles  continued 
faithful  to  him  for  several  years.  By  the  prefer- 
ence which  Albert  showed  for  his  counti-ymen  of 
Germany,  and  his  lavish  bounty  to  them,  great 
disgusts  were  excited.  The  Upper  Swedes  sent 
a  proclamation  to  the  inhabitants  of  Gothland,  or 
the  dwellers  below  the  great  forest,  complaining  of 
the  oppressions  and  slavery  they  endured  at  the 
hands  of  king  Albert  and  his  Germans,  i-enouncing 
fealty  and  obedience  to  him  as  a  perjurer  and 
traitor,  and  exhorting  every  man  to  return  to  his 
allegiance  to  the  good  and  honourable  lord,  king 
Magnus,  and  to  set  him  free  from  captivity.  "  If 
the  councillors  of  the  realm,"  they  add,  "  will  aid 
us,  we  will  gladly  pray  their  help  ;  if  not,  the  guilt 
will  be  theirs,  and  the  loss  as  well  theirs  as  ours." 
The  foreign  notions,  especially,  which  the  king  and 
those  about  him  entertained  respecting  the  serfdom 
of  the  common  people  appear  to  have  awakened 
among  them  general  indignation,  and  mcreased 
their  impatience  of  the  overweening  arrogance  of  [ 
the  strangers,  wliich  is  depicted  with  so  much  life 

neous  Goths,  which  Johannes  Magnus  treated  difTusely,  but 
which  Olaus  Petri,  to  the  discontent  of  the  king,  excluded. 

9  Joannis  Magni  Gothorum  Sueonumque  Historia,  or,  as 
the  title  runs  in  the  tirst  edition,  Historia  de  omnibus  Gotho- 
rum Sueonumque  regibus,  &c.,  appeared  at  Rome  in  1554, 
under  the  revision  of  his  brother  Olaus  Magnus,  who  pub- 
lished in  the  year  following  his  own  Historia  de  gentibus 
septentrionalibus,  earumque  diversis  statibus,  conditionibus. 
moribus,  S:c. 


fiO 


Crown  grants  revoked. 
The  steward  Jonson. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Margaret  of  Norway. 
The  crown  oifered  to  her. 


J       A.  D, 

il371— i 


89. 


in  the  old  Swedish  verBes,  entitled  "a  pleasant 
likeness  of  king  Albert  and  Sweden  i".  The  great 
number  of  Germans  who  are  mentioned  at  that 
time  as  members  of  the  council  and  in  command  of 
the  rojal  castles,  sufficiently  indicate  that  these 
complaints  were  not  unfounded.  Such  was  the 
prevalent  mood  of  men's  minds  while  the  kingdom 
was  exposed  at  once  to  intestine  war,  and  to  hosti- 
hties  from  Norway  and  Denmark.  Albert's  allies, 
the  powerful  towns  of  the  Hanseatic  league,  com- 
pelled indeed  the  foreign  enemies  to  remain  quiet, 
but  king  Haco,  having  in  vain  endeavoured  by 
negociation  to  obtain  his  father's  release,  broke 
anew  into  Sweden,  and  pushing  on  to  Stockholm, 
laid  siege  to  the  town.  In  this  emergency  Albert 
had  no  other  resource  than  that  of  unreserved  sub- 
mission to  the  council.  The  plenary  grant  by  which 
he  in  1369  appointed  Bo  Jonson  Grip  "  his  managing 
agent  "  over  his  court,  houses  and  manors,  his  re- 
venues, bailiffs  and  servants,  with  the  right  even  of 
inflicting  capital  punishment,  bestowed  upon  this 
nobleman  the  same  powers  in  all  these  respects  as 
were  j)ossessed  by  the  king  himself.  In  the  com- 
pact made  with  the  council,  August  9,  1371,  he 
admits  that  the  royal  commanders  had,  contrai-y  to 
his  wishes,  exercised  many  violences  against  men 
of  every  class  in  the  realm,  for  which  reason  he 
now  transferred  all  the  castles  and  fortresses  of 
the  crown,  with  the  domains  appertaining  to  them, 
to  the  custody  of  the  council,  by  whom  they  should 
be  bestowed  only  upon  natives  of  Sweden.  The 
vacated  places  in  the  council  were  also  to  be  filled 
up  by  themselves,  and  no  foreigners  admitted  to  be 
members.  Thus  the  whole  administration  of  affairs 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  council,  now  so  much 
the  more  powerful,  because  the  great  plague  had 
amassed  extraordinary  riches  in  the  hands  of  a 
few.  No  man  m  Sweden  ever  attained  to  greater 
opulence  than  the  high  steward  Jonson.  Besides 
enormous  j)i'operty  of  his  own,  he  held  in  pledge 
for  loans  which  he  had  advanced  to  the  crown  the 
whole  of  Finland  and  the  largest  portion  of  Swe- 
den, with  the  principal  castles  of  the  kingdom,  and 
the  lands  belonging  to  the  Upsala  estate.  And 
thus  an  old  relation  declares,  that  he  ruled  the 
country  with  his  beck.  In  what  excesses  men  such 
as  he  could  sometimes  give  loose  to  their  passions, 
we  may  learn  from  the  circumstance,  that  the  baron 
Matthew  Gustaveson  in  1372  assassinated  Gott- 
skalk,  bishop  of  Linkbping,  hi  a  quarrel  respecting 
the  title  to  certain  estates,  and  Jonson  himself,  in 
1381,  being  in  feud  with  baron  Charles  Nilson 
Faria,  pursued  his  antagonist  into  the  Franciscan 
cliurch  at  Stockholm,  and  cut  him  down  before  the 
high  altar.  When  such  were  the  manners  of  the 
possessors  of  power,  it  may  well  seem  futile  to 
observe  that  in  1375  they  confirmed  anew  with 
king  Albert  the  covenant  of  land's-peace  2. 

•  Script.  Rer.  Suec.  i.  2,  210. 

2  For  three  years,  it  is  said. 

3  Every  third  manor  of  their  own  property. 

^  Post  cujus  mortem  milites  et  optiraates  Sueciae  cum  rege 
Alberto  discordare  copperunt,  eo  quod  idem  rex  ab  ipsis 
quandam  partem  honorum  regalium,  quam  ipsi  a  multis 
retroactis  temporibus  ac  progenitores  eorum  tempore  guerra- 
rum  sibi  usurpaverant,  juridice  exigebat;  quod  quidera  prae- 
dicti  nobiles  regni  indigne  ferentes  contra  regem  conspirare 
coeperunt,  allegando  quod  rex  patrimonia  ipsorum  vellet 
diripere  ac  Theutonicis  suis  elargiri.  Script.  Rer.  Suec.  i. 
Chronologia  xiv.  45,  46. 


Unsuccessful  attempts  to  reconquer  Scania  ag- 
gravated the  king's  necessities,  and  occasioned  new- 
inroads  on  the  property  of  the  church.  These  again 
gave  rise  to  new  compacts,  always  ending  on  the 
king's  side  on  more  absolute  dependence,  till  after 
the  death  of  Jonson  in  1 386  he  ventured  to  come 
to  an  open  rupture  with  the  magnates,  and  to  ap- 
propriate to  himself,  it  is  said,  a  third  part  of  the 
estates  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  lords  ^,  pro- 
ceeding forthwith  to  exact  by  force  compliance 
with  his  demand.  So  mns  the  poetical  account  of 
the  Rhyme  Chronicle,  which  has  been  understood 
literally,  and  explained  as  a  confiscation  by  the 
crown  of  the  third  part  of  the  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral freeholds  (fralset).  But  such  an  attempt  is 
wholly  incredible,  even  on  the  part  of  so  rash  a 
sovereign  as  Albert,  and  it  is  also  clear  from  other 
sources  of  information,  that  here  the  question  con- 
cerned only  property  of  right  belonging  to  the 
crown  ;  for  a  contemporary  account  declares  that 
"  when  Boece  Jonson,  the  steward  of  Sweden,  died, 
dissensions  sprang  up  between  the  knights  and 
nobles  of  the  realm  and  king  Albert,  because  he 
required  from  them  by  authority  of  law  a  certain 
portion  of  the  crown  estates  which  they  and  their 
forefathers  had  for  a  long  time  held,  having  appro- 
priated them  during  the  wars ;  wherefore  the  said 
nobles  being  dissatisfied,  began  to  conspire  against 
the  king,  pretending  that  he  wished  to  seize  upon 
their  patrimonies  in  order  to  bestow  them  upon  his 
Germans  *." 

It  was  against  the  heirs  of  the  steward  more 
especially,  that  this  demand  of  revocation  was 
levelled,  but  it  was  sufficient  to  kindle  a  civil  war, 
and  we  now  find  the  executors  appointed  under  the 
will  of  this  powerful  thane  disposing  of  the  Swedish 
crown,  and  thereby  preparing  the  union  of  the 
three  northern  kingdoms.  Waldemar  of  Denmark 
had  died  in  1375,  Haco  of  Norway  in  1380.  Clave, 
son  of  Haco  by  ISIargaret,  and  by  his  father  and 
maternal  grandfather  king  of  both  Norway  and 
Denmark,  died  young  in  1387,  the  last  male  scion 
of  the  royal  line  of  the  Folkungers,  in  virtue  of 
w  Inch  descent  he  styled  himself  the  rightful  heir  of 
Sweden.  After  his  death,  Margaret  was  named 
regent  in  Denmark,  and  queen  regnant  in  Norway  ; 
and  in  the  same  year  the  executors  of  Jonson 's  tes- 
tament, in  whose  custody  were  the  principal  castles 
and  strongholds  of  the  kingdom,  made  an  overture 
to  her  of  the  Swedish  crown  *.  They  were  not 
diverted  from  their  purposes  by  any  scruples  as  to 
the  want  of  any  authority  better  than  their  own  ; 
the  disaffection  generally  prevalent  among  the 
Swedes  found  them  adherents,  Margaret  furnished 
them  with  supplies  of  war  and  auxiliary  troops  ; 
and  Albert's  fate  was  decided  by  the  battle  of 
Falkoeping ''j  fought  on  the  21st  September,  1389, 

^  His  testament  is  to  be  found  in  Hadorph's  edition  of  the 
translation  of  the  "  History  of  Alexander  the  Great,"  made 
from  the  Latin  into  Swedish  verse,  at  Bo  Jonson's  instance 
(Wisingsborg,  1672).  In  later  times,  indeed,  we  occasionally 
find  this  versified  translation  attributed  to  Jonson  himself; 
but  he  had  made  so  little  progress  in  Latin  that  in  his 
will,  which  is  written  in  Swedish,  he  styles  his  executors  in- 
variably executoribus. 

6  In  West-Gothland.  The  24th  February,  St.  Matthias's 
day,  in  spring,  is  usually  stated  as  that  of  the  battle  ;  but  the 
Rhyme  Chronicle  names  St.  Matthew's  diiy,  in  harvest, 
though  it  gives  the  wrong  year,  1388.  (.loaniies  Magims  also 
says,  on  the  day  of  Matthew  the  aposlle,  xxi.  14.     T.) 


A.  D. 

1389—97 


} 


Captivity  of  Albert. 
Piracy  in  the  Baltic. 


MARGARET  AND  ERIC. 


Treaty  of  Calmar, 
July  20,  1397. 


61 


in  which  he  himself  and  his  son  Eric,  with  several 
German  princes  and  knights,  were  made  prisoners. 
This  victory,  which  threw  open  the  kingdom  to 
Margaret,  was  won  by  the  high  marshal  of  Swe- 
den, Eric  Kiellson^.  Margaret,  in  revenge  for  the 
boastful  and  contemptuous  sayings  in  which  Albert 
had  indulged  himself  at  her  expense,  received  him 
with  contumely,  set  a  fool's  cap  on  his  head^,  and 
threw  both  father  and  son  into  the  dungeon  of 
Lundholm  castle  in  Scania,  where  they  remained 
for  seven  years. 

During  this  whole  period  Sweden  was  a  prey  to 
all  the  horrors  of  party  hatreds  and  wars,  almost 
no  other  trace  of  a  government  being  visible  than 
the  taxes  imposed  by  Margaret.  The  capital  and 
many  of  the  castles  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Ger- 
mans, and  from  these  stations  they  made  incursions 
in  all  directions  through  the  country  with  plunder 
and  conflagration.  In  Stockholm  an  old  grudge 
subsisted  among  the  Germans  and  Swedes,  a  hostile 
outbreak  of  which  king  Albert  had  with  difficulty 
averted,  and  the  Swedish  burgesses  were  now 
treacherously  assaulted  by  the  Teutonic  faction. 
A  proscription  list,  including  seventy  of  the  prin- 
cipal Swedes,  had  been  drawn  up  twelve  years 
before,  and  was  now  again  produced  and  publicly 
read '.  Those  of  the  selected  victims  who  were 
still  to  be  found  were  seized  and  laid  in  fetters, 
some  of  them  being  tortured  with  carpenters'  saws; 
at  length  they  were  shut  up  in  an  old  building  and 
burned  alive. 

The  towns  of  Wismar  and  Rostock,  as  also  the 
Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  embraced  Albert's  cause, 
relieved  Stockholm,  and  gave  protection  in  their 
harbours  to  every  pirate  who  chose  to  seek  plunder 
on  the  Swedish  coast.  These  sea-robbers  formed 
the  original  stock  of  the  freebooters  who  long  after- 
wards continued  to  infest  the  waters  of  the  Baltic  '. 
Several  Swedish  towns  were  laid  in  ashes ;  in  the 
country  some  held  with  Albert,  others  with  Mar- 
garet. The  people  also  suffered  from  failures  of 
the  crops,  as  in  1391,  in  which  year,  to  quote  the 
words  of  the  complaint,  "  Nothing  grew  upon  the 
earth,  and  the  little  that  sprung  up  was  snatched 
away  by  robbers  or  forceful  sorners,  so  that  one 
might  easily  find  a  hundred  yeomen,  who  together 
did  not  possess  half  a  ton  of  barley  or  a  load  of 
hay  2."  The  nobles  fortified  their  houses,  and  so 
many  petty  robber  fortresses  arose,  that  the  general 
demolition  of  these  castles  was  afterwards  found 
necessary.  "  In  Sweden  at  this  time,"  says  the 
Rhyme  Chronicle,  "there  were  enemies  on  all 
sides,  son  against  father,  and  brother  against  bro- 
ther." Other  writers  lament  that  the  fields  lay 
unfilled,  and  that  the  land  had  well-nigh  become 

'  He  is  said  by  our  later  historians  to  have  been  of  the 
family  of  Vasa  ;  but  lie  did  not  bear  their  arms,  and  is  called 
Puke  in  the  Diary  of  Vadstena. 

s  Sie  liess  ihm  audi  eine  cappe  schneide, 
Hatte  fiinfzelin  ellen  in  die  weite, 
Der  timpel  wohl  neunzehn  ellen  langk. 

A  cap  she  caused  set  on  his  head. 
That  had  full  fifteen  ells  in  breadth, 
The  peak  was  nineteen  good  ells  long. 

(Mecklenburg  Rhyme  Chronicle  in  Behr, 

Rer.  Mecleburgiearum  lib.  ii.  c.  7.) 

9  In  the  council-chamber  of  the  town,  at  a  conventicle  of 

the  German  burgesses  and  soldiery.  Olave  Peterson,  S.  R.  S. 

i.  33.  277;  Eric  Olaveson,  ii.  1.  119.     The  latter  states  that 

the  burgomasters  were  at  this  time  all  Germans.      Trans. 


a  desert.  Peace  was  at  length  restored  by  a  treaty 
which  in  1395  set  Albert  and  his  son  at  liberty. 
They  bound  themselves  to  pay  not  less  than  60,000 
marks  of  silver^,  for  which  the  Hanse  towns  found 
security,  receiving  the  town  of  Stockholm  in  pledge 
for  the  sum.  Part  of  the  ransom  was  discharged 
by  the  women  of  Mecklenburg,  with  the  generous 
sacrifice  of  their  jewels  ;  the  last  arrears  were  re- 
mitted upon  the  delivery  of  Stockholm  into  the 
hands  of  Margaret.  Albert's  son  died  in  Gottland 
in  1397  ;  he  himself  did  not  fully  renounce  his  pre- 
tensions until  1 405,  and  is  said,  though  the  authori- 
ties differ,  to  have  died  in  1412. 

Sweden  was  now  sufficiently  depressed  to  accept 
the  conditions  offered  by  Margaret.  Eric  Duke  of 
Pomerania*,  her  grand-nephew,  had  been  already 
declared  the  future  sovereign  of  Denmark  and 
Norway  ;  he  was  now  also  elected  king  of  Sweden 
by  the  council,  in  presence  of  Margaret,  on  the  1 1th 
day  of  July,  1396,  and  received  the  formal  homage 
of  the  people  at  the  Mora  Stone.  What  Albert 
had  fruitlessly  attempted  was  now  effected  with 
full  consent  of  the  Magnates.  All  the  estates  of 
the  crown  that  had  come  into  their  possession  since 
"  the  war  between  king  Magnus  and  the  men  of 
the  realm  began,"  in  1363,  were  resumed,  it  now 
being  settled  that  the  occupiers,  especially  the  heirs 
of  Boece  Jonson,  were  to  arrange  their  differences 
with  the  crown  within  a  determinate  time.  It  was 
likewise  decreed  that  all  new  castles,  erected  within 
the  above-mentioned  period,  should  be  destroyed, 
unless  exempted  by  special  grace  ;  that  all  the  pri- 
vileges of  nobility,  so  lavishly  bestowed  by  king 
Albert,  should  be  revoked,  unless  acquired  on  the 
tei'ms  prescribed  by  law  ;  and  that  all  landed  yeo- 
men, whom  the  nobility  had  made  their  vassals, 
should  again  pay  gavel  to  the  crown. 

The  coronation  of  the  new  sovereign  took  place 
in  the  following  year  at  Calmar,  where  the  chief 
spiritual  and  temporal  barons  of  Denmark,  Norway, 
and  Sweden  assembled.  Here,  on  St.  Margaret's 
day,  the  20th  of  July  (a.  d.  1397),  was  concluded 
that  union  which  was  for  the  future  to  combine  the 
three  kingdoms  of  the  north  under  a  common 
sceptre.  The  chief  conditions,  besides  those  rela- 
ting to  Margaret  personally,  stipulated  that  peace 
and  amity  should  thenceforth  prevail  between  the 
kingdoms  ;  that  the  election  of  the  king  should  in 
future  be  transacted  conjointly,  the  sons  of  the 
sovereign  being  preferred,  if  such  existed  ;  each 
realm  was  to  be  governed  according  to  its  own 
laws  ;  fugitives  from  one  country  were  not  to  be 
protected  in  another  ;  all  were  bound  to  take  arms 
for  the  common  defence,  nor  were  the  subjects  of 
any  of  the  three  to  pretend  any  right  of  not  serving 

'  These  were  called  Vitalians  or  Victualling  Brethren,  be- 
cause they  exercised  their  piracy  under  pretext  of  supplying 
Stockholm  during  its  investment  with  provisions. 

'  Letter  of  the  chapter  of  Linkbping  in  this  year. 

5  Each  of  45  Lubeck  shillings,  about  3s.  6d.  sterling,  so 
that  the  ransom  would  be  about  £10,500.     T. 

''  His  father  was  Wratislaus  VII.,  duke  of  Pomerania,  his 
mother  Mary,  daughter  of  Henry,  duke  of  Mecklenburg, 
brother  of  king  Albert,  and  Ingeborg,  sister  of  Queen 
Margaret. 

Margaret  .  Ingeborg Henry  .  Albert 


Mary- 


-Wratislaus 

I 
Eric. 


62 


Philippa  of  England.  HISTORY   OF  THE   SWEDES.         The  king's  exactions.       [isgr—li 


1434 


beyond  its  limits.  This  short  aiui  imperfect  record 
of  tlie  terms  of  union,  Imrriediy  drawn  up  it  is 
plain,  is  subscribed  by  seventeen  barons.  Its  real 
contents  were  so  little  known  in  Sweden,  that  we 
find  among  the  Swedish  claims  on  Denmark,  in 
1435,  a  demand  that  Sweden  should  be  correctly 
informed  of  the  true  purport  of  the  Act  of  Union. 
Our  old  chroniclers  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the  first 
convention,  and  are  acquainted  only  with  the  more 
recent  forms  it  assumed  in  consequence  of  the  alter- 
ations and  renewals  which  the  conditions  underwent. 

Margaret  retained  possession  of  the  government ; 
for  Eric  was  but  in  his  sixteenth  year  when  the 
union  of  Calmar  was  concluded.  Some  years  after- 
wards he  married  Philtppa  of  England*, a  princess 
who  brought  him  a  rich  dowry,  and  was  distin- 
guished by  her  gentleness  no  less  than  by  her 
intelligence  and  courage.  Her  memory  was  che- 
rished in  the  popular  affections,  but  her  wedlock 
was  childless  and  unhappy,  and  she  was  even  per- 
sonally maltreated  by  her  husband.  Eric  may  be 
regarded  as  the  co-regent  of  Margaret  from  the 
year  1401,  when  he  accomplished  his  Ericsgait  in 
Sweden.  On  this  occasion  a  poi-tion  of  those  extra- 
ordinary taxes  which  now  appear  under  different 
appellations  was  remitted.  Margaret  also  pro- 
mised the  abolition  of  the  rest  in  a  proclamation 
two  years  afterwards,  in  which  she  humbly  entreats 
forgiveness  for  the  burdens  she  has  been  obliged  to 
impose  upon  the  people,  laying  the  blame  upon  the 
exactions  of  the  crown  bailiffs  and  the  expenses  of 
wars. 

Yet,  not  long  afterwards,  a  new  and  extraordinary 
tax  upon  every  hearth  was  levied  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  Isle  of  Gottland,  which  Albert  had 
mortgaged  to  the  knights  of  the  Prussian  order, 
and  Margaret  now  repurchased,  while  she  severed 
it  from  the  dominion  of  Sweden.  The  above-men- 
tioned letter  of  apology  enables  us  to  understand 
the  incessant  complaints  of  the  people.  From  it 
we  learn,  that  the  commanders  of  the  royal  castles, 
who  were  chiefly  foreigners,  or  adventurers  with- 
out a  country,  vexed  the  peasantry  by  arbitrary 
exaction  of  labour  and  imposition  of  tribute,  quar- 
tering the  soldiery  with  their  horses  about  the 
surrounding  district,  where  these  demeaned  them- 
selves as  if  in  an  enemy's  teiTitory.  For  the  rest, 
the  same  law,  or  absence  of  law,  reigned  in  the 
manor-houses  of  the  powerful  nobles  as  in  the 
court  of  the  sovereign.  In  the  former,  as  in  the 
latter,  the  privilege  of  private  judicature  over  re- 
tainers and  servants,  was  exercised  ^  ;  we  even 
find  the  magnates  raising  individuals  of  this 
class  to  the  rank  of  nobility  for  themselves  and 
their  posterity  '.  That  the  oppressions  which  pro- 
duced these  complaints,  however,  were  not  inflicted 

'  Daughter  of  Henry  IV.  of  England,  betrothed  in  HOI, 
married  in  1406.  She  presided  over  the  government  in  1423, 
during  the  king's  foreign  travel  and  i)ilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  introduced  improvements  in  the  coinage,  and  de- 
fended Copenhagen  in  1428  against  the  combined  squadrons 
of  the  Haiise  Towns  and  Holstein,  while  Eric  lay  hidden  in 
tiie  monastery  of  Soroe.  She  died  in  tlie  con  yen  t  of  Wadstena 
in  1430. 

6  According  to  king  Magnus  Ericson's  household  law 
(gardsriitt),  which  Margaret  and  Eric  of  Ponierania  confirmed. 

7  Such  a  right  was  exercised  by  Bo  Jonson  and  Cliarles 
Ulfson  (Sparre)  of  Tofta,  patents  issued  by  whom  for  this  pur- 
pose are  extant.  Eric  of  Pomerania  first,  of  the  Swedish 
kings,  granted  letters  of  nobility  with  armorial  shield.s. 


by  foreigners  only,  is  shown  by  the  example  of 
Abraham  Broderson,  who  is  praised  indeed  by  the 
Rhyme  Chronicle  (generally  favourable  to  the  no- 
bility) for  his  bravery  and  skill,  but  whose  tyranny, 
we  learn  from  various  other  accounts,  spared  nei- 
ther men's  property  nor  maidens'  honour.  Eric 
brought  this  nobleman,  in  1410,  to  trial  and  execu- 
tion, less  however,  apparently,  from  iove  of  justice, 
than  because  the  knight  had  been  unsuccessful  in 
his  siege  of  the  castle  of  Sonderburg,  during  the 
war  of  Sleswick,  and  because  the  fiefs  which  he 
possessed,  both  in  Denmark  and  Sweden,  made 
him  too  formidable  a  subject.  He  was  the  favourite 
of  Margaret,  who  sought  to  save  him  from  his 
doom  ;  she  founded  masses  in  memory  of  herself 
and  him  conjointly,  and  did  not  long  survive  him. 
She  died,  at  the  age  of  sixty,  in  a  vesssel  before 
Flensburg,  some  say  of  the  plague,  which  in  this 
year  (a.  d.  1412)  ravaged  the  north,  extolled  by 
the  Danes,  and  famous  in  Sweden  for  her  sagacity, 
but  loaded  by  our  chroniclers  with  all  that  weight 
of  hatred  which  was  generated  by  the  results  of 
the  union. 

Eric  of  Pomerania.  as  he  is  styled,  sacrificed  the 
greatest  part  of  his  long  reign,  from  the  time  when 
he  became  sole  king,  in  fruitless  endeavours  to 
secure  the  succession  for  the  ducal  house  of  Pome- 
rania, and  in  a  war  for  the  possession  of  Sleswick, 
which  the  ruler  of  the  north  waged  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  without  success,  against  the  not  very 
powerful  Counts  of  Holstein '.  The  former  was, 
doubtless,  the  chief  reason  why  the  king  thought  it 
expedient  to  commit  to  foreigners  the  custody  of  the 
Swedish  castles  ;  the  latter,  conducted  with  equal 
folly  and  obstinacy,  although  with  frequent  inter- 
ruptions and  negociatioiis,  occasioned  continual 
levies  of  men,  who  for  the  most  part  perished 
miserably  in  captivity,  and  new  taxes  extremely 
oppressive,  the  weight  of  which  was  felt  the  more 
severely  as  they  were  mostly  levied  in  money,  in 
order  that  their  produce  might  be  transmitted  to 
Denmark.  Every  town  and  mine-district  was  held 
responsible  for  a  certain  amount  which  the  autho- 
rities did  not  blush  to  extort  by  means  the  most 
violent  and  inhuman.  Notwithstanding  the  depre- 
ciation of  the  coins  to  which  the  king  had  recourse, 
these  were  so  rare,  that  the  property  of  the  tax- 
payers was  often  taken  in  pledge  for  a  small  part  of 
its  real  value.  Justice  was  no  longer  administered  ; 
not  only  the  provincial  diets  and  courts  of  inquisi- 
tion had  fallen  into  disuse,  but  the  ordinary 
judicial  offices  were  either  left  tenantless,  or  filled 
by  foreigners  for  the  sake- of  the  emoluments  ;  and 
"  such  right  as  they  have  had  therewith,  such  also 
have  they  shown  to  us,"  the  peasants  complain  '. 
AH   affairs  were  left  to   the  management  of  the 

f'  The  Holsteiners  admitted  the  right  of  the  king  of  Den- 
mark to  feudal  superiority  over  Sleswick,  but  claimed  the 
territory  as  a  hereditary  fief,  which  the  latter  refused,  aiming 
at  the  possession  of  the  duchy.  The  contest  began  after  the 
death  of  Gerard  of  Holstein  in  1404,  respecting  the  guardian- 
ship of  his  children,  and  did  not  end  before  14S5,  when  the 
king  was  compelled  by  the  expenses  which  it  entailed  to 
make  a  treaty  with  Adolphus,  count  of  Holstein,  in  which, 
however,  the  matter  in  dispute  remained  undetermined,  in 
the  same  year  peace  was  made  with  the  Vendish  towns 
Hamburg,  Lunehurg,  and  Wismar,  which  in  the  nine  last 
years  had  taken  part  with  Holstein. 

9  Seethe  remonstrances  of  the  Swedish  peasants  in  Hvit- 
I'eld's  Danish  Chronicle,  Copenhagen,  1652,  iii.  781. 


A.  D 

1434 


:} 


Rising  of  Engelbert. 


ERIC  OF  POMERANIA. 


His  meeting  with  the 
council. 


f.3 


foreign  governors,  whose  cliaraeter  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that,  among  the  commanders  of  the 
Swedish  castles,  were  found  four  of  the  most  noto- 
rious pirates  of  that  day.  In  tliis  trade,  one  of 
Erie's  own  chaplains ',  even  when  archbishop 
of  Upsala,  was  shameless  enough  to  participate.  A 
Danish  nobleman,  Josse  Ericson,  born  in  Jutland, 
and  for  many  years  royal  governor  of  Westman- 
land  and  Dalecarlia,  is  charged  with  having  tor- 
tured the  peasants  by  hanging  them  up  in  smoke, 
and  with  having  yoked  pregnant  women  to  hay 
waggons.  An  old  Swedish  ballad  relates  similar 
cruelties  of  the  tyrannical  feudatory  of  Fascaholm 
in  Helsingland. 

Not  far  from  the  Kopparberg,  in  Dalecarlia, 
there  dwelt  at  this  time  a  miner,  by  name  Engel- 
bert Engelbertson  2,  a  man  of  great  spirit  though 
of  slight  frame,  having  such  skill  in  war  as  might 
be  learned  by  one  who  had  passed  his  youth  in  the 
households  of  great  barons,  eloquent  and  brave. 
This  person  undertook  to  lay  before  king  Eric  the 
grievances  of  the  Dalecarlians,  and  repaired  to 
Denmark,  where  he  preferred  a  demand  for  justice 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  governor,  engaging  to 
deliver  himself  up  for  imprisonment,  and  to  stake 
his  life  against  that  of  the  accused,  in  case  the 
latter  should  be  found  innocent.  A  royal  mandate 
was  sent  to  the  Swedish  council,  agreeably  to 
which  an  investigation  was  instituted,  proving  the 
charges  to  be  well-founded  ;  but  as  the  council 
confined  themselves  to  admonitions,  and  the  gover- 
nor would  not  consent  to  relinquish  his  office, 
Engelbert  lost  no  time  in  again  repairing  to  the 
king,  before  whom  he  urged  the  punishment  of 
the  offender  with  such  boldness,  that  Eric  in 
wrath  commanded  him  to  be  gone,  and  never  again 
to  appear  in  liis  presence.  Engelbert  replied, 
"  Yet  once  more  will  I  return."  The  men  of  his 
province  chose  him  for  their  leader,  and  he  marched 
with  them  against  Westeras,  which  was  held  by 
Jiisse  Ericson.  The  council  indeed  interposed  its 
mediation,  and  twice  induced  the  Dalecarlians  to 
return  home.  But  the  governor  continuing  with 
impunity  to  enforce  the  paj-ment  of  his  contribu- 
tions, and  his  place,  when  at  length  he  was  removed, 
being  filled  uj)  by  a  foreigner,  who  was  regarded 
with  dread,  all  the  Dalesmen  rose  upon  Midsum- 
mer's Day  of  1434,  it  is  said,  "  like  one  man,  and 
swore  to  drive  the  strangers  out  of  the  land."  The 
castle  of  Borganas,  lying  upon  an  island  in  the  Dal- 
elf,  was  stormed  and  burned  to  the  ground.  The 
Dalecarlians  next  invaded  Westmanland,  the  pea- 
sants of  which  province  joined  tlie  insurgent  force. 
Westeras  speedily  surrendered,  and  thither  Engel- 
bert summoned  the  surrounding  nobility,  calling 
upon  them  to  give  their  aid,  and  warning  them  that 
if  they  refused,  they  must  look  themselves  to  the 
security  of  their  lives  and  properties.  They  pi-o- 
mised  fidelity  to  him  and  to  the  popular  cause. 

•  Arendt  Clemens.  "  A  worse  knave  was  no  priest  of  that 
day,"  says  the  Rhyme  Chronicle.  A  former  archbishop,  John 
Jerechini,  a  foreigner  Uke  the  other,  and  like  him  thrust 
upon  the  chapter,  was  deposed  for  his  many  notorious  vices, 
and  thereafter  appointed  to  the  bishopric  of  Skalholt  in  Ice- 
land. Here,  after  new  enormities,  the  peasants  tied  a  large 
stone  about  liis  neck,  and  drowned  him  in  the  Bruar  stream. 

2  Ingenuus  seu  libertus,  Eric  Olaveson  styles  him,  which 
in  tliat  writer's  phraseology  means  a  fraelsemaii  or  franklin. 
(I  use  the  English  form  instead  of  the  Swedish  Eugelbrekt. 
Bergsinan  may  be  rendered  either  miner  or  mountaineer, 


At  Upsala,  the  Uplanders  came  to  join  his  ban- 
ner. Here,  in  an  immense  assembly  of  the  people, 
he  explained  the  occasion  and  the  object  of  his 
enterprise,  tlie  people  answering  with  blessings. 
Speaking  so  loudly  that  his  voice  was  heard 
throughout  the  whole  multitude,  he  asked  them 
whether  they  would  assist  him  in  his  endeavours  to 
liberate  the  realm  from  the  slavery  in  which  it  was 
held.  Every  man  declared  himself  willing  to  follow 
his  bannei'.  With  the  assent  of  the  nobles  who 
were  present,  Engelbert  now  remitted  a  third  part 
of  the  imposts.  His  letters  and  messengers 
traversed  every  district  of  the  country.  The 
NoiTlanders  and  East  Bothnians  took  up  arms 
under  Eric  Puk^ ;  the  Sudermanians  stormed 
Gripsholm,  whose  detested  governor  took  to  flight, 
and  himself  set  the  castle  on  fire.  For  the  town  of 
Stockholm,  a  truce  was  concluded  with  the  knight 
Hans  Cropelin,  the  only  one  of  the  foreign  com- 
manders who  was  esteemed  for  his  justness  and 
mildness  towards  the  people.  A  convention  was 
entered  into  with  the  governors  of  Nykoping  and 
Orebro,  by  which  these  towns  were  to  be  sur- 
rendered if  not  relieved  within  six  weeks.  In 
Vermeland  and  Dalecarlia,  the  castles  of  the  gover- 
nors were  razed  to  the  ground  by  the  peasants.  At 
Vadstena,  Engelbert,  on  his  way  to  the  southern 
division  of  the  kingdom,  met  the  Swedish  council 
which  was  returning  from  Denmark.  He  exhorted 
them  to  join  liim  in  restoring  the  ancient  rights 
and  liberties  of  the  kingdom  ;  since  the  times  of 
the  last  king  Magnus ',  he  told  them  Sweden  had 
been  ruled  by  tyrants,  not  kings.  The  council  ap- 
pealed to  the  oath  they  had  taken  to  the  sovereign, 
but  he,  Engelbert  replied,  had  broken   his  oath. 

"  They  said  him  nay,  nor  stirred  a  jot, 
But  swift  he  caught  them  by  the  throat," 

and  threatened  the  bishops  who  acted  as  their 
spokesmen,  that  he  would  cast  them  out  among  the 
people  *.  The  council  now  showed  themselves  in- 
clined to  be  pliable.  An  absolute  renunciation  of 
fealty  and  allegiance  to  king  Eric  was  subscribed 
upon  the  spot,  and  immediately  despatched  by 
Engelbert  to  Denmark.  He  now  divided  his 
forces  into  three  companies,  and  marched  south- 
wards, but  not  before  he  had  exhorted  the  Up- 
landers in  a  public  letter,  to  pay  true  service  and 
obedience  to  the  council  of  the  kingdom  at  Stock- 
holm, for  the  capital  had  in  the  mean  time  passed 
over  to  his  party.  The  style  he  adopted  in  this 
communication  was,  "  I  Engelbert  Engelbertson, 
with  all  my  coadjutors."  Throughout  all  the  j)ro- 
viuces,  the  people  took  up  arms  and  streamed  in 
troops  to  his  standard.  If  we  may  trust  an  ac- 
count of  later  times,  his  army  at  last  amounted  to  a 
hundred  thousand  men  ^.  More  than  twenty  strong- 
holds and  fortresses  in  all  quarters  of  the  kingdom 

and  there  are  authorities  for  both  designations.  See  Lager- 
bring,  iv.  74 ;  Tuneld,  Engclbrekt  Engelbrektson's  Histuria, 
p.  76.     T.) 

3  Magni  regis  ultinii.  Eric  Olaveson.  The  manuscripts 
used  for  the  edition  of  the  Chronicle  of  Olave  Peterson  in  the 
Script.  Rer.  Suec.  have  Magnus  Smek  (not  Magnus  Ladulas). 

•*  The  Rhyme  Chronicle,  which  adds,  "  tlien  he  first 
grasped  Bishop  Canute  (of  Linkbping),  and  was  about  to 
drag  him  out  to  the  people  ;  Bishop  Sigge  of  Skara  he  made 
as  if  he  would  treat  likewise  ;  Bishop  Thomas  of  Strengnas 
was  in  trouble  too,"  &c.     Script.  Rer,  Suec.  i.  32,  p.  70.     T. 

'  Joannes  Magnus. 


64 


Engelbert's  success. 
His  administration. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Assassination  of 
Engelbert. 


{ 


A.  D. 


were  taken  and  destroyed,  and  the  more  easily, 
that  wood  was  the  material  of  which  many  were 
constructed.  Everywliere  the  foreign  prefects 
were  expelled,  though  none  fell  a  victim  to  the 
popular  vengeance,  e.Kcepting  Josse  Ericson,  who 
remained  for  some  time  concealed  in  the  monastery 
of  Vadstena.  Two  years  after  these  occurrences, 
the  peasants  dragged  him  from  his  retreat  and  put 
him  to  death,  an  outrage  for  which  they  were 
obliged  to  pay  a  large  fine  to  the  convent  '^.  The 
property  of  the  crown  was  plundered,  but  the 
effects  of  individuals  were  left  unmolested,  and  we 
have  the  evidence  of  a  current  proverb,  that  no 
man  lost  so  much  as  the  value  of  a  fowl  by  Engel- 
bert and  his  army.  All  this  passed  with  incredible 
quickness.  On  the  16th  of  Augnst,  1434,  the 
letter  of  renunciation  to  the  king  was  drawn  up  in 
Vadstena.  Before  the  end  of  October,  the  greater 
number  of  the  castles  and  fortified  places  in  the 
kingdom  had  been  seized  ;  Halland  besides  was 
wrested  from  the  Danes,  Engelbert  returned  to 
Westeras,  and  the  peasant  army  dismissed  to  their 
homes. 

In  November  the  king  came  for  a  short  time  to 
Stockholm  ;  which  occasioned  the  issue  of  a  new 
summons  to  the  peasants  to  march  towards  the 
capital,  and  the  holding  of  a  diet  at  Arboga  in  the 
opening  of  the  year  1 435,  by  which  Engelbert  was 
unanimously  chosen  administrator.  From  this 
moment  the  magnates  gradually  fell  into  the  ranks 
of  the  royalist  party.  Their  differences  with  the 
king  were  adjusted  by  a  treaty  which,  first  con- 
certed in  Halmstad,  and  afterwards  guaranteed  by 
the  councillors  of  Denmark  and  Norway,  was  rati- 
fied by  the  king  in  person  upon  his  return  to  Stock- 
holm in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year.  The  high 
offices  of  steward  and  marshal  of  Sweden  were  to 
be  restored,  the  taxes  determined  by  the  consent  of 
the  council,  and  judges  again  appointed  throughout 
the  country  ;  the  castles  which  had  not  been  burned 
down  were  to  be  delivered  up  to  the  king,  and  all 
of  them,  with  the  exception  of  Stockholm,  Nykoeping, 
and  Calmar,  placed  under  the  charge  of  native  go- 
vernors. Orebro  was  to  be  granted  m  fief  to  Engel- 
bert, and  Halland  to  be  restored  to  Denmark. 
Christer  Nilson  Vasa,  an  aged  noble,  was  nominated 
high  steward,  Charles  Canuteson  Bond^,  the  most 
brilliant  of  the  young  nobles  of  Sweden,  was  made 
high  marshal.  When  the  latter  requested  instruc- 
tions for  the  discharge  of  his  functions,  the  king 
bade  him  be  guided  by  the  proverb,  "  not  to  stretch 
the  feet  further  than  the  coverlet  reached  ;"  his  an- 
swer to  the  representations  addressed  to  him  by  the 
council  was,  that  "  he  would  not  be  their  yea-lord." 
On  his  return  he  himself  plundered  the  Swedish 
coasts,  and  among  his  new  governors  we  find  men 
who  obtained  a  bad  distinction  by  their  Lidiuman- 
ities  ^. 

Engelbert  and  Charles  Canuteson  now  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  town  of  Stockholm, 
although  the  Danish  govei'uor  still  held  the  castle. 
At  the  election  of  a  new  administrator,  instituted  by 
thirty  barons,  Charles  Canuteson  obtained  nearly 
all  the  votes.     Neither  Engelbert  nor  Puk^  con- 

"  Diary  of  Vadstena  under  the  year  1430,  where  it  is  said 
that  this  oppressor  was  "  a  special  friend  of  the  monastery, 
and  conferred  a  great  bequest." 

7  See  the  account  in  the  Rhyme  Chronicle  of  the  new 
governor  of  Stegeborg. 


cealed  their  discontent,  and  the  murmurs  of  the 
yeomanry  were  so  loud  that  Charles  Canuteson 
found  himself  obliged  to  consent  to  a  division  of 
power  with  the  former.  Engelbert,  in  an  expe 
dition  towards  the  Danish  frontier,  checked  the 
tyranny  of  the  new  governors,  once  more  reduced 
Halland,  and  falling  sick  returned  to  Orebro. 
In  the  neighbourhood  of  this  town  dwelt  Bennet 
Stenson  *,  a  powerful  noble,  and  a  partisan  of  King 
Eric  '.  Being  at  open  feud  with  Engelbert,  he  re- 
quested and  obtained  a  safe-conduct  to  hold  an  in- 
terview, at  which  an  agreement  was  made,  guaran- 
teed by  mutual  sureties,  that  they  should  commit 
their  disputes  to  award  of  the  council,  and  in  the 
mean  time  live  at  peace  with  each  other.  Engel- 
bert now  welcomed  his  enemy  as  his  guest,  and 
being  called  to  Stockholm  by  the  council,  deter- 
mined, it  is  said,  at  his  proposal,  to  cross  lake 
Hielmar  on  his  route,  the  rather  that  the  debility 
which  still  clung  to  him  made  travelling  on  horse- 
back painful.  In  the  evening,  accordingly,  Engel- 
bert, his  wife,  and  only  a  few  attendants  were  con- 
veyed in  two  boats  for  a  distance  of  a  mile  and 
a  half,  to  an  island  over  against  Bennet  Stenson's 
castle  of  Goksholm,  and  lying  no  great  way  from 
it '.  Here  Engelbert  intended  to  pass  the  night, 
and  caused  a  fire  to  be  kindled,  the  cold,  at  the  end 
of  April,  being  still  severe.  Another  boat  ap- 
proached the  island,  and  Engelbert,  who  on  seeing 
it,  believed  that  it  brought  hospitable  invitation  to 
Goksholm,  called  the  attention  of  his  companions  to 
the  circumstance,  as  a  proof  of  the  good  will  of  its 
owner.  He  beckoned  to  the  new  comers  with  his 
crutch,  pointing  out  a  proper  landing-place.  Sud- 
denly Magnus,  son  of  his  new  pretended  friend, 
sprang  out  of  the  boat,  and  vehemently  demanded 
whether  he  was  to  have  no  peace  in  the  land  on  his 
account.  Upon  Engelbert  replying  that  he  knew  of  no 
unpeace  betwixt  them,  Magnus  Bennetson  aimed 
at  him  a  blow  of  his  poleaxe,  which,  though  the  sick 
man  tried  to  parry  it  with  his  crutch,  wounded  him 
in  the  hand.  Repeated  blows  on  the  neck  and  head 
brought  Engelbert  to  the  ground.  The  murderer, 
with  the  frenzy  of  a  wild  beast,  beat  in  pieces  the 
head  of  his  victim,  stuck  the  body  full  of  arrows, 
and  left  him  weltering  in  his  blood,  carrying  his 
wife  and  companions  prisoners  to  the  castle.  This 
happened  on  the  27th  of  April,  1436.  Peasants 
who  dwelt  near  the  spot  took  up  Engelbert's  body, 
and  interred  it  in  the  church  of  Mallosa,  whence  it 
was  afterwards  carried  to  Orebro.  The  strong 
castle  of  Goksholm  was  stormed  by  an  exasperated 
force  of  the  neighbouring  yeomen,  but  the  object  of 
their  pursuit  eluded  them,  and  a  letter  of  protection 
was  issued  by  Charles  Canuteson,  the  new  adminis- 
trator, forbidding  any  one  to  presume  to  molest  the 
criminal,  or  to  reproach  him  with  the  deed.  Thus 
died  Engelbert,  who  is  said  in  a  contemporary  nar- 
rative "  to  have  ruled  over  Sweden  for  three  yeare." 
The  powerful  barons  generally  opposed  liim,  but 
some  of  the  noblest  among  them  loved  and  honoured 
him.  The  valiant  Broder  Swenson  was  his  brother 
in  arms,  and  Thomas,  bishop  of  Strengnas,  lamented 
his  death  in  verses  which  move  our  sympathies  even 
at  the  present  day.     Engelbert's  memory  was  kept 

f'  Of  the  family  of  Natt  och  Dag  (nit;ht  and  day). 
'■>  Hence  he  was  one  of  those  whom  the  king  intended  to 
nominate  to  the  office  of  steward. 
1  It  is  still  called  Engelbert's  Holm. 


A.  D. 

H36— 42 


} 


Charles  Caniiteson's 
administration 


CHRISTOPHER  OF  BAVARIA. 


Oscillations  of 
parties. 


65 


sacred  by  the  people,  as  that  of  one  who  had  died  a 
martyr  to  the  freedom  of  his  country,  and  they 
believed  that  miracles  were  wrought  at  his  tomb  ^. 

One  who  now  sought  to  curb  these  j>o])ular  move- 
ments had  more  than  any  other  man  reaped  advan- 
tage from  them;  this  was  Charles  Canuteson  Bond^. 
In  the  means  he  employed,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was 
far  from  being  scrupulous,  but  even  after  the  death 
of  Engelbert  he  was  not  undisturbed  by  compe- 
titors, who  leant  for  support  on  the  aristocratic  in- 
terest, or  popular  favour,  or  upon  both.  Broder 
Swenson,  a  baron  and  councillor  of  state,  discon- 
tented at  being  passed  over  in  the  distribution  of 
the  fiefs,  now  that  all  the  castles  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  administrator,  excited  an  opposition  to 
his  measures  at  the  baronial  diet  of  Sdderkoping  in 
1436  ;  he  was  arrested,  and  early  on  the  following 
morning  his  body  was  found,  after  the  executioner 
had  dealt  with  him.  The  fierce  and  turbulent 
Eric  Puk^,  who  was  all  powerful  with  the  peasants, 
pex'secuted  the  new  regent  with  threats,  plots, 
popular  disturbances,  and  declarations  of  war,  all 
of  which  Charles  Canuteson  bore  with  for  a  long 
time  ;  but  at  length,  during  a  conference  for  the 
settlement  of  their  differences,  held  at  Westeras  in 
1437,  lie  treacherously  seized  upon  his  im fortunate 
rival,  and  caused  his  head  to  be  struck  off.  The 
steward  Christer  Nilson,  an  old  intriguer,  accus- 
tomed to  style  the  guardian,  whose  kinsman  he  was, 
his  dear  son,  and  to  be  called  in  return  father,  now 
covertly  incited  the  Dalecarlians  and  Vermelanders 
to  fresh  conmiotions,  and  confederated  with  Nils 
Stenson,  brother-in-law  of  Charles,  whom  Eric  had 
lately  nominated  to  the  dignity  of  marshal,  for  the 
recall  of  the  king.  This  revolt  was  however  sup- 
pressed in  1438  ;  in  the  year  following,  the  steward, 
unsuspicious  of  danger,  was  surprised  at  his  house, 
and  carried  to  his  fief,  the  castle  of  Wiborg  in  Fin- 
laud,  while  the  new  marshal  fled  with  the  king  back 
to  Gottland  ^,  where  Eric,  in  the  society  of  his  con- 
cubine, and  the  pirates  whose  booty  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  share,  consoled  himself  for  the  loss  of 
three  kingdoms. 

From  1434,  the  year  of  Engelbert's  rising,  until 
the  close  of  even  Eric's  nominal  reign,  we  may 
observe  within  five  years,  no  fewer  than  ten 
different  associations,  guarantees,  covenants,  and 
confederacies,  without  reckoning  those  in  which  the 
Swedish  council  alone  was  concerned,  formed  some- 
times under  the  mediation  of  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way, sometimes  under  that  of  the  Hanse  towns,  all 
relating  to  the  conditions  on  which  the  king's  re- 
admission  might  be  acceded  to.  This  is  a  species 
of  diplomacy,  which  might  not  improperly  be 
denominated  the  pastime  of  the  Union  age, — per- 
petual congresses,  appointed,  deferred,  again  re- 
newed, exhibiting  at  once  the  weakness  of  the 
bonds  by  which  the  confederation  was  held  together 
(although  it  was  solemnly  renewed  at  Calniar  in 
1438),  the  interest  of  the  magnates  in  maintaining 
it,  and  the  policy  followed  by  all  the  Swedish  party 
leaders  from  the  time  of  Charles  Canuteson,  of 
labouring  for  their  own  aggrandizement  to  all 
practicable  lengths,  shielding  themselves  in  case  of 
necessity  behind  the  convenient  screen  of  the 
federal  royalty.       For  this  purpose  Eric  served  as 

2  Plurimis  coniscat  miraciilis.     Diarium  Vadstenense. 

3  In  a  new  descent  upon  Sweden  from  (Jottland,  Nils 
Stenson  was  made  prisoner,  and  died  of  the  plague,  which 


well  as  any  other  prince,  and  therefore  his  followers 
did  not  desert  him  until  he  had  deserted  himself. 
Denmark  and  Sweden  finally  renounced  fealty  and 
obedience  to  him  for  ever  in  1439  ;  the  Norsemen 
attempted  during  the  same  year  an  invasion  of 
Sweden  in  his  behalf,  but  were  repulsed,  and 
offered  no  further  hindrance.  Eric  passed  ten 
years  in  Gottland  in  the  shamefid  pursuit  of  piracy, 
in  allusion  to  which  our  annalists  record  a  satirical 
saying  of  his  nephew  and  successor,  "  My  uncle 
must  live."  Eventually  he  repaired  to  his  native 
country  Pomerania,  and  died  in  his  seventy-fourth 
year  at  Riigenwald,  in  1459. 

Christopher  of  Bavaria,  son  of  John,  duke  of  the 
Upper  Palatinate,  by  Eric's  sister  Catherine,  had 
been  called  to  the  crown,  in  1 438,  by  the  Danish 
council.  Eric  had  made  vain  endeavours  to  secure 
the  succession  for  his  cousin-german  Bogislaus, 
duke  of  Pomerania,  accompanied  by  promises  of 
privileges  to  the  common  people,  which  occa- 
sioned a  sanguinary  rising  against  the  nobility  in 
Zealand  and  Jutland,  so  that  the  Danish  peasants 
took  up  arms  for  this  king  after  those  of  Sweden 
had  expelled  him.  Christopher,  who  at  first  as- 
sumed only  the  title  of  guardian,  immediately 
opened  negociations  with  the  Swedish  and  Nor- 
wegian councils.  In  Sweden,  the  movements  of 
party  fluctuated  in  their  tendencies.  At  a  con- 
gi'ess  of  Danish  and  Swedish  plenipotentiaries  held 
in  Jenkoping  in  the  autumn  of  1439,  it  was  decided 
to  adhere  to  the  Union  of  Calmar.  Upon  this  occa- 
sion the  clergy,  ever  conspii-uous  for  their  zeal  in 
support  of  that  settlement,  declared  their  attach- 
ment to  Christopher.  In  a  baronial  diet  at  Arboga, 
which  met  in  the  beginning  of  1440,  it  was  resolved, 
that  a  foreigner  should  never  again  be  called  to 
the  Swedish  throne  ;  and  at  the  elective  diet  on 
the  4th  October,  of  the  same  year,  Christopher  of 
Bavaria  was  chosen,  after  a  private  negociation 
with  Charles  Canuteson  had  assured  to  the  latter 
the  possession  of  all  that  he  calculated  upon  being 
able  to  gain  for  the  present.  He  obtained  the  in- 
fetidation  of  Finland  ;  Oeland  was  assigned  to  him 
in  pledge  of  the  satisfaction  of  his  claims,  and  he 
was  absolved  from  all  responsibility  on  account  of 
his  administration.  For  Charles,  this  was  but  the 
l)ostponement  of  the  crown,  not  its  perdition.  Mean- 
while it  was  generally  rumoured,  that  a  nun  of 
great  reputation  for  sanctity  had  foretold  to  him 
that  he  should  yet  be  its  wearer,  and  in  the 
church  of  Vadstena  a  child  had  seen  the  diadem 
glistening  on  his  head.  On  the  royal  entry  into 
Stockholm,  the  people  observed  that  the  lofty 
stature  of  the  marshal  overtopped  the  king,  a 
short,  corpulent  man,  who  walked  ami  in  arm  with 
him,  and  the  general  cry  was,  ''  the  marshal  is 
comelier,  and  more  worthy  to  wear  the  crowns  ; 
woe  to  those  who  have  ordered  it  thus  *."  Norway 
still  hesitated.  Here  Eric  had  succeeded  in  pro- 
curing the  hereditary  kingship  ;  an  object  which 
he  had  vainly  striven  for  in  his  other  dominions. 
Hence  the  Norsemen  took  up  arms  for  a  short 
time  on  his  deposition,  but  in  1442,  Christopher  also 
received  the  homage  and  crown  of  Norway. 

For  his  Swedish  throne  this  king  was  so  essen- 
tially indebted  to  the   bishops,  that   the  diary  of 


in  1439  is  said  to  have  raged  over  all  Sweden, 
loca  Christianitatis."     Diary  of  Vadstena. 
■*  The  Ilhvnie  Chronicle. 

F 


'  et  diversa 


60 


Cliarles  Canuteson  higli  stewai-d. 
Jealousies  of  the  Magnates. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Design  to  surprise  Lubeck. 
Death  of  the  king. 


A.  D. 

1442—48. 


Vadstena  observes  upon  Iiis  election  ;  "  it  took 
place  conformably  to  the  will  of  the  prelates — God 
grant,  of  heaven."  At  his  coronation  and  during 
his  Eric's-gait,  he  showed  dispositions  so  favourable 
to  the  clergy,  that  these  now  gave  their  consent  to 
a  measure  which  for  a  hundred  years  they  had  ob- 
structed, the  adoption  of  the  general  land's-law. 
This  code  accordingly  received  the  royal  sanction 
on  the  second  of  May,  1442,  with  reservation  of  the 
inviolability  of  privileges,  both  clerical  and  laical. 
The  archbishop  of  Upsala,  Nils  Ragwaldson,  for- 
merly known  as  the  representative  of  the  Swedish 
church  at  the  council  of  Basle,  in  1434,  obtained 
possession  in  perpetuity  of  the  castle  of  Stacket, 
built  and  fortified  by  him,  which  was  to  attain 
mournful  celebrity  from  its  position  during  future 
internal  commotions.  At  his  visit  to  the  monastery 
of  Vadstena,  the  king,  although  his  parade  of  devo- 
tion harmonized  ill  with  his  jovial  temperament 
and  the  laxity  of  his  manners,  caused  himself  to  be 
admitted  into  the  holy  brotherhood,  which  now  in- 
stituted the  first  trial  for  heresy  that  Sweden  had 
yet  seen.  A  simple  peasant,  who  styled  himself 
the  ambassador  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  had  declared 
before  the  monks  various  opinions,  some  of  them 
relating  to  the  life  of  the  cloister,  which  occasioned 
an  inquiry  into  the  circumstances  and  the  imprison- 
ment of  the  accused,  until,  weakened  by  long  fast- 
ing, he  renounced  his  errors.  His  ptiblic  recanta- 
tion was  solemnized  by  a  procession  in  which  the 
sinner,  naked  to  the  middle,  carried  a  burning 
torch  in  his  hand  and  a  bundle  of  wood  upon  his 
back,  thereby  consigning  himself  to  the  flames  if 
he  should  relapse  into  heresy. 

Charles  Canuteson,  whom  the  king  at  first  gra- 
tified with  the  appellation  of  fathei",  the  honour  of 
knighthood,  and  the  office  of  high  steward,  at  the 
same  time  confirming  and  augmenting  the  fiefs 
which  he  held,  soon  found  himself  superfluous  at 
court.  Among  his  many  and  powerful  foes  the 
first  to  move  against  him  was  Christer  Nilson,  the 
old  steward,  who,  returned  from  exile,  was  loud  in 
his  complaints  of  the  wrongs  he  had  sutt'ered.  To 
him  and  his  heirs,  Charles  was  compelled  to  re- 
linquish a  portion  of  Finland.  Shortly  afterwards 
he  was  summoned  by  the  king  to  Stockholm,  and 
though  he  repaired  thither  with  ten  ships  and  five 
hundred  knights  and  squires,  Abo,  Tavasteborg, 
Oeland,  and  Swartsio,  were  demanded  from  him  ; 
and  he  was  obliged  in  effect  to  surrender  the  first 
named  place,  for  which  he  received  VViboi-g,  now 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Christer  Nilson.  Hasten- 
ing to  escape  from  the  load  of  charges  now  poured 
upon  him,  he  was  forced  to  see  himself  excluded 
from  the  government  to  which  the  king,  upon  his 
own  departure,  committed  affairs.  This  was  com- 
posed of  Swedish  barons,  who  were  for  the  most 
part  enemies  of  Charles  ;  foreign  governors  were 
now  no  longer  appointed,  and  in  the  only  case  in 
which  an  attempt  was  made  to  place  fiefs  in  the 
possession  of  a  foreigner,  the  king  is  said  to  have 
abandoned  it  upon  remonstrance  being  made  *.  On 
the  other  hand  the  eagerness  of  the  Swedish  mag- 
nates to  obtain  them  was  sliarpened,  and  the  king 
availed  himself  of  their  rivalry,  to  excite  jealousies 

>  Hvitfeld. 

"  Ita  ut  infra  unius  anni  circulum  octo  vel  decern  unum 
feodum  taliter  coniparasseiit.  Adeo  autem  eraiit  Sueci  sua 
anibitione  et  mutua  invidia  e.xca'cati.     Ericus  Olai. 


among  them,  and  to  jn'ocure  mc^ney  for  his  own 
purposes,  for  the  fiefs  were  sold  in  his  chancery  to 
every  one  who  would  pay  the  price  of  them,  and 
the  same  often  to  several  persons  ''.  At  this  tinie 
the  country  was  afflicted  by  scarcity  and  famine  ; 
and  when  the  king,  in  1446,  again  visited  Sweden, 
accompanied  by  Ins  yoiuig  bride  Dorothea  of 
Brandenburg ',  complaints  were  raised  that  every 
day  five  loads  of  corn  were  used  for  the  horses  of 
the  royal  household,  while  the  common  people  were 
obliged  to  eat  bark.  Hence  the  peasants  styled 
Christopher  the  bark-king,  and  called  to  mind  the 
government  of  Charles  Canuteson,  with  longing 
wishes  for  the  return  of  those  good  times. 

At  a  baronial  diet  in  Stockholm,  to  which 
Charles  was  summoned  from  Finland,  a  convention 
was  formed  with  the  Livonian  knights  for  a  joint 
assault  upon  Novogorod,  and  the  Swedes  are  said 
also  to  have  subsequently  participated  in  an  irrup- 
tion across  the  Russian  frontier  *.  An  expedition 
against  Gottland  was  at  the  same  time  determined 
upon,  as  the  pirates  commissioned  by  the  old  king 
continued  from  that  station  to  annoy  the  coasts  and 
trade  of  Sweden.  Nothing  more  came  of  this  pro- 
ject, however,  than  a  peaceful  visit  of  Christopher 
to  his  uncle,  which  in  Sweden  was  regarded  as 
barren  of  good  results,  and  ended  on  the  return 
voyage  in  a  shipwreck,  by  which  the  king  lost  all 
that  he  had  amassed  during  his  stay  in  Sweden. 
In  general  the  king  resoi-ted  to  every  possible  ex- 
pedient to  procure  money  ;  in  1446  he  caused  a 
number  of  English  and  Dutch  ships  passmg  through 
the  Sound  to  be  brought  in  as  prizes,  and  their 
cargoes  to  be  sold.  An  enterprise  of  magnitude 
was  planned  by  the  king  at  this  period.  Drawing  to- 
gether a  considerable  force,  he  appeared  with  a 
fleet  before  the  Venedic  seapoi'ts,  demanding  a  free 
passage  through  their  territory  for  himself  and  his 
followers,  upon  pretence  of  a  pilgrimage  to  Wils- 
nach,  in  Brandenburg.  Rostock  is  said  to  have 
consented,  Wismar  and  Straisund  to  have  refused 
compliance.  The  real  design  was  to  surprise 
Lubeck,  to  which  place  meanwhile  several  German 
princes,  secretly  confederated  with  Christopher,  had 
repaired,  as  if  on  a  friendly  visit,  carrying  with 
them  a  supply  of  arms  concealed  in  wine  casks.  A 
conflagration,  which  broke  out  during  the  night,  was 
mistaken  by  them  for  the  expected  signal  of  assault, 
and  hastening  to  take  arms,  they  were  discovered 
by  the  citizens  and  expelled  from  the  town.  Chris- 
topher now  desisted  from  his  abortive  attempt  and 
repaired  to  Sweden,  having  appointed  to  meet  the 
council  at  Jenkoping.  He  fell  sick  on  the  journey 
at  Helsingborg,  and  died  on  the  5tli  January, 
1448,  of  an  imposthume,  according  to  the  RhvTne 
Chronicle,  which,  in  common  with  every  other 
domestic  authority,  knows  nothing  of  the  Palatine 
account  making  him  to  have  been  poisoned. 
Upon  his  death-bed  ho  is  said  to  have  declared 
that  his  treasury  had  only  been  filled  by  him  in 
the  intent  to  annex  Lubeck  to  the  Danish  domin- 
ions. He  left  no  heirs.  In  Sweden  he  was 
lamented,  we  are  told,  by  no  one  except  Archbishop 
Nils,  who  on  hearing  the  news  of  his  death  slied 
tears,  and  a  few  days  after  followed  him  to  the 


7  Daughter  of  Margrave  John,  tlie  alchyniist,  married  in 
Copenhagen,  1445. 

8  In  1448.  Karamsin. 


A. 

ma 


L.    D.        J 

a- 50.  J 


A  new  election. 
Attempt  on  Gottland. 


KING  CHARLES  CANUTESON. 


Wisby  burned. 
Loss  of  Norway. 


67 


Charles  Canuteson,  who  had  continued  to  reside 
at  the  castle  of  Wiborg,  remained  in  Finland  four 
months  after  receiving  intelligence  of  the  king's 
death.  With  followers  well  armed  and  equipped 
he  arrived,  May  3, 1449,  in  Stockholm,  whither  the 
bishops,  prelates,  knights  and  nobles,  with  the 
franklins,  and  the  deputies  of  the  peasants  and  the 
towns,  had  been  summoned  to  a  general  diet  ^. 
Prophecies  of  pereons  who  were  regarded  as  saints, 
by  which  Charles  was  designated  as  foredoomed  to 
wear  the  Swedish  crown,  were  again  bruited  about, 
and  the  circumstance  of  rain  falling  during  his  en- 
try into  the  town  was  deemed  by  the  people  a  pre- 
sage of  good,  inasmuch  as  the  kingdom  for  several 
years  previously  had  been  visited  by  contiinial 
drought.  Charles  took  up  his  quarters  with  his 
followers  in  the  body  of  the  town  ;  the  castle  was 
held  by  his  opponents,  the  brothers  Bennet  and 
Nils  Jonson  (Oxenstiema),  who  at  the  previous  diet 
of  Barons  at  Jenkoping  had  been  named  adminis- 
trators, and  had  held,  together  with  the  deceased 
archbishop,  the  chief  share  in  the  government 
during  the  time  of  king  Christopher.  To  the  vacant 
office  of  archbishop  was  named  the  young  Jens 
Bennetsou  Oxenstierna,  equally  with  his  father  and 
brother,  the  two  administrators,  the  enemy  of 
Charles.  This  powerful  family  is  accused  of  hav- 
ing aimed  at  the  crown,  a  purpose  however  which 
its  heads  soon  renounced,  in  order  to  bring  into 
play  against  the  authority  of  the  more  powerful 
Charles  the  usual  policy  of  the  Union.  Both  fac- 
tions provoked  one  another  from  the  castle  and 
from  the  town  by  the  interchange  of  contumelious 
epithets,  and  they  were  upon  the  point  of  pro- 
ceeding to  blows,  when  at  last  it  was  agreed  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  election  of  a  new  king,  which  however 
was  not  conducted  in  tlie  ancient  form  enjoined  by 
the  land's-law  ^.  Seventy  chosen  plenipotentiaries 
gave  their  votes  in  secret,  of  which  sixty-two  fell 
upon  Charles  ;  the  commonalty  added  their  assent 
by  acclamation.  After  the  usual  homage  had  been 
offered  at  the  Mora  Stone,  the  king's  coronation  was 
celebrated  at  TJpsala  on  the  29th  of  June  ;  and 
a  few  days  after  his  consort  Catharine '■'  was  crowned 
by  the  new  archbishop,  who  had  been  consecrated 
in  the  interval.  By  this  act  the  prelate  gave  a 
public  proof  that  he  acknowledged  the  new  order  of 
things,  although  his  recognition  had  been  tardy, 
artd  not  yielded  without  reluctance. 

The  tirst  object  to  which  the  new  sovereign's 
attention  was  directed,  was  an  expedition  against 
Gottland  and  the  old  king  Eric,  and  singularly 
enough,  he  conferred  the  command   on    Magnus 

'  Epispopi,  prfelati,  milites,  nobiles,  liberti,  ac  rusticorum 
et  civitalum  nuntii  speciales.     Ericus  Olai. 
'  Non  secundum  formam  legisterii.     Ibid. 
2  Af  alia  de  fruer  man  kan  leta, 
Skal  man  aldrig  skonare  quinna  weta. 

Of  all  dames  heart  can  wish,  I  ween, 

A  fairer  sure  was  never  seen. 

The  Rhyme  Chronicle. 
This  lady,  the  second  wife  of  Charles,  died  in  1450.  She 
was  (laughter  of  Charles  Ormson,  councillor  of  state,  of  Nor- 
wegian family,  mother  of  four  sons  and  five  daughters,  of 
whom  all  the  former  died  in  their  childhood,  and  of  the 
daughters,  Magdalene  was  married  to  Ivar  Axelson  Tott. 
Charles  Canuteson  was  first  wedded  to  Bridget,  daughter  of 
Thure  Bielke,  and  Christina,  the  offspring  of  this  marriage, 
espoused  Eric  Ericson  Gyllenstierna.  On  his  death-bed  the 
king  was  married  to  Christinn,  daughter  of  a  captain  in  the 
castle  of  Roseborg,  in  order  by  this  means  to  legitimate  the 


Gren,  an  ancient  foe  and  new  friend,  whose  good 
faith  was  more  than  suspected.  The  issue  was  as 
might  be  looked  for.  An  easy  reduction  of  the 
island  and  its  town  was  followed  by  a  long  truce, 
which  lasted  until  time  was  obtained  for  Eric  to 
surrender  the  castle,  and  for  Magnus  Gren  both 
the  island  and  the  Swedish  squadron,  to  the  Danes, 
who  under  the  command  of  king  Christian  himself, 
surprised  the  Swedish  garrison  of  Wisby  (by  trea- 
chery, as  an  old  Swedish  song  complains),  and  set 
the  town  on  fire. 

Thus  was  Gottland  won  and  lost,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  crown  of  Norway  also  disappeared.  Upon 
this  Charles  had  cast  eyes  of  hope,  the  more  confi- 
dently that  the  Norsemen  had  already  in  1441  con- 
cluded a  separate  alliance  with  Sweden  ^,  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  common  liberties  of  both  king- 
doms, and  now  showed  little  inclination  to  follow  in 
the  steps  of  the  Danes,  who  had  raised  Christian 
of  Oldenburg  to  the  throne  *.  The  archbishop  of 
Drontheini  with  .several  of  the  Norwegian  council 
and  the  mass  of  the  peasants^,  declared  for  Charles, 
who  was  chosen  king,  and  crowned  November  23, 
1449,  in  the  cathedral  of  the  town.  The  col- 
lective body  of  the  Norwegian  commonalty  both 
Noi'th  and  South  of  the  Dofre  mountains,  now  de- 
spatched a  letter  of  renunciation  to  Christian,  pur- 
poi'ting  that  they  would  acknowledge  neither  him 
nor  any  other  Dane  or  German  as  king  of  Norway, 
but  had  elected  Charles  to  be  their  sovereign,  see- 
ing that  Sweden  and  Norway,  which  two  kingdoms 
God  had  so  closely  joined  together,  had  from  of  old 
consorted  in  harmony  and  love.  Two  of  the  Nor- 
wegian council  were  named  to  manage  the  govern- 
ment, and  Charles  returned  home  by  way  of  Jem- 
teland. 

Energy  and  unanimity,  however,  sufficient  to 
maintain  what  thus  had  been  won  were  wanting, 
and  Christian's  party  speedily  attained  predomi- 
nance in  Norway,  although  the  people,  especially  in 
the  northern  portion  of  the  country,  to  the  last  re- 
mained faithful  in  the  cause  of  Charles.  A  vain 
attempt  to  besiege  Opslo  ",  which  had  admitted  a 
Danish  garrison,  is  all  that  is  related  to  have  been 
done  for  the  defence  of  the  Norwegian  crown  ;  and 
at  a  conference  held  in  Halmstad,  May  1,  1450, 
twelve  Swedish  and  Danish  barons,  specially  de- 
puted on  either  part,  resolved  that  thenceforward, 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  both  countries 
should  choose  one  common  sovereign.  Meanwhile 
the  plenipotentiaries  of  Charles  himself  renounced, 
on  their  own  impulsion,  and  under  the  strictest 
personal  responsibilities  in  case  the  stipulation  was 

son  he  had  by  her.  But  this  union,  to  which  the  council 
were  highly  averse,  was  never  recognized  as  valid,  and  the 
son  lived  and  died  in  obscurity.  Charles  Ormson  is  men- 
tioned in  1411  as  Norwegian  lieutenant  of  Jemteland,  and  con- 
tributed by  his  connections  to  the  king's  election  in  Norway. 

3  The  9th  February  and  24th  June,  1441.  See  Hadorph, 
Appendix  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle. 

■<  Son  of  Count  Frederic  of  Oldenburg,  and  born  in  1425. 
The  settlement  of  the  Danish  crown  upon  him  dates  from 
the  1st  September,  1448.  He  married  Dorothy  widow  of 
King  Christopher.  It  has  been  made  matter  of  dispute 
whether  the  election  of  king  took  place  earlier  in  Sweden  or 
Denmark;  but  according  to  Eric  Olaveson  that  of  Charles 
Canuteson  was  prior. 

5  See  the  ditferent  letters  of  the  commons  of  Norway  at 
FrostaTing,  in  Voss,  Hedemark,  the  Uplands,  and  Romerige, 
in  Hadorph,  ibid. 

^  Now  Christiania.     T. 

F  2 


G8 


Hostilities  with  Chiistiau 
of  Denmark. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Danish  incursion. 
Public  calamities. 


A.  D. 

'  1450—55. 


not  fulfilleil,  his  right  to  the  kingdom  of  Norway. 
By  a  secret  article  it  was  provided  that  the  ticf's 
should  thereafter  be  distributed  at  the  jileasure  of 
the  council,  that  a  security  for  the  ()erformance  of 
this  should  be  required  from  king  Charles  at  a  new 
congress  in  Calniar,  and  if  he  refused  to  confirm 
the  article,  that  the  council  should  declare  for  king 
Christian.  The  secret  was  divulged,  and  in  re- 
quital, Charles  deprived  several  of  the  barons  of 
their  fiefs  and  ofHees,  a  step  which  creates  less  sur- 
prise than  the  fact,  that  among  his  commissioners 
at  Hal'.nstad  should  again  be  found  the  same  indi- 
vidual who  had  betrayed  his  cause  in  Gottland,  and 
wlio  now  publicly  passed  over  to  the  Danish  party, 
while  the  rest  were  again  seemingly  reconciled  to 
Charles.  The  new  congress  at  Calmar,  at  which 
Charles  appealed  to  the  pope,  expired  without  re- 
sults. It  appeared  no  longer  doubtful  that  the 
quarrel  between  himself  and  his  competitor  could 
only  be  adjusted  by  arms,  and  hostilities  liad  already 
been  begun  in  the  name  of  king  Christian  against 
Vermeland  and  East-Gothland. 

In  the  opening  of  1452,  Charles  caused  an  army 
to  be  assembled  on  the  Scanian  frontier,  "  greater 
than  had  ever  beiore  been  known  to  be  raised  in 
Sweden',"  says  the  Rhyme-Chronicle,  which  de- 
scribes with  complacency  the  declaration  of  war, 
the  glancing  banners,  and  the  king's  skill,  acquired 
in  foreign  lands,  of  setting  out  his  array.  Twenty 
pieces  of  cannon,  the  first  we  find  mentioned  in  any 
Swedish  campaign,  a;^-companied  its  march  *,  drawn 
upon  sledges.  A  devastatmg  inroad  into  Scania  in 
the  depth  of  winter,  in  which  the  land  and  towns 
were  laid  waste  by  fire,  was  all  that  was  accom- 
plished by  this  great  army,  which  the  king  soon 
quitted,  leaving  ordei's  that  similar  ravages  should 
be  extended  to  Bleking.  For  this  purpose  the 
force  was  divided,  but  it  appears  to  have  soon  dis- 
persed ;  for  when  in  the  following  spring  king 
Christian  commenced  his  campaign  by  an  incursion 
into  West-Gothland,  the  country  lay  open  befoi'e 
him,  and  the  castles  fell  into  his  hands  in  the  course 
of  the  summei'.  Charles  indeed  purposed  ulti- 
mately to  meet  the  enemy  in  the  forest  of  Tiwed,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  invasion  of  Ujjjier  Sweden,  but 
was  recalled  by  the  information  that  the  capital, 
defended  by  peasants,  was  assailed  by  a  Danish  fleet. 
The  Swedish  squadron  had  been  assembled  at 
Stockholm  and  then  sent  ou  ;  when  it  retui-ned,  all 
the  hostilities  that  occurred  were  confined  to  the 
exchange  of  a  few  shots.  That  this  should  be  the 
case  need  not  excite  wonder  if,  as  we  are  told,  the 
commanders  of  the  Swedish  shijjs  were  Danes",  who 
allowed  their  countrymen  to  plunder  and  burn  on 
the  Swedish  coast  with  impunity.     Christian  was 

7  The  number  is  variously  stated  at  from  40,000  to  80,000 
men.  The  army  was  ])receded  by  skyrannare  (skidlopare), 
or  skate-runners,  using  the  skates  made  of  long  curved 
wooden  staves,  foi  sliding  over  the  surface  of  the  snow. 

8  "Twenty  carriage  guns  witli  powder  and  stone-balls  be- 
longing thereto."  Cannon,  however,  were  previously  used  in 
the  fortresses.  In  the  castle  of  Stegeborg  in  1440  fourteen 
were  kept  (called  Fbglare,  or  birds),  whicli  were  directed  by 
a  German  master  gunner.  Under  Engelbert's  rising,  guns 
are  mentioned  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm.  The  town  in  1431 
had  a  master  gunner  and  a  cannon  founder,  both  salaried. 

^  Eric  Olaveson. 

'  Diary  of  Vadsteua.  In  the  autumn  of  14G1  the  plague 
broke  out  anew,  carried  oif  7000  men  in  Stockholm,  and 
lasted  nearly  two  years,   during   which  it  also   desolated 


even  permitted  in  the  autumn  to  retire  unpnrsued 
from  the  interior,  without  any  other  loss  than  he 
sustained  from  the  exasperated  peasants  in  his 
march  across  the  forest  of  Holwed.  The  valiant 
Thord  Bonde  alone,  cousin-german  of  the  king, 
who  had  nominated  him  to  the  office  of  marshal, 
successfully  defended  the  western  frontiers  of  the 
kingdom. 

The  following  years  resembled  in  insecurity  and 
disturbance  that  just  described,  and  exceeded  it  in 
public  misei-y.  In  1455,  the  plague  which  had 
raged  five  years  before  again  broke  out  in  Sweden; 
at  Stockholm  alone  9000  men  died.  A  scarcity  of 
three  years'  duration  engendered  at  the  same  time 
a  more  grievous  famine  than  had  ever  happened 
within  the  memory  of  man  '.  For  the  rest,  mili- 
tary occurrences,  without  plan,  alternated  with  pro- 
posals of  peace  which  led  to  no  result,  and  inces- 
sant conferences  of  the  councils  of  both  kingdoms. 
Sometimes  these  meetings  were  held  amidst  brilliant 
festivities,  in  which  Charles  displayed  his  pomp,  his 
opulence,  or  his  devotion ;  as  for  example,  at  the 
consecration  of  his  daughter  in  the  convent  of  Vad- 
stena,  where  the  king  himself,  decked  in  his  royal 
robes,  sang  the  gospel  before  the  altar,  and  sub- 
sequently at  the  marriage  of  Thord  Bonde,  where 
he  entertained  the  guests  on  fourteen  hundred  sil- 
ver chargers.  Within  a  year  this  brave  nobleman 
was  treacherously  assassinated  by  a  Dane  who  stood 
high  in  his  service  and  confidence;  a  ballad  still 
[ireserved  attests  the  popular  griei  and  indignation 
produced  by  his  murder. 

At  this  time  it  was  not  uncommon  to  find  Danes 
in  the  service  of  Charles,  as  well  as  Swedes  in  that 
of  Christian.  In  some  instances  these  possessed 
property,  and  still  more  frequently  had  family  con- 
nections in  all  the  three  kingdoms,  or  they  sought 
their  fortune  by  arms,  indifferent  what  master  they 
served  ;  so  that  men  of  humble  station  were  soon 
the  only  class  who  knew  what  it  was  to  have  a 
country,  or  to  suffer  in  its  belialf.  Charles  himself 
was  without  heart  for  his  office,  looked  too  nar- 
rowly to  his  individual  advantage,  and  from  being 
a  brilliant  party  leader  had  become  a  feeble  king. 
Towards  the  magnates  he  cherished  a  w^ell-grouuded 
mistrust,  which  out  of  fear  he  for  the  most  part 
concealed,  and  thereby  afforded  to  his  secret  ene- 
mies opportunities  of  openly  injuring  him.  Astute 
and  compliant  in  all  save  pecuniary  matters  2,  he 
sought  his  ministers  in  men  of  mean  condition  who 
resembled  himself  in  these  qualities,  and  betrayed 
his  interests.  In  rapacity  his  governors  fell  not  at 
all  short  of  the  foreigners  whom  they  replaced,  al- 
though they  plundered  under  the  cloak  of  law  ^. 

Russia.  In  Novogorod  alone,  according  to  Karamsin, 
48,000  men  died. 

2  "  Courteous,  but  greedy,"  an  old  account  dtscribes  him. 

^  Compare  the  character  of  Charles  Canuteson  as  drawn 
by  Eric  Olaveson,  his  contemporary.  Although  he  has  been 
charged  with  partiality,  his  representation  is  by  no  means 
deficient  in  truth,  and  contains  a  more  apposite  judgment 
than  that  of  the  Rhyme  Chronicle,  which  dwells  upon  the 
princely  and  glittering  exterior  of  Charles.  He  is  also  corro- 
borated by  other  testimonies  :  "  Habebat  pra'fectos  ad  omnem 
nequitiam  audacissimos  et  ad  omneiu  virtutem  resque  prs- 
claras  imbellissimos,"  says  Joannes  Magnus.  Olaus  Magims, 
who  extols  the  justice  of  the  governois  imder  Steno  Sture 
the  elder,  blames  at  the  same  time  those  of  Charles  Canute- 
son;  tlieir  conduct  towards  Iheir  own  master,  indeed,  suffi- 
ciently evinces  their  character. 


A. 

1457- 


r-6.  }  Je:!:i":"l?^iK'a,'fe.  christian  I.  OF  OLDENBURG. 


Flight  of  CliRrles  and 
oliiiu'L-  of  C'liiislian. 


C.) 


The  people,  in  whose  memones  Eiigelbert  lived, 
were  averse  to  Charles,  laid  when  lie  attempted  to 
revive  the  old  contest  regarding  the  liberty  of 
testamentary  bequests  to  the  church,  and  attacked 
the  pi'operty  and  privileges  of  the  clergy  *,  his  posi- 
tion became  the  more  critical  from  his  want  of  the 
martial  qualities  which  might  have  enabled  him  suc- 
cessfully to  oppose  an  order,  whose  members  in  that 
day  were  not  seldom  wont  to  bear  the  episcopal 
staff  conjointly  with  the  sword. 

The  intrigues  of  the  archbishop  Jens  Bennetson 
and  his  party  did  not  remain  hidden  from  the  king. 
The  former,  with  Sigge  bishop  of  Streiignas,  had 
once  already  been  convicted  of  treason,  and  for- 
feited his  fiefs.  He  had  been  reconciled  to  the  kintr 
through  the  interposition  of  the  council,  but  con- 
tinued to  hold  a  hostile  tone.  At  a  baronial  diet  in 
Westeras  he  openly  expressed  his  discontentment 
with  the  administration  of  Charles,  and  his  inclina- 
tion to  Christian.  To  this  the  king  paid  no  regard, 
confiding  in  his  treasures  and  his  stipendiary 
troops  *. 

At  the  outset  of  1457,  when  the  archbishop  was 
the  king's  guest  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm,  and 
each  loudly  upbraided  the  other  with  new  griev- 
ances, a  summons  was  agaui  issued  for  one  of  those 
fruitless  campaigns  which  every  year  of  this  reign 
witnessed.  Oelaud,  which  the  Danes  had  seized, 
was  now  the  object ;  and  while  Charles  himself  di- 
rected his  march  southwards,  the  archbishop  re- 
ceived a  mandate  to  accelerate  his  preparations  in 
the  upper  portion  of  the  country.  But  Jens  Bennet- 
son repaired  instead  to  the  cathedral  of  Upsala,  and 
depositing  his  priestly  vestments  on  the  high  altar, 
girt  on  helmet,  sword,  and  armour,  affixed  to  the 
church  door  a  declaration  of  war  against  his  sove- 
reign, and  immediately  commenced  hciStilities. 
Charles  indeed  hastened  his  retiu'n,  and  opposed  to 
the  disorderly  crowd  collected  by  the  prelate  a  dis- 
ciplined, if  not  numerous,  army ;  bnt  he  allowed 
himself  with  incomprehensible  carelessness  to  be 
surjirised  in  Strengniis.  After  a  short  conflict,  be- 
ing wounded  by  an  arrow,  he  fled  to  Stockholm, 
where  he  with  ditticulty  obtained  admission.  "And 
because  he  saw,"  says  Olave  Peterson,  "  that  the 
archbishop  and  those  of  his  party  had  undertaken 
the  matter  in  such  a  way  as  that  they  intended  to 
carry  it  through,  and  he  also  dreaded  that  the 
burghers  of  Stockholm,  now  that  the  country  was 
adverse  to  him,  would  not  stand  fast  by  his  cause, 
he  disposed  of  his  gold  and  silver,  of  which  he  had 
great  store,  went  secretly  on  board  ship  by  night '', 
and  so  came  to  Dautzic  the  third  day  afterwards, 
where  he  i-eceived  safeconduct,  and  abode  for  seven 
years." 

The  Swedish  nobles  whom  fear  of  Charles  had 
driven  into  exile  now  re-entered  the  country.  The 

■*  In  1451,  when  the  clergy  drew  up  a  peremptory  and 
detailed  protest  against  his  measures.  Charles  not  only  de- 
manded tliat  restrictions  should  be  laid  upon  bequests  to  the 
church,  but  he  confiscated  a  number  of  its  estates,  and  in- 
sisted that  no  noble  should  be  permitted  to  enter  the  spiritual 
order  before  he  had  sold  his  estates  to  his  relatives.  Inves- 
tigations with  a  view  to  the  reduction  were  prosecuted 
throughout  the  kingdom  by  his  son-in-law,  Eric  Ericson 
Gyllenslierna,  and  the  chancellor.  Dr.  Nicholas  Ryting. 

5  The  Rhyme  Chronicle. 

'  February  2-),  1437.  Olave  Peterson  remarks,  that  of  the 
"large  treasure"  which  Charles  carried  with  him,  he  lent  a 
great  sum  in  gold  to  the  Prussian  lords.     Of  this  loan,  made 


town  of  Stockholm,  which  in  Albert's  time  had 
sustained  a  siege  of  seven  years,  surrendered  within 
a  month  to  the  Archbi.shop,  w  ho  now  styled  himself 
prince  and  administrator  of  the  realm.  The  go- 
vernor of  the  castle  j  ielded  up  both  the  fortress, 
and  the  children  of  his  sovereign,  who  had  been 
entrusted  to  his  charge,  without  stroke  of  sword, 
only  stipulating  that  no  account  shoidd  be  required 
from  him  of  the  monies  which  had  (jassed  through 
his  hands.  His  compeers,  the  royal  governors  in 
the  various  provinces,  excepting  only  Gustavus 
Carlson '  at  Calniar,  "  who  stoutly  u])held  his 
knightly  houom',"  all  followed  the  example  set 
them  with  so  much  alacrity,  that  when  king 
Christian  came  before  Stockholm  with  his  fleet  at 
Whitsunday,  the  Danes  complained  that  nothing 
was  left  for  them  to  do,  and  overwhelmed  the 
clergy  especially  with  scoffing  eulogies.  Yet  re- 
alities were  not  forgotten  for  words,  and  the 
clerical  order  were  gratified  by  a  complete  con- 
firmation of  all  their  privileges. 

Christian  I.  of  Oldenburg  was  now  chosen  king 
of  Sweden,  crowned  at  Upsala,  June  19,  1457, 
and  at  a  congress  of  the  councils  of  all  three  king- 
doms held  next  year  in  Skara,  he  obtained  their 
conjoint  guarantee  for  the  succession  of  his  son. 
Even  the  peasants,  against  whose  wishes  he  had 
been  invited  into  the  kingdom,  although  they  had 
assisted  the  archbishop  against  Charles,  acquiesced 
in  the  arrangement  which  had  been  eff'ected,  and 
to  use  the  words  of  the  chronicle,  "  it  first  went 
well  with  the  land  under  the  rule  of  king  Christian." 
But  when  he  had  reigned  some  years,  it  is  said, 
"he  began  to  lay  many  new  taxes  upon  tlie  country, 
and  all  who  had  any  money  were  obliged  to  lend 
him  large  sums,  of  which  they  received  nothing 
back.  He  bought  the  land  of  Holstein  from  the 
Count  of  Schaumburg,  and  his  brother  Count 
Gerdt,  for  which  end  he  gathered  much  money  out 
of  all  his  kingdoms.  By  reason  of  the  burden  of 
these  tallages,  and  because  he  took  all  out  of  the 
land  with  him,  he  drew  on  himself  much  ill-will 
throughout  the  kingdom,  and  his  uitfriends  began  to 
call  him  a  bottomless  pouch,  and  said  that  he  was  a 
public  spoiler,  although  he  was  otherwise  a  pious 
and  good-natured  man  *."  In  14G3,  a  rumour  was 
spread  that  king  Charles  would  return  with  an 
army  to  reassert  his  claims  to  the  crown,  which 
proved  ultimately  to  be  unfounded.  But  a  trader 
whom  the  archbishop  caused  to  be  imprisoned,  was 
said  to  have  brought  with  him  letters  of  that  pur- 
port to  the  relatives  and  partisans  of  Charles  ; 
several  of  whom,  with  the  pretended  letter-bearer, 
were  subjected  to  the  cruellest  torture  by  the 
rack,  so  that  some  died,  and  others  lost  the  use  of 
their  limbs.  By  these  steps  deep  hatred  was  ex- 
cited against  the  archbishop,  who  was  a  man  of  so 

in  14.58  to  the  town  of  Dantzic,  King  Charles  XII.  exacted 
payment,  in  1704,  principal  and  interest,  for  the  family  of  Gyl- 
lenstierna,  which  is  descended  from  Christina,  daughter  of 
Charles  Canuteson.  Another  part  of  liis  treasure  was  con- 
cealed in  the  Dominican  monastery  at  Stockholm,  but  was 
betrayed  by  the  monks  to  King  Christian. 

"  Son  of  Charles  Ormson,  the  king's  father-in-law,  before 
mentioned ;  he  afterwards  did  homage  to  Christian. 

8  Olave  Peterson.  Holstein  had  become  vacant  in  1459 
by  the  death  of  Duke  Adolphus,  whereupon,  the  year  follow- 
ing. Christian  received  homage  as  Duke  and  Count  of  Sles- 
wick  and  Holstein,  and  bought  off  the  claims  of  the  other 
pretenders. 


70 


Cliristian's  measures. 
Revolts  excited. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Charles  Camiteson's 
recall  anil  death. 


{ 


A.    D. 

•1G3— 70. 


malignant  and  obdurate  a  nature,  that  "  whomso- 
ever he  was  wroth  with,  he  was  bent  upon  ruining 
utterly.'' 

King  Christian  came  in  person  to  Stockholm,  to 
encounter  the  imaginary  danger,  imposed  a  new 
tax,  and  committed  the  levy  of  it  to  the  archbishop, 
while  he  himself  proceeded  upon  an  expedition  to 
Finland  against  the  Russians,  for  which  he  had 
appropriated  a  portion  of  the  subsidy  lately  col- 
lected by  a  Papal  legate  in  the  north  for  a  war 
against  the  Turks.  The  peasants  refused  the  new 
tax,  protesting  that  they  would  rather  die  than  pay 
any  more  illegal  imposts,  and  taking  up  arms,  they 
obtained  a  promise  from  the  archbishop  for  the  re- 
mission of  the  tax,  perhaps  the  more  readily,  that 
even  peasants  holding  of  the  church  were  not 
exempted  by  the  king  from  its  operation.  Upon 
his  return,  however.  Christian  accused  the  arch- 
bishop of  having  himself  instigated  the  revolt,  and 
brought  a  multitude  of  charges  against  him  bearuig 
upon  the  prelate's  conduct  towards  Charles,  al- 
though it  was  his  rival  who  now  called  him  to  ac- 
count. Even  in  the  council  and  among  the  burgesses 
the  advei'saries  of  the  archbishop  had  the  pre- 
ponderance. In  all  the  public  places  papers  were 
posted  up,  bearing  the  words,  "  the  archbishop  is  a 
traitor."  Notwithstanding  his  threat  of  excom- 
munication, the  king  caused  him  to  be  appre- 
hended. The  peasants,  now  regarding  him  as  a 
martjT  for  the  liberties  of  the  realm,  hurried  to 
Stockholm,  but  were  beaten  back,  and  numbers  of 
them  treacherously  slaughtered  in  a  conflict  which 
acquired  for  the  marshal  Thure'  Thureson  Bielke', 
the  surname  of  peasant  slayer  *.  Before  his  depar- 
ture, the  king  is  said  to  have  robbed  the  castle  of 
Stockholm  of  all  the  ai-ticles  of  value  it  contained, 
from  the  gilt  spire  surmounting  the  tower,  to  the 
windows,  pots  and  kettles,  as  well  as  to  have 
broken  down  walls,  dug  in  the  ground,  and  even 
dragged  the  sea  for  hidden  treasures  ;  so  that  a 
contemporary  letter  indignantly  reproaches  hira 
with  having  ransacked  for  money  three  elements, 
the  air,  the  water,  and  the  earth. 

Scarcely  had  the  king  quitted  the  capital,  carry- 
ing off  the  archbishop  with  him  a  prisoner  to 
Denmark,  when  the  insurrection  broke  out  anew 
under  the  command  of  his  kinsmaji  Ketil  Carlson 
( Vasa),  bishop  of  Linkiiping,  who  in  tlie  beginning  of 
1464,  assumed  the  title  of  administrator  at  Westeras, 
therein  supported  chiefly  by  the  Dalecarlians,  "  the 
wildest    and    most  warlike,"   say   the    monks   of 

0  The  Rhyme  Chronicle. 

'  Maxime  feroces  et  bellicosi.     Diar.  Vadsten. 

2  See  Memoirs  relating  to  the  History  of  Scandinavia 
(Handlingar  rbrande  Skandinavieiis  Historia),  v.  5.  From 
this  letter  is  taken  the  account  of  the  dismantling  of  the 
castle  of  Stockholm  by  the  king. 


Vadstena,  among  the  inhabitants  of  Sweden  ^.  In 
the  name  of  the  Dalesmen  and  all  the  commonalty 
of  Sweden,  a  letter  was  drawn  up,  full  of  the  most 
vehement  denunciations  of  the  king's  government  ^. 
Christian  now  again  came  to  the  defence  of 
Stockholm,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  but  the  Dale- 
carlians retired  before  him,  and  at  length  enticed 
him  into  a  tliick  wood  at  Haraker's  church  in  We.st- 
manland,  where  he  sustained  a  great  overthrow, 
and  after  having  been  personally  in  danger,  was 
obliged  to  flee  to  Stockholm,  which  the  Dalecar- 
lians kept  besieged  during  the  whole  succeeding 
summer.  "  Then  a  sudden  cry  went  among  the 
peasants  throughout  the  land,  that  they  must  have 
king  Charles  back  ;  that  Sweden  was  a  kingdom, 
and  not  a  captaincy  nor  a  parsonage."  The  coun- 
cil was  obliged  to  yield,  and  Charles  was  in  effect 
recalled,  but  only  to  be  again  expelled  after  six 
months  by  the  archbishop  *,  now  let  loose  against 
him,  and  in  league  with  bishop  Ketil. 

During  nearly  four  years,  from  January,  1464, 
to  November,  1467i  which  the  king,  now  a  second 
time  deposed,  spent  at  the  castle  of  Raseborg,  in 
Finland,  in  so  great  poverty  that  he  complains  in 
his  letters  of  being  unable  to  pay  fifty  marks  which 
he  owed,  we  observe  first  bishop  Ketil,  then  after 
his  death  the  archbishop,  and  within  a  short  time, 
opposed  to  him,  the  powerful  Eric  Axekon  (Tott), 
filling  the  office  of  administrator,  so  that  the  parti- 
tion of  the  kingdom  into  several  petty  sovereign- 
ties, which  is  said  to  have  formed  one  of  the  plans 
of  the  magnates  at  this  time,  might  soon  have  been 
accomplished  ■•. 

Charles  Canuteson  was  finally  for  the  third  time 
called  to  the  throne  upon  the  13th  of  November, 
1467.  Shortly  afterwards,  his  irreconcileable  foe 
the  archbishop  died  in  exile.  The  old  king  spent 
the  last  years  of  his  life  in  external  and  intestine 
warfare,  against  Christian,  who  attacked  Sweden 
anew,  and  against  Eric  Carlson  (Vasa),  who  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  an  insurrection,  until  the  name 
of  the  Sture'  began  to  gather  lustre  in  Dalecarlia, 
and  the  success  of  Nicholas  and  Steno  Sture',  first 
over  domestic  revolt,  next  over  foreign  aggression, 
allowed  Charles  to  die  in  possession  of  his  crown. 
He  expired  May  15,  1470,  in  the  castle  of  Stock- 
holm, in  his  sixty-first  year,  and  upon  his  death- 
bed transferred  the  government  to  Steno  Sture, 
counselling  him  at  the  same  time  never  to  strive 
after  the  regal  title  and  ensigns  ^. 

3  Olave  Peterson.  "  And  it  wanted  but  little  that  he 
should  have  been  obliged  to  beg  grace  of  him." 

■•  "They  vfould  have  divided  the  kingdom  into  four  parts, 
and   there   were   to   have    been    four   who    should    govern 
them."     Id. 
I     '  The  Rhyme  Chronicle.     Joannes  Magnus. 


A.  D  }      Steno  the  elder  chosen 
1471.  J  guaniiaii  of  the  kingdom- 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STURfiS. 


Danish  invasion. 
Hostile  movements. 


71 


CHAPTER  VI. 

STENO  STURfi   THE   ELDER.      KING  JOHN.     SUANTO   STURfi.    STENO   STURfi   THE 

YOUNGER,  AND  CHRISTIAN  THE  TYRANT. 
A.  D.  1470—1520. 


Through  Engelbcrt  the  people  had  again  risen  to 
be  a  power  in  tlie  state,  and  the  Union  had  become 
identified  with  foreign  domination.  Cliai'les  Canute- 
son,  who  could  reap  where  he  had  not  sowed,  pro- 
fited by  this  state  of  things  to  win  a  throne  ;  yet  his 
example  proved  that  in  Sweden  at  this  time  one 
might  be  all,  but  could  not  be  king.  While  from 
his  career  the  chiefs  of  the  house  of  Sture  learned 
not  to  grasp  at  a  diadem,  and  to  cleave  with  more 
sincerity  to  the  people,  they  on  their  side  were 
doomed  to  experience  how  difficult  it  becomes  for 
a  party  leader  to  rule,  although  he  may  be  all, 
witliout  being  king.  Meanwhile  the  Union  nomi- 
nally survived,  still  resting  on  the  interest  of  the 
magnates ;  till  all  these  false  relations  were 
snapped  asunder  by  a  Danish  war  of  conquest 
against  Sweden,  and  the  axe  of  Christian  II. 
drowned  in  blood  even  the  name  of  the  confedera 
tion. 

Steno  Sture,  called  the  elder,  was  son  of  the 
councillor  and  knight  Gustavus  Anundson  Stur^, 
by  king  Charles  Canutesou's  half-sister  Bridget 
Bielke'.  He  had  first  borne  arms  in  the  rising  of 
bishop  Ketil  Vasa  against  king  Christian  in  1464  ; 
afterwards,  in  conjunction  with  Nicholas  Sture^, 
who,  although  of  the  same  name,  was  of  another 
family,  lie  had  saved  the  tottering  throne  of 
Charles  Canuteson  from  overthrow  in  the  last  days 
of  that  sovereign.  He  was  distinguished  for  great 
sagacity  no  less  than  for  valor,  "  a  skilful,  cautious, 
and  free-minded  lord,  and  therewithal  prosperous 
in  his  designs'  ;"  marked  out  by  many  qualities  as 
the  man  of  the  people,  yet  influential  also  by  his 
connexions,  especially  with  the  brothers  Axelson  ^, 
who  were  powerful  both  in  Denmark  and  Sweden, 
and  now  hostile  to  king  Christian. 

The  town  of  Stockholm  and  the  Dalecarlians, 
between  whom,  according  to  one  account,  there 
now  subsisted  a  special  alliance,  which  formed  the 
main-stay  of  the  power  of  the  Sture's,  immediately 
acknowledged  Steno  Stur^  as  administrator.  The 
people  were  generally  on  his  side,  and  it  is  not 
without  grounds  that  the  Rhyme-Chronicle  makes 
him  say, 

With  Sweden's  commons  grace  and  love  were  mine. 
Though  all  the  lords  would  not  my  banner  join. 

The  council  was  divided  ;  as  usual  there  was  much 
discussion  as  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Union. 
Eric  Carlson  Vasa  and  several  exiled  Swedish  lords 


5  Boece  Stenson  {Natt  och  Dag),  councillor  of  state,  and 
father  of  Nicholas  (Nils)  Sture,  married  Catherine,  daughter 
ot  Steno  Sture  of  Sleswick,  of  the  Danish  house,  whose  name 
Nicholas  assumed  after  his  mother. 

"!  Laurence  Peterson. 

8  There  were  nine  brothers,  sons  of  Eric  Axelson  Tott  in 
Denmark,  of  whom  Eric  Axelson,  then  feudatory  of  Finland, 
n-iarried  Elin  Sture  (aunt  of  Steno,  not  sister,  as  has  been  in- 


of  the  old  archbishop's  party  had  returned  with 
ships  and  men  from  Denmark,  in  order  again  to 
dispute  the  crown  with  the  expiring  Chai'Ies 
Canuteson.  They  were  indeed  put  to  flight  by 
Steiao  Sture',  but  the  dissensions  contiimed,  and  the 
kingdom  remained  nearly  a  year  without  any  acluiow- 
ledged  head,  until  at  length  the  jjcasants,  twelve 
from  every  jirovince,  assembled  of  their  own  autho- 
rity in  Upsala,  and  urged  the  council  of  state  to 
conclude  upon  some  settlement  among  themselves, 
seeing,  they  said,  that  "  such  discords  could  nowise 
be  endured  in  the  land  any  longer  ^."  Thereupon, 
not  without  renewed  hesitations,  Steno  Sture  was 
chosen  (May  1,1471,)  administrator  at  Arboga,  prin- 
cipally by  the  voices  of  the  peasants  and  burgesses, 
but  also  with  the  concurrence  of  the  greater 
number  of  the  council.  The  delivery  into  his 
hands  by  Eric  Axelson  of  the  castles  which  he  had 
held,  and  also  the  declaration  in  his  fiivour  by  the 
new  archbishop  Jacob  Ulfson,  his  foster-father, 
and  his  friend  in  the  first  instance,  doubtless  mainly 
contributed  to  this  result. 

King  Christian  himself  now  appeared  before 
Stockholm  with  a  fleet  of  seventy  ships.  Proposals 
of  accommodation  were  made  upon  both  sides. 
To  the  arbitrement  of  commissioners  chosen  from 
the  councils  of  all  three  kingdoms,  were  to  be  re- 
ferred the  questions  in  dispute  between  Christian 
and  Sweden,  between  the  brothers  Axelson  and  their 
legitimate  king,  between  the  seceding  Swedish 
lords  and  Steno  Sture's  party  m  the  council.  All 
this  was  more  than  sufficient  to  hold  the  Danes  in 
play  through  a  whole  summer,  for  the  only  object 
seems  to  have  been  to  gain  time.  Neither  Steno 
Sture  nor  his  friends  appeared  before  the  com- 
mission upon  the  day  appointed  for  its  sitting. 
The  administrator  had  repaired  to  East-Gothland  ; 
Nicholas  Sture  had  betaken  himself  to  Dalecarlia, 
to  assemble  forces  from  the  more  remote  provinces, 
for  in  the  environs  of  the  capital  the  partisans  of 
the  Danes  were  most  active.  Eric  Carlson  Vasa, 
and  Trott^  Carlson,  of  Eka,  had  already  induced 
the  greater  part  of  Upland  to  do  homage  to  the 
king.  The  peasants  were  allured  to  the  Danish 
camp  by  the  cheap  price  of  salt,  the  import  of 
which  had  been  designedly  prohibited,  and  many 
remained  under  the  royal  standard.  Steno  Sture 
was  careful  to  keep  his  movements  secret,  and  as 
nothing  was  heard  of  him,  the  spirits  of  the  Danes 

accurately  stated);  and  Iwar  Axelson,  feudatory  of  Gottland, 
married  Magdalene,  daughter  of  CharlesCanuteson,  an  alliance 
which  had  re-opened  the  throne  to  this  king.  Steno  Sture 
himself  was  married  to  Ingeborg,  daughter  of  Ake  Axelson. 
Through  the  death  of  another  brother,  and  the  sequestration 
of  his  fief,  his  family  were  brought  into  adverse  relations 
with  King  Christian,  against  whom  in  146?  Iwar  Axelson 
had  declared  war. 
9  Olave  Peterson. 


72 


Battle  of  Brunkebcrt!;. 
King  Christian  wounded. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  defeat. 
Internal  tranquillity. 


~:i 


A 

1J71 


rose  proportionably  i.  Christian  called  him  "a  lad 
wlio  being  about  to  be  chastised  with  the  rod,  hid 
himself  in  the  woods  ;"  his  soldiers  vaunted  of  the 
shames  they  would  put  upon  tlie  burghers  of  Stock- 
luihn,  and  their  wives.  Meanwhile  the  Sture's 
approached  on  the  north  with  combined  forces  for 
the  relief  of  the  capital,  and  upon  the  11th 
October,  1471,battle  was  joined  at  the  Brunkeberg. 
This  was  a  sandy  height  then  lying  without  the 
town  of  Stockholm,  but  now  levelled  and  built  over, 
though  still  keeping  the  name  it  derived  from  the 
punishment  of  the  inhuman  Brunke' ;  it  had  been 
fortified  by  khig  Christian  "  with  some  new  inven- 
tions," as  it  is  expressed.  A  retrenchment  or  sconce 
(«kerma)  had  been  ei-ected  there,  and  planted  with 
"many  great  cannon."  King  Christian  himself 
took  post  with  the  Danish  banner  on  the  eminence, 
with  the  iutrenchment  in  liis  rear,  to  defend  it 
against  a  sally  which  was  apprehended  from  the 
town.  A  second  division  of  the  army  was  planted 
below  the  hill  at  the  convent  of  St.  Clara  ;  the 
third  remained  stationary  at  the  ships,  which  were 
moored  by  the  Cajmchins'  (now  Blase's)  Holm, 
then  separated  from  Norrmahn  (the  North  suburb) 
by  water,  across  which  the  Danes  had  cast  a  bridge 
of  poles  m  order  to  maintain  the  communication 
with  theu"  fleet.  Steno  Sture',  having  notified  the 
cessation  of  the  truce,  also  divided  his  army  into 
three  portions,  of  which  one  was  sent  to  make  a  cir- 
cuit and  fall  upon  the  Danes  at  their  ships,  under 
the  command  of  Nicholas  Sture,  who  met  with  so 
many  obstacles  from  marshes  and  woods  in  one 
of  the  cpiarters  of  Norrmahn,  now  so  populous,  that 
the  delay  in  his  arrival  almost  caused  the  loss  oi 
the  battle.  Four  times  did  Steno  Sture  storm  the 
Brunkeberg,  «hich  was  not  won  until  the  general 
had  succeeded,  by  an  attack  upon  the  division  of 
the  Danish  army  posted  beside  the  convent  of 
St.  Clara,  in  enticing  part  of  the  enemy's  troops 
from  their  station  on  the  hill.  During  this  attack 
the  wooden  retrenchment  on  the  mount  was  set 
in  flames,  having  been  taken  by  the  burghers  in  a 
sally  from  the  town.  The  arrival  of  Nicholas  Sture' 
decided  the  victory.  Christian,  who  was  himself 
wounded,  with  difficulty  escaped  to  the  ships,  and 
many  of  the  fugitives  were  drowned,  as  the  burghers 
during  the  fight  had  sawn  through  the  wooden 
bridge.  This  battle,  long  celebrated  and  .sung  by 
the  Swedish  country  people,  exhibits  many  charac- 
teristic features  of  old  manners.  Steno  Sture',  with 
his  whole  army,  heard  prayers  and  made  confession 
in  the  morning  before  going  into  action.  All  his 
men  set  badges  of  straw  or  green  boughs  in  their 
helmets  and  caps,  to  distinguish  themselves  from 
those  of  their  countrymen  and  brethren  who  fought 
in  the  ranks  of  the  foe.  As  they  marched  to  the 
•attack  they  chanted  St.  George's  song  as  their  lay 
of  battle,  and  to  that  knightly  saint  Steno  Sture' 
afterwards  dedicated  an  image,  which  may  still  be 

1  Koimng  Christian  intet  af  Herr  Sten  visste, 
Ty  han  for  med  stora  tysste. 

King  Christian  nought  of  the  lord  Steno  knew, 
for  in  great  silence  on  he  drew. 

The  Uhyme  Chronicle. 

2  (Dahlman  (History  of  Denmark.  .3,  231,)  states  that  the 
Danebrog,  or  Danish  standard,  round  which  lay  live  hundred 
dead  bodies,  fell  into  tlie  enemy's  hands  ;  this  was  a  white 
cross  upon  a  red  ground,  said  to  have  been  consecrated  by 
Pojie  Honorius  for  King  Waldemar  11.  upon  his  crusade 
against  the  Esthonians  in  121U.     It  was  again  taken  Ijy  the 


seen  in  the  high  church  of  Stockholm.  The 
fiercest  conflict  was  waged  around  the  two  chief 
banners  ^  ;  King  Christian  wounded  with  his  own 
hand  Canute  Posse,  who  led  the  sally  from  the 
town  ;  Steno  Sture  was  several  times  surrounded 
by  the  enemy.  A  poor  peasant  named  Starke 
Biorn  (the  strong  bear),  ran  during  the  whole  bat- 
tle before  his  horse,  and  cleared  a  path  for  him 
with  a  huge  broadsword.  The  consort  of  the  ad- 
ministrator, with  the  principal  ladies  of  Stockholm, 
viewed  the  battle  from  the  castle  walls,  and  caused 
food  and  alms  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  of  the 
town  ^. 

The  battle  of  Brunkeberg  was  more  important 
from  its  consequences  than  remarkable  from  tlie 
forces  engaged.  The  strength  of  Steno  Sture's 
army  is  stated  at  about  ten  thousand  men,  to  which 
are  to  be  added  thirteen  hundred  well  appointed 
liorsemen  of  the  town  of  Stockholm.  The  infantry 
consisted  for  the  most  part  of  peasants,  whose  chief 
arms  were  still  the  bow  and  the  northern  battle- 
axe  *,  well  known  since  the  daj's  of  paganism.  In 
the  camp  at  Norrmahn  king  Christian  had  five 
thousand  men  well-equipped,  and  provided  with  an 
artillery,  which  for  that  day  was  numerous.  In- 
cluding that  part  of  the  army  which  remamed  with 
the  ships,  and  the  levies  raised  by  the  Swedish 
lords  of  Christian's  party,  his  array  was  probably 
not  very  unequal  in  numbers  to  the  other,  and 
superior  in  discipline  and  equipment.  On  his  side 
many  Swedes  perished  in  the  battle,  among  them 
that  Trotte'  Carlson,  whose  wooden  .shield  coated 
with  leather  hung  in  the  cathedral  of  Upsala  imtil 
the  conflagration  of  1702.  The  survivors  among  the 
Sv^-edes  who  fought  on  the  king's  side  fled  to  the 
ships  ;  the  Danes  wished  to  sacrifice  them  to  their 
fury  and  throw  them  into  the  sea.  To  the  honour 
of  king  Christian  be  it  said,  he  prevented  this  use- 
less cruelty,  and  caused  them  to  be  liberated.  He 
himself  quitted  Sweden  never  to  return,  and  during 
the  remaining  ten  years  of  his  life  he  left  it  in 
peace. 

The  succeeding  years  were  the  happiest  that  the 
kingdom  had  known  for  a  long  time.  The  leaders 
of  the  opposition  were  reconciled  to  the  adminis- 
trator, who  was  now  allowed  to  devote  himself  to 
the  cares  which  peace  demanded.  Heretofore  one 
half  of  the  burgomasters  and  councilloi-s  in  the 
towns  had  been  Germans.  After  the  fight  of 
Bi'unkeberg,  the  burgesses  and  peasants  de- 
manded the  alteration  of  this  provision  of  the 
Swedish  town-law,  else,  they  declared,  they  never 
would  come  to  the  succour  and  relief  of  the  lords 
and  councillors  of  Sweden  ;  it  was  accordingly 
abolished  by  a  rescript  of  the  administi-ator  and 
the  council  *.  Cultivation  was  now  resumed  in 
many  tracts  wherein  the  granges  during  the  com- 
motions had  gone  to  waste,  as  appears  from  the 
ordinances  issued  upon  the  subject  ^.      To  prevent 

Ditmarsers  in  1500,  and  retaken  on  their  subjugation  by  the 
Danes  in  1559.  T.)  A  Swedish  ballad  upon  this  battle  still 
exists. 

3  A  manuscript  in  the  library  of  Linkiiping  (of  the  year 
1519),  states  that  si.\teen  knights,  with  614  men,  were  taken 
prisoners,  and  2000  slain.  Linkiipings  Bibliotheks  Handl. 
i.  UO. 

■1  Called  the  Swedish  poleaxe  in  some  old  verses  of  the 
union  age. 

s  Of  October  14,  1470. 

6  See  the  llecess  of  Calmar,  1474. 


A.   D. 

uri— ST. 


]  ^'''\lnndid!\^7T''^     ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STURES. 


Union  of  Calmar  renewed. 
Non-fullilment  of  the  treaty. 


73 


the  subdivision  of  the  ancient  yardlands,  it  was 
enacted  that  the  oldest  cultivator  and  inhabitant 
sliould  possess  the  right  of  redeeming  the  allotment 
of  the  other  heirs.  Steno  Sturi!:  kept  his  governors 
under  strict  supervision  ;  when  redress  for  wi-ong 
was  sought  by  legal  means,  he  allowed  judicial  seu- 
tences  their  due  course,  not  only  against  them  but 
liimself,  and  it  became  a  proverb,  that  the  lord 
Sture'  would  rather  risk  his  life  than  allow  a  peasant 
to  be  deprived  of  a  sheep  unjustly  '.  The  Rhyme 
Chronicle  extols  the  years  crowned  with  plenty,  the 
cheapness  of  all  commodities,  the  store  of  salt,  hops, 
and  foreign  wares,  for  now  many  a  good  ship  sailed 
to  the  Swedish  havens.. 

In  the  general  prosperity  there  was  now  time  to 
give  ear  to  the  claims  of  learning  and  knowledge. 
A  seminary  had  been  founded  by  the  earl  Birger 
in  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  Upsala,  for  the  support 
of  which  provision  was  made  out  of  the  tithes, 
accoivling  to  a  papal  brief  of  the  year  1250,  and  we 
find  that  scholars  were  sent  thither  from  the  dio- 
cesan schools  of  the  kingdom  to  pursue  their 
studies*  ;  on  which  account  the  Swedish  delegates 
to  the  council  of  Constance  were  commissioned  to 
bring  with  them  on  their  return  home  some  learned 
men  who  might  instruct  the  Swedish  youth  in  the 
seminary  of  Upsala,  and  thereby  contribute  to  re- 
move from  the  clergy  the  reproach  of  ignorance  ^. 
Pursuant  to  this  end,  one  academic  professorship, 
for  a  beginning,  was  founded  at  Upsala  in  1  438,  the 
incumbent  of  which  was  bound  annually  to  hold 
l)relections  "  in  the  manner  which  a  master  uses  to 
follow  in  chartered  seminaries'."  A  papal  brief 
had  empowered  king  Eric  of  Pomerania  to  erect  a 
university  in  the  North,  and  a  like  permission  was 
granted  to  king  Christian  for  Denmark,  on  his  visit 
to  Rome  in  1474.  Archbishop  Jacob  Ulfson  hav- 
ing in  that  year  discussed  the  subject  with  the 
Swedish  clergy  at  the  synod  of  Arboga,  an  envoy 
was  despatched  to  Rome,  and  obtained  a  brief  from 
Pope  Sixtus  IV.  2,  authorizing  the  establishment  at 
Upsala  of  a  general  seminary  of  instruction  in  theo- 
logy, canon  and  civil  law,  medicine  and  philosophy, 
with  the  privilege  of  conferring  degrees.  The  uni- 
versity of  Upsala  was  solemnly  consecrated  on  the 
21st  of  September,  1477,  one  year  before  that  of 
Copenhagen,  after  the  administrator  and  estates  of 
the  reatin  had  granted  to  the  new  institution  the 
same  privileges  as  were  possessed  by  that  of  Paris. 

King  Christian  I.  died  on  the  22nd  of  May, 
1481,  "  a  prince,"  it  is  said,  "  in  stature  taller, 
larger,  stronger,  and  more  majestical  than  any 
of  his  successors ;  in  disposition  pious,  mild, 
religious,  tender-hearted,  and  moderate  ;  who  is 
reckoned  among  the  good  sovereigns  that  have 
ruled  the  kingdom  of  Denmark."  Such  is  the 
Danish  judgment  of  his  character^  ;  in  Sweden  his 
memory  has  shared  those  feelings  of  hatred 
cherished  towards  the  Union,  which  strengthened  in 
proportion  as  Denmark,  under  the  house  of  Oldeu- 

'  ScliefTer,  Memorabilia  Suet.  Gentis. 

s  An  example  is  mentioned  in  1468,  S.  R.  S.  i.  p.  83. 

9  Celse,  Apparatus  ad  Hist.  Sveo-Goth.  p  2.  MS.  in  the 
library  of  Upsala.  The  burgesses  of  Stockholm  received  in 
my  a  papal  charter  for  the  old  school  connected  with  St. 
Nicholas'  church.  The  school-house  was  burned  down,  and 
the  Arclibishop  Joannes  Jerechini,  of  evil  repute,  refused 
permission  to  rebuild  it,  unless  he  were  allowed  to  nominate 
the  teachers,  which  had  previously  been  done  by  the  minister 
and  the  burgesses.  Their  right  was  now  confirmed  by  the  pope. 


burg,  appeared  more  dangerous  for  the  liberties  of 
the  north.  That  family  soon  became  naturalized 
in  the  kingdom  from  its  possessions  as  well  as  the 
genius  of  its  members,  whereas  its  foreign  pre- 
decessors in  the  monarchy  of  the  Union  were  no 
more  acceptable  to  the  Danes,  than  to  the  Swedes 
and  Norsemen. 

Even  Norway,  although  more  tranquil  than 
Sweden,  because  exhausted  by  the  struggles  of  its 
middle  age,  began  now  to  be  more  disquieted  than 
heretofore  by  the  predominance  of  Denmark  in  the 
Union.  On  the  demise  of  Christian,  the  Norwegian 
council  transmitted  to  that  of  Sweden  a  long  list  of 
grievances,  adding,  "  that  in  Norway,  during  his 
time,  foreigners  had  gained  power  and  advantages 
far  greater  than  ever  before  ;  that  the  article  re- 
specting the  perpetual  Union  of  the  three  kingdoms 
should  be  better  considei'ed,  since  that  arrange- 
ment had  hitherto  led  to  no  good  result ;  on  the 
other  hand,  a  loving  and  friendly  alliance  between 
Sweden  and  Norway,  would  procure  for  both  the 
full  enjoyment  of  their  freedom,  their  rights,  and 
prosperity  *."  Meanwhile,  a  variety  of  negoeiations 
had  been  in  progress  between  Denmark  and 
Sweden,  from  the  battle  of  Brunkeberg  to  the 
death  of  Christian,  and  although  often  broken  off 
without  issue,  they  resulted,  shortly  after  the  latter 
event,  in  a  renewal  of  the  Union  by  the  treaty  of 
Calmar,  in  1 48.3.  The  conditions  on  which  that 
monarch's  son  John,  or  Hans  as  he  is  commonly 
called,  now  received  the  crown  of  Sweden,  suffi- 
ciently evince  by  what  interest  the  Union  was  really 
upheld.  After  a  solemn  recognition  of  all  the  pri- 
vileges of  the  church,  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the 
three  kingdoms  agreed  upon  the  following,  among 
other  terms  of  settlement.  1.  The  king,  who  was  to 
be  guided  generally  by  his  council,  and  was  to  re- 
side one  year  in  each  of  the  kingdoms  alternately, 
was  to  conduct  the  government  by  good  men,  natives 
of  the  country,  not  setting  over  them  persons  of 
mean  birth  ;  in  the  distribution  of  castles  and  fiefs, 
he  was  bound  to  have  regard  to  the  opinion  of 
those  members  of  his  council,  who  resided  in  the 
district  in  which  the  appointment  was  to  be  made. 
2.  The  council  was  to  be  composed  of  nobles  of  the 
realm,  and  as  many  of  the  clergy  as  should  be 
found  necessary  ;  no  new  member  was  to  be  re- 
ceived without  the  consent  of  the  rest,  and  every 
one  who  separated  himself  from  his  colleagues,  to 
be  expelled  with  disgrace  ;  the  keys  of  the  register 
and  treasury  of  each  kingdom  were  to  be  committed 
to  four  councillors,  bound  to  give  an  account, 
and  responsible  for  their  safe  custody.  3.  The  king 
was  precluded  from  buying  any  noble's  estate,  or 
acquiring  hypothecary  possession  of  it  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  a  nobleman  might  hold  crown  estates 
in  pledge,  without  service  or  burden  ;  the  nobility 
had  full  liberty  to  fortify  their  houses,  and  might 
refuse  the  king  access  to  them,  while  they  might 
afford  an  asylum  to  those  who  had  incurred  the 


1  In  studiis  privilegiatis.  For  the  teacher,  Magister  An- 
dreas Bondonis,  a  salary  was  found  out  of  the  tithes  formerly 
allocated  to  the  hospital  of  Enkoping.  See  on  this  subject 
the  warrant  of  the  bishops  and  the  administrator  Charles 
Canuteson  in  the  Collections  for  the  History  of  Sweden. 
(Samlingar  i  Svenska  Histnrien.  Upsala,  171)8,  vol.  i.) 

2  Given  February  28,  1470. 

3  Compare  Hvitfeld. 

•»  Hadorph,  Appendix  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle. 


74 


War  with  Russia. 
Indecisive  movements. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


John  of  Denmark  in- 
vited to  Sweden. 


A.   D. 

1483—97. 


royal  displeasure.  Lastly,  it  is  laid  down  that  every 
good  man,  whether  of  the  clergy  or  laity,  should  be 
king  over  his  own  peasants,  excepting  in  such  cases 
as  concerned  the  rights  of  the  sovereign.  "  And 
though  these  were  hard  terms,  yet  king  Hans 
promised  with  oath,  letter,  and  seal,  that  he  would 
hold  by  them." 

The  Calmar  Recess  of  1483,  marks  the  highest 
point  of  aristocratic  power  in  Sweden,  and  shows 
the  end  towards  which  the  efforts  of  the  nobles 
were  directed.  With  respect  to  the  fulfilment  of 
its  more  innnediate  object,'  Steno  Sture'  well  under- 
stood how  to  interijose  hindrance  and  delays.  "  For 
though  Sweden  (to  make  use  of  the  words  of 
Olave  Peterson)  was  promised  and  secui-ed  to 
king  Hans  by  treaty,  yet  full  fourteen  years  passed 
before  he  obtained  possession  of  it,  partly  because 
the  debts  of  king  Christian  were  still  unpaid, 
partly  also,  because  the  Swedes  were  not  well  in- 
clined to  the  measure.  In  these  fourteen  years 
many  prolonged  conferences  were  held  between 
the  nobles  of  both  kingdoms,  that  peace  might  be 
made  and  king  Hans  might  obtain  Sweden,  but  the 
matter  made  very  slow  progress,  and  was  put  off 
from  one  meeting  to  another.  From  all  the  pro- 
posals of  the  Swedes,  it  was  easy  to  perceive  that 
they  wanted  inclination  and  good-will  to  king 
Christian,  else  would  they  not  so  long  have  deferred 
the  matter." 

Among  the  subjects  of  dispute  between  Denmark 
and  Sweden,  was  the  isle  of  Gottland.  By  king 
Christian  it  had  been  pledged  to  Olave  Axclson 
Tott ;  its  next  possessor  was  his  brother  Iwar,  to 
whom  Charles  Canuteson  gave  his  daughter  in 
marriage,  in  the  hope  thereby  to  reannex  Gottland 
to  the  Swedish  crown.  But  this  potent  Danish 
family,  which  had  joined  the  administrator  out 
of  enmity  to  Christian,  soon  showed  the  former 
that  their  support  was  not  to  be  counted  upon. 
Upon  the  demise  of  Eric  Axelson,  who  held  Fin- 
land in  fief,  he  left  the  Finnish  castles,  contrary  to 
his  promise,  not  to  his  brother-in-law  the  adminis- 
trator, but  to  his  brothers  Lawrence  and  Iwar, 
who  took  possession  of  the  land  on  their  own  ac- 
count. From  this  cause  a  feud  at  length  arose  be- 
tween Steno  Sture  and  Iwar,  of  which  the  end  was, 
that  the  latter  in  1487  ceded  the  isle  of  Gott- 
land to  king  John,  and  himself  sought  refuge  in 
Denmark.  This  domestic  quarrel  revealed  the 
dispositions  of  the  magnates  towards  the  adminis- 
trator. Already  in  1484  it  had  been  proposed  to 
deprive  him  of  power,  and  he  himself  more  than 
once  offered  to  abdicate  his  office.  Its  functions 
were  in  tlieir  very  nature  indefinite,  and  the  am- 
biguity of  his  position  could  scarcely  fail  to  exercise 
an  infiuence  on  his  public  conduct. 

This  vacillation  was  especially  shown  in  the  war 
with  Russia,  which,  after  several  preluding  dis- 
turbances, became  really  formidable  by  the  Russian 
invasion  of  Finland,  in  1405.  While  Canute  Possti 
with  admirable  courage  defended  Wiborg,  which 

■■*  The  so  called  explosion  of  Wiborg,  by  which  Canute 
Posse  is  said  to  have  destroyed  60,000  Russians  at  once,  is 
spoken  of  by  no  contemporary,  though  we  are  told  that  the 
Russians  Iiad  in  this  siefre  amazingly  large  cannons  of 
twenty-four  feet  in  length  (hombardas  et  machinas  magnas 
et  mirabiles  aliquas  in  longitudine  xxiv.  pedum),  and  that 
their  retreat  was  occasioned  by  miracles. 

^  The  standard  was  lost  in  the  present  campaign,  and  this 
was  made  one  of  the  charges  against  Steno  Sture. 


the  Russians  in  vain  besieged  during  three  months  *, 
Steno  Sture  assembled  an  army,  the  greatest  that 
Sweden  had  seen  in  his  time,  and  computed  at 
more  than  forty  thousand  in  number,  placing  him- 
self at  its  head  under  the  banner  of  St.  Ei-ic  ^, 
which  was  brought  with  great  solemnity  from  the 
cathedral  of  Upsala.  But  the  passage  of  the  army 
was  delayed  to  so  late  a  period  of  the  autumn,  that 
great  part  of  it  perished  by  tempests  and  cold,  and 
when  the  administrator  at  length  reached  Abo,  he 
kept  his  attention  so  immoveably  fi-xed  on  his 
rivals  in  Sweden,  that  the  Russians  were  allowed  to 
devastate  Finland  with  impunity.  After  a  short 
interval,  he  relinquished  the  command  to  Suanto, 
son  of  Nicholas  Sturg,  who,  while  the  administrator 
and  the  council  were  secretly  watching  one  another, 
crossed  the  gulf  in  the  summer  of  14!)6  to  Narva, 
and  took  and  destroyed  Ivangorod.  A  new  army 
was  raised  in  Sweden,  and  transported  to  Finland 
in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  but  these  prepar- 
ations were  fruitless,  especially  as  animosities  now 
broke  out  between  the  two  Stures.  Suanto  Sture, 
who  maintained  that  he  had  been  wTonged  in 
various  points,  and  left  ultimately  without  support 
in  Finland,  abandoned  the  army  of  his  own  autho- 
rity. He  was  soon  followed  by  the  incensed  admin- 
istrator. Hastening  to  shut  himself  up  in  the 
castle  of  Stockholm,  he  thence  carried  on  a  negotia- 
tion with  the  council,  which  now  renounced  fealty 
and  obedience  to  his  authority.  He  was  accused 
of  having  needlessly  intermeddled  in  the  quarrels 
of  Livonia ',  while  Finland  was  left  defenceless  ; 
of  having  withheld  from  Suanto  Stur^  his  inherit- 
ance, and  called  him  a  runaway  from  the  banner 
of  the  kingdom  ;  of  having  designed  to  introduce 
peasants  into  the  government,  and  to  annul  the 
council  by  preventing  new  members  from  being 
chosen  in  the  places  of  those  who  had  gone  out ; 
lastly,  of  having  hindered  the  fulfilment  of  the  con- 
vention of  Calmar,  although  not  long  ago,  in  1494, 
he  had  made  a  solemn  covenant  with  the  council 
for  its  execution. 

Calamities  of  different  kinds  had  darkened  the 
last  years  of  the  government  of  Steno  Sture,  great 
drought  and  failure  of  crops,  terrible  storms,  the 
burning  of  Stockholm,  and  a  renewal  of  the  ravages 
of  the  plague.  A  papal  excommunication  issued 
against  the  guardian,  because  he  withheld  the 
revenues  claimed  by  the  Danish  queen  dowager ' 
in  respect  of  her  dower  in  Sweden,  gave  his  enemies 
a  new  pretext  for  their  opposition,  and  the  confusion 
of  public  affairs  was  increased  by  the  competition 
also  of  several  foreign  princes  for  the  Swedish 
crown  ^. 

King  John  now  repaired  to  Sweden  at  the  invi- 
tation of  the  council.  Steno  Sture  betook  himself 
into  Dalecarlia,  and  threatened  to  become  a  second 
Engelbert.  The  Dalecarlians  despatched  letters  to 
the  Westmanlanders,  the  Uplanders,  and  the  pea- 
santry of  all  Norrland,  calling  on  them  to  join  in 
"loving  brotherhood,"  to  avert  injury  and  per- 
petual ruin  from  their  country,  their  dear  lord  and 
cajttain,  and  their  own  hearths.      To  king  Hans 

"  By  giving  assistance  to  the  Archbishop  of  Riga  in  1485, 
in  his  war  against  the  Grand  Master  of  Livonia. 

f*  Dorothy  of  Brandenburg,  the  wife  first  of  Christopher, 
and  afterwards  of  Christian  I.,  died  in  1495. 

9  Duke  Frederic,  brother  of  King  John,  and  also  the  em- 
peror's son  Maximilian,  who  had  sent  an  envoy  and  great 
presents  to  Lord  Sleno,  according  to  Olave  Peterson. 


A 

1497 


—  1501.  J 


Hostility  of  Stur6. 
Reconcilement. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STURfiS. 


Charges  <^galnst  Steno 
Stiir6. 


75 


they  declared  they  were  all  opposed,  and  would 
never  submit  themselves  to  his  authority.  The 
Hanse  Towns,  now  in  league  with  the  adminis- 
trator, fanned  the  existing  disaffection  against  the 
king,  whose  alliance  with  the  Russian  czar  at  the 
very  time  when  Finland  was  burning  and  bleeding 
from  the  cruelty  of  the  Muscovites,  the  Swedes 
could  not  forgive. 

Steno  Sture,  at  the  head  of  his  levies  of  peasants, 
attacked  the  archbishop,  who  had  long  played  the 
waverer,  but  was  now  shut  up  in  his  castle  of 
Stacket  with  some  of  the  council.  The  peasantry 
marched  against  Stockholm,  while  the  royal  army, 
chiefly  consisting  of  mercenary  troops,  was  like- 
wise conveyed  before  the  capital  in  the  Danish 
fleet,  and  encamped  anew  on  the  Brunkeberg,  as 
had  been  done  five  and  twenty  years  before '. 
Sturd's  plan  was  that  the  Daleearlians  should  at- 
tack the  hill,  whilst  he  himself,  sallying  from  the 
town,  whose  suburbs  he  had  caused  to  be  burned, 
fell  upon  the  enemy  in  the  rear.  H  is  scheme  was 
betrayed.  The  peasants,  by  the  Danish  account 
30,000  in  number,  were  first  surprised  and  defeated 
at  Rotebro,  and  when  the  victorious  army  of  Danes 
returned  with  Swedish  banners  flying,  Steno,  mis- 
taking them  for  his  own  men,  marched  out  to  meet 
them,  and  would  have  been  made  prisoner  had  he 
not  thrown  himself  from  his  horse  into  the  Norrs- 
trom,  and  obtained  entrance  into  the  castle  by  a 
secret  door.  This  happened  on  the  28th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1497.  A  reconciliation  was  soon  effected 
between  Stur^  and  the  king,  on  condition  that  the 
former  should  be  discharged  from  all  responsibility 
for  his  administration,  and  receive  the  investiture 
of  fiefs  of  immense  extent ',  the  largest  ever  pos- 
sessed by  any  Swedish  subject  excepting  Boece 
Jonson.  They  made  their  entry  arm  in  arm  toge- 
ther into  Stockholm,  and  on  arriving  at  the  castle, 
the  king  is  said  to  have  jestingly  inquired  whether 
he  had  made  all  things  pi-operly  ready  for  him. 
Sture  pointing  to  the  Swedish  nobles  standing 
behind  the  king,  replied,  "That  you  will  hear  best 
from  these,  for  it  is  they  who  have  brewed  and 
baked  here."  To  this  the  king  observed,  "  Lord 
Steno,  you  have  bequeathed  to  me  an  ill  legacy  in 
Sweden  ;  the  peasants,  created  by  God  to  be  slaves, 
you  have  raised  to  be  lords,  and  those  who  should 
be  lords  you  would  degrade  to  be  thralls  ^."  So 
uncontrollable  was  the  anger  of  the  magnates 
against  Sture,  that  man^'  of  them  clamc)ured  for  his 
death  with  a  virulence  that  was  blamed  by  the 
Danes  themselves,  and  his  head  would  perhaps 
have  fallen  if  bishop  Cordt  of  Strengness  had  not 
interceded  in  his  favour  *. 

Steno  Sture  wasstill  formidable  from  the  devotion 

•  The  king  was  also  accompanied  by  the  so-called  great  ] 
or  Saxon  guard,  famous  at  this  time  in  the  service  of  several 
princes,  whose  strength  is  diiTerently  stated  from  3000  to 
6000  men.     (The  text  has  fourteen  years,  but  this  must  be 
a  .slip  of  the  pen.     T.) 

2  The  whole  of  Finland  with  Norrbotten  and  Aland,  Su- 
dermania,  Swartsiii,  with  Faering's  isle,  and  the  estate  of 
Gotala  in  West-Gothland. 

3  A  Danish  account  says,  that  in  1497  at  the  diet  of  Funen, 
king  John  produced  evidence  against  Steno  Sture's  accusa- 
tion that  he  wi.shed  to  enslave  the  peasants.  Serfage  was 
not  yet  introduced  in  Funen,  although  it  was  in  Zealand. 

•*  Olave  Peterson. 

'  Hvitfeld,  however,  laments  that  the  gold  chain  began, 
from  1.500,  to  be  the  common  ornament  of  the  nobles. 


of  the  common  people  in  his  cause.  To  pacify  the 
Daleearlians,  who,  in  spite  of  their  defeat,  would 
not  retire  from  before  Stockholm,  he  employed  his 
personal  influence,  and  thej'  submitted  to  the  king 
only  on  condition  that  Steno  Sture  should  thence- 
forward be  governor  over  Westmanland  and  Dale- 
carlia,  an  augmentation  of  power  which  he  after- 
wards voluntarily  relinciuished  to  the  king.  That 
Sture'  should  have  acknowledged  king  John  seemed 
a  thing  so  inci'edible  to  the  people  generally,  that 
the  council  were  obliged  to  despatch  letters  into  all 
the  provinces,  with  copies  of  the  convention  of  Cal- 
mar,  concluded  in  ]  4fJ3,  in  order  t(j  jjrove  that  he 
had  already  set  his  name  to  that  act  fourteen  years 
before.  On  the  25th  November  (a.  d.  1497),  the 
king  was  crowned  in  Stockholm,  on  which  occasion 
many  new  knights  were  ci-eated  from  among  the 
nobility.  The  Rhyme  Chronicle  asserts  that  the 
desire  of  the  Swedish  ladies  to  see  their  husbands 
bearing  tlie  title  of  lords  contributed  not  a  little  to 
open  to  John  the  path  to  the  throne  ;  for  knights 
only  were  at  this  time  called  lords,  as  their  wives 
only  were  ladies,  and  this  dignity,  of  which  a  golden 
chain  round  the  neck  was  the  badge  *,  could  not  be 
conferred  by  the  administrator,  though  himself  a 
knight,  but  by  the  king  only.  Steno  Sture  was 
nominated  high  chamberlain,  Suanto,  marshal,  and 
the  former  was  one  of  the  four  councillors  to  whom 
the  government  was  committed  when  the  king,  iu 
January,  1498,  repaired  to  Denmark.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  next  year  he  retm-ned,  attended  by  his 
consort  Christina^  and  his  eldest  son  Christian, 
who  was  now  in  his  eighteenth  year,  and  had  in 
1497  been  acknowledged  as  his  successor.  Homage 
was  now  solemnly  rendered  to  him  in  that  capacity 
by  the  justiciary  and  twelve  men  of  every  pro- 
vince. 

The  exasperation  of  the  domestic  party  which 
was  hostile  to  Steno  Sture  was  by  no  means  yet 
appeased.  Notwithstanding  the  acquittal  he  had 
obtained  from  all  responsibility,  the  archbishop, 
armed  with  a  papal  brief,  insisted  on  receiving 
compensation  for  all  the  losses  which  his  see  had 
.sustained  during  the  late  discords  ;  the  rest  of  the 
bishops  also,  with  Suanto  Sture'  and  the  council, 
preferred  com]ilaints  of  violences  committed  by  the 
guardian's  order,  and  there  are  undoubtedly  in- 
stances of  wrong  either  commanded  or  permitted  by 
Steno  Sture  in  those  troublous  times '.  The  king 
endeavoured  to  accommodate  their  disputes  even 
by  the  expenditure  of  money.  A  letter  of  agree- 
ment was  subscribed  by  Steno  Sture',  containing  a 
partial  admission  of  the  charges  brought  against 
him  ;  he  was  obliged  also  to  cede  the  greater  por- 
tion of  Finland,  and  to  j)ledge  his  honour  never 

"  Of  Saxony;  daughter  of  the  elector  Ernest,  married  in 
1478. 

7  In  the  court-book  of  the  townof  Stockholm,  an  extract 
from  which  is  among  the  Nordin  manuscripts  in  the  library 
at  Upsala,  complaints  are  made  in  the  year  H92,  that  Lord 
Steno  had  forbidden  the  export  of  grain  on  penalty  of  death, 
at  the  very  time  when  he  was  an  exporter  himself.  Towards 
the  end  of  his  administration  he  was  not  popular  with  the 
burghers  of  Stockholm,  who  began  to  take  the  side  of  the 
council.  He  was  obliged  to  promise  that  he  would  replace 
cut  of  his  own  means  all  the  damage  that  had  been  caused 
in  H97  by  the  burning  of  the  suburbs,  and  eight  years  after 
his  death,  the  magistrates  caused  all  the  property  he  had 
left  in  the  town  of  Stockholm  to  be  sequestered  for  the  pay- 
ment of  Ilia  debts. 


7G 


War  witli  Kiri{;  John. 
Death  of  Steno. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Siianto  made  guardian. 
His  cliaracler. 


J      A.  n. 
I  1501— U. 


again  to  instigate  the  common  people  to  disorders. 
But  the  misfortunes  experienced  by  the  king  in  the 
war  for  the  subjection  of  the  Ditmarshers,  under- 
taken in  1500,  with  such  higli-raised  expectations  of 
success,  but  in  which  the  flower  of  the  nobility  of 
Denmark  and  Holstein  fell  in  conflict  witli  an  army 
of  peasants  inconsiderable  in  numbers,  awakened 
dangerous  recollections  in  Sweden.  When  John, 
in  1501,  again  set  foot  on  its  territory,  attended 
but  by  a  small  retinue,  as  had  been  .requested  by 
reason  of  the  prevailing  distress,  distrust  had  already 
taken  such  deep  root  in  his  mind,  that  upon  his  way 
he  evaded  Steno  Sture,  who  had  come  forth  to  meet 
him,  and  fled  for  refuge  to  the  castle  of  Stockholm. 
Negotiations  were  indeed  set  on  foot  and  confer- 
ences held  with  the  former  guai-dian,  who  with 
several  of  the  councillors  came  to  the  capital,  but 
no  agreement  with  the  king  was  eff'ected.  With  the 
late  alteration  in  his  Ibrtunes  the  Swedish  magnates 
too  had  now  abandoned  John,  and  began  again  to 
rally  around  Sture,  whom  they  had  so  lately  perse- 
cuted, complaining  that  the  Recess  of  Calmar  was 
not  observed.  Steno  Christerson  Oxenstierna,  who 
had  been  deprived  of  the  salmon  fishery  at  Elf- 
karleby,  took  up  arms,  and  put  to  death  one  of  the 
royal  governors.  Suanto  Sture'  declared  war  against 
the  king  upon  his  own  account,  because  he  had  re- 
ceived small  recompence  for  having  "  assisted  his 
grace  to  the  crown,  against  the  will  of  the  com- 
monalty," as  the  words  of  his  declaration  run. 

Steno  Sture  was  again  chosen  administrator  at 
Vadstena,  July  29,  1501.  The  peasantry  anew 
placed  themselves  in  movement,  and  even  the 
archbishop  was  forced  by  necessity  to  yield  to  the 
general  voice.  The  rest  of  the  prelates  also  made, 
as  appears,  common  cause  with  the  now  united 
Stures  and  Hemming  Gadd,  the  bishop  elect  of 
Linkoping,  who  had  lately  returned  from  Rome, 
took  the  command  at  the  investment  of  Stockholm, 
where  king  John  had  left  his  consort  Christina  of 
Saxony  with  a  promise  of  hastening  to  her  relief. 
The  town  speedily  opened  its  gates,  but  the  castle 
stood  a  siege  of  eight  months,  and  when  the  queen 
at  length  surrendered  it,  stipulating  security  of  life 
and  goods  for  herself  and  her  defenders,  among 
whom  were  sevei'al  Swedish  knights,  but  seventy 
men  out  of  a  garrison  of  one  thousand  were  found 
alive,  and  among  these  hardly  ten  wei'e  unwounded. 
Three  days  after  the  capitulation,  king  John  with 
his  fleet  appeared  before  Stockholm  to  succour  the 
queen,  but  was  obliged  to  retii-e  without  accom- 
plishing his  object.  Of  the  three  castles  which  had 
been  occupied  by  royal  garrisons,  Stockholm, 
Orebro,  and  Calmar,  the  last  alone  remained  to  be 
won  *.  Norway  too  revolted  ;  and  Canute  Alfson, 
lieutenant  of  Aggerhus,  became  the  ally  of  Steno, 
but  was  treacherously  nnu'dered  at  a  conference 
with  the  Danes,  after  which  prince  Christian 
quenched  the  rebellion  in  the  blood  of  the  Nor- 

^  The  council  had  in  149S  consented  that  the  places  named 
should  be  entrusted  to  Danish  commanders,  yet  in  the  sequel 
this  was  one  of  the  complaints  urged  against  the  king. 
Among  the  Danish  governors  Jens  Falster,  Captain  of  Ore- 
bro, made  himself  remarkable  by  the  outrages  cominitted 
under  his  sanction,  and  was  slain  by  the  peasants. 

9  The  Rhyme  Chronicle  imputes  this  to  Dr.  Carl,  Phy- 
sician of  the  Danish  queen.  Other  accounts  accuse  Martha 
Iwarsdotter,  wife  of  the  Norwegian  knight  Canute  Alfson,  a 
lady  of  no  good  reputation,  the  mistress  of  Suanto  Sture,  and 
in  1504  liis  second  wife. 


wegian  nobles.  A  Swedish  auxiliary  force  sent  by 
the  administrator  to  Norway  was  unsuccessful. 
The  prince  made  an  attack  on  West-Gothland, 
burned  Liidose,  took  Oresten  and  Elfsborg,  jjutting 
the  garrisons  to  the  sword,  although  tliey  had 
ofl'ered  to  capitulate.  The  peasantry  attributed 
this  disaster  to  Eric  Ericson  (Gyllenstiern),  who  was 
entrusted  with  the  defence  of  the  castles,  and  cut 
him  down,  although  Steno's  general,  Ake  Johanson, 
sought  to  cover  him  by  interposing  his  own  body. 
Thus  passed  away  the  eighteen  months  following 
the  surrender  of  the  castle  of  Stockholm,  after 
which  period  the  Danish  queen,  who  had  mean- 
while I'ound  a  refuge  in  the  convent  of  Vadstena, 
was  released  and  escorted  to  the  frontier  by  Steno 
Sture.  On  his  return  he  fell  sick  and  died,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Jenkoping,  December  13,  1503, 
according  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle,  of  poison  'J. 
During  the  remainder  of  the  journey,  Hemming 
Gadd  caused  one  of  the  train  to  personate  the 
administrator,  and  forbade  his  decease  to  be  made 
known  on  pain  of  death,  until  in  conjunction  with 
Su.\NTO  Sture  he  had  secured  the  castle  of  Stock- 
holm, where  the  latter  was  elected  guardian,  Ja- 
nuary 21,  1504.  Steno  Sture'  was  buried  in  the 
monastery  of  Gripsholm,  which  he  had  founded. 
His  only  son  IMaurice  had  died  in  1493  ;  one 
daughter  Bridget,  a  nun  in  the  convent  of  Vads- 
tena, lived  till  1536. 

Suanto  was  son  of  Nicholas  Sture,  the  ancient 
comrade  in  arms  of  the  deceased  administrator,  of 
the  family  of  Natt  och  Dag.  What  is  said  of  his 
election,  that  it  was  "  not  conformable  to  the  old 
laws  and  customs  of  the  land  *,"  may  be  set  aside 
as  indifferent,  since  his  title  merely  imported  that 
he  was  now  the  most  powerful  man  in  the  kingdom. 
Even  of  Steno  the  elder,  Olave  Peterson  relates 
that  the  peasants  gave  him  their  votes  for  a  cargo 
of  German  beer,  an  assertion  for  which  the  chro- 
nicler incurred  the  severest  displeasure  of  king 
Gustavus  I.  Suanto  Sture  was  a  valiant  warrior, 
of  a  bounteous  and  cheerful  disposition.  It  was 
said  of  him  proverbially,  that  no  one  was  admitted 
into  his  service  who  was  observed  to  wink  be- 
fore the  blow  of  a  battle-axe,  and  that  he  would 
rather  strip  himself  of  his  clothes  than  suffer  a 
fellow-soldier  to  go  unrewarded.  He  is  censured 
as  having  looked  chiefly  to  the  weal  of  the  soldiery, 
but  his  government  was  one  of  almost  incessant 
war.  The  people  ascribed  the  public  calamities  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  time,  and  gratefully  re- 
membered on  the  other  hand  how  the  adminis- 
trator, on  entering  the  cot  of  a  peasant,  greeted 
the  owner,  his  wife,  and  his  children,  with  a  grasp 
of  the  hand,  sat  with  them  at  the  same  table,  and 
inquired  after  their  aff'airs  with  good-natured 
courtesy.  His  assistant  in  the  govenmient  was 
Hemming  Gadd  ^  ;  a  priest  by  vocation  and  leax-n- 

'  Joannes  Magnus. 

2  He  had  been  Steno  Sture's  agent  in  Rome  for  nearly 
thirty  years.  Pope  Alexander  VI.  styles  him,  in  a  letter  of 
Hyy,  Cubicularium  nostrum  et  Vice-Regis  et  regni  SueciEe 
apud  nos  oratorem  constitutum.  In  1501  he  had  been  elected 
bishop  of  Linkiiping,  not,  as  Botin  says,  against  the  will  of 
the  chapter,  and  at  the  command  of  Alexander  VI.,  but  by 
the  chapter,  and  against  the  pope's  order,  who  had  allotted 
the  revenues  of  the  bishopric  to  a  Spanish  cardinal  ;  hence 
in  1506,  not  only  Hemming  Gadd  himself,  but  the  two  Stures, 
although  Steno  was  now  dead,  were  placed  under  the  ban  of 
the  church  ;  the  first  because  he  had  allowed  him.self  to  be 


A.  D. 

1509—13 


\ 


Peace  with 
Russia. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  STURES. 


Steno  the  younger, 
guardian. 


77 


ing,  but  not  in  his  manner  or  character,  designated 
to  the  crosier,  but  never  its  actual  possessor,  and 
oftener  seen  at  the  head  of  an  army  or  a  fleet  than 
at  the  altar  ;  for  the  rest,  well  experienced  in  state 
affairs,  and  ardent  in  hate  towards  the  Danish 
name.  Their  government,  for  we  may  speak  of  it 
as  conjoint,  was  an  uninterrupted  war  with  Den- 
mark, carried  on  by  yearly  predatory  expeditions, 
the  intervals  between  them  filled  up  with  ne- 
gotiations and  congresses,  which,  if  little  else  is  to 
bo  learned  from  them,  at  least,  through  the  names 
of  the  managers,  make  us  acquainted  with  the  per- 
sons who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  peace  party  in 
Sweden. 

Among  these  we  observe  the  lord  Eric  TroUe, 
with  a  great  proportion   of  the  council  and  all  the 
bishops  excepthig  Hemming  Gadd,  who   did    not 
scrujile  publicly  to  reproach  the  others  with  carry- 
ing Danish   hearts  under  the  mantle  of  Swedish 
bishops.      Proposals  were  continually  made  for  a 
new  recognition  of  king  John,  who  appealed  to  the 
emperor,  and  obtained   a  declaration  of  outlawry 
against  liis  Swedish  foes,  in  which  we  find  even  the 
deceased    Steno    Sture    included.      In    1509,   the 
plenipotentiaries  of  the  Swedish  council  in  Copen- 
Iiagen,   agreed   that   Sweden   should    pay    yearly 
13,000  Stockholm  marks,  of  which  twelve  and  a 
half  were  reckoned  equal  to  one    mark  of  silver, 
until  the  king  or  his  son  were  again  admitted  into 
the  kingdom.      But  Suanto  Sture  and  Hemming 
Gadd,  with  their  adherents,  protested  against  this 
compact,  "  because  the  commonalty,"  as  the  words 
run,  "  by  voice  and  hands  uplifted,  had  renounced 
king  Hans  and  all  his  descendants,  and  were  not 
inclined  to  send  any  sura  of  money  out  of  the  king- 
dom as  acknowledgment."     They  also  took  notice 
that  notliing  was  determined  respecting  the  restitu- 
tion of  Gottland,  and  reproached  the  king  that  he 
continued  with  his  sworn  brothers  the  Russians  to 
plot   mischief  against    Sweden.     In   the  following 
year,  ambassadors  from  Russia  came  to  Stockholm, 
and  concluded  a  peace  to  last  for  sixty  years.     An 
event  of  more  importance  was  the  intervention  of 
the    Hanse   towns   in   the    struggle.     These,  after 
their  alliance  with  Steno  Sture,  had    for  a  time 
composed  their  differences  with  the  king,  but  as  he 
continued   olistinateiy  to  shut  them  out    from  all 
commercial  intercourse  with  Sweden,  and  to  fill  the 
Baltic  with   privateers,  they  renewed  their  alliance 
with    Suanto    Sture,   and    in    1510,  declared  war 
against  Denmark.     Hemming  Gadd  received  the 
envoys  of  Lubeck  in  the  Swedish  council  with  a 
long  oration,  in  which  he  gave  vent  to  all  his  hate 
against  the  Danes,  describing  them  as  a  nation  of 
robbers,  who,  with  continual  blasphemies  on  their 
tongue,  lurked  among  the  sand-banks  of  Jutland 
for   the   spoils    of    shipwreck,   plundered   trading 
vessels  sailing  through  the  Sound,  and  gathered 
upon  their  islands  a  scum  of  all  nations,  subsisting 
on   the  trade   of   piracy  ^.     With    the  support   of 
Lubeck  he  was  now  able  to  blockade  by  sea,  and 
eventually  to  capture,  the  castle  of  Calmar,  called 
by  the  Danes  the  key  of  Sweden,  which  had  been 

chnsen,  the  latter,  because  they  had  promoted  the  choice. 
Hemming  Gadd,  to  wliom,  in  consequence  of  this,  the  council 
had  denied  investiture  in  the  bisliopric,  at  lent,'th  gave  up  all 
claim  to  it  in  1512.  Next  year  Bishop  John  lirask  was 
chosen,  who  was  confirmed  by  the  pope,  on  condition  of 
paying  a  yearly  income  to  the  above-mentioned  cardinal. 
3  Joannes  Magnus. 


already  besieged  for  six  years.  Ocland  and  Bork- 
holm  were  also  recovered  by  him,  nor  was  he 
deterred  by  an  age  of  seventy  years  from  taking 
part  in  the  cruise  of  the  Hanseatic  squadron  against 
the  Danish  islands,  or  by  liis  ecclesiastical  office 
from  plundering  and  threatening  with  conflagration 
the  monasteries  of  Laland,  in  revenge  for  the 
desolation  of  Finland  and  the  burnuig  of  Abo  by 
the  Danes. 

In  an  incursion  into  Halland  and  Scania,  fell  the 
valiant  Acho  Johanson,  whose  slayer  was  rewarded 
by  king  John  with  letters  of  nobility.  West  Goth- 
land was  devastated  by  prince  Christian,  from 
Norway  ;  the  administrator,  who  marched  against 
him,  not  risking  a  battle,  but  endeavouring  to 
entice  the  prince  into  the  forest  of  Tived.  Chris- 
tian however  turned  aside  to  East  Gothland,  and 
was  driven  back  by  the  peasantry.  During  this 
warlike  turmoil  Suanto  Sture'  expired  on  the  2nd 
January,  1512  ;  his  death  occurring  suddenly  at 
Westeras,  while  a  consultation  was  proceeding 
relative  to  a  silver  mine  newly  discovered.  The 
assembled  miners  immediately  made  themselves 
masters  of  the  castle  of  Westeras,  and  having,  be- 
fore the  news  of  the  death  of  their  beloved  chief 
had  spread  abroad,  secured  by  his  partisans  that  of 
Stockholm  likewise,  they  immediately  despatched  a 
letter  in  the  name  of  the  deceased  to  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  realm,  calling  upon  them  to 
acknowledge  his  son,  the  young  Steno  Sture,  as  his 
successor. 

Steno,  surnamed  the  younger,  son  of  Suanto,  by 
his  first  marriage*,  antl  his  only  surviving  child, 
the  noblest  and  most  chivalrous  of  his  family, 
although  flatterers  sometimes  abused  his  youthful 
inexperience,  was  regarded  with  great  love  by  the 
people,  for  the  alleviation  of  whose  burdens  he  often 
employed  his  influence  with  his  father.  The 
younger  barons  appear  also  to  have  been  favour- 
able to  him,  while  their  elder  compeers  and  the 
council  were  zealous  for  Eric  TroUe',  a  learned 
nobleman,  of  whom  Gustavus  I.  remarks,  "  that  he 
showed  himself  more  fit  for  the  priesthood  than  for 
the  functions  of  secular  government  ^."  The  prin- 
cipal lords  who  attended  entered  into  a  covenant, 
which  they  confirmed  by  oath,  to  resist  with  all 
their  strength  those  who  designed  to  strip  the 
council  of  state  of  that  privilege,  power,  and  autho- 
rity, belonging  to  it  from  of  old  according  to  the 
laws  of  Sweden,  namely,  of  regulating  the  govern- 
ment when  the  country  was  without  a  king  ;  bind- 
ing themselves  therewithal  to  restore  harmony 
with  Denmark,  which  had  already  concluded  a 
peace  with  the  Hanse  towns  <>.  Both  parties  re- 
mained in  arms  against  each  other,  and  when  at 
length  the  council  was  obliged  to  yield,  the  exaspe- 
ration of  men's  minds  was  so  great,  that  the  feast 
with  which  the  election  of  Steno  Sture'  was  cele- 
brated in  the  castle  of  Stockholm,  did  not  pass 
over  without  the  spilling  of  blood  ^ 

King  John  died  on  the  21st  of  February,  1513  ; 
even  by  the  testimony  of  Swedish  writers,  a  pious 

-I  With  Iliana  Giidda. 

s  See  the  letter  of  Gustavus  to  his  sons  Eric  and  John, 
concerning  the  chronicle  of  Olave  Peterson.  Script.  Rer. 
Suec.  ii.  sectio  posterior,  p.  153. 

c  In  Malmb,  April  23,  1512. 

"  Eric  Abrahamson  (Lejonhufvud),  who  belonged  to  the 
Danish  faction,  transfixed  with  his  sword  another  noble  who 
was  present. 


78 


Papal  b»n  and  Interdict 
on  the  Swedes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Christian  ll.'s 
Invasion. 


I        A.  D. 

11513—20. 


aud  honest  man  ',  though  occasionally  violent  and 
cruel,  as  the  murder  of  his  secretary  and  chancellor 
proves".  He  was  subject  to  attacks  of  moody  and 
savage  caprice,  which  sometimes  irritated  him  to 
frenzy,  and  was  inherited  in  too  great  measure  by 
his  son. 

Christian  II.,  called  in  Sweden  the  ungentle, and 
also  the  tyrant,  whose  administration  in  Norway 
had  already  been  stained  with  blood,  and  wlio  now 
succeeded  his  father  in  that  country  as  in  Den- 
mark, laid  claim  also  to  the  Swedish  throne,  to 
which  he  was  once  elected,  and  commenced  nego- 
ciations,  whereby  the  truce  concluded  with  Den- 
mark was  several  times  renewed.  In  1516,  the 
war  broke  out  anew,  produced  by  the  intestine 
commotions  which  the  new  archbishop  Gustavus 
Trolle  excited.  This  prelate  sprung  from  a 
family  linked  with  the  Union  interest  by  its  large 
possessions  in  Denmark,  and  which  for  two  gene- 
rations back  had  been  inimical  to  the  Sture's.  An 
attempt  had  already  been  made  by  one  faction  to 
set  up  his  grandfathei",  Arvid  TrolM,  against  Steno 
the  elder,  while  his  father  Eric  Trolle'  had  lost  the 
government  by  the  election  of  the  younger  Sture. 
This  Gustavus  Trolls  was  of  a  temper  that  never 
forgave  a  past  wrong,  real  or  fancied,  although  the 
administrator  liimself,  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion, had  promoted  his  election  to  the  archbishopric. 
Their  animosities  now  led  to  open  war,  in  conse- 
quence whereof  Gustavus  Trolle,  after  a  Danish 
fleet  had  fruitlessly  endeavoured  to  relieve  him, 
was  unanimously  declared  at  the  diet  of  Arboga  to 
have  forfeited  his  office,  and  his  fortified  castle  of 
Stacket  was  demolislicd.  Next  year  Christian 
himself  accomplished  a  landing  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Stockholm,  but  suffered  a  complete  over- 
throw from  Steno  Stur^.  In  this  battle,  fought  at 
the  Brenn-kirk,  July  22,  1518,  and  celebrated  in  a 
popular  ballad,  the  Swedish  banner  was  borne  by 
the  young  Gustavus  Ericson  Vasa.  Being  after- 
wards sent  as  a  hostage  to  the  Danish  fleet  on 
occasion  of  a  pei'sonal  interview  which  the  king 
requested  with  the  administrator,  he  was  carried 
off  prisoner  to  Denmark,  contrary  to  the  pledged 
faith  of  the  former,  along  with  Hemming  Gadd  and 
four  other  Swedish  nobles.  Thither  Christian  also 
returned,  after  he  had  so  treacherously  broken  off 
the  negociations  which  he  had  himself  commenced. 
By  the  papal  command,  an  investigation  was  insti- 
tuted into  the  charges  which  the  deposed  arch- 
bishop had  brought  against  Steno,  at  the  see  of 
of  Rome.  A  spiritual  court  commenced  its  sittings 
in  Denmark  ;  the  administrator  with  all  his  ad- 
herents was  excommunicated,  and  the  whole  king- 
dom wjis  placed  under  an  interdict '. 

"  The  Swedes,"  says  Olave  Peterson,  "  did  not  in 
the  least  I'egard  this  ban  and  interdict."  Christian 
however  procured  the  execution  of  the  sentence  to 
be  committed  to  himself,  and  the  whole  of  the  year 
1519  was  spent  in  making  preparations.  New  taxes 
were  imposed  ;  levies  were  made  in  various  coun- 
tries ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  1520,  the  Danish  army 

8  Olave  Peterson. 

9  See  the  Relations  of  Andrew  the  secretary,  and  Paul 
Laxman,  in  Hvitfeld.  j 

'  Proclaimed  by  Birger,  Archbishop  of  Lund,  in  the  spring 
of  151 7.     T. 

"^  The  above  named  Eric  Abrahamson. 

'  See  Proclamation  of  the  Council  of  State  (Ricksens  Rads 
Utskrifveisc,  &c.),  respecting  the  tyrannical  government  of 


broke  into  Sweden  under  their  general  Otho  Krum- 
pen,  who  caused  the  papal  ban  to  be  affixed  to  all 
the  churches  upon  the  march.  Steno  encountered 
the  invaders  on  the  ice  of  lake  Asunden,  by  Boge- 
sund,  in  West-Gothland  ;  he  was  wounded  in  the 
opening  of  the  battle,  and  obliged  to  be  carried 
out  of  the  conflict,  the  issue  of  which  was  decided 
bj'  this  disaster.  Being  conveyed  to  Strenguess,  he 
soon  received  intelligence  that  the  Danes,  to  whom 
a  Swedish  nobleman  *  pointed  out  the  way,  had  sur- 
rounded the  entrenchment  in  the  forest  of  Tived, 
cut  to  pieces  the  troojis  stationed  there,  and  were 
already  on  their  march  to  Upland.  Collecting  the 
remains  of  his  strength,  he  hastened  to  Stockholm, 
but  died  in  his  sledge  upon  the  ice  of  Lake  Malar, 
Februai'y  3,  1520.  By  his  death,  all  government 
in  Sweden  was  dissolved  ;  the  magnates  indeed  held 
consultations,  but  no  one  had  courage  to  command, 
or  will  to  obey.  The  country-people  gathered  in  the 
view  of  attempting  a  stand  against  the  enemy,  but 
from  want  of  a  leader  were  soon  dispersed  by  the 
foreign  soldiery,  whose  track  was  marked  by  liomi- 
cide  and  conflagration,  and  who  insolently  boasted, 
that  they  would  not  care  although  in  .Sweden  it 
should  rain  peasants  from  heaven.  The  heroical 
Christina  Gyllenstierna  alone,  widow  of  Steno,  and 
the  mother  of  four  children  still  of  tender  age,  did 
not  lose  heart ;  she  continued  to  defend  Stockholm, 
and  refused  to  accede  to  the  convention  ratified 
with  the  Danish  generals  at  a  baronial  diet  con- 
voked in  Upsala,  by  which  Christian  was  acknow- 
ledged king,  on  condition  that  he  should  govern  con- 
fonnably  to  tlie  laws  of  Sweden  and  the  treaty  of 
Calmar,  and  not  exact  vengeance  for  what  had 
passed.  These  engagements  were  personally  con- 
firmed by  the  king  upon  arriving  with  his  fleet  be- 
fore Stockholm,  with  the  express  addition,  that  the 
measures  adopted  against  Gustavus  Trolle,  who  was 
now  restored  to  his  office,  should  be  forgotten  and 
forgiven.  The  same  promises  were  repeated  in  the 
king's  letter  to  all  the  provinces,  and  being  seconded 
by  the  efforts  of  the  prelates  and  nobility,  com- 
pletely disarmed  the  resistance  still  kept  up  by  the 
people.  These  assurances  were  again  renewed, 
when  Hemming  Gadd,  after  a  life  spent  in  strug- 
gling against  Danish  domination,  now  appeared  in 
his  old  age  as  its  advocate,  and  by  the  weight  of  his 
influence  at  length  induced  Christina  Gyllenstierna 
to  surrender  Stockholm,  although  against  the  wish 
of  the  burghers.  When  the  king  in  the  autunni 
returned  to  Sweden,  and  was  crowned  in  Stock- 
holm, he  once  more  confirmed  by  oath  and  recep- 
tion of  the  sacrament  the  securities  he  had  given. 
But  at  this  very  moment  Christian  had  resolved 
that  the  blood  of  the  chief  men  of  Sweden  should 
be  shed,  although  he  himself  "  appeared  friendly  to 
all,  and  was  very  merry  and  pleasant  in  his  de- 
meanour, caressing  some  with  hypocritical  kisses, 
and  others  with  embraces,  clapping  his  hands, 
smiling,  and  displaying  on  all  hands  tokens  of 
affection'."  The  instigator  of  this  resolution  was 
Theodoric  Slaghoek,  formerly  a  barber,  and  a  reta- 
king Christian  in  Sweden,  Strengness,  .Tune  6,  1523;  in 
Stiernman,  Acts  of  Diets  and  Conventions  (Riksdags  och 
Miitens  Beslut),  vol.  i.  It  was  Christian's  manner  thus  to 
conceal  his  designs.  Tyrannus  est  statura  justa,  corpore 
amplo,  tnici  vultu ;  sed  quem  in  congressibus  praecipua 
comitate  contegat,  are  the  words  of  Jacob  Ziegler,  who  de- 
scribes the  massacre  of  Stockholm  after  contemporary  ac- 
counts, in  an  appendix  lo  his  Scandia. 


A.   D.  > 
1520.  5 


Charge  by  the  archbishop. 
Massacre  of  Stockholm. 


DANISH  DOMINATION. 


Cruelties  of  the  king. 
His  departure. 


79 


tive  of  Sigbrit,  a  Dutch  huckster,  who  by  tlie  beauty 
of  her  daughter  had  gaiued  an  ascendant  over  the 
khig's  mind,  which  she  had  tact  enough  to  preserve 
during  his  whole  reign  *. 

On  the  third  day  of  the  solemnities  which  fol- 
lowed the  coronation,  the  gates  of  the  castle  of 
Stockholm  were  unexpectedly  barred,  and  the  arch- 
bishop Gustavus  Trolle  came  into  the  king's  pre- 
sence, to  complain  of  the  violences  and  injuries 
suffered  by  himself  and  the  archiepiscopal  see  of 
Upsala,  at  the  hands  of  the  deceased  administrator, 
for  which  he  now  demanded  satisfaction.  He  was 
probably  himself  ignorant  of  the  atrocities,  for  the 
perpetration  of  which  he  was  to  be  used  as  an  m- 
strument.  He  is  said,  as  we  may  conclude  from  a 
contemporary  account,  to  have  maintained  that  the 
question  of  punishment  and  compensation  must  be 
referred  to  Rome,  but  the  king  negatived  his  pro- 
posal, declaring  tliat  the  matter  should  be  adjudi- 
cated forthwith.  As  the  prelate's  charges  were 
really  directed  against  Steno  Sture,  his  widow 
Christina  Gyi.lenstier.va  stood  up  and  appealed  to 
the  resolution  of  the  estates,  whereby  Gustavus 
Trolls  was  unanimously  declared  to  have  forfeited 
his  dignity,  and  which  the  principal  spiritual  and 
secular  lords  had  subscribed  under  an  express 
obligation  to  common  responsibility.  Such  of  these 
as  were  now  present,  and  among  them  two  bishops, 
were  immediately  seized  and  thrown  into  prison  *  ; 
the  remainder  were  confined  over  night  in  the 
castle,  the  clergy  in  a  separate  chamber.  Next 
morning,  the  question  was  proposed  to  them,  whe- 
ther it  were  not  heresy  to  confederate  and  conspire 
against  the  holy  see  of  Rome,  which  they  were  con- 
strained to  answer  in  the  affirmative.  This  was 
regarded  as  a  delivery  of  sentence  and  condem- 
nation. On  the  same  morning  public  proclamation 
was  made,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Stockholm  should 
not  quit  their  houses  before  the  signal  was  given. 
It  was  the  eighth  of  November,  1520.  Towards 
mid-day  the  burghers  were  summoned  to  the  great 
market-place,  uiJOU  which  the  captives  were  now 
led  forth  ;  Matthias,  bishop  of  Strengness,  who  had 
laboured  more  to  advance  the  Danish  party  than  any 
other  man  in  Sweden, — Vincent,  bishop  of  Skai'a, — 
twelve  temporal  lords,  most  of  them  councillors  of 
state,  and  lastly,  the  burgomasters  and  council  of 
Stockholm,  with  many  of  the  burgesses.  Nicholas 
Lycke,  a  Danish  knight,  spoke  to  the  people,  and 
exhorted  them  not  to  be  alarmed  at  what  was  about 
to  happen,  saying  that  the  archbishop  Gustavus 
TrolliJ  had  thrice  adjured  the  king  upon  his  knees 
to  suffer  that  this  punishment  should  overtake  the 

•<  Memoirs  for  the  History  of  Scandinavia,  Stockholm, 
1817,  iii   6. 

*  B-shop  Hans  Brask  of  Linkdping,  who  had  secretly 
placed  a  protest  under  the  seal  with  which  he  had  ratified 
the  above  named  act,  was  left  free,  as  was  Otho,  Bishop  of 
Westeras,  who  had  supported  the  archbishop  in  his  accu- 
sation. 

6  Me  vidente  ac  trepidante,  lie  says  himself. 

7  The  south  suburb,  where  St.  Catherine's  churcli  now 
stands. 

8  November  9,  1520. 

9  Olave   Peterson.      (Some   of  Christian's  retinue   were 


guilty.  At  this  bishop  Vincent  raised  his  voice, 
exclaiming  that  nothing  of  it  was  true,  and  that 
the  king  was  a  traitor  against  the  Swedes.  Several 
of  the  captives  began  to  call  out  to  the  same  effect, 
but  were  silenced  by  the  executioners.  All  were 
beheaded  ;  the  consolations  of  religion  being  denied 
them.  Handicraftsmen  were  dragged  from  their 
work  to  the  slaughter  ;  and  bystanders  were  also 
pulled  into  the  circle  by  the  headsmen,  who  did 
their  bloody  office  upon  them,  because  they  had 
been  seen  to  weep.  The  brothers  Olave  and 
Laurence  Peterson  escaped  a  like  fate  only  from 
tli(i  circumstance  that  a  German  who  had  known 
them  in  Wittenberg  protested  that  they  were  not 
Swedes.  Olaus  Magnus  saw  ninety-four  persons 
beheaded"  ;  others  were  hanged  or  butchered  with 
the  keenest  torments.  During  the  night,  the  houses 
of  the  killed  were  plundered,  and  the  women  out- 
raged. The  assassinations  were  continued  for  a 
second  and  third  day,  after  public  proclamation  of 
peace  and  security  had  enticed  new  victims  from 
their  retreat.  The  corpses  lay  for  three  days  on  the 
market-place,  before  they  were  carried  out  of  the 
town,  and  burned  at  Sodermalm  '.  Steno  Sture''s 
body,  with  that  of  one  of  his  children,  was  torn 
from  the  grave  and  cast  upon  the  funeral  pile. 
Before  the  massacre  had  terminated,  the  king  de- 
spatched letters  to  all  the  provinces  ",  purporting 
that  he  had  caused  Steno  Sturm's  chief  abettors  to  be 
punished  as  notorious  heretics,  placed  under  the  ban 
of  the  church,  according  to  the  sentence  of  the  bi- 
shops, prelates,  and  wisest  men  of  Sweden,  and  that 
he  would  hereafter  govern  the  kingdom  in  peace  after 
the  laws  of  St.  Eric.  Meauwhile  the  massacre,  in 
conformity  with  his  command,  was  e.\tended  to 
Finland,  where  Hemming  Gadd  was  not  saved  by 
his  defection  from  laying  his  head,  at  the  age  of 
eighty,  upon  the  block.  The  king's  whole  progress 
from  Stockholm  continued  to  be  marked  by  the 
same  cruelties,  not  even  the  innocence  of  childhood 
being  spared.  More  than  six  hundred  heads  had 
fallen  before  he  quitted  the  Swedish  territory,  at 
the  begmning  of  1521  ^. 

While  these  horrors  were  being  acted,  a  noble 
youth,  wandering  in  the  forests  of  Dalecarlia,  flee- 
ing before  the  emissaries  of  the  tyrant,  and  hidden 
from  his  pursuers,  sometimes  in  a  rick  of  straw, 
sometimes  under  fallen  trees,  or  in  cellars  and 
mines,  was  preserved  by  Providence,  whose  great 
soul  was  already  meditating  the  salvation  of  his 
country,  and  eventually  achieved  it  by  the  aid  of 
"  God,  and  Sweden's  Commonalty  ^" 


heard  to  say,  that  the  Swedish  peasants  might  thenceforth 
follow  the  plough  with  one  hand  and  a  wooden  leg.  In  all 
the  towns  through  which  the  king's  route  lay,  gibbets  were 
erected  before  his  arrival  in  the  market-place  ;  so  in  Linkd- 
ping, where  he  kept  his  Christmas.  In  the  monastery  of 
Nydala,  the  king  caused  the  abbot  and  five  monks  to  be 
bound  and  thrown  into  the  water,  because  they  had  con- 
cealed a  portion  of  their  stores  in  the  woods ;  the  abbot,  a 
young  active  man,  scrambled  out,  but  was  unmercifully 
thrust  back  again.  Dahlmann's  History  of  Denmark,  iii. 
348—9.     T.) 

'  Device  of  Gustavus  I. 


so 


General  character  of 
this  period. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Tlie  monarchy  a 
federation. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


LAND  AND  PEOPLE  DURING  THE  CATHOLIC  PERIOD. 

THE  SWEDISH  FEDERATIVE  SYSTEM.  THE  YEOMAN  AND  IIIS  RIGHTS.  LAW  AND  JUDICATURE.  POWER  OF 
THE  CROWN.  THE  CHURCH.  THE  NOBILITY.  THE  BURGESSES.  TAXES.  BOUNDARIES  OF  THE  KINGDOM. 
CULTIVATION.      MINES.      TRADE.      COINAGE.       MANNERS. 


Sweden's  middle  age  is  full  of  confusion,  and 
destitute  of  that  splendour  which  fasciniites  the 
eye.  Whatever  of  pomp  and  grandeur  the  hier- 
archy, feudalism,  powerful  and  flourishing  cities, 
exhibited  in  the  rest  of  Europe  during  those  times, 
extended  but  in  a  small  degree  to  this  region  ;  and  if 
we  put  faith  in  common  assertions,  many  admu-able 
qualities,  which  distinguished  our  Pagan  ancestors, 
must  have  perished  with  heathenism,  and  have 
been  replaced  in  great  part  by  new  vices  and  errors 
of  belief.  To  us,  neither  the  old  excellence  nor  the 
new  corruptions  are  fairly  apparent.  In  the  gloom 
of  Paganism  there  is  ample  scope  for  the  play  of 
imagination,  if  we  refuse  to  hear,  in  the  complaints 
of  a  desolated  world,  the  witness  of  the  reality. 
From  the  so-called  energy  of  the  Northmen,  Europe 
suffered  severely  ;  and  of  the  calamities  which  its 
own  excesses  brought  upon  tliemselves,  after  they 
were  reduced  to  seek  their  fields  of  battle  in  civil 
wars  at  home,  the  annals  of  the  northern  middle 
age  furnish  abundant  proof.  But  no  one  can  deny 
that  the  people  of  Sweden  best  withstood  that  trial 
in  which  Norway  lost  its  political  independence, 
and  Denmark  the  freedom  of  its  people,  lu  Sweden 
both  were  securely  established,  and  this  issue  is 
sufficient  to  awaken  interest  for  an  age  which  had 
not  laboured  in  vain,  when  such  was  to  be  its  re- 
sult. This  struggle  of  our  middle  age  we  will  here 
attempt  to  comprehend  and  to  appreciate. 

Repartition  according  to  ties  of  kindred  and  com- 
panionship in  war,  appears  to  have  formed  the 
groundwork  of  the  social  structure  among  our 
ancestors,  of  which  the  simplest  elements  were  the 
family  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Hundred  on  the 
other.  From  the  arrangement  of  battle  by  cen- 
turies'  (whence  the  name  hundari  or  hnerad^), 
sprang  a  confederacy  for  mutual  jirotection  during 
peace,  a  social  union  founded  upon  compact,  as  the 
family  was  one  primary  and  formed  after  nature. 
New  relations  of  this  compact  were  continually  un- 

2  Or  more  accurately,  by  companies  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty;  for  our  forefathers  reckoned  ten  dozen  to  the  hundred, 
which  in  some  provinces  is  still  called  sinrhundrade,  or  long 
hundred.  The  division  by  hundreds  is  found,  both  as  re- 
gards the  name  and  the  fact,  in  Tacitus  Icenteni  ex  singulis 
pagis,  idque  ipsum  inter  suos  vocantur),  who  besides  remarks 
that  the  army  was  arranged  clan-wise.  Nee  fortuita  con- 
glohatio  turmam  aut  cumeum  facit  sed  familias  et  propin- 
quitates. 

'  Har,  army,  means  in  a  more  narrow  sense  a  number  of 
one  hundred,  according  to  the  Edda.  Htrrad  was  the  term 
usual  in  Gothland ;  hundari  in  Swedeland  ;  as  may  be  seen 
from  the  old  laws.  The  hccrads  were  again  divided  into 
fierdingar,  fourths,  whence  the  Jierdings-ting,  or  quarter- 
court  spoken  of  in  the  laws,  but  this  arrangement  is  now 
obsolete,  though  the  name  and  office  of  fierdlngs-man,  or 
quarter-man,  among  the  peasants,  may  be  thence  derived.  In 
the  Westgothic  law,  that  part  of  a  hundred  over  which  a  ' 


folded,  and  at  the  end  of  the  heathen  period,  the 
whole  polity  wears  the  appearance  of  a  confedera- 
tion ;  every  Hundred  a  league  between  the  free 
householders,  every  Land,  or  every  province  with- 
in boundaries  pointed  out  by  nature,  an  association 
of  certain  Hundreds  united  under  a  common  law  ; 
and  the  realm  itself,  an  association  of  the  various 
provinces  or  nations  (as  they  were  still  called  in 
the  fifteenth  century)  under  the  Upsala  king,  the 
manager  of  the  common  sacrifices,  as  lord  para- 
mount. He  was  called  Folk-king  *,  by  way  of  dis- 
tinction from  many  others  who  at  first  shared  his 
power.  For  the  name  of  king,  properly  denoting 
high  birth  in  general,  was  long  borne  in  common  by 
the  shepherds  of  the  people,  the  smaller  as  well  as 
the  greater,  the  chief  of  the  Hundred  as  well  as 
the  sovereign  ;  until  at  length  the  sub-kings  dis- 
appeared from  the  country  (though  recurring  at 
sea  and  in  warfare),  and  in  their  place  appear  the 
Justiciaries  or  Lagmen,  the  elected  judges  and 
speakers  of  the  vai-ious  provinces,  tliemselves 
yeomen  without  titles*,  and  protectors  of  the  peo- 
ple against  such  as  bore  titles. 

The  judicatory  power  is  as  old  as  the  social 
union.  Among  the  ancient  Germans,  a  jurisdic- 
tion exercised  by  elected  judges  in  conjunction 
with  the  Hundred  ap])ears  to  have  subsisted  ^.  But 
the  employment  of  the  judicial  office  in  the  Lag- 
men  as  a  sort  of  tribunate,  counterbalancing  the 
nobility,  was  an  arrangement  peculiar  to  the  north, 
and  probably  a  defensive  expedient  on  the  popular 
side  against  the  rising  pretensions  of  the  court-men, 
or  warriors  bound  by  personal  service  to  the  kings, 
and  sharing  wiih  them  the  dangers  of  the  field 
and  importance  at  home.  To  be  in  this  fashion 
the  king's  man  became,  from  being  a  condition  of 
dependence,  an  honour,  and  imparted,  after  bril- 
liant achievements,  even  during  peace,  an  authority 
which  might  easily  become  dangerous  to  the  rights 
of  the  commons.  Thus  was  created  from  the  court, 

namnde-man  (or  assessor  in  the  court)  had  the  supervision, 
is  called  skire,  the  English  shire.  The  division  into  hun- 
dreds is  still  used  throughout  all  that  part  of  the  country 
extending  to  the  Dal-elf.  Beyond  that  stream  and  in  Norr- 
land,  both  repartition  and  cultivation  are  more  recent.  The 
hundreds  on  the  coast  were  formerly  and  are  still  partially 
called  skepps-lag,  a  name  recalling  the  original  military 
import  of  the  whole  arrangement. 

■i  Thiod-konungr.  We  may  not  call  them  Folk-kings  who 
are  tributary,  the  Edda  says. 

■■  The  tignar-name.  Tign  means  honour,  dignity ;  pro- 
perly a  regal,  princely,  or  what  was  at  first  the  same,  noble 
dignity  ;  until  the  tignar-name  was  also  applied  to  the  prin- 
cipal officers  of  the  court. 

''  Tacitus  says  of  the  judges  among  the  Germans,  Cevleni 
singulis  ex  plebe  comites,  consilium  simul  et  aucloritas. 
adsunt.  Genn.  12.  According  to  northern  ideas,  we  should 
refer  this  to  a  hundred-court. 


strength  of  the  popular 
element. 


SWEDEN  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGE. 


Mofle  of  election. 
The  Kricsgait. 


81 


by  companionship  in  arms  with  the  king  ',  the  first 
nobility  of  service,  as  nobility  of  birth  had  arisen 
out  of  kindred  with  the  king  (for  all  nobility 
springs  out  of  the  royal  house)  ;  and  among  the 
Germanic  peoples  domiciled  by  conquest,  this  war- 
like household  of  the  kings  became  afterwards 
the  root  whence  by  the  hereditary  descent  of  the 
fiefs,  that  feudal  monarchy  grew  up  which  once 
governed  Europe.  To  Scandinavia  this  system,  in 
its  full  developement,  ever  i-emained  unknown  ; 
for  in  Denmark  alone,  of  the  northern  countries 
in  this  age,  were  fiefs  hereditarily  descendible,  or 
such  as  approximated  to  that  condition,  with  the 
consequences  thence  flowing  both  for  king  and 
people,  introduced  through  foreign  influence*. 
Within  the  limits  of  the  peninsula  itself,  the  old 
state  of  things  continued,  but  with  Christumity  as 
a  new  subject  of  dissension.  Among  the  powerful 
families,  who  neither  constituted  a  feudal  nobility, 
nor  wished  to  be  transformed  into  a  mere  nobility 
of  vassalage,  the  recollection  so  much  the  longer 
survived,  that  the  ancient  royalty  had  been  a  many- 
headed  polycracy.  We  see  in  effect  the  old  and 
untameable  race  of  uidependent  chiefs,  driven  from 
the  sea,  wasting  their  own  forces  and  those  of  the 
country  in  intestine  strife,  especially  in  Norway,  a 
land  disjointed  by  nature,  and  violently  united  by 
Harald  the  Fair-haired,  whose  older  history  is 
entirely  made  up  of  such  struggles,  and  tynes  away 
at  their  close  ;  as  stillness  reigns  upon  a  field  of 
battle,  when  the  leaders  lie  slain. 

The  contests  of  the  Swedish  middle  age  are 
characterized,  both  at  its  commencement  and  its 
end,  by  enhanced  activity  of  popular  influence, 
although  in  dissimilar  shapes.  Reposing  on  tiie 
religion  established  by  Odin,  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Upsala  kings  formed  the  key-stone  of  the  old 
Swedish  federative  system,  and  supplied  the  germ 
of  a  political  unity,  which  never  afterwards  wholly 
perished.  This  unity  was  betimes  so  conspicuous, 
that  the  government  struck  the  first  distant  ob- 
servers as  a  monarchy,  although,  even  according  to 
the  earliest  account  (that  of  Tacitus),  embracing 
several  commonwealths.  It  was  discovered  on 
closer  examination  that  here  popular  power 
bore  as  great  a  part  in  public  affairs  as  kingly 
domination  ;  and  hence  the  same  constitution 
which  to  the  teachers  of  Christianity  had  appeared 
monarchical  at  a  distance,  assumed  to  them,  when 
residing  in  the  country,  the  aspect  of  democracy. 
With  the  fall  of  the  old  religion,  the  bond  which  had 
linked  together  the  separate  provincial  confedera- 
tions was  dissolved.  After  the  extinction  of  the 
dynasty  of  Upsala,  conflict  arose  between  the  rival 
races,  each  claiming  to  nominate  the  sovereign  of 
the  whole  realm,  first  the  West-Goths,  the  earliest 
to  embrace  Christianity,  after  them  the  East-Goths  ; 
on  the  other  side  the  Upper  Swedes.  This  anta- 
gonism lasted  long,  with  frequent  changes  of 
dynasty,  until  the  Swedes,  at  length  becoming 
Christians,  were  placed  in  a  condition  again  to 
vindicate  the  pi'erogatives  which  they  had  pos- 
sessed under  the  old  form  of  society.    In  the  letter 

?  The  well-known  Comitatus  of  Tacitus. 

8  "  What  has  produced  a  greater  change  in  the  course  of 
government  among  our  ancestors  than  this,  that  the  people 
gradually  lost  their  freedom  .'"  says  Tyge  Rothe  of  Denmark. 
Polity  of  the  North,  ii.  248.  "  The  feudal  system  was  im- 
ported earlier  into  Denmark  than  into  the  other  countries  of 
the  north."     Ibid.  269. 


of  the  law,  the  ancient  confederation  was  again  re- 
newed, but  stripped  of  its  former  vitality,  under 
the  influence  of  the  chm'ch  and  the  nobility,  and  a 
regal  authority  which  rested  upon  their  supjwrt, 
and  was  eventually  overthrown  by  their  joint 
encroachments.  The  aristocracy  then  sought  a 
bulwark  for  their  power  in  the  Union,  until  the 
danger  of  foreign  oppression  appeased  the  rivalries 
of  provinces  and  races,  and  called  forth  the  Swedish 
people  united  by  adversity,  under  E.ngelbert  and 
the  Stures,  to  conflict  under  Gustavus  Vasa  to 
victory. 

The  transition  from  one  state  to  the  other  is 
formed  by  the  royalty  of  the  Folkungers,  which  we 
have  already  described  as  leagued  with  the  church 
and  the  nobility.  This  is  pre-eminently  tlie 
monarchy  of  the  Swedish  middle  age  ;  many  of  its 
features  were  borrowed  from  the  feudal  monarchy  ; 
it  is  in  fact  characterized  by  the  ascendency  of  the 
aristocracy.  And  yet,  how  little  is  all  this  to  be 
remarked  in  the  legislation  of  that  age  ! 

According  to  the  law,  Sweden  was  an  elective 
monarchy,  although  the  kingship  originally  went 
by  inheritance,  and  the  elective  and  hereditary 
principles  were  afterwards  intermingled.  The 
eldest  son  commonly  followed  his  father  upon  the 
throne,  and  even  when  it  was  contested  by  rival 
houses,  as  by  those  of  Eric  and  Swerker,  both  sides 
appealed  to  their  hereditary  right.  In  older  times 
it  was  not  unusual  for  two  brothers  to  reign  con- 
jointly, and  the  hereditary  right  appears  generally  to 
have  been  attached  rather  to  the  family  than  to 
the  per.son.  In  proportion  as  the  elective  scheme 
obtained  preponderance,  the  kings  showed  greater 
solicitude  for  the  performance  of  homage  to  their 
sons  during  their  own  lifetime.  The  right  of  elec- 
tion belonged  primarily  to  the  Folklands,  or  the 
inhabitants  of  Upland,  and  was  first  extended  in  the 
age  of  the  Folkungers  to  delegates  of  the  other 
provinces  in  elective  diets,  which  now  became 
general.     But  let  us  hear  the  law  itself  speak  ! 

In  the  law  of  Upland,  amended  by  king  Birger, 
and  confirmed  by  him  in  129G,  the  three  first  chap- 
ters of  the  section  relating  to  the  crown  (Konunga- 
balken),  which  we  give,  with  slight  modification,  in 
their  ancient  form,  run  as  follows  :  I.  "  Now  when 
these  lands  behove  to  choose  a  king,  then  shall  the 
three  Folklands  first  take  him  ;  these  are  Tiunda- 
laud,  Attundaland,  and  Fiadhundraland.  To  the 
Lawman  of  Upland  it  belongs,  first  to  doom  him  at 
Upsala  to  be  king  ;  then  all  the  Lawmen  one  after 
another,  of  the  Suthermen,  of  the  East-Goths,  of 
the  Ten  Hundreds  ",  of  the  West-Goths,  the  Neri- 
kers,  and  the  Westmen  •.  They  shall  ordain  him 
to  the  crown  and  the  kingship,  that  he  may  bear 
sway  and  govern  the  realm,  strengthen  the  law  and 
keep  peace  in  the  land.  Then  is  the  estate  of  Up- 
sala to  be  awarded  to  him.  II.  Now  hath  he  to 
ride  his  Ericsgait ;  they  shall  attend  upon  him, 
give  hostages  and  swear  oaths  ;  let  him  give  laws 
to  them  and  swear  peace.  From  Upsala  they  shall 
accompany  him  to  Strengianess  ^.     There  shall  the 

9  Tiohffirad  was  the  south-eastern  part  of  Smaland,  which 
constituted  a  separate  jurisdiction,  while  the  north-eastern 
portion  was  subject  to  the  justiciary  of  East-Gothland.  Com- 
pare Collins  and  Schlyter  on  the  law  of  East-Gothland,  399. 

1  The  inhabitants  of  Nerike  and  Westmanland. 

2  An  old  place  of  sacrifice  for  the  SuthermanUnders  or 
Siidermanians  (locus  idolorum  in  the  legend  of  St.  Eskill), 
now  the  town  of  Strengnas  (or  Strengness). 

G 


82 


Elective  Customs  of  the 
West-Gotl\s. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Privilege  of  tlie  Upper 
Swedes. 


Suthermen  take  it  up,  and  attend  him  with  greet- 
ings ^  and  hostages  to  Swintuna*.  There  shall  the 
East-Goths  meet  him  with  their  hostages,  and 
accompany  him  througli  their  land,  until  the  mid- 
dle of  the  forest  Holawidh  ^.  There  shall  the  Sma- 
landers  meet  him,  and  follow  him  to  the  stream 
of  Jima*'.  There  shall  the  West-Goths  meet  him 
with  greetings  and  hostages,  and  attend  him  to 
Ramundaboda '.  Then  shall  the  Nerikers  meet 
him  and  accompany  him  through  their  land,  and  so 
to  the  bridge  of  Uphoga  *.  There  shall  the  West- 
men  meet  him  with  greetings  and  hostages,  and 
attend  him  to  Eastbridge  ^.  Then  shall  the  Up- 
landers  meet  him,  and  follow  him  to  Upsala.  Then 
hath  the  king  come  lawfully  to  his  land  and  realm 
with  Uplauders  and  Suthermen,  Goths  and  Gott- 
landers ',  and  all  the  Smalanders  ;  then  hath  he 
duly  ridden  his  Ericsgait.  III.  Now  hath  he  to 
be  consecrated  to  the  crown  in  the  church  of  Up- 
sala by  the  archbishop  and  the  under-bishops. 
Then  hath  he  right  to  be  king  and  to  wear  the 
crown.  Now  belong  to  him  the  estate  of  Upsala, 
the  price  of  blood,  and  the  heritage  of  the  stranger  2. 
Then  may  he  give  fiefs  to  those  who  do  him  service. 
If  he  be  a  good  king,  God  grant  him  long  life." 

The  older  law  of  West-Gothland  speaks  only  of 
Swedes  and  Goths,  but  informs  us  more  exactly 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  reception  of  the  new 
king  by  the  province  was  conducted.  "  The  Swedes," 
it  is  said,  "  have  the  right  to  accept,  and  also  to  re- 
ject the  king.  He  shall  pass  from  the  upper 
country  with  hostages  into  East-Gothland.  Then 
shall  he  despatch  messengers  to  the  parliament  of 
all  the  Goths  ^.  Then  shall  the  Lawman  appoint 
hostages,  two  from  the  southern  and  two  from  the 
northern  part  of  the  land,  and  shall  send  with  them 
four  other  men  of  the  country.  They  shall  meet 
him  at  the  stream  of  Juna.  The  East-Gothland 
hostages  shall  attend  him  thither  and  bear  witness 
that  he  has  been  received  among  them  as  their  law 
prescribes.  Now  let  the  parliament  of  all  the  Goths 
be  convened  to  meet  him.  When  he  arrives  at  the 
Ting,  he  shall  swear  truly  to  all  the  Goths  that  he  will 

3  Grud  or  grid,  peace,  security. 

*  Now  Krokek,  in  the  midst  of  the  forest  Kolmord. 

5  Hohveden,  the  chain  of  wood-covered  hilis,  which  still 
forms  the  boundary  hetween  East-Gothland  and  Smaland. 

s  A  river  runnuig  into  lake  Vetter  at  Jonkoping. 

'  In  the  forest  of  Tived.  The  place  is  now  called  Bodarne. 
Here  in  Catholic  times  was  a  monastery  in  the  middle  of 
the  wood,  as  at  Krokek  in  the  Kolmord. 

6  Over  the  Opboga  or  Arboga  stream,  at  the  east  end  of 
the  forest  of  Kaglan. 

9  Over  the  Sag  at  Nyquarn,  the  frontier  between  Upland 
and  Westmanland. 

1  Gutar. 

2  Dulgadrapanddana-arf.  The  formername  was  applied  to 
a  murder  of  which  the  perpetrator  could  not  be  discovered, 
and  for  which  the  hundred  paid  the  fine.  The  latter  means 
the  property  of  foreigners  who  died  in  the  kingdom  without 
heirs. 

3  Aldra  Gota  Ting.  So  the  provincial  diet  of  the  West- 
Goths  was  called. 

■*  In  the  Legend  of  St.  Eric.  According  to  the  Edda  and 
Heimskringla,  Rik  was  the  first  in  northern  lands  who  took 
the' title  of  king.  Domestic  legends  and  popular  songs  in 
Sweden  name  the  first  king  Eric.  Hence  perhaps  Eriks- 
gata  in  the  sense  of  king's  way,  unless  with  Ihre  we  explain 
the  word  as  "  a  progress  round  all  the  kingdom,"  since  e  in 
composition  means  all.  (/?;/•,  in  Swedish,  is  kingdom.)  A 
similar  royal  progress  is  mentioned  both  among  the  Franks 


not  wrest  the  right  law  of  our  land.  Then  shall  the 
Lawman  first  adjudge  him  to  be  king,  and  tliere- 
after  the  others  whom  he  shall  command.  Then 
shall  the  king  give  peace  to  three  men,  being  such 
as  have  committed  no  shameful  crime."  Such  was 
the  strict  order  taken  in  old  days,  that  the  king 
upon  these  occasions  should  only  enter  the  province 
"  as  the  law  enjoins,"  that  the  West-Goths,  when 
king  Ragwald  Curthead  came  to  their  parliament, 
without  having  received  the  appointed  hostages, 
slew  liim  "  by  reason  of  the  disparagement  he  had 
offered  "  to  all  the  community.  As  this  event  be- 
longs to  a  period  earlier  than  that  of  St.  Eric,  the 
opinion  of  those  who  derive  the  Ericsgait  from  that 
prince  appears  to  carry  no  weight,  although  it  is  ex- 
pressly related  of  him,  "  that  he  fared  all  round  his 
kingdom  in  right  royal  fashion  *." 

This  royal  progress,  also  remarkable  as  indicating 
the  ancient  extent  of  the  kingdom,  remained  un- 
changed, although  the  inmiber  of  provinces  en- 
titled to  vote  at  the  election  of  the  king  increased 
in  process  of  time.  The  law  of  Upland  still  limits 
the  strict  right  of  election  to  the  Folklands,  whose 
decision  in  the  matter  was  only  communicated  to 
the  rest  of  the  provinces  during  the  Ericsgait,  for 
tlieir  confirmation.  It  was  this  right  of  the  Upper 
Swedes  to  dispose  of  the  crown,  inherited  from  the 
days  of  paganism,  which,  after  the  introduction  of 
Christianity,  was  the  subject  of  so  many  contests. 
It  was  confirmed  in  the  law  of  Upland  after  it  had 
lost  from  the  power  of  the  magnates  almost  all  im- 
portance, but  it  was  soon  expressly  extended  to  the 
other  provinces.  The  law  of  the  Suthermen,  con- 
firmed in  1327,  says,  that  "all  the  council  of  Swe- 
den "  shall  take  part  with  the  Folklands  in  the 
election  ;  but  when  the  law  of  Upland  was  revised, 
the  justiciaries  had  been  already  received  into  the 
council,  and  the  provision  first  enacted  in  king 
Magnus  Ericson's  Land's  Law  of  1347,  for  the  con- 
joint participation  of  all  the  justiciaries  and  com- 
missioners from  the  various  provinces,  was  before 
observed  at  the    election  of  this  king  in   1319  ^■ 

and  in  Germany.  Compare  Grimm,  German  Legal  Anti- 
quities, p.  237. 

5  The  enactment  in  Magnus  Ericson's  Land's  Law,  that 
all  the  Lawmen,  with  twelve  "intelligent  and  skilled  men," 
from  every  province,  should  take  part  in  the  election  at 
the  Mora  Ting,  is  properly  derived  from  1319  (if  not  in 
point  of  fact  still  older),  according  to  what  is  stated  in  a 
manuscript  of  the  Sudermanian  law,  preserved  in  the  Royal 
Library  at  Copenhagen.  Here  that  regulation,  in  the  form 
in  which  it  is  found  in  the  general  codes  of  Magnus  Ericson 
and  Christopher,  is  adopted  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  sec- 
tion "  on  the  crown,"  with  the  remark  that  king  Magnus  had 
been  thus  elected  in  1319;  although  the  fomi  and  oath  of 
election  were  not  made  public  in  the  law-book  before  his 
days,  as  he  himself  efTected,  for  good  example.  In  the  same 
manuscript  a  more  detailed  description  of  the  Erics-gait  is 
given  than  in  any  other  source.  The  oaths  were  to  be  taken 
in  Strengness,  Linkiiping,  Jiinkijping,  Skara,  Orebro,  and 
Westeras.  It  is  also  mentioned  that  Magnus  rode  his  Erics- 
gait in  1335,  and  probably  the  manuscript  is  not  much  more 
recent.  Hence  it  is  plain  that  although  the  old  form  of  elec- 
tion is  still  adopted  in  the  Sudermanian  law  of  1327,  only 
with  the  addition  of  the  council  sharing  therein,  the  new 
form,  with  the  participation  of  the  provincial  deputies,  had 
already  been  used  in  king  Jlagnus  Ericson's  election,  and 
been  confirmed  by  him.  The  author  is  indebted  for  this 
observation,  as  well  as  generally  for  many  important  illus- 
trations of  the  subject,  to  Dr.  Schlyter.  A  safe  basis  for  the 
history  of  the  Swedish  constitution  in  the  older  times  was 


The  yeoman  and  his 
rights. 


SWEDEN  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGE. 


Law  of  inheritance. 
Birth-riglits. 


83 


Newly  added  justiciaries  are,  in  the  Suderraanian 
law,  the  Lawman  of  Vermeland,  in  the  Land's  Law 
those  of  Oeland,  with  North  and  South  Finland  ^. 
Here  also  we  find  a  more  complete  account  of  the 
mode  of  election.  This  was  held  on  the  meadow  of 
Mora,  one  mile '  from  Upsala,  whence  the  assembly 
itself  was  called  the  Mora  Ting.  The  justiciaries 
were  to  repair  thither,  every  one  attended  by  twelve 
men  "  discreet  and  well  skilled,"  chosen  with  the 
assent  of  all  the  resident  inhabitants  of  the  circuit 
(lagsaga).  The  voices  of  these  deputies  and  the 
Lawman  constituted  the  votes  of  the  province.  The 
justiciary  of  Upland  voted  first,  then  the  rest  in 
their  order.  Thereupon  the  king  swore  to  the  peo- 
ple, "  on  the  book  with  holy  relics  m  his  hands '," 
the  oath  embodied  in  the  law,  and  lifting  up  his 
hand,  promised  to  keep  to  God  and  his  people  what 
he  had  sworn,  and  by  no  means  to  break  it,  but 
rather  to  augment  it  by  every  good  work,  and  es- 
pecially by  his  royal  love.  In  like  manner  the 
justiciaries  and  the  people  took  their  oath  to  the 
king,  and  by  this  were  bound  both  young  and  old, 
the  living  and  the  yet  unborn,  friend  and  unfriend, 
the  absent  as  well  as  tlie  present.  This  was  called  to 
swear  by  or  at  jMora  Stone,  and  an  old  record  states 
that  the  Idng  immediately  after  his  election  was 
raised  upon  the  stone  '*.  It  was  now  mcumbent  on 
the  king  to  ride,  in  the  manner  before  mentioned, 
his  Erics-gait,  or  as  it  is  called  in  the  Land's  Law, 
"  to  ride  romid  his  realm  with  the  smi  (rattsyles)." 
After  the  general  code  had  replaced  the  provincial 
laws,  the  demand  for  the  individual  confirmation  of 
these  latter  was  no  longer  made,  but  the  king  on  his 
journey  through  the  shires,  gave  instead  and  re- 
ceived the  same  oath  which  had  at  first  been  reci- 
procally sworn  at  the  Mora  Stone.  Although 
restricted  in  exercise,  first  by  the  power  of  the 
magnates,  and  then  during  the  Union  by  the  influ- 
ence of  foreigners,  the  old  federative  system  legally 
subsisted  in  this  form,  so  long  as  a  Swedish  elective 
diet  was  known,  down  to  the  days  of  Gustavus 
Vasa. 

If  the  law  thus  sedulously  guarded  ancient 
liberty  in  matters  of  public  right,  we  might  con- 
clude beforehand  that  pi-ivate  right,  from  which 
the  former  had  emanated,  was  no  less  adequately 
secured  ;  as  the  root  of  the  tree  is  less  exposed 
than  its  crown  to  the  storm.  And  so  accordingly 
we  find  the  fact  to  be.  The  true  prop  and  life- 
spring  of  the  Swedish  constitution  was  the  odalbond 

lirst  laid  by  the  careful  and  excellent  editions  of  the  old 
laws  by  Collins  and  Schlyter. 

6  For  Norrland,  it  was  long  subject  to  the  Lawman  of 
Upland,  while  Dalecarlia  and  Westinanland  had  the  same 
judge.  The  Land's  Law  of  King  Christopher  adds,  that  in 
case  the  sovereign  could  not  himself  go  to  Finland,  the 
steward  or  some  other  member  of  council,  with  the  bishop 
of  Abo,  might  take  and  receive  the  oath  in  his  stead. 

7  Six  English  miles  and  a  half.     Tr. 

8  The  relics  of  saints. 

'  See  Attestation  of  a  Notary  Public  as  to  the  writing 
which  is  found  at  the  Mora  Stone,  touching  the  election  of 
Eric  of  Pomerania  to  be  king  of  Sweden,  dated  May  21, 
1434,  in  Hadorph's  Additions  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle. 
From  this  document  we  learn  that  for  every  new  king  a 
new  stone,  with  an  inscription  stating  the  time  of  the  elec- 
tion, was  laid  at  or  near  the  old  Mora  Stone.  This,  accord- 
ing to  the  account  of  Olaus  Magnus,  was  a  large  round  stone, 
so  supported  as  to  be  raised  a  little  above  the  ground. 
1  Around  were  placed  twelve  smaller  stones,  whence  it  would 
I    seem  that  the  whole    resembled    the    old  judicial    rings 


or  yeoman,  the  "  man  for  himself,"  freeholder  of 
his  gx'ound,  responsible  in  the  eye  of  the  law  for 
his  own,  towards  the  authorities  and  his  equals 
acknowledging  only  reciprocal  obligations,  which 
he  had  himself  accepted,  but  otherwise  naturally 
respecting  every  hereditary  right  i,  since  upon  that 
principle  his  whole  substance  depended.  To  his 
freedom  he  was  born  by  his  descent  (asttborin),  as 
to  his  odal-ground,  which  therefore  was  called  the 
property  he  was  born  to  as  his  old  birth- right 
(byrd),  and  as  a  family  possession  could  not  be 
diminished  or  alienated  without  the  consent  of  the 
kindred.  This  held  good  of  the  king  as  of  every 
other  person.  "  Now  if  the  king  will  sell  his  own, 
he  shall  offer  it  to  his  kinsmen,  as  well  he,  as  the 
peasant,"  says  the  Law  of  the  East-Goths,  which  in 
disputes  as  to  property  between  the  sovereign  and 
the  peasant  allows  more  weight  to  the  word  of  the 
latter,  in  order  that  the  influence  of  the  powerful 
may  not  lessen  the  odal-ground.  To  this  end  pre- 
cautions so  jealous  were  generally  taken,  that  even 
when  landed  property  was  taken  in  satisfaction  of 
a  fine,  a  right  was  reserved  to  the  relatives  of  the 
father  to  redeem  his  heritage,  to  those  of  the 
mother  hers  ;  and  the  church,  which  introduced  the 
notion  of  testamentary  bequests,  could  never  with 
all  its  influence  procure  that  legacies  for  the  soul's 
weal,  when  they  affected  the  patrimonial  groimd, 
should  be  unconditionally  acknowledged  valid  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  heirs.  Only  when  the 
kindred  did  not  redeem  the  birth-ground  upon 
proffer  made  *,  was  the  purchase  open  to  every 
man  ;  or  as  the  Dale  Law  says,  "  then  is  the  purse 
Odalsman."  That  the  daughter  inherited,  as  was 
at  first  the  case,  only  when  there  was  no  son,  or 
(according  to  Earl  Birger's  new  laAv  of  inheritance) 
received  only  half  the  brother's  share,  was  no 
doubt  likewise  an  expedient  to  prevent  the  sub- 
division of  the  family  estate,  and  for  the  same  end 
the  eldest  son  had  also  the  privilege  of  redeeming 
his  brothers'  portion  of  the  heritage  ^.  It  is  said 
indeed, "  it  is  best  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  ;" 
yet  any  one  who  wished  to  part  might  enforce  his 
choice  against  the  other  ;  in  which  point  the  law 
of  Upland  so  far  favours  the  youngest,  that  he 
might  take  his  allotment  "  next  to  the  sun,"  that 
is,  on  the  east  and  south,  for  every  bye  or  hamlet 
was  to  be  sun-split  (solskiftad),  or  laid  out  exactly 

(domare-ringar).  Some  of  the  smaller  stones  only,  with  the 
inscriptions  for  the  most  part  obliterated  by  the  weather, 
still  remain  on  the  spot.  In  the  time  of  Gustavus  I.  the  old 
Mora  Stone  had  already  been  removed,  as  we  find  by  the 
following  note  in  the  Palmskold  Collections:  "Anders 
Nilson  of  Edby,  parish  of  Denmark,  related,  August  6,  1623, 
that  his  father,  who  dwelt  in  the  same  grange,  was  one  of 
the  soldiers  who  in  the  time  of  old  king  Gustavus  searched 
for  the  real  Mora  stone,  but  could  not  find  it." 

1  Hence  the  Land's  Law  sanctions  the  old  custom,  that  in 
the  election  to  the  crown  preference  should  be  given  to  the 
king's  sons. 

2  Neither  could  the  estate  be  mortgaged,  which  was  for- 
merly regarded  as  a  kind  of  conditional  sale,  before  it  had 
been  offered  to  the  relatives.  A  man  might  alienate  what 
he  had  himself  acquired,  yet,  according  to  the  additions  to 
the  law  of  the  West-Goths  (iii.  lOS),  only  a  third  even  of 
purchased  ground,  a  right,  however,  which  was  afterwards 
extended.  One  method  of  keeping  property  from  the  legal 
heirs  otherwise  than  by  a  testament,  consisted  in  the  person 
giving  himself  to  be  the  thrall  of  another,  his  property  fol- 
lowing therewith.     This  was  forbidden  by  Earl  Birger. 

3  Law  of  the  East-Goths,  Eghna  Sal.  f.  1 1. 

C-2 


84 


Protection  of  privaie 
character. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Homicides  outlawed. 
The  inan-l)0te. 


by  the  cardinal  points  *.  So  late  as  the  thirteenth 
century,  although  piracy  was  no  longer  followed  as 
a  vocation,  the  peasant  had  not  abandoned  the  old 
custom  of  sending  off  his  sons  to  sea,  that  he  might 
gain  skill  and  substance  upon  the  waters,  or  else  in 
the  households  of  the  great ''. 

Life  and  honour  as  well  as  property  were  placed 
under  the  common  protection  of  the  kindred. 
Good  name  and  repute  were  so  narrowly  looked  to, 
that  when,  after  a  previous  legal  betrothment 
(which  the  families  thereby  connected  treated  as  an 
affair  of  high  importance),  the  bride  took  back  her 
word,  she  was  obliged  to  restore  the  spousal 
presents,  to  pay  a  fine  of  three  marks,  and  to  take 
an  oath  before  twelve  men,  "  that  she  now  knew  of 
no  more  defects  or  vices  in  her  former  wooer  and 
his  family,  than  when  she  was  sought  by  him  and 
betrothed."  The  same  law  ordained  that  "  if  the 
man's  liking  changed,"  the  spousal  presents  could 
not  be  demanded  back".  An  insult  must  be 
wiped  out  by  blood,  and  the  law  of  Upland  quotes 
as  a  provisiiin  "  of  the  old  law  which  was  used  in 
the  heathen  time,"  that  whosoever  upljraided 
anothei',  as  not  being  "  a  man's  match,  nor  a  man 
in  his  heart,"  should  render  himself  to  do  battle 
with  the  man  he  had  insulted,  at  a  spot  where 
three  ways  met.  If  the  person  against  whom  the 
words  had  been  spoken  came  not  to  the  meeting,  it 
is  said,  then  must  he  needs  be  such  a  one  as  he 
hath  been  called,  and  can  never  again  bear  valid 
testimony,  nor  take  oath.  If  the  person  who  spoke 
tlie  woiils  came  not,  he  was  to  be  publicly  pro- 
claimed infamous  (niding),  and  a  memorial  of  the 
fact  nmst  be  erected  at  the  spot '. 

Revenge  for  blood  was  a  sacred  obligation,  and  a 
right  acknowledged  by  law  ;  it  was  at  once  the 
dearest  heritage  ",  and  the  condition  of  every  other, 
for  in  the  olden  time,  if  the  father  lay  slain,  the 
son  could  not  inherit  until  he  had  avenged  him. 
But  in  order  that  revenge  might  not  continually 
generate  new  revenge,  the  law  essayed  its  earliest 
exercise  of  authority  in  reconcilement.  The  homi- 
cide, if  he  was  not  taken  in  the  fact,  must  himself 
give  it  publicity  ;  for  to  kill  secretly  was  murder 
and  an  infamous  crime.  He  was  bound  to  give 
himself  up  before  night-fall*,  and  afterwards  to 
appear  in  the  court  under  safeeonduct,  where  he 
might  offer  a  price  in  atonement  of  his  offence.  To 
the  prosecutor  was  left  open  the  alternative  of 
avenging  himself  or  of  accepting  the  fine  ;  the 
latter,  however,  was  at  first  so  rare,  that  the  law  of 
Gottland  declared  him  who  accepted  it  at  the  first 
offer,  even  after  the  expiration  of  a  year,  to  be  a 
shameless  person.  Meanwhile,  the  perpetrator  was 
an  outlaw  without  peace  and  right,  obliged  to  flee 
the  neighbourliood  of  inhabited  places  and  retire  to 
forests  and  wildernesses.  Hence  it  was  said  of  the 
man  who  sought  to  atone  for  his  crime  by  bote, 

*  111  the  division  of  landed  property  the  laws  required  that 
the  ground  should  be  measured  by  the  site  of  the  courtilege, 
or  as  they  express  it,  "  the  homestead  is  the  mother  of  the 
croft  "  (tomt  ar  tegs  moder),  no  doubt  in  the  view  that  each 
might  have  his  lot  near  hand.  In  a  legal  division  it  was 
also  a  general  maxim  that  all  should  share  alike  "  in  good 
and  bad,  in  the  best  and  in  the  worst,"  as  well  in  respect  to 
fields  and  meadows  as  forests. 

5  Law  of  the  East-Goths,  Drap  B.  f  5. 

0  Law  of  Westmanland,  Arf  B.  f.  4. 

7  Such  a  mark  was  called  Nidstang.  (Niding  is  our  word, 
nidiiig,  niderling.     T.) 


that  he  must  "ransom  himself  from  the  wood.' 
With  the  criminal  himself,  his  father,  son,  brother, 
or  nearest  relatives  were,  in  old  times,  obliged  to 
flee '  ;  only  certain  times  or  places  consecrated  to 
peace  gave  them  security.  This  outlawry  was  in  fact 
intended  less  as  a  punishment  than  as  a  means  of 
safety  for  the  accused.  Even  the  severe  Magnus 
Ladulas  says  of  the  man  who  flees  from  revenge, 
that  "  he  may  hide  himself  from  his  enemies  as 
well  as  he  can^  ;"  and  after  the  ordinary  wearing 
of  arms  was  forbidden,  one  in  such  circumstances 
was  still  allowed  "  to  carry  full  arms  for  his  defence, 
if  he  will  offer  botes  and  amend  his  fault-'."  But 
on  the  other  side  it  is  said,  ''  the  homicide  shall 
never  regain  his  peace  until  the  lawful  heir  of  the 
slain  man  entreats  for  him,  except  when  the  king 
is  newly-elected,  rides  his  Ericsgait,  and  makes  his 
entry  into  the  province  ;  then  may  he  grant  peace 
to  three  men  *."  Yet  to  this  peace  they  were  not 
admitted  before  the  heirs  were  appeased  by  the 
payment  of  the  mulct.  For  the  murder  of  a  man 
who  was  so  old  that  he  could  not  come  to  the 
court,nor  walk  without  a  crutch  (kroklokarl,  crutch- 
man),  and  for  the  murder  of  a  woman,  a  double 
mulct  was  paid.  Whosoever  broke  the  home- 
peace  of  any  man,  and  was  killed  in  his  assault 
within  the  curtilege,  lay  unavenged,  or  was  left 
"  with  his  deeds." 

The  compensation  was  at  first  paid  partly  to  the 
nearest  heirs,  on  whom  tiie  exaction  of  revenge 
was  incumbent,  and  partly  to  the  kindred  of  the 
slain  man  by  that  of  the  slayer '.  The  offender 
was  besides  required  to  swear  with  twelve  men  of 
his  family,  that  he  would  him.self  be  content  under 
like  circumstances  with  an  equal  bote.  This  was 
called  the  oath  of  parity,  corresponding  to  the  oath 
of  surety  ",  by  which  all  further  revenge  was  re- 
nounced. The  slayer  was,  besides,  for  breaking  the 
peace  obliged  to  pay  fines  to  the  king  and  the 
hundred,  which  is  thus  shown  to  have  formed 
a  union  for  the  maintenance  of  the  public  tran- 
quillity. The  share  of  the  hundred  in  the  fine 
represents  that  of  the  people  ;  hence  it  is  said  to 
have  been  paid  "  to  all  men,"  and  was  probably  of 
older  standing  than  that  of  the  king,  which  seems  at 
first  to  have  been  paid  only  wlien  he  gave  judg- 
ment in  person.  With  the  extension  of  the  royal 
power  the  kin-bote  gradually  ceased  ',  and  the  fine 
went  in  three  parts,  to  the  king,  the  hundred,  and 
the  prosecutor,  whose  right  to  personal  revenge 
was  more  and  more  limited,  until  at  length  homi- 
cide, unless  excused  by  imminent  danger  to  life, 
was  capitally  punished,  when  the  offender  was 
caught  in  the  fact.  In  other  cases,  if  the  perpe- 
trator came  before  the  king,  or  whosoever  speaks 
his  doom  in  Sweden,  and  confessed  his  crime,  he 
was  still  permitted  by  the  Land's  Law  of  1442,  to 

8  It  was  called  vig-arf,  hereditary  feud.  Law  of  the  Hel- 
singers,  Arf.  B.  f.  15. 

9  Dale  Law,  Manh.  B.  f.  22. 
■  Law  of  Gottland,  c.  13. 

2  Ordinance  of  Skenninge,  1285. 

3  King  Magnus  Ericson's  ordinance  of  IS.^S. 
■»  Law  of  the  East-Goths,  Drap  B.  f  5. 

'  yEtt(ir~bof,  kin-bote. 

6  Jamnader-ed.  Tryghder  ed.  Compare  Law  of  Scania, 
v.  SO. 

7  In  the  laws  of  the  Gothlands  and  Helsingland  we  find  it 
retained,  and  it  was  first  entirely  abolished  by  king  Magnus 
Ericson,  in  the  ordinance  of  .Skara,  13.S5. 


The  ordeals. 
Compurgalors. 


SWEDEN  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGE. 


Judicial  office  rnid 
power.     Mulci.s. 


n 


85 


ransom  himself  from  banishment,  and  receive  his 
peace,  if  the  prosecutor  were  content,  and  inter- 
ceded for  him. 

Thus  slowly  did  the  judicial  authority  assert  its 
due  sway  over  the  litigants  before  the  tribunals. 
In  the  beginning  these  had  taken  the  law  into  their 
own  hands,  wherefore,  in  times  foregone,  their  dis- 
putes could  often  be  adjusted  only  by  an  appeal  to 
what  was  called  God's  doom,  of  which  the  duel 
among  nations  of  the  same  stock  with  ourselves 
furnishes  one  example '.  That  this  was  also  prac- 
tised in  Sweden  is  clear  from  the  papal  prohibition 
issued  against  it,  although  no  further  mention  of  it 
is  made  in  the  Swedish  laws.  It  is  merely  al- 
luded to  in  that  of  Upland  as  a  Pagan  custom. 
Another  class  of  these  appeals  was  the  ordeal  by 
red-hot  iron,  first  abolished  by  Earl  Birger,  but 
permitted  nevertheless  by  the  law  of  Helsingland 
down  to  1320.  But  no  methi.d  of  proof  was  more 
extensively  used  than  the  oath  ;  to  submit  to  the 
oath,  and  to  submit  to  the  law,  are  phrases  which 
in  the  books  have  the  same  meaning.  Oath  was 
confinned  again  by  oath,  and  the  usage  so  long 
preserved  in  Swedish  judicial  procedure,  of  admit- 
ting compurgators  (edgardsmen,  oath-guarders), 
who  swore  to  an  oath  taken  on  one  side  as  being 
true  and  lawful ",  likewise  shows  how  long  the  in- 
fluence of  family  and  friends  was  in  a  certain 
measure  allowed  by  the  law  ;  for  originally  these 
compurgators  no  doubt  consisted  of  persons  who 
would  else  have  been  ready  to  grasp  their  arms  in 
the  cause  of  the  accused,  and  now  instead  appeared 
as  legitimate  auxiliaries  with  their  evidence.  In 
general  the  legal  forms  wei-e  these  ;  either  the  pro- 
secutor might  prove  by  witnesses  (vittna),  and  the 
accused  deny  (dylia)  by  his  own  oath  and  those  of 
his  compurgators,  or  a  jury  (nsemd)  usually  of 
twelve  men,  in  whom  both  parties  placed  con- 
fidence, might  investigate  the  cii'cumstances  and 
deliver  their  opinion  i. 

In  earlier  times  the  judge  was  elected  by  the 
people  2.  According  to  the  Land's  Law,  the  king 
noniicated  to  the  judicial  office  one  of  three  men 
whom  the  hundred  or  the  province  thereto  pro- 
posed. A  judge  was  considered  necessary  for 
every  sentence,  but  not  a  nsemd  for  every  proof; 
hence  at  first  it  was  only  chosen  for  the  occasion, 
in  causes  where  its  assistance  was  deemed  needful. 
That  this  body  should  make  its  authority  more  and 
more  felt,  was  a  result  entirely  conformable  to  its 
character.  Its  composition  ensured  impartiality, 
and  made  it  a  check  on  the  compurgators  when 
brought  in  support  of  a  party.  Gradually  the 
ntemd  became  permanent  ^  ;  the  bounds  separating 
its  functions  fi'om  those  of  the  judge  were  oblite- 
rated, and   it   has  finally  remained  a  constituent 

8  Deum  adesse  bellantibus  credunt,  says  Tacitus  of  the 
Germans. 

9  "That  those  who  beforehand  swore  had  sworn  both  truly 
and  legally."    Law  of  the  East-Goths,  Drap.  B.  f.  !■!. 

'  Judicial  causes  in  which  the  first  method  of  proof  was 
followed,  were  called  witnismal  (witness  causes);  those  of 
the  second  kind,  dulsmal  (denial  causes) ;  the  third,  naem- 
damal  (jury  causes).  Compare  Scblyter,  Observations  on 
the  controversy  regarding  the  former  relation  between  the 
Judge  and  the  Nsemd.     Svea  2.  25.5. 

2  "  The  lagman  all  the  yeomen  shall  choose,  with  God's 
help,"  says  the  Law  of  West-Gothland.  The  h;era(ls-hbfding 
as  judge  of  the  hundred,  and  the  lagman  as  judge  of  the 
province.     By  the  provincial  laws  of  Sweden   Proi)er  there 


portion  of  the  tribunal.  And  still  the  twelve  pea- 
sants, who  sit  in  tlie  Swedish  courts  throughout 
the  country  with  the  justice  of  a  province  (Lag- 
man)  or  a  hundred,  though  their  opinion  only 
holds  good  against  tiie  judge's  when  all  the  as.ses- 
sors  are  unanimous,  are  the  representatives  of 
natural  equity  in  the  tribunal.  "  Because,"  it  is 
said  in  the  charge  addressed  by  an  ancient  judge  to 
a  naemd,  after  the  institution  had  assumed  per- 
maneuc}',  "  all  cases  which  may  arise  cannot  be  set 
down  in  a  law-book,  but  where  no  written  law  is  to 
be  found,  men  must  borrow  their  decisions  from 
that  natural  law  which  God  hath  implanted  in  our 
hearts  and  brains,  therefore  the  law-book  saith  in 
many  places  touching  doubtful  questions,  let  the 
jury  of  the  hundred  examine  this.  Wherefore 
take  heed  for  the  weal  of  your  souls,  and  so  do  that 
ye  may  be  held  for  honourable  counsellors,  and  not 
for  trifling  jesters*." 

We  remark,  in  reference  to  the  execution  of 
judicial  sentences,  the  same  slowly  augmenting 
influence  of  public  authority,  as  in  the  declaration 
of  the  law  itself.  That  the  fines  fixed  by  law  mio-ht 
be  realized,  the  prosecutor  was  originally  empow- 
ered himself  to  take  ^  the  required  amount  from 
the  moveable  goods  of  the  culprit ;  provided  it 
were  not  done  "  within  homestead  and  doorposts  ;" 
for  every  man,  except  the  outlaw,  had  peace  in  his 
own  house.  In  the  time  of  king  Canute  Ericson 
personal  distraint  was  forbidden,  but  if  any  one 
was  mulcted  and  refused  to  pay,  the  matter  was  to 
be  referred  to  the  king's  judgment,  and  the  court 
publicly  appointed  persons  for  the  purpose  of  ap- 
praising the  fines, — according  to  later  determi- 
nations, either  the  same  jurj^  approved  by  the 
disputants  themselves,  which  had  sentenced  the 
offender,  or  twelve  other  impartial  men  whom  the 
judge  or  the  king's  prefect  (Lansman)  selected 
thereto.  From  the  law  of  East-Gothland  •',  which 
informs  ns  of  the  alteration  we  have  just  men- 
tioned, it  seems  that  so  late  as  the  time  of  Canute 
Ericson,  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century, 
the  king  had  no  share  in  any  fines,  other  than 
those  in  levying  which  he  had  himself  assisted, 
after  complaint  made  to  him  of  the  denial  of  right. 
"  Afterwards,"  it  is  said,  "  it  so  came  to  pass  that 
the  king  takes  whether  he  is  by  or  not."  Com- 
plaints of  the  denial  of  right  gave  occasion  for 
removing  contested  matters  from  a  lower  court  to 
a  higher,  and  the  appeal  from  the  judge  of  the 
hundred  to  the  lawman  is  expressly  particularized 
under  Magnus  Ladulas '.  It  was  afterwards  or- 
dained that  the  king's  inquest  (Rajfst)  should  be 
held  at  least  once  a  year  in  every  province  by  the 
sovereign  himself,  or  the  person  mto  whose  hands 

were  two  judges  (domare)  in  each  hundred;  b^  those  of 
Githland,  only  one,  namely  the  hundred-courtman,  as  the 
Land's  Law  also  directs.  Yet  in  some  places  the  oldest  of 
the  liaenulemen  is  still  called  haeradsdomare  (demster  of  tlie 
hundred). 

3  Its  progress  to  this  result  maybe  remarked  in  the  direc- 
tions of  the  Land's  Law  Touching  the  uaemd,  when  the  king 
sits  in  person.     Konunga  B.  f.  35. 

■1  This  exhortation  may  be  found  in  the  Celsian  manu- 
script collections.  Miscellanea  in  4to.  No.  46,  Library  of 
Upsala. 

5  This  was  called  Nam  (nim). 

6  Rsfsta  B.  f.  3. 

^  Diplomatar.  Suec.  i.  591.  Compare  Law  of  Upland, 
Tingmals  B.  f.  10. 


8G 


Measures  of  police. 
Punisliraent  of  offences. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Influence  of  the  church. 
Serfdom  early  aliolislied. 


he  had  deputed  his  judgment  *.  But  geuei'ally  it 
was  by  no  means  considered  necessary  that  a  cause 
should  first  have  been  before  an  inferior  tribunal  in 
order  to  come  before  a  higher.  Nothing  hindered 
the  plaintiff  from  both  instituting  and  terminating 
his  suit  before  the  superior  judge,  if  he  were  pre- 
sent in  his  court ;  and  although  Steno  Sture  the 
elder,  in  1491,  issued  an  edict  enjoining  that  no  one 
should  bring  his  plea  before  tlie  king  or  the  admi- 
nistrator, uidess  he  had  previously  sued  before  the 
court  of  the  hundred,  or  the  lawman,  or  the 
burgomasters, — this  regulation  was  for  a  long  time 
afterwards  not  observed. 

The  law  was  made  for  freemen,  and  to  be  in  the 
"yeoman-law"  (bondelag)  implied  a  participation 
in  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  people.  Only 
"yeomen  and  indwellers,"  not "  vagabonds,  or  hired 
servants,"  without  any  property  of  their  own  to 
risk  ^,  might  speak  in  the  court.  For  every  hun- 
dred there  was  a  fixed  court-stead,  anciently  under 
the  open  sky,  a  custom  not  yet  wholly  disused  in 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  ^  All  the 
members  of  the  hundred  were  bound  interchange- 
ably to  offices  of  succour.  A  fire-rate  is  ordered  to 
be  levied  within  the  hundi'ed  by  the  law  of  East- 
Gothland,  and  the  inhabitants  were  conjointly 
obliged  to  keep  a  "road  for  carl  and  king,"  or  a 
public  way  and  bridge. 

When  outrage  or  robbery  was  committed,  leading 
to  hue  and  cry,  a  staff  of  summons  (budkafle)  was 
cut,  and  sent  round  in  haste.  This  was  a  short  bat 
or  stick,  with  certain  marks,  by  which  all  the  sur- 
rounding inhabitants  were  called  upon  to  render 
assistance,  and  by  this  expedient  Magnus  Ladulas 
enjoined  those  from  whom  entertainment  was  ex- 
torted by  the  armed  hand  to  procure  themselves 
help  2.  On  the  invasion  of  the  country  by  an 
enemy,  fire  was  kindled  on  heights  appointed  for 
the  purpose,  and  the  staff  of  .summons  was  de- 
spatched, burned  at  one  end,  and  with  a  loop 
fastened  at  the  other,  for  a  sign,  it  is  said,  that 
whoever  neglected  to  forward  it  without  delay, 
should  be  hanged  or  have  his  house  burned  ^. 

The  punishment  of  a  freeman  by  death  was  im- 
known  to  the  old  laws,  except  for  such  offences 
as  involved  dishonour.  The  disgraced  man  was 
branded  with  the  epithet  of  infamous  (niding),  and 
nidingswork  was  the  name  applied  by  the  laws  to 
the  gravest  offences  against  the  safety  of  the  per- 
son, when  committed  under  circumstances  of  trea- 
chery, as  slaying  in  places  of  sanctuary,  in  a  church, 
or  in  a  house,  killing  a  sleeper  or  one  imable  to  de- 
fend himself,  or  the  master  of  the  house,  or  him 

8  The  raefst  was  the  ordinary,  the  rasttare-ting  (or  court  of 
error)  the  extraordinary  tribunal,  in  which  the  king's  judg- 
ment wait  delivered.  They  were  of  different  natures  :  the 
former  was  the  royal  court  of  the  province,  under  the  pre- 
sidency of  the  king,  and  not  as  usual  of  the  lawman,  for 
which  assessors  or  naemdemen  were  chosen  out  of  thelagsaga 
or  shire  ;  the  latter,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  court  appointed 
for  a  specific  case,  the  namd  of  which  was  taken  from  the 
same  hundred  wherein  the  court  was  held,  and  was  there- 
fore, so  to  say,  a  royal  hundred-court. 

9  Law  of  East-Gothland,  Drap.  B.  f.  3. 

'  Olaus  Magnus,  de  Gentibus  Septentrionalibus,  xiv.  17. 

2  See  before,  p.  51. 

3  Olaus  Magnus,  vii.  4. 

■*  This  was  called  Ihriilbarja,  and  was  an  infamous  crime 
if  committed  upon  a  freeman  and  causing  his  death. 

5  We  may  conclude  from  the  governing  maxim  of  all  our 
old  provincial  laws,  that  if  either  of  the  parents  was  free,  the 


with  whom  one  shared  food  and  drink,  or  a  woman 
(for  "  she  hath  peace  at  fair  and  market,  let  feud 
between  men  be  ever  so  great,"  says  the  law  of  the 
West- Goths),  killing  with  cruelties  or  torments, 
bearing  arms  against  one's  coimtry,  going  in  a 
warship  to  rob  on  the  seas,  which  last  prohibition 
shows  that  Christian  morals  were  by  this  time  in 
course  of  dissemination.  All  these  could  not  be 
atoned  for  by  a  pecuniary  mulct.  In  general  such 
offences  were  deemed  to  deserve  the  severest  penal- 
ties as  were  committed  in  a  cowardly  and  malicious 
mode  ;  hence  also  the  thief  was  doomed  to  death  or 
slavery.  Corporal  punishment  was  confined  to  those 
in  thraldom,  who  were  beyond  the  pale  of  law. 
"To  beat  one  like  a  slave*,"  "to  have  as  little 
right  as  the  scourged  house-girl,"  or  the  female 
slave,  are  expressions  found  in  the  laws. 

For  the  developement  of  notions  of  legality  and 
the  amelioration  of  manners  the  church  exerted  a 
powerful  influence.  Personal  revenge  was  discoun- 
tenanced ;  all  holidays,  and  periods  of  some  length 
at  the  great  festivals,  were  consecrated  to  peace. 
This  was  called  God's  halidom  (helgd)  or  peace, 
phrases  still  used  among  the  common  people  on 
entering  a  house.  Other  seasons  were  also  sacred 
to  peace,  as  those  of  sowing  and  harvest.  To  steal 
from  a  field  is  called  in  the  laws  to  break  God's 
lock.  Through  the  influence  of  the  church  the 
condition  of  women  was  improved  ;  the  wife  re- 
ceived her  legal  share  of  the  chattels,  and  the  sister 
was  permitted  to  inherit  with  the  brothers.  With 
extended  rights,  women  were  also  subjected  to  legal 
responsibility,  so  that  king  Magnus  Ericson  in  his 
Eric's-gait  of  1335  made  a  general  ordinance,  that 
"  the  woman  should  make  compensation  for  offences 
like  the  man,  especially  those  touching  life."  On 
the  same  occasion  thraldom  was  abolished,  which  in 
Sweden  seems  to  have  existed  anciently  in  a  mild 
form  *,  hence  its  eradication  was  effected  here  much 
earlier  than  in  other  countries.  The  sale  of  a 
Christian  had  been  already  forbidden  by  the  law  of 
Upland,  and  manumissions,  which  through  the  ex- 
hortations of  the  clergy  were  viewed  as  works  of 
Christian  piety,  were  made  "  for  the  soul's  sake." 
As  a  multitude  of  causes  were  brought  before  the 
episcopal  courts,  which,  in  so  far  as  they  were  not 
of  purely  spiritual  concernment,  must  be  adjudi- 
cated with  relation  to  prevailing  foiTus  of  law, 
occasion  thus  arose  for  the  developement  of  its 
rules. 

It  was  chiefly  by  the  efforts  of  the  church  that 
the  so-called  "  judgments  of  God  "  were  abolished, 
the  abuse  of  compurgators  restricted  ^,  and  public 

child  also  was  ("gangin  barn  a  bsettras  halvo,"  let  the  bairn 
go  to  the  better  half) ;  while  in  Germany  and  France,  chil- 
dren so  born  were  thralls  {"  das  kind  folgt  der  argern  hand," 
the  child  follows  the  worse  hand  ;  en  formariage  le  pire  em- 
porte  le  bon).  In  Denmark  the  offspring  of  a  female  slave 
were  thralls. 

6  Ferventis  aquae  vel  candentis  ferri  judieiuTi),  sive  duel- 
lum,  quod  monomachia  dicitur,  Catholica  Ecclesia,  contra 
quemlibet  eliam,  nedum  contra  episcopum,  non  admittet, 
says  Pope  Alexander  II.  in  a  letter  to  the  Swedish  bishops. 
Honorius  VII.  in  a  letter  of  1218,  denounces  the  malpractices 
to  which  compurgation  gave  rise  even  among  the  clergy : 
"  Unde  contigit,  quod  quandoque  ad  purgationem  suam  sui 
similes  criminosos  adducunt,  ut  eis  debeant  in  similibus 
opportuno  tempore  respondere,"  which,  "pestis  coiitraria 
omni  juri,"  it  behoved  the  priesthood  to  abolish,  and  to 
adduce  in  proof  the  evidence  of  irreproachable  witnesses. 


Social  customs  and 
observances. 


SWEDEN  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGE. 


Land's  Law. 
Court-Laws. 


«7 


prosecutors  appointed';  whence  the  ecclesiastical 
sections  of  the  provincial  laws  throw  much  light  on 
the  subject  of  legal  procedure.  Probably  also  those 
portions  of  the  laws  which  affect  the  privileges  of 
the  church  were  first  recorded  iu  writing  by  the 
care  of  the  clergy.  But  a  long  time  elapsed  before 
this  method  was  generally  considered  necessary  for 
the  knowledge  and  preservation  of  legal  customs. 
The  ancioit  usage,  that  the  justiciary  should  every 
year  make  known  to  the  people  the  consuetudinal 
law  (legem  consuetudinis)  **,  is  by  the  testimony  of 
the  church  itself  of  older  standing  tlian  any  at- 
tempt made  by  the  clergy  to  I'egister  the  laws  ". 
Instead  of  the  written  word,  men  had  the  living 
record  of  memory,  and  symbolical  acts  for  tokens. 
For  this  reason,  bargains  were  to  be  struck,  and 
debts  paid,  "  with  friend  and  witnesses,"  that  is,  in 
presence  of  a  good  man,  whom  both  parties  had 
called  in,  with  two  witnesses.  Handtakiug  in  their 
presence  formed  a  legal  sign  of  the  conclusion  of  a 
purchase  '.  The  transfer  of  ground  sold,  granted, 
or  pledged,  was  made  by  circuit,  buyers  and  sellers 
with  one  surety,  and  all  the  landowners  of  the  ham- 
let walking  round  the  fields  and  meadows,  and  so 
back  to  the  homestead  ;  a  custom  analogous  to  the 
Eric's-gait  by  which  the  king  took  the  realm  into 
possession.  Thus  too  property  in  land  might  also 
be  transferred  by  the  gi-antor  casting  a  turf  into  the 
lap  of  the  grantee.  In  those  days  the  ability  of  the 
clergy  as  penmen,  furnished  them  with  a  new  means 
of  making  their  services  indispensable.  The  royal 
chancellors  were  regularly  selected  from  their 
order  ^  ;  and  the  influence  of  the  clergy,  as  well  as, 
through  them,  of  the  civil  and  canon  jurispimdence 
on  Swedish  laws,  is  in  several  respects  con- 
siderable. Yet  so  deeply  rooted  wei'e  these  latter 
in  the  memory  and  manners  of  the  people,  that  both 
in  their  form  and  contents  what  was  national  was 
studiously  preserved  ;  wherefoi'e  the  Land's  Law 
specially  requires  the  king  to  see,  "that  no  out- 
landish law  shall  be  brought  into  the  realm  to  the 
detriment  of  the  people." 

By  extending  ideas  of  law  and  legal  authority, 
the  church  laboured  in  the  cause  of  temporal 
authority,  which  here  as  everywhere  else  was  the 
disciple  of  the  former.  To  restrain  the  enfoi'ce- 
ment  of  personal  revenge,  the  observance  of  the 
king's  peace,  as  well  as  that  of  the  church,  was 
speedily  enjoined  *.  Royal  procurators  *,  similar 
to  those  of  the  bishops  in  spiritual  causes,  were 
soon  appointed,  to  discharge  the  functions  of  public 
prosecutors  in  crimes  against  personal  safety  ;  and 
by  the  introduction  of  the  Edsoere,  or  oath  of 
assur'ance,  all  such  misdeeds  were  declared  offences 

J  This  officer  was  called  in  matters  of  episcopal  jurisdic- 
tion biskops-socknare  (bishop's  proctor)  or  biskops-laensman, 
(bishop's  delegate).  According  to  Christian  L's  cliarter  of 
clerical  privileges,  October  28,  1457,  he  was  to  be  elected  by 
the  commonalty. 

8  We  have  already  mentioned  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
justiciary  "  to  make  and  promulgate  the  law."  (See  Law 
of  West-Gothland,  iv.  14.)  Hence  in  the  provincial  laws  the 
lagman  is  sometimes  introduced  as  speaking  in  his  own 
person,  as  in  the  Law  of  East-Gothland,  E.  S.  viii.  where  it 
is  said,  "now  bear  in  mind,  yeomen,  that  this  is  so  ordained." 

9  Compare  the  letter  of  Innocent  IIL  to  the  archbishop  of 
Upsala,  March  10,  1206.     Diplomat.  Suec. 

1  Land's  Law,  Tiuf.  B.  c.  15. 

2  The  only  exception  is  that  of  the  councillor  of  state, 
Gustavus  Magnusson,  of  Revelstad,  who   is   mentioned  in 


against  the  peace  which  the  king  had  sworn  to  his 
subjects.  To  the  section  of  the  law  which  treated 
of  tlie  church  and  its  rights,  was  added  in  course  of 
time  one  relating  to  the  sovereign  and  his  rights, 
which  is  common  to  all  the  later  provincial  codes. 
The  amended  law  of  Upland  was  the  first  statute- 
book  publicly  confirmed,  and  although  binding  only 
on  the  foremost  province  of  the  kingdom,  became  a 
model  for  all  the  rest.  Fifty  years  afterwards  the 
first  general  Land's  Law  was  drawn  up,  and  its 
authority  was  gi-adually  admitted  ^  ;  although  an- 
other century  passed  away  before  the  royal  confir- 
mation was  imparted. 

As  the  "  king's  oath,  called  Edsosret,"  was  also 
taken  by  "all  the  chief  men  of  the  realm,"  it  seems 
to  follow  that  the  Folkungers,  who  introduced  this 
oath,  ill  fact  r'eigned  conjointly  with  the  magnates. 
Nevertheless,  the  nobles  did  not  obtain,  like  the 
clergy,  the  right  of  private  jurisdiction  ;  though 
the  king's  court-law  (gardsriitt)  was  also  commonly 
enforced  in  the  households  of  the  great.  Of  these 
the  oldest  was  embodied  in  a  written  I'ecord  in 
1319,  though  its  substance  existed  in  a  period  much 
more  remote.  But  every  great  household  bore  in 
old  days  a  military  character,  whence  in  Swedish 
documents  of  the  middle  age,  a  court-man  means  a 
soldier  by  profession,  and  after  the  introduction  of 
the  equestrian  tenure,  more  particularly  a  horseman. 
These  court  laws,  obeyed  by  the  warlike  retainers 
of  the  great,  corresponded  to  the  Articles  of  War  of 
later  times,  and  are  distinguished  from  the  common 
law  of  the  laud  by  rigorous  punishments,  as  those 
touching  life  and  limbs,  imprisonment  with  bread 
and  water,  and  flogging.  In  the  latter,  "  all  men's 
law,"  as  it  was  formerly  called,  no  exceptions  are 
made  with  respect  to  the  nobility  ;  unless  we  con- 
sider it  as  such,  that  for  the  homicide  of  a  house- 
hold-man, besides  the  ordinary  botes,  a  separate 
compensation  was  likewise  to  be  paid  to  the  person 
in  whose  service  the  slain  man  had  been  ^.  Other- 
wise, the  laws  discover  their  jealousy  of  those  living 
in  such  a  state  of  personal  dependence  ;  whence  we 
find  it  ordered  that  no  servitor  shall  be  a  juryman 
unless  by  assent  of  the  peasants  and  the  judge  of  the 
hundred  ',  which  however  was  so  far  altered,  that 
according  to  the  Land's  Law,  the  ntemd  in  the 
king's  court  of  inquisition  might  consist  half  of 
peasants,  and  half  of  retainers,  yet  good  and  sufti- 
cient  men,  of  whom  the  people  and  the  parties  be- 
fore the  court  approved.  Changes  of  greater  im- 
portance are  discerned  in  particular  ordinances, 
not  embodied  in  the  law.    Thus  the  Calmar  Recess 


1417,  as  chancellor  to  Eric  of  Pomerania.  Uggla,  Catalogue 
of  the  councillors  of  Sweden. 

3  So  the  general  peace  proclaimed  on  the  king's  visit  to  a 
province  was  termed. 

■<  Konungs-soknare,  or  laensmen. 

5  Namely,  Magnus  Ericson's  Land's  Law  of  1347,  from 
which  that  confirmed  by  king  Christopher  in  1442  differs 
little.  Notwithstanding  the  protest  of  the  clergy  in  the  old 
dispute  respecting  the  liberty  of  bequests  to  the  church,  the 
former  came  gradually  into  use,  and  is  undoubtedly  that 
"  law  of  Sweden,  which  they  had  in  the  upper  country.'' 
The  West-Goths  state  that  they  adopted  it  at  the  accession  of 
queen  Margaret.  Hadorph,  Ancient  Ordinances  (Ganila 
Stadgar,  &c.),  42.     See  Note  G. 

6  For  the  homicide  of  a  "  king's  man,"  Earl  Birger  raised 
the  latter  fine  to  tlie  same  amount  with  that  payable  for  an 
ordinary  homicide  ;  so  as  to  make  the  man  bote  double. 

''  Law  of  the  West-Goths,  iii.  77. 


8« 


Jurifdiction  of  the  nobility. 
Towns  and  burgesses. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Seats  of  trade. 
Crown  revenues. 


of  1483  says,  "that  every  good  man,  clerical  or 
laic,  slia'.l  be  king  over  his  own  dependents,  except 
in  matters  which  by  the  law  are  committed  to  the 
sovereign."  By  this,  however,  neither  arbitrai'y 
power  nor  private  jnrisdiction  was  meant,  but  only 
the  concession  of  right  to  levy  the  king's  share  of 
legal  fines,  a  right  also  granted  to  the  church,  in  the 
widest  sense,  over  its  estates  and  tenants.  As  in 
general  the  fiefs  (Isenen)  consisted  simply  in  grants 
of  certain  crown  revenues  to  the  royal  governors  in 
the  various  districts,  manifold  abuses  were  thereby 
created.  For  although  the  letter  of  the  law  did  not 
recognize  the  power  of  the  magnates,  yet  history 
shows  all  the  more  plainly  that  tiiey  felt  themselves 
to  be  raised  above  its  behests  ;  since  the  justiciaries 
had  been  seated  in  the  king's  council,  and  the 
affairs  of  the  realm  began  to  be  managed  at  baro- 
nial diets ;  since  the  old  odal-class  had  lost,  from 
the  extension  of  the  privileges  of  nobility  through 
the  equestrian  tenure,  its  most  substantial  mem- 
bers, and  the  burden  of  the  taxes  weighed  more 
oppressively  on  the  rest ;  since  armed  bands  of 
their  own  retainers  plundered  throughout  the 
country  with  impunity.  To  these  signs  of  their 
potency  it  may  be  added,  that  the  fraternal  wars  of 
Earl  Birger's  family  had  long  converted  the  king- 
dom into  a  field  of  battle,  so  that  we  may  view  it  as 
a  kind  of  return  to  legal  order  when  the  councillors 
of  state,  in  the  covenant  made  by  them  at  Skara  *, 
in  1332,  engaged  to  submit  their  individual  dis- 
putes to  the  decision  of  their  colleagues.  By 
similar  confederacies  was  Sweden  governed  for  a 
hundred  years  afterwards ;  until  Engelbert  and 
the  Stures  revived  against  these  baronial  leagues 
the  old  associations  of  yeomanry,  and  thereby  re- 
stored the  people  to  political  influence. 

For  the  towns,  which  in  other  countries  of 
Europe  supplied  a  counterpoise  to  the  power  of 
the  nobility,  were  of  small  importance.  In  the  in- 
terior of  the  country,  where  they  sprang  up  on  the 
sites  of  ancient  fairs', or  at  episcopal  seats, many  of 
the  conditions  required  for  their  prosperity  were 
wanting.  Wisby,  in  Gottland,was  for  a  long  time  rich 
and  powerful,  but  might  rather  have  been  called  a 
German  than  a  Swedish  town,  and  in  all  German 
burghers  were  so  numerous,  that  down  to  1470  one 
half  of  the  town  magistrates  were  taken  from  among 
them.  The  borough  law,  formed  on  foreign  models, 
of  which  the  oldest  example  in  Sweden  is  the  so- 
called  Bi6r¥6aralt,  followed  in  the  time  of  Magnus 
Ericson  by  one  of  gi'eater  detail,  had  little  influence 

8  Pactum  confccderationis  et  eoncordiae.  Hadorph,  In  tlie 
Rhyme  Chronicle. 

9  Hence  the  termination  ka'pinft,  fair  or  market,  lit.  selling, 
in  the  names  of  so  many  Swedish  towns.     T. 

1  Especially  under  the  Stures.  Steno  the  elder  is  said  to 
have  also  given  in  H70,  the  first  example  of  including  the 
inferior  clergy  in  the  writ  of  convocation,  which  otherwise 
during  the  Catholic  period  was  confined  to  prelates. 

2  Skatlriiafr,  tribute-gifts,  they  are  called  in  the  Ynglinga- 
saga,  c.  12. 

3  Both  objects  were  combined.     Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  33. 

*  Lama  appears  to  mean  hindrance,  properly  laming. 
Tingslama,  which  in  the  Law  of  AVestmanland,  Tingm.  B.  f. 
6,  denotes  a  hiiirirancc  or  interruption  of  the  court,  appears 
in  the  Law  of  Upland,  K.  15.  f.  II,  with  the  meaning  of  tax. 
That  the  leduiis'sla'.na  was  paid  wlien  no  expedition  took 
place,  is  manift'st  from  the  Law  of  Westmanland,  K.  B.  f. 
12,  and  from  King  Walrtemar's  Account  Book,  where  it  is 
rendered,  reuemtio  expt'ditionis.     An  aid  for  provisioning 


beyond  its  own  limits.  Yet  Eric  Olaveson  mentions, 
that  so  early  as  1319,  when  Magnus  Ericson  was 
raised  to  the  throne,  burghers  w  ere  summoned  to 
the  elective  diet  ;  and  in  the  writs  issued  during 
the  Union  are  mentioned  "  bishops,  clerks,  noble.s, 
and  franklins  (frtclsemen),  burghers,  and  the  com- 
mon yeomanry ',"  the  elements  whence,  instead  of 
the  old  representation  of  the  people  by  provinces, 
the  later  plan  of  representation  by  estates,  witii 
various  clianges  of  order  and  composition,  was  to 
be  developed. 

The  first  Swedish  taxes,  originally  voluntary 
donations  ^,  arose  from  the  custom  of  yearly  follow- 
ing the  king  on  his  warlike  expeditions  (ledung), 
and  of  entertaining  him  with  liis  train  when  he 
made  progress  througli  the  country  to  hold  courts, 
or  to  take  his  pleasure  '.  By  degrees  it  became 
usual  to  pay  the  yearly  contributions  required  for 
these  purposes  when  the  king  remained  at  home, 
and  in  this  way  the  payments  became  permanent. 
Hence  the  names  ledungslama  (laming  of  the  war) 
and  tingslama  (laming  of  the  court)  for  those  taxes, 
when  any  obstacle  *  prevented  the  warlike  or  peace- 
ful assemblage  from  being  held,  but  they  appear 
also  under  others.  Conti-ibutions  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  king  and  his  court,  or  the  principal 
spiritual  and  secular  officers  on  their  journeys,  were 
called  gengard  (sustentation  tax  ^).  Tribute  was 
levied  from  all  resident  inhabitants,  so  that  he 
whose  seed-corn  and  cattle  reached  a  certain 
amount  paid  the  full  tax,  others  with  less  land  and 
cattle  only  the  half.  He  who  did  not  possess  a 
dwelling  paid  for  his  person  ;  at  the  age  of  twenty 
a  man  became  liable  to  all  assessments '.  Certain 
imposts  were  from  the  first  of  a  personal  kind  ;  one 
"  for  every  nose,"  in  support  of  the  sacrifices,  is 
mentioned  under  the  heathendom  ;  and  a  so-called 
nose-tax  (Nsefgjald)  is  mentioned  in  the  testament 
of  Magnus  Ladulas,  perhaps  the  same  with  that 
called  in  the  Law  of  West-Gothland  "  all  men's 
pence"  and  in  the  towns  "  all  men's  tax  *."  Pay- 
ments from  certain  forests  '  are  also  mentioned 
among  the  royal  revenues  from  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  as  it  is  demonstrable  that 
the  kings  formerly  possessed  private  woodlands, 
and  as  the  Land's  Law  speaks  of  the  "  king's  parks" 
(parker),  the  tax  must  have  been  paid  for  the  use 
of  these  by  persons  cutting  timber  or  making 
settlements.  In  like  manner  the  community  of 
every  hundred  received  from  those  who  established 
themselves  on  their  commons,  certain  revenues,  of 


ships  was  called  skeppsvist.  According  to  the  Law  of  Upland 
a  part  was  paid  in  money. 

*  On  the  king's  first  entry  into  a  province  during  his 
Eric's-gait,  this  tax  was  called  inlandning.  East-Gothic  Law, 
D.  B.  f.  5.  In  the  Law  of  Helsingland  it  is  called  va^dsia 
(veitzla),  which  properly  means  a  feast.  In  the  demand  by 
the  nobles  of  such  entertainment  for  themselves  and  their 
train  during  their  journeys,  chiefly  consisted  the  otfence  of 
sorning  by  violence,  forbidden  by  Magnus  Ladulas,  but  com- 
plained of  long  after  his  time. 

<5  See  the  king's  '•  receipts  from  the  noble  and  good  land  of 
the  West- Goths,"  W.  L.  v. 

r  Uplands  L.  K.  B.  f  10. 

f  Allmfennings  cere,  allmaenningsgia'ld.  Pijilomal.  Suec. 
i.  507.  {Na'fejdid  comes  from  ntpf,  also  n(uljb,  nel)  or  nose, 
and  girild,  debt ;  the  modern  term  used  by  Proftssor  Geijer  is 
ndfs/iritt,  nose-scot.    T.) 

9  Skopaskyld,  opposed  to  land  skyld.  Compare  Diploni. 
Suec.  i.  4.53 


Taxation.     Tithes. 
Kojal  domain. 


SWEDEN  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGE. 


Boundaries.     Mines 
of  Iron  and  copper. 


89 


which  the  Land's  Law  ordained  that  a  third  bhcaild 
be  allotted  to  the  crown.  There  was  then  no  re- 
gular rate  of  assessment  on  landed^  property,  al- 
though its  division  into  Markland,  Oresland,  and 
tlie  like,  might  lead  us  so  to  conjecture.  Definitions 
casually  occurring  in  the  laws  vindicate  who  were 
to  be  regarded  as  full-stead  yeomen  (fullsuten 
bonde).  All  these  were  taxed  in  like  propoi-tion, 
in  such  wise  that  their  payments  should  not  be 
raised  by  reason  of  any  excess  above  the  standard, 
but  lessened  in  the  measure  of  their  short  coming  ; 
and  especial  care  seems  to  have  been  taken  to  pre- 
serve the  old  number  of  substantial  yeomen  un- 
diminished. On  this  account  Christian  I.  complains 
in  an  ordinance  of  1459,  that  by  yeomen  purchas- 
ing two  or  more  granges,  "  the  taxes  and  revenues 
of  the  crown  are  much  niinished  and  wasted  ;" 
wherefore  he  enjoins,  by  the  advice  of  his  well-be- 
loved councillors,  that  "  no  yeoman  shall  thencefor- 
ward take  into  his  hands  more  assessable  estate  than 
in  the  judgment  of  twelve  unbiassed  men  is  suffi- 
cient for  his  establishment ;"  in  case  of  disobedience 
he  should  pay  agreeably  to  the  Calmar  Recess  of 
1474,  forty  marks,  and  be  called  "  the  king's  full 
thief.''  To  the  same  penalty  a  nobleman  became 
liable  by  the  Land's  Law,  who  acquired  ground  as- 
sessed to  the  crown-taxes.  On  the  other  side, 
excessive  parcelling  out  of  such  land  was  for- 
bidden. 

Various  provisions  are  to  be  found  in  the  law, 
regulating  the  obligations  reciprocally  affecting  the 
labourer  who  tilled  another's  fields  and  the  land- 
owner. Nor  did  they  leave  indigence  unrelieved 
to  its  fate.  The  Law  of  Upland  enacts  that  poor 
and  infirm  men  shall  be  carried  from  hamlet  to 
hamlet,  every  peasant  being  bound  to  keep  him  for 
one  night.  On  the  other  hand  the  yeomen  had  at 
first  the  rigfit  to  withhold  that  proportion  of  the 
tithe  which  went  to  tiie  poor  ;  for  after  the  priest 
had  received  his  third,  the  residue  was  divided  into 
three  equal  parts,  between  the  ])arish  church, 
the  bishop,  and  the  suppoi't  of  hospitals  and  poor  ; 
although  this  last  share  was  gradually  diverted  to 
other  purposes,  as  to  tlie  uses  of  the  chapter  and  the 
maintenance  of  students.  With  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury tithes  were  introduced — and  what  other  impost 
so  burdensome  ? — in  the  face  of  strong  opposition. 
The  church,  though  not  contributing  to  the  public 
necessities,  in  fact  possessed  from  tithes,  donations, 
and  bequests,  as  well  as  the  grant  of  temporal  fiefs 
to  the  prelates,  gi-eater  revenues  than  the  crown 
itself,  without  including  what  the  papal  agents 
drew  from  the  kingdom,  sometimes  for  the  recon- 
quest  of  the  Holy  Land  from  the  infidels,  some- 
times for  indulgences,  or  on  other  occasions. 

But  the  king,  says  the  Land's  Law,  "  it  befits  to 
live  from  the  estate  of  Upsala,  from  the  crown-lands, 
and  the  yearly  legal  taxes  of  his  realm,  and  in  no- 
thing to  lessen  these  for  any  other  king,  nor  lay  any 
new  burdens  on  his  land."  Only  in  the  four  following 
cases  might  an  extraordinary  aid  be  demanded  ;  on 
the  breaking  out  of  war,  for  then  the  men  of  the 
realm  were  bound  to  follow  the  king  in  his  expedi- 

9  South  Helsingland,  Angermanland,  and  Medelpad  paid 
their  taxes  partly  in  linen ;  thus  long  have  the  inhabitants 
of  these  provinces  practised  weaving,  which  still  constitutes 
one  of  their  chief  sources  of  support. 

'  The  Law  of  West-Gothland  forbids  the  iron-blasters  to  sell 
iron  of  bad  quality. 


tions,  yet  not  beyond  the  frontiers  without  their 
own  consent  ;  on  the  marriage  of  one  of  his  chil- 
dren ;  on  his  coronation,  or  when  he  rode  his  Eric's- 
gait,  or  finally  when  he  required  an  aid  for  his 
buildings,  for  the  repair  of  his  houses,  or  the  im- 
provement of  the  estate  of  Upsala.  Then  the 
bishop  and  judge  of  each  province,  with  six  house- 
hold-men, and  six  yeomeu,  wei'e  to  deliberate 
among  themselves  "  what  supportable  aid  the 
commonalty  might  and  should  pay  to  their  sove- 
reign." 

The  ancient  compass  of  the  kingdom  is  shown  by 
the  Eric's-gait,  embracing  Swedelaud  and  Gothland, 
with  Smaland.  The  remainder  in  part  belonged  to 
Denmark,  as  the  southern  coasts,  in  part  was  sub- 
ject alternately  to  Sweden  and  Norway,  as  Verme- 
land,  in  part  was  not  settled  until  a  later  day,  as 
Dalecarlia  and  Norrland.  We  may  besides  observe 
regarding  its  boundaries  under  the  Catholic  period, 
that  Jemteland  and  Herjedale,  in  the  time  of  Ingi 
the  younger,  submitted  to  Norway,  though  they 
contituied  dependent  on  the  see  of  Upsala  ;  that 
Finland  was  annexed  to  the  dominions  of  the  crown 
by  three  eminent  chiefs,  St.  Eric,  earl  Birger,  and 
Thorkel  Canuteson  ;  that  the  isle  of  Gottland  was 
lost  to  Sweden  mider  Albert,  and  remained  dis- 
united for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ;  and  that 
under  Magnus  Ericson,  the  provinces  of  Scania, 
Halland,  and  Bleking,  were  both  won  and  lost. 

Not  the  least  important  conquests  were  those 
made  by  cultivation  ;  and  in  the  time  of  the  last- 
named  sovereign  began  the  settlement  of  Upper 
Norrland  above  Umea.  Those  portions  of  the  mid- 
dle territory  in  which  mining  districts  were  after- 
wards formed,  remained  longest  in  their  original 
wildness.  Thus  the  law  of  West-Gothland,  which 
enumerates  the  churches  subject  to  the  bishopric 
of  Skara,  does  not  mention  one  in  all  East  Verme- 
land,  which  therefore  in  that  day  was  thinly  in- 
habited, while  tlie  account  in  the  Heimskringla,  on 
the  other  hand,  of  the  inroad  by  the  Norwegian 
king  Haco  Hacoson  into  its  early  settled  western 
portion,  mentions  every  where  granges  and  ham- 
lets which  subsist  at  the  present  day.  Thus  too 
the  name  of  the  mining  district  Skinskatteberg 
shows  that  here  the  taxes  were  paid  in  the  skins 
of  animals,  as  the  Law  of  the  Helsingers  orders  for 
Ujjper  Norrland  '■*. 

The  oldest  mining  charters  in  Sweden  which 
have  been  preserved  are  those  of  Magnus  Ericson. 
Iron  furnaces  existed  in  Gothland  in  the  thirteenth 
century  ' ;  the  charters  for  the  mining  districts  of 
Norberg  and  Nerike,  in  1340  and  1350,  mention 
them  in  middle  Sweden.  Those  of  the  copper  mines 
at  Falun  are  of  1347.  but  refer  to  others  which  had 
preceded  ;  and  the  antiquity  of  mining  is  attested 
by  the  circumstance,  that  in  1268  an  estate  was 
sold  at  that  place  for  eleven  skeppunds  of  copper^. 
That  the  Lubeckers  liad  betimes  acquired  a  share 
in  the  mine  is  shown  by  the  letter  of  Magnus  Eric- 
son in  1344,  confirming  to  them  all  the  property 
and  revenues  which  they  possessed  there  "  by  an- 
cient right  ^."  In  1367,  king  Albert  pledged  to  the 
counts  of  Ilolstein,  from  the  crown's  proportion  of 


2  Diplomat.  Suec.i.  2CS.  (Eleven  skeppunds  are  nearly  30 
cwt.,  100  about  13  tons.) 

3  See  the  Latin  deed  in  Sartorius,  Documentary  History 
of  the  rise  of  the  German  Hanse,  edited  by  J.  M.  Lappenberg, 
ii.  378. 


90 


Cultivation. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Traffic.    The  Gottlanders. 


the  copper  mines,  one  hundred  skeppunds  of  copper 
yearly,  which  they  long  continued  to  collect  by  their 
own  commissioners  on  the  spot.  At  this  time  the 
bailiffs  of  the  mines  and  the  masters  of  the  works 
were  Germans  *.  That  the  copper  mines  of  Gar- 
penberg  also  were  worked  by  them  appears  from 
the  fact,  that  Garp  was  a  name  formerly  given  in 
Sweden  to  a  German,  although  the  word  properly 
signifies  an  arrogant  bragging  fellow.  King  Eric 
of  Pomerania,  in  1413,  granted  to  all  those  who 
would  settle  as  miners  at  Atvidabei'g  in  East-Goth- 
land the  same  privileges  granted  to  tliose  of  the 
Kopparberg  in  Dalecarlia  ;  in  the  same  year  also 
lie  took  the  iron  mines  of  Vermeland  under  liis 
protection,  and  confirmed  the  charters  granted  by 
queen  Margaret.  Under  Steno  Sture'  the  elder 
the  iron  mmes  of  Danemora  were  discovered  ;  the 
silver  mine  of  Sala  apparently  not  before  the  time 
of  Suanto  Sture',  about  1510°,  to  which  Christian 
the  Second  sent  a  hundred  Fiulanders.  Yet  men- 
tion is  made  of  older  silver  mines,  as  at  Tuna, 
Wika,  and  Lofasen  in  Dalecarlia.  The  bishop's 
mines,  as  they  are  called,  in  various  districts  show 
that  the  clergy  also  engaged  in  mining.  The  prin- 
cipal places  of  the  mining  tracts  were  asylums  for 
offenders,  excluding  however  traitors,  assassins,  and 
thieves,  and  this  privilege  was  called  the  mine-peace. 

The  different  species  of  grain  cultivated  are 
mentioned  in  the  laws.  That  of  West-Gothland 
ordains  tithe  to  be  taken  of  wheat,  rye,  barley,  and 
oats.  Corn,  though  a  term  common  to  all,  was  ap- 
plied more  particularly  to  barley,  which  seems  to 
mark  this  grain,  ripening  within  six  weeks '',  as  the 
first  introduced.  Wheat  and  rye  are  mentioned  in 
a  papal  letter  of  14GG,  to  the  bishop  of  Strengness, 
as  "  new  and  unheard-of  above  the  forest  of  Kol- 
mord,"  and  to  be  made  titheable  without  delay '. 
Yet  the  bishop  of  Strengness  was  unquestionably 
better  informed,  for  the  Sudermanian  law  of  1327 
allows  the  bishop  at  the  consecration  of  a  church  a 
train  of  twelve  men  and  fourteen  horses,  and  orders 
a  tun  of  wheat  and  rye-bread,  among  other  arti- 
cles, to  be  pi-epared  for  his  use  *.  In  1295  the  Law 
of  Upland  orders  tithe  to  be  taken  from  wheat  and 
rye,  "  as  the  manner  anciently  had  been."  In  the 
time  of  Olaus  Magnus,  the  rye  of  Swedeland  was 
held  the  best  ;  it  was  raised  on  land  cleared  by  fire, 
both  in  spring  and  winter.  The  husbandmen  sowed 
in  the  beginning  of  May.  or  even  later,  and  reaped 
in  the  middle  of  August ',  generally  assisting  each 
other  in  the  labours  of  the  field,  and  at  the  reapers' 
feast  the  marriages  of  the  year  were  arranged. 
When  much  snow  fell,  the  peasants  promised  them- 
selves a  plentiful  crop.  The  winter  seems  to  have 
been  longer  and  more  rigorous,  the  summer  hotter 
than  in  later  times,  and  generally  the  differences  of 
the  seasons  more  strongly  marked. 

Fruit  trees  were  first  introduced  into  southern 
Sweden  by  the  clergy,  although  the  laws  of  Upland 
and  Sudermania  mention  them,  with  some  kinds  of 

••  Langetek,  on  the  Norwegian  mines,  90.  96. 

s  Ibid.  140.  143. 

6  Actordins  to  Olaus  Magnus  ;  it  still  does  so  in  Norrland. 

?  Celse  Bullarium,  201.  Ex  segetibus  tritico  et  siligine 
supra  Kolmordiam  novis  et  insolitis.  That  siliso  here 
means  rje  is  proved  by  the  old  Latin  notes  to  the  Law 
of  West-Gothland.  Compare  the  Glossary  of  Collins  and 
Schlyter. 

^  Besides  this,  a  tun  of  barley  bread,  two  flitches  of  bacon, 
four  sheep,  eight  hens,  three  lispunds  (about  .'i  I  lbs.)  of  butter. 


vegetables,  in  the  middle  portion  of  the  kingdom. 
Flax,  hemp,  peas,  turnips,  beans,  and  hops  were 
cultivated  ;  in  bi-ewing  not  only  hops  but  the 
wild  myrtle  were  used  ^.  Bee-hives  supplied  im- 
portant articles  of  produce,  encouraged  by  the  de- 
mand for  wax  tapers  by  the  church,  and  not  less  by 
the  use  of  mead.  Speaking  of  the  entertainment 
of  a  bishop  on  his  progress,  the  Law  of  West-Goth- 
land says,  "  let  him  drink  mead  with  all  his  clergy." 
With  other  classes  candles  of  wax  or  tallow  were 
rare  luxuries  ;  the  houses  were  lighted  by  wood 
fires  and  pine  torches,  with  one  of  which  in  his 
hand,  the  thresher,  in  past  times  as  now,  betook 
himself  to  the  barn  in  the  early  harvest  morn. 
Handmills  were  used  for  grinding  grain ;  to  ply  the 
mill  was  the  work  of  the  female  slave  in  the  house; 
in  the  Law  of  Upland,  windmills  and  watermills  are 
also  mentioned.  Hard  and  thin  bread  was  used 
then  as  now,  which  might  be  kept  for  several  years; 
the  Yule  bread  was  soft  and  made  very  large.  Salt, 
a  condiment  indispensable  to  man,  was  procured 
from  abroad  ;  by  the  distribution  of  a  supply  we 
find  Christian  II.  trying  to  gain  the  attachment  of 
the  Swedish  peasants. 

In  these  days,  Sweden  could  not  be  said  to 
possess  any  commerce,  although  Gotxland  was  long 
the  seat  of  a  very  extensive  trade.  This  fertile  is- 
land had  received  its  inhabitants  from  Sweden  in  a 
remote  age,  who  soon  increasing  in  numbers  were 
obliged  to  seek  for  new  dwelling-places.  Some,  we 
are  told  in  the  supplement  to  the  Law  of  Gottland, 
occupied  the  island  of  Dago,  on  the  coast  of 
Esthonia  ;  others  advanced  along  the  course  of  the 
Duna  into  Russia,  and  are  said  to  have  received 
land  from  the  Greek  emperor.  The  Gottlanders, 
who  acknowledged  the  superiority  of  the  Upsala 
king,  and  became  Christians  upon  the  visit  of  St. 
Eric,  submitted  themselves  in  spiritual  matters  to 
the  bishop  of  Linkoping,  and  engaged  to  accom- 
pany the  king  of  Sweden  in  his  expeditions  with 
seven  ships,  or  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  instead. 
While  yet  heathens,  they  possessed,  according  to 
the  same  account,  a  considerable  trade,  and  it  may 
be  conjectured,  that  after  the  Varangians  had  be- 
come the  rulers  of  Muscovy,  the  Gottlanders  pro- 
fited by  the  connections  which  those  adventurers 
long  maintained  with  the  country  of  their  descent, 
to  carry  on  a  traffic  with  the  Russians.  Of  this 
however  the  Swedish  archives  afford  no  more 
ancient  evidence  than  the  injunction  of  Pope 
Gregory  IX.  in  1229,  to  the  bishop  of  Linkoping 
and  the  Cistercian  abbot  of  Gottland,  that  the  in- 
sular traders  should  be  restrained  by  the  authority 
of  the  church,  from  holding  intercourse  with  the 
Muscovites,  the  foes  of  Christianity.  Otlier  testi- 
monies, however,  speak  both  of  the  antiquity  of  this 
intercourse,  and  of  the  early  settlement  of  German 
traders  on  Gottland,  whose  inhabitants  undoubtedly 

two  cheeses,  four  stockfish,  five  pounds  of  wax,  and  three 
casks  of  beer,  with  hay  and  oats  for  the  horses. 

9  Olaus  Magnus  xiii.  8.  In  chapter  iii.  it  is  said  that 
winter-rj'e  was  sown  at  the  end  of  the  dog-days,  therefore 
shortly  before  the  middle  of  August,  old  style.  Spring 
rye,  with  wheat,  barley,  and  oats,  was  sown  in  fine  Tauri 
(about  the  llth  May,  O.  S.),  and  reaped  in  corde  Leonis 
(about  the  Cth  August).  Seedtime  was  thus  in  middle 
Sweden  three  centuries  ago  later  than  at  present. 

>  Pors,  Swed.  The  myrica  gale,  or  heath  myrtle,  not  the 
ledum  palustre  (wildpors),  or  wild  rosemary,  which  is  noxious. 
March  beer  was  held  the  best. 


Privileges  of  tlie  Germans. 


SWEDEN    IN   THE   MIDDLE   AGE.        Coinage;  its  depreciation.        91 


threw  open  to  the  former,  avenues  of  commerce 
with  Russia.  Early  in  tlie  thirteenth  century  was 
founded  from  Gottland  the  great  commercial 
settlement  of  Novogorod,  the  most  ancient  guild- 
statute  of  which,  in  the  many  Swedish  terms  it 
contains,  shows  traces  of  Swedish  influence  *.  In 
the  year  1229,  the  same  in  which  the  Pope  forbade 
through  the  bishop  of  Linkoping  the  Russian  trade, 
a  convention  was  formed  in  Gottland  between  the 
traders  of  Wisby  and  Riga,  and  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Smolensko,  regarding  the  trade  on  the  Duna,  from 
which  the  wares  were  conveyed  overland  to  the 
Dnieper.  From  this  treaty  we  learn  that  the 
Russians  also  traded  from  Gottland  to  Lubeck. 
The  German  commercial  association  on  the  island 
was  so  powerful,  that  even  the  league  of  the  Hanse 
towns  appears  (from  recent  investigations)  to  have 
sprung  mainly  out  of  the  connexions  formed  in 
Gottland  between  the  traders  of  the  different  cities. 
There  was  a  time  when  Wisby  itself  excited  the 
jealousy  of  Lubeck,  but  its  power  was  broken  by  the 
invasion  and  sack  of  the  Danish  king  Waldemar, 
in  1361.  The  island  was  soon  entirely  severed 
from  Swedish  dominion,  and  Gottland,  whose  mari- 
time law  had  furnished  a  model  to  Northern 
Europe,  continued  for  a  long  time  to  be  a  haunt 
for  pirates. 

In  Sweden  all  trade,  both  internal  and  foreign, 
was  confined  to  the  Germans.  The  first  commer- 
cial privileges  of  Lubeck  were  granted  by  Earl 
Birger  about  1250,  and  the  charter  refers  to  others 
which  the  town  had  enjoyed  since  the  end  of  the 
preceding  century,  and  the  time  of  king  Canute. 
These  privileges  were  afterwards  extended  to 
Hamburg,  Riga,  Rostock,  Wismar,  Stralsund,  and 
generally  to  all  the  Hanse  towns.  Their  clerks 
and  agents  ^  obtained  the  right  of  settling  in  Swe- 
den and  living  under  the  Swedish  laws,  of  import- 
ing their  wares  toll-free,  and  of  transporting  them 
from  the  Baltic,  if  they  thought  fit,  by  the  land 
road  aci'oss  Sweden  to  the  North  Sea,  of  selling 
salt  and  travelling  with  their  wares  through  the 
interior.  One  consequence  of  the  commercial 
power  of  the  Germans  was  shown  in  the  authority 
they  exercised  in  the  Swedish  towns,  and  in  their 
tyranny  in  Stockholm,  in  the  time  of  king  Albert. 
Even  under  the  reign  of  Christian  I.  complaints 
were  made  that  all  the  municipal  offices  of  the 
capital  were  so  crowded  with  Germans,  that 
hardly  one  was  left  for  a  Swede,  unless  he  chose  to 
be  a  beadle  or  a  gravedigger  *.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  corresponding  rights  which  were  stipulated  for 
Swedish  traders  in  the  treaties  with  the  Hanse 
towns,  were  it  is  plain  never  available  for  them. 
Some  attempts  were  made  to  abridge  the  com- 
mercial immunities  of  the  Germans,  but  these  had 
no  other  effect  than  that  of  temporarily  interrupting 
the  traffic.  Charles  Canuteson  indeed,  when  ap- 
plication was  made  to  him  for  their  renewal,  is  said 
to  have  replied,  that  if  the  Hanse  association 
would  not  come   to   Sweden,  they  might  stay   at 

2  See  the  document  itself  in  Sartorius,  ii.  16. 

3  Termed  Sveni  in  the  original  charter  granted  by  Earl 
Birger,  preserved  in  the  archives  of  Lubeck  (Sartorius  ii. 
52),  not  Sueci,  as  we  read  in  several  copies,  even  that  printed 
in  Swedish  Diplomatarium.  Sveni  means  servants  (svenar), 
or  apprentices,  answering  to  the  knapar,  as  they  were  called, 
who  in  the  guild  of  Novogorod  were  subordinate  to  the 
masters. 

■»  See  the  letter  of  the  Dalecarlians,  enumerating  their 


home  ;  but  that  the  restrictions  imposed  did  not 
answer  their  purpose  is  manifest  from  the  ordi- 
nance of  the  council  at  Telge  in  1491,  in  which  they 
declare,  that  upon  perusing  the  "  register  of  the 
kingdom,"  they  had  observed  what  advantage  and 
pi'ofit  the  realm  obtained  at  the  time  when  the 
Germans  had  licence  to  trade  in  the  country,  them- 
selves buying  up  in  the  places  of  staple  the  wares, 
which  then  there  was  no  need  to  carry  abroad,  a 
course  that  had  led  only  to  confusion  and  the  gain 
of  the  Danish  towns.  For  this  i-eason  free  markets 
were  now  appointed  to  be  held  every  year  for  six 
weeks,  at  Calmar,  Soderkoping,  and  New  Lodose, 
(which  with  Stockholm  and  Abo,  were  the  chief 
trading  towns,)  where  both  natives  and  foreigners 
might  freely  traffic  with  each  other.  This  was 
regarded  of  the  more  importance,  as  th.e  toll  formed 
one  of  the  principal  means  of  rectifying  the 
coinage. 

Sweden  did  not  possess  a  coinage  until  a  late 
period.  If  the  goods  of  the  buyer  and  seller  were 
not  of  equal  value,  the  difference  was  made  up  by 
pieces  of  gold  or  silver  of  the  size  required  on  the 
occasion,  usually  shaped  into  larger  or  smaller 
circles,  such  as  are  often  found  in  the  soil  with 
marks  of  abrasion.  Trade  and  piracy  brought  the 
precious  metals  and  foreign  coins  into  the  kingdom. 
The  little  silver  coins  which  our  elder  antiquaries 
ascribed  to  heathen  kings  are  all  more  recent  ^. 
Among  a  multitude  of  foreign  coins  found  in  the 
earth,  a  few  only  have  here  and  there  been  met 
with,  which  are  referred  by  modern  inquirers,  al- 
though not  unanimously,  to  the  first  Chiistian  sove- 
reigns of  Sweden,  Olave  the  lap-king,  and  Anund 
Jacob,  although  even  these  appear  to  have  been 
struck  by  Enghsh  mint-masters.  Coins  of  the 
Folkunger  kings  are  fomid,  which  may  safely  be 
pronounced  of  domestic  mintage  ".  The  coinage 
was  divided  into  marks,  ceres,  of  which  eight  went 
to  a  mark  ;  oertugs,  whereof  three  to  an  oere;  and 
pence,  of  which  in  Gothland  sixteen,  in  Swedeland 
eight,  went  to  an  oertug '.  Originally  a  mark  of 
money  corresponded  to  a  mark  of  silver,  but  they 
soon  became  so  widely  distinct  in  value,  that  about 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  mark  of 
silver  was  equal  to  eight  and  a  half  marks  cur- 
rency. For  the  restoration  of  the  standard,  we 
find  Magnus  Ericson  ordering  that  all  traders 
bringing  specie  into  the  country  should  carry  to 
the  mint,  for  every  forty  marks  value  of  goods,  one 
mark  of  silver,  and  receive  in  return  five  of  coined 
money,  deducting  half  a  mark.  From  the  minute- 
book  of  the  town  of  Calmar  for  1384,  we  learn  that 
this  toll  was  paid  on  all  goods  imported,  amounting 
to  more  than  ten  marks  in  value,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  provisions  ^.  In  1476,  was  abolished  an 
abuse  prevailing  in  several  of  the  staples  among 
those  charged  with  the  collection  of  the  tolls,  of 
receiving  beer  instead  of  silver  ". 

complaints  against  Christian  I.  in  Memoirs  for  the  History 
of  Scandinavia,  vol.  v. 

5  Compare  Observations  on  the  oldest  Swedish  Coins,  by 
J.  II.  Schroder,  in  Transactions  of  the  Academy  of  Science, 
Historj-,  and  Antiquities,  vol.  xiii. 

6  The  Law  of  Upland  speaks  of  stamped  certugs. 

7  Towards  the  end  of  the  Catholic  period,  whole  and  half 
oertugs,  with  smaller  change,  were  the  only  pieces  struck  in 
Sweden. 

8  MS.  in  the  Library  of  Upsala. 

9  Hadorph,  Appendix  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle,  ii.  290. 


92 


Produce.    Fisheries. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Iiistitulion  (if  guilds. 


The  country  people  bartered  their  wares.  The 
Norrlanders  and  Eastlanders,  or  Finns,  were  ac- 
customed from  the  earHest  times  to  bring  the  pro- 
duce of  their  herds,  the  chase,  and  fisheries  to 
Stockhohn  and  the  lower  country,  witli  which  they 
procured  themselves  other  necessary  articles,  as  the 
miners  exchanged  their  iron  and  cop]>er  for  grain. 
The  Helsingers  had  an  old  privilege  of  travelling 
with  their  wares  between  the  different  places  of 
trade,  and  more  particularly  frequented,  as  is  still 
the  case,  the  fair  of  Disting  in  Upsala '-.  Olaus 
Magnus  states,  that  in  his  days  Swedish  horses 
were  yearly  exported  to  Germany  ;  they  were 
hardy,  though  of  small  size,  and  roamed  the  heath 
unconfined,  even  in  the  winter  season,  until  their 
thii-d  year.  He  speaks  also  of  a  nobler  stock,  in 
West-Gothland,  highly  prized  in  war,  whose  ex- 
portation was  forbidden  ;  Oeland  was  remarkable 
for  its  singularly  small  race  of  ponies  ;  Gottland 
was  famous  for  its  breed  of  sheep.  O.xen  were 
used  in  some  places  for  tillage  and  winter-carriage, 
yet  not  generally,  for  Gustavus  I.  afterwards  en- 
couraged their  employment  in  this  way.  In  several 
provinces,  Smaland,  a  part  of  East-Gothland,  Dais- 
land,  Vermeland,  and  the  whole  of  Norrland,  the 
people  derived  their  chief  support  from  their  Hocks 
and  herds.  The  chase  yielded  a  rich  return  of 
furs  and  skins,  large  quantities  of  which  were  sold 
for  export.  Elk-hides  were  shipped  by  the  thousand, 
with  minever,  ermine,  and  marten  skins. 

In  the  gulf  of  Bothnia  the  fisheries,  especially 
of  salmon  and  herring,  were  largely  productive. 
Fishermen  and  buyers  from  different  quarters  col- 
lected in  spring  at  the  mouths  of  the  great  streams 
of  Norrland.  Persons  from  Stockholm  and  other 
towns  of  Sweden  and  Finland,  regularly  every  year 
visited  these  fishing  stations^,  from  which  towns 
afterwards  arose.  In  Tornea,  most  of  all,  at  Mid- 
summer the  concourse  was  large,  with  many  Rus- 
sians and  Norwegians.  The  herring  fishery  on  the 
coast  of  Scania  was  pursued  chiefly  on  account  of 
the  Hanse  Towns.  Of  that  in  the  islets  of  Bohus- 
land  we  hear  less,  until  in  the  latter  half  of  the  six- 
teentli  century  it  became  uncommonly  abundant, 
after  that  of  Scania  had  declined. 

Among  the  civic  customs  of  the  middle  age  was 
the  institution  of  guilds,  of  which,  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  more  than  one  hundred  are 
said  to  have  existed  not  only  in  the  towns,  but 
throughout  the  country.  These  were  societies 
founded  in  honour  of  some  saint  or  relic,  admitting 
pei^ons  of  both  sexes  under  certain  obligations  and 
rules,  and  blending,  at  determinate  times,  religious 
exercises  and  works  of  charity  with  the  entertain- 
ments of  the  table '.    The  principal  guilds  had  halls 

'  Scai)(linavian  Memoirs,  iv.  fiC.  From  Olaus  Magnus 
(xiii.  38)  we  learn  that  the  country  people  of  the  hundreds  of 
Mark  and  Kind  in  West-Gothland  were  already  during  the 
middle  ages  noted  as  turners  and  hawkers  of  platters,  bowls, 
boxes,  and  other  articles  of  the  kind.  The  peasants  some- 
times abused  the  opportunities  of  this  inland  trade,  to  carry 
"merchants'  wares"  as  well  as  "peasants'  wares,"  which 
was  forbidden  by  the  Calniar  Recess  of  U74. 

2  For  tbese  fisheries  were  framed  the  Harbour  Rules 
(Hamne-skra)  of  King  Charles  Canuteson,  "  for  those  who 
use  to  fish  in  the  king's  common  fishing-ground.''  This 
mode  of  exi>ression  refers  to  the  powers  of  regulation  and 
taxation ;  various  suits  respecting  the  Norrland  fisheries 
shov/  that  tliey  were  considered  in  the  middle  ages  as  private 
property. 


of  their  own,  and  often  held  large  revenues,  arising 
from  donations  and  bequests,  of  which  the  motive 
is  to  be  sought  in  the  devotional  services  and 
masses  celebrated  by  these  societies  for  the  souls  of 
their  deceased  brethren.  Hence  there  were  few  of 
which  the  clergy  were  not  members.  Even  the 
guild  feasts  were  opened  with  divine  worship,  which 
was  followed  by  the  drinking  of  toiists,  with  hymns 
of  praise  to  the  saint,  in  memory  of  whom  the  cup 
was  drained.  The  guests  ate  what  each  had  pre- 
pared for  himself,  bringing  to  the  board  not  more 
than  two  or  three  di-shes  ;  beer,  which  must  be 
tasted  Vjeforehand,  since  there  was  a  fine  for 
blaming  it  during  the  compotation  ■•,  was  procui-ed 
by  the  joint  contributions  of  both  brethren  and  sis- 
ters. The  guiidliall  was  decked  with  fresh  bouglis 
and  fragrant  flowers,  the  floor  strewed  with  pine 
sprigs  and  grass,  and  on  the  outside  of  the  doors 
large  leafy  branches  were  ])laced.  While  the  re- 
fection was  in  jjrogress  the  musicians  of  the  guild 
played,  among  whom  the  most  important  was  the 
organist  ;  fifers,  trumpeters,  tymballers,  drimmicrs, 
and  lutanists  are  also  mentioned  as  serving  in  the 
Guild  of  the  Body  of  Christ  in  Stockholm.  The 
society  was  governed  by  an  alderman  and  stool- 
brothers  ;  and  although  princes  and  nobles  joined 
these  fraternities,  the  incorporations  of  craftsmen 
have  yet  the  same  origin.  Among  their  objects 
mutual  protection  was  one  of  the  most  important  ; 
during  tlie  earlier  period  of  their  existence  they 
avenged  conjointly  homicide  or  outrage  done  upon 
any  of  the  brethren  of  the  lodge,  and  assumed  a 
jurisdiction  over  their  own  members,  which  the 
most  powerful  guilds,  as  that  of  St.  Canute  in  Den- 
mark and  Scania,  exercised  with  the  consent  of  the 
ci'own  even  in  capital  causes. 

Times  of  violence  and  fierce  tempers  generated 
heinous  crimes  and  licentious  manners,  especially 
among  the  possessors  of  power.  Of  the  lengths  to 
which  the  vengeance  of  the  great  occasionally  pro- 
ceeded, sufficient  examples  have  been  already  ad- 
duced. Nor  were  the  clergy  exempt  from  the 
general  corruption.  Bishop  Olave  Gunnarson  was 
poisoned  at  the  synod  of  Westeras  in  1461,  because 
he  had  zealously  denounced  the  immoralities  of  the 
priesthood  ^.  The  monasteries,  of  which  the  num- 
ber ultimately  rose  to  about  sixty,  did  not  uni- 
versally set  an  edifying  example  of  continence  ; 
hence  St.  Bridget,  rebuking  the  clergy  for  laxity, 
compares  such  cloisters,  in  her  zeal,  to  houses  of 
ill  fame.  Pity  that  those  founded  upon  her 
own  rule  soon  exposed  themselves  to  a  like  re- 
preach.  The  disorders  arising  from  the  consoci- 
ation of  monks  and  nuns  in  the  Bridgetine  con- 
vents, occasioned  citations  to  Rome  and  before  the 
council  of  Basle,  without  however  being  effectually 

'  Compare  Muhrberg,  on  the  Guild  of  our  Lord's  Body  at 
Stockholm,  Acad.  Transac.  vol.  ii. ;  and  Fant,  Disseriatio 
de  Conviviis  sacris  in  Suecia. 

■<  "  NuUus  cerevisiam  culpet — bil)ant  honeste  sine  con- 
tencione  et  blasphemia."  From  the  Rules  of  the  Guild  of 
our  Lord's  Body.  (Convivium  corporis  Christi.)  For  a 
banquet  given  to  this  guild  by  its  aldermen  in  1513,  at 
which  only  fourteen  of  the  brethren  were  present,  there 
were  purchased  the  half  of  an  ox,  two  sheep,  forty  pounds  of 
smoked  beef,  two  hams,  three  neats'  tongues,  eighteen 
pounds  of  butter,  and  two  casks  of  beer  with  spices.  The 
statutes  were  called  skra,  a  word  also  signifying  the  guild 
itself. 

5  Diary  of  Vadstetia,  S.  R.  S.  i   178. 


I 


i 


Morals  of  llie  people. 
State  of  kiiowletlije. 


SWEDEN  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGE. 


Introduction  of  printing. 
Domestic  manners. 


m 


corrected  thereby,  as  is  proved  by  scandalous  nar- 
ratives still  preserved  ''.  Referring  to  the  Carthu- 
sian order,  which  had  been  newly  introduced,  the 
councillors  of  state  declared  in  1491,  their  hope 
*'  that  by  the  example  of  this  order,  and  the  grace 
of  the  blessed  virgin,  the  brethren  and  sisters  of 
other  religious  houses  would  amend  their  life,  and 
observe  their  rules  with  better  faith  and  constancy 
than  they  had  hitherto  used." 

Of  science  and  art  scarcely  aught  is  to  be  said  ; 
but  of  yore  there  were  found  minds  in  the  North, 
attracted,  more  than  other  men,  from  the  night 
and  fogs  of  earth  into  "  that  other  light,"  as  even 
heathenism  beforetime  called  the  supernal  world. 
St.  Bridget  is  the  seer  of  Catholicism,  as  we  may 
call  Swedenborg,  in  modern  days,  of  Protestantism. 
Both  distinguished  by  virtuous  lives,  and  intellect 
higher  than  the  ordinary  standard,  they  appeal  to 
revelations  and  visions,  remarkable  in  the  annals  of 
the  human  soul.  Of  these  we  will  content  oui-selves 
with  observing,  thatcontrastedly  they  show  how  the 
unsubstantial  may  take  the  image,  garb,  and  colour 
of  different  ages,  and  speak  to  extraordinary  men  in 
the  echo  of  their  own  breasts,  cramped  though 
they  be  by  the  bonds  of  prejudice.  The  revela- 
tions of  St.  Bridget,  albeit  afterwards  brought  into 
question  at  the  coimcil  of  Basle,  are  yet  not  rejected 
by  the  catholic  church,  which  canonized  her  in 
13917 

Whatever  learning  was  to  be  found  in  those  days 
was  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  clergy  ;  if  lay- 
men are  sometimes  extolled  on  this  ground,  as 
Baron  Charles  Ulfson  Sparre',  whom  the  Rhyme 
Chronicle  declares  to  have  been  skilled  "  in  the 
seven  bookish  arts  and  in  all  the  laws,"  or  Baron 
Eric  Trolle,  such  cases  are  but  rare  exceptions. 
Archbishop  Gustavus,  son  of  the  latter,  was  one  of 
the  few  who  are  said  to  have  known  the  Greek. 
The  new  University  of  Upsala  has  no  name  of  mark 
to  show  save  Eric  Olaveson,  professor  of  tlieology, 
who  composed  the  first  detailed  history  of  hi.s 
native  country  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  year 
1464.  In  the  monastic  and  cathedi-al  schools,  a 
scanty  instruction  was  doled  out  to  such  youths  as 
devoted  themselves  to  the  ministry,  as  also  to  the 
children  of  persons  of  rank,  until  their  military 
education  commenced  in  a  royal  or  baronial  house- 
hold. Typography  reached  Sweden  early;  the  first 
book  having  been  printed  in  1483  *.  Ingeborg, 
consort  of  the  administrator  Steno  the  elder,  en- 
couraged the  new  art,  causing  books  to  be  printed 
at  her  own  expense,  and  collecting  a  library  in  the 


"  Compare  Appendix  v.  to  the  Diary  quoted,  on  the  morals 
of  the  Bridgetine  convent  at  Dantzic,  in  1506,  S.  R.  S.  i. 

7  Bridfjet  was  the  daughter  of  the  Lawman  of  Upland, 
Birger  Person  of  Finsta,  of  the  same  family  which  afterwards 
assumed  the  name  of  Brahe ;  she  was  married  to  the  Lawman 
of  Nerike,  Ulf  Gudmarson,  by  whom  she  had  eight  children, 
among  them  one  daughter,  Catharine,  afterwards  canonized. 
Bridget  died  at  Rome  in  1373,  aged  seventy.  There  was  a 
proposal  to  elect  her  son  Israel  Birgerson  to  the  throne  after 
the  deposition  of  Magnus  Ericson.  Her  conventual  rules 
were  sanctioned  hy  the  pope  in  1370,  and  the  parent  cloister 
was  founded  at  Vadsteiia.  Her  revelations  were  recorded 
by  her  confessor ;  she  herself  wrote  down  her  Prayers,  per. 
haps  the  only  Swedish  book,  which  has  been  translated  into 
Arabic.  The  Orazioni  di  S.  Brigida,  in  Arabic  and  Italian, 
appeared  at  Rome  in  1677. 

s  Dialogus  Creaturarum  optime  moralizatus.  At  the  end, 
Iinpressus  per  Johannem  Snell,  artis  impressoriae  magistrum 


Carthusian  monastery  foimded  by  her  husband  at 
Marisefrcd  ^.  A  printing-house  at  Vadstena  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire  in  1495  '.  From  scarcity  of  paper, 
splints  or  rind  of  the  birch  tree  were  sometimes 
used  for  writing,  and  judicial  sentences  thus  re- 
corded are  still  spoken  of  by  the  common  people. 

The  two  princi]iles,  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  national  morality,  reverence  for  age,  and  the 
sanctity  of  wedlock,  our  ancestors  cannot  be  ac- 
cused of  setting  at  nought.  According  to  the  tem- 
per of  their  time,  they  were  often  turbulent,  espe- 
cially in  the  border  provinces  ;  hardnatured,  and 
strongly  attached  to  their  old  customs.  In  the 
country  nuptial  usages  are  still  nearly  the  same 
with  those  described  by  Olaus  Magnus  three  hun- 
dred years  ago  ;  only  the  bride-torches  are  dis- 
used. The  wreath  beforetime,  as  now,  was  the 
ornament  of  the  stainless  bride  at  the  altar;  other- 
wise it  was,  with  the  ample  veil,  and  the  rich 
girdle,  an  ordinary  dress  with  damsels  of  condition. 
In  noble  families  a  spear  formed  part  of  the  inor- 
rowing-gift  ^  to  the  bride,  which  on  the  day  of  mar- 
liage  was  thrown  out  of  the  window,  whether  to 
denote  the  obligation  of  the  mistress  of  the  house  to 
take  part  in  its  defence,  we  do  not  pretend  to  deter- 
mine. It  is  certain  that  in  the  middle  age  a  Swe- 
dish wife  was  sometimes  called  upon  to  partake  this 
duty ;  and  the  women  of  the  hundred  of  Verend  in 
Smaland,  who  in  the  absence  of  their  husbands 
once  repulsed  a  hostile  attack,  still  enjoy  for  that 
reason  the  privilege  of  inheriting  equal  portions 
w'ith  their  brothers,  and  have  long  preserved  at 
their  marriages  various  military  fashions  and  dis- 
tinctions ^. 

As  old  observances  still  subsisting  may  be  men- 
tioned, the  race  from  the  church  on  the  day  after 
Christmas  ;  for  he  that  first  reached  home,  it  was 
thought,  would  first  reap  the  harvest  of  the  year  *  ; 
the  fires  kindled  in  some  provinces  on  May  Day 
Even,  and  the  May-poles  at  Midsummer,  both 
circled  by  the  dance  ;  as  well  as  the  wrestling 
games  of  the  youth  on  the  tops  of  the  barrows, 
a  custom  still  not  uncommon  fifty  years  ago  in  cer- 
tain districts.  The  feasts  of  the  chief  men  were 
distinguished  by  pomp  of  costume  and  abundance 
of  meats,  while  a  multitude  of  the  present  conveni- 
ences of  life  were  unknown.  Even  in  houses  of  the 
better  class  the  window  was  sometimes  in  the  roof, 
and  filled  with  tarred  linen  or  parchment  instead  of 
glass.     So  highly  valued  was  the  latter  material. 


in  Stockholm,  inceptus  et  munere  Dei  finitus  est  anno  Do- 
mini MccccLXxxiii.  mensis  Decembris  in  vigilia  Thomse. 

9  Some  of  the  books,  inscribed  "  Frowe  Ingeborg  quondam 
uxor  Sten  Sture,"  are  in  the  Library  of  Upsala. 

'  Conflagraverunt  ibidem  diversa  instrumenta  pro  impres- 
sura  librorum,  realiter  aptata  el  jam  per  medium  annum  in 
usum  habita,  videlicet  torcular  cum  litteris  stanneis,  &c. 
Diar.  Vad. 

^  Morgongafva,  Ger.  morgengabe,  present  made  to  the 
bride  on  the  morning  after  the  marriage  day.  The  term  in 
the  text  is  still  used  in  some  parts  of  Scotland.     T. 

3  Tradition  places  this  occurrence  in  the  heathen  period, 
though  it  is  probably  less  ancient. 

■»  Under  Catholicism  prayers  were  offered  up  at  this  festival 
for  a  good  harvest ;  doubtless  a  memorial  of  the  Pagan  mid- 
winter sacrifice  for  a  plentiful  year,  which  was  held  in 
February  at  Candlemas  tide.     (See  note  p.  43.) 

'  In  1493  Baron  Hans  Akeson  was  shot  with  an  arrow 
through  the  window  in  the  roof  of  his  own  housg,  the  mur- 
derer having  first  made  an  opening.     Diar.  Vadsten. 


94 


Education  of  youth. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Attachment  to  liberty. 


that  the  whidows  of  the  castle  of  Stockholm  ai-e 
said  to  have  beeu  carried  oft'  by  the  Danes  under 
Christian  I. 

Youth  was  trained  to  hardy  and  martial  habits  ; 
the  boy,  we  are  told,  must  earn  his  morning's  meal 
by  hitting  the  mark  with  the  arrow  *'.  When  he 
had  reached  an  age  wliieh  admitted  of  his  defending 
himself  against  violence,  he  received  a  blow  on  the 
back,  with  an  exhortation  never  again  to  submit  to 
one  without  resenting  it '.  The  Gothlanders  and  Fin- 
landers  were  regarded  as  the  most  expert  bowmen ; 
the  battle-axe  and  spear  were  regarded  as  the  chief 
weapons  of  the  inhabitants  of  Sweden  Proper. 
Despite  the  prohibition  of  the  general  use  of  arms, 
the  peasant  seldom  quitted  his  house,  even  for  the 
church,  unarmed,  if  only  on  account  of  the  wild 
beasts,  of  which  the  wolves  were  the  most  formid- 
able. Sometimes  the  length  of  the  distance  and  the 
difficulties  of  the  country  prevented  him  from  re- 
pairing thither  more  than  once  or  twice  in  the 
year  *.  On  such  occasions  the  weapons  were  de- 
posited in  the  porch,  whicli  still  bears  from  this 
circumstance  the  name  of  the  weapon-house. 
Relics  of  the  catholic  period  are  still  found  here 
and  there  among  the  country  people  in  isolated 
superstitious  usages  and  broken  Latin  prayers.  A 
belief  in  various  elemental  spirits,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  descended  from  the  days  of  heathenism, 
unless  we  suppose  that  the  manifold  legends  of 
such   beings   are   ever   genex'ated   anew  by  com- 

5  Ut  non  panis  pueris  exhibeatur,  nisi  sagitta  prius  teti- 
gerint  metam.     Olaus  Magnus,  xv.  1 . 

7  Stiernhnek  (de  jure  Sueonum  vetusto),  says  that  this  was 
only  in  the  case  of  sons  of  nobles. 

8  So  it  was  in  certain  districts  of  Vermeland  at  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  according  to  the  statement  of  Olaus 
Magnus. 

9  See  the  poem  in  S.  R.  S.  v.  ii.  sub  fin.  Bishop  Thomas 
died  in  1443,  as  stated  on  his  grave-stone  at  Strengness.  (The 


munings  with  nature,  in  her  vast  and  savage  soli- 
tudes, among  the  forests  and  mountains  of  the 
North. 

To  value  life  not  too  highly,  and  freedom  above 
all  price,  may  be  noted  in  conclusion  as  the  leading 
feature  of  old  northei-n  religion.  This  conscious- 
ness of  their  rights  no  dominant  power  had  been 
able  to  extinguish,  and  still  amidst  the  perils  of 
foreign  oppression,  the  men  of  Sweden  cherished 
the  hope  of  a  coming  deliverance.  Therefore  did 
bishop  Thomas  of  Strengness,  in  his  elegy  on  the 
death  of  Engelbert  ^,  thus  sing  : 

Thou  noble  Swede,  now  hold  thee  fast. 
Mend  what  was  faulty  in  the  past, 

'Gainst  wile  and  fetch  defend  thee  ; 
Gage  thou  thy  neck,  ply  well  thy  brand, 
To  x-escue  thine  own  father  land, 

And  God  may  comfort  send  thee. 

The  bird  his  brood-nest  tends  with  care, 
So  does  the  wild  beast  guard  his  lair. 

Then  mark  what  is  beseeming  ; 
Thee  sense  of  truth  and  right  God  gave, 
Be  rather  free  than  other's  slave. 

The  while  life's  gifts  are  teeming. 

verses  quoted,  slightly  modernized  in  the  spelling  by  Pro- 
fessor Geijer,  are  as  follows  : 

O  edla  Svensk,  tu  statt  nu  fast, 
Och  battra  thet,  som  forra  brast, 
Tu  lat  tik  ej  omvanda  ; 
Tu  vaga  tin  hals  oc  swa  tina  hand, 
At  fralsa  tit  egit  fadernesland, 
Gud  ma  tik  triist  val  siinda. 

En  fogil  han  wiir  sin  egin  bur, 
Swa  gbra  oc  all  willena  djur 
Nu  mjerk  hwat  tik  btir  gora; 
Gud  hawer  tik  giwit  sinn  oc  skal, 
Var  heller  frij  an  annars  tral 
A  medan  tu  kant  tik  rora). 


i 


/ 


CATALOGUE  OF  KINGS. 


The  Gods. 
Odin. 

NiORD. 

Frey. 
Freya. 

The  Ynglings. 
Fiolner,  son  of  Yngwe  Frey. 

SWEGDER. 

Vanland. 

ViSBUR. 

DOMALD. 

DOMAR. 

Dyggve. 

Dag. 

Agne. 

Alrek  and  Eric. 

Yngwe  and  Alf. 

HuGLEIK. 

JoRUND  and  Eric. 

Ane,  the  old. 

Egil. 

Ottar. 

Adils. 

QEsten 

Yngwar. 

Braut  Anund. 

Ingiald  Illrada  •. 

II. 
Line  of  Ivar  and  Sigurd. 
Ivar  Widfamne. 

Auda  the  rich,  married, 

1.  to  RoREK  :  2.  to  Radbert. 

I  I 

Harald  Hildetand.     Randwer. 

Sigurd  Ring. 

'  "  The  Upsala  kings  were  the  highest  kings  in  Suilhiod, 
at  the  time  when  there  were  many  kings  of  hundreds." 
Ynglingasaga,  c.  40.  "  It  is  a  saying  of  men,  that  Ingiald 
put  to  death  twelve  kings,  and  all  by  fraud  ;  therefore  was 
he  called  Illrada  (the  bad  ruler);  he  was  king  over  the 
greatest  part  of  Suithiod."  lb.  c.  43.  "  After  Ingiald  the 
Upsala  power  was  taken  from  the  Ynglings,"  c.  45. 

2  Lists  of  kings  which  do  not  agree,  refer  to  a  continued 
partition  of  the  kingdom  under  several  contemporary 
prinoes.  Many  sea-kings,  who  ruled  over  a  great  war-force, 
but  had  no  lands.     Ynglingasaga,  c.  34. 

3  Anskar,  the  first  teacher  of  Christianity. 

•*  When  Anskar,  in  853,  visited  Sweden  for  the  second 
time,  a  king  Olave  was  ruler  in  Birca. 

5  (Segersall.)  Reigned  conjointly  with  his  brother  Olave, 
till  the  death  of  the  latter.  One  Ring  and  his  son  Eric  are 
spoken  of  as  kings  at  the  same  period  by  Adam  of  Bremen. 

6  The  first  Christian  king.  He  styles  himself  in  the 
Chronicles  of  the  kings,  the  tenth  over-king  of  his  family  in 
Upsala  (Saga  of  St.  Olave,  c.  71);  but  he  renounced  the  ap- 


SiGURD  Ring. 

Ragnar  Lodbrok. 

BioRN  Ironside. 

Eric  Biornson  and  Refil. 

Eric  Refilson  ^.  a-  b. 

Edmund  and  BioRN  of  the  Hill'     ...     in     829 

Eric  Edmundson  * +     885 

BioRN  Ericson +     935 

Eric  the  Victorious  ^ +     993 

Olave  the  Lap-king  6 +  1024 

Anund  Jacob +  1052 

Edmund  the  old  ^. 

III. 

Line  of  Stenkil. 

StenkilS +  1066 

Haco  the  Red  ^. 

Inge  the  elder  and  Halstan  '. 

Philip  (+  1118)  and  Inge  the  younger  3. 

IV. 

Lines  of  Swerker  and  St.  Eric. 

SWERKER^ +   1155. 

St.  Eric* +  1160. 

Charles  SwERKERSON  ^ +  1168. 

Canute  Ericson  ^ +1 195. 

Swerker  Carlson +  1210. 

Eric  Canuteson +  1216. 

John  Swerkerson +   1222. 

Eric  Ericson  ? +  1250. 

pellation  of  Upsala  king,  and  assumed  that  of  Swede  king 
(Sveakonung). 

7  Reigned  but  a  short  time.  The  year  of  his  death  is 
unknown. 

8  Son  of  the  West-Gothic  Earl  Ragwald  Ulfson.  After 
Stenkil's  death  intestine  war.  Two  kings  Eric.  Thereafter 
both  the  sons  of  Stenkil,  who  afterwards  reigned,  were 
chosen  and  driven  out.  Olave  Niiskonung  is  mentioned  in 
several  old  catalogues  at  the  same  time. 

9  By  some  placed  before  Stenkil. 

'  Sons  of  Stenkil.  The  death-year  of  neither  is  known. 
Heathen  counter-king.  Blot  Swen ;  then  his  son  Eric,  who 
in  his  old  age  became  a  Christian. 

■^  Sons  of  Halstan.  After  the  death  of  Inge  the  younger,. 
Ragwald,  son  of  Olave  Naskcnung,  appears  as  king.  He 
was  slain  by  the  West-Goths,  who  chose  the  Danish  prince 
Magnus  Nilson,  son  to  a  daughter  of  Inge  the  elder,  and 
after  his  death  in  1134,  were  for  some  time  without  a 
king. 

3  First  elected  by  the  East-Goths. 

■1  Called  also  Eric  the  Lawgiver.  King  of  Swedeland  in 
1150. 

s  The  first  who  is  named  king  of  the  Swedes  and  Goths. 
He  overcame  the  murderer  of  St.  Eric,  the  Danish  prince 
Magnus  Henrickson,  whom  likewise  the  catalogue  of  kings 
appended  to  the  law  of  West-Gothland,  as  well  as  some  others, 
reckon  as  king. 

6  Son  of  St.  Eric ;  slew  Charles  Swerkerson,  with  two 
other  counter-kings,  Kol  and  Burislef. 

7  Counter-king,  the  Folkunger  Canute  Johanson,  1229— 
1234. 


95 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


V. 

The  Folkungers. 


A.  D. 

+  1302. 

+  1290. 

^  1321. 

+  1374. 


Waldemar  *  (dethroned)     .... 

Magnus  Ladulas  ^ 

BiRGER  Magnusson  *  (dethroned) 
Magnus  Ericson  2  (dethroned)     .     . 

VI. 

Foreign  and  Union-Kings. 

Albert  of  Mecklenliurg^  (dethroned)   .  +   1412. 

jNIargaret  ^,  founds  tlie  Union  in  13!)7  •  ''"   1412. 

h^Ric  of  Pomerania*  (dethroned) .     .     .  +   1459. 

Christopher  of  Bavaria  ^ +   1448. 

Christian  I.  of  Oldenburg'  (dethroned 

in  Sweden) +   1481. 

John  *  (dethroned  in  Sweden)       .     .     .  +   1512. 

Christian  II.  the  Tyrant  "  (dethroned)  +   1559. 

8  His  father,  Earl  Birger,  regent  till  his  death  in  1266 ; 
bestows  dukedoms  on  his  other  sons. 

9  Revolted  against  his  brotlier  VValderaar  in  1275.  King 
of  Swedeland  1276,  of  the  whole  realm  1279. 

1  The  High  Marshal  Thorkel  Canuteson,  guardian  till 
1303.  King  Birger  imprisoned  in  1306,  by  his  brotliers  the 
dukes  Eric  and  Waldemar,  is  compelled  to  share  his  king- 
dom with  them  in  1310;  imprisoned  them  and  cut  them  off 
by  hunger  in  131S;  is  expelled. 

-  Son  of  Duke  Eric,  chosen  king  in  his  third  year,  1319  ; 
in  the  same  year  king  of  Norway.  Matts  Ketilmundson, 
administrator  in  Sweden  during  the  vacancy  of  the  throne, 
and  the  most  influential  man  during  the  minority  till  1333. 
Counter-kings;  Eric,  eldest  son  of  Magnus,  1350 — 1359, 
Haco,  the  younger  son.  King  of  Norway,  chosen  in  Sweden, 
1362;  dethroned  along  with  his  father  in  1363. 

3  Sister's  son  to  King  Magnus  Erieson.  King  1363. 
Captive  1389.    Liberated  1395. 

*  Chosen  in  Sweden  1388. 

'  Chosen  in  Sweden  1396.  Co-regent  with  Margaret; 
dethroned  by  Engelbert  in  1434.  Again  acknowledged ; 
dethroned  in  all  the  three  kingdoms  in  1439.  ' 


VII. 

Swedish  Regents  under  the  Union. 

A.  B.  A.  1) 

Engelbert  Engelbertson  ^      .     .      1434  +   143(i. 

Charles    Canuteson    (Bonde) 

Administrator, 143G  —  1441. 

Bennet    and    Nicholas   Jonson 

(Oxenstierna),  Administrators,  1448. 

Charles  Canuteson  2  King       .     .  +   1470. 

Archbisliop  Jens  Bennetson  (Oxen- 
stierna)^, Prince  and  Governor 
of  Sweden,        1457,  65,  GO. 

Bisliop  Kettil  Carlson  (Wase), 

Administrator, .       1464. 

Eric  Axelson  (Tott),  Admmistra- 
tor,     • 1466,  67. 

Steno  Sture  the  elder,  Adminis- 
trator, 1471—97,  1501 +   1503. 

Suanto    Nilson   Sture,  Adminis- 
trator, 1504 +   1512. 

Stexo  Suanteson  Sture,  Adminis- 
trator, 1512 +  1520. 

"  Chosen  King  of  Sweden  1440. 

^  King  of  Sweden  1457;  dethroned  1464. 

8  Chosen  in  Sweden  1483.  Became  possessed  of  the  throne 
first  in  1497 ;  deposed  in  1501. 

3  Acknowledged  as  heir  of  his  father  on  the  Swedish 
thronein  1499.  King  of  Sweden  1520;  dethroned  1521  ;  flees 
from  his  dominions  1523. 

'  Rusticorum,  qui  vocantur  Dalakarla,  Dux  et  Princeps — 
qui  tribus  annis  regnavit  et  postea  Interfectus  est.  Diarium 
Vadstenense,  S.  R.  S.  1.  151. 

2  Chosen  King  in  Sweden  1448;  in  Norway,  1449;  re- 
nounced the  Norwegian  crown  in  1450;  flees  to  Dantzic  in 
1457,  recalled  1464  ;  dethroned  anew  1465  ;  again  king  1407. 

3  "  The  worthy  Lord  and  Father  in  God,  Jens  Archbishop 
of  Upsala,  has  embraced  the  care  and  burden  of  setting  us 
free,  by  God's  help  and  St.  Eric's,  from  the  slavery  and  ruin 
into  which  King  Charles  had  brought  us  all."  Assurance 
of  the  Council  of  State.  Stockholm,  July  11,  1457.  Hadorph, 
on  the  Rhyme  Chronicle. 


I 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  LIBERATION. 


97 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  LIBERATION. 


YOUTH    OF    GUSTAVUS.        HIS   CAPTIVITY    IN    DENMARK    AND    ESCAPE.       STATE   OF    SWEDEN    UNDER   THE    DANISH 
GOVERNORS.  DISTURBANCES.  CONDUCT   OF    THE    BISHOPS    AND     CLERGY.  ADVENTURES   OF    GUSTAVUS    IN 

DALECARLIA.         CHOSEN    CAPTAIN    OF    THE    DALES.  REVOLT    OF    THE    DALESMEN.  ROUT    OF     BRUNNEBURN. 

GENERAL    INSURRECTION.        GUSTAVUS    ADMINISTRATOR.        SIEGE    OF    STOCKHOLM.        FLIGHT    OF    CHRISTIAN    II. 
FROM    DENMARK.      GUSTAVUS   CHOSEN    KING.       END    OF    THE    UNION. 

A.  D.  1?20— 1523. 


GuSTAVUs  Ericson,  as  he  was  called  and  wrote  him- 
self before  he  became  king,  was  descended  from  an 
old  Swedish  family,  which  had  already  given  mem- 
bers to  the  council  of  state  for  two  centuries  ^.  The 
name  of  Wasa,  which  some  derive  from  the  estate  of 
Wasa  in  Upland,  and  others,  with  more  probability, 
from  the  family  arms  ^,  was  borne  neither  by  him- 
self nor  his  forefathers,  suniames  not  being  yet  in 
use  among  the  Swedish  nobility.  This  family  was 
raised  to  high  consideration  by  the  Steward  Christer 
Nilson,  who  aimed  at  the  Acquisition  of  supreme 
power  for  himself,  and  had  a  son-in-law  and  three 
grandsons,  who  actually  possessed  it,  or  approached 
its  attainment^.  John,  the  son  of  this  powerful 
noble,  allied  himself  with  the  family  of  the  admi- 
nistrator, Steno  Sture  the  Elder,  by  a  marriage 
with  his  sister  Brita,  which  reconciled  the  patriotic 
party  to  a  family  that  had  hitherto  zealously  em- 
braced the  interest  of  the  Union.  The  old  hostility 
of  the  Vasas,  but  for  some  time  also  both  their  in- 
fluence and  their  activity,  seemed  slumbering.  Nei- 
ther the  grandfather  of  Gustavus,  John  Christerson, 
nor  his  father,  Ei-ic  Johanson,  councillor  and  knight, 
possessed  much  weight  in  public  affairs.  The  latter 
was  married  to  lady  Cecilia  of  Eka,  who  was  like- 
wise of  a  family  which  had  shed  its  blood  for  the 
Danish  domination  in  Sweden*. 

Eric  Johanson  is  styled  "  a  merry  and  facetious 
lord  ;"  but  in  his  younger  days  his  temper  was  un- 
controllably violent.  In  1490,  at  an  agreement  with 
the  town  of  Stockholm  in  the  council-chamber,  he 
was  obliged  to  sue  forgiveness  for  different  acts  of 
outrage  he  had  committed,  and  to  engage  that  in 
case  of  wood  being  cut  in  his  forests,  or  fish  taken 
in  his  waters  by  any  poor  peasants,  he  would  not  on 

1  His  oldest  seal  bears  the  arms,  with  the  inscription, 
Gostaf  Ericson.  The  first  of  this  family  who  is  known  with 
certainty  is  tlie  knight  Ketll  Carlson,  member  of  the  coun- 
cil from  1322  to  1330.  Compare  Peringskbld,  Monumenta 
Uplandica,  70,  and  Genealogy  (JEttartal). 

'-  A  wase,  meaning  bundle,  and  here  properly  a  fagot, 
such  as  is  used  for  filling  up  ditches,  whence  the  family  is 
also  called  Stormwase.  Therefore  the  wase  in  the  arms  was 
originally  black,  but  Gustavus  having  given  it  the  yellow 
colour,  it  has  since  been  taken  for  a  wlieatsheaf.  (Wase,  in 
the  sense  of  wisp,  occurs  in  Chaucer.  The  Swedish  ortho- 
graphy of  the  name  is  Wasa,  the  tv  being  pronounced  as  v, 
and  now  generally  retained  only  in  proper  names.  Trans.) 

3  The  husband  of  his  daughter,  Bengt  Jenson  (Oxen- 
stierna),  was  administrator  in  1448 ;  her  son  was  the  arch- 
bisliop  Jens  Bengtson,  administrator  in  1457  and  14C5.  His 
grandsons  on  the  male  side  were  Ketil  Carlson,  bishop  of 
Linkbping,  administrator  in  1464 ;  his  brother  Eric,  in  a 
letter  to  his  wife,  promises  that  he  will  in  a  short  time  set 
the  crown  on  her  head. 

■•  She  was  daughter  of  Magnus  Carlson  of  Eka,  brother  of 


the  instant  "  place  them  in  irons,  or  treat  them  like 
senseless  beasts,  but  allow  them  their  rights  in 
law  5." 

Gustavus,  the  eldest  son  of  his  parents  ^,  was  born 
on  the  manor  of  Lindholra  in  Roslagen,  then  be- 
longing to  his  grandmother  Sigrid  IJaner,  in  the 
year  1490,  if  we  may  trust  the  unanimous  assurances 
of  the  more  recent  historians,  who  claim  to  Icnow 
more  than  their  predecessors  ;  for  these,  even  such 
as  were  nearmost  to  Gustavus  himself,  are  uncer- 
tain as  to  the  year  of  his  birth.  King  Charles  IX., 
who  himself  revised  the  history  of  Eric  Johanson 
Tegel  7,  where  that  date  is  found,  assigns  to  his 
father,  in  the  Rhyme  Chronicle  composed  by  him- 
self, an  age  greater  by  two  yeai's.  Peter  Brahe  *, 
nephew  of  Gustavus,  supposes  that  he  was  born  in 
1495.  Other  old  manuscript  chronicles  of  the  reign 
of  king  Gustavus,  which  differ  little  from  each  other, 
(they  were  followed  by  Tegel,  and  we  have  ourselves 
compared  several  of  them,)  give  either  the  la.st- 
named  year,  or  those  of  1497  and  1496,  of  which 
the  latter  appears  to  be  the  cori'ect  one.  The  day 
of  his  birth,  however,  is  better  known  than  the 
year  ;  it  was  the  twelfth  of  May,  "  \vhich  then  was 
our  Lord's  Ascension  Day  3."  Of  all  the  years 
stated,  the  only  one  in  which  this  feast  fiills  upon 
that  day  is  149G,  and  the  explanation  to  which  this 
points  is  borne  out  by  several  other  cu-cumstances. 

Gustavus  was  only  a  few  years  old  when  king 
John,  during  one  of  his  latest  visits  to  Sweden ', 
saw  him  at  play  with  others  of  his  age  ;  it  is  said 
that,  like  Cyrus  of  old,  he  played  the  king.  John, 
as  the  story  goes,  patted  him  on  the  head,  saying, 
that  "  he  would  yet  be  a  man  remarkable  in  his 
days,  if  he  lived,"  and,  it  is  asserted,  kept  the  boy 

Trotte  Carlson,  a  brave  warrior,  who  fell  fighting  for  Chris- 
tian I.  in  the  battle  of  Brunkeberg. 

5  Extract  from  the  Minute-book  of  the  town  of  Stockholm, 
in  the  Nordiii  Collections,  in  the  Library  of  bpsala. 

6  Magnus,  a  younger  brother,  took  his  designation  from 
Rydboholm,  died  unmarried  in  1529,  and  is  otherwise  un- 
known. 

7  "  So  that  it  may  with  justice  be  called  his  majesty's  own 
v/ork,"  Tegel  says  in  the  dedication  of  his  History  of  Gus- 
tavus I.  to  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

8  In  his  manuscript  Chronicle  of  King  Gustavus,  properly 
a  copy,  with  additions  and  emendations,  of  Rasmus  Ludvic- 
son's  Chronicle. 

9  So  Tegel,  after  the  chronicles,  although  he  himself  gives 
1490  as  the  year.  This  date,  however,  is  not  more  trust- 
worthy than  the  account  of  those  same  chronicles,  that  Chris- 
tina Gyllenstienia,  as  consort  of  Steno  Sture  the  younger, 
was  present  among  the  elderly  dames  at  the  birth.  She 
was  yet  a  child  in  the  house  of  her  mother,  Sigrid  Baner, 
and  was  married  November  11,  1511. 

1  In  1499  or  1501. 

IT 


98 


School-days  of  Gusfavus. 
His  early  exploits. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


A  prisoner  in  Jutland. 
Escapes  to  Lubeck. 


[1520- 


in  his  train,  and  wished  to  carry  him  to  Deumark. 
But  Steno  the  Elder,  aiipreheiiding  the  king  to  be 
more  bent  on  procuring  a  hostage  than  a  foster-son, 
averted  from  the  child  the  danger  which  afterwards 
overtook  the  youth.  Gustavus  was  sent  to  his 
father,  who  was  then  lord  feudatory  of  Aland.  At 
this  time,  say  the  chronicles,  the  children  of 
Sweden's  nobles  were  termed  wolf-cubs  by  the 
Danes. 

