YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE HISTORY OF THE SWEDES, ERIC GUSTAYE GEIJER, 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. 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, l^u 4*5*^5 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. Professor Gemer's History of the Swedes (Svenska Folkets Historia) was published at Orebro in 1832-36 ; a German version, by Dr. Leffler, made under the author'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 1 806 he took the degree of M.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 Publie Education. In 1828 he was created by his sovereign Knight of the Order of the Polar Star, 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 he 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 Linkaeping 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 from 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 Schroeder, was appointed by royal warrant to prepare for the press the great collection of the Scriptores Serum Sueekarum, 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 Scaldie 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 1. Finally, in the " Litteratur Blad" or Literary Journal for 1838-39, there appeared from 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 i This the translator hopes to he 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 2 ; 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 potiusquam a me; a me potiusquam 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 appearance in an English form of a portion of Fryxell's Stories from Swedish History 3 ; 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 variety 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 transfuse 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 significaney, 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 version4; which, though containing many minor inaccuracies 5, 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 Gfrorer, 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. a Berattelser i Svenska Historien. Published in London under the title of 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 office, to give proofs of this assertion. « In grammatical structure the English and Swedish languages have perhaps a closer affinity 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. gratle to weep ; Swed. grata. Toom, empty; Swed. torn. Side, meaning long or down-hanging; Swed. aid, and length or si'de- ness, sidd. Hemman, the word translated "grange" in the following pages, is obviously the same with the Anglo-Saxon ham, meaning a croft, or piece of ground adjoining to a house, also the house, farm, or village itself; whence hampse] hamlet. Hem is home. Leah, to play; Swed. leka. ' 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 adimrably 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 he excels not less m deciphering the faint and imperfect records of the past, and lighting up the dim obscurities of history wrth the gleam of truth, than in relating the best ascertained facts of the clearest periods, stand- mg upon unquestioned testimony. This will be acknowledged by such as compare the first two chapters ofthe 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 artistic method and felicitous eloquence which we vainly desiderate in the German 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 1; which indeed is sometimes the vehicle best calculated to imbue the inquirer's apprehension with the spirit 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 cum 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 pourtrayed 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 and 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 B 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 7 See mstances 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 ofthe following volume, with that in Lawrence Peterson's Swedish Chronicle, p. 72, in the Script. Rer. Suec. ; and the account of his legislation with that given in the Great Rhyme Chronicle, ibid. 8 The name Scandia, Scondia, Scandinavia, seems probably to come from Scania, Sconia (SMne), 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 ita extent, the application of the name by them 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 way in Norraway or Norway. TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. themselves, than from the illustration 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 circumstances in which they were produced ; and we trace unmistakeably the germs of the later Teutonic poetry, the dawnings 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 gentis Anglicce 9. 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 writers term 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 foreign 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 keeping of princes and nobles; and hence the institutions of this cognate people, like our own, though under very different 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 Rugii or 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 Gotar, or Giitar, are almost identical in sound; and the Jutes who occupied the Cimbric Chersonese, and gave their name to it, are supposed to have come from S wedish 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 Saxo.is, 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 wiih 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 nolices on this subject.) " The rumour ofthe 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 ust and penetrating strain of reflection is another sentence soon after following, which is rather incautiously exnressed- The fabulous colonies of Egyptians and Trojans, of Scandinavian, and Spaniards, which flattered 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. 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 iu 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 u, struggle of life and death against the aggressions of the Slavonic race 2. 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. Tt 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, perhaps, 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; ofthe sagacity and boldness of thought which distinguished their politicians, the following pages contain many proofs 3. That which some of the northern antiquaries have 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 QSsten, — 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; his 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 theory 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 mtroduction 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 tnecr°wn The whole was an attempt to organize in a royalist spirit an armed force of nobles*." With th.s view exemption from taxes was granted by the king both to the barons and knights, and the mferror gentry * See this view briefly stated by Geijer in Chapter I. of the following work, and more largely in the Scandinavian Antiqumes already deferred to. /he case of the Saxons is supported with strong, though perhaps less convmc.ng evidence, by Mr. Sharon Turner, in the first volume of the History *¦*»££ -Saxons ru^ d:d;^^^^ have P;r~e tat c,'" and distinct enunciation of a principle so keenly contested at the present day. * Geijer, Poor Laws, Essay V. TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. or franklins, in return for military service to be performed by them. H All of the commonalty who chose or were able to do service on horseback, were also ennobled, an appenflSge to the nobility ; the rest remained unennobled, ofralse, a word in its proper sense meaning unfree, 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 5.'J On these relations turns much of the controversies 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 an.d 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 prinees 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 aud the clergy; augmenting the regal power in Sweden proportionally as in other monarchies 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 XI., 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 first 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 Catholic 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 6. 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 Reformation, and iti*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 » Geijer, Poor 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 7. " The at once aristocratic and mUitary 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 8." " Then did the great men of Sweden," he continues, " study to deserve the name. Sweden has not had Axel Oxenstiema'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 reproach 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 1664, ' 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 9, 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 pohcy 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 wliich, viewed in connexion with the recent politics of Europe, lend it enhanced attraction. It would be here out of place to speculate on the lofty destinies to which Sweden may yet again be called, amidst the changeful ^ Such anticipations were certainly current in the camp of Gustavus himself. Witness his follower Monro, who, with homely but 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. s « Sweden's most glorious time was a time of great life-giving ideas, and also one of forcibly-compelling circumstances. Gustavus Adolphus may be 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 behoved to have means for the wars- and the course of commerce had to adjust itself accordingly. He took the trades into his own bands, 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 afford." 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 ""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 greatness, 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 1, — perhaps, too, if the aspirations of ardent patriots carry trustworthy presages, 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 ofthe former in 1839, 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 " reflections," read recoUections. Page 31, col. 1, note 9, for " mundok," read mund ok. Page 34, col. 1, line 14, for " Gothland," read Gottland. Page 38, col. 2, line 23, for "hefel," read befell. Page 45, note 9, for " Juta," read Jutar. Page 81, col. 2, line 11, place the , after conflict. fh. « i C I „ S '* ' j Iilte "' as also g before '6orU- 1 have »°' in ^1 cases rigidly adhered tc the Swedish orthography, sometimes using the Latinized form instead. The mark ' generally placTovef e final i to be considered as merely arbitrary, for the purpose of reminding the reader that it should be sounded CONTENTS. *AGE INTRODUCTION. Notions of the Ancients on Scandinavia. Character and Relations of its History. How first made known to Modern Europe. Saxo Grammaticus. The Ice landers. Scaldic Poetry. Snorro Sturleson. Swedish History compared with Norwegian and Danish. The Subject divided 1 CHAPTER I. TRADITIONS OF THE NORTH. Inland Seas ; the Mediterranean and the Baltic 3 Seat of the Teutonic Nations; their Irruptions id. The Suiones of Tacitus 4 The Gothic Tribes .".".......' id. Notion of their Scandian Extraction ; its Explanation . . id. Idea ofthe Northern Mythology 5 Supposed Divine Descent ofthe Kings id. Extent of Odinism id. Annals and Destiny of Gods and Men id. Spirit of Northern Paganism; its Heroic Odes 6 Legendary Account of the Establishment of the Swedish Monarchy id. Odin; his Actions and Character. The Asae id. Niord and Frey. The Ynglings. Fiolner, the First King 7 The Ynglingasaga. King Anund the Leveller. The Upsala Kings. Feast of Ingyald; his Tragical End... 8 Origin of the Swedes 9 Odin probably a Real Personage. Traditions as to him. id. The Asae or Alans, a Tribe dwelling in the Caucasus .... id. Priority of the Goths. Goths and Swedes two distinct Races 10 The Second Dynasty. Ivar Widfamne, its Founder; his Conquests id. Harald and Sigurd. Battle of Bravalla 11 Eastern Conquests of the Swedes. Russian Monarchy founded by Ruric. Statement of Nestor. Vaners and Varangians 12 Swedish Wars in Russia 13 Ragnar Lodbroc; his Adventures id. Fate of Ragnar's Sons 14 Accounts of him compared. Invasion of the Northmen id. Seulement in Switzerland. Hasslidale; its Inhabitants 15 CHAPTER II. LAND AND PEOPLE PROM THE HEATHEN PERIOD. Scania; its Produce and Commerce. Towns; Inhabit ants 16 Provinces of the Southern Coasts ; Occupations of the Inhabitants 17 West-Gothland and East-Gothland ; Notices of them in the Sagas 18 Gothland and Swedeland; their Boundaries 19 Sudermania or Suthermanland, Nerike, Vermeland id. Description of Sweden by King Alfred and Snorro Sturleson 20 PAGE The Folklands ; Upland. Meaning of these Appel lations. "Westmanland 21 Ancient Topographical Divisions. Settlement of the Swedes round the Shores of the Maelar. Upsala, Sig- tuna or Birca 2?, Mining Tracts ; Dalecarlia. State of its Inhabitants in the Twelfth Century 23 Progress of Settlement and Culture to the North. Norr- land, Helsingland, Gestricland 24 Medelpad and Angermanland. Finnmark ; Charac ter of this Region 25 Voyage of Ottar and Ulfsten. Biarmaland. Fennic Tribes g6 Carelians and Tavastrians. ¦ Finns and Lapps 27 Their probable Common Extraction, and Present Di versities 28 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 ofthe 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 taries fc 32 The Lagman or Judge. Free and Unfree. Houses and Occupations ofthe People 33 Fruits and Relics of Paganism 34 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 34 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 3? The Anglo-Saxon Sigfrid preaches the Gospel to the Swedes and Norsemen. Baptism of Olave the Lap- King id. St. Olave of Norway. Embassy from him to Olave of Sweden 38 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 42 Ascendancy of the Christians. King Swerker. Intro duction of Monks. Visit of a Papal Legate. Reign of St. Eric 43 CONTENTS. PAGE His Crusade in Finland, Death, and Character. Charles Swevkerson first King of the Swedes and Goths. State ofthe Church 44 Successors of St. Eric. Feud of Eljaras 45 King Eric Ericson. Results of the Civil Wars. The Folkungers. Usurpation of the Regal Power by the Earl of Sweden 46 Disorders of the Clergy. Synod of Skenninge convoked hy a Papal Legate. Its Measures 47 CHAPTER IV- THE FOLKUNGERS. a.u. 1250—1365. \ 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 i£ 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 tins 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 ofthe Lnw of Upland 54 Marriage of King Birger. Jealousy and Ambition of the Royal Dukes id. Their Revolt and Seizure of the King's person. Com pact of Helsingborg. The Dukes treacherously made prisoners at Nykosping 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 53 Dethronementof Magnus by the Swedish Nobles. Offer of the Crown to Albert, Duke of Mecklenberg 59 CHAPTER V. FOREIGN KJNGS. THE UNION, UNTIL THE ADMINIS 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 the Lords of his Council. Margaret of Norway. The Crown offered to her by the Executors of the High Steward GO Battle of Falkceping and Captivity of Albert. Piracies fn 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 ofthe Royal Lieutenants 62 General Rising of the People under Engelbert Engel- hertson. His Encounter with the Council G3 Success of his Army. He is chosen Administrator ; and Assassinated, April 27, 1436 64 Charles Canuteson Bond6 chosen Administrator. King Eric rehires 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 GG 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 68 Unpopularity of Charles. 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 ¦ ?0 CHAPTER VI. STENO STURE THE ELDER. KING JOHN, SUANTO STURE. STENO STURE THE YOUNGER, AND CHRISTIAN THE TYRANT. A.D. 1470 — 1520. Steno Stur6 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 Tieaty 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 75 i Desertion ofthe King by the Nobility. Death of Steno the Elder. Suanto Stur6 chosen Administrator 76 Hostilities with Denmark. Peace with Russia. Al liance with Lubeck. Steno Stur6 the Younger chosen Administrator 7t Accession of Christian II. in Denmark. Continuance of Hostilities. Papal Ban and Interdict on Sweden. Invasion and temporary Reduction of the Country by the Danes 78 Demand bythe 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 80 Strength of the Popular Element. Mode of Election to the Crown. The Ericsgait 81 Elective Customs of the West-Goths. PrivUege of the Upper Swedes 82 The Yeoman and his Rights. Law of Inheritance. Birthrights 83 Protection of Private Character 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 ofthe Kingdom. Mines 89 Cultivation. Traffic. The Gottlanders ' 90 Commercial Privileges of the Germans. The Coinage; its Depreciation ' 9j 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 03 Education of Youth. Popular love of Freedom!,.!!.!!!!!! 94 Catalogue of Kings 0r CONTENTS. FAGE CHAPTER VIII. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE LIBERATION. A.D. 1520 — 1523. Birth and Parentage of Gustavus 97 His School-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 Bishops 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 fur their Captain; Apathy of the Helsingers ; Zeal ofthe Stock holm Magistracy for the Danes 102 Unsuccessful attempt to quell the Revolt by Archbishop Gustavus Trolle and the Danish Authorities j Rout of Brunnebeckor Brunneburn 103 Successes of the Patriot Force; Combats of Westeras i and Upsala 104 Narrow Escape of Gustavus. Siege of Stockholm begun. 3 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- I tempts of the Danish admiral Norby to relieve Stock holm. Its Capture '. 106 ii View of Christian's Policy and Character. His Flight from his Dominions. Gustavus elected King at a i! Diet in Strengness 107 5 CHAPTER IX. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. A.D. 1524—1543. State of the Country at the close of the War. Dissolu- il tion of the Union. The Nobles and the Commons. . Temper of Men's Minds 108 Position of the Church. Pecuniary Claims of the Lu ll 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 HO Financial Statement made by Gustavus at Westeras. 1 Debts to Lubeck. New Taxes. Prevalence and Severity of Distress Ill 1 , Anabaptist Riots in Stockholm. The King's Rebuke of ' "' the new Preachers. New Bishops appointed. Their ' . Intrigues I12 Plots for the House of Sture. Punishment of the de- 1 , 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 115 ' Diet of Westeras assembles ; its Composition. Speech ', of the High-Chancellor Anderson on the State of ¦"' Affairs nG ' Disputes between the King and the Nobles; Ferment ¦( among the Common People; the Royal Demands * granted u7 - 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 o- Larfs Heath 12° ... !Plot of seven West-Gothic Barons; their Chastisement. «• Steps for the Payment of the Debt to Lubeck. Bell ,. ' Sedition " m . ^Movements of Christian II. He Lands in Norway, and is acknowledged King. Attempt on Sweden 122 fi 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 120 CHAPTER X. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. A.D. 1544—1560. 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 by 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 ... 133 Popular Regard for Gustavus. Finance and Agricul ture Is4 Mines and Forges. Foreign Commerce ' 135 Steps to its Extension. Regulation of Internal Trade.. 130 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 Erie and John. Diet of Stock holm 1*2 The King's Farewell Speech to the Estates. His Last Illness 1*3 His Death. Account of him by his Nephew, Count Peter Brahe 1** 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 1« 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 thB Conscription. The King's Persecution of the House of Sture 153 Cruel Treatment of Nicholas Sture-. Supposed Con- spiracyinthe Interest of that Family 154 Investigation of the Charge. Arraignment of Six Lords at Stockholm. Adjournment of the Trial to Upsala. Murder of Nicholas Stur6 there by the King and his Attendants I55 Frenzy of Eric ; Discussion of its Nature 156 His Insane Deportment to Duke John ; his Marriage. Incursion ofthe Danes into East-Gothland 157 Frivolities of Eric. Design against his Brothers' Lives; the Dukes take up Arms 158 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 160 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. u. 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 165 Design of John to restore Popery. Arrival of Jesuits in Stockholm 166 State of the Church, and the Popular Belief. Pro visions ofthe Kirk's Ordinance 167 Machinations ofthe 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 ofthe 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 ofthe Swedish Nobles in this Age illus trated from the Treatise of Count Brahe 172 Disputes as to the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government ofthe 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 '' 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 ofthe 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 his 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 ofthe 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 j 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 Soder- 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 193 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 Linkceping. Flight of Sigismund. Charles declared by the Estates Hereditary Prince Regnant.... 195 CHAPTER XIV. CHARLES IX. A.D. 1*599 — 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 Linkceping. Arraignment of the Royalist Nobles 19? 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 20! Projects of Religious Union. Rebukes to the Clergy. Correspondence of Charles with the University of Upsala 201 Acceptance of the Crown by Charles in 1604. Heredi tary Settlement of Norrkceping. Measures for the Organization ofthe Military Force. 201 The King's Relations with the Nobility. Projects for the Amendment ofthe 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 ofthe Country.... 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 203 CHAPTER XV. GUSTAVUS II. ADOLPHUS. HIS INTERNAL ADMINISTRA TION. A.D. 1611 — 1632. Sketch ofthe Early Life and Education of the King by Chancellor Oxenstierna 21). His First Campaign against the Danes... 211 His acknowledgment by the Estates, and Accession to the Government. View of tbe effects of the Heredi tary Settlement 212 The Royal Warranty; Restrictions stipulated on the Power of the Crown. Legal Rights and Obligations \ ofthe Nobility 21J Policy of former Kings with regard to the Feudal Pres tations ; Efforts of Charles IX. and Gustavus Adol- iu phus to give the Order a Military Character 2lJ Prevalence ofthe Military Spirit in the Government 215 Aristocratic and Democratic Parties ; Oxenstierna and Skytte 216 CONTENTS. 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 ofthe 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 22G Loans, Sales, and Monopolies. Commercial Associations 22' Influence ofthe Government on the National Character. Contemporary Account of the People by a Belgian Merchant , 228 Strength of the Army. Measures for the Improvement ofthe 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 Intluence. Royal Interference with the Course of Justice. Rarity of Litigation 232 Condition of the People during a period of War. State ofthe 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 IT. ADOLPHUS. THE DANISH, RUSSIAN, AND POLISH WARS. A.D. 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 ofthe Terms 240 Internal State of Russia, described by Memoirs from Swedish Agents. Polish War. Connexions and In trigues of Sigismund, 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 2*2 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 ofthe Fleet for Livonia 24* 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 1625; Reduction of Livonia and Courland 246 Winter's Campaign; Battle of Wallhof. War removed into Prussia in 1626 24r 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 II. 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 Wallensteln. Importance of the Baltic Harbours 255 Danger of Stralsund ; the King determines to rescue it. Its Siege by the Imperialists; Conclusion of an Alliance 250 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 ofthe 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 284 Plans for the Ensuing Year. Winter of 1630. Con tinuance of Operations 265 Treaty with France. Reduction of Pomerania. Storm ing of Frankfort-on-tlie-Oder 266 Efforts to relieve Magdeburg frustrated. Its Capture. Barbarities ofthe 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 27° 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 ofthe Empire. Proposals of Peace 274 Backwardness of Saxony and Brandenburg. War in Bavaria. Passage ofthe Lech 275 Occupation of Augsburg and Munich. The entrenched Camps at Nuremberg; Wallenstein against Gustavus 276 The former threatens Saxony. State of Affairs 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 hy 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 PAGE Order of Battle and Preparations. The King's address to his Troops 281 Desperate Charge 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 ofthe 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 287 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 Oxenstiema'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 ofthe 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 The 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. Oxenstiema's Home Administration 308 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 ofthe 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 310 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. CessionB hy 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 321 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 War. Invasion of Bohemia by Torstenson. Great Victory of Jankowitz 325 Want of Co-operation obliges him to retreat. Effect of his Successes. Congress of Osnaburg 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 ofthe 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. Efforts of the Clergy to procure an extension of their Privileges: :. 336 Uneasy state of Public Feeling. Controversy on Popular Rights 237 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 CouncU 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 342 Influence of Foreign Opinions and Literature.' 'intrigues to precipitate tbe Queen's Abdication 342 Their Detection and Punishment. Dissipation "and Profuseness ofthe Court 343 New Favourites. Popular Disaffectionl"''Apprnaff'e settled on the Queen. The Abdication . 344 Departure of the Queen from Sweden. Her subsequent Conduct 345 Supplementary Notes 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 the-great 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 Nerigon, (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 1 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 ; and 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 ' Pliny, Hist. Nat. iv. 13, (ed. Bipont, 27.) Alterum terrarum orbem. (Compare also ii. 108, iv. 16. Trans.) 2 Transeuntibus insulas Danorum alter mundus aperitur worships its own idol, but we miss the voice of the people. The youngest brother of this great stock, is he, whose destinies we have taken upon us 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 frequently 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 reollections, 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. They offer the completest remaining example of a social state, existing previously to the reception of any influences from Rome, aud 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 day, 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 gradually following upon the conversion of the north, at length shed light upon these remote, and, till then, little known countries, which even by the first Christian teachers were likened to a new world,3. After a connection with the church of Rome had led to acquaintance with their learning and language, this was applied by the clergy, here as in other parts of Europe, in the composition of Latin chronicles. In those labours 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 Tegna, et nostro orbi fere incognita. Adam. Bremen. de Situ Daniie, c. 60, ed. Lindenbrog. B Saxo Grammaticus. 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 those more remote, he exhibits, under a learned and ornate garb, the shape in which the 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 untold ; 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 founded 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 purpose3. To these songs were attached narratives, which constituted, equally in popular assemblies and in courts, a universal 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 hy their character from the later and purely fictitious sagas. Somewhat more than two hundred and forty years 3 Mulier Sagabibliotek, Snegle Halls Thatter. 1 Norriges Konungasagor. 5 Of Vblund and Helge, of Sigurd and Brynhilda, Folsungs and Niflungs. See the whole second part of Saemund's Edda. elapsed from the 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 Snorko 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 i, 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 narrations 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 (H£vamal), 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 1 133, and is supposed to have been its com piler. The Edda of Saemund contains likewise several heroic ballads s, 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 remain 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 Polsunga Saga, the Noma Gests Saga the younger Edda, and the Vilkina Saga. Two inland seas of Europe. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The Teutonic nations ; their irruptions. P""s> J'et long enough for undying 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 sounded over all the earth. With Sweden Snorro begins his chronicles of the ancient kings. In old Suithiod Odiu and the gods had ruled over Manhem, the home of men. The Asse, immigrating from 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. OLDEST TIMES. CHAPTEE I. TRADITIONS OF THE NORTH. LEGENDS OF NORTHERN MIGRATIONS. MYTHOLOGY. CHRONICLES OF THE KINGS- AND GOTHS. VARANGIANS AND NORTHMEN. 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 conclusion 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, which 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 6. On the islands of the Baltic, again, and its southern coasts, we perceive indisputably the earliest European dwelling-places of the great Germanic race 7. Here also these are not without recollections of the east, although to southern Europe they were in a manner unknown, 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 firm and martial structure of their institutions. Then the name of Germans was first heard. Rome, unable to subdue their tribes, admitted the danger « Deserta Helvetiorum, Bojorum, Getarum, which at a later period were partially occupied by the Germanic popu lations immigrating from the north. 1 Teutons and Goths (Guttones) inhabited the Baltic into her own bosom by purchasing their services with money or land, till at length, whether from this or from other causes extrinsical, or led by the 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 world, prepared a 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 their 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 foes8. What he adds therewithal, that the Suiones were ruled by « 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. 8 Germania, c. 44. s Envaldshbfding, sole ruler. T. E2 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 warlike religion, was yet favourable to peace in the intestine relations of the people. By it the use of arms might be interdicted, a regulation observed within the places of sacrifice, which were kept under the seal of peace. Common participation in the great sacrifices was a sign as well as a bond of peace among the different communities of ancient Suithiod. Of these 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 1. Through the migration of the Germans to the south, Scandinavia, unknown before, at once at tained widely greater consideration, and by them 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 people2, and the other shows throughout his whole exposition that he based his narrative upon similar ballads 3. 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 them origin from the northern nations4. The notion of Scandinavia as a cradle and work shop of nations5, recurs in hke 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 great 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 line), and migrations in quest of new dwelling-places. i Gotones regnantur, paulojam adductius quam csetera; Germanorum gentes, nondum tamen supra libertatem Germania, c. 43, 2 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 which the 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 7, and with low shores, whence it is conjectured to have been one of the Danish isles8. The Goths are said to have issued from Scandi navia in three ships only 9. 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 Mseotis, did they grow up into that mighty people, who made themselves the terror of Rome. Thus even in this most famous emigration, ac cording to the tradition, whether literally under stood or not, the number's 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 4 Witichindus, de rebus gestis Saxonum. Hrabanui Maurus in Goldast. Rer. Alaman. Script, ii. 67. Nigellus, de baptismo Haraldi, in Langebek, Script, rer. Dan. i. 400. ' Officina 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. « Or Scania, as is said in the popular songs of Gothland upon the outset of the Lombards. 9 Jordanes, c. 17. God-descended kings Extent of Odinism. IDEA OF THE NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. Annals and destiny of gods and men. royal lme. 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 God1.' 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 Frankland, 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 Odin2. We have irrefragable testimony that Woden was adored as a god by all the German nations3, and this is besides expressly stated of the Vandals, Lombards, and Suevers 4. The last- named tribe was a branch of the Goths. Anses, 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 5. 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 6. 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 bard7, under many names and in various guises. In the Scalds he appears under the most different appel- 1 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 untversis Germanise gentibus ut deus adoratur. Paul Warnef. c. 9. 4 Id. c. 8. Vita S. Columbani, in Duchesne, Script. Franc, i. 556. 5 Jordanes, c. 13. 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 columna), 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 Ulfllas 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, father 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 disposed 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 Asgard8, of ancient days, lying in the centre of Midgard9, 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 nature, subdued in the begin ning of time. Cold and heat, from whose inter mixture this world arose, send their demons out of Nifelhem 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 triumph- hall, Bright in the sacred seat of high-throned gods. Understand ye yet, or how ? ? In the Grimnismal ofthe elder Edda, strophe 49. s Lit. The Court of Gods. T. " The Gothic Midjungards in Ulphilas. (Lit. Midyard.) ' As in the Hbstlanga or Thiodolf, scald to Harald the Fair-haired, the same whose ballads form the basis of the Ynglingasaga. 2 The blind demi-god, who wittout 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 (¦.e^eAn, 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 L 6 Spirit of Northern pa ganism. Heroic odes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Odin, his actions and character. It is the voice of the northern sibyl, in the prophecy of Vala, to which we have chiefly listened throughout the foregoing exposition. But this receives manifold confirmation from the ancient odes, as well as from the characteristics and types of the Scaldic 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 iu 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 3, 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 think4. Without doubt the most recondite and essential feature 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 tluxt 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 5, 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, 523. Thans.) 3 Deorumque nominibus appellant secrelum illud, quod sola reverentia vident. Germania, c. 9 4 Felices errore suo. G Gothiod — Gotar — Gotnar. c Minor gods and goddesses. T. 1 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 Holmgard; under which word Hire mentions that bards, Burgundians, Goths, Huns, Finns. Of their own destiny these songs predict that ' they will endure in all lands,' and that, by comparison 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 6, 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 7. We find Odin reappearing in more than one age, a conception probably founded upon that doctrine. The chronicles of the kings" represent Odin aud the Asae 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- era Russia of modern times is called by the scalds9), 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 their appellations from the heavenly mansions of the deities J, and the land was called Manhem, to distinguish it from God- hem, the country of the gods. From Odin and the Asse 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 victory 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' race2. Odin was fair to view, so that he gladdened part of the country about the river Buna was called in his day Cholmgorod by its inhabitants. T. i Niord in Noatun, Heimdal at Himingbiorg, Thor at Thrudwang, Balder at Brejdablik. Upsala, where Frey dwelt, is the only historical name, but it is also applied ge nerally to a temple or palace. 2 In the Narrative of the Burmese War, by Major Snod grass, London, 1827, it is mentioned that a division of the Burmese army, 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, j provoking the enemy by war dances. Some of the hill- I The lives of Niord and Frey. THE FIRST KINGS. TheYnglings: Fiolner, the first king. all hearts when he sat among his friends ; but he appeared terrible to his foes. He was eloquent, sothat 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 ofthe Runes, and the knowledge of divination. For the rest, his human character is pourtrayed not dissimilarly to his mythological ; he is at once god, hero, 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 Asse. 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 (bauta-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 prosper ous year, a second at mid-winter 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 land 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, dispensing 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 grav"e. 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, under which 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 kings3. In Frey's time was peace, when in all lands the years were plenteous. The Swedes looked upon Frey as the author of their felicity4, and tribes living near the 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 gods. 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 bore 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 re 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, the oldest Swedish dynasty was styled 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 purely 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 Frode, 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 5, 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 Frode, 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. Snorro 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 ofa 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 refievot of the Greeks. 4 Frey, called by Saxo Fro, is the Moeso-Gothic Frauja, the Anglo-Saxon Frea, the old German Fro, and means lord. (Frode is another form of the name. The Frode- fied, or peace of Frey, is the golden a^e of Scandinavian mythes. Frode in modern Swedish means fatness or fertility ; frii is seed. T.) 5 The song is quoted in the Skalda, and is called Grot- tasaungr (mill-song). 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 them by the sibyl Huld, queen of the witches of Northland, whose power still dwells in the popular memory 6. Then it was decreed that the line of the Ynglings 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 Yugling dynasty of 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 days' 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 land 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 glen, 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 ruled 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 Agne died ; then flrst was tlie 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 Upsala when he was to enter upon his inheritance after his father. He built a new hall, large and splendid, as for the king's palace 7, and named it tlie 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 8. 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 com- 6 She is called Dame Hylle. 7 Uppsalr is here the name of the palace. Uppsala forms the genitive plural of this word. s Brage-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 drunk with liquor, and then set fire to the king's palace, which was con sumed with themselves and all who were therein9. 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 Tratalja (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 Ynglings. 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 seventeenth 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 mediaeval 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 1. 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 already acknowledged. Hence it is also stated, that the Asse 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 RKnninge, 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 called Ranningeborg. 1 Catal. Reg. ii. Script, rerum Suecic. med. a:vi, t. i. Traditions as to Odin The Asa?. ORIGIN OF THE SWEDES. Their Asiatic extraction. Age of Odin. demi-gods2, aud there were traditions of more than one Odin, nay, of a false Odin, who arrogated to himself the consideration and power of the true 3. That pagans were even found who had little re verence 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 completely 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 sufficient 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 4. 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 Trojan extraction 5. Again, the name As.e is historical in the east. Strabo places an Asia, in the narrower sense, on the eastern side of the Mteotis, 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. s Saxo. 4 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 Asse6. 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 7. 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 temporary witness B. 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 unison 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 9. 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 6 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 Asse (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. s 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. l Geat, quem pagani jamdudum pro deo venerati sunt. Compare Langebek, Script. Rer. Dan. i. 8. 10 Priority of the Goths. Two distinct 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 Christian era2. In our judgment, the Goths who gave their name to the 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 3 ; 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 4_-j..8till higher towards the north was Jotunhemy the abode of wild and wandering tribes. The poets style them Jotuners, giants (jattar), 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)5, 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, thuugh the latter does not hold without some exceptions. The dia lect of the Dalecarlians on the one side, and that of the 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 6. 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 iu 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 the ancient relations between 2 Compare Svea Rikes Hafder, i. 111. 3 Chronica Erici Olai, Decani Upsaliensis. 4 In the historical sagas it is called " Suithiod Sjalf," Suithiod Proper. 5 These outlines are wholly taken from the old heathen poems Hdstlanga and Thorsdrapa. 6 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 mythes 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 delivery 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 Skdld, whence in both the kings of Denmark are termed Skoldingers. 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 8. " 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 earlier times only broken notes of legendary song have reached us, which soon become indis tinguishable amidst the sanguinary confusion ofthe Norman expeditions. These accounts relate chiefly 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'sedition of this Anglo-Saxon poem; Iljowulfs Drape. Et Gotisk Heltedigt fra torrige aartusinde. Copenhagen, 1820. 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 9, the king of which, Radbard, becomes her 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 Asse, 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 wrath called out that Hordr himself was the worst goblin of all, and challenged him to go in quest of the great serpent. Both the old men threw themselves headlong into 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 Swedeland, 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 Denmark and East Gothland. In respect to the war between these kings, the Icelandic fragment on the fight of Bra valla2 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 9 Part of modern Russia, lying over against Gothland. T. i 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-array, and being told in the wedge-like formation 3, cries out, ' I had thought that there were only Odin and myself who understood that.' At length, when vic tory appears to have declared for the foe, he causes his horses to be urged 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 slayer4 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 Ragnar 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 different 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 s Tacitus speaks of this order of battle among the Ger mans ; acies per cuneos disponitur. i " Baneman." 12 The 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 the land of the Vaners. Vaner, like Jotuner, is the mythical appellation of a foreign race which is opposed to the people of Manhem, that 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 eminently5. 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 significaney. 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 (Vanalaiset), 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 Friehia, and the Morlachers at the present day still sing her praises in their nuptial ceremonies 6. 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 Thuisco, who again was born ofthe 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. 7 Comperit eos esse gentis Sueonum. Annales Bertiniani. 8 From wara, veere, pactum. 9 Jordanes de Reb Get. i Id. Suethans is the Swedish name in the old Gothic form, agreeing with Godans, Thiuthans, and from this it is plain that the t 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 be contracted from Sveodan. The name itself then may were Swedes 7. Nestor, the oldest Russian anna list, about the year UOO, 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 the 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 went to the SlavoDS, 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 northern Varingers ; according to the literal meaning of the word, soldiers who serve by agreement or bargain 8, and the name is thus synonymous with fcederati, 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 9. 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 savage2. 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 3. Assuredly, too, the Varangians of be derived from the Icelandic Sveit, or the Anglo-Saxon Sveot, (read, suit,) which means an army, and Suithiod would thus be liierally 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 them 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 Englanders 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, contemporaneously 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 5. 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 6. 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 century7. 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. Tiiis is proved irrefragably, as well by the multi tude of Runic stones in Sweden, erected 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 Scandinavian, 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 Sea8. 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 writers 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 populations9. 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 treated their mythology and their Ynglingasaga. Their allusions, whetherintheearlier or later Scalds, to the 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, TreXvKoQopoi. Compare Stritter, Varangica, Memoriae Po- pulorum, ex Script. Byzant. t. iv. 4 According to both Schlbzer, the critical editor of Nestor, and Karamsin, in the seventeenth century the tradition was still preserved in Novogorod. When there 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 Svenska i Ryssland Tijo ahrs krigs-historie. Stockh. 1671. (History of the Ten Years' War of the Swedes in Russia.) 5 Schldzer maintains, without any ground, that this attack, of which the Byzantines themselves speak under the year 866, -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, iu particular, can be regarded as 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 tbe 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 first 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 mindmg 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 in- of Frankish, that is, generally Germanic race. Stritter Rus- sica, ii. 697. f> Schlbzer's Nestor, 88. 7 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 916 and 968. 14 Fate of Ragnar's 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 Volsungasaga. In proof of the truth of her story, she predicts 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 Osten. 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 in the war, which ends with 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 ; aud in order to augment his own glory by braving dangers, he at tempts a marauding 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 pyre 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 respecting 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 i Svanhild, in Jordanes Sonilda (de Reb. Get. c. 24.) Com pare in the Edda the songs " Godrunar-hvata," and " Ham- dismal en forna," where her death is avenged on king Jor- munrek 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 Foeroiske Quoeder om Sigurd Fofnersbane og bans cet, sam- lede 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, Torfseus 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 2. If we compare the northern saga with the ac counts which foreign chronicles give us of more than one Raonar, 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 ninth 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 3. 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 in 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 cannot 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. 15 Anglo-Saxon immigration of such old date known to history, and must be regarded rather as being of Scandinavian descent. The poems of Ossian at test the presence and wars of the Scandians in Scotland, and Lochlin, the name by which that hard designates their country, is the same under which it is mentioned in the Irish annals 4. 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 5, 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 6 ; in their progress a Frank ish army is encountered and defeated, and they at length arrive in 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 the 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 7 relates that in 881 they ascended the Mosel, and wintered in a fortified camp at a place called Has- low 8, from which they broke up in the following 4 Annals of Ulster, in Johnstone's Antiquitates Celto- NormannicEe. 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-Frison song of the Upper Haslers,' in a Dissertation : De Colonia Sueco- rum in Helvetiam deducta. Upsal. 1828. 6 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). 7 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. 9 Ed. Copenhagen, 1825, i. p. 138. 1 Also called Avenche ; the ancient Aventicum. 2 Ut acquirant sibi spoliando regna, quibus possent vivere pace perpetua. Dudo, in Duchesne. 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 9, the sons of Ragnar Lodbroc took part iu this expedition ; for this must be the same in which, as Ragnar's saga relates, they arrived at Wifiisburg1, 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 2 ; 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 heariug 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 3, and there also recurs the old Swedish federative system. It is plain from legends which still survive among them, as to the manner and order in which they first peopled the land4, that their settlement in it is comparatively new, and it is also known that for a long time they were few in number 5. 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 opiuions 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 Biorn Ironside (a son of Ragnar Lodbroc, and, according to the northern saga, » Swedish king), are also called in extraneous ac counts West Goths, and consequently in part came from Swedish West Gothland 6. 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 highlands.' Miiller, History of Switzerland, i. 419, n. 7. 4 ' The old men of the highland valleys still tel] how in former centuries the people moved from mountain to moun tain, and from valley to valley.' Mulier, i. 421. 'This the old shepherds stated to us in the years 1777 — 1780.' Ibid. n. 15. 5 ' 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.' Mulier, i. 436. ' Tradition says of the Underwalders that they were the last to be Christians.' 'At the end of the ninth century Wigger is mentioned as the apostle of Switzerland.' Ibid. n. 37. c Visigothi. Compare Langebek, Script. Rer. Dan. i. 525. 16 Scania; its produce. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Towns , inhabitants. CHAPTER II. LAND AND PEOPLE FROM THE HEATHEN PERIOD. VIEW OF THE COUNTRY, AND THE PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT. POLITY AND MANNERS. With the ninth century, the light of history rises more bright over the north. In the dawning of this 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 in times of old 2 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, marking the old dwelling-places of its inhabitants, and the shades of the barrows 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 *, 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, i 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 gating and gong; the word lang, both Idng, laung, and long. The old name is Skan-ey, the island of Skane, Sconia insula in Adam of Bremen, since it is surrounded by the sea on three sides. 2 Sconia armata viris, opulenta frugibus, divesque mercibus. Adam. Bremens. de situ Danise. 3 Terra salsuginis et vastae solitudinis. Porro, cura omnes tractus Germania? profundis horreant saltibus, sola Jutland caeteris horridior. 1 c. 4 A Seland in Sconiam 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. Torfasus, Hist. Norv. iii. 3. Helsingbr is without doubt the same Halseiri in Denmark, which is called in the Foereymga Saga, c. i., the greatest market of the north. Halsa 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 2, while the interior of Jut land was still a wilderness3, and Germany was covered with dense forests. In the Sound, of the shortest passage across wliich at Helsingborg we find ancient mention 4, every summer of the ninth century saw the fleet of the Islesmen 5, which drew an ample freight of fish 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 security8, 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 7. 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 8. Halland and Bleking are distinguished as offshoots of Scania 9 , stretching towards Nor way ' 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 3 ; 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 Halsore or Helsingijr, Halsingborg or Helsingborg, as -well as Halsehamn to the north, on the point of the Scanian promontory named Kullen. 5 Eyrarfloti. Egils Saga, Havn. 1809, p. 78, 79. 8 Civitas Lundona, aurum 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. 9 Hallandia et Blekingia ab integritate Sconia?, ceu rami duplices ex unius arboris stipite promeantes. Saxo, Praef. 1 At the time, that is, when Norway extended to the Gbta-elf. Gotelba fluvius a Nordmanms Gothiam separat, says the Scholiast upon Adam of Bremen, de Situ Dan. 60. 2 The Knytlinga Saga speaks of Halland in Scania (Hal land k Skaney). 3 Var land ecki audigt. Egils Saga, p. 246. 4 Knytlinga Saga, c. 28. Southern TOPOGRAPHY, SETTLEMENT, AND CULTURE. 17 Sweden5. 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 possessions7. 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 8. The mountainous district bordering upon Gothland, and considered as forming part of it, was anciently called Smaland (small land) 9. Eastern Smaland stretched 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 3, and afterwards as a place of trade. The middle and southern portion of Smaland was called Verend ; it was girt round by the densest forests, but a fruitful country, abounding in game and streams peopled with fish, swarming with bees and honey, adorned with rich fields and meadows4. Western Smaland, towards the borders of Halland, was long called the Finn waste, the Finn weald, the Finn moor, and also Finland5. This Finn wold appears in old times to have stretched for a great distance, and to have embraced those wide forests separating West-Gothland from the present Bohus-lan, and covering Dalsland, 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 G had been the Go'ta from the sea to Lake Vener ; then the Marks 7 to the forest of Eda ; and lastly, the Kolen mountains. Yet the boundary was disputed, and it could not be otherwise, when the wilderness 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 mountaius, gave little heed to these pretensions. The people of the Mark country, who had come from West- Gothland, 5 Travels of Ottar and Ulfsten, where it is called Bleking's Island, Blecinga-ey. 6 Barhari qui Pleichani dicuntur. Ad Brem. 1. c. 7 Travels of Ottar and Ulfsten (or Other and Wulfstan). 8 Words of Adam of Bremen, 1. c. " Per ardua montium, per abrupta petrarum, per condensa silvarum," says the le gend of St. Sigfrid, speaking of the same way. Historia S. Sigfridi. E. Benzelius, Monumenta Hist. vet. ecclesiae Su. Upsal. 1709, p. 4. 9 The plural ending Smalbnd, (pronounce Smaulbnd, as the Smalanders still do), was formerly usual. i 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. 4 Historia S. Sigfridi (written about 1205). Benzelii Monumenta, 4. 5 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 8, or Elfwar-fylke 9 (river-district;, Alfhem 1 and Wiken 2. The' wick and elf-men 3 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 Trollhsetta, 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 Gbta, 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 other 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, which 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 4, which had its name from the frequent conferences of kings held there, or even higher, to old Lbdose 5. The wick-men drew their supplies of corn and malt from abroad6; here were vended Bait, her rings, and wadmal or home-woven woollen cloth 7, 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 8, and Skara, probably a place of sacrifice in the heathen time 9, North Mark in Vermeland, where the wood of Eda now begins. 8 This name applied to the country from the Gota-elf to Swinesund. Heimsk. Olof Tryggwason's Saga, c. 130. 9 Elf, river, whence the name of the German Elbe. Also elf, or goblin. T. 1 This embraced all the land between the Raum-elf and the Gota-elf. Hervara Saga, c. 1. 3 The whole country about Opslo Bay, in Norway, and thence to the Gbta, was formerly called so. 3 The inhabitants are styled, Wikwerir, Wikweriar. Heims. 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. 4 Now Kongelf. 5 Lying in Aleharad on the West-Gothic side. " To the trading town at Liodhusum is foor days by the river." Rim- - begla. Both Konghall and Lbdose are mentioned in the tenth century. Nials Saga, c. 3, 83. 8 Eigils Saga, c. 81. 7 The Icelander Rut, the favourite of the Norwegian queen Gunnhild, who was called Mother of Kings, sent to her at Konghall 100 ells of wadmal in 961. Nials Saga, c. 3. 8 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 (Findar maritimo genitus sinu), Bersi, born in Falkoping(apud Falu oppidum creatus). 9 The trading town at Skdrum or Skaurum (Saga of St. Olave, c. 70, 96) is mentioned early in the eleventh century. C 18 The'lr condition HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. in early times. were trading stations in inner West-Gothland, 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 long1, 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 in 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 granted to his prayer was sometimes paid for with his life. In the midst of the wood was a safety-house (s'alohus) 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 eud 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 populousness 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 interconrse 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 important event, it is silent on the condition 1 See the Account of the journey made by the West Goth Audgils, in company with Haltfred 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 Torfaeus, Hist. Norv. ii. 476. 9 Such a 6afety-lodge, roomy enough to afford 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 he able to warm and dry themselves without delay. Olof Tryggwason'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 fhe hilly wood, from the old word hoi, hill, which the Dalecarlians still use in this sense. 4 Kolmirkr, Myrkwidr, the black or mirk wood. See the Fragment on the Fight of Brawalla, s. 120. The name now used is Kolmarden, which is found in the law-book of West Gothland. 5 Rimbegla, p. 332. A rast is a length of road equal to of the country. The oldest East-Gothic 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 3. 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 Kolmbrker forest4, 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, king 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 V 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 iu former times the great forest was ordinarily traversed by its eastern border on the coast, where the road from Norrkoeping to Stockholm now runs. 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 7. As, according to the accounts, such a journey was performed partly in boats, and great wastes which intervened had to be crossed8, 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 (Ekogsmil), about half a Swedish mile (three English miles). 8 Broocman, Beskrifning ofwer Ostergotland, p. 176. The intrenchment to be seen on a hill in the parish of Hammar, Nerike, as old persons relate, was erected as a defence against the attacks of the East Goths. (Palraskbld 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 portum regni ipsorum qui Byrca dicitur pervenerunt. Vita S. Ansgarii, 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. TOPOGRAPHY, SETTLEMENT, AND CULTURE. 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 Kaglan 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 2 ; when Sudermauia, varied with so manifold beauty of bay, lake, hill and dale, was Uttle else than a group of islets, the chief seat of the sea-kings 3 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 north4, reckons it as belonging to East-Gothland, thus ex tending Gothland to Lake Mselar. As a people anciently of several different stocks, congregated in a border-land on the sea, the Sudermanians show few est provincial pecnliarities. Yet the settlement of their country is old, as is evinced by the abundance of memorials remaining from the times of heathenism. Nerike 5 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 Yngling line 6. Through Nerike, by lake Hielmar, and the place where Oerebro, formerly Oeresund 7, now lies, Sigurd Ring marched over the Kolmard to the fight of Bravalla. On the west, Suithiod Proper was encompassed by old Gothland, which stretched 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 Mariefcd, 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. ¦> A district of this character, still too marshy for cultiva tion, traverses great part of the province. 8 Before Olave Haraldson entered Lake Mailar with his ships, he had to fight with the Vikings of Sodermanland. At Sotaskiir (Sota 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 Sodermanland 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 Nykceping 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. . 4 Adam of Bremen. He derived much of his materials from the relations of the Danish King Sueno Ulfson (mag- nammateriamhujus libelli ex ejus ore collegi. .H.st.Eec p. 48), who passed several years of his youth in military service in Sweden. Ib. 31. north. Vermeland, where Olave the Treefeller (Tiat'alja) when the hate of the Swedes had driven him from his refuge in Nerike, first laid the axe 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 Vermeland was a debateable territory between the Swedes and Norwegians 8, 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 9. Between the dales were forests and mountains ; the whole of eastern Vermeland 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 2. 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, aud 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 islands, 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 wilderness3 ; 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 Gothland4. Swede- 5 Explained as Nederrike, the nether realm. T. o It is related in the Ynglingasaga, c. 39, that King Braut Anund with his train, visitinghis manors in time of harvest, was killed by a land-slip between two precipices, at the place called Himmelshed (Himminheidur, heaven's heath). An old Swedish catalogue of kings states that Brattomund was slain by his brother Sigward at a place called Himmelshed in Nerike (in Nericia— loci vocabulum interpretatur cceli campus. Cat. Reg. ii. Script. Rer. Suec. s. i.); and the Lesser Rhyme-Chronicle gives the same account, but calls the place Hbgahed. 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 Brbten (from braut, 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. 9 Inter Normanniam et Svioniam Vermelani. Ad. Brem. 1. c. 61. 9 Ynglingasaga, c. 46. (Among these streams is the Verm, whence the name of the territory. T.) i 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. 543. Saxo relates another, 1. vii. 140. 3 Ad. Brem. de situ Dan. 61. « Land's Law of king Christopher, K. B. c. 1. Sverike, c2 20 Described by 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 Sweden 5. In the latter ac ceptation, which is undoubtedly derived from the former, Gothland is included, and with it Bleking. 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 iu 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 the east, in equal extension with the cultivated land, lay rocky mountainous wastes of varying breadth 8, 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 7. 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. Respeeting these the Christian- minded king of the Danes 8 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 found, during twelve years 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 borders 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.) 6 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 Mxlar, 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 Sigtuna 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, only 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 ca^ed 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. 9 Supra eam (Sconiam) tenso limite Gothi habitant usque ad Bircam, postea longis terrarum spatiis regnant Sueones usque ad terram fceminarum. Ad. Brem. That the terra fceminarum 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. i 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. 46) 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. 2 Ynglingasaga, u. 5. Folklands. TOPOGRAPHY, SETTLEMENT, AND CULTURE. Upland. 21 him higher reverence than the other deities. From this point cultivation was extended over regions which formerly lay waste, and from the oldest Suithiod, also called Manhem, arose the Folklands (Folklanden) 3, 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, comprehended Tiunda, Attunda, 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- lands4. 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 never 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 Drontheim in Norway was also divided into Fylkes called Folklands ; both words indeed mean the same. (Olof Try- gywason's saga, ed. Skalh). 4 Hence, the law book of Westmanland speaks of the ting or court of the Folklands, Manhelgs, B. civ., and ofa survey of the Folklands, B. B. L. li. 5 In the Registrum Upsaliense; 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. 6 It holds this place in the Registrum Upsaliense. 7 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 tbe fourteenth century5, with the nature of the country and with earlier 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 6, 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 8, 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 9. 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 the one side through the present parishes of Skefthammar 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 limits, 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-land) is the opposite of Arland, and the meaning is still preserved in the adjective olandig, incapable of tillage. The country people use both landig and olandig to mark the quality of the soil. 8 In the Register of Upsala, both Arland, and the Hun dred of the Arlennings, or Arlanders. » Olanda-mor, in the Register of Upsala, properly answers to the parish of Morkarla in the Hundred of Oland. The forest went through Danemora and Tegelsmora, as the names, and through Lb'fsta and Hallnas, as the situations evidence. M 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 cattle-stalls stand. 22 Westmanland. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Lake Mselar. they afterwards became 1. Above the northern fron tier, the productive territory of Upland stretched, not in a due northerly direction, where 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 common-wood (Almiin- nings-skog), which separated Tiundaland from Gestricland. In this manner the coast too was gradually occupied. A roaming life, the parsimony of nature, and the piracy of the Finlauders, 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 (Ssehundari) 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 -cantonments2. The islets south of lake Malar appear to have been formerly in cluded under it ; Toren, now Sb'dertb'rn, mentioned in the Ynglingasaga, and by the scald Thiodolf 3, 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 4, and embraced old Westmanland as far as Westeras5. Beyond, to the end of lake Malar and the forest of Kaglan, all that part of West manland which was cleared and brought into culti vation was called and formed 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 in 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- i 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 Agne's death, c. 22. With the origin of the name I am not acquainted. 4 Siuhunda, a name preserved in the district of Siunda or Siende. 5 Western Aros. Aros 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, wliich thence received its name. 6 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 7. Thus did the ancient inhabitants of Sweden es tablish themselves on both sides of the M.elar. This spacious and noble lake, branching 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 8 ; its interior is stud ded continuously with island groups, presenting several good harbours, of which Birca was formerly the best known. This, we are told, was a town lying iu the centre of Sweden, not far from the tem ple of Upsala, 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 themselves and the enemy ; yet here was the safest haven in the Swedish rocks, and the ships of the Danes, Norsemen, Slavons, and Semhers, as well as of other people of Scythia, used to assemble here to a staple, and barter their wares 9. From Scania to Sigtuna or Birca was five days' sail •. Lastly, it is expressly said, that Birca was situated near Sigtuna 2, and from thence to Upsala was only one day's journey 3. This description is not suitable to the little island BiorkB, in the Malar, where, from the resemblance of names, om' antiquarians have wished to find manifest traces ofthe old town, although the author from 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 4. They call it the 7 The parish of Enaker, stretching to the Dal-elf, is an exception. 8 Saga of St. Olave, u. 6. 9 Birca est oppidum Gothorum, in medio Sueoniee posi- tum, non longe ab 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. l A Sconia Danorum navigantibus ad Bircam quinque dierum habes 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 Bircam, juxta enim sunt. Ad. Brem. 1. c. 62. 3 Sictona civitas distat ab Ubsola itinere unius diei. Ibid. 4 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 ; in 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' 5. 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 6, though writing in Latin, was probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon form of a northern word 7 of similar meaning. Here there was not only vicinity 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 8. 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 waters cultivation existed since pagan days, as the historical Sagas inform us, and in part even 5 Borgstad. 8 Adam of Bremen, and Helmold, who in his Chronicon Slavorum, 100 years later, copies the former in reference to Birca. 7 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 Styrbiom in 983. (Svea Rikes Hiifder, 1, 204, 206.) At least 47 years before, Birca was still in existence, for Unni, arch bishop of Bremen, died there in 936. Ad. Brem. Hist. Ecc. i. 51. If the town had been destroyed in the interval (this probably happened in the next century), it could not have been yet forgotten. earlier, as always where sepulchral mounds are seen 9. Here likewise is the Jernbaraland (iron- bearing land) of the heathens, and the present Eastern Mine-Canton •, the oldest of the Swedish mining districts, in so far as the term is applicable to days so remote. Jernbaraland 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 Kopparberg, Falun, Sundborn, and Svardsib'. 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 2 marched with a band of robbers, who chose him for their captain, through the twelve-mile wood (tolfmila skog) 3 to Eke's hundred in Vermeland4; 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 5. Thence the road lay over a country of incredible difficulty, at the break ing up of the ice, through fifteen rasts of wood and wilderness, 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 during 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, saying they were not used to such kingly progresses, 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. i Osterbergslagen. (Forsomefurtheraccountof Dalecarlia, see note B. at the end. T.) 2 Sverre's Saga, c. 12. 3 It is still so called, as the frontier forest towards Dale carlia is called the ten-mile wood. (The Swedish mile is somewhat more than six and a half English, Trass.) 4 Eikis Herat. So the Copenhagen edition. 8 Molungr. The name is supposed to have been given from the snaring of the marten, which is here called moi. The inhabitants still subsist by the preparation of skins. 24 HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Gestricland. Sweden's southern region was inhabited by Goths as far back as our information reaches ; of the occupancy of the middle division by the Swedes an account, half mythical, half historical, 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 6 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 Naumdale 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 7. This addiction to trade is noted as cha racteristic of the first Norrlanders ; 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 8 Quas regiones fluvius Elf distinguit a Suecia. Ericus Olai. 7 Saga of Haco (Adalsten's fosterson), c. 14. 8 Merkisman. 9 Schbning, Norges' Hist. 1. 435. i Hiilphers, 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 which hoards of silver are said to have been found. Only two barrows are mentioned by Hiilphers in Jemteland, and a single Runic stone upon the isle of Frbsoe, in memory of Ostmader, son of Gudfast, who is related to have introduced Christianity here. 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 Helsing-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 ofthe 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 communitatis Gestrikije.' 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 8 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 with a silver-mounted drinking-horn, that the hom 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 Herjedale9.' 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. Two sons of Heriulf are mentioned as under-kings in Norway, and one of his grandsons was among the first colonists of Iceland. Elk hunting2 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 Helsingland3, and generally the original population 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 Storsio4, 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, formerly so large, that although in the fourteenth century a new parish had been formed within its bounds5, bore au axe, a tree, a bow and an arrow, with the words, ' Sigillum Communitatis Terras Dalecarlorum.' This waB lost in Finland, in the time of Steno Sture the elder, when that leader was encamped there with the Dalecarlians 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 burn ing mountains of Westmanland to its mines, and the goat of Helsingland to the cattle-rearing of this province. 3 Saga of Haco the Good, c. 14. 4 Not to be confounded with the Storsio (great lake) of Jemteland. 5 The Forest (Skog) 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, which 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 Gustavus Vasa addressed the Helsingers), Mound of the North path 7. 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 Helsingers) 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 9 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-elf1. The herring and sprat (stroming) fisheries upon this coast are as old as the name of the parish of Silanger 2. Employment was furnished to the An- germanners (men of the creeks or rocks) by the salmon fisheries3 among the clusters of islets formed by the Angerman river, the largest in Scandinavia, at its mouth, where Hernbsand 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 learned 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 (hemman) 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 mor, wood, which is found in the Pame Kolmord, Odmord (waste wood). ' Sunnanstigshogen, hogen i Sundheden, hogen i nord- stigen. 8 Helsing, from helsi (collar), is the name of a sort of wild duck or goose with a ring round the neck. 3 Medelpad, in the country itself, is pronounced Melpa, which appears only a careless utterance of Midelfva. Midelfvaland is the landbetween the rivers. Two streams are shown on the armorial bearings of the province. 1 In Southern Medelpad many barrows and Runic stones are to he 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 in 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 5. 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 6, now Skelleft river. Above this limit stretched the wastes of Lappmark, though the trading peasants (Bircarls 7 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 8, 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-trade9, 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 Angerman land. (Sill, herring.) 3 Angermanland has three salmon in its arms. 4 In the parish of Umea, and hamlet of Klabbble, there are said to be barrows, which some think of natural formation. 8 So the names of the Ume, Lule, Pite, Raune, Kalix, and Torne streams. In the Lappic, Ubme-ano (from wuome, 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 S wedish. The river is called by the Lapps Torne-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. 7 An account of the Bircarls is given in Scheffer's History of Lapland, p. 63. Oxford, 1674. T. s Kblarna. Saga of Egil, c. 14. 9 Finn-skatt, Finn-fard, Finn-kbp. i Narrative of the Travels of Ottar and Ulfsten. 26 Voyage of Ottar. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Fennic tribes. quote a passage containing a description of a voyage from Halogaland to the North Cape and the mouth 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 the land stretched much farther towards the north ; that here all was a waste : only the Finns 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 wind, 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 whole country appeared to be cultivated, and this was the first inhabited land 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 Biarmers, 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 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 gull of Bothnia, his manner of life, pursuits, and the rela tions in which he stood to the Lapps. The kings of Norway, since the time of Harald the Fair-haired, claimed exclusively the produce of the tributes and trade of Finnmark, and were able to maintain this claim along the coast 2. The Biarmers were a Fen nic people, and, it would appear, 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 heaver, 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 buried, 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 forefathers 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 with 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 in company to Upper Finnmark, en countered and beat the Carelians in the mountains, and won a very rich spoil. Thereupon Thorolf returned to Quenland, crossed the Kolen moun- J Butter and pork were in great demand iu Finnmark. TOPOGRAPHY, SETTLEMENT, AND CULTURE. 27 ta,ins, aud 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 Quens were once spread, is shown by the cir cumstance that the whole North Sea was once called the Quen sea, and all Finland, Quenland 3, though the latter name has also a narrower ap plication. We find it mentioned as lying between Helsingland and Finland 4, 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 Finnmark5; 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 Esthonians (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 6, 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 Prussia7. The old sagas represent in tercourse between the Swedes and Esthonians 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. 4 Egil's Saga, c. 14. ' The coast of Russian Lapland was formerly called Kare- lastrand, also Tre and Tre-nase, whence the name of Trefinns or Terfinns. 8 In the ninth century Estland still stretched to the Vis tula. Travels of Ottar and Ulfsten. 7 Thunmann (Untersuch., &c), Inquiry into the ancient History of some Northern Peoples, p. 1 8—20. " We find still both in Kurland and Semgallen, considerable remains of these old Finnish inhabitants." 8 Permisti Estonibus Chori. Saxo, xiv. p. 329. ' Compare Porthan, Paul. Just. Chron 49—50. i First spoken of under this name in the bull of 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 hard to explain. It is, perhaps, a translation of Hame, the indigenous name of Tavastland, from Ham, in the Esthonian 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 Esthonians and Tavasters are met with in Sodermanland, for instance Esta-skar, Esta-klippa (Est- domination, the Esthonians, leagued with the cog nate tribes ofthe Kurians8 and Carelians9, 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 agriculture 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 3. 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 Jamer, wliich is the Russian pronunciation of their own Hame. 2 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 4. Ssum in old Russian, is the same word, and is likewise applied to both Finns and Lapps 5. The Fenni 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 Fennic tribes G, marking the nature of their original dwell ing places, and applicable to them in 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 Fennic 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 Finns 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 their 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 4 Fenn in old Swedish. Compare Ancient History of Sweden, 415. 5 Lehrberg (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 own. This is nearly the result of the views advanced by Lehrberg, 1. c. p. 210—212. 6 Suomi, of which the Lappic Same is only a varied pro nunciation, is an abbreviation of Suomenmaa, and this again or Suomiehenmaa ; closely translated, the land of the marsh- dwellers, from suo, marsh, mies, gen. miehan, man, and maa, land. Runs, Finland and its Inhabitants ; augmented by A. J. Arwidson. Stockholm, 1827, ii. 1. Hence the Finns of Finland call themselves Suomalaiset ; the Esthonians, So- melassed; the Lapps, Sabmelads. The same idea lies in Kainulaiset, from kaino, low, as the Finns of Kajana, and Hamelaiset, as the Tavasters style themselves. Karjalaiset, the indigenous name of the Carelians, comes 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 1663. Abo Transactions, 1777, p. 127. 8 Wablenberg on Kemi Lappmark, 25. 8 From the Fennic loppu, finis, extremita6. Tornaeus, Scheffer, and also Lehrberg look upon this derivation as probable. In the Lappic, lapp, lappa means a cleft or cavity other hand that both belong to the same stock. A singular mixture of selfishness, mistrust, and childish feeling characterizes the Lapp ; a decided and energetic temperament, with a wariness that is often sullen, the Finn. " The man by his tongue, and the ox by his hom," says the Finnish pro 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 offer 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 Quens 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 Lappic 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 Laplanders7. Fisher Lapps as they are called, often of Finnish extrac tion, are still found in Kemi Lappmark 8. Lapps are first heard of within the limits of Scandinavia in the twelfth century ; this appellation 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 word9 , 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 tradition2. In Northern 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 1230, 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 Ingermanland), all of them unquestionably Finns, and must have been situated in their vicinity. Itt 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 Wildman-strand) ; and in the Swedish parishes Lapptrask (Lapp marsh), Lappfiard (Lapp firth), Lappwik (Lapp bay), Lappdal (Lapp dale), &c. From Tavastland upwards, their remains and memorials are nu merous. * This tradition, among the Swedish Lapplanders, has a two-fold reference. They speak partly of an expulsion from Finland (Scheffer, TornEeus), partly of one from Sweden (Hogstrom). 