PART III.

THE RISE OF SWEDISH POWER.

Charles IX., 1599-1611.-Karl, or Charles, IX. of Sweden, as we should rather call him, was the only one of Gustaf Vasa's sons who inherited his good sense and steadiness of purpose, as well as his abilities. All the brothers had been learned, able men, but Karl, the youngest, alone knew how to make good use of his learning, and how to turn He was a stern and cruel foe, his great talents to account. and never knew how to forgive, but he was just and forbearing to his friends and relatives. Like his father, he combined the power of looking closely into details, and keeping watch over the management and expenditure of the smallest sums of money in his own household, with the capacity for laying vast plans for the future greatness of his kingdom. It is related that he carried his economy so far as to direct that his queen herself should measure out the yarn and thread used by her maidens in weaving and sewing. On the other hand, his history shows that from the very beginning of his struggles with Sigismund, he had resolved to risk his fortune and even his life in the effort to make Sweden a Protestant state, while the great object that he had in view during his latter years was to support the Protestant cause in Germany, and aid in cripof Austria, which he foresaw would in time pling the power gather the Catholic German states around her, and make a desperate effort to trample down the Reformed faith. In his will he enjoined upon his wife, son, and nephew carefully to maintain the friendly relations which he had entered into with the Elector Palatine, Frederick V., the Landgraf Moritz of Hesse, and other evangelical princes of Germany; and the idea that Sweden would be called upon to prove her devotion to the cause, which those princes upheld, seemed ever present to his mind.

In Charles IX. the Swedes found a second and even greater

founder of their national glory than in Gustaf Vasa, and his struggle with Sigismund is looked upon as the most important turning point of their religious history. At the death of Johan, Sweden was hovering between Catholicism and Protestantism, and if the regent-duke had not settled all further dissent by the resolutions passed at Upsala, in 1593, Sweden would probably have been numbered among the Catholic states of Europe. In all that he did, Charles had always had the lower classes on his side, and he well knew that it was from the nobles alone that he would have any opposition to dread. He had long suspected that a party existed in the state which desired to see an elective monarchy established in the place of succession to the throne by heritage, which his father had secured for the Vasas, and at the diet of Linköping, in 1600, he had caused a number of those nobles who had been surrendered to him by Sigismund to be tried for treason to the state, and for disobedience to his orders while he was regent of the kingdom. A few of these men confessed that they had wished to subvert the Lutheran religion, and were otherwise guilty of the charges brought against them, and they were pardoned; but others, including the heads of the great families of Sparré, Bjelke, and Bauer, were condemned to death, in spite of the tears and prayers of their wives and children, who threw themselves on their knees before the duke and begged for mercy. After the beheading of these men, others of equal rank were imprisoned, and their lands taken from them, while some were banished from the kingdom, and the duke thus found an opportunity of crushing his private foes under the same fate that was awarded to the enemies of the state.

Females allowed to reign.-The first act of Charles IX. after he became king was to allow men of burgher and peasant rank to have a legal and clearly-defined share in the deliberations of the Estates of the diet, and he succeeded in having a change made in the laws of succession, by which the crown was declared hereditary in the persons of his female, as well as of his male descendants. His care for the interests of the lower classes won for him the name of "Bondarkonungen," the Peasants' King, which was well merited, inasmuch as he appears to have been always on the alert to defend this order of his

subjects from wrong at the hands of the higher classes. On one occasion when the widow of a clergyman was proved to have had an injustice done her in a lawsuit, he wrote to the unjust judge, telling him that unless the poor woman at once received what was her right, "his stick should soon be made to dance the polka on his back." He encouraged trade, and by laying the foundation of the ports of Karlstad in Værmeland, and of Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden, he may be said to have created the foreign commerce of the kingdom. In regard to the working of the Swedish silver and copper mines, this king made great improvements, and there was not a branch of industry, or a department in the government which did not feel the benefit of his able supervision. But while he restored order to his disturbed kingdom, he kept his subjects constantly at war, either with Poland, Russia, or Denmark, and sometimes with all three states at once.