All  accounts  agree  that  the  young  Gustavus  was 
placed  in  the  seminary  of  Upsala  in  1509  ;  a  fact 
which  confirms  the  view  we  have  taken  as  to  the 
year  usually  given  for  his  birili  being  erroneous, 
fi'om  the  improbability  that  this  step  should  not 
have  occurred  until  his  nineteenth  year.  For  it 
is  known  that  he  was  in  fact  placed  in  the  grammar- 
school,  and  was  subjected  to  personal  chastisement 
while  there  by  the  Danish  schoolmaster  2.  The 
latter  was  informed  that  his  young  pupil  had  on 
some  occasion  said,  "  See  what  I  will  do  ;  I  will  go 
to  Dalecarlia,  get  out  the  Dalesmen,  and  knock  the 
Danes  on  the  head."  Gustavus  sufi'ered  his  school- 
flogging  ;  then  drawing  out  his  little  sword,  he 
thrust  it  through  his  Curtius,  and  quitted  the  school 
with  a  malison  never  to  return.  A  hundred  years 
afterwards,  the  country  people  could  point  out  the 
places  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Upsala  he  frequented 
with  his  playmates,  and  tell  how  he  had  been  at  a 
wolf-chase  hunting  merrily. 

Old  narrators  are  also  unanimous  that  in  1514 
(his  eighteenth  year,  most  of  them  say)  he  was 
received  into  the  household  of  Steno  Sture'  the 
younger  ;  with  which  corresponds  the  remark  often 
made  by  the  chroniclers,  that  he  was  early  taken 
from  his  studies  to  military  service  and  court  life  ; 
"  a  noble  youth,  comely,  ready-witted,  and  prompt 
in  action,"  say  they,  "  whom  God  had  stirred  up  for 
the  salvation  of  his  native  country."  He  first  bore 
arms  in  the  feud  of  Steno  Sture'  the  younger  against 
the  archbishop  Gustavus  TroUe,  and  is  spoken  of  at 
that  time  as  distinguished  among  his  comrades  for 
valour,  persuasive  eloquence,  and  a  joj'ous  tempe- 
rament. At  Dufveness,  in  the  summer  of  1517,  he 
defeated  the  Danish  force  sent  to  the  prelate's  as- 
sistance ;  and  in  the  following  year,  when  Christian 
himself  arrived  with  his  fleet  before  Stockholm,  he 
carried  the  Swedish  banner  in  the  combat  at  Brenn- 
kirk,  which  forced  the  Danes  to  retreat.  Famine 
had  already  wasted  their  camp,  and  became  yet 
more  fatal  in  the  fleet,  which  was  detained  by  con- 
trary winds.  A  portion  of  the  troops  voluntarily 
gave  themselves  up  to  the  generosity  of  the  enemy, 
and  were  permitted  to  return  home  without  hin- 
drance. The  king,  to  gain  time,  opened  negocia- 
tions  for  peace.  Steno  Sture  himself  supplied  his 
fleet  with  provisions  ;  he  was  even  with  difliculty 
dissuaded  from  going  on  board,  and  made  no  scru- 
ple in  sending  six  of  his  followers  as  hostages,  when 
Christian  pretended  a  desire  to  pay  him  a  visit. 
Gustavus  was  among  the  number  ;  and  with  hi  in 
doctor  Hemming  Gadd,  to  whose  lessons  he  had 

"  Master  Ivar.  "  He  was  harsh  to  all,  and  gave  Gustavus 
a  thrashing."  After  the  elevation  of  his  former  scholar  he 
fled  from  the  country,  which  displeased  Gustavus,  who  said 
that  he  had  nothing  to  fear.     Micolaus  Bothniensis,  Notes. 

3  This  was  not  all  in  money,  but  consisted  partly  of  iron, 
butter,  and  other  wares,  exported  on  the  legate's  account. 
Christian  confiscated  the  cargo  in  Elsinore,  and  caused 
the  agents  of  the  legate  who  conveyed  it  to  be  drowned. 

■*■  Hvitfeld.     The  winter  of  this  year  too  was  severe,  so 


listened  in  his  youth,  and  Lawrence  Siggeson,  in 
aftertimc  one  of  the  props  of  his  throne.  When 
the  boat  which  carried  them  had  reached  the  open 
sea,  its  return  was  cut  off'  by  a  Danish  shi])  of  war; 
they  were  seized,  taken  on  board,  and  the  sails 
having  been  meanwhile  swelled  by  a  favourable 
wind,  treacherously  carried  off"  to  Denmark. 

Gustavus  was  committed  to  the  custody  of  Baron 
Eric  Bauer,  his  kinsman,  governor  of  the  castle  of 
Kalloe,  in  North  Jutland,  where  he  spent  upwards 
of  a  year  in  a  captivity  that  would  have  been  tole- 
rable in  other  respects,  if  the  fate  which  threatened 
his  native  land  had  allowed  him  quiet  by  day  or 
sleep  by  night.  For  tlirough  all  the  country  men 
now  spoke  only  of  the  great  military  preparations 
against  Sweden,  for  which  new  taxes  were  imposed, 
and  sums  of  money  besides  collected  by  loans  or 
plunder.  Even  a  papal  legate  was  robbed  of  the 
amount  he  had  amassed  by  the  sale  of  indulgences 
in  Sweden  ^.  Copenhagen  was  crowded  with  French, 
Scottish,  English,  and  German  soldiers.  With  the 
winter  of  1520  the  campaign  was  to  begin  ;  for  the 
paths  across  the  Holwed  and  the  Tiwed,  by  which 
alone  an  army  could  advance  to  the  interior  of  the 
country,  were  still  at  that  time  more  dangerous  to 
traverse  in  summer  than  in  winter  ;  hence  the 
Danes  considered  that  a  war  against  Sweden  was 
best  carried  on  in  winter  *.  These  preparations 
formed  the  common  subjects  of  discourse  among 
those  by  whom  Gustavus  was  surrounded.  At  the 
table  of  his  host  he  heard  the  young  warriors 
vaunt  that  they  would  play  St.  Peter's  game  with 
the  Swedes,  alluding  to  the  papal  interdict,  which 
served  as  the  pretext  of  the  war  ;  he  heard  them, 
while  jesting  among  themselves,  cast  lots  for 
Swedish  lands  and  Swedish  damsels.  "  By  such 
contumelies,"  it  is  said, "  was  lord  Gustavus  Ericson 
seized  with  anguish  bej^ond  measure,  so  that  neither 
meat  nor  drink  might  savour  pleasantly  to  him, 
even  if  he  had  been  better  furnished  than  he  was '. 
His  sleep  was  neither  quiet  nor  delectable,  for  he 
could  think  of  nothing  else  than  how  he  might 
find  opi^ortunity  to  extricate  himself  from  the  un- 
just captivity  in  which  he  was  held  ! " 

At  length,  in  the  early  morning,  he  effected  his 
escape,  disguising  himself,  some  say  as  an  ox-herd, 
others  as  a  pilgrim,  and  passed  on  his  way  with 
such  speed  that  on  the  first  day  he  is  said  to  have 
travelled  twelve  miles  s,  and  reached  Lubeck  in 
safety  on  the  last  day  of  September,  1519.  Here 
he  stayed  eight  months,  long  enough  to  hear  that 
Steno  Sture  had  fallen,  and  that  Sweden  was  sub- 
dued. The  consequences  which  were  to  follow  to 
all  the  Swedish  leaders  were  already  predicted  in 
Lubeck,  whence  Gustavus  is  said  to  have  sent 
warning  to  his  father  and  others  of  the  Swedish 
nobles.  His  former  host  and  keeper  soon  repaired 
thither  and  demanded  his  captive  from  the  council 
of  Lubeck,  being  held  responsible  in  a  heavy  sum 
by  the  king  for  his  safe  custody.  To  the  charge  of 
having  broken  his  oath  Gustavus  made  this  answer  : 

that  lakes,  streams,  and  marshes  were  covered  with  strong 
ice. 

5  His  fare,  it  is  said,  was  in  truth  not  very  palatable,  con- 
sisting of  salt  meat,  sour  beer,  black  bread,  and  rancid 
herring. 

"  The  chronicles  protiably  reckon  by  the  old  Swedish 
Forest-miles,  two  of  which  go  to  one  of  the  modern  scale. 
Six  Swedish  miles  on  foot  in  one  day  (which  may  here 
mean  a  day  and  a  night)  is  in  any  case  considerable. 


1523.] 


He  repairs  to 
Calmar. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  LIBERATION. 


Attempts  to  raise  tlie        „_ 
Smalanders.  •'■' 


'•  This  shall  no  honourable  man  establish  on  any 
good  grounds, — that  I  am  a  captive  and  not  a  host- 
age, who  with  other  good  lords,  my  companions, 
came  to  the  king  of  Denmark  according  to  his  own 
wish,  upon  his  oath  and  promise,  letter  and  seal, 
that  we  should  again  return  back  to  our  chief,  lord 
Steno,  without  danger  or  hindrance.  Let  one 
appear  who  may  prove  fairly  and  in  truth,  in  what 
skirmish  and  fight  we  were  made  prisoners,  and  who 
those  were  that  took  us.  Hence  it  befits  not  we 
should  be  called  prisoners,  but  men  surprised,  over- 
reached, and  deceived.  For  with  what  justice  can 
he  be  called  a  captive  that  never  merited  captivity, 
and  whom  neither  obligation,  nor  law,  nor  justice, 
has  brought  into  bondage  ^  I "  "  Yet  would  this 
have  little  helped,"  continues  the  Chronicle,  "  had 
not  Master  Nicholas  Broms,  burgomaster  of 
Lubeck,  and  the  principal  men  of  the  council 
remembered,  how  it  had  been  the  purpose  of  king 
Christian  to  oppress  the  Vendish  towns,  the  rather 
that  he  was  now  also  lord  of  Sweden.  For  that 
reason  they  deemed  it  was  better  to  dismiss  this 
Gustavus  Ericson  to  his  own  country  ;  for  who 
knew  what  he  might  effect  ?" 

Stockholm  and  Calmar  were  the  only  strong 
places  in  Sweden  which  the  enemy  had  not  yet 
won,  and,  singularly  enough,  they  were  both 
defended  by  women.  Gustavus  had  wished  to 
offer  his  services  to  Christina  Gyllenstierna,  and 
the  merchant-ship  from  Warnemunde  which  took 
him  on  board  was  bound  to  Stockholm.  But 
Christian  had  already  blockaded  the  capital  by 
sea  and  land,  while  before  Calmar  lay  a  detach- 
ment of  the  Danish  fleet,  under  Severiu  Norby. 
Gustavus  landed  secretly  at  Stensoe,  a  promontory 
in  the  vicinity  of  Calmar,  and  proceeded  to  the 
town.  John  Magnusson,  who  had  hitherto  held 
the  command,  was  the  son  of  the  assassin  of  Engel- 
be-rt,  whom  he  resembled  both  in  his  untameable 
passions,  for  he  was  an  accomplice  in  the  homicide, 
and  in  his  hatred  of  the  Danes.  His  father,  we  are 
told,  sacrificed  to  his  remorseful  vengeance  several 
Danes  who  had  instigated  him  to  the  commission 
of  the  deed,  and  was  at  last  incited  by  anguish  of 
conscience  to  an  attempt  on  his  own  life  *".  Magnus- 
son  had  lately  refused  admittance  with  contumely 
to  Christian  himself*^  ;  but  he  was  now  dead,  and 
the  castle  was  held  by  Anne  Bielke,  his  widow. 
To  her  Gustavus  repaired  and  found  but  a 
comfortless  welcome  ;  for  the  courage  of  the 
burghers  had  sunk,  and  the  German  garrison  in 
the  castle  was  so  ill-disposed,  that  they  threatened 
him  with  death  when  he  exhorted  them  to  a  valiant 
defence.  Being  with  diflBculty  protected  by  the 
burgesses,  he  quitted  the  town  on  the  same  day 
on  which  it  was  summoned  by  Severin  Norby,  and 
retired  to  the  hilly  district  of  Smalaiid,  among 
some  peasants  who  held  land  of  his  fatlier.     He 

"  Even  after  his  elevation  to  the  throne,  Gustavus  de- 
fended himself  against  the  charge  of  having  broken  his  vford 
to  Eric  Baner,  an(l  drawn  upon  him  by  flight  the  appointed 
penalty,  which  Christian  in  fact  demanded.  "We  lay  not 
there,"  he  says,  "  as  a  captive,  and  had  given  him  no  pledge 
to  remain  there,  although  we  hear  that  he  so  allegeth  without 
any  proof."  Letter  to  Magnus  Goye,  to  bid  Eric  Ericson 
desist  from  such  words  as  stain  the  king's  honour  and  good 
repute.     Register  in  the  State  Archives  for  1529. 

>*  Joannes  Magnus,  who  had  bt-en  tutor  in  the  son's  family. 

'He  complains  in  a  letter  to  the  West-Goths,  dated  Calmar 
Sound,  May  3,  1520,  of  the  refractoriness  and  insolence  with 


found  the  whole  country  filled  with  discords  and 
mutual  treachery  ;  for  the  Swedes,  it  is  said, 
"  were  so  dull  and  blinded,  that  they  became  in 
many  ways  the  helpers  of  their  oppressors  and 
enemies,  who  gladly  saw  them  slandering,  calum- 
niating, deceiving,  and  ruining  one  another."  The 
Smalanders  showed  anxiety  for  their  own  safety  in 
the  first  place,  and  had  concluded  a  league  with 
their  neighbours  of  the  then  Danish  province  of 
Bleking,  for  peaceful  intercourse  and  mutual 
defence  against  all  acts  of  violence  which  might  be 
attempted  by  either  of  the  two  kingdoms.  They 
took  also  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  envoy  of  Chris- 
tian, who  traversed  the  country  and  distributed 
letters  of  protection  from  the  king.  Many  such 
were  at  this  time  issued  for  the  chief  men,  whether 
barons  or  yeomen,  of  the  different  provinces,  "  so 
that  the  letter  was  of  more  power  than  the  sword  *." 
Gustavus  sometimes  appeared  in  assemblages  of 
the  peasants,  and  "  warned  them  against  the  ban- 
quet which  was  now  prepared  for  the  Swedes."' 
Their  usual  answer  was,  that  king  Christian  would 
take  order  that  there  should  be  no  scarcity  either 
of  herrings  or  salt  in  the  country  ;  and  some  shot 
bolts  and  arrows  at  him.  A  revolt  of  the  East- 
Goths  was  already  quelled  ;  the  West-Goths  and 
the  Vermelanders,  as  also  the  Smalanders,  had  sub- 
mitted to  the  king  '^.  Upper  Sweden  alone  was  dis- 
turbed, and  Gustavus  from  the  first  determined  to 
repair  to  Dalecarlia,  as  we  learn  from  his  proposal 
to  a  nobleman  of  Smaland  to  accompany  him 
thither  ^.  Pursued,  disguised,  and  wandering 
mostly  in  lonely  tracks,  a  price  having  been  already 
set  upon  his  head  *,  where  he  concealed  himself 
during  a  great  portion  of  this  summer  is  unknown  ; 
but  in  the  month  of  September  he  arrived  without 
money  or  clothes  at  the  manor  of  Tarna,  in  Suder- 
mania,  where  he  found  his  brother-in-law,  Joachim 
Brahe,  already  summoned  to  the  coronation  ^,  and 
in  vain  entreated  him  not  to  obey  the  call. 

The  son  of  Joachim  Brahe,  in  his  Chronicle,  has 
acquainted  us  with  his  father's  answer.  "  I  am 
specially  cited  to  the  coronation,"  he  said  ;  "  if  I 
should  remain  absent,  what  would  then  become  of 
my  wife  and  children  ?  Perhaps  ill  might  even 
come  of  it  for  her  and  your  parents,  as  well  as  for 
others  of  our  friends.  With  you  the  matter  stands 
quite  otherwise,  for  not  many  know  wliere  you  are 
stead.  It  can  go  no  worse  with  me  than  with  all 
the  Swedish  lords  who  are  already  gathered  about 
the  king."  In  this  prudent  mood  the  baron  de- 
parted, to  meet  in  their  company  au  unexpected 
death. 

After  visiting  his  brother-in-law  and  his  sister 
Margaret,  Gustavus  repaired  to  his  father's  estate 
of  Rajfsness,  and  there  lived  for  some  time  under 
hiding.     He  made  himself  known  to  the  old  ai'ch- 

which  he  had  been  repelled  at  Calmar.     Hadorph  on  the 
Rhyme  Chronicle. 

'  Olave  Peterson. 

2  Messenius,  Scondia,  iv.  85. 

^  Bengt  Ericson  of  Scaelsness,  in  the  parish  of  Hult,  hun- 
dred of  South  Wedbo.  He  had  already  received  the  king's 
protection,  repaired  to  Stockholm,  and  perished  in  the 
massacre. 

■•  Narrative  of  Clement  Rensel,  Scandinavian  Memoirs,  ii. 

^  Tills  summons  could  not  have  been  issued  before  the 
surrender  of  Stockholm  on  the  7th  September,  after  which 
the  king,  returning  for  a  short  time  to  Denmark,  convoked 
the  coronation  diet  for  the  1st  November. 
H  2 


100 


Clergy  and  nobles  favour 
the  Danes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


News  of  the  massacre. 
Flight  ol'Gustavus. 


[1520- 


bishop,  Jacob  Ulfson,  who  had  sought  refuge  in  the 
neighbouring  cloister  of  Maricfred,  and  received 
from  him  a  detail  of  the  state  of  things  in  tliis  part  of 
the  country,  where  the  enemy,  on  tirst  penetrating, 
had  been  met  by  a  stout  resistance,  though  from  a 
peasantry  left  without  leaders.  In  the  conflict  of 
Balundsas  ^,  and  the  still  bloodier  action  fought 
shortly  after  at  Upsala,  wliich  niight  have  been 
changed  into  a  victory,  had  not  the  peasants  dis- 
persed to  plunder',  the  royal  forces  had  suffered 
great  loss.  The  Dalesmen  had  taken  part  in  this 
rising ;  whence  their  first  answer  to  Gustavus 
when  he  attempted  to  rouse  them  was,  that  they 
well  remembered  Good-Friday  at  Upsala  *.  Ex- 
asperation against  the  prelates,  all  of  wliom,  except- 
ing bisltop  Arvid  of  Abo,  were  of  the  Danish 
faction,  and  the  barons,  who  had  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  employed  by  the  king  as  intriguers, 
liad  occasioned  tumults  and  violence  in  some  places. 
Jacob  Ulfson  had  been  himself  surprised  in  his 
manor  of  Arnus  ;  bishop  Otlio  of  Westeras  was 
seized  in  his  own  cathedral;  bishop  Brask  of  Lin- 
koping  was  besieged  by  the  East-Gothlandcrs ; 
Eric  Abrahamson,  who  had  pointed  ovit  to  the 
enemy  the  road  aci-oss  the  Tiwed,  was  made  pri- 
soner by  the  peasants  of  Nei'lke;  and  Hemming 
Gadd  was  well-nigh  slain  when  he  ventured  to 
speak  of  the  capitulation  of  Stockholm. 

Since  tlie  resolution  taken  by  Steno  Stur^  the 
younger,  with  the  estates  at  tlic  diet  of  Arboga  in 
1517,  "rather  to  die  sword  in  hand  than  to  submit 
to  king  Christian,"  rapid  progress  liad  been  made 
with  the  fortifications  of  Stockholm.  The  old  de- 
fensive works  had  been  improved  or  recon- 
structed. The  town  was  well  suj)plied  with  military 
stores,  and  the  king,  who  had  besieged  it  through- 
out the  summer,  gave  it  u])  for  lost  if  it  were  not 
reduced  before  the  winter.  This  the  Swedish  barons 
in  his  camp  procured,  and  Stockholm  was  given 
up  by  the  nobles  in  the  town,  "  against  the  will  of 
the  commonalty  ^." 

The  clergy  at  this  juncture  saw  more  distinctly 
than  any  other  class,  tliat  the  fate  of  the  union 
must  now  be  decided  once  for  all,  and  wished  to 
soften  the  impending  eruption  by  dexterous  ma- 
nagement. "  If  we  inquire,"  said  bishop  Matthias 
of  Strengness  to  the  peasants  of  Nerike,  "  the  real 
cause  of  those  pernicious  troidjles  v.hich  have  so 
long  raged  in  this  realm,  the  truth  plainly  is,  that 
their  source  and  commencement  were  the  dis- 
sensions prevailing  among  the  barons  ;  of  whom 

^  Half  a  mile  east  of  Westeras.  The  place  is  still  called 
Jute-bog. 

"  "  Because  they  had  no  such  leaders  as  they  greatly 
needed."  Olave  Peterson.  He  reckons  the  peasants  slain 
on  this  occasion  at  some  hundreds,  while  Hvitfeld,  viho 
generally  follows  his  authority  in  Swedish  affairs  witli  literal 
closeness,  makes  them  ten  thuusand,  and  others  double  the 
number.  So  discrepant  are  the  historical  accounts  of  this 
war,  composed  after  popular  legends. 

s  The  battle  took  place  on  Good-Friday,  April  5,  1520.  See 
the  old  Dale  song  in  the  Svenska  Folkvisor  (Swedish  Popular 
Songs),  V.  ii. 

0  Olave  Peterson.  The  capitulation  of  Stockholm  is  sub- 
scribed by  the  archbishop  Gustavus  TroUe,  the  bishops  Mat- 
thias of  Strengness  and  Otho  of  Westeras,  as  also  by  twelve  of 
the  councillors  present,  and  among  them  Gustavus's  father. 
In  this  they  engage  to  hold  the  castle  for  king  Christian,  and 
after  his  death  for  his  queen  and  son ;  on  the  side  of  the 
burghers  a  similar  guarantee  was  given  ;  both  are  dated 
Sept.  8,  1520.     The  originals  are  in  the  archives  of  Christian 


there  were  some  that  raised  themselves  to  the 
power  of  kings  and  chiefs,  stripping  the  council  of 
its  legitimate  authority,  and  by  lying  discourses 
and  rumours  crept  into  favour  with  the  commons 
of  Sweden,  whose  simplicity  and  good-will  they 
used  for  their  own  purposes  in  the  name  of  the 
country  *  !"  These  expressions  of  the  bishop  f(jund 
many  who  assented  to  them,  and  a  similar  judg- 
ment was  often  passed  upon  the  Sture's.  The  king 
rewarded  all  submission  with  the  most  gracious 
promises,  while  the  infliction  of  the  crudest 
penalties  on  those  who  had  ventured  to  stir  up  the 
peasants  discovered  the  lengths  to  which  his  venge- 
ance might  extend.  Most  of  those  who  possessed 
any  rank  or  consequence  in  the  country  at  this  time, 
desired  that  the  state  of  insecurity  and  confusion 
which  had  so  long  subsisted  should  be  terminated  ; 
and  the  father  of  Gustavus  himself,  in  conjunction 
with  the  remaining  barons  of  the  kingdom,  set  his 
seal  to  the  act  by  which  Christian,  on  the  30th 
October  preceding  his  coronation,  was  declared 
hereditary  king  of  Sweden  ^. 

The  old  archbishop  advised  Gustavus  likewise  to 
submit  to  the  present  order  of  things,  informing  him 
that  he  was  already  included  in  the  amnesty  which 
had  been  stipulated  at  the  surrender  of  Stockholm  2, 
and  offered  his  mediation  with  the  king.  Once  after 
such  a  conversation,  when  Jacob  Ulfson  had  em- 
ployed his  eloquence  m  vain,  it  happened  that  an 
old  servant  of  Joacliim  Bralie  presented  himself 
at  the  castle  of  Gripsholm  *,  and  rather  by  sighs 
and  tears  than  words,  imparted  the  first  tidings  of 
the  massacre  of  Stockholm.  The  terrible  news  was 
soon  confirmed.  The  archbishop  was  dumb  from 
horror,  and  Gustavus  ])repared  for  flight. 

It  was  on  the  25th  November  that  he  rode  av»'ay 
secretly  from  the  house  at  Raifsness,  accompanied 
by  a  single  servant,  who  robbed  and  deserted  him 
at  crossing  Kolsund's  Ferry.  Gustavus  took  his 
way  to  Dalecarlia,  and  arrived  at  the  Kopparberg 
at  the  end  of  the  month.  He  was  now  clad  in  a 
peasant's  dress,  and  worked  for  daily  hire  in  this 
quarter,  where  the  common  people  .still  remember 
with  pride,  that  Gustavus  plied  axe  and  flail  among 
their  forefathers,  and  have  stored  up  in  their  me- 
mories his  adventures  and  perils.  The  barn  in 
wliich  Gustavus  threshed  at  Rankhytta,  is  pre- 
served as  "  a  state  monument  ^  ;''  as  are  also  the 
barn  in  the  hamlet  of  Isala'',  where  he  likewise 

II.,  transmitted  to  his  majesty  (Charles  John)  from  Munich, 
and  now  in  Cbristiania. 

'  Assurance  of  the  burgesses  of  Orebro,  and  yeomanrj' 
of  Nerike,  September  29,  1520.  Hadorph  on  the  Rhyme 
Chronicle. 

2  In  support  of  this  nomination  were  alleged  the  pretended 
descent  of  Christian  from  St.  Eric,  as  well  as  that  enactment 
of  the  Land's  Law,  that  the  king's  sons  should  have  preference 
In  the  election ;  wherefore,  as  Christian  was  the  sole  surviving 
son  of  his  father,  the  principle  of  hereditary  right,  and  not 
that  of  election,  should  be  applied.  So  had  the  imperial  legate, 
Dr.  Suckot,  and  the  Danish  bishop,  Jens  Beldenacke,  ex- 
plained the  law  of  Sweden  to  the  estates.  See  the  document 
in  Hvitfeld. 

3  His  name  is  found  in  the  letter  of  protection  to  Christina 
Gyllenstierna.     Hadorph,  ibid. 

■«  He  is  called  the  Goodman  (gubbe)  of  Trannevick; 
Joachim  Brahe's  farmer  or  renter;  though  Celsius  has 
made  of  the  latter  term  a  rentniaster,  or  intendaiit. 

5  Royal  letter  of  April  26,  lUGS. 

6  King  Charles  XI.  visited  it  in  1C84.  It  is  now  marked 
by  a  monument  of  porphyry,  with  this  inscription,  "  Here 


1523.] 


His  wanderings  in 
Daleearlla. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  LIBERATION. 


Agitation  against 
tlie  Danes. 


101 


laboured,  and  tlie  house  at  Orness,  where  his  life 
(as  was  more  than  once  the  case)  was  saved  l>y  the 
sympathy  and  decision  of  a  woman.  The  place  in 
the  forest  at  Harness ',  where  he  lay  three  days 
concealed  under  a  fallen  fir-tree,  and  the  peasants 
brought  him  food  ;  the  hillock  surrounded  by 
marshes,  ou  Asby  moor',  which  also  served  him  for 
some  time  as  a  place  of  refuge  ;  that  cellar  in  the 
hamlet  of  Utraedland  ',  where  he  hid  from  his  pur- 
suers ;  the  spot  where  he  harangued  the  peasants 
of  the  Dales,  by  the  church  of  Mora  ;  all  these  are 
still  shown  by  the  descendants  of  those  who  for- 
merly shared  his  dangers,  which  are  as  little  likely 
to  be  forgotten,  as  the  treachery  of  Arendt  Person, 
or  the  good  faith  of  Sweno  Elfsox. 

The  former  was  a  nobleman,  owner  of  the  estate 
of  Orness,  whither  Gustavus  proceeded  from  Rank- 
liytta.  A  gold-embroidered  shirt-collar,  under  the 
woollen  jerkin,  had  discovered  the  distinguished 
thresher  to  a  maid-servant  at  the  latter  place,  on 
which  the  master  of  the  house,  the  rich  miner 
Anders  Person,  refused  to  harbour  him  any  longer. 
Arendt  Person,  as  well  as  the  latter-named  indi- 
vidual, had  been  the  school  companion  of  Gustavus 
at  Upsala,  and  received  him  now  with  friendly  words 
and  assurances  of  welcome  ;  but  went  on  the  very 
same  day  to  Bennet  Branson,  the  king's  bailiff  in 
the  district,  with  whom  next  morning  he  retm-ned, 
attended  by  twenty  men,  to  seize  his  guest.  The 
object  of  their  search  had  however  disappeared  ;  its 
failure  was  owing  to  Barbara  Stigsdotter,  the  wife 
of  Arendt,  who  thus  incurred  the  irreconcileable 
enmity  of  her  husband.  Suspecting  treachery  in 
him,  she  had  warned  Gustavus  in  the  night,  and 
furnished  him  with  a  horse,  sledge,  and  guide,  by 
which  he  escaped  to  Master  Jon,  the  priest  of 
Swierdsio.  In  this  neighbourhood  dwelt  the  king's 
ranger  Swen  Elfson,  who,  with  his  wife,  now  granted 
shelter  to  the  persecuted  fugitive,  and  afterwards 
accompanied  him  to  his  friends,  Peter  and  Matthew 
Olson  of  Marness,  who  kept  him  concealed  in  the 
forest.  It  was  ou  this  journey  that  Gustavus  was 
wounded,  being  concealed  in  a  load  of  straw,  which 
the  emissaries  of  the  bailift'  were  searching  with 
their  spears  ;  and  he  would  have  been  betrayed  by 
the  blood  dropping  on  the  snow,  had  not  the  faith- 
ful ranger  taken  the  precaution,  when  unobserved, 
of  cutting  his  horse  in  the  foot,  so  that  it  bled.  Nor 
must  we  decline  to  state,  as  an  example  both  of  the 
dangers  and  manners  of  that  time,  that  Gustavus 
in  his  fugitive  condition  was  obliged  for  his  own 
safety  even  to  shed  blood.  His  arrival  in  Dale- 
carlia  had  now  become  notorious.  Among  those 
whom  Henry  of  Mellen,  the  king's  lieutenant  in  the 
castle  of  Westeras,  had  despatched  to  this  province 
"  to  seize  or  kill  him,  or  at  least  do  him  prejudice 
with  the  Dalesmen,"  was  Nicholas  the  West-Goth, 
under-bailiff  in  Dalecarlia.  Meantime,  it  is  said, 
Rasmus  the  -Jute,  a  Dane,  formerly  a  soldier  with 
Steno  Sture,  but  now  a  resident  in  Dalecarlia,  had 
joined  Gustavus.  They  surprised  the  bailiff  at  his 
official  abode  in  Mora,  and  slew  him  *. 

worked  as  a  thresher  Gustavus  Ericson,  pursued  by  the  foes 
of  the  realm,  but  selected  by  Providence  to  be  the  saviour  of 
the  country.  His  descendant  in  the  sixth  generation,  Gus- 
tavus III.,  raised  this  memorial."  The  barn  still  belongs  to 
the  family  of  Sweno  Elfson,  and  his  eighth  successor  re- 
ceived a  medal  from  Gustavus  III.  in  1787. 

''  In  the  parish  of  Swaerdsice. 

^  In  the  parish  of  Leksand ;  it  is  still  called  King's  Hill. 


Gustavus  first  .spoke  to  the  people  at  the  church 
of  Rettwick,  and  afterwards' at  Mora  in  Christmas- 
tide.  He  bade  the  old  to  consider  well,  and  the 
young  to  inform  themselves,  what  manner  of 
tyranny  foreigners  had  set  up  in  Sweden,  and  how 
much  they  themselves  had  suffered  and  ventured 
for  the  freedom  of  the  realm  ;  the  remembrance 
neither  of  Josse  Ericson's  oppressions,  nor  of 
Engelbert's  heroism,  had  yet  died  away  in  the 
Dales  ;  Sweden  was  now  trampled  underfoot  by 
the  Danes,  and  its  noblest  blood  had  been  shed  ; 
his  own  father  had  chosen  "  rather  with  his  associ- 
ates, the  honour-loving  nobles,  in  God's  name  to 
die  *,"  than  to  be  spared  and  survive  them  ;  might 
they  now  show  themselves  men  wlio  wished  to  guard 
their  native  land  from  slavery,  then  would  he  be- 
come, by  God's  help,  their  chief,  and  risk  life  and  ! 
welfare  for  their  freedom  and  the  deliverance  of  the  i 
realm.  So,  it  is  said,  ran  his  discourse  ;  but  the  | 
matter  was  yet  too  new  for  the  peasants  of  the 
Dales.  The  rumour  of  Christian's  cruelties  had 
yet  hardly  penetrated  to  these  distant  quartei's, 
nor  did  they  know  this  stranger  who  spoke  to 
them,  and  who,  deserted  by  all  others,  sought  there 
a  refuge.  The  peasants  of  Rettwick  declared  their 
sympathy,  but  would  undertake  nothing  unless  after 
deliberation  with  the  other  parishes.  From  the 
men  of  Mora  he  received  at  this  time  an  answer  no 
wise  favourable  ;  they  said  that  they  were  resolved 
to  remain  true  to  the  homage  they  had  sworn  to 
king  Christian,  and  bade  him  "  take  himself  off 
whither  he  could."  In  the  last  days  of  1520,  Gus- 
tavus continued  his  flight  over  the  wilderness  which 
separates  East  from  West  Dalecarlia. 

Meanwhile  the  Dalesmen  came  to  a  better  dispo- 
sition. Shortly  after  Gustavus  quitted  Rettwick, 
several  of  the  Swedish  nobles  of  the  Danish  faction 
arrived  there  with  the  view  of  securing  his  person. 
Some  peasants  who  saw  them  coming  in  with  about 
a  hundred  horse  on  the  ice  of  lake  Silian,  hastened 
to  the  church  and  rang  the  bells.  The  wnd  blew 
towards  the  upper  coimtry  ;  a  great  concourse  of 
people  assembled  as  was  their  wont  on  occasions  of 
conmion  peril,  and  the  strangers,  who  had  sought 
refuge,  partly  in  the  priest's  house,  and  partly  in 
the  tower,  which  long  afterwards  shewed  marks  of 
the  Dalesmen's  aiTows,  could  only  ransom  their 
lives  by  the  assurance  that  they  would  do  no  harm 
to  Gustavus. 

About  the  new  year  there  arrived  at  Mora 
Lawrence  Olaveson,  a  captain  of  great  experience 
in  the  service  of  Steno  Sture  the  younger,  and 
shortly  after  a  nobleman  of  Upland  named  John 
Michelson.  They  drew  so  lively  a  picture  of  the 
massacre  in  Stockholm,  that  tlie  bystanders  were 
affected  to  tears.  The  Erics-gait  of  the  king,  they 
said,  was  at  hand  ;  his  way  would  be  marked  by 
gallows  and  wheel  ;  all  the  arms  of  the  Swedish 
peasants  would  be  wrested  from  them  and  con- 
sumed ^,  and  if  theLr  limbs  were  left  unmutilated,  a 
stick  in  the  hand  would  be  the  only  weapon  allowed 
them  for  the  future  ;  the  imposition  of  a  new  tax 

3  In  the  parish  of  Mora. 

'  So  the  Manuscript  Chronicles,  which  Tegel  has  not  here 
followed  exactly. 

2  Such  is  said  to  have  been  the  answer  of  lord  Eric  Johan- 
son,  when  Christian  offered  him  his  life. 

3  This  was  actually  done  upon  the  king's  journey  from 
Stockholm,  whence  the  peasants,  as  the  Rhyme  Chronicle 
says,  called  him  king  Stock. 


102 


Rising  of  the  Dalesmen. 


HISTORY    OF   THE   SWEDES.        Apathy  of  the  Helsingers.         [1520- 


for  the  maintenance  of  the  foreign  troops  was 
daily  expected  *.  The  people  inurmured,  and  com- 
plained that  they  had  allowed  Gustavus  Ericson  to 
depart.  In  this,  their  new  guests  told  them  they 
had  done  wrong  ;  such  a  noble  leader  they  stood 
much  ill  need  of  ;  many  a  worthy  Swedish  warrior 
was  now  wandering  like  themselves,  a  fugitive  in 
the  forests,  who  would  never  submit  to  the  domi- 
nation of  the  Danes,  but  lead  a  free  life  so  long  as 
he  might,  until  Sweden  should  receive  from  God  a 
captain  and  chief,  for  whom  he  would  willingly  put 
to  hazard  his  life  and  welfare.  The  Dalecarlians 
now  sent  off  runners  on  snow- skates  to  seek  out 
Gustavus  day  and  night,  and  bring  him  back. 
They  found  him  in  the  liamlet  of  Seln,  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  parish  of  Lima,  whence  he  in- 
tended to  seek  a  path  across  the  mountains  to 
Norway. 

He  returned  in  their  company  to  Mora,  where 
the  principal  and  most  influential  yeomen  of  all  the 
parishes  in  the  eastern  and  western  Dales  elected 
him  to  be  "  lord  and  chieftain  over  them  and  the 
commons  of  the  realm  of  Sweden  ^."  Some  scho- 
lars who  had  arrived  from  Westeras,  brought  with 
them  new  accounts  of  the  tyranny  of  Christian. 
Gustavus  placed  them  amidst  a  ring  of  peasants  to 
tell  their  story,  and  answer  the  questions  of  the 
crowd.  Old  men  represented  it  as  a  comfortable 
sign  for  the  people,  that  as  often  as  Gustavus  dis- 
coursed to  them  the  north  wind  always  blew, 
"  which  was  an  old  token  to  them,  that  God  would 
grant  them  good  success."  Sixteen  active  peasants 
were  appointed  to  be  his  body-guard  ;  and  two 
hundred  more  youths  who  joined  him  were  called 
his  foot-goers.  The  chronicles  reckon  his  reign 
from  this  small  beginning  ;  while  the  Danes  and 
their  abettors  in  Stockholm  long  contmued  to 
speak  of  him  and  his  party  as  a  band  of  robbers  in 
the  woods. 

Thus  the  Dalesmen  swore  fidelity  to  Gustavus, 
the  inhabitants,  namely,  of  the  upper  parishes  on 
both  arms  of  the  Dal-elf,  where  a  numerous  people, 
living  amidst  wild  yet  grand  natural  scenery,  and 
hardened  by  privations,  is  still  known  by  that  name. 
Gustavus  came  to  the  Kopparberg  with  several 
hundred  men  in  the  early  part  of  February  1521, 
there  took  prisoner  his  enemy  Christopher  Olson  ", 
the  powerful  warden  of  the  mines,  made  himself 
master  of  the  money  collected  for  the  crown  dues, 
and  of  the  wares  of  the  Danish  traders  on  the 
spot,  distributed  both  tlie  money  and  goods  among 
his  men,  (who  made  their  first  standard  from  the 
silk  stuffs  there  taken,)  and  then  returned  to  the 
Dales.  Not  long  afterwards,  on  a  Sunday,  when 
the  people  of  the  Kopparberg  were  at  church, 
Gustavus  again  appeared  at  the  head  of  fifteen 
hundred  Dalesmen.  He  spoke  to  the  people  after 
divine  service,  and  now  the  miners  likewise  swore 
fidelity  to  his  cause.    Thereupon  the  commonalty  of 

■•  This  year  the  great  silver-tax,  for  the  payment  of  the 
troops,  was  levied  in  Sweden.  Hvitfeld.  The  Rhyme 
Chronicle  complains  that  it  was  rigorously  exacted. 

5  So  the  Dalecarlians  express  themselves  in  a  subsequent 
letter  regarding  this  election.  (Troil,  Memoirs  for  the  His- 
tory of  the  Swedish  Reformation,  iv.  .356.)  It  was  therefore 
the  election  of  an  administrator  undertaken  on  their  own 
authority.  It  is  also  clear  that  Gustavus  bore  that  title  pre- 
viously to  the  election  in  Vadstena. 

0  Swinhufvud  (Swinehead)^  brother  of  Otho,  bishop  of 
Westeras. 


the  mining  districts  and  the  Dalesmen  wrote  to 
the  commons  of  Helsingland,  requesting  that  the 
Helsingers  might  bear  themselves  like  true  Swedish 
men  against  the  overbearing  violence  and  tyranny 
of  the  Danes.  Those  cruelties  which  king  Chris- 
tian had  already  exercised  on  the  best  in  the  land, 
they  said,  would  soon  reach  every  man's  door, 
and  fill  all  the  houses  of  Sweden  with  the  tears  and 
shrieks  of  widows  and  orphans  ;  if  they  would  take 
up  arms  and  show  themselves  to  be  stout-hearted 
men,  there  was  now  good  hope  of  victory  and  tri- 
umph under  a  praiseworthy  captain,  the  lord  Gus- 
tavus Ericson,  whom  God  had  preserved  "  as  a  drop 
of  the  knightly  blood  of  Sweden  ;"  wherefore  they 
begged  them  to  give  their  help  for  the  sake  of  the 
brotherly  league  by  which,  since  early  times,  the 
commonalty  of  both  countries  had  been  united. 
Ten  years  afterwards,  the  Dalecarlians  recall  the 
fact  ^,  that  they  had  received  a  friendly  answer  to 
the  request  which  their  accredited  messengers  had 
preferred  on  that  occasion,  and  that  their  neigh- 
bours the  Helsingers  had  promised  to  stand  by 
them  as  one  man,  "  whatever  evils  might  befall 
them  from  the  oppression  of  foreign  or  native 
masters."  When  Gustavus  had  begun  the  siege 
of  Stockholm,  every  third  man  of  the  Helsingers 
in  fact  marched  thither  to  strengthen  his  army. 
Yet  at  first  they  hesitated  to  embrace  the  cause, 
although  Gustavus  himself  went  among  them,  and 
spoke  to  the  assembled  people  from  the  barrow  on 
the  royal  domain  of  Norrala.  Thence  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Gestricland,  where  fugitives  from  Stock- 
holm had  already  prepared  men's  minds.  The 
burghers  of  Gefle,  and  commissioners  from  several 
jjarishes,  swore  fidelity  to  him  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  province.  Here  the  rumour  reached  him, 
that  the  Dalecarlians  had  already  suffered  a  defeat ; 
he  hastened  back,  and  soon  received  an  accotmt  of 
the  first  victory  of  his  followers. 

Theodoric  Slagheck ',  the  principal  instigator  of 
the  Stockholm  massacre,  had  been  appointed  the 
king's  lieutenant  in  Sweden.  He  was  also  inducted 
into  the  see  of  Skara,  vacant  by  the  murder  of  its 
bishop,  as  was  Jens  Beldenacke "  into  that  of 
Streugness  ;  "strange  men  for  such  an  office,"  says 
Olave  Peterson,  "  as  they  well  proved  by  their 
actions."  They  administered  public  affairs  from 
their  station  in  the  capital,  in  conjunction  with 
those  of  the  Swedish  councillors  whom  the  axe  of 
the  executioner  had  spared,  or  who  did  not  blush 
with  such  names  to  associate  their  own.  The  ma- 
gistrates of  Stockholm,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Danish  garrison  and  the  Germans  of  the  town, 
whose  hatred  is  said  to  have  cost  many  of  the 
Swedish  burgesses  their  lives  >,  showed  at  this  time 
great  zeal  for  the  cause  of  king  Christian.  Gorius 
Hoist  and  Clans  Boye,  the  former  an  accomplice, 
the  latter  well-nigh  a  victim  in  the  massacre,  now 

"  In  another  letter  to  the  Helsingers.     Troil,  ibid, 
f*  Or  as  he  was  called  in  Sweden,  Slaghoek.     He  was  by 
birth  a  Hollander,  formerly  a  barber,  and  a  kinsman  of  the 
huckster  Sigbrit,  who,  even  after  the  death  of  her  daughter 
Divika,  preserved  all  her  influence  over  Christian. 

"  Jens  Anderson,  so  called  from  his  baldness.     He  had 
been  bishop  of  Odense. 

1  "  The  Tyske  redde  fast  thertill, 

Som  ene  ville  regera  kopmansspill," 
(Thereto  the  Germans  fast  plans  lay, 
Alone  in  chapmanhede  to  sway,) 
says  the  Rhyme  Chronicle  of  the  massacre  of  Stockholm. 


i 


I 


1523.] 


Attempt  to  quell 
the  revolt. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  LIBERATION. 


Rout  of 
Brunneburn. 


103 


vied  in  ardour  for  him,  as  burgomasters  of  the  town, 
and  maintained  an  active  correspondence  with  tlie 
king  2.  So  early  as  the  tenth  of  February,  1521, 
they  wrote  to  him  "  that  some  disturbance  had  been 
excited  by  Gustavus  Ericson,  which  it  might  be 
feared  would  extend  to  several  provinces."  Letters 
of  the  magistracy  of  Stockholm,  which  were  sent 
over  the  whole  kingdom,  warned  the  people  to 
avoid  all  participation  in  the  revolt.  Relief  was 
supplicated  from  the  king ;  additions  were  made  to 
the  fortifications  of  the  capital,  sloops  and  barks 
were  equipped,  in  order,  as  it  was  said,  to  deprive 
"Gustavus  Ericson  and  his  company  of  malefactors 
of  all  opportunity  of  quitting  the  country,"  but 
really  to  keep  the  approaches  on  the  side  of  the  sea 
open,  which  were  obstructed  by  the  fishers  and 
peasants  of  the  islets,  who  had  begun  to  take  arms 
for  Gustavus.  Special  admonitory  letters  were  de- 
spatched to  Helsingland  and  Dalecarlia,  signed  by 
Gustavus  Trolle,  his  father  Eric  TroUe,  and  Canute 
Bennetson  (Sparre)  of  Engsoe,  styling  themselves 
the  council  of  the  realm  of  Sweden,  by  which,  how- 
ever, say  the  chronicles,  the  roj'al  cause  was  rather 
damaged  than  strengthened.  "  For  when  the  Dales- 
men and  miners  heard  the  letter,  they  said  it  was 
manifest  to  them  that  the  council  at  this  time  was 
but  small  and  thin,  since  it  consisted  of  only  tiiree 
men,  and  these  of  little  weight." 

Gustavus  Trolls,  the  Danish  bishops,  Canute 
Bennetson  above-named,  and  Henry  of  Mellen, 
the  king's  lieutenant  at  Westerns,  (where  they  had 
recently  been  assembled  with  commissioners  from 
the  magistracy  of  Stockholm,  by  bishop  Otho,)  now 
marched  with  six  thousand  men  of  horse  and  foot 
towards  the  Dal  river,  and  encamped  at  the  ferry  of 
Brunback.  On  the  other  side  the  Dalecarlians 
guarded  this  frontier  of  their  country,  under  the 
command  of  Peter  Swenson  of  Viderboda,  a  power- 
ful miner,  whom  Gustavus  had  appointed  their 
captain  in  his  absence.  When  those  in  the  Danish 
camp  observed  how  the  Dalesmen  shot  their  arrows 
across  the  stream,  bishop  Beldenacke  is  said  to 
have  inquired  of  the  Swedish  lords  present,  (to  use 
the  words  of  the  chronicles,)  "how  great  a  force 
the  tract  above  the  Long  Wood  (the  forest  on  the 
boundary  between  Westnianland  and  Dalecarlia) 
could  furnish  at  the  utmost  ?"  Answer  was  made 
to  him,  full  twenty  thousand  men.  Yet  further 
he  asked,  where  so  many  mouths  might  obtain  sus- 
tenance ?  To  this  it  was  replied,  that  the  people 
were  not  used  to  dainty  meats.  They  drunk  for  the 
most  part  nothing  but  water,  and,  if  need  were, 

2  Gorius  Hoist,  while  the  town  was  yet  reeking  with  the 
blood  of  the  leading  inhabitants,  gave  the  king  a  great  ban- 
quet, with  dancirg  and  other  revelry.  See  his  own  note 
thereupon  in  the  minute-book  of  the  town  of  Stockholm, 
quoted  by  Muhrberg,  Memoirs  of  the  Academy,  iv.  86. 
Claus  Boye  escaped  the  massacre  from  the  circumstance  of 
his  corpulence  hindering  the  soldiers  in  their  hurry  from 
pulling  him  through  the  prison-doors. 

3  Squirrels. 

■*  Beer  supposed  to  be  flavoured  with  wild  rosemary.  See 
p.  90,  n.  1.  T. 

5  Siioskrafvorna  och  Furufnatten  i  trad 
Val  Dalpilen  rakar  uppa, 
Christiern  den  bloderacken  ock  med 
Skull  iiigalunda  battre  ga. 

Sa  kiirde  de  Jutar  i  Brunneback's  elf, 
Sa  vattnet  dem  porlade  om, 
De  sorjde  derbfwer  att  Christiern  sjelf 
Han  ej  der  tillika  omkom. 


could  be  satisfied  with  bark-bread.  Then  Belde- 
nacke declared,  "men  who  eat  wood  and  drink 
water  the  devil  himself  could  not  overcome, 
much  less  any  one  else  :  brethren,  let  us  leave  this 
place  !"  The  story  makes  the  Danes  hereupon 
prepare  for  breaking  up  their  encampment.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  Peter  Swenson, 
with  the  Dalesmen,  crossed  the  Dal  secretly,  by  a 
circuit,  at  Utsund's  Ferry,  surprised  the  camp,  and 
put  the  foe  to  the  I'out.  An  old  lay  of  the  Dales 
still  sings  : — 

Fir-hoppers  ^  and  ptarmigans  in  the  tree. 

The  Dale-arrow  hits  right  well  ; 
With  bloodhound  Christian,  the  foe  of  the  free, 

'Twill  hardly  better  mell. 
Headlong  the  Jutes  tumbled  in  Brunneback's  elf, 

While  the  waters  purled  merrily  round  ; 
And  sad  they  grieved  that  Christian's  self 

Had  not  like  fortune  found. 
So  now  the  Jutes  ran  all  with  might  and  main. 

Loud  raising  this  pitiful  dirge  ; 
The  fiend  or  he  the  porse-beer  *  might  drain. 

That  was  brewed  in  the  Dale-carl's  forge  ^. 

Gustavus  had  himself  dealt  with  the  inhabitants 
of  Helsingland  and  Gestricland,  in  order  to  insure 
himself  against  leaving  foes  in  his  rear  ;  and,  after 
his  return  to  the  Dales,  he  prepared  for  an  expe- 
dition into  the  lower  country.  He  assembled  his 
troops  at  Hedemora,  and  sought  to  inure  them  to 
habits  of  order  and  obedience  by  military  exercises. 
The  Dale  peasant  had  no  fire-arms,  and  knew  little 
of  discipline  ;  his  weapons  were  the  axe,  the  bow, 
the  pike,  and  the  sling ;  the  latter  sometimes  throw- 
ing pieces  of  red-hot  iron  ^.  Gustavus  instructed 
his  men  to  fashion  their  arrows  in  a  more  effective 
shape,  and  increased  the  length  of  the  spear  by  four 
or  five  feet,  with  a  view  to  repel  the  attacks  of 
cavalry'.  He  caused  monetary  tokens  to  be  struck; 
an  expedient  which  seems  to  have  been  not  uncom- 
mon in  Sweden,  since,  from  a  remote  period,  even 
leather  money  is  mentioned  ^.  The  coins  now  struck 
at  Hedemora  were  of  copper,  with  a  small  admix- 
ture of  silver,  similar  to  those  introduced  by  the 
king,  and  called  Christian's  Mippings;  on  one  side 
was  the  impress  of  an  armed  man,  on  the  other, 
arrows  laid  cross-wise,  with  three  crowns. 

Gustavus  broke  up  from  his  quarters,and  marched 
across  the  Long  Wood  into  Westmanland.  His 
course  lay  through  districts  which  bore  traces  yet 
fresh  of  the  enemy's  passage.     The  peasantry  rose 

Sa  togo  de  Jutar  nu  alle  till  fiykt 
Och  leto  slikt  bmkeligt  quad  ; 
Hin  ma  mer  dricka  det  Porsbl  de  bryggt, 
I  smedjan  vid  Dalkarlens  stad. 

In  another  old  ballad  on  the  same  affair  it  is  said — 
Brunneback's  elf  is  deep  and  broad. 
With  drowning  Jutes  its  waves  we  load  ; 
So  from  Sweden  the  Danes  were  chased  out. 

Brunback's  elf  ar  va!  djup,  ocksa  bred, 

Falivilom,^ 
Der  sankte  vi  sa  mange  Jutar  nCd, 

Falivilivilivora, 
Sa  kdrde  de  Dansken  ur  Sverige, 
Falivilom. 
(The  termination  back,  brook,  answers  to  burn  in  English, 
as  Brunneburn.    Trans.) 
6  Olaus  Magnus,  vii.  16. 
^  Ibid.  c.  5. 

**  Coriaria  pecunia  certis  argenteis  punctis,  quibus  valor  in 
pondere  et  numero  pensaretur,  variata.     Ibid.  c.  12. 


104 


Successes  of  the  patriot 
force. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Combats  of  Westeras 
and  Upsala. 


[1520— 


as  he  advanced.  On  St.  George's  Day,  the  23d  of 
April,  he  mustered  his  army  at  the  church  of  Roni- 
fertuna.  The  number  is  stated  by  the  chronicles  at 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  men  ",  yet  on  the 
correctness  of  this  little  reliance  can  be  placed,  even 
if  we  do  not  absolutely  class  this  account  with  those 
which  compare  the  multitude  of  Dalesmen  in  the 
fight  of  Brunneback  to  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore 
and  the  leaves  of  the  forest,  and  their  arrows  to  the 
hail  of  the  storm-cloud.  The  liberation  of  Sweden 
by  Gustavus  Vasa  is  a  history  written  by  the  peo- 
ple, and  they  counted  neither  themselves  nor  their 
foes.  The  army  was  now  divided  vmder  the  two 
generals,  Lawrence  Olaveson  and  Lawrence  Eric- 
son,  both  practised  warriors.  Gustavus  next  issued 
his  declaration  of  war  against  Christian,  and  marched 
to  Westeras.  He  expected  here  to  be  met  by  the 
peasants  of  the  western  mining  district  from  Lin- 
desberg  and  Nora,  who  had  already  taken  the  oath 
of  fidelity  to  him  through  his  deputies  ;  but  instead 
of  this  he  was  informed  that  Peter  Ugla,  one  of 
those  entrusted  with  the  performance  of  this  duty, 
had  allowed  himself  to  be  surprised  at  Koping,  and 
cut  to  pieces  with  his  whole  force '.  On  the  other 
hand,  tidings  arrived  that  the  peasants  on  Wermd 
isle  had  i-evolted,  slain  a  band  of  Christian's  men  in 
the  church  itself,  and  made  themselves  masters  of 
two  of  his  ships.  The  letters  conveying  the  news, 
and  magnifying  the  advantages  gained,  Gustavus 
caused  to  be  read  aloud  to  his  followers  ^. 

Theodoric  Slagheck,  exercising  power  with  bar- 
barous cruelty  and  outrage,  had  himself  taken  the 
command  of  the  castle  of  Westeras.  He  caused  all 
the  fences  of  the  neighbourhood  to  be  broken  down, 
in  order  to  be  able  to  use  his  cavalry  without  im- 
pediment against  the  insurgent  peasants,  who,  on 
the  29th  April,  approached  the  town.  Both  horse- 
men and  foot,  with  field-pieces,  marched  against 
them  ;  and  Gustavus,  who  had  interdicted  his  men 
from  engaging  in  a  contest  with  the  enemy,  in- 
tending to  defer  the  attack  till  the  following  day, 
was  still  at  Balundsas,  half  a  mile  from  the  town, 
when  news  reached  him  that  his  young  soldiers 
were  already  at  blows  with  tlieir  adversaries,  and  he 
hastened  to  their  assistance.  The  Dalecarlians 
opposed  their  long  pikes  to  the  onset  of  the 
cavalry  with  such  effect,  that  more  than  four  hun- 
dred horses  having  perished  in  the  assault,  they 
were  driven  back  on  the  infantry,  who  were  posted 
in  their  rear,  and  compelled  to  flee  along  with 
them,  while  Lawrence  Ericson  pushed  into  the 
town  by  a  circuitous  road,  and  possessed  himself  of 
the  enemy's  artillei-y  in  the  market-place.  When 
the  garrison  of  the  castle  observed  this,  they  set 
five  to  the  houses  by  shooting  their  combustibles, 
and  burned  the  greatest  part  of  the  town.  The 
miners  and  peasants  dispersed  to  extinguish  the 
Hanies  or  to  plunder,  bartered  with  one  another  the 
goods  of  the  traders  in  the  booths,  jwssessed  them- 
selves of  the  stock  of  wine  in  the  cathedral  and  the 
council-house,  seated  themselves  round  the  vats, 
drank  and  sang.      The  Danes,  reinforced  from  the 

9  Some  thousands,  the  council  of  Sweden  say  in  their 
Rescript  on  the  tyrannical  government  of  king  Christian  in 
Sweden,  June  G,  152:J.  The  Danish  account  says  5000. 
Hvitfeld. 

1  By  the  Danish  lieutenant  Anders  Person,  who  afterwards 
gave  up  the  castle  of  (irehro,  and  received  a  letter  of  peace 
from  Gustavus.  He  was  however  killed  by  the  relatives  of 
the  slain  men  six  years  afterwards. 


castle,  rallied  anew,  and  the  victory  would  undoubt- 
edly have  been  changed  into  an  overthrow,  had  not 
Gustavus  sent  Lawrence  Olaveson,  with  the  fol- 
lowers he  had  kept  about  him,  again  into  the  town, 
where,  after  a  renewal  of  the  confiict,  the  foe  was 
put  to  ail  utter  rout,  ilany  cast  away  their  arms, 
and  threw  themselves,  between  fire  and  sword,  into 
the  waters.  Gustavus  caused  all  the  stores  of  spirit- 
uous liquors  to  be  destroyed,  and  beat  in  the  wine- 
casks  with  his  own  hand. 

The  fight  of  Westeras,  from  its  influence  on  public 
opinion,  acquired  greater  impoi'tance  than  of  itself 
it  would  have  possessed.  Little  was  gained  by  the 
conquest  of  the  town,  so  long  as  the  castle  held  out ; 
and  liow  miserviceable  a  force  of  peasants  was  for 
a  siege,  Gustavus  was  often  subsequently  to  ex- 
perience. Wherever  the  tidings  of  his  victory 
came,  the  people  revolted,  and  he  was  already 
enabled  to  divide  his  power,  and  to  invest  the 
castles  of  several  provinces.  Siege  was  accord- 
ingly laid  to  Stegeborg,  Nykoping,  and  Orebro.  A 
division  of  the  Vermelanders,  with  the  peasants  of 
Rekarne,  in  Sudermania,  was  employed  in  be- 
leaguering the  castle  of  Westeras  ;  of  whose  ex- 
ploits, however,  nothing  else  is  told  than  that  they 
shot  the  councillor  Canute  Bennetson  (Sparre),  to 
whom  Slagheck  transferred  the  command,  so  that 
lie  tumbled  in  his  wolf-skin  coat  from  the  wall 
into  the  stream.  Howbeit,  another  detachment 
reduced  Honiingsholm  in  Sudermania  ;  Chris- 
tian's governors  in  Vermeland  and  Dalsland  were 
slain  ;  the  people  of  the  former  province,  under  the 
command  of  their  justiciary,  prepared  for  an  at- 
tack upon  the  councillor  Tliurd  Jonson,  the  king's 
lieutenant  in  West-Gothland,  and,  crossing  Lake 
Vener,  entered  that  district.  In  Dalsland,  1500 
men  took  up  arms  ;  several  thousand  peasants  from 
Nerike  marched  across  the  Tiwed  with  tlie  same 
object^.  Gustavus  had  been  obliged  to  grant  a, 
furlough  to  his  Dalesmen  about  seed-time  ;  and  to 
supply  tlieir  place,  he  caused  the  people  of  several 
districts  of  Upland  to  be  summoned  to  assemble 
in  the  forest  of  Rymningen,  at  QDresundsbro  ;  from 
which  point  his  two  captains  essayed  an  attack 
upon  the  archbishop  of  Upsala.  It  was  St.  Eric's 
day  (May  18th),  and  a  great  confluence  of  people 
was  present  at  the  fair.  An  assault  was  expected  ; 
for  a  deputation  of  four  priests  and  two  burgesses, 
sent  from  Upsala  to  the  forest,  had  received  from 
the  leaders  the  answer,  that  it  must  be  Swedes,  not 
outlandish  men,  who  should  bear  the  shrine  of 
holy  Eric,  and  that  they  would  come  to  take  their 
part  in  the  festival.  Bennet  Bjugg  (Barley),  the 
archbishop's  bailiff,  to  show  his  contempt  of  such 
foes,  caused  a  banquet  to  be  set  out  in  the  open 
space,  between  the  larger  and  smaller  episcopal 
manor-houses  of  that  day  *,  where,  before  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  he  made  himself  and  his  fellows  merry 
till  late  in  the  night  with  drinking,  dancing,  and 
singing.  Roused  from  a  late  sleep  by  an  assault  on 
the  gates  of  the  fortified  house,  and  finding  it  beset 
by  the  enemy,  they  attempted  to  escape  by  a  con- 
cealed passage,  which  then  connected  the  bishop's 

2  Narrative  of  Clement  Rensel,  1.  c.  He  drew  up  the 
letter,  which  alleged  that  he  had  brought  4000  spearmen 
from  Germany  for  the  service  of  Gustavus. 

3  See  the  annotations  of  Lawrence  Siggeson  Sparre;  Mauu- 
script  in  the  Upsala  Library. 

■*  The  former  where  the  Exercise  House,  tlie  latter  where 
the  Academy  of  Gustavus  now  stands. 


\ 


J  523.] 


Siege  of  Stockholm 
begun. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.    THE  LIBERATION. 


Election  of 
Adniinistralor. 


105 


house  with  the  cathedral.  But  the  peasants  set 
fire  to  this  passage,  which  was  of  wood,  and  sliot 
fire-arrows  at  tlie  roof  of  the  episcopal  residence, 
in  which  the  flames  soon  bm-st  forth.  The  building 
was  laid  in  ashes,  and  next  day  the  females  of  the 
household,  with  some  bui'ghers  of  Upsala,  crept  out 
of  its  cellars,  in  which  they  had  taken  refuge. 
Great  part  of  the  garrison  perished.  The  bailiff 
escaped  with  a  wound  ft'om  an  arrow,  of  which  he 
died  after  rejoining  his  master  in  Stockholm. 

This  prelate,  archbishop  Gustavus  TroUe,  had 
lately  returned  from  a  journey  to  Helsingland, 
undertaken  in  order  to  retain  this  part  of  his 
diocese  in  its  allegiance  to  the  king.  Shortly 
afterwards,  he  received  by  a  messenger  from  Gus- 
tavus, who  had  himself  come  to  Upsala  at  Whit- 
suntide, a  letter  exhorting  him  to  embrace  the 
cause  of  his  country,  to  which  his  chapter  had 
been  persuaded  to  annex  a  memorial  to  the  same 
effect.  The  archbishop  detained  the  messenger, 
saying  that  he  would  carry  the  answer  himself.  He 
broke  up  immediately  with  500  German  horse  and 
3000  foot  of  the  garrison  of  Stockholm,  and  had 
come  within  half  a  mile  of  Upsala,  before  Gustavus 
received  intelligence  of  his  approach.  This  the 
latter  did  not  at  first  credit,  but  remained  expect- 
ing an  answer  to  his  overture  of  negociation  ;  until, 
about  six  in  the  morning,  being  on  horseback  upon 
the  sand-hill  near  Upsala,  the  spot  where  he  after- 
wards Ijuilt  a  royal  castle,  he  saw  the  archbishop 
marching  across  the  King's  Mead  (Kungsiing)  to- 
^^•ards  the  town.  Gusta\'us  had  but  two  hundred  of 
his  so-called  foot-goers,  and  a  small  number  of 
horse  with  him,  for  the  peasants  had  returned  to 
their  homes.  He  made  a  hasty  retreat,  but  was 
overtaken  by  Trolle's  horsemen  at  the  ford  of 
Laby.  Here  a  young  Finnish  noble  who  was  next 
to  him,  in  the  confusion  rode  down  his  horse  in  the 
midst  of  the  stream  ;  and  he  would  have  been  lost, 
liad  not  the  rest  of  his  followers  turned  upon  the 
enemy  with  such  effect,  as  to  make  them  desist 
from  the  pursuit. 

Gustavus  now  betook  liimself  to  the  fn-est  of 
Rymningen,  raised  the  peasantry  of  the  adjoming 
districts,  and  sent  out  the  young  men  under  his 
best  cajttains  to  surprise  the  archbishop  on  his  re- 
turn. The  remains  of  cattle  slaughtered  on  the 
road  betraj'ed  the  ambush  to  the  prelate,  who 
drew  off  in  another  direction.  He  was  neverthe- 
less overtaken  and  attacked,  escaping  the  spear  of 
Lawrence  Olaveson,  only  by  bending  downwards 
on  his  horse,  so  that  the  weapon  pierced  his 
neighbour,  and  brouglit  back  to  Stockholm  hardly 
a  sixth  part  of  his  army.  Gustavus  followed  close 
after  with  his  collected  force,  and  encamped  under 
the  Brunkeberg.  Four  gibbets  on  this  eminence, 
stocked  with  the  corpses  of  Swedish  inhabitants, 
attested  the  character  of  the  government  in  the 
capital. 

Thus  began,  at  Midsummer  of  1521,  the  siege 
of  Stockholm,  which  was  to  last  full  two  years, 
amidst  difficulties  little  thought  of  now-a-days,  after 
the  lapse  of  ages,  and  the  admiration  which  men 
so  willingly  render  to  exertions  in  the  cause  of 
freedom,  have  deprived  events  of  then*  original 
colours.  The  path  of  Gustavus  was  not  in  general 
one  of  glittering  feats,  although  his  life  is  in  itself 
one  grand  achievement.  What  he  accomplished 
was  the  effect  of  strong  endurance,  and  great 
sagacity  ;  and  though  he  wanted  not  for  intrepidity. 


it  was  of  a  kind  before  which  the  mere  warrior 
must  vail  liis  crest.  All  the  remaining  movements 
of  the  war  of  liberation  consist  in  sieges  of  the  various 
castles  and  fortresses  of  the  country,  undertaken  as 
opportunity  offered,  with  levies  of  the  peasantry, 
whose  detachments  relieved  each  other,  though 
sometimes  neglecting  this  duty  when  pressed  by  the 
cares  or  necessities  of  their  own  families.  Hence 
the  object  of  these  investments,  w^hich  was  to  de- 
prive the  besieged  of  provisions,  could  only  be  im- 
perfectly attained,  and  there  were  many  fortified 
mansions,  of  which  the  proprietors  adhered  to  the 
Danish  party,  as  that  of  Wik  in  Upland,  which  re- 
mained blockaded  throughout  a  whole  year.  These 
difficulties  were  the  most  formidable  where,  as  at 
Stockholm,  access  was  open  by  the  sea,  of  wliich 
Severin  Norby,  with  the  Danish  squadron,  was 
master.  The  scantiness  of  the  means  of  attack 
may  be  discovered  from  the  circumstance,  that 
sixty  German  spearmen,  whom  Clement  Rensel,  a 
burgher  of  Stockholm,  himself  a  narrator  of  these 
events,  brought  from  Dantzic  in  July,  for  the 
service  of  Gustavus,  were  regarded  as  a  rein- 
forcement of  the  highest  importance.  "  At  this 
time,"  say  the  Chronicles,  "  Lord  Gustave  enjoyed 
not  much  repose  or  many  pleasant  days,  when  he 
kept  his  people  in  so  many  campings  and  invest- 
ments ;  since  he  bore  for  them  all  great  anxiety, 
fear,  and  peril,  how  he  might  lend  them  help  in 
their  need,  so  that  they  might  not  be  surprised 
through  heedlessness  and  laches.  So  likewiise  his 
pain  was  not  small  when  he  had  but  little  in  his 
money-chest,  and  it  was  grievous  to  give  this 
answer,  when  the  folk  cried  for  stipend.  There- 
fore he  stayed  not  many  days  in  the  same  place, 
but  travelled  day  and  night  between  the  camj)s." 

In  the  month  of  August,  he  arrived  at  Stegeborg, 
which  was  now  besieged  by  his  general,  Arwid  the 
West-Goth,  who  had  recently  repulsed  with  great 
bravery  Severin  Norby's  attempt  to  relieve  the 
castle,  and  had  even  begun  to  take  homage  for 
Gusta\Tas  from  the  people  of  his  province,  although 
in  this  he  experienced  dfiiculties.  The  East- 
Goths  declared  that  they  had  been  so  chastised  for 
their  attack  on  the  bishop's  castle  at  LiukopLng, 
the  preceding  year,  that  they  no  longer  dared  to 
provoke  either  king  Christian  or  bishop  Hans 
Brask.  The  pei'sonal  presence  of  Gustavus  de- 
cided the  waverers,  and  even  the  bishop  received 
him  as  a  friend,  because  he  would  otherwise  have 
stood  in  danger  of  a  hostile  visitation.  Gustavus 
now  convoked  a  diet  of  barons  at  Vadstena,  which 
was  attended  by  seventy  Swedish  gentlemen  of 
noble  farail}',  and  by  many  other  persons  of  all 
classes  in  Gothland.  These  made  him  a  tender  of 
the  crown,  which  he  refused  to  accept.  On  the 
24th  of  August,  therefore,  they  swore  fealty  and 
obedience  to  him  as  Administrator  of  the  kingdom  : 
"  in  like  manner,  "  add  the  Chronicles,  "  as  had 
formerly  been  done  in  Upland  ;"  whence  they  seem 
to  have  assumed  that  he  had  aU'eady  been  acknow- 
ledged as  such  in  Upper  Sweden,  here  called  Up- 
land, as  we  often  find  it  in  the  Chronicles  of  the 
middle  age.  This  was  the  first  public  declaration 
of  the  nobility  in  favour  of  Gustavus  and  his  cause  ; 
although  the  greatest  barons  in  this  division  of  the 
kingdom,  such  as  Nils  Boson  (Grip),  Holger  Carl- 
son (Gere),  and  Thure  Jenson  (Roos)  in  West- 
Gothland,  all  three  councillors  of  state,  were  still 
in  arms  for  Christian.    That  the  first- named  noble- 


100 


Progress  of  the  war. 
Cruelty  of  the  king. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Relief  and  capture  of 
Stockholm. 


[1520— 


man  joined  the  party  of  Gustavus  before  the  end 
of  the  year,  we  know  from  his  letter  of  thanks,  for 
a  fief  of  which  he  received  the  investiture  ^.  Both 
the  latter  were  proclaimed  in  1523,  to  be  enemies 
of  the  realm  ^,  as  was  also  the  archbishop  Gustavus 
TroUd.  He  had  repaired  to  Denmark  two  years 
before,  in  order  to  obtain,  by  his  personal  in- 
stances with  the  king,  the  often  promised  relief  for 
the  besieged  garrison  of  Stockholm,  but  was  re- 
ceived with  coldness  and  reproaches. 

After  the  baronial  diet  of  Vadstena,  the  Goth- 
landers  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  adminis- 
trator, and  the  Danes  having  been  driven  out  of 
West-Gothland  and  Smaland,  the  seat  of  the  war 
was  removed  to  Finland.  By  the  commencement 
of  next  year,  the  principal  castles  of  the  interior  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  Gustavus,  and  some,  as  those 
of  Westeras  and  Orebro,  were  razed  to  the  ground 
by  the  exasperated  peasantry.  Stockholm  and 
Calmar,  as  well  as  Abo  in  Finland,  yet  stood  out, 
and  by  help  of  the  reinforcement  which  they  re- 
ceived at  the  beginning  of  1522,  through  the  Danish 
admiral,  Severin  Norby,  the  enemy  were  again  able 
to  resume  the  offensive.  By  sallies  from  the  be- 
leagured  capital  on  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  thir- 
teenth of  April,  the  camp  of  Gustavus  was  set  on 
fire  and  destroyed,  and  for  a  whole  month  after- 
wards no  Swedish  force  was  seen  before  the  walls 
of  Stockholm.  The  besiegers  of  Abo  were  likewise 
driven  off,  and  the  chief  adherents  of  Gustavus 
being  obliged  to  flee  from  Finland,  Arvid,  bishop  of 
Abo,  with  many  noble  persons  of  both  sexes, 
perished  at  sea. 

Christian  himself  added  to  the  detestation  with 
which  he  was  regarded  in  Sweden  by  new  ci'uelties. 
The  wives  and  children  of  the  most  distinguished 
among  the  barons  beheaded  in  Stockholm  had  been 
conveyed  to  Denmark,  and  among  them  the  mother 
and  two  sisters  of  Gustavus,  whom  the  king,  in 
spite  of  the  entreaties  of  his  consort,  threw  into  a 
dungeon.  Here  they  died,  either  by  violence,  as 
Gustavus  himself  complains  in  his  letter  of  1522, 
concerning  the  cruel  oppression  of  king  Chris- 
tian, directed  to  the  Pope,  the  emperor,  and  all 
Christian  princes^,  or  as  others  assert  of  the 
plague.  An  order  had  also  been  recently  issued  by 
the  king  to  his  commandei-s  in  Sweden,  to  put  to 
death  all  the  Swedes  of  distinction  who  had  fallen 
into  their  hands.  The  Chronicles  say  that  Severin 
Norby  had  received  this  order  so  early  as  the 
summer  of  1521,  but  instead  of  complying  with  it, 
permitted  the  escape  of  many  noblemen,  who  after- 
wards did  homage  to  Gustavus  at  Vadstena,  in 
order,  as  he  expressed  it,  that  they  might  rather 
guard  their  necks  like  warriors,  than  be  slaughtered 
like  chickens.  But  in  Abo  a  new  massacre  was 
perpetrated  at  the  beginning  of  next  year  by  lord 
Thomas,  the  royalist  commander  there,  who  after- 
wards, in  an  attempt  to  relieve  Stockholm,  fell  with 
all  his  ships  into  the  hands  of  Gustavus,  and  was 
hanged  upon  an  oak  in  Tynnels  island  *. 


■''  Published  by  Fant ;  de  Historicis  Gustavi  I. 

ij  Holder  Carlson  reconciled  himself  in  1524  with  Gustavus. 
Nils  Boson  was  slain  in  1525  by  the  peasants  of  Wingaker. 

7  See  Hadorph  on  the  Rhyme  Chronicle,  where  the  letter, 
in  which  Gustavus  styles  himself  governor  (gubernator)  of 
Ssveden,  is  dated  the  2flth  December,  1523,  but  incorrectly. 

*  With  a  bast  rope.  He  expressed  great  disgust  at  the 
method  of  his  execution,  as  being  an  indignity.     (Junker 


After  Severin  Norby  had  relieved  the  capital, 
the  secretai-y,  master  Gotschalk  Ericson,  wrote 
thence  to  Christian  ^,  "  that  there  were  but  eighty 
of  the  burghers,  for  the  most  part  Germans,  who 
could  be  counted  on  for  the  king's  service,  but  of 
footmen  and  gunners  in  the  castle  there  were  now 
850  men,  well  furnished  with  all ;  the  peasants 
were  indeed  weary  of  the  war,  but  were  still  more 
fearful  of  the  king's  vengeance,  and  put  faith  in  no 
assurances,  whence  the  country  could  only  be  re- 
duced to  obedience  by  violent  methods  ;  if  a  suffi- 
cient force  were  sent,  East-Gothland,  Sodermanland, 
and  Upland  would  submit  to  the  kmg,  and  his  grace 
could  then  punish  the  Dalecarlians  and  Helsingers, 
who  first  stirred  up  these  troubles."  The  governor 
of  the  castle  of  Stockholm  informs  the  king  in  a  re- 
port on  the  military  occurrences  of  the  winter,  "  that 
his  men  had  compelled  him  to  consent  to  an  increase 
of  pay  on  account  of  the  successes  they  had  gained ; 
that  he  had  expelled  from  the  town,  or  imprisoned, 
the  suspected  Swedish  burghers  ;  that  the  peasants 
would  rather  be  hanged  on  their  own  hearths  than 
longer  endui'e  the  burdens  of  the  war  ;  that  Gus- 
tavus, who  had  in  vain  tempted  his  fidelity,  had 
already  sent  his  plate,  and  the  chief  part  of  his  own 
moveable  property,  to  a  priest  in  Helsingland  ;  he 
(the  governor)  also  transmitted  an  inventory  of  the 
goods  of  the  decapitated  nobles  ^" 

But  by  the  end  of  one  month  Gustavus,  who  in 
this  letter  is  styled  "a  forest  thief  and  robber,"  had 
again  filled  three  camps  around  Stockholm  with 
Dalesmen  and  Norrlanders  ;  and  when,  pursuant  to 
a  convention  with  Lubeck,  he  received  thence,  in 
the  month  of  June,  an  auxiliary  force  of  ten  ships,  a 
number  that  was  afterwards  augmented,  he  was  ena- 
bled to  dispense  with  tlie  greatest  portion  of  his  pea- 
sants, and  retained  about  him  only  those  who  were 
young  and  unmarried.  The  assistance  of  the  Lu- 
beckers  it  was  true  was  given  only  by  halves,  and 
from  selfish  motives  ;  they  did  not  forget  their  profit 
on  the  arms,  purchased  Swedish  iron  and  copper  for 
klippings,  with  which  worthless  coins  they  came  well 
provided,  and  exacted  a  dear  price  for  their  men, 
ships,  and  military  stores,  refusing  even,  it  is  said, 
to  supply  Gustavus  with  two  pieces  of  cannon  at  a 
decisive  moment,  although  upon  the  proffered  secu- 
rity of  two  of  the  royal  castles.  This  occurred  on 
occasion  of  a  second,  and  this  time  unsuccessful, 
attempt  made  by  Norby  to  relieve  Stockholm  ; 
in  which  he  was  only  saved  from  ruin  by  the  re- 
fusal of  the  admiral  of  Lubeck  to  attack.  Mean- 
while Gustavus,  despite  the  losses  which  he  sustained 
by  sallies,  pushed  his  three  camps  by  degrees  close  to 
the  town,  then  covering  little  more  than  the  island 
which  still  contains  the  town  properly  so  called. 
At  length,  after  Kingsholm  ^,  Langholm,  Soder- 
malm,  Waldemar's  island,  now  the  Zoological  Gar- 
dens, had  been  connected  by  float-bridges,  and  the 
port  closed  with  block-houses  and  chains,  the  place 
was  invested  on  all  sides.  Yet  it  held  out  through 
the  winter,  until  the  news  of  Christian's  fate,  joined 

Thomas.  Junker  was  a  title  given  to  the  sons  of  noblemen, 
equivalent  to  our  lord  or  squire.     T.) 

9  See  the  letter  in  Hvitfeld,  dated  February  22,  1522. 

'  Paper  in  the  Archives  of  king  Christian  II.  entitled, 
"  Schedule  of  Articles  to  the  King's  Majesty  of  Denmark, 
Sweden,  and  Norway,  my  most  gracious  Lord ;"  together 
with  a  subsequent  letter  of  April  29,  from  Henrik  Slagheck, 
perhaps  a  brother  of  Theodoric. 

2  Then  called  Munklider  (monk's  shed  or  barn). 


i 


I 


1523.] 


Proceedings  of 
Christian. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  LIBERATION. 


His  flight. 
Gustavus  king. 


107 


to  the  pangs  of  hunger,  deprived  the  garrison  of  all 
spirit  for  further  resistance. 

That  monarch,  after  having  caused  so  much 
bloodshed  in  Sweden,  had  made  a  splendid  visit  to 
liis  brotlier-in-law,  the  emperor  Charles  V.,  in  the 
Netherlands,  to  solicit  the  arrears  of  his  queen's 
dowry,  and  obtain  assistance  from  the  emperor  in 
his  quarrel  with  duke  Frederic  of  Holstein,  his 
uncle  by  the  father's  side,  and  the  Hanse  Towns. 
Such  was  the  number  and  variety  of  tlie  designs 
with  which  he  was  generally  occupied,  and  the  im- 
petuosity with  which  he  commenced,  abandoned, 
then  resumed  them,  that  he  soon  evoked  from 
these  schemes  so  many  weapons  which  might  be 
turned  against  himself.  It  was  to  the  celebrated 
Erasmus  that  he  declared,  in  the  course  of  this 
jom-ney,  "men  accomplish  nothing  by  gentle  means; 
the  most  powerful  agents  are  always  those  which 
shake  the  whole  body  ^."  He  wished  to  crush  the 
power  of  the  clergy  and  nobility,  to  elevate  the 
burghers  and  peasants,  break  the  commercial 
power  of  the  Hanse  Towns,  annex  Holstein,  con- 
quer Sweden,  and,  above  all,  to  rule  with  absolute 
sway  ;  he  wished  to  effect  all  this  by  laws*,  schools, 
executions,  fraud  and  arms  at  once,  and  with  a  vio- 
lence only  exceeded,  if  possible,  by  the  leviiy  with 
which  he  passed  from  one  extreme  to  another,  and 
embraced  all  methods  as  legitimate.  It  was  the 
same  Christian  who  made  a  papal  bull  the  pretext 
for' his  cruelty  in  Sweden,  and  wished  to  introduce 
the  Reformation  in  Denmark  ;  the  same  who  main- 
tained a  correspondence  with  Luther,  and  called 
Carlstadt  to  Copenhagen,  and  who,  when  an  inves- 
tigation into  the  murders  m  Stockholm  was  threat- 
ened from  Rome,  made  application  to  the  pope  for 
the  canonization  of  two  saints  ;  the  same  who  raised 
his  favourite,  the  universally  abhorred  Didrik  Slag- 
heck,  to  be  archbishop  of  Lund,  and  afterwards 
caused  him  to  be  put  to  death  by  the  gallows  and 
stake,  in  the  presence  of  a  papal  legate,  as  the  con- 
triver of  the  massacre '.  One  year  after  this  re- 
volting attempt  to  rid  himself  of  the  imputation, 
Christian,  just  as  he  was  on  the  point  of  imposing 
a  fresh  tax  for  the  payment  of  his  newly  levied 
soldiery,  received  a  letter  of  renunciation  from  the 
Danish  council  ^,  in  which  they  informed  him,  that 
having  taken  into  consideration  the  rigorous  and 
dangerous  government  which  had  been  used  in  his 
time,  as  also  what  had   been  done  in  Stockholm, 

3  Erasmi  Epistolae,  Basle,  1533,  p.  453. 

''  See  Christian  II. 's  so-called  Geistlige  Lev  (Ecclesiastical 
Law),  given  provisionally,  May  26,  1521  ("until  our  dear 
lieges  the  general  council  of  the  kingdom  of  Denmark 
shall  come  together,"  c.  141^;  and  his  ordinance  or  Verlds- 
lige  Lov  (Civic  Law),  given  January  6,  1522  ("  with  consent 
of  our  dear  lieges,  the  council  of  the  realm"),  both  last  pub- 
lished by  Kolderup  Rosenvinge,  Collection  of  old  Danish 
Laws,  Copenhagen,  1824,  4  vols.  "He  had  some  intention 
also  with  respect  to  the  law-book  of  Sweden  if  time  had 
sutfered."  Olave  Peterson.  It  is  possible  that  Gustavus 
alludes  to  this  in  the  Articles  of  Vadstena  of  1 524  (Stiernman, 
Resolutions,  i.  34),  where  it  is  said  that  the  law-book  should 
be  amended,  as  was  before  resolved  upon  ;  this  however  was 
not  done. 

5  He  was  led  up  some  steps  to  the  gallows,  thereafter  taken 
down,  and  thrown  alive  into  the  fire.  This  took  place  Jan. 
24,  1522. 

6  This  first  letter  of  renunciation  is  dated  Viborg,  Jan.  20, 
1523. 

^  In  a  letter  of  February  5,  1523,  king  Christian  acquaints 
his  (jueen  with  the  renunciation  of  the  council.     In  an  in- 


where  so  many  bishops,  knights,  and  good  men  had 
lost  their  lives  without  law  or  right,  they  dreaded 
lest  the  same  fate  should  at  length  be  brought  home 
to  their  own  doors  "  by  the  instigation  of  that  bad 
woman  Sigbrit ',  who  maligned  the  nobility  of  the 
realm  as  rogues  and  traitors,  especially  seeing  that 
foreign  mercenaries  were  again  called  into  the  king- 
dom ;  wherefore  they  disclaimed  homage  and  fealty 
to  him."  The  crown  was  offered  to  Frederic,  duke 
of  Holstein,  who  accepted  it,  and  concluded  a  league 
with  the  Hanse  Towns.  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
people  of  Zealand,  where  Christian  had  lightened 
the  fetters  of  serfage  *,  and  also  the  nobles  of 
Scania,  took  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  his  cause.  He  did 
not  dare  to  trust  either  his  subjects  or  his  soldiers, 
collected  twenty  ships,  in  which  he  embarked  the 
public  records,  with  the  treasiu-e  and  crown  jewels, 
his  consort  and  child,  and  his  adviser  Sigbrit,  who 
was  concealed  in  a  chest.  Deserting  his  kingdom, 
he  sailed  away  in  the  face  of  the  whole  population  of 
Copenhagen,  April  the  20th,  1523. 

Thus  ended  the  reign  of  Christian  II.,  a  king  in 
whom  one  knows  not  which  most  rivets  the  atten- 
tion, the  multiplied  undertakings  he  commenced 
and  abandoned  in  a  career  so  often  stained  with 
blood,  his  audacity,  his  feebleness,  or  that  misery 
of  many  years  by  which  he  was  to  expiate  a  short 
and  ill-used  tenure  of  power.  There  are  men  who, 
like  the  storm-birds  before  the  tempest,  appear 
in  history  as  foretokens  of  the  approaching  out- 
break of  great  convulsions.  Of  such  a  nature  was 
Christian,  who,  tossed  hither  and  thither  between 
all  the  various  currents  of  his  time  without  central 
consistence,  awakened  alternately  the  fear  or  pity 
of  the  beholders. 

Frederic  I.,  who  was  chosen  to  succeed  him  in 
Deimiark,  wrote  to  the  estates  of  Sweden,  demand- 
ing that  in  accordance  with  the  stipulations  of  the 
Union  of  Calmar  he  might  be  acknowledged  king 
in  Sweden  also.  They  replied,  "that  they  had 
elected  Gustavus  Ericson  to  be  Sweden's  king." 
That  event  came  to  pass  at  tlie  diet  of  Strengness, 
June  the  seventh,  1523^.  Thus  was  tlie  Union 
dissolved,  after  it  had  lasted  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-six years.  Norway  wavered  at  this  critical  mo- 
ment. The  inhabitants  of  the  southern  portion 
declared,  when  the  Swedes  under  Thure  Jenson 
Roos  and  Lawrence  Siggesou  Sparre  had   pene- 

closed  note  he  speaks  of  the  universal  dissatisfaction  with 
mother  Sigbrit,  and  requests  the  queen  to  receive  her  into  her 
own  abode  at  the  castle,  that  she  may  keep  her  mouth  closed. 
How  great  this  woman's  influence  was  may  be  seen  from  a 
public  rescript  dated  Copenhagen,  December  29,  1522,  in 
which  he  declares  that  Sigbrit  Willems  had  accounted  com- 
pletely for  the  customs  and  finances  of  the  realm,  and  was 
completely  free  from  all  responsibility  in  this  respect. 

8  The  third  chapter  of  Christian's  Geistlige  Lov,  forbids 
the  wicked,  unchristian  custom  which  had  hitherto  prevailed 
in  Zealand,  Falster,  Lolland,  and  Mben,  of  selling  the  pea- 
sants like  creatures  devoid  of  reason,  and  gives  them  the 
right  of  leaving  their  master's  service  if  he  dealt  with  them 
dishonestly,  as  the  peasants  in  Scania,  Jutland,  and  Funen. 
After  the  dethronement  of  Christian  in  Denmark,  this  law 
was  publicly  burned  by  the  council  at  the  provincial  diet  of 
Viborg,  "  as  a  pernicious  and  destructive  law,  against  good 
policy  and  government."     Hvitfeld. 

9  Dominica  infra  octavam  corporis  Christi,  which  happened 
this  year  on  the  7th  June,  as  is  correctly  stated  in  bishop 
Brask's  correspondence,  Scandinavian  Memoirs  xvii.  141 ;  not 
on  the  sixth,  though  this  incorrect  date  appears  in  Stiem- 
man's  Resolutions,  and  is  generally  received. 


108 


Dissolution  of  the 
union. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  noliles  and  the 
commons. 


[15i;4- 


trated  into  their  country  as  far  as  Opslo,  that  they 
would  unite  with  Sweden  if  they  might  rely  upon 
its  support  ^  Bolmsland  was  subdued,  Bleking 
hkewise  on  another  side,  and  Gustavus  souglit, 
botli  by  negociations  and  arms,  to  enforce  the  old 
claims  of  Sweden  to  Scania  and  Halland.  The 
town  of  Cahnar  was  taken  on  the  27th  May,  and 
the  castle  on  the  7th  July.  Stockholm  having  sur- 
rendered on  the  20th  June,  on  condition  of  the  fi'ee 


departure  of  the  garrison  with  their  property  and 
arms,  and  of  every  other  person  who  adhered  to 
the  cause  of  Christian  ^,  Gustavus  made  his  public 
entry  on  Midsummer's  Eve  ;  before  the  end  of  the 
year  Finland  also  was  reduced  to  obedience.  The 
kingdom  was  freed  from  foreign  enemies,  but  in- 
ternal foes  still  remained  ;  and  Lubeck  was  an  ally 
whoso  demands  made  it  more  troublesome  than 
it  would  have  been  as  an  enemy. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  REFORMATION. 

STATE  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  TEMPER  OF  THE  PEOPLE  AND  THE  CLERGY.  RELATIONS  OF  GUSTAVUS  WITH 
LUBECK  AND  DENMARK.  BEGINNINGS  OF  RELIGIOUS  REFORMATION.  INSURRECTIONS  OF  THE  DALESMEN. 
DIET  OF  WESTERAS.  DISTURBANCES  IN  M^EST-GOTHLAND.  THEIR  SUPPRESSION.  INVASION  OF  NORWAY 
BY  CHRISTIAN.  HIS  DEFEAT  ;  IMPRISONMENT  ;  AND  DEATH.  WAR  WITH  LUBECK.  PROGRESS  AND  ES- 
TABLISHMENT  OF    THE    REFORMATION.      THE    DACKE    FEUD. 

A.  D.  1524—1543. 


A  TOWN  wasted  in  the  civil  war  had  been  the 
scene  of  the  election  of  Gustavus  Vasa  to  the 
throne.  In  the  capital,  when  he  made  his  public 
entry,  one  half  of  the  houses  were  empty,  and  of 
the  population  scarcely  a  fourth  part  remained. 
To  fill  up  the  gap,  he  issued  an  invitation  to  the 
burghers  in  other  towns  to  settle  there,  a  summons 
which  he  was  obliged  twelve  years  afterwards  to 
renew,  "  seeing  that  Stockholm  had  not  yet  revived 
from  the  days  of  king  Christian  ^."  The  spectacle 
which  here  met  his  eyes  was  a  type  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  whole  kingdom,  and  never  was  it  said 
of  any  sovereign  with  more  justice,  that  the  throne 
to  which  he  had  been  elevated  was  more  diflficult 
to  preserve  than  to  win. 

The  Union  was  now  dissolved,  and  had  left  be- 
hind it  ruins.  It  would  be  an  error,  however,  to 
consider  this  period  generally  as  one  of  great  op- 
pression. Such  it  was  no  doubt  at  intervals 
durmg  its  course,  and  it  terminated  in  a  tyranny  ; 
but  it  was  still  more  a  period  of  great  license. 
This  was  shown  on  the  one  hand,  by  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  magnates,  or  in  the  power  re- 
served to  the  council  according  to  the  Union,  of 
governing  in  the  absence  of  the  king,  which  they 
exercised  in  such  a  maimer,  as  to  be  in  fact  sove- 
reigns within  the  limits  of  their  own  feudatory  pre- 
fectures (Ian),  in  which  also  they  were  generally 
by  their  own  possessions  the  most  important  per- 
sonages. Hence  the  distribution  of  those  fiefs  (so 
much  the  more  that  they  were  not  hereditary) 
formed  a  perpetual  subject  of  quarrel  with  the  kings 
under  the  Union,  and  the  contests  arising  therefrom 
drove  Charles  Canuteson  twice  from  the  throne. 
Hence,  too,  one  of  the  first  questions  put  by  Gus- 

'  See  the  letter  from  Thnre  Jenson  to  bishop  Brask,  of 
April  23, 1523,  in  Linkoping's  Bibliotheks  Handlingar,  ii.  183. 
(Opslo  is  now  Clu'istiania.) 

2  I5y  an  undated  instrument  in  the  archives  of  Christian 
II.  with  the  title  "  (Artichle  oc  bewillinsje,  &c.)  Articles  and 
Agreement  which  the  King  sends  to  Stockholm,  conform  to 
which  they  shall  give  up  the  Town  and  Castle,"  we  see  that 
the  king  had  consented  to  its  surrender,  although  all  the  con- 
ditions there  demanded  were  not  granted  in  tlie  capitulation. 

3  Letters  to  the  trading  towns,  of  July  14,  1523,  and  Sep- 
tember 2G,  1535,  in  the  Registry  of  the  Archives.  The 
burghers,  it  is  said  in  the  latter,  were  considering  how  to 


tavus  to  the  council  was,  "  whether  he  might  not 
freely  propose  and  dispose  of  the  crown  fiefs,  as  the 
Law-book  declared,  without  ill  will  *  ?"  The  pos- 
sessors of  these  levied  the  revenues  of  the  crown, 
and  applied  them  to  their  own  use  ',  for  the  kings, 
with  few  exceptions,  at  least  during  the  latter  days 
of  the  Union,  i-eceived  no  part  of  the  proceeds. 
Hence  the  scheme,  which  was  sometimes  openly 
urged,  of  parcelling  the  kingdom  into  .several  prin- 
cipalities under  dift'ereut  rulers,  was  something  more 
than  a  mere  vague  project  of  the  grandees.  The 
lilan  was  even  to  no  inconsiderable  extent  carried 
into  eflTect.  We  find  these  provincial  magnates  still 
flourishing  under  Gustavus  I.,  with  pretensions  more 
or  less  openly  put  forth  ;  and  that  they  still  con- 
stituted what  was  called  the  Council  of  the  Realm, 
or  more  particularly  the  council  in  Upland,  West 
or  East-Gothland,  Finland,  and  so  forth,  we  learn 
from  the  letters  of  Gustavus  himself,  in  which  the 
council  is  thus  designated  according  to  the  pro- 
vinces. 

On  the  other  hand,  during  the  Union,  and  in 
opposition  to  the  aristocracy,  the  people  had  also 
become  a  powder.  At  the  call  of  Engelbert  they  had 
taken  up  arms,  which  for  a  century  afterwards  were 
not  laid  down,  and  thus  wore  an  aspect  menacing  to 
all  authority.  The  fortunes  of  Charles  Canuteson 
had  seemed  almost  to  prove  that  there  could  hence- 
forth be  no  king  in  Sweden,  whether  a  native  or  a 
foreigner.  The  power  of  the  Administrator,  in 
which  men  sought  a  refuge  against  anarchy,  was 
essentially  too  indefinite  to  afford  any  security.  It 
was  democratic  in  the  hands  of  the  Stures,  but  like- 
wise involved  in  perpetual  war  against  foi-eign  and 
domestic  enemies,  and  of  necessity  lawless.     The 

attract  the  trade  of  Lubeck  to  Stockholm  ;  a  town  where  one 
might  reap  a  good  harvest,  especially  if  he  were  conversant 
with  trade,  and  could  look  well  to  his  atfairs. 

■>  Articles  of  Vadstena,  October,  1524.  (Lebu,  Swed.  Anglo- 
Sax,  and  Scot.,  fief,  is  the  same  word  as  loan.     'J'.) 

5  "  Never  have  we  heard  that  the  good  lords  of  the  council 
of  state  were  subject  to  any  other  burden  than  to  attend  for 
the  service  of  the  realm  with  their  followers,  every  man 
according  to  his  lief,"  says  bishop  Brask  in  a  letter  to  Thuve 
Jenson,  of  October  22,  1524.  But  a  summons  of  this  kind 
for  the  service  of  the  Union  kings  did  not  take  place,  or 
was  not  obeyed,  during  the  latter  period  of  the  Union. 


i 


1543.] 


Position  of  the 
church. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  REFORMATION. 


Demands  of  tlie 
Luheckers. 


109 


partition  which  threatened  the  kingdom  from  the 
domination  of  the  nobles  was  also  latent,  although 
under  a  different  shape,  in  the  developement  of 
popular  power.  The  political  influence  of  the  pea- 
sants gave  new  importance  to  the  democratic  forms 
of  the  ancient  federative  system,  which  put  forth  its 
last  energies  in  revolt.  How  often  in  those  times 
do  we  not  see  the  commonalties  of  different  pro- 
vinces acting  in  the  exercise  of  self-rule,  taking  up 
arms,  forming  aUiances,  and  renewing  with  each 
other  compacts  of  bygone  days  !  It  is  Upper  Swe- 
den more  particularly  which  presents  this  spectacle ; 
whereas,  in  the  South,  the  nobles  po.ssessed  the 
ascendancy,  excepting  in  Smaland  ;  and  hence  this 
province  during  the  reign  of  Gustavus  was,  next  to 
Dalecarlia,  the  principal  seat  of  disturbance  among 
the  peasantry.  Accustomed  to  insecurity  of  life 
and  property,  the  armed  commons  were  yet  in  their 
poverty  mipatient  of  taxation ;  and  this  Gustavus 
himself  was  destined  to  experience  ". 

The  church  might  be  regarded  as  a  foreign  power 
established  in  the  kingdom,  which  in  the  absence  of 
any  supreme  civil  authority,  looked  well  to  its  own 
interest.  Its  dignitaries  constituted  the  most  pow- 
erful portion  of  the  aristocracy,  the  more  that  the 
bishops  were  also  the  holders  of  temporal  fiefs. 
They  had  ever  signalized  themselves  by  devotion 
to  the  Union,  and  had  therefore  soon  drawn  upon 
their  heads  the  hostility  of  the  patriotic  party. 
Engelbert  had  already  openly  menaced  the  per- 
sonal safety  of  the  bishops,  and  throughout  the 
reign  of  Charles  Canuteson,  as  well  as  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Sture's,  an  incessant  struggle  against 
tlieir  power  was  maintained.  A  revengeful  arch- 
bishop opened  the  way  for  Christian  the  Tyrant  to 
the  throne  ;  hence  no  man  was  ever  more  detested 
in  Sweden  than  Gustave  TroUe  '.  In  the  ensuing 
war  the  popular  exasperation  broke  out  with  sin- 
gular violence  against  the  persons  and  property  of 
the  bishops  ;  and  we  find  frequent  threats  of  ven- 
geance addressed  to  the  monks  and  priests,  called 
forth  by  their  licentious  and  disorderly  manners  ^. 
In  general,  the  church  suffered  much  durmg  the 
war  from  the  tyrannical  proceedings  of  Christian, 
even  towards  his  own  friends  '.  Yet  it  was  beyond 
comparison  the  richest  corporation  in  the  country, 

<>  "  Neither  in  this  our  realm  are  the  common  people  of 
such  a  humour  that  they  will  bear  to  have  great  imposts  and 
tallages  laid  upon  them,  as  in  other  lands  and  realms,  unless 
we  should  expect  to  have  a  rising  among  them  therefrom." 
King  Gustavus  to  Eric  Fleming,  December  5,  1535.  Registry 
of  the  Archive?. 

'  On  the  mere  report  of  a  reconciliation  with  the  arch- 
bishop, the  Dalesmen  wrote  to  Gustavus  "  that  they  could  in 
ti)at  case  by  no  means  keep  the  engagement  of  fidelity  they 
had  made  to  him ;  he  should  not  think  it  ill  in  the  poor  people 
of  the  valleys  that  they  spoke  this  opinion  so  boldly."  When 
the  archbishop,  nevertheless,  afterwards  attempted  to  excite 
disturbances  among  them  by  letters  and  messengers,  they 
informed  him  that  they  would  rise  up  against  him  and  his 
faction,  every  man  in  the  Dales  who  was  fifteen  years  old, 
and  as  long  as  their  arrows  and  bolts  lasted.  See  the  letters 
in  Troil,  Memoirs,  iv.  352,  356. 

8  One  of  the  chaplains  of  Gustavus  killed  another  with  a 
battle-axe,  January  28,  1523.  Correspondence  of  bishop 
Brask.  Scandinavian  Memoirs,  xvii.  83.  For  an  example  of 
tlie  corrupt  manners  of  the  mendicant  friars,  see  p.  193. 

9  See  the  letters  of  bishop  Brask  to  Rome,  com])laining  of 
the  state  of  the  bishoprics,  March  5,  1523,  and  therefore 
before  the  elevation  of  Gustavus  to  the  throne.  "  Ecclesia 
Arosiensis   in   maxima    paupertate   relicta,   Strengnesensis 


and  exercised  through  the  inferior  clergy  great 
influence. 

It  was  under  such  circumstances  that  Gustavus 
had  to  re-establish  iu  Sweden  a  regal  power  no 
longer  existing,  and  to  commence  his  reign  with 
the  requirement  of  the  greatest  sacrifices. 

So  early  as  the  elective  diet  of  Strengness,  in 
1523,  two  senators  of  Lubeck  delivered  in  an  ac- 
count of  expenses  incurred  for  assistance  rendered 
m  the  siege  of  Stockholm,  whicli  was  not  yet 
terminated,  demanding  immediate  payment  of  the 
sum,  or  as  the  price  of  delay,  an  unconditional 
confirmation  of  the  commercial  privileges  enjoyed 
by  Lubeck  within  the  kingdom,  according  to  a 
statement  drawn  up  by  themselves.  This  powerful 
town,  which  boasted  of  raising  np  and  dethroning 
the  sovereigns  of  the  north  ',  had  newly  concluded 
an  alliance  with  king  Frederic  of  Denmark,  and 
pi'omised  him  conditionally  its  aid  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  Swedish  crown.  The  envoys  dropped 
threats  on  this  head  -,  and  the  negociation  for  the 
surrender  of  Stockholm  being  in  their  hands,  it 
was  found  necessary  to  grant  all  their  demands  ^. 

Christian  II.  still  continued  to  be  formidable 
from  his  alliances,  although  by  the  commencement 
of  the  year  1524,  only  the  isle  of  Gottland  acknow- 
ledged his  superiority  ^  ;  "  things  have  now  gone 
so  far,  that  nothing  besides  this  poor  land  is  left  to 
your  grace,"  writes  to  him  Severin  Norby,  who 
governed  the  island  in  his  name,  and  exercised 
piracy  upon  vessels  of  all  nations.  Both  Gustavus 
and  Frederic,  the  Swedish  council  as  well  as  the 
Danish,  had  in  vain  assailed  his  fidelity  by  tempta- 
tion. In  his  letters  to  his  fugitive  master,  Norby 
complains  of  treachery.  Calmar,  which  he  had 
well  furnished  with  stores  for  a  whole  year,  had 
notwithstanding  been  surrendered,  with  a  cowardice 
which  deserved  the  gallows  and  wheel.  In  Fin- 
land, which  was  the  more  important,  "  as  this 
was,  for  rent,  the  best  pnrt  of  Swedf  n,"  the  king's 
troops,  according  to  Norbj-,  had  not  conducted 
themselves  better,  so  that  there  was  not  time  left 
him  to  reach  the  country  when  he  wished  to 
defend  it,  though  he  had  resolved  to  do  so  in  case 
of  necessity   with  Russian   assistance.      Now,   he 

clerus  ter  uno  anno  spoliatus,  Scarensis  ecclesia  per  hostes 
incensa,  Upsalensis  tot  afRictionibus  preventa,  Vexionensis 
in  terminis  hostium,  Linkopensis  communis  praeda;"  and 
the  church,  instead  of  comfort,  received  nothing  but  mock- 
ery, and  "sarcastic  consolations."  This  he  ascribes  to  the 
Lutheran  heretics,  by  which  it  was  already  attacked  on  all 
sides. 

1  "  It  is  the  Lubeckers  and  their  adherents  who  have  set 
up  in  Sweden  a  new  king  in  our  stead,"  says  Christian  II. 
in  a  letter  to  a  canon  of  Cologne,  dated  Berlin,  September 
26.  1527.     Archives  of  Christian  II. 

2  Coloratis  verbis  obductas  minas.  Letter  of  the  bishop  of 
Skara  to  Brask,  bishop  of  Linkoping,  the  latter  of  whom 
shrunk  from  personal  attendance  on  the  diet. 

3  Lubeck  and  Dantzic  and  the  towns  in  alliance  with 
them,  to  which  Lubeck  granted  permission,  obtained  an 
exclusive  right  of  trading  with  Sweden  free  of  duties,  con- 
formably to  a  charter  subscribed  by  the  king  and  the  council. 
A  Finnish  councillor,  Canute  Ericson  (Kurk),  refused  his 
signature. 

4  Norway  renounced  obedience  to  him  August  5,  1523.  At 
the  commencement  of  the  following  year,  Copenhagen  and 
Malmoe  acknowledged  king  Frederic.  Gustavus  sent  a  com- 
pany of  foot  to  assist  in  the  siege  of  the  latter  place,  and 
contributed  ten  ships  to  the  reduction  of  the  island  of  Born- 
holm. 


110 


Expedition  to 
Gottland. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Luther's  doctrine 
introduced. 


[1524- 


wrote  in  the  winter  of  1524,  Gustavus  Ericson  lay 
ready  to  attack  Gottland,  as  soon  as  the  sea  should 
be  open,  with  the  whole  power  of  Sweden  ;  where- 
fore if  it  were  impossible  for  the  king  to  relieve  the 
island,  and  save  it  from  the  hands  of  the  Swedes, 
he  begged  permission  to  make  terms  in  good  time, 
"  in  order  that  the  land  might  not  be  wrested  from 
the  crown  of  Denmark  ^."  The  attack  on  Gottland, 
whose  issue  we  have  hereby  indicated,  was  resolved 
upon  in  the  baronial  diet  of  Vadstena,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year.  Lubeek,  v/hich  suffered  most  from 
Norby's  piracy,  had  pressed  that  it  should  be  un- 
dertaken, promising  through  a  special  envoy  its 
support,  with  the  remission  of  the  interest  on  the 
debt,  and  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war, 
if  Sweden  should  not  be  able  to  hold  the  island. 
Bx'ask,  bishop  of  Linkoping,  of  whose  diocese  it 
formed  a  part,  and  who  afterwards  complained 
that  the  enterprise  had  miscarried  through  the 
Germans  who  advised  it,  now  united  his  repre- 
sentations to  theirs,  and  Gustavus  gave,  although 
unwillingly,  his  consent.  A  fleet  carrying  8000 
men  was  collected  for  the  expedition,  of  which  the 
command  was  entrusted  to  Bernard  of  Melen,  a 
German  knight,  who  had  passed  over  from  the 
service  of  Christian,  and  had  been  admitted  into 
the  Swedish  council,  invested  with  the  government 
of  Stegeborg,  and  married  to  Margaret  Vasa. 
This  lady,  a  kinswoman  of  king  Gustavus,  but 
inimical  towards  him,  from  a  dispute  regarding  an 
inheritance,  was  not  without  influence  on  the  con- 
duct of  her  husband.  Bernard  of  Melen  reduced 
the  country  without  difficulty,  but  was  so  slack  in 
conducting  the  siege  of  the  town  and  castle  of 
Wisby,  that  Norby,  with  whom  he  had  a  secret 
understanding,  obtained  time  to  place  liimself  and 
the  island  under  Danish  protection.  In  the  mean- 
time a  personal  interview  of  Gustavus  and  Fre- 
deric took  place  at  INIalmoe,  and  Lubeek  interposed 
its  mediation  between  the  kings.  By  the  conven- 
tion of  Malmoe,  dated  September  1, 1524,  Gustavus 
bound  himself  to  restore  Bleking  to  Denmark,  and 
to  refer  the  dispute  respecting  Gottland  to  future 
settlement.     Bohusland,  however,  he  retained  for 

5  Letters  of  Severin  Norby,  March  7  and  September  14, 
1523,  and  March  14,  1524.     Archives  of  Christian  II. 

<•  The  contract,  which  exists  in  the  Archives  of  Christian 
II.,  and  is  dated  Brandenburg,  May  1. 1 526,  begins  "  I,  Bernard 
of  Melen,  knight,  &c.  openly  acknowledge  by  this  instrument 
that  I,  out  of  true  and  dutiful  inclination,  have  undertaken 
to  conquer,  with  God's  help,  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  once 
for  all,"  &c 

7  "  Know  ye  for  certain  that  it  beseemeth  our  power  to 
protect  every  one  of  our  subjects  against  violence;"  writes 
the  king  to  bishop  Brask.     Scandinavian  Memoirs,  xiii.  5S. 

^  Ut  aliqui  deputentur  in  certis  diocesibus— inquisitores 
heretic  ■  pravitatis.  Letter  of  Brask  to  Johannes  Magnus, 
who  had  arrived  as  papal  legate  in  1523  (1.  c.  xvii.  146),  and 
obtained  from  Gustavus  a  letter  against  the  opinions  and 
books  of  Luther  (see  Litteraa  Domini  Regis  contra  opinionem 
Lutherianani,  ibid.  159).  It  is  plain,  however,  from  the  king's 
letter  to  bishop  Brask  in  1524,  that  this  was  not  publislied  : 
"  For  what  you  write  to  us  respecting  the  books  of  Luther, 
that  we  should  forbid  their  sale,  we  know  not  how  this  may  be 
done,  seeing  that  we  have  heard  Ihem  censured  by  imp:irtial 
judges  as  not  useless,  but  especially  because  books  against 
this  Luther  have  been  brought  into  the  country;  therefore, 
according  to  our  poor  mind,  it  might  be  profitable  that  both 
the  one  side  and  the  other  should  be  placed  before  men's 
eyes."  Scandinavian  Memoirs,  xiii.  58.  Two  years  after- 
wards the  king  forbade  bishop  Brask  to  translate  and  pro- 


a  time,  and  negatived  for  ever  the  Danish  claims 
of  superiority,  and  the  renewal  of  the  Union. 
IMeanwhile  the  treachery  of  Bernard  of  ]\Ielen  was 
revealed.  He  induced  his  troops  to  take  an  oath 
of  fidelity  to  himself,  occupied  the  castle  of  Calmar 
on  his  own  behalf,  and  proceeded  for  reinforce- 
ments to  Germany,  where  he  entered  into  a  bond 
to  reconquer  the  kingdom  of  Sweden  for  Christian 
II.  ^  The  castle  of  Calmar  was  defended  with  the 
bravery  of  desperation  against  Gustavus,  who  did 
not  take  it  without  a  heavy  loss  in  men,  and  sub- 
jected seventy  of  the  garrison  to  the  pimishment 
of  traitors.  These  events  already  stand  in  con- 
nexion with  the  first  revolt  against  Gustavus,  which 
however,  as  well  as  subsequent  insurrections,  had  a 
deeper  cause. 

The  principles  of  the  Reformation  had  now  be- 
gun to  spread  towards  the  north.  It  was  soon 
manifest  that  the  king  had  placed  himself  at  its 
head  in  Sweden,  although  he  took  his  measures 
with  that  mixture  of  pliant  subtilty  and  boldness 
which  ever  distinguished  him,  more  strongly 
marked  the  more  his  character  was  tested  by 
events.  Olave  and  Lawrence  Peterson,  two  bro- 
thers, who  had  studied  in  Wittemberg,  and  were 
disciples  of  Luther,  returned  in  1519  to  their  native 
country,  and  preached  his  doctrines  there  for  the 
first  time.  They  attracted  the  attention  of  Gus- 
tavus, and  received  his  protection  ^,  although 
bishop  Brask,  who  had  already  procured  a  brief 
from  Pope  Adrian  VI.  for  the  extirpation  of 
heresy  in  Sweden,  demanded  the  establishment  of 
inquisitors  in  all  the  bishoprics,  and  the  prohibition 
of  Luther's  writings  *.  The  king,  who  was  himself 
in  correspondence  with  Luther  ^,  appointed  Olave 
Peterson,  whose  bold  sermons  at  the  elective  diet 
of  Strengness  excited  general  attention',  to  be 
minister  and  town-clerk  of  Stockholm,  and  made 
his  younger  brother  Lawrence  professor  in  Upsala. 
Here  the  king  caused  a  disputation  for  and  against 
the  new  doctrines  to  be  held,  in  consequence  of 
which  twelve  questions  were  drawn  up,  to  be 
examined  thereafter  in  an  assembly  of  the  Swedish 
Church  2.     For  his  chancellor,  he   selected  Law- 

mulgate  the  letters  of  the  pope,  the  emperor,  and  duke 
George  of  Saxony  against  Luther,  as  instigating  to  revolt. 
He  also  suppressed  the  printing-house  founded  by  the  bishop 
in  Sbderkbping.     Scan.  Mem.  xvi.  43. 

"  "  We  have,  from  the  very  commencement  of  our  reign, 
been  adherents  to  the  true  and  pure  word  of  God,  so  far  as 
grace  hath  been  bestowed  upon  us  for  the  understanding  of 
it;"  says  the  king  in  a  letter  to  Luther,  August  16,  1540; 
printed  by  Spegel  in  the  documentary  proofs  to  his  Chronicle 
of  the  Bishops. 

>  They  were  levelled  from  the  first  at  the  secular  power  of 
the  clergy :  Periculose  pullulare  incipit  heresis  ilia  Lu- 
therana,  per  quendam  magistrum  Olavum  in  ecclesia  Streng- 
nesensi,  prsesertim  contra  decreta  sancts  Romanae  ecclesiae 
ac  ecclesiasticam  libertatem  ad  efTectum,  ut  status  moderna 
ecclesiae  reducatur  ad  mendicitatem  et  statum  ecclesiae  pri- 
mitivae.  Brask  to  the  bishop  of  Skara,  July  12,  1523.  Scan. 
Mem.  xvii.  143. 

2  The  disputation  was  held  at  Christmas,  1524,  between 
Olave  Peterson  and  Doctor  Peter  Galle,  provost  of  Upsala. 
and  each  of  them  by  the  royal  command  drew  up  a  particular 
answer  to  the  questions  proposed,  which  was  printed.  These 
were,  "1.  Whether  doctrines  of  holy  men,  and  usages  or 
customs  of  the  Church,  which  have  not  God's  word  for  them, 
should  be  received  as  binding.  2.  Whether  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  hath  granted  to  the  priesthood,  the  pope,  or  the 
bishops,  any  other  authority  or  dominion  over  men,  but  only 


1543.] 


Debt  to  Lubec'Ji. 
New  Taxes. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  REFORMATION. 


Vrevalenee  of 
distress. 


Ill 


reiice  Anderson,  provost  of  Strengness,  and  after- 
wards of  Upsala,  who  had  spent  his  early  years  in 
Rome,  and  now  in  his  old  age  was  a  pupil  of  these 
younger  men.  The  nature  of  the  maxims  now 
prevalent  respecting  the  property  of  the  Church 
may  be  perceived  from  the  words  addressed  by  the 
chancellor  to  the  monks  of  Vadstena,  when  they 
complained  of  the  aid  demanded  from  the  convents, 
for  the  expedition  to  Gottland.  He  answered 
them :  "  The  monies  of  the  congregation  are  those 
of  the  people  ^." 

Three  months  after  the  king's  elevation  to  the 
throne,  when  he  rendered  an  account  to  the  people 
at  the  fair  of  Westeras  of  the  revenues  of  the  king- 
dom, he  stated  the  expenses  of  the  war  at  960,000 
marks  *,  wherefore  he  had  been  obliged  to  contract 
large  debts.  Those  due  to  Lubeck,  as  they  were 
acknowledged  at  the  diet  of  Strengness,  amounted 
to  (J8,()8l  Lubeck  marks  for  military  stores,  with 
8,fiO!)  marks  in  cash  advanced  ^,  not  including 
200,000  guilders  for  the  payment  of  the  soldiery  •', 
which,  however,  were  proliably  refunded  in  the 
same  year  with  the  plate  of  the  churches,  since 
this  debt  is  not  afterwards  mentioned.  To  these 
besides  were  to  lie  added  the  expenses  incurred  for 
the  conquest  of  Finland,  for  the  expedition  against 
Gottland,  for  the  suppression  of  the  revolts,  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  new  govern- 
ment. Thus  the  first  years  of  Gustave's  reign 
were  all  marked  by  new  and  extraordinary  levies 
of  money,  which  pressed  with  especial  severity  on 
the  church,  and  were  excused  by  the  l<ing  on  the 
ground  of  the  public  need'.  So  early  as  1522  an 
aid  was  required  from  the  clergy,  and  in  1523  a 
tax  in  money,  under  the  name  of  a  loan,  was  im- 
posed on  all  the  churches  and  monasteries  of  the 
kingdom  ;  in  1524  a  new  benevolence  was  granted 

to  proclaim  the  word  and  will  of  God,  and  whether  it  is  fitting 
that  any  should  be  priests  but  such  as  do  this.  3.  Whether 
their  laws,  injunctions,  or  ordinances,  can  load  a  man  with 
sin,  if  he  act  against  them.  4.  Whether  they  have  power 
by  excommunication  to  sever  any  one  from  God.  as  a  limb 
cut  off  from  God's  congregation,  and  to  make  him  to  be  a 
limb  of  the  devil.  5.  Whether  the  lordship  which  the  pope 
and  his  tribe  have  exercised  be  for  or  against  the  lordship  of 
Christ.  6.  Whether  God's  service  be  anything  else  than  to 
keep  liis  commandments,  not  men's  inventions,  which  God 
hath  not  enjoined.  7.  Whether  a  man  may  be  saved  by  his 
merits,  or  only  by  God's  grace  and  compassion.  8.  Whether 
the  monastic  life  have  any  ground  in  Scripture.  9.  Whether 
any  man  have  or  have  had  power  to  dispense  the  sacrament 
in  wine  and  bread  otherwise  than  as  Christ  himself  ordained 
it.  10.  Whether  we  should  put  faith  in  revelations  which 
are  said  to  have  been  made,  other  than  are  proved  by  Holy 
Scripture.  11.  What  ground  may  the  Scriptures  afford  for 
purgatory.  12.  Whether  men  should  honour,  venerate,  and 
pray  to  the  saints,  and  whether  the  saints  are  our  defenders, 
patrons,  mediators,  and  intercessors  before  God."  See  the 
whole  in  Troil's  Memoirs  for  the  History  of  the  Swedish 
Reformation,  v.  i.  (Handlingar  till  Svenska  Reformationens 
Historia.) 

3  Quando  dicimus  ecclesiae  pecuniam,  quid  aliud  quam 
pecuniam  populi  dicimus?     Scan.  Mem.  xvii.  206. 

*  The  document  (entitled  "  Thette  wartt  framsatt,  &c. 
This  was  explained  to  the  common  people  at  Westeras  a.  d. 
1523,  at  Martinmas,  and  may  be  promulged  in  other  places  of 
the  country,")  is  published  by  Fant :  Dissertatio  de  causis,  ob 
quas  Gustavo  I.  contra  Christiernum  II.  opitulati  fuerint 
Lubecenses,  Upsaliae,  1782.  If  we  reckon  the  Swedish  mark 
of  that  time  at  twenty  skillings  in  silver,  or  Sjrf.  (compare 
Hallenberg,  on  the  Value  of  Coins  and  Wares  in  Sweden 
under  the  reign  of  Gustavus  I.),  the  sum  above-mentioned 


on  account  of  the  expedition  to  Gottland,  for  which 
end  the  king  also  sent  his  own  plate  to  the  mint;  in 
1525  the  cavalry  were  removed  into  quarters  in  the 
convents,  and  the  chapters  were  charged  with  the 
maintenance  of  soldiers  assigned  upon  them,  the 
king  receiving  nearly  the  whole  of  the  church  tithes 
for  the  j-ear  ;  and  1526,  two-thirds  of  their  pro- 
duce, although  he  complains  that  "  from  some  con- 
cealed practice  of  the  priesthood  "  these  revenues 
had  by  no  means  equalled  his  expectations.  The 
tithes  were  to  be  applied  towards  discharging  the 
public  debt.  For  the  same  purpose  the  nobility 
and  clergy  also  granted  an  aid  in  152G  ;  the  towns 
were  taxed,  and  a  heavy  tallage  laid  over  the  whole 
kingdom,  on  such  goods  as  the  common  people 
were  best  aljle  to  spare,  "  because  at  that  time 
there  was  very  little  money  to  take  in  the  land "." 
Various  unfavourable  circumstances  made  the  pres- 
sure of  all  this  to  be  more  severely  felt.  The  tokens 
or  need-money,  called  Mippings  ^,  which  had  been 
current  at  four  times  their  worth,  were  at  once 
cancelled  in  1524,  instead  of  being  reduced  to  their 
real  value.  Misunderstandings  with  the  Hanse 
Towns,  combined  with  the  piracies  of  Norby,  cut 
off  all  importation  of  foreign  goods,  by  which  the 
price  of  salt  was  so  much  enhanced  that  the  poorer 
classes  were  compelled  to  boil  sea  water '  ;  and 
when  this  want  was  supplied  by  means  of  a  com- 
mercial treaty  which  the  king  concluded  with  the 
Netherlands,  a  grievous  dearth  took  place  in  1527 
and  1528.  Next  year  the  kingdom  was  ravaged 
by  that  wasting  epidemic  which  i-eceived  the  name 
of  the  English  or  cold  sweat.  Upon  the  famine  the 
chronicles  remark,  that  "the  people  had  nothing 
for  bread  but  bark-cakes,  and  any  one  who  was 
able  to  buy  chaff  or  mash,  looked  upon  himself  as 

will  amount  to  400,000  silver  rix-dollars  (which,  taking  the 
rix  dollar  at  Is.  8rf.  is  £3.'i,333  of  the  present  English  money, 
an  enormous  sum  for  Sweden  in  that  day.     T.). 

'■>  Tegel.  Sartorius,  History  of  the  Hanseatic  League  iii. 
159.  The  Lubeckers  demanded  two  marks  Swedish  for  one 
of  Lubeck,  to  which  Gustavus  would  not  consent.  (The 
Lubeck  mark  is  H§rf.,  so  that  they  would  have  made  a  good 
bargain;  77,290  Lubeck  marks  make  about  £4,720.     T.) 

6  Nine  guilders  were  equal  to  about  eight  rix-dollars 
(200,000  guilders  would  thus  be  nearly  £15,000). 

7  Loquutus  sum  majestati  suae  de  gravamine  ecclesiaruni, 
&c. ;  respondit  profusis  lacrymis,  quod  nulli  mortalium  plus 
displicere  possit  eadem  exactio  quam  sibi,  et  quod  eam  ne- 
cessitas  et  nulla  voluntas  majestati  suae  imperaret.  Jo- 
hannes Magnus,  letter  to  bishop  Brask,  August  1,  1523; 
Scan.  Mem.  xvii.  157.  The  archbishop  no  doubt  set  down 
the  king's  tears  to  the  account  of  his  own  eloquence,  for  to 
bishop  Brask  Gustavus  holds  on  the  same  subject  language 
which  is  not  at  all  that  of  lamentation  :  "This  does  every 
honest  man's  conscience  tell  him,  that  in  a  time  of  public 
strait,  when  such  burdens  are  imposed  on  the  kingdom,  all 
must  help  to  bear  them  ;  both  churches,  convents,  monks, 
and  preachers,  specially  when  nothing  else  will  suffice." 
Scan.  Mem.  xiv.  50. 

s  See  Stiernman,  Resolutions  of  Diets  and  Meetings,  v.  i. 
under  all  the  above  named  years. 

9  The  klipping  of  Gustavus  had  passed  for  eighteen  so- 
called  pennings,  equal  to  three  skillings  five  rundstycks 
(about  IJd);  its  real  value  was  nine  rundstycks  (-^rf.).  The 
churches  had  been  obliged  to  surrender  their  money  for 
klippings. 

'  Circular  of  the  king  to  the  country  and  the  towns,  April 
20,  1526,  that  "ships  of  Holland  had  arrived  at  Stockholm 
with  salt,  cloth,  wine,  and  other  wares  ;  wherefore  the  people 
should  be  of  good  heart,  seeing  that  the  dear  time  would 
gradually  cease."     Registry  of  the  Archives. 


Hi 


Anabaptist  riots  in 
Stockholm. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


New  bishops. 
Their  intrigues 


[1524— 


very  fortunate.  In  Roslagen,  as  well  as  every 
where  in  the  islets,  numbers  of  men  and  cattle 
perished  with  hunger.  The  king  indeed  caused 
sevei'al  thousand  lasts  of  grain  to  be  imported  from 
Livonia,  and  sold  it  in  the  hundreds  and  parishes  at 
a  mark  to  the  tun  2,  with  careful  precautions  that 
the  price  should  not  be  raised  to  the  poor  ;  but  the 
people  were  so  badly  disposed  and  unthankful,  that 
they  gave  no  thanks  to  the  king  for  this,  but  called 
him  the  hunger  and  the  bark-king." 

The  priests  represented  the  dearth  as  a  punish- 
ment from  Heaven  on  account  of  their  heretical 
sovereign  ;  and  Gustavus  had  to  curb  both  their 
disaffection,  and  the  exaggerations  of  the  preachers 
of  the  new  doctrines.  In  Stockholm,  where  the 
German  burghers  took  an  eager  part  in  the  fluctu- 
ating opinions  of  that  time,  the  king,  on  his  return 
fi'om  the  conference  of  Malmoe  ui  the  autumn  of 
1524,  found  the  whole  town  thrown  into  commotion 
by  two  anabaptists  who  had  recently  arrived  ;  Knip- 
perdolling,  afterwards  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
sanguinary  fanatics  of  Munster,  where  his  boues 
are  still  kept  in  an  iron  cage  in  the  church-tower, 
and  Melchior  Rink.  These  men  had  found  fol- 
lowers, and  possessing  themselves  of  the  church  of 
St.  John,  they  preached  on  the  book  of  Revelation, 
stormed  the  churches  and  monasteries,  and  threw 
theu*  broken  images  and  ornaments  upon  the  streets 
and  market-places.  Even  Olave  Peterson  was  put 
to  silence  by  this  ;  the  king  rebuked  him  sharply 
for  his  negligence,  and  banished  the  authors  of  the 
disturbances  from  the  country.  But  these  scenes 
gave  general  scandal,  which  was  increased  by  the 
behaviour  of  many  of  the  new  preachers  ;  whence 
the  king,  who  was  now  riding  his  Ericsgait,  re- 
proachfully upbraided  them,  "  as  acting  with  great 
indiscretion,  not  having  the  right  understanding  or 
way  to  lead  the  people  to  the  knowledge  of  God's 
word,"  and  "  as  leadmg  many  of  them  an  evil  and 
vicious  hfe."  He  sought  to  appease  the  people  by 
every  method,  assuring  them,  that  he  by  no  means 
intended  the  introduction  of  a  new  faith  ^,  but  only 
the  correction  of  abuses. 

More  than  one  of  the  Union  kings  had  lost  his 
throne  for  less.  It  was  not  without  wonder  that 
the  Swedes  of  this  day  learned,  that  in  Gustavus 

2  After  1527  the  coinage  was  so  depreciated,  that  three 
marks  answered  to  one  silver  rix-doUar  (thus  making  the 
mark  a  trifle  more  than  GJrf).  Hallenberg  1.  c.  112.  (The 
tun  contains  4J  Winchester  bushels  1  about  20  tuns  go  to  a 
last.) 

3  Asanexampleof  the  light  in  which  Gustavus  represented 
the  matter  to  the  people,  his  letter  to  the  Helsingers  in  1526 
may  be  quoted.  "  Certain  monks  and  priests,"  he  writes, 
"  have  broii<jht  us  into  scandal ;  chiefly  for  that  we  blame  their 
irregularities."  Among  these  the  king  reckons,  that  if  a  man 
owes  them  anything,  they  refuse  him  the  sacrament,  instead 
of  pursuing  their  demand  by  law  ;  that  if  a  poor  man  on  a 
holiday  kills  a  bird,  or  draws  himself  a  plate  offish  from  the 
stream,  he  is  forthwith  obliged  to  pay  a  line  to  the  bishop 
and  the  provost  for  sabbath-breaking ;  that  the  laymen  have 
not  the  same  rights  against  the  priests  as  these  have  against 
the  former;  that  the  bishops  took  the  inheritance  of  priests 
dying  intestate,  passing  over  their  heirs  ;  that  the  clergy  have 
fraudulently  possessed  tliemselves  of  much  of  the  crown  pro- 
perty, and  embezzle  the  king's  proportion  of  judicial  fines. 
"  When  they  perceive  that  we  look  to  the  interest  of  the 
crown,  which  is  incumbent  on  us  by  reason  of  our  kingly 
office,  they  straightway  declare  that  we  wish  to  bring  in  a 
new  faith,  and  Luther's  doctrine ;  whereas  the  matter  is  no 
otherwise  than  as  ye  have  now  heard,  that  we  will  not  per- 


Vasa,  Sweden  had  found,  not  merely  a  liberator, 
but  a  master,  for  men  htid  been  long  accustomed  to 
revolutions.  "  The  humours  of  the  common  people 
are  wont  with  us  lightly  to  change  *,"  wrote  the 
wary  bishop  Brask  in  confidence,  to  a  colleague  at 
the  elective  diet  of  Strengness  in  1523,  from  which, 
to  the  dissatisfaction  of  both  the  king  and  the 
council,  he  absented  himself,  sending  his  chancellor 
in  his  place,  with  an  exhortation  to  give  good  heed 
to  what  he  set  his  seal.  Gustavus  was  soon  to  ex- 
perience the  truth  of  the  prediction  ;  and  the  first 
revolt  against  him  was  an  attempt  again  to  upraise 
the  house  of  Sture,  wliich  was  highly  honom-ed  and 
beloved  throughout  the  whole  kingdom. 

Proof  of  these  intrigues  Gustavus  obtained  ere 
three  months  had  passed  over  since  his  election, 
and  two  of  his  new  bishops  stood  at  their  head.  It 
was  doubtless  a  fortunate  circumstance  for  his  im- 
pending blow  to  the  hierarchy,  that  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  reign  all  the  bishoprics,  with  the 
exception  of  two,  were  vacant  ^.  But  he  deceived 
himself  if  he  counted  on  the  devotion  of  the  new 
men  with  whom,  through  his  own  influence,  the 
sees  were  filled.  They  all,  sooner  or  later,  became 
his  enemies.  Peter  Jacobson,  commonly  called 
Sunnanvteder  ^,  who  had  been  chancellor  to  the 
admiiiisti'ator  Steno  Sture  the  younger,  was  chosen 
bishop  of  Westeras.  The  election  had  proceeded 
"  upon  deliberation  by  the  Dalesmen'',"  as  he  him- 
self mentions  ;  and  in  the  first  year  of  his  episco- 
pate, he  vv'as  detected  in  seditious  practices  among 
them,  as  Gustavus  proved  by  his  own  letters, 
which  were  produced  before  the  chapter  of  Wes- 
teras. He  was  deprived  of  his  office,  and  the  same 
punishment  overtook  the  newly  elected  archbishop, 
master  Canute,  provost  of  the  chapter,  who  ap- 
peared as  his  defender.  They  fled  to  Dalecarlia 
and  stirred  up  the  Dalesmen,  who  wrote  to  Gus- 
tavus ;  "  that  they  could  by  uo  means  suffer  that 
he  should  impose  more  taxes  in  money  on  churches, 
convents,  priests,  monks,  the  men  of  the  trading 
towns,  or  the  commonalty  of  Sweden ;"  they  re- 
nounced fealty  and  obedience  to  him,  if  he  would 
not  lower  prices  in  the  kingdom,  expel  foreigners 
from  the  council  ^,  and  clear  himself  from  the 
charges  of  having  thrown  Christina  Gyllenstierna 

mit  them  to  give  loose  to  their  avarice  contrary  to  law." 
Registry  of  the  Archives 

•*  Sententia  vulgi  nostri  facile  solet  variari.  Ha;c  fiducia- 
liter  vobis  scribimus.  Letter  of  Brask  to  the  bishop  elect  of 
Skara.  Scan.  Mem.  xvii  131.  It  was  not  till  later  in  the 
year  that  Brask  renounced  all  communion  with  the  fugitive 
archbishop  Gustavus  Trolle,  to  whom  he  had  recommended 
himself  before  the  latter's  departure :  rebus  regni  tunc  in  eo 
statu  existeiitibus,  ut  diflficillimura  videretur  regem  Chris- 
tianum  dejici  posse.  Brask  to  Gustave  TroUe,  October  18, 
1523,  1.  c.  171. 

^  Upsala,  Strengness,  Westeras,  Skara,  Abo.  Of  the  old 
prelates  there  remained  bishop  Ingemar  of  Wexio,  compliant 
and  enfeebled  by  age,  and  Brask  of  Linkoping,  the  only  one 
who  was  eflScit-nt. 

^  Lit.  Southwind. 

7  Maluro  Vallensium  consilio.  Letter  to  bishop  Brask, 
Scan.  Mem.  xvii.  123.  This  was  according  to  the  privileges 
then  claimed  by  the  Dalesmen,  of  which  more  hereafter. 

8  "  Ma.'lers,  trolls  (goblins),  and  devils,  who  lay  their  heads 
together  to  prey  upon  the  common  people."  Letter  and  Re- 
monstrance of  the  Dalesmen,  Registry  of  the  Archives,  1524. 
By  the  two  first  words  they  mean  Bernard  of  Melen,  and 
Gustave  Trolle,  on  whose  alliance  with  the  king  untrue  ru- 
mours were  spread  abroad. 


1543.] 


Plots  for  the  house 
of  Sture. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  REFORMATION. 


Punishment  of  the- 
bishops. 


113 


into  prison,  and  made  away  with  or  banished  her 
son  Nicholas  Sture'. 

This  liappened  at  the  very  time  when  Gustavus 
had  procured  the  release  of  Sture's  widow  from  a 
Danish  prison.  Cliristina  Gyllenstieriia  met  at 
Calmar  her  eldest  son  Nicholas  Sture',  who  was 
now  in  his  twelfth  year,  and  had  lately  returned 
from  Dantzic,  whither  he  had  been  sent  in  1520, 
to  escape  the  persecutions  of  Christian.  Bernard 
of  Melen  sought  by  detaining  young  Sture  hi  his 
charge,  to  give  a  colour  to  his  own  defection,  and 
left  a  servant  of  the  house  of  Sture'  in  command  of 
the  castle  of  Calmar  '.  Rumours  were  soon  si)read 
both  in  and  out  of  Sweden,  that  Severin  Norby 
was  aiming  at  the  hand  of  Christina  Gyllenstierna, 
and  through  her,  at  the  government  of  Sweden  *. 
Gustavus  publicly  alludes  to  this  report  as  the 
loose  talk  of  the  common  people,  which  was  cir- 
culated by  mischievous  intriguers  2.  He  secretly 
suspected  Christina  Gyllenstierna  of  participating 
in  this  design  ^.  She  herself  denied  that  Norby, 
although  she  had  given  him  hopes,  ever  received 
her  plighted  troth  *,  and  allowed  the  king  to  choose 
for  her  another  husband.  Gustavus  received  the 
young  Nicholas  Sture  into  his  court,  and  sent  him 
in  the  spring  to  his  mother,  but  he  died  in  the 
summer  of  the  same  year  at  Upsala  ^.  The  king 
was  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  this  youth.  A 
report  was  spread  by  traitorously  inclined  persons, 
that  he  had  fled  to  save  his  life,  and  we  shall  soon 
see  a  false  Sture  appearmg  under  his  name  in 
Dalecarlia. 

Irreconcilable  interests  had  combmed  in  these 
plots,  which  had  the  double  object  of  elevating  to 
power  the  liouse  of  Stur^,  and  of  restoring  king 
Christian.  That  the  latter  entered  into  Norby's 
intentions,  we  learn  from  a  written  promise  of  the 
fugitive  prince,  by  which  ho  engaged  "  that  if  lord 
Severin  should  marry  the  lady  Christina,  and  there- 
by come  into  the  government  of  Sweden,  he  should 
hold  the  kingdom  absolutely  as  the  king's  lieu- 
tenant for  a  yearly  tribute  "."  Christian  moreover 
issued  a  public   letter,   purporting    that  he  had 

9  Bishop  Brask  writes  to  Thure  Jenson,  that  Bernard  of 
Melen  had  named  Henry  the  Jute,  who  had  been  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Christina  Gyllenstierna,  to  be  captain  of  the  castle, 
and  that  the  latter  had  with  him  Nicholas  Sture,  which  caused 
much  blame  to  be  cast  upon  the  lady  Christina.  Scan.  Mem. 
xiv.  63,  Gi. 

■  A  letter  from  Mecklenburg  in  the  Archives  of  Christian 
II.  (without  name  of  writer  or  date)  mentions  that  Severin 
Norby  will  w-ed  Steno  Sture's  widow,  and  receive  with  her 
the  whole  kingdom  of  Sweden. 

2  Letter  to  the  nobility  and  commonalty  of  Smaland,  25th 
March,  1525.     Scan.  Mem.  xiv.  44. 

3  Gustavus  writes  to  bishop  Brask,  that  Severin  Norby  had 
sent  messages  to  Lady  Christina,  proposing  marriage,  by 
which  she  and  her  children  might  arrive  at  the  government, 
"  into  which  indiscretion  she  had  allowed  herself  to  be  mis- 
led ;"  1.  c.  32  ;  and  to  Magnus  Brynteson  (Liliehok),  com- 
mander at  Elfsborg,  on  February  15,  1525,  that  mischievous 
intrigues  had  been  set  on  foot,  especially  by  the  lady  Chris- 
tina and  her  party,  for  the  discovery  of  which  the  king  begs 
him  to  employ  his  spies,  both  within  and  without  the  king- 
dom.    Registry  of  the  Archives. 

■>  In  a  letter  of  December  29,  1526  (quoted  by  Hvitfeld  in 
his  History  of  Frederic  I.),  she  begs  that  influence  may  be 
used  to  induce  Norby  to  desist  from  such  discourse.  She  had 
indeed  written  to  him  that  she  would  prefer  him  to  every 
other  suitor,  if  she  should  ever  contract  another  marriage, 
and  had  presented  him  with  a  ring,  but  had  never  given  him 


transferred  his  power  to  Norby  until  he  should 
himself  return  to  his  dominions'.  Norby,  who 
still  remained  in  Gottland,  made  a  descent  there- 
from upon  Scania  in  the  spring  of  1525,  where 
both  the  country  and  towns,  excepting  Malmce, 
again  did  homage  to  Christian.  At  the  same  time 
the  factious  bishops  attempted  to  induce  the  Dales- 
men to  march  against  Gustavus  s.  Letters  forged 
ui  their  name,  with  false  accounts  of  insurrectionary 
movements,  and  exhortations  to  a  general  rising, 
were  circulated  throughout  the  kingdom  about 
Easter.  Not  finding,  however,  the  support  on 
which  they  liad  counted,  the  prelates  fled  from 
Dalecarlia  into  Norway,  whence  upon  the  demand 
of  Gustavus  they  were  sent  back  under  a  promise 
of  safe-conduct  on  his  side  9 :  yet  with  the  con- 
dition that  "  they  should  abide  the  sentence  of 
their  legitimate  judges,  and  sufffer  and  make  atone- 
ment as  the  award  should  direct."  Olave,  arch- 
bishop of  Drontheim,  seeing  himself  obliged  to 
deliver  up  the  fugitives,  declared  in  his  letter  to 
the  king  that"  their  legitimate  judges"  were  "  the 
prelates  of  the  Church,  seeing  that  the  accused 
were  men  of  the  priestly  order  i."  But  this  was 
far  from  being  the  opinion  of  Gustavus.  He  caused 
them  both  to  be  tried  by  the  council  as  traitors, 
without  regard  to  the  protest  of  the  bishops  who 
were  present,  and  of  the  chapter  of  Upsala,  and 
inflicted  the  pmiishment  to  which  they  were  con- 
demned, in  spite  of  every  intercession*.  Pre- 
viously to  their  execution,  they  were  subjected  to 
contumelies  which  cannot  be  vindicated,  although 
the  object  doubtless  was  to  show  how  little  eccle- 
siastical dignity  would  protect  the  guilty.  Clad  in 
tattered  vestments,  and  sitting  backwards  on 
starveling  jades,  the  off'enders  were  led  into  Stock- 
holm, the  one  with  a  crown  of  straw,  the  other 
with  an  episcopal  mitre  of  birch-rind  on  his 
head.  Mountebanks  in  antick  dresses  encom- 
passed them,  who  bawled,  "  Here  comes  the  new 
king,  lord  Peter  Sunnanv£eder."  In  this  fashion 
they  made  the  circuit  of  the  town,  and  were  forced 
at  last  to  drink  fellowship  with  the  hangman  ^. 

her  promise.  At  Christmastide,  1526,  the  king  betrothed 
her  to  John  Thureson  (Roos),  son  of  the  high  steward  Thure 
Jenson. 

5  "  We  send  to  you,  according  to  your  request,  your  son 
Nils,  well  perceiving  that  he  can  have  little  fruit  of  instruc- 
tion or  good  manners  with  us,  where  he  gives  small  heed  to 
his  service,  and  shows  no  will  or  liking  to  be  at  hand  where 
we  are,  but  rather  shuns  us  and  holds  himself  apart  where 
it  is  possible  for  him,  though  this  be  very  displeasing  to  us, 
and  we  have  chastised  him  for  it  with  words  and  meet  cor- 
rection. Seemeth  to  us  therefore  advisable  that  jou  should 
send  him  for  some  time  to  another  place,  where  he  may  more 
invprove  himself,  not  spending  his  time  unprofitably."  Letter 
from  the  king  to  Lady  Christina  by  Nils  Stenson.  Grips 
holm,  April  1,  1527.     Reg.  of  the  Archives. 

6  Articles  for  Severin  Norby  by  Roloff  Matson,  March  20, 
1525,  in  the  Archives  of  Christian  II. 

7  The  letter,  which  was  intercepted,  may  be  read  in  Hvit- 
feld's  History  of  Frederic  I. 

8  Confession  of  Peter  Grym.     Troil,  Memoirs,  ii.  282. 

9  See  the  letter  of  safe-conduct  in  Tegel. 

1  Letter  of  the  archbishop  to  the  king,  dated  Nidaros, 
July  5,  1526.     Registry  of  the  Archives. 

■■*  "  Theretohis  grace  made  answer,  that  such  matters  could 
not  be  so  easily  passed  over."  Minute-book  of  the  town  of 
Stockholm.     Troil,  Memoirs,  ii.  269. 

3  This  took  place  in  the  autumn  of  1 520,  when  the  sentence 
had  been  passed  on  Master  Canute,  but  not  on  Peter  Sun- 

I 


114 


Gustavus  and  bishop 
Biask. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWP^DES. 


Assumes  supremacy  in 
the  cliurcli. 


[1524- 


Meii  now  began  to  be  aware  with  whom  they  had 
to  do  ;  but  they  scarcely  yet  comprehended  the  full 
measure  of  that  intrepidity  which  in  Gustavus  was 
usually  evolved  stroke  by  stroke,  as  the  resistance 
oftered  and  the  circumstances  of  the  case  demanded, 
from  a  beginning  that  was  apparently  tranquil  and 
even  compliant.  For  such  al way  was  his  commence- 
ment, unless  urgent  necessity  prescribed  a  differ- 
ent line,  and  he  ever  went  greater  lengths  than 
even  his  opponents  expected.  Signs  like  these  an- 
nounce to  us  the  soul  which  teems  with  a  future 
yet  unrevealed.  Those  who  wish  to  study  his 
character  in  this  phase  from  its  earliest  disclosure, 
may  be  referred  to  the  correspondence  with  bishop 
Brask,  as  one  of  the  main  sources  for  the  history  of 
the  first  year  of  his  reign.  This  prelate  was  beyond 
comparison  the  most  influential,  as  well  as  the  most 
sagacious  and  best  informed  man  of  his  day  in  Swe- 
den *  ;  in  his  way  the  upright  friend  of  his  country, 
for  whose  economic  prosperity  he  formed  projects 
which  Gustavus  himself,  and  subsequently  others 
of  Sweden's  distinguished  men,  again  revived  ^  ;  a 
friend  too  of  Swedish  liberty,  as  he  himself  under- 
stood it,  and  as  he  explains  it  in  letters  to  his  friend 
Thure'  Jenson,  "  that  the  freedom  of  the  realm 
depended  on  the  church  and  the  baronage  "  ;"  for 
which  reason  he  opposed,  and  afterwards  censured, 
the  government  of  the  Sturfe '.  He  treated  the 
young  king  from  the  beginning  with  a  kind  of 
fatherly  superiority,  styling  him  administrator  and 
"  dear  Gustavus,"  and  accepting  in  return  the  title 
of  "  gracious  lord."  Shortly  after  the  royal  elec- 
tion, he  obtained  a  confirmation  of  all  the  privileges 
of  his  bishopric  and  church  *.  But  he  was  soon 
destined  himself  to  feel  the  force  of  the  king's  say- 
ing to  the  last  catholic  archbishop,  Joannes  Mag- 
nus,— "  Thy  grace  and  our  grace  have  not  room 
beneath  one  roof  '."  With  the  aggressions  of  Gus- 
tavus on  the  clergy  began  the  prelate's  opposition  ; 
and  with  every  impediment  thrown  in  his  way,  the 
king  went  one  step  farther,  as  if  he  were  bent  on 
reducing  his  most  powerful  adversary  to  extremi- 
ties, so  that  the  latter  at  length  determined,  after 

jianvaader;  they  were  sentenced  to  be  beheaded  and  broken 
on  the  wheel,  and  were  accordingly  executed  in  February, 
1527,  the  former  in  Stockholm,  the  latter  in  Upsala. 

*  Doctor  Peter  Bennetson,  who  travelled  abroad  in  1529, 
received  a  commission  from  Brask  to  send  into  the  country 
glaziers  and  paper-makers,  "to  get  knowledge  of  water- 
hammers  both  for  copper  and  iron,"  and  also  "  to  learn  to  work 
in  a  laboratory,"  as  the  bishop  meant  to  establish  one.  He 
was  likewise  charged  to  buy  for  the  latter  not  only  breviaries 
and  mass-books,  but  also  the  latest  juridical  writings  and 
works  of  the  Italian  poets,  seeing  that  "  there  were  always 
on  sale  in  the  city  of  Rome  many  Italian  treatises  in  rhyme, 
as  for  instance  '  Inamoramentum  Karoli  Magni,  Inamora- 
mentum  Renoldi  vel  Orlandi,'  &c."     Scan.  Mem.  xiii.  114. 

'  Brask,  in  a  letter  to  Thure  Jenson  of  the  year  1526  (com- 
pare Linkiiping's  Biblioth.  Handl.  i.  191),  was  the  first  to 
propose  that  connection  of  the  Baltic  with  the  North  Sea, 
which  has  been  effected  jn  our  own  days  by  the  Giita  canal. 

'  Scan.  Mem.  xiii.  120. 

7  He  imputed  to  Steno  Sture  the  elder  the  disturbances 
which  had  vexed  the  kingdom  for  so  many  years  (id.  xiv.  47), 
and  had  claims  against  Steno  the  younger,  which  were  first 
adjusted  by  an  agreement  with  his  widow. 

8  Confirmatio  d.  Gostavi  regis  electi  privilegiorura  domini 
Lincopensis  et  ecclesise  ibidem  d.  18  Oct.  1523.  1.  c.  xvii.  170. 

9  So  Gustavus  is  said  to  have  answered  when  the  arch- 
bishop thus  pledged  him  at  a  banquet  in  Upsala,  "  Our  grace 
drinks  to  your  grace."  (Rhyzelius,  Bishop's  Chronicle.)  The 
weak  Joannes  Magnus  had  come  as  papal  legate  to  Sweden, 


the  example  of  Joannes  Magnus,  to  quit  the  king- 
dom. But  he  was  first  to  see  the  hierarchy  of 
Sweden  completely  overthrown.  Presages  of  its 
downfall  were  already  fast  accumulating. 

Olave  Peterson,  although  a  priest,  entered  into 
wedlock  at  Stockholm  in  1525.  "  He  will  defend 
this  by  God's  law,"  writes  the  king  to  bishop  Brask. 
Accordingly,  he  vindicated  his  conduct  in  a  pub- 
lished tract  1  ;  nor  did  his  example  want  imitators 
in  the  order  to  which  he  belonged.  In  the  capital 
the  Latin  mass  was  abolished  by  a  resolution  of  the 
magistrates.  At  the  fair  of  St.  Eric's  day,  1526, 
Gustavus  himself,  sitting  on  hoi'seback  on  one  of 
the  barrows  of  Upsala,  discoursed  to  the  people 
who  stood  round,  on  the  uselessness  of  the  Latin 
service  and  the  monastic  life  2.  Then  repairing  to 
the  chapter,  he  demanded  of  them,  "  by  what  right 
the  church  held  temporal  power,  and  whether  any 
ground  for  its  privileges  was  to  be  found  in  Holy 
Scripture  ;" — the  New  Testament,  translated  by 
Laurence  Anderson,  having  been  printed  this  year 
at  the  king's  instance.  On  the  other  hand,  he  con- 
firmed the  privileges  of  knighthood  and  nobility  at 
a  baronial  diet  held  in  Vadstena.  He  now  sought 
to  acquire  .an  ally  against  the  church,  and  showed 
the  nobility  what  they  might  gain  by  the  reduction 
of  the  conventual  estates,  prefeiTing  himself,  be- 
fore the  council,  a  claim  to  the  monastery  of  Grips- 
holm,  as  heir  of  its  founder,  Steno  Sture  the  elder. 
His  allegation  was,  that  the  consent  which  his  father 
gave  to  its  foundation  had  been  extorted.  Shortly 
afterwards,  grounding  himself  on  the  voluntary 
cession  of  the  monks,  he  sequestrated  the  convent 
without  waiting  for  the  declaration  of  the  council. 
An  explanatory  letter  was  issued  to  all  the  pro- 
vinces, intended,  in  his  own  words,  to  obviate  evil 
reports,  for  which  end  the  transaction  is  I'epre- 
sented  almost  as  an  instance  of  the  royal  gene- 
rosity^. At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  bishop 
Brask  *,  who  had  undertaken  to  make  an  inventory 
of  the  appurtenances  of  Nydala  Abbey,  "  that  he, 
the  king,  would  himself  take  order  regarding  the 

and  as  such  was  reverently  received  by  the  king ;  but  he  was 
induced,  by  views  upon  the  archiepiscopal  chair,  to  treat  the 
new  doctrines  with  great  mildness.  Incited  by  Brask,  he 
attempted  afterwards  to  show  his  power,  but  with  such  in- 
discretion that  he  was  deprived,  and  obliged  to  quit  Sweden 
in  the  autumn  of  1526,  under  the  semblance  of  a  legation  to 
Poland.  The  same  year  Brask  also  seems  to  have  resolved 
upon  flight ;  for  he  twice  requested,  though  vainly,  the  king's 
consent  to  his  visitation  of  Gottland,  a  pretext  on  which  he 
actually  left  the  kingdom  in  the  following  year. 

'  Een  liten  undervisning  om  echtenskapet,  &'c.  A  short 
treatise  of  marriage,  in  whom  it  is  commendable  or  not. 
Stockholm,  1528. 

2  The  peasants  called  that  they  would  keep  their  monks, 
and  not  allow  them  to  be  driven  out,  but  would  themselves 
feed  and  fodder  them.    Tegel. 

3  In  the  letter  of  the  monks  on  this  afljiiir,  circulated  at 
the  same  time  with  that  of  the  king,  they  say  that  they  had 
solicited  the  consent  of  his  grace  to  their  repairing  every  man 
to  his  own  friends,  which  he  had  been  graciously  pleased  to 
permit,  and  had  distributed  to  them  in  addition  clothes  and 
money  to  a  great  sum,  for  which  he  had  taken  into  his  own 
hands,  by  way  of  indemnification,  all  the  estates  of  the  mo- 
nastery. In  this  way  the  king  obtained  even  those  to  which 
he  could  not  lay  any  hereditary  claim.  These  are  doubtless 
what  the  king  means  by  the  "estates  which  had  fallen  in 
along  with  the  others,  and  are  not  our  own,"  in  a  letter  lo  the 
council,  to  whom  he  refers  this  matter.  Register  in  the  Ar 
chives  for  1526. 

■>  August  29,  1526. 


1543.J 


Tlie  false  Sture. 
His  impostures. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.  THE  REFORMATION. 


Rebellion  in  the 
Dales. 


115 


monasterie.s,"  which  was  indeed  performed  in  such 
a  fasliion  that  one  after  the  other  was  brought  under 
his  own  management.  The  secular  fiefs  of  the 
bishops  were  confiscated ',  and  the  fines  at  law  due 
to  tliem  were  collected  by  the  king's  bailiffs,  all 
complaints  on  this  head  being  set  at  nought.  No 
further  regard  was  paid  to  the  spiritual  juris- 
diction ;  on  the  contrary,  the  king  adjudicated  even 
in  ecclesiastical  causes,  gave  to  monks  and  nuns 
who  wished  to  quit  their  convents  letters  of  pro- 
tection ^,  and  declared  excommunications  invalid  '. 
He  appointed  and  deposed  priests  by  his  own 
authority,  and  assumed  the  episcopal  right  of 
taking  the  effects  of  those  who  died  intestate,  doing 
this  even  in  some  cases  where  the  parties  had  left 
a  will  *,  and  sharing  their  revenues  with  them  at 
his  good  pleasure. 

The  king  was  encompassed  by  revolt  when  he 
embarked  in  these  proceedings.  In  the  autumn  of 
1525,  after  their  defection  with  the  prelates  above- 
named,  the  Dalesmen  had  concluded  an  agreement 
with  Gustavus  at  the  provincial  diet  of  Tuna,  which 
he  attended  in  person  ;  but  this  was  of  no  long 
duration.  In  the  very  next  year  they  refused  to 
pay  the  taxes  imposed  for  the  discharge  of  the  pub- 
lic debt,  as  being  unauthorized  by  law  ^  ;  and  all 
Norrland  adopted  a  similar  determination.  At  the 
commencement  of  1527,  consequently  six  months 
before  the  death  of  the  youth  Nicholas  Sture,  an 
impostor,  bearing  his  name,  appeared  in  the  more 
remote  parishes  of  Daleearlia.  This  person  fled, 
he  pretended,  before  the  fiice  of  a  heretical  and 
godless  king,  who  would  not  suffer  the  rightful  heir 
of  the  realm  to  remain  at  the  court,  drawing  a 
sword  against  his  bosom  wherever  they  might 
meet,  and  continually  thirsting  for  his  blood.  The 
false  Sture  was  a  peasant  lad  from  the  pai-ish  of 
Biorksta  in  Westmanland,  the  illegitimate  son  of  a 
cotter  woman,  considerably  older  than  the  object 
of  liis  personation,  yet  of  delicate  and  fair  aspect, 

5  Bishop  Brask  lost  the  hundreds  of  GiiUberg,  Boberg,  and 
Aska.  See  his  correspondence,  which  also  contains  the 
proofs  of  the  following  statements. 

6  Letter  of  protection  for  a  monk  of  the  Franciscan  monas- 
tery at  Arboga,"'  who  wishes  for  reasonable  cause  to  quit  his 
convent  and  order."  December  27,  1526.  Register  in  the 
Archives. 

^  Thus  the  king  rescinded  Brask's  interdict  against  the 
marriage  of  Olave  Tyste,  a  noble  of  East-Gothland,  which 
the  parents  attempted  to  hinder  by  placing  the  bride,  against 
her  will,  in  the  convent  of  Vadstena. 

8  The  priest  in  the  parish  of  Munktorp,  in  the  diocese  of 
Westeras,  had  died.  The  king  orders  Benuet  the  Westgoth, 
his  bailiff  in  Westeras,  to  see  that  the  successor  to  the  bene- 
fice, Master  Lars,  sends  him  the  silver  tankards  of  tlie  de- 
ceased, and  keeps  his  horse  for  the  king's  use  ;  also  that  the 
king  should  get  his  share  of  the  rest  of  the  silver  ;  yet  the 
successor  might  retain  some  of  it,  "  that  he  might  not  be 
quite  foredone."  Reg.  in  the  Archives,  1525.  At  Abo, 
Master  Jacob,  the  provost  of  the  chapter,  died,  and  be- 
queathed by  will  a  large  sum  of  money.  The  king  exhorts 
the  chapter,  Aug.  23,  1526,  "  every  man  carefully  to  consider 
whether  that  money  could  not  have  been  better  applied  than 
Master  Jacob  had  applied  it  ?"  whence  he  enjoins  them  to 
modify  the  disposition  of  it  so,  that  when  the  heirs  and  the 
poor  had  obtained  their  share,  the  rest  might  be  employed 
for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt.  They  are  reprimanded 
for  having  chosen  a  successor  without  inquiring  the  king's 
pleasure;  yet  their  nominee  may  retain  his  place,  if  he  will 
pay  200  marks  yearly  into  the  royal  chancery.  The  king  had 
previously  caused  a  catalogue  to  be  made  out  of  the  benefices 
in  the  gift  of  the  crown  in  Finland.     By  a  letter  of  Feb.  1, 


crafty,  smooth-tongued,  (he  spoke  with  such  elo- 
quence as  to  draw  tears  from  the  Dalecarlians,)  and 
not  without  experience  of  the  world,  having  served 
in  noble  households.  He  had  been  practised  in  his 
part  by  Peter  Grym,  who  had  formerly  filled  a 
place  in  the  household  of  Steno  Sture'  the  younger, 
and  was  latterly  the  chief  confederate  of  Peter 
Suunanvseder.  This  pretender  found  many  ad- 
herents in  the  upper  Dales,  where  the  Sturd  name 
was  highly  honoured,  and  obtained  the  support  of 
the  archbishop  of  Drontheim.  He  married  a  Nor- 
wegian damsel  of  condition,  surrounded  himself  with 
a  body-guard  and  a  court,  (his  chancellor  was  a 
runaway  monk,)  coined  money,  and  was  called  the 
Dale-younker,  or  Dale-king. 

At  this  time,  when  one  or  more  provinces  rose  in 
revolt  against  the  legal  authorities,  such  affairs 
did  not  cause  great  exasperation  on  either  side.  It 
was  by  no  means  unusual  to  declare  a  willmgness  to 
open  a  negociation  for  the  adjustment  of  conditions 
of  obedience,  and  Gustavus  was  always  ready  to  con- 
sent to  such  a  proposal.  There  was  no  rebellion 
with  which  he  did  not  negociate,  and  none  which 
he  did  not  punish.  The  discussions  with  the  Dales- 
men, (whose  demands  he  heard  with  patience,  as 
for  example,  their  request  that  he  would  not  suffer 
embroidered  clothes  to  be  worn  at  his  court,  and 
that  all  those  who  ate  flesh  on  Friday  should  be 
burned  alive,)  were  protracted  throughout  a  whole 
year,  partly  on  account  of  the  tribute,  payment  of 
which  every  man  refused  >,  and  partly  on  account 
of  the  false  Sture,  who  found  support  in  the  upper 
parishes,  where  Gustavus  himself  had  first  com- 
menced his  career,  but  not  in  the  mining  districts, 
or  the  southern  portion  of  the  province.  Mean- 
while the  king  convoked  for  the  16th  of  June,  in 
Westeras,  that  diet  whose  results  were  to  be  so 
important. 

As  early  as  the  commencement  of  1527,  Gustavus 

1526,  they  were  all  taxed  at  300,  200,  or  150  marks  yearly,  if 
the  incumbent  preserved  his  dues.     Reg.  in  the  Arch.  1526. 

9  The  king  himself  appears  to  have  had  some  doubt  on 
this  head,  as  he  writes  to  the  bailiffs  who  were  to  collect  the 
tax,  "  Ye  have  no  need  to  wonder  that  we  give  you  this  com- 
mand, seeing  that  the  council  have  so  ordained  it."  In  the 
same  letter,  however,  he  enjoins  the  bailiffs  to  use  all  their  dili- 
gence and  pains  that  the  common  people  may  be  induced  to 
consent.  It  is  generally  difficult  to  distinguish  between  the 
exhortations  and  orders  of  Gustavus,  for  he  usually  begins 
with  the  one  and  ends  with  the  other.     In  the  spring  of 

1527,  the  king  complains  in  a  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Skara, 
of  the  notion  spread  by  certain  worthless  persons,  that  "we 
were  minded  to  appropriate  the  said  tax  to  our  personal  use," 
while  he  found  himself  between  so  many  fires,  first  with  the 
Lubeckers,  if  their  demands  were  not  satisfied,  then  with 
the  Danes  and  Norwegians,  if  they  had  not  their  own  will 
with  Viken  tBohuslan) ;  lastly,  "  with  our  own  people,  who 
bring  us  into  evil  repute  by  reason  of  this  very  tax,  clamour- 
ing that  they  are  burdened  with  one  impost  after  another, 
especially  the  Dalesmen  and  Helsingers,  who  have  yet  paid 
not  a  penny,  but  hatch  one  treasonable  design  after  another, 
and  harbour  among  them  in  the  upper  country  a  notorious 
rogue  and  thief"  (the  false  Sture). 

'  In  the  letter  of  March  2,  1527,  to  the  commonalty  of  the 
Dales,  the  king  vainly  represents  that  it  was  absurd  for 
those  who  dwelt  in  Tuna  and  other  places,  where  there  was 
good  commodity  of  life  by  fields  and  meadows,  to  expect  to 
excuse  themselves  on  the  plea  of  inability,  like  those  who 
dwelt  in  Upper  Daleearlia;  "but  they  are  not  such  a  set  as 
they  call  themselves,"  he  writes  to  the  council  of  state  ;  "  it 
is  not  our  mind  that  they  should  extort  from  us  better  con- 
ditions than  others  of  the  realm."  Reg.  in  the  Archives,  1527. 
I  2 


IIG 


Diet  of  Westeras 
assembles. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Spcecli  of  tlie  high 
chancellor. 


[1521- 


intimated,  that  with  the  assistance  of  the  council 
and  the  wisest  men  of  the  reahn,  he  would  make 
inquiry  into  the  dissensions  which  had  arisen  in 
religion.  Since  his  accession,  general  or  baronial 
diets  ^  had  been  held  yearly,  often  twice  a-year,  the 
position  of  the  king  requiring  it,  although  the  fre- 
quency of  these  meetings  was  a  subject  of  com- 
plaint. They  appear  to  have  been  attended  for  the 
most  part  only  by  the  neighboui-ing  inhabitants 
and  the  councillors  resident  in  the  province  in 
which  they  convened  ;  sometimes  too  their  acts 
were  drawn  up  only  by  the  king  and  councillors. 
In  Westeras  the  numbers  of  the  assemblage  were 
for  that  day  considerable.  There  were  present 
four  bishops^,  four  prebendaries,  fifteen  lords  of 
the  council,  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  nobles, 
thirty-two  burgesses*,  fourteen  miners,  with  one 
hundred  and  five  peasants  from  all  quarters  of 
the  kingdom,  excepting  Dalecarlia  *,  from  which 
no  members  were  sent,  and  Fuiland,  whence 
none  appear  to  have  been  summoned,  although 
the  statute  of  the  diet  was  afterwards  promul- 
gated there,  as  well  as  in  the  remainder  of  the 
kingdom.  Warning  had  been  given  to  the  nobles 
that  they  should  attend  well  equipped  ;  the  king 
reckoned  upon  their  support  in  the  decisive  step 
which  he  meditated  against  the  authority  of  the 
clergy.  At  the  banquet  with  which  he  welcomed 
all  the  estates,  it  was  noticed  that  the  bisliops 
who  formerly  on  all  public  occasions  were  entitled, 
in  right  of  their  office,  to  the  highest  place,  even 
above  the  administrators,  if  there  were  no  king, 
should  now  be  seated  below  the  councillors.  On  the 
day  following,  the  prelates  met  in  the  church  of 
St.  Egidius  with  closed  doors,  and  subscribed, 
mainly  at  the  instigation  of  bishop  Brask,  an  anti- 
cipatory protest  against  all  aggressions  on  the  rights 
of  the  church.  They  concealed  this  instrument  under 
the  floor  of  the  church,  where  it  was  found  fifteen 
years  afterwards. 

The  deliberations  of  the  estates  were  held  in  the 
hall  of  the  Dominican  monastery  at  Westeras,  and 
were  opened  with  an  exposition  of  the  state  of  the 
realm,  which  was  read  by  the  chancellor  Lawrence 
Anderson.  He  reminded  them  of  all  that  the 
king  had  done  for  the  country,  and  under  what 
cii'cumstances  he  had  taken  on  himself  the  burden 
of  the  government ;  he  might  have  found  good 
reason  to  excuse  himself,  in  the  fear  that  such  a 
game  might  be  played  with  him,  as  beforetime 
with  many  others  *,  from  the  unsteady  humours 
which  possessed  the  nation  against  authority  and 
government ;  he  was  young,  and  had  given  consent 
to  that  which  afterwards  he  had  often  rued.     It 

2  Riksdag.     Herredag. 

3  Namely  Brask  of  Linkcpping,  Magnus  Haraldson  of 
Skara,  Magnus  Sommar  of  Strengness,  and  Peter  Magnuson 
of  Westeras,  the  latter  being  the  only  one  besides  Brask  who 
had  received  his  consecration,  Tyhich  was  performed  at  Rome 
by  the  king's  special  request,  after  Peter  Sunnanvaeder  had 
been  deposed.  This  Peter  Magnuson  afterwards  consecrated 
the  bishops  appointed  by  the  king.  Of  the  four  prebendaries, 
two  were  from  Upsala,  of  whicTi  the  archiepiscopal  chair  was 
vacant,  and  two  from  Vexio,  the  bishop  of  which  was  pre- 
vented by  age  from  attending. 

■•  Besides  the  representatives  of  Stockholm,  who,  singularly 
enough,  are  not  named  in  the  catalogue  in  Sliernman,  although 
they  were  present,  and  had  great  influence  with  the  diet. 

^  So  the  king  himself  complains  (letter  to  the  common 
people  of  the  Dales,  February  14,  1528,  Reg.  of  the  Arch.l. 
Deputies  were  present,  however,  from  the  district  of  the 


was  not  possible  for  him  to  rule  a  people  who, 
whensoever  the  king  wished  to  abrogate  aught 
that  was  faulty  in  the  state,  straightway  took  to 
their  pole-axes,  and  called  the  ill-disposed  to  revolt 
by  "  the  looped  and  charred  staff  of  summons '  ;" 
and  most  of  all  up  in  Dalecarlia,  where  they 
boasted  that  they  had  raised  his  grace  to  the 
throne,  although  the  Dalesmen,  after  the  victory 
at  Westeras,  which  indeed  vvas  the  beginning  of 
the  liberation,  but  far  from  its  close,  had  mostly 
gone  home.  Now  they  pretended  that  all  had  been 
wrought  by  their  hands  ;  they  would  set  in  or  out 
of  the  government  of  the  kingdom  whom  they 
listed,  and  bawled  for  more  freedom  than  other 
good  men  of  the  realm,  just  as  if  these  were  to  be 
looked  upon,  in  respect  of  themselves,  as  but  slaves 
and  bondsmen  *.  The  German  envoys  were  now 
present,  and  demanded  payment  of  their  debts  ; 
the  Dalecarlians  might  come  and  see  whether  they 
would  hold  an  insurrection  for  good  payment.  All 
was  laid  to  the  king's  charge,  both  the  dearth 
which  he  had  sought  to  mitigate  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  and  the  assessment  of  churches  and  mo- 
nasteries which  was  to  be  excused  by  the  necessity 
of  the  case  ;  although  it  was  otherwise  reasonable 
in  itself,  that  the  superfluity  which  the  commoners 
had  accumulated  should  also  be  used  for  their  re- 
quirements, and  for  the  lightening  of  theii-  burdens, 
when  need  was.  Lastly,  it  was  imputed  to  the  king 
that  he  v^'as  introducing  a  new  faith  into  the  land, 
because  he,  and  many  with  him,  had  now  learned 
to  consider  how  they  were  cozened  and  oppressed 
in  money  matters  by  the  churchmen,  who  were 
under  the  shield  of  the  Pope  in  Rome.  The  rulers 
of  this  land  had  been  long  enough  exposed  to  the 
danger  of  provoking  the  Romish  confederacy,  and 
had  been  obliged  to  endure  the  insolence  of  the 
bishops  who  revolted  and  levied  war  before  their  eyes, 
according  as  the  archbishop  Gustavus  Trolls  had 
declared  to  the  lord  Steno  Sture,  that  he  had  re- 
ceived from  his  pope  a  sharp  sword  to  bear  upright 
before  him,  and  that  he  would  use  other  weapons 
than  a  wax-candle  mthe  conflict.  The  same  admi- 
nistrator, lord  Steno  Stur^,  had  not  been  able  to 
maintain  more  than  500  soldiers  from  the  revenues 
of  the  kingdom,  because  the  crown  and  the  baron- 
age had  scarcely  the  third  part  of  that  which  was 
possessed  by  priests  and  monks,  convents  and 
churches.  The  king  acknowledged  that  he  had 
pennitted  God's  word  and  gospel  to  be  preached. 
But  he  had  caused  these  preachers  to  be  summoned 
to  defend  their  doctrine,  and  some  of  them  were 
now  present  and  ready  to  do  so.     This  however, 

Kopparberg,  and  negociators  were  afterwards  sent  by  the 
Dalesmen. 

*  "  That  the  like  Shrove-tide  mumming  might  be  tried 
with  him  as  with  many  others."  Tegel,  whom  along  with 
the  Chronicles  we  have  followed  for  this  exposition.  In  the 
king's  "  Propositions,"  Stiernman,  Resolutions  i.  57,  it  is 
stated  that  he  had  offered  so  early  as  1521,  in  tlie  congress  in 
Vadstena,  from  which  his  regency  is  usually  dated,  to  lay 
down  the  chieftaincy  (hbfwidsmansdbmet),  which  is  merely 
another  word  for  the  former ;  whence  we  see  that  he  con- 
sidered himself  as  Administrator  by  the  choice  of  the  people 
in  Upper  Sweden,  before  he  was  confirmed  in  the  office  by 
the  nobility  at  Vadstena. 

7  "  As  has  lately  happened  in  West-Gothland,"  the  king 
adds.  The  epithets  applied  to  the  statf  of  summons  have 
been  explained  in  Chapter  VII. 

8  "  Esthers  and  thralls,"  it  is  said  ;  therefore  the  name  of 
this  people  is  used  as  synonymous  with  bondmen. 


1543.] 


Disputes  between  the 
king  and  nobles. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  REFORMATION. 


His  demands 
granted. 


117 


the  prelates  of  the  Church  heeded  not,  but  wished 
to  preserve  their  old  usages,  be  they  right  or  un- 
right.  There  were  some  who  slandered  him  pub- 
licly and  shamelessly,  pretending  that  he  would 
suffer  no  priests  to  remain  in  the  country  ;  but  he 
was  minded  to  die  like  a  Christian  man,  and  knew 
that  teachers  were  indispensable.  He  would  sup- 
port them  in  all  matters  if  they  discharged  their 
duties  satisfactorily,  but  he  requested  the  ad- 
vice of  the  estates  regarding  those  who  did  not  use 
the  faculties  of  their  office  for  the  behoof  of  the 
commonalty.  He  himself  was  ready  to  abdicate 
his  dignity  in  exchange  for  a  fief  and  to  give 
them  thanks  for  the  honours  they  had  conferred  on 
him,  but  if  any  government  were  to  exist,  means 
must  be  found  for  its  sustentation,  and  now  more 
than  formerly,  if  Sweden  were  to  have  a  king. 
That  method  of  carrying  on  war  which  was  now 
used  in  other  countries,  made  greater  charges 
necessai'y  ;  the  fortresses  and  castles  of  the  king- 
dom were  dilapidated  and  in  part  destroyed  ;  the 
income  of  the  crown  was  endangered,  whilst  every 
one  wished  to  be  king  over  his  own  labourei's  ; 
and  yet  the  baronage  had  become  weaker,  so  that 
it  was  unable  to  fulfil  its  obligations  for  the  defence 
of  the  realm.  The  customs  had  sunk  to  nothing  ; 
the  mines  of  silver  and  copper  had  fallen  to  decay  ; 
the  trade  did  not  support  the  towns,  and  for  the 
little  which  yet  remained,  the  country  and  the 
towns  were  quarrelling  ;  the  yearly  outlay  of  the 
crown  now  amounted  to  two  and  a  half  times  more 
than  the  receipts  ^.  For  such  a  strait  help  was  re- 
quired, whosoever  might  bear  rule  in  the  land. 

When  this  statement  had  been  read,  the  king 
requested  an  answer  from  the  barons  and  the 
bishops.  Thure  Jenson,  the  oldest  member  of  the 
council,  who  had  been  raised  by  the  king  in  the 
preceding  year  to  be  high  steward,  called  upon 
bishop  Brask  to  speak.  The  prelate  declared  that 
he  knew  indeed  well  m  what  fealty  he  was  bound 
to  his  king  ;  yet  that  he  and  his  whole  class  were 
also  obliged  to  render  obedience  to  the  Pope  in 
spiritual  things,  and  could  not  without  his  sanction 
consent  either  to  any  alteration  of  doctrine,  or  to  a 
diminution  of  the  rights  and  property  of  the 
Church.  Had  worthless  priests  and  monks  sought 
gain  by  encouraging  superstitious  usages,  which  the 
heads  of  the  Church  themselves  disapproved,  such 
practices  might  be  abrogated  and  punished. 

The  king  inquired  of  the  council  and  the  nobility, 
whether  they  deemed  this  a  fair  answer ;  Thurd 
Jensou  declared  that  he  knew  of  none  better. 
"  Then  have  we  no  will,"  exclaimed  Gustavus, 
"  longer  to  be  your  king.  From  you  we  had  ex- 
pected another  answer,  but  now  we  cannot  wonder 
that  the  common  people  should  give  us  all  manner 
of  disobedience  and  misliking,  when  they  have  such 
ringleaders.  Get  they  not  rain,  the  fault  is  ours  ; 
if  sunshine  fail  them,  'tis  the  same  cry  ;  if  bad 
years,  hunger,  and  pest  come,  so  must  we  bear 
the  blame.  All  of  ye  will  be  our  masters  ;  monks, 
and  priests,  and  creatures  of  the  Pope,  ye  set  over 
our  heads,  and  for  all  our  toils  for  your  welfare,  we 
have  no  other  reward  to  expect,  than  that  ye  would 
gladly  see  the  axe  at  our  neck,  yet  none  of  you 
but  grasp  its  handle.  Such  guerdon  we  can  as  well 
want  as  any  of  you.     Who  would  be  your  king  on 

9  In  the    Recess   of  Westeras,   in   Stjernman,   the  king 
states  the  certain  receipts  of  the  crown  at  21,000  marks 


such  terms  ?  Not  the  worst  fiend  in  hell,  much 
less  a  man.  Therefore  look  to  it,  that  ye  release 
me  fairly  from  the  government,  and  restore  me 
that  which  I  have  disbursed  from  my  own  stock  for 
the  general  weal  ;  then  will  I  depart,  and  never  see 
again  my  ungrateful  father-land."  The  king  at  tliese 
words  burst  into  tears  and  hastily  quitted  the  hall. 

In  the  confusion  which  now  ensued  no  one 
ventured  to  speak,  much  less  to  tender  advice. 
Thure  Jenson  alone  was  bent  on  showing  his 
courage,  and  prepared  for  his  departure  with  beat 
of  drum,  aftirming  that  no  man  within  this  year 
should  turn  him  into  a  heathen,  Lutheran,  or  heretic. 
But  when  on  the  following  day  the  same  indecisi(jn 
prevailed  among  the  barons,  expressions  of  im- 
patience began  to  be  heard  from  a  number  of  the 
common  people.  If  the  matter  were  rightly  con- 
sidered, they  said,  king  Gustavus  had  reason  on 
his  side  ;  the  good  lords  might  now  make  an  end  of 
the  business,  else  would  the  peasants  take  counsel 
for  themselves.  The  tradei's  from  the  towns  were 
of  the  same  opinion  ;  the  burgesses  of  Stockholm 
cried  that  they  would  at  least  keep  the  capital  open 
to  the  king ;  and  Magnus  Sommar,  the  bishop  elect 
of  Strengness,  at  length  declared,  that  the  servants 
of  the  Church  wished  not  to  be  screened  at  the 
peril  of  ruin  to  the  whole  kingdom.  Many  thanked 
him  for  this  speech,  and  besought  the  clergy  that 
the  contested  points  of  doctrine  might  be  handled 
before  the  estates,  in  order  that  laymen  also 
might  gain  some  insight  into  them.  Olave  Peter- 
son and  doctor  Peter  Galle  thereupon  disputed 
throughout  a  whole  day,  the  latter  answering  at 
first  only  in  Latin,  till  the  people  with  threats  com- 
pelled him  to  make  use  of  his  mother-tongue.  On 
the  third  day  even  Thure'  Jenson  and  his  party 
were  obliged  to  yield,  since  the  peasants  and 
burghers  tumultuously  called,  that  they  would  go 
to  king  Gustavus,  and  with  his  help  visit  and 
destroy  them  all  if  they  would  not  give  way.  A 
deputation  was  despatched  to  the  khig,  who  mean- 
while was  taking  his  pleasure  in  the  castle  with 
his  captains  of  war.  The  chancellor  and  Olave 
Peterson  laid  before  him  the  supplication  of  the 
estates,  that  he  would  quietly  continue  in  the  go- 
vernment, and  they  would  pay  him  willing  obedi- 
ence ;  yet  Gustavus  gave  them  a  severe  answer, 
denying  their  request.  Three  times  was  the  same 
petition  cari-ied  up  by  new  commissioners,  in  the 
last  instance  falling  on  their  knees  with  tears, 
before  he  allowed  himself  to  relent.  When  he 
again,  upon  the  fourth  day,  appeared  among  the 
estates,  "  there  wanted  little,"  say  the  chronicles, 
"  for  the  common  people  to  have  kissed  his  feet ; 
although  a  great  part  of  those  who  were  there 
congregated  soon  forgot  this  transaction,  and  were 
afterwards  no  better  than  before." 

All  his  demands  were  conceded.  The  king's 
propositions  (as  the  phrase  now  is,  but  then  called 
"  framsattningar,"  while  Swedish  words  were  still 
used  for  Swedish  affaii's)  were  answered  by  each 
class  for  itself,  by  the  nobility,  the  traders,  the 
miners,  and  the  peasants,  although  their  delibera- 
tions appear  to  have  been  held  in  company.  The 
statute  which  was  the  result  of  these,  known  under 
the  title  of  the  Recess  of  Westeras,  and  dated  on 
Midsummer's  day  1527,  was  issued  in  the  name  of 

(£800)  at  the  most,  while  the  outlay  amounted  to  more  than 

60,000  marks  (£2000)  yearly. 


118 


Legislation  of  the 
diet. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Bisho|is'  castles 
sequestrated. 


[IS24— 


tlie  council  of  state,  whose  seals  wei'e  appended  to 
it,  with  those  of  the  nobility  and  of  certain  burghers 
and  miners  appointed  on  the  part  of  the  common- 
alty. The  bishops,  who  from  this  time  were  no 
longer  summoned  to  the  council,  briefly  declared, 
in  a  special  instrument,  "  that  they  were  content, 
how  rich  or  poor  soever  his  grace  would  have 
them  to  be."  The  act  of  the  council  on  the  Recess 
of  Westeras  contains,  1.  A  mutual  engagement  to 
withstand  all  attempts  at  revolt  and  to  punish 
them,  as  also  to  defend  the  present  government 
against  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic  ;  2.  A 
grant  of  power  to  the  king,  to  take  into  his  own 
hands  the  castles  and  strongholds  of  the  bishops, 
and  to  fix  their  revenues  '  as  well  as  those  of  the 
prebends  and  canonries,  to  levy  fines  hitherto  pay- 
able to  the  bishops,  and  to  regulate  the  monasteries, 
"  in  which  there  had  for  a  long  time  been  woeful 
misgovernmcnt ;''  3.  Authority  for  the  nobles  to 
resume  that  part  of  their  hereditary  property  which 
had  been  conveyed  to  churches  and  convents  since 
the  Inquisition  (rafst)  of  Charles  Canuteson  in 
1454,  if  the  heir-at-law  could  substantiate  his 
birthright  thereto,  at  the  Ting,  by  the  oaths  of 
twelve  men  2  ;  4.  Liberty  for  the  preachers  to 
proclaim  the  pure  word  of  God,  "  but  not"  the 
barons  add,  "  uncertain  miracles,  human  inven- 
tions and  fables,  as  hath  been  much  used  hereto- 
fore." Respecting  the  new  faith,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  burghers  and  miners  declare  that  "  in- 
quiry might  be  made,  but  that  the  matter  passed 
their  understanding  ;"  as  do  the  peasants,  since 
"  it  was  hard  to  judge  more  deeply  than  under- 
standing permitted."  The  answer  of  the  latter 
betrays  the  affection  they  still,  for  the  most  part, 
bore  to  the  clergy,  with  the  exception  of  tlie  men- 
dicant friars  or  sack-monks,  of  whose  conduct  they 
complain.  Of  the  bishops'  castles  they  say  that 
the  king  may  take  them  in  keeping,  until  the  king- 
dom shall  be  more  firmly  settled  ;  for  the  article 
respecting  the  revenues  of  the  Church,  they  believe 
they  are  unable  to  answer  it,  but  commit  this  matter 
to  the  king  and  his  council.  In  that  supplement 
to  the  statute,  which  is  entitled  the  Ordinance  of 
Westeras,  it  is  enacted,  that  a  register  of  all  the 
rents  of  the  bishops,  cathedrals,  and  canons, 
should  be  drawn  up,  and  the  king  might  direct 
what  proportion  of  these  should  be  reserved  to  the 
former  owners,  and  how  much  paid  over  to  him  for 
the  requirements  of  the  crown  ;  that  ecclesiastical 
offices,  not  merely  the  higher,  but  the  inferior, 
should  for  the  future  be  filled  up  only  with  the 
king's  consent,  so  that  the  bishops  might  supply 
the  vacant  parishes  with  preachers,  but  subject  to 

'  Or  "  with  how  many  men  they  should  ride,"  since  the 
revenues  of  a  baron  were  at  that  time  reckoned  hy  the  num- 
ber of  his  armed  followers.  The  archbishop  Joannes  Magnus, 
in  the  year  of  his  deposition,  rode  his  visitation  into  Norr- 
land  with  a  train  of  300  men,  and  was  attended  by  the  sons 
of  the  most  distinguished  nobles. 

2  This  related  to  land  exempt  from  taxes  (fralsejord) ; 
taxable  ground  (skattejord),  which  had  been  transferred  to 
the  Church,  was  to  be  restored,  "  however  long  it  might  have 
been  alienated." 

3  The  king  did  not  demand  the  castle  of  Griinsb  from  the 
bishop  of  Westeras,  because  he  had  already,  in  1.^21,  taken  it 
from  bishop  Otto,  who  favoured  the  Danes,  without  subse- 
quently restoring  it  to  his  successor  Peder  Sunnanvasder, 
which  was  one  of  the  motives  to  his  defection.  The  king 
acknowledges — as  he  writes  in  1525  to  the  provost  of  the 


reviewal  by  the  king,  who  might  remove  those 
whom  he  found  to  be  unfit ;  that  in  secular  matters 
priests  should  be  amenable  to  the  civil  jurisdiction, 
and  on  their  decease  no  part  of  their  effects  should 
devolve  to  the  bishops  ;  finally,  that  from  that  day 
the  gospels  should  be  read  in  all  schools,  "  as  be- 
seems those  which  are  truly  Christian." 

When  these  arrangements  had  been  concerted, 
the  king  turned  towards  the  prelates,  and  demanded 
from  the  bishop  of  Strengness,  the  castle  of  Tyn- 
nelso,  which  the  latter  declared  himself  ready  to 
surrender.  A  similar  answer  was  returned  by  the 
bishop  of  Skara  in  reference  to  that  of  Lecko^, 
but  when  the  king  came  to  bishop  Brask  and  re- 
quested his  castle  of  Munkeboda,  silence  and  sighs 
were  the  only  reply.  Thur^  Jenson  begged  for 
his  old  friend,  that  the  castle  might  be  at  least 
spared  to  him  during  his  life  time,  but  the  king 
answered  shortly,  "  No  !"  Eight  lords  of  the  coun- 
cil were  obliged  on  the  spot  to  become  sureties 
for  the  bishop's  obedience.  Forty  men  of  his  body- 
guard were  taken  from  him  to  be  entered  among 
the  royal  forces,  and  they  formed  a  portion  of  the 
troops  who  were  forthvifith  dispatched  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  fortress  with  its  artillery  and  appur- 
tenances. At  the  same  time,  the  king  sent  various 
men  of  note  as  commissioners  to  the  principal 
churches  and  monasteries  throughout  Sweden,  to 
take  into  their  keeping  all  documents  concerning  the 
estates  and  revenues  of  these  foundations,  and  a  de- 
claratory letter  of  the  council  on  theRecess  and  Or- 
dinance of  Westeras  was  issued  to  all  the  provinces. 
Bishop  Brask  succeeded  by  a  seeming  submission 
in  freeing  himself  from  the  securities  he  had  been 
obliged  to  find  ;  shortly  afterwards,  pretending  a 
visitation  to  Gottland,  he  quitted  the  kingdom  for 
ever  and  joined  the  archbishop,  who  was  likewise 
a  fugitive  in  Dantzic. 

GusTAVUs  now  proceeded  to  celebrate  his  coro- 
nation in  the  beginning  of  1528,  and  chastised  the 
revolt  of  the  Dalesmen,  the  negociation  with  whom 
had  been  carried  on  during  the  diet  of  Westeras, 
by  agents  recipi'ocally  appointed  ;  but  the  pre- 
tended Sture',  though  his  party  had  greatly  de- 
creased since  Christina  Gyllenstierna  herself  had 
declared  him  to  be  an  impostor,  continued  to  find 
protection  and  assistance  in  Norway,  where  he  had 
sought*  refuge,  and  more  covertlj',  in  Dalecarlia. 
The  Dalesmen,  who  from  the  indulgence  with 
which  they  had  so  long  been  treated,  expected  not 
only  impunity,  but  exemption  from  the  impost  of 
which  they  had  refused  payment,  were  now  sum- 
moned to  meet  the  king  at  the  assize  (landsting)  of 

chapter  of  Upsala,  that  he  had  taken  the  estate  of  Griinso 
from  the  bishop  of  Westeras  at  the  time  when  the  latter  was 
his  enemy,  seeing  that  it  had  belonged  to  the  crown,  and 
that  the  see  of  Westeras  had  so  long  possessed  it,  that  any 
sums  laid  out  upon  it  must  have  been  more  than  replaced. 
Reg.  of  the  Archives.  The  bishop's  castle  of  Kusto,  not  far 
from  Abo,  was  pulled  down  in  1528  by  the  royal  order. 

'>  He  went  from  thence  to  Germany,  but  was  arrested  at 
the  instance  of  Gustavus,  and  brought  to  trial  at  Rostock, 
where  he  was  condemned  to  death,  it  is  said,  not  for  his  re- 
bellion, but  for  a  robbery  which  he  had  committed  before  his 
appearance  as  king  in  Dalecarlia.  There  exists  a  letter  from 
one  Canute  Nilson,  secretary  to  king  Christian,  dated 
Schwerin,  November  20,  1528,  acquainting  the  fugitive  king 
with  his  fate.  In  this  he  is  styled  son  of  lord  Steno,  and  it 
is  stated  that  when  apprehended  he  was  on  his  way  to  the 
king. 


''''■^  Mo„asteiTersup"p"rtssed.  GUSTAVUS  VASA. 


THE  REFORMATION. 


Decrees  of  tlie  synod 
of  Orebro. 


iiy 


Tuna.  On  their  arrival,  they  found  him  at  the 
head  of  14,000  men,  by  whom,  on  the  field  of  con- 
ference, they  were  surrounded.  A  letter,  in  terms 
of  menace,  from  the  deputies  of  all  the  realm  below 
the  Dale  country  was  read,  in  which  they  were  de- 
nounced as  recreants  from  the  league  which  united 
them  with  the  other  provinces.  The  instigators  of 
the  revolt  were  delivered  up,  sentenced  to  death, 
and  executed  on  the  spot.  The  rest  received  grace; 
and  there  were  many  who  had  expected  pardon, 
even  for  those  who  were  really  guilty,  since  the 
royal  safe-conduct,  under  which  all  had  come,  ex- 
cepted no  one.  From  the  Dales  the  king  proceeded 
to  Helsingland  and  Gestricland,  whei-e  obedience 
was  restored  by  the  like  method,  but  without 
bloodshed. 

Of  the  popular  temper  at  this  time  the  chronicles 
give  the  following  description  : — "  The  king  might 
labour  as  much  as  he  would  that  they  might  bear 
goodwill  to  him  and  his  laboui's,  yet  it  was  of  no 
avail.  The  reason  was,  that  he  liad  so  few  upright 
servants,  with  understanding  and  will  to  order  his 
affairs  for  the  best,  nor  could  he  obtain  such  before 
the  popish  creed  was  mostly  rooted  out.  Never 
would  the  Dalesmen  have  been  so  lightly  brought 
to  revolt,  nor  the  West-Gothlanders  and  Smaland- 
ers  beside,  if  they  had  not  cherished  a  perverse 
opinion  of  the  king,  that  he  wished  to  suppress  the 
Christian  faith.  With  such  charges  did  the  old 
folk,  and  especially  old  priests,  fill  the  ears  of  the 
common  people,  so  that  did  the  king  show  himself 
mild  or  harsh,  it  was  taken  alike  ill.  If  he  dis- 
coursed pleasantly,  they  cried  that  he  wished  to 
tickle  them  with  the  hare's  foot  ;  if  he  spoke 
sharply,  they  then  said,  that  for  all  their  taxes  and 
burdeus  they  had  nought  else  to  expect  from  him 
but  reproaches  and  bad  words,  and  that  he  would 
undo  them  and  the  whole  kingdom.  With  the  pro- 
vinces which  remained  quiet  it  was  mostly  feigning, 
for  they  did  it  out  of  fear,  because  they  heard  how 
with  strong  hand  he  had  compelled  the  Dalesmen 
and  Norrlanders  to  obedience." 

For  the  effects  of  the  diet  of  Westeras  to  ripen 
to  maturity  in  Sweden,  seventy  yeai's  were  re- 
quired ;  it  cannot  therefore  surprise  us,  that  at 
first  the  opinions  expressed  upon  its  enactments 
should  have  been  bitter,  and  often  mutually  conflict- 
ing, or  that  they  should  have  given  rise  to  great  dis- 
orders. The  convents,  stripped  of  their  revenues, 
which  had  been  granted  in  fief  to  the  barons,  who 
were  obliged  in  return  to  the  maintenance  of 
soldiers  for  the  service  of  the  crown,  were  deserted. 
When  the  Dominicans  of  Stockholm  complained 
that  they  had  not  wherewithal  to  live,  the  answer 
was,  that  they  might  provide  themselves  elsewhere, 
"since  men  were  wont  from  hunger  to  deliver  up 
castles  and  towns,  much  more  convents  *."  Of 
their  ejected  inmates,  the  aged  filled  the  land  with 
their  tales  of  wrong  ;  the  young  for  the  most  part 
married,  monks  often  becoming  the  husbands  of 
nuns,  which,  according  to  the  feelings  of  that  day, 
awakened  no  less  scandal  than  when  the  virgins  of 
the  cloister  were  seen  degraded  to  the  condition  of 
public  courtezans.  There  wei'e  many  who  took 
occasion  from  the  statutes  of  Westeras  to  withhold 
from  the  priests  every  source  of  income,  so  that  in 
1528  the  king  was  forced  to  remind  men,  by  an  or- 

5  Minute-book  of  the  toiim  of  Stockholm  ;  Troil,  Hand- 
lingar,  ii.  283. 


dinance,  that  the  tithes  and  legal  dues  of  the  clergy 
must  continue  to  be  paid  conformably  to  the  various 
local  usages.  For  this  caution  in  changing  the  old  ob- 
servances of  the  church  he  reaped  scant  gratitude. 
By  the  decree  of  the  Synod  of  Orebro  in  1523,  most 
of  them  were  retained,  but  with  an  injunction  that 
theii-  true  sense  should  be  made  clear  to  the  people, 
whence  Olave  Peterson,  in  his  Swedish  Manual, 
published  at  this  time,  says  that  he  has  "  allowed 
most  of  the  ceremonies  to  stand  which  had  been 
theretofore  used,  and  were  not  contrary  to  God's 
word."  For  this  compliance  the  more  vehement  of 
the  Germans  m  Stockholm  assailed  him  with  in- 
sults, as  if  he  had  fallen  away  from  the  gospel, 
"wherefore  they  were  reprovingly  admonished  that 
they  should  raise  no  uproar  in  the  town,  and  were 
informed,  that  the  people  of  this  land  must  be 
softly  dealt  with  ^."  Letters  from  the  king  to  his 
officei's  exist,  in  which  he  reprimands  them  for 
their  unseasonable  zeal  in  pressing  the  Swedish 
mass  on  the  people,  "  though  httle  improvement 
could  follow  till  the  generality  were  better  in- 
structed '."  With  this  view,  it  was  further  or- 
dained by  tlie  synod  of  Orebro,  that  a  lection  of 
Holy  Scripture  should  be  held  daily  in  the  cathe- 
drals, and  that  learned  men  should  be  appointed 
ministers  in  the  towns,  who  could  give  instruction 
to  their  more  simple  brethren  in  the  country. 
Persons  capable  of  acting  as  teachers,  however, 
were  too  often  not  to  be  found.  The  seminaries  of 
Upsala  and  Stockholm,  the  former  under  the  super- 
intendence of  Lawrence  Peterson,  the  latter  under 
that  of  his  brother,  had  hitherto  been  the  only 
schools  in  which  these  could  be  obtained.  Gustavus 
liimself  took  good  note  of  the  talents  of  the  preachers 
who,  according  to  the  decree  of  Orebro,  were  sent 
to  all  the  cathedrals.  These  were  not  every  where 
well  received  ;  of  two  who  were  sent  to  Skara,  one 
was  driven  from  the  pulpit,  the  other  stoned  out  of 
the  school,  when  he  was  about  to  prelect  on  the 
gospel  of  St.  Matthew.  Soon  afterwards  tidings 
an-ived  that  the  flames  of  revolt  had  broken  out  in 
West-Gothland  and  Smaland. 

The  high  steward,  Thure'  Jenson  (Roos),  whom 
Tegel  calls  the  real  root  of  this  rebellion,  was  the 
most  powerful  of  those  provincial  magnates  who 
had  been  left  from  the  times  of  the  Union,  and 
resembled  them  in  this,  that  he  possessed  property 
in  all  the  three  kingdoms,  a  case  not  unusual  in 
this  age,  and  which  was  provided  for  by  a  special 
article  in  the  Recess  of  Malmoe  in  1624.  He  was 
the  oldest  member  of  the  council,  and  justiciary  of 
West-Gothland,  an  office  which  his  grandfather  had 
previously  filled.  So  extensive  was  liis  influence 
over  the  nobles  of  the  province,  that  they  at- 
tempted afterwards  to  excuse  their  own  disloyalty 
by  alleging  the  weight  of  his  name  ;  he  used  to 
style  himself  also  "the  head  of  all  the  West- 
Goths  *."  The  king,  whose  lieutenant  in  this  divi- 
sion of  the  realm  he  was,  had  laboured  to  gain 
him  by  the  bestowal  of  large  fiefs ;  for  which  the 
steward,  according  to  the  custom  of  bygone  times, 
performed  but  small  service  to  the  crown,  as  the 
king's  letters  show.  His  being  x'eminded  of  his 
obligations  in  this  respect  was  considered  as  a 
proof,  that  even  the  new  advantages  which  were 

"  Id.  p.  291. 

^  Id.  iii.  171. 

8  In  his  speech  to  the  Westgothlanders,  in  Tegel. 


1-20 


Revolt  of  the  West- 
Gotlilanders. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Meetinjj  on  Larfs 
Heath. 


[1524- 


promisod  to  the  nobles  at  the  expense  of  the 
Church  were  not  so  secui'e  as  had  been  hoped. 
The  ancient  league  between  the  hierarchy  and  the 
baronage  was  not  yet  dissolved.  At  the  diet  of 
1527,  Thure  Jenson  had  been  the  most  zealous 
defender  of  the  bishops  ;  after  his  return  home, 
he  omitted  to  promulgate  in  his  province  the 
Recess  and  Ordinance  of  Westeras  ;  and  a  judg- 
ment passed  against  him  by  the  council  in  a  ques- 
tion of  inheritance  between  himself  and  the  king  ", 
at  length  brought  forth  an  ebullition  of  his  long- 
cherished  hostility.  He  conspired  against  Gus- 
tavus  with  Magnus,  bishop  of  Skara,  and  the 
principal  barons  of  West-Gothland,  and  began  to 
agitate  the  common  people  in  the  spring  of  1529. 
Two  years  before  the  Smalanders  had  already  re- 
fused to  pay  the  tax  imposed  for  the  cancelling  of 
the  public  debt,  and  shot  arrows  at  lord  Thure 
Trolle  in  the  forest,  when  he  came  on  the  side 
of  the  king  to  open  a  negociation  on  this  subject. 
They  now  put  to  death  the  king's  bailiff,  who  had 
received  a  grant  of  Nydala  abbey,  with  several  of 
his  servants,  and  took  captive  a  sister  of  Gustavus, 
the  widow  of  Joachim  Brahe  who  had  married  the 
count  of  Hoya.  From  Jenkoeping  they  issued  letters 
to  both  the  Gothlands,  calling  upon  the  inhabitants, 
with  invectives,  the  bitterness  of  which  beti-ayed  a 
clerical  pen,  "  to  chastise  the  cruel  king  and  his 
Lutheran  faction."  Thure  Jenson,  with  his  ad- 
herents, wrote  to  the  Dalesmen  in  the  same  sense  ; 
his  son  Joran,  provost  of  the  chapter  of  Upsala, 
repaired  himself  to  Norrland,  to  raise  the  Helsin- 
gers  again  in  rebellion,  and  a  thousand  men  who 
had  drawn  together  in  West-Gothland,  under  the 
command  of  one  Master  Nils  of  Hvalstad,  a  priest, 
guarded  the  road  leading  from  that  district  to  the 
upper  country. 

Of  all  the  insurrectionary  movements  in  the  time 
of  king  Gustavus,  the  revolt  of  the  West-Goths 
was  the  only  one  which  was  called  into  activity  at 
the  instigation,  not  only  of  the  clergy  but  the 
nobility.  Yet  the  lords  songht  to  push  forward  the 
peasants  ;  a  proof  sufficient  that  the  barons  were 
no  longer  so  powerful  as  they  had  been.  The 
energies  of  democracy  were  never  more  vigorous 
in  Sweden,  than  after  the  massaci'e  of  Stockholm 
had  broken  the  strength  of  the  magnates,  and  the 
diet  of  Westeras  that  of  the  bishops.  Gustavus 
stood  amidst  a  turbulent  stream  of  popular  force 
which  had  burst  its  bounds.  This  had  first  raised 
him  to  a  throne,  which  during  twenty  years  it 
struggled  to  overturn.  His  accustomed  mode  of 
action,  to  follow  the  torrent  when  it  was  about  to 
overpower  him,  until  he  shovild  gain  firm  footing, 
was  dictated  to  him  by  necessity,  and  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  he  well  knew  how  to  guide  him- 
self among  the  dangers  of  his  position. 

"  Might  good  words  help,  we  have  spent  largely 
enough,"  he  writes  to  the  count  of  Hoya.  "Treason  is 
so  mighty  and  so  widely  spread  that  we  wist  not  whom 
we  may  believe  ;  come  therefore  to  us  with  the 
greatest  power  of  horse  and  foot  that  ye  can  bring 
up.  In  our  town  of  Stockholm,  as  also  in  the  free 
barons  and  knights  of  Upland,  who  have  swora 
homage  to  us  anew,  we  can  place  assured  trust. 
The  commons  of  East-Gothland,  the  Dales,  and 
Upland,  have  promised  us  to  remain  quiet.     Our 

9  His  wife  was  Anna  Vasa,  and  was  half-sister  to  the 
father  of  Gustavus. 


messengers   to 
back '."      The 


the   seditious   are    not    yet    come 
insurgent    Smalanders,   doubtless 
to  their  own  amazement,  received  from  the  king 
the  following  letter  :    "  We  have  heard   that   ye 
took   our  sister   into  your   ward,  upon   the   false 
rumour  that  Upland  had  risen  against  us  and  that 
Stockholm  was  besieged,  wherefore  we  give    you 
gracious  thanks,  but  pray  you  to  send  her  to  us  ; 
further,  we    have  heard  that  our  bailiff  Godfrey 
Sare   has   been   slain    in   your  country,  for  what 
cause  we  know  not ;  peradventure  he  has  offended 
in    somewhat    and    overstepped    our    command, 
which  might  well  have  been  changed  without  this 
mishap.     We  wish  but  the  best  to  all  of  ye,  and 
thereupon  will  stake  our  neck."     Letters  of  the 
king  and  his  council  were  despatched  to  all   the 
provinces,  to  the  effect  that  he  would  gladly  mend 
whatever  might    be   wrong   in   his    government ; 
touching  religion  and  the  Church,  nothing  had  been 
determined  without  the  assent  of  the  council  and 
the  estates,  nor  should  be  hereafter.     The   Sma- 
landers were  besides  wheedled  with  a  pledge,  that 
two  convents  2   should  be  preserved  ;    the  clergy 
he  engaged  to  exempt  from  entertaining  the  royal 
troops,  if  they  would  give  their  aid  in  appeasing 
the  commons ;  to  the  Dalesmen  he  promised  the 
remission  of  the  tax  they  had  so  keenly  contested, 
and  to  the  miners  an  acquittance  from  some  of  the 
demands  of  the  crown.      The  abundance    of  the 
sovereign's  good  words  seemed  not  to  suffice  ;  he 
begged  that  others  too  would  employ  the  like.      It 
was  usual  at  this  time  when  one  province  was  in 
revolt,  to  invoke  the  mediation  of  the  rest,  in  re- 
ference to  the  ancient  league  by  which  they  had 
been  united.     Thus  the   town  of  Stockholm  now 
wrote  to  the  Dalesmen,  praying  them  to  refrain 
from  taking  part  in  this  insurrection.      The  Dales- 
men and  the  miners  on  the  other  hand,  although 
two  years  afterwards  they  were  themselves  ready 
for  a  new  rising,  addressed    on   this   occasion   a 
special    letter    of     admonition    to     the     factious 
West-Goths  and  Smalanders  ;  but  the  East-Goths 
in  particular,  the  neighbours  of    the  latter,  were 
employed  as  mediators.  Delegates  from  Upland  and 
East-Gothland,  with  the  royal  envoys,  hastened  to 
West-Gothland  and  Smaland,  bearing  an  offer  of 
full  pardon  for  the  men  of  these  territories,  if  they 
returned  to  their  obedience. 

The  result  was,  that  when  Thure  Jenson  con- 
voked a  meeting  of  the  West-Goths  on  Larfs 
Heath,  April  17, 1529,  and  harangued  them  from  a 
great  stone,  on  the  expediency  of  electing  another 
king,  Magnus,  bishop  of  Skara,  also  assuring  them 
that  the  Pope  would  absolve  them  from  their  oaths, 
the  yeomen  made  answer,  that  "  a  change  of  lords 
seldom  made  matters  better,  therefore  it  seemed  to 
them  most  advisable  to  hold  fast  to  the  fealty 
which  they  had  sworn  to  king  Gustavus."  There- 
upon both  the  West-Gothlanders,  and  the  Sma- 
landers, who  had  informed  the  royal  commissioners 
that  they  would  be  guided  by  the  decision  of  their 
brethren,  laid  down  their  arms.  In  the  ^^Tit  of 
accommodation  pledges  are  given  to  them,  that 
what  had  happened,  should  be  as  a  matter  dead 
and  forgotten  ;  and  that  no  heresy  should  be  intro- 
duced into  the  kingdom  ;  yet,  the  king  adds,  "  the 
Recess   of  Westeras  shall  be  observed  in  every 

'  April  29,  1529.     Reg.  of  the  Archives. 
2  In  Calniar  and  Kronobiick. 


/ 


/ 


1543.] 


Plot  of  the  West- 
Gothic  barons. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.    THE  REFORMATION. 


Debt  of  Lubeck. 
Bell  sedition. 


121 


point."  In  this  settlement  the  mediators  are 
placed  on  a  parallel  with  the  authorities,  for  it  is 
stated  that  "  the  good  men  of  Upland  and  East- 
Gothland  likewise,  who  have  interceded  for  the 
disturbers,  shall  have  power  to  mulct  of  goods  and 
life  every  man  who  after  this  day  by  word  or  deed 
shall  stir  up  any  disorders  against  the  king."  So 
this  sedition  was  quelled.  Jorau  Thure'son,  the 
dean,  who  had  attempted  to  raise  the  Helsingers,  was 
at  last  seized  by  them  and  delivered  to  the  king, 
who  was  satisfied  with  dismissing  him  from  his 
office  *.  His  father,  the  old  high  steward,  with 
bishop  Magnus,  fled  across  the  border  to  Denmark. 
Seven  barons,  who  all  style  themselves  councillors 
of  state  in  West-Gothland  *,  had  plotted  with  the 
rebel  leaders  at  Larfs  Heath,  before  the  resolution 
of  the  yeomanry  was  known,  to  change  the  govern- 
ment of  Sweden,  and  had  renounced  fealty  and 
obedience  to  king  Gustavus.  Their  letter  was  not 
sent,  and  assurances  were  afterwards  given  them 
by  the  priest,  master  Nils  of  Hwalstad,  fliat  all  the 
documents  by  which  their  participation  in  the  re- 
volt might  be  proved  should  be  committed  to  the 
flames.  Deeming  that  the  king  did  not  know,  or 
would  not  see  their  guilt,  (they  had  even  during 
the  troubles  received  letters  from  him  graciously 
expressed,)  the  three  chief  of  them, — Magnus 
Brynteson  (Liliehok),  a  youth  of  amiable  cha- 
racter, whom  the  conspirators,  it  was  said,  had 
fixed  upon  to  be  king,  Nils  Olson  (Winge),  and 
Thure  Ericson  (Bielke) — ventured  to  lay  tlie  whole 
blame  of  this  transaction  on  Thure  Jenson  and  the 
bishop,  and  to  offer  themselves  to  the  judgment  of 
the  council  and  the  estates  at  the  diet,  now  con- 
voked in  Strengness.  Here  Gustavus  vindicated 
himself  at  length  from  the  accusations  brought 
against  him,  and  caused  a  defence  of  the  Recess  of 
Westeras,  composed  by  Lawrence  Peterson,  to  be 
made  public.  On  the  triaP  it  was  declared,  that 
the  arraigned  lords  had  forfeited  all  claim  to  be 
included  in  the  warrant  of  peace  granted  by  the 
king,  or  to  obtain  a  pardon;  the  rather,  that 
although  thrice  called  upon  by  him  to  acknowledge 
their  guilt  and  sue  for  grace,  they  had  refused 
to  comply.  They  were  therefore,  in  accordance 
with  the  tenor  of  their  own  letters,  now  produced 
against  them,  condenmed  to  death  ;  and  the  sen- 
tence was  executed  on  the  two  first-named.  The 
pardon  of  the  third  was  granted  to  the  supplica- 
tions of  his  motlier,  but  he  was  obliged  to  pay  a 
fine  of  2000  guilders  (£158),  and  the  rest  of  those 
who  had  borne  a  leading  part  in  the  revolt  saw 
themselves  under  the  necessity  of  piu'chasing  the 

3  His  brothers  John  and  Lars,  both  councillors  of  state, 
had  remained  true  to  the  king. 

■•  These  were  Nils  Olson,  Thure  Ericson,  Magnus  Bryn- 
teson, Axel  Posse,  Thord  Bonde,  Nils  Clauson,  and  Matts 
Kafle.  See  the  letter  of  the  councillors  of  state  in  West- 
Gothland  to  the  Smalanders,  April  17,  1529.  Reg.  of  the 
Archives.  The  two  last  were  not  councillors.  It  is  hence 
clear  that  Matts  Katie,  whom  Celsius  and  others  represent 
as  active  against  the  insurgents,  was  one  of  the  conspirators. 

5  The  king  himself  appeared  against  these  barons  (as  for- 
merly against  Master  Canute  and  Peder  Sunnanvseder)  in  the 
character  of  prosecutor,  and  in  the  proceedings  of  this  diet 
generally  he  stood  in  the  relation  of  a  party.  Hence  Tegel 
says,  "  King  Gustavus  rendered  himself  to  trial  before  the 
lords  of  the  council  and  the  nobles,  the  burgesses  of  the 
trading  towns,  the  miners  and  the  yeomanry,  who  were 
assembled  in  Strengness,  for  all  matters,  articles,  and  points 
which  had  been  dishonestly  invented  and  charged  upon  his 


king's  good  will  afterwards  with  money  and  costly 
presents. 

The  debt  to  Lubeck  was  still  unpaid.  From  an 
account  adjusted  in  1529  by  the  king's  brother-in- 
law,  the  count  of  Hoya,  with  the  authorities  of  the 
town,  it  is  plain  tliat  the  capital  had  not  been 
diminished®  since  the  year  1523,  notwithstanding 
the  tax  levied  for  its  discharge,  and  this  circum- 
stance was  one  cause  of  the  general  discontent 
which  prevailed.  An  agreement  had  now  indeed 
been  concluded,  by  which  the  privileges  granted  in 
1523  were  to  be  confined  to  Lubeck,  the  town  con- 
senting that  the  debt  should  be  paid  by  instal- 
ments within  four  yeai's;  but  even  this  engagement 
rendered  necessary  the  employment  of  extraor- 
dinary means.  Imitating  an  example  which  had 
already  been  set  in  Denmark',  a  baronial  diet  held 
at  Upsala  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1530  re- 
solved, that  from  all  the  town  churches  of  the  king- 
dom one  bell  .should  be  taken  towards  the  cancelling 
of  this  debt.  The  municipalities  acceded  to  this 
measure,  and  in  the  following  year  the  same  requi- 
sition was  extended  to  the  rural  churches,  the  bells 
being  redeemable  with  money,  at  the  option  of  the 
parishes.  Agents  specially  commissioned  by  the 
council  settled  the  conditions  of  ari'angemcnt  with 
the  commonalty  of  the  various  districts;  engaging 
on  the  king's  side,  that  what  was  thus  collected 
should  be  applied  only  to  the  object  specified,  and 
that  the  expenditure  of -the  sum  should  be  accounted 
for  by  persons  thereto  appointed.  The  tithes  for  the 
year  were  besides  exacted,  with  all  of  the  money 
and  plate  still  remaining  in  the  church-coff"ers 
that  could  be  spared.  In  this  way  the  debt  of 
Lubeck  was  entirely  paid  off" ;  but  its  discharge  cost 
the  king  a  new  insurrection.  The  Dalecarlians  once 
more  rose,  took  back  their  bells,  which  they  had  al- 
ready delivered  up,  and  despatched  letters  through- 
out the  kingdom,  in  which  they  invoked  the  remem- 
brance of  the  ancient  confederation,  requesting  that 
twelve  men  of  condition  from  every  hundred  might 
assemble  in  a  general  diet  at  Arboga  on  St.  Eric's 
day  (the  ]8th  of  May),  1531,  in  order  to  deliberate 
and  come  to  a  decision  upon  certain  affairs  of  the 
common.s,  which  concerned  the  interests  of  all  men, 
more  especially  respecting  the  dissensions  in  the 
Christian  church.  The  peasants  in  Gestricland,  in 
a  part  of  Westmanland  and  in  Nerike,  likewise  re- 
sumed possession  of  their  bells.  At  a  meeting  held 
by  the  barrows  of  old  Upsala,  the  king  with  diffi- 
culty appeased  the  discontent  of  the  Uplanders  ; 
subsequently  he  employed  their  chiefs,  with   the 

royal  majesty,  as  also  for  the  answers  which  his  majesty  had 
given  thereon.  Upon  which  the  estates  of  the  realm,  after 
due  examination,  declared  that  the  king's  majesty,  with  his 
well-grounded  answers,  had  cleared  himself  beyond  cavil  of 
all  the  matters  of  the  imputations."  As  the  Recess  of  Wes- 
teras had  been  the  occasion  of  the  revolt,  this  was  now  also 
expressly  confirmed. 

6  Compare  Tegel,  i.  220.  The  king  was  dissatisfied  with 
the  count's  reckoning,  and  maintained  that  he  was  entitled 
to  various  deductions  from  the  sum. 

1  A  letter  of  Canute  Nilson,  secretary  to  Christian  II., 
dated  Schwerin,  November  28,  1528,  informs  his  master 
that  a  burdensome  tax  had  been  imposed  in  Denmark  and 
Holstein  :  "  they  have  taken  the  bells  from  the  churches  and 
carried  them  to  the  castle  ;  where  there  are  three  they  take 
two,  where  there  are  two,  one."  The  firm  of  Fiigger,  it  is 
said,  bought  them.  It  is  added  that  "  the  barons  were  stiffly 
insisting  on  taking  back  their  estates  from  the  churches  and 
convents."     Archives  of  Christian  II. 


122 


Movements  of 
Christian. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Lands  in  Norway. 
Attempt  on  Sweden. 


[1524— 


magistrates  of  Stockholm,  in  a  negociation  with  the 
insurgents  of  Dalecarlia.  At  their  head,  in  tlie 
present  attempt,  appeared  men  who  had  heretofore 
been  the  most  faithful  adliei'ents  of  the  king.  The 
peasants  of  the  Dales,  said  these,  would  not  again 
allow  themselves  to  be  pinned  in  a  ring,  as  once 
upon  Tuna  Heath  ;  to  come  across  the  Dal-elf  at 
Brunback  without  the  Dalesmen's  leave  was  what 
no  king  or  lord  of  the  land  had  ever  dared  ;  even 
Gustavus  should  not  come  into  their  country  with- 
out safe-conduct,  or  with  a  greater  following  than 
they  themselves  should  appoint ;  nor  would  they 
suffer  any  other  officers  to  live  among  them  other 
than  such  as  they  had  themselves  consented  to 
receive,  and  as  had  been  born  among  them  *.  All 
this  they  alleged  to  be  the  old  custom  of  their 
country,  and  they  now  kept  armed  guard  upon  the 
borders.  When  the  king  came  to  hear  this,  he 
said,  it  was  now  the  time  of  the  Dalesmen,  but  that 
his  own  time  was  coming,  and  to  the  astonishment 
of  all,  he  nominated  one  of  the  principal  insurgent 
leaders  to  be  governor  of  the  Dales. 

This  caution  was  rendered  necessary  by  the 
perils  which  threatened  from  another  quarter. 
Christian  II.,  though  dethroned,  was  ever  busied 
with  plans  for  recovering  the  kingdoms  of  which 
he  had  been  master,  and  he  had  more  than  once 
collected  troops  for  this  purpose,  whom  yet  he 
never  succeeded  in  keeping  together.  An  army  of 
26,000  men,  which  he  led  against  Holstein  in 
1523,  with  his  brother-in-law  the  elector  of  Bran- 
denburg, disbanded  for  want  of  pay,  and  the  king 
was  forced  to  hide  from  his  own  soldiers.  In  the 
year  1526,  Gustavus  was  informed  by  a  letter  of 
the  Danish  council,  that  Christian  was  again  in 
march  towards  Holstein  with  10,000  men  ".  This 
armament  was  to  operate  in  conjunction  with  the 
partisans  of  Severin  Norby,  whose  designs  upon 
Sweden  have  been  already  mentioned ',  but  the 
army,  upon  the  report  of  Norby's  flight,  dispersed. 
Meanwhile  the  dwelling  of  Christian  in  the  Nether- 
lands, where  he  lived  under  the  protection  of  the 
emperor,  was  a  point  of  re-union  for  all  the 
Swedish  malcontents  and  exiles.  Here  resided 
the  foi'nier  archbishop  Gustavus  TroUe,  who  had 
carried  off  with  him  the  old  records  of  the  king- 
dom ^  ;  here  wei'e  gathered  Thure  Jenson,  bishop 
Magnus  of  Skara,  and  Jon  Ericson,  dean  of  Upsala, 
who  held  communication  with  bishop  John  Brask, 
now  likewise  a  refugee.     In  the  year   1530,  they 

8  In  tlie  Registry  of  the  Archives  for  1526  exists  a  letter  of 
the  king,  written  during  the  rebellion  in  the  Dale-land  in- 
stigated by  Peder  Sunnanvaeder,  to  the  miners  of  the  Kop- 
parberg,  on  the  nomination  of  a  newbailitf;  "  which  yet,"  he 
says,  "we  cannot  do  without  the  consent  and  presence  of 
you  all,  nor  will,  against  your  privileges."  The  Register 
notes,  however,  that  this  letter  was  never  sent  forth. 

9  Letter  from  Tyge  Krabbe  and  Claas  Bille,  councillors  of 
Denmark,  to  king  Gustavus,  October  1,  1526;  "that  king 
Christian  was  in  motion  with  3000  horse  and  7000  pikemen, 
but  when  they  learned  that  Severin  Norby  had  miscarried, 
their  courage  failed  them."     Reg.  of  the  Archives. 

■  His  last  attempt,in  1526,  to  make  war  on  Gustavus  with 
the  assistance  of  Denmark,  which  was  refused,  is  mentioned 
by  Tegel,  i.  124.  He  fled  to  Russia,  and  was  kept  prisoner 
there  till  1529,  when  he  entered  into  the  service  of  the  em- 
peror Charles  V. ;  next  year  he  was  killed  at  the  siege  of  Flo- 
rence.    He  was  by  birth  a  Norwegian. 

2  In  a  letter  from  Antwerp,  March  12,  1530,  Gustavus 
Trolle  tells  king  Christian  that  it  is  not  advisable  to  keep  the 
register  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden  any  longer  in  the  Bur- 


bound  themselves  by  a  special  covenant  ^  to  re- 
place Christian  "  by  the  arms  of  their  adherents" 
on  the  throne,  and  invoked  the  aid  of  the  emperor, 
"  to  free  Sweden,  for   the   boot  of  Christendom, 
from  a  tyrant  who  cared  neither  for  God  nor  men, 
for  word,  honour,  nor  repute  *."     The  return  of 
Charles  V.  to  the    Netherlands   at   this   time  in- 
spired Christian  with  new  hope  ;  in  Denmark  and 
Sweden    it   awakened    new   terrors.      By   lavish 
promises  and  prospects  of  booty,  a  band  of  military 
adventurers  was  collected  round  him,  which  soon 
formed  an  army  of  12,000  men,  whose  first  exploits 
consisted  in  plundering  the  country.    The  emperor, 
who  was  otherwise  little  satisfied  with  his  brother- 
in-law,  at  length  paid  over  to  him  the  arrears  of 
the  dowry  of  his  deceased  sister,  and  the  Hollanders 
furnished  ships  and  artillery,  solely  in  order  to  be 
rid  of  their  troublesome  guests.     From  Norway, 
whither  Gustavus  Trolle  had  previously  repaired, 
money  and  plate  gleaned  from  the  churches  were 
sent.     By' the  end  of  October  1531,  Christian  put 
to   sea   with   a   fleet   of  twenty-five   vessels,  and 
though  these  were  dispersed  by  a  storm  in  which 
several  were  lost,  he  was  himself  fortunate  enough 
to  effect  a  landing  in  Norway   at   Opslo^.      The 
Norsemen,  who  had  long  been  disaffected  to  Danish 
rule,  perceived    in  Christian   the    instilment   by 
which  they  might  regain  independence.     Although 
he  had  embraced  the  principles  of  the  reformers 
(in  whose  communion  his  consort  had  died,  as  the 
king  himself  wrote  to  Luther),  he  now  appeared  as 
the  defender  of  the  Catholic  faith  in  the  north. 
Olave,   archbishop    of    Drontheim,    and    all    the 
bishops  of  Norway  with  the  exception  of  Bergen, 
the  clergy,  the  nobility,  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
people    declared   for   his  cause.     On  the   30th   of 
November,  1531,  the  council  of  Norway  renounced 
fealty  and  obedience  to  king  Frederic,  exhorting 
the  Danes  to  make  common  cause  with  them,  and 
Christian  was  agam  acknowledged  as  king  of  Nor- 
way.    At   the   same   time  the   banished    Swedish 
lords  who   were   among    his    train,   endeavoured 
actively  to  promote  his  interest  in  Sweden.      They 
wrote   to  the   insurgent  Dalecarlians,  as   also   to 
West-Gothland   and    other   provinces,  that    king 
Christian  had  changed  to  a  pattern  of  pure  justice 
and  meekness,  and  that  he  had  come  to  restore  the 
Christian  faith.     But  in  Sweden,  the  conquest  of 
which  Thurd  Jenson   had  deluded   the  king   into 
thinking  an  easy  matter '',  these  intrigues  produced 

gundian  dominions,  because  the  Burgundians  were  not  to 
be  depended  upon,  but  he  would  deposit  it  for  the  king's  use 
elsewhere,  and  acquaint  him  with  the  place.  Archives  of 
Christian  II.     Where  it  was  preserved  is  now  unknown. 

3  Dated  at  Antwerp,  September  27,  1530,  and  drawn  up  in 
the  name  of  all  the  above-named  lords,  but  not  subscribed 
by  Brask,  who  was  still  in  Prussia.  Compliance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  times  induced  the  insertion  in  this  bond  of  an 
article  providing  that  estates  of  which  the  crown  had  been 
wrongfully  deprived,  might  be  again  resumed  by  the  sove- 
reign. 

"•  So  Gustavus  is  styled  in  the  draught  of  a  memorial  to 
the  emperor,  conceived  with  implacable  bitterness.  Among 
other  statements,  it  is  there  asserted  that  in  Sweden  the 
nuns  had  become  public  courtezans,  and  that  the  king  pro- 
ceeded to  such  lengths  in  his  plunder  of  the  churches,  that 
he  caused  the  church -yards  to  be  dug  up  in  order  to  boil 
saltpetre  from  the  bones  of  the  dead. 

5  Now  Christiania.     T. 

6  "Baron  Thure  Jenson  often  asserted  that  he  would  with 


1543.] 


His  surrender  and 
imprisonment. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  REFORMATION. 


The  king's  conference 
witli  the  Dalesmen. 


123 


I 


no  effect.  And  when  Christian  himself,  in  an  in- 
cursion into  Bohusland,  met  with  an  obstinate  re- 
sistance from  the  inhabitants,  the  prompter  of 
these  deceitful  hopes,  to  which  the  invader  had 
yielded  credence,  was  obliged  to  expiate  his  misre- 
presentation with  his  life.  The  headless  body  of 
Thure'  Jonson  was  found  one  morning  upon  the 
road  in  Kougelf. 

The  connnon  danger  accelerated  the  adjustment 
of  particular  differences  between  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark. Bohusland,  of  which  Gustavus  had  kept 
possession  for  ten  years,  was  again  given  up  to 
king  Frederic  in  May  1532,  and  the  settlement  of 
the  claims  which  both  parties  preferred  to  Gott- 
land  was  postponed.  The  two  kings  formed  a 
league  for  mutual  defence,  and  a  Swedish  force 
entered  U])per  Norway.  The  fate  of  Christian  was 
soon  decided.  His  ships  w-ere  burned  by  the 
united  squadrons  of  Denmark  and  Lubeck.  On 
one  side  was  a  hostile  fleet,  on  the  other  the  castle 
of  Aggerhus,  which  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
Danes  ;  his  troops  mutinied  from  hunger  and 
want ;  and  in  pursuance  of  a  convention  he  sur- 
rendered to  the  commander  of  the  Danish  squadron, 
bishop  Canute  Gyllenstiern,  stipulating  for  a  safe 
conduct  to  Denmark,  in  order  that  he  might  nego- 
ciate  in  person  with  his  uncle,  king  Frederic,  to 
whom  he  was  coming,  as  he  phrased  it,  like  the 
prodigal  son  ;  if  no  amicable  compromise  of  their 
disputes  could  be  effected,  he  was  to  be  free  to  quit 
the  kingdom.  The  bishop  however  was  declared 
to  have  exceeded  his  powers  ;  in  his  own  excuse  he 
suggested  that  the  conditions,  although  promised, 
need  not  be  fulfilled.  So  bitter  was  the  hatred  of 
the  grandees  against  Christian,  that  king  Frederic 
was  obliged  to  give  a  written  assurance  to  the  no- 
bility of  Denmark  and  Holstein  ',  that  he  should  be 
kept  in  perpetual  imprisonment,  the  document 
being  committed  to  the  custody  of  eight  barons, 
four  Danes  and  foiu*  Holsteiners  ^.  The  unfortunate 
prince  was  incarcerated  in  the  eastern  tower  of 
the  castle  of  Sonderburgh,  in  a  vaulted  chamber, 
of  which  all  the  apertures  were  walled  up,  one 
little  window  excepted,  through  which  his  food  was 
introduced.  In  this  abode  of  horror,  where  a 
Norwegian  dwarf  was  his  only  companion,  king 
Christian  lived  seventeen  years,  the  first  twelve 
without  any  alleviation  of  his  misery.  It  was 
decreed  that  a  war  undertaken  in  his  name,  should 
once  more  bring  Denmark  to  the  brink  of  ruin,  and 
expose  Sweden  to  dangers  of  the  most  formidable 
kind.  His  imprisonment  lasted  in  all  seven  and 
twenty  years,  and  was  only  terminated  by  death. 
After  the  year  1544,  its  rigours,  at  the  intercession 
of  the  emperor,  were  mitigated,  and  the  renounce- 
ment of  all  his  pretensions  at  length,  in  1549, 
brought  about  the  removal  of  the  captive  to  the 
castle  of  Kallundborg,  where  he  received  a  princely 
maintenance,  with  permission  now  and  then  to 
divert  himself  with  the  pleasures  of  the  chase. 
But  calamity  had  broken  his  strength  of  mind,  and 
those  attacks  of  despondency,  from  which  he  had 
formerly  suffered  in  his  most  prosperous  days, 
being  now  deepened  by  his  immoderate  use  of  the 
wines  of  Italy,  in  his  last  years  not  unfrequently 

two  or  three  thousand  men  conquer  all  Sweden ;  such  support 
did  he  expect  to  obtain."     Hvitfeld. 

'  Hvitfeld  says  to  Gustavus  and  the  Swedish  nohility  also, 
but  Gustavus  himself  complains  that  in  the  disposal  of  Chris- 
tian he  had  not  been  consulted.     Tegel  i.  313. 


assumed  the  character  of  insanity^.  His  son  John, 
who  was  educated  at  the  imperial  court,  died  at 
Ratisbon,  upon  the  same  day  which  consigned  his 
father  to  a  dungeon.  Of  his  daughters,  Dorothea 
was  married  to  the  elector  Palatine,  Frederic  II.; 
Christina  first  to  Francis  Sforza,  afterwards  to  the 
Duke  of  Lorraine.  These  princesses  and  their 
children  continued  to  put  forward  claims,  which 
more  than  once  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  north. 

Such  being  the  event  of  Christian's  invasion, 
Gustavus  obtained  time  again  to  turn  his  thoughts 
to  the  Dalecarlians,  in  whose  territory  all  was  for 
the  present  tranquil.  The  Dalesmen,  weary  of 
moving  about  in  arms  among  their  forests,  hal 
made  an  offer  to  the  king  at  the  end  of  the  year 
1531  to  redeem  their  bells  with  a  sum  of  2000  marks, 
and  were  the  more  gladdened  by  his  promise  of  par- 
don 1,  that  they  regarded  it  as  a  silent  confirmation 
of  their  privileges.  They  celebrated  with  feasts, 
say  the  chronicles,  the  old  liberty  of  the  Dales. 
But  the  king  on  the  other  hand  had  determined 
for  ever  to  extinguish  their  claims  to  peculiar  pri- 
vileges above  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom; 
and  he  was  besides  moved  anew  to  indignation 
wlien  the  miners  set  at  nought  his  summons  to 
defend  the  kingdom  against  the  attack  of  Christian, 
and  held  communications  with  his  runaway  sub- 
jects^. These  mutinous  excesses  were  ascribed 
more  especially  to  "  Magnus  Nilson  with  his  fac- 
tion," who,  the  real  instigator  of  the  bell-sedition, 
was  at  that  time  the  richest  miner  in  the  Koppar- 
berg,  and  of  whom  it  is  popularly  said,  that  he  shod 
liis  horses  with  silver.  In  the  commencement  of 
the  year  1533  Gustavus  cited  his  own  retainer-s, 
with  those  of  the  nobility,  to  meet  at  Westeras. 
No  man  knew  against  whom  this  armament  was 
really  directed,  although  rumour  spoke  of  new  com- 
plots  by  the  factionaries  of  king  Christian.  To  his 
captains  the  king's  injunctions  were — ''  Whereso- 
ever ye  see  me  advance,  thither  haste  ye  speedily 
after."  The  expedition  took  its  way  to  the  Dale 
country,  whose  inhabitants  had  lately  sent  repre- 
sentatives to  Westeras.  These  the  king  detained, 
and  in  their  stead  despatched  proclamations  to  the 
Dalecarlians,  purporting  that  "  he  well  knew  that 
little  of  what  had  happened  could  be  imputed  to 
the  common  people  ;  he  came  only  to  hold  an  in- 
quisition upon  the  guilty,  whom  it  was  meet  they 
should  east  out  from  among  them."  He  invited 
them  all  to  come  to  a  conference  at  the  Kopparberg. 
The  king  arrived  as  soon  as  the  letters,  and  the 
commonalty  assembled,  some  with  goodwill,  others 
by  constraint.  Troops,  as  on  the  previous  occasion, 
encompassed  the  assembly  ;  first  several  lords  of 
the  council  spoke  to  the  people,  afterwards  the 
king  himself.  He  questioned  the  Dalesmen;  whe- 
ther they  remembered  their  promise  made  six 
years  before,  when  he  had  pardoned  the  revolt 
then  commenced  ?  Whether  they  supposed  they 
might  play  this  game  with  him  every  year  with 
impunity  ?  This  bout  should  be  the  last.  He 
woidd  suffer  no  province  in  his  dominion  to  be 
hostile  ;  for  the  future  theirs  should  be  either 
obedient,  or  so  desolated  that  neither  hound  nor 

8  Holberg,  Dannemarks  Riges  Historic,  2,  2C6. 

9  Id.  2,  378. 

1  Reply  to  the  letter  of  the  Dale-folk,  November  7,  1531. 
Reg.  of  the  Archives. 

2  This  is  Slated  in  the  sentence  of  the  delinquents,  Tegel, 
1,  322. 


124 


Designs  of 
Lubeck. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Rupture  witli  that 
town. 


[1521— 


cock  should  be  heard  hi  it.  He  asked  them  where 
they  would  have  that  border  which  their  king  must 
not  dare  to  overstep  ?  Whether  it  became  them 
as  subjects  thus  to  master  their  magistrates  ?  What 
was  the  true  reason  why  the  Sture's,  although  the 
rulers  of  the  land,  had  never  ventured  to  cross  the 
stream  at  Bruuback  without  the  leave  of  the 
miners  ?  To  such  insolence  he  at  least  would  not 
submit.  After  this  fashion  the  king  spoke  to  them 
long  and  sharply,  and  diu-ing  the  time  the  whole 
of  the  commonalty  were  upon  their  knees.  He 
called  upon  them  to  deliver  up  the  instigators  of 
the  last  sedition,  which  was  forthwith  performed. 
Five  of  them  were  tried  and  executed  upon  the 
spot ;  the  rest  were  carried  prisoners  to  Stock- 
holm, where  in  the  following  year  three  of  them, 
pursuant  to  the  judgment  of  the  council  and  the 
town-  magistrates,  were  put  to  death,  and  among 
them  Anders  Person  of  Rankhytta,  in  whose  barn 
Gustavus  had  once  threshed.  The  forfeited  pro- 
perty of  the  offenders  was  restoi'ed  to  their  wives 
and  children*.  Thus  ended  the  third  and  last 
rising  of  the  Dalecarlians  against  king  Gustavus. 

At  this  time  Lubeck  was  calling  up  its  last 
energies  for  the  maintenance  of  its  commercial 
power  ;  for  its  citizens,  who  "  wished  to  hold  in 
their  sole  grasp  the  keys  of  the  Baltic,  looking  only 
to  their  own  advantage*,"  had  long  seen  with  re- 
luctance the  Hollanders  dividing  with  themselves  the 
trade  of  the  North.  They  had  contributed  to  the 
overthrow  of  Christian  II.,  because  he  had  favom-ed 
these  rivals,  but  they  had  not  reaped  the  fruits  ex- 
pected from  his  fall  ^,  and  they  ended  by  wishing  to 
raise  him  from  his  prison  to  the  throne.  Gustavus 
had  already  in  1526  formed  a  commercial  treaty 
with  the  regent  Margaret  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
although  Christian  had  received  support  from  that 
quarter  in  his  last  enterprise,  the  misunderstandings 
thereby  created  were  eventually  adjusted.  Lubeck 
on  the  other  hand  demanded  that  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark should  declare  war  on  the  Hollanders,  and  in 
the  mean  time  postponed  the  assertion  of  its  own 
quarrel  with  them  in  order  to  kindle  a  new  one  in 
the  North.  Marcus  Meyer  and  Gorgen  Wollen- 
wever,  two  bold  demagogues,  were  the  men  who, 
having  ejected  the  old  council  of  Lubeck  and 
usurped  the  government  in  the  name  of  the 
])opulace,  ruined  the  power  of  their  native  city  by 
the  attempt  again  to  make  and  unmake  kings.  By 
the  death  of  Frederic  of  Denmark  on  the  3d  April, 
1533,  and  the  disputes  which  afterwards  arose 
respecting  the  succession,  their  plans  were  ad- 
vanced. To  excite  new  troubles  in  Sweden  they 
employed  the  name  of  young  Suanto  Sturd,  a  son 
of  the  last  administrator,  who  had  fallen  into  their 
hands.  The  generous  j'outh  refused  to  be  the  tool 
of  their  designs,  for  which  they  found  a  more  will- 

3  So  Tegel  and  the  chronicles ;  but  this  must  be  under- 
stood only  of  a  portion  of  the  property.  By  a  royal  letter  of 
investiture  ot  the  10th  November,  1534,  Stephen  Henricson, 
burgomaster  of  Upsala,  received  half  of  the  property  of 
Anders  Person.     Reg.  of  the  Archives. 

4  Act  of  the  diet  of  Stockholm  in  1526. 

5  The  treaty  formed  with  Denmark  at  Copenhagen  in 
15.32,  excluding  the  Hollanders  from  the  Baltic,  was  not  ra- 
tified, the  emperor  and  stadholder  of  the  Netherlands  having 
declared  that  Christian's  invasion  had  been  undertaken 
against  their  wishes. 

6  Instructions  for  RolutfMatson,  March  20,  1535.  Archives 
of  Christian  II. 


ing  instrument  in  the  count  John  of  Hoya,  whom 
Christian  reckoned  one  of  the  persons  "  introduced 
into  the  government  by  the  towns  ^."  Gustavus, 
as  has  been  mentioned,  had  united  him  in  mar- 
riage with  his  sister,  placed  him  in  his  council,  and 
bestowed  upon  him  a  considerable  territory  in  Fin- 
land. Estrangement  seems  to  have  first  arisen  be- 
tween the  count  and  his  sovei'eign  from  the  compu- 
tation of  the  Swedish  debt  made  by  the  former  at 
Lubeck  in  1529,  fixing  the  amount  at  10,000  marks 
higher  than  Gustavus  would  acknowledge  '.  The 
debt  was  afterwards  discharged  within  the  period 
agreed  upon,  but  the  Lubeckers  maintained  that 
from  8,000  to  10,000  marks  of  the  same  were  still 
wanting,  while  Gustavus  asserted  that  the  Lubecine 
commissioners  had  omitted  just  so  much  from  their 
accounts,  and  applied  the  money  to  their  own  use  *. 
The  consequence  was  that  the  Lubeckers  seized  a 
ship  behinging  to  the  king,  whereupon  he  laid  an  em- 
bargo on  all  Lubecine  vessels  in  Swedish  harbours, 
the  bitter  hatred  of  the  townsmen  to  him  taking 
vent  in  speeches,  writings,  overt  acts  of  hostility, 
and  at  last  also  in  clandestine  designs  against  his 
life.  The  count  of  Hoya  fled  with  his  wife  and 
children  from  Sweden,  and  was  received  at  Lubeck 
with  public  testimonies  of  rejoicing.  Associating 
himself  to  the  other  Swedish  exiles,  he  took  part 
with  Gustavus  Trolle  and  Bernard  of  Melen  in  the 
war  which  nowbi'oke  out.  In  the  year  1534  began 
the  count's  feud,  so  called  because  the  possessors  of 
power  in  Lubeck  placed  count  Christopher  of  Olden- 
burg at  the  head  of  their  attack  upon  Denmark. 
This  was  the  last  blow  struck  for  Christian  II., 
whose  cause  Lubeck  pretended  to  lead  ;  it  was  the 
last  contest  between  tlie  Reformation  and  Catho- 
licism in  Denmark  ;  it  was  likewise  one  of  the 
burgesses  and  peasants  against  the  nobles,  waged 
with  furious  exasperation,  and  at  first  with  success, 
since  Malmce,  Copenhagen,  the  Danish  islands, 
Scania,  Halland,  and  Blekinge  in  a  short  time  ac- 
knowledged the  captive  Christian  as  king.  As  soon 
as  all  prospect  of  his  liberation  disappeared,  Lubeck 
supported  duke  Albert  of  Mecklenburg  in  his  pre- 
tensions to  the  Danish  crown  ^,  and  held  out  to  his 
nephew  Philip  hopes  of  obtaining  that  of  Sweden. 
At  the  same  time  count  Christopher  of  Oldenburg 
urged  forward  his  own  schemes,  and  Christian's 
son-in-law  the  palsgrave  Frederic,  afterwards 
elector,  sought  to  enforce  his  rights  from  Germany 
by  the  emperor's  aid,  obtaining  adherents  even  in 
the  northern  part  of  Norway  '. 

The  imminence  of  mutual  danger  occasioned  a 
closer  alliance  between  Sweden  and  Denmark, 
which,  sanctioned  by  the  Danish  council  in  1534, 
received  additional  strength  when  Frederic's  eldest 
son  Christian  III.  a  year  and  a  half  afterwards 
mounted  the  throne  ^.  The  Lubeckers  were  driven 
out  of  Scania,  Halland,  and  Blekinge,  by  the  forces 

7  See  the  reasons  in  Tegel,  1.  221. 

**  See  the  different  letters  of  Gustavus  respecting  the  debt 
to  the  council  of  state,  the  count  of  Hoya,  the  magistrates  of 
Stockholm  and  Lubeck,  the  latter  of  September  14,  1533. 
Reg.  of  the  Archives. 

3  He  was  married  to  the  daughter  of  Christian's  sister. 

'  To  punish  their  attachment  to  Cluistian  and  his  family, 
a  resolution  was  passed  after  the  end  of  the  war  by  a  baronial 
diet  in  Copenhagen,  "that  Norway  should  for  the  future 
have  no  separate  council,  but  should  be  governed  as  a  pro- 
vince of  Denmark." 

2  He  visited  Gustavus  at  Stockholm  in  1535. 


15-13.] 


Conspiracy 
detected. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.    THE  REFORMATION. 


Measures  of  Church 
discipline. 


12J 


of  Gustavus  ;  their  fleet  was  defeated  by  tlie  com- 
bined Swedish  and  Danish  squadrons.  In  Den- 
mark too  their  good  fortune  came  to  an  end  with 
the  overtlirow  in  Funcn  (in  which  Gustavus  Trolls 
was  moi'tally  wounded),  though  Copenhagen  was 
devoted  to  their  interest,  and  the  defence  of  the 
town  was  protracted  throughout  a  whole  year. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  siege  the  distress  was  so 
extreme  tliat  people  died  of  hunger  in  the  streets, 
and  children  were  observed  sucking  blood  from 
the  breasts  of  their  expiririg  mothers*.  Lubeck 
saw  itself  reduced  in  1536  to  conclude  a  peace  with 
Denmark,  which  brought  the  war  with  Sweden 
also  to  an  end.  But  the  dissatisfaction  of  Gustavus 
that  Denmark  should  have  concluded  a  separate 
peace,  and  under  conditions  by  which  he  deemed 
his  intei-ests  to  be  prejudiced  in  several  points, 
the  difficulties  which  arose  concerning  the  payment 
of  the  loan  wherewith  he  had  assisted  Christian 
III.,  and  various  other  disputes,  had  afterwards 
well-nigh  led  to  a  rupture  with  Denmark.  At 
length  a  good  understanding  was  restored,  and  an 
alliance  between  the  two  kingdoms  for  twenty 
years  contracted,  at  a  personal  interview  of  the 
sovereigns  in  Bromsebro.  The  Hanse  Towns  on 
the  other  hand,  after  this  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
restore  their  ancient  influence  in  the  north,  never 
recovered  their  former  privileges.  In  Lubeck, 
the  party  which  had  instigated  the  war  "was  over- 
turned. Among  their  plans  was  included  a  con- 
spiracy against  Gustavus  ;  the  king  was  to  be  as- 
sassinated, and  Stockholm  delivered  to  the  Lu- 
beckers.  The  plot  was  detected,  and  its  authors, 
who  were  for  the  most  part  German  burgesses, 
sutt'ered  (in  153G)  the  penalty  of  their  crime.  Four 
years  afterwards,  Olave  Peterson  and  Lawrence 
Anderson  were  accused  of  not  having  revealed  this 
treason,  which  had  come  to  their  knowledge  through 
the  confessional.  They  were  brought  to  trial  and 
condemned  to  death  ;  Lawrence  Peterson,  who 
had  been  appointed  in  1531  the  first  Lutheran 
archbisliop,  being  obliged  himself  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  his  brother*.  The  king  granted  them 
their  lives,  yet  not  without  imposing  a  heavy  fine, 
and  also  consented  that  Peterson  should  again  re- 
sume his  ministry  in  Stockholm.  Both  had  filled 
the  office  of  High  Chancellor,  and  they  were  the 
last  Swedish  ecclesiastics  who  held  this  dignity. 

Meanwhile  the  work  of  the  Reformation  was 
advancing  in  the  noi-thern  kingdoms.  Gustavus  is 
said  to  have  counselled  Christian  III.  to  break  the 
power  of  the  bishops  in  Denmark.  The  temporal 
lords  of  the  council  combined  with  the  sovereign 
to  deprive  the  bishops  of  all  power,  whether  eccle- 

3  When  the  famishing  inhabitants  demanded  tlie  surrender 
of  the  place,  the  town  magistrates  answered,  that  "  they  had 
not  yet,  as  in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  devoured  their  own 
children."     Hvitfeldt. 

*•  Messenius,  Scondia  v.  71,  85.  The  royal  anger  had  also 
been  awakened  by  various  expressions  employed  by  Peterson 
in  his  Chronicle  of  Sweden.  In  the  Registry  of  the  Archives 
for  1536  are  two  letters  by  tlie  king  upon  this  conspiracy, 
dated  the  15th  and  26th  of  May  (the  first  addressed  to  the 
common  people  at  the  fair  in  Upsala  on  St.  Eric's  dayl,  in 
which  ic  is  stated  that  the  master  of  the  mint,  Anders 
Hanson,  with  certain  Germans  and  a  number  of  Swedish 
burghers,  had  bound  themselves  to  take  off  the  king,  either 
"by  placing  gunpowder  under  his  chair  in  church,  or  by 
other  traitorous  devices  ;"  and  further,  that  the  conspirators 
purposed  to  seize  the  castle  of  Stockholm,  to  expel  all  the 


siastical  or  civil,  in  the  government  of  the  kingdom. 
The  Danish  prelates  were  all  arrested  upon  the 
same  day  of  the  year  1536,  and  a  reduction  of  the 
Church  property  was  undertaken.  Gustavus  also 
was  at  this  time  displeased  with  his  Protestant 
clergy.  He  reproaclied  his  new  instructors,  that 
by  incautious  alterations  of  the  old  usages  of  the 
Church  they  offended  the  simple,  and  displayed 
besides  a  very  eager  inclination  to  master  his  per- 
son and  government.  The  vehement  and  free- 
spirited  Olave  Peterson  first  drew  upon  himself  dis- 
favour on  this  account.  "  Hereby  come  scandal  and 
sedition,"  wrote  the  king  to  his  brother  (April  24, 
1539),  the  first  Lutheran  archbishop, "  that  the  peo- 
ple are  not  instructed  before  reformation  ensues  ; 
men  should  first  learn,  and  then  reform  ;  preachers 
shall  ye  be,  but  no  lords  ;  believe  not  we  shall  let  it 
come  to  tills,  that  the  bishops  should  get  back  the 
sword."  He  seemed  even  disposed  to  abolish  the 
episcopal  office  in  Sweden,  and  to  reconstitute  the 
Swedish  Church  upon  the  Presbyterian  model. 
George  Norman,  who  had  been  recommended  by 
Melancthon  to  the  king's  best  confidence ',  was 
appointed  superintendent  over  the  whole  clerical 
order  in  his  dominions  ^.  According  to  an  instruc- 
tion '  issued  in  1540,  office-beai'ers,  called  con- 
servators and  councillors  of  religion,  supported  by 
assistants  who  were  styled  elders,  were  to  regulate 
the  affairs  of  the  Church  in  the  provinces  imder 
his  revision,  and  to  hold  visitations. 

Although  this  arrangement  appears  never  to  have 
been  generally  carried  into  effect,  it  is  certain  that 
visitations  of  the  sees  were  made  accordingly,  by 
which  the  king  appropriated  to  himself  the  remnant 
of  plate  still  left  in  the  clmrchcs,  furnishing  to  each 
in  return  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  which  was  completely 
translated  into  Swedish  in  the  year  1541,  and  that 
changes  were  made  affecting  the  power  as  well  as 
the  titles  of  the  bishops.  From  the  year  1544,  the 
king  ceased  to  give  the  episcopal  designation  to  any 
except  the  primate  of  Upsala  ;  the  others  were 
styled  ordinaries,  and  the  bishoprics  were  subdi- 
vided according  to  the  royal  pleasure  among  several 
of  these  overseers,  "  seeing  that  the  bishops  have 
heretofore  had  far  too  large  dioceses  and  jurisdic- 
tions *."  Towards  the  end  of  this  prince's  reign,  the 
sees  of  Upsala  and  Linkoping  wei-e  thus  parcelled 
out  each  into  three  portions,  those  of  Westeras  and 
Strengness  into  two  ".  In  all  the  countries  where 
the  reformation  was  established,  it  is  ob.servable 
that  at  first  vacillation  and  uncertainty  prevailed 
respecting  the  question  of  supreme  authority  in  spi- 
ritual affairs.  Gustavus  scrupled  not  to  arrogate 
this  power  to  himself. 

magistrates  and  the  whole  body  of  nobles,  "  as  some  of  the 
German  tow  ns,  with  Malmb  and  Copenhagen,  were  minded," 
and  finally  to  bring  the  realm  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Hanse  Towns. 

5  A  copy  of  Melancthon's  letter  to  the  king,  dated  Witten- 
berg, May  12,  1539,  exists  aiiong  the  Palmskiild  Collections 
in  the  Library  of  Upsala. 

6  Warrant  for  master  George  Norman  to  have  inspection 
over  bishops  and  clergy,  Upsala,  December  8,  1539.  MS.  in 
the  Palmskdld  Collections. 

7  Instruction  by  which  the  conservator  and  councillor  of 
religion  in  West-Gothland  shall  be  guided.  Nyliidose,  April 
9,  1540.     MS.  ibid. 

8  Commission  for  those  who  are  made  Ordinaries.  Wes- 
teras, June  19,  1557.     MS.  ibid. 

9  Spegel,  Proofs  to  the  Bishops'  Chronicle,  p.  114. 


12G 


Rebellion  in 
Smaland. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Its  dangerous 
character. 


[152'1— 1543. 


"  Ye  would  wish  to  be  far  better  scholars  than  | 
we,  and  many  good  men  besides,"  he  writes  to  the 
commonalty  of  Upland',  "and  hold  much  more 
fast  by  the  traitorous  abuses  of  the  old  bishops 
and  papists,  than  by  the  word  and  gospel  of 
the  living  God.  Far  be  this  thought  from  you  ! 
Tend  your  households,  fields  and  meadows,  wives 
and  children,  kine  and  sheep  ;  but  set  to  us  no 
bound  in  government  and  religion.  Since  it  be- 
hoveth  us  as  a  Christian  monarch,  for  God's  sake 
and  for  righteousness,  conformably  to  all  natural 
reason,  to  appoint  ordinances  and  rules  for  you;  so 
that  if  ye  would  not  look  to  have  wrath  and  chas- 
tisement from  us,  ye  should  be  obedient  to  our 
royal  commandment,  as  well  in  temporal  matters 
as  in  religion." 

The  king  liad  employed  the  nobles  as  auxiliaries 
against  the  hierarchy.  He  had  confirmed  their 
cliarter  of  privileges  in  the  year  1526,  and  invited 
them  by  the  Westeras  Recess  to  participate  in  the 
reduction  of  ecclesiastical  property.  The  alliance  was 
soon  found  to  be  burdensome,  and  by  a  decree  of 
1538  he  forbade  any  one  to  lay  hands  on  the  posses- 
sions of  the  Church  until  the  party  had  proved  his 
right  before  the  king  himself.  Meanwhile  the  per- 
mission, once  given,  had  been  used  by  the  nobility  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  excite  highly  the  discontent  of 
the  people.  "  Thou  and  thy  like,"  wrote  the  royal 
censor  to  the  councillor  of  state,  George  Gyllensti- 
erna ',  "  live  as  there  were  neither  law  nor  rule  in 
the  land;"  and  to  the  baronage:  "  To  strip  churches, 
convents,  and  prebends  of  estates,  manors,  and 
chattels,  thereto  are  all  full  willing  and  ready,  and 
after  such  a  fashion  is  every  man  a  Christian  aud 
evangelical."  The  insurrection  which  had  broken 
out  in  Scania  during  the  Lubecine  war  was  directed 
particularly  against  the  nobles.  Soon  the  spirit  of 
revolt  spread  to  the  adjacent  Swedish  provinces, 
and  so  early  as  1537  troubles  arose  in  Smaland,  in 
which  the  peasants  were  heard  to  threaten,  "  thai 
they  would  slay  their  lords  and  root  out  the  whole 
body  ^."  Rigorous  measures  stilled  the  tumult  for 
the  moment,  but  the  disaffection  continued,  and  in 
1542  rebellion  was  general  in  Smaland.  Nils  Dacke, 
a  peasant  who  had  been  forced  to  flee  into  the 
woods  for  homicide,  was  the  ringleader.  His  band 
at  times  numbered  10,000  men,  and  he  defied  with 
success  the  whole  power  of  Gustavus,  "  because," 
so  runs  one  complaint,  "  the  peasants  will  not  come 
forth  into  the  open  field  after  the  fair  custom  of 
war,  but  when  the  household-men  (the  term  at  this 
time  for  the  regular  soldiery)  set  upon  them,  then 
do  they  like  the  wolf,  and  hug  the  forest  with  all 
haste  again."  The  rising  spread  from  parish  to 
parish,  or  more  correctly,  from  wood  to  wood, 
through  West  and  East-Gothland,  upwards  as  far 
as  Sodermanland.  First  there  come  secretly  emis- 
saries in  the  night  time — it  is  stated  in  a  relation  to 
the  king  * — who  press  followers  in  the  name  of  the 

1  Letter  to  the  peasantry  at  the  fair  of  Disting,  1540,  in 
tlie  Registry  of  the  Archives. 

2  Dated  at  Gripsholm,  March  5,  1538. 

3  Tegel  2,  92. 

••  In  what  manner  the  rabble  of  traitors  made  their  pro- 
gress from  Smaland.     Registry  of  the  Archives  for  1543. 
'  Herrehycklare,  fawuers  on  lords ;  lord-losels.     T. 


common  weal  and  the  advancement  of  Christianity. 
Then  if  the  priest  of  the  parish  be  mamed,  his 
house  is  straightway  plundered  ;  the  same  is  done 
to   rich  landowners    and  yeomen,  who  are   called 
lick-lords  ^.     In  this  wise  they  make  the  greater 
number  partakers  of  their  knavery,  and  ever  go 
forward,  spying  out  all  roads  and  paths,  not  seeking 
the  clear  fields,  but  holding  by  the  forest.    All  that 
belongs  to    the   gentry  is   forthwith  ruined,  none 
dares  to  ask  after  it,  and  all  who  are  in  livei-y  are 
accounted  for  thralls  to  the  great.     They  say,  that 
they  mean  no  ill  to  trafiickers,  but  only  to  lords'  men 
and  retainers,  pretending  that  they  wish  again  to 
build  up  Christianity,  to  abolish  the  Swedish  mass, 
and  brmg  all  things  back  to  their  old  condition. 
The  royal  bailiffs  were  killed,  the  manor-houses 
plundered,  and  the  crown  was  offered  to  Suanto 
Sture,  who  now,  as  in  the  former  attempt  of  the 
same  kind,  remained  true  to  his  sovereign.    In  vain 
the  king  tendered  the  insurgents  his  pardon  if  they 
would  return  to  obedience.      From  the  complaints 
of  grievances  to  which  these  transactions  gave  rise, 
it  would  seem  that  the  king's  bailiffs  and  the  barons 
had  perpetrated  various  outrages,  which  he  sought 
to  excuse  on  the  plea  that  they  had  been  committed 
without  his  knowledge.    "  Ye  reave  and  rend  from 
the  needy  wretches  of  peasants — he  writes  to  his 
officers — all  that  they  have,  sometimes  for  a  small 
matter,  and  then  it  ensues,  they  being  completely 
impoverished,  that  no  other  resource  is  left  them, 
but  to  run  from  house,  home,  wife  and  child,  and 
betake  themselves  to  the  foi'est-thieves."      There 
were  moreover  some  of  the  king's  own  economical 
regulations  which  had  pressed  with  peculiar  severity 
upon  the  population  of  this  region.     Old  priests 
fanned  the  flames  of  disturbance,  lifted  up  their 
hands  and  anathematized  the  king  in  the  churches. 
A  truce  was  concluded  with  the  royal  approbation, 
but  within  a  short   time  it  was   broken.     Dacke 
ruled  with  absolute  sway  in  Smaland  and  the  isle  of 
Oeland.     The    Swedish   refugees,  duke  Albert   of 
Mecklenburg,   the   palsgrave    Frederic,   who    en- 
nobled the  rebel  leader,  the  emperor  Charles  V. 
himself,  by  his  chancellor  Granvella,  entered  into 
communication  with  the  revolted  peasants  ".  There 
were  moments   during  these    disorders   in  which 
Gustavus  despaired  of  his  own  crown  and  of  the 
public  safety.     At  length,  in  the  suiumer  of  1543, 
they  were  suppressed.     Abandoned  by  all,  Dacke 
wandered  a  vagabond  in  the  forests  of  Blekinge, 
and  was   finally,  according   to   the   most   general 
account  (for  some  make  him  to  have  escaped  to 
Germany),  overtaken  by  his  pursuers  in  these  wilds, 
and  shot  dead  with  an  arrow '.      Thus  ended  the 
fiercest  insurrection  which  Gustavus  had  to  brave. 
It  was  also  the  last.    Upper  Sweden  remained  faith- 
ful to  him,  and  the  Dalecarlians  voluntarily  marched 
to  his  aid. 

6  See  the  emperor's  warrant  (dated  Barcelona,  October  23, 
1542,)  for  Granvella  to  repair  to  Sweden,  or  to  exchange 
written  communications  with  the  factious  ;  and  his  letter  to 
the  peasants  of  Smaland  in  Hvitfeldt  under  the  year  1542. 

7  Messenius  (Scondia  v.  !,'6)  says,  that  the  real  Dacke 
escaped  to  Germany,  again  ventured  to  Sweden  in  king 
John's  reign,  and  died  of  the  plague  at  Stockholm  in  1580. 


1544—1560.] 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     TtlE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


127 


CHAPTER  X. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CROWN  OF  SWEDEN  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  VASA.  INTERNAL  TRANQUILLITY.  REGALITIES 
OVER  COMMONS,  WATERS,  FISHERIES,  AND  MINES  ASSERTED.  CHARACTER  OF  THE  KlJiO's  ADMINISTRATION. 
FINANCE.  MEASURES  FOR  THE  PROMOTION  OF  AGRICULTURE,  MINING,  AND  COMMERCE.  ARMY  AND  MARINE. 
EDUCATION.  RELATIONS  WITH  DENMARK  AND  RUSSIA.  STATE  OF  FINLAND.  FAMILY  OF  GUSTAVUS.  ERIC 
AND    ELIZABETH    OF    ENGLAND.       DIET    OF    STOCKHOLM.       THE    KINO's    SPEECH    TO    THE    ESTATES.      HIS    ILLNESS 

AND    DEATH.      ACCOUNT   OF    HIM    BY    HIS    NEPHEW. 

A.  D.  1544—1560. 


So  early  as  the  year  1526,  when  the  council  solicited 
the  king  to  choose  a  consort,  provision  was  made 
that  if  God  should  grant  him  sons,  one  of  them,  and 
the  eldest  in  preference,  should  be  his  successor, 
while  lands  and  fiefs  were  to  be  settled  on  the 
others,  as  was  beseeming  for  the  children  of  a 
sovereign.  Six  years  elapsed  before  he  wedded  the 
princess  Catharine,  daughter  of  Magnus,  duke  of 
Saxe-Lauenburg,  and  sister  to  the  queen  of  Den- 
mark. Eric,  born  on  the  13th  of  December,  1533, 
was  his  eldest  son  by  this  marriage,  which  was  but 
of  short  duration,  for  two  years  afterwards  the 
young  Catharine  suddenly  died.  This  union  was 
not  of  the  most  happj',  yet  the  fault  probably  was 
not  on  the  king's  side  only,  since  his  second  wed- 
lock, contracted  in  1536,  was  rich  in  domestic  joys 
and  bliss,  although  his  bride  had  been  destined  for 
another.  She  was  Margaret  Lejonhufvud,  daugh- 
ter of  Eric  Abrahamson  of  Loholm,  a  council- 
lor of  state,  beheaded  at  the  massacre  of  Stock- 
liolm,  and  had  been  previously  betrothed  to  Suanto 
Sture,  the  same  youth  for  whom  the  enemies  of 
Gustavus  had  intended  the  throne,  and  who  was 
now  obliged  to  yield  up  to  the  royal  love  the  object 
of  his  own  affections  *.  Eric,  and  John  (the  king's 
first-born  son  by  Margaret)  were  presented  to  the 
council,  convened  at  Orebro,  on  the  4th  of  January, 
1540,  along  with  several  of  the  chief  nobles  and 
prelates.  The  king  drew  his  sword,  and  the  as- 
sembled peers,  touching  the  blade,  took  an  oath 
administered  by  him,  and  confirmed  by  the  recep- 
tion of  Ihe  sacrament,  in  which  they  acknowledged 
his  sons  as  the  legitimate  heirs  of  the  kingdom.  Four 
years  afterwards,  at  the  diet  of  Westeras,  this  act 
was  further  confirmed,  and  the  succession  to  the 
throne  settled  according  to  priority  of  birth  upon 
the  male  heirs  of  the  sovereign,  the  estates  recog- 
nizing and  doing  solemn  homage  to  Eric  as  crown- 
prince.  A  violent  thunder-storm  during  the  cere- 
monial, and  a  brilliant  rainbow  which  shone  out  at 
its  close,  were  regarded  as  prognostics,  with  terror 
or  hope,  as  men  were  differently  inclined.  In  his 
speech  to  the  estates  at  the  sitting  of  the  diet,  the 
king  once  more  expressed  his  attachment  to  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation  :  to  serve  God  rightly, 
to  love  him  above  all,  and  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ 
as  our  only  Saviour ;  to  hear  and  teach  God's  word 
with  gladness  ;  to  be  obedient  to  magistrates  ac- 
cording to  his  injunction  ;  to  love  one's  neighbour 

^  Suanto  Sture,  at  the  queen's  suggestion,  was  married  In 
1533  to  her  sister  Mary.     (Lejonhufvud,  lit.  Lionhead.) 

9  Among  the  143  persons  of  this  order  here  enumerated 
and  present,  one  clergyman,  Herr  Pafvel  of  Floda,  in  the 
diocese  of  Strengness,  is  named  among  the  councillors  of  the 


as  oneself  ;  and  keep  God's  commandments.  This 
was  the  true  worship,  these  were  the  true  good 
works,  and  for  this  we  had  God's  bidding.  But  of 
consecrated  tapers,  palms,  masses  for  the  dead, 
adoration  of  saints,  and  the  like,  nothing  was  found 
in  scripture,  and  God  had  forbidden  such  offices, 
like  as  he  had  instituted  the  holy  sacrament  as  a 
pledge  and  sign  of  the  forgiveness  of  our  sins,  not 
that  we  should  set  it  m  gold  and  silver  and  can-y  it 
round  the  church-yards  or  other  places.  "  Such  we 
let  you  understand  and  know,  he  said,  trusting  in 
God  that  we  herein  do  what  is  right.  Therefore 
is  it  much  to  be  wondered  that  ye  will  so  stub- 
bornly cling  to  the  bishops  and  the  old  usages 
of  the  church." 

The  Act  of  Hereditary  Settlement  passed  at 
Westeras,  and  dated  the  13th  of  January,  1544, 
is  drawn  up  in  the  name  of  all  the  estates  by 
order  of  the  nobles',  who  here  style  themselves 
"  members  and  props  of  the  crown  of  Sweden."  At 
the  diet  of  Strengness  in  1547,  the  estates  declared 
themselves  likewise  ready  to  acknowledge  and 
maintain  "  the  testamentary  disposition  which  the 
king's  majesty  has  made  or  may  yet  make  for  the 
princely  heirs  of  his  budy."  The  statute  for  this 
purpose  was  framed  by  the  clergy  ',  although  it  is 
plain  from  various  records,  that  the  other  orders 
also  gave  their  assent  to  it.  Now.  for  the  first 
time  after  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation,  we 
find  this  estate, — no  longer  represented  by  the 
bishops  only,  but  also  by  pastors  of  churches  both 
in  towns  and  rural  parishes, — again  mentioned  as 
present  at  the  diet  ;  a  proof  that  the  greater 
number  at  least  ^  were  now  Protestant.  After  the 
act  of  settlement  had  been  passed,  an  order  was 
made,  "  that  the  king's  majesty  might  not  daily  be 
burdened  and  troubled  with  so  many  affairs,"  for 
the  councillors  of  state  to  be  in  attendance  upon 
him  contuiually,  two  every  month. 

A  peace  of  ten  years  following  the  troubles  above 
detailed,  allows  us  time  to  contemplate  Gustavus 
in  his  internal  administration.  The  Liberation  was 
his  first  work,  the  Reformation  his  most  difficult, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  throne  by  the  heredi- 
tary settlement  his  last,  of  which  the  true  scope 
was  to  set  the  crown  upon  all  the  rest  by  securing 
their  permanency.  But  place  them  all  together, 
and  how  much  do  they  not  overpass  the  limits  of 
one  man's  life  !     Once  again  after  the  days  of  this 

superintendent,  or  Inspector  (Tillsynesman),  as  he  is  also 
termed,  George  Norman. 

1  See  Stjernman,  Resolutions,  i.  200. 

2  The  statute  mentioned  is  drawn  up  hy  the  clergy  of  the 
dioceses  of  Upsala,  Westeras,  and  Strengness. 


128 


Effects  of  tlie  Recess 
of  VVesteras. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Confiscation  of  Church 
property. 


[ISH— 


monarch,  the  ancient  days  of  the  Union,  altliough 
in  another  shape,  were  destined  to  return  ;  once 
again  the  papacy  was  to  struggle  here  too,  not 
without  liope  of  success,  for  the  recovery  of  its 
former  influence,  and  tlie  interval  of  another  gene- 
ration did  not  suffice  to  etface  from  the  memories 
of  the  nobles  of  Sweden  what  they  deemed  them- 
selves to  have  lost  by  the  hereditary  settlement. 
How  little  ground  was  thei-e  to  expect  at  that 
moment,  that  all  the  great  fabric  which  his  hand 
had  raised  could  be  consolidated  during  the  space 
of  a  single  reign,  and  the  system  in  its  operation 
acquire  the  certitude  of  law  !  Well  did  the  founder 
appreciate  the  chances  of  the  future,  and  it  was  in 
the  foreknowledge  of  the  coming  storm  that,  to 
fortify  the  power  of  his  liouse  against  its  rage,  he 
laboured  with  iin  impatience  which  was  not  always 
content  to  obey  the  behests  of  conscience  iu  the 
means  employed. 

All  was  yet  in  the  mould,  nothing  had  reached 
its  appointed  goal,  and  least  accurately  defined  were 
the  new  relations  of  the  Church  towards  the  state. 
Hence  the  Recess  of  Westeras,  on  which  these 
were  gi'ouuded,  underwent  in  practice  continual 
alterations.  By  its  provisions,  the  revenues  of 
bishopries,  canonries,  cathedrals,  and  convents, 
were  so  far  committed  to  the  king's  discretion, 
that  he  was  free,  after  reserving  to  the  holders  and 
masters  such  a  proportion  as  was  required  for  their 
due  maintenance,  to  apply  the  residue  for  the  be- 
hoof of  the  crown.  Nevertheless,  the  confiscation 
of  the  estates  appertaining  to  these  foundations 
was  not  the  immediate  result.  The  king  was  con- 
tent with  the  payment  of  a  fixed  rent  in  money, 
adjusted  by  compact  with  the  bishops,  chapters, 
and  monastic  priors,  whether  clerical  or  laical. 
Gradually  this  arrangement  was  changed,  and  it 
comjiletely  ceased  after  the  hereditai'y  settlement. 
The  king  sequestered  the  episcopal  estates,  and  the 

3  Even  for  glebe-lands  no  exception  was  made,  although 
there  is  proof  that  the  king  defended  these  from  the  en- 
croachments of  others,  forbidding  the  nobility,  in  1544,  to 
seize  any  estate  or  tenement  belonging  to  a  glebe  without 
his  consent.  But  there  are  in  the  Registers  several  instances 
of  manses  confiscated,  which  was  generally  effected  by  tlie 
junction  of  parishes.  Thus  the  king  writes  in  1548  to  Dane- 
mora,  that  the  priest  there  may  well  serve  two  churches,  be- 
cause the  king  wanted  the  manse,  and  if  the  peasants  did 
not  let  his  husbandmen  sit  "  unshorn,"  he  would  take  another 
way  with  them;  likewise  in  1552  to  the  minister  and  pa- 
rishioners of  Hiikhufvud  (Hawkhead)  in  Upland,  that  he 
needed  the  manse  for  his  mining  works,  wherefore  they 
must  look  after  another  manse  at  the  other  church  in  that 
parish.  (Rejster  in  the  Archives.)  Some  portion  of  the 
glebe-land,  however,  appears  generally  to  have  been  reserved 
for  the  support  of  the  pastor,  and  there  were  not  yet  any 
chapels  of  ease.  The  glebes  in  Norrland,  "  as  much  thereof 
as  the  minister  can  fairly  keep,"  were  already  excepted  from 
sequestration  liy  the  Westeras  Recess,  although  they  had 
been  formed  here  from  fc-u-ground  (skattejord),  which  in 
other  cases,  where  it  had  come  into  the  hands  of  the  Church, 
was  seized  without  exception.  In  places  where  the  monas- 
teries had  been  dissolved,  the  king  himself  appointed  spi- 
ritual instructors ;  and  so,  according  to  the  statement  of 
Eric  Benzelius,  (Utkast  till  Svenska  folkets  Historia,)  arose 
the  term  regale,  benefice.  So  early  as  February,  152G,  the 
king  sent  to  the  see  of  Abo  a  catalogue  of  several  "  benefices 
royal,"  as  he  called  them,  which  were  bound  by  old  custom 
to  pay  a  yearly  rent,  although  the  same  had  for  long  been 
omitted  ;  whence  it  appears  as  if  such  had  existed  from  a  very 
ancient  period.  Perhaps  the  king  really  refers,  though  his 
words  are  far  too  general,  to  the  annats  or  first  year's  income 


incomes  of  the  bishops  were  paid  instead  out  of  the 
two-thirds  of  the  tithes,  which  by  the  Westeras 
Recess  were  vested  m  the  crown.  The  like  befell 
with  the  estates  of  the  canons  as  well  as  with  their 
dwelling-houses  in  the  towns,  which  escheated  to 
the  crown  as  the  incumbents  of  canonries  died 
off"  or  were  removed  to  benefices  in  the  country. 
In  the  same  manner  the  remaining  conventual 
estates  were  appropriated,  as  the  monastic  life  was 
by  degrees  dropped,  so  that  at  last  only  some  few  aged 
nuns  were  to  be  found  in  the  convents  of  Vadstena, 
Skenninge,  Nadendal,  and  Skog,  who  were  sup- 
ported by  the  king.  By  diff'erent  ordinances  in  1545 
and  the  two  following  years,  all  other  ecclesiastical 
estates,  not  comprehended  under  the  denomina- 
tions already  mentioned  ^,  were  transferred  to  the 
state,  the  inferior  clergy  being  indemnified  out  of 
the  proceeds  of  the  crown-tithes.  The  king  found  it 
necessary  to  vindicate  from  misrepresentation,  in  a 
public  letter  of  July  f),  1547,  a  step  which  exceeded  the 
limits  drawn  m  the  Recess  of  Westeras.  It  follows 
from  what  we  have  stated  that  Gustavus  made  deep 
iiu'oads  on  the  property  of  the  Church,  yet,  even  in 
respect  to  revenue,  the  Protestant  establishment  of 
Sweden  had  a  better  lot  than  many  of  her  sisters 
in  other  lands.  The  first  evangelical  archbishop 
long  maintained  at  his  own  cost  fifty  students  in 
Upsala,  and  his  contemporary  bishop,  Martin  Sky tte 
of  Abo,  eight,  at  foreign  seminaries  of  learning  *. 
The  inferior  working  clergy,  who  likewise  received 
the  third  of  the  tithes  anciently  possessed  by  them, 
were  always,  although  inimical  to  the  king,  the  ob- 
jects of  his  care.  A  change  of  faith  has  seldom 
been  introduced  with  such  an  utter  absence  of  per- 
secution. The  reign  of  Gustavus  shows  but  too 
many  political  victims;  not  one  shed  his  blood  for 
religion.  There  are  indeed  instances  of  the  depri- 
vation of  clergymen  *,  but  for  the  most  part  the  king 
was  satisfied  with  giving  the  old  younger  coadjutoi's, 

of  vacant  clerical  benefices,  which  during  Catholic '  times 
fell  to  the  Romish  see,  and  which  the  civil  authorities  had 
already  begun  to  appropriate  in  some  places ;  Gustavus  levied 
them  in  all  cases  throughout  his  reign ;  and  thence  after- 
wards the  year's  grace  (nadar)  for  the  widows  of  the  clergy 
arose.  The  number  of  these  benefices  royal  was  increased 
in  various  ways.  The  king  reserved  to  himself  the  disposal 
of  all  prebends  (the  revenues  were  often  conferred  on  lay- 
men), and  commanded  moreover,  although  by  the  ordinance 
of  Westeras  the  bishops  had  to  fill  up  the  cures,  that  the 
announcement  of  vacancies  in  the  larger  benefices  should  be 
laid  before  himself. 

*  Rhyzelius,  Diskopskronika,  p.  344.  The  fifty  students 
whom  Lawrence  Peterson  maintained  were  originally  the  like 
number  of  swash-bucklers,  received  by  tlie  king's  order  for 
the  defence  of  the  new  archbishop  against  the  still  Romishly 
inclined  canons  of  Upsala.     Messenius,  Scondia  v.  55. 

5  See  the  king's  letter  of  February  28,  1548,  to  his  iirivy 
councillor  Botved  Larson,  to  look  carefully  to  two  priests 
whom  he  had  caused  to  be  brought  to  Stockholm,  and  who 
had  engaged  to  him  to  adhere  thenceforward  to  the  true 
evangelical  creed.  One  Ambiorn,  a  priest  in  Grebiiek  in  the 
diocese  of  Skara,  received  back  his  living  after  he  had  re- 
nounced Popery,  and  with  it  the  king's  letter  of  favour,  of 
February  6,  155L'.  Register  in  the  Archives.  Incapable 
preachers  were  also  deprived  at  the  several  visitations  which 
took  place  under  Norman's  superintendence.  The  clergy  of 
West-Gothland  were  obliged,  in  1510,  to  pay  fines  for  their 
ignorance.  Upon  one  of  them  being  asked,  "  Quid  est  evan- 
(jeiium?"  his  answer  was,  "Est  baplismus ;"  and  another  de- 
clared that  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Old  Testament, 
because  it  had  been  lost  in  Noah's  flood.  Hallenberg,  Value 
of  Coins  and  Wares,  232. 


1560.] 


^'theti"r'  GUSTAVUS  VASA. 


THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Tenure  in 
comnioiirv. 


129 


while  we  often  see  him  arranginji;  the  conditions  be- 
tween them,  and  anxiously  providing  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  evangelical  preachers  to  the  vacant  parishes. 
The  extension  which  the  Recess  of  Westeras 
received  in  its  execution  beyond  its  letter,  (and 
how  brief  and  irapei'fect  is  not  the  phraseology  of 
the  written  documents  of  this  age  !)  is  hardly  to  be 
blamed,  for  the  cause  lay  in  the  nature  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  the  act.  The  participation  to  which 
the  nobles  had  been  admitted  in  the  "  pkmdering  " 
(skofliug,  an  expression  of  this  age  for  confiscation) 
of  the  church  had  furnished  to  their  sovereign  an 
urgent  motive  for  saving  what  might  yet  be  saved ''. 
As  already  remarked,  the  nobility  obtained  by  the 
Recess  a  right  to  resume  that  part  of  their  property 
which  had  been  possessed  by  churches  or  convents 
since  the  inquisition  of  Charles  Canuteson.  There 
was,  no  doubt,  a  condition  annexed,  that  no  one 
should  exercise  his  right  till  he  had  proved  it  be- 
fore the  court  by  twelve  witnesses,  according  to  law. 
But  he  who  reflects  on  the  notions  prevalent  in  re- 
lation to  matters  of  law  and  right,  when  Sweden 
emerged  from  the  chaos  of  the  Union,  and  remem- 
bers that  the  judicial  offices,  of  which  the  revenues 
were  granted  away  similarly  to  other  feudal  tene- 
ments, were  at  the  disposal  of  the  nobles, — their 
duties  being  discharged,  as  the  king  himself  la- 
ments, by  persons  "  utterly  unskilled  in  the  written 
law  of  Sweden," — will  be  able  to  form  an  adequate 
conception  of  the  weakness  of  that  defence  which 
was  thus  raised  against  the  caprices  of  power.  The 
king  found  reason  in  1628  to  take  under  his  own 
especial  cognizance  the  claims  which  had  been 
made  in  several  individual  cases.  Ten  years  after- 
wards this  new  condition  was  made  universal  in  its 
application,  and  the  irregular  appropriations  of  in- 
dividuals "who  wrested  and  rent  from  the  churches 
aud  convents  to  suit  themselves,"  were  revoked. 
Another  infraction  of  the  Recess  of  Westeras  had 
become  not  less  necessary.  The  limitation  of  the 
claims  of  the  nobles  to  the  interval  which  had 
elapsed  since  king  Charles's  reduction,  as  decreed 
by  the  statute,  was  soon  fovind  to  be  impossible  in 
practice.  The  convents  fell  to  decay,  and  who 
could  distinguish  what  of  their  property  had  been 
acquired  before  or  after  1454  ?  Claims  were  ad- 
vanced to  the  whole  mass,  and  all  would  have  been 
plundered  if  the  king  had  not  interfered,  to  prefer, 
no  doubt,  claims  of  his  own,  but  which  were  at  the 
same  time  those  of  the  community.  Similar  mo- 
tives produced  that  third  extension  of  the  Recess, 
after  the  hereditary  settlement,  to  all  estates  and 
husbandmen  generally  remaining  to  the  church' 
and  clergy,  indemnity  being  found  in  return  from 
the  part  of  the  tithes  which  had  been  vested  in  the 

6  He  complained,  in  1 544,  that  his  bailiff  Nils  Westgbte  did 
not  give  in  an  account  of  the  plunderings  (skoflingar)  which 
had  occurred  within  his  district. 

''  Compare  the  Inventory  of  the  Estates  of  Bishops,  Canons, 
Prebends,  Churches,  and  Convents,  with  documents  annexed, 
drawn  up  by  order  of  Charles  XI.  in  1691,  by  Ornhielm.  MS. 

8  Rescript  of  King  Gustavus  I.  to  Helsingland,  Gestric- 
land,  and  Angermanland,  April  20,  1542.  This  is  not,  how- 
ever, the  first  occasion  on  which  he  had  embraced  the  maxim, 
as  is  plain  from  the  circumstance,  that  in  a  charter  of  August 
12,  15,35,  he  grants  permission,  "out  of  special  grace  and 
favour,"  to  the  people  in  Vermeland,  without  hindrance  to 
use,  to  settle,  and  to  hold  those  commons  which  they  h.ad 
anciently  possessed,  notoriously  and  of  right.  On  the  17th 
Fehruary,  1548,  the  king  again  wrote  to  the  Vermelanders 
in  reference  to  the  clearing  of  new  settlements,  that   he 


crown.  The  hierarchy,  a  fallen  power,  could  no 
longer  protect  itself,  much  less  others.  The  clergy, 
as  they  themselves  admitted,  were  no  long<'r  able 
to  defend  their  property.  In  exchange,  they  at 
least  gained  an  accession  of  security;  and  even  the 
nobles  had  no  just  ground  of  complaint,  since  a 
considerable  share  of  the  appropriations  thus  made 
was  distributed  in  new  infeudations '. 

So  great  a  power  in  the  affairs  of  the  church 
could  not  fail  to  exert  an  influence  on  the  king's 
civil  authority,  and  from  the  Recess  of  Westeras 
accordingly  dates  the  establishment  in  Sweden  of  a 
new  state-law,  by  which  it  was  considerably  aug- 
mented. Although  the  full  powers  which  it  claimed 
were  not  at  this  period  admitted,  still  ineffaceable 
traces  of  its  existence  remained.  All  those  rights 
of  the  crown  to  commonable  woodlands,  lakes, 
streams,  fisheries,  mines,  which  the  spurious  sta- 
tute of  Helgeandsholm  pretends  to  derive  from  so 
ancient  an  epoch  as  1280,  were  now  really  asserted 
and  obtained  validity.  The  extent  of  commonage 
or  common  ground  (allmanning)  unoccupied  by  in- 
dividuals, in  which  the  old  laws  comprehend  not 
only  forests,  but  mountains  and  waters,  may  be 
viewed  as  a  fair  measure  of  the  developement  of 
civil  society.  This  notion  of  one  common  property 
varies  widely  in  its  compass,  being  expanded  in 
proportion  as  the  community  itself  increases  from 
a  village  to  a  hundred,  to  a  province,  to  a  kingdom; 
not  seldom  the  larger  type  absorbs  the  subordinate 
and  limited,  from  which  itself  sprung,  especially 
where  the  crown,  as  representative  of  the  public, 
eventually  lays  claim  to  all  commonable  estate. 
During  our  middle  age  we  observe  tliese  claims 
illustrating  without  entirely  dissipating  the  con- 
fusion which  involves  the  relations  of  this  .species 
of  jjroperty,  more  indefinite  in  an  extensive  and 
scantily  settled  region  than  in  other  countries.  For 
in  Sweden,  where  so  many  parishes  are  still  pos- 
sessed of  similar  property,  the  title  thus  sought  to 
be  vindicated  by  the  throne  was  never  fully  made 
good,  though  it  was  more  than  once  asserted,  and 
by  the  restorer  of  his  country  in  the  strongest 
terms.  His  words  are,  "  all  ti'acts  of  ground  which 
lie  unoccupied  belong  to  God,  the,  king,  and  the 
crown  of  Sweden*."  In  the  days  of  Gustavus, 
therefore,  even  commons  of  hundreds  are  styled 
"the  king's,"  "the  crown's^,"  and  the  old  right 
of  property  in  those  lands  which  the  people  pos- 
sessed, obliterated  by  the  new  name,  fell  into 
oblivion,  and  was  declared  to  be  one  of  mere  usu- 
fruct. The  king  extended  this  system  still  further. 
He  declared  all  the  herring-fisheries  in  the  Baltic 
to  be  "  the  just  property  of  the  sovereign  ',"  and 
established  in  Sweden  the  maxim  that  "  the  flood 

would  gladly  give  leave  for  such  to  be  formed,  and  that  they 
might  retain  the  portions  of  wild  land  which  they  had 
brought  into  cultivation,  under  tribute  to  the  crown;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  king  could  not  permit  the  nobility  to  hold 
their  clearings  free  from  the  payment  of  dues.  On  the  25th 
November,  1548,  he  orders  that  in  West-Gothhnd  "those 
enclosures  of  noble  proprietors  to  which,  peradveiiture,  they 
possess  little  or  no  title,"  should  be  reclaimed  for  the  crown. 
Friilsemen,  or  persons  sitting  tax-free,  are  forbidden  (Feb 
ruary  9,  1549,)  to  make  encroachments  on  the  commons  of 
the  crown  in  Smaland.     Register  in  the  Archives. 

9  On  the  land-taxes  of  Sweden,  up  to  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  (Ora  Svenska  Jordens  beskatt- 
ning,  Sjc.)  Academical  Dissertation,  by  P,  E,  Bergfalk. 
Ups.nla,  1832,  i.  25. 

1  Rescript  of  March  1,  1545. 
K 


J 


130 


ExtL-nslon  of  the 
crown  dues. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  king's  method  of 
government. 


[1544— 


belongs  to  the  crown,"  applying  it  not  only  to 
the  salmon  fisheries  in  the  streams  of  Norrland 
and  Vermeland,  but  also  to  water-mills  which  had 
been  or  might  be  constructed  on  them  '^.  Lastly,  lie 
declares  it  to  have  been  determined  that  all  veins  of 
ore  in  Sweden  shall  belong  to  the  crov\ai '.  And  his 
appeals  in  this  as  in  other  questions  to  "  the  law  of 
Sweden,"  and  to  "all  charters  of  the  kings,  princes, 
and  lords,  his  deceased  predecessors,"  though  not 
always  well-founded,  would  be  the  more  readily  re- 
ceived, that  men  had  had  sufficient  time  during  the 
Union  to  forget  what  really  was  or  was  not  a  right 
of  the  crown. 

These  extended  claims  served  indeed,  on  the  one 
side,  to  make  the  resources  for  the  support  of  the 
population  more  generally  accessible,  wherefore  the 
king  states  it  as  a  corollary  from  the  rights  of  the 
crown  in  respect  to  mines, "  that  every  man  should 
have  liberty  to  open  mines  m  the  domain  of  the 
crown,  who  would  consent  to  discharge  the  crown 
dues  therefrom,  according  to  compact  with  the 
bailiff  of  the  mines."  On  the  other  side,  a  discre- 
tionary power  was  confided  to  the  king's  liands, 
which  might  become  dangerous  for  individual 
rights  of  property,  especially  as  the  logic  of  Gus- 
tavus  was  not  liglitly  deterred  by  fears  of  possi- 
bilities. His  arguments  against  the  exemption  of 
the  clergy  from  payments  to  the  state  are  remark- 
able. "  This  can  we  with  our  poor  understanding 
divine,  although  ye  will  not," — he  writes  in  1525  to 
bishop  Brask, — "  that  land  that  is  tax-free  has  first 
of  all  been  made  assessable  and  after  become  tax- 
free,  not  that  the  king  should  then  have  nought 
more  to  do  with  it,  as  ye  write,  but  that  service 
should  therefore  be  done  to  the  king.  If  the  sove- 
reign shall  have  nothing  to  do  with  churches  and 
convents,  whei'e  abidetli  the  service  which  should 
be  performed  for  that  land  free  of  taxes  which  is 
now  under  churches  and  convents  ?  Therefore  ye 
are  not  to  write  that  the  crown  has  laid  out  nothing 
there,  and  consequently  ought  not  to  raise  any  thing 
thence."  We  have  hei'e  only  the  first  link  of  the 
chain  of  conclusions,  which  stretched  much  further. 
All  waste  land  was  now  regarded  as  belonging  aiid 
having  ever  belonged  to  the  crown  ;  it  was  held  to 
be  unquestionable  that,  consequently,  all  socage- 
farms  *  had  been  founded  upon  the  crown-lands  ; 
and  that  the  royal  bounty  by  which  the  occupants 
received  grants  in  perpetuity,  was  the  only  cause 
which  had  dissevered  these  from  the  proper  domain 
of  the  crown  ^.  The  number  of  estates  originally 
comprised  in  this  was  small,  but  it  was  consider- 
ably'augmented  in  this  reign,  perhaps  by  prejudi- 
cations of  the  same  kind.  Gustavus  strictly  main- 
tained and  acted  upon  this  proposition.     To  the 

*  To  the  councillor  of  the  exchequer,  Botved  Larson,  upon 
the  fishery  in  Skelleftea,  Pitea,  and  Tornea,  February  16, 
1548.  "  We  hear  that  in  the  upper  country  there  are  some 
good  salmon  fisheries,  which  belong  to  us."  To  the  same, 
March  11,"  upon  the  streams  of  Vermeland,  where  there  are 
opportunities  for  salmon  fisheries  and  saw-mills,  whence  the 
crown  may  derive  some  advantage."  Registry  in  the  Ar- 
chives. 

3  Prohibition  to  the  miners  of  Nora  Forest  to  enclose 
crown  mines.  Westeras,  March  29,  1551.  Register  of  the 
Archives. 

*  This  is  the  nearest  expression  I  can  find  for  skatte-hem- 
man,  granges  or  farms  of  which  the  proprietor  was  bound  to 
pay  rent,  or  do  service  to  the  king,  and  which  were  thus 
held  by  a  tenure  similar  to  that  of  socage.     T. 


sokemen  of  Upland  he  writes,  "  that  they  allow 
themselves  to  fancy,  that  when  they  have  acquired 
such  fee-farms  by  lawful  inheritance,  purchase,  or 
otherwise,  they  may  deal  therewith  as  it  pleases 
them.  To  that  we  answer,  that  so  long  as  they 
maintain  such  granges  with  the  requisite  buildings 
in  good  condition,  and  perform  other  obligations, 
they  may  keep  possession  of  the  same  ;  but  if  they 
fail  in  that,  then  their  tenements  escheat  to  us  and 
the  crown  of  Sweden "."  He  refutes  the  same 
"  perverse  opinion"  among  the  sokemen  in  Sma- 
land  with  the  same  logic,  and  when  the  inde- 
pendent  peasants  complained  that  the  king's  bailiffs 
held  surveys  of  their  buildings,  he  answered  (Feb. 
6,  1650)  ;  "yet  do  we  think  that  it  well  befits 
us,  as  the  lord  of  this  realm,  to  see  that  surveys 
are  held  upon  the  houses  of  the  crown  peasants, 
the  nobles  having  like  power  in  respect  to  the 
peasants  of  their  manors,"  "  It  will  be  well  they 
should  be  brought  to  account  for  waste,"  the  king 
writes  on  anotlaer  occasion  ',  "  when  they  have  al- 
lowed wood  to  grow  up  in  the  meadows,  and 
neglected  or  badly  manured  the  fields  ;  the  interest 
of  the  crown  will  by  no  means  suffer  that  we  over- 
look this."  And,  what  is  most  important,  many 
peasants,  upon  such  grounds,  foi'feited  their  right 
of  property  to  the  king. 

Gustavus  commonly  showed  that  he  entertained 
the  most  exalted  notions  of  the  powers  of  his  regal 
office,  and  though  he  ascribed  its  origin  to  God  and 
to  the  people,  to  judge  from  his  favourite  saying  and 
his  last  words,  yet  the  divine  right  appears  to  have 
had  the  preference  in  his  inclinations  at  one  period 
of  his  life.  "  In  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity," 
he  said,  when  the  council  in  the  year  1540  swore 
obedience  to  him,  upon  his  bare  sword,  as  an  heredi- 
tary sovereign,  "  and  out  of  the  Divine  strength 
and  power  of  Almighty  God,  which  is  bestowed 
upon  us  and  all  the  royal  and  princely  lords,  heirs 
of  our  body,  from  genei-ation  to  generation,  to  rule 
and  dispose  over  you  and  all  our  subjects  upon 
earth,  we  hold  this  sword  of  righteousness  over  you 
to  witness  ;  herewith  swear*."  Immediately  there- 
after he  styled  himself  king  hereditary  ",  without 
waiting  for  the  formal  act  of  settlement  subse- 
quently passed  at  Westeras. 

With  this  disposition  the  king  did  not  feel  it  to 
be  at  all  incompatible  to  declare  upon  any  outbreak 
of  popular  discontent,  that  he  was  ready  to  change 
and  to  amend  whatever  might  be  faulty  in  his  go- 
vernment ;  they  might  well  make  their  discontent 
known  without  feud  or  revolt  ;  they  should  com- 
plain to  the  king,  if  his  officers  transgressed  in  any 
thing  ;  he  could  not  travel  to  every  man  in  the 
kingdom  and  hear  how  it  went  with  him.  We  have 

5  Bergfalk,  ib.  33. 

6  To  his  bailiffs  in  Upland,  dated  Upsala,  April  15,  1541. 
That  the  peasants  themselves  should  let  out  their  lands,  and 
thereby  draw  "stiff  corn-rents,"  so  that  the  farms  fell  to 
ruin,  was  not  to  be  permitted.  On  May  2G,  1553,  the  la- 
bourers of  the  peasants  are  forbidden  to  pay  rent  to  any  one 
but  the  king. 

7  To  Mats  Ingemarson,  Gripsholm,  June  29,  1547.  To  the 
crown  peasants  in  Smaland  who  do  not  keep  their  farms  in 
order,  February  4,  1553.     Registry  In  the  Archives. 

8  See  the  oath  in  Tegel. 

9  "  Your  rightly  reijniing  hereditary  king."  Form  of  go- 
vernment in  West-Gothland,  April  9,  1540.  Stjernman, 
Statutes,  j.  163.  To  the  common  people  at  the  fair  of  Dis- 
ting,  February  3,  1541.     Registry. 


1560.] 


Public 
assemblies. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.    THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Conrad  of 
Pyby. 


131 


seen  in  the  various  insurrections,  with  what  in- 
dependence the  communities  of  the  provinces  which 
were  for  the  time  quiet  acted  as  mediators  and 
negotiators,  invited  to  the  office  by  their  sovereign 
himself.  He  ordinarily  acknowledged  the  political 
influence  of  the  people  by  accounts  and  expositions, 
publicly  rendered,  of  the  transactions  of  his  ad- 
ministration. Such  statements  were  made  not 
merely  at  the  diets,  but  for  the  most  part  annually 
at  the  great  fairs,  especially  in  Sweden  Proper. 
There  the  democracy  was  stronger,  and  the  king 
either  himself  attended  such  popular  assemblages, 
as  those  of  Upsala,  Strengness,  and  Westeras,  to 
hold  discourses  to  the  commonalty,  or  excusing  iiis 
own  absence,  he  sent  some  of  the  council  with  his 
letters  for  the  same  purpose.  These  papers  con- 
tain either  relations  of  military  occurrences  (the 
bulletins  of  the  time),  and  hostile  assaults  appre- 
hended, or  of  the  course  of  negociations,  or  procla- 
mations in  reference  to  revolts,  or  the  new  doctrine 
(which  the  king  would  never  admit  to  be  new),  or 
the  demands  of  the  people  to  abide  in  all  by  that 
which  they  termed  "  old  and  of  yore,"  or  accounts 
of  expenditure,  or  propositions  respecting  other 
administrative  affairs,  with  not  unfrequently  good 
advice  upon  domestic  economy,  intelligence  of  the 
king's  health,  and  other  matters,  all  iu  language, 
the  characteristic  stamp  of  which  would  alone 
have  proved  that  it  was  dictated  by  himself,  had 
we  not  his  own  testimony,  that  from  want  of  in- 
telligent assistants  he  usually  directed  his  own 
chancery  in  pei-son  ^.  His  industry,  like  that  of  all 
men  without  exception  whose  activity  has  be- 
queathed any  fruits,  far  exceeded  the  ordinary 
measure  of  exertion  2.  He  used  to  say  to  his 
sons  :  "  Give  due  consideration  to  all  things,  ex- 
ecute them  quickly  and  hold  to  them,  deferring 
nothing  till  the  morrow.  A  resolve  not  carried 
out  at  the  right  moment,  I'esembles  a  cloud  without 
rain  in  great  drought." 

Yet  it  belongs  to  truth  not  to  conceal  that  these 
dissimilar  sides  of  his  administration  sometimes 
ran  into  the  two  opposite  extremes  of  deraagoguism 
and  despotism,  which  are  besides  related  to  each 
other  as  fraud  and  force.  A  policy  may  be  termed 
demagogic  which  deludes  the  masses  in  order  to 
manage  them  ;  and  history  shows  that  in  all  cases 
in  which  these  influence  the  government  immedi- 
ately, not  less  than  in  despotisms,  such  a  policy  has 
prevailed.  In  Sweden,  where  democracy  was  so 
powerfid,  it  had  been  from  of  old  in  use.  The 
Stur^s  were  no  contemptible  masters  of  the  art  ; 
and  bishop  Hemming  Gadd  might  have  given  les- 
sons to  students  of  its  mysteries.  This  arose  from 
their  position  as  popular  leaders,  wielding  a  power 

'  We  find  it  sometimes  observed  in  the  registers,  "  Scripsit 
regia  majestas  ;  dictavit  regiamajestas  ;"  the  latter  probably 
was  more  frequently  the  case.  The  king  was  a  stickler  for 
purity  of  diction  :  "  Besides,  thou  mayest  tell  thy  clerk,"  he 
enjoins  one  of  his  bailiffs  in  1529,  "  that  he  should  keep  to 
his  mother  tongue  the  Swedish,  and  not  write  us  jeg  for 

jag"  (I)- 

2  "  i  have  often  spoken  with  the  said  king  Gustavus,  who 
was  a  prince  very  high  and  puissant,  very  active  and  ready, 
taking  incredible  pains  and  labour  with  his  affairs.  As  for  his 
wit  and  industry,  his  great  and  memorable  enterprises,  his 
prudence  in  conducting  them,  as  well  as  the  wise  adminis- 
tration and  preservation  of  the  said  kingdom  for  so  long  a 
time,  and  the  happy  success  of  his  designs,  do  so  commend 
him  that  he  ought  justly  to  have  surmounte<l  all  envy." 


iu  many  respects  indefinite  and  ambiguous,  strug- 
gling against  the  Union  without  daring  to  break  it. 
The  path  in  which  Gustavus  moved  was  more  open 
and  lofty,  but  even  he,  especially  in  the  earlier  por- 
tion of  his  cai'eer,  saw  himself  obliged  to  employ  tlie 
same  methods.  No  one  can  fail  to  observe  that  the 
promises  he  made  in  moments  of  peril  were  not  al- 
ways to  be  relied  upon  when  it  had  passed  away. 
The  Dalecarlians  complained  in  their  first  insurrec- 
tion that  truth  was  never  to  be  found  in  him  ;  the 
Smalandei's  during  Dacke's  raid  did  not  confide  in 
his  offers  of  a-mnesty.  And  they  were  right,  for  his 
mandate  to  his  commanders  was  to  the  effect  that 
"they  should  deal  artfully  and  tenderly  with  the 
rogues  ;  they  were  to  undertake  and  engage  to  grant 
them  every  thing  that  was  possible,  even  if  tliey 
should  not  keep  what  they  promised  ^." 

Throughout  some  years  a  foreign  influence  is 
observable  in  the  councils  and  measures  of  this 
king's  government,  proceeding  chiefly  from  Conrad 
Peutinger,  or,  as  he  called  himself,  Pyhy.  This 
man  was  a  Netherlandish  jurist,  who  coming  to 
Sweden  in  1538,  won  the  royal  confidence  by  his 
attainments  as  well  as  by  craft  and  flattery,  and 
was  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  high  chancellor  and 
privy  councillor  of  government  and  war.  His  long 
title  may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  style  which, 
introduced  by  him,  was  long  established  in  the  pub- 
lic affaix's  of  the  kingdom,  and  which  shows,  above 
all,  .in  inexhaustible  command  of  unswedish  words 
respecting  the  "  high  and  royal  power,  authority 
and  perfection."  He  was  one  of  the  projectors 
who,  when  any  thing  new  is  passing,  force  them- 
selves upon  rulers  ;  an  adventurer,  as  Luther  after- 
wards styled  him  in  a  letter  to  the  king.  It  was  he 
who  framed  the  oath  whereby  the  hereditary  suc- 
cession was  first  guaranteed  at  Orebro  in  1540*, 
for  which  the  magnates  could  never  forgive  him  ; 
he  was  likewise  so  odious  to  the  people,  who  said 
that  they  had  got  with  the  Dutch  chancellor  a  new 
king  and  lord  in  the  land,  that  Gustavus  himself 
was  obliged  to  undertake  his  defence  in  a  pubi'ic  or- 
dinance. The  so-called  "form  of  government  for 
West-Gothland*,"  of  the  above-named  year,  exem- 
plifies the  constitution  which  the  chancellor  designed 
for  the  kingdom.  A  pi'ovincial  board,  composed  of 
a  lieutenant  or  under-chancellor  (who  was  also 
called  conservator  in  affairs  of  religion),  four  as- 
sistant-councillors or  assessors,  and  a  secretary, 
under  the  king  and  the  supreme  council  of  state, 
was  to  pi'eside  over  the  government,  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  and  also,  with  the  concurrence  of 
the  royal  chamber  of  accounts  (kammarrad),  over 
the  management  of  the  rents  and  estates  of  the 
crown,  together  with  the  police.      This  last  word, 

Correspondence  of  Charles  Dantzai,  minister  of  France  at 
the  court  of  Denmark.     Scand.  Memoirs,  ii.  25. 

3  Letter  to  the  high  marshal  Lars  Siggeson,  baron  John 
Thureson,  with  several  councillors  of  state,  and  chief  men 
assembled  in  East-Gothland.  Stockholm,  August  22,  1542. 
Registry  in  the  Archives. 

*  "  In  the  time  of  king  Gustavus,  Conrad  von  Pyhy,  a  fo- 
reigner, was  high  chancellor,  who,  against  the  law  and  liberty 
of  the  kingdom,  was  set  over  all  native  Swedes  ;  he  brought 
in  new  oaths  and  ceremonies,  as  was  seen  at  Orebro,  and 
took  upon  himself  to  make  new  laws  and  reform  the  pro- 
vincial governments.  So,  too,  Norman,  who  wished  tliat  the 
nobility  should  hold  their  estates  by  feudal  tenure,  alter  the 
German  fashion."     Eric  Sparre,  Postulata  Nobiliuni,  I.ISS. 

5  Stjernman,  id.  i.  137. 


L 


132 


End  of  his 

schemes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  king's 

covetousness. 


[1544- 


like  many  of  the  rest,  had  been  hitherto  unknown 
to  the  counti'y,  and  appears  to  have  awakened  very 
great  alarm,  since  among  the  accusations  of  the 
peasants,  from  whicli  the  king  was  obliged  to  defend 
his  German  chancellor,  we  find  the  complaint,  that 
they  had  no  longer  liberty  to  bake  and  brew  in 
peace  ^.  The  police  was  to  be  managed  by  a  "ritt- 
master"  (who  was  likewise  to  be  an  assistant-coun- 
cillor), with  "  a  moveable  troop  ;"  they  were  to  be 
distributed  on  the  public  high-roads,  where  "  they 
were  to  question  every  one  of  his  occupation  and 
business,  arrest  suspected  persons,  and  demand 
way-bills  or  passports  from  foreign  or  internal 
traders."  Whether  this  constitution,  with  its  police, 
was  ever  brought  into  practice  may  be  doubted. 
Not  long  after  it  was  framed,  the  last  great  rebel- 
lion broke  out,  produced  among  other  causes  by  the 
levy  of  that  aid  which  the  king  with  his  council  of 
government  was  empowered  liy  its  provisions  to  de- 
cree, and  the  new  plan  of  taxation  adopted  in  1540'. 
Three  years  afterwards  Conrad  von  Pyhy  was  over- 
thrown ;  of  whom  the  king  declared  "  that  he  had 
meddled  much  to  the  loss  rather  than  the  behoof  of 
ourselves  and  of  this  realm  *."  On  his  return  from 
an  embassy  to  France  he  was  charged  with  bigamy 
and  also  with  embezzling  a  large  sum  of  money, 
was  stripped  of  his  offices,  and  ended  his  days  in 
prison  in  the  castle  of  Westeras. 

That  Gustavus  himself  would  have  long  consented 
to  entrust  his  authority  in  the  provinces  to  an  ad- 
ministration so  composed  seems  the  less  credible, 
as  he  loved  in  all  such  matters  the  shortest  way, 
namely,  that  of  personal  interference.  The  imme- 
diate relation  in  which  he  stood  to  his  bailiffs  never 
left  much  power  to  the  possessors  of  the  great  fiefs, 
who  were  likewise  the  king's  lieutenants.  Their 
power  over  his  own  peasants  he  expressly  rcstrict- 

6  Letters  of  the  king  to  tlie  hundreds  lying  about  Upsala, 
1540. 

7  This  undoubtedly  is  included  among  the  "  intolerable 
burdens  and  taxes"  of  which  the  people  complained,  accord- 
ing to  the  king's  letter  to  the  commons  of  Upland  in  1540. 
The  Smalanders,  after  the  revolt,  were  exempted  from  this 
aid  (again  imposed  at. the  diet  of  Linkiiping  in  1544)  with 
the  assent  of  the  council  and  the  nobility,  but  were  obliged 
in  return  to  give  the  king  several  thousand  oxen  as  an 
atonement. 

«  Letter  of  January  4,  1553,  to  Lars  Siggeson  Sparre.  The 
king  was  equally  dissatisfied  with  Pyhy's  successor  in  the 
chancellorship,  Christopher  Anderson  Rod,  who  wrote  him- 
self Artium  liberalium  magister,  as  well  as  councillor  of  state. 
He  escaped  to  Lubeck  and  died  abroad.  Gustavus  did  not 
again  fill  up  this  office. 

9  Letter  from  Upsala,  April  14,  1541,  that  not  they  who 
possess  fiefs,  but  the  king's  own  bailiffs,  should  collect  from 
his  peasants  the  so-called  yea.r]y  foddering ;  a  contribution 
which  arose  in  this  way,  that  horses  were  distributed  to  the 
homesteads  to  be  supplied  with  fodder. 

1  Manuscript  relation  of  the  church  estates,  already  quoted, 
made  by  Ornhielm,  by  order  of  Charles  XI. 

2  Letter  of  Charles  IX.,  distributing  the  hereditary  estates 
among  his  sons.  Nykceping,  March  31,  1610.  Kegistry  in 
the  Archives. 

3  "  Further  his  majesty  caused  various  estates  to  be  re- 
claimed for  himself,  yet  with  no  other  intention  than  that  those 
concerned  should  receive  full  compensation  in  other  estates, 
which  nevertheless  was  long  deferred,  and  during  the  life  of 
his  majesty  never  was  brought  to  any  performance  ;  besides, 
it  happened  that  one  and  the  other  made  over  his  pretended 
rights  to  different  estates  to  his  majesty,  who  thereupon 
took  possession,  although  it  was  afterwards  found  that  those 
v.ho  made  over  the  estates  had  no  right  to  the  same."  After 


ed  ^,  and  his  private  estates  were  now  very  nu- 
merous in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Being  related 
to  the  principal  families  of  the  country,  he  could 
personally  profit  by  the  authorization  he  had  pro- 
cured for  the  nobility  to  resvime  possession  of  family 
property  that  had  been  allocated  to  the  church,  of 
which  indeed  he  had  himself  set  the  example.  In 
conseqtience,  many  a  nearer  claim  was  obliged  to 
yield  to  that  of  the  king,  and  we  find  it  even  stated, 
"  that  his  majesty  often  accounted  himself  related 
to  one  and  the  other,  who  could  bj'  no  means  be 
brought  into  his  genealogical  tabled"  Hence  the 
heritable  estates  of  Gustavus,  which  comj)rised 
2500  manors  in  the  hands  of  Charles  IX.^,  not  in- 
cluding the  share  which  John,  duke  of  East-Goth- 
land, then  possessed,  were  for  fifty  years  after  the 
death  of  their  owner  the  subject  of  continual  dis- 
putes and  claims  for  restoration.  They  were  not 
merely  increased  by  the  expedient  mentioned  ;  the 
transactions  of  his  reign  supply  abundant  proofs 
that  the  king  sometimes  demanded  estates  and 
houses  from  the  proprietors  for  a  promise  of  com- 
pensation, which  was  not  always  fulfilled,  sometimes 
received  them  as  presents  from  persons  who  were 
not  the  proprietoi's  ^,  and  sometimes  appropriated 
them  solely  because  they  lay  convenient  for  him  *, 
to  effect  which  violent  measures  against  the  refrac- 
tory were  not  always  spared  *. 

With  all  his  kinsmen  the  king  had  controversies 
as  to  the  inheritance  of  propei'ty.  He  regarded 
himself,  moreover,  as  heir-general  to  all  the  plate 
and  moveable  goods  of  the  churches,  convents, 
and  ecclesiastical  foundations,  not  forgetting  even 
copper  kettles,  and  tin  cups '',  took  the  place  of 
the  bishops  as  co-heir  to  all  clerical  estates,  and 
was  not  content  with  the  smallest  share  '.     When 

the  king's  death  complaint  of  such  practices  was  made  at 
the  diet  of  1561.     Ornhielm's  Relation. 

••  To  Nils  Person,  in  relation  to  some  lands  with  extensive 
oak  woods,  which  belong  to  Dame  Brita,  relict  of  Lasse 
Anderson.  "  We  will  that  thou,  for  our  behoof,  shouldst 
take  the  said  lands  under  thy  charge,  and  lay  tax  on  them." 
Vadstena,  April  8,  1550.     Registry  in  the  Archives. 

5  To  Simon  Nilson,  that  he  should  release  from  prison 
Peter  Olson  of  Skeke,  since  he  gives  up  a  farm  to  the  king. 
September  14,  1559.     Registry. 

s  In  the  instruction  for  his  bailiffs  in  the  district  of  Upsala, 
June  1,  1548,  they  are  required  to  make  search  where  the 
copper  and  tin  vessels  in  the  guild-chambers  of  the  hamlets 
had  been  conveyed.  It  is  there  also  ordered  that  all  forest- 
pastures,  as  also  all  good  fisheries  in  lakes  and  streams, 
shall  be  vested  in  the  lieutenancy,  or  care  shall  at  least 
be  taken  that  the  castle  shall  have  its  part  in  them ;  the 
bailiffs  are  besides  forbidden  to  brawl  with,  threaten,  or 
oppress  the  peasants  ;  neither  may  they  drink  over-deeply. 

7  Lars  Erson,  bailiff  in  West-Gothland,  had  requested  to 
know  the  king's  will,  in  relation  to  200  ounces  of  silver  and 
500  marks  in  money,  which  master  Mans  Ambidrnson  in 
Sliara  had  left.  The  king,  although  he  was  remembered  in 
the  will,  (it  was  now  common  for  both  clergj'men  and  lay- 
men thus  to  dispose  of  some  portion  of  their  effects,  for- 
merly demised  to  the  Church,)  replies,  on  the  21st  March, 
1544,  that  when  in  former  times  rich  clerks  had  left  such 
inheritances,  the  bishops  used  to  grasp  nearly  all.  The  heirs 
might  give  in  a  memorial  as  to  their  sentiments  in  regard  to 
the  evangelical  doctrine,  and  the  king  would  consider  the 
matter  further.  He  did  not  always  wait  for  the  death  of 
the  owners  of  inheritances.  He  writes  to  the  bailiff  at  Ste- 
geborg,  July  29,  1544;  "  We  have  understood  that  the  fat 
master  Peter,  who  heretofore  has  held  the  parish  of  Grenna, 
would  give  up  his  cure  and  fix  himself  on  a  socage  farm.  So 
shall  he  have  neither  the  parish  nor  the  land,  seeing  that  his 


1560.] 


Domestic 
economy. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Plans  of 
improvement. 


133 


vacancies  occurred,  he  applied  to  his  own  use  in 
many  cases  the  revenues  of  the  gireater  benefices, 
paying  the  inferior  clergy  himself.  In  addition  to 
these  matters  of  gain,  he  engaged  personally  in  the 
pursuits  of  agriculture,  mining,  and  trade  in  all  the 
productions  of  the  country,  more  largely  than  any 
of  "his  subjects,  and  by  these  means  amassed  gi-eat 
wealth.  To  his  bailiffs  he  was  a  terror,  and  thus, 
like  himself,  in  questions  of  property,  they  were  by 
no  means  scrupulous.  At  Salberg,  where,  as  usual 
in  the  greater  mines,  there  was  at  this  time  an 
asylum  for  all  except  atrocious  criminals,  a  weekly 
payment  of-  twopence  (ore)  to  the  king  was  exacted 
even  from  "  loose  females,  who  herded  there  for 
their  roguery  and  dissolute  living."  On  the  other 
hand,  the  king  did  not  spare  his  own  pi'operty  for 
the  service  of  the  state.  The  Lubecuie  war  had 
exhausted  all  his  resources,  and  to  this  was  to  be 
added  the  calamity  of  a  conflagration  in  the  castle 
of  Stockholm,  "  where  we,"  he  says,  "  went  out  of  it 
so  bare,  that  we  had  no  more  than  a  jerkin  and  a 
silver  can,  from  which  we  might  drink."  In  1537 
he  began  again  to  lay  up  money  ;  the  Dacke  feud, 
he  complains,  cost  him  wliat  he  had  gathered  in 
seven  years.  Commencing  his  hoard  anew,  he  was 
able  to  leave  at  his  death,  notwithstanding  the 
war  of  his  last  years  and  the  large  extraordinary 
expenses  which  marriages  in  the  royal  family 
and  Eric's  English  wooing  occasioned,  four  large 
vaulted  apartments  full  of  silver,  called,  from  one 
of  his  chamberlains.  Master  Eskil's  cellars,  besides 
several  store-houses  filled  with  valuable  wares.  In 
the  latter  half  of  his  reign  he  established  breeding 
farms  (afvelsgardar)  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  : 
in  Norrland,  the  peasants,  who  were  alarmed  by 
the  proposal  of  their  formation,  purchased  its 
abandonment  by  offering  to  raise  the  yearly  amount 
of  their  land-tax  *.  There  were  estates  which  the 
king  took  into  his  own  management,  in  order  to 
maintain  upon  them  quotas  of  foot  or  horse  soldiers 
for  the  public  defence.  Upon  many  of  them 
both  tillage  and  the  breeding  of  cattle  were  pro- 
secuted on  a  great  scale  ;  and  at  Gripsholm,  queen 
Margaret  had  under  her  own  charge  a  dairy-farm 
so  extensive,  that  two-and- twenty  maidens  were 
employed  in  tending  the  cows  ^.  On  those  farms, 
which  were  often  the  seat  of  the  king's  residence, 

matters  do  not  so  greatly  please  us,  but  he  may  betake  him- 
self to  Vadstena  and  there  become  a  burgher.  He  well  may 
have  gathered  so  much  as  may  last  him  his  life  long." 
Register. 

8  The  king  consents  to.  this  arrangement  for  Angerman- 
land  and  Medelpad  by  his  letter  of  October  29,  1556.  The 
cause  of  these  apprehensions  is  shown  by  the  following  letter 
of  the  king  to  his  lieutenant  in  West-Gothland,  Gustavus 
Olson  Stenbock,  July  8,  1558  :  "  It  were  a  great  advantage 
tliat  the  fine  farms  which  are  now  held  by  a  heap  of  peasants 
who  do  little  good  for  the  crown,  were  applied  to  the  breeding 
of  cattle,  whereby  soldiers  might  be  maintained  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  realm,  so  that  payments  might  not  always  be 
required  from  the  commonalty."    Register. 

9  Statement  of  the  high  chamberlain  Stierneld,  from  the 
old  accounts  of  the  castle.  In  the  Registry  for  1548  is 
preserved  a  letter  of  the  I4th  January,  from  the  king  to  a 
baililf  in  Smaland  to  this  effect :  "  Our  dear  housewife  Mar- 
garet has  complained  that  the  m.ilch-cows  which  Sigfrid 
Jonsou  sent  to  Gripsholm  were  not  so  good  as  they  ought  to 
have  been.  Wherefore  admonish  him  strictly  that  we  are 
little  satisfied  that  he  does  not  give  more  heed  to  what  he  is 
commanded." 

1"  The  first  public  employment  of  Goran  Person,  who  was 


the  surrounding  peasants  were  bound  to  perform 
day-service,  and  the  bailiffs  are  enjoined  to  deal 
occasionally  with  them  in  this  matter.  There  ai-e 
still  extant  mandates  under  his  hand  for  the  most 
trivial  matters  of  domestic  economy,  and  the  state 
archives  sometimes  resemble  the  day-books  of  a 
great  household.  As  years  increased,  the  care  of 
these  farms  became  his  favourite  occupation,  and 
at  length  the  weakness  of  his  age.  When  he  visited 
Finland  during  the  Russian  war  in  1556,  he  selected 
several  new  farms  of  the  same  kind,  on  which  con- 
siderable sums  were  expended  (it  was  found  after 
his  death  that  they  had  cost  more  than  they  had 
yielded),  in  which  the  excellent  opportunities  for 
fisheries  and  water-mills  "  in  the  beautiful  streams" 
did  not  escape  his  observation.  Commissioners 
were  specially  despatched  throughout  the  country 
in  1558,  to  draw  up  an  inventory  of  the  royal 
estates,  to  whose  attention  were  recommended 
divers  plans  of  economic  improvements,  which  do 
not  appear  in  all  respects  practicable,  but  at  least 
prove  that  he  looked  upon  the  kingdom  as  his  own 
property  ". 

We  do  not  find  that  the  king  doubted  the 
rectitude  of  his  own  conduct,  or  was  very  deeply 
conceraed  at  those  violations  of  individual  rights 
which  often  attended  his  measures.  These  ap- 
peared to  him  to  vanish  ui  the  higher  prosperity  of 
the  whole  community,  which  he  never  omits  to 
extol  in  contrast  with  bygone  days,  sometimes  in 
colours  which  attest  a  deep  feeling  for  well-oi"dered 
domestic  happiness.  "  At  this  time,"  he  writes  in 
one  letter  to  the  commonalty  of  Upland,  "  both 
men  and  animals  may  rise  in  early  mornuig  in 
happy  quiet,  and  every  man  go  cheerfully  to  his 
labours  and  business.  Your  lads  and  maidens  go 
without  care,  glad  and  at  peace  into  the  fields, 
and  so  return  home  at  even.  Hills  and  valleys, 
plough-lands  and  meadows,  stand  now  well  adorned 
everywhere,  yet  are  ye  so  unthankful  and  stupid, 
that  ye  will  not  acknowledge  such  peace  and  good 
times  as  an  especial  grace  and  blessing  of  God. 
Ye  see  and  hear  of  all  the  neighbouring  prin- 
ces, lands,  and  towns,  how  they  tax  theii-  sub- 
jects right  well,  mostly  every  year,  often  twice  a 
year.  We,  who  have  for  all  your  sakes  quite 
drained  and  squandered  our  own  substance,  have 

so  powerful  under  Eric  XIV.,  was  of  this  kind.  His  in- 
structions mention,  among  other  points,  that  marshy  flats 
should  be  drained  by  the  tasked  labour  of  peasants,  or  if 
that  could  not  be  effected,  lakes  should  be  formed  upon  them. 
The  king  sometimes  despatched  these  affairs  in  a  very  merry 
humour.  Among  the  Nordiu  Collections  in  the  Libraiy  of 
Upsala,  is  the  copy  of  a  letter  of  sale  which  Gustavus  wrote 
with  his  own  hand  to  Lars  Kafle  of  Halqued  in  Upland, 
running  thus — 

"  Helsa  med  Gud  Lasse  Ka^e. 
Vefta  ma  du 
Godze  far  du ; 
Penga  a  mina, 
Godze  a  dina. 
Gack  bort  och  satt  dig, 
Gud  vare  med  dig." 

Health  and  peace  to  Lasse  Kafle. 
To  wot  thee  I  let 
The  goods  thou  shalt  get ; 
The  money  is  mine ; 
The  gear  is  thine. 
Away  and  rest  thee, 
God  be  with  thee. 


134 


I'opular  regard  foi 
Gubtavus. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES, 


Progress  of 
agriculture. 


[1544— 


yet  heretofore  laid  upon  you  no  exti'aordinary 
tallage,  in  the  thought  that  ye  yourselves  would 
tender  us  some  thankful  acknowledgment,  especially 
seeing  that  the  children  of  that  sanguinary  tyrant, 
Iving  Christian,  are  still  alive.  But  ye  reck  little  of 
the  need  that  pressed  upon  us,  in  the  thought  that  ye 
can  preserve  such  good  peace  with  your  own  hands 
at  home  in  your  own  houses."  The  letter  closes 
with  an  exhortation  to  pay  the  tithe  honestly,  an 
impost  which  the  people  had  little  scruple  in  with- 
holding, since  the  largest  share  went  no  longer  into 
the  coffers  of  the  Church,  but  into  those  of  the 
crown.  He  adds  injunctions  to  plant  hop-gardens, 
to  build  kilns,  to  drain  the  fields,  clear  the  meadows, 
and  ring  the  swine.  Several  of  the  king's  resci-ipts 
contain  similar  advice  on  household  matters.  These, 
dispersed  throughout  the  parishes,  were  regarded, 
from  respect  to  their  author,  in  the  light  of  com- 
mands. 

On  the  whole,  the  people  were  eventually  of  the 
king's  opinion,  and  long  after  his  death  men  spoke 
of  the  last  half  of  his  reign  as  of  the  happiest  time 
which  was  within  their  memory  in  Sweden.  It  be- 
longed not  to  the  spirit  of  that  age  that  a  ruler  by 
arbitrary  stretches  of  authority  should  quarrel 
irreconcileably  with  his  people.  Every  man  had 
for  long  been  accustomed  to  demand  a  certain 
scope  for  his  own  actions.  The  people  had  emerged 
from  the  commotions  of  the  Union  more  impatient 
of  the  law  than  of  its  transgression,  and  many  a 
one  who  stubbornly  resisted  every  general  in- 
crease of  the  old  rights  of  the  crown,  which  were 
now  almost  forgotten,  acquiesced  in  the  dictate  of 
power.  In  every  question  the  personal  element 
carries  weight,  and  the  relation  in  which  Gustavus 
stood  to  the  people  was  altogether  personal. 