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 houses, but the Lapps under the bare sky. See Note C. Vestiges TOPOGRAPHY, SETTLEMENT, AND CULTURE. 2!) 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 3," 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 iii 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 Norrland shew themselves, at first par taking, afterwards levying tribute upon the pro duce of their hunts, herds, and fisheries, but from the beginning distinguished by fixed dwelling- places, husbandry, 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 him6. 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 in the same condition as of old. In the eleventh century we find a Swedish prince going to dis possess the Quens6, and in the same age Hel singland was still called the main seat of the Skridfinns 7. They roamed over wide tracts of wilderness into the forests of Vermeland 8, and were probably the same with those Lapps, of whom memorials and traces are still to be found in Dalecarlia9. 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 Mstory. The isles of Aland and Quarken have 3 Ancient History of Sweden, 463, n. 4. 4 Fundin Noregur. 1 A Swede generally is styled in the Lappic tongue Ladde- \ lats, which, both by application and derivation means land- i dweller; also Taro, tarolats, tradesman, from tarrohet, taret, to sell. (Tariff? Tarf, Swed., requirement, want.) ii 8 Scholiast to Adam of Bremen, de sit. Dan. p. 78, in 3 Lindenbrog, Script. Septentr. p. 59. Quenland is here, by ,; the same misapprehension as in Adam, styled Terra fcemi- - narum. ib 7 Quorum (scil. Scritefingorum) caput Helsingalaiad. Adam. is Brem. That the Swedes had already begun to settle upon u the coasts, is attested both by Adam and Sturleson ; for his s expression as to the Suiones, " longis terrarum spatiis reg- "ci nant," that is, far above Birca, would be unsuitable, if they „ had not already before his time crossed the Dal river, and # begun the colonization of Norrland. ,, 8 Vermilani cum Scriteflngis. Adam. Brem. "'¦t * At the cattle-stalls of Finnbo, near Lake Hinsen, in the f j parishes of Svardsib' and Sundborn, there are graves of small jsize overgrown with grass, which the inhabitants call Lapp- s;graves.*; ¦ Among the islands of Quarken, which even on the Fin nish side have most of them Swedish names, though with " some Fennic among them, the so-called Lapp-oren (Lapp ic ,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 LappS. !' « 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, '"Lappbole, Koskinpa, Jomala; Finnstrom, Finnby, Finno, ""Finnbo, Finholm. Compare Radloff (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 ancient2. From these islands they arrived in Roslagen, and Northern Upland, to many places in which they have given names3, 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 4. 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 Sweden 5. 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 6 ; an old Finnish Rune sings of the birth of iron 7. In the Fennic tongue every handicraftsman is called a smith 8, 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 Suithiod8, 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, aud 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 Hafverb the so-called Lapp-pits. 4 Ruotzi or Ruotzimaa, Sweden ; Ruotzilainen, a Swede. Among the Lapps, who adopted these appellations, Ruothi and Ruotteladz. 5 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. 6 For marsh-ore (myrmalm), which our ancestors called grasjern, the Finns have a native appellation, holn/a. 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. 7 Rautan synty. Compare Schroter, 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 tell its origin. 8 Seppa. s Compare Vblundar Quida in the elder Edda. y,o 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 2. 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 3 and Nor way 4, 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 5, after whom the Finn heaths or wolds of Smaland were already named in the sixth century 6. Old Sweden had thus its Finn woods, like that of modern days. In these he Lapps retained their stations, and the Finns also partially occupied them, until, surrounded and ' Of 11,433 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 ; l^uningas (konung, king), tuomari (domare, judge), valtakunta (valde, power), ruthinas (drott), esivalta (authority), sakko (sak, bbter, plea, fine), kaupungi (koping, 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. 8 Compare Ancient History of Sweden, 419, n. 9. 4 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. 8 In Adam of Bremen, Finnvedi. Compare above. In Kind's Hundred of West-Gothland, one parish still bears the name of Finne-kumla. 8 Finnaithse, 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. The Swedes were always and from of old peculiarly the cultivators of the soil, and with their 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 Charles 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 7 that the mountaiuous 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 places, and spread devastation over the levels, unless vigorously opposed, retreating with equal haste. These remnants of Fennic races are demonstrably the Jotuners or Jottms of the heathen Scalds 8 and of Snorro Sturleson 9 ; and probably also the Huns of later popular 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 Swedish 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 Fenuic 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 haec se vidisse testantur. Ad. Brem. Hist. Eccles. c. 232. 8 Thor is called by the heathen Scalds the " overthrow of the altars of the Fornjotic 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 ofthe 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. Man; 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 ; Heimski. Saga of St. Olave, c. 59. This is manifestly the same boundary line given in the Fundin Noregur (in Bioraer, p. 6), where it is said that Norway is the name of the whole country from Jotunheim southwards to Alf heim. Jotunheim 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 I of Manheim or Suithiod, originaUy bounded the latter o« j\ 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 mentionedin connexion with Gestricland, although this Hunaland, M Jotunheim, was removed higher to the north. The Huns of the popular legends mean heathens or barbarians generall* i Saga of St. Olave, c. 96. Social life ANCIENT POLITY AND MANNERS. in heathen times. 31 was enforced 2, and mere participation therein im ported peace between the rival races 8. Under the shield of peace the sacrifice with the attendant banquet was prepared; deliberations were held, sentence passed, and traffic conducted, for which reason Ting, the old name of these conventions, means both sacrifice, banquet, diet, assize, and fair 4. 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 5. 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 6. The father of a family, on the pillars surrounding whose high seat were carved the images of the gods 7, 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 Adalkona8, 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 bring 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 symbolical expression for contract gene rally), was the legal form of matrimony, and made the children legitimately born (lagfodda). 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 1 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. 1 Ynglingasaga, c. 42. ' 4 Hence the word "ting " still occurs in the names of j several fairs. 5 Thiodolf, in the Ynglingasaga, c. 24. ! 8 Compare Hallenberg (Anm&rkningar, &c), Remarks on ; Lagerbring's Swedish History, ii. 2S5. 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. 1 7 Eyrbyggia Saga, c. 4. 8 More frequently there was only one, but there are ex amples of kings, as Harald the Fair-haired, having several i wives. i 8 Medh mundok medh mseli. Law of West-Gothland, I 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' 9, or was, as in Homer, bought with presents '. The gods took to themselves wives after the same fashion 2. Thor's hammer, laid upon the knee of the veiled bride, inaugurated her into her new destiny 3, as the same sign consecrated the funeral pile on which the dead were burned 4. The god's mace is probably symbolized also by the wedge- shaped pebbles, so often met with in old graves, and called by the 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 5, as the sacrifices were for the most part offered at the barrows 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 fl," and among the common people of Sweden a saying 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 vengeance for bloodshed the holiest of duties 7, 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 8." Three such cliffs in West-Gothland and Bleking still bear the latter name 9, and to another 1 Mundi-keypt. 2 Frey's consort was gulli-keypt, gold-bought, .ffigisdr. 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. 4 Thor consecrates with his hammer the funeral pile of Balder. 5 On the Hbga-ting see Heimskr., Saga of Harald Gylle, c. 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. 7 The heritage could not be taken possession of, or the funeral-feast held, before the slain man was avenged. Vatns- dgela Saga, c. 23. 8 iEtte-stupor. Compare GOtrek'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 Scythians2. 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 3. The joys of Valhalla were reserved for the free- bom, and especially tjie 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 4 ; " 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 5. 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 Swedes0, and Suithiod means the army-folk. The great Ting of Upsala was called Allsh'drjarting, 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 Harads, words which have the same meaning 7 ; a like arrangement is mentioned by Tacitus among the Germans 8. 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 aa 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. i See the account of the rock Stafva Hall in Lindskog, Description of the diocese of Skara, iv. 106. ' Plin. Hist. Nat.iv.12. Pompon. MeladeSitu Orbis, iii. 5. 3 Such a club (called aette-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 Trullerum, in the parish of Norra Vi, Hundred of Ydre, in East-Gothland. 4 Gotrek's and Rolfs Saga, c. 2. (Valhalla is hall of the chosen or wale. T.) 5 Harbardslibd in the elder Edda, str. 32. 8 Saga of St. Olave, c. 96. 1 Harwas a term for a number of at least ahundred. 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 thiod, 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 in 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-board 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 him9, the hundred was fanned; 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 gods1; 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 stones2. The old title of this functionary was Herse 3 ; a higher office was that of Jarl. Both bore the title originally attached to princely rank4, and were hence also called kings of the hundred. Conjointly they formed a kind of nobiUty; for Konung denotes in our old language a man of birth 5. 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 northero heathens who ravaged England was taken upon the holy ring. 2 Iliad xviii. 504. The old Domare-ringar, or doomsten' rings, so often met with in Sweden, and the expression of the old laws, ' to come to tin£ and ring' (Law of Westman land, Manh. B. f. 75.) are evidences of this custom. (See Note E.) The inner ring was surrounded by an outer oneof hazel stangs, bound together with willow rods, called vebond, 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 hiifding, and harads ting of the text are now the judge and court of a district. T.) 3 So for example in the Landnama Saga, one Gonn is mentioned, married to Thora, daughter of king Eric of Up sala, as a powerful Swedish Herse. 4 The Tignar-name, or title of dignity. Kings of tie harad or fylke (district, explained by some to be the same word as folk). ' Konr means a man of birth ; Konung, his son. (Hence by abbreviation also kong or kung. T.) Free and unfree. ANCIENT POLITY AND MANNERS. Houses ; occupations. 33 of champions and warriors ; they were called host- kings, sea-kings, and were 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 arbitrary 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 7. 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 Tunne, treasurer of king Aun the Aged in Sweden, powerful enough to rise agamst 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 8. 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 9. Rye and bar ley-fields are spoken of in 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, ofthe brewing of beer and mead, and the baking of bread. Malt and but ter formed part of the tributes paid to the king at Christmas1 ; to eat raw flesh was held «, mark of 8 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.) 8 Heimskr. Saga of St. Olave, e. 123. 9 Ad. Brem. l 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 hammer-sign3. 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 iu 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 lung and queen sat on the chair of state in the midmost place of the bench which was turned towards the sun. On the bench overagainst them was placed the prin cipal guest4; 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 5. Knitting and weaving were as usual the occu pations of the female sex. Brynhild wove in gold the famous exploits of Sigurd 8. Ragnar Lodbsoc's standard, with the figure of a raven, to which honours almost divine were paid by the northern pagans, was wrought by his daughters7. 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, who were not entire strangers even to the fatigues of war. The shield- maiden (skblde-mb) 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 copper, 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 8 ; 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 countries9. 2 Compare Orvar Odd's Saga. 3 Heimskr. Saga of Haco the Good, c. 16, 17. 4 Gunnlaug Ormstungas Saga. Copen. 1778, =. 138. 8 Ynglingasaga, c. 41. 8 Songs of Sigurd and Brynhild in the elder Edda. ? Asserus, Vita Alfredi. p Ad. Brem. o Quia hie minus pauperes inveniuntur. Vita Anscharii, c. 17. 34 Fruits and relics HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. of Paganism. t A. D. I 826. The manners of the people were martial and sim ple, but through piracy and the traffic in men, which 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 horrid cruelties of the expeditions of the Northmen and their out rages upon women prove 1. Human sacrifices were not seldom the prelude of such an enterprize2; 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 Christian 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 3. 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 heard ; and the miser who hoards treasure is said to be serving Odin. When unknown noises are heard in the night, as of horses and waggons, Odin, it is said, passes by4. 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 reaping to leave a sheaf behind them in the field for Odin's steeds 5. 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 6. The thunder is termed by the Swedes Thor's din 7 ; 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 Balder's eye-brow 8, is still called in Scania Balder's brow 8. CHAPTER III. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. CONTESTS OF THE SWEDES AND GOTHS FOR SUPREMACY. CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. EXTINCTION OF THE OLD DYNASTY OF UPSALA. STEXKIL AND HIS HOUSE. SWERKER, ST. ERIC, AND THE PRINCES OF THEIR FAMILIES, a. d. 800— 12S0. 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 faith, 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. In 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 recent foundation of the same name in Westphalia. 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 this 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 i Compare Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, in Langebek, S. R. Dan. ii., with the accounts of the manners of the Russian Varagians in Karamsin. 2 Dudo in Duchesne, Script. Norman. 3 Ad. Brem. 4 Loccenius, Antiquit. Sueo-Goth. 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 tlieir cost ; for on their return they were exposed to repeated attacks from 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 laud. 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. 8 See Topographica on Smaland, in the Palmskbld manu script collections in the Library of Upsala. 7 Thordbn. 8 Daemisaga, 22. i Baldersbra. Anthemis Cotula. Svensk Botanik, 429. 1 Chronologia Anschariana, in Langebek, i. 496. } Mission of Anskar. INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. His character. 35 sometimes in a boat over great lakes, which the narrative likens 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 Mselar lake, where rich merchants resided. Here he was wel comed by king Biorn, 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 Anskar, who accompanied him in this journey 2, " that all public affairs hinge more upon the concordant will of the people than upon the power of the sovereign3". 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 cousulted respecting 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 effect : " Hear me, king and people. Of this God it is not 2 Compare Vita Anscharii, c. 24, and Vita Remberti, c. 9. 3 Sic quippe apud eos men's est, ut quodcunque negotium publicum magis in populi unanima voluntate, quam in regia consistat potestate. 4 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 4. 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 concurrence, yet with the con dition that iu 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 continued, 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 s. 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 Elbe6, he abolished the shameful traffic in men, with wdiich 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 7, and in 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 m 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 sons 8. This is the same Olave of whom by pope Sergius in 696, and received the castle of Utrecht for his archiepiscopal seat from Charles Martel. See Lingard, History and Antiquitiesof the Anglo-Saxon Church, c. xiv. T.) * Vita Anscharii, ... 30. G The Nordelbingers. 7 Vita Anscharii, c. 16, 17. » Ad. Brem. Hist. Eccles. i. c. 51, 40. d2 •60 Scandinavian enterprises. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Eric the Victorious. c a. v. I 885—983. the life of Anskar relates, that he undertook an ex pedition against the Curians who had 'thrown off the Swedish yoke, and reduced their country again to pay tribute. Within this period also fall the conquests of the Swedish 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 9. These statements coincide with Nestor's account of the foundation of Varan gian rule among 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 „¦ 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, originally resting on their sacerdotal character, now appears more firmly established over both Swedes and Goths, for the powerful Eric Edmund- son is mentioned as the undisputed sovereign of both nations. Harald tli6 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 himself 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 throne 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 his narrative to Swedish ground, 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 Edmundson will full in 885. 8 Skaltlander, 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 former 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 heirs to the throne, or both he and his sons belong to the class 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 Styrbib'rn the Strong. When the young 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 inheritance. Eric promised that upon attaining his sixteenth year, he should have pos session of that part of the lungdom 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 remiuds us of the West Indian buccaneers ofthe 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 foUowers 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 Hate's Firth, see Torfaus, Hist. Norv. ii. 97. 2 Thattr om Styrbjorn, in Mailer's Sagabibliothek. Olave, dis sun, + a i>. 1024. THE SECOND DYNASTY CONTINUED. League against Norway. 37 The battle of Fyrisvall was fought iu 983. The share which the Danish king Harald Gormson, although against his own will, had taken in the contest, afterwards produced a war between Swe den and Denmark, 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 death3. 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 4." 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 consort 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) 5. 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, aud 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 » Ad. Brem. ii. c. 21, 26, 27. 4 Olof Tryggvason's Saga. Stockholm, 1691, p. II. 5 Olave is said to have endowed the church with lands. His surname has 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. s Id. p. 170. 7 Adam of Bremen was so informed by the Danish king have placed themselves under Swedish superiority d. 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, ill 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 expressions. " 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 years 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. Sigfrid was invited from 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 lapsed7. 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 8, 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 baptized 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 aetatem. Ibid. He lived, therefore, to the time of Adam of Bremen. s Historia S. Sigfridi (written in 1205), Script. Rer. Suec. Medii iEvi, ii. 344. ¦ Olaph, qui post obitum patris sui Herici regnum super Sueones accepit, cum exercitu superveniens infelicem Svein 38 St. Olave of Norway. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Embassy from him. sanguinary cruelty in England, where the long con tinued ravages of the Danes had at last 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 expedition 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 Olave 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 of 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 Ragwald, 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 land in the heathen times, that the great sa crifice should be held at Upsala in the homing- month (February)3. 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 the 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, wherefore 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 suam habuerit uxorem. Feceruntque pactum ad invicem firmissimum, ut christianitatem in regno suo plantatam retinerent et in exteras nationes effunderent. Ad. Brem. ii. c. 29. 2 Ann. 1014. Svanus Tyrannus post innumerabilia et crudelia mala quae 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 lap-king would never hear Olave the Norseman spoken of. Thorgny an swered, " Strangely ye comport yourselves, ye that bear the Tignar name. Wherefore didst thou not bethink thee ere thou earnest 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 when 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 spoke : " 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, Kyrialaud, Esth 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 what 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, miserabili morte vitam finivit. Simeon Dunelmensis, in Twysden Hist. Ang. Script. Sveno tumulato Chnutus filius magna cum classe, adductis secum Lachiman rege Suecorum et Olao rege Noricorum, Thamisiam intravit. Leges Ed- wardi, and the chronicle following, in Wilkins. This Lachi man was perhaps a Swedish lagman. 3 (Gbje-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 shouldst make up thy quarrel with Norway's king, and give him thy daughter Ingegerd in marriage. If thou wilt wm back those lands in the East which belonged to thy kinsmen aud 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 like 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 cal led 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 4, 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 Helsingland submitted themselves to the superiority of Sweden. Olave the lap-king, al though a Christian, yet loved the old heathen poesy. Not less than four Scalds are mentioned as residing ¦> Her monument still exists in the church of St. Sophia at Novogorod, with an inscription which 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 Venedian 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 chiefly 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, in 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 preten 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 5. 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 Btates 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 c. With in this limit falls also the end of Anund Jacob's reign and life. Edmund, surnamed Gammal (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 B Du Fresne, Glossarium, v. Condemnare. s Simeon Dunelmensis ad ann. 1052. The " Historia Ar- chiepiscoporum Bremensium" gives 1051 as the year of Anund Jacob's death. i Saga of St. Olave, c. 89. 40 Effects ofthe religious innovations. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Stenkil chosen by the West- Goths ; + A. D. 1066. Swedes were wont to hold their kings responsible. The Catalogue of KingB already referred to styles him the bad (slemme), and charges him with harshness and avarice 8. 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 9. Edmund's reign was short, says the appendix 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 and 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 gods1, and revered before all others in the northern lands, because they descended from the gods themselves ;" " and long had they guarded tlie race, (said a Pagan coun cillor of Olave the lap-king,) although many had now fallen away from the old belief ''." Every new doctrine bears in itself the seeds of strife, and that wliich 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 bona of the old social institutions. Olave the lap-king, as being a Christian, refused to be styled Upsala king 3, 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 in 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 live 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 Gamal Pessimus. See 1. iii. c. 17. 9 The account of the boundary line which is inserted in the law of West-Gothland, makes him, however, contem porary at the lime 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 aud 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 Denmark ; 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. HiB 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 choose some pro vince 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 measure, 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 dominant4. The context shows that it 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 land5, 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. 3 According to the appendix to the Hervarar Saga, Olave changed his title into that of Swede king (Sveakonung). 4 Ad Brem. 5 Appendix to Hervarar Saga. Saga of M"nus Barefoot, c. 13. ^ d 7 Civil wars of Pagans -81. J and Christians. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. Reign of Inge. Trou bles 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 pi'eserved 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 this cannot 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, he 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 " kings of the West Goths" whom 6 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. ' Celse, Apparatus ad Hist. Sviog. Sectio Prima Bullaru, p. 23. 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 7. 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 tlie 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 north, from their service in the imperial body-guard at Constan tinople, were called Veerings, 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 Russia8. 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 9. 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 l. His reign lasted a long time ; 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 Inge violated the old law of the land, because he annulled much that king Stenkil had allowed to subsist. At a diet which the Swedes held with IngC, 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 Swen2 was for three winters king over the Swedes. Thereafter 9 Saga of St. Olave, c. 95. Saga of Harald Hardrada, c. 2. l 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 acknov. ledged by the Swedes. 2 Blot Swen, from biota, to sacrifice. 42 Hostilities with Norway. Magnus Barefoot, HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. A Danish prince chosen by the West-Goths. I. 129. IngC marched with his household-men and an army, although but small in number, eastwards to Smaland, 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 fire thereto, and burned all that were within. Swen came forth aud 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 natural 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 have been induced to ascribe to the king the destruction of the idol temple in Upsala, although of this old writers say nothing. Inge waged war with the Norwegian king, Mag nus Barefoot3, who claimed the land between the Vener lake, the Gbta river and the sea, as be longing to Norway, aud obliged him to abandon this 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 concluded4. 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 5. To what period his life was'prolonged is not known 6. Probably 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, lint have left to history little beside their names. The former died in 11 18 8 ; the year of the latter's decease is unknown, but in 1129 he had already a successor. That conspiracies 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 which 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 Highlanders. 4 See the Chronology to the third volume of the Sagas of the Kings, Copenhagen edition. 6 Mistislav. The sagas call him Harald. Tlie Russian annals inform us that his wife Christina died in 1122. 6 His tombstone in the Abbey Church 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. fi Are Frode, Schedffi. Iii the royal house of Denmark there still existed descendants of this line on the female side, through Margaret Fridkulla, 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 Ing£, 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, says 9 ; " 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 (Knaphbide), 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 1 1 29 '. He was a son of Olave Naskonung, 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 2, 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, hy which Swerker was called to the throne. By the conversion of Blot-S wen's family to Chris tianity the Pagans had now lost the last support of their cause. This prince, set up by them as the antagonist of Ingo the elder, had a son named Kol, who, notwithstanding tbe 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- » L. xiii. i Of the two dates, 1130 and 1139, given for this event, the latter is, beyond doubt, an error of the pen for 1129. 2 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 was jealous of his designs, real or pretended, on the Danish crown. His son was afterwards Valdemar I. of Denmark, called the Great. See Dahlmann, History of Denmark, i. 218 — 228. Trans. A. D. I 1133— 55. \ Choice and fate of King Swerker. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 6U^\:^i^^ hy 43 the Upper Swedes. Gothland3; and according to the most probable accounts he was the father of Swerker, whom the East Goths, moved by the fear of having a foreigner to rule them, first raised to the throne4. The West Goths delayed to acknowledge him, and were 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 thither by St. Bernard, who had at first to contend with great difficulties 5. A Romish legate, the Cardinal 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 1152 6. Upon this occasion, the contribution to the see of Rome known 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 Denmark 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 7. 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 victim 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 Swedeland, 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 8. Conformably to a public decree, both re ligions had 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 kornrike, corn-rich. 4 Saxo. 5 Compare Langebek, S. It. D. iv. 458. 6 This was Nicholas Breakspeare, the English pope. T. 7 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 sacrilices, as Itlot-Swen and Eric Aorsell." Heimsk. Saga of Sigurd the Pilgrim, c. 27 i 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 m force under his sons, and even Stenkil 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 9. These commotions extended to Gothland and the rest of the North. Sigurd, king of Norway, and Nils of Denmark, had concerted in 1123 a crusade agamst the heathens of Smaland, which however was only carried into execution by the former ; and tlie 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 Norrlanders 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 l. The festivals of heathenism were replaced by those of Christianity, observed about the same periods as the former 2 ; 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 chronicle3 ; 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 (midwintersnatten), called also hawk's night (hbkenatten), 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 Little Yule. 3 Script, rer. Suec. i. 246. l_ 44 Crusade in Finland. Eric's death and character. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Charles Swerkerson. State of the Swedish church. 1161—67. 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 altar4." An old table of kings denominates him the Law giver, and the rights of Swedish matrons to the place of honour and housewifedom, to lock and key, to the half of the marriage-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 Christi anity, 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 the 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 therefore 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 had nominated Charles Swerkerson. The latter is said to have held real possession of the government for two years before the death of St. Eric s, 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 4 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. 7 Margaret married the Norwegian king Sverre in 1185. 8 Liljegren, Swenskt Diplomatarium, p. 95. 9 In a letter from Pope Alexander III. in lHil. daughter of the elder logo's son, and was thereby a coparcener of those hereditary estates in West- Gothland devolving on the Danish royal family, which according to Saxo were the source of so much 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 6, 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 7 ; he had a brother named Philip 8 of whom nothing is known. Charles Swerkerson is the first whom we find mentioned as king of the Swedes aud Goths 9 ; he is fikewise, 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 1163, the archbishopric of Upsala. Bi shops of Skara, Linkoping, 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 clergy 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, i 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 Secundus, and his son again, Eric Ericson, actually entitles himself Ericus JJ f Renewal of the troubles. Feud of Eljaras. SUCCESSORS OF ST. ERIC. Swerker II. Eric Canuteson. 45 if he chose, of the main portion ; the heirs de manded that no part should be allowed to be alienated without their consent. Payment of tithe was enjoined, and we find it mtroduced before the end of the century, yet complaints were still made in 1232 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 beseemiug good Christians, and in these the bishops set the example. Charles Swerkerson, who is said to have governed the realm sagaciously and with good intent, was slain in 1167 on the isle of Vising2 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 bim 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 perhaps several other provinces." Such are the expres sions employed by Olave Peterson 3 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 1 195 *. 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 5, 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 period, 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, from 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. 3 Or Olaus Petri, the chronicler. T. 4 A letter of this king of the year 1199, quoted by Lager- bring, has demonstrably an incorrect date. 5 Celse, Bullarium, p. 45. 6 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 yet 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 hatred of Swerker, on account of the fate which had befallen the sons of king Canute 7. Gothic records, on the contrary, attest that the memory of Swerker held a high place in the popular affec tions8. 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 his office with new sanctity, for he is the first Swedish sovereign who is mentioned as having been crowned. That he augmented the privileges of the clergy we learn from his charter to the monastery 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 ofthe 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 here9." 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, 7 Chronica Erici Olai. s 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 a mere variation of Gbtar, Goths, pronounced Ybtar. T.) 46 Eric Ericson. Results of the civil war. „.„„„.-, Papal legate aopoin ted. J HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Disorders of the clergy. J A. D. ! 1216—48. to fill the throne, 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 l. On the other side, the princes of Swerker's family style themselves in their letters hereditary kings of the dominion of Sweden2. Considering the 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 he 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," was 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 3. 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 court, ana thereby also in the government of the country. Its holder, who is called Earl of the Swedes, Earl of the Swedes and Goths 4, Duke of Sweden by the grace of God s, 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 writers denominate him the i 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 Svethiae, Magnates, Principes. 4 Dux Sveorum — dux Sveorum et Gothorum. 5 In a Swedish charter of 1248. 6 The records have Olustrbm and Alvastrum, which 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 Alvastra6in 1229, which compelled the young king to flee into Denmark, till 1 234, when the victory of Sparfatra (near Upsala), won by tbe 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 7, 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 tbe 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. Tbe first laws of the Swedish Church were framed in the republican spirit which reigned in the old political constitution, therein nut at all contravening the usages of elder Catholicism, before thehierarchy,swelling in greatness, demanded the separation of the Church from the state s. In Sweden the 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 incorporated with the state, her members from this very cause took in times of violence a more prominent share in 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 9 ; 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 he exercised in their selection. While the upper part of the kingdom had too few churches, their number in West-Gothland was already so large, that in 1234 the junction of the smaller parishes was decreed '. For their privilege of contracting maiTiage the Swedish priesthood appealed to an 7 Compare the Saga of Haco Hakanson, c. 259. R Anliquiores canones habent, quod consensus honorati- orum in civitate requirendus 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. 1 Diplomatarium Suec. A. D. > 1248-50. j Measures of the legate. Synod of Skenninge. THE FOLKUNGERS. Birger, Earl of Sweden. The king's death. 47 old papal grace2. In the Scanian revolt of 1180, it was one of the demands of the peasants, that their priests should be allowed to marry. 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 obedience 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 churehes 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 bishops. In consequence of this prohibition also a papal bull was issued, by which the penalties against irregular connections of clergymen were mitigated. Earl Birger the younger, elevated to this dignity in 1248, and like his predecessor Ulf a Folkunger, was married to the sister of king Eric. The great 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 Verme- 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 war3 ; 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 4, wherein the earl's son, per haps his natural son Guttorm, is said to have been also present. 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 years after St. Eric had been chosen king, his line upon the Swedish throne became extinct with Eric Ericson s. CHAPTER IV. EARL BIRGER AND HIS SONS. THE FOLKUNGERS. KING BIRGER AND HIS BROTHERS. a. D. 1250—1305. 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 federative 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 iii 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. ¦i Compare Karamsin. s Chronica Erici Olai. 48 Choice of Waldemar. Discontent of Birger. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. R°ts ^JST' r a. n. 1 1250—55. nicle, the maiii source for the history of Sweden during the latter period of the middle age, begins with the revolt of the Folkungers against king Eric 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 author, who is unknown, had pro bably like many of his countrymen in this age studied at Paris 7, where the dissertation of ^Egi- dius Romanus 8, 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 tyranny of an unbridled oligarchy, to advocate a liereditary throne and a kingly power fortified 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. The 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 9. Earl Birger, who in the last days of Eric Ericson 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 Bia of Groneborg, 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 dissatisfaction, 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 king ?" " 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 « Um Styrilse Konunga ock Hofdinga. First published by Job. Bureus, 1634. 7 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 TJeregimine principum. The edition I have used, Leyden, I2mo. 1630, is published under the name of Thomas Aquinas] 9 As for example, the Swedish Saga of Theodoric of Berne hild, who with his brother was under the care of receptor, was crowned at Linkbping in 1251. a eh: a precepto: , They, whose rivalry for power the earl had really to dread, were his own kinsmen, ln those times, it is said, the Folkungers were powerful for every ill deed, and roamed through the land with their armed bands, like robbers rather than nobles '. The sagas of the Norwegian kings inform us, that great dissensions were produced in Sweden by the elec tion which had been made, because there were several 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 Germany. 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 he immediately beheaded. This is the account of the Rhyme Chronicle, with which the sagas of Norway agree, adding that the earl, for this deed, had to bear much blame 2. 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 upon 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 3. Waldemar (distinct from the Icelandic), and the poetical romaunt, " Duke Frederic of Normandy," published in the Journal Iduna, Nos. 9 and 10. i Rhyme Chronicle. Joannes Magnus Goth. Sueonumque Historia. 2 Saga of K. Haco Hakanson, c. 269. 3 (Plogpenning. So called, ad invidiam, from ataxorgavel imposed by him upon every plougliland. T.1 A. D. 1262—79 1 Foundation of Stockholm. Death of Earl Birger. THE FOLKUNGERS. Dethronement of Waldemar. 4!) was distinguished for the beauty of his person, and was now in his twentieth year ; his nuptials with the Danish princess Sophia were solemnized with great pomp at Jenkoeping in 1262. At this time earl Birger made the law, that a sister should inherit half as much as a brother 4, for before this time the daughter only inherited when there was no son ; in other cases the law said, " cap, come in ; hood, begone 5." By him was also introduced the general land's-peace, called Edsb're, because "it was confirmed by the oath of the king, and all the principal men of the realm 6." By this covenant was guaranteed under severe 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 Sigtuna bythe Finnish pirates in 1187. The little island lying between the two outlets of lake Malar, which contained the first town, was now fortified 7 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 with 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 Denmark and Norway his mediation was received with deference, aud he afforded shelter in his court to a Russian grand duke 8. Earl Birger, king without the name, the last and most powerful ofthe earls of Sweden, died on the 21st of October, (a.d. 1266,) lamented after his death, whatever blame might have attached to 4 This was called " to inherit by the new law." East- Gothland Law, Aerf. B. f. 2. s The law of East-Gothland uses this form of words, to express the preference given to males in the rights of in heritance. « So king Magnus Ladulas expresses himself in the con firmation of his father's peace-laws. Edsb're means oath. 7 " 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 bis father had allotted to his brothers. Magnus ob tained Sudermania with the castle of Nykceping ; 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 Linkceping 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 scoffed at her brothers-in-law. Eric, whom from his insignifi cance, she nicknamed Good-for-nought, repaired to Norway, 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 9, 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 Rhyme 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 silver. The royal army, consisting chiefly s Andrei Jaroslawitsch, brother of Alexander Newsky. Compare Karamsin. s 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. .. 2. 12), Count Rudolph of Diepholt. Another daughter, Margaret, was, ac cording to Eric Olaveson, a nun in the convent of Skenninge. 1 Celse, Bullarium. 50 His brother Magnus crowned kinjr. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Revolts ofthe Folkungers. f A. D. 1 1279—90. of levies of country-people, took post at Hofva in West-Gothland, 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 merry 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, fled 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 in 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 his claim to the throne, and his re nunciation, and at last, in 1 288, consigned to im prisonment in the castle of Nykueping. His captivity, however, was at no time rigorous 2, aud became still mure 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 3. Thereafter his son was released, and re sided for some time in Norway ; he is styled duke in Norwegian records 4, 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, ior we find them taking up arms ill every 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 which he lavished on foreigners iu preference to his own countrymen, was intolerable to the Upper Swedes, and the more, that this partiality was not unfrequently re warded with ingratitude. Peter Porse, an exiled Dane who had won his good graces, made the kiug 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 0 He subscribed his attestation to a rescript of Magnus a short time before the latter's death. 3 S. R. S. i. s. 1, 27. 4 Suhm, History of Denmark xi. 673. Those who have made him court-chaplain 10 Haco 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 throne, 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 5. This was 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 the 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 Skenninge, 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 experieuce. 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 chiefly 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 Tiad 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 passed 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 Suhm, id. 613, follow after the words " Dominus Ericus Waldemari quondam regis Sveorum filius," relate to another person. 5 In legem Jutiam majestatis incideruut. Letter of the king's brother Bennet, July 25, 1282. r 1279 . D. I J— 90. $ Enforcement of peace. Oppressions ofthe nobles. KING MAGNUS LADULAS. Claims of regalities proved to be unsound. 51 ing word might cause a deadly strife, as may be seen from the prohibition 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 loss 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 kiug, 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 by the law, nor set down in it 6." 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 against 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 Olave Peterson in his Swedish Chronicle, "is an honourable title, which has conferred greater praise and fame on king Magnus, than if he had been called » 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 6 These words are quoted from the ordinance of Skenninge in 1285. ' Ordinance of Alsnb 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 mand 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 have 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 Ericson (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." 9 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 bis 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, aud 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, fabricated 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 s, 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 effect, 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 1, 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 the several parishes, although common (allmenning) is also sometimes mentioned as be longing to the king 2, 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 tho 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 tlie crown, as heretofore hath been wont in the case of other 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 tion 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. l King Birger Magnuson's ordinance of 1297, respecting the tithes payable by the Helsingers from salmon, herring, and seal fisheries, lays claim to no right of "properly" in the same on the part ofthe crown. 2 Common is spoken of as crown property in the Law of East-Gothland. Egnas. i. 2. E2 52 Taxation Freehold tenure ofland. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Footing of the old nobility.. f A. O. I 1279—90. for its basis 3, is just as certainly older than the reign of Magnus Ladulas, as it is clear that tributes already existed before 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 from the soil, in others from personal taxes, had gradually as sumed under dissimilar appellations in different provinces tbe 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 day4". 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 bequeaths 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 5. From this position there was but one step to another, that liability to taxation was generally incom patible with a full right of property 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 6. 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 7. 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, the brtug, so the cultivated ground was reckoned by markland, ores- 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. 4 Quare vobis universis ac singulis humiliter in Domino 6upplicamu8, quatinus in hoc velitis nobis parcere, et sic vestris de cordibus omnino dimittere, ut non nobis hoc coram summi Judicis oculis imputetur. 8 A whole parish, that of the Forest (Skog), iu South Hel singland, was formed in this way by a judgment given in 1343, granting a right of independent property to persons settling there. 6 Edward Ehrensten (councillor of state in 1683), wrote in the last years of Christina's reign the excellent "Proof to those which are found in other countries. This holds true especially of the distinction between free and unfree (Frajlse and Ofrselse), 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. Magnus extended to their complete develope- ment 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 mtended less to in crease the power of the nobles than that of the crown. It may be properly described as an attempt to transform 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 theso-called ' king's-men,' who, to use the words of Magnus himself, "attended him with rede and help, and therefore were worthy of greater honour." They were likewise, for the most part, men of birth ; at least, none but free- bom 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 families either themselves of royal condition or allied with royal houses, are styled in the records of those times "the great8," "free barons and nobles of the realm9," "high and well-born men." These too were surrounded by martial retainers, whose 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 he 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 a," 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, 1769. 7 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 corona, insinuated itself into the English laws from the Norman conquest. 8 Magnates, majores in old letters. Iviherra (overlords), in the Law of East-Gothland. 8 Barones Suecise, nobiles, in Eric Olaveson. ¦ 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 Aslnb, 1285. -¦ r>. 1 Magnus' justice ; benefac- 9—90. J tions to the church. KING 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- service3," 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 fraelset), in contradistinction to " paying taxes and dues as a peasant." But the peasant might acquire his freedom from tallage by the hke 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 service4. 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 s. Both are included under the denomina tion of well-born men, which again was, seemingly, not extended to the mere free proprietors or fraelse- men, who had earned their freedom from taxes by horse-service. After the termination of the civil war and the hostUities 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 6. In the quarrel between Nor way and the Hanse Towns, in which the " Germans of Wisby " appear on an equal footing of independ 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 7. 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 rusttjenst, horse-service of the nobles. The word is from rus, ros, which in old Swedish means horse (hast)f 4 Compare Magnus Ericson's ordinance of 1345 5 Sven means servant (swain). s The Margraves of Brandenburg, Otho, Conrad, and John, who with Gerard, Count of Holstein and Schauenburg, bound themselves to furnish him with assistance when necessary. The 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. 7 Algot, the father of the culprit, was lagman of West- Gothland. Joannes Magnus, xx. 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 deliverance of which a separate tithe was raised, during five years, by Papal en voys. By his marriage, in 1276, with Helviga of Hol stein, who survived him, he had several children, of whom one son and one daughter died in infancy, 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, Rikissa, while yet a child, had been placed with great solemnities in the convent of St. Clara at Stock holm ; Ingeborg, in 1296, 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 the marshal Thorkel Canuteson guar dian of his sons. He died in the isle of Wising 8, December 18, 1290, 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." Biegeb, 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 9. In a crusade under taken in 1293, the Carelians were subdued, made tributary, and again brought to Christianity, at least in name 1. 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, in the course of which the Swedes took and fortified Kexholm. 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 o Lying in the great lake Vetter, and containing one of the royal mansions. T. 9 In a letter of king Birger to Lubeck 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 cruellies (see a brief of Gregory IX. in 1237) had occasioned the crusade of earl Birger against the Tavasters. i 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 embrace Christianity, but on its departure renounced their profession and persecuted the Christian teachers. 51 Functions ofthe Lawman. Provincial codes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Revision of the Law • of Upland. A. D. 1291 —1319. and ratified by royal authority. The legal customs observed in the different provinces, out of which our old provincial laws were formed, were indeed generally confirmed by every king, when 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 people2. 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 (pr flock) of verses. As it is expressly stated to have been the function of the justiciaries " to make and promulgate the law 3," while we cannot asoribe 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 in the form best adapted for recollection, and declare them in such sort before the people. Therefore the earliest legislation was uttered by speech, aud not in writing. The law is spoken — a lagsaga, or law- saying4; and the oldest law-giver was a judicial poet — lagayrkir, a law-maker. Such was Wiger Spa in the days of heathenism 5, 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 6, as the law of the heathen Lumb was adopted for the framework of that of West Goth land. It was late before the 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 2 Legislators regni annis singulis tenentur coram populo legem consucludinis publicare. Letter of pope Innocent III. to the Swedish bishops, March 6, 1206, complaining that the justices upon such occasions forbade death-bed bequests to be made to the church without the consent ofthe heirs. Of all this king Swerker II. had informed him. 3 See the catalogue of the justices of West-Gothland, at the end of the law-book. Gbra och framfbra lagen. 4 So Wiger's law is called in the preface to the law of Upland. Lagsaga afterwards meant the circuit of a juris diction. 5 Spa, probably instead of spamadr, soothsayer (spaeman), vates. 6 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 Illrada. the establishment of the Edsore, or general land's- peace, the ordinances deriving therefrom became common to them all 7. Particular alterations were also introduced by St. Eric, Canute Ericson, Eric Ericson, earl Birger, and Magnus Ladulas. Mean while the laws mostly remained in scattered collec tions 8, 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 9 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 another1." The king prevailed upon Thorkel Canuteson to continue in his service ; the others placed their affairs under the management of the lord Ambiom 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 a, seems to have 7 Compiled into a so-called edsdres 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 ofthe Scan dinavians, in the Edinburgh Review (xxxiv. 184), probably 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. 2 Helviga, daughter of Otho II., count of Ravensburg. i. D. 1291 —1319. i Fraternal dissensions. Conduct of the dukes, REIGN OF KING BIRGER. Their treacherous seizure by the king. 55 been not the least brilliant,— all this had occasioned the imposition of new taxes, from which the 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 guaranteed, with the consent of the dukes as well as of the bishops and nobles, 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 chUdren. 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 ofthe 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 brothers. 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, Birger, who had been meanwhile kept close prisoner in the castle of Nykoping, 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 Nykce- ping, and laid siege to the place. Duke Eric had in the mean time quarreUed with Haco, king of 3 Both were named Ingeborg. 4 The 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 Helsingborg (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 Norway, which had again broken out, were removed by the marriage of duke Eric with a daughter, and that of Waldemar with 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 Olaveson in his chronicle, " who violently grasped at dominion, brought manifold plagues upon the land by tlieir feuds and harryings, 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 4) ; 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 Helsingers 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 others 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 5, blessed the counsels of his queen, Armed in 1296, is half a mark, but the value of the coin had since fallen. » "Just as were he an Amblode," sayB the Rhyme Chro- 5G Tragical fate of the dukes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Choice of a new king. { 131 and exclaimed, " Now have I Sweden in my hand 1" From the middle of December (a. d. 1317), when this came to pass, the dukes remained about four months in prison °, untU Birger, 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 thre^ days longer, and Wal demar eleven. The former was upwards of thirty years old, the latter younger. The cruel fate of these princes awakened the profoundest horror throughout 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 closed its gates against the king, and he was obliged to flee from Nykoping, which was besieged. The royal garrison 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 daughters7, to seek refuge, first in Gottland, and afterwards in Denmark. The crown prince Magnus 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 Brunkeberg. nicle, which Hire has explained 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. e 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 18th April and 6th May, 1318. 7 Agnes and Catherine. Suhm, History of Denmark, 6 Eric Olaveson. The Rhyme Chronicle does not name them, 0 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 nates 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 affairs8, together with four peasants from every hundred, met at Upsala, to proceed to the election of a new king. Matthew KetUmundson, a knight who, having signalized himself in the wars of the foregoing years by the most chivalrous valour, had eventuaUy 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 9 had raised him in the past year to the office of Administrator 1, and he now carried in his arms Magnus, 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 councU2 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 3, extended its bounds 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 aristocratic 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 campestris 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. l Riksfbrestandare. 2 Radsherrar. * 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. -43.$ 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 hy the confederate lords ; in case it were approved, it was to be coUected by their commissioners with the aid of two peasants from every province, and applied 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 royaUst and ducal parties4, 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 directed especially against the partiality which the young king's mother cherished for Canute Porse, a powerful foreigner, who had 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 1326, he nevertheless received her hand in the foUowing year. Both parties for feited by this step all influence in Sweden, and death shortly 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 5, 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 payment 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, personaUy assumed the government in 1333, 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. s The northern part had been annexed to Sweden by duke Eric's marriage. 6 Both the old chronologies wliich 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 7 was named steward with autho rity almost unlimited. Not only did the king 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 armed 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 remarked, 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 Qrebro, in 1347, the clergy entered their protest, and the whole matter fell to the ground. Nevertheless the Land's Law of king Magnus Erie- 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, Haco, 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 aU 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 tlieir 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. 7 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. r A. D. 11343—59. public apologies isssued by him, couched in very humble terms, he attributes this evil to the ransom of Scania ; but others were inclined to lay the blame rather upon his own carelessness wliich suffered the crown to be robbed of its proper patrimony, in his profusion, and in that depraved partiality to young favorites which procured him the repulsive surname of the caresser (Smek). His manners gave general scandal, and drew upon him the reproaches of his contemporaries, especially of his famous kinswoman St. BRinGET. She 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 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 smiling reputation, Magnus in 1348 undertook in person a crusade of great magnitude and cost against Russia, 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 off their beards and receive baptism. But the Russians soon showed, it is added, that their beards had grown again anew, and sur rounded the king and his army, so that he escaped with difficulty and great loss. Count Henry of Holstein, who accompanied him, made demands which he was obliged to satisfy by the grant of territorial fiefs ; the foreign mercenaries who clamoured for their pay, plundered the country ; fresh loans granted by the Church for the expenses of the war 8, 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 world in its devas tating course. This plague was brought from London to Bergen in Norway by a ship, whose crew had every man perished, 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 9. 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 8 From the computation of the amount of these loans in bilver made by the papal treasury (see Celse, Bullarium, i. 109, 127), we learn that a mark of silver at this time amounted to almost five marks of Swedish money. s S. R. S. i. 1. 29. Suhm, History of Denmark, xiii. 240. 1 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 2. The plague reached 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 pestUential disease which attacked the young more particu larly 3, and was therefore called the child's death. It was otherwise generally designated as the great mortality. An ordinance of Magnus 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 bury 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 4 ; the Icelandic annals again state that the prince, with his wife Beatrice of Brandenbnrg, and two children, feU victims to the pestilence. After Eric's death, Magnus was again acknowledged as king, upon condition that the favourite should not be recalled. This notwithstanding was done5, and Scania, Halland, and Bleking, were actuaUy ceded to Denmark, in 1360, upon a promise of sup porting Magnus against the Swedish council. At the very time when the rumour of this transaction excited among the people the most bitter exaspera tion against tlieir sovereign 6, 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 Ripa (the grouse). She was in time wedded, and her descendants were called the Ripa family. 2 Vix sexta pars hominum remansit. Script. Rer. Suec. i. 1. 29. 3 Ibid. In 1361 mention is again made of the plague in Denmark. * The Rhyme Chronicle. See Torfeus, Hist. Norv. iv. 484. 5 Bengt Algotson was at this time slain. 0 The Rhyme Chronicle says that both young and old spat upon him, pelted him with rotten cabbage, and sang lam poons upon him. D. 7 1—65. J Magnus dethroned. The 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 younger son, Haco of Norway, to seize his person (a. ii. 1 361 ), to break off his own betrothal to Marga ret, 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 Germany, offered the crown of their 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 except some disturb ances in 1339, styled him Magnus the Good. Thus ended the power of the Folkunger famUy in Sweden. CHAPTER V. FOREIGN KINGS. THE UNION, UNTIL THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE STURES. ALBERT OF MECKLENBURG. MARGARET AND ERIC OF POMERANIA. ENGELBERT. CHRISTOPHER OF BAVA&IA. CHARLES CANUTESON AGAINST CHRISTIAN OF OLDENBURG. a. D. 1365—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 foreign princes upon tlieir countrymen. The do mination of the stranger made even such a king as Magnus Ericson to be 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 the 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 incident, 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 m any other quarter. Hence external coUigation produced division within, and the union is only a great name which has passed away without a meaning. Ihe fountains of history flow more plentifully in this troubled period. The narrative ofthe great Rhyme Chronicle becomes more copious ; Eric Olaveson' in his Latin, the brothers Olave and Lawrence Peterson in their Swedish chronicles8, afford much valuable light for the explanation of the period ot tlie union, which was in part their own. Even Joannes Magnus, however much he may have invented in his account ofthe more ancient period, r The Chronica Erici Olai, in the Script. Rer Succ. t ii comes down to the year 1464. The author who was dean and professor of theology at Upsala, died in I486- a First printed in S. R. S. t. i. ii. They come down to he massacre of Stockholm in 1520. The chronicle of Laurentaus Petri is a compilation from that of his brother, omitting ^such passages as gave offence to Gustavus I., and ^ adding the , ta torXf the kings, and military achievements of the extra 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 northern manners 9. 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 countrymen 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, renouncing 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, wliich the king and those about him entertained respecting the serfdom of the common people appear to have awakened among them general indignation, and increased their impatience of the overweening arrogance of the strangers, which is depicted with so much life neous Goths, which Johannes Magnus treated diffusely, but which Olaus Petri, to the discontent of the king, excluded. s Joannis Magni Gothorum Sueonumque Historia, or, as the title runs in the first edition, Historia de omnibus Gotho rum Sueonumque regibus, See., appeared at Rome in 1554, under the revision of his broth'er Olaus Magnus, who pub lished in the year following his own Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, earumque diversis statibus, conditionibus. moribus, &c. 60 Crown grants revoked. The steward Jonson. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Margaret of Norway. The crown offered to her. i A. D. { 1371—89. in the old Swedish verses, entitled " a pleasant likeness of king Albert and Sweden1"- The great number of Germans who are mentioned at that time as members of the council and in command of the royal 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- Uties 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 wliich 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 possessed by the king himself. In the com pact made with the council, August 9, 1371, he admits that the royal commanders had, contrary 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 in Sweden ever attained to greater opulence than the high steward Jonson. Besides enormous property 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 Linkoping, in a quarrel respecting the title to certain estates, and Jonson himself, in 1381, being in feud with baron Charles Nilson Farla, pursued his antagonist into the Franciscan church 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. i Script. Rer. Suec. i. 2, 210. 2 For three years, it is said. 3 Every third manor of their own property. 4 Post cujus mortem milites et optimates Suecise cum rege Alberto discordare coeperunt, eo quod idem rex ab ipsis quandam partem bonorum regalium, quam ipsi a multis retroactis temporibus ac progenitores eorum tempore guerra- rum sibi usurpaverant, juridjce exigebat; quod quidem pne- 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 1386 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 3, pro ceeding forthwith to exact by force compliance with his demand. So runs the poetical account of the Rhyme Chronicle, which has been understood literally, and explained as a confiscation hy the crown of the third part of the spiritual and tem poral freeholds (fr'alset). But such an attempt is whoUy 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 wiU 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. Olave, son of Haco by Margaret, 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 which 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 5. They were not diverted from their purposes hy 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 Falkoeping6, fought on the 21st September, 1389, s His testament is to be found in Hadorph's edition of the translation ofthe " 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. « In West-Gothland. The 24th February, St. Matthias's day, in spring, is usually stated as that of the battle r but the Rhyme Chronicle names St. Matthew's day, in harvest, though it gives the wrong year, 13S8. (Joannes Magnus also says, on the day of Matthew the apostle, xxi. 14. T.) 1389—97 I Captivity of Albert. 1 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 Kiellson7. Margaret, in revenge for the boastful and contemptuous sayings iu which Albert had indulged himself at her expense, received him with contumely, set a fool's cap on his head s, and threw both father and son into the dimgeon 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 read9. 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 buUding 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 hay2." 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 untilled, and that the land had well-nigh become 1 He is said by our later historians to have been of the family of Vasa ; but he did not bear their arms, and is called Puke in the Diary of Vadstena. a Sie liess ihm auch eine cappe schneide, Hatte funfzehn 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 m Behr, Rer. Mecleburgicarum lib. ii. c. 7.) » 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 silver3, 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 Pomerania4, her grand-nephew, had been already declared the future sovereign of Denmark and Norway ; he was now also elected king of Sweden hy 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 aU the pri vileges of nobility, so lavishly bestowed by king Albert, should he revoked, unless acquired on the terms 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 i These -were called Vitalians or Victualling Brethren, be cause they exercised their piracy under pretext of supplying Stockholm during its investment with provisions. 2 Letter of the chapter of Linkbping in this year. 3 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. j a. d. J 1307 — 143 beyond its limits. This short and imperfect record of the terms of union, hurriedly 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 bis sixteenth year when the union of Calmar was concluded. Some years after wards he married Philippa of England s, 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 chUdless 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 portion 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 territory. 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 6 ; we even find the magnates raising individuals of this class to the rank of nobility for themselves and their posterity 7. That the oppressions which pro duced these complaints, however, were not inflicted B Daughter of Henry IV. of England, betrothed in 1401, married in 1406. She presided over the government in 1423, during the king's foreign travel and pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, introduced improvements in the coinage, and de fended Copenhagen in 1428 against the combined squadrons of the Hanse Towns and Holstein, while Eric lay hidden in the monastery of Soroe. Shedied intheconventof Wadstena in 1430. c According to king" Magnus Ericson's household law (gardsratt), which Margaret and Eric of Pomerania confirmed. 7 Such a right was exercised by Bo Jonson and Charles 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 shields. 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. Erie brought this nobleman, in 1410, to trial and execu tion, less however, apparently, from love 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 vessel 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 Holstein8. The former was, doubtless, the chief reason why the king thought it expedient to commit to foreigners the custody ofthe Swedish castles ; the latter, conducted with equal folly and obstinacy, although with frequent inter ruptions and negociations, 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 9. AU affairs were left to the management of the ™ 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 1435, 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, Luneburg, and Wismar, which in the nine last years had taken part with Holstein. « See the remonstrances of the Swedish peasants in Hvit- leld's Danish Chronicle, Copenhagen, 1652, iii. 781. :34!/ Rising of Engelbert. ERIC OF POMERANIA. His meeting with the council. 03 foreign governors, whose character 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 this trade, one of Erics 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 ha^' waggons. An old Swedish ballad relates similar cruelties of the tyrannical feudatory of Faxaholm 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 agamst the tyranny of the governor, engaging to deliver himself up for imprisonment, and to stake his Ufe 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 councU 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 his presence. Engelbert replied, " Yet once more wiU I return." The men of his province chose him for their leader, and he marched with them against Westeras, which was held by Josse Ericson. The council indeed interposed its mediation, and twice mduced the Dalecarlians to return home. But the governor continuing with impunity to enforce the payment of his contribu tions, and his place, when at length he was removed, being filled up by a foreigner, who was regarded with dread, all the Dalesmen rose upon Midsum mer's Day of 1434, it is said, " hke 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 the 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 pro mised fidelity to him and to the popular cause. i Arendt Clemens. " A worse knave was no priest of that day," says the Rhyme Chronicle. A former archbishop, John Jerechini, a foreigner like 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 his neck, and drowned him in the Bruar stream. 3 Ingenuus seu libertus, Eric Olaveson styles him, which in that writer's phraseology means a fraelseman or franklin. (I use the English form instead ofthe Swedish Engelbrekt. Bergsman 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, the 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 banner. 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 Non-landers and East Bothnians took up arms under Eric Puke"; 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 Nykbping 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 him in restoring the ancient rights and liberties of the kingdom ; since the times of the last king Magnus 3, 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 repUed, 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 councU now showed themselves in clined to he 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 pro vinces, 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 5. 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, Engelbrekt Engelbrektson's Historia, p. 76. T.) 3 Magni regis ultimi. 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). 4 The Rhyme Chronicle, which adds, " then 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. 5 Joannes Magnus. 64 Engelbert's success. His administration. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Assassination of Engelbert. ci were taken and destroyed, and the more easily, that wood was the material of which many were constructed. Everywhere the foreign prefects were expelled, though none fell a victim to the popular vengeance, excepting 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 6. 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 ] 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 hy 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, Nykceping, and Calmar, placed under the charge of native go vernors. Orebro was to be granted in fief to Engel bert, and Halland to be restored to Denmark. Christer NUson Vasa, an aged noble, was nominated high steward, Charles Canuteson Bonde', 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 inhuman ities 7. Engelbert and Charles Canuteson now made themselves masters of the town of Stockholm, although the Danish governor still held the castle. At the election of a new administrator, instituted by thirty barons, Charles Canuteson obtained nearly aU the votes. Neither Engelbert nor Puk£ con- 6 Diary of Vadstena under the year 1436, 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 s, a powerful noble, and a partisan of King Eric 9. 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 fuU 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 hy an exasperated force ofthe 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 years." The powerful barons generally opposed him, 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 « Of the family of Natt och Dag (night and day). Hence he was one of those whom the king intended to nominate to the office of steward. • It is still called Engelbert's Holm. A. D. 7 36—42. J Charles Canuteson's administration CHRISTOPHER OF BAVARIA. Oscillations of parties. 05 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 2. One who now sought to curb these popular move ments had more than any other man reaped advan tage from them ; this was Charles Canuteson Bonde". 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 counciUor 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 Soderkoping 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 Puke*, who was aU powerful with the peasants, persecuted 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 theii' differences, held at Westeras in 1437, lie treacherously seized upon his unfortunate 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 commotions, and confederated with NUs 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 land, while the new marshal fled with the king back to Gottland 3, 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, untU the clo3e 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 lung'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 Calmar 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 * Plurimis coruscat miraculis. Diarium Vadstenense. 3 In a new descent upon Sweden from Gottland, Nils Stenson was made prisoner, and died of the plague, which well as any other prince, and therefore his foUowers 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 shameful 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 gress of Danish and Swedish plenipotentiaries held in Jenkb'ping in the autumn of 1439, it was decided to adhere to the Union of Calmar. Upon this occa sion the clergy, ever conspicuous for their zeal in support of that settlement, declared tlieir attach ment to Christopher. In a baronial diet at Arboga, which met in the beginning of 1 440, 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- feudation 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 postponement 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 arm in arm with him, and the general cry was, " tbe marshal is comelier, and more worthy to wear the crowns ; woe to those who have ordered it thus4." 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, "et diversa loca Christianitatis." Diary of Vadstena. 4 The Rhyme Chronicle. 60 Charles Canuteson high steward. -iTTaT,.-,pV nv THu OWRDES Jealousies ofthe Magnates. HlblUKY Vi IHU SHiUBO. Design to surprise Lubeck. Death of the king. A. D. 1442—48. Vadstena observes upon his 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 ofthe 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 tbe 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 public 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 father, 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 iu his complaints of the wrongs he had suffered. 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 Wiborg, 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 5. On the other hand the eagerness of the Swedish mag nates to obtain them was sharpened, and the kino- availed himself of their rivalry, to excite jealousies » Hvitfeld. s Ita ut infra unius anni circulum octo vel decern unum feudum taliter comparassent. Adeo autem erant Sueci sua ambitione et mutua invidia excajcati. Ericus Olai. among them, and to procure money 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 time the country was afflicted by scarcity and famine ; and when the king, in 1446, again visited Sweden, accompanied by his young 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 8. 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 resorted to every possible ex pedient to procure money; in 1446 he caused a number of English and Dutch ships passing 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 seaports, 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 Stralsund to have refused compliance. The real design was to surprise Lubeck, to which place meanwhUe 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 5th January, 1448, of an imposthume, according to the Rhyme 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 he 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 shed tears, and » few days after followed him to the grave. ' Daughter of Margrave John, the alchymist, married in Copenhagen, 1445. 8 In 1448. Karamsin. A. D. ) 449-50. 