Swedes in Russia.-In 1609 King Charles sent a Swedish army, under Pontusson de la Gardie and Evert Horn, to relieve Moscow from the assault of the impostor, Demetrius, who was aided by Poland, and to secure the succession of the Czar Vasielievitz Schuisky. In both these objects the generals were successful, but a mutiny having broken out among their men when they did not receive the pay promised them by the Russians, and many foreign auxiliaries having gone over to the enemy, De la Gardie and Horn were forced to fall back. With only 400 men they effected a successful retreat through the lands of their enemies, and without any further loss made their way to the Swedish frontiers. Charles, in no way discouraged, sent another army into Russia in 1611, which took Novogorod by storm, and forced the Russians to sign a treaty, by which they pledged themselves not to obey any of the various pretenders, including Sigismund's son, Vladislav, but to acknowledge the Swedish prince, Karl Philip, as their czar.

The Calmar War, 1611: Charles' death.-When the news of this success reached Sweden, Charles IX. was on his death-bed, and the kingdom was engaged in the contest with Denmark, which is usually known as the Calmar War, in consequence of its having been fought in the neighbourhood of the town of that name. This war was mainly brought about by the haste and

ambition of the young Danish king, Christian IV., who thought that, considering the old age and feebleness of Charles, and the youth and want of experience of his son and heir, Gustaf Adolf, the moment was favourable for retaliating on Sweden the losses which Denmark had suffered through the Swedish king's monopoly of the trade of Riga. But King Christian had formed a wrong idea of Sweden and her princes, and the result of the war was not one for which he or Denmark had cause for satisfaction. King Charles IX. died at the age of sixty, in 1611, at Nyköping, on his return from Calmar, after the settlement of a short armistice with Christian IV., and thenceforth the conduct of the war was left to Gustaf Adolf, the future hero of so many glorious victories. At the time of his death, Charles IX. was engaged in friendly alliances with all the great Protestant powers. He had promised to send 1,000 horse and foot soldiers to the Netherlands in the event of the continuance of the war against Spain, in return for which he demanded the right to export salt free of duty from their ports; and in 1610 he had sent an embassy to England to demand a continuance from James I. of the same friendly relations that had existed between him and Queen Elizabeth, who from the time of his brother Johan's death had shown her goodwill towards him and approved his policy. He also wished James to join him in one common alliance with the Netherlands and France against Austria and Spain; and envoys were on their way to France to secure the goodwill of the King, Henry IV., when the news of his murder by Ravaillac stopped them. Thus for the first time in her history Sweden had been brought into political relations of friendship with the other more powerful European states, and had taken an independent position among them. With this king, moreover, began the system of personal influence which during the next century and a half the Swedish monarchs exercised over their people, until at length the history of the king became actually that of his kingdom.

Charles IX. was distinguished as a poet and author of no mean ability. He wrote Latin poems, composed numerous hymns and prayers, which were long in use, and left several treatises on political subjects, accounts of his reign, and various

I

journals, which were made ample use of by his son in the history which he drew up of the events of his father's time. Charles was twice married. By his first wife, Maria of the Palatinate, he had one daughter, Katerina, the ancestress of the later Princes Palatine, and of the Palatinate branch of the Vasa line in Sweden; and by his second wife, Kristina of Holstein-Gottorp, he had two sons, Gustaf Adolf and Karl Philip. The Princess Katerina, like her brothers, was a good classic, and when Henry IV. of France demanded her hand in marriage for his friend, Prince Henry of Rohan, she returned a courteous reply in an elegant Latin letter, composed by herself and written with her own hand, in which she referred the matter to her father's decision, and begged her suitor's acceptance of some sable-skins in return for his gifts. Charles's refusal to give his daughter to the Prince of Rohan made no difference in the friendship of King Henry, who offered his services to mediate between Poland and Sweden, and continued to apply to the Swedish government for nearly all the cannons, balls, and steel required by him in his wars.