This  monarch  was  the  founder  of  the  Swedish 
financial  system.  A  resolution  was  passed  by  the 
diet  of  Vadstena  so  early  as  1524,  "  that  the  king's 
majesty  should  have  power  to  ascertain  all  the  rents 
and  receipts  of  the  crown,  and  to  enrol  the  same  in 
a  register,  as  well  as  to  number  the  soke,  crown, 
and  free  peasants  in  each  province,  that  his  ma- 
jesty might  know  to  how  much  the  revenues  and 
rents  of  the  crown  amounted."  At  the  sequestration 
of  the  ecclesiastical  estates  the  king  took  possession 
of  the  registers  of  the  churches  and  convents,  which 
perhaps  furnished  the  model  for  the  ground-rent 
books  of  the  crown,  first  kept  by  his  order.     The 

'  This  is  clear  from  his  instructions  in  letters  to  the  coun- 
cillors of  the  treasury  as  to  the  method  of  arranging  the 
accounts,  so  as  not  to  confound  the  receipts  of  one  year  with 
those  of  another. 

2  The  king's  first  letter  on  taxation  applies  to  the  pre- 
fecture (Ian)  of  Stockholm,  and  is  dated  from  the  manse  of 
Vallentuna  on  the  Sunday  before  Martinmas,  1530.  In  it 
he  refers  to  old  books  of  taxes,  and  speaks  of  a  yearly  taxa- 
tion, which  also  seems  to  refer  to  the  former  methods. 
Meanwhile  we  find  the  taxes  raised  during  that  year  in  the 
hundreds  of  the  above-mentioned  government,  several  of 
which  were  in  Sodermanland,  as  also  in  Helsingland.  The 
addition  was  remitted  by  the  king  during  the  bell  sedition, 
but  afterwards  re-imposed.  In  1540  the  new  plan  appears  to 
have  been  first  acted  upon.  Rescripts  on  the  subject  are 
preserved  in  the  registers  of  that  year  to  West-Gothland, 
Upland,  Dalecarlia,  West-Bothnia,  Medelpad,  Angerman- 
land,  Helsingland,  and  Finland.  In  all  these  the  maxim  is 
laid  down,  that  every  man  should  bear  the  burden  of  the  tax 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  his  lands,  and  that  "one  should 
not  sit  more  kaiser-free  than  another,  shifting  the  greatest 
burden  from  himself,  and  laying  it  on  the  poor,  who  have 


first  directions  for  the  chamber  of  accounts  are  of 
the  year  1544,  and  were  drawn  up  by  the  king  him- 
self '.  New  schemes  of  taxation  were  adopted  in 
all,  or  at  least  in  the  greater  number  of  the  pro- 
vinces ^.  The  leading  feature  of  all  was  a  repar- 
tition of  the  taxes,  no  longer  according  to  the  nuni- 
ber  of  heads,  but  according  to  the  extent  of  ground, 
so  that  he  who  possessed  more  should  also  pay  more, 
in  place  of  the  old  mode  of  assessing  every  free- 
holder' at  an  equal  amount.  The  cultivation  of 
the  land  undoubtedly  made  progress  during  the 
time  of  Gustavus.  But  the  circumstance  which  is 
generally  appealed  to  in  proof  of  this,  that  namely 
of  the  export  of  grain,  was  merely  accidental,  and 
should  not  be  taken  for  a  proof  that  the  country 
really  had  an  adequate  supply  for  its  own  wants. 
In  1550  the  king  states  that  he  remembers  a 
scarcity  to  have  been  caused  by  such  an  export- 
ation ;  he  gives,  nevertheless,  permission  for  the 
chamber  of  accounts  to  discharge  the  claim  of  a 
Hollander  with  grain,"  if  it  should  seem  advisable  *," 
enjoining  the  bm'gesses  of  Stockholm  to  buy  grain 
in  Dantzic  the  same  year,  in  order  to  supply  the 
country  with  provisions.  In  the  following  year 
such  as  were  suffering  from  distress  received  suc- 
cour out  of  the  king's  storehouses  ^.  No  Swedish 
king  ever  more  zealously  encouraged  the  settle- 
ment of  the  country.  He  compares  this  more 
peaceable  and  auspicious  acquisition  of  land  with 
that  formerly  made  by  the  "  army  of  Goths,"  whom 
hunger  drove  from  Sweden  even  to  Switzerland  to 
seek  out  a  new  home,  "  where  their  descendants 
abide  to  this  day."  By  migrations,  he  adds,  to  the 
uncultivated  forests  and  wastes  of  Norrland,  the 
great  provinces  of  Helsingland,  Medelpad,  Anger- 
manland,  and  North  Bothnia  had  been  won  to  the 
crown  of  Sweden  ;  such  examples  should  incite  to 
their  imitation,  "since  Sweden  with  Finland  is, 
God  be  praised,  so  wide  extended,  that  there  is  no 
need  to  seek  far  for  fields,  meadows,  and  productive 
soil,  or  to  lament  for  want  of  room."  He  sharply 
reproves  the  peasants,  some  for  crowding  together 
too  closely  in  the  old  settlements,  others  for  taking 
more  land  than  they  could  cultivate. 

For  mming  operations  also  in  Sweden  the  reign 
of  Gustavus  forms  a  new  epoch.  The  silver  pro- 
duced from  the  mine  of  Sala,  which  the  king 
caused  to  be  drained,  amounted  according  to  com- 
putations made  in  1539  to   47,994  maa'ks.     Re- 

the  smallest  portions  of  land."  That  the  taxes  were  also 
raised  in  Vermeland  during  this  year  (though  it  is  uncertain 
whether  according  to  the  size  of  the  holdings),  is  shown  by 
the  king's  letter  to  the  hundred  of  Nordmark,  in  which  he 
says  that  they  should  not  wonder  that  he  wished  to  raise  the 
crown  tributes  among  them  likewise,  as  was  but  just;  that 
their  small  starved  cows  would  not  serve  for  him,  but  they 
must  furnish  Instead  of  two  cows  a  full-grown  ox.  In  the 
years  1555  and  1556  he  writes  repeatedly  regarding  the 
allotment  of  taxes  in  Finland;  in  1557  to  the  commonalty  of 
East  Bothnia,  that  the  imposts  should  now  be  assessed  there 
according  to  the  proportion  of  ground,  and  that  the  king 
could  grant  no  diminution ;  in  1558  to  the  prefecture  of 
Viborg,  that  every  man's  ground  should  be  exactly  measured 
by  pole  and  ell. 

3  "  Fullsuten  bonde,"  full  yeoman. 

<  Letter  to  Botved  Larson. 

5  To  bailifl^s  and  ministers  in  Sodermanland,  July  9,  1551, 
to  assist  the  peasants  with  grain  from  the  king's  store-houses. 
This  was  given  by  way  of  loan,  which  was  repaid.  The 
quotation  that  follows  is  from  the  king's  proclamation  on  the 
public  distress  in  1555. 


1560.] 


Mines  and 
forges. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.    THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Foreign 
commerce. 


135 


specting  the  mine  of  Kopparberg  lie  complains 
in  1553,  "  that  it  stood  in  its  old  condition,  and  did 
not  return  its  expenses  ^."  A  change  appears  to 
have  taken  place  in  his  latter  years,  for  king 
John  III.  states  that  the  working  of  the  mine  was 
resumed  in  his  father's  time  at  the  cost  of  the 
crown ;  yet  in  15G3  it  was  not  free  from  water. 
The  copper  obtained  in  other  places  was  consider- 
able, as  at  Garpenberg,  where,  we  are  told,  the 
opening  of  new  branches  "  was  very  gainful '."  The 
most  productive  iron  mines  in  the  kingdom,  those 
of  Danemora,  were  placed  in  1532  under  the  ma- 
nagement of  a  German,  Joachim  Piper,  a  burgher 
of  Stralsund,  who  formed  a  company,  of  which 
Gorius  Hoist,  notorious  from  his  connexion  with 
the  massacre  of  Stockholm,  but  subsequently  par- 
doned, was  a  partner.  The  king  was  not  satisfied 
with  this  association,  which  at  fii-st  exported  the 
ore  to  Stralsund  and  Wismar,  having  procured  per- 
mission to  that  effect,  merely,  it  is  said,  to  try  what 
can  be  made  of  it '  ;  the  cast  iron  was  next  ex- 
ported, which  the  king  prohibited  in  1545 ;  for  so, 
he  declared,  the  charter  ran  not  which  had  been 
granted  to  them,  that  they  might  bring  into  the 
country  persons  skilled  in  mining,  "  in  order  that 
we  also  in  this  kingdom  may  learn  the  right 
method  ^."  Such  the  king  himself  made  endeavours 
to  procui'e  ;  in  1533  he  wrote  to  his  agent  in  Ger- 
many* to  send  "some  good  and  well-skilled  miners;" 
in  1534  and  1537  he  renewed  this  commission.  Ac- 
cordingly, German  smelters  and  smiths  were  intro- 
duced ^,  with  whom  he  established  smelting-houses 
and  forges  in  various  quarters  *.  From  these 
works  the  process  of  forging  bar  iron,  which  Gus- 

6  Duke  Eric,  whom  the  king  sent  thither  in  1554,  wrote 
to  the  people  of  the  East  Dales  to  "  assist  in  drawing  the 
water  from  the  old  copper-mine,  which  was  lying  waste." 

7  Letter  from  the  king  to  Duke  Eric,  October  25,  1554. 
The  king  also  re-opened,  in  1552,  the  copper-mine  at  At- 
widaberg. 

s  "  They  are  ever  exporting,  yet  can  we  not  learn  the 
truth,  what  comes  of  it."  The  king's  letter  to  Olof  Larson, 
his  agent,  it  seems,  in  Stralsund.     Registry  for  1533. 

9  To  Stephen  Sasse,  Upsala,  April  10.    Registry  for  1545. 

'  Olof  Larson,  at  the  king's  charge,  was  employed  in  ac- 
quiring a  knowledge  of  mining. 

2  Among  these  the  king  mentions  "  little  Hans,  our  ham- 
mersmith," who  was  sent  in  1544  to  Germany,  to  engage 
smiths,  with  Marcus  Klingensten,  who  in  1557  was  super- 
intendent of  "  the  many  fine  forges  which  we  have  caused  to 
be  set  up  in  these  past  years  in  many  places,  though  we 
hear  that  they  do  not  in  all  respects  go  on  so  well ;''  probably 
the  same  with  the  Haramarsmed,  who  is  named  in  several 
passages  of  the  Registers,  and  who  in  1540  received  a  grant 
of  the  mill  of  Vallinge  near  Stockholm  for  his  lifetime. 

3  There  remain  accounts  of  the  establishment  of  forges  at 
Vangain  East-Gothland,  (with  smelting-houses  at  Hallestad,) 
at  Motala,  at  Fallingsbro,  at  Gefle,  in  Stockholm,  and  at  the 
mine  in  Vermeland,  from  which  the  king's  bar  iron  was 
taken  to  Elfsborg  to  be  exported.  Mention  is  also  made  of 
others,  set  up  by  burgesses  of  Stockholm  in  the  hundred  of 
Akerbo  in  Westmanland,  at  Kbping  and  Hedanora.  The 
king's  letter  (Upsala,  June  6,  1553,)  to  Marcus  Hammars- 
med  is  remarkable  ;  "  We  have  heard  that  thou  art  raising 
the  forge  at  Fallsbrb  as  large  and  strong  as  if  it  were  to  be  a 
high  church,  as  thy  manner  is.  Thou  mayst  know  that  we 
by  no  means  wish  thee  to  build  such  large  cathedrals  at  so 
great  a  cost,  since  it  matters  not  much  how  good  the  house, 
if  the  hammer  be  but  busy."    Registry. 

'*  In  1550,  he  wrote  to  all  the  forge-masters  in  the  diocese 
of  Westeras,  to  forge  their  bar-iron  more  carefully,  because 
he  had  himself  observed  in  Stockholm  that  it  was  very  de- 
fective. Those  of  Nora  and  Lindsberg  received  a  like  rebuke, 


tavus  was  especially  careful  to  encourage,  was  com- 
municated to  other  districts  *,  although  in  the  civil 
commotions  that  ensued  many  of  the  establishments 
were  destroyed,  and  the  iron  was  exported  in  the 
old  rude  state  *  down  to  1604,  when  progress  began 
again  to  be  made,  upon  the  foimdation  laid  by  the 
great  king,  in  the  improvement  of  the  iron  manu- 
facture. To  him  likewise  Sweden  owes  the  intro- 
duction of  saw-mills  ;  several  were  constructed  on 
his  account  by  the  same  Marcus  Hammarsmed  who 
built  so  many  of  his  forges  «.  A  Swedish  builder 
who  learned  his  art  in  Bohemia  introduced  it  in 
1531  into  Norway ''. 

Commerce  newfound  new  outlets.  The  trade  with 
the  German  towns  was  again  thrown  open  after  the 
close  of  the  Lubecine  war  in  1536,  at  a  duty  of  five 
per  cent,  on  the  value  of  wares  imported  *,  and  one  of 
less  amount  on  salt  and  hops,  with  a  prohibition  to 
export  articles  of  food,  which  was  renewed  from 
time  to  time,  but  occasionally  taken  off",  as  at  Calmar 
in  1546,  the  reason  assigned  being  the  "  scarcity  of 
commodities  in  this  end  of  the  land  s."  In  1545 
the  king  called  upon  the  merchants  to  freight  ships 
into  the  Atlantic,  and  himself  set  the  example  by 
despatching  two  vessels  to  Holland  and  Lisbon '. 
Three  years  afterwards  he  prohibited  trading  to 
Lubeck^,  and  procured  in  1550  an  agreement  be- 
tween the  municipalities  of  the  towns  to  refrain 
from  engaging  in  the  traffic  ;  yet  he  connived  at 
the  visits  of  Hanseatic  ships  to  the  Swedish  ports. 
"  After  this  resolution,"  says  Tegel, "  burgesses  and 
traders  of  this  country  began  to  make  voyages  to 
France,  Spain,  England,  and  the  Nethex-lands,anddid 
not  frequent  so  much  as  formerly  the  towns  on  the 

August  24,  1559.  The  forges  there  paid  the  eleventh  skip- 
pund  to  the  crown,  which  in  1558  was  raised  to  100  skippunds 
(about  13  tons  15  cwt.)  yearly  for  all. 

5  Osmundsmide  was  the  term  for  the  oldest  and  simplest 
method  of  preparing  malleable  iron,  by  one  process,  at 
first  with  wood  fires.  It  was  hammered  into  small  pieces 
joined  at  the  edge,  of  which  27,  or  at  most  29,  (according  to 
the  ordinance  of  1529)  were  to  go  to  a  skippund,  and  was 
exported  in  vats.  A  more  perfect  method  of  obtaining 
wrought  iron  from  the  ore  seems  to  have  been  that  which 
the  king  sometimes  calls  rtinneverk,  smelting.  He  writes 
for  some  good  smiths  from  Germany,  who  understood  the 
process,  also  for  nailsmiths,  plate-makers,  or  other  artizans, 
"  yet  no  tipplers ;"  which  last  requisite  appears,  from  a  letter 
in  the  registry,  (Jan.  5,  1548)  to  Hans  Haraldson,  respecting 
the  swiUers  at  Dannemora,  not  to  have  been  fully  obtained. 
March  7, 1548,  he  sent  a  furnace-master  and  charcoal-burner 
to  Vanga.  He  fixes  himself  the  wages  of  the  furnace-master, 
hammermen,  and  smelters,  with  the  amount  to  be  given  for 
a  charcoal  kiln  of  large  dimensions. 

6  The  king  gives  him  power  "  to  take  the  active  manage- 
ment of  our  forges  and  saw-mills  throughout  the  kingdom." 
March  3,  1548. 

^  Hvitfeld,  History  of  King  Frederic  I. 

8  The  export  duty  was  fixed  at  tliree  per  cent,  in  1560. 

9  Stiernman,  Commerce  och  oecon.     Fbrordningar,  i.  70. 

1  Letter  of  the  king  thereon  to  Botvid  Larson,  March  14. 
Registry  for  1545. 

2  One  specimen  of  the  legal  forms  of  this  age  may  suffice. 
The  prohibition  was  communicated  to  the  merchants  "se- 
cretly, yet  on  peril  of  life  and  goods."  Swedish  ships  in 
Lubeck  were  to  withdraw  from  thence  secretly,  and  mean- 
while no  goods  belonging  to  the  Lubeckers  to  be  exported, 
"  they  breathing  nought  but  spite  and  defiance."  A  letter 
of  reconcilement  to  the  municipality  of  Stockholm,  April  19, 
1548,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Registry,  by  which  it  appears 
that  they  had  paid  a  fine  of  3000  marks  for  having  broken 
the  king's  mandate,  by  which  is  probably  meant  the  pro- 
hibition against  trade  with  Lubeck. 


136 


Steps  to  its 
extension. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Regulation  of  interna] 
trade. 


[15:1 -1— 


Baltic,  seeing  that  they  found  great  advantage  iu 
being  able  to  buy  foreign  wares  at  first  hand  iu  the 
western  markets,  while  those  of  Lubeck  and  other 
towns  on  the  Baltic  must  buy  them  at  the  third  or 
fourth  hand."  Gustavus  had  concluded  a  defensive 
alliance  with  Francis  T.  in  1542,  accompanied  by 
stipulations  for  mutual  commercial  privileges, 
which  in  1559,  by  treaty  with  Francis  II.  were 
extended  and  more  precisely  defined.  Salt  im- 
ported from  France  paid  no  duty.  The  com- 
mercial treaty  formed  with  the  Netherlands  in 
1526,  was  renewed  in  1551,  and  in  the  same  year 
a  like  convention  was  made  with  England.  By  the 
treaties  of  peace  concluded  with  Russia  in  1526 
;md  1537,  the  Swedish  traders  obtained  freedom  of 
commerce  with  Russia,  and  permission  to  rebuild 
their  old  factory  at  Novogorod.  In  all  the  treaties 
with  Denmark  there  were  stipulations  regarding 
tlie  trade  with  that  country,  although,  from  par- 
ticular causes,  it  was  rather  obstructed  than  hin- 
dered by  the  king.  He  procured  and  dissemmated 
statements  as  to  the  classes  of  Swedish  productions 
which  it  would  be  most  advantageous  to  export,  iix 
order  to  obtain  wine  and  salt  from  France  ;  cloth, 
tin,  and  lead  from  England  ;  silks,  linens,  spices, 
and  sugar  from  the  •  Netherlands ;  saltpetre  and 
hops  from  Denmark  ;  swords,  harness,  brass-wares 
and  retail  goods  from  Germany  *. 

The  foreign  commerce  of  the  country  in  1 559, 
occupied  62  Swedish  ships  of  3150  tons  (lasts) 
burden.  The  exports  consisted  of  rough  and  bar- 
iron,  logs,  masts,  laths,  deals,  butter,  tallow,  train- 
oil,  seal's  blubber,  salmon,  eels,  hides,  goats,  and 
horses  *.  Copper,  which  is  not  distinguished  among 
the  exports  of  this  year,  is  elsewhei'e  mentioned  as 
an  article  of  export,  as  well  as  tar.  The  trade  witli 
Finland  in  fish,  deals,  and  tar,  was  restricted  in 
1539  to  Stockholm.  The  town  of  Helsingfors  was 
founded  in  that  province  in  1559,  with  the  view  of 
rendering  it  the  centre  of  the  Russian  trade,  as 
Revel  and  Riga  had  hitherto  been  ^.  The  king 
encouraged  his  subjects  to  embark  in  this  trade,  of 
which  foreigners  had  hitherto  drawn  the  profits. 
This_plan  had  as  little  success,  as  the  representa- 
tions which  his  ambassadors  made  iu  1556,  to 
queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  "  that  she  should 
forbid  the  new  navigation  along  the  coast  of  Nor- 
way to  Russia  (Archangel),  which  her  subjects  had 
a  few  yeai's  ago  commenced,  and  cause  them 
rather  to  visit  the  land  of  Sweden,  especially  the 
famous  town  of  Elfsborg,  which  lay  upon  the 
West  Sea,  and  had  a  good  haven  "."  To  this  town, 
founded  by  the  king,  and  also  called  New  Lodose, 
he  devoted  an  especial  share  of  attention,  as  being 
at  this  time  the  only  Swedish  port  on  the  North 


3  Stjcrnman,  i.  109. 

■I  J.  Bergius,  Stockholm  for  200  ar  sedan.  (Stockholm  200 
years  ago.)  Inaugural  Discourse  in  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Learning,  1758. 

5  Stjcrnman,  i.  112. 

6  Registers  of  155G. 

7  He  wrote  to  the  burgesses  of  Lodose,  "  When  perchance 
some  ships  or  traders  from  foreign  parts  come  to  your  place, 
ye  fall  every  man  upon  them,  like  a  drove  of  swine,  snuffing 
up  what  is  coming  in."  He  who  had  the  least  share  of  un- 
derstanding obtained  the  uppermost  place  among  them,  "  if 
he  had  the  best  to  roast,  and  was  able  to  set  down  the  most 
beer."     Halleiiberg,  Value  of  Coins  and  Wares,  147. 

*•  These  were  of  old  standing :  the  Disting  at  Upsala, 
the  Samting  in   Strengness,  the   Martinmas   at   Westeras, 


Sea,  but  the  lack  of  inclination  which  his  subjects 
discovered  for  commercial  pursuits  drew  from  him 
severe  reproaches '.  In  the  inland  districts  faii-s 
were  appointed  to  be  held,  whither  alone  foreign 
traders  were  permitted  to  resort ".  His  design  was 
to  confine  traffic  to  the  towns,  and  in  this  view  he 
was  induced  to  forbid  trading  to  the  nobles,  who 
did  not  observe  the  prohibition  ;  to  the  clergy,  to  his 
own  bailiffs  and  the  peasantry,  excepting  in  Norr- 
land,  where,  in  compliance  with  the  old  custom  of 
the  country,  one  trader  was  to  be  allowed  to  every 
parish  ^.  He  wished  that  in  the  towns,  as  far  as 
possible,  every  man  should  pursue  some  fixed 
brancli  of  trade  or  handicraft,  for  the  better  at- 
tainment of  which  end  guild  regulations  were 
framed,  and  now  first  authorized  by  the  govern- 
ment. His  "  ordinance  for  the  town  of  Stockholm," 
of  the  year  1 557,  provided  for  the  maintenance  of 
public  order  and  cleanliness,  with  a  strictness  un- 
known at  that  day  in  the  large  to'.Mis  of  Europe. 
Anxious  to  secure  expert  craftsmen  of  all  sorts  for 
the  better  instruction  of  his  subjects,  he  caused 
builders,  stonecutters,  masons,  and  joiners,  to  be 
brought  into  Sweden,  and  placed  youths  under 
their  tuitiota  as  apprentices.  At  Westerwick  he 
established  a  dockyard.  An  artist,  Anders  the 
painter,  who  was  also  employed  in  making  plans 
of  buildings,  received  a  stipend  from  the  tithes 
of  Nykoping ;  to  another,  Canute  the  painter, 
of  Stockholm,  we  find  him  sending  a  student.  If  a 
particular  branch  of  industry  was  pursued  with 
extraordinary  success  in  one  part  of  the  kingdom, 
as  that  of  lock-maldng  in  a  district  of  West-Goth- 
land, he  took  pains  to  communicate  the  improved 
method  to  others.  He  admonishes  the  peasants  of 
Lerback,  that  on  pain  of  his  severest  displeasure 
and  chastisement,  they  should  employ  no  "  bad  red 
iron"  in  the  preparation  of  their  steel,  because  the 
scythes  made  from  it  were  worthless.  For  the 
rest,  he  supposed  that  he  could  direct  the  course  of 
trade  by  prohibitions  and  taxes,  several  of  which 
led  to  oppression  and  public  disturbances.  Thus 
his  forbidding  the  Smalanders  and  West-Goth- 
landers  to  sell  their  oxen  beyond  the  Danish 
frontier,  or  higher  than  at  a  certain  price  to  him- 
self and  those  to  whom  he  had  farmed  out  this 
privilege,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the  Dacke  feud. 
Nor  was  his  rigorous  ordinance  for  enforcing  the 
current  rate  of  money  more  praiseworthy,  after  he 
had  himself  depreciated  its  essential  value  i. 

At  the  Diet  of  Westeras,  in  1544,  it  was  enacted 
that  "the  high  roads  should  be  widened,  and  made 
more  smooth,  by  the  labour,  and  at  the  expense  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  parishes'."    At  this 


Henr)mas  in  Orebro,  Petersmas  at  Tingwall  in  Vemieland, 
and  in  Linkoping,  &c.     Stjernman,  i,  21. 

'  He  complains  that  "the  Norrlanders  despise  tillage,  and 
follow  traffic  as  being  lighter."  Ordinances  respecting 
trade,  1546. 

1  When  the  governor  of  the  castle  of  Abo  sent  an  assay 
which  the  king  deemed  of  too  fine  a  standard,  he  replied, 
"  More  of  what  costs  most  has  been  put  into  the  kettle  than 
need  was.  'Tis  more  easy,  thou  knowest  well,  to  get  cabbage 
than  lard,  and  if  we  put  too  much  lard  on  the  cabbage,  it 
grows  unwholesome,  and  agrees  not  well  with  those  who  eat 
it."  The  king  called  this  striking  too  fat  a  coin.  Hallenberg, 
id.  291. 

2  In  reference  to  plans  of  improving  internal  communica- 
tion by  canals  and  arrangements  for  conveyance,Gustavus  was 
far  in  advance  of  his  age.     He  gave  orders  in  1553  for  the  con- 


l.-iGO.] 


Military 
force. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Navy, 
Education. 


137 


time  there  was  no  carriage  road  between  Gotliland 
and  Swedeland  across  the  Tived  forest.  Considera- 
tions of  advantage  in  war,  as  well  as  others,  led  to 
the  adoption  of  this  plan  ;  certain  places  of  arms 
were  appointed  on  these  military  roads,  as  they 
were  denominated  ^,  where  the  soldiery  might  as- 
semble on  the  appearance  of  danger,  and  which 
were  to  be  fortified  *.  The  nobility  and  the  towns 
were  required  to  furnish  statements  of  the  number 
of  men  whom  they  could  have  ready  for  the  king's 
service  ;  and  on  a  hostile  invasion  every  fifth  or 
sixth  man,  or  in  an  extreme  emergency,  one  man 
from  every  house,  was  to  march  against  the  enemy. 
Yet  the  king  sought  to  be  as  sparing  as  possible  in 
these  sunmionses  to  the  people,  and  he  makes  fre- 
quent mention  of  the  security  which  the  kingdom 
enjoyed  under  his  government,  who  had  but  a 
moderate  army,  in  comparison  with  the  times  of 
the  Union,  when  the  peasant  was  so  often  obliged 
to  take  the  field  with  his  wallet  at  his  back.  To- 
wards the  end  of  his  reign  the  military  force  of 
native  Swedes,  maintained  by  yearly  stipend,  or  by 
quartering  them  in  the  towns  (burgh-leaguer,  as  it 
was  called),  amounted  to  12,934  foot  and  1379 
horse,  besides  549  foot  and  29C  horse  of  the  Ger- 
man companies  *.  According  to  an  official  minute 
respecting  the  army  of  liis  majesty  upon  the  Rus- 
sian frontiei',  October  9,  1555,  every  "headman 
over  the  soldiers"  (captain),  among  the  Swedes, 
received  a  monthly  stipend  of  six  marks  (answering 
to  about  two  and  a  half  silver  rix  dollars^),  every 
"order-man"  (lieutenant)  five,  every  private  four 
marks,  a  horseman  with  fire-arms  eight  marks,  on 
which  sums  they  were  bound  to  subsist  themselves, 
taking  nothing  from  the  king's  subjects.  The 
horsemen  complained  that  their  pay  was  insuffi- 
cient. The  trifling  difference  between  that  of  the 
officers  and  privates  is  surprising,  but  the  former 
had  probably  several  means  of  increasing  their 
gains  ;  and  it  is  plain,  from  the  king's  prohibition, 
that  undue  furloughs  were  one  of  these.  The  foreign 
troops  had  higher  pay.  In  the  above  number  the 
nobles,  who  performed  knightservice,  are  not  in- 
cluded. This  obligation  was  more  precisely  defined 
by  the  king  ;  but,  notwithstanding  that  towards 
the  end  of  his  reign  its  burden  was  lightened,  it  was 
never  adequately  fulfilled.     Gustavus  also  created 

struction  of  the  canal  of  Vaddd,  first  completed  in  our  own 
day,  as  well  as  for  the  establishment  of  public  carriages, 
which  are  still  wanting,  or  have  only  recently  been  intro- 
duced, between  Fahlun  and  Westeras,  and  between  Stege- 
borg  and  Vadstena.     Register  for  1548. 

3  Those  which  led  from  the  then  frontier  of  Denmark,  into 
the  upper  country,  are  enumerated  in  the  statute  of  Vadstena 
of  15.59,  when  the  matter  was  again  mooted.     Tegel  2,  456. 

*  Particularly  Elt'sborg,  Jonkiiping  and  Vadstena.  The 
castles  of  Gripsholm,  Swartsjb,  Westeras,  Stromsholm,  Kro- 
nohorg,  Upsala,  and  Stegeborg,  were  almost  entirely  erected. 
Of  this  plan  the  fortification  of  Upsala  (Letter  to  Master 
Pafvel,  builder,  on  his  sketch  of  the  proposed  works ;  Re- 
gister for  1544,)  also  formed  part,  as  well  as  the  establish- 
ment of  a  place  of  strength  in  Dalarna.  The  castle  of  Stock- 
holm was  likewise  enlarged  and  more  strongly  fortified  by 
Gustavus. 

5  In  1557.  Essay  on  the  Military  Force  of  Sweden  from 
Gustavus  I.  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  by  C.  Adlersparre,  Hist. 
Vitt.  och  Ant.  Acad.  Handl.  3,  30r.  The  quartering  of 
soldiers  was  one  of  the  causes  of  Dacke's  rebellion.  "We 
feared  that  it  might  not  be  well  pleasing  to  all  men,  that  the 
soldiery  should  be  dispersed  with  the  nobles  and  priests 
round  about;"  the  king  writes,  March  1,  1541.    Register. 


the  first  naval  force  which  Sweden  possessed ; 
since  before  his  reign,  according  to  his  own  expres- 
sion, there  were  but  a  heap  of  wherries  and  other 
baubles,  serving  no  purpose  of  offence  or  defence  '. 
Venetian  ship-builders,  whom  he  engaged  and  libe- 
rally paid,  practised  and  taught  this  art  in  Sweden, 
and  the  skill  by  which  the  Finns  and  Norrlanders 
were  soon  pre-eminently  distinguished,  was  the 
fruit  of  his  pro\ident  care.  Several  of  his  ships 
were  of  great  size,  one  being  manned  with  a  com- 
plement of  1000  soldiers  and  300  mariners »; 
another  vessel,  the  Elephant,  employed  in  the 
Lubecine  war,  was  larger  than  any  that  had  ever 
been  seen  in  the  Baltic.  These  ships  carried  a 
greater  number  of  cannon,  though  of  smaller  size, 
than  is  usual  at  the  present  day.  In  the  Russian 
war  the  king  also  employed  a  kind  of  coasters  or 
gun-boats  with  from  ten  to  twelve  oars. 

The  older  seminaries  of  instruction  had  been  too 
closely  connected  with  the  ancient  Church,  not  to 
be  involved  in  its  downfall.  Hvitfeld  and  Mes- 
senius,  indeed,  state,  that  Gustavus  restored  in 
1540  the  university  of  Upsala,  founded  twenty  years 
before  ;  and  two  years  previously  we  find  him  com- 
plaining that  circumstances  did  not  permit  him  to 
accomplish  this  work,  which  it  was  his  desire  to 
effect.  In  the  archives  of  this  I'eign  no  trace  of  its 
actual  performance  is  to  be  found,  although  they 
supply  many  proofs  of  the  king's  fostering  care  for 
the  schools,  which,  nevertheless,  do  not  appear  to 
have  in  all  respects  answered  their  object,  if  we 
may  judge  by  the  trenchant  reproof  addressed  by 
him  to  the  bishops  in  the  year  preceding  his  death, 
relative  to  the  character  of  the  persons  who  were 
supplied  to  him  by  the  schools  for  the  service  of  the 
state '.  A  learned  Swede,  who  resided  abroad, 
draws  at  the  same  time  a  dark  picture  of  the  con- 
dition of  his  country  in  this  respect,  and  concludes 
that  the  large  hoard  of  gold  and  silver,  the  military 
stores,  and  the  ships,  the  arms,  and  fortifications, 
were  rather  detrimental  than  profitable  ;  inasmuch 
as  out  of  all  the  bands  which  the  king  everywhere 
maintained,  not  without  great  cost,  and  to  the  sore 
molestation  of  the  subject,  not  ten  men  were  to  be 
found,  whose  counsel  he  might  employ  in  the  affairs 
of  his  kingdom  ;  and  the  same  held  true  of  the 
nobles,  the  heads  of  the  Church,  and  the  priests  '. 

5  Four  shillings  and  twopence,  English  money.     T. 

7  Tegel,  ii.  168. 

8  Olaus  Magnus,  1.  x.  c.  3. 

9  August  16,  1559.  Celsii  Monumenta  politico-ecclesias- 
tica,  p.  44.  Little  improvement  seems  therefore  to  have 
been  made  since  1533,  when  the  king  wrote  to  all  the  dio- 
ceses, that  the  schools  had  so  sadly  declined,  that  where  for- 
merly there  used  to  be  two  or  three  hundred,  scholars,  there 
were  now  scarce  fifty;  in  other  places  the  schools  were  com- 
pletely empt)',  which  was  chiefly  to  be  imputed  to  the  refusal 
of  the  people  to  send  their  children  to  school  as  formerly,  or 
to  give  assistance  to  the  scholars  by  alms,  as  they  were 
bound.  "  How  then,"  he  asks,  "  shall  Christianity  be  main- 
tained, if  none  are  educated  to  give  heed  to  it?  When  your 
ministers  die  off,  where  will  you  get  others  .'  Therefore  we 
counsel  and  exhort  you  to  place  your  children  at  school,  and 
help  those  who  go  there.  And  if  any  one  shall  tell  you  that 
they  now  teach  nothing  else  but  Swedish  in  the  schools, 
believe  him  not.  Only  be  not  wanting  on  your  own  side, 
and  there  shall  be  no  want  of  learning."     Register  for  1533. 

1  Letter  from  Goran  Gylte  to  a  Swedish  baron.  Celsius, 
id.  53.  The  king  was  himself  in  correspondence  with  this 
person,  whom  he  supported,  as  he  is  also  known  to  have 
maintained  several  students  at  the  German  universities.    In 


138 


Condition  of  the 

clergy. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Misunderstandings 
with  Denmark. 


[IM4- 


Lieutenants,  and  persons  in  authority,  kept  each  of 
them  a  secretary,  to  read  and  answer  the  king's 
letters,  as  they  were  themselves  unable  to  do  so. 
Of  the  rudeness  and  ignorance  of  the  clergy  many 
proofs  remain.  Their  manner  of  embracing  the 
principles  of  the  Reformation  often  consisted  only 
in  marrying  their  housekeepers,  in  order  thereby 
to  legitimate  the  offspring  whom  these  had  borne 
them  2.  We  find,  that  during  the  Catholic  period, 
such  housekeeper,  on  the  death  of  the  priest,  used 
to  receive  a  certain  allowance  from  the  parish'. 
The  Evangelical  ministers  themselves  did  not  al- 
ways set  an  edifying  example.  John  Kitchen- 
master,  first  a  monk,  afterwards  a  Lutheran 
minister  in  Stockholm,  and  married,  was  deprived, 
and  thrown  into  prison  by  the  king  for  his  dis- 
solute life  *.  The  abolition  of  the  old  Church  dis- 
cipline before  the  new  order  of  things  was  matured, 
was  generally  productive  of  injurious  effects  on 
domestic  morals.  The  king,  whose  own  life  was 
pure,  and  deportment  blameless,  often  denounces 
the  prevailing  corruption  of  manners.  To  what 
extent  this  reached,  where  other  circumstances 
favoured  the  lawlessness  of  the  ill-disposed,  as  upon 
the  frontiers,  is  best  shown  by  his  letter  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  prefecture  of  Kronoberg,  April  9, 
1554.  In  this,  referring  probably  to  the  visitation 
of  1550,  he  reproves  those  who,  living  on  the 
borders,  and  moving  hither  and  thither,  now  into 
Denmark,  and  now  into  Sweden,  are  regardless  of 
their  marriage-vow,  and  take  to  wife  one  woman 
after  another,  as  they  would  change  their  horses  ^. 
He  commands  the  prefects  to  watch  narrowly  the 
proceedings  of  these  loose  companions.  At  the  same 
time  the  severity  of  the  temporal  penalties  was  in- 
creased, till  at  length  adultery  was  punished  by 
death  ^. 

The  peace  which  the  kingdom  had  long  enjoyed 
was  threatened  by  Denmark  and  broken  by  a  war 
with  Russia.  The  treaty  of  Bromsebro,  formed  with 
Denmark  in  1541,  the  letter  whereof  stipulates  an 
alliance  of  both  kingdoms  for  mutual  defence,  so  in- 


1544  he  recalls  six  of  these,  because  he  required  their  services 
at  home.     Registers. 

2  Where  the  clergyman  was  of  noble  birth  this  sometimes 
led  to  suits  with  his  relatives.  When,  in  1544,  Erland  Bat, 
pastor  of  Sorunda  in  the  diocese  of  Strengness  wished  to 
marry  his  old  housewife  (Forsia,  for-seer),  "as  priests  now 
use  to  do,"  his  brother  protested  against  his  resolution  "  now 
to  take  in  marriage  this  poor  woman,  whom  he  had  long  en- 
tertained for  his  mistress,  and  thereby  to  bring  his  spurious 
children  into  their  noble  lineage  and  inheritance."  The 
matter  ended  by  the  parties  being  reconciled.  Hallenberg, 
Handlingar  till  konung  Gustaf  II.  Adolfs  Historia  (Memoirs 
for  the  History  of  king  Gustavus  II.  Adolphus),  Stockholm, 
1784,  p.  46. 

3  There  is  a  letter  of  Gustavus  I.  to  his  bailiflf  Bengt  West- 
giite,  directing  him  to  leave  to  the  "  forsia"  of  the  deceased 
master  Olave  of  Munketorp  the  portion  hxed  by  the  parish. 
Register  for  1525. 

*  Hallman,  Biography  of  the  Brothers  Olaus  and  Laurentius 
Petri,  96. 

5  Reg.  for  1554. 

6  Household  order  of  King  Eric,  1560;  ordinance  of  king 
John,  1577.  This  crime  was  cognizable  in  the  Catholic  period 
by  the  spiritual  tribunals,  and  by  the  temporal  law  was  only 
capital  when  the  offender  was  caught  in  the  fact,  and  the 
prosecutor  would  not  grant  him  his  life  for  a  fine. 

7  The  French  ambassador  Richers,  who  had  been  on  a 
mission  to  Constantinople,  to  incite  the  Turks  to  attack  the 
house  of  Austria,  repaired  to  Gustavus  at  Calmar,  shortly 


timate  as  in  many  respects  to  resemble  the  old 
Union,  was  really  produced  by  the  terror  still 
inspired  by  the  family  of  Christian  II.,  who  were 
supported  by  Charles  V.  When  the  treaty  of  Spires 
in  1544  I'econciled  Christian  III.  with  the  emperor, 
and  the  danger  for  Denmark  ceased  upon  that  side, 
the  old  mistrust  revived.  At  an  earlier  time  the 
Danish  monarch  had  been,  no  less  than  Gustavus 
himself,  the  enemy  of  the  emperor  and  confederate 
of  France,  though  the  alliance  of  Sweden  with 
Francis  I.  was  regarded  in  Germany  in  a  more 
odious  light,  and  was  styled  by  the  imperial  chan- 
cellor Granvella  in  his  letters  to  the  insurgents 
of  Smaland  "  an  ungodly  league  ^."  In  the  treaty  of 
Spires,  Gustavus  was  included  at  the  instance  of 
Denmark,  but  in  a  manner  which  did  not  give  him 
satisfaction,  as  the  pretended  right  of  the  daughter 
of  Christian  II.  to  his  crown  was  left  open  ;  on 
which  account  Gustavus  and  the  Estates  in  the  diet 
of  1547  rejected  an  overture  to  yield  the  claim  on 
the  payment  of  a  sum  of  money.  This  did  not  tend 
to  further  the  maint«nance  of  a  good  understanding 
with  Denmark.  The  convention  of  Bromsebro  had 
settled  none  of  the  real  matters  in  dispute;  and  as 
by  the  22d  article  both  the  claim  of  Sweden  to 
Gottland  and  also  the  pretensions  which  Denmark 
might  feel  itself  justified  in  pressing  on  the  Swedish 
crown  were  left  over  for  future  adjustment,  the 
latter  clause  especially  gave  occasion  to  interpreta- 
tions which  might  easily  lead  to  an  attempt  to  re- 
new all  the  usurpations  of  the  Union.  It  was  also 
observed,  that  even  after  the  hereditary  settlement 
in  Sweden  seemed  to  cut  off  all  hope  in  this  respect, 
Christian  TIL  assumed  upon  the  arms  of  Denmark 
the  three  crowns  of  the  Swedish  escutcheon.  The 
Danes  on  their  side  declared  that  this  was  only 
intended  to  maintain  in  historical  recollection  the 
former  imion  of  the  three  kingdoms,  but  Gustavus 
viewed  the  matter  otherwise.  It  is  not  without 
ground  that  the  ensuing  wars  have  been  considered 
as  springing  from  this  source  *,  although  during  the 


after  his  return  from  the  conference  at  Bromsebro,  to  form 
an  alliance  against  the  enemies  of  both  kingdoms,  the  latter 
having  previously  despatched  to  Francis  his  secretary  Trebou, 
to  propose  a  commercial  treaty.  One  of  alliance  was  sub- 
sequently concluded  by  the  envoys  of  Gustavus,  his  brother- 
in-law  Steno  Ericson  Lejonhufvud,  the  chancellor  Pyhy, 
Canute  Anderson  Lilje,  and  Goran  Norman,  with  the  pleni- 
potentiaries of  the  French  king,  the  chancellor  Poyet  and 
the  admiral  Chabot.  It  stipulates  that  the  kings  shall  con- 
sider themselves  as  brothers,  and  so  style  one  another,  each 
watching  over  the  interests  of  the  other  like  his  own,  and 
granting  free  liberty  of  traffic  to  his  subjects,  and  that  they 
shall  assist  each  other  in  time  of  war  with  25,000  men  and 
20  ships,  at  the  expense  of  the  party  requiring  them.  King 
James  V.  of  Scotland  was  received  into  the  alliance  on  these 
terms,  that  when  he  required  help  from  France  against  any 
of  his  enemies,  the  king  of  Sweden  should  transport  to  Scot- 
land a  force  not  exceeding  6000  men,  at  the  cost  of  the  latter 
power.  Du  Mont,  Corps  Diplom.  iv.  228.  It  was  probably 
in  consequence  of  this  convention  that  Gustavus  I.  began 
those  recruitments  of  Scotsmen  for  the  Swedish  service 
which  were  afterwards  continued  by  his  successors.  In 
1556  he  was  in  treaty  to  obtain  2000  Scots  for  the  war  against 
the  Russians,  and  in  the  register  for  that  year  is  preserved  a 
paper  entitled  "  Codicillus  ad  duces  et  capitaneos  Scotorum 
de  stipendio  et  disciplina  militum,  qui  sunt  in  servitio 
Reg.  Maj.  Suecije." 

8  Gustavus  himself  quotes  one  expression,  "  he  who 
would  scratch  the  three  crowns  out  of  the  arms  of  Denmark, 
must  have  sharp  teeth  and  claws." 


1560.] 


Hostilities 
with  Russia. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.     THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Last  years  of 
the  king. 


139 


lifetime  of  the  king  himself  the  quarrel  pi'oceeded 
uo  further  than  mutual  remonstrances.  The  perils 
of  the  Union,  overcome  by  the  struggles  of  his 
youth,  still  disturbed  his  imagination  in  the  repose 
of  age,  and  his  own  pen  was  employed  in  warning 
his  country  against  their  urgency.  All  the  oppres- 
sions inflicted  by  Denmark  on  Sweden  are  fully  set 
forth  m  the  I'are  metrical  tract  entitled  "  A  true 
answer  to  some  passages  in  the  Danish  Chronicle  ^ ;" 
and  we  have  the  testimony  of  his  own  secretary,  a 
witness  who  is  entirely  worthy  of  credit,  that  it  was 
"  composed  and  rhymed  mostly  from  the  king's  own 
mouth  *."  The  dangers  against  which  it  calls  on 
the  Swedes  to  be  prepared  were  indeed  to  return, 
although  from  another  quarter,  and  through  the 
instrumentality  of  his  own  best  loved  son. 

In  1554  the  Russian  war  broke  out  on  the  bor- 
ders of  Finland.  Gustavus  had  regarded  this  por- 
tion of  his  dominions  with  a  paternal  solicitude, 
which  was  extended  likewise  to  the  more  distant 
Laplanders.  He  forbade  the  oppressions  prac- 
tised by  the  trading  peasants  of  Norrland  and 
Finland  upon  this  wild  and  defenceless  race,  and 
sought  to  disseminate  Christianity  among  the  Lapps 
by  missionaries.  By  the  labours  of  Michael  Agri- 
cola,  a  Finn  by  birth,  and  the  scholar  of  Luther 
and  Melanchthon,  whom  Gustavus  appointed  or- 
dinary of  Abo,  the  Finlanders  obtained  the  Bible, 
Prayer-Book,  Psalms,  and  the  first  books  of  in- 
struction in  their  language.  Their  manners  were 
still  marked  bj'  much  barbarity  and  lawlessness. 
The  king  was  obliged  in  1551  to  chastise  the 
Tavastrians  2,  who  had  surprised  and  burned  the 
newly  established  settlements  of  the  Swedes, 
already  flourishing,  in  the  forests  of  East  Bothnia. 
Dark  and  extraordinary  crimes  are  mentioned ', 
and  the  remoteness  of  situation,  tempting  by  the 
prospect  of  impunity,  led  to  great  outrages  on  the 
part  of  the  possessors  of  fiefs  and  the  royal  bailiffs, 
as  is  shown  by  the  king's  letters  to  the  Flemings, 
who  then  exercised  great  power  in  Finland  *.  The 
peace  subsisting  with  Russia  since  1510,  had  been 
last  confirmed  in  1537,  but  the  frontier  was  un- 
defined, and  in  desolate  Lapland  it  was  unknown 
to  either  side.  Yet  disputes  speedily  arose  which 
produced  quarrels  between  the  bailiffs  respecting 
the  collection  of  the  crown  dues,  and  at  length 
mutual  plundering;  homicides,  and  burnings.      So 

9  Sanfiirdige  Svar  pa  nagre  stycker  uthi  then  Danske 
Cronike. 

1  In  this  are  printed  some  passages  of  the  Danish  Rhyme- 
Chronicle,  of  which  a  new  edition  had  appeared  in  Denmark 
in  1555.  Though  of  older  date,  the  king  seems  to  have  con- 
sidered it  as  a  new  work.  His  secretary  Sweno  Elofson 
thus  writes  of  it :  "  Against  this  Rhyme-book  king  Gustavus 
put  forth  another  book  and  answers  thereto,  mostly  rhymed 
and  composed  out  of  his  own  mouth,  of  which  I  have  know- 
ledge ."  (Paralipomena,  in  the  Nordin  Manuscripts  at  Up- 
sala.)  To  his  son  John  the  king  writes,  September  23,  1558; 
"  The  Danes  have  set  the  three  crowns  in  their  arms,  and 
have  caused  to  be  printed  a  mocking  chronicle,  in  revile- 
ment  of  us.  Thereupon  have  we  made  answer  to  this 
chronicle,  and  will  let  thee  have  some  exemplars,  as  soon  as 
any  are  ready  at  the  printing-house."  While  thus  busied, 
the  king  borrowed  from  the  archbishop  Lawrence  Peterson, 
a  copy  of  Saxo  Grammaticus,  whom  he  terms,  "one  of  the 
old  Danish  historians  named  John  Saxo."  He  sends  his 
tract,  December  10,  1558,  to  his  son  Eric  and  others,  with  a 
warning  "  not  to  show  it  before  Danes,  because  it  is  a  mis- 
chievous piece."  Two  editions  appeared  in  the  above  year  ;  it 
is  notwithstanding  very  rare,  Goran  Gylte,  the  learned  per- 
son already  mentioned,  disapproved  of  the  treatise  (though 


early  as  1545,  Gustavus,  in  a  letter  to  Francis  I., 
complains  of  an  inroad  of  the  Russians  into  Fin- 
land *.  This  was  returned  with  equal  damage  fi-om 
the  Swedish  side,  though  without  the  king's  orders  ^, 
and  brought  on  an  open  war,  in  which  the  grand 
master  of  the  Livonian  knights,  and  the  king  of 
Poland,  promised  their  aid  to  Gustavus  against 
the  Czar  Ivan  Vasilievitsch  II.  The  king  himself 
repaired  to  Finland  in  the  following  year,  with  a 
fleet  and  army.  But  mutual  devastations,  from 
which  Finland  suffered  most,  composed  the  whole 
occurrences  of  the  war.  The  Russians  laid  fruitless 
siege  to  Wiborg  with  a  very  large  army,  and 
carried  off"  with  them  a  crowd  of  captives.  Their 
chronicles  relate  that  a  man  was  sold  for  ten 
copecks,  and  a  maiden  for  fifteen.  The  war  oc- 
casioned a  great  outlay,  and  disease  raged  among 
the  soldiei'y.  These  causes,  coupled  with  the  failure 
of  the  pi'omised  help  from  Livonia  and  Poland,  led 
first  to  a  cessation  of  arms,  and  thereafter  to  a 
peace,  concluded  at  Moscow,  (April  2,  1557,)  for 
forty  years.  The  disputed  boundaries  were  to  be 
determined  by  special  commissioners. 

Designs  on  Livonia  from  this  side  were  soon  to 
set  the  whole  north  in  flames.  The  Russian  giant 
was  now  beginning  to  struggle  towards  the  sea, 
whence  fresher  air  might  stream  upon  his  sluggish 
body.  Gustavus  kept  aloof  from  the  discords  which 
were  soon  engendered.  His  sons  did  not  share  his 
own  caution,  and  his  knowledge  of  their  character 
filled  him  with  apprehension.  Heavy  was  the 
weight  of  care  accumulated  upon  his  last  years  ! 
He  complained  that  his  old  friends  had  departed, 
and  that  he  felt  himself  lonely  in  the  world.  He 
had  lost  in  1551  his  beloved  consort  Margaret 
Lejonhufvud,  who  had  borne  to  him  ten  children, 
five  sons,  and  five  daughters.  He  married  again, 
after  the  lapse  of  a  year,  the  young  Catherine  Sten- 
bock  ',  not  without  some  obstacles  being  interposed 
by  the  clergy,  as  the  bride  was  the  niece  of  his  former 
wife  ;  but  the  exacerbation  of  his  temper,  which 
no  one  could  soothe  in  hasty  moments  so  well  as 
Margaret,  showed  how  much  he  was  affected  by  the 
loss  he  had  sustained.  Four  of  his  sons,  growing  up, 
attained  man's  estate,  of  whom  three  became  kings 
of  Sweden ;  and  in  the  elder  two,  before  their  father's 
eyes,  those    tendencies   were    already    unfolding, 

without  naming  it)  as  serving  only  to  revive  old  enmities. 
See  his  letter  formerly  quoted  in  Celsii  Monuraenta,  53, 

2  Letter  to  the  bailiff,  October  6.     Register  for  1551. 

3  July  30,  1552,  the  king  orders  that  the  strictest  inquiry 
should  be  instituted  in  relation  to  a  late  case  of  poisoning  in 
Finland,  "  Such  Italian  (Valske)  treacheries,  of  secret 
murder  and  poison,  are  strange  and  singular  in  our  do- 
minions,"    Regis, 

*  The  brothers  Jacob  and  Eric  Fleming,  Both  were 
deprived  of  their  governments.    Registers  for  1529  and  1540, 

5  The  letter  is  of  June  1,  Register  for  1545.  In  the  pre- 
ceding year  a  Russian  embassy  visited  Stockholm,  The 
Swedish  governor  at  Wiborg  detained  them  on  their  return, 
of  his  own  impulse.     Tegel,  2,  232, 

6  Order  to  make  prisoner  Anders  Nilson,  because  he  and 
several  of  his  fellows  had  by  robberies,  homicides,  and  burn- 
ings, provoked  the  Russians  to  attack  Finland,  Register  for 
1555.     Compare  Tegel,  2,  308. 

7  Daughter  of  Gustavus  Olson  of  Torpa,  councillor  of  state, 
and  after  the  death  of  Lars  Siggeson  Sparre  in  1554,  high 
marshal,  and  of  Brita  Lejonhufvud.  Catherine,  like  Mar- 
garet formerly,  had  been  betrothed  to  another  (Gustave 
Johnson  Roos),  who  yielded  his  pretensions  to  those  of  the 
king,  and,  as  on  the  previous  occasion,  was  united  to  her 
sister. 


140 


Misconduct  of  liis 
son  Kric. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  king's 
dissatisfaction. 


[1544— 


which  were  afterward  to  be  the  fruitful  sources  of 
so  many  disasters.  They  are  styled  dukes,  though 
at  first  without  dukedoms  :  Eric,  while  bearing 
this  title,  already  addresses  the  people  as  sub- 
jects '  ;  he  is  called  also  king  elect  or  heir-king, 
and  Gustavus  speaks  in  1554  of  crowning  him 
during  his  own  lifetime.  John,  at  the  age  of 
eleven,  was  invested  with  territorial  fiefs  in  Fin- 
land, m  order,  the  king  writes, "  that  since  we  have 
caused  the  estates-general  of  Sweden  to  choose  our 
son  Eric  king  of  the  Swedes,  Goths,  and  Vandals ", 
and  have  thus  provided  him  with  land  and  a  king- 
dom, others  of  our  dear  children  also  may  be 
endowed  with  such  maintenance  as  is  suited 
to  princes ',"  and  this  investiture  was  in  1556 
extended  to  the  whole  of  Finland.  That  John 
designed  to  convert  his  government  into  "  land  and 
a  kingdom"  for  himself  was  already  sufficiently 
evident  in  his  father's  lifetime.  This  first-born  of 
his  deceased  queen  Margaret  was  the  favourite  of 
Gustavus,  though  his  affection  for  his  son  seems  to 
have  been  impaired  towards  the  close  of  life,  if  we 
may  judge  by  the  words  which  pain  extorted  from 
the  old  king  upon  his  death-bed.  Addressing  Mag- 
nus (afterwards  weak-minded),  he  said,  "  Thou  art 
dear  to  me ;  thou  hast  never  incensed  me." 
Charles  was  still  a  child.  With  Eric  he  had  long 
been  dissatisfied,  and  was  troubled  on  seeing  that 
the  prince  inherited  the  wayward  caprice  of  his 
mother,  as  well  as  the  vehemence,  which  marked 
the  temper  of.  his  father  ;  qualities  which  took  so 
alarming  a  shape  as  to  obscure  eminent  natural 
abilities,  cultivated  by  a  careful  education.  To 
pacify  his  impatience,  Eric  was  in  1557  invested  ^J 
his  father  with  Calmar,  the  castle  of  Kronoberg 
with  its  dependencies,  and  Oeland.  Suspicion  was 
awakened  by  the  young  king  receiving  the  oath  of 
fidelity  from  the  nobility  in  his  own  name  ;  and 
Tegel  states  that  Gustavus,  after  this  time,  kept 
around  him  a  German  body-guard.  In  his  let- 
ters to  Eric,  however,  we  detect  no  trace  of  ill- 
will  at  this  time.  He  upbraids  his  son  with  being 
inaccurate  in  his  accounts,  with  burdening  the 
people  too  severely,  and  with  vexing  him  about 
trifles,  sometimes  to  procure  new  clothes^,  some- 
times harness,  and  fittings  for  the  representation  of 
stage-plays  '  :  on  the  other  hand,  he  receives  Eric's 
opinion  in  affairs  of  state  with  complacency,  himself 
requesting  his  advice  in  weighty  matters,  and 
generally  testifies  entire  confidence.  Other  occur- 
rences arose  •  in  aggravation  of  his  unhappiness. 
His  eldest  daughter  Catherine  was  wedded  in  1559 
to  Edwai'd  II.,  count  of  East  Frieslaud.    The  mar- 

8  "  Dear  subjects."  Letter  of  duke  Eric  to  the  burghers  of 
Abo,  November  3,  1551.     Register. 

9  Gustavus  took  the  "  Vandals"  from  the  Danish  title. 

1  Letter  of  June  27,  1546.     Register. 

2  "  We  have  received  thy  writing  a  short  while  since,  by 
which  we  perceive  thou  desirest  our  service  (yet  we  hope 
not),  that  we  should  procure  clothes  to  thy  servants  for 
Christmas  from  Henry  Tailor;  thus,  dear  son,  thou  mayest 
well  wonder,  how  we  should  be  able  to  provide  for  all  things 
that  happen  in  this  realm."     Register  for  1557. 

3  That  he  should  have  a  "show-play"  on  Shrove-Tuesday, 
and  borrow  harness  from  the  ordnance  master,  cannot  be  per- 
mitted. "  If  thou  wilt  have  a  play,  thou  mayest  have  a  show 
of  arms  with  our  horsemen."     Reg.  for  1558. 

■•  "  My  heart's  love  Catharine,"  writes  Gustavus  to  his 

queen,  "  we  have  received  accounts  which  run  more  on  strife 

and  war  than  wedding.     Seemeth  therefore  to  us  not  very 

I    needful  that  thou  shouldst  hasten  much  with  baking  or  other 


riage  festival,  after  some  delay  from  an  alarm  of 
war,  was  celebrated  with  splendour  *,  the  bride's 
portion  being  one  of  royal  magnificence.  In  the 
train  of  the  bridegroom  was  his  brother  count 
John  ;  and  the  bride's  sister,  the  young,  beautiful, 
and  light-headed  princess  Cecilia  *,  accompanied  the 
newly  married  pair  to  Vadstena.  There  Eric  dis- 
covered an  intrigue  between  Cecilia  and  count 
John,  seized  the  latter  in  the  bed-chamber  of  the 
princess  at  night,  and  sent  him  to  the  king.  The 
latter  replied,  that  he  was  here  called  into  counsel 
like  a  reaper  after  the  field  had  been  mowed  ; 
Eric  himself  had  made  this  grievous  mishap  noto- 
I'ious,  to  his  own  discredit  and  shame,  and  that  of 
all  his  house  ;  what  step  could  now  be  taken  ? — As 
the  matter  stood,  the  king  dealt  rigorously  with  the 
culprits,  threatened  C(nmt  John  with  death,  kept 
him  prisoner  nine  months,  and  only  set  him  at 
liberty  after  repeated  intercessions  by  his  kinsmen 
and  several  princes.  Eric,  after  he  had  destroyed 
his  sister's  reputation,  fancied  that  he  could  restore 
it  by  striking  a  medal  bearing  the  effigies  of  Cecilia 
and  the  chaste  Susanna  !  To  the  admonitions  and 
reproaches  of  the  king  he  answered  sullenly,  giving 
his  father  to  understand  that  he  should  not  write  to 
his  successor  as  to  one  of  his  bailiffs.  This  con- 
duct, stubborn,  insensate,  and  unstable,  was  repug- 
nant to  the  king's  inmost  soul.  "  Dear  son  Eric," 
he  writes  in  one  letter,  "  thou  sendest  us  many 
writings,  but  with  what  gladness  we  may  read 
them,  God  truly  knoweth.  For  liis  Son's  death 
and  sufferings,  and  for  the  filial  love  and  obedience 
which  pious  children  should  bear  to  their  parents, 
desist  from  this  torment  wherewith  thou  vexest 
and  wringest  the  heart  of  thine  aged  and  sorrowing 
father." — His  entreaty  of  forgiveness  in  another 
letter,  in  case  he  should  have  erred  in  his  vehe- 
mence, is  deeply  moving  :  "  Dear  son,  our  fatherly 
request  to  thee  is,  that  thou  wilt  take  no  dis- 
pleasure thereupon.  God  hath  himself  commanded 
in  holy  Scripture,  that  men  should  do  no  hurt  nor 
shame  to  his  anointed  and  to  their  blood,  though 
sometimes  defect  or  transgression  may  be  found  in 
them." — Sueno  Elofson,  his  secretary,  relates,  that 
he  had  seen  tears  trickling  down  his  cheeks,  when 
he  conversed  with  the  queen  upon  what  had  oc- 
curred at  Vadstena,  and  the  behaviour  of  Erie, 
Not  as  if  any  weakness  or  humourousness  had  been 
found  in  them,  the  narrator  adds,  but  he  was 
troubled  in  heart  so  sorely,  that  the  words  forced 
the  tears  from  his  eyes.  It  is  even  said,  so  great 
was  his  indignation,  that  he  intended  a  prison  in- 
stead of  a  throne  for  his  ofFenduig  son ",  but  was 

matters,  in  preparation  for  the  feast."  Reg.  for  1559.  In 
Sweden  at  this  day  neither  king  nor  queen  regarded  such 
household  cares  as  being  beneath  their  notice.  August  27, 
1558,  he  writes  to  his  son  Magnus:  "Our  dear  housewife 
Catharine  sends  thee  five  shirts  of  which  thou  shouldst  take 
care ;  item,  to  keep  thy  head  clear,  and  not  to  run  or  ride 
too  much  about  Oeland." 

5  Cecilia,  who  is  called  "  the  fairest  of  her  family,"  was 
united  in  1564  to  the  Margrave  Christopher  of  Baden,  who, 
like  several  other  German  princes,  was  then  in  the  Swedish 
service.  After  his  death,  she  embraced  the  Catholic  faith, 
and  was  supported  by  her  brother  John  III.  She  died  at  the 
age  of  87,  after  a  dissolute  life.  The  three  remaining 
daughters  of  Gustavus  were,  Anna,  married  in  1562  to 
George  John,  palsgrave  of  Veldentz,  Sophia,  married  in 
1568  to  Magnus  III.,  duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  and  Eliza- 
beth, married  in  1581  to  duke  Christopher  of  Mecklenburg. 

6  Peder  Brah?,  in  his  Manuscript  Chronicle. 


15C0.] 


Eric's 
love-suit. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.  THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


Contest  in 
Livonia. 


141 


turned  from  his  purpose  by  John's  intercession.  It 
is  certain  that  those  two  brothers,  of  whom  Messe- 
nius  says  '  that  they  lived  in  incessant  contention, 
fii'st  in  their  play,  next  in  reference  to  lands  and  go- 
vernments, and  lastly  for  the  ci'own,  appear  during 
their  father's  last  days  to  have  had  a  secret  under- 
standing agauist  him,  though  each  probably  for  his 
own  objects. 

Eric  kept  his  court  at  Calmar  with  all  manner  of 
wild  and  riotous  excess.  In  his  sports  it  was  no 
uncommon  thing  to  see  eyes  dashed  out,  and  arms 
and  legs  lopped  off  *,  which  only  served  to  provoke 
his  laughter.  Among  his  attendants  we  already 
observe  Goran  Person,  afterwards  his  principal 
adviser,  who  having  filled  a  place  in  the  service  of 
Gustavus  had  been  dismissed  from  it',  and  found  a 
refuge  at  the  court  of  Eric.  Otherwise  the  young 
king  lived  mostly  with  Frenchmen,  the  chief  of 
whom  were  Denis  Burrey  (or  as  he  is  usually  called 
Dionysius  Beurreus),  formerly  Eric's  tutor  ',  and 
Charles  de  Mornay  ^.  Burrey,  a  zealous  Calvinist, 
advised  his  master  to  make  proposals  for  the  hand 
of  Elizabeth  of  England  ^,  a  suggestion  which  the 
latter  embraced  with  his  usual  vehemence.  What 
castles  in  the  air  were  built  upon  the  loosest  hopes 
in  reference  to  this  alliance  is  best  shown  by  the 
conditions  which  it  was  considered  necessary  in 
Sweden  to  require  from  Eric  in  case  he  should  be- 
come king  of  England  *.  Another  surprising  fea- 
ture of  this  transaction  is,  that  John  appears  in  it 
as  the  most  zealous  intercessor  in  Eric's  behalf 
with  his  reluctant  father,  placing  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  costly  embassy  which  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land to  prosecute  the  suit,  and  on  his  return  ad- 
vising his  brother  to  present  himself  personally  to 
the  object  of  his  vows^,  which  incited  him  to  form 
the  most  romantic  projects.  Sometimes  he  deter- 
mined to  surprise  Elizabeth  in  a  disguise,  sometimes 
again  to  captivate  her  by  the  display  of  all  his 
regal  pomp.  In  thus  zealously  promoting  Eric's 
darling  plan,  John  was  not  unmoved  by  some  hopes 
of  recompense.    At  the  same  time  we  find  both  the 

'  Scondia,  v.  114.  Jlessenius,  as  secretly  a  Catholic, 
writes  of  Gustavus  I.  witli  ill  suppressed  bitterness. 

s  Peder  Brahe. 

9  He  is  said  to  have  been  condemned  to  deatli  by  Gusta- 
vus, who  commuted  tlie  sentence  for  one  of  banishment. 
Fant,  de  Georgfo  Petri  Salae  Montano,  Ups.  1807.  He  was 
son  to  a  priest  at  Sala,  and  haa  studied  at  Wittenberg.  He 
was  accustomed  to  inveigh  against  Gustavus  I.,  upon  which 
the  old  baron,  Bidrn  Pederson  Bat  is  said  to  have  remarked 
to  him;  "  Know,  Goran  Person,  that  it  is  unjust  so  to  blame 
old  king  Gustave  ;  ye  do  it  out  of  malignity,  demeaning 
yourself  like  the  hounds  that  bark  at  tlie  moon  ;  true  lie  has 
his  faults,  which  you  cry  out  upon;  but  yet  he  is  a  master- 
piece of  God."     Scandin.  Memoirs,  3,32. 

1  In  this  oifice  he  succeeded  the  deceased  Giiran  Korman 
in  1553  ;  but  he  was  in  Sweden  in  1547,  as  his  bond  of  fealty 
to  the  king,  and  a  grant  of  land  to  him,  are  preserved  in  the 
archives.  He  was  afterwards  under  Eric  councillor  of  state 
and  chief  rentmaster. 

2  He  styled  himself  baron  of  Varennes  and  came  to  Sweden 
In  1,558 

3  He  travelled  as  Eric's  envoy  to  London  in  1558,  before 
Elizabeth  had  mounted  the  throne,  and  kept  alive  the  prince's 
hopes  by  her  and  his  own  fair  words  through  a  stay  of  con- 
siderable duration  ;  "  doubtless  because  the  air  there  agrees 
with  him  better,"  writes  the  king  ironically,  who  at  once  saw 
the  futility  of  these  expectations. 

<  Tegel,  ii.  411,  412. 

'  "  We  have  herein  yielded  at  a  great  charge  to  thine  and 
thy  brother's  will,"  writes  the  old  king  to  John.     The  equip- 


brothers  in  apparent  harmony,  and  actively  en- 
gaged in  another  design  of  acquiring  for  John  a 
portion  of  Livonia. 

In  February,  1559,  after  the  Russians  had  plun- 
dered the  whole  country  to  Riga,  Ivan  Vasilievitsch 
II.  was  informed  by  his  commanders  that  Livonia 
lay  in  ashes  ^.  Before  this  invasion,  commenced  in 
the  year  previous,  fell  the  old  but  now  shattered 
dominion  of  the  sword-knights  ;  and  as  aid  was 
sought  from  Poland,  the  emperor,  Denmark,  and 
Sweden,  the  country  was  now  about  to  become  the 
theatre  for  the  settlement  of  their  contending  pre- 
tensions, as  throughout  a  whole  century  it  con- 
tinued. Here  was  already  opening  that  series  of 
wars  beyond  the  Baltic  in  which  Sweden  was  to  be 
engaged;  and  it  was  not  without  good  grounds  that 
he,  who  is  justly  styled  the  father  of  his  country, 
scrupled  to  enter  on  a  path  so  full  of  uncertainty  '. 
All  the  sentiments  recorded  as  having  fallen  from 
him  in  his  last  year  show  that  he  viewed  with  the 
profoundest  anxiety  the  prospect  of  Sweden's 
future.  The  very  expedient  he  adopted  to  avoid 
setting  her  all  to  hazard  in  the  dangerous  hands  of 
Eric,  involved  risks  which  undoubtedly  did  not 
escape  his  penetration.  All  around  clouds  were 
darkening  the  political  horizon.  He  had  received 
iriformation  that  another  last  attempt  was.  about  to 
be  made  on  behalf  of  the  family  of  his  old  enemy 
Christian;  and  on  the  side  of  Denmark  under  the 
new  king  Frederic  II.  (since  1559),  the  chances  of 
war  seemed  so  imminent  that  Gustavus  kept  his 
army  and  fleet  in  readiness  *.  Those  who  now  in- 
voked his  assistance  for  Livonia,  the  granting  of 
which  would  have  provoked  a  new  war  with  Russia, 
were  the  same  who  deserted  him  in  his  former  war 
with  that  country.  He  discerned  only  one  Swedish 
interest  at  stake  in  the  whole  quarrel,  that  of  set- 
ting bounds  to  the  augmentation  of  the  Danish 
power  in  this  quarter,  after  Reval  had  oftered,  in 
1558,  its  submission  to  king  Christian  III.  ^  ;  and 
beyond  question  this  was  his  motive  in  binding 
himself  to  support  the  grand-master  of  the  order 

ment  of  the  duke's  embassy  cost  200,000  guilders  (15,000/.), 
and  anotlier  was  besides  afterwards  sent,  consisting  of 
Charles  Holgerson  Gere,  Gustavus  Johanson  Roos  and 
Charles  de  Mornay.  "  So  eager  were  we  Swedes  in  this 
business  (excepting  king  Gustavus),  and  most  of  all  was 
king  Eric  bent  upon  the  wooing,  from  which  many  conceived 
great  hopes."  (Sueno  Elofson).  "  Forwhat  concerns  the  Eng- 
lish affair  and  the  expedition  thither,  to  which  your  grace 
hath  advised  us,  we  have  yet  received  no  answer  thereupon 
from  the  king's  majesty."     Eric  to  John. 

5  Karamsin,  History  of  the  Russian  empire,  vii.  426. 

^  "  When  I  consider,  of  what  praise  he  was  worthy  for  all 
the  good  he  accomplislied,  me  seemeth  as  if  I  were  wanting 
in  understanding  and  words,  to  speak  it  rightly  and  accord- 
ing to  his  merit.  Bu<t  one  thing  I  say,  that  if  ever  ruler 
was  deserving  to  be  called  '  pater  patriae,'  king  Gustavus 
should  bear  that  name  with  all  honour  and  commendation." 
Sueno  Elofson,  Paralipomena. 

8  Tegel,  ii.  364. 

9  "  We  would  have  thee  to  think,  dear  son,  what  detriment 
it  might  work  for  our  affairs,  if  the  Danes  should  become  our 
neighbours  on  this  side  also ;  whether  it  be  not  better  to 
forestall  than  to  be  forestalled ;  to  take  the  piece  from  the 
hound  in  time  than  to  be  bitten  by  him.  Give  us  thy 
opinion  hereupon."  Letter  of  the  king  to  Eric,  December  8 
and  10,  1558.  Register.  The  peace-loving  Christian  III. 
rejected  the  offer  above-mentioned  ;  but  his  son  Frederic  II. 
transferred  the  claims  he  had  acquired  by  purchase  in  1559, 
to  the  bishoprics  of  ffisel,  Courland,  and  Reval,  to  his 
brother  Magnus. 


142 


Designs  of  the 
princes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Diet  of 

Stockholm. 


[15«- 


by  a  loan,  obtaining  that  town  as  sccui'ity  ;  unless  it 
was  a  mere  pretext  on  the  king's  side  in  order  to 
take  the  matter  out  of  the  management  of  his  sons. 
For  we  know  that  John  also,  who  had  formed  con- 
nections with  Reval  by  giving  shelter  in  Finland  to 
the  pirates  of  this  town,  (the  sea-thieves  of  Reval 
as  Gustavus  calls  them,)  was  negociating  with  the 
grand-master  to  furnish  a  loan  upon  the  security  of 
certain  fortresses,  and  had  made  an  engagement  to 
this  effect  without  his  father's  privity.  The  kuig 
had  observed,  as  lie  declared,  that  his  son  had 
some  clandestine  matter  on  his  mind,  and  made 
him  earnest  representations  on  this  subject.  "See- 
ing thou  well  knowest  that  Finland  is  not  a  separate 
dominion  from  Sweden,  but  that  both  are  counted  as 
members  of  one  body,  it  becomes  thee  to  undertake 
nothing  which  concerns  the  whole  kingdom,  unless 
he  who  is  the  true  head  of  Sweden,  with  the  estates 
of  the  realm,  be  conisulted  thereupon ;  and  it  be  ap- 
proved and  confiiTned  by  him  and  them,  as  thy 
bounden  duty  points  out,  and  Sweden's  law  requires." 
But  John  turned  for  counsel  in  this  design,  not  to 
his  father,  but  to  Eric.  The  latter  informs  his 
brother,  who  was  still  busied  with  his  embassy  to 
London,  that  he  had  given  orders  to  his  secretary 
with  Clas  Christersou  Horn  to  negotiate  with  the 
grand-master  for  the  delivery  of  the  castles  of  Son- 
nenburg  and  Padis  for  the  sum  of  50,000  dollars, 
of  which  10,000  were  to  be  I'aised  in  Finland.  "  And 
when  the  king  our  father  hears  that  this  matter 
has  had  a  happy  issue,"  he  adds,  "  and  we  hold 
the  keys  of  the  castles,  doubt  not  that  he  will  lay 
out  the  I'est  for  us,  or  it  can  be  procured  in  some 
other  mode '."  He  pledges  himself  to  further  the 
scheme  according  to  the  engagement  he  had  made, 
"  even  should  it  move  the  wrath  of  the  kuig  ^." 
Eric  gave  command  for  the  immediate  equipment 
of  ships  in  Finland,  which  drew  forth  a  letter  from 
the  old  monarch,  forbidding  any  obedience  being 
given  in  matters  of  importance  to  "  what  Eric  or 
our  other  children  may  order  without  our  know- 
ledge and  sanction  ^.''  Thus  we  see  the  sons  united 
against  the  father  m  the  very  point  which  was  to 
enkindle  a  deadly  enmity  between  them  while  he 
was  yet  hardly  cold  in  his  grave. 

For  the  rest,  Eric  was  so  possessed  with  the 
hopes  he  had  conceived  from  the  assurances  of  his 
brother,  now  returned  from  London,  that  he  was 
firmly  resolved  himself  to  lay  his  love  at  the  feet  of 
Elizabeth,  although  the  queen  at  length,  with  more 
than  ordinary  frankness,  addressed  a  considerate 
letter  to  the  old  king,  entreating  him  to  dissuade 
his  son  from  proceeding.  Eric  at  first  declared 
this  to  be  a  jest,  and  when  the  king  quoted  the 
Latin  words  of  the  letter,  "  by  which  this  business 
is  broken  off  meetly  and  discreetly,"  he  was  of 
opinion  that  he  had  not  rightly  understood  their 
meaning.  "  Thou  boldest  to  another  notion,"  Gus- 
tavus writes  to  him,  "  as  if  the  queen's  letter  wei-e 
not  rightly  interpreted  to  us.     It  were  much  more 

>  To  Jolin,  September  23,  1558.     Register. 

2  Eric  to  John,  February  II,  1560.     Register. 

3  To  Joachim  Biilgrin,  upon  the  ships  which  Auke  Eric 
requests,  without  having  acquainted  the  king;  Juleta, 
March  4.  To  Steiio  Ericson  Lejonhufvud  ;  May  3.  Register 
for  1560. 

"  Letter  to  Eric,  February  20,  1560,  with  one  immediately 
following.     Register. 

*  Letter  to  Catharine  from  Ulfve  Sound,  now  Drottning- 
holm,  April  6,  1560. 


to  our  wish  thou  hadst  spared  us  such  fancies,  and 
not  contemned  us,  thy  father.  Although  we  will 
confess  that  we  are  not  so  deeply  learned  in  the 
Latin  tongue  as  thou  mayest  be,  yet  have  we  those 
in  our  service  who  understand  it  well."  Qui  amat 
periculum,  peribit  in  illo,  the  king  adds.  "  It 
were  good  thou  shouldest  ponder  the  weal  of  thy 
house,  and  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  Sweden,  and 
shouldest  consider  the  call  which  this  people  hath 
confided  to  thee  after  our  mortal  end,  so  that  thou 
mayest  store  up  in  thy  soul,  hke  a  worthy  prince, 
the  honour  and  majesty  which  thy  father-land  hath 
conferred  upon  thee  ■*." 

In  the  beginning  of  April  1560,  the  king  com- 
plains to  his  eldest  daughter,  that  he  felt  some- 
what weak  in  his  head  and  stomach  ;  yet  more 
from  sorrow  and  apprehension,  especially  for  his 
children,  than  from  any  other  cause  ^.  On  the 
24th  of  April  he  was  taken  ill  at  his  house  of 
Juleta  in  Sutliermanland  (Sudermania),  of  a  choleric 
fever  or  ague  ;  but  his  health  improving  after 
some  days,  he  made  excursions  in  his  galley  during 
the  fine  season,  according  to  his  wont,  round  the 
islands  of  the  Mselar.  His  son  John,  who  had  now 
returned  from  England,  he  received  with  a  glad 
welcome  (May  25)  in  Eskilstuna,  inviting  the  prince, 
with  his  brother  Eric,  to  the  diet  convened  at 
Stockholm  for  the  ICth  of  June.  The  writ  of  con- 
vocation issued,  the  king  said,  "  by  reason  that 
we  feel  weak  and  old,  and  many  difficult  and 
weighty  matters  remain  to  be  settled  ;''  a  letter  to 
Eric,  in  which  he  entreats  his  son  not  to  give  ear  to 
those  who  dissuaded  him  from  coming  to  the  king*; 
and  one  to  John,  in  which  he  complains  that  Eric 
kept  spies  on  his  father's  motions ' ;  are,  together 
with  his  testament,  the  latest  relics  which  the  state 
archives  preserve  of  king  Gustavus.  Of  his  last 
speech  to  the  estates,  and  of  his  illness  and  death, 
we  have  accounts  from  his  secretary,  Sucno  Elofson, 
and  his  confessor. 

The  writ  enumerates  free-born  and  freeholders 
(fralsemen),  clerks,  burgesses,  and  peasants,  these 
forming  the  four  estates.  In  relation  to  the  first- 
named  class,  it  will  be  remembered,  that  although 
horse-service,  as  it  was  called,  or  the  furnishing  of 
a  horseman,  was,  by  law,  one  condition  of  the  im- 
munity from  taxation  enjoyed  by  the  nobility, 
there  was,  nevertheless,  before  its  institution,  a 
nobility  of  birth  in  the  common  sense,  which  equally 
subsisted  afterwards.  The  nobleman  by  birth  was 
the  "  free-born  ;"  the  fralseman  was  he  who  had 
won  his  privilege  of  nobility  by  service  performed  ; 
both  were  reckoned  as  belonging  to  the  class  of 
nobles.  That  for  admission  thereinto,  distinguished 
birth  was  not  in  general  required,  the  words  of 
Gustavus  himself  establish.  When  Eric  stated, 
that  in  his  dukedom  several  peasants'  sons  had 
come,  by  marriage,  into  the  possession  of  tax-free 
(or  fralse)  estates,  the  king  replied,   that  "trial 

*  He  might  be  displeased  indeed  with  those  about  Eric, 
but  he  had  nothing  against  him  individually.  Letter  to 
Eric,  Strengness,  June  3,  1560,  in  the  Register. 

7  "  We  send  thee  these  letters,  by  which  thou  mayest  per- 
ceive what  company  our  dear  son  Eric  uses  to  spy  out  our 
intents  ;  and  as  our  afore-named  son  is  by  nature  something 
mistrustful,  these  toads  he  keeps  about  him  do  so  spur  him 
on  by  their  instigations,  that  he  meddles  rashly  with  matters 
to  which  he  has  given  no  heed."  He  prays  John  to  give  him 
good  counsel.  June  4,  1500.  This  is  the  last  letter  of  Gus- 
tavus in  the  Register. 


1560.] 


The  king's 
speech. 


GUSTAVUS  VASA.    THE  HEREDITARY  SETTLEMENT. 


His  last 
illness. 


143 


must  be  made  of  every  one's  manhood  and  repute, 
according  as  the  law  jn-escribes,  seeing  that  virtue, 
intelligence,  and  courage  make  nobility*."  In 
addition,  there  were  summoned  to  this  diet  the 
ordinaries  (as  the  bishops  were  now  termed),  two 
clergymen,  and  two  peasants,  discreet  men,  from 
every  hundred,  with  four  burgesses  from  each  of 
the  towns. 

June  16,  Gustavus  came  to  Stockholm,  and  in- 
formed the  estates,  by  message,  that  he  would 
meet  them  at  the  palace  on  the  25th  of  the  month. 
On  the  appointed  day  he  took  his  place  in  the  hall 
of  assemblage,  accompanied  by  all  his  sons,  king 
Eric,  duke  John,  duke  Magnus,  and  duke  Charles  ; 
the  last,  who  was  still  a  child,  standing  at  his 
father's  knee,  the  others  on  his  left  hand,  each 
according  to  his  age.  The  king  having  saluted  the 
estates,  they  listened  for  the  last  time  to  the  accents 
of  that  eloquence  so  well  liked  by  the  people,  that 
when  in  the  diets  he  deputed  one  of  his  officers  to 
make  a  proposal,  they  were  wont  to  cry  that  they 
would  have  himself  to  speak.  "  They  well  under- 
stood," he  said,  "  and  those  of  tliem  who  were  fallen 
in  years  had  seen  it  too,  beneath  what  oppression 
and  wretchedness  their  native  land  had  groaned, 
under  foreign  domination  and  alien  rulers,  last 
under  that  cruel  tyrant,  king  Christian,  whom  God 
had  punished,  and  driven  out  by  his  hands — a 
divine  help  and  deliverance  to  be  held  in  remem- 
brance by  all,  old  and  young,  high  and  low,  lords 
and  servants.  For  what  manner  of  man  was  I," 
proceeded  the  king,  "  to  set  myself  against  him, 
who  was  so  strong,  the  sovereign  lord  of  three 
kingdoms,  befnended  by  that  mighty  emperor, 
Charles  V.,  and  by  the  chief  princes  of  Germany  ? 
But  it  was  the  doing  of  God,  who  had  made  him  to 
be  a  sign  of  his  power,  and  been  his  comfort  and 
help  in  a  government  of  forty  years,  the  toils  of 
which  had  brought  him  with  grey  hairs  to  his 
grave.  He  might  compare  himself,  indeed,  with 
king  David  (here  the  tears  burst  from  his  eyes), 
whom  God  had  raised  from  a  shepherd  to  be  the 
lord  and  ruler  over  his  people  ;  for  never  could  he 
have  supposed  that  he  could  attain  to  this  honour, 
when  he  was  obliged  to  hide  in  forests  and  desert 
mountains  from  the  bloodthirsty  sword  of  his 
enemies.  Grace  and  blessings  had  been  richly  dis- 
pensed to  him  and  to  them  through  the  true  know- 
ledge of  God's  word  (from  which  might  they  never 
depart !),  and  the  seasonable  abundance  that  lay 
everywhere  before  their  eyes.  Yet  would  he  not 
shrink  from  acknowledging  his  faults.  For  the 
errors  and  weaknesses  which  might  be  imputed  to 
him  during  the  time  of  his  government — these  his 
true  liegemen  might  overlook  and  forgive  :  he 
knew  that  in  the  opinion  of  many  he  had  been  a 
hard  king,  yet  the  time  was  at  hand,  when  Sweden's 
children  would  gladly  pluck  him  out  of  the  earth 
if  they  could.  He  needed  not  to  ask  the  stars  of 
his  end  ;  by  the  signs  in  his  own  body  he  felt  that 
he  had  not  much  more  time  to  look  for.     There- 

8  June  9,  1559. 

9  Short  Relation  of  the  gracious  end  of  the  most  high  and 
mighty  Lord  and  Prince  Gustavus  Ericson,  King  of  the 
Swedes,  Goths,  and  Vandals.  Manuscript  by  the  king's 
confessor. 

'  This  person  was  not,  as  Dalln  says,  the  first  apothecary 
in  Stockholm.  In  the  minute-book  of  the  town  is  the  fol- 
lowing entry  :  "  In  1496,  a  new  apoticarius  was  sent  by  the 
council  of  state  fcr  the  public  behoof,  to  do  good  and  be 


fore,  while  yet  in  health,  he  had  caused  his  testa- 
ment to  be  drawn  up,  and  hoping  that  it  I'ested  on 
good  reasons,  he  requested  that  they  would  give  it 
confirmation."  After  the  deed  had  been  read, 
approved,  and  confirmed  by  oath,  the  king  stood 
up  and  thanked  them  that  they  had  willed  him  to 
be  father  of  a  dynasty  of  Swedish  kings.  He  then 
committed  the  government  to  his  son  Eric,  ex- 
horted his  children  to  harmony  among  themselves, 
stretched  out  his  hands  in  benediction,  and  so  took 
leave  of  his  people. 

The  following  day  Eric  made  a  speech  to  the 
estates  in  the  high  church,  on  the  necessity  of  con- 
cluding in  person  the  ncgociation  of  the  English 
match,  from  which  great  advantages  were  pro- 
mised for  Sweden.  In  this  representation  he  was 
seconded  by  John,  whom  he  named  in  return  to  be 
admuiistrator  of  the  kingdom  during  his  absence. 
Gusta\Tis  himself  was  at  length  obliged  to  give  way 
to  the  importunities  of  Eric,  "  after  his  dear  son 
John  had  given  him  a  far  better  answer  ^  ;"  and 
the  young  king  showed  himself  so  eager  for  the 
journey,  that  not  even  his  father's  illness  restrained 
him.  Upon  the  1 4th  of  August,  the  very  day  of 
Eric's  departure,  Gustavus  lay  on  his  death-bed, 
"  ill  of  a  burning  fever  and  ague,  with  the  malady 
called  diari'hoea,"  says  his  confessor  master  Jo- 
hannes, who,  with  the  king's  barber  master  Jacob, 
and  the  apothecary,  master  Lucas  *,  acted  likewise 
as  his  physician.  When  therefore  the  first-named 
person  began  a  long  discourse  of  devotion,  the  king 
bade  him  cut  it  short,  and  instead  of  that,  bring 
him  a  medicine  for  a  sick  stomach  and  a  brain  that 
felt  as  it  were  burning  2.  He  was  heard  to  exclaim 
that  he  had  busied  himself  too  much  with  the  cares 
of  this  world,  but  with  all  his  wealth  he  could  not 
buy  himself  physicians.  Such  of  his  bailiffs  as 
were  incarcerated  for  debts  owed  to  himself,  he 
now  restored  to  freedom.  His  mood  was  capri- 
cious and  changeable  ;  now  harsh  and  morose,  so 
that  his  children  trembled  in  his  presence  ;  now 
soft  even  to  tears  ;  at  other  times  merry  and  jest- 
ing, especially  at  the  endeavours  of  those  who 
wished  to  prolong  his  life.  When  one  asked  him  if 
he  needed  aught,  his  reply  was,  "  The  kingdom  of 
heaven,  which  thou  canst  not  give  me."  He 
seemed  not  to  place  overmuch  confidence  even  in 
his  ghostly  advisers  ;  when  the  priest  exhorted  him 
to  confess  his  sins,  the  king  broke  angr'ily  out, 
"  Shall  I  tell  my  sins  to  thee  ? "  To  the  by- 
standers he  declared  that  he  forgave  his  enemies, 
and  begged  pardon  of  all  for  anything  in  which  lie 
had  dealt  unjustly  with  them,  enjoining  them  to 
make  known  this  to  all.  To  his  sons  he  said,  "A 
man  is  but  a  man  ;  when  the  play  is  out,  we  are  all 
alike  ;"  and  enjoined  them  to  unity  and  stedfast- 
ness  in  their  religion.  The  consort  of  the  dying 
king  never  quitted  his  side.  During  the  first 
three  weeks  of  his  illness  he  spoke  often,  sometimes 
with  wonderful  energy,  on  temporal  and  spiritual 

righteous  in  his  office,  and  to  take  no  other  step  than  what 
the  doctor  shall  order,  or  his  prescriptions  point  out." 

2  He  gave  the  king  violet-syrup  and  pomegranates,  endive- 
water  and  chicory,  "  with  something  purgative  ;  but  the  dis- 
ease was  too  obstinate."  Yet  the  king  said  mostly  no  to  "all 
confections,  syrups,  and  draughts,  and  would  by  no  means 
take  any,"  nor  "almond-milk,  soft-boiled  eggs,  and  heath- 
fowl  roasted  and  boiled."  A  few  days  before  the  king's  death 
arrived  doctor  Mathias  Paludanus,  and  somewhat  earlier 
doctor  Wilhelm,  both  sent  by  Eric. 


144 


His  death. 
Peter  Bralie's 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


testimony 
regarding  him. 


[1544— GO. 


affairs.  The  three  following  he  passed  chiefly  in 
silence,  and  as  it  seemed,  with  no  great  pain  ;  lie 
was  often  seen  to  raise  his  hands  as  in  prayer. 
Having  received  the  sacrament,  made  confession  of 
his  faith,  and  sworn  to  his  son  to  adhere  firmly  to 
it ;  he  beckoned  for  writing  materials,  and  in- 
scribed these  words,  "Once  confessed, so pei-sist, or 
a  hundred  times  repeated," — but  his  ti-embling  hand 
had  not  power  to  finish  the  sentence.  The  con- 
fessor continued  his  exhortations,  till,  as  life  was 
flying,  Steno  Ericson  Lejoiihufvud  interrupted  him 
by  saying,  "  All  that  you  talk  is  in  vain,  for  our 
lord  heareth  no  more."  Thereupon  the  priest  bent 
down  to  the  ear  of  the  dying  man  and  said,  "  If 
thou  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  hear  my  voice, 
give  us  some  sign  thereof."  To  the  amazement 
of  all,  the  king  answered  with  a  loud  voice, "  Yes  !" 
This  was  his  last  breath,  at  eight  of  the  clock  in  the 
morning,  the  29th  of  September,  1560. 

Gustavus  in  his  best  days  is  thus  depicted  by  his 
sister's  son,  Peter  Brahe  *.  "  His  stature  was  that 
of  a  man  of  middle  height,  something  more  than 
six  feet*.  He  had  a  round  head,  fair  hair,  a 
comely,  large,  long  beard,  quick  eyes,  small  straight 
nose,  a  well-shaped  mouth,  ruddy  lips,  blooming 
cheeks,  his  body  of  a  reddish  brown,  so  goodly  that 
not  a  spot  was  to  be  found  on  him  whereupon  a 
needle's  point  could  be  set,  strong  arms,  a  full  per- 
son, neatly  shaped  hands  and  feet ;  in  a  word,  so 
well-formed  and  justly  proportioned,  as  a  skilful 
limner  at  his  best  might  paint  a  man.  He  took 
pleasure  in  wearing  stout  raiment,  proper  for  a 
man  and  a  king,  and  however  his  clothes  were  cut, 
they  fitted  him  perfectly  well.  His  complexion 
was  choleric  sanguine  ;  he  was  of  a  cheerful,  gay, 
and  jovial  turn,  untroubled  and  fi'ee  fi'om  scoi-n  ; 
and  how  many  guests  soever  were  found  in  his 
halls,  he  knew  how  to  fit  himself  to  each  in  con- 
verse and  discourse  as  their  place  required.  He 
kept  an  honourable  and  royal  court,  as  well  of 
native  as  foreign  lords  and  gentlemen,  and  a 
decorously  ordered  drawing-i-oom  *.  Daily  in  the 
afternoon  an  hour  was  appointed,  when  all  the 
nobles  behoved  to  come  to  the  ball-room.  There 
was  the  mistress  of  tlie  household ''  with  the 
ladies,  and  the  king's  musicians  played  to  them. 
Every  second  or  third  day  the  king  rode  out  with 
his  lords  and  ladies,  either  to  the  chase  or  to  take 
the  air,  and  in  pleasure  (then  yet  an  innocent  word) 
to  pass  away  the  time.  Every  week  he  had  a 
fencing-school  free  to  all  comers,  and  kept  tlie 
young  nobles  at  practice  as  well  in  this  art  as  in 
every  other  knightly  exercise,  wherein  he  himself 
took  great  contentment.  And  whoso  in  this  ex- 
celled the  others,  was  requited  with  an  honourable 
present,  whether  it  were  a  gold  ring  or  a  p«arl 
garland,  or  to  lead  the  dance  with  some  young  lady 
of  the  court.     To  hear  music  the  king  took  great 

3  In  his  chronicle,  under  the  year  1,')32. 

■•  "Three  ells;"  of  two  feet.    The  Swedish  foot  is  nearly 


pleasure,  as  well  with  men's  voices,  as  with  sweet 
and  delightsome  instruments  ;  and  he  had  not  only 
good  judgment  to  give  an  opinion  thereanent,  but 
he  was  himself  an  artist  both  to  sing  and  to  play. 
Among  all  instruments  he  held  the  lute  most  dear, 
and  there  was  no  evening  when  he  was  alone  that 
he  did  not  solace  himself  with  it.  Although  he 
was  not  so  deeply  versed  in  bookish  studies  and  the 
like,  for  that  in  early  youth  he  was  taken  from 
them  to  court-service,  yet  his  judgment  was  by 
nature  so  sharp-sighted,  upon  the  handiwork  of 
artists  of  all  kinds,  images  and  paintings,  portraits, 
landscapes,  buildings,  also  of  the  natures  of  birds, 
beasts,  trees,  and  roots,  that  herein  he  excelled 
those  who  had  made  such  things  their  study.  Set 
he  once  eyes  upon  a  man  fairly,  then  would  he  have 
assurance  of  knowing  him  well  again,  after  ten  or 
twenty  years'  time,  and  he  could  judge  of  his  nature 
and  character  by  his  aspect.  He  had  a  super- 
naturally  good  memory ;  what  he  had  heard  once 
or  twice  he  never  forgot ;  where  he  had  once 
passed  by,  he  never  needed  again  to  inquire  of  the 
way  ;  and  he  knew  not  only  the  names  of  the 
villages,  but  also  those  of  the  peasants,  if  he  had 
stayed  there  in  his  youth.  Much  good  luck  he  had 
in  his  days  before  other  men,  not  only  at  cards  or 
dice,  when  he  sat  down  to  play,  which  happened 
not  often,  but  also  in  victories  and  successes  in  his 
warlike  enterprises,  with  tillage  and  breeding  of 
cattle,  finding  of  treasure  in  the  earth,  mines,  and 
fisheries  of  all  sorts.  His  royal  castles  and  manors 
ovetflowed  with  plenteousness.  He  had  likewise 
the  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes,  serving  him  with 
gladness,  both  at  morn  and  even-tide  ;  and  though 
he  rejoiced  in  the  society  of  fair  and  engaging 
dames,  yet  was  he  so  chaste  that  he  was  never 
brought  into  scandal  for  any,  nor  was  it  ever  said 
that  children  were  born  to  him  out  of  wedlock,  but 
he  kept  himself  true  to  his  nuptial  vow.  In  the 
sum  ;  God  had  endowed  him  above  his  fellows  with 
great  ability,  high  understanding,  a(jd  many  princely 
virtues,  so  that  he  was  well  worthy  to  bear  the 
kingly  sceptre  and  the  crown.  For  it  was  not  only 
that  he  was  sagacious  and  versatile  ;  he  was  also 
manly  ai.d  virtuous,  in  judgment  sharp-sighted  and 
fair,  and  in  many  matters  tender  of  heart." 

Such  was  his  portraiture,  drawn  in  the  bloom  of 
life.  With  years  came  seriousness  ;  and  in  a  form 
more  worthy  of  honour  than  his,  age  has  been  rarely 
seen.  We  have  described  him  by  his  actions  and 
the  testimony  of  his  contemporaries.  Nothing  re- 
mains to  be  added,  unless  to  say  that  in  our  genera- 
tion he  would  have  excited  wonder  still*  more  by 
his  virtues  than  his  failings.  In  both  he  belongs 
to  another  race  than  the  present  ;  but  his  life  was 
for  many  races  and  ages. 

one-third  of  an  inch  shorter  than  the  English;  Gustavus 
therefore  was  probably  about  5  feet  II  inches.     T. 

5  FrunHmmer,  ladies'  chamber. 

fi  Ilofiiiasterinnan. 


L_J^, 


1560— C9.] 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


145 


CHAPTER  XI. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 

ACCESSION  OF  ERTC.  HIS  CHARACTER.  POWER  OF  THE  ROYAL  DUKES,  JOHN  AND  CHARLES.  THEIR 
DIFFERENCES  WITH  THE  KING.  CREATION  OF  COUNTS  AND  BARONS.  STATE  OF  THE  JUDICATORY.  THE 
king's  OVERTURES  OF  MARRIAGE.  HIS  EXTRAVAGANCE.  SWEDISH  DOMINION  IN  ESTLAND.  IMPRISON- 
MENT OP  DUKE  JOHN.  TYRANNY  OF  ERIC  AND  HIS  MINISTER,  GEORGE  PERSON.  WAR  WITH  DENMARK. 
UNSUCCESSFUL  ATTEMPT  ON  NORWAY.  PERSECUTION  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  STURE.  TRIAL  OF  SIX  MAGNATES 
FOR  HIGH  TREASON  BEFORE  THE  ESTATES.  FRENZY  OF  ERIC.  REVOLT  OF  THE  DUKES.  THE  KING 
DEPOSED    BY   THE    ESTATES  ;    INCARCERATED  ;     AND  POISONED.       HIS    SON    GUSTAVUS. 

15G0- 


A.  D. 

Eric  inherited  from  his  father  peace  with  his  neigh- 
bours, abundance  throughout  the  hind,  a  well  re- 
plenished treasuiy,  and  that  good  will  of  the  people 
with  which  new  reigns  and  young  princes  are  for 
the  most  part  hailed.  He  was  in  his  twenty-seventh 
year,  well  formed,  like  all  the  sons  of  Gustavus,  of 
person  rather  agreeable  than  tall.  Expert  in  bodily 
exercises,  he  was  also  held  to  be  versed  in  the 
business  of  war ;  showed  himself  in  speech  and 
answer  mild  and  friendly  ;  is  extolled  too  for  his 
sharpsightedness  and  gift  of  expression  in  the  treat- 
ment of  affairs.  Of  languages  he  knew  several, 
and  left  after  him  writings  in  the  Swedish  and 
Latin  ;  was  an  astrologer,  poet,  musician,  and 
painter''  ;  and  withal  other  features  might  be  culled 
for  a  brilliant  epitaph  on  a  life  so  unfortunate.  If 
we  compare  with  these  rich  endowments  his  own 
conduct,  we  perceive  that  it  is  not  manifold  jiarts 
and  accomplishments  which  make  the  man.  Here 
bloomed  fertility  over  subterrene  fire. 

Eric  had  quitted  the  death-bed  of  his  father  to 
repair  to  England  ;  "  but  secretly,"  it  is  said,  "  he 
had  other  practices  in  his  mind,  in  the  concealment 
whereof  he  was  masterly."  His  inmost  view  appeal's 
to  have  been  to  collect  round  himself,  under  this 
pretext,  a  considerable  force.  He  drew  slowly  to- 
wards Elfsborg,  where  the  fleet  lay  upon  his  account. 
Many  of  the  principal  men  in  the  country  joined 
his  numerous  train  ;  he  collected  much  money  by 
voluntary  contributions,  especially  in  Gothland, 
"  many  thousand  marks  of  silver,  enough  where- 
with towage  a  middling  war  *."  Thus  furnished 
he  received  the  tidings  of  his  father's  death  ;  took 
homage  from  the  provinces  on  his  return  to  the 
capital  ;  made  his  entry  there  on  November  the 
30th,  1560  ;  and  on  the  21st  December  following 
buried  his  father  in  the  cathedral  of  Upsala. 

1  Praeter  insiijneni  artium  liberalium  et  prasertim  mathe- 
seos  ac  linguarum  exoticarum  cogiiitionem,  in  omni  disci- 
plirice  militaris  fuit  genere  versatissimus;  ingenio  arimodum 
perspicaci,  verum  suspicaci ;  blandus  sermotie ;  comis  allo- 
quio ;  statura  corporis  magis  grata  quam  elata;  equitandi, 
natandi,  saltandi  peritia  tantopere  prasditus,  ut  spectaiitium 
animos  in  summam  plerumque  admirationem  raperet. 
Messenius,  Scondia,  vi.  Several  of  liis  compositions  still 
remain,  chiefly  upon  matters  personal  to  himself.  Yet  he 
wrote  also  a  book  on  judicial  astrology  (Liber  Astronomicus 
Judiciarius),  and  a  short  treatise  on  military  art  and  disci- 
pline. He  translated  into  Swedish  the  History  of  Joannes 
Magnus,  under  the  title  of  Chronicle  of  the  Swedes  and 
Goths,  (Svea  ocli  Gota  Cronika,)  annexing  Latin  verses 
upon  each  of  the  kings,  composed  by  himself.  We  have  still 
portraits  by  his  hand ;  he  is  also  the  author  of  two  hymns 
for  four  voices,  and  of  two  penitential  psalms  admitted  into 
the  Swedish  psalm-book.  Love-songs  by  him  to  Catharine, 
Magnus'  daughter,  are  also  preserved,  and  Erie  Sparre  re- 
lates that  the  king  himself  sang  well.     Dionysius  Beurreus, 


-1569. 

The  old  king  had  by  his  testament  bestowed 
hereditary  dukedoms  upon  his  remaining  sons,  to 
be  held  under  Erie  as  their  lord  superior.  "For 
seeing  that  he  had  suffered  much  in  his  own  life- 
time from  envy," — says  the  great  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  ", — "  so  did  he  intend  (even  as  we  men  are 
wont  to  call  to  mind  chiefly  that  which  has  most 
vexed  ourselves)  by  his  testament  to  make  his 
children  so  high  and  mighty  that  they  should  be 
ft'ee  from  the  fear  of  envy.  Therefore  made  he 
Eric,  the  eldest,  to  be  king,  John  to  be  duke  of 
Finland,  Magnus  to  be  duke  of  East-Gothland, 
Charles  to  be  duke  of  Suthermanland,  and  coun- 
selled them  to  harmony  and  brotherly  unity  among 
one  another,  in  the  opinion  that,  like  as  common 
dangers  and  enemies  use  to  link  men,  the  brothers 
would  all  the  more  hold  together.  But  herein 
alone  did  king  Gustavus  err ;  bi'otherly  harmony 
is  but  rare  to  find,  and  seldom  are  power  and  unity 
met  in  one  place.  These  lords  were  too  powerful 
subjects."  It  is  the  noblest  of  the  race  of  Gustavus 
who  has  pronounced  this  reproach,  in  which  pos- 
terity agree.  If  we  may  believe  a  saying  which 
has  come  dovvn  to  us,  the  founder  of  the  race  fore- 
saw this  and  declared  his  feelings  thereupon.  Once 
in  his  sorrow,  it  is  related,  king  Eric  leant  his 
head  upon  his  hand  and  said  to  George  Person  : — 
"  My  father  of  happy  memory  prepared  for  me 
heavy  days  when  he  gave  the  dukedoms  to  my  bro- 
thers." George  replied: — "  Yea,  but  the  departed 
king  alleged  in  his  excuse,  that  it  would  be  worse 
if  they  were  not  more  powerful  than  the  nobles  '." 
This  story  contains  nothing  which  did  not  agree 
with  the  known  opinions  of  Gustavus,  and  confirms 
the  words  of  his  grandchild.  The  apology  contains 
more   than  it  expresses.     For  if  it  were  replied 

who  infused  into  him  a  liking  for  Calvinism,  was  also  his 
instructor  in  astrology,  to  which  Eric  zealously  applied  him- 
self, and  "  was  thereby  so  perplexed  and  disturbed  in  his 
head,  that  he  became  an  ungentle  and  mistrustful  prince." 
Rasmus  Ludvikson's  Chronicle  of  King  Eric.  Scandin. 
Memoirs,  xii.  248.  The  French  minister  Dantzai  writes 
regarding  him  to  his  king  :  "  J'ai  souvent  confere  avec  lui 
de  plusieurs  affaires.  _Je  vous  promets,  sire,  qu'il  ^toit 
d'un  trt:s-bon  jugement;  il  comprenoit  facilement  ce  qu'on 
lui  proposoit,  et  s'expliquoit  fort  disertement  et  prompte- 
ment,  et  il  avoit  plusieurs  autres  grandes  vertus ;  vrai  est 
qu'il  etoit  fort  soupfonneux."  (I  have  often  conferred  with 
him  upon  many  affairs.  I  promise  you,  sire,  that  he  was  of 
a  very  good  judgment ;  he  comprehended  easily  what  was 
proposed  to  him,  and  explained  himself  very  eloquently  and 
promptly,  and  he  had  several  other  great  virtues ;  true  it  is 
that  he  was  very  suspicious.) 

8  Peter  Brahe,  in  his  Chronicle  of  King  Gustavus  I. 

*  In  the  history  which  he  commenced,  printed  along  with 
the  Rhyme  Chronicle  of  Charles  IX'.     Stockholm,  1759. 

'  Scand.  Mem.  iii.  41. 

L 


146 


Characters  of  the 
dukes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Disagreements  with 
the  king. 


[15C0— 


that  he  thereby  weakened,  because  he  divided,  the 
power  which  he  wished  to  found,  we  must  yet 
reflect  that  his  heir  was  Eric,  and  that  the  father 
doubted,  regarding  him,  between  a  throne  and  a 
dungeon,  in  oi'der  fully  to  discern  the  whole  magni- 
tude of  the  dangers  between  which  he  had  here  to 
choose.  If  we  may  likewise  give  credit  to  the  fol- 
lowing statement  regarding  king  Gustavus  in  the 
dialogue  cited — "  He  preferred  dissension  between 
a  sovereign  and  powerful  princes,  his  brothers,  to 
the  expulsion  of  the  royal  house  and  the  return  of 
foreign  domination  over  the  realm,  well  knowing 
that  the  throne  would  still  remain  even  if  strife 
arose  in  his  family,  but  would  fall  if  the  strength  of 
the  barons  were  to  be  put  forth,  which  a  powerful 
duke  placed  in  authority  over  these  would  certainly 
prevent," — then  did  the  old  monarch  foresee  the 
history  of  his  country  for  fifty  years  to  come. 

John,  now  twenty-three  years  old,  had  entered 
on  possession  of  his  fief  during  his  father's  lifetime; 
he  is  styled  "  prince  hereditary  of  Sweden  and  duke 
of  Finland."  Magnus  in  his  nineteenth  year  re- 
ceived his  after  the  death  of  his  father,  and  is  called 
"  duke  hereditary  of  Sweden,  duke  of  Westanstang, 
count  of  Dal  andVassbo^.  Charles,  the  youngest 
child  of  Gustavus,  now  ten  years  old,  had  received 
Sudermania,  Nerike,  and  Vermeland  for  his  duke- 
dom, but  did  not  come  into  possession  of  it  during 
the  reign  of  Eric.  John,  of  fair  and  tall  person, 
had  an  expression  of  benignity  of  nature*,  yet  gave 
signs  of  ambition,  more  of  a  craving  than  of  a  true 
energy.  Among  the  testimonies  of  bis  contempo- 
raries is  one  which  says  that  "  he  had  the  gestures 
and  demeanour  of  a  high-hearted  man,  although  liis 
heart  was  timid  *."  In  this  fearfulness  of  heart  he 
resembled  Eric,  and  the  two  brothers  persecuted 
each  other  from  mutual  apprehensions.  Daring 
courage  no  son  of  Gustavus  possessed  except  Charles, 
who  ah'eady  at  the  age  of  fifteen  displayed  it  under 
the  walls  of  Warberg,  Magnus,  like  the  whole 
family,  was  of  violent  temper  *,  and  at  length  be- 
came deranged  in  mind ;  his  lunacy  first  broke 
out  upon  Eric  compelling  him  to  subscribe  the 
sentence  condemning  John  to  death.  A  saying 
was  moreover  current  that  mental  disease  was 
hereditary  in  the  house  of  Vasa  ;  on  wliich  account 
the  French  minister  Dantzai,  when  there  was  ques- 

2  So  the  brothers  of  Eric  are  entitled  in  his  letter  of  March 
19.  Registry  for  1561.  The  king  here  applies  the  title  of 
count  to  his  brother  Magnus,  before  he  had  introduced  this 
rank  into  Sweden,  which  was  shortly  afterwards  done,  at  his 
coronation. 

3  "  Prince  fort  humain  et  debonnaire."  Correspondance  de 
Dantzai. 

•*  Sven  Elofson. 

^  His  father  admonishes  him  of  this  fault. 

8  He  terms  her  one  of  the  most  accomplished  princesses 
in  Europe.  "  On  m'assurede  son  e.xcellente  beaute;  elle  est 
de  fort  bon  esprit,  de  bonne  grace,  de  belle  taille,  le  corps 
fort  beau  ;  et  n'ai  point  entendu  qu'elle  y  aye  aucun  defaut, 
ni  chose,  qu'on  y  puisse  reprendre.  Un  chacun  loue  sa 
grande  modestie,  et  pour  vrai,  sire,  elle  est  recommandee 
et  fort  estimee  pour  ses  vertus,  de  tous  ceux  qui  I'ont  fre- 
quentee.  Elle  prend  plaisir  a  I'espinette  et  en  joue  mieiix 
que  mediocrement.  Elle  joue  aussi  de  luth.  Elle  est  fort 
benigne  et  charitable.  J'esp^re  que  le  sieur  Pinart  vous 
rendra  de  brief  certain  de  toutes  les  autres  paiticu'ariles." 
(I  am  assured  of  her  excelling  beauty  ;  she  is  of  passing  good 
wit,  good  grace,  fair  figure,  the  person  very  fine;  and  I  have 
not  heard  that  she  has  any  defect,  or  point  which  is  to  be 
reprehended.     Every  one  praises  her  great  modesty,  and  in 


tion  of  a  marriage  between  king  Henry  III.  of 
France  and  the  beautiful  and  well  educated  Swe- 
dish princess  Elizabeth  ^,  shows  himself  anxious  to 
contradict  this  rumour.  He  frees  Eric  from  the 
imputation,  (although  the  estates  declared  upon  his 
deposition  that  he  had  been  sometimes  completely 
frantic  and  out  of  his  mind,)  and  observes,  that  he 
knows  of  no  other  example  of  this  calamity  in  the 
family  besides  duke  Magnus,  for  as  to  what  con- 
cerned the  father  of  king  Gustavus,  lord  Eric 
Johanson,  he  might  indeed  have  been  a  puny  and 
very  simple  man,  but  not  mad  ^ 

Courteous  words  disguised  at  first  the  animosities 
of  the  brothers.  The  first  letter  which  Eric  re- 
ceived from  John,  written  on  the  second  day  after 
his  father's  death,  contained  already  complaints 
regarding  the  provisions  of  the  will.  "  It  had  been 
sufiiciently  known  how  assiduous  and  industrious 
their  departed  father  had  been  in  gathering  sub- 
stance for  his  children  ;  yet  was  there  in  his  last 
will  nothing  determined,  either  in  respect  to  the 
wealth  he  had  left  in  cash  and  moveables,  or  his 
many  desirable  estates,  which  now  were  their 
rightful  heritage,  although  the  deceased  king  had 
allowed  these  rents  to  flow  into  the  treasury  of  tlie 
realm  ;"  John  hoped  that  all  this  would  now  turn 
out  to  their  common  advantage*.  But  Eric  had 
himself  far  more  important  overtures  to  make  in 
relation  to  the  will,  and  evaded  for  a  time  the  visits 
of  his  brothers  '.  A  proposition,  drawn  up  by  him- 
self, which  more  precisely  defined  the  king's  right 
over  the  dukes,  and  restricted  their  powers,  was 
proposed  to  the  estates  at  the  diet  of  Arboga,  on 
the  15th  April,  1561,  and  received  their  sanction 
without  difficulty.  In  general  the  people  showed 
themselves  favourable  to  Eric  ;  he  had  also,  at 
least  in  the  beginning,  not  to  complain  of  any  want 
of  compliance  in  the  magnates.  In  the  negotiation 
with  the  dukes,  the  chief  and  most  powerful  men 
of  the  nation  appeared  on  his  side  ;  Suanto  Sture', 
Peter  Brahe,  even  Steno  Ericson  Lejonhufvud, 
although  maternal  uncle  to  John.  In  consequence, 
the  dukes  were  obliged  to  submit  to  the  conditions 
proposed,  although  they  complained  that  under 
them  were  hid  many  traps  and  snares  by  which 
the  king  might  entangle  them  how  and  when  he 
pleased.     For  such,  doubtless,  they  reckoned  the 

truth,  sire,  she  is  recommended  and  highly  esteemed  for  her 
virtues  by  all  who  have  sought  her  society.  She  takes  plea- 
sure in  the  spinnet,  and  plays  on  it  better  than  moderately 
well ;  she  plays  also  on  the  lute  :  she  is  very  kind  and  chari- 
table. 1  hope  that  the  sieur  Pinart  will  acquaint  you  by  letter 
with  all  her  other  qualities.)  The  last  namedperson  was  sent 
to  Sweden  in  1574  upon  this  negotiation,  which  was  broken  off 
on  account  of  the  discontent  created  by  it  among  the  Catholics. 

7  "  N'etoitde  grand  jugement,  ainsid'iin  fort  simple  esprit" 
— and  elsewhere ;  "  J'ai  quelque  fois  oui  dire  ;!  des  gentilshom- 
mes  de  Dannemark,  tant  en  public  que  particulier,  que  le 
dit  sieur  Eric,  p^re  du  roi  Gustavus,  etoit  de  fort  petite  sta- 
ture et  ne  I'estimoit  personne  de  grand  sens,  ni  esprit,  ni 
jugement;  mais  je  n'entendis  oncques,  qu'il  eut  le  cerveau 
corrompu,  ni  I'esprit  trouble."  (I  have  sometimes  heard  say 
by  gentlemen  of  Denmark,  as  well  in  public  as  private,  that 
the  said  sieur  Eric,  fatlier  of  king  Gustavus,  was  of  very 
little  stature,  and  was  thought  by  no  one  to  be  of  great  sense, 
or  spirit,  or  judgment;  but  I  never  understood  that  his  brain 
was  diseased,  or  his  mind  deranged.") 

8  Letter  of  October  1  ;  Registry  for  1560. 

9  "  We  ])ray  that  your  love  will  for  this  time  with  brotherly 
goodness  excuse  us  and  leave  us  to  ourselves."  To  John  and 
Jla^'uus,  March  19.     Registry  for  1561. 


15C9.] 


Coronation. 
Hereditary  nobility. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


New  supreme  court 
established. 


147 


stipulation,  that  if  the  dukes,  without  the  king's 
consent,  by  purchase,  hypothec,  exchange,  or  other- 
wise, acquired  for  themselves  and  heirs  any  estates, 
they  should  forfeit,  therefore,  to  the  crown  double 
the  value  out  of  their  own  patrimonial  properties. 
We  might  thus  be  led  to  suppose  that  a  partition 
of  the  royal  heritage  had  actually  been  made;  but 
this  was  not  the  ease.  All  of  the  church,  crown, 
or  assessable  estates,  which  king  Gustavus  had  ap- 
]iropriated  in  fee  to  himself  and  heirs  beyond  the 
Recess  of  Westeras,  was  to  revert  to  the  crown. 
That  which  concerned  the  nobility  in  this  ordinance 
was  the  addition,  that  the  noble  families  should  re- 
sume all  such  of  their  estates  as  had  been  seques- 
tered and  annexed  to  the  royal  heritage,  in  refer- 
ence to  which  this  proceeding  could  not  legally  be 
defended.  King  Eric's  new  supreme  court  supplies 
us,  in  the  first  years  of  his  reign,  with  sever.il  in- 
stances of  this  restitution  of  property.  Howbeit, 
Eric  in  15G3  turned  this  principle  against  the  nobi- 
lity themselves,  by  the  r.ew  inquisition  relative  to 
those  estates  which  they  had  illegally  usurped  from 
the  church;  and  we  find  that  on  this  occasion  he 
caused  the  estates  of  Gustavus  to  be  re-entered  as 
hereditary  in  the  ground-rent  books  of  the  crown  ^. 
The  ordinance  of  revocation  was  an  act  of  justice; 
and  its  benefits  were  extended  in  part,  owing  to 
•John's  poverty,  to  the  people  which  had  suffered  in 
the  same  fashion, — since  in  1582  he  gave  permission 
to  all  peasants  upon  crown,  church,  and  hereditary 
estates  to  re-purchase  their  right  of  property  in 
those  tenements  upon  which  they  could  establish 
a  claim  2. 

In  general  king  Eric  sought,  at  the  outset  of  his 
reign,  to  link  the  nobility  to  his  interests.  At  his 
coronation,  which  was  celebrated  in  Up.sala  upon 
the  29th  June,  15C1,  with  a  pomp  never  heretofore 
seen  in  Sweden,  he  nominated,  after  the  dukes  had 
taken  their  oath  of  homage  to  him,  counts  and  free 
barons*,  as  if  he  were  resolved  to  diminish  the  dis- 
tance between  the  princes  and  the  nobility,  and  be- 
cause "  in  a  hereditary  Idngdom  dignities  descend- 
ing to  the  heirs  are  a'.so  in  order."  Therewith 
counties  and  free  baronies  were  erected,  hereditary 
in  the  eldest  son,  and  consisting  in  infeudations  of 
entire  hundreds,  parishes,  or  determinate  estates, 
with  special  jurisdiction  annexed,  and  the  right  to 
levy  the  rents  of  the  crown  within  the  barony. 
Suanto  Sture,  Peter  Brahe,  and  Gustave  Johanson 
Roos  were  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  counts.  The 
king  himself  set  coronets  upon  their  heads,  touched 
their  left  shoulders  with  the  sword  of  state,  and  re- 
peated the  words,  "  Fight  manfully  for  your  king 
and  fatherland."  The  rank  of  free  barons  was  con- 
ferred on  nine  lords,  and  first  among  them  on  Steno 
Ericson  Lejonhufvud,  to  whom  when  he  had  bent 
the  knee  the  king  said,  "  Stand  up,  lord  Steno,  free 
baron,"  setting  a  smaller  coronet  upon  his  head. 
In  the  proclamation  of  the  herald  was  remarked 
this  sentence:  "One  is  the  king  of  the  Swedes, 
Goths,  and  Vandals  *,  and  albeit  many  are  the  crowns 
which  glitter  before  your  eyes,  let  no  one  so  take  it 
as  were  there  more  than  one  royal  diadem."  The 
allusion  aimed  really  at  the  dukes  was  too  clear  to 

1  Ornhielm,  Relation  of  the  Church  Estates. 

2  "  Bordsratt,"  jus  retractus  (the  right  of  re-purchase  re- 
served to  the  nearest  relation  ;  also  birth-rightj. 

5  Hertigar  ;  Grefvar ;  Friherrar. 

<  Sveriges,  Gbtes,  och  Vendes  Konung. 

*  "  To  hear  all  causes  which  could  not  he  adjusted  before 


be  misunderstood.  Thereupon  the  king  dubbed 
twenty  knights,  saying  as  he  imparted  the  stroke, 
"First  wast  thou  a  heathen,  then  a  Christian,  now 
art  thou  become  a  knight."  In  the  following  year 
the  horse-service  of  the  nobility  was  determined, 
and  the  rate  lowered.  In  the  valuation  a  count 
was  allowed  to  except  therefrom  three  manors,  a 
baron  two,  and  a  nobleman  the  one  which  he  him- 
self inhabited.  The  free  estates  of  the  nobility  were 
thereby  ascertained;  as  by  the  regulation  that  a 
nobleman  might  except,  together  with  his  seat,  the 
tenement  of  his  nearest  socman,  was  laid  the  ground 
for  the  privileges  of  the  farms,  or  ladugardar  (barn- 
yards), as  they  are  called. 

To  the  confusion  in  which  Sweden  emerged  out 
of  the  times  of  the  Union,  so  far  as  relates  to  all  the 
forms  of  law,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  a  parallel, 
and  this  lasted  for  a  longer  time  than  one  would  be 
apt  to  imagine,  especially  as  the  letter  of  the  law 
seems  to  attest  the  contrary.  The  history  of  Swe- 
den is  not  to  be  written  from  edicts.  Perhaps 
in  no  country  has  there  been  a  greater  amount  of 
legislation  on  the  surface,  while  nature  and  man- 
ners have  made  its  actual  internal  condition  at  all 
times  well-nigh  alike.  A  high  degree  of  individual 
freedom  is  the  leading  feature  of  this  condition  ; 
but  this,  which  has  sufficed  commonly  to  avert  op- 
pression, arose  but  slowly  out  of  the  primary  ele- 
ments of  civic  liberty.  If  any  great  source  of  dis- 
cord sprang  up,  shaking  the  pillars  of  this  freedom, 
such  as  a  government  tyrannical  or  grossly  unin- 
telligent, or  what  Gustavus  Vasa  calls  the  heavy 
domination  of  the  nobles,  a  violent  breach  opens  a 
path  for  the  disturbing  force, and  turns  away  themost 
imminent  calamity.  If,  perchance,  we  are  prompted 
to  imagine  that  some  great  change  has  been  ef- 
fected, experience  soon  shows  that  ancient  things 
and  principles  have  not  yet  lost  vitality  and  sway. 
The  reign  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  in  many  respects 
arbitrary,  did  little  for  the  development  of  legal 
procedure,  if  we  except  the  so-called  form  of 
government  for  West- Gothland  by  his  German 
chancellor,  of  which  however  no  grain  struck  root 
in  Swedish  soil.  We  find  only  that  in  his  time  the 
"  king's  inquest  "  (rafst)  was  sometimes  held  in  the 
provinces,  chiefly  where  some  exorbitant  abuse  had 
called  for  remedy,  or  occasionally  also  for  political 
objects  ;  since  the  visit  of  Gustavus  to  the  Dales, 
with  an  armed  force,  in  order  to  chastise  the  re- 
volt, is  also  called  a  king's  inquest.  Eric  made 
the  first  attempt  to  found  a  perpetual  supreme 
court.  This  is  styled  the  king's  ncemnd,  an  appel- 
lation which  shows  that  the  notions  of  jury  and 
court  had  already  become  intermixed.  The  ordi- 
nary number  of  the  merabei's  appears  to  have  been 
twelve,  though  all  of  them  were  not  in  permanent 
office.  The  nobles  were  in  a  minority,  yet  on  the 
more  weighty  occasions  we  find  the  court  strength- 
ened with  noblemen,  military  commanders,  bur- 
gesses, and  sometimes  even  with  priests.  The 
trusted  men  of  the  royal  court  were  at  certain 
periods  every  third  year  to  make  circuits  to  the 
principal  towns,  especially  to  the  great  fairs,  and 
there  pronounce  the  king's  judgment^,  "in  order 

the  lawman,"  it  is  said  in  the  royal  instruction  of  November 
1,  1563,  whence  we  nevertheless  should  not  conclude  that 
such  causes  only  were  tried  there.  The  greatest  number, 
both  In  the  first  and  last  instance,  were  there  disposed  of. 
The  court  was  held  in  several  towns,  as  Upsala,  Strengness, 
Westeras,  Orebro,  Vadslena,  and  chiefly  Stockholm. 
L  2 


143 


Administration  of 
justice. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Eric's  proposals  of 
marriage. 


[1560— 


that  justice  may  be  the  better  dispensed  to  every 
man,  as  it  is  not  possible  that  the  Icing's  majesty 
should  hear  all  complaints  and  declare  every  sen- 
tence." The  govei'nors  are  enjoined,  so  to  deal 
with  the  people  that  it  might  assist  in  maintaining 
the  court,  which  was  erected  for  the  behoof  of  every 
man  ;  the  king  would  not  allow  the  judges  to  be 
paid  by  fees  on  suits  which  gave  occasion  to  abuse, 
and  yet  the  revenues  of  the  kingdom  were  not  ade- 
quate to  the  support  of  such  offices.  This  court 
was  one  of  the  first  institutions  founded  by  Eric ; 
for  although  its  short  and  incomplete  record,  jire- 
served  in  the  public  archives,  begins  with  the  11th 
February,  15G2,  it  was  nevertheless  in  operation 
during  the  previous  year*,  and  is  already  mentioned 
in  king  Eric's  court  regulations  of  the  19lh  Novem- 
ber, 15G0.  Its  doom-book  even  appeals  oftener  to 
these  articles  than  to  the  law  of  Sweden.  Gus- 
tavus  I.  had  before  ordained  that  all  processes,  not 
only  betwixt  the  royal  commanders  and  officers, 
but  between  these  and  other  subjects,  priests,  bur- 
gesses, and  peasants,  should  be  adjudicated  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  the  royal  household.  And  doubtless 
it  is  in  refei-ence  to  snch  decree  that  we  find  this 
injunction  to  the  judge  (preserved  in  a  collection 
of  statutes  and  court  ordinances  in  the  library  of 
Upsala)  ;  "  Sometimes  we  must  use  the  ordinances 
and  sometimes  lay  them  aside,  and  if  a  portion 
of  them  have  their  ground  and  reason  in  the  Land's 
Law,  yet  the  law  is  sharpened  by  the  ordinances; 
another  hath  not  so  especially  any  express  ground, 
but  is  profitable  according  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  time  ;  and  another  is  somewhat  burdensome  to 
the  people,  and  appears  to  be  the  cause  why  so 
many  gaudy  foi'eign  fashions  come  into  the  realm, 
and  some  one  must  pay  for  it,  as  the  proverb  says, 
'  who  binds  his  shoes  with  bast  must  pay  the  cob- 
bler's wage.'  A  just-minded  judge  or  officer  must 
know  and  take  heedful  note  wlien  he  is  to  apply  the 
ordinances  and  when  to  pass  them  by." 

In  general,  the  outset  of  Eric's  reign  was  dis- 
tinguished by  beneficial  enactments.  In  order  to 
deliver  the  people  from  the  extortions  of  travel- 
lers', the  erection  of  taverns  or  guest-houses  on 
the  high  roads  was  enjoined  ;  superfluous  fast-days, 
and  divers  Catholic  ceremonies  still  preserved  in 
the  service  of  the  altar  were  abolished,  and  the 
king  proclaimed  that  he  had  thrown  open  his  king- 
dom as  an  asylum  for  all  oppressed  Protestants. 
Of  this  refuge  many  availed  tliemselves,  especially 
French,  who  were  invited  by  their  countryman 
Dionysius  Beurreus.  The  Calvinists  hoped  and  ex- 
pected much  from  the  known  inclination  of  the 
Swedish  monai'ch  to  their  creed,  and  Calvin  him- 
self congratulated  him  by  letter  upon  the  news  of 
his  suit  to  Elizabeth  *. 

But  in  his  overtures  of  marriage  Eric  soon  dis- 
played his  unstable  temper.  On  the  29th  July, 
15()1,  lie  writes  to  his  new  envoy  in  London,  the 
high  chancellor  Nicholas  Gyllenstierna,  that,  upon 
the  comfortable  assurances  which  the  queen  had 

6  "Sentences  of  the  year  1561  are  left  out,  althougti  the 
originals  of  some  in  that  year  are  still  found  in  the  hands  of 
private  persons."   Ornhielm's  Relation. 

'  To  be  exempted  from  the  oppressive  burden  of  furnisliing 
free  carriage  and  entertainment,  the  commons  at  Arboga  in 
1561  charged  themselves  witli  the  payment  of  post-money 
(skjutsfardspenningar) ;  but  tlie  king  soon  complained  that 
this  was  not  sufficient  to  replace  tlie  cost  of  despatching  his 
messengers  and  letter-carriers,  and  we  find  him  on  the  22nd 


conveyed  to  him  through  Beurreus,  who  was  now 
recalled  home,  he  had  again  resolved  to  repair  to 
England,  and  therefore  had  forwarded  his  people, 
namely, "  pearl-broiderers,  tailors,  and  others."  Not 
long  afterwards  arrived  eighteen  piebald  horses, 
with  several  chests  of  uncoined  gold  and  silver,  as 
presents  to  Elizabeth  ;  and  in  the  month  of  Septem- 
ber, the  English  court  was  thrown  into  the  greatest 
perplexity  by  the  intelligence,  that  he  had  set  out 
upon  his  joui-ney.  Eric  had  in  fact  embarked  at 
Elfsborg,  in  a  fleet  thereto  equipped  with  his  two 
brothers  Magnus  and  Charles,  but  was  compelled 
by  a  storm  to  put  back.  He  then  resolved  to  make 
a  land  journey  across  Denmark,  Germany,  and  the 
Netherlands ;  his  ministers  received  orders  to 
negotiate  respecting  safeconduct  and  warranty  for 
the  security  of  his  person,  and  the  nobility  of  the 
realm  were  enjoined  to  meet  in  Jenkoping  and  con- 
voy him  to  the  border.  At  this  very  time  he  in- 
quires of  the  council  whether  it  might  not  be  ex- 
pedient also  to  open  negotiations  of  marriage  in 
some  other  quarter  ; — to  Scotland  he  sends  a  con- 
fidant to  inquire  whether  queen  Mary  "  were  so 
beautiful  as  every  man  said,"  and  shortly  after 
Peter  Brahe  to  solicit  her  hand  ;  but  he  renews 
nevertheless  his  wooing  of  Elizabeth,  commanding 
Gyllenstierna  to  bribe  the  English  council  with 
money,  and  to  procure  the  death  of  the  (jueen's 
favourite,  the  earl  of  Leicester,  if  it  should  even 
cost  the  king  10,000  dollars".  Meanwhile,  he 
likewise  offers  to  wed  the  piincess  Ilenata  of 
Lorraine,  grand-daughter  of  Christian  II.,  and 
heiress  to  his  claims  on  the  northern  kingdoms, 
but  breaks  off  this  negotiation  to  conclude  a  con- 
tract of  marriage  with  Christina  of  Hesse.  An 
embassy  was  sent  for  her  reception  and  a  fleet 
equipped  ;  but  a  letter  to  queen  Elizabeth,  inter- 
cepted during  the  war  with  Denmark,  in  which  he 
excuses  himself  and  declares  that  he  was  not  in 
earnest  with  the  Hessian  marriage,  likewise  an- 
nulled this  overture.  Yet  the  king  in  1565  enjoins 
his  envoy  in  Germany  to  make  further  inquiry  in 
Hesse,  and  at  the  same  time  to  send  him  a  more 
exact  description  of  the  person  of  the  Lorrainer 
princess  ;  whether  she  were  fresh,  fair,  and  well- 
grown,  not  too  lean  and  thin-limbed,  ofwhitely  and 
undisguised  complexion  ;  if  her  hair  shaded  some- 
what into  black,  it  would  not  matter  so  much,  if  she 
could  please  only  in  the  beforenamed  points,  were 
of  good  manners  and  decorous  behavioui',  not  a 
scoffer  but  cheerful.  He  espied  already  treason 
and  murder  in  every  place.  If  the  princess  were 
really  adorned  with  these  qualities,  and  would  cross 
over  to  Sweden,  the  ambassadors  were  to  employ 
all  precautions,  lest  poisons  should  be  administered 
to  her  by  evil  men  '.  In  the  year  15(j6  this  prin- 
cess sent  troth  and  ring  to  Eric,  by  the  hands  of 
the  unfortunate  Nicholas  Sture. 

These  matrimonial  affairs  cost  sums  almost  in- 
credible.    One  of  the  grievances  of  the  dukes  was 

June,  1 562,  soliciting  an  increase  of  the  tavern-money,  or  the 
restoration  of  the  old  system  of  conveyance. 

8  Messenius,  Scondia,  v.  116. 

9  Letter  to  Nils  Gyllenstierna,  March  28  and  29.  Registry 
for  1562.  In  the  previous  year,  on  June  12,  he  commands 
Gyllenstierna  to  inform  the  earl  that  the  king  proffered  him  a 
public  duel  by  his  own  royal  person,  either  in  Scotland  or 
France. 

'  Instiuction  for  the  ambassadors;  Arboga,  July  H. 
Registry  for  1565. 


1509] 


His  profusion. 
War  in  Livonia. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


John's  viewn  on  Poliind. 
He  is  made  prisoner. 


140 


that  Eric  did  not,  according  to  the  promise  he  had 
given,  deduct  from  his  portion  of  the  inheritance 
the  amount  expended  npon  his  EngMsh  courtship 
before  his  fatlier's  death.  His  greed  of  pomp  knew 
in  general  no  bounds.  For  his  EngHsli  journey  lie 
caused  more  than  a  hundred  suits  of  the  costliest 
raiment  to  be  prepared.  We  are  astonished  by  all 
tlie  appliances  ordered  for  his  coi'onation  from 
Antwerp  and  London ;  new  regals,  the  most 
sumptuous  robes,  arms,  vessels,  ornaments,  cas- 
kets full  of  pearls,  jewels,  and  trinkets,  besides 
"  various  rare  animals  for  the  spectacle,  lions, 
ure-oxen,  camels,  200  rabbits,  and  whatever  else 
could  be  thought  still  strange  in  Sweden^."  So 
early  as  1561  the  king  requests  John  to  borrow, 
"  because  no  more  would  be  in  hand "  until  the 
silver  yet  remaining  were  coined. 

It  was  amidst  war  and  revolt  that  Eric  thus  dis- 
posed of  his  father's  treasures  and  his  affairs  of  the 
heart.  We  have  mentioned  the  events  which  pre- 
jjared  the  interference  of  Sweden  in  the  quarrels  of 
Livonia,  and  already  in  the  lifetime  of  Gustavus 
provoked  the  ambition  of  his  sons.  It  was  in  re- 
spect to  this  very  matter  that  they  were  first  to  be- 
come open  enemies.  Immediately  after  his  father's 
death,  John  reminds  his  brother  of  his  promise  to 
win  "  a  piece  of  land  in  Livonia,"  for  which  reason 
he  was  inclined  to  offer  the  town  of  Reval  his  pro- 
tection against  the  dreaded  advance  of  the  Rus- 
sians*. But  Eric,  when  solicited  for  assistance 
after  his  elevation  to  the  throne,  himself  assumed 
the  direction  of  the  affair,  and  sent  over  Clas 
Christerson  Horn  towards  the  end  of  April,  1561, 
with  an  army  which  was  received  into  the  town  *. 
In  June,  the  nobles  of  Esthonia  and  Reval  sub- 
mitted to  Swedish  rule,  and  upon  the  coronation  of 
king  Eric,  their  deputies  obtained  the  royal  sanc- 
tion to  their  privileges.  From  this  time  Eric 
wrote  himself  "  king  of  the  Swedes,  Goths,  and 
Vandals,  with  their  several  dependencies,  lord  of  the 
Livonian  territory  and  of  Refle."  This  was  Swe- 
den's first  step  beyond  the  Baltic,  and  the  beginning 
of  a  war  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  years. 

A  rupture  with  Russia  was  with  difficulty 
averted,  yet  peace  was  for  the  moment  preserved 
through  the  common  interest  of  both  kingdoms 
against  Poland,  after  the  sword-knights  had  dis- 
solved their  order,  and  their  last  grand-master, 
Gotthard  Kettler,  had  placed  all  Livonia  under 
Polish  supremacy,  reserving  Coui'land  as  a  fief  for 
himself.  On  the  other  hand  John  linked  himself 
closely  to  the  Poles,  and  advised  Eric  to  an  alliance 
against  Russia,  as  also  to  cede  to  Poland  all  that 
Sweden  already  possessed  in  Livonia  ^.  The  king's 
answer  was  an  order  to  H<jrn  to  attack  Pernau  and 
Wittenstein,  which,  as  well  as  several  other  places, 
were  reduced.  He  informs  John  that  Christopher 
duke  of  Mecklenburg,  coadjutor  of  the  now  de- 
ceased archbishop  of  Riga,  had  submitted  himself 
and  the  archbishopric  to  the  crown  of  Sweden,  but 
that  the  Poles  had  seized  on  the  district.      Yet 

2  Inventory  of  articles  needed  for  the  coronation,  and  letter 
to  Dionysius  Beurreus,  Feb.  17,  1561.  Eric  had  a  great  fond- 
ness for  animals.  April  21,  1563,  he  orders  his  architect, 
master  Pafvel  (Pope),  "  to  set  an  aviary  of  copper  wire  on 
the  western  bastion  of  the  castle  of  Upsala,"  the  building  of 
wtiich  he  continued. 

3  Letter  of  October  9.     Registry  for  15C0. 

*  The  castle,  whose  garrison  was  true  to  the  grand-master, 
was  surrendered  after  a  siesje  of  .six  weeks. 


Eric  gives  his  consent  that  John  should  in  Poland 
urge  his  suit  jiersonally  to  Catherine  Jagellonica. 
sister  of  king  Sigismund  II.  In  the  views  upon 
the  crown  of  Poland  which  were  opened  by  this 
alliance,  he  wishes  the  duke  success,  although,  he 
adds,  the  Polish  envoy  in  Stockholm  "  offered,  up- 
on the  throne  falling  vacant,  to  use  his  best  dili- 
gence for  the  king  himself.  He  soon  repented 
this  approval,  and  recalled  John  from  Dantzic, 
albeit  this  did  not  prevent  the  latter  from  seeking 
his  bi'ide  in  Wilna.  The  conditions  of  the  nup- 
tial contract  were  kept  secret.  What  is  related, 
that  John  gave  a  promise  thenceforward  to  act  as 
a  free  and  independent  prince,  is  probable;  that  he 
brought  along  with  him  a  large  quantity  of  his 
father's  silver  bars  which  he  bestowed  for  the 
furtherance  of  his  brother-in-law's  project.'?,  upon 
the  security  of  seven  castles  in  Livonia,  as  also  that 
war  between  Sweden  and  Poland  shortly  after 
broke  out,  is  certain.  New  cau.ses  of  dissension  be- 
tween the  brothers  had  also  previously  revealed 
themselves.  In  the  autumn  of  1561,  John  requested 
that  the  tithes  of  all  Fiidand,  though  the  northern 
division  did  not  belong  to  his  dukedom,  might  be 
conceded  to  him;  this  was  refused: — that  he  might 
not  be  obliged  to  furnish  the  full  number  of 
soldiers  for  the  public  service:  denied,  although 
subsequently  a  diminution  was  in  effect  acceded  to  : 
— that  the  ships  with  which  he  had  reinforced  Eric's 
fleet  at  Elfsborg  might  be  restored  ;  rejoinder, 
that  he  should  have  them  when  he  gave  back 
those  which  had  been  lent  to  him  during  his  father  s 
lifetime  for  the  Livonian  business.  The  king  added: 
"  With  us  here  in  Sweden  there  is  but  too  close 
shearing  and  paring,  so  that  we  have  not  much  left 
of  that  which  appertains  to  the  crown'."  Returned 
to  Finland  with  his  cousoi't,  John  was  greeted 
by  Eric's  reproaches  that  he  had  formed  con- 
nexions with  the  enemies  of  the  realm.  This  was 
soon  followed  by  the  king's  order  to  the  Finnish 
nobles  to  commence  their  march  towards  Livonia 
for  hostilities  against  Poland,  and  by  a  summons 
to  John  to  appear  before  the  court  of  Stockholm  ; 
whereupon  he  made  prisoners  the  royal  commis- 
sioners, and  called  the  Finns  to  his  defence,  re- 
quiring from  them  a  separate  oath  of  fidelity  and 
seeking  for  help  in  Poland  and  Rus-sia.  On  the 
accusation  of  Eric,  the  estates  of  the  realm  con- 
voked in  Stockholm,  but  attending  only  in  small 
numbers,  adjudged  him  to  death  for  rebellion,  un- 
less the  king  should  be  pleased  to  overrule  the 
law  by  a  pardon.  Shut  up  in  the  castle  of  Abo, 
which,  as  all  foreign  assistance  was  withheld, 
capitulated  after  an  investment  of  two  months, 
John  was  obliged,  on  the  12th  August,  1563,  to 
render  himself  a  prisoner.  Transported  to  Sweden, 
he  was  received  with  an  exprobatory  address  by 
Geoi'ge  Person,  who,  at  the  command  of  Eric,  now 
absent  on  the  Danish  fi-ontier,  proffered  to  John's 
wife  a  royal  castle  and  a  princely  maintenance  if 

*  Feb.  14,  15C2.  "Because  the  Poles  give  us  no  good 
answer."  John's  designs  are  clear  from  Eric's  letter  to  him 
of  the  5th  January  preceding,  though  this  is  still  in  a  friendly 
tone.  The  first  unfriendly  letter  from  Eric  to  John  is  of  June 
16,  in  which  the  king  reproaches  him  with  taking  so  ardent 
and  unlimited  a  part  in  favour  of  the  Poles,  just  as  if  be 
were  right  and  Eric  wrong  in  every  thing.     Reg.  for  1562. 

6  The  count  Teczin,  who  was  himself  a  suitor  to  the 
princess  Cecilia. 

7  Letter  to  John  of  November  11.     Reg.  for  1561. 


150 


Tlie  kind's  intentions 
towards  liim. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Xyianny  of 
Kric. 


[I  SCO- 


she  would  part  from  her  husband.  Instead  of 
answer,  she  pointed  to  her  wedding  ring  with  its 
Latin  inscription  "  Nought  but  death,"  and  followed 
her  husband  into  his  appointed  prison  at  Gripsholm. 
The  duke  was  conveyed  in  a  yacht  through  the 
South  Channel  at  Stockholm  under  the  gaze  of  the 
whole  populace  '.  Compelled  to  sit  upon  its  deck, 
he  turned  his  eyes  with  horror  from  stake  and 
wheel  to  the  gibbets  on  the  surrounding  hillocks, 
which  bore  the  corpses  of  many  of  his  servants. 
The  chamber  in  which  John  was  kept  with  his  true 
helpmate  during  the  greater  portion  of  a  captivity 
lasting  more  than  four  yeara,  is  still  shown  un- 
changed at  the  castle  of  Gripsholm.  It  is  light- 
some, of  a  cheerful  aspect,  and  with  neat  arrange- 
ments, according  to  the  fashion  of  that  time,  such 
as  may  yet  be  seen  in  the  rooms  of  weleful  yeomen, 
but  in  the  olden  day  not  unworthy  of  a  house  of 
condition.  Higher  up  in  the  same  tower  we  see  the 
dreary  apartment  in  which  Eric  himself  was  after- 
wards confined.  Against  the  advice  of  George  Per- 
son he  spared  his  brother's  life,  and  wavered  ever 
between  fear  and  pity.  That  he  purposed  never 
to  restore  his  liberty  we  see  by  a  letter  of  as- 
surance from  duke  Magnus  in  relation  to  the 
sentence  passed  upon  John,  in  which  it  is  said  : — 
"Whereas  your  majesty  hath  showed  us  honour  be- 
fore others  of  our  dear  brethren,  and  conferred 
upon  us  the  hereditary  right  which  duke  John  be- 
fore possessed  to  the  crown  and  government,  and 
given  us  thereon  your  written  confirmation,  we  pro- 
mise on  the  other  hand  to  be  true  to  your  royal 
majesty  and  the  heirs  of  your  bod}',  and  to  hold 
your  foes  for  our  foes  ^."  Some  further  proceeding 
against  John  was  nevertheless  in  question  between 
Eric  and  Magnus  ;  if  Magnus  would  consent,  Eric 
promised  to  obtain  for  him  from  the  estates  the 
confirmation  of  the  hereditary  right  ;  "  for  albeit 
John  forfeits  his  right,"  he  says,  "yet  your  affection 
will  perceive  of  a  truth  how  great  a  strife  as  to  the 
succession  would  be  kindled  among  the  subjects  and 
estates  of  the  realm  in  case  aught  were  to  befall  us; 
and  beyond  doubt  many  would  be  found  who  would 
gladly  see  him  (duke  John)  remaining  therein."  In 
what  this  "further  assurance"  against  John  con- 
sisted we  are  not  told;  though  we  find  that  Magnus 
would  not  give  his  consent  to  it,  wherefore  the  mat- 
ter was  postponed,  he  still  continuing  in  the  king's 

8  The  original  town  is  built  on  an  island  connected  with 
the  main  land  by  bridges  on  each  side  leading  to  Norrmalm 
and  Sbdernialm,  the  north  and  south  suburbs. — Trans. 

9  Given  at  Jenkoping,  October  I.     Reg.  for  1563. 
'  Letter  to  Magnus,  Halmstad,  October  IG,  1503. 

2  That  of  Lejonhufvud — Trans. 

3  To  the  diet  of  1566  the  king  summoned,  by  his  bailiffs 
over  the  whole  kingdom,  only  two  of  the  principal  priests 
and  two  discreet  yeomen  from  each  government  (fogderi),  as 
in  the  preceding  year  to  the  congress  of  Calmar;  and  these 
were  to  have  with  them  the  seals  of  their  hundreds,  in  order 
to  seal  what  might  be  assented  to  and  determined  at  the 
said  diet  by  the  estates  general  (menige  stander).  Letter  of 
Feb.  1.     Reg.  for  1566. 

••  "  Eric  eut  pour  ses  vertus  justement  pu  etre  mis  au 
nombre  des  plus  magnanime.s  princes  s'il  n'eut  ete  corrompu 
par  les  ministres  auxquels  il  se  liait  par  trop.  Aussi  il  a  ete 
nourrien  perpetuellecrainte  et  quasi  en  dcdain  paries  nienees 
de  sa  belle-m^re,  qui  lui  etait  fort  contraire.  Peut-etre  que 
de  son  naturel  il  ctait  un  pcu  soupgojineiix,  qui  a  grande- 
ment  ^te  augmente  d^s  son  enfancc  par  I'artifice  de  ses  dits 
familiers  ministres,  qui  ctaient  des  plus  mechants  et  per- 
nicieux  qui  se  pouvaient  trouver.     II  comiaissait  bien  la 


favour'.  It  was  after  this  correspondence  that  the 
intellect  of  Magnus  became  disordered.  For  the  rest, 
John  was  generally  well  treated  in  his  captivity.  The 
fact,  that  the  royal  court  on  the  27th  February, 
I5G4,  condemned  the  bailiff  of  Gripsholm  to  be  kept 
on  bread  and  water  during  pleasure,  because  he  had 
allowed  the  duke  and  the  princess  to  want  necessary 
sustenance,  so  that  they  must  drink  of  the  water 
stoup,  shows  at  least  that  acts  of  negligence  were 
punished.  Eric  also  sent  books  to  his  brother, 
among  which,  besides  spiritual  works,  Ovid,  Plu- 
tarch, and  Boccacio  in  the  German  translation, 
are  named.  The  princess  v.as  allowed  to  walk  in 
the  garden,  though  under  watch.  After  the  im- 
prisonment of  John,  Eric  felt  that  he  had  broken 
with  all  the  powerful  maternal  family  ^  of  the 
former,  and  with  the  nobles  generally,  whose  dis- 
content with  the  hereditary  settlement  was  un- 
known to  none  of  the  sons  of  Gustavus.  Thence- 
forth we  find  him  sometimes  omitting  to  call  the 
nobility  to  his  diets  ^,  surrounding  himself  only 
with  low-born  favourites,  who  from  his  youtli 
upwards  had  flattered  his  passions,  and  of  whom 
no  one  possessed  the  ability  of  George  Person, 
although  many  had  hearts  equally  replete  with 
hate.  And  now  too  it  came  to  pass  that  the  dis- 
trustfulness  in  which  he  had  been  nurtured,  dark- 
ened his  whole  soul,  made  him  cruel,  and  robbed 
him  of  understanding  *. 

Already  in  1562,  we  find  in  the  records  a  letter 
upon  slanders  and  calumnies  against  the  king's  per- 
son ;  whosoever  detected  such,  or  gave  information 
of  faithlessness  in  any  of  his  officers,  was  to  be  re- 
quited with  especial  favour,  or  with  an  honourable 
present.  In  the  following  year  the  denouncer  of 
treason  is  promised  half  the  property  of  the 
offender,  upon  proof  of  the  matter  befoi'e  the 
court.  At  the  same  time  the  magistrates  are 
commanded  to  procure  themselves  spies  among  all 
ranks  in  the  towns  and  country.  The  head  of  this 
espialage  was  George  Person,  and  the  power  of  the 
accuser  had  previously,  through  the  royal  C(mrt, 
received  great  extension,  since  in  all  quarters 
functionaries  called  provosts  (profosser)  were  now 
ordinarily  retained  in  pay,  to  make  search  for 
offenders  both  high  and  low. 

Celsius  *,  who  for  more  than  fifty  years  has  been 

malignite  des  dits  ministres,  et  s'en  est  souvent  plaint  au 
chancelier  de  Su6de  qui  est  a  present,  au  feu  sieur  de  Varenes, 
et  a  d'autres  qui  me  I'ont  dit,  dont  je  pourrais  faire  de 
fort  etranges  recits."  Correspondance  de  Dantzai.  (Eric 
might  for  his  virtues  justly  have  been  placed  among  the 
most  magnanimous  princes,  if  he  had  not  been  corrupted 
by  the  ministers,  in  whom  he  confided  too  much.  He 
was  reared  also  in  perpetual  fear,  and  as  it  were  in  dis- 
grace, by  the  wiles  of  his  mother-in-law,  who  was  very  ad- 
verse to  him.  Perhaps  by  nature  he  was  somewhat  sus- 
picious, the  which  was  greatly  enhanced  from  his  childhood 
by  the  artifice  of  his  said  familiar  ministers,  who  were  the 
most  wicked  and  pernicious  that  could  be  found.  He  knew 
well  the  malignity  of  the  said  ministers,  and  often  complained 
of  them  to  the  present  chancellor  of  Sweden,  to  the  late  sieur 
de  Varenes,  and  others  who  have  told  it  me,  of  which  1 
might  narrate  very  strange  stories  )  He  relates  thereupon 
that  Eric  had  beaten  one  of  them  with  his  own  hand.  In 
his  opinion  John  would  have  lost  his  life,  had  not  Mornay 
interceded  :  "  Le  dit  sieur  de  Varenes  seul  I'empecha  par  ses 
pri^res  et  rcmontrances."  According  to  Holberg,  Mornay 
was  a  kinsman  of  Dantzai. 

5  Olaus  Celsius,  author  of  the  History  of  Gustavus  1.  and 
the  History  of  Eric  XIV.     T. 


1569.] 


Atrocities  of  tlie 
royal  court. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


War  with 
Denmark. 


151 


regarded  as  a  main  source  for  the  liistory  of 
Eric  XIV.  as  well  as  Gustavus  1.,  alllioiigh  lie  cast 
but  a  hasty  glance  at  the  records  of  both  these 
reigns,  alleges  that  king  Eric,  being  himself  present 
on  the  10th  February,  15C.'5,  in  his  new  supreme 
court,  delivered  his  sentiments  on  those  cases 
which  concerned  life  and  honour  ;  that  in  such  no 
judgment  should  be  passed  upon  written  testimo- 
nies, if  those  who  gave  sucli  evidence  were  still 
alive,  but  the  witnesses  should  themselves  appear  ; 
that  he  exhorted  the  honourable  and  trusted  men  of 
his  royal  court  not  to  proceed  with  such  levity  in 
capital  cases,  as  many  had  ordinarily  used  to  act. 
The  fact  itself  is  correctly  stated  ;  but  how  far  the 
conclusion  which  has  thence  been  drawn  in  respect 
to  the  king's  real  conduct  and  the  proceedings  of 
the  court  has  any  truth,  the  following  remarks  may 
show.  The  judgment-book  of  the  royal  court  for 
the  year  1562  contains  but  one  sentence  of  death  ; 
for  the  year  1563  not  less  than  fifty-seven,  of  which 
thirty-two  related  to  the  business  of  John's  defec- 
tion"'. Down  to  October  1567,  w'hen  the  records 
cease,  this  court  condemned  to  execution  two  hun- 
dred and  tiiirty-two  persons  in  all,  with  few  excep- 
tions either  for  crimes  against  the  state,  or  offences 
which  not  the  Swedish  law,  but  the  court-articles  of 
king  Eric,  or  even  the  king's  good  pleasure  alone 
visited  with  capital  punishment'.  This  number, 
which  yet  does  not  embrace  all  the  victims  of  the 
scaffold,  is  sufficiently  great,  even  if  the  sentence 
was  in  some  instances  not  carried  into  effect.  Most 
of  the  parties  were  of  the  lower  classes.  The  capital 
sentences  upon  the  grandees,  as  in  1564  upon  Olave 
Gustaveson  Stenboek,  and  in  1566  upon  Nicholas 
Sture',  the  king  did  not  venture  to  execute.  It  was 
first  in  15G7  that  he  dipped  his  hand  into  the  blood 
of  the  higher  nobility,  and  thereby  also  overthrew 
himself.  George  Person,  who  is  styled  "  procarator 
and  secretary  of  the  king's  majesty,"  was  accuser 
in  the  royal  court ;  and  although,  despite  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  charges,  there  are  examples  of  acquit- 
tal by  the  tribunal,  yet  these  are  but  few.  Some- 
times he  was  more  successful  on  bringing  the  same 
accusation  a  second  time.  Question  by  torture 
was  employed  ;  and  words,  even  signs,  were  held 
to  involve  the  guilt  of  treason.  February  11,  1566, 
the  equerry  Eric  Person  was  condemned  to  death 
for  having  painted  the  arms  of  his  majesty  and  of 
Sweden,  three  crowns,  upside  down  upon  a  door  in 
the  north  suburb,  and  thereby  assailed  the  dignity, 
rank,  and  royal  government  of  his  majesty.  Novem- 
ber 26,  1566,  a  like  doom  was  passed  on  two  guai'ds 
of  the  king's  tent,  for  having  laid  in  a  secret  room 
three  sticks  crosswise,  a  cap,  a  grate,  and  other 
things  for  magic  practice,  as  the  king  thought ;  and 
notwithstanding  they  knew  that  wherever  he  went 
he  could  suffer  neither  twig,  nor  straw,  nor  splint, 
or  the  like,  but  had  forbidden  it  under  penalty  of 
death. 

With  Denmark  the  peace  had  been  renewed  in 

6  "  It  was  a  mournful  spectacle,  to  see  the  headinjg  and 
hacking  on  the  wheel,  which  was  executed  upon  duke  John's 
servants  in  the  town  and  suburbs.  I  and  many  with  me 
could  not  look  upon  it  without  tears."     Swen  Elofoon. 

7  Among  them  were  seventy-two  tax-gatherers.  Jan.  30, 
1567,  the  court  sentenced  to  death  seven  bailitTs  in  Salberg  at 
once,  for  neglect  iu  procuring  timber  for  the  mine.  Besides 
the  whole  garrison  of  Elfsborg  for  surrendering  the  fortress, 
how  many  persons  are  there  mentioned,  along  with  the  Stures 
and  their  connexions  in  the  year  1567,  whose  sentence  does 
not  appear  iu  the  protocols  ! 


1 562.  Nevertheless  war  broke  out  the  following  year? 
and  accelerated  the  fate  of  John.  "  For  king  Eric 
was  fully  possessed  with  the  opinion  regarding  his 
brother  duke  John,  that  if  the  king  should  find  the 
bulk  of  his  forces  necessary  against  the  Danes, 
duke  John  would  not  be  quiet,  but  would  attempt 
some  disturbance  either  in  Finland  or  Livonia  *." 
The  causes  of  the  war  were  partly  conflicting  in- 
terests in  Livonia,  whei'e  a  Danish  prince  possessed 
a  portion  of  the  country,  partly  subjects  of  old 
grudge  and  personal  hostility.  The  king  of  Den- 
mark had  assumed  the  three  crowns  on  his  arms  ; 
Eric  took  the  crowns  both  of  Denmark  and  Nor- 
way. Swedish  envoys,  sent  to  Hesse  to  prosecute 
Eric's  love-suit,  were  detained  in  Copenhagen. 
A  fleet  equipped,  as  was  said,  to  carry  off  the  bride, 
encountered  the  Danish  fleet  at  Bornholm.  A 
quarrel  regarding  salutes  led  to  an  engagement,  in 
which  the  Swedish  admiral  Jacob  Bagge  took  the 
Danish  admiral's  ship  with  two  others,  an  exploit 
rewai'ded  by  Eric  with  a  triumphal  procession,  in 
which  the  Danish  captives  were  seen  bound  and 
with  heads  shaven,  conducted  by  the  king's  court- 
fool  Hercules.  Thereupon  ensued  a  declai'ation  of 
war  by  Denmark  and  Lubeck,  whose  trade  to 
Narva  Eric  had  forbidden,  because  he  wished  to 
confine  the  Ritssian  commerce  to  Reval.  In  this 
war,  which  lasted  seven  years,  the  Swedish  navy, 
which  had  never  been  stronger,  gained  great  hon- 
our, first  under  Jacob  Bagge,  then,  after  his  miscar- 
riage and  imprisonment  in  Oeland,  under  Clas  Chris- 
terson  Horn,  who  was  recalled  from  Livonia,  and 
put  to  sea  in  1566  with  sixty-eight  ships  of  war  be- 
sides smaller  vessels.  Sweden,  which  Gustavus  I. 
wished  to  erect  into  a  maritime  power,  afterwards 
exhausted  its  energies  in  land  wars. 

It  is  with  other  feelings  that  the  view  of  Eric's 
own  actions  inspires  us.  In  military  affairs,  as 
generally,  he  is  especially  liberal  of  instructions. 
More  copious,  more  dangerous  for  those  to  whom 
they  were  directed^,  or  bearing  clearer  witness 
to  the  unhappy  disposition  of  their  author,  no  man 
ever  wrote.  Thus  in  one  of  the  first  with  re- 
lation to  the  Danish  war,  appears  the  injunction, 
that  care  should  bo  taken  to  procure  such  persons 
as  understand  how  to  deal  with  poisoning  ;  yet  it 
should  be  inquired  whether  their  art  were  certain, 
and  they  should  give  heed  not  to  injure  therewith 
their  own  people.  Upon  the  side  of  Denmark  the 
war  was  opened  by  the  investment  of  Elfsborg, 
which,  badly  defended,  was  soon  taken  ;  upon  the 
side  of  Sweden  by  an  inroad  of  Eric  into  Halland 
and  the  siege  of  Holmstad.  This  however  he 
broke  up  on  the  news  of  the  approach  of  Frederic 
II.,  abandoning  besides  his  camp  ',  in  such  a 
fashion  that  his  own  army  looked  upon  his  depar- 
ture as  a  flight,  and  dis])ersing,  was  routed  upon  its 
retreat  by  the  Danes.  In  a  letter  of  apology  to  the 
collective  people  of  the  realm  ^,  the  king  however 

"  Swen  Elofson. 

9  January  30,  1567,  Wolmar  Wykman,  clerk  of  the  trea- 
sury, was  condemned  to  death  in  the  royal  court,  because  he 
had  said  that  the  king  drew  up  such  instructions  as  it  was 
impossible  for  any  one  to  execute. 

'  He  allowed  a  council  of  war  previously  to  present  a  re- 
monstrance, in  which  it  is  said  among  other  things  that,  as 
the  king  of  Denmark  was  expected  with  a  strong  force  it 
would  be  unlucky  that  the  king  himself  should  be  present, 
in  case  they  should  be  obliged  to  take  to  flight. 

~  Dated  at  Orreholm  in  West-Gothland,  November  23. 
Reg.  for  1563. 


151! 


Invasion  of 
Norway. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Eric's  account  of  tlie 
niiliiary  occurrences. 


[1560— 


announces,  tliat  this  retreat  had  concluded  with  a 
victory  gained  through  the  vahiur  of  a  regiment 
"  which  he  had  himself  taught  and  disciplined  ;" 
herein  true  to  the  maxim  which  we  find  in  his  in- 
structions, that,  when  the  king's  army  h.ns  sustained 
any  defeat,  the  rumour  thereof  should  be  hushed 
up  and  extinguished,  hut  that  victories  over  the 
enemy  should  be  forthwith  made  known,  as  also 
that  which  men  would  gladly  see  befall,  "  yet  so,  as 
it  might  seem  somewhat  hke." 

At  the  same  timeJemteland  and  Herjedale  were 
occupied  and  preparations  made  for  an  incursion 
into  Norway,  where  Canute  Haraldson  Soop 
was  presently  named  lieutenant,  vi'ith  orders  ^,  when 
the  Norwegians  should  have  sworn  fidelity  to  the 
king,  to  seize  some  of  the  principal  men  as  host- 
ages and  send  them  to  Sweden,  to  fortify  some 
places  in  the  country,  to  take  order  regarding  re- 
hgion,to  administer  justice  according  to  the  law  of 
Sweden,  and  to  drive  "  the  Jute-party"  out  of  the 
territory.  The  lieutenant  chosen  fell  into  disgrace, 
and  the  attack  on  Upper  Norway  was  entrusted  to 
a  young  Frenchman,  Claude  Collart,  a  favourite  of 
the  king,  who  actually  made  himself  master  of 
Trondhem.  "  Thereupon  almost  the  whole  diocese 
of  Trondhem  joined  him  in  the  behoof  of  king 
Eric,"  says  a  contemporary  account  ;  "  but 
when  he  liad  gained  this  victory,  he  began  to  be 
puffed  up,  and  to  addict  himself  to  a  dissolute  life, 
taking  a  comely  married  dame  who  dwelt  in  the 
town  of  Trondhem  from  her  lawful  husband,  Ijring- 
iiig  her  into  the  castle  and  keeping  her  as  his  con- 
cubine. He  had  often  feasts  and  revels, and  gave  the 
Swedish  folk  leave  to  travel  to  Sweden,  hardening 
himself  thus  in  his  arrogance  until  the  king  of 
Denmark  sent  a  body  of  troops  which  took  him 
captive  *."  To  avenge  this  loss,  king  Eric  sent 
Matthew  Torne  to  Norway  in  the  autumn  of  1564, 
who  there  ravaged  and  wasted  with  fire  forty 
parishes.  In  the  ensuing  year  Maurice  Stake 
adopted  a  like  course  in  the  diocese  of  Aggerhus. 
When  in  1567  a  Norwegian  deserter  assured  the 
king,  that  Norway  might  easily  be  reduced  to 
obedience,  the  invasion  was  renewed.  Eric  drew 
up  pi-oclamations,  of  which  one  tliat  remains  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  inhabitants  of  Iceland.  A  great 
portion  of  Norway  was  devastated,  the  towns  of 
Hammer  and  Opslo  were  burned  ;  wlioever  paid 
homage  to  the  crown  of  Sweden,  might  purchase  a 
letter  of  protection  from  the  military  commander 
John  Siggeson,  and  there  were  many  who  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  step,  but  their  fidelity  was  accord- 
ingly ^.  By  tlie  sieges  of  Buhus  and  Elfsborg  nothing 
was  effected  ;  and  the  king  so  often  changed  the 
leaders  who  managed  them,  that  at  last  no  one 
dared  to  undertake  the  commission,  especially  as 
it  was  his  custom  to  address  to  the  soldiery  com- 
plaints of  their  officers. 

But  for  him  who  would  learn  the  whole  character 
of  Eric  in  war,  there  is  yet  one  leaf  of  his  history 
to  be  turned  over.  We  borrow  its  purport  from 
his  own  words  in  a  letter  to  the  collective  people 
of  Sweden  upon  the  success  and  victory  of  his 
majesty ",  dated  Calmar,  September  15th,  1564. 
He  begins  by  mentioning  the, exaggerated  reports 
which  had  been  m  circulation  respecting  the  attack 

3  Instruction  of  May  4.     Reg.  for  1564. 
*  Actions  of  king  Eric,  by  his  chaplain  D.  Magnus  Stig- 
tonitensis.     Palmskold  MSS. 


of  the  Danes  ;  how  they  were  said  to  have  opened 
for  themselves  a  way  over  the  frontiers  of  Sweden, 
broad  enough  for  fifteen  men  abreast.  Therefore 
the  king  had  himself  gone  down  thither,  but  had 
found  sickness  and  dissension  in  the  fleet,  and 
Oeland  harried  by  the  Danes.  After  the  cliange 
of  commander  (Clas  Christerson  Horn  was  made  ad- 
miral), a  fortunate  sea-action  had  been  fought,  in 
which  three  ships  of  the  enemy  were  taken,  and 
six  sunk.  Thereupon  the  king  had  sent  forward 
Aco  Bennetson  Farla,  and  himself  followed  with 
his  whole  force  towards  Bleking,  where  the  peasants 
had  shown  themselves  so  incensed,  that  they  had 
hanged  upon  the  trees,  in  their  harness  and  arms, 
the  Swedish  soldiers  and  horsemen  who  straggled 
behind  ;  wherefore  the  king  had  given  orders 
that  all  between  Lyckeby  and  Rottneby  should  be 
wasted  with  fire  and  sword  ;  therewitli  God  had 
caused  him  to  have  such  good  fortune,  that  about 
a  thousand  men  were  cut  down  in  the  roads  and 
forests.  Then  had  the  peasants  prayed  for  pardon, 
promised  fidelity  and  assistance,  and  given  hostages. 
After  the  castle  of  Lyckeby  was  surrendered,  Charles 
Holgerson  Gere  was  appointed  captain  there  ;  but 
the  king  with  the  rest  of  his  generals  had  come 
before  the  town  of  Rottneby,  where  the  garrison 
and  burghers  being  summoned,  had  replied  by  in- 
sults and  mockery,  and  bidden  him  march  to  Halm- 
stad,  where  he  had  shown  his  bravery  before  ;  on 
which  account  he  had  afterwards  not  been  willing 
to  accept  their  conditions,  but  had  summoned 
them  to  surrender  at  his  mercy.  The  soldiery  had 
offered  to  storm  the  town,  and  the  companies  which 
were  to  lead  were  fixed  by  lot.  In  the  outset  mat- 
ters had  gone  unprosperously,  how  much  soever  the 
king  had  exhorted  and  called  ;  until  at  length  Gud- 
mund  Olson  with  his  band  climbed  the  wall,  and 
the  others  followed  after.  Then  fell  out  "  a  ter- 
rible massacre,  so  that  the  water  in  the  stream  was 
red  like  blood."  The  foes  were  so  dispirited,  that 
they  were  cut  down  like  a  di'ove  of  wild  swine. 
Not  one  had  been  spared  ;  and  in  the  town  more 
than  two  thousand  men  had  perished,  without 
counting  the  heaps  of  women  and  children  whom 
the  Finns,  entering  last,  had  slaughtered.  Thus 
had  the  crew  of  Rottneby  received  their  re- 
ward for  all  the  treason  which  they  had  jiractised 
against  the  realm  of  Sweden  since  the  Dacke  feud. 
Larger  booty  had  never  been  captured  in  the  king's 
days,  and  much  too  hiid  been  burned  with  the  town. 
Thei-eupon  the  king  had  marched  as  far  as  Solf- 
witsborg,  which  the  enemy  themselves  had  set  in 
flames,  while  lord  Charles  Mornay  had  burned 
down  all  between  the  frontier  and  Solfwitsborg,  so 
that  all  the  land  betwixt  was  now  wasted  with  fire, 
liarried,  and  desolate,  and  we  ourselves  on  our  re- 
treat—  thus  the  king  closes  his  narration — de- 
spatched divers  troops  of  soldiers  on  both  sides, 
where  we  marched  through,  to  burn  and  j>lunder. 
For  the  commanders  whom  he  left  behind  the  king 
drew  up  the  following  instructions  :  "  Concerning 
the  common  people  who  are  still  left  alive  in  Ble- 
king, it  is  his  majesty's  will  that  all,  as  well  of  the 
islands  as  of  the  mainland,  from  the  Swedish  border 
to  Sijlfwitsborg,  shall  be  convened,  imder  the  pre- 
text that  they  are  to  swear  the  oath  of  fidelity,  and 

5  "  The  Swedish  general  in  this  incursion  was  the  first  in 
the  north  who  gave  letters  of  safety."     Suhm. 

6  Registry  of  the  Ai  chive.s  of  State  for  this  year. 


1309.] 


Severity  of  tlie 
conscription. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


Oppression  of  the 
liouse  of  Sture. 


15:  J 


so  soon  as  both  men  and  women  and  children  are 
collected  in  mass  to  some  two  or  three  thousand, 
they  shall  be  sent  all  together  hy  land  to  Cahnar, 
and  thence  in  barges  and  boats  to  Stockholm  ;  but 
if  all  do  not  present  themselves  with  their  wives 
and  children  and  housemates, then  shall  all  be  wasted, 
burned,  and  slaughtered  at  every  foot  throughout  all 
Bleking,  seeing  that  it  is  better  to  have  a  desert  than 
an  enemy's  country  '."  Whether  these  cruel  orders 
were  executed  in  their  full  extent  is  unknown  ;  but 
what  was  the  appearance  of  Bleking  at  the  end  of 
the  year  we  may  learn  from  the  king's  letter  of 
Dec.  7th,  which  says,  that  only  some  few  peasants 
are  still  remaining  there,  who  had  most  humbly 
begged  to  be  spared,  but  that  he  would  rather 
have  Swedes  to  be  the  inhabitants  of  that  country  ; 
wherefore  the  Smalanders  are  invited  to  remove 
thither  and  take  up  their  abode  there,  possessing  the 
land  for  themselves  and  heirs.  Eric  made  a  tri- 
umphal entry  on  his  return  to  the  capital. 

The  war  was  waged  at  once  in  Sweden  and 
Livonia,  every  fifth  or  third  man  being  taken  for 
military  service.  In  the  year  1561  the  king  granted 
to  all  the  soldiers,  so  long  as  they  were  in  the  field, 
freedom  for  theirproperty  in  land,  which  however  did 
not  overcome  the  repugnance  felt  to  engage  in  the 
warfare  of  Livonia.  Afterwards  the  rigour  of  the 
exactions  was  enhanced.  In  loOo  twenty  nobles, 
some  of  the  chief  families  of  the  land,  were  declared 
by  the  royal  court  to  have  forfeited  their  immunity, 
as  not  having  performed  their  due  service.  In  15G6 
a  I'oyal  equerry  was  condemned  to  the  gibbet  and 
wheel,  because  in  Sudermania  he  had  enrolled  wo- 
men for  military  services,  pretending  that  he  had 
command  thereto,  as  no  more  males  were  to  be 
found.  In  1508,  partly  from  the  incursions  of  the 
enemy,  partly  from  the  king's  levies,  the  male 
population  of  one  division  of  East-Gothland  had 
been  so  nearly  swept  off,  that  Clas  Hwit,  who  had 
filled  the  office  of  bishop  of  Linkoping,  being  now 
dead  as  pastor  of  Soderkoping,  it  was  necessary 
that  females  should  carry  him  to  the  grave  from 
want  of  men  *.  Therewithal  the  plague  raged;  and 
among  its  victims  was  the  heroic  Clas  Christerson 
Horn.  Peri)etual  complaints  are  made  of  the  total 
absence  of  discipline,  of  desertion  of  the  standards, 
mutiny  and  outrages  of  all  kinds.  All  the  wants  of 
the  soldiers,  even  in  respect  to  clothing  and  arms, 
were  supplied  by  requisitions  in  the  country  ",  and 
the  ill-will  of  the  peasants,  which  in  the  border 
provinces  at  length  broke  out,  was  punished  by  the 
king  with  the  desolation  of  several  hundreds  '.  In 
general  the  v»ar  was  waged  on  both  sides  with  great 

7  These  devastations  were  inflicted  under  the  command 
of  a  brand-master,  as  he  was  called,  attached  to  the  army, 
without  whose  sanction  and  that  of  the  general  neither 
fire-raising  nor  fire-contributions  were  allowed.  April  12, 
1567,  a  West-Gothic  nobleman,  Bennet  Swenske,  was  con- 
demned to  death,  because  in  Norway,  instead  of  burning,  he 
had  levied  contributions. 

8  Rhyzelii  BiskopsV-riinika,  i.  127. 

9  Among  these  requisitions,  in  the  year  15G3,  brandy  is 
mentioned.  In  1567,  the  king  orders  that  sheep-skins 
should  be  procured  for  the  soldiers  against  the  winter,  and 
as  much  brandy  as  could  be  had.  That  it  was  scarce  in  this 
day  we  learn  frum  the  fact,  that  during  the  Russian  war 
Gustavus  I.  sent  fourteen  awms  of  Rhine  wine  instead  of 
brandy  to  W'iborg  for  the  soldiery.  This  liquor  however  was 
known  before  in  Sweden.  In  the  miiiule-book  of  tlie  town 
of  Stockholm  for  1198,  is  entered  a  privilege  for  Cordt  the 
fiask-dravver  to  keep  and  retail  brandy. 


cruelty.  The  ravages  of  the  Danes  in  Smaland  and 
West- Gothland  had  provoked  Eric's  devastation  of 
Bleking  and  Scania.  Of  such  inroads  the  land  war 
indeed  consisted  to  the  exclusion  of  more  important 
events,  if  we  except  the  reduction  of  Warberg 
(Sept.  15,  15G5)  by  the  Swedes,  and  shortly  after- 
wards (Oct.  25)  a  victory  won  by  the  Danes  under 
Daniel  Rantzau,  against  numbers  doubly  superior, 
at  Svartera  in  Halland.  This  defeat,  which  Eric 
caused  to  be  celebrated  as  a  victory,  was  imputed 
by  the  commander,  Jacob  Hastesko,  to  the  German 
horse  and  Nicholas  Sture,  captain  of  the  royal 
body-guard,  although  Hastesko  himself  says  in  a 
letter  to  Sture',  "  What  I  have  seen  and  heard  of 
the  brilliant  deeds  and  gallantry  of  your  excellency 
upon  this  day  I  will  not  conceal  in  its  own  time." 

We  come  now  to  the  outbreak  of  that  persecution 
which  had  long  threatened  this  family,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished in  the  realm  after  that  of  the  king.  Its 
present  head,  the  old  count  Suanto  Sture',  who  under 
the  former  reign  had  given  so  many  proofs  of  his 
fidelity,  was  recalled  in  1564  from  his  lieutenancy 
in  Livonia.  Of  his  five  sons,  Charles  and  Maurice 
were  still  children,  and  fated  to  survive  the  misfor- 
tunes of  their  kin  ;  Eric  had  been  in  the  service  of 
duke  John,  and  was  thereafter  wounded  in  the 
Danish  war.  Steno  fell  in  the  glorious  action  with 
the  Danish  fleet  on  the  7th  July,  1565  ;  Nicholas, 
the  eldest,  at  first  the  king's  favourite,  was  sub- 
sequently regarded  by  him  with  particular  aver- 
sion. Astrological  whims  contributed  to  the  same 
effect  ;  Einc  fancied  himself  to  have  read  in  the 
stars  that  a  man  with  light  hair  would  deprive  him 
of  the  crown.  This  sign  applied  both  to  duke  John 
and  to  Nicholas  Sture'.  It  is  certain  that  after  the 
captivity  of  the  former  the  latter  was  the  principal 
object  of  the  king's  fear.  Yet  after  the  battle  of 
Svartera  young  Sture'  continued  to  be  received, 
seemingly,  with  distinguished  favour,  and  was 
despatched  first  to  Warberg,  and  next  to  the  in- 
vestment of  Bohus.  He  carried  with  him  one  of 
Eric's  unhappy  instructions,  charging  him  rather 
to  cut  down  the  Germanic  horsemen,  who  were 
summoned  to  answer  for  their  conduct,  than  to 
allow  one  of  them  to  escape,  and  then  to  ravage 
with  fire  and  sword  the  hundreds  of  West- Goth- 
land, which  remained  obstinate  in  their  disobe- 
dience relative  to  the  works  upon  the  fortress  of 
Warberg.  These  were  among  "  the  affairs  en- 
trusted to  him  by  the  king's  maje.sty,  which  he  left 
undischarged,"  although  the  purport  of  the  in- 
structions is  mentioned  only  in  softened  expressions 
in  the  indictment  thereupon  preferred  against  him  ^. 

'  The  Smalanders  were  punished,  according  to  the  king's 
own  remark,  because  in  1566  they  had  of  their  own  impulse 
made  peace  with  their  neighbours  the  Scanians  in  the  Hun- 
dred of  Goinge. 

2  The  sentence  is  of  June  13,  1566.  The  charges  were: 
that  he  had  not  according  to  orders  cut  down  the  German 
cavalry,  who  instead  had  plundered  the  country  and  deserted 
to  the  enemy  (thirty-four  were  afterwards  condemned  to  death 
in  Stockholm),  and  that  he  had  not  furthered  the  works  at 
Warberg  or  supplied  it  with  provisions.  Several  sentences 
were  passed  by  the  royal  court  for  "  neglectfulness,"  (Eric 
wished  in  1566  to  introduce  into  the  Swedish  law  offences 
thus  indefinitely  entitled,)  notwithstanding  that  the  pro- 
secutor George  Person  concealed  entirely  the  purport  of  the 
instructions  which  the  accused  was  snid  to  have  left  unful- 
filled. In  this  way  was  Jacob  Brockenhusen  accused 
December  24,  1566, — a  nobleman  of  Jutland,  who  had  been 
made  prisoner,  and   returned  to  his  captivity  after  failing  in 


154 


Cruel  treatment  of 
Nicholas. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Supposed  conspiracy. 
Diet  at  Slockholm. 


[l.-i60- 


He  was  cited  by  George  Person  for  laches  before 
the  king's  court,  where  "the  poor  men,"  as  the 
judges  are  called,  were  precluded  by  the  articles  of 
the  household  from  freeing  his  life,  unless  his  ma- 
jesty should  be  disposed  to  pardon  him  by  his 
special  grace.  The  king  had  left  it  in  his  option  to 
appear  before  the  tribunal,  or  to  submit  to  a  shame- 
ful entry  into  Stockholm.  Now  the  punishment  of 
death  was  remitted  to  him,  but  not  the  disgrace. 
Set  on  a  wretched  nag,  and  with  a  straw-wreath 
smeared  with  tar  on  his  head,  he  Avas  led  through 
the  streets  of  Stockholm,  amidst  shouts  of  "  See 
hei'e  a  traitor  to  the  state."  The  soldiers  loudly 
expi'essed  their  discontent,  and  called  that  he  had 
borne  himself  against  the  enemy  like  a  worthy 
Swede.  In  a  fit  of  remorse  the  king  again  sent 
him  his  pardon,  forbade  on  pain  of  death  all  further 
mention  of  what  had  happened,  and  despatched 
him  in  haste  abroad,  as  envoy  to  the  princess 
Renata  of  Lorraine.  Upon  the  insult  to  which  he 
had  been  subjected,  Nicholas  Sturd  wrote  to  his 
parents,  "  I  drank  a  draught  in  Stockholm  which 
hath  crushed  sense,  joy,  and  all  my  welfare  in  this 
world  ;"  and  upon  the  stain  to  his  honour,  "  I  hope 
one  day  to  be  able  to  defend  myself  with  other  than 
letter  and  seal." 

With  1567  "an-ived  king  Eric's  most  unhappy 
year,"  as  he  himself  says  in  his  journal  ^.  That  the 
king  at  this  time  believed  a  great  conspiracy  to 
have  been  foraied  against  him,  especially  by  the 
house  of  Sture  and  its  powerful  connexions,  is 
incontestable.  He  felt  that  he  had  injured  this 
faniil}'  in  a  manner  which  could  not  be  forgiven. 
lie  lived  in  perpetual  alarm,  augmented  his  body- 
guard, and  kept  spies  in  the  houses  of  his  subjects'*, 
j  Reports  of  examinations  by  torture  and  nightly 
executions  spread  terror  among  the  people.  Febru- 
ary 4,  15G7,  a  servant  of  count  Suanto  Stur^  was 
condemned  to  death  by  the  royal  court,  because  he 
had  met  the  king  in  the  street  with  a  musket  in  his 
hand.  In  how  far  such  a  conspiracy  really  existed 
opinions  are  divided.  Many  fell  victims  to  sus- 
picion, "  and  because  there  were  many,"  says  the 
great  Gustavus  Adolphus,  "the  world  judged  that 
they  were  all  innocent."  Eric  himself  afterwards 
wrote  from  prison  to  his  brothers,  that  the  conspi- 
rators had  designed  to  overthrow  the  house  of 
Vasa,  and  to  change  the  kingdom  into  an  elective 
monarchy.  The  dissatisfaction  of  the  higher  no- 
bility with  the  hereditary  settlement  was  afterwards 
sufficiently  manifested.     But  even  if  the  intention 


Copenhagen  to  effect  the  release  of  the  Swedish  admiral 
Bagge.  He  is  said  to  have  bound  himself  at  the  same  time 
"to  lay  some  plot  against  the  king  of  Denmark,  which  it 
was  not  needful  to  reveal  at  this  time,  but  which  must  have 
been  of  no  light  importance,  since  during  his  interview  with 
king  Eric  all  persons  had  been  excluded."  lie  indeed  pro- 
tested that  he  had  not  subscribed  or  promised  any  thing  of 
the  kind,  but  was  nevertheless  condemned  "  to  be  held  as  a 
dishonoured,  pledge-breaking,  and  faithless  man."  And  on 
occasion  of  this  sentence  the  court  is  said  to  have  been 
augmented  by  the  council  of  state,  several  nobles  and  bur- 
gesses, German  officers  and  Danish  prisoners  ! 

3  Infelicissimus  annus  Erici  regis.  This  journal  had  a 
singular  fate,  and  is  in  more  than  one  respect  an  evidence  of 
the  misfortunes  of  Eric's  family.  It  was  pawned  by  his  exiled 
son  Gustavus  Ericson  to  an  innkeeper  of  Wilna,  again  re- 
deemed by  Gregory  Larson,  a  Swede  in  the  service  of  king 
Sigismund,  in  the  year  1603,  and  saved  by  Aco  Ralamb 
(Nov.  22,  1673)  from  destruction  in  a  grocer's  booth  at  Paris, 


existed,  we  discern  neither  plan  nor  means  for  its 
accomplishment.  We  believe  in  no  separate  con- 
spiracy among  the  nobility,  because  John  and 
Charles  were  the  natural  chiefs  of  such  a  league 
(the  party  against  them  was  farmed  later  and 
under  other  circumstances),  and  least  of  all  do  we 
believe  in  a  conspiracy  of  the  Sture's,  who  then 
united  moderate  ambition  to  a  spotless  reputation, 
but  possessed  none  of  the  qualities  of  heads  of 
dangerous  undertakings  ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by 
all  the  knowledge  we  have  gathered  from  the 
records  of  that  time.  Expressions  of  discontent, 
grief,  or  revenge,  such  as  those  just  quoted  from 
the  letters  of  Nicholas  Sture',  and  naturally  ex- 
torted by  the  contumelies  he  had  been  made  to 
endure,  are  all  that  is  alleged  in  the  investigation 
against  the  so-called  conspirators,  and  the  wretched 
subterfuges  to  which  George  Person  was  obliged  to 
have  recourse,  in  order  to  give  these  words  some 
significance,  prove  at  the  most  only  the  embar- 
rassment of  the  prosecutor. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  we  find  Eric  occu- 
pied in  negotiations  with  his  brother  Charles,  who 
had  now  attained  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  asked 
to  be  invested  with  his  dukedom.  The  king  pro- 
posed an  exchange  of  certain  other  provinces  for 
those  mentioned  in  their  father's  will.  This  discus- 
sion had  no  result.  Both  he  and  his  favourite 
secretly  occupied  themselves  in  collecting  proofs  of 
the  conspiracy  above-mentioned,  which  were  to  be 
disclosed  to  the  estates  at  the  diet  convoked  in 
Stockholm  fur  the  1st  of  May.  It  was  necessary 
to  summon  the  nobles  also,  and  those  lords  whose 
life  was  involved,  the  foremost  of  the  whole  king- 
dom received  gracious  letters  to  present  themselves 
before  the  king  himself,  who  was  residing  at  Swart- 
sioe.  Most  of  them  appeared  ;  Eric  Sture'  first, 
then  Abraham  Gustaveson  Stenbock,  Steno  Axelson 
Bauer,  Ivar  Ivarson  of  Stromstad,  Steno  Ei'icson 
Leyonhufvud,  and  last  of  ail  old  Suanto  Sture,  who 
took  the  sacrament  in  Telje,  when  he  heard  that 
the  barons  above-named,  with  his  own  wife,  who  had 
hastened  to  see  her  son,  had  been  arrested.  Mean- 
while the  king  had  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed 
throughout  Stockholm  by  beat  of  drum,  that  in 
consequence  of  the  discovery  of  treasonable  complots 
the  diet  should  be  removed  to  Upsala,  and  post- 
poned to  the  I8th  of  May,  whereby  probably  the 
rest  of  the  lords  who  were  suspected  and  had  been 
summoned  were  dissuaded  from  appearing  ^.  The 
trial  at  Swartsioe  is  veiled  in  obscurity,  and  although 


where  it  had  been  sold  with  many  other  Swedish  records  by 
the  dwarf  of  king  John  Cassimir,  who  had  followed  his 
master  to  France.  Tlie  library  of  Upsala  possesses  a  copy  of 
the  journal  of  the  year  1567,  but  has  tlie  original  of  that  for 
the  preceding  year,  with  the  title  :  Commeiitaria  historlca 
regis  Erici  XIV.  cum  directionibuset  profectionihus  planeta- 
rum  pro  anno  15CG.  It  is  written  in  a  very  neat  hand. 
From  the  astrological  observations  we  find  that  the  king 
often  read  in  the  stars  of  "  brotliers'  envy."  On  the  last  leaf 
he  wrote, 

(Juem  non  formos^  delectant  casta  puellae 
Oscula,  non  homo,  sed  truncus  habetur  iners. 

*  July  22;  Ordinavi  exploratorcs  domesticos  Holmise. 
King  Eric's  Journal  for  1566. 

5  These  were  Peter  Brahe,  Gustave  Olaveson  Stenbock, 
the  aged  father  of  the  queen  dowager,  his  son  Eric  Gustave- 
son, brotlier  of  Abraham,  Thure  Bielke,  his  brother's  son 
HngenskilJ  Bielke,  Clas  Fleming,  and  Clas  Akeson  Tott. 
Messenius. 


1569.] 


Process  against  the 
six  magnates. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


Murder  of 
Kicliolas  Sture. 


155 


heard  before  tlie  king's  court,  _yet  no  mention  of  it  is 
made  in  the  records  of  that  tribimal  •".  We  must 
draw  our  knowledge  of  the  charges  and  their  proofs 
from  the  judgment  which  George  Person  after- 
wards laid  before  the  estates  for  their  subscription. 
The  witnesses  were  the  following  : — Peter  Sastorp, 
a  German  trader's  clerk,  who  deposed  that  at  the 
time  when  Nicholas  Sture'  was  despatched  from 
Stockholm,  Clas  Akeson  Tott,  Abraham  Gustaveson 
Stenbock,  Ivar  Ivarson,  and  Joshua  Genewitz,  a 
German  noble,  previously  employed  by  Eric  in 
raising  men,  and  then  travelling  for  the  same 
object,  had  assembled  in  Sture"s  ship,  and  there 
concerted  to  deprive  the  king  of  his  crown  and 
life';  this  Sastorp  had  heard  afterwards  from 
Joshua  Genewitz  in  Germany.  Alexander,  the 
king's  organist,  had  heard  the  same  in  the  German 
town  of  Ryvold  ;  Paulus  Smith  swore,  that  as  soon 
as  Nicholas  Sture  and  Joshua  Genewitz  had  come 
to  Stralsuud,  they  had  set  on  foot  intrigues  against 
the  king's  majesty  and  the  realm  of  Sweden,  which 
report  was  current  over  all  Germany  ;  Hans  Wolf 
and  Christopher,  servants  of  Abraham  Gustaveson 
and  Ivar  Ivarson,  had  heard  Hans  Eller,  servant 
of  count  Suanto,  express  his  joy  that  the  insult  to 
Nicholas  Sture  would  be  avenged,  whereupon  the 
count  was"  said  to  have  talked  with  the  two  lords 
mentioned  with  closed  doors.  Magnus,  duke  of 
Saxony  ^,  related  that  Steno  Ericson  Leyonhufvud, 
Abraham  Gustaveson,  and  Ivar  Ivarson,  had  in  his 
own  presence  openly  declared  their  resentment  at 
the  treatment  of  Nicholas  Sture',  which  should  not 
be  left  unavenged.  As  he  was  the  only  witness  who 
spoke  to  what  he  had  himself  heard  from  the 
accused,  additional  proofs  appear  to  have  been 
necessary.  Well-nigh  all  the  accounts  of  this  event 
agree  in  the  circumstance  that  Abraham  Gustave- 
son Stenbock  was  forced  at  Swartsioe  to  subscribe  a 
letter  to  Joshua  Genewitz,  in  which  lie  is  prayed  to 
hasten  the  levy  of  troops,  and  is  promised  a  sum  of 
money,  with  the  addition,  "  when  chains  and  har- 
ness are  ready,  what  is  to  be  done  on  our  side  will 
soon  be  ready  ;  more  must  not  be  trusted  to  the 
pen  '."  Stenbock,  albeit  threatened  with  the  rack, 
yet  refused  to  subscribe  this  letter,  till  he  received 
from  George  Person  a  written  document,  stating 
that  this  was  done  only  by  the  king's  order  ;  which 
was  found  in  his  clothes  after  the  execution  in  Up- 
sala.  The  letter  itself  was  afterwards  read  by  the 
king  to  the  estates,  but  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
sentence.  This  on  the  other  hand  refers  to  another 
writing  of  Eric  Sture' ;  "and  although  no  name" — 
it  is  said — "  was  found  in  the  said  letter,  which  was 
directed  to  an  ensign,  yet  we  may  assume  from  the 
circumstances  and  the  purport,  that  it  is  written 
from  the  party  of  traitors  to  Nicholas  Sture."  The 
letter  is  still  preserved  ^,  and  was  written  by  Eric 
Sture'  and  some  young  men  to  a  damsel  whom  they 
called  "dear  ensign,"  because  at  the  marriage  of 
Siward  Kruse  (which  was  celebrated  on  the  9th 
February  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm)  she  had  for 
diversion  cauglit  up  a  standard  and  carried  it  round 

6  This    sentence    is    printed    by   Nettelbladt.      Swedish 
Library  (Schwedisclie  Bibliothelc)  4,  p.  150. 

7  It  was  a  visit  of  leave-taking  in  which  several  took  part, 
and  among  them  duke  Charles. 

8  Magnus  III.  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  now  in  the  Swedish 
service,  was  married  in  156S  to  the  royal  princess  Sophia. 

9  See  the   letter    in    Fant ;    Examen  caussre    Sturianae. 
Ups.  1784,  p.  17. 


the  room.  With  respect  to  the  words  which  duke 
Magnus  had  heard,  the  accused  replied,  that  their 
vengeance  was  to  be  exercised  on  George  Person, 
Jacob  Teit,  a  member  of  the  royal  court,  and  their 
adherents,  but  not  on  the  king.  Abraham  Sten- 
bock and  Ivar  Ivarson  were  already  condemned  to 
death  at  Swartsioe  ^,  although  the  execution  of  the 
sentence  was  deferred.  The  court  was  prepared  to 
condemn  count  Suanto  also,  when  the  king  gave 
command  that  the  investigation  should  be  continued 
in  Upsala^,  whither  all  the  prisoners  were  conveyed. 
He  himself  followed  them,  already  an  object  of  de- 
testation. He  complains  that  upon  the  way  from 
Flotsund  to  the  town  all  his  servants  had  deserted 
him,  so  that  lie  had  arrived  alone  and  on  foot, 
received  by  no  one  but  the  archbishop  Lawrence 
Peterson  and  the  high  chancellor  Nicholas  Gyllen- 
stierna.  Upon  Whit-Monday,  the  19th  May,  he 
had  appointed  to  meet  the  estates.  On  the  pre- 
vious day  he  had  drunk  an  unusual  quantity,  could 
not  find  the  speech  he  had  written  for  the  occasion, 
and  complains  that  he  must  appear  unprepared. 
In  the  course  of  his  address  he  enlarged  especially 
upon  the  treason  of  Nicholas  Sture'  and  his  accom- 
plices, appealed  to  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses 
examined,  and  read  the  letters  above-mentioned. 
The  reception  of  the  oration  was  dubious.  Some, 
especially  the  priests,  murmured.  Seditious  excla- 
mations were  heard,  while  one  and  another  re- 
marked that  the  lords  had  defended  themselves 
well.  The  din  waxed  loud,  so  that  the  king  hastily 
dissolved  the  assembly.  He  committed  to  George 
Person  and  Dionysius  Beurreus  the  discussion  of  the 
matter  with  the  estates,  wavering  himself  between 
the  most  conflicting  emotions.  His  fears  were  aug- 
mented when,  on  the  21st  May,  Nicholas  Sture  re- 
turned, bringing  from  Lorraine  plight,  ring,  and  the 
portrait  of  the  princess.  The  visit  of  this  noble- 
man on  his  homeward  journey  to  Stralsund,  where 
under  the  emperor's  mediation  a  congress  was  held 
for  the  restoration  of  peace  in  the  North,  had  sup- 
plied new  fuel  to  the  king's  suspicions.  He  re- 
ceived orders  to  place  himself  in  confinement.  Yet 
Eric  heard  a  statement  of  the  issue  of  his  embassy, 
and  wrote  upon  the  22d  of  May  to  count  Suanto 
Sture,  that  how  inveterately  soever  he  and  his  sons 
might  be  pursued  by  the  charges  of  malignants, 
neither  he  nor  they  should  sustain  any  detriment 
to  their  honour  or  life. 

It  was  on  the  evening  of  the  24th  May — at  noon 
of  the  same  day  the  king  is  said  to  have  prayed 
forgiveness  of  Steno  Leyonhufvud  and  Suanto  Sture, 
and  to  have  promised  them  their  freedom — that 
Eric,  after  a  walk  with  Peter  Carlson,  ordinary  of 
Calmar,  was  seen  returning  into  the  castle  in  high 
excitement.  He  had  beeji  informed  that  duke 
John  was  escaped,  and  that  revolt  had  begun.  He 
rushed  with  drawn  dagger  in  hand  into  the  prison 
chamber  of  Nicholas  Stur^  and  stabbed  him  in  the 
arm  ;  the  murder  was  completed  by  his  guards- 
man, Peter  Welamson,  nephew  of  George  Person. 
Scarcely  had  the  deed  been  done  when  the  door  of 
the  unhappy  father's  dungeon  was  thrown  open, 

'   Printed,  1.  c. 

2  Fuerunt  in  judicio  dominus  Abrahamus  et  Iwarus,  et 
condemnati  sunt  ad  mortem,  ut  retulit  mihi  Georgius  Petri; 
hoc  undecima  Mail  contigit.     King  Eric's  Journal  for  1567. 

3  14  Mali  comparuit  coram  judicio  comes  Svanto  in  mea 
praesentia  ;  et  cum  omnes  judices,  ut  apparebat,  facile  eum 
condemnassent,  mandavi  ut  causa  penitus  audiretur.     Ibid. 


156 


The  king's 
frenzy. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Discussion  of  its 
nature. 


[15G0- 


and  he  saw  the  king  fall  at  his  feet,  ejaculating, 
"  For  God's  sake  pardon  me  the  evil  which  I  have 
done  to  you."  "  All  of  it,"  was  the  answer  ;  "  but  if 
aught  be  practised  against  my  son's  life,  that  shall 
you  answer  to  me  before  God."  "  See  now,"  the 
king  exclaimed,  "  that  will  ye  never  forgive  to  me  ; 
therefore  must  the  same  lot  be  yours  " — and  he 
ran  fortli  in  frenzy  on  the  road  to  Flotsund,  accom- 
panied only  by  some  guardsmen.  One  of  them  soon 
returned  with  an  order  that  all  the  prisoners  in  the 
castle,  except  lord  Steno,  should  be  put  to  death. 
There  were  two  who  bore  this  name  ;  Steno  Leyon- 
hufvud  and  Steno  Baner.  The  provost  Peter  Gadd, 
who  descended  from  the  castle  into  the  town  to  ask 
advice  hereupon  of  George  Person,  whom  he  found 
at  the  play-table,  received  for  answer  that  he  must 
take  his  own  counsel.  The  ambiguity  of  the  order 
saved  the  lives  of  the  two  noblemen.  The  rest, 
Suanto  Sture,  his  second  son  Eric,  Abraham  Sten- 
bock,  and  Ivar  Ivarson  were  all  slaughtered.  The 
castle  gates  remained  barred  for  several  days. 
The  food  which  the  connexions  of  the  prisoners 
continued  to  send  them  was  taken  in  as  usual 
at  the  door  by  Peter  Gadd  and  his  men.  George 
Person,  who  had  drawn  up  a  judgment  in  the  name 
of  the  estates,  meanwhile  sought  to  obtain  signa- 
tures to  it  before  the  homicide  became  known,  and 
— one  proof  of  the  equity  of  popular  assemblies  ! — 
actually  succeeded.  The  sentence  of  the  estates 
is  dated  the  lOtli  May,  1567,  the  same  day  on  which 
the  king  had  propounded  the  matter  to  them.  It 
is  said  to  have  been  subscribed  in  the  church  upon 
the  26th  May,  consequently  two  days  after  the  nmr- 
ders,  under  constraint  and  without  having  been 
read  *.  The  clergy  subjoined  to  the  doom  a  sepa- 
rate declaration,  purporting  :  Tiiat  although  George 
Per.son  had  brought  forward  the  subject  in  the  king's 
name,  with  a  request  that  they  would  give  their 
opinion  thereupon,  they  yet  did  not  regard  this  as 
consonant  to  their  office,  but  remitted  the  judg- 
ment to  the  good  men  of  the  king's  court;  howbeit, 
if  such  designs  as  those  imputed  to  the  accused  had 
of  a  truth  been  entertained,  then  they  could  say  no 
otherwise  than  that  the  aforesaid  were  in  so  far  un- 
true, faithless,  and  perjured  men,  and  deserving 
the  punishment  of  traitors,  in  case  the  king,  in 
respect  to  all  or  some  of  them,  would  not  allow  his 
grace  to  go  for  law. 

Eric  had  taken  flight  to  the  woods.  Dionysius 
Beurreus,  the  first  who  overtook  him,  was  cut  down 
at  the  command  of  the  frantic  j)rince  by  Peter 
Welamson,  who  with  some  guardsmen  still  followed 
him.  From  them  too  he  soon  parted,  and  wandered 
up  and  down  beyond  their  ken.  On  the  third  day 
after  the  murders,  he  came  clad  in  a  peasant's 
dress  to  a  hamlet  in  the  parish  of  Odensal,  where 
he  was  recognized'  ;  and  at  the  tidings  many  of 
his  former  attendants  again  gathered  round  him. 
He  called  out  that  he  was  not  king,  that  like  Nero 
he  had  slain  his  tutors,  and  that  Nicholas  Sturd 
was  administrator.  No  one  was  able  to  induce 
him  to  eat  any  thing  or  to  sleep,  until  his  mistress. 


■•  Nee  Georgius  Petri  (Goran  Persson)  hactenus  faerat 
otialus,  qui  antequam  flagitii  fama  inter  ordines  emanaret, 
sententiam  mortis  in  ccesos  impetraturus,  hacque  scelus 
postea  defensurus,  illam  nomine  Statuum  concinnat,  quam 
postridie  ca;dis,  videlicet  xxiv  Mail  cogit  ordines  sacris  in 
ecclesia  operam  dantes,  non  pcrlectam  subsignare.  Mes- 
senius,   Scondia  VI.   45.      (Tlicre   is  here  a  trifling   incon- 


Catharine  Magnus'  daughter,  persuaded  him  to 
take  refreshment,  on  which  he  became  more  tran- 
quil, and  permitted  himself  to  be  reconducted  to 
Upsala.  Thence  he  was  removed  for  some  days  to 
Swartsioe,  and  on  the  3d  of  June,  came  to  Stock- 
holm, which  he  entered  praying  with  eyes  and 
hands  uplifted  to  Heaven. 

What  had  come  to  pass  was  manifestly  an 
outbreak  of  frenzy  ;  and  this,  though  milder  in 
kind  after  the  first  violence,  is  stated  to  liave 
lasted  for  several  months  afterward.  During  these 
the  king  is  said  to  have  been  unable  to  occupy 
himself  with  the  government,  which  in  the  mean 
time  was  managed  by  the  council,  esjiecially  Steno 
Ericson  Leyonhufvud  and  Peter  Bi-ahe.  This 
period  began  with  a  confession  of  his  deep  re- 
morse,— a  declaration  of  the  innocence  of  the  mur- 
dered lords, — the  distribution  of  great  sums  of 
money  to  their  relatives,  and  presents  to  the 
members  of  the  estates, — the  delivery  of  George 
Person  to  justice.  The  king  himself  calls  this  his 
time  of  infirmity. 

It  must  then  awaken  astoni.shment,  that  the 
public  records  during  this  period  show  an  activity 
on  the  king's  part  by  no  means  diminished,  but 
rather  augmented,  Eric,  in  general  a  great  pen- 
man, never  wrote  more  assiduously.  We  find 
often  several  letters  in  one  day  upon  business  of 
administration,  with  neither  more  nor  less  method 
than  was  usual  with  him.  They  cannot  have  been 
issued  by  the  council  in  the  king's  name;  for  it 
did  not  remain  near  his  person  ;  they  relate  in 
part  to  his  own  affairs,  and  some  are  directed  to 
the  council.  If  this  be  repugnant  to  the  general 
opinion  of  his  condition  of  mind  at  that  time,  on 
the  other  side  he  is  not  less  at  variance  witli  him- 
self ;  for  during  a  portion  of  this  time,  he  seems  to 
have  believed  himself  a  captive.  If  we  compare 
all  this  with  his  jirevious  conduct  ;  if  we  reflect 
that  it  belongs  to  tl)e  deep  mysteries  of  madness, 
that  it  may  be  conjoined  not  only  with  a  certain 
clearness,  but  even  with  acuteness,  cunning,  and 
great  power  of  dissimulation,  that  wily,  dangerous, 
and  cruel  passions  and  fears  respecting  life  are  not 
seldom  its  attendants,— we  shall  find  ourselves 
warranted  in  ascribing  to  madness  a  more  extended 
influ  nee  u]ion  Eric's  whole  character  than  is 
ordinarily  allowed.  This  agrees  well  witii  the 
circumstance,  that  his  behaviour  after  the  nmrder 
of  the  Stures  sprang  at  least  as  much  from  fright  as 
from  repentance.  An  eye-witness  who  belonged  to 
his  train  sajs,  "he  would  not  renounce  the  govern- 
nitiit.  feigning  as  if  he  had  not  reason,  until  he 
could  first  appease  the  nearest  kinsmen  of  the 
deceased  lords  i*."  It  is  also  worthy  of  remark, 
that  his  so-called  amendment  by  no  means  em- 
braces any  change  in  his  state  of  mind,  but  only 
courage  again  to  show  his  real  condition.  He  de- 
fends what  he  had  done,  recalls  what  he  had 
admitted,  and  is  the  same  man  he  was  before. — One 
remark  further  may  be  here  in  place.     We  have 

sistency  in  the  dates,  which  are  left  as  they  stand  in  the 
original.     Trans.) 

5  Tlie  king's  next  letter  after  the  murder  is  dated  Upsala, 
May  27,  and  contains  an  order  for  distributing  half  a  tun  of 
salt  to  every  member  of  the  diet.  He  gave  moreover  to  the 
principal  men  of  the  estates  all  the  gold  and  silver  he  had 
brouRht  will)  him. 

^  Upon  the  transactions  of  king  Eric,  by  D.  Magnus  Stig- 
tomiensis. 


1569.] 


His  behaviour  to  John, 
and  marriage. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


Incursion  of  the 
Danes. 


157 


mentioned  t!ie  so  called  cimspiraey  of  the  Sture's  '. 
If  such  a  plot  really  e.visted  among  the  higher 
nobility  against  the  king,  when  would  a  better 
opportunity  of  usurping  the  supreme  power,  in 
defiance  of  him  and  his  brothers,  have  presented 
itself,  than  during  the  anarchical  state  which  fol- 
lowed the  murders  at  Upsala,  when  Eric  was 
frenzied,  John  a  captive,  and  Charles  not  yet  in 
possession  of  power  ?  Several  of  its  suspected 
heads  still  remained,  and  the  cause  of  vengeance 
would  have  been  common  to  the  principal  families. 
Yet  no  one  stirred  during  a  period  of  a  j-ear. 
Disaffection  waited  for  the  dukes,  and  it  was  their 
conspiracy  which  after  the  liberation  of  John  over- 
threw Eric. 

Charles,  along  with  duke  Magnus  of  Saxony, 
followed  the  king  upon  the  12tli  of  August,  1567,  to 
Swartsioe,  where  he  resided  during  all  the  rest  of 
the  year.  They  had  received  a  commission  to 
negotiate  with  John  anent  conditions  of  his  release, 
whereupon  he  sent  a  letter  to  the  king  requesting 
a  personal  interview.  Eric,  who  sometimes  seemed 
to  entertain  a  notion  that  John  already  really 
reigned,  did  not  dare  to  refuse  ;  but  his  anguish 
was  heightened  the  more  near  the  moment  ap- 
proached, and  when  they  at  length  actually  met  at 
Ventholin  on  the  8th  October,  Eric  threw  himself 
at  his  brother's  feet  and  saluted  him  as  king. 

His  mind's  distemper  seems  now  to  have  again 
broken  out  in  an  aggravated  form,  for  from  the 
1st  to  the  18th  October  no  letter  from  the  king  is 
to  be  found,  and  the  contemporary  remarks  in  his 
Journal '  show,  that  he  looked  upon  himself  as  a 
[)risoner  and  dependant  of  his  brother,  who  mean 
time  was  set  at  liberty,  after  having  subscribed  the 
conditions  demanded  from  him.  These,  as  Eric 
himself  set  them  down,  discover  great  confusion  of 
mind.  Sometimes  he  speaks  as  king,  sometimes 
as  captive,  solicits  among  other  things  liberty  to 
dispute  with  John  upon  religion,  to  write  his  own 
history  according  to  the  truth,  to  erect  a  tri- 
umphal arch  of  marble,  and  the  like.  The  most 
important  condition  was  that  which  was  soon  to  put 
an  end,  as  well  to  his  overtures  of  marriage  as  to 
his  reign  ;  namely,  an  engagement  on  the  part  of 
John,  that  if  the  king  should  have  sons  by  Catha- 
rine Magnus'  daughter,  they  should  inherit  the 
crown.  With  this  woman,  the  best-loved  of  his 
mistresses,  Eric  had  at  length  resolved  to  share 
both  his  throne  and  bed.  Such  a  design  was 
,  already  traceable  during  the  previous  year,  when 
he  solicited  and  obtained  the  consent  of  the  estates 
to  choose  for  himself  a  consort  within  the  kingdom, 
at  his  pleasure,  and  without  regard  to  birth. 
Having  towards  Christmas  returned  to  the  capital, 
he  on  new-year's  eve  laid  his  marriage  contract 
before  the  council  for  their  subscription  ^.    Thence- 

7  The  treatise  cited,  Examen  Caussas  Slurianae,  by  Fant, 
is  a  defence  of  the  reality  of  the  conspiracy. 

^  These  are  few,  although  his  daily  astrological  observa- 
tions on  the  position  of  planets  seldom  fail.  We  quote  the 
following:  "Oct.  8  et  9.  Ivi  ad  Ventholmen  et  collocntus 
sum  cum  meo  fratre  quam  humillime  orans,  ut  veritatem 
fateretur  si  rex  esset,  quod  nuUo  modo  nisi  obscuris  ambagi- 
ous potui  intelligere.  Condonavit  niilii  autem  ipse  et  con- 
junx  principissaininiicitias  ex  corde,  manibus  me  palpantes. 
FoUiciti  etiam  me  liberiorem  vilam  habiturum  absque 
quotidianis  vexationibus."  The  brothers  afterwards  melon 
the  l;nh  and  2Ist  October. 

9  December  31.     Sigillarunt  consiliarii  contraclura  matri- 


forward  he  styles  Catharine  (jueen,  although  their 
marriage  had  not  yet  taken  place  ;  but  her  claim 
thereto  was  strengthened,  as  upon  the  28th  Febru- 
ary, 1568,  she  bore  the  king  a  son  after  his  depar- 
ture to  the  army. 

We  may  imagine  how  under  such  circumstances 
the  war  was  waged.  In  Livonia,  Pernau  was  lost. 
At  the  commencement  of  1567,  the  Swedes  sus- 
tained an  imjiortant  defeat  from  the  Poles  '.  That 
all  was  not  lost  here,  indeed,  is  to  be  ascribed 
partly  to  the  amity  which  Eric  had  maintained 
with  Russia,  partly  to  those  hopes  which  the  in- 
liabitants  them.selves  cherished  in  favour  of  the 
Swedish  government,  which  from  the  outset  had 
born  a  good  reputation  in  these  countries  2.  In 
the  Baltic,  the  Swedish  fleet  was  this  year  without 
a  single  rival.  But  the  land-war  was  all  the  more 
badly  carried  on,  and  during  the  internal  troubles 
the  Danes  had  already  been  enabled  to  attempt 
what  Daniel  Rantzou  in  the  autunm  of  1567  ac- 
complished, an  attack  on  the  heart  of  the  kingdom. 
"  At  this  time,  it  was  first  in  the  month  of  Novem- 
ber,"— says  the  secretary  Swen  Elofson, — "  tidings 
came  in  that  the  foes  of  the  Swedish  monarchy, 
the  Danes,  had  taken  fresh  and  free  courage,  and 
done  what  they  had  not  ventured  earlier  in  this 
war,  namely,  to  cross  the  Holwed  with  their  v.hole 
army,  and  their  invasion  was  made  so  quickly  and 
quietly,  that  ere  a  single  word  had  been  spoken  of 
it,  they  had  begun  to  plunder  and  rob  far  and  wide 
in  East- Goth  land,  and  had  pitched  their  leaguer 
and  intrenched  themselves  in  the  town  of  Sken- 
ninge,  where  was  the  fattest  of  the  land  for  corn 
and  plenty."  While  Rantzou,  or  the  flying  burgh- 
ers themselves  burned  the  towns  of  East-Goth- 
land, and  Peter  Brahe  and  Hogenskild  Bielke  ^, 
who  were  sent  against  the  enemy,  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  surprised  in  their  camp,  a  consider- 
able force  had  been  collected  in  the  rear  of  the 
enemy,  and  the  pass  in  the  forest  of  Holwed  so 
occupied  with  troops  and  fortified  with  retrench- 
ments, sconces,  and  other  provisions  of  defence, 
that  it  was  held  for  a  settled  matter  that  the  enemy 
could  not  escape.  But,  continues  the  author,  "  when 
such  expectations  of  the  overthrow  of  the  foe 
were  on  the  stretch,  what  befell  ?  King  Eric  took 
courage  and  broke  up  from  Swartsioe,  on  the  8th 
January,  1568,  minded,  as  he  gave  out,  to  seek  the 
enemy  ;  but  in  this  his  march,  and  with  his  evil 
and  perverse  counsels,  he  spoiled  every  good  oppor- 
tunity ;  for,  contrary  to  all  advice,  he  gave  order 
that  the  troops  should  come  to  himself,  alleging 
that  he  was  completely  resolved  in  his  own  person 
to  deliver  battle  to  the  foe.  But  at  the  very  time 
when  the  forces,  in  order  to  meet  the  king,  re- 
moved from  the  Holwed,  the  enemy  came  upon  it, 

monialem  inter  me  et  uxorem  meam,  et  pro  regina  vera  et 
legitima  illani  habituros  spoponderunt,  filiosque  ex  matri- 
monio  proximos  vcros  et  legitimes  regni  Svetise  se  agnituros 
polliciti  sunt.     King  Eric's  Journal,  1567. 

'  Polackarna,  the  Polacks  of  our  old  writers.     Trans. 

2  Compare  Jannau,  History  of  Livonia  and  Esthonia 
(Liefland  and  Estland),  in  Hupel's  Northern  Miscellanies, 
Riga.  1797;  xv.  and  xvi.  p.  55.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the 
Swedish  government  was  the  prohibition  of  "  the  beating 
with  rods  and  lashing,  with  which  the  nobles  of  Livonia 
maltreat  their  peasants;"  and  among  the  complaints  of 
Eric  against  Suanto  Sture  during  his  administration  in  the 
province  was  this,  that  he  had  not  enforced  this  prohibition. 

3  They  were  afterwards  talien  in  the  Holwed. 


158 


Frivolities  of 
Eric. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  dulces  take 
up  arms. 


[I  SCO- 


drew  off  and  escaped,  yet  not  wholly  scatheless. 
But  king  Eric  acted  as  if  that  troubled  him  not, 
but  followed  witli  his  army,  and  in  his  company 
were  the  three  princes,  duke  John,  duke  Charles,  and 
duke  Magnus  of  Saxony  ;  yet  lie  effected  nothing 
else  by  his  foray  but  some  damage  in  the  enemy's 
country,  namely  in  the  Hundred  of  Goeinge  and  in 
Halland,  and  so  returned  again  hither  in  spring, 
when  the  roads  wei'e  thawed."  It  was  clear  that 
the  king  paid  more  attention  to  the  dukes  than  the 
enemy.— Eric's  passion  for  the  external  show  of 
warfare  shows  itself  to  the  last.  He  was  ever  as 
diligent  a  master  of  exercise  as  he  was  an  incom- 
petent leader,  and  while  yet  the  gift  of  fancy  was 
not  employed  in  devising  unifoimis,  his  own  was 
chiefly  displayed  in  badges.  To  this  purpose  we 
find  him  requiring  Ihien  red,  green,  and  yellow, 
as  well  as  red-colciured  goose-feathers,  as  many 
''  squirrel  and  fox-tails"  as  can  be  procured,  and 
many  thousand  "  tree-cones  *"  from  Finland,  which 
are  expressly  mentioned  as  having  been  intended 
for  field-tokens.  For  the  rest,  he  seems  now  to 
have  been  in  good  spirits,  and  gives  orders  to  send 
from  Stockholm  to  the  camp  in  Smaland,  for  his 
own  use,  "  wines  and  spices,  some  good  Malvoisie, 
Muscatel  unadulterate,  Rhine  and  other  wines 
pleasant  to  drink,  sugar-loaves,  cinnamon,  pre- 
served ginger,  some  baskets  of  raisins,  and  the 
like  ^."  Returned  to  Swartsioe,  the  king  amused 
himself  with  the  tendance  of  his  garden  and  the 
care  of  his  grafts  ".  George  Person,  on  whom  the 
sentence  of  death  passed  in  the  council-chamber  of 
Stockholm  (October  19,  15G7,)  was  not  executed, 
soon  recovered  his  former  influence,  and  for  a 
word  against  his  favourite,  Eric  stabbed  his  secre- 
tary Martin  Helsing  with  a  fire-prong,  so  that  he 
died.  To  Person  he  gives  authority  to  call  in  "  the 
great  sums  of  silver  and  gold  which  we  in  our 
weakness  have  disbursed  to  certain  parties  for  the 
harm  that  was  wrought  in  Upsala  through  hasti- 
ness "^  "  and  celebrates  his  marriage  splendidly  on 
the  4tli  of  July  with  Catharine  Magnus'  daughter. 
On  the  following  day  the  new  queen  was  crowned  ; 
i  but  with  this  no  one  seemed  to  be  well-pleased. 
Calamities  were  predicted  from  surer  foretokens 
than  the  falling  of  the  crown  on  this  occasion  out 
of  the  chancellor's  hands,  and  it  was  with  difficulty 
that  the  barons,  who  were  to  be  honoured  there- 
with, were  induced  to  receive  the  stroke  of  knight- 
hood.— Thereafter  Eric  issued  a  singular  proclama- 
tion upon  the  events  which  the  year  had  brought 
forth  *.  He  alleges  that  he  had,  in  the  fear  of  an 
outbreak  of  revolt,  put  to  death  Nicholas  Sture,  who 
had  been  rightfully  condemned  for  his  treason  ; 
that  he  thought  to  remove  in  him  the  new  king  out 
of  his  way  ;  but  his  servants  had  on  that  occasion 
cut  off  against  his  own  will  as  well  the  innocent  as 
the  guilty  ;  himself  had  fled  to  the  wilds,  deserted 
by  all,  reckoning  himself  at  last  a  deposed  captive, 
and  despairing  in  this  condition  not  only  of  his 
throne,  but  even  of  his  eternal  salvation.  Mean- 
while the  government  had  been  neglected  and  the 
kingdom  ruined  ;  but  now  God  had  restored  him 

*  Tr'dbdgare,  tree  or  wood-cups.     T. 

5  To  tlie  lieutenant  in  Stockholm;  Nydala,  February  16. 
Reg.  for  1  5G8. 
8  To  his  gardener  {tree-yardsmaster),  April  10,  15C8. 

7  April  14.     Reg.  for  1568. 

8  Stockholm,  July  8,  1568. 

s  "  Sveriges  Rike."     Stockholm,  July  12. 


to  his  health,  faculties,  and  the  exercise  of  his 
regal  authority,  wherefore  he  ordained  a  universal 
thanksgiving  over  all  Sweden.  Shortly  after  he 
enjoins  the  nobility  to  fulfil  more  strictly  the  con- 
ditions of  the  e(juestrian  tenure  ;  "  for  ye  and  your 
forefathers,"  he  says,  "  were  not  raised  to  the  class 
of  nobles  in  intent  and  act,  merely  that  ye  .should 
lead  merry  days,  and  do  no  good  in  return  to  the 
realm  of  Sweden  ^." 

The  king's  bi'others  had  proffered  him  thanks 
for  his  invitation  to  the  nuptials,  but  had  not  at- 
tended. John  afterwards  declared  that  it  would 
have  cost  them  their  lives  if  they  had  come.  It 
aroused  misgivings  that  Eric  should  have  secretly 
promised  in  156(),  to  deliver  John's  consort  to 
the  Russian  tyrant  Ivan  Wasiliewitz  ',  who  had 
formerly  sought  her  hand,  but  had  received  from 
Poland  a  contumelious  refusal.  It  may  afford  an 
idea  of  a  man  who  in  these  and  the  ensuing  times 
maintained  himself  by  serving  all  masters,  that  it 
was  the  high  chancellor  Nicholas  Gyllenstierna, 
who  in  February,  15C7,  subscribed  a  convention  at 
Moscow,  by  whicli  Eric  engaged  to  deliver  up  his 
sister-in-law,  and  the  czar  to  desist  from  his  claims 
on  Estland,  and  to  assist  Eric  against  the  Poles. 
With  the  liberation  of  John  and  his  consort  from 
prison,  it  was  no  longer  in  Eric's  power  to  fulfil 
his  promise.  But  a  Russian  embassy  in  Stock- 
holm, which  demanded  its  completion,  and  a  letter 
from  Eric  to  Ivan  of  the  18th  April,  15fi8,  show 
that  the  negotiations  on  the  subject  were  not 
broken  off  2.  George  Person  afterwards  denied 
upon  the  rack,  that  the  king  had  been  in  earnest  in 
this  business,  but  confessed  that  assassins  were 
sent  out  against  John  and  Charles,  on  the  news  of 
the  outbreak  of  the  revolt. 

Intelligence  thereof  arrived  a  few  days  after 
the  marriage.  It  was  fii'st  said  that  both  the 
dukes  had  quitted  Eskilstuna  in  haste,  whither  to 
proceed  was  unknown.  The  king  believed  them  to 
1)6  quitting  the  kingdom,  and  wrote  therefore  to 
several  places  that  they  should  be  prevented  from 
passing  over  to  the  enemy.  Tidings  were  soon 
brought  that  they  had  made  themselves  masters  of 
Vadstena,  and  were  in  arms  with  many  of  the 
chief  nobles.  The  plan  was  doubtless  not  merely 
the  work  of  the  moment,  and  the  expressions  of 
John  in  a  letter  to  his  sisters^, — "  We  caused  deal 
with  horsemen  and  foot,  both  inborn  and  foreigners, 
and  with  others  the  estates  of  West  and  East- 
Gothland,  Smaland,  Suthermanland,  Nerike,  and 
other  districts,  who  all  joined  hands  with  us 
against  the  tyrannical  government  of  king  Eric 
and  George  Person," — relate  probably  not  only  to 
the  consequences  of  the  outbreak,  but  also  to  the 
preparations.  The  story  goes  that  the  first  con- 
ference between  the  brothers  took  place  at  Knapp- 
forsen,  in  the  parish  of  Biurkiirn,  in  Vermelaud, 
under  an  oak  which  is  still  called  the  king's  oak, 
and  if  it  be  true  it  refers  already  to  the  autumn  of 
1 5G7,  when  John  after  his  release  passed  some  time 
at  Arboga.  At  Vadstena  they  fastened,  in  memory 
of  this,  oak-leaves  in  their  hats,  which  now  became 

'  April  24,  1566,  Eric  remarks  in  his  Journal,  that  his 
envoys  sent  to  Russia  had  -written  that  the  grand  duke 
would  in  no  wise  keep  the  peace  without  this  condition.  On 
the  treaty  which  had  been  concluded,  compare  Karamsin, 
viii.  98,  German  Translation. 

2  Reg.  for  that  year.     The  letter  is  in  vague  terms. 

»  To  Catharine  and  Cecilia,  Oct.  13.     Reg.  for  1568. 


1569. 


The  king  tried  by 
tlie  estates. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


His  imprisonment, 
and  sutierings. 


159 


the  badge  of  their  followers.  The  first  intelligence 
of  the  revolt  affected  the  king  so  violentlj',  that  he 
wished  to  kill  himself  by  opening  liis  veins  •*. 
Thereupon  he  attempted  to  negotiate  with  his 
brothers,  and  when  this  was  refused,  challenged 
duke  Charles  to  single  combat,  placed  himself 
finally  at  the  head  of  those  forces  which  remained 
faithful  to  him,  and  himself  fought  in  these  last 
battles  with  desperate  bravery.  After  a  check 
which  the  dukes  suffered  at  Botkirk,  they  took 
another  way,  by  Westeras  and  Upsala,  to  the 
capital.  The  queen  dowager  and  the  princesses 
repaired  to  them  ;  Ivar  Magnusson  Stiernkors,  the 
royal  governor  despatched  to  Finland,  declared  in 
their  favour.  On  the  17th  September,  Charles 
and  John  pitched  their  camp  before  Stockholm  on 
the  meadow  of  Rorstrand  ^.  When  Eric  and  George 
Person  observed  their  banners  from  the  castle, 
the  latter  said  ;  "  If  you,  gracious  lord,  had  fol- 
lowed my  counsel  and  laid,  according  to  the  judg- 
ment, duke  John's  head  at  his  feet,  this  would  have 
been  undone."  That  detested  counsellor  was  seized 
by  the  king's  own  people  and  delivered  to  the 
dukes".  He  was  subjected  to  the  question,  and 
suffered  on  the  18th  September  the  tortures  of  a 
most  cruel  death  without  complaining.  On  the 
ensuing  day  the  followers  of  the  dukes  were  ad- 
mitted by  a  secret  understanding  with  the  burghers 
and  garrison  into  the  town.  Eric,  who  meanwhile 
was  at  church,  hastened  to  the  castle.  Steno  Eric- 
son  Leyonhufvud,  who  attempted  to  prevent  his 
flight,  was  cut  down  by  a  guardsman.  Shortly 
afterwards  Eric  was  seen  to  mount  the  castle-wall, 
and  surrendered  himself  to  duke  Charles. 

In  the  opening  of  the  jear  15G9  Eric  was  brought 
to  trial  before  the  assembled  estates.  He  himself 
conducted  his  defence,  and  inveighed  with  much 
vehemence  against  the  nobility.  When  John  inter- 
rupted him  with  the  exclamation  that  he  was  out 
of  his  senses,  he  answered,  "  Once  only  was  I  out 
of  my  senses,  when  I  let  thee  slip  from  prison." 
His  deposition  was  confirmed  by  the  estates  ;  it 
was  vindicated  in  a  diffuse  memorial,  filled  with 
true  and  untrue  inculpations  ;  his  children  were 
excluded  from  the  succession  on  the  ground  of 
their  mean  and  illegitimate  extraction  ;  he  himself 
was  adjudged  to  be  kept  in  perpetual,  yet  princely, 
imprisonment.  But  John  allowed  liis  hate  free 
course  against  him  whom  he  styled  "  his  brother 
and  bitterest  foe  '."  His  life  indeed  was  spared,  as 
he  himself  writes,  at  the  entreaty  of  the  widowed 
queen,  duke  Charles  and  his  sisters  ;  but  he  was 
obliged  to  endure  the  horrors  of  the  most  rigorous 
captivity,  even  to  corporal  maltreatment  from  liis 
wardens,  often  from  persons  whom  he  had  irritated 
to  revenge  during  his  government.  Olave  Gus- 
taveson,  one  of  the  ferocious  brothers  Stenbock  *, 

^  Palmskold  MSS.  He  inquired  of  Dr.  'William  Lemiiius 
what  veins  should  be  opened  in  order  to  die  the  most  easy 
death,  and  attempted  to  throttle  the  doctor  when  the  latter  an- 
swered that  it  was  his  duty  not  to  shorten  life,  but  to  prolong  it. 

5  Rorstrandsiingen  ;  ang,  which  so  often  occurs  in  Swedish 
names  of  places,  is  probably  the  same  word  with  inch,  used 
in  tills  sense.     Tran'S. 

«  Rhyme  Chronicle  of  Charles  IX.  Stockholm,  1759,  p. 
SO.     See  Memoirs  of  king  Eric  by  Magnus  Stigtomtensis. 

?  Letter  to  the  lieutenant  of  Calmar,  Oct.  2,  1568. 

8  His  brother  Arvid  Gustaveson  killed  colonel  Ivar  Mag- 
nusson Stiernkors  in  Abo.  (That  this  report  was  not  false,  as 
S;iernman  says  in  his  Remarks  on  Werwing's  History,  p 


after  a  brawl  with  the  captive  prince  wounded  his 
arm  by  a  shot,  and  left  him  lying  in  his  blood. 
God  knew,  he  complained  in  a  letter  to  John  of 
March  1,  1(J59,  how  inhumanly  he  was  tortured 
with  hunger,  cold,  stench,  and  darkness,  stroke  and 
blow  ;  he  could  not  believe  that  it  was  done  with 
his  brother's  knowledge  ;  he  conjured  him  to  grant 
release  from  his  misery ;  he  would  submit  to 
banishment ;  "  the  world  was  large  enough  to  allow 
fraternal  hate  to  be  stilled  by  distance  from  place 
and  land  '."  But  there  are  dumb  memorials  of  his 
sufferings  which  speak  louder  than  words.  His 
menaces,  his  outbursts  of  frenzy,  the  repeated 
attempts  of  his  adherents  for  his  liberation,  were 
regarded  as  justifications  of  this  cruelty.  In  his 
more  tranquil  moments  he  occupied  himself  with 
reading,  music,  and  writing,  Avhen  he  was  permitted. 
He  wrote  long  treatises  in  his  own  defence  upon 
the  margin  of  books  with  coal  water  instead  of  ink. 
At  first  he  was  allowed  to  see  his  wife  and  children; 
but  in  the  last  years  of  his  confinement  he  was 
deprived  of  even  this  consolation. 

In  the  summer  of  15G9  a  conspiracy  for  his  re- 
lease was  detected.  "  On  Friday  last,  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening," — John  writes  on  the  21st 
August  to  Ciiarles — "  we  discovered  a  deep  treason 
against  ourselves,  whereby  a  company  of  king  Eric's 
faction  concerted  to  surprise  the  castle  when  we 
were  absent,  to  set  free  king  Eric  and  assist  him 
again  to  the  throne,  as  the  traitors  arrested  did 
straightway  acknowledge  without  constraint."  As 
head  of  this  conspiracy  one  Thomas  Jacobson  is 
named,  who,  with  several  of  his  accomplices  *,  of 
names  otherwise  unknown,  was  condemned  to  death. 
The  latter  appear  to  have  belonged  previously  to 
Eric's  body-guard,  which  was  not  dissolved,  because 
there  was  an  intention  of  employing  it  against  the 
enemy,  although  Charles  had  warned  John  of  the 
dangers  which  might  be  feared  therefrom.  It  con- 
sisted mostly  of  young  men,  whom  Eric  used  to  take 
from  the  schools  and  employ  in  different  affairs. 
That  they  were  not  deficient  in  ability  we  learn  from 
the  circumstance  that  duke  Charles,  a  good  judge 
of  this  quality,  took  several  of  them  into  his  service. 
Of  participating  in  the  conspiracy  Nicholas  Peter- 
son (Silversparre^)  of  Holma  in  Sniahmd,  and 
Jacob  Bagge,  a  son  of  the  famous  admiral,  were 
suspected.  They  were  incarcerated,  but  again  re- 
leased ;  both  Jacob  Bagg^  and  his  brother  John 
were  afterwards  advanced  to  important  posts. 
Peter  Lewers,  one  of  Eric's  admirals,  who  had 
likewife  shared  in  the  plot,  escaped  to  Denmark  3. 
From  some  writings  of  Eric  to  the  conspirator.s, 
who  never  disclosed  their  names  to  him,  it  appears 
that  hopes  of  Danish  assistance  had  been  held  out 
to  him,  and  in  a  minute  dated  July  11,  15()9,  he 

21,  is  proved  by  two  letters  of  the  widowed  queen  to  Catha- 
rine Stenbock,  interceding  for  his  pardon,  in  the  Registry 
for  1574.)  Another  brother,  Charles  Gustaveson,  murdered 
a  jeweller.  See  Duke  Charles'  letter  of  Dec.  24,  1596.  (The 
surname  Stenbock  is  literally  stone-buck  or  mountain-goat. 
Trans ) 

9  Nam  mundus  satis  est  amplus,  ut  odia  inter  fratres  dis- 
tantia  loeorum  et  regionum  bene  possint  sedari. 

'  Letter  from  John  to  the  lieutenant  of  the  castle  of  Stock- 
holm, Dec.  8,  1569,  not  to  postpone  the  punishment  of  the 
traitors  adjudged  to  death,  and  of  Thomas  Jacobson,  "  who 
first  engaged  in  this  treasonable  business." 

2  Lit.  silverspar  or  beam.     Trans. 

3  Svenska  Fatliuren,  v.  15. 


160 


Plots  for  his 
release. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Designs  upon 
his  life. 


[1560- 


i)HVrs  to  the  kinj;  of  Denmark  Elfsborg  and  War- 
lierg,  if  he  should  be  replaced  on  the  tlirone  before 
Michaelmas  *.     From  fear  of  his  native  supporters 
Eric  was  next  removed  to  the  castle  of  Abo,  where 
he  remained  two  year.s.    Upon  alarms  from  Russia 
he  was  carried  in   1571  to  Castleholm  in  Aland  ; 
and  afterwards  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  to 
the  castle  of  Gripsliolin,  with  the   approbation  of 
Charles,  but    under   a    condition   for  which   John 
stipulated,  that  his  own  men  should  guard  the  pri- 
soner, for  the  castle  was  situated  in  the  dukedom  of 
Charles.      On  the  7th  January,  1571,  John  writes 
to  Charles  that  many  treasonable  reports  were  cur- 
rent in  the  country,  partly  of  disunion  betwixt  the 
twain,  partly  of   Eric's  liberation,  for  which   the 
Russ  was  also  clamouring  among  other  insufferable 
demands  ;  how  would  things  go  if  internal  sedition 
should  be  combined  with  external  hostility  ?  "  There- 
fore we  beseech  the  counsel  of  your  affection,  how 
we  shall  demean  ourselves  in  the  matter  of  king 
Eric,  where  we  found  such  treason,  seeing  we  have 
sufficiently  learned  that  we  shall  never  possess  a 
tranquil  government  in  this  realm  so  long  as  he 
shall  live."      Charles  answered  that  he  had  heard 
nothing  of  such  discourses,  but  if  the  people   of 
some  provinces  were  bent  on  revolt  it  would  by 
God's  help  come  to  nothing,  provided  Gripsholra 
were  garrisoned  with  good  and  true  men,  so  that  it 
might  sustain  a  siege  of  several  months  ;  this  was 
his  brotherly  advice.      In  fact,  although  several  of 
the  council  of  state  superintended  continually  by 
turns  the  custody  of  Eric,  the  soldiers  to  whom  it 
was  entrusted  were  so  ill-treated,  even  in  matters 
of  food  and  raiment,  that  they  in  the  end  became 
nmtinous.    This  negligence,  not  less  than  the  vehe- 
mence wherewith  John  received  information  thereof, 
is  characteristic  of  him  and  his  government.     In 
one  day  (May  15)  he  writes  no  fewer  than  seven 
letters  for  keeping  a  more  vigilant  guard  upon  Eric, 
with  an  injunction  to  Eric  Gyllenstierna,  Christo- 
pher Torstenson,  Peter   Ribbing,   Eric's    keepers, 
and   to    Clas    Fleming   and    Henry    Matson,  with 
whom  their  number  was  now  augmented,  upon  the 
slightest  danger  which   might  arise,  "  to  abridge 
king  Eric's  life  in  the  manner  which  their  war- 
rant  pointed   out."     Upon  the  method   itself  we 
have  no  more  exact  information  than  is  afforded 
by  the  answer  of  the  wardens,  who  say  in  their  an- 
swer, that  they  could  not   effect  what  was  com- 
manded them,  "  because  master  Anders,  the  bar- 
ber, was  not  present;"  wherefore  John  orders  the 
barber  without  delay  to  repair  to  Gripsholm.    The 
execution  was  however  deferred,  either  because  the 
danger  was  not  so  pressing,  or  from  fear  of  Charles, 
so  long  as  the  captive  was  still  lodged  within  the 
duchy.    Doubtless  this  fear  was  one  of  the  motives 
from  which  Eric  was  removed  in  June,  1573,  from 
Gripsholm    to    the   castle   of  Westeras  *.     In   the 

"  Palmskbld  MSS. 

*  John's  order  of  August  10,  1572,  that  without  his  written 
permission,  no  one, whosoever  he  might  be,  should  be  admitted 
to  the  castle  of  Gripsholm,  is  also  plainly  directed  against 
Charles  himself.     Register. 

<•  Not  Erasmus  Nicolai,  as  Stiernman  says  in  his  Annota- 
tions to  Tegel's  Chronicle  of  Eric,  p.  303  ;  for  he  was  not 
bishop  until  after  John  Ofeg,  who  died  in  1574.  We  have 
followed  copies  of  original  documents  in  the  Palmskbld 
Collections. 

"  Peter  Berg,  its  instigator,  fled  with  his  chief  followers  to 
Denmark. 


autumn    of    1574    he   was    carried    thence   to    the 
castle  of  Orby  in  Upland. 

We  have  quoted  the  first  proof  which  the  regis- 
ters of  the  kingdom  contain  upon  the  design  of 
shortening  Eric's  life,  but  of  this  other  records  pre- 
serve later  testimonies.  Already,  after  the  dis- 
covery of  the  first  conspiracy,  the  councillors  of 
state,  with  the  exception  of  John  Axelson  Bielke, 
had  agi-eed  upon  this  step,  and  so  early  as  the  13th 
of  September,  156!),  the  old  archbishop  Laurence 
Peterson,  with  the  bishops  John  of  Westeras ''  and 
Nicholas  of  Strengness,  had  subscribed  a  special 
minute,  to  the  effect  "  that  they,  with  the  good 
lords  of  the  council  of  state  and  other  true  in- 
habitants of  the  realm  of  Sweden,  completely  free 
and  unconstrained,  had  taken  counsel  and  agreed 
that  if  any  revolt  and  disorder  should  be  begun 
and  carried  on  within  the  realm  for  king  Eric's 
sake,  then  the  life  of  the  aforesaid  king  Eric  should 
not  be  spared,  but  he  should  be  punished  according 
to  his  due  and  desert."  Here  no  secret  execution 
is  specified,  but  that  such  nevertheless  was  the  in- 
tent is  clear,  both  from  the  circumstance  that  this 
resolve  was  concealed,  and  also  from  the  words  with 
which  John  exhorts  Eric's  wardens  to  his  execu- 
tion, for  it  was  in  consequence  of  this  resolve  that 
the  warrant  referred  to  had  been  issued  to  them. 

Several  subsequent  conspiracies,  for  the  most 
part  enveloped  in  obscurity,  are  mentioned.  In 
1673,  under  pretext  of  Ei-ic's  liberation,  an  insur- 
rection broke  out  in  Smaland  ^.  The  same  year 
Charles  de  Mornay  returned  into  the  kingdom  with 
5000  Scots,  whom  he  had  had  a  commission  to  levy. 
He  is  said  to  have  intended  to  murder  John  during 
a  sword-dance,  exhibited  by  some  of  these  in  the 
castle  of  Stockholm.  One  of  the  Scots  who  de- 
nounced him,  was  himself  punished  by  death  for  a 
false  accusation.  After  the  disaster  which  befell 
the  Scots  in  Livonia,  this  charge  was  repeated  by 
several  of  them,  and  Mornay,  who  at  first  sought 
and  received  the  protection  of  duke  Charles,  was  at 
length  delivered  up,  with  an  acknowledgment  that 
he  had  offered  the  crown  to  the  duke.  In  a  Latin 
letter  to  John,  Mornay  confesses  his  ofTence  in 
general  terms,  and  solicits  pardon.  He  was  ad- 
judged to  death,  Augvist  21,  1574,  and  executed. 
Next  year  a  like  fate  overtook  Gilbert  Balfour, 
accused  as  his  accomplice.  Shortly  after,  when 
Eric  had  been  brought  to  Orby,  a  design  was  dis- 
covered among  tlie  peasants  in  the  neighbourhood 
to  set  him  at  liberty  '.  The  resolution  to  put  him 
to  death  was  uoav  renewed.  "  The  unanimous 
deliberation  and  decision  of  the  council  of  state," 
is  dated  the  10th  of  March,  1575.  In  this  public 
letter  so  called,  although  kept  secret,  it  is  declared 
that  in  case  he  could  not  be  kept  in  prison,  where 
he  continued  to  behave  like  a  mischievous  and  rude 
man,  he  should  be  taken  off  by  one  of  the  methods 
which  might  be  employed  thereto,  seeing  that  such 

8  Letter  of  John  to  Jacob  Bagge  of  Nov.  18,  that  some 
traitors  had  drawn  together  round  Upsala  and  Orby,  in  order 
to  free  Eric.  Nov.  23,  to  Peter  Larson,  bailitf  of  the  castle 
of  Upsala,  to  send  to  the  king  one  named  Charles  Marcusson 
of  Satuna  in  the  parish  of  Waxala,  with  others  of  his  com- 
plices. Jan.  3,  1575,  to  Eric's  keepers,  that  the  traitors  had 
confessed  they  had  been  in  the  mind  to  invite  the  former  to 
a  revel,  in  order  thereat  to  slay  them  and  release  king  Eric, 
or  to  make  use  of  the  occasion  of  the  delivery  of  the  corn- 
rent  at  Orby,  to  possess  themselves  of  the  castle.  Register 
for  1574  and  1575. 


1569.] 


His  death  by 
poison. 


ERIC  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. 


His  widow  and 
children. 


h;i 


might  be  done  by  laws  divine  and  luiman  ;  in  that 
his  life  had  been  so  long  spared  on  account  of 
his  rank,  it  was  to  be  feared  they  had  acted  more 
against  than  according  to  God's  good  pleasure  ; 
also  it  were  better  and  more  Christianlike,  that 
one  should  suffer  than  that  many  should  come  to 
perdition. — Compare  the  spiritual  unction  of  these 
words  with  their  purport  !  —  The  document  is 
signed  and  sealed  by  Peter  Brahe,  Thure'  Bielke', 
Nils  Gyllenstierna,  George  Gere',  Eric  Gustaveson 
(Stenbock),  Hogenskild  Bielke',  Eric  Gyllenstierna, 
Gustave  Baner,  with  Laurentius  Petri  Gothus 
(the  new  archbishop),  Martin,  bishop  of  Linkijping, 
James  of  Skara,  Nicholas  of  Strengness,  Erasmus 
of  Westeras,  Olave  Peterson  ",  pastor  of  Stockhcjlm, 
Swell  Bennetson,  provost  of  the  chapter  of  Skara, 
Reynold  Ragwaldson,  pastor  of  Strengness  '.  John 
Axelson  Bielke  now  also  intimated  his  assent  by  a 
separate  opinion.  The  accomplishment  of  the  re- 
solve was  delayed  for  two  years  more,  perhaps  by 
the  repugnance  of  the  barons  to  whom  Eric's  cus- 
tody was  confided.  For  Maurice  Goranson  of 
Diula,  one  of  the  number,  was  in  the  ensuing  year 
fruitlessly  reminded,  as  well  of  the  written  warrant 
as  of  the  "  oral  "  directions  which  he  had  received*. 
Ultimately  John's  own  servants  were  obliged  to 
perpetrate  the  murder,  and  the  purport  of  the  often- 
cited  warrant  is  repeated  in  the  king's  own  letter  of 
January  19,  1577)  to  his  comptroller,  Eric  Ander- 
son of  Biurum,  then  governor  of  Orby.  With  the 
assent  of  the  council,  he  there  declares,  it  had  been 
determined  that  if  any  danger  were  impending,  "  a 
draught  of  opium  or  mercury  should  be  given  to 
king  Eric,  so  strong  that  he  could  not  live  more 
than  a  few  hours.  And  in  case  he  refuse  in  any 
wise  to  take  such  draught,  then  shall  the  persons 
thereto  commissioned  by  us  place  him  on  a  chair, 
and  open  the  veins  both  of  his  hands  and  feet,  so  that 
the  blood  may  run  from  him,  till  he  die.  If  he  will 
not  permit  such  opening  of  his  veins,  then  shall  they 
either  hold  him  by  force,  or  bind  him  with  towels  until 
it  is  over  ;  or  lay  him  upon  his  bed  by  violence,  and 
strangle  him  with  bolsters  or  great  cushions,  yet  so 
that  he  shall  first  have  a  priest  and  the  blessed  sa- 
crament."   It  is  not  known  that  any  particular  dan- 

»  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  reformer  of  the  same 
name,  who  died  April  19,  1552. 

'  The  document  is  printed  in  Stiernman's  Resolutions  of 
the  Diets  ;  the  original,  with  the  autograph  signatures,  is  in 
the  State  Archives.  (Deliberations  in  king  John's  time,  from 
1560  to  1591.)  Of  the  subscriptions  of  the  clergymen  one  is 
wanting,  which  was  never  added ;  in  its  place  is  only  the  impres- 
sion of  the  seal  with  the  letters  N.  K.,  and  under  them  a  heart. 

2  Letter  of  John,  Aug.  27.     Reg.  for  1576. 

3  Cum  ferali  Johannes  Secretarius  ferciilo,  quod  Philippus 
Chernius,  regis  chirurgus.miscuisset,  ad  Qirbyensem  missus 
arcem  Domini  mandate  piocuravit,  ut  Ericus  Christiane  mo- 
riturus  22  Februarii  die,  qui  et  Dorainicus  fuit,  sacram,  ira- 
petrata  peccatorum  absolutione.  accederet  synaxin.  Sequens 
deinde  biduum  citra  vitas  periculum  merito  transegit,  et 
postea  funestus  illuxit  dies  25  Februarii,  quo  toxicum 
ignarus  in  pisonuni,  ut  fertur,  jusculo  prEebitum  absorpsit, 
indeque  miseram  efflavit  animam.  Messeniiis,  Scondia,  vii. 
48.  Philip  Kern  was  afterwards  commander  of  the  castle  of 
Upsala,  where  he  practised  great  cruelties  with  impunity. 
Of  his  own  authority  he  threw  into  prison  the  son  of  the  old 
archbishop,  Laurence  Peterson,  "for  nothing  else  than  that 
he  had  taken  his  sisters  to  himself,  and  wished  to  tend  their 
heritage  and  his  own,"  so  that  Duke  Charles  was  obliged  to 
liberate  the  prisoner.  He  arrested  the  peasants  of  duke 
Charles,  and  broke  open  his  barns.  See  the  letters  to  Philip 
Kern,  of  April  1,   1587,  Feb.  2  and  April  2,   1589,   in  the 


ger  was  apprehended  upon  this  occasion  ;  the  warrant 
consequently  was  followed  by  fresh  orders.  Their 
performance  was  entrusted  to  John  Henryson,  the 
king's  clerk,  who  brought  with  him  a  poison  pre- 
pared by  one  of  the  royal  chamberlains  and  Philip 
Kern,  a  surgeon  of  the  army  '.  Eric  received  it 
mixed  with  pea-soup,  and  died  of  it  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  night  of  the  26th  Feb.  1577,  in  the  forty-fourth 
year  of  his  age  and  the  ninth  of  his  incarceration. 

At  Westeras  in  1574  he  for  the  last  time  saw  his 
wife  and  children,  for  whom  he  had  invariably  ex- 
pressed the  greatest  tenderness.  His  ardent  love 
for  Catharine  Magnus'  daughter,  the  people  could 
not  explain  without  witchcraft,  and  Catharine  her- 
self accuses  George  Person's  wife  as  a  spreader  of 
this  rumour  *.  This  love,  which  raised  the  serving 
wench  to  the  throne,  remained  in  misfortune  and 
imprisonment  the  same,  as  lively  and  jealous  as 
at  the  first;  and  although  not  seldom  received  with 
reproaches,  quarrels,  and  railing  ^,  it  inspired  Eric 
with  the  tenderest  letters.  After  his  death  his 
widow  besought  John's  favour  for  herself  and  her 
children.  "  We  have  i-eceived  your  memorial,  lady 
Karin," — ran  his  answer  of  August  29,  1577, — 
"  wherein  you  submissively  request  that  we  will 
receive  you  and  those  who  belong  to  you  into  our 
kingly  shelter  and  protection,  as  also  that  we  will 
guard  your  son's  welfare,  for  whom  you  have  asked 
that  he  may  be  sent  out  of  the  kingdom. — We  have 
furnished  you  with  lands  and  houses,  which  we  will 
better  upon  occasion  if  you  will  conduct  yourself  as 
is  due  towards  us  and  our  dear  housewife,  and  the 
heirs  of  our  body.  For  what  you  write  regarding 
your  children,  we  will  so  order  it  that  they  shall 
suffer  no  want  wheresoever  they  may  be,  within  or 
without  the  realm ''." 

Of  these  children  two  still  Hved  ;  the  daughter 
Sigrid,  born,  according  to  Eric's  own  note ',  at 
Swartsioe,  October  15,  1566,  and  the  son  Gustave, 
born  at  Stockholm,  February  28,  1568,  both  before 
marriage  ;  on  which  account,  when  the  nuptial  bene- 
diction was  pronounced  over  their  parents  in  the 
high  church  of  Stockholm,  they  were  held  by  two 
councillors  of  state  at  the  side  of  king  Eric.  The 
daughter  was  by  her  first  marriage  *  ancestress  of 

Registers  of  Duke  Charles  for  this  year.  Several  of  John's 
letters  contain  directions  respecting  Eric's  secure  custody  at 
Orby  ;  for  gratings  bcfor';  the  windows,  the  erection  of  a  high 
paling  on  the  outside  round  the  wall  of  the  castle  court,  and 
of  breast-works,  the  mounting  of  cannon,  &c.  The  two 
prison-chambers  receive  a  scanty  light  through  small  win- 
dows in  walls  eight  feet  thick.  In  the  interior,  where  Eric's 
murder  was  done,  we  see  upon  a  marble  table  an  inscription 
ending  with  these  words,  "  Propter  facinora  rege  indigna 
indigne  sublatus  est  consuitu  clandestino  senatus  et  episco- 
porura  Suetise." 

*  This  was  before  the  council,  when  George  Person,  in  Oct. 
1567,  was  adjudged  to  death  the  frst  time  ;  and  according  to 
Messenius  (Scondia,  vi.  46),  his  wife  also  was  then  condemned 
on  this  charge. 

5  What  jEgidius  Girs  relates  hereupon,  in  his  Chronicle 
of  king  Eric  XIV.,  is  supported  by  the  king's  journal. 

s  Reg.  for  1577. 

7  The  statement  in  Rosenhane's  Catalogue  of  the  kings  of 
Sweden,  p.  52,  may  be  corrected  after  this.  The  sons,  Henry 
and  Arnold,  died  early.  By  a  damsel  named  Agda,  Peter's 
daughter  (afterwards  married  to  Joachim  Fleming),  the  king 
had  three  daughters  before.  By  one  of  his  first  letters  asking 
he  grants  to  Agda  a  manor  during  her  lifetime,  "for  the  sup- 
port of  our  children."     Register  for  1560. 

8  With  Henry  Classon  Tott.  The  family  became  extinct 
with  the  grandchild  Clas  Akeson  Tott  in  1674. 

M 


1G2 


Fortunes  of  his 

sou  Gusita\Tis 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES, 


in  Poland  and 
Russia. 


the  family  of  the  counts  Tott,  which  queen  Cliris- 
tina  wished  to  elevate  to  the  dueal  rank.  Of  the 
son  a  manuscript  account  relates,  that  while  yet 
not  a  year  old,  immediately  after  Eric's  imprison- 
ment, he  was  inclosed  by  John's  command  in  a 
sack,  and  delivered  to  one  of  his  servants  to  be 
drowned  ;  but  that  Eric  Sparre',  afterwards  chan- 
cellor, saved  him,  and  had  him  conveyed  to  Olmutz. 
Various  points  of  this  narrative,  it  is  demonstrable, 
are  at  variance  with  truth.  The  young  Gustave 
Ericson  was  still,  in  1574,  at  Gripsholra^.  Not 
until  after  this  time,  therefore,  and  when  in  his 
seventh  year,  could  he  have  been  the  object  of  such 
an  attempt  at  murder.  In  Olmutz  and  Prague  he 
spent  several  years,  not  of  his  childhood  but  of  his 
youth,  under  the  emperor  Rudolph's  protection. 
Messenius,  who  mentions  nothing  of  the  attempted 
murder,  asserts  that  he  was  sent  out  of  the  country 
to  Prussia,  and  went  to  school,  first  with  the  Jesuits 
of  Braunsberg  and  Thoi-n,  afterwards  in  Wihia,  in 
so  great  poverty  that  he  used  to  earn  his  sustenance 
in  the  evenhig  by  brushing  the  shoes  of  the  travel- 
lers in  the  inns  and  tending  their  horses.  It  is 
added,  that  he  was  present  in  beggar's  clothes  at 
Sigismund's  entry  into  Cracow  in  1587,  saw  his 
sister  Sigrid  in  the  court-train  of  the  princess  Anna, 
and  discovered  himself  to  her.  At  this  time  he  re- 
fused an  ecclesiastical  office  proffered  to  him  by 
Sigismund,  and  repaired  to  the  emperor  Rudolph, 
under  whose  protection  he  studied  zealously,  espe- 
cially alchymy.  Spies  from  Sweden  surrounded 
him,  who  carried  his  contemptuous  expressions  re- 
garding John  to  the  king's  knowledge.  Hence  the 
latter  wrote  to  his  son  Sigismund,  that  it  would  be 
most  expedient  so  to  arrange  that  "  the  bird's  fea- 
thers might  not  be  too  long ;"  he  should  be  arrested 
and  placed  in  confinement;  especially  as  the  discon- 
tented lords  in  Sweden  sought  intercourse  with 
him,  as  a  servant  of  lord  John  Sparr^  had  admit- 
ted^. It  is  certain  that  in  1583  Swedish  fugitives 
solicited  from  king  Heui-y  III.  of  France  assistance 
to  avenge  Eric's  murder,  and  set  on  the  throne  his 
rightfal  heir,  who  in  return  should  acknowledge  the 
sui>eriority  of  France.  This  proposal  ^,  made  pro- 
bably by  foreigners  formerly  in  the  service  of  Eric, 
had  no  results,  but  its  authors  declared  themselves 
to  be,  and  were  in  fact  (as  is  plain  from  the  loans 
they  made  to  several  French  lords,  which  led  in 
the  sequel  to  lavr-suits)  in  possession  of  sums  as 
large  as  if  they  had  really  in  their  hands  king 
Eric's  secret  treasure,  whose  discovery  John  wished 
to  purchase  from   Catharine  Magnus'  daughter^. 

"  According  to  Eric's  letter  to  Catharine  Magnus'  daughter, 
Jan.  U,  1574.     PalmsUbld  Collections. 

'  Messenius,  Scondia,  vii.  10. 

*  Remonstrances  et  ofFres  des  conjurez  et  releguez  du 
royaume  de  Su^de  au  roy  Henry  III.  pour  avoir  justice  de 
I'assassinat  commis  en  la  personne  d'  Erric  roy  de  Suede.  Ex 
codice  manuscr.  Biblioth.  Reg.  Paris,  No.  340,  fol.  121. 
Copied  in  the  Palmskold  Collections,  and  printed  in  the 
Nova  Acta  Reg.  Soc.  Scient.  Upsal.  v.  23. 

3  When  Catharine  requested  the  life-tenure  of  Liuxala 
manor  in  Finland,  where  she  afterwards  lived  unmolested 
and  respected  till  1612,  John  replied  that  lie  could  give  her 


This  son  never  permitted  himself  to  be  employed 
as  the  tool  of  foreigners  against  his  country,  which 
he  never  revisited.  From  Prague  he  took  his  way 
to  the  Netherlands,  but  turned  back  at  Cologne  on 
the  news  of  Alexander  Fariiese's  death,  came  to 
Vienna,  wished  to  take  service  again.st  the  Turks, 
for  which  the  emperor  denied  him  permission,  and 
resided  for  some  time  with  a  Silesian  abbot,  of 
whose  tender  care  during  a  malady  which  seized 
him  he  ever  afterwards  spoke  with  the  greatest 
thankfulness.  Intending  thereafter  to  seek  his 
mother  in  Finland,  he  was  prevented  by  a  prohi- 
bition from  the  government,  but  obtained  leave  to 
hold  an  interview  with  her  at  Reval,  where  he  saw 
her  for  the  last  time.  About  this  period  his  poverty 
was  alleviated  by  the  revenues  of  a  Polish  abbey, 
which  Sigismund  conferred  on  him,  and  he  spent 
two  years  in  Thorn.  Being  invited  thence  to 
Russia,  and  received  in  a  splendid  fashion,  he  de- 
clined to  become  the  son-in-law  of  the  Czar  Boris 
Godunow  at  the  price  of  changing  his  religion.  "  In- 
stead of  this,"says  a  Swedish  chronicle, "  he  watched 
through  whole  nights  in  studying  bookish  arts  and 
alchymy,  whereby  his  head  was  much  weakened,  so 
that  sometimes  when  he  wished  to  strengthen  him- 
self by  a  good  draught,  he  spoke  roundly  out  that 
which  lay  at  his  heart*."  He  was  soon  found  to  be 
unserviceable  for  the  political  projects  of  the  Czar. 
To  abundance  and  grace  now  succeeded  supervision 
and  banishment.  Prince  Gustave  Ericson  died  in 
1G07  iu  the  little  town  of  Kaschin.  Afterwards 
during  his  Russian  campaign,  Jacob  de  la  Gardie 
saw  his  lonely  grave  in  a  grove  of  birches  on  the 
banks  of  the  Kaschenka. 

We  cast  one  more  glance  backwards  on  the  death 
of  the  imhappy  Eric.  John  wrote  to  Charles,  that 
this  had  occurred  after  a  short  illness,  of  which  the 
king  had  not  been  informed  till  too  late.  Charles 
intimated  plainly  enough  his  opinion  on  the  real 
circumstances,  and  expressed  great  disgust  at  the 
manner  of  Eric's  interment,  wishing  that  it  should 
be  performed  anew.  "  He  was  still,''  were  his  words, 
"  an  anointed  and  crowned  king  of  Sweden,  who 
with  the  evil  (God  pardon  it  him  1)  into  which 
he  fell,  did  also  many  good  and  manly  actions 
during  his  government  ^." 

Eric's  body  was  deposited  in  an  unostentatious 
grave  in  the  cathedral  of  Westeras.  The  Latin  in- 
scription was  taken  from  the  second  chapter  of  the 
First  Book  of  Kings  : — "  The  kingdom  is  turned 
about,  and  is  become  my  brother's,  for  it  was  his 
from  the  Lord  ^." 

no  decisive  answer  thereupon  ;  "  but  if  you  will  point  out 
tlie  treasure  which  our  deceased  brother  king  Eric,  before  he 
quitted  the  government,  caused  to  be  buried,  then  will  we 
concede  to  your  children  some  estates  for  an  inheritance." 
Reg.  for  1578. 

*  Petri  Petreji  Muscovitiske  Krbnika.  Stockholm,  1615, 
p.  121. 

5  Letter  to  John,  April  1,  1577. 

6  King  Gustavus  III.  caused  the  crown  and  sceptre  to  be 
taken  from  the  tomb  of  John  III.  in  the  cathedral  of  Upsala, 
and  therewith  adorned  the  monument  which  he  erected  to 
Eric  in  that  of  Westeras. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


1G3 


CHAPTER  XII. 

JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


JOHN  ACKNOWLEDGED  KING.  HIS  CHARTER  OF  PRIVILEGES  TO  THE  NOBILITV.  CESSATION  OF  THE  WAR 
WITH  DENMARK.  WAR  WITH  THE  RUSSIANS  IN  LIEFLAND  AND  FINLAND.  THE  CROWN-PRINCE  SIGISMUND 
ELECTED  KING  OF  POLAND.  DESIGN  OF  JOHN  FOR  THE  RESTORATION  OF  POPERY.  HIS  ECCLESIASTICAL 
MEASURES.  EMBASSY  TO  ROME.  INTRIGUES  OF  THE  JESUITS  IN  SWEDEN.  DISAGREEMENTS  OF  THE  KING 
AND  DUKE  CHARLES.  S.TATUTES  OF  CALMAR.  CONTRAST  BETWEEN  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  KING  AND 
THE   DUKE.      CONFERENCE   OF    JOHN    AND    HIS   SON    SIGISMUND    IN    REVAL.      HIS    DEATH. 

A.  D.  1569—1592. 


The  two  princes  had  laboured  conjointly  to  over- 
tlirow  their  brother  ;  and  during  the  revolt  they 
required  homage  to  be  paid  to  themselves  con- 
jointly '.  Hence  it  is  credible  that,  as  is  expressly 
related  of  them,  they  had  concerted  a  common 
government.  Meanwhile  John,  upon  his  arrival  in 
Stockholm,  was  received  by  the  council  as  king, 
and  wrote  to  his  sisters  "  that  "  he  had  now  come 
into  the  government  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden." 
The  estates  assembled  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
15(J9,  and  confirmed  the  choice  of  the  council. 
Charles  did  not  conceal  his  dissatisfaction,  and  a 
renouncement  of  his  claims  vi'as  considered  on  this 
occasion  necessary.  On  the  24th  January  the  noble 
and  well-born  lords  of  tl.c  council  of  state  demanded 
of'duke  Charles  whether  he  would  consent  to  lodge 
the  hereditary  right  to  the  crown  in  the  son  of  his 
majesty,  duke  Sigismund,  whereto  his  princely  grace 
completely  agreed.  That  very  day  all  the  estates 
acknowledged  John,  "  to  whom  they  had  formerly 
done  homage,  and  whom  tliey  had  elected  to  be 
now,  according  to  the  next  succession,  their  rightful 
king  9." 

Thus  the  name  of  king  remained  undivided  ;  not 
so  the  power.  As  well  by  his  position  as  his  quali- 
ties, Charles  (in  these  his  father's  sole  heir)  hence- 
forward in  fact  governed  not  only  his  duchy,  but 
also  in  great  part  the  kingdom.  Such  is  the  im- 
pression which'  the  public  records  leave  upon  every 
man  who  has  himself  consulted  their  contents.  His 
counsels, requested  or  not,  (he  begs"  that  John  will, 
out  of  fraternal  love,  take  them  in  good  part,")  per- 
vade them  all.  Even  his  disputes  with  the  king 
made  him  only  more  powerful ;  and  he  who  follows 
this  influence,  naturally  during  so  many  jears  aug- 
menting, wonders  at  last  less  to  see  Charles  upon 
the  Swedish  throne,  than  that  a  throne  could  have 
been  maintained  near  him. 

John's  first  care  was  to  link  to  himself  the 
families  whom  he  had  to  thank  for  his  crown.  The 
judgment  against  the  Swedish  lords  put  to  death  in 
Eric's  time  was  reversed.  As  among  these  Steno 
Ericson  Leyonhufvud,  at  the  arrest  of  Eric,  had 
been  the  last  victim,  the  king  raised  the  widow  and 
children  of  his  maternal  uncle  to  the  rank  of 
counts.  The  counties  of  the  houses  of  Sture  and 
Brahe  were  confirmed  and  augmented.  To  the 
families  (Stenbock,  Oxenstierna,  Fleming,  Horn, 
and  others)  who  had  already  received  the  dignity 
of  counts  from  king  Eric,  were  now  added  those 

"  In  John's  own  letters  to  Charles  at  this  time,  it  is  said 
of  all  the  places  which  had  come  over,  "  they  have  done 
homage  to  your  atfeetion,  to  us,  and  to  the  crown  of  Sweden." 

8  Catharine  and  Cecilia,  October  5,  1568. 


of  Gyllenstierna,  Bielke,  de  la  Gardie.  The  office 
of  high-steward  was  revived  and  confided  to  count 
Peter  Brahe.  The  councillors  of  state,  who  were 
mostly  related  to  one  another  and  to  the  king,  were 
increased  to  four-and-twenty. 

The  council,  in  their  assurance  of  fidelity,  refer 
to  the  king's  promise  to  grant  to  the  nobility  "  such 
privileges,"  they  say,  "  as  we  have  long  wished  for 
and  solicited."  In  consequence  was  issued,  two 
days  before  the  coronation,  on  the  8th  of  July, 
1569,  king  John's  charter  of  nobility,  which,  by  the 
confirmation  of  old  and  the  bestowal  of  new  rights, 
makes  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Swedish 
nobility. 

Among  those  anciently  possessed  stands  foremost 
the  right  of  the  nobility  to  levy  the  king's  fines 
from  the  peasants  on  their  estates.  In  the  language 
of  the  period  of  the  union  this  is  called,  to  be  king 
over  one's  own  tenantry.  In  the  confirmation  by 
king  Gustavus  of  the  privileges  of  the  councillors 
and  nobles  of  1626,  the  council  receive  "  all  and 
every  the  king's  rents  and  fines  from  their  peasants 
to  the  full  amount,  as  had  been  anciently  granted 
to  them  by  former  kings."  To  the  rest  of  the  no- 
bility the  same  assurance  is  given  ;  yet  in  general 
not  without  an  addition  of  "  after  the  king's  plea- 
sure," and  excepting  those  fines  which  according 
to  the  law  fall  to  the  king  alone.  This  is  all  that 
is  embraced  in  the  privileges  granted  to  the  nobles 
by  Gustavus  I.  The  right  thus  appears  to  have 
been  regarded  as  one  of  the  highest  importance, 
yet  the  enjoyment  of  it  was  hardly  general,  and  we 
have  seen  that  the  king  reserved  to  himself  the 
right  of  taking  it  away  upon  trial.  The  high 
amount  of  the  old  fines,  according  to  the  value  of 
money  in  those  times,  made  them,  especially  in 
cases  which  concerned  life  and  limb,  yield  a  con- 
siderable income.  In  default  of  money,  pieces  of 
ground  were  not  seldom  given  as  fines.  We  know 
how  greedy  of  acquisition  Gustavus  was  ;  it  formed 
part  of  his  scheme  of  policy  to  become  the  largest 
landed  proprietor  in  Sweden,  and  we  may  assume 
it  as  certain  that  he  let  slip  none  of  the  revenues  of 
the  crown  of  any  importance.  .John  even  once 
declared  that  in  his  father's  time  the  nobility  did 
not  receive  the  fines  accruing  within  their  fiefs, 
which,  as  he  says,  amounted  well-nigh  to  a  higher 
sum  than  the  taxes  themselves  i.  Eric,  in  the  out- 
set of  his  reign,  did  much  for  the  nobility.     The 

3  Register  for  1569.  In  the  February  of  this  year  John 
still  entitled  himself  king  elect,  in  a  letter  to  Elizabeth  of 
Euiland.     He  afterwards  laid  aside  this  style. 

'  King  John's  reply  to  the  Council.      Werwing,  History 
of  king  Sigismund  and  king  Charles  IX.     Appendix  ii.  53. 
m2 


164 


John's  patent  grant  to 
tlie  nobility. 


HISTOIIY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Congress  of  Stettin, 
and  peace. 


[1569— 


right  of  again  resuming  the  estates  arbitrarily 
usurped  by  that  king's  iatiier,  the  reduction  by  one- 
half  of  the  requirements  of  the  horse-service 
tenure,  the  first  hereditary  fiefs  in  counties  and 
free  baronies,  and  the  exemption  from  public 
burdens  of  the  seats  of  the  gentry  (sUteri-frihiteii), 
were  advantages  for  which  they  had  to  thank  this 
king.  Subsequently  lie  is  styled  "  a  peasant-king," 
"  a  right  foe  to  gentry,"  during  whose  time  Swe- 
den's nobles  were  "  so  contemned  and  oppressed, 
that  he  had  left  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  no  noble 
jurisdiction  or  lordship." 

By  king  John's  charter  of  privileges,  counts,  free 
barons,  knights,  and  councillors  of  state  are  to  re- 
ceive all  crown  fines  payable  by  their  peasants,  with 
the  exception  of  those  for  treasonous  offences  and 
grave  crimes;  yet  even  in  such  matters,  when  the 
king's  grace  commutes  the  capital  punishment  for  a 
mulct,  it  may  accrue  to  the  noble  proprietor.  Other 
classes  of  gentry  again  obtain  the  right  of  levying 
from  their  dependents  the  legal  portion  of  the  judge 
of  the  hundred.  Yet  we  find  by  the  king's  prohi- 
bition of  the  year  1578,  that  he  had  reserved  to  him- 
self the  share  of  the  crown,  as  we  learn  from  the 
same  source  that  the  nobles  also  took  fines  in  capital 
cases  without  the  royal  permission.  Such  abuses 
were  the  more  hard  of  prevention,  as  the  same 
charter  engages  "  that  henceforth  none  but  nobles 
shall  be  appointed  to  the  hundred  courts  or  other 
judicial  offices."  Certain  judicial  districts  only  in 
various  provinces,  and  all  in  Norrland,  "  because  in 
this  territory  there  are  no  nobles,"  tlie  king  re- 
serves to  himself  the  right  of  filling  with  persons  of 
tlie  class  of  yeomanry.  The  counts  are  to  have  the 
right  of  appointing  themselves  the  judges  of  the 
hundred  within  their  domains.  The  supreme  court 
erected  by  king  Eric  is  abolished.  In  cases  which 
affect  life  and  honour  a  nobleman  is  to  be  tried  by 
his  peers  only  ;  nor  is  he  to  be  placed  in  rigorous 
incarceration  like  other  malefactors,  without  judi- 
cial conviction.  The  nobles  shall  have  free  traffic 
with  the  produce  of  their  estates  and  fiefs;  their 
tenants  are  exempted  from  all  post-service  except 
in  the  king's  affairs,  from  all  day-works  on  the 
royal  estates,  from  liability  to  military  service  with- 
in one  mile  (the  so-called  free  mile)  of  the  manor 
houses,  and  share  the  public  burdens  only  to  one 
half  the  proportion  of  the  taxed  peasants.  Tlie 
obligations  of  the  horse-service  were  yet  further 
reduced  ;  the  horseman  need  not  maintain  himself 
longer  than  four  months  within  the  kingdom,  and 
fourteen  days  beyond  the  frontiers.  The  annexed 
regulation,  that  the  nobleman  who  was  himself  un- 
able to  keep  horse  and  man  completely  should  trans- 
fer his  estates  to  his  next  relatives,  but  might 
nevertheless  bear  shield  and  arms,  is  the  first 
express  recognition  at  once  of  non-i)roprietary 
nobles  in  Sweden,  and  also  of  the  hereditableness 
of  nobility  without  knight-service  ^.  This  charter 
of  the  Swedish  nobility,  king  John  says  that  he 
granted  "especially  on  the  ground,  that  they  had 
wellwilly  agreed  that  Sweden  should  be  and  remain, 
as  it  now  is,  a  hereditary  monarchy  '■'." 

In  the  assurance  of  fidelity  given  by  the  clergy, 
it  is  stated  that  the  king  had  promised  to  them 
better  liberties  and  privileges  than  they  could  have 

2  This  in  fact  subsisted  previously.  For  when  a  poor  gen- 
tleman served  one  of  the  councillors  or  knights,  "he  was 
spared  the  burden  of  horse-service,"  says  count  Brahe  in  his 
household-book,  written  in  1585 


requested  or  wished  for.  As  yet  the  whole  mean- 
ing of  this  ready  compliance  was  not  perceived. 
King  John  used  to  say  :  "  When  it  goes  well  with 
the  clergy,  it  goes  well  with  us  and  our  subjects  *." 

On  their  revolt  against  Eric  the  dukes  had  opened 
negotiations  with  Denmark.  The  Swedish  envoys, 
George  Ericson  Gyllenstierna  and  Thure  Peterson 
Bielke,  first  concluded  a  truce  for  six  months,  and 
thereafter  at  Roskild  agreed  to  conditions  of  peace, 
by  which  they  consented  to  renounce  all  old  claims 
on  Danish  and  Norwegian  provinces,  to  cede  the 
Swedish  possessions  in  Livonia,  to  restore  all  cap- 
tured vessels,  and  to  refund  the  expenses  of  the 
war.  When  king  John  at  the  diet  of  1569  de- 
manded of  the  estates  whether  they  would  concede 
such  terms  to  the  king  of  Denmark,  "they  answered 
in  the  whole  shortly.  No  ;  but  they  would  give  him 
powder,  balls,  and  pikes  ^."  A  new  congress  be- 
tween Danish  and  Swedish  plenipotentiaries  passed 
off  fruitlessly.  The  war  was  again  enkindled.  The 
Danish  fleet  bombarded  Reval ;  Warberg  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Danes;  duke  Charles  ravaged 
Scania  ;  and  reciprocal  invasions  of  West-Gothland 
and  Norway  were  made.  A  congress  of  pacification 
was  opened  at  Stettin  on  the  Is^t  July,  1570,  under 
the  mediation  of  the  emperor,  the  king  of  France, 
and  the  elector  of  Saxony.  After  negotiations  of 
nearly  six  months  the  peace  of  Stettin  was  signed, 
by  which  Sweden  redeemed  Elfsborg  for  150,000 
rix-dollars,  restored  eight  Danish  ships  of  war, 
desisted  from  all  claims  on  Gottland,  Jemteland, 
and  Herjedale,  and  left  the  dispute  regarding  the 
three  crowns  undetermined.  The  Swedish  posses- 
sions in  Livonia  were  to  be  purchased  by  the  em- 
peror, and  placed  under  the  feudal  superiority  of 
Denmark.  Lubeck  became  a  party  to  this  treaty 
of  peace,  and  obtained  free  navigation  to  Narva. 
Yet  the  prohibition  to  export  military  stores  to  the 
Russians  occasioned  new  differences.  The  750,000 
rix-dollars,  for  which  the  Lubeckers  had  stipulated 
as  a  compensation  of  all  demands  on  Sweden  were 
never  paid.  Nor  were  the  conditions  relative  to 
Livonia  more  punctually  fulfilled. 

The  war  which  threatened  fr<im  Russia  induced 
John  to  submit  to  the  peace  of  Stettin.  On  the  ac- 
cession of  the  new  king  Russian  envoys  were  pre- 
sent at  Stockholm.  Their  commission  to  obtain  the 
delivery  to  the  Czar  of  Catharine,  the  wife  of  John, 
had  made  them  objects  of  such  abhorrence,  that  on 
the  taking  of  Stockholm  they  had  well-nigh  fallen 
victims  to  popular  fury,  but  were  saved  by  duke 
Charles,  who  defended  them  with  his  own  hand. 
They  had  i-esided  two  years  in  Sweden  before  their 
return  in  15()9.  A  Swedish  embassy  followed  them 
to  Russia  under  assurance  of  safe-conduct.  The 
envoys  were,  notwithstanding,  barbarously  treated, 
detained  in  a  long  and  tedious  captivity,  and  came 
back  in  1572  with  the  answer,  that  the  Czar  de- 
manded Livonia.  There  the  war  with  the  Russians 
had  already  begun.  The  Diinish  prince  Magnus, 
who  possessed  a  portion  of  the  country,  put  liimscll 
under  Russian  protection,  married  the  Czar's  niece, 
and  was  declared  by  him  king  of  Liflaud.  Russian 
negotiations  and  armies  supported  his  pretensions. 

5  The  same  words  are  repeated  in  the  confirmation  of  the 
new  titles  of  count. 

■•  Sylvester  Phrygius,  Oratio  de  vita  Reg.  Johan.  HI. 

*  Account  of  the  discourse  of  king  John  and  the  council 
with  the  estates  in  156!).  Appendix  to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle 
of  Charles  IX. 


1592.] 


Successes  over  the 
Russians. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Sigismund  elected  king 
of  Poland. 


1C5 


Tlie  Swedes  indeed  succoedod  in  maintaining  their 
principal  garrison  of  Reval,  as  well  against  attempts 
by  treachery  as  open  assault,  and  more  than  once  the 
town  bade  defiance  to  the  wliole  Russian  power; 
but  in  1576  it  was  the  only  place  still  left  to  them 
in  the  country,  whilst  the  Russians  overspread  Fin- 
land, devastated  Livonia  up  to  Riga,  and  perpe- 
trated the  most  appalling  cruelties  under  the  eye  of 
the  inhuman  Ivan.  Mutiny  and  quarrels  among 
the  Scots  and  Germans  in  the  Swedish  service 
(alternately  they  attacked  one  another,  and  fifteen 
hundred  Scots  were  cut  down)  facilitated  the  suc- 
cess of  the  savage  foe;  until  war  breaking  out  afresh 
between  Russia  and  the  Poles  with  the  Crini  Tar- 
tars, who  both  sought  alliances  with  Sweden,  toge- 
ther with  the  military  success  of  Pontus  de  la 
Gardie,  changed  the  whole  face  of  affairs.  This 
officer,  a  French  nobleman,  who  was  at  first  in 
Eric's  service,  and  afterwards  contributed  to  his 
overthrow,  was  often  employed  by  Jolm  in  war  and 
negotiation.  He  was  i-aised  to  the  rank  of  free 
baron,  married  to  the  king's  natural  daughter,  So- 
phia Gyllenhielm,  and  in  1580  named  for  the  second 
time  general  against  the  Russians.  Supported  by 
Henry  Classon  Horn  and  his  son  Charle.s,  who 
earlier  in  the  Livonian  war  had  gained  themselves 
an  honourable  name,  he  not  only  won  back  all  that 
Sweden  had  lost  in  Lifiand,  but  even  carried  his 
victorious  arms  across  the  Russian  frontier.  Narva 
was  taken  by  storm  ;  Ingermanland  with  its  for- 
tresses, Kexholm  with  its  government  were  re- 
duced. To  the  honour  of  John  be  it  said,  that  he 
forbade  his  generals  to  take  revenge  on  the  Rus- 
sians by  a  like  barbarous  system  of  warfare,  and 
prayed  to  God  that  neither  upon  himself  nor  his 
kingdom  might  be  visited  the  atrocities  committed 
against  his  orders  by  Henry  Horn  in  his  incui-sion 
into  Russia  in  1578,  when  he  spared  neither  women 
nor  children  ^.  At  the  same  time  Russow,  the 
priest  of  Reval ',  writes  upon  his  unhappy  country : 
"  Of  all  the  potentates  who  have  occupied  Livonia 
there  is  none  who  has  done  more  for  it  than  the 
king  of  Sweden.  Had  other  kings  and  princes 
troubled  themselves  alike  therewith,  the  Muscovite 
might  well  have  wondered."  Even  as  barbarians, 
and  under  a  Czar  who  was  a  monster,  the  Russians 
began  to  display  the  qualities  which  established 
their  power.  "  That  the  Russians  are  stout  and 
hardy  in  a  fortress," — says  a  Swedish  chronicle  *, 
after  having  related  how  the  Swedes  in  1574  three 
times  stormed  in  vain  that  of  Wesenberg, — "  conies 
hence,  that  they  from  their  youth  upward  are  in- 
ured to  continuous  labour  and  much  fasting,  and 
can  make  shift  long  enough  with  scant  food,  as  witii 
meal,  salt,  and  water.  They  know  also  that  when 
they  give  up  a  fortress  they  are  butchered  with  the 
most  contemptuous  mockery,  how  great  soever  the 
need  may  have  been  that  drove  them  thereto,  and 
that  they  canuot  remain  in  another  country.  There- 

5  .^gidius  Girs,  Chronicle  of  king  John  III.  70. 

'  Chronicle  of  the  Province  of  Livonia  (Chronica  der  Pro- 
vintz  LyfBandt,  Rostock,  1578),  towards  the  end. 

8  jEgidius  Girs,  who  wrote  in  1G27.  He  relates  also,  "At 
the  castle  of  Hapsal  the  youths  were  of  such  good  cheer  on 
the  entry  of  the  Russians  into  the  castle,  that  they  sat  and 
played  with  their  damsels,  having  each  two  upon  their  knees. 
The  Russians  wondered  at  the  Germans  as  strange  people, 
and  said  to  one  another,  Had  we  Russians  so  lightly  ren- 
dered up  such  a  fortress,  so  could  we  never  a  rain  lift  up  our 
eyes  before  an  honest  man,  and  scarcely  would  our  grand 


fore  they  choose  rather  to  defend  themselves  to  the 
last  man.  But  they  hold  it,  moreover,  for  a  deadly 
and  unpardonable  sin  to  surrender  a  fortress  ;  and 
prefer  to  die  blissfully  for  their  loi'd  and  father-laud 
than  to  commit  such  a  sin." 

Let  the  motive  be  what  it  may,  he  is  powerful 
who  bargains  not  with  his  duty.  It  is  that  principle 
which  guards  the  frontier  of  a  state,  and  lends  in- 
crease to  dominion. — After  more  than  a  hundred 
years  the  Ru.ss  still  acknowledged  the  superiority 
of  the  Swede  in  martial  discipline.  This  was  one 
of  the  causes  why  Ivan  Wasllievitz  II.  at  his  death 
in  1584  advised  his  son  Feodor  to  peace  ^.  The 
latter  offered  to  renounce  the  Russian  claims  on 
Estland  and  Narva.  It  was  the  same  condition,  on 
which  Charles,  when  administrator  eleven  years 
afterwards,  concluded  peace.  John,  in  the  arro- 
gance of  good  fortune,  refused  it.  The  Russian 
war,  interrupted  from  1583  by  prolonged  truces, 
was  kindled  afresh  in  1590,  and  before  it  was  ended 
the  king  died. 

With  Poland  differences  existed,  respecting 
partly  John's  demands  of  money,  partly  the 
Swedish  garrisons  in  Lifiand.  The  common  danger 
on  the  side  of  Russia  did  indeed  for  some  time 
extinguish  the  discord,  and  even  united  in  1578 
the  Polish  and  Swedish  arras  ;  but  the  Poles  had 
hardly  concluded  peace  (on  the  15th  January, 
1582)  with  Russia,  when  they  demanded  the 
cession  of  all  that  the  Swedes  possessed  in  Livonia. 
War  with  them  appeared  unavoidable,  when  king 
Stephen  Bather's  death  in  158G  procured  for  John's 
son,  what  he  in  1572,  after  the  death  of  his  father- 
in-law,  had  sought  for  himself,  namely,  the  Polish 
crown.  Stephen's  widowed  queen  Anne,  and  Catha- 
rine, the  spouse  of  John,  the  last  princesses  of  the 
house  of  Jagellon,  were  sisters.  Anne  employed 
all  her  influence  to  devolve  the  election  on  the 
Swedish  crown-prince  Sigismund.  Notwithstand- 
ing that  the  opposition-party  were  loud  in  favour 
of  the  arch-duke  Maximilian,  the  adherents  of 
Sigismund  obtained  preponderance,  principally 
from  the  circumstance,  that  the  widowed  queen 
with  her  whole  property,  and  the  two  Swedish 
councillors  who  were  present,  Eric  Sparre  and 
Eric  Brahe,  with  their  pledge  guarantied,  "  that 
that  portion  of  Livonia  which  the  king  of  Sweden 
possessed,  should  be  incorporated  with  the  other, 
belonging  to  the  kingdom  of  Poland  and  the  grand 
duchy  of  Lithuania."  The  councillors  already  named 
acted  in  this  against  their  warrant,  and  sought 
afterwards  an  evasion  in  the  ambiguity  of  the 
words  employed  *  ;  which  the  Poles  however  con- 
sidered so  clear,  that  when  sub.sequently  the  con- 
dition was  not  fulfilled,  the  grand  chancellor  Za- 
moisky  requested  the  surrender  of  those  Swedish 
envoys,  in  order  to  punish  them  as  perjurers. 
Sigismund  himself,  arrived  in  Poland,  refused  to 
confirm  the  cession  of  Estland.     Nevertheless,  he 

duke  know  what  kind  of  death  to  lay  upon  us."  This  is  a 
feature  characteristic  of  the  power  of  the  kn-ghts,  which  in 
Livonia  was  overthrown. 

9  Karamsin,  ix.  176.     German  translation. 

'  Livoniae  partem,  quam  serenissimus  Suetia;  rex  nunc 
possidet,  ad  reliquum  corpus  Livoniae  regni  Polonia;  et 
magni  ducatus  Lithuania  adjungere  tenebitur,  pro  quo,  ut 
serenissimi  regis  legati  sposponderunt,  ita  Serenissima  Anna, 
regina  Polonia;,  cavit  cavetque  omnibus  bonis  suis. — Eric 
Sparre  began  his  speech  on  Livonia  to  the  Poles  with  these 
words,  "  Vestra  erit  Livonia  " 


IGG 


John's  inclination 
to  Popery. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Arrival  of 
Jesuits. 


[1569- 


was  crowned  in  Cracow  on  the  27th  December, 
1587,  after  he  had  issued  a  declaration  tliat  the 
question  relative  to  the  Swedisli  portion  of  Livonia 
should  be  postponed  until  he  succeeded  his  father 
in  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  wherein  the  estates  of 
Poland  at  length  acquiesced. 

But  it  was  not  enough  for  John's  desire  of 
honour  to  unite  rival  kingdoms;  he  wished  also  to 
reconcile  contending  religions.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  .schism  in  tiie  church  produced  several  at- 
tempts at  mediation.  Such  was  the  Interim  of  the 
emperor  Charles  V.,  which  had  been  rejected  in 
Sweden  so  early  as  154f)2.  Men  of  learning  and 
piety  had  busied  themselves  with  similar  endea- 
vours. In  respect  to  the  abuses  of  the  ancient 
church,  they  all  proceeded  upon  the  principle,  that 
the  abuse  does  not  take  away  the  use,  and  sought 
to  show  how  often  the  very  points  which  might 
have  been  most  strongly  blamed,  had  had  in  their 
origin  a  wholesome  and  Christian  meaning.  It 
belongs  not  to  the  historian  to  judge  theologically  ; 
but  if  he  should  even  remove  to  the  standing-point 
taken  up  by  those  men,  it  would  be  merely  to  make 
one  remark,  which  properly  belongs  to  his  own  de- 
partment, that  experience  teaches  just  the  contrary, 
and  that  the  abuse  in  very  deed  takes  away  the  use. 
If  any  thing  be  clear  from  history,  it  is  this;  that  in 
its  .sphere  the  personal  element  is  the  most  weighty. 
It  is  not  a  chain  of  propositions  and  truths,  but  of 
volitions  and  actions;  not  theoretical,  but  practical. 
Nothing  does  it  show  so  plainly  as  this  ;  that  the 
best  things  are  by  vicious  usage  marred  for  cen- 
turies, and  for  ever  ;  like  as  in  this  destruction, 
nothing  is  more  wonderful  than  the  inexhaustible- 
uess  of  good,  continually  springing  up  again  in  new 
and  unexi)ected  forms. 

John  might  be  denominated  a  learned  prince. 
He  spoke  German,  English,  Italian,  Polish,  under- 
stood French,  was  not  ignorant  of  the  Greek,  and 
so  well  ver.sed  in  Latin,  that  he  often  made  without 
preparation  long  Latin  speeches  to  his  envoys. 
Theology  was  the  science  of  that  age,  and  he  had 
abundant  time  during  his  captivity  for  the  reading 
of  theological  works.  He  was  occupied  especially 
with  the  writings  of  George  Cassander.  These 
breathe  a  spirit  of  genuine  meekness,  and  display 
much  knowledge  of  the  usages  of  the  most  ancient 
church,  on  the  ground  of  which  the  author  believed 
that  he  should  be  able  to  reconcile  the  disputants'; 
wherefore  the  well-meaning  emperors  Ferdinand  I. 
and  Maximilian  11.  employed  him  in  their  essays 
of  mediation.  But  we  should  do  John  too  much 
honour  if  we  were  to  conclude  that  he  had  penetrated 
to  the  core  of  the  question  itself.  He  loved  hier- 
archic like  all  other  pomp,  and  imagined  cere- 
monies for  divine  worship  as  he  did  arms  for 
the  provinces,  decorations  for  his  buildings,  and 
additions  for  his  title.  Meanwhile  he  believed 
himself  engaged  in  a  serious  investigation,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  particular  words  of  his  instruction 
for  his  ambassadors  of  April  19th,  1573,  when  after 
the  death  of  Sigismund  II.  he  sought  the  crown  of 

-  The  opinion  of  the  archbishop,  Laurence  Peterson,  and 
others,  upon  the  Interim  of  the  emperor  Charles  V.,  Upsala, 
March  30,  l.')49,  is  printed  in  Celsius,  Monumenta,  p.  43. 

3  His  Consullatio  de  Articulis  Relig.  inti-r  Catholicos  et 
Protestantes  Controversis,  was  printed  at  Stockliolm  in  1577, 
on  the  king's  instance,  but  without  statement  of  the  place  or 
year. 

■•  Baazii  Inventorium  Eccl.  Svio-Goth.  p.  333. 


Poland  for  himself  ;  wherein  the  king,  having  pro- 
mised his  protection  to  the  religion  and  freedom  of 
the  Poles,  adds  this  condition: — "On  the  other 
hand  we  reserve  to  ourselves  the  right  of  practising 
whatsoever  Christian  religion  it  pleaseth  us,  the 
same  to  remain  likewise  to  our  heirs,  seeing  that 
we  ourselves  know  not  what  religion  these  may 
elect  when  they  come  to  mature  years  ^." 

From  a  hierarchical  point  of  view  new  lights  are 
hardly  to  be  expected.  Thus  John  was  reconducted 
neai'er  and  nearer  to  the  old  church  ;  especially 
out  of  affection   for   his  wife,  who  had   faithfully 
.shared  with   him  the   loneliness  of  his  captivity. 
Eric  during  the  last  year  of  his  reign  already  cried 
out  upon  him  as  a  papist  ;  an  accusation  which  he 
vehemently  repudiated,  wishing   that   God   might 
never  pi-ocure  either  for  him  or  his  son  the  crown 
of  Sweden  if  it  were  true  '".    ''  The  queen  of  Swe- 
den,"— writes  cardinal  Stanislaus  Hosius  in   1672 
from    Rome  to  Catharine   Jagellonica, — "  is   here 
extolled  to  heaven  on  account  of  her  care  for  the 
eternal  salvation  of  her  husband.     He  has  already 
intimated  his  wish  that  some    learned   and    pious 
Jesuits  may  be  despatched  to  him.       Hereof  the 
whole  town  converses."     In  another  letter  the  car- 
dinal reproaches  her  with  suffering  herself  to  be 
persuaded  by  the  king  to  take  the   holy  supper 
under  both  forms,  of  bread  and  wine,  instructing 
her  how  she  may  answer  the   objections  of  her 
spouse,  and  at  the  same  time  bring  him  back  gradu- 
ally into  the  bosom  of  the  church.     She  must  ex- 
hort him  first  to  restore  the  oflice  of  priests  and  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass".     Might  that  be  done,  then 
would  the  church  be  so  tender  a  mother  that  she 
could  even  permit  tlic  use  of  the  cup  to  the  laity. 
In  the  year  1574  the  same  promise  is  repeated  with 
the  addition,  that  some  token  of  return  must  first 
be  given  in  Sweden,  particularly  the  restoration  of 
the  mass  with  its  ceremonies  ;  then  might  negoti- 
ations be  opened  regarding  the  cup  '.    In  his  letter 
to  the  king  of  the  7th  January,  1576,  the  cardinal 
congratulates  himself  that  the  return  to  the  cere- 
monies was  being  gradually  effected  ;  and  in  an- 
other, of  October,  1577,  he  thanks  God  for  the  king's 
conversion.    Two  Jesuits  from  Louvain,  Florentius 
Feyt    and    Laurent ius    Norvcgus,  (the   latter  was 
usually  called  in  Sweden  chjister-Laurence,)  came 
to  Stockholm,  and  gave  themselves  out  for  evan- 
gelical preachers.     From  the  labours  of  the  latter 
especially  the  cardinal  expects  much  *,  because  he, 
as  a  Norwegian,  could  easily  make  him.self  under- 
stood. "  Seek  before  all,"  he  writes  to  John  Herbest, 
the  queen's  court-chaplain,  '•  that  he  may  obtain  a 
church  wherein  to  preach.    Let  him  avoid  ott'ence; 
let  him  extol  faith  to  heaven,  and  depreciate  works 
without  faith,  preaching  Christ  as  the  only  medi- 
ator, and  his  cross  as  the  only  means  of  salvation  ; 
thereupon  let  him  show  that  nothing  else  has  been 
preached  in  the  i)apac3'."     The  same  cardinal  ac- 
counts all  methods  against  heretics  to  be  lawful. 
When  Henry  of  Valois  in  the  year  1573  was  elected 

5  The  secretary  Swen  Elofson,  who  heard  the  words. 

8  Sacerdotium  et  sacrificium.  Nihil  est  ecclesia  matre 
benigtiius,  si  tantopere  calix  iste  cordi  est.  Stanislai  Hosii 
Opera,  Colon.  l.')S4,  ii.  338. 

7  Ut  missae  sacrificium  cum  suis  coerimoniis  restitueretur, 
ac  turn  demum  de  calice  deliberatio  susciperetur.      1.  c.  379. 

^  Divinitus  id  factum  esse  putn,  quod  venit  ad  vos  Nor- 
vegius  ille,  quem  esse  virnm  prndentem  ac  l)tne  doctum  et 
non  vulgari  judicio  praeditum  audio.     1.  c.  408. 


1592.J 


State  of  the  Cliurrh,  and 
popular  belief. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Provisions  of  the  Kirk's 
Ordinance. 


167 


king  of  Poland,  tlio  cardinal  advises  tiiat  the  Pro- 
testants tlitre  abiding  should  be  fed  with  hopes 
until  after  the  coronation  '  ;  hut  if  the  king  had 
even  promised  them  on  oath  the  freedom  of  their 
religion,  he  was  not  bound  to  its  observance  '. 

It  is  certain  that  the  Swedish  church  at  the 
accession  of  John  was  in  the  greatest  disorder.  In 
the  articles  stipulated  with  the  clergy  in  the  years 
15(59  and  1574  complaint  is  made  that  ignorant 
students  were  called  to  the  priestly  functions — that 
homicides,  topers,  and  adulterers  exercised  them 
with  impunity — that  many  clergymen  neglected  their 
calling  for  the  sake  of  trade  and  secular  business — 
that  they  gave  no  thought  to  their  sermon  before 
they  came  into  the  church,  and  then  read  out  of 
the  Homily-book  (Postillan)  what  might  come  to 
hand,  whether  it  might  suit  or  not  the  gospel  of  the 
day  ;  that  they  went  to  the  altar  in  torn  and  un- 
clean vestments,  and  dispensed  the  sacrament  with 
foul  hands.  Many  churches  had  fallen  into  decay 
and  ruin.  The  church  plate  had  disappeared  so 
entirely,  that  clay  vessels  were  used  in  the  dispen- 
sation of  the  sacrament,  notwithstanding  the  clergy 
(as  the  king  complains  in  1577)  had  silver  cups  in 
their  own  houses.  The  nobility  and  possessors  of 
fiefs  held  not  only  the  crown's  two-thirds  of  the 
tithes,  to  which  the  former  considered  themselves 
entitled  by  their  privileges,  but  also  often  that  por- 
tion which  was  intended  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
churches  and  the  clergy.  The  king  issued  repeated 
prohibitions  against  this  abuse,  and  expended  large 
sums  on  the  erection  and  improvement  of  the 
churches,  on  the  provision  of  befitting  decorations, 
vessels,  and  the  like.  He  used  to  re-clothe  ragged 
priests  who  came  in  his  way.  That  this  care  was 
extended  also  to  tlie  restoration  of  several  convents 
aroused  attention.  That  of  Vadstona  in  particular 
received  proofs  of  the  king's  as  well  as  the  queen's 
favour. 

From  all  this  it  is  manifest  that  the  old  order  of 
things  had  been  departed  from,  while  the  new  was 
yet  undigested.  The  greatest  uncertainty  prevailed. 
King  Gustavus  I.  had  constantly  denied  that  he  had 
introduced  a  new  faith.  In  John's  days,  notwith- 
standing the  changes  introduced,  a  great  jjortion  of 
the  people  supposed  nothing  else  than  that  they 
were  still  Catholics.  The  king  himself  insisted 
u])on  this  to  the  pope,  who  demanded  an  uncon- 
ditional restoration  of  the  Latin  mass,  whereas  John 
wished  to  preserve,  at  least  partly,  the  Swedish 
liturgy.  The  contrary,  he  declares,  would  have 
been  taken  as  an  innovation  in  the  Catholic  reli- 
gion, to  which  tlie  people  of  this  realm  for  the 
most  jiart  regard  themselves  as  still  addicted  -. 

The  Kirk's  Ordinance  (Kyrko-ordning),  drawn 
up  by  Laurence  Peterson,  was  first  in  1571  pro- 
mulgated and  adopted.  It  ajiptars  therefrom  that 
a  call  from  the  congregation,  prior  to  the  institution 
of  a  priest,  was  required.  On  the  bishop  devolved 
the  duty  of  examining  the  candidate,  and,  if  he 
were  found  qualified,  of  consecrating  him,  or,  other- 
wise, of  appointing  another  pastor.  Chaplains 
(kapellaner)  are  mentioned  as  assistant  priests  in 
larger  parishes  which  had  the  means  of  supporting 
them.  In  the  examination  of  priests  regard  was 
to  be  had  as  to  whether  the  probationer  were  tole- 

u  Varum  ego,  quod  suspenses  regia  majestas  animos 
hseretirorum  ttneat  tantisper  dum  coronata  fuerit,  non  im- 
peilio.     C.'uolo,  Cardinali  Loiharingo  Epistola,  1.  c.  350. 

1  Non  teneii  majestatem  ut  preestet,  etiamsi  jurejurando 


rably  conversant  with  the  holy  Scriptures.  Yet  it  is 
declared  to  be  a  pernicious  opinion  that  a  preacher 
knew  enough  if  he  could  only  I'cad  Swedish,  now 
that  the  service  was  mostly  performed  in  the  ver- 
nacular tongue.     He  must  have  attended  a  Latin 
school,  that  is,  a  school  where  Latin  was  spoken  ; 
yet  no  teacher  was  bound  to  read  any  other  lan- 
guage than  Swedisli  and  Latin.  Whosoever  wished 
to  learn  another  tongue,  as  the  Greek  or  Hebrew, 
must  provide  masters  for  himself.     No  academical 
instruction  is  sjvoken  of;  but  shortly  after  this  time 
king  John  began  the  restoration  of  the  seminary  of 
Upsala.  The  school -lads  were  to  be  divided  into  three 
or  four  classes,  according  to  their  progress,  and  the 
elders  to  serve  as  assistants  to  the  juniors  ;  yet  the 
schoolmasters  were  to   take   good  heed   that  the 
younger  were  not  neglected.     Of  those  we  find  it 
remarked:  "No  one  can  be  more  worthy  of  good 
maintenance  than  a  faithful  and  assiduous  teacher; 
for  like  as  his  labour  in  the  school  is  highly  need- 
ful, even  so  is  it  hard  and  irksome."     From  the 
school  ordinance  we  learn  that  the  hour  of  meeting 
was  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  ten  that  of  the 
midday  meal ;  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays  were 
revisals,  and  every  day  written  exercises.     It  was 
enjoined  that  the  scholars  should  be  practised  in 
psalmody.     The  bishops  were  to  take  care  that  the 
people  v-ere  iristructed  in  the  Catechism,  and  that 
no   one  was  admitted   to   confession  who   did   not 
know  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Commandments,  and 
the  Creed.    The  minister  was  allowed  in  preaching 
to  make  use  of  a  homily-book  for  his  assistance, 
"  seeing  that  many  who  should  instruct  the  people 
are  themselves  very  simple,  yet  not  so  that  they 
should  keep  entirely  to  the  homily-book,  and  never 
read  the  Scri])tures  or  other  edifying  books."    Pul- 
pits, which  were  yet  wanting  in  many  of  the  cimrches, 
were  to  be   erected.     During  the  sermon  itself  a 
])erson    excluded   from    commimion    for  notorious 
transgressions   might  remain  in   tlje  church,  but 
must    afterwards    withdraw  ;    if  he   resisted   and 
would  not  go  out,  divine  service  was  to  close.     The 
severest  church   penalty  (jireserved  from   former 
times)  was,  to  stand  naked  before  the  church-door. 
In  each  of  the  seven  cathedrals  of  the  kingdom 
there  was  to  be  a  bishop,  an  official  or  provost  of 
the  bishop,  a  minister,  a  schoolmaster,  a  reader  of 
theology,  a    penitentiary  (poenitentiarius),  and   a 
ch.urchwarden  (syssloman).     The  bishop  was  to  be 
elected  by  persons  competent  thereto,  of  the  clergy 
and  others,  who  possessed  experience  in  tlie  matter, 
under  the  sanction  of  an  oath  ;  and  lie  was  to  be 
confirmed    in    his    office  by  the   civil    magistrate. 
The  episcopal    title   was  again  generally  assumed 
under  the  reign  of  John,  although  the  appellation 
of  ordinary  likewise  appears  in  the  kirk's  ordinance. 
The   aged    Laurence    Peterson,   Sweden's    first 
Lutheran   archbishop,  expired   in   October,  1573, 
and  thenceforth  John  more  plainly  discovered  his 
intentions.      In  the  place  of  the  deceased  the  king 
caused  his  son-in-law  Laurentius  Petri  Gothus  to 
be  chosen,  a  man  of  a  compliant  humour,  and  by 
the  perusal    of   the   Fathers  (on  whose  works  he 
afterwards  as  archbishop  held  prelections  in  Up- 
sala) pointed  out  for  the  same  middle  way  between 

confirmasset.     Stanislao  Rescio  Secretario  suo  Epist.  1.  c. 
353. 

2  Turn  ne  haec  regna,  quje  alioquin  putant  magna  ex 
parte  esse  in  religione  Catholiea,  aiiimadvertant  tarn  cito  in 
religiouem  Catholicam  ritus  sibi  novos  introduci. 


168 


Proceedings  of  the 
Jesuits. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


King  Jolm's 
liturgy. 


[1569— 


Catholicism  and  Protestantism,  which  the  king 
himself  was  bent  on  treading.  The  newly  elected 
prelate  subscribed  seventeen  articles,  wherein  the 
restoration  of  the  convents,  the  veneration  of  saints, 
prayers  for  the  dead,  and  tlie  reception  of  the  cere- 
monies of  the  old  church,  were  approved.  He  was 
consecrated  in  1575  with  full  hierarchical  pomp. 
Then  were  again  used  for  the  first  time  the  epis- 
copal mantle,  mitre,  and  crosier,  which  the  Swedish 
bishops  afterwards  retained,  although  at  that  time 
with  much  opposition  from  the  clergy.  By  the 
king's  e.\press  order  the  oil  of  ointment  was  also 
employed  on  this  occasion. — In  the  year  1576  both 
the  Jesuits  above-named  came  to  Sweden.  Accord- 
ing to  their  own  account '  they  concealed  their  real 
persuasion  by  the  royal  command  ;  and  in  Stock- 
holm they  were  received  as  good  Lutherans.  They 
inspired  respect  by  their  learning,  caused  them- 
selves to  be  presented  by  the  priests  as  teachers  in 
the  new  college,  which  the  king  had  just  founded  in 
Stockholm,  and  were  even  admitted  thereinto  *. 
All  the  ministers  of  Stockholm  were  enjoined  to 
attend  their  prelections.  In  these  they  appealed 
to  the  writings  of  the  Reformers,  but  so  as  to  seek 
from  their  contents  arguments  against  them.  The 
king  caused  them  to  hold  public  disputations,  in 
which  he  took  part  himself,  and  inveighed  vehe- 
mently against  the  Pope,  but  allowed  himself  to  be 
confuted.  Meanwhile  numerous  conversions  were 
secretly  made.  What  unworthy  means  were  some- 
times employed,  one  example  may  show.  The  se- 
cretary John  Henryson,  although  a  man  generally 
contemned,  had  yet  for  many  years  enjoyed  the 
king's  confidence,  presided  over  the  chancery,  and 
was  entrusted  with  the  management  of  secret  and 
weighty  affairs.  It  was  under  his  direction  that 
the  murder  of  Eric  had  been  perpetrated.  He 
lived  notoriously  with  a  woman  whose  husband  he 
had  killed.  Both  received  from  father  Laurence 
absolution  and  permission  to  contract  wedlock  *  ; 
which  so  incensed  the  archbishop,  that  he,  by  a 
special  letter  to  the  Jesuit,  then  rector  in  the  royal 
college  of  Stockholm,  forbade  him  to  exercise  his 
functions,  and  declared  him  unworthy  of  the  priestly 
office.  Scarcely  more  creditable  is  the  reservation 
which  the  king  himself  makes,  in  his  conditions  to 
Pope  Gregory  XIII.,  that  the  pi-iests  should  for  the 
present  read  inaudibly  the  invocations  to  saints  and 
prayers  for  the  dead  in  the  Catholic  mass".  Yet 
for  the  sake  of  truth  it  must  be  added,  that  the 
Pope  disapproved  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  Jesuits, 

3  Scriptum  magistri  Florentii  Feyt  reversi  ex  Svecia 
anno  1577  de  statu  religionls  in  regno.  Ex  archivo  arris 
S.  Angeli.     Copy  in  tlie  Nordin  Collections. 

■»  Insinuat  se  Pater  Laurentius  in  amicitiain  Germanorum, 
hi  enim  faciles  sunt.  Pergit  pater  ad  ministros,  sermonem 
miscet  de  variis  rehus.  Ministri,  homines  illiterati,  prom- 
titudinem  Latini  sermonis  et  elegantiam  mirantur,  operam 
omnem  promi.tunt;  miseri  laqueum,  quo  suspendantur 
postea,  sibi  contexunt.  Adeunt  regem,  commendant  virum. 
Rex  gratani  sibi  esse  commendationera  significat;  gaudet 
in  sinu  rem  dextre  confectam.  Hanc  opportunitatem  nactus 
rex  patrem  Laurentium  in  theologiae  professorem  cooptavit, 
statuens,  ut  quotquot  Holmiae  ministri  essent  (erant  au- 
tem  plus  minus  30)  patris  leetionibus  interessent.  Verum 
cum  Sveci  (ut  vulgo  fertur)  tardi  sint,  factum  est,  ut  P. 
Laurentius  non  nisi  .lulio  mense  Stockhohninm  lectiones 
suas  auspicaretur.  Porro  cum  salutis  uostrEe  ininiicus 
omnem  animarum  fructiira  semper  impedire  contendit,  ex- 
citavit  asmnlum  quendam  P.  Latirentio,  Ahrahamum  (An- 
(,'eruiannum;  scliola;  recioiuni  :    is  animos   auditurum   sub- 


and  exhorted  the  king  to  make  public  profession  of 
the  Catholic  faith  if  he  were  in  earnest  therewith. 
Some  years  afterwards  father  Laurence  was  called 
to  Rome  to  make  answer  before  tlie  general  of  his 
order  ^. 

The  Mass  and  Hand-book  had  already  been  pub- 
lished in  Swedish  by  Clave  Peterson,  and  were 
afterwards  several  times  printed.  They  came  by 
degrees  into  use  ;  but  it  was  not  yet  forbidden  to 
celebrate  mass  in  Latin.  On  the  contrary,  king 
Gustavus  gave  orders  that  the  custom  should  be 
retained  where  its  intermission  gave  scandal,  until 
the  people  were  better  instructed.  The  Kirk's 
Ordinance  of  1571  still  permits  Latin  psalms  and 
prayers  ;  and  the  Liturgy  of  king  John  is  in  both 
languages.  It  was  arranged  by  the  king  himself 
and  his  secretary  Peter  Fechten,  after  the  Catholic 
Mass-book  approved  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  with 
some  omissions  and  alterations  *,  printed  under  the 
revision  of  the  Jesuits,  with  remarks  and  explana- 
tions intended  to  pave  the  way  for  the  re-accepta- 
tion of  the  mass  in  the  sense  of  a  sacrifice,  and 
appeared  in  1576  with  a  preface  by  the  archbishop, 
who  therein  assumed  its  authorship.  Of  the  re- 
maining bishops,  only  Erasmus  Niison  ofWesteras, 
formerly  the  king's  court  preacher,  had  sanctioned 
it ;  but  even  the  opposition  anticipated  was  em- 
ployed in  furtherance  of  the  hierarchical  plan. 
John  seems  at  times  to  have  meditated  the  erectitm 
of  a  Swedish  patriarchate  with  extended  authority. 
The  courtiers  openly  declared,  that  it  was  ob- 
ligatory on  the  Swedish  bishops  and  clergy  to  obey 
the  archbishop  as  their  spiritual  father  ;  the  others 
were  styled  subject-bishops  (Lyd-Biskopar).  Aftei-- 
wards  the  king  ordained  that  the  election  of  the 
bishop  should  not  depend  only  on  the  clergy  of  a 
diocese,  but  that  the  archbi.shop  and  archchapter 
of  Upsala  should  be  co-electors.  Consent  to  tho 
Liturgy  was  one  condition  of  all  ecclesiastical  pro- 
motions. The  sequel  was,  that  at  the  diet  of  1577, 
after  the  most  turbulent  among  tho  clergy  of  Stock- 
holm and  two  professors  of  Upsala  had  been  re- 
moved, all  the  rest  of  this  class,  with  the  exception 
of  the  bishops  of  Linkoping  and  Strengness,  and 
some  few  others,  adopted  the  Liturgy,  to  which 
the  assent  of  the  secular  estates  was  easily  ob- 
tained. 

In  the  previous  autumn  the  king  had  already 
despatched  Pontus  de  la  Gardie  and  Peter  Fechten 
to  Rome.     They  suffered  shipwreck  in  the  Baltic, 

vertit  et  alienos  a  patre  fecit.  Progreditur  tamen  pater, 
quotquot  affditores  veniant,  insinuat  se  in  familiaritatem 
aliquorum,  nunc  hunc,  nunc  ilium,  dante  Deo,  ad  fidem 
occulte  reducit.   Ibid. 

5  The  dispensation  itself,  dated  Feb.  6,  1578,  together  with 
the  letter  of  the  archbishop  of  March  20,  is  printed  from  the 
archives  in  Baaziiis,  Invent.  Eccl.  Svio-Goth.p.  418.  "In  the 
times  of  the  late  king  John,"  says  Eric  Spane  (Postulata 
Nobilium),  "  all  was  confided  in  many  years  to  John  Hin- 
derson.  What  kind  of  man  he  was,  was  not  unknown."  He 
died  of  ebriety. 

s  Ut  Catholic!  sacerdotes  modo  abstineant  ab  illis  orationi- 
bus  alta  voce  recitandis,  qu<e  pertinent  ad  sanctorum  invo- 
cationem  et  ad  orationes  pro  defunctis,  eaeque  submissa  voce 
dici  possent,  ne  quis  suspicetur  prsesentem  doctrin.nm  Lu- 
theri  esse  tollendam  ;  hinc  enim  magnus  rumor  et  bellum 
posset  excitari. 

7  Messenius,  Scondia,  vii.  50,  75. 

8  Circa  haee  tempera  (1576)  rex  cum  praedicto  secretario 
novam  fabricaverat  liturgiam.  From  the  account  of  the 
Jesuiis  a')'ne  <iu  ti  d. 


1502.] 


His  mission  to  Rome, 
and  pustulates. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Papistical  tendencies 
abandoned. 


iro 


at  which  the  latter  perished  ;  but  his  colleague 
discharged  his  commission.  John  requested  from 
the  Pope  ^  that  his  holiness  would  institute  prayers 
throughout  the  whole  world  for  the  restoration  of 
the  CathoHc  religion  in  the  north,  yet  without 
naming  Sweden  ;  that  the  mass  should  be  said 
partly  in  Swedish  ;  that  in  the  sacrament  the  cup 
should  be  conceded  to  the  laity  ;  that  the  bishops 
should  be  judged  by  the  king  in  capital  cases  and 
accusations  of  treason  ;  that  no  claims  should  be 
made  on  the  Church  estates  which  had  been  con- 
fiscated ;  that  the  college  erected  in  Stockholm, 
where  already  secret  instructions  in  the  Catholic 
doctrines  were  given,  might  receive  the  papal  con- 
firmation, and  the  teachers  be  for  the  present 
exempted  from  wearing  monks'  clothes  ;  that  king 
Gustavus,  king  Eric,  and  all  of  the  nobility  who 
had  died  out  of  the  communion  of  the  Church, 
might  rest  undisturbed  in  their  graves  ;  that 
priests'  marriages  might  be  allowed,  while  celibacy 
was  encouraged  ;  that  the  king  might,  without  sin, 
participate  in  the  worship  of  the  heretics,  initil  by- 
and-by  the  Catholic  creed  should  become  dominant 
in  the  land.  This  result  was  pi-epared,  it  is  stated, 
by  the  restored  dignity  and  splendour  of  divine 
service,  by  the  reception  of  several  abolished  holy- 
days,  by  the  introduction  of  confession  and  fasts, 
by  the  restoration  of  the  convents,  which  had  been 
begun,  by  the  education  of  several  noble  Swedish 
youths  in  Rome  and  Vienna,  and  the  like. 

The  court  of  Rome  was  far  from  being  disposed 
to  consent  to  such  conditions.  Meanwhile  it  kept 
the  negotiations  open  ;  and  the  Jesuit  Anthony  Pos- 
sevin  was,  under  the  name  of  imperial  legate, 
sent  to  Sweden,  in  order  to  work  on  the  king's  con- 
victions. At  Vadstena,  in  1578,  John  is  said  to 
have  been  secretly  reconciled  to  the  Catholic  Church 
in  his  presence  '.  Martin  Olaveson,  the  bishop  of 
Linkciping,  was,  for  having  called  the  Pope  Anti- 
Christ,  stripped  of  his  episcopal  robes  publicly 
before  the  altar  of  his  own  cathedral.  The  see, 
with  enlarged  jurisdiction,  fell  to  Peter  Carlson, 
ordinary  of  Calmar,  formerly  Eric's  flatterer,  and 
generally  charged  with  having  counselled  the  mur- 
der of  the  Stures.  All  passages  again.st  the  Pope 
were  expunged  from  the  Psalms.  Luther's  Cate- 
chism was  abolished  in  schools  ;  new  silver  shrines 
were  provided  for  relics  of  saints  ;  and  an  abridg- 
ment of  the  canon  law  was  drawn  up  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Swedish  Church'*.  A  Catholic 
was  intended  to  fill  the  archiepiscopal  chair,  which 
fell  vacant  again  in  the  year  1579  ^,  and  remained 
four  years  unoccupied.  Jesuits,  under  manifold 
disguises,  entered  the  kingdom.  John  designed 
to  employ  them  in  the  new  university,  removed 
from   Upsaia   to  Stockholm.      They  became  even 

9  Quae  rex  Svetiae  cupit  a  Summo  Domino  nostro  obtinean- 
tur,  ut  sine  perturbatione  Suetiae  restituatur  religio  Catholica. 
Ex  codice  nianuscr.  chartaceo  in  folio,  bibliotliecEe  Vaticanae, 
N.  6218,  p.  204  ad  208.  Copy  in  tlie  Nordin  Collections  in  the 
Library  of  Upsaia. 

'  Messenius,  vii.  41.  xv.  137.  iii.  GO.  He  was  enjoined  to 
fast  every  Wednesday,  because  on  this  day  he  had  murdered 
his  brother. 

2  Id.  vii.  65. 

3  Magnus  Laurentius.nephewofboth  the  last  Catholic  arch- 
bishops, Joannes  and  Olaus  Magnus,  was  destined  thereto. 
Afterwards  Andrew  I,aurenceson(Bi6rnram),  formerly  bishop 
of  Vexioe,  was  made  archbishop,  whom  the  king  found  still 
more  compliant  to  his  views  than  his  predecessor,  who  to- 
wards the  end  had  retracted,  and  is  said  to  have  died  of  grief. 


'  more  coarse  in  their  sermons,  and  Sigismund's 
own  chaplains  set  them  the  example  ;  so  that  the 
Council  was  obliged  to  moot  a  proposal,  of  forbid- 
ding the  Polish  priests  '  from  barking  and  banning 
in  the  Swedish  tongue,'  and  of  punishing  the 
Jesuits,  '  since  among  the  people  and  the  army  dis- 
courses were  current,  that  they  themselves  would 
remove  such  weeds  out  of  the  way,  if  it  were  not 
done  by  the  authorities.'  A  multitude  of  Swedish 
youths  *  were  sent  out  of  the  country  to  be  educated 
in  the  Jesuits'  seminaries,  and  queen  Catharine 
Jagellonica  bequeathed  for  this  purpose  by  will 
10,000  rix-dollars  to  that  of  Braunsbergin  Prussia. 
This  princess,  whose  virtues  even  her  foes  could 
not  deny,  died  in  1583.  The  new  archbishop,  in 
his  funeral  sermon,  called  her  happy  that  she  had 
lived  and  died  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church  which 
alone  gives  salvation. 

John's  zeal  for  Catholicism  afterwards  cooled, 
and  men  already  began  to  remark  its  abatement, 
whereto  the  failure  of  those  political  calculations 
connected  with  his  conversion  appears  to  have  con- 
tributed. Among  other  things  he  had  solicited, 
and  by  the  mediation  of  the  Pope  hoped  to  obtain, 
the  dukedoms  of  Bari  and  Rossani,  on  which  his 
wife  had  claims  from  her  mother  Bona  Sforzia '. 
This  hope  was  as  far  from  being  fulfilled  as  the 
promise  of  the  Pope  to  labour  for  tlie  advantage  of 
Sweden  in  the  peace  between  Poland  and  Russia. 
The  peace  was  indeed  concluded  under  the  media- 
tion of  Possevin,  but  confirmed  the  Polish  claims 
even  to  the  Swedish  possessions  in  Livonia.  In  no 
long  time  we  see  John  seceding  from  Rome,  and 
even  persecuting  the  Catholics.  Laurence  Forss, 
minister  of  Stockholm,  who  had  become  a  Catholic, 
was  for  that  reason  deposed  with  the  same  con- 
tumelious ceremonies  which  had  been  already  ap- 
plied to  the  bishop  of  Linkoping  for  having  reviled 
the  Pope.  The  Jesuits  were  banished  from  the 
realm,  their  college  in  Stockholm  abolished,  and 
the  chairs  of  instruction  filled  by  their  opponents. 
By  public  proclamation  all  converts  to  the  Catholic 
Church  were  threatened  with  exile.  The  church 
ceded  to  the  Catholics  in  Stockholm  was  closed 
(afterwards,  however,  they  recovered  it  on  the 
intercession  of  Sigismund)  ;  and  when  the  crown- 
prince  became  king  of  Poland,  his  father  warmly 
exhorted  him  not  to  bind  himself  to  obedience 
(obedientia)  towards  the  Pope.  The  king  now 
turned  his  thoughts  to  a  junction  with  the  Greek 
Church,  but  he  finally  adhered  to  his  own  scheme 
of  religion,  of  which  he  considered  his  new  Liturgy 
the  proper  expression.  The  repugnancy  of  the 
public  towards  this  had  in  the  mean  time  increased. 
Already  in  1576  the  king  complains  that  a  clergy- 
niati  h\  the  diocese  of  Skara,  Master  Maurice  of 

■>  Catervatim.     Messenius. 

5  Cum  autem  ille  (rex)  per  suas  litteras  vestrse  beatitudini 
negotia  sua  Neapolitana  commendet,  vix  est,  quod  ego  deea 
re,  quae  justissima  est  quaeque  admoduni  cordi  est  vestry 
beatitudini,  quidquam  amplius  scribam,  cum  prassertim  non 
semel  ad  illustrissimum  cardinalem  Comensem  de  tota  re 
scripserim.  Possevin's  letter  to  pope  Gregory  XIII.  Stock- 
holm, Oct.  9, 1579  ;  copy  in  the  Nordin  Collections.  For  the 
carrying  of  Sigismund's  election  to  the  crown  of  Poland,  the 
claims  of  John  upon  these  Neapolitan  garrisons  are  ceded  to 
that  kingdom,  and  those  upon  the  payment  of  the  dowry  of 
Catharine  Jagellonica  renounced,  as  well  as  upon  the  125,000 
rix-dollars,  which  John  upon  his  marriage  with  her  had  lent 
to  the  king  of  Poland.  jEgidius  Girs,  Chronicle  of  king 
John  111. 


170 


The  king  and  the  duke 
at  variance. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Division  of  the  royal 
patrimony. 