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 diet8. Prophecies of persons 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 continual 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 (Oxenstierna), 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 Bennetson 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 the 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 Upsala on the 29th of June ; and a few days after his consort Catharine3 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, and not yielded without reluctance. The first 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 » Episcopi, pralati, milites, nobiles, liberti, ac rusticorum et civitatum nuntii speciales. Ericus Olai. ¦ Non secundum formam legisterii. Ibid. ' Af alia de fruer man kan leta, Skal man aldrig skbnare 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 daughter of Charles Ormson, councillor of state, of Nor wegian family, mother of four sons and flve daughters, of whom all the former died in their childhood, and of the daughters, Magdalene was married to Ivar Axelson Tott. Charles Canuteson was flrst 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 Christina, 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 3, for the maintenance of the common Uberties 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 l. The archbishop of Drontheim with several of the Norwegian council and the mass of the peasants5, declared for Charles, who was chosen lung, and crowned November 23, 1449, in the cathedral of the town. The col lective body of the Norwegian commonalty both North and South of the Dofre mountains, now de spatched a letter of renunciation to Christian, pur porting 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 8, 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 141 1 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. 4 Son of Count Frederic of Oldenburg, and born in 142 j. 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. s See the different letters of the commons of Norway at FrostaTing, in Voss, Hedemark, the Uplands, and Romenge, in Hadorph, ibid. s Now Christiania. T. F 2 68 Hostilities with Christian of Denmark. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Danish incursion. Public calamities. 5 A. D. } 1450—55. not fulfilled, his right to the kingdom of Norway. By a secret article it was provided that the fiefs should thereafter be distributed at the pleasure of the council, that a security for the performance of this should be required from king Charles at a new congress in Calmar, 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 offices, a step which creates less sur prise than the fact, that among his commissioners at Halmstad should again be found the same indi vidual who had betrayed his cause in Gottland, and who 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 had 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 before been known to be raised in Sweden7," says the Rhyme-Chronicle, which de scribes with complacency the declaration of war, the glancing banners, and the king's skUl, acquired in foreign lands, of setting out his array. Twenty pieces of cannon, the first we find mentioned in any Swedish campaign, accompanied its march 8, drawn upon sledges. A devastating 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 orders 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 before him, and the castles fell into his hands in the course of the summer. Charles indeed purposed ulti mately to meet the enemy in the forest of Tiwed, in order to prevent the invasion of Upper 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 on ; when it returned, 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 ships were Danes 9, 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 preceded by skyrannare (skidlopare), or skate-runners, using the skates made of long curved wooden staves, for sliding over the surface of the snow. B "Twenty carriage guns with 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), which were directed by a German master gunner. Under Engelbert's rising, guns are mentioned in the castle of Stockholm, The town in 143 1 had a master gunner and a cannon founder, both salaried. 9 Eric Olaveson. i Diary of Vadstena. In the autumn of 1464 the plague broke out anew, carried off 7000 men in Stockholm, and lasted nearly two years, during which it also desolated even permitted in the autumn to retire unpursue,d 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 Bonded alone, cousin-german of the king, who had nominated him to the office of marshal, successfuUy defended the western frontiers of the kingdom. The following years resembled in insecurity and disturbance that just described, and exceeded it in public misery. 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 1. 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 BoiidC, 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 stiU preserved attests the popular grief 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 famUy 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 behalf. 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 kiug. Towards the magnates he cherished a well-grounded 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 feU not at all short of the foreigners whom they replaced, al though they plundered under the cloak of law3. Russia. In Novogorod alone, according to Karamsin, 48,000 men died. 2 " Courteous, but greedy," an old account describes him. 3 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 prsefectos ad omnem nequitiam audacissimos et ad omnem virtutem resque prse- claras imbellissimos," says Joannes Magnus. Olaus Magnus, who extols the justice of the governors under Steno Sture the elder, blames at the same time those of Charles Canute- son ; their conduct towards their own master, indeed, suffi ciently evinces their character. 1457-63 } FeTd°wtthrthetrchbUhop. CHRISTIAN I. OF OLDENBURG. Flight of Charles and choice of Christian. 69 The people, in whose memories Engelbert lived, were averse to Charles, and when he attempted to revive the old contest regarding the liberty of testamentary bequests to the church, and attacked the property 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 wout 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 Strengnas, had once already been convicted of treason, aud for feited his fiefs. He had been reconciled to the king 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 5. 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 again issued for one of those fruitless campaigns which every year of this reign witnessed. Oeland, 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, aud armour, affixed to the church door a declaration of war against his sove reign, and immediately commenced hostiUties. Charles indeed hastened his return, and opposed to the disorderly crowd collected by the prelate a dis ciplined, if not numerous, army; but he allowed himself with incomprehensible carelessness to be surprised in Strengu'as. After a short conflict, be ing wounded by an arrow, he fled to Stockholm, where he with difficulty 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 c, and so came to Dantzic tbe third day afterwards, where he received safeconduct, and abode for seven years." The Swedish nobles whom fear of Charles had driven into exUe now re-entered the country. The < In 1454, when the clergy drew up a peremptory and detailed protest against his measures. Charles not only de manded that 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. 6 February 24, 1457. Olave Peterson remarks, that ofthe "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 Archbishop, who now styled himself prince and administrator of the realm. The go vernor of the castle yielded up both the fortress, and the children of his sovereign, who had been entrusted to his charge, without stroke of sword, only stipnlating that no account should be required from him of the monies which had passed through his hands. His compeers, the royal governors in the various provinces, excepting only Gustavus Carlsou ' at Calmar, " who stoutly upheld his knightly honour," 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 effected, and to use the words of the chronicle, " it first went weU 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 the 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 unfriends 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 8." In 1463, 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 1458 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 his treasure was con cealed in the Dominican monastery at Stockholm, but was betrayed by the monks to King Christian. 7 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 Christian's measures. Revolts excited. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Charles Canuteson's recall and death. {. 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 bearing 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 adversaries 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 he appre hended. The peasants, now regarding him as a martyr 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 ThurC Thureson BielkC, the surname of peasant slayer 9. Before his depar ture, the king is said to have robbed the castle of Stockholm of all the articles 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 him 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 kinsman Ketil Carlson (Vasa), bishop of Linkoping, who in the beginning of 1 464, assumed the title of administrator at Westeras, therein supported chiefly by the Dalecarlians, " the wildest and most warlike," say the monies of » The Rhyme Chronicle. i Maxime feroces et bellicosi. Diar. Vadsten. 2 See Memoirs relating to the History of Scandinavia (Handlingar rbrande Skandinaviens 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 ofthe king's government2. Christian now again came to the defence of Stockholm, in the depth of winter, but the Dale- carUans retired before him, and at length enticed him into a thick wood at Haraker's church in West 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 3, now let loose against him, and in league with bishop Ketil. During nearly four years, from January, 1464, to November, 1467, 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 Axelson (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 4. Charles Canuteson was finally for the third time called to the throne upon the 13th of November, 1 467. Shortly afterwards, his irreconcUeable 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 Store" 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 Store", counselling him at the same time never to strive after the regal title and ensigns s. 3 Olave Peterson. " And it wanted but little that he should have been obliged to beg grace of him." 4 " They would have divided the kingdom into four parrs, and there were to have been four who should govern them." Id. 3 The Rhyme Chronicle. Joannes Magnus. A. d. 1 Steno the elder chosen _ 1471.^ guardian of the kingdom. ADMINISTRATION OF THE STURftS. Danish invasion. Hostile movements. 71 CHAPTER VI. STENO STURE THE ELDER. KING JOHN. SUANTO STURE. STENO STURE YOUNGER, AND CHRISTIAN THE TYRANT. a. d. 1470—1520. THE Through Engelbert the people had again risen to be a power in the state, and the Union had become identified with foreign domination. Charles 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 iu 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, without 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 Stare", by king Charles Canuteson'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 Stare"6, who, although of the same name, was of another family, he 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 7 ;" marked out by many quaUties as the man of the people, yet influential also by his connexions, especially with the brothers Axelson 8, 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 Stare's, immediately acknowledged Steno Sture' 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 aU 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 of Steno Sture of Sleswick, of the Danish house, whose name Nicholas assumed after his mother. 7 Laurence Peterson. 8 There were nine brothers, sons of Eric Axelson Tott in Denmark, of whom Eric Axelson, then feudatory of Finland, married Elin Sture (aunt of Steno, not sister, as has been in- I of the old archbishop's party had returned with ships and men from Denmark, in order again to dispute the crown with the expiring Charles Canuteson. They were indeed put to flight by Steno Stare, but the dissensions continued, and the kingdom remained nearly a yearwithoutanyacknow- ledged head, until at length the peasants, twelve from every province, 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 V Thereupon, not without renewed hesitations, Steno Sture was chosen ( May 1 , 1 47 1 ,) 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 favour 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 StarCs party in 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 Stare" 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 Trotte" 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 Charles Canuteson, an alliance which had re-opened the throne to this king. Steno Slure 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 1407 Iwar Axelson had declared war. s Olave Peterson. 72 Battle of Brunkeberg. King Christian wounded. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. His defeat. Internal tranquillity. f A. D. 11471. rose proportionably *. Christian called him " a lad who being about to be chastised with the rod, hid himself in the woods ;" his soldiers vaunted of the shames they would put upon the burghers of Stock holm, and their wives. Meanwhile the Stares 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 king Christian " with some new inven tions," as it is expressed. A retrenchment or sconce (skerma) had been erected there, and planted with "many great cannon." King Christian himself took post with the Danish banner on the eminence, with the intrenchment in his 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 Capuchins' (now Blase's) Holm, then separated from Norrmalm (the North suburb) by water, across which the Danes had cast a bridge of poles in order to maintain the communication with their fleet. Steno Stare", 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 Stare", who met with so many obstacles from marshes and woods in one of the quarters of Non-malm, now so populous, that the delay in his arrival almost caused the loss of the battle. Four times did Steno Sture storm the Brunkeberg, which 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 Stare" 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 Stare", 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 Stare" afterwards dedicated an image, which may still be i Konung 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 Rhyme Chronicle. 2 (Dahlman (History of Denmark. 3, 231,) states that the Danebrog, or Danish standard, round which lay five hundred dead bodies, fell into the enemy's hands j this was a white cross upon a red ground, said to have been consecrated by Pone Honorius for King "Waldemar II. upon his crusade against the Esthonians in 1219. It was again taken by the seen in the high church of Stockholm. The fiercest conflict was waged around the two chief banners 2 ; 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 3. The battle of Brunkeberg was more important from its consequences than remarkable from the forces engaged. The strength of Steno Store's army is stated at about ten thousand men, to which are to be added thirteen hundred well appointed horsemen 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 days of paganism. In the camp at Norrmalm king Christian had five thousand men well-equipped, and provided with an artiUery, which for that day was numerous. In cluding that part of the army which remained 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 until the conflagration of 1702. The survivors among the Swedes 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 hi 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 councillors in the towns had been Germans. After the fight of Brunkeberg, 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 administrator and the council 5. 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 subject6. To prevent Ditmarsers in 1500, and retaken on their subjugalion bythe Danes in 1559. T.) A Swedish ballad upon this battle still exists. 3 A manuscript in the library of Linkbping (of the year 1519), states that sixteen knights, with 614 men. were taken prisoners, and 2000 slain. Linkopings Bibliotheks Handl. i. 90. 4 Called the Swedish poleaxe in some old verses of the union age. 5 Of October 14, 1470. 6 See the Recess of Calmar, 1-174. i«i "i* r Uni,versi'y of Upsala 1471— 83. J founded, 1477. ADMINISTRATION OF THE STURES. £tmi^S^Z%. 73 the subdivision of the ancient yardlands, it was enacted that the oldest cultivator and inhabitant should possess the right of redeeming the allotment of the other heirs. Steno Sture kept his governors under strict supervision ; when redress for wrong was sought by legal means, he allowed judicial sen tences their due course, not only against them but himself, and it became a proverb, that the lord Stare" would rather risk his life than allow a peasant to he deprived of a sheep unjustly 7. 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, according 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 studies8 ; 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 9. 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 prelections " in the manner which a master uses to follow in chartered seminaries l." 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 realm 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 character3 ; in Sweden his memory has shared those feelings of hatred cherished towards the Union, which strengthened in proportion as Denmark, under the house of Olden- 7 Scheffer, Memorabilia Suet. Gentis. 8 An example is mentioned in 1468, S. R. S. i. p. 83. D Celse, Apparatus ad Hist. Sveo-Goth. p. 2. MS. in the library of Upsala. The burgesses of Stockholm received in 1419 a papal charter for the old school connected with St. Nicholas' church.- The school-house was burned down, and the Archbishop 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 he more disquieted than heretofore bythe 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 considered, 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 tlieir freedom, their rights, and prosperity *." Meanwhile, a variety of negociations 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 1 483. 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 i 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 Historien. Upsala, 1798, vol. i.) 2 Given February 28, 1476. ' Compare Hvitfeld. 4 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. 1 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 immediate object," Steno Sture" well under stood how to interpose hindrance and delays. " For though Sweden (to make use of the words of Olave Peterson) was promised and secured 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-wUl 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 Axelson 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 famUy, 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 Stare" 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 influence 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 1495. While Canute Posse" with admirable courage defended Wiborg, which 5 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 had in this siege amazingly large cannons of twenty-four feet in length (bombardas et machinas magnas et mirabiles aliquas in longitudine xxiv. pedum), and that their retreat was occasioned by miracles. 6 The standard was lost in the present campaign, and this was made one ofthe charges against Steno Sture. the Russians ill vain besieged during three months 5, 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. Eric 6, 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 fixed 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 Stare", who, whUe the administrator and the council were secretly watching one another, crossed the gulf in the summer of 1496 to Narva, and took aud 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 Stare's. Suanto Sture", who maintained that he had been wronged 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 7, while Finland was left defenceless ; of having withheld from Suanto Sture* 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 annnl 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 agamst the guardian, because he withheld the revenues claimed by the Danish queen dowager8 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 9. King John now repaired to Sweden at the invi tation of the council. Steno Stare" 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 captain, and their own hearths. To king Hans 7 By giving assistance to the Archbishop of Riga in 1485, in his war against the Grand Master of Livonia. 8 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 Steno, according to Olave Peterson. 1497 A. D. } •7— 1501. f Hostility of Sture. Reconcilement. ADMINISTRATION OF THE STURES. Charges against Steno Sture. 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 alUance 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 ', Start's plan was that the Dalecarlians 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. His 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 Stare* 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 2, 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 properly ready for him. Stare* 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 thralls3." So uncontrollable was the anger of the magnates against Sture", that many of them clamoured 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 was still formidable from the devotion i 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 differently 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, Swartsio, with Firing'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 wished to enslave the peasants. Serfage was not yet introduced in Funen, although it was in Zealand. ¦* Olave Peterson. s Hvitfeld, however, laments that the gold chain began, from 1500, to be the common ornament ofthe nobles. of the common people in his cause. To pacify the Dalecarlians, who, in spite of their defeat, would not retire from before Stockholm, he employed his personal influence, and they submitted to the king only on condition that Steno Stare" should thence forward be governor over Westmanland and Dale carlia, an augmentation of power which he after wards voluntarily relinquished to the king. That Sture should have acknowledged king John seemed a thing so incredible 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 1 483, in order to prove that he had already set his name to that act fourteen years before. On the 25th November (a.b. 1497), the king was crowned in Stockholm, on which occasion many new knights were created from among the nobility. The Rhyme Chronicle asserts that the desire of the Swedish ladies to see their husbands bearing the title of lords contributed not a little to open to John the path to the throne ; for knights only were at this time caUed lords, as their wives only were ladies, and this dignity, of which a golden chain round the neck was the badge 5, could not be conferred by the administrator, though himself a knight, but by the king only. Steno Store" was nominated high chamberlain, Suanto, marshal, and the former was one of the four councillors to whom the government was committed when the king, in January, 1498, repaired to Denmark. In the be ginning of next year he returned, attended by his consort Christina6 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 Stare" 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 Stare" and the council, preferred complaints of violences committed by the guardian's order, and there are undoubtedly in stances of wrong either commanded or permitted by Steno Stare" 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 Stare", containing a partial admission of the charges brought against him ; he was obUged also to cede the greater por tion of Finland, and to pledge his honour never • Of Saxony i daughter of the elector Ernest, married in 1478. 7 In the court-book of the town^of Stockholm, an extract from which is among the Nordin manuscripts in the library at Upsala, complaints are made in the year 1492, 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 out of his own means all the damage that had been caused in 1497 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 his debts. 7C War with King John. Death of Steno. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Suanto made guardian. His character. i 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 high-raised expectations of success, but in which the flower of the nobility of Denmark and Holstein fell in conflict with 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 prevaiUng 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 guardian, who with several of the councillors came to the capital, but no agreement with the king was effected. With the late alteration in his fortunes the Swedish magnates too had now abandoned John, and began again to rally around Store", 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 Stare" 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 Stare* 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 Stares 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 several Swedish knights, but seventy men out of a garrison of one thousand were found alive, and among these hardly ten were unwounded. Three days after the capitulation, king John with his fleet appeared before Stockholm to succour the queen, but was obliged to retire without accom plishing his object. Ofthe three castles which had been occupied by royal garrisons, Stockholm, Orebro, and Calmar, the last alone remained to be won 8. Norway too revolted ; and Canute Alfson, lieutenant of Aggerhus, became the ally of Steno, but was treacherously murdered at a conference with the Danes, after which prince Christian quenched the rebellion in the blood of the Nor- 8 The council had in 1499 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 committed 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 his 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 Lodose, took Oresten and Elfsborg, putting the garrisons to the sword, although they had offered to capitulate. The peasantry attributed this disaster to Eric Ericson (Gyllenstiem), 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 whUe found a refuge in the convent of Vadstena, was released and escorted to the frontier by Steno Stare". On his return he fell sick and died, in the neighbourhood of Jenkb'ping, December 13, 1503, according to the Rhyme Chronicle, of poison". 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 Suanto Sture he had secured the castle of Stock holm, where the latter was elected guardian, Ja nuary 21, 1504. Steno Stare* was buried in the monastery of Gripsholm, which he had founded. His only son Maurice had died in 1493 ; one daughter Bridget, a nun iu the convent of Vads tena, lived till 1536. Suanto was son of Nicholas Stare", 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 1," may he 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 tounteous 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 affairs with good-natured courtesy. His assistant in the government was Hemming Gadd 2 ; a priest by vocation and learn- 1 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 1499, Cubicularium nostrum et Vice-Regis et regni Sueciaj apud nos oratorem constitutum. In 1501 he had been elected bishop of Linkoping, 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 himself to be } Peace with Russia. ADMINISTRATION OF THK 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 be 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 Trolle", with a great proportion of the council and all the bishops excepting Hemming Gadd, who did not scruple 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 his Swedish foes, in which we find even the deceased Steno Stare" included. In 1509, the plenipotentiaries of the Swedish council in Copen hagen, 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 ot 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 sum of money out of the king dom as acknowledgment." They also took notice that nothing 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. Iu 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 Stare", had for a time composed their differences with the king, but as he continued obstinately to shut them out from all commercial intercourse with Sweden, and to fill the Baltic with privateers, they renewed their alliance with Suanto Stare", 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 tlirough the Sound, and gathered upon their islands a scum of all nations, subsisting on the trade of piracy3. 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 chosen, the latter, because they had promoted the choice. Hemming Gadd, to whom, in consequence of this, the council had denied investiture in the bishopric, at length gave up all claim to it in 1512. Next year Bishop John Brask 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. Oeland 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 his ecclesiastical office from plundering and threatening with conflagration the monasteries of Laland, in revenge for the desolation of Finland and the burning 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 prmce 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 Stare", as his successor. Steno, surnamed the younger, son of Suanto, by his first marriage 4, and 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 Trolle*, a learned nobleman, of whom Gustavus I. remarks, " that he showed himself more fit for the priesthood than for the functions of secular government 5." 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 6. 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 Stare" was cele brated in the castle of Stockholm, did not pass over without the spilling of blood 7. King John died on the 21st of February, 1513 ; even by the testimony of Swedish writers, a pious i With Iliana Gadda. '' 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. 6 In Malmb, April 23, 1512. 7 Eric Abrahamson (Lejonhufvud), who belonged to the Danish faction, transfixed with his sword another noble who was present. 78 Papal ban and interdict on the Swedes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Christian 11. 's Invasion. J A. IJ. J 1513— 20. and honest 'man 8, though occasionally violent and cruel, as the murder of his secretary and chancellor proves 9. 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 who 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 Stare's. An attempt had already been made by one faction to set up his grandfather, Arvid Trolle", against Steno the elder, while his father Eric Trolle* had lost the government by the election of the younger Stare". This Gustavus Trolle" was of a temper that never forgave a past wrong, real or fancied, although the administrator himself, 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 demolished. Next year Christian himself accomplished a landing in the neighbour hood of Stockholm, but suffered a complete over throw from Steno Stare". 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 personal 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 was placed under an interdict1. " The Swedes," says Olave Peterson, " did not in the least regard 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 wore 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. i Proclaimed by Birger, Archbishop of Lund, iu the spring of 1517. T. 2 The above named Eric Abrahamson. 3 See Proclamation of the Council of State (Ricksens Rads Utskrifvelse, &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 by this disaster. Being conveyed to Strengness, he soon received intelligence that the Danes, to whom a Swedish nobleman 2 pointed out the way, had sur rounded the entrenchment in the forest of Tived, cut to pieces the troops 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, February 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 homi 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 » baronial diet con voked in Upsala, by which Christian was acknow ledged king, on condition that he should govern con formably to the 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 autumn 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 affection3." The instigator of this resolution was Theodoric Slaghoek, formerly a barber, and a rela- king Christian in Sweden, Strengness, June 6, 1523; in Stiernman, Acts df 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, truci vultu ; sed quem in congressibus prsecipua comitate contegat, are the words of Jacob Ziegler, who de scribes the massacre of Stockholm after contemporary ac counts, in an appendix to his Scandia. :\ Charge by the archbishop. Massacre of Stockholm. DANISH DOMINATION. Cruelties of the king. His departure. 79 tive of Sigbrit, a Dutch huckster, who by the beauty of her daughter had gained an ascendant over the king's mind, which she had tact enough to preserve during his whole reign 4. 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 df 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 in 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 that the matter should be adjudi cated forthwith. As the prelate's charges were really directed against Steno Stare", his widow Christina Gyllenstierna stood up and appealed to the resolution of the estates, whereby Gustavus TroUe* 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 5 ; 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, upon which the captives were now led forth ; Matthias, bishop of Strengness, who had laboured more to advance the Danish party than any other mau in Sweden, — Vincent, bishop of Skara,— 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 Trolle* had thrice adjured the king upon his knees to suffer that this punishment should overtake the 1 Memoirs for the History of Scandinavia, Stockholm, 1817, iii. 6. 5 B-shop Hans Brask of Linkoping, 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, he says himself. 7 The south suburb, where St. Catherine's church now stands. » November 9, 1520. 8 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 the 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 Sbdermalm 7. Steno StarCs 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 8, purporting that he had caused Steno Sture*'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. Meanwhile the massacre, in conformity with his command, was extended 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 beginning of 1521 9. While these horrors were being acted, a noble youth, wanderiDg 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 Linko 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.) i Device of Gustavus I. 80 General character of this period. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The monarchy a federation. CHAPTER VII. LAND AND PEOPLE DURING THE CATHOLIC PERIOD. THE SWEDISH FEDERATIVE SYSTEM. THE YEOMAN AND HIS 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 fascinates 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 admirable 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 themselves, 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. In 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 turies2 (whence the name hundari or hserad3), sprang a confederacy for mutual protection 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 storhundrade, or long hundred. The division by hundreds is found, both as re gards the name and the fact, in Tacitus (centeni ex singulis pagis, idque ipsum inter suos vocantur), who besides remarks that the army was arranged clan-wise. Nee fortuita con- globatio turmam aut cumeum facit sed familis e( propin- quitates. 3 Fleer, army, means in a more narrow sense a number of one hundred, according to the Edda. Hajrad was the term usual in Gothland; hundari in Swedeland; as maybe seen from the old laws. The harads were again divided into fierdingar, fourths, whence the flerdings-ting, or quarter- court spoken of in the laws, but this arrangement is now obsolete, though the name and office of fierdings-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 bome 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 various provinces, themselves yeomen without titles s, 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 appears to have subsisted 6. 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 with 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 easUy become dangerous to the rights of the commons. Thus was created from the court, ncemnde-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. < Thiod-konungr. We may not call them Folk-kings who are tributary, the Edda says. 5 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. 6 Tacitus says of the judges among the Germans, Centeni singulis ex plebe comites, consilium simul et auctoritas, adsunt. Germ. 12. According to northern ideas, we should refer this to a hundred-court. Strength of the popular element. SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGE. Mode of election. The Ericsgair. fii 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 remained 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 influence8. Within the limits of the peninsula itself, the old state of things continued, but with Christianity 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 independent 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 reigus 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 iu dissimilar shapes. Reposing on the 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 afterwai'ds 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 tbe 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 prerogatives which they had pos sessed under the old form of society. In the letter 7 Tlie weU-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 church and the nobility, and a regal authority which rested upon their support, 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 Engelbert and the Stores, 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 aud the nobility. This is pre-eminently the 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 person. In proportion as the elective scheme obtaiued 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 1296, 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 land, Attundaland, and Fiadhundraland. To the Lawman of Upland it belongs, first to doom him at Upsala to be king ; then aU the Lawmen one after another, of the Suthermen, of the East-Goths, of the Ten Hundreds 9, 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 2. There shall the 9 Tiohasrad 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. l The inhabitants of Nerike and Westmanland. 2 An old place of sacrifice for the Suthermanlanders or Sudermanians (locus idolorum in the legend of St. Eskill), now the town of Strengniis (or Strengness). G 82 Elective Customs of the West-Goths. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Privilege of the Upper Swedes. Suthermen take it up, and attend him with greet ings 3 and hostages to Swintuna 4. There shall the East-Goths meet him with their hostages, and accompany him through their land, until the mid dle of the forest Holawidh 5. There shall the Sma- landers meet him, and follow him to the stream of Juna6. There shall the West-Goths meet him with greetings and hostages, and attend him to Ramundaboda 7. Then shall the Nerikers meet him and accompany him through their land, and so to the bridge of Uphoga 8. There shall the West- men meet him with greetings and hostages, and attend him to Eastbridge 9. Then shall the Up- landers meet him, and follow him to Upsala. Then hath the king come lawfully to his land and realm with Uplanders and Suthermen, Goths and Gott- landers 1, 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 Goths3. Then shall the Lawman appoint hostages, two from the southern and two from the northern part of the land, and shafl 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 tlieir 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. 4 Now Krokek, in the midst of the forest Kolmord. 5 Holweden, the chain of wood-covered hills, which still forms the boundary between East-Gothland and Smaland. 6 A river running into lake Vetter at Jbnkbping. 7 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. 8 Over the Opboga or Arboga stream, at the east end of the forest of Kaglan. » Over the Sag at Nyquarn, the frontier between Upland and Westmanland. l Gutar. 2 Dulgadrapanddana-arf. The former name 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 Giita Ting. So the provincial diet of the West- Goths was called. 4 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 Hire we explain the word as " a progress round all the kingdom," since e in composition means all. (Rik, 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 there 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 him " 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. Erie, 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 aU 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 number of provinces en titled to vote at the election of the king increased in process of time. The law of Upland still Unfits 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 their 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 5. 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 form and oath of election were not made public in the law-book. before his days, as he himself effected, 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, Linkoping, Jonkoping, 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 Magnus 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 wa; The yeoman and his rights. SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGE. Law of inheritance. Birth-rights. 83 Newly added justiciaries are, in the Sudermanian law, the Lawman of Vermeland, in the Land's Law those of Oeland, with North and South Finland 6. Here also we find a more complete account of the mode of election. This was held on the meadow of Mora, one mUe ? 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 in his hands 8," 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 the present. This was called to swear by or at Mora Stone, and an old record states that the king immediately after his election was raised upon the stone 9. It was now incumbent 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 round his realm with the sun (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 private 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 first laid by the careful and excellent editions of the old laws by Collins and Schlyter. 5 For Norrland, it was long subject to the Lawman of Upland, while Dalecarlia and Westmanland 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. 9 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. Around were placed twelve smaller stones, whence it would seem that the whole resembled the old judicial rings or yeoman, the " man for himself," freeholder of his ground, 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 ', since upon that principle his whole substance depended. To his freedom he was born by his descent (osttborin), as to his odal-ground, which therefore was called the property he was horn 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 ground, 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 2, 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 law 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 3. 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 Palmskiild Collections : " Anders Nilson of Edby, parish of Denmark, related, August 6, 1628, 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." i 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. 108), 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. s Law ofthe East-Goths, Eghna Sal. f. 11. G2 84 Protection of private character. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Homicides outlawed. The man- bote. by the cardinal points 4. 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 back0. An insult must be wiped out by blood, and the law of Upland quotes as a provision " of the old law wliich was used in the heathen time," that whosoever upbraided another, 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 the words came not, he was to be publicly pro claimed infamous (niding), and a memorial of the fact must be erected at the spot 7. 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-fall9, and afterwards to appear in the court under safeconduct, 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 neighbourhood of inhabited places and retire ta forests and wildernesses. Hence it was said of the man who sought to atone for his crime by bote, 4 In 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," ;is well in respect to fields and meadows as forests. s Law of the East-Goths, Drap B. f. 5. 6 Law of Westmanland, Arf B. f. 4. 7 Such a mark was called Nidstang. (Niding is our word, niding, 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 can2 ;" 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 3." 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 4." 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 the exaction of revenge was incumbent, and partly to the kindred of the slain man by that of the slayer 5. The offender was besides required to swear with twelve men of his family, that he would himself 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 when he gave judg ment in person. With the extension of the royal power the kin-bote gradually ceased 7, 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. Iu 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. i Law of Gottland, c. 13. 2 Ordinance of Skenninge, 1285. 3 King Magnus Ericson's ordinance of 1335. 4 Law of the East-Goths, Drap B. f 5. 5 Mtlar-hot, kin-bote. 6 Jamnader-ed. Tryghder-ed. Compare Law of Scania, v. 30. 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, 1335. The ordeals. Compurgators. SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGE. Judicial office nnd power. Mulcts. a ,71 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, iu 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 8. 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 method 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 confirmed again by oath, and the usage so long preserved in Swedish judicial procedure, of admit ting compurgators (edg'ardsmen, oath-guarders), who swore to an oath taken on one side as being true and lawful 9, 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 auxiUaries with their evidence. In general the legal forms were these ; either the pro secutor might prove by witnesses (vittna), and the accused deny (dylia) by bis own oath and those of his compurgators, or a jury (neenid) usually of twelve men, in whom both parties placed con fidence, might investigate the circumstances and deliver their opinion1. In earlier times the judge was elected by the people 2. According to the Land's Law, the king nominated 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 nsemd became permanent3 ; the bounds separating its functions from those of the judge were oblite rated, and it has finally remained a constituent s Deum adesse bellantibua credunt, says Tacitus of the Germans. 9 "That those who beforehand swore had sworn both truly and legally." Law of the East-Goths, lirap. B. f. 13. i Judicial causes in which the flrst 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 Schlyter, Observations on the controversy regarding the former relation between the Judge and the Nsemd. Svea 2. 255. ..„.,, ! "The lagman all the yeomen shall choose, with Gods help," says the Law of West-Gothland. The harads-hbfding as judge of the hundred, and the lagman as judge of the province. By the provincial laws of Sweden Proper there portion of the tribunal. And still the twelve pea sants, who sit in the Swedish courts throughout the country with the justice of a province (Lag- man) or a hundred, though their opinion only holds good against the judge's when all the asses 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 manency, " 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 jesters4." 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 might be realized, the prosecutor was originally empow ered himself to take s 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, tbe 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 jury 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 6, which informs us 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 Ladulas7. It was afterwards or dained that the king's inquest (Rarfst) should be held at least once a year in every province by the sovereign himself, or the person into whose hands were two judges (domare) in each hundred: by those of Gothland, only one, namely the hundred-courtman, as the Land's Law also directs. Yet in some places the oldest of the nzerndemen is still called haeradsdomare (demster of the hundred). 3 its progress to this result maybe remarked in the direc tions of the Land's Law touching the naimd, when the king sits in person. Konunga B. f. 35. 4 This exhortation may be found in the Celsian manu script collections, Miscellanea in 4to. No. 46, Library of Upsala. 5 This was called Nam (niin). 6 Rasfsta B. f. 3. ..-,,,.> 7 Diplomatar. Suec. i. 591. Compare Law of Upland, Tingmals B. f. 10. 8G Measures of police. Punishment of offences. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Influence of the church. Serfdom early abolished. he had deputed his judgment 8. But generally 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 the king or the admi nistrator, unless 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 ; and his ordinance or Verlds- lige Lov (Civic Law), given January 6, 1522 (" with consent of our dear lieges, the council ofthe 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 suffered." Olave Peterson. It is possible that Gustavus alludes to this in the Articles of Vadstenaof 1524 (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 Are. This took place Jan. 24, 1522. 8 This flrst letter of renunciation is dated Viborg, Jan. 20, 1523. 7 In a letter of February 5, 1523, king Christian acquaints his queen 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 7, 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 8, 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 treasure 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 Denmark, wrote to the estates of Sweden, demand ing that in accordance with the stipulations of the Onion 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 the diet of Strengness, June the seventh, 1523 °. Thus was the 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 Siggeson Sparre had pene- closed note he speaks of the universal dissatisfaction with mother Sigbrit, and requests the queen to receive her in to 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 Mb'en, 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 Stiern- man's Resolutions, and is generally received. 108 Dissolution of the union. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The nobles and the commons. [1524— trated into their country as far as Opslo, that they would unite with Sweden if they might rely upon its support1. Bohusland was subdued, Bleking likewise on another side, and Gustavus sought, both by negociations and arms, to enforce the old claims of Sweden to Scania and Halland. The town of Calmar was taken on the 27th May, and the castle on the 7 th July. Stockholm having sur rendered on the 20th June, on condition of the free departure of the garrison with their property and arms, and of every other person who adhered to the cause of Christian 2, 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 whose demands made it more troublesome than it would have been as an enemy. OHAPTEE IX. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. STATE OP 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 WEST-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. u. 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 3." 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 difficult 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 during 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 manner, as to be in fact sove reigns within the limits of their own feudatory pre fectures (Ian), in which also they were generally hy their own possessions the most important per sonages. Hence the distribution of those fiefs (so much the more that they were not liereditary) 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- i See the letter from Thure Jenson to bishop Brask, of April 23, 1523, in Linkbping's Bibliotheks Handlingar, ii. 183. (Opslo is now Christiania.) 2 By an undated instrument in the archives of Christian II. with the title " (Artichle oc bewillinge, Sic.) 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 thecon- ditions there demanded were not granted in the capitulation. 3 Letters to the trading towns, of July 14, 1523, and Sep tember 26, 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 4 V The pos sessors of these levied the revenues of the crown, and applied them to their own use 6, for the kings, with few exceptions, at least during the latter days of the Union, received no part of the proceeds. Hence the scheme, which was sometimes openly urged, of parcelling the kingdom into several prin cipalities under different rulers, was something more than a mere vague project of the grandees. The plan was even to no inconsiderable extent carried into effect. 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 power. 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 Stare's, but like wise involved in perpetual war against foreign 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 affairs. 4 Articles of Vadstena, October, 1524. (Laen, Swed. Anglo- Sax, and Scot., fief, is the same word as loan. T.) 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 fief," says bishop Brask in a letter to Thure 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 ofthe Union. J 1543.] Position of the church. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. Demands of the Lubeckers. 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 alliances, 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 possessed 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 impatient of taxation ; and this Gustavus himself was destined to experience 6. 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 Stares, 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 Trolle" 7. 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 s. In genera], the church suffered much during the war from the tyrannical proceedings of Christian, even towards his own friends 9. Yet it was beyond comparison the richest corporation in the country, 6 " 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 Archives. 7 On the mere report of a reconciliation with the arch bishop, the Dalesmen wrote to Gustavus " that they could in tliat 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 the corrupt manners ofthe mendicant friars, see p. 103. 9 See the letters of bishop Brask to Rome, complaining 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, Strengncsensis and exercised through the inferior clergy great influence. It was under such circumstances that Gustavus had to re-establish in 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 in the siege of Stockholm, which 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 up and dethroning the sovereigns of the north 1, had newly concluded an alliance with king Frederic of Denmark, and promised him conditionally its aid for the acquisi tion of the Swedish crown. The envoys dropped threats on this head 2, and the negociation for the surrender of Stockholm being in their hands, it was found necessary to grant all their demands 3. 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 4 ; " 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 part of Sweden," the king's troops, according to Norby, 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 amictionibus preventa, Vexionensis in terminis hostium, Linkopensis communis prada;" 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. i " 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 Malmce 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 5." 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. Lubeck, which 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. Brask, 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 himself and the island under Danish protection. In the mean time a personal interview of Gustavus and Fre deric took place at Malmce, and Lubeck interposed its mediation between the kings. By the conven tion of Malmce, 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. 6 The contract, which exists in the Archives of Christian II., and is dated Brandenburg, May 1,1526, 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. 58. 8 Ut aliqui deputentur in certis diocesibus— inquisitores heretic e 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 tbe opinions and books of Luther (see Litterse Domini Regis contra opinionem Lutherianam, ibid. 159). It is plain, however, from the king's letter to bishop Brask in 1524, that this was not published : " 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 them censured by impartial 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- -, time, and negatived for ever the Danish claims of superiority, and the renewal of the Union. Meanwhile the treachery of Bernard of Melen 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. 6 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 punishment 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 151 9 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 8. The king, who was himself in correspondence with Luther 9, appointed Olave Peterson, whose hold sermons at the elective diet of Strengness excited general attention1, 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 Church2. 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. 9 " 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. i 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, preesertim contra decreta sancte Roman® ecclesise ac ecclesiasticam libertatem ad effectum, ut status moderns; ecclesia? reducatur ad mendicitatem et statum ecclesise 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 bythe 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 ofthe 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 Ihe bishops, any other authority or dominion over men, but only 1543.] Debt to Lubeck. New Taxes. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. Prevalence of distress. Ill rence Anderson, provost of Strengness, and after wards of Upsala, who bad 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 3." 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 4, wherefore he had been obliged to contract large debts. Those due to Lubeck, as they were acknowledged at the diet of Strengness, amounted to 68,681 Lubeck marks for military stores, with 8,609 marks in cash advanced 5, not including 200,000 guilders for the payment of the soldiery 6, which, however, were probably refunded in the same year with the plate of the churches, since this debt is not afterwards mentioned. To these besides were to be 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 king on the ground of the public need7. 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 ofthe 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 his 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 Trail'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. 4 The document (entitled " Thette wartt framsatl, &c. This was explained to the common people at Westeras a. d. 1 523, at Martinmas, and may be promulged in other places of the countiy," ) is published by Fant : Dissertatio de causis, ob quas Gustavo I. contra Christiernum II. opitulati fuerint Lubecenses, Upsalise, 1782. If we reckon the Swedish mark of that time at twenty skillings in silver, or 8%d. (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 year ; 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 1526 ; the towns were taxed, and a heavy tallage laid over the whole kingdom, on such goods as the common people were best able to spare, "because at that time there was very little money to take in the land8." Various unfavourable circumstances made the pres sure of all this to be more severely felt. The tokens or need-money, called klippings 9, 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 l ; 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 received 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 tbe rix-dollar at U. 8d. is £33,333 of the present English money, an enormous sum for Sweden in that day. T.). 5 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 14§<2., 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 suas de gravamine ecclesiarum, &c; respondit profusis lacrymis, qnod nullimortalium 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. 8 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 ljd.); its real value was nine rundstycks {-fed.). The churches had been obliged to surrender their money for klippings. i 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 ofthe Archives. 112 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 several 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 from the conference of Malmce in 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 bones 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 their 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 leading many of them an evil and vicious life." He sought to appease the people by every method, assuring them, that he by no means intended the introduction of a new faith 3, 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-dollar (thus making the mark a trifle more than 6%d). Hallenberg 1. c. 112. (The tun contains 4£ Winchester bushels ; about 20 tuns go to a last.) 3 As an example of 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 brought 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 bylaw; that if a poor man on a holiday kills a bird, or draws himself a plate of fish from the stream, he is forthwith obliged to pay a fine 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 themselves of much of the crown pro perty, and embezzle the king's proportion of judicial fines. "When they perceive that we look to tlie interest ofthe 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 had been long accustomed to revolutions. " The humours of the common people are wont with us lightly to change 4," 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', which was highly honoured 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 5. 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 Sunnanveeder 6, who had been chancellor to the administrator Steno Sture' the younger, was chosen bishop of Westeras. The election had proceeded " upon deliberation bythe Dalesmen i," as he him self mentions ; and in the first year of his episco pate, he was 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 no 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 council8, 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 4 Sententia vulgi nostri facile solet variari. Haec flducia- 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 existentibus, ut difficillimum videretur regem Chris- tianum dejici posse. Brask to Gustave Trolle, October 18, 1523, I.e. 171. 6 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 efficient. 6 Lit. Southwind. 7 Maturo 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 " Maelers, 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 happened at the very time when Gustavus had procured the release of Sturm's widow from a Danish prison. Christina Gyllenstierna 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 Stare" in his charge, to give a colour to his own defection, and left a, servant of the house of Sturd in command of the castle of Calmar °. Rumours were soon spread 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 intriguers2. He secretly suspected Christina Gyllenstierna of participating in this design 3. 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 s. 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' appearing under his name in Dalecarlia. Irreconcilable interests had combined in these plots, which had the double object of elevating to power the house of Sture', 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 he 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 6." 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, 64. 1 A letter from Mecklenburg in the Archives of Christian II. (without name of writer or date) mentions that Severin Norby will wed 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 Bhe 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 dominions7. 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 «. Letters forged in 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 had 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 s : yet with the con dition that " they should abide the sentence of their legitimate judges, and suffer 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 '." 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 punishment to which they were con demned, in spite of .every intercession2. 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 offenders 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 Sunnanvseder." In this fashion they made the circuit of the town, and were forced at last to drink fellowship with the hangman 3. her promise. At Christmastide, 1526, the king betrothed her to Johu Thureson (Roos), son ofthe high steward Thure Jenson. s " 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 you should send him for some time to another place, where he may more improve 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. i Letter of the archbishop to the king, dated Nidaros, July 5, 1526. Registry ofthe Archives. 2 " Thereto his 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 1526, when the sentence had been passed on Master Canute, but not on Peter Sun- I 114 Gustavus and bishop Brask. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Assumes supremacy in the church. [1524- Men 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 offered and the circumstances of the case demanded, from a beginning that was apparently tranquil and even compliant. For such alway 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 4 ; 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 5 ; 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 6 ;" for which reason he opposed, and afterwards censured, the government of the Sture's '. 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 church8. 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 9." 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 nanvaeder; they were sentenced to be beheaded and broken on the wheel, and were accordingly executed in February, 1527, the formerin Stockholm, the latter in Upsala. 4 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. 5 Brask, in a letter to Thure Jenson of the year 1526 (com pare Linkb'ping's Biblioth. Handl. i. 191), was the first to propose that connection of the Baltic with the North Sea, which has been effected in our own days by the Gbta canal. fl 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 privilegiorum domini Lincopensis et ecclesise ibidem d. 18 Oct. 1523. 1. c. xvii. 170. » 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 i weak Joannes Magnus had come as papal legate to Sweden, I 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 x ; 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 horseback on one of the barrows of Upsala, discoursed to the people who stood round, on the useiessness 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, preferring 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 repre sented almost as an instance of the royal gene rosity3. At the same time he wrote to bishop Brask 4, 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. 1 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 he driven out, but would themselves feed and fodder them. Tegel. 3 In the letter of the monks on this affair, 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 to the council, to whom he refers this matter. Register in the Ar chives for 1526. 4 August 29, 1526. 1543.J The false Sture. His impostures. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. Rebellion in the Dales. 115 monasteries," which was indeed performed in such a fashion that one after the other was brought under his own management. The secular fiefs of the bishops were confiscated5, and the fines at law due to them 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 aud nuns who wished to quit their convents letters of pro tection 6, and declared excommunications invalid 7. 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 8, and sharing their revenues with them at his good pleasure. The king was encompassed hy 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 Dalecarlia. This person fled, he pretended, before the face 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 Shire" was a peasant lad from the parish of Biorksta in Westmanland, the illegitimate son of a cotter woman, considerably older than the object of his personation, yet of delicate and fair aspect, 5 Bishop Brask lost the hundreds of Gullberg, Boberg, and Aska. See his correspondence, which also contains the proofs of the following statements. 8 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. 7 Thus the king rescinded Brask's interdict against the marriage of Olave Tyst6, a noble of East-Gothland, which the parents attempted to hinder by placing the bride, against her wil], in the convent of Vadstena. 8 The priest in the parish of Munktorp, in the diocese of Westeras, had died. The king orders Bennet the Westgoth, his bailiff in Westeras, to see that the successor to the bene fice, Master Lars, sends him the silver tankards of the 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 Sunnauvseder. 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 willingness 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 1, 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 tbe 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 (Bohuslan) ; 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). 1 In the letter of March 2, 1527, to the commonalty ofthe 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 Dalecarlia; " 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 2 116 Diet of Westeras assembles. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Speech of the high chancellor. [1624 — intimated, that with the assistance of the council and the wisest men of the realm, he would make inquiry into the dissensions which had arisen in religion. Since his accession, general or baronial diets 2 had been held yearly, often twice ajyear, 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 neighbouring inhabitants and the councillors resident in the province in whieh 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 bishops3, four prebendaries, fifteen lords of the council, one hundred and twenty-nine nobles, thirty-two burgesses4, fourteen miners, with one hundred and five peasants from all quarters of the kingdom, excepting Dalecarlia 5, from which no members were sent, and Finland, 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 whieh he welcomed all the estates, it was noticed that the bishops 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 circumstances 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 yming, and had given consent to that which afterwards he had often rued. It 2 Riksdag. Herredag. 3 Namely Brask of Linkceping, 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, which was performed at Rome by the king's special request, after Peter .Sunnanvjeder had been deposed. This Peter Magnuson afterwards consecrated the bishops appointed by the king. Of the four prebendaries, two were from Upsala, of which the archiepiscopal chair was vacant, and two from Vexio, the bishop of which was pre vented by age from attending. 4 Besides the representatives of Stockholm, who, singularly enough, arenot named in the catalogue in Stiernman, although they were present, and had great influence with the diet. 6 So the king himself complains (letter to the common people of the Dales, February 14, 1528, Reg. or the Arch.). 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 7 ;" 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 was 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 8. 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 their burdens, when need was. Lastly, it was imputed to the king that he was 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 bishopswho revolted and levied warbefore their eyes, according as the archbishop Gustavus Trolle' 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 in the conflict. The same admi nistrator, lord Steno Sture", 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 permitted 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. 0 " That the like Shrove-tide mumming might he 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 the congress in Vadstena, from which his regency is usually dated, to lay down the chieftaincy (hofwidsmansdomet), 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 staff 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.] Di^ntge^t„0eb™sthe GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. His demanda 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 necessary ; 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 labourers ; 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 9. 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 in 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 he abrogated and punished. The king inquired of the council and the nobility, whether they deemed this a fair answer ; Thure" Jenson 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 mus£ 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 oui- 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 24,000 marks such terms 1 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 these 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, affirming that no man within this year should turn him into a heathen, Lutheran, or heretic. But when on the following day the same indecision prevailed among tho 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 traders 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 king, 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 carried 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 " framsattniugar," while Swedish words were still used for Swedish affairs)'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. Bishops' castles sequestrated. [1524— the council of state, whose seals were 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 misgovemment ;'' 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 he 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 the 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 1 Or " with how many men they should ride," since the revenues of a baron were at that time reckoned by 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 (friilsejord) ; taxable ground (skattejord), which had been transferred to the Church, was to be restored, " however long it might have beeu alienated." 3 The king did not demand the castle of Grdnsb from the bishop of Westeras, because he had already, in 1521, taken it from bishop Otto, who favoured the Danes, without subse quently restoring it to his successor Peder Sunnanvaeder, 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 hy the bishop of Skara in reference to that' of Lecko 3, but when the king came to bishop Brask and re quested his castle of Munkehoda, silence and sighs were the only reply. Thure" 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 forthwith 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. Gustavo's 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 reciprocally 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 sought4 refuge, and more covertly, 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 whieh they had refused payment, were now sum moned to meet the king at the assize (landstiug) of chapter of Upsala, that he had taken the estate of Gronsb 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. 4 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. '^¦iMoniTiTeslupTrJssed. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. Decrees of the synod of Orebro. ny 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, where 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 hear goodwill to him and his labours, yet it was of no avail. The reason was, that he had 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 burdens 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 Norrianders to obedience." For the effects of the diet of Westeras to ripen to maturity in Sweden, seventy years 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 5." 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 were 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- s Minute-book of the town 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 their 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 in 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 6." Letters from the king to his officers exist, in wliich he reprimands them for their unseasonable zeal in pressiug the Swedish mass on the people, "though little improvement could follow till the generality were better in structed7," With this view, it was further or dained by the 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 hi which these could be obtained. Gustavus himself 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 arrived 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 1524. He was the oldest member of the council, and justiciary of West-Gothland, an office which his grandfather had previously filled. So extensive was his 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 8." 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 reminded of his obligations in this respect was considered as a proof, that even the new advantages which were 8 Id. p. 291. 7 Id. iii. 171. 8 In his speech to the Westgothlanders, in Tegel. 120 Revolt of the West- Gothlanders. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Meeting on Larfs Heath. [1524— promised to the nobles at the expense of the Church were not so secure 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 9, 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 betrayed 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 sought 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 massacre of Stockholm had broken the strength of the magnates, and the |S»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 should 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 sworn 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 the seditious are not yet come back '." The 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 he 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 whieh 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, hearing 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 writ 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 1 April 29, 1529. Reg. ofthe Archives. 2 In Calmar aud Kronoback. 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. Jiiran Thurtfson, 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 office3. 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 4, 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, that 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 (Liliehb'k), 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 the 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 trial5 it was declared, that the arraigned lords had forfeited all ^laim 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, condemned 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 mother, 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 purchasing the 3 His brothers John and Lars, both councillors of state, had remained true to the king. 4 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 Kafle, 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 rje 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 that the capital had not been diminished6 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 1525 were to be confined to Lubeck, the town con senting that the debt should be paid by instal ments within four years; but even this engagement rendered necessary the employment of extraor dinary means. Imitating an example which had already been set in Denmark 7, a baronial diet held at Upsala in the early part of the year 1530 re solved, that from all the town churches of tbe 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 arrangement 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-coffers 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 commons, 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. « 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. 7 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 Fugger, 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 the present attempt, appeared men who had heretofore been the most faithful adherents 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 8. 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 1 0,000 men 9. 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 former archbishop Gustavus Trolle', who had carried off with him the old records of the king dom 2 ; here were gathered Thurd 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 the Registry of the Archives for 1526 exists a letter of the king, written during the rebellion in the Dale-land in stigated by Peder Sunnanvseder, to the miners of the Kop parberg, on the nomination of a new bailiif; " 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. ofthe Archives. 1 His last attempt.in 1526, to make war on Gustavus with tbe 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 Troll6 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 Bpecial covenant3 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 repute4." 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 Opslo5. The Norsemen, who had long been disaffected to Danish rule, perceived in Christian the instrument' 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 again 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 Thure" 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 ofthe 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. 8 " Baron Thure Jenson often asserted that hewould with 1543.] His surrender and imprisonment. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. The king's conference with the Dalesmen. 123 no effect. And when Christian himself, iu an in cursion into Bohusland, met with an obstinate re sistance from the inhabitants, the prompter of these deceitful liopes, to which the invader had yielded credence, was obliged to expiate his misre presentation with his life. The headless body of Thure; Jenson was found one morning upon the road in Kongelf. The common 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 Upper Norway. The fate of Christian was soon decided. His ships were 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 ofthe 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 agamst Christian, that king Frederic was obliged to give a written assurance to the no bility of Denmark and Holstein 7, that he should be kept in perpetual imprisonment, the document being committed to the custody of eight barons, four Danes and four Holsteiners s. 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 wliich 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 be expect to obtain." Hvitfeld. 7 Hvitfeld says to Gustavus and the Swedish nobility 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 9. 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, had 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 ', 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 when the miners set at nought his summons to defend the kingdom against the attack of Christian, and held communications with his runaway sub jects2. 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 his horses with silver. In the commencement of the year 1533 Gustavus cited his own retainers, 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 cast 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 would 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, 266. 9 Id. 2, 378. i Reply to the letter of the Dale-folk, November 7, 1531. Reg. of the Archives. 2 This is stated in the sentence of the delinquents, Tegel, 1, 322. 124 Designs of Lubeck. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Rupture with that town. [1524— cock should be heard in 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 Brunback 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 during 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 restored to their wives and children3. 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 advantage4," 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 favoured these rivals, but they had not reaped the fruits ex pected from his fall 5, 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 GBrgen 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 populace, 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 Sture', a son of the last administrator, who had fallen into their hands. The generous youth 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 1532, excluding the Hollanders from the Baltic, was not ra tified, the emperor and stadholder ofthe Netherlands having declared that Christian's invasion had been undertaken against their wishes. « Instructions for Roloff Matson, 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 towns6." Gustavus, as has been mentioned, bad 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 sovereign 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 8. The consequence was that the Lubeckers seized a ship belonging 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 now broke 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 the 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 Malmoe, 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 9, aud 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 2. The Lubeckers were driven out of Scania, Halland, and Blekinge, bythe forces 7 See the reasons in Tegel, 1. 221. 8 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. 9 He was married to the daughter of Christian's sister. 1 To punish their attachment to Christian 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. 1548.] Conspiracy detected. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION. Measures of Church discipline. 12S of Gustavus ; their fleet was defeated by the com bined Swedish and Danish squadrons. In Den mark too their good fortune came to an end with the overthrow in Funen (in which Gustavus Trolle' was mortally 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 that people died of hunger in the streets, and children were observed sucking blood from the breasts of their expiring mothers3. 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 interests 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, suffered (in 1536) 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 archbishop, being obliged himself to sit in judg ment on his brother4. 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, aud they were the last Swedish ecclesiastics who held this dignity. Meanwhile the work of the Reformation was advancing in the northern 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 famishinginhabitants demanded the surrender ofthe place, the town magistrates answered, that " they had not yet, as in the siege of Jerusalem, devoured their own children." Hvitfeldt. 4 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 the 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 day), in which it 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 reproached 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 this, 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 5, was appointed superintendent over the whole clerical order in his dominions 6. According to an instruc tion ' issued in 1540, office-bearers, 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 under 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 churches, 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 8." Towards the end of this prince's reign, the sees of Upsala and Linkoping were thus parcelled out each into three portions, those of Westeras and Strengness into two 9. In all the countries where the reformation was established, it is observable 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 tho German towns, with Malmo and Copenhagen, were minded," and finally to bring the realm under tie dominion of the Hanse Towns. 5 A copy of Melancthon's letter to the king, dated Witten berg, May 12, 1539, exists a-jrong the Palmskold 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 Palmskold Collections. 7 Instruction by which the conservator and councillor of religion in West-Gothland shall be guided. Nylb'dose, April 9, 1540. MS. ibid. s Commission for those who are made Ordinaries. Wes teras, June 19, 1 557. MS. ibid. ' Spegel, Proofs to the Bishops' Chronicle, p. 114. 126 Rebellion in Smaland. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Its dangerous character. [1524—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 had employed the nobles as auxiliaries against the hierarchy. He had confirmed their charter 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 2, " 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 and 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, " that they would slay their lords and root out the whole body 3." 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 4 — who press followers in the name of the ' Letter to the peasantry at the fair of Disting, 1540, in the Registry of the Archives. 2 Dated at Gripsholm, March 5, 1538. 3 Tegel 2, 92. 4 In what manner the rabble of traitors made their pro gress from Smaland. Registry of the Archives for 1543. 5 Herrehycklare, fawners on lords ; lord-losers. T. common weal and the advancement of Christianity. Then if the priest of the parish be married, his house is straightway plundered ; the same is done to rich landowners and yeomen, who are called lick-lords6. 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 livery are accounted for thralls to the great. They say, that they mean no ill to traffickers, but only to lords' men and retainers, pretending that they wish again to build up Christianity, to abolish the Swedish mass, and bring 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 forest-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 summer 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 7. Thus ended the fiercest insurrection which Gustavns 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. ' Messenius (Scondia v. 96) 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. THE 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 king'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 king'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 happy, 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 holm, 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 8. 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 the 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 8 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 beep 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 in gold and silver and carry 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 nobles9, 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 body." 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 2 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 continually, 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 Ufe ! Once again after the days of this superintendent, or inspector (Tillsynesman), as he is also termed, George Norman. i See Stjernman, Resolutions, i. 200. 2 The statute mentioned is drawn up by the clergy of the dioceses of Upsala, Westeras, and Strengness. 128 Effects of the Recess of Westeras. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Confiscation of Church property. [1544— monarch, the ancient days of the Union, although in another shape, were destined to return ; once again the papacy was to struggle here too, not without hope of success, for the recovery of its former influence, and the interval of another gene ration did not suffice to efface from the memories of the nobles of Sweden what they deemed them selves to have lost by the hereditary settlement. How little ground was there 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 house against its rage, he laboured with an impatience which was not always content to obey the behests of conscience in 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 grounded, 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 », 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 completely ceased after the hereditary 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 the 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 Hokhufvud (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. (Register in the Archives.) Some portion of the glebe-land, liowever, 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 by the Westeras Recess, although they had been formed here from feu-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, 1526, 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 in 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 different ordinances in 1545 and the two following years, all other ecclesiastical estates, not comprehended under the denomina tions already mentioned 3, 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 9, 1547,a step which exceeded the limits drawn in the Recess of Westeras. It follows from what we have stated that Gustavus made deep inroads 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 Skytte" of Abo, eight, at foreign seminaries of learning 4. 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 5, but for the most part the king was satisfied with giving the old younger coadjutors, 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. 4 Rhyzelius, Biskopskronika, p. 344. The fifty students whom Lawrence Peterson maintained were originally the like number of swash-bucklers, received by the 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 privy 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 Ambibrn, a priest in Greback 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, 1552. 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 1540, to pay fines for their ignorance. Upon one of them being asked, " Quid est evan gelium?" his answer was, " Est baptismus ;" 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.] NethoCkin™?0f GUSTAVUS .VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. Tenure in commonry. 129 while we often see him arranging 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 imperfect 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 " plundering " (shotting, 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 1528 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 and 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 found 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 8 He complained, in 1544, that his bailiff Nils Westgote did not give in an account of the plunderings (skbflingar) which had occurred within his district. 7 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, 1535, 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 had anciently possessed, notoriously and of right. On the 17th February, 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 longer able to defend their property. In ' exchange, they at least gained an accession of security; and even the nobles had no just grouud of complaint, since a considerable share of the appropriations thus made was distributed in new infeudations 7. So great a power in the affairs of the church could not fail to exert an influence on tbe 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, tp 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 these claims illustrating without entirely dissipating the con fusion which involves the relations of this species of property, 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 tracts of ground which lie unoccupied belong to God, the king, and the crown of Sweden8." In the days of Gustavus, therefore, even commons of hundreds are styled " the king's," " the crown's 9," 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 sovereign1," 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-Gothland "those enclosures of noble proprietors to which, peradventure, they possess little or no title," should be reclaimed for the crown. Fralsemen, 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 ofthe seventeenth century. (Om Svenska Jordens beskatt- ning, &c.) Academical Dissertation, by P. E. Bergfalk. Upsala, 1832, i. 25. i Rescript of March I, 1545. 130 Extension of the crown dues. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The king's method of government. [15-44 — 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 2. Lastly, he declares it to have been determined that all veins of ore in Sweden shall belong to the crown 3. 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 in 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 hands, which might become dangerous for individual rights of property, especially as the logic of Gus tavus was not lightly 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 long should then have nought more to do with it, as ye write, but that service should therefore be done to th3 king. If the sove reign shall have nothing to do with churches and convents, where abideth 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 here only the first link of the chain of conclusions, which stretched much further. All waste land was now regarded as belonging and having ever belonged to the crown ; it was held to be unquestionable that, consequently, all socage- farms 4 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 5. 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 2 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. 4 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 ana the crown of Sweden6." 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, 1550) ; "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 another 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, forfeited 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 heredU 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 generation 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 8." Immediately there after he styled himself king hereditary 9, 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 26, 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 reigning hereditary king." Form of go vernment in West-Gothland, April 9, 1540. Stjemman, Statutes, i. 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 Pyhy. 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 his 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 whieh 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 in 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 person 1. His industry, like that of all men without exception whose activity has be queathed any fruits, far exceeded the ordinary measure of exertion2. 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, resembles 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 demagoguism 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 powerful, it had been from of old in use. The Sture'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 1 We find it sometimes observed in the registers, " Scripsit regia majestas ; dictavit regia majestas ;" 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 lag" (I)- 2 " I have often spoken with the said king Gustavus, who was a prince very high and puissant, very active and ready, takiug 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 surmounted all envy. in 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 career, saw himself obliged to employ the same methods. No one can fail to observe that tbe 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 Smalanders during Dacke's raid did not confide in his offers of amnesty. 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 they should not keep what they promised 3." 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 ] 538, 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, mtroduced by him, was long established in the pub lic affairs of the kingdom, and which shows, above all, an 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 4, 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 public or dinance. The so-called " form of government for West-Gothland 5," of the above-named year, exem plifies the constitution which the chancellor designed for the kingdom. A provincial 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 cpuncil of state, was to preside 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. 4 " 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 that the nobility should hold their estates by feudal tenure, after the German fashion." Erie Sparre, Postulata Nobilium, 1593. s Stjernman, id. i. 137. K 2 132 End of his schemes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The king's covetousness. [1544- like many of the rest, had been hitherto unknown to the country, and appears to have awakened very great alarm, since among the accusations of the peasants, from which 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 6. 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 by its provisions to de cree, and the new plan of taxation adopted in 1540 r. 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 8." 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 restrict- 6 Letters of the king to the 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 Linkoping 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. 8 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 yearly 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. Nykosping, March 31, 1610. Registry 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 who 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 resume possession of family property that had been allocated to the church, of which indeed he had himself set the example. In consequence, 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 by no means be brought into his genealogical table '." Hence the heritable estates of Gustavus, which comprised 2500 manors in the hands of Charles IX.2, 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 proprietors 3, and sometimes appropriated them solely because they lay convenient for him 4, to effect which violent measures against the refrac tory were not always spared 5. With all his kinsmen the king had controversies as to the inheritance of property. *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 c, took the place of the bishops as co-heir to all clerical estates, and was not content with the smallest share 7. When the king's death complaint of such practices was made at the diet of 1561. Ornhielm's Relation. 4 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. Registiy. 6 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 Ambiornson in Skara had left. The king, although he was remembered in the will, (it was now common for both clergymen 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 greater 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 great 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 iu the greater mines, there was at this time au 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 property for the service of the state. The Lubecine 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 jerkiu 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 what 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-tax8. 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 9. 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 that 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 miglit 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 1648 is preserved a letter of the 14th January, from the king to a bailiff in Smaland to this effect : " Our dear housewife Mar garet has complained that the milch-cows which Sigfrid Jonson 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." 10 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 are 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 property10. We do not find that the king doubted the rectitude of his own conduct, or was very deeply concerned at those violations of individual rights which often attended his measures. These ap peared to him to vanish in the higher prosperity of the whole community, which he never omits to extol in contrast with bygone days, sometimes iu colours which attest a deep feeling for well-ordered domestic happiness. " At this time," he writes in one letter to the commonalty of Upland, " both men and animals may rise in early morning 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 their 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 Nordin Collections in the Library of Upsala, is the copy of a letter of sale which Gustavus wrote with his own hand to Lars Katie of Halqued in Upland, running thus — " Helsa med Gud Lasse Kafle. Vetta ma. du Godze far du ; Penga a mina, Godze a dina. Gack bort och salt dig, Gud vare med dig." Health and peace to Lasse Kaile. 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 Popular regard for Gustavus. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Progress of agriculture. [1544- yet heretofore laid upon you no extraordinary tallage, in the thought that ye yourselves would tender us some thankful acknowledgment, especially seeing that the children of that sanguinary tyrant, king Christian, are still alive. But ye reek 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 lung's rescripts 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 1 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 2. The leading feature of all was a repar tition of the taxes, no longer according to the num 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 holder3 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 advisable4," enjoining the burgesses 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 5. 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 mining 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 marks. 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 bf 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 regardiug 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. s " Fullsuten bonde," full yeoman. 4 Letter to Botved Larson. » To bailiffs 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.] M&d GUSTAVUS VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. Foreign commerce. 135 specting' the mine of Kopparberg he complains in 1553, " that it stood in its old condition, and did not return its expenses 6." 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 1563 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 7." 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 first 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 8 ; 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 9." Such the king himself made endeavours to procure ; in 1533 he wrote to his agent in Ger many1 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 2, with whom he established smelting-houses and forges in various quarters3. 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. ^ 8 " 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 ToSteplien Sasse, Upsala, April 10. Registry for 1545. 1 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 Hammarsmed, 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 Fallsbro 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. 4 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 Uke rebuke, tavus was especially careful to encourage, was com municated to other districts 4, although in the civil commotions that ensued many of the establishments were destroyed, and the iron was exported in the old rude state 5 down to 1604, when progress began again to be made, upon the foundation 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 6. A Swedish builder who learned his art in Bohemia mtroduced it in 1531 into Norway 7. Commerce nowfound 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 8, 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 land9." 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 l. Three years afterwards he prohibited trading to Lubeck 2, and procured in 1 550 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 Netherlands, and did 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. s 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 ranneverlc, 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 swillers 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. 7 Hvitfeld, History of King Frederic I. s The export duty was fixed at three per cent, in 1560. s Stiernman, Commerce och cecon. Fb'rordningar, i. 70. i 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, hy which it appears that they had paid a fine of 3000 marks for haying 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 internal trade. [1544— Baltic, seeing that they found great advantage in being able to buy foreign wares at first hand in 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 I. 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 hi 1526 and 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 the trade with that country, although, from par ticular causes, it was rather obstructed than hin dered by the king. He procured and disseminated statements as to the classes of Swedish productions which it would be most advantageous to export, in 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 3. The foreign commerce of the country in 1559, 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 4. Copper, which is not distinguished among the exports of this year, is elsewhere mentioned as an article of export, as well as tar. The trade with 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 been5. 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 in 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 years 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 G." 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 Stjernman, i. 109. * J. Bergius, Stockholm for 200 ar sedan. (Stockholm 200 years ago,) Inaugural Discourse in the Royal Academy of Learning, 1758. s Stjernman, i. 112. 6 Registers of 1556. 7 He wrote to the burgesses of Lbdose, " 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." Halleuberg, Value of Coins and Wares, 147. 8 These were of old Btanding: 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 7. In the inland districts fairs were appointed to be held, whither alone foreign traders were permitted to resort 8. 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 9. He wished that in the towns, as far as possible, every man should pursue some fixed branch 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 1557, provided for the maintenance of public order and cleanliness, with a strictness un known at that day in the large towns 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 tuition 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-making 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^onld 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 '. 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 2." At this Henrymas in Orebro, Petersmas at Tingwall in Vermeland, and in Linkoping, &c. Stjernman, i. 21. 9 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- 15C0.] Military force. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. Navy, Education. 137 time there was no carriage road between Gothland 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 3, where the soldiery might as semble on the appearance of danger, and which were to be fortified 4. 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 summonses 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 296 horse of the Ger man companies 5. According to an official minute respecting the army of his majesty upon the Rus sian frontier, 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 6), 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 Vaddo, 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 1559, when the matter was again mooted. Tegel 2, 456. 4 Particularly Elfsborg, Jbnkbping and Vadstena. The castles of Gripsholm, Swartsjb, Westeras, Strbmsholm, Kro- noborg, 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. s 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, 307. 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 7. 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 provident care. Several of his ships were of great size, one being manned with a com plement of 1000 soldiers and 300 mariners 8 ; 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 reign 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 state9. 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 '. 6 Four shillings and twopence, English money. T. 7 Tegel, ii. 168. 8 Olaus Magnus, 1. x. c. 3. 0 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 empty, 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 1 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 noL wanting on your own side, and there shall be no want of learning." Register for 1533. i 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. [1544— 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 housekeepers, on the death of the priest, used to receive a certain allowance from the parish3. 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 5. 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 6. 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 bailiff Bengt West- gbte, directing him to leave to the " forsia" of the deceased master Olave of Munketorp the portion fixed by the parish. Register for 1525. 4 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 reconciled 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 V 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 maintenance 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 III. 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 union 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 8, 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 Pyh'y, 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 reoruitments of Scotsmen for the Swedish service which were afterwards continued by his successors. In 1 556 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. Suecise." 8 Gustavus himself quotes one expression, " he who would scratch the three crowns out ofthe arms of Denmark, must have sharp teeth and claws." 1560.] Hostilities with Russia. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. L?KinJ°f 139 the king. lifetime of the king himself the quarrel proceeded no 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 in the rare metrical tract entitled " A true answer to some passages in the Danish Chronicle 9;" 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 tlieir language. Their manners were still marked by much barbarity and lawlessness. The king was obliged in 1551 to chastise the Tavastrians2, 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 3, 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 Finland4. 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 Sanfardige Svar pa nagre stycker uthi then Danske Crdnike. 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 ofthe 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 1 545, Gustavus, ina letter to Francis I , complains of an inroad of the Russians into Fin, land 5. This was returned with equal damage from the Swedish side, though without the king's orders 6, 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 agamst 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 soldiery. These causes, coupled with the failure of the promised 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 7, 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 Monumenta, 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. 4 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 theif 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 his son Eric. 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 8 ; 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, in 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 9, 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'1," 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 by his father with Calmar, the castle of Krouoberg 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 2, some times harness, and fittings for the representation of stage-plays 3 : 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 Edward IL, count of East Friesland. 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 j thus, dear son, thou mayest- well wonder, how we should be able to provide for all things that happen in this realm." Register for 1 557. 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. 4 " My heart's love Catharine," writes Gustavus to his queen, " we have received accounts wbjchrun more on strife and war than wedding. Seemeth therefore to us not very needful that thou shouldst hasten much with bakingor other riage festival, after some delay from an alarm of war, was celebrated with splendour4, 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 s, 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 rious, to his own discredit and shame, and that of all his house ; what step could now lie taken ? — As the matter stood, the king dealt rigorously with the culprits, threatened count 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 his 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 Eric. 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 offending son 6, 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 Brahe, in his Manuscript Chronicle. Eric's" 1560':l 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 7 that they lived in incessant contention, first in their play, next in reference to lauds and go vernments, and lastly for the crown, appear during their father's last days to have had a secret under standing agamst him, though each probably for his awn 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 8, 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 it9, 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 2. Burrey, a zealous Calvinist, advised his master to make proposals for the hand of Elizabeth of England 3, 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 4. 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 5, 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 7 Scondia, v. 114. Messenius, as secretly a Catholic, writes of Gustavus I. with ill suppressed bitterness. 8 Peder Brahe. 9 He is said to have been condemned to death by Gusta vus, who commuted the sentence for one of banishment. Fant, de Georgfo Petri Sala? 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, Biorn Pederson Bat is said to have remarked tohim; " 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 the moon ; true he has his faults, which you cry out upon ; but yet he is a master piece of God." Scandin. Memoirs, 3, 32. 1 In this office he succeeded the deceased Goran Norman 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 1558 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. 4 Tegel, ii. 411, 412. 5 " 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 6. 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 information 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 8. 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 offered, in 1558, its submission to king Christian III. 9 ; 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 another 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). " For what 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. 6 Karamsin, History ofthe Russian empire, vii. 426. 7 " When I consider, of what praise he was worthy for all the good he accomplished, me seemeth as if I were wanting in understanding and words, to speak it rightly and accord ing to his merit. Bu4 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 CEsel, Courland, and Reval, to his brother Magnus. 142 Designs of the princes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Diet of Stockholm. [1544— by a loan, obtaining that town as security ; 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 king had observed, as he 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 consulted thereupon ; and it be ap proved and confirmed by him and them, as thy bounden duty points out, and Sweden's lawrequires." 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 Christerson 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 raised 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 rest for us, or it can be procured in some other mode V He pledges himself to further the scheme according to the engagement he had made, " even should it move the wrath of the king 2." Eric gave command for the immediate equipment of ships in Finland, whieh 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 3." Thus we see the sons united against the father in the very point whieh 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 holdest to another notion," Gus tavus writes to him, " as if the queen's letter were not rightly interpreted to us. It were much more ' To John, September 23, 1558. Register. 2 Eric to John, February 11, 1560. Register. 3 To Joachim Bulgrin, upon the ships which duke Eric requests, without having acquainted the king; Juleta, March 4. To Steno Ericson Lejonhufvud ; May 3. Register for 1560. 4 Letter to Eric, February 20, 1500, with one immediately following. Register. 5 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, like a worthy prince, the honour and majesty which thy father-land hath conferred upon thee 4." 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 s. On the 24th of April he was taken ill at his house of Juleta in Suthermanland (Sudermania), ofa 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 » glad weIcome(May 25)in Eskilstuna, inviting the prince, with his brother Eric, to the diet convened at Stockholm for the 16th 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 king6; and one to John, hi which he complains that Eric kept spies on his father's motions 7 ; 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, Sueno 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 fr'alse) estates, the king replied, that "trial 6 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 Inst illness. 143 must be made of every one's manhood and repute, according as the law prescribes, seeing that virtue, intelligence, and courage make nobility8." 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 bis father's knee, the others on his left hand, each according to Ms 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 them 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, befriended 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 I), 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 lie 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. 1 This person was not, as Dalin 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 for the public behoof, to do good and be fore, while yet in health, he had caused his testa ment to be drfawn up, and hoping that it rested 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 » speech to the estates in the high church, on the necessity of con cluding in person the negociation 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 administrator of the kingdom during his absence. Gustavus 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 9 ;" and the young king showed himself so eager for the journey, that not even his father's illness restrained him. Upon the 14th 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 diarrhoea," says his confessor master Jo hannes, who, with the king's barber master Jacob, and the apothecary, master Lucas x, 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 burning2. 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 angrily 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 he 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 Brahe's HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. testimonyregarding him. [1544—60. affairs. The three following he passed chiefly in silence, and as it seemed, with no great pain ; he 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 persist, or a hundred times repeated," — but his trembling hand had not power to finish the sentence. The con fessor continued his exhortations, till, as life was flying, Steno Ericson Lejonhufvud 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 3. " His stature was that of a man of middle height, something more than six feet4. 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 free from scorn ; 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-room 5. Daily in the afternoon an hour was appointed, when all the nobles behoved to come to the ball-room. There was the mistress of the 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 the 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 pearl 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 1532. 4 " 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 overflowed 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, and 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 and 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 yeai's came seriousness ; and in a form more worthy of honour than his, age has been rarely seen. We have described him hy 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 1 1 inches. T. 5 Fruntimmer, ladies' chamber. 6 Hofmdsterinnan. 1560— C9.] ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. 145 OH-APTER XI. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. accession of eric. 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 of 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 j and poisoned. his son gustavus. a. d. 1560—1569. Eric inherited from his father peace with his neigh bours, abundance throughout the land, a well re plenished treasury, 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 painter7 ; 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 parts 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 appears 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 to wage a middling war 8." 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. 7 Prater insignem artium liberalium et prajsertim mathe- seos ac linguarum exoticarum cognitionem, in omni disci- plinae militaris fuit genere versatissimus ; ingenio admodum perspicaci, verum suspicaci ; blandus sermone ; comis allo- quio; statura corporis magis grata quam elata; equitandi, natandi, saltandi peritia tantopere praeditus, ut spectantium animos in summam plerumque admirationem raperet. Messenius, Scondia, vi. Several of his 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 tbe History of Joannes Magnus, under the title of Chronicle of the Swedes and Goths, (Svea och Gb'ta Crbnika,) annexing Latin verses upon each of the kings, compos'ed 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 Eric Sparre re lates that the king himself sang well. Dionysius Beurreus, The old king had by his testament bestowed liereditary dukedoms upon his remaining sons, to be held under Eric as their lord superior. "For seeing that he had suffered much in his own life time from envy," — says the great Gustavus Adol phus9, — "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 free 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 ; brotherly 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 down to us, the founder of the race fore saw this and declared his feelings thereupon. Once in his sorrow, it is related, king Erie 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 V 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 confer* avec lui de plusieurs affaires. Je vous promets, sire, qu'il etoit d'un tres-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 soupconneux." (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.) s Peter Brahe, in his Chronicle of King Gustavus I. s In the history which he commenced, printed along with the Rhyme Chronicle of Charles IX. Stockholm, 1759. 1 Scand. Mem. iii. 41. 140 Characters of the dukes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Disagreements with the king. [1560— that he thereby weakened, because he divided, the power whieh 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 order 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 andVassbo2. 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 3, yet gave signs of ambition, more of a craving than of a true energy. Among the testimonies of his contempo raries is one which says that " he had the gestures and demeanour of a high-hearted man, although his heart was timid 4." 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 already at the age of fifteen displayed it under the walls of Warberg. Magnus, like the whole family, was of violent temper 5, 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 which account the French minister Dantzai, when there was ques- 3 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. 4 Sven Elofson. 5 His father admonishes him of this fault. 6 He terms her one of the most accomplished princesses in Europe. "On m'assurede son excellente beaute; elie 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, elie est recommandee et fort estimee pour ses vertus, de tous ceux qui l'ont fre- quentee. Elie prend plaisir a l'espinette et en joue mieux que mediocrement. Elie joue aussi de luth. Elie est fort benigne et charitable. J'espere que le sieur Pinart vous rendra de brief certain de toutes les autres particuiarites." (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 6, shows himself anxious to contradict this rumour. He frees Erie 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 7. 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 sufficiently known how assiduous and industrious tlieir 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 the realm ;" John hoped that all this would now turn out to their common advantage8. 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 9. 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 aud 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. I hope that the sieur Pinart will acquaint you by letter with all her other qualities.) The last named person was sent to Sweden in 1574 upon this negotiation, which was broken off on account ofthe discontent created by it among the Catholics. 7 " N'etoit de grand jugement, ainsi d'un fort simple esprit" —and elsewhere ; ' ' J'ai quelque fois oui dire a des gentilshom mes de Dannemark, tant en public que particulier, que le dit sieur Eric, pere du roi Gustavus, etoit de fort petite sta ture et ne l'estimoit personne de grand sens, ni esprit, ni jugement; mais je n'entendis oncques, qu'il eut le cerveau corrompu, ni l'esprit trouble." (I have sometimes heard say by gentlemen of Denmark, as well in public as private, that the said sieur Eric, father 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 pray that your love will for this time with brotherly goodness excuse us and leave us to ourselves." To John and Magnus, March 19. Registry for 1561. 1569.] 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 case. All of the church, crown, or assessable estates, which king Gustavus had ap propriated 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- same 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 several in stances of this restitution of property. Howbeit, Eric in 1563 turned this principle against the nobi lity themselves, by the new 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 claim2. 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 Upsala upon the 29th June, 1561, 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 3, as if he were resolved to diminish the dis tance between the princes and the nobility, and be cause " in a hereditary kingdom dignities descend ing to the heirs are also 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 4, 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-right). 3 Hertigar; Grefvar; Friherrar. 4 Sveriges, Gdtes, och Vendes Konung. 5 " To hear all causes which could not be 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 tilings 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 wliich 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 members 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 judgment5, "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, Vadstena, and chiefly Stockholm. L2 148 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 king's majesty should hear all complaints and declare every sen tence." The governors 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, pre served in the public archives, begins with the 1 1th February, 1562, it was nevertheless in operation during the previous year 6, and is already mentioned in king Eric's court regulations of the 19th Novem ber, 1560. 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 reference to such 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 foreign 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 when he is to apply the ordinances and when to pass them by." In genera], the outset of Eric's reign was dis tinguished by beneficial enactments. In order to deliver the people from the extortions of travel lers 7, 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 themselves, especially French, who were invited by tlieir countryman Dionysius Beurreus. The Calvinists hoped and ex pected much from the known inclination of the Swedish monarch to their creed, and Calvin him self congratulated him by letter upon the news of his suit to Elizabeth 8. But in his overtures of marriage Eric soon dis played his unstable temper. On the 29th Jul}', 1561, he writes to his new envoy in London, tbe high chancellor Nicholas Gyllenstierna, that, upon the comfortable assurances wliich the queen had 8 "Sentences of the year 1561 arc left out, although the originals of some in that year are still found in the hands of private persons." Ornhielm's Relation. 7 To be exempted from the oppressive burden of furnishing free carriage and entertainment, the commons at Arboga in 1561 charged themselves with the payment of post-money (skjulsfardspenningar); but the king soon complained that this was not sufficient to replace the cost of despatching his messengers and letter-carriers, and we find him on the 22nd conveyed to him through Beurreus, who was now recall"d 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 journey. 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 queen's favourite, the earl of Leicester, if it should even cost the king 10,000 dollars9. Meanwhile, he likewise offers to wed the princess Renata 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, of whitelyand 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 behaviour, 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 1566 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. ' Instruction for the ambassadors; Arboga, July 14. Registry for 1565. 15G9] His profusion. War in Livonia. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. John's viewa on Poland. He is made prisoner. 14!) that Eric did not, according to the promise he had given, deduct from his portion of the inheritance the amount expended upon his English courtship before his father's death. His greed of pomp knew in general no bounds. For his English journey he caused more than a hundred suits of the costliest raiment to be prepared. We are astonished by all the appliances ordered for his coronation 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 strauge in Sweden2." 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 pared 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 sians3. 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 4. 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 " kiug 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 Courland as a fief for himself. On the other hand John linked himself closely to the Poles, and advised Eric to an alliance ngainst Russia, as also to cede to Poland all that Sweden already possessed in Livonia 5. The king's answer was an order to Horn 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 ou 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 which he continued. 3 Letter of October 9. Registry for 1560. 4 The castle, whose garrison was true to the grand-master, was surrendered after a siege of six weeks. Eric gives his consent that John should in Poland urge his suit personally 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 6 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 bride 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 projects, upon the security of seven castles in Livonia, as also that war between Sweden and Poland shortly after broke out, is certain. New causes of dissension be tween the brothers had also previously revealed themselves. In the autumn of 1 561, John requested that the tithes of all Finland, 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 7." Returned to Finland with his consort, 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 Russia. 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 exprohatory address by George Person, who, at the command of Eric, now absent on the Danish frontier, proffered to John's wife a royal castle and a princely maintenance if 5 Feb. 14, 1562. "Because the Poles give us no good answer." John's designs are clear from Eric's letter to him ofthe 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 he were right and Eric wrong in every thing. Reg. for 1562. « The count Teczin, who was himself a suitor to the princess Cecilia. 7 Letter to John of November 11. Reg. for 1561. 150 The king's intentions towards him. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Tyranny of Eric. [15G0- 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 8. 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 years, 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 nnd 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 body, and to hold your foes for our foes 9" Some further proceeding against John was nevertheless hi 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 B The original town is built on an island connected with the main land by bridges on each side leading to Norrmalm and Sbdermalm, the north and south suburbs. — Trans. 9 Given at Jenkoping, October I. Reg. for 1563. 1 Letter to Magnus, Halmstad, October 16, 1563. 2 That of Lejonhufvud — Trans. 3 To tbe 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 tlie said diet bythe estates general (menige stander). Letter of Feb. 1. Reg. for 1566. 4 " Eric eut pour ses vertus justement pu gtre mis au nombre des plus magnanimes princes s'il n'eut etecorrompu par les ministres auxquels il se fiait par trop. Aussi il a ete nourrienperpetuellecrainteet quasi en dedain paries menees de sa belle-m&re, qui lui 6tait fort contraire. Peut-etre que de son naturcl il etait un peu soupconneux, qui a grande- ment 6te augments des son enfance par l'artifice de ses dits familiers ministres, qui 6taient des plus mechants et per- nicieux qui se pouvaient trouver. II connaissait bien la favour1. 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, 1564, 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 was 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 family2 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 diets3, surrounding himself only with low-born favourites, who from his youth 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 before 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 court, 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 5, who for more than fifty years has been malignity des dits ministres, et s'en est souvent plaint au chancelier de Suede qui est a present, au feu sieur de Varenes7 et a d'autres qui me l'ont dit, dont je pourrais faire de fort etranges recits." Correspond ance 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, hy 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 I 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 l'empecha par ses prieres et remontrances." According to Holberg, Mornay was a kinsman of Dantzai. 5 Olaus Celsius, author of the History of Gustavus I. and the History of Eric XIV. T. 1569.] Atrocities of the royal court. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. War with Denmark. 151 regarded as a main source for the history of Eric XIV. as well as Gustavus 1., although he cast but a hasty glance at the records of both these reigns, alleges that king Eric, being himself present on the 10th February, 1563, 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 such 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. Tlie 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 fi. Down to October 1567, when the records cease, this court condemned to execution two hun dred and thirty-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 punishment7. 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 Stenbock, and in 1566 upon Nicholas Sturd, the king did not venture to execute. It was first in 1567 that he dipped his hand into the blood of the higher nobility, and thereby also overthrew himself. George Person, who is styled " procurator 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 guards 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 « " It was a mournful spectacle, to see the heading and hacking on the wheel, whieh 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 Elofson. 7 Among them were seventy-two tax-gatherers. Jan. 30, 1567, the court sentenced to death seven bailiffs in Salberg at once, for neglect in 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 in the protocols ! 1562. Nevertheless war broke out the following yean aud 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 Livonia8." The causes of the war were partly conflicting in terests in Livonia, where 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 rewarded by Eric with a triumphal procession, in which the Danish captives were seen hound and with heads shaven, conducted by the king's court- fool Hercules. Thereupon ensued a declaration of war by Denmark and Lubeck, whose trade to Narva Eric had forbidden, because he wished to confine the Russian 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 1 566 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 directed9, 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 be 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 x, in such a fashion that his own army looked upon his depar ture as a flight, and dispersing, was routed upon its retreat by the Danes. In a letter of apology to the collective people of the realm 2, the king however 8 Swen Elofson. ' January 30, 1567, Weimar 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. i 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 Dc-nmark 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. 2 Dated at Orreholm in West-Gothland, November 23. Keg. for 1563. 152 Invasion of Norway. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Eric's account of the military occurrences. [1560- announces, that this retreat had concluded with a victory gained through the valour 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 has sustained any defeat, the rumour thereof should be hushed up and extinguished, but 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 like." At the same time Jemteland and Herjedale were occupied and preparations made for an incursion into Norway, where Canute Haraldson Soop was presently named lieutenant, with orders 3, 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 ligion, to administer justice according to ihe 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 had 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, bring ing 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 captive4." To avenge this loss, king Erie 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 he reduced to obedience, the invasion was renewed. Eric drew up proclamations, of which one that remains is ad dressed to the inhabitants of Iceland. A great portion of Norway was devastated, the towns of Hammer and Opslo were burned ; whoever 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 s. By the sieges of Bohus 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 majesty0, dated Calmar, September 15th, 1564. He begins by mentioning the . exaggerated reports which had been in circulation respecting the attack 3 Instruction of May 4. Reg. for 1564. 4 Actions of king Eric, by his chaplain D. Magnus Stig- tomtt-mis. Palniski'ld 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, hut had found sickness and dissension in the fleet, and Oeland harried by the Danes. After the change 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 F'arla, 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 ; therewith 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 ; hut 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 drove 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 practised against the realm of Sweden since the Dacke feud. Larger booty had never been captured in the king's days, and much too had been burned with the town. Thereupon 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, harried, 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 plunder. 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 Solfwitsborg, shall be convened, under 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 tlie A, chives of State for this year. 1569.] Severity of the conscription. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. Oppression of the house of Sture. 153 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 by land to Calmar, and thence in barges and boats to Stockholm ; but j J"° DOt Present themselves with their wives and children and housemates, theushallallbe wasted, burned, and slaughtered at every foot throughout all Bleking, seeing that it is better to have a desert than an enemy's country 7." 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 1565 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 1566 a royal 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 1568, 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 Sbderkoping, it was necessary that females should carry him to the grave from want of men 8. Therewithal the plague raged; and among its victims was the heroic Clas Christerson Horn. Perpetual 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 1. In general the war 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. a Rhyzelii Biskopskrbnika, i. 127. 9 Among these requisitions, in the year 1563, 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 from the fact, that during the Russian war Gustavus I. sent fourteen awms of Rhine wine instead of brandy to Wiborg for the soldiery. This liquor however was known before in Sweden. In the minute-book of the town of Stockholm for H98, is entered a privilege for Cordt the flask-drawer 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, 1565) 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 Stur£, captain of the royal body-guard, although Hastesko himself says in a letter to Sturd, " 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 SturfC, 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 ; Eric 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 tu 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 majesty, which he left undischarged," although the purport of the in structions is mentioned only in softened expressions in the indictment thereupon preferred against him 2. 1 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 Gbinge. 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 said 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 Stockholm. [1560- 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 was led through the streets of Stockholm, amidst shouts of " See here a traitor to the state." The soldiers loudly expressed 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 Sture' 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 "arrived king Eric's most unhappy year," as he himself says in his journal 3. That the king at this time believed a great conspiracy to have been formed against him, especially by the house of Sture' and its powerful connexions, is incontestable. He felt that he had injured this family in a manner which could not be forgiven. He lived in perpetual alarm, augmented his body guard, and kept spies in the houses of his subjects4. Reports of examinations by torture and nightly executions spread terror among the people. Febru ary 4, 1567, 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." He 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 tlie natural chiefs of such a league (the party against them was formed later and under other circumstances), and least of all do we believe in a conspiracy of the Shire'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 ducontent, grief, or revenge, such as those just quoted from the letters of Nicholas Shire", 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 for 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 Shire" first, then Abraham Gustaveson Stenbock, Steno Axelson Baner, Ivar Ivarson of Stromstad, Steno Ericson Leyonliufvud, and last of all old Suanto Shire", 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 18th of May, whereby probably the rest of the lords who were suspected and had been summoned were dissuaded from appearing 5. 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. The library of Upsala possesses a copy of the journal ofthe year 1567, but has the original of that for the preceding year, with the title : Commentaria historica regis Erici XIV. cum directionibus et profectionibus planeta- rum pro anno 1566. It is written in a very neat hand. From the astrological observations we find that the king often read in the stars of " brothers' envy." On the last leaf he wrote, Quem non formos£e deleclant casta puellje Oscula, non homo, sed truncus habetur iners. < July 22: Ordinavi exploratores domesticos Holmiae. 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, brother of Abraham, Thure Bielke, his brother's son Hogenskild Bielke, Clas Fleming, and Clas Akeson Tott. Messenius. 1569.] Process against the six magnates. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. Murder of Nicholas Sture. 155 heard before the king's court, yet no mention of it is made in the records of that tribunal 6. 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 Sturd 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 Shirk'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 Shire" and Joshua Genewitz had come to Stralsund, 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 Shire" would be avenged, whereupon the count was' said to have talked with the two lords mentioned with closed doors. Magnus, duke of Saxony 8, related that Steno Ericson Leyonhufvud, Abraham Gustaveson, and Ivar Ivarson, had in his own presence openly declared their resentment at the treatment of Nicholas Shire", 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 he 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 Sturd 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 caught up a standard and carried it round « This sentence is printed by Nettelbladt. Swedish Library (Schwedische Bibliothek) 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 1568 to the royal princess Sophia. o See the letter in Fant ; Examen caussae Stunanae. 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 2, 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 Upsala3, 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 he 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 Stui-e" 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 Shire", 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 been informed that duke John was escaped, and that revolt had begun. He rushed with drawn dagger in hand into the prison chamber of Nicholas Shire" 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 dour of the unhappy father's dungeon was thrown open, i Printed, 1. c. , 2 Fuerunt in judicio dominus Abrahamus et Iwarus, et condemnati sunt ad mortem, ut retulit mihi Georgius Petri; hoc undecima Maii contigit. King Eric's Journal for 1567. 3 14 Maii comparuit coram judicio comes Svanto in mea praesentia; et cum omnes judices, ut apparehat, facile eum condemnassent, mandavi ut causa penitus audiretur. Ibid. 156 The king's frenzy. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Discussion of its nature. [1560— 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 forth 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 he 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 Shire", 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 19th 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 mur ders, under constraint and without having been read *. The clergy subjoined to the doom a sepa rate declaration, purporting : That although George Person had brought forward the subj ect 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 prince 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 lie was recognized5 ; 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 Shire" was administrator. No one was able to induce him to eat any thing or to sleep, until his mistress, 4 Nee Georgius Petri (Goran Persson) hactenus fuerat otiatus, qui antequam flagitii fama inter ordines emanaret, sententiam mortis in caesos impetraturus, hacque scelus postea defensurus, iliam nomine Statuum concinnat, quam postridie caedis, videlicet xxiv Maii cogit ordines sacris in ecclesia operam dantes, non perlectam subsignare. Mes- senius, Scondia VI. 45. (There is here a trifling incon- Catharine Magnus' daughter, persuaded him to take refreshment, on which he became more tran quil, and permitted himself to he 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 have 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, especially Steno Ericson Leyonhufvud and Peter Brahe. 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 astonishment, 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 iu 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 with him self ; for during a portion of this time, he seems to have believed himself a captive. If we compare all this with his previous conduct ; if we reflect that it belongs to the 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 upon Eric's whole character than is ordinarily allowed. This agrees well with the circumstance, that his behaviour after the murder of the Sture's sprang at least as much from fright as from repentance. An eye-witness who belonged to his train says, "he would not renounce the govern ment, feigning as if he had not reason, until he could first appease the nearest kinsmen of the deceased lords0." 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. Teaks.) 5 The 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 brought with him. 6 Upon the transactions of king Eric, by D. Magnus Stig- tomtensis. 15G9.] His behaviour to John, and marriage. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. Incursion of the Danes. 157 mentioned the so called conspiracy of the Sture's 7. If such a plot really existed among the higher nobility against the king, when would a better opportunity of usurping the supreme power, iu 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 year. 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 12th 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 Ventholm 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 8 show, that he looked upon himself as a prisoner 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 9. Thence- 7 The treatise cited, Examen Caussae Sturianae, by Fant, is a defence of the reality of the conspiracy. 8 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 collocutus sum cum meo fratre quam humillime orans, ut veritatem fateretur si rex esset, quod nullo modo nisi obscuris ambagi- bus potui intelligere. Condonavit mihi autem ipse et con- junx principissa inimicitias ex corde, manibus me palpantes. Polliciti etiam me liberiorem vitam habiturum absque quotidianis vexationibus." The brothers afterwards met on tlie 19th and 21st October. 9 December 31. Sigillarunt consiliarii contractum matri- forward he styles Catharine queen, 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 important 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 habitants themselves 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 autumn 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 whole 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-Gothland, 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"3, who were sent agamst 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 illam habituros spoponderunt, flliosque ex matri- monio proximos veros ft legitimos regni Svetias se agnituros polliciti sunt. King Eric's Journal, 1567. i Polackarna, the Polacks of our old writers. Trans. ' Compare Jannau, History of Livonia and Esthonia (Liefland and Estland), in Hupel's Northern Miscellanies, Riga, 17S7 ; 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. a They were afterwards taken in the Holwed. 158 Frivolities of Eric. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The dukes take lip arms. [1560— drew off and escaped, yet not wholly scatheless. But king Eric acted as if that troubled him not, but followed with his army, and in his company were the three princes, duke John, duke Charles, and duke Magnus of Saxony ; yet he 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 were 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 uniforms, his own was chiefly displayed in badges. To this purpose we find him requiring linen red, green, and yellow, as well as red-coloured goose-feathers, as many " squirrel aud 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 5." Returned to Swartsioe, the king amused himself with the tendance of his garden and the care of his grafts c. George Person, on whom the sentence of death passed in the council-chamber of Stockholm (October 19, 1567,) 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 7," and celebrates his marriage splendidly on the 4th of July with Catharine Magnus' daughter. On the following day the new queen was crowned ; 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 s. 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 iunocent 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 4 Triibagare, tree or wood-cups. T. 5 To the lieutenant in Stockholm ; Nydala, February 16. Reg. for 1 568. 6 To his gardener (tree-yardsmaster), April 10, 1568. 7 April 14. Reg. for 1568. 8 Stockholm, July 8, 1568. 9 " 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 equestrian 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 brothers 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 1566, 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, 1567, subscribed a convention at Moscow, by which Eric engaged to deliver up his sister-in-law, and the czar to desist from his claims on Estland, and to assist Eric agamst 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, 1568, show that the negotiations on the subject were not broken off2. 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 first said that both the dukes had quitted Eskilstuna in haste, whither to proceed was unknown. The king believed them to be 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 3, — " 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 Biurkarn, in Vermeland, under an oak which is still called the king's oak, and if it be true it refers already to the autumn of 1 567, 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 1 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. 3 To Catharine and Cecilia, Oct. 13. Reg. for 1508. 1569.] The king tried by the estates. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. His imprisonment, and sufferings. 159 the badge of their followers. The first intelligence of the revolt affected the king so violently, that he wished to kill himself by opening his veins4. 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 5. 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 dukes6. 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 year 1569 Eric was brought to trial before the assembled estates, rfe 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 his hate free course against him whom he styled " his brother and bitterest foe 7." 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 his wardens, often from persons whom he had irritated to revenge during his government. Olave Gus taveson, one of the ferocious brothers Stenbock 8, 4 Palmskold MSS. He inquired of Dr. 'William Lemnius 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 Rb'rstrandsangen ; ang, which so often occurs in Swedish names of places, is probably the same word with inch, used in tiiis sense. Trans. 8 Rhyme Chronicle of Charles IX. Stockholm, 1759, p. 30. See Memoirs of king Eric by Magnus Stigtomtensis. 7 Letter to the lieutenant of Calmar, Oct. 2, 1568. 8 His brother Arvid Gustaveson killed colonel Ivar Mag nusson Stiernkors in Abo. (That this reportwas not false, as Sliernman 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, 1659, 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 distanoe from place and land 9." 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, when 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 1569 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 Charles — " 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 2) of Holma in Smaland, and Jacob Bagge", a son of the famous admiral, were suspected. They were incarcerated, but again re leased ; both Jacob Bagge" 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 conspirators, 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, 1569, 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 locorumet 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. a Svenska Fatlmrcn, v. 15. 180 Plots for his release. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Designs upon his life. [1560— offers to the king of Denmark Elfsborg and War berg, if he should be replaced on the throne before Michaelmas 4. From fear of his native supporters Eric was next removed to the castle of Abo, where he remained two years. 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 Gripsholm, 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 Gripsholm 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 mutinous. This negligence, not less than the vehe mence where with 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 maimer 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 Westeras5. In the •> Palmskold 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. 8 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 Palmskold Collections. 7 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 agreed upon this step, and so early as the 13th of September, 1569, 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, hut 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 1 573, under pretext of Eric's liberation, an insur rection broke out in Smaland7. 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 d.ance, 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 offence ill general terms, and solicits pardon; He was ad judged to death, August 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 the peasants in the neighbourhood to set him at liberty 8. The resolution to put him to death was now 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, bailiff 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. 161 might be done by laws divine and human ; 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 Linkoping, James of Skara, Nicholas of Strengness, Erasmus of Westeras, Olave Peterson °, pastor of Stockholm, Swen Bennetson, provost of the chapter of Skara, Reynold Ragwaldson, pastor of Strengness l. 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 received2. 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, 15775 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- 9 Not to be confounded with the reformer of the same name, who died April 19, 1552. 1 The document is printed in Stiernman's Resolutions of the Diets ; the original, with the autograph signatures, is in the Slate Archives. (Deliberations in king John's time, from 1569 to 1591.) Ofthe 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 ferculo, quod Philippus Chemius, regis chirurgus.miscuisset, ad OErbyensem missus arcem Domini mandate procuravit, ut Ericus Christiane mo- riturus 22 Februarii die, qui et Dominicus fuit, sacram, im- petrata peccatorum absolutione, accederet synaxin. Sequens deinde biduum citra vitae periculum merito transegit, et postea funestus illuxit dies 25 Februarii, quo toxicum ignarus in pisonum, ut fertur, jusculo praebitum absorpsit, indeque miseram efnavit animam. Messenius, 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 Kem, of AprU 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 3. 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 4. 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 5, it inspired Eric with the tenderest letters. After his death his widow besought John's favour for herself and her children. " We have received 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 6." Of these children two still lived ; the daughter Sigrid, born, according to Eric's own note 7, 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 8 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 before 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 consultu clandestino senatus et episco- porum Suetiee." 4 This was before the council, when George Person, in Oct. 1567, was adjudged to death the first time ; and according to Messenius (Scondia, vi. 46), his wife also was then condemned on this charge. ' What JEgidius Girs relates hereupon, in his Chronicle of king Eric XIV., is supported by the king's journal. 6 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 as king he grants to Agda a manor during her lifetime, "for the sup port of our children." Register for 1 560. s With Henry Classon Tott. The family became extinct with the grandchild Clas Akeson Tott iu 1674. 162 Fortunes of his son Gustavus HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. in Poland and Russia. the family of the counts Tott, which queen Chris tina wished to elevate to the ducal rank. Of the son ii 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 Gripsholm9. 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 Thorn, afterwards in Wilna, in so great poverty that he used to earn his sustenance in the evening 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 Sparre" had admit ted1. It is certain that in 1583 Swedish fugitives solicited from king Henry III. of France assistance to avenge Eric's murder, and set on the throne his rightful heir, who in return should acknowledge the superiority of France. This proposal 2, 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 law-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' daughter3. 9 According to Eric's letter to Catharine Magnus' daughter, Jan. 11, 1574. Palmskold Collections. i Messenius, Scondia, vii. 10. 2 Remonstrances et offres des conjurez et releguez du royaume de Suede au roy Henry III. pour avoir justice de l'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 he 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 Farnese'a death, came to Vienna, wished to take service against the Turks, for wliich 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 1607 in the little town of Kaschin. Afterwards during his Russian campaign, Jacob de la Cardie 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 unhappy 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 !) into which he fell, did also many good and manly actions during his government 5." 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 6." no decisive answer thereupon ; " but if you will point out the 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. 4 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. 163 CHAPTER XII. JOHN AND CHARLES. john acknowledged kino. his charter of privileges to the nobility. 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. statutes 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 throw their brother ; and during the revolt they required homage to be paid to themselves con jointly 7. Hence it is credible that, as is expressly related of them, they bad concerted a common government. Meanwhile John, upon his arrival in Stockholm, was received by the council as king, and wrote to his sisters 8 that " he had now come into the government of the kingdom of Sweden." The estates assembled in the beginning of the year 1569, and confirmed the choice of the council. Charles did not conceal his dissatisfaction, and a renouncement of his claims was considered on this occasion necessary. On the 24th January the noble and well-born lords of the 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, aud whom they had elected to be now, according to the next succession, tlieir 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 years 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 aud 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 7 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 affection, tous, andto the crown of Sweden." s 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 1526, 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 themselves1. Erie, in the out set of his reign, did much for the nobility. The 9 Register for 1569. In the February of this year John still entitled himself king elect, in a letter to Elizabeth of England. 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. M 2 164 John's patent grant to the nobility. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Congress of Stettin, and peace. [1569- right of again resuming the estates arbitrarily usurped by that king's father, the reduction by one- half of the requirements of tho horse-service tenure, the first hereditary fiefs in counties and free baronies, and the exemption from public burdens of the seats of the gentry (sateri-frihiten), were advantages for which they had to thank this king. Subsequently he 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," the king re serves to himself the right of filling with persons of the 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. The 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-proprietary nobles in Sweden, and also of the hereditableness of nobility without knight-service 2. 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 V 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," 6ays 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 pikes3." 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 1st 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 from 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, hut were saved by duke Charles, who defended them with his own band. They had resided two years in Sweden before their return in ] 569. 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 Danish prince Magnus, who possessed a portion of the country, put himself under Russian protection, married the Czar's niece, and was declared by him king of Lifland. Russian negotiations and armies supported his pretensions. 3 The same words are repeated in the confirmation of the new titles of count. < Sylvester Phrygius, Oratio de vita Reg. Johan. III. 5 Account of the discourse of king John and the council with the estates in 1569. Appendix to the Rhyme Chronicle of Charles IX. 1592.] Successes over the Russians. JOHN AND CHARLES. Sigismund elected king of Poland. 165 The Swedes indeed succeeded in maintaining their principal garrison of Reval, as well against attempts by treachery as open assault, and more than once the town hade defiance to the whole 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 Crim 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 John in war and negotiation. He was raised 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 Charles, who earlier in the Livonian war had gained themselves an honourable name, he not only won back all that Sweden had lost in Lifland, 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 incursion into Russia in 1578, when he spared neither women nor children 6. At the same time Russow, the priest of Reval7, 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 8, after having related how the Swedes in 1574 three times stormed in vain that of Wesenberg, — " comes 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 with 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 cannot remain in another country. There- 6 jEgidius Girs, Chronicle of king John III. 70. ' Chronicle of the Province of Livonia (Chronica der Pro- vintz Lyfflandt, Rostock, 1578), towards the end. 8 jEgidius Girs, who wrote in 1627. 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-iain 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 lord and father-land 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 wliich guards the frontier of a state, and lends in crease to dominion. — After more than a hundred years the Russ still acknowledged the superiority of the Swede in martial discipline. This was one of the causes why Ivan Wasilievitz II. at his death in 1584 advised his son Feodor to peace 9. 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 Lifland. 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 arms ; 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 Bathor's death in 1586 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 1 ; which the Poles however con sidered so clear, that when subsequently 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 knights, which in Livonia was overthrown. 9 Karamsin, ix. 176. German translation. 1 Livoniae partem, quam serenissimus Suetiai rex nunc possidet, ad reliquum corpus Livoniae regni Polonias et magni ducatus Lithuaniae adjungere tenebitur, pro quo, ut serenissimi regis legati sposponderunt, ita Serenissima Anna, regina Polonies, cavit cavetque omnibus bonis suis. — Eric Sparre began his speech on Livonia to the Poles with these words, " Vestra erit Livonia." 1C6 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 that the question relative to the Swedish 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 the 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 1549 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- ness of good, continually springing up again in new and unexpected forms. John might be denominated a learned prince. He spoke Gorman, English, Italian, Polish, under stood French, was not ignorant of the Greek, and so well versed 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 disputants3; wherefore the well-meaning emperors Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II. 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 2 The opinion of the archbishop, Laurence Peterson, and others, upon the Interim ofthe emperor Charles v., Upsala, March 30, 1549, is printed in Celsius, Monumenta, p. 43. 3 His Consultatio de Articulis Relig. inter Catholicos et Protestantes Controversis, was printed at Stockholm in 1577, on the king's instance, but without statement ofthe place or year. 4 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 nearer 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 procure either for him or his son the crown of Sweden if it were true 5. " The queen of Swe den," — writes cardinal Stanislaus Hosius in 1572 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 piay 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 office of priests and the sacrifice of the mass G. Might that be done, then would the church be so tender a mother that she could even permit the 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 7. 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 Laurentius Norvegus, (the latter was usually called in Sweden cloister-Laurence,) came to Stockholm, and gave themselves out for evan gelical preachers. From the labours of the latter especially the cardinal expects much 8, because he, as a Norwegian, could easily make himself 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 offence; 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 papacy." 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. 6 Sacerdotium et sacrificium. Nihil est ecclesia matre benignius, si tantopere calix iste cordi est. Stanislai Hosii Opera, Colon. 1584, ii. 338. 7 Ut missa- sacrificium cum suis caerimoniis restitueretur, ac turn demum de calice deliberatio susciperetur. 1. c. 379. 8 Divinitus id factum esse puto, quod venit ad vos Nor- vegius ille, quem esse virum prudentem ac bene doctum et non vulgari judicio praeditum audio. 1. „. 408. 1 592. J State of the Church, and popular belief. JOHN AND CHARLES. Provisions of the Kirk's Ordinance. 