[15e9— 


Bone,  had  endeavoured  to  raise  a  great  tumult 
against  it,  the  couiiciilors  of  state,  and  the  nobles. 
The  priest  was  examined  by  the  torture,  and  put 
to  death  with  several  of  his  followers.  In  the  year 
1580  an  order  was  given  that  the  revenues  of  those 
clergymen  who  did  not  observe  the  Liturgy  should 
be  withheld  ;  in  1582  it  was  enforced  under  still 
heavier  penalties,  and  adopted.  Priests  who  re- 
fused to  follow  it  were  deposed,  incarcerated,  and 
driven  into  exile.  All  resistance  in  this  point  irri- 
tated the  king  to  extreme  anger.  He  was  even 
seen  to  lay  hands  on  an  arrested  clergjTnan,  and 
trample  him  underfoot,  exclaiming,  "  To  the  lions 
and  snakes  thou  shalt  go  !"  This  person.  Master 
Eric  Scheffer,  rector  of  Stockholm,  had  retracted 
the  assent  which  he  had  given  to  the  Liturgy ;  rup- 
ture was  produced  by  the  violence  with  which  he 
was  treated.  The  whole  land  was  full  of  perse- 
cution, disquiet,  and  confusion. 

During  this  time  the  discords  between  John  and 
Charles  grew  more  bitter.  The  first  channel  by 
which  they  found  voice  was  a  letter  of  the  16th  Oc- 
tober, 1571,  from  the  king,  who  the  year  previously 
had  depreciated  the  coinage  ".  By  this  measure 
Charles  profited  to  buy  up  and  exchange  the  old 
coins  of  better  quality.  John  prohibited  this  traf- 
fic, the  gain  of  which  he  wished  to  reserve  for 
himself.  Although  the  navigation  to  Narva  was 
made  free  by  the  peace  of  Stettin,  the  king  liad 
placed  it  under  supervision  ;  and,  in  order  to  show 
his  predominance  in  the  Baltic,  made  his  letters  of 
authorization  necessary  thereto.  Charles  allowed 
his  ships  to  go  to  Narva  with  papers  issued  by 
himself,  whereupon  the  king  ordered  the  ships  to 
be  seized,  and  did  not  release  them  until  after  a 
long  corresijondence.  A  more  important  topic  of 
quarrel  was  the  division  of  the  heritage  of  their 
father,  which  Eric,  after  the  incarceration  of  John, 
had  deferred,  under  pretext  of  waiting  for  the 
minority  of  Charles.  It  has  already  been  men- 
tioned of  what  a  disputable  kind  the  hereditary 
estates  pai-tly  were  ;  on  which  account  Eric  had 
permitted  the  law  to  take  its  course  with  respect  to 
them,  and  the  nobles  had  profited  by  this  pei-mis- 
sion.  This  was  in  the  outset  of  Eric's  reign.  He 
soon  changed,  and  preferred  his  claims  against  the 
nobility.  The  continuation  of  tlie  inquiries  insti- 
tuted in  the  time  of  Gustavus  respecting  the  right 
of  resumption  of  church  estates  by  the  nobility 
was  commanded.  As  ground-work  a  declaration 
was  laid  down,  that  all  estates  appropriated  con- 
trary to  the  letter  of  the  Recess  of  Westeras  should 
belong  to  the  crown;  on  which  account  also  king 
Eric  in  1564  caused  all  such  to  be  struck  off  the 
rent-books  of  the  hereditary  estates  of  Gustavus, 
and  entered  in  the  rent-books  of  the  crown.  Two 
years  thereafter,  as  already  remarked,  the  old  foot- 

<>  Coinage-warrant  of  April  30,  1570. 

^  Rasmus  Ludvikson's  new  complaints  respecting  the 
heritable  estates  which  the  nobles  had  resumed  from  the 
Church,  are  chiefly  founded  on  the  circumstance,  that  the 
nobility  had  in  this  exceeded  the  limit  appointed  in  the 
Recess  of  Westeras,  of  H54,  or  rather  145.3,  when  king 
Charles  Canuteson's  inquisition  began.  (Ornhielm's  Rela- 
tion.) The  circumstances  which  induced  Gustavus  himself 
to  exceed  this  limit,  have  been  already  stated. 

8  On  the  23d  April,  )5G7,  because  he  had  made  out  false 
registers  of  the  Danish  estates  in  the  kingdom,  of  which  the 
king  commanded  the  appropriation,  and,  when  they  were 
granted  away  in  fiefs,  often  issued  letters  of  enfeoffment  for 


ing  was  restored,  and  the  estates  arc  again  found 
enrolled  as  part  of  the  heritage.  The  change  hence 
appears  to  have  only  been  effected  in  semblance, 
in  order  meanwhile  to  ground  upon  it  new  claims 
against  the  nobility  '.  This  advice  would  seem  to 
have  proceeded  from  Rasmus  Ludvikson,  procu- 
rator for  the  crown  in  questions  of  reduction  under 
Eric  as  well  as  Gustavus.  This  man  possessed  an 
acquaintance  the  most  extensive  of  his  time  with 
public  records  and  genealogical  registers,  and  by  his 
manuscript  chronicles  of  both  the  beforementioned 
kings  has  won  lasting  honours  in  the  field  of 
Swedish  history;  but  in  several  reigns  he  was  the 
unconscionable  tool  of  the  possessors  of  power,  and 
under  Eric,  in  the  year  1567,  was  condemned  to 
death  for  embezzlement  and  forgery',  although  the 
judgment  was  not  executed,  and  he  found  means  to 
make  himself  useful  in  after-days.  With  his  aid  an 
allotment  of  the  patrimonial  estates  among  the  bro- 
thers was  effected  at  Borkholm,  (June  27,  1572,) 
in  which  the  share  of  the  weak-minded  duke  Ma<r- 
nus  was  divided  between  John  and  Charles.  The 
latter  however  was  highly  discontented,  and  was 
heard  to  complain  that  several  thousand  manors 
had  been  deducted  from  the  amount  by  John,  of 
which  more  than  five  hundred  were  already  distri- 
buted among  the  nobility.  John  also  insisted  that 
all  taxable  lands  which  had  been  bought  by  Gus- 
tavus from  peasants,  if  situated  without  the  princi- 
pality, should  be  reckoned  crown  property  ;  and 
upon  this  maxim  he  proceeded.  Thus  we  find  the 
royal  cattle-farms^,  on  which  many  unprofitable 
hands  were  employed,  (and  hence  Eric  desisted 
from  keeping  them  up  on  his  own  account,)  now  let 
out  as  crown-lands,  with  the  right  of  hereditary 
occupancy';  and  in  1582  John  declared  that  since 
certain  of  his  bailiffs  and  officers,  from  corrupt 
motives,  turned  peasants  off  their  farms  and  placed 
others  thereon,  ''  to  rot  more  than  to  bote,"  all  pea- 
sants upon  crown,  church,  and  pati'imonial  e.states 
might  purchase  the  property  of  the  lands,  and  hold 
them  in  peri)etuity  by  paying  a  yearly  rent  2.  But 
this  proffer  hardly  met  with  general  acceptance. 
On  the  contrary,  we  find  that  the  fears  of  the  pea- 
sants were  awakened,  as  well  on  account  of  the 
short  term  of  payment,  as  of  the  insecurity  which  in 
this  day  attended  all  compacts  with  the  crown. 
Herein  they  were  not  wrong  ;  for  Charles,  when  he 
succeeded  to  power,  acknowledged  in  reference  to 
the  estates  of  the  royal  patrimony  no  other  guide 
than  the  rent-books  of  his  father,  and  claimed  anew 
all  the  estates  which  had  been  alienated,  even  those 
recovered  by  the  nobility  from  adjudication. 

Concerning  royal  and  princely  rights,  a  contest 
was  to  be  expected,  and  the  earlier  that  this 
matter,  in  the  time  of  John,  became  still  more 

the  same  holding  to  two  persons.  See  the  Doombook  (Dom- 
bok)  of  king  Eric's  Namnd,  fol.  239. 

9  Afvelsgardar  (cattle-yards),  so  called  because  used  as 
breeding  farms  for  the  king.  Sometimes,  too,  the  priests 
were  required  to  keep  the  king's  cattle ;  thus  at  John's  coro- 
nation all  the  registered  cattle  were  required  from  the  clergy 
of  Ujiland. 

'  King  John's  Register,  June,  157G.  The  examjde  here 
appearing  relates  to  Stromsrum  in  Snialand ;  but  the  prin- 
ciple is  declared  general. 

2  In  1384  the  king  reserves  to  himself  the  right,  if  he 
should  so  think  fit,  of  redeeming  the  property  which  he  was 
now  obliged,  from  want  of  money,  to  sell.  Deliberations  in 
king  John's  time,  in  the  Archives  of  State.  {Mer  rota  an  hiita.) 


1592] 


Dispute  as  to 

Livonia. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Intentions  of  Gustavus  I. 
as  to  the  government. 


171 


intricate.  He  had  publicly  disapproved  the  limita- 
tions of  the  ducal  power  made  in  1561,  and  tlie 
Articles  of  Arboga,as  "  hard  and  intolerable,"  were 
adduced  among  the  grounds  of  Eric's  deposition. 
In  the  confirmation  of  the  dukedom  of  Charles, 
shortly  afterwards  granted,  it  is  alleged  that  Eric 
had  compelled  his  brothers  to  embrace  conditions 
wholly  repugnant  to  their  father's  testament  ;  con- 
formably to  which,  therefore,  Charles  was  now  in- 
vested with  all  his  princely  rights.  Him,  most  of  all, 
had  John  to  thank  for  his  crown.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances it  was  difficult  not  to  allow  an  inteii^re- 
tation  of  the  testament  favourable  to  his  brother. 
The  king  sought  to  stave  off  his  claims  by  single 
concessions.  As  compensation  for  his  share  of  the 
treasure  left  by  their  father,  Charles  received 
2500  ounces  of  silver.  His  principality  was  aug- 
mented with  the  hundreds  of  Wassbo  and  Walla  in 
West-Gothland,  to  whicli  John  in  1571  added  the 
government  of  the  Swedish  portion  of  Livonia. 
But  Charles  insisted  on  an  indemnity  for  the  whole 
period  during  which  he  had  been  deprived  of  the 
revenues  of  his  principality  ;  and  when  he  subse- 
quently abandoned  this  demand,  he  the  more  firmly 
pressed  for  a  grant  of  Stromsholm  and  its  fief, 
which,  according  to  the  oral  disposition  of  king 
Gustavus,  was  held  by  the  queen  dowager,  but  by 
the  testament  appertained  to  the  principality. 
Charles  offered  money  in  exchange,  but  maintained 
liis  right  to  the  latter,  threatened  at  last  to  assert  it 
by  force,  and  once  went  so  far  as  to  place  under 
sequestration  the  rents  of  the  hundreds  annexed  to 
Stromsholm '.  For  what  concerned  his  Livonian 
commission,  he  cherished  suspicion  of  a  plan  therein 
to  devolve  upon  him  the  burden  of  the  Russian 
war,  and  made  no  great  haste.  At  last  the  king, 
whose  poverty  is  evident  in  all  these  transactions, 
makes  a  proposal  to  him  to  purchase  a  portion  of 
the  country  which  was  then  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  *.  After  the  success  of  de  la  Gardie's  opera- 
tions he  wished  to  hear  no  more  of  this;  and  when 
Charles,  on  the  attempt  of  John  to  gain  the  crown 
of  Poland,  advanced  a  proposal,  that  for  the  adjust- 
ment of  their  disputes  respecting  Livonia  the  coun- 
try might  be  transferred  to  him  as  a  Polish  fief ', 
the  king  took  it  so  ill,  that  he  had  apprehensions  for 
his  personal  safety,  and  believed  his  brother  already 
prepared  for  war.  Thus  was  Livonia  the  germ  of 
discord  between  Charles  and  John,  as  formerly  be- 
tween .John  and  Eric. 

Tiie  testament  of  Gustavus  I.  was  particularly  am- 
biguous on  the  question  as  to  the  rights  of  the  king 
and  the  princes.  It  is  declared  on  one  side,  indeed, 
that  the  princes  should  have  no  right  to  sever 
themselves  or  their  fiefs  from  the  crown  of  Swe- 
den, that  they  were  bound  to  be  true  to  the  king, 

3  Charles  had  accepted  the  hundreds  of  Wassbo  and  Walla 
as  a  compensation  for  Strijmsholm.  The  contestation  regard- 
ing Tynnelsoe,  which  he  demanded  back  in  virtue  of  the  will, 
appears  to  have  renewed  that  regarding  Stromsholm. 

•<  To  Charles  upon  Lifland,  that  after  the  disasters  which 
had  befallen  there,  the  king  could  do  nothing  more.  Stock- 
holm, May  4,  1574.  Still  on  the  26th  May,  1581,  he  otfers  to 
the  duke  Narva,  Lode,  Leal,  Pernau,  Hapsal,  "  when  they 
were  obtained,"  as  fiefs  of  the  crown  of  Sweden,  with  the 
same  jurisdiction  as  the  principality.  Shortly  thereafter, 
and  before  the  end  of  the  year,  Charles  Henryson  Horn  and 
Pontus  de  la  Gardie  took  Lode,  Leal,  Vickel,  Hapsal,  Wit- 
tenstein,  and  all  Ingermanland  v/ith  its  fortresses.  John 
advises  Charles  of  this,  and  requests  more  troops  from  him, 
but  no  more  is  said  of  the  oiler  above-mentioned. 


and  obliged  to  assist  him  with  the  largest  force 
they  could  raise;  they  are  even  denominated  sub- 
jects ;  but  on  the  other  side  the  king  says,  tliat  the 
principalities  are  delivered  up  to  them  "with  all 
their  appurtenances  and  advantages,  as  we  have 
possessed  the  same  on  behalf  of  the  crown,  without 
exception."  When  he  adds, — "  our  dear  sons,  as 
well  lie  who  conies  into  the  throne  and  government 
as  the  others  witli  their  heirs,  shall,  in  relation  to 
those  affairs  on  which  the  general  welfare  of  the 
realm  depends,  undertake,  transact,  or  conclude 
nothing,  be  it  war  or  peace,  or  alliances,  compacts 
or  other  matters  important  to  the  state,  unless  it  be 
done  with  the  counsel  and  assent  of  all  their  estates 
and  divers  of  the  chief  men  of  the  realm;"  it  would 
be  difficult  to  express  a  conjoint  reign  more  dis- 
tinctly, especially  as  each  of  the  brothers  is  even 
allowed,  iji  cases  where  any  greater  and  more  mani- 
fest advantage  can  be  gained  for  the  realm  of  Swe- 
den, and  time  does  not  pennit  a  common  delibera- 
tion, to  follow  his  own  resolution.  Finally,  the  old 
king  exhorts,  beseeches,  enjoins  every  subject  of  the 
kingdom,  from  honest,  truehearted  purpose,  and  by 
the  bitter  death  of  God's  Son,  to  maintain  harmony 
among  them.  The  princes  are  required  to  render 
an  account  of  their  conduct  towards  their  country 
before  the  estates  general  and  all  Swedish  men  ; 
and  if  differences  shall  arise,  only  persons  who  are 
natives  and  chosen  on  both  sides  out  of  the  prin- 
pal  men  of  the  country,  may  decide  as  arbitrators 
with  whom  right  and  reason  lie.  In  a  word,  Gus- 
tavus Vasa,  between  fear  and  hope,  but  with  a  fore- 
knowledge of  the  future  which  often  distinguishes 
men  of  his  class,  committed  the  care  of  his  work  to 
all  his  sons;  and  the  hour  approached  which  was  in 
fact  to  transfer  the  responsibility  to  the  only  one  of 
them  who  was  fitted  to  bear  its  load. 

Charles  acted  throughout  as  if  this  conjoint  re- 
sponsibility were  a  matter  of  course.  He  sends 
back  John's  letter,  as  styling  him  "hei'editary 
prince  of  our  kingdom  ;"  Sweden  was  no  more 
John's  peculiar  possession  than  that  of  the  other 
hereditary  princes. 

One  of  the  most  resultful  points  of  contention 
was,  whether  knight-service  within  the  principality 
was  due  to  the  king  or  the  duke,  since  here  the 
nobility  intervened  between  both.  The  king  had 
considerably  lightened  its  burden,  and  besides 
scarce  ever  held  an  inspection  ^.  He  made  the 
nobles  an  offer  of  ransoming  themselves  from  the 
whole  obligation,  which  had  no  effect,  and  com- 
plains that  they  besides  appropriated  the  rents  of 
those  manors  which  were  set  apart  for  the  support 
of  the  crown's  own  horsemen.  E.xamples  are  found 
during  his  time  of  peasants  acquiring  their  free- 

5  Memorial  of  S«en  Elofson  (now  secretary  of  Charles)  to 
John.  Register  of  duke  Charles  for  1574.  That  Charles 
herein  did  not  look  wholly  to  his  own  advantage,  is  clear 
from  another  of  his  propositions  to  John  in  1582,  for  the  ad- 
justment of  the  disputes  with  the  Poles  respecting  Lifland, 
to  the  effect  that  Sigismund  should  hold  the  Swedish  pos- 
sessions there  as  a  hereditable  fief  under  Polish  superiority, 
yet  so  that  it  should  never  be  taken  by  a  king  of  Sweden  as 
such,  but  as  duke  of  Lifland.  This  result  would  be  more 
beneficial  than  that  Sweden  should  go  to  war  with  Poland 
for  Livonia,  as  was  then  apprehended.  Keg.  for  1582.  In 
respect  to  the  Russian  war,  also,  which  John  might  more 
than  once  have  ended  advantageously,  the  counsels  of  Charles 
are  marked  by  moderation,  sagacity,  and  apparently  also  by 
uprightness. 

6  rapensyn,  the  wapenshaw.     T. 


m 


Crown-rights  over  the 
nobility. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Treatise  of  Count 
Brahe. 


[1569- 


hold  by  horse-service  ;  but  in  general  he  laid  so 
much  stress  upon  the  privilef;es  of  nobility,  that 
estates  gained  by  the  unnoble  through  marriage 
with  nobles  were  declared  to  be  forfeited.  Tlie 
relations  of  the  nobility  to  the  princes  produced  in 
Sweden  the  first  inquiries  regarding  the  mutual 
relations  of  the  powers  (as  they  were  called)  of  the 
state ;  and  Eric  Sparre''s  treatise,  "  Pro  Rege, 
Lege,  et  Grege ',"  is  in  this  sense  the  first  essay  on 
the  Swedish  constitution.  Its  fundamental  query, 
What  are  the  king's  legal  rights  admitted  by  the 
people  ?  is  as  yet  indeed  in  its  cradle,  but  still  is 
discernible  in  such  a  shape  as  was  comprehensible 
by  tlie  most  cultivated  among  the  grandees  of  this 
period.  The  author,  going  through  all  the  statutes 
passed  in  the  time  of  king  Gustavus  respecting  the 
succession,  (of  which  the  first  passed  at  Orebro  in 
1540  is  mentioned  slightingly,  as  not  having  the 
consent  of  the  estates,  and  "  devised  by  a  frivolous 
busy-body,  Conrad  of  Pyhy,"  with  outlandish  cere- 
munies,)  seeks  to  show  that  neither  in  these  nor  in 
the  duke's  letters  of  investiture,  nor  in  the  king's 
testament,  was  any  one  of  the  rights  of  the  crown 
called  regalities  given  away,  nor  could  they  be 
given  away,  because  this  was  against  the  law  of 
Sweden.  Herewith  the  nobility  spoke  the  word  for 
a  struggle  which,  a  hundred  years  after,  under 
Charles  XL,  was  to  crush  its  power,  and  already 
under  John  received  an  unlooked-for  application. 
In  the  outset  these  maxims  were  well  liked  by  the 
king,  even  with  tlieir  aristocratic  appendages.  The 
treatise  was  really  a  defence  of  his  ordinance  issued 
at  the  diet  of  1582  in  reference  to  the  king's  rights 
within  the  principality.  Of  this  he  caused  the 
council  of  state  and  nobility  to  pronounce  a  special 
confirmation,  tliereby  even  sanctioning  the  con- 
clusion of  Eric  Sparre,  that  although  the  here- 
ditary settlement  and  the  testament  had  diminished 
the  lawful  rights  of  the  crown  to  the  advantage  of 
the  princes,  the  explanation  of  the  law  belonged  to 
the  same  authority  which  had  made  it,  namely,  to 
the  king,  but  with  the  council  of  state  and  the 
nobility.  Who  else  should  adjust  such  disputes  ? 
Did  not  king  Christian  and  king  Charles  appear 
before  the  council  of  state  in  Calmar  ? — The  ex- 
ample was  suspicious.  It  is  worthy  of  remark 
likewise  that  the  regalities  of  the  crown  in  Sweden 
are  further  explained  by  the  German  feudal  law, 
or,  as  it  is  here  styled,  the  imperial  law.  The 
Swedish  nobility  of  the  princij)ality  are  compared, 
in  relation  to  the  knight-service,  with  the  im- 
med'ate  nobility  of  the  German  empire,  wliich, 
although  dwelling  under  reigning  princes,  was  yet 
only  bound  to  perform  military  service  for  its  head. 
One  evident  object  of  this  tract  is  to  place  the 
cliief  nobles,  as  far  as  possible,  on  an  equal  footing 
with  the  dukes.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  Eric's 
purpose  to   depress  the   latter,  if  possible,  to  the 

'  "  Tills  is  reason  and  document,  gathered  from  all  the 
hereditary  settlements  of  king  Gustavus,  that  the  rights  of 
tlie  king  and  the  crown,  which  are  termed  regalities,  must 
be  preserved  to  them,  over  all  Sweden."  The  tract  is  said 
to  have  been  printed,  but  so  far  as  is  known  to  the  present 
author,  no  one  {not  even  Warmholtz)  has  seen  it  in  any 
other  form  than  manuscript.  Eric  Sparre,  born  in  1550,  was 
son  of  the  friend  and  comrade  in  arms  of  king  Gustavus, 
the  high  marshal  Lawrence  Siggeson  Sparre,  and  was 
councillor  of  state  and  vice-chancellor  in  1582.  He  was  be- 
yond comparison  the  most  learned  man  of  his  rank  in 
Sweden.      He   kept    up    a     correspondence   with    learned 


level  of  the  nobilitj-,  when  he  created  in  Sweden 
counts  and  barons  with  hereditary  fiefs.  We 
see  that  this  measure  may  bear  a  double  inter- 
pretation. 

There  exists  another  not  less  remarkable  book, 
which  sets  before  us  the  Swedish  nobleman  of  those 
times,  namely,  "  Count  Peter  Brahe,  whilorne 
Steward  of  Sweden,  his  (Economia,  or  Household- 
Book  for  young  nobles,  written  anno  1585'." 
His  view  is  thus  stated  by  himself :  "  In  what 
manner  the  children  of  nobles  may  be  well  reared 
ill  discipline  and  instruction,  until  they  come  to 
mature  years,  and  how  they  afterwards  should  pre- 
side in  house  and  hall,  thereupon  have  many  in 
divers  wavs  written  long  and  much  in  foreisfn 
tongues.  But  since  of  this  kind  no  writings  at  all 
are  to  be  found  in  our  language,  which  natheless 
worked  no  little  harm,  for  that  in  so  long  a  time 
many  young  nobles  were  thereby  sorely  neglected 
and  cast  in  the  background,  who  else  might  well 
have  arrived  at  authority  and  great  consequence  ; 
therefore  is  this  work  simply  and  shortly  set  down, 
to  the  end  that  they  who  would  know,  and  yet  take 
not  pleasure  in  much  reading,  may  the  sooner 
peruse  it  and  the  better  remember.  Amend  it  who 
will  and  can."  He  next  follows  the  young  noble- 
man in  his  education  and  upon  journeys,  to  court, 
and  into  affairs  of  state  and  war,  lastly  to  the 
bridal  and  the  government  of  a  household.  His 
rules  of  morals  he  draws  mostly  from  the  Bible  and 
the  ancient  Romans  ;  his  domestic  counsels  from 
proverbs  and  maxims  which  are  still  current  in  the 
mouths  of  the  Swedish  peasantry.  We  see  the 
nobleman  of  that  day  in  the  midst  of  his  house- 
folk,  his  dependents,  his  fields  and  meadows,  his 
various  arrangements  at  different  seasons  of  the 
year,  even  his  daily  occupations — from  the  Monday, 
when  he  himself  holds  inquest  and  court-leet  in  his 
hall,  hearing  suits  and  complaints,  and  giving  orders 
for  the  labours  of  the  week,  to  the  Sahbatli,  when 
he  hears  mass  and  sermon,  reads  the  Bible,  and 
exhorts  his  inmates  to  order  and  good  morals.  It 
is  an  honour-worthy  and  well-principled  book,  full 
of  patriarchal  simplicity.  The  author  was  sister's 
son  to  Gustavus  Vasa,  the  same  who  has  described 
for  posterity,  with  admiration  and  reverence,  the 
personal  ap|)earance  of  the  great  king.  And  yet 
he  cannot  conceal  his  longing  after  the  old  times, 
the  days  of  the  union  in  Sweden.  This  happiness 
first  vanished  before  the  tyranny  of  Christian,  and 
afterwards  never  returned.  "  What  liberties,"  he 
complains,  "the  baronage  and  nobility  of  this  realm 
beforetime  enjoyed,  thereof  few  now  can  tell  ;  few 
are  they  who  yet  remember  that  time,  when  the 
spiritual  and  tempot-al  lords  had  themselves  full 
kingly  rights  over  their  own  peasants  ;  when  ever}' 
man  did  knight-service  after  his  own  will  and  cou- 

foreigners,  particularly  with  David  Chytraeus,  who  has 
made  use  of  his  statements  in  his  own  Chronicon  Saxonia;. 
King  James  VI.  of  Scotland  made  Eric  Sparre  a  baron,  on 
account  of  his  distinguislied  natural  gifts  and  his  connexion 
with  the  blood  myal,  and  acnuaints  king  John  therewith  by 
letter  of  the  23rd  of  June,  1583.  When  John  in  151)0  in- 
carcerated Sparre,  he  tore  up  the  Scottish  patent  of  barony 
before  his  eyes. 

6  Printed  at  Wisingsborg  in  1687,  under  the  care  of  his 
grandson  the  steward,  count  Peter  Brahe  the  younger.  The 
old  count  is  styled  in  the  letter  transmitted  to  Rome  by  the 
Jesuits  of  Stockholm,  "  vir  ad  Catholicam  religionem  valde 
propensus,"  and  letters  from  Cardinal  Hosius  to  him  e.\ist. 


1592.] 


Disputes  as  to  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


government  of  the 
duchy. 


173 


venieuce,  and  they  had  good  time  and  pleasant 
days  to  prepare  for  their  out-march,  wliich  yet 
never  went  beyond  the  borders,  vvlule  the  crown 
made  compensation  for  damage  suffered  by  man 
and  horse  ;  when  the  Councillors  of  the  realm  and 
other  chief  men  enjoyed  plenteous  maintenance 
in  land  and  fiefs  from  the  crown,  besides  free 
sway  in  the  Lawmen's  and  Hundred-courts.  For 
sixty  years  (he  continues,  and  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  this  coincides  with  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Gustavus)  we  have  lost  those  privileges,  and  the 
knight-service  has  been  continually  enhanced  from 
time  to  time,  until  king  John  lightened  it,  and 
gave  his  royal  word  so  to  conduct  his  government 
that  all,  but  the  nobles  in  especial,  should  dwell 
under  him  with  pleasure  and  good  will."  This 
king's  charter  of  privileges  was  the  more  to  be 
valued  as  the  last  remnant  of  former  rights,  and 
yet  would  these  hai-dly  avert  the  ruin  of  the  order, 
since  pomp  and  show,  which  had  been  brought  into 
the  land  in  the  time  of  the  tyrant  kmg  Eric,  had 
made  all  court-service  more  costly.  Accordingly, 
it  is  added,  clothing  for  hand  and  foot  shall  be  of 
silk  and  satin,  the  dames  shall  be  bedecked  more 
finely,  and  the  table  spi'ead  with  foreign  liquors, 
fruits,  and  many  dainty  meats,  and  withal  shall 
there  be  servants  with  raiment  and  wage  after  the 
German  fashion,  albeit  our  Swedish  ways  and 
means  are  little  fitting  thereto  ;  wherefore,  espe- 
cially as  the  estates  are  distributed  among  several 
heirs,  it  is  impossible  that  the  order  should  long 
retain  its  power. 

We  pass  over  the  more  trivial  differences  between 
the  king  and  tlie  duke, — as  of  the  latter  refusing  to 
submit  to  "  the  kitig's  intolerable  tallages  "  in  his 
towns,  or  to  pay  the  aids  assessed  in  his  dukedom 
"  without  being  heard  thereupon," — in  order  to  ad- 
vert to  the  chief  of  the  remainder.  Among  these 
was  a  dispute  regarding  the  judicatory.  Of  that, 
whether  in  spiritual  or  secular  causes,  Charles 
claimed  the  regulation  in  his  own  duchy;  and  here 
too  we  see  the  privileges  of  the  nobility  intervening. 
A  count  had  the  right  of  nominating  the  judge  of 
the  hundred  in  his  county.  The  king  refused  the 
duke  that  of  appointing  the  Lawman  in  his  princi- 
pality. The  administi'ation  of  the  law  was,  in  fact, 
in  the  hands  of  the  nobles  :  they  looked  upon  the 
judicial  offices  as  their  property  ;  appropriated  the 
fines  to  which  their  vassals  were  adjudged  ;  and 
these  old  claims  are  for  the  most  part  confirmed  by 
king  John's  privileges.  The  magnates  lived  like 
petty  princes  on  their  manors,  and  it  was  not 
merely  the  foreigner,  duke  Magnus  of  Saxe  Lauen- 
burg  upon  his  fief  in  Upland,  who  treated  the  pea- 
sants almost  like  bondmen,  and  defied  the  king 
himself.     What,  for  example,  did  not  a  man  like 

9  Compare  Fryxell,  Stories  from  the  Swedish  Annals 
(Berattelser  i  Svenska  Historien),  iv.  71. 

'  Declaration  of  the  king  upon  the  reply  of  duke  Charles 
to  the  articles  presented  to  him  by  the  council  of  state, 
August,  1586.  King  John's  Registers.  May  16,  1588, 
Charles  writes  to  Hogenskild  Bielke :  "Although  our  dear 
brother  privileged  well  the  nobility  of  this  realm,  and  we 
were  the  main  Iielpers  thereto,  this  is  yet  abused  in  mani- 
fold ways  of  you  and  others.  Hereof  is  no  word  found  in  the 
charters  of  the  nobility,  that  their  peasants  should  contribute 
not  the  smallest  share  to  the  general  weal." 

-  To  John,  for  the  pardon  of  master  Peter  Jonson,  and 
master  Abraham  Angermannus,  Oct.  4,  1581.  Register  of 
duke  Charles  for  this  year. 

3  June  2,  1587,  Charles  writes   to  master    Abraham,   to 


count  Axel  Leyonhufvud  permit  himself  in  these 
times  against  the  crown,  against  his  dependents,  or 
even  those  who  could  not  be  so  called  ^  ?  Charles 
was  of  another  opinion  than  his  brother,  and  the  king 
gets  to  remind  him,  that  the  privileges  of  the  nobles 
were  also  valid  in  the  principality  '.  Even  if  har- 
mony could  have  been  restored  in  reference  to  the 
secular  jurisdiction,  how  was  that  possible  with  re- 
spect to  the  spiritual,  or  indeed  generally,  so  long  as 
the  first  of  John's  demands  always  was,  that  Charles 
should  acknowledge  his  new  model  of  religion  and 
divine  service,  wiiile  he  again  had  but  one  answer, 
that  he  would  dej>art  not  a  hair's  breadth  from  that 
plan  of  doctrine  and  polity  in  the  Swedish  communion, 
which  had  been  laid  down  after  God's  word  by  his 
father,  who  also  by  his  testament  made  the  kings 
of  Sweden  defenders  of  religion?  All  negotiations 
in  this  matter  between  the  brothers,  conducted 
through  the  council,  remained  entirely  fruitless. 
The  king  ordered  the  use  of  his  liturgy  throughout 
his  dominions;  the  duke  forbade  it  within  his  prin- 
cipality, adhered  to  the  kirk's  ordinance  of  the  year 
1571,  supported  by  his  clergy,  and  gave  shelter  and 
office  to  the  persecuted,  "  because,"  he  writes  to 
the  king,  "  we  profess  ourselves  of  the  religion 
by  which  they  hold  2."  The  bishop  of  Linkbping, 
whom  .John  had  deprived,  was  nominated  by  Charles 
pastor  of  Nykoping.  The  theologers  of  Upsala, 
five  of  whom,  at  different  times,  had  been  removed 
and  imprisoned  on  account  of  the  liturgy,  enjoyed 
his  protection,  and  one  of  them,  Peter  Jonson,  was 
raised  by  him  to  the  bishopric  of  Strengness.  To 
him  fled,  from  John's  wrath,  the  opponents  of  the 
liturgy  among  the  preachers  of  Stockholm;  and  the 
most  vehement  of  them,  Abraham  Angermannus, 
whom  the  king  was  once  minded  to  wrest  from  the 
hands  of  Charles  by  force,  was  sent  at  his  cost  to 
Germany,  where  he  published  his  controversial 
writings  ^.  Many  retracted  the  assent  they  had 
given  to  the  changes  in  divine  worsliip,  since  the 
king's  conduct  seemed  to  imperil  the  whole  Pro- 
testant cause.  Reports  were  circulated  in  the 
country,  how  the  archbishop  Laurentius  Petri  Go- 
thus,  and  several  promoters  of  the  liturgy,  had 
expired  amidst  agonies  of  conscience.  There  were 
instances  of  clergymen  who  fled  with  wife  and 
children  into  the  principality.  In  the  year  1587  it 
came  nigh  the  outbreak  of  a  civil  war,  which  was 
only  averted  by  an  accommodation  with  the  king, 
effected  the  same  year  at  Vadstena,  through  the 
compliance  of  Charles  in  almost  every  point,  who 
yet  referred  the  religious  differences  to  liis  clergy. 
These  condemned  the  liturgy  in  a  synod  at  Streng- 
ness. In  an  objurgatory  letter  the  king  styles  the 
clergy  of  the  duchy  unlearned  smatterers,  ass-heads, 
Satanists,  and  declares  them,  as  the  devil's  mates, 
outlaws  throughout  his  dominions  *. 

proceed  to  Wittenberg,  Leipsic,  and  Helmstadt,  and  request 
the  opinion  of  the  theologians  regarding  the  liturgy.  In  a 
letter  of  April  13,  1581,  the  duke  approves  the  good  and 
Christian  intent  of  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Strengness, 
to  send  some  pious  and  competent  persons  to  Germany  to 
study,  in  consideration  of  the  want  of  learned  divines  in  the 
kingdom,  and  the  great  oppression  to  which  they  were  sub 
jected  for  religion's  sake.     Duke  Charles'  Reg.  1581. 

■i  Patent  against  the  clergy  of  the  principality,  Calmar, 
Feb.  12,  1588,  printed  in  the  Appendi.x  to  the  Rhyme  Chro- 
nicle of  Charles  IX.  p.  203.  In  the  articles  upon  church 
affairs,  which  the  duke  caused  to  be  drawn  up  at  ffirebro 
in  158G,  it  is  ordained  that  a  share  of  the  unappropriated 
tithes  should  be  applied  to  the  maintenance  of  students,  and 


174 


Reflections  on  the 
king's  conduct. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  second  marriage. 
Aft'airs  of  Poland. 


[I5C9- 


Tlie  Red  Book  (so  Joliii's  liturgy  was  called) 
undoubtedly  accelerated  the  unhaiii)y  fate  of  Eric  ; 
it  likewise  imparted  the  most  perilous  character  to 
the  misunderstandings  between  John  and  Charles. 
In  the  latter,  men  saw  the  upholder  of  the  reform- 
ation, of  the  work  of  Gustavus  Vasa  ;  this  he 
was,  and  his  course  was  conformable.  The  quarrel 
that  set  the  brothers  at  variance,  was  in  truth  the 
same  which  now  tore  the  world  asunder.  That 
John  vacillated,  was  prejudicial  only  to  his  own 
cause,  not  his  brother's,  who,  as  soon  as  the  con- 
flict was  transferi'ed  to  this  field,  found  a  basement 
of  independence  strong  enough  to  bear  that  throne, 
which  was  destined  in  aftertime  to  be  the  stay  of 
Protestantism  in  Europe.  We  now  discern  the 
foretokens  of  an  eruption  which  extended  far  in  all 
quarters,  and  determined  the  fate  of  Sweden  in 
more  than  one  respect.  From  one  marge  to  the 
other  this  was  to  swallow  up  victims  enough,  yet 
most  surely  those  who  had  built  their  house  over 
the  abyss  that  was  now  opening. 

Notable  and  ever  alike  in  history  is  the  conduct 
of  those  who,  without  self-dependence,  yet  seek  a 
point  of  support  in  a  seeming  equipoise  between 
opposites  ;  who,  without  conviction  of  their  own, 
live  in  the  practice  of  chaffering  with  convictions, 
take  their  principles  from  one  side  and  their  con- 
clusions from  another,  and,  as  such  procedure  is 
devoid  of  all  inner  substance,  fill  up  the  gap  with 
marvellous  figments  of  their  own  personal  import- 
ance. Withal  has  their  conduct  the  incon- 
sequence necessarily  resulting  from  a  false  position, 
and  may  be  desci-ibed  in  few  words  :  fair  means 
with  bad  ends,  or  fair  ends  with  bad  means. 
Such  are  the  tribe  of  those  by  whom  revolutions 
are  ripened,  and  who  are  stunned  at  their  own 
handiwork. 

What  glittering  plans  did  not  John  sketch  out 
on  the  fiUse  ground  he  had  laid  !  And  not  he  alone  ; 
what  did  not  his  council  at  this  time  wish  and  hope 
for  in  another  direction  ?  Could  the  magnates 
abandon  the  notion  of  again  seeing  a  Union  in 
Sweden  ?  Hope  of  the  Polish  crown  had  long  lived 
in  the  breasts  of  John's  family  *,  and  was  at  length 
fulfilled.  The  nobles  who  assisted  in  its  attain- 
ment were  not  so  short-sighted  as  to  overlook  their 
own  prospective  advantages  during  the  absence  of 
a  king  who  was  also  severed  from  his  countrymen 
by  religion.  The  old  hierarchy  was  mustering  its 
forces  ;  the  old  aristocrats  stood  on  the  watch  to 
establish,  with  or  against  these,  their  own  power 
anew.  Besides,  was  not  Poland  an  elective  mon- 
archy ?  What  if  Sweden  should  become  so  again  ? 
The  Poles  actually  called  Sigismund  king  nominated 
and  elect  of  Sweden. 

John,  changeful  and  selfish,  at  once  hot-tempered 
and  feeble,  at  all  times  allowed  his  courtiers  great 
influence.  Not  a  year  had  elapsed  since  Catharine 
Jagellonica  was  consigned  to  the  tomb,  when  the 
king,  as  he  himself  says,  to  expel  his  deep-seated 
and  oppressive  sorrows,  turned  his  eyes  upon  the 
daugliters  of  his  people.  His  choice  ultimately  fell 
upon  Gunnila  Bielke,  a  maiden  of  sixteen,  daughter 

tliat   the  ministers'  wives   should  enjoy  the  benefices  one 
year  after  tlieir  husbands'  death. 

5  When  Jolin  liimself  souglit  the  Polish  throne,  it  is  stated 
in  an  opinion  of  tlie  council  thereupon,  dated  Vasby,  April 
14,  1.573;  "The  good  lords  have  thought  it  advisable  not 
only  not  to  let  slip  this  opportunity,  but  contrariwise,  as  far 
as  may  be  done  conveniently,  to  watch  and  practise  that  the 


of  the  councillor  of  state  John  Bielke  ;  and  the 
nuptial  was  celebrated  with  pomp  (on  the  21st 
February,  1585)  at  the  castle  of  Westeras.  The 
new  consort  brought  a  new  influence  to  bear  upon 
public  affairs.  The  Catholics  had  lost  their  stay  ; 
tlie  new  queen  favoured  their  adversaries'',  while 
the  king  himself,  with  his  accustomed  violence, 
advanced  in  his  own  mid-way.  Through  this  con- 
nexion he  had  offended  all  his  kiiulred.  His 
children  by  the  former  marriage,  Sigismund  and 
Ann,  saw  with  no  good-will  the  erewhile  chamber- 
woman  of  their  mother  advanced  to  be  their  queen 
and  step-dame  ;  his  sisters  declared  their  annoy- 
ance in  biting  epistles,  and  received  others  still 
sharper  in  reply  ;  Charles,  who  had  dissuaded  from 
the  marriage,  was  not  present  at  the  bridal.  The 
new  influence  fell  in  reality  to  the  council  and  the 
old  families,  with  whom  John  now  found  himself 
more  closely  allied. 

We  observe  traces  of  this  influence  in  the 
complaints  made  by  Charles  relative  to  "  inter- 
lopers," and  in  the  suspicions  fomented  between  the 
brothers,  which  went  so  far  that  John,  travelling  in 
1585  through  the  principality,  made  such  haste  as  if 
he  had  feared  the  seizure  of  his  person  ',  and  at  the 
instance  of  the  council  precluded  his  son  from  taking 
the  diversion  of  the  chase,  lest  Charles  might  lay  an 
ambush  for  him  *.  Meanwhile  the  duke  refused  to 
present  himself  at  the  congress  of  Vadstena,  in 
Febmiary,  1587,  without  safe-conduct  given,  having 
already  declared,  that  such  caution  on  his  part  was 
not  to  be  wondered  at,  since  he  was  accused  of 
having  attemjited  infringements  of  the  majesty  and 
regalities  of  the  king  ;  an  offence  with  respect  to 
which  "  history  shows,  that  neither  brothers  have 
spared  one  another,  nor  parents  their  children "." 
It  was  by  the  strengthening  of  his  connexion  with 
the  magnates  that  John  became  powerful  enough 
for  the  moment  to  dictate  laws  to  his  brother,  at 
the  congress  above-mentioned,  in  all  save  religion. 

Not  less  recognizable  is  this  influence  in  the 
question  touching  the  election  to  the  Polish  crown. 
The  first  account  of  the  now  favourable  prospects, 
brought  by  a  messenger  from  the  Polish  queen 
dowager,  was  joyfully  received  at  the  court  of 
John,  and  a  Swedish  embassy  set  out  to  complete 
the  election.  In  this  business  the  estates  of 
Sweden  were  never  consulted.  Duke  Charles  gave, 
as  requested  of  him,  a  renewed  engagement,  that 
he  would  remain  true  in  all  cases  to  Sigismund  as 
the  heir  of  the  Swedish  throne,  and  only  made  re- 
servation for  himself,  that  Estland  should  not  be 
ceded.  The  demand  of  the  Poles  in  relation  to  this 
point,  the  countei'-election  of  the  arch-duke  Maxi- 
milian, whose  party  it  was  afterward  found  neces- 
sary to  suppress  by  arms,  the  fear  of  committing 
his  only  son  into  the  hands  of  a  foreign  and  turbu- 
lent people,  all  this  nevertheless  produced  so  keen 
an  effect  at  the  last  moment  upon  John's  suscepti- 
bilities, that  the  Polish  envoy,  who  had  come  with 
tidings  of  the  issue  of  the  election,  was  met  by  a 

choice  may  fall  on  the  king's  majesty's  own  royal  person." 
Deliberations  in  king  John's  time,  in  the  Archives. 

6  Adversarii    Gunilam    habuere    patronam,  ut    Catholici 
prius  Catharinam.     Messenius,  vii.  73. 

7  Charles  complains,  in  a  letter  to  Sigismund,  of  this  dis- 
trustfulness. 

8  Werwing,  i.  55.     Charles  used  to  send  hunting-dogs  to 
Sigismund. 

9  Reply  to  John,  Sept.  10,  1575.  Registry  of  Duke  Charles. 


1592.] 


Statutes  of 
Calmar. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Future  government  of 
Sweden  and  Poland. 


175 


rejection  of  the  proffered  crown,  to  which  Sigis- 
mund  willingly  agreed'.  John  himself  subse- 
quently complained  that  the  council  had  employed 
the  agency  of  monks  and  priests  to  overcome  his 
reluctance.  Erie  Sparrd's  return  from  Poland  at 
length  fully  determined  his  resolves.  This  noble- 
man's co-operation  decided  the  matter,  in  Poland  by 
his  promise  of  Esthonia,  in  Sweden  by  his  repre- 
sentations that  nothing  had  been  promised.  He  is 
likewise  the  author  of  the  "  Statutes  of  Calmar 
anent  the  government  of  both  kingdoms  2,"  which 
on  Sigisniund's  departure  were  laid  before  the 
kings  for  their  subscription,  and  on  the  7th 
September,  1587,  were  signed. 

This  was  in  truth  a  new  Union  of  Calmar,  under 
changed  circumstances,  but  not  less  favourable  to 
the  grandees.  The  spirit  of  the  old  northern  nobi- 
lity of  princes  breaks  forth  again,  and  not  in  the 
most  circumspect  phrase.  Here  it  is  hi  id  down 
that  to  the  nobility  of  Sweden  belongs  high  re- 
verence and  honour,  seeing  that  from  of  old  they 
have  possessed  the  chief  rank  after  kings  and 
princes,  of  whom  they  are  mostly  descended,  like 
as  such  leaders  too  have  sprung  from  them  ; — a  re- 
miniscence doubtless  intended  as  a  reply  to  the 
reproaches  of  the  king's  kindred,  that  John  had 
married  beneath  his  dignity  ; — wherefore  it  was  to 
be  understood,  that  many  kinds  of  court-service 
might  be  below  the  rank  of  nobility,  as  for  instance 
being  employed  as  guards,  lackeys,  and  the  like, 
which  should  be  interdicted  to  a  Swedish  noble- 
man, even  if  he  offered  himself  thereto.  The  object 
of  the  Calmar  statutes  is  declared  to  be  the  defence 
of  the  religion  and  freedom  of  the  realm  (in  another 
sense,  certainly',  from  that  which  they  carried  in 
Charles'  blazon)  under  a  Catholic  sovereign,  reign- 
ing likewise  in  Poland.  In  respect  to  the  former, 
J(dm's  liturgy  is  made  the  rule,  with  the  ulterior 
provisions  which  should  be  settled  at  a  future 
assembly  of  the  Swedish  church.  Sigismund  was 
not  allowed  to  effect  any  change  therein,  nor  ever 
to  come  to  Sweden  with  more  than  ten  Catholic 
clergymen  ;  yet  the  nuns  of  Vadstena  might  have 
their  own  Catholic  priest,  and  this  convent,  in 
common  with  the  others  erected  by  John,  was  to 
be  maintained.  In  other  points  the  ordinary  terms 
of  unions  ap[)ear  ;  peace  and  alliance  (conjointly 
against  Russia  both  for  offence  and  defence)  be- 
tween the  two  kingdoms,  law  and  liberty  unimjiaired 
in  each,  and  government  by  natives  only.  This, 
after  Sigismund  should  have  mounted  the  Swedish 
throne,  was  to  be  conducted  in  his  absence,  and 
under  him  wlien  he  was  present,  which  was  to  be 
at  least  every  third  year,  by  "  certain  of  the  chief 
men,"  to  the  number  of  seven  ;  and  it  was  to  be 
changed  every  second  or  third  year.  (3ne  of  these 
duke  Charles  might  name,  yet  without  precedence 
or  other  place  than  that  which  th(.*person  selected 
had  by  birth  the  right  of  occupying  among  the 
others.  The  duke's  rights  otherwise  remained  as 
they  had  been  lately  determined  by  the  ordinance 
of  Vadstena,  and  the  king  confirms  to  him  as  well 
as  to  the  counts  and  free-barons,  in  consideration 

1  Ipsemet  princeps  Sigismundus  a  Polonica  totus  abhorruit 
profectione,  parentique  factus  aliquoties  supplex,  illam  de- 
jirecari  conatur.     Messeiiius,  vii.  84. 

2  Statuta  Calmariensia  de  regimine  utriusque  regni.  The 
Latin  original  the  author  has  not  seen.  Charles  entitles  it, 
"  a  form  of  government,  which  the  Lord  Eric  Sparre  had 


of  their  taking  an  oath  of  fidelity,  their  hereditary 
fiefs.  The  great  offices  of  the  realm,  as  steward, 
marshal,  chancellor,  and  admiral,  as  also  chiefs  of 
provinces  or  lieutenants,  were  to  be  filled  uj)  by 
the  king  from  li.sts  proj)osed  by  the  council.  The 
public  treasures,  jewels,  artillery,  military  stores, 
were  not  to  be  removed  out  of  the  country,  and  as 
little  any  portion  of  the  revenue,  excepting  what 
might  be  required  for  the  marringe  festivities  of 
the  sovereign  and  liis  children,  according  to  the 
Land's  Law.  No  new  tax  could  be  imposed  in  the 
king's  absence.  Upon  war,  peace,  and  alliances  the 
estates  of  Sweden  were  to  be  heard,  and  without 
their  approval  no  injunction  or  prohibition  issued 
in  Poland  was  to  be  valid.  No  Swede  could  be  con- 
demned except  in  Sweden,  and  conformably  to  the 
Swedish  law,  and  after  the  matter  had  been  tried 
before  his  peers.  From  Livonia  an  appeal  was  to  lie 
to  the  Swedish  council.  Of  the  conquered  provinces 
no  jiart  was  to  be  ceded,  nor  any  portion  of  the  terri- 
tory of  the  kingdom,  and  all  were  placed  only  under 
Swedish  rule  and  authority.  Revolt  in  one  kingdom 
might  be  quieted  by  aid  from  the  other,  with  reim- 
bursement of  costs.  Sigismund  was  to  be  crowned 
in  Upsala  by  a  Swedish  archbishop,  professing  the 
religion  of  Sweden,  not  by  any  Papist.  His  eldest 
son  succeeded  in  Sweden  according  to  hereditary 
right,  in  Poland  when  he  should  be  elected  ;  the 
second  son  was  to  have  a  duchy  in  Sweden,  yet  not 
all  Finland,  nor  Lifland  ;  for  other  sons  the  Poles 
might  provide,  as  for  the  king's  daughters  born 
in  Poland.  If  king  John  should  have  children  by 
his  second  marriage,  Sigismund  was  to  confirm  those 
advantages  which  their  father  should  settle  upon 
them  by  will.  Such  are  the  princijial  contents  of 
those  articles;  we  may  add,  that  the  king  is  also 
bound  to  watch  over  the  inirity  of  the  Swedish 
language.  In  documents  which  concern  both  king- 
doms the  Latin  was  to  be  employed ;  wherefore  the 
king  is  also  bound  to  cause  to  be  educated  in  clas- 
sical studies,  at  his  own  cost,  some  noble  youths  of 
the  kingdom,  and  others  who  are  to  be  appointed  to 
chanceries  and  high  offices  of  the  church.  It  is 
declared  that  all  the  foregoing  had  been  accorded, 
subscribed,  and  sealed  by  John,  Sigismund,  and 
Charles,  with  the  ])rincipal  nobles  of  Sweden  ;  the 
signatures  of  the  two  first-named  only  are  found. 
In  liow  far  Charles  was  aware  of  this  form  of  go- 
vernment will  soon  be  seen.  The  council  writes  to 
Sigismund  in  Poland,  February  the  8th,  1588,  and 
exhorts  him  to  maintain  irrefragably  what  he  had 
promised  and  sworn  in  "  the  latest  constitution " 
which  had  been  arranged  between  both  kings. 

This  was  the  "  Sevenmen's  Government,  after 
the  example  of  the  electors  of  Germany,"  which 
the  great  Gustavus  Adolphus  mentions,  as  devised 
by  certain  lords  of  the  council,  "  who  would  have 
been  right  well  content,"  he  says,  "  if  the  king  had 
been  a  spear,  and  thrust  through  the  body  of  the 
duke,  whereby  they  might  have  been  quit  of  both  ;" 
adding,  "  these  fellows  too  were  they,  who  coun- 
selled king  John  to  educate  his  son  for  both  king- 
doms (tliat  wasjin  the  Catholic  religion),  which  made 

drawn  up;"  (Speech  to  tlie  Council  after  John's  death,  Wcr- 
wing,  1,  107,)  and  adds,  "our  brother  and  lord  the  king, 
who  had  imagined  to  himself  the  erection  of  a  new  monarchy, 
so  soon  as  lie  could  procure  for  his  son  the  kingdom  of  Poland 
along  with  Sweden,  assented  to  all  the  plans  tending  towards 
this  object."     Ibid. 


170 


Family  of 
Vasa. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Sus])irions  of  treason 
in  the  council. 


[13(;9— 


him  unfit  for  the  government  of  Sweden'."  At 
this  time  tlie  family  of  Gustavus  Vasa  was  both 
lessened  in  number  and  divided  within  itself. 
Eric's  house  was  desolate,  Magnus  deranged,  John 
had  yet  no  children  by  his  second  mai-riage,  Sigis- 
mund  had  removed  to  a  foi'eign  dominion.  Charles 
had,  in  1570,  personally  sought  a  bride  for  himself 
in  Mary  of  the  Palatinate*,  whose  lovesome  memory 
he  highly  extols  in  his  Rhyme-Chronicle,  as  he 
also  named  after  her  the  royal  manor  ^  where  he 
so  often  resided  with  her,  and  one  of  his  new  towns. 
She  resembled  in  virtues  Catharine  Jagellonica, 
and  was,  like  her,  a  mediatress  in  the  disputes  of 
the  brothers.  But  of  six  children  whom  she  bore 
to  him,  all  died  at  a  tender  age,  except  the  daughter 
Catharine,  ancestress  of  the  Palatine  house  on  the 
Swedish  throne.  It  was  amidst  such  prospects 
that  Charles  in  1588  wrote  to  Sigismund  in  Poland, 
enjoining  him  to  marry "  ;  there  were  so  few  of 
the  Vasa  family  remaining,  not  more  than  three  on 
the  sword-side  ;  they  ought  to  keep  together ; 
there  was  a  party  which  of  late  years  had  instigated 
much  evil  between  brothers  and  kinsmen.  He 
says  likewise,  that  he  had  heard  of  a  written  docu- 
ment, which  perhaps  somewhat  concerned  hira,  as 
it  had  been  accorded  and  sealed  at  the  time  wlien 
Sigismund  left  Sweden,  and  he  wondered  why  it 
should  be  so  concealed  from  him. 

At  the  same  time  we  see  John's  disposition 
imdergo  a  remarkable  change.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  same  year  he  writes  himself  to  his  son,  that 
treasonable  plots  were  rife  ;  that  there  were  some 
whose  secret  aim  was  that  the  royal  line  should 
expire,  and  the  realm  be  without  a  king,  in  order 
that  tliey  might  attain  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  that  these  persons  were  heard  to  observe 
that  their  forefathers  had  not  acted  rightly  and 
wisely  with  the  hereditary  settlement.  The  svis- 
pected  ringleaders  were  Hogenskild  Bielk^,  Eric 
Sparr(J,  Thure  Bielke,  Gustave  Baner,  Claes 
Akeson  Tott,  and  Count  Axel  Leyonhufvud,  with 
some  others  of  the  nobles.  "  Of  the  same  opinion 
respecting  them  is  duke  Charles,  our  dear  brother, 
with  whom  we  are  now  fully  reconciled,  which 
verily  doth  not  well  please  the  others  '." — We  per- 
ceive from  whom  these  suspicions  emanate.  By 
John  they  were  fostered  more  out  of  sorrow  for  his 

3  See  the  fore-cited  "  History  liy  king  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  written  with  his  own  hand,  upon  the  reign  of  Charles 
IX."  (Konung  Gustaf  Adolfsegenhiindigt  uppsattahistoria, 
angaende  Caroli  IX.'s  regementstid.)  Bennet  Bergius, 
who  published  it,  together  with  the  Rhyme  Chronicle  of 
Charles  IX.,  appended  the  following  testimony:  "  This  fore- 
going historical  relation  did  the  copyist  M.  Falck,  who  was 
afterwards  burgomaster  in  Kexholm,  transcribe  by  command 
from  king  Gustavus  Adolphus'  own  manuscript,  some  years 
before  the  unhappy  castle-burning  (167C)."  S.  Lejonmarck 
Secret.  Archivi. 

■*  Daughter  of  Ludovic  VI.  Elector  Palatine,  and  his  first 
wife  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Philip  the  Magnanimous  land- 
grave of  Hesse.  The  duke  in  person  wooed  and  affianced 
himself  during  his  first  journey  to  Germany  in  1578;  the 
second  be  undertook  in  \^7'J.  when  he  celebrated  his  mar- 
riage on  the  nth  May  in  Heidelberg.  He  repaired  thither 
once  more  with  his  spouse  in  1583. 

5  Marieholm : 

"  After  our  Lady  was  the  pious  princess  called ; 
The  Wener  not  a  better  haven  walled." 
There  Charles  in   1583  founded  Mariestad,  the  seat  of  the 
superintendent  or  bishop,  whom   in   1580  he   named  over 
Verraeland  and  the  hundreds  of  Wadsbo  and  Walla. 


separation  from  Sigismund,  of  which  he  now  threw 
the  blame  upon  the  council,  than  out  of  confidence 
in  Charles.  For  when  the  latter  ventured  to  in- 
quire after  the  purport  of  the  testament  which  the 
king  is  said  to  have  drawn  out  at  this  time,  and 
likewise  to  sequestrate  a  portion  of  the  rents  of 
Stromsholm  fief,  he  was  met  by  the  most  violent 
reproaches.  The  king  could  himself  well  consider 
what  was  behoveful  for  the  realm  of  Sweden  as 
well  in  his  time  as  after  him,  and  would  counsel 
his  son  thereupon  at  the  conference  now  appointed 
between  them  in  Reval;  for  he  himself  and  Sigis- 
mund had,  praise  be  to  God,  the  first  word  in 
Sweden.  "  We  understood,"  he  continues,  "  to 
govern  land  and  principality,  when  you  were  but  a 
child,  and  you  shall  neither  now  nor  after  be  our 
tutor  *."  In  general,  John's  temper  became  with 
years  intolerable.  Already  in  1585  the  council 
prays  through  Sigismund,  that  his  majesty  would 
hear  their  opinions,  without  being  so  prone  to 
anger,  desist  from  the  violence  wherewith  he  was 
carried  away,  and  also  from  his  violent  epistles  to 
the  duke.  The  king  replies,  that  he  would  be  glad  ' 
to  yield  to  their  requests,  but  conceives  himself 
to  be  "  of  a  choleric  complexion  and  martialist 
nature,  that  cannot  therefore  well  endure  what  is 
repugnant  to  him  ^." 

It  has  already  beeri  remarked  above,  that  the 
first  theoretical  attempts  to  determine  the  regalities 
of  the  crown  in  Sweden,  proceeding  from  the  mag- 
nates and  directed  against  the  duke,  were  still  to 
receive,  in  John's  time,  a  for  them  unexpected  ap- 
plication. The  question  was  notoriously  made  use 
of  by  others  as  a  means  to  court-favour,  and  pro- 
duced also  tmdoubtedly  the  so-called  statute  of 
Helgeand's  Holm,  which,  pretended  to  be  drawn 
up  by  king  Magnus  Ladulas  in  common  with  the 
council  and  estates  of  the  realm  in  1282,  was  un- 
known until  the  30th  June,  1587,  when  the  bailiff 
of  East-Gothland,  Paine  Ericson  (Rosenstrale), 
gave  in  not  the  statute  itself,  but  a  memoir  there- 
upon, to  the  royal  chancery  '.  According  to  a 
manuscript  note  referred  to  by  Lagerbring,  this 
memoir  is  said  to  have  been  shown  to  George 
Person,  who  had  written  upon  it  that  it  was  of  no 
value  2.    Another  superscription,  said  to  be  by  Eric 

5  To  Sigismund  with  Maurice  Stenson  Lejonhufvud. 
drebro,  Julys,  1588.     Registry  of  duke  Charles. 

'  To  Sigismund  upon  the  treason  of  the  council.  Calmar, 
Jan.  30,  1588.     King  John's  Registry. 

8  To  duke  Charles,  "  upon  the  government  after  us  in 
Sweden,  and  vipon  the  sequestration  of  a  portion  of  the  rents 
of  the  hundreds  of  Tuhnndra  and  Stiafringe."  Svartsioe, 
June  12,  1589.     Registry  of  king  Jolm. 

9  Deliberations  in  king  John's  time,  in  the  Archives. 

1  The  statement  as  to  the  time  when  the  memoir  was 
composed,  is  taken  from  an  inscription  on  the  document, 
running  thus:  "Paine  Ericson's  imagined  information,  which 
he  delivered  in  upon  the  last  day  of  June,  1587,  to  the  royal 
chancery  and  chamber  of  accounts  at  Norkoping."  Diploma- 
tarium  Suec.  i.  106. 

2  Dissert  de  dccreto  comitiall,  vulgo  Helgeandsholms 
Beslut.  Loud.  Goth.  (Lund)  1753.  Compare  his  Svea  Hikes 
Historia  ii.  587.  Probably,  however,  this  note  (which,  if  1 
recollect  right,  is  said  to  have  been  in  the  hand  of  Hogens- 
kild Hielke,)  is  a  mistake,  as  it  purports  that  Paine  Ericson 
(of  whom  mention  is  first  made  in  king  John's  time)  is  said 
to  have  beforehand  shown  the  memoir  upon  the  statute 
of  Helgeandsholm  to  George  Person,  wherefore  also  Lager- 
bring doubts  whetlier  the  allusion  here  was  to  the  well- 
known  George  Person  of  the  days  of  Eric  XIV. 


1392.] 


Regulations  as 
to  mines. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Improvements  of  Charles 
in  Vermeland. 


177 


Sparrc-,  purports  that  it  had  been  presented  with 
falsities  by  one  who  was  the  chief  of  Uars  '.  If  these 
judgments  be  really  theirs,  then  in  the  very  outset 
we  have  two  men  of  opposite  parties,  both  com- 
petent judges,  agreeing  in  that  conclusion  to 
which  we  have  been  led  upon  historical  grounds. 
We  refer  to  what  has  been  already  remarked  in 
the  narrative  of  that  reign  to  which  this  statute  is 
ascribed  *.  According  to  some,  Rasmus  Ludvic- 
son  was  the  inventor  of  this  discovery  ^.  If  the 
intention  was  to  consecrate  by  antiquity  the  new 
maxims  asserted  in  the  time  of  Gustavus  I.,  this 
object,  notwithstanding  the  suspected  source,  was 
obtained  ;  for  in  this  sense  the  statute  of  Helgeands 
Holm  was  often  enough  appealed  to  in  after-days. 
But  he  who  brought  it  to  light,  had  likewise  private 
views  of  his  own.  In  an  appendix  to  his  memoir, 
the  author  inveighs  very  zealously  against  the  con- 
struction by  the  nobility  of  mills  and  fish-weirs  in 
tlie  great  streams  of  the  country,  which,  according 
to  this  alleged  statute,  should  escheat  to  the 
crown  *  ;  and  a  saying  was  current,  that  a  suit 
brought  by  Paine  Ericson  relative  to  a  fishery  in 
the  Bra  bay,  had  been  the  proximate  inducement 
to  this  discovery  in  the  liistory  of  the  kingdom  '. 

King  John  had  before  upheld  the  pretensions 
advanced  by  his  father  to  mines  and  forests.  In 
the  year  1584  the  council  refers  it  to  him  to  pro- 
nounce whether,  when  there  were  more  veins  of  ore 
than  his  majesty  could  work,  the  same,  as  also  the 
woods,  might  not  be  let  out  to  foreigners,  in  consider- 
ation of  a  payment  of  tithe  to  the  crown.  The  king 
rejoins,  that  he  would  himself  make  available  all 
the  veins  of  oi'e  already  found  ;  those  which  should 
be  further  opened,  might  be  let  upon  tithe,  until  he 
found  it  convenient  again  to  enter  upon  his  rights*. 
These  riglits  the  king  exercised,  as  for  instance  in 
1575,  ill  reference  to  Bitsberg,  "  anciently  the  prin- 
cipal" iron-mount  in  the  kingdom,  where  the 
miners  are  forbidden  to  break  up  the  ore  in  the 
lesser  pits  which  should  be  opened  there  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  works  were  to  be  carried  on  in  the 
greater  mine,  and  the  unlicensed  forges  to  be  sup- 
pressed. Duke  Charles  complains  in  1581  that 
John  had  forbidden  him  to  work  a  mine  at  Nora, 
which  he  had  bought ' ;  aud  he  forms  an  alliance 

3  Lagerbring  1.  c.  Diplomat.  Suec.  i.  607. 
■•  Compare  c.  iv. 

5  Paine  Ericson,  or  Rasmus  Ludvicson,  says  Peringskold. 
See  Liliegren's  Diplomat.  1.  c.  Peringskold  otherwise  de- 
fends the  authenticity  of  the  statute,  but  relies  upon  another 
letter  which  bears  all  the  marks  of  forgery. 

6  "  But  since  the  alien  sovereigns  came  in,  the  baronage 
and  nobles  began  to  found  mills  and  fisheries  on  the  before- 
mentioned  three  streams,  and  then  to  arrogate  to  themselves 
the  same  rights  which  the  crown  should  possess.  .  .  .  And 
the  crown  was  hereby  endamaged,  and  its  rents  impaired  up 
to  this  day,  inasmuch  as  the  Swedish  rulers  would  take  no 
step  hereupon."  Diplomat.  1.  c.  The  Swedish  text  shows 
that  Paine  Ericson  could  never  write  his  mother-tongue  as  a 
man  of  education  at  that  day  wrote  it. 

7  The  inducement  to  Paine  Ericson's  discovery,  with  the 
memoir  upon  the  statute  of  Helgeands  Holm,  was  that 
he,  as  a  man  of  office  in  East-Gothland,  laid  down  a  fish- 
weir  in  the  Bra  bay,  whereupon,  complaint  being  made,  he 
put  forward  his  fabricated  memoir  to  the  effect  that  forests, 
ore-pits,  streams,  as  also  tlie  Bra  bay,  appertain  to  the 
crown.  Observation  by  bishop  Nordin  in  the  Nordin  Col- 
lections. Messenius,  who  wrote  after  the  assertion  had 
produced  its  effect,  is  the  first  historiographer  who  mentions 
the  statute  of  Helgeands  Holm,  unknown  to  all  his  fore- 
runners. 


with  the  industry  of  private  persons  in  his  duchy. 
In  the  above  year  he  wrote  to  the  conmioners  of 
Vermeland :  "  Seeing  that  the  bounty  of  God 
Almighty  has  replenished  the  mountains  of  Verme- 
land with  all  sorts  of  ores,  such  as  have  never 
hitherto  been  brought  to  light,  but  rather  perad- 
venture  kept  hidden  there  by  our  subjects,  in  the 
fear  never  to  be  allowed  to  make  profit  of  such 
ore,  and  to  be  loaded  with  burdensome  taxes ; 
therefore,  and  to  take  away  such  apprehensions,  be 
it  known  to  all,  that  whosoever  discovers  ore,  may 
freely  bring  it  to  light  for  a  payment  of  tithe  '.'' 
The  same  maxims  he  followed  in  i-espect  to  woods, 
as  is  plain  from  his  patent  to  those  who  wish  to 
settle  in  the  wastes  of  Vermeland,  to  hold  their 
settlements  descendible  to  their  heirs,  but  subject 
to  land-tax  2.  For  the  profitable  cultivation  of  this 
province,  Charles,  after  that  king  whom  the  saga 
makes  first  here  to  lay  the  axe  to  the  root,  merits 
the  highest  praise,  and  especially  he  is  the  real 
creator  of  its  mines.  The  Finns  of  Vermeland 
were  called  in  by  him  as  colonists.  The  lathe  of 
Carlskoga  (Charles'  forest),  formerly  a  waste,  where 
on  the  strand  of  Lake  Mockeln  scattered  cattle- 
steadings  were  the  only  places  of  refuge,  still 
bears  his  name.  Carlstad  ^,  the  first  town  in  Ver- 
meland, was  built  by  him,  and  a  hundred  years 
after  his  death,  the  old  people  of  the  country  still 
named  him  the  great  Chai'les.  He  early  showed 
that  care  for  general  education,  which  he  after- 
wards as  king  was  to  restore  on  the  ground  of 
Protestantism.  What  John  in  this  i-espect  in- 
tended and  partly  accomplished,  was  all  united 
with  the  hierarchical  plans  peculiar  to  himself,  and 
fell  with  them  to  ruin.  Of  the  liberal  arts  this 
king  was  the  first  pi'otector  in  Sweden.  Several 
foreign  artists,  especially  architects,  were  at  his 
court ;  he  built  incessantly,  and,  as  his  subjects 
complained,  at  far  too  great  a  cost. 

Of  the  progress  of  industry,  on  the  other  hand, 
not  much  in  his  time  is  to  be  told.  The  produce  of 
the  silver  mines  fell  off,  and  first  began  again  to 
rise  towards  the  end  of  his  reign.  The  king  com- 
plains of  the  extensive  frauds  in  the  preparation  of 
copper,  bar-iron,  and  raw-iron,  which  hence  was 
little  esteemed  by  foreigners  *.  He  complains  still 
oftener  of  the  depreciation  of  the  coinage,  while  he 

"  Deliberations  in  king  John's  time.    Archives. 
5  Registry  for  this  year. 

1  Nykoping,Jan.23.  Duke  Charles' Reg.  for  1 581.  {Tionde, 
tithe,  tiend.     T.) 

2  Tingvalla,  Nov.  2,  1582.     Reg. 

3  Privileged  on  Tingvalla  Island,  March  5,  1584,  with  two 
great  fairs  for  all  the  inhabitants,  Petersmass  in  summer, 
and  the  "  Fasting  "  on  the  second  Sunday  in  Lent,  with  trade 
to  the  mines  of  Vermeland    and   lake    Vener,  which  was 

to  be  carried  on  only  in  Varnums  Port,  afterwards  Chris- 
tinehamn.  In  1589,  the  duke  appointed  Andrew  Laurence- 
son  rector  of  the  school  of  Carlstad,  as  he  also  devoted  par- 
ticular care  to  the  schools  of  Strengness,  Nykiiping,  and 
MarisBStad.  As  king,  in  ICIl,  he  privileged  the  mining  town 
of  Philipstad.  So  early  as  1581,  Charles  gives  order  that  the 
people  might  assemble  for  traffic  every  other  Saturday  by 
the  hill-church  of  Fernebo.  Before  the  foundation  of  Carl- 
stad, the  duke  intended  to  build  a  town  in  the  parish  of  Bro 
in  Vermeland,  and  assigned  thereto  (Jan.  14,  1582)  fields  and 
meadows,  with  the  Isle  of  Wal  in  the  Wener.     Reg. 

'^  In  Finspang  there  was  already  a  manufactory,  where 
spades,  pick-axes,  and  other  coarser  implements  were  pre- 
pared ;  Sigismund  obtained  for  his  Polish  journey  800  skip- 
punds  of  copper ;  a  portion  of  the  Danish  cannon,  which  by  the 
peace  of  Stettin  v/ere  to  be  redeemed,  was  paid  for  with  iron. 
N 


178 


Mismanagement  and 
profusion  of  the  court. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  king  determines 
to  visit  Sigismund. 


[1509- 


himself  often  altered  the  value  of  his  gold  and 
silver  coins.  He  re-introduced  the  need-money 
notorious  at  the  outset  of  the  reign  of  Gustavus 
and  under  that  of  Eric,  cut  with  the  shears, 
and  therefore  called  klippings,  which  were  indeed 
called  in  during  the  year  1575,  but  in  1589  again 
brought  into  circulation.  By  repeated  prohibitions 
against  the  land-trade  it  was  thought  to  encourage 
the  towns,  the  nobles  having  in  fact  possessed 
themselves  of  it  by  making  great  purcliases  of  the 
country  wares,  often  in  the  name  of  the  crown,  and 
sending  them  by  the  country  people  to  the  sea- 
coast,  where  they  were  bartered  for  cargoes  of 
foreign  goods  afterwards  distributed  in  the  same  way 
thi'oughout  the  country.  These  pi'actices,itwas  said, 
were  common  among  councillors  of  state,  prefects, 
lieutenants,  justiciaries,  and  others,  who  had  com- 
mand among  the  rural  population  ^.  To  this  it 
gave  little  relief  that  the  liing  sought  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  the  burgher  class  by  ordinances 
against  luxury,  at  last  so  stringent,  that  on  the 
27th  May,  1589,  he  imposed  on  every  bvirgess  who 
indulged  his  female  relatives  with  silk  kii'tles  and 
satin  gorgets,  the  obligation  of  maintaining  one 
pikeman  for  every  piece  of  such  cloth  ". 

Generally  there  is  observable  as  much  disorder 
and  want  of  economy  throughout  the  kingdom,  as 
industry,  sagacity,  and  frugality  in  the  duchy.  In 
i  1585  the  council  found  itself  obliged  to  make  repre- 
I  sentations  to  the  king.  In  his  household  and  on 
his  estates  they  declare  thei'e  is  intolerable  excess 
of  eatmg  and  drinking;  for  of  pages,  lackeys,  out- 
riders," footmen,  and  other  loose  people,  who  with 
wife  and  children  follow  the  court  and  lay  a  heavy 
burden  on  the  land,  there  is  no  end;  in  the  receipt 
of  taxes  is  no  order,  in  the  accounts  nothing  is 
clear  ;  in  Finland  no  exact  system  of  assessment  is 
yet  applied,  and  the  admeasurement  begun  in  the 
rest  of  the  kingdom  is  not  carried  out';  the  ser- 
vants of  the  king,  duke  Charles,  and  also  of  the 
nobility,  follow  civic  vocations,  to  the  detriment  of 
the  towns;  the  king  keeps  too  manyai'chitects,  and 
at  too  great  cost,  although  the  crown  already  pos- 
sesses stately  mansions  enow ;  in  the  distribution  of 
fiefs  great  frauds  are  practised,  and  many  unworthy 
holders  thereof  might  be  mentioned  ;  withal,  the 
council  prays,  that  the  disorders  committed  may 
have  a  remedy,  and  that  the  king  may  not  himself 
annul  his  own  commands  ^.  John  took  these  re- 
presentations in  no  good  part.  According  to  his 
notion  tlie  rights  of  the  crown  must  first  be  en- 
forced, as  he  showed  by  the  declaration,  that  he 
was  compelled  by  the  preparations  requisite  with  a 
view  to  war,  to  revoke  all  grants  of  fiefs  made  to 
the  nobility,  whether  in  or  out  of  the  council.  These 
menaces  8,  first  uttered  in  1584,  were  renewed  in 
1586  and  1588,  and  at  length  carried  into  eifcct 

*  See  the  prohibition  hereof,  issued  in  1583,  and  the  king's 
answer  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  council  in  Reval. 

*  The  old  dress  of  the  burgess  dames  with  "  gorget,  cap, 
and  hood  witli  a  cornet,  and  a  plaited  gown  of  good  cloth," 
the  king  on  the  other  hand  does  not  disapprove.  The  pro- 
hibition above  quoted  refers  to  what  was  called  the  noble 
garb. 

'  May  30,  1584,  an  ordinance  had  been  promulgated  for  a 
new  groimd-reckoning  and  assignment  of  taxes,  as  the  pub- 
lic income  ever  more  and  more  decreased.     Registry. 

8  Deliberations  in  king  John's  time.    Archives. 

«  See  the  Registry  for  the  above-named  year.  That  even 
in  1590  they  were  not   executed,  we  may  learn  by  duke 


against  the  lords  of  the  council,  who  fell  into  com- 
plete disgrace  at  the  conference  of  the  two  sove- 
reigns in  Reval. 

Longing  for  a  sight  of  his  son,  disgust  and  impa- 
tience of  the  business  of  administration,  embittered 
more  and  more  the  king's  temper  ;  yet  he  wished 
more  than  ever,  out  of  displeasure  against  the  coun- 
cil, that  it  should  be  said  he  alone  governed. 
This  desii-e  was  so  engrossing  tliat  he  carried  about 
his  person  the  key  of  the  royal  treasury,  and  not 
even  a  letter-carrier  could  be  despatched  unless 
the  king  disbursed  the  money  thereto '.  Yet  at 
this  very  time  complaint  was  made,  that  what  had 
been  collected  for  the  army  was  squandered  on 
buildings  and  costly  vessels  of  plate.  The  govern- 
ment fell  really  into  the  hands  of  subordinates  and 
adventurers,  and  ai'ound  the  king  rose  up  that 
government  of  secretaries  which  afterwards  became 
notorious  enough  in  Sweden  under  arbiti'arily  dis- 
posed rulers.  George  Person  may  be  named  tire 
father  of  this  tribe;  and  his  son  Eric  Goranson 
Tegel  2,  with  all  the  merits  to  which  he  may  lay 
claim  for  his  services  to  Swedish  history,  was  not 
very  different  in  character.  Men  like  John  Henry- 
son  and  Olave  Swerkerson^  afterwards  acquii'ed, 
in  these  times  of  bloody  and  tedious  discord  in  the 
royal  family,  a  mournful  influence  and  a  shameful 
notoriety. 

Towards  the  autumn  of  1588  the  rumour  went  of 
a  conference  fixed  between  John  and  Sigismund  for 
the  following  summer  at  Reval.  Trusty  messen- 
gers passed  to  and  fro  between  the  princes;  of  the 
councillors  none  were  admitted  into  the  secret  save 
Clas  Fleming,  whohad  gained  John's  good  gracesonce 
for  all  by  giving  advice  against  the  journey  of  Si- 
gismund to  Poland.  The  others  named  him  there- 
fore an  untrue  broker,  and  in  vain  sought  from  the 
royal  secretaries  an  explanation  as  to  that  which 
was  really  in  progress.  It  was  publicly  said  in 
Sweden  as  well  as  Poland  that  the  kings  would 
conjointly  endeavour  the  conclusion  of  a  peace 
with  Russia;  and  John  already  is.5ued  in  Novem- 
ber, 1588,  and  repeated  in  the  spring  of  1589,  (no 
mention  of  participation  either  by  the  council  or 
the  estates  being  made,)  summonses  to  the  whole 
realm,  for  a  general  war-tax  in  wares,  and  for 
an  impost  under  the  name  of  a  voluntary  loan.  He 
likewise  exacted  from  the  nobility  the  full  per- 
formance of  the  conditions  of  their  knight-service  ; 
admonishing  them  that  it  would  well  befit  them  to 
extend  it  beyond  its  legal  obligation,  as  the  king 
himself,  in  his  old  age,  meant  to  venture  his  person 
against  the  enemy,  and  compel  them  to  an  honour- 
able peace.  The  council  assembled  about  the  king 
in  Upsala,  conjectured  some  other  "especial  and 
singular  reasons  "  why  his  majesty  should  so  vehe- 

Charles'  answer  of  the  same  year  to  the  points  of  complaint 
presented  by  the  council  and  nobility  at  Reval :  the  king, 
he  says,  cannot  mannge  with  his  revenues,  because  land  and 
fiefs  are  alienated  from  the  crown ;  and  where  not  so  much 
is  granted  in  fief,  more  has  been  alienated  in  perpetuity  by 
the  crown  than  under  any  former  reign.  Appendix  to 
Werwing,  i.  76,  78. 

1  Eric  Sparre's  Vindicatory  Memoir,  pt.  ii.  MS.  in  the 
Nordin  Collections. 

s  Who  wrote  the  histories  of  Gustavus  I.  and  Eric  XIV. 
Thans. 

3  Also  called  Olave  Perkelson,(Perkel  means  devil  in  Fin- 
nish,) and  Olave  Vendekapa  or  turncoat.  John  Henryson 
has  been  mentioned  before. 


1592.] 


His  departure,  and 
slay  ill  Reval. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Remonstrances  of  tlie 
council  and  tlie  army. 


179 


mently  insist  upon  tliis  design,  and  now  drew  out  I 
the  representations  which  were  afterwards  de- 
livered at  Reval  *.  For  the  moment  the  coun- 
cillors confined  themselves  to  dissuasion  of  the 
journey  and  the  preparations  of  war,  since  tlie 
truce  with  the  Russians  was  not  yet  at  an  end — 
since  a  two  years'  scarcity  had  exhausted  the  coun- 
try— and  since  the  plague,  which  dui-ing  this  reign 
had  several  times  visited  the  kingdom  ^,  was  now 
raging  in  Finland  and  Lifland.  But  Jolni  replied 
angrilj',  that  he  looked  upon  all  dissuasion  as  trea- 
chery, yea,  that  he  would  go  to  Lifland  to  see  his 
son,  though  the  people  should  fall  like  the  grass  of 
summer  befoi'e  the  scythe.  The  preparations  were 
hastened;  the  king  however  was  by  far  too  impa- 
tient to  wait  for  the  troops,  (a  great  proportion  of 
whom  first  met  him  upon  his  return,)  embarked  at 
Stockholm  on  the  3d  July  during  a  violent  thun- 
der-storm, with  his  queen,  a  new-born  son  ^,  the 
principal  councillors,  and  such  forces  as  could  be 
gotten  together, — and  was  at  length  obliged  to  wait 
several  weeks  in  Reval  for  Sigisniund. 

After  Sigismund's  arrival,  that  which  the  council 
had  previously  divined  became  the  general  talk  of 
the  day.  It  was  related  as  certain  that  the  kings 
would  both  come  to  Sweden,  and  that  Sigismund 
would  not  return  to  Poland.  John  himself  only  ac- 
knowledged that  he  wished  to  conduct  his  son  home 
to  be  crowned  in  Sweden.  It  is  credible  that  he  at 
the  same  time  intended  to  cede  the  government  to 
him,  (an  author  well-informed  on  this  period '  says 
that  this  was  his  wish,)  which  would  then  constitute 
a  pressing  ground  for  Sigismund  to  remain  in  Swe- 
den *.  The  Polish  councillors  had  already  spoken 
with  their  prince  in  Wilna  relative  to  a  rumour  of 
this  kind  ^;  those  of  Sweden  represent  this  purpose 
as  fixed,  and  the  violent  methods  at  which  they 
grasped  to  defeat  it  show  that  they  did  not  consider 
themselves  struggling  against  a  merely  imaginary 
danger.  The  kings  spent  a  month  with  one  an- 
other, during  which  the  Polish  lords  of  the  council 
complained  to  John  against  Sigismund  ^;  the  Swe- 
dish, on  the  other  hand,  complained  to  Sigismund 
against  John,  and  bloody  discords  often  broke  out 
between  the  Poles  and  Swedes.  With  the  begin- 
ning of  September  came  accounts  of  the  ii'ruption 
of  the  Tartars  into  Poland,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  Polish  nobles  who  were  on  the  spot  pressed 
immediately  for  the  departure  of  Sigismund.  On 
the  other  side  the  Swedish  council  prepared  to  lay 
before  John  the  representations  already  determined 
upon  in  Upsala;  and  on  his  refusmg  access  to  the 
lords  they  delivered  the  memorial  to  Sigismund. 
It  repeats  in  part  the  remonstrances  already  made 

••  Eric  Sparre,  1.  c.  He  is  himself  manifestly  the  author 
of  the  representations  hoth  of  the  council  and  the  army, 
which  will  be  mentioned  afterwards. 

s  Namely,  in  1572,  when  Dr.  Lemmius  caused  to  he 
printed  a  tract  "  concerning  pestilences ;  how  every  man 
should  conduct  himself,"  dedicated  to  duke  Charles,  in  1576, 
according  to  the  Swedish  Medicine-Book  published  in  1578 
by  Dr.  Benedict  Olaveson ;  in  1580,  when  the  University  of 
Upsala  was  closed  on  account  of  it,  and  in  the  years  1588, 
1589,  1590. 

6  Prince  John,  born  April  IS,  1589. 

7  Animo  habuit  constitutum  domi  forisque  pace  confecta 
regni  gubernaculum  illi  tradere,  et  ipsemet  vitam  Upsalias 
privatam  agere ;  quo  decreverat  doctissimos  undequoque 
viros  ad  functionem  ibi  academicam  convocare,  reruraque 
quotidianus  inspector,  summus  cancellarius  et  director  fieii 
constituerat.     Messenius,  vii.  77. 


against  John's  government,  and  paints  in  the  black- 
est colours  the  condition  of  Sweden:  it  behoved 
their  majesties  to  take  to  heart  the  distress  of  their 
subjects ;  this  had  now,  after  a  war  of  eight-and- 
twenty  years,  advanced  to  such  a  pitch,  that  the 
kingdom  could  yield  nothing  more;  besides  the  tax 
of  the  tenth  penny  in  sevei'al  years  2,  the  people 
had  almost  yearly  to  pay  first  the  great  food- tax, 
then  three  or  four  aids,  money  besides,  with  much 
conveyance-service  and  many  days' work,  most  of  it 
imposed  without  compact  and  consent,  though  the 
law  required  it,  but  by  chamberlains  and  clerks  of 
the  kitchen.  During  the  hard  time  of  the  three 
last  years  many  persons,  horses,  and  cattle  had 
perished  of  hunger ;  many  a  family  had  by  the 
rigorous  yearly  levies  lost  three  or  four  sons.  Alle- 
viation of  these  burdens  had  been  often  enough 
promised,  but  never  performed ;  the  ill-managed 
and  profuse  housekeeping,  devoid  of  order  and  obe- 
dience, the  great  buildings,  castles,  and  churches, 
enhanced  the  poverty  of  the  people, — so  that  where 
meadows  and  fields  had  been  before,  great  forests 
now  rankly  grew,  and  where  formerly  in  many  a 
year  weleful  yeomen  had  dwelt,  there  they  now 
roamed  with  the  beggar's  staff  and  bag;  of  the 
towns  the  third  part  lay  waste;  among  the  clergy 
dissensions  reigned  regarding  the  liturgy;  the  army 
was  without  pay,  abandoned  to  hunger  and  naked- 
ness in  a  foreign  land,  and  was  disgusted  with  the 
war.  Peace  was  the  first  necessity  of  the  king- 
dom, wherefore  it  must  now  be  concluded  with 
Russia,  as  the  enemy  was  inclined  to  it.  This  re- 
presentation came  in  the  name  of  the  council,  and 
with  it  another  from  the  council,  nobility,  and 
generals  conjointly,  the  result  of  a  deliberation 
held  in  the  cathedral  of  Reval.  They  had  heard, 
they  said,  that  king  Sigismund  purposed  relin- 
quishing the  crown  of  Poland  and  following  his 
father  to  Sweden ;  this  would  be  against  the  letter, 
honour,  and  truth  of  the  kings ;  it  was  indeed  a 
thing  not  unheard  of,  that  aforetime  divers  great 
rulers  had  renounced  the  sceptre,  yet  they  had 
acted  openly ;  but  of  such  a  shameful  desertion  of 
realm  and  country  king  Henry  ^  alone  had  given  an 
example,  which,  like  all  else  he  had  done,  were  bet- 
ter avoided  than  followed;  if  Sigismund  abandoned 
his  throne  in  like  manner,  Sweden  would  undoubt- 
edly have,  besides  war  with  Russia,  war  with 
Poland  to  expect.  Such  stubborn  and  endless 
hostility  Sweden  at  this  time  was  not  powerful 
enough  to  stand  out ;  and  out  of  it  would  spring 
a  coldness  in  the  subjects  towards  both  kings,  or, 
what  were  yet  worse,  mischiefs  might  spring  up  in 

8  Messenius,  vii.  9,  5,  and  Typotius  in  his  Relat.  Hist,  de 
Regno  Sueciae,  printed  in  IG06,  and  ^Egidius  Girs  in  his 
Chronicle,  speak  of  a  design  to  procure  the  Polish  crown  for 
the  arch-duke  Ernest,  and  to  marry  him  to  Sigismund's 
sister  Anne. 

3  Eric  Sparre,  1.  c;  he  had  heard  this  from  Sigismund 
himself. 

'  These  complaints  relate  partly  to  the  execution  of  the 
articles  of  election,  partly  to  Sigismund's  foreign  body-guard, 
and  the  influence  which  strangers  possessed  over  him.  The 
Latin  speech  of  the  Polish  senators  to  John  in  Reval  is  found 
in  Eric  Sparre,  1.  c. 

2  For  the  making  good  the  ransom-money  of  Elfsborg, 
which  was  to  be  paid  to  Denmark  according  to  the  peace  of 
Stettin. 

3  Henry  of  Valois,  in  1573  king  of  Poland,  which  he 
quitted  after  four  months  in  order  to  ascend  the  French 
throne. 

N  2 


180 


Thn  king's  return  ;  his 
disarust  wiih  the  council. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  estates  convoked. 
Arraignment  of  six  lords. 


[I  sca- 


the kingdom  *  ;  for  the  rest,  their  majesties  might 
be  assured  of  tlie  fidehty  of  the  lords,  and  that 
they  would  not  spare  tlicir  blood  or  lives  for  the 
defence  of  Sigisinund's  hereditary  right  to  the 
throne  of  Sweden.  This  paper  has  sixty-one  names 
subscribed;  among  which  are  those  of  all  the  coun- 
cillors present  except  Clas  Fleming.  As  these  re- 
presentations appeared  to  produce  no  effect,  and 
even  a  new  memorial  by  the  council  to  John  re- 
ceived only  this  answer  communicated  by  Olave 
Swerkerson,  "  that  they  must  obey,  or  provide 
themselves  with  another  king,"  the  body  of  officei's 
repaired  to  the  castle,  and  laid  down  their  standards 
before  the  two  kiugs'  windows,  with  an  oath  never 
to  take  arms  in  their  defence  if  they  would  expose 
Sweden  needlessly  to  so  many  foes.  The  Poles  on 
their  side  were  not  sparing  of  menaces.  Hogens- 
kild  Bielke',  whom  John  had  left  as  lieutenant  m 
Stockholm,  wrote  that  duke  Charles  had  begun  to 
excite  disturbances  in  Sweden.  Sigismund  tore 
himself  on  the  30th  September  from  the  arras  of 
his  father,  and  John,  having  despatched  plenipo- 
tentiaries to  negotiate  with  the  Russians,  passed  to 
his  ships  thi'ough  councillors  who  had  long  fruit- 
lessly waited  his  departure,  and  an  army  clamorous 
for  peace  and  food, —  gloomy,  silent,  and  wrath- 
ful at  heart. 

Returned  home,  he  found  that  duke  Charles  had 
I'emained  quiet,  and  that  Hogenskild  Bielke"s  al- 
legation was  groundless.  Reconcilement  of  the 
brothers  followed,  induced  by  several  representa- 
tions on  John's  side,  among  which  one  is  notable  ; 
that  they  should  by  no  means  permit  the  council  of 
state  and  nobility,  who  had  besides  shown  a  han- 
kering for  Polish  and  other  similar  foreign  privi- 
leges, to  press  for  any  further  accession  of  power  ^. 
Charles  was  replaced  in  possession  of  all  his  rights 
in  the  principality,  and  assumed  in  fact  the  govern- 
ment of  the  kingdom,  the  charges  of  which,  how- 
ever, he  was  obliged  himself  to  defray.  He  applied 
thereto  a  great  portion  of  the  maternal  heritage  of 
his  infant  daughter,  pledged  his  jewels,  obtained  a 
loan  from  his  sister  the  duchess  of  Mecklenburg, 
and  had  at  one  and  the  same  time  not  only  to  col- 
lect the  means,  but  also  to  prevent  the  king  from 
squandering  the  funds  destined  for  the  purchase 
of  military  stores.  John,  who  acknowledged  that 
more  was  now  accomplished  by  Charles  in  three 
days  than  formerly  in  as  many  months,  mterested 
himself  with  little  else  than  his  own  grudges  against 
the  council,  which  he  now  constantly  styled  in 
public  acts  "  the  realm's  un-rede."  Eric  Spai're', 
Thure  and  Hogenskild  Bielke,  Gustave  and  Steno 
Baner,  with  Clas  Tott  (who  had  already  fallen 
under  suspicion),  had  drawn  on  themselves  his 
especial  disfavour.  His  commands  wei'e  issued 
that  their  fiefs  should  be  sequestered,  that  none 
of  them  should  be  admitted  into  the  royal  castles, 
and  on  their  return  from  Livonia,  where  never- 
theless Gustave  Baner  remained  in  command,  they 
were  called  to  Stockholm  to  make  answer  for  what 
the  king  styled  "  the  revolt  in  Reval."  The  lords 
would  not  admit  that  they  had  transgressed  the 
duty  of  subjects  therein,  whilst  the  king  made  this 

*  In  the  accusation  before  the  estates,  and  in  their  decla- 
ration hereby  produced,  it  is  said  the  lords  had  employed  the 
followinj;  expressions:  "to  bar  the  king«iom  against  both 
their  majesties."  The  expressions  quoted  in  the  text  are  as 
they  are  found  in  Werwing,  Appendix  29,  and  in  Eric  Sparr6's 
Defensive  Memoir. 


the  condition  of  the  pardon  for  which  they  sued. 
That  they  had  from  inadvertency  offended  the  king 
in  sundry  matters,  for  which  they  prayed  forgive- 
ness, was  the  only  confession  to  which  they  could 
be  moved,  whereupon  they  were  allowed  to  retire 
to  their  estates.  They  had,  however,  secretly 
di-awn  up  and  subscribed  a  protest  against  their 
own  declaration,  purporting  that  they  had  com- 
mitted no  crime  for  which  they  needed  to  beg  for- 
giveness, and  had  even  applied  to  duke  Charles  to 
ascertam  whether  they  might  reckon  upon  his  pro- 
tection. Doubtless  this  was  one  of  the  causes  why 
the  subject  was  again  taken  up  before  the  estates, 
convoked  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1590. 

These  guarantied  anew  the  hereditai-y  right  to 
the  crown,  first  to  Sigismund,  next  to  the  young 
duke  John,  who  was  to  receive  Finland  for  a  prin- 
cipality, and  then,  in  the  event  of  his  death  without 
male  issue,  to  duke  Charles,  and,  after  extinction  of 
the  whole  male  line,  to  the  princesses  of  the  royal 
family.  For  what  related  to  the  arraigned  lords  of 
the  council,  tlie  nobility  declared  that  they,  as  faith- 
ful adherents  of  the  hereditary  settlement,  would 
completely  cut  off  the  said  lords  from  their  body, 
imless  they  could  defend  themselves  upon  sufficient 
grounds,  to  which  declaration  tlie  remaining  estates 
gave  their  assent.  The  charges  now  turned  not 
only  on  the  transactions  in  Reval,  but  on  an  im- 
puted design  of  annulling  the  hereditary  settlement. 
In  his  prolix  answer  to  the  complaints  of  the  coun- 
cil John  says,  that  the  lords  had  entertained  the 
intention  of  governing  after  his  death  in  the  name 
of  the  weak-minded  duke  Magnus.  Charles  on  the 
other  hand,  in  his  Rhyme  Chronicle,  alleges  that 
they  meant  to  commit  the  semblance  of  supreme 
power  to  Sigismund's  sister,  the  princess  Anne. 
Neither  of  these  supposed  projects  can  be  substan- 
tiated by  proof.  A  letter  from  Eric  Sparre'  to  his 
father-in-law,  the  old  count  Peter  Bralie,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Cahnar  Statutes  passed  in  1587,  is 
said  to  have  expressed  hopes  of  the  restoration  of 
an  elective  monarchy  in  Sweden " ;  for  which  in- 
deed these  statutes  offer  grounds  enough.  But  how 
should  these  be  made  the  subject  of  an  accusation, 
seeing  that  they  had  been  accepted  and  confirmed 
by  John  himself? — With  more  reason  might  Charles 
complain  of  them.  Thus  he  was  hardly  reconciled 
to  the  kin"  when  he  made  a  demand  of  "the  writ- 
ten  Latin  act,  which  had  been  acceded  to  in  Cal- 
mar  ere  Sigismund  quitted  the  kingdom,"  whereof 
Hogenskild  Bielke'  had  the  custody.  The  duke  re- 
iterated this  demand  with  the  menace  "that  the 
king's  majesty's  keys  were  now  delivered  to  him," 
and  that  he  would  use  force  if  the  document  were 
not  given  up  voluntarily.  "  For  your  announce- 
ment," he  writes,  "  that  these  statutes  embrace 
much  profitable  matter,  it  is  little  warranted  ; 
and  how  beneficial  soever  they  might  seem,  yet 
such  affairs  as  concern  the  general  weal  ought  not 
to  be  discussed  and  disposed  of  secretly  by  three  or 
four  persons,  (and  that  in  a  foreign  language,)  but 
this  should  have  been  done  on  the  well-considered 

'  To  duke  Charles,  upon  certain  affairs  of  1589,  after  the 
return  from  Reval.    Registry. 

6  Messenius,  vii.  86.  Eric  Sparr^  begins  his  own  defen- 
sive memoir  with  a  long  proof,  that  however  it  might  have 
been  said  that  an  elective  monarchy  was  as  good  as  a  here- 
ditary, yet  this  did  not  imply  the  abolition  of  the  one  and 
restoration  of  the  other,  since  there  was  a  great  difference 
between  word  and  deed. 


1592.] 


Des[iolic  conduct  of 
the  king. 


JOHN  AND  CHARLES. 


Tlie  Russian  war.     Horn's 
heroism;  liis  reward. 


181 


advice  and  consent  of  Us  and  the  Estates  of  the 
Reahn  '."  In  Hke  fashion  he  requested  from  Eric 
Sparre  "  his  copious  memoir  upon  the  king's  regaU- 
tiesand  the  rights  of  tiie princes*,"  wliich  had  been 
read  in  1587  before  the  king  at  Vadstena  ;  and  the 
conditions  which  John  dictated  to  the  duke  at  this 
congress  were  also  laid  by  way  of  charge  upon 
the  lords.  Their  trial,  if  we  may  give  that  name 
to  a  proceeding  devoid  of  all  the  forms  of  law, 
lasted  above  two  years,  their  endurance  being 
tried  by  imprisonment,  threats,  and  demands  of 
explanations,  which  the  king  never  found  satis- 
factory, and  which,  as  Eric  Sparre  more  than  once 
secretly  protested  against  what  he  had  publicly 
admitted,  appear  to  have  been  not  very  sincere. 
Charles  at  length  pardoned  them,  and  effected  a 
kind  of  reconciliation  between  John  and  count  Axel 
Leyonhufvud,  though  in  the  draught  of  the  king's 
will  he  is  named  among  those  of  the  councillors 
who  were  unworthy  of  any  confidence. 

Tiie  king's  bitterness  against  the  council  con- 
tinued, and  was  vented  in  expi'essions  heretofore 
unheard  of  in  Sweden.  In  the  answer  to  the  re- 
presentations in  Reval  he  says,  that  in  future,  as 
hitherto,  he  would  reign  as  an  "  absolute  king." 
A  new  oath,  to  the  effect  "  that  no  one  should  dis- 
approve or  speak  against  it,  if  the  king  found  it 
good  to  follow  his  own  counsel,"  was  proposed  to 
the  new  councillors,  who  filled  the  places  of  the 
deprived  lords  ^.  Towards  the  accused  he  was  the 
more  inexoi'able,  as  they  were  really  a  sacrifice  for 
many.  Vain  were  the  intercessions  of  their  wives 
and  connexions,  and  of  Sigismund  himself.  "  For 
the  behoof  of  his  father-land,"  wrote  the  latter  (on 
the  14th  August,  1590),  he  had  accepted  the  crown 
of  Poland  ;  as  he  had  not  been  able  to  attain  this 
object,  and  must  be  rather  an  injury  than  a  help  to 
Sweden  in  the  war  against  Russia,  he  had  been 
and  still  was  willing  to  renounce  his  throne  in 
Poland.  He  now  understood,  that  the  disgrace 
with  which  his  father  had  visited  the  chief  lords  of 
Sweden  had  its  foundation  therein,  that  they  had 
dissuadedhis  departure  from  Reval.  Even  were  they 
not  altogether  guiltless,  yet  should  his  majesty  let 
grace  stand  for  law,  and  ponder,  how  grievously  it 
would  fall  out  for  his  son  to  come  into  a  government, 
where  widows  and  orphans,  in  part  not  distantly  re- 
lated to  the  royal  house,  would  cry  vengeance  upcm 
him  as  the  author  of  their  woes '."  In  another  letter 
he  requests  to  know  how  he  was  to  deal  with  the 
Russian  envoy,  vvho  had  come  to  Poland.  To  this 
John  replied  :  that  he  would  grant  peace  to  the 
grand  duke,  if  he  "  would  cast  his  head  before 
him  2,  inquire  by  an  embassy  the  conditions  which 
the  king  would  dictate,  and  cease  to  call  him- 
self lord  of  all  the  Russias,  since  a  portion  of 
Russia  belonged  to  Sweden." 

It  was  while  the  government  of  Kexholm  and 
lugermanland  had  been  again  lost,  while  Finland 
was   laid   waste,  and   a   Swedish   force   of  20,000 

'  To  Hogenskild  Bielke,  Feb.  10  and  20,  1.590.     Reg. 

**  Namely  the  treatise,  Pro  rege,  lege,  et  grege.  Letter  to 
Eric  Sparre,  Feb.  2S,  1590.     Reg. 

«  Fryxell,  from  documents  in  the  Archives,  IV.  103,  125. 

'  Werwing,  i.  95. 

2  Id.  98.  An  oriental  mark  of  subjection,  by  touching  the 
earth  with  the  forehead.  Ivan  Wasiliewitz  II.,  as  cowardly 
as  he  was  cruel,  performed  it  in  1371  before  the  envoys  of 
the  Khan  of  Crim  Tartary,  after  the  latter  had  taken  and 
burned  Moscow.     Karamsin,  viii.  149. 


men '  was  fighting  against  a  Russian  of  more  than 
100,000  in  Estland,  that  John  held  this  language. 
Thi.s  Russian  inroad,  which  fell  out  in  the  winter  of 
1590,  ensued  upon  the  breaking  off  of  the  negotia- 
tions commenced  after  the  meeting  in  Reval.  The 
Czar  came  himself  with  his  whole  army.  Gustave 
Baner,  lieutenant  in  Livonia,  retired  out  of  luger- 
manland, and  on  liis  march  neglected  to  reinforce 
Narva,  where  the  heroic  Charles  Henrvson  Horn 
withstood  siege  and  storm  by  the  whole  Russian 
force,  with  so  small  a  garrison  that  at  last  he  had 
but  four  hundred  men  in  a  serviceable  condition. 
Narva  was  not  taken,  and  Estland  was  saved  by  a 
convention,  in  virtue  of  whicli  Horn  obtained  the 
retreat  of  the  Czar,  for  the  cession  of  Ivangorod 
(or  the  so-called  Russian  Narva),  and  Koporie, 
with  free  quittance  for  the  Swedish  garrisons. 
Kexholm  was  left  to  further  negotiations.  For 
this  was  Horn,  together  with  Baner,  recalled, 
thrown  into  prison,  and  declared  a  traitor  by  the 
king,  who  could  not  forgive  him  for  having  sub- 
scribed the  remonstrance  at  Reval.  In  Estland 
the  troops  were  so  weary  of  the  tedious  war,  that 
they  inclined  finally  to  make  peace  for  themselves. 
Sigismund  actually  concluded  peace  for  Poland,  and 
stipulated  at  the  same  time  a  truce  of  a  year's 
duration  for  Sweden.  This  had  the  effect  of  in- 
censing John,  wlio  said  that  neither  his  son  tmv 
his  brother  sliould  be  his  guardian,  and  ordered 
the  contimiation  of  the  war.  For  the  rest,  new 
levies  in  Sweden,  mutinies  of  the  troops  from 
defect  of  pay,  appointment  and  depriv;ition  of  com- 
manders (Charles  himself  went  over  to  Livonia  for 
a  short  time  in  1590),  mutual  devastation,  and  on 
the  Swedish  side  occasionally  successful  feats  of 
arms,  were  the  chief  features  of  this  war  during 
the  last  two  years  of  John's  life.  Charles  Henry- 
son  Horn  demanded  and  obtained  inquiry  and 
judgment.  His  defence,  which  he  was  refused  per- 
mission to  reduce  to  writing,  although  he  declared 
that  he  was  sick  and  weak  from  iiuprisonment,  and 
"  a  man  with  few  gifts  of  the  tongue,"  was  full  of 
magnanimity.  One  error  he  acknowledged,  hoping 
it  would  be  overlooked  ;  that  he  had  allowed  Gus- 
tave Baner,  who  after  had  left  him  without  relief, 
to  take  too  many  troops  from  Narva  ;  he  had  so 
often  with  few  soldiers  beaten  the  Russians,  and 
held  them  not  then  more  fonnidable  than  in  1577 
at  Reval,  which  himself  and  his  father  defended 
against  50,000  men.  The  20th  February  1591,  on 
the  anniversary  of  the  assault  of  Narva,  he  was 
condemned  to  death,  but  was  kept  in  confinement 
for  another  year,  and  at  length  pardoned  on  the 
place  of  execution.  To  obtain  grace  from  the  long 
implacable  king,  the  prayers  of  prince  John,  wlio 
was  yet  a  child,  had  been  employed.  When  Charles 
succeeded  to  power,  Horn  again  received  the  go- 
vernment of  Livonia.  He  had  grown  up  in  this 
war  by  the  side  of  his  father,  old  Henry  Horn,  who 
was  able  to  pride  himself  on  this  son  and  on  a 
nephew  like  Clas  Christerson  Horn*.    Charles  had 

3  So  the  Russian  account.  Karamsin,  ix.  175.  Probably 
the  numbers  are  too  large,  although  yet  grosser  exaggerations 
respecting  the  Russian  army  are  found  in  their  chronicles. 
These  state  it  at  300,000  men;  while  the  Swedish  chronicle 
of /Egidius  Girs  speaks,  it  is  true,  of  100,000  Russians,  but 
says,  that  the  Czar  first  appeared  before  Jamgorod  in  Inger- 
manland  with  but  30,000. 

^  The  High  Admiral  Clas  Christerson  Horn,  who  in  Eric's 
time  commanded  the  Baltic  with  the  Swedish  fleet,  was  a 


182 


Second  mariiage 
of  Charles. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Death  of  king 
John. 


L1592— 


four  sons,  all  distinguished  men,  and  among  them 
Gusfave  Horn,  the  youngest  and  greatest.  There 
was  more  than  one  Swedish  family  which  in  this  time 
bore  such  offspring.  Already  they  foreshadowed 
the  days  of  the  mighty  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

Charles  had  wedded  a  second  time  at  Nykoping, 
August  22,  1592,  with  Christina  of  Holstein  \  This 
drew  upon  him  the  king's  disfavour,  and  old  sus- 
picions were  again  awakened.  Sigismund  had  in- 
tended to  woo  the  bride  of  Charles  before  his  depar- 
ture to  Poland,  and  already  sent  her  his  portrait 
and  valuable  presents,  when  the  negotiation  was 
broken  off.  She  was  a  princess  of  harsh  temper, 
and  is  said,  at  an  after-day,  as  the  consort  of 
Charles,  not  to  have  promoted  concord  between  him 
and  his  nephew ''.  In  spring  of  the  same  year 
John  was  brought  low  by  a  wasting  malady.  On 
his  sick-bed  he  again  withdrew  the  pardon  ho  had 
granted  to  the  lords  of  the  council.  He  declared 
also  that  if  God  should  prolong  his  life,  he  would 
never  again  constrain  any  man  in  matters  of  faith, 
as  the  liturgy  had  occasioned  so  much  disturbance 
and  scandal.  This  was  his  last  answer  to  the  re- 
presentations of  the  clergy  of  Smaland.  Half  a 
year  after  his  death,  his  liturgy  was  preserved  only 
in  the  chapel  of  the  queen  dowager  Gunnila. 


King  .John  died  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm,  on 
the  17th  November  1092,  in  his  fifty-fifth  year. 
His  death  was  for  some  time  kept  secret.  The 
queen  was  suspected  of  having  in  the  mean  time 
appropriated  whatever  of  the  property  left  she 
wished  for.  Much  was  missed  on  search  being 
had  ;  but  she  pleaded  in  defence  .John's  letter  of 
bequeathment.  The  king  had  besides  enjoined 
that  no  account  should  be  demanded  of  her '.  Duke 
Charles  first  brought  sorrow,  and  wrath  alike,  into 
the  royal  castle*.  The  body  which  had  been 
carried  into  an  ill-ari'ayed  chamber,  he  caused  to 
be  wrapped  in  a  sumptuous  vestment,  and  watched 
in  one  of  the  chief  halls  of  the  castle.  The  queen, 
together  with  the  councillors  of  state  Clas  Bielkd' 
and  George  Posse,  who  had  been  present  during 
the  king's  last  moments,  Avas  obliged  to  endure 
sharp  upbraidings.  They  had  delayed  for  two  days 
informing  the  duke  of  the  royal  demise,  though  he 
was  but  three  hours'  distance  from  the  capital". 
He  forthwith  commanded  the  queen  to  remove, 
who  however  did  not  give  obedience,  and  even  in 
the  following  year  we  find  complaints  by  Charles 
respecting  the  crowd  of  useless  mouths  which 
were  subsisted  in  the  castle. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CHARLES  AGAINST  SIGISMUND. 

PROCEEDINGS  OF  DUKE  CHARLES  AND  THE  COUNCIL  OF  STATE  IN  THE  ABSENCE  OF  SIGISMUND.  ASSEMDL? 
OF  THE  CLERGY  AT  UPSALA  ;  MEASURES  TOUCHING  THE  LITURGY  AND  DOCTRINE.  PROMISES  OF  SIGISMUND. 
FEARS  AS  TO  HIS  ADMISSION.  HIS  ARRIVAL  IN  STOCKHOLM.  DIET  OF  UPSALA.  ACCEPTANCE  BY  THE  KING 
OF  THE  CONDITIONS  PROPOSED  TO  HIM.  CHARTER  TO  THE  NOBILITY.  INTRIGUES  OF  THE  COURT,  AND  DIS- 
ORDERS IN  THE  CAPITAL.  DISAFFECTION  TO  THE  KING  ;  HIS  DEPARTURE.  CONVOCATION  OF  THE  ESTATES 
BY  DUKE  CHARLES  AT  SCEDERKCEPING.  DIET  OF  ARBOGA.  HOSTILITIES  BETWEEN  SIGISMUND  AND  CHARLES. 
TREATY  OF  LINKCEPING.       DECREE   OP    THE    ESTATES  AT  STOCKHOLM    AGAINST    SIGISMUND  ;    CHARLES    DECLARED 

HEREDITARY    PRINCE    REGNANT. 

A.  D.  1592—1598. 


The  man  who  could  have  promised,  writes  Eric 
Sjiarre,  out  of  his  own  prison  *,  that  a  prince  who 
was  born  in  a  dungeon  under  a  tyrannical  govern- 
ment 2,  should  once  be  king  over  two  monarchies, 
might  well  have  expected  another  guerdon  than 
they  have  obtained,  who  are  now  accused  of  having 
played  into  his  hands  the  crowu  of  Poland.  With 
hope  of  this,  we  are  told,  he  was  nurtured  from  his 
infancy  ;  with  this  his  parents  sweetened  the  days 
of  their  captivity.  Therefore  he  was  educated  in 
the  Catholic  faith,  although  John  gave  liim  also 
Lutheran  instructors  for  appearance'  sake,  and  at- 
tended with  him  the  public  services  of  the  church ". 
When  his  father  changed  his  opinions,  he  essayed 

son  of  Christian  Horn,  the  brother  of  Henry,  and  ancestor  of 
the  Horns  of  Aminne,  as  Henry  was  of  the  Horns  of  Kaukas. 

5  Daughter  of  Adolphus,  duke  of  Holstein  Gottorp,  by 
Christina,  daughter  of  the  landgrave  Philip  of  Hesse. 

6  Werwing.  The  proposition  of  marriage  above  mentioned 
came  from  Sigismund's  aunt,  the  duchess  Elizabeth  of  Meck- 
lenburg, who  herself  subsequently  advised  against  it. 

^  See  what  duke  Charles  calls  "  The  Prelude  to  the  King's 
Testament,"  Stiernman,  i.  385.  That  testament  in  relation 
to  the  government  after  his  death,  which  the  king  had  re- 
served to  himself  to  draw  up,  was  not  found. 

"  Regis  tectis  luctum  induxit.     Messenius. 

9  Nov.  IC.     A  day  before  the  death,  the  duke  writes  to  the 


by  threats  to  compel  his  son  to  defection  from  his 
mother's  faith,  and  the  council  also  made  repre- 
sentations in  this  respect  to  the  royal  children  *. 
The  princess  Anne  was  induced  to  renounce  her 
religion  ;  Sigismund  not  only  remained  true  to  his, 
but  reckoned  it  an  honour  not  to  calculate  the  con- 
sequences of  his  zeal  for  its  doctrines. 

That  which  in  Sweden  is  called  his  reign,  shows 
us  but  the  complete  outbreak  of  those  troubles,  for 
which  the  preceding  must  be  held  accountable. 
John  had  been  untrue  to  all  those  principles,  to 
which  the  house  of  Vasa  owed  its  elevation.  This 
his  son  was  to  atone  for  by  the  loss  of  his  crown, 

council  from  Nykoping,  that  he  had  understood  from  their 
letters  the  very  weak  state  of  the  king,  and  would  fake  the 
road  for  the  capital.  On  the  journey  he  stayed  at  Sodertelye, 
as  would  seem,  to  wait  for  further  intelligence;  but  it  was 
delayed  for  two  days. 

'  In  his  defensive  memoir. 

-  Sigismund  was  born  during  the  imprisonment  of  his 
parents  in  the  castle  of  Gripsholm,  June  20,  15G6. 

3  On  the  other  hand,  when  Arnold  Grothusen,  who,  after 
the  Catholic  doctor  Nicolaus  Mylonius,  was  Sigismund's 
teacher,  once  ventured  to  lead  the  prince  away  from  the  Ca- 
tholic mass,  John  drew  his  swovd  over  his  head,  exclaiming, 
"  Educabis  filium  meum  in spem  utriusque  regni  !"Werwing. 

■•  Messenius. 


1598.] 


Pardon  of  the  accused 
lords. 


CHARLES  AGAINST  SIGISMUND. 


Ihe  duke's  covenant 
with  the  council. 


183 


while  Charles,  in  struggling  with  the  perils  wliicli 
menaced  his  country,  was  to  win  supx-eme  power. 

Gustavus  Vasa  had  founded  his  structure  on  the 
Reformation.  If  John  had  already  undermined 
this  foundation,  what  was  there  that  might  not  be 
feared  from  a  king  who  was  so  devoted  to  the 
Jesuits,  that  his  father  at  last  conjured  him,  though 
vainly,  to  beware  of  those  fathers,  "  who  were  ac- 
customed to  keep  one  foot  in  the  pulpit  and  the 
other  in  the  council-room  *."  In  Rome  too  not  a 
little  was  expected  from  his  zeal.  So  early  as 
1587,  at  the  election  to  the  Polish  throne,  pope 
SixtusV.  expressed  his  hope,  that  Sigismund  would 
subdue  not  only  the  Polish  but  the  Swedish  heretics^. 

Charles  had  in  fact  conducted  the  government  of 
Sweden  for  the  last  two  years.  It  was  natural  that 
it  should  remain  with  him  for  the  pi-esent,  since 
John  had  expired  without  having  made  any  dis- 
positions in  this  respect.  By  letters  of  the  24tli 
November  1592,  which  the  duke  forwarded  by  his 
own  servants,  Sigismund  was  informed  of  the 
death  of  his  father,  and  also  that  Charles  and  the 
council  had  assumed  the  government  until  the 
king's  arrival.  The  duke  solicits  his  mediation  in 
the  negotiations  opened  with  Russia,  and  adds, 
"  As  the  Poles  without  doubt  will  now  seek  to  gain 
possession  of  the  Swedish  portion  of  Livonia,  we 
have  written  to  tlie  commanders  there  to  embrace 
no  Polish  offers,  ere  they  have  advised  us  and  the 
council  thereof."  He  begs  Sigismund  to  take  this 
in  good  part.  For  the  conduct  of  the  war  no 
means  were  to  be  found,  since  neither  gold  nor 
money  appeared  in  the  effects  left  by  the  deceased 
king,  of  which  an  inventory  should  be  sent  as  far 
as  the  duke's  knowledge  reached.  Thereupon 
followed,  on  the  28th  November,  summonses  to  the 
deprived  councillors  to  repair  to  the  duke,  who, 
after  some  dealing  with  them,  ratified  the  forgive- 
ness which  he  had  a  year  and  a  half  before 
promised  to  them.  They  then  re-entered  upon  the 
exercise  of  their  offices,  and  received  back  their 
fiefs.  In  general  Charles  set  at  liberty  all  who 
were  confined  on  account  of  the  liturgy  or  political 
causes'.  Meanwhile  a  letter  arrived  from  Sigis- 
mimd,  transferring  the  government  of  the  kingdom 
to  the  duke,  until  he  was  himself  able  to  visit  his 
paternal  dominions,  and  a  copy  of  this  letter  was 
annexed  to  the  proclamation  which  Charles  caused 
to  be  spread  throughout  the  couuti'y.  So  fivr  all 
appeared  good  ;  for  even  the  reconciliation  with 
the  accused  lords  of  the  council  pleased  the  king 
well.  He  issued  afterwards  a  public  declaration  of 
their  entire  innocence  *,  wherewith  the  duke,  how- 
ever, was  little  content. 

Divers  signs  ere  long  pointed  to  what  was  to 
come.  Timely  information  had  been  secretly  for- 
warded to  the  king  from  Sweden  ;  his  majesty  was 

'  Letter  to  Sigismund,  July  3,  1591. 

6  So  the  cardinal  Joyeuse  writes  from  Rome  to  Henry  III. 
of  France.  Raumer,  Letters  for  the  History  of  the  Sixteenth 
and  Seventeenth  Centuries. 

^  Messenius. 

8  Sigismund's  patent  for  Hogenskild  Bielke,  Gustave 
Baner,  Eric  Sparre,  Axel  Leyonhufvud,  Steno  Baner,  Tliure 
Bielke,  and  the  already  deceased  counts,  Peter  Brahe  and 
Clas  Akeson  Tott,  was  made  out  after  his  arrival  in  Sweden, 
Nov.  2,  1593. 

9  From  an  anonymous  German  letter  in  the  Latin  Regis- 
tralure,  1593 — 98,  in  the  State  Archives.  It  is  directed  "to 
a  princely  personage,  related  to  the  crown  of  Poland,  (pro- 


told  that  he  would  not  so  easily  arrive  at  the 
succession  there.  One  of  the  council  (the  name  is 
not  stated)  communicated  to  him  an  opinion  upon 
the  means  of  securing  his  rights,  even  in  case  of 
the  employment  of  force  being  found  necessary.  It 
would  be  advi.sable  to  send  a  number  of  soldiers, 
Cossacks  and  others,  to  Livonia,  as  well  as  to  equip 
a  fleet  at  Dantzic,  whither  the  king  himself  should 
repair.  In  order  to  win  the  Poles,  he  must  give 
them  satisfaction  in  reference  to  the  frontiers,  that 
is,  by  the  cession  of  Estland.  At  home  the  council 
would  not  cease  to  watch  over  the  weal  of  the 
king's  affairs.  The  duke  must  be  dissuaded  from 
all  oppo.sition  by  the  representations  of  foreign 
powers  9.  The  party  did  not  stop  at  words  only  ; 
count  Axel  Leyonhufvud  tried,  immediately  after 
John's  death,  to  make  himself  master  of  the  for- 
tresses of  Elfsborg  and  GuUberg  in  the  name  of 
Sigismund.  The  attempt  indeed  failed,  and  its 
author  was  obliged  to  flee  the  kingdom  ;  but  he 
carried  his  accusations  against  the  duke  to  Poland, 
received  a  letter  of  warranty  from  Sigismund, 
and  afterwards  recovered  his  county  in  Finland, 
which  king  John  had  sequestered.  Of  that  pro- 
vince Clas  Fleming  was  governor,  as  well  as  general 
in  Livonia.  He  despatched  letters  to  Sweden  con- 
veying warnings  to  the  duke,  and  declared  that  he 
intended  to  be  i-uled  only  by  the  king's  commands. 

In  this  he  was  fortified  by  the  special  legation  in 
Livonia  and  Finland,  which  Sigisnumd  in  the  be- 
ginning of  1593  committed  to  John  Sparre,  brother 
of  Eric.  Fi'om  this  moment  there  was  a  separate 
government  for  these  coimtries  '. 

The  duke  on  his  side  entered  into  a  covenant 
with  the  council  to  conduct  the  administration 
without  prejudice  to  their  fealty  to  Sigismund, 
under  conjoint  responsibility,  one  for  all,  and  all  for 
one  2.  This  mode  of  sjieaking,  w  hich  henceforth 
was  used  in  all  the  conjoint  declarations  of  the 
duke  and  the  estates,  Sigismund  used  to  style  duke 
Charles'  bird-net.  That  this  confederacy  might 
lead  the  council  further  than  they  wished  was  soon 
shown.  The  clergy  assembled  at  Stockholm  pressed 
for  the  fulfilment  by  the  duke  of  the  promise  given 
by  John  in  1590,  of  a  Swedish  kirk-raote,  for  the 
adjustment  of  religious  disputes.  The  Council  was 
of  opinion  that  only  certain  of  its  members  should 
convene  with  the  clergy  to  effect  this  end.  The 
duke,  however,  demanded  likewise  a  genei-al  diet, 
and  carried  his  view.  Religion  and  freedom,  he 
said  to  the  council,  were  his  father's  good  deeds  to 
the  counti-y.  Out  of  thankfulness  for  these  the 
estates  had  made  the  crown  hereditary  in  the 
house  of  Gustavus;  only  lie  would  be  a  true  here- 
ditary king  of  the  realm  of  Sweden  who  should  pre- 
serve them  to  the  kingdom.  They  had  now  a  king 
who  was  subject  in  his  conscience  to  the  authority 

bably  the  princess  Anne,)  touching  the  condition  of  the  king- 
dom of  Sweden." 

1  Haec  prima  inter  regem  et  ducem  fuit  discordijE  seraentia. 
Messenius. 

2  The  council  ventured  to  suggest  that  an  e.xtract  should 
be  made  from  the  Latin  Brief  {sowere  then  called  all  written 
documents)  of  Calmar,  whereby  were  meant  the  statutes  of 
Calmar  before  mentioned.  The  duke  replies,  on  the  20th 
June,  that  although  this  brief  had  been  cancelled,  because 
drawn  up  secretly  without  the  cognizance  of  the  estates,  it 
might  yet  be  looked  into,  and  what  therein  might  be  beneficial 
to  the  kingdom,  should  be  laid  before  Sigismund.  Reg.  for 
1593. 


184 


Kirk -mote  of 
Upsala. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Abrogation  of  John's 

liturgy. 


[1592— 


and  will  of  the  Pope;  it  would  be  therefore  the 
more  necessary,  as  well  for  relifjion  as  liberty, 
to  establish  such  conditions  as  the  Swedes  had  from 
aforetime  been  free  to  propose  to  their  kings.  To 
Sigisniund  himself  he  held  language  no  less  plain, 
when  he  acquainted  him  with  the  convocation  of 
the  estates,  and  the  synod  convened  for  Upsala  : 
the  king's  government  could  only  make  the  people 
hapi)y  in  so  far  as  he  might  confirm  the  religion 
and  liberties  of  the  realm,  and  those  statutes  l>y 
which  the  estates  thought  meet  to  uphold  them; 
hereby  he  would  take  away  all  occasion  of  acting 
against  the  law  and  his  oath  as  a  king  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  all  hatreds  against  his  person.  The  suc- 
cession would  then  remain  to  his  descendants. 
This  was  the  duke's  counsel,  and  if  the  king  had 
true  servants,  they  would  assent  to  it.  With  mes- 
sages to  this  effect  the  secretary,  Olave  Swerker- 
son,  was  sent  to  Poland  ^. 

On  the  25th  February,  1 593,  the  synod  was  opened 
at  Upsala.  Deputies,  as  well  clerical  as  laic,  re- 
paired thither  from  all  parts  of  the  kingdom  ex- 
cepting Finland,  whence  but  a  few  were  sent  *. 
There  were  present  the  duke  with  the  council,  four 
bishops ',  above  three  hundred  clergy,  many  of  the 
nobles,  burgesses,  and  peasants.  Nieolaus  Bothni- 
ensis,  professor  of  theology  in  Upsala,  although  a 
young  man,  was  named  Speaker.  He  had  been  im- 
prisoned on  account  of  the  liturgy.  The  choice  was 
a  homage  to  the  stedfastness  which  the  university 
of  Upsala  had  shown  in  the  liturgical  struggle ; 
wherefore  one  of  the  assembly's  acts  decreed,  that 
it  should  be  again  raised  from  its  ruins.  After 
they  had  agreed  that  holy  Scripture,  explained 
by  itself,  wa?.  the  sole  ground  and  rule  of  evange- 
lical doctrine,  and  had  gone  through  all  the  articles 
of  the  unmutilated  Augsburg  Confession,  Peter 
Jonsou,  lately  confirmed  by  the  duke  as  bishop  of 
the  principality^,  rose  up,  and  inquired  of  all  pre- 
sent, whether  they  assented  to  this  faith  and  would 
abide  by  the  same,  even  if  it  pleased  God  that  they 
should  suffer  for  it.  All  i-eplied,  "  Therefore  will 
we  put  at  stake  all  that  we  have  in  the  world,  be 
it  goods  or  life."  Then  the  speaker  exclaimed  : 
"  Now  is  Sweden  become  one  man,  and  all  of  us  have 
one  God '."  The  changes  in  church  ceremonies  and 
doctrines  which  had  been  introduced  under  the 
former  I'eign  were  abolished.  Luther's  Catechism 
was  again  made  the  general  ground-work  of  in- 
struction   in    religion,  and    Lawrence   Peterson's 

3  This  person  had  found  means  of  insinuating  himself  into 
the  favour  of  Charles,  whom  he  afterwards  calumniated  to 
Sigisniund  ;  he  fell  at  length  into  disgrace  by  his  duplicity, 
and  sought  then,  although  vainly,  to  recover  the  duke's 
favour.  The  son  of  this  important  person  was  hound's 
beadle  (spiigubbe,  one  who  goes  about  with  a  stick  during 
sermon,  to  wake  up  sleepers,  and  drive  the  dogs  out  of  the 
church,)  in  the  Clara  Kirk  of  Stockholm. 

*  Messenius  says,  that  not  a  single  Finlander  was  present ; 
Werwing,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  attended.  The  bishop, 
provost  of  the  chapter,  and  master  of  the  school,  of  Abo,  are 
mentioned  in  the  records.  The  signatures  to  the  Acts  of  the 
Synod  of  Upsala  were  not  all  taken  on  the  spot.  They  were 
sent  round  and  subscribed  in  the  dioceses. 

5  From  Litkiiping,  Strengness,  Westeras,  Abo.  The  vacant 
chair  of  the  archbishop  was  filled  up  during  the  assembly, 
as  well  as  the  episcopal  chairs  of  Wexiii,  Skara,  and  Wiborg, 
although  the  first  two  were  not  occupied  until  their  then 
aged  possessors  had  dropped  off  by  death. 

*  He  received  an  episcopal  writ  for  Strengness,  January 
6,  1593,  and  was  consecrated  during  the  sittings,  although 


ALanual  that  of  divine  service  8.  The  bishops  of 
the  realm,  who  had  all  appeared  as  promoters  of 
the  liturgy,  were  now  the  first  to  renounce  it,  and 
their  clergy  followed  their  example.  These  all  con- 
cluded with  a  general  deprecation,  and  requested 
from  the  council  of  state  the  return  of  those  writ- 
ten engagements  to  the  reception  of  the  liturgy,  by 
means  of  which  they  had  obtained  their  places. 
The  council  promised  it,  but  the  duke  preserved 
the  documents  in  the  chancery.  Several  lords  of 
the  council  now  exhorted  the  clergy  never  more  to 
consent  to  any  thing  against  God's  word  and  con- 
science. Hogenskild  Bielke  made  a  discourse  to 
the  same  effect;  which  reminded  his  hearers  that 
he  had  himself  violently  enforced  the  liturgy  in 
East-Gothland.  The  clergy  of  the  duchy  now  cele- 
brated their  victory,  and  with  them  those  of  the 
laity,  with  whom  John's  liturgy  and  the  offence 
thereby  given  had  done  more  than  any  thing  else 
to  obliterate  the  last  vestige  of  pajjal  authority  in 
Sweden.  "  In  the  government  of  the  church,"  as 
the  synod  of  Upsala  complained,  "  all  things  were 
done  with  secret  cabals,  craft,  and  violence,  with- 
out inquiry,  trial,  or  judgment,  against  all  order,  so 
that  they  only  who  assented  to  the  liturgy  were 
promoted  to  be  bishops,  without  any  previous  ques- 
tioning of  the  will  of  the  clergy."  That  which  John 
would  have  reformed  fell  by  his  meddling  into 
deeper  disorders.  "  Ministers  were  forced  on  the 
congregations,"  it  is  said,  "  who  were  not  only  un- 
learned but  often  marriage-breakers,  thieves,  per- 
jurers, hoinicides,  tipplers,  and  leaders  of  vicious 
lifes;  those  alone  who  would  subscribe  the  liturgy 
were  constantly  provided  with  the  best  benefices; 
while  honourable,  learned,  and  moral  preachers  of 
the  gospel,  who  opposed  and  rejected  the  liturgy, 
were  contemned,  hated,  yea  persecuted  in  welfare 
and  life  ;  proof  sufficient  that  if  the  liturgy  be  not 
abolished  ere  king  Sigisniund  come  into  the  govern- 
ment, God's  word  will  then  be  no  otherwise  bestead 
in  the  land  than  if  one  should  carry  a  light  in  a 
violent  storm  ^."  Those  who  now  ruled  used 
their  victory  with  moderation ;  oblivion  of  the 
past  was  promised  ;  no  one  was  persecuted.  A 
single  clerjiyman,  minister  in  Stockholm,  named 
Peter  Paulson,  was  deprived  ;  he  was  the  only  one 
who  now  ventured  publicly  to  defend  the  liturgy; 
but  he  had  previously  showed  so  refractory  a 
spirit  in  his  office,  that  king  John,  upon  reiterated 

he  had  been  elected  in  1586,  and  exercised  the  office  since 
that  time.     Duke  diaries'  Reg.  1593. 

''  Relation  of  Nieolaus  Bothniensia,  concerning  the  Coun- 
cil of  Upsala;  printed  by  Ldnbom,  Historical  Memorials 
(Historiska  Miirkviirdigheter),  v.  i. 

^  After  the  liturgy  had  been  forced  on  the  congregations 
of  Sweden,  it  was  forbidden  to  make  use  of  Luther's  Cate- 
chism for  the  instruction  of  youth;  the  more  advanced,  and 
especially  the  clergy,  were  enjoined  to  read  assiduously  the 
writings  of  the  ancient  Fathers,  to  which  it  was  known  that 
the  Jesuits  principally  appealed.  ."Afterwards  many  notoriously 
popish  books  were  dispersed  among  the  common  people,  as 
Eccii  Enchiridion,  and  others  of  that  class.  The  Catechismus 
Canisii  and  Consultationes  Cassandri  had  appeared  in  print 
in  Swedish,  and  misled  many.  Werwing,  i.  133.  In  duke 
Charles'  Answer  to  the  Points  represented  by  the  Clergy, 
Feb.  29,  1595,  it  is  directed  that  an  exposition  cf  Luther's 
Catechism  shall  be  made  every  Sunday  after  sermon.  On 
the  24th  July  he  writes  to  the  clergy  that  the  Swedish  Cate- 
chism should  be  amended,  and  purged  of  papistical  cere- 
monies, and  the  translation  of  the  Bible  narrowly  examined. 

9  Werwing,  i.  13C. 


1598.] 


The  Calvinists 
declared  heretics. 


CHARLES  AGAINST  SIGISMUND. 


Guarantees  dtmaiided 
from  the  kiiiR. 


185 


complaints '  by  the  burgesses,  was  obliged  to  inter- 
dict hiin  from  the  exercise  of  his  functions.  The 
duke  had  refrained  from  taking  part  in  the  deli- 
berations. He  subscribed  the  statute  2,  although 
not  disguising  his  disgust  with  the  coimcil  for  not 
having  before  taken  his  opinion.  He  maintained 
likewise  the  abrogation  of  the  raising  of  the  sacra- 
ment in  the  Lord's  Supper,  of  the  use  of  salt  and 
lights  in  baptism,  with  other  papistical  ceremonies 
still  retained,  whereof  reason  demanded  the  change. 
Sponsors  in  baptism  were  continued  against  his 
will.  Some  difference  marked  the  close  of  the 
assembly.  The  same  bishops  who  had  just  dis- 
claimed the  hturgy,  sought  now  zealously  to  show 
the  purity  of  their  doctrine.  Not  content  that  the 
errors  of  the  so-called  sacramentarians  were  re- 
jected, they  also  demanded,  although  by  this  word 
the  Reformed  communion  was  plainly  enougli  desig- 
nated, that  Zuinglians  and  Calvinists  should  be  ex- 
pressly declared  heretics,  because  the  duke  and  his 
clergy  were  suspected  of  adhering  to  their  doc- 
trines. The  act  of  assembly  had  been  previously 
read  and  adopted.  The  speaker  refused  to  propose 
any  further  addition,  and  abdicated  his  office.  The 
prelates  persisted  in  their  demand.  The  bishop  of 
Strengness  at  length  appeared  as  mediator,  and 
Charles  gave  his  assent  in  phrases  of  no  very 
choice  order.  "  Set  in,"  he  said,  "  all  that  ye  know 
to  be  of  this  tribe, — ay,  the  very  fiend  of  hell,  for  lie 
too  is  my  foe."  In  a  confidential  letter  to  the 
archbishop  and  professors  of  Upsala  he  afterwards 
(May  15,  1594)  declared:  "  We  are  now  defamed 
by  the  clergy  as  if  we  countenanced  the  doctrines 
of  Calvin  and  Zuingle.  But  we  will  profess  our- 
selves bound  to  no  man's  person,  Christ  excepted, 
neither  to  Luther,  nor  Calvin,  nor  Zuingle,  but  to 
God's  word  alone." 

The  Synod  of  Upsala,  whose  memory  the  Swedish 
Church  celebrates  every  centui'y  ^,  was  a  great  and 
decisive  step.  It  consolidated  the  Reformation  in 
Sweden,  and  by  its  consequences  in  Europe.  Re- 
lations, which  in  the  impending  sti'ife  carried  great 
weight,  had  already  begun  to  appear.  Henry  of 
Navarre  had  written  to  Charles  concerning  a 
general  Protestant  league  *.  Sigismund  had  lately 
married  a  princess  of  the  house  of  Austria '. 

The  Polish  diet,  before  which  came  the  question 
as  to  Sigismund's  occupation  of  the  Swedish  throne, 
was,  according  to  custom,  full  of  disorders.  Event- 
ually their  consent  was  obtained,  with  a  supply  of 

'  See  the  Vindicatory  Memoir  of  the  Corporate  Body  to 
John,  agaiijst  the  inculpations  of  Peter  Paulson;  printed  in 
Nytt,  Treasure  of  Documents  in  Northern  History  (Forrad 
af  handliiigarna  i  Nordiska  Historien),  Stockholm,  1759. 

2  It  is  drawn  up  in  the  name  of  the  duke,  the  council,  the 
hishops,  nobles,  the  inferior  clergy  and  burgesses,  March  20, 
1593.  Next  year  Charles  caused  it  to  be  sworn  to  in  his 
duchy,  at  a  provincial  synod  in  Strengness,  and  ratified  by 
the  peasants  with  the  seals  of  their  several  hundreds. 

3  At  first  a  sermon,  from  the  text  of  2  Chronicles  xv.  2, 
was  preached  yearly,  in  remembrance  of  the  Sunday  after 
the  19th  February,  on  which  day  Sigismund  was  at  length 
compelled  to  acknowledge  the  acts  of  the  Synod  of  Upsala. 
See  duke  Charles'  letter  thereupon  to  the  clergy,  Feb.  29, 
1595.     Register. 

■<  "  Ad  procurandam  in  ecclesia  Dei  concordiam  et  retun- 
dendos  Romani  Anti-Christi  conatus."  To  this  end  Henry 
had  in  1583  sent  Segur  as  his  ambassador  to  the  Protestants 
of  Germany,  and  even  written  to  John  as  well  as  Charles. 
The  letters  are  to  be  found  printed  in  Henrici  Navarrorum 
Regis  Epistolae  de  pace  ecclesiastica  constituenda.     Utrecht, 


money  for  the  journey,  as  it  was  alleged  in  Sweden, 
in  consideration  of  Sigismund's  promise,  to  arrange 
the  dispute  regarding  Estland  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  Poles.  Olave  Swerkerson  returned  from  Poland 
with  thanks  to  the  duke  for  the  pains  he  had 
taken  ;  about  Estlaud  Charles  need  not  give  him- 
self apprehensions  ;  the  king  would  uphold  the 
laws  and  liberties  of  the  realm,  and  show  affection 
or  hate  to  no  man  on  account  of  religion,  although 
he  neither  would  nor  could  confirm  the  statutes 
passed  by  the  synod  of  Upsala  during  his  absence  ^. 
Such  general  promises  were  brought  by  several 
envoys  from  the  king.  In  Sweden  men  demanded 
more  definite  securities,  especially  for  religion.  To 
obtain  these  before  Sigismund  quitted  Poland,  a 
man  personally  agreeable  to  him  was  sent,  the 
councillor  of  state  Thure  Bielkc,  who  was  provided 
with  a  warrant,  which  along  with  the  acts  of  the 
synod  of  Upsala  Charles  caused  to  be  read  before 
the  people  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Upon  ob- 
taining security,  the  commissioner  was  to  request 
that  Sigismund  would  fix  the  time  of  his  arrival,  as 
the  duke  wished  to  equip  a  fleet  to  bring  him  away. 
The  councillors  of  state  Eric  Sparreand  Clas  Bielke 
were  thereafter  despatched  for  the  same  object  to 
Poland,  and  met  the  king  on  his  way  to  Dantzic. 
Most  of  the  councillors  appeared  now  to  be  on  the 
duke's  side.  All  of  them  were  not  so  circumspect 
as  the  old  chancellor  Nicholas  Gyllenstierna,  who, 
being  questioned  as  to  Thure  Bielke"s  instructions, 
protested  with  much  length  of  phrase,  "  that  the 
Polish  business  far  exceeded  his  comprehension." 
Accounts  th<at  a  papal  legate  had  arrived  in  War- 
saw, with  a  summons  to  the  king,  calling  upon  him 
to  restore  the  ancient  church  in  his  hereditary 
dominions,  and  with  a  subsidy  in  money  towards 
the  undertaking '  ;  that  an  imperial  envoy  held  the 
same  language  ;  that  the  pope's  legate  was  follow- 
ing the  king  in  order  to  crown  him  in  Sweden  ; 
that  Sigismund  had  in  the  course  of  his  journey 
placed  an  interdict  on  the  evangelical  churches  of 
Thorn  ar;d  Eibing,  and  that  the  fear  of  a  like  jiro- 
ceeding  in  Dantzic  during  his  sojourn  there  had 
led  to  popular  tumults  ;  all  this  increased  the  soli- 
citudes felt  in  Sweden.  In  Finland  Clas  Fleming 
continued  to  defy  the  Swedish  government.  A 
strange  correspondence  was  carried  on  between 
the  duke  and  this  man,  who  was  not  unlike  him  in 
disposition,  and  noted  for  his  roughness  and  prompt 
decision*.     Eventually  he  proceeded,  not  having 

1679.  His  attempts  at  mediation  were  also  extended  to  the 
Catholic  powers.  Henry  then  purposed  visiting  in  person 
the  chief  Protestant  countries. 

5  At  Cracow,  May  21,  1592.  His  first  wife  was  Anne, 
daughter  of  the  archduke  Charles,  son  of  the  emperor  Fer- 
dinand I.  by  Mary  of  Bavaria ;  his  second,  married  in  1605, 
was  Constantia,  her  sister. 

6  Upsaliae  decreta — supremo  magistratu  inconsulto — nee 
possint  nee  debeant  rata  censeri.     Messenius,  viii.  IL'. 

7  Thirty  thousand  guilders,  according  to  Typotius.  Poland 
had  granted  two  hundred  thousand  guilders  for  the  king's 
journey,  not  including  what  Lithuania  afforded,  according  to 
Sigismnnd's  own  statement  to  Charles,  March  13,  1594. 

8  April  7,  1593,  the  duke  writes  to  Clas  Fleming,  that 
"  without  commands  from  the  king's  majesty  in  Poland, 
from  us,  and  from  the  council  of  state,  he  should  admit  no 
man  into  the  castle  of  Abo,  were  he  even  Clas  Fleming  or 
any  other;"  also  to  relieve  Narva  with  ships,  whatever  Clas 
Fleming  might  allege  against  it. — In  a  letter  to  Poland  the 
latter  subscribes  himself  "  Clas  Fleming,  free-baron  of  Wik, 
marshal,  high  admiral,  and  general,  who  has  now  too  many 


186 


The  king's  arrival. 
Piet  of  Upsala. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  acceptance  of  the 
conditions  proposed. 


[1592— 


communicated  with  Charles,  with  the  fleet  from 
Finland  to  Dantzic,  took  on  board  Sigismund  with 
his  wife,  sister,  and  train,  and  landed  after  a 
troublous  passage  at  Stockholm  on  the  30th  Sep- 
tember, 1593.  Charles  took  his  stand  on  the 
castle-bridge  to  receive  the  king.  The  newly- 
elected  archbishop,  Abraham  Angemian,  the  most 
vehement  opponent  of  the  liturgy,  was  a  sight  as 
little  agreeable  to  the  new-comer,  as  the  papal 
legate  Malaspina  to  the  prince  ^.  After  a  short  in- 
terview, during  which  the  duke,  even  in  the  king's 
presence,  gave  way  to  his  wrath  against  Clas  Flem- 
ing and  count  Axel  Leyonhufvud,  Charles  retired 
into  his  principality,  and  committed  to  the  council 
the  business  of  negotiating  with  the  king. 

Further  demands  touching  the  securities  so  re- 
quested were  pi-essod.  But  Sigismund  would  con- 
tirm  neither  the  acts  of  the  Synod  of  Upsala,  the 
printing  of  which  he  forbade,  nor  the  choice  made 
of  an  archbishop  ;  his  Jesuits  and  the  clergy  of 
Stockholm  preached  against  one  another.  He 
wished  to  concede  the  use  of  a  church  in  the 
former  monastery  of  the  Franciscans  to  the  Catho- 
lics, and  enforced  there  an  interment  after  the 
Catholic  ritual,  at  which  the  Poles  and  Swedes  came 
to  blows  in  the  church  itself,  so  that  blood  was 
shed.  Of  natives,  only  those  surrounded  him  who 
had  embraced  Catholicism,  and  now  showed  them- 
selves most  zealous  for  its  extension.  Otherwise 
he  held  converse  mostly  with  the  papal  legate  and 
his  own  Polish  retinue,  rarely  saw  the  Swedish 
council,  and  refused  to  receive  the  deputies  of  the 
Swedish  clergy  ^.  In  his  answer  to  the  council  in 
Jannary,  1594,  he  expresses  surprise,  that  any  con- 
ditions should  be  demanded  of  him  before  the  coro- 
nation. Men  should  know  the  distinction  between 
a  hereditary  and  an  elective  monarchy.  This,  says 
the  great  Gustavus  Adolphus,  his  councillors,  the 
Jesuits,  "  who  stir  up  every  subtlety  that  is  good 
for  nought,"  had  taught  him.  Of  the  same  school 
is  another  answer  of  the  king  :  as  king  elective, 
he  said,  his  conscience  would  have  forbidden 
him  to  approve  any  other  i-eligion  than  that 
which  he  himself  held  to  be  true  ;  now  being  born 
king  hereditary  of  subjects  differing  in  faith,  he 
would  leave  them  unmolested,  it  being  first  de- 
clared what  privileges  they  would  permit  his  fellow- 
believers  the  Catholics  to  enjoy  ^. — Thus  with  minds 
mutually  exaspei'ated,  men  repaired  to  Upsala, 
where  the  estates  wei'e  assembled,  to  solemnize  at 
once  John's  entombment  and  Sigismund's  corona- 
tion. The  former  was  conducted  with  great  pomp  ; 
but  the  papal  legate  was  extruded  from  the  funeral 
procession,  and  the  Jesuits  theatened  with  death  if 

rulers,  though  he  guides  himself  by  no  more  than  one,  who 
is  called  king  Sigismund;  come,  my  mates,  to  command  me 
too,  and  see  if  I  do  not  knock  them  on  the  head." 

9  "  It  is  also  singular  that  master  Abraham,  who  had 
fallen  into  disgrace  with  our  late  father,  should  now  be  the 
person  to  receive  us  in  the  name  of  all  the  clergy,"  Sigismund 
afterwards  wrote  to  Charles.  The  duke  demanded  the  re- 
moval of  the  papa!  legate,  which  the  lords  of  the  council 
sent  to  meet  Sigismund  had  already  urged  in  Dantzic.  The 
answer  was,  that  he  was  not  sent  to  the  kingdom,  but  to  the 
king's  person,  and  had  well  merited  another  requital  by  the 
trouble  he  had  taken  in  furthering  the  king's  journey.  He 
would  not  interfere  in  the  coronation,  and  had  been  silent 
upon  questions  of  religion,  although  the  clergy  were  crying 
out  against  him.     Sigismund's  Register,  1594. 

'  "  For  that  we  did  not  give  such  answer  to  the  clergy, 
who  some  time  ago  were  in  Stockholm,  as  they  more  reck- 


they  ventured  into  the  church.  Next  day,  the 
warden  of  the  cathedral  of  Upsala  averred  that 
he  and  several  others  had  seen  the  grave  of  king 
John  sprinkled  with  blood  '.  Charles  came  thither, 
but  with  a  train  of  three  thousand  men  on  foot  and 
horse,  whom  he  quartered  on  his  hereditary  estates 
in  the  surrounding  tracts.  To  the  estates  he  said  : 
"  I  part  not  myself  from  you  ;  if  Sigismund  will  be 
your  king,  he  nuist  fulfil  your  requests."  To  the 
king  he  declared  that  no  coronation  could  previously 
be  permitted.  On  the  delivery  of  this  intimation 
he  was  accompanied  at  the  castle  of  Upsala  by  the 
council  and  nobility  and  the  applauding  shouts  of 
the  people  who  stood  without.  The  order  of  pea- 
sants offered  him  the  crown,  but  he  enjoined  them 
to  be  silent.  Others  talked  of  placing  the  young 
prince  John  on  the  throne  under  a  government  of 
guardians. 

The  court  spent  its  time  in  evasive  answers,  and 
endeavours  to  disunite  the  estates.  Rumours  were 
current  of  an  attempt  against  the  duke's  life.  A 
Netherlander  who  at  this  time  resided  in  the  court, 
himself  a  Catholic  and  partisan  of  Sigismund,  re- 
lates that  such  a  proposal  was  made  to  the  king, 
and  absolution  promised  him  for  the  crime  *.  That 
Sigismund  rejected  the  crime,  we  should  be  war- 
ranted in  believing  from  his  whole  character,  even 
if  prudence  had  not  forbidden  him  to  risk  such  a 
step  against  a  rival  emboldened  by  the  devotion  of 
the  estates,  and  whose  army  was  the  stronger. 
Meanwhile  Charles  redoubled  his  vigilance,  and 
kept  his  cavalry  in  readiness.  The  estates  vowed 
unanimously,  with  prayers  and  upon  their  knees, 
to  uphold  the  acts  of  the  synod  of  Upsala.  No 
Catholic  was  to  be  thenceforth  capable  of  filling 
any  office  in  Sweden  ;  whosoever  should  embrace 
the  Catholic  faith  or  permit  his  children  to  be 
educated  therein,  was  to  lose  his  rights  of  citizen- 
ship ;  Catholics  might  reside  in  the  kingdom  if 
they  conducted  themselves  peaceably,  but  no 
Catholic  service  should  be  performed  except  in 
the  king's  chapel '.  This  was  all  the  court  could 
obtain ;  and  when  the  duke  at  last  threatened  to 
depart  and  dismiss  the  estates  to  their  homes,  un- 
less a  decisive  answer  followed  within  four-and- 
twenty  hours,  the  king  submitted  to  the  conditions 
prescribed.  The  estates  sang  Te  Deum  as  for  a 
victory  won.  Even  the  newly  elected  archbishop 
was  confirmed  in  his  office,  but  the  king  was 
determined  not  to  receive  the  crown  fi'om  a  man  so 
odious  to  him.  The  same  day  on  which  the  as- 
surance was  given*  (February  the   19th,   1594), 

lessly  than  discreetly  requested,  thereto  we  had  good  reason." 
Sigismund  to  Charles,  Jan.  22,  1594.     Ibid. 

2  Baazii  Inventarium  Eccl.  SuioGoth.  547. 

3  Messenius. 

■*  Jac.  Typotius,  Relatio  Hist,  de  regno  SueciEe.  This 
person  had  gained  no  good  repute  in  Sweden.  An  Italian 
named  Stozzi  gave  the  duke  warning.  Charles  himself  after- 
ward said,  he  had  been  informed  from  abroad,  that  about  the 
time  of  the  coronation  designs  were  thrice  entertained  against 
his  life,  as  well  as  subsequently  in  Stockholm,  before  the 
king's  departure.  Declaration  to  the  Council,  March  6,  1595. 
Register. 

5  Covenant  of  the  Estates  of  the  Realm  anent  Religion. 
Upsala,  Feb.  16,  1594. 

s  The  King's  Assurance  anent  Religion,  as  found  in  the 
Registry,  differs  from  the  version  printed  in  Stiernman,  in 
that  the  king  reserves  to  himself  the  power  of  afterwards 
granting,  with  the  approbation  of  the  estates,  more  tolerable 
conditions  to  his  fellow-believers. 


1598.] 


The  coronation. 
Disorders  at  Stockholm. 


CHARLES  AGAINST  SIGISMUND. 


Old  abuses  renewed. 
Postulates  of  the  nobles. 


187 


bishop  Bellinus  of  Westerns  performed  the  coro- 
nation of  the  king  and  queen  in  the  cathedral  of 
Upsala.  The  archbishop  read  the  prayers.  As 
the  king  dropped  his  hand  during  the  oath,  Charles 
reminded  him  to  keep  it  upright.  He  himself  took 
his  oath  to  the  king  without  bending  the  knee, 
but  laid  his  ducal  cap  at  the  royal  feet.  His  rights 
as  duke  were  confirmed,  without  the  contested 
limitations,  and  he  received  Dalsland  in  addition 
as  a  pledge  for  his  loan  to  the  crown. 

"  Sigismund  was  slov/  in  confirming  all  clerical 
and  laical  privileges,"  says  the  great  Gustavus 
Adolphus;  "and  as  he  promised  with  hesitancy,  so 
he  kept  to  it  no  longer  than  between  Upsala  and 
Stockholm;  for  hardly  was  he  arrived  in  Stockholm 
when  he  made  the  count  Eric  Brahe  (a  Catholic)  to 
be  lieutenant  there,  which  was  not  the  least  office  in 
Sweden.  Malaspina,  the  evil  thorn  that  stuck  in 
the  king's  foot,  made  him  halt  sorely  in  his  pro- 
mises ;  popish  schools,  popish  churches  were  erected ; 
around  Stockholm  divine  service  was  interrupted 
by  disturbance;  men  were  obliged  to  go  armed  to 
the  church  ;  complaint  thereof  was  made  to  the 
king,  but  little  good  thereby  effected.  Moreover 
the  king's  councillors  found  it  good  to  fish  in  the 
troubled  water.  Sweden  must  be  stirred  up  to 
civil  discords,  that  one  heretic  might  be  extirpated 
by  another.  The  king  hastened  to  Poland.  Here 
all  was  to  remain  in  disorder  and  confusion,  no  one 
bound  to  obey  another,  that  the  more  speedily, 
among  so  many  magnates  (for  every  province  had 
its  lieutenant),  mischiefs  might  spring  up.  But  as 
the  majesty  of  the  realm  of  Sweden  was  by  God's 
succour  defended  and  maintained  up  to  this  day,  so 
that  it  never  was  transferred  to  another  monarchy, 
but  by  God's  blessing  and  Swedish  valour  was  pre- 
served to  this  country  and  nation,  so  too  were  now 
found  men  who  would  not  allow  this  design  of  the 
king's  to  be  effected.  The  council,  which  was  in 
Stockholm,  ^irotested  against  him,  that  it  was  not 
competent  for  him  to  remove  the  kingly  govei-n- 
ment  out  of  the  land;  he  should  appoint  a  govern- 
ment within  the  realm,  that  should  manage  affairs 
instead  of  his.  They  also  gave  king  Charles,  (so 
Gustavus  Adolphus  constantly  styles  his  father,) 
who  lay  sick  at  Nykoping,  to  understand  this.  The 
king  indeed  made  out,  although  with  no  good  will, 
a  warrant  (which  was  in  tenor  accordingly),  where- 
in with  few  words  my  father  was  empowered  to 
manage  the  administration  with  the  council  of 
state  ;  but  the  lieutenants  of  the  provinces  were 
enjoined  to  pay  this  government  no  regard.  Thus 
they  did  whatsoever  they  wished.  To  the  people, 
who  (in  Sweden  especially)  were  accustomed  to 
law  and  justice,  it  appeared  strange  that  they  were 
treated  so  ill  by  the  lieutenants  nominated  ;  and  as 
the  people  are  besides  prone  to  complain,  so  when 
they  found  themselves  oppressed,  they  ran  in  crowds 
to  Stockholm,  where  they  were  wont  to  find  redress. 
The  government  would  gladly  have  had  from  Sigis- 
mund a  better  warrant  and  fuller  instructions,  after 
which  they  might  have  ruled  people  and  realm  for 
the  king's  behoof;  which  also,  while  the  king  was 
in  Stockholm,  was  sufficiently  promised;  yet  it  was 
deferred  from  day  to  day,  until  the  king  was  ready 
to  sail,  and  no  other  could  be  obtained,  whence  all 
the  disorder  afterwards  flowed  ^." 


'  MS.    from    the    hand    of   Gustavus   Adolphus,    before 
cited. 


We  know  the  nature  of  the  government  which 
Sweden  had  under  the  former  Union ;  on  the  one 
side  provincial  magnates,  who,  under  the  title  of 
councillors  of  state,  governed  in  the  name  of  an 
absent  king ;  on  the  other  a  turbulent  crowd, 
which  joined  the  standard  of  him  among  those 
who  ventured  to  separate  himself  from  the  rest  in 
order  to  maintain,  under  the  name  of  administra- 
tor, at  least  the  appearance  of  a  national  sove- 
reignty. To  w-hat  degree  the  new  Union  with 
Poland  produced  similar  relations,  biinging  up 
again  old  pretensions  and  abuses,  just  as  if  a  Gus- 
tavus Vasa  had  never  appeared  in  Sweden,  this 
has  not  been  adequately  and  truthfully  shown,  and 
yet  herein  lies  the  key  to  the  transactions  of  the 
time. 

We  return  to  the  chancellor,  Eric  Sparr€,  the 
undaunted  defender  of  that  which  his  order  styled 
old  Swedish  freedom.  On  Sigismund's  arrival  in 
Sweden  he  presented  to  the  king  that  tract  which 
is  known  under  the  name  of  Postulata  nobiliitm,  or, 
according  to  its  more  detailed  title,  "  Supplication 
and  submissive  request  of  the  council  of  state,  the 
knights,  and  the  lesser  nobility,  to  enjoy  their  an- 
cient liberties  and  privileges  in  equal  measure  with 
the  other  estates  of  the  realm."  It  is  subscribed 
by  the  principal  members  of  the  council  ;  some 
passages  towards  the  end,  where  the  author's  pen 
seemed  too  blunt,  having  been  erased.  After  con- 
gratulations to  Sigismund  upon  his  arrival  in  his 
hereditary  dominions,  "  against  the  will  and  pur- 
pose of  many,"  and  extolling  the  advantages  of  the 
Union  with  Poland,  which  the  author  seems  to  love 
as  his  own  work,  he  proceeds  to  prove  that  Sweden 
had  been  fi'om  of  old  a  state  free  and  controlled  by 
the  law,  and  could  not,  as  a  hereditary  kingdom, 
have  ceased  to  be  so  ;  although  it  had  since  en- 
dured many  sufferings,  which  in  recent  times  had 
reached  their  highest  point,  and  which  are  drawn 
in  the  darkest  colours. — Unbounded  power  was 
contrary  to  God's  word,  repugnant  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  ancients,  against  reason  and  the  law  of  Swe- 
den, and  king  Eric's  example  had  shown  that  even 
a  hereditary  king  might  justly  be  deposed  on 
account  of  tyranny.  To  govern  absolutely  would 
of  yore  have  been  a  word  unheard  in  Sweden ; 
nevertheless  there  were  those  who  now  maintained 
that  before  the  time  of  king  Gustavus  there  liad 
been  no  liberties  and  privileges  in  the  kingdom, 
and  that  it  was  something  new  in  Sweden  to  speak 
of  estates  to  whom  these  liberties  should  belong. 
Were  there  then  no  estates  when  the  hereditary 
settlement  was  agreed  to  ?  Who  else  then  could 
have  sanctioned  it  ?  Were  there  not  here  princes, 
knights,  and  nobles,  bishops  and  priests,  and  a  con- 
siderable army,  although  exhausted  by  a  tedious 
and  wasting  war  ?  Were  there  not  here  burgesses, 
miners,  and  yeomen,  who,  as  men's  memory  can 
yet  testify,  were  here  of  more  weight  than  in  any 
other  country,  and  partly  more  respected  as  being 
yeomen  1  And  although  some  say  that  king  John 
wished  to  reserve  to  himself  all  affairs,  as  well  spi- 
ritual as  temporal,  yet  men  must  in  general  con- 
sider rather  what  ought  to  be  than  what  had  been. 
Howbeit  these  were  no  outlandish,  no  excessive 
and  intolerable  rights  which  were  now  requested 
(of  these  the  Swedish  nobles  had  scant  experience, 
and  sought  not  after  them),  but  only  what  had  been 
anciently  held  good  in  Sweden. — Thereupon  fol- 
lows a  copious  collection  of  fomier  privileges  of  the 


188 


Sigismund's  charter  to 
tlie  nobility. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Arrangements  for  his 
departure. 


[1592- 


council  of  state  and  the  nobles,  especially  during 
the  Union  age  '. 

Induced  thereby  king  Sigismund  i.ssued  before 
his  coronation  a  special  assurance  to  tlie  knights 
and  nobility,  by  which,  upon  the  expressed  ground 
that  the  nobility  had  approved  the  hci-editary  set- 
tlement, John's  privileges  were  considerably  aug- 
mented. Judicial  posts  were  now  reserved  ex- 
clusively for  nobles,  as  well  as  all  the  high  offices 
of  state  in  the  chancery,  the  government  of  the 
provinces,  and  the  command  of  the  army,  and  no 
mean  or  unnoble  men  should  be  placed  in  any 
office  above  them  or  beside  them.  The  kingdom 
should  be  governed  by  the  advice  of  the  council, 
and  no  man  be  received  into  it  without  the  ap- 
proval of  its  remaining  members.  The  council  and 
nobility  should  be  duly  supported  in  the  service  of 
the  realm  with  land  and  fiefs,  according  to  the  house- 
hold laws  ordained  by  preceding  kings  ^.  The  con- 
ditions of  the  horse-service  were  furtlier  lightened, 
and  all  freeholds  originally  acquired  by  the  assump- 
tion of  its  burdens  were  to  be  enjoyed  unimpaired 
by  the  nobility  and  their  dependents.  It  is  sur- 
prising that  the  right  of  the  crown,  grounded  upon 
the  false  statute  of  Helgeaudsholm,  is  controverted, 
and  against  it  Eric  Sparre  manifestly  directed  a  part 
of  his  essay.  That  metallic  ridges  in  Sweden  are 
no  regalities  he  shows  by  the  statute  of  1486,  in  re- 
spect to  the  advantage  devolving  to  the  crown,  and 
the  rights  of  the  proprietor,  and  adds,  that  accord- 
ing to  the  old  register  of  the  kingdom  in  Strengness 
the  oldest  councilloi's  at  that  time  attested  that  this 
so  obtained  in  the  time  of  king  Christopher.  Against 
claims  of  the  crown  to  the  commons  of  hundreds 
he  appeals  to  the  Land's  Law;  that  of  exclusive 
right  over  the  streams  is  also  held  bad.  All  such 
assertions  in  the  charters  of  privileges  are  also  de- 
clared illegal. — The  true  import  of  the  dignities  of 
count  and  baron  at  this  time  we  learn  from  the 
letters  confirmatory  of  such  grants.  The  inhabitants 
of  the  domains  annexed  are  exhorted  to  acknowledge 
the  possessors  for  their  rightful  count  or  free  baron, 
to  him  after  the  crown  to  show  fealty  and  obedience, 
and  to  make  to  him  all  those  payments  which  were 
otherwise  due  to  the  crown.  Fiefs  were  distributed 
in  numbers.  Complaints  were  made  of  partiality, 
and  of  tlie  intolerable  influence  of  the  royal  secre- 
tary therein.  The  nobles  were  not  content.  Sig- 
ismund requested  on  the  9th  March,  1594,  the 
oj)inion  of  Charles,  since  the  nobility,  notwith- 
standing the  assurance  given  in  Upsala,  still  in- 
cessantly solicited  amendments  of  their  privileges. 
Charles,  who  had  previously  warned  the  king 
against  the  new  privileges*,  replies,  that  he  now 
cannot  advise,  because  he  should  only  be  ill  inter- 
preted *. 

The  duke  had  gone  after  the  coronation  to  his 
principality;  and  sickness,  perhaps  also  mistrust, 
retained  him  at  Nykoping  during  the  short  time 
fur  which  Sigismund  still  tarried  in  Sweden.     The 

8  We  quote  tlie  above  from  a  manuscript  copy.  According 
to  Warmlioltz,  it  was  printed  at  Stoclcholm  in  1594. 

5  For  this  Eric  Sparre  refers  to  the  decree  of  the  Council  of 
State  at  Telje  in  1380. 

'  Charles  writes,  Nov.  5,  1593,  that  he  had  heard  the 
nobles  requested  further  amendment  of  their  privileges ; 
that  the  king  should  request  to  know  upon  what  grounds  ; 
alsQ,  since  they  referred  to  ancient  charters,  that  they  should 
show  them.     Minute  for  Sigismund.     Register. 

2  Answer  to  Sigismund,  April  4,  J 594.     In  the  same  letter 


king's  intention  of  returning  instantly  (according  to 
his  promise  given)  to  Poland,  had  already  been 
made  known  to  the  estates  in  Upsala,  with  a  decla- 
ration that  the  duke  and  the  council  should  con- 
duct the  government  in  Sweden.  The  people 
thereon  regarded  Charles,  the  magnates  the  coun- 
cil, as  the  ruling  authority.  That  the  latter  was 
the  ojjinion  of  the  council  itself  was  soon  shown, 
when  they  produced  on  the  20th  of  March,  1594, 
their  own  scheme  of  government,  in  the  minuteness 
and  formality  of  which  is  again  recognised  the  pen 
of  Eric  Sparr^.  This  was  a  circumstantially  ordered 
polygarchy,  meted  out  and  balanced  in  several 
offices  filled  by  nobles,  with  the  council  at  the  head 
of  the  administration,  affairs  being  decided  by  a 
plurality  of  voices.  We  see  that  the  statutes  of 
Calmar  were  not  forgotten.  The  author  refers 
also  to  the  example  of  Denmark,  where  the  council 
now  held  the  government  during  the  minority  of 
Christian  IV.  The  king  appeared  content  with  this 
form  of  government,  which  was  promulgated  by 
commissioners  in  the  country.  Charles  rejected  it, 
as  contrary  to  Swedish  law  and  Swedish  manners. 
Born  ])rince  hereditary  of  Sweden,  he  was  entitled 
to  conduct  the  government  during  the  king's  ab- 
sence, although  he  would  have  willingly  dispensed 
with  its  toils,  if  the  king  himself  would  stay  in  the 
country  ;  the  council,  according  to  Sweden's  law, 
was  to  advise,  not  to  govern  ;  Denmark  was  an 
elective  monarchy,  and  its  example  not  applicable 
to  Sweden  ^.  To  the  council  he  wrote,  that  for 
what  concerned  the  ordering  of  the  government, 
there  was  no  more  certain  rule  than  the  law  of 
Sweden  and  tlie  king's  oath.  To  govern  accord- 
ingly must  be  exacted  of  the  man  to  whom  the 
king,  with  the  assent  of  the  estates,  should  commit 
the  government  during  his  absence  ;  then  any 
further  circumstance  was  needless  ;  all  cases  could 
hardly  be  so  anticipated  and  comprised  in  a  deter- 
minate order,  that  the  condition  of  the  realm  might 
not  well  demand  another  disposition  ;  every  other 
order  of  government  must  be  the  subject  of  dis- 
cussion, as  well  with  him  to  whom  the  government 
was  to  be  committed,  as  with  the  estates,  who 
were  to  be  governed  in  accordance  therewith  ■*. 
Charles  therefore  requested  the  convocation  of  the 
estates  anew,  ere  the  king  quitted  the  country,  but 
communicated  a  proposition,  upon  the  principles 
stated,  as  well  for  the  warrant  which  he  required 
from  Sigismund,  as  for  the  assurance  of  fealty  he  was 
to  give  in  return  ^.  Among  the  king's  attendants  an 
individual  was  found,  who  advised  the  accepting  of 
both  without  limitation ;  this  was  Arnold  Grothusen, 
his  former  tutor.  Sweden,  he  argued,  needed 
a  government ;  Charles  would  take  in  any  case 
what  he  now  requested  ;  it  would  be  better  to  leave 
it  to  him  with  a  good  grace  ;  the  matter  touched 
Sigismund's  hereditary  right  and  crown,  which 
could  only  be  preserved  by  this  method.  This  was 
what  Charles  himself  had  not  concealed.    "  If  your 

he  says,  that  he  could  not  advise  any  thing  touching  the 
dowry  of  queen  Gunnila;  yet  he  was  of  opinion  that  her 
claim  should  be  abated  in  several  respects,  and  that  the 
young  duke  John,  after  the  death  of  duke  Magnus,  (which 
occurred  June  21,  1595,)  should  receive  East-Gothland. 
3  Answer  to  Sigismund's  messengers,  Werwing,  i.  250. 

*  To  the  council,  upon  the  ordering  of  government,  June 
5,  1594.     Register. 

*  July  15,  1594,  just  as  the  king  was  departing.     See  both 
in  Werwing,  i.  256. 


'^^«-]   sw^ers'siimu,^^^^^^^^  CHARLES  AGAINST  STGTSMUND. 


Position  of  the 
council. 


180 


majesty  set  out,"  he  writes  to  the  king,  "  without 
your  subjects  knowing  by  wliom  and  how  they  are 
to  be  governed,  we  dread  what  will  ensue  there- 
upon, and  have  been  loth  to  leave  this  unnoted 
for  the  warning  of  your  majesty^."  Sigisniund's 
whole  nature  was  opposed  to  a  mode  of  action  so 
decided.  He  lived  in  negations  or  in  half  affirma- 
tions. Without  power  to  enforce  his  will,  no  one 
yielded  with  a  worse  air,  whence  his  discussions  as 
well  with  the  duke  as  the  council  bear  the  impress 
of  exceedingly  peevish  humour '.  The  council,  wa- 
vering and  divided  within  itself,  as  little  possessed 
his  confidence,  and  religion  was  already  a  wall  of 
partition  which  Sigismund  could  not  overlook.  He 
was  himself  hardly  accessible  for  others  than  his 
fellow-believers,  and  at  court  were  now  seen  two 
papal  legates,  since  anotlier  had  newly  arrived,  to 
congratulate  the  queen  on  her  being  delivered  of  a 
daughter '.  The  clergy  of  the  town  and  court 
preached  and  spoke  against  one  another.  The 
Catholics  showed  publicly  their  contempt  of  the 
Lutheran  worship.  The  burgesses  kept  watch 
when  their  preachers  mounted  the  pulpit.  In  the 
holy  week  the  king  and  queen  washed  the  feet  of 
twelve  poor  men.  On  Easter  Sunday  the  minister 
Eric  .Schepper  preached  against  this  practice,  and 
forbade  every  man  to  give  alms  to  these  beggars, 
who  had  well-nigh  perished  of  hunger.  To  the 
baptism  of  the  king's  child  came  several  Polish 
nobles  with  an  ai-med  train  of  unruly  followers. 
The  king  himself  increased  his  Polish  Ijody-guard, 
whose  outrages  had  given  much  offence.  When 
the  dissatisfaction  of  the  council  thereupon  was 
made  known  to  him,  he  jeeringly  remarked,  that 
with  two  or  three  hundred  men  no  kingdoms  were 
taken®  ;  the  strangers  burdened  not  the  land  ;  all 
that  the  king  had  drawn  from  this  kingdom 
amounted  not  to  one  or  two  thousand  dollars'. 
The  council  thought  fit  to  summon  a  band  of  Dale- 
carlians  to  the  capital,  and  made  overtures  to  the 
duke,  especially  after  it  became  known  that  the 
king  was  bringing  a  fleet  from  Dantzic,  and  when 
it  landed  a  force  of  Polish  soldiers  in  Stockholm. 
This  was  done  manifestly  from  the  king's  fear  for 
his  own  safety  ;  yet  it  appeared  to  be  first  im- 
perilled by  this  very  step.  The  Poles  were  to  be 
kept  in  check  neither  by  commands  nor  punish- 
ments ;  quarrels  and  bloodshed  ensued.  The  citi- 
zens kept  under  arras,  and  fetched  stones  out  of  the 
streets  into  their  houses.  All  lamented  that  the 
duke  was  not  present. — In  such  a  temper  of  men's 
minds  Sigismund  (July  14,  1594)  embarked,  to  re- 
turn to  Poland.  While  he  lay  among  the  islets, 
the  negotiations  between  him  and  the  duke  were 
still  continued.  He  had  at  last  left  the  latter  a 
warrant  to  conduct  the  government  conjointly  with 
the  whole  of  the  council,  but  without  fixing  limits 
for  the  powers  of  either.  Sweden  in  anarchy  would 
be  more  easily  curbed,  his  Polish  councillors  had 

8  Answer  to  the  king  anent  his  departure,  July  4,  1594. 
Register. 

7  For  example,  there  was  a  question  of  marrying  his  sister, 
the  princess  Anne,  to  tlie  margrave  John  George  of  Branden- 
burg, and  the  council  had  let  fall  something  thereupon  ;  the 
king  writes,  among  other  points,  to  the  council,  "  Regarding 
lady  Anne's  marriage,  he  can  answer  nought  else,  than  that 
he  cannot  offer  her  for  sale."     Answer,  Jan.  6,  1594.     Reg. 

8  Who  died  shortly  after  birth. 

'  Answer  to  the  council,  June  6.  1594. 
I  To  duke  Charles,  March  9,  1594.     Reg. 


told  him  2.  Charles's  last  answer  was  that  he 
would  hear  the  estates  upon  matters  of  government. 
Meanwhile,  he  assumed  its  conduct  as  administra- 
tor, being  acknowledged  in  this  capacity  by  the 
council,  with  whom  he  now  struck  a  new  compact. 
He  could  not  yet,  as  he  himself  says,  set  all  sail,  by- 
reason  of  the  waves. 

The  council  had  placed  itself  between  two  powers, 
yet  without  being  able  to  work  otherwise  than  as  an 
ambiguous  ally,  now  on  one  side,  now  on  the  other. 
Thei-ein  too  is  implied  its  fate — to  be  crushed  in  the 
struggle.  That  it  had  some  importance  as  a  separate 
power,  was  a  constitutional  figment  of  Eric  Sparr^, 
on  which  he  would  fain  have  founded  a  govern- 
ment. It  had  in  fact  never  possessed  this  impor- 
tance in  Sweden,  whatever  the  Land's  Law  might 
say  thereupon  ;  though  its  members  were  really  of 
great  consequence  as  individuals,  powerful  every 
man  for  himself,  yet  oftenest  divided  among  them- 
selves. So  it  proved  on  this  occasion.  The  greater 
portion  of  the  council,  with  the  Bielke's  and  Baners 
at  their  head,  had,  according  to  the  old  fashion 
under  the  Union,  become  disaffected  to  the  king 
on  account  of  the  distribution  of  the  fiefs.  The 
leader  on  the  other  side  was  Clas  Fleming,  hated 
by  the  rest  from  the  time  of  John,  whence  they 
now  demanded  his  removal.  Sigismund  on  the 
other  hand  had  bestowed  his  confidence  on  him,  be- 
cause he  had  severed  himself  from  the  rest,  and 
had  declared  with  his  adherents  that  he  would 
obey  only  the  king's  orders.  Between  the  two 
parties  we  find  Eric  Sparre  with  his  learned  am- 
biguity ;  on  which  account  he  received  his  share  in 
that  distribution  of  sovereignty  which  Sigismund 
arranged  with  Fleming  before  his  departure.  An 
apportioned  sovereignty  that  may  justly  be  called, 
which  was  now  committed  to  the  lieutenants  of  the 
provinces.  It  is  surprising  that  the  proposal  seems 
to  have  proceeded  fi'om  the  council,  but  to  have 
been  rejected  by  the  king,  in  order  to  carry  it  into 
effect  for  the  sole  advantage  of  the  favoured  lords  ^. 
Clas  Fleming  was  confirmed  in  his  offices  as  high 
marshal,  admiral,  and  supreme  govei-nor  of  Fm- 
land.  Of  his  brothers-in-law,  the  Stenbocks,  Eric 
received  West-Gothland,  Arvid  East-Gothland, 
Charles  Smaland ;  Eric  Sparre  obtained  West- 
manland  and  Dalecarlia,  Eric  Brahe,  although  a 
papist,  was  appointed  not  only  to  the  lieutenancy  of 
the  castle  of  Stockholm,  but  also  to  be  captain  of 
Upland  and  Norrland.  They  were  made  by  sepa- 
rate and  secret  wai'raiits  independent  of  the  duke 
and  the  council.  Charles  styled  them  "  king  each 
in  his  district  *,"  and  they  were  near  enough 
being  so. 

"  Others,  both  in  and  out  of  the  council,"  he  writes 
to  Sigismund,  "have  besides  ourself  had  warrants 
directed  to  them,  as  well  in  Sweden  as  Finland, 
the  tenor  whereof  hath  not  been  made  known  to  us 

2  Comites  Poloni  (admonehant),ut  in  Poloniam  maturaref, 
redituros  se  majoribus  cumcopiis;  relinqueret  Suecos  im- 
peditos  ;  sic  fore  opportuniorcs  iiijuriis.     Typotius. 

3  For  what  is  mentioned  in  respect  to  the  lieutenants  in 
the  provinces,  the  king  finds  it  less  necessary,  if  the  lords  in 
the  government  do  their  duty,  especially  as  the  fortresses  are 
in  good  hands,  and  there  are  besides  justiciaries.  To  the 
council,  June  C,  1594. 

■<  Authentic  Relation  and  History  (Samfiirdig  Historia  ocli 
Beriittelse,  for  hvad  orsaker,  &c.)  for  what  causes  the 
estates  of  Sweden  renounced  king  Sigismund,  Stockholm, 
1GS9. 


r 


190 


The  new  lieutenants. 
Ueerectioii  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


University.     Peace 
witli  Russia. 


[1592— 


to  this  day;  natheless  we  have,  in  order  that  the 
affairs  of  the  realm  may  not  be  entirely  wrecked, 
been  obliged  to  take  on  ourselves  the  government, 
according  to  the  compact  with  the  council,  which 
here  follows '."  It  .soon  appeai-ed  that  these  new 
lieutenants  i-egarded  themselves  as  independent. 
Clas  Fleming  took  the  fleet  for  his  own  use  to  Fin- 
land, and  separated  himself  openly  from  the  Swedish 
government.  Arvid  Stenbock  denied  obedience  to 
the  commands  of  the  duke,  and  was  five  times  sum- 
moned by  him  to  make  answer  without  complying  ", 
His  brothers  gave  no  better  obedience.  The  duke 
complains  of  Eric  Brahe,  that  he  issued  orders  at 
his  pleasure  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm.  Eric 
Sparre,  at  first  popular  in  Dalecarlia,  and  avoiding 
longest  an  open  breach  with  the  duke,  ultimately 
showed  his  real  inclinations.  The  last  time  of  his 
holding  a  court  in  Dalecarlia,  ere  he  quitted  the 
kingdom,  he  drove,  to  the  astonishment  of  the 
Dalesmen,  with  his  wife  and  children  m  gilded 
cars,  preceded  by  trumpeters.  He  kept  a  guard 
round  himself  like  a  royal  personage,  and  levied 
great  sums  for  his  table-money.  At  length  the 
peasants  were  so  exasperated  against  him  that, 
two  years  afterwards,  on  a  false  report  of  his 
arrival  in  Dalecarlia,  they  chose  out  twenty  of  the 
stoutest  among  them  to  seize  him  as  duke  Charles' 
enemy  in  the  house  of  the  minister  of  Tuna'. 

In  the  year  15!)4,  the  9th  December  (O.  S.), 
at  eight  in  the  morning,  Charles'  son,  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  was  born  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm. 
More  besides  Tycho  Brahe  might  have  foretold 
him  a  crown.  The  solemnities  at  the  baptism  (on 
New  Year's  Day,  1595)  still  evinced  such  concord 
between  the  duke  and  the  council,  that  Sigismund's 
suspicions  against  the  latter  were  strengthened. 
Charles  celebrated  his  son's  birth-feast  b}'  the  re- 
storation of  the  University  of  Upsala,  which  had 
been  partly  raised  from  its  decay  by  John,  but 
again  dissolved ',  while  the  recent  revolutions,  de- 
cisive of  the  fortunes  of  the  Reformation  in  Swe- 
den, had  engrossed  universal  interest.  The  pro- 
fessors of  Upsala  \yeve  leaders  in  the  struggle 
against  the  liturgy,  and  suffered  on  that  account  a 
protracted  persecution.  In  general  the  teachers  of 
the  schools  throughout  Sweden  were  the  props  of  Pro- 
testantism. Schoolmasters  were  summoned  to  the 
synod  of  Upsala  ^,  a  rector  of  a  school  drew  up  the 
protocol,  a  professor  was  speaker,  and  the  restora- 
tion of  the  University  of  Upsala,  as  a  pillar  for  the 
upholding  of  the  Reformation,  was  one  of  the  points 
demanded  by  the  estates  from  Sigismund  *.    Charles 

5  Letter  to  the  king,  Stockliolm,  Sept.  17,  1594.  Reg. 
Covenant  of  the  councillors  of  state  with  duke  Charles  anent 
the  government.     Sep.  2,  1394.     Stiernman. 

s  "  We  have  received  your  tedious  and  offensive  memorial, 
and  you  are  to  know,  that  although  his  majesty  hath  ap- 
pointed you  the  supreme  commander  in  the  province,  your 
povper  yet  doth  not  reach  so  far,  that  you  should  set  yourself 
near  us."  Charles  to  Arvid  Gustaveson  Stenbock.  Stock- 
holm, Nov.  15,  1594.  In  January,  1595,  five  letters  of  cita- 
tion to  him  occur,  without  his  having  appeared  to  any. 

7  Ihre,  de  tumultu  Dalekarlorum,  vulgo,  Nseftaget  (Nief 's 
raid).     Upsala,  VtiS. 

8  Towards  the  end  of  his  life  the  king  had  again  appointed 
some  of  the  former  teachers. 

9  They  bore  an  important  share  in  its  deliberations.  The 
rector  of  the  duke's  school  at  Nykoping,  Olave  Martinson, 
drew  up  the  protocol,  was  afterwards  archbishop  upon  the 
deposition  of  Abraham  Angerman,  and  carried  on  with 
Charles,  when  king,  a  theological  controversy.     The  brief  of 


did  not  neglect  to  remind  him  of  it ;  and  although 
the  king  returned  one  of  liis  ordinary  fretful  an- 
swers 2,  he  was  yet  obliged  to  engage  in  his  as- 
surance to  maintain  the  Academy  efficiently  "  in  the 
general  religion  of  the  kingdom,"  and  to  provide  in- 
structors and  students  with  proper  support.  The 
execution  of  the  resolve  was  committed  to  the  duke 
and  the  council^,  but  deferred  until  Charles,  on  the 
15th  March,  1595,  issued  the  charter  of  the  Acade- 
my's privileges,  whereto  at  that  time  belonged  the 
revision  of  all  the  schools  in  Sweden  *.  To  tliree 
professors  of  theology  and  four  of  philosophy  lie 
assigned  adequate  incomes  from  the  tithes,  with  pre- 
bendal  residences  and  other  houses ',  and  founded 
a  common-room,  where  forty  students  received 
free  maintenance.  He  besides  supported  at  his 
own  cost  several  pupils  at  foreign  seminaries  of 
learning  *'. 

An  achievement  which  the  people  valued  still 
more  highly  was  the  peace  that  brought  to  an  end 
the  six-and-twenty  years'  war  with  Russia.  A  two 
years'  truce  had  been  concluded  in  1593.  Sigis- 
mund was  not  greatly  satisfied  with  the  peace,  be- 
cause he  wished  to  keep  together  the  army  under 
Clas  Fleming.  After  tedious  negotiations  Charles 
succeeded,  on  the  14th  May,  1595,  in  concluding 
the  so-called  perpetual  peace  of  Teusin.  Narva, 
Reval,  with  all  Estland,  remained  part  of  the  Swe- 
dish dominions.  On  the  other  hand,  Kexholm 
with  its  government  was  to  be  ceded,  which,  how- 
ever, Clas  Fleming  under  manifold  pretences  de- 
ferred, in  order  not  to  be  compelled  to  dismiss  his 
troops.  With  difficulty  the  duke  averted  the  out- 
break of  a  new  war.  Civil  \\ar  in  fact  broke  forth 
in  Finland,  through  the  unheard-of  inhumanities 
practised  by  Fleming's  horsemen,  and  it  was  not 
till  after  his  death,  in  1597,  that  Kexholm  could 
be  surrendered  and  the  peace  with  Russia  secured. 

This  procedure  of  Fleming  was  a  new  ground  for 
convening  the  estates, which  Charles  had  threatened, 
contrary  to  Sigismund's  prohibition  at  his  departure. 
Tlie  fulfilment  of  the  menace  necessarily  set  the 
duke  and  the  council  at  variance.  We  relate  tiie 
course  of  events  mainly  on  the  authority  of  a  par- 
tisan of  the  council  ''.  To  the  memorial  which  duke 
Charles  wrote  to  Sigismund  anent  another  amended 
order  of  government  the  king  replied,  that  both 
the  duke  and  the  council  must  be  content  with  the 
order  which  had  been  given,  until  he  should  return 
to  the  kingdom.  When  the  prince  heard  this  an- 
swer, dissension  arose  between  him  and  the  council 

homage  by  the  unnoble  estates  to  Sigismund,  after  he  had 
given  the  assurance,  is  emitted  by  bishops,  prelates,  ministers, 
and  schoolmasters. 

'  Letter  of  the  council  and  estates,  Feb.  6,  1594.  Baazii 
Invent.  Eccles.  Suiog.  550. 

2  "Anent  the  Academy,  thekingwilllethimself  be  dictated 
to  in  nothing."  Answer  to  duke  Charles'  Articles,  Feb.  I, 
1594.     Register. 

3  King  Sigismund's  Assurance  anent  Religion,  March  16, 
1594.     Stiernman. 

■i  With  the  right  of  examining,  and  along  with  the  bishops, 
of  appointing  the  rectors  of  the  schools,  §§  8,  0. 

5  The  so-called  kirk-houses  at  Upsala,  formerly  attached 
to  the  cathedral,  sequestered  by  Gustavus  I.  and  partly 
granted  to  the  nobility. 

6  In  February,  1600,  for  the  first  time  after  the  restoration 
of  the  university,  seven  masters  of  philosophy  were  instituted 
with  cap  and  ring. 

7  Memoirs  of  the  treasurer  Canute  Person.  A  contem- 
porary witness.     Scandin.  Memoirs,  v.  x. 


15U8.] 


Convention  of  the 
estates  at 


CHARLES  AGAINST  SIGISMUND. 


SoderkcEping.    Their 
proceedings. 


191 


of  state,  he  wishing  that  they  should  agree  with 
him,  to  resolve  and  ordain  all  that  he  intended. 
But  the  few  who  were  present  stubbornly  opposed 
him.  Then  the  duke  changed  his  plan,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  estates  of  the  realm,  wishing  to  con- 
voke a  diet.  On  the  other  hand,  the  council  of 
state  stedfastly  protested,  and  clung  to  their  lord 
and  king.  But  the  duke  held  to  his  way,  that  he 
would  not  inquire  the  king's  will  thereon,  but  had 
himself  the  power  of  convening  the  estates. — What 
was  to  be  done  now  ?  The  councillors  of  the  realm 
warned  the  king  in  good  time,  and  wrote  collectively 
to  his  majesty,  requesting  that  he  would  provide 
them  with  money  and  men,  to  resist  the  over- 
weening power  of  the  prince.  But  meanwhile 
duke  Charles  issued  his  letters  as  well  in  his  own 
name  as  in  that  of  the  council,  that  a  diet  of  lords 
should  be  held  on  the  30th  of  September  in  Soder- 
KtEPiNG.  When  the  said  letters  were  to  be  sub- 
scribed, the  councillors  of  state  said  that  they  could 
by  no  means  consent  to  this  diet.  Then  the  prince 
used  other  language,  telling  them,  "  Ye  must  sign 
the  letters,  and  betake  yourselves  thither  too,  or  I 
will  show  ye  another  way,"  and  reminded  them  of 
Engelbert  the  Daleman,  who  had  been  a  peasant's 
son,  and  yet  could  constrain  the  council  of  the 
realm.  "  I  am  a  king's  son,"  said  he,  "  and  prince 
hereditary  of  this  monarchy.  After  my  will  shall 
ye  do,  and  if  ye  follow  not  after  with  good  heart,  I 
will  have  ye  bi'ought  thither  in  bonds."  Thus  the 
good  lords  were  fain  to  subscribe  the  letters  with 
the  prince,  whether  they  wished  or  not.  Yet  the 
council  hoped  for  effectual  assistance  from  the 
knights  and  nobles. — Now  when  all  were  assembled 
in  Soderkojpiug,  the  prince,  on  the  20th  October, 
with  great  complaints,  caused  certain  points  touch- 
ing the  evils  of  the  government  to  be  given  in  to 
the  estates;  saying  that  he  wished  to  be  spared  the 
toil  thereof,  if  he  might  not  have  the  power  as  well 
as  the  name  of  an  administrator;  if  that  which  was 
contained  in  the  king's  oath,  specially  anent  reli- 
gion, might  not  be  fulfilled,  and  the  lord  Clas 
Fleming,  with  other  refractory  chiefs,  did  not  re- 
ceive their  punishment. — Now  when  he  had  fully 
di'awn  up  the  statute  of  Soderkoeping,  every  one 
who  was  there  present  behoved  to  subscribe  and 
set  their  seals  to  the  same.  Thereafter  he  caused  a 
bench  of  majesty  *  to  be  erected  on  the  market- 
place. Here  he  held  a  free  conventicle ;  and  albeit 
he  directed  his  address  to  all  the  estates,  yet  he 
turned  to  the  common  people  ^,  closing  his  parley 
on  this  wise  :  "  After  that  we,  honourable  and  good 
men,  both  by  means  of  the  answers  which  ye  gave 
us  on  the  points  that  were  propounded  to  you,  as 
also  by  means  of  the  points  which  we  caused  to  be 
annexed  ',  have  arrived  at  a  complete  resolution, 
here  therefore  cometh  my  question  and  inteii-oga- 
tory,  whether  ye  be  minded  to  defend  what  here 
hath  been  done  and  decreed,  and  will  stand  to  the 
same,  all  for  one  and  one  for  all,  seeing  that  it  is 
grounded  upon  the  oath  and  assurance  of  the  kmg, 

8  So  an  elevated  platform,  built  for  the  occasion,  was 
called,  when  the  king  wished  to  speak  with  the  people  under 
the  open  sky. 

9  Of  them  Sigismund  writes  in  an  answer  to  one  of  the 
duke's  letters;  "For  what  concerns  the  common  men,  his 
majesty  expected,  that  they  would  not  presume  to  be  his 
guardians,  since  he  had  come  to  such  years  and  understand- 
ing, that  he  could  legally  manage  his  own  affairs."  Wer- 
wing,  i.  278. 


and  nought  hath  been  done  save  what  is  profitable 
to  his  royal  majesty  and  to  our  fatherland." — Yet 
another  time  he  made  the  same  demand.  With 
that  the  common  people  answered,  yea,  yea,  yea, 
gi'acious  lord,  and  took  the  oath  with  uplifted 
hands, — "  to  hold  by  his  princely  grace  all  for  one 
and  one  for  all,"  which  form  of  speech  the  prince 
was  ever  wont  to  use.  Thereupon  he  turned  to  the 
councillors  of  state,  the  bishops  and  nobles,  who 
stood  by  him  upon  the  royal  bench,  and  questioned 
them  in  these  words :  "  And  ye,  what  say  ye  to 
this  ?  Hear  ye  what  these  have  sworn  ?  Will  ye 
sever  yourselves  from  them  1"  The  council  of 
state  answered  in  the  name  of  the  collective  body 
of  knights  and  nobles,  and  promised  to  his  princely 
grace  obedience  in  all  which  should  tend  to  the 
weal  and  profit  of  king  and  fatherland.  But  the 
prince  raised  his  hand  and  said,  "  So  swear  that 
ye  will  obey  me  in  that  which  I  shall  prescribe." 
Then  the  greatest  number  lifted  their  hands,  but 
there  were  many  who  would  not.  Thereafter 
the  prince  spoke  of  an  aid  for  lady  Anne's  portion, 
and  the  payment  of  the  army,  saying,  "  We  will  so 
order  it  that  it  shall  not  fall  heavily  upon  any  man." 
Then  the  people  promised  the  tax  forthwith,  and 
thanked  the  prince  that  he  would  not  tallage  them 
too  highly  2.  But  the  letter  of  the  council  to  king 
Sigismund  in  Poland  remained  six  weeks  without 
answer ;  and  it  was  heard  that  some  of  the  king's 
pernicious  secretaries  had  said,  "  Let  duke  Charles 
and  the  councillors  of  state  pluck  and  reive.  It 
hurteth  them  not.     'Tis  good  enough  for  heretics." 

Let  this  stand  as  a  sample  of  the  procedixre  of  the 
old  Swedish  diets.  To  what  has  been  quoted,  from 
the  same  source,  may  be  subjoined  the  following. 
The  estates  advised  the  prince,  we  are  told,  tliat 
another  course  should  be  taken  in  the  diets;  that  all 
points  which  were  to  be  made  generally  known, 
should  be  first  handled  by  the  indwellers  of  each 
province,  and  then  plenipotentiaries  should  be  sent 
by  them  to  the  diets,  namely,  the  bishop  with  some 
of  the  clergy,  six  of  the  nobility  in  the  name  of  all 
their  peers,  six  from  the  army,  divers  of  the  bur- 
gesses, and  six  of  the  commonalty,  with  the  seal  of 
their  province.  Hence  we  discern  how  indetermi- 
nately the  representation  still  oscillated  between 
the  old  model  by  provinces  and  the  new  by  estates, 
such  as  it  was  first  settled  in  the  time  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

The  statutes  of  Soderka3ping  v>ere  promulgated 
by  Charles,  as  well  in  Swedish  as  in  German  and 
Latin.  By  these  the  provisions  previously  passed 
against  the  catholics  of  the  realm  were  confirmed. 
Their  worship  at  Stockholm,  Drottningholm,  and 
Vadstena,  was  interdicted ;  their  priests  were 
banished.  The  convent  of  Vadstena,  the  oldest  and 
most  famous  in  Sweden,  was  now  completely  sup- 
pressed. For  the  few  remaining  nuns  Sigismund 
provided  a  refuge  in  the  Bridgettine  convent  at 
Dantzic.     A  general  church-inquest,  to  extirpate 

•  The  freedom  which  Charles  used  with  the  acts  of  the 
diets,  and  of  which  his  adversaries  so  often  complained,  he 
here  acknowledges  himself.  This  was  also  his  father's 
custom. 

2  The  treasurer  says,  that  the  tax  was  levied  in  three 
j'ears,  and  amounted  to  some  tuns  of  gold,  but  was  applied 
to  the  good  neither  of  the  princess  Anne  nor  the  troops. 
The  latter  is  probably  an  assertion  springing  from  the 
author's  ill-will  to  the  duke ;  the  former  is  true,  for  the 
marriage  came  to  nothing. 


192 


Kirk-inquest  by  the 
arclibishop. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Distress  and  discontent. 
The  Dalemen's  letter. 


[lo92— 


the  remains  of  popery ',  was  carried  into  effect 
throughout  the  kingdom.  Herein  the  new  arch- 
bishop Abraham  Angerman  showed  his  violent  dis- 
position. Flogging,  sprinkling  with  ice-cold  water, 
imprisonment  with  bread  and  water,  were  the 
means  by  which  he  sought  to  uphold  ecclesiastical 
discipline.  The  disorders  in  the  church  had 
dragged  into  the  light  primeval  superstitions.  We 
should  not  be  inclined  to  believe  that  men  were 
yet  to  be  found  in  Sweden  who  sertecl  Odin.  Yet 
this  was  a  well-known  expression  of  those  who  by 
invoking  his  spirit  attempted  to  procure  wealth*. 
Revolting  proofs  of  the  barbarism  of  manners  ap- 
pear in  the  protocols  of  the  visitations  then  held. 
Homicides  are  nKiitioned  who  drank  the  blood  of 
their  enemies '  ;  nay,  this  was  testified  of  a  clei'gy- 
man,  infamous  for  murders  and  other  horrid 
cruelties,  and  yet  in  this  case  the  sentence  was 
mild  ^,  "  because  he  was  at  issue  with  us  in  doctrine, 
it  is  said,  and  now  promises  to  be  at  one," — add- 
ing consequently  apostasy  to  his  other  crimes. 
Many  who  made  their  fortune  by  informations, 
came  to  a  shameful  end.  Did  not  men  after- 
ward see  master  Erie,  the  minister  of  Badelunda, 
after  he  had  accused  old  bishop  Bellinus  of  in- 
triguing with  the  papists  and  obtained  his  place, 
in  no  long  time  beheaded  for  a  double  adultery,  in 
the  very  town  where  he  had  lately  been  ordained 
bishop  '  ? 

While  the  archbishop  held  his  kirk-inquest  in 
the  country,  master  Eric  Schepper  the  minister 
was  equally  zealous  in  Stockholm.  Both  unquiet 
men,  they  had  distinguished  themselves  by  their 
violence  in  the  liturgical  contest,  and  soon  discovered 
their  inclination  to  master  the  secular  government. 
Charles  deprived  Schepper  because  he  preached 
against  the  taxes  ordered  at  Soderkceping  for  the 
payment  of  the  public  debt,  and  stirred  up  the 
burgesses  of  Stockholm  to  disaffection.  The  arch- 
bishop took  liim  under  his  protection.  To  the  pre- 
late Charles  thereupon  wrote  ;  "  We  will  maintain 
the  right  which  our  father  of  happy  memory 
acquired,  that  it  should  appertain  to  the  magistrate 
to  suspend  a  clergyman,  upon  well-grounded  cause, 
from  the  exercise  of  his  office  ;  else  might  we  as 
gladly  sit  under   the  pope  as  under  the  archbishop 

3  Visitationem,  quam  incepit  archiepiscopus  in  Ostro- 
gothia,  perduxit  dicto  anno  (1596)  priinum  per  totam  Go- 
thiam  cum  Smolandia  et  Qilandia,  deinde  In  reliquis  dio- 
cesibus  eandera  continuare  pergit.  Baazii  Inventar.  Eccles. 
Sviog.  573.  Yet  the  inquest  appears  to  have  been  stopped 
the  following  year  by  the  duke. 

■•  In  1578,  Eric  of  Osterby,  in  the  parish  of  Hedemora,  came 
to  a  cross-road  at  Peter's  hut,  and  prayed  Odin  to  grant 
him  money.  Tlien  came  two  black  hounds  that  breathed  fire, 
and  a  whirlwind  carried  him  into  the  air.  He  died  eight 
days  after,  and  received  asses'  burial  (that  is,  was  buried  out 
of  the  church-yard).  In  1580,  Olave  of  Garphytta  was  tra- 
versing the  heath  of  Grado,  when  Odin  came  and  bade  him 
cease  from  night- walking.  In  1601  another  example  of  one 
who  served  Odin  occurs.  Diary  of  the  minister  Eric  An- 
derson.    MS.  in  the  Library  of  Upsala. 

5  Account  of  the  general  visitation  of  the  see  of  Linkdping 
in  the  year  1596.  Memoirs  of  the  Swedish  Reformation,  v.  303. 

6  Ibid.  389.  "If  tliou  drink  so  deep  that  thou  become 
foolish  and  stupid,  then  shalt  thou  be  cut  olf  from  the  con- 
gregation, and  banished  out  of  the  country."  The  minister 
of  the  place  was  to  be  the  accuser  if  he  returned. 

7  This  is  a  mere  fable,  Rhyzelius  says  in  his  Bishop's 
Chronicle.  But  it  is  found  in  several  authorities.  In  the 
same  year  (lf06)  Nicholas  Peterson  was  ordained  bishop  of 


and  chapter  of  Upsala '."  The  duke  was  ill-content 
with  his  manner  of  holding  the  kirk-inquest. 
He  had  demeaned  liimself,  Charles  said,  like  an 
executioner  and  not  like  an  archbishop,  and  excited 
great  trouble  among  the  people,  who  regarded  the 
failure  of  crops  and  terrible  dearth,  which  had  now 
lasted  three  years,  for  a  punishment  of  God  upon 
the  so-called  Reformation  of  Abraham  Angerman  ". 

Probably  this  might  have  had  dangerous  con- 
sequences for  the  duke,  had  not  a  head-point  in 
the  political  creed  of  the  Swedish  peasants  been  his 
staj'.  We  cannot  better  express  this  than  by 
quoting  the  words  of  the  letter  of  the  Dalemen  to 
the  other  provinces,  dated  Tuna,  Epiphany  Tide, 
1597  :  "  We  will  have  no  more  rulers  than  our 
law-book  alloweth,  where  it  is  set  down.  Over  all 
Sweden  no  more  than  one  shall  be  king.  And  as 
the  king  himself  is  not  in  the  realm,  and  his  son 
and  brother  are  not  of  age,  so  can  we  and  will  we 
acknowledge  no  other  for  the  realm's  administrator 
than  his  princely  grace  duke  Charles  *."  Even 
Sigismund's  prohibition  to  pay  the  taxes  ordered 
by  Charles,  his  promise  to  take  under  protection 
all  who  opposed  the  statute  of  Soderkoeping,  his 
rescripts  and  embassies,  as  well  as  the  secret  and 
public  opposition  of  the  council,  were  able  to  effect 
nothing  against  this  principle. 

There  was  no  longer  a  middle  path.  The  statute 
above-named  declared  all  who  disavowed  it  enemies 
of  the  realm.  This  indeed  induced  most  of  the 
council  and  nobility  who  were  not  present  on  that 
occasion  to  subscribe  the  statute  ^  ;  yet  with  what 
sincerity  was  shown  in  the  sequel.  Clas  Fleming 
had  not  only  opposed  the  statute  of  Soderkceping, 
but  persecuted  those  who  had  consented  thereto, 
and  generally  all  who  dared  to  carry  their  com- 
plaints to  Sweden  and  the  duke.  In  Finland  civil 
war  already  raged  between  the  peasants  and  the 
troopers  of  Fleming.  The  club- war,  so  called  from 
the  weapons  of  the  peasants,  was  carried  on  with 
atrocious  cruelty,  and  cost  the  lives  of  eleven  thou- 
sand peasants  to  East  Bothnia  and  Tavastland  ^. 
Charles  required  that  Clas  Fleming  and  his  partisans 
should  be  subdued  by  arms  ;  Lifland  and  Finland 

Westeras,  i)ut  died  before  his  inauguration,  on  which  Bellinus 
again  received  his  office,  and  held  it  to  his  death  in  1618. 

8  To  the  archbishop,  anent  master  Eric  Schepper,  Aug.  23, 
1596.  Register.  Both  had  reproached  the  duke  for  engross- 
ing to  himself  the  merits  of  the  Synod  of  Upsala.  Hereupon 
he  had  once  written  to  Abraham  Angermannus,  "  Had  we 
not  been  present,  the  matter  would  have  run  otherwise  " 
(which  is  true).  On  the  same  charge  he  made  answer  to  the 
arclibisbop,  July  26,  1596,  "  Ye  come  with  your  satiric  dis 
courses,  imputing  that  we  give  ourselves  out  for  a  pillar  of 
religion,  whereas  we  are  nought  else  than  a  poor,  wretched, 
mortal  man." 

9  A  multitude  of  men  perished  by  this  famine,  which 
began  after  continual  rains  and  large  inundations  in  1596. 
Sigismund  forbade  the  export  of  grain  from  Poland  to  the 
Swedish  ports.  A  fearful  account  of  this  famine  is  copied 
from  an  old  church-book  in  the  Palmskdld  records.  Acta  ad 
Historiam  Sigismundi. — For  some  years  proofs  continue  to 
be  found  of  the  attachment  of  the  people  to  the  old  cere- 
monies of  the  church.  In  1602  the  peasants  of  Swintuna 
fell  upon  iheir  minister  because  he  would  not  hold  service  on 
St.  Laurence'  day.     Reg.  for  1602. 

'  Fryxell,  iv.  24,  from  documents  in  the  Archives. 

2  Accession  to  the  Statutes  of  Soderkceping  of  the  absent 
among  the  council  and  nobility,  in  Jenkbping,  Jan.  20,  159G. 
Register. 

3  Werwing,  i.  3'j8. 


1598.] 


The  duke  renounces  the 
government  and 


CHARLES  AGAINST  SIGISMUND. 


convokes  the  diet  of 
Arboga. 


193   I 


must  not  be  severed  from  Sweden  ♦.  The  coimcil 
evaded,  negociated,  dissuaded.  George  Posse'  re- 
fused to  lead  the  troops.  The  duke  laid  down  the 
government  on  the  2nd  November,  159G,  but  with 
the  declaration,  that  as  he  had  received  it  from  the 
estates,  he  could  deposit  the  charge  in  their  hands 
alone ;  wherefore  lie  convened  a  new  diet  for 
February  of  the  following  year  in  Arboga.  Mean- 
while, on  the  13th  January,  1597,  arrived  Sigis- 
mund's  letter  to  the  estates  of  the  realm,  that  he 
had  learned  from  his  envoys  on  their  return  that 
the  duke  would  not  conform  to  the  prescribed  con- 
ditions of  government,  wherefore  the  king  trans- 
ferred its  conduct  to  the  council. 

On  the  25th  of  the  same  January  Charles  wrote 
to  Sigismund,  that  the  envoys  had  not  mentioned 
before  him  that  the  king  had  already  stripped  him 
of  the  government.  They  had  been  silent  upon 
many  of  the  accusations  found  in  the  letters,  which 
they  had  disseminated  through  the  country,  whence 
dissensions  and  revolt  had  been  engendered.  He, 
the  duke,  had  assisted  the  king's  parents  out  of  their 
greatest  misery  to  the  government  of  Sweden.  Si- 
gismund's  rights  he  had  upheld,  although  in  the 
king's  absence  he  had  demanded  the  power  of  an 
administrator.  It  came  to  pass  by  the  king's 
governors,  and  the  powers  entrusted  to  them,  that 
the  hereditary  settlement  was  brought  to  a  imllity; 
for  it  should  be  known,  that  some  had  been  heard 
to  say,  nothing  would  thrive  rightly  in  Sweden  so 
long  as  king  Gustavus'  brood  ruled  there.  By 
such  intrigues  discords  had  been  beforetime  sown 
in  other  royal  houses;  it  was  to  the  greatest  detri- 
ment of  the  king,  not  less  than  of  the  realm,  that 
so  many  should  govern,  for  every  man  took  what  he 
listed,  as  if  the  kingdom  were  given  for  a  booty. 
Moreover,  the  people  were  to  be  feared;  they  would 
not  suffer  many  lords  ;  they  clung  fast  to  their 
kingly  line  ;  these  came  to  the  duke  with  their 
complaints,  since  he  had  relinquished  the  govern- 
ment, not  fewer  than  before  ;  he  was  called  upon, 
from  all  quarters  of  the  country,  not  to  lay  it  down. 
The  sole  remedy  was  the  king's  own  arrival;  mean- 
while he  had  convoked  the  estates  to  Arboga  *. 
Another  letter  of  October  says,  "  We  will  not  deal 
underhand,  but  would  have  your  majesty  plainly 
informed  and  warned,  that  if  the  government  of 
this  realm  be  not  otherwise  disposed  and  arranged 
we  will  not  be  subject  to  such  a  government,  but  use 
those  means  and  expedients  which  may  help  for  the 
alleviation  of  our  own  lot  and  that  of  our  country  "." 

The  council  had  received  the  duke's  renunciation 
with  silence.  The  first  voice  which  spoke  out  upon 
the  subject  was  that  of  the  University  of  Upsala. 
To  their  heart's  great  sorrow,  wrote  the  professors 
on  the  4th  December,  1590,  had  they  heard  this  ; 
and  although  his  princely  grace  could  better  than 
any  of  them  weigh  what  consequences  might  ensue, 

■•  Points  required  by  duke  Charles,  if  he  will  remain  in 
the  government.     Register. 

5  Register  for  1597. 

5  To  Sigismund,  Abo,  Oct.  4.     Reg.  for  1597. 

1  The  duke  had  deferred  it  to  the  fair-lime,  when  in  all 
cases  a  great  crowd  of  people  was  assembled.  He  had  for- 
merly spoken  with  the  peasants  at  the  fairs  of  Enkbping  and 
Upsala.  Tlie  Dalecarlians  issued  their  letter,  and  exhorted 
the  others  to  come. 

8  "  They  of  the  knights  and  nobles  who  were  yesterday 
gathered  in  the  council-rnom,  have  let  fall  hard  words  of  us, 
tliat  we  should  not  have  allowed  peasants  to  judge  noblemen. 


they  coidd  yet,  as  born  Swedish  men,  occupied  in  the 
duties  of  education,  do  no  otherwise  than  with  hum- 
ble and  well-meant  suggestion,  warn  both  the  duke 
and  the  council  of  the  danger  of  such  a  severance 
from  the  general  weal. 

We  hasten  to  the  solution.  The  diet  assembled 
at  Arboga  in  February,  1397,  notwithstanding  the 
prohibition  of  the  king  and  the  protest  of  the  coun- 
cil ''.  A  single  lord  of  the  council  was  present,  the 
unstable  count  Axel  Oxenstierna,  alternately  the 
enemy  of  Charles  and  Sigi.smund,  who  had  been 
gained  over  by  the  duke  on  this  occasion  with  large 
grants  of  fiefs.  Almost  the  whole  of  the  nobility  were 
absent,  excepting  those  of  the  duchy.  The  clergy 
came,  but  those  who  had  formerly  been  most  vio- 
lent against  Sigismund  were  now  suspected  of  being 
his  partisans.  The  archbishop,  Abraham  Angev- 
man,  was  publicly  accused  by  the  duke  of  having 
attempted  to  spread  abroad  Sigistnund's  prohibition 
of  the  statutes  of  Soderkoeping,  which  were  sub- 
scribed by  himself.  Two  years  afterwards  he  was 
deposed,  and  died  in  captivity  and  wretchedness. 
Scheff'er,  who  was  likewise  imprisoned,  afterwards 
recovered  his  freedom,  and  died  minister  of  En- 
koping.  In  the  diet  a  violent  spirit  prevailed. 
Charles  discoursed;  the  peasants  cried,  yea,  they 
would  defend  him  so  long  as  their  blood  was  warm, 
and  brandished  axe  and  club  against  the  lords  *. 
Charles  caused  the  statute  to  be  drawn  up  and 
subscribed,  and  sent  it  thereafter  through  the 
country  for  signature  by  the  hundreds.  The  en- 
actments before  passed  at  Soderkoeping  were  con- 
firmed. Whosoever  opposed  them  was  to  be  put 
down  by  arms  as  a  public  enemy,  and  the  duke, 
who  at  the  request  of  the  estates  again  assumed 
the  government,  proceeded  to  their  immediate  en- 
forcement. Most  of  the  councillors  now  quitted 
the  kingdom  ;  Eric  Sparre  first  of  all.  Charles 
made  himself  master  of  Elfsborg,  Stegeborg,  Cal- 
mar,  and  crossed  over  into  Finland,  where  Clas 
Fleming  had  lately  died.  Abo,  defended  by  his 
widow  Ebba  Stenbock,  fell  together  with  the  fleet 
into  the  duke's  hands.  He  returned  with  several 
noblemen  whom  he  had  made  prisoners,  and 
Samuel  Lasey,  an  envoj'  who  liad  arrived  from  Sigis- 
mund, saw  in  Stockholm  and  Upsala  many  who  had 
fought  for  the  king's  cause  pass  to  the  scaff"old. 
Thus  the  flames  of  civil  war  were  thoroughly 
kindled,  and  that  which  Sigismund  had  declared  in 
one  of  his  many  manifestoes  was  fulfilled  ;  namely, 
tiiat  by  the  fashion  in  which  the  duke  filled  the 
king's  place,  the  estates  would  not  know  their  own 
position  ere  they  saw  themselves  in  arms  against 
their  legitimate  king  ^. 

One  of  the  resolutions  of  the  diet  of  Arboga  was, 
that  the  king  should  be  solicited  by  an  embassy  to 
come  to  Sweden.      Need  we   say  that   none   was 

which  is  said  to  have  been  done,  inasmuch  as  we  denounced 
before  the  commonalty  those  who  had  gone  about  in  the 
country  to  annul  the  statutes  of  Soderkoping,  which  they 
themselves  had  subscribed.  We  have  not  procured  any  one 
to  be  condemned  ;  but  the  statutes  do  sufficiently  judge 
them,  for  which  the  estates  of  the  realm,  (riksens  stiinder,) 
all  for  one  and  one  for  all,  are  bound  to  make  answer.  So 
therein  have  the  peasants  as  much  to  say  against  the  nobles, 
as  the  nobles  against  flie  peasants."  Charles  to  certain  of  the 
nobility.     Arboga,  March  7,  1597.     Reg. 

9  Werwing,  i.  370.  Of  the  prolix  correspondence  on  both 
sides  we  have  quoted  only  that  which  was  inaccessible  or 
unknown  before. 

O 


194 


Hostilities  breakout. 
Sigisraund  arrives. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Fijjhts  of  Stegeborg 
and  Siangbridge. 


[1592- 


sent  1  On  the  other  hand,  the  king  made  known 
liis  purpose  to  return  without  delay  into  his  patemsil 
dominions,  on  which  account  he  required  the  fleet 
to  be  sent  to  Dantzic  for  his  passage.  For  his 
security  he  was  compelled  to  bring  with  him  fo- 
reign troops;  should  he  find  all  ti'anquil  in  Sweden 
they  would  be  immediately  sent  back.  The  duke 
appealed  in  all  things  to  the  estates,  and  these  in 
reply  passed  two  new  decrees  *,  at  Upsala  and  Vad- 
stena,  wherein  they  bind  themselves  mutually  to 
stake  life  and  property  for  the  previous  statutes, 
and  rather  to  sufl'er  all  extremities  than  permit 
that  the  duke  or  any  one  of  them  should  endure 
violence  or  persecution  on  that  ground;  denouncing 
therewithal  in  the  strongest  expressions  the  sece- 
ders  from  the  council,  as  those  who  first  wished  to 
excite  revolt,  and  then  to  introduce  a  foreign  force 
into  the  country,  for  which  they  must  stand  their 
trial.  With  this  turn  of  affairs  the  fate  of  these 
lords,  who  were  in  part  gifted  with  distinguished 
qualities,  was  sufheiently  indicated. 

Sigismund,  after  he  had  waited  in  vain  for  the 
Swedish  fleet,  at  length  embarked  in  merchant- 
vessels,  which  he  sequestered  at  Dantzic,  with 
about  5,000  Polish  troops  and  a  brilliant  court,  and 
lauded  on  the  30th  July,  1598,  at  Calmar,  which 
soon  opened  its  gates  to  him.  He  sought  by  every 
method  to  contradict  the  general  opinion  that  he 
came  as  an  enemy  of  the  realm.  German  and 
English  envoys  had,  solicited  by  him,  mterposed 
their  mediation  between  his  uncle  and  himself. 
His  very  presence  did  much;  for  a  report  of  his 
death  had  got  abroad  in  Sweden.  Tlie  Dalesmen, 
who  ah'cady  in  the  time  of  John  and  the  contests 
regarding  the  liturgy  wished  to  raise  Charles  to  the 
throne,  and  now  too  took  arms  in  his  behalf,  an- 
swered the  commissioners  of  Sigismund  and  the 
council,  that  they  would  not  believe  the  king  to  be 
alive  until  they  saw  himself-.  The  Swedish  coun- 
cillors who  accompanied  the  king,  all  employed 
their   influence    in   winning   men's   minds   to   his 


1  Feb.  20,  and  June  25,  1598. 

'  Ihre  de  tumuitu  Dalekarlorum.  Sigismund  himself 
complains  tliat  a  saying  waa  current  among  tlie  peasants, 
that  tlie  Poles  had  sent  a  shoemaker  who  resembled  hira 
closely.     Werwing,  i.  399. 

3  "  Therefore  some  thousand  peasants  of  Upland  were  got- 
ten together,  and  two  professors  of  Upsala,  namely  master  Ni- 
cholas (Nicolaus  Bothniensis,  the  same  who  presided  at  the 
Synod  of  Upsala,)  and  master  Jacob  Ericson,  were  appointed 
them  for  leaders,  along  with  some  others  who  were  more 
practised  in  aflfairs  of  war.  These  hastened  to  fall  upon  the 
Finns,  having  first  supplied  themselves  with  provisions : 
and  because  their  wallets  were  mostly  filled  with  roots,  this 
march  was  called  the  root-raid."     Werwing,  i.  387. 

■*  Sigismund  himself  represents  the  beginning  of  the  conflict 
in  another  light.  Respecting  this  occurrence  we  will  cite  ex- 
tracts from  both  his  own  and  Charles'  letters.  The  king's 
note  to  Clas  Bielke  is  dated  September  8,  the  evening  of  the 
battle,  at  Stegeborg.  In  this  he  says,  "  That  the  dake  had 
intimated  by  a  trumpet,  that  since  he  had  received  no  answer 
to  his  conditions  by  the  German  messengers,  (which  yet  was 
twice  transmitted,)  he  would  now  come  himself,  and  have  an 
answer  within  half  an  hour;  if  meanwhile  any  beginning 
was  made,  he  would  be  assoilzied  from  it.  Thereupon,  early 
this  day  he  led  all  his  force  from  his  camp  at  Mem  hither 
before  our  camp,  ere  one  of  our  people  knew  thereof,  and 
gathered  a  rabble  of  peasants.  As  soon  as  our  people  showed 
themselves,  he  took  the  initiative,  began  to  use  his  field- 
pieces,  and  skirmished  upon  our  men,  in  which  he  had  no 
better  success  (although  he  had  all  the  advantages,  and  there 


cause.  Livonia  was  in  the  king'.s  hands,  and  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  Finland  likewise,  for  Arvid 
Stalarm,  who  succeeded  Fleming  there  as  royalist 
governor,  had  retaken  Abo.  From  that  station 
he  threatened  the  Swedish  coa.sts,  and  even  at- 
tempted a  landing  with  3,000  men,  but  was 
driven  back  by  the  duke's  fleet,  and  the  peasantry 
of  Upland  ^.  Stockholm  declared  for  the  king ;  as 
also  the  larger  part  of  the  troops  in  Gothland,  where 
Sigismund's  most  zealous  partisan  had  been  lieu- 
tenant. The  strength  of  Charles,  as  formerly  that 
of  Gustavus  Vasa,  consisted  chiefly  in  bands  from 
Sweden  Proper,  Dalecarlia,  and  Norrland,  besides 
his  ordinary  army  from  his  principality.  A  month 
passed  awaj'  in  negotiations  without  results.  The 
king  repaired  to  Stegeborg;  the  duke  with  his  army 
approached  on  the  8th  September,  but  was  sur- 
rounded in  the  night  by  colonel  Weyer  with  his 
Poles,  and  found  himself  at  once  encompassed  and 
attacked.  The  leader  of  the  king's  troops,  the 
Livonian  Fareusbach,  with  an  enemy's  head  carried 
upon  his  lance,  conjured  the  king  to  follow  up  the 
advantages  he  had  obtained.  But  Sigismund,  when 
he  saw  the  blood  of  his  subjects,  gave  orders  for 
the  cessation  of  the  conflict,  and  caused  it  to  be  in- 
timated to  the  duke  that  he  might  retire  his  men  *. 
This  mildness  of  the  king  made  great  impression, 
even  upon  Charles  himself,  who  in  the  first  moment 
declared  himself  before  his  ofScers  willing  to  quit  the 
kingdom  with  wife  and  child  if  harmony  could  be 
thereby  restored.  The  negotiations  began  anew, 
but  made  as  little  progress  as  before,  and  as  Charles' 
fleet  meanwhile  arrived,  he  raised  his  pretensions. 
The  king  drew  towards  Linkbping;  the  duke  occu- 
pied Stegeborg,  and  followed  in  his  footsteps.  A 
battle  ensued,  on  the  25th  September,  1598,  upon 
both  sides  of  the  Stange-stream  at  Linkoping,  in 
which  the  royal  army,  attacked  by  the  duke,  with 
little  loss  upon  his  side,  suffered  a  complete  over- 
throw. Two  thousand  men,  by  the  duke's  own 
statement,  were  left  on  the  field  ^.     This  was  the 


were  not  more  than  two  or  three  companies  of  ours  who  main- 
tained the  skirmish,  for  our  whole  force,  cavalry  and  infantry, 
remained  quiet,  since  we  took  no  pleasure  in  seeing  blood 
shed),  than  losing  three  hundred  men,  and  we,  praise  God, 
no  more  than  sixteen,  besides  some  who  were  wounded. 
Wherefore,  when  he  saw  that  we  were  so  strong,  although 
he  had  formerly  threatened  enough  that  he  would  drive  us 
into  the  sea  again  with  hop-poles,  he  sent  messengers,  that 
he  desired  not  war,  but  rather  peace  and  rtconcilement ; 
wliereupon  we  gave  for  answer  that  he  should  vacate  the 
field,  and  then  negotiate  with  us.  Therewith  he  moved  off." 
"  Else,"  adds  the  king,  in  a  letter  to  the  archbishop  Abraham 
Angerman,  "  that  day  would  by  God's  help  have  been  a  dear 
one  for  the  duke  and  his  men."  Sigismund's  Register,  1598. 
— Charles  wrote  shortly  to  Joachim  Skeel,  Peter  Stolpe,  and 
others  in  the  fleet,  the  day  after  the  action  :  "  Yesterday,  as 
we  were  pushing  towards  Stegeborg  with  our  people,  to  offer 
not  blows  but  reconcilement,  the  Heiduca  fell  unlooked  for 
upon  our  foot-folk,  whereby  a  sharp  fight  sprung  up  between 
them,  so  that  some  fell  upon  both  sides,  yet  most  of  them 
Heiducs  ;  of  ours  were  not  more  than  thirty  wounded  and 
slain.  This  to  the  seamen,  that  they  may  not  believe  lies, 
as  if  we  had  for  every  man  lost  some  thousands."  Duke 
Charles'  Reg.  1598. 

5  Charles  to  Laurence  the  West-Goth,  from  his  camp  in 
Linkbping,  Sept.  27.  "  He  had  heard  that  the  troopers  of 
Upland  and  the  Finns  were  preparing  to  make  an  incursion 
through  the  principality,  Imt  hoped  they  would  have  another 
stomach  for  the  chase  when  they  heard  how  their  fellows 
had  succeeded  below." 


1598] 


Treaty  of  Linkoeping. 
Flight  of  Sigismund. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Decrees  of  the  estates 
against  Sigismund. 


195 


fight  of  Stangbridge  (Stangebro).  Sigismund 
would  probably  have  been  made  pi-isoner  him- 
self, had  not  Charles  granted  a  truce,  notwith- 
standing a  shot  treacherously  fired  at  him 
daring  the  negociation.  The  king  and  the  duke 
had,  immediately  after  the  engagement,  a  per- 
sonal conference.  The  sequel  was  the  conven- 
tion of  Linkoping,  on  the  28th  September,  wherein 
it  was  provided  that  both  sides  should  lay  down 
their  arms  ;  that  the  foreign  troops,  except  the 
king's  body-guard,  should  be  sent  away,  the  govern- 
ment committed  to  the  king,  who  shoidd  conduct  it 
in  accordance  with  his  oath,  and  convoke  a  diet 
within  four  months,  till  which  time  the  officers  ap- 
pointed by  the  duke  should  continue  in  their 
charges.  From  the  promised  oblivion  of  the  past 
the  duke  excepted  the  five  councillors  who  had 
followed  the  king  to  Poland,  Gustave  and  Steno 
Baner,  Eric  Sparre,  Thure  Bielke,  and  George 
Posse,  whose  surrender  he  demanded.  The  king 
sought  in  vain,  through  count  Eric  Brahe  and 
others,  to  obtain  a  remission  of  these  conditions. 
"  Against  j'ou,  count  Eric,"  said  the  duke,"  I  have 
nothing,  for  ye  hold  the  same  faith  as  the  king, 
and  have  but  acted  according  to  your  conscience. 
But  not  so  the  other  five  ;  and  if  the  king  will  not 
approve  their  delivery,  men  are  to  be  found  here 
who  will  of  a  surety  drag  the  foes  and  traitors  to 
their  country  out  of  the  king's  ranks."  Here  he 
pointed  to  a  crowd  of  armed  peasants,  who  but  now 
had  come  to  his  succour.  The  lords  were  delivered 
up.  They  were  heard  to  say,  that  if  they  had  been 
faithful  to  the  duke  as  to  the  king,  they  would  have 


been  otherivise  requited.  Yet  they  were  to  be 
tried  by  judges  impartial,  and  not  natives.  The 
king  and  the  duke  parted  at  Linkoping.  Sigismund 
embarked  at  Stegeborg,  was  driven  by  storm  to 
Calmar,  left  there  a  Polish  garrison,  and  sailed,  not 
to  Stockholm  but  to  Dantzic.  By  the  treaty  of 
Linkoping  it  was  stipulated  that  the  estates  should 
have  the  right  of  opposing  whosoever  should  break 
its  provisions.  These  assembled  at  Jenkoping,  in 
the  outset  of  1 599,  and  renounced  their  fealty  and 
obedience  to  Sigismund,  albeit  conditionally.  At  a 
new  diet  in  Stockholm  this  renunciation  was  (July 
24)  made  absolute,  witii  the  addition,  that  if  within 
six  months  Sigismund  should  not  send  his  son 
Vladislaus  to  Sweden,  in  order  to  be  educated  to 
the  crown  in  the  evangelic  faith,  his  family  should 
forfeit  for  ever  its  hereditary  i-ight  to  the  Swedish 
throne.  The  duke  was  declared  reigning  Px-ince 
Hereditary  of  the  realm.  The  Finns^  if  they  did 
not  voluntarily  submit,  were  to  be  compelled  to 
obedience  ;  whosoever  opposed  these  resolutions  of 
the  estates  should  be  punished  as  a  traitor. 

This  was  the  end  of  Sigismund's  power,  even  in 
name,  within  his  paternal  dominions.  Sweden 
learned  to  know  him  more  as  a  zealous  Catholic 
than  as  a  king.  On  the  Polish  throne,  which  he  pos- 
sessed to  his  death,  he  showed  rather  the  virtues  of 
a  private  man  than  of  a  ruler.  The  long  wars, 
which  the  branch  of  the  Vasa  family,  now  deposed 
for  their  religion,  occasioned  by  their  pretensions, 
conducted  the  Swedish  nation  on  the  path  of  con- 
quest, rich  in  honour,  as  in  misfortune. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CHARLES  IX. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  SIGISMUND  S  FLIGHT.  SEVERITIES  AGAINST  HIS  PARTY.  DIET  OF  LINKOEFING.  TRIAL 
AND  CONDEiMNATION  OF  THE  ROYALIST  LORDS  OF  THE  COUNCIL  FOR  HIGH  TREASON.  DEPOSITION  OF 
SIGISMUND  AND  HIS  HEIRS  BY  THE  ESTATES.  CONTINUANCE  OF  HOSTILITIES  WITH  THE  POLES.  EVENTS 
OF  THE  WAR..  VISIT  OF  CHARLES  TO  FINLAND.  DIET  AT  STOCKHOLM.  RELIGIOUS  VIEWS  OF  CHARLES. 
HIS  ACCEPTANCE  OF  THE  CROWN  FROM  THE  ESTATES  AT  NORRKCEPING,  IN  1604.  STATE  OF  THE  LAW  AND 
JUDICATORY.        ENCOURAGEMENT    OF    PUBLIC     INDUSTRY.        RELATIONS    WITH    FOREIGN    POWERS.        WAR   WITH 

RUSSIA,    AND    WITH    DENMARK.      THE    KING's    DEATH. 


A.  D.  1599—1611. 


Werwing  relates  that  Charles,  before  the  diet  of 
Soderkoping  in  the  year  1595  had  the  following 
dream ;  "  It  seemed  to  the  duke  that  he  sat  at 
table  in  Reval,  and  a  Livonian  nobleman,  Fitting- 
hoif  the  elder,  placed  before  him  various  dishes. 
When  the  plates  were  uncovered,  there  appeared  to 
him  in  one  of  the  same  the  Swedish  arms,  and  in 
another  a  dead  man's  scull,  with  many  bones 
around  it.  From  this  strange  dream  the  duke 
forthwith  awakened  in  alarm,  and  when  his  cham- 
berlain, Ludbert  Kauer,  shoi*tly  after  entered,  he 
told  him  the  same  ;  which  he  as  a  learned  and  ex- 
perienced man  might  interpret  to  the  duke,  corres- 
ponding to  the  mournful  events  which  thereafter 
ensued." 

Of   different    other   forewnrnings   at    this   time 
mention  is  made,  as  that  it  rained  blood  in  Stock- 


holm before  Charles  went  to  Finland  ;  that  the 
peasants  about  Linkoping  saw  armies  fightmg  in 
the  air  before  the  battle  of  Stangbridge,  and  the 
Oelanders'  fleets  engaging  in  Calmar  Sound.  We 
allege  not  these  as  external  but  as  inner  signs  of  a 
vehement  disquiet,  of  which  the  heart  was  full. 
Since  Sweden  was  settled,  it  had  been  scarcely  so 
shaken  to  its  deepmost  foundations  as  in  the  convul- 
sions which  overthrew  the  last  fragments  of  Catho- 
licism, and  wrested  the  crown  from  the  line  of  John. 
Sigismund's  flight  reduced  his  still  numerous 
adherents  to  despair.  Count  Eric  Brahe  wrote  to 
Poland,  that  such  an  example  was  scarce  to  be 
found  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world  ;  loss  of 
property,  honour,  life,  gallows  and  wheel,  were  the 
only  things  which  the  king's  friends  had  now  to 
expect.  Sigismund  replied,  that  he  hoped  still  to 
o2 


19G 


Consequences  of 
Sigismund's  flight. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Disorders  in  Upper 
Sweden. 


[1599— 


have  more  partisans  in  Sweden  than  could  fall  by 
gallows  and  wheel  ;  altliosifjh  a  great  number  of 
tlie  troo])ersof  Snialand  and  Westgothland,  by  their 
conduct  in  the  battle  of  Stangbridge,  had  deserved 
no  better*'.  To  Charles  he  had  already  written  ; 
that  no  man  could  wonder  at  his  depai'ture  who 
knew  the  circumstances  ;  after  he  had  been  driven 
from  Stegeborg  to  Cahnar  bv  storm,  and  he  had  in- 
timated  to  the  duke  that  he  mtended  to  go  to 
Stockholm,  letters  had  arrived  from  Poland  that 
great  troubles  were  on  the  point  of  breaking  out 
there.  In  Poland  he  would  also  be  nearer  other 
potentates,  with  whom  he  could  concert  to  send 
their  envoys  to  Sweden  at  the  time  of  the  appointed 
diet.  The  only  object  of  this  diet  was  the  process 
between  the  duke  and  the  lords  of  the  council ; 
their  cause  must  be  investigated  indeed  by  im- 
partial men,  but  to  the  king  himself  belonged,  after 
the  law,  the  last  decision  ;  the  duke  should  know 
that  it  beseemed  not  him  to  inflict  aught  on  the 
lords  of  the  council  against  law  and  justice,  nor  to 
undertake  aught  hostile  against  the  king's  castles, 
especially  Stockholm,  Calmar,  and  Elfsborg,  any 
more  than  to  persecute  the  king's  subjects,  or  for- 
bid the  promulgation  of  his  letters,  and  allow  in- 
sults to  his  name  ;  if  any  other  conduct  were  held, 
it  would  be  impossible  that  any  gilding,  how  thickly 
and  strongly  soever  laid  on,  could  keep  it  longer  hid'. 
John  Sparr^  received  orders,  "  upon  his  temporal 
and  eternal  weal,"  to  hold  out  over  the  winter  in 
Cahnar ;  all  negociation  and  capitulation  with  the 
duke  was  forbidden  him  ;  if  the  duke  would  con- 
strain him,  even  by  threatening  the  taking  the  life 
of  his  brother  Eric  Sparr^  and  the  other  lords  of 
the  council,  he  should  reflect  on  his  oath  and  truth, 
his  noble  rank,  and  his  famous  name  in  ai'ms  ;  he 
should  treat  the  people  fairly  (he  was  named 
lieutenant  in  Smaland  also),  and  represent  to 
them,  that  the  king  designed  no  inhumanity 
against  the  Swedes ;  he  had  come  as  a  peace- 
ful sovei'eign  and  as  such  had  departed,  to 
treat  with  the  Roman  emperor  and  other 
powers,  things  that  might  further  the  welfare  of 
both  kingdoms  *.  In  his  letters  to  Arvid  Stalarm 
and  Axel  Kurk,  his  commanders  in  Finland,  Sigis- 
mund  complains  of  Charles  having  given  out  that 
he  had  run  away  from  his  kingdom,  and  that 
Sweden  was  now  without  a  king  ;  in  proof  thereof 
the  duke  had  struck  gold  coins  without  the  king's 
name  ;  on  the  one  side  were  seen  only  the  words, 
"  Coins  of  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,"  and  on  the 
other  the  name  of  Jehovah  in  a  pillar  of  fire  ^. 
Sigismund's   late   disaster   seems   to   have  totally 


^  To  Count  Eric,  Jan.  5,  1599.  Sigismund's  Reg.  Count 
Eric  Brahe  afterwards  made  his  peace  with  tlie  duke. 

7  To  Charles,  Warsaw,  Dec.  15,  1598.     Reg. 

8  Instruction  for  John  Sparre  before  the  king's  leaving 
Calmar,  Oct.  21,  1598.     Reg. 

9  To  Arvid  Ericson  and  Axel  Kurk,  Warsaw,  Feb.  18, 
1599.     Register. 

'  Anent  a  partisan  in  the  club-war,  Hans  Hanson  of  Mo- 
nikala,  who  had  been  previously  employed  by  the  duke, 
afterwards  offered  his  services  to  Sigismund,  and  ended  by 
being  suspected  by  both.  Arvid  Stalarm  had  taken  him 
and  acquainted  Sigismund  with  the  fact.  The  king  wrote  to 
Stalarm  and  Axel  Kurk  respecting  his  punisliment,  Dantzic, 
Nov.  24,  1598:  "First,  he  shall  be  admonished  while  the 
(jourt  is  sitting  of  all  his  traitorous  acts  and  plots,  and  then 
shall  judgment  pass  upon  him.  Tlureaflerd)  he  shall  be 
tortured  upon  tlie  rack  and  with  brandy  (which  was  burned 


deprived  him  of  self-posse'5sion.  His  letters  and 
orders  sliow  exasperation  as  deep  as  it  was  impotent 
ag.ainst  Charles,  whom  he  styles  the  dishonoured, 
perjui-ed  prince.  In  Finland,  which  was  still  in 
ins  power,  he  gave  orders  that  sundry  sworn  offi- 
cers should  be  appointed  in  all  the  towns  an(l 
parishes  to  watch  over  suspected  persons  ;  whoso- 
ever was  found  in  communication  with  the  duke  or 
his  faction,  should  have  his  property  delivered  over 
to  the  soldiers  to  be  plundered.  Otherwise  sparing 
of  words,  he  now  descends  himself  to  give  directions 
in  a  particular  case,  how  the  degrees  of  the  rack 
are  to  be  applied  '.■  He  caused  a  violent  pamphlet 
against  Charles  to  be  written  and  distributed  to 
foreign  courts,  for  which  Eric  Sparr^  and  others 
furnished  materials  ^,  A  naval  expedition  under 
John  Gyllenstierna  was  undertaken  from  Dantzic 
against  Elfsborg,  in  which  a  revolt  of  the  king's 
adherents  in  Westgothland  was  also  reckoned 
upon.  The  i-ising,  however,  did  not  take  place, 
and  the  enterprise  failed,  although  countenanced  by 
the  king  of  Denmark.  How  far  projects  or  the 
suspicion  of  them  extended,  may  be  seen  from 
Sigismund's  letter  to  Christian  IV.,  not  to  believe 
the  allegation  of  duke  Charles,  that  the  king  in- 
tended something  with  the  aid  of  Spain  against 
Denmark  and  Norway  *. 

While  the  feud  between  Charles  and  Sigismund 
was  decided  in  Gothland,  Upper  Sweden  did  not 
escape  a  civil  war.  A  landing  of  the  Finns  was 
continually  apprehended,  and  it  was  in  fact  a  plan 
of  the  royalist  party  that  these,  combined  with  the 
troopers  of  Upland  (who  had  been  ah'eady  era- 
ployed  in  Finland  under  Clas  Fleming),  and  sup- 
ported from  the  capital,  should  reduce  to  obedience 
the  provinces  conspicuous  for  their  devotion  to  the 
duke.  Commissioners  of  the  king  and  the  lords  of 
the  council  traversed  the  country.  When  the 
govei'nor,  Jacob  Naef,  a  Scotsman,  came  to  Dale- 
carlia  on  this  business,  the  inhabitants  rose  and 
put  him  to  death.  The  Dalecarlians  renewed  their 
old  league  with  the  Westmanlanders,  Gestricers, 
and  Helsingers,  plundered  and  assassinated  with 
ingenious  cruelty  the  adherents  of  Sigismund,  and 
were  already  on  their  descent  to  the  lower  country 
to  join  the  duke,  when  tidings  of  the  convention  of 
Linkoping  arrived.  Even  then  they  could  with 
difficulty  be  restrained,  would  not  credit  the  reality 
of  the  treaty,  and  were  bent  on  marching  onwards, 
as  they  said,  to  scour  the  land  of  its  evil  coun- 
sellors, who  had  already  attempted,  in  king  John's 
time,  to  extirpate  the  family  of  old  king  Gustavus 
by  intestine  discord.    We  may  look  upon  this  as  an 

upon  the  naked  body  on  such  occasions),  and  what  he  con- 
fesses shall  be  exactly  taken  down.  The  day  after  let  him 
be  taken  to  what  place  shall  seem  best  to  you,  there  to  un  - 
dergo  the  punishment  of  a  traitor.  This  is  to  be  executed 
so  that  the  seventh  or  eighth  day  after  the  arrival  of  this 
letter  sliall  be  the  last  of  this  traitor  in  the  world,  if  ye  lay 
any  weight  on  our  royal  favour  and  grace.  Let  this  be  your 
guide.  We  commend  you  to  God."  Sigismund's  Reg.  1598. 
The  punishment,  however,  was  not  inflicted,  and  it  was  first 
by  the  command  of  Charles  in  1605,  that  Hans  Hanson  of 
Monikala  suffered  death  for  his  double  treason. 

2  This  rare  anonymous  tract,  to  write  which  a  professor 
Stureius  was  brought  from  Rostock  to  Dantzic,  was  printed 
there  in  1598,  under  the  name  Ansa  Caroli,  &c.  It  is  found 
in  Sigismund's  Registry  for  1593—98,  let.  E. 

3  To  the  king  of  Denmark,  Warsaw,  Aug.  12,  1599.  Sigis- 
mund's Register. 


1611.] 


Severities  against  the  king': 
adherents.     John  Sparre. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Diet  of  Linkiiping.     Royalist  lords 
of  the  council  arraigned. 


197 


expressioii  of  the  popular  disposition  towards  many 
of  the  leading  men  of  that  period. 

After  Sigismund  had  withdrawn,  and  the  con- 
vention of  Linkoping  was  thus  annulled,  a  general 
persecution  of  the  king's  party  broke  out  in  the 
country.  A  prison,  banishment,  or  death  was  the 
lot  of  many.  Their  property  was  confiscated  or 
plundered;  rapacity  accused  even  the  innocent; 
many  new  rich  and  new  poor  were  seen.  And  when 
the  first  anarchy  was  appeased  by  the  transference 
of  the  government  to  the  duke,  vengeance  was  but 
the  more  effectual  in  the  hand  of  an  individual. 
For  Charles  knew  not  what  it  was  to  forget  and 
forgive  after  a  civil  war,  and  punished  his  own  foes 
as  traitors  to  their  country.  Tiie  town  of  Calmar 
was  taken  by  storm,  where  the  duke  himself  was 
for  the  second  time  seen  uppermost  on  the  storm- 
ing ladder.  The  castle  surrendered  to  the  force  of 
hunger.  Charles  granted  the  Polish  and  German 
garrison  their  liberty,  upon  tlieir  promise  never 
again  to  serve  against  Sweden.  But  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  kingdom,  and  especially  the  imprisoned 
lords,  were  directed  to  tlie  fate  which  awaited  the 
commander  of  Calmar,  John  Sparre,  brother  of  the 
chancellor.  He  was  the  first  of  the  magnates  who 
had  been  taken  with  arms  in  his  hand.  On  the 
14th  May,  Charles  propounded  to  him  the  following 
queries,  to  make  answer  thereon  as  before  God :  — 
Where  were  the  lettei-s  of  confederacy  which  the 
faithless  councillors  had  drawn  out  against  his 
princely  grace  ?  whether  the  king  and  the  disloyal 
councillors  had  not  intended  to  seize,  expel,  or  kill 
the  duke  ?  whether  the  king  had  not  promised 
relief  both  to  Calmar  and  the  captive  lords  ?  whe- 
ther they  and  their  ladies  had  not  requested  a  year 
previously  that  the  king  should  come  into  the  realm 
with  his  forces  ?  whether  they  had  not  designed  to 
get  the  government  mto  their  own  power,  and 
bound  themselves  to  grant  a  certain  aid  from  every 
province  ?  whether  they  had  not  purposed  to  make 
Sweden  an  elective  monarchy  like  Poland,  and  pro- 
mised the  king  the  free  exercise  of  his  religion  ? 
whether  they  had  not  sought  and  solicited  both  all 
the  fines  devolving  to  the  king  from  their  own  vas- 
sals, as  also  that  they  and  their  dependents  should 
never  be  bound  to  pay  suit  to  the  hundred-court, 
and  they  themselves  should  acquire  tlie  right  of 
judging  in  their  own  manor-houses  all  cases  touch- 
ing life  and  limb  ?  whether  there  had  not  been  a 
rumour  that  lady  Anne  should  be  regent  of  Swe- 
den, and  Gustave  Brahe  should  obtain  her  hand  *  ? 
What  their  answers  were  to  all  these  questions  is 
unknown.  But  John  Spari'e,  with  two  other  n  ible- 
men,  and  many  of  inferior  class,  were  found,  with 
the  assent  of  the  councillors  of  state  present,  guilty 
to  death,  and  their  heads  fixed  over  the  town  gate 
of  Calmar  ^.  "Vengeance!  vengeance!  vengeance! 
before  God's  just  tribunal !"  wrote  the  chancellor 

■I  Charles'  Re;;,  for  1599.  At  the  diet  in  Linkoping  the 
following  year,  Charles  wrote  to  the  estates,  that  the  princess 
Anne,  foi  her  intrigues  during  many  years  with  the  dis- 
loyal lords,  deserved  to  lose  her  portion.  In  one  of  the  notes 
from  his  own  hand,  of  wliicli  a  copy  is  preserved  in  tl\e  Palms- 
kbld  Collections,  it  is  said,  "  And  his  (Eric  Sparre's)  and  the 
others'  intention  is  no  other,  than  that  the  king  should  have 
the  name  and  the  trouble,  but  they  themselves  the  profit, 
expelling  and  setting  up  the  king  as  often  as  it  pleaseth 
them." 

^  Bergquara,  Sparre's  estate,  was  given  by  the  king  to  his 
natural  son,  Gyllenhielm,  who  had  had  the  command  before 
Calmar.      He  had  in   vain   begged   for  Sparre's   life,   and 


in  his  testament  on  receiving  intelligence  of  his 
brother's  fate.  With  rigour  as  inflexible  did  the 
duke  act  in  Finland,  whither  he  proceeded  with  the 
fleet  and  army  in  the  summer  of  15!J9.  The  Finns 
were  routed,  Wiborg  and  Abo  taken,  and  the  whole 
country  subdued.  Eight-and-tweuty  persons  fell  in 
these  towns  by  the  sword  of  the  headsman;  among 
them  the  young  and  chivalrous  John  Fleming,  son 
of  Clas  the  marshal.  On  his  visit  to  Abo  two  years 
earlier,  Charles  had  found  there  old  Philip  Kern, 
who  by  John's  order  had  mixed  the  pc^ison  for 
Eric  XIV.  He  is  said  to  have  so  beaten  him  with 
his  own  hand  that  blood  flowed  from  the  mouth 
and  nose.  Now  Olave  Gustaveson  Stenbock,  who 
thirty  years  bef(n"e,  when  Eric's  warden,  had  broken 
by  a  shot  the  arm  of  the  unhappy  king,  and  being 
accused  of  several  crimes  on  John's  death,  had  tied 
out  of  the  kingdom,  was  apprehended  in  the  vici- 
nity of  Abo.  He  was  tied  to  a  tree  and  shot  by 
order  of  Charles,  his  body  being  thrown  into  a 
quagmire,  whence  it  was  taken  out  and  interred  by 
Catharine  Magnus'  daughter. 

At  the  diet  of  Linkoping,  on  the  3d  March,  1600, 
was  opened  the  process  against  the  arraigned  lords 
of  the  council,  who  had  been  detained  for  a  year  and 
a  half  in  rigorous  confinement,  separated  from  their 
wives  and  children.  In  consequence  of  late  events 
the  indictment  had  been  extended  to  several  others. 
The  court  cons'isted  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-three 
persons  ;  thirty-eight  of  the  council  and  higher  no- 
bility, among  whom  were  many  relatives  of  the  ac- 
cused, twenty-four  officers  of  the  cavalry,  all  of 
noble  rank,  twenty  of  the  infantry,  twenty-four 
burgesses,  twenty-three  bailiffs  and  law-readers  ^, 
with  twenty-four  yeomen.  The  clergy  regarded  it 
as  unseemly  to  take  the  part  of  judges,  and  confined 
themselves  to  a  declaration  that  the  evan<relical 
faith  would  undoubtedly  have  been  endangered  in 
Sweden  if  Sigismund  had  attained  the  superiority'. 
The  trial  was  held  publicly,  and  in  presence  of  the 
envoys  of  John  Adolphus,  duke  of  Holstein  *,  bro- 
ther-in-law of  the  administrator.  Charles  absolved 
the  judges  from  the  oath  which  they  had  sworn  to 
him,  and  appeared  himself  as  accuser  against  eight 
lords  of  the  council  of  state,  Gustave  and  Steno 
Bauer  (brothers),  Ilogenskild,  Thure  and  Clas 
Bielke  (brothers),  Eric  Sparre',  Eric  Leyonhufvud, 
George  Camiteson  Posse,  and  five  other  noblemen, 
Charles  Stenbock,  Arvid  Stalarm,  Axel  Kurk,  Chris- 
tian Horn,  and  Bennet  Fack,  formerly  royal  com- 
manders in  Finland  and  elsewhere.  The  heads  of 
indictment  were  read  by  Eric  Goranson  Tegel,  son 
of  the  notorious  Goran  Person,  who  was  afterwards 
the  historian  of  Gustavus  I.  and  Eric  XIV.  The 
prosecutors  began  with  the  well-known  charges  of 
the  time  of  John,  in  respect  to  which  the  reconcile- 
ment formerly  eflected  was  declared  invalid,  because 

wished  to  restore  the  estate  to  his  widow.  This  lady,  Mar- 
garet Brahe,  (a  sister  of  Eric  Sparre's  wife,)  writes  to  Sigis- 
mund, that  slie  and  her  children  were  driven  out  of  the 
kingdom.  The  king  promises  her  succour  and  vengeance 
as  soon  as  he  should  have  subjugated  Sweden,  and  augments 
for  her  children  the  old  Sparre  arms  by  a  tower  planted 
round  with  cannon,  in  memory  of  the  defence  of  Calmar. 
To  lady  Margaret,  Warsaw,  28  Aug.  1599,  and  Sept.  26,  1600. 

6  So  was  called  the  person  who  filled  the  office  of  judge  of 
the  hundred,  while  its  noble  possessor  drew  tlie  emoluments. 

?  See  this  declaration  in  the  additions  to  the  Rhyme 
Chronicle  of  Charles  IX.  i.  346. 

8  A  Danish  envoy  had  wished  to  be  present,  but  was  ex- 
cluded. 


1!)8 


Condemnation  of  the  accused. 
Executions. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Banishment  of  many  nobles 
of  the  king's  party. 


[1599- 


the  lords  had  continued  their  treasonable  proceed- 
ings, broken  their  engagements  contracted  with  the 
duke,  iind  the  statutes  of  Soderkceping,  plotted 
against  the  duke's  weal,  honour,  and  life,  and  at 
last  brought  foreign  armies  against  their  country. 
Their  private  letters  to  wives  and  connexions  were 
used  in  evidence.  In  spite  of  this  no  proof  ap- 
peared against  Hogenskild  Bielke',  although  the 
duke  swore  by  heaven  and  earth  "  that  the  old  fox 
was  the  real  cause  of  it  all  ^."  His  violent  expres- 
sions were  accompanied  by  applause  and  murmur.s 
from  the  numerous  throng  wliich  usually  attended 
the  diets  of  Charles;  whence  he  was  called  the  pea- 
sant-king. Clas  Bielke,  Eric  Leyonhufvud,  George 
Posse,  and  Christian  Horn  fell  on  their  knees,  con- 
fessed themselves  guilty,  implored  and  obtained 
pardon.  The  remaining  lords  said,  that  they  hei-e 
perceived  only  parties  in  the  case,  not  judges,  and 
made  protest.  The  duke  replied,  and  the  protest 
was  overruled.  The  functionaries  sitting  on  the 
bench,  the  officers,  bailiffs,  and  jurisconsults  first 
gave  their  opinions  i  in  reference  to  the  charge. 
It  was  for  the  capital  punishment,  and  was  adopted 
by  the  unnoble  estates,  and  held  valid  against  the 
more  lenient  verdict  of  tlie  nobility.  The  only  point 
wherein  the  estates  did  not  yield  to  the  duke  was, 
that  they  insisted  that  the  sentence  should  be  en- 
rolled in  his  chancery  2.  On  the  17th  March  it  was 
promulgated,  and  the  estates  engaged  by  the  act  of 
the  diet  to  defend  the  same  against  the  whole  world. 
Neither  the  intercessions  of  the  bishops^,  nor  the 
near  connexion  of  the  accused  with  the  royal 
family,  nor  the  prostrations  and  tears  of  their  wives, 
and  twenty-two  of  their  children,  who  were  pre- 
sent, could  obtain  a  commutation  of  their  sentence. 
Charles  quitted  Linkoping,  having  given  orders  for 
the  execution  of  the  sentence.  On  the  20th  Mai'ch 
of  the  year  IGOO,  Gustave  Baner,  Eric  Sparre,  Steno 
Baner,  and  Thur^  Bielke  were  beheaded  in  the 
market-place  of  Linkoping.  Their  demeanour  in 
their  last  moments  made  a  deep  impression.  They 
spoke  to  the  people,  asserted  their  innocence,  and 
all  met  death  with  tranquillity,  especially  the  three 
last  named.  After  them  suffered  Bennet  Fack,  a 
sexagenarian  warrior,  who  was  a  Catholic.  The  other 
prisoners(excepting  the  paralytic  Hogensldld  Bielke) 
were  also  led  forth,  and  obliged  to  see  the  blood  of 
their  friends  poured  out.  Their  lives  were  then 
granted  them,  and  they  .were  reconducted  to  prison. 
Yet  the  persecution  was  not  appeased  by  this  sacri- 

9  Account  of  the  judgment  which  was  passed  in  king 
Charles  IX. 's  time  by  a  portion  of  the  people,  and  the  greatest 
part  of  the  estates.  Palmskiild  Collections.  Actaadhisto- 
riam  Caroli  IX.  v.  ii. 

'  Humble,  poor,  and  submissive  opinion  of  the  officers, 
bailiffs,  and  lawyers.     Ibid. 

2  For  what  is  requested  by  the  estates,  that  the  prologue 
to  the  judgment  and  answer  to  the  grounds  wherewith  the 
council  of  state  had  excepted  to  the  court  (exceperat  forum), 
should  be  enrolled  in  the  duke's  chancery,  the  same  cannot 
be,  and  cometh  too  nigh  liis  princely  grace,  as  if  the  estates 
themselves  knew  not  how  to  answer  what  they  had  done 
with  free  and  good  conscience.     March  12,  1600.     Reg. 

3  Note  of  Christina  Baner  to  her  sister,  on  the  mournful 
lotof  their  father  the  high  marshal  Gustave  Baner.  Appendix 
to  the  Rhyme  Chronicle  of  Charles  IX.  p.  359. 

->  "  An  unheard-of  treason  of  Hogenskild  Bielkfe,  his  brother 
Clas,  Christian  Classon  Horn,  and  several  others  of  the  no- 
bility, clergy,  burgesses,  and  peasants,  has  been  discovered; 
that  not  only  the  troopers  of  Upland  (long  devoted  to  Sigis- 
mund)  had  intended  to  shoot  us  dead  and  pass  over  to  the 


fice.  The  courageous  Arvid  Stalarm,  already  twice 
condemned  to  death,  who  is  said  to  have  jestingly 
remarked  at  Linkoping,  "  the  lords  of  the  council, 
now  made  happy,  will  be  wondering  what  has  be- 
come of  me,  since  I  have  not  followed  them  to  hea- 
ven," x-eceived  his  freedom  in  1602,  on  the  interces- 
sion of  the  Finnish  nobility,  and  afterward  was 
even  appohited  to  a  coiumand  in  Livonia.  But  after 
the  unsuccessful  assault  on  Wittenstein  in  1604,  the 
following  year  he  was  again  accused  and  condemned, 
kd  out  to  death,  but  reconducted  to  prison,  where 
he  died.  At  the  same  diet  of  1605,  convoked  on 
occasion  of  a  conspiracy  against  the  duke  *,  the  old 
and  feeble  Hogenskild  Bielke'  was  again  placed  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  the  estates,  aud  condemned  to 
death  for  expressions  which  betrayed  deep  hatred 
against  Charles  and  his  house.  Sitting  on  a  chair, 
he  was  carried  to  the  place  of  execution,  and  the 
head  having  been  struck  off,  which  his  chamberlain 
vainly  sought  to  protect  from  maltreatment,  was 
set  up  over  the  south  gate  of  Stockholm.  After  he 
had  seen  his  two  brothers  fall  by  the  headsman's 
sword,  and  himself  endured  a  long  imprisonment, 
the  third  brother,  Clas  Bielke,  once  the  richest 
man  in  Sweden  of  that  day,  went  into  exile  with  his 
wife  and  children  and  three  nephews.  The  same 
fate  of  banishment  also  fell  upon  the  counts  Axel 
Leyonhufvud  and  Eric  Brahe,  who  had  themselves 
sat  on  the  bench  at  Linkoping,  on  Gustave  Brahe 
brother  of  the  latter^,  on  five  Stenbocks,  four 
Sparre's,  six  Gyllenstiernas,  seven  Posses,  two  Rib- 
bings, two  Boudes,  two  Flemings,  one  Torstenson, 
one  Horn  ^.  Other  members  of  the  old  families 
saw  the  cause  of  their  country  in  that  of  Charles,  or 
at  least  sought  and  enjoyed  his  protection.  In  1604 
the  property  of  the  exiles  was  declared  forfeited  to 
the  crown,  unless  they  appeared  to  make  answer 
before  the  tribunal.  "  And  seeing  that  the  children," 
it  is  said  in  the  statute  of  tlie  diet,  "soon  for- 
get their  father's  offences,  if  they  have  not  a 
daily  remembrancer,  therefore  shall  no  one  of  the 
sons  of  the  condemned  lords  ever  be  capable,  with- 
out especial  grace,  of  sitting  in  the  council  of  the 
realm,  or  other  high  places  of  trust ;  all  their 
children,  who  shall  again  plot  to  transform  the 
kingdom  of  Sweden  into  an  elective  monarchy 
shall,  when  they  come  to  an  age  at  which  they  can 
undei'stand  the  design  of  their  parents,  be  punished 
like  these  as  traitors  ;  if  they  discover  the  offences 
of  their  parents,  they  shall  enjoy  their  property." 

enemy  at  the  time  of  our  being  in  Livonia,  but  also  plotted 
how  we  might  be  betrayed,  with  wife  and  child,  into  the 
enemy's  hands.  And  no  doubt  there  are  many  in  this  realm 
who  are  participant  in  the  same  treason,  so  that,  since  it  is 
impossible  for  us  in  such  sort  to  assume  a  government,  or 
let  ourselves  be  crowned  king,  we  would  rather  dwell  among 
bears  and  wolves,  and  take  our  sustenance  where  we  can, 
than  among  a  people  that  heeds  neither  oath  nor  truth. 
Therefore  are  we  constrained  to  convene  you  to  a  diet ;  and 
as  we  have  no  other  matter  to  handle  with  you  than  what 
regards  the  said  treason,  ye  need  fear  no  more  new  imposts 
than  what  have  been  granted  in  Norrkoping  (namely,  in  the 
previous  year,  1604)."  Writ  of  summons  by  Charles  to  the 
diet  of  March  8,  1603.    Reg. 

5  Son  of  the  high  steward  Peter  Brahe,  who  died  in  1590, 
in  disgrace  with  king  John.  Two  other  sons,  Magnus  and 
Abraham,  were  of  the  duke's  party. 

6  Duke  Charles'  Slaughter-Bench,  the  most  famous  of  the 
many  violent  pamphlets  against  Charles,  printed  in  1617, 
but  very  rare.  The  author  was  George  Nilson  Poss6  of 
Siogeras. 


ICIl.] 


Offer  of  the  crown  to  the  duke. 
Military  operations  in  Livonia. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Negotiations  with  the  Poles. 
Visit  of  Charles  to  Finland. 


199 


Unhappy  memorials  of  civil  discords,  which  parted 
the  son  from  the  father,  and  stirred  up  brother 
against  brother  ! 

At  the  diet  of  Linkoping,  in  1600,  the  unnoble 
estates  and  the  officers  of  the  army  offered  the 
crown  to  the  duke.  The  nobility  confined  them- 
selves to  a  request  that  he  would  continue  to  ad- 
minister the  goverinnent.  On  this  account  the 
statute  of  the  diet  recommends  two  courses  ;  the 
first,  to  leave  Sigismund  yet  five  months,  within 
which  to  send  his  sou  on  the  terms  before  men- 
tioned ;  the  second,  forthwith  to  bar  from  the 
throne  the  whole  family  of  John  III.,  that  is, 
not  only  Sigismund  and  liis  descendants,  but  his 
younger  brother  John,  who  was  now  a  boy  of  eleven 
years  old,  to  whom  East-Gothland  was  guaranteed 
for  his  duchy.  For  the  exclusion  of  this  prince 
are  alleged  as  grounds,  his  youth,  the  kingdom 
requiring  a  ruler,  and  the  revenge  which  he  might 
in  future  be  disposed  to  exact  on  his  brother's 
account.  Tlie  estates  declare  that  they  had  moved 
the  duke  to  embrace  the  second  alternative,  though 
he  himself  had  expressed  his  ai^probation  of  the 
first. 

In  letters  to  queen  Elizabeth  of  England,  Charles 
declared  that  the  estates  had  offered  hira  the  crown, 
and  pressed  it  on  his  acceptance,  althougli  he  had 
refused  it,  since  it  belonged  of  right  to  the  young 
duke  John  '  ;  yet  he  would  further  consider  their 
request.  Charles  received  ambassadors  from  both 
England  and  France.  Elizabeth,  whose  alliance  he 
sought  in  1599,  declared  his  cause  to  be  just,  and 
promised  her  mediation  in  his  disputes  with  Den- 
mark. Charles  lamented  on  her  death  the  sever- 
ance of  a  long  friendship,  and  showed  the  greatest 
reverence  for  her  memory.  Henry  IV.  sought  the 
hand  of  the  Swedish  princess  Catharine  for  prince 
Henry  of  Rohan,  and  the  answer  of  Charles,  evasive 
as  regarded  his  daughter,  did  not  interrupt  their 
good  understanding  *.  The  following  j'ear  Henry 
bespoke  cannon  and  balls  from  Sweden",  and  in 
IG04  offered  his  mediation  in  the  Polisli  affiiirs. 

From  Linkoping  the  estates  had  sent  a  new, 
although  in  the  opinion  of  Charles  not  sufficiently 
decided  memorial  of  renunciation  to  Sigismund, 
who  for  answer  threw  the  messenger  into  prison, 
ceded  Swedish  Estiand  to  the  Poles,  and  at  the 
diet  of  Warsaw  in  1600  and  ICOl,  obtained  the 
promise  of  the  estates  of  Poland  to  support  him  in 
the  war  against  Sweden.  Charles,  convinced  that 
every  delay  upon  the  path  he  was  treading  was  a 
retrograde  step,  resolved  to  seek  out  his  enemy. 
After  he  had  obtained  at  the  diet  of  Linkoping  an 
engagement  that  every  province  should  henceforth 
maintain  a  certain  number  of  troopers  and  infantry, 
he  crossed  in  the  summer  of  1600  with  a  con- 
siderable army  to  Livonia.  He  had  with  him  his 
consort  and  the  young  Gustavus  Adolphus,  whom 
he  recommended  to  the  estates,  in  case  any 
calamity  should  befall  liimself.  Livonia  was  badly 
defended,  for  the  Poles  were  detested  ;  Reval  with 
Estiand  immediately  declared  for  Charles.  In  six 
months  all  the  Livonian  fortresses  had  been  wrested 

7  Ad  reginam  Anglise,  May  14,  1601.  Ad  Robertum 
Cecil  et  Senatores  Anglia.     Reg.  for  1601. 

'^  Responsum,  &c.  Nycopise,  May  14,  1602.  The  duke 
would  deliberate  with  his  relatives  in  Germany.  The 
princess  herself  answers  in  a  Latin  letter,  committing  the 
matter  to  her  father,  and  sends  sable  furs  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  presents. 


from  the  Poles,  except  Kockenhusen,  Dunamunde, 
and  Riga,  which  Charles,  reinforced  by  troops  from 
Germany  under  the  command  of  count  John  of 
Nassau,  in  person  besieged.  Diflfei-ences  with  the 
count,  who  in  a  short  time  quitted  the  Swedish 
service,  and  want  of  pay  for  the  troops,  occasioned 
a  retreat.  Charles'  progress  had  caused  great 
preparations  in  Poland.  In  the  autumn  of  1601  a 
Polish  army,  with  which  Sigismund  himself  was 
present,  entered  Livonia.  He  soon,  however,  with- 
drew, leaving  the  command  in  chief  to  the  high 
chancellor  Zamoisky.  "  Our  king  is  no  warrior, 
nor  can  endure  toils  and  pains,"  the  brave  old 
Zamoisky  said  to  Charles  Carlson  Gyllenhielm, 
who  at  the  taking  of  Wolmar  fell,  together  with 
the  young  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  into  the  enemy's 
hands.  The  former  was  the  natural  son  of  Charles. 
The  defence  of  Wolmar  liad  excited  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  enemy,  but  did  not  satisfy  the  severe 
fatJier.  "  We  have  received  thy  letter,  Charles 
Carlson,"  lie  writes,  "  and  although  we  are  little 
bound  to  trouble  ourselves  about  thy  liberation, 
seeing  thou  hast  held  out  no  better,  we  will  never- 
theless ascribe  to  thy  youth  what  hath  taken  place, 
since  we  have  understood  from  thy  messenger, 
that  thou  hast  stood  one  or  two  assaults.  Thou 
mayst  therefore  apply  to  the  chancellor  anent  thy 
release,  and  request  to  know,  against  which  one  of 
those  who  are  in  our  power  thou  mayst  be  ex- 
changed ;  thereon  we  will  take  order  that  thou  mayst 
again  have  liberty  '."  This  day  of  freedom  was  late 
in  rising.  Sigismund's  exasperation  had  now  found 
an  object  on  which  to  wreak  itself.  Charles  Carl- 
son Gyllenhielm  spent  twelve  years  in  a  dungeon, 
and  of  these  six  and  a  half  in  chains.  In  Livonia 
almost  all  the  advantages  gained  by  the  Swedes 
were  again  lost,  while  the  war  filled  the  country 
with  the  most  frightful  misery.  The  Polish  general 
appeared  not  dismclined  to  peace.  Had  the  duke  not 
attacked  Livonia,  he  said  to  the  Swedish  prisoners, 
never  would  the  Poles  have  saddled  a  horse  against 
Sweden  ^.  These  overtures  and  inculpations  led 
merely  to  a  warm  correspondence,  in  the  course  of 
which  Zamoisky  at  length  challenged  Charles  to  a 
duel,  receiving  for  answer  that  he  deserved  only  a 
cudgel  by  way  of  reply.  A  truce  could  not  be  con- 
cluded, because  the  conditions  demanded  would  have 
made  the  Poles  masters  of  all  Livonia. 

Charles  had  gone  to  Abo  with  his  wife  and  son, 
and  there  in  the  beginning  of  1602  received  the 
oath  of  homage  from  the  Finnish  nobility,  where, 
he  says,  "  greater  disorders  existed  than  in  any 
other  quarter  of  the  kingdom."  Finland,  where 
Sigismund's  lieutenants  had  longest  ruled,  herein 
afforded  a  proof  of  what  might  be  expected  from 
the  magnates  under  an  absentee  king.  The  people 
were  sunk  in  the  deepest  misery,  and  had  borne 
the  main  burden  of  the  war,  while  the  nobles  took 
possession  of  the  estates  subject  to  tax,  and  treated 
the  peasants  almost  as  the  Livonian  nobleman  his 
bondsmen.  Between  the  peasantry  of  Sweden  and 
Finland  there  was  a  great  difference,  as  Charles 
was  informed  in  reply  to  his  demand  why  the 
latter  should  be  exempted  from  the  post-service, 

9  Through  Andreas  de  la  Fromentie.  Charles  answers 
Henry  IV.,  Nov.  28,  1602,  that  the  dimensions  had  not  been 
stated.     Reg. 

1  Answer  to  the  letter  of  Charles  Carlson,  Abo,  Jan.  20, 
1602.     Palms.  Collections.     Acta  ad  Histor.  Car.  IX.  t.  ii. 

2  Werwing,  ii.  51. 


20() 


Condition  of  the  peasantry 
in  Finland. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Reflections  on  the  career 
of  Charles. 


[1599- 


because  the  peasants  of  the  nobles  in  Sweden  were 
pi'oprietors  of  their  horses  and  nags,  whereas  such 
peasants  in  Finland  had  no  jiroperty  at  all,  but 
must  be  provided  by  their  noble  masters  with  all 
that  was  necessary  for  tilling  a  farm  in  field  and 
meadow,  and  for  seed-corn,  so  far  as  tliese  might 
expect  any  profit  from  their  estates  '.  Chai'les  had 
already  in  1600  forbidden  the  nobility  in  Sweden 
to  exempt  their  peasants  from  the  payment  of  their 
share  of  general  aids  voted  by  the  diet,  to  raise 
larger  amounts  from  their  fiefs  than  the  law  per- 
mitted, or  make  any  encroachments  on  the  rights 
of  the  tax-paying  peasants  *.  He  now  ordained, 
"  since  the  nobles  of  Finland  could  enjoy  no  greater 
privileges  than  those  of  Sweden,"  that  in  every  aid, 
impost,  or  levy,  the  peasants  of  the  Finnish  nobles 
should  pay  half  the  jjroportion  of  the  peasants 
assessed  to  the  crown,  and  likewise  bear  their 
sliare  of  the  rents  of  justiciaries  and  judges  of 
Hundreds,  as  well  as  of  the  tithes.  These  had  been 
hitherto  paid  in  Finland  at  pleasure.  An  ordinance 
was  now  issued  that  two  thirds,  in  Finland  as  in 
Sweden,  should  be  allotted  to  the  crown.  The 
arbitrary  power  of  the  bailiffs  in  levying  them  was 
limited  *.  Charles  returned  by  a  way  which  before 
him  no  Swedish  prince  had  trodden, — north  of  the 
gulf  of  Bothnia,  on  whose  shores  he  chose  out  sites 
for  new  towns. 

Charles,  who  had  for  a  long  time  before  actually 
ruled,  possessed  undivided  power  after  Sigismund's 
flight.  Could  a  government  be  grounded  only  on 
what  may  be  termed  a  factitious  base,  none  had  ever 
been  better  prepared.  But  history  shows  that  deter- 
minate legal  notions  are  still  more  important  for 
nations  than  for  individuals.  Rai'e  are  the  examples 
in  which  an  encroachment  on  these  has  not  left 
enduring  effects  upon  a  nation.  Sigismund  had 
been  declared  to  have  forfeited  the  crown.  Yet 
how  long  did  Charles  delay  accepting  a  crown 
abandoned  by  its  owner,  and  so  often  proffei'ed  to 
him  !  His  scruples  have  been  denominated  hypo- 
crisy, and  if  respect  for  the  opinion  of  the  world 
deserve  this  name,  we  deny  not  that  he  shrank 
from  it.  Yet  it  is  but  a  superficial  judgment  of 
him  which  overlooks  the  contest  that  glowed  in  his 
own  breast.  No  one  had  higher  ideas  of  the 
sanctity  of  the  legal  power  of  royalty.  His  own 
wi-itings  on  the  history  of  Sweden  best  prove  this, 
for  their  leading  notion  is,  that  the  Swedes  mostly 
occasioned  the  misfortunes  of  their  kings,  and 
thereby  their  own  ^.  In  general  he  reproaches 
them  with  unsteadiness,  untrustworthiness,  envy, 
default  of  civic  courage  and  virtue.  "  Their  man- 
ner is,"  he  says,  "  to  fall  all  upon  one,  so  that  when 
one  of  them  comes  into  trouble,  be  it  by  his  own 
desert,  or  by  violence  and  wrong  done  to  him,  then 
is  there  none  who  can,  or  dare,  or  will  help  him, 
but  all  creep  into  holes  and  corners,  and  help  to 
ruin  one  another  '."  We  should  scarcely  be  apt  to 
believe  that  he  who  scared  the  council  with  the 
name  of  Engelbert,  styled  that  leader  a  right  sedi- 

3  Werwing,  ii.  67. 

■*  Mandate  against  extortion  from  the  people,  Linkoping, 
Feb.  28,  1600. 

5  Decree  of  Biiirneborg,  Feb.  9,  1602.  This  malpractice  of 
the  Finnish  baililfs  afterwards  again  provoked  the  indignation 
of  Charles  :  "  If  we  use  them  and  other  such  thieves  further, 
60  may  all  the  thousand  devils  use  them,"  he  writes  to  the 
treasurers  in  Finland,  Sept.  20,  1607.  From  his  prohibitions 
in  Sweden  we  learn  that  the  office  of  bailiff  was  sold. 


tious  fellow.  Yet  the  fact  is  so.  Charles  might  have 
said  with  Elizabeth  of  England,  whom  he  so  mucli 
admired  ;  "  Whoso  lays  hands  on  a  prince's  sceptre, 
grasps  a  fire-brand  which  must  destroy  him  ;  for 
him  there  is  no  grace  *."  Therefore  he  declared 
thirty  years  before  to  John,  in  the  outset  of  their 
contention  ;  "  I  am  accused  of  having  attacked  the 
majesty  of  the  king,  for  which  history  shows  that 
neither  brothers  have  spared  one  another,  nor 
parents  their  children."  With  this  disposition  it 
was  his  destiny  to  fall  at  strife  with  two  brothers 
and  a  nephew .;  a  feud  of  which  the  issue  was  to 
decide  not  only  who  should  bear  the  sceptre,  but 
whether  it  should  remain  in  the  house  of  Vasa  or  be 
broken.  That  common  responsibility  which  Gus- 
tavus  imposed  upon  his  sons,  was  therefore  in  truth 
Charles's  political  religion.  Throughout  his  whole 
life  he  fought  for  the  Swedish  crown,  seemingly 
against  his  own  famil3',  but  really  in  its  cause  ;  and 
he  was  himself,  amid  th.eso  contrarieties,  torn  by 
internal  strife.  With  one  hand  battling  against 
Sigismund,  and  all  the  dangers  which  with  him 
threatened  the  country,  with  the  other  he  struggled 
inexorably,  and  quenched  in  their  noblest  blood 
the  factions  which  had  dared  to  beleaguer  the 
throne  of*  Gustavus  Vasa.  We  find  not  that  in  this 
respect  he  ever  doubted  of  his  good  right,  or  that 
he  repented  for  a  moment  what  this  after-world 
lays  most  to  his  charge.  On  another  side,  again, 
we  find  so  much  the  more  dubiety,  which  is 
closely  connected  with  his  political  faith.  As 
the  son  of  Gustavus,  and  from  his  whole  position, 
he  could  not  niisappreciate  the  value  of  power 
bestowed  by  the  voice  of  the  people.  But  on  the 
same  voice  his  whole  family  rested  their  liere- 
ditary  right.  Against  Sigismund,  an  outcast  bj' 
religion  from  the  heritage  of  the  father  of  his  line, 
Charles  enforced  the  resolutions  of  the  estates. 
But  there  remained  a  child,  whose  weak  arm  out- 
stretched between  himself  and  the  throne  seems  to 
have  excited  in  him  deeper  disquietude.  Duke 
John,  Sigismund's  half-brother,  was  by  the  here- 
ditary settlement,  his  claims  being  unforfeited, 
next  heir  to  the  crown.  Not  only  was  the  life  of 
this  child  held  sacred  by  a  hand  otherwise  so 
bloodstained,  but  Charles  fulfilled  towards  him  all 
the  duties  of  a  near  kinsman.  He  is  still  uncertain 
whether  the  young  prince's  renunciation  of  his 
pretensions,  made  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  is  valid,  and 
closes  by  acknowledging  in  his  testament  John's 
superior  right,  "  provided  that  the  estates  of  the 
realm  shall  in  no  wise  depart  from  their  enacted 
statutes."  According  to  this,  Sweden  was  without  a 
king  at  the  death  of  Charles,  and  first  received  one  in 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  by  a  new  election  of  the  estates. 
In  this  position  Charles  took  no  step  forwards 
without  the  sanction  of  the  estates  of  the  realm. 
This  concurrence  was  by  no  means  agreeable  to 
them  ;  for  he  vexed  their  members  with  incessant 
diets  to  repeat  to  them  ever  the  same  tale.     Diffi- 

6  King  Charles  IX. 's  Swedish  Chronicle,  extracted  with 
his  own  hand  from  the  Chronicle  of  the  archbishop  Laurence 
Peterson.  Palmsk.  Collec.  Acta  ad  Hist.  Car.  IX.  t.  i.  The 
judgments  following  are  the  king's  own. 

7  L.  c.  ii   208,  209. 

8  Elizabeth  to  the  French  ambassador  Beaumont,  upon 
occasion  of  Biron's  treason  against  Henry  IV.  Kauiner, 
History  of  Europe  from  the  end  of  the  Fifteenth  Century,  ii. 
607 ;  a  work  which  at  length  does  full  justice  to  the  great 
Elizabeth. 


ICll.J 


Diet  at  Stockholm. 
His  view  of  foreign  affairs. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Refusal  of  the  crown. 
New  council  appointed. 


201 


culties  accumulatecl  around  upon  a  land  sliakenso 
deeply  by  civil  turmoils.  The  feud  with  Sigisinund 
was  gradually  waxing  more  diffusive  in  its  sphere  ; 
with  Denmark  and  Russia  old  disputes  were 
awakened,  which  were  to  lead  to  new  wars  with  both. 
Charles  encountered  every  danger  with  an  activity 
and  courage  which  knew  no  bounds,  but  also  with 
growing  irritation  ;  and  the  stroke  to  which  he 
succumbed  came  at  last  from  his  own  soul. 

Upon  his  return  from  Livonia  he  convoked  the 
estates  to  Stockholm  in  the  summer  of  1602,  and 
laid  before  them  for  their  consideration  the  follow- 
ing view  of  foreign  affairs. — "  The  Swedes,"  said 
he,  "  have  three  neighbours,  the  Dane,  the  Pole, 
and  the  Russ.  With  the  Danes  they  may  live  in 
peace,  if  these  will  yield  the  three  crowns,  which 
are  Sweden's  rightful  arms,  with  what  of  La])p- 
mark  Sweden  anciently  possessed;  and  thereto  we 
will  allow  them  free  trade  with  the  ore-tracts  of 
the  realm,  even  as  the  children  of  the  land,  nor 
ever  henceforth  speak  of  the  imright  done  by  Den- 
mark to  Swe  len  in  manifold  ways  since  the  peace  of 
Stettin.  With  the  Poles  they  may  straightway  come 
to  peace  for  eight  years,  if  these  will  restore  Pernau 
and  Dorpt,  and  leave  the  main  question  unresolved. 
It  is  to  be  considered  what  the  crown  of  Sweden  may 
win  thereby.  With  the  Russ  we  may  have  good 
friendship,  if  we  will  give  him  Narva  and  Reval,  and 
Wiborg  besides;  therewith  he  will  keep  peace  so 
long  as  he  may  ^."  This  time  the  duke  was  met 
by  general  dissatisfaction.  The  notion  of  the  use- 
lessness  of  the  Livonian  war  had  gained  prevalence 
throughout  the  country,  and  was  maintained  by 
returned  soldiers  and  troopers.  Secret  emissaries 
from  the  Swedish  exiles  dispersed  Sigismund's 
manifestos.  The  extraordinary  wet  and  cold  of 
the  preceding  summer  had  destroyed  the  harvest ; 
lf>02  was  also  a  hard  year.  Men  died  of  hunger 
in  the  streets  of  Stockholm  during  the  congress  of 
the  estates  '.  The  plague  spread  devastation  in 
Finland  as  well  as  Sweden.  Charles  sought  to 
relieve  the  distress  by  distributions  of  grain  from 
his  own  stores;  but  he  had  to  demand  new  sacri- 
fices; and  to  the  proffer  of  the  crown,  without  means 
to  carry  on  the  government,  he  returned,  therefore, 

3  Opinion  of  Charles  to  the  estates,  how  the  Swedes  may 
obtain  peace.  Stockholm,  June  13,  1602.  To  the  jfrand 
duke  Boris  Godunow,  Charles  writes  from  Abo,  Dec.  17, 
1601,  that  as  the  grand  duke  still  ever  speaks  of  the  Livonian 
towns,  he  cannot  have  understood  Cliarles's  Latin  epi^tle. 
"  Therefore  can  we  infer  no  otherwise  than  that  thou  hast 
no  good  interpreter,  who  might  rightly  have  it  explained  to 
thee;  and  therefore  will  we  now  write  to  thee  in  Swedish, 
which  is  our  mother  tongue,  although  we  know  several  lan- 
guages. The  perpetual  peace  is  not  made  between  Sigismund 
and  Feodor  Ivanowitz,  but  between  Russia  and  Sweden. 
The  towns  which  our  brother  John  won  in  Livonia  are  not 
taken  from  Ivan  Wasiliewitz,  who  took  them  unjustly  from 
the  Roman  emperor;  and  when  he  speaks  thereupon  we  will 
answer  as  beseems.  Hadst  thou,  instead  of  making  peace 
with  Poland,  attacked  the  Poles  on  the  one  side  as  we  upon 
the  other,  and  as  thine  envoys  in  Stockholm  have  given  us  to 
understand,  then  would  every  man  have  had  a  new  jerkin, 
and  thou  not  needed  to  ask  aught  from  us  or  any  one  else. 
Our  messengers  to  thee  were  lately  kept  captives,  and  durst 
not  look  out  of  the  window,  much  less  walk  on  the  roads."  Reg. 

'  "  His  princely  grace  has  understood  that  in  the  hospital 
of  Upsala  seven  persons  are  dead  of'hunger,  and  daily  more 
die,  and  here  in  the  streets  every  day  are  persons  who  perish 
with  hunger.  At  such  mournful  events  ought  the  clergy  to 
bestir  themselves,  and  inquire  whereto  the  revenues  and 


a  scarce  amicable  answer,  especially  since  ui  respect 
to  the  king's  assurance  sundry  doubts  were  raised 
which  showed  mistrust.  They  ntight  look  after  an- 
other,— he  writes  to  the  estates  on  the  16th  June, 
1602, — who  would  iiile  the  kingdom  better  ;  the 
king  of  Poland,  to  whom  they  had  not  yet  renounced 
their  oatlis,  and  with  whom  a  party  secretly  held, 
or  liis  son,  as  was  formerly  requested,  or  duke 
John;  for  himself  and  his  descendants,  by  God's 
help,  some  counsel  was  left.  The  statute  of  the 
diet  was  drawn  up  according  to  his  wishes,  and 
new  aids  were  granted  for  the  continuance  of  the 
war.  On  the  other  hand,  Charles  showed  the 
estates  the  complacence  of  selecting  his  council 
with  their  approval,  since  the  members  of  the  old 
council  had  now  for  the  most  part  disappeared  by 
death.  Twelve  lords,  of  whom  the  five  oldest  filled 
the  highest  offices  of  state,  as  steward,  marshal, 
admiral,  chancellor,  and  treasurer,  were  called  into 
the  new  council,  which  henceforth  remained  sta- 
tionary, instead  of  being  as  formerly  scattered 
throughout  the  country.  Charles  wished  also  to 
call  six  Livonians  into  the  Swedish  council.  The 
proposal  met  with  resistance,  and  remained  unexe- 
cuted 2.  The  new  lords  of  the  council  already 
swore  to  be  true  and  leal  to  his  princely  grace,  his 
beloved  consort,  and  their  male  heirs,  and  to 
labour  that  all  which  the  prince  promises  to  sub- 
jects, and  subjects  to  the  prince,  should  be  kept 
irrefragabiy  on  both  sides.  The  latter  clause  was 
taken  from  the  old  oath  of  council.  Of  what  different 
interpretations  this  was  capable,  in  respect  to  the 
power  of  the  council,  was  further  to  be  shown 
duriiii'  this  reign  3. 

One  of  the  principal  causes  of  discontent  was 
Charles'  relations  to  the  clergy,  which  began  to  be 
unfriendly,  and  so  continued  during  the  still  re- 
maining portion  of  his  reign.  The  perfecter  of  the 
Reformation  in  Sweden  was  not  reckoned  an  or- 
thodox Lutheran.  We  have  already  mentioned  the 
susjiicions  manifested  against  him  in  this  respect  at 
the  synod  of  Upsala.  At  the  diet  of  Linkoping  in 
1600  a  service-book  proposed  by  him  was  rejected 
liy  the  clergy  *.     Charles  was  not  prevented  by  this 

rents  of  the  poor  are  applied,  and  set  overseers  to  take  an 
account  thereof."  To  the  clergy,  Stockholm,  June  10,  1602. 
Failure  of  crops  and  hurtful  weather  had  prevailed  for  some 
years  in  various  districts.  In  Upland  and  other  provinces 
the  corn-rent  could  not  be  collected  from  the  poverty  of  the 
peasants.  This  was  increased  by  their  inability  to  sow  their 
land,  while  the  franklins  could  sow  half  and  reap  half,  while 
they  paid  nothing  to  the  crown.  Letters  of  Jan.  3  and  Feb. 
3,  1603.  Reg.  Letter  to  the  Uplanders,  April  1  of  the  same 
year,  touching  supplies  from  the  duke's  granaries,  that  they 
may  see  the  duke  cares  for  them  as  well  as  himself,  as  he 
has  not  spared  his  life  for  their  weal  against  the  foes  of  the 
realm.  Reg.  The  distress  of  both  these  years  extended 
with  fearful  severity  to  Russia.  In  the  spring  of  ICOl  it 
rained  for  ten  weeks  incessantly,  and  on  the  15th  August 
crops  and  fruits  were  killed  by  the  frost.  In  two  years  and 
four  months  the  dead  bodies  registered  alone  and  interred  in 
Moscow  amounted  to  127,000.     Karamsin. 

2  Because  the  estates  tind  it  cause  umbrage  to  have  the 
Livonians  with  themselves  in  the  council,  they  could  well 
be  quit  of  them.  Danes,  Russians,  and  Poles  would  willingly 
receive  them  as  soon  as  they  should  be  offered.  Charles  to 
the  estates,  June  13,  1602.     Reg. 

3  Oath  of  the  council  of  state,  Aug.  23,  1602.     Reg. 

■I  "  We  have  no  thought  of  adopting  the  same  at  any  time." 
Exceptions  of  the  clergy  to  the  Handbook,  March  20,  1600. 
Palms.  CoUec.  Acta  ad  Hist.  Car.  IX.  t.  ii. 


302 


Religious  opinions  of 
Cliarles. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  controversy  with  tlie 
arclibislioj). 


[1590— 


from  introducing  a  new  order  of  worship  in  his  own 
household  *.  This  was  brought  into  scandal  as 
Calvinistic,  and  the  archbishop  Olave  Martinson 
wrote  against  its  errors,  among  wliich  is  enume- 
rated the  position  that  heretics  should  obtain  Chris- 
tian burial.  In  the  year  1601  Charles  published, 
but  without  his  name,  a  collection  of  Swedish 
Psalms''.  He  composed,  and  left  behind  him  in 
manuscript,  Swedish  and  Gei-man  Hymns,  as  also 
Prayers,  of  which  that  for  the  guidance  of  rulers 
reflects  honour  on  the  autlior  ^.  In  1604  appeared 
a  Catechism  written  by  himself  in  1593  *.  Herein 
he  followed  the  refoi'med  catechism  of  Heidelberg, 
which  awakened  new  controversy,  not  allayed  by 
his  attempt  to  introduce  an  amended  translation  of 
the  Bible.  Charles  stood  forth  iu  his  own  defence, 
and  exchanged  controversial  tracts  with  the  arch- 
bishop, in  which  the  king's  learning  and  acuteness 
appear  by  no  means  inferior  to  those  of  his  op- 
ponent ^.  The  proposition  most  earnestly  urged  by 
Charles  in  these  writings  was,  that  holy  Scripture 
should  be  the  only  rule  of  faith  ;  for  which  reason 
he  combated  the  practice  of  those  who  delineated 
this  by  the  confession  of  Augsburg,  and  still  more, 
of  those  who  held  out  that  the  acts  of  the  assembly 
of  Upsala  should  be  a  new  law  for  the  church.  "  We 
cannot  and  will  not  allow,"  he  writes  to  the  council 
respecting  the  clergy,  "  that  the  decrees  of  the 
council  of  Upsala  should  be  set  up  for  a  new  creed, 
since  there  nothing  else  was  treated  than  what  the 
confession  of  Augsburg,  founded  upon  the  prophetic 
and  apostolic  writings,  contains.  Therein  we  will 
not  quarrel  with  our  kinsmen  in  Germany."  It  has 
often  been  alleged  that  Charles'  journey  thither  and 
his  alliance  by  marriage  with  the  Piilatine  house 
made  him  inclined  to  the  reformed  confession.  In 
the  second  place  he  maintained,  that  the  sacra- 
ments were  only  confirmatory  signs  of  grace,  and 
did  not  in  themselves  impart  forgiveness  of  sins, 
whence  he  zealously  contended  against  regarding 
the  Lord's  Supper  as  necessary  to  God's  grace  in 
the  hour  of  death,  which  caused  trouble  and  anguish 
to  many  who  were  debarred  from  being  partakers 
thereof.  He  wished  also  that  the  absolution  of  sins 
should  be  proclaimed  by  the  priest  only  in  the  fol- 
lowing way  :  "  In  virtue  of  the  power  which  Christ 
hath  bestowed  upon  his  church,  and  pursuant  to 
thy  confession  of  sins,  I  proclaim  to  thee  in  the 
name  of  God,  ivho  alone  forgireth  sins,  forgive- 
ness of  thy  sins  and  the  grace  of  God."  He  de- 
fended, thirdly,  the  use  of  reason  and  pliilosophy 
in  theology.  In  the  "  Answer  of  the  high  and  mighty 
prince  and  lord,  Charles,  &c.,  to  the  Book  of  Proofs, 
wliich    Master  Olave,  archbishop  of  Upsala,  with 

*  Christian  order  and  method,  how  in  the  court-chapel  of 
the  high-born  prince  and  lord,  Charles,  by  God's  grace 
reigning  prince  hereditary  of  the  realm  of  Sweden,  &c. 
worship  shall  he  performed.     Stockholm,  1604. 

'  Naghra  nyttigha  andheliga  Lotfsanger  och  Wijser. 
(Divers  profitable  spiritual  Songs  and  Lays.)  Stockholm, 
1601.  Compare  Sundel  (Afhandling,  &c.)>  Treatise  on  the 
books  and  writings,  printed  and  unpriuted,  which  have  been 
composed  in  Sweden  by  royal  personages  ;  Academical  Trans- 
actions, V.  ix.  Charles'  psalms  are  copied  in  the  Palmskiild 
Collections ;  among  them  is  one  in  German  by  his  first  wife. 

7  L.  c.  Acta  ad  Hist.  Reg.  Caroli  IX.  t.  ii.  105. 

8  Catechism,  or  right  Christian  Knowledge  of  the  most 
necessary  Articles,  Head-points,  and  Parts  of  our  Christian 
Faith,  collected  for  the  simple  Christian  from  the  right 
ground  and  understanding  of  Holy  Scripture.     (Catechismus 


sundry  others  of  the  bishops  and  clergy  hath  pro- 
mulged,"  he  shows  from  the  words  of  Scripture  the 
duty  and  right  of  men  in  this  respect.  "  Christ 
saith,  Search  the  Scriptures  ;  as  also  king  David  in 
the  32d  Psalm,  Be  ye  not  as  horses  and  mules, 
which  have  no  understanding;  also  in  Colossians  iii.. 
Let  the  word  of  Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  in  all 
wisdom.  So  too  the  holy  Scriiiture  elsewhere, 
1  Timothy  iii.,  ordaineth  that  a  preacher  shall  be 
competent  to  give  instruction.  How  can  he  be 
that,  if  he  be  not  gifted  with  reason  and  wisdom  ? 
We  see  also  iu  holy  Scripture,  especially  in  the 
Psalms  and  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  how  noble 
a  use  is  made  both  of  definitions  and  divisions,  syl- 
logisms and  method.  Thei'efore  Augustine  (lib.  i. 
contra  Crescenthtm)  extolleth  the  Apostle  Paul  here- 
in; yea,  he  saith  also,  that  Christ  employed  the  art 
of  reasoning  in  his  disputations.  Now  if  all  these 
have  employed  reason  in  things  divine,  so  likewise 
may  we  well  do,  so  far  as  reason  reaches  in  things 
divine,  and  as  it  is  revealed  in  God's  word.  And  it 
helps  nothing  that  the  archbishop  will  allege  this 
instance  and  say,  that  God's  true  knowledge  cometh 
from  heaven,  wherefore  men  cannot  attain  there- 
unto by  any  industry  or  art.  To  which  we  answer, 
that  the  subordinates  {subordinata)  are  not  repug- 
nant to  one  another.  True  it  is,  that  knowledge  of 
Scripture  and  God  cometh  from  heaven;  but  there- 
on must  be  remarked,  that  this  imderstanding  and 
knowledge  of  God  is  given  to  man  either  imme- 
diately, without  any  means,  or  mediately,  with 
means.  Immediately  the  apostles  had  knowledge 
of  God;  but  now  is  God's  true  knowledge  and  tlie 
right  understanding  of  Scripture  only  mediately 
im]>arted  to  us,  and  therefore  need  we  tlie  arts 
which  guide  us  thereto.  Hence  we  may  learn, 
that  reason  doth  not  oppugn  faith,  if  it  be  rightly 
used,  and  have  holy  Scripture  on  its  siile.  And  we 
cannot  so  generally  exclude  it  from  things  divine 
as  the  archbishop  doth." 

He  that  knows  Charles  will  not  be  inclined  to 
doubt  that  the  book  in  its  principal  contents  is  his 
own.  Of  the  learned  sons  of  Gustavus  he  had  been 
the  best  grounded  in  his  studies;  in  acuteness  of 
intellect  he  excelled  them  all,  as  well  as  the  crowd 
of  his  contemporaries.  Yet  we  would  not  rob  the 
archbishop  of  the  praise  that  is  his  due.  He  dared 
to  raise  his  voice  for  his  convictions  against  a  king, 
and  that  king  Charles  IX.  Olave  Martinson  en- 
joyed great  consideration,  and  was  indefatigable  in 
his  calling.  If  not  hindered  by  other  labours,  he 
preached  almost  every  Suud.ay  in  the  cathedral  of 
Upsala,  and  besides  read  lessons  from  the  Bible  for 
the  young  students  * 

heller  ratt  Christelig  kannedom  om  vare  Christelige  troos 
Nodtorftigeste  Artikler,  Hufvudpunkter  och  Stycker,  af  den 
Heliga  Skrifts  ratta  grund  och  fbrstand  sammandragen  for 
the  enfaldige  Christne.)     Stockholm,  1604. 

9  He  had  printed  in  1604,  "Sundry  particular  Proofs  ex- 
tracted from  the  writings  of  the  old  Doctors  of  the  Church, 
and  of  Luther  and  Mclancthon,  upon  the  personal  union 
which  exists  in  the  two  natures  of  our  Lord  .Tesus  Christ,  as 
also  upon  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  &c."  The  archbishop 
published  against  this,  "Proof  that  the  Opini(ms,  &c.  re- 
specting the  union  of  the  natures  in  Christ  by  no  means 
authorize  the  tenets  of  the  Calvinists  upon  the  person  of 
Christ  and  the  Lord's  Supper;"  whereupon  Charles  in  1600 
replied  by  the  book  of  which  extracts  are  quoted  in  the 
text. 

'  Baazius,  Invent.  Ecel.  Suiog.  615. 


1611.] 


Projects  of  religious  union. 
Charges  against  tlie  clergy. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Correspondence  with  the 
Universiiy  of  Upsala. 


203 


Charles  spent  a  great  portion  of  his  life  in  at- 
tempts to  unite  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Con- 
fessions 2,  without  however  approving  all  the  posi- 
tions of  Calvin,  as  for  example  the  doctrine  of 
unconditional  election.  Public  disputations  on  this 
subject  were  several  times  held,  as  in  l(i0'2  with  his 
chaplain  Micronius,  and  1G08  with  John  Forbes, 
a  Scottish  literate,  both  of  whom  he  had  called  into 
the  kingdom.  To  the  clergy  he  administered  more 
than  one  blunt  reproof.  The  archbishop  had  been 
among  the  plenipotentiai'ies  vi'ho  had  discussed  with 
the  people  the  aids  for  the  war  granted  at  the  diet 
of  1602,  but  had  received  "a  downright  adverse 
answer"  in  the  diocese  of  Westeras.  Charles  writes 
to  him:  "that  the  cause  lay  in  the  clergy  and  other 
knaves  who  roamed  about  the  country  ;  that  the 
clergy  would  not  pray  for  the  realm's  arms  in  this 
war,  which  yet  was  undertaken  on  account  of  re- 
ligion, not  to  speak  of  rendering  other  help;  the 
archbishop  should  call  upon  them  to  instruct  the 
people  rightly  as  to  the  condition  of  the  present 
time;  for  if  they  would  not  pray  for  the  army  of 
the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  they  should  be  deprived  of 
their  calling  and  offices,  and  receive  no  sustenance 
from  the  crown."  Another  letter  of  the  following 
year  has  this  passage:  "Because  we  see  that  your 
views  are  only  bent  upon  this,  by  the  name  of 
the  doctrines  of  faith  to  have  wives,  and  keep 
Christmas  and  holidays,  we  will  for  our  person  dis- 
miss this  religion,  reconcile  ourselves  with  the  king 
of  Poland,  and  set  ourselves  down  at  home  to  the 
same  repose  as  you.  If  then  it  seem  advisable  to 
you,  ye  may  yourselves  march  out  against  the 
enemy  with  your  priests."  "  We  have  to  thank  the 
clergy  for  little,"  he  writes  to  the  council  in  1(>04, 
"  the  most  part  have  not  long  ago  fallen  off  from 
the  Augsburg  confession.  Trust  not  to  the  sted- 
fastness  of  the  clergy,  for  when  need  came  upon  us 
they  hung  the  mantle  on  both  shoulders,  and  re- 
turned to  their  vomit  again."  In  the  same  year  he 
issued  to  the  collective  body  of  the  people  a  decla- 
ration regarding  his  whole  conduct  in  matters  of 
religion  since  the  times  of  the  liturgy,  intimating 
that  he  had  been  at  length  compelled  to  publish  a 
defence  against  the  inculpations  of  the  archbishop, 
whence  every  honourable  and  intelligent  Christian 
might  judge  tliat  great  wi-ong  had  been  done  to 
him. 

The  University  of  Upsala,  wliich  held  with  the 
archbishop  in  questions  of  belief,  now  also  shared 
his  disfavoui",  and  sharp  answers  followed  solicita- 
tions addressed  to  him  by  more  than  one  teacher. 
To  a  suggestion  for  the  improvement  of  the  schools 
and  academy  the  answer  was,  that  "  order  had  been 

2  In  the  Palmsktild  Collections  is  a  copy  of  a  German 
letter,  undated,  from  the  king  to  a  master  Joachim,  con- 
cerning this  scheme,  in  which  it  is  said,  "  This  might  easily 
be  accomplished,  if  a  Christian  council  might  be  held,  and 
God's  word  be  judge  therein,  and  not  doctor  Luther's  con- 
troversy-books." 

^  The  extracts  quoted  are  from  the  registers  for  the  above- 
named  years. 

■•  Ordinances  concerning  the  just  levy  of  the  tithe,  1602 
and  16U7,  and  in  the  latter  year  a  renewal  of  that  regarding 
the  erection  of  manses.  To  the  former  purpose  tithe  proc- 
tors were  appointed.  Charles  also  established  the  year  of 
grace  for  ministers'  widows.  The  king's  proposal  to  the 
clergy,  Dec.  15,  1604  (Reg  ),  to  be  freed  from  all  public  taxes 
and  imposts  and  purveyance,  for  the  relinquishment  of  their 
arrears  and  the  cession  of  their  farm-yards,  seems  to  have 
had  no  results. 


taken  for  it ;  it  remained  to  know  whether  they 
could  be  improved;" — to  a  request  that  their  privi- 
leges might  be  conserved  to  them  :  "  if  they  mean 
those  which  we  subscribed  with  the  council  we  will 
not  allow  it,  but  they  shall  rather  surrender  them; 
then  we  will  grant  them  such  liberties  as  other 
evangelical  academies,  yet  after  the  circumstances 
of  this  country;" — to  a  request  that  a  Latin  printer 
should  be  sent:  "he  whom  they  have  to  print  Swe- 
dish and  German  may  print  Latin  for  them  too  ;" — 
to  a  representation,  whether  the  professors,  for 
whom  neither  lands  nor  prebends  were  set  apart, 
might  not  expect  such :  "  certainly  not,  but  the 
teachers  shall  attend  to  their  office  in  the  town, 
letting  the  priests  mind  theirs  in  the  country,  and 
the  peasant  his  plough."  Lastly,  to  a  petition  that 
the  number  of  the  professorships  might  be  com- 
pleted it  was  replied,  "  If  we  might  get  any  capable; 
but  he  that  has  no  falcons  must  go  a-hawking  with 
owls^."  In  the  midst  of  such  rebuffs  the  profes- 
sors were  surprised  witli  an  extraordinary  mark  of 
confidence.  In  the  year  1605  Charles  despatched 
John  Goranson  Rosenhane  and  John  Skytt^,  now 
tutors  to  the  young  Gustavus  Adolphus,  to  learn 
their  opinions  upon  a  proposal  of  reconciliation 
with  the  king  of  Poland,  "  because  in  all  lands  and 
realms  it  is  the  usage,  that  men  should  take  coun- 
sel of  highly-learned  academies,  as  well  in  secular 
as  spiritual  affairs."  The  professors  deemed  it  im- 
possible to  give  their  assent  to  a  proposal  so  little 
suitable,  the  same  with  which  Charles,  in  a  moment 
of  ill  humour,  had  lately  tempted  the  comicil  of 
state.  The  end  of  the  negotiations  was  for  them 
less  agreeable.  For  thereafter  followed  a  query, 
in  what  manner  the  professors  and  capitulars,  as 
they  did  not  assent  to  the  peace,  would  contribute 
to  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war ;  the  baron- 
age, towns,  and  commonalty  of  Upland  had  granted 
a  levy  of  every  tenth  man,  from  the  age  of  sixteen 
to  sixty;  if  the  professors  would  give  their  help  in 
this  or  any  other  fashion  for  the  continuance  of  the 
war,  they  might  malce  it  known  to  the  lords  com- 
missioiiers. 

Notwithstanding  this,  Charles  acted  in  all  these 
contestations  with  real,  and  if  we  consider  his  vehe- 
ment temper  and  the  manners  of  the  time,  with 
wonderful  moderation.  He  exchanged  controversial 
treatises  with  the  archbishop,  but  he  was  no  per- 
secutor. He  chastised  the  clergy  with  words  ; 
occasionally  too  he  deprived  a  priest  for  violent 
sermons;  but  he  was  scinipulous  as  to  their  rights, 
and  to  this  prince  are  they  indebted  for  a  legal  de- 
termination of  their  revenues,  as  well  in  Sweden  as 
Finland  *.  He  interested  himself  in  various  ways 
in  academical  concerns.  Upsala  received  from  him 
John   Messenius  *   and   John   Rudbeck,   the   first 

'  The  historian.  He  was,  in  1609,  the  first  professor  of 
law  and  politics  (juris  et  politices  professor).  In  1605  we 
find  this  entry,  "  As  of  the  several  professorships  resolved 
upon  in  1593  four  were  still  to  be  founded,  in  politics,  the 
medical  faculty,  and  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  languages,  his 
majesty  is  prayed  to  ordain  professors,  when  any  competent 
present  themselves."  Reg.  Charles  at  first  regarded  Mes- 
senius with  suspicion  :  "  Here  is  come,"  he  writes  to  duke 
John,  Nov.  23,  1608,  "  one  that  calls  himself  doctor  Messenius, 
and  declares  he  was  born  in  Vadstena,  and  carried  away  when 
a  child  by  the  Papists,  and  reared  in  their  schools  in  Germany 
and  Italy,  and  solicits  permission  to  go  to  Vadstena  to  ask 
after  his  parents  and  relatives,  whom  in  sixteen  years  he  hath 
not  seen ;"  and  bids  the  duke  "be  wary  of  him,  since  he  is 
suspect,  and  seeks  perchance  to  insinuate  himself."    Reg. 


204 


Charles  accepts  the 
crown. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Arrangements  for  the 
public  defence. 


[1599— 


distinguished  teachers  who  infused  a  new  life  into 
the  studies  of  the  place,  although  their  dissensions 
excited  no  small  turmoil.  The  university  in  fact 
obtained  its  privileges,  though  not  by  formal  chai'ter. 
The  college  founded  by  Charles  was  augmented  so 
as  to  receive  one  hundi-ed  students'",  and  the 
academy  obtained  the  right  of  electing  "  a  political 
personage  as  chancellor'."  In  the  main  question 
too  he  at  last  yielded,  and  the  Augsburg  confession, 
with  the  act  of  the  council  of  Upsala  founded  there- 
upon, was  confirmed  in  his  royal  Assurance,  given 
at  Upsala  the  27th  of  March,  1C07. 

In  the  year  1()04  he  had  at  length,  upon  the 
often  repeated  solicitation  of  the  estates,  accepted 
the  crown*,  after  they  had  first,  at  his  request, 
offered  it  to  duke  J(jhn,  who  declined  it.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  acknowledged  Crown-prince,  and  his 
younger  brother  Charles  Philip'-'  hereditary  prince 
of  the  kingdom.  In  default  of  male  heirs  of  his 
body,  or  of  duke  John,  the  succession  was  to  pass 
to  the  eldest  unmarried  jirincess.  This  was  the 
hereditary  settlement  of  Norrkojiing,  by  which  the 
hereditaiy  right  of  the  line  of  Gustavus  Vasa  was 
finally  transferred  to  Charles  and  his  descendants. 
Howbeit,  Charles  was  not  yet  tranquil,  nor  ever 
was.  Many  ciixumstances,  the  delay  of  the  coun- 
cil in  not  di'awing  up  the  final  letter  of  renuncia- 
tion to  Sigismund ',  the  treason  of  1C05,  the  attempt 
at  assassination  in  the  following  year  by  Peter 
Petrosa,  a  concealed  Papist  in  the  service  of 
Charles  2,  generated  in  his  mind  impatience,  bitter- 
ness, and  unsteadiness  of  purpose.  In  the  very 
same  year  in  which  he  assumed  the  title  of  king, 
we  find  him  making  a  proposal  to  the  council  to 
abdicate  the  government,  and  grant  freedom  of  re- 
ligion, even  to  the  Catholics',  throughout  the  whole 
kingdom,  excepting  the  duchy,  which  together  with 
Livonia  he  wished  to  retain;  and  in  160G,  when  the 
estates  were  again  assembled  to  consider  of  his 
coronation,  he  anew,  accoi'ding  to  his  own  written 
notes,  renounced  the  government,  and  committed  it 
to  duke  John*.  In  the  year  1607  his  coronation 
was  solemnized  with  pomp  at  Upsala;  and  in  1608 

s  Every  student  in  it  was  to  pay  one  mark,  or  as  after- 
wards fixed,  half  a  mark  in  the  week,  and  Charles  aided  the 
foundation  with  a  sum  of  5000  dollars.  Ordinance  for  the 
College,  Reg.  1G04.  The  king  promised  also  to  supply  the 
amount,  when  any  good  wits  were  pointed  out  to  him  who 
could  not  pay. 

'  In  1604  the  university  solicited  Gustavus  Adolphus  for 
the  chancellor,  to  which  Charles  replied  that  he  was  still  too 
young.  In  ICOG  the  king  proposes  three  persons  for  their 
choice,  count  Abraham  Brahe,  the  councillor  Ludbert  Kauer, 
and  the  lord  John  Goranson  Rosenhane.  Peg.  The  first- 
named  was  the  first  chancellor  of  the  university. 

8  He  styles  himself  elected  king  and  hereditary  prince  of 
the  Swedes,  Goths,  and  Vandals. 

9  Born  at  Reval,  April  22,  IfiOl.  Duke  of  Sudermania, 
Nerike,  and  Vermeland,  June  12,  1610. 

'  Emitted  in  the  name  of  the  estates,  June  17,  1605. 

2  He  was  a  Swede  by  birth,  but  educated  abroad  and  em- 
ployed on  embassies.  "  Hunc  rex  Carolus  toleravit  aliquam- 
diu  in  aula  sua.  Prodidit  autem  ingenium'fallax,  dum 
arrepta  occasione  solitarium  regem  crudelissimo  ausu  perfo- 
dere  tentavit.  Quo  cognito  rex  eum  carceri  custodiendum 
tradidit,  qui  postea  in  comitiis  ffirebroensibus  (1606)  exami- 
nalus,  proditionis  convictus  et  condemnatus  est,  gravibusque 
lornientis  cruciatus,  scilicet  fractis  cruribus  et  brachiis, 
tandem  cor  vivo  extraxit  carnifex  "  Baazius,  1.  c.  662. 
(Him  king  Charles  sometimes  allowed  to  be  at  his  court,  but 
he  showed  a  fal.se  spirit,  for  watching  his  opportunity,  he 


he  made  known  his  purpose,  after  the  old  fashion  to 
ride  his  Eric's-gait,  or  as  the  Law-Book  says,  ride 
round  his  land  *,  which  came  to  pass  in  the  follow- 
ing year.  Accounts  of  the  progress  of  the  Poles  iu 
Livonia  and  Russia  interrupted  this  journey  before 
it  could  be  completed. 

The  war  demanded  an  increase  of  the  public 
burdens,  and  the  kingdom  needed  the  relief  it 
received  by  several  good  and  fruitful  years  fol- 
lowing 1604  ^.  At  the  diet  of  Norrkoping  the 
estates  engaged  to  raise  and  furnish  monthly  pay 
for  nine  thousand  men  on  horse  and  foot,  besides 
the  force  which  could  be  maintained  from  the  ordi- 
nary revenue.  Orders  issued  a  short  time  before 
are  preserved  in  the  state  registries,  for  the  forma- 
tion of  a  land  guard  (landtvarn),  or  militia  for 
home-service,  "seeing  we  with  the  troops,"  says 
the  king,  "  are  employed  abroad  against  the  enc- 
my '."  Those  called  upon  for  this  duty  were  to 
enjoy  certain  exemptions  from  taxes,  and  to  be 
free  from  burdens  of  purveyance  (gastning)  and 
post-service,  which  are  said  by  the  diet  of  Norrko- 
ping in  their  statute  to  be  "  more  grievous  to  tlie 
peasant  than  all  his  yearly  payments;"  on  which 
account  Eric  XIV.'s  ordinance  for  the  erection  of 
public  houses  of  entertainment  was  again  revived. 
It  has  been  already  remarked  that  from  the  time  of 
Gustavus  I.  there  was  a  species  of  cavalry  distri- 
buted and  maintained  upon  the  estates  of  the 
crown.  Charles  regulated  this  institution,  dis- 
missed the  unserviceable  trooper.s,  fixed  the  number 
to  every  standard  (one  hundred  and  twenty  under 
each),  the  revenues  allotted  to  them  in  peace,  their 
pay  and  equipments  in  war-time.  Every  house- 
liold-man  or  trooper  with  his  standard  was  to  have 
a  good  and  sufficient  horse,  a  shot-proof  harness, 
two  short  and  two  long  guns,  a  good  rapier,  good 
saddle  and  gear  *.  This  cavalry  of  the  crown  was 
tlie  best  proof  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  so  much 
contested  horse-service  of  the  nobles.  Charles  like- 
wise agreed  with  the  nobility  in  1604,  that  in  con- 
sideration of  their  sharing  in  the  aids  for  the  war, 
granted  by  the  other  estates,  they  should  be  ex- 
made  an  atrocious  attempt  to  stab  the  king,  while  alone. 
Finding  this,  the  king  consigned  him  to  prison,  and  being 
afterwards  tried  at  the  diet  of  Orebro  in  1606,  he  was  con- 
victed of  treason  and  condemned.  He  was  subjected  to  the 
most  painful  tortures ;  his  legs  and  arms  being  broken,  and 
his  heart,  while  he  was  alive,  torn  out  by  the  executioner.) 

3  To  the  council,  auent  proposals  of  peace  with  Poland. 
Reg.  for  1604. 

"  "  The  22d  March,  160C,  I  laid  down  the  government, 
and  committed  it  to  my  nephew,  duke  John.  April  1 — 9. 
All  these  days  proceeded  the  trial  anent  the  Papists  and  the 
business  of  their  treason :  also  letters  were  exchanged  be- 
tween myself  and  duke  John  and  the  estates,  and  they  urged 
that  I  should  remain  in  the  government.  But  I  wished 
rather  to  be  rid  of  it,  by  reason  of  their  unsteadiness;  for 
they  scarcely  keep  what  they  have  promised."  King  Charles 
IX. 's  Calendar,  1604 — 1606.  Miscellanea,  t.  ii.  in  the  Library 
of  Sko  Cloister. 

5  To  all  the  provinces,  anent  the  Eric's-gait.  Nykoping, 
May  17,  1608.     Reg. 

^  These  appear  to  have  been  general.  The  same  is  related 
of  Russia  and  France. 

7  Warrant  for  Andrew  Styfvert,  Linkoping,  Jan.  25,  1604, 
relating  to  East-Gothland.  Probably  the  project,  of  which 
no  mention  is  made  at  the  diet  of  Norrkoping,  was  not 
carried  into  effect.     (Landtvarn,  landweir.) 

8  Ordinance,  how  the  cavalry  shall  henceforth  he  main- 
tained.    Calmar,  Oct.  24,  1603.     Compare  Werwing,  ii.  94. 


I    IRII.] 


Tlie  king's  relations  with 
the  nobility. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Projects  for  amending 

the  laws. 


205 


empted  from  the  horse-service  for  two  years  *.  By 
the  proffer,  repeated  sevei'al  times  afterwards,  of 
abolishing  the  horse  service  for  ever,  if  tlie  peasants 
of  the  nobles  might  be  assessed  in  like  amounts  with 
those  of  the  crown,  tlie  king  shook  the  very  founda- 
tion (if  the  privileges  of  nobility,  and  hence  it  was 
constantly  rejected.  The  king,  on  the  other  hand, 
offered  freeholds  of  nobility  to  all  unnoble  pei'sons 
who  would  serve  with  their  own  furniture  on  horse 
or  foot,  and  thereby  make  manifest  that  "the  spirit 
of  the  Goths  was  not  yet  entirely  quenched  in  their 
hearts'."  He  never  confirmed  the  immunities  of 
the  nobility  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  order.  Among 
the  questionable  points  of  this  subject  was  that 
article  in  the  statute  of  the  diet  of  Norrkoeping, 
which  provided,  that  no  infeudations  of  estates  by 
the  king  should  be  valid,  unless  their  confirmation 
was  solicited  and  granted  on  the  accession  of  every 
new  sovereign.  Charles  replied  to  the  remonstrances 
of  the  nobility  against  this  enactment,  "tliat  whoso 
misliked  it  should  look  how  he  accepted  donations  ; 
they  were  forced  upon  no  man  ^."  Sundry  examples 
prove  that  the  nobles  regarded  law  and  justice  as 
not  binding  upon  themselves  '.  We  collect  the  re- 
maining features  of  the  domestic  administration  of 
Charles. 

At  the  diet  of  Stockholm  in  1566,  Eric  XIV. 
had  proposed,  and  the  estates  had  consented,  that 
the  Law  of  Sweden  should  be  printed,  with  the 
alteration,  that  the  article  respecting  election  to 
the  crown  slujuld  be  omitted.  This  resolution  was 
not  carried  into  efl"ect.  Meanwhile  the  confusion 
and  dissimilarity  of  the  extant  copies  occasioned 
great  inconveniences,  and  judgments  contradictory 
of  each  other  ;  wherefore  Charles  in  1593  referred 
it  to  the  council  to  take  order  "  that  no  man  should 

9  Aid  for  the  war  granted  by  the  knights  and  nobles, 
Norrkoeping,  March  22,  1604.  In  1602  a  similar  agreement 
had  been  concluded  for  one  year.  In  1608  the  nobility  en- 
gaged, instead  of  their  horse-service,  to  furnish  horses  for 
the  foreign  cavalry.  This  promise  was  not  fulfilled  to  the 
king's  satisfaction.  "  Ye  will  not  ride  yourselves,"  writes 
Charles,  "  nor  do  horse-service  according  to  the  law  ;  nor 
will  ye  help  by  finding  horses." 

1  In  1606.     Werwing,  ii.  135. 

2  Answer  to  the  memorial  anent  their  privileges,  presented 
by  the  nobility.  Jenkoeping,  March  31,  1609.  Reg.  The 
king  says  that  they  ought  to  be  content  with  the  privileges 
granted  to  them  at  Orebro  in  1608. 

3  Let  one  suffice  for  many.  In  the  Register  for  1604, 
under  the  2d  of  February,  the  following  singular  transaction 
appears.  Catharine  Hans'  daughter,  wife  of  ihe  minister  of 
Farasa,  gave  in  a  complaint,  that  having  sent  her  daughter 
Sigrid  to  the  lady  Ebba  Bielke  to  service,  and  wishing  to  get 
her  back,  especially  as  her  father  was  now  very  weak,  and 
the  girl  was  besides  not  willing  to  serve  any  longer,  lady 
Ebba  refused,  and  asserted  that  the  girl  had  been  given  to 
her  wholly  and  solely,  concluding  with  the  bishop  that  he 
should  deprive  the  minister,  and  threatening  his  family  that 
she  would  so  manage  with  her  relatives  and  friends  as 
they  should  not  thrive.  Therefore,  because  after  God  parents 
are  appointed  to  govern  their  children,  especially  while  they 
are  under  age,  and  it  is  not  to  be  suffered  among  Christian 
people  that  a  man  should  be  sold  like  an  irrational  beast ; 
and  no  such  serfdom  as  lady  Ebba  would  practise  had  been 
heard  of  among  (he  Swedes  since  the  coming  in  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  upon  these  grounds  the  maiden  must  be  restored. 

••  To  the  council  of  state,  Jan.  14,  1593.  Points  for  the 
commonalty  and  for  the  council  of  state,  Oct.  4,  1595. 
Reg. 

5  Charles  himself  composed  "  Reflections  upon  the  Law  of 
Marriages  (Betankande  om   Giftersmal   Balken),  how  the 


have  license  to  write  a  law-book,  unless  he  had  it 
in  charge  from  the  government,  and  the  same  were 
i-evised  by  the  council  of  state;"'  and  in  1595,  to  the 
estates  at  the  diet  of  Soderkoeping,  "  that  the  law 
should  be  examined  and  amended  *."  A  resolution  to 
that  effect  was  passed  by  the  estates  in  1602,  who, 
with  the  king's  consent,  appointed  divers  noblemen 
in  1604  to  undertake  the  matter.  A  code  was  pre- 
pared and  submitted  for  consideration,  but  with 
its  tendency  Charles  was  far  from  being  content,  as 
regarded  the  power  therein  assigned  to  the  council 
of  state;  for  it  was  declared  that  he  "must  follow 
and  obey  "  its  guidance  in  what  they  might  find  to 
be  profitable  for  the  king  and  the  realm.  He  had 
therefore  himself,  with  the  co-operation  of  other  fit 
persons,  drawn  up  another  code  *,  which,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  not  very  agreeable  to  the  nobility 
on  account  of  several  of  its  provisions,  especially 
that  declaring,  that  "  every  nobleman  who  did 
not  educate  his  son,  so  that  he  might  acquii'e  the 
learned  ai'ts,  or  be  available  for  military  service, 
should  forfeit  his  standing  as  noble."  At  the  diet 
of  IG09,  where  the  king  caused  his  code  to  be 
read,  it  was  on  these  grounds  rejected,  while  the 
other  was  not  adopted  ".  It  was  not  until  1734  that 
the  kingdom  obtained  an  amended  law-book.  Be- 
tween that  which  Charles  IX.  tried  to  pass,  and 
that  which  was  at  length  accepted,  lies  an  interval 
of  an  hundred  and  twenty-five  years,  and  Sweden's 
career  of  conquest  begun  and  ended  '. 

In  the  administration  of  the  law  great  disorders 
prevailed.  The  ancient  custom  of  self-vengeance 
was  yet  far  from  being  abolished.  Two  letters  of 
Gustavus  I.  are  still  preserved,  wherein  he,  on  ac- 
count of  special  circumstances,  entreats  pardon  for 
homicides  from  the  kinsmen  of  tlie  slain  persons  ^, 

same  may  be  fitly  arranged,"  which  are  in  the  Palmskbld 
Collections.     Acta  ad  Hist   Caroli.  IX.  t.  ii.  151. 

6  We  refer,  in  respect  to  the  fact  intimated  indeed  by 
Messenius,  but  hitherto  not  ascertained,  of  a  twofold  code 
at  the  diet  of  1G09,  to  the  prize  essay  in  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Science,  History,  and  Antiquities,  by  Hans  Jiirta:  Essay 
at  a  view  of  the  Swedish  Jurisprudence  from  the  accession 
of  king  Gustavus  I.  to  the  end  of  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
which,  although  not  printed,  the  writer  had  the  goodness  to 
communicate  to  us. 

'  Before  the  two  above-mentioned  new  codes  had  been 
proposed  to  the  estates  and  rejected  by  them,  Charles  had 
begun  to  publish  a  printed  version  of  the  ancient  laws  of 
Sweden.  The  laws  of  Upland  and  Eastgothland  were  printed 
in  1607,  that  of  Helsingland  in  1609.  Then  king  Christo- 
pher's general  Land's  Law  was  printed,  which  the  king,  for 
every  man's  information,  confirmed,  Dec.  20,  1008,  with  the 
exception  of  the  church  section,  whicli,  as  originating  from 
Catholic  times,  was  to  be  used  in  no  court  before  it  had  been 
revised  and  amended,  and  the  article  regarding  the  election 
to  the  crown  in  the  king's  section,  since  Sweden  had  become 
a  hereditary  monarchy. 

8  "  It  is  our  royal  prayer  to  you,  that  ye  will  for  God's 
sake  grace  him  with  life,  for  a  fair  and  just  man-bote. 
Where  we  again,  in  like  cases  of  mercy  or  otherwise  can 
hear  your  petitions,  and  it  may  be  for  your  service  and  profit, 
we  will  gladly  do  so  as  a  gracious  sovereign."  This  was  to  a 
mother,  a  poor  wom;m  at  Salberg,  whose  son,  master  Eric  of 
Edby,  had  been  killed  by  his  chaplain.  The  letter  is  dated 
Temjiore  Bri^'ittEe,  1530,  and  quoted  by  Eric  Sparre  in  his 
Postulata  Nobilium.  Anotlier  examjile  is  offered  by  the 
Register  for  1545,  in  the  king's  letter  of  July  1,  to  mistress 
Catharine  and  Jens  Laurenceson  of  Orby,  mother  and  brother 
of  Eric  Laurenceson,  who  had  been  killed  in  the  parish  of 
Vaddce  by  three  brothers,  "more  out  of  mishap  than  pre 
conceived  will,  in  drink."  These  sued  for  the  legal  and  Chris- 


20G 


Correction  of  judicial 
abuses. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Regulation  of  the 
provincial  niagibtracy. 