167 king of Poland, the cardinal advises that the Pro testants there abiding should be fed with liopes until after the coronation ' ; but if the king had even promised them ou 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 1569 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 the restoration of several convents aroused attention. That of Vadstena 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 inti'oduced, a great portion of the people supposed nothing else than that they were still Catholics. The king himself insisted upon 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 the people of this realm for the most part regard themselves as still addicted 2. The Kirk's Ordinance (Kyrko-ordning), drawn up by Laurence Peterson, was first in 1571 pro mulgated and adopted. It appears 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- " Verum ego, quod suspensos regia majestas animos haereticorum teneat tantisper dum coronata fuerit, non im- pedio. Carolo, Cardinali Lotharingo Epistola, 1. c. 350. i Non teneri majestatem ut prastet, 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 read 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 Swedish and Latin. Whosoever wished to learn another tongue, as the Greek or Hebrew, must provide masters for himself. No academical instruction is spoken of ; but shortly after this time king John began the restoration of the seminary of Upsala. The school-lads were to be divided intothree 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 were instructed 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 Scriptures or other edifying books." Pul pits, which were yet wanting in many ofthe churches, were to be erected. During the sermon itself a person excluded from communion for notorious transgressions might remain in the church, but must afterwards withdraw ; if he resisted and would not go out, divine service was to close. The severest church penalty (preserved 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 churchwarden (syssloman). The bishop was to be elected by persons competent thereto, of the clergy and otliers, who possessed experience in the matter, under the sanction of an oath ; and he 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, quae alioquin putant magna ex parte esse in religione Catholica, animadvertant tam cito in religionem Catholicam ritus sibi novos iutroduci. 168 Proceedings of the Jesuits. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. King John'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 the 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, whieh the Swedish bishops afterwards retained, although at that time with much opposition from the clergy. By the king's express 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 3 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 4. 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 5 ; whieh 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 ofthe priestly office. Scarcely more creditable is the reservation which the king himself makes, in his conditions to Pope Gregory XIII., that the priests should for the present read inaudibly the invocations to saints and prayers for the dead in the Catholic mass 6. 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 religionis in regno. Ex archivo arcis S. Angeli. Copy in the Nordin Collections. 4 Insinuat se Pater Laurentius in amicitiam Germanorum, hi enim faciles sunt. Pergit pater ad ministros, sermonem miscet de variis rebus. Ministri, homines illiterati, prom- titudinem Latini sermonis et elegantiam mirantur, operam omnem promittunt; miseri laqueum, quo suspendantur postea, sibi contexunt. Adeunt regem, commendant virum. Rex gratam sibi esse commendationem significat; gaudet in sinu rem dextre confectam. Hanc opportunitatem nactus rex patrem Laurentium in theologiae professorem coontavit, statuens, ut quotquot Holmiae ministri essent (erant au tem plus minus 30) patris lectionibus interessent. Verum cum Sveci (ut vulgo fertur) tardi sint, factum est, ut P. Laurentius non nisi Julio mense Stockholmiam lectiones suas anspicaretur. Porro cum salutis nostras inimicus omnem animarum fructum semper impedire contendit, ex- citavit aemulum quendam P. Laurentio, Abrahamum (An- germannum) scholae rectorem : is animos auditorum 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 the general of his order 7. The Mass and Hand-hook had already been pub lished in Swedish by Olave 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 8, 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 Nilson of Westeras, 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 erection 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). After wards the king ordained that the election of the bishop should not depend only on the clergy of « diocese, but that the archbishop and archchapter of Upsala should be co-electors. Consent to the 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 auditores 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 Baazius, Invent. Eccl. Svio-Goth.p. 418. "In the times of the late king John," says Eric Sparre (Postulata Nobilium), " all was eonfided in many years to John Hin- derson. What kind of man he was, was not unknown." He died of ebriety. « Ut Catholici sacerdotes modo abstineant ab illis orationi- bus alta voce recitandis, quae pertinent ad sanctorum invo- cationem et ad orationes pro defunctis, eaeque submissa voce dici possent, ne quis suspicetur praesentem doctrinam Lu- theri esse tollendam ; hinc enim magnus rumor et helium posset excitari. 7 Messenius, Scondia, vii. 50, 75. 8 Circa haec tempora (1576) rex cum praedicto secretario novam fabricaverat liturgiam. From the account of the Jesuits above qunted. 1592.] His mission to Rome, and postulates. JOHN AND CHARLES. Papistical tendencies abandoned. 169 at which the latter perished ; but his colleague discharged his commission. John requested from the Pope 9 that his holiness would institute prayers throughout the whole world for the restoration of the Catholic 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, until by- and-by the Catholic creed should become dominant in the land. This result was prepared, 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 Linkoping, 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 against 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 Church2. A Catholic was intended to fill the archiepiscopal chair, which fell vacant again in the year 1579 3, and remained four years unoccupied. Jesuits, under manifold disguises, entered the kingdom. John designed to employ them in the new university, removed from Upsala to Stockholm. They became even » Quae rex Svetiae cupit a Summo Domino nostro obtinean- tur, ut sine perturbatione Suetiae restituatur religio Catholica. Ex codice manuscr. chartaceo in folio, bibliotheca: Vaticanae, N. 6218, p. 204 ad 208. Copy in the Nordin Collections in the Library of Upsala. ' Messenius, vii. 41. xv. 137. iii. 60. He was enjoined to fast every Wednesday, because on this day he had murdered his brother. ' Id. vii. 65. 3 Magnus Laurentius, nephewof both thelast Catholic arch bishops, Joannes and Olaus Magnus, was destined thereto. Afterwards Andrew Laurenceson (Biornram), formerly bishop ofVexioe, 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 coarBe 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 Braunsberg in 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 hy 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 5. This hope was as far from being fulfilled as the promise of the Pope to labour for the 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 man in the diocese of Skara, Master Maurice of 4 Catervatim. Messenius. 5 Cum autem ille (rex) per suas litteras vestrae beatitudini negotia sua Neapolitana commendet, vix est, quod ego de ea re, quae justissima est quaeque admodum cordi est vestra; beatitudini, quidquam amplius scribam, cum praesertim 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 III. 170 The king and the duke at variance. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Division of the royal patrimony. [1569— Bone, had endeavoured to raise a great tumult against it, the councillors 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 clergyman, and trample him underfoot, exclaiming, " To the lions and snakes thou shalt go 1" 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 6. 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 had 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 correspondence. 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 partly were ; on which account Eric had permitted the law to take its course with respect to them, and the nobles had profited by this permis sion. This was in the outset of Eric's reign. He soon changed, and preferred his claims against the nobility. The continuation of the 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 wliich 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- 6 Coinage-warrant of April 30, 1570. 7 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 1454, or rather 1453, 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, 1567, because he had made out false registers ofthe 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 are 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 7. 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 forgery8, 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 Mag 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-farms9, on wliich many unprofitable hands were employed, (and hence Eric desisted from keepmg them up on his own account,) now let out as crown-lands, with the right bf hereditary occupancy1; 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 patrimonial estates might purchase the property of the lands, and hold them in perpetuity 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. Ctmcerning 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 Upland. 1 King John's Register, June, 1576. The example here appearing relates to Strbmsrum in Smaland; but the prin ciple is declared general. 2 In 1584 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 bota.) 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 the 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 interpre 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 which John in 1571 added the government of the Swedish portion of Livonia. But Charles insisted on an indemnity for the whole period during whicli 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 Strb'msholm 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 his 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 Strb'msholm 3. 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 5, 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. The 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 hound to be true to the king, 3 Charles had accepted the hundreds of Wassbo and "Walla as a compensation for Strdmsholm. The contestation regard ing Tynnelsoe, which he demanded back in virtue of the will, appears to have renewed that regarding Strbmsholm. 4 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 offers 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 with its fortresses. John advises Charles of this, and requests more troops from him, but no more is said of the offer 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, that 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 he who comes into the throne and government as the others with 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, in cases where any greater and more mani fest advantage can be gained for the realm of Swe den, and time does not permit 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 "hereditary 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 heid an inspection6. 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. Examples are found during his time of peasants acquiring their free- 5 Memorial of Swen 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. Reg. 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 Vapensyn, the wapenshaw. T. 172 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 privileges of nobility, that estates gained by the unnoble through marriage with nobles were declared to be forfeited. The relations of the nobility to the princes produced in Sweden the first inquiries regarding the mutual relations of the powers (as they were called) ofthe state ; and Eric Sparre"'s treatise, " Pro Rege, Lege, et Grege 7," 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 the 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 monies,) 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, thereby 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. Tt 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 principality are compared, in relation to the knight-service, with the im mediate nobility of the German empire, which, 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 chief 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 7 "This is reason and document, gathered from all the hereditary settlements of king Gustavus, that the rights of the 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 nobility, 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, whilome Steward of Sweden, his (Economia, or Household- Book for young nobles, written anno 1585 8." His view is thus stated by himself: "In what manner the cliildren of nobles may be well reared in 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 ways written long and much in foreign tongues. But since of this kind no writings at all are to be found in our language, whieh 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 Sabbath, 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 appearance 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 temporal lords had themselves full kingly rights over their own peasants ; when every 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 Saxoniae. King James VI. of Scotland made Eric Sparre a baron, on account of his distinguished natural gifts and his connexion with the blood royal, and acquaints king John therewith by letter of the 23rd of June, 1583. When John in 1590 in carcerated Sparre, he tore up the Scottish patent of barony before his eyes. 8 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 exist. 1592.] Disputes as to the civil and ecclesiastical JOHN AND CHARLES. government of the duchy. 173 venience, and they had good time and pleasant days to prepare for their out-march, wliich yet never went beyond the borders, while 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 hardly avert the ruin of the order, since pomp and show, which had been brought into the land in the time of the tyrant king 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 spread 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 Uttle 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 the duke, — as of the latter refusing to submit to "the king'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 administration 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 ». man like 9 Compare Fryxell, Stories from the Swedish Annals (Berattelser i Svenska Historien), iv. 71. 1 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 helpers 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." 2 To John, for the pardon of master Peter Jonson, and master Abraham Angermannus, Oct. 4, 1581. Register of doke 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 9 ? 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, while he again had but one answer, that he would depart 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 Linkoping, whom John had deprived, was nominated by Charles pastor of Nykb'ping. 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 writings3. Many retracted the assent they had given to the changes in divine worship, 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 his 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. 4 Patent against the clergy of the principality, Calmar, Feb. 12, 1588, printed in the Appendix 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 CErebro in 1586, 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. Affairs of Poland. [1569- The Red Book (so John's liturgy was called) undoubtedly accelerated the unhappy 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 transferred 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 described 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 false 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 5, 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 daughters of his people. His choice ultimately fell upon Gunnila Bielke", a maiden of sixteen, daughter that the ministers' wives should enjoy the benefices one year after their husbands' death. 6 When John himself sought the Polish throne, it is staled in an opinion of the council thereupon, dated Vasby, April 14, 1573; "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 ; the new queen favoured their adversaries 6, while the king himself, with his accustomed violence, advanced in his own mid-way. Through this con nexion he had offended all his kindred. 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 7, and at the iustance of the council precluded his son from taking the diversion of the chase, lest Charles might lay an ambush for him 8. Meanwhile the duke refused to present himself at the congress of Vadstena, in February, 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 attempted 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 9." 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 counter-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. 9 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 agreed1. John himself subse quently complained that the council had employed the agency of monks and priests to overcome his reluctance. Eric Sparre"'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 anen t the government of both kingdoms 2," which on Sigismund's departure were laid before the kings for their subscription, and on the 7 th 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 laid 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, wliich 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, John'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 appear ; peace and alliance (conjointly against Russia both for offence and defence) be tween the two kingdoms, law and liberty unimpaired 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 when 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. One of these duke Charles might name, yet without precedence or other place than that which the 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 comits and free-barons, in consideration » Ipsemet princeps Sigismundus a Polonica totus abhorruit profectione, parcntique factus aliquoties supplex, illam de- precari conatur. Messenius, 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 up by the king from lists proposed 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 marriage festivities of the sovereign and his 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 part 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 principal contents of those articles; we may add, that the king is also bound to watch over the purity 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 principal nobles of Sweden ; the signatures of the two first-named only are found. In how 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 tlirough 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 (that was,in the Catholic religion), which made drawn up ;" (Speech to the Council after John's death, Wer- 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 he 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. Suspicions of treason in the council. [1569— him unfit for the government of Sweden 3." At this time the 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 marriage, Sigis mund had removed to a foreign dominion. Charles had, in 1579, personally sought a bride for himself in Mary of the Palatinate 4, whose lovesome memory he highly extols in his Rhyme-Chronicle, as he also named after her the royal manor 5 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 6 ; 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 him, as it had been accorded and sealed at the time when Sigismund left Sweden, and he wondered why it should be so concealed from him. At the same time we see John's disposition undergo 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 they 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 sus pected ringleaders were Hogenskild Bielke", Eric Sparre", 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 by king Gustavus Adol phus, written with his own hand, upon the reign of Charles IX." (Konung Gustaf Adolfs egenhandigt uppsatta historia, 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 (1676)." S. Lejonmarck Secret. Archivi. 4 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 he undertook in 1579, when he celebrated his mar riage on the 11th 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 Vermeland 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 he 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 8." 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 9." It has already been 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 undoubtedly 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 1. 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 6 To Sigismund with Maurice Stenson Lejonhufvud. Orebro, July 9, 1588. Registry of duke Charles. 7 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 upon the sequestration of a portion of the rents of the hundreds of Tuhundra and Snafringe." Svartsioe, June 12, 1589. Registry of king John. » 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 decreto comitiali, vulgo Helgeandsholms Beslut. Lond. Goth. (Lund) 1753. Compare his Svea Rikes Historia ii. 587. Probably, however, this note (which, if I recollect right, is said to have been in the hand of Hogens kild Bielk6,) 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 whether the allusion here was to the well- known George Person ofthe days of Eric XIV 1592.] Regulations as to mines. JOHN AND CHARLES. Improvements of Charles in Vermeland. 177 Sparre", purports that it had been presented with falsities by one who was the chief of liars 3. 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 ascribed4. According to some, Rasmus Ludvic- son was the inventor of this discovery 5. 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 the great streams of the country, which, according to this alleged statute, should escheat to the crown 6 ; 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 history of the kingdom 7. 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 ore already found ; those which should be further opened, might be let upon tithe, until he found it convenient again to enter upon his rights 8. These rights the king exercised, as for instance in 1575, in 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 bought5; and he forms an alliance 3 Lagerbring 1- c. Diplomat. Suec. i. 607. 4 Compare c. iv. 5 Paine Ericson, or Rasmus Ludvicson, says Peringskbld. 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. 5 " 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 the 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 flrst 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 commoners 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 V The same maxims he followed in respect 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 3, 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 Charles. 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 respect 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 protector 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 8 Deliberations in king John's time. Archives. 9 Registry for this year. i Nykdping, Jan. 23. Duke Charles'Reg. forl581. (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, Nykbping, and MariEestad. As king, in 1611, 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 ofthe Danish cannon, which by the peace of Stettin were to be redeemed, was paid for with iron. K 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 tlie 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 purchases 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 throughout the country. These practices,it was said, were common among councillors of state, prefects, lieutenants, justiciaries, and others, who had com mand among the rural population 5. To this it gave little relief that the king 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 burgess who indulged his female relatives with silk kirtles 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 hi the duchy. In 1585 the council found itself obliged to make repre sentations to the king. In his household and on his estates they declare there is intolerable excess of eating 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 7 ; 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 many architects, 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 8. John took these re presentations in no good part. According to his notion the 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 ofthe council. These menaces 9, first uttered in 1584, were renewed in 1586 and 1588, and at length carried into effect 5 See the prohibition hereof, issued in 1583, and the king's answer to the remonstrances of the council in Reval. 6 The old dress of the burgess dames with " gorget, cap, and hood with 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. 7 May 30, 1584, an ordinance had been promulgated for a new ground-reckoning and assignment of taxes, as the pub lic income ever more and more decreased. Registry. 8 Deliberations in king John's time. Archives. 9 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 desire was so engrossing that 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 thereto1. 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 around the king rose up that government of secretaries which afterwards became notorious enough in Sweden under arbitrarily dis posed rulers. George Person may be named the father of this tribe; and his son Eric Gb'ranson 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 Swerkerson3 afterwards acquired, 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, who had gained John's good graces once 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 issued 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 manage 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. 1 Who wrote the histories of Gustavus I. and Eric XIV. Trans. 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 in Reval. JOHN AND CHARLES. Remonstrances of the council and the army. 179 rnently insist upon this design, and now drew out 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 the 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 during this reign had several times visited the kingdom 5, was now raging in Finland and Lifland. But John replied angrily, 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 before 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 son6, the principal councillors, and such forces as could be gotten together, — and was at length obliged to wait several weeks in Reval for Sigismund. 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 8. The Polish councillors had already spoken with their prince in Wilna relative to a rumour of this kind9; 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 irruption 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 refusing access to the lords they delivered the memorial to Sigismund. It repeats in part the remonstrances already made 4 Eric Sparre, 1. c. He is himself manifestly the author of the representations both of the council and the army, which wiU be mentioned afterwards. 5 Namely, in 1572, when Dr. Lemmius caused to be 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. 5 Prince John, born April 18, 1589. 7 Animo habuit constitutum domi forisque pace confecta regni gubernaculum illi tradere, et ipsemet vitam Upsalise privatam agere; quo decreverat doctissimos undequoque viros ad fiinctionem ibi academicam convocare, rerumque quotidianus inspector, summus cancellarius et director fieri 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 several years2, 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 3 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 1606, and jEgidius 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. 9 Eric Sparre, 1. c; he had heard this from Sigismund himself. 1 These complaints relate partly to the execution ofthe 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 I 180 The king's return ; his disgust with the council. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The estates convoked. Arraignment of six lords. [1569— the kingdom * ; for the rest, their majesties might be assured of the fidelity of the lords, and that they would not spare their blood or lives for the defence of Sigismund'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 officers repaired to the castle, and laid down their standards before the two kings' 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 in Stockholm, wrote that duke Charles had begun to excite disturbances in Sweden. Sigismund tore himself on the 30th September from the arms of his father, and John, having despatched plenipo tentiaries to negotiate with the Russians, passed to his ships through 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 remained 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 5. Charles was replaced in possession of all his rights in the principality, and assumed hi 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, interested 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 Sparre", 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 were 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 4 In the accusation before the estates, and in their decla ration hereby produced, it is said the lords had employed the following expressions: "to bar the kingdom against both their majesties." The expressions quoted in the text are as they are found in Werwing, Appendix 29, and in Eric Sparre'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 drawn 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 ascertain 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 hereditary 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, the nobility declared that they, as faith ful adherents of the hereditary settlement, would completely cut off the said lords from their body, unless they could defend themselves upon sufficient grounds, to which declaration the 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 Brahe, on the occasion of the Calmar Statutes passed in 1587, is said to have expressed hopes of the restoration of an elective monarchy in Sweden6; 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 hy John himself ? — With more reason might Charles complain of them. Thus he was hardly reconciled to the king 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 5 To duke Charles, upon certain affairs of 1589, after the return from Reval. Registry. 6 Messenius, vii. 86. Eric Sparre 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 or the other, since there was a great difference between word and deed. 1592.] Despotic conduct of tbe king. JOHN AND CHARLES. The Russian war. Horn's heroism ; his reward. 181 advice and consent of Us and the Estates of the Realm '." In like fashion he requested from Eric Sparre* " his copious memoir upon the king's regali ties and the rights of the princes 8," which 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. The king's bitterness against the council con tinued, and was vented in expressions 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 9. Towards the accused he was the more inexorable, 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 dissuaded his 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 upon him as the author of their woes '." In another letter he requests to know how he was to deal with the Russian envoy, who 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 Ingermanland had been again lost, while Finland was laid waste, and a, Swedish force of 20,000 7 To Hogenskild Bielke, Feb. 10 and 20, 1590. Reg. » Namely the treatise, Pro rege, lege, et grege. Letter to Eric Sparre, Feb. 28, 1590. Reg. 9 Fryxell, from documents in the Archives, IV. 103, 125. ' Werwing, i. 95. "> 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 1571 before the envoys of the Khan of Crim Tartary, after the latter had taken and burned Moscow. Karamsin, viii. 149. men 3 was fighting against a Russian of more than 100,000 in Estland, that John held this language. This Russian inroad, wliich fell out in the winter of 1 590, 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 Inger manland, and on his march neglected to reinforce Narva, where the heroic Charles Henryson 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 which 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, who said that neither his son nor his brother should be his guardian, and ordered the continuation of the war. For the rest, new levies in Sweden, mutinies of the troops from defect of pay, appointment and deprivation 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 imprisonment, 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 formidable 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, who 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 hy the side of his father, old Henry Horn, who was able to pride himself on this son and on a nephew like Clas Christerson Horn4. 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 jEgidius Girs speaks, it is true, of 100,000 Russians, hut says, that the Czar first appeared before Jamgorod in Inger manland with but 30,000. * The High Admiral Clas Christerson Horn, who m Eric s time commanded the Baltic with the Swedish fleet, was a 182 Second marriage of Charles. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Death of king John. [1592— four sons, all distinguished men, and among them Gustave Horn, the youngest and greatest. There was more than one Swedish family wliich 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 5. 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 6. In spring of the same year John was brought low by a wasting malady. On his sick-bed he again withdrew the pardon he 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 1592, 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 7. Duke Charles first brought sorrow, and wrath alike, into the royal castle8. The body which had been carried into an ill-arrayed 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 Bielke' and George Posse", who had been present during the king's last moments, was 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 9. 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 OP DUKE CHARLES AND THE COUNCIL OF STATE IN THE ABSENCE OF SIGISMUND. ASSEMBLY 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 SCEDERKQ3PING. DIET OF ARBOGA. HOSTILITIES BETWEEN SIGISMUND AND CHARLES. TREATY OF LINKCEPING. DECREE OF THE ESTATES AT STOCKHOLM AGAINST SIGISMUND ; CHARLES DECLARED HEREDITARY PRINCE REGNANT. a. D. 1592—1598. The man who could have promised, writes Eric Sparre", 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 crown 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 him 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. » Daughter of Adolphus, duke of Holstein Gottorp, by Christina, daughter of the landgrave Philip of Hesse. « Werwing. The proposition of marriage above mentioned came from Sigismund's aunt, the duchess Elizabeth of Meck lenburg, who herself subsequently advised against it. 7 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. 8 Regis tectis luctum induxit. Messenius. 9 Nov. 16. 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 children4. 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 take the road for the capital. On the journey he stayed at Sbdertelye, as would seem, to wait for further intelligence j but it was delayed for two days. 1 In his defensive memoir. 1 Sigismund was born during the imprisonment of his parents in the castle of Gripsholm, June 20, 1566. 3 On the other hand, when Arnold Grothusen, who, after the Catholic doctor Nicolaus Mylonius, was Sigismund's teacher, ouce ventured to lead the prince away from the Ca tholic mass, John drew his sword over his head, exclaiming, " Educabis filium meum in spem utriusque regni !"Werwing. 4 Messenius. 1598.] Pardon of the accused lords. CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND. The duke's covenant with the council. 183 while Charles, in struggling with the perils which menaced his country, was to win supreme 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 5." In Rome too not a little was expected from his zeal. So early as 1587, at the election to the Polish throne, pope Sixtus V. expressed his hope, that Sigismund would subdue not only the Polish but the Swedish heretics6. 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 present, since John had expired without having made any dis positions in this respect. By letters of the 24th 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 the 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 he 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 7. Meanwhile a letter arrived from Sigis mund, 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 country. So far 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 inuocence s, 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 long from Sweden ; his majesty was 5 Letter to Sigismund, July 9, 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. 7 Messenius. 8 Sigismund's patent for Hogenskild Bielke, Gustave Baner, Eric Sparr6, Axel Leyonhufvud, Steno Baner, Thure Bielke, and the already deceased counts, Peter Brahe and Clas Akeson Tott, was made out after his arrival in Sweden, Nov. 2, 1593. » From an anonymous German letter in the Latin Regis- trature, 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 advisable 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 he dissuaded from all opposition by the representations of foreign powers ». 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 Gullberg 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 ruled only by the king's commands. In this he was fortified by the special legation in Livonia and Finland, which Sigismund in the be ginning of 1593 committed to John Sparre", brother of Eric. From this moment there was a separate government for these countries '. 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 speaking, whieh 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-mote, 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 general diet, and carried his view. Religion and freedom, he said to the council, were bis father's good deeds to the country. Out of thankfulness for these the estates had made the crown hereditary in the house of Gustavus; only he 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 discorditE sementia, Messenius. 2 The council ventured to suggest that an extract should be made from the Latin Brie/ (so were 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 religion as liberty, to establish such conditions as the Swedes had from aforetime been free to propose to their kings. To Sigismund 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 happy in so far as he might confirm the religion and liberties of the realm, and those statutes by 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 3. 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 4. There were present the duke with the council, four bishops 5, above three hundred clergy, many of the nobles, burgesses, and peasants. Nicolaus Bothni- ensis, professor of theology in Upsala, although a young man, was named Speaker. He had beeu im prisoned ou 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, was the sole ground and rule of evange lical doctrine, and had gone through all the articles of the unmutilated Augsburg Confession, Peter Jonson, lately confirmed by the duke as bishop of the principality6, 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 replied, " 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 7." The changes in church ceremonies and doctrines which had been introduced under the former reign were abolished. Luther's Catechism was again made the general ground-work of in struction in religion, aud Lawrence Peterson's 3 This person had found means of insinuating himself into the favour of Charles, whom he afterwards calumniated to Sigismund ; 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 (spogubbe, 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, > From Lltkoping, Strengness, Westeras, Abo. The vacant chair of the archbishop was filled up during the assembly, as well as the episcopal chairs of Wexiti, Skara, and Wiborg, although the first two were not occupied until their then aged possessors had dropped off by death. 6 He received an episcopal writ for Strengness, January 6, 1593, and was consecrated during the sittings, although Manual that of divine service8. 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 plaoes. 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 papal 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, homicides, 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 Sigismund 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 9." Those who now ruled used their victory with moderation ; oblivion of the past was promised ; no one was persecuted. A single clergyman, 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 Charles' Reg. 1593. ' Relation of Nicolaus Bothniensis, concerning the Coun cil of Upsala; printed by Lbnbom, Historical Memorials (Historiska Miirkvardigheter), v. i. 8 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. Afterwardsmanynotoriously 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 of 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 ofthe Bible narrowly examined. 9 Werwing, i. 136. 1598.] The Calvinists declared heretics. CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND. Guarantees demanded from the king. 185 complaints • by the burgesses, was obliged to inter dict him from the exercise of his functions. The duke had refrained from taking part in the deli berations. He subscribed the statute2, although not disguising his disgust with the council 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 liturgy, 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 hy this word the Reformed communion was plainly enough 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 he of this tribe, — ay, the very fiend of hell, for he 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 hound 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 century 3, was a great and decisive step. It consolidated the Reformation in Sweden, and by its consequences in Europe. Re lations, which in the impending strife 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 5. 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 1 See the Vindicatory Memoir of the Corporate Body to John, against the inculpations of Peter Paulson; printed in Nytt, Treasure of Documents in Northern History (Fdrrad af handlingarna i Nordiska Historien), Stockholm, 1759. 2 It is drawn up in the name of the duke, the council, the bishops, 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. 4 "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 Estland 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 6. 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" Bielke, 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 Sparre" and 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 that 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 7 ; 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 and Elbing, and that the fear of a like pro 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 decision8. 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. 12. 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 Sigismund's own statement to Charles, March 13, 1594. 3 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. Diet 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 Angerman, 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 9. 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 pressed. But Sigismund would con firm 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 religion 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 2. — Thus with minds mutually exasperated, men repaired to Upsala, where the estates were 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 papal 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. 1 " 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 3. 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 must 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 4. 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 5. 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 from a man so odious to him. The same day on which the as surance was given6 (February the 19th, 1594), Iessly than discreetly requested, thereto we had good reason." Sigismund to Charles, Jan. 22, 1594. Ibid. 2 Baazii Inventarium Eccl. Suio-Goth. 547. 3 Messenius. 4 Jac. Typotius, Relatio Hist, de regno Sueciae. 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 ofthe 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. " 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 Westeras 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 slow 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 kiug 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, protested against him, that it was not competent for him to remove the kingly govern 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 he obtained, whence all the disorder afterwards flowed 7." 7 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 what degree the new Union with Poland produced similar relations, bringing 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 Sparre", 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 nob-ilium, 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 from 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 had 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 % 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. Howbeiti 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 coUection of former privileges of the 188 Sigismund's charter to the nobility. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Arrangements for his departure. [1592— council of state and the nobles, especially during the Union age 8. Induced thereby king Sigismund issued before his coronation a special assurance to the knights and nobility, by which, upon the expressed ground that the nobility had approved the hereditary 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 9. The con ditions of the horse-service were further 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 Helgeandsholm, 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 councillors 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 the intolerable influence of the royal secre tary therein. The nobles were not content. Sig ismund requested on the 9th March, 1594, the opinion 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 Icing against the new privileges *, replies, that he now cannot advise, because he should only be ill inter preted 2. The duke had gone after the coronation to his principality; and sickness, perhaps also mistrust, retained him at Nykoping during the short time for which Sigismund still tarried in Sweden. The s We quote the above from a manuscript copy. According to Warmholtz, it was printed at Stockholm in 1594. 9 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 ; also, since they referred to ancient charters, that they should show them. Minute for Sigismund. Register. 2 Answer to Sigismund, April 4, 1594. 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 opinion 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 Sparre". 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 prince 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 Sweden3. 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 the 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 5. 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, (wliich occurred June 21, 1595,) should receive East-Gothland. 3 Answer to Sigismund's messengers, Werwing, i. 250. 4 To the council, upon the ordering of government, June 5, 1594. Register. s July 15, 1594, just as the king was departing. See both in Werwing, i. 256. I598'] SweS'sigfsmundtmtels. CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND. Position of the council. 189 majesty set out," he writes to the king, " without your subjects knowing by whom and how they are to he governed, we dread what will ensue there upon, and have been loth to leave this unnoted for the warning of your majesty 6." Sigismund'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 7. 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 another had newly arrived, to congratulate the queen on her being delivered of a daughter8. 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 armed train of unruly followers. The king himself mcreased his Polish body-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 9 ; the strangers burdened not the land ; all that the king had drawn from this kingdom amounted not to one or two thousand dollars1. 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 arms, 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 1 4, 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 " 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 the 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. 1 To duko Charles, March 9, 1594. Reg. told him2. 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. Therein 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 Sparre", 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 Bielkes 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 from 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 3. Clas Fleming was confirmed in his offices as high marshal, admiral, and supreme governor of Fin 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 warrants independent of the duke and the council. Charles styled them " king each in his district4," 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 (admonebant),ut in Poloniam maturaret, redituros se majoribus cum copiis ; relinqueret Suecos im- peditos ; sic fore opportuniores injuriis. 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 6, 1594. 4 Authentic Relation and History (Samfardig Historia och Berattelse, for hvad orsaker, &c.) for what causes the estates of Sweden renounced king Sigismund, Stockholm, 190 The new lieutenants. Re-erection of the HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. University. Peace with 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 5." It soon appeared that these new lieutenants regarded 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 in 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 7. In the year 1594, 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, 1 595) 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 by the re storation of the University of Upsala, which had been partly raised from its decay by John, but again dissolved 8, while the recent revolutions, de cisive of the fortunes of the Reformation in Swe den, had engrossed universal interest. The pro fessors of Upsala were leaders in the struggle against the liturgy, and suffered on that account a protracted persecution. In general the teachers of the schools throughoutSweden were theprops of Pro testantism. Schoolmasters were summoned to the synod of Upsala 9, 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, Stockholm, Sept. 17, 1594. Reg. Covenant of the councillors of state with duke Charles anent the government. Sep. 2, 1594. Stiernman. 8 " 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 power 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, Naftaget (Nief's raid). Upsala, 1763. 8 Towards the end of hi6 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 his ordinary fretful an swers2, he was yet obliged to engage in his as surance to maintain the Academy efficiently "in the general religion ofthe kingdom," and to provide in structors and students with proper support. The execution of the resolve was committed to the duke and the council3, 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 4. To three professors of theology and four of philosophy he assigned adequate incomes from the tithes, with pre- bendal residences and other houses 5, 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 6. 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 war in fact broke forth in Finland, through the nnheard-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. The fulfilment of the menace necessarily set the duke and the council at variance. We relate the course of events mainly on the authority of a par tisan of the council 7. 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 retuni to the kingdom. When the prince heard this an swer, dissension arose between him and the council homage by the unnoble estates to Sigismund, afteT he had given the assurance, is emitted hy bishops, prelates, ministers, and schoolmasters. ' Letter of the council and estates, Feb. 6, 1594. Baazii Invent. Eccles. Suiog. 550. 2 " Anent the Academy, the king will let himself be dictated to in nothing." Answer to duke Charles' Articles, Feb. 1, 1594. Register. 3 King Sigismund's Assurance anent Religion, March 16, 1594. Stiernman. 4 With the right of examining, and along with the bishops, of appointing the rectors ofthe schools, §§ 8, 9. 5 The so-called kirk-houses at Upsala, formerly attached to the cathedral, sequestered by Gustavus I. and partly granted to the nobility. 3 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. 1598.] Convention ofthe estates at CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND. Soderkoephig. 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 tho 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- kceping. 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 brought 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 Soderkoeping, 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 drawn 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 majesty8 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 9, 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 interroga 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 king, 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, gracious 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 t Hear ye what these have sworn 1 Will ye sever yourselves from them ?" 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 procedure 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, that 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 Soderkoeping were 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 i 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 years, 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 archbishop. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Distress and discontent. The Dalemen's letter. [1592- the remains of popery 3, 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 served Odin. Yet this was a well-known expression of those who by invoking his spirit attempted to procure wealth 4. Revolting proofs of the barbarism of manners ap pear in the protocols of the visitations then held. Homicides are mentioned who drank the blood of their enemies 5 ; nay, this was testified of a clergy man, infamous for murders and other horrid cruelties, and yet in this case the sentence was mild 6, " 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 Eric, 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 7 ? 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 Soderkoeping for the payment of the public debt, and stirred up the burgesses of Stockholm to disaffection. The arch bishop took him 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 a Visitationem, quam incepit archiepiscopus in Ostro- gothia, perduxit dieto anno (1596) primum per totam Go- thiam cum Smolandia et QSlandia, deinde in reliquis dio- cesibus eandem continuare pergit. Baazii Inventar. Eccles. Sviog. 573. Yet the inquest appears to have been stopped the following year by the duke. 4 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. Then 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 Linkoping in the year 1 596. Memoirs of the Swedish Reformation, v. 303. 6 Ibid. 389. " If thou drink so deep that thou become foolish and stupid, then shalt thou be cut off 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 (1C06) Nicholas Peterson was ordained bishop of and chapter of Upsala 8." The duke was ill-content? with his manner of holding the kirk-inquest, He had demeaned himself, 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 9. 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 stay. 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 2 ; yet with what sincerity was shown in the sequel. Clas Fleming had not only opposed the statute of Soderkoeping, but persecuted those who had consented thereto, and generally all who dared to carry tlieir 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 Tavastland8. Charles required that Clas Fleming and his partisans should be subdued by arms ; Lifland and Finland Westeras, but 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 archbishop, 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 Palmskold 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 their minister because he would not hold service on St. Laurence' day. Reg. for 1602. 1 Fryxell, iv. 24, from documents in the Archives. 2 Accession to the Statutes of Soderkceping of the absent among the council and nobility, in Jenkoping, Jan. 20, 1596. Register. 3 Werwing, i. 338. 1598.] The duke renounces the government and CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND. convokes the diet of Arboga. 193 must not be severed from Sweden •. The council evaded, negociated, dissuaded. George Posse" re fused to lead the troops. The duke laid down the government on the 2nd November, 1596, but with the declaration, that as he had received it from the estates, he couid deposit the charge in tlieir hands alone; wherefore he 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 nullity; for it should be known, that some had beeu 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 Arboga5. 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 6." 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, 1596, had they heard this ; and although his princely grace could better than any of them weigh what consequences might ensue, 4 Points required by duke Charles, if he will remain in the government. Register. s Register for 1597. s To Sigismund, Abo, Oct. 4. Reg. for 1597. ' 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. The Dalecarlians issued their letter, and exhorted the others to come. 8 " They of the knights and nobles who were yesterday gathered in the council-room, have let fall hard words of us, that we should not have allowed peasants to judge noblemen, they could yet, as born Swedish men, occupied hi 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, 1597, notwithstanding the prohibition of the king and the protest of the coun cil 7. A single lord of the council was present, the unstable count Axel Oxenstierna, alternately the enemy of Charles and Sigismund, 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 Anger man, was publicly accused by the duke of having attempted to spread abroad Sigismund'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. Scheffer, who was likewise imprisoned, afterwai'ds recovered his freedom, and died minister of En- kiiping. 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 lords8. 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 envoy who had arrived from Sigis mund, saw in Stockholm and Upsala many who had fought for the king's cause pass to the scaffold. Thus the flames of civil war were thoroughly kindled, and that which Sigismund had declared in one of his many manifestoes was fulfilled ; namely, that 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 9. 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 Sbderkoping, 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 stander,) 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 the peasants." Charles to certain of the nobility. Arboga, March 7, 1597. Reg. s Werwing, i. 370. Of the prolix correspondence on both sides we have quoted only that which was inaccessible or unknown'before. 194 Hostilities break out. Sigismund arrives. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Fights of Stegeborg and Stangbridge. [1592— sent ? On the other hand, the king made known his purpose to return without delay into his paternal 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 tranquil 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 suffer 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 sufficiently indicated. Sigismund, after he had waited in vain for the Swedish fleet, at length embarked in merchant- vessels, wliich he sequestered at Dantzic, with about 5,000 Polish troops and a brilliant court, and landed 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, interposed their mediation between his uncle and himself. His very presence did much; for a report of his death had got abroad in Sweden. The Dalesmen, who already 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 himself2. 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. 2 Ihre de tumultu Dalekarlorum. Sigismund himself complains that a saying was current among the peasants, that the Poles had sent a shoemaker who resembled him 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 affairs 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. 4 Sigismund himself represents the beginning ofthe 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 duke 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 coasts, and even at tempted a landing with 3,000 men, but was driven back by the duke's fleet, and the peasantry of Upland3. 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 hands from Sweden Proper, Dalecarlia, and Norrland, besides his ordinary army from his principality. A month passed away 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 Farensbach, 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 4. This mildness of the king made great impression, even upon Charles himself, who in the first moment declared himself before his officers 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 Linkoping; 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 field5. 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 reconcilement ; whereupon we gave for answer that he should vacate the field, and then negotiate with us. Therewith he moved off." " Else," adds the king, in aletter 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 Heiducs 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 Linkoping, Sept. 27. " He had heard that the troopers of Upland and the Finns were preparing to make an incursion through the principality, but hoped they would have another stomach for the chase when they heard how their fellows had succeeded below." 1598] Treaty of Linkceping. Flight of Sigismund. CHARLES IX. Decrees of the estates against Sigismund. 195 fight of Stangbridge (Stangebro). Sigismund would probably have been made prisoner him self, had not Charles granted a truce, notwith standing a shot treacherously fired at him during the negociation. The Icing and the duke had, immediately after the engagement, a per sonal conference. The sequel was the conven tion of Linkoping, on the 26th 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 should 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 you, 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 otherwise 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 1 have the right of opposing whosoever should break its provisions. These assembled at Jenkb'ping, 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, with 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 right to the Swedish throne. The duke was declared reigning Prince 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. CHAPTEE XIV. CHARLES IX. CONSEQUENCES OF SIGISMUND'S FLIGHT. SEVERITIES AGAINST HIS PARTY. DIET OF LINKffiFING. TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION 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 N0RRKO3PING, 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- hoff 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, shortly 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 forewamings 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 fighting 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 tilings which the king's friends had now to expect. Sigismund replied, that he hoped still to o2 190 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 ; although a great number of the troopers of Smaland and Westgothland, by their conduct in the battle of Stangbridge, had deserved no better6. To Charles he had already written ; that no man could wonder at his departure who knew the circumstances ; after he had been driven from Stegeborg to Calmar by storm, and he had in timated to the duke that he intended 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 7. John Sparre" received orders, " upon his temporal and eternal weal," to hold out over the winter in Calmar ; 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 Sparre" and the other lords of the council, he should reflect on his oath and truth, his noble rank, and his famous name in arms ; 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 sovereign - and as such had departed, to treat with the Roman emperor and other powers, things that might further the welfare of both kingdoms 8. 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 9. Sigismund's late disaster seems to have totally 6 To Count Eric, Jan. 5, 1599. Sigismund's Reg. Count Eric Brahe afterwards made his peace with the duke. 7 To Charles, Warsaw, Dec. 15, 1598. Reg. 8 Instruction for John Sparre before the king's leaving Calmar, Oct. 21, 1598. Reg. = To Arvid Ericson and Axel Kurk, Warsaw, Feb. 18, 1599. Register. 1 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 punishment, Dantzic, Nov. 24, 1598 : " First, he shall be admonished while the court-is sitting of all his traitorous acts and plots, and then shall judgment pass upon him. Thereafter (!) he shall be tortured upon the rack and with brandy (which was burned deprived him of self-posse'ssion. His letters and orders show exasperation as deep as it was impotent against Charles, whom he styles the dishonoured, perjured prince. In Finland, which was still in his power, he gave orders that sundry sworn offi cers should be appointed in all the towns and 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 Sparre" and others furnished materials2. 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 rising, 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 Norway3. 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 hi fact a plan of the royalist party that these, combined with the troopers of Upland (who had been already em ployed in Finland nnder 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 governor, Jacob Naef, » 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 tlieir 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 shall 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 Sturcius 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's adherents. John Sparre. CHARLES IX. Diet of Linkoping. Hoyalist lords of the council arraigned. 197 expression 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. Tlieir 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 tlieir country. The 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 tlieir liberty, upon their promise never again fo serve against Sweden. But the eyes of the whole kingdom, and especially the imprisoned lords, were directed to the 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 letters 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 into their own power, and bound themselves to grant a certain aid from every province 1 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 the 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 4 ? What their answers were to all these questions is unknown. But John Sparre", with two other njble- 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 ofCalmar5. "Vengeance! vengeance! vengeance! before God's just tribunal !" wrote the chancellor * Charles' Reg. for 1599. At the diet in Linkoping the following year, Charles wrote to the estates, that the princess Anne, for 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 which a copy is preserved in the Palms kold Collections, it i« 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." s 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 15U9. The Finns were routed, Wiborg and Abo taken, and the whole country subdued. Eight-and-twenty 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 poison 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 before, 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 fled 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 tlieir wives and children. In consequence of late events the indictment had been extended to several others. The court consisted 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 iaw-readers fi, with twenty-four yeomen. The clergy regarded it as unseemly to take the part of judges, and confined themselves to a declaration that the evangelical faith would undoubtedly have been endangered in Sweden if Sigismund had attained the superiority 7. The trial was held publicly, and in presence of the envoys of John Adolphus, duke of Holstein 8, 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 Baner (brothers), Hogenskild, Thure' aud Clas Bielke" (brothers), Eric Sparre", Eric Leyonhufvud, George Canuteson 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 Giiranson 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 effected 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 she and her children were driven out of tbe 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 the emoluments. 7 See this declaration in the additions to the Rhyme Chronicle of Charles IX. i. 346. » A Danish envoy had wished to be present, but was ex cluded. 11)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 tlieir engagements contracted with the duke, and the statutes of Soderkoeping, 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 9." His violent expres sions were accompanied by applause and murmurs from the numerous throng which 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 here 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 ' 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 the 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 chancery2. 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 3, 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 March of the year 1600, Gustave Baner, Eric Sparre", Steno Baner, and Thure" 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 prisonersfexceptingtheparalytie Hogenskild Bielke") were also led forth, and obliged to see the blood of their friends poured out. Their Jives 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. Palmskold Collections. Acta ad histo- riam Caroli IX. v. ii. 1 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 his 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 lot of their father the high marshal Gustave Baner. Appendix to the Rhyme Chronicle of Charles IX. p. 359. 4 " An unheard-of treason of Hogenskild Bielke, his brother Clas, Christian Ciasson 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," received his freedom in 1602, on the interces sion of the Finnish nobility, and afterward was even appointed to a command in Livonia. But after the unsuccessful assault on Wittenstein in 1604, the following year he was again accused and condemned, led 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 4, the old and feeble Hogenskild Bielke" was again placed be fore the tribunal of the estates, and 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 latter5, on five Stenbocks, four Sparre's, six Gyllenstiernas, seven Posses, two Rib bings, two Bondes, two Flemings, one Torstenson, one Horn6. 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 the 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 understand 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, 60 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 Norrkbping (namely, in the previous year, 1604)." Writ of summons by Charles to the diet of March 8, 1605. 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. s 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 Posse of Sibgeras. 1611.] Offer of the crown to the duke. Military operations in Livonia. CHARLES IX. Negotiations with the Poles. Visit of Charles to Finland. 103 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 government. On this account the statute of the diet recommends two courses ; the first, to leave Sigismund yet five months, within which to send his son 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 his descendants, hut 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. The estates declare that they had moved the duke to embrace the second alternative, though he himself had expressed his approbation of the first. In letters to queen Elizabeth of England, Charles declared that the estates had offered him the crown, and pressed it on his acceptance, although he had refused it, since it belonged of right to the young duke John 7 ; yet he would further consider tlieir 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 8. The following year Henry bespoke cannon and balls from Sweden9, and in 1604 offered his mediation in the Polish affairs. 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 Estland to the Poles, and at the diet of Warsaw in 1600 and 1601, obtained the promise of the estates of Poland to support him hi 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 himself. Livonia was badly defended, for the Poles were detested ; Reval with Estland immediately declared for Charles. In six months all the Livonian fortresses had been wrested 7 Ad reginam Anglia, May 14, 1601. Ad Robertum Cecil et Senatores Angliae. Reg. for 1601. 8 Responsum, &c. Nycopise, May 14, 1002. 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 ofthe 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. Differences 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 had excited the astonish ment of the enemy, but did not satisfy the severe father. " We have received thy letter, Charles Carlson," he 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 V 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 disinclined to peace. Had the duke not attacked Livonia, he said to the Swedish prisoners, never would the Poles have saddled a horse against Sweden2. 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. > Answer to the letter of Charles Carlson, Abo, Jan. 20, 1602. Palms. Collections. Acta ad Histor. Car. IX. t. ii. 2 Werwing, ii. 51. 200 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 proprietors of their horses and nags, whereas such peasants in Finland had no property 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 these might expect any profit from their estates 3. Charles 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 4. 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 proportion of the peasants assessed to the crown, aud likewise bear their share 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 5. 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. Rare 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 proffered to him 1 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 bim 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 writings 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 tlieir own6. 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 7." 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. 4 Mandate against extortion from the people, Linkoping, Feb. 28, 1600. 5 Decree of Bidrneborg, Feb. 9, 1602. This malpractice of the Finnish bailiffs afterwards again provoked the indignation of Charles : " If we use them and other such thieves further, so 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 much admired ; " Whoso lays hands on a prince's sceptre, grasps a fire-brand whieh must destroy him ; for him there is no grace 8." 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 wliich 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 family, but really in its cause ; and he was himself, amid these 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 Gustavns, and from his whole position, he could not misappreciate the value of power bestowed by the voice of the people. But on the same voice his whole family rested their here ditary right. Against Sigismund, an outcast by religion from the heritage of the father of hi3 line, Charles enforced the resolutions of the estates. But there remained » 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- <¦ 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. Raumer, History of Europe from the end ofthe Fifteenth Century, ii. 607 ; a work which at length does full justice to the great Elizaheth. 1611.J Diet at Stockholm. His view of foreign affairs. CHARLES IX. Refusal of the crown. New council appointed. 201 culties accumulated around upon a land shaken so deeply by civil turmoils. The feud with Sigismund 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 Lapp- 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 unright done by Den mark to Sweden 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 9." This time the duke was met by general dissatisfaction. The notion of the use iessness 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 ; 1602 was also a hard year. Men died of hunger iu 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, 9 Opinion of Charles to the estates, how the Swedes may obtain peace. Stockholm, June 13, 1602. To the grand 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 Charles's Latin epistle. " 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, wliich 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. 1 " His princely grace has understood that in the hospital of Upsala seven persons are dead of 'hunger, aud 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 in respect to the king's assurance sundry doubts were raised which showed mistrust. They might look after an other, — he writes to the estates on tlie 16th June, 1602, — who would rule the kingdom better ; the king of Poland, to whom they had not yet renounced their oaths, and with whom a party secretly held, or his 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 tlieir 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 cuted2. 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 irrefragably 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 during 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 suspicions 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 by 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 hy 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 ofthe 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 1601 it rained for ten weeks incessantly, and on the 15th August crops and fruits were killed hy 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 find 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. a Oath of the council of state, Aug. 23, 1602. Reg. 4 " We have no thought of adopting the same at any time." Exceptions of the clergy to the Handbook, March 20, 1600. Palms. Collec. Acta ad Hist. Car. IX. t. ii. 202 Religious opinions of Charles. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. His controversy with the archbishop. [1599— from introducing a new order of worship in his own household s. This was brought into scandal as Calvinistic, and the archbishop Olave Martinson wrote against its errors, among which 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 Psalms6. He composed, and left behind him in manuscript, Swedish and German Hymns, as also Prayers, of which that for the guidance of rulers reflects honour on the author 7. In 1604 appeared a Catechism written by himself in 1593 8. Herein he followed the reformed catechism of Heidelberg, which awakened new controversy, not allayed by his attempt to introduce an amended translation of the Bible. Charles stood forth in 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 9. 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 Palatine 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, who alone forgireth sins, forgive ness of thy sins and the grace of God." He de fended, thirdly, the use of reason and philosophy in theology. In the " Answer of the high and mighty prince and lord, Charles, &c, to the Book of Proofs, which Master Olave, archbishop of Upsala, with 5 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 be performed. Stockholm, 1604. « Naghra nyttigha andheliga Loffsanger och Wijser. (Divers profitable spiritual Songs and Lays.) Stockholm, 1601. Compare Sundel (Afhandling, &c.), Treatise on the books and writings, printed and unprinted, which have been composed in Sweden by royal personages ; Academical Trans actions, v. ix. Charles' psalms are copied in the Palmskold 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 Scripture elsewhere, 1 Timothy iii., ordaiueth that a preacher shall be competent to give instruction. How can he be that, if he be not gifted with reason and wisdom 1 We see also in 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. Therefore Augustine (lib. i. contra Orescentium) 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 understanding 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 the right understanding of Scripture only mediately imparted to us, and therefore need we the 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 side. 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, aud 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 Sunday in the cathedral of Upsala, and besides read lessons from the Bible for the young students l heller ratt Christelig kannedom om vare Christelige troos Nbdtorftigeste Artikler, Hufvudpunkter och Stycker, af den Heliga Skrifts ratta grund och fdrstand 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 Melancthon, upon the personal union which exists in the two natures of our Lord Jesus Christ, as also upon the Sacrament of the Altar, &c." The archbishop published against this, " Proof that the Opinions, &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 1006 replied by the book of which extracts are quoted in the text. ' Baazius, Invent. Eccl. Suiog. 615. 1611.] Projects of religious union. Charges against the clergy. CHARLES IX. Correspondence with the University 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 1 602 with his chaplain Micronius, and 1608 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 plenipotentiaries who 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 tohim: "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 yon. 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 1 604, "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 rehgion 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 that great wrong had been done to him. The University of Upsala, which held with the archbishop in questions of belief, now also shared his disfavour, 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 Palmskold 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." 3 The extracts quoted are from the registers for the above- named years. 4 Ordinances concerning the just levy of the tithe, 1602 and 1607, 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 owls3." In the midst of such rebuffs the profes sors were surprised with an extraordinary mark of confidence. In the year 1605 Charles despatched John Goranson Rosenhane and John Skytte", 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 council 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 make it known to the lords com missioners. 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 scrupulous 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 Messenius5 and John Rudbeck, the first s 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 Tesolved 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, andreared 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 charter. The college founded by Charles was augmented so as to receive one hundred students", and the academy obtained the right of electing " a political personage as chancellor 7." 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, 1607. In the year 1604 he had at length, upon the often repeated solicitation of the estates, accepted the crown8, after they had first, at his request, offered it to duke John, who declined it. Gustavus Adolphus was acknowledged Crown-prince, and his younger brother Charles Philip 9 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 princess. This was the hereditary settlement of Norrkoping, by which the hereditary 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 circumstances, the delay of the coun cil in not drawing up the final letter of renuncia tion to Sigismund1, the treason of 1605, 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 Catholics3, throughout the whole kingdom, excepting the duchy, which together with Livonia he wished to retain; and in 1606, when the estates were again assembled to consider of his coronation, he anew, according 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 6 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. 1604. The king promised also to supply the amount, when any good wits were pointed out to him who could not pay. 7 In 1604 the university solicited Gustavus Adolphus for the chancellor, to which Charles replied that, he was still too young. In 1606 the king proposes three persons for their choice, count Abraham Brahe, the councillor Ludbert Kauer, and the loTd John Goranson Rosenhane. Reg. 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, 1601. Duke of Sudermania, Nerike, and Vermeland, June 12, 1610. 1 Emitted in the name ofthe 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 CErebroensibus (1606) exami- natus, proditionis convictus et condemnatus est, gravibusque tormentis cruciatus, scilicet fractis cruribus et brachiis. tandem cor vivo extraxit carnifex." Baazius, 1. c. 662. (Him king Charles sometimes allowed to be at bis court, but he showed a false 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 5, which came to pass in the follow ing year. Accounts of the progress of the Poles in 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 6. 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 7." 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 the 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 troopers, 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 hold-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 8. This cavalry of the crown was the 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 iu 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, anent proposals of peace with Poland. Reg. for 1604. 4 "The 22d March, 1606, 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. 6 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 be main tained. Calmar, Oct. 24, 1603. Compare Werwing, ii. 94. 1611.1 The king's relations with the nobility. CHARLES IX. Projects for amending the laws. 205 empted from the horse-service for two years9. By the proffer, repeated several times afterwards, of abolishing the horse service for ever, if the peasants of the nobles might be assessed in like amounts with those of the crown, the king shook the very founda tion of the privileges of nobility, and hence it was constantly rejected. The king, on the other hand, offered freeholds of nobility to all unnoble persons 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 hearts1." 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, " that whoso misliked it should look how he accepted donations ; they were forced upon no man a." Sundry examples prove that the nobles regarded law and justice as not binding upon themselves 3. 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 should be omitted. This resolution was not carried into effect. 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 s 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." • In 1606. Werwing, ii. 135. 2 Answer to the memorial anent their privileges, presented by the nobility. Jenkceping, 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, ln the Register for 1604, raider the 2d of February, the following singular transaction appears. Catharine Hans' daughter, wife of the minister of Farasa, gave in a complaint, that having sent her daughter Sigrid to the lady Ebba Bielke to service, and wishing to get lier back, especially as her father was now very weak, and Ihe girl was besides not willing to serve any longer, lady Ebba refused, and asserted that the girl had been given to lier 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 the Swedes since the coming in of Chris tianity ; upon these grounds the maiden must be restored. 4 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 revised by the council of state;" and in 1595, to the estates at the diet of Soderkceping, " that the law should be examined and amended *." A resolution to that effect was passed by the estates in 1 602, 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 code5, which, on the other hand, was not very agreeable to the nobiUty on account of several of its provisions, especially that declaring, that "every nobleman who did not educate his son, so that he might acquire the learned arts, or be available for military service, should forfeit his standing as noble." At the diet of 1609, where the king caused his code to be read, it was on these grounds rejected, while the other was not adopted 6. 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 7. 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 the slain persons 8. same may be fitly arranged," which are in the Palmskold 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 1609, to the prize essay in the Royal Academy of Science, History, and Antiquities, by Hans Jarta : 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. 7 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, 1608, with the exception of the church section, which, 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. a "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 woman at Salberg, whose son, master Eric of Edby, had been killed by his chaplain. The letter is dated Tempore Brigittae, 1530, and quoted by Eric Sparre in his Postulata Nobilium. Another example 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 Vaddoe by three brothers, " more out of mishap than pre conceived will, in drink." These sued for the legal and Chris- 200 Correction of judicial abuses. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Regulation ofthe provincial magistracy. [1SS& — Civil troubles were not adapted to extinguish such ideas. As we have seen, the nobles filled all judi cial offices9. 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 (rattare-ting) had not been held within the memory of man. To Charles IX. the kingdom owed the first ordinance for the con duct of trials1. In the preamble he says, that although Sweden's written law pointed out how proceedings 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 lie 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, where fore God visited the land and people with plagues of all sorts. To this were added great disorder and confusion 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 in 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 realm," with other provisions tian bote (which was 120 ortugs, less than a rixdollar) ; 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. Whereto we exhort you in the best meaning." A sentence of Gustavus I. 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 wliich he with five others had perpetrated a year before upon Jon Germundson'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 Linkceping two years previously, that two such royal courts should be held yearly, in Upsala at the Disting, and in Linkceping 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 2. The troubles of the times prevented these attempts to regulate the administration of the law from being per manently efficacious. But thus the erection of the supreme court by king Gustavus Adolphus was prepared. The ordinance issued by the king in 1606, con cerning reeves, bailiffs, and other officers 3, 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 (lansman) in every hundred. The quarterman shall collect in the manse the taxes of the parish *, and deliver the proceeds to the bailiff at the spot where the hundred-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 5. 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 respects a connecting fink 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 engrossing 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 realm6," oil whieh was founded their subsequent division into staple-towns and country-towns. He sets out with the position that the places of greatest resort and mundson should have the right of requiring the full man bote from his brother's murderer. Reg, ." 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 ; hi the times of king Eric and John all cotters8, 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 9." 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 Levy1 over the whole kingdom in 2 Warrant for the defence of the toll-servitors. Stockholm, Nov. 26, 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. 4 A tun of rye was now worth one and a half rix-dollar, specie. The toll on this came nearly to one-sixth rix-dollar ; that is, a ninth went to the crown, besides the mill-owner's dues. . 5 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." 7 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 mill-toll into the poll-tax began in 1 627, though in 1624 a separate poll- 1627, 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, officers and soldiers of the army, boatmen, bailiffs, 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 2. In conducting the levy care is to be had, that he who is taken for the military service from every rote, shall be fresh and sound, strong of limb, and, so far as can be discerned, courageous 3, in years from eighteen to thirty and upwards ; that where there are servants in the rote, they shall be taken before the peasants, yet sp that the son of parents who have already one son in service, or have lost one in 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 ldng ; afterwards the practice was abolished 5. 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 ofthe diet. The mill-toll was again levied in the large towns in 1655. 8 Torpare, from torp, a small allotment of ground. T. 9 Axel Oxenstierna in the council, 1641. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. 1 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 ofa 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 this 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 Smaland, 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-wharfs, only superfluous hands were to be subject to the levy, and all new settlers ou land were to be spared as much as possible 6. 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 7. In the same way the levy of sailors was to be made in the towns, for wliich end lists were to be drawn up by official 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 s. 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 9. Sometimes they outstepped the limits of their functions. Thus we find the Dalesmen in 1614refusing 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 previous disturbances1, arising partly from the weight of the taxes for which the Dalesmen accused the no bility2, 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 remain 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 wliich was a tailor. The instigators were condemned to death ; four of therri sent to Ingermanland, then the Siberia of Sweden; and the remainder pardoned, the king issuing a letter 8 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 Vermeland, Nerike, West-Gothland, and Dalesland. It states that the king had himself ordered these new settlements, with which good progress was made. 7 Reg. for 1618, 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," Baid old count Jacob de la Gardie in the council, in 1645. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. Several of the magnates therefore looked on the clergy with little affection. " In Eneland," said count Peter Brahe in the council, in 1650, "allmen 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 3. 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 tho people were will ing and good in themselves," these must cease their barbarous proceedings by stroke aud 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 5." 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 6. 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 aud 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 stierna in the council in 1650, " that landed estate 5 See the complaints of 1613, when this sometimes oc curred, in Hallenberg, ii. 715. 1 Hallenberg, iii. 331. It is mentioned on this occasion, that in the Dale parishes there were 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 Hie churches, by which, however, the Dalesmen appear to have been little edified. 3 Reg. for 1627. 4 To the council of state. Dirschau, July 24, 1 628. Reg. On Sept. 4 he exempted the Dales, partly to the half, partly to the whole amount, from the poll-tax. 8 Axel Oxenstierna in the council, 1642. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. (Gardetal, yard tale.) 8 Compare Frosteri, Krigs-Lagfarenhet (Legal Practice in Military Concerns). Q 22G Improvement and extension of the system. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Resources of the country. Extraordinary means. [1611— is their prime 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 7." *' The same monarch," he adds, "disposed the sol diery throughout the provinces 8." Charles IX., who arranged the lodgment and stipend of the cavalry 9, conceded to the recruit the eighth part of a hyde, free of all intermediate imposts, and a rent of one dollar from some particular farm stead. Gustavus Adolphus extended this conces sion generally to all regiments, though with some variations1. Superior and inferior officers, even to the corporal, with the chaplains (four to a regi ment), clerks, servitors of the military court, bar ber chirurgeons, and provosts, obtained additional lands and pay 2. Even iu 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, 1 623, 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 3. 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. The state of the year 1620 * makes the revenues of the crown in money and produce (the latter, liowever, not fully detailed) amount altogether to 1,280,652 Swedish dollars, equivalent nearly to 853,768 rix-dollars specie, or 2,276,714 of the present rix-dollars banco 5. They indeed consider- 7 Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. 8 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 v, ell 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, 1627. Reg. 2 See the distribution of the Suthermanland regiment in 1C32, 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 1624, one division of Westmanland, 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. 4 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 family6, though against this are to be set the losses of the country by pestilence7 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 iu 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 purveyance were doubtless the heaviest on the country, and besides voluntary aids, day-works, and portages of all kinds, which the king excuses by saying, that " the subject must 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 aud 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 8. New loans were negotiated. For mon#y borrowed in Holland, interest was paid' at the rate of six and a quarter per cent 9 ; for 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 mterest. 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 189,726Z., taking the Swedish rix-dollar banco at Is. id. 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 Loans, sales, and 16320 monodies GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS. Commercial associations. 227 per 2. Nay, for the capital invested in the Trade or Copper Company, government bound itself, in 1628, to pay twenty per cent, if the crown might have the use of it for four years 3. II. Sale and hypothecation of the crown estates, with mortgages on its revenues. The sales were made to the nobility, with perpetual exemption from taxation * ; 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 5, as well as almost all Smaland and Oeland, the whole of Gestricland and Aland, a portion of West-Goth land, all Dalesland, Salberg, Nora, Linde, and other mining 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 6. III. 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 required for the behoof of the crown, having likewise the oversight of tolls and trade in general 7. This was an office which carried great temptations to unjust gains ; and accordingly its first holder, the historian Eric Goranson Tegel, was accused of heinous frauds 8. From the year 1614 the field of operations for this trade 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 Yaxala, 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, 1627. 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. 4 See examples in Hallenberg (v. 134), of 1621, 1623, 1625. The king also issued in the year of his death an ordinance on the sale of crown-lands. Nordin MSS. s 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 Norrkoeping, for building ships." Beg. for 1627. of Elfsborg should be employed in the purchase of copper, and rix-dollars 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,,$o 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 money, but appear, when the aids set apart for the ransom of Elfsborg ceased in 1619, 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, having 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 9. 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 2, although the conjecture expressed in the charter, that it might " furnish means for the defence of the state," may have awakened apprehensions in many of the partners, which, after their losses, found vent in complaints 3. Thereafter, when the 8 Hallenberg, vi. 877. v. 129. 7 Ordinance of Gustavus I., March 16, 1552; and king John's Articles of the Customs, May 12, 1586. Stiernman's Ordinances, i. 127. 343. 8 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. 1 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 the national character. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Contemporary account of the people. [1611 towns had engaged at the diet of 1629, to main tain a number of vessels for the defence of the country and the furtherance of trade, a shipping company followed4, which in 1630 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 5. These enforced expedients of supply are to be ^reckoned among the most aggrieving measures of jthis reign. They multiplied what the Swede sees jwith 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 6. (Justice however must acknowledge that the wars jwere 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- 4 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 ihis was contrary to their privileges, a change was made, and the matter remitted to the magistracy. Granberg, Gb'teborgs Historia, i. 26. s 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 Casimir, 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. 8 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 theyhavenodefect 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 remaiueth 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 giyen ; to intemperance in eating and 'drinking, as also to sloth, aud therefore will not apply themselves to any steady labour. But how this may be, I remit to pronounce." 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 8 ; 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 9. 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 the 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 2. Foreign 7 A native of Antwerp, the same who was the author of the project for the South Sea Company in Sweden. He 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 Schroderus. 8 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. 1 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. 18MJ Btrnghtfth. GUSTAVUg AD0LPHUS. 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 1621, 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 3." 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, the other without the decoration of an order 4. Manufactories of cloth for the supply of the army (the first in Sweden) were set up in Jenkoping, Nykoping, Calmar, Arboga, and Kongsb'r5 ; 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, were 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 ordinance0. This art was probably communicated from the " arm-factories" of the crown 7, and was not con fined to these weapons alone ; harness and pike- heads were also prepared in these rural forges, 3 History of the Suthermanland Regiment, ii. 31. In respect to the cavalry he was more precise, but chiefly 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 the 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. 4 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, &c.) 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. » The oldest, commenced at Upsala in 1612, appears to have failed. In Jenkoping a large sheepfoldwas 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. 8 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 other lands, and attracted foreigners with their capital into the country 8. The king bestowed theJ greatest attention on this subject, invited minersl from abroad 9, opened new works, issued new ordi- 1 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 2. 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. 7 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 SkyttS 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 ofthe "treasures" in the northern lands; also what the lord Charles Bonde 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. i 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 Ldfsta, 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 nowmade at home." 230 New towns founded. Rise of Gottenburg. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Regulation of foreign aud inland trade. [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 him for his mine-master George Griesback, and for his secretary Jost Frank. But as soon as his majesty had gone to Germany, he directed the council of state to form a complete board of mines, which should superintend these affairs 8." 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 f 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 Lbdose 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. 4 They were, Gottenburg, Hernosand, Soderhamn or South-Haven, Umea, Lulea, Pitea, Tornea, Norrtelje or North Telje, Sala, Alingsas, Boras, Falun, Sater ; 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 1624, 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. 3 On all this compare Hallenberg. 8 "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 wliich 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 5. 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, aud 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 wliich 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 8. Sweden first under 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 land, where before bears and wolves had housed." 7 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 the Malar, 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 of 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. (The Hielmar canal unites the lake of that name with the Meelar. T.) 8 "Hereon depends a great profit for the realm, which may be in connecting 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 Norrkoping, 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.]^veofficneisS!r3GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS. ( ^'Sr'O 231 mistrust of the council and lieutenants (stathal- 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 stricter unity of power in the highest place, with its inevitable condition, » 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 prefectures, — 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 9, 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 '. The chancery, which Axel Oxenstierna calls " the soul of the kingdom," was first regulated by that chancellor 2, who also founded the state registry 3. The collection of the taxes was carried on under more precise direction 4. The bailiffs, who had hitherto stood in several respects immediately under the central govern ment, were now placed under the prefects (lands- hdfding) 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 nothing without the advice of his council ; ideo amatus 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 Gyllenhielm, in 1619. 2 Ordinance regarding offices in chancery, 1612, and further Nov. 1, 1619. Ordinance for the 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 Iu former days the chancellors generally kept the records in their own custody. Charles IX., during the feud with Sigismund, took them with him to Nykoping. 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 Nykoping, Benedict Ingolfson, was powers with which there was a disposition to invest, independently of them, the provincial secretaries and treasurers5. The prefect had yearly in the month of May 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 1623 a state account book began to be kept. Suits in exchequer matters, which in the outset were decided by the palace court, were in 1624 referred to the board of treasury. For more than half a century 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 courts of inquest and error (Rafst, R'at- 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 1623, and by the form of government of 1634 a separate court was erected for Gothland. " What benefits these courts have conferred," it was remarked after the death of Gustavus Adolphus 6, " 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 the 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 Hafdegomma (Repository of Chronicles), as we learn from the treatise, On the Government of Kings and Princes. 4 Ordinance after 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 taxes, 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. 5 Such was at least Oxenstiema'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. 8 See the personal anecdotes to his funeral sermon. 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 fear of the magnates to see their power curtailed is apparent. It was part of the inheritance of the Swedish middle age, that the judicial power was the property of the nobility ; 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 tlieir rights to judicial offices, the revenues of which they regarded in the light of their other possessions, so that these were even sometimes drawn by women 7. In the observations upon the ordinance for process, it is declared to be inexpedient that the old courts of inquest and error should be re placed by a single royal court. But these had now been long abandoned, and among the causes of tlieir 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 law8. 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 court was only to take cognizance ad referendum, and to bring them under the king's notice. We have had occasion to peruse several of these cases referred 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 1. 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 7 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 ofthe duchies 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, iii. 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, 1618, 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 much as possible the old principle of a dispensation of justice independent of advocates. Axel Oxenstierna 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 3. The king's absence, 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 before 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 BjaTkoa- 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 Bjorner, De Stockholmhe antiquai Situ, Nomine, et Legibus. It is to the inhabitants of Ulfsby in Finland, " ut jure civili, dicto Byarkoalagh, seu libro legum per carissimum in Christo avunculum nostrum, Dominum Magnum, Dei gratia, Suecia et Norvegia; regem, pro militate civitatum et villarum forensium in regno nostro Sueciae nuper edito.nterentur. Dat. apud Castrum Aboense, a. n. mccclxv. feria sexta post fest. beatre Agathaa vir- ginis." Condition of the 1632.] u™ap'™'|eortne GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS. State ofthe church. 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 retained 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 not 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 4." And yet they were peo ple with whom it was no uncommon thing to mix bark in their bread. They 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 necessary5. 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 confirmation ; 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 things, 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. 4 Plebs ilia rusticana neque laceraneque jejuna est ut apud nos. An ergo est clementiore 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 mation6. 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, ana when it should have been confirmed by the king, to see it carried into execution; as also to have the superintendence of the whole clergy of the realln, 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 behalf7. In future therefore the party complaining was to cite the other before this con sistory, aud 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 3 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 any 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 clergy, and when their decision was pronounced, lent their assistance to carry it into effect. Whoever is acquainted with the proceed- « Nordin MSS. No. 67, Qu. 7 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 the 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 "others3 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 every 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. 9 " 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, 1636. — " 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 9 ; 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 ourselves 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, until we shall have found it convenient to despatch some men in whom we repose trust to in quire thereinto1." 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 1620 he proposed to the bishops tbe 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 liowever 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 consistory, 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 ofthe 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.] "ranTfoftn"' 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 9hould 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 iu 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 warrant 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 Helsingland, 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 exhibitioners3, with 100 dollars for prizes to them. He likewise transferred to the university his own printing-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 Gymnasium in Sweden was erected at Westeras in 1620, and enlayged in 1623 and 1627 ; the second at Strengness in 1626; the third at Linkoping in 1628. The same year Finland, wliich 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 liopes 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 the state, it was the work of Gustavus Anoi.PHtis. 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 poUtics 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 iu 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 4." 4 Jacob de la Gardie, in the council, 1645. Palmsk. MSS. 236 HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. [1612 — CHAPTER XVI. GUSTAVUS II. ADOLPHUS. THE DANISH, RUSSIAN, AND POLISH WARS. MILITARY POSITION OF 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 1613 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 1IVONIA 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 Blekinge, Scania, Halland, and Bohusland were not Swedish possessions, when Sweden was shut out from the Sound, and almost completely from the North Sea. Therein is implied a whole antiquity of darkness, weakness, and barbarism, exclusion from Europe, and the direction of the first Swedish conquests to the East. With the increase of power, after Gusta vus Vasa, this confinement became in all respects intolerable. Gustavus Adolphus broke through its bonds ; and this by an attempt which, if we con sider the circumstances, 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 4. " 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 bad gone too near the life for 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 4 According to Axel Oxenstiema's statement in the council, 1643. 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 Sweden5." 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 6. 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 under separate governments. These were 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, I. 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. 1629.] Campaign of 1612. Desperate combat. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. DANISH WAR. Elfsborg and Gullberg taken by the Danes. 237 only at the mouth of the Gbta elf. Here Charles IX. had founded Gottenburg, "a thorn in the eye of the Jutes," as was then a current phrase in Sweden. The newly-built town was razed by the Danes in the course 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 river. 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 lung 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 Calmar, laid waste a great part of Smaland, burned the town of Vexice with the castle of Kronoberg, and threatened Jenkoping. At the same time king Christian himself made an attempt from the Nor wegian fortress of Bbhus on the Gbta, to surprise 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 7, that the king was forced to retire with loss. New Loedoese had shortly before been taken by the Danes, and all the male inhabitants slaughtered. Now West-Gothland was harried ; Old Loedoese, Skara, and more than three thou sand granges were destroyed 8. — 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 Calmar, 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 retreat, the king, who had sent forwards the greatest portion of his troops, was attacked not far from the border in the parish of West-Giiinge, by the Danes returning from Smaland. Battle was joined on the ice of Lake Vidsice, on the evening of the 1 1th 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 Baner, and a gallant trooper who followed the banner of Upland, Thomas Laurenceson 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. * Hallenberg, from Danish testimonies, i. 303. 308. 9 The size of ihe f 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 iu 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 king 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 Stiernskb'ld, according to the order ofthe Swedish king, could reinforce the garri son, which numbered only from four to five hundred men, under the command of the lieutenant Olave Strale". 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 9 and eight squadrons, wherefore he at first avoided an action. When at length reinforced by duke John from East-Gothland he offered battle ', Christian, whose men suffered from hunger and the field-sickness, marched back after a three weeks' inroad to Gullberg, and thereby gave Gus 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 harried 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 ofthe War of Calmar) states Christian's army at twenty-two thousand rive hundred men, and the whole strength of the Danes in Sweden (including that of Rantzou) at about forty thousand. ¦ Hallenberg, ii. 429. 238 Danish invasion of West- Gothland frustrated. ,, ™.„-^. ~™ T-,T^Tin Attempt on btocKnoim. rifli? HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. A peace signed ; its conditions. [1612 Attempt on Stockholm. 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 Westerwick, 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. Jen 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 Bolja, 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 2. 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 therefore things go as they do 3." 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-Gothland, 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 hostile 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 hisses. 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. They 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 : " There is an old proverb of the Swedes, ' Ordinant, reor- dinant, et tamen sine ordine vivunt.' " Palmsk. MSS. meland. Of twelve hundred Netherlauders 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, where he met with no opposition. Thence he marched across Norway to Jemteland 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 Roinsdale 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-six 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. The tidings spread rapidly over the whole country. The Dalecarlians rose 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 Knseroed, 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 aud 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 Lcedcese, Old Loedoese, and Got tenburg. 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 5. It 4 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 kingdom ; and the people paid for it withal, in the hardest times, the heaviest subsidy which had ever been raised from the pountry. Among the conditions of peace were also freedom from the Sound 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. The negotiations in this view, opened during the war, occasioned in 1614 an alliance for fifteen years, 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 eloquent, and worthy of being loved in his converse with all men; from his youth great things might be expected0. By this em bassy the States-general also offered their medi ation in the Russian war. The contests regarding the succession to the throne, which preceded the elevation of the house of 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 7, Stockholm beheld a Russian embassy requesting a Swedish prince 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 1615 ende 1616. Graven- liagen, 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. 183. queon mother, the sending of the prince was de ferred ; and when the young Charles Philip at length arrived, in the commencement of July, 1613, 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 his eyes. The caution with which Widekindi speaks of this misunderstanding8 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 were so, his displeasure was but momentary. In his own frank manner the king wrote to De la Gardie 9, 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." Before 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 drawn 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 V 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 10th 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 2." Ebba Brahe, daughter of the high steward count Magnus Brahe, 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 campaign3. Gustavus Adolphus loved music and song, and himself played excellently on the lute 4. The severity of 2 Ibid. 258. He used in his letters to intertwine the initials of her name and his own. 3 Several such are contained in the library of his excellency count Magnus Brahe, at Sko Cloister. * Non solum musicam valde amplexus est, sed ipse illi operam dedit, dum nempe fidibus testudinis, reginae quasi 210 Campaign, of 1616. Siege of Pleskow. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Peace of Stolbova. Theking's opinion of the terms. [1612— the queen dowager interposed between the two lovers. She first effected a postponement of their union for some years, the event of which confirmed her prediction, that fidelity to a hopeless passion was not among the young hero's attributes 5, 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 1615 ; but on the 8th of July he 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 Horn6, 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 affairs 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 from 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 tavus 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 Ingermanland and the government of Kexholm, of which the Russians would not hear. The nego tiations, which were broken off in February, 1616, when the Dutch envoy returned home, were re- et principis omnium instrumentorum, optime cecinit. Petri Joh. Ungii Encomium Musicae, habitum Upsaliae in Aud. Gust. d. Maii 21, 1638. s In 1616 the beautiful Margaret Cabeliau, daughter ofa Dutch merchant settled in Sweden, bore the king a natural son, Gustave Gustaveson, 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 first lieutenant of the generalissimo, answering to the lieutenant-general in later times. Hallen berg, iii. 401. 7 Prom Abo, April 26, 1616. opened in October of the same year by the English commissioner. Of the last-mentioned demands Gustavus Adolphus would abate nothing. " The fortresses of Kexholm, Noteborg, Jama, Koporie, and Ivangorod," he writes to the queen-mother and the council7, " 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 rjversj 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 necessary 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 years after wards 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 8, 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 9. 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 peace1, "not the 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 affairs, must now let slip for ever the robber's nest, whence he before so often annoyed 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 towns, 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 » A village between Tichwina and Ladoga which no longer exists. 9 Kexholm, originally founded by the Swedes, at the mouth of the stream Woxen in the Ladoga ; Ivangorod. for merly also called Russian Narva, over the stream against Narva ; Koporie, Jamburg, still towns of the same name in Ingermanland ; Noteborg, now Scbliisselburg, at the outlet of the Neva from the Ladoga. 1 At the diet of Stockholm in 1617. Compare his speech to the diet of Orebro in the commencement of the same year. The speeches are given, from the king's own draughts of them, in Widekindi, Gustaf Adolfs Historia. 1629.] Internal state of Russia. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. POLISH WAR. Intrigues of Sigismund. 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 grouud 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 the 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 martial, but had a common jealousy of tine 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 definite 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 : I. 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: II. From grain, the prices of which were fixed arbitraruy by the grand duke : III. 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 Sueonum, fausto Numine duret opus." Limites positi an. 1617. The demarcation of the boundaries was completed in 1621 after protracted negotiations, m which on one occasion the Russians turned their backs ou the Swedes, and declared that two saints, a hundred years dead, had risen up again and promised in the name ofthe 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. From sable-skins, which as a monopoly of the grand duke were so high-priced, that they might be bought cheaper in Livonia aud Germany than 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 foreign 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, especially since they had heard of his majesty's successes, passing all conjecture, in Germany against the Papists, whom they detested 3. After the peace with Russia, the fame of Gus tavus Adolphus began to be spread throughout Europe. Councillor John Skytte', who in 1617 departed on an embassy to Denmark, Lubeck, the Netherlands, and England, to counteract the pro jects of Sigismund, writes home, that he every where heard his sovereign extolled, and therefore deemed his country fortunate l. 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 twa 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 II I, 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 aud waters should be declared lawful prizes5. About the same time a Dutch historian mentions a. secret project, discovered by the correspondence of a Jesuit 6. 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. s Relationes Muscoviticae Johannis, Benedicti, et Jacobi Skytte. Palmsk. MSS. tt. 97, 186. 4 Litterte Johannis Skytte ad Axelium Oxenstjerna. Lon dini, 8 Dec. 1617. Palmsk. MSS. t. 371. 5 Id. t 190. « Hallenberg, i. 97, after Meteien. R 242 His preparations for active hostility. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Humanity of Gustavus Negotiation for peace. [1612- war on Sweden, Spain was to conclude a truce with the Netherlands, afterwards to acquire the command of the Sound, and thereby 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 the Hollanders, induced thereby, actually despatched an embassy to Christian IV., whieh however arrived too late to prevent the outbreak of the Danish war, and was besides received by the king with small respect s. 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 Russia, 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 9. At the same diet wherein Gustavus Adolphus made known to the estates the peace with Russia, 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 correspondence to their extent, for Sigismund, as a Polish historian says, " undertook all things unseasonably and per versely1. " Meanwhile, 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, 1617, to Lifland. Dunamunde was surrendered to the Swedes by William, duke of Courland, who had been dis- 7 " 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. y 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 1634. When in 1642 John Baazius 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 Radziwill. The latter relieved Riga, recovering a redoubt before the town, which had fallen into the hands of the Swedes. In the winter of 1618 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 gave 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 1620, 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 would cede Pernau, and leave the frontier as it had stood on the outbreak of the war in the year 1600; 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 1 643. In the book the passage stands unchanged at p. 664. 1 Piasecki Chronica ad an. 1616. Verum omnia intem- pestive, et praepostere et magis ad prasmonendum 'hostem fiebant. Nihilque de istis cum consiliariis Polonis confere- bat, sed cum Suecis et Germanis tantum, qui pauci, illique rerum et praesenlis belli ducendi inexpertes in ejus aula erant. Among these are named Francis Ternagel, a German refugee, whom Sigismund made his Swedish chancellor, and Gabriel Poze (probably George Posse) a refugee from Sweden. 2 " 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 hi July, 1621, in order to repair in person to Riga. In the harbour of Elfsnabben, while the ships were detained by contrary winds, Gustavus Adol phus issued his articles of war. The oldest Swedish articles of war are those of Gustavus I., in 1545 ; others were afterwards issued by Eric XIV. and John III. They had been found necessary, as would appear, 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 writes, " 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 commanders 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-genera). 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 different 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 reasonableness and their own peril might correct their arrogance, the vice of that nation. Sed naturam expellas furca, tamen usque 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. 4 Compare George of Frundsberg, or the trade of war in Germany at the time of the Reformation, by Barthold. Hamburg, 1833. 6 Hallenberg, i. 525. 6 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, aud even 200 men. person maltreated in his rights, or conjointly make good his loss 5. 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 superior 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 received 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 justiciary upon earth," is the highest judge as well in war as peace. The troops were to be under the jurisdiction of 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 abse nee the field-mar shal, presided. The marshal's assessors were the field-marshal, the general of artillery, the field- watchmaster 7, 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 8, lastly, the colonels of all the other regiments embodied, according to the dates of their service. These courts had besides their clerks aud apparitors. In 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. Whosoever 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 guardmaster 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 in 1623 lie entered the Swedish service, the king named to be " major of the field." Hallenberg, v. 111. Yet Thurn is also called general field- watch-master. e 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. 1X2 244 \. Military punishments I and discipline. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The king's marriage. Invasion of Livonia. [1612— fore the superior court were to be tried all treason 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, corporal 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 9. 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 arrayed 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 jealousy2. 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 him before his departure for the 9 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 offers 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." 1 To a regiment of German landsknechts, a troop of loose women was so unfailing an appendage, that they were placed under an officer, called the wenches' beadle. 2 According to a note in the Nordin MSS. 3 Hallenberg, iv. 888. 4 " In the year 1620, 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. Palmsk. MSS. t. 36. From the king's own journal we quote the following : " On Saturday we came to Berlin ; the night before we lay in a village called Blisendorf, whence my brother-in-law (the palsgrave John Casimir) went first to Potstamb ; and there we received seat of war, the last to accompany him thither. His bride he had himself selected. The same year (1618) 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 3, 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 George 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 year, and was reck oned by all a perfect beauty. She fell sick with grief at the king's departure, aud 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 dispersed 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. When 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 text was of the rich man ; the prologue, how we in this world played a comedy, and how variously God, who ruleth all, distributeth the parts which we men shall here act in this world.'' (Next 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 tbe duchess of Courland, when we 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. 36. Printed in the Stockholm Magazine, v. iii. 1629.] He lays siege to Riga. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. POLISH WAR. The town surrenders. Death of Charles Philip. 245 ships collected, and on the 5th August, the high- admiral Charles Carlson Gyllenhielm 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. In the first camp the king and the duke held the command-in-chief, assisted by Philip count Mans feld and Gustave Horn. In the second, to the right, Jacob de la Gardie commanded, who had brought reinforcements by land to the king from Finland. To the leff; 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 mtrenchments. 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, aud the ramparts, twenty feet in breadth, were so much injured, as no longer to afford the besieged effective protection. On the 29th 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 5. Riga was defended by its burgesses, with but three hundred soldiers to aid. Sigismund had promised relief from Dant zic, but it failed to arrive. 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 to_wn, 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- s 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 across the now partly filled ditch, and troops 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 -¦• 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 aud sally alternated at the accessible portions of the walls. By the 11th 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 summoued 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 on 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 iu his tent 6. 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. Duke 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 7. 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 stiema's interposition to be allowed to take part in the war. Gustavus Adolphus mourned for his 6 Hallenberg, iv. 946—965. 7 Palmsk. MSS. t. 36. 246 Campaign of 1622. Three years' truce. „ m„„ „,,,„,,„- Third Polish campaign. r|612— HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Liv„nia and Courland reduced. L""z brother sorely, and has himself described his character. " He had courage and heart," says the king, " 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 » pure affection, and held it glorious to die for his country. 0 fatherland, what hast thou lost ! The stock of thy kings is now again reduced to a single man, but few years since flourishing with three young and well-grown princes ! No need that I should augment thy 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 king8." Charles Philip was the last son of a king of Sweden invested with a duchy. It became afterwards 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 troops you see here for your safety against the Turk9." He again concluded a truce for one year with Poland, provided for the defence of Riga, arranged the government of Livonia, and returned home in August. The Polish truce was prolonged 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 cares of internal government ; in the following year the war again broke forth. The third campaign of Gustavus Adolphus against Poland completed the conquest of Lifland, and through the possession of Courland secured that of Riga. The first plan was, that the high admiral should try his fortune against Windau, and other places 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 8 Ibid. Ex MSto reg. Gust. Adolphi. Two years before his death Charles Philip had contracted a private marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of the high treasurer, Sewed Rib bing. She bore, shortly after his death, a daughter, married first to Axel Thureson Natt och Dag, afterwards to Balthasar Marshall. 9 Da operam, ut, sicut nunc manibus jungimur, ita et animis conjungamur, ut aliquando istum peditatum et copias turned to the behoof of Riga and Sweden. The possession 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 was 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 Estland, 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 Sandhaven 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 15th July. Thereafter, on the 18th, 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 Bauske in Courland. After the taking of Birze, which ended, on the 26th 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 equipped 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 Berson, 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 TuTcum afferre queam. — Colloquium inter sereniss. Su. Reg. et Ducem Radzivilium mense Septembri, 1622. Palmsk. MSS. t. S6. When we see Gustavus Adolphus, after Sigismund's death, seeking the crown of Poland, these words come to mind. 1 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, 1626. 247 commissary general) arranged matters." It was attempted to preserve the troops from sickness by the use of brandy and garlic. Against the cold they 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 secretaiy and cham berlain," he writes in another letter to the chan cellor, " were I calefactor I should be all 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 5th January, 1626, 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 7th 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 2. 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 government of the country, its defence, and the susteuance 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 8th 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 brought to a close ; a truce was con cluded for six 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 own 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 war 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 the Prussian. This plan was attended with political difficulties. The king needed a harbour in East Prussia, and its duke, under 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 3." 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, afterward 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 plundered 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 upon Gustavus Adol phus. 248 Successes ofthe Swedish arms. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Occurrences in Livonia. Domestic atfairs. [1612- take quarters for himself, before the quarter master had assigned his abode *. Konigsberg was granted neutrality s ; Dantzic, on the other hand, refused to accept it, and declared open hostility with Sweden. Meanwhile the king fortified his leaguer iu 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 Thurn, expected from Livonia, was delayed, to the king's dissatisfaction. At length its arrival made him 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, and governor-general of the towns and country then possessed by Sweden." In the end of October, (1626,) 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 6. " 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 lung 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 4 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 the crown of Poland, and consequently my foes." Further, he declared in the outset, that he had not come to inflict any injuries on their prince, his brother-in-law, or on the country. "In taking Pillau," he 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 hold 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 brother-in-law, in this matter. Ye must in this case depend upon 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 indifferent aspect 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 subordinate post. A long time passed away without his writing a letter?. The general's proposal to obtain a prolongation 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 8." De la Gardie answered these reproaches by his victory over the Poles at Wenden 9. 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 correct 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 Hallenberg, and appears to have been taken from Hoppe's Manuscript, Decennale Borussise Fatum, which I 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. 7 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. 8 Reg. for 1627. » " 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 at Keggum, where he may command the Duna." To the general, Feb. 11, 1627. Reg. 1 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 Prussia. 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 court2. 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 3," 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 1 627, the king writes to his brother-in-law the palsgrave * : " We set sail the 4th May with a fair wind, and arrived happily on the 8th with the whole fleet at Pillau. We have found affairs in this country in a towardly state, are now landing the people, and purpose marching 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 5 : " 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 Hcefft 6, 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 should 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 2 July 9, 1627, the king writes to Nicholas Stiernskold, 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." 3 To Nicholas Bielk6, upon the troops in Finland ; April 26, 1627. Reg. 4 Pillau, May 10, 1627. Reg. 5 May 15, 1627. Ibid. 5 Haupt or Hoeft was a sconce at Dantzic taken by the Swedes in the course of the past year. Shortly after the drawn off, who had suffered 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 course of the whole matter, that ye may not yourselves be perplexed, and if aught should be spread about touching our own person, ye may know how all fell out." The letter is written on the same day 7 ; and contains likewise a notice of the arrival of a Dutch envoy at Elbing, " doubtless anent 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 troops 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 surrendered to Koniecpolski ; but this loss the king compensated by a more successful attack on the enemy's redoubts over-against Hcefft, which were taken on the 4th July. " We have advised you, writes 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 12th July, to intercept this succour. We fell in with it at Morungen, 1800 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 8." 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 9 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. 7 Berwalde, May25, 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 steeTed. s 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 the 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 hath 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 V The latter remark is confirmed 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 Holstein 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 horseback. The Polish commissaries will make no other proposals than that the king dom of Sweden should be restored to tlieir 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 3." During the king's stay at Dirschau, where he re mained until the 26th September, an English am bassador delivered to him the order of the garter. On the 10th October, he took Wormditt, after a short investment4. Guttstadt also fell into the hands of the Swedes. After this, the king departed for Sweden, leaving the command in Prussia to the chancellor, who was thus obliged to resume an office still more onerous in a financial than a mili tary respect 5. Stiernskold, who had been appointed 1 To the palsgrave, Dirschau, Aug. 14, 1627. Reg. Adler Salvius writes two days afterwards to the 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 smallest fingers of his majesty's right hand are some what henumbed. 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 hia 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. 3 The high chancellor to Gabriel Oxenstierna and the council; Dirschau, Aug. 15 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 Bide high knolls, on the other the Dantzic level, and a after the high-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 during the whiter 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 7. 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 offered his me diation. "This we cannot well suffer," the king declares to the chancellor, " 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 consent8." These relations became water-course or ravine ran under the Polish camp, so that no one could go out or in without riling 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 suffice, 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. 6 It extended even to the religious affairs 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. 7 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. 8 To the chancellor, Feb. 6, 1628. Reg. 1629].^^^™-™^"- 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 expect 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 9." 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 V 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 Gustave 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 chancellor3, "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 undertake nothing in Prussia, out of appre- » To the same, Nov. 18, 1627, and March 31, 1628. Reg. 1 June 10, 1628. Id. 2 Instruction for Gustave Horn in Lilian d, 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- ing 5 : " 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 juuction 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 thereto6. 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 Ryning with three smaller shall protect Calmar." " The Imperialists," he says in a subsequent letter to the chancellor 7 , "are not yet provided with money, and belike will receive none until the ldng come. If we could strike a vital blow before, perchance a great por tion would come over to us." — Koniecpolski 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 hinder 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. 4 Sept. 10, 1628. Id. '' May 26, 1629. Id. s The elector afterwards renewed his neutrality. 7 Liessov, June 2. 252 Imperialists with the Poles. Battle of Stum. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Mediation of France and England. [1612—1629. borg, and the enemy were attempting to cut off, those of our side, especially the Rhinegrave 8, though we often warned him 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 iu 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 9, at the battle of Stum, where was sharp work, one of the enemy caught king Gustavus Adolphus by the pendant, but the king slipped 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 V — Gustavus Adolphus in- 8 Otto Lodovic, one ofthe king's colonels. 9 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 Casimir, Marienburg, June 22, of which the latter is printed in Adler- sparre's Historiska Samlingar, iii. 105. The king says that he relates the course of the action " to stop the mouths of those who might babble of worse." 1 Palmsk. MSS. t. 37. 2 July 11. He had native and foreign troops with 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 dela Gardie, who had been re called from Livonia and ordered to Prussia, brought the king reinforcements from Sweden 2, — although frequent skirmishes occurred betwixt the two for tified camps, and king Sigismund himself was pre sent in his with his two eldest princes. " 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 Charnace', 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 the chancellor last winter, and have on our side com missioned thereto the chancellor, the field-marshal, and the lord John Baner, 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 repubUc of Po land3." — 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 off, as well from the conflicting pretensions of the Swedes and Poles as those of the mediators 4, 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 Altmark 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. Gustavus Adolphus preserved Elbing, Braunsberg, Pillau, and Memel. Freedom of religion was secured to both Protestants and Catholics, and free trade be tween the subjects of both kingdoms. 3 To the council, upon the incidents in the camp at Marienburg, July 22, written by the secretary Grubb6. Also letter by Gustavus Adolphus himself to the palsgrave John Casimir, Aug. 1. Reg. 4 "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 5, " 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 Heilbronn, where the evan gelical party had recently held a congress. The letter announcing it, dated February 25, 1614, was subscribed by Frederic V., elector palatine, by John II., palsgrave of Bipont, John Frederic duke of Wurtemberg, 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 6, 1615, s Memoires de Richelieu, ». 119. 123. Paris, 1823. 6 Hallenberg, i. 246, seq. 7 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 him on this ground among others, that the duke was bound to aid the emperor Ferdinand, because the Son of God was born into the 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-preflcher Scultetus, showed himself on his side highly intolerant, not only towards the Catholics, but even the Hussites and Lutherans. During his short tenure 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 golden 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 6. It was unity most of all that was wanting to these. The elector of Saxony had begun by pre ferring to seek admission into the Catholic league 7, 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 8. 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 monarchs 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 common cause 9. 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 Swedish intervention HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. in the wars of Germany. []628- State of that country. tavus Adolphus communicated to Christian IV. himself the conditions which he 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 confederated es tates of Germany; assurance of monthly pay for the troops, aud 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 one1, 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-in-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 3 ; but they accle- rated the decision of Christian IV*. Politically considered, the outbreak of the great 1 This proposition came, according to the king's own de claration (Hallenberg, 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 army of the league and restore the palatinate. 2 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. 4 Salvius, whom the king employed in his negotiations, wrote in 1646 to A. Liliehcek, 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 powerful as when they fell upon Bending Bellin, 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 hi the German leaguers5." 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 separate power. This feature was exemplified on a great scale in the case of Albert of Waldstein, commonly called Wallenstein, a Bohemian nobleman, who, when the emperor, to be mdependent 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 6, 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, Wallenstein 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 grant to bis majesty Wismar and Bremen, where he could land with his army. " 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. s 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 Bailie harbours. 255 in addition to his other titles that of " general of the ocean and Baltic seas 7." With what a network of great plans, keeping a constant watchfulness for his own advantage, he loved to surround 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 indirectly, 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 the war : as to us also iu 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 tbe winter." This letter the king wrote in Calmar Sound, October 21, 1627, immediately after his re turn from the second Prussian campaign 3. 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 7 Already at the diet of Spires, in 1567, the emperor Maximilian II. had proposed to form the circles of Bur gundy, 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 Casimir, in Sweden, Dirschau, Sept. 17, 1627. Id. 3 To the chancellor, upon the affairs of Denmark, Stock holm, Nov. 6, 1627. Id. 4 " 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 which reason Baner was to use great circumspection iu 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 business2." 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 3." The dukes of Mecklenburg, kinsmen of Gustavus Adolphus, were expelled from their possessions. They sought help in Sweden, where their sons found a refuge 4. 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 6. Wallenstein seems to have been inclined to add this conquest to Mecklenburg on his own account 7. He occupied Pomerania and Rugen, and gave orders for the equipment of a fleet. " There are said to be eight-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. s Chemnitz, 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 the 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." 7 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." Forster, Wallenstein, Potsdam, 1834, p. 128. 256 Danger of Stralsund. Design for its relief. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Besieged by the Imperialists. Alliance with 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 pressingly. I hope yet to seek them in their islands, for as to the Swede, I fear him not a jot 8." 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 violent 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 in 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 9. 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 chains 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 assurance2, 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, 1628, " 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 undertake 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 likewise so close to the Imperialists, that our own state aud 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 throw's them into the hands of the emperor. On the other hand, it strikes us on the face, that for this work a considerable army is 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 oppose 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 Forster. Berlin, 1828, i. 155. 168. 267. 9 Forster's Wallenstein, 106, 107. > Hallenberg, v. 339. 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 TJlfvesund, 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 Polish prohibition, was refused, he availed himself of the occasion to send to the town a freight of powder 3, 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 den4, 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 council of state: " The deputies of Stralsund have stated to us how pitiably they were this winter treated by 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 1 Besides the emperor hath already a year ago rein forced the king of Poland against us 5, 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 Stralsund 6." There an alliance was concluded, June 25, 1628, between Stralsund and Sweden, remarkable for the expressions in the third article, " the town of Stralsund 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. 4 In his instructions (Register, May 8, 1628), it is re marked that Borchardt was only to have them to read, but should not 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. 5 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. 6 Marienburg, June 12, 1628. Reg. 1632.] The estates promise ¦ support. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Discussion of the plan of operations. 257 the town only to refer to her fidelity as an ally '. The burghers of Stralsund sent their wives and children to Sweden e, and defended themselves with heroism. The 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 Towns9. 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 necessity2, 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 1628, then, we may regard the king's participation in the German war as fixed. Al ready in December, 1627, when the councillors 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 3." 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, aud 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 Os&a, 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 them, it is held best to leave the matter in suspense until the spring: Here upon the whole business turns, that his majesty should wifh 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. 9 " It seems to us that they (the Stralsunders) in this convention at Lubeck will employ every effort lo 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. 1 "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 anj posed from Poland to fall upon the League and the emperor in flank. " Poland is convenient 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 good counsel." As to the means to be used he was iu 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 former opinion, the king of the latter; and his reasons are again highly worthy of note. " I apprehend your view," he writes on March 5th, 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 4. 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 one 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 whiter. 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, we have bent our attention on the Polacks." Gustavus Adolphus to the king of Denmark, Aug. 19, 1628. Compare the Instruc tions for Oxenstiema's Embassy. 3 Scand. Memoirs, i. 151. 4 In a previous letter to the chancellor, Dec. 26, 1628, 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 arguments for an offensive war. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Good understanding with Denmark interrupted. [1628— who was skilled in seamanship. On the other hand, this antagonist hath innumerable ways and means to set *m foot a naval armament, and hath already begun to equip himself 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 well what a wide extent of coast and how many harbours 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 our side, help were not to be despaired of. This hath moved me with all earnestness to urge that the army described in the roll5 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 3 (( We cannot take the field with a strong army, for we must keep much infantry in Swtden on account ofthe Danes, so that we must employ foreigners mostly. We have on the roil 15,000 men and 9000 horses." Gustavus Adolphus in the Council, Oct. 27, 1629. Palmsk. MSS. s To the chancellor, Jenkceping, March 5, 1629. Ex manuscripto regis Gust. Ad. in the Palmsk. MSS. t. 37, p. 1925. We have, as usual, only extracted the chief por tions. The correspondence on the same subject between the king and the chancellor 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 although the means appear not to be reckoned upon longer than for four months, jet 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 ofthe whole north." Axel Oxenstierna in the council, 1636. To the king's resolution he applies the terms fatum, dispositio divina, impetus ingenil. 9 May 25, 1628 (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 7. 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 8." 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 powers, but of which the care was eventually left to Sweden alone 9. 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 Adolphus1. 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 9, 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 officers 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 chanceUor 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 Icing'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 presently 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 ofa rupture. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Precautions against it. Diet of 1629. 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 Lubeck were proceeding, when Gustavus Adolphus 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 np in the German affair ?" Shortly before Gus tavus Adolphus crossed 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 3." Orders were there fore sent to the Swedish commandant in Stralsund, he was to remonstrate, lhat his majesty did not come as an enemy, but as a friend of the emperor and the king of Den mark, to obtain fair conditions (amounting to no less than tbe 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 expiseate 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, 1629. Reg. 2 Feb. 20, 1629. Hereupon Gustavus Adolphus writes to the chancellor : — " The course of the matter was this, that for more than two winters in succession it was signified to me, how much good might be wrought if I were to meet the king of Denmark. But partly tbe 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 iii the manse of Ulfsback. I 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 both sides. 4. 1 remarked that he excused himself for want or 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 first 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 conld 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 17, 1630. Reg. " It is known to all •ihe world, that the king of Denmark will give a sum of money for Rugen." Salvius to the Swedish resident Fae- greus, April 8, 1630. Id. 4 He writes to the chancellor, June 2, 1630, 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 offence 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 com prehensive orders which the king issued against such a contingency, sufficiently show the intentness with which he watched his neighbours 5. In his proposition to the commission of estates, which met in 1631, he also represents the probability of a war with Denmark ; and it is plain, from his orders in the autumn of the same year, that he looked upon the struggle to be at hand 6. 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 " Faegreus advises us respecting the naval preparations of Denmark. I have therefore written to the council to take notice whether the Danish fleet comes out into the Baltic." In 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 Elfsborg, Wiborg, 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 the 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 governor of Livonia. Reg. To show how this was connected with his first plan for the Ger man war, we quote the following from his 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, prope, the land and rivers of the king of Den mark." Palmsk. MSS. 6 " 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, Hochst, Nov. 26, 1631. Reg. Oxenstiern, in bis letter to the king, dated Elbing, Jan. 8, 1631, gives a detailed opinion on the case of a rupture with Denmark, 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." s2 260 Deliberations in the council. Negotiation HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. for peace at Dantzic. - riG28- / Intrigues of Richelieu! 1629, we may regard the participation of Sweden in the German war as decided. Meanwhile Gus tavus Adolphus had it at heart personally to con vince his council, and the short written notes of his consultations with the senate at Upsala, Oc tober 27th and November 3rd, 1629, "in how far the war should be carried on offensively or de fensively7," are among the most remarkable records of its history. Axel Oxenstierna was absent in Prussia; his opinions upon its policy we already know. These however did not now want an advo cate. John Skytte", at other times Oxenstiema'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 the 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 the verge of a great future — the nearmost 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 laws8," He foresaw the long- someness of the war 9. 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 I 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 Oxenstierna2, 7 Palmsk. MSS. t. 37, p. 1985. seq. 8 Contra offensivum dom. Skyttius. Ratio a nostra mon- archia. — The emperor is strong; all, the Dane and others, lean upon him. — Esset contra Deum et conscientiam tentare subversionem monarchiae. 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 Germani ; sin victus, se subtrahent, the reply was : Si rex victor, illi prseda 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. 1 "At all events we have begun to spin the web of negoti ation with the Imperialists. The Imperialists 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 expressed by the 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 3." 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 northern Protestant Germany to its former condition. There was thus, in truth, some ground for that exclamation of the imperial commissary, Baron Dolma : ft What more could the king of Sweden request, if he stood victorious in the midst of Germany V 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 4." 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 wished for no thing more fervently than to set him at war. Chamace" 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, j 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 6. 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, 16S0. 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 Serenitas, 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. 4 Ludolph (Schaubiihne, &c), Theatre of the Seventeenth Century, b. 30, p. 565. 5 "If he were inclined to think of the empire ofthe east, which would not be difficult for him, having, with his virlue and reputation, such a friend as the king of France." (S'il voulait penser a l'empire d'orient, ce qui ne lui serait pas difficile, ayant, avec sa vertu et sa reputation, un tel ami que le roi.) M6moires de Richelieu. 6 He answered in his usual manner, very judiciously, and with the greatest discretion. Ibid. 1632.1 PrTehpearflt0t"isemw:s.en- GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Number and composi tion of the army. 261 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 the 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 rigour. 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 were sufficiently convinced by him" (their renewed engagement of Dec. 9, 1629, declares), " that we had negligently failed of our promise and assurance 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 9 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 troops and river navi- 7 At length , after a year, came the answer of the electors to this note, transmitted in April, 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 to 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, 1630. Reg. 8 Tandis que dura ce pourparler avec Chamace, le roi de Suede — se resolvait a la guerre sans 6tre assure de l'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, that we have not found it good in this condition of things to tie ourselves so closely to the nod and arbitrement of the king of France only for three tuns of gold." Reg. 9 The whole fleet numbered in 1626 — 72 vessels larger or smaller, namely, 4 great ships, 8 middle-sized, 20 lesser, 8 small, 30 galleys, and 2 ketches. Hallenberg, MS. I 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 six." 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 r— Of horse, eie/ht companies of Smalanders under count Peter Brahe, and eight 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 1. 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 2. Torstenson, 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 3. 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 appeal 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 the war department, in Sweden more particularly, to his brother-in-law, the pals grave John Casimir5, a, nobleman distinguished and Hensler, four Swedish 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. 4 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, Clas Horn, the free baron Gabriel Oxenstierna Gustaveson (brother of the chancellor), Peter Baner, John Sparr6, 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, 16S0, Reg. He was consequently joined in this department with the high-marshal general Jacob dela Gardie. In a separate Instruction for the latter, of npn 1*lie king's farewell to the estates, and embarkation. - HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Voyage to Pomerania. Landing on Usedom, [1628— for diligence and assiduity. Next year the king gave him a like commission in reference to the public revenues. On the 19th of May, Gustavus Adolphus sum moned before him the estates of the realm then at hand in Stockholm, and presented to them his young daughter, now hardly four years old, as the heiress of his kingdom, commended her to their fidelity, clasped her in his arms, aud took a moving farewell. From his speech, which left no eye tearless, we extract what follows : " Seeing 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 I here sit, that I 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 the 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, wishing that after this wretched and burdensome life, we may by God's good pleasure meet and consort in that which is heavenly and imperish able." Thereupon he addressed some words 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 Baner ', in the second the high-admiral Charles Carlson Gyllen hielm, in the third the ship-major Bubbe, in the fourth admiral Eric Ryning. The fleet, in case it were dispersed by storm, was first to reassemble off the northern point of Oeland, afterwards if need were under Bornholm, but to take the direct course from Elfsnabben to the coast of Fore Pomerania, and the so-called isle of Greifswald 7. 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 East-Gothland and Smaland, the general in Upland and Norrland, field-marshal Herman Wrangel in Vermeland, West-Gothland, and the fortress of Elfsborg. As de la Gardie now, so Clas Fleming, the president of the 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. 6 His patent as general-in-chief of the infantry was first made out after the landing in Germany, and is dated Stettin, July 13, 1680. Reg. 7 Chemnitz. s Warrant for Herman Meijer to be preceptor of Gustave Gustaveson, with four hundred rix-dollars salary. Elfsnab ben, June 3, 1630. Reg. tions to the administration and council ; important communications to Axel Oxenstierna in Prussia, where 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 son8, writs of process, letters of freehold 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 9. 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 westermost 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 Anklam. The king, who had placed himself in a boat 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 erection of sconces, the other stood under arms ready for battle2. 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 relief of their afflicted brethren in the faith he had engaged in this war, by tlieir com pletion of which they would gain undying renown in the after- world ; they had no need to fear this new foe, the same whom they had routed in Prussia; 9 " We are in the greatest embarrassment by reason ofthe strong and irksome contrary wind, as our stores are mostly consumed. We cannot take to sea again without danger of ruin, before we have provisioned ourselves for some time." The king to the council of state, Middelsteu's Haven June 14, 1630. Reg. i "We ate happily arrived, and have landed without opposition on Usedom. Now we need but a supply, especi ally at the flrst, until we can become possessed of some places. Assist our councillors ofthe treasury. Hasten sup plies from Sweden according to our directions." Usedom, June 29, 1630. Reg Under the same date the king thanks the Palsgrave lor his great assiduity. 2 The Swedish Intelligencer, London, 1634, i. 40. This appears to be by au eye-witness. 1632.] Occupation of Stettin. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Cruelties of the Imperialists. 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 and 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 them 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 3. Leslie in Stralsund, who had been reinforced for this purpose from Sweden, had already in the middle of April cleared 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 sought 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 l. 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 tlieir un wearied leader busily at work on the improvement of the defences of the town ; and in 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, Torquato 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. 4 " We were apprehensive that while we were occupied iu taking some little places, the Imperialists should either themselves gain possession of Stettin, or hinder 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 sailed 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 we 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 Ratisbon 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 propitious 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 whjch warlike adventurers paid more undisguised devotion. In what Gusta vus Adolphus sinned 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 s." 