[l.-iUfc— 


Civil  troubles  were  not  adapted  to  extinguish  such 
ideas.  As  we  liave  seen,  tlie  nobles  filled  all  judi- 
cial offices'.  The  institution  of  a  supreme  court 
by  Eric  XIV.  had  failed.  The  king's  court  was 
closed,  or  at  least  not  so  held  as  the  law  prescribed. 
At  the  diet  of  1600  complaint  was  made  that  the 
king's  Court  of  Error  (rattai-e-ting)  had  not  been 
held  within  the  memory  of  man.  To  Charles  IX. 
the  kingdom  owed  the  first  ordinance  for  the  con- 
duct of  trials^.  In  the  preamble  he  says,  that 
although  Sweden's  written  law  pointed  out  how 
proceedhigs  should  be  taken  in  suits,  as  he  had 
also  himself,  together  with  the  council,  directed  in 
1593  by  a  public  mandate,  confirmed  by  Sigismund, 
that  no  process  should  be  entertained  in  the  supe- 
rior courts  unless  it  had  been  first  investigated  by 
the  courts  of  the  hundred  and  the  justiciary,  and 
then  brought  by  appeal  before  the  king,  who  be- 
hoved to  elicit  the  whole  truth;  yet  such  regulation 
had  not  been  observed,  so  that  he  was  daily  over- 
whelmed with  endless  complaints,  which  had  never 
come  before  the  inferior  court.  The  chief  reason 
was,  that  the  lawmen  and  judges  of  the  hundred 
did  not  themselves  sit  in  their  courts,  but  appointed 
others  in  their  stead,  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  and  had  little  insight  in  the  law  ;  whence  it 
ensued,  that  many  unjust  judgments,  by  reason  of 
violence  and  corruption,  were  pronounced,  and 
many  heinous  offences  remained  unpunished,  whei'e- 
fore  God  visited  the  land  and  people  with  plagues 
of  all  sorts.  To  this  were  added  great  disorder 
and  CQjifusion  from  illegal  purchases  and  mort- 
gaging of  land,  generally  practised  in  the  kingdom, 
both  secretly  and  in  houses  of  entertainment. 
Therefore  it  was  commanded  that  all  lawmen  and 
judges  of  hundreds  should  themselves  sit  in  their 
courts,  especially  at  three  seasons  of  the  year  fixed 
by  law,  on  pain  of  forfeiture  of  their  office.  The 
causes  which  were  remitted  by  them  to  the  king, 
were  to  be  heard  every  year  at  the  fair  of  Disting 
iu  Upsala,  whereat  the  councillors  of  state,  the  law- 
men and  judges  of  hundreds  must  attend,  to  sit  in 
court  as  the  king's  naemnd,  upon  causes  brought 
before  them  by  appeal,  yet  not  upon  those  in  which 
they  had  themselves  previously  given  judgment. 
There  must  all  the  doom-books  of  the  past  year  be 
delivered  up,  and  all  bargains,  exchanges,  mort- 
gages, and  redemptions  of  real  property,  after  they 
had  been  legally  called  or  investigated  in  the  hun- 
dred court,  be  promulgated  and  enrolled  in  the 
"  minute-book  of  the  i-ealm,"  with  other  provisions 

tian  bote  (which  was  120  ortugs,  less  than  a  rixdoUar) ;  but 
the  kindred  stubbornly  refused,  and  wished  without  fur- 
ther parley  to  break  their  necks,  or  eject  their  father  from 
the  land  which  he  held.  "  Therefore  is  it  our  will  and  advice, 
that  ye  with  all  your  kin  should  so  arrange  it,  that  ye  be  re- 
conciled, and  satisfy  yourselves  with  reasonable  and  moderate 
botes,  that  there  may  be  good  understanding  and  agreement 
between  your  kin  and  theirs.  VVliereto  we  exhort  you  in  the 
best  meaning."  A  sentence  of  Gustavus  1.  at  Calmar  the 
Thursday  after  Lady  day  of  1532,  is  also  illustrative  of  this 
subject.  Jon  Germundson  and  his  heirs  brought  a  suit 
against  Peter  Paulson  and  his  accomplices,  for  a  murder 
which  he  with  five  others  had  perpetrated  a  year  before 
upon  Jon  Gerniundson's  brother,  whom  he,  without  any 
cause,  had  shot  like  a  dog.  Peter  Paulson's  proxy  contended 
that  the  deed  had  been  lawful,  because  the  deceased  had 
some  years  before  slain  a  kinsman  of  the  accused,  and  wished 
to  have  counted  life  for  life.  It  was  proved  that  this  kinsman 
was  only  wounded,  not  killed,  wherefore  sentence  was  passed 
that  wound-botes  should  be  paid  for  this,  but  that  Jon  Ger- 


of  the  like  nature.  In  the  mandate  of  December  4> 
1602,  it  was  ordained,  according  to  the  statute  of 
the  diet  of  Linkoeping  two  years  previously,  that 
two  such  royal  courts  should  be  held  yearly,  in 
Upsala  at  the  Disting,  and  in  Linkoeping  at  Peter- 
mass-tide.  In  his  letter  to  the  council  of  the  29th 
June,  1604,  the  king  orders  that  six  judges  of 
hundreds  should  come  to  the  court  to  adjudicate  in 
such  suits  of  law  as  might  occur,  who  should  be 
relieved  after  some  time  by  others  '.  The  troubles 
of  the  time?  prevented  these  attempts  to  regulate 
the  administration  of  the  law  from  being  per- 
manently efficacious.  But  thus  the  erection  of  the 
supreme  court  by  lung  Gustavus  Adolphus  was 
prepared. 

The  ordinance  issued  by  the  king  in  1C06,  con- 
cerning reeves,  bailiffs,  and  other  officers  ^,  must 
be  the  first  legal  regulation  of  the  inferior  pro- 
vincial administration,  as  Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
Charles  XI.  regulated  the  superior  by  the  office  of 
prefect  (landshofding).  The  reeve  (fogd)  is  to 
appoint  a  quarterman  (fierdingsman)  in  every 
parish,  and  a  bailiff  (lansraan)  in  every  hundred. 
The  quarterman  shall  collect  iia  the  manse  the 
taxes  of  the  parish  *,  and  deliver  the  proceeds  to  the 
bailiff  at  the  spot  where  the  hundi'ed-court  is  held, 
with  the  attestation  of  the  minister  as  to  the 
amount.  Then  the  bailiff  shall  deliver  the  sum 
collected  within  the  hundred  to  the  reeve,  with 
proper  attestations  of  his  receipts,  and  the  reeve 
shall  then  answer  with  his  account  for  their  fur- 
ther proceedings  ^.  Doubtless  these  relations  an- 
ciently subsisted,  and  were  here  more  precisely 
regulated,  though  the  adjunction  of  the  clergy  can 
hardly  be  older  than  the  Reformation.  Complaints 
have  been  made  among  ourselves  of  the  secular 
position  of  the  priesthood,  whereby  they  become  in 
so  many  resjjects  a  connecting  link  between  the 
government  and  the  people.  These  secular  occu- 
pations may  exceed  their  due  measure,  but  to 
them  this  order  mainly  owes  its  political  position 
in  Sweden. 

Charles,  fond  of  engro.ssiug  to  himself  the  man- 
agement of  business,  showed  the  same  turn  in  the 
regulation  of  trade.  On  occasion  of  a  dispute  be- 
tween the  burgesses  of  the  kingdom,  referred  to 
him  as  administrator,  he  drew  up  a  project  "for 
the  regulation  of  the  towns  of  this  realm  s,"  on 
which  was  founded  their  subsequent  division  into 
staple-towns  and  country-towns.  He  sets  out  with 
the  position  that  the  places  of  greatest  resort  and 

niundson  should  have  the  right  of  requiring  the  full  man- 
bote from  his  brother's  murderer.     Reg. 

'■>  The  salary  of  the  lawman  was  very  considerable.  Charles 
IX.  writes,  June  10, 160U,  to  Count  Axel  Leyonhufvud,  "  The 
salary  of  the  lawman  of  Westgothland,  with  the  cess  which 
you  caused  levy  against  the  will  of  those  in  the  jurisdiction, 
amounts  to  6000  dollars."     Reg. 

I  Ordinance  anent  processes.     Upsala,  Feb.  25,  1598. 

3  Register  for  1604. 

3  Ibid.     We  omitted  to  note  the  precise  date. 

■*  The  minister  of  every  parish  shall  state  the  number  of 
marriages.  Letter  of  May  20,  1609.  The  quartermen  ob- 
tained a  remission  of  one-half  the  yearly  taxes,  Nov.  7,  1607, 
as  respected  Gestricland  and  Dalecarlia. 

5  By  his  mandate  of  August  4,  1607,  the  king  forbids  the 
reeves  on  pain  of  death  to  mix  up  the  accounts  of  one 
year  with  those  of  another;  "which  they  so  often  do,  that 
their  thieveries  cannot  be  detected." 

6  Stjernman,  Commercial  and  Economical  Ordinances 
(Commerce-och  Economie-Fijrordningar),  i.  133. 


ICll.] 


Commercial  measures. 
Import  and  export  duties. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Mines  and  manufactories. 
Survey  of  the  country. 


207 


best  ti'affic  were  those  which  were  depositories  of 
foreign  goods  with  free  trade;  but  tliat  these  ad- 
vantages should  be  pre-eminently  enjoyed  by  those 
towns  which  were  adapted  thereto  )jy  situation  and 
other  circumstances.  Such  a  place  of  deposit  for 
the  Baltic,  after  the  fall  of  Wisby,  Stockholm  must 
become;  and  Charles,  when  king, augmented  its  pri- 
vileges. But  the  necessity  of  a  similar  staple  for 
the  trade  of  the  North  Sea  did  not  escape  him,  and 
Gottenburg,  the  second  town  of  the  kingdom,  was 
the  creation  of  Charles,  founded  by  Dutch  settlers, 
attracted  by  the  promise  of  the  free  exercise  of 
their  religion,  with  exemption  from  tolls  and  taxes 
for  twenty  years.  In  general  he  adopted  the  prin- 
ciple of  freedom  of  import  (with  the  exception  of 
foreign  strong  liquors,  on  which  an  excise  was 
raised),  "  in  order  that  our  subjects  may  have  the 
larger  traffic,  and  the  better  choice  of  foreign 
wares."  On  the  other  hand,  he  imposed  a  duty 
on  goods  exported.  In  1606  this  alsO  was  abolished, 
but  for  the  cojiservation  of  the  standard  of  coinage 
a  fixed  percentage  on  both  imports  and  exports 
was  to  be  paid  in  silver  to  the  crown,  yet  one-half 
less  by  native  merchants  '.  Upon  complaints  being 
made,  this  percentage  was  lowered,  and  appointed 
to  be  paid  in  Swedish  money,  according  to  a  fixed 
value*.  In  1605  the  king  allowed  free  coinage  for 
the  behoof  of  his  subjects,  so  that  whosoever  brought 
to  the  mint  four  rixdollars,  or  four  and  a  half  ounces 
of  silver,  should  receive  in  return  four  and  a  half 
dollars  Swedish  currency^.  In  the  preceding  year 
it  had  been  determined  that  half  an  ounce  of  silver 
should  pass  for  sixteen  ores,  and  a  rixdollar  for 
thirty-six'.  In  relation  to  weights  and  measures, 
it  was  ordered  that  the  balance  in  all  the  seaports 
of  the  kingdom  should  be  like  that  of  Stockholm, 
but  the  weight  of  the  country  towns  should  be  one 
lispund,  and  that  of  the  mines  two  lispunds  heavier. 
The  steelyard,  the  tun,  and  the  spanu  (half  tun,  or 
two  bushels),  were  to  be  adjusted  by  those  of 
Orebro,  and  the  ell  (two  feet)  by  that  of  Ryholm  ^. 

If  Gustavus  Vasa  be  the  father  of  the  Swedish 
mine-works,  Charles  trode  in  his  footsteps.  We 
have  already  seen  the  care  which  he  bestowed 
upon  those  of  his  duchy,  and  that  he  may  almost 

7  Ibid.  497.  499. 

8  Ordinance  of  Exchang;e  and  Customs,  1611,  1.  c. 
s  Patent  of  free  coinage,  Jan.  7,  1607,  1.  c. 

1  Statute  of  Noirlvoepins,  1604. 

2  Mandate  anent  the  ell,  weights,  and  measures.  Stock- 
liolm,  May  7,  1605.  Ryholm  is  a  manor-house  in  the  parish 
of  Beateberg,  Westgothlaiid. 

3  The  export  of  raw  iron,  however,  did  not  wholly  cease, 
but  was  placed  under  strict  superintendence. 

1  Charles,  in  a  letter  to  the  treasury,  Abo,  Dec.  13,  1601, 
bespeaks  a  large  quantity  of  similar  articles  from  the  above 
places:  SOOO  spears,  10,000  bills  with  long  Sjdints  towards 
the  handle,  the  short  firelocks  or  carabines  to  be  made  with 
spring-pans  and  snap-locks,  the  long  also  with  snap-locks. 
Re,L,'. 

5  Oct.  23,  1603,  Charles  paid  to  Laurence  Kruse,  burgher 
of  NykcEping,  for  articles  furnished  to  him,  72,000  dollars,  in 
orders  for  copper  from  the  Kopparberg,  raw  and  bar  iron 
from  Vermeland,  sulphur,  vitriol,  and  alum  from  Nerike. 
A  skeppund  of  copper  was  reckoned  at  45  dollars,  one  bar 
of  iron  at  6,  and  a  last  of  raw  iron  at  40.     Reg. 

6  We  have  mentioned  above  an  instance  in  which  France 
was  concerned.  Jan.  3,  1604,  Charles  sends  a  list  of  thain- 
shnt,  spring-balls  or  bombs,  and  canister-shot,  which  were 
to  be  prepared  for  his  own  account.     Reg. 

"  To  Jens  Hammersmith,  to  rei)air  to  Westeras,  and  con- 
struct a  biass-forge.     Stockholm,  Dec.  16,  1606.     Reg. 


be  called  the  creator  of  the  mining  districts  of 
Vermeland.  He  afterwards  applied  the  same  care 
to  the  behoof  of  the  whole  kingdom.  The  produce 
of  the  silver-mines  of  Sala  was  tripled  during  his 
reign,  and  those  of  copper  also  were  improved  by 
his  attention.  The  forging  of  bar  iron  may  be 
looked  upon  as  having  first  become  general  after 
the  ordinance  of  the  diet  of  Norrkoeping  in  1604, 
that  all  the  raw  ore  should  be  forged  into  bar  iron 
before  it  was  exported  from  the  kingdom,  on  which 
account  the  burgesses  of  the  towns  are  encouraged 
to  build  forges,  "  that  the  profits  which  foreigners 
have  derived  therefrom  may  accrue  to  Swedish 
subjects^."  There  were  manufactories  of  iron  at 
this  time  in  Arboga,  Nykoeping,  Eskilstuna,  and 
other  places,  where  all  sorts  of  arms,  spears,  pikes, 
short  and  long  firelocks,  swords  and  daggers  were 
constructed*;  nails  and  plates  were  also  among 
the  articles  of  export.  Alum  aud  sulphur  works 
were  in  operation  in  Nerike  ' ;  thei-e  were  also 
foundries  for  cannon  and  balls,  of  which  large 
quantities  were  supplied  to  foreign  parts  ".  Brass- 
works  were  founded  by  Charles  himself  7. 

The  new  survey  and  assessment  of  the  land  is 
also  one  of  the  works  of  the  father  which  was  con- 
tinued by  the  son.  Charles  IX.  extended  this  to 
the  northern  provinces  ^  Laud-measurers  were 
appointed  in  every  district,  and  from  the  maps 
prepared  by  each  a  general  chart  was  to  be  framed, 
a  work  confided  to  Andreas  Bureus,  who  completed 
it  after  the  king's  death  '■'.  The  measurements  were 
carried  up  into  Lappmark,  on  the  wild  mhabitants 
of  which  region  Charles  bestowed  especial  care, 
building  churches  and  appointing  bailiffs  among 
them,  administering  law  and  justice,  and  regulatmg 
their  tributes.  We  may  well  be  astonished  at  so 
great  activity  in  all  directions,  in  a  ruler  who  was 
unable  for  a  single  moment  to  lay  down  the 
arms  he  wielded  against  foreign  aud  domestic 
enemies. 

The  war  in  Livonia  continued  ;  and  in  1605 
Charles  proceeded  thither  for  the  second  time. 
Misled  by  his  ard(jur,  he  lost  against  a  weaker 
enemy  the  battle  of  Kerkholm,  fought  September 

8  Warrant  for  John  Carlson,  Stockholm,  August  9,  1604,  to 
undertake  a  ground-measurement  in  Gestricland,  Helsing- 
iand,  Medelpad,  Angermanland,  and  West  Bothnia,  as  it 
had  been  resolved  at  the  last  diet  at  Norrkoeping,  and  earlier 
at  Linkoeping,  that  a  royal  inquest  and  survey  should  be  set 
on  foot  over  the  whole  kingdom;  wherefore  he  with  the 
bailitfs  was  not  only  to  make  the  assessment,  but  to  assist 
every  man  to  law  and  justice.  Reg.  A  special  survey  for 
Dalecarlia  was  ordered,  Feb.  3,  1005,  on  which  the  king's 
letter  says :  "  We  have  heard  that  ye  have  anciently  had 
the  usage  of  measuring  your  fields  with  poles.  The  pole  has 
been  of  six  ells  and  a  quarter  (12  ft.  6  In.),  and  a  tun-land  in 
length  and  breadth  a  hundred  and  eighty  poles.  And  as  ye 
request  to  know  how  many  tuns  of  seed-corn  should  be 
reckoned  to  a  grange  which  pays  the  full  tax,  we  have  made 
order,  after  the  best  possible  trial  of  the  quality  of  the  land, 
that  ei,'ht  tuns  of  seed-corn,  or  eight  tuns-land,  should  be 
reckoned  to  such  a  grange.  Where  the  ground  is  inferior 
an  allowance  of  some  poles  shall  be  made."     Reg. 

9  Fant,  Prelections  on  Swedish  History  (Fbrelasningar  i 
Svenska  Historien).  The  king  in  1600  sent  Sigfrid  Aron 
Forsius  and  Hieronymus  Birkholz  to  Lappmark,  with  instru- 
ments, with  which  they  attempted  to  determine  the  latitude 
of  certain  places.  The  map  of  Sweden  by  Bureus,  (the  earliest 
of  domestic  production,)  was  published  at  Stockholm  in  1626, 
engraved  in  copper  on  six  folio  sheets,  with  a  short  geogra- 
phical description.  All  the  maps  of  the  country  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  are  copies  from  this. 


208 


War  in  Livonia. 
Revolutions  of  Russia. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Disputes  with  Denmark. 
Invasion  by  Ciiristian  IV. 


[l.')99- 


17tli,  where  a  Livonian  nobleman,  Henry  Wrede, 
saved  the  king's  life  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  own'. 
A  revolt  in  Poland  hindered  Sigismund  from  de- 
riving atiy  advantage  from  his  victoi-y.  Negotiations 
were  begun,  but  broken  off  through  a  misunder- 
standing 2,  and  ended  with  enhanced  exasperation. 
The  war  was  prosecuted  by  the  Swedes  with  re- 
newed exertion.s,  often  unsuccessfully,  but  dis- 
tinguished by  individual  strokes  of  the  highest 
chivalrous  valour,  which  forespoke  the  brilliant 
days  of  Swedisli  military  glory.  "  God  is  my  wit- 
ness,"— so  Nicholas  Stiernskold,  long  besieged  in 
Dunamunde,  made  answer  in  1609,  when  the 
Polish  general  Chodkewitz  threatened  to  revenge 
his  resistance  on  his  captive  wife  and  her  children, 
— "that  I  would  willingly  offer  up  my  life  for  theirs; 
but  they  belong  to  me,  and  the  fortress  belongs 
to  my  king^." 

In  Russin,  about  the  same  time,  the  so-called 
false  Demetrius  had  mounted  the  throne  by  Polish 
assistance,  and  shortly  lost  again  his  crown  and 
life.  Wassily  Schuisky  sought  the  help  of  Sweden 
against  the  Poles  and  the  faction  of  Demetrius  ; 
and  Charles,  attentive  to  all  that  could  obstruct  the 
plans  of  Sigismund,  promised  his  support.  In  1G07 
a  Swedish  auxiliary  force  was  to  set  out  from 
Livonia ;  but  this  was  not  effected  until  I()09. 
The  young  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  was  now  appointed 
commander,  and  an  alliance  was  signed  at  Wiborg 
against  Poland,  by  which  the  new  Czar  bound  him- 
self to  cede  to  Sweden  Kexholm  with  its  district. 
At  the  head  of  little  more  than  4000  men  de  la 
Gardie  and  Ewert  Horn  advanced  to  Moscow,  de- 
feated the  Poles,  and  delivered  the  Czar,  who  was 
beleaguered  in  his  capital.  Meanwhile  Sigismund 
himself  had  burst  with  a  Polish  army  into  Russia, 
besieged  and  taken  Smolensko.  De  la  Gardie  pushed 
on  against  the  Poles.  His  troops,  consisting  mostly 
of  foreign  levies,  had  often  shown  a  disobedient 
spirit.  Now,  when  the  pay  promised  by  the  Russians 
was  not  forthcoming,  they  mutinied  in  presence  of 
the  enemy,  and  for  the  most  part  deserted,  after 
they  liad  plundered  their  general's  baggage,  and 
forced  hira  to  open  negotiations.  De  la  Gai-die 
and  Horn  made  with  four  hundred  Swedes  and 
Finns  a  wonderful  retreat  through  a  hostile  coun- 
try to  the  Swedish  frontiei*.  Russia  became  the 
prey  of  contending  parties ;  Schuisky  was  over- 
thrown, a  new  Demetrius  assassinated,  Vladislaus 
son  of  Sigisnmnd  chosen  Czar,  and  again  deserted. 
During  these  troubles,  in  1611,  de  la  Gardie  made 
himself  master  of  Kexholm,  took  Novogorod  by 
storm,  and  concluded  a  convention  by  which  the 
Russians  agreed  to  acknowledge  a  Swedish  prince 
as  their  gi'and-duke.  These  tidings  first  reached 
Charles  IX.  upon  his  death-bed. 

At  the  diet  of  Stockholm,  in  1609,  he  demanded 
fx'om  the  estates  new  aids  for  the  war.     The  un- 

'  "  Our  men  ran,  and  let  their  backs  be  hacked  like  a 
flock  of  hens,  fleeing  before  a  small  body,  where  they  were 
four  or  five  to  one,  and  leaving  us  on  the  field.  The  horse 
fell  under  us,  and  had  it  not  been  for  a  Liflander,  Henry  de 
Wrede,  we  should  have  fallen,  living  or  dead,  into  the 
enemy's  hands."  The  king's  letter  to  the  council  of  state 
upon  the  unsuccessful  action,  Sept.  24,  1605.  Aug.  I,  1G06, 
Charles  bestowed  several  manors  in  Finland,  under  the  con- 
ditions of  the  statute  of  Norrkoeping,  on  the  widow  and 
cliildren  of  Henry  Wrede,  "because  in  the  battle  of  Kerk- 
liolm,  at  the  time  when  we  ourselves  were  engaged  in  the 
field  against  the  enemy,  he  not  only  demeaned  himself  as  an 


noble  orders  granted  them  ;  the  nobility  offered 
the  tenth  part  of  their  revenues,  but  with  certiiin 
exceptions,  to  which  the  king  would  not  consent, 
and  the  statute  of  the  diet  was  drawn  up  in  the 
name  of  the  priests,  burgesses,  and  peasants,  with- 
out the  participation  of  the  nobility.  Irritated  both 
by  this  afl'air  and  by  the  refusal  of  the  nobility  to 
adopt  his  new  code  of  law,  the  king  upbraided  the 
order  with  so  great  vehemence  that  his  emotion 
brought  upon  him  an  attack  of  apoplexy.  From 
this  time  he, could  with  difficulty  sptnk.  His  facul- 
ties of  soul,  devoured  as  it  were  by  their  own  fire, 
were  no  longer  the  same.  The  king's  secretaries, 
persons  of  mean  extraction,  acquired  constantly 
greater  influence,  provoked  the  wrath  of  the  old 
and  life-weary  monarch,  and  excited  great  discon- 
tent *.  Yet  his  activity  was  indefatigable  to  the 
end. 

Meanwhile  the  public  dangers  thickened.  With 
Denmark  various  subjects  of  quarrel  had  arisen. 
The  principal  were  the  old  dispute  concerning  the 
three  crowns,  and  the  complaints  of  the  Danes  that 
the  king  of  Sweden  prohibited  trade  to  Riga,  and 
took  tribute  from  the  Lapps,  who,  the  Danish  sove- 
reign maintained,  were  subject  to  Norway.  These 
points  of  contestation  were  discussed  at  conferences 
of  the  plenipotentiaries  of  both  kingdoms,  but  not 
adjusted  ;  and  Charles  at  length  caused  his  son, 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  to  make  a  journey  to  Den- 
mark, in  order  to  avert  a  rupture.  But  Chris- 
tian IV.  wished  for  war,  as  Charles  believed,  at  the 
instigation  of  malcontent  Swedes  within  and  out  of 
their  own  country,  who  represented  that  the  king 
was  feeble  and  sickly,  his  son  young  and  under 
age,  and  a  good  opportunity  at  hand  of  making 
some  attempt^.  Danish  manifestos  and  summonses 
to  revolt  flew  about  the  countr}'.  The  estates  met 
again  at  Orebro  in  November  of  the  year  1610. 
The  young  Gustavus  Adolphus  now  addressed  them 
for  the  first  time,  for  the  old  king  could  only  inti- 
mate his  will  by  broken  woi-ds  and  signs.  All 
dreaded  a  fresh  war,  and  wished  to  obviate  it  by 
yielding  the  demands  of  Denmai'k.  But  to  this 
Charles  would  not  listen,  and  waived  the  estates 
from  his  presence  with  indignation  ^.  They  con- 
cluded by  granting  all  tliat  he  required,  appeased 
him  by  a  new  oath  of  homage,  and  engaged  to  fur- 
nish a  larger  aid  than  ever  had  been  known  before. 
In  the  month  of  April,  1611,  came  the  Danish  de- 
claration of  war,  and  although  Charles  renewed  his 
overtures  of  peace,  the  king  of  Denmark  marched 
at  the  head  of  16,000  men  out  of  Scania  to  Calmar. 
This  town,  after  two  assaults  repulsed,  was  taken; 
the  castle  still  held  out;  and  when  the  Swedi.sh 
army,  under  the  king  himself,  with  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus and  duke  John,  arrived,  several  petty  skir- 
mishes fell  out,  in  which,  on  both  sides,  the  com- 
batants fought  with  great  animosity.      The  16th  of 

honourable  warrior,  but  also,  when  we  were  deserted  by  our 
own  people,  assisted  us  with  his  own  horse,  whereby  he  was 
brought  to  his  own  death."     Reg. 

-  See  Werwing,  ii.  185. 

3  Chodkewitz  could  appreciate  this  heroic  spirit,  and  gave 
the  prisoners  their  liberty.  Dunamunde  at  length  fell  into 
his  hands  from  famine,  after  a  siege  of  more  than  a  year. 

■•  The  court-chancellor  doctor  Nicholas  Chernecephorus, 
Eric  Elofson,  Eric  Gbranson  Tegel,  the  historian,  and  others. 

'  The  king's  letter  to  the  council,  Aug.  10,  1610. 

^  Relation  anent  the  diet  of  Orebio  in  1610,  by  an  eye- 
witness.    Printed  in  the  Stockholm  Magazine,  ii.  6!I4. 


ICU.] 


The  king's  negotiations. 
His  death. 


CHARLES  IX. 


Spirit  of  his  life  and 
reign. 


209 


August,  the  castle  of  Calmar  was  surrendered  by 
Cliristiaa  Som^,  a  soldier  famed  for  courage  uo  less 
than  for  roughness  in  the  wars  of  Livonia  and 
Russia,  whom  some  time  before  Charles  in  his 
heat  had  personally  maltreated.  He  now  went 
over  to  the  enemy  '.  Charles,  incensed  at  this 
treachery,  challenged  king  Christian,  "after  the 
old  manner  of  the  Goths,"  to  single  combat ;  if  he 
came  not,  then  would  he  not  hold  the  Dane  "  for  an 
honourable  king  and  warrior."  Christian's  answer 
was  worthy  neither  of  a  king  nor  of  a  man,  and  full 
of  abuse*.  Repeated  violent  attacks  by  the 
Danes  on  the  Swedish  camp  at  Ryssby  were  re- 
pulsed. Here  were  now  seen  both  Dutch  and  Eng- 
lish envoys.  Extensive  negotiations  had  occupied 
the  king  in  his  latter  years.  In  1608  he  had  sent 
ambassadors  to  the  states  of  the  Netherlands,  then 
upon  the  point  of  concluding  their  contest  with 
Spain.  They  were  to  represent,  that  the  cause  in 
effect  concerned  all  powers  and  princes  who  were 
opposed  to  "  papistical  superstition  and  Spanish  am- 
bition," and  were  to  solicit  through  the  States  the 
mediation  of  Spain  in  the  war  with  Poland.  If  it 
ended  in  a  peace,  the  king  would  wish  to  be  com- 
prehended therein ;  for  the  war  between  Sweden 
and  Poland,  no  less  than  that  between  the  States 
and  Spain,  was  carried  on  for  religion.  If  peace 
with  Spain  were  nut  made,  Charles  would  support 
the  States  yearly  with  1000  men  on  horse  and  foot, 
in  return  for  the  liberty  of  exporting  salt  from  the 
Netherlands  3.  In  1610  he  sent  Gustavo  Ericsou 
Stenbock  and  John  Skytt^  to  England,  with  com- 
mis"sion  to  seek  English  mediation  in  the  war  with 
Poland,  and  to  declare  the  Idng's  readiness  to  enter 
into  a  conjoint  alliance  with  England,  the  Nether- 
lands, and  France ' ;  and  Swedish  envoys  were  al- 
ready on  their  way  to  Henry  IV.  for  a  like  purpose  ^, 
when  tidings  came  that  he  had  fallen  by  the  dagger 
of  Ravaillac^.  Now  Dutch  and  English  envoys 
essayed,  although  vainly,  to  compose  the  quarrel 
between  the  two  Protestant  sovereigns  of  the 
North.  Charles  left  his  camp  to  hold  a  new  diet. 
He  fell  sick  on  the  way,  and  died  at  Nykoeping,  the 
30th  October,  1611,  sixty  years  old. 

"  The  historian  should  write  truth,"  he  himself 

7  He  wrote  afterwards  to  the  king,  that  he  would  never 
return  to  Sweden  so  long  as  doctor  Nicholas  Chesnecopherus 
and  the  secretary  Eric  Elofson  reigned  there;  and  would  as 
little  suffer  the  many  boxes  on  the  ear  which  he  must  expect, 
at  their  instigation,  to  receive  from  the  king.  Werwing, 
ii.  243. 

8  E.  g.  "  We  perceive  that  the  dog-days  are  not  yet  fore- 
spent  in  thy  hams.  Thou  oughlest  shame  thee,  thou  old 
fool  {geek,  gowk),  to  attack  an  honourable  man.  Perhaps 
thou  hast  learned  this  from  old  women,  who  are  wont  to  use 
their  jaw."  Charles'  challenge  is  dated.  Camp  at  Ryssby, 
Aug.  12,  1611 ;  Christian's  answer,  At  our  Castle  of  Calmar, 
Aug.  14,  1611. 

»  Instruction  to  Jens  Nilson,  gentleman  of  the  court,  and 
Augustinus  Cassiodorus,  the  king's  secretary,  to  the  States 
of  the  Netherlands,  Orebro,  May  4,  1608.     Reg. 


says  in  his  Rhyme  Chronicle.  So  too  have  I  to 
the  best  of  my  ability  sought  impartially  to  pour- 
tray  the  youngest  and  greatest  son  of  Gustavus  ;  in 
many  qualities  his  father's  heir,  in  others  both 
below,  and  perchance  also  above  him.  Only  one 
feature  is  to  be  added,  since  even  on  the  brink  of 
the  grave  it  still  strikes  the  eye  in  him,  and  since  in 
some  measure  it  should  mitigate  our  judgment  of 
his  blood-stained  path  :  it  is  his  inborn  striving  to 
grasp  across  every  limit,  beyond  every  goal  to  set 
another.  He  battled  for  himself  a  crown.  At  this 
point  another  would  have  halted  ;  to  him  it  was  so 
little  the  greatest,  the  sole  aim,  that  he  left  it  less 
decided  than  he  might.  Whereas  the  strife  ensuing, 
which  from  Sigismund's  slowness  and  irresolution 
might,  for  some  time  longer  at  least,  have  been 
ivaged  by  words  and  manifestos,  he  straightway 
removed  out  of  Sweden  to  Livonia,  Poland  and 
Russia  ;  nor  did  the  outbreak  of  war  with  Den- 
mark prevent  him  from  mustering  as  it  were  in  his 
last  gaze  the  members  of  a  future  league  against  the 
Papacy  and  the  house  of  Hapsburg  ;  as  in  his  tes- 
tament he  especially  recommends  to  his  children 
friendship  with  the  evangehcal  princes  of  Ger- 
many*. Thus  in  the  soul  of  Charles,  perchance 
more  than  in  any  of  his  contemporaries,  laboured 
the  burning  future,  which  burst  forth  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  ;  and  not  without  significance  was  he 
wont  to  obsei've,  laying  his  hand  on  the  head  of  the 
young  Gustavus  Adolphus,  "  llle  faciei"  (he  will 
do  it).  Such  men  verily  there  are,  full  of  the  here- 
after, who,  with  or  without  their  own  will  and 
uitent,  carry  the  nations  onward  at  their  side. 
Except  his  father,  no  man  before  him  exercised  so 
deep  an  influence  on  the  Ssvedish  people.  More 
than  a  hundred  years  passed  away,  and  a  like  per- 
sonal mfluence  was  still  reigning  upon  the  throne 
of  Sweden.  The  nation,  hard  to  move  save  for 
immediate  self-defence,  was  borne  along,  unwilling 
and  yet  admiring,  repugnant  yet  loving  ;  as  by 
some  potent  impulsion,  following  her  Gustaves  and 
Charleses  to  victory,  fame,  and  to  the  verge  of  perdi- 
tion. This  is  neither  praise  nor  blame  ;  but  so  it 
was.  And  as  I  write  the  history  of  the  Swedish 
people,  I  feel  as  strongly  as  may  be,  that  it  is  the 
history  of  their  kings. 

'  Instruction,  March  19,  1610.     Reg. 

^  Instruction  for  Abraham  Ericson  Leyonhufvud,  Olof 
Strain,  and  doctor  Jacob  Dyk,  envoys  to  France,  March  19, 
1610.     Reg. 

3  "  Is  said  to  have  been  made  away  with  by  the  practices 
of  the  Jesuits,"  writes  Charles  to  his  envoys,  June  4,  1610. 
Reg. 

■1  We  exhort  our  well-beloved  wife  and  child,  as  also  the 
high-born  prince  duke  John,  to  be  instant  in  maintaining 
that  friendship,  which  we  have  cultivated  with  the  high 
lords  aforesaid  (namely,  the  elector  palatine  Frederic  V.  and 
the  landgrave  Maurice  of  Hesse\  and  other  evangelical 
princes  of  the  Roman  empire.  King  Charles  IX. 's  Testa- 
ment, Aug.  12,  1605.     Stiernman,  i.  611. 


210 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


[1611— 


CHAPTER  XV. 

GUSTAVUS  n.  ADOLPHUS.     HIS  INTERNAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

EDUCATION  OP  THE  KING.  HIS  ACCESSION  TO  THE  GOVERNMENT.  CONDITION  OF  SWEDEN.  STATE  OP 
PARTIES.  VIEW  OF  THE  SWEDISH  CONSTITUTION  IN  THIS  REIGN.  ORDER  OF  PROCEEDING  IN  THE  DIETS. 
SUMMARY  OF  THEIR  LEGISLATION.  TAXATION  AND  CONSCRIPTION,  REVENUE  AND  RESOURCES  OF  THE 
GOVERNMENT     FOR     THE     CONDUCT     OF     WAR.        INDUSTRY     AND     TRAPE.        NEW     SUPREME     COURT.        CHURCH 

GOVERNJIENT    AND    EDUCATION. 

A.  D.  1611— 1C32. 


"  King  Gustavus  the  Great,  and  the  second  of  that 
name,  called  at  his  baptism  Gustavus  Adolphus," 
says  a  contemporary  account  *,  "  was  born  in  the 
castle  of  Stockhi)lm,  the  9th  of  December,  1594. 
His  father  was  Charles,  at  this  time  prince  heredi- 
tary of  the  realm  of  Sweden,  duke  of  Sutherman- 
land,  Nerike  and  Vermeland,  afterward  king  of 
Sweden,  of  his  name  the  ninth.  His  mother  was 
Christina,  daughter  of  Adolphus,  duke  of  Sleswick- 
Holstein,  and  granddaughter  of  king  Frederic  I.  of 
Denmark;  on  her  mother's  side  of  the  family  of  the 
Landgrave  of  Hesse,  by  Christina,  daughter  of 
Philip  the  magnanimous.  In  his  childhood  fell  out 
that  domestic  feud,  wherein  the  said  noble  duke 
Charles  and  the  estates  of  the  realm  were  arrayed 
on  the  one  part,  king  Sigismund  and  his  adherents 
on  the  other.  The  young  prince  accompanied  his 
father  and  mother  in  the  year  1600  to  Livonia, 
and  went  with  them  the  following  year,  late  in 
autumn,  from  Reval  to  Finland.  Then  it  came  to 
pass,  that  when  towards  evening  the  duke  with  his 
ship  came  near  the  haven,  it  froze  so  hard  in  the 
night,  that  he  was  obliged  at  morning  to  walk  with 
his  train  to  land  over  the  ice,  and  so  passed  through 
Finland  to  Sweden. 

"  To  be  the  prince's  tutor  and  chamberlain 
master  John  Skytte  and  Otto  von  Mbrner  were 
appointed.  The  latter  was  marshal  to  king  Charles 
IX,,  a  Brandenburg  nobleman,  well  ti-avelled,  and 
of  cultivated  mind.  Master  John  Skytte'  had  re- 
turned home  after  nine  years'  sojourn  in  foreign 
parts,  and  sat  in  the  state  chancery  as  secretary, 
having  shortly  before  concluded  the  boundary 
treaty  with  Denmark.  These  instructed  the  young 
pi'ince  in  all  that  was  needful  for  a  king,  and 
Skyttd  especially  in  the  Latin  language,  in  the 
history  and  the  laws  of  Sweden.  As  his  lord 
father  was  a  strict  ruler  and  a  martial  prince,  his 
lady  mother  (fair  in  form  and  stature)  lofty  in 
spirit  and  heart,  so  he  was  reared  severely,  and  held 
to  labour,  virtue,  and  manhood. 

"  Betimes  in  his  early  youth,  but  particularly 
after  he  had  reached  his  tenth  year,  he  was  moi-e 
and  more  permitted  by  his  lord  father,  as  he  grew 
up,  to  attend  the  general  deliberations  and  hear 
what  passed.  So  he  was  obliged  alway  to  be  pre- 
sent at  audiences  to  embassies,  and  was  at  last 

5  Critical  and  Historical  Memoirs  (Kritiskaoch  Historiska 
HancUingar),  edited  by  E.  E.  (Eric  Ekholm),  Stock.  1760,  p.  9; 
and  somewhat  more  fully  in  the  Memoirs  for  the  History 
of  Scandinavia  (Handlingar  till  Skandinaviens  Historia), 
ii.  91. 

8  According  to  statements  in  the  Scandinavian  Memoirs, 
viii.  38,  the  king  also  knew  Greek.     It  is  there  said,  "  Of 


charged  by  his  lord  father  to  make  answer  to  them, 
in  order  thus  to  accustom  him  to  weighty  affairs, 
and  their  treatment.  Because  the  time  was  full  of 
warlike  turmoils,  there  was  assiduous  resort  to  the 
king's  court,  especially  by  officers,  not  only  Swedes, 
but  also  Germans,  French,  English,  Scots,  Nether- 
landers,  and  some  Italians  and  Spaniards,  who, 
after  the  twelve  years'  truce  just  then  concluded  by 
the  Netherlanders  with  Spain,  sought  their  fortune 
in  Sweden.  These  often  waited  upon  the  young 
prince,  by  the  will  and  order  of  his  lord  father ; 
and  their  discourse  touching  the  wars  waged  by 
other  nations,  battles,  sieges,  and  discipline  both  by 
land  and  sea,  as  well  as  ships  and  navigation,  did  so 
arouse  and  encourage  the  mind  of  the  young  prince, 
by  nature  already  inclined  thereto,  that  he  spent 
almost  every  day  in  putting  questions  concerning 
what  had  befallen  at  one  place  and  another  in  the 
wai-s.  Besides,  he  acquired  in  his  youthful  years  no 
little  insight  into  the  science  of  war,  especially  into 
the  mode  and  means  how  a  regular  war,  well 
ordered,  and  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  Sweden, 
•was  to  be  waged,  having  the  character  and  rules  of 
Maurice  prince  of  Orange  as  a  pattern  before  his 
ej'es.  By  the  intercourse  and  converse  of  the 
above-mentioned  gentlemen,  in  which  every  one 
told  the  most  glorious  acts  of  his  own  nation,  the 
young  lord  was  enkindled  to  do  like  others,  and  if 
possible  to  excel  them. 
"^^In  his  youthful  years  he  gained  also  a  complete 
and  ready  knowledge  of  many  foreign  languages,  so 
that  he  spoke  Latin  ",  German,  Dutch,  French,  and 
Italian,  as  purely  as  a  native,  and  besides  had  some 
foretaste  of  the  Russian  and  Polish  tongue. 

"  When  he  had  attained  his  fifteenth  year,  his 
lord  father  made  him  grand  prince  of  Finland,  and 
duke  of  Estlaud  and  Westmanland,  and  presently 
bestowed  upon  him  the  town  of  Westeras  with  a 
good  portion  of  Westmanland,  over  which  the 
prince  set  master  John  Skytte  to  be  governor." 

Such  is  the  account  of  Axel  Oxenstierna,  who 
well  deserves  to  have  the  first  word  concerning  his 
royal  friend. 

King  Charles  IX.  was  a  tender  and  careful 
father.  "  Fear  God  before  all,"  is  the  injunction 
of  his  own  monitory  notes  for  his   son   Gustavus 

Xenophon,  whom  he  loved  best  to  read  in  Greek,  his  majesty 
said  that  he  knew  of  no  vviiter  better  than  Xenophon  for  a 
true  military  historian  (militise  historicus)."  It  is  added, 
that  for  some  years  after  he  mounted  the  throne,  he  con- 
tinued his  studies  for  his  profit  with  his  tutor,  master  John 
Skytte.  "  Every  day  he  devoted  at  least  one  hour  or  another 
to  reading,  preferring  to  all  others  the  works  of  Grotius, 
especially  his  treatise  De  Jure  Belli  et  Pacis." 


1632.] 


Sketch  of  his 
early  life 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


hy  chancellor 
Oxenstierna. 


211 


Adolphus,  "  honour  father  and  mother,  show  bro- 
therly affection  to  those  of  thine  own  blood,  love  the 
servants  of  thy  father,  requite  them  after  their 
due,  be  gracious  to  thy  subordinates,  punish  evil, 
love  goodness  and  meekness,  put  good  trust  in  all, 
yet  with  moderation,  and  learn  first  to  know  the 
persons  ;  hold  by  the  law  without  respect  of  per- 
sons ;  impair  no  man's  well-won  privileges,  in  so 
far  as  they  agree  with  the  law  ;  minish  not  thy 
princely  income,  but  with  precaution,  that  they  who 
taste  thy  bounty  may  remember  the  source  from 
which  it  flowed'."  To  his  second  son,  Charles 
Philip,  the  king  writes  letters  as  earnest  as  they  are 
full  of  lovingness  *.  His  consort  was  a  proud  and 
austere  dame  ;  afterwards  partial  enough  in  the 
cause  of  this  younger  son,  whose  rights  as  duke  she 
defended  with  a  zeal  that  might  easily  have  led  to 
consequences  dangerous  for  the  kingdom,  if  Gusta- 
vus  Adolphus  had  not  been  as  good  a  son  as  he 
was  a  great  king '.  From  the  ladies  of  her  house- 
hold she  exacted  daily  their  prescribed  task  of 
spinning  and  weaving  ',  and  in  spite  of  all  the  re- 
monstrances of  Denmark,  she  maintained  as  long 
as  she  lived  the  title  of  sovereignty  "  over  the 
Lapps  of  Northland,"  which  proved  one  of  the 
causes  of  war  with  that  power,  and  was  therefore 
laid  aside  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  2. 

Next  to  his  great  natural  endowments  and  liis 
extraordinary  progress  in  knowledge,  his  timous  in- 
troduction to  public  life  claims  our  attention.  This 
was  partly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  manners  of  the 
time  ;  but  Charles  was  also  moved  by  reasons  of 
his  own.  Upon  the  throne,  yet  insecure,  it  was  of 
importance  to  him  that  the  nation  should  early 
learn  to  know  his  successor;  and  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  we  may  say,  that  he  grew  up  under  the 
eyes  of  the  people.  The  choice  of  his  instructors 
was  committed  to  the  estates'.  Already  in  his 
tenth  year  he  is  brought  into  the  council ;  and 
scarcely  fourteen,  being  engaged  with  the  queen 
in  a  journey  to  the  southern  portron  of  the  king- 
dom, he  receives  from  the  king  his  father  the 
following  exhortation  :  "  Be  kind  to  those  who 
seek  thy  help,  so  that  thou  let  them  not  go  com- 
fortless from  thee  ;  neglect  not,  when  any  man 
makes  known  to  thee  a  reasonable  grievance,  to 
hear  it  and  give  lis  to  undei'stand  it.     So  far  as 

'  "  A  Minute  of  remembrance  for  my  Son  Gusta^ois  Adol- 
phus." Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  58,  p.  467.  Ex  Manu?cripto  Regis 
Caroli  IX. 

8  To  duke  Charles  Philip,  for  his  princely  grace  to  study 
assiduously,  Oct.  7,  1611.  "  Because  we  hear  that  thou  wilt 
not  give  close  heed  to  thy  studies,  and  we  by  no  means  intend 
that  thou  shouldst  give  up  the  same ;  therefore  have  we  sent 
herefrom  to  thee  this  gentleman,  the  noble  and  well-born 
Matthias  Soop,  whom  we  would  have  about  thee,  and  who 
shall  teach  thee  French ;  also  shall  thou  obediently  and  at- 
tentively study  with  doctor  John,  that  thou  mayst  learn  Latin 
likewise.  If  thou  wilt  do  this,  we  shall  make  thee  jjartaker 
of  much  good,  in  our  paternal  complacence.  Be  assiduous, 
so  sh^t  thou  be  wise  and  understanding."  Charles  Philip, 
born  April  23,  1601,  was  then  in  his  eleventh  year.  The 
above-mentioned  doctor  John  appears  to  be  John  Chesneco- 
pherus,  tutor  of  the  prince,  although  John  Skytte  also  was 
charged  with  the  education  of  Charles  Philip. 

9  He  begs  that  "  she  may  not  turn  from  him  her  maternal 
heart."     To  her  majesty  the  queen,  Swartsice,  March  3,  1618. 

1  This  was  then  brought  into  the  treasury  of  the  crown, 
and  an  account  kept  thereof.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  78.  It  is 
related  that  the  queen  measured  out  the  thread  for  sewing 
with  an  ell-wand. 


rests  with  thee,  assist  every  man  to  his  right,  and 
press  this  sedulously  on  our  lieutenants,  bailiffs, 
and  officers  ;  thus  will  prosperity,  with  God's  help, 
be  thine  *."  We  find  likewise  actual  affairs  of 
government  soon  managed  by  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
partly  in  his  own  duchy,  partly  for  the  general 
service  of  the  king,  wherein  he  sometimes  used  his 
influence  for  petition  and  intercession  by  advice  of 
his  mother.  Not  less  early  was  his  passion  for 
war  manifested.  The  youth  of  fifteen  ventured  in 
the  year  1610  to  prefer  his  claim  to  the  command 
in  the  war  against  Russia.  "  Howbeit,  since  this 
was  enti-usted  to  others  *,"  says  Axel  Oxenstierna, 
"  he  was,  not  without  his  discontentment,  restrained 
for  the  year,  to  abide  at  the  court  of  his  lord  father, 
until  he  had  passed  his  sixteenth  year,  and  entered 
his  seventeenth.  Then,  namely  in  April  of  the 
year  IGU,  as  king  Christian  IV.  of  Denmark  had 
renounced  peace  and  declared  war,  the  prince  was 
by  his  father,  according  to  ancient  custom,  pro- 
nounced in  the  diet  of  the  24th  April  fit  to  bear 
the  sword,  with  which,  the  day  following,  he  was  in- 
vested in  most  splendid  guise.  Thereafter  straight- 
way he  caused  the  forces  of  West-Gothland  to 
assemble,  especially  the  foreign  troops  which  had 
winter  quarters  there,  in  order  to  join  his  father 
with  the  same  at  Jenkoping,  as  came  to  pass,  and 
likewise  march  to  Calmar,  at  that  time  beleaguered, 
for  the  relief  of  the  town.  In  this  expedition  of 
Calmar  did  the  young  lord,  under  the  guidance  of 
his  father  king  Charles,  endure  the  first  trial  of 
warfare,  being  present  at  all  the  remarkable 
encounters  and  actions,  in  the  chief  himself  mostly 
leading  and  bearing  conmiand,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  ^."  The  truth  of  this  statement  is  at- 
tested by  the  destruction  of  Christianople,  the 
principal  Danish  place  of  arms  in  Scania  ',  and  the 
reconquest  of  Oeland,  both  achievements  of  Gusta- 
vus Adolphus,  and  the  most  fortunate  occurrences 
of  this  war.  Calmar,  notwithstanding  its  scanty 
means  of  defence  *,  would  probably  not  have  been 
lost  without  the  treason  of  Christian  Some  ;  since, 
as  a  foreign  contemporary  historian,  by  no  means 
jjartial  to  Sweden,  obsei'ves  of  the  Swedes  of  this 
time,  "  they  defended  not  their  men  by  walls,  but 
theii*  walls  by  men  ^." 

2  See  the  Danish  complaints  of  1619,  and  the  queen's 
answer;  Hallenberg,  History  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  (Gustaf 
Adolfs  Historia),  iv.  815.  "  Her  son  had  power  to  govern 
his  kingdom,  but  not  to  order  any  thing  touching  herself 
personally." 

3  The  choice  of  John  Skytte  is  said  to  have  been  made 
"  auctoritate  ordinum  regni." 

■1  Letter  of  Charles  IX.  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  July  12,  1608. 

5  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  who  received  the  command,  Sjies 
himself  "appointed  lieutenant"  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
Hallenberg,  i.  47. 

6  Axel  Oxenstierna's  forecited  account  of  the  youth  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus. 

7  Jahn,  History  of  the  Calmar  war  (Historie  om  Calmar- 
krigen).     Copen.  1820,  p.  127. 

s  In  his  last  answer  to  Christian  IV.,  Charles  seems  to 
acknowledge  that  the  want  of  powder,  which  Christian 
Some  alleged,  might  have  been  real.  "  If  powder  failed 
him,  he  should  have  defended  himself  with  stones,"  writes 
the  king.  For  the  rest,  that  Christian  Some  was  a  traitor,  is 
shown  by  his  calling  upon  the  Swedish  commander  at  Bork- 
holm  to  surrender  likewise,  and  by  his  Danish  pension. 

9  Peleus.     Histoire  de  la  derni^re  guerre  de  Su^de,  en 
laquelle  sont  araplement  decrits  les  sieges,  combats,  ren- 
contres, et  batailles  des  Su^dois  contre  les  Danois      (History    I 
p  2  I 


212 


Acknowledgment  of  the  new 
king  by  the  estates. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWFDES. 


Effects  of  the  hereditary 
settlement. 


[IGII  — 


The  old  king,  in  nominating  his  elder  son  grand 
duke  of  Finland  and  duke  of  Estland,  acted  not 
without  a  particular  view.  The  council  had  declared 
in  the  statute  of  Calmar  tluit  these  territories  should 
never  be  made  the  duchies  of  a  Swedish  prince  ; 
probably  because  during  the  contests  of  the  royal 
family,  they  were  moi-e  than  once  in  danger  of 
being  severed  from  the  kingdom.  Charles  on  the 
other  hand  chose  this  very  region  to  be  titular  for 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  j)lacing  him  as  if  upon  a  fore- 
post  against  Russia  and  Poland  ;  and  as  he  likewise 
actually  conferred  upon  him  Westmanland,  and 
gave  to  his  younger  son  his  own  former  duchy  of 
Suthennanlandj  Nerike,  and  Vermehvnd,  he  there- 
by i)lanted  the  power  of  his  house  in  the  heart  of 
the  land.  This  he  did  with  a  fair  view  to  his 
future  security.  For,  despite  the  hereditary  settle- 
ment of  Norrkdping,  the  succession  was  uncertain, 
chiefly  from  the  hesitation  of  Charles  himself,  in 
other  matters  so  prompt  of  decision.  This  marks 
the  king  as  the  man  of  all  Sweden,  who  could  never 
be  induced  to  deny  the  unftn'feited  claims  of  his 
nephew  duke  John  ;  and  it  is  a  triumph  of  generous 
policy,  to  have  made  these  claims  innoxious  by 
acknowledging  them.  John  was  throughout  treated 
as  his  own  son  ;  and  when  Charles  crossed  into 
Livonia  in  1605,  he  was  placed  in  the  government. 
His  instruction  was  cared  for  equally  with  that  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  and,  though  he  was  five  years 
older,  by  the  same  teachers.  It  was  during  his 
education  in  the  royal  household,  that  the  duke 
conceived  that  love  for  Mary  Elizabeth,  sister  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  which,  favoui-ed  by  her  parents, 
led  ultimately  to  their  union.  Thus  Charles  might 
venture  by  his  will  *  to  leave  the  estates  the  choice 
between  John  and  Gustavus. 

Herewiihal,  after  his  father's  death,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  assumed  not  immediately  the  I'egal  title, 
and  the  kingdom  was  for  two  months  without  a 
sovereign.  A  diet  was  convened  at  Nykijping  by 
the  queen  dowager  and  duke  John,  who  meanwhile, 
with  six  lords  of  the  council,  managed  the  ad- 
ministration. The  estates  declared  their  willmg- 
ness  to  abide  by  then*  former  resolutions.  Duke 
John  resigned  his  claims,  receiving  an  augmenta- 
tion of  his  duchy  2;  and  both  he  and  the  queen 
dowager  renounced  all  participation  in  the  govern- 
ment; although,  accorduig  to  the  hereditary  settle- 
ment of  Norrkoping,  and  the  testament  of  the 
deceased  king,  it  devolved  upon  them  to  conduct  it, 
mitil  the  successor  to  the  crown  had  attained  the 
age  of  eighteen,  and  to  partake  in  it,  until  he 
should  be  four-and-twenty.  "On  the  10th  of  De- 
cember, 1611,"  writes  Axel  Oxenstierna  ^,  "  began 
the  diet  of  Nykoping,  and  the  first  proposition  to 
the  estates  was  made  in  the  name  of  the  queen, 
duke  John,  and  the  lords  of  the  council.  On  the 
17th  the  queen  and  duke  John  I'enounced,  through 
ine,  the  guardianship  and  the  government,  which 
they  transferred,  in  presence  of  the  estates,  to  duke 
Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  26th,  duke  Gustavus 
Adolphus  assumed,  in  presence  of  the  estates,  the 
government  committed  to  him ;  may  God  grant  in 
an  happy   hour  !"     Gustavus  Adolphus   took  the 

of  the  last  War  of  Sweden,  in  which  are  amply  described  the 
Sieges,  Combats,  Rencounters,  and  Battles  of  the  Swedes 
with  the  Danes.)  Paris,  1622.  The  author  wrote  from  the 
accounts  of  the  French  soldiers  who  had  served  in  Sweden. 

'  Drawn  up  so  early  as  1605. 

2  His  principality  of   East-Gothland  and   Dalsland  was 


style  of  his  father;  elected  King,  and  hereditary 
Pi'ince  of  the  Swedes,  Goths,  and  Vandals.  He 
was  in  the  first  month  of  his  eighteenth  year ; 
his  chancellor,  whose  words  we  have  just  quoted, 
was  twenty-eight  years  old  *. 

Hardly  ever  did  any  sovereign  receive  his  do- 
minions in  a  more  exhausted  condition.  Sweden 
had  enjoyed  no  peace  since  the  days  of  Gustavus  1. 
If  we  look  back  upon  its  internal  state  during  the 
past  fifty  years,  how  much  of  distraction  and  strife  ! 
Fraternal  war,  civil  war,  two  kuigs  overthrown. 
Charles  bequeathed  to  his  son  a  throne  blood- 
besprent,  an.d  war  with  all  his  neighbours.  And  if 
we  cast  our  glance  forvk-ards — war,  again  war  with- 
out intermission,  during  long  times  to  come  !  We 
have  arrived  at  the  moment,  when  through  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  the  weight  of  the  Swedish  arms 
was  to  be  felt  over  the  world,  and  we  purpose 
devoting  in  future  to  the  military  history  that 
greater  attention  which  it  demands.  Yet  it  seems 
expedient  that  we  should  first  gather  into  a  whole 
the  occurrences  of  his  domestic  administration, 
ordinarily  little  noted,  or  but  in  straggling  out- 
lines, and  begin  therewith  the  picture  of  this 
renowned  monarch's  reign.  It  is  a  foreground 
lighted  up  by  the  flames  of  war.  But  that  fame 
which  may  outstand  the  probing  gaze  of  history, 
must  possess  other  claims  to  the  homage  of  the 
afterworld,  than  the  splendour  of  arms  alone. 

We  begin  with  what  concerns  most  neai-ly  the 
constitution  itself.  The  greatest  change  in  this 
respect  was  the  hereditary  monarchy,  and  the  con- 
test which  it  had  called  forth  was  scarcely  yet 
fought  out.  This  was  carried  on  under  circum- 
stances which  instructively  show,  how  in  politics 
the  phrase  of  liberty  is  not  always  a  sure  indi- 
cation of  the  presence  of  its  real  benefits.  Who 
can  doubt,  that  in  Sweden  during  the  Union  this 
interest  was,  in  fact,  represented  by  the  insurgent 
peasants  and  the  lawless  power  of  the  Adminis- 
trator ?  and  that,  while  the  magnates  employed 
all  the  liberty  known  to  the  law  of  Sweden  only  to 
preserve  for  the  Uuion-kuigs  the  name,  but  for 
themselves  the  exercise  of  power.  Gustavus  Vasa 
stamped  legality  on  revolt,  and  suppressed  it  after- 
wards ;  but  found  himself  on  the  instant  directly 
opposed  to  that  party  which  so  long  had  used  the 
cloak  of  the  law  for  their  own  advantage.  Thus 
was  the  foundation  of  regal  power  in  Sweden,  as 
everywhere  at  the  commencement  of  more  modern 
history,  the  work  of  all-stringent  absoluteness ;  and 
yet  who  can  deny,  that  the  unity  and  self-rule  of 
our  native  land,  which  thus  was  established,  was  in 
very  deed  the  cause  of  freedom  ?  Of  this  the  best 
proof  is,  that  the  principal  legal  security  for  the 
new  order  of  things,  namely,  the  heritableness  of 
the  crown,  was  secretly  the  main  object  of  the 
hostility  of  the  magnates,  while  they  had  the  rights 
and  freedom  of  Swedish  men  upon  their  tongiies. 
With  the  consolidation  by  Charles  of  his  father's 
work,  men  in  Sweden  seemed  to  have  ascertianed 
the  dangers  of  extremts  clearly  enough  to  return 
to  a  middle  way ;  and  the  royal  warranty  (konunga- 

increased  hy  four  hundreds  of  West-Gotliland.  He  obt.iined 
permission  to  exchange  the  royal  hereditary  estates  situated 
in  his  duchy,  and  compensation  for  his  claims  in  right  of 
inheritance. 

3  See  his  Latin  observations  in  his  almanack.  Palmskold 
MSS.  t.  35,  109. 

"  Born  June  IC,  1583. 


1632.] 


New 
provisions 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


of  the 
royal  warranty. 


213 


foryUkran)  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  may  be  termed 
a  new  form  of  government,  which  aimed  at  con- 
fining power  on  all  sides  within  the  bounds  of  law. 
But  how  wa.s  it  adopted  ?  In  haste,  amidst  war 
and  distress.  How  was  its  operation  to  be  de- 
veloped ?  Under  a  continuance  of  war  and  dis- 
tress, although  with  increase  of  glory.  Circum- 
stances were  too  favourable  to  tlie  more  potent  for 
freedom  not  again  to  become  aristocratic  property, 
at  the  cost  of  king  and  people. 

The  Royal  Warranty  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  is 
founded  upon  the  king's  oath  introduced  in  the 
ancient  law-book,  but  contains  besides  divers  more 
exact  definitions  and  limitations.   The  arbitrariness 
to    which,  under   the    foregoing    reign,  so   much 
calamity  was  chargeable,  now  gave  occasion  to  a 
more  express  confirmation  of  the  principle  sanc- 
tified by  the  law,  that  no  one  should  be  appre- 
hended or  condemned  upon  a  mere  allegation,  or 
without  knowing  his  accuser,  and  being  brought 
face  to  face  with  him  before  the  judgment-seat. 
The  king  was  to   insure  to  all  orders,  especially 
that  of  tlie  nobility,  their  due  respect,  and  to  every 
office  its   dignity  and   power,  depriving   and   de- 
grading no  man  from  such  offices,  unless  he  should 
be  lawfully  adjudged  thereto.     The  enactment  in 
the  Land's- Law  (Lands-lag),  that  without  consent 
of  the  people  neither  a  new  law  should  be  nmde 
nor  a  new   tax  imposed,  was  ratified  anew  with 
the  addition,  that  the  assent  of  duke  John,  of  the 
council,  and  of  the  estates,  should  likewise  be  requi- 
site  thereto.     Without   this   neither   war,   peace, 
truce,  nor  alliance  could  be  made.      The  council 
was  reinstalled  in  its  position  of  mediator  between 
king  and  people,  and  the  estates  deprecated  their 
being  burdened  with  too  frequent  holding  of  diets. 
Hereby,  in  the  great  necessities  of  the  crown,  the 
right  of  the  estates  to  tax  themselves  was  brought 
into  jeopardy,  especially  as  the  expi'essions  of  the 
king's  oath  i-especting  the  taxes  are  very  indefinite, 
namely,  "  that  they  shall  not  be  imposed  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  council,  and  the  consent  of 
those  to  whom  it  belongeth."    Thus  was  the  power 
of  the  council  augmented  from  the  side  both  of  the 
king  and  the  people  ;    and  in  proof  thereof,  lh;it 
provision  of  the  old  regal  oath  which  forbids  the 
king  of  Sweden  to  alienate  or  diminish  the  property 
of  the  crown  was  omitted,  from  the  form  of  war- 
ranty pronounced   by  the   young  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus. 

King  Charles  IX.  had  not  confirmed  the  privi- 
leges of  the  nobility.  There  exists  a  sketch  of  a 
projected  confirmance  which  that  sovereign,  after 
his  coronation,  laid  before  the  councU  '' ;  but  they 
refusing  to  decide  upon  it  without  the  participation 
of  the  nobles,  the  king  summoned  the  order  to  send 
deputies  from  every  province  to  Stockholm  upon 
the  tenth  of  June,  1608,  to  declare  their  opinion 
touching  the  pi'ivileges.  The  convention  appears 
to  have  met,  but  without  results  ;  for  in  the  king's 
answer  to  the  memorial  presented  by  the  nobility 
it  is  set  forth,  that  the  privileges  offered,  which 
had  been  conceded  out  of  especial  grace  and  good 
liking,  and  not  out  of  obligation,  should  rather 
have  been  accepted  with  thankfulness,  particularly 
as  they  were  more  advantageous  than  those  of 
king  John;  but  as  the  nobility  was  not  content 
therewith,  the  king  repeats  his  offer,  once  before 

5  Orebio,  Feb.  22,  160S.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  152,  p.  7l7. 


made,  to  confirm  the  privileges  of  king  John.  But 
neither  was  this  carried  into  effect  *.  The  charter 
of  privileges  offered  by  Charles,  if  not  fully  match- 
ing those  of  Sigismund,  yet  actually  contains,  com- 
pared with  John's,  greater  advantages,  nay,  new 
liberties  for  the  nobility.  Such,  for  example,  is  the 
right  of  themselves  choosing  the  marshal  of  the 
kingdom,  or  commander-in-chief,  from  three  lords 
proposed  by  the  king  to  the  order.  We  find,  more- 
over, what  we  should  not  be  apt  to  seek  in  such  a 
document — a  project  for  a  new  arrangement  of  the 
government  itself,  by  the  distribution  of  the  council 
in  various  departments.  Besides  the  five  high 
officers  of  state,  the  steward,  the  marshal,  the 
admiral,  the  chancellor,  and  the  treasurer,  who 
have  the  custody  of  the  ensigns  of  royalty,  there 
were  to  be  twenty  more  councillors  (which  seemed 
to  the  nobility  too  few)  ;  of  these  four  (one  the 
academic  chancellor)  were  to  be  ])laced  over  the 
university  of  Upsala  and  all  the  schools  of  the 
country,  two  were  to  submit  to  the  king  all  capital 
causes,  and  four  were  to  be  councillors  of  the 
treasury.  Further,  an  equerry  was  to  have  the 
superintendence  of  all  the  king's  cav:dry,  and  an 
ordnance-master  of  the  artillery  and  ammunition, 
though  these,  as  well  as  the  councillors  of  the 
treasury,  might  be  taken  from  among  deserving 
noblemen  out  of  the  council.  These  proffered 
advantages  appear  all  to  have  been  regarded  as 
doubtful,  as  the  king  wished  to  make  the  amount 
of  horse-service  by  the  nobles  the  subject  of  a  new 
valuation,  the  yearly  rent  on  which  it  was  to  be 
performed  being  left  open  in  the  project ;  and  this 
circumstance,  contrasted  with  the  king's  former 
ofter  to  abolish  the  horse-service  for  ever,  upon 
the  nobility  engaging  to  pay  for  their  estates  an 
equal  proportion  of  taxes  with  others,  shows  that 
Charles  can  only  be  called  an  enemy  of  the  nobility, 
in  so  far  as  he  wished  that  their  obligations  should 
be  corresponsive  to  their  rights. 

In  truth,  he  himself  paid  stricter  homage  than 
any  one  else  to  the  views  of  his  time  anent  the 
nobility,  according  to  which  the  nobleman  was  be- 
fore all  others  the  born  servant  of  the  kuig  and  the 
crown.  Every  nobleman,  knight  or  squire,  must 
appear  in  person  at  the  yearly  weaponshow  upon 
his  gallant  steed,  with  full  armour  "  both  for  body 
and  limb,"  ready  at  his  own  cost  to  follow  his  sove- 
reign to  the  borders,  and  fourteen  days  beyond 
them.  This  was  the  custom  and  law  of  Sweden  ^ 
for  every  nobleman  alike.  For  it  is  worthy  of  re- 
mark, that  just  as  the  old  assessment  imposed  equal 
taxes  on  every  so-called  well-bestead  yeoman,  with- 
out regard  otherwise  to  the  larger  or  smaller  extent 
of  his  landed  property,  so  too  the  ancient  law  knows 
no  difference,  beyond  the  personal  knight-service 
by  which  exemption  from  taxes  was  gained,  be- 
tween the  richer  and  the  poorer  noble.  To  this 
alone  regard  was  to  be  had,  that  he  who  desired 
to  earn  his  freedom  by  such  means,  should  possess 
property  sufficient  to  find  furniture  for  himself  and 
his  horse.  Doubtless  inequality  of  property  would 
make,  in  I'espect  to  the  horse-service,  a  considerable 
difference,  in  times  when  the  power  of  a  baron  was 
usually  measured  by  the  number  of  people  with 
which  he  rode  about  the  country.  This  power  had 
shown  itself  formidable  too  often  to  be  unknown; 

5  The  confirmation  exists  in  writing,  but  was  not  issued. 
'  Land'sLaw.Sectionofthe  King(Konunga-Balken),c.  11 


214 


Policy  of  t]ie  crown  with 
reu'ard  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


feudal  prestations  of 
the  nobility. 


[1611— 


but  with  how  great  a  train  a  baron  should  present 
himself  for  the  service  of  the  crown  at  the  muster, 
seems  to  have  been  a  matter  left  to  his  individual 
sense  of  honour;  at  least  we  are  acquainted  with 
no  determination  of  the  point  supjilied  by  elder 
times.  Such,  according  to  the  letter  of  the  law, 
was  the  knight-service  of  the  nobles  for  their  own 
estates.  Scarcely  better  does  the  right  of  the  crown 
to  that  which  was  to  be  performed  in  respect  of 
fiefs  appear  to  have  been  satisfied;  since  a  com- 
petent witness  declares  that  the  horse-service  in 
general,  and  consequently  also  that  for  infeudations, 
before  the  time  of  Gustavus  I.,  was  performed  "  at 
will  and  convenience  *." 

Gustavus  Vasa  first  in  Sweden  redressed  the  old 
wrong-doing  in  tallages  and  immunities;  the  one  by 
assessment  after  the  extent  of  land,  the  other  by 
settling  the  horse-service  according  to  a  fixed  rent, 
both  from  mherited  estates  and  fiefs  ^.  This  the 
nobles  seem  never  to  have  forgiven  him '.  Nor 
did  they  submit  obediently  to  his  behest ;  for  the 
king's  complaint,  that  knight-service  was  "  very 
defectively  performed,"  continues  throughout  his 
whole  time.  He  was  obliged  to  devise  other  ex- 
pedients; and  that  he  ascended  the  throne  with  the 
notions  of  a  Swedish  nobleman,  is  shown  even  in 
the  method  he  took  of  aggrandizing  his  kingly 
power.  Thereto  appertain  his  endeavours  to  be- 
come himself  the  largest  landed  proprietor  in  Swe- 
den, and  his  many  breeding-farms  in  all  parts  of 
the  country,  on  which  he  maintained  an  armed 
force  of  his  own,  as  the  nobility  did  the  same  for 
their  own  behoof  upon  their  manors.  It  is  related, 
that  still  in  his  day  the  lord  Steno  Ericson  Leyon- 
hufvud  had  eight  or  ten  noblemen  in  his  own  house- 
hold, and  rode  out  with  a  hundred  horse,  and  that 
others  of  his  compeers,  as  Suanto  Sturg,  Peter  Brahe, 
Gustave  Johnson  (Roos),  and  Gustave  Olson  (Sten- 
bock),  never  came  to  a  diet  without  having  all  toge- 
ther a  strength  of  six  or  seven  hundred  horse. 
These  statements  we  take  from  the  treatise,  anent 
"  what  advantages  the  old  families  erewhile  had 
above  the  common  franklins  or  gentry  2."  It  ap- 
pears to  belong  to  the  period  when  Charles  IX. 
completely  broke  the  power  of  these  families  ;  but 
this  lamented  change,  which  was  properly  the  con- 

8  Compare  above,  c.  xii. 

9  This  settlement  was  made  at  Westeras  in  1525,  and 
several  times  afterwards  during  the  same  reign. 

'  See  count  Brahe's  complaints,  1.  c. 

2  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  152,  p.  277.  This  armed  following  of 
the  magnates  (de  Storas)  may  explain  the  custom  of  ap- 
pointing several  castellans,  or  commanders,  to  one  fortress. 
It  increased  the  garrison  by  the  retinue  or  servants  of  each, 
and  they  besides  kept  watch  on  one  another.  This  usage 
still  existed  at  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

3  An  expression  of  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  this  sense,  when 
afterwards  Christina  offered  him  the  rank  of  duke,  is  well 
known.  In  the  council  he  said  (1640),  "  The  nobles  and 
knights  (adeln  och  ridderskapet)  of  Sweden  have  equality  of 
privileges,  and  are  peers  in  their  own  right  (jure  proprio 
aequales),  although  we  may  fall  down  and  rise  up.  Even 
so  have  the  Poles  (the  Polish  nobles)  equality  of  privileges; 
the  least  of  them  brags  of  this,  that  he  is  a  Polish  knight 
(eques  Polonus),  in  the  stirrup  from  his  mother's  womb." 
Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190.  (The  magnanimous  reply  of  the  great 
chancellor,  and  of  count  Brahe,  to  the  proposal  of  queen 
Christina,  alluded  to  by  professor  Geijer,  is  thus  given  by 
Arckenholtz  :  "  Both  the  one  and  the  other  thanked  her 
majesty  very  humbly  for  the  honour  she  wished  to  confer  on 


version  of  the  old  king-nobles  into  a  monarchic 
nobility,  first  appeared  in  full  operation  with  Gus- 
tavus Vasa  and  the  hereditary  settlement,  although 
the  principle  had  been  acted  upon  from  the  time  of 
Magnus  Ladulas.  The  transition  shows  itself  in 
manifold  guise,  and  not  least  in  the  augmentation 
by  the  kings  of  the  so-called  "  common  gentry  " 
(gemena  fralset),  which  was  a  nobility  by  royal 
patent.  Bnt  even  the  higher  nobility  was  trans- 
formed after  a  like  fashion;  for  this  was  the  mtent 
of  the  degrees  of  count  and  free  baron  by  royal 
grace,  first  introduced  by  Eric  XIV. ;  wherefore 
it  was  long  the  mode  with  the  great  families  to 
look  upon  these  dignities  with  indifference,  and  in- 
stead to  talk  of  the  ancient  parity  of  the  Swedish 
nobles^.  The  kings  took  them  at  their  word, 
maintaining  on  their  own  side  that  nobility  enjoyed 
its  privileges  solely  because  every  Swedish  noble- 
man was  born  to  the  service  of  the  crown,  and  had 
no  right  to  shrink  from  performance,  which  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  called  "  to  lie  at  home  among  the 
sweepings*."  Therefore  we  find  from  many  pa- 
tents of  nobility  in  this  period  that  he  who  was 
raised  to  this  order  gave  a  written  engagement  to 
let  himself  be  employed  in  what  the  king  charged 
him  withal.  The  less  the  equestrian  service  an- 
swered its  object  (complaints  touching  its  negli- 
gent performance  are  continually  repeated),  the 
more  stress  was  laid  upon  these  wider  maxims. 
They  concerned  indeed  the  military  service  more 
especially,  but  they  received  witliin  that  field  an 
extended  application.  King  John  III.  declared  in 
1573,  that  every  nobleman,  who  was  more  than 
seventeen  years  old,  and  unable  to  discharge  his 
horse-service,  behoved,  if  he  would  retain  his 
shield  of  nobility,  at  least  to  serve  for  pay;  since 
in  the  service  of  the  crown  he  must  be  *.  Charles 
IX.  required  that  all  sons  of  noblemen  when  they 
had  reached  the  lawful  age,  even  those  whose 
fathers  had  been  beheaded  or  banished,  should 
come  to  the  weaponshow  and  follow  him  to  the 
war";  wherefore  we  hear  hencefor wards  of  noble 
volunteers  and  "  younkers  of  gentry ',"  who  served 
as  common  soldiers,  even  on  foot  and  for  pay. 
The  right  of  earning  exemption  for  gavel-lands 

them  and  their  families,  and  entreated  her  to  consider  that 
all  this  sort  of  titles  were  so  great  a  charge  to  the  state,  that 
they  thought,  in  place  of  multiplying  them,  it  would  be  more 
fit  to  suppress  them  all,  namely,  those  both  of  the  counts 
and  barons,  replacing  the  order  of  nobility  on  the  footing 
where  it  stood  when  the  monarchy  was  elective ;  that  it  was 
solely  virtue  and  personal  merit  which  made  a  difference 
between  men ;  that  no  jot  of  this  was  to  be  found  in  vain 
and  unknown  titles;  that  they  believed  the  services  they 
tried  to  render  to  the  state  brought  them  enough  of  honour, 
and  that  they  hoped  their  children  would  endeavour  to  make 
themselves  useful  to  their  country,  without  needing  to  be 
incited  thereto  by  any  other  recompense  than  the  glory  of 
fulfilling  their  duty." — Meraoires  concernant  Christine,  i. 
405.     T.) 

"  Register  for  1626,  p.  214.  (Perhaps  with  reference  to  a 
Swedish  proverb,  "  They  that  lie  among  the  sweepings 
(sopor),  are  cast  to  the  swine."    T.) 

5  Hallenberg,  i.  153. 

6  "  Ye  may  tell  the  sons  of  Gustave  Baner,  and  others  of 
the  nobility  who  have  sons,  of  the  lawful  age  and  able  for 
our  service  and  the  crown's,  to  come  hither  along  (att  de 
ock  komma  hit  med)."  Minute  for  some  of  the  Councillors 
of  State,  Ap.  24,  1611. 

'  Hallenberg,  i.  156;  iii.  7,  note  a.  (Adelsbussar  is  the 
word  in  the  text.    Suss,  Ger.  bursch,  is  lad  or  fellow.    T.) 


1632.] 


Prevalence  of  the 
iiiUitary  spirit 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


in  the 
government. 


215 


Charles  extended,  through  his  shield-bearers,  to 
those  likewise  who  served  on  foot  at  their  own 
cost  for  equipment  *.  The  equestrian  service  for 
estates  or  rents  of  the  crown  granted  out  iu  fief 
was  performed  also  by  public  officers,  who,  noble 
or  not,  were  all  paid  iu  this  manner  ;  and  we  find 
that  Charles  exacted  it  even  from  the  bailiff's,  as- 
sessors of  hundreds,  and  prefects^.  This  was  a 
relic  of  that  barbarism,  iu  which  all  service  to 
the  crown  was  war-service,  and  all  clerkdom  (as 
studies  were  formerly  called)  was  confined  to  the 
church.  After  the  Reformation  the  sphere  of  view 
in  this  direction  widens;  and  when  Charles  wished 
to  enact  in  the  law  of  Sweden  that  a  nobleman 
should  forfeit  his  freehold  (fra?lse)  if  he  did  not 
make  his  son,  by  arms  or  learning,  fit  for  the  pub- 
lic service,  he  plainly  enough  declared  what  he 
expected  from  the  nobility  of  the  realm. 

We  have  considered  it  of  moment,  to  unfold  the 
view  under  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  compre- 
hended the  nobility  of  Sweden.  Within  its  ranks 
were  included  all  having  command,  whether  civil 
or  military,  and  almost  all  the  public  servants  of 
the  realm  in  the  secular  departments.  Hence  the 
nobles  looked  upon  their  claim  to  offices  of  state  as 
their  highest  right '  ;  as  their  body  also  received, 
by  ennoblement,  all  the  ability  that  was  qualified 
to  fill  these  ;  a  point  which  they  did  not  neglect  to 
urge  against  the  yeomanry,  although  not  alwajs 
with  success,  when  the  latter  complained  of  the  in- 
crease of  the  nobility  ^.  At  the  same  time,  it  was 
properly  a  military  order  ;  for  every  noble  was 
at  least  a  common  soldier,  if  nothing  else,  and 
thereto  born.     Charles  had  strengthened  the  in- 

s  "  In  the  times  of  king  Charles  IX.  many  a  man  was 
called  noble  and  well-born  who  was  not  of  the  nobility;  and 
all  soldiers  who  demeaned  themselves  gallantly  were  then 
held  for  noblemen."  The  high  marshal  count  de  la  Gardie 
in  the  council,  1648.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190.  {Skdld-kuektar, 
Ger.  schildknechte,  armigeri,  is  the  term  I  have  rendered 
shield-bearers.     T.) 

9  Hallenberg,  i.  160.  (The  hdrads-skrifware,  or  clerk  of 
the  hundred,  adjusted  the  quota  of  taxes  paid  by  each. 
Liinsinan  is  generally  used  as  prefect  or  governor  of  a  dis- 
trict. Fogd  is  bailiff.  The  terms  appear  to  be  mistranslated 
in  the  German  version.     T.) 

1  "It  is  the  highest  right  (jus)  we  possess,  that  we  are 
capaces  munerum  publicorum,  which  is  an  onerous  right," 
said  A.xel  Oxenstierna  in  the  council.     Palmsk.  AISS.  t.  190. 

2  When  at  a  diet  the  high  chancellor  said  in  reply  to  the 
complaints  of  the  yeomen  anent  the  increase  of  the  nobility, 
"  It  is  your  own  sons  who  are  ennobled ;"  one  of  the  crowd 
made  answer,  "  You  bring  us  little  joy,  by  swelling  the  num- 
bers of  the  heathen."  Hermelin,  Apophthegmata  Sveonum. 
Nordin  MSS. 

3  From  the  dletofSbderkoeping  in  1595.  At  the  diet  of  1611, 
when  Gustavus  Adolphus  mounted  the  throne,  the  body  of 
officers  was  forgotten  in  the  first  writ.  But  this  was  compen- 
sated by  a  special  summons,  according  to  which  every  cap- 
tain of  horse  (ryttmaster)  and  of  foot  (hbfvidsman  or  head- 
man) was  to  attend  with  some  of  his  officers.  We  find  other- 
wise that  every  company  sent  its  delegates.  To  the  diet  of 
Helsingfors  in  1616  were  summoned  the  captains  of  horse 
and  foot,  with  one  of  the  officers  and  two  private  horse  or 
foot  soldiers.     Hallenberg,  iii.  486,  note  a. 

*  "  Sweden  hath  made,  ex  necessitate  temporum,  the  mili- 
tary class  to  be  an  estate  of  the  realm,  which  nowhere  else  is 
found."  Declaration  in  the  council,  1642.  Palmsk.  MSS. 
t.  190,  p.  483. 

5  Among  the  demands  of  the  nobility  at  the  accession  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  was,  that  before  each  diet  they  should 
be  made  acquainted  with  the  most  weighty  matters  to  be 
discussed  thereat,  for  the  purpose  of  considering  them  at 


fluence  of  the  army,  by  summoning  to  the  diets  a 
number  of  officers  as  its  representatives',  a  prac- 
tice which  continued  long  afterwards.  Axel  Ox- 
enstierna remarks  this  as  a  custom  peculiar  to 
Sweden  *.  The  military,  who  sent  deputies  both 
of  the  officers  and  the  privates  (though  having  no 
votes),  strengthened  the  nobility  at  the  diets,  whore 
every  nobleman  come  to  lawful  years  was  bound 
to  give  his  attendance*.  Add  hereto  longsome 
and  prosperous  wars,  and  the  military  monarchy 
is  complete.  Such  Sweden  had  now  become  ;  and 
imder  this  aspect  it  was  regarded  by  its  greatest 
statesmen^.  The  military  spirit  pervaded  all;  and 
Swedish  diplomatists  and  literates,  persons  who 
lived  with  the  pen  in  hand,  speak  with  small 
respect  of  foreign  unwarlike  princes  :  "  Old  lords, 
reared  away  from  war,  in  easy  lives,  who  are 
themselves  no  soldiers,  and  have  no  soldiers  in 
their  council,  but  only  a  heap  of  economists  (ceco- 
nomos)  and  literates."  Such  is  here  the  common 
evil,  writes  Adler  Salvius  concerning  the  estates 
of  Germany ''.  With  such  a  spirit,  and  a  young 
hero  wearing  the  crown,  we  may  not  wonder  at 
claims  which  so  nearly  coincided  with  the  reality, 
but  first  after  the  death  of  the  hero  were  more 
distinctly  heard,  that  the  nobility  was  pre- 
eminently the  estate  of  the  realm  of  Sweden,  that 
the  nobleman  was  immediately,  the  peasant  (under 
him)  only  mediately  the  subject  of  the  realm  ^; 
claims  which,  finally,  under  administrations  of 
guardians,  led  to  the  formally  expressed  assertion 
of  the  nobilitj-,  "  that  they  could  not  be  out-voted 
at  the  diets  by  the  other  estates  '." 

home,  in  order  that  every  one  of  their  number  might  not  be 
compelled  to  attend  the  diet.  Afterwards  the  presence  of 
military  officers  at  the  diet  was  ascribed  to  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus. The  knights  and  nobles  speak,  in  1664,  of  that  mon- 
arch's "  good  intention ,  which,  not  to  mention  other  benefits 
he  had  conferred  on  the  nobility,  had  given  them  the  deputies 
of  the  army  for  their  assistance,  who,  without  votes  of  their 
own,  should  stand  by  the  aforesaid  order,  so  that  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  councillors  of  stale,  they  might  be  able  to 
balance  the  other  orders."  Adlersparre,  Historical  Collec- 
tions (Histor.  Samlingar),  iii.  383. 

6  "  That  Sweden  cannot  be  long  without  a  war,  the  natural 
position  of  the  kingdom  (situs  regni  et  loci)  proclaims,  and 
hereof  our  kings,  or  bull-heads,  as  some  say,  have  noways  been 
the  causes."   Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the  council,  1636.   I.e.  392. 

7  "  They  decide  according  to  the  civil  law,  when  only  the 
law  of  cannon  isnecessary."  So  wrote  at  this  time  a  Swedish 
juris  utriusque  doctor,  himself  the  son  of  a  burgher,  Alder 
Salvius,  respecting  the  court  of  Celle,  to  the  council.  Lu- 
beck,  Jan.  20,  1631.  Palmsk.  MSS.  Ministerial  Letters. 
Yet  we  may  remember  that  he  was  long  secretary  to  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus,  and  so  versed  in  military  affairs,  that  he 
himself  drew  up  military  plans  when  Swedish  minister  in 
Hamburgh. 

8  "  We  are  all  subditi  regni,  the  peasants  mediate,  we  im- 
mediate." The  high  steward,  count  Peter  Brahe,  in  the 
council.  "  In  reason  we  ought  highly  to  estimate  the  pri- 
vileges of  the  baronage  (Ridderskapets)  here  in  Sweden, 
since  they  are  more  excellent  than  the  privileges  of  the 
German  noblemen,  who  are  not  immediate  estates  in  the 
Roman  empire,  but  little  more  than  slaves  of  the  princes." 
Axel  Oxenstierna,  in  the  council,  1636.  Palmsk.  MSS. 
t.  190.  The  steward,  Peter  Brahe,  highly  desertful  else, 
changed  in  1642  his  forecited  opinion,  when  he  maintained 
in  the  council,  that  the  king's  majesty  should  not  in  his 
rescripts  entitle  the  nobility  subjects,  since  that  was  servile, 
and  the  higher  the  lord,  the  higher  the  servant.  Adler- 
sparre, Hist.  Collections,  iv.  115. 

9  Extract  of  the  protocol  passed  in  the  council  chamber, 
1664.     Adlersparrfe,  id.  iii.  362. 


218 


Aristocratic  and  democratic 
parties. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Oxeiiktieina  and 

Sliytte. 


[ICIl— 


For  this  rising  influence  any  aristocratical  plan 
was  hardly  needed.  Yet  such  did  exist  among 
the  magnates  of  the  time,  of  whom  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna  was  the  most  enlightened  and  high-minded. 
To  tlio  notions,  proper  to  old  Swedish  freedom,  of 
the  limits  on  regal  power,  as  they  were  understood 
by  his  order,  he  paid  absolute  homage,  and,  albeit 
he  concealed  not  his  way  of  thinking  *,  remained 
the  friend  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Thus  do  great 
souls  understand  one  another. 

There  is  a  story  cuiTent  in  Swedish  annals,  of 
the  conflicting  political  principles  of  the  parties  of 
OxENSTiERNA  and  Skytte  ;  a  strife  of  aristocracy 
and  democracy,  at  the  head  of  which  on  the  one 
side  is  placed  the  high  chancellor,  on  the  other 
John  Skytte,  tutor  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and 
afterwards  councillor  of  state  *.  Conformably  with 
this  assumption,  some  remarkable  sayings  are 
ascribed  to  the  king,  which  do  not  contradict  what 
is  otherwise  known  to  us  of  the  persons  and  affairs 
of  this  time  3.  In  the  year  161.3,  we  find  John 
Skytte  complaining  that  he  had  been  disturbed  in 
his  repose,  and  removed  from  the  king's  person  by 
other  charges;  that  such  was  done  by  the  king's 
will,  and  that  there  had  even  been  a  question  of 
dismissing  him  from  the  king's  service;  he  entreats 
Axel   Oxenstierna  to   counteract  these    designs*. 

'  "  This  is  disreputable,— speaking  of  commotions  of  sub- 
jects. If  you  yield,  then  follows  intestine  revolt.  If  in  such 
cases  you  deny  subjects  leave  to  speak,  then  men  agree  to 
bring  tyranny  into  the  commonwealth,  and  confusion  of  all 
things.  In  such  cases,  where  one  sees  his  country  oppressed, 
all  rights  of  majesty  overturned,  and  the  whole  kingdom 
reduced  into  the  form  of  a  province,  shall  he  let  himself  be 
persuaded  to  silence?  That  is  an  undertaking,  which  costs 
many  heads.  Had  our  forefathers  under  Engelbert  and  old 
king  Gustavus  not  plucked  up  good  resolution,  we  had  at 
this  day  been  lying  (vi  hade  i  denna  dag  legat)  under  Den- 
mark in  the  same  condition  as  Norway."  Axel  Oxenstierna, 
in  the  council,  1640.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190.  (As  a  curious 
specimen  of  Swedish  diplomatic  language,  or  jargon,  at  that 
day,  I  subjoin  the  first  part  of  this  passage  :  Det  ar  disrepu- 
terligt  att  tala  om  subditorum  motibus.  Nekar  man  subdili 
uti  sadana  fall  att  tala,  sa  bifalla  man  och  indrager  tyran- 
nidem  in  rempublicam  et  rerum  omnium  confusionem,  &c. 
T.)  Compare  his  language  to  Whitelocke  upon  the  revolu- 
tion in  England,  in  his  journal  of  his  embassy  to  Sweden  in 
1653.  Yet  he  required  a  strong  government,  and  was  not 
favourable  to  republican  institutions.  "  Every  man  knows, 
what  beast  a  republic  is.  Sweden  cannot  be  governed  with- 
out kingship.  In  Sweden  the  people  is  powerfulest,  if  it  be 
not  curbed  by  kings,"  he  said  to  the  council  in  1650. 

2  A  lampoon  written  against  Charles,  asserts  that  he  was 
a  natural  son  of  that  king,  whom  he  is  said  to  have  re- 
sembled in  appearance  and  shape  of  body.  When  Gustavus 
Adolphus  made  Skytte  a  baron,  he  took  his  place  in  the 
Swedish  hall  of  barons  next  after  Gyllenhielm,  the  natural 
son  of  Charles  IX. 

3  "  Master  John  Skyttfe  was  secretly  at  political  rivalry 
with  the  chancellor,  the  lord  Axel  Oxenstierna.  Skytte 
wished  quite  to  make  cabbage  of  the  old  leading  nobility, 
whose  arrogance  Charles  IX.  had  so  potently  broken.  The 
king  believed  that  it  was  now  no  longer  so  dangerous,  and 
that  if  his  majesty  cajoled  and  held  short  both  parties,  it 
might  well  be  that  they  would  keep  watch  upon  each  other, 
without  either  getting  the  upper  hand.  The  king  had,  be- 
sides, his  own  thoughts  of  Skytte's  idea,  and  mistrusted  its 
consequences  to  be  more  threatening  to  his  regal  power 
than  to  present  projects  of  the  old  nobility.  He  declared 
to  the  sagacious  lord  Steno  Bielke,  In  whom  he  had  great 
confidence :  '  The  Skyttians  may  well  have  the  notion  of 
reigning  without  a  king,  while  ye  others  would  at  least 
keep  one  for  seeming.     The  nobility  is  a  middle  order,  and 


Afterwards  we  hear  of  sharp  words  exchanged 
between  the  two  statesmen  ^.  Skytte,  though  he 
continued  to  be  employed  in  high  and  weighty 
affairs,  was  yet  more  a  man  of  theory  than  of 
practice,  and  appears  not  to  have  possessed  the 
uutiring  activity  of  the  chancellor,  which  was  the 
surest  course  to  the  favour  of  Gustavus.  For  this 
he  had  at  length,  as  governor-general  of  Livonia, 
to  submit  to  somewhat  severe  rebukes  from  the 
king  ^.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chancellor  rose  in 
the  confidence  of  his  sovereign,  nay,  enjoyed  such 
a  friendship,  as  nobler  was  never  known  between 
a  monarch  and  his  subject  '  ;  yet  Gustavus,  though 
his  aversion  to  popular  rule  is  known  from  others 
of  his  sayings*,  kept  himself  independent  of  his 
ministers  in  political  opinions  ;  for  proof  whereof 
may  be  alleged  his  sentiments  in  respect  to  the 
privileges  of  nobility. 

Between  the  privileges  offered  by  Charles  and 
those  issued  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  on  his  mounting 
the  throne,  although  the  latter  are  the  more  ample, 
the  difference  is  smaller  than  might  be  supposed. 
Even  the  determination  of  the  trooper-service  to 
one  good  horse  and  one  able-bodied  man  for  400 
marks'  rent  (about  266§  rix-doUars  specie),  re- 
mained the  same    as   in  king  John's  privileges 

especially  the  rich  among  them,  that  may  balance  the 
Skyttians,  and  so  hinder  them  from  scratching  the  king 
with  their  coaxing  cats'-paws.  Ye  others  are  of  too  high 
cast  by  nature  to  go  to  work  so;  we  must  only  fend  our- 
selves from  j'ou,  that  ye  come  not  to  rule  under  the  name 
of  a  king  ;  for  aristocracy  is  hard-handed.  But  yet  I  hold 
with  the  chancellor,  that  the  democrats,  again,  are  blood- 
thirsty when  they  get  into  power.  Besides,  no  glory  shines 
on  their  eternal  grudges  and  quarrels  j  such  the  annals  of 
all  time  prove  this  party's  manner  of  governing  to  be;  and 
pitiable  the  king  that  lets  himself  be  fooled  by  their  dainty 
meats,  worse  than  the  hard  gripe  of  others.'  "  Remarks  upon 
king  Gustavus  Adolphus  the  Great,  in  the  Memoirs  for  the 
History  of  Scand.  viii.  10.  The  unknown  author  did  not 
write  before  1739.  He  gives  his  account  as  traditional,  but 
traces  its  origin  from  a  man  of  note,  who  forged  himself  his 
own  fortune,  the  count  Lindskold,  royal  councillor  in  the 
list  of  1680,  who  derived  it  from  the  times  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  We  find  the  same  tradition  in  the  well-known 
Anecdotes  de  Sufede,  which  are  of  Charles  XL's  days. 

■1  Litterae  Joh.  Skytte  ad  Ax.  Oxenstierna.  Gripsholm, 
d.  Julii  26,  1613.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  371. 

5  Skytte  once  coming  late  into  the  council.  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna remarked  that  he  had  probably  been  detained  by 
reading  Machiavel.  "  You  know  him  by  nature,"  was  the 
reply  of  Skytte.  When,  after  the  king's  death,  Oxenstierna 
came  back  from  Germany,  and  sat  at  Skytte's  table,  tlie 
host's  little  grandson  asked,  "Is  this  one  of  the  five  kings?" 
Skytte  reprimanded  the  boy;  Oxenstierna  smiled,  and  said, 
'•  The  young  pig  grunts  after  the  old  sow."  "  Rem  acu  teti- 
gisti,"  he  said  once,  when  Skytte  held  an  opposite  opinion  in 
the  council — an  allusion  to  Skytte's  father,  the  burgomaster 
of  Nykoeping,  who  was  called  Bennet  (Bengt)  Tailor.  Hcr- 
melin,  Apophthegmata.     Nordin  MSS. 

6  "  All  the  draughts  you  transmit  are  stuffed  with  a  heap 
of  excuses  and  arguments.  We  beg  you  will  take  example 
by  others,  who  stand  in  much  greater  difficulties,  and  yet 
find  means  to  come  to  our  help;  whom  if  you  will  emulate, 
opportunity  will  hardly  fail  you."  Gustavus  Adolphus  to 
John  Skytte,  Stettin,  March  1,  1631.  Register  in  the  Ar- 
chives. Another  letter  of  reproof  is  dated  Usedom,  June 
28,  in  the  same  j'ear.     Ibid. 

?  See  especially  the  well-known  letter  of  Dec.  30,  1630. 

8  "  For  in  it  (the  populace)  is  no  counsel,  no  reason,  no  judg- 
ment, no  diligence."  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  his  brother-in- 
law,  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  (the  letter  is  manifestly  to 
him),  Jan.  25,  1620.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t   36.  BOS. 


1632.] 


Backwardness  of 
the  nobility 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


in  performing 
military  service. 


217 


which  Charles  had  offered  to  confirm.  Personal 
relations  made  the  greatest  change.  The  young 
king's  good  inclination  towards  the  old  families  per- 
secuted by  his  father  ;  his  gentleness,  which  com- 
pensated many  hardships  and  dried  up  many  tears  ; 
his  gratitude  for  the  harmonious  settlement  of  the 
succession  ;  his  righteousness,  which  first  aboHshed 
the  arbitrary  confiscations  that  were  the  most 
terrible  arms  of  his  father  and  grandfather;  his 
bounteousness,  and  the  hopes  so  universally  fixed  on 
him ;  his  very  youthf tdness,  which  took  and  required 
counsel,  all  this  operated  reconcilingly.  His  as- 
cension of  the  throne  was  as  the  atonement  of 
longsome  civil  distractions  in  Sweden.  It  was 
solemnized  in  haste,  amidst  ingruent  dangers, 
without  closely  chaff'ering  about  conditions.  This 
important  diet,  which  now  regulated  the  succession, 
the  footing  of  administration,  the  defence  of  the 
country,  the  taxation,  and  decided  on  the  com- 
plaints of  the  estates,  took  up  the  space  of  three 
weeks  ^  ;  and  the  same  day  when  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  confirmed  the  privileges  of  the  nobility,  he 
set  out  for  the  wars. 

A  brief  experience  was  sufficient  to  change  the 
tincture  of  his  thoughts.  Highly  dissatisfied  with 
the  conduct  of  the  nobles  in  declining  the  horse- 
service,  and  with  many  encroachments  on  his  rights 
repugnant  to  the  import  of  their  charter,  he  caused 
a  declaration  to  be  drawn  up  after  the  close  of  the 
Danish  ■^r  in  January,  1C13,  for  the  right  under- 
standing of  the  nobility's  privileges,  which  he  com- 
mitted to  the  custody  of  John  Skytt^ '.  Out  of 
grace  and  thankfulness,  it  runs,  for  that  the  nobility 
of  Sweden,  with  other  indwellers  of  the  realm,  had 
elevated  his  family  to  royal  dignity,  and  lately 
elected  and  chosen  him  to  be  their  sovereign  lord, 
he  had  conceded  to  them  such  privileges,  as  hardly 
any  king  of  Sweden  before  ;  he  had  perceived  that 
many  of  them  made  little  acknowledgment  of  such 
liberality,  but  contrariwise  misused  the  privileges 
conferred,  especially  in  this  war-time  ;  wherefore 
they  might  know  that  he  could  revoke  what  he  had 
given,  and  define  the  true  sense  of  their  privileges, 
that  every  man  might  not  turn  and  twist  them  as 
seemed  good  to  him.  But  these  privileges  should 
be  so  understood,  that  although  it  was  therein 
j)rovided  that  tax-free  estates  should  not  fall  to 
the  crown,  unless  the  nobleman  bore  arms  against 
his  king,  yet  the  law  of  Sweden  should  also  hold, 
which  among  other  cases  when  freehold  was  for- 
feited, enacted  generally,  that  tax-free  estates 
might  be  laid  under  scot,  if  service  were  not  per- 
formed therefrom  ;  wherefore  those  of  the  nobility 
who  neither  themselves  bore  part  in  the  Danish 
war,  nor  fulfilled  their  horse-service,  but  slunk 
away,  while  the  king  himself  lay  a-field  against  the 
enemies  of  the  realm  2,  should  lose  their  baronial 

»  The  diet  of  Nykbping  was  from  Dec.  10,  1611,  to  Jan.  1, 
1612.  The  cliarter  of  privileges  is  dated  Jan.  10,  1612.  On 
the  same  day  the  king  began  liis  journey  to  the  army. 

1  Draught  of  an  explanation  of  the  privileges  of  the 
baronage  (ridderskap)  and  nobility,  in  the  Palmskold  MSS. 
t.  153.  Subjoined  is  the  remark,  "This  sketch  of  an  expla- 
nation of  the  privileges  before-mentioned  was  found  among 
the  papers  of  Master  John  Skytte,  upon  which  the  wor.  de- 
ceased wrote  with  his  own  hand,  '  This  shall  be  narrowly 
observed :  it  treats  of  the  abuses  practised  by  sundry  of  the 
nobles,  and  was  delivered  to  me  by  his  majesty's  self.  The 
late  Michael  Olofson  (then  secretary  of  state)  penned  it.'" 

2  "  God  knoweth,"  writes  one  >of  the  king's  followers  in 


freedom,  unless  they  had  lawful  excuse,  and  of 
grace  obtained  a  new  confirmation.  They  are 
reminded  that  heritable  estates  as  well  as  fiefs  are 
subject  to  the  burden  of  horse-service.  It  is  noted 
as  an  abuse,  that  the  nobility  released  their  pea- 
sants, not  only  within  the  free-mile  round  their 
mansions,  but  generally  upon  their  lands  held  in 
fief  from  the  crown,  from  portages,  lodgment,  and 
other  works  of  succour  (hjelp)  ;  that  they  built  as 
many  seats  (satesgardarna)  as  they  pleased,  and 
claimed  for  them  the  same  immunities  as  for  their 
individual  place  of  abode  ;  thus  also  withdrawing  a 
large  number  of  persons  from  conscription  ;  that 
whereas  the  houses  of  the  nobles  in  the  towns  were 
free  from  all  civic  burdens,  they  unlawfully,  either 
themselves  or  by  others,  pursued  civic  callings, 
maintaining  even  in  some  cases  tap-rooms  and 
places  of  dissolute  resort ;  that  they  abused  like- 
wise their  toll-free  right  for  inland  traffic  and 
foreign  commerce  as  well  on  their  own  as  others' 
account ;  with  nmch  else  to  the  same  purpose. 
Touching  the  restitution  of  property  forfeited  by 
nobles  to  the  owner's  family,  it  is  laid  down  that 
the  conditions  on  which  such  a  favour  might  be 
granted  must  depend  upon  the  king  ;  "  for  if  the 
sovereign  were  to  be  bound  continually  to  give  of 
the  rents  and  property  of  the  crown,  without  the 
case  ever  occurring  that  such  tax-free  estates 
should  again  fall  to  the  king  and  crown,  occasion 
would  thereby  be  given  for  the  king  to  retake  by 
force  of  law  what  the  crown  had  in  this  manner 
lost  of  its  rents,  as  the  fifth  article  of  the  king's 
oath  expressly  declared  and  allowed."  It  was 
this  article  of  the  old  royal  oath  which  had  been 
omitted  from  the  warranty  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
At  his  coronation  in  ltJ17,  he  caused  it  to  be  again 
inserted  in  the  oath.  That  he  knew  his  rights  is 
also  shown  by  the  statute  passed  in  his  second  diet, 
of  the  year  1612,  to  the  eff"ect  that  all  fiefs  con- 
ferred during  pleasure  should  be  revoked  till  the 
investigation  of  the  grounds  of  tenure  was  com- 
pleted, "  since,  in  a  word,  the  largest  portion  of  the 
income  and  rents  of  the  realm  was  bestowed  in 
fiefs  3." 

This  statute  remained  on  the  whole  without 
effect,  and  naturally  enough,  seeing  that  in  such 
infeudations,  however  great  the  inconveniences 
they  entailed  on  both  governors  and  subjects,  con- 
sisted from  of  old  the  payment  for  the  entire 
service  of  the  state  ;  and  the  remedy  of  the  evil 
would  thus  have  required  a  new  regulation  of 
stipends  in  every  department.  For  this  the  wars 
that  had  broken  out  left  no  time,  and  the  confusion 
of  the  finances  no  means.  We  see  the  king  for 
the  most  part  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  giving 
with  one  hand  what  he  had  taken  back  with  the 
other.  Great  merits  and  brilliant  proofs  of  bravery 

the  war,  Aug.  2,  1612,  "what  support  his  majesty  hath  had; 
more  than  eight  persons  of  the  nobility  have  not  been  with 
him  during  this  whole  expedition."     Hallenberg,  ii.  447. 

3  "  There  had  been  for  long  and  up  to  this  time,  abuse 
with  the  fiefs,  which  may  properly  be  called  no  other  than 
the  ordinary  revenues  of  the  crown  of  Sweden,  and  were 
distributed  among  those  who  were  employed  in  the  king's 
service.  All  such  fiefs  were  recalled  by  public  edict,  till  his 
majesty  should  have  examined  what  enfeofl^ment  every  man 
held,  and  what  persons  possessed  them,  as  also  what  service 
they  discharged  for  them."  Widekindi,  Life  and  History 
(Historia  och  Lefvernebeskrifuing)  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
p.  116.     Hallenberg,  ii.  745. 


218 


New  charter  of  privileges. 
House  of  barons  erected. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Consequences  of  its 
institution. 


11611— 


called  for  rewards  which  he  least  of  all  men  could 
refuse,  and  the  conquests  of  the  Russian  and  Polish 
wars  supplied  new  channels  for  his  generosity. 
Even  the  promulgation  of  the  royal  minute  res- 
pecting the  privileges  of  the  nobility  was  dropped. 
But  that  the  king  did  not  forget  it,  is  plain  from 
his  own  remarks  on  this  subject  composed  before 
his  coronation.  In  consequence  of  these  the  coun- 
cil altered  some  points,  and  the  king,  having  erased 
his  signature  to  the  privileges  of  1611,  and  caused 
the  seal  to  be  broken,  issued  a  new  charter*.  If 
this  differs  in  little  from  the  former,  yet  the  whole 
transaction  indicates,  that  much  of  the  privileges 
was  only  to  hold  good  until  a  further  arrangement. 
In  the  king's  complaints  as  to  the  conduct  of  the 
nobility  made  at  the  diet  of  1 G17,  our  attention  fixes 
especially  on  the  third  point ;  "  that  we  have  no 
clear  knowledge  of  who  are  rightly  franklins 
(fraelsemen),  whether  those  only  who  are  called 
noblemen  and  have  shield  and  helm,  or  those  also 
who  may  make  their  estates  freehold  under  cer- 
tain conditions."  Herein  lay  an  inducement  to  the 
erection  of  the  Swedish  House  of  Barons  (Rid- 
darhus),  which  took  place  in  1625.  The  king  gave 
his  assent  to  the  petition  of  the  nobility  on  this 
subject,  in  recompense  of  the  readiness  wherewith 
they  had  received  the  royal  proposals  respecting 
the  maintenance  of  a  standing  army,  made  to  the 
estates  at  the  diet  of  that  year.  At  this  point 
the  horse- service  virtually  ceased  to  be  the  gi'ound 

*  "  Animadversions  by  king  Gustavus  upon  the  baronial 
privileges,  vifritten  with  his  own  hand,  reposited  in  the 
Archives."  Copy  (made  about  1672)  in  a  collection  of  re- 
cords belonging  to  the  prefect  Jiirta.  The  original  was  lost 
at  the  burning  of  the  castle  in  1697.  The  first  remark  points 
at  sect,  vii.,  which  lays  down  that  no  nobleman  is  to  be 
hound,  fettered,  or  imprisoned,  but  alway  have  free  conduct 
to  and  from  the  justice-seat ;  whereupon  the  king  writes, 
"  This  strengthens  insolence  and  unright,  the  chief  matter 
which  I  am  bound  by  my  kingly  oath  to  guard  against.  If 
I  t.hould  swear  to  this  point,  which  strips  law  of  its  authority, 
it  would  follow  therefrom  that  I  promised  to  suppress  all 
wrong,  and  yet  punish  no  nobleman  for  his  offence,  which 
were  two  contraries  that  fit  but  ill,  and  would  make  such  an 
oath  grievous  for  me.  For  this  reason  a  change  is  needful." 
The  council  and  nobles  bind  themselves  to  alter  this,  so  that 
a  nobleman  should  have  no  safe  conduct,  or  bail  of  nobility, 
when  he  was  caught  in  open  and  grave  delinquency.  In  the 
same  manner  servants  and  peasants  of  the  nobility,  taken  in 
the  fact,  might  be  apprehended  by  the  king's  officers  and 
lodged  in  the  royal  prison,  if  they  were  taken  without  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  castle  where  the  husband  (or  master  of  the 
house)  inhabited;  if  within  it,  they  were  to  be  committed  by 
the  king's  bailiffs  to  the  prison  of  their  master  until  the  next 
court-day.  "  Now  if  change  be  admitted  in  this  point,"  adds 
the  king,  "  it  may  have  place  in  others ;  as  herein,  that  I 
shall  be  bound  to  reveal  what  is  said  to  me  in  confidence;" 
meaning  secret  complaints  and  charges  against  the  nobility. 
This  was  altered  to  the  effect,  that  the  king  should  not  leave 
unpunished  those  who  spoke  any  thing  against  a  knight  or 
nobleman  which  touched  his  honour  and  good  repute.  As 
matters  fit  to  be  changed  the  king  further  notes,  abuses  with 
the  grants  of  crown  fines,  whereby  many  offences,  even  such 
as  concerned  life,  were  concealed  for  the  sake  of  fines ;  land- 
trade  and  fisheries  which  the  nobility  unlawfully  pursued  ; 
the  extensive  right  of  patronage  (jus  patronatus)  by  the  no- 
bility in  the  appointment  of  ministers;  the  erection  of  new 
seats  by  the  gentry,  with  illegal  protection  for  artisans  and 
exemption  from  portage  and  lodgment;  crimen  laesae  majes- 
tatis,  referring  to  the  plots  of  Sigisniund's  party,  which  before 
the  coronation  were  particularly  rife.  He  adds,  lastly, 
"that  privileges  must  only  be  granted  salvo  jure  tertii." 
All  these  points  the  council  pass  by,  but  comment  on  the  nine- 


of  freedom  of  nobility ',  and  the  old  contest  re- 
garding it  became  at  least  of  smaller  importance. 
Nobility,  as  completely  hereditary,  was  separated 
from  the  other  gentry,  although  left  open  to  merit  of 
every  kind  ;  but  its  destination  mainly  for  warlike 
objects  continued  the  same,  and  hence  in  Sweden  a 
standing  army  and  a  permanent  house  of  barons 
were  contemporary  institutions.  Whatever  may  be 
objected  against  the  first  strong  aristocratic  pre- 
ponderance in  this  house  of  barons  (whence  after- 
wards arose  within  it  those  dissensions,  which 
imder  Charles  XI.  broke  the  power  of  the  nobility), 
this  on  one  side  is  a  result  of  the  precedence  once 
ordinai'ily  enjoyed  by  the  great  families  over  the 
inferior  gentry,  and  still  supported  by  public 
opinion  ;  and  on  the  other  a  proof  that  this  war- 
like prince,  though  reigning  in  a  military  monarchy, 
yet  did  not  strive  after  absolute  sway.  What  he, 
looking  into  the  future,  designed  by  the  great  dig- 
nities wherewith  he  surrounded  his  throne,  what 
he  purposed  by  the  nobility  of  Sweden,  is  for  the 
rest  as  uncertain  as  what  he  intended  with  Sweden 
itself.  Every  where  we  find  the  tracks  of  great- 
ness, but  no  end  of  the  way,  scattered  premises  to 
a  conclusion  cut  off  by  death.  That  he  held  con- 
trol over  his  work  (which  without  him  became 
something  entirely  different  in  character),  is  certain. 
After  his  time  it  was  common  to  seek  in  the  course 
of  his  government  grounds  for  upholding  the  claims 
of  the  nobility.     In  this  respect,  the  aristpcrats  of 

teenth  section  of  the  privileges,  that  although  the  peasants 
of  the  nobles,  settled  within  the  mile  round  their  mansions, 
should  have  immunity  from  portage  and  lodgment,  such 
should  not  hold  with  respect  to  the  peasants  on  their  fiefs. 
The  Attestation  of  the  Council  and  Nobility  anent  these 
changes  was  issued  on  the  26th  October,  1617  (Widekindi, 
p.  431),  but  they  did  not  receive  the  seals  or  confirmation  ot 
the  council  separately  before  July  17,  161!)  (Palmsk.  MSS. 
t.  153).  It  is  therein  stated  that  after  they  had  given  np 
their  earlier  privileges,  his  majesty  had  for  these  alterations 
promised  them  another  charter,  revised  and  improved, 
which  they  were  to  obtain  under  his  majesty's  secret  sanc- 
tion, whence  we  should  conclude  that  the  new  privileges 
were  not  yet  subscribed  in  1619,  Meanwhile,  the  alterations 
first  solemnly  confirmed  by  the  council  in  1619,  were  literally 
introduced  in  the  charter  of  1617,  as  printed  at  Stockholm 
in  1634  by  Ignatius  Meurer.  This  is  dated  at  Upsala,  Oct. 
8,  1617,  which  cannot  he  correct.  On  this  day  the  king  was 
not  at  Upsala,  whither  he  proceeded  on  the  10th  Oct.  from 
Stockholm  to  his  coronation,  which  took  place  on  the  12th 
Oct.  (See  Widekindi,  431  ;  Hallenberg,  iv.  628.)  The  pri- 
vileges thus  appear,  when  the  royal  signature  was  afterwards 
attached,  to  have  been  antedated,  and  a  mistake  made  as  to 
the  day ;  for  it  is  not  an  error  of  the  press,  as  in  the  charter 
of  Christina  that  of  1617  is  cited  with  the  same  date.  The 
dispute  as  to  whether  the  charter  of  1611  was  actually  sub- 
scribed (see  Widek.  23 ;  Hallenberg,  i.  252),  is  decided  by  a 
copy,  preserved  in  the  collection  above-mentioned,  of  a  state- 
ment by  secretary  Eric  Simonson  Wynblad,  that  the  king 
had  transmitted  to  him,  through  his  chancellor,  the  privileges 
of  1611,  to  which  he  had  set  his  name.  Before  the  burning 
of  the  castle,  Palmskbld  had  seen  the  cancelled  privileges, 
with  this  testimony,  in  the  Archives.     JISS.  t.  116. 

5  To  the  house  of  barons  all  fines  for  neglect  of  horse- 
service  were  awarded.  This  had  been  lowered  in  1622  to 
500  dollars  rent ;  of  the  poorer  nobles  two,  or  at  most  three, 
might  join  to  keep  a  horse.  A  new  ordinance  respecting  the 
horse-service  was  issued  in  1626.  In  the  same  year  the  king 
wrote  to  the  lieutenant  of  Livonia,  that  noblemen  who  were 
not  rich  enough  to  ride  for  their  estates,  should  place  them- 
selves in  his  own  company  of  body-guards,  that  no  one 
might  escape  from  his  service ;  it  was  such  court  service  he 
desired,  but  no  waiter!:.     Hallenb.  v.  451. 


1632.] 


Its  objects  and 
organization. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


Representation  of 
the  army. 


219 


that  day  are  not  always  trustworthy  witnesses ;  his 
courtiers  did  not  entertain  the  same  view.  Even 
from  the  better  of  them  we  hear,  that  "  he  was  a 
heroical  prince,  of  such  a  humour,  that  to  subdue 
others  and  aggrandise  his  own  power,  he  laid  hands 
on  the  privileges  of  others  "."  The  only  harsh  and 
deliberate  wrong-doing  against  a  subject  which 
can  be  laid  to  the  king's  charge,  ^^•as  in  the  case  of 
a  young  nobleman  who  was  proud  enough  to  refuse 
personal  attendance  upon  him,  which  he  considered 
as  beneath  his  rank '. 

In  the  charter  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  for  the 
council  of  state,  the  baronage,  and  nobility,  to 
erect  a  house  of  barons  in  Stockholm  *,  the  chief 
points  to  be  noted  are  the  following : — The  whole 
baronage,  as  well  old  as  new,  in  Sweden  and  Fin- 
land, shall  be  enrolled  and  divided  into  families, 
after  three  orders  or  classes ;  the  first  compre- 
liending  those  who  have  been  elevated  to  the  rank 
of  lords  by  the  titles  of  count  or  free-baron,  accord- 
ing to  priority  of  creation  ;  the  second  those  who 
can  prove  that  any  one  of  their  ancestors  was 
a  councillor  of  state,  whereupon  their  position  shall 
be  determined  once  for  all  by  lot ;  the  third  all 
others  who  serve  for  their  freeholds,  and  of  whom 
the  elder  shall  take  their  places  by  lot,  the  younger 
according  to  their  patents  of  nobility.  Every 
family  shall  have  a  seal  made  for  itself,  with  arms, 
and  without  name,  that  shall  be  used  only  for 
statutes  of  the  diet  and  the  sealing  of  public  acts. 
The  council  of  the  realm  to  have  the  foremost  seat 
in  the  hall  of  barons,  but  without  voice,  and  every 
family  one  vote  by  him  whom  it  shall  choose  or 
constitute  to  be  its  head  for  the  diet ;  all  others 
(since  in  the  whole  baronage  he  who  has  come  to 
lawful  years,  and  has  no  lawful  excuse,  must  attend 
the  diet)  stand  in  the  hall,  to  listen  and  be  silent. 
He  who  takes  the  first  place  in  each  class,  collects 
the  votes  in  a  covered  vase,  counts  them  publicly, 
and  delivers  them  to  the  land-marshal.  The  plu- 
rality of  voices  in  each  class  to  constitute  its  vote, 
"  so  that  the  whole  baronage  shall  consist  of  three 
votes,"  according  to  the  classes.  The  land-mar- 
shal to  have  the  right  of  convening  the  baronage, 
of  bringing  before  it  the  propositions  of  the  king, 
of  conducting  the  delibei-ations,  of  receiving  the 
votes,  and  of  drawing  up  the  statute  by  the  secre- 

8  Words  ofcount  Peter  Brahe  in  the  council,  1636.  Palmsk. 
MSS.  t.  190,  p.  449.  So  too  the  old  hero  Jacob  de  la  Gardie 
expressed  himself;  "It  was  commonly  the  nature  of  king 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  of  happy  memory,  that  he  gladly  aug- 
mented his  regalities  and  kingly  grandeur,  but  diminished 
and  cut  down  the  privileges  of  others." 

^  "Our  subject  Eric  Brorson  (Ralamb)  hath  shown  dis- 
obedience to  us  (he  writes  to  the  council,  Hochst,  Nov.  19, 
1631),  and  in  such  sort  set  at  nought  our  will  and  command, 
that  while  we  sat  at  supper  yester  even  with  divers  foreign 
princes,  and  no  other  was  present  who  might  go  to  the  table 
and  give  us  due  attendance  at  such  a  feast,  and  we  com- 
manded himself,  in  order  that  all  might  not  end  indecorously, 
to  come  to  the  table,  and  there  perform  the  ordinary  fore- 
tasting, he  gave  so  little  heed  to  our  order,  in  the  presence 
of  such  princes  and  lords,  and  being  in  such  need,  when  no 
other  was  at  hand,  that  on  the  instant  he  left  the  room,  and 
rendered  no  further  service  to  us  during  this  repast."  The 
king  commanded  him  to  be  sent  home  and  tried;  but  the 
youth  escaped,  which  so  incensed  him  that  he  wrote  home 
to  order  the  deposition  of  Ralamb's  father,  Bror  Anderson, 
then  president  of  the  court  of  Abo,  and  the  sequestration  of 
his  fiefs,  for  not  having  better  trained  his  son.  Eric  Ralamb 
died  young  at  Paris  in  1635,  in  the  house  of  Grotius,  who,  as 


tary ;  he  is  to  be  nominated  by  the  crown.  Sin- 
gularly enough,  to  this  office  very  extensive  powers 
are  generally  ascribed,  for  it  is  said,  that  "  what 
with  our  permission  is  enjoined  and  resolved  by 
the  bai'onage,  the  land-marshal  is  to  execute,  and 
no  one  venture  to  set  himself  up  against  it ;  wherein 
also  our  lieutenants  in  the  provinces  shall  lend 
help  and  hand."  The  preponderance  of  the  old 
families  is  clear  from  the  reckoning  of  the  votes  by 
classes,  just  as  that  of  the  nobility  generally  in  the 
reserved  summons,  requiring  every  man  to  repair 
to  the  diets '.  It  was  also  the  land-marshal,  who 
with  two  nobles  of  each  class  had  to  deliver  to  the 
high  chancellor  the  statute  of  the  diet. 

The  officers  of  the  army  continued  to  be  called 
to  the  diets.  The  statutes  were  passed  in  the 
name  of  the  "  council  and  estates,  counts,  free- 
barons,  bishops,  nobles,  clergy,  military  com- 
manders, burgesses,  and  common  folk  (menige  all- 
moge)  of  the  realm  of  Sweden  *  ;"  but  the  military 
commanders,  although  not  named  in  the  ordinance 
for  the  house  of  barons,  were  reckoned  of  the 
nobility.  The  spokesman  of  the  nobility  spoke  as 
well  for  his  own  order  as  for  the  higher  and  lower 
delegates  of  the  army.  In  the  deliberations  which 
preceded  the  king's  coronation,  "  the  nobility  and 
war-folk"  made  conjoint  remarks  in  reference  to 
the  warranty  which  was  to  be  required  of  the  king, 
and  the  oath  of  the  nobility  to  Gustavus  Adolphus 
was  sworn  by  "  Sweden's  baronage  and  nobility, 
military  commanders  and  common  war- folk  2." 

With  all  this  enhancement  of  the  influence  of 
the  nobility,  the  king  yet  possessed,  in  respect 
to  all  the  estates,  the  power  requisite  for  a  ruler, 
of  having  the  last  word  in  deliberations  and  reso- 
lutions. This  may  best  be  inferred  from  the  Or- 
dinance for  Diets,  passed  in  1617,  nine  years  earlier 
than  the  ordinance  (ordning)  for  the  house  of 
barons,  because  much  disorder  had  heretofore  been 
at  the  diets,  and  many  had  attended  imsummoned. 
When  the  diet  shall  begin  and  the  estates  assemble 
in  their  hall,  the  king's  chair  is  to  be  set  foremost, 
duke  Charles  sitting  on  his  right,  and  duke  John 
on  his  left ;  thereafter  to  the  right  along  the  wall 
the  five  high  officers  of  the  realm,  to  the  left  the 
remaining  councillors ;   further   to   the   right,   on 

well  as  Oxenstierna,  highly  esteemed  him.  Adlersparre, 
Hist.  Collections,  i.  151. 

8  June  6,  1626.  "  Thereby  to  defend  their  privileges,  and 
for  the  holding  of  conferences,  weddings,  and  other  solem- 
nities ;  as  also  there  to  institute  a  school  and  college  for 
youth ;  likewise  that  the  baronage  may  assemble  at  diets 
and  congresses  in  their  hall,  there  to  consider  and  deliberate 
in  order  on  the  affairs  proposed  to  Ihem  ;  as  also  that  in  their 
ordinary  meetings  may  come  together,  as  upon  a  burse,  those 
who  have  disputes  between  them,  which  are  to  be  settled  not 
by  course  of  law  but  by  compact,  or  who  have  somewhat  to 
handle  among  themselves." 

9  Axel  Oxenstitrna  finds  herein  an  accessory  precaution. 
Among  the  grounds  which,  under  the  government  of  the 
guardians  in  1642,  the  chancellor  stated  in  the  council 
against  the  reque>t  of  the  nobility  to  send  their  committees 
to  the  diets,  is  mentioned,  that  it  interests  their  dignity  to 
maintain  their  votes,  which  is  a  great  dignity  and  liberty 
of  the  realm,  and  that  they  come  together  to  avert  much 
evil  that  might  befall.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190. 

1  So  long  as  the  hereditary  princes  lived,  and  the  queen 
dowager  was  guardian  to  her  younger  son,  their  names 
appear  first  in  the  statutes  of  the  diet. 

2  See  the  oath  in  Stiernnian,  Resolutions  of  Diets  and 
Meetings,  i.  728. 


220 


Order  of  proceeding  in  the 
general  diets. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Instances  of  provincial 
diets. 


[leil- 


certain  benches  thereto  appointed,  counts,  free- 
barons,  nobles,  and  next  these  last  the  officers  of 
the  army  ;  to  the  left,  next  the  councillors,  the 
bishops  and  clergy,  then  the  burgesses,  and  lowest, 
in  the  middle  of  the  hall,  the  order  of  yeomen. 
Only  deputies  might  be  present  at  the  diets,  except 
the  younger  nobles,  who  stood  at  the  door.  After  the 
king,  accompanied  by  the  estates,  shall  have  entered 
the  hall  and  saluted  them,  first  every  prince  of  the 
royal  family,  himself  or  by  deputy,  then  one  of  the 
baronage  (the  land-marshal  after  the  ordinance 
for  the  house  of  barons  was  made)  for  the  nobility 
and  army,  and  lastly,  the  archbishop  for  the  un- 
noble  estates  collectively,  most  humbly  offer  to  the 
king  their  congi'atulations.  Thereupon  the  kmg 
enumerates  the  points  which  the  estates  have  to 
consider,  and  with  the  same  escort  returns  to  his 
chamber.  Thereafter  the  estates  come  again  into 
their  hall,  whence  each  estate  repaii's  to  its  cham- 
ber, to  consult  upon  the  points  and  reduce  to 
writing  its  answer  and  opinion.  This,  "  if  it  can- 
not be  done  in  one  day,  may  be  done  in  two,  three, 
or  more,"  during  which  the  estates  may  also,  if 
they  so  wish,  assemble  for  common  deliberation. 
For  the  preservation  of  secrecy,  sworn  clerks  are 
appointed  to  the  yeomen,  and  for  the  same  end  no 
one  was  permitted  to  take  home  the  king's  propo- 
sitions (the  only  subjects  of  deliberation),  but  the 
estates  were  to  peruse,  consider,  and  advise  upon 
the  same  at  the  place  appointed.  When  the  answer 
is  prepared,  the  estates  again  assemble  and  occupy 
their  places.  Then  will  the  king's  majesty  ag.iiu 
come  to  them  and  hear  their  reply,  which  every 
estate  shall  separately  deliver  in  writing  by  its 
deputies,  explaining  the  same  with  reasons.  Now 
if  his  majesty  be  contented  with  the  answer,  well 
and  good.  If  there  be  any  hesitation  thereupon, 
then  his  majesty  rejoins  either  in  writing  or  orally, 
accoi'ding  as  the  importance  of  the  affair  demands. 

Where  any  difference  is  found  between  the  re- 
solutions of  the  estates,  each  estate  may  in  presence 
of  the  king's  majesty  set  forth  and  defend  its 
opinion,  in  order  that,  when  the  reasons  are  heard, 
they  may  the  better  be  able  to  uphold  them  against 
one  another,  and  to  discern  which  has  the  best 
grounds  ;  so  long  as  until  a  i-easonable  understand- 
ing is  brought  about,  or  "  the  king's  majesty  selects 
therefrom  what  is  best  *."  This  ordinance  was  re- 
ceived by  the  estates  as  "  good,  fit,  and  seemly." 

Simple  forms  these,  the  first  appointed  for  a 
Swedish  diet  of  estates ;  and  yet  in  fact  little 
different  from  the  oldest,  in  which  the  king  spoke 
to  the  land's  army,  and  acclamation  decided  the 

3  Ordinance  which  shall  be  observed  in  assemblies  of  the 
estates  of  the  realm,  and  in  the  collection  of  votes  at  the 
diets,  made  at  Orebro,  Jan.  24,  161 T.     Stiernman,!.  c.  i.  706. 

■•  At  the  diet  of  16 11,  on  the  accession  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  the  first  writ  of  summons  was  changed  in  such  sort, 
that  whereas  only  two  clergymen  (besides  the  bishop  and 
member  of  the  chapter)  were  first  called  from  each  diocese, 
it  was  now  added,  that  from  every  hundred,  "  as  had  for- 
merly been  usual,"  one  clergyman  should  come.  To  the 
same  diet  of  1611,  as  to  that  of  1617,  two  yeomen  from  every 
hundred  were  summoned.  On  other  occasions,  (as  in  1635,) 
only  "one  discreet  and  prudent  dannema  i,"  or  goodman, 
was  summoned  from  every  hundred. 

•''  Resolution  of  the  estates  of  Finland,  in  Helsingfors  and 
the  government  of  Borfjo,  July  30,  IGll.  Stiernman,  1.  c. 
i.  698.     Compare  Hallenberg. 

"  See  the  letter  of  the  estates  of  Finland  to  the  estates  of 


adojjtion  of  the  statute.  Nor  was  the  plan  of  repre- 
sentation by  estates  yet  fully  developed.  This  can 
properly  be  said  only  of  the  first  estate,  which  out- 
weighed the  rest.  Much  was  yet  indeterminate. 
The  presence  of  all  the  nobles  (unless  hindered  by 
years,  sickness,  or  the  public  service)  was,  though 
required  by  law,  hardly  possible.  Of  the  clergy 
were  commonly  summoned  the  bishop  of  every 
diocese,  with  a  member  of  the  chapter,  and  a 
minister  from  every  hundred  ;  of  the  burgesses, 
the  burgomaster,  and  one  of  the  council  or  the 
commonalty  in  every  town  ;  of  the  yeomen,  one  or 
two  from  every  hundred*.  Frequent  and  short 
diets,  bad  roads,  war,  and  other  hindrances  led  to 
the  absence  of  many  deputies,  especially  from  re- 
mote places.  Thus  no  one  from  Finland  attended 
the  diet  of  Orebro  in  1614,  which  lasted  somewhat 
more  than  a  month  ;  wherefore  at  a  congress  iti 
Borgo  the  king  caused  some  of  the  estates  of  Fin- 
land to  confirm  the  resolutions  of  those  of  Sweden, 
and  obtained  the  subscriptions  of  the  others  iu 
theu'  own  districts  ''.  In  the  year  1616,  during  the 
Russian  war,  the  king  held  with  the  estates  of 
Finland  a  separate  diet  of  a  week,  at  which  was 
granted  a  tallage  of  equal  amount  with  that  of  16i:{. 
The  Finns  thereupon  exhorted  the  Swedish  estates 
by  a  special  letter,  to  be  in  like  manner  ready  lor 
the  defence  of  their  father-land,  which  they  ex- 
pected the  rather  as  they  had  themselves  suffered 
most  by  the  war.  This  admonition  was  first  answered 
by  the  estates  of  Smaland,  who,  assembled  at  Cul- 
mar,  thanked  the  Finns  for  their  zeal,  and  promised 
to  pay  the  tax  with  the  same  readhiess,  which  the 
king  forthwith  levied  over  the  whole  kingdom, 
excusing  himself  on  the  ground,  that  the  time 
allowed  of  no  other  course  ^. 

We  consequently  here  find  provincial  estates  in 
some  sort  making  enactments  for  the  whole  king- 
dom ;  and  the  examples  referred  to  show  us  like- 
wise how  aids  were  granted  while  their  amount 
was  left  undetermined.  The  tax  above-mentioned 
was  the  so-called  "  landtogsgard"  or  war-aid,  for 
the  support  of  the  army.  At  the  diet  of  1612,  the 
yeomanry  engaged  to  assist  his  majesty  with  their 
contributions  lor  this  purpose,  "  according  to  their 
ability  and  the  matter ;"  whereupon  the  king's 
commissioners  were  to  negotiate  with  them  further 
in  their  various  districts.  This  was  usual  with 
taxes  which  were  paid  in  produce  ^.  On  the  other 
hand  the  notion  began  to  prevail,  that  money-aids 
must  be  granted  and  fixed  at  general  diets  *.     Yet 


Sweden,  and  that  of  the  estates  of  Smaland  to  the  Finns  in 
Widekindi,  1.  c.  339.  341. 

7  Final  declaration  of  the  commonalty  respecting  the  aid 
(hjelp)  they  have  granted.  Stockholm,  Nov.  25,  1612.  Stiern- 
man, 1.  c.  i.  678.  At  the  same  time  the  yeomanry  charged 
themselves  with  a  fixed  benevolence  of  four  dollars  (2§  rix- 
dollars,  specie),  for  every  crown  and  scot-farm,  and  two 
substantial  peasants  of  the  nobility  were  to  be  reckoned  for 
one  crown  or  scot-peasant. 

"  In  the  year  1614  the  council  of  state  could  devise  no 
other  means  of  carrying  on  the  Russian  war,  than  nego- 
tiating for  supplies  with  the  yeomanry  ;  a  money-aid  it  was 
not  in  the  power  of  these  to  give,  nor  could  the  king  enjoin 
such  without  a  general  diet,  which  again  could  not  con- 
veniently be  held  during  his  absence  ;  the  yeomanry  could 
most  easily  be  persuaded  to  a  considerable  war  tax,  and 
for  that  reason  the  council  of  state  had  drawn  up  a  project 
for  it.  Puncta  Senatus  Consulli,  in  Widekindi,  240.  The 
tax  was  levied. 


1632.] 


Taxation. 
Money  aids. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     INTERNAL  RELATIONS- 


Power  of  the 
purse. 


221 


to  tliis  inile  necessity  induced  some  exceptions. 
When  in  1613,  after  the  peace  with  Denmark,  the 
ransom  for  Elfsborg  was  to  be  defrayed  in  money, 
the  king,  in  order  that  the  land  might  not  so  often 
be  burdened  with  diets,  convened  instead  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Estates,  consisting  of  two  noblemen 
from  every  province,  the  bishops  and  one  clergy- 
man of  every  chapter,  with  the  burgomaster  and 
council  of  Stockholm  on  behalf  of  the  towns^,  which 
in  conjunction  with  the  council  was  to  delibei-ate 
upon  the  matter.  It  is  indeed  stated  in  their  pro- 
posal, that  "  they  wished  in  nowise  to  prejudice  any 
of  the  other  estates  who  were  not  present,  or,  to 
deprive  them  of  their  right  of  advice  and  assent ;" 
but  the  proposal  was  enforced  as  a  statute  ;  and 
the  heaviest  tax  which  had  ever  heretofore  been 
paid  in  Sweden,  was  granted  in  no  other  manner  '. 
The  silence  observed  upon  the  subject  at  the  two 
following  diets  was  regarded  as  an  express  consent. 
So  it  came  to  pass  that  one  million  rix-dollai's  were 
paid  in  six  years,  at  a  time  when  a  rix-dollar  was 
worth  a  tun  (four  bushels)  of  rye  ^.  This  was  in  the 
extremest  public  emergency;  wherefore  the  king 
and  the  council  sent  the  silver  to  the  mint  for  the 
ransom  of  Elfsborg,  and  the  nobles  had  no  exemp- 
tion for  their  vassals  ^. 

The  Ordinance  of  Diets  did  not  put  an  end  to 
informalities  of  this  kind.  It  contains  no  particular 
provision  for  the  manner  of  granting  the  taxes, 
and  herein  law  and  custom  were  partly  indetermi- 
nate and  partly  contradictory.  We  have  remarked 
that  at  an  early  period  several  of  the  public  contri- 
butions had  changed  their  original  character  of 
casual  benevolences  and  become  standing  imposts  *. 
Paid  in  a  multitude  of  dissimilar  circumstances, 
according  to  the  various  conditions  of  the  provinces 
(a  disparity,  which  exists  at  the  present  day),  they 
collectively  formed  what  are  called  the  yearly 
rents  in  the  oldest  ground-rent  books  of  the  crown, 
which  have  been  preserved  from  the  days  of  Gus- 
tavus  I.  New  branches  were  constantly  grafted 
on  the  old  stems.  Thus  we  find,  at  the  time  when 
the  land's  law  was  promulgated,  general  complaints 
current  which  this  code  itself  does  not  name,  and 
the  provincial  laws  occasionally  forbid.  During 
the  union,  when  in  so  many  respects  might  passed 
for  right,  many  such  grievances  appear  to  have 
arisen  from  the  conduct  of  the  foreigners  who  held 
the  prefectures,  as  building  aids  and  day-service  at 

0  Compare  Hallenberg,  ii.  665. 

'  Stiernman,  i.  689. 

2  The  ransom  money  for  Elfsborg  was  payable  in  four 
years,  but  the  last  payment  was  not  made  till  the  20th 
January,  1619,  when  the  aid  yielded  a  surplus  of  200,000 
Swedish  dollars  (ISS.aSS^  rix-doUars,  specie),  which  was 
applied  to  the  discharge  of  the  other  debts  of  the  crown. 
L.  c.  iv.  810.  For  the  ransom  of  Elfsborg,  according  to  the 
statute  of  July  22,  1613,  the  baronage  and  nobility  paid  for 
every  horse,  which  the  trooper  service  obliged  them  to  keep, 
32  rix-dollars  yearly,  a  bishop  40,  a  chamberlain  or  secretary 
40,  a  superintendent,  or  a  minister  in  town  or  country,  16 
(the  bishop,  however,  settling  the  payment  of  each  as  was 
fair),  a  professor  or  schoolmaster  8,  a  chaplain  of  a  town  4, 
in  the  country  2,  a  rentmaster,  mintmaster,  or  officer  of 
the  customs  50,  a  bailiff  or  clerk  10,  an  under-justice  and 
law-reader  12,  every  captain,  lieutenant,  or  cornet  of  cavalry 
20,  of  infantry  12,  privates  on  horse  and  foot,  apparitors  and 
such  like  possessing  a  farm,  with  burgesses  and  peasants, 
freeholders  and  unfree  without  difference,  2  rix-dollars 
(besides  burgesses  and  miners  according  to  their  means) ; 
every  lad  of  fifteen  1,  every  girl  half  a  rix-dollar.    The  tax 


the  castles  (which  liowever  ai'e  partly  older),  quar- 
tering of  soldiers  and  imposts  under  different 
names  for  their  support,  with  the  foddering  of 
horses  on  account  of  the  king  and  his  officers  *. 
Charles  Canuteson's  prefects  were  no  better  than 
the  foreigners.  The  rule  of  the  Starts  brought 
some  alleviation  of  the  burdens  of  the  people, 
which  is  true  especially  of  the  administration  of 
Steno  Stur^  the  elder,  but  the  state  of  war  con- 
tinued unremittingly  from  his  last  days  to  the  end 
of  the  union,  and  in  the  general  disorder  the  mag- 
nates appear,  as  possessors  of  the  crown  fiefs,  to 
have  taken  due  pi'ccaution  that  the  new  burdens 
should  not  fall  into  desuetude.  Thus  had  the  old 
popular  right  of  self-taxation  become  more  and 
more  a  subject  for  the  arbitrary  disposal  of  the 
governors.  These  relations  suffered  little  change 
imder  the  first  kings  of  the  Vasa  family ;  especially 
as,  according  to  the  land's  law,  supply  was  not 
yet  a  question  for  the  diet  in  the  later  sense  ^,  and 
the  representation  long  continued  to  oscillate  be- 
tween provincial  and  general  estates.  The  crown, 
with  augmented  power,  naturally  intervened  ;  and 
thus  we  see  Gustavus  I.  sometimes  laying  on  lieavy 
taxes,  with  no  reference  except  to  the  consent  of 
the  council.  His  sons  were  not  more  scrupulous 
in  this  respect, and  the  irregular  reign  of  John  III. 
in  particular,  with  few  diets  and  almost  incessant 
wars,  is  marked  by  a  crowd  of  high  taxes  arbi- 
trarily imposed  ;  albeit  tliose  granted  by  the 
estates  were  Iiigher  than  ever.  On  the  deposition 
of  king  Eric,  for  instance,  every  fifth  penny  on 
moveable  and  fixed  property,  and  in  1573  every 
tenth  penny  on  all  moveable  property  was  paid  '. 
We  find  taxes  levied  at  will, — the  so-called  war 
tributes  or  others  resembling  them,  almost  yearly  *. 
The  numerous  diets  of  Charles  IX.  in  part  changed 
this  relation,  and  at  that  of  1602  we  observe  even 
the  amount  of  a  tax  granted  was  fixed,  although  it 
was  to  be  paid  in  wares  ^.  Yet  this  was  not  the 
rule.  In  the  statute  of  the  same  diet  the  estates 
say  :  "  As  touching  portages,  tendance  and  lodg- 
ment of  travellers  (which  be  very  heavy  burdens), 
also  the  manifold  small  payments  which  subjects 
have  yearly  to  make,  as  well  as  the  clearing  of 
fields  and  meadows,  we  have  referred  all  that  to 
our  gracious  prince  and  lord  ;  and  what  herein 
his  princely  grace,  in  unison  with  his  council,  shall 

was  to  be  paid  in  rix-dollars  of  full  weight  or  good  silver, 
one  ounce  and  a  tenth  reckoned  to  the  rix-dollar.  He  that 
possessed  no  rix-dollars,  either  Swedish  or  foreign,  was  to 
pay  in  current  Swedish  coin,  not  less  than  half-dollars, — six 
marks  or  one  dollar  and  a  half  being  counted  to  the  rix- 
dollar, — or  in  copper,  iron,  and  grain,  the  pound  of  copper 
being  valued  at  IJ  rix-dollar,  the  skeppund  of  iron  at  4, 
the  tun  of  wheat  at  IJ,  the  tun  of  rje  or  malt  at  1  rix-dollar. 
See  the  statute  in  Stiernman,  i.  C84,  and  Hallenberg,  it.  671. 

s  That  is  according  to  the  statute.  The  king  complains 
of  frauds  in  the  execution. 

<  Compare  p.  88. 

5  Compare  queen  Margaret's  excuses  as  to  this  matter, 
p.  62. 

s  It  was  decided  in  the  cases  where  the  law  permitted  it, 
(compare  p.  89),  by  agreement  between  the  different  pro- 
vinces. 

7  Statement  of  John  Skytte  in  the  council,  1627.  Palmsk. 
MSS. 

8  According  to  notes  in  the  archives  of  the  treasury, 
obligingly  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  Bergfalk. 

9  Mandate  in  respect  to  the  aids  granted  by  the  yeomanry, 
Stockholm,  June  17,  1612.    Stiernman,  i.  541. 


222 


Frequency  of  diets. 
Commissions  of  estates 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Supplies  granted  to  tiie 
crown  in  ttiis  reign. 


[1611— 


further  do  and  ordain,  to  the  benefit  of  the  realm 
and  his  subjects,  we  will  fully  accept,  guiding  our- 
selves thereby  as  obedient  subjects,  and  it  may  be 
at  convenience  entered  in  the  law-book."  Although 
the  last  words  aimed  at  settling  the  point  by  law 
once  for  all  upon  the  occasion,  we  see  that  the 
estates  referred  the  decision  to  the  government. 
The  economic  legislation  which  in  Sweden  to  this 
day  appertains  solely  to  the  king,  is  thus  sho\vn  to 
have  formerly  included  a  somewhat  extensive  right 
of  taxation. 

Over  the  grave  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  it  was 
said :  "  He  received  his  kingdom  with  two  empty 
hands,  yet  deprived  no  man  of  his  own  by  violence ; 
but  what  the  necessities  of  the  realm  required, 
that  did  he  let  his  people  know  on  their  days  of 
free  assemblage,  that  they  might  consider  the 
matter,  and  give  tribute  to  the  crown  according  to 
its  need  ^."  In  comparison  with  earlier  times  this 
judgment  may  be  viewed  as  correct,  and  it  belongs 
to  the  undying  renown  of  this  king  that  he,  the 
greatest  warrior  of  the  Swedish  throne,  was  of  all 
the  rulers  of  his  house  the  least  given  to  violence. 
Those  who  speak  so  much  of  the  weight  of  taxes  with 
which  he  loaded  the  country,  should  at  least  reflect 
that  what  under  him  was  done  by  the  law,  was 
before  hira  often  done  against  law,  and  that  arbi- 
trariness, heretofore  almost  the  rule,  now  appears 
the  exception.  The  times  were  difficult  and  try- 
ing ;  legal  forms,  as  we  have  seen,  indeterminate. 
Hence  the  dissimilarity  in  their  application,  even 
after  the  issue  of  the  ordinance  for  diets.  The 
committees  or  commissions  of  estates  (Utskotten), 
which  afterwards  assumed  a  part  so  important  in 
the  history  of  the  Swedish  legislature,  begin  with 
that  most  important,  of  themselves  enacting  statutes, 
as  a  diet  in  miniature,  with  the  right  of  the  entire 
body  ;  for  sometimes  the  collective  estates,  some- 
times again,  when  circumstances  demand  speedy 
resolutions,  only  "  some  of  the  chief  men  among 
the  estates  of  the  realm"  are  convoked.  Howbeit, 
the  diets  were  frequent ;  for  Gustavus  Adolphus 
governed,  like  his  father,  in  unremitting  concert 
with  the  estates  of  the  realm,  even  as  to  affairs 
belonging  to  the  foreign  policy  of  the  kingdom  ^. 
In  the  year  1617  general  diets  were  held  both  at 
Orebro  and  Stockholm,  where  the  estates  granted 
for  the  Polish  war  the  war-tax  before-mentioned, 
the  amount  being  now  fixed.  In  the  year  1620, 
some  delegates  of  the  nobility,  the  bishops,  with 
deputies  of  some  towns,  were  convened  at  Stock- 
holm, in  order  to  consider  the  disputes  with  Den- 
mark in  common  with  the  council  and  the  lieu- 
tenants of  the  provinces ;  and  this  commission 
ordained  the  levying  of  the  so-called  cattle-money, 
which  was  to  be  paid  for  two  years  according  to 
the  number  of  the  horses,  the  large  and  small 
cattle,  and  the  amount  of  land  sown.  It  was  a 
property-tax,  which  the  peasants  of  the  nobility- 
paid  in  the  proportion  of  half  against  crown  and 
tax-peasants,  and  from  which  the  clergy  with  the 
towns  freed  themselves  through  a  separate  benevo- 

'  Funeral  sermon  on  Gustavus  Adolphus,  in  Stockholm, 
June  22,  1634,  by  Johannes  Botvidi. 

2  "  While  Gustavus  Adolphus  lived,  he  inquired  of  the 
estates  collectively,  if  he  should  go  hither  or  thither,  nam 
quod  populus  vull,  Deus  vult;  bnt  how  he  should  take  the 
matter  in  hand  he  by  no  means  communicated  to  the  estates, 
hut  to  some  of  the  council,  sub  fide  sileniii."  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna,  in  the  council,  1630.     Palmsk.  MSS. 


lence.  In  the  year  1621  a  general  diet  was  held, 
at  which  the  war- tax  was  renewed ;  and  again  in 
1622,  when  "the  little  toll"  and  the  excise  were 
introduced,  and  the  impost  on  cattle  was  pro- 
longed, the  king  remitting  half  of  the  aid  for  the 
public  buildings.  The  diet  of  1624  doubled  the 
cattle-tax  for  two  years  ;  and  in  1625  all  the  estates 
granted  the  mill-toll,  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
standing  army.  The  year  1627  saw  two  diets,  in 
February  and  December ;  the  former  of  which 
again  renewed  the  cattle-tax,  the  latter  commenced 
a  change  of  the  mill-toll  into  the  poll-tax,  called 
man-tale-money  (mantalspenningar).  At  the  same 
time  a  secret  committee  of  all  four  estates  was  by 
the  king's  wish  elected,  in  order  to  declare  their 
sentiments,  as  with  the  right  of  the  collective  body, 
upon  the  religious  war  in  Germany.  The  Opinion 
of  the  Committee  is  dated  January  28,  1628,  and 
was  approved  by  the  estates  when  they  reassembled 
in  1629.  This  was  the  last  general  diet  of  his 
reign.  In  the  years  1630,  1631,  1632,  only  com- 
missions of  estates,  including  delegates  of  the 
nobles,  clergy,  army,  and  burgesses,  were  called 
together,  although  these  conventions  were  some- 
times styled  diets.  At  the  first  of  these  the  king 
made  a  proposal  (since  there  was  a  sufficient  force 
of  soldiers  in  the  country  to  watch  the  frontiers, 
and  he  could  employ  mostly  foreigners  abroad),  that 
his  subjects  should  ransom  themselves  with  money 
from  the  levies.  "  But  forasmuch  as  it  falls  some- 
what hard  upon  us  (was  the  reply)  to  grant  this 
time  such  a  sum  of  money,  especially  as  the  com- 
monalty (or  yeomanry),  on  whom  it  most  presses, 
have  not  themselves  been  present ;  so  it  may 
please  his  majesty  to  appoint  commissaries,  who 
shall  travel  until  the  harvest  in  every  province, 
convening  noble  and  unnoble,  to  concert  with  them 
fully  what  they  are  willing  to  do  in  this  respect." 
The  king's  own  letters  hereupon  to  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  provinces  are  dated  from  the  fleet, 
in  which  he  was  upon  the  point  of  sailing  for 
Germany  '.  At  the  outset  of  the  following  year 
the  council  informs  him  that  neither  this  levy- 
money  nor  the  cattle-tax  could  be  collected,  on 
account  of  the  bad  harvest,  although  the  latter 
impost  had  again  been  voted  for  two  years  at  the 
diet  of  1629.  The  king,  albeit  at  the  moment  re- 
duced to  the  greatest  straits,  remitted  both.  "We 
will  rather  lose  the  aid,"  he  writes,  "  than  give 
occasion  to  slander,  and  let  unjust  stewards  htrd 
their  pockets  with  the  sweat  and  blood  of  the 
people,  paying  us  and  the  army  with  disputes  *." 

On  the  elections  to  the  diet  the  king  did  not 
bring  to  bear  all  that  influence  which  was  exer- 
cised by  the  government  after  him.  We  find  that 
the  bishops,  for  the  most  part,  selected  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  clergy*;  and  that  the  burgo- 
masters of  the  towns  were  regarded  as  summoned 
in  right  of  their  office,  we  may  conclude  from  the 
writs  of  convocation.     It  may  be  noted,  that  the 

3  Elfsnabben  (a  haven  in  the  island  of  Muske,  on  the 
coast  of  Suthermanland),  June  9,  1630.     Reg. 

1  To  the  diet,  New  Brandenburg,  Feb.  3,  1631.  Reg.  On 
Feb.  18,  1632,  the  commission  of  estates  determined  for  the 
continuation  of  the  cattle-tax  for  two  years  longer. 

5  Before  the  diet  of  1621,  letters  were  sent  to  the  bishops, 
that  they  should  take  with  them  to  the  diets  the  most  dis- 
creet and  intelligent  of  their  clergy,  who  could  comprehend 
the  dangers  of  their  country,  could  give  some  counsel,  and 
might  be  spoken  with  confidentially.     Hallenberg,  v.  135. 


1632.] 


Declarations  of 
the  estates. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


Collection  of 
taxes. 


223 


king  sometimes  evades  the  presence  of  the  yeo- 
manry, and  rather,  especially  when  he  himself  is 
absent,  convenes  a  commission  of  estates.  Yet  in 
the  general  diets  of  his  time  the  peasants  had  per- 
fectly free  right  of  speech.  This  most  clearly  ap- 
pears from,  the  measures  of  precaution  against  it 
which  the  government  of  Christina's  guardians 
foimd  it  convenient  to  take  ^. 

We  have  mentioned  all  the  diets  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  after  the  adoption  of  the  Ordinance  for 
Diets,  and  likewise  all  the  imposts  which  after  his 
day  became  permanent.  As  we  perceive,  they 
were  not  yet  so  under  his  reign,  but  were  mostly 
renewed  by  the  estates  from  time  to  time.  They 
were  first  converted  into  standing  taxes  by  the 
continued  wars.  In  their  distribution  he  sought 
as  much  as  possible  to  conform  to  the  principle  of 
equality  for  all  orders  according  to  their  means,  a 
rule  often  inculcated  as  well  by  the  king  as  the  es- 
tates. In  the  statute  for  the  introduction  of  the 
little  toll  (or  customs)  they  declare:  "  To  this  we 
will  all  of  us,  without  distinction  of  I'ank,  excepting 
none,  submit  ourselves,  that  by  the  exemption  of 
one  and  the  other  great  frauds  may  not  be  occa- 
sioned, and  thus  the  crown  be  deprived  of  what  we 
have  well  resolved  and  promised  for  the  pursuit  of 
the  war;  yet  if  the  said  toll  should  in  future,  after 
some  time,  be  found  pernicious  and  unbearable  to 
us,  then  will  we  humbly  expect  from  the  king's 
majesty  that  it  should  not  be  continued '."  At  the 
diet  of  1625,  when  the  mill-toll  was  adopted,  the 
ground  was  stated  to  be,  "  that  the  aids  and  inde- 
terminate tributes  which  now  weigh  upon  the  land 
.will  not  bring  in  much,  forasmuch  as  the  chief  and 
richest  men  of  estate  in  the  land  with  their  hinds 
(lijon),  land-renters  and  folk  are  exempt  there- 
from ;"  wherefore  "  we  have  considered,  approved, 
and  agreed,  that  a  toll  may  be  laid  by  the  crown 
upon  all  the  grain  which  comes  to  the  mill  to  be 
ground,  belong  it  to  noble  or  unnoble,  learned  or 
unlearned,  no  one  excepted  who  is  settled  and 
resident  under  the  crown  of  Sweden."  The  nobles 
especially  bind  themselves  to  its  paj-ment  by  rea- 
son of  the  love  which  as  true  subjects  and  patriots 
they  bear  to  his  majesty  and  their  country.  No 
Swedish  king  before  Gustavus  Adolphus  demanded 
and  received  greater  sacrifices  from  the  nobility. 
The  hardest  remained  in  the  abolition  by  the  diet 

'  Before  the  diet  of  1635  the  administration  of  guardians 
instructed  the  provincial  prefects  that,  as  they  themselves 
well  knew  how  hard  it  was  to  get  to  an  end  with  the  com- 
mons at  the  diets,  since  the  hundreds  mostly  used  to  appoint 
for  their  deputies  "  such  as  are  outspoken  and  have  little  wit 
in  them;"  therefore  they  were  graciously  entreated  to  work 
to  this  end  (yet  cautiously  and  in  secret)  that  such  persons 
should  be  appointed  diet-men,  who  were  "  well-atfectioned 
and  serviceable  by  intelligence  and  spirit,"  to  consult  with 
tlie  other  estates  regarding  the  high  and  weighty  affairs  of 
the  realm  ;  which  the  prefects  should  in  such  sort  "perform 
with  management  and  discretion."  Stockholm,  Sept.  3, 1635. 
From  the  Nordin  MSS.  We  find  afterwards  the  crown 
bailiffs  choosing  the  representatives  of  the  yeomanry,  and 
sending  those  who  undertook  the  office  on  the  lowest  terms, 
drawing  themselves  to  the  highest  amount  the  wages  paid 
for  attendance.  This  was  forbidden  by  resolution,  on  the 
complaint  of  the  yeomanry,  in  1672  (compare  Stiernman, 
Resolutions  of  Diets  and  Meetings,  ii.  1649);  so  that  in 
future,  the  justice  of  the  hundred,  with  his  ncemnd,  should 
choose  fit  and  discreet  persons  to  be  diet  men.  But  in  1680 
Charles  XI.  declared:  "The  king's  majesty  totally  dis- 
approves that  the  justices  of  the  hundred  should  choose  and 


of  the  year  1627  of  all  exemptions  from  conscription 
previously  allowed.  "  Because  the  kingdom  is  best 
defended  by  native  Swedish  waiTiors,"  say  the  es- 
tates, "  we  have  all  conjointly  agreed  that  we,  for  the 
most  humble  service  of  his  majesty  and  the  relief 
of  the  realm,  should  respectively  set  on  foot  and 
undertake  a  general  levy,  by  which  every  tenth 
man,  be  he  dweller  upon  crown  or  faxed  lands, 
upon  freeholds  (whether  a  franklin  or  not),  upon 
the  farmsteads  of  priests,  bailiffs,  clerks,  and  other 
persons  exempted,  shall  be  taken  for  the  service  of 
the  crown  as  soldiers*.  In  like  manner  every 
tenth  man  shall  be  levied  in  the  towns  for  the  ser- 
vice of  the  fleet.  Yet  may  this,  because  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  privileges  of  the  nobles  and  other  im- 
munities, by  no  means  be  turned  to  the  prejudice 
of  their  successors."  Thus  the  matter  remained 
until  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  At  the 
same  time  the  nobility  consented  that  their  pea- 
santry, like  those  of  the  crown  and  taxed  estates, 
should  pay  the  impost  on  cattle.  From  such  incon- 
trovertible tokens  of  magnanimity  we  may  learn  the 
spirit  which  then  animated  the  estates  of  Sweden. 

Howbeit,  complaints  of  the  pressure  of  the  pub- 
lic burdens  were  not  unknown  ;  and  the  new  were 
not  introduced  without  disturbances.  In  1620  re- 
presentations were  made,  that  the  contributions 
which  were  heretofore  wont  to  be  paid  to  the 
crown  had  occasioned  discontents,  and  must  often 
be  lowered,  seeing  that  the  poor  and  indigent  paid 
equally  with  the  rich  and  prosperous,  whereby 
many  were  impoverished  and  their  farms  made 
waste  ^;  therefore  the  cattle  and  field-tax,  which 
was  now  ordered,  was  to  be  paid  according  to 
every  man's  ability.  But  as  for  the  ascertainment 
of  this,  ministers,  bailiffs,  and  the  six-men  of  the 
church  in  each  parish  had  to  enrol  the  cattle  and 
seed-corn  of  every  yeoman,  it  was  soon  found  that 
this  brought  with  it  great  inconveniences.  The 
land-tax  and  excise  imposed  bonds  hitherto  un- 
known in  Sweden  on  the  industry  of  the  country. 
Barriers  with  gates  and  toll-houses  were  built  to 
every  town,  and  inspectors  ^  appointed  ;  the  same 
forms  being  observed  at  the  market-places  through- 
out the  country.  The  most  ordinary  household 
business,  brewing,  baking,  or  killing,  could  no 
longer  be  pursued  freely  in  the  towns.  All  this 
caused  in  the  outset  great  discontent.     The  king 

appoint  diet-men  from  among  the  commonalty  ;  and  there- 
fore graciously  wills  that  the  people  themselves  elect  and 
appoint  their  diet  men  at  their  own  mind  and  pleasure,  only 
the  prefects  to  see  that  good  and  fit  men  be  chosen  thereto. 
But  for  what  concerns  the  review  of  their  petitions  to  be 
proposed,  which  the  prefects  pretend  should  first  be  made 
by  themselves,  it  cannot  be  refused  the  yeomanry  at  the 
general  diets,  to  allege  all  their  grievances  and  complaints 
which  they  may  have  to  prefer;"  1.  c.  i.  1839. 

^  The  nobles  were,  however,  personally  exempted  from 
the  little  toll. 

8  Although  bound  to  war  service,  the  nobles  (and  even 
their  domestics)  were  yet  personally  exempted.  Their  vassals 
had  otherwise  in  general  only  furnished  to  the  levy  half  the 
quota  of  the  other  peasantry. 

9  See  the  statute  of  the  diet.  A  difference  was  indeed 
made  between  the  full-stead,  or  full-taxed,  and  the  half- 
taxed  yeomen,  (two  of  whom  were  sorted  in  the  scale  with 
one  of  the  former,  and  two  cotters  with  one  of  the  half-taxed, 
as  appears  from  the  statute  for  the  war-tax  in  1617,)  but  all 
full-stead  peasants,  without  respect  to  the  difference  of  their 
means,  paid  alike.     (Compare  p.  89.) 

>  Brokikare  (bridge-keepers),  they  were  commonly  called. 


224 


Disturbances  occasioned 
thereby.     Conscription. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Warrant  to  tlie  commis- 
Barics  of  levy. 


[leu— 


complains  that  in  Stockholm  an  unruly  mob  had 
fallen  upon  the  toll-men,  maldng  "  horse-play  and 
mockery"  with  the  ordinance  for  the  toll  and 
excise,  wherefore  such  peace-breakers  and  law- 
contemners  are  threatened  to  be  punished,  upon 
trial  and  judgment,  with  death  *.  A  miller  was 
afterwards  beheaded  upon  the  market-place  of 
Upsala,  because  he  had  excited  the  peasants  at  the 
fiiir  of  Elfkarleby  to  refuse  the  toll,  as  if  it  had  not 
been  granted  by  the  estates.  In  West-Gothland, 
where  the  peasants  at  the  fair  of  Hofva  drove  away 
the  inspectors,  and  tore  down  and  burned  the  toll- 
house, two  of  the  ringleaders  were  condemned  to 
death  ;  and  the  Vermelanders,  who  at  the  fair  of 
Bro  (afterwards  Christinehamn)  had  committed 
similar  disorders,  were  only  pardoned  because  the 
revolt  had  arisen  mostly  out  of  their  ignorance  of 
the  ordinance  issued  ^.  The  mill-toll,  afterwards 
separately  introduced,  was  a  burdensome  impost  ^, 
the  rather  that,  to  preserve  the  needful  superin- 
tendence, all  the  smaller  superfluous  brook  or 
windmills,  and  at  last  even  the  hand-mills,  which 
the  poor  chiefly  used,  must  be  destroyed.  This 
was  soon  found  to  be  a  harsh  and  useless  measure, 
and  led  to  tumults^,  which  caused  the  king  to 
write  from  Germany,  that  "  the  querns  might  be 
suffered  to  remain  in  use;  he  held  it  a  sufficient  mill- 
toll,  when  a  man  worked  so  that  his  hands  should 
burn  "."  We  have  already  mentioned,  that  this  im- 
post was  converted  into  the  so-called  man-tale- 
money,  by  which  was  again  introduced  a  personal 
scot  that  had  been  formerly  paid  with  the  same 
name  for  some  time  under  Charles  IX.,  by  the 
unnoble  estates  for  the  maintenance  of  the  army, 
but  had  been  abolished  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  as 
oppressive  to  the  poor '. 

The  rigour  of  the  levies  was  most  keenly  felt 
during  so  long  a  period  of  war.  "  In  these,"  says 
Axel  Oxenstierna,  "  different  methods  have  been 
followed  in  the  times  of  former  sovereigns  ;  some- 
times all  farm-servants  have  been  taken  ;  in  the 
times  of  king  Eric  and  John  all  cotters*,  and 
where  more  than  one  peasant  are  found  on  a  farm, 
the  rest  are  enrolled  ;  sometimes  they  went  by 
the  number  of  men,  sometimes  by  that  of  farm- 
steads ^."  In  order  to  illustrate  the  procedure 
under  the  reign  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  we  will  quote 
an  extract  from  the  royal  warrant  for  the  Com- 
missaries of    Levy  *  over    the  whole  kingdom  in 

2  Warrant  for  the  defence  of  the  toll-servitors.  Stockholm, 
Nov.  2C,  1623.  The  sea-tolls  (or  great  customs)  were  old. 
The  duty  was  levied  on  goods  between  Sweden  and  Fin- 
land, and  between  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  Sweden,  which 
latter  practice  was  abolished  in  1649. 

3  This  happened  after  the  king's  death.  See  the  Reg.  for 
1635. 

*  A  tun  of  rye  was  now  worth  one  and  a  half  rix-doUar, 
specie.  The  toll  on  this  carne  nearly  to  one-sixth  rix-dollar  ; 
that  is,  a  ninth  went  to  the  crown,  besides  the  mill-owner's 
dues. 

*  As  in  the  hundred  of  Oppunda  in  Suthermanland.  Reg. 
for  1627. 

6  To  the  council  of  state.  Werben,  August  5,  1631.  Reg. 
On  this  however  Axel  Oxenstierna  remarks  ;  "  When  the 
king  exempted  the  hand-mills,  the  tax  was  lost,  and  did  not 
produce  50,000  dollars  in  the  whole  kingdom." 

'  Under  Charles  IX.  man-tale-money,  as  well  as  marriage- 
money  and  folk-money.,  was  granted  for  the  last  time  in  1610, 
for  one  year.  The  first  diet  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  abolished 
them.  Stiernman,  i.  662.  The  conversion  of  the  miD-toU 
into  the  poll-tax  began  in  1 627,  though  in  1624  a  separate  poU- 


1G27,  after  the  diet  held  at  the  beginning  of  this 
year  had  for  the  most  part  abolished  the  former 
exceptions.  The  yeomanry  shall  be  warned  from 
the  pulpit  to  assemble  by  their  hundreds,  with  an 
exhortation  for  every  man  to  attend,  as  also  minis- 
ters, household  servants,  ofKcers  and  soldiers  of 
the  army,  boatmen,  bailiff's,  farmers  of  crown  re- 
venues, clerks,  bailiffs'  men  and  servitors  of  the 
tribunals.  The  ministers  shall  first,  with  the  help 
of  the  vergers  and  the  six-men  of  the  parish,  make 
out  a  list  of  all  the  male  inhabitants  of  fifteen  years 
and  upwards,  for  the  accuracy  of  which  they  are 
responsible.  The  justices  and  bailiffs  of  the  hun- 
dreds shall  see  that  this  is  done.  On  the  day  of  the 
levy  the  commissioners  first  of  all  cause  their 
warrants  to  be  read,  and  demand  whether  all  be 
present.  Thereupon  they  take  the  minister's  roll, 
and  when  the  namnd  (the  same  twelve  peasants 
who  sit  in  the  hundred-court)  is  seated,  they  divide 
the  commons  into  "  rotes"  or  groups,  ten  scot  and 
crown  peasants,  and  ten  freeholding  yeomen  in 
each.  These  are  to  be  arranged  not  according  to 
the  number  of  farmsteads,  but  the  tale  of  heads  *. 
In  conducting  the  levy  cafe  is  to  be  had,  that  he 
who  is  taken  for  tlie  military  service  from  every 
rote,  shall  be  fresh  and  sound,  strong  of  limb,  and, 
so  far  as  can  be  discerned,  courageous  ^,  in  years 
from  eighteen  to  thirty  and  upwards  ;  that  where 
there  are  servants  iu  the  rote,  they  shall  be  taken 
before  the  peasants,  yet  so  that  the  son  of  parents 
who  have  already  one  son  in  service,  or  have  lost 
one  iu  battle  with  the  enemy,  shall  be  spared, 
if  any  other  help  may  be  found  ;  the  situation  of 
the  farms  shall  also  be  taken  into  consideration,  so 
that  he  who  possesses  a  large  farm  may  be  the 
rather  spared  in  the  choice.  The  commissaries 
are  to  count  in  the  rote  both  absent  and  present 
persons,  the  latter  being  made  responsible  for  the 
former.  If  any  one  be  kept  concealed,  the  minis- 
ter, verger,  or  namnd,  whoever  has  been  privy  to 
it,  is  to  be  mulcted,  and  the  person  hidden  is  noted 
as  a  vagabond.  Abuses  in  hiring  recruits  *,  neither 
officers  or  commissaries  were  to  permit,  but  the 
matter  was  to  rest  with  the  masters  of  the  array 
named  by  the  king  ;  afterwards  the  practice  was 
abolished  ^.  From  the  levy  no  one  was  exempt, 
excepting  the  house  and  farm-servants  of  the  no- 
bility, though  not  their  retainers,  with  the  needful 
attendants  of  ministers  whether  in  town  or  country. 

tax  paid  by  the  clergy  is  mentioned  in  the  statute  of  the  diet. 
The  mill-toll  was  again  levied  in  the  large  towns  in  1655. 

s  Torpare,  from  torp,  a  small  allotment  of  ground.    T. 

9  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the  council,  1641.  Palnisk.  MSS. 
t.  190. 

'  Feb.  12,  1627.     Reg.  for  this  year. 

2  "  Mantal."  This  however  means  here,  not  the  number  of 
individual  males,  but  the  number  of  households,  without 
regard  to  the  possession  of  a  larger  or  smaller  portion  of  land 
(comp.  Hallenberg,  iv.  546,  note  a) ;  so  that  not  ten  males, 
but  ten  households  furnished  one  soldier;  though  there  are 
also  examples  of  the  former. 

3  Gustavus  I.  and  Charles  IX.  (the  latter  of  whom  made 
it  his  boast)  were  great  physiognomists  in  this  and  other 
points,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus  did  not  yield  to  them. 

■•  See  complaints  touching  the  "  thieveries,"  which  oc- 
curred in  tliis  and  other  matters  during  1616,  in  Hallenberg, 
iv.  547.  In  1618,  a  captain,  with  his  lieutenant  and  ensign, 
was  executed,  because  they  had  forced  a  levy  in  Smalaud, 
and  allowed  illicit  hiring;  ibid.  726. 

5  In  the  year  1628.  Sketch  of  a  history  of  the  regiment 
of  Suthermanland,  ii.  45.     (Utkast  till  en  historia,  &c.) 


1632.] 


Conduct  of  the 
levies. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


Allocation  of  the 
soldiery. 


225 


In  mines  and  saltpetre  works,  factories  of  arms, 
and  ship-wliarfs,  only  superfluous  hands  were  to 
be  subject  to  the  levy,  and  all  new  settlers  on  land 
were  to  be  spared  as  much  as  possible ".  Vaga- 
bonds were  not  to  be  counted  in  the  "  rote-ring," 
but  to  be  pressed  as  such  to  serve  in  the  wars ; 
yet  they  who  had  forfeited  their  honour,  notorious 
offenders,  murderers,  homicides,  and  adulterers, 
must  not  be  received '.  In  the  same  way  the  levy 
of  sailors  was  to  be  made  in  the  towns,  for  which 
end  lists  were  to  be  drawn  up  by  ofticial  persons 
with  the  burgomasters  and  council.  In  the  coun- 
try the  lists  of  the  ministers  were  to  be  examined, 
and  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  hundred.  The 
repugnance  of  the  clergy  to  take  part  in  such 
arrangements  was  mitigated  by  the  weight  which 
their  word  carried  with  the  government,  which  ad- 
mitted the  maxim  that  it  was  their  province  to 
look  to  the  weal  of  the  flock.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
himself  regarded  the  clergy  as  a  kind  of  tribunes 
of  the  people,  and  paid  high  respect  to  the  order  ^. 
The  justice  of  the  hundred  and  the  bailiff  were  to 
watch  over  the  rights  both  of  the  public  and  of  in- 
dividuals in  the  levies.  The  presence  of  the  namnd 
for  the  same  purpose  gave  a  popular  aspect  to  the 
whole  rigorous  institute;  for  this  jury  was  to  ex- 
amine who  should  be  levied,  and  their  absence 
made  the  whole  proceeding  illegal^.  Sometimes 
they  outstepped  the  limits  of  their  functions.  Thus 
we  find  the  Dalesmen  in  1614  refusing  to  allow  the 
officers  to  hold  a  levy,  and  proceeding  to  do  so 
themselves.  Herewith  the  king  for  the  time  pro- 
fessed himself  satisfied,  in  order  to  quiet  pi-evious 
disturbances  \  arising  partly  from  the  weight  of 
the  taxes  for  which  the  Dalesmen  accused  the  no- 
bility 2,  partly  from  the  punishments  inflicted  on 
their  deserters  who  had  returned  home.  A  revolt 
of  more  consequence  broke  out  in  1624  on  the 
borders  of  Blekinge,  in  Smaland,  where  the  soldiers 
mutinied  against  their  colonel,  Patrick  Ruthven,  a 
Scotsman.  The  ringleader  now,  as  formerly  in 
the  Dacke  feud,  with  which  the  king  compares  this 
insurrection,  was  a  foreigner,  but  it  was  imme- 
diately suppressed  by  the  punishment  of  its  in- 
stigators. A  number  of  the  insurgent  peasants  were 
removed  with  their  households  to  Ingermanland; 
upon  the  promise  of  the  rest  to  remam  tranquil, 
the  king  ordered  the  inquiry  to  be  dropped.  In 
like  manner  he  treated  the  insurrectionary  move- 
ment of  1627,  in  the  parish  of  Orsa  in  the  Dales, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  a  tailor.  The  instigators 
were  condemned  to  death  ;  four  of  them  sent  to 
Ingermanland,  then  the  Siberia  of  Sweden;  and 
the  remainder  pardoned,  the  king  issuing  a  letter 

6  In  the  Register  for  1627,  under  Feb.  10,  is  preserved  a 
special  letter  of  the  king  in  regard  to  such  exemption  for 
new  settlers  in  Verraeland,  Nerike,  West-Gothland,  and 
Dalesland.  It  states  that  the  king  had  himself  ordered 
these  new  settlements,  with  which  good  progress  was  made. 

'  Reg.  for  161S,  quoted  in  the  History  of  the  Sutherman- 
land  Regiment,  ii.  43.  Those  of  each  rote  paid  what  was 
called  rote-money  to  the  person  on  whom  the  choice  fell. 

8  "  King  Gustavus  Adolphus  kept  the  clergy  constantly  in 
good  humour ;  for  they  are  as  it  were  tribunes  of  the  people," 
said  old  count  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  in  the  council,  in  1645. 
Palnisk.  MSS.  t.  190.  Several  of  the  magnates  therefore 
looked  on  the  clergy  with  little  affection.  "  In  Ens/land," 
said  count  Peter  Brahe  in  the  council,  in  1650,  "  all  men 
have  been  made  as  it  were  swine-feet  at  the  instigation  of 
the  clergy." 


that  no  one  should  reproach  the  Dalesmen  with 
the  misconduct  of  this  rebellious  company  *.  In 
the  following  year  the  hundreds  of  Kind  and 
Redveg  in  West-Gothland  refused  to  pay  the  poll- 
tax.  The  king  wrote  from  Prussia,  that  this  was 
caused  by  the  "  unreasonable  dunning  of  the  in- 
spectors," wherefore,  "  since  the  people  were  will- 
ing and  good  in  themselves,"  these  must  cease  their 
barbarous  proceedings  by  stroke  and  thrust,  or  be 
punished  ;  in  case  of  need,  troops,  "  yet  not  of  the 
same  province,"  might  be  employed  against  the 
revolters.  The  peasantry  returned  to  their  obe- 
dience, on  a  written  representation  from  the  king, 
that  the  war  was  waged  for  the  defence  of  their 
Christian  religion  *. 

On  the  issue  of  the  levy  just  described,  light  is 
thrown  by  some  remarks  of  Axel  Oxenstierna. 
"  When  king  Gustavus  Adolphus  set  about  the 
great  Prussian  war,  a  levy  was  voted  by  the  tale  of 
heads  (mantal),  and  the  crown  at  first  obtained  by 
one  year's  conscription  over  the  whole  kingdom 
15,000  men;  from  that  of  the  next,  12,000;  but 
afterwards,  when  every  man  had  time  to  think  of 
some  evasion,  not  more  than  6000  or  7000."  He 
adds:  "  Levy  by  the  tale  of  heads  was  the  old  cus- 
tom, and  the  king  vainly  endeavoured  to  persuade 
the  people  to  allow  it  to  be  made  by  the  number  of 
farmsteads  (gardetal),  so  that  the  occupants  might 
have  to  agree  upon  a  man  with  one  another^." 
The  frauds  alluded  to  were,  doubtless,  of  various 
kinds:  we  will  mention  but  one,  since  it  certainly 
contributed  to  that  inequality  in  taxation  which 
formed,  in  respect  to  the  scot-farms  (skattehem- 
man),  a  subject  of  complaint.  It  consisted  in  the 
owners  of  small  allotments  returning  themselves  as 
proprietors  of  full  yeomen's  holdings,  since  it  was 
a  principle  in  conducting  the  levy  to  take  the 
smaller  landholders  before  the  greater  ^.  The  view 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  that  several  farmsteads 
should  combine  to  furnish  one  conscript,  was 
thoroughly  carried  out  by  Charles  XI.  through  the 
contracts  for  soldiers,  pursuant  to  which  the  farm- 
steads furnished  and  maintained  the  soldiers  with- 
out diminution  of  the  crown  revenues.  If  we 
consider  the  Swedish  system  of  conscription  as 
an  obligation  attached  to  the  soil,  and  allocated 
according  to  the  provinces,  for  raising  and  main- 
taining the  army,  Gustavus  Adolphus  is  the  founder 
of  the  work  completed  by  Charles  XI.  It  was  new 
in  Europe,  and  peculiar  to  Sweden.  "  Some  king- 
doms are  of  such  a  constitution,"  said  Axel  Oxen- 
stiei'na  in  the  council  in  1650,  "that  landed  estate 


5  See  the  complaints  of  1613,  when  this  sometimes  oc- 
curred, in  Hallenberg,  ii.  715. 

'  Hallenberg,  iii.  331.  It  is  mentioned  on  this  occasion, 
that  in  the  Dale  parishes  there  ^vere  chosen  presidents  of 
twenty-four  communities,  who  were  called  Oath-sworn. 

2  The  provost  Elof  Terserus,  of  Leksand,  known  for  the 
reverence  paid  to  both  himself  and  his  wife  (called  by  the 
people  "  grandmother")  in  these  parts,  caused  a  defence  of 
the  nobility  to  be  read  in  the  churches,  by  which,  however, 
the  Dalesmen  appear  to  have  been  little  edified. 

3  Reg.  for  1627. 

■i  To  the  council  of  state.  Dirschau,  July  24,  1628.  Reg. 
On  Sept.  4  he  exempted  the  Dales,  partly  to  the  half,  partly 
to  the  whole  amount,  from  the  poll-tax. 

5  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the  council,  1642.  Palmsk.  MSS. 
t.  130.     (Gardetal,  yard  tale.) 

^  Compare  Frosteri,  Krigs  Lagfarenhet  (Legal  Practice  in 
Military  Concerns). 

Q 


226 


Improvement  and  extension 
of  the  system. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Resources  of  Ihe  country. 
Extraordinary  means. 


[1611— 


is  their  jirinie  necessity,  so  that  its  uses  could  not 
be  supplied  by  money,  even  if  we  had  it.  This 
most  plainly  appears  from  our  military  institutes. 
How  might  the  soldiers  have  their  sustenance  and 
equipment  if  these  were  not  furnished  from  the 
land?  And  this  is  one  of  the  main  institutes  which 
king  Gustavus  Adolphus,  to  his  great  renown, 
planted  in  the  realm  ;  this  have  other  nations 
sought  to  imitate,  but  thus  far  without  success '." 
"  The  same  monarch,"  he  adds,  "  disposed  the  sol- 
diery througiiout  the  provinces  '."  Charles  IX., 
who  arranged  the  lodgment  and  stipend  of  the 
cavalry  9,  conceded  to  tlie  recruit  the  eighth  part 
of  a  hyde,  free  of  all  intermediate  imposts,  and 
a  rent  of  one  dollar  from  some  j)articular  farm- 
stead. Gustavus  Adolphus  extended  this  conces- 
sion genei'ally  to  all  regiments,  though  with  some 
variations*.  Superior  and  inferior  officers,  even 
to  tlie  corporal,  with  the  chaplains  (four  to  a  regi- 
ment), clerks,  servitors  of  the  military  court,  bar- 
ber chirurgeons,  and  provosts,  obtained  additional 
lands  and  i)ay  ^.  Even  in  his  time  provinces  occa- 
sionally made  contracts  with  the  crown,  to  avoid 
the  levies.  Thus  the  Westerdales  petitioned  in 
1629,  that  their  prior  contract  of  February  14, 
1 62.*},  might  be  continued.  The  Easterdales  made 
a  like  request  in  1630,  which  was  granted  with  the 
addition,  that  if  they  would  pay  the  rote-money  to 
the  king,  he  would  instead  supply  their  soldiers, 
like  others,  with  victuals  and  clothing  '.  But  the 
dreaded  levies  did  not  generally  cease  until  the 
days  of  Charles  XI.  ;  the  militia  contracts  then 
entered  into  with  the  provinces  were  made  yet 
more  burdensome  by  the  frequent  returns  of  the 
conscription  under  Charles  XII.  The  sufferings 
of  Sweden  in  those  times  and  during  wars  of  such 
long  continuance  pass  our  conception. 

The  resources  of  the  country  appear  to  have 
been  little  answerable  to  its  great  undertakings. 
Tlie  state  of  the  year  1620  *  makes  the  revenues 
of  the  crown  in  money  and  produce  (the  latter, 
however,  not  fully  detailed)  amount  altogether  to 
1,280,652  Swedish  dollars,  equivalent  nearly  to 
853,768  rix-doUars  specie,  or  2,276,714  of  the 
present  rix-doliars  banco  ^.     They  indeed  consider- 

7  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190. 

"  Ibid.     Observations  in  the  council,  1647. 

9  His  successor  regulated  the  system  anew.  (Compare 
Hallenberg,  iv.  730.)  The  militia  of  the  horse-service  was 
partly  incorporated  with  the  cavalry  thus  distributed.  A 
captain  was  invested  with  a  fief,  and  was  bound  to  render 
service  for  four  horses,  a  lieutenant  and  ensign  for  three,  a 
chaplain  and  clerk  for  one. 

1  "Since  the  privates  of  foot  in  Finland  are  not  so  veil 
provided  for  with  an  eighth  of  a  hyde  as  those  in  Sweden, 
and  humbly  entreat  some  immunity,  let  them  be  freed  from 
the  cattle-tax,  and  clear  as  much  wild  land  as  they  will, 
with  exemption  from  rent  for  a  certain  number  of  years." 
Letters  of  the  king,  April  23,  1627.  Horsemen  may  hold 
their  farms  free  of  portage  and  purveyance.  Letter  of 
April  26,  1C27.     Reg. 

2  See  the  distribution  of  the  Suthermanland  regiment  in 
1632,  in  the  history  above  cited. 

3  See  the  king's  letters  of  February  5,  1629,  and  Feb.  13, 
1630,  in  the  Registers  for  those  years.  In  1621,  one  division 
of  Wustmanland,  to  avoid  the  levy,  entered  into  a  contract, 
agreeably  to  which  every  six  households  were  to  furnish  a 
soldier,  to  maintain  him  so  long  as  he  should  be  stationed 
at  home,  and  supply  provisions  when  he  was  sent  abroad. 
Hallenberg,  v.  122. 

''  See  an  extract  therefrom  in  Hallenberg,  iv.  App.  No.  iii. 


ably  increased  at  an  after-period  of  this  reign,  as 
well  by  the  new  imposts  as  by  the  reversion  of 
duke  Charles  Philip's  principality  (Suthermanland, 
Nerike,  and  Vermeland),  and  other  fiefs  which  fell 
to  the  crown  by  deaths  in  the  royal  family*',  though 
against  this  are  to  be  set  the  losses  of  the  country 
by  pestilence'  and  dearth;  but  the  inadequacy  of 
the  income  is  best  shown  by  the  extraordinary 
means  to  which  the  government  was  compelled  to 
resort,  especially  to  procure  ready  money,  whereof 
was  great,  want  for  carrying  on  the  war,  while  the 
crown  revenues  (which  on  that  very  account  it  is 
difficult  to  calculate  in  money)  were  mostly  paid  in 
produce,  or  consisted  in  the  performance  of  per- 
sonal services,  as  well  without  as  within  the  titles 
comprised  in  the  public  accounts.  Thus  a  crowd 
of  different  burdens  are  mentioned,  among  which 
post-carriage  and  jiurveyance  were  doubtless  the 
heaviest  on  the  country,  and  besides  voluntary 
aids,  day-works,  and  portages  of  all  kinds,  which 
the  king  excuses  by  saymg,  that  "the  subject 
nmst  look  to  the  circumstances  of  the  time."  The 
extraordinary  means  were  : — 

I.  Loans.  Gustavus  I.  had  paid  off  the  public 
debt;  Eric  XIV.  contracted  a  new  one,  and  it  in- 
creased under  his  successors.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
makes  complaints  on  this  head  from  the  beginning 
of  his  reign.  The  queen  dowager,  to  whom  he  ap- 
plied in  1615  upon  this  subject,  consoled  him  by 
telling  him  that  it  was  impossible  at  once  to  wage 
war  and  to  pay  old  debts,  advising  him  to  acknow- 
ledge none  older  than  the  year  1598,  when  Charles 
IX.  had  issued  his  public  notice  to  the  creditors  of 
the  crown,  to  give  in  their  accounts  on  pain  of  for- 
feiting their  claims  ^.  New  loans  were  negotiated. 
For  money  borrowed  in  Holland,  interest  was  paid 
at  the  rate  of  six  and  a  quarter  per  cent  ^ ;  fur  do- 
mestic loans,  ten  per  cent,  and  upwards,  the  crown 
being  besides  obliged  to  give  security '.  For  a  loan 
of  200,000  Swedish  dollars  the  queen  dowager 
received  in  1624  the  ordinary  crown  revenues  of 
Nerike  in  mortgage  for  the  interest.  For  another 
loan  of  50,000  dollars  she  received  twelve  per  cent., 
although  she  paid  the  sum  not  in  money  but  in  cop- 

5  Equal  to  189,726/.,  taking  the  Swedish  rix-dollar  banco 
at  \s.  8d.     T. 

6  Charles  Philip's  duchy,  the  last  possessed  by  any  Swedish 
prince,  lapsed  to  the  crown  by  his  death  in  1622.  The 
same  had  already  happened  with  East-Gothland,  Dalesland, 
and  four  hundreds  of  West-Gothland  by  duke  John's  death 
in  1618.  When  Catharine  Stenbock,  the  last  wife  of  Gus- 
tavus I.,  died  in  1621,  and  Christina,  mother  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  in  1625,  their  dowers  also  fell  to  the  crown. 

7  In  the  years  1620,  1621,  and  1622,  the  southern  parts  of 
Sweden  and  Finland  were  so  ravaged  by  the  plague,  that 
the  levies  had  to  be  intermitted,  or,  as  in  1621,  boys  of  fifteen 
and  sixteen  were  taken  for  military  service.  It  came  to 
Stockholm  towards  the  end  of  1622,  and  carried  off  twenty 
thousand  of  the  inhabitants  during  the  following  year,  when 
it  also  raged  in  East-Gothland.  In  March,  1625,  it  again 
showed  itself  in  Stockholm,  and  anew  in  1629  and  1630,  when 
the  court,  as  in  1622,  quitted  the  capital.  Several  of  these 
years,  as  1621,  1623,  and  1630,  were  marked  also  by  dearth. 

8  The  counsel  appears  to  have  been  followed.  In  his 
reference  to  the  queen  dowager  the  king  includes  no  debts 
older  than  1605.     Hallenberg,  iii.  335. 

9  Hallenberg,  iv.  875. 

'  In  the  Register  for  1627  the  following  letter  appears: 
"  Because  our  true  subject  and  prelector  of  Upsala,  the 
learned  master  O.  Laurelius,  hath  advanced  to  us  and  the 
crown,  for  the  carrying  on  of  this  so  longsome  war,  532 


jg32.]    Loans^sales^and  quSTAVUS   ADOLPHUS. 


INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


Commercial 
associations. 


227 


:i 


per*.  Nay, for  the  capital  invested  in  tlie  Trade  or 
Copper  Company,  government  bound  itself,  in  1G28, 
to  pay  twenty  per  cent,  if  the  crown  might  have 
the  use  of  it  for  four  years  '. 

IL  Sale  and  hypothecation  of  the  crown  estates, 
with  mortgages  on  its  revenues.  The  sales  were 
made  to  the  nobility,  with  perpetual  exemption 
from  ta.vation  * ;  mortgages  were  given  to  others 
equally,  especially  rich  burgesses  and  merchants, 
often  foreigners  by  birth.  Thus  Finspang  with  its 
territory  in  East-Gothland  was  mortgaged  ',  as  well 
as  almost  all  Smaland  and  Oeland,  the  whole  of 
(Jestricland  and  Aland,  a  portion  of  West-Goth- 
land, all  Dalesland,  Salberg,  Nora,  Linde,  and  other 
raining  tracts,  royal  estates,  mines,  and  other  lesser 
appurtenances.  Some  of  these  mortgages  were 
afterwards  converted  into  leases  for  a  term  of 
years,  embracing  tolls,  mines,  and  the  rents  of 
whole  fiefs  and  provinces  '"'. 

in.  Monopolies,  by  which  the  government,  in 
its  own  name  or  in  that  of  different  companies, 
sought  to  engross  the  trade  of  the  country.  Its 
sovereigns  had  even  before  assumed  the  right  of 
pre-emption  in  both  domestic  and  foreign  wares. 
As  so  great  a  portion  of  the  imposts  was  collected 
in  produce,  the  government  was  compelled  to  en- 
gage itself  in  traffic ;  its  concerns  being  managed  by 
a  functionary  called  the  crown-factor,  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  high  treasurer  and  his 
council.  On  their  representation,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  reign,  that  they  were  unable  to  de- 
spatch the  business  pressing  upon  them,  a  special 
officer  subordinate  to  them  was  added  in  1612,  who, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  crown-factor  and  a  clerk, 
was  to  receive  all  commodities  entering  the  store- 
houses of  the  crown,  and  procure  in  return  what- 
ever was  requu'ed  for  the  behoof  of  the  crown, 
having  likewise  the  oversight  of  tolls  and  trade  in 
general '.  This  was  an  office  which  carried  great 
temptations  to  unjust  gains  ;  and  accordingly  its 
first  holder,  the  historian  Eric  Gijranson  Tegel,  was 
accused  of  heinous  frauds  *.  From  the  year  1614 
the  field  of  operations  for  this  ti-ade  on  the  part  of 
the  crown  was  extended,  the  diet  having  then 
resolved  that  the  supplies  collected  for  the  ransom 

dollars,  24  ore  Swedish  money,  we  have  in  return  granted  to 
him  and  his  heirs  to  possess  and  enjoy  a  scot-farm  belonging 
to  us  and  to  the  crown,  Svedja,  in  the  parish  of  Vaxala,  as  a 
secure  mortgage,  free  and  quit  of  all  payments,  certain  or 
uncertain,  for  his  interest,  namely,  ten  per  cent,  in  the  year, 
binding  ourselves  to  pay  to  him  or  his  heirs  the  sum  due, 
without  deduction,  either  now  or  in  future,  of  the  rent  of  the 
farmstead  from  the  capital."  Stockholm,  April  26,  1C27.  A 
mortgage  in  nearly  the  same  terms  to  Dr.  Wallius,  a  professor 
at  Upsala,  for  a  loan  of  800  dollars,  is  in  the  Register  for  1628, 
under  the  18th  January.  The  interest  for  loans  in  Sweden 
amounted  before  and  after  the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  to 
ten  per  cent.     Compare  Hallenberg,  v.  201,  n. 

2  Hallenberg,  v.  131. 

3  Assurance  for  the  partners  in  the  trade  company.  Stock- 
holm, April  28,  1628.     See  Register,  and  in  Stiernman. 

*  See  examples  in  Hallenberg  (v.  134),  of  1621,  1623,  1625. 
I  The  king  also  issued  in  the  year  of  his  death  an  ordinance 
on  the  sale  of  crown-lands.     Nordin  MSS. 

^  To  William  de  Besche  of  Liege,  but  really  to  his  surety 
Louis  de  Geer,  in  1618.  This  man,  remarkable  in  the  annals 
of  Swedish  mining  and  industry,  is  said  to  have  first  come 
into  the  kingdom  in  1628;  but  in  a  letter  from  Gustavus 
Adolphus  to  Axel  Oxenstierna,  dated  Nov.  6,  1627,  the  king 
says,  "  Louis  de  Geer  has  now  arrived  in  this  country;"  and 
on  the  24th  Dec.  he  obtains  permission  to  use  Prostliolm,  by 
Norrkceping,  for  building  ships."    Reg.  for  1627. 


of  Elfsborg  should  be  employed  in  the  purchase  of 
copper,  and  rix-doUars  procured  in  exchange.  The 
crown  thus  became  the  only  buyer  at  the  copper- 
mines,  although  it  often  ceded  its  right,  and  gene- 
rally the  export  of  the  wares,  to  other  parties.  The 
product  of  the  Falun  mine  had  risen  from  3000 
skeppunds,  which  in  king  John's  time  was  thought 
much,  to  12,000.  Copper  was,  as  Axel  Oxenstierna 
called  it,  "the  noblest  staple  of  which  the  crown  of 
Sweden  could  boast."  The  government  were  re- 
luctant to  let  slip  their  chief  means  of  procuring 
ready  nionej',  but  appear,  when  the  aids  set  apart 
for  the  ransom  of  Elfsborg  ceased  in  1C19,  to  have 
been  unable  to  make  any  outlay  on  the  mines. 
For  this  reason  they  in  the  same  year  transferred 
the  copper  trade  to  a  company,  which  also  obtained, 
in  respect  to  trade  generally,  all  the  rights  of  the 
Commercial  Association  incorporated  since  1615. 
This  Copper  Company,  as  it  was  called,  whose 
privileges  were  several  times  renewed,  was  how- 
ever in  1629  obliged  to  restore  the  copper  trade  to 
the  crown,  havmg  made  vain  attempts  to  keep  the 
prices  too  high — of  which  the  copper  coinage  first 
introduced  into  Sweden  in  1625  formed  part— and 
finding  itself  eventually,  from  the  nature  of  the 
undertaking  and  the  agency  of  government,  unable 
to  fulfil  its  engagements  '.  Some  more  prosperous 
years,  and  the  example  of  foreign  countries,  had 
raised  the  king's  expectations  from  such  com- 
mercial societies,  and  he  intended  to  commit  the 
whole  iron  trade  of  the  kingdom  to  the  manage- 
ment of  a  company,  whose  privileges  were  actually 
drawn  up.  In  1624,  on  the  proposal  of  a  Nether- 
lander, a  "  General  Commercial  Company,  to  Asia, 
Africa,  America,  and  Magellania,"  was  chartered. 
This  project  he  discussed  in  1627  with  the  estates, 
and  wrote  respecting  it  to  the  bishops  1,  the  rather 
that  the  company  was  to  labour  for  the  conversion 
of  the  heathen.  The  enterprise  was  not  wholly 
fruitless  *,  although  the  .conjecture  expressed  in  the 
charter,  that  it  might "  fui'nish  means  for  the  defence 
of  the  state,"  may  have  awakened  apprehensions 
in  many  of  the  partners,  which,  after  their  losses, 
found  vent  in  comjilaints^.     Thereafter,  when  the 

6  Hallenberg,  vi.  877.  v.  129. 

7  Ordinance  of  Gustavus  I.,  March  16,  1552;  and  king 
John's  Articles  of  the  Customs,  May  12,  15S6.  Stiernman's 
Ordinances,  i.  127.  343. 

s  He  was  condemned  for  them  in  1614  by  the  Palace 
Court  (Hallenberg,  iii.  265),  but  escaped  lightly  enough. 

9  Compare  the  treatise,  "  On  the  old  Copper  Company  and 
the  Copper  Coinage  in  the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  by 
Master  Wingquist."  Scandia,  vol.  iv.  In  1626  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  company  excited  disturbances  among  the  miners. 

'  To  the  bishops,  regarding  the  India  Company.  April  27, 
1627.     Reg. 

2  It  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  colony  called  "  New 
Sweden,"  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Delaware  in  North 
America,  which  is  stated  to  have  been  intended  in  this 
reign,  though  the  execution  appears  to  have  been  postponed. 
Permission  to  found  the  colony  was  given  by  the  government 
in  1640,  and  lieutenant-colonel  John  Printz  was  appointed 
the  first  governor,  Aug.  15,  1642.  Pro-memoria  touching 
New  Sweden.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  74. 

3  Some  verses  of  the  day  are  preserved,  turning  on  the 
admonition  addressed  to  the  clergy  to  encourage  investments 
in  the  company,  and  engage  in  it  themselves.     They  begin, 

"  Poor  parsons,  place  not  out  your  money 
In  the  bags  of  the  new  Trade  Company  ; 
The  cash  you  advance  is  your  share  of  proceeds, 
The  winnings,  if  any,  are  for  their  own  needs." 

Nordin  MSS. 
q2 


228 


Influence  of  government  on 
t)ie  national  character. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Contemporary  account  of 
the  people. 


[ICll— 


towns  had  engaged  at  the  diet  of  l(i29,  to  main- 
tain a  number  of  vessels  for  the  defence  of  the 
country  and  the  furthei'ance  of  trade,  a  shipping 
company  followed^,  wliich  in  1G30  was  united 
with  the  former.  Lastly,  the  crown  reserved  to 
itself  in  1628  the  salt  trade,  and  in  1631  the  corn 
trade  :  yet  both  were  soon  thrown  open,  under 
high  duties '. 

These  enforced  expedients  of  supply  are  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  most  aggrieving  measures  of 
this  reign.  They  multiplied  what  the  Swede  sees 
with  impatience — middle  powers  in  his  relations 
with  his  rulers.  All  that  possessed  influence 
through  property  became — as  lenders,  holders  of 
land- fiefs,  farmers,  managers  of  profitable  enter- 
prises— intermediate  powers,  on  which  the  govern- 
ment, no  less  than  the  subject,  was  dependent. 
Hence  the  powerlessness  of  this  government,  other- 
wise in  many  respects  so  energetic,  in  realizing  the 
aims  it  ever  cherished  for  the  welfare  of  the  lower 
classes.  Therefore  it  often  begged  and  exhorted 
where  it  ought  to  have  commanded ;  and  our  won- 
der that  repeated  letters  of  reproof  had  no  effect 
vanishes,  when  we  find  that  they  affected  some 
powerful  feudatory  or  rich  partner  in  the  trading 
company,  on  whose  assistance  the  crown  counted  ^. 
Justice  however  must  acknowledge  that  the  wars 
were  of  so  long  duration,  that  no  one  in  the  end 
could  escape  the  burdens  they  entailed. 

On  the  other  side  no  administration  evoked  more 
abundant  energies ;  in  this  respect  the  reign  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  forms  an  epoch  for  Sweden. 
This  is  visible  not  less  in  reference  to  the  industry 
and  education  of  the  people,  than  in  the  executive 
and  legislative  functions  of  the  state  ;  and  it  re- 
mains to  consider  this  part  of  our  subject  from 
these  points  of  view.  We  begin  by  quoting  the 
judgment  of  a  foreigner  upon  the  land  and  its  in- 
habitants at  this  day.  "  This  kingdom,"  observes 
William  Usselinx '  of  Sweden,  "  has  many  advan- 
tages above  other  countries  in  sea-ports,  timber, 
victuals,  the  wages  of  labour,  copper,  iron,  steel, 
pitch,  tar,  shot,  and  other  munitions  of  war.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  land  are  a  hardy  folk,  who  can 
endure  cold  and  heat,  docile,  active,  quick.  They 
are,  besides,  obedient  to  their  rulers,  and  little  bent 
to  sedition  and  revolt,  wherein  they  excel  many 
other  nations  and  peoples.  They  want  for  nothing, 
if  they  would  but  exercise  themselves,  to  become  ex- 

■<  This  was  rigorously  followed  out.  The  deputies  for  Got- 
tenburg  engaged,  in  1629,  to  equip  and  maintain  two  armed 
ships  for  the  service  of  the  kingdom.  The  lieutenant  re- 
ceived orders  to  enforce  the  fulfilment,  and  powers  to  place 
those  who  opposed  it  under  sequestration,  and  bring  them 
to  punishment.  Upon  a  complaint  that  this  was  contrary  to 
their  privileges,  a  change  was  made,  and  the  matter  remitted 
to  the  magistracy.     Granberg,  Gbteborgs  Ilistoria,  i.  26. 

'  The  former  in  1629  (Stiernman,  Ordinances,  i.  985) ;  the 
latter  before  the  end  of  1631,  as  appears  from  a  letter  of  the 
king  to  the  Palsgrave  John  Casiniir,  Nov.  1,  1631.  Reg. 
Several  financial  projects  were  brought  forward,  among  them 
the  king's  proposition  in  1619  for  the  formation  of  a  bank  in 
every  town  ;  but  little  confidence  in  them  was  shown. 

«  Hallenberg  tells  us  much  of  the  ferocious  count  Steno 
Lejonhufvud,  who,  the  king  complains,  gave  him  more 
trouble  than  half  Finland,  as  well  as  of  Joachim  Berndes, 
notorious  for  his  atrocities  in  the  government  of  Viborg. 
The  latter  was  one  of  the  chief  shareholders  in  the  Copper 
Company,  and  the  king  needed  his  whole  influence,  as  for 
example  in  1622,  to  maintain  an  undertaking  important  to 
the  royal  designs. 


pert  seamen ;  for  they  have  no  defect  of  intelligence, 
dexterity,  and  courage;  and  if  they  had  a  little  prac- 
tice, they  would  easily  become  good  ship-builders,  the 
rather  that  almost  all  know  how  to  handle  the  axe. 
In  respect  to  various  manufactures  of  fine  linen, 
cloth,  worsted,  baize,  bombazine,  and  others,  there 
is  little  of  this  kind  done  in  the  country,  partly 
because  impulse  and  materials  are  wanting,  and 
partly  as  well  because  there  are  no  outlets  for 
uttering  their  wares.  But  of  skill  and  shrewdness 
they  have  no  want,  for  we  find  peasants  able  at  all 
sorts  of  handiwork.  They  are  carpenters,  joiners, 
smiths,  bake,  brew,  weave,  dye,  make  shoes  and 
clothes,  and  the  like,  wherein  they  overpass  all 
other  nations  of  Europe,  forasmuch  as  in  other 
countries  hardly  any  one  will  attempt  to  put  hands 
to  any  craft  that  he  hath  not  learned.  Their  wives 
and  daughters  make  many  curious  devices  in  sew- 
ing, weaving,  and  other  pleasant  arts,  whence  it 
appeareth  that  they  are  very  knowing  and  wise- 
minded.  True  it  is  that  they  cannot  arrive  at  the 
perfection  which  is  found  in  other  countries,  where 
a  man  ever  remaineth  in  one  trade,  and  becomes 
inured  to  it  by  long  time,  man  after  man,  from 
father  to  son.  But  it  is  not  to  be  questioned  he 
that  hath  wit  and  memory  to  learn  in  haste,  and 
thence  himself  to  invent,  would  also  be  perfect  and 
complete,  if  from  his  youth  upward  he  practised 
one  thing  and  kept  constant  thereto.  Some,"  adds 
the  author,  "  are  of  opinion  that  this  nation  is  given 
to  intemperance  in  eating  and  drinking,  as  also  to 
sloth,  and  therefore  will  not  apply  themselves  to 
any  steady  labour.  But  how  this  may  be,  I  remit 
to  pronoimce." 

The  natural  capacity  which  this  foreigner  as- 
cribes to  the  Swedes  had,  indeed,  directed  itself 
especially  towards  war,  but  the  impulse  thereby 
communicated  was  also  deeply  felt  in  the  move- 
ment of  national  industry.  It  has  been  assumed 
that  the  native  infantry  of  Sweden  amounted  in 
the  year  1624  to  40,000  men* ;  perhaps  too  high  a 
number,  as  we  find  from  the  testimony  of  Axel 
Oxenstierna,  that  the  king  at  first  requested  a 
standing  national  force  of  no  more  than  25,000  ^.  It 
is  at  all  events  certain,  that  its  strength  varied  with 
the  varying  products  of  the  levies.  At  the  same 
time  the  native  cavalry  without  the  horsemen  of 
tlie  nobility  came  to  only  3500  men  ' ;  which  seems 
to  have  been  partly  occasioned  by  the  want  of  good 
horses,  at  that  time  a  subject  of  lament  ^.    Foreign 

'  A  native  of  Antwerp,  the  same  who  was  the  author  of 
the  project  for  the  South  Sea  Company  in  Sweden.  Ke 
came  with  favourable  testimonials  from  Maurice  prince  of 
Orange  and  the  States-general  of  Holland,  where  he  originated 
a  West  India  Company.  The  above  passage  is  from  his  "  Me- 
moir on  the  Australian  or  Southern  Company  in  Sweden," 
printed  in  Stockholm  in  1626,  and  published  the  same  year 
in  a  Swedish  translation  by  Eric  Schrbderus. 

s  Hallenberg,  v.  119. 

9  Remarks  in  the  council,  1647.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190. 
Yet  even  in  1610,  according  to  the  statement  of  Charles  IX. 
in  the  diet  of  that  year,  the  army  consisted  of  40,000  men, 
including  the  foreign  troops.  At  the  same  diet  the  yeo- 
manry agreed  that  in  Sweden  alone,  without  Finland,  25,000 
infantry  should  be  levied.     Hallenberg. 

'  Hallenberg,  v.  114. 

2  "  The  yeomanry  and  clergy  had  good  horses  in  earlier 
times ;  now  they  have  not.  The  cause  is,  that  in  Charles 
IX. 's  time  they  were  obliged  to  work  their  horses,  whereby 
they  were  so  exhausted,  that  the  race  failed."  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna in  the  council,  1646,  1.  c. 


1632.] 


Strength  of  the 
army. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


Promotion  of 
industry. 


229 


troopers  also  were  preferred  in  the  recruitments. 
But  the  changing  strength  of  the  army  is  here  of 
less  consequence  than  the  circumstance,  that  it 
was  for  the  most  part  clothed,  armed,  and  furnished 
with  every  requisite  from  the  country  itself.  Of 
uniform  there  is  yet  no  mention.  The  only  order 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  on  this  head  known  to  me  is 
that  of  the  year  1G21,  enjoining  "  the  soldiers  to 
provide  themselves  with  serviceable  clothes,  such 
as  befit  a  warrior,  not  looking  to  the  material  so 
much  as  that  they  should  be  decently  made  ^."  Yet 
so  late  as  the  Prussian  war  the  Swedish  soldiers 
are  styled  unseemly  peasant-lads,  from  their  in- 
different clothing  ;  and  the  sheep-skins  with  which 
they  protected  themselves  against  the  cold,  were 
until  1532  still  furnished  by  a  separate  skin-tax. 
The  Swedish  soldiers  and  officers  performed  their 
most  brilliant  achievements,  the  one  in  his  peasant's 
garb,  tlie  other  without  the  decoration  of  an  order  *. 
Manufactories  of  cloth  for  the  supply  of  the  army 
(the  first  in  Sweden)  were  set  up  in  Jenkoping, 
Nykoping,  Calmar,  Arboga,  and  Kongsor^  ;  and 
foreign  cloth  is  mentioned  as  having  been  imported, 
mostly  for  the  foreign  troops  ;  but  the  clothing  of 
the  native  soldier,  and  his  arms  also,  were  mainly 
the  produce  of  home-born  thrift.  The  forging  of 
arms  was  in  Sweden  at  this  time  a  kind  of  land- 
staple.  Muskets,  the  procuring  of  which  in  foreign 
armies  was  then  attended  with  so  much  difficulty, 
\\ere  here  prepared  in  the  hamlets  of  almost  every 
province  by  pipe-smiths  as  they  were  called,  pea- 
sants in  their  homesteads,  the  taxes  on  which  they 
paid  by  this  labour.  Otherwise  they  received  their 
wages  in  money  and  produce,  as  well  as  their 
materials,  from  the  crown,  and  were  placed  under 
certain  factors,  according  to  royal  ordinance". 
This  art  was  probably  communicated  from  the 
"  arm-factories"  of  the  crown ',  and  was  not  con- 
fined to  these  weapons  alone  ;  harness  and  pike- 
heads  were  also  prepared  in    these  rural  forges, 


'  History  of  the  Suthermanland  Regiment,  ii.  31.  In 
respect  to  the  cavalry  he  was  more  precise,  but  chietiy  as  to 
their  arms.  The  king's  guards  had  yellow  lace  on  their 
clothes.  With  the  rote-money  the  soldier  was  bound  to  buy 
himself  armour  and  clothing,  since  the  crown  allowed  him 
no  clothes  until  he  had  served  a  year.  Yet  afterwards  tlie 
clothing  was  not  seldom  furnished  by  the  voluntary  contri- 
butions of  the  yeomanry,  upon  which  the  king  in  1622 
directs  his  lieutenants  to  agree  with  them. 

*  Knighthood  was  conferred  indeed,  but  sparingly  and  not 
in  the  more  modern  sense,  as  is  clear  from  the  proposal 
made  in  the  council  in  1648,  "  to  erect  an  order  of  knight- 
hood, such  as  was  every  where  throughout  the  world  in  use; 
for  in  Sweden  there  was  none."  Many  wore  an  effigy  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  in  silver  or  some  other  metal  on  their 
breast,  yet  not  as  a  distinction  granted  by  the  king.  "At 
the  victory  by  Oldendorf  in  Hesse  in  1633,  under  the  com- 
mand of  George  duke  of  Liineburg,  all  the  Swedish  officers 
and  soldiers  who  took  part  in  the  action  wore  the  image  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  on  their  breast."  George  duke  of 
Brunswick  and  Liineburg.  Contributions  (Beitrage,  fee.) 
to  the  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  from  Original 
Sources  in  the  royal  Archives  of  Hanover,  by  Fr.  Count  von 
der  Decken,  ii.  180.     Hanover,  1834. 

5  The  oldest,  commenced  at  Upsala  in  1612,  appears  to 
have  failed.  In  Jenkoping  a  large  sheepfold  was  constructed, 
and  the  peasants  were  encouraged  to  procure  the  German 
breed,  introduced  by  Charles  IX.  There  were  flocks  of 
sheep  on  many  of  the  crown  estates. 

6  See  it  in  Hallenberg,  v.  127.  According  to  this,  every 
pipesmith  was  to  deliver  yearly  52  large  muskets  with  their 


and  the  latter  were  required  to  be  hard  enough  to 
penetrate  the  harness,  if  the  smith  would  have  his 
labour  rewarded.  A  gun-foundry  was  erected  in 
the  capital  ;  cannon,  from  forty-eight-pounders  to 
one-pounders,  were  cast  at  the  melting-house  in 
Stockholm  and  at  Finspang  ;  powder,  although  not 
in  quantity  sufficient  for  the  demand,  was  made  at 
Nacka  and  Vallinge,  and  twenty-six  saltpetre- 
works  existed  in  the  kingdom. 

In  close  connexion  with  this  activity  of  warlike 
preparation  stood  the  mining  concerns,  from  the 
materials  which  they  supplied.  Necessity  and  hope 
combined  to  magnify  representations  of  the  profits 
to  be  drawn  from  this  source.  The  belief  of  the 
inexhaustible  metallic  riches  of  Sweden  spread  to 
otlier  lands,  and  attracted  foreigners  with  their 
capital  into  the  country  ^.  The  king  bestowed  the 
greatest  attention  on  this  subject,  invited  miners 
from  abroad ',  opened  new  works,  issued  new  ordi- 
nances for  the  mining  tracts ',  and  visited  them 
himself  in  the  intervals  of  his  campaigns.  With 
Louis  de  Geer's  acquisition  of  Finspang,  to  which 
were  afterwards  added,  under  Christina,  the  works 
of  Danemora,  carried  on  by  Walloon  smiths 
brought  over  by  him,  a  new  drift  was  communi- 
cated to  this  branch  of  industry  ^.  Several  foreign- 
ers invested  money  in  the  Swedish  mines,  and  the 
Copper  Company  has  the  merit  of  having  introduced 
the  art  of  refining  in  Sweden,  the  first  copper  being 
thus  prepared  at  Sater.  The  mines  were  placed 
under  a  separate  board  of  administration,  who,  in 
their  memorial  to  Christina,  take  notice  :  "  that 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  not  only  excelled  all  the 
princes  of  his  age  in  military  science,  but  also  had 
no  equal  in  civil  prudence,  had  perceived  that  the 
mines  were  not  so  improved  as  they  might  be,  since 
the  metals  were  exported  in  coarse  assortments, 
which  the  German  towns  bought  up  at  a  low  price, 
and  worked  up  in  their  manufactories,  to  be  resold 
to  us  at  the  highest ;  so  that  what  was  hard,  the 


appurtenances.  Yet  foreign  arms  were  also  ordered  from 
Lubeck  and  the  Netherlands,  as  in  1623  through  Louis  de 
Geer.     Ibid.  112. 

?  Of  these  the  first  under  this  sovereign  are  mentioned  at 
Arboga  and  Finspang,  where  muskets  with  spring-locks, 
pistols,  harness,  and  swords  were  made ;  afterwards  others 
were  added  at  Jenkoping,  Norrkoping,  and  Soderhamn  (or 
South-Haven). 

8  Skytte  related  how  Louis  de  Geer  had  said,  "  that  we 
had  an  India  here  in  Sweden,  if  we  knew  to  use  the  mines 
rightly."  The  chancellor  repeated  what  Saxo  Grammaticus 
observed  of  the  "treasures"  in  the  northern  lands;  also 
what  the  lord  Charles  Sonde  had  said  of  Vermeland,  "  that 
it  might  countervail  a  kingdom  with  its  wealth  of  ore." 
Protocol  of  the  Council  for  1636,  in  the  Nordin  MSS. 

9  Among  these  came  about  the  year  1629  from  Germany, 
the  brothers  Christopher  and  Charles  Geijer,  both  appointed 
mine-masters. 

1  As  the  ordinance  for  the  Kopparberg  in  1625,  for  Gar- 
penberg  in  1624,  several  royal  letters  and  rescripts  touching 
the  silver  mine  at  Sala  from  1621  to  1630,  and  others. 

2  How  much  this  was  needed  is  shown  in  the  extracts 
from  the  accounts  of  several  crown  mines  given  by  Hallen- 
berg (Appendix  to  vol.  ii.).  The  iron  works  of  Danemora 
(the  best  in  Sweden),  as  Lofsta,  Osterby  (Easterby),  Gimo, 
which  Louis  de  Geer  acquired  in  1641,  delivered  in  1613 
from  300  to  400  skippunds  of  bar-iron  to  the  year,  with  an 
unprecedented  consumption  of  materials.  In  1638  Axel 
Oxenstierna  observed  in  the  council,  "  Whereas  we  formerly 
shipped  our  iron  and  copper  to  Dantzic  and  Lubeck,  and  pur- 
chased tools  and  nails  in  return,  these  are  now  made  at  home." 


230 


New  towns  founded. 
Rise  of  Gottenburg. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Regulation  of  foreign  and 
inland  trade. 


1 


[1611- 


Swedish  kings  were  formerly  reduced  to  draw  all 
their  stores  of  ammunition  from  foreign  countries. 
Therefore  his  majesty  had  found  it  advisable  to 
procure  the  erection  of  refineries,  forges,  and  fac- 
tories of  all  kinds.  Thereafter,  when  the  wars  took 
up  more  and  more  of  his  time,  his  majesty  first  ap- 
pointed colonel  Siegroth  to  be  captain  of  the  mines, 
giving  liim  for  his  mine-master  George  Griesback, 
and  for  his  secretary  Jost  Frank.  But  as  soon  as 
his  majesty  had  gone  to  Gei'many,  he  directed  the 
council  of  state  to  form  a  complete  board  of  mines, 
which  should  superintend  these  affairs^."  The  im- 
provement of  the  mines  influenced  the  commerce  of 
the  country,  to  which  they  furnished  the  principal 
article  of  export.  The  care  bestowed  on  the  de- 
velopment of  industry  and  trade  in  the  towns 
(perhaps  at  the  expense  of  the  country)  is  best 
shown  by  the  fact,  that  in  this  warlike  reign  no 
less  than  seventeen  were  founded  or  privileged*. 
Among  these  was  Gottenburg,  which,  destroyed 
with  New  Lodose  in  the  Danish  war,  but  rebuilt  by 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  now  received  the  burghers  of 
both  towns,  together  with  Scottish,  German,  and 
Dutch  immigrants.  It  was  visited  in  1624  by  the 
king,  and  several  decrees  made  for  the  benefit  of  the 
town.  By  the  ordinance  of  1619  the  administration 
of  the  towns  was  regulated,  and  the  ordinance  of 
1614,  on  commerce,  introduced  the  distinction  be- 
tween upland  and  staple  towns.  This  occasioned 
repeated  complaints,  springing  partly  out  of  old 
abuses,  and  partly  having  their  ground  in  the  too 
narrow  limitation  of  municipal  freedom.  The  old 
towns  remonstrated  against  the  formation  of  the 
new  ;  those  of  Norrland  especially,  founded  at 
former  fair  and  fishing  stations,  where  the  bur- 
gesses of  Stockholm,  and  the  other  places  on  the 
Mselar,  had  hitherto  possessed  the  traffic  exclu- 
sively, were. objects  of  jealousy.  The  ports  which 
obtained  the  right  of  trading  to  foreign  countries 
were  little  grateful  for  the  distinction,  at  a  time 
when  Stockholm  did  not  possess  a  single  ship  for 
foreign  commerce,  and  the  town  obtained  from  the 


3  Representation  of  the  Department  of  Mines,  November 
10,  1648.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  80.  The  Mine  Office  was  esta- 
blished in  1630,  confirmed  in  1634,  received  a  governor  and 
assessors  in  1637,  and  began  in  1640  to  be  called  the  College 
of  Mines. 

«  They  were,  Gottenburg,  Hernosand,  Soderhamn  or 
South-Haven,  Umea,  Lulea,  Pitea,  Tornea,  Norrtelje  or 
North  Telje,  Sala,  Alingsas,  Boras,  Falun,  Siiter;  besides 
Old  Carleby,  New  Carleby,  Nystad,  and  Kexholm,  in  Fin- 
land and  Russia.  In  the  privileges  of  Gottenburg,  dated 
June  4,  1621,  exemption  from  customs  and  taxes  is  guaran- 
teed to  the  town  for  sixteen  years,  a  condition,  however,  not 
very  exactly  observed.  On  his  visit  to  Gottenburg  in  1024, 
the  king  proposed  to  the  town  to  form  a  trading  company  to 
Vermeland,  which  was  to  buy  up  all  the  iron  ore  and  forge 
it  into  bars,  as  also  to  enter  into  the  timber  trade.  Of  this 
however  nothing  came. 

^  On  all  this  compare  Hallenberg. 

6  "That  in  Sweden  the  burgesses  are  beggars,  proceeds 
from  their  extravagant  living  in  all  manner  of  food,  clothes, 
and  dwellings."  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the  Palmsk.  MSS. 
The  king  complains  that  "for  a  little  gain,  for  a  beggar's 
penny,  they  will  let  themselves  be  used  as  servants  by 
foreigners."  Among  the  hindrances  of  the  prosperity  of 
Swedish  towns,  Oxenstierna,  in  1636,  enumerates,  1.  The 
Kopparberg  (probably  the  extensive  trading  privileges  of  the 
former  Copper  Company) ;  2.  The  crown  farms,  which  took 
the  best  burghers  out  of  the  towns  ;  3.  The  late  king's  levies, 
which  had  drawn  off  the  sons  of  many  burgesses,  who,  ad- 


government  the  loan  of  two  vessels  for  the  purpose. 
The  capital,  of  which  the  principal  trade  lay  with 
the  inland  mining  tracts,  complained  most  loudly  ; 
and  when,  to  appease  its  burgesses,  the  Finnish  trade 
was  confined  to  Stockholm,  the  others  complained. 
The  queen  dowager,  the  princess,  the  nobility,  de- 
manded exclusive  privileges  for  themselves  *.  The 
prohibition  of  country  trade,  with  the  attempt  to 
confine  the  exercise  of  handicrafts  to  the  towns, 
met  with  peculiar  hindrances  in  the  physical  con- 
dition of  the  land.  The  government  reproached  the 
trading  class  with  their  want  of  enterprise,  and 
their  dependence  on  foreigners  * ;  these  again 
seemed  little  inclined  to  exchange  it  for  a  still 
greater  dependence  on  government.  It  is  certain 
that  this  period  established  in  Sweden  the  princi- 
ples of  the  prohibitive  system.  The  most  powerful 
motive  to  it  was  the  necessity  for  the  government 
itself  engaging  in  commerce,  of  which  we  have 
already  pointed  out  the  effects.  Yet  it  powerfully 
furthered  internal  activity.  The  high  roads,  of 
which  the  king  says,  that  in  most  parts  "  they  were 
so  narrow  and  stony  that  they  should  rather  be 
called  footpaths,"  were  widened.  The  Hielmar 
Canal,  begun  by  Charles  IX.,  was  continued  by  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  7.  In  this  and  other  respects  great 
plans  were  mooted,  which  a  distant  future  was  to 
realize  *. 

Sweden  first  imder  this  reign  learned  to  know  in 
what  the  rule  of  officials  consists.  In  earlier  times 
we  see  but  the  contest  between  the  power  of  the 
magnates  and  the  arbitrariness  of  the  kings ;  it 
was  the  former  of  these  which  obtained  the  sanction 
of  law  in  the  Swedish  middle  age.  The  old  order, 
or  disorder,  of  administration  was  by  a  polycracy  of 
feudatories.  This  barbarous  notion  of  a  public 
functionary  began  to  be  abandoned,  but  at  first 
only  by  the  employment  of  violent  and  illegal 
means.  These  were,  in  immediate  connexion  with 
the  king,  what  we  have  called  the  secretary- 
government,  and  under  it,  in  the  country,  the 
creation  of  the  office  of  bailiff",  both  confided,  out  of 


vanced  to  be  officers,  enticed  others ;  4.  The  king's  granting 
nobility  to  many  burgesses  in  Stockholm,  with  the  view  of 
encouraging  the  trading  class,  while  these,  when  ennobled, 
invested  their  capitals  in  landed  estates,  and  thus  quitted 
traffic.  Even  the  Norrland  towns,  he  remarks,  were  founded 
partly  with  a  view  to  military  uses,  "  that  the  soldiers  might 
have  town-quarters  there,  and  men  might  people  the  laud, 
where  before  bears  and  wolves  had  housed." 

'  According  to  a  remark  (communicated  to  me  by  Mr. 
Secretary  Bergfalk)  from  a  letter  of  Charles  IX  of  July  17, 
1610,  the  cutting  between  the  Hielmar  and  tlie  Mtelar, 
which  his  majesty  considered  expedient,  had  then  been 
nearly  completed  by  the  peasantry  with  the  help  of  the  sol- 
diery. In  the  Register  of  1629,  under  the  22d  March, 
appears  a  letter  nf  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  the  peasants  of 
Akerbo,  and  the  hundred  of  Glanshammar,  respecting  the 
continuance  of  the  channel  of  the  Hielmar  to  the  stream  of 
Arboga,  for  which  they  are  promised  exemption  from  the 
levy  for  three  years.  I  The  Hielmar  canal  unites  the  lake  of 
that  name  with  the  Maelar.    T.) 

8  "Hereon  depends  a  great  profit  for  the  realm,  which 
may  be  in  connectijig  the  navigable  lakes  by  sluices  with  the 
Baltic  and  with  each  other,  so  that  we  might  pass  across  the 
Hielmar  to  Stockholm,  across  the  Wetter  to  Norrkbping, 
across  the  Vener  to  Gottenburg,  across  the  Silian  to  the 
Kopparberg ;  which  the  government  and  council  will  not 
forget."  Opinion  of  Axel  Oxenstierna  for  the  Government 
and  Council  of  Sweden.  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  October  8, 
1633.     Draught  by  his  own  hand  in  the  Library  of  Upsala. 


1632.] 


New  administra- 
tive offices. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


Supreme  court 
erected. 


231 


mistrust  of  the  council  and  lieutenants  (statlial- 
larna),  to  persons  of  mean  condition,  dependent  on 
the  king  alone,  who  though  often  inculpated,  were 
yet  a  necessary  evil.  Thus  matters  remained  under 
the  first  princes  of  the  house  of  Vasa,  until 
Charles  IX.  broke  the  old  power  of  the  lieutenants, 
those  "  kings  in  their  districts,"  as  he  himself 
named  them ;  and  after  him  Gustavus  Adolphus 
ventured  to  collect  around  his  throne  great  but 
subordinate  legal  authorities.  The  tension  which 
the  kingdom  felt  in  all  its  members  required  the 
reins  of  government  to  be  tightly  drawn.  We  dis- 
cern a  sti'icter  unity  of  power  in  the  highest  place, 
with  its  inevitable  condition,  a  greater  division  of 
labour  in  the  administration,  so  far  as  the  pre- 
ponderant demands  of  military  affairs  allowed,  for 
the  tendencies  these  impressed  on  its  course  over- 
powered all  other  influences.  These  arrangements, 
afterwards  developed  by  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the 
form  of  government  of  1634, — a  complete  gradation 
of  offices,  with  powers  in  several  respects  even 
impairing  the  old  political  rights  of  the  people, 
the  five  high  officers  of  state  at  the  head  of  as 
many  departments,  assisted  by  royal  councillors 
appointed  thereto,  and  standing  boards  or  colleges, 
now  first  brought  into  intimate  connexion  with 
the  pi'efectures, — all  belong  to  the  period  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus,  and  were  already  for  the  most 
part  reduced  by  him  to  practice.  The  council 
again  obtained  a  legal  influence  ^,  which  the  sove- 
reign kept  within  due  limits.  New  life  was  in- 
fused into  the  management  of  the  war  by  the 
erection  of  the  war  college  i.  The  chancery,  which 
Axel  Oxenstierna  calls  "  the  soul  of  the  kingdom," 
was  first  regulated  by  that  chancellor  2,  who  also 
founded  the  state  registry  •*.  The  collection  of  the 
taxes  was  carried  on  under  more  precise  direction  *. 
The  bailiffs,  who  had  hitherto  stood  in  several 
respects  immediately  under  the  central  govern- 
ment, were  now  placed  under  the  prefects  (lands- 
hofding)  or  lieutenants.  Yet  we  still  find  traces 
of  mistrust  in  regard  to  the  latter  functionaries, 
partly  in  the  shortness  of  their  administration  and 
the  accounts  demanded  from  them,  partly  in  the 

9  "  King  Gustavus  Adolphus  did  notliing  without  the 
advice  of  his  council ;  idea  amatiis  venerabilis ; — yet  he  did 
this  more  in  order  not  to  appear  the  cause  of  any  misfortune 
that  might  befall,  than  out  of  necessity."  Oxenstierna  in  the 
council,  1642.     Palmsk.  MSS. 

1  Instructions  for  the  War  College,  1630;  but  it  was  earlier 
in  operation,  and  was  called  the  King's  Council  of  War. 
The  College  of  Admiralty  was  organized  under  the  high 
admiral  Charles  Carlson  Gyllenhielni,  in  1619. 

2  Ordinance  regarding  offices  in  chancery,  1612,  and  further 
Nov.  1,  1619.  Ordinance  for  tlie  chancery  in  1620.  Another, 
undated,  is  conjectured  to  be  of  the  year  1626.  For  inquiring 
into  old  records  and  memorials,  Andrew  Bureus  was  ap- 
pointed antiquary  and  searcher  of  chronicles,  and  received 
his  instructions,  May  20,  1629.  His  instructions  as  mathe- 
matician were  dated  April  4,  1628;  Fant  incorrectly  ascribes 
his  appointment  to  that  office  to  Charles  IX. 

3  In  former  days  the  chancellors  generally  kept  the  records 
in  their  own  custody.  Charles  IX.,  during  the  feud  with 
Sigismund,  took  them  with  him  to  Nykiiping.  In  the  year 
1613  the  historiographer  royal,  John  Messenius,  received  the 
"  old  records  and  secret  papers  of  the  chancery,"  which  upon 
his  disgrace  in  1614,  were  made  over  to  the  Secretarius  Regni 
Michael  Olofson,  who  died  in  1615,  and  after  him  to  Peter 
Magnusson  Utter,  who  received  his  instructions  in  1620,  and 
commenced  the  arrangement  of  the  documents  on  the  plan 
followed  out  in  the  state  registry  under  Christina.  The 
master  of  the  school  of  Nykbping,  Benedict  Ingolfson,  was 


powers  with  which  there  was  a  disposition  to  invest, 
independently  of  thom,  the  provincial  secretaries 
and  treasurers  ^.  The  prefect  had  yearly  in  the 
month  of  JMay  to  summon  all  the  bailiffs  of  his 
province  to  render  their  accounts  before  himself 
and  the  treasurer,  who  at  Midsummer  gave  in  the 
acquittances  to  the  royal  treasury  at  Stockholm. 
In  1023  a  state  account  book  began  to  be  kept. 
Suits  in  exchequer  matters,  which  in  the  outset 
were  decided  by  the  palace  court,  were  in  1G24 
referred  to  the  board  of  treasury. 

For  more  than  half  a  centui-y  the  want  of  a 
supreme  court  had  been  recognized.  The  attempt 
of  Eric  XIV.  to  frame  such  a  tribunal  from  the 
king's  naemnd  fell  to  the  ground  with  him,  and 
was  viewed  by  the  nobility  as  one  of  his  offences. 
The  old  coui-ts  of  inquest  and  ei'ror  (Rafst,  Rat- 
tare-Ting)  in  the  provinces  had  ceased  to  be  held. 
Charles  IX.  sought  to  revive  them  as  a  supreme 
court,  and  exercised  his  judicial  functions  with  the 
aid  of  provincial  judges,  called  alternately  to  his 
court.  Thus  was  prepared  the  institution  of  the 
palace  court,  which  was  the  work  of  his  successor. 
In  the  ordinance  for  process  of  1614,  on  which  the 
king  requested  the  opinion  of  the  estates  at  the 
diet  of  Orebro,  it  was  laid  down  that,  since  the 
king  could  not  always  take  part  personally  in  the 
decision  of  suits,  a  palace  court  should  be  created 
at  Stockholm,  consisting  of  fourteen  persons,  namely, 
the  high  steward  as  president,  four  councillors  of 
state,  a  vice-president,  and  four  assessors  of  noble 
rank,  with  four  learned  and  experienced  lawyers. 
The  new  court,  in  the  chancellor's  inaugural  ad- 
dress denominated  the  parliament,  was  solemnly 
installed  in  the  castle  of  Stockholm,  May  19,  1614. 
This  was  the  Palace  Court  of  Sweden  (Svea  Hof- 
Ratt)  ;  a  similar  tribunal  for  Finland  was  es- 
tablished at  Abo  in  162.3,  and  by  the  form  of 
government  of  16.34  a  separate  court  was  erected 
for  Gothland.  ''  V/hat  benefits  these  courts  have 
conferred,"  it  was  remarked  after  the  death  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus'',  "all  the  indwellers  of  the 
land,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  can  testify." 

called  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  Stockholm,  where  in  five 
years,  without  assistance  from  others,  he  arranged  tlie 
Chamber  of  Archives  "from  the  scattered  accounts  which 
lay  heaped  up  in  two  large  vaults  of  the  castle,  like  hay  in  a 
stable."  Palmsk.  MSS.  During  the  middle  age  the  Registry 
was  called  the  Hafdegbmma  (Repository  of  Chronicles),  as 
we  learn  from  the  treatise,  On  the  Government  of  Kings  and 
Princes. 

■>  Ordinanceafter  which  the  crown-rents  shall  be  collected, 
July  24,  1624.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  peasants  had  the 
right  of  electing  sworn  [parish  clerks,  who  were  to  control 
the  bailiffs  in  respect  to  the  just  assessment  of  the  ta.xes,  and 
also  of  again  deposing  them.  The  tax-receiver  who  de- 
manded or  accepted  of  taxes  already  paid,  was  to  be  punished 
with  death,  and  the  prefect  had  power  to  execute  the  doom 
without  further  question. 

*  Such  was  at  least  Oxenstierna's  opinion,  "  that  the  pro- 
vincial administration  should  consist  of  a  triumvirate,  the 
prefect,  secretary,  and  treasurer,  of  whom  the  two  last 
should  not  depend  on  the  prefect,  but  immediately  on  the 
government ;  yet  that  they,  other  things  being  equal,  were 
to  regard  the  prefect  as  a  vice-king  in  the  province."  (Refe- 
rente  Cancellario  Aulico  coram  Senatu,  1636.  Nordin  MSS.) 
The  first  instructions  for  the  prefects  are  of  January  8,  1635. 
Each  had  to  give  an  account  of  his  administration  at  Stock- 
holm, yearly  about  Epiphany  tide,  was  not  to  hold  office 
longer  than  three  years,  and  was  afterwards  to  give  a 
general  account. 

6  See  the  personal  anecdotes  to  his  funeral  sermon. 


L 


232 


Its  functions  and 
influence. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Royal  interference  in  the 
course  of  justice. 


[1611— 


Nevertheless,  many  apprehensions  were  at  first 
excited  by  this  institution.  These  were  indeed 
alleged  in  the  name  of  the  queen  dowager,  but  the 
tear  of  the  magnates  to  see  their  power  curtailed 
is  apparent.  It  was  part  of  the  inheritance  of  the 
Svvedish  middle  age,  that  the  judicial  power  was 
the  property  of  the  noljility  ;  and  albeit  the  land's 
law  declared  that  "  the  king  had  from  God 
highest  doom  in  his  realm  over  all  earthly  judges," 
yet  this  power  was  by  no  means  assured  in  prac- 
tice. Most  clearly  is  this  evinced  by  the  reserva- 
tion to  the  nobility  in  their  charters  of  their  rights 
to  judicial  offices,  the  revenues  of  which  they 
regai'ded  in  the  light  of  their  other  possessions, 
so  that  these  were  even  sometimes  drawn  by 
women  '.  In  the  observations  upon  the  ordinance 
for  process,  it  is  declared  to  be  inexpedient  that 
the  old  courts  of  inquest  and  eri'or  should  be  re- 
placed by  a  single  royal  court.  Cut  these  had  now 
been  long  abandoned,  and  among  the  causes  of 
their  cessation  it  was  doubtless  to  be  reckoned 
that  in  these  provincial  judicatories  the  magnates 
had  more  influence  than  the  king.  Hence  that 
personal  interference  of  Gustavus  Vasa  and  his 
sons  with  the  course  of  law,  so  often  apparently 
repugnant  to  order.  It  was  a  smaller  evil  against 
a  greater — irregular  attempts  to  enforce  royal 
authority,  which  in  this  department  also  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  at  length  enabled  to  establish  on  the 
foundation  of  law  8.  According  to  the  primary 
scheme  of  institution,  the  palace  court  was  to  de- 
liver the  king's  judgment;  there  are  even  in  the 
outset  occasional  instances  in  which  it  punished 
those  who  ventured  to  lay  their  complaints  before 
the  king.  The  ambiguity  of  its  instructions  on 
this  point  was  amended,  and  it  was  left  open  to  par- 
ties to  seek  the  king's  revision ;  but  of  all  treason- 
able or  capital  offences  the  palace  covirt  was  only 
to  take  cognizance  ctd  referendum,  and  to  bring 
them  under  the  king's  notice. 

We  have  had  occasion  to  peruse  several  of  these 
cases  referi-ed  to  the  king,  which  contain  much 
that  is  remarkable.  Notorious  homicides  the  king 
punishes  with  death,  ordering  the  prosecutor  to 
restore  the  manbote  if  he  had  received  it.  In  less 
serious  cases  a  pardon  issues,  if  the  prosecutor  does 
not  insist  on  the  life  of  the  accused,  and  in  respect 
to  the  manbote,  the  parties  are  often  enjoined  to 
settle  it  by  agreement.  Adultery,  the  king  declares, 
is  to  be  judged,  as  had  been  usual  in  the  realm  of 
Sweden,  according  to  the  law  of  God,  but  mitiga- 
tion and  pardon  lie  with  the  crown,  or  in  his 
absence,  with  the  royal  court ".  Examination  by 
torture  we  find  was  sometimes  ordered  by  this 
tribunal  *.  In  a  doubtful  case  of  assassination  the 
king  enjoins  that  the  accused  shall  be  exhorted  by 
the  clergy,  and  then  threatened  with  the  torture, 
yet  not  actually  subjected  to  it.     Enforced  labour 

?  See  an  instance  in  Hallenberg,  iii.  128,  note  a. 

8  So  long  as  there  were  duchies,  that  is  until  1622,  palace 
courts  existed  in  them,  not  permanent,  but  constituted  by 
Charles  IX.  on  particular  occasions.  There  was  an  appeal 
from  these  to  the  Royal  Palace  Court,  so  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  duciiies  had  one  resort  the  more.  So  also  in  counties 
and  baronies,  there  was  an  appeal  from  the  count  or  baron, 
as  superior  judge,  to  the  Royal  Palace  Court. 

9  Hallenberg,  lii.  271. 

1  Soldiers  who  quitted  their  wives,  and  consorted  with 
loose  women,  the  king  condemns  to  death. 

2  Referred  causes,  1619-20.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  118. 


is  mentioned  as  a  punishment,  "  carrying  the  lime- 
hod,"  as  it  was  called,  or  "  work  at  the  galleys." 
To  four  thieves  of  the  mines  the  king  granted  life, 
but  "  to  be  relegated  to  Livonia,  to  the  nobility,  to 
be  their  serfs  and  chattels  •."  The  king's  love  of 
justice  sometimes  led  him  into  the  use  of  phrases 
that  might  have  seemed  fitter  for  a  sultan.  Thus 
the  minute  to  the  palace  court,  Nov.  5,  ItilS,  runs  : 
"  His  majesty  advises  and  exhorts  the  royal  namnd, 
to  show  favour  in  their  doom  to  no  party  ;  and  if 
any  of  the  judges  give  wrongful  sentence  to  the  boot 
either  of  his  majesty  or  of  another,  the  king  will 
make  such  an  example  of  him,  that  he  will  have 
his  skin  flayed  and  nailed  to  the  doom-seat,  and  his 
ears  to  the  pillory  2."  The  king's  personal  inter- 
ference with  the  course  of  law  continued,  despite 
the  new  forms.  The  people  refused  to  abandon 
their  custom  of  preferring  their  complaints  im- 
mediately to  the  king  himself,  who  often  decided 
the  whole  case  without  further  question,  or  gave 
orders  for  its  examination,  or  employed  advice, 
injunctions,  or  threats.  Persons  who  stood  in 
dread  of  violence,  received  a  royal  letter  of  pro- 
tection ;  those  who  could  not  obtain  satisfaction  of 
their  demands,  an  admonitory  letter  to  the  debtor, 
and  the  like.  What  is  most  singular  is,  that  even 
the  new  court  did  not  scruple  to  issue  such  letters 
and  mandates.  The  Fiscal  of  the  palace  court 
was  called  the  State  Fiscal,  and  acted  as  public  pro- 
secutor ;  previously  this  functionary,  who  answers 
to  the  chancellor  of  justice  in  later  times,  had  been 
also  entitled  State  Provost. 

Through  the  example  of  the  palace  court  written 
proceedings  before  the  tribunals  became  more  usual 
than  formerly  ;  yet  it  was  sought  to  uphold  as  nmch 
as  possible  the  old  principle  of  a  dispensation  of 
justice  independent  of  advocates.  Axel  Oxeustierna 
declared  that  procurators  ought  to  be  forbidden, 
because  they  corrupted  the  course  of  equity.  For 
this  reason  an  intelligible  law  was  the  more 
urgently  required.  The  old  land's  law  having 
been  printed  by  order  of  Charles  IX.,  like  publi- 
city was  now  given  by  the  solicitude  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  to  the  town  law,  which  appeared  in 
1618*.  The  king's  ab.sence,  occasioned  by  the 
wars,  too  often  hindered  his  own  watchfulness  over 
the  judicatory.  The  council  of  state  was  in  fact 
the  supreme  tribunal,  as  it  had  often  been  beftire 
the  establishment  of  the  palace  court.  In  a  period 
so  unsettled,  so  small  an  amount  of  litigation  is 
not  a  little  wonderful.  The  regulation  by  which 
the  inferior  courts  were  to  give  in  their  judgment- 
books  to  the  new  tribunal,  led  to  some  embar- 
rassment, inasmuch  as  during  the  whole  year  they 
had  often  not  a  single  cause  to  decide.  Such  a 
fact  lays  open  to  our  glance  the  inner  moral  life  of 
the  people,  and  indicates  at  the  same  time  that 
hidden  fund  of  strength  which  somewhere  in  the 

3  The  oldest  Swedish  town-law  was  the  so-called  Bjarkba- 
Ratt.  A  more  copious  code  was  promulgated  under  king 
Magnus  Ericson,  which  bore  the  same  name,  as  appears  from 
a  writ  of  king  Albert's,  printed  in  Bjbrner,  De  Stockholmiie 
antiquae  Situ,  Nomine,  et  Legibus.  It  is  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Ulfsby  in  Finland,  "  ut  jure  civili,  dicto  Byarkbalagh,  seu 
libro  legum  per  carissimum  in  Christo  avunculum  nostrum, 
Dominuni  Magnum,  Dei  gratia,  Sueciae  et  Norvegice  regem, 
])ro  utilitate  civitatumet  villarura  forensium  in  regno  nostro 
Suecise  nuper  edito,  uterentur.  Dat.  apud  Castrum  Aboense, 
A.  D.  McccLxv.  feria  sexta  post  fest.  beatse  Agatha  vir- 
ginis." 


1632.] 


Condition  of  the 
people. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


state  of  the 
cliurch. 


233 


country  must  have  existed,  to  outlast  exertions  so 
great,  distress  and  unquiet  so  trying.  Such  a  fund 
lay  in  the  public  morals  ;  and  in  this  respect  as  in 
others,  the  era  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  presents  the 
true  transition  from  the  middle  age  of  Sweden. 
The  old  blood-feuds  disappeared  before  the  power 
of  law  ;  but  the  ties  of  kindred  still  retamed  all 
their  natural  freshness  and  force,  purged  of  violent 
excess,  and  operating  only  to  beneficent  ends.  No 
one  was  lonesome  ;  for  all  might  reckon  upon  a 
home,  a  kin,  and  help  in  need.  Much  was  borne, 
but  borne  in  common,  and  Sweden  was  as  one 
man.  Nor  was  the  condition  of  the  people  at  the 
king's  death  by  any  means  such  as  might  be 
imagined  after  so  many  years  of  war.  D'Ogier, 
who  visited  Sweden  in  the  winter  of  1634,  in  com- 
pany with  the  French  ambassador,  count  D'Avaux, 
says  in  his  journal,  that  he  did  not  remember  to 
have  seen  in  the  whole  country  any  one  naked  or  in 
rags.  Peasant  lads  and  lasses  sprang  gladsomely 
about  the  sledges,  and  though  he  had  free  portage, 
the  yeomen  showed  themselves  not  at  all  slow  in  for- 
warding him  on  his  way,  probably  (he  adds)  be- 
cause in  other  matters  they  are  n(jt  heavily  taxed. 
On  a  journey  to  the  Copper-mount,  he  saw  the  peo- 
ple gathered  at  a  church  in  the  Dale  country,  and 
exclaims  ;  "  These  countryfolk  are  neither  ragged 
nor  hungry,  as  with  US'*."  And  yet  they  were  peo- 
ple with  whom  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  to  mix 
bark  in  their  bread.  Tliey  felt  no  unhappiness.  A 
great  present,  a  great  future,  quickened  the  spirit 
of  all. 

This  trust  in  the  future  Gustavus  Adolphus 
himself  showed  in  nothing  more  clearly  than  in  his 
immortal  institutes  for  general  education.  This 
subject  may  properly  be  treated  in  connexion  with 
the  church.  John  III.  had  augmented  the  au- 
thority of  the  bishops.  They  claimed  the  right 
of  filling  up  all  benefices,  even  those  formerly  in 
the  gift  of  the  crown,  and  were  accused  of  ordain- 
ing, from  corrupt  motives,  more  clergymen  than 
were  necessary '.  For  this  cause  Charles  IX. 
ordained,  that  when  the  bishop  wished  to  present 
a  minister  to  a  vacant  cure,  the  parishioners  should 
first  give  their  consent  to  the  reception  of  the  can- 
didate as  their  spiritual  teacher,  who,  provided 
with  proof  of  this  consent,  was  then  to  solicit  the 
royal  confinnation  ;  as  also  that  no  one  should  be 
consecrated  a  priest  before  the  king  had  given 
permission  thereto,  and  had  been  informed  as  to 
the  place  where  his  ministrations  were  needed. 
When  Gustavus  Adolphus  mounted  the  throne, 
the  bishops  had  obtained  the  revocation  of  this 
ordinance.  At  his  coronation  he  promised  gene- 
rally to  protect  the  rights  of  the  church;  and  when 
the  nobility  and  officers  of  the  army  requested  an 
explanation  of  this,  he  answered  that  he  under- 
stood thereby  the  ordinances  of  the  church,  and 
his  obligation  to  maintain  churches  and  schools  to 
God's  honour  and  the  good  of  the  congregation. 
Taking  a  large  view  of  all  thing.s,  he  wished  also 
to  give  unity  to  its  constitution  ;  but  in  the  attempt 
to  define  the  relations  of  the  church,  hitherto  in- 
determinate both  to  the  secular  government  and 
within   its  own  pale,  he   encountered  difficulties. 

"•  Plebs  illarusticananequelaceraneque  jejuna  est  ut  apud 
nos.  An  ergo  est  cleraentiore  et  beatiore  situ  Suecia  quam 
nostra  Gallia?     Ogeri  Ephemerides,  Paris,  1556,  pp.  156.  195. 

5  Hallenberg,  i.  199. 


On  this  head  the  records  which  remain  concerning 
his  proposed  General  Consistory  are  full  of  infor- 
mation ^.     According  to  the  first  instructions    of 

1623,  this  was  to  consist  of  six  ecclesiastical  and 
six  laical  members  ;  the  former  were  the  arch- 
bishop, the  bishops  of  Strengness  and  Westeras, 
the  king's  chaplain,  the  primary  professor  of  theo- 
logy at  Upsala,  and  the  primary  minister  of  Stock- 
holm; the  latter  were  the  high  steward,  two  de- 
legates of  the  council  of  state,  and  three  of  the 
palace  court.  This  consistory  was  to  assemble 
yearly,  on  an  appointed  day,  in  the  capital,  under 
the  alternate  weekly  presidency  of  the  steward 
and  the  archbishop.  Before  this  body  all  com- 
plaints regarding  cathedral  chapters  or  other 
ecclesiastical  matters,  referred  to  the  king's  ma- 
jesty, and  requiring  redress,  were  to  be  laid.  They 
were  to  revise  the  Ordinance  for  the  Church,  and 
when  it  should  have  been  confii-med  by  the  king, 
to  see  it  carried  into  execution;  as  also  to  have 
the  superintendence  of  the  whole  clergy  of  the 
realm,  of  colleges  and  schools,  hospitals  and  orphan- 
houses.  Among  the  matters  which  require  redress 
it  is  mentioned,  that  dissensions  and  contests  often 
occur  between  the  bishops  and  the  parishes  subor- 
dinate to  them,  respecting  the  choice  of  ministers  ; 
the  congregations  complaining  that  these  are  ob- 
truded upon  them  by  violence,  or  the  bishops 
alleging  the  disobedience  of  the  congregations ; 
whereupon  one  party  or  the  other  attempts  by 
false  information  to  procure  a  royal  warrant  in 
their  own  behalf.  In  future  therefore  the  party 
complaining  was  to  cite  the  other  before  this  con- 
sistory, and  there  the  suit  between  them  should  be 
adjudged.  A  catalogue  was  also  to  be  made  of  all 
benefices  called  regalia,  to  which  the  king's  majesty 
had  special  right  of  patronage.  The  general  con- 
sistory was  yearly  to  appoint  certain  persons,  of 
their  own  number  or  others,  to  visit  all  the  schools 
of  the  kingdom,  and  likewise  to  hold,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  public  exa- 
minations ;  it  was  also  to  watch  over  purity  of 
doctrine,  and  to  have  inspection  and  censorship 
over   printers   and    booksellers. — At   the    diet   of 

1624,  the  clergy  delivered  their  opinion  on  this 
proposition  of  the  king,  in  which  they  declared 
that  they  would  willingly  see  such  a  consistory 
erected,  if  it  were  indeed  to  be  and  remain  a  true 
ecclesiastical  consistory,  so  that  the  spiritual  and 
temporal  jurisdictions  might  not  be  confounded. 
The  position  of  the  controversy  might  be  stated  in 
the  question.  Whom  had  God  enjoined  to  pasture 
and  to  rule  his  flock  ?  Although  all  men,  and  the 
magistrates  most,  were  bound  to  watch  over  its 
weal,  yet  God  had  committed  this  office  especially 
and  above  others  to  the  clergy,  who,  when  an}' 
troubles  had  broken  out  in  his  congregation,  had 
composed  them,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
case,  by  councils,  synods,  and  pastoral  conferences; 
and  albeit  such  assemblies  had  been  called  together 
by  emperors  and  kings,  yet  these  had  not  adjudged 
the  cause,  but  had  left  it  to  the  authority  of  the 
bishops  and  clei'gy,  and  when  their  decision  was 
pronounced,  lent  their  assistance  to  carry  it  into 
effect.     Whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  proceed- 

f  Nordin  MSS.  No.  67,  Qu. 

'  The  extensive  rights  of  patronage  claimed  by  the  no- 
bility often  occasioned  disputes  between  them  and  the 
bishops. 


234 


Proposition  for  a  general 
consistory. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  king's  solicitude  for  the 
promotion  of  learning. 


[1611— 


ings  of  the  synod  of  Upsala  in  1593, — where  tlie 
largest  portion  of  the  bishops  and  clergy  had  but 
to  excuse  their  own  defection,  while  the  minority, 
with  the  schoolmasters  and  the  temporal  estates, 
established  with  duke  Charles  the  work  of  the 
Swedish  reformation, — must  be  astonished  that  they 
should  now  venture  to  quote  that  assembly  among 
the  examples  of  exclusive  judicature  by  the  clergy 
in  the  congregation.  They  add  that  "otliers^  might 
rather  be  termed  defensors,  directors,  patrons,  or 
the  like,  because  they  were  present  only  for  out- 
ward fitness  and  commodity,  and  the  spirituality 
without  them  would  possess  perfect  consistency  and 
entity." — "  The  same  grounds  apply  in  like  man- 
ner to  the  consistories,  which  may  be  regarded  as 
lesser  and  ordinary  councils  for  matters  of  daily 
occurrence  ;  whence  it  might  well  be  useful  to 
appoint  €ome  political  person  of  authority  to  pro- 
tect and  assist  the  clergy  in  case  of  need ;  but  that 
he  should  generally  dispose  of  all  cases  would  serve 
no  good  end.  Else  he  would  be  virtually  the  same 
as  a  priest  and  chief  bishop,  and  thus  the  highest 
voice  in  both  spiritual  and  temporal  government, 
after  the  king,  would  fall  to  one  person." — "  If  lay- 
men took  part  in  the  consistory,  ecclesiastics  might 
demand  the  same  with  respect  to  the  palace  court, 
and  other  secular  judicatories,  before  which  were 
often  brought  subjects  affecting  the  clergy,  churches, 
and  God's  congregation.  It  were  best  that  ever'y 
matter  were  treated  in  its  own  place.  In  the  con- 
sistory no  other  matters  are  desired  to  be  handled 
than  such  as  appertain  thereto  by  divine  right  and 
the  usage  of  the  church;  and  a  general  consistory 
might  be  held  when  the  clergy  were  summoned  to 
the  diet." 

The  king,  who  avers  himself  to  be  the  "  defender 
of  the  church,"  and  bound  as  such  to  have  inspec- 
tion over  the  congregation  of  God  in  his  realm, 
made  two  new  propositions  on  the  same  subject  to 
the  diet  of  1 625.  According  to  the  one,  the  General 
Consistory  was  to  consist  properly  of  ecclesiastics, 
with  some  political  persons  competent  to  the  office, 
who  should  attend  on  the  king's  behalf,  yet  with- 
out the  right  of  voting.  In  the  other  no  mention 
is  made  of  these,  but  only  that  "  his  majesty  would 
take  to  his  aid  sundry  discreet  and  learned  theo- 
logers  who  had  the  fear  of  God  ;"  the  new  college 
to  consist  of  three  of  the  royal  chaplains,  the 
leading  professor  of  theology  at  Upsala,  and  the 
minister  of  Stockholm,  as  the  bishops  could  not 
easily  be  spared  from  their  dioceses.  But  the 
bishops  were  found  to  be  as  reluctant  to  submit 
to  a  judicatory  of  the  inferior  clergy,  as  the  eccle- 
siastics in  general  to  acknowledge  one  of  laymen. 
The  whole  proposition  fell  to  the  ground,  not  with- 


8  Consequently  kings  likewise. 

'  "  King  Gustavus  Adolphus  declared  to  the  bishops, 
when  they  would  not  consent,  that  if  they  transgressed  or 
committed  any  misdemeanour,  they  should  be  brought  be- 
fore the  palace  court,  and  there  be  amerced  as  the  matter 
required.  The  principal  end  designed  by  the  general  con- 
sistory was  to  bind  the  bishops  to  give  an  account  of  their 
administration."  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  in  the  council,  163(j. 
— "  His  majesty  wished  to  be  relieved  from  the  great  weight 
of  business  that  oppressed  him.  If  one  came  in  a  matter  of 
justice,  the  king  referred  him  to  the  palace  court;  in  a 
matter  of  finance,  to  the  exchequer  ;  but  whither  he  should 
refer  the  complaint  of  a  clergyman  his  majesty  was  uncer- 
tain, and  therefore  he  wished  to  erect  the  sixth  college." 
Gabriel  Oxenstierna,  in  the  council,  1636. — "  The  intention 


out  the  king's  great  discontent "  ;  and  when  it  was 
again  brought  forward  by  the  administration  of 
the  guardians  under  Christina,  became  a  mere  party 
question  between  the  clergy  and  nobility. 

In  the  University  of  Upsala  the  dissensions 
among  the  teachers,  especially  Messenius  and  John 
Rudbeck,  with  their  factions  among  the  students, 
continued  under  the  first  years  of  this  reign.  The 
scenes  thus  occasioned  were  so  scandalous  as  to 
elicit  a  royal  letter  to  the  professors,  in  which  the 
king  says:  "  If  we  did  not  our.selves  know  by  ex- 
perience what  use  and  profit  learning  brings  with 
it,  we  should  have  small  reason  to  interest  ourselves 
in  the  least  touching  this  academy,  or  to  show  any 
special  favour  or  grace  to  those  who  are  there 
stationed,  and  attend  not  to  the  functions  of  their 
office  more  diligently  than  serves  their  own  am- 
bition, envy,  and  hatred  ;  yet  that  this  shame  may 
not  have  the  upper  hand,  and  we  may  be  once  for 
all  spared  such  trivial  matters,  we  will  by  this  our 
royal  mandate  have  it  strictly  enjoined,  that  the 
professors  shall  forthwith  choose  by  their  suffrages 
a  rector,  and  neither  the  last  elected  nor  the  former 
rector  shall  intermeddle  in  the  direction  of  the 
academy,  tmtil  we  shall  have  found  it  convenient  to 
despatch  some  men  in  whom  we  repose  trust  to  in- 
quire thereinto '."  On  this  account  the  mode  in 
which  he  restored  order,  as  well  as  the  wisdom  and 
bounty  which  marked  his  care  of  the  university, 
redound  the  more  to  his  honour.  Messenius  and 
Rudbeck,  men  both  as  hot-tempered  as  they  were 
able,  were  removed, — but  to  honourable  and  weighty 
charges  2, — and  the  work  of  instruction  continued  to 
be  a  main  object  of  the  king's  solicitude.  In  the 
year  1G20  he  proposed  to  the  bishops  the  question, 
in  what  manner  art  and  knowledge  might  be  fur- 
thered in  his  dominions  ?  taking  notice  that  the 
university  and  the  schools  were  ill-conducted,  so 
that  there  were  few  fit  for  the  office  of  the  minis- 
try, and  none  at  all  for  affairs  of  government;  the 
magistrates  of  the  towns  were  so  ignorant  that  they 
could  not  write  their  names;  the  students  were 
hindered  from  making  progress  by  their  poverty, 
and  instruction  at  the  university  by  too  many  holi- 
days. The  teachers  were  ecclesiastics,  whence  the 
instruction  in  religion  might  be  passable,  but  as  the 
clergy  themselves  did  not  understand  matters  be- 
longing to  government  and  civic  life,  they  could  not 
teach  these  to  others ;  so  that  however  hard  the 
times  were,  there  was  a  yet  greater  want  of  com- 
petent persons,  especially  for  war  and  the  court, 
than  of  money.  Therefore  the  bishops  should 
state,  how  many  royal  schools  and  seminaries  were 
needful  in  the  kingdom;  what  course  of  education 
was  most  desirable  to  be  given  there ;  how  good 

was  to  preserve  concord  among  the  estates,  but  the  bishops 
sought  only  an  augmentation  of  their  jurisdiction,  and  the 
contraction  of  that  of  the  magistracy.  Dr.  John  Rudbeck, 
bishop  of  Westeras,  spoiled  the  general  consistoiy,  and  was 
also  the  cause  of  all  this  confusion  and  opposition  in  king 
Gustavus  Adolphus'  time."  Axel  Oxenstierna,  in  the  council, 
1636.   Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190. 

1  Hallenberg,  ii.  766. 

2  Messenius  was  appointed  Historiographer  Royal  and 
Assessor  of  the  Palace  Court;  Rudbeck,  first  the  king's 
chaplain,  afterwards  bishop  of  Westeras.  Suspicions  as  to 
the  religion  of  Messenius  had  doubtless  a  principal  part  in 
creating  the  contention.  He  was  secretly  a  Catholic,  sus- 
pected of  connexions  with  Poland,  and  ended  his  life  in 
prison. 


/ 


1632.] 


His  munificent 
grants  foi  the 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  INTERNAL  RELATIONS. 


University  and 
schools. 


235 


teachers  might  be  obtained,  and  one  general  me- 
thod of  instruction  be  introduced;  how  the  so-called 
parish-rounds  (sockne-gangar),  by  which  the  stu- 
dents begged  their  sustenance  in  the  hamlets, 
might  be  abolished,  and  in  their  stead  a  fixed  con- 
tribution, to  be  collected  by  the  ministers,  be  es- 
tablished. They  were  to  declare  how  many  profes- 
sors were  required  in  the  university  ;  and  as  there 
was  a  want  of  learned  men  at  home,  from  what 
places  these  should  be  invited,— how  the  professors 
should  be  paid,  since  the  manner  now  in  use,  by 
the  church  tithes,  was  ineffective,  yelding  more  one 
year,  another  less, — how  the  community  of  the  stu- 
dents, the  privileges  of  the  university,  and  the  ren- 
dering of  accounts  by  the  professors,  might  be 
arranged.  Lastly,  the  king  required  their  opinion 
respecting  the  hospitals,  especially  as  the  grievous 
infection  of  the  disease  called  leprosy  was  beginning 
to  spread,  chiefly  in  Finland;  what  the  crown  ex- 
pended upon  hospitals  was  embezzled,  and  the  poor 
were  treated  worse  than  dogs. 

The  reply  of  the  bishops  is  fantastical  and  silly. 
But  the  king  put  his  own  hand  to  the  work,  and  to 
his  individual  liberality  the  university  of  Upsala 
owes  its  existence.  By  his  donatory  wan-ant  of 
August  31,  1625,  Gustavus  Adolphus  granted  to 
the  academy  of  Upsala,  from  the  Gustavian  here- 
ditary estates,  now  united  in  his  tenure,  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  manors,  declaring  at  the  same  time, 
that  as  these  estates  were  his  own  heritage,  he  be- 
stowed them  on  the  university  "  to  remain  in  its 
possession  for  ever."  Besides  his  donation,  the  king 
assigned  to  the  university  the  crown  tithes  of 
several  parishes  in  Westmanland  and  Helsiugland, 
with  prebendal  benefices  to  the  theologers,  and  a 
yeoman's  grange  to  each  of  the  other  professors  in 
augmentation  of  salary  ;  gave  3250  dollars  yearly 
for  the  community  or  common  house  of  the  stu- 
dents, a  fund  in  addition  for  the  purchase  of  furni- 
ture, with  a  salary  for  a  manager  and  servitors;  fur- 
ther, 2500  dollars  yearly  for  the  maintenance  of 
exhibitioners^,  with  100  dollars  for  prizes  to  them. 
He  likewise  transferred  to  the  university  his  own 
prmting-house,  founded  its  library  by  a  grant  of  his 
own  collection  of  books,  and  the  appointment  of  a 
yearly  revenue,  and  erected  the  edifice  (afterwards 
enlarged  by  Charles  XI.)  which  is  still  called  the 

3  Or  stipendiates.     T. 


"  Gustavian  Academy."  Gustavus  Adolphus  is 
also  the  originator  of  our  gymnasia  ;  for  although, 
with  regard  to  cathedrals,  an  institute  anciently 
subsisted,  by  which  certain  readers  were  supported 
out  of  the  church  tithes,  he  was  the  first  who, 
upon  this  base,  established  regular  seminaries,  with 
several  instructors,  and  larger  revenues.  The  first 
Gynmasium  in  Sweden  was  erected  at  Westeras  in 
1620,  and  enlarged  in  1623  and  162?  ;  the  second 
at  Strengness  in  1626;  the  third  at  Linkoping  in 
1628.  The  same  year  Fmland,  which  had  possessed 
that  of  Viborg  from  1618,  obtained  another  at 
Abo. 

Thus  was  this  great  king  in  the  midst  of  his  wars 
the  founder  of  Sweden's  system  of  education,  ma- 
nifesting thereby  that  his  arms  were  wielded  in  the 
holy  cause  of  man's  civilization.  Therefore  did  he 
sacrifice  upon  that  altar  what  others  would  have 
expended  on  the  preparations  of  battle.  And  in 
what  a  time  was  this  !  No  hopes  are  nobler  or 
more  elevating  than  those  which  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus opened  up  by  his  institutes  to  a  future  gene- 
ration. They  were  not  less  important  for  their 
political  than  for  their  scientific  results  ;  for  if 
Sweden  from  this  time  continually  saw  men  rising 
by  their  knowledge  and  merits  from  the  hut  to  the 
highest  dignities  of  tlie  state,  it  was  the  work  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus. 

The  sovereign's  example  stimulated  the  gran- 
dees. The  councillor  of  state  John  Skytte'  founded 
at  Upsala,  two  years  before  the  royal  donation  of 
estates,  a  new  chair  of  politics  and  eloquence, 
which  still  bears  his  name.  He  was  the  first 
regular  chancellor  of  the  university,  whose  privi- 
leges were  confirmed  in  1626.  Charles  Carlson 
Gyllenhielm  established  schools,  with  adequate 
funds  for  their  maintenance.  To  the  house  of 
barons  was  at  first  attached  a  college  for  the  in- 
struction of  young  nobles,  which  was  dissolved  by 
the  plague  in  1629.  Notwithstanding  the  ravages 
of  the  contagion  there  was  a  great  paucity  of  phy- 
sicians, a  want  which  appears  to  have  been  little  felt. 
Mennickhof,  a  foreign  officer  in  the  Swedish  ser- 
vice, who  fell  at  the  siege  of  Augdow  in  1614,  used 
to  extol  Sweden  for  three  things:  "  it  had  one  king, 
one  religion,  and  one  physician,  which  was  some 
sign  of  health  *." 

■1  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  in  the  council,  1645.     Palmsk.  MSS. 


23f; 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


[1612— 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

GUSTAVUS  II.  ADOLPHUS.    THE  DANISH,  RUSSIAN,  AND  POLISH  WARS. 

MILITARY  POSITION  OP  OLD  SWEDEN.  THEORY  OF  THE  WARLIKE  MEASURES  OF  GUSTAVUS  II.  CAMPAIGN 
OF  1612  AGAINST  THE  DANES.  DANISH  INVASION  UNDER  CHRISTIAN  IV.  AND  RANTZOU  DEFEATED.  PEACE 
OF  1()13  WITH  DENMARK.  ALLIANCE  WITH  HOLLAND.  CONTINUATION  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  WAR.  TREATY  OF 
PEACE  IN  1617.  STATE  OF  RUSSIA  IN  THIS  AGE.  PERSONAL  RELATIONS  OF  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  AND 
SIGISMUND  OF  POLAND.  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  ARMIES  OF  GUSTAVUS.  INVASION  OF  LIVONIA  IN  1621, 
AND  SIEGE  OF  RIGA.  REDUCTION  OF  LIVONIA  AND  COURLAND.  MILITARY  OPERATIONS  IN  PRUSSIA. 
MILITARY    OF    FRANCE.      SIX    YEARs'    TRUCE   WITH    POLAND. 

A.  D.  1612—1629. 


A  NEW  generation  finds  it  difficult  to  conceive  the 
situation  of  the  country  in  times  when  Blelvinge, 
Scania,  Halland,  and  Boliusland  were  not  Swedish 
possessions,  wlien  Sweden  was  sliut  out  from  tlie 
Sound,  and  ahnost  completely  from  the  North  Sea. 
Therein  is  implied  a  wliole  antiquity  of  darkness, 
weakness,  and  barbarism,  exclusion  from  Europe, 
and  the  direction  of  the  first  Swedish  conquests  to 
the  East.  With  the  increase  of  powei',  after  Gusta- 
vus  Vasa,  this  confinement  became  in  all  respects 
intolerable.  Gustavus  Adolplnis  Ijroke  through  its 
bonds  ;  and  this  by  an  attempt  which,  if  we  con- 
sider the  cii'cumstances,  appears  almost  desperate. 
The  hero  who  ended  by  dictating  laws  to  Europe, 
began  by  what  was  in  the  strictest  sense  a  course 
of  self-defence  against  a  predominant  enemy  in  the 
heart  of  the  land,  and  had  the  keys  of  his  own 
kingdom  to  recover  in  Calmar  and  Elfsborg,  in 
order,  as  he  himself  said,  to  save  his  crown  by  a 
hard  peace  ■*. 

"  Sweden,  ever  unvanquished  by  external  ene- 
mies," has  become  a  standing  phrase  in  modern 
Swedish  eloquence.  Our  forefathers,  who  averted 
the  danger,  were  far  from  not  acknowledging  both 
its  possibility  and  reality ;  it  had  gone  too  near 
the  life  fur  that.  So  long  as  Denmark,  as  they 
themselves  used  to  say,  could  "  bite  Sweden  in  the 
heel "  at  her  pleasure,  Sweden  was  lamed.  In 
recenter  times  not  a  few  have  wondered  that  the 
Swedes  did  not  begin  by  shaking  off  the  nearest 
foe — nay,  reproached  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  his 
comrades  with  passing  by  Scania,  Halland,  and 
Blekinge,  to  seek  conquests  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Baltic.  Fortunate  wisdom,  which,  placed 
without  the  orbit  of  events,  sets  laws  to  its  course  ! 

Gustavus  Adolphus  concluded  his  peace  with 
Denmark,  not  as  he  wished,  but  as  he  could  ;  he 
fought  not  from  choice,  but  necessity,  against  Russia 
and  Poland;  at  last  he  crossed  to  Germany  in 
a  cause  vital  to  Protestantism  and  to  his  own 
crown.  But  if  we  suppose  that  he  forgot  what  his 
age  had  many  reasons  to  remember  better  than 
ourselves,  we  either  know  not  or  forget  that  on  the 
Swedish  side  there  was  more  than  once  a  question 
of  a  change  of  front  of  the  German  war  against 
Denmark ;  that  Gustavus  Adolphus  considered  it, 
that  Oxenstierna  after  him  carried  it  into  effect, 
and  that  the  work  of  Charles  Gustavus  was  accom- 
plished on  a  plan  inherited  from  both.     Besides,  is 

<  According  to  Axel  Oxenstierna's  statement  in  the  council, 
IC'13.     Palmsk.  MSS. 

5  Pomerania  and  the  sea-coast  are  like  a  bastion  for  the 
crown  of  Sweden  ;  therein  consists  our  safety  against  the 
emperor,  and  therein  lay  the  chief  cause  of  his  late  majesty's 
taking  up   arms.     The   respect  which  we  now  have  from 


it  forgotten  that  a  foe  may  be  outflanked  ?  and  that 
out  of  Germany,  by  the  invasion  of  Jutland  and 
Zealand,  Scania,  Halland,  and  Blekinge  were  won  ? 
Conquests  were  never  made  at  Denmark's  cost  in 
another  mode.  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that  Sweden 
first  fully  established  herself  within  her  natural 
limits,  after  she  had  planted  her  advanced  posts 
beyond  the  sea,  by  the  occupation  of  the  Baltic 
coasts  lying  over-against  her  own,  which  in  the  poli- 
tics of  Gustavus  Adolphus'  age  were  styled  "  a 
bastion  for  the  crown  of  Sweden  ^."  Now  the 
outworks  are  taken,  and  we  philosophize  in  the 
citadel  itself. 

All  the  hilly  region  of  Smaland  was  formerly  a 
frontier  tract  between  Sweden  and  Denmark,  and 
like  borders  in  general,  full  of  insecurity.  Homi- 
cides, peace-breakers,  and  smugglers,  escaped 
easily  from  one  kingdom  to  the  other ;  and  the 
frequent  prohibitions  against  the  export  of  wares 
were  continually  set  at  nought.  The  neighbours 
on  both  sides  were  at  feud  during  peace,  and  held 
together  in  time  of  war,  the  border  parishes  then 
often  mutually  entering  into  a  so-called  peasants' 
peace.  The  Smalanders  and  Dalecarlians  were 
reputed  at  this  time  to  be  the  most  unruly  of  all 
the  Swedes  ^.  The  dangerous  revolt  of  the  former 
under  Dacke  in  the  time  of  Gustavus  Vasa  ex- 
tended its  roots  on  both  sides  of  the  borders,  and 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  once  during  his  reign 
cause  to  fear  a  like  rebellion.  The  country  was 
also  the  scene  of  conflicts  arising  out  of  the  forays  of 
robbers.  The  wild  habits  and  stubborn  hostility  of 
the  foresters  of  Scania  and  the  Blekingers,  long 
preserved  even  after  their  union  with  Sweden,  had 
their  source  in  similar  relations.  Calmar  was  now 
in  the  power  of  the  Danes,  and  Smaland  lay  open 
to  the  enemy.  On  the  western  side  Danish  Hal- 
land and  Norwegian  Bohusland  encompassed  almost 
entirely  Swedish  West-Gothland,  a  province  which, 
bountifully  endowed  by  nature,  was  cut  off  from  all 
the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  in  the  north  by  duke  Charles 
Philip's,  in  the  south  by  duke  John's  principality, 
both  imder  separate  governments.  These  Avere 
inconvenient  neighbours  ;  for  the  queen  dowager, 
who  governed  for  her  younger  son,  was  more  than 
reasonably  bent  on  her  own  gains,  and  the  ad- 
ministration of  duke  John  was  an  example  of  bad 
economy.      West-Gothland   extended   to   the   sea 

Poland,  we  have  by  reason  of  Pomerania,  because  it  lies  by 
the  side  of  Poland."  Axel  Oxenstierna,  in  the  council,  1644, 
1.  c.  Of  his  plan  in  the  Danish  war,  herewith  connected, 
more  in  its  place. 

6  "  Those  of  Smaland  and  the  Dales  are  ticklish  folk." 
The  steward,  Peter  Brahe,  in  the  council,  1645.  Palmsk. 
MSS. 


1629.] 


Campaign  of  1612. 
Desperate  combat. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     DANISH  WAR. 


Elfsborg  and  Gullberg 
taken  by  the  Danes. 


237 


only  at  the  mouth  of  the  Gcita  elf.  Here  Charles  IX. 
had  founded  Gottenburg,  "a  thorn  in  the  eye  of 
the  Jutes,"  a.s  was  then  a  current  phrase  in  Sweden. 
The  newly-built  town  was  i-azed  by  the  Danes  in 
the  coui'se  of  the  war,  and  the  main  object  of 
Christian  IV.,  after  Calmar  fell,  was  to  make  him- 
self master  of  the  fortresses  of  Elfsborg  and  Gull- 
berg, which  here  on  the  Swedish  side  defended  the 
rivei'. 

The  young  sovereign  hastened  from  his  first 
diet  to  the  war,  but  immediately  offered  peace,  and 
laid  aside  at  the  same  time  the  disputed  title  of  king 
of  the  Lapps.  The  herald  who  was  the  bearer  of  the 
proposals  of  peace  was  turned  back  by  the  Danes 
at  the  frontier,  and  in  a  subsequent  negotiation 
respecting  an  exchange  of  captives,  the  Swedish 
king  received  only  the  title  of  duke.  The  campaign 
of  1612  was  begun  by  the  Danes  in  the  middle  of 
winter.  In  January  they  sallied  out  of  Cahnar, 
laid  waste  a  great  part  of  Smaland,  burned  the 
town  of  Vexioe  with  the  castle  of  Kronoberg,  and 
threatened  Jenkbping.  At  the  same  time  king 
Christian  himself  made  an  attempt  from  the  Nor- 
wegian fortress  of  Bohus  on  the  Gota,  to  surpi-ise 
that  of  Gullberg  in  the  night.  An  assault  five 
times  repeated  was  so  valiantly  repulsed  by  the 
lieutenant,  Martin  Krakou,  and  after  he  was 
wounded,  by  his  bold  wife  Emerentia,  Paul's 
daughter ',  that  the  king  was  forced  to  retire  with 
loss.  New  LoedoBse  had  shortly  before  been  taken 
by  the  Danes,  and  all  the  male  inhabitants 
slaughtered.  Now  West-Gothland  was  harried  ; 
Old  LoedcEse,  Skara,  and  more  than  three  thou- 
sand granges  were  destroyed  *. — At  the  same  time 
a  division  of  the  Swedish  army,  under  duke  John 
and  field-marshal  Krus,  was  engaged  in  a  similar 
inroad  upon  Halland,  where  eighteen  parishes 
were  plundered.  Considerable  loss,  upon  the  re- 
treat, not  far  from  Falkenberg,  was  caused  to  the 
Danish  king,  who  was  near  being  taken,  but 
rescued  by  Christian  Barnekou  with  the  sacri- 
fice of  his  own  life.  Spots  upon  a  great  stone  by 
the  way-side  are  still  called  by  the  peasants 
"  Christian  Barnekou's  blood."  With  another 
division  of  the  Swedish  troops  Gustavus  Adolphus 
had  broken  up  from  Ryssby  sconce  near  Calraar, 
and  invaded  Scania  to  draw  away  the  enemy  to 
the  defence  of  his  own  territory.  The  province 
was  found  unprotected,  and  twenty-four  parishes 
were  desolated.  On  the  i-etreat,  the  king,  who  had 
sent  forwards  the  greatest  portion  of  his  troops, 
was  attacked  not  far  from  the  border  in  the  parish 
of  West-Goinge,  by  the  Danes  returning  from 
Smaland.  Battle  was  joined  on  the  ice  of  Lake 
Vidsioe,  on  the  evening  of  the  11th  of  February. 
The  number  of  the  slain  and  drowned  was  great ; 
the  king  himself  fell  with  his  horse  below  the 
ice,  but  was  saved  by  his  chamberlain  Peter 
Bauer,  and  a  gallant  trooper  who  followed  the 
banner  of  Upland,  Thomas  Laurencesou  by  name, 
who  received  for  this  service  a  yeoman's  holding, 
Igelstad  of  Romfertuna  parish,  still  occupied  by 
his  descendants.  The  report  that  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus had  fallen  was  spread  both  within  and  without 

7  In  this  the  soldiers'  wives  assisted  her. 

f  Hallenberg,  from  Danish  testimonies,  i.  303.  308. 

9  The  size  of  the /ana  (standard)  or  battalion  was  various. 
Peleus  reckoned  it,  in  the  Swedish  and  Danish  armies,  at 
six  or  seven  hundred  men.  According  to  this  computation, 
the  Danish  force  would  be  at  least  twenty-five  thousand, 


the  confines  of  Sweden.  Thus  was  the  war,  full  of 
adventure  and  ruthless,  carried  on  by  both  sides 
with  equal  exasperation.  In  the  summer  the  fields 
of  Smaland  remained  unsown,  and  there  was  such 
a  scarcity  of  horses,  that  even  those  who  travelled 
upon  the  weightiest  affairs  of  the  king  could  never 
obtain  post-horses.  All  the  males  of  Smaland  and  a 
portion  of  West-Gothland  had  been  summoned  into 
the  field. 

Preparations  were  made  for  the  summer  cam- 
paign, by  Denmark  with  united,  by  Sweden  with 
divided  power,  for  hostilities  continued  with  both 
Russia  and  Poland.  The  Danes  too  were  earlier 
ready.  Their  army,  consisting  in  great  part  of 
foreign  levies,  marched  out  of  winter  quarters  in 
the  beginning  of  April,  was  mustered  at  Helsing- 
borg,  and  divided  into  two  bodies,  the  more  nume- 
rous under  kmg  Christian's  own  command  destined 
against  West-Gothland,  the  other  under  field-mar- 
shal Gerdt  Rantzou  against  Smaland,  Oeland,  and 
East-Gothland.  A  squadron  of  the  Danish  fleet, 
so  fairly  equipped,  that  "  the  ocean,"  says  the 
Frenchman  Peleus,  "  would  have  admired  them, 
if  it  had  had  eyes,"  sailed  to  Calmar,  while  another 
squadron  blockaded  Elfsborg.  Christian  himself 
commenced  the  siege  of  the  latter  place  in  the  be- 
ginning of  May,  before  Stiernskold,  according  to  the 
order  of  the  Swedish  king,  could  reinforce  the  garri- 
son, which  numbered  only  from  four  to  five  hundred 
men,  under  the  command  of  the  lieutenant  Olave 
Strain.  This  important  fortress  capitulated  on  the 
24th  of  May,  after  an  investment  of  nineteen  days. 
Forty  cannon,  besides  other  military  stores,  with 
six  Swedish  ships  of  war,  fell  into  the  enemy's 
hands.  Gullberg,  occupied  by  a  garrison  of  which 
the  most  were  foreigners,  surrendered  on  the 
1st  of  June  almost  without  resistance,  with  eighty 
cannon,  five  hundred  muskets,  and  provisions  for  a 
whole  year.  About  the  same  time  the  Scottish 
and  Irish  soldiery  stationed  at  Linkoping  them- 
selves plundered  the  town  and  drove  out  the  in- 
habitants, making  off  on  the  approach  of  the 
Danes.  For  now  king  Christian  entered  West-Goth- 
land with  an  army  of  thirty-two  battalions  of  foot 
and  eleven  squadrons  of  horse.  Against  this  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  could  oppose  but  a  force  of  eleven 
battalions  ^  and  eight  squadrons,  wherefore  he  at 
first  avoided  an  action.  When  at  length  reinforced 
by  duke  John  from  East-Gothland  he  offered 
battle  1,  Christian,  whose  men  suffered  from  hunger 
and  the  field-sickness,  marched  back  after  a  three 
weeks'  inroad  to  Gullberg,  and  thereby  gave  Gjjs- 
tavus  Adolphus  an  opportunity  of  turning  against 
Rantzou.  The  latter  had  on  his  side  opened  the 
campaign  by  taking  the  fort  of  Ryssby,  and  there- 
after reducing  Oeland,  on  which  the  Danes  had 
already  during  the  winter  made  fruitless  attempts. 
Now  the  fortress  of  Borgholm  was  taken,  the 
whole  island  liarried  and  wasted  with  fire  ;  all  the 
clergy  (they  had  incited  the  peasants  to  resistance) 
were  carried  prisoners  to  Denmark.  Returned 
from  Oeland,  Rantzou  marched  along  the  coast, 
turned  off  at  the  Em  river  into  the  country,  dis- 
persed at  Hoegsby  the  last  feeble  remains  of  the 

and  the  Swedish  towards  eleven  thousand.  Jahn  (History 
of  the  War  of  Calmar)  states  Christian's  army  at  twenty-two 
thousand  five  hundred  men,  and  the  whole  strength  of  the 
Danei  in  Sweden  (including  that  of  Rantzou)  at  about  forty 
thousand. 

>  Hallenberg,  ii.  429. 


238 


Danisli  invasion  of  West- 
Gothland  frustrated. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES,  a  yJ'.cl%tZ^\7co:'Z;ons. 


[1612- 


Swedish  troops  which  had  garrisoned  Ryssby  fort, 
and  marched  to  the  town  of  Wimmerby,  which  he 
found  deserted  by  the  inhabitants.  Thereafter  he 
turned  again  to  the  coast,  burned  Westerwieli,  and 
extended  his  ravages  to  Soderkoping,  which  met  a 
like  fate.  He  was  now  compelled,  with  an  army 
almost  broken  up  by  disorders,  want,  and  the  in- 
subordination of  the  German  soldiers,  to  retire 
with  all  speed  ;  and  Gustavus  Adolphus,  though  he 
did  not  effect  his  purpose  of  cutting  off  his  retreat 
to  Calmar,  inflicted  on  him  a  severe  loss.  It  was 
during  this  expedition,  his  great  personal  exertions 
in  which  subsequently  cost  the  young  king  an  ill- 
ness at  Jenkoping,  that  he  heard  of  king  Christian 
being  again  on  his  march  against  this  town.  Jeur 
koping,  after  the  fall  of  Elfsborg  and  Calmar,  was 
the  most  important  place  in  the  south  of  Sweden, 
"  the  key  of  the  lower  country,"  for  which  reason 
the  works  of  its  yet  unfinished  fortifications  were 
being  forwarded  with  all  zeal.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
feared  from  the  outset,  that  the  hostile  armies 
would  select  it  as  their  point  of  junction  ;  and  such 
indeed  appears  to  have  been  the  plan  of  the  cam- 
paign. How  highly  the  royal  youth  surpassed  his 
subordinate  generals,  is  shown  in  nothing  better 
than  by  the  proposal  of  his  two  lieutenants  at 
Jenkoping,  George  Magnusson  Stierna  and  Steno 
Claesson  Boija,  to  blow  up  the  fortress  and  retreat. 
In  general  he  was  but  ill  served  during  this  war  ; 
and  in  the  beginning  of  a  period  so  fertile  in  great 
warriors,  there  are  loud  complaints  of  a  want  of 
leaders  ^.  In  Jenkoping  not  more  than  eight  of 
the  nobility  were  with  the  king.  Duke  John's  se- 
cretary writes  ;  "  God  better  it ;  no  man  will  obey 
another,  and  thex-efore  things  go  as  they  do '." 

In  this  last  great  peril  of  Sweden  from  the 
Danish  side,  it  was  Gustavus  Adolphus  personally 
and  the  Swedish  peasantry  who  saved  the  kingdom. 
The  yeomen  (excepting  those  of  some  parishes  in 
West-Gotliland,  and  the  border  tract  of  Dalsland, 
which  submitted  to  the  enemy),  animated  by  the 
greatest  zeal  for  the  defence  of  the  country,  them- 
selves laid  waste  their  farms,  rather  than  they 
should  become  the  prey  of  ho.stile  ravages.  They 
retired  into  the  forests,  where  they  made  intrench- 
ments,  fell  wherever  they  had  an  opportunity  upon 
the  enemy  scattered  in  the  pursuit  of  plunder, 
and  occasioned  them  constant  losses.  To  these 
proceedings  the  king  gave  them  encouragement, 
and  it  was  the  little  war  which  here  paralyzed  great 
plans.  To  the  frustration  of  these  contributed  also 
the  fact  that  the  foreign  mercenaries  of  this  day 
ruled  their  leaders,  rather  than  were  ruled  by 
them.  Rantzou  had  retired  on  the  news  of  his 
sovereign's  first  recession.  Christian  himself  broke 
up  from  Jenkoping  on  the  news  of  Rantzou's  re- 
treat, and  made  by  the  shortest  way  for  Halland, 
within  his  own  frontier. 

Lesser  occurrences  of  this  war  are  the  move- 
ments on  the  side  of  Norway,  and  king  Christian's 
last  attempt  upon  Stockholm.  At  the  commence- 
ment of  hostilities  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  issued  a 
summons  to  the  Norwegians  to  unite  with  Sweden. 
Tliey  answered  by  inroads  into  Dalsland  and  Ver- 


2  Id.  ii.  441. 

3  Id.  ii.  455.  A  national  failing  of  the  Swedes,  according 
to  Axel  Oxenstierna,  who  said  in  the  council,  in  1636: 
"  Tliere  is  an  old  proverb  of  the  Swedes,  '  Ordinant,  reor- 
dinant,  et  tamen  sine  ordine  vivunt.'  "     Palmsk.  MSS. 


meland.  Of  twelve  hundred  Netherlanders  and 
Scots  who  had  been  levied  on  Swedish  account,  the 
greatest  portion  were  brought  over  from  Scotland 
by  Monnickhof,  a  Dutch  officer,  who  made  with 
his  ships  for  Trondhem,  but  being  repulsed  there, 
landed  at  Stordal,  whei'e  he  met  with  no  opposition. 
Thence  he  marched  across  Norway  to  JemteJand 
and  Herjedale,  both  districts  having  been  occupied 
during  the  war  by  the  Swedes,  after  which  his 
people  were  quartered  in  Stockholm  and  the  sea- 
towns.  Another  division  of  the  same  levy,  under 
the  command  of  colonel  Sinclair,  which  landed  at 
Romsdale  in  Norway,  was  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Nor- 
wegian peasantry  in  a  narrow  pass  upon  the  road 
from  that  point  to  Gullbrandsdale.  The  Swedish 
fleet  under  the  high  admiral  George  Gyllenstierna, 
had  performed  nothing  during  the  whole  war,  to 
the  king's  great  dissatisfaction  ;  nay,  when  Chris- 
tian himself,  after  his  return  to  Copenhagen, 
embarked  in  his  fleet  of  thirty-si.x  sail,  and  having 
taken  on  board  at  Calmar  the  remnant  of  Rant- 
zou's troops,  sailed  into  the  islets  off  Stockholm, 
Gyllenstierna  retired  under  the  guns  of  the  fortress 
of  Waxholm.  The  Danes  followed,  king  Christian 
landing  at  Waxholm,  and  cannonading  the  fortress. 
'J'he  tidings  spread  rapidly  over  the  whole  country. 
The  Dalecarlians  i-ose  unbidden,  and  marched  to 
the  defence  of  the  capital.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
hastened  night  and  day  from  Jenkoping,  came 
at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  10th  of 
September,  to  Stockholm,  and  repaired  to  Wax- 
holm two  hours  afterwards  at  the  head  of  Mon- 
nickhof's  troops.  He  hoped  to  be  able  to  destroy 
in  the  narrow  straits  the  Danish  fleet,  which  was 
detained  by  contrary  winds.  But  the  same  day 
the  wind  changed,  and  the  Danes  sailed  away. 

On  both  sides  the  want  of  peace  was  felt.  Even 
Christian,  now  in  appearance  the  stronger,  had  ex- 
hausted his  own,  if  not  Denmark's,  resources.  His 
power  was  very  limited.  The  Danish  nobles  had 
no  inclination  to  continue  the  war,  because  their 
king  "might  thereby  become  arrogant,  and  keep 
down  them  and  their  privileges,"  as  the  Swedish 
council  of  state  wrote  to  Gustavus  Adolphus*.  A 
conference  respecting  the  exchange  of  prisoners 
led  to  negotiations  for  peace  under  English  medi- 
ation. Axel  Oxenstierna  and  three  other  council- 
lors were  the  Swedish  plenipotentiaries.  On  the 
19th  January,  1613,  peace  was  concluded  with 
Denmark  after  nearly  two  months'  negotiations,  in 
the  church  hamlet  of  Knasrced,  on  the  Laga  stream 
in  Halland.  Sweden  renounced  claim  to  the  for- 
tress of  Sonnenburg  on  the  Oesel,  the  superiority 
over  the  sea  Lapps,  from  Titis  Firth  to  Waranger 
in  Norway,  and  restored  Jemteland  and  Herjedale, 
which  had  been  occupied  in  the  war.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  recovered  Calmar  and  Oeland,  and  Elfs- 
borg conditionally  after  six  years,  if  it  were  ransomed 
in  the  mean  time  with  a  million  of  rix-dollars ;  if 
not,  it  was  to  be  ceded  to  Denmark  for  ever,  with 
the  seven  hundreds  subordinate  to  it,  and  the 
towns  of  New  Lojdoese,  Old  Loedoese,  and  Got- 
teiiburg.  This  was  the  second  time  in  forty  years 
for  which  Sweden  redeemed,  from  the  hands  of  the 
Danes,  its  then  only  place  on  the  West  Sea,  and 
now  at  a  price  six  times  dearer  than  before  *.     It 


■'  Hallenberg,  ii.  485. 

5  By  the  peace  of  Stettin  in  1570  Elfsborg  was  ransomed 
with  150,000  rix-dollars. 


1629.] 


Alliance  with  the 
Netherlands. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     RUSSIAN  WAR. 


Affairs  of 
Russia. 


239 


was  a  point  vital  to  the  kinnjdom  ;  and  tlie  people 
j)aid  for  it  withal,  in  the  hardest  times,  the  heaviest 
subsidy  which  had  ever  been  raised  from  the 
country.  Among  the  conditions  of  peace  were  also 
freedom  from  the  Somid  toll  for  Swedish  vessels, 
and  free  commerce  between  the  subjects  of  both 
realms. 

The  United  Netherlands  had  likewise  offered 
their  mediation,  but  Christian  rejected  it  out  of  dis- 
gust with  the  States-general.  These  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge Danish  sovereignty  in  the  Sound,  brought 
objections  against  the  toll,  and  drew  closer  to  Swe- 
den. Tlie  negotiations  in  this  view,  opened  during 
the  war,  occasioned  in  1614  an  alliance  for  fifteen 
yeax's,  by  which  Sweden  acceded  to  the  league 
already  formed  by  Lubeck  and  the  States-general 
for  the  protection  of  trade;  "albeit  without  preju- 
dice," it  was  added  on  the  Swedish  side,  "  to  Swe- 
den's superiority  and  lordship  over  the  Baltic," 
thenceforth  a  standing  maxim  of  Swedish  policy. 
We  remark  that  by  this  treaty  it  is  provided  that 
the  States-general  and  the  king  of  Sweden  shall  in 
future  maintain  permanent  legations  each  to  the 
other,  a  custom  now  first  established.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  a  special  embassy  from  the  Nether- 
lands arrived  in  Sweden.  In  the  envoy's  account 
of  his  audience  it  is  stated,  that  his  majesty  stood 
before  the  royal  chair  with  uncovered  head,  clad 
in  black  embroidered  satin,  with  a  mantle  of  black 
silk,  by  reason  of  the  mourning  for  his  maternal 
uncle,  the  duke  of  Holstein,  who  was  lately  dead  ; 
above  his  head  was  a  canopy,  on  his  right  the  regal 
emblems  on  a  marble  table  with  silver  feet;  the 
king  was  slender  of  body,  well  shaped,  of  pale  com- 
plexion, and  somewhat  long  in  the  face,  with  light 
hair,  and  a  beard  inclining  to  be  brown;  he  was, 
as  men  said,  full  of  courage  against  the  enemy,  not 
vindictive,  but  very  kind-hearted,  acute,  vigilant, 
active,  remarkably  eloqvient,  and  worthy  of  being 
loved  in  his  converse  with  all  men;  from  his  youth 
great  things  might  be  expected ''.  By  this  em- 
bassy the  States-general  also  offtred  their  medi- 
ation in  the  Russian  war. 

The  contests  regarding  the  succession  to  the 
throne,  which  preceded  the  elevation  of  the  house 
(if  Romanoff,  brought  Russia  to  the  brink  of  ruin. 
There  has  been  a  time  when  the  Swedes  ruled 
Neva  and  Novogorod  ;  the  Poles  possessed  Smo- 
lensko  and  Moscow  ;  and  when,  after  Warsaw  had 
seen  a  deposed  Czar  led  in  triumph  ^,  Stockholm 
beheld  a  Russian  embassy  requesting  a  Swedish 
jjrince  for  their  grand-duke.  This  was  at  the 
death  of  Charles  IX.  Novogorod  had  solicited 
from  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  either  Gustavus  Adolphus 
or  Charles  Philip  to  be  its  ruler  ;  the  choice,  upon 
the  news  of  the  accession  of  the  former  to  the  go- 
vernment of  Sweden,  fell  upon  the  latter  ;  and  the 
greatest  part  of  Russia  united,  from  hatred  of  the 
Poles,  in  this  election.  Gustavus  Adolphus  showed 
little  alacrity  to  procure  this  dignity  for  his  bro- 
ther. It  is  evident  that  he  wished  to  keep  the 
opportunity  open  until,  after  obtaining  peace  with 
Denmark,  he  could  turn  it  to  the  profit  of  Sweden. 
Therefore,  as  well  as  from  the  apprehensions  of  the 

6  Journal  der  Legatie  ghedan  16)5  ende  1C16  Graven- 
hagen,  1619,  p.  123. 

7  Wassily  Schuisky  with  his  two  brothers. 

8  Historia  Belli  Sueco-Muscovitici,  pp.  337.  344. 

9  From  Stockholm,  April  29,  1613. 
1  Hallenberg,  iii.  50.  1S3. 


queen  mother,  the  sending  of  the  prince  was  de- 
ferred ;  and  when  the  young  Charles  Philip  at 
length  ari'ived,in  the  commencement  of  July,  1G13, 
at  Wiborg,  the  Russians  had  already  elected  at 
Moscow  Michael  Romanoff,  then  in  his  sixteenth 
year,  to  be  Czar.  This,  after  the  overthrow  of 
four  pretended  Demetries,  was  so  perilous  an  eleva- 
tion that  he  wished  to  flee,  and  his  mother  burst 
into  tears  and  wailing  at  the  news.  The  adherence 
of  Novogorod  to  the  Swedish  election  was  now  only 
one  of  semblance  and  compulsion. 

We  observe  about  this  time  some  coldness  be- 
tween the  king  and  the  hero  of  the  Russian  war, 
Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  who,  left  without  support  from 
Sweden,  but  long  exercising  princely  power  within 
the  circle  of  his  conquests,  was  near  giving  Russia 
a  ruler,  and  saw  this  hope  vanish  from  liis  eyes. 
The  caution  with  which  Widekindi  speaks  of  this 
misunderstanding^  shows  that  the  matter  con- 
cerned the  king's  person.  Discontent  seems  to 
have  been  awakened  by  the  fact,  that  De  la 
Gardie  had  devolved,  without  consulting  him,  upon 
Charles  Philip  an  election  for  which  Gustavus 
Adolphus  himself  was  first  in  question.  If  this 
w-ere  so,  his  displeasure  was  but  momentary.  In 
his  own  frank  manner  the  king  wrote  to  De  la 
Gardie  ^,  acknowledging  that  his  first  view  of  the 
matter  was  grounded  "  on  ignorance,  and  an  opi- 
nion of  the  position  of  affairs  caught  up  in  haste." 
Befoi'e  all  he  must  look  to  the  security  and  advan- 
tage of  Sweden.  He  expected  little  for  Charles 
Philip,  and  distrusted  the  Russians  ;  "  they  all 
nourish  a  rooted  hatred  against  every  foreign 
nation,  together  with  a  coarse  insolence."  "As 
soon  as  our  troops  are  gathered  in  the  country 
there,"  he  writes  in  another  letter  to  the  Swedish 
plenipotentiaries  for  the  negotiations,  "  we  will  no 
longer,  as  hitherto,  let  ourselves  be  di'awn  about  by 
the  nose,  but  know  whether  they  are  foes  or  friends." 
De  la  Gardie  is  ordered,  if  the  enemy  were  an  over- 
match for  him,  to  abandon  Novogorod,  and  attempt 
a  junction  with  the  king,  but  first  to  make  the  town 
and  castle  useless  to  them ;  "  we  depend  more  upon 
you,"  adds  the  king,  "  and  our  good  folk,  than  upon 
Novogorod  '."  He  had  now,  against  the  repeated 
representations  of  the  queen  dowager  and  the  coun- 
cil, firmly  resolved  to  conduct  in  person  the  Rus- 
sian war,  crossed  from  Finland  to  Narva,  and 
thence  proceeded  to  invest  the  fortress  of  Augdow, 
which  after  two  assaults  surrendered  to  him  by 
capitulation  on  the  lOth  September,  1614.  Ten 
days  after  the  reduction  of  the  fort,  he  writes  to 
his  beloved  Ebba  Brahe:  "Especially  do  I  thank 
the  Divine  Omnipotence,  which  hath  granted  me 
this  honour,  that  I  in  your  favour  have  overcome 
my  foes  ^."  Ebba  Brahe,  daughter  of  the  high 
steward  count  Magnus  Bi'ahe,  was  the  first  love 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  So  much  of  their  corre- 
spondence as  has  been  preserved  shows  incontest- 
ably  that  the  king  intended  to  make  her  the  partner 
of  his  throne.  Love-songs  by  his  hand  remain, 
written  even  during  this  campaign*.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  loved  music  and  song,  and  himself 
played  excellently  on  the  lute*.     The  severity  of 

2  Ibid.  258  He  used  in  his  letters  to  intertwine  the 
initials  of  her  name  and  his  own. 

'  Several  such  are  contained  in  the  library  of  his  excellency 
count  Magnus  Brahe,  at  Sko  Cloister. 

^  Non  solum  musicam  valde  aniplexus  est,  sed  ipse  illi 
operam  dedit,  dum  nempe  fidibus  testudinis,  reginae  quasi 


\ 


240 


Campaign  of  1615. 
Siege  of  Pleskow. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Peace  of  Stolbova.  The  king's 
opinion  of  the  terms. 


[1612— 


the  queen  dowager  interposed  between  the  two 
lovers.  She  first  effected  a  postponement  of  thcii- 
union  for  some  ye:u"s,  the  event  of  which  confirmed 
her  prediction,  tliat  fidehty  to  a  liopeless  passion 
was  not  among  the  j  oung  hero's  attributes  ^,  and 
afterwards  wedded  Ebba  Brahe  to  Jacob  de  la 
Gardie. 

This  rival  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  youthful 
renown  and  youthful  love,  maintained  himself 
victoriously  in  Novogorod,  until  he,  upon  repeated 
solicitations,  obtained  leave  to  return  home  ;  and 
Ewert  Horn  took  his  place  in  that  town,  whose  in- 
habitants, harshly  treated  by  the  Swedish  soldiers, 
now  showed  themselves  more  refractory  than 
before,  and  said  to  Horn,  that  they  would  rather 
die  than  separate  from  the  Muscovite  dominion. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  returned  to  Sweden,  with 
design  to  begin  the  campaign  of  the  coming  year 
by  the  siege  of  Pleskow,  if  the  Russians  did  not 
sooner  accede  to  a  peace  advantageous  for  Sweden. 
The  negotiations  on  this  subject  detained  him 
during  the  spring  of  1G15  ;  but  on  the  8th  of  July 
lie  was  in  Narva,  and  left  there  Jacob  de  la  Gardie, 
who  was  afterwards  employed  in  the  negotiation 
for  peace  conducted  under  English  and  Dutch 
mediation.  Gustavus  Adolphus  himself  sat  down 
before  Pleskow  with  field-marshal  Ewert  Horn*, 
who  fell  in  the  first  sally  of  the  Russians  from 
the  fortress, — a  man,  after  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  the 
greatest  in  this  war,  wise  in  affaii's  of  state,  valiant, 
of  cultivated  mind,  and  deeply  lamented  by  the 
king.  The  siege  of  Pleskow  proceeded  slowly. 
Scarcely  had  the  king  arrived  before  the  place, 
when  the  bearer  of  the  English  mediation,  John 
Merich  (Meyrick  ?),  threatened  to  break  off"  the 
negotiation  if  the  siege  were  continued.  As  the 
discussions  regarding  the  peace,  in  which  the 
Russians  contended  as  stubbornly  for  the  smallest 
as  for  the  most  important  points,  made  no  pro- 
gress in  the  mean  time,  the  siege  was  resumed,  but 
again  interrupted  by  new  remonstrances  fi'om  the 
king's  own  plenipotentiaries.  Between  whiles  he 
kept  the  town  invested  by  five  strong  camps,  and 
the  works  of  the  siege  more  and  more  nearly  ap- 
proached the  walls.  Two  towers  had  been  battered 
down,  but  as  an  assault  finally  hazarded  by  Gus- 
t.avus  Adolphus  was  repulsed,  and  his  army  was 
much  weakened  by  sickness,  he  raised  the  siege, 
after  it  had  lasted  nearly  two  months;  and  went 
at  the  end  of  October  from  Livonia  to  Finland, 
where  he  passed  the  winter,  held  a  diet  with  the 
estates  of  that  country,  and  attended  to  the  Russian 
negotiations.  The  Swedes  had  begun  by  asking 
for  Novogorod,  but  lowered  their  demands  to 
Ingcmianland  and  the  government  of  Kexholm,  of 
which  the  Russians  would  not  hear.  The  nego- 
tiations, which  were  broken  off  in  February,  lO'lG, 
when  the  Dutch  envoy  returned  home,  were  re- 
el principis  omnium  instrumcntorum,  optime  reeinit.  Petri 
Joli.  Ungii  Encomium  Musicae,  habitum  Upsaliae  in  Aud. 
Gust.  d.  Maii  21,  1G38. 

'  In  IGUi  the  beautiful  Margaret  Cabeliau,  daughter  of  a 
Dutch  merchant  settled  in  Sweden,  bore  the  king  a  natural 
son,  Gustave  Gustave^on,  afterwards  count  of  Wasaborg. 

6  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  while  commander-in-chief  in  this 
war,  is  styled  Feltherre  (generalissimo),  Ewert  Horn  some- 
times field-marshal,  or  lirst  lieutenant  of  the  generalissimo, 
answering  to  the  licutenant-gent-ral  in  later  times.  Hallen- 
berg,  iii.  401. 

'  From  Abo,  April  26,  1616. 


opened  in  October  of  the  same  year  by  the  Englisli 
commissioner.  Of  the  last-mentioned  demands 
Gustavus  Adolphus  would  abate  nothing.  "  The 
fortresses  of  Ive.xholm,  Noteborg,  Jama,  Koporie, 
and  Ivangorod,"  he  writes  to  the  queen-mother 
and  the  council',  "  were  as  the  key  of  Lifland  and 
Finland,  and  barred  the  East  Sea  against  the  Russ. 
If  the  Russ  should  get  back  Noteborg  or  Ivan- 
gorod, or  both,  and  should  in  future  learn  to 
know  his  power,  the  convenience  of  the  sea,  and 
the  many  advantages  of  rivers,  lakes,  and  coasts, 
which  he  could  not  yet  discover,  nor  rightly  use, 
then  he  might  not  only  attack  Finland  on  all 
hands,  and  better  indeed  in  summer  than  winter, 
which  hitherto  he  had  not  understood,  but  even 
in  view  of  his  great  power,  might  fill  the  East  Sea 
with  ships,  which  for  Sweden  were  a  continual 
danger.  He  had  himself  at  Neva,  on  his  journey, 
observed  the  conveniency  of  the  site,  and  found 
how  necessai'y  a  secure  frontier  was  against  Russia." 
It  is  Russia's  greatest  adversary  on  the  Swedish 
throne  who  here  speaks,  as  if  he  had  divined  the 
plan  of  Peter  the  Great.  A  hundred  yeara  after- 
wai-ds  Charles  XII.  had  it  before  his  eyes,  and 
divined  nothing. 

Here  matters  rested.  Four  months  of  new 
negotiations  made  no  change  in  their  aspect.  On 
the  27th  February,  1617,  the  treaty  of  peace  was 
signed  at  Stolbova  *,  by  which  Kexholm  and  its 
territory,  with  the  four  fortresses  of  Ivangorod, 
Jamburg,  Koporie,  and  Noteborg,  and  all  the  land 
pertaining  to  them,  were  assigned  to  Sweden ". 
The  Czar  was  to  give  to  the  king  of  Sweden  the 
title  of  Ingermanland  and  Carelia,  to  confirm  the 
renunciation  of  the  Russian  claims  on  Livonia, 
and  to  pay  20,000  rubles.  On  the  other  hand, 
Novogorod  and  all  the  other  Swedish  conquests 
were  restored  ;  but  Augdow  with  its  government 
was  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  Swedes,  until 
the  Czar  had  ratified  the  peace  and  adjusted  the 
boundary.  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  had  the  honour  of 
subscribing  the  peace  which  ended  the  ten  years' 
war  with  Russia.  It  is,  remarked  Gustavus 
Adolphus  in  his  speech  to  the  estates  after  the 
peace ',  "  not  tlie  least  among  the  benefits  which 
Divine  Providence  hath  conferred  upon  Sweden, 
that  the  Russ,  with  whom  we  had  lived  from 
of  old  in  an  uncertain  relation  and  critical  posture 
of  afiairs,  must  now  let  slip  for  ever  the  robber's 
nest,  whence  lie  before  so  often  annoj'ed  us.  Of  a 
truth  he  is  a  dangerous  neighbour ;  his  landmarks 
stretch  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Northern  and  Cas- 
pian, coming  nigh  to  the  Black  Sea;  he  hath  a  pow- 
erful nobility  and  numerous  peasantry,  populous 
tow  ns,  and  can  bring  great  armies  into  the  field ; 
now  cannot  this  foe  launch  but  a  boat  on  the  East 
Sea  without  our  leave.  The  great  lakes  of  Ladoga 
and  Peipus,  the  river  of  Narva,  thirty  miles  of  wide 

8  A  village  between  Tichwina  and  Ladoga  which  no  longer 
e.vists. 

9  Kexholm,  originally  founded  by  the  Swedes,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  stream  Woxen  in  the  Ladoga  ;  Ivangorod,  for- 
merly also  called  Kussian  Narva,  over  the  stream  against 
Narva  ;  Koporie,  Jamburg,  still  towns  of  the  same  name  in 
Ingermanland;  Noteborg,  now  Schlusselburg,  at  the  outlet 
of  the  Neva  from  the  Ladoga. 

'  At  the  diet  of  Stockholm  in  1617.  Compare  his  speech 
to  the  diet  of  (irebro  in  the  commencement  of  the  same 
year.  The  speeches  are  given,  from  the  king's  own  draughts 
of  them,  in  Widekindi,  Gustaf  Adolfs  Historia. 


1G2U.] 


Internal  state  of 
Russia. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     POLISH   WAR. 


Intrigues  of 
Sigisniund. 


241 


morasses,  and  strong  fortresses  part  him  from  us ; 
Russia  is  excluded  from  the  Baltic  ;  and  I  hope 
to  God,  the  king  adds,  it  will  henceforth  be  hard 
for  the  Russians  to  leap  over  that  brook."  The 
ground  on  which  St.  Petersburg  now  stands  was 
Swedish.  On  the  frontier  a  stone  was  raised  bearing 
the  three  crowns  of  Sweden  and  the  following  in- 
scription in  Latin :  "  Here  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
king  of  Sweden,  set  the  limits  of  tlie  realm.  May 
his  work, under  a  Gracious  Providence,  be  lasting  2." 
Never  afterwards  did  he  neglect  to  keep  a  watch- 
ful eye  on  Russia.  He  was  careful,  in  the  midst 
of  his  career  of  victory  in  Germany,  to  procure 
intelligence  of  its  internal  condition,  and  three 
separate  memoirs  upon  this  subject,  presented  to 
the  king  by  the  three  sons  of  the  councillor  of 
state  John  Skytte',  still  exist.  The  reigning  grand 
duke,  these  allege,  was  unwarlike ;  his  father,  the 
patriarch,  in  fact  exercised  the  highest  power. 
The  higher  nobles,  or  knesses,  had  been  diminished 
by  the  tyranny  of  the  dukes  to  some  few  families ; 
the  inferior  nobles,  or  boyars,  on  the  contrary, 
were  very  numerous  ;  both  were  obliged  to  serve 
from  the  lowest  grades  upwards,  and  all  were 
bound  to  yield  property  and  life  to  the  grand  duke. 
All  the  nobility  was  mai'tial,  but  had  a  common 
jealousy  of  the  foreign  troops  in  the  service  of  the 
grand  duke,  who  lived  in  abundance.  There  were 
two  main  causes  of  the  weakness  of  Russia ;  one 
was  the  corruption  of  the  clergy  (for  where  a  crime 
was  committed,  a  monk  had  part),  whence  the 
education  of  the  people  was  wretched,  so  that 
gluttony  and  bloodshed  were  vices  made  matters  of 
boast ;  the  other  was  the  foreign  soldiery.  For 
the  Moscovites,  although  they  hated  every  thing 
outlandish,  could  effect  nothing  against  foreigners 
without  foreign  aid.  All  that  they  accomplished 
was  done  by  treachery  and  superiority  of  numbers. 
The  indigenous  soldier  received  no  pay,  wherefore  he 
robbed ;  in  the  defence  of  fortresses  he  had  always 
shown  himself  stout.  The  nobles  were  obliged  to 
defray  their  own  charges  in  embassies  and  military 
expeditions ;  for  with  respect  to  taxes  there  was  no 
defiiaite  law,  but  the  lieutenants  extorted  what  they 
could,  or  took  bribes  for  their  remissness.  The 
condition  of  the  lower  class  in  the  Russian  do- 
minions was  miserable  from  four  causes,  through 
slavery,  through  the  multiplicity  of  races,  through 
the  weight  of  imposts,  and  lastly  the  number  of 
festival  days,  which  were  consumed  in  debaucheries. 
The  safe-guards  of  laws  were  unknown.  The 
peasants,  who  must  labour  five  days  of  the  week 
for  their  lords,  had  only  the  sixth  and  seventh  to 
themselves.  The  revenues  of  the  grand  duke  arose 
from  several  sources  :  L  From  the  coinage,  which 
formerly  had  been  good,  but  now  was  depressed 
by  the  foreign  coins  to  a  lower  value,  on  which 
the  grand  duke  gained  every  third  penny:  IL  From 
grain,  the  prices  of  which  were  fixed  arbitrarily 
by  the  grand  duke:  IIL  From  liquors;  for  all 
drinks  saving  water,  especially  the  so-called  quass, 
could  only  be  sold  throughout  the  whole  realm  of 


2        "  Hue  regni  posuit  fines  Gustavus  Adolphus 

Rex  Sueonuni,  fausto  Numine  duret  opus." 
Limites  positi  an.  1617.  The  demarcation  of  the  boundaries 
was  completed  in  1621  after  protracted  negotiations,  in 
wliich  on  one  occasion  the  Russians  turned  their  backs  on 
the  Swedes,  and  declared  that  two  saints,  a  hundred  years 
dead,  had  risen  up  again  and  promised  in  the  name  of  the 


Russia  in  the  grand  duke's  taprooms  ;  even  the 
use  of  baths,  of  which  the  nation  was  particularly 
fond,  was  forbidden  to  the  people  in  their  own 
houses,  and  they  must  pay  a  stiver  for  one  in  the 
crown-baths  :  IV.  Fi'om  sable-skins,  which  as  a 
monopoly  of  the  grand  duke  were  so  high-priced, 
that  they  might  be  bought  cheaper  in  Livonia 
and  Germany  tliaia  in  Russia  :  V.  Otherwise  from 
trade,  which  the  grand  duke  now  pursued  through 
his  own  agents,  to  the  great  loss  of  the  English 
trading  company  in  Russia ;  of  the  wares  he 
selected  the  best  for  himself ;  what  could  not  be 
sold,  he  usually  made  over  to  some  rich  merchant 
for  payment,  who  must  give  thanks  for  it  as  for  a 
favour.  Thraldom  was  regarded  by  the  Mus- 
covites not  as  a  shame,  but  as  an  honour.  All 
boasted  of  being  the  serfs  of  the  grand  duke  ;  his 
will  was  law,  even  if  he  should  command  a  man  to 
slay  father  or  mother.  That  such  a  condition  of 
things  might  be  maintained,  egress  from  the  king- 
dom was  forbidden  them,  out  of  fear  that  if  they 
came  to  fox'eign  princes  and  nations,  their  civiliza- 
tion might  make  slavery  abhorrent  to  them.  The 
Swedes  (continues  the  relation)  were  loved  by  them 
before  others,  but  also  more  feared  ;  and  they 
were  of  opinion  that  with  these  none  were  to  be 
compared  for  the  art  of  war,  esj)ecially  since  they 
had  heard  of  his  majesty's  successes,  passing  all 
conjecture,  in  Germany  against  the  Papists,  whom 
they  detested  ^. 

After  the  peace  with  Russia,  the  fame  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  began  to  be  spi'ead  throughout 
Europe.  Councillor  John  Skytte',  who  in  16 17 
departed  on  an  embassy  to  Denmark,  Lubeck,  the 
Netherlands,  and  England,  to  counteract  the  pro- 
jects of  Sigisniund,  writes  home,  that  he  every 
where  heard  his  sovereign  extolled,  and  therefore 
deemed  his  country  fortunate  *. 

The  war  with  Poland  still  continued.  Its  theatre 
had  been  Livonia,  the  Swedes  possessing,  of  the 
chief  fortresses.  Revel,  Narva,  and  Wittenstein  ; 
the  Poles,  Riga,  Dunamunde,  and  Kockenhus.  On 
the  death  of  Charles  IX.  a  truce  was  made  till 
June,  1612;  it  was  prolonged  to  October  1,  1613; 
thereafter  for  four  months  more,  and  at  length  for 
two  years,  or  to  the  20th  January,  1616.  Towards 
the  end  of  its  term,  Polish  intrigues  began  again 
to  be  particularly  active  in  Sweden,  connected 
with  extensive  plans  previously  entertained,  which 
we  cannot  here  pass  over  in  silence,  because  they 
point  towards  the  future.  Sigismund  was  by  re- 
ligion and  kindred  nearly  allied  to  the  house  of 
Hapsburg.  Ferdinand,  afterwards  the  second  em- 
peror of  that  name,  and  Philip  III.  of  Spain,  were 
his  brothers-in-law.  To  the  latter  he  sent  an 
emigrated  Swede,  who  obtained  that  all  Swedish 
ships  and  cargoes  in  Spanish  ports  and  waters 
should  be  declared  lawful  prizes  ^.  About  the 
same  time  a  Dutch  historian  mentions  a  secret 
project,  discovered  by  the  correspondence  of  a 
Jesuit  *.     Denmark  was  to  be  instigated  to  make 


Lord,  that  Russia  should  extend  its  frontier  to  Abo,  if  war 
again  fell  out  with  Sweden.     Hallenberg,  iv.  788. 

3  Relationes  Muscoviticse  Johannis,  Benedict!,  et  Jacob! 
Skytte.     Palnisk.  MSS.  tt.  97,  186. 

■•  LitterEE  Johannis  Skytte  ad  Axelium  Oxenstjerna.  Lon- 
diiii,  8  Dec.  1617.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  371. 

5  Id.  t   190. 

6  Hallenberg,  i.  97,  after  Meteren. 

R 


242 


His  preparations  for 
active  hostility. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Humanity  of  Gustavus 
Negotiation  for  peace. 


[1(J12- 


war  on  Sweden,  Spain  was  to  conclude  a  truce 
with  the  Netherlands,  afterwards  to  acquire  the 
command  of  the  Sound,  and  tlun-eby  both  close 
the  Baltic  against  Holland,  and  raise  Sigismund 
again  to  the  Swedish  throne.  Charles  IX.  makes 
mention  of  this  plan  in  a  note  written  by  him  ^  ; 
and  tlie  Hollanders,  induced  thereby,  actually 
despatched  an  embassy  to  Christian  IV.,  which 
however  arrived  too  late  to  prevent  the  outbreak 
of  the  Danish  war,  and  was  besides  received  by 
the  king  with  small  respect '.  During  the  cessa- 
tion of  arms  with  Poland,  no  hope  of  peace  was 
cherished,  for  Sigismund  steadily  reserved  his 
right  to  the  Swedish  crown.  He  considered  him- 
self also  to  have  claims  upon  Ilussia,  through  the 
choice  of  his  son  Vladislaus,  by  a  party  in  that 
country,  to  be  grand  duke,  and  protested  against 
the  cessions  made  in  the  treaty  of  peace  signed 
at  Stolbova.  He  now  purposed  an  attack  upon 
Sweden.  An  Austrian  count  of  Althan  had  pro- 
mised to  levy  an  army  in  Germany  to  that  end, 
and  the  Spaniards  to  equip  a  fleet  in  Dunkirk ;  the 
estates  of  Poland  had  granted  a  subsidy  ;  levies 
and  war  taxes  for  the  same  object  were  instituted 
in  Polish  Prussia  ;  the  Hanse  Towns  were  warned 
to  abstain  for  the  present  from  all  intercourse  with 
Sweden,  since  God  would  shortly  open  to  its  legi- 
timate king  the  way  to  his  hereditary  throne.  To 
Christian  IV.  was  sent  an  embassy,  with  promise 
of  the  absolute  cession  of  Elfsborg,  Spain  withal 
proposing  to  Denmark  a  league  against  Holland, 
and  common  cause  with  Poland  against  Sweden  ; 
exhortations  to  revolt  against  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
and  libels  upon  his  father  were  disseminated 
throughout  the  kingdom ".  At  the  same  diet 
wherein  Gustavus  Adolphus  made  known  to  the 
estates  the  peace  with  Ilussia,  he  was  obliged  also 
to  announce  to  them  the  fresh  eruption  of  the  war 
with  Poland.  On  the  enemy's  side,  indeed,  the 
execution  of  the  plans  bore  no  cori'espondence  to 
their  extent,  for  Sigismund,  as  a  Polish  historian 
says,  "  undertook  all  things  unseasonably  and  per- 
versely '. "  ]Meanwhilc,  preparations  for  defence 
were  set  on  foot  both  in  Sweden  and  in  Estland. 
Stiernskold,  who  had  been  sent  to  the  Netherlands 
to  levy  troops,  and  to  obtain  from  Denmark  free 
passage  through  the  Sound  for  two  thousand  men, 
crossed  in  the  beginning  of  July,  16)7)  to  Lifland. 
Dunamunde  was  surrendered  to  the  Swedes  by 
William,   duke  of  Courland,    who   had  been  dis- 

'  "The  king  of  Spain's  foundation  for  erecting  his  (uni- 
versal) monarchy,  was  in  king  Charles  IX.'s  time,  Elsinore, 
which  he  expected  to  obtain,  if  king  Sigismund  of  Poland 
should  get  Sweden."     Copy  in  the  Palmsk.  Collections,  t.  58. 

8  "  Non  agitur  de  religione,  sed  de  regione,"  was  his  reply 
to  the  envoys. 

"  Compare  Hallenberg.  George  Nilson  Posse  now  issued 
the  bitter  lampoon  called  "  Duke  Charles'  slaughter-bench." 
It  was  in  the  year  1615,  when  the  Swedish  fugitives  began 
to  stir  with  similar  means,  that  the  historian,  John  Mes- 
senius,  accused,  but  not  convicted,  of  having  had  secret 
Correspondence  with  Poland,  was  thrown  into  prison,  where 
he  was  kept  until  his  death  in  1(534.  Wlien  in  1642  John 
Daazius  published  his  Inventarium  Eccles.  Sueo-Goth. 
mentioning  Messenius  as  one  condemned  to  perpetual  im- 
prisonment for  a  traitorous  correspondence  with  Poland, 
the  government  of  the  day  wrote  to  him  :  "  We  will  by  no 
means  defend  the  cause  of  Messenius,  but  neither  can  we 
accuse  him  of  any  treason,  sedition,  or  the  like,  leaving 
him  to  the  judgment  of  God.  Verily  there  have  been 
strong  presumptions  against  him,  but  because  that  hath  not 


possessed  by  the  Poles  ;  Pernau  and  Salis  were 
taken,  also  by  the  help  of  the  duke's  general, 
Wolmar  Farensbach,  who,  however,  afterwards 
passed  over  to  the  enemy,  and  formed  a  junction 
with  the  Lithuanian  general  Iladziwill.  The  latter 
reheved  Riga,  recovering  a  redoubt  before  the 
town,  which  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
Swedes.  In  the  winter  of  1C18  the  Poles  overran 
with  fire  and  sword  Swedish  Livonia  and  Esthonia, 
but  speedily  retreated.  Gustavus  Adolphus  did 
not  consent  to  Stiernskold's  request  to  put  in  prac- 
tice the  right  of  retaliation  ;  he  was  not  to  make 
incursions  of  plunder  after  the  enemy's  example, 
but  when  opportunity  offered,  to  assault  some 
fortress,  and  upon  the  march  to  treat  the  defence- 
less population  of  the  enemy's  country  with  the 
same  forbearance  as  Swedish  subjects.  "  We  have 
not  proposed  to  ourselves,"  the  king  writes,  "to 
make  war  upon  the  peasants,  whom  we  would 
rather  see  kindly  used  than  utterly  ruined."  In 
such  a  frame  of  mind,  and  albeit  Sigismund  gtive 
the  usual  answer  to  a  mediatory  overture  which 
had  been  lately  requested  from  Denmark,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  consented,  on  the  petition  of  the  Est- 
landers,  to  renew  the  negotiation  for  a  truce,  "  to 
the  end  that  all  might  perceive  he  did  not  stand 
upon  war,  if  peace  and  quietness  were  to  be  had, 
and  that  poor  Lifland  might  not  be  made  absolutely 
desolate  by  both  sides."  The  new  truce,  by  which 
the  Swedes  retained  what  they  held,  was  concluded 
for  two  years,  from  Michaelmas,  1618,  to  the  same 
day  of  1G20,  with  three  months'  notice  to  be  given, 
though  the  ratification  from  Poland  was  never 
received.  Gustavus  Adolphus  notified  his  re- 
nouncement on  the  expiration  of  the  term,  adding 
that  he  wished  for  peace;  and  giving  power  to  his 
plenipotentiaries  to  negotiate  accordingly.  He 
Avould  cede  Pernau,  and  leave  the  frontier  as  it 
had  stood  on  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  the  year 
IGOO;  but  if  peace  could  not  be  obtained,  he  was 
willing  to  enter  into  a  ten  years'  truce,  and  even 
to  leave  to  Sigismund  the  name  of  king  of  Sweden, 
with  a  reservation  that  it  should  not  be  taken  to 
imply  any  right  to  the  kingdom.  The  Poles  con- 
sented indeed  to  negotiate,  but  only  in  the  name  of 
the  Polish  senate  ;  their  commissioners  were  with- 
out powers  from  their  king,  who  had  declared,  that 
he  could  not  ratify  any  convention  entered  into  by 
them  2.     Hereupon  Gustavus  Adolphus  caused  his 

been  found  in  him  which  was  presumed,  he  is  likewise  not 
condemned  to  perpetual  prison,  but  only  kept  in  custody  on 
suspicion.  Now  because  in  his  prison  he  hath  written  much 
that  redoundeth  to  the  honour  of  the  country,  therefore  do 
we  bear  scruple  to  lay  such  imputations  upon  him,  seeing 
these  tend  to  make  the  relations  of  historians  suspected. 
Therefore  must  this  be  erased  or  suppressed  before  the 
exemplars  are  spread  abroad."  Register  for  1643.  In  the 
book  the  passage  stands  unchanged  at  p.  664. 

'  Piasecki  Chronica  ad  an.  1616.  Verum  omnia  intem- 
pestive,  et  prfepostere  et  magis  ad  praemonendum  hostem 
fiebant.  Nihilque  de  istis  cum  consiliariis  Polonis  confere- 
bat,  sed  cum  Suecis  et  Germanis  tantum,  qui  pauci,  illique 
rcrum  et  prsesentis  belli  ducendi  inexpertes  in  ejus  aula 
erant.  Among  these  are  named  Francis  Ternagel,  a  German 
refugee,  whom  Sigismund  made  iiis  Swedish  chancellor, 
and  Gabriel  Poze  (probably  George  Posse)  a  refugee  from 
Sweden. 

-  "  That  your  lovingness  may  be  able  to  refute  to  our 
friends  the  false  rumour  which  will  be  spread  of  our  present 
actions,  we  give  you  to  know  the  truce  was  expired,  and 
certain  heads,  whereon  a  prolongation  might  be  made,  were 


1629]. 


Articles  of  war 
for  the 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     POLISH  WAR. 


Swedish  army. 
Courts- martial. 


243 


council  to  despatch  a  declaration  to  that  of  Poland, 
that  he  must  continue  the  war  against  his  will, 
while  the  Poles  were  attacked  at  the  same  time 
by  the  hereditary  foes  of  Christendom,  the  Turks. 
He  assembled  his  army  and  fleet  in  July,  1G21,  in 
order  to  repair  in  person  to  Riga. 

In  the  harbour  of  Elfsnabben,  wliile  the  ships 
were  detained  by  contrary  winds,  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  issued  his  articles  of  war.     The  oldest  Swedish 
articles  of  Avar  are  those  of  Gustavus  I.,  in  1545  ; 
others  were  afterwards  Lssued  by  Eric  XIV.  and 
John  III.     They  had  been    found  necessary,   as 
would  appeal",  for  the  foreigners   levied  for  the 
Swedish   service,  of  whom    the  greatest  number 
were  Germans.     Under  Eric  XIV.  some  thousand 
Scots  were  brought   into  the  kingdom,  to  procure 
whom  Gustavus  I.  had  opened  negotiations.     John 
III.  had  a  squadron  of  English  cavalry,  and  Charles 
IX.  retained  in  pay  Dutch  soldiers,  as  well  as  a 
French  regiment  of  horse.     In  the  treatment  of 
these  latter,  the  king  gave  orders  that  especial  care 
should    be  observed.     "  The   French,"  he  wi-ites, 
"  are  good  people,   but  of  a  capricious  humour  ; 
therefore   must    we  deal  warily  with   them,  give 
them    good   words,  and   no  blows'''."     It   is  well 
known,  that  from  the  pursuit  of  the  trade  of  war 
for  pay  standing  armies  originated.     Before  these 
became  national,  the  military  adventurer  sold  him- 
self to  the  highest  bidder  ;  and  thus  was  formed 
over  all  Europe  a  sort   of  freebooters'  common- 
wealth, among  the  members  of  which  the  German 
Landsknechts  were  long  the  most   famous.     The 
conditions  under  which  an  association  of  soldiers, 
— that  is,  a  regiment  under  its  colonel — entered 
the  service  of  a  prince  were  specified  in  a  so-called 
brief  of  articles,  confirmed  by  oath  ^.     Out  of  ser- 
vice the  soldier  was  generally  independent  of  his 
officers  ;  the  commandei's  again  were  only  bound 
by  a  tie  of  voluntary  obedience  to  the  prince,  or 
the   commander-in-chief  appointed    by  him,    who 
was  usually  distinguished  from  the  rest  by  the  title 
of  field-general.     The  existence  of  such  relations 
is   abundantly  attested   likewise   by    the   military 
history   of   Sweden  at    this  time,  which    so  often 
speaks    of   mutinies   among    the    foreign    soldiery, 
their  bloody  feuds  with  each  other,  when  they  were 
of  ditt'erent  nations,  (as  between  the  Scots  and  the 
Germans  in  the  Livonian  wars  of  king  John,)  and 
their  atrocities  upon  Swedish  subjects.     This  evil, 
so  often  complained  of,  appears  to  have  been  little 
remedied  by  king  Eric's  articles  of  war;  since  they 
ordain,  that  if  any  one  of  the  foreign  auxiliaries 
should  offer  violence  to  an  inhabitant  of  the  country, 
all  the  soldiers  under  the  same  standard  should 
investigate  the  matter  themselves,  and  replace  the 

sent  to  Poland,  in  the  hope  that  reasonahleness  and  their 
own  peril  might  correct  their  arrogance,  the  vice  of  that 
nation.  Sed  naturam  expdlas  furca,  tamen  risque  recurret. 
To  this  came  our  fine  plenipotence."  Gustavus  Adolphus 
to  his  brother-in-law,  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  from  the 
camp  before  Riga,  Aug.  29,  1621.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  36. 

3  Compare  Adlersparre,  Essay  on  the  Military  Force  of 
Sweden,  in  the  Academic  Transactions,  iii.  313. 

•»  Compare  George  of  Frundsberg,  or  the  trade  of  war  in 
Germany  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  by  Barthold. 
Hamburg,  1833. 

<•  Hallenberg,  i.  525. 

<<  At  first  so  large  that  each  consisted  of  twelve  battalions, 
together  6000  men,  and  consequently  500  to  each  battalion. 
Charles  IX.  diminished  the  number  to  400,  300,  and  even 
200  men. 


person  maltreated  in  his  rights,  or  conjointly  make 
good  his  loss*.  In  courts  martial  on  the  soldiers, 
according  to  these  articles,  was  to  sit  a  naemnd  or 
jury  of  twelve  or  twenty-four  men,  "  honourable, 
brave  men  at  arms,"  yet  not  of  the  supei'ior 
officers  ;  but  if  such  officers  were  arraigned,  then 
some  were  to  be  among  the  assessors.  The  divi- 
sion by  regiments^  was  introduced  into  Sweden  by 
Eric  XIV.  It  was  suspended,  like  all  that  be- 
longed to  the  military  system,  under  John  III., 
but  was  again  adopted  by  Charles  IX.,  yet  in  a 
different  mode,  and  first  icceived  a  permanent 
existence  with  the  erection  by  Gustavus  Adolphus 
of  a  standing  national  force. 

That  monarch's  articles  of  war  are  drawn  up  by 
his  own   hand.     According  to  them  the  king,  as 
"  God's  justiciai'y   upon    earth,"    is    the   highest 
judge  as  well  in  war  as  peace.     The  troops  were  to 
be  under  the  jurisdiction  <if  special  courts,  superior 
and  inferior,  on  march  and  during  war.    The  lower 
courts  were  the  regimental  court  for  the  foot,  and 
the  cavalry  court  for  the  horse.    In  the  regimental 
court,  the  colonel,  or  in   his  stead  the  lieutenant- 
colonel,  presided.     The  assessors  were  chosen  by 
the   whole   regiment,   namely,    two  captains,   two 
lieutenants,  two  ensigns,  two  Serjeants,  two  quarter- 
masters, and  two  lance-prisades  (forare).     In  the 
cavalry  court  the  colonel,  or  in  his  stead  the  cap- 
tain of  the  king's  troop  of  guards,  was  president. 
The  assessors  were  chosen  by  all  the  squadrons  of 
horse,  three  captains,  three  lieutenants,  three  cor- 
nets, and  three  corporals.     In  the  superior  court 
the  high-marshal,  or  in  his  absmce  the  field-mar- 
shal, pi'esided.     The  marslial's  assessors  were  the 
field-marshal,   the  general   of   artillery,  the    field- 
watchmaster ',  the  general   of    cavalry,  the  field- 
quartermaster,  and    the    muster-masters,  with    all 
the  colonels   (or  in   their   absence  the  lieutenant- 
colonels);  namely,  first  the  colonel  of  the   king's 
household  regiment,  then  the  colonels  of  the  Up- 
land,    West-Gothland,    Smaland,    East-Gothland, 
Norrland,  Finland,  and  Carelian  regiments  ^,  lastly, 
the  colonels  of  all  the  other  regiments  embodied, 
according    to   the    dates    of  their   service.     These 
courts  had  besides  their  clerks  and  apparitors.     lu 
the  superior  court  the  "  provost-general"  was  pro- 
secutor ;    he  had   power  to   arrest   and   lodge  in 
prison  every  man  whom  he  held  to  be  an  offender, 
but  not  to  "justify,"  that  is  to  execute  him,  with- 
out the  receipt  of  special  orders.     Wh(jsoever  re- 
sisted him,  his  lieutenant  or  Serjeant,  forfeited  his 
life.     In  the  inferior  court  the  regimental  provost 
was  prosecutor  :  he   had  the  .same  power  in    his 
regiment,  and  the  battalion-provosts  in  their  bat- 
talions, as  the  provost-general  in  the  camps.     Be- 

7  "Who  appears  to  have  answered  to  the  major-general.  In 
the  year  1612,  "  John  Other,  a  valiant  and  honourable 
soldier,  is  appointed  serjeant-major  or  chief  guardma.ster  in 
the  fortress  of  Elfsborg ;  there  to  take  all  matters  into  his 
good  keeping,  especially  watch  and  ward  against  the  foe," 
Reg.  In  the  regiments  also,  the  major  does  not  appear,  but 
instead  of  him  an  upper-watchmaster.  The  first  major- 
general  in  the  Swedish  army  was  Francis  Bernard  count 
Thurn,  son  of  the  Bohemian  leader,  whom,  when  ir.  1623  he 
entered  the  Swedish  service,  the  king  named  to  be  "  major 
of  the  field."  Hallenberg,  v.  111.  Yet  Thurn  is  also  called 
general  field- watchmaster. 

8  This  was  consequently  the  order  and  number  of  the 
regiments  in  1621.  Their  size  was  various.  There  were 
some  of  twenty-four  companies,  each  about  150  men,  and 
others  of  sixteen  or  eight. 

b2 


244 


Military  punishments 
and  discipline. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Tlie  liing's  marriage. 
Invasion  of  Livonia. 


[1612— 


fore  the  superior  court  were  to  be  tried  all  treason-  j 
able   and   other    heinous   offences,   with   all   civil 
causes  which  were  brought   by  appeal  from  the 
lower   court.     In   criminal   cases  no   appeal   was 
allowed,  but  the  sentence  was  to  be  referred  to  the 
marshal,  or  to  the  king  when  he  was  present.     In 
such  as  touched  life,    limb,  or  honour,  the  court 
was  to  be  held  within  a  circle  of  troops  under  the 
open  sky,  but  in  civil  matters  within  a  tent.      The 
penalties  are,  first,  eorpoi-al  inflictions  on  head  or 
hand,   with    more   or    less   dishonour.     The    most 
shameful  of  all   was  hanging,   which  every  tenth 
man  by  lot  must  undergo  if  a  squadron  of  horse  or 
regiment  of  foot  took  to  flight  during  an  engage- 
ment, before  they  were  disabled  from  using  their 
swords  ;    the  rest  in  such  case  to  serve  without 
standard,  to  lie  out  of  quarters,  and  to  clean  the 
camp,  until  they  "  had  compensated  their  offence 
by  manhood."     Other  punishments  were  riding  on 
the  wooden  horse,  imprisonment  with  fetters,  bread 
and  water,  the  gantelope,  pecuniary  fines,  depri- 
vation  and    degradation  for  officers,   ignominious 
ejection  from  the  camp  for  privates.     Caning  was 
not  permitted '.     Courtesans  were  not  suffered  in 
the  camp  ^     If  any  one  chose  to  have  his  wife 
with  him  it  was  allowed.     The  chaplain  was    to 
perform  service  every  Sunday,  and  give  one  ser- 
mon  in  the   week,   when  there  was  opportunity  ; 
prayers  were  to  be  said  morning  and  evening.     All 
the  field  chaplains  together  formed   a   field  con- 
sistory, over  which  the  king's  court-preacher  or 
the  general's  preacher  presided.      These  articles  of 
war  were  to  be  read  once  a  month  before  every 
regiment.     The  first  time  the  high  chancellor  read 
them  to  the  whole  army,  which,  consisting  of  nine 
regiments  of  infantry  and  ten  companies  of  cavalry, 
in  all  20,000  men,  was  ai-rayed  in   full  order  of 
battle  on  the  meadow  of  Aorsta. 

Here  the  whole  royal  family  were  assembled. 
This  had  been  diminished  by  the  death,  in  1618,  of 
duke  John  and  his  consort,  young  in  years,  it  is  said 
after  an  unhappy  union,  embittered  by  jealousy  2. 
After  the  decease  of  this  melancholic  but  valiant 
prince,  East-Gothland  fell  in  to  the  crown.  On 
the  meadow  of  Aorsta  the  army  saw  their  sovereign 
surrounded  by  his  wife,  his  mother,  his  mother-in- 
law,  and  his  brother.  The  first  were  present  to 
say  farewell  to  liira  before  his  departure  for  the 

'  The  general  of  artillery,  count  von  der  Decken,  in  his 
history  of  George,  duke  of  Brunswick  and  Liineburg, 
Hanover,  1834,  says  of  these  articles  of  war,  ii.  113,  "Com- 
pared with  others  of  that  time,  they  are  distinguished  by  a 
spirit  of  humanity,  which  ulTers  a  great  contrast  to  the  penal 
code  of  Charles  V.  In  the  Swedish  army  it  was  forbidden 
to  punish  the  private  soldiers  by  beating;  only  for  grave 
offences  of  insubordination  they  received  blows  with  the  flat 
of  the  sabre." 

'  To  a  regiment  of  German  laiulskntchts,  a  troop  of  loose 
women  was  so  unfailing  an  appendage,  that  tliey  were 
placed  under  an  oflicer,  called  the  wenches'  beadle. 

'  According  to  a  note  in  the  Nordin  MSS. 

3  Hallenberg,  iv.  888. 

■*  "  In  the  year  Ifi20,  his  majesty,  my  most  gracious  sove- 
reign, was  in  Berlin  unknown,  with  the  dowager  electress 
of  Brandenburg,  and  there  concerted  a  marriage  between 
himself  and  her  grace  the  princess  Maria  Eleonora." 
Note  by  Axel  Oxenstierna.  Palnisk.  MSS.  t.  .3o.  From  the 
king's  own  journal  wc  quote  the  following  :  "  On  Saturday 
we  came  to  Berlin ;  the  niglit  before  we  lay  in  a  village 
called  Blisendorf,  whence  njy  brother-in-law  (the  palsgrave 
John  Casimir)  went  iirst  to  I'otstamb  ;  and  there  wc  received 


seat  of  war,  the  last  to  accompany  him  thither. 
His  bride  he  had  himself  selected.     The  same  year 
(1(J18)  in  which  Ebba  Brahe  was  married,  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  sailed  privately  in  the  beginning  of 
August  from  Calmar  to  Germany,  and  returned  so 
early  as  the  twentieth  day  of  the  month.     It  is 
believed  that  during  this  time  he  visited  Berlin 
unknown,  and  saw  the  princess  Maria  Eleonora  ^, 
respecting  whom  his  agent  Birkhold  had  already 
written   to  him    two  years  previously.      In  1619 
he  sent  his  chamberlain  Gustave  Horn,  nephew  of 
the  general,  to  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  John 
Sigismund  and  his  consort  Anne,  to  announce  that 
he  intended  to  repair  to  Germany,  and  assure  him- 
self personally  of  the  friendship  of  several  German 
princes.      Horn  was  to  take  note  whether  they  ex- 
pected the  king's  visit  with  gladness  in  Berlin,  and 
declare  his  wish  for  a  connexion  by  marriage  be- 
tween his  king  and  the  house  of  Brandenburg,  in 
case  the  talk  so  fell  out  at  court.      The  king  him- 
self appears  to  have  been  certain  of  his  bride,  for 
he  made  preparations  for  her  reception  in  Stock- 
holm, and  for  his  own  departure   to   convey  her 
thither.     The  journey  was  deferred  by  the  death 
of  the  old  elector  and   the  accession    of  his   son 
Geoi-ge  William  to  the  government  ;  but  in  April, 
1620,  Gustavus  Adolphus  sailed   from  Stockholm, 
came  again  privately  to  Berlin,  and  prosecuted  his 
suit  personally  *.     He  also  in  the  character  of  a 
Swedish  captain    visited  the  Palatine  court,  and 
returned  home  after  a  two  months'  absence.      He 
then  disclosed  to  the  council  his  matrimonial  pro- 
ject, which  he  had  formed  by  advice  of  his  mother. 
To  conclude   the   matter,   Axel  Oxenstierna   was 
despatched,  who  brought  home  the  king's  bride. 
The  nuptials  were  celebrated  on  the  28th  Novem- 
ber, in   the  castle  of  Stockholm.    Maria  Eleonora 
was  then  in  her  twenty-first  yeai',  and  was  reck- 
oned by  all  a  perfect  beauty.     She  fell  sick  with 
grief  at  the  king's  departure,  and  was  brought  to 
bed  of  a  dead  daughter  the  same  day  on  which  he 
sailed,  July  24,    1621.      The  fleet  consisted  of  a 
hundred  and  forty-eight   ships,  with   ten    yachts. 
Being  dispei'sed  by  a  storm,  the  ship  on  board  of 
which  were  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Charles  Philip 
came  to   Pernau,  whence  the  king  and  the  duke 
travelled  by  land  to  Riga.     There  the  scattered 

letters  from  the  young  elector,  and  rode  to  Sellendorp, 
parting  from  the  palsgrave.  A  lodging  was  mentioned  to 
us  with  Retzlou  ;  when  we  came  to  it,  he  thought  us  English 
soldiers  and  would  not  harbour  us ;  so  it  went  at  another. 
At  last  we  came  to  Arnheim's  lodging,  and  there  we  were 
received."  (By  Arnheim  the  king  announced  his  arrival  to 
the  electress,  and  his  wish  to  speak  with  her.)  "  Therefore, 
at  nine  o'clock  on  Sunday  we  went  to  the  castle,  where  we 
arrived  just  at  the  commencement  of  the  sermon.  ^V'hen 
I  came  into  the  ante-chamber  where  pages  and  other  persons 
sat,  every  one  wondered  who  I  was  and  what  I  wanted.  In 
the  mean  time  the  sermon  proceeded ;  the  te.xt  was  of  the 
rich  man ;  the  prologue,  how  we  in  this  world  played  a 
comedy,  and  how  variously  God,  who  ruleth  all,  distributcth 
the  parts  which  we  men  shall  here  act  in  this  world.'  (Ne.\t 
the  king  gives  the  divisions  of  the  sermon.)  "When  the 
sermon  was  finished,  those  were  sent  out  of  the  way  who 
were  not  desired  for  spectators,  and  I  was  called  in.  My 
discourse  to  the  electress ;  her  answer.  Afterwards  I  was 
brought  into  the  chamber  of  the  duchess  of  Courland,  when 
wc  conversed  of  what  had  befallen  on  the  journey.  Mean- 
while meal-time  arrived,  and  I  was  invited  to  remain  at  the 
repast."  Ex  MS.  R.  Gust.  Ad.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  56.  Printed 
in  the  Stockholm  Magazine,  v.  iii. 


1G29.] 


He  lays  siege  to 
RiKa. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     POLISH  WAR. 


The  town  surrenders. 
Death  of  Charles  Philip. 


245 


ships  collected,  and  on  the  5th  August,  the  high- 
admiral  Charles  Carlson  G^'llenhielm  ran  without 
hindrance  into  the  Duna  stream,  while  the  in- 
habitants of  Riga  set  their  suburbs  on  fire.  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  intrenched  the  Swedish  leaguer 
upon  a  sand-hill  east  of  Riga,  in  four  divisions.  Iii 
the  first  camp  the  king  and  the  duke  held  the 
command-in-chief,  assisted  by  Philip  count  Mans- 
feld  and  Gustave  Horn.  lu  the  second,  to  the 
right,  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  commanded,  who  had 
brought  reinforcements  by  land  to  the  king  from 
Finland.  To  the  left,  at  the  manor  of  Hintz,  was 
the  third  camp  under  Herman  Wrangel,  who  had 
been  nominated  field-marshal,  which  at  this  time 
meant  the  lieutenant  of  the  generalissimo.  The 
fourth  camp,  under  the  command  of  the  Scottish 
colonel  Seaton,  lay  nearer  the  town,  by  a  windmill. 
On  the  other  bank  of  the  Duna,  and  upon  the 
aits,  Herman  Fleming  constructed  intrenchments. 
The  high-admiral  Gyllenhielm  and  the  vice-admiral 
Claes  Fleming  debarred  with  the  fleet  all  access  to 
the  town. 

After  some  fruitless  essay  of  negotiation,  the 
king,  on  the  13th  of  August,  began  the  siege  of 
Riga.  The  intrenchments  on  the  islets  of  the 
Duna  were  completed  under  the  enemy's  fire,  and 
now  from  all  their  works  the  Swedes  cannonaded 
the  town.  It  was  computed  that  more  than  two 
thousand  balls  a-day  were  thrown,  sometimes  a 
hundred  in  the  hour,  and  many  among  them  red 
hot,  in  weight  from  twenty-five  to  sixty-four 
pounds.  Hereby  the  three  horn-works  of  the  town, 
the  Sandgate,  and  the  ramparts,  twenty  feet  in 
breadth,  were  so  much  injured,  as  no  longer  to 
afford  tlie  besieged  effective  protection.  On  the 
29tli  August  the  king  began  to  fill  the  town-ditches 
with  faggots.  The  same  day  he  wrote  to  his 
brother-in-law,  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  that 
the  town  made  a  gallant  defence,  that  he  was  now 
come  to  the  ditches,  and  hoped  the  best ;  this  was 
the  state  of  the  war  ;  the  state  of  the  common- 
wealth was  much  too  tedious  to  describe  amidst 
the  thunder  of  the  cannon  ^.  Riga  was  defended 
by  its  burgesses,  with  but  three  hundred  soldiei-s 
to  aid.  Sigismund  had  promised  relief  from  Daut- 
zic,  but  it  failed  to  ai'rive.  The  Lithuanian  gene- 
ral Radziwil  had  given  the  town  assurance  of 
help,  and  showed  himself  at  this  point  of  the  siege, 
or  in  the  last  days  of  August,  on  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  Duna  with  the  Polish  cavalry,  but  retreated 
after  a  fruitless  attempt  to  pass  the  river.  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  now,  on  the  2nd  September,  sum- 
moned the  town,  thus  left  to  itself,  to  surrender. 
As  from  the  deliberations  of  the  council  with  the 
Polish  officials  the  return  of  the  Swedish  trumpeter 
was  long  delayed,  the  king  regarded  it  for  an 
evident  proof  that  they  were  bent  on  the  con- 
tinuance of  hostilities.  He  reopened  his  fire  on 
the  fortifications,  and  at  the  same  time  made  an 
attempt  to  scale  the  walls,  wherein  the  stormers 
either  fell,  or  were  blown  into  the  air  by  the 
enemy's  mines.  During  two  days  and  nights  there- 
after the  attack  was  followed  up,  both  from  the 
Swedish  leaguer  and  the  ships  on  the  river.  The 
horn-works  and  flanking  defences  of  the  Jacob's- 


5  From  the  letter  above-mentioned.  The  king  adds,  "  I 
must  deplore  the  misery  of  my  house,  wherein  God  hath 
chastised  me,  in  that  my  spouse  has  brought  into  the  world 
a  dead-born  child." 


]  gate,  the  Sandgate,  and  the  Newgate,  were  bat- 
tered down.  In  the  night  a  bridge  was  thrown 
j  across  the  now  partly  filled  ditch,  and  ti'oops 
:  passed  over.  But  the  bridge  was  ruined  by  shot, 
and  at  last  burned,  so  that  many  perished.  After 
three  days  the  townsmen  first  sent  back  the 
Swedish  trumpeter  with  a  reproach,  that  attacks 
were  made  while  the  council  was  deliberating ; 
the  town  could  not  break  its  troth  sworn  to  the 
Polish  king  and  republic,  and  committed  the  event 
to  God.  The  mining  was  now  carried  on  with  so 
great  ardour  on  both  sides,  that  the  Swedes  and 
the  defenders  of  the  town  even  met  and  fought  in 
the  mines,  while  attack  and  sally  alternated  at  the 
accessible  portions  of  the  walls.  By  the  llth 
September  the  Swedes  had  undermined  in  three 
places  the  fortifications,  which  already  showed  ex- 
tensive breaches.  The  draining  of  the  water  from 
the  ditches  was  begun,  two  bridges  were  thrown 
over  them,  and  the  king  resolved  upon  a  general 
assault  for  the  next  day,  the  detailed  order  of 
which,  drawn  up  by  his  own  hand,  is  yet  extant. 
It  was  to  have  been  undertaken  in  the  night  of  the 
12th,  after  the  town  had  been  fired  upon  the  whole 
day  with  red-hot  balls,  but  before  it  should  be 
commenced,  Riga  was  once  more  summoned  to 
surrender.  The  council  requested  a  truce  for  three 
days,  in  the  hope  that  within  these  the  promised 
Polish  relief  might  arrive.  The  king  granted  only 
a  cessation  of  arms  to  the  following  morning, 
when  the  council  agreed  to  capitulate.  The  town 
was  to  belong  to  Sweden  under  the  same  con- 
ditions as  formerly  to  Poland.  The  16th  September 
Gustavus  Adolphus  marched  into  Riga  with  his 
whole  army.  The  mildness  with  which  he  treated 
the  town  was  extolled  both  by  friends  and  foes. 
The  siege  had  lasted  for  six  weeks,  during  which 
the  king,  who  to  encourage  the  soldiers  was  some- 
times seen  spade  in  hand  along  with  his  brother  in 
the  trenches,  was  several  times  in  peril  of  life. 
When  choosing  a  site  for  his  leaguer  ou  the  sand- 
hill, a  ball  struck  the  very  spot  which  he  had 
quitted  the  moment  before  ;  during  the  siege  seve- 
ral persons  were  once  shot  down  at  his  side,  among 
them  one  Stackelberg,  with  whose  blood  the  king's 
clothes  were  sprinkled ;  another  time  a  ball  passed 
his  head  in  his  tent  ^. 

After  the  reduction  of  Riga,  Gustavus  Adolphus 
marched  to  Courland,  of  whose  dukes  the  one  had 
sought  his  protection,  the  other  remained  true  to 
the  Poles.  Mitau  was  taken,  and  several  Livonian 
fortresses  fell  into  the  king's  hands  during  the 
residue  of  the  autumn.  Dorpt  and  Kockenhusen 
still  held  out.  Duive  Charles  Philip  had  ere  this 
time  fallen  sick  at  Riga.  He  wrote  thence  on  the 
15th  November  to  his  sister  Catharine,  that  his 
eyes  had  become  dim  by  illness,but  that  his  brother 
lightened  the  time  by  agreeable  discourse  and 
society  ^.  The  letter  is  otherwise  full  of  pleasantry. 
His  malady  growing  worse,  Gustavus  Adolphus 
was  obliged  on  his  return  to  leave  him  at  Narva. 
There  Charles  Philip  died  on  the  22nd  January, 
1622,  in  his  twenty-first  year.  He  was  a  placid, 
active,  and  brave  youth,  burning  with  the  desire  of 
distinction,  and  had  availed  himself  of  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna's  interposition  to  be  allowed  to  take  part  in 
the   war.     Gustavus   Adolphus   mourned   for   his 


6  Hallenberg,  iv.  946— 9C5. 

7  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  36. 


246 


Campaign  of  1622. 
Three  years'  truce. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES, 


Third  Polish  campaign. 
Livonia  and  Courland  reduced. 


[1612- 


brotlier  surely,  and  lias  himself  described  his 
character.  "  He  had  couraj^e  and  heart,"  says  the 
kinji;,  "  to  bear  what  the  world's  deceit  and  un- 
steadiness would  have  laid  upon  him.  Out  of  love 
for  his  fatherland,  he  would  not  remain  at  home 
in  the  last  Polish  war,  to  the  end  that  he  might 
incite  by  his  example  the  young  chivalry  of  Sweden. 
For  thee,  oh  fatherland,  he  cherished  a  pure 
affection,  and  held  it  glorious  to  die  for  his  country. 
O  fatherland,  what  hast  thou  lost  !  The  stock  of 
thy  kings  is  now  again  reduced  to  a  single  man, 
but  few  years  since  flourishing  with  thi-ee  young 
and  well-grown  princes  !  No  need  that  I  should 
augment  tliy  cares,  by  dwelling  on  the  calamities 
and  confusions  that  might  arise  were  such  mishap 
to  be  thine,  again  to  be  brought  to  beg  for  a  king  *." 
Charles  Philip  was  the  last  son  of  a  king  of  Sweden 
invested  with  a  duchy.  It  became  afterwai'ds  a 
maxim  never  to  confer  such  a  fief,  and  this  principle 
Christina  says  was  "  a  secret  of  the  royal  family." 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  who,  in  the  middle  of  Janu- 
ary, 1622,  had  journeyed  home  through  Finland, 
was  again  in  Livonia  by  the  beginning  of  June.  He 
broke  into  Courland  to  relieve  Mitau,  or,  as  about 
this  time  it  was  taken  by  the  enemy,  to  besiege  it. 
Fever  among  the  troops,  by  which  he  was  himself 
twice  attacked  (though  he  sought  to  conceal  this 
from  his  soldiers),  obstructed  his  progress.  At  a 
personal  interview  with  prince  Radziwil  the  king 
again  proffered  peace,  and  ended  the  conversation, 
which  was  carried  on  in  Latin,  with  these  words  : 
"Do  your  endeavour,  that  as  we  now  join  hands 
we  also  may  become  of  one  mind,  that  one  day  I 
may  lead  these  troojis  you  see  here  for  your  safety 
against  the  Turk  '■'."  He  again  concluded  a  truce 
for  one  year  with  Poland,  provided  for  tlie  defence 
of  Riga,  arranged  the  government  of  Livonia,  and 
returned  home  in  August.  The  Polish  truce  was 
j)rolonged  from  one  to  two,  and  ultimately  to  three 
years  ;  but  as  Sigismund  had  not  ratified  it,  was 
considered  so  unsure,  that  when  that  sovereign 
made  a  journey  to  Dantzic  in  the  summer  of  1623, 
an  attack  on  Sweden  was  apprehended.  For  this 
reason  Gustavus  Adolphus  blockaded  with  his  fleet 
the  port  of  Dantzic,  and  exacted  from  the  town  an 
assurance,  that  during  the  truce  no  hostilities  should 
be  directed  from  that  station  against  Sweden.  The 
year  1624  is  one  of  the  few  which  the  king  could 
devote  to  the  cai-es  of  internal  government ;  in  the 
following  year  the  war  again  broke  forth. 

The  third  campaign  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  against 
Poland  completed  the  conquest  of  Litland,  and 
through  the  possession  of  Courland  secured  that 
of  Riga.  The  first  plan  was,  thai  the  high  admiral 
should  try  his  fortune  against  Windau,  and  other 
place.s  on  the  coast  of  Courland,  in  order  thereby 
to  perplex  the  Poles  and  Lithuanians  in  their 
designs,  and  at  the  same  time  divide  their  atten- 
tion. By  the  closing  of  the  two  harbours  of  Win- 
dau and  Liebau,  besides,  the  trade  of  Livonia,  and 
a  portion  of  that  of  Poland  and  Russia  might  be 

"  Ibid.  Ex  MSto  reg.  Gust.  Adolphi.  Two  years  before 
his  death  Charles  Philip  had  contracted  a  private  marriage 
with  Elizabeth.  dauf;hter  of  the  high  treasurer,  Sewed  Ilib- 
biiig.  She  bore,  shortly  after  his  death,  a  daughter,  married 
tirst  to  Axel  Thureson  Natt  och  Dag,  afterwards  to  Balthasar 
Marshall. 

9  Da  operam,  ut,  sicut  nunc  manibus  jungimur,  ita  et 
animis  conjungaraur,  ut  alicjuando  istura  peditatum  et  copias 


turned  to  the  behoof  of  Riga  and  Sweden.  The 
j)ossession  of  the  Baltic  ports  was,  moreover,  a 
standing  aim  of  the  policy  of  Gustavus,  soon  ex- 
tending from  those  of  Livonia  to  those  of  Courland, 
Prussia,  and  Germany. — Gustave  Horn  v/as  de- 
spatched to  Finland,  to  repair  to  Narva  with  two 
regiments  of  Finnish  infantry  and  twelve  com- 
panies of  horse,  to  increase  his  force  from  the  gar- 
risons of  Ingermanland  and  Estlaud,  and  then,  in 
conjunction  with  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  to  fall  upon 
the  town  and  fortress  of  Dorpt  in  Livonia.  As  in 
this  manner  the  enemy  would  be  compelled  to  di- 
vide his  strength  on  Courland  and  Dorpt,  Gustavus 
Adolphus  intended,  with  the  foreign  infantry  and 
the  Swedish  and  other  levies  of  cavalry,  to  attack 
Kockenhusen  and  other  places  along  the  Duna, 
and  make  himself,  as  far  as  possible,  master  of  the 
course  of  that  river.  The  17th  June,  1625,  the 
king  sailed  from  Sandliaven  with  six  regiments  of 
foot  and  eight  companies  of  horse,  in  a  fleet  of 
seventy-six  vessels,  and  landed  on  the  2nd  July  at 
Riga.  The  high  admiral,  instead  of  cruizing  with 
the  fleet,  was  appointed  commander  there,  while 
the  governor  general,  de  la  Gardie,  was  occupied 
with  the  siege  of  Dorpt.  Military  stores  were  sent 
up  the  Duna  in  barges:  the  king,  following  the 
stream,  moved  upon  Kockenhusen,  which  was  al- 
ready invested  by  Baner,  and  surrendered  upon 
the  loth  July.  Thereafter,  on  the  I8th,  the  king 
having  crossed  the  Duna,  ensued  the  capture  of 
Seelburg,  on  the  side  of  Courland.  The  invasion 
of  that  territory  he  had  reserved  for  himself.  On 
his  march  to  Mitau  lay  the  strong  towns  of  Birze 
in  Lithuania,  and  Baiiske  in  Courland.  After  the 
taking  of  Birze,  which  ended,  on  the  26tli  August, 
a  siege  of  some  days,  the  Poles  could  not  without 
difficulty  come  into  Livonia,  while  Lithuania  lay 
open  to  the  Swedes.  Bauske  was  taken  by  storm 
on  the  17th  September  ;  Mitau  afterwards  sur- 
rendered by  capitulation.  At  the  end  of  the  month 
the  king  returned  to  Riga,  and  there  equii)ped  a 
flotilla  of  small  vessels,  which  was  to  be  perma- 
nently maintained  for  the  defence  of  the  town. 
— Meanwhile  Dorpt  had  been  reduced,  on  the  16th 
August,  by  de  la  Gardie  and  Horn.  The  Poles 
again  made  an  overture  of  negotiation.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  sent  the  high  chancellor,  who  attended 
him  on  this  expedition,  to  meet  the  Polish  commis- 
sioners, but  refused  any  cessation  of  arms.  To- 
wards harvest  the  Poles  assembled  in  two  camps, 
one  under  Sapieha  and  Gosiewski,  the  other  under 
Radziwil,  and  drew  near  to  the  Duna.  The  king 
first  pitched  his  camp  at  Kockenhusen,  in  the  de- 
sign of  again  crossing  the  stream  ',  afterwards  at 
Bei'son,  when  the  unhealthiness  of  the  place,  scar- 
city and  sickness,  had  forced  him  to  quit  his  former 
leaguer.  "  On  this  journey,"  he  observes  in  a  let- 
ter, •'  have  I  seen  more  woe  than  ever,  for  so  long 
as  I  have  followed  the  war;  here  I  was  obliged  to 
throw  the  hungry  men  such  crumbs  as  one  does  to 
the  hens;  so  badly  hath  Magnus  Martenson  (the 


meas,  quas  cernitis,  pro  vestra  salute  contra  Turcum  afTerre 
queam.  —  Colloquium  inter  sereniss.  Su.  Reg.  et  Ducem 
Kadzivilium  mense  Septembri,  1()22.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  36. 
When  we  see  Gustavus  Adolphus,  after  Sigismund's  death, 
seeking  the  crown  of  Poland,  these  words  come  to  mind. 

'  In  a  recognoscence  with  this  view,  the  king  had  a  horse 
shot  under  him,  by  the  ball  of  a  falconet  from  the  other 
bank. 


1629.] 


Winter  campaign. 
Battle  of  Wallhof. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     POLISH  WAR. 


War  removed  into 

Prussia,  I62f). 


247 


commissary  general)  arranged  matters."  It  was 
attempted  to  preserve  the  troops  from  sickness  by 
the  use  of  brandy  and  garlic.  Against  the  cold 
tliey  were  provided  with  skins  and  double  leggings 
(one  pair  of  wool  and  one  pair  of  cloth,  which 
reached  far  above  the  hose),  with  water-tight  Rus- 
sian half-boots.  Disease  reached  even  the  king's 
nearest  attendants.  "  I  am  secretary  and  cham- 
berlain," he  writes  in  another  letter  to  the  chan- 
cellor, "  wex'e  I  calefactor  I  should  be  ail  the  three." 
The  chancellor  was  likewise  in  his  place  to  give  a 
pitying  interest  to  the  concerns  of  the  sick,  yet  to 
look  closely  whether  there  were  not  "  such  as  lied 
to  the  Lord." 

The  negotiations  proved  fruitless,  and  Gustavus 
Adolphus  decided,  in  the  midst  of  winter,  as  he 
himself  expresses  it,  "  to  set  foot  to  the  foe,"  lying 
under  Sapieha's  command  in  Wallhof,  a  hamlet 
of  Courland,  before  they  could  unite  with  Radziwil, 
who  was  posted  further  back,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Bauske.  The  6th  January,  1G26',  the  king 
crossed  the  Duna  with  the  cavalry  and  a  thousand 
musketeers.  During  the  march,  in  the  night  of 
the  6th  to  the  7th  January,  he  came  upon  a  body 
of  the  enemy,  whom  he  drove  back.  In  the  morn- 
ing of  the  7  th  he  attacked  them,  arrayed  on  the 
level  before  their  intrenchments,  after  they  had 
set  fire  to  the  village.  A  vehement  charge  of 
cavalry  decided  the  victory.  Between  five  and 
six  hundred  of  the  enemy  remained  dead  on  the 
field  ;  a  hundred  and  fifty  privates,  with  several 
officers,  were  made  prisoners,  among  them  the 
general  Gosiewski  ;  the  baggage  and  four  pieces  of 
cannon  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes^.  Rad- 
ziwil, who  was  approaching,  now  hastily  retreated, 
and  Livonia  was  cleared  of  the  enemy.  The  king 
before  his  departure  issued  various  ordinances  re- 
lating to  the  govei'nment  of  the  country,  its  defence, 
and  the  sustenance  of  the  army.  Under  the  latter 
head  may  be  mentioned  the  foundation  of  a  so- 
called  military  colony  of  six  hundred  men  in  and 
around  Dorpt.  The  soldiers  received  a  piece  of 
land,  in  the  tillage  of  which  the  peasants  were  to 
assist  them,  and  to  be  exempted  instead  from  work 
for  the  crown.  The  king  came  to  Revel  to  meet 
his  wishfully-waiting  spouse,  and  journeyed  back 
to  Sweden  to  follow  his  mother  to  the  grave.  The 
queen  dowager  had  died  on  the  8tli  December, 
1625.  She  had  been  an  austere  mother,  and  an 
arbitrarily-inclined  ruler,  as  well  in  her  own  domain 
as  in  Charles  Philip's  duchy.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
paid  the  greatest  reverence  to  her  memory,  and 
confirmed  all  her  ordinances.  He  continued  the 
buildings  she  had  begun,  because,  as  he  said,  she 
had  undertaken  them  for  her  remembrance. 

After  the  battle  of  Wallhof  the  movements  of 
the  war  were  bi'ought  to  a  close  ;  a  truce  was  con- 
cluded for  si.x  weeks,  which  after  the  king's  de- 
parture was  prolonged  to  the  21st  May.  The 
king  ordered  de  la  Gardie  afterwards  not  to  accede 
to  any  shorter  cessation  of  arms,  without,  however, 
rejecting  negotiation  ;  above  all  he  must  be  master 
of  the  Duna,  and  guard  the  strong  places  taken  in 
Courland,  "  which  were  foreborows  to  Livonia  ;" 
for  that  portion  of  territory  which  the  duke  of 
Courland  still  possessed,  and  which  was  of  little 
service  for  the  objects  of  Sweden,  neutrality  might 

2  According  to  the  king's  o\yn  letter  to  dela  Gardie,  dated 
Wallhof,  Jan.  8  (the  day  after  the  battle).     He  expresses 


be  granted  under  certain  conditions.  The  king 
himself  had  determined  to  remove  the  Avar  from 
the  Duna  to  the  Vistula,  in  order  to  attack  the 
Poles  in  a  vital  part  and  draw  nearer  to  Germany. 
Herewith  began  that  compartment  of  the  Polish 
war  which  is  also  called  tlie  Prussian. 

This  plan  was  attended  with  political  difficulties. 
The  king  needed  a  harbour  in  East  Pi'ussia,  and 
its  duke,  imder  Polish  superiority,  was  his  own 
brother-in-law  the  elector  of  Brandenburg.  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  deterred 
by  this  consideration.  Having  augmented  his  native 
and  foreign  troops,  he  set  sail  on  the  15th  June, 
with  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  ships,  and 
an  army  of  thirteen  regiments  of  foot  and  nine 
companies  of  horse,  anchored  at  Pillau  on  the  26th, 
and  made  himself  master  of  the  town  almost  with- 
out resistance  ;  for  a  Prussian  garrison  of  three 
hundred  men,  in  the  redoubt  protecting  the  haven, 
evacuated  it,  when  unable  to  prevent  him  from 
landing.  Four  Swedish  ships  of  war  were  left 
before  Pillau  ;  with  a  squadron  of  six,  afterwards 
reinforced  by  others,  the  high  admiral  was  sent  to 
the  roads  of  Dantzic,  to  seize  the  customs' revenues 
at  that  place  also.  Gustavus  Adolphus  himself 
turned  his  arms  against  the  garrisons  absolutely 
Polish,  and  sailed  from  Pillau  to  Braunsberg, 
where  he  debarked  his  army  half  a  mile  from  the 
town.  Beneath  the  enemy's  fire  the  Swedes 
marched  under  the  town  walls,  burst  in  the  gates, 
and  drove  out  the  Polish  garrison,  which  in  its  flight 
set  fire  to  the  suburbs.  Braunsberg  surrendered 
to  the  king  on  the  30th  of  June,  Frauenburg  on 
the  1st  July,  the  strong  place  of  Elbing  on  the  6th, 
the  well-fortified  Marienburg  on  the  8th,  with  several 
smaller  towns  beside.  After  the  taking  of  Dirschau 
on  the  12th,  the  king  threw  a  bridge  there  over 
the  Vistula,  and  extended  his  conquests  on  the 
west  from  Mewe  to  Stargard,  Putzick,  and  Zarno- 
witz  on  the  Pomeranian  frontier.  With  reason 
does  his  palace  chaplain  remark  of  this  expedition, 
that  the  king  took  towns  "  with  like  celerity  as 
if  he  had  ridden  through  the  country  ^."  The  in- 
habitants were  in  great  part  evangelically  minded, 
and  the  religious  oppression  which  they  had  ex- 
perienced at  the  hands  of  Sigismund,  made  them 
well  inclined  to  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  estates 
of  the  Jesuits,  the  clergy,  the  Polish  nobility,  and 
all  who  were  devoted  to  the  Polish  crown,  were 
declared  to  be  forfeited.  Only  those  who  volun- 
tarily placed  themselves  in  submission  to  Sweden 
were  exempted  from  plundering.  Every  morning 
three  hundred  foot  soldiers  under  a  colonel,  and 
one  hundred  and  fifty  horse  under  a  captain,  issued 
from  the  camp,  with  orders  to  collect  booty  in 
common,  and  bring  it  into  the  camp,  where  it  was 
distributed  by  the  major-general  and  the  provost- 
marshal.  First,  the  wants  of  the  king's  kitchen 
were  supplied,  then  the  generals,  aftervvai-d  the 
officers,  and  lastly  the  rest  of  the  troops.  Every 
man  who  upon  such  a  foray  or  otherwise  extorted 
plunder  irregularly  was  hanged;  the  same  punish- 
ment overtook  those  who  plmidered  in  a  village 
where  the  quarters  were,  or  safeguard  was  given; 
nor  was  any  one  allowed  upon  pain  of  death  to 


his  hope  that  this  defeat  would  deter  the  foe  from  renewing 
his  incursions  across  the  Duna.     Reg.  for  1626. 

3  John  Botvidson,  Funeral  Sermon  7apon  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus. 


2-18 


Successes  of  the  Swedish 
arms. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Occurrences  in  Livonia. 
Domestic  affairs. 


[1612— 


take  quai'tei's  for  himself,  before  the  quarter- 
master had  assigned  his  abode  *.  Kouigsberg  was 
granted  neutraUty  *  ;  Dantzic,  on  the  other  hand, 
refused  to  accejit  it,  and  declared  open  hostility 
with  Sweden.  Meanwhile  the  king  fortified  his 
leaguer  in  Dirschau.  His  army  had  been  weakened 
by  furnishing  so  many  garrisons.  It  was  reinforced 
at  the  end  of  August  by  the  chancellor,  who  brought 
new  troops  from  Finland  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
division  under  Tliurn,  expected  from  Livonia,  was 
delayed,  to  the  king's  dissatisfaction.  At  length 
its  arrival  made  hiiu  strong  enough  to  march 
against  Sigismund,  who  had  assembled  his  army 
at  Graudentz,  and  laid  siege  to  Mewe,  "  at  which 
pillory,"  says  Gustavus  Adolphus,  "  he  stood  four- 
teen days  without  effecting  any  thing,"  until  he  was 
forced  to  retreat.  Axel  Oxenstierna  was  appointed 
"  the  king's  legate  over  the  army  in  Prussia,  aud 
governor-general  of  the  towns  and  country  then 
possessed  by  Sweden."  In  the  end  of  October, 
(162b',)  Gustavus  Adolphus  embarked  at  Pillau, 
which  he  had  fortified,  and  by  the  5th  November 
was  in  Stockholm.  The  8th  December,  at  eight 
in  the  evening,  his  daughter  Christina  was  born  to 
him  *.  "  1  was  then  with  the  king  alone  in  his 
chamber,"  says  the  younger  count  Peter  Brahe  in 
his  journal,  "  and  he  had  then  a  sharp  tertian  ague, 
which  he  had  gotten  in  Prussia  during  the  autumn. 
The  king  fenced  with  me  some  days  in  the  dining- 
room,  and  thrust  so,  that  the  fever  left  him." 

In  Livonia  the  summer  and  autumn  had  been 
spent  in  negotiations,  either  with  Poland  or  with 
Lithuania  singly,  interrupted  by  military  move- 
ments, which  produced  but  slight  impression.  The 
king  misliked  de  la  Gardie's  inactivity,  especially 


••  This  ordinance  was  issued  by  the  king,  June  30,  1626. 
Compare  the  Baggage  ordinance,  June  23,  1627.     Reg. 

5  Upon  this  neutrality,  the  garrisoning  of  Pillau,  and  the 
king's  conduct  touching  the  double  relation  of  the  duchy  of 
Prussia  to  Poland  and  Brandenburg,  there  are  some  re- 
markable expressions  in  his  conversation  with  the  Prussian 
deputies,  shortly  after  his  arrival.  "It  is  known,"  he  said, 
"  that  they  are  hereditary  subjects  of  tlie  crown  of  Poland, 
and  consequently  my  foes."  Further,  he  declared  in  the 
outset,  that  lie  had  not  come  to  inflict  any  injuries  on  their 
prince,  his  brother-in-law,  or  on  the  country.  "  In  taking 
Pillau,"  be  proceeds,  "  I  acted  by  right  of  natural,  civil, 
and  every  law ;  for  the  king  of  Poland,  my  enemy,  might 
have  come  with  his  fleet  to  me  in  Sweden  ;  and  the  port  of 
Dantzic  is  not  so  harmful  to  me,  since  it  is  but  ten  to  eleven 
feet  deep,  and  no  war  fleet,  consequently,  can  enter  or  leave 
it;  while  I  bold  Pillau,  with  its  depth  of  twenty-eight  feet, 
to  be  commodious  for  war  ships.  Therefore  was  it  needful 
for  the  security  of  my  states  to  take  and  fortify  it.  True, 
it  is  but  a  gap  through  which  I  must  move  onward ;  where- 
fore it  will  be  hard  for  you  in  regard  to  that  haven,  to  defend 
yourselves  from  the  crown  of  Poland,  whence  ye  have  only 
hostilities  to  expect.  It  were  better  not  to  mix  up  your 
prince,  my  brotlierin-law,  in  this  matter.  Ye  must  in  this 
case  depend  \ipon  yourselves,  for  ye  have  yourselves  knit 
these  alliances  with  the  king  and  crown  of  Poland,  and 
therein  entangled  the  father  of  the  prince  my  brother-in- 
law.  These  leagues  must  in  time  of  necessity  make  your 
heads  to  stoop;  therefore  it  were  but  reasonable  that  ye 
embraced  my  party,  seeing  we  are  of  one  religion  and  related. 
I  protest  to  God  that  I  mean  honestly  and  well  by  you;  for 
if  I  meant  ill,  then  would  I  not  have  left  the  town  of 
Konigsberg  in  my  rear."  Of  his  soldiers  the  king  said : 
"  Those  I  now  have  with  me  are,  indeed,  but  poor  Swedish 
peasant  lads,  of  indifterent  as|)ect  and  ill  clad  ;  but  they 
fight  bravely,  and  I  hope  shortly  to  clothe  them  better. 
Every  man  of  them  is  forward,  and  they  may  well  be  pitted 


as  tidings  had  arrived  that  the  Poles  had  again 
entered  Livonia.  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  was  not  less 
known  for  his  heroism  than  for  his  easiness,  and 
not  adapted  to  distinguish  himself  in  a  suboi-dinate 
post.  A  long  time  passed  away  without  his  writing 
a  letter  ■'.  The  general's  proposal  to  obtain  a 
proltjngation  of  the  truce  by  the  cession  of  some 
fortresses  in  Courland,  did  not  please  the  king. 
"  It  surpriseth  us,"  he  wrote  to  de  la  Gardie  on 
the  11th  January,  1627,  "that  we  have  heard 
nothing  from  you  since  the  16th  October.  If  ye 
would  wish  to  escape  our  displeasure,  ye  must  keep 
Birzen  and  Bautske  to  our  hand,  which  places  are 
of  greater  importance  than  ye  perhaps  may  think  *." 
De  la  Gardie  answered  these  reproaches  by  his 
victory  over  the  Poles  at  Wenden  ^. 

Internal  arrangements  and  preparations  for 
the  second  Prussian  campaign  occupied  the  king 
throughout  the  winter  months.  The  government 
during  his  impending  absence  he  committed  as 
usual  to  those  of  the  councillors  who  remained  at 
home.  They  were  to  assemble  in  the  council- 
chamber  twice  in  the  week,  on  Monday  and  Thurs- 
day, from  eight  to  eleven  in  the  forenoon,  and  in 
the  interval  as  often  as  should  be  needful,  and  to 
keep  coi'rect  protocols  and  registers  of  the  resolu- 
tions '.  The  command  of  the  forces  on  home 
stations  he  entrusted  to  his  brother-in-law,  the 
Palsgrave  John  Casimir.  With  the  new  taxes, 
and  especially  the  mill-toll,  he  ordered  them  to 
proceed  warily,  that  no  tumult  or  sedition  might 
ensue  in  the  absence  of  his  majesty,  and  where 
aught  such  was  discovered,  rather  to  yield  some- 
what until  a  more  convenient  time.  The  malver- 
sations practised  by  some  of  the  in  officers  giving 

against  red-coats  and  cossacks.  I  should  have  gone  right 
on  to  Konigsberg,  but  I  have  spared  my  brother-in-law  and 
his  country.  I  note  well  that  ye  would  keep  the  middle 
way ;  but  that  will  be  a  break-neck  road  for  you.  I  say  to 
you,  vinco  aut  vincor,  vos  maculabimini.  Ye  must  hold 
with  me  or  with  the  crown  of  Poland.  I  am  your  brother 
in  religion  ;  I  have  a  princess  of  Prussia  to  wife  ;  I  will  fight 
for  you  and  fortify  the  town ;  I  have  good  engineers  with 
me,  and  understand  myself  somewhat  of  it,  and  syne  I  will 
defend  myself  against  the  crown  of  Poland  and  the  devil 
himself."  The  conversation  is  recorded  in  the  papers  left 
by  Uallenberg,  and  appears  to  have  been  taken  from  Hoppe's 
Manuscript,  Decennale  Borussias  Fatum,  which  1  have  not 
seen. 

6  Besides  her  first  still-born  child,  in  1621,  the  queen  was, 
on  the  16th  October,  1623,  delivered  of  a  daughter  named 
in  baptism  Christina,  who  died  on  the  21st  September  fol- 
lowing. 

'  This  however  with  official  persons  of  those  days  was 
not  infrequent.  Jan.  4,  1627,  the  king  writes  to  Nicholas 
Bielke,  governor-general  of  Finland,  and  the  same  day  to 
the  lieutenants  at  Wiborg,  Reval,  and  Narva,  that  he  had 
heard  nothing  from  them  for  the  whole  summer  and  a  long 
time  after,  which  he  knew  not  whether  it  proceeded  from 
want  of  ink  and  paper,  or  from  inconsiderate  levity  and 
culpable  negligence ;  since  it  was  otherwise  well  known  to 
them  that  governors  had  to  render  an  account  of  the  con- 
dition of  their  fiefs  at  least  once  a  month.    Reg. 

fi  Reg.  for  1627. 

s  "  The  king  expects  that  the  general  has  rid  Livonia  of 
the  enemy  after  the  victory  at  Wenden,  will  repair  in  sum- 
mer to  Courland  or  Lithuania,  or  stay  in  Livonia  atKeggum, 
where  he  may  command  the  Duna."  To  the  general,  Feb. 
n,  1627.     Reg. 

'  Instruction  for  the  Council  during  the  absence  of  his 
Majesty;  Stockholm,  June  15,  1626.  Reg.  One  of  similar 
purport  for  1625  is  in  Hallenberg. 


1629.] 


Second  campaign 
in  Prusbia. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  POLISH  WAR. 


Actions  before 
Dantzic. 


249 


"  unreasonable  furloughs  to  the  soldiery,"  were 
to  be  punished,  and  the  offenders  in  this  kind 
to  be  arraigned  by  the  fiscal  before  the  palace 
court  *.  In  Germany  and  Scotland  levies  were 
set  on  foot.  Gustave  Horn  was  despatched  to 
strengthen  the  defence  of  Livonia  with  the  Finnish 
troops.  Among  these  are  even  specified  "  bow- 
men ^,"  so  that  in  the  Swedish  army  the  bow  was 
not  yet  entirely  laid  aside,  although  it  was  already 
remarked  in  the  Danish  war,  that  the  Swedish 
soldiers  were  almost  universally  armed  with  the 
musket,  even  the  cavalry  having  adopted  it  and 
laid  aside  the  lance. 

Of  his  passage  to  Prussia  in  ]  627,  the  king  writes 
to  his  brother-in-law  the  palsgrave  *  :  "  We  set  sail 
the  4th  Maj'  with  a  fair  wind,  and  arrived  happily 
on  the  8th  with  the  whole  fleet  at  Pillau.  We  have 
found  afTairs  in  this  country  in  a  towardly  state, 
are  now  landing  the  people,  and  purpose  marcliing 
straight  against  the  enemy,  who  are  in  all  9000 
men  strong,  and  keep  mostly  to  their  wonted  places 
in  Pomerania  ;  though  they  have  pushed  forwards  to 
the  isle  of  Dantzic.  Hasten  the  transport  of  cavalry 
and  recruits  from  Sweden.  The  elector  hath  caused 
troops  to  be  brought  within  a  mile  or  two  of  Pillau, 
and  hath  demanded  it  back  from  us,  which  we  have 
refused,  and  will  see  what  he  intendeth."  To  the 
council  the  king  shortly  after  writes'  :  "  The 
elector's  request  to  have  back  Pillau  is  set  aside 
by  negotiation  ;  he  will  do  no  more  against  us 
than  he  is  compelled  to  for  appearance'  sake,  that 
Poland  may  not  deprive  him  of  his  fief."  And  in 
a  subsequent  letter  :  ''  We  have  entered  into  a 
treaty  with  our  brother-in-law  the  elector,  and  at 
last  gotten  so  far  that  a  truce  until  Michaelmas  is 
concluded  between  him  and  us  in  the  duchy. 
Thereafter  we  caused  the  sconce  at  Pillau  to  be 
strengthened,  and  have  placed  in  it  three  regi- 
ments. With  the  others  we  betook  us  to  Hoeff't  ^, 
where  the  enemy  had  camped  right  opposite  on  the 
isle  of  Dantzic,  to  bar  our  access  with  his  artillery. 
There  we  resolved  the  25th  May  to  attack  him,  he 
being  now  very  strong.  The  disposition  was  that 
we  sliould  make  the  first  onfall  with  count  Thurn 
and  the  lord  John  Baner,  seconding  them  after 
with  the  pikemen.  The  men  were  distributed  in 
boats,  and  all  would  have  gone  well  if  every  one 
had  done  his  duty  and  our  orders  been  followed. 
But  only  one  boat,  under  Axel  Duvall,  got  to  the 
other  bank  ;  the  rest  remained  lodged  in  the  sand. 
Part  of  them  rowed  to  a  point  whither  they  had 
not  been  ordered,  so  that  all  was  disturbed.  Then 
we  put  ourselves  into  a  little  boat  to  redress  mat- 
ters. And  because  on  such  occasions  it  goeth 
somewhat  hotly,  we  were  wounded  by  a  shot  in  the 
groin.  Yet  have  we  to  thank  God  that  it  harmed 
us  not  in  life  or  health,  but  we  hope  after  few  days 
to  be  able  again  to  direct  the  work  according  to 
our  wont.     Now  must  we  cause  the  people  to  be 

-  July  9,  1627,  the  king  writes  to  Nicholas  Stiernskbld, 
then  commandant  in  Pillau,  "  And  ye  shall  give  heed,  that 
no  part  of  those  who  are  said  to  die  off  shall  be  put  by 
the  officers  into  ships  and  sent  to  Sweden,  and  afterwards 
placed  on  the  rolls  as  dead  and  buried." 

'  To  Nicholas  Bielke,  upon  the  troops  in  Finland ;  April 
26,  1627.     Reg. 

^  Pillau,  May  10,  1627.     Reg. 

5  May  15,  1627.     Ibid. 

6  Haupt  or  Hoeft  was  a  sconce  at  Dantzic  taken  by  the 
Swedes  in   the  cour.se  of  the  past  year.     Shortly  after  the 


drawn  off,  who  had  sufi"ered  no  particular  loss. 
Count  Thurn  was  wounded  and  captain  Axel 
Duvall  taken.  Because  we  doubt  not  that  this 
affair  shall  be  spread  abroad  and  exaggerated, 
therefore  we  have  thought  good  to  give  you  to  un- 
derstand the  coui'se  of  the  whole  matter,  that  ye 
may  not  youi-selves  be  perplexed,  and  if  aught 
should  be  spi'ead  about  touching  our  own  person, 
ye  may  know  how  all  fell  out."  The  letter  is 
written  on  the  same  day  ^ ;  and  contains  likewise  a 
notice  of  the  arrival  of  a  Dutch  envoy  at  Elbing, 
"  doubtless  aneut  peace  between  us  and  Poland, — 
writes  the  king, — free  trade  with  Dantzic,  and  the 
opening  of  the  Vistula."  After  the  king's  wound 
was  healed,  he  assembled  his  ti'oops  at  Dirschau, 
with  intent  to  attack  Koniecpolski,  who  had  his 
camp  half  a  mile  from  the  place ;  but  tidings 
arrived  that  general  Potocki  was  besieging  Brauns- 
berg,  which  by  a  secret  understanding  with  the 
townsmen  would  have  fallen  into  his  hands,  had 
not  the  king  come  speedily  to  its  relief.  He  pur- 
sued the  enemy  five  miles  to  Wormditt.  Mean- 
while Mewe  sui-rendered  to  Koniecpolski  ;  but  this 
loss  the  king  compensated  by  a  more  successful 
attack  on  the  enemy's  redoubts  over-against  Hoefft, 
which  were  taken  on  the  4th  July.  "  We  have 
advised  you,  wi-ites  the  king  to  the  council,  o  the 
victory  through  which  the  sconces  erected  by  the 
Dantzickers  were  captured  without  much  blood- 
shed. After  learning  the  defection  of  the  elector, 
and  that  he  would  furnish  a  considerable  reinforce- 
ment to  the  enemy,  we  left  the  chancellor  at  Hcefft 
and  entered  the  principality  on  the  I2th  July,  to 
intercept  this  succour.  We  fell  in  with  it  at 
Morungen,  1 800  foot,  and  four  companies  of  horse, 
with  five  guns.  They  were  surrounded  by  count 
Thurn  and  us,  surrendered  by  accord,  and  readily 
took  service  with  us.  For  the  elector's  sake  we 
have  sent  home  a  part.  We  have  hitherto  with 
great  difficulty,  adds  the  king,  supported  the  people 
on  what  we  could  raise  here  in  the  country.  It 
surpriseth  us  much  that  we  have  received  from 
Sweden  no  more  than  some  thousand  dollars,  which 
availed  little  or  nothing  *."  The  king's  own  letters 
supply  a  continuous  account  of  the  military  occur- 
rences and  his  own  new  personal  risk.  "  With  the 
enemy,"  he  writes  to  his  brother-in-law,  the  pals- 
grave, "  we  have  as  yet  played  the  master  ;  first  in 
a  little  skirmish  on  the  last  day  of  July,  between 
Dirschau  and  the  hostile  leaguer,  where  we  beat 
two  companies  of  hussars  ^  and  four  of  cossacks, 
with  a  small  body  of  our  cavalry  ;  then  on  the  7th 
August,  where,  when  we  had  brought  all  our 
cavalry  out  of  the  camp  and  the  enemy  his  against 
us,  the  half  of  ours  (for  the  remaining  nineteen 
companies  did  not  come  into  action)  put  the  foe  to 
flight,  so  that  he  was  forced  to  run  headforemost 
into  his  own  camp,  where  the  general  himself 
(Koniecpolski)  without  hat  and  on  foot  took  refuge. 

king's  arrival  at  Pillau  the  Poles  had  attempted  to  retake 
it,  supported  by  the  town  of  Dantzic  with  1400  foot  and  two 
companies  of  horse.  Field-marshal  Herman  Wrangel  re- 
pulsed the  assault,  taking  three  pieces  of  cannon. 

1  Berwalde,  May  25,  1627.  Reg.  "  No  one  in  the  boat  was 
wounded  except  the  king,  but  nine  shots  passed  through  it 
between  the  king  and  me."  Count  Peter  Brahe's  Minute- 
book.    The  king  himself  steered. 

8  To  the  council,  July  27,  1627.     Reg. 

9  Or  lancers  (sperryttare),  as  the  hussars  are  usually  called 
in  the  phrase  of  this  time. 


250 


The  Poles  supported  by 
the  emperor. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Armistice  and  negotiations 
for  peace. 


[1612— 


Many  of  his  chief  officers  were  wounded  or  slain, 
three  standards  taken,  and  had  it  not  been  evening, 
we  would  have  driven  the  enemy  out  of  his  camp. 
The  day  after  we  presented  ourselves  with  horse 
and  foot  before  the  enemy's  camp,  and  caused  our 
guns  to  play  upon  it,  so  that  he  seemed  to  be 
making  all  ready  for  flight ;  but  so  it  pleased  not 
God,  since  in  tiie  very  outset,  at  a  pass  whither  we 
wished  to  drive  the  enemy's  musketeers,  we  were 
stricken  by  a  musket  shot  in  the  right  shoulder  at 
the  neck,  whereby  our  design  was  broken  off  and 
the  victory  prevented.  Yet  we  thank  God  who 
liath  so  disposed  this  hurt,  that  we  hope  soon  again 
to  be  set  to  rights.  It  seemeth  as  if  the  emperor's 
victories  in  Germany  inspirit  our  foes  but  too 
much  »."  The  latter  remark  is  confii-med  by  Axel 
Oxenstierna.  "  The  enemy,"  he  writes  to  the  coun- 
cil, "  hath  already  received  a  reinforcement  from 
the  emperor,  who  hath  sent  the  duke  of  Holsteiu 
with  his  regiment  to  aid  the  king  of  Poland.  Con- 
sequently scarce  any  thing  has  been  done  in  the 
treaty,  although  the  Dutch  commissioners  busy 
themselves  in  it.  With  the  elector  of  Branden- 
burg matters  are  ripening  2,  yet  I  hope  for  the 
best.  The  king  is  now  so  far  recovered  that  he 
can  sit  on  liorseback.  The  Polish  commissaries 
will  make  no  other  proposals  than  that  the  king- 
dom of  Sweden  should  be  restored  to  their  king 
and  his  posterity,  Livonia  and  Prussia  given  back, 
and  all  the  charges  of  the  war  be  defrayed.  Of 
these  we  will  not  hear.  King  Sigismund  and  prince 
Uladislaus  are  now  come  to  the  Polish  camp  ^." 
During  the  king's  stay  at  Dii'schau,  where  he  re- 
mained until  the  26th  September,  an  English  am- 
bassador delivered  to  him  the  order  of  the  garter. 
On  the  lOlh  October,  he  took  Wormditt,  after  a 
short  investment*.  Guttstadt  also  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Swedes.  After  this,  the  king  departed 
for  Sweden,  leaving  the  command  in  Prussia  to  the 
cliancellor,  who  was  thus  obliged  to  resume  an 
office  still  more  onerous  in  a  financial  than  a  mili- 
tary respect  ^.  Stiernskold,  who  had  been  appointed 


'  To  the  palsgrave,  Dirschau,  Aug.  14,  1627.  Reg.  Adler 
Salvius  writes  two  days  afterwards  to  tiie  council,  "The 
bullet  wherewith  his  majesty,  God  mend  it,  was  wounded, 
entered  just  above  the  breast-bone,  two  inches  from  the 
throat  towards  the  right  shoulder,  and  lodgeth  now  in  the 
back  about  the  spine,  just  at  the  upper  corner  of  the  right 
shoulder-blade.  For  there  appears  a  little  tumour,  as  if  the 
quarter  of  a  bullet  were  lying  under  the  skin.  So  because  it 
presseth  there  upon  the  nerve,  by  which  the  animal  power 
giveth  the  right  arm  all  its  motion  and  sense,  therefore  the 
two  smalles-t  fingers  of  his  majesty's  right  hand  are  some- 
what benumbed.  His  majesty  can  write  a  fine  style;  but  as 
the  name  Gustavus  Adolphus  must  be  written  with  a  bend 
of  the  whole  arm,  he  cannot  do  this,  by  reason  of  the  bullet, 
without  great  pain.  Else  is  his  majesty,  thanks  be  to  God, 
hale  and  sound.  We  hope  that  the  ball  may  be  extracted, 
through  putrefaction  or  otherwise.  Thanks  be  to  the  Lord 
God,  who  hath  not  allowed  his  majesty  to  take  harm  of  his 
life.  God  send  his  majesty  resolution  to  keep  far  from  such 
small  occasions,  since  this  happened  when  his  majesty  was 
sitting  on  horseback,  and  recognoscing  one  of  the  enemy's 
passes  with  a  perspective  glass." 

2  Lit.  "  It  stands  aboil."     T. 

s  The  high  chancellor  to  Gabriel  Oxenstierna  and  the 
council;  Dirschau,  Aug.  l.'i  and  28,  1627.  Reg.  In  the 
former  letter  he  thus  describes  the  position  :  "  Between 
the  two  leaguers  was  about  half  a  mile  of  plain  ground, 
without  wood  or  ditches,  though  somewhat  sloping,  on  the 
one  side  high  kuoUs,  on  the  other  the  Dantzic  level,  and  a 


after  the  liigh-admiral  Gyllenhielm  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  fleet,  and  was  charged  to  conduct  it 
home,  was  hotly  attacked  on  the  18th  November, 
by  ten  ships,  Dantzickers  and  Poles.  One  of  his 
captains,  to  avoid  a  surrender,  blew  up  his  vessel  ; 
Stiernskold  intended  to  do  the  same,  when  he  was 
struck  by  a  shot.  His  ship  and  body  fell  into  the 
enemy's  hands.  On  the  side  of  Livonia  there  had 
been  mostly  cessation  of  arms,  with  or  without  a 
formal  convention.  A  truce  was  also  made  durmg 
the  winter  in  Prussia. 

The  interval  was  marked  as  usual  by  no  less  un- 
resting activity  than  the  campaign.  In  Gustavus 
Adolphus  this  feature  is  at  all  times  and  in  all 
directions  alike  wonderful '",  and  would  be  still 
more  conspicuous  in  him  personally,  had  we  not 
treated  the  internal  government  separately  for 
method's  sake.  We  add  here  but  one  remark, 
which  a  perusal  of  the  records  of  this  time  im- 
presses. The  king  is  the  centre  and  vital  force  of 
the  government  to  such  a  degree,  that  compara- 
tive inactivity  ensues  when  he  is  not  himself 
present,  especially  when  he  cannot  leave  it  to  his 
indefatigable  chancellor  to  fill  his  place.  We 
should  not  be  apt  to  imagine  that  during  a  time  of 
exertions  so  great,  the  business  of  the  adminis- 
tration at  home  was  so  small  that,  as  the  protocols 
show,  the  council  was  often  occupied  with  nothing 
else  than  the  reading  of  the  Dutch  Gazettes  ^.  If 
this  went  too  far,  a  letter  from  the  king  sounding 
the  alarm  in  the  ears  of  the  slumberers  aroused 
them  from  their  repose. 

In  the  negotiations  with  Poland,  still  continued, 
the  elector  of  Brandenburg  had  ofl'ered  his  me- 
diation. "  This  we  cannot  well  suffer,"  the  king 
declares  to  the  chaucelloi",  "  although  willing  he 
may  have  the  honour  in  ceremonials.  He  pro- 
poses that  he  should  get  all  Prussia  from  Poland, 
refunding  us  the  expenses  of  the  war  with  the 
town  of  Dantzic ;  whereto  the  high-flying  Poles 
will   hardly   consent'."     These   relations    became 


water-course  or  ravine  ran  under  the  Polish  camp,  so  that  no 
one  could  go  out  or  in  without  filing  through  the  pass." 

'^  On  this  occasion  the  first  trial  was  made  of  the  leather 
cannon,  which  Wurmbrandt,  a  German  free-baron  in  the 
service  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  is  said  to  have  invented. 
They  consisted  of  a  thin  copper  barrel,  strongly  bound  with 
rope  and  covered  with  leather,  could  be  carried  conve- 
niently between  two  horsemen,  and  could  be  fired  several 
times  before  they  required  cleansing. 

5  In  the  following  spring  the  king  wrote  to  the  chancellor, 
"  We  have  made  (and  send  you  herewith)  a  calculation 
of  the  sum  which  we  can  furnish  to  you  monthly  at  highest, 
and  you  must  as  far  as  possible  regulate  your  outlay  accord- 
ingly. Where  it  will  not  sutTice,  we  must  pay  in  one  place, 
and  contract  debts  in  the  other."  March  31,  1628.  Reg. 
By  a  letter  of  July  10,  1628,  the  king  summons  Louis  de 
Geer  to  Prussia,  to  assist  him  in  his  financial  management. 

s  It  extended  even  to  the  religious  afliairs  of  his  Russian 
subjects.  By  a  letter  to  the  lieutenant  of  Kexholm,  Henry 
Magnuson,  in  February,  1627,  the  king  orders  that  the  in- 
habitants should  choose  among  themselves  two  men,  whom 
he  would  send  to  Constantinople,  that  the  one  might  be  con- 
secrated bishop  by  the  patriarch,  in  order  to  be  able  after- 
wards to  ordain  priests.  April  7,  1628,  a  Russian  deacon  is 
pardoned  on  condition  of  publishing  a  printed  Russian 
Catechism. 

'  Such,  namely,  as  existed  in  that  day,  consisting  partly 
of  manuscript  relations,  partly  of  loose  printed  leaves  which 
now  and  then  appeared.     Hallenberg,  v.  365. 

"  To  the  chancellor,  Feb.  6,  1628.    Reg. 


I629].'^'"'j.^.f/"'^J,^°'JJ3^       GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     POLISH  WAR. 


Fourth  campaign. 
Junction  of  the 


251 


continually  more  complicated.  Sigismund  would  not 
make  peace  except  with  the  establishment  of  his 
rights  to  the  throne  of  Sweden  ;  for  a  prolongation 
of  the  truce  his  negotiators  demanded  the  cession 
of  all  the  Swedish  conquests.  "  For  Prussia  and 
Livonia  the  Poles  might  renounce  their  pretended 
claims  for  awhile,  to  resume  them  afterwards," 
says  the  king.  "  For  what  concerns  the  title,  the 
king  of  Poland  may  call  himself  as  he  will,  only  not 
king  of  Sweden.  If  there  were  any  mode  by  which 
neither  of  us  might  be  named,  it  were  best." 
Gustavus  Adolphus  forbids  the  conclusion  of  a 
truce,  except  on  condition  that  during  its  term  the 
conquests  should  be  retained,  especially  the  Prus- 
sian harbours ;  "  because  the  Papists  already  have 
so  many  ports  on  the  Baltic,  that  it  would  not  be 
advisable  to  give  them  more.  Keep  the  negotia- 
tions open  until  we  see  how  affairs  will  turn  with 
the  Imperialists.  Give  out  that  ye  have  yet  received 
no  discretion  from  us.  We  must  now  turn  towards 
Riga,  where  the  condition  of  affairs  is  somewhat 
strange  ;  but  we  exi)ect  to  take  off  our  army  from 
Livonia  by  Whit-Sunday,  in  order  afterwards  to 
come  in  force  to  Prussia,  or  proceed  home  for  the 
defence  of  our  own  borders^."  The  rumour  of  a 
Spanish  fleet  arriving  in  the  Baltic  was  renewed. 
"  We  can  expect  nothing  else,"  he  writes  some- 
what later  to  the  council,  "  than  that  it  should  be 
destined  for  the  Sound ;  we  command  that  all  the 
ships  of  the  realm  be  kept  at  all  hands  in  good 
readiness '."  The  motive  of  the  royal  resolve  to 
proceed  to  Livonia  in  person  was  again  displeasure 
with  Jacob  de  la  Gardie.  "  You  yourself  know," 
he  declares  to  the  chancellor,  "  that  count  Jacob  is 
somewhat  slow  in  his  counsels  and  transactions,  as 
Well  as  slack  in  his  commands,  and  has  executed 
most  things  by  Gustavo  Horn.  We  have  there- 
fore committed  the  military  concerns  to  this  latter, 
and  ordered  count  Jacob  to  reside  in  Riga  as 
governor  of  the  town  and  territory*."  Horn  having 
subsequently  beaten  the  Poles,  who  under  Go- 
siewski  had  crossed  the  Duna,  and  advanced  into 
Livonia,  the  king  altered  his  resolve,  set  out  for 
Prussia,  and  came,  May  15,  1628,  to  Pillau.  The 
capture  of  Neuenburg  (which  however  was  again 
lost)  and  Strassburg  were  the  most  important 
occurrences  of  this  campaign,  which  was  more 
tedious  than  any  of  the  foregoing,  because  the 
enemy  could  not  be  induced  to  hazard  an  action. 
His  main  body  was  assembled  at  Graudentz,  upon 
an  island  in  the  river  Ossa,  and  surrounded  by 
marshes,  whence  the  king  was  obliged  to  abandon 
the  notion  of  an  investment.  "  The  enemy,"  he 
writes  to  the  chancellor  ^,  "  wars  after  a  new 
fashion,  drives  off  cattle  and  men,  but  avoids  fight- 
ing like  fire."  The  accounts  of  the  retreat  give  a 
mournful  picture.  "Officers,  who  have  served 
thirty  years,"  says  Adler  Salvius  *,  "  never  knew 
our  army  in  such  a  condition.  The  decrement  is 
already  more  than  5000  men,  since  we  marched 
from  Ossa,  and  our  Swedes  are  still  deserting 
every  day.  The  foreigners  are  so  refractory  that 
we  have  only  mutiny  to  expect,  and  we  have  no 
means  of  making  them  willing.  The  king  has  been 
able  to  imdertake  nothing  in  Prussia,  out  of  appre- 

9  To  the  same,  Nov.  18,  1627,  and  March  31,  1628.     Reg. 
'  June  10,  1628.     Id. 

2  Instruction  for  Gustave  Horn  in  Lifland,  April  20.  Letter 
to  Axel  Oxenstierna,  April  21,  1628.     Id. 


hensions  from  the  side  of  Germany.  In  the  land 
all  is  misery.  No  good  quarters ;  four  houses  to 
one  regiment ;  the  roads  so  bad  that  we  cannot 
make  half  a  mile  in  a  day  with  the  guns.  The 
enemy  presses  after  and  cuts  off  all  supplies." 

At  length  the  army  was  disposed  in  winter 
quarters,  and  the  king  set  out  in  the  end  of  October 
to  Sweden,  after  he  had  again  committed  the 
highest  authority  in  Prussia  to  Axel  Oxenstierna, 
who,  with  the  assistance  of  field-marshal  Herman 
Wrangel,  kept  the  enemy  at  bay  during  the  winter. 

The  great  German  war  began  now  to  attract 
within  its  own  sphere  every  lesser  conflagration. 
This  is  the  feature  which  distinguishes  the  two  last 
Prussian  campaigns  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  During 
the  one  just  described  he  had  undertaken  the  de- 
fence of  Stralsund  ;  in  that  which  was  now  impend- 
ing he  was  encountered  by  an  imperial  army  in 
Prussia.  Immediately  after  his  arrival  in  the  end 
of  May,  1629,  he  writes  to  the  council  from  Elb- 


mg 


^:  "Here  we  find  Arnheim  before  us  with  an 


imperial  army  of  8000  foot  and  2000  horse,  or 
twenty-six  companies  ;  doubtless  with  great  de- 
signs, when  they  shall  have  made  a  junction  with 
the  Polish  army.  For  this  reason  we  cannot  so 
soon  get  away,  and  induced  by  the  change  of  cir- 
cumstances have  caused  a  new  proposition  to  the 
estates  to  be  drawn  up,  which  we  transmit.  Keep 
them  still  together  for  some  weeks.  The  enemy 
appears  to  entertain  a  design  on  Konigsberg.  We 
know  not  how  far  our  brother-in-law  has  yielded 
thereto  ^.  We  have  written  for  more  men  from 
home  for  the  defence  of  Konigsberg.  Three  of  the 
newly-levied  Scottish  regiments  may  remain  some 
time  in  Sweden,  to  inure  themselves  to  our  dis- 
cipline. The  high-admiral  (Gyllenhielm)  and  vice- 
admiral  (Clas  Fleming)  shall  lie  in  Dalehaven,  with 
nine  of  our  greatest  ships  and  the  sixteen  promised 
by  the  towns,  until  further  orders ;  John  Baner, 
with  six  vessels  of  war,  shall  keep  open  the  navi- 
gation to  Stralsund,  and  Eric  Ryniug  with  three 
smaller  shall  protect  Calniar."  "  The  Imperialists," 
he  says  in  a  subsequent  letter  to  the  chancellor  ^, 
"are  not  yet  provided  with  money,  and  belike  will 
receive  none  until  the  king  come.  If  we  could 
strike  a  vital  blow  before,  perchance  a  great  por- 
tion would  come  over  to  us.'' — Kouiecpolski  had 
drawn  together  his  power  at  Graudentz,  and  the 
junction  between  him  and  Arnheim  took  place  on 
the  15th  July,  without  Gustavus  Adolphus  being 
able  to  hmder  it.  The  king  had  pushed  forwards 
to  Marienwerder,  but  now  retired  to  the  strong 
fortifications  of  Marienburg,  in  order  there  to  wait 
for  reinforcements  from  Sweden.  He  caused  the 
baggage  to  be  taken  the  shortest  way,  by  Stum,  but 
marched  himself  to  cover  it  on  the  right  hand  along 
the  stream  of  Liebke  to  the  hamlet  of  Honigsfeldt. 
There  the  enemy  showed  themselves,  having  broken 
up  with  their  combined  force  to  intercept  his  pro- 
gress. A  skirmish  began  with  the  rear-guard,  during 
which  the  king  caused  the  remainder  of  the  troops 
to  continue  their  march.  "  Then  it  came  to  pass," 
he  says,  "that  while  we  were  supporting  one 
of  our  patrols  which  had  been  sent  out  to  Riesen- 


3  October  13,  1628.     Reg. 

<  Sept.  10,  1628.     Id. 

s  May  26,  1629.     Id. 

6  The  elector  afterwards  renewed  his  neutrality. 

'  Liessov,  June  2. 


252 


Imperialists  witli  the  Poles. 
Battle  of  Stum. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Mediation  of  France  and 

England. 


[1012—1629. 


borg,  and  the  enemy  were  attempting  to  cut  off, 
those  of  our  side,  especially  the  Khinegrave  *, 
though  we  often  warned  liini  therefrom,  engaged 
against  our  will  so  closely  with  the  enemy,  that 
they  obtained  time  to  come  up  in  full  force,  and 
so  fell  on  with  all  their  power.  And  albeit  our 
own  men  plucked  up  courage  to  oppose  him  some- 
what, as  indeed  they  fought  not  badly,  they  were 
yet  so  hard  pressed,  that  they  dispersed  and  took 
to  flight,  leaving  to  the  enemy  ten  leather  guns, 
which  we  had  ordered  to  be  posted  with  our  rear- 
guard before-mentioned.  And  although  we  sent 
messages  very  often  to  our  other  troops,  yet  could 
they  not  arrive  so  speedily,  as  well  because  they 
had  been  too  far  removed,  through  the  unseason- 
able skirmish  of  the  Rhinegrave,  as  also  because 
we  ourselves  were  busied  at  the  rear-guard  in  get- 
ting together  the  scattered  troops.  Nevertheless, 
after  John  Wrangel,  with  his  own  and  Ekholtz's 
squadron,  and  Baudissin's  regiment,  came  to  our 
succour,  we  not  only,  under  God,  saved  our  other 
troops,  but  even  drove  back  the  enemy  to  Honigs- 
feldt.  When  now  we  had  gained  time  to  set  our 
cavalry  in  order,  for  we  had  already  sent  on  the 
foot  to  Marienburg,  and  the  enemy  saw  that  we 
were  not  only  equal  but  superior  to  him  in  cavalry, 
he  applied  all  his  efforts  to  bring  up  his  infantry, 
and  assail  us  with  his  whole  force,  but  we  marched 
off  in  good  order.  And  twice  when  he  attempted 
something  against  us,  first  at  a  village,  and  then  at 
a  little  pass,  he  was  constantly  repulsed  with  gal- 
lantry and  to  his  no  small  loss,  until  at  last  he  was 
quieted;  but  we  retired  the  men  hither  to  Marien- 
burg in  good  order.  Touching  the  loss,  on  our 
side  about  two  hundred  men  perished  ;  but  of  the 
enemy,  as  was  manifest,  no  less ;  so  that  if  the 
leather  guns  and  five  cornets  had  not  been  lost  to 
us  in  the  first  action,  it  were  doubtful  who  had  suf- 
fered more  loss  in  these  skirmishes."  Thus  runs 
the  king's  own  account  of  that  which  the  Poles 
call  the  victory  of  Stum.  On  the  danger  in  which 
he  himself  was  placed  he  is  silent;  but  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna  supplies  an  account  of  it. — "In  1629,  on 
the  17th  of  June  ^,  at  the  battle  of  Stum,  where 
was  sharp  work,  one  of  the  enemy  caught  king 
Gustavus  Adolphus  by  the  pendant,  but  the  king 
slip])ed  it  over  his  head  and  left  his  hat  along  with 
it.  Therefore  another  caught  him  on  the  arm,  and 
was  going  to  drag  off  the  king  with  himself;  but 
Eric  Soop  came  up  and  shot  the  Pole  off  his  horse, 
and  rescued  the  king  i." — Gustavus  Adolphus  in- 

"  Otto  Lodovie,  one  of  the  king's  colonels. 

3  Old  style,  as  always  in  the  records  which  we  follow.  The 
account  above-mentioned  is  contained  in  a  letter  of  the  king 
to  the  council,  and  another  to  the  palsgrave  John  Casiniir, 
Marienburg,  June  22,  of  which  the  latter  is  printed  in  Adler- 
sparre's  Historiska  Saralingar,  iii.  105.  The  king  says  that 
he  relates  the  course  of  the  action  "  to  stop  the  mouths  of 
those  who  might  babble  of  worse." 

'  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  3?. 

^  July  11.  He  had  native  and  foreign  troops  witli  him, 
among  whom  were  a  thousand  English  or  Scots  levied  by 
Spense. 


trenched  his  leaguer  under  the  walls  of  Marien- 
burg. His  people  suffered  from  a  pestilential  field- 
sickness.  The  enemy  followed,  but  could  effect 
nothing, — for  Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  who  had  been  re- 
called from  Livonia  and  ordered  to  Prussia,  brouglit 
the  king  reinforcements  from  Sweden  ^, — although 
frequent  skirmishes  occurred  betwixt  the  two  for- 
tified camps,  and  king  Sigismund  himself  was  pre- 
sent in  his  with  his  two  eldest  prmces.  "  But  he 
hath  brought  with  him  no  money,"  says  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  "but  only  the  promise  of  three  months' 
pay  in  August;  the  same  for  the  Imperialists  alone 
making  more  than  three  tons  of  gold,  which  appears 
hard  to  raise.  The  Imperialists  have  done  nothing 
yet;  and  as  they  are  brought  in  by  the  king  'and 
his  party  against  the  will  and  without  the  know- 
ledge of  the  principal  estates,  they  become  ever 
the  more  detested.  Arnheim  still  lies  with  three 
regiments  before  Montau  (a  sconce  on  the  Vistula 
garrisoned  by  the  Swedes). — Just  as  we  thought  of 
preparing  to  depart  for  Sweden  came  the  envoy  of 
the  king  of  France,  Baron  de  Charuac^,  to  us  in 
the  camp,  to  offer  his  mediation  for  a  treaty  with 
the  enemy.  We  have  consented  to  a  negotiation 
for  a  truce,  on  the  conditions  proposed  by  tlie 
chancellor  last  winter,  and  have  on  our  side  com- 
missioned thereto  the  chancellor,  the  field-marshal, 
and  the  lord  John  Bauer,  who  assembled  the  30th 
July  with  the  Polish  plenipotentiaries,  when  it  was 
settled  that  the  title  of  king  of  Sweden  should  be 
given  to  us  by  both  the  king  and  the  republic  of  Po- 
land^."— The  negotiations  were  continued  through 
the  whole  of  August  under  the  mediation  of  France, 
and  from  the  beginning  of  September  also  under 
that  of  England.  There  was  not  seldom  danger  of 
their  being  broken  oft',  as  well  from  the  conflicting 
pretensions  of  the  Swedes  and  Poles  as  those  of  the 
mediators  *,  and  this  actually  once  happened.  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  did  not  wait  for  their  termination, 
but  repaired  to  Sweden.  On  the  16th  September, 
1629,  the  six  years'  truce  with  Poland  was  con- 
cluded at  Altinark  by  Stum,  under  the  open  sky. 
Strassburg,  Dirschau,  Wormditt,  Mehlsack,  and 
Frauenburg  were  restored  to  Poland;  Mittau  to  the 
duke  of  Courland;  Marienburg,  Stum,  and  Dantzic 
Head  were  to  be  held  and  garrisoned  during  the 
truce  by  the  elector  of  Brandenburg.  (lustavus 
Adol[>hus  preserved  Elbing,  Braunsberg,  Pilhiu, 
and  Memel.  Freedom  of  religion  was  secured  to 
both  Protestants  and  Catholics,  and  free  trade  be- 
tween the  subjects  of  both  kingdoms. 

■•  To  the  council,  upon  the  incidents  in  the  camp  at 
Marienburg,  July  22,  written  by  the  secretary  Grubbe.  Also 
letter  by  Gustavus  Adolphus  himself  to  the  palsgrave  John 
Casimir,  Aug.  1.     Reg. 

■*  "  How  the  dispute  upon  precedency  between  the  English 
and  French  ambassadors  may  be  adjusted,  we  perceive  not, 
inasmuch  as  neither  will  yield.  Therefore  discuss  ye  realities 
without  mention  of  either,  and  let  each  of  them  treat  for  him- 
self." Gustavus  Adolphus  to  Axel  Oxenstierna,  Fiskhausen, 
Sept.  8.  Yet  the  king  appears  inclined  to  give  France  pre- 
ference, which  was  observed. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.    GERMAN  WAR. 


253 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


GUSTAVUS  II.  ADOLPHUS.     THE  GERMAN  WAR. 


OVERTURES  OF  THE  PROTESTANTS  OF  GERMANY  TO  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.  STATE  OF  THAT  COUNTRY  DURING 
THE  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR.  POWER  AND  DESIGNS  OF  WALLENSTEIN.  VIEWS  OF  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  AS 
TO  THE  INTEREST  OF  SWEDEN  AND  THE  PROTESTANT  CAUSE.  HIS  SUCCOUR  OF  STRALSUND  AGAINST  THE 
IMPERIALISTS.  RELATIONS  WITH  DENMARK  AND  FRANCE.  PREPARATIONS  IN  SWEDEN.  INVASION  OF 
POMERANIA,  AND  CAMPAIGN  OF  1630-1631.  OPERATIONS  AGAINST  BRANDENBURG.  STORMING  OF  FRANK- 
FORT-ON-THE-ODER  BY  THE  SWEDISH  ARMY.  MAGDEBURG  TAKEN  BY  THE  IMPERIALISTS.  BATTLE  OF 
LEIPSIC.  PLANS  FOR  THE  FUTURE  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.  OPERATIONS  ON  THE  RHINE  AND  MAINE. 
THE  SWEDES  IN  MENTZ.  COVENANT  BETWEEN  GUSTAVUS  AND  THE  PROTESTANT  STATES  OF  THE  EMPIRE. 
CAMPAIGN  OF  1632.  PASSAGE  OF  THE  LECH.  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  AND  WALLENSTEIN  AT  NUREMBERG. 
BATTLE   OF    LUTZEN.       VICTORY    OF    THE    SWEDES    AND    DEATH    OF    THE    KING. 

A.  D.  1628—1632. 


GusTAVUS  Adolphus  was  thirty-four  years  old, 
consequently  in  the  bloom  of  all  youthful  energies. 
Already  no  greater  or  fairer  name  was  to  be  found 
in  Europe.  «'  This  king  of  Sweden,"  says  Riche- 
lieu ^,  "  was  a  new  rising  sun,  young,  but  of  great 
renown.  The  injured  or  dispossessed  princes  of 
Germany  raised  their  eyes  to  him  in  their  distress, 
as  the  seaman  to  the  north  star."  From  the  year 
1614  negotiations  may  be  traced  between  the 
German  Protestants  and  Gustavus  Adolphus.  He 
then  received  in  Narva  an  envoy  from  the  land- 
grave Maurice  of  Hesse-Cassel,  who  exhorted  him 
to  bring  the  Russian  war  to  a  conclusion,  and  in 
expectation  of  coming  events,  not  to  quit  his  own 
country ;  a  union  was  formed  by  several  electors 
and  estates  of  Germany  against  the  Catholics,  for 
the  defence  of  religious  freedom  ;  England,  the 
Netherlands,  and  Switzerland  had  taken  a  part 
in  it  ;  and  it  was  intended  publicly  to  call  upon  the 
king  of  Sweden  to  become  a  member  of  the  league. 
To  this  invitation  succeeded  immediately  after  a 
special  legate  from  Heilbr-onn,  where  the  evan- 
gelical party  had  recently  held  a  congress.  The 
letter  announcing  it,  dated  February  25,  1C14,  was 
subscribed  by  Frederic  V.,  elector  palatine,  by 
John  II.,  palsgrave  of  Bipont,  John  Frederic  duke 
of  Wurteinberg,  George  Frederic  Margrave  of 
Baden,  Christian  prince  of  Anhalt,  and  Joachim 
Ernest,  elector  of  Brandenburg.  The  answer  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  expressed  his  good  will,  detail- 
ing at  the  same  time  the  obstacles  which  still 
opposed  his  wishes,  so  long  as  the  Russian  and 
Polish  wars  lasted.     In  a  rescript  of  May  C,  1615, 

5  Memoires  de  Richelieu,  v.  119.  123.     Paris,  1823. 

5  Hallenberg,  i.  246,  seq. 

^  Raumer,  History  of  Europe  from  the  Fifteenth  Century, 
iii.  354. 

8  When  John  Ernest,  duke  of  Saxe  Weimar,  wished  to 
assist  the  elector  palatine,  the  theologians  of  Wittemberg 
dissuaded  liim  on  this  ground  among  others,  that  the  duke 
was  bound  to  aid  the  emperor  Ferdinand,  because  the  Son  of 
God  was  born  into  tlie  world  under  the  Roman  emperor. 
Hallenberg,  iv.  801,  after  Londorp.  The  feeble  Frederic  V. 
led  by  his  puritanically-minded  English  wife,  and  his  violent 
court-preacher  Scultetus,  showed  himself  on  his  side  highly 
intolerant,  not  only  towards  the  Catholics,  but  even  the 
Hussites  and  Lutherans.  During  his  short  ti-nure  of  power 
in  Bohemia  he  caused  the  images  and  pictures  in  the  churches 
of  Prague  to  be  destroyed,  forbade  the  bells  to  be  rung,  ex- 
changed the  altars  for  tables,  and  silver  and  ^'olden  chalices 
for  wooden  cups  in  the  dispensation  of  the  Supper,  &c. 
Westenrieder,  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  i.  117,  from 


appointing  a  day  of  prayer,  he  called  upon  his 
subjects  to  offer  up  their  petitions  for  their  brethren 
in  faith  ^. 

It  was  unity  most  of  all  that  was  wanting  to 
these.  The  elector  of  Saxony  hud  begun  by  pre- 
ferring to  seek  admission  into  the  Catholic  league  ', 
rather  than  acknowledge  the  Calvinistic  palatinate 
as  the  head  of  the  Evangelic  Union  ;  and  when 
the  unfortunate  Frederic  V.  lost  as  quickly  as  he 
had  won  the  crown  tendered  to  him  by  the  insur- 
gent Bohemians,  men  saw  John  George  of  Saxony, 
after  he  had  set  his  theologians  to  prove  that  the 
Lutherans  were  more  nearly  allied  to  the  Catholics 
than  to  the  Calvinists,  lend  the  emperor,  for  the 
pawn  of  Lusatia,  assistance  for  the  suppression  of 
religious  freedom  in  Bohemia  ^.  The  thirty  years' 
war  was  begun. 

In  that  commenced  subjugation  of  Germany  by 
the  united  arms  of  the  emperor,  Spain,  and  the 
league,  which  followed  the  disasters  of  the  Pala- 
tine house  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Evangelic 
Union,  the  raonarchs  of  the  Scandinavian  North 
soon  remained  the  only  surviving  hope  of  their 
oppressed  brethren  in  the  faith ;  the  rather  that  of 
the  two  most  powerful  Protestant  princes  of  Ger- 
many, Saxony  was  inclined  to  the  imperial  side, 
and  Brandenburg,  led  by  counsellors  Papistically 
disposed  (as  was  made  matter  of  public  reproach  in 
Sweden),  showed  little  earnestness  in  the  commoii 
cause  8.  England,  Holland,  and  France  sought  to 
incite  Denmark  and  Sweden  to  war  against  the 
house  of  Austria  and  the  Catholic  league.     Gus- 

contemporary  accounts.  Gustavus  Adolphus  supported  the 
elector  palatine  with  military  stores.  Instruction  for  Martin 
Paulson  to  take  eight  cannon  and  four  thousand  balls  to 
Bohemia,  Aug.  26,  1620.     Reg. 

9  When  the  court  of  Brandenburg  in  its  correspondence 
with  Sweden  began  to  set  the  elector's  title  before  the  king's, 
giving  Gustavus  Adolphus  the  style  of  "royal  dignity,"  in- 
stead of  majesty,  the  lords  of  the  Swedish  council  wrote  to 
that  of  Brandenburg;  "  Were  declining  reputation  to  be  re- 
paired with  words  and  great  names,  then  would  the  king's 
majesty  make  little  difficulty,  and  be  willing  to  fill  whole 
sheets  with  the  same. — Our  meaning  verily  is  good,  and 
directed  to  the  maintenance  of  friendship,  good  correspond- 
ence, and  increment  of  the  universal  evangelic  common- 
wealth ;  but  because  we  mark  that  your  court  is  in  great 
part  swayed  by  Papistical  counsellors,  we  may  easily  surmise 
what  fruit  our  well-meaning  will  bear."  Notes  in  the  name 
of  the  Councillors  of  State  to  the  Privy  Councillors  of  Bran- 
denburg. Gripsholm,  Aug.  8,  and  Dec.  10,  1628.  Hallen- 
berg, v.  101. 


254 


Views  of  the  king  as  to 
Swedisli  intervention 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


in  tlie  wars  of  Germany. 
State  of  that  country. 


[1628- 


tavus  Addlphus  communicated  to  Christian  IV. 
himself  the  conditions  wliich  lie  had  proposed 
when  solicited  to  accept  the  conduct  of  the  war 
on  the  Protestant  side,  conditions,  without  the 
fulfilment  of  which  he  could  not  become  a  par- 
taker in  the  enterprise.  They  were,  a  fast  alliance 
between  all  the  powers  interested  ;  the  command- 
in-chief  of  the  forces  for  himself ;  an  army  of 
thirty-six  regiments  of  foot  and  eight  thousand 
horse  furnished  conjointly  (one-third  by  each)  by 
himself,  by  England,  and  by  the  c<infederated  es- 
tates of  Germany;  assurance  of  monthly  pay  for 
the  troops,  and  the  concession  of  two  good  har- 
bours, one  on  the  Baltic,  and  one  on  the  North 
Sea.  This  proposal  he  had  made  before  he  knew 
that  any  other  was  thought  of  for  the  supreme 
generalship.  Now,  he  proceeds,  the  case  was 
altered,  since  the  king  of  Denmark  had  assumed 
these  functions  ;  but  since  it  was  thought  that  the 
war  could  be  more  securely  undertaken  with  two 
armies  than  with  one',  he  would  not  shrink  from 
taking  the  command  of  the  one,  stipulating  that 
the  subsidies  should  be  equally  distributed.  He 
himself  would  be  content  at  first  with  ten  regi- 
ments of  foot  and  five  thousand  cavalry,  and  would 
furnish  artillery  and  munitions  at  his  own  cost, 
reserving  only  free  right  of  recruitment  in  the 
territories  of  the  confederate  powers,  and  that  no 
peace  should  be  made  with  the  emperor  and  the 
league  without  his  consent,  although  he  would  not 
demand  that  his  associates  should  engage  in  his 
private  war  with  the  Poles.  "  The  Catholics  of 
Germany,"  he  adds,  "  we  must  attack  in  their  own 
nests,  to  which  four  ways  lead  ;  the  first  up  the 
Weser  through  Westphalia  to  Hesse,  the  second 
up  the  Elbe  through  Saxony  to  Bohemia,  the  third 
by  the  Oder  through  Schwerin  and  the  Mark  of 
Brandenburg,  the  fourth  through  Cassauben  and 
Poland  to  Silesia."  The  first  Gustavus  Adolphus 
regarded  as  available,  more  especially  for  the  king 
of  Denmark,  like  as  the  second,  if  the  consent  of 
Saxony  could  be  obtained ;  the  third  he  disap- 
proved, because  this  would  carry  the  war  into  the 
territories  of  his  brother-iu-law,  the  elector  of 
Brandenburg,  and  attract  the  Poles  thither  ;  the 
fourth  he  held  to  be  the  most  convenient  for  him- 
self, because  it  led  into  the  enemy's  country,  and 
Brandenburg  with  Pomerania  would  thereby  be 
secured  against  Poland,  which  would  be  occupied 
with  her  own  defence  2.  His  conditions  were  found, 
as  is  said,  to  be  somewhat  hard  ^ ;  but  they  accle- 
rated  the  decision  of  Christian  IV*. 

Politically  considered,  the  outbreak  of  the  great 

'  This  proposition  came,  according  to  the  king's  own  de- 
claration (Hallenbcrg,  v.  338),  from  prince  Maurice  of  Orange. 
Each  of  the  two  armies  was  to  consist  of  25,000  men  ;  with 
one  the  king  of  Sweden  was  to  fall  on  the  hereditary  domi- 
nions of  the  emperor,  with  the  other  the  king  of  Denmark 
was  to  drive  out  the  array  of  the  league  and  restore  the 
palatinate. 

■*  Resolution  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  given  to  the  ambas- 
sador of  his  majesty  of  Denmark.  Stockholm,  May  10,  1625. 
Ibid.  330. 

3  "  So  England  had  expressed  herself,"  Gustavus  Adolphus 
observes  in  a  letter  to  Christian.     Ibid.  331. 

••  Salvius,  whom  the  king  employed  in  his  negotiations, 
wrote  in  KHG  to  A.  Liliehoek,  that  after  the  Hollanders, 
France  and  Holland  (England .')  had  laboured  for  seven  years 
to  induce  the  king  of  Denmark  to  make  war  on  the  emperor, 
no  argument  proved  so  poweiful  as  when  they  fell  upon 
sending   Bcllin,  the  envoy  of  Brandenburg,  to  Sweden,  to 


struggle  in  which  the  north  was  now  to  be  involved, 
shows  us  the  disruption  of  that  internal  system  of 
states  in  Germany,  whereof  religion  was  partly  the 
cause,  partly  the  pretext.  After  the  thirty  years'  war 
it  was  restored,  as  well  as  circumstances  permitted, 
in  its  outer  aspect,  as  a  portion  of  the  European 
system  of  the  balance  of  power.  The  interval  is 
marked  by  the  manifold  plans  which  every  political 
convulsion  generates  ;  the  more  adventurous  and 
bold,  the  less  advance  it  made  to  calmness.  How 
low  must  the  imperial  power  and  constitution 
have  sunk,  ere  the  weak  Frederic  V.  could  ven- 
ture to  grasp  at  the  Bohemian  crown  !  On  the 
Catholic  side  this  aggression  was  the  signal  for  an 
outburst  of  deep  exasperation,  long  restrained  for 
want  of  a  leader,  but  destined  to  find  one  in 
Ferdinand  II.  The  Palatine  house  lost  all.  Its 
electoral  dignity  was  confiscated  to  the  behoof  of 
the  Catholic  league,  and  transferred  to  Bavaria, 
whereat  the  pope  invites  the  emperor  "  to  behold 
the  gates  of  heaven's  kingdom  opened,  and  the 
army  of  angels  fighting  for  him  in  the  German 
leaguers  ^."  A  general  persecution  overtook  the 
Protestants  in  Bohemia,  Austria,  and  the  Palati- 
nate. Many  thousands  wandered  about  destitute 
of  house  or  home.  Such  unfortunates  flocked  to 
the  standards  of  those  warlike  adventurers,  who, 
after  Ernest  of  Mansfeld  and  the  young  Christian 
of  Brunswick  (the  most  ferocious  leader  of  his 
day,  and  yet  a  Protestant  bishop),  in  ever  in- 
creasing numbers  distinguish  this  war,  and  amid 
the  changes  of  misery  produced  that  soldiery,  lost 
to  feelings  of  religion  and  country,  which  must  be 
treated  with  in  peace  as  a  sejiarate  power.  This 
feature  was  exemplified  on  a  great  scale  in  the 
case  of  Albert  of  Waldstein,  commonly  called 
Wallensteiu,  a  Bohemian  nobleman,  who,  when  the 
emperor,  to  be  independent  of  the  league,  wished 
for  an  army  of  his  own,  for  which  means  were 
wanting,  measured  Germany  with  a  glance,  and 
declared  that  he  could  not  raise  a  small  army,  but 
easily  fifty  thousand  men,  who  would  maintain 
themselves. 

In  this  chief  Christian  IV.,  already  routed  at 
Lutter  (August  27,  1626,)  by  the  leaguists  under 
Tilly,  encountered  a  new  foe  ^,  who  drove  him  not 
only  out  of  Germany,  but  out  of  Holstein  and  Jut- 
land, and  compelled  him  to  the  peace  of  Lubeck, 
on  the  6th  June,  1629,  whereby  the  king  recovered 
his  territories  and  sacrificed  his  allies.  Mecklen- 
burg, whose  dukes  he  dispossessed,  Wallensteiu  took 
for  himself,  and  received  it  from  the  emperor  as  a 
heritable  fief.  He  besieged  Stralsund,  and  obtained 

offer  king  Gustavus  the  direction  of  that  war,  proposing  to  I 
grant  to  his  majesty  Wismar  and  Bremen,  where  he  could 
land  with  his  arm>'.  "  When  after  that  they  conveyed  se- 
cretly and  dexterously  to  the  king  of  Denmark  the  accepta- 
tion of  the  proposal,  he  said,  'the  devil  forbid  him  that;' 
and  so  broke  away."     Palmsk.  MSS. 

5  Brief  of  Dec.  22,  1622. 

6  Wallenstein's  first  appearance  in  Lower  Germany  is  cha- 
racteristic. "  The  approach  of  Wallenstein's  army  was  made 
known  in  a  singular  way.  Bands  of  gipsies,  from  ten  to 
fifteen  men,  every  one  provided  with  two  long  muskets, 
bringing  women  on  horseback  with  them,  and  having  a  pair 
of  pistols  at  their  saddle,  were  seen  in  many  districts  as  the 
foreward.  These  parties  marched  by  unfrequented  roads, 
lay  in  ambush  in  the  thickets  and  woods,  spied  out  every 
thing,  robbed  and  plundered  where  they  found  no  resistance, 
and  boasted  of  being  in  Wallenstein's  pay."  Compare  Von 
der  Decken,  duke  George  of  Brunswick  and  Luneburg,  i.  155. 


1632.] 


Designs  of 
Wallenstein. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


Importance  of  the 
Baltic  iiarbours. 


255 


in  addition  to  his  other  titles  that  of  "  general  of 
the  ocean  and  Baltic  seas '."     With  what  a  network 
of  great  plans,   keeping  a   constant  watchfulness 
for  his  own  advantage,  he  loved  to  sui'round  him- 
self, the  letter  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  the  king  of 
Denmark  betimes  shows  us.  "  We  have  sufficiently 
discerned,"  he  says,  "  that  the  designs  of  the  papal 
league  have  been  turned  towards  the  Baltic,  at- 
tempting such  now  directly,  now  indii'ectly,  by  the 
subjugation  of  the  united  Netherlands  or  our  king- 
dom of  Sweden,  and  lastly  also  through  Denmark. 
For  this  end  not  only  force  but  plots  and  intrigues 
have  been  employed.     Thus  we  have  heard,  that 
the  new  admiralty  of  the  Roman  empire  has  been 
proffered  to  your   lovingness,  with  a  proposal  to 
cede  the  Sound  for  restitution  of  the  expenses  of 
tlie  war :  as  to  us  also  in  these  days  underhand  pro- 
posals have  been  made,  to  conjoin  ourselves  with 
the  emperor  against  your  lovingness ;  for  which 
they  would  not  only  procure  us  perpetual  peace 
with  the  king  of  Poland  and  the  crown  of  Poland, 
and   the   permanent    possession    of    Livonia   and 
Prussia,   but   would    transfer    to   us   the   Danish 
throne  as  an  imperial  fief, — and  more  of  the  like 
sort,  with  intent  to  hinder  our  mutual  conjunction 
by  such    illusions.     For   the  issue    we   have   had 
alarms  beforehand,  well  knowing  the  might,  the 
unity,  the  industry,  and  constancy  of  the  adverse 
party  ;  on  the  other  side,  the  remissness,  unthank- 
fulness,  and    unsteadiness   of  those   who   are   in- 
terested in  our  cause,  whence  their  power,  which 
well  united  might  have  been  superior  to  the  enemy, 
is  become  so  feeble  that  none  was  able  to  defend 
himself,  but  every  one  injured  the  other,  to  the 
detriment  and  ruin  of  all.     We  have  according  to 
our  ability  suggested  to  our  friends  that,  disregard- 
ing all  private  interests,  they  must  embrace  such 
counsels  as  might  save  the  commonwealth.     But 
our  good  meaning  has  been  ill  interpreted,  so  that 
we,  setting  aside  all,  must  look  only  to  carry  out 
our  war  with  Poland,  and  thereby  to  divert  the 
Polish  power,  that  it  may  not  be  conjoined  with 
the  other  leaguists.    The  extremity  of  your  loving- 
ness pains  our  heart,  but  we  could  have  wished 
that  the  intention  of  your  majesty  to  unite  with  us 
for   the   defence  of  the  Baltic   had   been   earlier 
known  to  us.      Nevertheless  we  have  wished   to 
write  forthwith  after  our  return  home,  in  order  that 
the  matter,  for  the  defence  of  the  Baltic  and  the 
security  of  both  kingdoms,  might  be  settled  during 
the  winter."     This  letter  the  king  wrote  in  ('almar 
Sound,  October  21,  1627,  immediately  after  his  re- 
turn from  the  second  Prussian  campaign  *. 

On  the  German  seaports,  especially  Stralsund, 
his  attention  was  above  all  set.  For  no  price  would 
he  allow  the  emperor  to  gain  firm  footing  on  the 

'  Already  at  the  diet  of  Spires,  in  1567,  the  emperor 
Maximilian  II.  had  proposed  to  form  the  circles  of  Bur- 
gund}',  Westphalia,  and  Saxony  into  an  imperial  admiralty, 
and  nominate  an  admiral.  Neubur,  Siege  of  Stralsund, 
i.  36. 

8  Reg.  for  1627. 

9  To  P.  Baner,  Elbing,  July  6,  1627.     Reg. 

'  To  the  same,  Dirschau,  Aug.  15,  1627.     Id. 

2  To  the  palsgrave  John  Casirair,  in  Sweden,  Dirschau, 
Sept.  17,  1627.     Id. 

3  To  the  chancellor,  upon  the  alFdirs  of  Denmark,  Stock- 
holm, Nov.  6,  1627.     Id. 

*  "  We  are  moved,  in  consideration  of  the  afflicted  condi- 
tion of  the  Mecklenburg  princes,  to  provide  for  and  support 


Baltic.  He  abandoned  this  purpose  only  for  a 
moment,  but  immediately  embraced  it  again  with 
renewed  ardour.  In  the  summer  of  1627  he  had 
sent  Peter  Baner  to  North  Germany  with  instruc- 
tions, which  in  respect  to  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
personal  character  of  the  princes  and  their  politi- 
cal relations,  are  master-pieces  9.  His  main  object 
was,  that  Wismar  and  Rostock  should  receive 
garrisons  neither  of  imperial  nor  Danish  troops, 
but  rather  of  Swedish,  as  the  dukes  of  Mecklen- 
burg had  requested  in  their  need  ;  although  these 
princes,  the  king  says,  were  "  in  heart  like  the 
duke  of  Holstein  and  the  archbishop  of  Bremen, 
wholly  and  solely  imperialist,"  and  jealous  besides 
of  one  another,  for  wiiich  reason  Baner  was  to  use 
great  cu'cumspection  in  his  intercourse  with  them. 
The  regiment  which  under  the  command  of  colonel 
Duwall  was  to  occupy  Wismar  was  already 
selected,  when  Wallenstein's  conquest  of  Mecklen- 
burg frustrated  this  plan  ;  and  this  was  the  point 
at  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  for  a  moment  aban- 
doned all  participation  in  the  affairs  of  Germany.  ( 
Baner  was  recalled,  since  "  the  Catholics  now  ap- 
pear to  have  gotten  the  upper  hand  >."  Duwall 
was  sent  home  with  his  regiment,  "  since  affairs  in 
Germany,"  writes  the  king,  "  have  much  altered, 
and  we  are  not  now  minded  to  engage  in  this  Ger- 
man business  ^."  He  soon  changed  this  disposi- 
tion, and  already  in  the  beginning  of  November  in 
the  same  year  he  thus  expresses  himself  to  the 
chancellor  touching  the  losses  of  the  Danes ; 
"  True  it  is,  the  enemy  hath  not  only  taken  from 
them  Holstein  and  Jutland,  but  they  are  also  them- 
selves fallen  into  desperation  and  dissensions.  We 
can  hardly  escape  being  entangled  in  this  war,  as 
the  danger  daily  draws  nearer  ^." 

The  dukes  of  Mecklenburg,  kinsmen  of  Gustavus 
Adoiphus,  were  expelled  fi-om  their  possessions. 
They  sought  help  in  Sweden,  where  their  sons 
found  a  refuge  *.  Gustavus  Adolphus  threw  open 
his  kingdom  as  an  asylum  for  all  his  persecuted 
coreligionaries  5.  Duke  Bogislaus  XIV.  of  Pome- 
rania  was  the  last  of  his  race.  It  was  reported  at 
this  time  that  the  emperor  wished  to  make  himself 
master  of  the  dukedom,  notwithstanding  the  claims 
of  Brandenburg  ^.  Wallenstein  seems  to  have 
been  inclined  to  add  this  conquest  to  Mecklenburg 
on  Ills  own  account  ^.  He  occupied  Pomerania  and 
Rugen,  and  gave  orders  for  the  equipment  of  a 
fleet.  "  There  are  said  to  be  eiglit-and-twenty 
ports  in  Pomerania,"  he  writes  to  his  lieutenant 
Arnheim  ;  "  they  must  all  be  garrisoned  and  forti- 
fied. Look  that  we  are  strong  at  sea  by  the  spring  ; 
for  what  remains  to  be  done  must  be  done  at  sea. 


in  our  land,  the  young  dukes,  their  sons."     Gustavus  Adol- 
phus to  the  Council  of  State,  Dirschau,  July  1,  1628.     Id. 

5  See  his  warrant  thereupon,  Nov.  11,  1627. 

6  Cliemnitz,  on  the  Swedish  War,  i.  7,  says,  "  That  dan- 
gerous discourses  were  current  on  all  hands  of  a  pretension 
which  the  duke  of  Bavaria  was  said  to  have  to  Pomerania ; 
whence  it  had  been  conjectured,  that  in  case  of  tlie  death 
of  the  last  prince,  the  succession  of  the  elector  of  Bran- 
denburg might  be  contested,  and  the  oppressions  of  free 
quartering  might  be  regarded  as  a  future  Sequestration  of 
Juliers." 

"  Of  the  duke  of  Pomerania  Wallenstein  writes,  "  He  will 
not,  with  God's  favour,  commence  a  war  with  us.  I  would 
that  he  had  a  liking  that  way,  for  Pomerania  would  fit 
mighty  smooth  to  Mecklenburg."  Fbrster,  Wallenstein, 
Potsdam,  1834,  p.  128. 


256 


Danger  of  Stralsutid. 
Design  for  its  relief. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Besieged  by  the  Imperialists. 
Alliance  wltli  the  town. 


[1628— 


The  king  of  Spain  now  remits  200,000  crowns  for 
the  maintenance  of  twenty-five  ships  of  war.  The 
emperor  requests  it  most  prcssingly.  I  hope  yet 
to  seek  them  in  their  islands,  for  as  to  the  Swede,  I 
fear  him  not  a  jot '."  Simulated  contempt  and  real 
dread  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  alternate  in  these 
letters  of  Wallenstein.  In  the  end  the  latter  feel- 
ing attains  the  ascendant,  and  expresses  itself  in 
the  most  victlent  projects.  While  he  continues  the 
negotiations  opened  with  Gustavus  Adolphus,  he 
gives  incessant  commands  to  Arnheim  to  have  the 
Swedish  fleet  burned.  It  is  uncertain  whether  the 
great  reward  of  35,000  dollars,  which  he  secretly 
promises  as  the  price  of  an  obscure  but  dangerous 
scheme  m  Sweden,  had  reference  to  the  fleet  or 
to  the  king's  person.  In  Gustavus  Adolphus  he 
foresees  his  most  formidable  foe,  and  takes  counsel 
of  the  stars  respecting  that  monarch's  fortunes*. 

Stralsund  was  the  key  of  the  Baltic;  and  it  is 
said  that  Wallenstein  had  sworn  to  make  himself 
master  of  this  fortress  even  if  it  were  bound  with 
cliains  to  heaven.  Stralsund,  in  the  emperor's 
hand,  was  the  turning-point  of  the  career  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus;  for  Stralsund  he  cast  himself  into 
the  German  war.  Already  in  1625  he  assured  the 
town  that  if  it  should  be  reduced  to  any  straits  he 
would  be  well  inclined  to  its  relief.  In  the  now 
threatening  prospect  of  danger  he  repeats  the  same 
assurance ',  but  at  first  hesitates  respecting  the 
manner  of  its  execution.  "  We  have  sent  the 
count  of  Solms  to  Denmark,"  he  writes  to  the 
chancellor,  March  29,  KJ28,  "  to  represent  to  the 
king,  how  highly  it  interests  Denmark  as  well  as 
Sweden  that  Stralsund  fall  not  into  the  emperor's 
hands.  Alone  we  cannot  midertake  this  matter, 
how  gladly  soever  we  would.  But  the  means  of 
the  king  of  Denmark  are  small,  and  the  business 
weighty.  We  have  maturely  considered  it.  We 
could  thereby  divert  Wallenstein's  army  from  the 
Prussian  frontiers.  We  would  thus  come  Ukewise 
so  close  to  the  Imperialists,  that  our  own  state  and 
the  borders  of  our  land  might  be  wholly  freed  from 
German  military.  From  Stralsund  we  could  sup- 
port Denmark,  and  there  keep  our  fleet  together, 
in  case  any  danger  should  appear  likely  from  the 
North  Sea,  where,  as  we  hear,  the  enemy  makes 
great  preparations,  and  has  seized  above  thirty 
merchant  vessels  to  be  converted  into  war  ships, 
and  might  be  expected  easily  against  harvest.  We 
might  also  use  the  time,  while  the  towns  are  hesi- 
tating, ere  desperation  throws  them  into  the  hands 
of  the  emperor.  On  the  other  hand,  it  strikes  us 
on  the  face,  that  for  this  work  a  considerable  army 
i§  required,  which,  since  on  the  spot  there  are  no 
means,  must  be  supported  by  help  of  ready  money, 
a  thing  impossible  for  us.  Herein  to  rely  upon  the 
other  towns  is  not  advisable,  for  they  oppo.se  the 
emperor  precisely  because  they  will  disburse  no 
money.  It  is  likewise  uncertain  whether  the  towns 
would  consent  that  a  foreign  prince  should  come  to 

8  Wallenstein's  Letters,  by  Fbrster.  Berlin,  1828,  i.  155. 
168.  267. 

9  Forster's  Wallenstein,  106,  107. 
'  Hallenberg,  v.  33y. 

2  A  letter  from  a  burgher  of  Stralsund,  named  Joachim 
Rhodes,  to  Ake  Axelson  (Natt  och  Dag),  was  the  first  in- 
duction to  this.  The  king  commissions  this  person,  by 
letter  dated  Ulfvesund,  Feb.  8,  1628,  to  attest  his  readiness 
to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  town.     Reg. 

3  It  arrived  May  17,  as  did  on  the  31st  a  new  present  from 


their  relief,  especially  as  no  man  requests  this  from 
us.  Therefore  we  have  resolved  to  allow  this  mat- 
ter to  rest  for  some  time." 

Howbeit,  the  king  lost  not  sight  of  it  for  a  mo- 
ment; and  when  Stralsund  besieged  solicited  powder 
from  Dantzic,  which,  in  consequence  of  a  PoHsh 
prohibition,  was  refused,  he  availed  himself  of  the 
occasion  to  send  to  the  town  a  freight  of  powder  ^, 
with  a  friendly  letter  to  the  burgomasters  and  coun- 
cil. His  envoy,  George  Borchardt,  who  had  a 
secret  commission  to  proffer  the  assistance  of  Swe- 
den *,  was  accompanied  back  by  the  deputies  of 
Stralsund,  who  were  presented  to  the  king  May  30, 
1628,  in  the  camp  on  the  Vistula.  He  writes  on 
this  subject  to  the  comicil  of  state:  "  The  deputies 
of  Stralsund  have  stated  to  us  how  pitiably  they 
were  this  winter  treated  bj'  the  Imperialists,  who 
had  sought  by  wiles  and  menaces  to  become  mas- 
ters of  the  town  and  haven,  in  order  afterward  to 
disquiet  the  whole  Baltic  with  a  fleet  constructed 
there,  to  reduce  under  Popish  thraldom  the  neigh- 
bouring dominions  and  towns,  and  here  to  break 
through  old  alliances  by  false  practices.  Herein 
they  went  so  far,  that  colonel  Arnheim  (who  is  said 
to  have  been  made  field-marshal),  without  any  in- 
quiry, had  beleaguered  the  town  on  all  sides  ;  and 
although  the  duke  of  Pomerania,  with  the  towns  of 
Hamburg  and  Lubeck,  interposed,  tendered  such 
conditions  as  were  more  grievous  than  death.  In 
this  great  danger  Stralsund  hath  repaired  to  us, 
who  were  in  doubt  what  to  resolve,  foreseeing 
danger  on  one  side  if  the  leaguists  were  to  occupy 
such  a  port  on  the  Baltic,  and  the  certain  war 
which  impends  over  Sweden  after  the  fall  of  Stral- 
sund ;  but  considering  on  the  other  the  Polish  war 
and  the  difficulties  which  here  are  urgent.  At  last 
we  have  of  two  evils  chosen  the  lesser.  We  will 
not  allow  Stralsund  to  lapse  to  the  emperor  if  we 
can  prevent  it.  Therewith  were  Denmark  and  the 
Sound  lost,  and  then  would  come  Sweden's  turn, 
although  the  danger  might  for  some  time  be 
averted.  How  might  then  our  fleet  suffice  to  keep 
free  the  coasts  of  Sweden,  Finland,  and  Livonia  ? 
Besides  the  emperor  hath  already  a  year  ago  rein- 
forced the  king  of  Poland  against  ua  •'',  obstructed 
peace  and  truce,  and  seeks  now  all  means  to  avert 
the  war  from  himself  and  to  keep  it  here  in  action. 
We  have  therefore  sent  to  the  relief  of  Stralsund 
600  foot  and  a  quantity  of  ammunition,  under 
colonel  Fritz  Rosladin,  as  we  hear  that  they  are  in 
want  of  able  men  and  captains,  as  also  the  vice-ad- 
miral, Claes  Fleming,  to  make  accord  with  the  coun- 
cil and  burgesses  of  Stralsvmd  ^."  There  an  alliance 
was  concluded,  June  25,  1628,  between  Stralsund 
and  Sweden,  remarkable  for  the  expressions  in  the 
third  article,  "  the  town  of  Stralsmid  shall  belong 
henceforward  for  ever  to  the  king  and  crown  of 
Sweden."  These  words,  certainly  not  employed  on 
the  Swedish  side  without  design,  were  declared  by 

the  king,  consisting  of  one  hundred  tons  of  powder,  six  can- 
non, one  hundred  oxen.     Neubur,  1.  c.  13. 

■•  In  his  instructions  (Register,  May  8,  1628),  it  is  re- 
marked that  Borchardt  was  only  to  have  them  to  read,  but 
should  nut  take  them  with  him  in  writing.  If  he  were  taken 
by  the  Imperialists,  he  was  to  protest  that  the  king  did  not 
know  himself  to  be  in  any  open  hostility  to  the  emperor. 

'  Namely,  with  an  auxiliary  corps  of  four  thousand  men, 
which  was  then  sent  to  support  Sigismund,  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  duke  of  HoLstein. 

«  Marienburg,  June  12,  1628.     Reg. 


1632.] 


The  estates  promise 
support. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS^  GERMAN  WAR. 


Discussion  of  the  plan 
of  operations. 


257 


tlie  town  only  to  refer  to  lier  fidelity  as  an  ally '. 
The  burgliers  of  Stralsund  sent  their  wives  and 
children  to  Sweden  •*,  and  defended  themselves  with 
heroism.  Tlie  town  was  a  member  of  the  Hanseatic 
league,  whose  once  great,  but  now  slackened  power, 
was  for  the  last  time  invoked  in  the  affairs  of  Stral- 
sund. Gustavus  Adolphus,  whose  penetrating  glance 
nothing  escaped,  sought  in  vain  to  recall  the  league  to 
new  life,  in  order  himself  to  appear  in  Germany  as 
the  protector  of  the  Hanse  Towns  ^.  He  had  al- 
ready resolved,  if  need  were,  to  come  himself  from 
Prussia  to  the  aid  of  Stralsund  ' ;  and  when  Den- 
mark's participation  in  the  defence  of  the  town  ob- 
viated this  necessity  ^,  he  sent  the  chancellor  to 
confirm  the  newly  made  compact,  and  another 
Swedish  auxiliary  force  under  colonels  Leslie  and 
Nicholas  Brahe.  This  also  remained  there  after 
the  raising  of  the  siege,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus 
had  already  firm  footing  in  Germany. 

By  the  year  1G28,  then,  we  may  regard  the  king's 
participation  in  the  German  war  as  fixed.  Al- 
ready in  December,  1627,  when  the  coimcillors  of 
state  were  assembled  in  Stockholm,  he  requested 
that  they  would  name  a  commission  from  all  the 
four  estates  to  discuss  with  him  some  secret  affairs. 
This  commission,  on  the  12th  January,  1628,  de- 
clares :  "  Inasmuch  as  his  majesty  hath  signified 
to  us  into  what  a  dangerous  condition  our  brethren 
in  religion  have  fallen  in  Germany,  and  how  the 
emperor  and  the  Popish  league  have  oppressed  and 
subdued  one  prince  and  one  town  after  the  other  ; 
how  they  have  unjustly  occupied  all  the  princi- 
palities bordering  on  the  Baltic,  and,  finally,  not 
spared  Denmark,  our  nearest  neighbour  ;  so  that 
if  God  avert  not  such  danger  we  have  nought  else 
to  expect  for  this  realm  than  the  uttermost  ruin,  or 
a  tedious  and  burdensome  war; — therefore  we  pro- 
mise, on  our  own  side  and  that  of  our  colleagues, 
that  we  will  act  and  deal  towards  your  majesty  and 
our  country  as  befits  upright  men,  and  for  this  just 
cause  will  spare  neither  life  nor  property."  What 
a  distant  prospect  this  struggle  opened  no  one  per- 
ceived better  than  the  king.  "  It  has  gone  so  far," 
he  writes  to  Axel  Oxenstierna,  April  1,  1628,  "that 
all  wars  which  are  waged  in  Europe  are  inter- 
mingled and  become  one  ^."  He  knew  his  vocation 
to  engage  in  this  great  strife,  but  was  not  yet 
agreed  with  himself  as  to  the  manner.  Two  things 
were  to  be  considered;  the  war  with  Poland,  and 
his  relations  with  Denmark. 

Ere  Stralsund's  danger  called  him  to  aid,  he  pur- 

7  "Stralsund,"  writes  Salvius  to  the  chancellor  from  the 
camp  at  Ossa,  Sept.  1,  1628,  "has  finally  requested  only 
patronage  and  nominal  clientship.  I  have,  under  his  ma- 
jesty's pleasure,  obliquely  proposed  real  subjection ;  but  as 
both  one  and  the  other  appear  suspicious  to  thera,  it  is  held 
best  to  leave  the  matter  in  suspense  until  the  spring.  Here- 
upon the  whole  business  turns,  that  his  majesty  should  with 
a  royal  army  come  and  occupy  Rugen ;  then  would  the  town 
do  real  homage  to  the  king."     Reg. 

8  Three  hundred  of  these  were  drowned  on  their  return. 
Neubur,  1.  c.  i.  125. 

*  "  It  seems  to  us  that  they  (the  Stralsunders)  in  this 
convention  at  Lubeck  will  employ  every  effort  to  persuade 
the  other  Hanse  towns  to  enter  into  a  league  with  his 
majesty,  and  request  his  majesty  to  be  the  head  and  patron 
of  the  society."     Letter  of  Salvius  above  quoted. 

'  "  We  have  again  weighed  the  business  of  Stralsund,  and 
resolved,  if  the  town  require  our  relief,  to  repair  thither  with 
nine  regiments  of  Swedish  troops,  where  after  the  raising  of 
the  siege  we  may  determine  at  convenience  whether  any 


posed  from  Poland  to  fall  upon  the  League  and  the 
emperor  in  fiank.  "  Poland  is  cotivenient  thereto," 
he  says  in  the  letter  to  Oxenstierna  above  quoted  ; 
"  it  is  a  wide,  fertile,  and  open  country,  feeble  and 
powerless  to  hinder  us;  inimical,  although  it  offers 
treaty;  papistical  and  driven  by  the  Pope;  remote, 
so  that  the  Imperialists  would  find  it  not  easy  to 
disperse  an  army,  which  might  be  formed  there 
with  time  and  srood  counsel."  As  to  the  means  to  bo 
used  he  was  in  no  perplexity.  "  It  is  a  land  filled 
with  towns  and  villages,  which  are  wholly  open,"  he 
says;  "  I  think,  consequently,  that  an  army  could 
be  collected  there  in  the  fashion  of  Wallenstein, 
which  might  be  opposed  to  his;  a  method  of  which, 
in  any  case,  we  must  think  in  the  long  run."  Words 
which  like  a  ray  of  light  seem  projected  into  the 
future,  remarkable  for  this  time  and  for  this  war  ! 
Stralsund's  danger  attracted  his  keen  vision  to  a 
nearer  point;  and  from  this  hour  the  only  question 
between  the  king  and  Oxenstierna  was,  whether 
the  war  should  be  carried  on  defensively  in  Ger- 
many and  offensively  in  Prussia,  or  conversely. 
The  chancellor  was  of  the  forraier  opinion,  the  king 
of  the  latter;  and  his  reasons  are  again  highly 
worthy  of  note.  "  I  apprehend  your  view,"  he 
writes  on  March  5tl),  1629,  "  that  we  should  con- 
tinue an  offensive  war  in  Prussia,  and  defend  our- 
selves against  Wallenstein  solely  by  the  garrison 
and  fleet  of  Stralsund,  as  also  destroy  with  the 
fleet  Wallenstein's  ships  in  the  havens.  To  this 
your  opinion  I  cannot  assent.  For  as  I  discern 
from  all  your  letters,  Prussia  is  now  so  exhausted, 
that  if  any  army  should  be  assembled  there,  it 
would  need  no  other  enemy  than  hunger.  More- 
over, an  offensive  war  in  Prussia  cannot  easily  be 
carried  on  without  my  presence,  and  this  season 
will  not  apparently  permit  me  to  remove  far  from 
the  Baltic  and  the  fleet.  Wherefore  I  determine, 
that  in  the  coming  year  we  must  wage  a  defensive 
war  in  Prussia,  for  which  I  hope  that  means  will 
be  found,  if  the  collectors  of  customs  in  Pillau  do 
their  duty  *.  Further,  with  regard  to  the  opinion 
in  your  letter,  that  we  can  wage  a  defensive  war 
better  in  Germany,  and  as  our  forefathers  broke 
the  Russian  domination  in  Livonia  by  the  town  of 
Reval,  we  also  might  do  the  same  against  the  em- 
peror by  means  of  Stralsund,  this  is  indeed  a  clear 
example;  but  the  circumstances  are  entirely  differ- 
ent. For  the  Russian  had  not  oiae  boat  with  which 
he  might  have  injured  us  at  sea,  and  not  one  man 

greater  armament  shall  be  prepared,  or  after  provision  made 
for  the  defence  of  the  town  and  haven,  we  shall  go  with  the 
rest  of  the  troops  to  Sweden  or  Prussia  for  the  winter.  Here 
we  find  it  good  to  be  so  strong  that  we  may  divide  our  army, 
and  go  to  work  with  one  portion  defensively,  with  the  other 
offensively."  The  king  to  the  Council  of  State,  Dirschau, 
June  30,  1628.     Reg. 

2  "  Had  it  been  necessary,  we  purposed  coming  to  help 
Stralsund  with  a  royal  succour;  but  as  it  hath  appeared  to 
your  lovingness  that  no  further  succour  is  needful,  wj  have 
bent  our  attention  on  the  Polacks."  Gustavus  Adolphus  to 
the  king  of  Denmark,  Aug.  19,  1628.  Compare  the  Instruc- 
tions for  Oxenstierna's  Embassy. 

3  Scand.  Memoirs,  i.  151. 

■^  In  a  previous  letter  to  the  chancellor,  Dec.  2G,  1C28,  the 
king  intimates  that  necessity  does  not  allow  of  his  sparing 
that  part  of  Prussia  belonging  to  Brandenburg.  "  We  have 
used  the  principality  already  for  the  sustenance  of  our 
cavalry,  and  hold  it  to  be  indifferent  if  we  should  use  it 
further."  Reg.  Of  the  customs  of  Pregel  the  king  says  in 
1629,  that  they  had  yielded  500,000  rix-dollars. 
S 


258 


The  king's  argumer.ts  for 
an  offensive  war. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Good  understanding  with 
Denmark  interrupted. 


[1628— 


who  was  skilled  in  seamansliip.  On  the  other 
hand,  this  antagonist  hath  innumerahle  ways  and 
means  to  set  '^n  foot  a  naval  armament,  and  liath 
already  begnn  to  equip  liimself  for  the  sea.  And 
he  that  hath  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  wants  not 
for  men  who  have  naval  skill  and  knowledge,  so 
that  it  is  undeniable,  if  we  leave  him  time,  he  will 
be  superior  to  us.  What  would  it  help  us  then  if 
we  held  Stralsund,  while  the  enemy  was  lord  of  the 
sea  ?  It  is  also  not  possible  to  destroy  his  ships  in 
the  havens  by  means  of  ours;  for  where  he  hath 
his  ships  lying,  according  to  what  I  hear  from  the 
king  of  Denmark,. he  hath  so  fortified  himself  that 
we  cannot  come  to  harm  him.  Wherefore  if  we  do 
not  seek  by  land  to  wrest  the  ports  from  the  enemy, 
I  see  no  means  whereby  we  may  defend  the  king- 
dom in  the  long  run.  For  these  reasons  we  must 
remove  the  seat  of  the  war  to  some  other  quarter 
than  Sweden,  for  we  are  no  where  weaker  than  in 
Sweden.  You  know  w^eli  what  a  wide  extent  of 
coast  and  how  many  liarbours  we  have  to  guard. 
What  you  remark,  that  no  means  were  to  be  hoped 
for  in  Germany,  I  cannot  altogether  deny;  but  if 
we  there  gained  the  upper  hand,  I  cannot  believe  it 
would  be  so  bare  but  that  some  resources  might  be 
found.  In  any  case,  Spence  gives  me  hope  that 
something  might  be  expected  from  England.  Ca- 
merarius  advises  us,  that  the  States-general  press 
for  the  renewal  of  our  alliance.  The  Hanse  Towns 
are  undecided.  If  any  good  fortune  showed  itself 
on  otir  side,  help  were  not  to  be  despaired  of.  This 
hath  moved  me  with  all  earnestness  to  urge  that  the 
army  described  in  the  roll  *  may  be  gotten  on  foot; 
and  although  you  set  forth  its  weakness,  and  the 
two  strong  armies  of  the  enemy,  you  must  consider 
that  the  hostile  armies  are  encumbered  with  wide 
districts,  and  many  garrisons  which  must  all  be 
supplied  with  troops.  Besides,  the  .enemy's  affairs 
depend  much  on  his  fame;  and  if  he  should  lose 
the  masterdom  of  the  soil  they  would  go  but  badly. 
For  the  rest,  Tilly's  army  is  far  distant,  so  that  the 


">  "We  cannot  take  the  field  with  a  strong  army,  for  we 
must  keep  much  infantry  in  Sweden  on  account  of  the  Danes, 
so  that  we  must  employ  foreigners  mostly.  We  have  on  the 
roll  15,000  men  and  9000  horses."  Gustavus  Adolphus  in 
the  Council,  Oct.  27,  1629.     Palmsk.  MSS. 

8  To  the  chancellor,  Jenkceping,  March  5,  1629.  Ex 
manuscripto  regis  Gust.  Ad.  in  the  Palrask.  MSS.  t.  37, 
p.  1925.  We  have,  as  usual,  only  extr.icted  the  chief  por- 
tions. The  correspondence  on  the  same  subject  between 
the  king  and  the  chnncellor  was  continued.  Sept.  20,  1629, 
the  king  writes  to  Oxenstierna,  "  Because  we  are  not  yet 
fully  resolved  whether  we  will  take  the  German  expedition 
on  ourselves,  or  in  another  manner  form  a  treaty  with  the 
emperor,  we  request  your  counsel  thereupon  at  the  soonest." 
Reg. 

7  The  same  confidence  is  expressed  in  the  letter  to  the 
chancellor  of  Dec.  26,  1628 :  "  We  have  here  annexed  a  plan, 
by  which  you  may  perceive  the  practicability  of  the  whole 
work.  And  althou'^h  the  means  appear  not  to  be  reckoned 
upon  longer  than  for  four  months,  \et  if  we  obtain  any  firm 
footing  for  the  war,  God  and  time  will  show  how  we  may 
strengthen  ourselves  further." 

8  "  I  advised  his  majesty,  of  happy  memory,  that  he 
should  not  take  his  army  on  German  ground ;  had  his 
majesty  followed  my  counsel,  he  would  have  become  arbiter 
of  the  whole  north."  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the  council,  1636. 
To  the  king's  resolution  he  applies  the  terms /rt<«m,  a;;.v/)o«i<;o 
divina,  impetii-i  ingpnii. 

9  M.ay  25,  162S  (O.  S.)  the  Danish  colonel  Hoik  succoured 
Stralsund  with  three  companies  of  Scots,  and  one  of  Germans, 


business  will  have  been  mostly  over  in  Pomerania 
ere  he  can  be  persuaded  to  come  to  the  aid  of 
Wallenstein.  What  else  may  be  accomplished  or 
not,  God  alone  knoweth,  to  whom  we  look  graciously 
to  grant  will  to  begin,  force  to  execute,  and  good 
luck  to  end  all,  if  it  may  tend  to  the  honour  of  His 
holy  name,  and  to  our  salvation.  And  you,  by  dis- 
putation, will  more  easily  evince  the  difficulty  than 
I  the  possibility;  wherefore  what  I  think  to  per- 
form I  will  rather  show  in  fact  than  on  paper  ^." 

We  may  observe  that  the  presentiment  of  vic- 
tory is  the  real  connecting  link  of  the  king's  con- 
clusions '.  And  thus  Axel  Oxenstierna,  who  never 
altered  his  sentiments  respecting  this  war,  calls 
the  resolution  to  engage  in  it  "  a  destiny, — a  divine 
mission, — an  inspiration  of  genius,  but  which  hin- 
dered the  king  from  acquiring  supreme  power  in 
the  north  *."  How  widely  foreign  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus conceived  such  an  object  to  be  to  the  career 
he  was  now  to  tread,  the  sequel  may  show. 

The  truce  with  Poland  freed  him  from  an  enemy 
on  this  side,  but  Denmark's  peace  with  the  empe- 
ror at  the  same  time  made  the  condition  of  affairs 
ambiguous  on  another.  In  the  April  of  1628  an 
alliance  was  concluded  between  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark, whereby  Gustavus  Adolphus  bound  himself 
to  reinforce  the  Danish  fleet  during  the  war  with 
the  emperor.  The  Swedish  ships  destined  for 
this  purpose  were  employed  in  the  defence  of 
Stralsund,  an  object  common  to  both  powders,  but 
of  which  the  care  was  eventually  left  to  Sweden 
alone  ^.  The  peace  made  by  Denmark  separately 
at  Lubeck  in  the  following  year  interrupted  the 
good  understanding,  although  an  appearance  of 
amity  was  preserved.  At  the  time,  and  long 
afterwards,  the  Swedes  laid  it  to  the  charge  of 
Denmark  that  the  Swedish  plenipotentiaries  were 
not  received  at  the  deliberative  congress,  although 
this  refusal  proceeded  from  the  imperialists,  and 
seems  to  have  been  neither  unexpected  nor  un- 
welcome to  Gustavus  Adolphus  1.     On  the  other 

in  all  six  hundred  men.  June  20,  eight  Swedish  ships 
arrived,  bringing  munitions  of  war  and  the  first  Swedish 
auxiliary  troops  under  colonel  Rosladin.  July  !.',  the  van- 
guard of  the  Danish  fleet  reached  Stralsund  with  one  thou- 
sand men,  fresh  troops ;  but  when  the  Scottish  colonel 
Leslie  brought  (17th  and  18th  July)  a  new  band  of  Swedish 
auxiliaries.  Christian  IV.  caused  the  Danish  garrison  in 
Stralsund  to  be  taken  on  board  the  fleet,  and  himself  at- 
tempted a  landing  in  Pomerania,  but  being  routed  at  Wol- 
gast  by  Wallenstein,  was  compelled  to  re-embark  with  loss. 
In  the  instructions  for  Alexander  Leslie,  as  commandant  of 
Strasburg,  it  is  ordered  that  the  oflRcers  of  the  German 
troops  in  Stralsund  shall  take  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  king 
of  Sweden,  and  not  more  than  three  hundred  men  of  the 
Danes  shall  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  town  under  any 
pretext.  September  17,  a  convention  on  this  matter  was 
made  between  the  Swedish  chancellor  and  the  king  of  Den- 
mark. Count  Nicholas  Brahe  was  appointed  assistant  to 
Leslie.  In  reference  to  the  latter,  who  afterwards  rose  to  be 
a  Swedish  field-marshal,  we  find  it  provided  that,  "  because 
he  cannot  read,  count  Brahe  shall  rehearse  the  king's  orders 
to  him."  Memorial  and  letter  to  Leslie  and  count  Nicholas, 
Dec.  1,  1628.     Reg. 

'  Salvius,  who  was  secretary  to  the  legation  sent,  was 
instructed  for  three  contingencies:—!.  If  the  imperialists 
should  protract  matters,  or  refer  them  to  the  emperor.  2.  If 
they  i)resently  refused  the  whole  commission  uncourteously 
and  contumeliously.  3.  If  they  should  allow  the  Swedes  to 
treat  as  mediators,  or  for  their  own  interests  and  those  of 
Stralsund  and  Mecklenburg.     If  they  declined  the  legation, 


1632.] 


Apprehensions  of  a 
rupture. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


rrtcautinns  against  it. 
Diet  of  l()2y. 


259 


side,  Christian  IV.  could  not  conceal  his  feelings, 
when  he  saw  Gustavus  Adolphus  appearing  as  the 
leader  of  a  cause  which  he  himself  was  obliged  to 
abandon.  At  an  interview  between  the  two  sove- 
reigns 2,  which  occurred  while  the  negotiations  for 
peace  at  Lul)eck  were  proceeding,  when  Gustavus 
Adol])lius  solicited  his  advice  how  the  German 
war  might  best  be  carried  on,  he  replied  by  the 
question,  "  What  he  (Gustavus  Adolphus)  had  to 
do  with  the  emperor  ?  Why  he  would  mix  himself 
up  ill  the  German  affair  ?"  Shortly  before  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  ci'ossed  to  Germany,  he  appre- 
hended a  rupture  with  Denmark.  It  escaped  not 
a  glance  like  his,  that  he  here  left  a  danger  behind 
him.  "  We  are  in  doubt,"  he  writes  to  the  chancel- 
lor, "  what  we  should  first  or  last  turn  to,  since 
the  king  of  Denmark  is  secretly  holding  levies, 
fortifying  Rugen,  (on  this  little  island  at  Peene- 
munde  he  took  toll,)  and  treating  with  the  states  of 
Pomerania  for  its  purchase  ^."  Orders  were  there- 
fore sent  to  the  Swedish  commandant  in  Stralsund, 

he  was  to  remonstrate,  that  his  majesty  did  not  come  as  an 
enemy,  but  as  a  friend  of  the  emperor  and  tlie  king  of  Den- 
mark, to  obtain  fair  conditions  (amounting  to  no  less  than 
tiie  restoration  of  Denmark,  Holstein,  Mecklenburg,  Pome- 
rania. and  all  the  circles  of  Lower  and  Upper  Saxony  to  their 
former  state);  which  conditions  Salvius  was  to  take  every 
opportunity  privily  to  disseminate  among  the  princes  and 
towns,  and  thereby  show  the  fair  intentions  of  his  majesty. 
It  is  characteristically  said  : — "  If  they  reply  slightingly,  he 
shall  enter  into  disputation  with  them  the  more,  that  he 
may  expiscate  such  a  resolution  as  will  certainly  inform  his 
majesty  whether  they  would  be  friends  or  foes."  Instruc- 
tions for  the  envoys  to  Denmark  and  Germany,  January  26, 
1C29.     Reg. 

2  Feb.  20,  1629.  Hereupon  Gustavus  Adolphus  writes  to 
the  chancellor  : — "  The  course  of  tlie  matter  was  this,  that 
for  more  than  two  winters  in  succession  it  was  signified  to 
me,  how  much  good  might  he  wrought  if  I  were  to  meet  the 
king  of  Denmark.  But  partly  the  past  year  left  me  not 
time,  and  partly  I  conjectured  that  it  would  go  as  it  hath ; 
therefore  I  made  as  if  I  marked  it  not.  Now  I  feared  to 
give  offence  if  I  were  too  constant  in  refusal,  and  declared 
myself  content  to  meet  him  the  20th  of  last  month.  We  met 
in  the  manse  of  Ulfsback.  1  was  host,  and  the  king  guest ; 
little  was  eaten,  but  much  bad  wine  drunk,  which  perad- 
venture  had  been  frozen.  On  the  king's  side  no  other  pro- 
position was  made  than  for  two  or  three  ships,  not  that  they 
■were  necessary,  but  ad  augendam  famam.  I  proposed  four 
points: — 1.  That  we  should  agree  in  one  and  the  same  opi- 
nion touching  the  peace  of  Lubeck.  2.  To  be  accordant  upon 
the  means  of  peace  generally.  3.  Alliance  between  the  two 
realms  upon  the  conditions  which  should  be  approved  by 
botli  sides.  4.  I  remarked  that  he  excused  himself  for  want 
of  money,  and  thinking  that  I  could  find  a  good  way,  I  re- 
quested his  opinion  how  the  German  war  might  best  be 
carried  on."  Thereupon  followed  the  answer  given  in  the 
text.  Gustavus  Adolphus  adds  ; — "To  the  tirst  two  points 
he  replied,  that  he  had  sent  his  terms  to  the  emperor,  from 
which  he  could  not  depart;  the  alliance  must  be  made  by 
consent  of  the  estates,  which  required  time.  When  I  saw 
this,  I  thanked  God  that  I  could  be  silent,  and  so  let  it  pass." 
Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  37.  p.  2023.  (Copy  from  the  original  by  the 
king,  but  with  an  incorrect  date.) 

3  Stockholm.  March  1?,  1G30.  Reg.  "  It  is  known  to  all 
the  world,  that  the  king  of  Denmark  will  give  a  sum  of 
money  for  Rugen."  Salvius  to  the  Swedish  resident  Fce- 
greus,  April  8,  1630.     Id. 

■*  He  writes  to  the  chancellor,  June  2,  1C30,  that  the  king 
of  Denmark  and  Hamburg  were  in  open  rupture  at  Gluck- 
stadt,  and  that  the  towns  supposed  this  was  with  the  em- 
peror's connivance.  The  opportunity  must  be  used,  in  spite 
of  the  otfence  which  Denmark  might  take,  to  induce  the 


immediately  to  occupy  Rugen,  and  expel  the  Im- 
perialists from  it,  which  was  effected.  In  the  dis- 
putes between  Hamburg  and  Denmark,  the  king 
offered  the  town  his  assistance  ■*.  After  his  arrival 
in  Germany,  he  was  informed  that  the  Danish  fleet 
was  preparing  to  cruise  in  the  Baltic.  The  coni- 
])rehensive  oi'ders  which  the  king  Lssued  against 
such  a  contingency,  sufficiently  show  the  iutentness 
with  which  he  watched  his  neigliljours  ^.  In  his 
proposition  to  the  commission  of  estates,  which 
met  in  1C31,  he  also  represents  the  probability  of 
a  war  with  Denmark  ;  and  it  is  plain,  from  his 
oi'ders  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  that  he 
looked  upon  the  struggle  to  be  at  hand  *. 

At  a  general  diet  the  estates  declared  their  as- 
sent to  the  opinion  which  their  commission  had 
already  given  upon  the  German  war.  They  wished 
that  the  king  "might  carry  the  war  as  far  as 
possible  from  the  borders  of  Sweden,  and  lay  its 
burden  on  the  enemy's  country."  By  this  statute, 
passed  in  the  king's  absence,  on  the  29th  June, 

towns  to  an  alliance  with  Sweden,  and  to  push  them  under- 
hand to  request  it.     Reg. 

5  .'  Fsegreus  advises  us  respecting  the  naval  preparations 
of  Denmark.  I  have  therefore  written  to  the  council  to  take 
notice  whether  the  Danish  ileet  comes  out  into  the  Baltic  " 
III  such  case  the  king  commanded  that  the  Swedish  fleet 
should  be  assembled  at  Stockholm,  with  three  regiments, 
and  Skeppsholm  (an  island  off  the  town)  be  retrenched  with 
cannon,  so  that  the  fleet  might  be  able  to  defend  itself  there, 
since  no  battle  was  to  be  hazarded.  Matthias  Soop  was  to 
defend  Calmar  with  two  regiments,  Oeland  was  to  be  occu- 
pied with  troops,  and  the  garrisons  of  Ellshorg,  Wibnrg,  and 
Abo  to  be  strengthened.  With  the  remainder  of  the  Swe- 
dish foot  and  horse,  and  the  retainers  of  the  nobility,  Jacob 
de  la  Gardie  was  to  overrun  Scania,  and  secure  the  Sound, 
"until  we  can  come  to  his  relief,"  says  tlie  king.  An  attack 
on  Oesel  was  at  the  same  time  to  be  made  from  Livonia,  in 
order  to  take  this  island  from  Denmark,  and  upon  Norway 
by  the  peasants  of  Dalecarlia  and  Norrland.  On  these 
arrangements  the  king  writes  (Stettin,  August  2,  1630)  on 
the  same  day  to  the  Palsgrave  John  Casimir,  the  council  of 
state,  Oxenstierna,  who  held  the  government  in  Prussia,  and 
John  Skytte,  now  appointed  g  vernor  of  Livonia.  Reg.  To 
show  how  tills  was  connected  with  his  first  plan  for  the  Ger- 
man war,  we  quote  the  following  from  liis  letter  to  Oxen- 
stierna, Stettin,  March  1,  1631  : — "We  ourselves  can  render 
no  greater  service  to  our  country  than  by  clearing  the  .sea- 
side, gaining  Rostock,  Wismar,  and  Mecklenburg,  and  be- 
coming masters  of  the  Elbe."  Reg.  To  this  also  point  the 
king's  expressions  in  the  council,  on  the  deliberations  re- 
specting the  German  war,  Oct.  27,  1629  : — "  It  must  be  car- 
ried on  in,  per,  prnpe,  the  land  and  rivers  of  the  king  of  Den- 
mark."  Palmsk.  MSS. 

s  "  We  perceive  by  your  letters,  that  the  king  of  Denmark 
practises  to  make  his  son  commander  of  the  war  in  the  circle 
of  Lower  Saxony.  To  this  ye  may  protest,  that  if  he  inter- 
fere with  our  absolute  directory  of  this  war,  we  will  unite 
with  the  enemy.  If  he  continue  his  levies,  ye  must  remon- 
strate that  such  would  appear  suspicious  to  us.  If  he  desist 
not  from  them,  Tott  must  take  a  position  in  Holstein." 
Gustavus  Adolphus  to  Salvius,  Hiichst,  Nov.  26,  1631.  Reg. 
Oxeiistiern,  in  his  letter  to  the  king,  dated  Elbing,  Jan.  8, 
1631,  gives  a  detailed  opinion  on  the  case  of  a  rupture  wiili 
Deimiark,  which  he  considers  probable: — "I  can  judge  no 
otherwise  than  that,  if  your  majesty  continue  the  German 
war,  we,  beyond  all  doubt,  must  fight  Denmark  sooner  or 
later."  "  There  I  am  of  opinion  that  your  majesty  should 
take  order  for  the  war  in  Germany  as  well  as  may  be,  but 
turn  all  your  force  by  land  and  water  against  Denmark — cross- 
ing to  the  Danish  islands,  and  so  striking  at  the  head,  which 
is  the  Sound  and  Copenhagen,  and  at  the  same  time  attack- 
ing Scania." 

S  2 


2fi0 


Deliberations  in  the 
council.     Negotiation 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


for  peace  at  Dantzic. 
Intrigues  of  Richelieu. 


[IC28- 


1C29,  we  may  regard  the  participation  of  Sweden 
in  the  German  war  as  decided.  Meanwhile  Gus- 
tavus  Adolpluis  had  it  at  heart  personally  to  con- 
vmce  his  council,  and  the  short  written  notes  of 
his  consultations  with  the  senate  at  Upsala,  Oc- 
tober 27th  and  November  3rd,  1029,  "  in  how  far 
the  war  should  be  carried  on  offensively  or  de- 
fensively'," are  among  the  most  remarkable  records 
of  its  history.  Axel  Oxenstierna  was  absent  in 
Prussia;  his  opinions  upon  its  policy  we  already 
know.  These  liowever  did  not  now  want  an  advo- 
cate. John  Skytte',  at  other  times  Oxenstierna's 
political  opponent,  defended  them  in  the  council. 
In  the  notes  referred  to  we  find  reasons  stated  for 
and  against  the  war,  almost  in  a  syllogistic  form, 
and  oftener  in  Latin  than  Swedish,  ascribed  to  tiie 
king.  These  afford  in  a  few  words  many  rays  of 
light  on  the  interests  of  Sweden,  Germany,  Eu- 
rope, and  Christendom,  which  attest  the  genius 
whence  they  proceeded,  and  also  the  hopes  of  the 
conqueror.  We  behold  Gustavus  Adolphus  on  tlie 
verge  of  a  great  future — the  ncarmost  clear,  the 
more  remote  dark — himself  attracted  perhaps  more 
by  the  undefined  than  the  closest  aims— with  the 
presentiment  both  of  victory  and  death — without 
arrogance,  but  so  fearless,  that  an  internal  joy  and 
confidence,  which  even  apprehensions  of  the  most 
disastrous  issue  cannot  shake  in  the  least,  every- 
where shine  forth.  To  the  reproach  of  Skytte', 
that  he  was  staking  his  monarchy  in  the  game,  lie 
answered  :  "  All  monarchies  have  passed  from  one 
family  to  another  ;  a  monarchy  consists  not  in  the 
persons,  but  in  the  laws*."  He  foresaw  the  long- 
someness  of  the  war ".  When  the  council,  by 
their  vote  of  the  3rd  November,  conjointly  em- 
braced the  king's  view,  he  concluded  in  the  follow- 
ing words  :  "  I  exhort  you,  that  ye  so  labour  in 
the  matter,  that  either  ye  or  your  children  may 
see  a  happy  issue  thereof,  which  may  God  grant  ! 
For  myself,  I  look  henceforth  for  no  more  repose 
save  that  of  eternity." 

His  assurance  of  victory  shows  itself  also  in  two 
other  circumstances.  Denmark,  after  its  peace, 
had,  together  with  Brandenburg,  offered  its  me- 
diation between  the  king  and  the  emperor  ;  Dantzic 
was  fixed  upon  as  the  place  of  negotiation  '.  An  im- 
perial envoy  arrived,  but  with  powers  which  denied 
Gustavus  Adolphus  the  title  of  king.  The  Swedish 
plenipotentiaries  temporized.  Gustavus  Adolphus 
gave   in   his   written   demands   by   Oxenstierna  ^. 

7  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  37,  p.  1985.  seq. 

s  Contra  offensivum  dom.  Skyttius.  Ratio  a  nostra  mon- 
archia. — The  emperor  Is  strong ;  all,  the  Dane  and  others, 
lean  upon  hira. — Esset  contra  Deuni  et  conscientiam  tentare 
subversionem  tnonarchiae.  Respondet  rex :  omnes  monar- 
chias  transivisse  de  una  familia  in  aliam — non  consistit  in 
personis,  sed  in  legibus,  monarchia.— To  another  objection  of 
Skytte:  Si  rex  erit  victor,  non  se  adjungent  Gerniani ;  sin 
viclus,  Si;  subtrahent,  the  reply  was:  Si  rex  victor,  illi  praeda 
erunt. 

'  From  on  board  the  fleet  he  wrote  to  Oxenstiern,  June  2, 
1630  : — "  It  appeareth  to  me  that  this  whole  war  will  be  long 
drawn  out,  and  rather  be  ended  by  the  delay  and  weariness 
of  it,  than  by  impulse  of  force."  Reg.  The  prediction,  that 
it  would  be  terminated  only  by  the  fatigue  of  the  combat- 
ants, came  true. 

'  •'  At  all  events  we  have  begun  to  spin  the  web  of  negoti- 
ation with  the  Imperialists.  Tlie  Innijerialists  will  treat  with 
us,  and  are  already  agreed  upon  the  place,  namely,  Dantzic, 
in  the  beginning  of  May.  Set  down  your  thoughts  touching 
the  same  on  paper,  since  it  seems  to  be  in  one  point  of  great 


The  king's  own  view  of  the  negotiation  is  expi'essed 
by  tlie  commission  of  the  Swedish  estates  in  their 
declaration  thereupon  :  "  Because  the  adversary's 
intent  is  unsafe,  and  the  issue  uncertain,  we 
therefore  hold  it  most  advisable  that  his  majesty 
should  follow  after  straightway  in  arms,  and  pursue 
the  treaty  under  helm  ^."  That  the  king  never- 
theless laid  so  great  stress  upon  this  overture, 
seems  to  have  been  occasioned  chiefly  by  a  wish  to 
give  the  greatest  publicity  to  the  conditions  on 
which  alone  he  declared  that  he  could  lay  down 
his  arms  ;  and  these,  albeit  the  war  had  now 
brought  the  German  empire  to  the  feet  of  the 
Kaisar,  comprised  in  the  main  heads  nothing  less 
than  the  restoration  of  all  northei-n  Protestant 
Germany  to  its  former  condition.  There  was  thus, 
in  truth,  some  ground  for  that  exclamation  of  the 
imperial  commissary.  Baron  Dolma :  *  What  more 
could  the  king  of  Sweden  request,  if  he  stood 
victorious  in  the  midst  of  Germany  ?"  With  such 
dispositions  was  animated  that  defender  of  Pro- 
testantism, in  reference  to  whom  the  emperor  is 
said  to  have  contemptuously  observed  :  "  We  have 
now  got  another  puny,  insignificant  foe  *."  On  the 
other  side,  however  important  the  aid  of  France 
was  for  the  king,  he  began  the  war  without  it,  in 
order  both  to  be  free,  and  to  show  himself  free,  in 
this  great  enterprise.  Richelieu  vvished  for  no- 
thing more  fervently  than  to  set  him  at  war. 
Charnace'  came  twice  to  Sweden  for  this  object 
merely,  the  last  time  in  March  1630,  when  he  found 
the  king  at  Westeras.  It  formed  part  of  his  instruc- 
tions to  induce  the  king  to  solicit  the  alliance  of 
France  ;  and  to  this  end  he  spared  no  cajolements, 
convinced  that  whether  or  no  these  produced  their 
effect,  the  difficulties  of  the  undertaking  would  at 
all  events  elicit  the  wished-for  solicitation.  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus,  he  said,  was  expected  in  all  Ger- 
many like  a  Messiah  ;  its  people  would  give  their 
hearts  to  support  his  army ;  his  would  be  the 
profit  and  honour  of  the  war ;  the  king  of  France 
would  content  himself  with  seeing  his  friend  ad- 
mired in  the  world,  and  assist  him  to  the  empire  of 
the  East,  if  he  aimed  thereat '.  We  see  by  what 
manner  of  flatteries  it  was  thought  the  hero  might 
be  moved.  But  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  not  to  be 
won  by  fair  words  ''.  He  replied,  that  he  had  quite 
different  accounts  of  the  inclination  of  the  German 
princes;  the  elector  of  Saxony  had  intimated  to 

consideration.  We  forthwith  intimated  the  same  to  France, 
England,  and  the  States-general,  and  sent  the  secretary, 
Laurence  Nilson,  to  France."  The  king  to  the  chancellor, 
March  17  and  25,  IfiSO.     Reg. 

2  Conditions  of  Treaty  with  the  Imperialists,  Stockholm, 
May  14,  1630.  Id.  "In  the  negotiation  for  peace  with  the 
emperor  there  is  also  doubt  respecting  the  title,  and  finally 
we  have  styled  him  not  Casarea  Majestas,  but  Serenitds, 
since  his  first  letter  to  the  king's  majesty  was  sent  back  for 
a  defect  in  the  title."  The  secretary  Grubbe  to  the  Council, 
Nov.  5,  1630. 

3  Statute  of  the  Diet  of  Stockholm,  May  14,  1630. 

^  Ludolph  (Schaubiihne,  ire).  Theatre  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century,  b.  30,  p.  565. 

5  "  If  he  were  inclined  to  think  of  the  empire  of  the  east, 
which  would  not  be  difficult  fur  him,  having,  with  his  viriue 
and  reputation,  such  a  friend  as  the  king  of  France."  (S'il 
voulait  penser  a  I'empire  d'orient,  ce  qui  ne  lui  serait  pas 
difficile,  ayant.  avec  sa  vertu  et  sa  reputation,  im  tel  ami 
que  le  roi.)     Memoires  de  Richelieu. 

6  He  answered  in  his  usual  manner,  very  judiciously,  and 
with  the  greatest  discretion.     Ibid.  ■> 


^'^^^■■i  ''^h'e  fleet'assembTes.'^"-  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.    GERMAN  WAR.    ^rn"fThtaZr^"     20-1 


him  .that  if  he  crossed  into  Germany,  the  electors 
would  unite  with  the  emperor  against  him;  the  same 
prince  had  refused  to  receive  his  letter  directed 
to  the  electors^;  he  knew  besides  from  a  good 
hand  (he  added  smiling),  that  the  first  who  would 
take  arms  against  him  were  Bavaria  and  the 
Catholic  League,  as  whose  protector  France  wished 
to  enter  into  this  confederacy.  He  presented  in- 
deed his  terms,  but  when  difficulties  arose,  did  not 
wait  for  tlie  answer  of  France,  and  determined,  as 
Richelieu  himself  observes,  on  the  war,  "  without 
being  assured  of  the  alliance  of  France  "." 

Meanwhile  the  king  continued  the  preparations 
with  his  wonted  activity,  and  even,  when  necessary, 
with  rigom*.     The  towns  of  the  realm,  which   at 
the  diet  of  1629  had  engaged  to  equip  sixteen  good 
and  serviceable  ships  before  the  end  of  the  year, 
had   not   fulfilled  their   promise  by  the  specified 
time.     Their   deputies   were   brought   before    the 
council,    where  they  were  arraigned   by   the    ad- 
vocate-fiscal of  the  palace  court,  Anders  Bergius  ; 
and  "  forasmuch  as  we  wex'e  sufficiently  convinced 
by  him"   (their  renewed  engagement  of  Dec.  9, 
1629,  declares),  "  that  we  had  negligently  failed  of 
our   promise   and   assui'ance  given,  therefore    we 
confess  that  we  have  deserved  chastisement  and 
disgrace  from   his  majesty,  taking  our  refuge  in 
prayers,  and  submissively  entreat  that  his  majesty 
will  not  enforce  the  law  against  us."     They  now 
promised  that  in  May,  1630,  the  ships  should  be 
in  the  stream  at  Stockholm.     The  division  of  the 
Swedish  fleet  ^  destined  for  the  transport  of  the 
army,  subsequently  assembled  in  the  harbour  of 
Elfsnabben,  in  the  islets  of  Suthermanland.     It  con- 
sisted of  twenty-eight  vessels  of  war,  large  and  small, 
not  including  several  merchant-ships  in  which  the 
cavalry  was  conveyed,  with  various  smaller  flat- 
bottomed  boats  for  landing  ti'oops  and  river  navi- 

'  At  length,  after  a  year,  came  the  answer  of  the  electors  to 
this  note,  transmitted  in  A|iiil,  1629.  The  king's  rejoinder  was ; 
"  that  he  had  hesitated  to  open  the  letter,  as  the  title  which 
he  had  received  from  God  and  his  ancestors,  which  he  had 
maintained  for  twenty  years  with  such  courage  as  became  a 
man,  and  would  defend  tii  the  death,  was  not  given  to  him 
on  the  superscription  of  the  letter.  He  had,  however,  opened 
it,  under  reservation  that  this  might  not  be  drawn  to  his 
future  prejudice.  Yet  he  must  lament,  that  in  reference  to 
the  ground  of  his  complaints  no  answer  was  made  therein." 
Collegio  Electorali.    Stockholm,  April  7,  ItiSO.     Reg. 

8  Tandis  que  dura  ce  pourparler  avec  Charnace,  le  roi  de 
Suede — se  resolvait  a  la  guerre  sans  etre  assure  de  I'alliance 
du  roi.  Rich.  The  king  writes  to  the  chancellor,  Stockholm, 
March  17,  1630- — "The  cause  for  which  we  have  not  been 
able  this  time  to  agree  with  Charnace  at  Westeras  is,  tliat 
we  have  not  found  it  good  in  this  condition  of  things  to  tie 
ourselves  so  closely  to  the  nod  and  arbitreraent  of  the  king 
of  France  only  for  three  tuns  of  gold."    Reg. 

3  The  whole  fleet  numbered  in  162S — 72  vessels  larger  or 
smaller,  namely,  4  great  ships,  8  middle-sized,  20  lesser, 
8  small,  30  galleys,  and  2  ketclies.     Hallenberg,  MS. 

1  Dated  April  12.  Reg.  for  1630. 

2  "  The  king's  artillery  was  of  larger  and  smaller  pieces, 
especially  an  admirable  sort  of  smaller  regimental  guns,  with 
which  he  could  shoot  so  quickly,  that  he  fired  eight  times  ere 
an  expert  musketeer  could  manage  to  fire  si.x."  Khewen- 
hiiller,  Annales  Ferdinandi,  xi.  1290.  The  king's  cannon 
were  therefore  discharged  at  a  more  rapid  rate  than  the 
enemy's  small  arms. 

3  The  army  transported  to  Germany  is  stated  by  Chemnitz, 
i.  94,  as  follows  ; — Of  horse,  eipht  companies  of  Smalanders 
under  count  Peter  Brahe,  and  eiglit  of  West-Gothlanders 
under  Eric  Soop.     Of  foot,  the  two  companies  of  Lignofsky 


gation,  every  one  provided  with  three  field-pieces, 
and  roomy  enough  to  hold  a  hundred  men.  The 
strength  of  the  army  which  the  king  transported 
to  Germany  cannot  be  determined  with  complete 
accuracy.  In  the  above-mentioned  negotiations 
with  France  he  would  never  state  it,  probably  in 
order  to  conceal  its  weakness  ;  and  we  may  regard 
as  a  measure  of  precaution  for  the  same  object,  his 
order  in  the  spring  of  1630,  that  no  man  should  be 
allowed  to  quit  the  kingdom  without  a  pass '.  By 
an  approximate  reckoning,  the  ninety-two  com- 
panies of  foot  and  sixteen  of  horse,  with  which  he 
crossed  to  Germany,  might  amount  to  about  fifteen 
thousand  men.  The  cavalry,  towards  three  thou- 
sand men,  was  entirely  Swedish  ;  the  infantry  only 
in  the  half ;  the  rest  consisted  of  Germans,  and 
one  regiment  of  Scots.  Besides  the  army,  the 
king  took  with  him  a  great  store  of  munitions  of 
all  kinds,  and  an  excellent  artillery  ^.  Torsteuson, 
now  colonel  of  the  artillery,  afterwards  its  chief, 
had  already  made  himself  a  name  in  this  arm  of 
the  service.  Provision  of  shovels,  spades,  pick- 
axes, and  palisades  was  also  made,  that  retrench- 
ments for  defence  might  be  quickly  constructed  in 
case  of  need  ^. 

The  government  at  home  was  entrusted  by  the 
king  to  the  council  of  state,  but  more  particularly 
to  ten  of  the  councillors,  who  were  to  remain  con- 
stantly in  the  capital,  unless  their  presence  was 
required  in  some  of  the  provinces  by  any  emer- 
gency. The  council  might  likewise  take  cognizance 
of  and  settle  ap])eal  causes  as  the  law  required  *. 
The  activity  displayed  by  this  administration  did 
not  correspond  to  the  king's  demands.  This  also 
he  had  partly  foreseen,  and  therefore  committed 
the  supervision  of  tlie  war  department,  in  Sweden 
more  particularly,  to  his  brother-in-law,  the  pals- 
grave   John  Casimir*,  a  nobleman  distinguished 

and  Hensler,  four  Svfedish  regiments,  each  of  eight  com- 
panies, under  count  Nicholas  Brahe,  George  Johnson,  Lau- 
rence Kagg  and  Charles  Hard ;  three  Swedish  squadrons, 
under  count  Joachim  Brahe,  Axel  Lilye,  and  Axel  Duvall. 
(Squadron,  in  the  phrase  of  that  time,  means  a  division  of 
troops,  either  of  foot  or  horse,  just  as  the  word  is  used  of  a 
division  of  a  fleet ;  from  the  sum  of  the  foot  companies  we 
see,  that  here  four  were  reckoned  to  one  squadron  of  infan- 
try.) Of  Germans ;  the  regiments  of  colonels  Theodoric 
Falkenberg  and  Clas  Theodoric,  both  of  eight  companies ; 
two  companies  of  the  regiment  of  colonel  Hall,  twelve  of 
major-general  Kniphausen's,  and  eight  newly  levied  of 
colonel  Mitschefal's,  with  colonel  Mackay's  eight  companies 
of  Scots ;  together,  sixteen  companies  of  horse  and  ninety- 
two  of  foot.  The  strength  of  the  companies  was  not  always 
alike,  and  varied  in  the  Swedish  regiments,  for  example, 
from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  men.  The  counts  Peter, 
Nicholas,  and  Joachim  Brahe  were  brothers.  The  first  com- 
manded the  cavalry  of  Smaland,  the  two  last  the  Upland  and 
Norrland  regiments  of  foot.  Joachim  Brahe  died  after  the 
passage,  on  the  18th  September,  at  Stettin. 

*  Instruction  for  the  council  in  the  king's  absence.  Reg. 
The  ten  councillors  of  administration  were  —  the  high- 
steward  count  Magnus  Brahe,  the  high-marshal  count 
Jacob  de  la  Gardie,  the  high-admiral  and  free  baron  Charles 
Carlson  Gyllenhielm,  the  free  baron  Gabriel  Oxenstierna 
Bennetson,  Clus  Horn,  the  free  baron  Gabriel  Oxenstierna 
Gustaveson  (brother  of  the  chancellor),  Peter  Baner,  John 
Sparre,  Clas  Fleming,  Herman  Wrangel. 

5  Instruction  for  the  Palsgrave,  how  he  shall  manage  the 
military  business  during  the  absence  of  his  majesty.  Stock- 
holm, May  17,  ICSO.  Reg.  He  was  consequently  joined 
in  tliis  department  with  the  high-marshal  general  Jacob 
<le  la  Gardie.     In  a  separate  Instruction  for  the  latter,  of 


202  '^''' ''"tn/eXJliuo'r'''*'''    HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Voyage  to  Pomeratiia. 
I.aiiQiiig  on  Usedcini. 


[1628— 


for  diligence  and  assiduity.  Next  year  the  king 
gave  liim  a  like  commission  in  reference  to  the 
public  revenues. 

On  the  19th  of  May,  Gustavus  Adolphus  sum- 
moned befoi-e  him  the  estates  of  the  realm  then 
at  hand  in  Stockholm,  and  presented  to  them  his 
young  daughtei-,  now  hardly  four  years  old,  as 
"the  heiress  of  his  kingdom,  commended  her  to 
their  fidelity,  clasped  her  in  liis  arms,  and  took  a 
moving  farewell.  From  his  speech,  which  left  no 
eye  tearless,  we  extract  what  follows :  "  Seemg 
that  many  perchance  may  imagine  that  we  charge 
ourselves  with  this  war  without  cause  given,  so 
take  I  God  the  most  high  to  witness,  in  whose  face 
1  here  sit,  that  1  have  undertaken  it,  not  out  of  my 
own  pleasure,  nor  from  lust  for  war  ;  but  for  many 
years  have  had  most  pressing  motive  thereto, 
mostly  for  that  our  oppressed  brethren  in  religion 
may  be  freed  from  tlie  papal  yoke,  which  by  God's 
grace  we  hope  to  effect.  And  since  it  usually 
comes  to  pass  that  the  pitcher  which  is  carried 
often  to  the  well  is  broken  at  last,  so  will  it  go 
with  me  too,  that  I  who  in  so  many  trials  and 
dangers  have  shed  my  blood  for  Sweden's  welfare, 
and  yet  until  now  escaped,  through  God's  gracious 
protection,  with  life  unharmed,  must  lose  it  one 
day  ;  therefore  will  I  before  my  departure  at  this 
time  commend  you,  the  collective  estates  of  Sweden, 
both  present  and  absent,  to  God  the  most  high, 
wishinn'  that  after  this  wretched  and  burdensome 
life,  we  may  by  God's  good  pleasure  meet  and 
consort  in  that  which  is  lieavenly  and  imperish- 
able." Thereupon  he  addressed  some  woi'ds  to 
each  particular  estate,  and  concluded  by  a  prayer 
from  the  ninetieth  psalm  of  David. 

On  the  30th  May  the  king  embarked  in  the  fleet, 
which  was  then  lying  in  the  harbour  of  Elfsnabben, 
and  was  divided  into  four  squadrons.  In  the  first 
of  these  the  king  himself  commanded,  and  under 
him  the  general  of  infantry  John  Bauer  *,  in  the 
second  the  high-admiral  Charles  Carlson  Gyllen- 
hiehn,  in  the  third  the  ship-major  Bubbe,  in  the 
fourth  admiral  Eric  llyning.  The  fleet,  in  case  it 
were  dispersed  by  storm,  was  first  to  reassemble 
off  the  northern  point  of  Oeland,  afterwards  if  need 
were  under  Bornholni,  but  to  take  the  direct  course 
from  Elfsnabben  to  the  coast  of  Fore  Pomerania, 
and  the  so-called  isle  of  Greifswald  ^.  A  throng  of 
administrative  affairs  of  various  kinds  claimed  his 
attention  at  the  last  moment,  which  may  be  ad- 
duced as  .proofs  both  of  this  king's  activity,  as  also 
of  the  fact  that  in  Sweden  the  least  as  well  as  the 
greatest  matters  are  the  sovereign's  care.  Instruc- 

June  3,  in  the  same  year,  it  is  stated  that  the  Palsgrave 
shall  have  the 'military  command  more  especially  of  the  for- 
tress of  Calmar,  in  F.ast-Gothland  and  Smaland,  the  general 
in  Upland  and  Norrland,  tieldmarslial  Herman  Wrangel 
in  Vcrnieland,  West-Gotliland,  and  the  fortress  of  Elfsborg. 
As  de  la  Gardie  now,  so  Clas  Fleming,  the  president  of  tlie 
Chamber  of  Accounts,  subsequently  had  the  Palsgrave  joined 
with,  or  set  over  him  in  his  department.  We  find  that  this 
great  confidence  of  the  king  did  not  make  the  Palsgrave 
equally  agreeable  to  the  council. 

s  His  patent  as  general-in-chief  of  the  infantry  was  first 
made  out  after  the  landing  in  Germany,  and  is  dated  Stettin, 
July  13,  1(530.     Reg. 

^  Chemnitz. 

6  Warrant  for  Herman  Meijer  to  he  preceptor  of  Guslave 
Gustaveson,  with  four  hundred  rixdoUars  salaiy.  Elfsnab- 
ben, June  3,  1630.     Reg. 


lions  to  the  administration  and  council ;  important 
communications  to  Axel  Oxenstieriia  in  Prussia, 
whei-e  the  king  apprehended  a  diversion  of  the  im- 
perialists, and  begs  him  therefore  not  to  detach  too 
many  of  his  troops  ;  rescripts  to  the  lieutenants, 
the  bishops,  and  inhabitants  of  the  provinces,  in 
reference  to  the  assessment  of  subsidies ;  confirma- 
tions of  donations  to  the  university  of  Upsala, 
directions  for  the  education  of  his  natural  son  *, 
writs  of  process,  letters  of  freeliold  for  the  quarter- 
men  of  the  hundreds  and  their  farms,  grants  of 
pension  for  old  soldiers  or  their  widows  (an  object 
to  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  gave  especial  regard), 
all  these  we  find  under  the  king's  hand  dated  from 
on  board  the  fleet  itself.  A  continued  south-west 
wind  long  hindered  the  fleet  from  running  out, 
compelled  it,  after  it  had  got  to  sea,  again  to  come 
into  port,  and  made  the  passage,  which  lasted  five 
weeks,  so  tedious  and  difficult,  that  new  supplies  of 
provisions  were  obliged  to  be  drawn  from  the  sea- 
towns  ^.  On  Midsummers-day  of  the  year  1630  (it 
was  remarked  that  just  a  century  had  expired 
since  the  delivery  of  the  Augsburg  Confession),  the 
king  anchored  off  the  little  island  of  Ruden,  near 
the  w^estermost  of  the  three  mouths  of  the  Oder, 
during  a  violent  thunderstorm.  The  coast  seemed 
full  of  fires.  These  had  been  kindled  by  the 
enemy,  who  nevertheless  had  retreated  to  his  camp 
by  Anldam.  The  king,  who  had  placed  himself  in 
a  l)oat  for  recognoscence,  was  the  bearer  of  these 
tidings  to  his  troops,  and  gave  immediate  orders 
for  the  landing.  This  was  effected  in  the  flat- 
bottomed  boats  already  mentioned,  not  on  the 
island  of  Ruden,  but  on  that  of  Usedom '.  The 
king  first  set  foot  on  shore,  fell  on  his  knees,  and 
poured  out  his  heart  in  fervent  prayer.  There- 
after he  himself  first  took  spade  in  hand,  and  while 
the  debarcation  was  proceeding,  one  half  of  the 
troops  which  had  landed  worked  incessantly  at  the 
erecti(m  of  sconces,  the  other  stood  under  arms 
ready  for  battle  ^.  Thus  eleven  regiments  were 
landed  in  the  course  of  the  night ;  the  others  fol- 
lowed ;  the  cannon,  baggage,  and  cavalry  last.  The 
retrenchments  which  had  remained  here  from  the 
time  of  the  Danish  inroad  into  Pomerania,  were 
now  found  available.  Soon  the  army  stood  in  an  in- 
trenched camp  mounted  with  artillery,  which  com- 
prehended within  its  limits  the  village  of  Peene- 
munde.  Thereafter  the  king  addressed  his  soldiers. 
Not  alone  for  his  own  sake  and  his  kingdom's,  he 
said,  but  for  the  I'elief  of  their  afflicted  brethren  in 
the  faith  he  had  engaged  in  this  war,  by  their  com- 
pletion of  which  they  would  gain  undying  renown  in 
the  after-world  ;  they  liad  no  need  to  fear  this  new 
foe,  the  same  whom  they  had  i-outed  in  Prussia; 

9  "  We  are  in  the  greatest  embarrassment  by  reason  of  the 
strong  and  irksome  contrary  wind,  as  our  stores  are  mostly 
consumed.  We  cannot  take  to  sea  again  without  danger  of 
ruin,  before  we  have  provi>ioned  ourselves  for  some  time." 
The  king  to  the  council  of  state,  Middelsteu's  Haven,  June 
14,  1630.     Reg. 

'  "  We  are  happily  arrived,  and  have  landed  without 
opposition  on  Usedom.  Now  we  need  but  a  supply,  especi- 
ally at  the  first,  until  we  can  become  possessed  of  some 
places.  Assist  our  councillors  of  the  treasury.  Hasten  sup- 
plies from  Sweden  according  to  our  directions."  Usedom, 
June  29,  1630.  Reg.  Uuder  the  same  date  the  king  thanks 
the  Palsgrave  for  his  great  assiduity. 

2  The  Swedish  Intelligencer,  London,  ]C34.i.  49  This 
appears  to  be  by  an  eye-witness. 


1632.] 


Occupation  of 

Stettin. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


Cruelties  of  the 
lmpe^iali^ts. 


2C3 


by  their  valour  he  had  compelled  the  Poles  to  a  six 
years'  truce  ;  he  hoped  also,  if  they  held  with  him 
honestly,  to  win  peace  and  security  for  themselves 
an(i*  their  country,  for  religion  and  their  fellow- 
believers  in  Germany  ;  they  were  old  soldiers,  who 
knew  not  war  only  from  yesterday,  but  who  had 
shared  with  him  many  changes  of  fortune,  and  who 
would  not  lose  spirit  if  they  had  not  everything  to 
their  mind  at  once ;  he  would  lead  tliem  against 
an  enemy  who  was  enriching  himself  at  the  cost..of 
this  whole  exhausted  country  ;  with  the  enemy 
alone  was  money,  abundance,  and  all  that  they 
could  wish  to  find  ^.  Leslie  in  Stralsund,  who  liad 
been  reinforced  for  this  purpose  fi'om  Sweden,  had 
already  in  the  middle  of  April  cleai-ed  the  isle  of 
Rugen  from  the  enemy.  He  now  joined  the  king, 
who  drove  the  imperialists  also  from  the  islands 
of  Usedom  and  Wollin.  Wolgast  having  sur- 
rendered after  six  days'  siege  (the  garrison  for  the 
most  part  entering  the  Swedish  service),  and  the 
towns  of  Wollin  and  Camin  likewise  passing  over 
to  him,  he  became  master  of  the  mouths  of  the  Oder. 
But  the  real  key  to  the  Oder  was  Stettin,  the  only 
town  in  Pomerania  which  had  no  imperial  garri- 
son. Two  hours'  sail  carried  the  king  over  the 
firth.  The  aged  Bogislaus  of  Pomerania,  who  had 
already  souglit  by  an  embassage  to  Stockholm  to 
avert  the  arrival  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  now  saw 
him  unexpectedly  before  the  walls  of  his  capital 
with  an  army  ready  to  do  battle  *.  A  brief  nego- 
tiation followed,  in  which  the  stranger  gave  the 
law.  The  Swedes  marched  into  the  town  along 
with  the  duke  returning  from  his  conference  with 
the  king.  Immediately  the  northern  strangers 
were  seen  according  to  the  custom  of  tiieir  un- 
wearied leader  busily  at  work  on  the  improvement 
of  the  defences  of  the  town  ;  and  m  the  convention 
to  which  the  duke  was  obliged  to  accede,  the  king 
already  stipulated  for  the  possession  of  Pomerania 
after  the  death  of  its  present  childless  sovereign, 
until  he  should  be  reimbursed  for  the  expenses  of 
the  war.  Fourteen  days  had  now  elapsed  since  the 
king's  landing.  Stettin  surrendered  on  the  10th 
July.  This  was,  after  Stralsund,  the  second  step 
in  Germany. 

During  all  this,  "yorquato  Conti,  the  imperialist 
commander  in  Pomerania,  although  superior  in 
force,  offered  little  resistance.  He  seems  less  to 
have  contemplated  the  hindrance  of  the  invasion, 
than  the  prevention  of  the  king's  further  progress  ; 
whence  he  collected  his  force  in  Anklam  on  the 
Peene  and  in  Gartz  on  the  Oder,  while  by  the  em- 
peror's orders  he  garrisoned  Landsberg  on  the 
Warta,  and  cut  off  the  new  enemy  from  the  road  to 
Silesia  and  the  hereditary  dominions  of  the  imperial 
house.     He  had  sought  in  vain  to  surprise  Stettin 

3  Chemnitz. 

<•  "  We  were  apprehensive  that  while  we  were  occupied 
ill  taking  some  little  places,  the  Imperialists  should  either 
themselves  gain  possession  of  Stettin,  orhinder  us  therefrom. 
We  therefore  resolved  some  days  ago,  after  God  had  given 
into  our  hands  Ysedom  and  Wollin,  to  try  whether  we,  with 
our  infantry,  could  get  this  town  into  our  power.  Yesterday 
morning  we  s  died  with  a  good  wind  from  Ysedom,  came 
hither  shortly  after  midday,  and  took  some  positions  without 
the  town.  Then  came  the  duke,  after  some  interchange  of 
messages,  to  us  on  the  spot,  and  agreed  to  receive  a  garrison. 
And  although,  on  account  of  the  enemy,  who  now  lies  in  the 
neighbourhood,  we  were  obliged  to  yield  to  the  duke  in  all 
things,  and  take  the  burden  on  ourselves,  yet  vfe  expect  in 


before  it  was  given  up  to  Gustavus  Adolphus.  By 
the  most  cruel  proceedings  in  the  country  this 
Italian  had  brought  his  name  into  even  greater 
detestation  than  any  of  Wallenstein's  leaders,  and 
this  abhorrence  was  no  longer  as  formerly  accom- 
panied by  equal  fear,  since  the  emperor  was  obliged 
at  the  diet  of  Ratisbou  to  sacrifice  to  Germany, 
united  at  least  in  its  complaints,  the  man  by  whom 
he  had  subdued  it  to  his  yoke.  At  the  moment 
when  Gustavus  Adolphus  landed,  Wallenstein  lost 
the  command  in  chief.  This  was  to  dissolve  a 
bond  which  held  together  a  hundred  thousand  men, 
of  whom  not  a  few  afterwards  passed  over  to  the 
enemy's  ranks.  In  general  the  king  appeared  at 
the  moment  most  pi'opitious  for  him.  The  bow, 
too  highly  strained,  was  broken  in  Wallenstein's 
hand.  Thereafter  ensued  a  condition  of  languor 
and  dissolution,  a  general  opposition  to  the  imperial 
power,  and  the  appearance  of  those  middle  parties 
which  so  often  betoken  a  transition  from  one  ex- 
treme to  another,  but  were  of  ordinary  occurrence 
in  a  constitution  like  the  German,  where  under 
endless  forms  men  could  be  partially  or  wholly 
hostile  to  the  lawful  sovereign.  We  find  Bavaria 
and  Saxony,  each  on  its  own  side,  at  the  head  of  such 
parties,  labouring,  under  the  fair-sounding  names  of 
freedom  of  the  empire  and  constitution,  for  the 
same  self-interests,  to  which  warlike  adventurers 
paid  more  undisguised  devotion.  In  what  Gusta- 
vus Adolphus  smned  against  the  constitutional 
spirit  of  this  time,  and  against  a  polity  like  that  of 
the  holy  Roman  empire,  as  German  patriots  hold, 
we  cannot  perceive.  It  was  a  system  overlaid 
with  complex  contrivance,  and  falling  asunder  of 
itself,  the  religious  conflict  injected  into  which  had 
risen  to  be  the  concernment  of  Europe  and  of  man- 
kind. Hence  the  necessity  of  a  foreign  influence  ; 
hence  also  in  the  relaxation  of  social  order  the 
natural  right  of  individual  heroic  energy.  Here 
was  a  pathway  marked  for  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
trusting  "  in  God  and  his  conquering  sword  *." 

To  the  capture  of  Stettin  succeeded  that  of  Damm 
and  Stargard,  by  a  secret  understanding  with  the 
burghers,  who  received  the  Swedes  as  liberators. 
The  rigorous  discipline  of  the  soldiery  awakened 
no  less  astonishment  than  the  personal  attributes  of 
their  king''.  It  was  the  perfect  counterpart  of  the 
licentiousness  of  the  Imperialists,  which  towards 
the  unfortimate  inhabitants  of  the  country  over- 
passed the  measure  of  huitian  cruelty;  especially 
since  the  convention  that  had  been  framed  between 
Gustavus  Adolphus  and  the  duke  of  Pomerania. 
It  was  Wallenstein's  army,  without  the  strong 
hand  that  kept  the  wild  beast  in  check,  which  now 
revelled   at   pleasure   in   vice   and   crime.      Two 

time  so  to  arrange  it,  that  we  shall  take  no  detriment  thereby. 
The  fortifications  are  very  bad,  so  that  if  we  had  known  this 
previously,  and  not  had  regard  to  the  ruin  of  the  innocent 
burghers,  we  might  have  easily  occupied  the  place  by  force." 
The  king  to  the  chancellor.  Field-camp  by  Stettin,  July  11, 
1630.     Reg. 

5  Cum  Deo  et  victricibus  armis — the  king's  device. 

6  "As  to  the  king  personally,  there  was  seen  in  his  actions 
nothing  else  than  an  inexorable  severity  toward  the  least 
excesses  of  his  men,  an  extj-aordinary  gentleness  toward  the 
people,  and  exact  justice  on  all  occasions."  (Quant  a  la  per- 
sotine  de  ce  roi,  on  ne  voyait  en  ses  actions  qu'une  severite 
inexorable  envers  les  moindres  exces  de  siens,  une  douceur 
extraordinaire  envers  les  peuples  et  une  justice  exacte  en 
toutes  occasions.)    Memoires  de  Richelieu,  vi.  419 


2G4 


Several  German  princes 
join  the  king. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  embarrassments  from 
deficient  supplies. 


[IC2S— 


Italians,  formerly  officers  of  WiiUenstein,  who  had 
entered  the  service  of  Gustavus  AtJolptius,  were 
detected  in  the  camp  at  Stettin  in  a  treasonable 
plot  against  his  per.son.  He  received  warnings  of 
several  such  designs  of  assassination,  instigated  by 
Jesuits;  and  wo  find  him  transmitting  to  Sweden 
directions  that  a  watch  should  be  kept  over  Jesuit 
emissaries,  who  liad  found  opportunity  to  insinuate 
themselves  into  his  dominions  ^.  Tilly,  general  of 
the  League  and  of  Bavaria,  and  now  also  of  the 
emperor,  was  still  at  a  distance,  but  drawing  nearer 
to  Lower  Germany.  In  his  way  lay  Magdeburg. 
The  dispossessed  administrator  of  this  see,  Chris- 
tian William,  Margrave  of  Brandenburg,  who  had 
already  visited  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Sweden ',  I'e- 
paired  on  the  intelligence  of  his  landing  to  Mag- 
deburg (wliose  burgesses  had  taken  up  arms  for 
him),  and  forthwith  declared  publicly  for  the  king, 
who,  although  advising  greater  caution,  yet  pro- 
mised him  assistance,  and  sent  him  a  subsidy  for  a 
levy,  witli  a  Swedish  commander.  Tiie  adminis- 
trator of  Magdeburg  was  not  the  only  German 
prince  who  already  declared  publicly  for  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  Younger  sons  of  Protestant  reigning 
houses  joined  the  Swedish  side  from  the  first,  while 
the  elder  generally  held  with  the  emperor.  So  with 
Francis  Charles,  duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  as  after- 
wards with  his  brother,  Francis  Albert ;  so  with 

^  He  had  received  this  last  information  from  Holland. 
To  the  Council  of  State,  Stettin,  July  31,  1630.     Reg. 

^  He  was  a  youn<;er  brother  of  the  king's  father-in-law, 
the  deceased  John  Sigismund,  elector  of  Brandenburg. 

»  His  proffer  was  made  shortly  after  the  king's  airival. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  communicates  from  Stettin  (July  15, 
1630)  to  Salvius  the  letters  he  had  received  from  the  duke, 
who,  he  directs,  may  be  advised  to  expel  the  enemy,  no  longer 
very  strong,  from  the  territories  of  Brunswick.     Reg. 

'  Of  the  two  brothers  Adolphus  Frederic  and  Jolin  Albert 
of  Mecklenburg,  the  latter  was  married  to  Margaret  Eliza- 
beth, cousin  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  only  child  of  Chris- 
topher duke  of  Mecklenburg,  by  Elizabeth,  youngest  daugh- 
ter of  Gustavus  I. 

2  For  the  German  war  five  different  heads  of  the  Swedisti 
crown-funds  were  allocated.  First,  429,145  Swedish  dollars 
(about  £64,371)  from  rents  and  other  revenues  accruing  from 
land:  II.  A  loan  made  on  the  king's  account,  by  the  factor 
Weiwitzer,  of  202,781  rix-dollars  specie  (£45,625) :  III. 
1711  skeppunds  copper,  exported  and  sold  in  Hamburg  by 
Salvius  :  IV.  12,400  tuns  grain,  to  be  delivered  in  payment 
of  crown-lands  sold  :  V,  3646  lasts  (a  last  has  18  tuns)  grain, 
chiefly  from  Finland,  by  John  Skytte.  These  supplies  were 
to  be  transmitted  in  certain  instalments  before  the  end  of  the 
year,  but  the  king  complains  that  they  did  not  come  as  had  been 
reckoned  upon.  July  31,  he  writes  from  Stettin  to  the  coun- 
cil of  state  :  "  Ye  know  that  since  we  left  our  kingdom  we 
have  received  therefrom  not  a  penny,  spite  of  all  our  injunc- 
tions,— and  have  here  no  contribution  to  expect,  since  we 
must  concede  to  the  duke  (of  Pomerania)  to  remain  as  here- 
tofore in  respect  of  jurisdiction,  state,  and  government. 
Take  order  therefore  for  our  supply,  since  the  number  of 
heads  grows  daily."  Again,  Stettin,  Sept.  3 :  "  We  have  yet 
received,  notwithstanding  all  our  orders  and  directions, 
little  or  no  assistance  from  Sweden.  Now,  although  through 
our  occupation  of  tliis  town  we  have  some  furtherance,  our 
outlay  is  yet  so  excessively  large,  that  it  goeth  but  a  little 
way,  sinie  every  tenth  day  we  require  above  30,000  rix-dol- 
lars (£6,250)  for  the  sustentatioii  of  the  infantry  only."  Reg. 
for  1630. — To  supply  the  deficiencies,  recourse  was  had  to 
borrowing  and  anticipation  (excolera  crediten,  Cultivating 
credit,  the  king  phrases  it),  or  to  such  extraordinary  means 
as  making  the  corn-trade  a  crown  monopoly.  Under  such 
circumstances,  the  value  to  the  king  of  such  a  minister  as 
Oxenstiern,!,  in  spite  of  the  difliculties  of  his  own  position  in 


George,  duke  of  Brunswick  Lunehurg,  who,  after 
he  had  sought  fortune  in  Denmark  and  with  the 
emperor,  now  tendered  his  services  to  Gustavus 
Adolphus".  Of  the  reigning  houses,  after  the 
Pomeranian,  Hesse-Cassel  was  Sweden's  first  ally, 
as  in  the  sequel  Iter  truest.  Contrariwise,  even  the 
expelled  dukes  of  Mecklenburg,  kinsmen  of  the 
king  ',  to  whose  families  he  had  granted  shelter  in 
Sweden,  sought  safety  at  the  outset  rather  ifi  the 
emperor's  favour  than  in  a  league  with  the  king, 
although  the  restoration  of  these  princes  was  one 
of  his  first  objects.  It  was  indispensably  necessary 
for  him  to  secure  the  Baltic  coast  before  he  ad- 
vanced into  Germany.  All  his  steps  to  this  end 
were  made  with  the  greatest  caution,  a  virtue  he  is 
said  to  have  more  esteemed,  in  judging  of  military 
affairs,  than  boldness.  Yet  was  even  his  first  plan 
for  the  war  so  bold,  that  it  must  fill  with  astonish- 
ment every  one  who  knows  intimately  the  daily 
embarrassments  in  reference  to  means  with  which 
he  had  to  contend  ■'. 

Gustavo  Horn  had  brought  him  a  considerable 
reinforcement  from  Finland  and  Livonia.  In  his 
letters  to  the  chancellor,  who  commanded  in  Prus- 
sia, he  incessantly  urges  the  sending  of  the  troops 
expected  from  that  country,  who,  nevertheless,  did 
not  arrive  until  late  in  the  autumn.  He  left  Horn 
in  Stettin  to  watch  Conti,  who  had  collected  his 

Prussia,  is  not  to  be  described.  Indefatigable  activity,  to 
which  hardly  any  thing  was  impossible,  cemented  the  bond 
that  united  these  great  men,  otherwise  so  unlike.  The  king's 
remarkable  letter  to  the  chancellor,  dated  Golnou,  Dec.  4, 
1630,  belongs  to  this  period  :  "  I  have  received  your  advice 
in  respect  to  the  conduct  of  the  war  lor  tlie  coming  jear," — 
writes  the  king, — "  and  thence  perceive  your  fidelity  to  myself 
and  the  fatherland.  He  that  survives  will  be  a  witness  of 
the  success  of  our  affairs,  and  posterity  will  celebrate  your 
fame.  For  this  cause  do  well,  and  weary  not  in  your  labour 
for  my  service  and  the  realm's,  especially  in  putting  in  force 
your  opinion  respecting  the  corn-trade.  May  God,  on  whom 
we  all  rely,  help  us  over  the  winter,  for  I  promise  mysell, 
that  by  your .  industry  and  care  the  summer  will  be  made 
easier.  I  would  describe  to  you  our  position,  but  my  hand, 
which  has  become  stiff  from  the  tustie  at  Dirschau,  does  not 
well  allow  it.  Yet  you  may  understand,  that  the  enemy  is 
weak  in  infantry  and  cavalry  both,  but  hath  great  advantage 
in  quarters,  for  all  Germany  is  given  over  to  him  for  prey. 
I  am  collecting  my  people  here  on  the  Oder,  and  am  of  a 
mind  soon  to  engage.  And  though  the  cause  be  good  and 
righteous,  yet  is  the  issue,  by  reason  of  our  sins,  uncertain, 
and  so  too  is  the  life  of  man.  Therefore  do  1  eiliort  and  be- 
seech you,  for  Christ's  sake,  that  if  all  go  not  as  we  wish,  you 
will  not  let  your  heart  sink.  My  memory  and  the  welfare  af 
mine  commend  to  your  best  care,  and  deal  so  with  them,  as 
I  too  will  deal  with  you  and  yours,  if  I  am  spared,  by  God's 
will,  so  long  as  that  I  may  be  needed  in  such  sort ;  consider- 
ing me  as  one  that  now,  for  twenty  years,  with  much  toil, 
hut,  praise  be  to  God,  with  much  honour,  have  stood  for  our 
fatherland,  have  loved  my  country,  and  all  its  true  indwel- 
lers,  honoured  it,  and  for  its  renown  have  set  at  nought  life, 
goods,  and  good  days ;  who  have  sought  no  other  treasure  in 
this  world  than  to  do  the  duties  of  my  place  to  the  lull.  For 
my  sake,  and  if  aught  should  happen  to  me,  mine  are,  in 
many  respects,  worthy  to  be  pitied,  of  the  weaker  sex,  the 
mother  without  counsel,  the  daughter  a  tender  girl ;  unhappy 
if  they  themselves  should  rule,  and  in  danger  if  others  rule 
over  them.  Natural  affection  (storge  naturalis)  extorts  from 
me  these  lines  of  the  pen  to  you,  who  are  an  instrument 
given  to  me  from  God,  to  accomplish  many  hard  tilings.  Y''et 
this,  and  life  and  soul,  and  all  that  He  hath  granted,  I  com- 
mend to  his  holy  power,  hoping,  undoubtingly,  the  best  in 
this  world;  and  after  this  life  peace,  joy,  and  salvation.  The 
same  I  wish  to  you  also  in  his  good  time." 


1G32.] 


Plans  for  the  ejisuing 
year. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


Winter  of  1630 
Operations  coniinued. 


265 


troops  in  the  neighbourhood,  at  Gartz  and  Greif- 
feniiagen,  and  attempted  from  thence,  during  the 
king's  absence,  an  assault  upon  the  Swedish  camp, 
which  tailed.  The  king  himself  repaired  to  the 
coast  (where  Wolgast,  which  the  enemy  had  re- 
covered, was  again  reduced  by  siege),  in  order  to 
attack  Rostock  and  Wisinar  from  the  sea,  and  make 
an  incursion  into  Mecklenburg^;  but  contrary  winds 
hindered  the  fleet  '^  Moving  from  Stnilsund  he  took 
Damgarten  and  Ribnitz,  and  entered  Mecklen- 
burg. But  liere  the  enemy  having  gained  time  to 
strengthen  himself,  the  former  masters  of  the  ter- 
ritory neither  could  nor  dared  attempt  any  thing  ; 
and  duke  Francis  Charles  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  who 
liad  taken  arms,  was  routed  and  made  prisoner  by 
Pappenheim.  The  design  upon  Mecklenburg  there- 
fore was  needs  abandoned,  and  the  king,  who  from 
the  delay  of  the  Prussian  troops  was  without  hope 
of  bringing  the  enemy  to  a  general  action  this  year, 
saw  himself  confined  for  the  winter  to  impoverished 
Pomerania  ^.  His  letters  about  this  time  to  Axel 
Oxeustiema  and  the  council  of  state  supply  the  fol- 
lowing explanations  of  his  views  :  "  The  emperor 
seems  indeed  to  incline  to  a  treaty  with  us  ^,  but 
upon  no  other  terms  of  peace  than  that  we,  without 
respect  to  our  own  and  our  neighbours'  security, 
should  relapse  into  our  former  incertitude.  We  are 
of  opinion,  that  no  treaty  can  be  concluded,  unless 
a  new  religious  peace  over  all  Germany  shall  be 
acceded  to  and  confirmed,  and  our  neighbours 
placed  in  their  foi-mer  condition,  so  that  we  by 
their  security  may  be  secure.  To  which  end  we 
find  no  other  means  than  that  we  should  beset  the 
emperor  himself  somewhat  more  nearly,  and  the 
clergy  withal,  who  are  upon  his  side.  For  if  we 
could  come  to  the  empei'or's  hereditary  dominions, 
and  thereby  deprive  him  of  his  own  means,  and  lop 
off  the  contributions  which  he  extorts  from  our 
brethren  in  religion,  so  that  the  whole  burden  of  the 
war  should  fall  upon  the  Popish  clei'gy,  then  we  might 
win  a  peace  for  us  and  for  our  fellow-believers,  by 
which  there  were  some  hope  of  reputation.  There- 
fore we  have  projected  next  year  to  set  on  foot 
various  armies;  namely,  so  that  we  with  one  army 
under  our  own  guidance  might  maintain  this  bor- 
der of  the  Baltic,  while  Gustave  Horn  and  Teufel 
with  two  armies  secured  us  the  dominion  of  the 
Oder,  held  Brandenburg  on  one  side  in  devotion, 
and  might  advance  on  the  other  into  Silesia.  With 
the  fourth  army  in  Magdeburg  (where  the  admi- 

3  "Since  it  is  of  great  moment  to  us  to  get  firm  footing  in 
Mecklenburg,  as  well  for  the  extension  of  our  quarters  as  for 
the  relief  of  Magdeburg,  we  have  therefore  resolved,  in  God's 
name,  to  go  forward  to  Mecklenburg,  and  try  our  success 
with  Wismar  and  Rostock."  The  king  to  the  chancellor, 
Wolgast,  Sept.  8,  1G30.     Reg. 

■•  Part  of  it  had  returned  to  Sweden ;  the  other  guarded 
the  coast  of  Pomerania  after  the  landing,  and  under  admiral 
Blum  blockaded  the  harbour  of  Wismar,  where  an  imperial 
squadron  of  fifteen  sail  lost  its  flagship  to  the  Swedes  in 
December.    Swedish  Intelligencer.  Compare  Chemnitz,  i.  91. 

5  "  We  hoped  to  have  the  Prussian  troops  so  early  that 
there  would  have  been  opportunity  for  us  still  to  bring  the 
enemy  to  an  engagement  this  autumn.  But  we  perceive 
now,  that  these  troops  can  only  be  sent  slowly  and  by  de- 
grees. We  must  therefore  content  ourselves  witli  these  our 
present  scanty  quarters.  All  Fore  Pomerania  is  well  nigh 
ruined,  and  for  the  most  part  in  the  enemy's  hands.  In 
Hinder  Pomerania  also  things  look  not  well.  We  have  little 
else  than  the  wasted  islands  to  trust  to,  and  from  Sweden,  on 
account  of  the  season,  and  the  administration  of  those  who 


nistrator  has  already  3000  men  and  some  hundred 
liorses),  we  hope  to  be  able  to  luild  the  Elbe,  and 
through  this  and  our  own  army  to  impart  both  to 
Brandenburg  and  Saxony  will  and  opportunity  to 
co-operate  with  us.  To  the  fifth  array  we  are  in- 
duced by  the  archbishop  of  Bremen,  with  the 
towns  of  Brunswick,  Hildesheim,  and  others,  which 
already  incline  to  us,  and  correspond  secretly  with 
Salvius.  This  army  must  be  held  close  to  the 
Weser.  What  is  required  to  the  accomphshment 
of  this  plan  ye  see  by  the  calculation.  We  will  that 
for  the  war  department  should  be  set  apart  the 
returns  of  the  customs,  the  salt  licenses,  8000 
skeppunds  of  copper,  with  100,000  rix-dollars  from 
the  rents  and  the  cattle-tax.  All  the  other  revenues 
we  have  assigned  for  the  ordinary  expenditure." 
In  the  letter  to  Oxenstierna  the  king  adds:  "  How 
these  armies  shall  be  brought  forward  and  sup- 
ported, we  must  confess  is  the  greatest  difficulty. 
Yet  are  we  inclined  to  think,  that  if  the  troojis  could 
be  levied,  and  every  army  were  so  strong  as  is  set 
down  in  the  draught,  tlie  heads  and  directors  of 
each  army  luight  have  counsel  enough  to  devise 
means  and  expedients  for  their  support  at  the 
places  to  which  they  were  appointed '." 

The  blockade  of  Colberg  by  land  and  water,  with 
the  operations  to  which  it  led  (the  fortress  with  a 
garrison  of  one  thousand  five  hundred  men  did  not 
surrender  till  the  2nd  of  March  in  the  following 
year),  was  the  most  important  event  of  the  autumn*. 
The  winter  set  in,  and  this  year  it  was  severe;  but 
with  it,  to  tlie  astonishment  of  the  enemy,  came  no 
repose.  To  winter  campaigns  the  soldiers  of  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  were  accustomed.  We  mentioned 
that  the  Imperialists  had  drawn  together  their 
main  body  at  Gartz  and  Greift'enhageri,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Oder.  On  Christma-eve  Greiffen- 
hagen  was  taken  by  storm  under  the  orders  of  the 
king  himself,  after  a  valiant  defence  by  the  gar- 
rison, two  thousand  five  hundred  men  strong,  most 
of  whom  perished.  This  so  aft'righted  the  imperial 
field-marshal  Schaumburg  (Conti's  successor  in 
command),  that  during  the  night  he  abandoned 
Gartz,  blew  up  his  powder  magazines,  threw  his 
cannon  into  the  water,  and  fled  to  Custrin  (whose 
doors  were  opened  to  the  fugitive  Imperialists, 
but  closed  on  the  pursuing  Swedes),  in  order  with 
the  remnant  of  his  army  to  wait  for  Tilly  in  Frank- 
fort on  the  Oder".     Thus  ended  the  year  1630. 

France,  which  had  profited  by  the  king's  ap- 

remain  at  home,  we  can  expect  no  more."  To  the  Chancellor, 
Stralsund,  Oct.  31,  1630.  Beg.  Nov.  5,  the  king  writes  to 
the  Palsgrave  in  Sweden :  "  We  have  needs  given  up  the  ex- 
pedition to  Mecklenburg,  since  the  enemy  are  there  so  strong 
that  we  can  make  no  progress  with  the  force  we  have  here. 
Part  of  tlie  Prussian  troops  are  now  come  to  Stargard,  pan 
are  on  the  march."    Id. 

6  The  diplomatic  transactions  we  pass  by  as  of  little 
influence. 

?  To  the  Council  of  State  upon  the  war,  Ribnitz,  Oct.  8; 
to  the  chancellor  upon  the  armies  of  the  coming  year, 
Ribnitz,  Oct.  1,  1630.     Reg. 

8  That  the  king  towards  the  end  of  the  year  had  an  in- 
tention of  returning  to  Sweden  (which,  however,  he  relin- 
quished), we  learn  from  two  orders  to  Fsegreus,  his  resident 
in  Denmark,  of  Nov.  5,  and  Dec.  7,  1630,  to  request  safe 
conduct  for  him,  to  pass  by  land  through  that  country,  in 
case  he  could  not  come  to  Sweden  by  sea  on  account  of  the 
winter.     Reg. 

!■  Schaumburg's  letter  to  Tilly  lays  the  blame  on  the  utter 
demoralization  of  Wallenstcin's  former  army. 


2G6 


Treaty  with  France. 
Reduction  of  Pomerania. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


storming  of  Frankfort 
on  the  Oder. 


[1628- 


pearance  in  Germany,  to  conclude  in  Italy  a 
favourable  pfiiee  with  Spain  and  Austria',  re- 
newed the  proffer  of  its  alliance  ;  and  Charnace', 
who  had  from  the  bcfrinning  watched  his  progress, 
again  opened  negotiations  2.  After  manifold  diffi- 
culties, in  reference  to  the  cei-emonial,  wherein 
Gustavus  Adolphus  contended  for  and  enforced 
the  principle  of  the  equality  of  all  kings,  a  treaty 
of  subsidy  was  concluded  with  France  at  Beerwald, 
on  the  13th  of  January,  1631,  for  six  years,  reckon- 
ing from  the  first  proposal  in  Westeras,  March  5, 
163(1.  The  king  was  to  receive  for  the  year  already 
expired  120,0i)0  rix-doUars,  and  thereafter  yearly 
400,000;  binding  himself  in  return  to  maintain 
at  least  thirty  thousand  infantry,  and  six  thou- 
sand cavalry,  to  concede  free  exercise  of  the 
Catholic  religion  in  the  jilaces  which  should  be 
subdued  by  his  arms,  and  neutrality  to  the  League, 
if  its  members  solicited  and  themselves  observed 
that  condition. 

The  king  had  advanced  along  the  Oder  into 
Brandenburg.  He  moved  first  upon  Landsberg, 
but  Tilly  coining  betimes  to  the  relief  of  this 
fortress,  he  converted  the  siege  into  a  blockade, 
and  forbore  (m  this  occasion  to  attack  Frankfort, 
where  Tilly  had  already  taken  post  with  thirty- 
four  thousand  men.  Horn  remained  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Landsberg  to  observe  Tilly  ;  the 
king  drew  back  to  Stettin,  and  from  that  point 
made  a  flank  movement,  amid  cold  and  snow,  upon 
Mecklenburg  and  Pomerania  ^.  There  one  strong 
place  after  another.  New  Brandenburg,  Loitz, 
Malcliin,  and  lastly  Demmin,  with  the  magazines 
of  the  Imperialists,  fell  within  a  short  time  into 
his  hands.  "  Such  a  general,"  says  the  Scotsman 
Monro,  then  in  the  service  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
"  would  I  gladly  serve ;  but  such  a  general  I  shall 
hardly  see  ;  whose  custom  was  to  be  the  first  and 
last  in  danger  himself,  gaining  his  officers'  love, 
in  being  the  companion  both  of  their  labours  and 
dangers  ;  for  he  knew  well  how  his  soldiers  should 
be  taught  to  behave  themselves,  according  to  the 
circumstances  both  of  time  and  place  ;  and  being 

'  Richelieu  says  himself  of  the  French  negotiators  of 
the  peace  of  Chierasco,  "  They  will  find  it  more  easy  than 
they  would  have  done,  by  the  advantage  which  the  king's 
afTd'rs  will  receive  from  the  descent  of  the  king  of  Sweden 
on  Germany ;  for  he  wil!  raise  against  them  so  mighty  a 
storm  of  war,  that  the  whole  house  of  Austria  will  be  shaken 
by  it,  and  their  empire  in  such  extremity,  that  tliey  will  hold 
themselves  for  lost."  (11  y  rencontrera  plus  de  facilite  qn'il 
n'eiit  fait,  &c.)     Memoires  de  Richelieu,  vi.  395. 

2  "  The  French  ambassador  has  again  been  here,  and  has 
offered  us  120, OnO  rix-dollars  (£27,000).  so  long  as  their  army 
is  occupied  with  the  Italian  war,  and  afterward,  400,000  rix- 
dollars  (£90,000),  yearly.  We  are  in  need  of  money,  but  de- 
sire to  have  your  opinion."  The  king  to  the  chancellor.  Stet- 
tin, July  23,  1630.     Reg. 

3  "  We  brake  up  from  Stettin,  taking  our  march  towards 
New  Brandenburg,  the  earth  clad  over  with  a  great  storm  of 
snow,  being  liard  frost.  We  carried  along  gruat  cannons  of 
battery,  and  a  number  of  small  cannon,  being  well  provided 
with  all  things  belonging  to  artillery;  our  little  army  con- 
sisting then  of  8000  horse  and  foot,  having  left  the  rest  of  the 
army  under  conmiRnd  of  the  field-marshal  Horn,  before 
Landsberg  in  the  Mark."  Monro,  Expedition  with  the  wor- 
thy Scots' regiment,  called  Mac  Key's  regiment.  London, 
1637,  ii.  14.  Before  the  investment  of  Demmin  the  king  re- 
ceived a  reinf.ircement  by  ni:ijnr-general  Kniphausen,  and 
had  then  l.'i.OOO  men  fit  for  service,  accordmg  to  the  lists 
of  the  men  in  health  or  sick,  which  all  the  colonels  were 


careful  of  their  credits,  he  would  not  suffer  their 
weakness  or  defects  to  be  discerned,  being  ready- 
to  foresee  all  things  which  did  belong  to  the  health 
of  his  soldiers  and  his  own  credit.  He  knew  also 
the  devices  and  engines  of  his  enemy,  their  counsel, 
their  armies,  their  art,  their  discipline  ;  as  also 
the  nature  and  situation  of  the  places  they  com- 
manded * ;  .so  that  he  could  not  be  neglective  in 
any  thing  belonging  to  his  charge.  He  never 
doubted  to  put  in  execution  what  he  once  com- 
manded; and  no  alteration  was  to  be  found  in  his 
orders;  neither  did  he  like  well  of  an  officer  that 
was  not  as  capable  to  understand  his  directions  as 
he  was  ready  in  giving  them.  Nevertheless,  he 
would  not  suffer  an  officer  to  part  from  him  till 
he  found  he  was  understood  by  the  receiver  of  the 
order."  Of  difficulties  he  made  little  account. 
He  placed  under  arrest  an  officer  who,  during  the 
improvement  of  the  fortifications  of  Stettin,  wished 
to  excuse  his  non-performance  of  duty  on  the  plea 
that  the  ground  was  frozen,  remarking,  that  "in 
matters  which  the  necessity  of  the  war  requires 
there  is  no  excuse." 

After  the  reduction  of  Colberg,  Greifswald  was 
the  only  place  in  Pomerania  remaining  untaken, 
which  fortress  first  capitulated  in  June  after  the 
death  of  its  brave  commandant.  Tilly,  burning 
with  anger  at  the  conduct  of  most  of  the  other 
commandants,  broke  into  Mecklenburg  after  the 
king,  and  retook  New  Brandenburg.  His  manner 
of  war  was  displayed  in  the  circumstance  of  his 
there  putting  to  the  sword  two  thousand  Swedes^, 
whom  their  sovereign's  order  to  retreat  had  not 
reached.  One  hundred  and  fifty  others  allowed 
themselves  to  be  cut  down  in  the  little  place  of 
Feldberg  rather  than  give  it  up.  After  these 
actions,  Tilly  returned  to  the  siege  of  Magdeburg. 
Immediately  the  king  advanced  towards  Frankfort 
on  the  Oder,  with  eighteen  thousand  men  and  two 
hundred  pieces  of  cannon,  which  were  conveyed 
by  the  river.  On  the  2nd  of  April  he  began  to 
fire  upon  the  town,  which  six  thousand  men  de- 
fended ;  the  following  day  it  was  taken  by  storm  8. 

obliged  to  give  in  to  the  king,  a  usage  mentioned  by  Monro 
as  peculiar  to  the  Swedish  army.  The  Swedish  fleece-jackets 
stood  the  soldiers  in  good  stead  during  this  winter  campaign. 

<  L.  c.  ii.  16.  The  want  of  good  plans,  and  the  great  im- 
portance which  the  king  attached  to  accurate  local  know- 
ledge, often  on  that  very  account  exposed  iiim  in  recog- 
noscing  to  great  personal  hazards,  especially  as  he  was 
near-sighted.  Thus  at  the  siege  of  Demmin,  during  a 
recognoscence,  the  king,  with  his  spy-glass  in  his  hand,  fell 
up  to  his  waist  in  a  marsh,  the  ice  breaking  under  him.  The 
Scottish  captain  Dumaine,  who  had  the  nearest  guard,  would 
have  hastened  to  his  aid,  but  the  king  beckoned  to  him  with 
his  hat  to  keep  still,  in  order  not  to  draw  the  enemy's  atten- 
tion towards  him,  who  meanwhile  directed  a  sharp  fire  upon 
tlie  point.  Under  a  shower  of  balls,  which  luckily  did  not 
injure  him,  the  king  extricated  himself,  and  took  a  seat  by 
this  officer's  watch-fire,  who  took  the  liberiy  of  finding  fault 
with  him  for  so  needlessly  exposing  his  life.  The  king  heard 
him  patiently,  and  admitted  his  error;  but  he  could  not 
help  it.  he  said,  his  disposition  being  such,  that  he  thought 
notliing  well  done  which  he  did  not  himself.  He  presently 
took  a  heavy  dinner  and  a  large  draught  of  wine  in  his  cold 
tent,  then  proceeded  to  change  his  clothes,  and  so  went  again 
anions  his  troops. 

5  Khevenliiiller  says :  "  because  they  had  unanimously 
resolved  rather  to  die  than  to  surrender." 

s  When  the  Swedes  approached  the  town,  the  Imperialists 
called  to  tliem:  "Ye  herriug-eaters,   have  ye  devoured  all 


1G32,] 


Efforts  to  relieve 
Magdaburg  frustrated. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.    GERMAN  WAR. 


Its  capture.     Cruelties 
of  the  Imperialists. 


267 


The  lieutenant  Andrew  Auer,  who  first  mounted 
the  wall,  received  1000  rix-dollars  and  a  captaincy 
in  the  regiment  of  life-sfuards.  The  king  having 
pursued  tlie  enemy,  turned  thereafter  against 
Landsberg,  took  it  on  the  16th  of  April '',  and  now 
demanded  Custrin  and  Spandau  from  the  elector 
of  Brandenburg,  in  order  to  be  able  to  relieve 
Magdeburg. 

Tills  request  was  of  a  nature  to  make  an  armed 
A'isitation  of  Berlin  inevitable.  "  I  cannnot  take 
it  ill,"  said  tlie  king  on  thi.s  occasion,  "  that  the 
elector  my  brother-in-law  is  sorrowful  ;  for  that  I 
ask  perilous  and  critical  matters  is  inconte.stable  ; 
but  I  desii'e  them  not  for  my  good,  but  that  of  the 
elector,  his  country,  and  the  whole  of  Christendom. 
My  way  leads  to  Magdeburg  *."  Of  what  he  thus 
requested,  a  refusal  was  not  hazarded.  But  to  be 
able  to  make  head  against  Tilly,  the  co-operation 
of  Saxony  was  likewise  necessary.  Magdeburg, 
so  important  to  the  Protestant  cause  (it  had  resisted 
the  whole  force  of  Wallenstein),  was  to  no  one 
more  valuable  than  to  the  elector  of  Saxony. 
This  imperial  city,  witli  its  diocese,  was  to  be  in 
North  Gei'many  the  first  great  victim  of  the  empe- 
ror's edict  of  restitution,  which  restored  to  the 
Catholic  Church  all  that  it  had  lost  for  seventy  years, 
from  the  religious  peace  of  Augsburg  ;  and  against 
this  edict,  the  diet  of  Protestant  princes  lately  con- 
voked by  the  elector  in  Leipsic,  had  declared  its 
willingness  to  take  up  arms.  The  loss  of  Magde- 
bui-g  would  touch  most  nearly  the  elector's  son  ^, 
and  it  required  only  the  taking  of  Magdeburg  to 
make  Tilly  at  once  formidable  to  the  electorate 
itself.  Nevertheless,  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  vain 
requested  aid  from  Saxony ;  even  the  passage  of 
the  Elbe  was  refused  him ;  and  the  terrilile  news 
was  soon  spread  throughout  Germany,  that  Mag- 
deburg, plundered  and  burned  by  the  soldiers  of 
Tilly,  was  lying  in  ruins.  The  Swedish  commandant 
Falkenberg  had  fallen  among  the  first  at  the 
storming.  "  Magdeburg,"  writes  Salvius  *,  "  was 
taken,  alas  !  on  the  10th  of  May  by  storm,  and 

your  leathern  cannon  for  hunger?"  Swedish  Intelligencer, 
i.  89.  The  king,  on  the  9th  of  April,  gives  the  chancellor  the 
following  account  of  the  taking  of  Frankfort :  "  As  we  knew 
not  wliither  Tilly  intended  totakehis  way  from  New  Branden- 
burg, we  marched  to  Swedt,  to  procure  intelligence.  Mean- 
while we  heard  that  he  had  turned  towards  Magdeburg. 
With  that  we  broke  up  for  Frankfort  on  the  Oder,  both  to  be 
nearer  to  our  convention  in  Leipsic,  as  also  to  divert  Tilly, 
and  f.irce  him  to  an  engagement ;  committing  to  field-marshal 
Horn  the  Oder  and  Hinder  Pomerania,  with  orders  to  be- 
leaguer Gripswald,  and,  if  possible,  make  a  diversion  in 
Mecklenburg.  We  came  to  Frankfort  on  the  2d  April, 
where  the  enemy  set  the  suburbs  on  fire.  On  the  3d,  we 
caused  batteries  to  be  erected,  and  commanded  some  troops, 
under  cover  of  the  cannon,  to  run  up  to  the  town  gate,  never 
once  thinking  in  this  way  to  win  the  place.  But  our  men 
presently  not  only  drove  the  enemy  fiom  the  outworks  and 
walls,  but  followed  with  like  fury  at  their  heels  to  beneath 
the  town  gate  ;  and  a  part  of  them,  flying  as  it  were  over  the 
wall  with  some  few  storming  ladders,  came  into  the  town, 
and  fought  until  the  others  had  blown  open  the  gates  with 
petards.  Now  our  men  put  the  foe  to  flight,  and  cut  down 
many,  even  the  superior  othcers  ;  others  of  them  were  taken. 
The  rest  sought  refuge  over  the  bridges  beyond  the  Oder 
/never  recollecting  the  redoubt  at  the  bridge-end  which  they 
had  well  garrisoned),  and  stood  not  before  they  had  gone 
some  way  into  Silesia.  All  the  enemy's  ammunition  and 
twenty  standards  are  ours.  Notwithstanding  Ti!ly,  when 
he  had  information  of  our  expedition,  returned  in  haste,  he 
yet  came  no  farther  than  to  Old  Brandenburg.     We  liave 


now  is  the  whole  of  the  great  city  lying  in  ashes, 
so  that  nothing  is  standing  save  the  cathedral, 
with  four  or  five  houses  near,  and  some  fisliers' 
huts  on  the  Elbe.  During  this  siege,  the  deceased 
Falkenberg  first  disputed  the  outworks  so  long  as 
he  could  with  the  enemy,  where  before  the  re- 
doubts they  lost  many  assaults  and  numbers  of 
men.  He  had  little  more  than  two  thousand 
soldiers,  and  the  enemy  is  estimated  at  twenty-four 
thousand  men.  I  have  spoken  with  a  trooper  who 
was  present  during  the  siege.  He  relates  that 
Falkenberg  was  oftered  quarter,  but  would  not 
accept  it,  any  more  than  his  soldiers ;  for  the 
enemy's  principal  condition  is  said  to  have  been 
that  they  should  become  Papists.  About  three 
hundred  of  the  burgesses  of  the  town  were  of  the 
Imperialist  party.  When  the  enemy  first  entered, 
these  rushed  to  their  side,  thinking  to  be  welcome  ; 
l)ut  they  were  mostly  cut  down.  A  great  portion 
of  the  remaining  burghers  saved  themselves  in  the 
cathedra],  and  bolted  tlie  doors  so  fast  that  no  one 
came  to  them  the  first  day  ;  the  next,  quarter  was 
sounded,  and  then  they  obtained  mercy  ^.  Those 
who  endeavoured  to  save  themselves  in  the  other 
churches  all  perished.  With  none  did  they  deal 
worse  than  with  the  clergy ;  they  first  slaughtered 
them  among  their  books,  and  then  set  fire  to  both 
together;  wives  and  daughters,  bound  at  the  horses' 
tails,  they  dragged  and  haled  into  the  camp,  where 
they  outraged  and  used  them  pitiably.  St.  John's 
Church  was  full  of  women  ;  on  these,  it  is  said, 
they  nailed  the  doors  from  the  outside,  and  so 
burned  them.  Crabats^  and  Walloons  tyrannized 
miserably,  threw  children  into  the  fire,  tied  the 
most  eminent  and  beautiful  women  of  the  burgher 
class  to  their  stirrups,  making  them  run  along,  and 
so  follow  them  out  of  the  town  ;  stuck  their  lances 
through  the  bodies  of  little  children,  whom  then, 
lifting  on  high  and  swinging  several  times  round 
at  the  spear's  point,  they  cast  into  the  fire.  Some 
malevolent  persons  inculpate  his  majesty,  as  having 

slain  the  greatest  portion  of  this  hostile  army,  and  every 
where  beaten  their  crabats  (hussars).  With  the  cavalry  and 
some  musketeers  we  have  now  repaired  to  Landsberg,  and 
likewise  sent  for  the  field-marshal  hither  on  the  other  side. 
We  are  now  about  to  throw  bridges  over  the  Warta,  to  con- 
join ourselves  with  the  field-marshal,  and  so  hotly  take  up 
the  siege  of  Landsberg."     Reg. 

7  The  commandant  was  shot.  The  garrison,  according  to 
the  Swedish  statement,  was  5000  men.  On  their  outmarch 
there  were  found  to  be  almost  half  as  many  women  of  plea- 
sure as  soldiers,  with  an  endless  train  of  baggage.  Never- 
theless, Pappenheim  remarks  in  a  letter  to  the  elector  of 
Bavaria,  that  in  Frankfort  and  Landsberg  lay  the  kernel  of 
the  imperial  army.  After  the  capture  of  the  latter  place  the 
king  permitted  Baner,  Baudissin,  and  others  of  his  officers 
to  make  themselves  merry  over  a  glass  of  wine  in  his  pre- 
sence, hut  himself  drank  nothing;  "for  his  custom  was 
never  to  drink  much,  but  very  seldom."    Monro,  1.  c.  ii.  40. 

f  Khevenhiiller,  xi.  1786. 

9  The  chapter  had  elected  prince  Augustus  of  Saxony, 
second  son  of  the  elector  John  George,  to  the  archbishopric. 
The  emperor,  in  virtue  of  the  Edict  of  Restitution,  declared 
tlie  election  invalid,  and  procured  the  nomination  of  one  of 
his  own  sons,  Leopold  William. 

1  To  the  Council  of  State,  Hamburg,  May  IS,  IfiSI. 

2  Other  accounts  agree  in  stating  that  this  did  not  take 
place  till  the  fourth  day,  for  so  long  the  pillage  lasted,  when 
Tilly  made  his  entry  into  the  town.  The  administrator  was 
wounded  and  taken  ;  he  afterwards  embraced  the  Catholic 
religion. 

3  Cioats. 


2G8 


Pusillanimous  conduct  of 
Saxony  and  Brandenburg. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Exigencies  of  the  army. 
Camp  at  Werben. 


[1C28— 


always  assured  tliem  of  succour,  and  nut  come  up  ; 
more  blame  the  elector  of  Brandenburg.  The 
greatest  number  cry  shame  on  the  elector  of 
Saxony,  who  neither  hath  allied  himself  with  his 
majesty,  nor  done  any  ^ood  to  the  cause,  but 
rather  during  the  .siege  itself  withheld  from  the 
townsmen  tlie  ammunition  they  had  ])urchased  in 
the  electorate.  However  all  this  may  be,  his 
majesty  was  certainly  in  these  last  days  on  his 
way  to  help  them,  under  God,  with  all  his  power, 
which  it  would  have  been  impossible  sooner  to 
effect.  First,  in  the  winter  Tilly  stood  in  the 
March,  and  his  majesty  could  not  then  give  aid 
without  a  battle,  and  by  such  to  hazard  the  whole 
evangelical  interest  would  have  been  utterly  un- 
reasonable. After  this  time  his  majesty  was  obliged 
so  to  arrange  the  succour,  that  he  might  have  his 
rear  on  the  Oder  and  Warta  fi-ee.  That  matters 
went  forward  so  slowly  is  by  no  means  the  fault  of 
the  kijig's  majesty.  Even  so  the  town  might  cer- 
tainly have  held  out  longer,  if  the  burghers  had 
bestirred  themselves  more  actively  in  the  cause, 
and  not  held  themselves  secure.  At  first  they 
admitted  no  soldiei-s  into  the  town,  but  they  must 
needs  live  in  the  suburbs  on  the  cash  of  his 
majesty.  At  the  end  they  took  them  into  the 
town,  where  they  had  their  cellars  and  store- 
houses full.  Howbeit  the  soldiers  must  either 
suffer  hunger  or  buy  every  bite  dearly,  whereby 
they  were  much  harassed.  Every  where  there  ap- 
peared secret  correspondence  with  the  enemy,  who 
first  tendered  the  town  an  accord.  But  while 
they  believed  themselves  secure,  and  deliberated 
upon  the  accord,  the  enemy  fell  upon  them  by 
storm,  and  so  cheated  their  security.  Herein  all 
of  the  evangelical  party  that  are  faint-hearted 
may  see  their  lot  mirrored,  if  they  become  not 
speedily  either  colder  or  warmer." 

The  period  from  the  destruction  of  Magdeburg 
to  the  victory  at  Leipsic,  that  is  to  say,  the  sum- 
mer of  1G31,  is  beyond  doubt  the  most  trying 
which  Gustavus  Adolphus  spent  in  Germany.  That 
which  had  come  to  pass  was  laid  to  his  charge,  and 
he  found  himself  obliged  to  vindicate  his  conduct 
in  a  special  manifesto.  Saxony,  as  well  as  Bran- 
denburg, so  acted  that  he  knew  not  whether  they 
were  his  friends  or  foes.  "  We  perceive,"—  he 
writes  home, — "  that  the  evangelical  princes  are 
no  farther  WL'll-afFectioned  towards  us,  than  that 
they  may  with  our  help  maintain  themselves 
against  the  emperor,  in  order  after  to  drive  us 
hence  ungratefully  by  force  ^."  The  elector  of 
Branden))urg  demanded  back  his  fortresses,  which 
he  had  only  delivered  up  for  the  Uberation  of 
Magdeburg.  The  king  accordingly  gave  command 
for  the  evacuation  of  Spandau,  but  appeared  next 
day  with  his  army  before  Berlin,  and  pointed  his 
cannon  against  the  town.  Thus  was  concluded  the 
alliance  of  Brandenburg  with  Sweden.     The  king 

1  To  the  Council  of  State,  Jerichow,  July  2,  1G31.     Reg. 

*  "  His  majesty  mostly  directeth  his  counsels  to  this,  how 
the  sea-coast  may  be  secured,  but  keeps  his  largest  army  in 
this  quarter,  to  hold  the  enemy  from  the  elector.  If  his  ma- 
jesty get  Diimitz  and  Ilavellicrg  (which  was  taken  on  the  9th 
July),  all  iMecklenl>urg  is  occupied,  so  that  the  king  may  ex- 
tend his  forces  to  tlie  Weser,  and  conjoin  them  with  Hamil- 
ton's troops.  Meanwhile  he  is  fortifying  Havelen  strongly, 
with  Rathenau,  Brandenburg,  and  Sjiandau.  Horn,  to 
whom  Cubtrin  stands  open,  is  powerful  to  def.>nd  tlie  Oder 
and  Warta.    An  army  is  raised  in  Mecklenburg,  and  has  be- 


garrisoned  Spandau,  and  thereafter  went  to  Pome- 
rania,  where  he  employed  his  troops,  left  inactive 
after  the  surrender  of  Gripswald,  in  restoring  the 
expelled  dukes  of  Mecklenburg  to  their  domi- 
nions, and  himself  with  the  main  body  kept  an  eye 
upon  Brandenburg,  Saxony,  and  Tilly '.  The  Swe- 
dish army  was  weakened  by  division,  and  its  in- 
crease by  recruitment  uncertain.  "  The  German 
nation,"  writes  the  king  ^,  "  is  now  become  so  un- 
steady, that  the  people  seek  one  master  one  day, 
another  the  next,  so  that  we  can  hardly  levy  so 
many  as  daily  desert,  especially  since  our  men 
have  for  a  long  time  received  no  stipend."  Almost 
all  the  king's  letters  during  this  time  speak  of  his 
want  of  money.  Already  in  February  he  sharply 
reproves  the  Swedish  council  that  they  paid  him 
with  arguments,  and  never  once  called  to  mind 
that  the  cattle-tax,  on  which  he  calculated, 
was  granted  for  one  year  more  by  the  collective 
estates.  "  Howbeit,  tlte  love  of  our  country,  and 
those  who  dwell  therein,  is  so  strong  in  us,"  he  adds, 
"  that  we  would  rather  want  this  subsidy,  than  give 
occasion  to  perverse  and  impatient  men  to  slander 
us,  and  to  unjust  stewards  to  lard  their  pockets  with 
the  sweat  and  blood  of  the  people,  and  pay  ourselves 
and  the  army  with  disputations,  as  now  daily  occurs; 
in  this  town  we  expect,  under  God's  providence, 
other  means  for  carrying  on  the  war^"  These 
other  means  did  not  correspond  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  case.  From  the  grain  monopoly 
Oxenstierna's  ability  could  never  raise  so  much  as 
was  expected,  and  it  was  therefore  soon  abolished. 
"  We  have  often  enough  given  you  to  understand 
our  condition," — writes  the  king  to  the  chancellor  *, 
— :"how  with  the  greatest  poverty,  difficulty,  and 
disorder,  we  have  made  shift  for  ourselves  and  the 
army  through  this  time,  inasnmch  as  we  are  de- 
serted by  all  our  servants,  and  must  conduct  the 
war  only  ex  rapto,  to  the  harm  and  ruin  of  all  our 
neighbours  ;  which  continueth  to  this  hour,  so  that 
we  have  nothing  wherewith  to  content  the  people, 
except  what  themselves  usurp  with  intolerable 
plundering  and  robbery.  We  had  placed  our  hope 
in  you  before  others.  But  even  that  is  dashed  from 
us,  and  we  must  needs  form  a  strong  leaguer  hei"e 
against  the  approach  of  the  enemy."  This  was  in 
the  middle  of  July.  The  king  had  just  sat  down  in 
his  famous  encampment  at  Werben,  in  that  so  ad- 
vantageous site  at  the  continence  of  the  Havel  and 
the  Elbe^.  A  subsequent  letter  describes  his  con- 
tiimed  embarrassment,  and  mentions  Tilly's  attack 
on  his  camp.  "  Albeit,  lord  chancellor,  ye  have 
promised  us  in  your  own  projects  certain  sums 
monthly,  we  have  hitherto  received  no  more  of 
them  than  about  100,000  rix-dollars,  and  we  now 
learn  to  our  disappointment,  by  your  letter  from  El- 
bing  of  the  11th  July,  that  against  all  expectation, 
nothing  more  is  in  hand.    The  army  has  for  sixteen 

gun  to  blockade  Rostock."  The  secretary  Grubbe  to  the 
Council  of  State,  Jerichow,  July  2,  1G31.     Reg. 

•>  To  the  Council  of  State,  Jerichow,  July  2,  1631.     Reg. 

7  To  the  Council  of  State,  New  Brandenburg,  February  3, 
1631. 

><  Werben,  July  18,  1631.     Reg. 

9  The  camp,  of  which  remains  still  exist,  was  on  the 
western  side  of  the  Elbe.  Monro,  who  describes  it  minutely, 
says  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  :  "  When  he  was  the  weakest  he 
digged  most  in  the  ground  ;  and  this  he  did  not  only  to  secure 
his  soldiers  from  the  enemy,  but  also  to  keep  them  from  idle- 
ness." ii.  41.  ' 


l«32.]  Rav^ages^ort°h7pIigue.  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


The  Saxon  troops  join      „«„ 
the  Swedes.  ^"^ 


weeks  not  had  a  penny.  It  is  known  to  every  man 
that  we  look  to  you  for  their  payment;  thereon  have 
both  officers  and  privates  reliance.  Besides  this  hope 
we  have  had  nought  for  their  sustenance  but  ammu- 
nition bread,  which  we  liave  exacted  from  the  towns; 
but  even  to  this  there  is  now  an  end.  Among  the 
horsemen,  who  were  not  to  be  satisfied  therewith, 
we  have  been  able  to  keep  no  order;  they  lived 
merely  on  irregular  and  intolerable  pillage.  Thus 
one  has  ruined  the  other,  so  that  there  is  no- 
thing more  to  be  taken  either  for  them,  or  the  sol- 
diers in  the  towns  or  the  country.  Had  we  ob- 
tained what  ye  should  have  furnished  for  these 
months,  we  would  have  had  hopes  at  least  to  defend 
the  Elbe  and  the  Oder,  and  to  clear  the  Baltic,  if 
more  could  not  have  been  effected  this  year,  but 
now  we  must  fear  a  retreat  with  loss. — For  what 
concerns  our  condition  here,  it  would  have  been 
good  otherwise,  had  means  been  but  to  be  found. 
A  fortnight  ago  we  moved  out  with  our  cavalry 
and  routed  three  of  the  enemy's  regiments  at 
Wolmirstadt.  Since  we  retired  to  Steudal,  Tilly 
has  conjoined  his  troops  with  Pappenheim's,  and 
marched  up  hither,  whereupon  we  had  some  days' 
skirmishing  with  him.  As  we  retired,  he  fol- 
lowed us  gradually,  and  lodged  for  some  days  but 
a  short  quarter  of  a  mile  hence.  Now  hath  he 
withdrawn,  and  we  annoyed  him  on  the  retreat." 
Thus  modestly  does  the  king  express  himself  upon 
Tilly's  attempt  against  the  camp  at  Werben,  which, 
nevertheless,  is  said  to  have  cost  the  latter  GOOO 
men  in  all.  He  had  26,000,  Gustavus  Adolphus  only 
12,000  men'.  The  plague  raged  in  the  track  of  the 
armies.  Six  thousand  Scots  and  English  had  been 
levied  by  the  marquis  of  Hamilton,  for  the  king, 
who  intended  to  employ  them  on  the  Weser.  They 
landed  instead  in  Pomerania,  where  Hamilton  pa- 
raded the  magnificence  of  a  prince.  He  received 
orders  to  ascend  the  Oder  and  watch  Frankfort. 
Before  the  end  of  summer  his  troops  had  melted 
down  to  fifteen  hundred,  and  of  these  soon  only 
five  hundred  were  left  ^.  The  plague  was  likewise 
in  the  leaguer  of  Werben.  It  was  regarded  as  an 
especial  mercy  of  God  that  the  disease  ceased  there 
just  when  the  summer  heats  were  fiercest.  In  the 
preceding  year  it  had  visited  Sweden  *.  The  king 
now  received  a  reinforcement  from  home,  which 
his  consort  followed  to  Germany  *.  Of  these  troops 
one  division  was  employed  in  the  conquest  of  Meck- 
lenburg ;  four  thousand  men,  with  new  artillery, 
were  among  the  troops  which  Horn  conducted  from 
the  Oder  to  the  royal  army.  The  king  broke  up 
from  Werben  in  the  middle  of  August,  and  drew 
near  Saxony.    When  he  came  to  the  bridge  of  the 

•  Swedish  Intelligencer.     Monro. 

-  That  so  considerable  a  body  of  troops,  without  any  ex- 
ploit of  name,  liad  utterly  dispersed  and,  as  it  were,  vanished 
away,  is  ascribed  principally  to  the  infection  then  raging,  as 
also  to  their  strangeness  in  the  country,  the  air,  and  the 
hard  treatment  of  soldiers  in  Germany.     Chemnitz,  i.  193. 

3  "  In  1630  a  grievous  pestilence  invaded  Nykiiping." 
Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  38.  The  same  year  the  plague  was  at  Wax- 
holm,  so  that  the  Council  of  State  and  the  Chancery  removed 
from  Stockholm  to  Upsala,  1.  c.  190. 

■1  Jan.  21,  1631,  the  king  writes  to  his  sister  Catharine: 
"  I  intend  in  the  spring  to  bring  hither  my  dear  and  loving 
wife;  but  because  I  would  not  willingly  see  my  daughter 
accompany  lier,  1  beg  your  lovingness  will  do  me  the  sisterly 
kmdness  to  take  the  child  to  yourself,  as  also  to  look  closely 
to  those  who  have  the  care  of  her."  1.  c. 


I  Elbe  at  Wittemberg,  his  force,  according  to  the 
rolls  then  given  in,  consisted  of  13,000  infantry  and 
8850  cavalry  5. 

Tilly,  having  formed  a  junction  with  a  part  of 
the  imperial  army  returning  from  Italy,  threat- 
ened Saxduy  with  a  strength  of  40,000  men''.  Two 
hundred  burning  villages  lighted  up  his  inroad,  and 
Leipsic  fell  before  long  into  his  hands.  This  was 
the  fate  of  Saxony's  neutrality.  The  terrified 
elector  threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  Not  only  Wittemberg,  John  George 
notified  to  him,  but  the  whole  land  and  he  himself 
stood  at  the  king's  service.  The  junction  of  the 
Swedish  and  Saxon  troops  took  place  at  Duben  on 
the  5th  September.  Two  days  after,  the  victory 
at  Leipsic  put  an  end  to  Tilly's  fortune  in  arms 
and  to  the  emperor's  predominance. 

The  battle  has  been  sufficiently  described  by 
writers  skilled  in  war.  The  improvements  which 
Gustavus  Adolphus  introduced  into  the  military  art, 
and  chiefly  a  greater  celerity  of  motion  in  all  arms, 
were  here  shown  in  full  operation.  What  we  sub- 
join is  from  the  king's  own  hand.  "On  the  7th  of 
this  month,"  he  writes  to  his  sister  in  Sweden, 
"  we  delivered  general  Tilly  an  open  battle,  in 
which  God  fought  for  and  with  us,  and  granted  us 
such  grace,  that  after  a  hai'd  combat  we  remained 
masters  of  the  field,  slew  some  thousands  of  the 
enemy's  men,  put  him  to  flight,  took  all  his  can- 
non, great  and  small,  won  from  him  sixty-six 
standards  and  twenty-two  cornets,  and  so  utterly 
ruined  his  army,  that  we  may  go  unhindered  whi- 
ther it  pleaseth  us '."  In  a  letter  to  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna  the  king  gives  more  full  details  : — "  On  the 
morning  of  the  4th  we  marched  to  Duben,  and 
pitched  our  camp  before  it,  to  wait  for  the  elector 
of  Saxony,  who  was  approaching  from  Eilenburg, 
and  came  up  early  on  the  5th  with  his  army,  about 
20,000  men  strong,  well  mounted,  and  gallant  to 
look  upon.  The  elector  arranged  his  army  in 
divers  brigades,  and  signified,  that  if  it  were  agree- 
able to  us,  he  would  come  to  salute  us.  We  there- 
fore took  with  us  a  good  body  of  the  cavalry,  and 
rode  forth  a  little  way  to  meet  him.  Our  brother- 
in-law,  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  was  in  his  com- 
pany. We  rode  with  the  electors  the  round  of  the 
Saxon  army,  and  thence  to  our  infantry,  which  kept 
also  in  battle-array*;  and  after  we  had  viewed  both 
armies,  we  took  the  electors  with  us  to  our  quar- 
ters. There  we  consulted  with  them,  especially 
with  the  elector  of  Saxony,  how  the  enemy  should 
be  attacked,  whether  by  diversions  to  harass  him 
partisan  fasliion,  or  by  delivering  a  general  action. 


'  Chemnitz,  i.  203. 

6  "  Broke  up,  Aug.  18,  from  Wolmirstadt,  with  the  whole 
army  to  Eisleben,  and  there  conjoined  his  force  with  the 
army  of  Furatenberg,  which  some  days  before  had  arrived 
there  25,000  strong;  thence  they  broke  up  together  three 
days  after,  and  marched  towards  the  electorate  of  Saxony." 
Khevenhiiller,  xi.  1698.  The  king  supposed  Tilly,  after  this 
junction,  to  be  considerably  stronger  than  we,  following 
several  authors,  have  stated.  He  writes  home  to  Jacob 
de  la  Gardie,  Kopwick,  Aug.  21  (O.  S.):  "The  enemy 
camps  60,000  strong,  and  of  the  elector  of  Saxony  we  know 
not  how  he  inclines."     Reg. 

7  To  the  Palsgravine,  Halle,  Sept.  H,  1631.     Reg. 

8  Monro,  I.  c.  ii.  62,  says,  that  as  the  Swedish  army  had 
lain  over  night  on  a  newly-ploughed  field,  the  soldiers  were 
covered  with  dust,  and  smutched  like  kitchen- servants, 
whereat  the  Saxons  made  merry. 


270 


Battle  of  Leipsic. 
Complete  defeat 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


of  the  Imperialist  army 
under  Tilly. 


[1C2S- 


We  brought  forward  all  manner  of  grounds  for  the 
former,  and  the  elector  of  Saxony  held  for  the  lat- 
ter, being  of  opinion  that  the  enemy  could  in  no 
other  manner  be  driven  out  of  his  country.  At 
last  it  was  determined  aUKmg  us  to  go  conjointly  to 
Leipsic,  in  the  enemy's  face,  and  hazard  a  battle. 
We  had  already  information  that  the  enemy  had 
taken  Leipsic  (both  town  and  castle)  by  accord, 
and  that  the  crabats  were  roving  here  and  there 
in  the  villages  not  far  from  Duben.  On  the  0th, 
at  the  dawning,  we  passed  through  Duben,  caused 
our  army  to  follow  in  tile  across  the  pass  before  it, 
and  came  towards  evening  to  the  hamlet  of  Wolche, 
a  mile  and  a  half  from  Leipsic,  where  we  stayed 
for  the  night.  On  the  7th,  as  it  began  to  grey,  we 
commanded  them  to  sound  the  break-up,  and  as 
between  the  hamlet  and  Leipsic  there  was  almost 
no  wood,  but  wide  and  level  fields,  and  we  had 
good  conveniency,  we  caused  the  army  to  advance 
in  full  array  towards  the  town.  The  march  had 
lasted  hardly  an  hour  and  a  half  when  we  descried 
the  enemy's  van-guard,  with  his  artillery  planted 
on  a  knoll,  and  liehind  it  his  whole  force".  He 
was  much  favoured  by  the  sun  and  wind,  from  the 
clouds  of  dust  which  the  long  drought  produced. 
We  strove  zealously  to  deprive  him  of  these  advan- 
tages, but  could  not  bring  it  about,  since  our  men 
had  all  the  time  to  go  over  a  bad  pass  in  the  ene- 
my's sight.  We  therefore  dressed  our  array,  taking 
ourselves  the  right  wing,  and  giving  the  elector  the 
left,  and  thereupon  went  in  such  posture  as  we 
found  good  for  the  occasion  (whereof  we  will 
shortly  transmit  you  a  plan),  ever  nearer  to  the 
enemy; — who, when  he  found  opportunity,  immedi- 
ately began  to  discharge  his  pieces,  first  three  and 
three,  then  all  at  once,  so  that  he  gave  two  salvoes 
with  his  artillery  ere  our  own  was  in  order.  Yet 
it  did  not  last  long  befoi-e  ours  was  ready,  and  then 
it  answered  three  shots  for  one.  The  Saxon  cavalry, 
and  the  troops  which  vvere  stationed  with  the  Saxun 


9  "  Strength  as  in  the  annexed  roll,  letter  A,"  the  king 
adds.  This  roll  does  not  remain.  KlievenhuUer  enume- 
rates the  thirty-two  ret;iments  of  which  Tilly's  army  con- 
sisted, but  without  stating  their  force. 

'  "The  regiments  of  Balderon,  Dietrichstein,  De  Gois, 
De  Blankart,  and  De  Chesuis,  who  rallied,  gained  the  van- 
tage of  the  edge  of  the  wood,  and  turned  to  retrieve  the 
honour  of  their  comrades.  In  fact  here  the  victory  was  ob- 
stinately disputed,  the  Swedes  having  to  do  with  those  old 
bands  of  Tilly  who  were  not  accustomed  to  give  ground. 
Many  old  soldiers  were  there  seen  fighting  on  their  knees, 
with  legs  broken,  never  quitting  their  post  with  life.  The 
cavalry  and  infantry  of  the  king  did  tlieir  duty  to  a  miracle, 
resolved  to  conquer  or  die,  charging  the  enemy,  after  sime 
salvoes,  at  the  sword's  point. — What  served  principally  to 
throw  the  enemy  into  disorder  was  tlie  dexterity  of  the  king, 
who  pushing  towards  Tilly's  artillery,  rode  down  the  troops 
who  guarded  it,  and  made  them  abandon  all  their  equipage. 
The  enemy's  cannon  being  in  the  kings  hands,  he  pierced 
with  it  Tilly's  battalions  and  covered  them  with  fire  ;  nothing 
but  arms  and  legs  were  seen  flying  in  the  air,  with  blood  and 
corpses  every  where  "     Siildat  Suedois,  Kouen,  1634,  p.  72. 

2  The  king  adds,  "Tilly  came  the  same  nigh.t  to  Halle 
with  duke  Rudolph  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  Pappeuheim,  count 
l^urstenberg,  and  colonel  Cronberg;  and  the  barbers  (sur- 
geons) tell  that  Tilly  hail  three  shots,  of  which  none  passed 
through  him,  whence  the  report  is  got  abroad  that  Tilly  is 
shot-fast.  The  next  day  at  nine  o'clock  lie  moved  from 
Halle  to  Aschersleben  and  Halbcrstadt,  very  weak  and 
powerless  from  the  shots  he  had  received.  These  had  cau.sed 
black  and  blue  swellings,  which  the  chirurgeou  opened  and 


artillery,  stood  their  ground  well  at  the  outset;  but 
after  the  best  of  the  constables  (gunners)  had  been 
shot,  the  rest  took  to  flight,  and  lefc  their  cannons 
behind.  The  Saxon  infantry  behaved  no  better, 
but  took  to  their  heels  by  companies,  and  gave  out 
that  we  were  beaten  aud  all  was  lost.  This  caused 
great  aff'right  among  those  who  were  with  our  bag- 
gage, who,  seeing  the  Saxons  run,  turned  round  and 
fled  this  evening  in  such  confusion  to  Duben,  that 
a  train  of  waggons  belonging  to  our  officers,  as  also 
the  elector's  own,  was  plundered  by  these  runners. 
The  elector,  who  kept  with  the  rear-guard,  ran 
himself  also  with  all  his  body-guard,  and  did  not 
stop  before  he  came  to  Eilenburg.  Our  men,  both 
Swedes  and  Germans,  as  many  as  came  into  action 
(for  of  the  infantry  only  tlu'ee  brigades  had  this 
honour),  demeaned  themselves  excellently  well, 
and  pressed  that  they  might  be  commanded  to  the 
front.  The  enemy  at  first  stood  like  a  rock,  and 
long  fought  in  some  quarters  with  such  hotness  and 
ardour,  that  it  appeared  entirely  doubtful  who 
woidd  obtain  the  victory '.  By-and- bye  he  began 
to  yield,  and  we  so  set  u[)on  him  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  abandon  both  his  own  artillery  and  that 
of  the  Saxons,  which  he  had  just  won.  At  the  last 
he  turned  his  back,  with  all  bis  rout,  and  left  us 
masters  of  the  field,  alter  the  fight  had  lasted  un- 
remittingly from  two  o'clock  to  dark  night.  Wo 
caused  the  greatest  part  of  our  cavalry  to  pursue 
the  enemy,  and  rested  ourselves  on  the  field  of 
battle  2." 

The  course  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  after  the  battle 
of  Leipsic,  in  leaving  the  elector  of  Saxony  to  in- 
vade the  emperor's  hereditary  dominions,  and 
himself  turning  his  arms  against  the  remaining 
forces  of  the  League,  has  been  censured  by  states- 
men and  warriors,  and  foremost  by  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna.  Not  only  did  the  chancellor,  when  he 
found  the  Idug  in  Frankfort,  salute  hiiu  with  the 


bandaged.  How  many  of  the  enemy  remained  on  the  field 
we  cannot  so  precisely  know,  but  we  conjecluie  about  three 
thousand.  Of  Tilly's  captains,  Schonberg,  the  general  of 
artillery,  and  Erwitt,  the  major-general,  are  both  shot.  The 
duke  of  Holstein  was  bruised  and  taken  prisoner  to  Eilen- 
burg, where  he  expired  on  the  9th  current.  We  have  made 
so  many  prisoners  that  we  can  both  complete  our  old  regi- 
ments with  them  and  form  new.  Of  the  superior  officers 
we  have  lost  Teufel,  Kallenbach,  and  Hall,  the  lieutenant- 
colonels  Aderkas  and  Damitz,  and  a  captain  of  horse,  Long 
Fritz  by  name,  who  are  all  dead.  Courville  also  was  said  at  first 
to  be  dead,  but  we  now  hear  that  he  is  taken ;  and  although 
the  loss  of  men  so  valiant  is  highly  to  be  regretted,  yet  this 
victory,  on  whiih  tlie  sum  of  alTairs  here  well  nigh  de- 
pended, is  so  remarkable,  that  we  have  all  reason  to  thank 
God,  who  mercifully  hath  protected  us  in  so  evident  a  dan- 
ger, that  we  hardly  ever  before  were  in  the  like."  The  letter 
is  dated  Scheidiiz,  Sept.  10,  1631,  and  is  copied  in  the 
Piilmsk.  RISS.  t.  08,  p.  2187.  Khevenhiiller  estimates  the 
slain  altogether  at  nine  thousand,  of  which  the  Imperialists 
had  six  thousand  three  hundred,  the  Saxons  two  thousand, 
but  the  king's  men  only  seven  hundred.  Gustavus  Adol- 
Ijhus'  infantry  was  thirteen  thousand  strong  in  the  battle. 
A  few  days  after,  at  the  muster  in  Halle,  it  consisted  of 
eighteen  thousand.  Chemnitz,  i.  213.  In  reference  to  this 
author,  wliom  we  have  often  cited,  we  quote  a  passage  from 
the  Minutes  of  the  Swedish  Council  in  1642:  "Chemnitz 
was  commissioned  hy  the  high  chancellor  to  go  through  the 
relations  and  discouises  which  were  evulgated  during  the 
German  war,  correcting  the  same  according  to  the  chan- 
cellor's direction;  which  the  whole  senate  found  very  good 
and  profitable." 


1632.] 


Discussion  of  the 
policy  of  the 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


operations  subsequent 
to  the  victory. 


271 


words,  "  that  he  would  rather  congratulate  him 
on  the  victory  in  Vienna,"  but  eighteen  yeai'S  after 
his  sovereign's  death  he  declared  in  tlie  Swedish 
council,  "  if  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  betaken  him- 
self directly  after  the  battle  of  Leipsic  to  the 
emperor's  hereditary  dominions,  and  laid  aside  his 
march  to  the  Rhine,  leaving  it  to  the  German 
estates  to  settle  their  affairs  with  one  another,  the 
emperor  would  never  have  been  able  to  subsist  ^." 
It  is  well  known  that  the  elector  of  Saxony,  who 
while  the  king  was  battling  with  the  emperor  at 
a  distance,  hoped  again  to  be  able  to  appear  in  the 
empire  at  the  head  of  a  third  party,  had  himself 
wished  to  make  the  expedition  to  Franconia*;  and 
probably  this  was  one  secret  ground  of  the  king's 
opposition  to  this  plan,  of  which  he  merely  ob- 
served that  he  would  not  trust  Saxony  to  keep  his 
rear  safe  *.  He  mistrusted  the  ambiguous  policy 
of  the  elector,  and  appears  from  that  very  reason  to 
have  wished  to  place  him  in  a  relation  of  thorough 
hostility  to  the  emperor.  A  recent  historian,  who 
has  had  access  to  the  Saxon  archives,  ascribes  to 
tlie  dukes  William  and  Bernard  of  Weimar,  an 
important  influence  on  the  decision  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus^.  He  is  said  withal  to  have  been 
flattered  with  magnificent  prospects,  for  the  self- 
gain  of  those  "who  held  them  out.  A  more  weighty 
consideration  is,  that  the  Protestant  estates  as- 
sembled in  the  convention  of  Frankfort  on  the 
Maine,  publicly  invoked  his  succour '.  Three 
grounds  of  his  resolution  are  stated  by  the  king 
himself :  he  wished  not  to  lose  sight  of  Tilly  ^  ;  he 
wished  to  possess  the  Catholic  bishoprics  for  the 
support  of  his  army   and   his   own  designs  ^ ;  he 

3  From  the  Minutes  of  Council  in  1650.     Palmsk.  MSS. 
t.  190. 
■•  Chemnitz,  i.  216. 

5  The  king  especially  distrusted  field-marshal  Arnheim, 
now  the  elector's  general,  of  whom  Oxenstierna  says,  that 
he  laboured  all  his  life  through  for  a  third  party  in  Germany. 
The  king  held  him  to  be  an  indifferent  general,  "  better  in 
speculation  than  action"  (Chemnitz,  1.  c),  and  afterwards 
demanded  his  dismissal. 

6  Rose,  duke  Bernard  the  Great,  of  Saxe  Weimar. 
Weimar,  1828,  i.  156.  According  to  Pufl'endorf,  duke  Ber- 
nard sought  to  work  upon  the  king's  mind  by  hopes  of  tlie 
Imperial  dignity.  It  is  certain  that  not  only  these  princes, 
but  the  landgrave  of  Hesse  Cassel,  George  duke  of  Luneburg, 
and  others,  in  the  grants  of  land  and  towns  which  they  so- 
licited from,  the  king,  in  fact  acknowledged  him  as  the  lord 
of  Germany.  After  his  death  we  find  statements  made  as 
to  his  promises  of  the  same  augmentation  to  different  indi- 
viduals; e.  g.  Eichsfeld,  promised  both  to  William  duke  of 
Weimar,  and  George  duke  of  Luneburg,  as  appears  from  the 
Appendix,  No.  119  in  Von  der  Decken,  1.  c.  ii  ,  where  the 
latter  requests  Oxenstierna  that  he  may  retain  "  this  present 
engaged  to  him."  Gustavus  Adolphus  appears  really  not  to 
have  been  very  exact  in  his  answers  to  such  demands.  But 
here  the  scrupulo.sity  on  one  side  may  correspond  to  that  on 
the  other.  The  king  wished  at  this  time  to  strengthen  his 
alliance  with  Brandenburg.  He  commands  Salvius  (Quer- 
furt,  Sept.  18,  16.31,)  to  visit  Berlin  on  his  journey  to  Meck- 
lenburg, to  remind  the  elector  of  what  had  passed  between 
his  majesty  and  him  in  respect  to  a  more  intimate  union  ; 
end  since  now  both  the  elector  of  Saxony  and  the  dukes  of 
Weimar,  with  the  princes  of  Anhalt,  had  entered  into  a 
league  with  him,  to  proffer  an  alliance  on  the  same  condi- 
tio-is  under  which  it  had  been  concluded  with  Mecklenburg 
and  Hesse ;  yet  Salvius  might  have  power  to  modify  some 
articles,  as  the  jus  clienteles  3nd  palrocinii,  in  case  the  elec- 
tor should  stickle  for  it.  Further  he  mi|,'ht  pray  the  elector 
of  Saxony  to  endure  patiently  for  some  time  yet  the  ordinary 


wished  to  let  in  the  air  of  freedom  to  the  Pro- 
testants of  Upper  Germany  i.  It  appears  to  us 
that  the  question  must  be  considered  not  only  from 
a  purely  military,  but  also  from  a  political  point 
of  view.  In  reference  to  the  supposed  results  of  a 
march  to  Vienna  (which  both  previously  and  subse- 
quently has  seen  the  enemy  at  its  gates,  without 
Austria  having  fallen),  we  repeat  here  words  for- 
merly spoken  by  us:  "  Posterity  doubts  with  reason 
that  a  struggle  so  complicated  and  far-stretching  as 
this  could  have  been  decided  by  any  single  blow  at 
any  moment,  if  there  were  any  other  wish  than  that 
of  merely  securing  a  share  of  the  prey,  and  setting 
aside  all  regard  for  the  cause.  In  respect  to  what  the 
interests  of  the  latter  required,  we  dare  maintain 
that  the  sequel  justified  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and 
this  his  minister  himself  was  to  discover.  After 
the  death  of  the  hero,  where  was  it  that  Oxen- 
stierna found  sympathy  and  support  ?  Where  was 
it  that  he  succeeded  in  forming  a  Protestant 
league,  and  thei-eby  averting  the  common  danger 
in  the  most  critical  moment  ?  Was  it  the  Pro- 
testants of  North  or  South  Germany  who  formed 
the  union  of  Heilbronn  ?  Was  it  in  the  tlien  un- 
decided counsels  of  Brandenburg,  or  of  untrusty  and 
double-minded  Saxony,  the  most  powerful  of  our 
confederates,  that  help  was  found  ?  No!  it  was 
through  the  weaker  but  more  sensitive  of  our 
fellow-believers,  then  as  now  opener  to  every  hope 
of  a  better  future,  and  readier  of  will,  that  this 
help  was  compassed  ;  by  the  lesser  princes,  the 
free  nobles  of  the  empire,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
free  imperial  citie.t,  who,  in  these  tracts  most 
blended  with  the  Catholics,  had  also  felt  the  yoke 

contributions,  as  his  majesty  was  bendinghis  march  to  Upper 
Germany,  to  obtain  better  quarters,  and  would  thenceforth 
lighten  as  much  as  possible  the  burden  of  coutributiun  and 
inquartering.     Reg. 

?  A  conference  was  being  held  about  this  time  in  Frank- 
fort on  the  Maine  between  the  representatives  of  several 
Protestant  and  Catholic  states.  The  latter  departed  after 
the  battle  of  Leipsic,  the  former  remained.  "  They  wrote  to 
the  emperor  to  supplicate  him  to  withdraw  the  troops,  who 
lived  at  their  discretion  among  them.  The  emperor  refusing 
to  rid  them  of  these  inconvenient  guests,  they  prayed  the 
king  of  Sweden  to  do  it,  and  naturally  declared  for  him  who 
became  the  defender  of  their  property  and  liberty.  Thus  it 
was  to  support  that  declaration  that  the  king  took  the  reso- 
lution of  entering  Franeonia."  Francheville,  Note  to  the 
Translation  of  Gualdo  Pricrato.  p.  97. 

8  "  The  reason  why  his  majesty,  of  happy  memory,  did  not 
proceed  to  the  hereditary  dominions  of  the  emperor,  said 
the  king,  was  that  when  Tilly  after  the  battle  of  Leipsic 
turned  against  Brunswick,  and  was  joined  by  the  duke  of 
Lorraine  with  ten  thousand  men,  he  was  obliged  to  pursue 
him ;  for  if  he  had  gone  to  the  hereditary  dominions,  the 
whole  power  would  have  fallen  to  Saxony."  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna in  the  council,  1636.     Palmsk.  MSS.  190,  136. 

9  See  his  letter  to  the  Chancellor,  Halle,  Sept.  17,  1631. 
Reg.  It  will  be  recollected  that  when  the  king  crossed  to 
Germany,  his  future  plan  for  the  war  was  directed  in  great 
part  against  the  Popish  clergy.  Several  circumstances  be- 
sides merely  the  support  of  his  army  spoke  in  its  favour. 
The  emperor's  edict  of  restitution  directly  provoked  retalia- 
tion of  this  kind;  they  offered  easy  conquests,  and  the 
Catholic  bishoprics  were  good  pawns  for  a  future  peace,  in 
which  the  indemnities  were  in  fact  mostly  exacted  from  the 
secularized  sees. 

1  "  The  king  wished  first  of  all  to  go  to  Thnringia,  and 
there  bring  matters  to  a  right  state;  afterwards  to  take 
his  march  to  Francony,  to  give  air  to  the  Protestants  in 
the  upper  country."     Chemnitz,  i.  216. 


272 


Plan  for  a  defensive  war 
abaiuloned. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


llapid  successes  on 
the  Maine. 


[1628- 


most  heavily,  and  were  most  gladdened  by  the 
coming  of  their  rescuer.  It  was  their  joy,  which 
made  the  march  of  Gustavus  Adulphus,  after  the 
battle  of  Leipsic,  a  triumphant  jirocession  ;  it  was 
their  thankfulness  which  knitted  the  league  over 
his  bleeding  bodj';  and  never  would  the  compact 
have  been  struck  if  his  banners  liad  not  waived 
among  them  ^." 

The  king's  first  plan  for  the  war  after  the  victory 
at  Leipsic  was  defensive,  and  shows  that  he  did 
not  intend  to  follow  his  up  advantage  so  quickly  as 
afterwards  came  to  pass.  The  same  day  he  broke 
up  from  Halle,  he  writes  to  the  chancellor,  "  For 
some  time  we  have  desired  your  presence,  after 
the  late  glorious  victoi'y  over  the  enemy,  to  deli- 
berate with  you  how  we  might  best  set  matters  in 
train  for  the  restitution  of  our  oppressed  fellow- 
believers.  Come,  therefore,  hither  for  some  while, 
and  be  not  restrained  thereby,  that  ye  bring  no 
money  along  !  Charles  Baner  may  in  the  mean 
time  be  vice-governor  in  Prussia.  Else  we  liave 
purposed  so  to  order  the  state  of  the  war,  that  we 
repair  in  our  own  person  to  Thuringia,  to  avail  our- 
selves of  what  may  be  left  there,  taking  our  steps 
so  that  we  might  have  our  winter  quarters  there. 
Thence,  with  Hesse,  Saxony,  and  Meissen  around 
u.s,  we  will  (by  God's  grace)  busy  ourselves  with 
infesting  some  bishoprics  in  Francony,  and  putting 
them  under  contributions;  so  strengthening  our- 
selves in  the  winter,  that  by  spring-time  we  may 
be  a  sufficient  match  for  the  enemy,  especially  as 
Saxony  is  now  with  us.  The  defence  of  the  Oder 
hath  the  elector  taken  upon  himself,  wherefore  we 
have  ordered  the  lord  John  Baner  to  Frankfort,  to 
draw  off  our  garrison  as  soon  as  the  elector's  folk 
come  ;  and  when  he  liath  occupied  Landsberg,  to 
push  on  with  the  rest  of  his  men  to  Calbe,  between 
the  streams  of  the  Saal  and  Mulde,  and  with  other 
troops,  appointed  thereto,  form  a  leaguer  in  that 
district,  in  order  to  get  firm  footing  on  the  Elbe, 
and  the  possession  of  Magdeburg.  We  have  given 
command  to  Salvius  to  bring  up  to  us  a  body  of 
men  who  have  remained  near  Hamburg,  and  who, 
in  conjunction  with  those  of  the  duke  of  Mecklen- 
burg, will  probably  amount  to  15,000  men;  so  that 
these  two  armies,  the  one  above  here  against  Mag- 
deburg under  Baner,  the  other  below,  may  be  able 
to  keep  the  Elbe  clear.  Furthermore,  we  have 
thought  of  employing  the  Pomeranian  garrisons  in 
securing  Mecklenburg,  but  would  then  need  troops 
from  Prussia,  that  Pomerania  might  not  be  en- 
tirely bare^."  But  the  king  did  not  confine  him- 
self within  the  limits  which  he  had  first  marked 
out  for  himself.  The  wings  of  victory,  once  imped 
for  her  soaring  flight,  bore  him  swiftly  onwards. 
After  Erfurt  had  fallen  by  terror  and  surprise  into 
his  hands,  he  marched  across  the  Thuringian  forest 
(partly  by  night  and  torchlight),  and  entered 
Upper  Germany.  The  strong  place  of  Konigshofen 
surrendered;  Wurtzburg,  considered  impregnable, 

2  Oration  at  tlie  Jubilee  (Tal  vid  Jubelfesten,  &c.)  in 
memory  of  tlie  great  Gustavus  Adolpluis,  Nov.  6,  1832,  in 
Upsala,  p.  42. 

3  To  the  Cliancellor,  Halle,  Sept.  17,  1C3I.     Heg. 

*  To  the  lord  John  Baner,  Hoclist,  Nov.  IS),  1031.     Reg. 
•■i  Franchevillc  (Gualdo  Pricrato),  p.  102. 
"  Khevenhiiller,  i.  18SJ. 

7  Salvius  to  Peter  Baner,  Hamburg,  Nov  20,  1631. 
Palmsk.  MSS. 

8  "The  pleasant  march  alongst  the  pleasant  and  fruitfull 


was  taken  by  Storm ;  Hanau  was  surprised;  Frank- 
fort on  the  Maine  opened  its  gates;  the  king  march- 
ed through  the  town,  and  went  the  same  evening 
to  Hoclist,  which  he  took.  Thence  he  wrote  to 
Baner  :  "  We  now  expect,  through  the  happy  suc- 
cess by  God  vouchsafed  to  us,  to  join  the  two  rivers 
Maine  and  Rhine,  as  also  to  cut  off  the  enemy 
from  the  circle  of  Westphalia,  and  all  other  pro- 
vinces on  this  side  of  the  Rhine,  if  ye  are  only  in 
a  position  to  keep  our  rear  secure  *."  The  march 
through  Franconia  had  been  a  triumjihal  proces- 
sion. Great  stores  of  necessary  articles  had  been 
acquired  ;  after  the  capture  of  Wurtzburg  there 
was  hardly  a  soldier  in  the  army  who  had  not  new 
clothes  ^ ;  in  the  camp  a  cow  was  sold  for  a  rix- 
doUar,  and  a  sheep  for  a  few  styvers  ^.  The 
northern  strangers  had  come  into  the  land  of 
abundance.  "  The  king's  majesty,"  writes  Salvius, 
"possesses  now  all  Frankenland,  and  the  states  there 
have  done  homage  to  his  majesty  as  duke  of  the 
said  country,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  annexed  man- 
date of  his  majesty.  Our  Finnish  lads,  who  dwell 
up  there  in  the  wine-land,  will  not  so  soon  go  back 
to  Savolax.  In  the  Livonian  wars  they  must  often 
be  fain  to  take  up  with  water  and  coarse  bi-ead 
worsened  for  their  aleberry  ;  now  the  Finn  makes 
himself  his  cold  cup  (kallskal)  in  his  helmet  of 
wine  and  loaves  '."  The  gruff  Scot  Monro  speaks 
with  rapture  of  the  march  along  the  beautiful  banks 
of  the  Maine  *. 

Such  progress,  with  a  force  comparatively  incon- 
siderable, was  however  not  unattended  with  danger. 
Tilly,  who  after  his  defeat  had  taken  his  way  to 
Hesse,  and  was  reinforced  by  Fugger  and  Altringer, 
and  further  by  the  duke  of  Lorraine,  threatened  the 
king's  rear  with  a  force  far  superior,  and  had  even, 
although  too  late,  advanced  to  the  relief  of  Wurtz- 
burg. The  king,  having  detached  Horn  against 
Bamberg,  had  upon  his  march  from  Wurtzbm-g 
to  Hanau  not  more  than  seven  thousand  five  hun- 
dred foot,  and  four  thousand  horse  ^.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  never  observed  to  be  so  much  dis- 
quieted as  at  this  approach  of  Tilly  >.  For  the  first 
time  he  was  remarked  to  be  undecided,  and  to  re- 
call orders  he  had  given.  At  this  period  he  writes 
to  Baner: — "  The  enemy  hath  so  strengthened  him- 
self in  this  quarter,  that  we  cannot  proportion  our 
army  against  him  for  an  engagement.  He  extends 
his  line  to  Schweinfurt,  appears  to  wish  to  inter- 
pose between  us  and  the  Thuringian  forest,and  to  cut 
off  our  communication  with  Saxony  and  you. — Look 
well  to  yourself  ! — Correspond  with  duke  William 
of  Weimar  at  Erfurt,  and  reinforce  him  if  he  can- 
not sustain  a  siege.  Strain  every  effort  on  your 
side  to  acquire  Magdeburg,  and  that  ye  may  be 
strong  enough  to  maintain  yourself  on  the  Elbe  and 
Havel,  issue  writs  of  recruitment,  and  appoint  the 
trysting-places.  Take  no  note  therein  either  of 
friends  or  utifriends,  so  that  you  are  only  rein- 
river  of  the  Maine,  that  runs  through  faire  Franconia." 
Monro,  ii.  88. 

9  Swedish  Intelligencer,  i.  28.  The  infantry  consisted  of 
five  brigades,  by  rule  one  thousand  eight  hundred  men  to 
each,  but  now  incomplete.  They  had  their  names  from  the 
colours  of  the  oldest  colonel  in  tlie  brigade.  In  the  same 
way  the  names  of  the  regiments  were  derived  from  tlieir 
standards,  although  usually  supposed  to  be  taken  from  their 
uniforms.  Five  are  mentioned  :  the  body  regimeiit,  the 
green,  the  blue,  the  white,  the  r^d  regiments. 

'  Monro,  ii.  86. 


1632.] 


Progress  to  the  Rhine. 
Tilly  declines  battle. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


Collision  with  the 
Spaniards. 


273 


forced  with  men ''.  If  the  enemy  fall  upon  you, 
whereof  at  so  late  a  season  there  is  little  appear- 
ance, look  to  it  that  you  be  able  to  maintain  yourself 
on  the  Saale  and  Elbe.  If  you  should  be  too  weak 
for  that,  retire  by  all  means  to  Werben,  and  hidge 
yourself  in  a  convenient  position  betwixt  the  Havel 
and  Elbe  ;  hold  the  bridges  with  redoubts  until 
assistance  be  sent  you.  Correspond  diligently  «ith 
Tott  (in  Mecklenburg)  ;  let  us  have  no  disservice 
through  your  jealousy  ^.  Help  each  other,  without 
any  view,  save  for  the  service  of  your  country. 
Better  your  slowness  in  giving  us  information,  and 
send  us  a  sub-officer  once  or  twice  in  tlie  week  *." 
When  the  enemy  showed  himself  at  Wurtzburg,  the 
king  cut  to  pieces  three  regiments  of  his  cavalry  *. 
Tilly  passed  by,  and  marched  to  Nuremberg, 
lamenting  with  tears  that  the  elector  of  Bavaria 
had  forbidden  him  to  venture  any  thing  decisive". 
These  were  not  the  only  difficulties  with  which  the 
king  had  to  contend  on  this  otherwise  so  victorious 
expedition.  In  spite  of  the  booty  which  had  been 
taken,  want  of  money  still  prevented  the  payment 
in  full  of  the  army  ';  he  was  obliged  to  coin  bad 
money  *,  and  took  violent  measures  for  the  purpose 
of  upholding  the  value  of  the  copper  coinage  in 
Sweden'.  The  danger  of  Nuremberg  (the  town 
had  declared  for  Sweden)  had  already  called  forth 
his  resolution  to  return  to  Franconia';  but  Tilly 
raised  the  siege,  and  the  king  continued  his  career 
of  victory  on  the  Rhine.  This  brought  him  into 
conflict  with  the  Spaniards,  and  awakened  the  fears 
of  France. 

"  We  have  unexpectedly  fallen  into  collision  of 
arms  with  the  Spaniards,"  he  writes  home  to  the 


2  In  a  subsequent  letter  to  Baner  the  king  says,  "  Rein- 
force your  numbers;  employ  thereto  every  means  both  with 
friends  and  foes.  Do  not  square  yourself  in  the  levies  by 
the  authority  of  the  duke  of  Anhalt,  though  he  be  our  lieu- 
tenant, seeing  you  know  that  under  God  the  whole  adjumen- 
tum  rei  gerendte  consists  in  this,  that  we  become  strong  in 
troops."     Oppenlieiui,  Dec.  8,  1831.     Reg. 

'  A  similar  letter  was  sent  by  the  king  to  Ake  Tott,  a  very 
brave  man,  but  hot  in  temper.  (He  was  son  of  a  daughter 
of  Eric  XIV.) 

*  To  the  lord  John  Baner,  Wurtzburg,  Nov.  8,  1631. 
Reg. 

'  Proposition  to  the  estates,  Feb.  4,  1632.     Reg. 

s  "  Since  there  was  no  other  reserve  available."  Kheven- 
liuller,  xi.  1884.  "It  was  better  to  delay  than  be  ruined," 
Maximilian  of  Bavaria  wrote  to  the  emperor. 

'^  They  were  partly  paid  with  assignments  for  six  months. 
Monro,  ii.  86. 

8  "  We  have  dealt  with  one  named  Zwirner,  who  with  some 
of  his  fellows  will  strike  us  a  quantity  of  bad  money."  To 
the  same  person  is  also  committed  the  coinage  of  Sweden, 
and  the  palsgrave  is  directed  to  look  narrowly  to  his  proceed- 
ings. Querfurt,  Sept.  18,  1631.  In  the  Register  for  April, 
1632,  appears  a  letter  from  the  council  that  all  the  copper  in 
their  hands  should  be  struck  into  kreutzers  (cross-pieces)  and 
sent  to  the  king. 

9  "  We  must  bring  the  matter  to  this  point,  that  no  other 
coins  shall  pass  in  Sweden  but  rix-doUars  in  specie  and 
copper-money.  We  desire  therefore  that  your  lovingness 
with  the  council  will  publicly  prohibit  all  coins,  excepting 
the  aforesaid,  in  all  the  provinces  subject  to  our  authority, 
whereby  we  expect  that  the  copper  coins  shall  be  in  request, 
and  be  sou(:ht  for  again  out  of  Holland,  and  thereby  copper 
will  be  made  valuable."  With  his  agent  in  Holland,  Eric 
Laurenceson,  to  whom  the  subsidies  from  the  states  and  the 
copper  trade  were  committed,  the  king  was  highly  displeased, 
and  transferred  these  affairs  to  Conrad  Falkenberg  instead, 
"  since  he  was  not  so  experienced  in  making  false  reckonings, 


council  of  state.  "  When  we  lately  caused  the  Sjia- 
nish  general  de  Silva  (conmiander  in  Mentz)  to  be 
waited  upon  by  the  colonel  of  our  horse- guard.s, 
duke  Bernard  of  Saxe- Weimar,  he  declared  that 
he  had  orders  to  assist  the  archbishop  of  Mentz 
against  us.  When  now  we  commenced  our  march 
from  Frankfort  towards  the  Palatinate,  the  Spa- 
niards began  to  erect  a  bridge,  with  a  sconce,  on  tlie 
Darmstadt  side,  which  we,  according  to  the  usage 
of  war,  could  not  avoid.  We  signified  to  them  that 
the  sconce  was  in  our  way  ;  and  as  they  would  not 
evacuate  the  same,  but  fired  upon  us,  altlmugh  it 
was  untenable,  we  resolved  to  pass  the  Rhine  at 
Oppenheim,  and  cut  off  those  in  the  sconce.  When 
we  had  crossed  with  some  hundred  soldiers,  don 
Philip  de  Silva  charged  us  with  his  cavalry,  but 
was  repulsed,  whereupon  those  in  the  sconce  sur- 
rendered to  us  by  accord  on  the  7th  December. 
The  8th  we  took  the  town  of  Oppenheim  without 
resistance,  and  the  castle  by  storm.  Now  is  this  to 
be  thought  a  breach  of  the  peace  1  Or  shall  we 
seek  a  composition  with  Spain  on  account  of  our 
trade,  and  to  have  our  hands  free  against  France, 
whose  king  is  marching  hither  with  a  great  army, 
and  already  in  Mentz  ^,  to  impede  our  treaty  with 
the  emperor  ?  On  another  side,  Spain  will  not  wil- 
lingly let  go  what  it  possesses  in  the  palatinate  ; 
and  without  the  restitution  of  the  elector  pala- 
tine there  can  be  no  secure  peace.  Against  Spain, 
England  and  Holland  would  be  inclined  to  give  us 
assistance.  In  any  case  our  western  sea-coast 
might  be  secured  by  the  fortification  of  Gottem- 
burg  *."     The  letter  is  dated  from  Mentz,  which 


and  in  frauds  upon  our  revenues."  The  king  concedes  from 
his  ways  and  means  for  the  war  1500  skeppunds  of  copper, 
which  may  make  at  least  60,000  rix-doUars  (13,500i.) ;  and 
assigns  them  as  a  capital  for  carrying  on  the  copper-mines. 
The  newly-levied  men  were  to  be  sent  over.  "  W'e  would 
gladly  wish,  if  the  safety  of  the  country  permitted  it,  to  be 
again  strengthened  with  six  regiments,  besides  with  one 
thousand  Swedish  and  five  hundred  Finnish  troopers,  and 
that  the  men  should  not  be  sent  to  us  with  bare  backs,  as 
hitlierto  hath  been  done."  To  the  palsgrave  John  Casimir, 
Ochsenfurt,  Nov.  I,  1631.     Reg. 

1  "  The  old  devil  with  all  his  young  ones,  as  Lorraine, 
Pappenheim,  Fiirstenberg,  Gallas,  Ossa,  lies  now  before 
Nuremberg.  I  march,  if  God  will,  to-morrow  to  its  succour. 
The  enemy  is  strong,  but  God  hath  granted  us  also  consider- 
able means,  and  we  hope,  together  with  the  troops  of  the 
landgrave  and  duke  of  Weimar,  to  have  seventeen  thousand 
foot  and  nine  thousand  horse."  The  king  to  the  palsgrave, 
Hochst,  Nov.  29,  1631.  Other  accounts  soon  arrive.  The 
same  day  the  king  writes  to  Horn,  "  We  have  received 
tidings  that  the  enemy  hath  quitted  Nuremberg,  and  divided 
himself  into  three  bodies ;  one  remains  in  this  neighbour- 
hood, another  goes  to  Bohemia,  a  third  to  Bavaria.  We 
have  therefore  decided  to  accomplish  our  intention  on  the 
Rhine."     Reg. 

2  On  the  causes  of  this  movement,  which  were  intestine 
discords,  see  the  Memoires  de  Richelieu.  The  king  had 
informed  Louis  XIII.  of  "his  expedition  into  the  land  of 
the  priests,"  The  envoy  was  to  give  close  heed  to  the  re- 
ception of  the  news  by  the  king  of  France,  and  to  declare 
that  his  majesty  would  gladly  have  kept  peace  with  the 
Leaguers,  if  they  had  not  mixed  themselves  up  in  the  war 
with  the  emperor;  nor  could  he  have  otherwise  restored  the 
oppressed  princes  and  towns,  as  required  by  his  treaty  with 
France.  His  majesty  persecuted  no  man  on  religion's  ac- 
count. The  envoy  was  to  complain  warmly  of  the  duke  of 
Lorraine.     Hochst,  Nov.  28,  1631.     Reg. 

3  To  the  council  of  state,  Mentz,  Dec.  31,  1631.  Id.  The 
king  adds,  that  the  king  of  Denmark  had  publicly  spoken  of 

T 


n_  .  Entry  into  Mentz. 

^•■*       Compacts  witli  the  Protestant 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


states  of  the  empire. 
Proposals  of  peace. 


[1628- 


tlie  king  had  taken  and  fortified,  while  the  terrors 
of  liis  arms,  with  wondei-ful  rapidity  and  fortune, 
were  spread  over  both  sides  of  the  Rhine. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Mentz,  at  the  outset  of 
the  year  H)32,  is  a  splendid  show,  but  which  pro- 
mises more  than  it  covers.  His  queen  accompanied 
him.  The  chancellor  had  brought  him  reinforce- 
ments from  Prussia.  A  crowd  of  princes  and  am- 
bassadors surrounded  him,  and  he  counted  in  his 
general  staff  more  princes  than  Oxenstierna  gladly 
saw,  who,  when  the  defence  of  the  Rhine  was  after- 
wards confided  to  him, complained  that  these  princes 
would  not  obey.  During  fourteen  days  operations 
were  suspended,  a  period  long  enough  to  show  the 
fruitlessness  of  that  ti'eaty  of  neutrality  with  the 
League  which  France  had  proposed.  The  Catholic 
League  was  dissolved ;  its  members  either  tlu'ew 
themselves  into  the  arms  of  France,  as  Treves  to 
its  own  misfortune,  or  were  forced  to  form  a  more 
intimate  connexion  with  the  emperor,  as  Bavaria, 
or  had  lost  their  territories  to  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
who  now  stood  on  the  Rhine  as  the  acknowledged 
head  of  Protestant  Germany.  This  was  his  real 
position;  in  form  it  was  indeterminate.  Although 
never  accurately  laid  down,  the  outlines  of  a  defi- 
nition were  yet  sketched,  which  grew  gradually 
more  distinct.  The  homage,  which  after  the  vic- 
tory of  Leipsic  the  king  required  from  his  conquests 
for  himself  and  the  crown  of  Sweden,  was  indeed 
for  the  most  part  limited  by  certain  conditions, 
such  as  for  the  war  only,  or  for  Sweden  and  its 
allies  conjointly  ;  but  sometimes  these  conditions 
are  omitted,  as  in  the  question  respecting  the  con- 
quered Catholic  bishoprics,to  whose  inhabitants, and 
the  Catholics  generally,  the  king  gave  immediate 
security  in  respect  to  their  religion  and  property. 
Afterwards  it  awakened  general  remark,  that  he 
had  caused  Augsburg  to  do  homage  without  any 
such  conditions.  The  obligations  now  contracted 
between  him  and  the  Protestant  estates,  although 
not  alike  in  all,  provide  that  contributions  for  the 
war  shall  be  paid  by  all  in  common,  and  that  the 
absolute  directory  of  it  shall  remain  with  the  king; 
and  they  acknowledge  in  more  or  less  decided  ex- 
pressions the  king  of  Sweden  as  their  Lord  Pro- 
tector. In  fact,  as  in  name,  Gustavus  Adolphus 
was  Protector  of  the  German  Protestant  League. 
What  might  thence  arise  was  hidden  by  the  future; 
and  if  we  give  credit  to  a  contemporary  Catholic 
historian,  it  was  even  declared.  "  During  the 
king's  stay  in  Mentz,"  says  Khevenhliller,  "  some 
postulates  came  forth,  which  the  king  of  Sweden 
had  made,  to  the  elector  of  Bavaria  and  other 
Roman  Catholic  states,  for  the  re-establishment  of 
peace  in  Germany.  The  principal  were  :  that  the 
emperor  should  revoke  the  Edict  of  Restitution  *  ; 
that  both  religions,  the  Evangelical  and  Catholic, 
as  well  in  towns  as  in  the  country,  should  be  free 
and  undisturbed,  without  constraint  of  conscience  ; 
that  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Silesia  should  be  re- 
placed in  their  old  condition,  and  all  refugees 
recalled  ;   that  the  palsgrave  Frederic  should   be 

the  Spanish  designs,  and  that  Farenshach  had  come  to  Dun- 
kirk and  offered,  if  he  should  get  ships,  to  take  Gottemburg. 
The  council  sent  a  military  force  thither.  See  their  letter  to 
the  chancellor,  Jan.  2.3,  16.''.2.     Reg. 

*  So  runs  the  first  article  of  this  project  in  Richelieu,  M6m. 
vii.  4,5,  who  gives  it  more  shortly,  and  without  mention  of 
the  election  of  king  of  the  Romans.  In  this  first  article  in 
Khevenhuller,  the  king  of  Sweden  is  substituted  for  the 


restored,  and  recover  his  electoral  rank,  of  which 
Bavaria  had  deprived  him  ;  that  Augsburg  shoidd 
be  reinvested  with  its  freedom,  the  exercise  of  the 
Evangelical  religion  being  allowed;  that  all  Jesuits 
should  be  expelled  from  the  empire  as  peace- 
breakers  ;  that  ecclesiastical  dignities  should  be 
thrown  open  to  the  members  of  both  religions  ; 
and  that  the  king  of  Sweden,  since  he  had  saved 
the  empire  from  ruin,  should  be  chosen  king  of 
the  Romans '. 

It  is  safer  to  abide  by  the  words  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  himself,  addressed  to  the  deputies  of 
Nuremberg  at  the  same  period.  "  From  his 
friends,"  he  said,  "he  wished  for  nothing  more 
than  their  gratitude;  what  he  had  taken  from  the 
enemy  he  intended  to  keep;  the  Protestant  League 
must  sever  itself  from  the  Catholics,  and  provide 
itself  with  a  suitable  chief,  especially  for  the  war  ; 
with  some  months'  pay  he  could  not,  like  a  runaway 
soldier,  be  satisfied  ;  land  he  might  by  the  law  of 
nations  (as  Grotius  taught)  demand,  although  he 
had  enough  of  it ;  Pomerania  he  could  not,  on  ac- 
count of  his  maritime  objects,  abandon,  and  if  he 
restored  any  thing,  he  might  nevertheless  demand 
the  same  rights  of  superiority  as  the  emperor  had 
formerly  possessed  ;  the  old  imperial  constitution 
was  of  no  further  effect."  The  Nurembergers  de- 
clared, that  they  knew  of  no  better  or  more  auspi- 
cious choice  for  the  supreme  headship  than  they 
had  in  his  majesty".  He  had  at  the  same  time 
requested  the  opinion  of  the  Swedish  senate  re- 
specting the  terms  which  might  be  deemed  a  firm 
foundation  for  a  peace.  The  conditions  which  they 
proposed  were  :  freedom  of  religion,  abolition  of 
the  inquisition  for  ever,  and  restitution  of  the 
Evangelics  ;  the  indemnification  of  Sweden  for  the 
expenses  of  the  war,  and  security  for  their  pay- 
ment ;  an  alliance  between  the  evangelical  party 
and  the  king  of  Sweden,  to  whom  should  pertain 
the  directoi'y  of  all  their  wars  with  the  emperor 
or  other  potentates;  the  cession  of  Pomerania  and 
Wismar  to  Sweden,  in  return  for  which  Branden- 
burg should  obtain  Silesia,  Saxony,  and  Lusatia,  and 
the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  the  princes  of  Weimar  and 
others,  should  be  benefited  at  the  cost  of  Austria  '. 

Tlie  distance  and  interruption  by  the  war 
rendered  communication  with  Sweden  difficult. 
Months  passed  away  without  intelligence,  which 
led  to  irregularities  and  misapprehensions.  From 
Wittembei'g,  on  the  30th  August,  1631,  the  king 
had  ordered  the  convocation  of  a  Commission  of 
Estates,  to  which  application  might  be  made  for 
the  prolongation  of  the  so-called  cattle-tax.  On 
the  30th  of  October,  from  Wurtzbui'g,  he  had  pro- 
mised to  send  the  warrant  for  calling  together  the 
diet.  This  not  arriving,  the  council  pretended  to 
have  received  it,  and  appointed  the  1st  February, 
1632,  for  the  day  of  meeting.  In  the  interval, 
after  a  long  delay,  arrived  a  letter  of  secretary 
Grubbe',  in  which  the  royal  will  was  signified,  that 
no  diet  should  be  held,  but  instead  thereof   the 

emperor  by  a  manifest  error  of  the  press,  and  the  ninth 
article  also  appears  to  be  inaccurate. 

'  Khevenhuller,  xii.  86. 

"  Breyer,  Contributions  to  the  History  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.     Munich,  1812,  p.  207. 

7  Opinion  of  the  council  of  state  upon  the  conditions  of 
peace.  Stockholm,  March  26,  ]6.'!2.  Register  of  the  Council. 
In  the  public  archives  we  have  not  found  any  register  of  the 
king's  letter  of  1632. 


1632]. 


Backwardness  of  the 
electors. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


The  war  in  Bavaria. 
Passage  of  the  Lech. 


275 


lieutenants  of  the  provinces  should  deal  with  the 
people  on  the  subject  of  the  cattle-tax.  By  this 
time  the  Commission  of  Estates  had  already  as- 
sembled, as  the  council  tells  their  sovereign  *,  and 
the  deputies  had  been  received  with  an  account  of 
the  heroical  victories  and  actions  of  his  majest3'. 
The  estates  declare,  they  had  learned  that  the  war 
and  its  difficulties  had  led  the  king  far  from  the 
borders  of  Sweden,  thank  him  most  humbly  for  his 
great  toils  and  cares  for  the  welfare  and  security  of 
themselves  and  the  oppressed  Evangelics,  and  pro- 
mise the  continuance  of  the  tax  for  two  jears  more. 
Afterwards  the  council,  in  letters  to  the  chancellor, 
requests  his  decision  upon  various  exigent  affairs, 
whei'ein  they  had  received  no  answer  by  reason  of 
the  daily  fatigues  and  burdens  of  warfare  which  en- 
grossed his  majesty's  time.  Some  of  his  majesty's 
servants,  councillors  of  the  exchequer,  lieutenants, 
assessors  in  the  palace  court,  were  taken  off  by 
death,  others  old  and  in  bad  health,  others  past  ser- 
vice; several  provinces  were  without  lieutenants. 
The  council  beg  for  warrant  to  appoint  and  de- 
prive, as  also  to  decide  in  high  criminal  cases  on 
petitions  for  pardon,  which  powers  they  had  not 
ventured  to  assume.  They  express  also  apprehen- 
sions of  Denmark,  and  complain,  that  from  the 
king's  prohibition  of  any  other  copper  coins  than 
kreutzers,  so  great  a  want  of  copper  money  was 
felt  in  the  country,  that  the  people  knew  not  how 
to  help  themselves'. 

While  duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  Christian,  Pals- 
grave of  Birkenfeld,  and  the  Rhinegrave  Otho 
Lewis,  spread  the  king's  victorious  arms  on  the 
Rhine,  Horn  carried  them  from  Franconia  to  the 
Neckar  ;  Tott  completed  the  conquest  of  Mecklen- 
burg, by  the  capture  of  Rostock,  Wismar,  and 
Domitz  ;  Baner  made  himself  master  of  Magde- 
burg, given  up  to  him  by  Pappenheim^  Yet  in  so 
brilliant  a  sky  the  storm-clouds  were  already  rising. 
It  was  chiefly  Protestant  princes  and  states  of  the 
second  and  third  rank  who  acknowledged  Gustavus 
Adolphus  for  their  protector.  Saxony  and  Bran- 
denburg, the  most  powerful  of  them,  allies  upon 
compulsion,  more  in  name  than  deed,  kept  them- 
selves remote,  and  followed  their  own  counsels. 
The  Saxon  army  had  indeed  advanced  without 
opposition  to  Prague;  but  thei-e  the  elector  rested, 
to  the  ruin  of  the  country  and  his  army  1.  In 
Torgau  he  held  a  conference  with  the  elector  of 
Brandenburg  in  reference  to  the  re-establishment 
of  peace,  but  they  were  unable  to  come  to  any 
agreement  as  to  the  means  to  be  adopted.  How- 
beit  the  elector  of  Saxony  declared,  that  they 
should  demand  from  the  emperor  a  bond  for  his 
abdication  of  the  imperial  dignity,  if  he  would  not 
consent  to  reasonable  terms  ^;  a  sentiment  which 

"^  To  his  majesty,  concerning  the  diet.    Stockholm,  Feb.  4. 
3  The  council  to  the  chancellor,  Stockholm,  May  5,  1632. 

1  "  Whereas  the  elector's  Saxons  contented  themselves 
with  what  God  and  fortune  sent  them  at  the  close  of  the 
year,  let  no  further  care  annoy  them,  rested  in  winter-quar- 
ters, and  made  good  cheer."  Chemnitz,  i.  291.  Withal  they 
so  oppressed  the  inhabitants,  that  in  Prague  two  thousand 
houses  were  soon  standing  empty.  From  their  intemperance 
a  violent  malady  broke  out  in  the  army.     Ibid. 

2  Chemnitz,  1.  c. 

3  Chemnitz,  i.  28".  The  king  replied,  "  It  would  be 
almost  impossible  for  the  estates  to  take  upon  themselves, 
besides  the  load  they  were  constrained  now  to  bear,  additional 
contributions.     The  elector,  out   of  Christian  condolence, 


in  one  like  John  George  of  Saxony  may  Jje  cited 
as  an  indication  of  the  political  temperature  of  the 
moment.  Furthermore,  the  elector  declared,  that 
"his  highness  and  reputation"  would  not  permit 
him  to  place  his  troops  under  Swedish  command, 
whereas  he  requested  the  king  to  take  up  on 
account  of  Saxony  the  contributions  which  the 
Protestant  estates,  at  the  convention  of  Leipsic, 
had  promised  to  him  as  their  head  ^.  Austria, 
"  whose  best  ally  is  time,"  as  Bernard  of  Weimar 
said  warningly  to  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Mentz, 
had  meanwhile  found  opportunity  to  collect  its 
strength,  by  great  sacrifices,  and  especially  by  the 
unrestricted  surrender  of  the  destinies  of  the  mo- 
narchy into  the  hands  of  that  dreaded  man,  whom 
Ferdinand  had  lately  sacrificed  to  the  complaints 
of  Germany.  Upon  conditions  which,  in  regard  to 
powers  and  rewards,  were  unheard  of,  Wallenstein 
created  a  new  army  for  the  house  of  Austria. 

The  king  returned  to  Franconia  to  support  Horn 
against  Tilly,  and  summoned  Baner  with  duke 
William  of  Weimar  to  join  him*.  He  now  com- 
pleted the  conquest  of  Franconia,  secured  Nurem- 
berg, crossed  the  Danube  and  the  Lech,  routed 
Tilly,  restored  the  extinguished  religious  liberties 
of  Augsburg,  which  paid  homage  to  its  deliverer, 
and  entered  Munich. 

Of  the  bold  passage  of  the  Lech,  against  which 
the  king's  generals  had  advised  him  ■"',  the  Swedish 
council  observe  in  their  account  to  the  estates,  that 
Tilly  and  the  prince  of  Bavaria  had  posted  them- 
selves near  the  town  of  Rain  on  the  Lech,  where 
they  had  great  advantage,  as  well  from  the  height 
of  the  bank  as  from  a  forest.  Under  a  heavy  fire, 
and  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  his  majesty  caused  a 
bridge  to  be  thrown  over  the  river,  and  commanded 
some  companies  of  Finns  to  cross  it,  who,  ui  spite 
of  all  attacks  and  all  the  enemy's  fire,  threw  up  a 
small  intrenchment  on  the  other  side.  Presently 
afterwards  his  majesty  caused  some  companies  of 
horse  to  pass  the  bridge,  who  skirmished  with  the 
enemy,  until  he  himself  crossed  with  the  army. 
Immediately  the  king  fell  upon  the  enemy,  posted 
behind  a  small  wood.  From  this  he  drove  the 
enemy  to  the  town,  which  also  they  were  obliged  to 
abandon,  and  so  to  flee  towards  Ingolstadt.  Tilly 
was  mortally  wounded,  Altringer  badly  hurt;  about 
3000  men  were  slam. — Thereafter  his  majesty  took 
divers  places,  and  with  the  greatest  part  of  his 
force  repaired,  on  the  8th  April,  to  Augsburg.  The 
enemy's  soldiers  surrendered  on  the  10th  ;  where- 
upon the  town  of  Augsburg  concluded  with  liis  ma- 
jesty an  accord  glorious  for  the  country,  of  which 
the  instrument  is  deposited  in  the  royal  chancery  *. 


would  not  demand  of  them  that  they  should  be  beaten  with 
double  rods." 

•>  This  duke,  who  commanded  in  Thuringia,  had  before 
refused  to  support  Horn.     Rose,  i.  161. 

5  Swedish  Intelligencer,  ii.  147.  Horn  was  against  the 
invasion  of  Bavaria,  and  counselled  the  king  to  march 
against  Bohemia.     Francheville,  130. 

6  Proposition  to  the  estates,  with  a  relation  of  the  war, 
Nov.  7,  1632.  Reg.  The  king's  court-preacher.  Dr.  Jacob 
Fabricius,  preached,  when  the  evangelical  worship  was  again 
held  on  the  14th  April  in  St.  Anne's  church  at  Augsburg. 
We  quote  from  this  sermon  what  follows  :  "  It  is  not  reason- 
able nor  Cliristianlike,  to  strangle,  kill,  and  extirpate  mis- 
believers on  account  of  their  false  belief  and  doctrine  only, 
as  the  Jesuitical  murder-drones  (mordhummein)  and  blood- 
suckers write  thereof.    For  one  of  their  principal  ringleaders, 

T  2 


270 


Oceu|i;ition  of  Augsburg 
and  Munich. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  intrenched  camps 
at  Nuremberg. 


[1628- 


The  re-cstablisliment  of  the  Confesision  of  Augsburij 
in  the  town  which  had  been  its  cradle,  appears,  of 
all  his  triumphs,  to  have  been  dearest  to  Gusta- 
vus  Adoljihus  ;  and  on  public  opinion  it  made  a 
deep  inijU'ession.  The  unfortunate  Frederic  of  the 
Palatinate  entered  at  his  side  (the  only  satisfaction 
he  received)  the  capital  of  his  enemy,  Maximilian 
of  Bavaria.  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  jMunich  we 
will  pourtray  in  the  words  of  a  Bavarian  annalist : 
"There  was  nought  to  compare  with  the  strict  dis- 
cipline and  order  in  which  he  kept  the  very  mode- 
rate force  which  was  allowed  to  enter  the  town 
(the  army  was  obliged  to  remaiu  encamped  without 
it)  ;  incomparable  also  was  his  frank,  glad  friendli- 
ness, and  the  unembarrassed  condescension  which 
he  showed  in  mixing  and  conversing  with  the  in- 
habitants. He  heard  divine  service  with  rever- 
ence, with  his  chief  associates,  in  the  Catholic 
churches,  and  looked  upon  the  ceremonies  (on 
Ascension-day,  May  20,  he  was  for  two  hours  in 
the  church  of  the  Nunnery);  he  demeaned  himself 
every  where  as  if  he  were  at  home  in  the  midst  of 
his  people,  heard  with  pleasure  witty  though  biting 
replies,  which  he  answered  with  a  friendly  jest,  and 
was  inwardly  content  when  he,  in  case  he  went  on 
foot,  came  iuto  a  throng  of  children  and  grown 
persons,  among  whom  he  usually  scattered  money  '." 
The  town,  however,  was  obliged  to  pay  300,000  rix- 
dollars,  which  were  rigorously  exacted.  In  Bavaria, 
which  hei'etofore  had  been  undisturbed  by  war, 
Ingolstadt  alone,  whose  siege  wellnigli  cost  the 
king  his  life  *,  and  the  exasperated  country  people, 
offered  any  resistance.  The  whole  of  Protestant 
Swabia  passed  over  to  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Ber- 
nard of  Weimar  carried  his  arms  to  the  lake  of 
Constance  and  the  Tyrol ;  and  with  the  Swiss,  who 
allowed  the  Swedes  to  hold  levies,  negotiations  were 
opened  for  an  alliance.  Italy  began  to  tremble, 
says  Richelieu,  while  Vienna  was  in  alarm;  the 
revolted  peasant')  of  Upper  Austria  had  already 
solicited  Swedish  assistance. 

Wallenstein  now  put  his  troops  in  motion,  drove 
the  Saxons,  whom  he  first  lulled  to  repose  by  nego- 
tiations, out  of  Bohemia,  and  soon  stood,  united  with 
the  elector  of  Bavaria,  at  Eger.  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus, who  had  vainly  sought  to  hinder  this  con- 
junction by  a  rapid  march,  was  obliged  to  confine 
himself  to  covei'ing  Nuremberg,  which  was  threa- 
tened with  the  fate  of  Magdeburg.  He  had  but 
18,000  men  8  against  60,000;  but  Nuremberg  con- 

.   by  name  Becanus  (Tract,  de  fide,  spe,  et  ch.irit.  c.  l.'i,  quaest. 
I   4,  5,  et  6,)  teaches  '  Quod  propter  solam  h  ;  resin  lia^retici 
I    reges  et  alii  principes  privandi  sunt  bonis,  imperiis,  dominiis 
j   — et  quod  oranes  alii  heeretici  puniendi  sunt  pcena  capitis.' 
I   Behold,  these  are  the  words  of  the  Jesuit  Becaiuis,  where- 
!    with  he  shows  himself  the  thirsting  bloodhound  of  accused 
but  not  yet  convicted  heretics.     And  for  further  proof  of  this 
he  mentions  also  the  bull  of  the  Papal  ban,  which  is  re- 
newed every  year  at  Rome  on  Maundy  Thursday,  whereby 
all  pretended  heretics  are  adjudged  from  life  to  death.     Yea, 
the  aforesaid  Becanus  says  (qu.  8),  '  Hasrctici  resipiscentes, 
tametsi  recipiantur  de  ecclesia — iion    tameii   permittantur 
vivere.'     With  these  blood-thirsty  allegations  we  do  not  in  the 
least  hold,  sinte  it  is  wholly  unchiistian  to  kill  men  for  mere 
heterodoxy.     For  he  that  will  not  unconstrained  embrace 
the  right  faith,  may  leave  it,  and  him  we  ought  not  to  com- 
pel thereto  by  violent  methods.     For  God  requires  a  volun- 
tary worship,   and   every  man  will  be  obliged  to  give  an 
account  to  the  Lord,  how  or  what  he  hath  believed."     Ser- 
mon of  Thanksgiving  .md  Comfort  (I)ank-und  Trost-Bredigt) 
after  the  conquest  of  the  city  of  Augsbur^',  printed  in  the 


tained  at  this  time  30,000  men  fit  to  bear  arms, 
and  he  surrounded  it  completely  with  a  fortified 
camp,  defended  by  three  hundred  cannon.  Wal- 
lenstein came,  says  a  contemporary  narration,  in 
thunder  and  lightning,  with  the  Upper  Palatinate 
in  flames  around  him,  to  Nuremberg',  and  sat 
down  likewise  in  a  fortified  camp.  "  It  was  u])on 
a  height  called  Old-hill,  where  he  occupied  an  old 
ca.stle  in  the  foi'est,  with  a  hunter's  lodge  near, 
called  the  old  fort,  which  he  strongly  mtrenclied 
with  ditches  and  palisades,  erecting  likewise  on  the 
hill  some  large  and  strong  sconces,  covering  also 
the  ditches  and  breast-works  with  felled  trees,  and 
placing  many  casks  filled  with  sand  and  stones  on 
the  batteries  •^."  Here  the  two  greatest  commanders 
of  the  time,  with  the  eyes  of  the  world  fixed  on 
their  movements,  stood  from  the  beginning  of  July 
nine  weeks  against  each  other.  "  My  army  is  new," 
said  Wallenstein ;  "  if  it  were  overcome  in  a  battle 
Germany  and  Italy  would  be  in  danger  ;  I  will 
show  the  king  of  Sweden  a  new  way  of  making 
war  "•."  On  the  24th  August,  after  the  king,  by 
junctions  with  Oxenstierna,  Baner,  the  dukes  of 
Weimar  and  others  had  raised  his  strength  to 
46,000  men,  he  assaulted  Wallenstein's  camp  for 
ten  hours  in  vain.  Want  and  disease  had  laid  low 
a  far  greater  number  than  battle.  The  Nuremberg 
bills  of  mortality  for  this  year  state  the  amount  of 
the  victims  at  29,000.  The  king  left  Oxenstierna 
and  Kniphtiusen  to  defend  the  town,  and  on  the 
8th  September  led  off  his  army,  half  melted  awaj  ; 
unpursued  by  Wallenstein,  who  a  few  days  after- 
wards set  his  camp  on  fire  and  departed. 

In  the  camp  at  Nuremberg,  where  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus had  assembled  the  largest  force  of  any  during 
all  his  campaigns,  the  bonds  of  strict  discipline 
were  still  more  slackened  than  during  the  distress 
of  Werben,  as  we  may  learn  from  the  king's  vehe- 
ment address  to  the  assembled  officers.  "  Ye 
princes,  ioi-ds,  and  nobles,"  he  exclaimed,  "  ye 
that  help  to  destroy  your  own  native  land  !  My 
heart  is  embittered,  yea,  my  bowels  tremble  when 
I  hear  the  complaint  made,  that  Swedish  soldiers 
are  reckoned  more  shameless  than  even  those  of 
the  enemy.  But  it  is  not  the  Swedes,  it  is  the 
very  Germans  who  defile  themselves  with  these 
excesses.  Had  I  known  that  ye  Germans  bore  so 
little  love  and  truth  to  your  own  land,  I  would 
have  saddled  no  horse  for  your  sakes,  far  less 
risked  my  crown  and  life  for  you  *."     At  Nurem- 

year  IC32.  "Words  like  these  issued  out  of  the  heart  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus. 

^  Westenrieder,  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  His- 
torical Calendar  for  1805,  Munich,  ii.  208. 

8  His  horse  was  shot  under  him.  He  rose,  saying  "The 
apple  is  not  yet  ripe."  This  was  on  the  20th  April,  1632  ;  the 
same  day  Tilly  died.  The  king's  entry  into  Munich  was 
made  on  the  7th  May. 

9  In  all  eighteen  thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-three 
men,  as  I  have  seen  it  written  out  of  the  array.  Swedish 
Intelligencer,  ii.  240. 

'  Like  Jupiter  in  the  poet— all  in  thunder  and  light,  all 
in  fire  and  tempest,  he  takes  and  destroies  the  prince  pala- 
tine's dominions,  and  the  poor  Protestant  towns  before  him. 
Ibid.  238. 

2  New  Chronicle  of  the  War  (Newe  Kriegs-Chronica), 
printed  in  1()32,  quoted  by  Schuh.  Military  Occurrences 
about  Nuremberg  in  1632;   Nuremberg,  1824. 

^  Swedish  Intelligencer,  iii.  13,  17. 

^  We  have  followed  and  abridged  an  outline  of  his  speech 
in  the  Swedish  Intelligencer. 


1632.] 


Wallenstein  threat.-ns 
Saxony. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


State  of  the  war  after  the 
actions  at  Nuremberg. 


277 


berg  Baner  was  early  woiiiuled,  Torstensoti  was 
talien  at  the  assault  on  Wallenstein's  camp.  A 
cannon-ball  carried  away  the  sole  of  the  king's 
stirrup,  and  an  oftieer  fell  at  his  side.  Duke  Ber- 
nard of  Weimar  had  a  horse  shot  under  him. 

Both  the  king  and  the  duke  of  Friedland  divided 
their  armies  after  breaking  up  from  Nuremberg. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  left  Bernard  of  Weimar  in 
Franconia  to  guard  the  Maine,  but  himself  re- 
crossed  the  Danube  and  the  Lech,  and  bi'oke  anew 
into  Bavaria,  where  the  enemy,  reinforced  by  im- 
pex'ial  troops  from  Italy,  had  again  made  some  pro- 
gress. Wallenstein  despatched  a  division  of  the 
Bavarian  force  to  Austria,  to  quell  the  revolt  of 
the  peasants,  sent  Gallas  to  Meissen,  whither  Hoik 
with  his  wild  bands  had  preceded  him,  and  himself 
approached  Thuringia  *.  Unquestionably  Gustavus 
Adolphus  had  it  at  heart  to  secure  his  advantages 
in  southern  Germany,  where  Horn,  in  possession  of 
Strasburg,  stood  victor  on  the  Upper  Rhine,  and 
the  king  himself  now  founded  the  league  between 
the  Protestants  of  the  four  upper  circles,  which, 
after  his  death,  was  actually  concluded  at  Heil- 
bronn  *.  But  it  is  equally  indubitable,  that  his 
movement  to  the  southward  of  Nuremberg  was 
also  calculated  to  entice  the  enemy  to  the  same 
direction,  and  that  to  save  Saxony  he  wished  to 
remove  the  war  again  to  Bavaria  '.  This  purpose 
miscarried.  The  elector  of  Bavaria  indeed  now 
parted  from  Wallenstein  to  defend  his  own  coun- 
try ;  but  the  latter  went  not  a  step  out  of  his  way 
for  Bavaria.  The  accounts  of  contemporaries  de- 
scribe his  plan  with  as  much  completeness  as  veri- 
similitude. It  was  calculated  for  a  longer  time. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  broke  through  it  suddenly,  but 
at  the  cost  of  his  life. 

These  two  great  antagonists  in  our  days,  the  king 
of  Sweden  and  the  duke  of  Friedland,  says  the 
narrator,  were  now  become  the  most  famous  per- 

5  Swedish  Intelligencer,  iii.  82.  Compare  Khevenhiiller, 
xii.  1"5,  and  Francheviile,  203.  Khevenhiiller  says,  that 
the  king's  first  view,  when  he  quitted  Nuremberg,  was  to 
allure  the  enemy  to  an  assault  upon  the  town,  and  during  it 
to  attack  them .  After  Wallenstein's  upbreak  he  actually  came 
in  haste  to  Nuremberg,  examined  the  deserted  camp  of  the 
enemy,  and  judged  thereby  that  they  were  not  so  numerous 
as  they  had  been  stated.  Of  Hoik's  Croats  in  Saxony  Gualdo 
(himself  an  officer  of  Wallenstein)  says,  "  They  had  ima- 
gined a  new  kind  of  torture  to  draw  the  last  penny  from  the 
unfortunate  Saxons.  They  despoiled  men  and  women  with- 
out distinction,  and  in  this  state  caused  them  to  be  torn  by 
famished  dogs,  whom  they  carried  with  them  for  that  in- 
famous use."  Francheviile,  192.  "Their  villany  was  so 
great,  that  after  abusing  the  women;  in  satisfying  their  filthy 
lusts,  they  did  burn  them  and  their  families."  Monro,  ii. 
156.  The  king's  second  passage  of  the  Lech  was  made  on 
the  1st  and  2nd  October;  on  the  3rd  he  retook  the  town  of 
Rain,  lately  given  up  by  the  Swedish  commandant  colonel 
Mitschefal,  for  which  he  was  tried  by  court-martial  and  be- 
headed. The  king  was  reinforced  upon  his  march  to  Bavaria 
by  from  four  thousand  to  five  thousand  Swiss  (others  say 
more),  levied  upon  his  account,  who  were  afterwards  among 
the  troops  left  behind  to  maintain  Bavaria.  Swed.  Intel, 
iii.  60,  64. 

s  "  The  king  indeed  had  particular  alliances  with  the 
majority  of  the  evangelical  estates ;  but  these  not  being  able 
to  raise  the  stone,  it  was  found  that  completely  to  heal  all 
mischief,  an  unanimous  general  ordinance  was  highly  needful. 
To  lay  as  it  were  the  foundation-stone  thereto,  the  king  re- 
solved to  call  together  at  Ulm  a  convention  of  the  four  upper 
circles,  the  Swabian,  Franconian,  and  two  Rhenane."  Chem- 
nitz, i.  435. 


sons  in  the  Christian  world,  and  there  was  hardly 
a  man,  however  insignificant  he  might  be,  in  the 
whole  Protestant  party,  who  did  not  feel  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Swedish  king's  enterprises  upon  himself, 
his  activity  and  fortunes.  The  Swedish  arms  were 
still  in  the  ascendant.  Horn  was  victorious  in 
Triers  and  ALsatia,  whence  he  had  driven  away  Ossa 
and  Montecueuli.  Arnheim  with  the  Saxons,  and 
Duwall,  whom  the  king  had  sent  to  his  reinforce- 
luent,  had  overcome  almo.st  all  resistance  in  Silesia. 
In  Bavaria  there  was  little  to  do,  until  Montecu- 
euli, just  at  this  time,  broke  into  that  country. 
Duke  Julius  of  Wurteraberg  and  sir  Patrick  Ruth- 
ven  had  still  the  upper  hand  in  Swabia.  The  Swe- 
dish garrisons  in  Pomei'ania  and  Mecklenburg  had 
no  enemy.  The  Spaniards  and  Lorrainers  were 
about  this  time  expelled  from  Germany.  Of  all 
the  Imperialist  generals  Pappenheim  was  the  only 
one  who  still  carried  on  a  partisan  war  in  Lower 
Sa.xony,  and  the  court  of  Vienna  had  ordered  him 
to  unite  with  Wallenstein.  Such  was  the  position 
of  the  Swedish  armies  when  the  king  and  Wal- 
lenstein broke  up  from  Nuremberg. — On  Wed- 
nesday, the  12ih  September,  the  latter  crossed  the 
Rednitz  with  his  army.  The  soldiers  set  on  fire 
their  huts  and  the  country  round  about  ;  for  Wal- 
lenstein ever  encompassed  himself  with  flames. 
While  the  Imperialists  marched  off,  the  Swedish 
foi'ce  left  in  Nuremberg  stood  under  arms  in  and 
near  the  town,  and  exchanged  some  balls  with  the 
rear.  From  want  of  horses  the  enemy  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  great  stores  in  the  camp,  where 
the  remnant  became  the  prize  of  the  Nurembergers. 
At  some  distance  from  the  town  the  Imperial  army 
was  divided,  as  mentioned  before.  The  dukes  of 
Friedland  and  Bavaria  marched  onwards  by  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rednitz.  The  dragoons  went  in 
the  front,  the  Croats  wei'e  ever  the  last  to  leave 
quarters  *.     After  the  parcition,  and  w  ith  the  loss 

^  Theatrum  Europaeum,  which  quotes  both  the  opinions 
and  narrations  of  this  time,  says  that  it  was  the  king's 
intent,  "  by  capturing  the  strong  places  of  Bavaria,  to  draw 
the  enemy's  power  to  himself,  to  secure  the  Danube,  and 
forthwith  to  transfer  the  seat  of  the  war  into  the  Austrian 
hereditary  dominions  ;"  ii.  746.  "  It  is  easy  to  perceive  that 
the  king  wished  to  save  Saxony  by  a  diversion  to  Bavaria. 
But  that  was  calculated  as  against  an  ordinary  general,  and 
Wallenstein  showed  here  that  he  did  not  belong  to  that 
class.'  Billow,  Campaigns  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Ger- 
many (Gustaf  Adolfs  Falttag  i  Tyskland). 