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 unfortunate inhabitants of the country over passed the measure of human 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. 8 "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 extraordinary gentleness toward the people, and exact justice on all occasions." (Quant a la per sonne de ce roi, on ne voyait en ses actions qu'une sev6rite inexorable envers les moindres exces de siens, une douceur extraordinaire envers les peuples et une justice exacte en toutes occasions.) Memoires de Richelieu, vi. 419 264 Several German princes join the king. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. His embarrassments from deficient supplies. £1628— Italians, formerly officers of Wallenstein, who had entered the service of Gustavus Adolphus, were detected in the camp at Stettin in a treasonable plot against his person. He received warnings of several such designs of assassination, instigated by Jesuits; and we find him transmitting to Sweden directions that a watch should be kept over Jesuit emissaries, who had found opportunity to insinuate themselves into his dominions 7. 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 8, re paired on the intelligence of his landing to Mag deburg (whose 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, with a Swedish commander. The 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 7 He had received this last information from Holland. To the Council of State, Stettin, July 31, 1630. Reg. 8 He was a younger brother of the king's father-in-law, the deceased John Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg. 9 His proffer was made shortly after the king's arrival. 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 John 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 flve differenf heads of the Swedish 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 ofthe 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 this town we have some furtherance, our outlay is yet so excessively large, that it goeth but a little way, since every tenth day we require above 30,000 rix-dol lars (£6,250) for the sustentation ofthe 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 Oxenstierna, in spite of the difficulties of his own position in George, duke of Brunswick Luneburg, who, after he had sought fortune in Denmark and with the emperor, now tendered his services to Gustavus Adolphus9. Of the reigning houses, after the Pomeranian, Hesse-Cassel was Sweden's first ally, as in the sequel her 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 hi 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 2. Gustave 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 for the coining year," — ¦ 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 tbe 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 myself, 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 tustle 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 I exhort 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 of 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, but, 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 gouds, and good days; who have sought no other treasure in this world than to do the duties of my place to the full. 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 iu 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 things Yet this, and life and sou), 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." 1M|J Plansto.be ensuing GTJSTAVUS ADoLpHus. GERMAN WAR. op^i££!Z»d. 265 troops in the neighbourhood, at Gartz and Greif- fenhagen, and attempted from thence, during the king's absence, an assault upon the Swedish camp, which failed. 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 Wismar from the sea, and make an incursion into Mecklenburg3 ; but contrary winds hindered the fleet 4. Moving from Stralsund he took Damgarten and Ribnitz, and entered Mecklen burg. But here 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 had 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 5. His letters about this time to Axel Oxenstierna and the council of state supply the fol lowing explanations of his views : " The emperor seems indeed to incline to a treaty with us 6, 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, aud our neighbours placed in their former 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 emperor'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 falluponthe Popish clergy, 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, 1630. Reg. 4 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 with 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 tilings 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 horses), we hope to be able to hold 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 army 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 accomplishment 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 troops could be levied, and every army were so strong as is set down in the draught, the heads and directors of each army might 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 8. The winter set in, and this year it was severe; but with it, to the 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 Greiffenhagen, 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 affrighted 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 the Prussian troops are now come to Stargard, pari are on the march." Id. 8 The diplomatic transactions we pass by as of little influence. 7 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 Faigreus, his resident in Denmark, of Nov. 5, and Dec. 7, 1630, to request safe conduct for him, to oass by land through that country, in case he could not come to Sweden by sea on account of the winter. Reg. 8 Schaumburg's letter to Tilly lays the blame on the utter demoralization of Wallenstein's former army. J 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 peace with Spain and Austria1, re newed the proffer of its alliance ; and Charnace', who had from the beginning watched his progress, again opened negotiations 2. After manifold diffi culties, in reference to the ceremonial, 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, 1630, The king was to receive for theyear already expired 120,000 rix-dollars, 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 places 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 coming betimes to the relief of this fortress, he converted the siege into a blockade, and forbore on 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 3. There one strong place after another, New Brandenburg, Loitz, Malchin, 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 1 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 affairs will receive from the descent of the king of Sweden on Germany; for he will 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 they will hold themselves for lost." (II y rencontrera plus de facilite qu'il n'eut fait, &c) Memoires de Richelieu, vi. 395. 2 " The French ambassador has again been here, and has offered us 120,000 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 hard frost. We carried along great 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 ofthe army under command 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 reinforcement by major-general Kniphausen, and had then 15,000 men fit for service, according to the lists of the men in health or sick, which all the colonels were I 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 4 ; so that lie 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 au 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 5, 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 storm6. 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 iu good stead during this winter campaign. 4 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 him in reeog- no6cing 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 tire upon the 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 liberly 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 nothing well done which he did not himself. He presently took a heavy dinner and a large draught or wine in his cold . tent, then proceeded to change his clothes, and so went again among his troops. 5 Khevenhiiller says : "because they had unanimously resolved rather to die than to surrender." 8 ,When the Swedes approached the town, the Imperialists called to them: "Ye herring-eaters, have ye devoured all 1632-] Ma^fetogfrusSed. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. "o'tTeTrnpeSu!" 267 The lieutenant Andrew Auer, who first mounted the wall, received 1000 rix-dollars and a captaincy in the regiment of life-guards. The king having pursued the enemy, turned thereafter against Landsberg, took it on the 16th of April7, and now demanded Custrin and Spandau from the elector of Brandenburg, in order to be able to relieve Magdeburg. This request was of a nature to make an armed visitation of Berlin inevitable. "I cannnot take it ill," said the king on this occasion, " that the elector my brother-in-law is sorrowful ; for that I ask perilous and critical matters is incontestable ; but I desire, them not for my good, but that of the elector, his country, and the whole of Christendom. My way leads to Magdeburg 8." 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, with its diocese, was to be in North Germany 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 burg would touch most nearly the elector's son 9, 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 terrible 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 whither Tilly intended to take his 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 force 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 from 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 officers ; 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 Tilly, when he had information of our expedition, returned in haste, he yet came no farther than to Old Brandenburg. We have 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 fishers' 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 offered 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 ; but they were mostly cut down. A great portion of the remaining burghers saved themselves in the cathedral, and bolted the doors so fast that no one came to them the first day ; the next, quarter was sounded, and then they obtained mercy 2. 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 3 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 tlieir 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, but himself drank nothing; "for his custom was never to drink much, but very seldom." Monro, 1. c. ii. 40. 8 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 the election invalid, and procured the nomination of one of his own sons, Leopold William. 1 To the Council of State, Hamburg, May 18, 1631. 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 Croats. 268 Pusillanimous conduct of Saxony and Brandenburg. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Exigencies of the army. Camp at Werben. [1628— always assured them of succour, and not 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 good to the cause, but rather during the siege itself withheld from the townsmen the ammunition they had purchased 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 free. That matters went forward so slowly is by no means the fault of the king'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 soldiers 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 1631, 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 well-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 Brandenburg demanded back his fortresses, which he had only delivered up for the liberation 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 4 To the Council of State, Jerichow, July 2, 1631. Reg. 5 " 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 Dbmitz and Havelberg (which was taken ort the 9th July), all Mecklenburg is occupied, so that the king may ex tend his forces to the Weser, and conjoin them with Hamil ton's troops. Meanwhile lie is fortifying Havelen strongly, with Rathenau, Brandenburg, and Spandau. Horn, to whom Custrin stands open, is powerful to defend the Oder and Warta. An army is raised in Mecklenburg, and has be- gai-risoned 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 6, " 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, the 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 war7." These other means did not correspond to the require ments of the case. From the grain monopoly Oxenstiema'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 8, — "how with the greatest poverty, difficulty, and disorder, we have made shift for ourselves and the army through this time, inasmuch 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 aud 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 here 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 confluence of the Havel and the Elbe 9. A subsequent letter describes his con tinued 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, 1631. Reg. 6 To the Council of State, Jerichow, July 2, 1631. Reg. 7 To the Council of State, New Brandenburg, February 3, 1631. 8 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 bis soldiers from the enemy, but also to keep them from idle ness." ii. 41. 1632-1 Rav^esoftte^Sgue. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. The Saxon troops join ora the Swedes. J"a 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 have 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 Stendal, 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 6000 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 left2. 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 3. 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 1 Swedish Intelligencer. Monro. 2 That so considerable a body of troops, without any ex ploit of name, had "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 Nykoping." 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. 4 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, I beg your lovingness will do me the sisterly kindness to take the child to yourself, as also to look closely to those who have the care of her." 1. c. Elbe at Wittemberg, his force, according to the rolls then given in, consisted of 13,000 infantry and 8850 cavalry s. Tilly, having formed a junction with » part of the imperial army returning from Italy, threat ened Saxony 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 hard 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 7." 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 ns, 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-array8; 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 fashion, or by delivering a general action. 5 Chemnitz, i. 203. 8 " Broke up, Aug. 1 8, from Wolmirstadt, with the whole army to Eisleben, and there conjoined his force with the army of Furstenberg, 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." Knevenhiiller, 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. 14, 1631. Reg. 8 Monro, 1. 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 Leipsjc. Complete defeat HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. of the Imperialist army under Tilly. [1628— 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 among 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 Cth, at the dawning, we passed through Duben, caused our army to follow in file 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 behind it his whole force9. 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 before ours was ready, and then it answered three shots for one. The Saxon cavalry, and the troops wliich were stationed with the Saxon 9 " Strength as in the annexed roll, letter A," the king adds. This roll doe3 not remain. Khevenbiiller enume rates the thirty-two regiments of which Tilly's army con sisted, but without stating their force. 1 " 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 their duty to a miracle, resolved to conquer or die, charging the enemy, after some salvoes, at the sword's point. — What served principally to throw the enemy into disorder was the 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 king's 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 " Soldat Suedois, Rouen, 1634, p. 72. 2 Tbe king adds, " Tilly came the same night to Halle with duke Rudolph of Saxe-Lauenburg, Pappenheim, count Furstenherg, and colonel Cronberg ; and the barhers (sur geons) tell that Tilly had 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 he moved from Halle to Aschersleben and Halberstadt, very weak and powerless from the shots he had received. These had caused black and blue swellings, which the chirurgeon 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 left their cannons behind. The Saxon infantry behaved no better, but took to their heels by companies, and gave out that we were beaten and all was lost. This caused great affright among those who were with our bag gage, who, seeing the Saxons run, turned round and fied 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 three 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 would obtain the victory '. By-and-bye he began to yield, and we so set upon 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 his rout, and left us masters of the field, after the fight had lasted un remittingly from two o'clock to dark night. We 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 king in Frankfort, salute him with the bandaged. How many of the enemy remained on the field we cannot so precisely know, but we conjecture about three thousand. Of Tilly's captains, Schdnberg, 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 capt; in 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 which the sum of affairs 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 Scheiditz, Sept. 10, 1631, and is copied in the Palmsk. MSS. t. 38, p. 2187. Khevenhiiller estimates the slain altogether at nine thousand, of which the Imperialists had six thousand three hundred, the Saxons two thousand, but tlie king's men only seven hundred. Gustavus Adol phus' 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, whom we have often cited, we quote a passage from the Minutes of the Swedish Council in 1642: "Chemnitz was commissioned by the high chancellor to go through the relations and discourses 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 ofthe policy of the GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. "P"3*™8 subsequent to the victory. 271 words, that he would rather congratulate him on the victory in Vienna," but eighteen years after his sovereign's death he declared in the 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 3." 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 Franconia4; 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 hia rear safe 5. 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 the dukes William and Bernard of Weimar, an important influence on the decision of Gustavus Adolphus8. 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- sembljed in the convention of Frankfort on the Maine, publicly invoked his succour r. Three grounds of his resolution are stated by the king himself : he wished not to lose sight of Tilly s ; he wished to possess the Catholic bishoprics for the support of his army and his own designs 9 ; he 3 From the Minutes of Council in 1650. Palmsk. MSS. 1. 190. 4 Chemnitz, i. 216. s 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 Puffendorf, duke Ber nard sought to work upon the king's mind by hopes of the 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 scrupulosity 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, 1631,) 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 ; and 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 tions under which it had been concluded with Mecklenburg and Hesse ; yet Salvius might have power to modify some articles, as the jas clientele and patrocinii, in case the elec tor should stickle for it. Further he might 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 Germany1. 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-stretchino- 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 thereby averting the common danger in the most critical moment ? Was it the Pro testants of North or South Germany who formed the union of Heijbronn % Was it in the then 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 cities, who, in these tracts most blended with the Catholics, had also felt the yoke contributions, as his majesty was bending his march to Upper Germany, to obtain better quarters, and would thenceforth lighten as much as possible the burden of contribution and inquartering. Reg. ' 7 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 Franconia." 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 Thuringia, 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 abandoned. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Rapid successes on the Maine. [1628-*-; most heavily, and were most gladdened by the coming of tlieir rescuer. It was their joy, which made the march of Gustavus Adolphus, after the battle of Leipsic, a triumphant procession ; it was their thankfulness which knitted the league over his bleeding body; and never would the compact have been struck if his banners had not waived among them 2." 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 victory 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 uo money along ! Charles Baner may in the mean time be vice-governor in Prussia. Else we have 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 us, 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 whiter, 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 Bauer to Frankfort, to draw off our garrison as soon as the elector's folk come ; and when he hath 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 iu securing Mecklenburg, but would then need troops from Prussia, that Pomerania might not be en tirely bare 3." 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 the Jubilee (Tal vid Jubelfesten, &c.) in memory of the great Gustavus Adolphus, Nov. 6, 1832, in Upsala, p. 42. 3 To the Chancellor, Halle, Sept. 17, 1631. Reg. 4 To the lord John Baner, Hochst, Nov. 19, 1C31. Reg. 5 Francheville (Gualdo Pricrato), p. 102. - <¦ Khevenhiiller, i. 1884. 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 Hochst, 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 4." The march through Franconia had been a triumphal 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 5 ; in the camp a cow was sold for a rix- dollar, and a sheep for a, few styvers6. 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 bread 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 8. 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 Wurtzburg to Hanau not more than seven thousand five hun dred foot, and four thousand horse 9. 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 jiim- 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 unfriends, 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 the brigade. In the same way the names of the regiments were derived from their standards, although usually supposed to be taken from their uniforms. Five are mentioned : the body regiment, the green, the blue, the white, the red regiments. 1 Monro, ii. 86. 1632.] TinyTecUnesebatti2!' GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. Collision with the Spaniards. 273 forced with men 2. 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 lodge yourself in a convenient position betwixt the Havel and Elbe ; hold the bridges with redoubts until assistance be sent you. Correspond diligently with Tott (in Mecklenburg) ; let us have no disservice through your jealousy 3. 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 the week 4." When the enemy showed himself at Wurtzburg, the king cut to pieces three regiments of his cavalry 6. Tilly passed by, and marched to Nuremberg, lamenting with tears that the elector of Bavaria had forbidden him to venture any thing decisive 8. These were not the only difficulties with which the king bad 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 7 ; he was obliged to coin bad money 8, and took violent measures for the purpose of upholding the value of the copper coinage in Sweden9. 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 ret gerendai consists in this, that we become strong in troops." Oppenheim, Dec. 8, 1831. Reg. 3 A similar letter was sent bythe king to Ak6 Tott, a very brave man, but hot in temper. (He was son of a daughter of Eric XIV.) 4 To the lord John Baner, Wurtzburg, Nov. 8, 1631. Reg. s Proposition to the estates, Feb. 4, 1632. Reg. s " Since there was no other reserve available." Kheven- httller, xi. 1884. " It was better to delay than be ruined," Maximilian of Bavaria wrote to the emperor. 7 They were partly paid with assignments for six months. Monro, ii. 86. 8 " We have dealt with one named Zwimer, 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. 8 "We must bring the matter to this point, that, no other coins shall pass in Sweden but rix-dollars 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 sought 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 Spa nish general de Silva (commander in Mentz) to be waited upon by the colonel of our horse-guards, 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 the 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, although 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 2 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 2, to impede our treaty with the emperor 1 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 3." 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-dollars (13,5000.); and assigns them as a capital for carrying on the copper-mines. The newly-levied men were to be sent over. " We 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 hitherto hath been done." To the palsgrave John Casimir, Ochsenfurt, Nov. 1, 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 lahdgrave 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. 8 To the councU of state, Mentz, Dec. 31, 1631. Id. The king adds, that the king of Denmark had publicly spoken of T 274 Entry into Mentz. Compacts with the Protestant HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. states of the empire. Proposals of peace. [1628— the king had taken and fortified, while the terrors of his arms, with wonderful rapidity and fortune, were spread over both sides of the Rhine. Gustavus Adolphus in Mentz, at the outset of the year 1632, 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 treaty of neutrality with the League which France had proposed. The Catholic League was dissolved; its members either threw 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 Khevenhiiller, " 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 Farensbach 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. 23, 1632. Reg. 4 So runs the first article of this project in Richelieu, Mem. vii. 45, who gives it more shortly, and without mention of the election of king of the Romans. In this fiTSt article in Khevenhiiller, the king of Sweden is substituted for the restored, and recover his electoral rank, of which Bavaria had deprived him ; that Augsburg should 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 Romans5. 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 majesty6. 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 directory 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 7. The distance and interruption by the war rendered communication with Sweden difficult. Months passed away without intelligence, which led to irregularities and misapprehensions. From Wittemberg, 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 Wurtzburg, 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. 5 Khevenhiiller, xii. 86. 8 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, 1632. Register of the Council. In the public archives we have not found any register of the king's letter of 1632. ..„, Backwardness of the 1632]- 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 8, and the deputies had been received with an account of the heroical victories and actions of his majesty. 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 years more. Afterwards the council, in letters to the chancellor, requests his decision upon various exigent affairs, wherein 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 9. 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 Dijmitz ; 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 there the elector rested, tp the ruin of the country and his army >. 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 terms2; a sentiment which 8 To his majesty, concerning the diet. Stockholm, Feb. 4. 8 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. 287. 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 be 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 3. 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 s, 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, in 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 slain. — 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 his ma jesty an accord glorious for the country, of which the instrument is deposited in the royal chancery6. would not demand of them that they should be beaten with double rods." 4 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 Christianlike, to strangle, kill, and extirpate mis believers on account of their false belief and doctrine only, as the Jesuitical murder-drones (mordhummeln) and blood suckers write thereof. For one of their principal ringleaders, T 2 276 Occupation of Augsburg and Munich. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. The intrenched camps • at Nuremberg. [1628— The re-establishment of the Confession of Augsburg in the town which had been its cradle, appears, of all his triumphs, to have been dearest to Gusta vus Adolphus ; and on public opinion it made a deep impression. 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 Munich 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 remain 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 into a throng of children and grown persons, among whom he usually scattered money 7." The town, however, was obliged to pay 300,000 rix- dollars, which were rigorously exacted. In Bavaria, which heretofore had been undisturbed by war, Ingolstadt alone, whose siege wellnigh cost the king his life 8, 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 peasants 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 vaiuly sought to hinder this con junction by a rapid march, was obliged to confine himself to covering Nuremberg, which was threa tened with the fate of Magdeburg. He had but 18,000 men9 against 60,000; but Nuremberg con- by name Becanus (Tract, de fide, spe, et ctarit. c. 15, quscst. 4, 5, et 6,) teaches 'Quod propter solam hi resin h3eretici reges et alii principes privandi sunt bonis, iraperiis, dominiis — et quod omnes alii hseretici puniendi sunt poena capitis.' Behold, these are the words of the Jesuit Becanus, 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), ' Hseretici resipiscentes, tametsi recipiantur de ecclesia — non tamen permittantur vivere.' With these blood-thirsty allegations we do not in the least hold, since it is wholly unchristian 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 and Comfort (Dank-und Trost-Bredigt) after the conquest of the city of Augsburg, 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 Nuremberg1, and sat down likewise in a fortified camp. " It was upon a height called Old-hill, where he occupied an old castle in the forest, with a hunter's lodge near, called the old fort, which he strongly intrenched 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 2." 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 Kniphausen to defend the town, and on the 8th September led off his army, half melted away; unpursued by Wallenstein, who a few days after wards set his camp on fire and departed. In the camp at Nuremberg, where Gustavus A dol- 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, lords, and nobles," he exclaimed, "ye that help to destroy your own native land 1 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 4." At Nurem- year 1632. Words like these issued out of the heart of Gus tavus Adolphus. 7 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. ' 8 In all eighteen thousand four hundred and forty-three men, as I have seen it written out of the army. Swedish Intelligencer, ii. 240. 1 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 oft'the War (Newe Kriegs-Chronica), printed in 1632, quoted by Schuh. MUitary Occurrences about Nuremberg in'1632 ; Nuremberg, 1824. 3 Swedish Intelligencer, iii. IS, 17. 4 We have followed and abridged an outline of his speech in the Swedish Intelligencer. 1632.] Wallenstein threatens Saxony. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. State of the war after the 0-- actions at Nuremberg. ¦*'/ berg Baner was early wounded, Torstenson was taken at the assault on Wallenstein's camp. A cannon-ball carried away the sole of the king's stirrup, and an officer 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 broke anew into Bavaria, where the enemy, reinforced by im perial 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 5. 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- bronn6. 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 7. 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. 175, 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. 8 " 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, liowever 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 Montecuculi. Arnheim with the Saxons, and Duwall, whom the king had sent to his reinforce ment, had overcome almost all resistance in Silesia. In Bavaria there was little to do, until Montecu culi, just at this time, broke into that country. Duke Julius of Wurtemberg and sir Patrick Ruth ven had still the upper hand in Swabia. The Swe dish garrisons in Pomerania 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 Saxony, 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 12th 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 force 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 were ever the last to leave quarters 8. After the partition, and with the loss 7 Theatrum EuropEeum, 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." Bulow, Campaigns of Gustavus Adolphus in Ger many (Gustaf Adolfs Falttag i Tyskland). 8 " These dragoons, or horse-musketeers, were all picked men. Their duty was 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, fcc. 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 army, 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 than 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 armies. Plans of Wallenstein. 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 Forchheim Wallen stein stayed from ten to fourteen days. Here he first received information that the king of Sweden, with half 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 landwehr 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 9. Wallenstein therefore directed his march against Baireuth, Culmbach, 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 Dubatell10. Duke Bernard had come about this time from Schweinfurt to Konigshofen, and thence 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 masters 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 more 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 in 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." 1. c. 163. This was the same expedient used by the king at Leipsic against the Croats. 8 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, 1632. Rose, i. 172. io The name is also written Taupadell and Tupadel. u " Then first did desolation Tightly fall upon Saxony." Theatrum EuropEeum, ii. 743. Compare Gualdo's narrative before cited of Hoik's proceedings in Saxony, and what the Theatrum EuropEeum 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. (Fbrster'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 sword11 (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 5th 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 2. 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 Lutzen Bernard of Weimar forgot his unjust dissatisfaction 3. At p. 195), Forster 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 unshakeable 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 bim too much according to the letter. 1 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 EuropEeum, 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^SfnsVtX,akeS GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. His ie!?«S? by the 279 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 4. 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 in the morning he rose, took a tender leave (the last) of his spouse 5, 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 army. 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 Erfurt. The Swedes had as it were flown, and made incredible marches, says one of Wallenstein's officers 6 ; hence the arrival of the king was unknown to the enemy. Pappenheim had just advised Wallenstein to turn 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 Rose, duke Bernard the Great of Saxe- Weimar, i. 174, 176. 4 " 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 impro 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 7. 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 8. 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 Kniphansen 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 Luneburg. 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 EuropEeum 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 ofthe 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. 8 Gualdo, by Francheviile, 205. 7 Swedish Intel, iii. 113. The Spanish relation alluded to was printed at Lisbon in 1633. Compare Khevenhiiller, xii. 187. s 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 same time he nevertheless relates. oon The hostile armies in presence •^O" of each other HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. on the field of Lutzen. Their probable strength. [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 Pegau, towards ten in the forenoon, the tidings of Pappenheim'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 B "His royal majesty may safely and surely depend upon this, that his princely grace is eager to shed his blood for his majesty and the commonwealth, seeing that he desires no greater honour in this world than to display this on occa sion offering, 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 stiength 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 tbe 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 time was neither with 10,000 men, nor with the Saxon main army at Dresden, as the above-mentioned historian of duke George says, ii. 106, 109. 1 Gustavus Adolphus, on the night before the battle, is said to have complained of the untrustworthiness of duke George of Luneburg. He resolved on battle without 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 murderous 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 columns 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 plant 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 Pappenheim in Weissenfels, heard it alleged to be 50,000 men 3, 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 4th November from Naumburg ; he bade him march straight to Eilenburg, informed him 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 finds it highly 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 9th 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 tbe king iu his lifetime,) to leave Arnheim and his army in Silesia. Glaffey, de gladio Gust. Adol , Leipsic, 1749. 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 1 (i. 368. n. 66.) 2 Forster, Wallenstein's Letters, ii. 273. 3 Swedish Intel, iii. 1 19. 4 Ibid. 133. 1632.] Order of battle, and preparations. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. The king's address to his troops. 281 after he had sent away about 10,000 with Pap penheim 5. 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. The 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 cavalry was every where 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, Uplanders, East- gothlauders, Smalanders in the first line, aud 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 Brahe, the second by Kniphausen. 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 8. 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 the canal. On Tuesday, the 6th 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 praise 7. 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 morning. 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 8. To his Swedes and Finns he said; "Dear friends and countrymen, this day the moment is come to Bhow 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. 8 Swed. Intel, iii. 129. 7 Chemnitz, 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- son, 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 his last day." Translated into Swedish in the Historical Archives, Stockholm, 1774, i. 45, by Lonbom. 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 ihat 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 all9!" To the Germans he thus spake; " You, my sincere brothers and comrades, 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 address 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 upturned 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 2 ! " 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-marshal 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 3 for some time, and the sun shone forth. The cannouade 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 horse4. The Swedes drew near the high-road, where they were eius, 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. i " 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 sent to Louis XIII., quoted (after Siri, Mem. vn. 541) in the Appendix to Wallenstein's Letters by Forster, ii. 336. 4 Richelieu, 1. »¦ 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 in 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 in hand himself, and prepared to lead the assault on the ditches; but allowed himself to be 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 cavalry5. The onfall was made with such impetuosity, that the three Swedish infantry 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 Icing was among the foremost. The tidings of the first cap ture of the battery 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 mischief8." At the moment he learned that the infantry was giving way. He placed himself at the head of the Smaland cavalry7, 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- 8 Harte, History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus, ii. 366. Gualdo (Francheviile), 218. 8 Thus much did Stalhandske himself oftentimes and at table relate unto clivers gentlemen of our nation. Swed. Intel, iii. 134. 7 " Since the colonel of the regiment (Frederic Stenbock) was shot in the foot, his majesty in person led it." Relation of Jens Mansson, I.e. 8 Richelieu, vii. 260. Khevenhiiller says that the shot struck his head. " The relation which was transmitted to his imperial majesty of this death, in hoe 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 shoot 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. 8 Swed. Intel, iii. 137. " Falkenberg, lieutenant-colonel ofa regiment of Imperial cavalry, pushing straight to the king with bridle loose, without any one's believing that he was au enemy, discharged a pistol-ball at him at ten paces, which hit him 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. 260. 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 Francis 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 8, 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 9. 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 in his last hours, which was taken down and pre served, that when the king fell from his horse, he had dismounted and offered 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 cuirassiers 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 2. Herewith the account given by duke Bernard of Weimar agrees3, and adds, that these cuirassiers likewise ran their sabres through the king several times, and stripped the body naked. Adler Salvius, re ferring to the king's secretary Grubbe", 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 through 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. 1 Of the guardsmen who rode with the king one was called Anders Jensson (relation of Jens Mansson) ; that the sur vivor was named Jacob Ericson appears from what follows. 2 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 pointed out in the church of St. Wentzel. 3 Richelieu, Mem. vii. 260. 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 Bword 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 effect 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 young page who served the monarch." Fran cheviile, p. 220. 1632.] The duke of Weimar takes the command. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. AlgZt°l P^Zlm^ 283 him with a pistol between the shoulders ; that the kmg still wished to save himself, but could not hold out, falling from his horse, which carried him 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 charge, the hostile trooper gave the king a pistol-shot through the head, and saved himself by flight*. J 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 first. Nevertheless, Iso- lani with his Croats 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-troops5, 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-general Knip- hausen. According to the duke's own declaration Kniphausen answered that his troops were in good order, and could make a fair retreat. The answer agrees not ill with his character. He was an oflicer of the greatest merit, sagacious, trusty, brave, but often unlucky, and therefore mistrusting fortune 8. Bernard exclaimed, with heat, that here 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 7. The bloody charger of Gustavus Adolphus running loose, was the 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- 4 The letter is printed by Giorwell 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 fellows, who at the beginning of the engagement, when it went ill with the Swedes, took to flight. Rose, i. 367, n. 54. 6 He used to say, " An ounce of luck is better than 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. 7 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, I. c. " The count of Pappen- perial cavalry on this wing was driven back. The confusion was terrible among the vast baggage- train 8 ; 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 numerous 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 9. 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 1. 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 2. 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 the 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 heim'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. 2 " 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 him 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 the 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 which they in life defended 3. 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, suffered less ; yet, after the battle, hardly more than four hundred men of it remained. 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 5. 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 burg, 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 the 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 11th November, is drawn up by two officers, who were stationed in duke Ber nard's wing 7. They begin with mentioning the skirmish at Rippach, 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 ere the watch was set in their head-quarters. 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 6th the king continued his march against the enemy; prisoners brought infor mation that Pappenheim had marched with eight 3 " They were seen lying dead afterward by their arras, in the very order in which a little while before they had stood living with great bravery and valour." Khevenhiiller, xii 194. 4 Swed. Intel, iii. 145. » Swed. Intel, iii. 148. 8 Published by Adam Fr. Glaffey, de gladio Gustavi Adol- phi, Lips. 1 749, and copied into Hallenberg's Collections. 7 The narrative is in the form of a postscript lo the before- regiments 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 aud 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 Scliei- ditz. Thus keen firing on both sides continued for about the space of an hour, till the king's right wing was so fai' advauced, 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 hero 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 written 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 8 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 was 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 church9 ; the schoolmaster previously performing divine service in the night, 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 M euchen, 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 Verlepsch. 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 half- rotten urn of oak-wood found under the raised stone in the wall. 1. c. 1632.] Reception of the news in Sweden. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. The duke of Lauenburg suspected. 283 healed. The 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 Stoue) ; 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 2. 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 head3. 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 Wolgast. In the following summer the high-admiral Gyllenhielm brought the corpse to Nykoping. Here it remained until its solemn burial on the 21st 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 5. 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, when 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 my 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 ruin. 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 1 According to an account received by me at the spot. 2 Letter of Salvius to the council above cited. 3 Opinion of the bishops and clergy against inspection of the dead and opening of their graves, July 16, 1634. Adler sparre, Hist. Col. iii. 49. 4 L. c. 354, where we see that in disposing of the effects left by the king great irregularities took place. 5 Report to the elector of Saxony by Daniel von Koseritz, Wittemberg, Dec. I, 1632, in Glaffey, de gladio Gust. Adol. 8 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 8." 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 assassination were several times spread, and un successful attempts had been made. Remarkably enough, a broadside which appeared — probably at Leipsic— immediately after the battle 7, assumes these very rumours as a ground for denying the king's death. The fight lasted, it is said, the whole day, aud 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 8. 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 in 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 flight 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. Palmskold Collections, t. 38. 8 "His serene highness was struck by a musket-ball 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 earlier 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 9." We have mentioned a name loaded with the blackest suspicions, and also the circumstances under which they arose. We may add, that no proof can be alleged to substantiate the 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 place 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, 1632, 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 1." 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, iii. 137. 1 Salvius to Grubbe, Hamburg, Dec. 10, 1632. Arcken- holtz, Mem. de Christine, i. 11. 2 Chemnitz, i. 466. 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 thus should have been the colour of the Imperialists); but we know that Wallenstein's officers had red scarfs, and an account quoted by Runs (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 Guslave Adolphe composee sur les manuscrits de M. Arkenholtz par 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 'a 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 Lutzen declared that he gave no faith to it. The narrative is full of absurdities, and bears mani fest traces of being fictitious. Compare Forster on the death of Gustavus Adolphus in the Appendix to Wallenstein's ing person on our side, we refer it to God's secret doom 2." Puffendorf, Swedish historiographer, fifty years after the 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 betterfitted for such a deed than Francis Albert 3?" 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 s ; but this does not prove him to have been a mur derer. We have remarked that according to several accounts, Gustavus Adolphus received a shot in the back or through the breast, while Francis Albert attempted to support the already 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 arms. At night to Weissenfels, two miles 6." letters, vol. ii. As little credible are other stories of the king's murder by a groom, wherewith inquisitive travellers from Sweden were formerly entertained in Saxony. See note H. 4 Cum tamen non meam, sed communem, Suecicae Nati- onis sententiam expresserim, quam aliquot rationibus ad- Btruere 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 ofthe 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 Juhum, ob Stjernskbld." The duel was consequently on account of Stiernskold ; the proximate cause is unknown 5 The duke died of his wounds. !, Tu« mUeS Engli8h' T'» Hi8'<>™al Magazine of Meiners Te\, I feU™.-..2' qUOted in thB Un^ersal Uterary Gazette of Halle, 1832, iii. 129. 1632.] Reflections on tbe life, character, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. and designs of the king. 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 7 ; and prayers for the success of the Swedish monarch's arms were sent up at the Holy Sepul chre 8. 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 strauge 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 9. 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 him, " He was 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 their persuasion. If withal he had too much of Caesar and Alexander (whom he 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 7 A plan for the liberation of Greece through Gustavus Adolphus was given by the Greek Romanus 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 Patriarchse Constantinopolitani Litterae ad Axe- lium Oxenstjerna (manu senili et tremula), with complaints anent the encroachments of the Catholics, to the injury of tbe Greeks, at the Holy Sepulchre. Nordin Col. n. 175. 9 In Germania plurimi, prEesertim rustici, si non palam, saltern secrete, Calvini aut Lutheri haeresim sectantur, says a Catholic contemporary who fought in the emperor's army. Petri Baptistae Burgi Genuensis de Bello Suecico Com- mentarii, 1. iii. c. 2. 1 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 Animae magnae prodigus. 4 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 his 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 conquerors 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 2. 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 guidance 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 life3. "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 empery was not foreign to his contemplations s. 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 Beems 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. s 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— possibilities. Thus we see him entertain the pro posal to be himself, after Sigismund's death, elected king of Poland through the Polish dissidents6. Thus we find him in alliance with the prince of Transylvania, 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. CHUISTINA'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. constitction 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-dowager, and take the advice of the chancellor upon all affairs, and especially upon the manner in which the German war should be waged 7. 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- 8 The dissidents requested, in reliance on the arms of Gustavus Adolphus, equality in religious aud 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. 6, 1631 : " 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 oharge himself with the affair, in order to correspond with Radziwil] and others, who might be tioned as drawn up by himself, that they might thereby in time have some rule for their guidance 8. 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 father land, my queen, the commonwealth 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 amore 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, 1632,) 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. 7 Count Peter Brahe's Note-Book. 8 To the chancellor, Jan. 7, 1633. Reg. 1645.1 viewsVrtl!<>nitekingastothe p,tBTCT,N, n,rTP pim?NPY Proposed alliance and match „„„ J organization of the ministry. CirlKlblUNA. lilra rtliU.Ki.INtj 1 . with Brandenburg. ioJ hundred years, nor knoweth whether one will come soon again. My heart's woe and longing for him that hath departed do so engross 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 9." 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 draught in Prussia, and shown it to his majesty, who had been pleased to approve the part which concerned the regalities. j In order that it might be signed, he had given | orders that a clean copy should be made, which 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 following account in a letter to the council, dated Berlin 2, 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 the 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 Pomerania, 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 offer 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 chanceUor's letter to the councillors of state. Palmsk. MSS. t. 370, p. 95. 1 Palmsk. MSS. t. 369, p. 239. On the 12th February, 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 councU 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 affection 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 instructed 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 f urther was done in the matter, than that the commissioners of Brandenburg referred the same to the elector, who was 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 them3." 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 ofthe queen dowager from the government, whereon two letters from the king, written to the chancellor during his stay at Nuremberg, are preserved4. 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 reminded 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 natheless be formed, — ut sit aliqua poiius 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 eeeiione vena (without bloodshed)." Ibid. 249. 2 Colin on the Spree. Palmsk. 3 Letter of the council to the chanceUor, January 7, 1633. Reg. ¦ 4 Of July 21 and August 1, 1632. Arckenholtz, Memoires de Christine, iii. 34, n. U 290 Oxenstiema's draught of a constitution. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Diet of 1633. , Acknowledgment of Christina. [1633- mand which he had already given, in case of any accident to his person, enjoined him to give me an education worthy of a daughter who was to inherit his throne, bound him to serve and aid the queen my mother, to honour and comfort her, but never to let her take any share in the government, or in my education 5." Axel Oxenstiema'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 6, 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 the 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 wliich 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 councillors conjointly. Thecoun- 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 functionaries 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 salttaxeg), 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 8 Life of Queen Christina, by herself, id. iii. 35. 6 " He 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 the minority," ibid. 36. 7 To the chancellor, Jan. 14, 1633. Reg. In the diet of any disorders arising 7. 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 8. " 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 9." 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 should be confirmed by the collective estates, and mad<; 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, 1633, 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 palsgrave 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 1633 the augmentation of the petty toll and the miU-tax, which had been 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 Punendorf. 9 Mdmoires de Christine, i. 23. 1645.] Regency of guardians appointed; their oath. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. Pretensions of the Polish branch of the Vasas revived. 291 been frequently suspected, that in this point there was a departure from the will of Gustavus Adol phus, as appears to us, without sufficient ground K 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 2. AU 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 regarding the manner of go vernment and other pretensions," says count Peter Brahe3, "but the council held on tlieir 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 4. 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- iug 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 1 His grace the prince made mention of a testament which he believed to have been made in Prussia, and wherein he was named. Protocol of councU, 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 chUdren 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 councU'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 b ! " 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 charge to delibe rate thereon, in consequence of which the first draught 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 council 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 ran 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 6, 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. " Your loving 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 V obliged to (a blank space for the Palsgrave's name) and his heirs." Memorial to the chancellor, March 29, 1633. Reg. 3 Journal. 4 By letter dated Frankfort on the Maine, Oct. 2, 1636. The council had prayed his opinion hereupon, and sent. thither in April, 1633, 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, 1633. Reg. 8 Uladislaus hereupon issued a Swedish manifesto, wliich 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, "by birth and inherit ance the legitimate king of the realm of Sweden ;" says that "duke Gustavus Adolphus," through the rigorous punish ments of God, had spilled life and blood, deplores the into lerable thraldom with taxes, taUages, 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 Svecise ab antiquo elec- tivum fuisse, datum vero id meritis proavi nostri, ut suec familiEe hsereditarium transcriberetur ; non absolute, sed certis pactis inter regem et ordines, quibus a rege servatis, subditi obsequio tenentur, solvuntur violatis et neglectis ; et (i 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 8. 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 prejudiced9; of the estates, "that their congresses, meetiugs, 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 authority2. — 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, treasurer, 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 (Riksratt) 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 inquiry 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 incident, Deum solum judicem, nee, praeter comilia regni, nullius 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 offered by each of the estates. Reg. 9 § vi. The form of government of 1634 (but with many disfiguring errors of the press) may be read in Stiernman, ii. 887. 1 § xlv. The composition ofthe diets remains as usual. ' CoUegiis quinque eorumque capitibus summa non tan tum rerum agendarum cura, verum et potestas conceditur. Unde verentur quidam fieri posse, ut, prout ingenia illorum, qui officiis summis prasunt, ad virtutem aut ambitionem prona fuerint, ita quoque rempublicam cum illis florere aut periclitari posse, atque ita rex ipse, quem curis vacuum sub hoc praetextu cupiunt, potentia quoque solutus, Venetorura instar ducis, ociosus degat. (To the five colleges and their heads, not only the highest cares of administration but even the power are conceded. Whence 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 *. In 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, under the high-chancellor, with four assessors, councillors of state, one chan cellor of the household 5, 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 7. — The govern ment of the provinces is divided into certain pre fectures, of which, besides the town of Stockholm, under its own chief lieutenant 8, there are twenty- four, under as many prefects (or land-captains, landshb'fdingar). 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 9, 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 king 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. 4 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. 8 The special instructions of the colleges mentioned in the form of government stiU remained to be made out. 7 The chancellor's concept even binds aU 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 colours 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 strengths of the crown, unless the king grant special warrant thereto to the governors of the frontier provinces. Neither a pre fect nor a captain of a castle shall remain, unless the king shall otherwise appoint, more than three yeare 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 the 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 1. 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 are 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 tlieir 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 officer's, 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, wliich 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 nobility 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 abro 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 wisdom3, 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- 2'M Character of Oxenstierna. His memorial to the HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. XmrnendSy™8""8 [1633~ Axel Oxenstierna is one of those who enforce our admiration all the more, the closer our know ledge of bim is, and the greater the obstacles with which he had to contend. There can be found no more honourable example of what a great intellect and a well-ordered 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 s we discern the mind of a great statesman, an upright patriot, and a politician more liberal than the world deems him. In this respect we would direct 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 6. 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 liow this aristocrat comprehended as well lordly as civic freedom. " When I bethink me of the true causes for which former kings 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 effectively, and uphold its reputation among other nations. For these causes T perceive nothing at this time so highly incumbent on the council, the ministry, and the estates, as that they, setting aside all other considerations, should endea vour to get into their hands good and permanent means, which may remove these embarrassments ; holding, 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 ministry writes, April 27, 1636, to the chan. cellor, " We send you by Salvius copies of the points, which we have caused to be made out touching those errors, where upon it seemed to us needful td 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 off without amendment of the persons. We are minded also soon to hold an examination with the treasury." 4 Christina's judgment of him deserves to be quoted : it comes 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. lie had a great capacity and knowledge of the affairs and interests of the world He knew the strong and the w-eak 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, his 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 affair had ever hindered him from sleeping in his life except twice: the first was the death of the late king, the other the loss of the battle of Nbrdlingen. He has often told me that when he went to rest he stripped off all his 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 avait beaucoup d'acquis, fee.) Mem. de Christine, iii. 46. We subjoin his daily prayer, which, written by his own hand, 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 auy 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 world, 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 suspending it for some time, and in this way helping the crown in return for all the property enjoyed by its bounty7. Lastly, that a treaty should be set on foot with the nobility Palmskold 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, the horn of my salvation, my mild and merciful Father, who lettest not the sighing of my heart pass by his ear, but nearest 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. 7 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 customarv over the whole world, and the affairs of the realm allow nought else 8." The chancellor deplores the want of business in the towns arising partly from their irrational management, partly from the exorbitant burdens and exactions by which they are vexed, especially post-service, free-quarters, and unjust contribu tions9; 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 the 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 he 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 th# council, March 1, 1633, "There was no man before who dared to speak the truth," but had himself shared in the crown-leasings,) 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, 6J 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. 3 A remarkable document, of which a copy exists in the Nordin Collections, delivered by Axel Oxenstierna 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 our 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 1. 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 issued2. 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 into the hands of its subjects3. tavus Adolphus, bears this title, " According to his 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, I 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 hy 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 teind. 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, hut private industry was still too weak to carry on 206 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 4, from lake Vetter to Norrkoeping, from lake Vener to Gottenburg, from lake Silian to the Kopparberg, whereby tlie 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 iu 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 hone of them was it possible to bring 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 them5. " 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 honour6." "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 are 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 wliich I was mining pursuits ; the teinds imposed also were not collected, and on the 9th June, 1636, 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. 35. 40. 4 The works on the Hielmar Canal were still in progress. June 7, 1633, some remission of taxes was granted to the mining districts of Akeruo, Glanshammar, and WestRekame, " since something still remained to be done on the sluices " Reg. obliged to travel to the army and the elector of Saxony. When 1 came to Altenburg in Meissen, I found there that army quartered in the neigh bourhood whieh 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 directed 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 allies 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 willingly 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 5 To Joachim Hansson, respecting a peasant lad of Pro- tuna, who had cut off four fingers, that he should be brought before the court. June 6, 1633. Reg. « "I see-he adds-that the dog 'who shows his teeth escapes with a whole skin sooner than he who takes to his heels with his 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. 1645.1 The chancellor appointed to the supreme directory of CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. the war. Protestant league of Heilbronn. 297 without commuuication 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 ceremonies, 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-coast8." 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 9. The views held in Dresden acquired furtherstrength,andmatterswent on as in the time of Gustavus Adolphus. The most powerful Protestant sovereign houses of Germany, Saxony and Brandenburg, still ever kept aloof from B Dated Leipsic, Jan. 3, 1633. Compare Adlersparre, 1. c. T. v. 9 Cum plena potestate et commissione 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 ihe king of Denmark, could by this means appease the differences which might spring up between these two kingdoms. (Quant au manage de la fllle de Suede avec le Ms aine de Saxe, Sec.) 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 Oxenstierna 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 him. These intrigues were so effectual, that the chancellor found himself obliged to pray the sieur Feuquieres not to content himself with the good offices 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 mediatiug for peace, ended by becoming hostile l. 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 Oxenstierna2, 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 4. 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 Frederic5, Mannheim only retaining a Swedish garrison. The Swedish legate was sur rounded by suitors. Bernard of Weimar availed himself of circumstances to request and obtain from the reluctant chancellor, Swedish letters of investiture to the duchy of Franconia6. It was on him towards the individual members of the assembly in the conferences, but to demand there public audience to speak to them altogether." (Le due Ce Saxe, qui est le plus glo- rieux des Allemands, &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 discussedby them standing." (Ils choisirent pour lieu de consulter, &c.) Mem. de Christine, iii. 84. 4 " 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 Negotiations du Marquis de Feuquieres. " It was found good to assign him a constituted council of well-qualified persons, and sumcientinstructions, yet 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. "tZ^S^^ST [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 request as for the other to grant 7." " 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 up all ; especially as the wide-extended con federacy of the 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 Feuquieres8, for having so skilfully counterworked Oxenstiema'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 15th April, 1634, that his brother, the high-chancellor, had prayed him to obtain the opinion of the council touching the proffer which had been made, and on the 4th 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 would 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- 7 Maneat, inquit, in perpetuam rei memoriam, in archivo nostro, Germanum principem a Sueco nobili id petiisse, et Suecum nobilem, in Germania, Germano principi id contu- hsse, quod tam ilium petere quam me donare aaque absonum et absurdum reor. Arckenholtz, Mem. de Christine, i. 28, n. (after Wassenberg, Parcenesis ad Germanos, who quotes it as a proof of Oxenstiema'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. s "The sieur Feuquieres discovered that he was carrying on a secret canvass to incline the princes, states, and de puties of the said assembly (of Heilbronn), 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 skold Collections, T. 40. p. 157. Letter of the ministry to the chancellor, Aug. 4, 1634. Reg. 1 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 crown1. This overture Richelieu made to Oxenstierna, but in vain; and the chancellor was so little inclined to the French interest, that the envoy of France, on the contrary, complains of his growing arrogance and rudeness 3. 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 thereto. If it concerned my own person, and the duke proposed it not himself out of his own courtesy, I 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 foreigner for any benefice3." Long afterwards the French ministry employed the proposition of mar riage thus made by him between Christina and Oxenstiema'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 worthy 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 occurrences. 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 wittthe 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 Oxenstjern, il falloit &c.) Mem. de Richelieu, vii. 285. 2 The expressions of Feuquieres show his embitterment : " We rind 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 Palmsk. 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 apres 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. 1645.] Officers 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 Lune 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 en.emy, had meanwhile called Horn to reinforce this army, whereupon the Pals grave of Birkenfeld (after Baudissin had taken his leave) received the command of the troops on the Lower Rhine. The command in Silesia, where matters had hitherto proceeded irregularly, was committed to old count Thurn. 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 5. 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 Rhine °." 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. 5 Id. ii. 700, &c. ' Rose, i. 211. s Cette cabale fut formee par le due meme, she remarks. Mem. de Christine, iii. 92, n. 9 Puffondorff, v. § 40. (£1,102,500.) See the formulary of the letters donatory issued in Oxenstiern's name in Rose, i. paper 36. Wallenstein is said to have declared that the emperor had not given away more in ten years. 1 Rose, i. 237. 2 ¦•He caused the king's body to be brought in front of the the expressions too strong 7." Christina accuses him of having been the secret head of the cabal 8. 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-dollars9. The distribution was made by duke Bernard 1, 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-marshal 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 Luneburg and Kniphausen on the best terms, though meanwhile they made progress. The duke, according to the plan of operations prescribed 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 Hamem, the imperialist general, count Gronsfeldt, who had assembled his army 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 he 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, 8sc.) Memoires de Richelieu, vii. 263. 300 Operations on the Weser and HIgT0RY OF THE SWEDES. Ratishon taken by the Imperialists. [1633 — united forces of the enemy were utterly routed at the village of Hessian Oldendorf, 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 cavalry3. 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 4. 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 Pfaffenhof, drove the Lorrainers out of Alsace. After the quelling of the sedition in the army of the Danube, Horn had turned 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 Danube, where, after he had received reinforce ments with general Kagg, the taking of Ratisbon, 3 Compare von der Decken, duke George of Luneburg, ii. 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. 4 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. s Rose, i. 259. fl " 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 15th November, 1633, crowned his progress. Of this key to Austria and Bavaria, the duke took possession in his own name 5. 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 Swabia, 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, up'on Horn's quarters in Swabia 6. 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 7, 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." Rose, 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 i 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 blood they seemed as if they had been dyed no otherwise than black-red. In the whole, 1645.] Duke Bernard and Horn defeated at Nordlingen. 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 Franconia, 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 Ratisbon 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 aud 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 8. 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 9. 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 Wallenstein'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 Marechal de Guebriant, p. 67. ' 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- Lauenburg, 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 Wallenstein's promise to induce the emperor to make great cessions and a peace. Chemnitz, ii. 167. 3 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 con 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 aud 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 5000 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 bon, 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 14th February (O. 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 sides3. Great obscurity rests on 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 i. 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, 1633, 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, Wallenstein's Letters, iii. 137.) Wallenstein in the beginning of' 1634 makes the same demands a pretext for setting on foot a confederacy between his officers. 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 the degree of his guilt. _ .„ „,,r^T%r.c. Dissensions of the Protestant r1633_ HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. states of Germany. L'° 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 Richelieu (although 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 character can bring with itself5. 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-perilling career it asks counsel of the stars. A few words are sufficient to describe this position. Already on the first dis missal of Wallenstein, at Ratisbon in 1630, his friends ventured to indicate its dangers; "since he," 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, with the expression that what had happened stood written in the records of heaven. But at what a height lie 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 hereditary 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 should 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 party 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 removal 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 cheat the evangelical party ; whereas he, by too coarse a trick, and using too extravagant and whimsical manners in his discourse and actions, fell into suspicion with the emperor, which 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 fraudfully and deceitfully in semblance against the evangelics, now as it were compulsorily and from necessity in earnest, although too late. However this 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 perial officers, when he had fairly discovered his intent of de- fort. " The estates," he writes in his journal, " allowed free course to pomp and state, many living in daily riot and excess, troubling themselves little about the general weal, envious of Sweden's for tune, and grudging it the directory. The elector of Saxony disturbed and threw down what others built up; the elector of Brandenburg looked only to Pomerania, 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 mutes6. Every one wished to live for himself, and act both as king and general7. 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 conclnded for itself, and without commission, for its religious associates likewise, the peace of Prague, which gave no security, deferred the main ques tion, hut 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 obliterated8, 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. 338. In the protocol of the council for 1650, Oxenstierna reckons "Wallenstein's business" among the things on which right knowledge could never be attained. Richelieu's favourable judgment of Wallenstein may be 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 virtute ! the author exclaims. 7 "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 9, 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 1." 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 peace2. 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 3. With Poland negoti ations for peace were opened, which count Peter Brahe managed on the Swedish side. But these were conducted under arms. King 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 chancellor4, "if we obtain no prosperous issue with the treaty, 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 Pirna, 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. ' To the high-chancellor, Oct. 2, 1634. Reg. 2 "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 Skytt6 to the son of the king of Den mark, and declaring ourselves not disinclined to admit him to neutraUty, 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 effected. The people in the government of Wiborg and Ingermanland have fled 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' 5, " 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 already 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 Poland for twenty-six years, at Stums- dorf, on the 2d September, 1635, although against the will of the chancellor, and at the sacrifice of the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus in Prussia6 ; 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 Polish 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 1 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 8. At the same time Richelieu reproaches him with having lost all spirit for the prosecution of the war9; 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 April 8, 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. e "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 publicly 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. [1633— truth constrains him to the confession, that the 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 2. It is this extraordinary acuteness, combined with un- shakeable stedfastness, which makes him so great. " Richelieu," says Oxenstierna of his political rival several years after his death, " was a man remark able in counsel, a man not only of understanding, 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 3." 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 will, but as long as possible 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 arms 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-Comte", Luxemburg, might curb Lorraine, and restrain the enemy from meddling with the iuternal 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- 1 " The director did all that a man of courage and conduct was capable of doing " Id. viii. 174. * See the instructions (in many respects worthy of admi ration), of which his memoirs chiefly consist. 3 Oxenstierna in the council, 1650. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. 4 Mem. de Richelieu, vii. 271. 274. 5 The convention between Bernard of Weimar and Riche lieu, at flrst kept secret, was concluded at St. Germain en Laye, Oct. 17, 1635. 6 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. 