8  "  These  dragoons,  or  horse-musketeers,  were  all  picked 
men.  Their  duty  wa^  to  sustain  the  cavalry,  and  when 
occasion  offered,  they  dismounted  and  filed  on  the  enemy. 
They  served  as  an  escort  to  convoys,  formed  sudden  am- 
buscades, &c.  These  dragoons  were  armed  with  ordinary 
muskets,  of  which  the  match  was  turned  on  a  small  piece  of 
wood  fixed  at  their  horse's  headstall ;  their  sword  was  short, 
and  at  their  saddle-bow  hung  a  little  hatchet,  which  served 
to  cut  wood.  These  troops  are  of  new  formation.  Others 
pretend  that  he  who  formed  the  first  dragoons  was  count 
Ernest  (de  Mansfeld),  who  was  placed  under  the  ban  of  the 
empire;  obliged  to  live  like  a  man  without  fire  or  home, 
wandering  from  one  place  to  another  with  his  little  array,  he 
had,  it  is  said,  set  his  infantry  on  horseback  that  they  might 
move  more  quickly."  Gualdo,  in  Francheviile,  164.  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  first  introduced  dragoons  into  the  Swedish 
army  ;  they  are  said  to  have  shot  better  tiian  the  Imperialists, 
and  had  probably  already  laid  aside  the  matchlock.  The 
Croats  corresponded  to  the  hussars  of  later  times. — "  The 
Croats  did  marvels  in  the  little  war.  Wallenstein  used  them 
at  all  seasons  to  alarm  the  king's  camp,  and  harass  his 
cavalry.    Gustavus  found  but  one  means  of  getting  rid  of 


278 


Position  of  the  hostile  annies. 
Plans  of  Wallenstciii. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  irruption  into  Saxony. 
Measures  for  its  defeat. 


[1628— 


at  Nuremberg,  the  whole  force  did  not  exceed  ten 
thousand,  or  at  the  highest  fifteen  thousand  foot, 
and  nine  or  ten  thousand  horse  ;  at  least  so  far  as 
was  known  to  the   king.     In  Forchheiin  Walleu- 
stein  stayed  from  ten  to  fourteen  days.  Here  he  first 
received  information  that  the  king  of  Sweden,  with 
lialf  his  army,  had  turned  against  Bavaria,  and  left 
duke  Bernard  with  the  other  half  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Maine.     The  elector  of  Bavaria  now  took 
his    way    homewards,    requesting   that    Altringer 
with  his  regiment  and  Colloredo  might  be  allowed 
to  follow,  to  marshal  the  laudwehr  of  Bavaria,  which 
Wallenstein  permitted,   escorting    the    elector    to 
Bamberg.      Although  secret  foes,   they    wore  an 
amicable  mien  at  their  leave-taking;  yet  it  was  re- 
marked that  Wallenstein  was  not  so  supple  as  the 
old   elector.     Wallenstein's   sojourn   in   Bamberg 
caused  suspicion  that  an  assault  was  contemplated 
upon    Schweinfurt,   where    the    Swedish    colonel 
Charles  Hard  was  commandant.     The  latter  aug- 
mented his  force,  and  duke  Bernard  of  Weimar 
hastened  to  the  defence  of  the  town  ^.  Wallenstein 
therefore   directed   his   march   against    Baireuth, 
Culmbaeh,  and  Coburg,  took  the  first  and  last  of 
these   towns,  but  was  repulsed  in  an  attempt  to 
storm  the  castle  of  Coburg,  by  the  Swedish  com- 
mandant DubatelP".      Duke  Bernard   had   come 
about  this  time  from  Schweinfurt  to  Konigshofen, 
and  theuce  moved  to  Hildburghausen,  on  the  edge 
of  the  Thuringian  forest.     Wallenstein  designed  to 
penetrate  into  Thuringia,  where  Pappenheim  was 
to  have  joined  him.    Then  all  the  passes  across  the 
Thuringian  forest  would  have  been  barred  against 
the    king ;    Wallenstein    and    Pappenheim   would 
have  retaken  Erfurt,  made  themselves  mastere  of 
Thuringia,  overrun   the  country  of  the  dukes  of 
Weimar,  occupied  winter-quarters  in  Saxony,  and 
next  spring  invaded  Lusatia  and  Silesia.     Wallen- 
stein would  have  gained  the  command  of  the  Elbe, 
cut  off  the  retreat  of  the  king  of  Sweden,  recovered 
once  moi'e  his  duchy  of  Mecklenburg,  and  soon 
again  stood  on  the  shore  of  the  Baltic. — The  first 
portion  of  this  plan   of  Wallenstein,  namely,  the 
reduction   of  Thuringia   and  Weimar,  was   frus- 
trated by  duke  Bernard,  who,  though  not  suffici- 
ently strong  for  an  engagement  m  the  open  field, 
yet  defended  the  pass,  by  which  he  rendered  the 

them,  that  was  to  reinforce  the  advanced  posts,  and  send 
there  good  pickets  of  cavalry,  mingled  with  dragoons  and 
musketeers.  These  had  orders  to  keep  themselves  con- 
cealed, and  wait  till  the  Croats  came  within  range  of  their 
muskets,  which  carrying  farther  than  carabines,  pierced 
these  lightly-clad  runners  without  their  being  able  to  defend 
themselves ;  at  the  same  time  the  cavalry,  which  had  opened 
to  allow  passage  to  the  fire  of  the  musketry,  was  to  surround 
them."  I.e.  163.  This  was  the  same  expedient  used  by  the 
king  at  Leipsic  against  the  Croats. 

9  The  king  had  committed  to  duke  Bernard  of  Weimar 
the  defence  of  Schweinfurt  and  the  pass  into  the  Thuringian 
forest.  "  As  we  are  apprehensive  on  account  of  Schweinfurt 
and  the  pass,  we  beg  your  lovingness  to  keep  a  watchful  eye 
upon  it,"  writes  the  king  to  duke  Bernard,  Dunkelsbiihl, 
Sept.  21,  lfi32.     Rose,  i.  172. 

10  The  name  is  also  written  Taupadell  and  Tupadel. 

n  "  Then  first  did  desolation  rightly  fall  upon  Saxony." 
Theatruni  Europa^um,  ii.  743.  Compare  Gualdo's  narrative 
before  cited  of  Hoik's  proceedings  in  Saxony,  and  what  the 
Theatrum  Europa^um  relates  of  Gallas.  From  Wallenstein's 
letter  to  Gallas:  "  Pray  the  Lord  ye  keep  sharp  justice,  and 
see  that  not  the  least  thing  is  taken  from  the  peasants  and 
country-folk,"  &'c.   (Forster's  Wallenstein,    Potsdam,    1834, 


king  a  great  service.  Nor  did  Pappenheim  dare  to 
seek  a  junction  with  the  emperor's  commander- 
in-chief,  ere  he  learned  that  the  latter  had  in- 
vaded Meissen  upon  another  side  through  Voigt- 
land.  For  thither  Wallenstein  now  followed  the 
tracks  of  Hoik  and  Gallas  with  fire  and  sword" 
(the  war,  says  the  narrator,  seeming  to  be  waged 
not  by  enemies  but  furies),  in  order  to  essay  the 
accomplishment  of  his  main  plan  in  this  way  >.  The 
elector  of  Saxony  in  his  distress  called  Gustavus 
Adolphus  for  the  second  time  to  his  rescue. 

The  king,  before  whom  Montecuculi  in  Bavaria 
had  retired  to  Ratisbon,  was  in  the  mind  to  pur- 
sue  him  and   penetrate   into   Austria.      He    was 
busied  in  Newburg  with  despatching  various  stores 
by  the  Danube,  and  preparing  to  besiege  Ingolstadt, 
whose  garrison,  weakened  by  the  plague,  was  not 
supposed  able  to  make  a  long  resistance,  when  a 
courier   from  Oxenstierna,   on   the   8th   October, 
brought  him  the  intelligence  that  Wallenstein  on 
the  5tli  had  directed   his  march  through    Voigt- 
land  towards  Saxony. — The  king  formed  his  deci- 
sion in  a  moment.      To  the  Palsgrave  Christian 
of   Birkenfeld  he  confided  the  care  of  defending 
Bavaria  with   the  newly-levied   Swiss   and   other 
troops.     Three  brigades  of  infantry  he  ordered  to  go 
with  the  queen  (who  accompanied  him  on  this  ex- 
pedition), to  Schweinfurt  and  the  Thuringian  forest. 
He  himself,  with  the  cavalry,  took  his  way  toward 
Nuremberg,  the  neighbourhood  of  which  he  cleared 
of    the   enemy.       There    he   communicated    with 
Kniphausen,  who  was  ordered  to  proceed  in  the 
same  direction,  while  he  with  his  body-guard  alone 
(three  hundred  Smaland  dragoons,  under  colonel 
Frederic  Stenbock),  hastened  from  Nuremberg  to 
overtake  duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  whom  he  found 
at  Schleusingen  on  the  21st  October.     They  con- 
tinued their  march  through  the  Thuringian  forest 
to  Arnstadt,  where  the  king  stayed  six  days,  wait- 
ing for  his  troops,  who  came  up  on  the  27th  Oc- 
tober *.     His  meeting  with  Bernard  of  Weimar  was 
cold.     The  duke  had  wished  to  reap  the  honour  of 
rescuing  Saxony  for  himself,  and,  restrained  by  the 
king's  express  order,  awaited  his  arrival  with  dis- 
content.    On  the  battle-field  of  Lutzeu  Bernard  ol 
Weimar   forgot   his   unjust   dissatisfaction  ^.      At 

p.  195),  Fbrster  takes  occasion  to  impeach  older  historians, 
who  have  spoken  of  Wallenstein's  cruel  mode  of  war  {even 
his  soldiers  called  him  the  tyrant)  of  "  unconscientious  dis- 
honesty." Even  if  we  do  not  distinguish  here  between  what 
Wallenstein  wished  and  what  he  possibly  could  not  help,  yet 
the  consideration  will  always  remain,  that  we  have  to  do  with 
a  man  whose  unshakeablc  principle  it  was  never  to  compro- 
mise himself  in  writing.  Forster  likewise,  with  all  his  merits 
as  to  the  history  of  Wallenstein,  has  in  our  opinion  the  fault 
of  having  judged  him  too  much  according  to  the  letter. 

'  This  whole  narration  is  an  abstract  from  the  Swedish  In- 
telligencer, iii.  76 — 91,  a  collection  which  shortly  appeared 
of  the  letters  and  relations  of  English  and  Scottish  officers 
serving  in  the  Swedish  army.  The  fourth  edition,  London, 
1634,  lies  before  us.  We  subjoin  the  following  from  the 
Theatrum  Europ<fium,  ii.  740  :  "  It  then  appeared  as  if  the 
duke  of  Friedland's  design  would  succeed,  which  was,  to  re- 
duce in  a  short  time  under  his  power  the  electorate  of  Sax- 
ony, and  after  to  repair  through  March-Brandenburg  to  his 
lost  territories,  Mecklenburg,  Stargard,  and  Rostock — espe- 
cially since  the  Saxon  army  was  stationed  a  long  way  thence 
in  Silesia,  and  could  not  be  commanded  back  in  such  sudden 
haste." 

2  Swedish  Intelligencer,  iii.  64 — 71. 

3  That  the  hero-souled,  but  too   passionate    Bernard  of 


1632.] 


The  king  ovextakes 
Wallensteiii. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


His  desertion  by  the 
elector. 


J79 


Arnstadt  Gustavus  Adolphus  parted  from  Axel 
Oxenstierna,  who  had  followed  him  from  Nurem- 
berg, and  now  turned  towards  Frankfort  on  the 
Maine,  in  order  thence  to  proceed  to  Upper  Ger- 
many as  the  king's  legate,  with  unlimited  powers. 
The  army  marched  to  Erfurt,  where  it  was  mus- 
tered upon  a  beautiful  plain  not  far  from  the  town. 
A  new  division  was  adopted.  Several  regiments 
were  consolidated  ;  the  Scottish  and  English,  now 
too  weak,  were  dissolved.  In  all,  the  infantry 
was  reckoned  at  twelve  thousand,  and  the  cavalry 
at  six  thousand  five  hundred;  this  was  the  king's 
whole  force  in  the  battle  of  Lutzen*.  In  Erfurt, 
where  the  king  arrived  on  the  evening  of  the  28th 
October,  he  first  of  all  visited  his  lieutenant,  duke 
William  of  Weimar,  who  lay  ill.  In  the  market- 
place the  queen  came  to  meet  him.  In  the  com- 
pany of  his  wife  and  duke  Ernest  of  Saxe- Weimar 
he  swallowed  a  hasty  supper,  and  spent  the  night 
in  his  chamber  perusing  letters,  issuing  orders,  and 
despatching  couriers.  Early  m  the  morning  he 
I'ose,  took  a  tender  leave  (the  last)  of  his  spouse  % 
exhorted  the  burghers  of  Erfurt  to  be  faithful  to 
her,  if  by  God's  pleasure  any  thing  fatal  should 
befall  him,  mounted  his  horse,  and  followed  his 
arm}'. 

Wallenstein  meanwhile  had  taken  Leipsic,  made 
a  new  movement  towards  Torgau,  and  lastly  com- 
municated with  Pappenheim  at  Merseburg,  the 
same  day  the  king  came  to  Erfiu't.  The  Swedes 
had  as  it  were  flown,  and  made  incredible  marches, 
says  one  of  Wallenstein's  officers  ^ ;  hence  the 
arrival  of  the  king  was  unknown  to  the  enemy. 
Pappenheim  had  just  advised  Wallenstein  to  tui-n 
his  whole  force  against  Erfurt,  when  the  news  came 
that  the  king  was  already  approaching  from  that 
place.  Wallenstein  now  went  to  Weissenfels,  and 
sent  in  haste  to  occupy  the  pass  over  the  Saal 
at  Naumburg,  where  only  a  weak  outpost  was  sta- 
tioned. It  ,was  too  late.  Naumburg  had  been 
already  taken  by  the  king,  who,  on  the  30th  Oc- 
tober, crossed  the  Saal.  The  inhabitants  on  his 
way  fell  upon  their  knees,  and  stretched  out  their 
hands  to  their  rescuer,  who  exclaimed  :  "  I  fear 
that  God  will  punish  me  ;  these  people  honour  me 
like  a  god."  The  armies  were  so  near  one  another 
that  the  outposts  skirmished  ;  but  neither  of  the 
leaders  seemed  yet  determined  on  an  engagement. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  begun  to  construct  a  forti- 
fied camp  at  Naumburg.  Wallenstein  on  his  side 
intrenched  his  army.  The  difficulty  of  the  pass 
between    Weissenfels    and   Naumburg   prevented 


Weimar,  could  harbour  this  discontent,  and  declare  in  a  let- 
ter to  his  brother  William  :  "  It  hath  almost  the  appearance 
as  if  some  jealousy  were  springing  up,  and  the  king  would 
not  entrust  to  me  the  performance  of  this  work,  or  did  not 
reckon  me  competent  thereto  " — is  excusable ;  but  that  a 
historian  like  Rose  should  here  insinuate  envy,  and  ascribe 
motives  like  these  for  the  king's  conduct :  "  He  resolves  the 
accomplishment  of  the  enterprise  for  himself,  in  order  alone 
to  reap  the  renown,  and  to  bind  the  elector  of  Saxony  to 
himself,  but  not  to  the  hero  of  Weimar," — and  this  of  the 
expedition  to  Saxony,  where  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  playing 
for  his  all,  and  where  he,  even  after  his  junction  with  duke 
Bernard,  had  hardly  20,000  men  at  Lutzen ! — this  we  say  is 
hardly  excusable,  even  if  one  be  the  historian  of  Weimar. 
Compare  Riise,  duke  Bernard  the  Great  of  Saxe-Weijnar,  i. 
1/4,  176. 

■>  "  And  this  was  the  king's  whole  strength  (and  after  the 
largest  reckoning  too)  in  the  day  of  the  great  battle  of  Lut- 


him  from  immediately  attacking  the  latter  place; 
and  he  requested  the  opinion  of  his  generals. 
They  dissuaded  a  battle  ;  the  king  had  already 
taken  up  an  advantageous  position  and  fortified 
it ;  the  season  was  now  far  advanced  ;  on  the 
Rhine  the  enemy  threatened  to  be  an  over-match. 
Pappenheim  actually  obtained  the  permission  of 
his  chief  to  betake  himself  thither  ;  on  the  way 
he  was  to  drive  the  Swedes  from  the  castle  of 
Moritzburg  at  Halle.  They  held  it  to  be  impi'o- 
bable  that  the  Swedish  army,  so  much  weaker  as 
it  was,  would  venture  to  attack  the  Imperialists. 
Wallenstein  arranged  his  plans  for  winter-quarters, 
and  retired  to  Lutzen. — A  Spanish  officer  in  his 
army  states,  however,  that  this  was  in  connexion 
with  a  secret  object.  Wallenstein  is  said  to  have 
intended  to  go  from  Lutzen  to  Merseburg,  in  order 
to  be  nearer  to  Pappenheim  at  his  assault  of 
Halle;  he  had  sent  colonels  Contreras  and  Suys  to 
Altenburg  and  Zwickau,  hoping  that  the  king 
would  avail  himself  of  the  opening  so  left  to  ad- 
vance to  Dresden,  where  he  purposed  then  falling 
upon  the  Swedes  in  the  rear  with  his  collective 
force  '.  He  had  ordered  Gallas  to  march  from  the 
Bohemian  frontier  to  join  him  ;  but  this  officer 
did  not  arrive  early  enough  for  the  battle  of 
Lutzen  ^. 

The  last  days  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  are  for  us 
too  important  not  to  obtain  more  detailed  notice. 
The  king  came  to  Naumburg  on  Thursday,  the  1st 
of  November,  O.S.,  and  lingered  there  till  the  follow- 
ing Monday;  spending  only  the  nights  in  the  town, 
but  the  days  in  his  camp,  whence  he  was  at  last 
obliged  by  the  cold  to  remove  his  infantry  into  the 
town.  On  Sunday  a  Saxon  peasant  came  to  the 
king,  and  delivered  into  his  hands  a  letter  from  the 
Imperialist  general  count  Colloredo  to  the  chief  of 
his  regiment  at  Querfurt,  with  information  of  Wal- 
lenstein's march  to  Lutzen,  and  Pappenheim's  to 
Halle.  In  a  council  of  war  with  duke  Bernard  of 
Weimar  and  general  Kniphausen  thereby  occa- 
sioned, the  opinion  of  the  latter,  that  no  battle 
should  be  hazarded,  overcame  that  of  the  former. 
When  the  king  broke  up  from  Naumburg,  his  first 
intention  therefore  was  to  proceed  to  meet  the  elec- 
tor of  Saxony  and  duke  George  of  Ltmeburg.  He 
had  calculated  upon  a  junction  with  both.  Duke 
George,  with  the  troops  under  his  command  in 
Lower  Saxony,  had  received  timely  instructions 
with  this  view.  The  duke,  who  had  lately  assured 
the  king  that  he  desired  no  greater  honour  in  this 


zen."  Swedish  Intel,  iii.  69.  Comp  71.  The  Theatrum 
Europseum  states  the  king's  strength  at  20,000  men,  adding 
that  they  were  his  best  and  oldest  soldiers.  So  Khevenhiiller, 
xii.  182.  Forgetting  this,  he  speaks  in  his  description  of  the 
battle  itself  of  25,000  men,  although  the  king  had,  after  the 
review  of  Erfurt,  received  no  reinforcement,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, left  garrisons  at  Naumburg  and  Weissenfels. 

5  According  to  a  narrative  mentioned  by  Philippi  (death 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Leipsic,  1832),  the  queen  came  after 
the  king  to  Naumburg,  and  first  parted  from  him  there  on 
the  morning  of  November  5. 

6  Gualdo,  by  Francheville,  205. 

^  Swedish  Intel,  iii.  113.  The  Spanish  relation  alluded  to 
was  printed  at  Lisbon  in  1633.  Compare  Khevenhiiller,  xii. 
187. 

8  Forster,  Wallenstein's  Letters,  ii.  278.  Gualdo  incor- 
rectly mentions  him  as  present.  Khevenhiiller  makes  the 
same  mistake  as  to  Horn,  whose  actions  in  Alsace  at  the 
I  same  time  he  nevertheless  relates. 


oftA       ^'^^  hostile  armies  in  presence 
-'•"  111'  eaoli  Dtlier 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


on  the  field  of  Lutzen. 
Their  probalile  strenKlli. 


[1628— 


world  than  to  shed  his  blood  for  his  majesty's  and 
the  general  weal ",  instead  of  this  went  his  own 
way,  and  appeared  not,  any  more  than  the  elector, 
at  the  battle  of  Lutzen  '. 

It  was  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  5th 
November  that  the  king  broke  up  from  Naumburg. 
Halfway  to  Pegan,  towards  ten  in  the  forenoon,  the 
tidings  of  Pappenlieim's  departure  were  confirmed, 
with  the  addition,  that  Wallenstein's  troops,  unpre- 
pared for  an  attack,  were  lying  in  the  villages  round 
Lutzen.  The  king  exclaimed  :  "  Now  do  1  verily 
believe  that  God  hath  given  the  enemy  into  my 
hand,"  and  then  resolved  to  attack  Wallenstein. 
He  caused  Weissenfels,  abandoned  by  the  Impe- 
rialists, to  be  occupied.  Count  Rudolph  Colloredo, 
who  was  despatched  to  withdraw  the  last  hundred 
men  remaining  there,  from  the  high  castle  of 
Weissenfels  beheld  the  king  advancing  on  his  way 
to  Lutzen,  and  was  the  first  to  bring  the  know- 
ledge of  the  fact  to  Wallenstein.  The  latter  wrote 
forthwith  to  Pappenheim  to  return  without  delay, 
since  the  enemy  was  approaching,  and  already  at 
the  pass.  The  letter,  steeped  in  Pappenheim's  blood, 
is  extant  in  the  archives  of  Vienna  ^;  he  carried  it 
about  him  in  the  battle.  The  pass  referred  to  is  at 
Rippach,  a  village  on  a  brook  of  the  same  name,  that 
flows  through  low-lying  meadows  between  heights, 
from  which  the  wide  level  around  Leipsic  and  Lutzen 
extends.  When  the  king,  having  routed  Isolani's 
Croats  at  the  pass,  descended  into  the  plain  the 
night  had  already  set  in.  He  spent  it  in  his  cha- 
riot, with  Kniphausen  and  Bernard  of  Weimar;  the 
army  on  the  open  field.  In  the  Imperialist  leaguer 
there  was  great  confusion.  Three  cannon-shots 
called  the  regiments  together;  orders  were  sent  in 
all  directions  to  hasten  to  camp.  The  regiments 
took  their  places  in  the  array  as  they  came  up. 
The  Imperialist  dragoons  and  pioneers  worked 
throughout  the  night,  to  deepen  the  ditches  on 
both  sides  of  the  high-road  from  Leipsic  to  Lutzen, 
so  that  they  might  serve  as  breast-works  for  mus- 
keteers. Wallenstein's  position  was  north  of  this 
road,  which  covered  his  front.  His  right  wing 
rested  on  the  town  of  Lutzen  and  the  windmills, 
which  lay  before  him  ;    in  the  gardens   between 


9  "  His  rnyal  majesty  may  safely  and  surely  depend  upon 
this,  that  liis  priiieely  prace  is  eager  to  shed  his  blood  for 
his  majesty  and  the  commonwealtli,  seeing  that  he  desires 
no  greater  honour  in  this  world  than  to  display  this  on  occa- 
sion olTering,  and  really  as  well  as  corporally  to  demonstrate 
it."  Duke  George's  relation  to  the  king,  Brunswick,  Oct.  2, 
1632.  See  v.  d.  Decken,  duke  George  of  Brunswick  and 
Luneburg,  ii.  doc.  100.  The  duke,  instead  of  going  to  the 
king,  hastened  to  join  the  Saxons,  and  was  now  with  his 
corps  at  Torgau,  where  a  thousand  Saxon  cavalry  had  placed 
themselves  under  him,  1.  c.  ii.  103.  Others  state  the  num- 
ber of  the  Saxons  as  considerably  higher,  and  their  whole 
strength  at  8000  men  or  upwards.  But  it  is  certain  that  the 
main  body  of  the  Saxons  was  still  detained  in  Silesia  by  Arn- 
heim,  in  spite  of  all  the  elector's  injunctions.  Arnheim 
came  with  2000  men  on  the  28th  October  to  Dresden,  there- 
after inspected  the  Swedish  corps  under  duke  George  of 
Luneburg  at  Torgau,  came  back  on  the  31st  October,  and 
repaired  again  to  Silesia.  Chemnitz,  i.  459.  Arnheim  con- 
sequently at  this  lime  was  neither  with  10,000  men,  nor  with 
the  Saxon  main  army  at  Dresden,  as  the  above-mentioned 
historian  of  duke  George  says,  ii.  100,  109. 

'  Gustavus  Adolphus,  on  the  night  before  the  battle,  is  said 
to  have  comidained  of  the  untrustworthiness  of  duke  George 
of  Luneburg.  He  resolved  on  battle  witliout  waiting  for  the 
effect  of  his  last  orders.     The  king's  last  letter  to  the  elector 


these  and  the  town  musketeers  were  posted.  The 
left  wing  stretched  into  the  open  plain  (here  Pap- 
penheim was  to  come  up),  and  had  at  a  little  dis- 
tance from  it  a  canal  (the  so-called  float-ditch), 
which  connects  the  Saal  with  the  Elster,  and  tra- 
verses the  field  in  a  north-west  direction.  Four 
great  brigades  of  infantry,  each  of  several  regi- 
ments, occupied  the  centre  of  the  Imperial  army, 
where  Wallenstein  himself  took  post.  Immense 
squares,  ten  men  deep,  with  similar  smaller  squares 
at  the  corners,  they  resembled  fortresses  with  pro- 
jecting bastions.  Before  them,  on  the  high-road, 
they  had  that  battery  of  seven  cannon,  which  was  to 
be  the  object  of  so  murdei-ous  a  struggle.  The  re- 
maining artillery  grazed  the  front  from  the  wind- 
mills in  a  slanting  direction.  On  the  left  of  the 
masses  of  infantry  which  have  been  mentioned, 
were  seen  in  great  colunms  Piccolomini's  cuiras- 
siers, on  whom  the  attack  of  the  Swedes  was 
broken,  and  where  the  king  lost  his  life  ;  on  the 
right  likewise  deep  columns  of  cavalry,  and  then 
infantry  again  ;  on  the  extreme  of  both  wings  the 
Croats.  In  order  to  j)lant  themselves  over-against 
the  enemy,  the  Swedes,  on  their  side,  were  obliged 
to  pass  the  canal  just  mentioned,  and  their  right 
wing  reached  in  its  first  position  some  distance 
beyond  it. 

Wallenstein's  strength  is  very  differently  stated. 
Prisoners  of  the  Swedish  army,  whom  he  caused 
to  be  examined  by  Pappenheina  in  Weissenfels, 
heard  it  alleged  to  be  50,000  men  ^,  but  they  them- 
selves remarked  the  exaggeration  of  this  statement. 
For  the  rest,  we  may  form  a  notion  of  one  of  Wal- 
lenstein's armies,  when  we  know  that  in  this  were 
found  no  fewer  than  10,000  women,  baggage-lads, 
and  children.  In  his  account  to  the  emperor  after 
the  battle,  Wallenstein  himself  states  its  force  at 
Lutzen  as  not  higher  than  12,000  men  ;  an  asser- 
tion still  more  improbable,  which  Catholic  authors 
however  have  adopted.  Gustavus  Adolphus  esti- 
mated his  enemy  on  the  field  at  30,000  men,  ac- 
cording to  ocular  measurement,  and  the  extent  of 
his  front  *.  By  the  lowest  statement  the  last  mili- 
tary writer  upon  this  battle  assumes,  that  Wal- 
lenstein   was   at   least   20,000    men   strong,   even 

of  Saxony  in  Torgau  was  despatched  on  the  4  th  November 
from  Naumburg;  he  bade  him  march  straight  to  Eiienburg, 
informed  bim  that  he  was  himself  going  to  Pegau,  and  ap- 
pointed Grimma  for  the  place  of  meeting.  Swedish  Intel,  iii. 
121.  To  this  letter  duke  Bernard  appeals  in  his  memorial  to 
the  elector  after  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  Nov.  11,  1632,  where  he 
again  presses  for  a  junction.  In  this  second  instance  it  is  said: 
"  Since  God  hath  assisted  his  grace  in  this,  and  the  enemy 
hath  retired  in  affright,  therefore  his  grace  linds  it  higlily 
needful  (according  to  his  majesty's  own  opinion,  as  shown  by 
his  last  letter),  that  his  electoral  highness  may  determine 
himself  to  give  his  people  the  order  to  conjoin  themselves 
with  the  royal  army,  as  his  grace,  being  one  in  the  service  of 
his  majesty  of  Sweden,  would  have  prayed,  to  the  end  that 
his  grace  duke  Bernard  may  march  the  Oth  to  Peja  (Pegau), 
and  the  10th  to  Grimma."  Thirdly,  duke  Bernard  prays  the 
elector  (as  it  is  said,  also  according  to  the  view  expressed  by 
the  king  in  his  lifetime,)  to  leave  Arnheim  and  his  army  in 
Silesia.  Glatfey,  de  gladio  Gust  Adol  ,  Leipsic,  17-19.  Hereby 
is  contradicted  the  assertion  of  Rose,  i.  176,  that  duke  Ber- 
nard, after  his  difference  with  Gustavus  Adolphus  at  Arn- 
stadt,  never  styled  himself  a  Swedish  general.  Yet  Rose 
cites  this  very  memorial  !  (i.  368.  n.  66.) 

2  Fbrster,  Wallenstein's  Letters,  ii.  273. 

3  Swedish  Intel,  iii.  119. 
••  Ibid.  133. 


1632.] 


Order  of  battle,  and 
preparations. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


The  king's  address  to 
his  troops. 


281 


ai^'^r   he   had  sent  away  about  10,003  with  Pap- 
peiihoini  ^. 

The  Swedes,  as  we  have  said,  crossed  the  canal 
above-mentioned  ;  a  portion  of  their  right  wing  did 
not  pass  it  before  the  first  attack.  Tiie  order  of  battle 
was  the  same  as  at  Leipsic  ;  the  whole  army  stood 
in  two  lines  ;  the  infantry  six,  the  cavalry  three  to 
four  men  deep,  the  former  in  the  middle,  the  latter 
on  the  wings;  yet  the  cavah-y  was  every  whei-e 
separated  by  platoons  of  musketeers  from  fifty  to  a 
hundred  men.  The  king  led  on  the  right  wing, 
consisting  of  six  regiments  of  cavalry,  Finns, 
Westgothlanders,  Sudermanians,  Uplunders,  East- 
gothlanders,  Smalanders  in  the  first  line,  and  of  Ger- 
man horse  in  the  second.  Eight  brigades  of  infantry 
formed  the  centre,  whereof  three  in  the  first  line 
next  the  king  were  Swedes;  among  them  the  guard 
or  the  so-called  yellow  regiment,  and  the  blues, 
under  colonel  Winkel.  The  first  line  of  infantry 
was  led  by  count  Nicholas  Bralie,  the  second  by 
Knijjhausen.  The  left  wing,  under  duke  Bernard 
of  Weimar,  counted  likewise  six  regiments  of 
cavalry  in  each  line,  Germans,  Courlanders,  and 
Livonians.  Behind  the  infantry  stood  two  regi- 
ments in  reserve,  one  of  foot,  under  the  Scotsman 
Henderson,  one  of  horse,  under  colonel  Oehm,  from 
the  Palatinate  ^.  Before  every  brigade  of  the  first 
line  were  placed  five  large  cannon ;  forty  lighter  pieces 
were  distributed  before  the  platoons  of  musketry  be- 
tween the  cavalry;  the  whole  artillery  consisted  of 
sixty  cannon;  the  greatest  part  of  the  baggage  was 
left  at  Naumburg,  the  rest  was  stationed  at  the 
village  of  Meuchen,  beyond  tiie  canal. 

On  Tuesday,  the  Clh  of  November,  1632,  lay  a 
thick  fog  over  the  plain  at  Lutzen,  which  did  not 
begin  to  disperse  till  towards  noon.  The  Swedish 
army  said  prayers,  and  sang  Luther's  psalm,  "  To 
us  our  God  is  a  strong  tower;"  after  which  the  king 
himself  intoned  another  spiritual  hymn  of  i>raise  ^. 
Since  his  wound  at  Dirschau,  he  had  ever  found  it 
painful  to  wear  armour,  and  he  set  generally  no 
value  on  the  heavy  accoutrement  hitherto  used, 
which  he  in  great  part  abolished  in  his  army. 
"  God  is  my  harness,"  he  said,  when  his  equip- 
ments were  brought  to  him  on  that  niorning.  He 
mounted  his  horse,  without  having  taken  any  re- 
freshments. Clad  in  his  doublet  and  great  coat, 
as  usual,  he  rode  through  the  ranks,  and  spoke  to 
his  troops  in  words  which  have  come  down  to  us  *. 
To  his  Swedes  and  Finns  he  said;  "Dear  friends 
and  countrymen,  this  day  the  moment  is  come  to 
show  what  ye  have  learned  in  so  many  combats. 
There  ye  have  the  foe,  not  upon  a  high  mountain, 
or  behind  strong  intrenchments,   but  on  a  clear 

'  Vincke,  Battle  of  Lutzen.  Berlin,  1832. 

6  Swed.  Intel,  iii.  129. 

'  Cliemnitz,  i.  464.  "  Thereupon  his  majesty  himself 
began  to  sing  gladly  '  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour,  death  he  did 
overpower."  Narrative  of  the  court- trumpeter,  Jens  Mans- 
S(in,  written  in  German,  entitled,  "Actions  and  Campaigns 
of  me  Jens  Mansson,  which  I  have  made  with  his  Royal 
Majesty  Gustavus  Adolphus,  &c.,  my  most  gracious  King 
and  Lord,  from  the  year  1621  unto  liis  last  day."  Translated 
into  Swedish  in  the  Historical  Archives,  Stockholm,  1774,  i. 
4.5,  by  Lbnbom.  The  psalm  above  quoted  is  in  the  Stock- 
holm German  Psalm-Book,  among  the  Easter  Psalms.  Some 
say  that  the  king  at  his  own  morning  prayer  sang  the  psalm 
"  Despond  not  yet,  ye  little  flock,"  (see  the  Swedish  Psalm- 
Book,  No.  378,)  which  he  is  himself  said  to  have  composed. 
WoUmhaus  (in  his  "Lutheran  Church")  relates  that  Fabri- 


field.  How  this  enemy  hath  heretofore  shunned 
the  open  plain,  ye  well  know  ;  and  that  he  lets  it 
now  come  to  a  battle,  proceeds  not  from  his  free- 
will, nor  from  hope  of  victory,  but  because  he  can 
no  longer  escape  your  arms.  Therefore  make 
yourselves  ready,  and  hold  you  well  as  becomes 
brave  soldiers;  stand  fast  by  one  another,  and  fight 
like  true  knights,  for  your  God,  for  your  father- 
land, and  your  king.  I  will  then  so  reward  you  all 
that  ye  may  have  cause  to  thank  me  for  it ;  but  if 
ye  fight  not,  no  bone  of  you  shall  ever  come  to 
Sweden.  God  preserve  you  alP!"  To  the  Germans 
he  thus  spake;  "You,  my  sincere  brothers  and 
comi-ades,  I  pray  and  exhort  by  your  Christian 
conscience  and  your  own  honour,  now  do  your 
duty,  as  ye  have  done  the  same  with  me  often  be- 
fore, and  especially  a  year  ago,  not  far  from  this 
place.  Then  ye  beat  old  Tilly  and  his  army,  and  I 
hope  that  this  enemy  shall  not  slip  for  a  better  bar- 
gain. Go  freshly  to  it !  Ye  shall  not  merely  fight 
under  me,  but  with  me  and  beside  me.  I  myself 
will  go  before  you,  and  here  venture  life  and  blood. 
If  ye  will  follow  me,  I  trust  in  God  that  ye  will  win 
a  victory  which  shall  come  to  good  for  you  and 
your  descendants.  If  not,  there  is  an  end  of  your 
religion,  your  freedom,  your  temporal  and  eternal 
welfare."  Wallenstein  did  not  addi'ess  his  army '. 
On  both  sides  the  watchword  was  as  at  Leipsic; 
"  God  with  us,"  in  the  Swedish,  "  Jesus,  Maria," 
in  the  imperial  force.  Bernard  of  Weimar,  and 
the  other  generals,  received  the  king's  last  orders. 
After  his  speech,  which  both  nations  answered  with 
clash  of  arms  and  joyful  shouts,  the  king  called  out, 
with  his  face  uptui-ned  to  heaven,  "Now  will  we  in 
God's  name  onward  !  Jesu,  Jesu,  Jesu,  may  we  fight 
to-day  for  the  honour  of  thy  holy  name  ! "  There- 
with he  waved  his  sword  over  his  head,  and  gave 
the  command,  "  Forward  ^I"  The  town  of  Lutzen 
was  observed  burning  ;  it  had  been  set  on  fire  by 
the  Imperialists.  The  king  was  at  this  moment 
surrounded  by  duke  Francis  Albert  of  Saxe-Lauen- 
burg,  his  court-max-shal  Kreilsheim,  the  chamber- 
lain Truchsess,  the  page  Leubelfing,  several  officers 
of  regiments  broken  up  at  Erfurt,  who  now  did 
staff-duty,  and  two  life-guardsmen. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  fog  parted  ^  for  some  time, 
and  the  sun  shone  forth.  The  cannonade  began,  in 
which  the  Imperialists  had  the  advantage  of  the 
Swedes,  who  marched  straight  upon  the  enemy's 
batteries.  Some  balls  fell  close  to  the  king,  who, 
during  this  advance,  changed  his  horse  *.  The 
Swedes  drew  near  the  high-road,  where  they  were 


cius,  the  king's  court-preacher,  heard  it  from  his  own  lips. 
Others  ascribe  it  to  John  Altenburg,  a  minister  in  Thuringia. 

8  We  follow  Chemnitz,  with  abridgment  of  his  diffuse 
style,  and  some  variation  according  to  other  sources. 

9  The  conclusion  is  as  it  is  given  by  Jens  Mansson. 

'  "  Wallenstein  by  his  presence  solely  and  the  severity  of  his 
silence,  seemed  to  signify  to  his  soldiers,  that  as  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  do,  he  would  recompense  or  chastise  them." 
(Wallenstein  par  sa  seule  presence  et  la  severite  de  son 
silence,  &c.)     Memoires  de  Richelieu,  vii.  258. 

2  This  said,  he  drew  out  his  sword,  which  waving  over 
his  head  he  advanced  forward,  the  foremost  of  all  his  army. 
Swed.  Intel,  iii.  127. 

3  Richelieu,  Mem.  vii.  258.  His  narrative  is  a  literal 
translation  of  the  report  of  the  battle,  which  duke  Bernard 
set.t  to  Louis  XIII.,  quoted  (after  Siri,  Mem.  vii.  541)  in  the 
Appendix  to  Wallenstein's  Letters  by  Forster,  ii.  336. 

■1  Richelieu,  1.  c. 


282 


Desperate  charge  of 
the  infantry. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Temporary  repulse. 
The  king's  death. 


[1628- 


met  by  a  lively  fire  from  the  musketeers,  posted 
partly  iu  the  deepened  ditches,  partly  behind  walls 
in  the  rear  of  these.  Some  say,  that  when  the 
infantry  here  did  not  advance  quickly  enough,  the 
king,  reproaching  them,  took  pike  iu  hand  himself, 
and  prepared  to  lead  the  assault  on  the  ditches;  but 
allowed  himself  to  b.e  moved  by  the  exclamations 
and  entreaties  of  his  soldiers  to  desist  from  his  pur- 
pose, whereupon  he  mounted  his  horse  and  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  cavalry  K  The  onfall 
was  made  with  such  impetuosity,  that  the  three 
Swedish  infauti-y  brigades  of  the  centre,  under  the 
command  of  count  Nicholas  Brahe,  pushed  across 
the  high-road,  took  the  hostile  batteries  on  the 
other  side,  repulsed  two  immense  squares  of  the 
enemy,  and  were  on  the  point  of  overpowering  the 
third,  when,  outmatched  in  an  attack  by  the 
enemy's  reserve  and  cavalry,  they  were  obliged  to 
give  way,  lost  the  batteries  again,  and  were  driven 
back  over  the  high-road.  The  Swedish  cavalry, 
which  at  the  first  onslaught  had  partly  halted 
at  the  ditches,  came  up  afterwards  ;  the  king  was 
among  the  foremost.  The  tidings  of  the  first  cap- 
ture of  the  battex'y  had  reached  him ;  he  uncovered 
his  head  and  thanked  God.  Over-against  stood  the 
Croats  and  the  imperial  cuirassiers;  the  latter  from 
head  to  foot  in  dark  accoutrements.  He  pointed  to 
them,  and  said  to  the  Finnish  colonel  Stalhandske 
(Steelglove),  "Tackle  to  the  black  lads;  they  are 
coming  to  do  us  mischief^.''  At  the  moment  he 
learned  that  the  infan  try  was  giving  way.  He  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  Smaland  cavalry',  to 
hasten  to  their  aid;  too  impetuously,  for  he  was 
separated  from  his  troops,  and  fell  himself  among 
the  enemy's  cuirassiers,  the  fog  again  spreading  at 
the  same  moment.     His  horse  received  a  pistol- 

5  Harte,  History  of  the  Life  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  ii.  366. 
Gualdo  (Francheville),  218. 

f'  Thus  much  did  Stalhandske  himself  oftentimes  and  at 
table  relate  unto  divers  gentlemen  of  our  nation.  Swed. 
Intel,  iii.  134. 

7  "Since  the  colonel  of  the  regiment  (Frederic  Stenhock) 
was  shot  in  the  foot,  his  majesty  in  person  led  it."  Relation 
of  Jens  Mansson,  1.  c. 

8  Richelieu,  vii.  260.  Khevenhiiller  says  that  the  shot 
struck  his  head.  "  The  relation  which  was  transmitted  to 
his  imperial  majesty  of  tliis  death,  in  hoc  passu,  states,  that 
as  the  king  tried  to  go  to  the  aid  of  his  flying  troops,  an  Im- 
perialist corporal  took  a  musketeer  by  the  hand,  directing 
him,  since  he  saw  that  every  one  yielded  to  the  king  and 
made  room  for  him,  '  to  slioot  upon  him,  for  he  was  some 
chief  one;',  thereupon  he  presented,  fired,  and  shot  the  king 
through  the  arm.  A  squadron  of  Imperialist  dragoons  now 
coming  up,  one  among  them  in  white  accoutrements,  who 
is  said  to  have  been  the  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Florentine 
regiment  of  Falkenberg,  shot  the  king  through  the  head,  so 
that  he  fell  from  his  horse  to  the  ground  and  was  stripped." 
Khevenhiiller,  xii.  192. 

'  Swed.  Intel,  iii.  137.  "  Falkenberg,  lieutenant-colonel 
of  a  regiment  of  Imperial  cavalry,  pushing  straight  to  the 
king  with  bridle  loose,  without  any  one's  believing  that  he 
was  an  enemy,  discharged  a  pistol-ball  at  him  at  ten  paces, 
which  hit  hiiu  in  the  middle  of  the  back  and  made  him  fall 
to  the  ground ;  on  the  instant  the  equerry  of  duke  Francis, 
running  after  the  cavalier,  despatched  him  with  his  sword." 
Richelieu,  vii.  2(i0.  That  this  ducal  equerry,  who  could  not 
possibly  have  attempted  to  avenge  the  king's  fall  if  his  own 
master  had  been  the  murderer,  was  called  Luchau,  as  stated 
in  the  Swedish  Intelligencer,  is  confirmed  by  a  private  letter 
from  Franci.s  of  Lauenburg  to  Wallenstein,  some  weeks  after 
the  battle  (Forster,  ii.  357).  He  sends  back  a  servant  of 
Wallenstein,  made  prisoner,  requesting  him  to  release  the 


shot  through  its  neck;  a  second  broke  the  bone  of 
his  left  arm.  He  now  prayed  the  duke  of  Lauen- 
burg to  lead  him  out  of  the  thick  of  the  battle,  but 
at  the  same  moment  received  a  fresh  shot  through 
the  back  *,  and  fell  from  his  horse,  which  dragged 
him  some  distance  in  the  stirrups.  The  chamber- 
lain Truchsess  saw  the  shot  aimed  at  the  king  by 
an  imperialist  officer,  who  was  immediately  slain 
by  Luchau,  the  equerry  of  the  duke  of  Lauenburg  ^. 
The  duke  fled.  Of  the  king's  two  orderlies,  one 
lay  dead,  the  other  wounded  ^  Of  all  his  attend- 
ants, only  a  German  page,  Leubelfing,  remained  by 
him.  This  youth  of  eighteen,  who  some  days  after 
the  battle  died  of  his  wounds,  made  a  statement  iu 
his  last  hours,  which  was  taken  down  and  pre- 
served, that  when  the  king  fell  from  his  horse,  he 
had  dismounted  and  off"ered  his  own  to  his  lord  ; 
that  the  king  stretched  out  both  hands  to  him,  but 
he  was  not  in  a  condition  singly  to  lift  him  from 
the  ground  ;  that  cuii'assiers  of  the  enemy  came  up 
and  inquired  who  the  wounded  man  was,  which  he, 
the  page,  would  not  tell,  but  the  king  himself  had 
given  them  to  understand  it,  upon  which  he  re- 
ceived his  death-shot  through  the  head^  Herewith 
the  account  given  by  duke  Bernard  of  Weimar 
agrees^,  and  adds,  that  these  cuirassiers  likewise 
ran  their  sabres  through  the  king  several  times, 
and  stripped  the  body  naked.  Adier  Salvius,  re- 
ferring to  the  king's  secretary  Grubby,  writes 
home  to  the  council,  that  towards  one  in  the  after- 
noon, his  majesty  having  placed  himself  at  the  head 
of  Stenbock's  regiment,  which  encountered  with 
the  enemy  during  the  thick  fog,  was  first  shot 
through  the  left  arm,  so  that  the  arm-pipe  came 
out  thi'ough  the  clothes,  upon  which  a  man  shot 

father  of  his  equerry  Luchau,  who  had  'been  taken,  and 
assures  Wallenstein  of  his  willingness  to  be  of  service  to 
him  in  other  matters.  Thus  would  not  write  a  man  who 
could  have  made  a  merit  to  himself  of  the  death  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

'  Of  the  guardsmen  who  rode  with  the  king  one  was  called 
Anders  Jensson  (relation  of  Jens  Mansson);  that  the  sur- 
vivor was  named  Jacob  Evicson  appears  from  what  follows. 

-  The  relation,  written  down  by  the  youth's  father,  baron 
von  Leubelfing,  captain  of  Nuremberg,  was  first  made  public 
in  Marr's  Journal,  Nuremberg,  1776,  iv.  65.  The  young 
Augustus  Leubelfing  died  at  Nuremberg,  where  his  grave- 
stone is  still  poir.ted  out  in  the  church  of  St.  Wentzel. 

3  Richelieu,  Mem.vii.  2G0.  Leubelfing  is  here  called  Lasbel- 
fin.  "  The  king  being  on  the  ground,  Lasbelfin,  who  was  one 
of  his  gentlemen,  leaving  the  thick  of  the  fight,  and  finding 
him  on  the  ground,  prayed  him  to  mount  his  horse  and  save 
himself,  seeing  the  enemy  coming  to  him;  but  he  could 
not  speak,  and  three  Imperialist  cavaliers  came  up,  who 
asked  Lasbelfin  the  name  of  the  wounded  man.  He  would 
not  give  it,  and  told  them  that  it  was  apparently  some  officer. 
Irritated  by  his  answer,  they  gave  him  two  sword  and  pistol 
wounds,  took  his  horse,  and  left  him  for  dead,  as  was  after- 
wards learned  from  himself,  who  died  five  days  after.  Then 
one  of  them  gave  the  king  a  pistol-wound  on  the  temple, 
which  finished  him,  besides  several  sword-thrusts,  and  they 
stripped  him,  leaving  only  his  shirt."  To  the  same  eftect 
nearly  are  the  statements  regarding  Leubelfing  in  the  Swed. 
Intell.  iii.  139,  from  a  letter  of  Nicephorus  Kessel,  field- 
chaplain  to  duke  Bernard.  Gualdo  says,  "  By  a  first  pistol- 
shot  Gustavus  was  wounded  in  the  arm,  and  by  another  ball, 
which  he  received  in  the  back  below  the  right  shoulder,  he 
was  thrown  from  his  horse  and  fell  dead.  Such  was  the  end 
of  this  great  king.  We  can  say  no  more  upon  this  death  ; 
we  should  not  even  know  the  circumstances,  if  we  had  not 
them  from  a  j'oung  page  who  served  the  monarch."  Fran- 
cheville, p.  220. 


1632.] 


The  duke  of  Weimar 
takes  tlie  command. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


Arrival  of  the  Imperialist 
general  Pappenheim. 


283 


him  with  a  pistol  between  the  shoulders ;  that  the 
king  still  wished  to  save  himself,  but  could  not 
hold  out,  falling  from  his  horse,  which  carried  hira 
along  with  it  amidst  the  enemy  ;  that  one  of  them 
approached  him,  and  inquired  who  he  was,  to 
whom  he  answered,  "  I  am  the  king  of  Sweden," 
whereupon  the  man  wished  to  lead  him  off;  but  as 
our  cavalry  at  the  same  moment,  seeing  the  king's 
horse  running  riderless  and  bloody,  made  a  despe- 
rate chai'ge,  the  hostile  trooper  gave  the  king  a 
pistol-shot  tlirough  the  head,  and  saved  himself  by 
flight  *. 

The  right  wing  of  the  Imperialists  stretched  at 
first  beyond  the  left  of  the  Swedes;  wherefore  the 
king  had  here  ordered  three  squadrons  to  march 
from  the  second  line  to  the  fii'st.  Nevertheless,  Iso- 
lani  with  his  Ci'oats  passed  round  this  wing  and  fell 
upon  the  baggage,  at  the  same  time  that  the 
infantry  was  driven  back  across  the  high-road. 
This  attack,  which  caused  disorder,  and  in  part 
flight  among  the  rear-troops  ^,  was  however  re- 
pulsed. At  this  moment  the  king  fell.  Truchsess 
carried  the  information  to  the  court-marshal 
Kreilsheim ;  both  communicated  it  to  duke  Ber- 
nard of  Weimar,  and  he  to  major-genei-al  Knip- 
hausen.  According  to  the  duke's  own  declaration 
Kniphausen  answered  that  his  ti'oops  were  in  good 
order,  and  could  make  a  fair  retreat.  The  answer 
agrees  not  ill  with  his  character.  He  was  an  officer 
of  the  greatest  merit,  sagacious,  trusiy,  brave,  but 
often  unlucky,  and  tlierefoi-e  mistrusting  fortune  ^. 
Bernard  exclaimed,  Avith  heat,  that  hei'e  there  was 
question  of  no  retreat,  but  of  revenge,  victory,  or 
death.  Nevertheless,  general  Kniphausen's  steadi- 
ness on  this  day,  no  less  than  duke  Bernard's 
heroism,  deserved  the  wreath  of  triumph. 

The  duke  hastened  from  the  left  wing,  which  he 
committed  to  count  Nicholas  Brahe,  to  the  right, 
and  himself  assumed  the  command  '.  The  bloody 
charger  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  running  loose,  was 
tlie  first  messenger  of  disaster  to  his  army.  A 
murmur  that  the  king  was  wounded  and  taken 
flew  through  the  ranks.  They  rushed  with  such 
fury  on  the  enemy,  that  not  only  the  battery  was 
for  the  second  time  taken,  but  the  whole  of  the  im- 


■*  The  letter  is  printed  by  Gidrwell  in  the  Swedish  Library, 
Stockholm,  1760,  and  dated  Hamburg,  Nov.  25,  1632. 

5  Something  upon  this  point  is  found  in  a  letter  to  duke 
William  of  Weimar  the  day  after  the  battle,  wherein  com- 
plaint is  made  of  some  loose  felloAvs,  who  at  the  beginning 
of  the  engagement,  when  it  went  ill  with  the  Swedes,  took 
to  flight.     Rose,  i.  367,  n.  54. 

s  He  used  to  say,  "  An  ounce  of  luck  is  better  tlian  a 
pound  of  prudence."  He  is  called  major-general  of  the  royal 
armies,  and  was  consequently  chief  of  the  king's  general 
staff — a  system  which  seems  to  have  been  organized  by 
Gustavus  Adolphus. 

^  In  his  own  report  (compare  Richelieu,  vii.  '261 )  it  is  said, 
that  the  duke,  when  he  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
Stenbock's  regiment,  transfixed  the  lieutenant-colonel  with 
his  sword,  because  he  refused  to  obey.  Waiving  this  cir- 
cumstance, we  will  only  observe  tVat  this  cannot  refer  to 
Stenbock,  who  had  been  previously  wounded  and  carried 
out  of  the  fight. 

8  On  Wallenstein's  plan  for  his  order  of  battle  at  Lutzen, 
delineated  with  his  own  hand  (communicated  by  Forster), 
he  marks  the  baggage  with  the  words,  canally,  bagagy. 

9  Letter  of  the  resident  Hallenius  to  the  government, 
Stralsund,  Nov.  20,  1632. 

'  "  Greatly  wondering  whence  so  many  new  troops  came 
upon  his  hands."     Richelieu,  1.  c.     "  The  count  of  Pappen- 


perial  cavalry  on  this  wing  was  driven  back.  The 
confusion  was  terrible  among  the  vast  baggage- 
train  * ;  several  powder-waggons  were  blown  up. 
Large  bodies  of  cavalry  fled,  and  a  crowd  of  wo- 
men, who  had  gained  possession  of  the  baggage 
horses,  followed  them.  Prisoners  in  the  hostile 
camp  heard  the  fugitives  calling,  "  We  know  the 
king  of  Sweden  (they  had  not  yet  heard  of  his 
death) ;  he  is  ever  worst  at  the  end  of  the  day." 
At  the  same  time  the  left  wing  of  the  Swedish 
army,  which  had  with  difficulty  held  its  ground 
against  the  immerous  hostile  artillery  at  the  wind- 
mill, drove  back  the  enemy  on  this  side  also,  and 
turned  their  own  cannon  upon  them.  Pappenheim 
now  deployed  into  the  field  of  battle  ^.  His  first 
question  was,  where  commands  the  king  ?  A  heroic, 
although  cruel  defender  of  his  rehgion,  he  was  the 
enemy  whom  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  most  es- 
teemed. He  now  threw  himself  amidst  the  right 
wing  of  the  Swedes,-  burning  with  the  desire  of  a 
personal  conflict  with  an  adversary  who  was  no 
longer  among  the  living.  Two  balls  struck  him  ; 
he  died  of  his  wounds  (colonel  Stalhandske,  who  had 
just  wrested  the  king's  body  from  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  is  said  to  have  shot  him);  but  on  his  arrival 
the  combat  was  renewed  with  redoubled  violence. 
Wallenstein's  cavalry  and  infantry  rallied,  and 
Bernard  of  Weimar  was  amazed  at  the  multitude 
of  fresh  troops  whom  he  found  in  his  way '.  The 
hardest  onslaught  of  all  was  now  made,  and  sus- 
tained by  the  Swedes  with  great  valour;  and  never, 
says  a  contemporary,  was  a  battle  better  fought  by 
troops  who  had  stood  so  long  under  fire.  Of  the 
Swedish  infantry  brigades,  the  two  midmost,  under 
count  Nicholas  Brahe  and  colonel  Winkel,  suffered 
most  severely.  The  Imperialists  fell  upon  them  in 
columns  of  two  to  three  thousand  men,  and  once 
again  took  the  battery  on  the  high-road.  Count 
Nicholas  Brahe  was  struck  by  a  ball  on  the  knee, 
of  which  he  died  -.  Colonel  Winkel  was  wounded 
in  the  hand  and  arm;  his  lieutenant-colonel  Caspar 
Wolf  fell.  Several  standards,  with  the  royal  ban- 
ner itself,  were  lost.  But  of  these  brigades,  which 
were  tlie  flower  of  the  army,  and  mostly  old  sol- 

heim  with  his  horse  and  dragooners  arrived,  whom  some 
will  needs  have  to  have  been  in  person  at  the  beginning  of 
the  battle. — He  being  shot,  the  Walsteiners,  whom  Pappen- 
lieim's  coming  had  set  on,  fell  to  it  closely.  Piccolomini 
advanced,  and  Tersica,  with  their  cavalry,  and  the  foot  regi- 
ments seconded  them  with  the  utmost  resolution.  And 
now  began  the  sorest,  the  longest,  and  the  obstinatest  con- 
flict that  had  been  since  the  king  was  killed."  Swed.  Intel, 
iii.  143.  According  to  duke  Bernard's  own  statement.  Pap 
penheim  first  came  on  the  field  about  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  He  brought  with  him  eight  regiments  of  cavalry. 
Gualdo  says,  that  the  king  fell  when  he  had  parted  from  his 
men  for  a  moment,  in  order  to  recognosce  on  receiving  in- 
formation of  Pappenheim's  arrival.  Gualdo  was  however 
not  himself  present  at  Lutzen,  but  about  this  time  in  Mon- 
tecuculi's  army. 

-  "  My  brother,  of  happy  memory,  count  Nicholas,  re- 
ceived the  life-guard  regiment  of  the  late  king  after  the 
battle  of  Leipsic,  was  afterwards  also  at  the  battle  of  Lutzen, 
where  he  led  the  foot  and  the  vanguard  of  three  strong  regi- 
ments, and  put  the  enemy  to  flight,  taking  six  pieces  from 
him,  and  following  up  the  victory,  till  Piccolomini  with  his 
cuirassiers  took  bim  in  the  flank.  Our  troopers  gave  no 
help  to  him,  and  therefore  he  suffered  great  loss  in  his  men, 
especially  the  king's  company  of  body-guards.  So  he  was 
shot  in  the  left  knee,  and  brought  to  Naumburg,  where  he 
expired  on  the  21st  Nov."    Count  Peter  Brahe's  Note-Book- 


284 


Final  attack  and  triumph  of 
tlie  Swedes. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Recovery  of  the 
king's  body. 


[1628— 


diers,  who  had  served  in  many  of  the  king's  cam- 
paigns, even  the  enemy  were  obliged  to  acknow- 
ledge, that  their  dead  bodies  covered  the  same  spot 
whicli  they  in  life  defended  ^.  The  carnage  among 
them  was  so  great,  that  five  out  of  six  men  were 
killed  or  wounded  *.  The  third  Swedish  brigade, 
under  colonel  Charles  Hard,  which  was  nearmost 
to  the  cavalry,  sutiered  less ;  yet,  after  the  battle, 
liardly  more  than  four  hundred  men  of  it  i-emauied. 
During  this  whole  time,  general  Kniphausen  kept 
his  brigades  in  the  second  line,  and  his  reserve, 
out  of  the  conflict,  which,  it  is  said,  "  was  no  small 
cause  of  the  victory,  as  the  troops  of  the  first  line 
found  here  a  point  of  support  in  a  great  and  un- 
broken mass ;  and  duke  Bernard  was  not  a  little 
joyful,  when,  at  the  lifting  of  the  fog,  he  saw  Knip- 
hausen, whom  he,  in  his  own  phrase,  feared  to  find 
hewn  in  pieces,  now  in  so  good  order."  For  some 
time  before  sunset,  the  fog  again  broke,  and  it  was 
clear,  though  only  for  half  an  hour,  which  gave 
duke  Bernard  opportunity  to  survey  his  position, 
and  encourage  the  army  to  a  new  assault.  The 
tired  soldiers  were  heard  crying  to  one  another, 
"  Comrade,  shall  we  to  it  again  ? "  and  thereupon 
embracing  each  other  with  vows  to  conquer  or 
die  ^.  This  last  charge  won  the  victory  of  Lutzen, 
and  even  Pappenheim's  infantry,  which  came  up  in 
the  twilight,  was  carried  away  in  the  general  flight 
of  the  Imperialists.  The  battle  lasted  nine  hours. 
The  victors  spent  the  night  on  the  field,  where  ten 
thousand  had  fallen  along  with  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
We  must  not  pass  by  two  accounts  of  the  battle, 
preserved  in  the  Saxon  archives  ^.  The  one,  a  let- 
ter of  some  lines  to  the  elector  of  Saxony  from  count 
Brandenstein,  the  Swedish  commandant  at  Naum- 
bui'g,  written  on  the  night  of  the  6th  November, 
states  that  the  battle  lasted  the  whole  day  with 
extreme  violence,  that  the  king  fell,  shot  through 
the  arm,  body,  and  head;  but  that  the  general  of 
the  infantry,  duke  Bernard,  the  major-general  of 
tiie  royal  armies,  Kniphausen,  the  prince  of  An- 
halt,  and  the  valour  of  the  superior  and  inferior  offi- 
cers and  soldiers,  compelled  the  enemy  to  quit  the 
field  with  the  loss  of  many  men  and  all  his  pieces, 
except  three.  The  other,  a  more  detailed  narrative 
to  the  elector,  dated  the  Ilth  November,  is  drawn 
up  by  two  officers,  who  were  stationed  in  duke  Ber- 
nard's wing '.  They  begin  with  mentionhig  the 
skirmish  at  Rij)pach,  where,  by  the  hamlet  of 
Posern,  is  a  narrow  pass,  and  beyond  it  an  emi- 
nence; on  this  a  line  of  imperial  cavalry  showed 
itself,  which  the  king  drove  off,  and  descended  into 
the  plain  on  the  5th,  in  the  evening.  There  the 
enemy  were  still  scattered  in  the  hamlets,  and  the 
king's  cannon  played  ei'o  the  watch  was  set  in 
their  head-(|uarters.  As  darkness  had  now  set 
in,  the  king  kept  his  army  in  battle  array;  the  ene- 
my's watch-fires  were  .seen  in  the  villages.  With 
the  morning  grey  of  the  6lh  the  king  continued  his 
march  against  the  enemy;  prisoners  brought  infor- 
mation that  Pappenheim  had  marched  with  eight 

'  "  They  were  seen  lying  dead  afterward  by  their  arms,  in 
the  very  order  in  wliich  a  little  while  before  they  had  stood 
living  with  great  bravery  and  valour."  Khevenhiiller, 
xii   194. 

"  Swed.  Intel,  iii.  U5. 

'■•  Swed.  Intel,  iii.  148. 

«  Published  by  A<lam  Fr.  Glaffey,  de  gladio  Gustavi  ."Vdol- 
phi,  Lips.  174!),  and  copied  into  Ilallenbergs  Collections. 

?  The  narrative  is  in  the  form  of  a  postscript  lo  the  before- 


regiinents  to  Halle.  When  the  king  had  come  near 
Lutzen  the  enemy  shot  with  muskets  from  the 
walls ;  on  the  side  of  the  town  stood  four  troops  of 
cavalry;  above,  at  the  windmills,  they  saw  a  line  of 
cavalry  and  infantry,  and  could  plainly  make  out 
that  more  men  were  coming  up.  Then  the  king 
advanced  in  order  of  battle  on  the  right  of  the 
town  towards  the  canal,  and  when  both  armies 
were  facing  each  other,  charged  straight  upon  the 
enemy.  Here  they  began  to  shoot  first  some 
salvoes  from  two  demi-cannon,  which  the  enemy 
answered  as  well  from  his  battery  at  the  windmills 
as  from  the  batteries  he  had  on  the  side  of  Schei- 
ditz.  Thus  keen  firing  on  both  sides  continued  for 
about  the  space  of  an  hour,  till  the  king's  right 
wing  was  so  far  advanced,  that  its  rear  was  almost 
turned  towards  Ranstadt,  whereat  the  action  began 
with  horse  and  foot  on  both  sides,  amidst  incessant 
firing.  The  enemy's  right  wing,  which  at  first  gave 
ground,  at  length  obtained  firm  footing  at  the  wind- 
mills, until  here  also  they  had  penetrated  into  the 
enemy's  intrenchments,  and  turned  his  own  guns 
upon  him.  Then  count  Pappenheim  came  back, 
and  the  action  began  anew  with  inexpressible  heat 
on  both  sides,  until  night  put  an  end  to  it.  Yet  the 
king's  army  kept  the  field,  taking  the  enemy's  ar- 
tillery, with  the  greatest  part  of  his  ammunition. 
But  the  king  himself,  having  ventured  too  boldly, 
and  fallen  with  three  troops  of  horse  upon  eight 
companies  of  cuirassiers,  was  shot  through  the  arm 
and  breast,  and  died  lamentably. 

The  lifeless  body  of  the  hei-o  was  found  stripped, 
trampled,  disfigured  by  blood  and  wounds,  with  the 
face  towards  the  ground.  The  Finns  under  Stal- 
handske  had  recovered  it.  It  was  brought  in  an 
ammunition  waggon  to  the  hamlet  of  Meuchen,  be- 
hind the  Swedish  lines.  A  wi-itten  narration  of  the 
proceedings  at  its  removal  was  preserved  till  1826 
(when  it  was  consumed  by  fire)  among  the  de- 
scendants of  the  person  who  was  then  schoolmas- 
ter of  the  village,  purporting  ^  that  the  king's  body 
was  brought  in  the  night  between  the  6th  and  7th 
November,  1632,  from  the  battle-field  to  the  church 
of  the  village,  attended  by  several  troopers  and 
officers,  who  rode  into  the  church  and  round  the 
altar,  before  which  the  body  was  laid;  it  w,as  so 
disfigured  by  wounds,  that  it  was  considered  need- 
ful forthwith  to  open  it,  after  which  a  portion  of 
the  entrails  was  interred  in  the  church^  ;  the 
schoolmaster  previously  performing  divine  service 
in  thenight,  and  one  of  the  military  making  a  funeral 
oration.  Thereafter  the  body  was  carried  into  the 
schoolmaster's  house,  and  this  being  found  too 
small,  into  that  of  a  neighbour.  Here  it  was  laid 
upon  a  table  (which  is  still  preserved),  while  the 
schoolmaster,  who  was  also  the  joiner,  prepared 
the  simple  coffin  in  which,  next  day,  it  was  con- 
veyed to  Weissenfels.  With  the  body  a  trooper, 
who  had  been  wounded  at  the  king's  side,  had  come 
to  Meuchen,  where  he  stayed  until  his  wounds  were 

mentioned  memorial,  which  was  written  by  direction  of 
duke  Bernard  (by  Bodo  von  Bodenhausen)  to  the  elector, 
Nov.  11,  1632.  The  postscript  bears  the  signatures  John 
George  Wilztumb  of  Echstedt  and  Eric  Volkmar  Vei  lepsch. 

8  Compare  Death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  by  Philippi, 
assessor  of  taxes  to  the  king  of  Prussia  in  Lutzen,  Leipsic. 
1832,  p.  79. 

9  The  spot,  recognizable  by  the  Swedish  arms  (seen  through 
a  coat  of  whitewash),  was  examined  in  1832,  and  a  halfrotten 
urn  of  oak-w  ood  found  under  the  raised  stone  in  the  wall.  1.  c. 


j   1632.] 


Reception  of  liia  news 
in  Sweden. 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


The  duke  of 
Lauenburg  suspected. 


285 


healed.  Tlie  same  person  then  attempted,  with 
the  help  of  thirteen  peasants  of  the  hamlet,  to  roll 
a  great  stone  to  the  spot  where  the  king  had  fallen. 
With  sighs  and  wailings  they  were  only  able  to 
bring  it  to  where  it  now  lies  (at  the  so-called 
Swede's  Stone)  ;  but  the  place  where  the  king 
actually  expired  is  said  to  be  forty  paces  further, 
on  a  balk,  where  formerly  an  acacia  tree  stood '. 
The  trooper  was  called  Jacob  Ericson.  In  Weis- 
senfels  the  king's  body  (against  his  will  declared  in 
life)  was  embalmed  by  the  apothecary  Casparus, 
who  counted  in  it  nine  wounds  ^.  His  inconsolable 
spouse  carried  about  her  his  heart  (which  was  un- 
commonly large)  in  a  golden  casket,  and  for  a  long 
time  after  would  not  be  parted  either  from  the 
heart  or  from  the  body,  so  that  the  Swedish  clergy 
were  at  length  obliged  to  make  her  earnest  repre- 
sentations on  this  head^.  At  Lutzen  Gustavus 
Adolphus  had  with  him  only  a  small  coffer  with 
Maria  Eleonora's  letters  *.  The  king's  body  was 
conveyed  from  Weissenfels  to  Wittemberg,  where 
it  lay  one  night  in  the  church  of  the  castle.  Four 
hundred  Smaland  troopers,  all  that  were  left  of  the 
regiment  at  whose  head  the  king  fell,  formed  the 
guard  of  honour.  Beholders  found  the  countenance 
still  astonishingly  like.  From  Wittemberg  the 
mournful  procession  repaired  to  Woigast.  In  the 
following  summer  the  high-admiral  Gyllenhielm 
brought  the  corpse  to  Nykoping.  Here  it  remained 
until  its  solemn  burial  on  the  2 1st  June,  1634,  in 
Stockholm,  where  the  earthly  relics  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  obtained  that  grave  in  the  church  of 
Riddarholm  which  he  had  himself  appointed  in  his 
lifetime  *. 

Intelligence  of  the  king's  death  first  came  to 
the  government  of  Sweden  after  the  lapse  of  a 
month.  "  First  came  tidings,"  says  count  Peter 
Brahe,  "  that  the  battle  had  had  a  prosperous 
issue.  The  next  day  after,  which  was  the  8th  De- 
cember, 1632,  at  half-past  nine  in  the  forenoon, 
word  was  sent  to  me,  wlien  I  was  sitting  in  the 
palace  court,  that  I  should  come  into  the  treasury 
chamber.  When  I  entered,  I  saw  all  the  council- 
lors mightily  troubled,  some  wiping  their  eyes, 
others  wringing  their  hands.  The  Palsgrave  came 
to  me  at  the  door  lamenting.  My  heart  misgave 
me,  and  I  knew  not  what  to  fear,  till  1  heard  to 
ray  sore  grief  what  had  occurred.  Both  strangers 
and  countrymen  were  in  great  woe  and  perturba- 
tion, despaired  of  the  public  welfare,  and  deemed 
that  all  would  go  to  wreck  and  niin.  We  of  the 
council,  as  many  as  were  present,  agreed  to  a  well- 
considered  resolution,  before  we  parted,  to  live  and 
die  with  one  another  in  defence  and  for  the  weal  of 
our  fatherland  ;  and  not  only  here  at  home  to  up- 
hold our  cause  with  all  our  power  and  in  unity,  but 
also  to  finish  the  war  against  the  emperor  and  all 
his  party,  according  to  the  design  of  the  king  of 

'  According  to  an  account  received  by  me  at  the  spot. 

2  Letter  of  Salvias  to  the  council  above  cited. 

3  Opinion  of  the  bishops  and  clergy  against  inspection  of 
the  dead  and  opening  of  their  graves,  July  16,  163-!-.  Adler- 
sparre,  Hist.  Col.  iii.  49. 

*  L.  c.  354,  where  we  see  that  in  disposing  of  the  effects 
left  by  the  king  great  irregularities  took  place. 

''  Report  to  the  elector  of  Saxony  by  Daniel  von  Koseritz, 
Wittemberg,  Dec.  5,  1632,  in  Glatfey,  de  gladio  Gust.  Adol. 

6  Count  Peter  Brahe's  Note-book. 

7  '•  Gustavus  Victor  Augustissimus ;  that  is,  a  hasty  and 
yet  authentic  account  in  what  manner  the  most  invincible 


happy  memory,  and  for  a  secure  peace  ^."  We 
read  with  emotion  the  report  on  the  war  addressed 
to  the  estates  by  the  government,  as  yet  igno- 
rant of  the  calamity,  dated  November  7th,  conse- 
quently the  day  after  the  battle.  It  comes  down 
only  to  the  king's  upbreak  from  the  camp  at  Nu- 
remberg, and  ends  with  these  words :  "  Whither 
his  majesty  further  went,  of  that  we  have  no  cer- 
tain knowledge." 

Those  of  whom  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  the 
hope  lost  in  him  too  much,  for  their  grief  not  to 
have  sought  an  object  of  accusation.  Apprehen- 
sions were  at  an  early  period  expressed  that  he 
would  fall  by  the  hand  of  a  traitor.  Reports  of  his 
a.ssassination  were  several  times  spread,  and  un- 
successful attempts  had  been  made.  Remarkably 
enough,  a  broadside  which  appeared- — jirobably  at 
Leipsic — immediately  after  the  battle ',  assumes 
these  very  rumours  as  a  ground  for  denying  the 
king's  death.  The  fight  lasted,  it  is  said,  the  whole 
day,  and  up  to  nine  o'clock  at  night ;  Wallenstein 
is  asserted  to  have  been  saved  only  by  the  fleet- 
ness  of  his  Turkish  horse,  and  to  have  come  wounded 
to  Leipsic  about  midnight  *.  Some  say  that  his 
majesty  at  the  first  received  some  hurt  in  the  left 
arm;  and  because  the  enemy  in  Leipsic  immediately 
gave  him  out  to  be  dead,  it  is  thought  that  the  Je- 
suits bought  some  arch-knave  and  murderer  ui  his 
army  to  shoot  him  secretly,  and  just  as  the  battle 
began.  But  it  is  well  enough  known  that  a  year 
ago  the  Papists,  after  the  battle  of  Leipsic,  alleged 
the  king  to  have  been  shot,  which  was  likewise  an 
invention.  Since  the  king's  majesty  for  certain 
not  only  spent  the  night  after  this  noble  victory  on 
the  field  of  battle,  but  also  the  following  morning 
held  a  general  review  in  Lutzen. — Thus  far  the 
journalist.  It  is  true  that  the  king's  death  was 
earlier  known  in  Weissenfels  than  in  Leipsic.  To 
the  former  place  the  tidings  were  brought  by  duke 
Francis  Albert  of  Lauenburg,  who  on  his  fiight 
from  the  field  of  battle  did  not  halt  until  he 
arrived  there;  although  on  the  report  of  the  vic- 
tory he  returned  again  directly.  "  This  caused 
him,"  says  a  narrative  of  the  time,  "  to  come  into 
evil  repute  with  the  whole  army,  and  to  be  accused 
of  worse  than  cowardice,  for  the  soldiers  spared 
not  to  charge  him  with  treason.  Those  who  knew 
him  better  have  sought  to  excuse  the  scandal  given. 
The  truth  is,  that  he  had  been  in  Vienna  at  the 
end  of  the  past  January,  then  served  with  the  Im- 
perialists, and  had  only  come  to  the  king  three 
weeks  or  a  fortnight  before,  and  fearing  that 
all  was  lost  had  left  the  battle,  in  order  that  he 
might  be  able  to  pretend,  in  case  the  Imperialists 
conquered,  that  he  had  never  been  present.  With 
the  first  news  that  the  Swedes  were  victorious,  he 
was  back  again  on  the  field  of  battle  at  four  o'clock 
the  next  morning,  as  bold  as  any  one.    It  is  certain 

king  and  lord,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  the  Swedes, 
Goths,  Vandals,  &c.,  by  the  Divine  help,  succour,  and  grace, 
utterly  routed  the  armies  of  Wallenstein  and  Pappenheim  at 
Lutzen,  two  miles  from  Leipsic,  anew  upon  the  6 — 16th  Nov. 
anno  1632."  Without  name  of  place.  Palmskoid  Collections, 
t.  38. 

8  "  His  serene  highness  was  struck  by  a  musket-hall  in 
the  left  hip,  but  was  preserved  by  God's  help  for  his  and  the 
emperor's  service,  as  well  from  this  shot,  which  did  not 
pierce  further  than  the  skin,  as  from  a  thousand  other 
cannon  and  musket  balls.  Diodati's  Report  to  the  Emperor." 
Forster,  Letters  of  Wallenstein,  ii.  302. 


286 


Inquiry  into  the  probability 
of  the  charge. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Its  groundlessness 
evinced. 


[1628- 


that  it  was  he  who  first  related  the  king's  death;  and 
through  him  it  was  carher  known  in  Weissenfels 
than  in  the  king's  own  army.  This  duke,  who  after 
the  battle  found  neither  countenance  nor  good-will 
in  the  army,  repaired  after  some  days  to  his  kins- 
man the  elector  of  Saxony,  who  sent  him  to  Silesia, 
where  he  is  now  field-marshal  under  lieutenant- 
general  Arnheim  '■>." 

We  have  mentioned  a  name  loaded  with  the 
blackest  susjjicions,  and  also  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  arose.  We  may  add,  that  no 
proof  can  be  alleged  to  substantiate  tlie  assertion 
that  Francis  Albert  of  Lauenburg,  in  the  midst  of 
the  enemy's  fire,  murdered  Gustavus  Adolphus, — 
who  so  little  spared  his  own  life,  while  the  whole 
course  of  the  affair,  and  the  accounts  of  eye-wit- 
nesses, deprive  the  suspicion  even  of  probability. 
Howbeit  all  this  did  not  prevent  the  suspicion  from 
becoming  the  creed  of  the  soldiers  in  the  Swedish 
army,  and  growing  with  time  into  the  belief  of  the 
people.  This  may  be  quoted  as  an  example  how  a 
preconceived  opinion  gains  strength  with  time, 
takes  its  j)]ace  in  history,  is  propagated  first  as 
a  conjecture,  next  as  a  suspicion,  and  lastly  is  pro- 
claimed as  a  certainty.  The  first  accounts  say 
nothing  of  it  ;  but  in  December,  1G32,  Adler  Sal- 
vius  writes,  *'  It  is  averred  that  a  certain  prince 
murdered  his  majesty  the  king,  with  the  privity 
not  only  of  the  elector  of  Saxony,  but  of  the  em- 
peror and  other  great  princes ;  and  now  we  hear  it 
publicly  said  in  Hamburg  that  a  like  complot  is  in 
progress  against  our  incomparable,  hero -like  chan- 
cellor. Advise  therefore,  exhort,  persuade,  be- 
seech him  to  look  closely  and  warily  to  himself  in 
eating  and  drinking,  in  visits  and  converse '." 
Chemnitz,  who  wrote  under  the  eye  of  Axel  Oxen- 
stierna,  states  that  the  king  had  been  slain  by  the 
imperialist  troopers,  but  adds,  "This  is  the  general 
account ;  for  what  else  is  loudly  whispered,  that 
the  king  was  not  shot  by  the  enemy,  but  by  a  lead- 

9  Swedish  Intelligencer,  lii.  137. 

'  Salvius  to  Grubbe,  Hamburg,  Dec.  10,  16')2.  Arcken- 
holtz,  Mem.  de  Christine,  i.  11. 

-  Chemnitz,  i.  46G. 

3  Puffendorf,  Commentar  de  reb.  Suet.  German  transla- 
tion, iv.  112.  The  confirmatory  circumstances  mentioned  by 
Puffendorf  are,  that  Francis  Albert  said  that  he  saved  him- 
self from  the  enemy's  shot  by  his  green  scarf  (which  tlius 
should  have  been  the  colour  of  the  Imperialists);  but  we 
know  that  Wallenstein's  officers  had  red  scarfs,  and  an 
account  quoted  by  Riihs  (History  of  Sweden,  iv.  274,  n.) 
says  that  the  colours  of  the  Swedes  were  green.  Further, 
that  the  duke  some  time  after  is  said  to  have  shown  the 
bloody  clothes  of  the  king,  and  consequently  not  only  mur- 
dered him,  but  also  given  himself  time  to  plunder  him  ;  all 
which  is  just  as  improbable  as  Mauvillon's  conjecture,  that 
since  a  costly  jewel  disappeared  from  the  king's  neck-chain 
(which  became  the  prize  of  an  Imperialist  trooper),  the  duke 
of  Lauenburg  must  have  stolen  it  (see  the  well-known  work 
Histoire  de  Gustave  Adolphe  composee  sur  les  manuscrits 
de  M.  Arkenholtz  i)ar  M***,  p.  598,  a  book  in  which  good 
materials  were  used  with  very  indifferent  judgment).  The 
evidence  of  a  pretended  eye-witness  of  the  murder  was  first 
produced  after  Puffendorf' s  time.  It  is  a  narrative  partly  in 
verse,  partly  in  prose,  by  one  Hastendorf,  a  life-guardsman, 
who  declares  that  he  followed  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  the 
battle,  and  saw  him  murdered  by  a  great  lord.  It  was  de- 
livered to  Charles  XII.  during  his  residence  in  Saxony,  who 
upon  the  field  of  I.utzen  declared  that  he  gave  no  faith 
to  it.  The  narrative  is  full  of  absurdities,  and  bears  mani- 
fest traces  of  being  fictitious.  Compare  FiJrster  on  the  death 
j   of  Gustavus   Adolphus   in  the  Appendix  to  Wallenstein's 


ing  person  on  our  side,  we  refer  it  to  God's  secret 
doom  ^."  Puffendorf,  Swedish  historiographer,  fifty 
years  after  tlie  occurrence,  and  at  a  time  when 
national  prejudices  were  not  offended  with  impu- 
nity, declares  the  accused  guilty.  His  reasons, 
except  some  trivial  circumstances  unconfirmed, 
are  principally  general  probabilities,  as:  "there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Imperialists  believed  the 
cause  of  the  Swedes  to  depend  singly  and  solely  on 
the  bravery  of  Gustavus  ;  hence  they  tried  all 
means  to  make  away  with  him,  and  who  could  be 
better  fitted  for  such  a  deed  than  Francis  Albert  ^?" 
What  weight  Puffendorf  himself  laid  upon  his  own 
testimony,  is  shown  by  one  of  his  private  letters, 
wherein  he  complains  that  the  existing  duke  of 
Lauenburg  was  angry  with  him  for  his  expressions 
regarding  duke  Francis  ;  "  albeit  herein,"  he  adds, 
"  I  expressed  not  my  own,  but  the  general  opinion 
of  the  Swedish  nation,  which  it  was  necessary  to 
support  with  some  grounds,  that  this  prince  might 
not  appear  to  have  been  wrongfully  accused  of 
such  a  crime  *."  It  is  true  the  duke  was  passionate, 
variable,  untrustworthy,  changed  his  party  con- 
stantly, and  at  last  his  religion,  and  when  taken 
prisoner  as  imperial  field-marshal  at  Schwednitz, 
in  1642,  by  Torstenson,  could  only  be  saved  with 
difficulty  from  the  rage  of  the  Swedish  soldiers*  ; 
but  this  does  not  prove  him  to  have  been  a  mur- 
derer. We  have  remai'ked  that  according  to 
several  accounts,  Gustavus  Adolphus  received  a 
shot  in  the  back  or  through  the  breast,  while 
Francis  Albert  attempted  to  support  the  ali-eady 
wounded  king  on  horseback.  The  duke,  who  ex- 
presses in  his  letters  concern  at  the  scandalous 
reports  spread  abroad  respecting  him,  left  a  jour- 
nal, wherein  the  following  observation  occurs : 
"  November  16  (N.  S.),  we  fought  at  Lutzen  with 
the  enemy,  won  the  battle,  and  kept  the  field.  His 
majesty  the  king  of  Sweden  was  then  shot  in  my 
anus.     At  night  to  Weissenfels,  two  miles  "." 

letters,  vol.  ii.  As  little  credible  are  other  stories  of  the 
king's  murder  by  a  groom,  wherewith  inquisitive  travellers 
from  Sv/eden  were  formerly  entertained  in  Saxony.  See 
note  H. 

■•  Cum  tamen  non  meara,  sed  communem,  Suecicae  Nati- 
onis  sententiam  expresserim,  quam  aliquot  rationibus  ad- 
struere  placuit,  ne  is  Princeps  injuria  istius  facinoris  insi- 
mulatus  fuisse  videretur.  The  letter  is  to  the  council  of 
Wirtemberg,  Pregitzer,  July  29,  1687,  and  is  to  be  found  in 
Arckenholtz,  1.  c.,  quoted  from  Nettelbladt's  Schwed.  Bibli- 
othek.  In  order  to  save  his  conscience  as  historian,  how- 
ever, Puffendorf  adds  in  the  same  letter  two  new  circum- 
stances, in  his  opinion  demonstrative,  the  one  from  the 
chronicle  of  the  Pole  Piasecki,  that  duke  Francis  of  Lauen- 
burg is  said  to  have  given  Wallenstein  the  first  account  of  the 
death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  (which  this  foreign  writer  ap- 
pears to  have  confounded  with  the  actual  circumstance,  that 
in  general  the  king's  decease  was  first  known  through  the 
duke^ ;  the  other,  that  Francis  Albert,  during  his  abode  at 
the  Swedish  court,  is  said  to  have  received  a  box  on  the  ear 
from  Gustavus  Adolphus.— It  is  not  known  that  the  duke 
was  ever  at  the  Swedish  court ;  but  his  brother  was  there, 
and  to  this  alludes  an  observation  quoted  by  Warmholtz 
(Biblioth.  Sviog.  vi.  10)  from  count  Abraham  Brahe's  manu- 
script note-book:  "1613,  inter  18  et  19  Maji,  nocte  fuit 
Duellum  inter  Regem  et  Ducem  Saxoniae,  Henricum 
Julium,  ob  Stjernskiild."  The  duel  was  consequently  on 
account  of  Stiernskbld  ;  the  proximate  cause  is  unknown. 

^  The  duke  died  of  bis  wounds. 

"  (Nine  miles  English.  T.)  Historical  Magazine  of  Meiners 
and  Spittler,  vii.  2,  quoted  in  the  Universal  Literary  Gazette 
of  Halle,  1832,  iii.  12!). 


1632.] 


Reflections  on  the 
life,  character, 


GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS.     GERMAN  WAR. 


and  designs  of 
tlieking. 


287 


Gustavus  Adolphus  was  taken  away  in  his  thirty- 
eighth  year.  Never  has  one  man's  death  made  a 
deeper  impression  throughout  a  whole  quarter  of 
the  world.  Wheresoever  his  name  had  been  heard, 
a  ray  of  hope  for  the  oppressed  had  penetrated. 
Even  the  Greek,  at  its  sound,  dreamed  of  free- 
dom ' ;  and  prayers  for  tlie  success  of  the  Swedish 
monarch's  arms  were  sent  up  at  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre '.  What  then  must  he  not  have  been  for  the 
partners  of  his  faith  ?  We  may  conceive  this  ;  nay 
rather,  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  do  so.  The  feel- 
ings with  which  the  inhabitants  of  Augsburg,  with 
streaming  tears,  crowded  to  the  evangelical  worship 
restored  by  Gustavus  Adolphus ;  the  feelings  with 
which  the  people  in  Saxony,  on  bended  knees, 
stretched  out  thankful  hands  to  the  hero,  for  the 
second  time  their  saviour,  are  become  sti'ange  to 
the  world  in  which  we  live.  In  those  days  men 
felt  their  dangers,  and  knew  how  to  requite  their 
deliverer  worthily.  We  speak  of  the  people,  whose 
champion  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  by  his  cause  as 
well  as  by  his  qualities  ^.  The  agency  of  both  ex- 
tended far,  and  burst  even  the  bonds  of  hate  and 
prejudice ;  for  he  is  perchance  the  only  man  (so 
great  was  the  might  of  his  virtue)  whose  image  is 
reflected  with  truth,  even  in  the  portraiture  of  his 
enemies.  It  is  not  only  Axel  Oxenstierna  who 
has  said  of  liirn,  "Hewas  a  prince  God-fearing  in 
all  his  doings  and  transactions,  even  to  the  death  ^" 
Lutheran  theologians  have  wished  in  some  sort  to 
erect  him  into  a  saint  of  tlieir  persuasion.  Jf 
withal  he  had  too  much  of  Csesar  and  Alexander 
(whom  be  admired),  we  must  acknowledge  on  the 
other  side,  that  he  was  better  than  his  spiritual  ad- 
visers, and  far  above  his  age  in  Christian  tolerance. 

What  of  mortal  destiny  befell  him  at  the  height 


^  A  plan  for  the  liberation  of  Greece  through  Gustavus 
Adolphus  was  given  by  the  Greek  Ronianus  Nicephori 
(though  after  the  king  was  no  more)  to  Adler  Salvius  on 
the  12th  December.  Palmsk.  Col.  Acta  ad  Hist.  Reg.  Suec. 
Appendix,  t.  i. 

8  Cyrilli  Patriarchas  ConstantiiiopoUtani  Litterae  ad  Axe- 
lium  Oxenstjerna  (manu  senili  et  tremula),  with  complaints 
anent  the  encroachments  of  the  Catholics,  to  the  injury  of 
the  Greeks,  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre.     Nordin  Col.  n.  175. 

3  In  Gerniania  plurimi,  praesertim  rustici,  si  non  palam, 
saltem  secrete,  Calvini  aut  Lutheri  hreresim  sectantur,  says 
a  Catholic  contemporary  who  fought  in  the  emperor's  army. 
Petri  Baptistse  Burgi  Genuensis  de  Bello  Suecico  Com- 
mentarii,  1.  iii.  c.  2. 

>  Protocol  of  the  Council,  1641.  Palmsk.  MSS. 

2  The  only  man  who,  so  far  as  is  known  to  me,  arrogated 
to  himself  the  name  of  "  the  fortunate,"  I  mean  Sylla,  was 
by  nature  rather  sensitive  than  hard.  (See  his  Life  in  Plu- 
tarch.)    He  was  cruel  through  his  trust  in  fortune. 

3  Animee  magnee  prodigus. 

<  In  a  Latin  letter  of  March  28,  1633,  from  the  Swedish 
council  to  the  chancellor  in  Germany,  it  is  said;  "The 
council  knew  that  between  his  late  majesty,  of  happy  me- 
mory, and  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  some  secret  treatings 
(tractatus  quosdam  secretiores)  in  relation  to  the  marriage 
of  his  majesty's  daughter  with  the  son  of  the  elector  had 
occurred,  although  the  matter  had  come  to  nothing  by  rea- 
son of  the  unexpected  death  of  his  majesty ;  wherefore,  as 
they  learned  that  the  elector  was  anew  inclined  to  it,  Oxen- 
stierna was  commissioned  to  continue  the  negotiation,  but 
first  to  ascertain  whether  the  stipulations  made  therein  by 
the  king,  that  the  electoral  prince  should  quit  the  Calvinistic 
for  the  Lutheran  confession,  and  be  educated  in  Sweden, 
would  be  acceded  to."  In  a  memorial  to  the  chancellor  of  the 
29th  March  following,  among  other  grounds  which  spoke  for 


of  greatness  to  which  he  had  ascended — by  bis 
designs  and  plans  dying  with  him, — belongs,  how 
extraordinary  soever  he  was,  to  the  common  lot  of 
mankind,  and  may  silently  be  added  to  the  immea- 
surable sum  of  hopes  frustrated.  There  is  a  higher 
presence  in  the  whole  life  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
which  may  more  easily  be  felt  than  described. 
There  is  that  boundless  reach  of  view  over  the 
world  which  with  conquex'oi'S  is  inborn.  Like  all 
his  compeers,  he  was  by  no  means  surprised  at  his 
own  fortune,  amazing  as  it  may  appear.  His  deep 
belief  in  it  is  conspicuous  in  all  the  transactions  of 
his  life.  Nothing  hardens  the  heart  so  much  as 
prosperity  ^.  That  Gustavus  Adolphus  was  never- 
theless humble  and  meek,  speaks  most  loudly  for 
his  work  as  a  man.  In  his  vocation  he  acknow- 
ledged a  guidaueo  from  on  high.  He  was  far  from 
looking  upon  himself  as  indispensable  ;  for  his  goal 
was  placed  far  above  his  own  personality.  There- 
fore was  he,  like  the  high-hearted  Roman,  not  nig- 
gardly of  his  great  life  ^.  "  God  the  Almighty 
liveth,"  he  said  to  Axel  Oxenstierna,  when  that 
statesman  warned  him  in  Prussia,  not  so  rashly  to 
expose  himself  to  death.  More  cheerful  and  heroic 
courage  never  walked  on  earth. 

What  beside  did  he  purpose  ?  A  great  monarchy, 
without  doubt ;  for  whose  future  props  in  Germany 
he  counted  upon  the  young  Frederic  William  of 
Brandenburg,  afterwards  the  great  elector,  and 
Bernard  of  Weimar,  intending  for  the  one  the  hand 
of  his  daughter,  for  the  other  that  of  his  niece  *. 
Probably  even  a  Protestant  cmpery  was  not  foreign 
to  his  contemplations  ■''.  For  the  rest  nothing  was 
determined,  even  in  his  own  breast.  The  sphere 
of  his  vision  stretched  wide  around.  It  was  his 
pleasure  to  hold  in  his  hand  the  threads  of  many 


such  a  marriage  the  following  are  enumerated  : — That  the 
persons,  as  well  in  respect  to  their  age  as  their  extraction 
and  power,  were  fitted  for  one  another  ;  that  it  had  been  the 
will  of  the  deceased  king ;  that  by  this  connexion  between 
Sweden  and  Brandenburg  the  Swedish  power  would  be  con- 
siderably reinforced,  the  acquisition  of  Pomerania  prepared, 
the  dominion  of  the  Baltic  established,  and  the  carrying  on 
of  the  German  war  made  easier;  hence  the  council,  in  spite 
of  divers  scruples,  as  the  safety  and  increment  of  the  country 
outweighs  all,  is  of  opinion  that  this  match  must  not  be  re- 
jected, if  it  went  forward  with  tolerable  conditions,  especially 
in  reference  to  religion.  Concerning  duke  Bernard,  the  let- 
ter of  the  council  to  the  chancellor,  of  August  14th  in  the 
same  year,  says:  "  It  seems  advisable  that  duke  Bernard  of 
Weimar  be  contented  (with  the  investiture  of  the  dukedom 
of  Franconia)  as  well  on  account  of  his  qualities  as  because 
he  is  the  only  man  whom  we  have  to  consider,  and  from  the 
marriage  with  Christina,  daughter  of  the  Palsgrave,  which 
was  in  treaty.  Although  what  he  asks  appears  too  much, 
yet  we  must  consider  that  the  country  is  far  distant,  and  if 
we  should  lose  it,  as  good  it  should  be  taken  from  him  as 
from  us."  All  is  referred  to  the  chancellor.  Reg.  for  1633. 
The  princess  mentioned  was  Christina  Magdalena,  daughter 
of  the  Palsgrave  John  Casimir  by  Catharine,  half-sister  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  born  in  1616,  and  married  in  1642  to 
Frederic  VI.,  Margrave  of  Baden- Durlach. 

5  The  interpretations  given  to  the  medal  struck  during  his 
stay  in  Augsburg,  with  the  inscription  :  Gustava  et  Augusta, 
caput  Religionis  et  Regionis,  are  well  known.  The  letter  of 
Adler  Salvius  to  the  Council,  Hamburg,  Oct.  24,  1631,  states 
of  the  elector,  John  George  of  Saxony,  that  at  his  conference 
with  the  king  at  Halle,  after  the  battle  of  Leipsic,  he  pre- 
sented himself  as  the  man  who  would  truly  counsel  and  help 
to  have  the  Romish  crown  set  upon  the  head  of  his  majesty." 
Stockholm  Magazine,  1781,  324. 


288 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


[1633— 


pof5sibilities.  Thus  we  see  him  entertain  the  pro- 
posal to  be  himself,  after  SigismunJ's  death,  elected 
king  of  Poland  tlirough  the  Polish  dissidents". 
Thus  we  find  him  in  alliance  with  the  prince  of 
Ti-ansylvania,  the  Crimean  Tartars,  and  Russia,  for 
the  weakening  of  the  Austrian  interest,  as  well  in 
Poland  as  Germany. 


Designs  so  great  were  not  the  greatest  which 
were  extinguished  with  his  life  on  the  battle-field 
of  Lutzen.  But  even  in  death  he  conquered.  In 
that  he  set  bounds  to  constraint  of  conscience  his 
immortality  consists ;  and  therefore  does  human- 
kind reckon  him  among  its  heroes. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

CHRISTINA'S  MINORITY.     THE  GUARDIANS. 

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  CHANCELLOR  WITH  THE  COUNCIL  OF  STATE  UPON  THE  KING's  DEATH.  DIET  OF 
1633.  ACKNOWLEDGMENT  OF  QUEEN  CHRISTINA  BY  THE  ESTATES,  AND  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  A  REGENCY  OP 
GUARDIANS.  CONSTITUTION  OF  1634.  INTERNAL  REFORMS  PROJECTED  BY  OXENSTIERNA.  THE  DIRECTORY 
OF  THE  GERMAN  WAR  COMMITTED  TO  HIM.  UNION  OF  HEILBRONN.  SEDITION  OF  THE  OFFICERS  OF  THE 
ARMY.  DISSENSIONS  OF  THE  SWEDISH  AND  GERMAN  COMMANDERS.  OPERATIONS  ON  THE  RHINE  AND 
DANUBE.  DEFEAT  OF  NORDLINGEN.  OUTLAWRY  AND  ASSASSINATION  OF  WALLENSTEIN.  PEACE  OF  PRAGUE 
CONCLUDED  BY  SAXONY.  CHANGE  IN  THE  PROSPECTS  OF  THE  WAR.  INTERVENTION  OF  FRANCE.  CAM- 
PAIGNS OF  BANER  AGAINST  SAXONY  AND  AUSTRIA.  RETURN  OF  OXENSTIERNA  TO  SWEDEN  ;  HIS  ADMINIS- 
TRATION OF  DOMESTIC  AFFAIRS.  VICTORIES  OF  TORSTENSON  IN  SILESIA  AND  MORAVIA.  SECOND  BATTLE  OF 
LEIPSIC.  RUPTURE  WITH  DENMARK.  ACCOUNT  OF  THAT  COUNTRY  AND  ITS  GOVERNMENT  AT  THIS  TIME  BY 
A   SWEDISH    MINISTER.      REDUCTION    OF    ITS    CONTINENTAL    PROVINCES    BY   TORSTENSON.      TERMINATION  OF  THE 

DANISH    WAR    BY   THE    PEACE   OF    BROMSEBRO. 

A.  D.  1633-1645. 


As  soon  as  the  king's  death  was  known  in  his 
dominions,  the  council  convoked  the  collective  es- 
tates to  a  general  diet  in  Stockholm,  for  Feb.  6, 1633, 
and  immediately  sent  count  Peter  Brahe  to  Ger- 
many, to  wait  upon  the  queen-dowagei',  and  take 
the  advice  of  the  chancellor  upon  all  affairs,  and 
especially  upon  the  manner  in  which  the  German 
war  should  be  waged  '.  In  a  letter  to  the  chan- 
cellor, the  councillors  say,  they  had  understood 
that  no  form  of  government  had  been  subscribed 
or  appointed  by  the  late  king,  which  yet  they 
would  have  wished  from  their  hearts.  They  re- 
quested, therefore,  that  the  chancellor  might  com- 
municate to  them  that  constitution  which  he  men- 


'  The  dissidents  requested,  in  reliance  on  the  arms  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  equality  in  religious  and  political  rights. 
Piasecki  Chronica,  p.  528. — In  respect  to  the  design  on  Poland 
the  following  is  found  in  the  King's  Answer  to  the  Queries 
of  the  Chancellor,  Berwald,  Jan.  G,  1G31  :  "  His  majesty  can 
admit  no  mediation  in  a  treaty  of  peace  with  Poland,  as  far 
as  concerns  his  own  acknowledgment  as  king  of  Poland  ; 
and  his  majesty  willeth  that  the  chancellor  should  privately 
remonstrate  with  the  principal  Polish  lords,  especially  the 
evangelical  and  those  who  are  disgusted  in  any  thing,  that 
there  will  be  little  hope  of  reconcilement  between  the  two 
kingdoms,  if  these  cannot  be  brought  under  one  head  after 
the  present  king's  death.  Although  his  majesty  doth  not 
very  eagerly  desire  the  Polish  crown,  it  might  yet  be  profit- 
able to  raise  factions  in  Poland  to  that  end."  With  his  first 
negotiator  in  this  matter,  Roussel,  who  incautiously  applied 
with  his  letters  to  the  Polish  Estates  (the  Poles  caused  the 
letters  to  be  burned),  the  king  was  discontented;  wherefore 
it  was  now  his  will  that  the  chancellor,  who  had  more  intel- 
ligence and  respect,  should  charge  himself  with  the  affair,  in 
order  to  correspond  with  Radziwill  and  others,  who  might  be 


tioned  as  drawn  up  by  himself,  that  tliey  might 
thereby  in  time  have  some  rule  for  their  guidance  *. 
The  first  letter  of  the  chancellor  to  the  council, 
after  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  is  dated 
from  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  November  14th, 
1632.  "  I  know  that  it  will  have  come  to  your 
ears,"  he  writes,  '-ere  my  letter  arrive;  and  I 
leave  the  more  detailed  account  (which  I  have  not 
yet  myself  received)  to  others,  or  spare  it  to  a  more 
convenient  season.  But  I  lament  for  my  fathei'- 
land,  my  queen,  the  conmionwealth  imperilled 
herein,  and  my  longsomeness  of  life,  that  I  should 
have  lived  to  see  this  day.  Such  a  king  the  world 
hath  not  now,  and  his  like  it  hath  not  had  in  many 

inclined  to  the  Swedes  for  religion's  sake.  At  least  the  mat- 
ter must  be  brought  to  this  point,  that  none  of  the  sons  of 
Sigismund,  but  some  one  who  might  have  a  more  moderate  dis- 
position towards  Sweden,  should  become  king  of  Poland.  In 
a  subsequent  letter  from  Demmin,  of  Feb.  13,  to  Oxenstierna, 
the  king  says ;  "  We  remark  by  your  last  note  what  difficul- 
ties you  believe  to  exist  for  us,  in  setting  on  foot  any  com- 
petition for  the  Polish  crown.  We  have  also  a  fully  sufficient 
burden  in  one  government.  But  our  meaning  is,  that  you 
should  publicly  spread  abroad  what  profit  the  Polish  Estates 
might  have  therefrom,  so  that  we  might  bring  some  con- 
fusion into  their  councils."  After  the  death  of  Sigismund 
(April  30,  1G32,)  and  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Uladislaus,  the 
Polish  king  then  elected,  caused  secret  proposals  to  be  made 
at  the  close  of  the  same  year  to  the  Swedish  legate  Steno 
Bielke  in  Stettin,  whether  peace  could  not  be  made  between 
Sweden  and  Poland  on  condition  that  he  (Uladislaus)  might 
be  king  of  Sweden  as  well  as  Poland.  Adlersparre,  Hist. 
Col.  V.  16. 

?  Count  Peter  Brahe's  Note- Book. 

«  To  the  chancellor,  Jan.  7,  16.13.     ileg. 


16«.] 


Views  of  the  late  king  as  to  the 
organization  of  the  ministry. 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


Proposed  alliance  and  match 
with  Brandenburg. 


289 


hundred  years,  nor  knoweth  whetlier  one  will  come 
soon  again.  My  heart's  woe  and  longing  for  him 
that  hath  departed  do  so  engi-oss  me,  that  scarcely 
I  know  what  I  write.  Yet  herewith  is  little  to  be 
done.  Calamities  are  to  be  deplored,  but  not  to  be 
altered.  It  beseemeth  us  to  bear  with  patience 
what  God  hath  laid  upon  us,  and  to  call  upon  his 
grace  for  help,  that  mature  counsel,  firm  courage, 
and  manly  resolve,  may  prevent  and  avert  all  fur- 
ther disaster  ^."  On  the  5th  December  following, 
the  chancellor  wrote  that  the  king  had  wished  to 
govern  the  realm  by  the  five  colleges,  whether  he 
were  present  or  absent,  living  or  dead ;  so  that 
under  an  able  sovereign  its  affairs  might  be  well 
managed,  and  under  a  feeble  prince  not  so  speedily 
brought  to  ruin.  The  king  had  also  wished  to 
entrust  the  government  during  the  minority  of  the 
ruler  to  the  heads  of  these  five  colleges,  and  had 
long  before  his  death  commissioned  him,  the  chan- 
cellor, to  draw  out  a  form  of  government.  For  this 
he  had  had  little  time,  and  afterwards  it  would  have 
been  somewhat  dangerous  to  him  as  a  private  person, 
seeing  that  the  matter  was  as  hot  iron  to  the  touch ; 
yet  he  had  prepared  the  di'aught  in  Prussia,  and 
shown  it  to  his  majesty,  who  had  been  pleased  to 
approve  the  part  which  concerned  the  regalities. 
In  order  that  it  might  be  signed,  he  had  given 
orders  that  a  clean  copy  should  be  made,  Avhich 
had  been  forgotten  in  the  multitude  of  pressing 
occupations  ^ 

On  two  subsequent  occasions  Sweden's  prospects 
were  a  subject  of  discussion  between  the  king  and 
the  chancellor.  First  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine, 
of  which  Oxenstierna  gives  the  followmg  account 
in  a  letter  to  the  council,  dated  Berlin  ^,  Feb.  4, 
1633  :  "  His  majesty,  of  Christian  memory,  when 
he  was  a  year  ago  at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  him- 
self proposed  to  the  commissioners  of  tjie  elector  of 
Brandenburg,  a  match  between  his  daughter  and 
the  young  elector,  and  commanded  me  to  commu- 
nicate further  regarding  it  with  the  envoys,  as  I 
have  also  divers  times  done,  according  as  his  ma- 
jesty, upon  his  journey  to  Bavaria,  repeated  by 
written  order.  The  principal  motive  was,  that  his 
majesty  would  not  cede  Fomerania,  and  yet  found 
that  it  could  not  be  kept  without  notable  detri- 
ment and  great  umbrage  to  the  elector  of  Branden- 
burg ;  next,  that  the  king  also  perceived,  that  if 
Sweden  and  Brandenburg,  with  their  dependencies, 
might  be  conjoined,  hardly  such  a  state  would  be 
found  in  Europe,  and  they  might  off'er  the  head- 
ship to  whomsoever  they  would.  To  try  means 
thereto,  if  it  were  possible,  and  at  least  to  use  this 


9  Transcript  of  the  chancellor's  letter  to  the  councillors  of 
state.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  370,  p.  95. 

'  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  369,  p.  239.  On  the  1 2th  Februarj', 
1633,  the  chancellor  again  wrote,  "  Concerning  the  govern- 
ment during  the  minority  of  the  queen,  a  great  number  of 
heads  (a  polygarchy)  will  be  a  hindrance  and  the  ruin  of  the 
kingdom,  especially  in  a  country  which  is  accustomed  to  the 
government  of  a  single  person.  Therefore  no  other  counsel 
remains  than  that  either  one  or  a  few  should  be  appointed. 
Arguments  pro  and  contra  there  are  enough  in  politics,  and 
we  must  fully  acknowledge  that  an  administrator  is  suitable 
for  the  rest  of  the  time.  But  as  his  late  majesty  was  never 
minded  thereto,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  constantly,  as  the 
council  of  state  knows,  destined  the  administration  of  affairs 
to  the  five  heads  of  colleges,  and  approved  that,  when  he 
saw  the  method  of  government  made  out ;  therefore  can  I, 
for  myself,  discern  no  fitter  counsel,  than  that  the  five  heads 


aff"ection  for  the  moment,  the  king  caused  a  pro- 
position to  be  made  through  me  ;  that  he  was  re- 
solved to  give  his  daughter  to  the  son  of  the  elec- 
tor, and  to  treat  of  the  matter  with  the  estates  of 
Sweden,  in  the  hope  of  their  consent  under  the  fol- 
lowing conditions  as  the  principal : — 1.  If  the  king 
should  have  a  son  by  his  wife,  he  should  possess 
the  crown  of  Sweden,  Livonia,  and  what  had  been 
conquered  in  Prussia,  and  the  electoral  prince  all 
that  the  king  had  already  acquired,  or  might  ac- 
quire, a  fast  alliance  being  made  between  the  two 
states.  2.  If  the  king  should  have  no  male  heirs, 
the  electoral  prince  should  receive  with  the  king's 
daughter  the  crown  of  Sweden,  and  in  this  case 
such  an  alliance  was  to  be  concluded,  that  the  king 
of  Sweden  might  also  be  elector  of  Brandenburg, 
and  conversely ;  in  the  absence  of  the  king,  Sweden 
was  to  be  governed  by  its  own  constitution,  as  also 
Brandenburg;  that  the  dignity  and  regalities  of 
each  might  be  unimpaired,  and  both  united  with 
strong,  indissoluble  bonds.  3.  In  order  that  the 
electoral  prince  might  be  instnicted  in  our  religion, 
and  accustomed  to  our  language  and  manners,  he 
was  to  receive  his  education  in  Sweden.  With  this 
communication  another  matter  was  separately  fallen 
upon, — whether  the  differences  as  to  religion  might 
not  be  adjusted  in  some  way,  and  how  it  would  go 
with  the  alliance  in  case  the  princess  died  ;  but  on 
account  of  the  frequent  expeditions  of  the  war  no- 
thing further  was  done  in  the  matter,  than  that  the 
commissioners  of  Brandenburg  referred  the  same 
to  the  elector,  who  vv'as  afterwards  better  affectioned 
to  our  party."  The  second  occasion  was  in  the 
camp  at  Nuremberg,  as  the  chancellor  likewise  in- 
forms the  council,  who  request  him  "  to  impart  to 
them  these  discourses  of  the  king,  since  if  any  thing 
mortal  happened  to  himself  the  whole  would  other- 
wise be  concealed  from  them  •"."  Upon  this,  how- 
ever, nothing  farther  is  known  to  us,  than  that  the 
secretary  Grubbe',  who  was  sent  home  from  Ger- 
many, being  questioned  by  the  council,  replied,  that 
the  chancellor  held  in  keeping  some  written  record 
of  what  the  king  had  declared  at  Nuremberg,  which 
his  excellency  might  produce  in  case  any  disturb- 
ances arose.  Probably  this  relates  to  the  removal 
of  the  queen  dowager  from  the  government,  whereon 
two  letters  from  the  king,  written  to  the  chancellor 
during  his  stay  at  Nuremberg,  are  preserved*. 
Christina,  who  says  of  her  mother,  that  she  "had 
all  the  weaknesses  as  well  as  virtues  of  her  sex," 
undoubtedly  alludes  to  this  letter,  when  she  states, 
in  reference  to  her  father's  last  directions  to  Oxen- 
stierna, "  He  remmded  the  chancellor  of  the  com- 


of  colleges  should  be  declared  administrators  by  the  estates 
of  the  realm,  and  if  such  be  their  pleasure,  that  the  ordinance 
should  be  enacted  and  solemnly  ratified.  If  any  of  the  articles 
should  be  found  doubtful,  it  may  be  left  to  another  time,  for 
better  deliberation,  and  the  government  natheiess  be  formed, 
— ut  sit  aliqua  potius  respublica  quam  nulla.  Better  we 
should  dispute  upon  one  or  the  other  point,  and  seek  to  re- 
dress errors,  than  that  we  should  let  the  force  of  the  state 
fall  asunder,  and  then  be  compelled  to  seek  a  remedy  in  the 
matter  by  dangerous  means  and  intestine  discords,  where  no 
cure  is  to  be  made  sine  sectione  vena  (without  bloodshed)." 
Ibid.  249. 

2  Colin  on  the  Spree.    Palmsk. 

3  Letter  of  the  council  to  the  chancellor,  January  7,  1633. 
Reg. 

4  Of  July  21  and  August  1,  1632.   Arckenholtz,  Memoires 
de  Christine,  iii.  34,  n. 

O 


290 


Oxenstieriia's  draught  of 
a  constitution. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES.   Ackno^Smlnofchristina.  C'«''3- 


maiul  which  ho  had  ah-eady  given,  in  case  of  any 
accident  to  his  person,  enjuined  him  to  give  me  an 
education  worthy  of  a  dauglitcr  who  was  to  inherit 
his  throne,  bound  him  to  serve  and  aid  tlie  queen 
my  mother,  to  honour  and  comfort  her,  but  never 
to  let  her  take  any  share  in  the  government,  or 
in  my  education  ^." 

Axel  Oxenstierna's  concept,  drawn  up  by  his 
own  hand,  for  the  form  of  government  of  the  year 
1634,  under  the  title,  Ordinance  anent  the  State 
and  Government  of  the  Realm,  is  preserved  in  the 
library  of  Upsala.  This  sketch,  in  some  heads  not 
so  minute,  and  in  others  (although  unimportant) 
differing  from  that  afterwards  adopted  by  the 
estates,  is  without  date,  but  composed  in  the  name 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Internal  signs  appear  to 
indicate  that  this  was  done  several  years  before 
the  king's  death,  probably  after  his  wounds  in  the 
Prussian  war.  That  Gustavus  Adolphus  approved 
in  the  main  his  chancellor's  project  we  are  along 
with  his  daughter  convinced  ^,  although  the  king 
himself  looked  upon  it  only  as  an  outline  ;  and  we 
may  doubt  whether  he,  upon  his  far-stretching 
career,  had  irrevocably  fixed  his  views  on  this 
head  more  than  on  others.  His  intention  to  regulate 
and  determine  the  constitution  of  the  realm  is  at- 
tested by  his  words  at  his  setting  out  for  tlie  Ger- 
man war, — "  A  monarchy  consists  not  in  persons, 
but  in  the  laws,"  and  furthermore  by  the  whole 
spirit  of  his  government,  which  in  this  respect  con- 
stitutes an  epoch.  The  problem,  as  it  was  pre- 
sented to  him,  was  to  reconcile  finally  to  the  here- 
ditary monarchy,  as  soon  as  possible,  that  nobility 
which  his  father  had  oppressed.  To  their  power 
he  opposed  that  of  an  official  class  dependent  on  the 
sovereign.  The  form  of  government  of  1634,  in 
this  respect,  merely  developes  the  fundamental 
principles  laid  down  by  his  administration.  That 
this  official  class  rose  to  be  a  new  aristocracy  was 
occasioned  by  circumstances  inevitable  to  a  go- 
vernment of  guardians,  which  perhaps  contri- 
buted thereto  still  more  by  its  merits  than  by 
its  faults. 

Until  the  assemblage  of  the  estates  affairs  were 
administered  by  the  councillorsconjointly.  Thecouu- 
cillors  of  the  realm, — it  is  observed  in  their  letter  to 
the  chancellor, — have  constantly  managed  the  go- 
vernment hitherto,  and  will  manage  it  henceforth, 
until  the  opinion  of  the  diet  can  be  taken  upon  the 
form  of  government;  meanwhile  we  keep  a  watchful 
eye  upon  the  border  fortresses  and  the  fleet,  and 
incite  the  superior  functiouaries  to  fidelity  in  their 
charge.  For  what  concerns  the  taxes,  it  is  undoubted 
that  as  in  the  late  king's  time  not  a  few  complaints 
were  heard  thereupon,  such  will  now  be  still  more 
loudly  uttered,  especially  anent  the  enhancement  of 
themill-toll  and  licences  (grain  and  salttaxes),  which 
for  a  long  time  have  been  collected  without  any 
statute  of  the  diet ;  but  since  great  inconveniences 
would  follow  if  they  should  be  abolished  instantly, 
the  government  will  at  least  maintain  them  so  long 
as  the  body  of  his  majesty  is  still  above  ground; 
yet  some  alleviation  might  be  necessary  to  prevent 

s  Life  of  Queen  Christina,  by  herself,  id.  iii.  35. 

«  "  lie  ordered  all  according  to  the  instructions  of  the  late 
king;  adding  to  them  of  his  own  what  he  judged  proper  for 
the  regulation  of  several  other  very  important  affairs  of  the 
government  and  finances  during  tlie  minority,"  iljid.  36. 

7  To  the  chancellor,  Jan.  14,  1C33.     Reg.     In  the  diet  of 


any  disorders  arising  '.  Foreign  intrigues  had  not 
been  ineffectual.  Among  the  peasants,  especially 
in  Smaland  and  Finland,  a  report  was  propagated 
that  the  sons  of  Sigismund  had  offered  to  pass  over 
to  the  Augsburg  Confession,  and  to  come  from  Po- 
land into  the  kingdom  ;  as  also,  that  the  deceased 
king  had  himself  wished  them  to  be  his  successors 
on  the  Swedish  throne,  seeing  that  he  had  no  male 
heirs  *.  "  Who  is  this  Christina,"  a  peasant  at  the 
opening  of  the  diet  is  said  to  have  called  out,  "  we 
know  her  not,  and  have  never  seen  her."  When 
the  six  years'  old  queen  was  placed  before  him  and 
his  associates,  and  they  had  viewed  her,  the  same 
person  said  ;  "  It  is  she,  it  is  Gustave  Adolph's 
nose,  eye,  and  brow ;  let  her  be  our  queen  ^." 

In  the  dietary  statute  of  1633,  the  estates  say 
that  as  it  had  pleased  God  to  take  from  them  their 
head,  the  king  and  father  of  the  country,  without 
male  heirs  who  could  sit  upon  his  chair,  so  they 
had  not  unseasonably  called  to  mind  what  had  been 
covenanted  at  Norrkoeping  in  1604,  on  the  renewal 
of  the  hereditary  settlement,  respecting  the  daugh- 
ters of  kings  and  hereditary  princes,  and  especially 
what  had  been  resolved  at  Stockholm  on  the  4th 
December,  1627,  that  if  the  king's  majesty  died 
without  male  heirs,  they  would  then  take  his 
daughter  for  their  queen ;  wherefore  they  now 
unanimously  declare  the  most  mighty  and  high- 
born princess  and  lady  Christina,  daughter  of  the 
late  king  Gustavus  the  Second  and  Great,  for  the 
queen  elect  and  hereditary  princess  of  Sweden. 
They  would  indeed  have  wished  that  some  stable 
and  consummate  ordinance,  as  to  how  the  govern- 
ment should  be  carried  on  during  the  queen's  mi- 
nority had  been  made  by  his  late  majesty  with  the 
assent  of  the  estates.  But  inasmuch  as  this  had 
not  been  done,  and  they  natheless  understood  that 
the  king  in  his  lifetime  had  intimated  his  opinion 
thereupon  to  the  council,  and  given  command  to 
draw  up  an  ordinance  whose  contents  he  had  ap- 
proved, and  which  had  now  been  communicated  to 
some  of  the  estates;  therefore  until  the  same  sliould 
be  confirmed  by  the  collective  estates,  and  made 
publicly  known,  the  good  lords  of  the  council,  espe- 
cially the  five  high  officers,  the  steward,  the  mar- 
shal, the  admiral,  the  chancellor,  and  the  treasurer, 
as  administrators  of  the  realm  during  the  queen's 
yet  immature  years,  might  meanwhile  adapt  and 
bring  into  operation  this  ordinance  of  government 
to  the  well-being  of  the  country.  Of  these  high 
offices  of  state  only  two  were  vacant.  The  steward, 
count  Magnus  Brahe,  died  on  the  3rd  March,  1 633, 
as  is  said  from  grief  for  the  death  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus.  The  office  of  treasurer  the  king  had 
left  unfilled,  while  he  latterly  committed  the  busi- 
ness to  the  jjalsgrave  John  Casimir,  his  brother-in- 
law,  who  showed  great  skill  in  its  management. 
At  the  solicitation  of  the  council  he  continued  in  it 
until  the  convention  of  the  estates.  The  young 
queen's  education  remained  under  the  constant 
supervision  of  his  wife ;  but  no  place  was  left  for 
him  in  the  administration  of  the  guardians.    It  has 


lfi83  the  augmentation  of  the  petty  toll  and  the  mill-tax, 
which  had  heeu  passed,  was  remitted.  The  cause  of  the 
increase  had  been  the  depreciation  of  the  copper  coins,  on 
which  account  the  government,  June  16,  1631,  ordered  both 
tolls  to  be  collected  in  silver  money.     Reg. 

8  Puffendorf. 

*  Memoires  de  Christine,  i.  23. 


1645.] 


Regency  of  guardians 
appointed;  tlieir  oatb. 


CHRISTINA. 


miiT?   T>r'/-'-i7'TvTn-v     Pretensions  of  tlie  Polish  branch    ,„, 
i  il  b  KJ'.b  l!.iN  L>  Y .  of  jhe  Vasas  revived.  "^^  ^ 


been  frequently  suspected,  that  in  this  point  there 
was  a  departure  from  the  will  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus,  as  appears  to  u.s,  without  sufficient  ground '. 
The  count  Palatine  was  not  a  Swede ;  he  was  a 
Calvinist ;  and  the  Palatine  house  was  already  giving 
intimations  of  its  claims  to  the  eventual  succession 
to  the  throne  ^.  All  this  was  of  importance  at  the 
time.  "Her  majesty  the  queen-dowager,  the  pals- 
grave and  palsgravine,  were  in  great  dispute  with 
the  council  of  state  regardmg  the  manner  of  go- 
vernment and  other  pretensions,"  says  count  Peter 
Brahe  ^,  "  but  the  council  held  on  their  course, 
without  letting  themselves  be  hindered  by  the  one 
or  the  other." 

On  the  17th  January,  1634,  the  number  of  the 
guardians  was  complete,  a  steward  and  treasurer 
being  nominated  by  the  votes  of  the  council.  In 
both  cases  their  choice  devolved  upon  an  Oxen- 
stierna.  Gabriel  Gustaveson  (brother  of  the  chan- 
cellor) was  made  high-steward,  and  Gabriel  Ben- 
netson  Oxenstierna,  high-treasurer.  Both  were 
proposed  by  the  chancellor*.  But  already  on  the 
5th  April,  1633,  the  guardians  had  been  sworn  in. 
Count  Peter  Brahe  then  took  the  oath  instead  of 
the  steward,  Clas  Fleming  in  place  of  the  treasurer, 
Peter  Baner  in  that  of  the  absent  chancellor,  and 
the  following  was  the  sum  of  the  subject-matter : 
"  Forasmuch  as  I,  according  to  what  hath  been 
unanimously  resolved  at  this  diet  now  holden, 
together  with  four  others  my  colleagues  in  the 
council,  will  take  upon  me  the  guardianship  of  my 
most  gracious  queen  elect,  and  direct  the  govern- 
ment of  the  realm,  with  the  other  lords  of  the 
council  of  state,  without  prejudice  to  the  rights  of 
the  estates  of  the  realm ;  even  so  will  I  uphold  the 
five  colleges  and  fraternities  (broderskap),  which 
consist  of  the  palace-court,  the  council  of  war,  the 
admiralty,  the  chancery,  and  the  chamber  of  ac- 
counts, as  the  same  have  been  established  by  former 
kings,  but  especially  by  his  majesty  our  last  reign- 
ing sovereign, — maintain  the  rights  of  her  majesty 
and  of  the  realm,  and  every  man's  well-won  free- 
dom,— dispense  and  defend  the  law,  justice,  and 
polity  of  Sweden, — represent  and  dispute  for  the 
realm,  as  I  shall  stand  to  answer  before  God,  my 

'  His  grace  the  prfaice  made  mention  of  a  testament  which 
he  believed  to  have  been  made  in  Prussia,  and  wherein  he 
was  named.  Protocol  of  council,  Aug.  15,  1633.  Adlersparre, 
Hist.  Col,  iii.  354. 

2  "  The  lord  Fleming  came  back  from  his  grace  the  Pals- 
grave, and  related  that  the  prince  was  somewhat  malcontent, 
and  when  he  requested  to  know  the  cause  his  grace  answered, 
that  he  could  not  leave  his  children  in  that  uncertainty  in 
which  they  now  were.  Whereto  it  was  replied,  that  what- 
ever his  grace  had  requested,  as  confirmation  of  his  estates 
and  else,  all  this  he  had  received.  He  rejoined,  that  the 
senate  had  promised  him  its  best  recommendation  for  his 
due  place,  thereby  indirectly  signifying  that  such  should 
lately  have  been  done  by  the  estates.  The  lord  Fleming 
thereupon  asked  what  that  might  import,  to  mention  his 
grace  to  the  estates ;  for  it  was  our  basis  to  keep  together  the 
knot  which  was  formerly  tied,  namely,  that  the  queen's  ma- 
jesty, after  her  lord  and  father,  of  happy  memory,  should  be 
maintained  upon  the  throne."  Protocol  of  the  council  for 
April  12,  1633.  Adlersparre,  id.  iii.  347.  The  council's  soli- 
citude went  so  far,  that  they  would  not  permit  the  Palsgrave 
to  give  an  account  of  his  administration  before  the  estates. 
In  a  letter  to  Oxenstierna  upon  the  Brandenburg  overture  of 
marriage,  the  council  entreats  the  chancellor  "  to  consider 
the  case  (which  God  avert!)  of  Christina  dying  before  mar- 
riage,— how  far  then  the  kingdom  of  Sweden  might  be 


most  gracious  queen,  the  estates  of  the  realm,  and 
every  honourable  man  :  so  may  God  send  me  help 
for  body  and  soul  *  !" 

With  respect  to  the  final  version  of  the  form  of 
government,  the  council  of  state  had  sent  two  of  its 
members  to  the  chancellor  with  chai-ge  to  delibe- 
rate thereon,  in  consequence  of  which  the  first 
di-aught  received  sundry  alterations.  One  of  them 
is  perhaps  more  important  in  its  tendency  than  in 
the  literal  significance.  The  chancellor's  concept 
begins  thus  :  "  In  Sweden  the  sovereign  is  heredi- 
tary, not  elective."  The  coimcil  refers  it  to  him 
whether  this  may  not  be  ambiguous,  and  be  con- 
strued to  mean  that  the  hereditary  settlement 
should  be  applicable  likewise  to  the  future  consort 
and  heirs  of  the  young  queen.  It  appears  as  if  the 
old  leaning  to  an  elective  monarchy  were  not  yet 
fully  extinct.  The  words  quoted  were  omitted. 
The  enunciation  of  general  principles  was  avoided, 
and  appeal  was  made  only  to  the  hereditary  settle- 
ments of  1544  and  1604,  together  with  the  statute 
of  the  year  1627,  whereby  Christina's  right  to  the 
throne  was  acknowledged.  For  the  rest,  her  title 
I'an  in  this  phrase  :  "  Queen  elect  of  the  realm." 
Probably  it  was  intended  in  this  way  to  meet  the 
more  securely  the  hereditary  pretensions  of  the 
Polish  branch  of  the  Vasas.  The  revival  of  these 
claims,  after  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  '^,  led 
to  a  remarkable  letter  from  the  Swedish  govern- 
ment to  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  who  had  ten- 
dered his  mediation  in  the  negotiations  which  had 
been  opened  for  peace  with  Poland.  "  Yom-  lovLiig- 
ness  knows,"  thus  run  the  words  which  were  placed 
in  the  mouth  of  Christina,  "  that  the  monarchy  of 
Sweden  was  of  old  elective,  and  that  through  the 
merits  of  our  great-grandfather,  it  was  assigned  to 
his  family  as  hereditary;  not  without  limitations, 
but  upon  certain  conditions,  agreed  to  between  the 
king  and  the  estates,  on  the  acceptance  of  which 
by  the  king,  his  subjects  are  bound  to  obedience, 
but  with  their  impairment  and  neglect  these  are 
released  from  their  obligation ;  if  strife  arise  there- 
from, God  alone  is  judge,  and  saving  the  estates  of 
the  realm,  no  other  judicatory  is  acknowledged  ^." 

obliged  to (a  blank  space  for  the  Palsgrave's  name) 

and  his  heirs."  Memorial  to  the  chancellor,  March  29,  1633. 
Reg. 
3  Journal. 

*  By  letter  dated  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  Oct.  2,  163<i. 
The  council  had  prayed  his  opinion  hereupon,  and  sent 
thither  in  April,  1033,  Gabriel  Gustaveson  Oxenstierna  and 
Matthias  Soop,  to  deliberate  with  him  as  well  upon  this  as 
divers  nicer  matters  anent  the  form  of  government. 

5  Bond  of  the  lords  of  the  ministry,  April  5,  1P33.   Reg. 

*  Uladislaus  hereupon  issued  a  Swedish  manifesto,  which 
was  printed  and  disseminated,  and  is  dated  Thorn,  June  30, 
1635,  "of  our  reign  in  Sweden  the  fourth,  and  in  Poland  the 
third  year."  He  styles  himself  therein,  "  hy  birth  and  inherit- 
ance the  legitimate  king  of  the  realm  of  Sweden;"  says  tliat 
"duke  Gustavus  Adolphus,"  through  the  rigorous  punish- 
ments of  God,  had  spilled  life  and  blood,  deplores  the  into- 
lerable thraldom  with  taxes,  tallages,  post-service,  and  inces- 
sant levies,  wherein  the  Swedes  were  held,  promises  peace 
with  the  emperor  and  Poland,  protection  for  the  evangelical 
faith,  and  the  privileges  of  their  class  for  all.  Palmsk.  Col. 
t.  40. 

7  Novit  Dilectio  vestra  regnum  Svecia;  ab  antiquo  elec- 
tivum  fuisse,  datum  vero  id  meritis  proavi  nostri,  ut  sus 
familice  haereditarium  transcriberetur;  non  absolute,  sed 
certis  pactis  inter  regem  et  ordines,  quibus  a  rege  servatis, 
subditi  obsequio  tenentur,  solvuntur  violatis  et  neglectis ;  et 
II  2 


292 


The  chancellor's  form  of  govern- 
ment adopted  by  the  diet. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


The  five  administrative 
colleges.  Prefects  and  judges. 


[1633— 


The  form  of  government,  again  revised  by  the 
chancellor,  was  adopted  by  the  collective  estates, 
through  the  dietary  statute  of  July  29,  1634  *.  It 
is  an  ordinance  for  the  administration  of  public 
affairs,  affecting  both  the  exercise  of  the  regal  au- 
thority, and  the  privileges  of  the  estates,  though 
properly  defining  neither  of  them,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, presuming  both.  Of  the  sovereign,  in  his 
relation  to  the  government  here  created,  it  is  laid 
down  that  his  rights  and  dignity  are  unimpaired, 
and  in  no  wise  prejudiced  ' ;  of  the  estates,  "  that 
their  congresses,  meetings,  and  resolutions  must  be 
esteemed  and  held  true  general  diets,  against  which 
no  one  is  to  speak,  that  is  subject  to  the  king  and 
realm  in  fealty  and  obedience  '."  Yet  there  were 
some  who  already  declared  that  they  regarded  the 
mode  of  government  introduced  as  new  in  Sweden, 
and  dangerous  to  regal  authority  ^. — The  govern- 
ment is  conducted  under  the  king,  and  in  his 
absence,  illness,  or  minority,  by  the  five  grand 
officers,  the  steward,  marshal,  admiral,  chancellor, 
treasui'er,  with  the  advice,  and  at  the  head  of  five 
colleges,  the  palace-court,  the  council  of  war,  the 
admiralty,  the  chancery,  and  the  chamber  of  ac- 
counts 3.  The  palace-courts  are  four  in  number, 
the  principal  in  Stockholm,  with  the  high-steward 
(Drots)  as  president,  and  four  councillors  of  state 
as  assessors,  six  of  the  baronage,  and  six  other 
learned  and  discreet  men ;  the  others  in  Jenkoe- 
ping,  Abo,  Dorpt,  with  a  member  of  the  council  as 
president,  and  six  noble,  six  unnoble  colleagues. 
A  court  of  state  (Riksrjitt)  is  besides  mentioned, 
with  reservation  of  the  old  view  that  the  diet  was 
the  highest  court  of  the  realm.  "If  any  man  should 
be  delinquent,"  it  is  laid  down,  "  of  so  high  condi- 
tion, or  in  such  highest  concernment,  that  it 
toucheth  the  majesty  of  the  king  and  the  crown, 
and  inijuiry  and  decision  in  the  matter  cannot  be 
conveniently  had  otherwise  than  by  the  convoca- 
tion of  the  estates,  then  shall  all  these  palace 
courts,  with  the  rest  of  the  councillors  of  state  and 
the  provincial  lieutenants  who  are  present,  as  well 
as  one  burgomaster  of  the  towns  of  Stockholm, 
Upsala,  Gottenburg,  Norrkoeping,   Abo,   Wiborg, 

cum  de  ea  re  controversia  inciderit,  Deum  solum  judicem, 
nee,  praeter  comitia  regni,  nuUius  alterius  forum  esse.  Elec- 
tori  Brandenburgensi,  d.  28  Martii,  1635. 

8  The  council,  in  their  letter  to  the  chancellor,  May  10, 
1634,  pray  him  to  remit  "  the  corrected  form  of  govern- 
ment." On  the  5th  July  it  was  read  to  a  commission  of 
the  estates,  and  then  to  all  the  estates,  whereupon  some 
changes  were  made.  The  secretary  Grubbe  was  sent  to  Ger- 
many to  inform  the  chancellor  of  these,  and  to  communicate 
to  him  the  remarks  oft'ered  by  each  of  the  estates.     Reg. 

*  §  VI.  The  form  of  government  of  1634  (but  with  many 
disfiguring  errors  of  the  press)  may  be  read  in  Stiernman, 
a.  887. 

'  §  XLv.   The  composition  of  the  diets  remains  as  usual. 

'  CoUegiis  quinque  eonmique  capitibus  summa  non  tan- 
tum  rerum  agendarum  cura,  verum  et  potestas  conceditur. 
Unde  verentur  quidam  fieri  posse,  ut,  prout  ingenia  illorum, 
qui  ofiiciis  summis  praesunt,  ad  virtutem  aut  ambitionem 
prona  fueriiit,  ita  quoque  rempublicam  cum  illis  florere  aut 
periclitari  posse,  atque  ita  rex  ipse,  quern  curis  vacuum  sub 
hoc  praetextu  cupiunt,  potentia  quoque  solutus,  Venetorum 
instar  ducis,  ociosus  degat.  (To  the  five  colleges  and  their 
heads,  not  only  the  highest  cares  of  administration  but  even 
the  power  are  conceded.  Wlience  some  fear  that  it  may  happen 
that,  just  as  the  wits  of  those  who  wield  the  highest  func- 
tions are  prone  to  virtue  or  ambition,  so  also  the  republic 
may  flourish  or  be  jeopardied  with  them,  and  thus  the  king 


fill  the  place  of  the  estates,  and  have  power  to  pass 
sentence  in  this  cause."  The  second  college,  the 
council  of  war,  is  directed  by  the  marshal,  with  two 
councillors  of  state  as  assessors,  who  have  served,  or 
still  serve,  in  the  army,  and  four  officers,  with  the 
field-marshal,  the  ordnance-master,  and  the  general 
watchmaster  *.  lu  the  third  college  of  the  admi- 
ralty presides  the  high-admiral,  and  has  for  assess- 
ors two  councillors  of  state  (those  who  have  served 
at  sea  being  preferred),  and  four  vice-admirals,  or 
the  oldest  and  most  intelligent  ship  captains,  among 
them  the  Holm-admiral  (governor  of  Skeppsholm, 
or  Ship  Island  at  Stockholm).  No  one  of  these  col- 
leges is  allowed  to  dispose  of  any  public  funds,  but 
this  is  wholly  the  business  of  the  chamber  of  ac- 
counts, where  also  an  account  is  to  be  rendered  of 
all  and  every  receipt  and  expenditure.  The  fourth 
college  is  the  chancery,  uuder  the  high-chancellor, 
with  four  assessors,  councillors  of  state,  one  chan- 
cellor of  the  household^,  and  two  secretaries  of  state, 
if  possible  of  the  nobility.  The  high-treasurer's 
college,  the  fifth  and  last,  is  the  chamber  of  ac- 
counts, in  which  sit  two  councillors  of  state,  three 
others  of  the  nobility,  and  two  of  the  oldest  cham- 
berlains ''.  These  five  colleges  (the  Stockholm 
palace-court  alone  being  understood),  to  whose 
special  instructions  reference  is  also  made,  shall  at 
all  times  sit  in  Stockholm,  unless  the  king,  on 
account  of  the  plague  or  other  disaster,  should 
remove  his  residence  for  some  time  '. — The  govern- 
ment of  the  provinces  is  divided  into  cei-tain  pre- 
fectures, of  which,  besides  the  town  of  Stockholm, 
under  its  own  chief  lieutenant  *,  there  are  twenty- 
four,  under  as  many  prefects  (or  land-captains, 
landshofdingar).  In  frontier  provinces,  a  supreme 
prefect,  or  governor-general,  may  be  appointed ; 
these  must  be  councillors  of  state,  like  the  chief 
lieutenant  of  Stockholm.  The  assizes  (lagsagor) 
in  Sweden  are  fourteen  ^,  under  as  many  justiciaries 
or  lawmen,  whose  tribunals  form  the  second  in- 
stancy of  the  country,  and  receive  all  appeals  from 
the  court  of  the  hundred.  In  the  council- chambers 
of  the  towns  shall  always  preside  a  bailiff,  whom 
the  kmg  appoints  thereto,  and  neither  the  prefect 

himself,  whom  they  desire  to  be  relieved  from  business, 
under  this  pretext  stripped  also  of  power,  like  a  duke  of 
Venice,  may  be  reduced  to  inactivity.)  Schering  Rosenhane 
to  secretary  Schmaltz,  August  3,  1634.  Mem.  de  Christine, 
iii.  187.  n. 

3  Hofratten,  Krigsradet,  Amiralitetet,  Kansliet,  Rakninge- 
kammaren. 

■*  He  appears  to  correspond  to  the  adjutant-general  of  the 
army. 

5  The  chancellor  of  the  household  is  wanting  in  the  first 
concept  by  Oxenstierna. 

s  Tlie  special  instructions  of  the  colleges  mentioned  in  the 
form  of  government  still  remained  to  be  made  out. 

'  The  chancellor's  concept  even  binds  all  the  higher  func- 
tionaries to  possess  houses  in  Stockholm.  This  section  was 
omitted. 

8  In  the  concept,  Burgrave  (burg-grefve,  borough-reeve). — 
"  He  shall,  for  the  more  convenient  execution  of  justice, 
have  a  captain  to  himself,  who  shall  be  entitled  town's  cap- 
tain, and  with  him  twenty-four  soldiers,  of  whom  twelve 
shall  constantly  attend  on  him,  clad  in  a  fixed  livery,  namely, 
blue  and  yellow."  §  xxiv.  So  far  as  I  know,  this  is  the 
first  time  in  which  the  so-called  Swedish  coloujs  appear  in 
uniform. 

9  In  the  concept  thirteen.  But  Nerike  and  Vermeland, 
which  make  each  one  jurisdiction  in  the  form  of  government, 
make  but  one  together  in  the  concept. 


1645.] 


Obligations  of  official 
persons  to  render 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


an  account  in  yearly 
courts  of  inquest. 


293 


nor  any  captain  of  a  castle  shall  intermeddle  with 
the  council-chamber. — No  one  shall  be  prefect  in 
the  jurisdiction  where  he  is  lawman ;  no  prefect 
shall  have  the  command  of  a  fortress,  or  any  au- 
thority in  the  castles  and  sti-engths  of  the  crown, 
unless  the  king  grant  special  wan-ant  thereto  to  the 
governors  of  the  frontier  provinces.  Neither  a  pre- 
fect nor  a  captain  of  a  castle  shall  remain,  miless 
the  king  shall  otherwise  appoint,  more  than  three 
years  in  his  office;  and  after  the  expiration  of  these 
he  shall  repair,  on  the  1st  of  June,  to  the  capital,  to 
give  an  account  of  his  administration  before  all  tne 
five  colleges.  If  any  one  be  found  unfaithful  or 
negligent,  he  is  to  be  called  before  the  palace- 
court,  arraigned  by  the  state-fiscal,  and  to  be 
mulcted  as  the  court  shall  award.  Colonels  in  the 
provinces  and  regiments  of  foot  and  horse,  the 
strength  of  each  being  proportioned  to  the  size  of 
the  prefecture,  shall  be  twenty-eight  in  number, 
namely,  eight  of  horse  (including  the  troopers  of 
the  trained  bands)  and  twenty  of  foot  ^.  No  prefect 
has  any  command  (further  than  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  the  law  and  peace)  over  the  military  force, 
without  especial  warrant  from  the  king  ;  no  officer 
of  the  latter  is  to  interfere  in  matters  of  taxation 
on  pain  of  death. — These  ai'e  the  principal  function- 
aries whom  the  king  has  at  hand  in  his  service  and 
the  realm's,  and  every  officer  is  bound  to  give 
account  and  answer  to  the  king  himself,  as  often  as 
he  may  please  to  make  demand,  and  also  every  one 
before  his  college, — lawmen,  judges  of  hundreds, 
and  all  justiciaries  before  the  palace-court;  the 
ordnance-master,  colonels  of  regiments,  captains  of 
castles,  before  the  council  of  war;  all  those  who 
have  the  fleets  of  the  realm  in  their  hands,  before 
the  admiralty;  ambassadors  and  agents,  before  the 
council  of  chancery;  and  finally,  all  who  have  to  do 
with  the  public  disbursements,  before  the  council 
of  the  exchequer.  The  marshal  of  the  household, 
the  equerry  of  the  stud,  and  ranger  of  the  forests 
of  the  crown,  with  all  justiciaries,  prefects,  and 
colonels  of  regiments  in  Sweden,  shall  yearly  come 
to  Stockholm  on  the  day  of  the  Epiphany,  to  ren- 
der account;  if  any  one  have  lawful  excuse  of  non- 
appearance, he  is  to  give  an  account  by  his  clerk, 
book-keeper,  or  other  deputy.  The  lawmen,  pre- 
fects, and  colonels  in  Finland,  Ingermanlaud,  Livo- 
nia, and  Prussia,  are  not  indeed  bound  to  appear, 
but  shall,  nevertheless,  yearly  send  their  deputies 
to  Stockholm,  on  the  first  day  of  September  ^.  The 
five  "councils"  of  the  realm  are  holden  from 
Twelfth-day  to  Candlemas,  to  revise  and  examine 
the  papers  of  the  specified  functionaries  of  the 
government  of  the  household  and  country ;  in  like 
manner  they  shall  themselves,  from  Candlemas  to 
Lent,  render  an  account  to  the  king,  if  he  be  pre- 
sent and  can  receive  it,  but  otherwise  before  the 
five  grand  officers,  it  being  understood  that  the 

1  The  concept  has  but  seventeen  regiments  in  the  whole, 
eight  of  horse  and  nine  of  foot.  This  surprising  disparity 
confirms  the  opinion  that  the  chancellor's  draught  of  a  form 
of  government  is  really  considerably  older  than  the  present, 
and  made  out  before  the  army  received  its  further  develop- 
ment in  the  latter  years  of  the  reign  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 
That  this  was  actually  the  case  is  evinced  by  another  circum- 
stance :  in  a  memorial  of  Oxenstierna  to  the  government 
and  council  of  the  18th  October,  1633  (thus  contemporary 
with  the  form  of  government),  he  reckons  not  nine  but 
eighteen  regiments  of  foot  in  Sweden  and  Finland.  These 
were   increased   in   the  form  of  government,  which  gives 


fifth,  with  his  assessors,  is  constantly  ready  to 
make  account,  during  which  his  place  in  the  go- 
vernment is  filled  by  the  chief  lieutenant  of  Stock- 
holm. If  affairs  of  state  arise  so  onerous  and  diffi- 
cult, that  this  examination  cannot  possibly  be  made 
in  the  appointed  term,  then  trustworthy  and  dis- 
creet men,  from  the  assessors  of  the  colleges,  may 
be  deputed  for  the  investigation  of  particular  mat- 
ters, in  order  that  all  may  be  set  to  rights  during 
the  winter,  and  nothing  deferred  from  one  year  to 
another.  If  any  one  in  a  college  is  found  culpable, 
he  is  to  appear  before  the  court  of  the  five  high 
officers,  who  shall  appoint  in  addition  two  members 
of  each  of  the  colleges,  and  with  these  rests  the 
power  of  reprimanding,  or  punishing  with  infamy 
and  removal,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  case, 
yet  taking  the  king's  decision,  if  he  be  present. 
But  if  any  offence  is  brought  home  to  a  whole  col- 
lege, or  one  of  the  five  high  officers,  then  it  depends 
on  the  king  alone,  whether  the  matter  shall  be 
stayed  with  a  reprimand,  or  be  referred  to  him  and 
the  council  to  adjudge.  All  these  investigations, 
congresses,  and  processes,  shall  be  held  in  a  cham- 
ber in  the  castle  of  Stockholm  thereto  appointed, 
one  of  the  two  secretaries  of  state  being  permanent 
prosecutor,  the  other  notary;  unless  one  of  them  be 
himself  interested  in  the  matter,  sick,  or  absent,  in 
which  case  another  upright  man  may  be  named  to 
those  functions. — At  the  before-mentioned  yearly 
conventions  of  the  official  servants  of  the  state, 
exact  information  is  to  be  taken  as  to  the  whole 
condition  of  the  realm,  and  the  affairs  which  do  not 
require  to  be  brought  before  a  general  diet,  may 
be  discussed  and  disposed  of.  If  it  should  occur 
sometime,  that  the  opinion  of  the  estates  is  re- 
quired, where  yet  the  time  or  other  circumstances 
do  not  allow  the  like  general  deliberations,  then 
besides  the  above-mentioned  officers  of  state,  two 
of  the  baronage  from  every  assize,  the  bishops  and 
superintendents  of  Sweden  and  Finland,  with  one 
deputy  from  the  towns  of  Stockholm,  Upsala,  Got- 
tenburg,  Norrkoeping,  Abo,  and  Wiborg,  shall  be 
summoned  to  consultation.  In  the  absence,  illness, 
or  minority  of  the  sovereign,  no  new  laws  can  be 
made,  no  new  privileges  conferred,  no  letters  of 
nobiUty  granted,  no  crown  or  taxed  estates  or 
other  dues  of  the  crown  be  alienated  or  exchanged, 
but  all  such  matters,  as  all  nominations  and  reso- 
lutions, shall  await  the  confirmation  of  the  reigning 
person;  yet  so  that  if  any  resolution  has  been  passed 
at  a  general  diet,  it  can  only  be  confirmed  or  abx'O- 
gated  in  the  general  diet. 

Circumstances,  yet  more  than  principles,  after- 
wards made  the  constitution  of  1634  distasteful  to 
the  people  of  Sweden.  It  never  was  carried  into 
effect  in  all  its  branches.  For  its  epoch,  the  work 
was  one  of  statesmanlike  wisdom*,  from  which  our 
own  might  still  learn. 

twenty,  reckoning  three  regiments  to  West-Gothland,  in- 
stead of  two  in  the  memorial,  and  two  instead  of  one  to 
Carelia. 

2  The  presidents  of  the  palace-courts  in  Gothland,  Finland, 
and  Livonia,  shall  be  personally  present  yearly  on  the  1st  ol 
June,  or  by  Midsummer  at  latest. 

3  One  of  the  principles  of  this  form  of  government  was 
expressed  in  another  shape  by  the  chancellor,  when  he  de- 
clared in  the  senate  on  the  15th  July,  1636,  that  "  he  held  it 
not  unadvisable  to  appoint  censors,  who  should  censure  each 
man's  duty,  as  at  Rome."  Adlersparre,  Histor.  Saml.  iv.  98. 
The  prescribed  mode  of  rendering  account  was  at  first  ob- 


294 


Char.icter  of  Oxenstieriia. 
His  memorial  to  tiie 


,^. ^^,,   ^-r-.  r.,m-.   oiTTT-iT^T^ir.      couHcil.     Finaiicial  measurcs 

HISTORY   OF   THE   SWEDES,     recommended  by  him. 


[1633- 


Axel  Oxensticrna  is  one  of  those  who  enforce 
our  admiration  all  the  more,  the  closer  our  know- 
ledge of  him  is,  and  the  greater  the  obstacles  with 
which  he  liad  to  contend.  There  can  be  found  no 
more  honourable  example  of  what  a  great  intellect 
and  a  well-ordei-ed  industry  are  able  to  accomplish. 
And  yet  this  man  was  of  inert  temperament,  and 
slept  his  full  measure  *.  While  the  burden  of  war 
abroad  rests  upon  his  shoulders,  his  glance  em- 
braces in  the  distance  all  the  internal  relations  of 
the  country.  In  his  opinions  ^  we  discern  the  mind 
of  a  great  statesman,  an  upright  patriot,  and  a 
politician  more  hberal  than  the  world  deems  him. 
In  this  respect  we  would  dii-ect  attention,  espe- 
cially, to  that  memorial  which  he  charged  the 
nobles  delegated  to  him  to  communicate  to  the 
collective  ministry  and  council  of  Sweden,  dated 
Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  October  8,  1633"^.  This 
contains  the  outlines  of  a  complete  plan  of  public 
defence  and  finance  for  Sweden,  and  is  full  of  in- 
structive suggestions  on  several  conterminous  sub- 
jects. We  quote  some  of  its  heads,  in  order  to 
show  how  this  aristocrat  comprehended  as  well 
lordly  as  civic  freedom.  "  When  I  betliiuk  me  of  the 
true  causes  for  which  former  kmgs  so  often  made 
aggressions  on  our  privileges,  loading  heavily  us 
and  our  vassals,  or  even  bereaving  us  of  all  our 
property,  I  find  that  it  was  often  not  just  so  much 
the  pleasure  of  the  authorities  in  oppressing  us  by 
need  and  poverty,  as  want  of  resources  to  defend 
the  realm  efl'ectively,  and  uphold  its  reputation 
among  other  nations.  For  these  causes  I  perceive 
nothing  at  this  time  so  highly  mcumbent  on  the 
council,  the  ministry,  and  the  estates,  as  that  they, 
setting  aside  all  other  considerations,  should  endea- 
vour to  get  into  their  bauds  good  and  permanent 
means,  which  may  remove  these  embarrassments  ; 
holdmg,  that  if  this  be  not  done,  the  reputation  of 
our  kingdom  and  nation,  won  by  the  laudable  ac- 
tions and  blood  of  his  late  majesty,  of  happy  me- 

served.  The  mmistry  writes,  April  27,  1636,  to  the  chan. 
cellor,  "  We  send  you  by  Salvius  copies  of  tiie  points,  which 
we  have  caused  to  be  made  out  touching  those  errors,  where- 
upon it  seemed  to  us  needful  to  make  suggestions  at  the  im- 
pending examination  of  the  four  colleges,  which,  according 
to  the  form  of  government,  shall  be  held  yearly;  we  con- 
jecture that  it  will  not  pass  otf  without  amendment  of  the 
persons.  We  are  minded  also  soon  to  hold  au  examinatioa 
with  the  treasury." 

■i  Christina's  judgment  of  him  deserves  to  be  quoted:   it 
conies  from  a  pen  not  partial  to  the  chancellor.    "  This  great 
man  had  made  large  attainments,  having  studied  much  in 
his  youth.     He  continued  to  read  in  the  midst  of  his  great 
occupations.     He  had  a  great  capacity  and  knowledge  of  the 
affairs  and  interests  of  the  world      He  knew  the  strong  and 
the  weak  points  of  all  the  states  of  our  Europe.     He  had 
consummate  wisdom  and  prudence,  a  vast  capacity,  a  great 
heart.    He  was  indefatigable.   He  had  an  assiduity  and  appli- 
cation to  business  incomparable.     He  made  them  his  plea- 
sure and  his  only  occupation;  and  when  he  took  relaxation, 
bis  diversion  was  business.     He  was  sober,  as  much  as  one 
could  be  in  an  age  and  country  where  that  virtue  was  un- 
known.    He  was  a  full  sleeper,  and  said  that  no  alfair  had 
ever  hindered  him  from  sleeping  in  his  life  except  twice: 
tlie  first  was  the  death  of  the  late  king,  the  other  the  loss  of 
the  battle  of  Niirdlingen.     He  has  often  told  me  that  when 
lie  went  to  rest  he  stripped  off  all  liis  cares  with  his  clothes, 
and  let  them  repose  till  the  next  day.     For  the  rest,  he  was 
ambitious,  but  faithful,  incorruptible,  a  little  too  slow  and 
phlegmatic."    (Ce  grand  homme  avail  beaucoup   d'acquis, 
Src.)     Mem.  de   Christine,   iii.   ■le.      We  subjoin   liis  daily 
prayer,  which,  written  by  his  own  band,  is  preserved  in  the 


mory,  and  the  life  of  many  an  honourable  Swedish 
man,  will  in  no  long  time  be  lost,  the  conquered 
territories  again  be  wrested  from  us,   the  estates 
and  privileges  acquired  be  foregone,  and,  which  God 
avert,  the  realm  come  under  foreign  domination. 
In  general  I  know  well  that  every  man  gives  his 
due,  but  when  it  comes  to  the  specification,  so  that 
one  is  privately  conscious  of  any  real  or  imaginary 
grievance,  and  begins   to  draw  conclusions   as   to 
what  shall  follow  therefrom,  he  cannot  rid  himself 
of  the  apprehension,  and  forgets  for  a  trivial  pres- 
sure or  an  imagined  consequence,  the  welfare  of 
the  country  and  his  own  safety,  as  well  as  the  con- 
servation of  his  privileges.    And  what  is  most  to  be 
lamented  is,  that  those  who  so  oppose  and  seek  to 
hinder  all  wholesome   counsels,  ever   ready  with 
difficulties  and  objections,  pass  for  the  only  wise; 
albeit  if  we  hold  such  to  be  good,  and  only  require 
from  them  plans  how  affairs   shall   be   sustained, 
they  know  less  than  others."    Further  :  "  It  must 
be  well  considered  by  all  the  members  of  our  order, 
that  departed  kings  have  invested  our  forefathers, 
parents,  and  ourselves,  with  feudal  and  heritable 
estates,  not  only  in  the  conquered  countries,  but 
also  in  the   realm,  which  as  they  have  now  been 
sold,   exchanged,  or   heired   away,   cannot   revert 
without  the  greatest  confusion  and  perturbation  ; 
but  have  diminished  the  yearly  rents  of  the  crown. 
This  decrement  must  necessarily  be  not  only  again 
covered  by  other  means,  but  regard  must  also  be 
had  how  the  country,  according  to  the  course  and 
need   of  this   woi-ld,    may   now   be    strengthened 
against  foes   and  enviers,  whereof  there  are  now 
more  and  mightier  than  ever  before.    These  and 
other  grounds  move  me  not  to  dissuade  the  baron- 
age and  nobles  from  ceding  their  toll-freedom  to 
the  crown,  or  at  least  from  suspendmg  it  tor  some 
time,  and  in  this  way  helping  the  crown  in  return 
for  all  the  property  enjoyed  by  its  bounty'.  Lastly, 
that  a  treaty  should  be  set  on  foot  with  the  nobility 

Palraskiild  Collections,  t.  370,  p.  53  :— "  O  Lord,  my  God ! 
I  know  and  am  fully  certain  of  this,  that  thou  art  my 
Creator,  my  Redeemer,  my  tower,  tlie  horn  of  my  salvation, 
my  mild  and  merciful  Father,  who  lettest  not  the  sighing  of 
my  heart  pass  by  his  ear,  but  hearest  me.  This  day  and  all 
time  I  commend  me  to  thy  divine  protection,  with  my  house, 
my  fatherland,  and  thy  holy  church  in  the  wide  world.  May 
thy  good  Spirit  govern  us ;  may  thy  holy  angel  guard  us ; 
give  us  what  is  well-pleasing  to  thee  and  profitable  for  us, 
and  turn  from  us  what  misliketh  thee  or  is  hurtful  for  our 
body  and  soul.  Graciously  grant  that  thy  holy  and  saving 
word  may  be  preached  pure,  clear,  and  undefiled  to  us  and 
our  posterity,  and  the  holy  sacraments  after  thy  institution 
be  dispensed  without  abuse,  and  bring  forth  fruit  in  our 
hearts.  Avert  all  false  worship,  heresy,  and  scandal,  as  also 
variance  and  discord  in  thy  holy  congregation.  Confer  on 
us  true  preachers  and  teachers.  Defend  and  protect  them. 
Bless  our  churches  and  schools,  and  let  thy  holy  word  shine 
in  them,  and  our  youth  be  educated  in  the  fear  of  God." 

5  The  chancellor's  letters  arrived  oftener  than  the  answers 
of  the  ministry  were  transmitted.  Generally  the  latter  took 
a  good  interval.  Oct.  12,  1633,  the  lords  of  the  ministry  ex- 
cused their  delay,  "because  they  are  obliged  to  attend  the 
burials  of  two  well-deserving  men."     Reg. 

6  Concept  under  his  own  hand  in  the  Cronstedt  Collection 
in  the  Library  of  Upsala.  There  is  a  copy  in  the  Nordin 
Collections. 

'  In  their  answer  to  the  complaints  of  the  nobles,  at  the 
diet  of  1633,  the  council  finds  it  reasonable  that  the  nobles 
should  escape  the  payment  of  taxes  on  land  held  in  their 
own  hands.  At  the  diet  of  1634  the  latter  gave  up  their 
exemption,  but  only  for  two  years. 


1645.] 


His  suggestions  for  the 
improvement  of  the 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


towns,  and  the  abolition  of 
burdens  on  trade. 


295 


for  a  contribution,  as  is  customary  over  the  whole 
world,  and  the  affairs  of  the  realm  allow  nought 
else*."  The  chancellor  deplores  the  want  of  business 
ill  the  towns  arising  partly  from  their  irrational 
management,  partly  from  the  exorbitant  burdens 
and  exactions  lay  which  they  are  vexed,  especially 
post-service,  free-quarters,  and  unjust  contribu- 
tions'; all  which  bring  with  them  such  a  slavery 
that  no  honourable  man  can  endure  to  sit  under  it, 
wherefore  the  towns  are  now  almost  quite  desolate. 
Concerning  the  regulation  of  trade  introduced  in 
the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  chancellor 
says  :  "  Although  at  the  time  when  it  was  passed 
there  were  grounds  for  it,  it  is  now  clear  and  mani- 
fest that  trade,  which  ever  loves  freedom,  suffers 
under  it ;  since  also  the  towns  do  not  increase  by 
one,  two,  or  three  persons  only  having  liberty  of 
dealing  and  traffic,  but  their  growth  comes  from 
multiplication  of  inhabitants,  and  in  the  concourse, 
whence  all  the  burgesses  of  a  town  derive  advan- 
tages ;  therefore  the  greatest  part  of  the  corporate 
bodies  and  their  rigorous  laws,  especially  the  need- 
less cost,  should  be  abolished.  Generally  it  were 
advisable  to  open  Stockholm  also,  at  a  conve- 
nient season  of  the  year,  both  for  inlanders  and 

8  This  counsel  was  the  rather  to  be  taken  to  heart,  as 
after  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  we  find  statements 
like  tlie  following  (from  the  protocol  of  council  for  April  7, 
1636):  "  The  lord  John  Skytte  declared  that  he  had  repre- 
sented to  his  late  blessed  majesty  not  to  alienate  so  many 
estates  from  the  crown,  whereto  his  majesty  made  answer 
that  he  did  this  in  order  that  those  who  obtained  the  estates 
might  be  so  much  the  more  true  to  his  family;  he  might 
well  suppose  that  if  another  family  came  to  the  government, 
they  would  disapprove  his  concessions,  and  revoke  the 
estates  to  the  crown." 

9  Thus  the  chancellor  complains  that  those  who  came  to 
Stockholm  by  horse  or  boat  were  bound  to  portage.  In  the 
protocol  of  the  council  for  Oct.  30,  1633,  the  councillor  of 
state  Clas  Fleming  laments  that  it  was  impossible  speedily 
to  procure  bread  for  the  men  who  were  to  be  sent  off,  since 
the  bakers  excused  themselves  on  the  plea  that  they  were 
not  allowed  to  grind.  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  thought  that  sol- 
diers should  be  billeted  in  their  houses,  when  they  would 
soon  get  bread  enough.  In  consequence  it  was  intimated  to 
the  bakers  that  if  they  did  not  furnish  three  hundred  tuns 
bread  within  three  days,  they  would  be  set  in  the  tolbooth 
(smedje-gard,  lit.  smithy)  of  Stockholm. 

1  At  the  diet  of  1633  the  three  unnoble  estates  collectively 
presented  complaints  respecting  the  farmers  of  the  crown 
revenues.  The  high-marshal  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  (who  de- 
clared in  the  council,  March  1,  1633,  "There  was  no  man 
before  who  dared  to  speak  the  truth,"  but  had  himself  shared 
in  the  crown-Ieasings,)  severely  rebuked  some  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  clergy,  because  they  had  said  that  the  ven- 
geance of  God  followed  such  contrivances. 

2  The  copper  cross-pieces,  struck  and  issued  by  order  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  seem  to  have  had  no  currency.  The 
Swedish  agent  in  Holland,  Eric  Laurenceson,  offers  to  send 
them  back  again.  Letter  of  the  council  to  the  chancellor, 
Jan.  14,  1633.  The  government  was  constrained  to  order 
that  debts  which  had  been  contracted  in  copper  money, 
should  be  paid  according  to  the  value  which  the  rix-dollar 
bore  at  the  time,  namely,  until  1628,  6^  marks  to  the  rix- 
dollar;  1629,  10  marks,  and  afterwards  14  marks,  as  ascer- 
tained by  the  crown  receipts.  Thenceforth  the  rix-dollar 
was  to  be  worth  6  marks,  or  48  ore ;  but  the  copper  ore  or 
rundstycks  in  circulation  were  at  the  same  time  depreciated 
to  the  half  value,  and  the  government  undertook  to  cause 
silver  coins  to  be  struck.  Compare  Stiernman,  Economical 
Ordinances,  ii.  13,  seq. 

'  A  remarkable  document,  of  which  a  copy  exists  in  the 
Nordin  Collections,  delivered  by  Axel  Oxenstieriia  to  Gus- 


strangers.  We  may  be  convinced  of  the  advan- 
tages of  such  an  institution  by  the  foreign  towns, 
and  by  Gottenburg  ;  and  although  some  few 
hucksters  should  set  themselves  against  it,  and  it 
should  have  the  appearance  of  impairing,  by  free 
trade,  the  maintenance  of  the  burgesses,  yet  he 
who  observes  the  matter  with  intelligence,  and 
without  bias,  and  considers  the  welfare  of  the 
whole,  will  find  that  om-  inland  wares  will  thereby 
only  be  more  in  request.  It  would  be  better  that 
the  salt-license  were  rescinded,  since  the  subject 
thereby  suffers,  and  the  fisheries  are  kept  under  ; 
the  great  customs  should  be  taken  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  farmers,  and  such  arrentations  generally  be 
abolished,  the  sooner  the  better  *.  Instead  of  the 
copper  coinage,  which  his  late  majesty  had  deter- 
mined to  let  fall  of  itself,  as  it  had  already  mostly 
disappeared,  a  good  and  sterling  coinage,  yet  some- 
what under  the  standard,  should  be  issued  ^.  In  the 
copper  trade  no  improvement  could  be  expected, 
so  long  as  it  was  carried  on  in  the  name  and  on 
behalf  of  the  crown  ;  it  was  best  that  the  crown 
should  seek  its  advantage  in  a  reasonable  duty,  and 
commit  the  trade  itito  the  hands  of  its  subjects*. 

tavus  Adolphus,  bears  this  title,  "  According  to  h!s  majesty's 
gracious  command,  this  is  my  poor  opinion  touching  the 
copper  trade  and  copper  coinage."  On  the  coinage  he  thus 
speaks :  "  so  long  as  copper  was  at  a  good  value,  and  the 
coinage  was  small  in  amount,  so  that  it  only  supplied  the 
wants  of  the  commonalty  and  answered  to  their  requirements, 
and  was  so  proportioned  that  he  who  wished  to  have  silver 
could  obtain  it,  so  long  the  one  coinage  was  as  good  as  the 
other.  But  after  the  value  of  copper  had  receded,  it  drew 
down  the  coinage  with  it,  and  even  diminished  its  amount ; 
so  that  we  may  indeed  suffer  and  be  silent  on  account  of  the 
prince's  edict,  but  that  does  not  alter  the  opinion  and  com- 
mon sense  of  men."  "  Upon  these  and  other  inconveniences 
I  would  rather  hear  another  opinion  than  give  my  own.  But 
since  your  majesty  commands  it,  I  do  it  only  out  of  submis- 
sion to  your  high  pleasure.  Because  the  present  course  of 
things  and  many  other  causes  have  disturbed  and  defeated 
the  design,  I  remark,  after  my  small  understanding,  that  all 
traffic  which  is  conducted  either  in  the  name  of  the  public 
or  in  the  interior  of  the  realm  by  companies,  is  more  hurtful 
than  profitable  ;  I  will  therefore  submissively  press  that  the 
copper-mines  should  be  thrown  open  to  enterprize,  the  freer 
the  better.  That  traffic  by  the  government,  for  the  use  of 
the  king  and  the  realm,  is  seldom  profitable,  I  judge  not  only 
from  experience,  but  especially  from  this,  that  all  trade  re- 
quires exact  and  accurate  credit,  and  its  observance,  accord- 
ing to  reasons  not  of  state  but  of  commerce ;  since  in  matters 
of  public  concern  it  often  happens  that  we  must  take  where 
any  thing  is  to  be  got,  and  let  alone  where  is  nothing ;  but 
in  trade,  if  we  would  not  make  a  bankruptcy,  we  must  keep 
promise  and  submit  to  common  laws.  Companies,  indeed,  1 
formerly  held  to  be  useful,  and  do  still  deem  that  those  for 
foreign  commerce  are  of  great  benefit  (at  the  congress  of 
Heilbronn  the  chancellor  invited  the  Germans  to  take  shares 
in  the  South  Sea  Company  privileged  by  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
and  in  Sweden,  conjointly  with  the  duke  of  Holstein,  a  Per- 
sian company  was  even  founded);  but  inland  companies  are 
nothing  else  than  monopolies,  obstructing  and  contracting 
commerce,  and  the  prosperity  of  towns  and  country.  I  can 
find  no  other  way  good  than  that  your  majesty  should  direct 
by  duties  the  copper-mines,  trades,  manufactures,  and  their 
revenues,  no  otherwise  than  as  a  steersman  steers  his  ship." 
March  9,  1633,  the  council  writes,  "  We  have  observed  that 
the  chancellor  seems  inclined  to  release  the  copper  trade  for 
toll  and  teiiid.  This  the  council  finds  wholly  unadvisable, 
as  leading  to  the  certain  ruin  of  the  factories  and  manufac- 
tures, deeming  that  it  would  be  better  again  to  set  up  the 
Copper  Company."  Reg.  The  copper  trade  was  opened  in 
1634,  but  private  industry  was  still  too  weak  to  carry  on 


296 


His  views  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  war. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


His  negotiation  with  the 
Saxon  court  at  Dresden. 


[1633— 


It  would  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  kingdom  if  the 
navigable  lakes  of  Sweden  could  be  connected  by 
means  of  sluices  with  the  Baltic  and  each  other,  so 
that  men  might  come  from  lake  Hielmar  to  Stock- 
holm *,  from  lake  Vetter  to  Norrkoeping,  from  lake 
Vener  to  Gotteuburg,  from  lake  Silian  to  the 
Kopparberg,  whereby  the  country  and  towns  might 
be  peopled,  our  forests  and  wastes  made  productive, 
as  also  the  revenues  and  customs  of  the  crown  be 
largely  augmented  by  navigation  and  commerce. 
Furthermore,  for  the  encouragement  of  shipping, 
it  deserves  to  be  taken  into  consideration  whether 
a  remission  should  not  be  granted  upon  all  the 
goods  which  are  carried  in  Swedish  ships,  in  all 
trading  towns  and  havens  which  are  at  the  disposal 
of  Sweden."  These  reflections,  sent  forth  into  a 
world  convulsed  by  disputes  and  troubles,  mostly 
returned  to  their  author  without  fruit,  since  for 
none  of  them  was  it  possible  to  biing  home  a  leaf 
of  the  olive-branch  of  peace ;  but  they  are  as 
little  alien  to  his  fame,  as  to  the  welfare  of  his 
country  and  mankind. 

The  war  engaged  his  liveliest  solicitudes,  the 
rather  as  the  dearth  of  the  year  1633  had  stricken 
with  especial  severity  the  northern  provinces  of 
the  kingdom  (several  scanty  harvests  following), 
and  the  levies,  although  they  continued  to  be  voted 
by  the  estates,  were  so  dreaded,  that  examples  of 
voluntary  mutilation  occurred,  and  in  the  border 
districts  flight  out  of  the  country  was  resorted  to 
in  order  to  escape  them  ^.  "  We  have  fallen  into 
an  embarrassing  state,"  the  chancellor  writes  home 
from  Germany.  "  If  we  let  the  difficulties  overcome 
us,  all  is  lost.  If  we  meet  them  manfully,  there  is 
hope  that  by  God's  grace  we  may  escape  from  them 
with  honour''."  "For  the  avoidance  of  embroil- 
ments with  our  neighbours  we  hold  the  following 
counsels  the  most  appropriate;  to  observe  parties, 
to  give  on  our  side  no  occasion  for  contrariety,  to 
raise  no  disputes  about  small  matters  which  befall, 
and  ai'e  of  no  great  consequence.  When  this  reso- 
lution is  taken,  that  other  too  may  be  embraced, 
of  maintaining  the  dignity,  right,  and  majesty  of 
the  realm  in  honour  and  esteem,  no  where  letting 
be  seen  or  discovering  any  pusillanimity,  fear,  or 
indecision,  but  doing  all,  by  God's  help,  with  under- 
standing and  courage;  so  that  every  where  it  may 
appear  as  if  the  realm  had  lost  nothing  by  the 
death  of  his  late  blessed  majesty,  in  the  constant 
thought  that  kings  are  no  less  mortal  than  other 
men,  but  that  the  commonwealth  should  be  im- 
mortal ^." 

In  the  beginning  of  1633  the  chancellor  had  pre- 
sented an  account  of  the  state  of  the  war  in  Ger- 
many, from  which  we  extract  some  outlines:  "  After 
I  had  broken  up  from  Erfurt  towards  Dresden,  I 
despatched  to  you  the  secretary  Laurence  Grubbe', 
with  a  letter  and  memorial  respecting  all  matters 
which  it  occurred  to  me  at  the  time  to  remind  you 
of,  and  stated  besides  the  cause  for  which  I  was 

mining  pursuits  ;  tlie  teinds  imposed  also  were  not  collected, 
and  on  the  9th  June,  1 636,  the  Copper  Company  was  renewed 
by  letters  patent,  calling  upon  the  public  to  take  shares.  The 
lowest  shares  were  of  100  dollars  specie.  Stiernman,  Econ. 
Ordin.  ii.  3S.  10. 

<  The  works  on  the  Hielmar  Canal  were  still  in  progress. 
June  7,  1633,  some  remission  of  taxes  was  granted  to  the 
raining  districts  of  Akerbo,  Glanshammar,  and  West  Rekarne, 
"  since  something  still  remained  to  be  done  on  the  sluices  '' 
Reg. 


obliged  to  travel  to  the  army  and  the  elector  of 
Saxony.  When  I  came  to  Altenburg  in  Meissen, 
I  found  there  that  army  quartered  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood which  had  been  under  the  late  king's 
own  orders,  and  was  commanded  by  duke  Bernard 
of  Weimar  and  major-general  Kniphausen.  The 
major-general  had  the  same  day  taken  the  castle 
of  Leipsic,  and  delivered  it  again  to  the  elector. 
Chemnitz  was  captured  some  days  earlier  ;  the 
enemy  had  abandoned  Freiberg  as  well  as  Frauen- 
stein,  and  in  Meissen  nothing  but  Zwickau  re- 
mained in  his  possession.  Therefore  I  resolved 
that  our  men  should  draw  together  and  assault 
Zwickau,  to  try  whether  it  might  be  taken,  and 
thus  Meissen  be  wrested  out  of  the  enemy's  hands. 
Meanwhile  I  journeyed  to  Dresden,  where  I  arrived 
on  the  15th  December,  and  was  treated  as  a  legate 
of  the  crown  of  Sweden,  no  otherwise  than  as  if  the 
king's  majesty  was  still  living.  I  said ;  there  ap- 
pear to  me  to  be  three  counsels  or  means,  whereof 
one  must  be  selected.  The  first,  that  a  body  of  all 
the  evangelical  electors  and  estates  in  the  Roman 
empire  should  be  formed,  allied  with  the  crown  of 
Sweden,  and  obliged  to  the  carrying  on  of  the  war, 
— and  since  his  late  majesty  laid  the  foundation  of 
this  war,  heretofore  du-ected  it  and  sealed  it  with 
his  blood,  as  also  the  crown  of  Sweden  possesses 
the  principal  bishoprics  of  the  empire,  and  much  of 
the  hereditary  territories  of  the  emperor,  therefore 
Sweden  should  have  the  direction  of  the  war  ;  yet 
so  that  a  formal  council  of  the  estates  were  joined. 
Or,  secondly,  that  two  bodies  should,  as  at  present, 
subsist,  the  crown  of  Sweden  and  its  aUies  under 
its  directory,  and  the  elector  of  Saxony  for  himself, 
and  that  a  strong  correspondence  should  be  arranged 
between  them  for  mutual  succour,  no  one  concluding 
upon  any  treaty  or  peace  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  others;  or,  thirdly,  in  case  they  professed  no 
further  to  need  the  assistance  of  Sweden,  or  the 
senate  and  estates  of  Sweden  should  no  longer  be 
willing  to  adhere  to  the  agreement,  that  then  my 
country  should  enjoy  a  reasonable  satisfaction,  and 
the  evangelical  princes  and  estates  should  arrange 
matters  among  themselves,  as  might  be  pleasing  to 
them,  and  they  might  conceive  to  be  most  expedient 
in  their  condition.  More  methods  that  would  avail 
I  could  not  see.  But  if  one  of  these  three  were  not 
embraced  in  time,  and  affairs  guided  accordingly, 
no  doubt  was  left  that  the  ruin  of  all  interested 
would  ensue.  I  represented  to  them  their  danger 
from  Spain,  from  France,  the  Netherlands,  Eng- 
land, Denmark,  and  even  from  Poland  and  other 
quarters,  as  also  from  their  domestic  differences. 
All  this  they  heard  with  patience,  and  though  I 
would  willmgly  have  had  conversation  with  them 
upon  the  subject,  yet  they  would  give  no  answer 
beyond  this  decision,  that  since  affairs  were  so 
weighty,  and  the  elector  considered  himself  bound, 
according  to  the  hereditary  settlement  between  the 
families  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  to  do  nothing 

^  To  Joachim  Hansson,  respecting  a  peasant  lad  of  Frij- 
tuna,  who  had  cut  off  four  fingers,  that  he  should  be  brought 
before  the  court.     June  6,1633.     Reg. 

6  "  1  see — he  adds— that  the  dog  who  shows  his  teeth 
escapes  with  a  whole  skin  sooner  than  he  who  takes  to  his 
heels  with  Iiis  tail  between  his  legs."  To  the  council,  May 
13,  1633.     The  simile  is  not  a  noble  one,  but  noble-minded. 

'  Regum  personas  non  minus  quam  caeterorum  hominum 
esse  mortales,  rempublicam  immortalem  esse  debere.  To 
the  council,  Feb.  12,  1633.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  369,  p.  249.  259. 


1645.] 


The  chancellor  appointed  to 
the  supreme  directory  of 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


the  war.    Protestant 
league  of  Heilbronn. 


297 


without  communication  made,  therefore  he  was 
necessitated  to  defer  the  matter  until  the  arrival  of 
the  elector  of  Brandenburg.  And  so  for  this  time 
with  such  resolvement  I  travelled  thence  to  the 
army  again.  Hereupon  I  ought  fully  to  describe 
to  you,  my  good  lords,  the  electoral  court  of  Dres- 
den and  its  state  in  order  to  your  information,  as 
also  my  own  judgment  of  affairs,  but  now  I  am  not 
adequate  to  that  end.  Only  this  in  brief;  at  the 
court  is  no  resolution,  nor  any  application,  and  I 
fear  too  that  there  are  some  of  them  who  have 
their  eyes  turned  to  the  emperor.  They  are  en- 
tirely ignorant  how  to  adapt  their  steps  to  these 
dangerous  times,  are  accustomed  to  good  days, 
cross  in  a  word  both  hands  and  feet,  and  nourish 
vain  hopes,  deeming  that  thus  they  can  escape 
misfortune.  Long  orations  and  reasons  for  doubt- 
ing, with  many  cei'emonies,  are  not  wanting  to 
them.  But  nothing  real  have  I  either  seen  or 
heard  there,  and  if  one  would  treat  with  them 
effectually,  he  is  held  to  be  dealing  imperiously. 
Their  opinion  upon  my  proposals  I  have  not  been 
able  from  themselves  at  all  to  understand,  only  I 
have  heard  underhand  from  others  that  the  first, 
for  the  crown  of  Sweden  to  have  the  direction  of 
the  war,  pleaseth  them  not;  nor  the  last,  inasmuch 
as  they  know  not  how  they  should  satisfy  us,  or 
(which  I  rather  believe)  because  they  have  no 
goodwill  thereto  ;  but  I  understand  them  to  be  in- 
clined to  the  second.  I  am  now  drawing  the  army 
from  Meissen,  and  about  to  restore  the  territory  to 
the  elector.  The  troops  I  am  dividing  into  two 
bodies,  one  to  be  conducted  by  duke  Bernard  of 
Weimar  to  Franconia,  the  other  by  Kniphausen  to 
the  Weser.  The  rest  of  the  Swedish  force  I  re- 
move to  the  sea-coast  *." 

On  the  13th  January,  1633,  the  chancellor  was 
appointed  by  the  council  of  state  to  be  legate  pleni- 
potentiary of  the  crown  of  Sweden  in  the  Roman 
empire  and  with  all  the  armies  ^.  The  views  held  in 
Dresden  acquired  further  strength,  and  matterswent 
on  as  in  the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  most 
powerful  Protestant  sovereign  houses  of  Germany, 
Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  still  ever  kept  aloof  from 


8  Dated  Leipsic,  Jan.  3,  1633.  Compare  Adlersparre, 
1.  c.  T.  v. 

9  Cum  plena  potestate  et  commissions  absolutissima.  Reg. 
His  commission  was  afterwards  confirmed  by  the  guardians. 

1  All  three,  nevertheless,  made  proposals  of  marriage  to 
Christina.  That  of  Brandenburg  has  been  already  men- 
tioned. Christian  IV.  eagerly  sought  the  hand  of  Christina 
for  his  third  son,  prince  Ulric ;  and  that  the  same  proposal 
was  in  question  for  Saxony  we  learn  from  Richelieu's  Me- 
moirs, vii.  282.  The  French  ambassador  Feuquieres  was 
thus  instructed:  As  to  the  marriage  of  the  daughter  of  Sweden 
with  the  eldest  son  of  Saxony,  the  king  would  follow  in  that 
the  course  of  things,  and  express  his  approval  of  it,  if 
Saxony  desired  it,  which,  being  already  allied  with  the  king 
of  Denmark,  could  by  this  means  appease  the  ditferences 
which  might  spring  up  between  these  two  kingdoms.  (Quant 
au  mariage  de  la  fille  de  Su^de  avec  le  fils  aine  de  Saxe,  &c.) 

2  "  The  duke  of  Saxony,  who  is  the  most  vain-glorious  of 
the  Germans,  had  wished  to  be  chief  of  the  whole  confedera- 
tion, and  to  have  the  direction  of  affairs.  He  foresaw  well 
that  the  great  credit  and  reputation  of  Oxenslierna  and  the 
consideration  of  the  late  king  his  master  would  get  the  better 
of  himself — drunken,  brutal,  hated  and  despised  by  his  sub- 
jects and  foreigners — and  this  incited  him  by  jealousy  to 
obstruct  hira.  These  intrigues  were  so  effectual,  that  the 
chancellor  found  himself  obliged  to  pray  the  sieur  Feuquieres 
not  to  content  himself  with  the  good  oilices  he  had  rendered 


supporting  the  great  cause.  Brandenburg's  appa- 
rent inclination  to  an  alliance  with  Sweden  on 
account  of  the  matrimonial  overture  soon  cooled. 
The  Swedish  relations  with  both,  as  also  with  Den- 
mark, which  followed  the  same  policy  with  them 
under  pretence  of  mediating  for  peace,  ended  by 
becoming  hostile  i.  The  estates  of  Lower  Saxony 
aimed  only  at  neutrality.  Westphalia  was  still  the 
theatre  of  war.  Thus  in  the  whole  of  northern 
Germany  the  main  limbs  of  Protestantism  were 
lopped  off.  It  is  the  mournful  history  of  this  war 
that  it  was  fought  out  by  others  than  those  whom 
it  most  nearly  concerned.  Howbeit,  this  reproach 
is  not  applicable  to  all ;  the  heroic  state  of  Hesse, 
represented  by  the  undaunted  landgrave  William  V., 
and  after  his  early  death  by  his  widow,  that  Amelia 
Elizabeth,  whom  no  one  that  studies  this  war  can 
name  without  reverence,  forms  a  brilliant  ex- 
ception. Despite  the  opposition  of  Saxony,  the 
Protestant  princes  and  towns  of  South  Germany, 
at  the  convention  of  Heilbronn,  April  9th,  1633, 
concluded,  under  the  guidance  of  Oxenstierna  ^, 
that  alliance  among  themselves  and  with  Sweden 
of  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  laid  the  foun- 
dation 3.  On  the  same  day  the  alliance  between 
Sweden  and  France  was  renewed.  Their  amity 
had  grown  cold  in  the  king's  last  days,  and  after 
the  passage  of  the  Lech  by  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
Lewis  XIII.  said  to  the  Venetian  minister  :  "  It  is 
time  to  set  bounds  to  the  progress  of  this  Goth." 
The  French  minister  in  Heilbronn  now  contri- 
buted to  form  this  alliance,  but  likewise  to  limit 
the  supreme  direction  of  the  war,  which  was  com- 
mitted to  Oxenstierna  as  legate  of  Sweden  *. 

Measures,  dictated  by  equity,  favour,  or  necessity, 
marked  his  entrance  on  the  exercise  of  this  autho- 
rity. The  Palatinate  was  ceded  to  the  heirs  of  the 
unfortunate  Frederic',  Mannheim  only  retaining  a 
Swedish  garrison.  The  Swedish  legate  was  sur- 
rounded by  suitors.  Bernard  of  Weimar  availed 
himself  of  circumstances  to  i-equest  and  obtain 
from  the  reluctant  chancellor,  Swedish  letters  of 
investitui'e  to  the  duchy  of  Franconia*.    It  was  on 


him  towards  the  individual  members  of  the  assembly  in  the 
confeffences,  but  to  demand  there  public  audience  to  speak 
to  them  altogether."  (Le  due  de  Saxe,  qui  est  le  plus  glo- 
rieux  des  AUemands,  &c.)     Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vii.  337. 

3  "  They  chose  for  their  place  of  deliberation  the  house  of 
Oxenstierna,  who,  seeing  a  dispute  on  the  subject  of  precedence 
sliding  in  among  them,  caused  all  the  seats  to  be  removed, 
and  affairs  to  be  discussed  by  them  standing."  (lis  choisirent 
pour  lieu  de  consulter,  &c.)     Mem.  de  Christine,  iii.  84. 

■•  "  The  said  Oxenstierna  wished  to  have  his  elbows  free 
in  the  direction  of  the  affairs  of  Germany,  which  was  of 
great  prejudice  to  the  Catholic  religion."  Ibid.  349.  Com- 
pare Lettres  et  Negociations  du  Marquis  de  Feuquiferes. 
"  It  was  found  good  to  assign  him  a  constituted  council  of 
well-qualified  persons,  and  sufficient  instructions,  j'et  that  the 
final  resolution  in  matters  of  war  should  at  all  times  remain 
with  him."     Chemnitz,  ii.  49. 

5  The  delivery  had  no  sooner  taken  place  than  the  coun- 
cillors of  the  elector  palatine,  who  were  of  the  reformed  con- 
fession, began  to  persecute  the  Lutherans,  and  take  from 
them  the  churches  which  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  conceded 
to  them,  so  that  Oxenstierna  was  constrained  to  interpose. 
Chemnitz,  ii.  139. 

6  The  royal  Swedish  letter  donatory  for  the  duchy  of 
Franconia,  and  the  two  bishoprics  of  Wurtzburg  and  Bam- 
berg (referring  to  the  promise  of  Gustavus  Adolphus),  was 
subscribed  by  Oxenstierna  at  Heidelberg,  June  10,  1633.  It 
may  be  read  in  Rose,  Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  i.  paper  25. 


298 


Project  as  to  the  electorate 
of  Mentz, 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES.    ^'elWsTo^^TtheSet'"- 


[1633— 


the  issue  of  similar  letters  that  Oxenstierna  de- 
clared, "  Let  it  remain  in  our  archives  for  eternal 
remembrance,  that  a  German  prince  solicits  this 
from  a  Swedish  nobleman,  and  that  a  Swedish 
nobleman  in  Germany  grants  it  to  a  German 
prince,  which  I  hold  to  be  as  absurd  for  the  one  to 
i-equest  as  for  the  other  to  grant '."  "  There  was 
almost  no  state,  no  leading  officer  or  functionary," 
says  Chemnitz,  "  who  did  not  request  some  office, 
abbey,  convent,  or  lordship  ;  all  appealed  to  the 
late  king's  promise,  and  the  chancellor  was  obliged 
to  leave  matters  to  their  course,  if  he  would  not 
give  lip  all ;  especially  as  the  wide-extended  con- 
federacy of  tlie  officers  in  the  army  of  the  Danube 
was  added  to  his  other  embarrassments.  For  the 
groundwork  of  his  military  system  was  to  keep  the 
soldiers,  as  well  as  princes  and  states  in  goodwill, 
for  which  there  were  no  other  means.  Thus  the 
provinces  conquered  from  the  enemy,  the  longer 
the  more,  were  lost,  and  little  thereof  remained  for 
the  crown  of  Sweden,  except  the  archbishopric  and 
electorate  of  Mentz,  which  also  was  partly  broken 
up."  It  is  not  surprising  that  to  him  who  gave  so 
much,  something  should  also  have  been  offered. 
Richelieu  praises  his  negotiator  Feuquieres  *,  for 
having  so  skilfully  coimterworked  Oxenstierna's 
plan  to  obtain  at  the  convention  of  Heilbronn  the 
electorate  of  Mentz  for  himself.  The  plan  of  making 
his  high-chancellor  with  this  possession  chancellor 
of  the  German  empire,  is  said  to  have  been  that  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  himself.  That  the  matter  was 
in  question  is  indubitable.  The  high-steward, 
Gabriel  Oxenstierna,  announced  in  the  Swedish 
senate,  on  the  1 5th  April,  1634,  that  his  brother, 
the  high-chancellor,  had  prayed  him  to  obtain  the 
opinion  of  the  coimcil  touching  the  proffer  which 
had  been  made,  and  on  the  4tli  August  the  minis- 
try write  to  the  chancellor  himself  :  "  In  case  the 
German  estates,  as  we  have  been  informed  from 
several  quarters,  will  gratify  the  great  industry 
and  labour  of  our  beloved  brother  with  any  recom- 
pense in  his  own  person,  we  wotild  gladly  see  it ; 
and  as  we  do  not  suppose  that  our  beloved  brother 
will  thereby  withdraw  himself  from  the  service  of 
his  country,  we  doubt  not  that  our  most  gracious 
queen  and  the  estates  of  the  realm  will  also  see  it 
gladly."    But  he,  least  of  all,  has  the  right  to  re- 

<■  Maneat,  inquit,  in  perpetuam  rei  meraoriam,  in  archive 
nostro,  Germanum  principem  a  Sueco  nobili  id  petiisse,  et 
Suecum  nobilem,  in  Gerniania,  Germane  principi  id  contu- 
lisse,  quod  tam  ilium  petere  quam  me  donare  a;que  absonum 
etabsurdum  reor.  Arckenholtz,  Mem.  de  Christine,  i.28,  n. 
(after  Wassenberg,  Paraenesis  ad  Germanos,  who  quotes  it  as 
a  proof  of  Oxenstierna's  arrogance).  Rose  (duke  Bernard,  i. 
222.)  mentions  an  expression  of  the  duke  to  Oxenstierna, 
"  that  a  German  prince  had  more  to  say  than  ten  Swedish 
noblemen."  It  was  doubtless  a  reply  to  the  above-cited 
words  of  the  chancellor,  which  were  thus  spoken  in  the 
duke's  own  affair. 

8  "The  sieur  Feuquiferes  discovered  that  he  was  carrying 
on  a  secret  canvass  to  incline  the  princes,  states,  and  de- 
puties of  the  said  assembly  (of  IJeilbronn),  to  dispose  of  the 
electorate  of  Mayence  in  his  favour,  which  he  adroitly 
turned  off."     Mem.  de  Richelieu. 

9  Extract  from  the  Protocols  of  the  Council  in  the  Palm- 
skbld  Collections,  T.  40.  p.  157.  Letter  of  the  ministry  to  the 
chancellor,  Aug.  4,  1634.     Reg. 

'  Richelieu  instructs  Feuquieres  :  "  As  for  the  chancellor 
Oxenstierna,  it  behoved  him  to  take  care  principally  to  ac- 
quire his  confidence  and  friendship,  and  to  assure  him  that 
the  king  wished  to  embrace  his  interests  with  all  affection, 


proach  Axel  Oxenstierna  with  intrigues  for  his 
own  advantage,  who  promised  the  co-operation  of 
France  to  procure  for  his  son  the  hand  of  Chris- 
tina, and  the  Swedish  crown  ^.  This  overture 
Richelieu  made  to  Oxenstierna,  but  in  vain;  and 
the  chancellor  was  so  little  inclined  to  tlie  French 
interest,  that  the  envoy  of  France,  on  the  contrary, 
complauis  of  his  growing  arrogance  and  rudeness '''. 

Proud  this  statesman  undeniably  was.  It  was 
about  this  time  that  he  wrote  to  field-marshal  Tott, 
who  wished  to  be  promoted  to  some  recompense  by 
the  duke  of  Mecklenburg  :  "  That  I  should  recom- 
mend your  pretensions  will  not  at  all  beseem  me  ; 
for  it  appears  to  me  not  to  be  for  the  honour  of  the 
country  that  I,  in  this  my  office,  should  solicit  any 
foreigner  for  your  reward,  just  as  if  my  country 
were  not  adequate  tnereto.  If  it  concerned  my 
own  person,  and  the  duke  proposed  it  not  himself 
out  of  his  own  courtesy,  J  would  hold  my  rank  in 
the  kingdom  so  high  and  noble,  that  I  would  not 
make  myself  obliged  either  to  him  or  to  any  other 
foi-eigner  for  any  benefice^."  Long  afterwards  the 
French  ministry  employed  the  proposition  of  mar- 
riage thus  made  by  him  between  Christina  and 
Oxenstierna's  son,  as  the  means  of  improving  the 
chancellor  in  the  queen's  good  graces.  In  a  letter 
to  his  son  Eric,  of  June  29,  1647,  Oxenstierna  calls 
it  a  figment  in  itself  woFthy  of  laughter,  but  re- 
quests his  son  to  marry  in  order  to  repress  all  sus- 
picions *. 

We  pass  on  to  the  consideration  of  the  military 
occuri'ences. 

The  late  king,  says  Chemnitz,  had  shortly  before 
his  death  so  made  his  dispositions  for  the  war, 
that  he  left  two  armies  in  Upper  Germany,  one  in 
Alsace  under  field-marshal  Gustave  Horn,  the 
other  in  Bavaria  under  general  John  Baner,  or 
for  the  present  (since  Baner  still  suffered  from  the 
wounds  he  had  received  at  Nuremberg),  under  the 
palsgrave  Christian  of  Birkenfeld.  On  the  Lower 
Rhine  he  had  likewise  an  army  under  general  Bau- 
dissin.  For  himself  the  king  had  determined  to 
advance  into  Lower  Saxony,  and  meanwhile  to  send 
duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  with  a  smaller  body  to 
Franconia.  The  high-chancellor  steadily  followed 
out  this  plan  of  the  king.  He  divided  the  main 
army  in  Saxony.  The  larger  division,  from  12,000  to 

and  that  he  would  support  the  marriage  of  his  son  with  the 
heiress  of  Sweden,  promising  him  that  in  this  case  the  king 
would  assist  him  with  money  to  maintain  the  war  against 
those  who  would  wish  to  trouble  his  said  son  when  he 
should  be  king."  (Quant  au  chancelier  O.xenstjern,  il  falloit 
&c.)  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vii.  2S5. 

2  The  expressions  of  Feuquieres  show  his  embitterment : 
"We  find  ourselves  not  a  little  embarrassed,  Mr.de  la 
Grange  and  I,  as  to  the  manner  in  which  we  have  to  con- 
duct ourselves  with  respect  to  the  said  chancellor,  whom 
haughtiness  and  brutal  pride  make  to  lose  his  judgment." 
(Nous  ne  nous  trouvons  pas  peu  embarasses,  &c.)  Lettres  et 
Negotiations  de  M.  de  Feuquieres,  i.  277. 

3  Palnisk.  MSS.  T.  309.  p.  261. 

4  Arckenholtz,  Mem.  de  Christine,  i.  106.  iii.  79,  n.  In  a 
treatise,  revised  and  corrected  by  Christina  herself,  Sur  ce 
qui  s'est  passe  apr^s  la  mort  du  grand  Gustave,  she  does  Ox- 
enstierna the  justice  to  acknowledge  that  he  at  once  rejected 
the  proposal.  "  M.  de  Feuquieres,  to  attract  Oxenstierna  to 
the  side  of  France,  promised  his  assistance,  if  he  had  any 
desire  of  augmenting  his  private  fortune,  even  to  the  fur- 
nishing him  with  troops  and  money,  if  he  wished  to  marry 
the  queen  to  his  son.  But  Oxenstierna  modestly  refused 
these  offers."     Mem.  de  Christine,  iii.  78. 


1615.] 


Oliicers  of  the  army  of  the 
Danube  mutiny. 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


Dissensions  of  the  Swedish 
and  German  generals. 


299 


14,000  men,  was  sent  under  duke  George  of  Luiie- 
burg,  and  general,  now  field-marshal  Kniphausen, 
to  the  Weser,  and  into  Westphalia,  which  was  oc- 
cupied by  the  enemy  ;  the  smaller,  under  duke 
Bernard,  across  the  Thuringian  forest  to  the  Maine, 
whence  he  was  to  put  himself  in  connexion  with 
the  army  of  the  Danube.  The  estates  of  Swabia, 
who  did  not  feel  themselves  a  match  for  the  supe- 
rior force  of  the  enemy,  had  meanwhile  called 
Horn  to  reinforce  this  army,  whereupon  the  Pals- 
grave of  Birkenfeld  (after  I3audissin  had  taken  his 
leave)  received  the  command  of  the  troops  on  the 
Lower  Rhine.  The  command  in  Silesia,  where 
mattei-s  had  hitherto  proceeded  irregularly,  was 
committed  to  old  count  Thuru.  There  he  was  to 
renew  his  connexions  with  the  Protestants  of  the 
country,  and  to  preserve  as  much  as  possible  unison 
with  the  generals  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg  ^. 

The  various  divisions  of  these  large  masses  of 
troops,  of  whom  the  Swedes  formed  the  least  part, 
continued  for  some  time  longer  their  victorious 
progress.  Soon,  however,  the  absence  of  the  guiding 
hand  was  remarked.  The  colonels  of  the  army  of 
the  Danube,  which  was  at  last  united  under  Horn 
and  Bernard  of  Weimar,  met  in  the  month  of 
April,  1633,  and  declared,  "That  in  the  capitulation 
entered  into  with  them,  the  late  king  had  promised 
them  punctual  disbursement  of  their  pay  every 
half-year,  and  besides  a  liberal  recompense  in  land 
and  vassals,  which  he  had  already  conquered  or 
expected  to  win  ;  they  had  followed  him  truly, 
summer  and  winter,  without  rest  or  repose,  to 
siege  and  battle,  and  finally,  after  his  fall,  con- 
quered under  duke  Bernard's  command  at  Lutzen, 
driven  the  enemy  out  of  Saxony,  and  for  the  most 
part  also  out  of  Franconia,  and  on  the  other  side, 
under  field-marshal  Horn,  shown  themselves  not 
less  unwearied  on  the  Rhine  ;  but  after  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  the  deprivation  of  whom,  as  their  head, 
must  shake  even  a  body  of  iron,  they  had  neither 
seen  nor  heard  any  thing  of  payment  or  thanks 
from  the  lord  high-chancellor  ;  they  wished  to 
know  whom  they  served  ;  at  the  convention  of 
Heilbronn,  no  thought  had  been  given  to  them,  but 
to  the  satisfaction  of  Sweden,  to  lieutenants,  com- 
missaries, presidents,  and  residents;  therefore  they 
had  resolved  to  advance  no  farther  against  the 
enemy,  but  rather  with  the  soldiers  under  their 
command  to  hold  the  conquered  territories  for 
themselves  as  a  legitimate  hypothec,  which 
opinion  of  theirs  they  intended  also  to  impart  to 
the  other  armies  in  Westphalia,  Saxony,  and  the 
circle  of  the  Rhme  ''."  These  points  of  complaint 
they  reduced  to  writing,  and  demanded  an  answer 
within  four  weeks.  Horn,  who  severely  rebuked 
the  confederates,  repaired  to  his  father-in-law  the 
high-chancellor,  in  order  to  consult  with  him. 
Bernard  of  Weimar,  who  remained  in  camp,  de- 
clared, "that  the  demands  were  reasonable,  but 

5  Chemnitz,  ii.  35. 

6  Id.  li.  700,  &c. 

7  Rose,  1.  211. 

8  Cette  cabale  fut  formee  par  le  due  meme,  she  remarks. 
Mem.  de  Christine,  iii.  92,  n. 

9  PuffGndortr,  v.  §  40.  (£1,102,500.)  See  the  formulary 
of  the  letters  donatory  issued  in  Oxenstiern's  name  in  Rose, 
i.  paper  3C.  Wallenstein  is  said  to  have  declared  that  the 
emperor  had  not  given  away  more  in  ten  years. 

1  Rose,  1.  237. 

2  ■'  He  caused  the  king's  body  to  be  brought  in  front  of  the 


the  expressions  too  strong '."  Christina  accuses 
him  of  having  been  the  secret  head  of  the  cabal  *. 
It  is  certain  that  the  duke  did  not  ill  choose  his 
time  for  enforcing  his  own  demands  on  the  high- 
chancellor,  who  was  vainly  incensed  at  this  occur- 
rence. The  others  it  was  found  necessary  to  satisfy 
in  the  same  manner,  namely,  by  Swedish  letters  of 
investiture  to  estates  and  lordships  in  Germany,  to 
the  value  (together  with  the  money  then  expended) 
of  4,900,000  rix-dollars".  The  distribution  was 
made  by  duke  Bernard ',  according  to  agreement 
with  Oxenstierna,  in  Frankfort.  In  respect  of  the 
possessions  granted  to  them,  the  officers  were  to  be 
regarded  as  members  of  the  league  of  Heilbronn, 
and  the  army  as  bound  to  this  league  and  the 
crown  of  Sweden  conjointly. 

After  the  sedition  thus  quelled,  victory  still  con- 
tinued for  some  time  to  illustrate  the  arms  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus.  But  they  were  soon  to  be  parted. 
The  mutiny  we  have  just  described  was  likewise  a 
rupture  between  the  king's  general  staff  of  princes 
and  the  Swedish  commanders  ;  for  although  only 
the  colonels  appeared,  higher  interests  were  mani- 
festly at  stake.  Among  the  princes  who  had  entered 
the  service  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Bernard  of 
Weimar  considered  himself  as  the  nearest  heir  of 
his  fame.  He  had  avenged  the  king's  death.  When 
at  Weissenfels,  after  the  battle  of  Lutzen,  he  showed 
the  hero's  body  to  the  troops,  and  conjured  them 
to  pursue  the  career  of  victory,  the  whole  army  is 
said  to  have  cried  that  they  would  follow  him 
whithersoever  he  led,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world  2.  He  requested  the  command-in-chief,  but 
was  hindered  from  obtaining  his  object,  not  only  by 
his  elder  brother  William,  whom  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus had  named  his  lieutenant-general,  but  espe- 
cially by  Oxenstierna,  who  availed  himself  of  the 
dissensions  of  the  brothers  to  evade  the  claims  of 
both,  and  insisted  on  placing  field-mai'shal  Horn, 
victor  with  Gustavus  Adolphus  at  Leipsic,  at  the 
head  of  the  army.  Weimar  and  Horn  in  one  com- 
mand foreboded  disaster. 

Neither  were  duke  George  of  Limeburg  and 
Kniphausen  on  the  best  terms,  though  meanwhile 
they  made  progress.  The  duke,  according  to  the 
plan  of  operations  pi'escribed  to  him  by  Oxen- 
stierna, swept  the  enemy  from  northern  West- 
phalia, afterwards  crossed  the  Weser  with  success, 
and  besieged  Hameln.  The  landgrave  William  V. 
of  Hesse,  whom  the  Swedish  major-general  Kagg 
was  ordered  to  succour,  made  himself  master  of 
southern  Westphalia,  and  besieged  Paderborn.  In 
order  to  relieve  Hameln,  the  imperialist  general, 
count  Gronsfeldt,  who  had  assembled  his  ai-my  in 
the  district  of  Hildesheim,  called  count  Merode  out 
of  Westphalia  to  his  support.  Duke  George,  on  the 
other  hand,  requested  and  obtained  a  reinforce- 
ment from  the  landgrave  of  Hesse,  under  generals 
Kagg  and  Melander.    On  the  28th  June,  1633,  the 

army,  which  lie  harangued,  saying  among  other  things,  that 
he  did  not  wish  longer  to  conceal  the  misfortune  which  had 
happened,  of  the  death  of  so  great  a  prince ;  and  conjured 
them  all,  by  the  glory  they  had  acquired  in  following  him, 
to  aid  him  in  taking  vengeance,  and  in  letting  all  the  earth 
see  that  he  commanded  soldiers  who  had  made  him  invin- 
cible, and  even  after  death  the  terror  of  his  enemies.  All  the 
army  answered  by  crying  that  they  would  follow  him  wher- 
ever he  wished,  and  even  to  the  end  of  the  world."  (II  fit 
amener  le  corps  du  roi,  &c.)  Memoires  de  Richelieu,  vii. 
263. 


„„..         Operations  on  the  Weser  and 
"5""  in  Svvabia. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Ralishon  taken  by  the 
Imperialists. 


[1633- 


uiiited  forces  of  the  enemy  were  utterly  routed  at 
tlie  villajje  of  Hessian  Oldeudorf,  near  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Weser.  Kniphausen  had,  according  to 
his  custom,  dissuaded  from  the  battle,  but  yet  de- 
cided the  victory  (which  also  was  not  unusual  with 
him)  by  a  masterly  movement  executed  with  the 
Swedish  cavalry  3.  '  In  the  action  all  the  Swedish 
officers  and  soldiers  wore  an  image  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  on  their  breast.  His  natural  son,  the 
young  Gustave  Gustaveson,  fought  by  the  side  of 
Kniphausen  *.  The  surrender  of  Hameln  was  the 
only  fruit  of  the  victory.  Duke  George  wrote  to 
Oxenstierna  that  he  had  received  the  homage  of 
the  town  for  himself,  enforced  old  claims  of  money, 
land,  and  towns,  and,  like  others,  spoke  of  promises 
from  Gustavus  Adolphus.  The  high-chancellor 
replied  to  these  demands  by  new  promises  ;  but  as 
the  duke's  views  for  his  own  aggrandizement  more 
and  more  revealed  themselves,  he  gradually  with- 
drew from  him  the  command  of  the  Swedish  troops. 
Kniphausen  went,  at  the  chancellor's  order,  to 
northern  Westphalia  ;  Kagg  was  sent  to  the  army 
of  the  Danube,  and  when  duke  George  got  himself 
chosen  general  of  the  circle  of  Lower  Saxony,  the 
chancellor  induced  the  estates  of  Saxony  to  set 
Baner,  who  had  now  been  removed  to  the  Elbe,  at 
his  side.  It  is  the  same  spectacle  every  where.  In 
the  battle  of  Nordlingen  these  scenes  were  to  find 
their  solution. 

On  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  likewise,  the 
Swedes  yet  for  some  time  ran  their  old  course  of 
victory.  With  the  capture  of  Heidelberg  (on  the 
24th  May,  1633),  the  conquest  of  the  Lower  Pala- 
tinate, by  the  palsgrave  Christian  of  Birkenfeld, 
had  been  completed.  His  victory  of  the  1st  August, 
won  by  the  Swedish  infantry  at  PfafTenhof,  drove 
the  Loi'rainers  out  of  Alsace.  After  the  quelling  of 
the  sedition  in  the  army  of  the  Danube,  Horn  had 
tui'ned  with  one  division  of  it  against  Upper  Swa- 
bia,  to  hinder  the  Spaniards  coming  up  from  Italy, 
under  the  duke  of  Feria,  from  uniting  with  the  im- 
perialist general  Altringer.  Duke  Bernard  also  was 
called  to  Swabia  by  the  advance  of  Altringer, 
whose  junction  with  Feria,  however,  could  not  be 
prevented.  The  Swedish  leaders,  after  having  been 
divided  in  opinion  whether  a  battle  should  be 
hazarded  (Horn's  dissuasions  prevailed),  parted 
anew;  Horn  to  recover  his  advantages  in  those 
tracts,  Weimar  to  seek  new  conquests  on  the 
Daimbe,  where,  after  he  had  received  reinforce- 
ments with  general  Kagg,  the  taking  of  Ratisbou, 


3  Compare  von  der  Decken,  duke  George  of  Luneburg,  il. 
32.  Count  Merode,  a  Netherlander,  who  by  his  differences 
with  Gronsfeld  principally  contributed  to  the  loss  of  the 
battle,  made  himself,  as  colonel  of  one  of  Wallenstein's  regi- 
ments, formed  in  1620,  so  notorious  by  his  plunderings,  that 
the  word  maraud  (marodera)  thence  originated.  He  died  of 
his  wounds  received  in  this  battle. 

^  On  a  page  of  count  Gronsfeld,  who  was  taken,  was  found 
the  general's  portfolio,  with  various  papers  written  in  French. 
In  the  head-quarters  of  duke  George  there  was  no  one  who 
could  translate  them  but  the  young  Gustave  Gustaveson. 
So  little  was  the  French  language  yet  known.  Von  der 
Decken,  ii.  180. 

5  Rose,  i.  259. 

6  "  Instead  of  forcing  the  dilatory  Franconian  estates  to 
furnish  provisions,  for  which  he  had  orders,  and  opening  his 
own  stores  in  Wurtzburg,  he  resolved,  to  the  great  alarm  of 
the  chancellor,  to  let  his  starved  regiments  refresh  them- 
selves in  the  district  of  Swabia,  hitherto  spared,  and  destined 


on  the  loth  November,  1633,  crowned  his  progress. 
Of  this  key  to  Austria  and  Bavaria,  the  duke  took 
possession  in  his  own  name^.  In  the  beginning  of 
1634,  he  stood  ready  to  invade  the  hereditary  do- 
minions of  the  emperor,  and  requested  Horn's 
assistance  in  that  project.  The  latter  would  not 
abandon  Svv'abia,  which  was  still  threatened  by 
Altringer  and  Feria.  The  high-chancellor  approved 
the  opinion  of  his  son-in-law,  but  transferred  the 
troops  heretofore  under  the  command  of  the  pals- 
grave of  Birkenfeld  to  the  duke,  who  concealed 
his  dissatisfaction  so  little,  that  he  seemed  to  wish 
to  bring  about  a  violent  rupture.  Under  the  pre- 
tence of  not  being  able  to  maintain  his  troops  in 
Franconia  (although  he  had  not  opened  the  maga- 
zines he  had  formed  there),  he  threw  himself  sud- 
denly, with  hostile  incursion,  upon  Horn's  quarters 
in  Swabia  ''.  They  met  in  Ulm,  and  words  of  passion 
were  interchanged,  in  which  the  notorious  colonel 
Mitzlaff",  leader  of  the  mutiny  just  suppressed,  took 
part,  being  now  openly  received  into  the  duke's  pro- 
tection. Bernard  brought  his  claims  to  the  supreme 
command  before  the  diet  of  the  league,  now  sitting 
in  Frankfort,  which,  however,  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  inclined  to  his  interest.  The  estates  of 
Swabia  complained  that  they  were  treated  by  him 
like  enemies;  and  colonel  Mitzlaff,  notwithstanding 
the  ducal  protection,  received  his  dismissal.  Mean- 
while the  emperor's  son,  the  king  of  Hungary,  with 
15,000  men,  moved  against  Ratisbon  on  one  side, 
Altringer  on  the  other ;  while  Bernard,  between 
disgust  at  the  power  of  the  chancellor,  and  the 
desire  of  saving  this  important  town,  gave  himself 
up  to  vacillating,  discrepant,  and  headstrong  im- 
pulses. We  see  him  now  hastening  in  person  to  the 
relief  of  Ratisbon  (the  garrison  of  which  he  suc- 
ceeded in  reinforcing),  now  in  despondency  reject- 
ing Horn's  offer  to  unite  with  him  for  that  object, 
and  again,  when  the  danger  rose,  vehemently  press- 
ing for  this  junction.  At  length  it  took  place. 
Between  the  3rd  July,  when  Horn  and  the  duke, 
with  24,000  men  in  all,  met  in  Augsburgh,  and  the 
27th,  when  they  retreated  with  an  army  almost 
dissolved  by  sickness  and  want,  lay  the  devastations 
of  the  predatory  foray  into  Bavaria,  the  capture  of 
Landshut,  and  the  loss  of  Ratisbon. 

The  main  strength  of  the  league  of  Heilbronn 
was  in  Swabia.  The  enemy,  who  now  advanced 
against  this  circle,  crossed  the  Danube,  took  Do- 
nauwerth,  requited  the  devastation  of  Bavaria  with 
the  most  inhuman  cruelty  ',  and  besieged  Nordlin- 


to  the  support  of  Horn's  army  ;  and  threw  himself  with  im- 
petuosity, as  it  were  in  hostile  guise,  on  Horn's  quarters,  so 
that  it  remained  doubtful  whether  the  junction  sought  with 
the  field-marshal  was  to  be  made  difficult,  or  the  direction  of 
the  high-chancellor  odious."     Bose,  i.  277. 

7  See  the  description  of  Isolani's  Croats  in  Hochstedt. 
"Very  many  women  are  outraged  so  that  they  are  dead; 
men  and  women  (without  respect  had)  thrown  amidst  hot  or 
cold  water,  ice,  puddles  of  mire  or  ordure  ;  some  with  chains 
and  ropes  at  their  heads  haled  to  death ;  to  some  thumb- 
screws applied;  others  hung  up  by  the  privy  parts,  and 
pierced  therein  with  needles  until  the  blood  ran  down;  their 
shin  bones  sawn  through  ;  the  feet  grated  to  the  bone  with 
billets ;  the  soles  crushed  and  beaten  so  long  that  they  fell 
away  from  the  feet;  the  arms  bound  to  the  backs,  and  they 
thus  hung  behind  themselves;  dragged  much  about  the  town 
stark  naked,  slashed,  beaten,  and  wounded  with  axes  and 
hammers  in  such  sort,  that  for  biood  they  seemed  as  if  they 
had  been  dyed  no  otherwise  than  black-red.     In  the  whole. 


1645.] 


Duke  Bernard  and  Horn 
defeated  at  Nbrdlingeii. 


CHRISTINA.    THE  REGENCY. 


Bad  faith  of  Wallenstein. 
His  assassination. 


301 


gen.  For  the  relief  of  this  town,  Weimar  and 
Horn,  who  had  separated,-  were  obliged  anew  to 
unite,  while  the  chancellor  hastened  reinforcements, 
partly  from  Frauconia,  and  partly  from  the  Rhine. 
The  enemy  was  joined  by  the  troops  coming  from 
Italy,  under  the  Spanish  cardinal  infant.  Duke 
Bernard  wished  for  a  battle.  "  We  have  allowed 
Ratisbou  to  be  lost," — he  said — "  the  banks  of  the 
Danube  are  overrun  with  enemies,  the  Rhine  and 
Mayne  threatened ;  if  we  help  not  Nordlingen  in 
its  strait,  all  is  over  with  our  fame."  The  besieged 
unceasingly  announced  their  distress  by  messengers 
and  signals.  Horn  urged  that  against  so  superior 
an  enemy  reinforcements  should  be  waited  for. 
The  troops  coming  from  Franconia,  under  field- 
marshal  Kratz  and  general  Kagg,  at  length  arrived, 
by  which  the  Swedish  force  was  increased  to  nearly 
18,000  men,  while  the  enemy  were  30,000  strong  *. 
Horn  therefore  advised  waiting  likewise  for  the 
Rhinegrave  Otho  Lewis,  who,  hitherto  busied  with 
the  siege  of  Brisach,  was  now  approaching  with 
five  thousand  men,  and  this  opinion  prevailed  in 
the  council  of  war;  although  Bernard's  officers 
expressed  themselves  insultingly  upon  Horn's  scru- 
ples. According  to  the  resolution,  the  army  was  to 
approach  Nordlingen  by  the  road  of  Ulm,  and 
occupy  a  height  lying  near,  until  the  Rhinegrave, 
who  was  expected  within  two  days,  had  come  up. 
Bernard's  heat  during  the  execution  of  this  move- 
ment changed  a  skirmish  into  a  battle,  which, 
already  commenced  on  the  evening  of  the  26th, 
and  continued  through  part  of  the  night,  ended  on 
the  27th  August,  with  the  complete  defeat  of  the 
Swedish  army,  the  captivity  of  Horn,  and  the 
flight  of  the  duke  *•.  Bernard  of  Weimar,  to  whom 
the  league  of  Heilbronn  finally  committed  the  com- 
mand-in-chief,— with  the  remark,  that  "  He  who 
had  overturned  the  car,  must  also  help  it  up  1," — 
found,  however,  his  views  no  longer  subserved  by 
it,  and  sought  the  assistance  of  France  for  his  own 
plans.  But  those  times  wherein  the  sword  alone 
founded  new  sovereignties  were  past.  This  had 
already  been  shown  by  Walleustein's  fate. 

This   soldier-prince   had,   after   the  flight  from 

they  dealt  with  such  hideous  cruelty  to  every  man,  of  high 
or  low  rank,  that  all  prayed  but  for  death,  to  escape  greater 
martyrdom."  Chemnitz,  ii.  521.  In  the  Swedish  army  also 
the  disaster  at  Nordlingen  obliterated  the  last  traces  of  the 
discipline  of  Gustavus  Adolphus.  "  The  Swedes  and  their 
allies,"  complains  the  ejected  elector  of  Mentz,  "rob,  mur- 
der, scorch,  burn,  gag,  force,  and  practise  other  tyrannies, 
like  heathens  and  Turks,  such  as  have  never  been  heard." 
Rose,  ii.  9. 

8  Le  Laboureur,  Hist,  du  Mar6chal  de  Guebriant,  p.  67. 

9  See  the  description  of  the  battle  of  Nordlingen  in  Rose's 
Duke  Bernard  of  Weimar,  i.  297  ;  as  also  Horn's  own  account, 
which  is  written  without  any  bitterness,  and  inspires  respect 
for  his  character,  in  Chemnitz,  ii.  521.  Horn's  captivity 
lasted  almost  eight  years. 

1  Chemnitz,  ii.  237. 

2  When  he  declared  this  to  duke  Francis  Albert  of  Saxe- 
f.auenburg,  the  latter  took  it  ill,  and  answered  wrathfully : 
"  That  is  not  honestly  done."  Forster,  Wallenstein,  i.  214. 
The  elector  of  Saxony  besides  appealed  in  his  own  proposals 
of  peace  to  Walleustein's  promise  to  induce  the  emperor  to 
make  great  cessions  and  a  peace.     Chemnitz,  ii.  167. 

'  He  sent  thirteen  couriers  after  one  another  to  duke  Ber- 
nard to  accelerate  their  junction.  Richelieu,  viii.  99.  At 
the  same  time  he  sent  his  chancellor  to  the  margrave  Chris- 
tian of  Brandenburg  Culmbach,  and  begged  a  personal  con- 
ference for  the  furtherance  of  a  peace;  he  would  afterwards 


Lutzen  (for  which  he  held  a  bloody  reckoning  with 
several  of  his  officers),  again  collected  his  force  be- 
hind the  Bohemian  mountains,  in  whose  neighbour- 
hood, like  a  storm-cloud,  it  seemed  to  linger.  Mean- 
while, words  of  peaceful  sound  only  were  heard  out 
of  the  threatening  darkness.  Wallenstein,  after  he 
had  advanced  into  Silesia,  availed  himself  of  the 
mediation  for  peace  now  opened  by  Denmark,  and 
embraced  by  the  emperor,  in  order  to  make  highly 
dissimilar  proposals  to  the  combatants,  each  for 
itself.  He  offered  his  alliance  to  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg,  to  expel  the  Swedes  from  Germany  2, 
but  at  the  same  time  also  to  Sweden  in  conjunction 
with  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  and  France  in  eon- 
junction  with  Sweden,  to  compel  the  emperor  to 
peace.  The  speedy  result  was  a  general  distrust  to- 
wards the  author  of  these  proposals  ;  and  this  sus- 
picion was  not  extinguished  at  the  imperial  court, 
although  the  apparent  confidence  between  Wallen- 
stein and  the  enemy,  after  two  truces,  was  sud- 
denly broken  off  by  a  brilliant  military  activity. 
After  Arnheim  with  the  Saxons  had  parted  from 
the  Swedish  army  in  Silesia,  he  found  himself, 
when  the  last  truce  was  at  an  end  on  the  21st  Sep- 
tember, 1633,  quite  unexpectedly  surrounded  in 
Steinau  on  the  Oder  by  Wallenstein,  who  made 
prisoners  6000  men,  with  Duvall  and  Thurn,  and 
then  threatened  Berlin  and  Dresden.  Recalled  by 
duke  Bernard's  progress  on  the  Danube,  he  ad- 
vanced into  Franconia,  yet  too  late  to  save  Ratis- 
bou, and  afterwards  turned  back  to  Bohemia. 
These  were  the  last  exploits  of  Wallenstein.  De- 
clared an  outlaw  by  the  emperor,  he  was  assas- 
sinated in  Eger,  on  the  I4th  February  (0.  S.),  1634, 
together  with  his  principal  confidants.  That  he  was 
then  on  the  point  of  uniting  with  Bernard  and  the 
Swedes,  is  undoubted  and  acknowledged  on  all 
sides*.  Great  obscurity  rests  (m  the  enigmatical 
character  of  Wallenstein  ;  and  this  is  by  no  means 
cleared  up  through  his  correspondence  lately  made 
public,  which  discloses  to  the  attentive  reader  un- 
der circumspect  phraseology,  relations  between  the 
emperor  and  his  general  strained  to  the  uttermost  *. 

himself  repair  to  Oxenstierna,  and  likewise  consult  with  the 
French  ambassador.  "For  he  was  fully  minded,  when  he 
had  been  to  the  margrave,  decidedly  to  take  his  way  to  the 
lord  high-chancellor,  and  converse  orally  with  him,  as  also 
with  the  French  ambassador."     Chemnitz,  iii.  329. 

4  How  little  in  these  circumstances  words  express  the 
real  disposition  several  examples  might  be  adduced  to  show. 
After  the  demands  which  the  emperor  In  December,  1C33, 
made  known  to  Wallenstein  by  Questenburg,  had  been  re- 
mitted, and  the  general  in  return  assured  the  emperor  that 
he  would  do  every  thing  for  his  service  that  utility  and  neces- 
sity permitted,  "  should  he  even  burst  for  it,"  (according  to 
Questenburg's  letter  to  the  emperor  ;  Pilsen,  Dec.  30,  1633, 
Forster,  Walleustein's  Letters,  iii.  137.)  Wallenstein  in  the 
beginning  of  1634  makes  the  same  demands  a  pretext  for 
setting  on  foot  a  confederacy  between  his  ofRcers.  Further, 
on  the  21st  February  (N.  S.)  Wallenstein  sends  to  'Vienna 
the  declaration  that  he  was  ready  to  subscribe  all  that  was 
asked,  to  lay  down  his  command,  and  to  render  himself  to 
answer  where  the  emperor  pleased.  The  same  day  he  sends 
Francis  Albert  of  Lauenburg  to  duke  Bernard,  to  make 
known  to  him  his  defection  from  the  emperor.  (Forster, 
Wallenstein,  274.  276.)  On  the  other  side,  although  the  em- 
peror had  let  fall  an  observation,  that  it  appeared  to  him  as 
though  he  had  got  a  colleague  king  at  his  side, — (and  we 
know  what  such  words  from  a  sovereign  import,)— he  de- 
clares, nevertheless,  by  letter  to  Wallenstein  of  Jan.  3,  1634, 
that  he  was  willing  to  let  it  rest  "on  the  duke's  good  mean- 


302 


Inquiry  into  tlie  degree 
of  his  guilt. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Dissensions  of  the  Protestant 
states  of  Germany. 


[1633— 


Even  the  most  strenuous  defender  of  this  general 
must  confine  himself  to  the  question,  in  itself  idle, 
whether  he  was  a  voluntary  or  constrained  traitor 
to  his  lord.  The  imperial  court,  in  order  to  cloak 
a  murder,  naturally  insisted  on  the  former.  Great 
contemporary  statesmen,  Oxenstierna,  and  still 
more  Rieheliou  (althou^^h  the  cardinal  had  offered 
him  his  assistance  in  gaining  the  Bohemian  crown), 
appear  inclined  to  give  admittance  to  all  that  alle- 
viation which  the  latter  ciiaracter  can  bring  with 
itself^.  To  us,  no  words  appear  sufficient  to  adjust 
or  reconcile  transactions  in  themselves  conflicting. 
These,  so  far  as  they  are  explicable,  can  only  be 
explained  by  Wallenstein's  position,  which  was  in 
itself  so  slippery  that  we  almost  pardon  a  great  am- 
bition, when  on  its  neck-periUing  career  it  asks 
counsel  of  the  stars.  A  few  words  are  sufficient  to 
ilescribe  this  position.  Already  on  the  first  dis- 
missal of  Wallenstein,  at  Ratisbou  in  1630,  his 
friends  ventured  to  indicate  its  dangers;  "since 
lie,"  they  said,  "as  being  a  man  otherwise  resent- 
ful, might  seek  revenge,  .associate  himself  to  the 
emperor's  enemies,  and  draw  the  soldiers  to  and 
with  himself,  who  would  give  more  obedience  to 
his  wink  than  to  the  law  and  order  of  another." 
Wallenstein  himself  submitted  without  complaint, 
\vith  the  expression  that  what  had  happened  stood 
written  in  the  records  of  heaven.  But  at  what  a 
height  he  aimed  is  best  shown  by  those  conditions 
which  he  afterwards,  in  the  emperor's  extreme 
need,  imposed  and  obtained  on  resuming  the  most 
unlimited  command  ;  among  others,  an  imperial 
iiereditary  province  in  reward,  and  the  superiority 
of  all  conquered  territories.  He  that  can  ask  like 
this,  must  place  himself  in  a  situation  to  watch 
over  its  fulfilment.  Wallenstein  had,  in  his  former 
command,  both  won  and  lost  Mecklenburg,  his 
title  from  which  he  continued  to  bear.  The  cha- 
racter of  prince  of  the  empire  which  he  had  won 
strengthened  his  independence  as  general.  Under 
such  circumstances,  to  decide  on  what  side  that 
suspicion  and  those  apprehensions  first  arose  which 
led  to  so  violent  a  breach,  is,  and  remains  perhaps, 
as  impossible  as  it  appears  inevitable,  that  such 
sliould  sooner  or  later  have  occurred. 

In  order  rightly  to  comprehend  the  consequences 
of  the  battle  of  Nordlingen,  it  is  necessary  to  cast  a 
glance  upon  the  internal  relations  of  the  Protestant 
l)arty  in  Germany  at  that  time.  Count  Peter  Brahe 
was  sent  from  Sweden  to  the  assistance  of  the 
chancellor,  and  visited  the  convention  in  Frank- 
ing;,"— 1.  c.  236.  240;  and  such  gracious  expressions  are  con- 
tinued even  after  orders  had  been  given  for  the  seizure  or 
n  raoval  of  Wallenstein. 

5  "We  doubt  not  without  reason,  whether  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  pending  treaties  he  meant  in  right  earnest 
a  conspiracy  against  the  emperor,  or  whether  the  whole 
transaction  was  not  intended  to  clieat  the  evangelical  party ; 
whereas  he,  by  too  coarse  a  trick,  and  using  too  extravagant 
and  wliimsical  manners  in  his  discourse  and  actions,  fell 
into  suspicion  with  the  emperor,  whicli  was  so  fomented  and 
increased  by  his  mislikers  and  opponents,  that  he  was  at 
length  hereby  obliged  to  embrace  the  counsels  which  he  had 
at  first  taken  up  fraudfuUy  and  deceitfully  in  semblance 
af;ainst  the  evangelics,  now  as  it  were  compulsorily  and 
from  necessity  in  earnest,  although  too  lale.  However  tiiis 
may  be,  the  issue  showed  that  the  lord  high-chancellor 
judged  rightly  of  him  and  his  purpose;  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  him  to  accomplish  such  designs,  and  he  had  taken 
more  upon  himself  than  he  could  perform.  Since  the  im- 
))erial  officers,  when  he  had  fairly  discovered  his  intent  of  de- 


fort.  "  Tlie  estates,"  he  writes  in  his  journal, 
"  allowed  free  course  to  pomp  and  state,  many  living 
in  daily  riot  and  excess,  troubling  tViemselves  little 
about  the  general  weal,  envious  of  Sweden's  for- 
tune, and  grudging  it  the  directory.  Tlie  elector 
of  Saxony  disturbed  and  threw  down  what  others 
built  up;  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  looked  only  to 
Pomei-ania,  the  Calvinists  to  the  king  of  England, 
duke  Bernard  of  Weimar  to  his  dignity,  and  how  he 
might  rule  and  govern  alone,  and  be  dependent  on 
no  man;  the  dukes  of  Brunswick  and  Luneburg  had 
a  rivalry  with  the  landgrave  of  Cassel;  every  one 
sought  his  own  advantage  ;  French  money  seduced 
high  and  low;  the  baronage  and  towns  quarrelled 
about  seats.  No  where  was  confidence  to  be  found  ; 
one  envied  the  other  ;  princes,  counts,  and  lords, 
were  as  children,  following  that  which  their  doc- 
tors and  jurists  preached  before  them,  who  stood  at 
all  the  meetings  behind  their  masters,  speaking  and 
answering  as  for  mutes'".  Every  one  wished  to  live 
for  himself,  and  act  both  as  king  and  general'. 
They  bore  lawless  arms  against  their  lord  the  em- 
peror, whom  they  so  entitled  ;  for  so  long  as  they 
called  him  their  lord,  and  drew  the  sword  against 
him,  their  war  could  be  called  nothing  else  than 
rebellion.  But  whatever  argument  a  man  used,  it 
helped  nothing  ;  they  would  never  declare  the  em- 
peror their  enemy,  much  less  unworthy  of  the 
Roman  crown  ;  they  played  and  trifled  with  the 
war  and  the  state  of  public  and  private  affairs. 
The  high-chancellor  they  honoured  much  as  Swe- 
dish legate  and  director  of  the  evangelic  league, 
and  paid,  both  to  him  and  me,  great  respect  ;  but 
when  the  chancellor  meant  it  best  with  them,  they 
interpreted  it  worst,  and  in  truth  with  them  neither 
reason  nor  counsel  availed  for  the  right  and  their 
own  good  weal.  Thus  delays  and  disputes  continued, 
and  time  was  consumed  in  vain,  until  the  unfortu- 
nate battle  of  Nordlingen  was  fought." 

This  defeat  at  once  brought  the  so-called  third 
party  to  consistence  ;  as  moisture  at  the  freezing 
point  is  changed  into  ice  on  the  first  shock.  Saxony 
concluded  for  itself,  and  without  commission,  for 
its  religious  associates  likewise,  the  peace  of  Prague, 
which  gave  no  security,  defei'red  the  main  ques- 
tion, but  gained  Lusatia  for  the  elector.  He  for 
whose  rescue  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  fallen,  men- 
tions in  these  negotiations  for  peace,  the  immortal 
achievements  of  the  hero  under  the  expression, 
"the  troubles  which  arose  in  the  empire  in  1630," 
whose  traces  must  be   obliterated*,  and  remarks 

fection,  laid  more  stress  on  the  duty  which  they  owed  to  the 
emperor  than  the  respect  they  bore  to  him  (Wallenstein),  and 
for  the  most  part  renounced  him.  So  that  even  his  own 
creatures,  in  whom  he  put  most  trust,  became  his  murder- 
ers." Chemnitz,  ii.  333.  In  the  protocol  of  the  council  for 
lliSO,  Oxenstierna  reckons  "  Wallenstein's  business"  among 
the  things  on  which  right  knowledge  could  never  be  attained. 
Richelieu's  favourable  judgment  of  Wallenstein  may  he 
found  in  the  Memoirs,  viii.  100.  The  reflections  upon  the 
dangers  of  faithful  servants  in  high  place  from  enviers 
appear  not  to  be  written  without  reference  to  the  cardinal's 
own  position. 

6  Quantum  degeneraverint  a  pristina  virtutei  the  author 
exclaims. 

?  "Not  reflecting  that  they  were  all  only  members  of  a 
body  under  one  head,  whence  it  follows  that  while  indi- 
viduals fight  all  are  conquered." 

8  "  Touching  the  restitution,  there  should  be  restored  to  the 
emperor  and  his  adherents  all  that  of  which  they  have  been 
deprived  since  the  troubles  which  arose  in  the  year  1630  and 


1645.] 


Peace  of  Prague. 
Negotiations  with  Denmark 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


and  Poland.     The  Swedish 
ministry  inclined  to  peace. 


303 


that  the  Swedes  should  content  themselves  with 
free  egress  from  Germany.  So  great  was  the  des- 
pondency, that  almost  all  the  Protestant  states  (of 
Sweden's  German  allies  all  except  Hesse)  acceded 
to  this  universally  disapproved  peace,  which  pro- 
tracted the  war  for  thirteen  years  longer.  This 
is  the  last  and  most  deplorable  period  of  the  great 
struggle.  What  yet  impended,  what  Gustavus 
Adolphus  before  his  death  predicted,  and  thought 
it  gain  not  to  live  to  see ",  was  so  adverse,  that  the 
Swedish,  government,  and  even  Oxenstierna,  sought 
for  peace  sincerely,  if  it  were  obtainable  on  other 
conditions  than  dishonour.  We  shall  see  that  only 
this  choice  was  left  them. 

The  first  intelligence  of  the  disaster  at  Nord- 
lingen  was  received  in  Sweden  without  despon- 
dency. "  We  doubt  not  of  your  wonted  courage," 
write  the  ministry  to  the  chancellor,  "  and  hope 
that  the  cause  is  not  to  be  despaired  of,  although 
it  be  hard, and  fallen  into  embarrassment*."  The 
results  which  speedily  unfolded  themselves  ap- 
peared to  frustrate  this  hope,  and  the  peaceable 
inclinations  which  the  government  constantly  che- 
rished after  the  king's  death,  gained  new  strength 
by  new  perils.  The  truce  with  Poland  was  draw- 
ing near  its  term,  and  it  was  feared  that  Denmark 
might  likewise  break  the  peace  ^.  The  danger 
from  this  side  was  sought  to  be  averted  by  grant- 
ing the  see  of  Bremen  to  the  second  son  of  Chris- 
tian IV.,  duke  Frederic,  already  named  coadjutor 
of  the  deceased  archbishop  ^.  With  Poland  negoti- 
ations for  peace  were  opened,  which  count  Peter 
Brahe  managed  on  the  Swedish  side.  But  these 
were  conducted  imder  arms.  Kin^  Uladislaus 
seemed  to  wish  for  war.  Jacob  de  la  Gardie  car- 
ried over  to  Prussia  20,000  men  from  Sweden 
in  June,  1635.  "  But,"  the  ministry  write  to  the 
chancellor  *,  "  if  we  obtain  no  prosperous  issue 
with  the  treat}',  the  war  will  fall  grievously  upon 
us  in  the  long  run;  since  the  poverty  of  the  country 
every  where  is  so  great  from  the  scarcity  and 
the  dear  times,  which  have  now  lasted  for  some 
years  over  the  whole  kingdom,  that  the  people 
could  pay  their  taxes  neither  this  nor  the  former 
year,  and  the  crown  has  besides  suffered  great  loss 
through  the  bursting  in  of  water  in  the  copper- 
mines  ;  all  which  hath  plunged  us  into  so  great 
want  of  means,  that  we  know  not  how  we  shall 
maintain  the  ordinary  economy  of  the  state,  much 
less  furnish  any  considerable  sum,  especially  in 
money,  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  The  mint 
is  at  a  stand-still,  and  there  is  very  little  money  in 

the  arrival  of  the  king  of  Sweden  on  the  soil  of  the  empire," 
— it  is  said  in  the  Saxon  preliminaries  of  peace  at  Pima, 
Nov.  13,  1634.  Chemnitz,  ii.  602.  The  peace  was  concluded 
at  Prague,  May  20  (O.  S.),  1635. 

*  "  King  Gustavus  Adolphus  shortly  before  his  death  con- 
fessed with  deep  sighs  that  he  wished  for  nothing  else  than 
that  God  might  call  him  hence,  since  he  saw  war  imminent 
with  his  friends  for  their  great  faithlessness,  which  would 
afflict  him  the  more  that  the  world  would  not  guess  the  true 
cause  of  such  a  war."  Axel  Oxenstierna  in  the  council, 
1644.     Palmsk.  MSS. 

1  To  the  high-chancellor,  Oct.  2,  1634.     Reg. 

s  "If  the  Pole  begins  aught,  he  for  certain  draws  the 
Jute  with  him."  The  ministry  to  the  chancellor,  June  12, 
1634.     Reg. 

'  "  We  have  not  been  able  to  avoid  according  Bremen 
through  the  lord  John  Skytte  to  the  son  of  the  king  of  Den- 
mark, and  declaring  ourselves  not  disinclmed  to  admit  him 
to  neutrality,  with  the  cession  of  Verden.     Yet  we  have  re- 


the  kingdom.  Credit  is  so  scanty  that  we  could  not 
without  great  trouble  and  difficulty  raise  on  mort- 
gage the  trivial  sums  which  we  transmitted  with 
the  army  to  Prussia.  On  the  customs  we  can 
obtain  no  advance.  Konigsberg  and  Dantzic  have 
declared  themselves  Polish,  so  that  at  these  places 
no  exchange  can  be  efiected.  The  people  in  the 
government  of  Wiborg  and  Ingermanland  liave 
fied  by  thousands  across  the  frontier  to  the  Rus- 
sians, on  account  of  the  levies  and  the  dearth, 
which  has  lasted  four  years.  Therefore  have  we 
extreme  need  of  peace,  and  we  wish  it  both  in 
Poland  and  Germany."  Under  such  circumstances 
the  conduct  of  the  German  states  made  all  the 
deeper  impression.  "  You  know,"  the  ministry 
write  to  the  legate  Steno  Bielke  ^,  "  that  we  have 
now  enough  to  do  with  our  own  war  against  Po- 
land, and  have  nothing  else  but  loss  and  ingrati- 
tude to  expect  from  the  German  war.  Therefore 
you  may  well  think  what  heart  we  have  to  spend 
more  upon  it.  We  also  see  fully  that  howsoever 
long  it  is  drawn  out  we  must  yet  in  the  end  gratify 
Brandenburg  (with  Pomerania),  and  have  ah'eady 
given  orders  to  the  high-chancellor  to  capitulate 
thereupon  with  the  elector."  They  indeed  suc- 
ceeded, mainly  by  French  mediation  (commis- 
sioners from  England,  Holland,  and  Brandenburg 
were  present  for  the  same  object),  in  renewing  the 
truce  with  Pbland  for  twenty-six  years,  at  Stums- 
dorf,  on  the  2d  September,  1635,  although  agamst 
the  will  of  the  chancellor,  and  at  the  sacrifice  of  the 
conquests  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Prussia^  ;  but 
their  disinclination  to  the  German  war  was  not 
thereby  diminished.  "  What  we  have  said  of  the 
peace,"  write  the  ministry  to  the  chancellor  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  Pohsh  truce ^,  "you  ought 
not  so  to  understand,  as  if  we  had  means  enough 
left  to  continue  the  war  in  Germany  since  we  have 
peace  with  the  Poles  ;  but  we  are  so  determined 
upon  peace,  that  we,  in  the  desire  and  hope  of  the 
same,  have  dropped  every  thought  of  procuring 
means  for  the  war.  When  the  greatest  part  of  the 
sinews  are  cut  away  by  the  longsome  war,  with 
what  force  can  the  body  move  ?  This  ye  may 
ponder,  and  proportion  your  counsels  accord- 
ingly." 

Oxenstierna  found  himself  in  the  most  difficult 
position.  At  home  he  was  charged  with  setting 
himself  to  thwart  the  peace  ^.  At  the  same  time 
Richelieu  reproaches  him  with  having  lost  all 
spirit  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  ^ ;  although 

ferred  the  matter  to  you  and  the  evangelical  estates."  The 
ministry  to  the  chancellor,  March  22,  1635.  Reg.  Mean- 
while the  secretary  Grubbe  had  already,  on  the  18th  March, 
received  a  commission  to  congratulate  duke  Frederic  on  his 
accession  to  the  government  of  Bremen,  and  deliver  the  rati- 
fication of  the  treaty  concluded  by  Skytte  in  Denmark.   Reg. 

4  July  18,  1635.     Reg. 

5  Aprils,  1635.     Reg. 

6  The  ministry  make  their  excuses  in  the  letter  to  the 
chancellor  of  Sept.  12,  1635,  for  having  resolved  to  ratify, 
"  although  we  gave  no  warrant  to  conclude  so  short  a  truce 
for  concession  of  advantages  so  great."    Reg. 

7  Oct.  12,  1636.     Reg. 

8  "We  lament  that  some  have  shamelessly  dared  to  fill 
the  world  with  lies  of  many  excellent  conditions  of  peace 
which  you  are  said  to  have  rejected.  The  best  remedy  is, 
that  you  should  pubhcly  bring  to  light  both  the  ingratitude 
practised  to  us,  and  your  moderation  and  reasonableness." 
The  ministry  to  the  chancellor,  Nov.  15,  1635.     Reg. 

9  Memoires  de  Richelieu,  viii.  352.  ix.  5. 


304 


Rising  influence  of  France. 
Policy  of  Richelieu. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Alliance  between  Sweden 
and  France  renewed. 


[I  ess- 


truth  constrains  him  to  the  confession,  that  tlie 
Swedish  chancellor  had  done  all  which  it  was 
possible  for  a  man  of  courage  and  sagacity  to 
do>. 

The  influence  of  France  had  risen  in  the  same 
proportion  as  that  of  Sweden  had  sunk,  and  in 
Richelieu  men  had  to  do  with  the  best  calculator 
of  possibilities  who  perhaps  was  ever  seen  ^.  It  is 
this  extraordinary  acuteness,  combined  with  un- 
shakeable  stedfastness,  which  makes  him  so  great. 
"  Richelieu,"  says  0.xenstierna  of  his  political  rival 
several  years  after  his  death,  "  was  a  man  remark- 
able in  counsel,  a  man  not  only  of  imderstanding, 
but  also  of  conduct  and  courage,  whence  also  he 
directed  the  work  with  such  constancy  in  so  long 
time  ;  as  we  else  observe  in  the  French,  how  soon 
they  determine  for  war,  and  just  as  soon  again  for 
peace,  and  almost  never  heretofore  pursue  their 
objects  with  earnestness  and  steadiness.  Therein 
also  he  was  fortunate,  adds  the  Swedish  statesman, 
that  he  died  before  the  king,  who  defended  his 
actions  ^."  The  independence  of  France,  threatened 
by  Spanish  and  Austrian  intrigues  within  its  own 
borders,  had  provoked  Richelieu's  opposition  against 
the  preponderance  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  From 
defence  he  passed  to  attack,  and  already  turned  his 
eyes  on  the  Rhine  as  the  future  frontier  of  France. 
The  war  in  Germany  and  Holland,  he  said  to  his 
king  in  1633,  must  be  maintained,  cost  what  it  viill, 
but  as  long  as  po.ssible  only  by  subsidy,  without 
France  openly  taking  part  in  it;  meanwhile  we 
must  seek  to  obtain,  as  price  of  this  support,  the 
strong  places  on  the  Rhine;  if  this  should  hereafter 
lead  to  open  war,  the  advantages  would  be  great 
and  the  danger  trifling  ;  the  king  might  extend  his 
dominions  to  the  Rhine  only  by  accepting  what  had 
been  won  by  the  ai-ms  of  others,  and  by  its  mere 
possession  in  pledge  might  make  himself  arbiter 
of  war  and  peace  ;  he  would  likewise  have  footing 
thereby  in  Strasburg,  Franche-Comtd,  Luxemburg, 
might  curb  Lorraine,  and  restrain  the  enemy  from 
meddling  with  the  internal  affairs  of  France;  Swe- 
den should  not  be  allowed  to  fall,  but  its  prepon- 
derance in  Germany  must  be  averted  ;  perhaps 
time  might  by  some  accident  remove  all  danger  in 
this  respect,  just  as  it  had  already  freed  Christen- 

•  "  The  director  did  all  that  a  man  of  courage  and  conduct 
was  capable  of  doing  "     Id.  viii.  174. 

*  See  the  inbtructions  (in  many  respects  worthy  of  admi- 
ration), of  which  his  memoirs  chiefly  consist. 

3  Oxenstierna  in  the  council,  1050.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190. 

■•  Mem.  de  Richelieu,  vii.  271.  274. 

5  The  convention  between  Bernard  of  Weimar  and  Riche- 
lieu, at  first  kept  secret,  was  concluded  at  St.  Germain  en 
Laye,  Oct.  17,  1635. 

5  The  chancellor  arrived  the  20th  April,  1635,  at  Com- 
piegne,  where  his  majesty  was,  who  caused  him  to  be  received 
and  furnished  with  magnificence.  He  signed  a  new  treaty 
with  the  king,  and  left  four  days  after  to  go  to  Paris,  where 
having  sojourned  until  the  3d  May,  he  went  to  Dieppe, 
whence  he  passed  into  Holland,  and  thence  into  Low  Saxony. 
Mem.  de  Richelieu,  viii.  344. 

'  He  had  al.so,  from  distrust  of  the  chancellor,  made  ad- 
vances to  the  party  in  the  government  opposed  to  him, 
though  with  little  eflfect,  because  this  formed  the  peace  party. 
King  Lewis  XIII.  wrote  himself  to  the  high-marshal,  Jacob 
de  la  Gardie.  The  answer  returned  by  the  ministry,  March 
28,  1635,  gives  assurance  of  the  marshal's  favourable  dispo- 
sition to  the  cause  of  Christendom  and  of  France,  the  more 
that  he  was  himself  of  French  extraction.  In  a  separate 
letter  to  Richelieu  on  the  same  day,  he  avers  his  wish  to 


dom  from  a  great  misfortune  by  the  death  of  the 
Swedish  king*.  The  conjectured  accident  had  now 
occurred  by  the  first  overthrow  of  the  Swedes  in 
Germany.  A  French  army,  which  had  already 
made  itself  master  of  the  prmcipal  towns  of  Lor- 
raine, was  upon  the  Rhine  to  watch  its  opportunity. 
The  league  of  Heilbronn,  whose  most  influential 
members  had  previously  been  gained  over  by 
French  pension.s,  now  in  despair  threw  themselves 
absolutely  into  the  arms  of  France.  There  were 
no  strong  places  on  the  Upper  Rhine  which  they 
were  not  willing  to  surrender,  and  Alsace  besides 
in  pawn.  Bernard  of  Weimar,  now  general  of  the 
league,  went  himself  with  the  remains  of  his  army 
into  French  pay  '';  and  in  the  secret  articles  which 
accompanied  the  compact,  the  duke  took  assurance 
from  France  of  Alsace  for  himself,  or  compensation 
in  exchange  at  the  peace.  Last  attempt  of  an 
unfortunate  ambition !  Bernard  subsequently  died 
after  the  taking  of  Brisach,  and  France  kept  Al- 
sace. 

Oxenstierna  also  was  compelled  to  seek  Riche- 
lieu. On  his  journey  from  Upper  Germany,  in  the 
spring  of  the  year  1635,  he  took  his  way  through 
France,metthe  cardinal  in  Compiegne,  and  adjusted 
with  him  the  conditions  of  a  renewed  alliance  ^, 
which  was  to  be  proposed  to  the  Swedish  govern- 
ment. Their  delay  in  the  ratification  was  laid  by 
Richelieu  to  the  chai'ge  of  Oxenstierna  '.  For  the 
ministry  refei-red  the  matter  to  the  chancellor  *, 
and  at  last  dismissed  with  this  resolve  the  French 
ambassador,  who  sought  to  win  adherents  in  Stock- 
holm, and  sometimes  held  obnoxious  language.  The 
chancellor,  on  the  other  hand,  wished  to  gain  time. 
The  peace  of  Prague  had  wrought  a  great  change 
in  the  state  of  circumstances.  On  the  Swedish  side 
it  was  with  reason  objected  that  the  purpose  of  the 
alliance  had  ceased  to  exist,  when  the  associates 
for  whose  aid  it  was  to  be  formed  had  disappeared. 
Hesse-Cassel  also  took  the  advice  of  the  chancellor 
to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  the  emperor  3.  At 
home  peace  was  determined  upon,  ultimately  with 
no  other  indemnity  than  payment  of  the  demands 
of  the  armies,  and  the  cession  of  a  town  on  the  sea- 
coast  until  the  sum  should  be  made  good ;  and 
even  with  these  terms,  Sweden  had  looked  rather 

contribute  in  every  way  to  a  good  understanding  between 
the  two  kingdoms,  and  recommends  one  of  his  relatives  in 
France.     Reg. 

8  "  We  have  further  deliberated  what  answer  we  should  give 
Avaugour  to  his  request  of  ratification,  whereto  he  joins  a 
demand  that  we  should  maintain  a  certain  number  of  troops 
against  the  emperor.  That  would  be  to  bind  our  hands  ;  to 
refuse  the  ratification,  on  tlje  other  hand,  would  give  oflence. 
We  will  therefore  keep  the  matter  open  some  time,  and 
defer  all  this  until  further  accounts  from  you,  since  things 
meanwhile  have  much  changed."  The  ministry  to  the 
chancellor,  Dec.  19,  1635.  "We  have  already  written  to 
you  that  we  intended  to  detain  the  French  envoy  till  we  had 
intelligence  from  you.  Howbeit,  since  he  after  began  to 
make  himself  much  too  familiar  (allt  for  mycket  faniilier), 
we  have  come  to  the  resolution  to  dismiss  him  the  sooner 
the  better,  and  refer  him  in  all  to  you."  The  ministry  to 
the  chancellor.  Jan.  23,  1636. 

9  "  He  had  given  this  counsel  to  the  landgrave."  Mem. 
de  Richelieu,  vii.  352.  The  landgrave's  widow  afterwards 
actually  concluded  the  peace  at  Mentz,  Aug.  11,  1638,  but 
the  emperor  did  not  ratify  it,  because  he  would  not  confirm 
the  required  freedom  of  religion.  PufTendorf,  x.  445.  So 
far  were  the  Austrians  still  removed  from  the  first  principle 
of  a  religious  peace. 


1645.] 


Fruitless  efforts  of 
Oxenstieriia  for  peace. 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


John  Baner,  tlie  new 
commander-in-chief. 


305 


I 


to  what  honour  than  to  what  iiitei'est  required;  for 
the  armies  consisted  in  the  largest  part  of  Ger- 
mans ^  "  Concerning  the  peace,"  the  ministry  write 
to  the  chancellor,  on  the  28th  January,  1G36,  "  we 
hold  to  our  ultimatum,  namely,  the  contentment  of 
the  soldiery,  and  a  hypothec  on  the  sea-coast ;  bet- 
ter to  escaj^e  the  incalculable  cost  which  the  prose- 
cution of  the  war  would  bring  with  it,  than  to  fish 
with  a  golden  hook,  and  lose  ten  millions  for  one  2." 
The  Swedish  estates  assembled  in  the  autumn  of 
1635,  and  declared,  that  Sweden  could  not  submit 
to  the  peace  of  Prague  ;  the  treaty  must  be  con- 
cluded between  Sweden  and  the  emperor  ;  Sweden 
could  not  content  itself  with  the  guarantee  of  the 
elector  of  Saxony;  the  elector  was  a  subject,  could 
not  guarantee  himself,  and  had  not  so  conducted 
himself  in  this  war  that  he  should  be  allowed  to 
have  that  honour.  In  the  instructions  which  the 
chancellor  recei%'ed,  it  was  specified,  that  he  should 
negotiate  with  the  emperor,  and  with  Saxony  only 
so  far  as  the  elector  should  be  empowered  to  con- 
clude peace  as  well  for  the  emperor  as  for  the 
League  and  Spain;  in  the  peace  Hesse  should  be 
included,  and  France,  if  she  wished  it.  All  shows 
that  Oxenstierna  himself  sincerely  souglit  for  peace. 
He  followed  his  instructions  truly,  as  if  they  had 
proceeded  from  himself.  But  his  proposals  of  peace 
to  the  emperor  remained  vmanswered.  Saxony 
evei'y  where  interposed  with  the  demand,  that  Swe- 
den should  submit,  unconditionally,  to  the  peace  of 
Prague  :  if  the  Swedes  would  disband  their  army, 
evacuate  all  conquests,  and  quit  Germany,  but  not 
till  then,  the  elector  would  employ  his  mediation  to 
obtain,  within  four  or  five  years,  an  indemnity  in 
money  of  a  million  of  guilders:  for  the  rest,  this 
point  concerned  him  not,  since  Gustavus  Adolphus 
had  declared  that  he  had  no  claim  upon  him  ;  the 
Swedes  ought  to  rely  upon  his  word,  that  they  should 
experience  no  hostilities  from  the  emperor  and  the 
German  empire  ^.  At  the  same  time  he  caused  his 
troops  to  enter  the  Swedish  quarters,  and  instigated 
the  officers  of  the  Swedish  army  to  mutiny.  Then 
it  seemed  more  honourable  and  tolerable — says 
Chemnitz — to  be  beaten  out  of  Germany  by  force, 
than  thus  to  be  cast  off",  to  fall  down  before  the 
enemy,  and  to  beg  for  peace ;  the  one  would  at  most 
be  a  misfortune,  which  had  overtaken  many  power- 
ful kingdoms  and  republics  ;  the  other  would  be 
shame,  to  be  answered  neither  to  contemporaries 
nor  posterity,  especially  as  ia  any  case  they  could 
obtain  no  real  and  secure  peace,  much  less  enjoy 
its  fruits.  Yet  the  chancellor  was  almost  resolved 
to  desist  from  all  satisfaction,  if  he  could,  with 
honour  and  safety,  have  parted  from  this  work, 
and  the  burden  of  the  foreign  soldiery  had  been 
taken  from  his  neck  ;  but  even  this  he  could  not 
compass  on  account  of  Saxony  *. 

•  "  His  majesty  of  blessed  memory  had  employed  for  the 
carrying  on  of  this  war  not  only  the  Swedes,  his  own  people, 
and  other  foreigners,  but  principally  and  before  others  the 
German  nation,  so  that  at  the  present  time  the  chief  part, 
both  offirers  and  soldiers,  consist  of  the  German  nation." 
Oxenstierna's  proposition  to  the  elector  of  Saxony,  Aug.  1, 
1G35.     Chemnitz,  ii.  743. 

2  Registry. 

3  Declaration  of  the  elector  of  Saxony.     Chemritz,  ii.  7G8. 

*  "  All  these  things  so  offended  the  Swedes,  that  they  re- 
solved to  defend  themselves,  and  rather  with  arms  in  their 
hands  be  stripped  by  force,  than  basely  yield  what  they  had 
acquired  with  so  much  glory,  and  the  blood  they  had  gene- 


Thus  we  see  the  work  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
tottering  on  all  sides.  Two  great  ministers,  com- 
bining their  efforts  against  the  predominance  of 
Austria,  although  in  many  other  points  at  variance, 
had  in  vain  attempted  to  complete  it.  To  succeed 
in  this  lay  beyond  the  limits  of  merely  political  cal- 
culations, though  framed  by  Oxenstierna's  skill, 
and  supported  with  Richelieu's  treasures.  Success 
in  arms  alone  could  accomplish  what  success  in 
arms  had  begun.  It  was  a  task  not  for  the  pen 
only,  but  for  the  sword  also.  We  shall  see  it  re- 
established on  its  first  foundation  from  the  moment 
when,  after  discords  and  defection,  Swedish  gene- 
ralship again  had  the  governance  of  the  war.  It 
was  John  Baner  who  wrested  the  truncheon  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  from  the  hands  of  the  German 
princes. 

France  was  at  this  time  poor  in  commanders. 
The  rebellious  spirit  of  the  nobility,  fostered  by 
dissensions  in  the  royal  family  and  foreign  intrigues, 
had  spread  to  the  army.  The  French  soldiery 
shunned  a  war  in  Germany.  For  the  cavalry  ser- 
vice reliance  was  to  be  placed  only  on  foreigners  ; 
so  Richelieu  himself  complains  *.  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus had  left  behind  him  a  school  of  warriors,  the 
first  in  Europe.  "  All  these  are  generals,"  he  said 
to  Charnace',  after  crossing  to  Germany,  pointing  to 
seven  or  eiglit  Swedish  lords  who  surrounded  him. 
The  Swedes,  he  declared  on  another  occasion, 
would  not  want  for  leaders  after  him ;  he  should 
feel  it  grievous  for  him  to  be  their  king,  if  he  were 
not  convinced  that  they  would,  by  God's  help,  per- 
fect his  undertaking  ".  After  the  battle  of  Leipsic, 
the  general  staff  of  the  victor  was  filled  with  Ger- 
man princes.  Whatever  might  be  the  political 
objects  he  designed  with  them,  it  is  yet  clear  from 
some  remarkable  expressions  during  his  last  days, 
that  he  foresaw  their  defection.  We  have  an  ac- 
count that  on  the  eve  of  the  field  of  Lutzen,  in  an 
autograph  letter  to  the  chancellor,  he  stated  Baner 
as  the  most  capable  of  holding  the  command,  in 
case  he  himself  should  be  ovei'taken  by  the  hand 
of  death  '.  Baner  was  then  still  suffering  from  his 
wounds  received  at  Nui'emberg ;  the  death  of  the 
king  affected  him  so  deeply,  that  he  for  a  moment 
thought  of  abandoning  all.  Oxenstierna's  repre- 
sentations alone  withheld  him,  in  consequence  of 
which  he  first  assumed  the  command  on  the  Elbe, 
with  the  difficult  commission  of  acting  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  Saxons.  He  had  penetrated  with 
them  into  Bohemia,  and  stood  before  Prague,  when 
the  disaster  of  Nordlingen  compelled  him  to  retire 
with  his  troops,  Sweden's  last  army,  upon  German 
soil.  When  Oxenstierna  came  from  France,  he  met 
Baner  on  the  Saale.  The  troops  were  removed  to 
Magdeburg. 

rously  shed."    (Toutes  ces  choses  offens^rent  tellement  les 
Suedois,  &c.)     Richelieu,  Mem.  ix.  3. 

*  Seehisportrayalof  the  condition  of  the  army.  Memoires, 
viii.  422.     Compare  viii.  289. 

6  It  is  Richelieu  also  who  has  preserved  these  anecdotes. 
Mem.  viii.  255,  2,56.  Horn's  capture  at  Nordlingen,  he  says, 
was  held  by  the  Imperialists  to  be  more  important  than  the 
victory,     viii.  177. 

7  "  Short  Relation  anent  some  particular  passages,  that 
fell  out  shortly  after  king  Gustavus  Adolphus'  death."  Nor- 
din's  Documents  for  the  History  of  the  Swedish  Wars,  i.  23. 
The  story  is  traditional,  and  fails  in  making  Baner  assume 
the  command-in-chief  immediately,  but  appears  to  merit 
confidence  in  the  circumstances  above-mentioned. 


30fi 


The  Saxons  take  part 
against  Sweden. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Operations  upon 
the  Oder. 


[1  ess- 


Here  the  chancellor  soon  foiind  liunself  a,  pri- 
soner to  his  own  army.  It  was  here  that  Baner 
rescued  liini  from  the  hands  of  the  discontented 
officers,  who  were  treatini;  with  the  Saxons,  and 
hindered,  with  as  great  boldness  as  eloquence  and 
subtlety,  an  outbreak  of  mutiny.  The  chancellor 
quitted  Magdeburg  by  night,  and  reached,  in  dis- 
guise, the  sea-coast.  The  untrustworthy  I'egiments 
were  removed  into  separate  quarters  ;  the  loyal 
were  congregated  by  the  general  round  himself. 
These  were  little  nioi'e  than  six  thousand  men 
against  thirty  thousand  Saxons,  with  whom  the 
elector  soon  proceeded  to  open  hostilities  ^.  But 
he  in  vain  attempted  to  cut  off  Baner  from  the 
Elbe.  That  leader  crossed  the  river  victoriously. 
Lieutenant-general  lluthven  defeated  the  Saxons 
at  Domitz  '.  To  Baner's  support  came  Torstenson, 
who  brought  him  two  thousand  horse  and  six  regi- 
ments of  loot,  from  Prussiai.  It  was  now  the  turn 
of  Saxony.  Baner  again  passed  the  Elbe,  in  the 
middle  of  winter.  The  elector,  who  menaced  Pome- 
rjinia,  was  recalled  to  his  unfortunate  country,  now 
the  scene  of  a  war  of  vengeance,  which  the  irri- 
tated Swedes,  and  the  Protestant  refugees  in  their 
army,  whose  cause  the  elector  had  sacrificed, 
waged  with  extreme  exasperation  and  cruelty. 
Saxony  was  given  to  the  flames  '.  But  these  con- 
sumed also  the  resources  of  Baner's  own  army,  and 
when  the  elector  coalesced  with  the  Imperialists, 
under  Hatzfeld,  the  Swedish  general  was  con- 
strained to  draw  back  to  Werben,  whereupon 
Magdebm-g  was  lost 2.  Baner  compensated  this 
and  other  miscarriages  by  the  complete  victory 
over  the  combined  Saxon  and  Imperial  armies,  at 
Wittstock  ^,  on  the  24th  September,  l(i3C  ;  after 
which  Saxony  again  lay  open  to  the  conqueror. 
The  victory  of  Wittstock  effaced  the  defeat  of 
Nordlingen. 

Baner  took  Erfurt  and  Torgau,  beleaguered 
Leipsic,  but  was  consti'ained  to  raise  the  siege,  as 

8  Richelieu,  Mem.  viii.  3-19.  Baner's  army  consisted  in 
all  of  twenty-six  thousand  men;  "but  how  strong  soever 
they  found  tliemselves,  yet  no  one  had  a  mind  to  tight," 
says  Chemnitz,  ii.  775.  The  cavalry,  in  all  twelve  thousand 
men,  were  especially  untrustworthy.  Of  the  German  troops 
■who  remained  true,  most  appear  to  have  consisted  of  fugi- 
tives from  the  Austrian  hereditary  dominions,  whose  cause 
Saxony  had  sacrificed  in  the  peace  of  Prague.  Chemnitz, 
1.  c.  According  to  Le  Laboureur,  Histoire  du  Marechal  de 
Guebriant,  p.  71,  there  were  in  Baner's  army  not  more  than 
from  two  to  three  thousand  Swedes  and  Livonians. 

'  Oct.  22,  1635.  Of  six  to  seven  thousand  men,  of  whom 
this  corps  consisted,  two  thousand  were  killed,  and  three 
thousand  taken.  Authentic  Relation,  printed  in  1635,  in  the 
Palmskiild  Collections.  Lieutenant-general  Baudissin,  whom 
the  elector  by  his  so-called  blood-orders  of  Oct.  6,  1635,  had 
charged  to  drive  the  Swedes  out  of  Gernianj',  since  they 
■would  not  submit  to  the  peace  of  Prague,  was  himself  well- 
nigh  taken  prisoner.  He  had  left  the  Swedish  I'or  the 
Saxon  service. 

'  Baner's  manifesto  against  these  cruelties  is  indeed  ex- 
tant, but  was  first  emitted  at  Werben  on  the  24th  May,  1636. 
By  his  own  confession  they  had  risen  to  such  a  height, 
"  that  it  would  be  no  wonder  if  the  earth  should  gape,  and 
by  the  just  judgment  of  God  swallow  up  such  dishonourable 
malefactors."  But  the  Saxons  themselves  had  behaved  no 
better  in  the  land  of  their  ally,  the  elector  of  Brandenburg. 
Copy  of  a  letter  from  the  Mark-Brandenburg,  Nov.  Ifi,  1636, 
in  the  Palmskold  Collections. 

'  "  We  perceive  from  your  reports,  that  in  Germany  one 
fortress  after  another  is  given  up  most  unjustifiably  to  the 


all  the  imperial  armies  in  Germany  now  turned 
against  him.  Four  months  (from  February  to 
June,  1637,)  he  maintained  himself  in  his  fortified 
camp  at  Torgau,  against  an  enemy  far  superinr  in 
force,  spread  thereupon  a  report  that  he  meant  to 
relieve  Erfurt,  but  passed  the  Elbe  on  the  I9th 
June,  and  three  days  after  the  Oder,  intending  to 
cross  the  Wartha  at  Landsberg.  Here,  instead  of 
field-marshal  Herman  Wrangel,  to  whom  he  ex- 
pected now  to  give  the  meeting,  he  found  the 
whole  of  the  enemy's  strength  before  him.  Gallas, 
who  had  kept  him  invested  on  the  Elbe,  and  twelve 
liours  after  his  decampment  received  intelligence 
of  it,  passed  the  Oder  by  a  shorter  way  at  Kustrin, 
and  effected,  before  the  walls  of  Landsberg,  a  junc- 
tion with  the  imperialist  general  Maracini,  pre- 
viously detached  to  this  quarter.  In  this  situation, 
Baner  once  more  succeeded  in  escaping  from  the 
enemy,  who,  overreached  by  his  movements, 
hastened  to  bar  against  him  the  way  through  Po- 
land to  Pomerania,  while  Baner  suddenly  repressed 
the  Oder,  and  joined  Wrangel  at  Schwedf*.  This 
retreat,  exclaims  Richelieu,  on  which  Baner  had 
but  fourteen  thousand  men  to  set  against  sixty 
thousand,  whom  except  some  stragglers  and  sick 
he  saved,  with  his  baggage  and  cannon,  may  be 
placed  by  the  side  of  the  most  glorious  retreats  of 
which  history  makes  mention  ^. 

The  Swedes  were,  in  truth,  again  driven  to  the 
Baltic,  and  the  autumn  of  1037  brought  a  conflict 
for  Pomerania,  their  last  possession  in  Germany; 
Baner  maintained  himself  in  Hinder  Pomerania, 
while  all  Fore  Pomerania,  .Stralsund,  Greifswald,  and 
Ankiam  excepted,  became  the  prey  of  the  enemy  ; 
but  the  following  year  supplied  these  losses.  Gallas, 
in  1638,  led  the  relics  of  an  ai'my,  weakened  by  its 
excesses,  out  of  wasted  Pomerania,  first  towards 
the  Havel  and  Elbe,  and  ultimately  to  Silesia  and 
Bohemia  ;  while  Baner,  who  had  received  fresh 
troops  from  Sweden,  and  in  June  mustered  30,000 


enemy ;  we  therefore  desire  that  you  will  bring  such  com- 
mandants, especially  those  of  Magdeburg,  Havelberg,  Bran- 
denburg, W'erben,  to  a  court-martial."  The  ministry  to 
Baner,  Sept.  9,  1636.     Reg. 

3  "  The  enemy  hath  brought  from  thence  of  his  whole  in- 
fantry scarce  a  thousand  men,  mostly  Saxons  ;  but  the  Im- 
perialists were  on  all  hands  raptived  and  mined.  The 
cavalry  mostly  saved  themselves  by  flight  during  the  night." 
Relation,  Stockholm,  1636.  A  multitude  of  contemporary 
accounts  of  the  military  occurrences  of  1635  and  1636  are  in 
the  Palmskold  Collections,  T.  40.  Baner  and  Torstenson  re- 
ceived considerable  grants  in  fief,  both  at  home  and  in  Ger- 
many. The  ministry  write  to  Baner,  Dec.  3,  1636,  to  gratify 
deserving  officers  with  estates  which  might  be  won  from  the 
enemy,  as  also  to  distribute  among  them  gold  chains  and 
portraits  to  the  amount  of  3000  rix-dollars.     Reg. 

■•  Old  Herman  Wrangel,  who  did  not  agree  well  with 
Baner,  was  subsequently  recalled.  His  son  Chaijes  Gustavo 
Wrangel, afterwardsgeneral-in-chief,  remained  with  thearniy. 

^  Mem.  ix.  3S6,  "  Cette  action  fut  assez  plaisamment  re- 
presentee, selon  le  genie  de  ce  tenips-li,  dans  une  gravure  oft 
Ton  voyoit  les  generaux  Allemands  fort  occupes  a  tier  le 
haut  d'un  sac,  dans  lequel  I'armee  Suedoise  etoit  enfermee, 
tandis  que  Baner  avec  son  ep^e  lui  ouvroit  un  passage  par 
un  des  coins."  {Tjiis  action  was  represented  pleasantly 
enough  after  the  spirit  of  that  time  in  an  engraving,  where 
the  German  generals  were  seen  very  busy  tying  the  top  of 
a  sack,  in  which  the  Swedish  army  was  enclosed,  while 
Baner  with  his  sword  opened  a  passage  for  it  by  one  of  the 
corners.)  Bougeant,  Histoire  des  Guerres  et  Negociations 
qui  precederent  le  Traite  de  Westphalie,  p.  289. 


1G4J.] 


Invasions  of  Bolieniia 
and  Biivaiia. 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


Baner's  retreat  from 
Katisbon,  and  death. 


307 


men  at  Stettin,  pushed  forwards  in  his  track  ".  We 
find  him  in  the  spring  of  Ifi.SO  again  in  Saxony  ;  he 
destroys  again  an  ImpcriaHst  and  Saxon  army,  by 
the  victory  of  tlie  4tli  April,  at  Cliemnitz,  advances 
into  Bohemia,  takes  prisoners  Hofkirelien  and 
Montecuculi  at  Brandeis,  on  tlie  19th  May,  and  is 
before  the  gates  of  Prague  on  the  following  day.  His 
army  was  full  of  Bohemian  fugitives.  How  changed 
did  they  not  find  their  native  land  !  For  twenty 
years  not  a  Protestant  minister  or  church  had  been 
seen ;  a  people  once  froward,  but  now  spiritless, 
even  to  having  lost  hope.  The  Imperialists  and 
Swedes  vied  with  each  otlier  in  plundering.  But 
the  enemy  soon  gathered  strength  in  his  own 
country'.  Reinforcements  came  in  from  all  sides; 
one  under  Piccolomini,  from  the  Netherlands.  In 
Bauer's  rear.  Saxony  and  Brandenburg  were  again 
unquiet.  In  Lower  Saxony,  Luneburg,  newly  hos- 
tile, requested  a  suspicious  neutrality'.  The  heaviest 
blow  was  the  death  of  Bernard  of  Weimar,  wliich 
occurred  on  the  8th  July,  I63f).  Bauer,  who  had 
calculated  upon  meeting  this  great  general  on  the 
Danube,  was  now  himself  obliged  to  determine  for 
retreat.  But  this  was  not  accomplished  without 
great  loss. 

In  the  month  of  May,  1640,  wo  see  for  the  first 
time  a  French  and  Swedish  army  united  at  Erfurt. 
The  former  consisted  in  the  greatest  part  of  the  old 
army  of  Weimar,  which  France  had  succeeded  in 
gaining  *,  under  the  command  of  the  duke  of  Lon- 
gueville  and  Guebriant.  The  troops  of  Hesse  and 
Luneburg  also  adhered  to  Baner^.  But  the  incon- 
veniences of  a  divided  command  soon  showed  them- 
selves. Piccolomini  would  not  allow  himself  to  be 
enticed  out  of  his  fortified  camp  at  Saalfeld.  The 
allies  parted,  and  the  year  passed  away,  until  amidst 
the  snows  and  cold  of  December,  while  the  enemy 
was  lying  secure  in  his  winter-quarters,  we  see 
Baner  breaking  up  in  conjunction  with  Gue'briant. 
He  proceeded  through  Thuringia,  Franconia,  and 
the  Upper  Palatinate,  and  in  January,  1()4I,  ap- 
peared suddenly  befoi'e  Ratisbon,  where  the  new 
emperor  Ferdinand  III.  (his  father  had  died  the 
15th  February,  1C37)  was  holding  a  diet  with  the 
electors  and  deputies.     Already  had   Bauer  sent 

6  "  Gallas  drew  after  him  some  miserable  relics  of  his 
army.  The  Brandenburgers  and  Saxons  bad  been  much 
thinned,  while  the  Swedish  soldiers,  though  with  a  small 
stock  of  clothes,  had  noble  courage,  and  were  all  young, 
picked  men."  PufTendorf,  xi.  486.  Gallas  relinquished 
the  command,  which  Maracini  and  the  Saxon  Hofkirehen 
received. 

^  No  sovereign  house  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War  la- 
boured so  perseveringly  for  such  an  end  as  that  of  Luneburg. 
That  the  parts  should  think  of  themselves,  when  the  whole 
is  dissolved,  may  be  natural.  But  there  is  truth  in  the  ob- 
servation of  Baner  to  chancellor  Urebber,  wlio  visited  him 
as  the  envoy  of  Luneburg  after  the  victory  at  Chemnitz. 
"  By  the  like  miserable  considerations  was  Germany  brought 
into  its  present  necessity;  the  annals  of  neutrality  booted 
not."  Von  der  Decken,  1.  c.  iii.  184.  "The  counsels  of 
duke  George  of  Luneburg,"  writes  Oxenstierna  to  Baner, 
Jan.  9,  1639,  "are  sufficiently  known  to  me,  and  are  for 
nought  but  to  gain  time,  and  so  to  hold  witli  the  strongest." 
Reg. 

*  Oxenstierna  writes  to  Baner,  that  he  should  seek  to  en- 
force the  right  of  Sweden  to  the  army  of  Weimar,  which  had 
been  first  levied  on  Swedish  account. 

9  Oxenstierna  to  Salvius,  on  the  rupture  of  the  land- 
gravine, George  duke  of  Luneburg,  and  the  prince  of  Tran- 
sylvania Ragozi,   with  the  emperor,   March   1,   1639.     In 


his  cavalry  over  the  frozen  Danube,  and  begun  to 
cannonade  the  town,  when  the  ice  broke  up  from  a 
sudden  thaw.  The  enemy  was  reinforced,  the  at- 
tempt miscarried,  and  the  general  soon  found  him- 
self in  a  more  difficult  situation  than  ever.  The 
Swedish  troops  only  were  at  this  time  accustomed 
to  winter  campaigns.  Those  of  Weimar  turned 
round,  Gue'briant  deserted  Baner,  who  at  Cham 
was  well-nigh  surrounded  by  the  enemy.  The 
Bavarian  general  Mercy,  who  had  been  sent  in 
advance  with  a  numei'ous  cavalry,  fell  in  with  the 
Swedish  colonel  Eric  Slange.  The  latter  threw 
himself,  with  three  regiments,  into  the  small  town 
of  Newburgh,  and  defended  himself  so  heroically 
until  the  fourth  day,  when  he  was  compelled  to  lay 
down  his  arms,  that  Baner  had  time  to  escape  with 
the  rest  of  his  force.  Yet  in  the  defile  of  Pressnitz 
in  the  Bohemian  forest  he  was  only  saved  by  half 
an  hour's  start  from  being  cut  off  by  Piccolomini. 
The  Imperialists  pursued  him  eleven  days  without 
quitting  the  saddle.  He  came  to  Zwickau,  where 
Gue'briant  again  joined  him;  thence,  amidst  con- 
tinual fighting,  to  Halle,  Merseburg,  and  Halber- 
stadt.  This  retreat  Baner  made  in  a  dying  con- 
dition, being  at  last  carried  on  a  litter.  He  expired 
at  Halberstadt,  May  10,  1G41,  in  his  forty -fifth 
year.  In  the  victory  which  followed  at  Wolfenbuttel 
the  army  bore  the  body  of  their  general  with  them 
into  action  *.  Baner  made  himself  illustrious  by 
his  campaigns.  Wine  and  love  were  the  hero's 
foibles  2. 

One  remark  we  cannot  withhold.  If  we  consider 
the  issue  of  these  operations  undertaken  from  North 
Germany  against  Austria,  which  after  Bauer's  days 
were  more  than  once  repeated,  we  will  pause  ere 
with  the  crowd  we  blame  Gustavus  Adolphus,  be- 
cause after  the  victory  of  Leipsic  he  was  unwilling 
to  attack  the  hereditary  dominions  of  the  emperor, 
until  he  had  strengthened  his  unprotected  flank; 
and  we  perceive  likewise  that  the  sole  condition  of 
the  success  of  such  an  attack  was,  a  powerful  co- 
operation on  the  side  of  France.  This  co-operation 
was  never  given  in  a  decisive  mode.  The  interests 
of  Sweden  and  France  had  indeed  a  point  of  con- 
respect  to  the  junction  with  the  allies,  Oxenstierna  writes  to 
Baner,  July  8,  1640,  "  Trouble  yourself  not  with  the  humour's 
and  differences  of  the  generals ;  make  use  of  the  ditTerence 
which  is  betwixt  the  duke  of  Longueville  and  Hesse  together 
with  Luneburg,  to  hinder  the  French  general's  designs  for  a 
separation ;  promise  Klitzing  (now  general  of  the  Limeburg 
troops)  a  pension  of  2000  to  4000  rix-dollars;  were  duke 
George  (of  Luneburg)  also  gratified  with  a  yearly  pension, 
we  would  not  look  to  the  cost.  While  he  was  yet  no  sove- 
reign person,  he  had  abstracted  from  his  late  majesty  5000 
rix-dollars;  if  he  might  now  be  won  with  10,000!"     Reg. 

•  Histoire  du  Marechal  de  Guebriant,  p.  348.  Compare 
Beauregard's  character  of  Baner  in  this  work.  He  was 
French  agent  (spy,  Bougeant  says)  in  Baner's  army. 

2  Poison  was  at  first  suspected  to  be  tlie  cause  of  his  death- 
Salvius  writes  to  John  Oxenstierna,  Hambuig,  Dec.  V ,  1641. 
Nescio  an  sit  venenum.  Nam  statim  post  pocula  primes 
eosque  atrocissimos  sensit  dolores.  Accedunt  jam  interdum 
deliria, — et  in  spectrorum  erroribus  ac  somniis  ipse  quidem 
se  fatigat.  Vereor  ne,  punitis  aliis,  Deus  tandem  nos  ipse 
punire  decreverit,  ob  enormia  scelera  et  probra  plus  quam 
barbara,  quse  hoc  hello  impune  committantur,  John  Oxen- 
stierna replies,  Stralsund,  Dec.  31,  1641  :  From  poison  I 
judge,  nothing  is  to  be  looked  for;  but  excess  in  eating  and 
drinking,  as  Herr  Grubbe  states,  are  poison  enough  for  such 
as  are  subject  to  maladies  of  that  kind.  Fant,  Handlingar, 
iv.  94. 

X  2 


308 


Alliance  with  France 
renewed. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


OxeiisUerna's  home 
administration. 


[1033- 


tact  in  this  war,  but  no  inner  coherency.  For  this 
I'eason  the  ratification  of  the  renewed  Frencli  alli- 
ance met  with  so  long  a  postponement  at  Stock- 
holm s.  Oxenstierna  demanded  that  France  should 
openly  declare  war  against  the  emperor,  as  it  had 
ali-eady  done  in  1635  against  Spain  *.  The  decla- 
ration of  war  against  the  emperor  was  first  made 
in  1C38;  on  the  6th  March  of  the  same  year  the 
new  alliance  with  France  was  at  length  concluded; 
in  the  first  instance  for  three  years,  but  the  term 
was  afterwards  prolonged.  On  this  subject  Oxen- 
stierna writes  to  Salvius,  July  24,  1040  :  "  In  the 
alliance  it  is  settled,  that  we  should  penetrate 
through  Germany  into  the  imperial  hereditary  do- 
mains; ourselves  through  Saxony,  France  through 
Upper  Germany  from  the  Rhine.  That  never  was 
done  on  the  side  of  France ;  so  that  the  whole 
imperial  power  has  been  turned  against  us  ^." 

Since  the  summer  of  1636,  the  chancellor  had 
been  in  Sweden,  nor  did  he  ever  again  return  to 
Germany,  although  such  was  his  oi'iginal  purpose. 
Baner's  hands  were  left  free  in  the  war,  and  to  him 
was  likewise  connnitted  the  government  of  Pome- 
rania,  after  the  death  of  the  legate  Steno  Bielke  ^. 
"  No  other  than  general  instructions  can  be  given," 
writes  the  chancellor  to  the  general ;  "  the  state 
affairs  that  concern  this  kingdom  depend  on  the  war 
in  Germany,  and  its  good  or  bad  success  '."  On  the 
other  hand,  we  see  after  the  chancellor's  departure, 
the  so-called  councillors  of  war  appointed  to  the 
armies.  The  first  known  to  me,  who  was  installed 
under  this  title,  was  field-marshal  Kniphausen  in 
Westphalia  in  1635  *.  In  the  year  1637,  it  is  in- 
timated that  such  a  functionary  should  also  be  sent 
to  Baner  himself  ^  ;  and  in  1641,  the  secretary  of 
state,  Laurence  Grubbe,  was  actually  deputed  to 
him,  yet  with  a  suggestion,  "  to  accommodate  liim- 

5  ' '  We  have,  especially  after  the  peace  of  Prague,  tried  every 
way  for  peace,  and  even  let  slip  advantages,  in  order  to  pre- 
sent no  hindrance  to  any  treaty  of  peace.  But  the  enemy  was 
not  in  earnest,  wherefore  we  must  resolve  for  a  continuance 
of  the  French  alliance,  and  sive  up  all  particular  treaties  for 
a  universal  treaty,  with  France  and  all  our  confederates. 
The  king  of  Denmark  a  year  and  a  half  ago  offered  his  me- 
diation, but  hath  since  kept  silence,  till  he  saw  us  standing 
on  the  point  of  ratification  with  France,  when  he  again  re- 
newed it.  There  is,  as  you  yourself  providently  judge  in 
your  communications,  nothing  better  to  be  done,  than  to 
take  arms  in  hand  as  best  may  be."  Oxenstierna  to  Baner, 
March,  10,  1638.  Reg.  "In  Germany  theenemy  was  in  earnest 
with  none  of  the  treaties  of  peace;  he  sought  merely  to  mis- 
lead us  into  difficulties,  t\\l  some  casus  humanus  might  occur, 
and  thus  he,  after  the  house  of  Austria,  might  sooner  or  later 
attain  his  intention."  Memorial  to  Baner,  Dec.  8,  163S.  Reg, 
In  these  treaties  with  which  the  imperial  court  amused 
Sweden,  after  the  Swedish  arms  had  recovered  the  ascen- 
dancy, various  parties  allowed  themselves  to  be  employed  as 
mediators,  as  Adolphus  Frederic  duke  of  Mecklenburg, 
Francis  Albert  duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  'William  duke  of 
Weimar.  Respecting  these  Oxenstierna  writes  to  Baner, 
July  8,  1640  ;  "  Ye  do  well  to  answer  duke  William  of  Wei- 
mar courteously,  but  otherwise  to  give  no  great  heed  to  his 
proposals.  We  know  him  well ;  he  is  neither  a  trusty  friend 
nor  a  dangerous  foe,  and  enjoys  no  regard  from  the  enemy, 
by  whom  he  yet  may  be  used  for  frivolities  of  all  sorts."  Reg. 

■1  Richelieu's  compact  of  alliance  with  the  United  Nether- 
lands, included  likewise  a  treaty  for  the  partition  of  the  Spa- 
nish Netherlands,  Bougeant,  1.  c.  232. 

5  Instruction  for  Salvius  (who  in  Hamburg  conducted 
these  negotiation.s)  touching  the  renovation  of  the  French 
alliance.  Reg.  "  The  war  which  Sweden  is  waging  is  di- 
rected on  Germany,  and  the  house  of  Austria ;  France  regards 


self  to  the  field-marshal  as  he  best  could '."  These 
councillors  of  war,  or  of  assistance,  as  they  were 
also  styled,  had  properly  a  political,  administrative, 
and  economical  destination,  but  stood  in  immediate 
correspondence  with  the  government,  and  were  not 
without  military  influence. 

The  presence  of  the  chancellor,  from  his  energy 
and  activity,  makes  an  epoch  at  home  not  less  re- 
markable than  Baner's  generalship  in  Germany.  A 
commission  of  estates  met  him  at  Stockholm,  and 
received  his  account  of  the  war  and  the  treaties. 
Pre-existing  divisions  in  the  council  restrained  him 
from  submitting  any  new  propositions  to  the  com- 
mission. His  speech  in  the  senate  is  remarkable  : 
"He  for  his  part  dissuaded,  it  is  stated,  any 
communications  being  made  to  the  estates  before 
it  should  be  determined  in  the  senate  what  was 
reasonable  and  practicable;  since  to  ask  counsel  of 
those  who  understand  not  the  matter  is  fruitless 
and  unreliable  ;  first  must  we  have  it  concluded 
here,  and  so  see  to  it,  that  we  may  win  the  applause 
of  the  estates,  as  his  late  majesty  ever  did  2."  "We 
have  time  after  time  deliberated  upon  the  matters 
which  our  brother  reminds  us  to  be  needful  for  the 
war,"  interposed  Jacob  de  la  Gardie;  "if  we  should 
continue  the  war,  a  levy  must  at  length  be  set  on 
foot,  by  which  to  get  men;  we  have  taken  the  sub- 
ject into  consideration,  whether  the  estates  should 
not  be  convoked  at  a  future  day."  The  chancellor 
rejoined,  "that  a  hundred  levies  were  holden,  and 
no  diet  convened;  yet  he  held  it  not  unadvisable  to 
send  out  divers  persons  into  the  provinces  to  speak 
with  the  people,  and  at  the  same  time  to  issue  the 
warrant  of  levy."  The  chancellor  employed  a  new 
political  instrument  in  an  extraordinary  mode,  that 
kind  of  diet  of  official  persons,  or  yearly  convention 
of  the  principal  functionaries,  prescribed  by  the 

mostly  Spain,  Italy,  and  Flanders."  Ibid.  Further,  the  position 
of  the  two  crowns  in  reference  to  religion  was  unlike.  The 
ratification  of  the  alliance  of  Sweden  with  the  United  Ne- 
therlands, which  was  likewise  renewed,  took  place  July  3, 
1641.   Reg. 

s  "  Steno  Bielke  must  come  home  from  Pomerania.  You 
may  be  both  general  and  governor-general."  Oxenstierna  to 
Baner,  March  10,  1638.  Reg.  To  Steno  Bielke  the  chancellor 
writes  at  the  same  time,  "  to  send  over  another  thither  who 
might  conduct  the  civil  administration,  and  have  nothing 
to  do  with  military  affairs,  hath  difficulties  attendant."  Reg. 

7  To  J.  Baner,  Jan.  10,  1639.    Reg. 

8  Oxenstierna  to  Baner,  Stralsund,  Nov.  9,  1636.  Corre- 
spondence of  the  general-in-chief,  Charles  Gustave  Wrangel, 
in  the  library  of  Sko  Cloister.    Kniphausen  fell  January  1, 

1636,  at  Hasselune  in  Westphalia.  His  troops  avenged  his 
death  by  a  victory,  which  cost  the  enemy  1000  killed,  and  four 
pieces  of  cannon. 

'  "  We  are  minded  on  the  first  opportunity  to  send  a  Swe- 
dish commissioner  of  rank  to  the  army,  to  watch  over  the 
interests  of  the  country."     Oxenstierna  to  Baner,  June  4, 

1637.  Reg. 

1  Grubbe's  Instructions,  April  29,  1641.  Reg.  He  did  not 
arrive  before  Baner's  death.  Old  Herman  Wrangel  writes 
on  this  matter  to  his  son,  Charles  Gustave,  who,  after  Ba- 
ner's decease,  and  before  Torstenson's  arrival,  was  the  prin- 
cipal Swedish  general  in  the  army,  in  his  letters  the  dis- 
content of  the  military  with  these  civil  authorities  clearly 
breaks  out:  "  With  Grubbe  thou  must  manage  cautiously," 
he  writes,  "for  he  is  a  fox,  and,  as  I  know  well,  bears  no 
good  mind  to  thee."  Stockholm,  Aug.  10,  1641.  Correspond- 
ence of  Charles  Gustave  Wrapgel. 

2  Protocol  of  council,  July  15,  1636.  Adlersparre's  Collec- 
tions, iv.  98.  Quod  multi  faciunt,  multi  negligunt,  was  a 
proverb  of  the  chancellor. 


1645] 


New  levy. 
Inquiry  into  abuses. 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


New  division  and 
allocation  of  the  army. 


309 


Form  of  Government,  and  whereof  it  is  said,  tliat  in 
it  those  affairs  should  be  discussed  and  despatched 
which  do  not  require  a  general  diet.  In  October, 
163G,  the  members  of  the  council  and  the  colleges, 
with  several  of  the  baronage  and  nobility,  were 
convened  at  Stockholm.  The  chief  point  in  the 
propositions  was  the  necessity  of  a  new  levy,  which 
was  ordained  and  accomplished  without  further 
reference  to  the  estates.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
chancellor  would  lay  on  no  weight  of  new  taxes. 
To  make  the  burden  of  the  war  tolerable,  some 
abuses  must  be  removed,  he  said,  "since  the  peo- 
ple can  bear  no  more  ^."  And  here  all  his  pro- 
posals struck  at  the  nobility;  as,  restriction  of  the 
superfluous  manor-houses  of  the  nobility,  mider 
cover  of  whose  privileges  many  other  estates  were 
drawn ;  maintenance  and  enforcement  of  the  rights 
of  the  crown  in  respect  to  the  crown-tithes,  which 
had  furnished  constantly,  since  the  Reformation, 
an  important  aid,  but  now  were  dilapidated  by  per- 
sons of  rank  on  all  hands,  so  that  little  or  nothing 
came  in  * ;  suspension  for  four  years  more  of  the 
freedom  from  customs  enjoyed  by  the  nobility;  a  new 
muster  of  the  troopers  under  the  equestrian  tenure 
throughout  the  kingdom  ;  and  abolition  of  various 
abuses  in  militai-y  affairs.  All  this  the  chancellor 
was  unable  to  carry,  and  in  the  previous  dehbera- 
tions  of  the  council  he  replied  to  the  defenders  of  the 
extension  of  the  privileged  manors:  "This  ye  think 
to  be  freedom,  to  give  nothing  to  the  crown  5." 
From  the  congress  of  which  we  have  made  men- 
tion, several  councillors  of  state  absented  them- 
selves. In  consequence  thereof  the  following  reso- 
lution was  drawn  up,  manifestly  by  the  chancellor : 
When  upon  the  more  important  occasions,  tlie 
administration  convokes  the  councillors  of  state, 
these  are  boimd,  if  they  have  no  legal  excuse,  to 
attend;  the  absent  are  to  be  content  with  the  ordi- 
nance passed  by  those  present,  and  every  man  is 
equally  responsible  for  it,  in  case  he  cannot  prove 
that  what  has  been  determined  contravenes  God's 
and  Sweden's  law  ;  else  no  reclamations  avail,  and 
he  who  from  apprehension  or  other  unreasonable 
motives  holds  back,  shall  be  held  unworthy  to  fill 
the  office  of  councillor ''.  In  the  preamble  to  this 
ordiuance,  the  council  of  the  realm  is  spoken  of  as 
"representing  the  estates." 

The  chancellor  writes  to  Baner,  "  We  have  been 
obliged  to  resolve  for  a  levy.  It  would  have  been 
very  good  to  treat  thereupon  with  the  estates,  but 
forasmuch  as  not  long  ago  (namely  in  1635)  a  ge- 
neral diet  hath  had  place,  and  a  connnission  of 
the  principal  estates  was  besides  assembled  last 
summer,  we  would  not  vex  them  therewith.  So  it 
was  found  good  to  determine  the  matter  in  the 
council,  and  to  communicate  what  had  been  deter- 
mined to  the  colleges,  and  others  here  present  of 

3  Points  propounded,  Oct.  30,  1G36.    Reg. 

■»  See  further  on  tliis  point,  the  statute  of  the  Diet  of  1G38, 
in  Stiernman. 

*  Extract  from  the  protocol  of  council  for  1G36,  in  the 
Palmskijld  Collections,  t.  190,  p.  390. 

6  Resolution  of  the  administration  and  the  council,  how, 
during  the  term  of  the  guardians,  all  shall  be  set  for  delibe- 
ration and  discussion;  Dec.  14,  1636.   Reg. 

^■  Subsequently  we  find,  nevertheless,  that  great  frauds 
were  carried  on  in  this  department,  and  that,  as  the  chan- 
cellor, in  1641,  expressed  himself  in  tlie  council,  the  coun- 
cillors of  the  exchequer  were  at  the  bottom  of  them.  One  of 
these,  Jost  Hanson,  who  had  amassed  great  wealth,  and  was 


the  nobility,  and  then  to  recommend  the  whole 
business  to  the  prefects  and  the  bishops.  In  re- 
spect to  means  it  was  not  found  advisable  to  apply  to 
the  estates  for  new  subsidies.  We  must  look  to  regu- 
late and  improve  the  revenues  of  the  crown,  namely, 
so  that  the  realm's  debit  and  credit  may  be  exa- 
mined, and  unnecessary  expenses  be  cut  off';  abuses 
with  the  crown-tithes  and  free-manors  redressed; 
mines,  tolls,  and  commerce  be  cultivated.  Depu- 
ties are  now  chosen  to  supervise  the  chamber  of 
accounts.  Next  year,  under  the  treasurer  and  his 
council,  a  revision  of  the  receipts  of  taxes  in  the 
provinces  shall  be  taken  in  hand  '.  The  war-college 
shall  strike  off'  the  lists  inefficient  officers  ;  the 
mining  tracts  shall  be  explored  *."  In  short,  we 
see  a  comprehensive  inquiry  instituted  into  all 
branches  of  the  administration. 

The  distribution  of  the  army,  established  by 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  was  now  first  compared  with 
the  directions  enounced  in  the  form  of  government 
of  1G34,  and  regulated,  though  not  in  complete 
accordance  with  these.  The  ministry  and  the 
council,  it  is  declared  in  a  rescript  of  the  23d 
March,  1637,  liad  during  the  last  autumn  revised 
the  public  accounts,  as  also  the  state  of  the  ordinary 
militia,  into  which,  because  of  the  pressure  of  the 
times,  some  confusion  had  crept,  so  that  the  militia 
of  horse  and  foot  ran  to  a  larger  amount  than  the 
Form  of  Government  allowed  of,  or  the  realm  could 
bear.  The  officers  were  double  what  was  required, 
so  that  the  Germans  remained  and  others  were  ap- 
pointed for  the  Polish  war  9,  by  which  the  number 
had  mounted  too  high,  to  the  aggravation  of  the 
crown's  expenditure.  The  cavalry  in  Sweden  was 
now  fixed  at  four  complete  regiments,  those  of 
Upland,  West  Gothland,  Smaiand,  East  Gothland; 
the  quota  of  the  other  provinces  being  distributed 
among  these.  In  Finland  there  were  to  be  three 
complete  regiments  of  cavalry.  The  regiments  of 
foot  were  in  all  twenty-three,  fifteen  in  Sweden  and 
eight  in  Finland.  The  troops  abroad  were  to  be 
arranged  according  to  this  list  ;  and  in  case  of  any 
vacancies  occurring  among  the  officers,  their  places 
were  not  to  be  filled  up  until  this  plan  was  brought 
into  operation'.  Preparatory  measures  had  been 
already  taken  in  the  previous  year.  On  the  23d 
April,  1637,  the  ministry  write:  "  In  order  to  be 
quit  of  the  intolerable  burden  of  the  superflu- 
ous officers,  we  have  resolved  to  arrange  in  every 
province  a  division  of  the  soldiery  into  companies 
and  regiments,  both  of  horse  and  foot,  according  to 
the  Form  of  Government,  as  also  to  make  out  a  just 
ground-rent  book  for  all  the  granges  assigned  to 
the  support  of  the  soldiery,  as  well  officers  as  pri- 
vate troopers,  over  the  whole  kingdom  2."  Great 
abuses  still  remained  to  be  abohshed.  It  has 
been  made    to   appear  to  us,  say  the  ministry  in 

ennobled  in  the  year  just  named,  was  condemned  to  deatli  in 
1642  for  great  malversations,  liis  patent  of  nobility  being 
torn  up.  How  powerful  his  accomplices  were,  appears  from 
this,  that  they  induced  even  the  young  queen  to  beg  for  his 
life  ;  but  the  more  rigorous  disposition  of  the  chancellor  pre- 
vailed. Compare  the  letters  of  Bennet  Baaz,  in  Adlersparre's 
Collections,  iii.  226.  2S3. 

8  To  J.  Baner,  Dec   3,  1636.     Reg. 

9  Namely,  the  expedition  to  Prussia,  under  Jacob  de  la 
Gardie,  before  the  renewal  of  the  Polisli  truce. 

1  Memorial  for  Grubbe  to  Herman  Wrangel,  March  23, 
1637.    Reg. 

2  The  ministry  to  the  chancellor,  April  27,  1636.     Reg. 


310 


Reforms   in    various 
departments  of  tlie 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


public  service.   Torsteiison 
general-in-cluef. 


[163 


1C40,  that  a  number  of  oui*  officers,  especially  the 
colonels  of  cavalry,  have  made  it  a  law,  that  their 
subordinate  troopers  must  give  them  yearly  a  cer- 
tain contribution  in  money,  oxen,  or  other  chattels, 
which  they  exact  no  otherwise  than  if  it  were  an 
obligation  ;  as  also,  that  the  colonels  of  infantry 
employ  their  soldiers  in  carrying  wood,  shooting 
wild  animals,  and  as  day-labourei-s,  besides  what 
they  must  else  contribute  to  them.  Such  dealing  is 
rigorously  forbidden'*.  The  manufacture  of  arms 
and  military  stores  was  by  this  time  flourishing 
in  Sweden.  "  Artillery,  arms,  swords,  powder,  and 
balls,  with  all  other  nmnitions,  are  now  fabricated 
ia  the  inland  to  the  utmost  abundance,"  writes  Ox- 
enstierna  to  Baner  ;  "  the  fleet  is  also  well-equipped, 
as  well  in  great  as  small  vessels,  with  guns,  stores 
and  men*." 

Many  important  measures  of  internal  adminis- 
tration were  among  the  fruits  of  the  activity  of  the 
government.  The  mine-office  received  a  collegial 
form  and  instructions  in  1037^.  The  first  ordi- 
nance respecting  the  Swedish  post  was  issued  ^,  as 
well  as  a  new  ordinance  of  customs ''.  The  ordi- 
nance for  the  erection  of  houses  of  entertainment 
(at  the  post  stations)  was  revived.  The  changes 
effected  by  count  Peter  Erahe  from  1G37  to  1640,  and 
afterwards  from  1G48  to  1054,  when  governor-gene- 
ral in  Finland,  where  his  name  lives  blessedly  in 
the  popular  memory,  would  merit  a  separate  expo- 
sition, did  such  not  lie  beyond  the  limits  of  this 
history. 

But  for  the  maintenance  of  the  army,  neither 
the  domestic  resoui-ces  of  the  kingdom  nor  French 
subsidies  were  adequate,  and  Oxenstierna  was 
obliged  to  refer  Baner  to  the  necessity  of  support- 
ing the  war  by  the  war.  "  Considering  that  this 
war,"  he  writes, "  is  disproportionate  to  our  strength, 
we  see  not  how  we  can  so  speedily  remodel  our  ex- 
penditure abroad  conformably  to  it,  but  believe 
that  you  too  are  of  the  same  opinion  with  us,  that 
the  larger  and  stronger  the  armies  we  could  levy, 

s  The  ministry  to  all  colonels  of  cavalry,  April  21,  1C40  ; 
also  to  the  colonels  of  infantry  on  the  same  day.    lleg. 

1  April  30,  1G41. 

5  In  this  year  also  the  ordinance  for  smitheries  was  issued, 
Feb.  14.  In  a  letter  of  February  8,  it  is  stated  that,  tliouj^h 
king  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  ordered  that  no  pig-iron  (tack- 
jern)  should  be  exported  before  it  was  hammered  into  bar- 
iron,  for  which  end  the  king  had  privileged  several  harbours, 
yet  this  had  had  no  direct  effect,  from  the  want  of  expert 
smiths. 

•>  Ordinance  respecting  post-messengers,  Feb.  20,  1636. 
The  letters  were  carried  from  station  to  station  by  runners. 
In  sec.  6,  post-boys  are  enjoined  "  every  where  to  use  bye- 
paths  as  much  as  possible,  and  not  to  run  on  the  winding 
liighways." 

7  in  1637,  several  times  modified  in  subsequent  years.  In 
older  times  the  custcnns-dues  were  kept  secret,  and  the  mer- 
chant treated  by  surprise,  as  an  enemy.  "Tlie  toll-tax  was 
formerly  held  for  a  secret,"  it  was  observed  in  the  council 
in  16G2  ;  "this  secrecy  has  caused  much  detriment  on  the  Li- 
vonian  side,  since  many  deemed  themselves  loaded  with  a 
higher  duly  than  they  really  were,  and  trade  was  thereby 
diverted  from  Swedish  ports.  Jiut  since  attention  has  been 
given  to  promote  commerce  in  the  Ualtic,  to  every  merchant 
assurance  has  been  condescended,  by  which  he  may  guide 
himself.'    Pahn.sk.  MSS.  n.  78. 

"  To  J.  Baner,  March  10,  163S.    Reg. 

9  To  the  same,  June  4,  1G39.  Reg.  Men  were  again  levied 
in  England  and  Scotland.  March  27,  1637,  the  administra- 
tion write  to  the  king  of  Denmark  regarding  the  passage  of 
Eiiglish  and  Scottish  troops  through  the  Sound.    August  5 


the  better  hope  might  we  cherish  of  finding  means. 
We  comprehend  not  how  we  at  home  here  may 
keep  count  with  the  purse,  and  direct  all  things  or- 
derly. Yet  will  we  do  what  stands  with  our  ability  *." 
After  a  new  levy  voted  at  the  general  diet  of 
l(i38,  the  ministry  write  to  the  general,  "  Among 
the  men  whom  we  have  forwarded  to  you,  we  know 
well  that  a  number  of  the  privates  are  still  of  boy- 
ish years,  and  the  officers  not  the  best.  The  conti- 
nual levies  cause  a  scarcity  of  adult  people  **."  Not- 
withstanding the  repeated  levies  and  imposts,  to 
which  yet  other  calamities  were  added  (in  the  years 
1G3!)  and  1640  the  plague  raged  in  and  around  the 
capital),  we  hear  of  no  discontent  at  the  fretjuency 
of  diets'  expressed  before  1642,  when  the  yeomanry 
loudly  complained  that  the  ministry  alienated  by 
sale  so  many  of  the  crown  estates.  The  high 
chancellor  for  this  sharply  rebuked  the  deputies  of 
the  order  in  the  council-chamber  ;  the  peasants 
again,  in  the  midst  of  an  oration  of  the  chancellor 
in  the  diet-house,  ejected  a  pretended  colleague, 
who,  not  being  a  member  of  the  diet,  had  insi- 
nuated himself  among  them,  and  held  this  language 
— that  they  complained  much  and  immodestly,  and 
yet  were  well  able  to  perlorm  what  the  authorities 
requested  2.  The  lustre  of  Torstenson's  victories 
diverted  attention  from  domestic  grievances. 

This  fellow-warrior  of  Baner — his  equal  in  genius, 
his  superior  in  persevering  energy,  mastering  by 
his  greatness  of  soul  a  body  enfeebled  by  captivity 
and  disease,  beneath  Sweden's  throne  the  greatest 
of  Swedish  commanders — had  been  compelled  by 
access  of  distemper  to  solicit  furlough,  which  he  at 
length  received  in  the  spring  of  1641  ^.  The  govern- 
ment now  committed  to  him  the  chief  command  in 
Germany,  and  he  was  obliged  to  accept  it.  To  his  re- 
monstrances the  chancellor  replied,  "that,  if  the 
general's  health  allowed  of  it,  there  was  no  doubt 
of  his  capacity;  he  remembered  very  well  the  judg- 
ment of  the  late  king  before  the  general  was  taken 
prisoner  at  iSuremberg,  that  his  majesty  could  well 

of  that  year,  Oxenstierna  writes  to  Salvius,  "  The  Scottish 
troops  have  arrived,  and  shall  debark  in  the  Elbe  and  Weser. 
Passage  must  be  requested  for  them  from  the  Danish  king 
and  the  bishop  of  Bremen.  Arms  and  money  have  been 
sent,  for  account  of  the  troops,  to  Wismar."   Reg. 

1  General  diets  were  held  during  the  administration  of  the 
guardians  in  the  years  1634,  1635,  1638,  1640,  1643,  and 
1644,  when  the  queen  assumed  the  government;  besides 
commissions  of  the  diets  in  163G,  163'J  (composed  only  of  the 
council  of  state,  the  prefects,  bishops,  and  some  of  the 
clergy),  and  1641,  constituted  nearly  as  the  preceding  one, 
but  witli  deputies  from  the  colleges  and  some  towns  sum- 
mojied.  The  statute  of  the  diet  of  1639,  held  at  Westeras, 
drawn  up  by  the  hand  of  the  chancellor,  is  preserved  in  the 
public  registry  for  this  year,  and  touches,  among  other  points, 
on  the  troubles  which  had  broken  out  at  some  spots,  on  ac- 
count of  the  little  customs.  It  is  not  contained  in  Stiern- 
man's  Collection. 

2  This  happened  when  the  chancellor  administered  the 
oath  to  the  high  steward  and  four  new  councillors  of  state. 
Letter  from  Rennet  Raaz  to  the  palsgrave  John  Casimir. 
Adlersparre's  Collections,  ii.  259.  272.  The  peasants  refused 
also  the  so-called  rye-aid  demanded  by  the  government, 
which  was  granted  however  at  the  diet  of  1644.  The  years 
1G41,  1642,  1643,  gave  but  scanty  liarvests. 

3  "  Ye  request  furlough  by  reason  of  illness  ;  but  Baner  is 
also  ailing,  and  we  have  no  one  who  could  supply  him; 
stand  out  yet  some  time  for  love  of  your  fatherland  !  "  The 
administration  to  Torstenson,  July  7,  1640.  But  on  the  8th 
May,  1641,  the  chancellor  writes  to  Baner,  "We  have  been 
obliged  to  allow  Torstenson,  for  ill-health,  to  come  home." 


1G45.] 


Military  discontents  after 
Baner's  death. 


CHRISTINA.     THE  REGENCY. 


Dangerous  jealousies  among 
tlie  generals. 


311 


venture  to  entrust  him  with  an  army ;  now  the 
general  had  since  been  constantly  there,  was  ac- 
customed to  this  war,  and  beloved  in  the  army  *." 
Shortly  before,  the  administration  write  to  the 
general  of  artillery,  John  Lilyehoek,  then  governor 
of  Hinder  Pomerania:  "So  soon  as  we  have  named 
a  chief  general,  you  shall  become  with  him  what 
Tin'stenson  was  with  Baner,  for  your  known  as- 
siduity, skill,  and  trueness  ^."  From  Charles  Gus- 
tavo Wrangel's  correspondence,  it  is  plain  that  he 
believed  liimself  passed  over  by  this  advancement 
of  Lilyehoek  to  the  lieutenant-generalcy  ;  yet  he 
was  now  but  twenty-eight  years  old''!  Lilyehoek 
afterwards  fell  in  the  bloom  of  life  at  Leipsic,  as 
Nicholas  Brahe  '  liad  found  an  early  death  at  Lut- 
zen ;  he,  too,  in  the  judgment  of  Gustavus  Adolpluis, 
gave  promise  of  becoming  a  great  commander. 
What  a  school  of  heroes  did  not  this  monarch 
form  ! 

After  the  death  of  Baner  great  disorders  arose 
in  the  army.  No  one,  since  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
had  had  it  so  fully  under  his  sway.  Field-marshal 
Torstenson  was  absent,  and  no  one  remained  whose 
authority  could  be  once  compared  witli  his,  even 
remotely.  The  three  major-generals,  Adam  Pful, 
Charles  Gustave  Wrangej,  and  Arvid  Witten- 
bei'g,  assnraed  indeed  the  command,  and  in  con- 
junction with  Gu^briant  even  routed  the  enemy 
again  at  Wolfenbuttel  ;  but  the  conditions  which 
the  colonels  stipulated  for  their  obedience  showed 
that  it  would  be  of  no  long  duration.  They  sent 
two  delegates  to  Sweden  to  submit  their  demands 
to  the  government.  Twenty-three  colonels  sub- 
scribed an  agreement  to  acknowledge  no  new  cmn- 
mander  before  these  should  be  conceded.  The 
same  combination  npon  which  they  acted  in  tlie 
militai'y  concerns  they  extended  also  to  those  of 
politics  *.  They  supported  the  demands  for  the 
delivery  of  various  strong  places,  preferred  by  the 
house  of  Brunswick-Luneburg,  which  even  after 
the  death  of  duke  George  followed  the  same  am- 
biguous policy,  and  now  again  approximated  to  the 

■!  Protocol  of  the  senate  for  1641,  in  Adlersparre's  Col- 
lections, ii.  21S. 

5  To  John  Lilyehoek,  May  24,  1(141.     Re^. 

s  Here  we  may  extract  some  passages  from  the  letters  of 
the  old  field-marshal  Herman  Wrangel  to  his  son  :  "  Our 
new  field-marshal  (Torstenson)  hath  gout,  and  getteth  not  up 
yet  in  fourteen  days.  Lilyehoek.  is  to  be  made  lieutenant- 
general,  in  order  to  be  Torstenson's  successor  ;  for  Torsten- 
son cannot  last  long.  I  have  indeed  represented  that  you 
have  been  nine  years  with  the  army,  and  have  worked  suffi- 
ciently for  that  no  other  should  be  preferred  above  you  ;  but 
I  received  for  answer  that  you  were  still  young  enough  to 
wait.  If  Lilyehoek  become  field-marshal  after  Torstenson, 
you  appear  destined  to  take  his  (Lilyehcek's)  place.  There- 
fore quit  not  the  army,  so  long  as  fortune  remains  with  our 
arms  ;  your  actions  will  bring  you  forward.  I  indeed  expect 
that  Stalhandske  will  be  ordnance-master  in  Lilyehcek's 
place,  because  he  is  the  oldest  major-general,  and  besides 
commands  as  general  in  Silesia.  But  this  steel-glove  is  an 
old  worn-out  carle,  and  a  swiller  withall."  Stockholm,  Aug. 
10,  1641.  This  promotion  did  not  take  place ;  Stalhandske 
was  made  general  of  the  cavalry.  Aug.  17,  1641,  Herman 
Wrangel  writes  again  to  his  son  :  "  Torstenson  is  better,  and 
goes  shortly  to  the  army  with  500,000  rix-doUars,  of  which 
you  get  your  part,"— and  adds  the  following  fatherly  ex- 
hortation, "Mind  that  ye  lay  hands  upon  somewhat,  as  the 
rest  do  ;  he  that  takes  it  has  it,"  Correspondence  of  Charles 
Gustave  Wrangel,  in  the  Library  of  Sko  Cloister. 

7  "Him  also  king  Gustavus  at  Nurejnberg  had  judged 
capable  of  commanding  the  army."    Puffendorf,  xiii.  29. 


emperor,  at  the  very  time  when  it  was  negotiating 
an  alliance  with  Sweden.  Agents  of  Luneburg 
and  Denmark  fanned  the  tlame  of  discontent, 
which  was  heightened  by  real  distress.  Troopers 
and  soldiers  bartered  their  horses  and  accoutre- 
ments for  provisions,  and  clamoured,  on  occasion 
of  Grubbe"s  arrival,  that  councillors  of  war,  whom 
they  did  not  need,  were  sent  to  them,  but  no  money 
and  no  field-marshal.  The  officers  said  publicly, 
that  they  would  no  longer  obey  a  Swedish  general, 
s])oke  of  peace,  and  entered  into  secret  connexions 
with  the  enemy.  We  are  informed  from  a  safe 
hand,  the  ministry  state  in  their  instructions 
for  Torstenson,  that  our  pretended  friends  are 
busying  themselves  with  dangerous  practices  in  the 
main  army ;  if  the  field-marshal  could  not  gain  the 
mastery  of  the  troops,  his  chief  aim  must  be  di- 
rected to  secure  the  places  on  the  sea-coast,  to 
draw  around  hiin  all  of  the  army  that  would  pre- 
serve their  honour,  Swedes,  Livonians,  and  others, 
to  unite  with  Stalhandske,  and  make  some  firm 
stand  on  the  Elbe  or  Oder  ;  he  should  at  the  same 
time  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  Denmark,  which  had 
a  liand  in  misleading  the  army  '. 

Affairs  did  not  proceed  to  these  extremities, 
after  Salvius  had  supplied  the  first  needfulness  by 
an  advance  from  the  French  subsidies,  and  the 
colonels  returnins  from  Stoekliolm  brought  with 
them  new  assurances  and  promises.  Yet  the  state 
of  things,  after  a  summer  spent  amidst  dissension 
and  want,  was  still  very  critical  at  the  arrival  of 
Torstenson 2,  which  was  delayed  by  illness  until  late 
in  the  autumn.  He  brought  with  him  from  Sweden 
fresh  troops^  and  money,  though  not  sufficient  for 
the  necessities  of  the  army.  Relations  with  the 
dukes  of  Luneburg,  especially  through  the  party 
they  had  created  in  the  army,  became  more  and 
more  entangled.  Jealousy  and  discontent  divided 
the  commanders.  The  oldest  major-general,  Pful, 
took  his  departure,  out  of  disgust  at  the  promotion 
of  Lilyehoek.  Wx'angel  was  in  ill-humour,  and  ab- 
sent for  some  time^;  Wittenberg,  through  fracture 

8  "  The  whole  body  of  the  colonels  and  officers  of  our 
army  have  petitioned  for  assistance  to  the  house  of  Lune- 
burg, and  the  transference  of  several  places."  The  adminis- 
tration to  major-generals  Pful,  Wrangel,  and  Wittenberg, 
July  1,  1641.  Ueg.  _ George,  duke  of  Luneburg,  had  died 
on  the  2d  of  April  of  that  year. 

9  "  One  said  in  my  presence,  that  tliey  wo'.ild  hear  of  no 
more  Swedish  generals."  Charles  Gustave  Wrangel  to  his 
father,  Sestedt  on  the  Leine,  Sept.  13,  1041.  Correspondence. 

1  By-instruction  for  Torstenson,  Aug.  .SI,  1641.     Reg. 

2  He  came  to  the  army,  then  encamped  round  Winsen  on 
the  Alter,  in  Westphalia,  Nov.  15,  1041. 

^  Four  companies  of  East-Goths,  four  of  West-Goths,  five 
of  Smalanders,  four  of  Uplanders,  four  of  Westmanlanders, 
four  from  East-Bothnia,  three  of  Snialand  horse,  besides 
some  Finnish  cavalry.  Instruction  for  the  admiral  Erie 
Ryning  (who  brought  over  the  recruits),  and  letier  to  the 
governors  of  Pomerania,  July  3,  1641.     Reg. 

•»  "  I  perceive  from  all,  that  they  are  here  little  favourable 
to  me:  and  mark  also,  that  how  zealously  and  truly  soever 
I  do  my  duty,  yet  they  make  as  if  they  knew  it  not ;  and 
daily  experience  shows  that  their  aflfection  to  one  and  another 
much  exceeds  what  they  bear  to  me.  Of  my  advancement 
to  be  general  of  the  infantry  no  man  has  spoken  aught ;  but 
Mortaigne  (although  in  the  life-time  of  field-m.nrshal  Baner, 
and  even  afterwards,  I  was  thought  worthy  to  command)  is 
still  associated  with  me  as  a  general  of  infantry."  He  ex- 
presses a  wish  to  quit  the  army.  C.  G.  Wrangel  to  his 
father,  Saltzwedel,  Feb.  22,  1642.  Correspondence  in  the 
Library  of  Sko  Cloister.     Wrangel  was  afterwards,  in  the 


3)2 


Invasion  of  the  emperor's 
hereditary  dominions. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Advance  to  Vienna,  and 
successful  retreat. 


[1633— 


of  a  leg,  at  the  moment  unfit  for  service.  Gue'briant, 
with  the  Frencli  trooj)S,  formerly  of  Weimar,  parted 
from  the  Swedes  and  moved  to  the  Rhine.  Tors- 
tenson  himself,  after  his  arrival  in  the  army,  con- 
tinued so  ill,  that  a  report  was  spread  of  his  death, 
aud  at  the  decampment  before  the  occupation  of 
the  passes  of  the  Elbe,  in  the  beginning  of  1G42, 
being  crippled  in  hand  and  foot,  he  was  obliged  to 
be  carried  in  a  litter  ^.  At  Saltzwedel  he  caused  a 
court-martial  to  be  held  upon  colonel  Seckendorf, 
who,  being  detected  in  carrying  on  a  secret  inter- 
course with  the  enemy,  was  condemned  to  death®. 
The  enemy,  after  the  abandonment  of  his  design 
upon  impoverished  Mecklenburg,  at  length  fell 
back  upon  Saxony,  where  the  Bavarians  sepa- 
rated from  the  Imperialists  ;  Torstenson,  secured 
on  the  side  of  Brandenburg  by  the  treaty  of  armis- 
tice with  the  new  elector,  resolved  to  repair  to 
Silesia,  where  Francis  Albert,  duke  of  Lauenburg, 
now  imperial  field-marshal,  was  far  superior  to 
Stalhandske.  While  Torstenson  was  collecting  jwo- 
visions  on  the  way  to  Westphalia,  he  took  the  oppo- 
site direction,  and  crossed  the  Elbe  on  the  2Cth  and 


spring  of  this  year,  sent  home,  to  bring  over  new  reinforce- 
ments from  Sweden.  Notwithstanding  his  reference  to  a 
good  understanding  with  Baner,  tliere  yet  appear  in  this 
correspondence  some  sharp  letters  from  Baner  to  Wrangel, 
in  regard  to  errors  committed  in  the  heat  of  youth.  Wrangel 
then  solicited  Torstenson's  intercession,  and  the  latter  pro- 
mised "to  excuse  him  to  the  field-marshal  the  best  he 
could," — by  letter  from  Alt-Bunzlau,  June  8,  1040.  Mor- 
taigne  was  one  of  the  two  colonels  deputed  from  the  army 
to  Stockholm,  and  afterwards,  by  the  confidence  reposed  in 
him,  contributed  much  to  the  appeasing  of  the  troubles. 

5  Putiendorf,  xiv.  §  2.  In  Torstenson's  letters,  many  of 
which  are  extant  in  the  correspondence  of  C.  G.  Wrangel,  it 
often  appears  that  he  was  unable  to  subscribe  them,  and 
that  his  secretary  wrote  his  name. 

6  "  He  was  one  of  those  implicated  in  that  business  which 
was  on  foot  while  we  lay  before  Wolfenbuttel,"  writes  C.  G. 
Wrangel  to  his  fatlier,  Osterburg,  Feb.  5,  1042.  "  While 
Torstenson  now  made  such  an  example,  thereby  strength- 
ening his  authority  not  a  little,  he  resolved  not  to  make  in- 
quisition against  those  who  were  privy  to  the  matter,  but  to 
leave  them  time  for  amendment.  Furthermore,  he  provided 
also  for  his  wife  and  bereaved  children  at  Erfurt,  which 
most  of  all  went  to  Seckendorrs  heart  at  his  death."  Puffen- 
dorf,  XIV.  §  3. 

7  "  When  he  died  of  his  wounds,  Arnheim's  designs  were 
made  void."  Puffendorf,  xiv.  §  15.  Arnheim,  who  had 
exchanged  the  imperial  for  the  Saxon  service,  but  quitted 
the  latter  after  the  peace  of  Prague,  was  surprised  by  a  party 
of  Swedes  on  his  estate  of  Boitzenburg,  in  Ukermaik, 
March  7,  1637,  and  sent  prisoner  to  Sweden.  This  act  of 
violence  ensued  upon  the  order  of  the  high-chancellor,  to 
take  or  slay  him.  Letters  upon  the  subject  to  Salvlus  and 
the  legate,  Steno  Bielke,  are  to  be  found  in  the  registry  for 
1637,  of  the  7th  and  Hth  January.  In  these,  mention  is 
made  "of  the  wicked  plots  of  the  elector  of  Saxony  to  the 
ruin  of  Sweden  abroad,  at  the  instigation  of  Arnheim."  Sal- 
vius  and  Bielke  were  therefore  to  endeavour,  unobserved, 
through  the  commandant  in  Wismar,  or  any  other  trusty 
officer,"  to  surprise  or  make  away  with  the  said  Arnheim,  in 
order  at  once  to  close  his  eyes;  him,  who  performs  that  well, 
we  will  remember  with  a  considerable  reward."  Arnheim, 
who  was  kept  some  time  in  the  castle  of  Orebro,  escaped 
from  his  arrest  in  Stockholm  in  the  autumn  of  1038,  and  now 
offered  to  raise  for  the  emperor  an  army  of  his  own  against 
the  Swedes.  Having  been  nominated  generalissimo  of  the 
emperor  and  the  elector  of  Saxony  in  Silesia,  he  died  April 
18,  16-11,  and  the  duke  of  Lauenburg,  who  commanded  un- 
der him,  then  obtained  the  chief  generalship. 

"  An  extract  from  a  letter  of  Torstenson  to  C.  G.  Wrangel 


27th  March,  at  Werben.  He  marched  through 
Lusatia,  joined  Stalhandske  at  Sorau  (by  which  his 
force  was  increased  to  20,000  men),  took  Glogau  on 
the  24th  April  by  storm,  made  himself  master  of 
several  places  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  threat- 
ened Schweidnitz.  He  anticipated  the  duke  of 
Lauenburg,  who  was  hastening  to  the  defence  of  that 
fortress,  beat  him,  and  took  him  prisoner ',  after 
which  Schweidnitz,  on  the  24th  May,  surrendered. 
Thereupon  he  pursued  the  Imperialists  into  Mo- 
ravia, put  to  flight  the  provincial  estates  assembled 
in  Olmutz,  took  that  town  on  the  6th  July,  and 
allowed  colonel  Hellmuth  Wrangel  to  stretch  his 
excursions  to  witliin  six  miles  of  Vienna.  It  was 
now  time  to  think  of  a  retreat.  He  left  a  strong 
garrison  in  Olmutz,  retraced  his  steps  to  Silesia, 
where  Lilyehoek  had  meanwhile  taken  Neisse,  and 
joined  the  remainder  of  the  army  at  the  fortress 
of  Kosel,  which,  as  also  Oppeln  immediately  there- 
after, was  won  by  the  storming  hand.  He  next  laid 
siege  to  Brieg  so  vigorously,  that  he  hoped,  within 
a  few  days,  to  be  master  of  the  fortress '  ;  but  now 


may  be  added  to  our  narrative,  framed  after  Puffendorf,  of 
these  military  occurrences.  The  letter  is  written  in  Ger- 
man :  "  After  the  rencounter  that  lately  chanced  at  Schweid- 
nitz, the  enemy  with  his  remaining  troops  broke  up  from  his 
camp  at  Breslau,  and  proceeded  to  Brieg  I  directed  my 
march  to  Neisse,  and  arrived  there  on  the  24th  May,  with  in- 
tent to  make  trial  of  my  fortune  as  well  further  on  the  enemy 
as  on  the  town  of  Neisse ;  to  which  end  I  on  the  27th  moved 
off  from  Neisse  with  the  mostof  tlie  cavalry,  fifteen  hundred 
foot,  and  some  light  guns,  leaving  there  general  Lilyehtek 
with  the  infantry  and  heavy  artillery  to  make  a  real  attack 
on  the  place,  and  so  with  the  people  I  kept  about  me  took 
my  way  towards  Olmutz.  As  now  no  more  of  the  enemy 
were  fallen  in  with  than  one  regiment  of  foot,  which  was 
destroyed  on  the2&th  at  Sternberg  by  Colonel  Hellm. Wrangel, 
and  they  having  turned  to  the  left  hand  toward  Weisskirch, 
Meseritz,  and  the  Wallachian  mountains,  could  not  there  be 
conveniently  attacked,  I  marched  straight  to  Olmutz,  the 
chief  town  of  Moravia,  and  resolved  the  foUowmg  day  to 
attack  it  in  earnest.  The  commandant  Miniati,  as  general 
commissary  of  the  margraviate  of  Moravia,  who  lay  therein 
with  eight  hundred  newly-levied  German  and  Polish  soldiers, 
defended  himself  with  the  burgesses  valiantly,  but  never- 
theless was  compelled  to  the  accoid  after  a  four  days'  siege, 
and  so  marched  out  on  the  5th  of  this  month  with  the  garri- 
son. The  same  day  Prossnitz  and  Littau  also  capitulated  at 
discretion,  as  likewise  on  the  8th  Neustadt  of  Moravia,  a 
place  of  considerable  strength,  to  major-general  Konigsmark. 
Having  now  received  intelligence  that  Neisse  had  surren- 
dered by  accord  on  the  5th,  I  broke  up  the  7th  from  Olmutz, 
in  order,  in  the  then  condition  of  the  enemy,  to  make  myself 
master  of  the  other  important  places  in  Silesia,  fell  back 
again  and  made  a  junction  with  the  bulk  of  the  army  at 
Cosel,  which  town  the  following  day,  after  a  breach  had  been 
opened,  was  taken  by  storm,  the  castle  being  surrendered  to 
grace  or  ungrace.  I  broke  up  on  the  12th,  and  came  to  Op- 
peln. The  commandant,  lieutenant-colonel  of  count  Gallas' 
regiment,  when  a  breach  was  opened,  quitted  the  town  and 
retired  to  the  castle,  which  because  of  its  great  strength  he 
held  for  four  days;  but  at  length,  on  the  17th,  was  obliged  to 
surrender  to  grace  or  ungrace.  Yesterday  I  broke  up  from 
thence,  and  to-day  am  here  before  the  town  of  Brieg,  wherein 
are  one  thousand  five  hundred  foot,  and  two  colonels,  and 
will  do  n}y  best.  Duke  Francis  Albert  died  at  Schweidnitz, 
the  31st  May,  from  two  shots  he  had  received,  and  in  his 
place  is  now  come  Piccolomini,  who  now  commands  as 
general  field-marshal  the  collective  Imperialist  army,  which 
is  yet  stationed  at  Brunn,  in  Moravia."  Torstenson  to  C.  G. 
Wrangel,  field-camp  at  Brieg,  June  17,  1642.  (On  the  out- 
side of  the  letter  is  written,  "  Presented  the  I8th  July,  1642, 
when   the   first  men  of  the  reinforcement  were   landed  at 


1045.] 


Reinforcements  arrive 
from  Sweden. 


CHRISTINA.    THE  REGENCY. 


Second  battle  of 
Leipsic. 


313 


an  Imperialist  army  of  superior  force  came  to  its 
relief.  Torstensoii  was  obliged  to  raise  the  siege. 
He  sti'engtliened  the  garrisons  of  Oppeln  and 
Schvveidnitz,  aud  sent  Konigsmark  to  Saxony,  to 
make  head  against  the  movements  which  showed 
themselves  tliere.  He  himself  fell  back  across  the 
Oder  towards  Glogau,  again  passed  the  river  fur- 
ther up  at  Crosseii,  and  sat  down  in  a  camp  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Neisse  and  the  Oder,  in  order  to 
wait  for  the  reinforcement  conducted  by  Charles 
Gustave  Wrangel,  from  Sweden,  which  was  already 
approaching.  The  junction  with  the  van-guard  of 
Wrangel's  corps,  4000  foot,  took  place  on  the  26th 
August  ^,  after  which  Torstenson  compelled  the  Im- 
perialists to  raise  the  siege  of  Glogau.  He  attempted 
again,  although  vainly,  to  cut  off  the  Imperiahst 
army  from  Bohemia,  took  Zittau  under  their  eyes  on 

Wolgast.")  Correspondence  of  C.  G.  Wrangel  in  the  Library 
ofSko  Cloister. 

'  Torstenson  to  Wrangel :  "  Things  have  now  gone  so  far 
with  Glogau,  that  they  are  already  hand  to  hand  under  the 
walls,  and  throwing  stones  (out  of  mortars,  to  wit)  against  each 
other,  so  that  our  men  can  make  no  sally.  I  can  no  longer 
subsist,  yet  will  I  so  order  my  march  that  the  major-general 
may  be  able  to  follow  me.  March  on  this  side  of  the  Oder 
to  Crossen,  and  with  the  utmost  practicable  haste."  Field- 
camp  at  Neisse,  August  21,  1611.  Postscript  in  Torstenson's 
own  hand :  "  If  the  succour  do  not  come  up  shortly,  Glogau 
is  lost."     Correspondence. 

1  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  C.  G.  Wrangel  to 
his  father,  dated  Leipsic,  Oct.  23,  1642,  consequently  on  the 
day  of  the  battle  itself,  gives  a  view  of  the  movements  of  the 
armies  from  the  7th  September.  On  this  day  Glogau  was 
relieved,  and  the  Imperialists  raised  the  siege.  "The  10th 
September  the  Swedish  army  moved  from  Glogau,  there 
passed  the  Oder,  and  came  on  the  1 3th  to  Bunzlau,  which 
was  taken  by  storm;  the  15th  to  Lemberg,  whicli  was  like- 
wise taken  by  storm;  the  16th  to  Lauben,  a  Saxon  town; 
the  18th  to  Gbrlitz.  Meanwhile  intelligence  arrived  that 
the  enemy  was  on  his  march  across  the  mountains  to 
Friedland  in  Bohemia,  whereupon  the  field-marshal  re- 
solved to  take  him  in  flank.  But  as  we  on  arriving  there 
did  not  find  the  enemy,  we  occupied  the  most  convenient  of 
the  heights  about  us  to  keep  Bohemia  in  the  rear,  upon 
which  tlie  enemy  followed,  and  next  day  sat  himself  down 
only  half  a  mile  from  us,  we  expecting  a  general  action ;  but 
as  he  intrenched  himself,  and  we  in  the  hilly  tracts  began  to 
suffer  want,  we  marched  in  good  order  the  28th  September 
to  Zittau.  And  although  we  saw  the  enemy  draiwing  nigh 
to  relieve  it,  and  the  commandant  in  his  conlidence  of  suc- 
cour made  a  stubborn  resistance,  we  fell  upon  the  town  by 
storm  in  their  presence  about  noon,  whereat  I  immediately 
occupied  an  outwork,  the  commandant  of  which  surrendered 
with  his  150  men,  who  entered  the  Swedish  service.  In 
Zittau  we  rested  until  the  6th  October  (during  this  time 
a  cartel  was  arranged  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners).  The 
Imperialists  had  encamped  and  retrenched  themselves  one 
mile  Irom  us  upon  the  Bohemian  frontier.  Of  the  Swedish 
troops  whom  I  brought  as  a  reinforcement,  hardly  a  third 
remains  in  serviceable  condition.  The  remainder,  unused 
to  the  severe  marches  and  the  want  of  provision,  as  they  do 
not  understand  how  to  support  themselves  like  the  Germans, 
are  fallen  ill,  and  partly  left  in  garrison,  partly  cut  down 
here  and  there.  On  the  other  hand  the  Imperialists  have 
the  country  every  where  friendly  to  them.  The  7th  October 
we  marched  to  Liska  on  the  side  of  Bautzen,  then  to  Capitz 
and  Grossenhajn,  but  left  these  places,  since  the  enemy 
followed  us.  The  field-marshal  then  embraced  another  plan, 
when  we  saw  that  the  enemy  had  no  real  wish  to  fight,  but 
only  to  harass  us.  We  marched  direct  upon  Torgau  with 
the  infantry  and  artillery,  and  with  the  cavalry  and  baggage 
hither  to  Leipsic,  in  order  to  force  the  enemy  to  an  engage- 
ment for  its  relief,  since  there  were  no  other  means  for  us 
to  accommodate  the  army.     In  order  to  be  stronger,  the 


the  2Dth  September,  and  lastly  invested  Leipsic,  in 
order  to  compel  them  to  a  battle.  Here,  on  the 
field  where  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  fought,  Torsten- 
son obtained  on  the  23d  October  a  complete  vic- 
tory over  the  archduke  Leopold  and  Piccolomini, 
and  closed  the  glorious  camx^aign  of  1642  with  the 
capture  of  Leipsic  *. 

By  the  chamberlain  Gabriel  Oxenstierna,  who 
was  despatched  to  Torstenson,  the  liigh  chancellor 
wrote  ^,  "Meseemeth  that  the  field-marshal  has 
now  obtained  a  fair  tide,  by  which  to  set  the  work  in 
good  forwardness;  the  victory  must  be  employed  to 
sweep  Upper  and  Nether  Saxony,  and  to  hold  the 
Elbe  ;  in  Westphalia  we  have  the  Weser  and  the 
principal  places  in  our  hands,yet  is  thex'econfusioniii 
the  administration,  and  a  governor,  with  a  good  secre- 
tary and  commissary,  is  needful^;  m  respect  to  Bran- 
field-marshal  called  hither  major-general  Konigsmark.  Last 
Thursday  we  began  to  fire  upon  the  town;  meanwhile  par- 
ties of  prisoners  were  brought  in,  from  whom  we  learned 
that  the  enemy  was  not  only  marching  straight  upon  us  to 
relieve  the  town,  but  had  even  resolved  upon  a  battle. 
Therefore  we  yesterday  quitted  our  position,  moving  to  the 
same  place  where  formerly  his  majesty  of  most  happy  me- 
mory had  a  light  with  Tilly,  and  setting  our  force  in  battle- 
array.  The  enemy  followed,  and  came  on  at  evening  with 
his  whole  army.  As  between  us  and  him  was  a  pass  and  a 
deep  ditch,  we  fell  back  further,  in  order  to  give  him  room 
and  see  what  he  would  attempt,  when  to-day  at  the  dawning 
we  found  that  he  had  passed  it  in  the  night,  and  that  in  the 
obscurity  we  were  come  nearer  one  another  than  we  supposed. 
And  as  he  did  not  move  from  the  spot,  we  in  God's  name 
advanced  in  full  battle-array,  albeit  we  suffered  great  loss 
from  the  grape  and  cartridge-shot  of  the  enemy  (since  he 
could  aim  better,  though  we  had  more  pieces),  until  we 
came  face  to  face  with  each  other.  So  began  the  battle,  and 
lasted  about  four  hours.  Our  right  wing  overthrew  the  Im- 
perialist left  without  much  resistance.  Thereupon  our  left 
and  the  brigades  (centre)  came  also  into  the  thick  of  the 
struggle,  and  both  sides  fought  with  valour.  And  although 
the  enemy's  right  wing  gained  so  much  ground  that  some  of 
our  biiuades  and  especially  our  left  fell  into  confusion,  and 
the  constables  in  part  ran  from  their  pieces,  we  nevertheless 
rallied,  and  bringing  up  our  right  wing,  strenuously  seconded 
the  left,  so  that  we  by  God's  help  beat  the  enemy  out  of  the 
field,  and  utterly  routed  his  infantry,  which  was  eleven  bri- 
gades, and  far  stronger  than  ours.  They  had  taken  post  in 
a  little  wood,  where  also  in  the  time  of  his  majesty  and  Tilly 
some  infantry  is  said  to  have  been  planted.  But  I  took 
them  in  flank  and  drove  them  thence,  and  when  they  came 
on  open  ground,  our  cavalry  so  played  with  them  that  hardly 
one  escaped.  We  have  taken  the  whole  of  th«  enemy's  ar- 
tillery (forty-six  pieces,  great  and  small),  fifty  ammunition 
and  more  than  one  hundred  baggage-waggons,  many  stand- 
ards, and  much  else.  The  enemy's  cavalry  left  the  archduke 
and  Piccolomini  in  the  lurch,  who  escaped  with  diflSculty. 
The  archduke's  baggage  and  plate  are  among  the  booty.  I 
have  obtained  his  carriage  and  gold  service.  It  was  a  very 
hard  action,  and  we  fought  long  pike  to  pike.  The  wind  at 
first  was  against  us,  but  changed.  The  field-marshal  hath 
had  great  luck,  since  a  part  of  his  skin  was  torn  from  the 
body  by  a  ball,  his  horse  shot,  and  the  head  of  the  palsgrave's 
horse  beside  him  carried  away.  (The  same  chain-shot  tilled 
the  secretary  of  state  Grubbe.)"  Correspondence  in  the 
Library  of  Sko  Cloister.  Lilyehoek,  who  with  C.  G.  Wrangel 
and  Mortai^ne  commanded  the  infantry,  was  mortally 
wounded,  commended  his  wife  and  children  to  the  young 
Charles  Gustavus  (the  palsgrave),  and  died  in  the  evening, 
consoling  himself  with  the  victory  of  his  comrades.  Puffen- 
dorf,  xiv.  26. 

2  January  21,  1643.     Reg. 

3  In  the  registers  generally,  frequent  complaints  appear 
respecting  the  administration  at  both  wings  of  the  theatre  of 
war,  in  Westphalia  and  Silesia.     The  limits  of  our  narrative 


314 


Campaign  of  1643. 
Its  interruption. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Rupture  with  Denmark. 
War  resolved  upon. 


[1633- 


denburg,  only  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  armis- 
tice is  wanting ;  in  Silesia  and  on  the  Oder,  we 
must  seek  to  keep  our  rear  free  by  Stalhandske. 
The  field-marshal  liimself,  I  judge,  should  press 
the  enemy  in  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and  Austria, 
remove  the  seat  of  war  to  the  Danube,  and  at  the 
same  time  secure,  by  a  flying  corps,  the  communi- 
cation with  the  Elbe  and  the  sea-coast.  The  king 
of  France  and  the  landgravine  of  Hesse  shall  be 
solicited  by  letter  to  keep  Hatzfeld  warm  on  the 
Rhine;  the  other  diversion  in  the  hereditary  terri- 
tories of  the  emperor  might  best  be  made  by 
Ragotzi,  prince  of  Ti-ansylvania."  Witli  the  latter, 
Torstenson  had  already,  by  the  mission  of  two 
colonels,  entered  into  communication.  In  the  letter 
to  the  chamberlain,  the  chancellor  adds :  that  the 
chancery  of  the  archduke  Leopold,  which  had  been 
taken  at  Leipsic,  and  whence  information  might  be 
drawn  respecting  the  enemy's  plans,  must  be  sent 
home.  The  field-marshal  is  also  exhorted,  if  he 
came  into  any  papistical  towns,  where  fine  and 
valuable  libraries  existed,  such  as  during  the  previ- 
ous summer  had  been  found  in  Neisse  and  Olmutz,  to 
send  the  books  to  Sweden,  for  the  improvement  of 
the  libraries  in  the  high  schools  and  gymnasia  of 
the  kingdom*. 

After  the  taking  of  Leipsic,  Torstenson  had  a 
conference  with  marshal  Gue'briant,  who,  in  concert 
with  the  Hessians,  had  carried  on  the  war  upon  the 
Lower  Rhino,  and  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1642  with  the  victory  of  Kempen.  The  two 
generals  are  said  to  have  agreed  respecting  the 
plan  of  the  campaign  for  the  next  year.  That 
no  such  plan  was  conjointly  executed,  the  French 
lay  to  the  l)lame  of  the  Swedes,  while  these  again 
make  it  matter  of  charge  against  the  former  5.  It 
is  certain  that  Gue'briant  moved  to  the  Rhine,  and 
Torstenson,  on  the  other  hand,  through  Bohemia 
against  Austria,  without,  however,  being  able  in 
any  manner  to  force  Gallas,  who  had  regained  the 
command-in-chief  ",  to  a  battle.  We  shall  not  detain 
the  reader  with  the  campaign  of  1643  against 
Austria,  in  which  Torstenson  again  penetrated  to 
Olmutz  and  Brunn,  and  by  one  of  his  partisan 
officers  imperilled  the  persoii  of  the  emperor  him- 
self ^ ;  while  Konigsmark,  so  excellent  in  petty 
warfare,  kept  the  enemy  busy  on  the  Elbe  and  the 
Weser,  repulsing  last  of  all  a  hostile  inroad  into 
Pomerania,  wliich  the  Imperialists  effected  by 
violating  the  Polish  territory,  through  which  they 
also  extricated  themselves  on  their  retreat.  We 
pass  over  this  campaign,  which  was  interrupted  by 
an  unexpected  event.  After  Torstenson,  from 
Moravia,  had  re-established  the  communication 
with  his  garrisons  in  Silesia,  he  received  at  the 
castle  of  Eulenburg,  on  the  23d  September,  Jacob 

have  not  allowed  us  space  to  follow  the  movements  of  the 
military  divisions  there  stationed,  which  depended  mostly 
on  tlie  main  army. 

*  The  chancellor  paid  close  attention  to  matters  of  this 
kind.  When  upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Danish  war  in  the 
winter  of  1G44,  Gustavo  Horn  invaded  Scania,  the  chancellor 
instructs  his  secretary  to  remind  the  field-marshal  that 
where  there  were  any  piihlic  libraries,  especially  where  ma- 
nuscripts were  to  be  obtained,  they  should  not  he  dispersed, 
but  be  sent  to  Stockholm.  To  Samuel  Anderson,  Feb.  24, 
1644.     Reg. 

s  Compare  Histoire  du  Marechal  de  Guebriant,  c.  x.  Puf- 
fendorf,  xiv.  39. 

6  "  At  this  the  Swedes  rejoiced,  for  they  knew  his  manner, 


TornskiJld,  who,  despatched  fi'om  Sweden,  had 
long  waited  for  him  in  Oppeln.  This  agent  brought 
information  from  the  Swedish  government,  of  the 
25th  May  last,  that  war  against  Denmark  had  been 
resolved  upon,  and  that  Torstenson  was  to  repair 
to  Holstein. 

It  is  supei-fluous  to  enumerate  the  various  causes 
of  war,  which  now  and  afterwards,  with  many  rea- 
sons and  counter-reasons,  were  alleged  on  the  Swe- 
dish side,  and  denied  with  bittei-ness  on  the  Danish. 
Denmark  was  an  unsafe  friend,  and  on  the  first 
decisive  reverse  of  the  Swedes  in  Germany,  their 
natural  and  dangerous  enemy.  That  a  Danish  war 
was  implied  in  the  German,  and  sooner  or  later 
would  proceed  from  it,  Gustavus  Adolphus  and 
Oxenstierna  had  long  ago  foreseen.  Our  relations 
upon  this  side  liad  become  more  and  more  entan- 
gled, especially  since  the  king  of  Denmark,  in  the 
summer  of  1640,  had  assisted  the  queen  dowager  of 
Sweden  in  her  escape  from  the  kingdom '.  It  was 
determined  to  make  use  of  the  superiority  of  the 
Swedish  arms,  in  order  to  cut  the  knot  with  the 
sword. 

On  the  25th  May,  the  high  chancellor  writes  to 
Torstenson  '•• :  "  We  must  disclose  to  you  our  domes- 
tic condition,  and  the  dangerous  designs  of  our 
neighbours,  beginning  to  break  forth,  according 
to  which  we  must  alter  our  counsels.  We  have 
long  remarked  that  our  neighbours  have,  in  this 
German  war  of  ours,  fixed  their  eyes  on  the  issue 
of  the  contest,  hoping  that  if  we  by  any  disastrous 
occurz'ence  should  be  robbed  of  our  advantages,  a 
door  might  open  itself  to  them  to  treat  us  here  at 
home  after  their  own  pleasure.  Now,  since  the 
enemy's  power  has  been  broken  by  Baner  and  you, 
and  the  emperor  brought  to  the  defensive,  he  seeks 
help  in  Poland  by  such  arguments  as  little  become 
the  greatness  of  the  house  of  Austria.  He  strives 
likewise  to  provoke  Denmark,  the  rather  that  it  is 
already  inclined  thereto.  Both  discover  their  ill- 
will  against  us,  especially  Denmark,  which  under 
the  semblance  of  a  mediator  has  intermeddled  in  the 
treaty  of  peace.  Now,  when  this  is  so  far  advanced, 
that  the  preliminai-ies  are  agreed  upon,  and  the 
mediator  should  seek  to  further  the  beginning  of 
the  treaty  itself,  he  arms,  on  the  contrary,  by  land 
and  water,  and  draws  his  army  together  under  pre- 
text of  quieting  Hamburg,  but  in  reality  for  pur- 
poses of  terror,  and  to  appear  as  an  armed  nego- 
tiator. It  is  said  that  the  bishop  of  Bremen  and 
the  duke  of  Oldenburg  will  join  him  with  their 
people,  as  also  Brunswick-Luneburg;  Cologne,  and 
several  Catholic  states,  are  joining  in  the  game  of 
playing  the  third  party,  which  has  been  long  spoken 
of.     This  we  know  as  sure  and  certain,  that  tliis 

that  he  always  ruined  the  army."  Puffendorf,  xv.  \  4.  The 
archduke  quitted  the  army  in  discontent ;  Piccolomini  en- 
tered the  Spanish  service. 

7  Puffendorf,  xv.  §  12. 

s  Maria  Eleonora,  who  was  constantly  dissatisfied  with  the 
Swedish  government,  fled  secretly  on  the  23d  July,  JC40, 
from  Gripsholra,  travelled  in  the  company  of  a  Danish 
emissary,  attended  by  a  single  lady  in  waiting,  and  in  dis- 
guise, to  Nykoeping.  There  she  embarked  in  a  Danish 
vessel,  and  was  received  at  Gottlaiid  by  two  Danish  ships  of 
the  line,  which  carried  her  to  Denmark.  She  resided  for  some 
time  in  that  country,  afterwards  in  Brandenburg,  and  lirst 
returned  to  Sweden  in  1048.  Ekholm's  Hist,  and  Critical 
Collec.  iii. 

9  Reg.  for  1643. 


,.,r  1      Torstensoii's  instructions  for     /-lu-nTornT-NT  t 
"5^^-]  the  Danish  war.  CHRISTINA. 


THE  REGENCY. 


He  evades  the 
Imperialists. 


315 


Danish  armament  is  principally  intended  to  dis- 
turb our  arms  and  our  state  in  Germany,  and  then 
to  attack  ourselves,  if  not  in  this,  yet  in  the  follow- 
ing year.  Denmark  is  acting  against  us  in  Poland, 
through  Baudissin  and  others,  for  a  strong  alliance, 
perchance  diversion.  Baudissin  is  sent  from  Po- 
land to  Denmark,  with  full  powers,  not  only  from 
the  king,  hut  also  from  the  principal  senators. 
In  Russia  a  marriage  is  in  treaty  between  the  son 
of  the  king  of  Denmark,  count  Waldemar,  and  the 
daughter  of  the  grand  duke,  with  purpose  to  ally 
themselves  against  us:  they  already  appear  adverse 
to  us,  and  refuse  a  change  of  the  resident.  To  this 
other  acts  of  Denmark  are  to  be  added,  which  we 
cannot  suffer  without  ruinous  injury  to  Sweden. 
Denmark  often  obstructs  the  navigation  of  the 
Sound,  and  confiscated  in  the  spring  seven  or  eight 
Swedish  ships.  They  levy  tolls  on  all  wines  and 
liquors  which  pass  through  the  Sound  on  Swedish 
account,  against  order  and  wonted  freedom  i,  and 
never  once  concern  themselves  to  inform  us  of 
these  pi'oceedings.  They  have  stationed  a  galliot 
before  the  isle  of  Ruden,  which  takes  toll  of  all 
mariners,  and  presses  our  own  vessels  which  we 
send  hither  and  thither  between  onr  fortresses,  to 
our  insult  and  injury;  and  they  are  so  obstinate  in 
this  resolution  that  no  representations  help.  After 
long  hesitating  (for  we  are  already  at  war),  we 
find  that  Denmark  is  not  less  inimical  to  us  than 
Austria,  and  the  worse  enemy  because  it  is  the 
nearer,  and  the  emperor  at  this  time  hath  no  assist- 
ant more  prejudicial  to  us  than  Denmark.  There- 
fore we  have  resolved  to  make  due  remonstrances 
to  the  king  of  Denmark;  but  as  we  look  for  no  good 
result,  we  deem  it  better  now,  while  our  arms  hold 
their  own  in  Germany,  rather  than  at  another 
time,  to  bring  the  war  to  Denmark.  We  are  for 
this  reason  also  compelled  to  keep  the  recruits  at 
home  this  summer,  and  would  gladly  see  you  (after 
you  have  regulated  the  state  of  the  war  in  Ger- 
many by  the  list  following),  send  home  the  residue, 
especially  as  many  old  soldiers  as  ye  can  dispense 
with  ;  then,  that  you  should  not  so  much  busy 
yourself  to  rout  the  enemy,  but  rather  to  preserve 
the  army,  so  that  towards  harvest  you  may  draw 
to  the  coast,  and  be  able  to  take  winter  quarters  in 
Holstein  and  Jutland.  But  this  must  in  all  quar- 
ters be  kept  secret ;  yet  both  you  and  we  should 
prepare  for  it  unobserved.  Under  the  semblance 
of  seeking  quarters  in  Brunswick-Luneburg  and 
Oldenburg,  you  may  direct  your  march  through 
Meissen  and  Halberstadt  to  the  Brunswick  terri- 
tory, as  if  you  intended  to  force  the  duke  and  the 
bishop  of  Bremen  to  sever  their  troops  from  Den- 
mark's. During  the  march,  or  before,  you  nmst 
send  one  of  the  generals  with  a  flying  corps  to 
Pouierania  and  Mecklenburg,  there  unperceived  to 
await  your  arrival,  and  meanwhile  to  look  to  the 
fortresses,  and  secure  for  you  the  passage  of  the 
Elbe.  Thereupon  you  may  with  the  whole  army 
invade  Holstein,  between  Hamburg  and  Lubeck ; 
and  take  all  the  places  which  you  can  get  into  your 
hands,  and  penetrate  as  far  into  Jutland  and  across 
the  Bolt  into  Fyen,  as  the  army  will  suffice  for. 
Whosoever  resists,  you  may  hold  him  your  enemy; 
every  band  of  soldiers,  Danish  or  German,  you 
may  disperse.  If  the  question  be  put  to  you,  by 
whose  orders  you  so  act,  you  are  to  answer,  that 

'  "  The  Danes  alleged  as  a  pretext  of  this,  that  the  Swedes 
acted  contrary  to  the  treaty  in  lending  their  passes  to  foreign 


need  compels  you  to  seek  quarters  for  your  troops; 
the  land  of  the  duke  of  Gottorp  ye  may  spare,  if  it 
will  remain  neutral.  Arrange  likewise  with  the 
garrisons  on  the  sea-coast,  in  Pomerania,  and 
Mecklenburg,  so  that  you  may  have  about  2000 
good  soldiers  at  hand,  and  some  hundred  fresh 
cavalry ;  place  them  under  the  orders  of  Eric  Han- 
son (Ulfsparre,  commandant  in  Wismar);  let  him 
take  all  the  vessels  in  Pomerania,  and  while  vou 
advance  into  Holstein,  let  him  cross  to  Zealand 
and  the  islands ;  surprise  Wordingsborg,  and  see 
whether  opportunity  offer  of  taking  Copenhagen 
and  Ci'onburg.  On  such  an  inroad  great  consterna- 
tion will  probably  ensue.  We  will  take  measures 
to  meet  you  from  this  side.  That  all  this,  if  it  be 
rightly  pursued,  may  be  accomplished,  there  are 
sure  reasons  to  prove  :  i.  The  king  of  Denmark's 
military  power  consists  more  in  semblance  than 
reality ;  ii.  He  has  now,  in  May,  moved  against 
Hamburg,  and  when  the  accord  is  made,  will  either 
disperse  his  ai'my  or  encamp,  in  which  latter  case 
disease  will  weaken  it;  in  any  event  he  cannot  very 
soon  rally.  We  hope  either  suddenly  to  overthrow 
him,  or  so  to  manage  that  he  will  have  enough  to 
do  with  himself,  and  will  refrain  from  intriguing 
against  us.  Two  liindrances  lie  in  the  way :  how 
you  may  evade  the  enemy,  who  without  doubt  will 
pursue  you,  and  how  you  may  save  your  garrisons 
in  Olmutz,  Schweidnitz,  and  elsewhere, — besides  a 
third,  which  is  a  critical  matter,  what  danger  gene- 
rally may  spring  out  of  this  for  our  military  position 
in  Germany.  Inquire  of  Gallas,  under  the  guise  of 
an  exchange  of  prisoners,  whether  now  when  the 
treaty  is  on  foot,  the  armies  might  not  conclude  a 
truce,  say  for  three  weeks,  during  which  you  might 
ascertain  the  opinion  of  the  French  minister  as  to 
a  longer  cessation.  If  no  armistice  be  made,  we 
leave  it  to  your  own  decision,  what  garrisons  ye 
will  take  with  you,  and  how  ye  will  order  the 
march.  The  enemy  will  hardly  follow  you  far  be- 
yond Leipsic,  as  he  is  now  out  of  the  way,  and  al- 
most ail  the  country  below  there  is  a  waste."  (So 
men  spoke  of  Northern  Germany  in  the  year  1643!) 
Thus  ran  Torstenson's  instructions  for  the  Danish 
war.  Months  expired  before  they  were  received 
(not  a  very  rare  occurrence,  for  we  have  often 
occasion  to  wonder  at  the  slowness  of  communica- 
tion in  those  times);  but  the  general  made  imme- 
diate prejiarations  for  their  execution,  and  this 
corresponded  in  daring  to  his  plan.  He  advanced 
into  Silesia,  proposed  an  armistice,  and  succeeded 
thereby  in  detaining  Gallas,  wjio  forwarded  the 
proposal  to  Vienna,  and  meanwhile  contented  him- 
self with  hanging  on  the  flank  of  the  Swedish  ai-my 
and  covering  Bohemia.  From  Glogau,  where  the 
army,  on  the  26th  November-,  passed  tlie  Oder, 
Torstenson  despatched  intelligence  home,  that  in 
four  or  five  weeks  he  hoped  to  be  in  Holstein.  At 
Torgau  he  caused  a  bridge  to  be  constructed,  as  if 
he  intended  crossing  the  Elbe.  He  procured  it  to 
be  given  out  that  he  intended,  after  some  rejiose  in 
Meissen,  to  invade  Bavaria  by  the  Upper  Pala- 
tinate, and  take  winter  quarters  there,  a  rumour 
which  produced  great  alarm  in  Bavaria.  Shortly 
after  he  threw  another  bridge  over  the  Elbe  at 
Tangermunde  ;  yet  he  moved  onwards  to  Havel- 
berg.  Here  he  had  no  longer  a  pretext  for  con- 
nations,  and  thus  evading  the  Danish  toll.  Louis  de  Gear 
had  rich  partners  in  Holland,  who  passed  free  under  liis 
name."     Puffcndorf,  xv.  78. 


316 


Account  of  Denmark 
in  this  age. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Its  military 
system. 


[1C33— 


cealing  his  design.  He  called  his  officers  together 
on  the  6th  December,  made  known  to  them  his 
order.s,  and  promised  them  good  quarters.  The 
army  continued  their  march  with  joy,  and  soon 
overran  Holstein  and  Jutland  '. 

On  the  condition  of  the  kingdom  of  Denmark  at 
this  time  we  derive  some  information  from  the 
memoir  of  a  Swedish  ministei',  preserved  in  the 
library  of  Sko  Cloister'.  It  is  of  the  year  1649, 
the  one  succeeding  that  in  which  king  Christian  IV. 
terminated  his  long  reign.  The  author,  Magnus 
Dureel,  refers  to  his  eight  years'  sojourn  in  the 
country,  as  Swedish  resident,  for  a  guarantee  of  his 
trustworthiness;  since,  as  he  declares,  "this  nation 
from  its  inborn  nature  keeps  its  affairs  so  secret, 
that  one  cannot,  without  time  and  good  opportunity, 
investigate  and  comprehend  all  the  points."  We 
have  room  only  for  the  leading  features.  "  As  the 
kings  of  Denmark,"  says  the  writer,  "  have  their 
hands  bound,  so  that  without  their  council  they 
can  dispose  of  little  touching  the  jura  majestatis, 
while  the  nobility  can  control  both  the  other 
estates  and  the  king  himself,  and  the  commons  have 
not  only  no  votes  in  state  affairs,  but  are  even 
deprived  of  all  hope  of  ever  arriving  at  dignities 
and  offices;  the  form  of  government  in  Denmark  is 
thus  aristocratical  or  oligarchical.  The  foundation 
thereto  was  laid  in  the  time  of  Frederic  I.,  who 
was  installed  by  the  nobility  against  the  will  of  the 
burgesses  and  peasants,  who  sided  with  Christian 
the  Tyrant.  He  granted  to  the  nobility  privileges, 
which  Frederic  II.  confirmed,  and  caused  to  be  re- 
corded in  a  special  manifest,  and  which  afterwards 
Christian  IV.  and  his  son  Frederic  III.  augmented; 
so  that  although  many  privileges  of  the  nobility  are 
formidable  both  to  the  king  and  the  commonalty, 
especially  through  the  warranty  of  Frederic  III., 
they  are  not  easily  to  be  curtailed;  as  is  sufficiently 
clear  from  the  fifty-one  years'  reign  of  Christian  IV. 
It  is  ordained  that  Denmark  shall  be  and  remain 
an  elective  monarchy,  as  it  anciently  liath  been, 
and  that  Norway  shall  be  for  all  time  an  insepara- 
ble province  of  the  cx'own  of  Denmark.  The  high 
offices  are  five.  The  senators  have  no  other  stipend 
than  the  chief  and  best  feudatory  districts,  which 
are  the  marrow  and  cream  of  the  whole  land.  It 
hath  seemed  good  to  their  foregoers  to  constitute 
one  to  be  as  it  were  a  vice-king,  to  uphold  always 
in  the  government  the  immunities  of  the  nobility. 
This  is  the  office  of  high  steward  of  Denmark.  The 
high  steward  disposes  of  the  revenues  of  the  crown, 
provides  for  the  state  of  the  king's  household,  as 
also  for  the  fleet  and  other  matters,  hke  to  a  king's 
lieutenant-general.  It  is  commonly  practised  that 
when  any  resources,  whether  from  ordinary  or 
extraordinary  taxes,  are  in  hand,  the  high  steward 
then  forthwith  gives  an  assignment  upon  them,  in 
order  that  nothing  may  come  into  the  treasury,  and 
the  king  be  enabled  thereby  to  use  such  resources 
for  his  own  service  and  the  furtherance  of  his 
designs.  For  this  reason  also  the  king  of  Denmark 
hath  been  consti-ained  by  degrees  to  raise  the 
Sound  toll,  of  which  he  disposed,  and  then  wished 

2  Dec.  26,  1C43,  the  government  received  intelligence  of 
Torstenson's  irruption  into  Holstein,  and  wrote  to  him,  Jan. 
7,  1644,  "  Since  Tornskold  came  home,  bringing  us  your 
answer  to  our  letter  of  May  25  of  the  past  year,  we  have  re- 
ceived from  you  only  a  single  letter,  that  from  Havelberg  of 
the  6th  December.  From  Denmark  we  have  heard  that  you 
entered  Holstein  before  the  middle  of  December."    Reg. 


to  levy  a  toll  on  the  Elbe  at  Gluckstadt,  that  he 
might  thereby  engross  a  capital.  There  are  a  high 
marshal,  a  grand  master  of  the  ordnance,  and  a 
general  of  engineers.  For  what  else  concerns  the 
higher  offices  in  a  well-ordered  military  system, 
there  are  here  hi  Denmark  none,  but  these  are 
filled  in  time  of  war  either  by  foreign  or  native 
noblemen.  But  as  Denmark's  state  is  governed  by 
many,  every  man's  greatest  interest  is  to  pre- 
serve his  own.  In  war  the  landed  estates  of  the 
nobility  are  ruined,  whether  it  go  prosperously  or 
unprosperously ;  Christian  IV.  was  blamed  by  the 
nobility  for  having  commenced  war  against  their 
will,  especially  upon  the  emperor,  and  for  having 
carried  on  the  war  with  bad  success.  He  was  a 
long  time  king,  and  had  as  well  from  that  cause  as 
from  his  own  courage  acquired  the  respect  of  the 
council,  who  were  all  his  creatures,  so  that  he 
could  have  an  opinion  of  his  own  in  the  like  and 
other  matters.  In  order  to  prevent  the  ci'ovvn 
from  having  such  power,  it  is  decreed  in  the  last 
manifest,  that  it  shall  not  be  allowed  to  the  king  to 
choose  from  the  nobility  whomsoever  he  would 
have  to  be  of  the  council,  but  that  the  council  with 
the  nobility,  in  every  province  where  a  vacancy 
takes  place  by  death,  shall  present  to  the  king  six 
native  nobles,  from  whom  he  shall  select  one.  As 
the  nobility,  which  in  effect  has  most  power  in  the 
government,  loses  most  in  a  war,  and  besides  sucks 
the  marrow  of  the  land,  it  follows  hence  that  the 
Danish  state  inclines  more  to  peace  and  quiet  than 
to  war ;  wherefore  also  the  nobility  will  not  permit 
any  perfect  military  system  to  be  formed  in  the 
country.  Nevertheless,  because  they  greatly  dread 
the  power  of  their  neighbours,  especially  since  the 
realm  of  Denmark  begins  to  be  circumscribed  by 
the  forces  of  the  Swedes,  through  their  well- 
arranged  military  system,  the  nobility  have  been 
compelled  to  maintain  a  kind  of  necessitous  militia; 
for  to  organize  a  perfect  military  force,  neither  the 
means  of  the  crown  nor  reasons  of  state  permit 
them  ;  suice  the  nobility  would  have  continually  to 
fear  that  the  king  would  bind  the  army  to  his 
interest,  and  lean  upon  the  commons,  who  are  now 
malcontent,  but  singulai'ly  aff'ectioned  to  the  sove- 
reign. To  this  is  to  be  added,  that  the  crown  for- 
merly did  not  need  to  raise  a  military  class,  since 
the  way  to  Germany  stood  always  open  for  obtain- 
ing men  by  recruitment.  The  nobility  are  unskilled 
in  military  affairs,  and  very  few  conversant  with 
foreign  countries.  During  war  a  continual  contest 
prevails  for  the  supreme  command. 

In  every  province  bands  of  the  strength  follow- 
ing are  to  be  exercised  at  the  churclies ;  in  Zea- 
land 2000,  in  Fyen  1000,  in  Scania  and  Bleking 
2000,  in  Jutland  4000,  on  the  lesser  islands  1000, 
in  Norway  three  regiments  numbering  5400,  for 
the  nobility  (to  every  600  tuns  of  corn,  four  men) 
4000;  in  all,  10,400  men.  Of  the  cavalry,  the  fiefs 
and  horse-service  of  the  nobility  supply  7000  ;  the 
bailiffs  and  clergy,  2000  men.  The  navy  consists  of 
twenty-four  ships  of  war  and  si.xteen  galliots.  Den- 
mark and  Norway  have  106  trading-shi[)s.  The 
people  are  for  the  most  part  well-practised  at  sea. 

3  Relation  concerning  the  kingdom  of  Denmark,  composed 
by  Magnus  Dureel,  resident  of  her  majesty  of  Sweden. 
Dedicated  to  queen  Chri^tina.  In  the  Library  of  Sko  Cloister, 
MS.  We  have  subsequently  found  an  abstract  of  it  in  Suhm, 
Samlinger  till  den  Danske  Historic  (Collections  for  Danish 
History),  ii. 


1645.] 


Public  revenue 
State  of  Norway. 


CHRISTINA.    THE  REGENCY. 


Description  of  the 
other  provinces. 


3!7 


The  revenues  of  Denmark,  ordinary  and  extra- 
ordinary, accrue  from  six  main  heads:  1.  the  Sound 
toll,  wliich  is  very  unequal  ;  before  the  last  war 
with  Sweden  it  amounted  to  5  or  ()00,000  rix-dol- 
lars  ;  after  the  peace  of  Bromsebro,  it  was  dimi- 
nished by  the  immunities  of  the  Swedes  and  Hol- 
landers to  70  or  80,000  rix-dollars.  2.  The  land-tolls 
or  excise,  which  would  be  considerable,  if  the  nobi- 
lity and  clergy  were  not  exempted  therefrom,  and 
if  the  nobles  did  not  exempt  the  burgesses  with 
whom  they  have  dealings  ;  for  nothing  is  more 
usual  than  that  a  nobleman,  when  he  lodges  with 
a  burgess,  should  defray  his  charges  with  excise 
schedules.  3.  Tallages,  and  contributions  of  the 
towns.  4.  Fiefs,  towns,  and  tolls  in  Norway. 
5.  Fiefs  in  Denmark.  6.  Crown  taxes,  and  other 
extraordinary  revenues,  which  are  not  paid  every 
year.  Generally  the  revenues  cannot  at  pi'esent 
be  computed  at  more  than  500,000  rix-dollars ; 
on  the  other  hand,  the  expenditure  of  the  kingdom 
amounts  to  919,665  rix-dollars*. 

Norway  has  very  fair  corn-fields  and  meadows 
between  the  mountains,  with  forests  of  oak,  fir, 
birch,  pine,  and  some  box-wood,  from  which  the 
Hollanders  procure  masts,  timber,  tar,  and  deals  in 
some  hundred  ships  yearly  ;  it  possesses  also  va- 
rious mines,  and  might  have  more,  if  private  inte- 
rests hindered  not,  on  the  part  of  the  nobility  in 
Denmark,  which  sees  not  gladly  the  sovereign 
drawing  much  from  Norway,  and  on  that  of  the 
miners,  who  believe  that  new  pits  injure  the  old 
works.  The  character  and  maimers  of  the  inhabit- 
ants agree  with  those  of  the  Swedes.  With  the  king 
and  the  government  of  Denmark  they  are  not  par- 
ticularly well  satisfied  ;  for  since  all  fiefs  and 
offices  are  mostly  filled  with  Danes,  and  the  king 
seldom  comes  thither,  great  injustice  is  done  to  the 
inhabitants.  The  nobility  in  Norway  are  well-nigh 
wholly  extirpated,  and  those  who  remain  enjoy  no 
respect  in  Denmark,  excepting  some  families  which 
have  been  naturalized.  Otherwise  there  is  an 
abundant  population  of  a  vigorous  and  lusty  stock, 
very  capable  for  war  and  navigation,  so  that  the 
Hollanders  employ  and  esteem  this  nation  before 
others.  There  is  hardly  a  ship  in  the  service  of  the 
States-general  in  which  there  are  not  some  Norse- 
men.   Norway  is  governed  by  a  lieutenant,  a  lord 

■*  Of  legal  procedure  and  the  condition  of  the  church  the 
following  is  stated:  The  four  inferior  courts  are  called 
home-courts ;  the  birke-ting  or  hamlet-court,  the  herreiis- 
ting  or  hundred  court,  the  by-ting  or  town-court,  and  the 
court  of  the  council-chamber.  The  latter  may  be  held  by 
the  town-bailiff,  or  burgomaster  and  council  in  the  council- 
house.  The  birke-ting  is  a  separate  court  in  a  certain  dis- 
trict, which  the  king  or  the  nobility  may  appoint,  and  In  it 
the  bailiff  and  clerk  must  be  sworn.  When  the  birke-ting  is 
held,  the  bailiff  summons  eight  good  men  of  the  same  dis- 
trict, whomsoever  he  will,  yet  honourable  and  of  good  repute, 
who  shall  sit  in  court  and  bear  testimony  to  the  bailiff  that 
he  judges  rightly ;  after  which  the  sentence  is  to  be  entered 
in  the  court-book.  These  eight  assessors  are  not  sworn. 
The  hundred-court  is  held  in  the  hundred  by  its  bailiff  and 
clerk,  with  eight  court-men,  peasants  of  the  same  hundred, 
who  must  all  be  sworn ;  and  these  eight  court-men,  like  the 
eight  in  the  birke-ting,  are  to  witness  that  the  judge  dooms 
rightly,  and  that  all  is  correctly  entered  in  the  hundred- 
book  by  the  clerk.  Froin  these  four  courts,  how  great  or 
small  soever  the  cause  may  be,  an  appeal  lies  to  the  lands- 
ting.  These  are  established  in  four  towns,  Copenhngen, 
Malmoe,  Odensee,  and  Ribe.  The  judge  of  each  province  is 
appointed  by  the  king,  invariably  from  the  nobility.  The 
bailiff  of  the  hundred  is  appointed  by  the  governor  of  the 


of  the  Danish  council,  who  has  his  residence  in 
Christiania.  Hannibal  Sehestedt  took  the  title  of 
vice-king,  and  received  from  Christian  IV.  his  fief 
in  freehold,  which  produced  to  him  30,000  rix- 
dollars  yearly.  He  also  during  his  stay  in  Norway 
erected  colleges  after  the  Swedish  fashion,  espe- 
cially for  the  admiralty  and  war,  the  chancery, 
treasury,  and  the  mines  ;  but  as  the  administra- 
tion of  Norway  in  such  sort  was  too  widely  sepa- 
rated from  that  of  Denmark,  all  this,  after  king 
Christian's  death  and  Sehestedt's  process,  was  abro- 
gated. The  main  cause  of  Hannibal's  fall  was  that  he 
made  a  more  gallant  figure  than  the  remainder  of 
the  Danish  nobles.  He  had  one  of  the  daughters  of 
Christian  IV.  to  wife  ;  therefore  the  nobility  were 
jealous  of  him,  and  it  was  necessary  to  ruin  him, 
together  with  the  other  sons-in-law  of  king  Christian, 
who,  in  the  time  of  this  sovereign,  had  divided  the 
whole  government  among  themselves,  namely,  Cor- 
fitz  Ulfeldt,  as  high  steward  in  Denmark,  and  Pentz 
and  Hannibal  Sehestedt  as  vice-kings  or  lieutenants, 
the  one  in  Holstein,  the  other  in  Norway*. 

Scania  and  Bleking  are  two  of  the  principal  pro- 
vinces in  the  kingdom  of  Denmark,  renowned  for 
good  grain,  cattle,  and  fisheries,  noble  forests,  fair 
pastures,  stately  rivers  and  lalies.  The  people,  es- 
pecially on  the  frontiers,  resemble  most  the  sub- 
jects of  your  majesty  in  Smaland,  as  well  in  speech 
as  humour;  and  since  they,  when  any  thing  springs 
up  on  the  Swedish  side,  must  bear  the  heaviest 
burden,  and  lie  as  it  were  in  the  wolf's  mouth, 
many  wish  themselves  under  the  crown  of  Sweden. 
This  people  is  in  Denmark  esteemed  better  adapted 
for  war  than  that  of  Zealand,  Fyen,  and  Jutland,  is 
also  more  handy  and  somewhat  more  practised  in 
the  management  of  arms.  The  population  of  Zea- 
land is  both  in  speech  and  humour  very  different 
from  that  of  Norway,  Scania,  and  Bleking,  is  by 
nature  addicted  to  ease,  inapt  for  war,  and  like  as 
in  the  remaining  provinces  of  Denmark,  discon- 
tented with  the  government  and  the  nobility,  which 
here  has  too  great  an  ascendant.  In  Fyen,  Laaland, 
Falster,  and  Langeland  the  population  resembles 
most  that  of  Zealand.  Jutland  is,  next  to  Nor- 
way, the  greatest  province  of  Denmark,  has  abun- 
dance of  rye  and  corn,  good  cattle,  fisheries,  forests, 
and  excellent  pastures.     The  people  are  by  nature 

province.  The  baronial  diet  is  the  last  resort,  namely, 
that  court  which  the  king  with  his  whole  council  forms,  and 
before  which  every  provincial  judge  has  to  make  answer. 
The  sentence  is  pronounced  by  the  high  chancellor,  and 
drawn  up  by  the  secretary  of  state. — In  Denmark  bishops 
and  superintendents  are  the  chief  persons  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  according  to  the  ordinance  of  Odensee.  The  bishops 
are  contirmed  by  the  king,  but  appointed  by  the  clergy. 
They  may  ordain  clergy,  but  neither  call  (vocera)  nor  select 
them  (whether  church-pastors  or  capellans),  which  privilege 
is  reserved  to  the  congregations  or  patrons ;  nor  can  any 
bishop  deprive  a  minister,  except  ad  interim,  for  that  be- 
longs to  the  baronial  diet.  Regal  benefices  depend  on  the 
king  alone.  For  the  rest,  the  bishops  have  the  right  of 
yearly  visiting  the  parishes,  and  have  superintendence  over 
the  revenues  of  the  churches,  the  schools,  hospitals,  and  por- 
tion of  the  poor,  and  can  also,  where  disputes  and  errors 
occur,  decide  according  to  the  Ordinance  for  the  Church. 
The  colleges  of  Denmark,  especially  that  of  Copenhagen, 
have  their  separate  privileges,  large  and  liberal,  so  that  the 
highly  learned  constitute  a  class  by  themselves,  together  with 
the  clergy,  with  which  the  king  and  council  have  to  make 
terms,  when  any  burden  is  to  be  imposed  on  the  order. 

'  All  the  wives  of  these  noblemen  were  natural  daughters 
of  Christian  IV.  by  Christina  Munk. 


318 


The  nobility,  clergy, 
and  burgesses. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Reduction  of  Jutland. 
Design  on  Zealand. 


[1  ess- 


industrious  and  inured  to  labour.  The  other  pro- 
vinces are  filled  with  official  persons  from  hence, 
both  in  the  towns  and  the  country.  The  people 
here  too,  as  elsewhere  in  the  kingdom,  are  mal- 
content with  the  nobility,  especially  as  they  are 
exposed  to  incursions  from  all  hands,  and  cannot 
obtain  leave  from  the  king  of  Denmark  to  build  here 
any  places  of  real  sti'ength.  In  Holstein,  which  is 
a  fief  of  the  German  empire,  the  govei'nment,  as  in 
Sleswick,  Ditmarsch,  and  Stormarn,  is  held  alter- 
nately by  the  king  of  Denmark  and  the  duke  of 
Gottorp,  each  for  a  year,  and  the  king  has  founded 
the  fortress  of  Gluckstadt  on  the  Elbe  to  curb 
Hamburg,  as  an  appendage  to  Holstein.  The  peo- 
ple are  very  apt  for  war,  but  little  attached  to  Den- 
mark. There  are  likewise  divers  grudges  between 
the  nobility  of  Denmark  and  that  of  Holstein,  be- 
cause the  latter,  though  enjoying  ample  privileges, 
cannot  be  employed  in  Denmark. 

The  affection  of  the  Danish  nobility  for  the  king 
lasts  so  long  as  he  maintains  their  privileges  unim- 
paired. Their  wealth  is  not  very  great,  except 
iu  some  few  persons,  as  Christian  Skeel,  Francis 
Lycke,  Tage  Tott,  and  Barnewitz,  each  of  whom 
may  have  yearly  18  to  20,000  rix-doUai's  from  his 
estates.  The  cause  is  the  want  of  trade,  and  the 
maintenance  by  the  nobility  of  many  useless  de- 
pendents on  their  estates  ;  they  are  not  inclined  to 
war,  and  hold  it  degrading  to  follow  commerce  or 
set  up  manufactures.  There  are  no  benefices  ex- 
cept the  fiefs  of  the  ci'own,  which  are  distributed 
among  the  chief  men  ;  otherwise  there  are  few 
officers  with  any  stipend.  The  clergy  are  not  so 
discontented  with  the  nobility  as  the  other  estates, 
because  this  order  sits  in  exceeding  prosperity  and 
opulence.  The  clergy  only  complain  that  they  can- 
not invest  their  money  with  others  than  the  nobles, 
as  the  burgesses  are  so  much  depressed.  The  bur- 
gesses are  exceedingly  discontented;  for  the  nobi- 
lity are  every  where  in  their  way,  so  that  neither 
trade  nor  business  can  arise  in  the  country.  The 
flourishing  state  of  Copenhagen  consists  not  so 
greatly  in  commerce,  which  is  here  of  small 
amount,  as  in  the  Sound  toll.  As  the  toll  has 
been  high  or  moderate,  so  also  has  been  the  in- 
crement of  the  town.  The  peasants  are  little 
taken  into  consideration  in  Denmark;  they  sit  still 
and  thrive  in  a  measure  well,  knowing  nought  of 
either  better  or  worse.  They  are  in  some  sort 
oppressed  by  the  nobility,  who  according  to  the 
law  have  great  power  over  their  peasants  ;  but  the 
nobles  again  can  defend  them  from  extortions  at 
all  hands.  One  means  to  the  power  of  the  nobi- 
lity, and  their  greatest  art  in  preserving  them- 
selves against  the  commons,  consists  in  that  they 
fill  petty  offices  of  all  sorts  in  the  country  and  the 
towns  with  their  own  servants,  who  are  wholly  de- 
voted to  their  old  masters.  To  the  king  the  three 
estates  entertain  considerable  affection,  in  the  ex- 
pectation that  if  the  nobility  should  oppress  them 
too  heavily,  they  may  have  shelter  and  protection 
from  the  snvereisrn." 

So  far  this  representation,  which  we  have  in- 
serted because  it  explains  the  unsuccessful  issue  of 
two  of  Denmark's  wars,  that  now  begun  )jy  Oxensti- 
ema,  and  that  afterwards  completed  by  Charles  Gus- 
tavus,  as  also  the  causes  of  that  revolution  (or 
eversio  status,  predicted  by  our  author),  which  was 

'^  Landscrona  was  taken,  but  Malmoc,  defended  in  part  by 
king  Christian  himself,  resisted  all  the  efforts  of  the  Swedes. 


subsequently  to  transform  the  constitution  of  Den- 
mark from  an  oligarchy  into  an  absolute  monarchy. 
The  military  occurrences  we  may  now  venture 
to  treat  more  succinctly.  "  We  have  heard  of  your 
successful  prowess,"  the  chancellor  writes  to  Tor- 
stenson,  "that  you  have  beaten  the  Danish  cavalry 
at  Koldingen,  taken  the  redoubt  at  Middelfurt,  and 
there  compelled  some  thousand  men  to  lay  down 
their  arms;  that  you  have  occupied  all  Jutland  to 
Skagen  ;  that  you  have  made  yourself  master  of 
Holstein,  Ditmarsch,  and  Stormarn,  to  Gluckstadt 
and  Krempen,  and  that  you  are  now  minded  to  try 
your  fortune  with  Fyen.  On  this  side  we  have 
caused  field-marshal  Gustave  Horn  and  Laurence 
Kagg  to  enter  Scania  with  an  army  of  horse  and 
foot,  as  considerable  as  we  have  been  able  to  col- 
lect during  the  winter  from  the  adjacent  provinces. 
He  occupied  Helsingborg  on  the  17th  February, 
and  thereafter  moved  on  Landscrona  and  MalmoG  *', 
with  intent  to  acquire  a  place  of  strength,  ttiat  we 
may  at  least  possess  a  moiety  of  dominion  in  the 
Sound,  till  we  can  put  to  sea  in  the  summer,  and 
attack  the  Dane  on  his  islands.  We  will  in  time 
disclose  to  you  our  further  plans  for  this  war.  Our 
main  design  is,  to  exert  all  our  force  abroad,  and 
to  straiten  our  neighbour  at  home,  and  to  that  end, 
in  order  to  preclude  all  relief,  to  press  with  all  our 
power  on  his  islands  by  the  first  day  of  summer. 
Seek  meanwhile  to  occupy  Fyen  and  to  secure  the 
havens  on  the  Belt.  In  May  our  whole  fleet  will 
be  at  sea,  and  we  will  endeavour  to  fall  upon  Zea- 
land from  all  sides.  If  this  project  succeed,  it 
may  be  expected  that  we  will  have  but  a  short  war 
with  Denmark.  Our  chief  hindrance  lies  in  the 
Danish  fleet,  in  which  the  greatest  strength  of  that 
crown  consists  ;  for  they  possess  a  considerable 
number  of  ships,  and  plenty  of  seamen,  especially 
from  Norway.  The  Icelandic  company  has  also  a 
tolerably  large  number  of  ships  of  the  Danish 
towns,  called  ships  of  defence,  which  may  be  so 
employed.  We  hope,  however,  that  our  fleet  will 
be  equal  to  that  of  the  enemy,  as  we  have  sought 
here  at  home  to  augment  our  navy,  and  besides 
have  sent  Louis  de  Geer  at  Christmas  to  Holland, 
to  bring  us  from  thence  twenty  or  thirty  well- 
equipped  vessels.  Seek  likewise  to  get  into  your 
hands  war  and  merchant-ships  ;  correspond  with 
Louis  de  Geer,  combine  your  squadron  with  his, 
and  form  a  junction  with  our  main  fleet.  Take 
heed  that  the  Danish  fleet  come  not  between  you 
and  the  ships  of  Louis  de  Geer  ;  let  not  these  part 
from  one  another,  remembering  that  they  are 
trading  vessels,  which  could  not  defend  themselves 
against  the  heavily-armed  ships  of  the  Danes. 
Although  there  be  manifold  obstacles  to  our  plan, 
Ave  yet  hope  to  be  able  to  avert  them.  The  greatest 
hindrance  is  our  enemy  the  emperor.  Here  two  things 
are  to  be  considered  in  this  conjuncture,naniely,whe- 
ther  it  be  advisable  to  dii'ect  our  force  against  the 
emperor,  and  to  keep  Holstein  and  Jutland  in  subjec- 
tion with  a  small  army  only,  or  whether  we  should 
set  oiu"  main  design  upon  Denmark,  and  only  defend 
ourselves  against  the  emperor  as  need  may  enforce. 
There  are  reasons  on  both  sides  ;  but  if  we  look 
somewhat  further,  a  slack  war  with  Denmark  will 
give  them  courage,  and  time  to  our  enemies  to 
assist  them.      Then  this  enemy  lies  so  close  at  our 

"  The  king  of  Denmark  hath  drawn  his  forces  to  Malmoe, 
and  is  come  thither  himself."  The  chancellor  to  C.  G. 
Wrangel.    Stockholm,  September  16,  10-14.    Correspondence. 


16-15.] 


Maritime  operations  and 
engagements. 


CHRISTINA.    THE  REGENCY. 


Defeat  of  tlie  Imperialists 
under  Gallas. 


319 


door,  and  so  embarrassing  to  us  at  sea,  that  what- 
ever other  comes  against  ns  Denmark  will  give  us 
disturbance.  Therefore,  after  mature  deliberation, 
we  judge  it  best  to  have  an  eye  upon  the  emperor, 
but  to  direct  our  main  intention  to  bi'eaking  the 
strength  of  Denmark.  In  Germany  we  must  give 
constant  heed  to  the  sea-coast  and  its  strong  places. 
It  seems  not  probable  that  the  emperor  should 
move  onwards,  leaving  in  his  rear  the  fortresses 
we  possess  in  Silesia  and  Moravia,  especially  as  the 
country  on  the  sea-coast  is  mostly  desolate,  and  no 
army  can  live  there  before  the  grain  is  housed. 
Howbeit  if  he  come,  you  must  meet  him  as  well  as 
may  be,  keeping  in  view  the  main  intention  for 
Denmark.  We  count  upon  a  short  war,  since  the 
Danes  already  seek  to  treat.  Then  may  ye  grapple 
with  the  emperor '." 

The  course  of  events  did  not  in  all  things  answer 
to  these  calculations.  Louis  de  Geer  indeed  ma- 
naged in  Holland  to  equip  thii-ty  ships  in  his  own 
name  ',  (for  the  States-general  would  yet  take  no 
open  part,)  which  put  to  sea  in  May;  but  Idng 
Christian,  who  on  his  side  had  commenced  the  war 
by  an  attack  on  Gottenburg,  encountered  them  off 
the  coast  of  Jutland,  and  compelled  them  to  return 
to  North  Holland,  where  a  mutiny  of  the  crews 
threatened  to  frustrate  the  whole  undertaking.  It 
is  a  proof  of  the  interest  with  which  it  was  em- 
braced by  the  merchants  of  Holland,  that  Dc  Geer 
and  his  admiral  Martin  Thysen  %  accomplished  the 
equipment  of  a  new  squadron,  which  now  sailed 
for  Gottenburg.  Meanwhile  the  Swedish  fleet, 
numbering  forty  ships,  had  put  to  sea  in  June, 
under  the  command  of  Clas  Fleming,  councillor  of 
state  and  admiral,  who,  on  the  29th  June,  took  the 
island  of  Femcrn.  But  here  too  king  Christian, 
though  now  almost  seventy  years  old,  was  not  slow 
in  showing  himself  ;  and  on  the  6th  July,  when  the 
Danish  and  Swedish  fleets  four  times  engaged,  he 
was  wounded  at  the  mast  of  his  ship,  twelve  men 
being  killed  round  him.     Not  without  good  ground 

^  To  Torstenson,  March  14,  1644.     Reg. 

^  In  an  autograph  letter  from  Louis  de  Geer  to  bishop 
Johannes  Matthiae,  the  former  tutor  of  Christina,  preserved 
in  a  volume  of  manuscripts  in  the  Library  of  Upsala,  and 
dated  at  Amsterdam,  March  20 — 30,  1C44,  he  says,  "Quant 
k  mon  equipage  j'espere  que  dans  15  jours  je  le  pourrois 
rendre  prest.  Je  suis  le  marchaud  convert!  en  homme  de 
guerre. — Le  Marquis  Spinola  est  mort,  il  faiit  qu'un  autre  le 
relive,"  he  adds,  jestingly.  The  council  of  state  engaged  to 
contribute  to  the  equipinent  of  this  fleet  50,000  rix-dollars, 
which  Louis  de  Geer  was  to  raise  in  Holland.  The  sum 
was  to  be  repaid,  with  eight  per  cent,  interest,  in  two  years, 
either  in  cash,  or  with  land  which  might  be  conquered  from 
the  enemy.  Minute  of  May  1,  1644.  Reg.  These  50,000 
rix-dollars  were  really  furnished  from  the  crown  estates  in 
Halland,  whicli  province  was  annexed  to  Sweden  by  the 
peace  of  Bromsebro.  Jan.  21,  1645,  de  Geer  received  an 
assignment  on  the  excise  for  three  years  for  300,000  rix- 
dollars,  which  he  had  expended  in  the  public  service.  The 
first  year's  instalment  was  repaid,  and  the  residue  assigned 
on  the  customs.  We  are  not  aware  whether  he  obtained  it, 
but  when  De  Geer's  purchase  of  crown  estates  was  con- 
firnied,  June  30,  1046,  the  earnest-money  was  remitted  at  his 
request.     Reg. 

3  Ennobled  in  Sweden  under  the  name  of  Ankarhielm. 

'  "  King  Gustavus  Adolphus  affirmed,  that  among  all  po- 
tentates he  esteemed  the  king  of  Denmark  most,  and  with 
no  one  preferably  would  keep  good  correspondence;  the  sole 
obstacle  to  which  was  that  he  was  a  neighbour."  Axel 
Oxenstierna  in  the  council.     Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  190,  p.  387. 

2  "July  26,  at  six  in  the  morning,  happened   this  mis- 


did  Gustavus  Adolphus  say,  that  of  all  the  rulers 
of  his  time  with  whom  politics  did  not  pei-mit  him 
to  maintain  amity,  he  esteemed  this  sovereign  the 
most  highly*.  Both  sides  claimed  tlie  victory;  but 
it  would  have  remained  decisively  with  the  Swedes, 
if  admiral  Aco  Ulfsparre  had  done  with  the  right 
wing  of  the  fleet  what  was  expected  from  him. 
The  high  admiral  Clas  Fleming,  after  he  had  re- 
turned to  Christianspris,  was  struck  on  the  20th 
July  by  a  ball  from  a  Danish  battery  2,  and  in  his 
last  moments  transferred  the  command  to  the 
general  of  infantry,  Charles  Gustave  Wrangel, 
who  was  now  to  find  a  new  field  of  glory  on  the 
sea.  Meanwhile  the  imperial  court,  contrary  to 
the  expectation  of  Oxenstierna,  had  determined 
to  send  Gallas  in  pursuit  of  Torstenson,  without 
regard  to  the  fortresses  occupied  by  the  Swedes,  or 
to  the  inroad  of  Ragotzi  from  Transylvania.  The 
attack  on  the  Danish  islands  it  was  now  necessary 
to  discontinue.  "Gallas  approaches  with  his  whole 
force,  and  we  must  desist  from  the  plan  concerted," 
Torstenson  writes  from  his  sick  bed  to  Wrangel  *, 
by  whom  he  intended  to  execute  this  attack.  "  I 
wish  the  devil  would  take  Gallas,"  Wrangel  re- 
plies in  his  vehement  manner,  "  he  hinders  me 
from  a  great  piece  of  fortune ;  I  am  the  most 
unlucky  of  men."  Gallas,  reinforced  by  a  Danish 
corp.s,  broke  into  Holstein,  and  took  Kiel,  but  con- 
fined himself  in  this  campaign  to  his  old  tactics 
of  sitting  down  in  fortified  camps,  and  avoiding 
battles  *.  Torstenson  committed  the  command  in 
Jutland  and  Holstein  to  colonel  Hellmuth  Wrangel, 
and  with  an  army  reinforced  and  refreshed  in  their 
late  quarters,  passed  before  the  eyes  of  Gallas, 
offered  him  battle  in  vain,  and  alluring  him  in  pur- 
suit to  Gei'many,  routed  at  length  and  destroyed 
his  whole  army  ^.  Charles  Gustave  Wrangel  was 
confix-med  by  the  government  in  the  chief  command 
of  the  fleet,  which  he  brought  into  port.  Imme- 
diately afterwards  he  led  it  to  meet  De  Geer's 
squadron,  which  from  Gottenburg  had  passed  the 

chance,  that  a  spent  ball,  after  glancing  ofT  the  water  in  its 
course,  passed  unexpectedly  through  the  cabin  of  the  ad- 
miral's ship,  and  carried  away  the  leg  of  the  admiral,  Clas 
Fleming,  while  washing  himself  there,  so  that  he  lived  only 
an  hour  and  a  half  longer.  His  servant  who  stood  by  had 
both  legs  carried  away  by  the  ball,  which  else  did  not  do  the 
least  damage.  We  have  lost  in  Clas  Fleming  a  true  man, 
and  one  indispensable  to  us."  The  administration  to  field- 
marshal  Gustave  Horn,  Aug.  6,  1644.  Reg.  In  revenge, 
Torstenson  carried  the  redoubts  of  the  Danes,  cut  down  fif- 
teen hundred  men,  and  took  six  cannon. 

3  Torstenson  to  C.  G.  Wrangel,  Kiel,  and  Christianspris, 
June  23,  1644.  The  draught  of  Wrangel's  answer  is  an- 
nexed.    Correspondence  of  Wrangel. 

■•  On  occasion  of  the  camjiaign  of  the  Imperialists  in  Hol- 
stein a  coin  was  struck  in  Hamburg,  on  the  one  side  of  which 
were  these  words,  "What  Gallas  achieved  in  Holstein  you 
may  see  on  the  other  side."  The  reverse  was  left  smooth 
and  without  impression.  Slange,  History  of  Christian  IV. 
p.  1252. 

5  "  I  doubt  not  that  the  field-marshal  has  signified  to  you 
the  ruin  of  the  Imperialist  main  army."  John  Oxenstierna 
(the  chancellor's  son,  envoy  in  Osnaburg,)  to  C.  G.  Wrangel. 
Correspondence.  "  You  have  done  all  well.  For  the  rest, 
we  value  your  services  so  highly,  that  for  your  pains  and 
sufferings  we  would  gladly  grant  you  immediate  furlough 
and  releasenient.  But  your  success  in  war,  and  authority 
over  the  foreign  soldiery,  are  so  great,  and  the  circumstances 
j'et  so  difficult,  that  we  must  beg  you  to  have  patience  for 
some  time  further."  The  administration  to  Torstenson,  Oct. 
26,  1644.     Reg. 


320 


Naval  victorj'. 
Peace  of  Briimsebro. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Cefsions  by  Denmark. 
Grants  to  Oxenstierna. 


[1645— 


Sound,  and  awaited  the  Swedish  fleet  at  Calmar. 
The  combined  fleet,  of  forty-two  vessels  in  all,  met 
that  of  Denmark,  numbering  seventeen  ships  of 
war,  between  Zealand  and  Femern,  and  obtained 
over  it  on  the  13th  October  so  complete  a  victory, 
that  ten  ships  were  taken,  two  burned,  three  driven 
on  shore,  and  only  two  escaped. 

The  naval  war  in  the  following  year  (1645),  with 
the  exception  of  the  capture  of  Bornholra  by 
Wrangel,  offers  nothing  remarkable^,  although  that 
commander  was  now  supported  by  admiral  Erie 
Ryning,  and  a  fleet  equipped  by  the  States-general 
cruised  in  the  Sound.  Hence  the  Dutch  commission- 
ers, who  had  attended  the  negotiation  for  peace  at 
Bromsebro,  now  abandoned  their  pretended  charac- 
ter of  mediators,  and  passed  over  to  the  Swedes '. 
The  peace  was  mediated  by  France^.  It  was  con- 
cluded after  eighteen  months'  negotiation,  during 
which  the  chancellor,  who  wrote  with  his  own  hand 
the  larger  portion  of  the  notes,  had  to  contend  not 
only  with  the  enemy  and  the  mediator,  but  with  the 
constantly  rising  opposition,  favourable  to  peace,  in 
the  Swedish  council,  upon  which  the  queen,  now  at 
the  age  of  nineteen,  expressed  herself  with  equal 
amiability  and  frankness.  "  Among  the  causes,"  she 
declares,  "  which  have  moved  me  to  let  you  come 
down  by  degrees  so  far  (in  respect  to  the  conditions 
of  peace),  it  is  not  the  least,  that  I  well  perceive  the 
greatest  portion  of  our  council  of  state  to  be  of  quite 
a  different  opinion  from  you  and  me.  1  will  accuse 
no  one,  but  yet  I  surely  believe  that  time  will  bring 
ray  words  true,  and  I  shall  perchance  hear  more 
of  it  in  this  commission  of  the  estates.  You  may 
well  think  how  hard  it  must  be  for  me  to  lay  stress 
upon  matters,  which  I  know  that  some  would  find 
it  very  expedient  to  remit ;  especially  as  it  would 
be  disavowed  perhaps,  in  case  of  any  ill  success,  by 
those  who  ought  in  fairness  to  defend  counsels 
adopted  with  their  own  consent.  Then  would  my 
innocent  youth  be  subjected  to  calumny,  as  having 
been  incapable  of  taking  wholesome   advice,  and 

6  "  The  weather  this  summer  has  been  unfavourable  for 
the  fleet.  The  design  on  the  islands  must  be  postponed  to 
a  better  opportunity.  I  advise  keeping  the  fleet  together, 
the  more  that  peace  is  near."  Oxenstierna  to  C.  G.  Wrangel, 
Siideraker,  Aug.  1  and  6,  1645.     Correspondence. 

7  "  I  have  been  advised  by  the  Dutch  envoys  at  the  peace- 
congress,  that  they  have  crossed  the  border  to  the  Swedes, 
and  conformably  to  the  orders  of  their  principals,  have  an- 
nounced to  the  Danish  commissaries,  that  they  demand 
satisfaction  in  respect  to  the  complaints  of  the  States-general 
touching  the  tolls  in  the  Sound  and  in  Norway,  and  that  they 
will  take  part  with  the  Swedes."  Field-marshal  Gustave 
Horn  to  C.  G.  Wrangel,  Fielkinge,  May  20,  1645.  "  The 
news  is,  that  the  States-general  are  most  firmly  resolved  to 
maintain  their  interests  in  commerce  against  Denmark,  and 
are  now  fitting  out  a  fleet  of  fifty  ships  of  war,  with  eight 
thousand  mariners  and  two  thousand  soldiers."  The  Swedish 
re.sident  Harald  Appelbom  to  C.  G.  Wrangel,  Amsterdam, 
March  29,  1645.  "To-day  the  Dutch  fleet  hopes  to  set  sail, 
so  that  we  may  soon  hear  what  miracle  they  will  perform  in 
the  Sound.  The  resolution  is  to  convoy  the  merchant-sliips 
through  it,  and  on  the  smallest  hostility  shown  by  the  Danes, 
to  give  them  powder  and  lead  to  the  full."  The  same  to  the 
same,  Amsterdam,  June  10,  1645.  Letter  from  the  Dutch 
admiral  Cornelius  de  Witte  to  Wrangel  (without  date),  that 
he  has  come  with  forty-nine  shijis  of  war  and  three  hundred 
merchantmen  into  the  Baltic,  has  stationed  ships  both  in  the 
Sound  and  the  Belts  to  protect  the  Dutch  navigation,  and  is 
now  in  sight  of  the  Danish  fleet.     C.  G.  Wrangel's  Cor. 

8  Through  the  ambassador  de  la  Thuillerie.  Salvius 
writes  to  John  Oxenstierna,  Jan.  .';,  1644,  "By  Rorte  and 


having  committed  such  errors  from  the  libido  domi- 
nandi ;  since  I  well  foresee  it  will  be  my  fate  that 
if  I  should  effect  aught  with  pains-taking  and  pru- 
dence, others  will  have  the  honour  of  it;  but  where 
others  neglect  what  they  should  take  to  heed,  the 
blame  must  be  mine  3." 

The  peace  with  Denmark  was  signed  at  Bromsebro, 
August  1 3, 1645,  on  the  frontier  of  Bleking  and  Sma- 
land.  Sweden  obtained  the  most  unrestricted  fi-eedom 
from  tolls  in  the  Sound  and  Belts  i,  which  was  now 
also  expressly  extended  to  ships  of  Finland  and 
Livonia,  Pomerania,  and  Wismar;  Denmark  ceded 
to  Sweden  the  provinces  of  Jemteland  and  Herje- 
dale,  the  islands  of  Gottland  and  ffisel,  with  Hal- 
land  for  thirty  years,  not  to  be  restored  even  then 
without  an  equivalent.  Bremen,  taken  from  king 
Christian's  son  by  Konigsmark  (whom  Torstenson 
had  left  behind  him  upon  his  expedition  against 
Holstein),  remained  in  the  possession  of  Sweden. 

On  the  chancellor's  return  from  the  peace-con- 
gress in  Bromsebro,  the  queen  advanced  him  to  be 
count  of  Sodermoere^  ;  a  reward  that  was  made 
still  more  flattering  by  the  manner  in  which  it  was 
conferred.  He  had  been,  the  queen  upon  this  occa- 
sion observed  in  the  council,  a  great  minister  to  a 
great  king  ;  he  had,  when  God  called  her  father 
out  of  the  world,  and  she  was  left  a  child  under 
age,  well  warded  and  instructed  her  youth;  hehad 
with  his  colleagues  faithfully  served  his  father- 
land, so  that  she  had  found  all  things  in  good 
order  on  her  accession  to  the  government ;  he  had, 
although  possessing  great  power,  never  forgotten 
towards  her  the  duty  of  a  subject :  lastly,  he  had 
enhanced  his  merits  towards  his  country,  by  having 
brought  the  war  with  Denmark  to  a  desirable  issue, 
which  she  ascribed  pre-eminently  to  his  capacity, 
skill,  and  great  qualities  ^. 

This  was,  without  doubt,  the  moment  in  the  life 
of  Axel  Oxenstierna  most  full  of  honour.  It  was 
also  the  last  which  was  sweetened  to  hint  by  the 
gratitude  of  the  daughter  of  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

St.  Romain  I  remark,  that  the  French  are  much  dissatisfled 
with  Torstenson's  irruption  (into  Holstein).  The  cause 
seems  partly  to  be  that  they  would  not  gladly  see  Sweden 
become  too  powerful  by  the  occupation  of  Denmark,  or  set 
up  a  universal  monarchy  in  the  north,  as  Rorte  laughingly 
observed.  It  gives  great  umbrage  that  Sweden  has  now 
already  occupied  all  the  principal  provinces  on  the  Baltic — 
Ingermanland,  Livonia,  Pomerania,  Mecklenburg,  Holstein, 
Jutland — and  thus  Denmark  is  as  it  were  blockaded  round." 
Fant,  Handlingar,  iv.  96. 
9  Arckenholtz,  Mem.  de  Christine,  i.  65. 

1  The  Swedes  on  their  side  could  not  find  words  enough 
to  express  this  freedom.  In  the  answer  of  the  Swedish 
council  to  the  Danish,  March  2,  1644,  it  is  said,  "Her  ma- 
jesty will  permit  no  limitation  of  the  Swedish  freedom  of 
trade  in  the  Sound,  under  any  interpretation,  but  will  possess 
this  freedom  for  herself  and  her  subjects,  undisturbed,  un- 
circumscribed,  unlimited,  unburdened,  unhindered,  unob- 
structed."   Reg. 

2  Count's  patent  for  Axel  Oxenstierna  over  the  hundred  of 
South  Mcere  in  Smaland,  for  a  county,  with  eleven  parishes, 
for  himself  and  his  heirs,  Nov.  19,  1645.  Reg.  The  re- 
venues were  valued  at  15,000  rix-doUars  yearly.  Aug.  20  of 
the  same  year,  tlie  chancellor  had  received  a  donation  of  the 
manor-house  of  Kongsberg  in  the  hundred  of  Aker  in 
Suthermanland,  with  several  islands  in  the  Ma^Iar,  in  all 
thirty-seven  hydes.  To  these  were  added  on  the  10th  De- 
cember twenty-one  and  three-quarters  hydes  more,  and  the 
s.ame  day  the  chancellor  received  permission  to  buy  the 
freehold  for  ever  of  all  these  crown-fiefs.     Reg 

3  Arckenholtz,  1.  c.  70. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


321 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

CHRISTINA'S  GOVERNMENT  AND  ABDICATION. 

ASSUMPTION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  YOUNG  QUEEN.  DIET  OF  1644.  REPORT  MADE  BY  THE  GUAR- 
DIANS TO  THE  ESTATES.  EDUCATION  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHRISTINA.  CONCLUDING  PERIOD  OF  THE  WAR. 
INVASION  OF  BOHEMIA  BY  TORSTENSON,  AND  BATTLE  OF  JANKOWITZ.  EFFECT  OF  TORSTENSON's  VICTORIES. 
PACIFICATORY  CONGRESS  AT  OSNABURG,  IN  1C45.  INSTRUCTIONS  TO  THE  SWEDISH  COMMISSIONERS.  DESO- 
LATION OF  GERMANY.  CHARLES  GUSTAVE  WRANGEL  APPOINTED  COMMANDER-IN-CIIIEF.  JUNCTION  WITH 
THE  FRENCH  UNDER  TURENNE,  AND  CAMPAIGN  IN  UPPER  GERMANY.  FINAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1648,  AND 
PEACE  OF  WESTPHALIA.  PERTURBED  STATE  OF  PUBLIC  FEELING  IN  SWEDEN.  DILAPIDATION  OF  THE 
CROWN  PROPERTY.  RELATIONS  OF  OXENSTIERNA  WITH  THE  NEW  COURT.  DIETS  OF  1649  AND  1650. 
DISPUTES  OF  THE  FOUR  ESTATES  AS  TO  CLERICAL  AND  BARONIAL  PRIVILEGES,  AND  THE  ALIENATION  OF 
CROWN  PROPERTY.  LOVE-SUIT  OF  PRINCE  CHARLES  GUSTAVUS  TO  CHRISTINA.  HE  IS  DECLARED,  BY  THE 
COUNCIL  AND  ESTATES,  PRESUMPTIVE  SUCCESSOR.  THE  QUEEN'S  RESOLUTION  TO  ABDICATE.  CONSPIRACY 
BY    THE    ADHERENTS    OF     THE     PALSGRAVE.         EXTRAVAGANCE     AND     DISSOLUTENESS     OF     THE     COURT.        THE 

ABDICATION. 

A.  D.  1644-1654. 


From  the  date  of  Cliristina's  assumption  of  tlie 
government  to  her  I'enouncement  of  its  duties,  ten 
years  more  remain.  Already  in  May,  1642,  she 
had  begun  to  preside  over  the  dehberations  of  the 
council.  On  her  eighteenth  birth-day,  December 
6,  1644,  she  assumed  the  exercise  of  sovereignty. 
For  the  sake  of  connexion,  merely,  we  have  con- 
tinued our  narrative  in  the  preceding  chapter  to 
the  peace  of  Bromsebro  in  the  following  year. 

The  estates,  convened  for  the  8th  October,  1644, 
met  the  queen  at  Stockholm  ;  and  the  guardians 
rendered  an  account  of  their  administration.  In 
this  report,  composed  by  the  high-chancellor,  they 
recall  the  difficult  circumstances  under  which  they, 
by  the  will  and  order  of  the  estates,  had  accepted 
the  office  of  rulers.  They  had  entered  upon  their 
task  after  a  heroieal  king,  too  earlj'  snatched  away, 
who  had  exalted  his  fatherland  to  the  height  of 
renown,  whereas  their  insignificance  had  found  it 
difficult  to  maintain  that  needful  respect,  without 
which  no  government  could  subsist;  they  had  had  to 
contend  with  many  obstacles  both  intestine  and  ex- 
traneous, even  from  the  number  of  those  who  were 
to  bear  rule,  which  ever  led  naturally  to  dissension; 
yet,  confiding  in  God,  in  the  harmony  and  true  co- 
operation of  the  estates,  in  the  obedience  of  the  sub- 
ject and  the  good  disposition  of  the  queen,  they  had 
put  tlieir  hand  to  the  work,  striving  to  follow  those 
counsels  and  designs  which  the  late  king  had  pro- 
posed to  himself  in  his  lifetime.     They  hoped  that, 

'  As  the  foundation  both  of  the  palace-court  of  Gothland, 
and  the  university  of  Abo  (by  count  Peter  Brahe,  in  16^0), 
belongs  to  the  regency  of  the  guardians,  it  is  plain  that  by 
the  phrase  "augmented"  is  here  meant  the  addition  of  a 
new  palace-court  and  university  to  those  previously  existing. 

2  These  are  enumerated  :  Falun,  at  the  Kopparberg, 
Saeter,  Linde,  Nora,  Askersund,  Christiiiehamn,  Amal, 
Wennersborg,  New  Helsingfors. 

3  Resolution  by  the  administration  and  council,  on  account 
of  her  majesty,  our  most  gracious  queen,  concerning  the  sale 
of  assessable  and  crown  estates;  Stockholm,  Nov.  5,  1638: 
also,  Deliberation  and  Resolution,  May  15,  1641.  Nordin 
Collections.  This  had  been  already  commenced  in  1635,  on 
the  equipment  of  the  army  for  Prussia.  The  reason  alleged 
was  needfulness;  they  being  unable,  or  not  daring  to  raise 


if  the  hardness  of  the  times  had  perchance  ex- 
torted from  them  any  resolution  which  might  have 
been  wished  better,  such  might  be  interpreted 
according  to  their  intention  and  the  practicability 
of  it,  not  after  the  censure  of  ill-willers  and  en- 
viers.  The  measures  of  internal  administration 
which  they  submitted  to  the  good  pleasure  of  the 
queen  were  principally  the  following: — 1.  They 
had  been  obliged  to  make  divers  ordinances  and 
statutes,  partly  with  the  consent  of  the  estates, 
partly  on  their  own  authority,  for  which  they  soli- 
cited confirmation,  in  so  far  as  these  might  be 
found  useful.  2.  They  had  divided  some  too  large 
prefectures  into  two;  had  augmented  the  palace- 
court  in  Gothland,  as  well  as  the  academy  in  Abo  ', 
and  several  gymnasia  ;  had  founded  some  new 
towns  ^,  improved  the  old,  and  privileged  some 
mine-works  and  brass-foundries.  3.  They  had 
found  themselves  induced  to  acquire  for  the  crown, 
by  exchange,  some  freehold  estates  of  noblemen, 
partly  for  the  building  and  extension  of  the  towns, 
partly'  for  the  benefit  of  the  mine-tracts  and  ore- 
pits.  4.  By  reason  of  the  great  expenses  of  the 
kingdom,  which  exceeded  the  revenues,  and  be- 
cause they  had  not  ventured  to  burden  the  estates 
with  heavier  taxes,  and  thereby  to  excite  discon- 
tent, which,  however,  had  been  sometimes  immi- 
nent, they  had  been  compelled,  in  words,  to  sell, 
but,  in  fact,  to  mortgage  certain  of  the  crown 
estates*.     They  knew  that  this  might  be  ill  inter- 

the  taxes,  the  French  subsidies  being  insufficient,  and  there 
being  no  credit  to  procure  a  loan,  so  long  as  neither  the 
capital  nor  interest  of  the  old  debt  could  be  paid.  The 
cai)ital  of  the  old  Copper  Company  was  still  vested  in  the 
crown,  and  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  engaged  to  pay  for  it 
not  less  than  twenty  per  cent.  Although  the  shareholders 
afterwards,  "from  their  humble  devotion,"  lowered  the  in- 
terest to  ten  per  cent.,  and  a  number  of  them  in  the  late 
king's  lifetime  received  payment  in  lands,  the  sum  was  yet 
very  large,  and  the  new  Copper  Company  yielded  no  profit,  as 
many  of  its  shareholders  were  also  interested  in  the  old,  and 
now  sought  to  indemnify  themselves,  It  was  therefore 
resolved,  in  1641,  to  cancel  the  old  debt,  to  buy  in  the  stock 
and  satisfy  the  holders  with  estates,  "especially  the  nobility, 
who  held  the  largest  share."    In  1638,  it  was  resolved  to 

Y 


322 


Report  by  the  guardians, 
approved  by  the  queen. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Sentiments  of  the  estates 
as  to  the  constitution. 


[1644— 


preted.  But  it  had  been  done  from  unavoidable 
necessity,  to  save  the  state  and  their  country  ; 
Gustavus  Adolphus  had  himself  set  the  example  of 
the  measure,  which  had  been  embraced  also  by 
other  states  in  times  of  pressure;  especially  as 
landed  estates  were  always  most  profitable  in  the 
hands  of  private  persons.  These  estates  the  crown 
might  redeem ;  and  although  in  the  term  specified 
for  such  redemption  (a  year  from  the  queen's 
assumption  of  the  government)  they  had  been 
obliged  to  take  a  very  short  date,  in  order  to  per- 
suade individuals  to  make  advances;  all  this  had 
been  referred  for  ratification,  so  that  her  majesty, 
if  it  seemed  good  to  her,  might  prolong  the  term 
to  some  years.  5.  Albeit  the  Form  of  Govern- 
ment forbade  the  grant  of  patents  of  nobility,  or  the 
alienation  of  crown  estates  during  the  minority  of 
the  sovereign,  the  guardians  had  yet  found  it  im- 
possible to  avoid  this  in  the  long  run,  with  this 
great  war,  so  unproportioned  to  the  energies  of  the 
country,  on  their  shoulders,  and  an  empty  trea- 
sury; especially  as  tlie  late  king  had  before  his 
death  given  many  persons  assurance  of  donations, 
and  caused  patents  to  be  made  out  for  that  pur- 
pose. As  no  government  could  be  upheld  without 
rewards  and  punishments,  they  had  been  unable  to 
decline  gratifying  meritorious  persons,  and  had 
therefore  rewarded  some  with  estates,  others  with 
ennoblement,  who  they  hoped  were  not  unworthy; 
although  all  was  remitted  to  the  good  pleasure  of 
a  full-aged  sovereign. 

The  queen  approved  all.  Her  letter  of  acquit- 
tance for  the  five  high  officers  bears  date  Decem- 
ber 7,  1644,  the  same  day  on  which  she  issued  her 
warranty  to  the  estates.  In  the  Act  of  the  Diet 
their  administration  is  mentioned  "  with  highest 
thankfulness  and  praise."  In  reference  to  the 
constitution  of  1(J34,  Christina's  warranty  declares: 
"  We  have  duriftg  the  time  of  our  minority  made 
good  trial  of  it ;  but  seeing  that  at  present  we  are 
involved  in  so  many  embarrassments  that  we  have 
not  leisure  to  examine  it  accurately,  therefore  we 
find  it  advisable  to  defer  its  establishment  until 
our  happy  coronation,  to  the  end  that  it  may 
meanwhile  be  well  considered,  and  then  with  the 
consent  of  the  estates  be  confirmed  for  a  law, 
which  shall  be  perpetually  observed  in  this  king- 
dom; yet  will  we,  in  the  mean  time,  guide  ourselves 
by  its  tenor,  as  it  hath  hitherto  stood."  From  a 
minute,  purporting  to  be  "  the  opinion  of  the 
greatest  part  of  the  estates  and  good  patriots, 
touching  the  Form  of  Government  *,"  it  is  mani- 
fest that  this  constitution  was  actually  submitted 
to  the  estates  for  further  examination  *.  Changes 
of  dubious   character,  which   were   brought   into 

sell  estates  to  tlie  value  of  200,000  rixdollars;  in  1639, 
again  to  the  same  amount;  in  1641,  to  400,000  rix-dollars. 
For  three,  or  afterwards  for  four  and  a  half  dollars  rent  from 
the  land,  100  rix-dollars  were  paid.  The  right  of  purchase 
was  so  rigorously  reserved  to  the  nobility,  that  a  nobleman 
who  lent  his  name  to  an  unnoble  person  for  such  a  purchase 
was  to  forfeit  his  estate.  The  cess-paying  peasants  of  the 
crown,  thus  brought  into  dependence  on  the  nobility,  were 
not  to  pay  more  to  the  new  superior  than  formerly  to  the 
crown ;  for  only  the  crown-rents  of  their  lands  were  sold.  At 
the  diet  of  1643,  the  peasants  complained,  that  those  who  in 
this  way  hail  been  made  dependent  on  the  nobility,  were 
harassed  with  intolerable  exactions  of  day-work  and  bur- 
dens of  all  kinds,  in  order  thereby  to  induce  them  to  give  up 
their  right  of  property  in  the  land  to  the  noble  superior. 


question,  appear  to  have  led  to  its  postponement. 
These  aimed  at  a  great  extension  of  the  rights  of 
the  estates,  and  seem  to  be  directed  in  part 
against  the  high-chancellor  personally.  In  order 
that  no  man  may  engross  all  power  to  himself,  nor 
any  one  family  or  estate  raise  itself  above  all 
others,  none  of  the  five  high  offices  of  state — it  is 
said — should  be  filled  in  any  other  way  than  that 
the  estates  should  propose  three  persons,  and  the 
king  select  one  among  them,  care  being  taken 
herein  that  brothers,  or  individuals  of  the  same 
family,  should  not  be  spoken  of.  Thus  were  to  be 
chosen  the  councillors  of  state  also,  some  of  whom 
should  attend  the  king  in  their  turn,  while  the 
others,  as  of  old,  should  be  governors  of  provinces, 
since  it  is  too  far  for  the  people  to  carry  their 
complaints  to  the  capital.  Judges  should  not  be 
executive  officers  also,  and  conversely,  by  which 
might  made  right.  In  order  that  the  house  of 
barons  might  preserve  their  liberties,  and  persons 
of  high  power  (who  are  not  named)  no  longer,  as 
heretofore,  assail  the  nobility  with  snubbs  and 
banns  ^,  when  any  have  not  voted  according  to 
their  pleasure,  it  is  most  humbly  solicited  that 
only  one  of  three  persons  proposed  by  the  house 
of  barons  itself  shall  be  selected  to  be  land-mar- 
shal. It  would  be  well  also,  that,  for  the  promo- 
tion of  order  among  the  clergy,  the  design  of  king 
Gustavus  Adolphus  for  a  politico-ecclesiastical 
consistory  should  be  carried  into  effect,  yet  with  a 
president  and  assessors  freely  chosen  by  the  estates. 
Rather  than  that  the  rendering  of  account  by  the 
colleges  and  functionaries,  prescribed  by  the  30th 
section  of  the  Form  of  Government,  should  be 
neglected  by  reason  of  other  business,  inteUigent 
men  and  good  patriots  should  be  chosen  thereto  by 
the  estates ;  since  it  appears  just  that  the  estates 
should  have  it  made  known  to  them  for  what 
objects  that  was  expended  which  they  contributed 
for  the  behoof  of  the  realm,  that  too  much  might 
not  go  to  one  department,  and  nothing  at  all  to  an- 
other, as  was  often  complained ;  wherefore  also  the 
estates  most  submissively  beg  that  her  majesty 
would  make  a  reformation  in  her  household,  and 
spare  needless  expenses,  since  the  revenues  of  the 
kingdom  were  now  considerably  diminished  from 
the  poverty  of  the  people,  and  the  sale  or  infeuda- 
tion  of  so  many  landed  estates.  By  reason  of  the 
clamours  of  the  common  people,  the  prospect  in 
the  country  was  menacing;  it  was  to  be  feared, 
that  order  would  rise  up  against  order,  especially 
under  the  general  insecurity  as  to  the  future.  It 
was  therefore  the  submissive  petition  of  the  estates, 
that  her  majesty  might  be  pleased  to  enter  the 
married  state,  or,  lest  she  should  have  no  heirs  of 

The  regency  declared  that  this  conduct  was  a  gross  abuse; 
but  as  the  peasants  who  had  exchanged  the  superiority  of 
the  crown  for  that  of  the  nobility,  enjoyed  relief  from  levies 
and  other  extraordinary  imposts,  it  was  not  unreasonable 
that  they  should  in  leturn  do  some  service  for  their  supe- 
riors, according  to  agreement. 
■*  In  the  Nordin  Collections. 

5  "  The  Form  of  Government  was  read  and  considered,  in 
conjunction  with  some  of  the  equestrian  order  and  nobility, 
who  communicated  their  opinions  to  the  clergy,"  it  is  stated 
in  the  protocols  of  the  clergy  for  the  diet  of  1644.  Contri- 
butions to  the  History  of  the  Swedish  Church  and  Diets, 
from  the  archives  of  the  clerical  order.  Stockholm,  1835, 
p.  106. 

6  Snubbor,  bannor. 


1654.] 


Youth  and  education  of 
the  queen. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Her  learning  and  ac- 
complishments. 


323 


her  body,  select,  with  the  consent  of  the  council 
and  estates,  a  certain  successor  to  the  crown 
from  among  the  nearniost  collateral  relatives  of  the 
royal  family.  The  latter  overture  manifestly  refers 
to  the  queen's  cousin,  prince  Charles  Gustavus. 
This  document,  official  or  not,  shows  the  com- 
mencement of  a  contest  against  the  ruling  sj'Stem, 
which  was  one  day  to  come  to  an  outbreak. 

It  was  a  perilous  greatness  to  which  Sweden  had 
now  ascended,  and  Christina  herself,  wavering  be- 
twixt extremes,  is  an  image  of  the  situation.  It  is 
hard  to  reconcile  the  contrarieties  of  her  character. 
This  she  herself  may  describe.  Christina  was  de- 
prived of  her  father  at  the  age  of  six  years,  nor 
had  she  been  educated  under  the  eyes  of  her 
mother.  After  the  death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
she  was  early  separated  from  the  fair,  weak, 
capricious,  and  sorrow-stricken  Maria  Eleonora, 
and  sent  to  her  aunt'',  the  princess  Catharine, 
consort  of  the  palsgrave  John  Casimir.  She  re- 
mained under  this  guardianship  until  the  death 
of  the  princess  in  1638.  The  confidence  which 
Gustavus  Adolphus  reposed  in  this  sister,  and  the 
deep  reverence  with  which  Charles  Gustavus 
speaks  of  his  mother*,  show  that  Catharine  was 
an  estimable  princess.  Nevertheless,  the  young 
queen's  early  education  seems  not  to  have  been  of 
the  most  solid  kind,  as  may  be  inferred  from 
Christina's  own  expressions,  which  in  general  do 
not  display  the  princely  education  of  her  times  in  the 
most  advantageous  light.  "  Those  who  believe,"  she 
says  ^,  "  that  childhood  at  least  is  the  season  when 
truth  may  approach  princes,  deceive  themselves  ; 
there  are  those  who  fear  and  flatter  them,  even  in 
the  cradle ;  all  the  purple-born  are  reared  in  indo- 
lence, ignorance,  and  effeminacy."  The  palsgra- 
vine  house,  repelled  by  the  grandees,  sought  sup- 
port in  the  attachment  of  the  young  queen,  and  in 
her  hand  a  guarantee  for  the  fortunes  of  the  young 
Charles  Gustavus.  The  prince  subsequently  appealed 
to  the  fact  of  her  having  been  betrothed  to  him  in 
childhood.  Such  relations  were  sufficiently  adapted 
to  produce  in  his  parents  indulgence  for  all  the 
wishes  of  their  royal  foster-child.  Christina  was 
educated  at  the  same  time  in  deep  mistrust  of  her 
guardians,  as  her  earlier  letters  remarkably  evince ', 
however  great  the  respect  she  testifies  in  her  latter 
yeai's  for  "  those  honour-decked  old  men,"  as  she 
calls  them.  In  the  year  1635,  the  estates  gave 
"An  opinion  and  advice  how  her  majesty  the  young 
queen  shall  be  educated  2."  They  deem  it  neces- 
sary that  such  preceptors  and  ladies  of  the  court 
should  be  appointed  to  her  majesty,  as  know  and 
understand  how  a  queen  is  rightly  to  be  formed  as 

1  Faster,  father's  sister. 

8  In  letters  to  his  father,  which  generally  exhibit  the  son's 
heart  in  the  most  amiable  light. 

9  Vie  de  Christine  par  EUe-nietne.     Arckenholtz,  iii.  49. 

'  Compare  the  letter  to  the  palsgrave  John  Casimir,  in  her 
fifteenth  year.    Arckenholtz,  i.  33. 

2  Stiernman,  Resolutions  of  Diets  and  Meetings,  ii.  926. 

3  He  received  a  charter  from  the  government,  dated  Oct. 
30,  1633,  to  found  an  orphanotrophium,  or  house  of  refuge 
for  fatherless  and  motherless  children,  at  Stockholm;  and 
Jan.  IS,  1616,  to  erect  another  in  Strengness,  of  which  he 
had  been  made  bishop  two  years  before.  Reg.  His  Idea 
boni  ordinis  in  Ecclesia  Christi,  with  which  he  entered  on 
his  episcopal  office,  is  one  of  the  works  reflecting  honour  on 
the  Swedish  church.  Yet  occasion  was  taken,  both  from 
this  treatise  and  his  Rami  Olivee  Septentrionalis,  to  accuse 


to  soul  and  body,  who  are  so  affectioned  that  they 
will  take  this  in  hand  gladly  and  zealously,  and 
have  such  authority  atid  gravity,  that  they  may 
be  able  to  do  this  with  respect  and  heedfulness. 
For  what  concerns  her  majesty's  studies,  she  shall 
be  educated  especially  in  those  arts,  which  teach 
the  Christian  government  of  countries  and  king- 
doms. But  forasmuch  as  such  learning  comes 
far  more  from  years  and  experience  than  from 
youthful  studies,  and  the  ground  of  all  is  the  right 
knowledge  and  worship  of  God,  it  is  also  most 
advisable  that  her  majesty  should  apply  her  chief 
study  to  God's  word,  and  in  history  to  the  biblical 
part;  and  should  learn  besides  to  reckon  and  write 
well,  with  those  foreign  tongues  which  the  guar- 
dians shall  consider  necessary  for  her  majesty. 
Christina  relates  that  Gustavus  Adolphus  had 
given  command  that  she  should  receive  a  mascu- 
line education.  He  had  himself  selected  her  tutor, 
Johannes  Matthi;ie,  at  first  professor  in  the  college  of 
nobles  (collegium  il lustre)  instituted  in  Stockholm, 
afterwards  the  king's  court- preacher,  a  learned 
man  of  very  mild  disposition,  beneficent,  and  of 
such  conciliatory  inclinations  in  respect  to  those 
religious  contests  which  divided  the  age,  that  after 
he  had  lost  his  patrons  Christina  and  Charles  Gus- 
tavus, when  he  was  at  a  very  great  age,  the  clergy, 
in  the  heat  of  their  zeal,  pressed  for  and  effected 
his  deposition  from  the  episcopal  see  of  Strengness '. 
He  was  one  of  those  who  bore  the  most  stedfast 
affection  and  respect  towards  Christina.  Her  pro- 
gress was  wonderful.  At  eighteen  she  read  Tlm- 
cydides  and  Polybius  in  Greek,  wrote  and  spoke 
Latin,  German,  and  French.  In  council  and  ad- 
ministration she  showed  much  acuteness,  and  her 
personal  manners  exercised  great  influence  over 
all  who  surrounded  her,  although  she  appeared 
rather  to  slight  than  to  assert  her  outward  dignity. 
"  It  is  with  dignities,"  she  herself  says,  "  as  with 
perfumes  ;  those  who  carry  them  scarcely  perceive 
them  *." 

In  the  height  of  her  renown  she  has  been  de- 
picted by  the  French  minister  at  the  Swedish 
courtj  Chanut,  an  estimable  and  cultivated  person, 
who  for  a  long  time  stood  high  in  her  favour.  We 
extract  the  main  features  of  this  description ',  and 
may  annex  to  them  the  remarks  of  Christina  her- 
self, made  in  her  latter  years.  When  one  sees  her 
for  the  first  time,  says  the  minister,  she  does  not 
excite  the  same  admiration  as  upon  more  intimate 
knowledge.  A  single  portrait  is  not  sufficient  to 
give  a  representation  of  her  appearance ;  her  coun- 
tenance changes  so  much  in  accordance  with  her 
mental  emotions,  that  she  is  hardly  to  be  recog- 

him  of  syncretistic  errors.     On  the  report  of  Christina's 
change  of  religion,  he  wrote  a  very  eloquent  letter  of  disap- 
proval, but  exjjressing  also  his  wishes  for  a  reconciliation  of 
the  various  spiritual  confessions.     In  the  j-ear  1664,  he  an-    I 
ticipated  his  deposition  by  abdicating  the  episcopate.  | 

■•  Les  grandeurs  sent  comme  les  parfums :  ceux  qui  les 
portent  ne  les  sentent  quasi  pas.  Ouvrage  de  loisir  de 
Christine.     Arckenholtz,  t.  ii. 

5  Memoires  de  ce  qui  s'est  passe  en  Sn^de  depuis  I'annee 
1645,  jusques  en  I'annee  1655, tires  des  Depeches  de  M. Chanut, 
Ambassadeur  pour  ie  Roi  en  Sufede,  par  Linage  de  Vau- 
eiennes.  Paris,  1675,  i.  240.  There  are  autograph  notes  by 
Christina  in  a  copy  of  this  book,  which  belonged  to  the  de- 
ceased queen  Hedviga  Elizabeth  Charlotte.  Compare  the 
Swedish  translation  of  Chanut's  Memoirs,  vol.  i.,  Stockholm, 
1826,  to  which  these  notes  of  Christina  are  appended. 
Y  2 


.Ti4 


Her  chaiactL-r  and  manners 
described 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


by  Chanut,  the  French 
ambassador. 


[1644- 


nized  after  tlie  interval  of  a  moment;  but  for  the 
most  part  she  appears  thouj^litful,  and  whatsoever 
change  takes  place  in  her,  she  preserves  con- 
tinually something  clear  and  agreeable.  If  she 
disapprove  any  remark  made,  her  face  is  covered 
for  a  moment  as  with  a  cloud,  vk-hich  inspires  terror. 
Her  voice  is  usually  mild  as  a  maiden's,  yet  she  can 
give  it  a  strength  that  is  beyond  her  sex.  Her 
stature  is  under  the  middle  size,  which  would 
strike  less  if  she  wore  ladies'  shoes;  but  in  order 
to  walk  and  ride  more  conveniently,  she  uses  only 
slioes  without  heels,  like  those  of  men.  If  we  may 
conclude  from  outward  appearances  of  her  internal 
thoughts,  she  has  a  deep  religious  feehng,  and  is 
sincerely  devoted  to  Christianity  ;  yet  she  seems 
to  tr(juble  herself  less  as  to  the  mutual  disputes 
of  the  Christians,  than  the  objections  of  the  Jews, 
heathens,  and  philosophers  against  Christian  doc- 
trine. What  is  not  accordant  with  the  gospel  she 
looks  upon  as  triviality,  and  shows  no  bitterness  in 
the  controversies  between  the  evangelicals  and 
i;atholics ''.  For  the  rest,  she  is  not  scrupulous, 
and  affects  no  ceremonious  devotion  '.  Her  spirit 
is  filled  with  an  incredible  love  for  high  virtue,  and 
she  is  passionately  fond  of  honom*.  She  speaks  of 
virtue  like  a  stoical  philosopher;  among  her  con- 
fidents she  is  wonderfully  strong  in  this  humour; 
when  she  discusses  the  true  value  which  should  be 
set  upon  human  dignity  *,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  see 
lier  lay  the  crown  beneath  her  feet",  and  declare 
that  virtue  is  the  only  good,  to  which  all  men, 
without  glorifying  themselves  on  their  rank,  should 
hold  fast ' ;  but  during  such  a  confession  she  does 
not  long  forget  that  she  is  a  queen  ^.  She  has  an 
admirable  gift  of  comprehension,  and  a  memory 
so  faithful  that  it  may  be  said  she  abuses  it.  She 
loves  the  society  of  learned  men,  in  order  to  con- 
verse with  them  in  her  leisure  hours  upon  all  that 
is  most  remarkable  in  the  domain  of  the  sciences  ^. 
Her  desire  of  learning  would  be  instructed  on  all 
subjects.  No  day  passes  that  she  does  not  read  a 
page  of  the  history  of  Tacitus,  which  she  calls  a 
chess-game*.  It  gives  her  incredible  content  to 
hear  problematical  subjects  discussed  by  learned 
persons,  and  listen  to  their  different  opinions, 
whereat  she  never  expresses  her  own  til!  all  the 

'  She  was  never  a  Lutheran.     Christina's  note. 

"  She  was  never  infected  by  this  disease.     Christina. 

s  She  hath  never  made  much  matter  tliereof.     Christina. 

"  This  is  lier  real  disposition.     Christina. 

'  She  held  it  an  honour  to  place  under  her  feet  what  other 
kings  set  upon  their  heads.     Christina. 

'  She  never  forgot  it.     Christina. 

^  This  is  true.     Christina. 

'  This  is  not  true.  She  never  hid  any  particular  prefer- 
ence for  this  author,  since  she  reads  with  pleasure  all  good 
writers.     Christina. 

■'  Quite  true.     Cliristina. 

'  She  never  rued  tliis  failing.     Christina. 

''  Nonsense !  But  how  laughably  ill-informed  lie  is. 
Cliristina. 

e  The  contrary  rather  might  excite  surprise.     Christina. 

9  The  (lualities  of  women  are  not  adapted  to  procure 
themselves  obedience.     Christina. 

'  He  is  right.  Raillery  procured  her  many  enemies. 
Christina. 

"  Three  hours.     Christina. 

^  False.     Christina. 

•<  Stie  combs  her  hair  but  once  a  week,  says  Peter  Man- 
nerschildt,  Pimentelli's  confessor,  in  a  letter  from  Stock- 
holm, dated  10th  Dec,  1653,  and  I  have  seen  her  with  coarse 


others  have  spoken,  aird  then  shortly  and  well. 
Her  reserve  shows  itself  rather  in  the  treatment 
of  public  affairs  than  in  scientific  colloquies.  In 
council,  her  ministers  find  it  difficult  to  discover 
to  what  side  she  inclines;  she  knows  how  to  keep 
a  secret  ',  and  as  she  does  not  let  herself  be  taken 
in  by  any  stories,  she  appears  mistrustful  and  hard 
to  persuade*".  It  can  hardly  be  conceived  how 
great  her  power  is  in  the  senate  '.  The  lords  of 
the  council  are  astonished  at  the  power  which  she 
has  over  them,  when  they  are  assembled  '.  Some 
ascribe  to  her  quality  of  woman  the  great  attach- 
ment which  her  ministers  show  to  her 8;  but  to 
say  truth,  her  power  rests  on  her  personal  viorth. 
Nature  has  denied  her  none  of  those  qualities 
whereby  a  young  knight  would  acquire  honour. 
She  is  indefatigable  in  rural  pastimes  ;  I  have 
seen  her  hunting  for  ten  hours  on  horseback. 
No  hunter  in  Sweden  hits  the  springing  hare  more 
surely,  no  rider  manages  his  horse  better,  and  yet 
she  makes  no  boast  of  it.  Her  table  is  highly 
simple  and  without  dainties  ;  she  speaks  seldom 
with  her  court-daiues.  When  these  are  present 
on  any  occasion  of  public  attendance,  she  quits 
them  after  the  first  passages  of  courtesy,  and 
turns  to  the  men.  She  is  aftable  to  her  train,  and 
bounteous  beyond  the  resources  of  her  kingdom. 
She  is  fond  of  a  jest;  it  were  perhaps  better  that 
she  should  refrain  from  this  habit'.  She  is  sparing 
of  her  time,  and  sleeps  but  five  hours  2;  in  summer 
she  sleeps  an  hour  in  the  afternoon  ^.  She  takes 
little  trouble  with  her  toilet,  is  dressed  in  a  quarter 
of  an  hour,  and,  except  on  great  festivals,  a  comb 
and  a  bit  of  ribbon  make  all  her  head-dress.  Yet 
the  hair  falling  negligently  sets  oft'  her  face  well, 
which  she  protects  neither  from  the  sun  nor  the 
wind  and  rain.  No  one  has  seen  her  with  a  hood, 
and  when  she  is  on  horseback,  her  head  is  merely 
covered  by  a  hat  with  feathers.  Undoubtedly  she 
carries  this  neglect  of  her  person  to  an  extreme  *. 
But  she  sets  value  on  nothing  so  much  as  an  ardent 
love  of  virtue  and  honour;  and  it  is  only  by  her  own 
extraordinary  merit,  not  by  conquests,  that  she 
will  make  her  name  illustrious.  For  her  renown 
she  will  have  to  thank  herself,  more  than  the 
bravery  of  her  subjects. — So  far  tliis  extract.     It 

and  ragged  linen,  covered  with  stains.  Palmsk.  MSS.  t.  40. 
Mademoiselle  de  Montpensier  describes  Christina,  on  her 
first  visit  to  Paris,  in  1656,  in  the  following  terms:  "I  had 
heard  so  much  said  of  her  odd  manner  of  dressing,  that  I 
was  dying  from  fear  of  laughing  when  I  should  see  her.  As 
they  called  out  'mind,'  and  to  make  room  for  me,  I  per- 
ceived her;  she  surprised  me,  and  it  was  not  in  a  way  to 
make  me  laugh.  She  had  a  gray  petticoat,  with  clasps  of 
gold  and  silver;  a  jerkin  of  camlet,  fire-coloured,  with  clasps 
the  same  as  on  the  petticoat ;  on  the  neck  a  kerchief  of 
Genoa  lace,  pierced  with  fire-coloured  ribbon,  alight  peruke, 
and  at  the  back  a  round,  such  as  women  wear,  and  a  hat 
with  black  feathers,  which  she  held.  She  is  fair,  has  blue 
eyes,  the  mouth  agreeable  enough,  though  large,  fine  teeth, 
the  nose  large  and  aquiline;  she  is  very  small,  her  jerkin 
hides  her  bad  figure ;  to  sum  up  all,  she  appeared  to  me  a 
pretty  little  boy.  After  the  ballet,  we  went  to  the  comedy. 
There  she  surprised  me  ;  to  praise  the  passages  Avhlch 
pleased  her,  she  swore  by  God,  lay  down  in  her  chair, 
threw  her  legs  on  one  side  and  the  other,  and  assumed 
postures  not  very  decent.  She  spoke  of  many  matters,  and 
what  she  said,  she  said  very  agreeably;  she  fell  into  pro- 
found reveries,  breathed  deep  sighs,  then  all  of  a  sudden 
came  to  herself,  like  a  person  that  wakes  in  a  start ;  she  is 
quite  extraordinary."     Arckenholtz,  i.  531. 


1654] 


Invasion  of  Bohemia  by 
Torstenson. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION, 


Great  victory  at 
Jankowitz. 


325 


is  the  bright  side  of  tlie  picture;  tlie  shadows  will 
not  be  slow  of  showing  themselves. 

Torstenson 's  last  victories  still  east  their  radiance 
on  the  beginning  of  Christina's  own  administration. 
After  he  had  overwhelmed  and  destroyed  the  Im- 
perialist array  under  Gallas,  which  had  been  sent 
to  shut  him  up  in  Jutland',  he  broke  in  the  com- 
mencement of  the  year  164-5  into  Bohemia,  leaving 
Konigsmai'k  in  Westphalia,  and  committing  to 
major-general  Axel  Lilye,  governor  of  Leipsic  ®, 
the  business  of  negotiating  with  the  elector  of 
Saxony  as  to  a  truce,  which  was  concluded  in  the 
course  of  this  year.  He  had  resolved,  he  said,  "  to 
attack  the  emperor  in  the  heart,  and  force  him  to 
peace  ;"  and  the  ministry  approved  his  intention, 
"since  the  grounds  were  weighty  and  the  design 
great'."  The  emperor  Ferdinand  III.  had  re- 
paired to  Prague,  collected  a  new  army,  and  drawn 
reinforcements  from  the  Rhine,  from  Bavaria,  and 
even  from  Hungary.  To  this  army,  commanded 
by  the  Imperialist  field-marslial  Hatzfeld,  Torsten- 
son delivered  battle  at  Jankau  or  Jankowitz  on  the 
24th  February.  We  cite  an  extract  from  his  own 
account  of  the  affair.  "  Since  I  broke  up  from 
Caaden,"  he  writes  to  Axel  Lilye  on  the  27th 
February*,  "I  have  written  to  the  major-general 
from  Pressnitz,  two  miles  from  Pilsen  ;  but  hear 
that  the  messenger  whom  T  despatched  thence  has 
been  taken  and  shot  by  one  of  the  enemy's  bands. 
I  continued  my  march  without  resting  to  Glattau, 
and  so  further  to  Oroschewitz,  directly  upon  the 
enemy  ;  and  I  am  happily  come  hither  on  the  16th 
of  this  month.  But  inasmuch  as  the  enemy's 
army  shortly  before  my  arrival  crossed  tlie  stream 
called  Ottawa,  and  nothing  could  be  midertaken 
against  it,  I  continued  my  march  on  tliis  side 
of  the  river  and  the  enemy  on  the  other  to  Stracko- 
nitz,  and  throughout  the  day,  upon  the  mai'ch,  we 
saluted  one  another  from  the  mountains  with  can- 
non-shots, from  which  little  loss  was  experienced 
on  our  side.  As  the  enemy  now  disputed  this 
stream  with  me,  I  pushed  with  all  possible  haste 
to  the  Mulda,  and  found,  half  a  mile  below  Zwickau, 
a  ford,  where  I  crossed  on  the  20th,  and  advanced 
with  the  ai'my  to  Woditz  and  Jankau.  Here  on 
the  23rd,  three  miles  from  Tabor,  we  found  the 
enemy,  who,  leaving  his  baggage  behind,  had  fol- 
lowed us  vvith  great  haste,  and  before  my  arrival 
had  already  occupied  all  the  hills,  placing  himself 

'  Several  letters  have  reached  us  touching  a  glorious 
victory,  which  God  granted  you  the  23rd  November,  1644, 
over  Gallas,  when  you  pursued  and  routed  the  imperial 
cavalry,  about  Jiiterbock,  crushing  them  and  taking  pri- 
soners the  greatest  part,  with  general  Enkefort,  and  some 
colonels.  (A  very  small  part  would  have  escaped,  Torstenson 
writes  to  Wrangel  the  day  after  the  battle,  had  not  our 
cavalry,  who  made  fifteen  miles  on  one  fodder,  been  so  tired.) 
Then  we  heard  that  the  army  moved  toward  Meissen,  and 
that  Konigsmark  was  left  with  the  Hessians  at  Magdeburg, 
to  look  after  Gallas,  who  is  lying  there  with  the  rest  of  the 
infantry,  and  one  regiment  of  horse,  that  he  may  not  be 
able  to  come  off  without  being  totally  ruined.  The  Admi- 
nistration to  Torstenson,  Jan.  14,  1615.  Reg.  Gallas 
attempted  to  escape  to  Wittenberg,  with  the  remains  of  his 
army,  Dec.  23,  1644  Konigsmark  surprised  him,  made 
one  thousand  prisoners,  and  of  the  whole  army,  only  two 
thousand  men  escaped  from  Wittenberg  to  Bohemia.  Puf- 
fendorf,  xvi.  §  16. 

6  An  impetuous  and  haughty  man  ;  he  was  vice-governor 
in  one  division  of  Pomerania.  July  27,  1641,  the  ministry 
rebuke  him  for  "  wasting  time,  and  neglecting  the  service 


in  such  a  position  that  Jankau  was  between  the 
two  armies,  and  benefited  neither  much.  The 
situation  of  this  spot  is  such,  that  from  the  incon- 
veniency  of  the  mountains  no  battle  in  just  array 
can  be  delivered.  But  as  the  enemy,  daily  on  the 
niarcli,  kept  by  us,  and  from  the  incessant  camp- 
ing in  the  severe  and  cold  winter,  ruin  might  at 
last  have  ensued  on  our  side,  it  was  at  length 
unanimously  determined,  after  mature  deliberation 
with  the  whole  of  the  generals  and  colonels,  in 
God's  name  to  attack  the  enemy.  I  therefore 
on  the  24th  caused  the  army  to  advance  by  the 
left  against  a  hill,  where  the  enemy's  outposts  were 
stationed,  and  behind  which  he  kept  his  army  in  a 
wood.  This,  though  di-sputing  it  hardly,  he  was 
obliged  to  quit,  leaving  three  pieces,  and  field- 
marshal  Gotz  killed  on  the  spot.  Thence  the 
enemy  drew  back  from  one  hill  to  another,  in 
an  arc,  to  the  head- quarters  he  had  occupied  on 
the  previous  night,  and  there  again  took  up  a 
position  anew.  I  followed  in  as  good  order  as  the 
many  hills  and  woods  allowed,  whereat  the  enemy- 
fell  upon  us  with  great  fury.  A  hard  and  bloody 
action  began,  the  like  of  which  will  not  soon  be 
seen  ;  and  although  the  enemy  was  two  or  three 
thousand  men  superior  to  us  in  cavalry,  and  equal 
in  infantry,  yet  our  men  together  gave  him  so 
gallant  a  reception,  that  after  a  stubborn  fight 
from  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  four  in  the 
afternoon,  at  length  the  Almighty  graciously  vouch- 
safed us  the  victory.  The  prisoners  we  have  taken 
are  according  to  the  here  following  list.  On  our 
side  no  general  is  killed  ;  major-general  Goldstein, 
who  made  the  first  assault,  is  wounded  in  the  right 
hand.  The  colonels  Reuseh  and  Sestedt  also,  with 
siirae  officers  of  inferior  rank,  were  wounded.  The 
number  of  the  killed  cannot  be  accurately  stated, 
I  since  they  lie  scattered  here  and  there  on  the 
hills  and  in  the  woods,  for  a  length  of  two  miles 
very  thickly."  According  to  the  list  subjoined  by 
Torstenson,  six  Imperialist  generals,  among  them 
Hatzfeld  himself,  a  multitude  of  superior  and  in- 
ferior officers,  and  four  thousand  common  soldiers, 
were  taken  at  Jankowitz,  with  seventy-seven  stand- 
ards and  twenty-six  cannon.  The  number  of  the 
enemy's  dead  is  stated  at  three  to  four  thousand  ; 
of  the  superior  officers,  field- marshal  Gotz  and  the 
younger  Piecolomini  fell  ;  the  imperial  field-mar- 

of  the  state  in  profitless  disputes  about  pretensions  to 
dignity,  while  he  takes  no  opportunity  of  distinguishing 
himself,  but,  when  there  is  any  thing  important  to  execute, 
sends  a  youth  or  a  man  of  no  conduct,  whereby  every  laudii- 
ble  design  must  fall  into  the  well."  Torstenson  appointed 
him  governor  of  Leipsic,  his  office  of  vice-governor  of  Pome- 
rania, with  the  revenues  annexed,  meanwhile  remaining 
open  to  him;  which  the  ministry  confirm  in  their  letter  t" 
Torstenson,  of  Jan.  28,  1643.  But  Lilye  quitted  Leipsic  of 
his  own  impulse,  and  returned  to  Pomerania.  "By  this 
imprudent  and  unseasonable  journey,"  the  ministry  write  to 
Torstenson,  in  July,  1643,  "he  has  endangered  our  affairs 
in  all  Meissen  ; "  wherefore  he  is  strictly  commanded  forth- 
with to  repair  back  to  Leipsic.  Otherwise  he  was  not  with- 
out talents.  It  was  earlier  in  question  to  make  him  governor 
of  Westphalia,  "  since  he  understood  well  to  obtain  obe- 
dience."    Reg. 

^  To  Torstenson,  March  G,  1645.     Reg. 

8  The  letter  is  contained  in  the  Extraordinary  Post  Jour- 
nal of  April  19,  1645.  This  year  commenced  an  Ordinary 
Post-Journal  (Ordinarie  Post-tidender),  in  successive  num- 
bers, published  weekly,  at  Stockholm.  Some  numbers  are 
preserved  in  the  Palmskold  Collections,  t.  41. 


326 


Want  of  co-o|ier.ition  obliges 
him  to  retreat. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Effect  of  his  successes. 
Congress  of  Osnabur^'. 


[1644— 


shal-lieutenant,  count  Brouay,  also  died  of  his 
wounds  shortly  after  the  battle.  On  the  Swedish 
side  pruice  Charles  Gustavus  was  in  great  danger ; 
his  hat,  coat,  and  shirt  were  shot  through.  Tors- 
tenson's  own  wife'  was  for  a  moment  in  the  hands 
of  the  enemy,  who  fell  upon  the  Swedish  baggage 
with  three  squadrons.  In  the  hostile  accounts  of 
this  battle '  it  is  stated  :  "  From  three  to  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  main  action  first  began, 
which  continued  till  night  ;  it  went  exceedingly 
hard,  more  so  than  in  any  battles  of  this  war.  No 
quarter  was  given.  At  first  it  appeared  as  if  we 
were  to  conciuei',  but  the  right  and  left  wings 
having  been  beaten,  and  obliged  to  leave  the  field ; 
field-marshal  Hatzfeld,  with  the  rest  of  the  in- 
fantry and  some  cavalry,  was  inclosed  by  the 
enemy  in  a  half-moon,  and  compelled  to  yield  him- 
self prisoner,  munitions  and  baggage  falling  into 
the  enemy's  hands."  The  victory  is  ascribed  to 
the  superiority  of  Torstenson's  artillery,  which  he 
caused  to  play  "  after  the  old  Swedish  wont."  The 
emperor  fled  from  Prague  '■',  and  hastened  past 
Ratisbon  to  the  defence  of  Vienna. 

It  was  now  for  the  third  time  that  Torstenson 
penetrated  into  the  heart  of  Austria  ;  the  victory 
at  Jankowitz  opened  to  him  the  road  to  Vienna  *. 
After  he  had  taken  Znaym,  Krembs,  and  Korn- 
Neuburg,  his  outposts  stood  by  the  bridge  over  the 
Danube  at  Vienna,  and  the  redoubt  which  de- 
fended it  fell  on  the  30th  March  into  his  hands. 
Howbeit,  this  attempt  had  the  same  issue  as  all 
the  former  from  want  of  co-operation,  which  this 
time  had  been  counted  upon.  Ragotzi,  the  prince 
of  Transylvania,  had  promised  Sweden  and  France 
to  join  Torstenson  with  an  army  from  Hungary ; 
and  the  French,  who  otherwise  carried  on  war  for 
themselves  on  tlie  Rhine,  advanced  in  April  1G45, 
under  Turenne,  against  Bavaria.  But  Turenne 
was  defeated  on  the  25th  April  at  Mergentlieim  by 
Mercy,  who  afterwards  himself  fell  in  battle 
against  Condd  and  Turenne  at  Allersheim,  where 
both  sides  claimed  the  victory  ;  Ragotzi's  men, 
who,  in  conjunction  with  those  of  Douglas  and 
Charles  Gustavus,  took  Tyrnau  in  Hungary,  were 
from  their  utter  want  of  discipline  more  a  burden 
than  an  assistance,  till  their  master  shortly  made 
his  peace  with  the  emperor.  From  the  imperial 
hereditary  dominions  new  masses  of  troops  were 
raised.  In  Austria  every  fifth  man,  in  Bohemia 
and  Moravia  every  tenth  man  was  levied.  Tors- 
tenson had  meanwhile,  to  obtain  firm  footing  in 
Moravia,  undertaken  the  siege  of  Brunn;  but  was 
obliged,  after  his  army  had  been  infected  with  the 
plague  by  the  wild  bands  of  Ragotzi,  and  the  im- 
moderate use  of  fruits  and  grapes  had  bred  other 
maladies,  to  raise  the  siege  at  the  end  of  four 
months,  and  to  commence  his  retreat.  His  cavalry, 

*  Beata  de  la  Gardie,  daughter  of  the  councillor  of  state, 
John  Pontusson  de  la  Gardie,  married,  after  Torstenson's 
death,  to  the  high-steward,  count  Peter  Brahe. 

•  Letter  from  Prague,  in  the  Weekly  Journal  (Wochent- 
liche  Zeituny),  anno  1CI.5,  of  which  single  sheets  are  pre- 
served in  the  correspondence  of  C.  G.  Wrangel. 

2  His  baggage  was  taken  by  major-general  Douglas. 

3  The  fir.st  effect  of  the  victory  was  to  set  free  Olmutz, 
which  was  besieged  by  the  Austrians ;  Glogau  and  OInuitz 
were  the  only  fortresses  in  Silesia  and  Moravia,  which  Tors- 
tenson, at  his  return  from  Holstein,  foimd  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  Swedes. 

"  Puffendorf,  xvii.  §  24. 


eight  thousand  men,  were  without  horses;  the  in- 
fantry had  dwindled  down  to  two  thousand  five 
hundred  men  ;  he  himself  was  bedridden,  so  that 
he  had  to  be  carried  in  a  litter.  Thus  he  passed 
through  Bohemia,  parted  there  from  Charles  Gus- 
tavus returning  to  Sweden,  to  whom  he  prophe- 
sied a  crown*,  formed  a  junction  with  Konigs- 
mark,  who  had  come  to  meet  him  in  Silesia,  and 
closed  liis  career  of  generalship  with  the  capture  of 
Leutmeritz  in  Bohemia.  There  the  gout  seized  on 
his  head  and  breast,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to  lay 
down  the  command,  although  Wrangel,  whom  he 
had  long  prayed  to  obtain  for  his  successor  ^,  and 
who  was  now  on  his  way  from  Sweden  with  rein- 
forcements, had  not  yet  come  up.  They  met  in 
Saxony,  after  Torstenson  had  quitted  the  army. 
As  long  as  the  latter  remained  in  Germany, 
Wrangel,  conformably  to  his  instructions,  under- 
took nothing  of  importance  without  consulting 
him. 

In  one  respect  Torstenson's  campaigns  had  a 
decisive  influence  upon  the  German  war.  They 
led  at  length  to  negotiations  for  peace  seriously 
meant  ^.  Seven  years  had  elapsed  in  consideration 
before,  towards  the  end  of  1641,  an  understanding 
could  be  come  to  upon  the  preliminaries  of  a  gene- 
ral congress  of  pacification,  at  which,  in  order  to 
avoid  quarrels  as  to  rank,  Sweden  was  to  negotiate 
in  Osnaburg,  France  in  Munster.  Nearly  four 
years  elapsed  ere  the  congress  assembled  ;  first  in 
1645,  after  Torstenson's  victories,  they  advanced 
from  formalities  to  substance.  And  as  in  the 
following  year  the  Swedish  government  delivered 
its  ultimatum  respecting  its  own  demands,  to  which 
it  adhered  at  the  peace,  it  appears  to  have  de- 
served the  reproach  of  protracting  the  war  less 
than  any  of  the  other  powers.  John  Oxenstierna, 
eldest  son  of  the  high-chancellor,  and  Salvius, 
were  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Sweden  at  the  paci- 
ficatory congress. 

November  10,  1645,  the  chancellor  writes  in  the 
name  of  the  ministry  to  the  Swedish  commissaries 
at  Osnaburg  :  "  Four  questions  are  of  importance. 
Shall  we  insist  on  the  restitution  of  the  German 
states?  What  shall  be  our  satisfaction  ?  Shall  all 
states  be  admitted  to  the  negotiation  for  peace? 
Can  the  neutrality  of  Bavaria  be  allowed?  We  see 
that  the  emperor  seeks  to  draw  all  those  aff'airs 
which  concern  the  restitution  of  the  states,  from 
the  pacificatory  congress  to  imperial  and  collegia] 
diets.  Thence  would  incontrovertibly  follow  the 
oppression  and  slavery  of  the  estates;  and  if  we  let 
ourselves  be  persuaded  to  the  laying  down  our  arms 
on  such  conditions,  we  find  at  the  same  moment 
the  net  over  our  own  head.  Seek  to  have  France 
and  the  estates  at  one  in  this  matter;  declare  that, 
although  we  require  with  the  greatest  reason  our 

5  Oct.  26,  1644,  the  ministry  write  to  Torstenson:  "We 
approve  of  your  wish  thus  gradually  to  draw  C.  G.  Wrangel 
to  be  your  successor  in  command,  as  well  because  he  is  of 
our  nation,  as  also  because  his  qualities  are  such,  that  we 
hope  he  will,  after  some  time,  if  God  grant  him  life  and 
health,  he  a  good  stay,  and  no  hiconsiderable  furtherance  to 
the  cause."     Keg. 

6  "I  see  that  the  victory,  granted  by  God  to  her  majesty 
in  Bohemia,  has  stretched  its  rays  to  the  peace-congress  in 
Germany,  so  that  the  enemy  begins  to  be  courteous,  and  to 
speak  more  humanely."  The  high-chancellor  to  his  son 
John,  April  25,  1645.  Letters  from  Axel  Oxenstierna  to 
John  Oxenstierna,  in  the  years  1642—1649,  i.  168. 


\65i.] 


Instructions  of  the  chan- 
cellor to  the 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Swedish  commissioners  at 
the  congress. 


327 


I 


satisfaction  from  tlie  emperor  and  the  estates,  we 
yet  place  our  chief  guarantee  in  the  well-grounded 
freedom  of  the  estates.  If  the  whole  restitution 
shall  he  limited  by  the  peace  of  Prague,  or  the 
amnesty  of  Ratisbon  in  1641,  we  can  set  no  value 
on  all  the  promised  security.  Urge  this  more 
moderately  in  proportion  as  ye  see  the  estates  dis- 
approve the  resolution  of  the  emperor;  yet  prick 
them  on,  and  if  they  show  themselves  slack,  terrify 
them  with  the  consequences.  Secure  the  assistance 
of  France  ;  tell  the  French,  that  if  they  will  not 
assist  in  this,  we  must  be  compelled  to  press  the 
more  sharply  in  respect  to  our  own  satisfaction; 
urge  that  matters  in  Germany  be  restored  to  their 
state  before  the  war.  If  that  pass  not,  ye  may 
make  new  reference  to  us  ^,  knowing  that  we  will 
not  recede  from  this  plan,  but  by  means  of  it,  as  a 
matter  wholly  favourable,  enforce  our  own  satisfac- 
tion. Keep,  firstly,  to  the  universals  of  our  right, 
for  which  we  were  compelled,  after  the  peace  of 
Prague,  to  continue  the  war;  if  it  come  to  par- 
ticulars, touching  indemnity,  let  them  make  the 
first  offer.  If  they  repeat  the  usual  proffer  of  re- 
imbursement of  the  expenses  of  the  war  in  money, 
tell  them  that  such  would  be  impracticable,  both  for 
the  quantity  and  the  terms  of  payment,  as  well  as 
the  security.  We  must  have  a  real  compensation, 
so  large  that  it  may  be  adequate  in  itself,  and  so 
situated  that  it  may  be  profitable  to  Sweden. 
Mention  Pomerania,  the  see  of  Camin,  Wismar, 
Bremen,  several  sees  in  the  circles  of  Lower  Saxony 
and  Westphalia,  as  also  Silesia  (this  was  about  the 
extent  of  the  Swedish  possessions).  If  ye  come 
in  earnest  to  negotiation,  ye  may,  by  degrees,  let 
drop  first  the  see  of  Magdeburg,  then  Halberstadt, 
then  Minden  and  Osnaburg,  holding  fast  by  Pome- 
rania, Camin,  Wismar,  Bremen,  and  Verden,  all  as 
fiefs  of  the  German  empire.  Lastly,  ye  may  con- 
sent that  the  elector  of  Brandenburg  be  compen- 
sated in  Silesia  for  his  losses  in  Pomerania;  as  also 
that  the  emperor  may  be  obliged  to  satisfy  duke 
Frederic,  son  of  the  king  of  Denmark,  for  Bremen 
and  Verden.  In  reference  to  the  admission,  or  ex- 
clusion, or  intervention  of  the  estates  in  the  treaty 
between  us  and  the  Imperialists,  ye  must  urge  that 
no  estates  at  amity  with  us  be  excluded.  But  con- 
duct your  correspondence  directly  with  the  Impe- 
rialists, not  through  the  estates,  or,  if  these  aim  at 

7  July  8th,  1640,  the  ministry  write  to  the  commissaries : 
"  Ye  may  accommodate  yourselves  to  the  estates  in  the 
terms  of  extension  of  the  amnesty,  and  the  possession  of 
ecclesiastical  goods."  Reg.  A  letter  of  May  30th,  in  the 
same  year,  says:  "If  the  elector  palatine  cannot  be  re- 
stored, which  will  hardly  come  to  pass,  seek  at  least  to 
throw  the  bl.ime  of  it  on  the  Imperialists."  Reg. 

e  To  the  commissaries  in  Osnaburg,  Nov.  10th,  1645.  Reg. 
We  have,  as  usual,  given  the  main  substance. 

9  "  I  perceive  from  your  note  to  me,  as  also  from,  a  letter 
of  Salvius  to  her  majesty,  that  ye  partly  advise,  with  similar 
arguments,  for  the  acceptance  of  Fore  Pomerania,  with  the 
consent  of  the  elector  of  Brandenburg,  and  a  sum  of  money 
for  Stettin.  And  you  add,  that  there  is  danger  as  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  crown  of  Sweden,  and  that  an  unfortunate 
issue  otherwise  impends  for  the  treaty ;  besides  what  you 
further  discourse  and  suggest  in  this  matter;  as  I  also 
learn  what  one  and  the  other,  especially  your  colleague 
(Salvius),  judges  of  me  and  my  counsels.  Dear  sou,  it  may 
well  be  that  you,  on  the  spot,  may  see  and  better  observe 
some  diflSculties;  but  in  so  far  as  I  understand  and  can 
judge  of  the  case,  I  see  no  satisfaction  for  the  crown  of 
Sweden  worthy  consideration,  if  we   give  up  Pomerania, 


the  latter,  it  may  be  done  in  corpore ;  but  let  no 
single  state  act  as  your  mediator.  We  remark, 
that  the  duke  of  Longueville  lias  spoken  of  a  truce 
with  Bavaria,  and  we  have  now  for  some  time  per- 
ceived that  France  has  long  aimed  at  opening  ne- 
gotiations with  Bavaria.  There  are  full  grounds 
for  saying,  that  much  advantage  would  result  from 
the  emperor  losing  such  a  confederate,  if  only 
things  went  toward  in  earnest.  But  Bavaria  is  in 
too  close  league  with  Austria,  and  besides  wishes 
but  to  gain  time.  Dissuade  therefore  this  neu- 
trality with  all  reasons,  which  can  be  heard  with- 
out too  great  displeasure.  If  France  reproach  to 
you  our  own  truce  with  the  electors  of  Saxony  and 
Brandenburg,  rejoin  that  both  these  princes  were 
formerly  our  confederates  in  this  war,  but  fell  off 
from  our  alliance,  whence  it  is  not  unfair  to  seek 
to  draw  them  back.  If  the  neutrality  of  Bavaria 
cannot  be  averted,  ye  may  let  that  run  on  which  is 
not  to  be  changed;  but  yet  suggest  that  mistrust  of 
all  kinds  may  thereby  arise.  In  respect  to  the 
satisfaction,  it  is  our  last  word,  that  for  the  secu- 
rity of  Sweden  nothing  is  to  be  compared  with 
Pomerania  *." 

The  chancellor  was  I'esolved  to  abandon  any  part 
of  Pomerania  only  under  extreme  necessity,  and 
expresses  his  dissatisfaction  with  the  envoys  for 
having  acceded  to  a  proposition  supported  by 
France,  according  to  which  Sweden  was  to  receive 
money  for  Stettin,  if  it  would  cede  Fore  Pome- 
rania^. On  the  19th  September,  1646,  the  envoys 
received  instructions,  that  they  should  by  degrees 
yield  in  the  question  of  Hinder  Pomerania,  yet  see 
that  Sweden  retained  the  command  of  the  mouths 
of  the  Oder;  and  on  the  19th  December  of  the 
same  year,  the  last  resolution  of  the  government, 
to  demand  Fore  Pomerania,  Rugen,  Wollin,  Stet- 
tin, Damm,  Golnau,  Tiefenau,  and  their  dependen- 
cies, with  the  addition,  "  to  cede  not  one  hamlet 
more,  nor  one  foot's  breadth  of  land  '."  Thus  far 
extended  the  chancellor's  influence  on  the  work  of 
the  peace.  The  following  year  his  disfavour  with 
the  queen  was  divulged, of  which  more  in  the  sequel. 

The  three  last  years  of  the  war  filled  up  the  cup 
of  misery.  It  was  not  only  the  territorial  indemnities 
of  Sweden  which  were  desolate,  as  the  ministry 
wrote  on  the  23d  May,  1646  -.  The  correspondence 

which  is  so  noble  a  part  of  the  sea-coast.  All  Pomerania, 
without  the  elector's  consent,  would  be  more  acceptable  to 
me  than  Fore  Pomerania  with  his  consent,  even  if  Stettin 
were  added.  Formerly,  also,  the  Imperialists,  especially 
Trautmannsdorf,  ofTered  all  Pomerania,  and  the  French 
plenipotentiaries  were  inclined  to  this ;  now  all  this  is  dis- 
pleasing, or  at  least  is  so  represented.  It  is  to  be  considered 
how  little  France  ceded  to  the  Kaisar  and  the  Roman  em- 
pire, for  the  cession  of  so  precious  a  province  as  Alsatia, 
with  Brisach  and  Philipsburg."  To  John  Oxenstieriia,  Jan. 
2,  1646.  The  Swedish  commissioners  write,  that  Traut- 
mannsdorf promises  the  emperor's  assent  to  all  Pomerania, 
with  princely  privileges  ;  and  Bremen  and  Verden  with  epis- 
copal privileges,  with  Wismar  in  permanency  ;  but  advises, 
that  on  account  of  Brandenburg  and  Meclilenburg,  they 
should  be  content  with  Fore  Pomerania  only,  and  the  con- 
domitiium  of  Wismar,  Bremen,  and  Verden.  But  Branden- 
burg would  not  abandon  Fore  Pomerania,  except  the  district 
of  Barth;  and  Mecklenburg  would  not  give  up  Wismar. 

1  Reg. 

2  "  Since  the  territories  which  we  obtain  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  crown  are  desolate,  and  we  must  hence  look 
to  the  sea-ports  for  our  advantage,  ye  may  therefore  urge 
that  the  tolls  should  be  granted  to  us  at  the  cession."  Reg. 


328 


Desolate  condition  of 
Germany. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Wrangel  appointed  com- 
mander-in-chief. 


[1644- 


of  the  new  field-marshal  Wrangel  with  the  German 
princes,  towns,  and  communities,  is  loaded  with  the 
calamities  and  oppression  of  Germany  ^.  North 
Germany,  after  the  neutrality  of  Saxony  and  Bran- 
denbui'g,  lay  defenceless.  The  war  again  rolled 
more  and  more  toward  the  south.  But  the  land 
was  every  where  a  prey  to  the  soldiery,  whether 
styling  themselves  friends  or  foes,  and  the  people 
in  despair  fled  in  crowds  to  the  camp  of  their 
oppressors.  General  Gronsfeld  writes,  March  31, 
1648,  to  Maximilian,  elector  of  Bavaria,  who  had 
issued  rigorous  orders  against  plundering  and  rob- 
bing, that  in  the  two  armies  (Imperialist  and 
Bavarian)  there  were  certainly  more  than  180,000 
men,  women,  and  children,  who  all  must  live  as 
well  as  the  soldiers;  provisions  were  distributed 
for  40,000  every  twenty-four  hours;  how  the  re- 
maining 140,000  persons  were  to  live,  if  they 
might  not  pick  up  a  bit  of  bread  for  themselves, 
passed  his  comprehension;  there  was  not  a  single 
place  where  the  soldiers,  if  they  had  money,  could 
buy  any  thing;  he  said  that  not  as  approving  ex- 
orbitancies,  but  only  to  apprise  his  highness  that 
all  was  not  done  out  of  insolence,  but  much  out  of 
mere  hunger  *. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  year  1646  the  Swe- 
dish army  consisted  of  15,000  horse  and  8000  foot, 
mostly  old  soldiers,  besides  the  garrisons  in  Aus- 
tria, Moravia,  Silesia,  Bohemia,  Westphalia,  Upper 
and  Lower  Saxony,  and  the  various  bodies  which 
Konigsmark  commanded.  The  artillery  consisted, 
when  Wrangel  assumed  the  command,  of  seventy 
pieces  of  cannon  ^.     One  of  his  first  cares  was  to 

3  We  might  cite  many  details,  as  for  example  of  the  atro- 
cities practised  in  Saxony,  notwithstanding  the  truce,  if 
space  permitted.  The  Swedes,  however,  were  not  the  worst; 
the  Germans  in  the  Swedish  service  appear  to  have  surpassed 
them  in  cruelty  towards  their  own  countrymen.  The  tor- 
ture called  the  "  Swedish  drink,"  was  so  termed,  because  it 
had  been  first  employed  by  the  soldiers  of  Bernard  of 
Weimar:  "  Bernard's  soldiers  poured  cold  water  down  the 
throat,  until,  when  the  belly  of  the  person  was  pressed  by 
the  foot,  it  came  out  again,  and  styled  this  the  Swedish 
drink."  Raumer,  History  of  Europe  from  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century  (from  the  statement  of  Forstner,  a  con- 
temporary), iii.  602.  Bernard  of  Weimar,  who,  it  is  proved, 
gave  a  loose,  sometimes  intentionally,  to  the  excesses  of  his 
soldiers  (comp.  Rose,  ii.  10),  yet  daily  read  his  chapter  of  the 
Bible.  Such  was  often  the  temper  of  religion.  From  the 
correspondence  of  Wrangel,  which  abounds  in  German  sup- 
plicatory memorials,  we  will  quote  one  from  the  council  of 
Alstett,  in  Saxony,  because  it  contains  an  anecdote  of  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus.  The  letter  is  dated  March  2,  1646,  and 
mentions  the  following  circumstance.  In  the  year  1G31, 
after  the  victory  at  Leipsic,  the  king  took  his  march  to  Er- 
furth  by  this  place,  and  breakfasted  there.  Some  of  the 
army  had  hastened  into  the  town,  and  began  to  plunder 
there.  On  hearing  of  this  the  king  commanded  Gustavus 
Horn  to  appoint  an  officer  to  cause  the  wrong-doers  to  be 
seized  and  shot.  Horn  charged  with  this  duty  a  rittmaster, 
named  Verhauber,  who  misunderstood  his  orders,  and  in- 
stead had  eighteen  persons  of  the  council  and  burgesship 
taken  and  shot.  When  the  king  came  to  hear  this  he  bared 
his  head,  clasped  his  hands,  and  called  to  God  in  heaven 
that  he  was  innocent  of  this  blood.  The  rittmaster  s.ived 
himself  from  his  anger  by  flight.  The  king  issued  a  si)ecial 
safe-guard  for  this  town  (a  copy,  dated  Ilmenau,  Sept.  28, 
1631,  is  added),  which  was  afterwards  renewed  by  Axel 
Oxenstierna  and  succeeding  generals;  wherefore  they  now 
solicited  the  same  from  Wrangel.  The  town,  however,  ob- 
tained no  alleviation ;  for  on  March  6,  1646,  duke  William 
of  Weimar  entreats,   in  a  letter  to  Wrangel,   for  Alstett, 


secure  the  pass  over  the  Bohemian  mountains  to 
Saxony  ^,  whitlier  he  also  retrograded  in  February, 
becau.se  the  Imperialists,  after  their  junction  with 
the  Bavarians,  outmatched  hin>^  The  plan  for  the 
campaign  of  1646  was  sketched  by  Torstenson.  It 
was  directed  to  maintain  the  army,  and  evade  a 
general  action,  until  a  union  had  been  effected 
with  the  French;  afterwards  they  were  to  aim  at 
driving,  with  conjoined  forces,  the  enemy  across 
the  Danube '.  The  junction  with  the  French,  who 
had  promised  to  be  in  Mcntz  by  May,  was  judged 
necessary,  to  induce  them  to  uninterrupted  co- 
operation; "  it  was  else  their  fashion  to  lie  still  in 
winter,  and  thereby  give  the  Imperialists  and 
Bavarians  opportunity  to  fall  conjointly  upon  the 
Swedes,  so  that  these  usually  lost  in  winter  what 
they  had  gained  in  summer  *."  While  Wrangel 
and  Turenne  advanced  against  Upper  Germany 
and  Bavaria,  general  Wittenberg',  reinforced  bj 
3000  foot  and  900  horse,  fresh  troops  from  Swe- 
den, was  to  push  forward  to  Silesia,  win  a  footing 
in  Upper  Silesia  by  the  capture  of  Troppau,  and 
thence  make  a  diversion  to  Austria,  either  through 
Bohemia  or  Moravia  ' . 

Wrangel's  commission  as  field-marshal,  with  a 
stipend  of  17,000  rix-doUars  yearly,  had  been 
made  out  on  the  28th  of  April,  1646.  Of  this 
Christina  had  informed  him  by  a  special  letter  ol 
grace;  and  he  received  a  similar  communication 
from  Lewis  XIV.,  accompanied  by  the  present  of 
a  sword  for  himself,  and  the  portraits  of  the  king 
and   queen-regent   for   his    wife*.     On   the   other 

which  place  had  been  completely  laid  waste  by  the  passage 
of  troops.  Wrangel  replied  that  no  exception  could  be  made, 
since  the  burden  of  inquartering  would  then  fall  the  heaviei 
on  others.  Correspondence  in  the  Library  of  Sko-Cloister. 

"•  Westenrieder,  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  iii.  217, 
note. 

s  Puffendorf,  xviii.  §  1. 

6  The  truce  with  Saxony  was  prolonged ;  but  perpetual 
disputes  in  respect  to  quarters  for  the  Swedes,  occasioned 
great  disorders  and  complaints.  Torstenson  himself  writes 
to  Wrangel,  March  5,  1646 :  "  To  obtain  meanwhile  the 
necessary  sustenance  for  the  army,  the  general  will  not  omit 
to  devise  and  embrace  all  practicable  methods,  let  them  me- 
morialize as  they  may."     Correspondence. 

7  Torstenson  to  Wrangel,  Leipsic,  Feb.  27,  1646.  Corre- 
spondence. 

8  Torstenson's  words  in  his  letter  to  the  landgravine 
Amelia  Elizabeth  of  Hesse-Cassel.  Leipsic,  April  12,  1646. 
He  li-stens  to  her  counsel,  even  in  military  affairs,  with 
great  respect.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  read  the  letters  of  this 
princess,  masculine  even  in  her  handwriting,  a  number  ol 
which,  with  her  signature,  both  to  Torstenson  and  Wrangel, 
are  preserved  in  the  latter's  correspondence. 

3  Now  appointed  master-general  of  the  ordnance,  after 
Wrangel. 

>  Field-marshal  Torstenson's  memorial  to  assistant-coun- 
cillor Lilyestrom,  on  what  he  was  to  execute  by  the  master- 
general  of  the  ordnance,  Arwid  Wittenberg,  was  first  pre- 
sented after  Torstenson's  arrival  in  Pomerania.  Bahrdt, 
July  4,  1646.  Torstenson  returned  to  Sweden  in  the  autumn 
of  this  year.  He  was  elevated  by  one  creation,  Feb.  4,  1647. 
to  the  ranks  of  baron  and  count,  with  the  hereditary  county 
of  Lyhundra,  a  district  of  Upland,  with  twelve  parishes,  and 
the  mine  of  Ortala,  and  on  the  31st  May,  1648,  appointed 

!   governor-general  of  Westgolhland,  Dalsland,  Vermeland,  and 

I   Halland. 

,       2  Original,  dated  Fontainebleau,  Aug.  31,    1646,  in  C.  G. 

I   Wrangel's  correspondence  in  Sko-Cloister.     On  the  Joy  of 

I   the  enemy  at  Torstenson's  departure,  see  Puffendorf,  xviii. 

I    §   15. 


1654.] 


Campaign  of  1646.— Junction 
with  the  French. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Truce  concluded  with 
Bavaria. 


329 


hand,  the  enemy  rejoiced,  supposing  that  Torsten- 
son's  cannon  were  now  silenced,  and  valued  his 
removal  from  the  army  as  equal  to  a  loss  of  ten 
thousand  men  for  the  Swedes.  The  plan  above- 
mentioned  was  imperfectly  executed.  Wrangel 
began  by  drawing  out  of  Thuringia  to  the  Weser, 
in  order  conjointly  with  the  Hessians  to  sweep  the 
country  between  the  Weser  and  the  Elbe  from 
the  enemy,  until  the  French  came  up.  He  took 
Hdxter  and  Paderborn,  and  resolved  to  wait  for 
Turenne  in  Hesse.  But  the  latter,  although  he 
had  promised  the  utmost  possible  haste,  did  not 
cross  the  Rhine  until  the  beginning  of  July  ',  and 
then  delayed  so  long  (being  probably  bound  by 
secret  orders,  though  the  French  minister  at 
Munster  gave  assurances  to  the  contrary  *),  that 
the  junction  with  Wrangel,  who  had  meanwhile 
been  reduced  to  great  danger  thi'ough  the  invasion 
of  Hesse  by  the  Imperialists  and  Bavarians,  could 
not  be  effected  until  the  beginning  of  August,  in 
Giessen.  The  combined  armies,  after  they  had 
offered  battle  at  Nidda  to  the  enemy  (who  instead 
drew  back  to  Lahn),  placed  Hanau  in  safety,  took 
Aschaffenburg;  and  then  marched — Wrangel  along 
the  Jaxt,  Turenne  along  the  Neckar — in  haste  to 
the  Danube,  which  the  former  passed  at  Donau- 
werth,  the  latter  at  Lauingen  ^.  They  formed  a 
junction  on  the  Lech  and  besieged  Augsburg  ^  for 
nineteen  days  in  vain,  until  the  Imperialists  and 
Bavarians,  who  had  hastened  through  Franconia 
to  the  defence  of  Bavaria,  relieved  the  town '. 
Notwithstanding  this,  the  allies  made  an  irruption 
into  Bavaria,  and  Wrangel  wished  to  attempt  to 
advance  on  Munich.    Turenne  opposed  this  course, 

3  Je  vous  supplie  d'estre  asseure  que  je  feral  toutes  les 
choses  necessaires  pour  la  jonrtion,  pourveu  que  je  le  puisse 
faiie  avec  quelque  seurete.  Turenne  to  Wrangel ;  Au  camp 
pr^s  de  Bacharai-h,  le  9  Juin,  1646.  The  words  are  under- 
lined hy  Turenne  himself.  Je  passerai  sans  faute  le  Rlien 
le  lundi  le  2  Juillet.  To  the  same:  Au  camp  d'Ohcrwesel, 
le  18  Juin,  1646.     C.  G.  Wrangel's  correspondence. 

"*  "Concerning  Turenne's  delay,  the  duke  of  Longueville 
swears  on  his  conscience  and  honour,  that  France  conceals 
under  it  no  secret  design,  but  that  Turenne  has  not  fully 
executed  his  orders  as  he  ought  to  have  dojie.  The  main 
cause  of  the  delay,  they  surmise,  is  the  slowness  of  the 
Hollanders  to  come  into  the  field,  and  their  zeal  to  hasten 
the  treaty  of  peace  here.  Turenne  had  on  this  account 
received  orders,  to  take  the  opinion  of  the  Swedish  generalcy, 
whether  the  conjunction  might  not  bear  some  delaj."  John 
Oxenstierna  to  Wrangel,  Osnaburg,  July  11,  1646.  Corre- 
spondence. 

5  Je  passe  aujourd'hui  le  Danube  et  niarcherai  entre  Augs- 
bourg  et  Rhain.  J'espere  avoir  bientost  I'honneur  de  voir 
Vostre  Excellence.  Turenne  to  Wrangel :  Au  camp  de 
Lauingen,  V  Sep.,  1646.  Correspondence.  On  the  4th 
September,  Wrangel  took  the  town  of  Rhain,  on  the  Lech. 

6  This  town  may  serve  as  an  example,  how  the  edict  of 
restitution  by  the  emperor  Ferdinand  11.  was  enforced.  The 
emperor  had  ordered  that  in  Augsburg  all  should  be  brought 
into  accordance  with  the  religious  peace,  and  the  mutation 
was  effected  by  the  armed  hand,  on  the  8th  August,  1629. 
Hereby  the  evangelical  burgesses  lost  their  religious  liber- 
ties, seven  churches  in  and  two  out  of  the  town,  their  gym- 
nasium, which  they  vacated  to  the  Jesuits,  their  schools, 
hospital,  and  orphan-house.  The  children  were  compelled 
to  become  catholics,  and  violently  carried  into  the  churches; 
all  praying  and  singing  in  the  houses  of  the  protestants  was 
forbidden ;  ihey  were  excluded  from  the  council,  and  not 
allowed  to  marry  without  having  heard  mass.  No  artizaa 
could  become  a  master-craftsman,  and  attendance  on  the 
catholic  church  was  commanded  for  all,  on  pain  of  exile;  all 


and  alleged,  as  usual,  the  need  of  winter-quarters 
for  the  French  troops.  These  the  latter  occupied 
in  Swabia,  and  the  Swedes  on  the  lake  of  Con- 
stance. The  fluctuations  of  the  war  had  again 
brought  them  to  the  extreme  frontier  of  Germany. 
Meanwhile  Wittenberg,  who  first  received  rein- 
forcements fi'om  Sweden  in  August,  had  penetrated 
fi-om  Silesia  into  Bohemia,  where  Montecuculi, 
who  was  already  on  his  way  to  the  defence  of 
Bavaria,  received  orders  to  stay.  Wittenberg 
obtained  an  important  advantage  over  his  cavalry 
at  Horschitz  on  tlie  21st  of  September,  and  wrote 
on  tlie  24th  to  Wrangel,  that  "  he  hoped  the  re- 
inforcement from  hence  of  the  enemy's  main  armv 
would  not  very  greatly  inconvenience  the  field- 
marshal."  He  strengthened  the  Swedish  garrisons 
in  Moravia,  but  was  obliged,  on  account  of  the  ad- 
vanced season  of  the  year,  to  retire  to  Silesia. 

The  winter  months  passed  away  in  negotiations 
respecting  the  neutrality  requested  by  Bavaria, 
which  was  granted  at  Ulm,  on  the  4th  of  March, 
16 17>  chiefly  througli  French  mediation '  ;  upon 
which  Tureime  recrossed  the  Rhine,  and  Wrangel 
returned  to  Franconia.  Tlie  so-called  Weimar 
troops,  the  remnant  of  duke  Bernard's  army,  had 
hitherto  been  in  French  service,  long  with  secret 
discontent.  They  hated  the  French,  and  had 
never  forgotten  their  old  connexions  with  the 
Swedes.  Now,  when  Turenne  wished  to  lead  them 
back  over  the  Rhine,  they  revolted,  deposed  their 
officers,  broke  up  to  Franconia,  beat  the  troops 
who  were  despatched  in  their  pursuit,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  unite  with  the  Swedes.  Turenne  de- 
manded   them   back  ^.      But    Wrangel,    who   had 

this  under  pretence  that  the  bishop  of  Eichstedt  should  be 
installed  in  those  rights  which  he  had  possessed  over  Augs- 
burg in  the  year  1548,  without  respect  to  the  religious  peace 
of  1555.  From  this  oppression  Gustavus  Adolphus  freec! 
the  protestants  of  Augsburg.  It  recommenced  when  the 
Imperialists  took  Augsburg,  after  a  two  years'  siege,  March 
13,  1635.  Short  Relation  concerning  the  troublous  state  oi 
the  Evangelical  Burgesses  in  the  town  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  called  Augsburg,  from  the  year  1628  to  1643.  Ii; 
the  documents  belonging  to  C.  G.  Wrangel's  correspondence. 

7  "  I  cannot  say  nay  to  it,  the  enemy  have  gained  the  ad- 
vantage against  this  quarter.  But  we  expect  that  the  Impe- 
rialist and  combined  armada  of  the  empire  will  very  soon 
come  to  blows  with  them,  and  that  the  well-affected  princes 
and  estates  of  the  empire  may  he  defended  from  the  enemy's 
power."  The  elector  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  to  the  counts 
Martin  Francis  and  Joachim  Eri:est  of  Ottingen-AVallerstein. 
Munich,  Sep.  1,  1645.  Original  in  C.  G.  Wrangel's  corre- 
spondence. These  counts  surrendered  their  castle  of  Wal- 
lerstein,  "although  when  it  is  well  garrisoned,  it  may  be 
called  in  respect  of  its  situation  impregnable,"  to  Kiinigs- 
mark,  and  treated  him  well,  according  to  his  letter  of  the 
29th  August  to  Wrangel. 

8  March  26,  1647,  the  ministry  write  to  Wrangel:  "We 
have  understood  the  negotiations  for  the  truce;  there  is  little 
earnestness  in  them.  Howbeit,  as  the  Ba.arian  prince  is 
worn  out  with  years,  and  has  children  in  their  non-age, 
knows  the  house  of  Austria,  and  perhaps  fears  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  emperor, — but  has  great  regard  for  France,  and 
perhaps  seeks  our  atTection  in  the  conclusion  of  peace,  that 
we  should  not  insist  on  the  restitution  of  the  palatinate, — it 
cannot  therefore  harm,  that  ye  should  conclude  a  cessation 
of  arms  upon  our  ratification  ;  but  manage  that  he  should 
disarm.  If  Bavaria's  brother,  the  elector  of  Cologne,  should 
be  comprehended  in  the  truce  with  Wurtzburg  and  Bam 
berg,  it  were  the  better."  Reg.  The  elector  of  Cologne 
actually  acceded. 

9  Je  supplie  trfes-humblement  Vostre  Excellence  de  vouloir 


330 


Instructions  of  the  ministry 
to  Wrangel. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Campaign  of  1647, — Last 
year  of  the  war. 


[1G44— 


great  scruples  in  receiving  them,  was  obliged,  on 
their  threatening  in  the  contrary  case  to  desert 
to  the  enemy,  to  permit  them  to  join  in  West- 
phalia the  force  of  Konigsmark  ', — who  was  the 
boldest  partisan  on  the  Swedish  side  in  this  war, 
as  John  of  Werth  was  on  that  of  the  enemy. 

On  the  7th  of  April,  1647,  the  ministry  made 
out  instructions  for  field-marshal  Wrangel,  af- 
fording a  retrospect  of  the  whole  war,  in  which 
we  recognize  the  hand  of  the  high-chancellor. 
According  to  these,  Gustavus  Adolphus  set  foot  on 
German  soil  to  oppose  the  absolute  power  of  the 
house  of  Austria  over  Germany,  and  all  the  dan- 
gers thence  arising,  his  main  design  being  against 
the  emperor  and  his  hereditary  dominions.  But 
after  the  battle  stricken  at  Leipsic,  the  enemy 
having  retired  towards  inner  Germany  with  his 
whole  force,  the  king  had  been  obliged  to  pursue 
him,  and  make  himself  master  of  the  Mayne  and 
Rhine,  whence  no  small  jealousy  sprung  up  among 
other  potentates.  After  the  king's  death  it  was 
continually  intended  to  remove  the  war  into  the 
enemy's  coimtry,  and  efforts  were  made  to  that 
end,  as  well  in  Silesia  as  on  the  Danube,  until  the 
unfortunate  battle  of  Nordlingen  threw  all  into 
confusion ;  afterwards,  though  there  had  been 
enough  to  do  to  redress  matters,  attempts  had 
been  made  from  time  to  time  to  carry  into  effect 
the  same  plan  on  the  imperial  hereditary  terri- 
tories; which  had  been  so  far  fortunately  executed 
by  field-marshal  Torstenson,  that  whereas  the 
enemy  had  before  only  played  with  the  treaty  of 
peace,  he  was  now  obliged  by  necessity  to  turn  his 
thoughts  to  it  in  earnest.  So  much  in  general, 
that  the  field-marshal  might  know  that  the  plan 
of  her  majesty  was  still  ever  directed  against  the 
true  chief  enemy,  the  emperor,  and  his  principal 
auxiliary  the  Bavarian  elector;  and  that  the  war 
must  be  kept  as  far  as  possible  from  tlie  German 
states,  as  well  to  avert  that  suspicion  among 
powerful  confederates,  which  the  late  king  had 
drawn  upon  himself  by  keeping  his  aim  fast  on  the 
Rhine.  Therewith  the  chief  design  must  be  di- 
rected on  the  circle  of  Lower  Saxony  and  the  sea- 
coast.  If  an  irruption  were  made  into  Bohemia, 
Moravia  and  Austria  would  be  in  front,  Silesia  in 
flank,  and  Meissen  in  the  rear.  We  are  indeed  at 
a  considerable  distance  from  the  sea-coast, — con- 
tinues the  document  from  which  we  quote, — but 
we  have  also  strong  garrisons,  namely,  in  Silesia 

donner  ordre  a  ses  trouppes  que  Ton  traicte  comme  ennemis 
huict  (8)  regiments  Allemands  de  Cavallerie,  qui  s'en  vont 
vers  la  Franconie  sans  leurs  odiciers.  Je  ne  doubte  point, 
que  Vostre  Exe.  ne  donne  tr^s-expressement  cest  ordre-Ia. 
Turenne  to  Wrangel.  Heilbronn,  July  30,  1G47.  Corre- 
spondence. 

'  They  had  dwindled  to  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty  men, 
out  of  whom  Konigsmark  formed  four  regiments.  Pulfen- 
dorf,  xix.  §  76. 

'  Instruction,  dated  April  7,  1647.    Reg. 

3  "  We  were  in  some  sort  of  opinion  rather  to  carry  on  the 
war  alone  for  an  increased  subsidy,  even  for  the  advantage 
of  France  in  Germany ;  but  as  France  would  hardly  have 
the  same  wish,  neither  have  we  communicated  this  opinion 
to  it.  But  since  this  time  we  have  had  no  assistance  from 
France  in  Germany,  ye  may  try,  at  the  congress,  whether 
France  would  not  be  willing  to  double  the  subsidies,  or  to 
continue  the  war  with  a  larger  force.  For  the  rest,  you  may 
sound  whether  France  would  not  be  inclined  to  contract  for 
the  future  also  a  closer  alliance  with  our  crown,  especially 
after  peace  is  made  in  Germany,  where  new  leagues  are 


and  on  the  Oder,  Glogau  and  ffils  ;  in  Moravia, 
Olmutz,  Iglau,  and  Neustadt;  in  Meissen,  Leipsic; 
in  Thuringia,  Erfurt,  besides  the  sti'ong  places  on 
the  Weser,  and  those  we  have  garrisoned  in  the 
Mark  of  Brandenburg  and  on  the  Elbe,  so  that  it 
is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  the  enemy  will  be 
able  ti)  break  in  between  and  press  on  to  the  coast 
with  any  considerable  force.  The  field-marshal 
must  above  all  take  precautions,  that  no  consi- 
derable hostile  corps  should  throw  itself  between 
the  army  and  the  sea-coast,  unless  a  flying  corps 
were  opposed  to  it.  Therefore  especial  care  should 
be  had  as  to  the  two  smaller  armies  raised  by 
Torstenson,  the  one  under  Wittenberg  in  Silesia, 
the  other  under  Konigsmark  in  Westphalia^. — So 
great  dissatisfaction  with  the  French  was  felt, 
that  the  ministry  advised  against  a  conjunction 
with  them  ^.  'J'his  dissatisfaction  increased  when, 
after  Wrangel  had  actually  made  an  irruption  into 
Bohemia  and  taken  Eger,  the  sudden  renunciation 
of  the  truce  by  the  Bavarians,  and  their  junction 
with  the  Imperialists,  compelled  him  to  retreat, 
first  to  Meissen,  and  then  to  Westphalia.  Here 
perhaps  a  defeat  would  have  awaited  him,  had  not 
the  new  Imperialist  general-in-chief  Melander^, 
formerly  in  the  Hessian  service,  out  of  personal 
revenge  turned  against  Hesse.  Never  since  the 
death  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  says  Puffendorf,  had 
the  Swedish  arms  to  encounter  a  greater  danger  ; 
but  sagacious  persons  predicted,  when  they  saw 
Melander  turn  against  Hesse,  that  he  would  ac- 
complish nothing  there;  for  no  army  had  come  to 
Hesse  which  had  not  met  its  ruin  there,  from  the 
numerous  castles,  the  narrow  roads,  the  high  moun- 
tains, and  the  spirit  of  the  peasantry,  who  were 
exceedingly  devoted  to  their  princes,  and  well  un- 
derstood the  management  of  arms^.  Meanwhile 
the  enemy  gathered  new  courage.  At  Osnaburg 
and  Munster  the  negotiations  slumbered,  and  the 
very  last  year  of  the  war  opened  with  a  more 
remote  hope  of  peace  ^. 

The  most  remarkable  phase  of  the  war  in  the 
year  1648  is,  that  with  regard  to  Bavaria,  France 
i-efused  to  stand  apart  from  Sweden;  although  the 
elector  renounced  his  truce  with  the  latter  country 
in  the  hope  that  the  one  with  France  might  never- 
theless remain  in  force.  Turenne,  on  the  contrary, 
received  orders  to  support  Wrangel  with  his  whole 
force  ^,    After  manifold  negotiations  and  difficulties, 

then  to  be  feared  from  Denmark,  Poland,  perhaps  also  the 
United  Netherlands  and  Spain,  against  us.''  The  ministry 
to  C.  G.  Wrangel,  Sept.  18,  1647.     Reg. 

■*  He  had  now  changed  his  name,  and  styles  himself,  in 
letters  to  Wrangel,  "  His  imperial  Roman  majesty's  coun- 
cillor of  war,  Holzappel,  appointed  general-field-marshal  in 
the  circle  of  Westphalia." 

5  Puffendorf,  xix.  §  51. 

s  "With  you,  I  see,  the  treaty  for  peace  slumbers,  and  is 
pursued  with  hardly  any  other  mind  than  pro  forma.  Me- 
seems  the  Imperialists  have  hitherto  striven  to  observe  and 
learn  the  extreme  conditions  of  peace,  without  resolve  to 
conclude  it ;  wishing  once  more  to  make  trial  of  fortune." 
The  high-chancellor  to  his  son  John;  Stockholm,  Oct.  10, 
1647. 

7  Letters  to  Christina,  both  from  Lewis  XIV.  and  his  mo- 
ther, the  queen- regent  of  France,  of  date  Dec.  29,  1647,  give 
assurance  of  this,  as  also  that  they  would  do  the  utmost  in 
respect  to  the  subsidies.  Of  the  design  of  Bavaria  to  sever 
France  from  Sweden,  it  is  said:  "  We  were  not  capable  of 
falling  into  this  trap.  M.  de  Turenne  has  sent  a  trumpet  to 
the  duke  of  Bavaria,  on  the  part  of  the  king,  in  the  most 


1654.] 


Devastation  of  Bavaria 
by  the  allies. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Peace  of  Westphalia. 
Acquisitions  of  Sweden. 


331 


we  see  the  two  generals  united  at  the  beginning 
of  April  in  Franconia,  while  the  Imperialists  and 
Bavarians,  who  had  conceived  new  hopes  of  driv- 
ing the  Swedes  across  the  Weser,  weakened  by 
scarcity  and  excesses,  hastened  back  over  the 
Danube  to  the  defence  of  Bavaria.  A  war  of  de- 
vastation and  vengeance,  like  Baner's  against 
Saxony,  a  war  full  of  robbery,  assassination,  burn- 
ing, and  ravage,  was  commenced  against  unfor- 
tunate Bavai'ia,  otherwise  without  remarkable  oc- 
currences, as  also  without  victories  deserving  of  the 
name;  for  the  battle  of  Susmarshausen,  fought  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Augsburg  on  the  7th  of  May, 
which  cost  general  Melander  his  life,  was  rather  a 
bloody  skirmish,  wherein  Konigsmark  surrounded 
and  cut  down  a  portion  of  the  hostile  army,  than 
a  decisive  action.  Meanwhile  the  confederates 
pressed  on  to  the  Inn;  while  Konigsmark,  who  had 
taken  the  Weimar  regiments  into  his  force,  and 
separated  from  Wrangel  (the  more  gladly  that 
they  did  not  agree  *),  went  to  Bohemia,  and  on  the 
31st  of  July  made  himself  master  by  surprise  of 
the  so-called  Little  Side  (Kleinseite)  of  Prague, 
where  an  immense  booty  was  gained.  This  was 
the  last  achievement  of  the  war,  since  Wi-angel 
and  Turenne  were  at  last  compelled  to  recross  the 
Lech  ;  and  although  Charles  Gustavus,  now  ap- 
pointed generalissimo,  arrived  with  reinforce- 
ments from  Sweden,  and  in  conjunction  with 
Konigsmark  and  Wittenberg  laid  vigorous  siege 
to  Prague,  yet  the  town  itself,  through  the  heroism 
of  its  inhabitants,  remained  untaken.  The  cam- 
paign of  this  last  year  in  the  end  became  a  serious 

gentle  terms  which  he  could  choose,  but  in  fine  signifying  to 
him  positively,  that  our  armies  and  garrisons  will  act  against 
his,  so  long  as  he  shall  have  the  Swedes  for  enemies.  Mean- 
while, he  has  put  all  his  troops  in  action."  (Nous  n'estions 
capables  de  donner  dans  ce  piege,  &c.)  Extract  of  a  letter 
from  M.  le  visconte  de  Cournal  to  colonel  St.  Andre.  May- 
ence,  Dec.  25,  1647.  C.  G.  Wrangel's  correspondence.  The 
charges  by  which  Turenne  put  oft'  the  junction,  related  to  the 
Weimar  regiments. 

8  Torstenson  writes  from  Segersioe,  Jan.  29,  1G4S,  that  he 
had  received  Wrangtl's  letter  of  Nov.  10,  1647,  in  which  the 
latter  stated,  that  the  queen  had  ordered  him  to  observe  a 
good  comportment  towards  Konigsmark,  and  give  no  occa- 
sion for  discord  and  jealousy.  Torstenson,  with  his  usual 
prudence,  mentions  that  no  such  misunderstanding  between 
the  generals  was  known  to  hira.  Yet  this  is  contradicted  by 
his  own  confession,  that  Konigsmark  had  written  to  him  and 
others,  that  he  wished  his  discharge.  From  the  transmitted 
correspondence  of  Wrangel  with  Kbnigsmaik,  Torstenson 
does  not  find  that  the  latter  had  reason  to  be  offended,  since 
all  must  depend  on  the  head.  Most  of  the  other  oiBcers 
were  also  dissatisfied  vfith  Wrangel,  "  as  one  who  was  still 
very  young,  arrogant,  selfish,  and  by  no  means  liberal." 
Puffendorf,  xx.  §  60.  For  this  reason  also,  the  nomination 
of  Charles  Gustavus  to  be  generalissimo  was  well-liked  by 
the  armies.  In  compensation,  Wrangel  was  now  likewise 
made  governor-general  of  Pomerania  (which  oflSce  Torsten- 
son had  hitherto  filled),  and  received  Bremer- vbrde  in  dona- 
tion. The  queen  wrote  to  him,  August  29,  1648,  that  the 
new  generalissimo  would  advise  on  all  subjects  with  him ; 
and  Charles  Gustavus,  In  an  autograph  letter,  entreats  his 
counsels. 

9  April  29,  1648,  the  queen  writes  to  the  commissioners 
for  the  peace  at  Osnaburg :  "  Ye  must  stipulate  for  us,  in 
taking  possession  of  the  fiefs,  a  more  honourable  mode  than 
hitherto  has  been  observed  with  the  kings  of  Denmark  and 
the  princes  of  the  Roman  empire,  so  that  the  fiefs  may  not 
be  conferred  upon  us,  nor  we  receive  them  by  our  envoys, 
with  flexure  of  the  knee,  or  the  like  dubious  fashion  and 
ceremonies."  Reg. 


attempt  at  a  double  combined  attack  of  Austria 
from  Bavaria  and  Bohemia.  It  likewise  brought 
about  the  peace.  The  treaty  of  Westphalia  was 
j  signed  on  the  ^Jth  October,  1648,  in  Osnaburg  and 
Munster  at  the  same  time.  Sweden  received  Fore 
Pomerania,  Rugen,  a  part  of  Hinder  Pomerania 
to  the  Oder,  with  Stettin  and  Gartz,  the  island  of 
WoUin,  and  the  three  mouths  of  the  Oder;  beyond 
that  stream,  Damm  and  Golnau;  in  Mecklenburg, 
Wismar  with  the  districts  of  Poel  and  New- 
Cloister,  with  Bremen  and  Verden,  all  as  fiefs  of 
the  German  empire  ^. 

The  armies  had  had  their  own  plenipotentiaries 
at  the  pacificatory  congress.  Their  satisfaction 
was  the  last  point  settled,  and  ultimately  the 
demands  were  lowered  from  much  higher  sums  to 
5,000,000  rix-dollars  ^'',  of  which  eighteen  tons  gold 
(1,800,000  i-ix-dollars)  were  to  be  immediately 
paid,  while  for  twelve  tons  gold  (1,200,000  rix- 
dollars)  assignations  were  given,  and  for  the  re- 
maining 2,000,000  promissory  notes  *.  Out  of  the 
first  payment  every  horseman  received  40  rix- 
dollars,  every  foot-soldier  12,  the  native  Swedish 
troops  three  months'  pay,  and  thft  officers  larger 
and  smaller  sums  *,  with  the  promise  that  as  much 
would  be  added  one  or  two  years  after  their  dis- 
charge, as  soon  as  the  2,000,000  had  been  re- 
ceived. This  appears  never  to  have  taken  place, 
for  these  2,000,000  were  partly  applied  in  clearing 
the  so-called  German  Debt  Register  ',  partly  re- 
mitted by  free  consent*;  and  in  general  the  com- 
missaries were  instructed  not  to  drive  matters  in 
this  respect  to  extremities,  especially  as  the  iu- 

10  1'  We  were  fully  minded  to  hold  out  here  somewhat 
longer  in  the  matter  of  her  majesty's  soldiers  ;  but  since  the 
states,  now  that  they  are  ready  witli  France,  daily  solicit  us 
to  subscribe  the  instruments  of  the  peace,  we  cannot  longer 
tarry  in  it  without  the  greatest  blame  from  the  queen's 
majesty."  John  Oxenstierna  to  C.  G.  Wrangel,  Osnaburg, 
Oct.  13,  1648.  The  opinions  of  both  Wrangel  and  Torstenson 
were  taken  in  the  matter.  (If  the  rix-dollar  were  is.  6d.  the 
sum  of  5,000,000  would  be  equivalent  to  £1,250,000.     T.) 

1  The  queen  to  Charles  Gustavus,  Nov.  22,  1648:  "The 
more  profit  your  lovingness  can  draw  out  of  this  money  for 
us  and  the  realm,  without  discredit  among  the  soldiers,  the 
better."  Reg. 

2  The  project  of  the  college  of  war  how  the  army  shall  be 
paid,  sent  to  Charles  Gustavus  April  16,  1649,  purports,  be- 
sides what  we  have  quoted  respecting  the  privates,  that  of 
the  first  instalment  Charles  Gustavus  should  receive  60,000 
rix-dollars,  Gustave  Horn  30,000,  Torstenson  30,000,  C.  G. 
Wrangel  30,000,  Baner's  children  12,000,  Lilyehcek's  widow 
6000,  Magnus  Gabriel  de  la  Gardie  22,500,  Axel  Lilye  15,000, 
Arvid  Wittenberg  15,000,  Konigsmark  12,000,  Gustave  Otto 
Stenbock  9000,  each  of  the  lieutenant  generals  7500,  of  the 

i  major-generals  6000,  of  the  adjutant-generals  3000,  &c.  A 
pension-list  of  June  28,  1648,  assigned  on  the  revenues  of 
the  Swedish  possessions  in  Germany,  and  if  these  did  not 
sutfice,  on  the  French  subsidies,  bears  in  addition,  for 
Charles  Gustavus,  40,000  rix-dollars,  for  C.  G.  Wrangel 
15,000,  for  Magnus  Gabriel  de  la  Gardie  10,000,  for  twenty- 
three  colonels  1000  each,  &c.  Reg. 

3  Claims  on  account  of  the  army  since  the  death  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus,  amounting  to  590,084  rix-dollars.  The  factor 
Drost,  of  Lubeck,  nevertheless,  received  his  claim  of  20,000 
rix-dollars  from  the  money  of  the  first  instalment.  Reg. 
April  16,  1649. 

*  Thus  it  was  written  to  Charles  Gustavus  Jan.  3,  1649, 
that  the  Landgravine  of  Hesse  should  be  freed  from  her  con- 
tingent. Reg.  The  same  took  place  with  the  Palatinate  and 
Worms.  The  army  was  dismissed  at  three  terms,  which 
was  not  accomplished  without  mutiny. 


332 


Immediate  effects  of  the 
peace. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Consequences  of  the  aliena- 
tion of  crown  estates. 


[1644— 


ternal  commotions  of  France  might  perhaps  induce 
tlie  emperor  to  a  new  war';  "but  rather,"  the 
queen  writes  to  Charles  Gustavus,  "  we  beg  by  all 
that  is  holy,  that  your  loviugness  will  not  be 
restrained  by  causes  of  hindrance  interposed,  but 
in  God's  name  make  an  end  without  delay  of  this 
long  protracted  treaty  ^."  The  completion  of  the 
peace  was  settled  by  the  Recess  of  Execution  in 
Nuremberg,  1650.  The  pacification  of  Westphalia 
determined  for  a  long  time  the  political  arrange- 
ment of  Europe.  We  know  that  violence  provokes 
violence  ;  but  if,  fixing  our  eyes  on  the  many  years' 
devastations  of  this  war,  we  inquire  whether  it 
were  mainly  urged  on  account  of  religion,  we  must 
answer  with  Axel  Oxenstierna,  no'  !  and  call  to 
mind  an  oriental  proverb  :  "  What  princes  take, 
they  harry  ;  what  God  takes,  he  heals  *." 

Peace,  however  wishfully  expected,  has  often, 
no  less  tiian  war,  its  initial  moments  of  embarrass- 
ment. It  is  like  a  sudden  change  in  the  way  of 
life.  Forces,  whose  direction  has  long  been  ex- 
ternal, are  thrown  back  within  the  body.  If  to 
this  we  add,  that  men  are  in  general  tolerant 
of  those  necessities  which  are  keenly  enough  felt  in 
war,  but  know  no  bounds  to  their  wishes  when 
these  have  scope  to  expatiate,  it  will  appear  that 
peace,  not  less  than  war,  must  try  the  strength  of 
a  government.  In  Sweden  this  great  conflict, 
wherein  the  country  had  borne  the  most  honourable 
share,  left  behind  it  such  profiund  intei-nal  de- 
rangements, that  Christina  ended  by  committing 
their  adjustment  to  the  hand  of  another.  The 
causes  of  this  resolve  lay  as  well  in  her  own 
personal  position,  as  in  the  general  situation  of  her 
kingdotn. 

The  derangements  mentioned  above,  were  partly 
the  necessary  results  of  a  war,  of  which  it  has 
been  rightly  said,  "  that  it  was  disproportioned  to 
the  forces  of  the  country."  A  supportable  dis- 
tribution of  public  burdens  is  in  such  a  case  an 
insolyible   problem ;    but    whether   supportable    or 

'  To  the  commissaries  in  Osnaburg,  Feb.  10,  1649.  Reg. 
The  queen  enjoins  Charles  Gustavus,  on  the  10th  of  March 
of  the  same  year,  to  try  to  hinder  Turenne,  who  was  on  the 
side  of  the  parliament,  and  wished  to  lead  his  army  against 
Paris.  Lieutenant-general  Erlach  writes  on  this  subject  to 
Wrangel,  May  2,  1649:  "  As  the  design  of  M.  de  Turenne 
had  neither  justice  nor  grounds,  I  opposed  it  wilh  so  much 
success,  that  the  marshal  has  no  more  than  a  handful  of 
people  al'.out  him."  After  the  court  in  1650  had  caused 
Conde  to  be  arrested,  Turenne  solicited  Wrangel's  help  to 
liberate  the  prince.  "  I  doubt  not,"  he  writes,  "that  your 
excellency  has  learned  the  arrest  of  the  prince.  I  hope  your 
excellency  will  be  touched  by  his  misfortune,  and  that  you 
will  do  me  the  favour  of  sending  to  nie  the  officers  who 
would  wish  to  serve  a  cause  so  just."  V.'rangel  received  for 
his  refusal  a  letter  of  thanks  from  Lewis  XIV.  from  Dijon, 
March  27,  1650:  "  Having  been  apprized  how  you  have  re- 
butted the  intrigues  of  Marshal  de  Turenne,  who  desired  to 
be  assisted  with  troops  against  my  service,  I  write  you  this 
letter  by  advice  of  the  queen-regent,  madam  my  mother,  to 
express  to  you  what  satisfaction  I  have  felt  at  the  effects  of 
your  good  disposition."  (Ayant  sceu  comme  vous  avez  re- 
butte,  &c.)  The  original  is  in  the  correspondence  of  C.  G. 
Wrangel,  in  Sko-Cloisler. 

6  To  Charles  Gustavus,  Jan.  19  and  26,  1650.  Reg.  On 
the  7th  May  of  the  preceding  year,  she  had  written  to  him, 
that  she  would  gladly  see  him  erect  a  statue  on  the  spot 
where  her  father  had  fallen.  ' 

'  "  The  principal  aim  of  the  German  war  was  by  no  means   ' 
the  defence  of  religion,  whose   weapons  are   spiritual,   as 
prayers  and  tears;  but  that  the  realm  of  Sweden  and  our 


not,  ju.stice  demands  that  it  should  be  equal  ;  and 
even  in  the  most  difficult  circumstances,  it  is  the 
strictest  justice  alone  which  saves.  We  may  es- 
cape this  necessity  by  a  false  forbearance;  but  this 
brings  its  own  penalty.  The  expedient  which  the 
Administration  of  Guardians  adopted  for  lightening 
these  burdens  by  an  alienation  of  the  crown  es- 
tates, as  the  foreign  subsidies  were  inadequate, 
and  they  did  not  dare  to  augment  the  imposts,  con- 
tained alike  lenity  and  injustice  ;  less  in  itself — 
for  the  chancellor's  maxim,  that  estates  are  more 
j)rofitable  in  the  hands  of  jn-ivate  persons  than  in 
thiise  of  the  crown,  has  much  in  its  favour — than 
throtigh  the  conditifins  attached  to  the  alienation, 
and  by  the  extension  given  to  the  denomination 
"  crown-estates."  In  the  former  respect  our  at- 
tention is  fixed  by  the  circumstance,  that  these 
estates  could  only  be  alienated  to  the  nobility^;  in 
the  latter  it  should  be  remarked  that  the  alienated 
properties  comprised  not  only  domains  of  the 
crown,  but  also  the  crown-rents  of  the  tax-pay- 
ing peasants,  who  in  this  manner  were  brought 
under  the  superiority  of  the  nobles,  and  thus  trans- 
formed from  immediate  into  mediate  subjects.  It 
is  indeed  specified,  that  the  rents  alone  of  the 
assessable  estates  should  be  alienated  ;  but  the 
relation  in  which  the  nobleman  was  thus  placed, 
left  him  but  too  much  op[)(irtuiiity  to  encroach 
upon  and  annul  the  ancient  right  of  the  Swedish 
odal  yeoman  as  possessor  of  the  soil.  Neither 
soft  nor  hard  words  were  spared  to  bring  the 
latter  entirely  under  the  sway  of  the  gentry,  as  is 
shown  by  the  repeated  complaints  of  the  yeomen  at 
the  diets.  Nor  were  there  wanting  those  who 
maintained,  that  all  liability  to  land-tax  had  its 
origin  in  the  crown's  primary  right  of  property  in 
the  soil,  wherefore  the  transfer  of  the  rents  to  the 
nobility  must  bring  with  it  a  silent  transfer  of  the 
soil  itself.  This  assertion  was  even  so  loudly 
maintained  that  it  called  forth  a  special  refutation'. 

partners  in  religion  might  sit  in  security,  as  well  in  their 
ecclesiastical  as  in  their  political  state."  Axel  Oxenstierna 
in  the  council,  1637.     Palmsk.  MS. 

s   "  Wer  ist  der  wahre  Kiinig?     Gott  allein. 
Wo  Konige  ein  Land  einnahmen, 
Verwiisten  sie's,  so  weit  sie  kamen. 
Gott  heilt  ein  Herz,  so  weit  er  es  nimmt  ein." 
"  Who  is  the  true  King?     God  alone. 

The  Kings  of  Earth,  when  they  a  land  invade, 
Far  and  wide  desolation  spread. 
God  heals  a  heart  that  he  takes  for  his  own." 
Friedrich  Ruckert,  Traditional  sayings  of  the  East.  (Spriiche, 

e'i.C.) 

9  So  strictly  was  this  enforced,  that  although  great  part  of 
the  estates  was  alienated  for  the  payment  of  old  claims,  the 
ministry,  as  appears  by  their  letter  of  July  14,  1642,  to  the 
bt)ard  of  treasury,  gave  orders  that  no  unnoble  person  should 
in  this  manner  receive  satisfaction  of  his  claim,  unless  it 
had  previously  been  transferred  to  some  one  of  the  nobles. 

I  "  Irrefragable  Proofs  against  the  right  of  the  nobirilyover 
taxed  estates,"  written  by  Ehrensten,  afterwards  councillor 
of  chancery,  in  1647,  although  not  mentioned  in  his  autobio- 
graphy. The  treatise  was  printed  at  Stockholm,  in  1769. 
He  lost  much  subsequently,  by  the  reduction  of  king 
Charles  XL,  which  caused  the  author  of  the  Observations, 
included  in  the  9lh  volume  of  the  Memoirs  for  the  History 
of  Scandinavia,  to  say  :  "  The  official  Ehrensten  had  written 
in  youth,  as  an  unnoble  person,  most  severely  against  the 
land-claims  of  the  nobles;  but  when  the  king's  bounties  to 
himself  were  in  question,  the  shell  gave  another  sound." 
p.  147. 


1654.] 


Liberties  of  the  yeomanry 
endangered. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Evil  increased  by  the  excess  ooo 
of  the  royal  bounty.  "''^** 


It  touched  the  existence  of  the  order  of  yeomen  as 
a  free  estate  in  Sweden. 

That  the  liigh-chancellor  was  an  enemy  of  this 
freedom,  we  cannot  in  general  affirm.  Several  of 
his  expressions  in  the  council,  where  he  was  by  no 
means  the  strongest  aristocrat,  attest  the  contrary. 
"  The  Swedish  yeomen  are  a  free  class,  and  have  a 
voice,"  is  one  of  his  sayings  2;  but  then  he  adds, 
"  it  is  but  a  contract,  which  subsists  Ijetween  them 
and  their  masters^;"  this  infers  that  the  nobleman 
may  be  master,  notwithstanding  the  personal  liberty 
of  tlie  peasant  ;  and  if  we  review  the  conse- 
quences of  the  chancellor's  system  in  internal 
administration,  we  discover  no  obstacle  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  nobleman  ought  to  be  master. 
The  opinion  of  this  great  statesman  appears  in  fact 
to  have  been  little  different  from  that  of  the  high- 
steward,  count  Peter  Brahe,  who  declared  on  the 
same  occasion:  "  we  are  all  subjects  of  the  realm, 
the  peasants  mediately,  we  immediately,"  a  dis- 
tinction so  little  to  the  taste  of  king  Charles  X., 
that  finding  it  stated  with  some  verbal  alteration 
in  Gyldenstolpe's  Polities,  he  threw  the  book, 
which  was  dedicated  to  himself,  out  of  the  win- 
dow*. Great  progress  was  made  to  the  end  of 
vesting  the  possession  of  the  soil  of  Sweden  in  the 
nobility,  and  the  chancellor  seems  to  have  formed 
the  conception  of  making  the  order  of  yeomen, 
with  the  privilege  of  representation,  for  the  most 
part  a  class  of  free  farmers.  Hence  also  his 
preference   for    indirect    taxes,   as    customs    and 

2  In  the  council,  1650.     Palmsk.  MSS. 

3  Ibid. 

*  Memoirs  for  the  History  of  Scandinavia,  x.  115. 

5  In  the  council,  1642.     Palmsk.  MSS. 

6  As  an  example,  may  be  quoted  the  royal  confirmation, 
issued  June  9,  1645,  of  the  purchase  of  estates  from  the  crown 
made  by  one  of  the  guardians,  the  high-treasurer  Gabriel 
Bennetson  Oxenstierna,  cousin  of  the  chancellor.  It  is 
therein  stated,  that  at  the  sale,  made  in  the  time  of  Gns- 
tavus  Adolphus,  the  estates  were  sold  for  3  per  cent,  (at  100 
rix-dollars  for  3  rix-dollars'  rent),  the  rix-dollar  being  va- 
lued at  6J  marks,  and  only  the  fixed  yearly  rents  computed; 
and  that  afterwards,  it  was  resolvLd  to  compute  also  casual 
yearly  rents,  and  to  sell  the  estates  for  4J  per  cent.,  valuing 
the  rix-dollar  at  6  marks.  Under  these  conditions,  the  high- 
treasurer  had  bought,  in  the  years  1638,  39,  40,  42,  ninety- 
eight  and  a  half  hydes,  specilied  in  different  provinces,  for 
28,450  rix-dollars  in  all.  And  when  we  consider  the  mo- 
tives for  this  sale, — it  is  said — in  the  impending  exigency 
and  general  danger  of  the  realm,  not  to  burden  the  estates 
with  higher  imposts,  it  being  also  not  convenient  for  us  to 
repay  the  money,  and  the  good  tendance  of  lands  promoting 
cultivation ;  therefore,  though  we  might  object  something 
against  the  calculation  of  the  rents  for  the  Westgothic  estates, 
we  confirm  him  in  possession  of  these  estates,  with  immu- 
nity from  taxation,  as  for  others  of  his  hereditary  lands. 
Among  those  ceded  in  this  manner  are  both  crown,  taxed, 
and  cliurch  estates,  with  two  of  the  Gustavian  heritage. 

''  Thus  the  children  of  the  high-chancellor  Eric  Sparre 
received  compensation  for  the  half  of  the  Bergquara  estates, 
which  the  high-admiral  Gyllenhielm  now  possessed.  April 
16,  1645.     Reg. 

^  Since  our  father,  of  happy  memory,  erected  the  soldiers' 
house  at  Vadstena,  from  commiseration  for  all  wounded 
and  frail  warriors,  and  endowed  it  with  rents  of  2000  dollars, 
which  up  to  this  day  it  has  been  found  impossible  in  effect 
to  perform;  therefore  we  give  to  the  soldiers'  house  of  Vad- 
stena, as  many  of  our  own  and  the  crown-granges,  as  will 
reach  to  this  sum."  Oct.  12,  1646.  Reg.  There  are  besides 
a  multitude  of  individual  examples. 

'  This  statement  is  taken  from  a  ministerial  memoir, 
written  in  Italian,  of  the  year  1654,  probably  by  count  Monte- 


excise,  and  his  urgency  that  the  nobility  should 
not  shake  these  off,  but  rather  support  the  crown 
by  separate  grants,  which  reminds  us  of  his  ex- 
pression, "  that  all  Sweden's  misfortunes  sprung 
from  this  root,  that  the  sovereigns  had  wished  to 
receive  in  the  measure  of  the  public  necessities, 
and  the  nobles  to  contribute  nothing*."  This  was 
the  only  way  of  reconciling  taxation  with  the  im- 
munity which  the  nobles  claimed  for  their  lands. 

Christina  confirmed  without  reservation  all 
alienations  of  crown  and  taxed  estates  made  during 
her  minority,  which  were  now  assigned  to  the 
possessors  as  perpetual  freeholds  ^.  The  same 
expedient  of  which  the  guardians  availed  them- 
selves with  some  reserve,  was  employed  by  the 
young,  vivacious,  and  open-handed  queen  without 
bound  or  stint  ;  and  the  registers  of  her  reign  are 
filled  with  deeds  of  sale,  infeudations,  letters  of 
nobility,  tokens  of  grace,  and  gifts  of  every  sort. 
She  had  brilliant  merits  to  rewai'd,  sometimes 
ancient  wrongs  to  redress  ^,  and  the  care  which 
she  devoted  to  old  or  wounded  soldiers  *,  deserves 
all  praise. 

But  favour  was  the  source  of  benefactions  ex- 
ceeding all  others  in  amount.  We  may  well  be 
amazed  at  the  profusion  heaped  by  the  queen  upon 
count  Magnus  de  la  Gardie,  the  handsomest  and 
most  brilliant  of  the  young  nobles  of  her  court, 
who  is  said  within  a  few  years  to  have  amassed  an 
income  of  80,000  rix-dollars  yeai'ly  in  landed  es- 
tates alone  ^.     We  have  mentioned  the  man  whose 

cuculi,  copied  in  Venice,  and  communicated  by  Arckenholtz. 
Mem.  de  Christine,  ii.  Appendix,  n.  xlvii.  We  subjoin  a 
summary  of  the  promotions  and  donations  granted  to  count 
Magnus  by  the  queen,  chiefly  from  the  state  registries.  He 
began  his  public  career  in  1644,  at  the  age  of  two-and-twenty, 
when  he  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  guard,  and  received 
besides  a  pension  of  1500  rix-dollars  yearly.  The  following 
year  he  was  sent  to  France,  at  the  head  of  a  splendid  em- 
bassy; obtained  on  Feb.  9,  1646,  the  investiture  of  Magnus- 
hof  on  the  ffisel;  in  the  same  year  was  made  colonel  of  the 
life  regiment,  and  in  1647,  councillor  of  war  and  state  at 
once  ;  April  17,  1648,  g-neral  over  all  the  Swedish  and  Ger- 
man soldiery  in  Germany,  as  lieutenant-general  of  duke 
Charles  Gustavus,  with  a  stipend  of  10,000  rix-dollars  ; 
April  20,  of  the  same  year,  he  received  the  donation  of 
twenty-nine  hydes  in  Upland ;  June  28,  a  pen.sion  of 
15,000  rix-dollars,  from  the  French  subsidies  and  the  Ger- 
man revenue ;  April  16,  1649,  22,500  rix-dollars,  from  the 
fund  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  Swedish  army  ;  May  11,  he 
was  made  governor-general  of  Lifland ;  Jan.  15,  1650,  he 
received  an  assignment  of  7000  rix-dollars,  from  the  produce 
of  the  customs,  in  compensation  for  some  revenues  in  Bre- 
men ;  Aug.  14,  1650,  an  augmentation  of  his  arms  as  count, 
and  t'ne  county  of  Arensberg  on  the  CEsel;  Aug.  23,  of  the 
same  year,  a  free  gift  of  all  the  artillery  and  munitions  in 
the  fortress  of  Benfeld ;  Dec.  24,  the  district  of  Wollin  in 
Pomerania,  in  perpetual  possession;  April  16,  1651,  an  aug- 
mentation of  the  county  of  his  father,  Jacob  de  la  Gardie ;  in 
the  same  year,  he  was  made  high-mar.-ihal ;  Jan.  31,  1652, 
president  of  the  chamber  of  accounts;  March  27,  lawman  of 
Westgothland  and  Dalsland  ;  May  30,  he  obtained  the  manor 
of  Raefsness,  in  Suthermanland,  with  several  in  East  Both- 
nia; and  on  October  19,  estates  in  Nerike  ;  Dec.  30,  he  was 
made  high-treasurer;  March  2,  1653,  he  received  the  church 
tithes  of  the  parish  of  Ilmola,  and  30,000  rLx-dollars,  for 
Jacobsdale,  now  Ulricsdale  ;  March  23,  about  sixty  granges 
in  Medelpad  and  West  Bothnia,  the  salmon-fishery  of  Umea, 
and  the  salmon-tax  on  twenty  granges;  Sept.  30,  a  dona- 
tion of  the  house  in  Stockholm,  which  the  government 
had  purchased  from  his  father  for  70,000  rix-dollars,  in  con- 
sideration of  the  surrender  by  count  Magnus  of  a  grant 
of  estates  in  Halland. 


334 


Count  de  la  Gardie,  the 
new  favourite. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


XJve  queen's  displeasure  with 
the  Oxenstiernas. 


[1644— 


influence  soon  eclipsed  that  of  the  chancellor. 
One  of  the  first  misunderstandings  between  the  old 
minister  and  the  young  queen,  is  said  to  have 
arisen  on  occasion  of  lier  design  to  call  count 
Magnus  into  the  council,  shortly  after  the  begin- 
ning of  his  term  of  favour  •.  It  appears  to  have 
been  in  order  to  overcome  his  resistance,  that  she 
first  nominated  him  in  1646  to  tlie  brilliant  em- 
bassy to  France  *,  which  cost  100,000  rix-dollars  of 
the  subsidies^.  De  la  Gardie,  himself  through 
his  grandfather  of  French  extraction*,  communi- 
cated his  own  inclination  for  the  interest  of  France 
to  the  queen,  and  thereby  at  last  occasioned  the 
open  disgrace  of  the  chancellor.  He  was  accused 
both  of  delaying  the  peace,  and  of  cherishing 
dispositions  hostile  to  the  policy  of  France  ^.  On 
the  10th  April,  1647,  the  queen  writes  to  her 
ministers  at  the  pacificatory  congress  :  "Sirs  ! 
these  few  words  I  add  to  my  public  letter  only 
that  I  may  disclose  to  you  under  my  own  hand, 
how  I  fear,  lest  this  so  much  desired  treaty,  which 
has  hitherto  yielded  such  good  hope  of  a  happy 
issue,  may  be  stopped  through  some  causes  not 
completely  clear  to  me.  Now,  in  order  that  you 
may  be  fully  assured  of  my  will,  ye  may  be  con- 
vinced that  I,  before  all  things,  aim  at  a  secure 
and  honourable  peace.  And  because  the  satis- 
faction of  the  crown  is  already  fully  adjusted,  and 
nothing  more  remains  than  the  contentment  of  the 
soldiery  and  the  grievances  of  the  state,  it  is  my 
will  that  ye  keep  matters  going  with  good  manage- 
ment, until  Erskeine  ^  can  come  to  you  and  make 
known  his  commission;  and  then  that  ye  bring  the 
work  to  its  desired  end,  settling  the  condition  of 
the  states,  the  satisfaction  of  the  crown,  and  the 
contentment  of  the  soldiers,  as  well  as  may  be 
done  without  rupture  of  the  peace,  and  dally  no 
longer  with  it,  as  hath  heretofore  been  done.  If  it 
fall  out  otherwise,  ye  may  look  how  ye  will  have 

'  Compare  the  above-mentioned  ministerial  report,  which, 
however,  is  erroneous  in  several  points  as  regards  the  order 
of  events. 

2  "  Here  we  are  all  busy  with  the  legation  of  Count 
Magnus.  Duke  Adolphus  goes  with  him.  William  Taube 
is  court- marshal.  Two  of  her  majesty's  chamberlains,  and 
sixteen  noblemen  selected  by  the  queen  herself,  accompany 
him,  with  thirty  noblemen  as  volunteers,  eight  guards  in  the 
livery  of  her  majesty,  four  of  her  pages,  six  lackeys  in  the 
queen's  liveries  of  gold  and  black,  four  of  the  queen's  trum- 
peters. Three  ships  of  war  convey  the  embassy  from  Stock- 
holm." Lawrence  von  der  Linde  to  Wrangel.  Stockholm, 
June  13,  1646.  C.  G.  Wrangel's  Correspondence  at  Sko- 
Cloister. 

3  "  Touching  the  100,000  rix-dollars  which  count  Magnus 
has  borrowed  in  Paris,  it  has  not  been  without  my  will  and 
express  command ;  I  therefore  request  that  you  will  not 
permit  his  foes  (as  far  as  rests  with  you)  to  slander  him  with 
impunity,  since  he  is  entirely  innocent."  Christina  to  Sal- 
vius  in  Osnaburg,  Feb.  13,  1647.  Arckenholtz,  i.  93. 
"  Since  the  sum  will  fall  somewhat  heavy,  some  appear  to 
grumble,  as  if  it  were  sufficient  to  arrest  and  binder  the  pro- 
gress which  field-marshal  Wrangel  might  have  hoped  to 
make,  if  he  had  had  this  money.  What  such  sayings  may 
breed  to  my  prejudice,  you  may  easily  judge.  Therefore 
have  I,  although  reluctantly,  thought  this  time  to  put  your 
truth  and  affection  to  the  safest  and  most  infallible  proof; 
and  that  I  may  not  detain  you  long  with  many  words,  I  am 
constrained  to  say  to  you  that  my  request  consists  in  this, 
that  you  will  have  this  matter  commended  to  you  in  time, 
and  so  arrange  that  the  army  shall  hereby  suffer  no  injury  ; 
but  that  you  will  take  up  so  much  money  on  your  own  credit, 
that  this  sum  may  be  supplied  for  the  requirement  of  the 


to  answer  it  before  God,  the  estates  of  the  realm, 
and  me  ;  from  this  mark  be  ye  not  turned  aside  by 
any  phantasies  of  ambitious  men,  as  ye  would 
clearly  wish  to  avoid  my  highest  displeasure,  and  if 
ye  take  not  joy  to  stand  toanswer  pale  and  red  before 
me  ;  for  then  may  ye  be  certain,  that  no  authority 
nor  family  interest  shall  hinder  me  from  showing 
the  world  the  dislike  which  I  bear  to  irrational 
proceedings."  The  letter  was  intended  properly 
for  count  John  Oxenstierna,  son  of  the  chancellor  ; 
hence  the  queen  wrote  at  the  same  time  to  his 
associate  Salvius  :  "  I  will  not  omit  to  recompense 
with  all  favour  your  loyalty  and  industry,  and  with 
the  other  party  I  will  so  take  order  as  to  show 
the  whole  world,  that  R.  C.  (the  high-chancellor) 
shall  not  have  power  alone  to  move  the  world  with 
a  finger.  Sapienti  sat.  My  letter  to  you  both 
herewith  transmitted,  you  may  deliver  to  G.  J.  O. 
(count  John  Oxenstierna);  and  although  therein  I 
address  you  both  harshly,  yet  he  alone  is  meant  by  it. 
Arrange  it  so  that  d'Avaux '  may  know  its  contents, 
that  the  French  may  not  conceive  a  wrongful 
opinion  of  me,  but  may  see  whose  is  the  blame. 
Ye  may  be  well  assured,  that  I  will  hold  you 
scatheless  ;  and  if  God  once  send  you  home  with 
peace,  your  services  shall  be  requited  with  the 
senatorial  dignity.  The  interest  of  count  Magnus 
I  recommend  to  you  as  mine  own  *.  I  pray  you 
will  let  me  know  how  G.  J.  O.  (count  John  Oxen- 
stierna), on  reading  my  letter,  demeans  himself 
towards  you  both  ^." 

The  haughty  John  Oxenstierna  replied,  that  he 
was  ready  to  render  an  account  of  his  conduct, 
when  the  queen  pleased;  that  on  account  of  per- 
sonal motives  and  concerns  he  had  already  long 
wished  to  be  released  from  continuing  the  negotia- 
tions 1 ;  that  he  knew  well,  so  insignificant  a  person 
might  be  dispensed  with;  but  he  who  had  put  it 
into  her  majesty's  muid   to  write   such  a  letter 

army."  Christina  to  Salvius.  Ibid.  According  to  a  manu- 
script note  of  the  late  Dr  Fant,  Christina,  at  the  death  of 
Salvius,  owed  him  146,000  rix-dollars;  and  afterwards  bor- 
rowed 50,000  rix-dollars  from  his  widow,  which  were  never 
paid. 

■•  "  His  grandfather  was  a  Frenchman.  He  was  well 
made,  had  a  lofty  mien,  and  resembled  a  favourite.  He 
spoke  of  his  queen  in  terms  passionate,  and  so  respectful, 
that  it  was  easy  to  suspect  him  of  some  tenderness  greater 
than  that  he  owed  her  in  his  quality  of  subject.  However 
this  might  be,  he  appeared  a  man  worthy  enough  of  his 
fortune,  but  more  fitted  to  please  than  to  govern."  Mem.  de 
Mad.  Motteville.  Arckenholtz,  i.  89. 

'  Chanut  says  :  "  It  had  been  to  be  wished,  for  the  success 
of  the  affairs  of  France,  that  the  chancellor  had  quitted  for 
the  other  world"  Arckenholtz,!.  117. 

6  Councillor  of  war  and  assistance  ;  afterwards,  also, 
minister  in  the  negotiations  for  peace. 

^  Count  d'Avaux,  together  with  Servien,  French  minister 
in  the  negotiations  for  peace,  but  still  more  at  variance  with 
his  colleague  than  Oxenstierna  was  with  Salvius.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  disagreement  of  the  French  envoys,  the 
duke  of  Longueville  was  sent  as  third  French  minister  to  the 
congress. 

8  The  queen  wished  at  this  time  to  procure  for  him  Ben- 
feld,  in  Alsatia,  or  some  other  principality.  "  If  you  could 
advise  me  how  I  might  benefit  him  (count  Magnus)  with 
Benfeld  or  some  other  similar  fief,  it  would  be  dear  to  my 
heart,"  the  queen  says,  in  the  same  letter  to  Salvius. 

9  Arckenholtz,  i.  110. 

'  This  was  true.  He  had  lost  in  1G47  his  first  wife,  Anne 
Margaret  Sture;  and  after  her  decease  required  to  come  to 
Sweden  for  the  division  of  her  heritage. 


1654.] 


Temporary  retirement 
of  the  chancellor. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Causes  of  the  decline 
of  his  influence. 


33c 


should  answer  it  to  him  one  day,  if  they  met  iu  the 
body.  Some  weeks  afterwards  lie  was  able  to  in- 
form the  queen,  that  the  blame  of  procrastination 
was  so  little  chargeable  on  him,  that  the  French 
ministers  themselves  deferred  the  treaty  ^.  It  was 
so  in  truth;  and  now  Salvius  received  orders  to 
direct  himself  herein  by  them.  "  Ye  do  well  to 
assist  the  French  in  their  postulates,"  Christina 
writes  to  him,  July  6,  1647.  "  Ye  must  embrace 
this  occasion  to  bring  us  in  good  grace  with 
France  ^." 

That  which  had  occurred  gave  occasion  to  an 
intei'view  between  Christina  and  Oxenstierna,  me- 
diated by  Torstenson,  in  which  the  queen  at  last 
declared,  that  she  had  not  written  the  letter  above- 
mentioned  with  an  ill-meaning  against  his  son,  and 
a  seeming  reconciliation  followed  *.  The  French 
ministry  also  flattered  the  old  chancellor  ^;  but  he 
withdrew  for  some  time  from  court.  "  I  have  now 
been  residing  about  five  weeks  at  home  on  my  estates, 
to  attend  to  my  private  affairs," — he  writes  to  his  son 
John  from  Tidoen, — "  for  I  have  ever  hitherto,  as  is 
known  to  thee,  bestowed  my  whole  time  on  public 
business,  troubling  myself  little  about  my  private 
concerns.  For  the  rest,  all  stands  well  here  with 
us  in  the  country,  and  a  noble  harvest  is  before  our 
eyes;  God  be  praised!  I  depart  iu  two  days  for 
Fiholm,  to  survey  the  house  and  my  new  clear- 
ings. There  I  have  had  this  year  a  set  of  Dale- 
men,  who  have  already  cleared  a  large  tract,  so 
that  T  hope  to  have  Fiholm  provided  with  spacious 
meadows.  The  worst  with  me  is,  that  I  cannot  go 
to  inspect  it;  a  fortnight  ago  I  had  the  misfortune  to 
fall  with  my  horse  into  a  marsh,  where  I  bruised 
my  leg  against  a  fence,  which  has  weakened  me  so 
much,  that  since  then  I  have  been  unable  to  mount 
a  horse  ^."  Age  and  sickness  began  to  exhaust  his 
vita!  forces.  "  Your  mother  has  been  obliged 
mostly  to  keep  her  bed,"  he  writes  the  following 
year  to  John,  "  but  age  so  plays  too  with  me '." 

2  "  I  perceive  by  your  letter  just  arrived,  that  Traut- 
mannsdorf,  instigated  by  the  Spanish  ambassador,  has  de- 
parted ;  that  the  treaty  is  put  off;  that  you  and  your  col- 
league have  stayed  hitherto  in  Munster  ;  and  that  the  French, 
who  formerly  blamed  you  for  postponement,  now  themselves 
obstruct  its  progress.  Herein  nothing  occurs  of  which  I 
would  say,  '  Non  putarara ; '  and  I  refer  all  to  God,  to  dis- 
pose of  it  as  is  pleasing  to  Him.  But  it  disgusts  me  that 
we  ourselves  should  judge  so  childishly,  and  still  more  that 
we  should  proceed  so.  I  am  of  old  not  so  accustomed,  but 
use,  as  you  know,  to  have  my  mind  made  up  for  any  event. 
Sed  hcec  dies  aliam  vitam,  alios  mores  postulat.  Yet,  my 
son,  I  hope  that  God  and  time  will  disclose  who  means  well 
and  rightly.  Be  not  too  deeply  moved.  Keep  thy  course  as 
becomes  thee,  and  seek  to  further  the  service  and  reputation 
of  her  majesty  our  queen,  and  the  realm  ;  and  if  in  any 
thing  there  should  be  backwardness,  look  that  thou  bear  no 
great  part  therein.  The  rest  commend  to  God.  Thy  par- 
ticular difficulty  I  see  well,  and  what  inconvenience  may 
grow  to  thee  from  this  delay  ;  but  look  upon  it  as  a  neces- 
sary evil,  and  bear  it  with  patience."  The  high-chancel'or 
to  his  son  John,  Tidoen,  Aug.  4,  1647.  "  You  will  learn  by 
her  majesty's  own  letter,  her  intention  that  you  should  con- 
tinue there,  and  execute  the  commission  with  Salvius, 
hereafter  as  hitherto.  Dear  son,  if  you  have  so  long  vexed 
yourself,  and  drunk  so  much  bitterness,  stand  out  yet,  and 
be  not  misled  by  impatience."  To  the  same,  Stockholm, 
Dec.  12,  1647.  "  Thy  colleague  enjoys  his  accustomed  con- 
fidence ;  yet  here  we  are  not  sure  of  peace  as  before  ;  although 
thy  colleague  can  write  of  little  else  in  his  private  letters, 
and  discourses  with  a  heap  of  ratiuncles,  as  if  he  were  read- 
ing Terence  and  Plautus  for  school-boys,  to  show  his  great 


He  resumed  the  discharge  of  his  official  functions. 
Such  a  man  could  hardly  remain  without  influence; 
and  after  the  disgrace  of  De  la  Gardie,  towards  the 
end  of  the  year  1653,  we  see  the  affairs  of  govern- 
ment for  some  time  again  in  the  liands  of  the 
chancellor  and  his  son  Eric.  But  he  no  longer 
retained  the  same  importance  as  formerly ;  and 
of  this  the  cause  was  not  the  caprice  of  a  young 
woman  on  the  throne,  but  the  altered  position  of  the 
minister  to  the  throne  and  kingdom.  A  states- 
man's activity  should  find  its  springs  only  in  the 
central  point  of  the  commonwealth,  regulated  by  a 
strict  regard  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  *.  His 
strength  lies  not  in  favour  and  personal  connexion, 
but  m  that  general  dispensation  of  justice,  secu- 
rity, and  order,  for  which  he  lives,  and  which  he 
is  called  upon  to  watch  over.  The  great  European 
war,  in  which  Sweden  bore  so  honourable  a  part, 
had  profoundly  disturbed  the  internal  balance  of 
the  state.  To  restore  this  upon  new  foundations 
was  a  problem  perhaps  not  too  difficult  for  the 
creative  spirit  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  had  not  the 
thread  of  his  life  been  so  early  cut  off'.  What  was 
eff'ected  after  him,  even  though  with  magnanimity, 
was  left  a  half-finished  work.  To  ground  the  ad- 
ministrative system  for  a  term  of  peace  on  those 
relations,  which  the  war  had  called  forth,  was  un- 
doubtedly a  great  mistake;  and  of  this  mistake  we 
cannot  acquit  Axel  Oxenstierna.  For  that  reason 
his  political  life  terminated  with  the  peace.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  a  new  order  of  things,  which  iu  its 
operation  set  him  aside;  in  this,  more  than  in  the 
weakness  of  age,  lay  the  secret  of  his  powerless- 
ness.  Without  him,  and  against  him,  Sweden's 
futui'e  was  to  be  detei-mined ;  in  this,  the  principal 
figure  was  Christina  herself.  With  all  the  re- 
proaches which  have  been  cast  upon  and  deserved 
by  her,  we  yet  cannot  deny  her  either  intellect  or 
courage;  and  for  the  stedfastness  with  which  she 

knowledge.  But,  my  son,  let  that  stand  aside,  and  hold  to 
what  is  real,  averting  as  much  as  thou  canst  all  public  jea- 
lousy."   To  the  same,  Stockholm,  March  4,  1648. 

3  Arckenholtz,  i.  129. 

■•  '■  The  letter  which  has  been  written  to  thee  has  troubled 
me  not  a  little,  and  I  had  a  conversation  with  her  majesty 
upon  that  subject  on  the  25th  of  this  month.  It  causes  me 
sorrow,  and  I  believe  that,  if  it  had  not  been  written,  it 
would  perhaps  be  withheld.  They  seek  to  excuse  it,  and 
pretend  that  it  is  only  a  warning.  But  the  words  are  clear 
as  light.  However  it  be,  the  matter  stands  aboil.  For 
what  concerns  myself,  I  shall  not,  by  God's  help,  be  found 
without  resolution."  The  chancellor  to  his  son  John,  Stock- 
holm, May  29,  IG47. 

5  "  What  the  cardinal  Mazarini  has  written  to  me  in  a 
letter,  received  two  days  ago  through  Chanut,  filled  with  big 
French  compliments,  thou  mayst  perceive  by  the  copy  here- 
with following."  The  chancellor  to  the  same,  March  11, 
1648.    • 

6  Tidcen,  July  19  and  August  4,  1647.  The  letter  to  his 
younger  son  Eric  (a  youth  of  distinguished  endowments), 
in  which  he  advises  marriage,  in  consequence  of  a  suspicion 
expressed  by  the  queen  herself,  that  Eric  Oxenstierna  che- 
rished hopes  of  her  hand,  is  also  of  this  year,  Stockholm, 
June  29,  1647. 

'  Stockholm,  February  5,  1648.  His  wife  was  named  Anna 
Bat. 

8  The  chancellor  himself  has  admirably  expressed  this  : 
"  When  a  government  does  not  assume  the  spirit  of  a  sove- 
reign, and  speak  for  the  commonwealth,  but,  instead,  acts 
as  a  private  person,  and  speaks  for  the  behoof  of  a  class, 
then  can  its  rule  no  longer  subsist."  Protocol  in  the  Senate, 
July  20,  1636. 


336 


Jealousy  of  tlie  nobility 
in  the  other  estates. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Efforts   of  the   clergy  to 
extend  their  privileges. 


[1644— 


carried  out,  against  the  will  of  the  magnates,  her 
resolution  to  transfer  into  the  hands  of  Charles 
Gustavus  a  sceptre  which  had  become  too  heavy 
for  her,  she  has  never  yet  received  sufficient 
justice. 

Already,  at  the  queen's  assumption  of  the  go- 
vernment, in  the  diet  of  the  year  1644,  presages 
of  that  which  was  to  conie  were  observed.  "  The 
peasants  steadily  adhere,"  writes  a  contemporary, 
"  to  their  desires  for  the  restitution  of  the  estates, 
before  her  majesty  enters  on  the  government,  as 
well  as  in  many  other  matters  which  especially 
concern  the  baronage;  perchance  the  yeomen  have 
good  patriots  at  their  side  who  inform  them.  Their 
order  hath  likewise  lately  requested  to  have  the 
Form  of  Government  read,  that  they  may  deli- 
berate after  upon  its  practice;  wherein  the  minis- 
try hath  been  obliged  to  yield  to  them  3."  It  is 
added,  that  the  clergy  agreed  well  with  the  pea- 
sants, but  were  not  altogether  at  unison  among 
themselves,  since  the  priests  began  to  controvert 
their  bishops.  In  the  comments  upon  the  consti- 
tution made  at  this  diet,  which  we  have  already 
cited,  threats  are  held  out  of  a  conflict  betwixt  the 
estates.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  that  these 
comments,  directed  against  the  great  families,  pro- 
ceeded mainly  from  a  portion  of  the  nobility  and 
the  clergy; — the  first  sign  of  that  severance  of  the 
inferior  and  superior  nobility,  which  was  afterwards 
to  have  consequences  so  important  in  the  decision 
of  the  questions  now  awakened.  It  was  still  only 
in  the  initial  stage;  and  we  find  the  clergy  at  the 
head  of  the  uiinoble  estates  meanwhile  assuming 
the  guidance  of  the  new  opposition.  This  was 
principally  directed  against  the  privileges  of  the 
baronage,  which,  nevertheless,  the  queen  not  only 
confirmed,  but  even  augmented,  the  nobility  in  re- 
turn surrendering  their  immunity  from  excise  *. 
Of  these  privileges  many  had  long  been  felc  as 
burdensome  by  the  clergy ;  for  example,  the 
baronial  right  to  the  patronage  of  parishes.  Every 
nobleman  residing  within  the  limits  of  a  pastoral 
district  had  the  right  of  electing  the  minister  *;  if 

s  Letter  from  Bennet  Baaz,  tutor  of  Charles  Gustavus,  to 
the  palsgrave  John  Casimir,  Stockholm,  October  26,  1644. 
C.  Adlersparre's  Historical  Collections,  ii.  167.  Among  the 
grievances  of  the  yeomanry  was,  that  the  nobles,  vphen  they 
had  bought  the  rents  of  an  estate,  deprived  the  peasants, 
under  pretexts  of  all  kinds,  of  their  scot-right  (skntle-riitt, 
x\g\\i  of  property  accruing  from  payment  of  taxes),  and 
stocked  the  grange  with  cotter  tenants ;  they  complain  also, 
that  the  term  for  the  redemption  of  the  purchased  estates 
was  too  short,  and  wished  to  have  a  clause  inserted  in  the 
i  statute  of  the  diet,  that  the  crown  might  repurchase  them 
at  its  pleasure.  "  Thereupon  the  yeomen  were  called  into 
the  council-chamber  ;  it  was  represented  to  them,  that  they 
had  attacked  the  queen's  prerogatives,  and  they  were  asked 
whether  they  had  come  to  turn  the  state  upside  down." 
Ibid.  i.  177. 

'  For  the  cession  by  the  nobility  of  their  immunity  from 
excise,  the  peasants  of  the  gentry  (fralset),  even  beyond  the 
so-called  free  mile,  were  exempted,  like  those  on  the  coun- 
ties and  baronies,  from  all  gavels,  portage,  and  day-work  to 
the  crown,  and  their  lords  were  empowered  to  exact  per- 
formance of  these  services  for  themselves,  or  to  remit  them 
at  pleasure. 

-  Sec.  33  of  the  Baronial  Privileges  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
confirmed  by  Christina.  Here  the  question  touches  only  the 
churches.  From  a  manuscript  treatise  of  this  time  upon 
the  Jus  Patronatus,  in  the  collections  of  Mr.  Prefect  Jarta, 
it  is  clear,  however,  that  the  nobility  extended  their  claim 


there  were  several,  and  they  could  not  agree  among 
themselves  and  with  the  congregation  as  to  the 
choice,  it  was  the  office  of  the  bishop  to  interpose 
between  them,  as  in  general  he  had  the  privilege 
of  rejecting  the  pei'son  proposed,  if  the  latter  were 
found  to  be  unsuitable;  yet,  on  the  other  side,  it  is 
expressly  stated,  "  that  no  priest  can  be  forced 
upon  the  nobility  against  their  consent  and  good 
will."  Another  source  of  discord  was  the  tithes, 
from  payment  of  which  in  respect  of  their  manor- 
houses  the  gentry  were  exempted,  while  they  ex- 
tended this  immunity  far  beyond  the  import  of 
their  privileges.  Under  these  circumstances  we 
need  not  wonder  at  the  resistance  which  the  pro- 
posal of  a  general  consistory  {conshtorium  rerjni), 
composed  of  laical  and  ecclesiastical  members, 
encountered.  The  clei-gy  saw  therein  only  a  new 
field  for  the  preponderant  influence  of  the  magnates 
over  the  church;  although  Charles  IX.,  who  is  the 
original  author  of  this  proposal,  appears  to  have 
generally  intended  by  it  the  enlargement  of  the 
rights  of  laymen  in  spiritual  affairs  ^. 

The  chief  aim  of  the  clergy  was  now  directed  to 
secure  themselves,  by  special  privileges,  against  the 
nobility  in  particular.  The  foremost  champion  of 
this  object  was  John  Rudbeck,  the  distinguished 
and  active  bishop  of  Westeras  in  the  time  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus.  His  book  upon  the  ancient  pri- 
vileges of  the  literates  and  the  spiritual  order  was 
interpreted  as  an  effort  for  the  restoration  of  the 
hierarchy  in  Sweden;  and  drew  upon  the  author, 
who  had  besides  indulged  in  sallies  against  the 
government  and  nobility,  an  indictment  before  the 
administration  of  guardians,  and  a  prohibition  of 
the  publication  *.  Rudbeck  thus  lost  the  archie- 
piscopal  chair,  to  which  he  would  else  have  un- 
doubtedly been  called.  But  he  did  not  want  suc- 
cessors. Johannes  Matthiie,  afterwards  the  object 
of  a  persecution  by  his  own  order,  drew  up  at  the 
diet  of  1G44  that  proposition  for  clerical  privileges, 
which  the  queen  first  confirmed  in  1647,  and  more 
fully  at  her  coronation  ^.    The  rights  and  revenues 


of  right  to  nominations  to  chapelries.  In  the  one  case,  as  in 
the  other,  the  nobleman  was  to  interrogate  the  congregation 
pro  forma,  who  thereupon  had  the  right  of  consenting. 
Plebis  est  consentire,  is  the  expression  used  in  the  above- 
mentioned  treatise.  In  the  remarks  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
himself  on  the  baronial  privileges,  the  aristocratic  right  of 
patronage  is  noted  among  the  matters  requiring  alteration. 

3  In  the  short  charter  of  clerical  privileges  issued  by 
Charles  IX.  in  1607,  it  is  stated  :  "We  have  also  privileged 
and  given  them  power  to  judge  and  doom  in  all  spiritual 
causes,  along  with  our  church-council  and  the  members  of 
consistory,  as  we  will  appoint  them,  both  from  clerical  and 
secular  persons."  Appendix  to  the  History  of  the  Swedish 
Church  and  Diets,  from  the  archives  of  the  clerical  order ; 
Stockholm,  1835,  p.  136.  That  these  privileges  did  not 
satisfy  the  desires  of  the  order,  we  learn  from  their  petition 
to  Christina  for  a  new  charter. 

■•  The  title  of  this  rare  book  is,  Privilegia  quaedam  doc- 
torum,  magistrorum  etc. ;  or  more  briefly,  Privilegia  minis- 
terii  ecclesiastici  in  inclyto  regno  Svecis,  a  piis  regibus  et 
regni  proceribus  quondam  benigne  concessa  et  indulta.  On 
the  consultations  occasioned  by  this  treatise,  and  Rudbeck's 
trial  in  the  council  chamber,  and  ultimately  before  the 
chancellor,  see  Franzen's  Memory  of  John  Rudbeck,  bishop 
of  Westeras,  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Swedish  Academy, 
t.  15. 

5  At  the  diet  of  1647  the  clergy  also  solicited  that  the 
Formula  Concordife  might  be  adopted  as  a  symbolic  book 
in  the  Swedish  Lutheran  Church,  "  in  order  that  we  may 


1654.] 


Uneasy  state  of  public 
feeling. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Controversy  as  to 
popular  rights. 


337 


of  the  spix'itualty  were  hereby  taken  into  protection 
against  all  assaults;  yet,  in  respect  to  the  dispute 
with  the  nobility  on  pa,tronage,  the  privileges  ap- 
pear more  conciliatoi-y  in  woi-ds  than  satisfactory 
in  reality.  The  special  assurances  of  grace  which 
the  superior  members  of  this  order,  bishops,  super- 
intendents, and  doctors  of  theology  received  ",  con- 
tributed to  alienate  the  minor  clergy  fx'om  them, 
as  was  soon  to  be  shown. 

The  two  diets  following  the  peace,  in  the  years 
1649  and  1650,  bring  us  nearer  to  the  solution  of 
the  play.  In  both  years  the  queen  was  obliged 
to  ask  for  new  levies  in  the  room  of  the  foreign 
troops  who  departed,  and  likewise  the  continuance 
of  most  part  of  the  taxes  which  had  been  imposed 
during  the  war.  These  requests  were  granted  ^  ; 
"  because,"  says  the  statute  of  the  diet  of  1649, 
"  a  newly  won  peace  after  a  long  war,  as  her  ma- 
jesty's self  declares,  is  not  unlike  a  gi'eat  confla- 
gration lately  extinguished,  wherein  firebrands 
abound  that  still  smoke,  and  may  easily  be  re- 
kindled." The  queen  did  not  yet  stand  ill  in  the 
popular  affections.  She  was  beloved  for  her  fa- 
ther's sake,  as  well  as  for  her  youth  and  personal 
qualities;  nor  were  the  sufferings  of  the  country 
laid  to  her  charge.  But  the  minds  of  men  were 
still  in  a  high  ferment.  To  the  proofs  of  this  be- 
long, in  an  age  when  so  little  was  written,  the 
appearance  and  efficaciousness  of  anonymous  pam- 
phlets, which  were  plentifully  circulated  through 
the  country,  and  furnish  contributions  to  the  in- 
ternal history  of  the  times  not  undeserving  of 
notice.  We  will  confine  our  attention  to  two  of 
these,  opposite  in  their  tendencies.  The  one  is  a 
kind  of  manifesto,  composed  in  the  name  of  the 
people  of  Middle  Sweden  *,  which  closes  with  an 
exhortation  that  all,  especially  the  clergy,  should 
ponder  and  disseminate  it.  This  treatise  complains 
that  the  future  reserved  for  the  peasantry  is  to 
sink  from  the  rank  of  a  free  estate  of  the  realm 
into  the  condition  of  bondsmen  and  thralls;  that 
the  queen's  mildness  was  abused,  so  that  she 
would  soon  possess  only  the  name  of  realm  and 
crown.  With  infeudations  great  frauds  were  com- 
mitted, since  it  was  not  always  mei-it  that  was  so 
rewarded;  they  were  distributed  from  favour  or 
for  bribes  by  subordinate  functionaries,  who  took 
even  the   calves  and   butter   of  jjoor  widows  by 

thereby  be  distinguished  from  the  secret  Calvinists,  who 
conceal  themselves  under  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,"  as 
they  said.  The  queen  did  not  accede  to  this  request,  it  was 
supposed  by  the  advice  of  Johannes  Matthise,  who  was  ac- 
cused at  this  diet,  on  account  of  his  treatise  Idea  boni 
Ordinis,  as  a  secret  Calvinist,  and  believed  to  have  favoured 
that  project  of  union  with  the  Calvinistic  church,  which  the 
Scotsman  Duraeus  brought  forward  in  16S8,  although  in  the 
book  referred  to  no  trace  of  it  is  to  be  remarked.  The  high- 
chnncellor  was  especially  zealous  for  the  Formula  Concor- 
dise,  and  the  subject  was  again  in  1630  brought  under  con- 
sideration in  the  commission  issued  for  the  revision  of  the 
Church  Ordinance,  but  without  any  result  being  concluded 
upon.  The  Formula  Concordiae  was  first  acknowledged  in 
Sweden  as  a  symbolic  book  in  1668.  The  revision  of  the 
church  ordinance  was  an  old  question.  It  had  been  already, 
before  the  year  1644,  confided  to  Joannes  Matthiae,  bishop 
of  Strengness,  and  his  Idea  boni  Ordinis  was  a  proposal 
thereby  called  forth.  In  the  year  1650  a  commission  for  this 
purpose,  consisting  of  clerical  and  laical  members,  was  issued 
under  the  direction  of  the  chancellor.  It  appears  from  the 
records  appertaining  thereto,  that  the  permission  for  free 
exercise  of  his  religion,  as  a  Calvinist,  which  Lewis  de  Geer 


process  of  law;  the  tallages  had  increased  beyond 
all  capacity  of  bearing  them,  and  were  like  the 
poll-tax,  unreasonable,  since  rich  and  poor  paid 
the  same  proportion.  The  complaints  of  the  com- 
monalty were  not  listened  to  at  the  diets ;  per- 
verters  of  justice  were  appointed  for  their  notaries, 
who  mutilated  their  presentments  of  grievances, 
which  had  no  answer  save  words  without  per- 
formance; in  old  statutes  of  the  diets  it  remained 
upon  record  that  the  yeomen  had  the  right  of 
themselves  choosing  those  who  should  bring  their 
suits  for  redress  to  the  knowledge  of  the  authorities. 
The  other  treatise  alluded  to  contains  a  colloquy 
between  four  members  of  the  four  estates  of  the 
realm  ^,  where  the  nobleman  seeks  to  convince  the 
rest,  that  the  power  and  honours  achieved  by  the 
nobility  in  fact  tended  to  the  security  and  profit 
of  the  realm ;  that  their  opponents  merely  covered 
their  own  designs  with  the  false  accusation  tlJat 
the  nobility  intended  to  change  the  constitution  of 
Sweden  into  an  aristocracy  or  an  elective  monarchy; 
whereas  the  nobility  had  given  too  many  proofs  of 
their  fidelity  to  king  and  country;  it  was  also  suffi- 
ciently well  known  that  the  nobility  tolerated  no- 
thing so  ill  as  being  governed  by  their  equals;  the 
tendencies  now  prevailing  with  the  unnoble  estates 
led,  on  the  other  hand,  directly  to  "  popular  regi- 
ment,'.' the  disastrous  consequences  whereof  were 
now  laid  bare  in  England;  thitherward  looked  the 
attacks  on  the  supremacy  of  the  crown:  for  the 
crown  was  assailed  in  order  to  endanger  the  pri- 
vileges which  had  flowed  from  its  bounty,  and 
were  bound  up  with  the  existence  of  monarchical 
government.  Affairs  of  state  at  the  diets,  which 
could  be  propounded  only  by  the  ministry,  de- 
pended for  their  resolvement  in  the  last  instance 
on  the  decision  of  the  ministry,  not  on  the  votes  of 
the  estates,  since  these  were  only  summoned  to  a 
diet  to  confer  loyally  with  each  other,  else  would 
the  estates  be  able  to  vote  the  king  from  crown 
and  sceptre,  and  the  nobility  from  honours  and 
welfare.  The  gentry  were  pre-eminently  the  cul- 
tivators of  the  land;  and  thereby  the  revenues  of 
the  crown  were  now  fifteen  times  greater,  than  if 
their  estates  had  still  remained  its  property.  The 
augmentation  of  the  nobility,  so  much  cried  out 
upon,  was  made  from  the  order  of  burgesses;  how 

had  received  from  Gustavus  Adolphus,  was  again  brought 
into  question. 

•s  The  twelfth  section  of  the  charter  holds  out  to  them  the 
hope  of  ennoblement. 

7  The  conscription  was  not  by  man-tale,  but  by  grange,  or 
ham-tale  (hemman-tal),  which  latter  method  had  been  intro- 
duced at  the  diet  of  1642.  Permission  was  also  given  to  buy 
oneself  off  with  money.  The  clergy  were  for  the  most  part 
released  by  the  new  privileges  from  their  obligations  in  refer- 
ence to  the  levies.  So  far  had  these  extended,  that  by  a 
rescript  of  the  administration,  dated  Feb.  1,  163S,  ministers 
and  schoolmasters  were  enjoined  to  assist  those  entrusted 
with  the  execution  of  the  levies,  in  procuring  individuals  of 
loose  character.     Reg. 

8  It  begins:  "We,  whilome  reeves  (lansman)  and  men  of 
the  commonalty  in  Upland,  Suthermanland,  Westmanland," 
&c.,  and  is  preserved  in  the  Nordin  Collections,  with  the 
inscription  "  1649  or  1650."  The  tract  probably  belongs  to 
the  first-named  year. 

»  Colloquy  between  Younker  Peter,  Master  Hans,  Nils  An- 
derson, burgess,  and  Joen  of  Berga,  yeoman  (danneman), 
held  at  St.  Thomas'  fair,  in  Linkoeping,  year  1650.  It  is 
also  found  in  a  printed  form.  The  author  was  Schering 
Rosenhane,  councillor  of  state. 


338 


Claims  of  new  privileges  by 
the  nobility  refused. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Solemn  protest  by  the 
three  unnoble  estates. 


'[1644— 


many  of  mean  birth  were  there  not  who  had  at- 
tained to  the  most  considerable  offices  ?  but  tbat 
a  mail  should  at  once  arrive  at  dignity  from  the 
pepper-bag  or  mud-cart,  was  not  fitting.  The 
clergy  sought  to  recover  their  old  dominion,  the 
burgesses  to  found  a  new  power  ;  the  nobility's 
right  of  patronage  in  the  parishes,  alleged  as  a 
grievance,  was  hardly  exercised  by  the  twentieth 
part  of  them.  The  peasantry  were  misled  ;  for 
although  the  nobility  had  by  donations  and  pur- 
chase acquired  a  large  portion  of  the  crown  estates, 
yet  they  had  never  maintained  that  the  yeomen 
should  be  excluded  from  the  diets;  these  still  at- 
tended when  a  diet  was  called,  both  the  peasants 
of  the  gentry  and  those  of  the  crown,  and  the 
former  had  as  much  to  say  there  as  their  lords, 
albeit,  if  they  staid  away,  affairs  could  be  managed 
as  well,  and  there  was  hardly  in  the  world  a  king- 
dom to  be  found  where  the  peasants  had  any  voice 
at  the  diet.  Many  a  nobleman  was  a  good  master, 
so  that  the  peasants  under  him  stood  well ;  but 
those  good  men,  the  soke-peasants  of  the  crown, 
had  begun  for  some  time  to  raise  their  heads,  and 
were  bent  on  quite  despising  the  other  common 
people  ;  these  were  they  who  were  employed  as 
instruments  by  the  exciters  of  disturbance. 

The  privileges  of  the  clergy  had  already  been 
found  a  stone  of  offence  at  the  diet  of  1649.  The 
nobility  demanded  the  maintenance  of  their  right 
of  patronage  unimpaired.  The  provision  contained 
in  these  privileges  I'especting  the  family  chaplains 
of  the  magnates,  that  the  bishop  should  only  ap- 
point such  on  weighty  and  urgent  grounds,  awakened 
disgusts.  The  queen  replied,  that  the  nobility  were 
bound,  when  not  furnished  with  legal  excuse,  to 
attend  the  churches ;  else  from  the  number  of  chap- 
lains the  land  would  be  overstocked  with  clergy  who 
were  not  wanted,  so  that  they  would  eventually  be 
compelled,  to  the  dishonour  of  the  realm  and  the 
degradation  of  the  order,  to  settle  in  farms  and 
become  peasants,  and  be  employed  by  the  nobility 
like  others  of  their  servitors'.  The  prospect 
opened  by  the  charter  of  privileges  to  the  sons  of 
priests,  of  receiving  appointments  in  the  civil  ser- 
vite  if  they  approved  themselves  capable  thereto, 
occasioned  a  renewed  petition  by  the  nobility,  that 
persons  of  their  own  order  might  be  employed  in 
her  majesty's  chancery.  The  queen, — who  in  1G48, 
on  creating  Salvius  a  councillor  of  state,  had  de- 
clared to  tlie  senate,  "  when  we  ask  for  good 
counsel,  we  inquire  not  for  sixteen  ancestors," — 
answered  sharply,  that  "  offices  were  no  hereditary 
estates."  On  the  10th  November,  1650,  followed 
her  public  declaration  with  regard  to  the  word 
"ill- born,"  used  in  the  charter  for  the  nobility; 
"  that  no  other  persons  should  be  understood 
thereby,  than  such  as  were  degenerate  from  their 
gentle  birth,  applying  to  no  pursuit  of  virtue  or 
honour,  and  staining  their  descent  by  sloth  and 
vileness  ;  that  all  others  of  legitimate  blood  and 
respectable  ancestry,  whether  they  came  of  the 
nobility,  clergy,  burgesses  or  peasants,  should 
neither  be  called  ill-born,  nor  excluded  from  any 
station  of  honour  in  their  native  country  2." 

The  ensuing  diet  brought  the  matter  to  a  rup- 
ture. Priests,  burgesses,  and  yeomen  delivered 
to  the  queen  before  her  coronation,  on  the  3rd 

'  Resolution  on  the  complaints  of  the  equestrian  order 
and  nobility,  in  1649.    Sliernman. 


October,  1G50,  the  well-known  "  Protestation  anent 
restitution  of  the  crown  estates  ^."  After  gene- 
rally representing  "  how  for  some  time  scot  and 
crown  estates  had  been  abstracted  from  the  crown 
and  alienated  to  divers  individuals  in  permanent 
possession  ;  nay,  those  held  merely  by  concession- 
ary tenure  (forlaningsvis)  had  been  appropriated 
by  means  of  unreasonable  reversions ;  whei-eby 
the  crown  had  received,  instead  of  secure  rents, 
uncertain  and  newfangled  imposts  for  supply  of  its 
necessities  ;  while  the  conquered  territories  had 
been  held  only  nominally  for  the  state,  but  really 
for  the  gain  of  private  persons;  and  immediate 
vassals  of  the  crown  had  been  changed  into  mediate 
.subjects,  to  the  notable  detriment  of  the  realm, 
and  oppression  of  the  lesser  estates;''  they  pro- 
ceed to  enter  more  minutely  into  the  abuses  thus 
engendered;  as,  "that  the  innumerable  manorial 
seats  (saterier)  enjoyed  far  too  great  privileges, 
and  attracted  far  too  many  souls  into  their  de- 
pendence ;  that  churches,  hospitals,  schools,  and 
clergymen  thereby  suffered  minishing  of  their 
sustenance,  old  and  impotent  soldiers  were  brought 
to  the  beggar's  staff,  many  properties  fell  into  the 
hands  of  priests  and  sextons;  that  the  lords  of  the 
land  kept  grain  at  a  high  price  ;  that  the  sove- 
reign could  not  travel  through  the  country  without 
its  being  felt  as  a  burden,  since  all  the  royal 
manors  and  granges,  whither  lie  had  else  resorted, 
were  made  away  with  ;  that  the  yeomen  were 
compelled  to  give  up  their  cattle  to  the  gentry,  by 
whom  they  were  maltreated,  in  vain  claiming  the 
protection  of  the  law  ;  that  many  peasants  had 
thus  been  reduced  to  be  beggars,  and  their  crofts 
changed  into  meadows,  horse-pens,  or  parks;  such 
alienation  being  contrary  to  God's  own  mstitutes 
among  the  Jews,  against  the  law  of  Sweden,  the 
testament  of  king  Gustavus  I.,  the  statute  of  Norr- 
kceping  of  the  year  1604,  and  all  sound  policy 
besides,  making  the  regalities  which  Gustavus  had 
acquired  by  the  I'eduction  of  1627  of  no  effect,  and 
the  late  glorious  conquests  of  no  use  to  the  realm." 
Therefore  they  insisted,  "  that  all  crown  and  scot 
manors  alienated  should  be  again  resumed  by  the 
crown;"  demanding  therewith  for  the  behoof  of 
coming  time,  "  that  all  such  allodial  donations  be 
abrogated;  that  a  court  of  inquest  (rsefste-ting)  be 
held  yearly,  to  redi'ess  what  misdeeds  might  be 
committed  against  the  rights  of  the  crown  and  the 
liberties  of  the  commonalty ;  that  in  the  pecuniary 
exigencies  of  the  throne  no  estates  should  be  sold, 
but  only  mortgaged,  the  yeoman  himself  having 
the  first  option  of  advancing  the  loan;  that  no  order 
should  engross  public  employments  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  others;  that  no  one  should  intrude  himself 
into  the  purchase  of  gavel-lands,  without  just  claim 
of  birth-right;  that  no  one  should  enjoy  the  salary 
of  lawman  or  judge  of  the  hundred  without  doing 
the  work;  that  all,  without  distinction,  should  be 
partakers  of  law  and  justice ;  that  all  private 
prisons  and  tortures,  which  some  exercised  against 
their  peasants,  as  if  they  were  bondsmen,  should 
be  rigorously  forbidden  and  abolished  ;  that  no 
one  should  possess  more  manor-houses  than  was 
permitted  by  the  recess  of  1562;  that  the  estates 
might  speak  freely  and  without  interdiction,  anent 

2  Stiernman,  t.  v. 

»  Printed  by  Loenbom.    Handlingar  till  konung  Carl  XL's 
Historia,  ix.  70. 


1654.] 


Imminent  danger  of 
civil  war. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION.    ^"v'Llorthe'queenirhand!''' 


331) 


the  needs  and  rights  of  the  realm;  concluding  with 
the  wish,  that  the  nobles  who  against  law  and  legal 
statutes  held  estates  of  the  crown,  might  set  them- 
selves right  in  the  matter,  and  perceive  that  they, 
after  this  reclamation  now  made  by  (three)  estates, 
could  never  acquire  any  prescriptive  or  legal  title 
thereto*." 

The  high-chancellor,  who  sought  on  the  part  of 
the  nobility  to  refute  this  protest  of  the  unnoble 
estates,  alleged  as  his  main  ai'gument,  that  they 
hereby  attacked  the  royal  supremacy,  and  should 
therefore  be  severely  reprimanded.     This  brought 
him  into  a  difficult  position,  since  the  queen  took 
the  matter  quite  otherwise,  and  it  was  clear  that 
this   step    had  not  been  taken  without  her   good 
will.     "  Now   or  never,"   she   said   to  Terserus ''. 
This  bold  and  active  man,  professor  of  theology  at 
Upsala,  was  chosen  by  the  inferior  clergy  in  this 
diet  to  be  their  speaker,  after  the  bishops,  who  all 
sided    with  the  nobility,  had  separated   from  the 
other  representatives  of  the  spiritual  order.     This 
schism    between   the   bishops    and    the    parochial 
ministers  lasted  for  six  weeks;  the  former  retaining 
the  hall  commonly  used  for  meetings  of  the  order, 
the  latter  deliberating  by  themselves.    The  deepest 
perturbation    filled    men's    minds  ;    yeomen    and 
bui'gesses  vented  menaces  ;  a  civil  war  seemed  at 
hand.     The  most  opulent  of  the  nobility  began  to 
place  their  valuables  in  security,  and  to  turn  their 
thoughts    towards   flight  ^.       The   high-chancellor 
remained   undismayed.      He    sat   all   day   ia   his 
chamber,   says   a    traditional  story,  and  expected 
nothing  else,  each  time  the  door  opened,  than  that 
some   one   should    come   to   take   his   life '.     The 
clergy  at  last  assumed  the  part  of  mediators,  after 
the  bishops  had  coalesced  with  the  others  ;    which 
however  was  only  effected  upon  condition  of  their 
subsci'ibing  the  protest  concerning  the  crown  es- 
tates.    Two   projects    were   drawn   up   with    that 
view,  one  by  Terserus,  the  other  by  Master  Nicho- 
las, secretai'y    to   the   magistrates   of   Stockholm. 
Both  propositions   were    approved  by   the   queen, 
and  ultimately  combined  into  a  single  instrument', 
which  was  presented  to  her  by  the  unnoble  es- 
tates.    She   received  it  graciously,  but  evaded  a 

■•  Compare  Essay  at  a  Pragmatic  History  of  the  ortier  of 
Franklins  in  Sweden. 

5  Huic  trium  ordinum  intention!,  ut  maxime  salutari, 
magnopere  favit  regina, — eos  quam  severissime  monens,  ut 
in  hoc  proposito  constanter  permanerent,  identidem  illud 
ingeminans  :  aut  nunc  aut  nunqaam.  Ortus  et  Vitse  Cursus 
Johannis  Terser!  Dalecarli.  MS.  in  the  Nordin  Collections. 
Tliis  ardent-minded  man,  like  Johannes  Matthiae,  one  of  a 
different  character,  was  afterwards  accused  by  his  colleagues 
of  secret  Calvinism,  and  was  by  a  parity  of  lot  deprived  in 
1664,  under  the  minority  of  Charles  XI.,  of  his  episcopal  see 
of  Abo  ;  to  which  the  anger  he  had  roused  against  himself  in 
the  diet  of  1650  not  a  little  contributed.  Charles  XI.,  in 
1671,  nominated  hira  bishop  of  Linkoeping. 

6  Res  ad  bellum  intestinura  spectabat,  ad  quod  non  rustici 
tantum,  sed  et  cives  valde  erant  propensi.  E  nobilitate 
ditissimi  quique.  coUectis  pretiosissimis  thesauris,  fugani  in 
tutiora  meditabantur.  Terserus,  1.  c.  In  the  previous  year 
a  rumour  to  this  effect  had  already  reached  France.  "  Depuis 
quinze  jours  il  a  couru  un  bruit  a  Paris,  ce  qui  me  mettoit 
fort  en  peine.  On  disoit  qu'il  y  avoit  gutrre  civile  en  Suede, 
sur  le  sujet  du  couronnement  et  du  mariage  de  la  Reine." 
Du  Quesne  (formerly  a  sea-ofi5cer  in  the  Swedish  service)  to 
C.G.Wrangel.  Paris,  March  5,  1649.  C.  G.  Wrangel's  corre- 
spondence. 

7  Eric  Benzelius,  from  count  Nicholas  Bielke's  relation. 


declaration  of  her  sentiments  as  to  the  main  ques- 
tion. A  controversy  had  now  been  excited,  whicii 
was  to  lead  in  the  future  to  deeply  penetrating 
changes.  Christina  could  but  comiuit  their  issue 
to  the  hand  of  another.  The  diet  of  1650,  the 
longest  yet  known  in  Sweden,  had  stretched  to  the 
unheard-of  duration  of  four  months. 

The  prospects  of  the  monarchy  inspired  just 
apprehension.  Christina  was  unmarried,  and  the 
succession  to  the  throne  consequently  uncertain, 
though  her  hand  had  been  sought  by  several 
princes.  Frederic  William,  elector  of  Branden- 
burg, renewed  with  this  intention  in  1G42  the 
negotiations  which  had  been  commenced  in  the 
time  of  Gustavus  A<1olphus.  The  guardians  re- 
turned an  evasive  answer,  and  the  envoys  never 
obtained  an  opportunity  of  themselves  opening 
their  commission  to  the  young  queen,  whom  the 
ministry  had  at  that  time  conducted  on  a  progress 
through  her  dominions.  The  popular  voice  was 
for  Christina's  cousin,  the  palsgrave  Charles  Gus- 
tavus, as  having  been  born  and  educated  in 
Sweden  ;  but  the  magnates  had  constantly  sought 
to  keep  down  the  palsgravine  family,  and  Chris- 
tina, though  she  had  in  childhood  promised  her 
hand  to  that  prince,  appeared  in  maturer  age  to 
have  no  affection  either  towards  him  personally  ^, 
or  the  bonds  of  marriage  generally.  Meanwhile 
she  had  formed  her  determination  in  respect  to  the 
succession,  and  we  shall  see  that  this  resolve  em- 
braced more  than  at  first  appeared — not  the  tender 
merely,  but  the  sacrifice  of  a  crown.  Upon  the 
event  of  his  courtship  we  may  refer  to  the  state- 
ment of  Charles  Gustavus,  in  a  narrative  compo.sed 
by  himself,  from  which  we  quote  some  passages. 
"On  the  evening  of  the  IStli  July,  1G48,  in  the 
presence  of  count  IMagnus  (de  la  Gardie),  and 
bishop  Dr.  Johannes  (Matthiaj),"  says  the  prince, 
"the  following  passed  between  the  qvieen's  majesty 
and  me.  Having  signified  that  I  expected  a  cate- 
gorical resolution  in  respect  to  the  marriage,  1  was 
called  in  by  her  majesty,  who  declared  jifter  some 
delay,  that  she  would  attest  her  affection  for  me 
in  presence  of  those  two  personages,  and  in  the 
sight  of  God,  and  not  by  illusory  words,  but  in 

in  the  Anecdota  Benzeliana.  MS.  The  statement  there 
added,  however,  that  Magnus  Gabriel  de  la  Gardie  had 
undertaken,  at  the  queen's  order,  to  put  the  chancellor  out 
of  the  way,  on  account  of  his  opposition  to  the  election  of 
Charles  Gustavus  as  her  successor,  but  that  neither  de  la 
Gardie  nor  count  Gustave  Gustaveson  had  courage  for  the 
performance, — we  consider  to  be  groundless. 

s  Ex  anibobus  unum  composuimus.  Terserus,  1.  c.  Mas- 
ter Nicholas,  in  his  Reminiicences  of  his  own  Li'e  (Upsala 
Transactions  for  1777,  p.  36),  states,  that  the  document  pre- 
sented to  the  queen  was  framed  by  him.  "  Axel  Oxen 
stierna,"  he  says,  "  bore  me  no  good  will,  on  account  of  the 
public  memorial  which  I  had  to  draw  up  at  the  coronation 
of  queen  Christina,  by  the  gracious  pleasure  of  her  majesty 
and  the  estates  of  the  realm,  for  the  unanimous  petition  of 
the  clergy,  burgesses,  and  peasants,  de  applicandis  et  resti- 
Uiendis  regni  bnnis  fisco  et  regi.  There  were  many  that 
wrote  on  the  same  subject,  as  doctor  Jens  Terserus,  pro- 
fessor in  Upsala,  Magister  Jacob  Scotus,  of  the  Kopparberg, 
and  many  others  ;  but  after  the  concept  of  a  memorial  by 
each  of  these  had  been  read  in  the  consistory,  mine  was 
approved,  and  finally  presented  to  queen  Christina  by  the 
archbishop  doctor  Joliannes  Lenaeus,  the  burgomaster  (of 
Stockholm),  and  myself." 

9  She  used  to  call  him  "the  hurgomasterling,"  from  his 
short  and  thick  figure.  Mem.  for  the  Hist,  of  Scand.,  ix.  128. 
z  2 


340 


Its  rejection. — She  pro- 
poses  to  the  council 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


that  the  prince  he  declared 
her  successor. 


[1644— 


right  earnest.  Touching  the  marriage  she  would 
neither  give  me  hopes  nor  deprive  me  of  them, 
but  promised  me,  on  the  contrary,  to  give  her 
hand  to  no  one  else  in  the  world,  if  she  should 
ever  enter  into  the  married  state  ;  if  that  might 
not  be,  she  vi^ould  seek  to  declare  me  her  successor 
on  the  throne.  If  I  were  not  content  with  that, 
she  had  no  other  resolution  to  give  me.  Hereupon 
I  was  silent  for  some  time,  being  unable  to  find 
words,  when  her  majesty  repeated  what  she  had 
just  said,  adding,  that  in  this  she  took  no  account 
either  of  her  person  or  mine,  but  only  of  the 
security  and  weal  of  her  country  ;  no  other  thought 
but  this  was  in  her  mind  ;  therefore  her  majesty 
would  send  me  to  take  the  command  of  the  ai'my, 
in  order  thus  to  place  both  myself  and  the  realm  in 
security  against  all  casualties.  Hereupon  we  fell 
into  shai'p  converse.  I  averred  that  T  desired 
nothing  but  marriage  ;  if  hope  of  this  were  bereft 
me,  I  would  rather  content  myself  with  a  piece  of 
bread,  and  never  again  see  Sweden  ;  which  her 
majesty  took  ill,  declaring  that  it  was  a  fanfai'onade 
and  a  chapter  out  of  a  romance  ;  our  Lord  had  not 
created  me  to  sit  down  on  my  father's  lands, 
but  for  something  higher  ;  she  knew  my  humour 
well  too,  that  I  would  be  but  ill  satisfied  with  that. 
I  protested  that  I  was  sincere,  and  reminded  her 
majesty  of  what  she  had  said  to  me  at  the  time  of 
the  marriage  of  count  Magnus ',  JIarch  2,  1647, 
that  she  would  possibly  yield,  in  regard  to  the 
match,  if  not  from  affection  for  my  person,  yet  in 
deference  to  the  wishes  of  her  subjects  ;  if  I  had 
known  that  she  would  not  adhere  to  the  promises 
given  to  me  in  her  years  of  childhood,  I  would 
never  have  returned  to  Sweden  2.  She  replied, 
that  what  she  had  promised  in  her  youth,  had  been 
done  out  of  youthful  folly,  nor  would  she  be  bound 
by  it ;  then  she  had  no  power  to  dispose  of  a 
peasant's  croft,  much  less  of  her  person.  But  she 
would  honourably  keep  what  she  now  promised. 
I  replied,  and  ever  held  by  my  first  opinion  as  to 
the  marriage.  I  wished  that  God  might  keep 
me  from  living  to  see  the  day,  when  after  the 
death  of  her  majesty  I  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  these  lords  ;  I  should  never  agree  with  them, 
and  would  not  stain  my  hands  with  their  blood. 
I  could  be  far  better  content,  vmder  such  con- 
ditions, never  to  have  a  hope  of  the  crown.  Her 
majesty  rejoined,  that  she  would  take  good  pre- 
caution that  I  should  not  soil  myself  with  their 
blood  ;  on  the  contrary,  she  hoped  by  my  person  to 
avert  all  disorder  ^." 

The  estates  had  more  than  once  solicited  the 
queen  to  maiTy,  and  the  unnoble  estates  had  also 
expressed  their  wish  that  she  would  give  lier  hand 
to  Charles  Gustavus.  At  the  diet  of  1G49,  on  the 
23d  February,  a  deputation  of  the  estates  anew 
preferred  their  petition,  that  she  would  embrace 
some  resolution.  The  following  day  Christina  sur- 
prised the  council  with  the  proposition,  that  the 
prince  should  be  nominated  her  successor.  For 
three  years  she  had  meditated  this,  since  she  could 
not  decide  on  a  marriage;  an  indeterminate  succes- 
sion would  entail  great  dangers  on  the  monarchy; 
Charles  Gustavus  had  no  hereditary  right  to  the 

•  With  the  princess  Maria  Euphrosina,  sister  of  Charles 
Gustavus  ;  a  match  brought  about  by  Christina. 

2  Charles  Gustavus  had  returned  to  Sweden  in  1645,  after 
permission  received  from  field  marshal  Torstenson,  under 


crown,  but  was  of  kingly  blood,  and  her  nearmost 
relative,  born  in  Sweden,  and  brought  up  in  the 
religion,  language,  manners  and  laws  of  the  land, 
highly  esteemed  by  all  on  account  of  his  friendly, 
benevolent  character,  and  other  virtues;  of  his  un- 
daunted courage  he  had  given  sufficient  proofs 
against  the  enemies  of  the  realm;  no  foreign  views 
would  deter  him  from  dedicating  himself  wholly  to 
the  service  of  Sweden.  A  general  silence  in  the 
council  followed  this  address.  At  length  almost 
all  zealously  declared  themselves  against  it.  It 
would  be  highly  dangerous  to  appoint  a  successor 
to  the  queen  in  her  lifetime,  especially  as  he  was 
not  to  be  her  husband;  an  undetermined  succession 
was  a  great  evil,  a  disputed  succession  was  a  still 
greater;  in  Sweden  men  had  had  sufficient  expe- 
rience of  discords  in  the  royal  family;  Eric  and  his 
brothers,  Sigismund  and  Charles,  were  still  freshly 
remembered;  even  between  Gustavus  Adolphus 
and  Charles  Philip  a  secret  jealousy  had  prevailed, 
which  might  easily  have  become  dangerous,  had 
not  Providence  set  bounds  to  it.  If  the  palsgrave 
were  declared  successor,  without  certain  expecta- 
tion of  the  queen's  hand,  he  would  either  marry  in 
the  end  some  one  else,  or  not  at  all;  in  the  former 
case,  if  the  queen  afterwards  married,  there  might 
easilj'  be  two  lines  of  hereditary  princes  in  the 
realm;  in  the  latter,  the  succession  would  be  anew 
uncertain,  and  the  palsgrave,  if  he  did  not  die  be- 
fore the  queen,  must,  by  the  law  of  his  own  posi- 
tion, endeavour  to  secure  the  crown  for  his  family, 
perhaps  for  his  brother.  To  Charles  Gustavus 
they  wished  all  good,  but  could  only  advise  mar- 
riage; the  queen  might  therefore  fulfil  the  promise 
she  had  once  given  to  the  prince.  Christina  pro- 
tested that  she  had  only  promised  not  to  marry 
another  person.  She  had  resolved  for  the  safety 
of  the  realiu  to  procure  the  nomination  of  a  suc- 
cessor, and  they  could  not  wonder  if  she  chose  him 
whom  the  estates  had  deemed  worthy  of  becoming 
her  consort;  the  renewal  of  foi-mer  dangers  might 
be  avoided  by  declining  to  iiivest  him  with  a  duchy. 
The  altercation  became  vehement,  and  arguments 
were  of  the  less  avail,  as  every  one  could  divine 
that  under  the  queen's  announced  resolve  some- 
thing lay  concealed,  by  which  alone  that  resolve 
was  to  be  explained,  while  yet  she  would  not  de- 
clare her  mind.  She  herself  felt  this;  she  was 
constrained  to  resort  to  the  high  hand,  and  she  did 
so.  The  young  sovereign  tried  her  power  over 
gray-headed  statesmen  and  warriors,  before  whom 
Europe  had  trembled,  and  silenced  them  by  the 
boldest  impeachments.  She  knew  well  (they  were 
haughtily  told)  that  the  senate  wished  again  to 
introduce  elective  monarchy  and  aristocracy  in 
Sweden  ;  the  plans  of  the  chancellor  and  the 
steward,  the  expectations  of  the  Oxenstiernas  and 
Brahes  were  no  secrets;  they  had  spoken  of  a  con- 
test of  hereditary  princes  for  the  crown;  was  it 
better,  then,  that  it  should  thenceforth  become  an 
apple  of  discord  between  their  own  children  ? 
Declare  Charles  Gustavus,  she  said,  my  successor; 
if  1  die  without  that  being  done,  I  will  wager  both 
ray  ears  that  he  never  comes  to  the  throne.   When 

whom  he  served.     He  repaired  again  to  Germany  in  1C48, 
being  named  by  the  queen  generalissimo  of  the  Swedish 
armies;  with  what  view  is  manifest  from  the  conversation 
quoted. 
3  C.  Adlersparre's  Hist.  Col.,  ii.  219. 


1654.] 


Declaration  of  her  purpose 
to  abdicate. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION.    'll^^^^eVuIllTinmrS!    341 


Torstenson  objected  that  the  prince  might  probably 
never  marry,  if  he  did  not  obtain  her  majesty's 
hand,  the  queen  replied,  "  No  danger  of  that;  love 
need  not  ever  burn  for  a  single  object;  a  crown 
is  a  winsome  bride  *.  " 

Some  days  afterwards,  on  the  28tli  February, 
the  queen  made  the  same  proposition  to  the  depu- 
ties of  the  three  unnoble  estates;  but  to  their  re- 
peated representations  concerning  the  marriage 
she  rejoined:  "  Ye  shall  have  not  a  word  upon  it, 
until  the  resolution  for  the  succession  of  the  prince 
is  drawn  up."  The  land-marshal  requested  a  com- 
munication of  the  opinion  of  the  senate,  without 
which  the  nobility  could  not  express  themselves 
otherwise  than  they  had  already  done.  The  queen 
accomplished  her  object.  On  the  10th  March, 
1649,  the  council  of  state  and  the  estates  of  Swe- 
den,— induced,  as  they  said,  by  the  high  and  weighty 
grounds  and  arguments  of  her  majesty, — -declared 
his  princely  grace  the  palsgrave  duke  Charles  Gus- 
tavus  successor  to  the  throne,  in  case  of  the  queen's 
decease  without  heirs^.  Next  day  Axel  Oxenstierna, 
wlio  had  abstained  from  taking  any  public  part  in 
the  deliberations,  was  reluctantly  persuaded  to  sub- 
scribe the  resdlution.  The  queen  had  for  this  pur- 
pose sent  the  act  to  his  house  by  the  court-chan- 
cellor Tungel,  who  has  left  an  account  of  his  visit  ^. 
Among  other  things  the  high-chancellor  said  :  "  I 
seriously  confess  it,  if  my  grave  were  standing  open 
at  this  moment,  and  it  wei'e  in  my  choice  to  lay 
myself  in  it,  or  to  subscribe  the  instrument  regard- 
ing the  succession,  the  fiend  take  me  if  I  would  not 
bury  myself  rather  than  sign."  Undoubtedly  the 
aged  statesman  suspected  rightly,  that  Christina 
was  only  calling  another  to  the  throne  in  order  to 
descend  from  it  hei'self.  That  the  matter  really 
stood  thus,  circumstances  were  soon  to  show.  The 
queen  confirmed  her  work  by  a  declaration  ob- 
tained from  the  estates  at  the  diet  of  1650,  for  the 
heritability  of  the  crown  in  the  male  descendants 
of  Charles  Gustavus,  and  celebrated  her  corona- 
tion on  the  20th  October  at  Stockholm,  with  a 
pomp  hitherto  unknown  in  Sweden.  One  year 
afterwards,  on  the  25th  October,  1651,  she  made 
known  her  purpose  of  laying  down  the  sceptre. 
It  is  historically  demonstrable,  that  she  had  formed 
this  resolution  so  early  as  1648  '. 

We  have  said  that  Christina's  abdication  was  the 
result  partly  of  political  circumstances,  and  partly 
of  personal  inducements.     The  former  have  un- 

*  From  the  narrative  of  Puffendorf  and  Arckenholtz, 
founded  on  documents.  Torstenson  rlied  April  7,  1651. 
Upon  this  event,  the  chamberlain,  Ekehlad,  writes  to  his 
father,  April  23,  1651  (Scand.  Mem.  xx.  314):  "My  dear 
father  has  heard  of  the  mortal  end  of  our  good  count  Lin- 
nart;  God  knoiveth  with  what  heart  I  learned  the  tidings. 
The  cliief  cause  of  his  death  (say  the  doctors),  was  his  great 
neglect  in  using  no  medicaments,  after  his  body  had  become 
constipated  by  all  sorts  of  forbidden  food.  The  queen  was 
with  him  shortly  before  his  death,  and  he  spoke  his  last 
words  to  her." 

5  Stiernman,  Resolutions,  &c.  ii.  1105. 

6  Printed  in  Adlersparre,  1.  c. 

7  In  the  answer  which  Chanut,  formerly  minister  from 
France,  wrote  to  a  letter  from  the  queen,  upon  her  abdica- 
tion, dated  the  Hague,  March  2,  1554,  is  this  passage.  "  My 
only  concern  in  the  great  design  cf  your  majesty,  since  you 
are  pleased  it  should  be  known  that  you  have  had  the  good- 
ness to  communicate  it  to  me,  is  to  testify,  wherever  I  may 
be,  that  the  first  and  strongest  consideration  which  has 
caused  your  majesty  to  form  this  resolve,  has  been  the  good 


folded  themselves  to  our  observation;  it  remains 
only  to  say  of  the  latter,  which  belong  to  the  story 
of  her  own  mind,  as  much  as  the  compass  of  the 
present  work  permits.  We  set  out  with  some  short 
remarks  upon  the  civilization  of  that  age,  and  its 
influence  on  Sweden.  On  the  Protestant  side  the 
Bible  and  ancient  Rome  were  the  main  fountains 
of  this  civilization,  both  of  which  regained  a  cer- 
tain freshness,  when  the  Romish  hierarchy  that 
had  overgrown  them  was  in  a  great  measure  de- 
stroyed. From  these  elements,  albeit  sufficiently 
confiicting,  spirits  of  the  nobler  order  created  for 
themselves  an  appropriate  and  interesting  system 
of  opinion,  exei'cising  great  influence  both  in  reli- 
gion and  politics;  whose  most  important  represen- 
tatives were,  in  the  scientific  and  learned  world, 
the  famous  Grotius,  in  the  political,  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus.  It  was  something  more  than  accident  that 
conjoined  these  names.  It  was  love  for  the  writings 
of  Grotius  that  moved  Gustavus  Adolphus  to  off'er 
to  this  persecuted  scholar,  a  fugitive  fi-om  his 
country,  a  refuge  in  his  service;  and  Oxenstierna 
fulfilled  the  intentions  which  the  king's  death  pre- 
vented him  from  caiTying  into  eff'ect  *.  The  chan- 
cellor also  belonged  to  the  same  religious  and  poli- 
tical school.  He  was  a  great  Bible-reader  ^,  and 
not  less  an  assiduous  student  of  the  old  Roman 
writers.  Both  these  influences  pervade  his  earn- 
estful  state  papers  in  a  pleasing  and  simple  style; 
and  we  perceive  them  in  several  others  of  his  col- 
leagues in  the  ministry  and  council,  as  in  the  high- 
steward,  Peter  Brahe  the  younger,  who  resembled 
his  grandfather,  as  will  have  been  seen,  in  this  par- 
ticular ^.  In  more  recent  times  we  have  so  often 
heard  the  Swedish  magnates  of  this  poi-iod  praised 
for  well-digested  learuing,  that  we  might  conclude 
this  advantage  to  have  been  somewhat  widely  dif- 
fused. But  this  our  own  researches  do  not  bear 
out.  The  knowledge  of  Latin  indeed  was  among  the 
accomplishments  of  the  great,  since  it  was  still  re- 
cognized as  the  diplomatic  language  of  Europe  ; 
whence  the  ministry  directed  by  a  special  minute, 
that  notes  written  in  Latin  should  be  answered  in 
Lathi,  but  that  all  pei'sons  who  employed  other 
languages  should  have  their  answer  in  Swedish. 
Learning  of  greater  extent,  such  as  that  of  John 
Skytte  and  Axel  Oxenstierna,  was  found  only  in 
exce])tional  cases.  We  have  already  remarked  in 
the  leaders  of  that  generation  this  mark  of  a  great 
age,  that  almost  all  of  them  sought  their  honour  in 

of  your  subjects,  and  the  security  of  your  states,  foreseeing 
the  confusions  and  partialities,  difficult  to  be  avoided  after 
the  decease  of  sovereign  princes,  who  are  considered  as  the 
last  of  the  royal  house.  This  is  the  motive  which  your 
majesty  was  pleased  to  disclose  to  me  six  years  ago."  (Mon 
seul  partage  dans  le  grand  dessein  de  V.  M.,  &c.)  Arcken- 
holtz, 1.  c.  i.  393. 

8  Grotius,  who  had  first  sought  refuge  in  France,  returned 
thither  as  Swedish  ambassador,  and  Oxenstierna  persisted 
in  keeping  him  on  that  post,  in  spite  of  Richelieu's  dissatis- 
faction with  Grotius.  He  was  recalled  after  the  accession  of 
Christina,  came  to  Stockholm  in  1645,  but  died  in  the  same 
year,  on  his  return  to  his  country.  He  himself  says,  that 
he  considered  himself  more  honoured  by  Oxenstierna's 
friendship  than  by  the  embassy.  "  Oxenstiernae  amicitia 
me  speciosiorem  quam  ipsa  legatione  censeo."  Compare 
Arckenholtz,  1.  c.  i.  77. 

9  Among  several  of  his  manuscripts  in  the  library  of 
Upsala,  is  a  collection  of  Biblical  proverbs,  compiled  by  him 
during  his  reading. 

'  Compare  chap.  x.  ad  Jin. 


342 


Influence  of  foreign  opinions 
and  literature. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Intrigues  to  precipitate  the 
queen's  abdication. 


[1G44- 


the  promotion  of  learning,  without  pretence  of  con- 
descension. Reverence  for  the  noblest  treasures 
of  humanity  is  the  only  spirit  which  honours  mu- 
tually both  the  protector  and  the  protected.  No- 
thing exalts  a  man,  liow  highly  soever  he  may  be 
placed,  which  is  not  felt  to  be  above  him.  Thus 
all  pride  finds  cause  of  humbleness,  and  then  only 
does  it  approve  its  own  rectitude.  In  the  schools 
of  learning,  which  were  among  the  fruits  of  the 
times  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Christina  in  Swe- 
den, the  principal  subjects  of  tuition  were  theology 
and  Latin.  The  first  names  which  Sweden  has  to 
show  in  science  and  inventive  art  begin  to  appear; 
the  most  eminent  were  Stiernhielm,  at  once  philo- 
sopher, geometer,  philologist,  and  poet,  and  Stierii- 
hoek,  the  father  of  Swedish  jurisprudence.  Among 
the  crowd  of  learned  foreigners  invited  to  Sweden, 
Loecenius  and  Scheffer  gained  an  honourable  right 
of  citizenship. 

This  picture  is  not  without  its  shadows.  We 
may  discern  an  inundation  of  foreign  influences  in 
almost  all  directions — the  result  of  the  political 
situation.  But  just  as  Sweden's  sudden  political 
greatness  lacked  an  inner  core  of  strength,  so  the 
foreign  elements  of  civilization  cast  no  very  deep 
roots.  Independent  footing  in  science  and  art 
Sweden  did  not  obtain  until  late,  when  her  gaze 
was  no  longer  directed  abroad,  but  reverted  on 
herself.  Now  the  alien  forces  operated  rather  to 
perversion  than  progress,  and  it  would  be  easy  to 
indicate  the  breaches  of  the  natural  order,  as  well 
in  manners  and  sentiments  as  in  political  relations; 
but  the  language  alone  speaks  sufficiently  on  this 
head — mongrel  and  barbarous,  larded  with  German, 
Latin,  and  French  phrases  and  forms,  in  a  word, 
that  which  is  exemplified  in  the  fragments  we  have 
quoted  from  the  records  of  the  age.  Christina's 
eye,  captivated  by  novelty,  fixed  on  learned  men 
to  be  invited  from  all  the  ends  of  Europe.  They 
came  in  flocks  with  their  philology  and  antiquities, 
the  fashionable  learning  of  the  age;  displayed  their 
arts,  wrote  dedications  and  panegyrics,  in  which 
all  the  elegancies  of  the  Latin  tongue  were  brought 
to  vie  in  praise  of  the  queen,  jiresented  books, 
were  rewarded  and  dismissed.  For  the  rest,  we 
know  not  what  their  names  liave  to  do  with 
Swedish  history.  Exceptionally  one  may  be  named, 
far  different  from  the  rest,  since  he  is  the  founder 
of  the  modern  philosophy,  the  great  Descartes. 
His  friend  Chanut  in  1649  jyrocured  his  invita- 
tion, accepted  by  the  philosopher,  to  the  Swedish 
court,  where  the  queen  daily  for  two  months  re- 
ceived him  in  her  library  at  five  o'clock  morn- 
ing.    Descartes    died   at    Stockhohii    February  1, 

2  Rumor  est,  Aulam  Suecicam  viris  doctis  non  amplius 
patere  et  sperni  illic  litterarum  studia,  idque  culpa  nebu- 
lonis  cujusdam  (Bourdelotii),  qui  Sereniss.  Reginie  ani- 
mura  a  seriis  studiis  ad  ludicra  et  inania  iraduxerit.  Henr. 
Valesius  to  Heinsius,  lfi53.     Arckenholtz,  1.  c.  i.  238. 

3  So  the  queen  herself  declares,  in  a  letter  to  Bourdelot, 
after  she  had  quitted  Sweden,  in  which  she  thanks  him 
lor  the  medical  advice  he  had  formerly  given  her.  "  N'ayant 
pas  oublie  que  je  vous  dois  la  vie,  apres  Dieu,  pour  m'avoir 
guerie  en  Suede."  Arckenholtz  (1.  c.  iv.  23),  wlio  has  also 
preserved  a  detailed  Regimen  for  Christina,  written  by 
Bourdelot  in  Latin.  On  this  I  have  inquired  the  opinion 
of  a  physician,  my  friend,  who  has  stated  to  me,  that  it  is 
not  drawn  up  without  good  sense. 

*  Vossius  writes  to  Heinsius,  Jan.  1,  1653:  Bourdelotius 
ne  ipso  quidem  Jove  sese  minorcm  existimat.     Solus  omnia 


1050.  What  impression  so  profound  a  doubter 
may  have  made  on  the  queen's  disposition  we 
remit  to  inquire,  though  it  has  been  asserted  that 
in  these  conversations  she  imbibed  her  bias  to 
Catholicism.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  it  was 
not  from  the  whirls  of  philosophical  doubt,  but 
from  those  of  frivolity  and  atheism,  that  Christina 
threw  herself  into  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic 
church.  The  epoch  of  indiff'erentism  in  the  queen, 
though  prepared  by  some  of  her  philologers,  was 
indicated  by  the  dismissal  of  the  scholars,  and  the 
ascendancy  of  the  physician  Bourdelot  2.  This 
person,  having  succeeded  in  saving  Christina's 
life  (as  she  believed)  in  a  severe  illness  ^,  pre- 
scribed to  her  a  gayer  course  of  life;  but  at  the 
same  time  inspired  her  with  his  own  scorn  of 
religion,  and  appeared  to  possess  her  confidence 
for  some  time  so  exclusively,  that  all  the  favours 
of  the  throne  were  dispensed  by  him,  and  even 
De  la  Gardie's  brilliant  day  of  grace  began  to  be 
obscured  *.  An  independent  life,  in  happier  lands, 
was  Christina's  only  desire,  after  she  regarded  her 
political  career  as  closed  ;  and  already,  in  1652, 
Swedish  travellers  in  Italy  heard  that  she  was 
e.xpected  there  ^. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned  that  the  first 
announcement  by  the  queen  to  the  council,  in 
reference  to  the  divestiture  of  the  crown,  was 
made  on  tlie  25th  October,  1651.  She  remained 
unshaken  by  the  representations  of  the  council;  but 
yielded,  when  the  aged  chancellor,  at  the  head  of 
a  commission  of  estates  which  was  assembled  at 
the  time,  conjured  her  to  desist  from  her  purpose. 
It  seems  as  if  she  had  deferred  its  execution, 
in  order  for  a  term  to  watch  the  signs  of  the  times. 
Her  will  had  overcome  all  hindrances  in  the  choice 
of  Charles  Gustavus  for  her  successor  ;  but  she 
appears  not  to  have  been  sufficiently  attentive 
to  the  character  of  his  confederates.  She  wished 
that  her  renunciation  of  the  crown  should  possess 
appropriate  lustre  in  its  perfect  spontaneity.  But 
it  began  to  transpire,  that  the  act  might  be  de- 
prived of  this  semblance,  and  that  a  party  was 
in  full  activity  to  extort  it  if  she  halted  in  her 
intent.  The  incomplete  investigations  and  dis- 
coveries, caused  by  the  imprudent  pamphlet  of 
young  Messeiiius  in  the  month  of  December,  1651, 
pointed  to  the  leaders  of  the  commotions  in  the 
diets  of  1C49  and  1650;  and  among  them  especially 
to  the  free  baron  Bennet  Skyttd,  who,  of  all  the 
council,  had  separated  most  widely  from  his  col- 
leagues in  this  matter,  and  afterwards  withdrawn 
in  expectation  of  a  revolution  ^.     Agreeably  to  her 

istic  terrarum  potest.  Mensam  habet  instructiorem,  quam 
habet  ipse  Comes  Magnus,  vel  alius  quispiam  magnatum  in 
hoc  regno.  Is  vero  comes  longe  minori  est  in  gratia.  Bonus 
iste  vir(  Bourdelotius)  non  tam  clanculum,  quin  facile  omnes 
animadvertant,  docet  et  profitetur  istic  atheismum.  Arck- 
enholtz, 1.  c.  i.  240.  Montecuculi,  in  1654,  states,  in  his 
account  of  the  Swedish  court,  that  Christina  did  not  conceal 
her  unbelief,  and  hinted  that  she  put  no  faith  in  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  Remonstrances  made  by  her  mother, 
on  this  contempt  of  religion,  were  ill  taken. 

5  Autobiography  of  Edward  Ehrensten.  Anecdotes  of 
Celebrated  Swedes,  v.  30. 

6  He  had  inherited  the  democratic  inclinations  of  his 
father,  John  Skytte.  "  In  a  conversation  with  Charles  Gus- 
tavus, when  king,  on  the  form  of  government  of  the  Greeks, 
the  lord  Bennet  extolled  those  times  beyond  measure.  The 
king  said,   '  The  Greek  republics  ate  each  other  up,  were 


1654.] 


Their  detection  and 
punishment. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Extravagance  and  dissolule- 
nesa  of  the  court. 


343 


fearless  nature,  Christina,  who  ou  the  first  in- 
telligence of  these  machinations  expected  a  revolt, 
is  said  to  have  wished  to  let  the  affair  take  its 
course,  in  ordei*,  as  she  said,  to  wile  the  conspira- 
tors into  a  snare  ^.  Subsequently  she  changed 
her  mind,  a^nd  appears  not  to  have  wished  to  know 
all.  The  pamphlet  above  mentioned,  whose  au- 
thor was  soon  discovered,  was  a  pasquinade  against 
the  queen,  her  former  guardians,  and  the  favourite, 
count  Magnus  de  la  Gardie;  in  which  the  heredi- 
tary prince  was  called  upon  to  make  himself  mas- 
ter of  the  government,  and  assured,  that  as  the 
legitimate  heir  of  the  crown,  oven  without  election, 
he  might  count  upon  the  younger  nobility,  and  the 
co-operation  of  the  unnoble  estates.  Charles  Gus- 
tavus,  who  was  residing  in  CEland,  sent  the  pam- 
phlet immediately  to  the  queen.  He  was,  by  pru- 
dence as  well  as  gratitude,  far  removed  from  the 
approbation  of  such  designs.  The  Messenians, 
fatlier  and  son,  suffered  death,  thus  ending  their 
unfortunate  race  ;  the  grandfather  had  died  after 
an  imprisonment  of  twenty  years  *.  Terserus, 
Nils  Nilson,  burgomaster  of  Stockholm,  with  the 
secretary  of  the  magistrates,  were  accused  as  ac- 
complices, but  acquitted  ;  the  burgomaster,  how- 
ever, being  obliged  to  give  bail,  as  was  also  Ben- 
net  Skytte.  The  records  of  the  trial  were  de- 
stroyed by  the  queen's  orders.  She  had  the 
courage  to  meet  another  general  diet,  in  1652, 
without  making  mention  of  abdication.  A  pros- 
pect of  war  again  opened  from  the  misunderstand- 
ings with  Poland,  Denmai'k,  and  the  emperor,  and 
she  obtained  a  three  years'  conscription  to  com- 
plete the  army  and  man  the  fleet,  with  an  aug- 
mentation of  imposts  for  the  same  period,  the 
nobility  agreeing  to  a  separate  gi'ant'. 

The  remainder  of  the  queen's  reign  was  spent 
in  such  a  manner  as  if  she  were  determined  that 
she  should  not  be  regretted.  Profusion  abounded 
on  all  sides  ;  and  to  donations  of  all  kinds  there 
was  no  end.  In  letters  of  infeofifmeut  to  estates 
began  to  be  inserted  the  phrases,  "  if  it  be  not 

never  tranquil,  and  never  prosperous,  on  account  of  the  tur- 
bulent fellows  who  aimed  at  ruling  them.  One  state,  the 
Lacedaemonians,  had  a  sort  of  kings,  whom  I  cannot  look 
upon  as  aught  else  than  the  fools  of  the  demagogues  ;  and 
these  were  the  only  kings  in  Greece."  Mem.  for  the  Hist, 
of  Scand.  ix.  138. 

7  "  The  Messenian  intrigue  was  of  far  greater  consequence 
with  regard  to  public  tranquillity  than  could  then  be  con- 
ceived. The  queen  heard  of  it  in  the  evening,  just  as  she 
was  about  to  go  to  bed.  Shortly  after  appeared  governor 
Hermann  Fleming,  bringing  the  intelligence  which  she  had 
already  heard,  through  some  one  who  had  betrayed  the 
Messenians.  The  queen,  who  was  a  fearless  and  discreet 
princess,  stood  and  looked  very  quietly  at  Fleming,  and  after 
considering  a  short  time,  replied  :  '  What  you  say,  lord  Her- 
mann, is  well  judged  ;  but  what  think  you  of  the  hereditary 
prince  ?  For  I  know  maybe  more  than  you ;  I  know  that 
they  have  communicated  their  damnatory  projects  to  the 
prince.  You,  who  are  in  his  confidence,  what  think  you  of 
it?'  Lord  Hermann  answered,  'It  is  very  possible;  but 
what  I  know  for  certain  is,  that  his  royal  highness  does  not 
bite  the  hook.'  Then  the  queen  said  to  lord  Hermann,  '  In 
order  to  get  exact  knowledge  of  all  the  conspirators,  we 
must  let  the  matter  come  to  a  rising,  and  have  them  all  to- 
gether on  the  stage,  before  we  drop  the  curtain  and  catch 
them  all  in  the  trap.  We  may  well  see  a  fray  of  it;  but  I 
with  my  people  fear  the  issue  not  a  jot.'  Lord  Hermann 
had  enough  to  do  to  draw  the  queen  from  this  daring  and 
bloody  idea,   assuring  her  that  all  would  yet  come  to  her 


already  granted  to  another,"  or  "if  it  be  still 
reserved  to  us  and  the  crown."  To  previous  dona- 
tions were  often  anne.xed  "  amendments,"  as  they 
were  called,  under  various  unusual  names,  such  as 
conditional  or  provisional  amendment  *.  Conces- 
sions of  this  sort  were  vended  by  the  secretary 
of  the  chancei-y.  A  secretary's  clerk,  who  had 
sold  forty-two  forged  donations  and  letters  of  free- 
hold, was  executed  April  13,  1651,  on  the  mai'ket- 
place  of  Norrmahn  2.  For  a  long  time  no  more 
counties  and  baronies  remained  to  be  assigned 
to  the  many  new  counts  and  barons.  Christina, 
during  her  reign,  increased  the  house  of  barons  by 
eight  families  bearing  the  title  of  count,  twenty- 
four  that  of  free  barons,  and  four  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  newly  ennobled.  Among  the  latter 
was  the  court-tailur,  Jan  Holm,  who  assumed  the 
imposing  name  of  Leyoncrona  (Lioncrown)^.  He 
was  likewise  made  intendant  of  the  household, 
and  was  aia  opulent  man,  but  found  himself  obliged 
to  quit  the  court  when  the  chamberlain,  baron 
Clas  Bauer,  refused  to  serve  with  him.  "  From 
this  time,"  says  one  narrative  *,  "  dates  the  ruin 
of  pure  and  decorous  morals.  Youth  began  to 
take  precedence  of  its  elders  unabashed  ;  and  the 
fear  of  God  was  treated  with  equal  levity.  One 
and  the  other  scoffed  at  Divine  service,  acting  as  if 
they  only  resorted  thither  for  appearance  sake  ; 
and  so  the  queen  herself  did  at  last.  Arrogance 
was  the  badge  of  the  young  nobihty.  Guttling 
and  toping  were  already  common  since  tlie  Ger- 
man war  ;  yet  this  was  blended  with  a  chivalrous 
gallantry,  which  shed  a  generous  exhilaration  on 
social  life  ;  the  ladies  were  the  goddesses  of  the 
day."  Cromwell's  ambassador,  Whitelocke,  who 
in  1654  concluded  a  treaty  witli  Sweden  in  the 
name  of  the  Protector,  saw  with  disgust,  during 
the  residence  of  the  court  at  Upsala,  young  nobles 
rambling  noisily  through  the  streets  on  a  Sunday, 
and  drinking  the  queen's  health  on  their  knees  in 
the  market-place  *.  Ballets,  in  which  the  queen 
herself  danced,  entertainments,  and  running  at  the 
ring,  filled  up  the  time  ^.     For  entire  months  she 

knowledge,  and  the  matter  be  quashed  without  noise.  The 
most  notable  circumstance  was,  that  just  so  much  time  as  an 
express  takes  to  go  to  Oiland  and  return  at  the  utmost 
speed,  elapsed  between  the  queen's  conversation  with 
governor  Fleming  and  the  arrival  of  the  prince's  letter  to 
the  queen,  informing  her  of  the  audacious  designs  of  the 
Messenians."     Ibid.  ix.  107,  seq. 

8  Namely  old  John  Messenius,  who  died  at  Uleaborg  in 
1636.  His  son  Arnold  John  Messenius,  in  the  first  instance, 
suffered  fourteen  years'  imprisonment;  after  his  release  and 
recovery  of  his  father's  manuscripts  from  Poland,  he,  in  like 
manner,  was  appointed  historiographer  royal.  His  son  was 
the  young  Arnold  Messenius,  who  had  been  page  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Charles  Gustavus  and  his  brother. 

3  The  old  cattle-tax,  which  in  1642  had  been  transmuted 
into  a  tax  of  two  dollars  on  every  crown  and  scot-farm,  and 
in  1650  remitted,  was  again  adopted.  In  1642  money-dues 
were  introduced  instead  of  free  portage,  and  in  1649  these 
were  made  permanent. 

'  Examples  are  found  in  the  registers  of  the  year  1653. 

2  Mem.  for  the  Hist,  of  Scand.  xx.  314. 

3  It  was  in  consequence  of  this  that  Charles  XI.  after- 
wards, in  1C87,  forbade  any  one,  on  being  ennobled,  to  take 
the  word  Irona  into  his  name,  or  bear  a  crown  on  his  arms, 
without  special  permission. 

*  Scand.  Mem.  ix.  100. 

'■>  Comp.  Whitelocke's  Journal  of  his  Embassy. 

'  "  Now  there  is  so  much  ado  with  ballets  and  running  at 


344 


New  favourites. — Popular 

disafTection. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SWEDES. 


Appanage  settled  on  the 
queen;  the  abdication. 


[1644- 


lield  no  council,  saj'ing,  when  the  secretary  of 
state  came  with  warrants  for  her  signature,  that 
she  would  as  lief  see  the  devil.  The  court  was 
crowded  witli  dancers,  singers,  and  comedians  '. 

Even  Jesuits  came  under  this  disguise,  and 
laboured  for  the  conversion  of  the  queen.  This 
was  detei'mined  by  a  new  favourite,  Don  Antonio 
Pimentelli,  who  came  in  1G52  to  Sweden  as 
Spanish  ambassador,  a  man  distinguished  for 
agreeable  qualities,  who  was  long  inseparable  from 
the  queen,  living  in  the  castle,  and  passing  the 
time  in  her  company  until  three  or  four  hours 
after  midnight.  This  favour  he  shared  with  the 
young  and  handsome  count  Tott,  lately  returned 
from  his  travels,  whom  the  queen  appointed  to  a 
seat  in  the  council  (now  augmented  to  forty-six 
members)  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  and  wished 
also  to  have  made  a  duke,  since  he  was  descended 
through  his  mother  from  king  Eric  XIV.  This 
project  was  dropped  when  Oxenstierna  and  Brahe, 
to  whom  she  offered  the  same  honour,  declined  it. 
Jealousy  stung  De  la  Gardie  to  complaint.  He 
alleged  that  count  Tott,  baron  Steinberg,  master 
of  the  horse ',  and  colonel  Schlippenbach  had  said 
that  the  queen  had  charged  him  with  faithlessness 
and  deceit.  Though  all  these  declared  to  his  face 
that  his  assertion  was  false,  he  failed  to  demand 
satisfaction.  Christina  could  never  forgive  him  this, 
and  afterwards,  as  long  as  she  lived,  expressed 
nothing  but  contempt  for  him.  Prodigality  brought 
its  usual  consequences;  it  had  twice  become  ne- 
cessary to  close  the  queen's  kitchen,  from  want  of 
money.  Under  such  circumstances  it  would  be  little 
worth  while  to  quote  from  the  state  registries  the 
projects  repeatedly  furnished  at  command  by  the 
treasury,  how  the  expenditure  and  receipts  might 
be  equalized,  or  the  pains-taking  review  of  the 
state  of  the  finances  in  165.3,  drawn  up  by  the 
hand  of  the  old  chancellor,  and  preserved  in  the 
library  of  Upsala.  Public  discontent  began  to  rise 
to  a  formidable  pitch.  "  Come  not  here,"  de  la 
Gardie's  mother  wrote  to  him  from  his  county  in 
West- Gothland,  March  7, 1653;  "  through  the  whole 
journey  we  heard  that  the  peasants  had  revolted; 
and  in  Blixberg  that  peasant  with  the  great  red 
beard,  who  is  usually  deputy  to  the  diet,  said, 
when  he  drank  with  my  people,  that  the  peasants 
would  kill  all  the  nobility^."  Charles  Gustavus, 
who  passed  his  time  in  CEland,  silent  and  attentive, 
wrote,  that  he  did  not  dare  to  travel  to  visit  his 
father,  because  the  people  sought  and  flocked  to 
him  every  where,  as  soon  as  he  showed  himself. 

On  the  11th  of  February,  1654,  the  queen  sum- 
moned the  council  to  Ujjsala,  and  communicated 

the  ring,  that  no  important  business  is  despatched."  The 
chamberlain,  John  Ekeblad,  to  his  father,  Nov.  17,  1652. 
Scand.  Mem.  xx.  322.  After  one  of  her  entertainments  the 
queen,  in  1653,  founded  the  order  of  the  Amaranth  for  fifteen 
persons  of  both  sexes,  with  the  motto,  Dolce  nella  memoria. 
The  first  knight  was  Pimentelli,  to  whose  birth-place,  Ama- 
rante  in  Portugal,  some  have  wished  to  find  an  allusion  in 
the  name  of  the  order. 

7  "  Some  twenty  head  of  Italians  are  on  their  way  from 
Denmark,  and  expected  to-morrow ;  among  them  some 
comedians,  but  most  singers  and  musicians."  The  same  to 
the  same,  1.  c. 

8  Steinberg  had  won  the  queen's  favour  by  saving  her  life 
on  the  14th  May,  1652,  at  a  naval  review,  when  she  fell  from 
a  plank  into  the  sea  with  admiral  Fleming,  and  was  drawn 
by  him  in  his  fright  under  water.    Others  ascribe  her  rescue 


to  them  her  irrevocable  resolve  to  lay  aside  the 
crown,  and  to  transfer  it  to  the  hereditary  prince. 
The  usual  remonstrances  were  off"ered ;  at  length 
the  high-chancellor  said,  "  If  it  is  to  be,  then  the 
sooner  the  better."  The  estates  were  also  con- 
vened at  Upsala  on  the  21st  of  May.  Christina 
spent  the  interval  in  coming  to  terms  with  the 
prince,  through  Hermann  Fleming  and  Stiernhook, 
in  regard  to  her  future  appanage.  The  estates 
assigned  to  her  the  islands  of  Gottland,  CEland, 
CEsel,  the  town  and  castle  of  Norrkoeping,  Wolgast, 
with  several  garrisons  in  Pomerania,  Poel,  and 
New-Cloister  at  Wismar,  computed  to  yield  a 
revenue  of  240,000  rix-dollars.  That  this  should 
have  been  done  without  taking  into  account  the 
donations  made  to  others  in  the  several  districts 
specified,  produced  in  the  end  some  sharp  alter- 
cation between  the  queen  and  the  council.  In  the 
territory  set  apart  for  her  she  obtained  the  right 
of  appointing  governors,  prefects,  and  other  civil 
functionaries,  together  with  the  ministers  of  the 
royal  pastorates,  but  only  native  Swedes,  and  con- 
formants  to  the  Confession  of  Augsburg,  The  first 
and  second  instance  in  suits  at  law  pertained  to 
her  and  her  officers;  she  herself  was  to  be  respon- 
sible to  no  one  for  her  conduct. 

The  ceremony  of  abdication  we  may  describe 
in  the  words  of  the  high-steward,  Peter  Brahe  2. 
"  The  queen's  renunciation  took  place  on  the 
morning  of  the  6th  of  June.  It  was  a  mournful 
transaction.  The  queen  left  her  chamber,  having 
the  crown  on  her  head,  with  the  ball  and  sceptre 
in  her  hand,  clad  in  her  coronation  robes  and  a 
white  silk  atlas  kirtle,  and  delivered  an  address. 
To  this  Herr  Shering  Rosenhane  replied  in  an 
oration  fairly  composed,  and  fitting  to  the  occasion. 
Thereupon  her  majesty  laid  aside  one  regal  after 
the  other,  descended  from  the  throne,  spoke  to  the 
liereditary  prince,  who  was  presently  to  be  crowned 
king;  recommending  to  him  the  weal  of  his  country, 
with  laudation  of  every  order,  the  council  of  state, 
and  especially  those  who  had  been  her  guardians, 
with  the  noblest  and  most  moving  exhortations 
and  wise  sayings  that  could  be  imagined.  Her 
majesty  stood  and  spoke  thus  finely  unconstrained  ; 
sometimes  a  sob  broke  her  utterance.  Many 
honourable  persons,  both  men  and  women  (for  all 
the  ladies  were  present),  were  moved  to  tears,  see- 
ing that  she  closed  both  her  race  and  reign  before 
God's  enforcement,  and  how  she  stood  beautiful 
as  an  angel.  To  this  the  king  made  answer  fitly 
and  gallantly.  Her  majesty  wished  to  see  the  king 
immediately  on  the  throne,  but  he  would  not. 
With  that  they   left   the   hall,   and   her  majesty 

to  general  Wachtmeister.  It  is  certain  that  Christina  created 
Steinberg  a  baron,  and  shortly  before  her  abdication  gave  him 
the  rank  of  count.  The  nobility  made  some  difficulty  about 
receiving  him  :  but  they  complied  on  Charles  Gustavus  de- 
claring that  till  then  he  would  not  accept  their  homage. 

5  Mem.  for  the  Hist,  of  Scand.  xviii.  372. 

'  Ayant  quelque  scrupule  de  passer  en  ce  temps  icy  par  le 
pays  pour  y  estre  accable  des  diverses  questions  et  proposi- 
tions du  menu  peuple,  qui  me  cherche  partout.  Charles 
Gustavus  to  his  father,  Borckholm,  March  14,  1652.  Com- 
municated by  his  late  excellency  M.  Adlersparre.  The  pals- 
grave John  Casimir  died  at  Stegeborg,  June  8,  1652.  In 
Nerike  and  Vermeland  insurrectionary  movements  actually 
broke  out.  The  ringleaders  were  punished  with  gibbet  and 
wheel. 

2  Count  P.  Brahe's  Journal,  p.  92. 


1654.] 


Departure  of  the  queen 
from  Sweden. 


CHRISTINA'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


Her  subsequent 
conrluet. 


345 


wished  to  attend  upon  the  king  to  his  chamber, 
but  he  refusing,  attended  upon  her.  Straightway 
at  two  o'clock  afternoon,  tlie  king  was  crowned, 
witli  the  usual  procession  ;  his  majesty  rode  to 
cluirch  with  all  the  councillors  of  state;  thereupon 
w-as  held  a  banquet^."  The  following  day  Chris- 
tina quitted  Upsala,  and  stayed  a  few  days  at 
Stockholm,  where  she  went  publicly  to  confession. 
Twelve  ships  of  war  had  been  equipped  to  convey 
her  to  Germany,  which  were  to  await  her  at  Cal- 
mar.  Instead  of  this  she  took  her  way  by  Halm- 
stad  and  the  Sound.  Only  four  Swedes  followed 
her;  the  rest  she  had  dismissed.  On  coming  to 
a  brook  which  then  formed  the  frontier  between 
Sweden  and  Denmark,  she  dismounted  from  her 
carriage,  and  leaping  across  it  cried,  "  At  length 
I  am  free  and  out  of  Sweden,  whither  I  hope  never 
to  return  *." 

Thus  sank  Christina,  like  a  meteor,  below  the 
horizon  of  Sweden.  Soon  after  Axel  Oxenstierna 
descended   to  the  grave ',  with  sighs  exclaiming 

^  The  queen  had  caused  the  tapestries,  furniture,  and  move- 
ables of  the  castle  to  be  packed  up ;  and  such  articles  had 
to  be  borrowed  for  the  coronation.  Yet  a  contemporary 
account  says  that  all  things  were  well  managed. 

'>  Arckenholtz,  i.  420. 

s  August  28,  1654. 


that  "  she  was  still  the  daughter  of  the  great  Gus- 
tavus."  Her  subsequent  conduct,  in  changing  first 
secretly,  then  jiublicly,  to  the  Catholic  church^, 
estranged  from  her  for  ever  her  former  counti'y. 
She  revisited  it,  however,  in  ItJGO  and  1607,  and 
renewed  both  her  claims  and  her  renunciation, 
besides  announcins  herself  in  1668  a  candidate  for 
the  vacant  throne  of  Poland.  It  is  neither  possible 
nor  necessary  to  discover  the  reasons  which  might 
explain  these  proceedings.  The  learned  men  of 
Europe  contiimed  to  be  her  voluntary  subjects. 
Her  treatises,  mostly  composed  of  short  reflections, 
exhibit  a  soul  still  ardent  and  untamed  in  age, 
striving  in  all  things  after  the  extreme  and  the 
supreme,  but  at  length  submitting  to  her  lot.  The 
feminine  virtues  which  she  despised  avenged  them- 
selves on  her  good  name;  yet  was  she  better  than 
her  reputation '.  She  died  at  Rome,  April  19, 
1689,  sixty-three  yeax'S  old. 


6  The  former  occurred  at  Brussels,  Dec.  24,  1654;  the 
latter  at  Innspruck,  Nov.  3,  1655. 

'  H.  Frederick  von  Raumer,  in  the  5th  volume  of  his 
History  of  Europe,  from  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  in 
the  few  pages  he  has  devoted  to  Christina,  has  flavoured  his 
narrative  too  highly  with  scandal,  of  which  he  seems, 
strangely  enough,  to  be  fond  in  history  (In  the  German 
translation  this  note  is  altered.    T.) 


A   A 


SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTES. 


Chap.  I.  (p.  12,  n.  I.)  The  national  name  of 
the  Swedes  is  written  in  different  manuscripts  of 
Jordanes  (to  judge  by  the  printed  copies  and  tlieir 
variations),  Suethaus,  Suehans(?),  Sueveaus,  Sue- 
thidi,  Suetidi.  On  tlie  derivation  of  Suithiod  here 
proposed,  as  well  as  on  that  of  the  name  Tuisco, 
the  author  lays  no  weight. 

B. 

Chap.  II.  (p.  23.)  Though  not  coming  strictly 
within  the  scope  of  this  chapter,  as  defined  by 
Pi'ofessor  Geijer,  the  English  reader  may  be  glad 
to  have  some  further  account  of  the  celebrated 
province  of  Dalecarlia,  or  rather  Dalarna  (the 
Dales),  whose  inhabitants  play  so  conspicuous  a 
part  in  the  Swedish  annals.  "  On  the  lofty  fells 
which  form  the  boundary  between  Sweden  and 
Norway,  rises  in  two  head-streams  the  great  river 
Dal.  Of  these,  one,  called  the  Easter  Dal-elf,  re- 
ceives in  its  course  the  Orsa,  and  flowing  through 
lake  Silyan,  runs  into  the  parish  of  Gagnef  ;  the 
other,  named  the  Wester  Dal-elf,  rising  in  Fulu 
Fells,  flows  to  the  church  of  Lima,  and  breaks 
with  many  sudden  bends  through  the  encouutering 
mountain-ridge,  running  likewise  to  the  parish  of 
Gagnef.  Here,  below  the  parish  church,  the  two 
branches  unite,  and  the  Dal-elf  continues  in  one 
channel  its  course  to  the  sea,  intersecting  wide  and 
fertile  levels;  at  times  spreading  into  vast  sheets, 
which  encompass  a  group  of  islands,  again  collect- 
ing its  waters  in  a  straiter  bed,  forming  consider- 
able falls  at  Elf  karleby  (the  by  or  dwelling  of  the 
Elf-carls),  and  disemboguing  into  the  gulf  of  Both- 
nia about  a  mile  (six  miles)  therefrom.  The  nar- 
I'ow  and  high  lying  valley  which  the  western 
branch,  or  Wester  Dal-elf,  flows  through,  forms 
the  division  of  the  province  of  Dalarna,  called 
Westerdalarna  (Wester  Dales);  the  more  spacious 
and  lower  valley  through  which  the  eastern  branch, 
or  Easter  Dal-elf,  flows,  bears  the  name  of  Oster- 
dalarna  (Easter  Dales).  These  two  main  valleys, 
Easter  and  Wester  Dale,  form  the  whole  upper 
or  northern  part  of  the  prefecture  of  Stoi-a  Kop- 
parberg  (the  great  copper-mine);  the  other  por- 
tion, lying  below,  or  to  the  south  of  the  valleys 
above  mentioned,  comprehends  in  the  south-west 
the  western  mine-canton,  and  in  tlie  south-east 
the  bailiwicks  of  Kopparberg  proper,  Sseter,  and 
Nsesgard,  the  latter  comprising  the  eastern  mine- 
canton."  (Strinnholm,  Svenska  Folkets  His- 
toria,  German  Translation,  ii.  12.)  In  the  upper 
part  of  the  province  the  mountains  are  from  four 
to  six  thousand  feet  high,  and  it  is  every  where 
broken    into  valleys,   forests,   heaths,    lakes,   and 


streams.  The  town  of  Falun,  or  Old  Kopparberg 
at  which  is  the  great  copper-mine,  made  famous  by 
travellers,  is  about  one  hundred  and  foi'ty  English 
miles  from  Stockholm.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
province  are  called  Dalkarlar  (whence  Dalecarlia), 
or  Dalesmen.  (Tuneld,  Geography  of  Sweden, 
Stockholm,  1773,  p.  203,  seq.)     Tr. 


Chap.  II.  (p.  28,  n.  2.)  From  observations  on 
the  Lapps  and  their  relations  to  the  Finns,  com- 
municated to  me  by  Mr.  Peter  Leestadius,  who  is 
so  well  acquainted  with  the  Lapp-marks,  1  may 
add,  that  the  so-called  Wood-Lapps,moving  between 
fixed  places  of  abode  and  exercising  tillage,  are 
in  a  transitional  state  from  the  manner  of  life  of  the 
mountain  Lapps  to  that  of  the  new  settlers,  whence 
the  diminishing  numbers  of  the  hill  Lapps  are 
partly  to  be  ascribed  to  this  cause.  In  the  Lapp- 
marks,  a  settler  in  general  is  called  Finn,  whence 
the  statement  of  Hogstrom,  as  to  the  pleasure 
with  which  the  Lapp  hears  himself  called  Finn,  is 
to  be  understood  in  this  sense.  Traditions  among 
the  Lapps,  who  gather  and  diff'use  with  the  greatest 
avidity  all  accounts  of  family,  are,  according  to 
Lsestadius,  hardly  to  be  depended  upon  ;  nor  do 
we  lay  weight  upon  them,  where  they  are  not 
corroborated  by  other  evidence. 

D. 

Chap.  II.  (p.  31,  n.  5.)  Tings  and  assemblies 
were  generally  held  on  some  extensive  rising- 
ground  ;  but  that  courts  were  hela  on  or  at  the 
kin-barrows,  not  only  their  traditional  appellation 
of  Tingshdgar  (court-knolls),  but  the  mention  of  a 
Hogating  or  Knoll-court  in  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Kings,  bespeak.  From  other  passages  in  tliem 
(comp.  Saga  of  Harald  the  Fair-haired,  c.  8,  Saga 
of  Haco  the  Good,  c.  13),  we  learn  also  that  the 
king  used  to  sit  on  a  knoll,  probably  the  barrow  of 
his  ancestors  ;  whence  the  Swedish  prince  Styr- 
biorn,  when  he  demanded  his  share  of  the  kingdom 
from  his  uncle  Eric  the  Victorious,  seated  himself 
on  his  father's  barrow. 

E. 

Chap.  II.  (p.  32,  n.  2.)  The  circles  of  stones, 
called  by  us  judges'  rings  or  seats,  were  not 
always  intended  for  sitting  upon,  for  they  are  often 
of  considerable  height,  and  pointed,  but  pi-operly 
marked  the  circle  without  which  the  people  were 
to  keep.  For  the  rest,  the  king,  lawman,  and 
others  of  the  chief  men,  sat  at  a  court,  but  stood 
up  when  they  addi-essed  the  people,  as  may  be 
learned  from  the  description  of  the  Upsala  Ting  in 
the  Chronicles  of  Snorro. 


SUPPLEMENTARY   NOTES. 


347 


Chap.  II.  (p.  1^3.)  Against  the  statement,  that 
the  judge  expounded  the  law  along  with  the  wisest 
of  the  people,  it  has  been  remarked,  that  it  was 
the  function  of  the  lawman  and  of  no  other  to 
lay  down  the  law  in  the  Laud's  Ting,  which  we  do 
not  dispute.  But  the  expression  in  the  text  has 
reference  to  an  older  condition  of  the  common- 
wealth, still  so  democratical  as  hardly  to  tolerate 
the  jurisdiction  of  a  single  person,  unless  in  par- 
ticular eases  from  sacerdotal  authority.  So  late  as 
the  time  of  Olave  the  Lap-king,  a  sentence  passed 
in  a  general  assembly  (Alsharjarting)  was  said  to 
be  by  the  whole  people  (Allsherjardom,  the  doom 
of  all  the  host).  It  was  not  under  such  circum- 
stances that  the  king  or  lawman  could  be  the  sole 
expounder  of  the  law  ;  though  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  people  in  practice  was  naturally  transferred  to 
some  few  of  the  chief  and  most  able  men  as  arbi- 
trators and  daysmen  (whence  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Kings  expressly  state  of  the  last-named  king,  that 
"  he  had  always  with  him  twelve  of  the  wisest 
men,  who  sat  with  him  in  judgment,  and  advised 
in  hard  cases"),  and  with  the  development  of  legal 
principles  the  judge  appears  more  and  more  iu  his 
proper  character. 

G.  * 

Chap.  VII.  (p.  87,  n.  5.)  That  Magnus  Eric- 
son's  Land's  Law,  notwithstanding  the  protest  of 
the  clei'gy,  was  immediately  received,  appears 
from  a  deed  communicated  to  me  by  Professor 
Schroder,  in  the  count  Bonde's  collection  of  monu- 
ments at  Sfefstaholm.  In  a  letter  of  one  John 
Gregorson,  dated  Wexid,  1352,  he  declares  that 
he  appoints  a  moxTowing-gift,  "  secundum  modum 
ac  formam  legum  per  Dominum  meum  carissimum, 
Dominum  regera,  nuper  editarum." 

H. 

Chap.  XVII.  A  few  extracts  from  the  work  of 
Monro,  frequently  referred  to  by  Professor  Geijer, 
may  not  be  unacceptable,  as  illustrative  of  the 
character  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  the  spirit  of 
his  followers.  As  exemplifying  the  strictness  of 
his  discipline,  in  an  age  of  military  license,  we 
quote  the  following  : — 

"  Notwithstanding  our  easy  march  (to  Old 
Brandenburg)  and  good  quarters,  there  were 
some  in  both  the  regiments  unworthy  the  name  of 
good  soldiers,  who,  in  their  march,  leaving  their 
colours,  and  staying  behind,  did  plunder  and 
oppress  the  boors;  for  remedy  whereof  the  soldiers 
being  complained  on,  accused  and  convicted,  they 
were  made  for  punishment  to  suffer  gatlop,  where 
they  were  well  whipped  for  their  insolency.  Like- 
wise on  this  march,  some  of  our  soldiers  in  their 
ranks,  their  colours  flying,  did  beat  one  another, 
for  which  oversight  I  did  cashier  a  sergeant,  after  I 
had  cut  him  over  the  head,  for  suffering  such  abuse 
to  have  been  done  in  his  presence.  .  .  .  Andrew 
Monro  was  executed  at  Stettin,  for  having,  con- 
trary to  his  majesty's  Articles  and  discipline  of 
war,  beaten  a  burgher  in  the  night  within  his  own 
house,  for  whose  life  there  was  much  solicitation 
made  by  the  duchess  of  Pomeren,  and  sundry 
noble  ladies,  but  all  in  vain ;  yet  to  be  lamented, 


since  divers  times  before  he  had  given  proof  of  his 
valour." — ii.  46. 

Another  passage  shows  the  king  m  a  different 
light : — 

"  The  next  day  the  duke  of  Saxony  with  a 
princely  train  came  unto  Halle,  to  congratulate 
his  majesty's  victory  (at  Leipsic).  .  .  .  Having 
once  been  companions  of  danger  together,  they 
were  then  entertaining  one  another's  familiarity, 
in  renewing  of  their  friendship,  confirmed  again 
with  the  German  custom,  in  making  tlieir  league 
the  firmer,  by  drinking  brothersliip  together ; 
where  I  having  entered  the  hall,  and  being  seen 
by  his  majesty,  i  was  presently  kindly  embraced 
by  holding  his  arm  over  my  shoulder  ;  wishing 
I  could  bear  as  much  drink  as  old  major-general 
Ruthven,  that  I  might  helj)  his  majesty  to  make 
his  guests  merry ;  and  holding  me  fast  by  the 
hand,  calling  to  the  duke  of  Saxony,  declared  unto 
him  what  service  our  nation  had  done  his  father 
and  him,  and  the  best  last,  at  Leipsic,"  &c. 

The  intrenclied  camp  at  Wei'ben  is  thus  de- 
scribed : — "  This  leaguer  lay  along  the  side  of  the 
river  on  a  plain  meadow,  being  guarded  by  the 
river  on  the  one  side,  and  the  foreside  was  guarded 
by  a  long  earthen  dike,  which  of  old  was  made  to 
hold  off  the  river  from  the  land;  which  dike  his 
majesty  made  use  of,  dividing  it  by  sconces  and 
redoubts,  which  defended  one  another  with  flank- 
ing, having  batteries  and  cannon  set  within  them, 
alongst  the  whole  leaguer.  He  did  also  set  over 
the  river  a  ship-bridge  for  his  retreat  in  need,  as 
also  for  bringing  commodiously  of  provision  and 
succours  from  the  connti'y  and  garrisons  on  the 
other  side,  as  Havelberg  and  others. 

"  In  like  manner  his  majesty  did  fortify  the 
town  of  Werben  for  his  magazine,  being  close  to 
the  leaguer,  with  works  about  it  which  defended  the 
leaguer;  and  the  leaguer-works  were  made  to  de- 
fend the  town  also,  so  that  they  could  relieve  one 
another  being  in  mo&t  distress,  and  both  the  town- 
wall  and  leaguer-wall  were  so  thick  and  firm  of 
old  earth,  faced  up  with  new,  that  no  cartow 
could  enter  into  it.  The  bulwarks  on  which  the 
batteries  were  made  for  the  cannon  were  also  very 
strong  and  formally  built,  and  they  flanked  one 
another,  so  that  none  could  find  but  folly  in  pressing 
to  enter  by  storm.  And  betwixt  the  flankerers  . 
were  left  voids,  for  letting  troops  of  horse  in  and 
out,  with  booms  before  them,  where  strong  guards 
were  kept  for  defending  the  passage. 

"  And  on  the  one  side  of  this  leaguer  were 
planted  above  one  hundred  and  fifty  [lieces  of 
cannon,  great  and  small,  besides  those  that  were 
planted  on  the  town-works;  and  our  whole  horse- 
men were  quartered  within  the  leaguer." 

Speaking  of  Tilly's  retreat  from  this  intrenched 
camp,  he  extols  Gustavus  as  "  a  worthy  king  and 
general,  whose  prudence  and  wisdom  in  command 
were  ever  answerable  to  the  dignity  of  his  majestic 
person,  that  ought  and  should  be  endowed  with 
infinite  virtues,  since  infinite  were  those  things  he 
had  to  foresee,  and  which  are  needful  for  a  man 
of  his  place.  Infinite  chances  and  altogether  diverse 
every  moment  wei'e  set  before  him,  in  so  nmch 
that  Argus'  eyes  were  too  few  for  him,  not  only 
in  respect  of  the  weight  of  his  command,  but  also 
in  respect  of  the  wit  and  prudence  which  was  re- 
quisite for  him.  All  other  commands  belonging  to 
a  soldier  are  so  inferior  to  this  of  a  general,  that 


348 


SUPPLEMENTARY  NOTES. 


almost  they  are  nothing  in  respect  of  this;  who 
amongst  others  his  great  gifts,  must  know  severely 
to  command,  and  softly  to  bear  with  others.  As 
also,  he  must  learn  patiently  to  give  place  to  others' 
contumacy,  and  he  must  not  only  be  powerful  to 
strengthen  his  own  affairs,  but  also  he  must  weaken 
his  enemies.  And  cliiefly,  he  must  make  war  by 
policy,  without  giving  battle  or  travel  (as  this  wise 
general  did  deal  twice  with  old  Tilly);  who  was 
forced,  after  a  long  march,  having  but  visited  him 
and  seen  liis  orders,  to  retire  again  with  the  loss 
of  many  men,  without  any  detriment  or  hurt  at  all 
to  his  majesty's  own  little  army,  which  he  kept 
ever  to  the  last,  by  pi'eserving  them  from  their 
enemies,  and  by  supplying  of  them,  as  they  be- 
came weak,  so  that  their  weakness  could  never  be 


truly  discerned.  Who  would  not  then  admire  the 
wisdom  and  foresight  of  this  general,  in  preserving 
this  little  armj',  at  this  time,  for  a  second  fitter 
occasion  ?  Who  ever  then  was  so  worthy  of  the 
honourable  title  of  a  general  as  he  ?  For  though 
he  liad  been  no  king,  he  was  a  brave  warrior,  and 
which  is  more,  a  good  man  ;  magnificent,  wise, 
just,  meek,  endued  with  learning  and  the  gift  of 
tongues ;  and  as  he  had  strength  of  body  and  a 
manlike  stature,  he  had  also  the  ornaments  of  the 
mind,  fitting  a  brave  commander.  He  knew  how 
to  dally  and  weary  an  army  led  by  such  an  old 
general  as  Tilly  was.  For  though  he  (Tilly)  did 
vaunt  he  had  beaten  two  kings  before  in  an  open 
field,  the  third  king  made  him,  for  all  his  ex- 
perience, to  be  thought  but  a  child  again,"  &c,  Tr. 


END    OF    \0L.    I. 


Gilbert  &  Rivington,  Printers,  St.  John's  Square,  London. 


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