7 He had also, from distrust of the chancellor, made ad vances to the party in the government opposed to him, though with little effect, 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 principal 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 pensions, 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 5; 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 uufortunate 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, met the cardinal hi Compiegne, and adjusted with him the conditions of a renewed alliance 6, which was to be proposed to the Swedish govern ment. Their delay in the ratification was laid by Richelieu to the charge of Oxenstierna 7. For the ministry referred the matter to the chancellor8, 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 emperor9. 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 the other hand, would give offence. 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 familier), 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. Puffendorf, x. 445. So far were the Austrians still removed from the first principle of a religious peace. 1645.] Fruitless efforts of Oxenstierna for peace. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. John Baner, the new commander-in-chief. 305 to what honour than to what interest 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, 1636, " we hold to our ultimatum, namely, the contentment of the soldiery, and a hypothec on the sea-coast ; bet ter to escape 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 V 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 received, 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 sought for peace. He followed his instructions truly, as if they had proceeded from himself. But his proposals of peace to the emperor remained unanswered. Saxony every 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 3. 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 tolerable1 — 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 in 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 4. ' " 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 officers and soldiers, consist of the German nation." Oxenstiema's proposition to the elector of Saxony, Aug. 1, 1635. Chemnitz, ii. 743. 2 Registry. 3 Declaration of the elector of Saxony. Chemnitz, ii. 768. 4 " 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 Oxenstiema'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 Bauer 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 5. Gustavus Adol phus had left behind him a school of warriors, tbe first in Europe. " All these are generals," he said to Chamace", after crossing to Germany, pointing to seven or eight 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 overtaken by the hand of death 7. Baner was then still suffering from his wounds received at Nuremberg ; the death of the king affected him so deeply, that he for a moment thought of abandoning all. Oxenstiema'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 offenserent tellement les Suedois, &c.) Richelieu, Mem. ix. 3. 5 See his portrayal of the condition of the army. Memoires, viii. 422. Compare viii. 289. « It is Richelieu also who has preserved these anecdotes. Mem. viii. 255, 256. 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. 306 The Saxons take part against Sweden. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Operations upon the Oder. [1633 — Hero the chancellor soon 'found himself a pri soner to his own army. It was here that Baner rescued him from the hands of the discontented officers, who were treating 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 regiments were removed into separate quarters ; the loyal were congregated by the general round himself. These were little more than six thousand men against thirty thousand Saxons, with whom the elector soon proceeded to open hostilities 8. But he in vain attempted to cut off Baner from the Elbe. That leader crossed the river victoriously. Lieutenant-general Ruthven defeated the Saxons at Domitz 9. To Baner's support came Torstenson, who brought him two thousand horse and six regi ments of foot, from Prussia* It was now the turn of Saxony. Baner again passed the Elbe, in the middle of winter. The elector, who menaced Pome rania, 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 Magdeburg was lost2. Baner compensated this and other miscarriages by the complete victory over the combined Saxon and Imperial armies, at Wittstock 3, on the 24th September, 1636 ; 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 constrained to raise the siege, as 8 Richelieu, Mem. viii. 349. Baner's army consisted in all of twenty-six thousand men; "but how strong soever they found themselves, yet no one had a mind to fight," 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. 9 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 Palmskold 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 Germany, since they would not submit to the peace of Prague, was himself well- nigh taken prisoner. He had left the Swedish for the Saxon service. 1 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. 16, 1636, in the Palmskold Collections. 2 "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 superior in force, spread thereupon a report that he meant to relieve Erfurt, but passed the Elbe on the 19th 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 hours 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 recrossed the Oder, and joined Wrangel at Schwedt4. 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 5. The Swedes were, in truth, again driven to the Baltic, and the autumn of 1637 brought a conflict for Pomerania, their last possession in Germany; Baner maintained himself in Hinder Pomerania, while all Fore Pomerania, Stralsund, Greifswald, and Anklam excepted, became the prey of the enemy ; but the following year supplied these losses. Gallas, in 1638, led the relics of an army, 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, Werben, 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 captived and ruined. 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. 4 Old Herman Wrangel, who did not agree well with Baner, was subsequently recalled. His son Chafes Gustave Wrangel.afterwards general-in-chief, remained with the army. 5 Mem. ix. 386. "Cette action fut assez plaisamment re presentee, selon le genie de ce temps-la, dans line gravure ou l'on voyoit les generaux Allemands fort occupes a lier le haut d'un sac, dans lequel l'armee Suedoise etoit enfermee, tandis que Baner avec son epee lui ouvroit un passage par un des coins." (This 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 Traits de Westphalie, p. 289. rr 1645.J Invasions of Bohemia and Bavaria. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. Baner's retreat from Ratisbon, and death. 307 men at Stettin, pushed forwards in his track 6. We find him in the spring of 1639 again in Saxony ; he destroys again an Imperialist and Saxon army, by the victory ofthe 4th April, at Chemnitz, advances into Bohemia, takes prisoners Hofkirchen and Montecuculi at Brandeis, on the 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 other 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 Baner's rear, Saxony and Brandenburg were again unquiet. In Lower Saxony, Luneburg, newly hos tile, requested a suspicious neutrality7. The heaviest blow was the death of Bernard of Weimar, which occurred on the 8th July, 1639. Baner, 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, we 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 8, under the command of the duke of Lon- gueville and Gue"briant. The troops of Hesse and Luneburg also adhered to Baner 9. 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, aud 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 Gudbriant. He proceeded through Thuringia, Franconia, and the Upper Palatinate, and in January, 1641, ap peared suddenly before Ratisbon, where the new emperor Ferdinand III. (his father had died the 15th February, 1637) was holding a diet with the electors and deputies. Already had Baner sent 8 " Gallas drew after him some miserable relics of his army. The Brandenburgers and Saxons had been much thinned, while the Swedish soldiers, though with a small stock of clothes, had noble courage, and were all young, picked men." Puffendorf, xi. 486. Gallas relinquished the command, which Maracini and the Saxon Hofkirchen received- 7 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 Drebber, who 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 with the strongest." Keg. 8 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 ^Tran sylvania Ragozi, with the emperor, March 1, IMS. 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 aecustomed to winter campaigns. Those of Weimar turned round, Gudbriant deserted Baner, who at Cham was well-uigh surrounded by the enemy. The Bavarian general Mercy, who had been sent in advance with a numerous 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 Gudbriant 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, 1641, 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 s. One remark we cannot withhold. If we consider the issue of these operations undertaken from North Germany against Austria, which after Baner'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 humours and differences of the generals ; make use of the difference 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 Luneburg 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 Gu6briant, 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 the cause of his death- Salvius writes to John Oxenstierna, Hamburg, Dec. 2?, 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, quae hoc bello 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. Faut, Handlingar, iv. 94. x 2 308 Alliance with France renewed. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Oxenstiema's home administration. [1633— tact in this war, but no inner coherency. For this reason the ratification of the renewed French alli ance met with so long a postponement at Stock holm3. Oxenstierna demanded that France should openly declare war against the emperor, as it had already done in 1635 against Spain 4. The decla ration of war against the emperor was first made in 1638; 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, 1 640 : "In the alliance it is settled, that we should penetrate through Germany into the imperial liereditary 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 5." Since the summer of 1636, the chancellor had been in Sweden, nor did he ever again return to Germany, although such was his original purpose. Baner's hands were left free in the war, and to him was likewise committed the government of Pome rania, after the death of the legate Steno Bielkd 6. " 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 7." 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 8. In the year 1637, it is in timated that such a functionary should also be sent to Baner himself9 ; and in 1641, the secretary of state, Laurence GrubbC, was actually deputed to him, yet with a suggestion, " to accommodate him- 3 "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 ofthe French alliance, and give 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 the enemy was in earnest with none of the treaties of peace ; he sought merely to mis lead us into difficulties, till 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, 1638. 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. 4 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 negotiations) 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 ofthe 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. 8 "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. 9 " 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 Wrangel. 2 Protocol of council, July 15, 1636. Adlersparre's Collec tions, iv. 98. Quod multi faeiunt, multi negligunt, was a proverb of the chancellor. 1645] New levy. Inquiry into abuses. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. New division and allocation of the ariny. 309 Form of Government, and whereof it is said, that in it those affairs should be discussed and despatched which do not require a general diet. In October, 1636, the members of the council and the colleges, with several of the baronage and nobility, were convened at Stockholm. The chief pomt 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 more3." And here all his pro posals struck at the nobility; as, restriction of the superfluous manor-houses of the nobility, uuder 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 4 ; 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 miUtary affairs. All this the chancellor was unable to carry, and in the previous delibera 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 followiug reso lution was drawn up, manifestly by the chancellor : When upon the more important occasions, the administration convokes the councillors of state, these are bound, 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 ordinance, 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 commission 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, 1636. Reg. 4 See further on this point, the statute of the Diet of 1638, in Stiernman. 5 Extract from the protocol of council for 1636, in the Palmskold Collections, t. 190, p. 390. 6 Resolution ofthe administration and the council, how, during the term of the guardians, all shall be set for delibe ration and discussion ; Dec. 14, 1636. Reg. 7 Subsequently we find, nevertheless, that great frauds were carried on in this department, and that, as the chan cellor, in 1641, expressed himself in the 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 7. The war-college shall strike off the lists inefficient officers ; the mining tracts shall be explored 8." 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 iu the form of government | of 1634, 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, had 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 aud 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, Smaland, 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 iu 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 operation1. 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 abolished. It has been made to appear to us, say the ministry in ennobled in the year just named, was condemned to death in 1642 for great malversations, his 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. 283. s To J. Baner, Dec. 3, 1636. Reg. 9 Namely, the expedition to Prussia, under Jacob de la Gardie, before the renewal of the Polish truce. i 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 the HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. £2£i,£&a:mtm,m ^~ 1640, that a number of our 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-labourers, besides what they must else contribute to them, Such dealing is rigorously forbidden3. The manufacture of arms and military stores was by this time flourishing in Sweden. " Artillery, arms, swords, powder, and balls, with all other munitions, are now fabricated in 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 1 637 5- The first ordi nance respecting the Swedish post was issued 6, as well as a new ordinance of customs 7. The ordi nance for the erection of houses of entertainment (at the post stations) was revived. The changes effected by count Peter Brahe from 1 637 to 1640, and afterwards from 1648 to 1654, 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 resources 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," lie 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, 3 The ministry to all colonels of cavalry, April 21, 1640 ; also to the colonels of infantry on the same day. Reg. 4 April 30,1641. 5 In this year also the ordinance for smitheries was issued, Feb. 14. In a letter of February 8, it is stated that, though king Gustavus Adolphus had ordered that no pig-iron (tack- jern) should be exported before it was hammered info bar- iron, for which end the king had privileged several harbours, yet this had had no direct effect, from the wriant, with the French troops, formerly of Weimar, parted from the Swedes and moved to the Rhine. Tors tenson himself, after his arrival in the army, con tinued so il), that a report was spread of his death, and at tlie decampment before the occupation of the passes ofthe Elbe, in the beginning of 1642, being crippled in hand and foot, he was obhged to be carried in a litter 5. 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 death6. 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 pro visions on the way to Westphalia, he took the oppo site direction, and crossed the Elbe on the 26 th and spring of this year, sent home, to bring over new reinforce ments from Sweden. Notwithstanding his reference to a good understanding with Baner, there 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, 1640. 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 ofthe troubles. 5 Puffendorf, 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 father, Osterburg, Feb. 5, 1642. " 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 Erlurt, which most of all wentto Seckendorfs heart at hisdeath." 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 Ukermark, 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 Salvius and the legate, Steno Bielke, are to be found in the registry for 1637, of the 7th and 14th January. In these, mention is made "of the wicked plots of the elector cf 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 1638, 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, 1641, and the duke of Lauenburg, who commanded un der him, then obtained the chief generalship. 8 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 mcreased 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 7, 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 5th July, aud allowed colonel Hellmuth Wrangel to stretch his excursions to within 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 8 ; 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 most of the cavalry, fifteen hundred foot, and some light guns, leaving there general Lilyehcek 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 the 29th 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 following 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 accord 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 ofthe enemy, to make myself master of the other important places in Silesia, fell back again andmade 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 my 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 18th July, 1642, when the first men of the reinforcement were landed at 16450 Reinforcements arrive from Sweden. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. Second battle of Leipsic. 313 an Imperialist army of superior force came to its relief. Torstenson was obliged to raise the siege. He strengthened the garrisons of Oppeln and Schweidnitz, and sent Konigsmark to Saxony, to make head against the movements which showed themselves there. He himself fell back across the Oder towards Glogau, again passed the river fur ther up at Crossen, 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 9, after which Torstenson compelled the Im perialists to raise the siege of Glogau. He attempted again, although vainly, to cut ' off the Imperialist army from Bohemia, took Zittau under their eyes on Wolgast.") Correspondence of C. G. Wrangel in the Library of Sko Cloister. • Torstenson to Wrangel : " Things have now gone so far with Glogau, that they are already hand to hand under the walls, and throwingstones (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 ofthe Oder to Crossen, and with the utmost practicable haste." Field- camp at Neisse, August 21, 1641. 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 ofthe 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 13th to Bunzlau, which was taken by storm; the 15th to Lemberg, which 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 the 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 drawing nigh to relieve it, and the commandant in his confidence 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 from us upon the Bohemian frontier. Ofthe 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 Grossenhayn, 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 29th 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 campaign of 1642 with the capture of Leipsic1. By the chamberlain Gabriel Oxenstierna, who was despatched to Torstenson, the high chancellor wrote2, "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 there confusionin the administra tion, and a governor, with a good secre tary and commissary, is needful 3 ; in 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 fight 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 brigades 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 the 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 difficulty. 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 killed the secretary of state Grubbe.)" Correspondence in the Library of Sko Cloister. Lilyehcek, who with C. G. Wrangel and Mortaigne 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 ofthe theatre of war, in Westphalia and Silesia. The limits of our narrative 314 Campaign of 1643. Its interruption. HISTORY QF THE SWEDES. Rupture with Denmark. War resolved upon. ' [1683— denhnrg, 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 himself, 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 Transylvania." With 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 kingdom4. After the taking of Leipsic, Torstenson had a conference with marshal Guebriant, who, in concert with the Hessians, had carried on the war upon the Lower Rhine, 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 blame 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 6, 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 person 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, which 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 the main army. 4 The chancellor paid close attention to matters of this kind. When upon the outbreak of the Danish war in the winter of 1644, Gustave Horn invaded Scania, the chancellor instructs his secretary to remind the field-marshal that where there were any public libraries, especiaUy where ma nuscripts were to be obtained, they should not be dispersed, but be sent to Stockholm. To Samuel Anderson, Feb. 24, 1644. Reg. 5 Compare Histoire du Marechal de Guebriant, c. x. Puf fendorf, xiv. 39. « "At this the Swedes rejoiced, for they knew his manner, Tornskold, who, despatched from 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 superfluous 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 bitterness 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 had 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 8. 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 9 : "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 occurrence 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 preliminaries 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 this that he always ruined the army." Puffendorf, xv. 5 4. The archduke quitted the army in discontent ; Piccolomini en tered the Spanish service. 7 Puffendorf, xv. § 12. 8 Maria Eleonora, who was constantly dissatisfied with the Swedish government, fled secretly on the 23d July, 1640, from Gripsholm, travelled in the company of a banish emissary, attended by a single lady in waiting, and in dis guise, to Nykceping. There she embarked in a Danish vessel, and was received at Gottland by two Danish ships of the line, which carried her to Denmark. She resided for some time in that country, afterwards in Brandenburg, and first returned to Sweden in 1648. Ekholm's Hist, and Critical Collec. iii. 9 Reg. for 1643. 1645.] Torstenson's instructions for 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, but 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 1, and never once concern themselves to inform us of these proceedings. 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 our 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 must send one of the generals with a flying corps to Pomerania and Mecklenburg, there unperceived to await your arrival, aud 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 Belt 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 i " The Danes alleged as a pretext of this, that the Swedes acted contrary to tbe 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 you advance into Holstein, let him cross to Zealand and the islands ; surprise Wordingsborg, and see whether opportunity offer of taking Copenhagen and Cronburg. 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 army 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 hindrances 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, wliich 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 all 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 preparations for their execution, and this corresponded in daring to his plan. He advanced into Silesia, proposed an armistice, and succeeded thereby in detaining Gallas, who forwarded the proposal to Vienna, and meanwhile contented him self with hanging on the flank of the Swedish army and covering Bohemia. From Glogau, where the army, on the 26th November, passed the 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 repose 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 Geer had rich partners in Holland, who passed free under liis name." Puffendorf, xv. 78. 316 Account of Denmark in this age. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Its military system. [1633— cealing his design. He called his officers together on the 6th December, made known to them his orders, and promised them good quarters. The army continued their march with joy, and soon overran Holstein and Jutland s. On the condition of the kingdom of Denmark at this time we derive some information from the memoir of a Swedish minister, preserved in the library of Sko Cloister 3. 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 kmg 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 hath been, and that Norway shall be for all time an insepara ble province of the crown 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, like 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 kiug 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 constrained by degrees to raise the Sound toll, of which he disposed, and then wished 2 Dec. 26, 1643, the government received intelligence of Torstenson's irruption into Holstein, and wrote to him, Jan. 7, 1644, " Since Tiirnskbld came bome, 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 in 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 crown 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 ; since 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 singularly affectioned 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 churches ; iu 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, 19,400 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 sixteen galliots. Den mark and Norway have 106 trading-ships. 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 Christina. In the Library of Sko Cloister, MS. We have subsequently found an abstract of it in Suhm, Samlinger till den Panske Historie (Collections for Danish History), ii. 1645.] Public revenue State of Norway. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. Description ofthe other provinces. 317 The revenues of Denmark, ordinary and extra ordinary, accrue from six main heads: 1. theSound toll, which is very unequal ; before the last war with Sweden it amounted to 5 or 600,000 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 present 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 manners 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 ofthe States-general in which there are not some Norse men. Norway is governed by a lieutenant, a lord 4 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 herreds- 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. From 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,' Copenhagen, Malmce, 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, wliich 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 5. 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 lakes. 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 coniirmed 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 ot 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 clergv, 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. [1633— 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 strength. In Holstein, which is a fief of the German empire, the government, 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 in some few persons, as Christian Skeel, Francis Lycke, Tage" Tott, and Barnewitz, each of whom may have yearly 18 to 20,000 rix-dollars 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 crown, 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 sovereign." So far this representation, which we have in serted because it explains the unsuccessful issue of two of Denmark's wars, that now begun by Oxensti erna, and that afterwards completed by Charles Gus tavus, as also the causes of that revolution (or eversw status, predicted by our author), which was G Landscrona was taken, but Malmce, defended in part by king Christian himself, resisted all the efforts ofthe Swedes. subsequently to transform the constitution of Den- markfroman 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 yon 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 Malmce 6, with intent to acquire a place of strength, that 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 another1, 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, we 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, namely,whe- ther it be advisable to direct our force against the emperor, and to keep Holstein and Jutland in subjec tion with a small army only, or whether we should set our 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 Malmce, and is come thither himself." The chancellor to C. G. Wrangel. Stockholm, September 16, 1644. Correspondence. 1645.] Maritime operations and engagements. , CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. Defeat of the Imperialists under Gallas. 319 door, and so embarrassing to us at sea, that what ever other comes against us 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 breaking 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 thirty ships in his own name 8, (for the States-general would yet take no open part,) which put to sea in May; but king 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 era- braced by the merchants of Holland, that De Geer and his admiral Martin Thysen 9, 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 Femern. 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. 8 In an autograph letter from Louis de Geer to bishop Johannes Matthise, the former tutor of Christina, preserved in a volume of manuscripts in the Library of Upsala, and dated at Amsterdam, March 20 — 30, 1644, he says, " Quant a mon equipage j'espere que dans 15 jours je le pourrois rendre prest. Je suis le marchand converti en homme de guerre. — Le Marquis Spinola est mort, il faut qu'un autre le releve," he adds, jestingly. The council of state engaged to contribute to the equipment 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, pr with land wliich 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, which 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 flrst year's instalment was repaid, and the residue assigned on the customs. We are not aware whether he obtained it, hut when De Geer's purchase of crown estates was con firmed, June 30, 1646, the earnest-money was remitted at his request. Reg. 9 Ennobled in Sweden under the name of Ankarhielm. 1 "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 permit him to maintain amity, he esteemed this sovereign the most highly1. Both sides claimed the 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 26th 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 3, 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 corps, 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 reinfoi'ced and refreshed in their late quarters, passed before the eyes of Gallas, offered him battle in vain, and alluring him in pur suit to Germany, routed at length and destroyed his whole army 5. Charles Gustave Wrangel was confirmed 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 off 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. 4 On occasion ofthe campaign 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 releasement. But your success in war, and authority over the foreign soldiery, are so great, and the circumstances yet so difficult, that we must beg you to have patience for some time further." The administration to ToTstenson, Oct. 26, 1644. Reg. 320 Naval victory. Peace of Bromsebro. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Cessions 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 hi the following year (1645), with the exception of the capture of Bornholm by Wrangel, offers nothing remarkable6, although that commander was now supported by admiral Eric 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 7. The peace was mediated by France8. 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 my 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, Sb'deraker, 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 resident 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-ships through it, and on the smallest hostility shown bythe 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 ships 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 ofthe Danish fleet. C. G. Wrangel's Cor. 6 Through the ambassador de la Thuillerie. Salvius writes to John Oxenstierna, Jan. 5, 1644, " By Rorte and having committed such errors from the liUdo 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 9." The peace wi th Denmark was signed at Bromsebro, August 1 3, 1645, on the frontier of Bleking and Sma land. Sweden obtained the most unrestricted freedom from tolls in the Sound and Belts ', 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 CEsel, 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 Sodermcere2 ; 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; he had 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 3. This was, without doubt, the moment in the life of Axel Oxenstierna most full of honour. Tt was also the last which was sweetened to him by the gratitude of the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. St. Romain I remark, that the French are much dissatisfied 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-dollars yearly. Aug. 20 of the same year, the chancellor had received a donation of the manor-house of Kongsberg in the hundred of Aker in Suthermanland, with several islands in the Meelar, in all thirty-seven hydes. To these were added on the 10th De cember twenty-one and three-quarters hydes more, and the same 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 1645. INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SWEDISH COMMISSIONERS. DESO LATION OF GERMANY. CHARLES GUSTAVE WRANGEL APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 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 Christina's assumption of the government to her renouncement of its duties, ten years more remain. Already in May, 1642, she had begun to preside over the deliberations 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 iu 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 heroical king, too early 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 their 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, 1 As the foundation both of the palace-court of Gothland, and the university of Abo (by count Peter Brahe,. in 1640), belongs to the regencyof 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, Baiter, Linde, Nora, Askersund, Christinehamn, Amal, Wennersborg, New Helsingfors. 3 Resolution bythe 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 2, 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 3. 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 capital 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 rim, with this great war, so unproportioned to the energies of the country, on their shoulders, and an empty trea sury; especially as the 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 1634, Christina's warranty declares: " We have during 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 5. Changes of dubious character, which were brought into sell estates to the value of 200,000 rix-dollars; 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 had 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. I 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 6, 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, intelligent 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 mamed 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 return do some service for their supe riors, according to agreement. 4 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 nearmost collateral relatives ofthe 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 system, 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 aunt7, 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 mother8, 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 9, " 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 x, however great the respect she testifies in her latter years for " those honour-decked old men," as she calls them. In the year 1635, the estates gave " Au 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 7 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 Elle-meme. Arckenholtz, iii. 49. 1 Compare the letter to the palsgrave John Casimir, in her fifteenth year. Arckenholtz, i. 35. 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, 18, 1646, 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 chnrch. Yet occasion was taken, both from this treatise and his Rami Olivae 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 and gravity, that they may be able to do this with respect and needfulness. 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 Matthiae, at first professor in the college of nobles (collegium illustre) 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 Strengness3. He was one of those who bore the most stedfast affection and respect towards Christina. Her pro gress was wonderful. At eighteen she read Thu- 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 court, Chanut, an estimable and cultivated person, who for a long time stood high in her favour. We extract the main features of this description 5, 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 expressing also his wishes for a reconciliation of the various spiritual confessions. In the year 1664, he an ticipated his deposition by abdicating the episcopate. 4 Les grandeurs sont 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 Suede depuis I'annee 1645, jusques en I'annee 1655,tires des Depeches de M.Chanut, Ambassadeur pour le Roi en Suede, par Linage de Vau- ciennes. 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. Y2 324 Her character and manners described HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. by Chanut, the French ambassador. [1644— nized after the interval of a moment; but for the most part she appears thoughtful, 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, which 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 shoes without heels, like those of men. If we may conclude from outward appearances of her internal thoughts, she has a deep religious feeling, and is sincerely devoted to Christianity ; yet she seems to trouble 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 catholics6. 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 honour. 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 8, it is a pleasure to see her lay the crown beneath her feet 9, and declare that virtue is the only good, to which all men, without glorifying themselves on their rank, should hold fast1; but during such a. confession she does not long forget that she is a queen 2. 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 3. 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 till all the c She was never a Lutheran. Christina's note. 7 She was never infected by this disease. Christina. 8 She hath never made much matter thereof. Christina. 9 This is her real disposition. Christina. 1 She held it an honour to place under her feet what other kings set upon their heads. Christina. 2 She never forgot it. Christina. 3 This is true. Christina. 4 This is not true. She never had any particular prefer ence for this author, since she reads with pleasure all good writers. Christina. a Quite true. Christina. 6 Site never rued this failing. Christina. 7 Nonsense! But how laughably ill-informed he is. Christina. 8 The contrary rather might excite surprise. Christina. 9 The qualities of women are not adapted to procure themselves obedience. Christina. i He is right. Raillery procured her many enemies. Christina. 2 Three hours. Christina. 3 False. Christina. 4 She combs her hair but once a week, says Peter Man- nerschildt, Pimentelli's confessor, in a letter from Stock holm, dated lOth'Dec, 1653, and I have seen her with coarse others have spoken, and 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 iu by any stories, she appears mistrustful and hard to persuade6. It can hardly be conceived how great her power is in the senate 7. The lords of the council are astonished at the power which she has over them, when they are assembled 8. Some ascribe to her quality of woman the great attach ment which her ministers show to her9; but to say truth, her power rests on her personal worth. 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-dames. 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 affable 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 1. She is sparing of her time, and sleeps but five hours2; in summer she sleeps an hour in the afternoon 3. 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 off 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; aud 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 this 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 roe 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, a light 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 which 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, Hke 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 the picture; the shadows will not be slow of showing themselves. Torstenson's last victories still cast their radiance on the beginning of Christina's own administration. After he had overwhelmed and destroyed the Im perialist army under Gallas, which had been sent to shut him up in Jutland5, he broke in the com mencement of the year 164-5 into Bohemia, leaving Konigsmark in Westphalia, and committing to major-general Axel Lilye, governor of Leipsic 6, 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 great7." 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-marshal 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 Fressnitz, two miles from Pilsen ; but hear that the messenger whom I 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 1 6th of this month. But inasmuch as the enemy's army shortly before my arrival crossed the stream called Ottawa, and nothing could be undertaken against it, I continued my march on this side of the river and the enemy on the other to Stracko- nitz, and throughout the day, upon the march, 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 army 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 with great haste, and before my arrival had already occupied all the hills, placing himself 5 Several letters have reached us touching a glorious victory, wliich 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 Kdnigsmark 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 ofif 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 inarch, 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 disputing 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 Reusch and Sestedt also, with some officers of inferior rank, were wounded. The number of the killed cannot be accurately stated, 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 Piccolomini 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 lauda 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 to 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 hack 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. 1 To Torstenson, March 6, 1 645. 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-operation obliges him to retreat. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Effect of his successes. Congress of Osnaburg. [1644— shal-lieutenant, count Brouay, also died of his wounds shortly after the battle. On the Swedish side prince Charles Gustavus was in great danger ; his hat, coat, and shirt were shot through. Tors tenson's own wife 9 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 J 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 conquer, but the right and left wings having been beaten, and obliged to leave the field ; j 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 2, 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 the Rhine, advanced in April 1645, under Turenne, against Bavaria. But Turenne was defeated on the 25th April at Mergentheim by Mercy, who afterwards himself fell in battle against Conde" 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, 9 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 Zeitung), anno 1645, 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 first effect of the victory was to set free Olmutz, which was besieged by the Austrians ; Glogau and Olmutz were the only fortresses in Silesia and Moravia, which Tors tenson, at his return from Holstein, found still in the hands of the Swedes. 4 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 his 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 5, 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 6. 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 affaire which concern the restitution of the states, from the pacificatory congress to imperial and collegia! diets. Thence would incontrovertibly follow the oppression and slavery ofthe 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 om' 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, be a good stay, and no inconsiderable furtherance to the cause." Reg. 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. 1654J Instructions of the chan cellor to the CHRISTINA'S ADMINISTRATION. Swedish commissioners at the congress. 327 satisfaction from the emperor and the estates, we yet place our chief guarantee in the well-grounded freedom of the estates. If the whole restitution shall be 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 7, 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, Wismaf1, 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, 1646, the ministry write to the commissaries : " Ye may accommodate yourselves to the estates in tbe terms of extension of the amnesty, and the possession of ecclesiastical goods." Reg. A letter of May 30th, in the sanie year, says : " If the elector palatine cannot be re stored, which will hardly come to pass, seek at least to throw the blame of it on the Imperialists." Reg. 8 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 son, it may well be that you, on the spot, may see and better observe some difficulties; 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 has 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 Pomerania8." The chancellor was resolved 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 rania9. 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 2. The correspondence which is flo 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, offered 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 Oxenstierna, 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 Mecklenburg, they should be content with Fore Pomerania only, and the con dominium of WiBmar, 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 3. North Germany, after the neutraUty of Saxony and Bran denburg, 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 orbitances, but only to apprise his highness that all was not done out of insolence, but much ou^ of mere hunger 4. 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 whieh Konigsmark commanded. The artillery consisted, when Wrangel assumed the command, of seventy pieces of cannon 5. 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 1631, 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 tljat he was innocent of this blood. The rittmaster saved himself from his anger by flight. The king issued a special 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 6, whither he also retrograded in February, because the Imperialists, after their junction with the Bavarians, outmatched him. 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 7. The junction with the French, who had promised to be in Mentz 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 8." While Wrangel and Turenne advanced against Upper Germany and Bavaria, general Wittenberg 9, reinforced by 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-dollars yearly, had been made out on the 28th of April, 1646. Of this Christina had informed him by a special letter of 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 wife2. 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 heavier on others. Correspondence in the Library of Sko- Cloister. 4 Westenrieder, History of the Thirty Years' War, iii. 217, note. 5 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 listens 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 of which, with her signature, both to Torstenson and Wrangel, are preserved in the latter's correspondence. 9 Now appointed master-general of the ordnance, after Wrangel. 1 Field-marshal Torstenson's memoria] 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 Westgothland, Dalsland, Vermeland, and Halland. 2 Original, dated Fontainebleau, Aug. 31, 1646, in C. G. Wrangel's correspondence in Sko-Cloister. On the joy of the enemy at Torstenson's departure, see Puffendorf. xviii §15. - ' 1554 1 CamPa>gn of 1646.— Junction „» _ lm'J 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 Hoxter 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 3, 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 through 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 6. They formed a junction on the Lech and besieged Augsburg 6 for nineteen days in vain, until the Imperialists and Bavarians, who had hastened through Franconia to the defence of Bavaria, relieved the town7. 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 ferai toutes les choses necessaires pour la jonction, pourveu que je le puisse faire avec quelque seurete. Turenne to Wrangel ; Au camp pres de Bacharach, le 9 Juin, 1646. The words are under lined by Turenne himself. Je passerai sans faute le Rhen le lundi le 2 Juillet. To the same : Au camp d'Oberwesel, le 18 Juin, 1646. C. G. Wrangel's correspondence. 4 " 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 done. 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 delay." John Oxenstierna to Wrangel, Osnaburg, July 11, 1646. Corre spondence. 5 Je passe aujourd'hui le Danube et marcherai entre Augs- bourg et Rhain. J'espere avoir bientost l'honneur de voir Vostre Excellence. Turenne to Wrangel: Au camp de Lauingen, ^ 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 II. 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 ; they were excluded from the councU, and not allowed to marry without having heard mass. No artizan could become a master-craftsman, and attendance on the cathoUc 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 from Sweden in August, had penetrated from 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 the 21st of September, and wrote on the 24th to Wrangel, that " he hoped the re inforcement from hence of the enemy's main army 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, 1647, chiefly through French mediation 8 ; upon which Turenne recrossed the Rhine, and Wrangel returned to Franconia. The 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 back9. 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 freed 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 ol the Evangelical Burgesses in the town of the Holy Roman Empire, called Augsburg, from the year 1628 to 1643. In 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 tbe empire will very soon come to blows with them, and that the well-affected princes and estates of the empire may be defended from the enemy's power." The elector Maximilian of Bavaria to the counts Martin Francis and Joachim Err.est of Ottingen-Wallerstein. 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 Konigs mark, and treated him well, according to his letter of the 29th August to Wrangel. s 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 Bavarian 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 affection in the conclusion of peace, thai we should not insist on the restitution of the palatinate,— it cannot therefore harm, that ye should conclude a cessation of arms upnn 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. s Je supplie tres-humblement Vostre Excellence de vouloir oon Instructions of the ministry 6M to Wrangel. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Campaign of 1647. — Last year of the war. [1644— 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 1, — 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 country, 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 the 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 othciers. Je ne doubte point, que Vostre Exe. ne donne tres-expressement cest ordre-la. Turenne to Wrangel. Heilbronn, July 30, 1647. Corre spondence. 1 They had dwindled to sixteen hundred and sixty men, out of whom Konigsmark formed four regiments. Puffen dorf, xix. § 76. 2 Instruction, dated April 7, 1647. Reg. a " 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 he 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 (Els ; in Moravia, Olmutz, Iglau, and Neustadt; in Meissen, LeipBic; in Thuringia, Erfurt, besides the strong 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 to 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 2. — So great dissatisfaction with the French was felt, that the ministry advised against a conjunction with them 3. This 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 Melander4, 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 arms5. 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 6. The most remarkable phase of the war in the year 1648 is, that with regard to Bavaria, France refused 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 7. 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. 4 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." > Puffendorf, xix. § 51. 6 " With you, I see, the treaty for peace slumbers, and is pursued with hardly any other mind than pro formd. 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 Bavaria, 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 a), 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 Wrangel 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 terma 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 viBconte de Cournal to colonel St. Andre. May- ence, Dec. 25, 1647. C. G. Wrangel's correspondence. The charges by which Turenne put off the junction, related to the Weimar regiments. 8 Torstenson writes from Segersire, Jan. 29, 1648, that he had received Wrangel'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 him. 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 Konigsmark, Torstenson does not find that the latter had reason to be offended, since all must depend on the head. Most of the other officers were also dissatisfied with Wrangel, " as one who was still very young, arrogant, selfish, and by no means liberal." Puffendorf, xx. § 60. For this reason also, tbe 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 office Torsten son had hitherto filled), and received Bremer- vorde 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 signed on the JJth 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 Wollin, and the three mouths of the Oder; beyond that stream, Damm and Golnau; in Mecklenburg, Wismar with the districts of Peel and New- Cloister, with Bremen and Verden, all as fiefs of the German empire 9. 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 l0, of which eighteen tons gold (1,800,000 rix-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 the officers larger and smaller sums 2, 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 3, partly re mitted by free consent4; and in general the com missaries were instructed not to drive matters in this respect to extremities, especially as the in- 10 « -\ve 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 with 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 tbe 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, he- 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 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 suffice, 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. 4 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 thTee 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 the emperor to a new war5; "but rather," the queen writes to Charles Gustavus, " we beg by all that is holy, that your lovingness will not be restrained by causes of hindrance interposed, but in God's name make an end without delay of this long protracted treaty 6." 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, no7 ! and call to mind an oriental proverb : " What princes take, they harry ; what God takes, he heals B." Peace, however wishfully expected, has often, no less than 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 profound internal 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 kingdom. 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 insoluble problem ; but whether supportable or 5 To the commissaries in Osnaburg, Feb. 10, 1649. Reg. The queen enjoins Charles Gustavus, on the 10th of March ofthe same year, to try to hinder Turenne, who was on the side ofthe 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 with so much success, that the marshal has no more than a handful of people about 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 me the officers who would wish to serve a cause so just." Wrangel 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, Sic.) The original is in the correspondence of C. G. Wrangel, in Sko-Cloister. 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. 7 " 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, justice 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 profitable in the hands of private persons than in those of the crown, has much in its favour — than through the conditions 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 nobility9; 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 opportunity 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 refutation1. 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 Konig? Gott allein. Wo Kdnige ein Land einnahmen, Verwiisten sie's, so weit sie karaen. 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, &c.) » 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 board 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. 1 " Irrefragable Proofs against the right of the nobility over 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 XI., which caused the author of the Observations, included in the 9th volume of the Memoirs for the Hislory of Scandinavia, to say : " The official Ehrensten had w,rilten 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 -,.... of the royal bounty. 3*a It touched the existence of the order of yeomen as a free estate in Sweden. That the high-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 sayings2; but then he adds, " it is but a contract, which subsists between them and their masters3;" this infers that the nobleman may be master, notwithstanding the personal liberty of the 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 Politics, he threw the book, which was dedicated to himself, out of the win dow4. 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 * In the council, 1650. Palmsk. MSS. 3 Ibid. 4 Memoirs for the HistoTy of Scandinavia, jl. 115. 5 In the council, 1642. Palmsk. MSS. 6 As an example, may be quoted the royal confirmation, issued June 9, 1 645, of the purchase of estates from the crown made hy 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 Gus 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 resolved to compute also casual yearly rents, and to sell the estates for 4£ 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, specified 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 church estates, with two of the Gustavian heritage. 7 Thus the children of the high -chancel lor Eric Sparre received compensation for the half of the Bergquara estates, wliich the high-admiral Gyllenhielm now possessed. April 16, 1645. Reg. s 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 lias 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. 9 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 nothing5." This was tlie 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 freeholds6. 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 reward, sometimes ancient wrongs to redress7, and the care which she devoted to old or wounded soldiers 8, 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 yearly in landed es tates alone 9. 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 (Esel j in the same year was made colonel of the life regiment, and in 1647, councillor of war and state at once ; April 17, 1648, general 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 pension 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 the county of Arensberg on the CSsel; 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 uf his father, Jacob de la Gardie ; in the same year, he was made high-marshal; 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 rix-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. LL 334 Count de la Gardie, the new favourite. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. yhe 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 her 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 the brilliant em bassy to France ', which cost 100,000 rix-dollars of the subsidies3. De la Gardie, himself through his grandfather of French extraction4, 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 5. 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 6 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 1 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 hinder 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 jpy to stand toanswer pale andred 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 7 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 8. I pray you will let me know how G. J. O. (count John Oxen stierna), on reading my letter, demeans himself towards you both 9." 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 l; that he knew well, so insignificant a person might be dispensed with; but he who had put it into her majesty's mind 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. 4 " 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. 5 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, i. 117. 6 Councillor of war and assistance ; afterwards, also, minister in the negotiations for peace. 7 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 Long ue ville 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. 1 This was true. He had lost in 1647 his first wife, Anne Margaret Stur6; and after her decease required to come to Sweden for the division of her heritage. 1654J Temporary retirement of the chancellor. CHRISTINA'S ADMINISTRATION. Causes of the decline of his influence. 335 should answer it to him one day, if they met in the body. Some weeks afterwards he 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 2. 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 3." That which had occurred gave occasion to an interview 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 s ; but he withdrew for some time from court. " I have now beenresiding 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! 1 depart in 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 I 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, wliich has weakened me so much, that since then I have been unable to mount a horse 6." Age and sickness began to exhaust his vital 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 7." 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 putaram ; ' 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 60 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 hale 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-chancellor 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 hands 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 whole8. His strength lies not in favour and personal connexion, but in 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 effected 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 in 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 future was to be determined; 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 s ted fastness 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. 4 <; 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 a-boil. For what concerns myself, 1 shall not, by God's help, be found without resolution." The chancellor to his son John, Stock holm, May 29, 1647. 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 Tidoen, 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. 7 Stockholm, February5, 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 the 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 come 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 them9." 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 unnoble 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 1. Of these privileges many had long been felt 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 2; if 9 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, when they bad bought the rents of an estate, deprived the peasants, under pretexts of all kinds, of their scot-right (skatte-ratt, right 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 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. 1 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. 3 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 person 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 (consistorium regni), composed of laical and ecclesiastical members, encountered. The clergy 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 3. 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 aud 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 Matthiae, afterwards the object of a persecution by his own order, drew up at the diet of 1644 that proposition for clerical privileges, which the queen first confirmed in 1647, and more fully at her coronation 5. 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 formd, 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. 4 The title of this rare book is, Privilegia quaedam doc- torum, magistrorum etc. ; or more briefly, Privilegia minis- terii ecclesiastici in inch to regno Svecia?, 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 Concordiae 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 ofthe spiritualty were hereby taken into protection against all assaults; yet, in respect to the dispute with the nobility on patronage, the privileges ap pear more conciliatory in words than satisfactory in reality. The special assurances of grace which the superior members of this order, bishops, super intendents, and doctors of theology received 6 con tributed to alienate the minor clergy from 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 great 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 8, 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 merit.that was so rewarded; they were distributed from favour or for bribes by subordinate functionaries, who took even the calves and butter of poor widows by thereby be distinguished from the secret Calvinists, who conceal themselves under the Confession of AugsbuTg," as they said. The queen did not accede to this request, it was supposed by the advice of Johannes Mattbire, 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 1638, although in the book referred to no trace of it is to be remarked. The high- chancellor was especially zealous for the Formula Concor dia;, and the subject was again in 1650 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 Matthias, 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 9, 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 that 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 lung 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. 6 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 bythe 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, 1638, 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 Jcen of Berga, yeoman (danneman), held at St. Thomas" fair, in Linkceping, year 1650. It is also found in a primed form. The author was Schering Rosenhane, councillor of state. z 338 Claims of new privileges by the nobility refused. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Solemn protest by the three unnoble estates. ![I644— many of mean birth were there not who had at tained to the most considerable offices ? but that a man 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 respecting 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 vice 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 1048, on creating Salvius a councillor of state, had de clared to the 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, 1 650, 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 1 Resolution on the complaints of the equestrian order and nobility, in 1649. Stiernman. October, 1650, the well-known " Protestation anent restitution of the crown estates2." After gene rally representing " how for some time scot and crown estates had been abstracted from the crown aud alienated to divers individuals in permanent possession ; nay, those held merely by concession ary tenure (forlaningsvis) had been appropriated by means of unreasonable reversions ; whereby 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 he 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 institutes among the Jews, against the law of Sweden, the testament of king Gustavus I., the statute of Norr koeping of the year 1604, and all sound policy besides, making the regalities whieh Gustavus had acquired by the reduction of 1527 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 redress what misdeeds might be committed against the rights of the crown and the liberties ofthe 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. 3 Printed by Loenbom. Handlingar till konung Carl XI 's Historia, ix. 70. 1654.] Imminent danger of civil war. CHRISTINA'S ADMINISTRATION. Suit of prince Chailes Gusta vus for the queen's hand. 339 the needs and rights of the realm; concluding with the wish, that the nobles who against law aud legal statutesheld 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*." s The high-chancellor, who sought on the part of the nobility to refute this protest of the unnoble estates, alleged as his main argument, that thev 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 s. 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 burgesses 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 flight6. The high-chancellor remained undismayed. He sat all day in 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 7. 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 subscribing the protest concerning the crown es tates. Two projects were drawn up with that view, one by Terserus, the other by Master Nicho las, secretary to the magistrates of Stockholm. Both propositions were approved by the queen, and ultimately combined into a single instrument8, which was presented to her by the unnoble es tates. She received it graciously, but evaded a 4 Compare Essay at a Pragmatic History of the order of » Franklins in Sweden. 5 Huic trium ordinum intentioni, ut maxime salutari, magnopere favit regina, — eos quam severissime monens, ut in hoc proposito constanter permanerent, identidem illud ingeminans : aut nunc aut nunquam. Ortus et Vitas Cursus Johannis Terseri Dalecarli. MS. in the Nordin Collections. Illis ardent-minded man, like Johannes Matthias, 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. Charies XI., in 1671, nominated him bishop of Linkceping. 6 Res ad helium intestinum spectabat, ad quod non rustici tantum, sed et cives valde erant propensi. E nobilitate ditissimi quique, collectis pretiosissimis thesauris, fugam 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 guerre civile en Suede, sur le sujet du courbnneraent et du mariage de la Reine." Du Quesne (formerly a sea-officer 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, which was to lead in the future to deeply penetrating changes. Christina could but commit 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 1642 the negotiations which had been commenced in the time of Gustavus Adolphus. 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 ; hut 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 composed by himself, from which we quote some passages. "On the evening of the 15th July, 1648, in the presence of count Magnus (de la Gardie), and bishop Dr. Johannes (Matthiae)," says the prince, "the following passed between the queen'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 after 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. 8 Ex ambobus unum composuimus. Terserus, 1. c. Mas ter Nicholas, in his Reminiscences of his own Life (Upsala Transactions for 1777, p. 36), states, that the document pre sented to the queen was framed by him. "Axel Oxen stiema," 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 resli- tuendis regni bonis 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 Johannes Lenasus, the burgomaster (of Stockholm), and myself." 8 She used to call him " the burgomasterlmg," from his short and thick figure. Mem. for the Hist, of Scand., ix. 12S. z 2 340 Its rejection.- — She pro poses to the council HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. that the prince be 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 would 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 army, in order thus to place both myself and the realm in security against all casualties. Hereupon we fell into sharp converse. I averred that T desired nothing but mai-riage ; 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 fanfaronade 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 l, March 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 Sweden2. 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, under 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 3." The estates had more than once solicited the queen to, marry, and the unnoble estates had also expressed their wish that she would give her hand to Charles Gustavus. At the diet of 1649, 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 easily 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 realm 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 former dangers might be avoided by declining to invest 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 I die without that being done, I will wager both my ears that he never comes to the throne. When whom he served. He repaired again to Germany in 1648, being named by the queen generalissimo of the Swedish armies; with what vfew is manifest from the conversation. quoted. 3 C. Adlersparre's Hist. Col., ii. 219. IBM 1 Declaration of her purpose to abdicate. CHRISTINA'S ADMINISTRATION. Its causes. — Bent of thought and speculation in this age. 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 4. " Some days afterwards, on the 28th 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 heirs5. Next day Axel Oxenstierna, who had abstained from taking any public part in the deliberations, was reluctantly persuaded to sub scribe the resolution. 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 6. Among other things the high-chancellor said : " I seriously confess it, if my grave were standing open at this moment, and it were 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 herself. 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 7. We have said that Christina's abdication was the result partly of political circumstances, and partly of personal inducements. The former have uu- * From the narrative of Puffendorf and Arckenholtz, founded on documents. Torstenson died April 7, 1651. Upon this event, the chamberlain, Ekeblad, 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 knoweth with what heart I learned the tidings. The chief 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 Prance, wrote to a letter from the queen, upon her abdica tion, dated the Hague, March 2, 16S4, is this passage. " My only concern in the great design of 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 conflicting, spirits of the nobler order created for themselves an appropriate and interesting system of opinion, exercising 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 offer to this persecuted scholar, a fugitive from his country, a refuge in his service; and Oxenstierna fulfilled the intentions which the king's death pre vented him from carrying into effect 8. 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 period praised for well-digested learning, 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 Latin, but that all persons who employed other languages should have their answer in Swedish. Learning of greater extent, such as that of John Skytto and Axel Oxenstierna, was found only in exceptional 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. 399. 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 Oxenstiema's friendship than by the embassy. " Oxenstierna^ 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. i Compare chap. - . ad fin. 342 Influence of foreign opinions and literature. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Intrigues to precipitate the queen's abdication. [1644- 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, how 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 aud 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 Stiern- hoek, the father of Swedish jurisprudence. Among the crowd of learned foreigners invited to Sweden, Loccenius and Scheffer gained an honourable right of citizenship. This picture is not without its shadows. We may discern an inundatioh 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, presented books, were rewarded and dismissed. For the rest, we know not what tlieir names have 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 procured 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 Stockholm 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. Reginje ani- mum a seriis studiis ad ludicra et inania traduxerit. Henr. Valesius to Heinsius, 1653. 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 tor 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), who 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. 4 Vossius writes to Heinsius, Jan. 1, 1653: Bourdelotius ne ipso quidem Jove sese minorem existimat. Solus omnia 1650. 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 aud atheism, that Christina threw herself into the bosom of the Catholic church. The epoch of indifferentism in the queen, though prepared by some of her philologers, was indicated by the dismissal of the scholars, and the ascendancy of the physician Bourdelot2. This person, having succeeded in saving Christina's life (as she believed) in a severe illness3, 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 4. 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 expected there 5. 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 the 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 Messenius in the month of December, 1651, pointed to the leaders of the commotions in the diets of 1649 and 1650; and among them especially to the free baron Bennet Skytte', who, of all the council, had separated most widely from his col leagues in this matter, aud afterwards withdrawn in expectation of a revolution 6. Agreeably to her istic terrarum potest. Mensam habet instructiorem, quam habet ipse Comes Magnus, vel alius quispiam magnatum in hoe 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. s 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.] Th1u1n!shmentand CHRISTINA'S ADMINISTRATION. ^'"S'of thTcourt.01"'6" 343 fearless nature, Christina, who on the first in telligence of these machinations expected a revolt, is said to have wished to let the affair take its course, in order, as she said, to wile the conspira tors into a snare '. Subsequently she changed her mind, and 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, even without election, he might count upon the younger nobility, and the co-operation of the unnoble estates. Charles Gus tavus, who was residing in (Eland, 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, father and son, suffered death, thus ending their unfortunate race ; the grandfather had died after an imprisonment of twenty years8. 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, Denmark, 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 grant 9. 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 infeoffment to estates 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 stale, 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 annexed " 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 chancery. A secretary's clerk, who had sold forty-two forged donations and letters of free hold, was executed April 13, 1651, on the market place of Norrmalm 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-tailor, Jan Holm, who assumed the imposing name of Leyoncrona (Lioncrown)3. He was likewise made intendant of the household, and was an opulent man, but found himself obliged to quit the court when the chamberlain, baron Clas Baner, 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 nobility. Guttling and toping were already common since the 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 with 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 5. 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 CEland 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, be, 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. 9 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 weTe made permanent. 1 Examples are found in the registers ofthe year 1653. 2 Mem. for the Hist, of Scand. xx. 314. 3 It was in consequence of this that Charles XI. after wards, in 1687, forbade any one, on being ennobled, to take the word krona into his name, or bear a crown on his arms, without special permission. 4 Scand. Mem. ix. 100. 5 Comp. Whitelocke'8 Journal of his Embassy. s " Now there is so much ado with ballets and running at 344 New favourites. — Popular disaffection. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Appanage settled on the queen ; the abdication. [1644— held no council, saying, when the secretary of state came with warrants for her signature, that she would as lief see the devil. The court was crowded with dancers, singers, and comedians 7. Even Jesuits came under this disguise, and laboured for the conversion of the queen. This was determined by a new favourite, Don Antonio Pimeutelli, who came in 1652 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 8, and colonel Schlippenbaeh 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 1653, 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 nobility9." Charles Gustavus, who passed his time in (Eland, 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 himself1. On the 1 1th of February, 1654, the queen sum moned the council to Upsala, 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. ,.. 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 offered ; 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 Stiernhcek, 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 Brahe2. " 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 hereditary 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. 9 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 conduct. 345 wished to attend upon the king to his chamber, but he refusing, attended upon her. Straightway at two o'clock afternoon, the king was crowned, with the usual procession ; his majesty rode to church with all the councillors of state; thereupon was held a banquet3." 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 grave5, with sighs exclaiming 3 The queen had caused the tapestries, furniture, and move ables of tbe 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. = August 28, 1654. that " she was still the daughter of the great Gus tavus." Her subsequent conduct, in changing first secretly, then publicly, to the Catholic church0, estranged from her for ever her former country. She revisited it, liowever, in 1GG0 and 1667, and renewed both her claims and her renunciation, besides announcing 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 continued 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 wliich she despised avenged them selves on her good name; yet was she better thaii her reputation7. She died at Rome, April 19, 1689, sixty -three years old. c The former occurred at Brussels, Dec. 24, 1654 ; the latter at Innspruck, Nov. 3, 1655. 7 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. A. Chap. I. (p. 12, n. 1.) The national name of the Swedes is written in different manuscripts of Jordanes (to judge by the printed copies and their variations), Suethans, Suehans (1), Sueveans, Sue- thidi, Suetidi. On the 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 Professor 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 encountering 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 row 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 Stora 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 the south-east the bailiwicks of Kopparberg proper, Sfeter, 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 forty 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. C. 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, I may add, that theso-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 diffuse with the greatest avidity all accounts of family, are, according to Lsestadius, hardly to be depended upon j 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 held on or at the kin-barrows, not only their traditional appellation of Tings-hogar (court-knolls), but the mention of a Hb'gating or Knoll-court in the Chronicles of the Kings, bespeak. From other passages in them (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 properly 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 addressed the people, as may be learned from the description of the Upsala Ting in the Chronicles of Snorro. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 347 F. Chap. II. (p. 33.) 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 Land'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 cases 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 bim 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 in his proper character. Chap. VII. (p. 87, n. 5.) That Magnus Eric son's Land's Law, notwithstanding the protest of the clergy, was immediately received, appears from a deed communicated to me by Professor Schroder, in the count Bonde's collection of monu ments at Ssefstaholm. In a letter of one John Gregorson, dated Wexio, 1352, he declares that he appoints a morrowing-gift, " secundum modum ac formara legum per Dominum meum carissimum, Domiuum regem, 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, aud 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 in 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 their league the firmer, by drinking brothership together ; where I having entered the hall, and being seen by his majesty, 1 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 help 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 intrenched camp at Werben 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 country 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 most 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 pieces 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 kiug 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 were set before hini, in so much 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 chiefly, 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 his 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 preserving 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 army, 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 had 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 VOL. I. Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London.