BEFORE ENTERING ON THE PRINCIPAL work which the author has undertaken in the writing of this volume, — a historical account of Gustavus Adolphus, — it is fitting to give a brief sketch of Sweden from the earliest times, presenting the more salient and important events and incidents of her history; and thus we shall be able to gain a better understanding of the national life and force which were behind the great leader who achieved so much for the renown of his people, and left so permanent an impression on the Europe of the seventeenth century. It may be said, in truth, that prior to nearly the close of the tenth century, Swedish annals, as known to us, are very confused and not much is entirely reliable. Scandinavia, of which Sweden forms so important a part, was known at all by them. The ancient Greeks and Romans had very erroneous ideas of the North of Europe, regarding it as made up of snow, ice, mists and darkness and believed that somewhere beyond those regions lived the Hyperboreans, — mortals dwelling in perfect peace with their Gods, in a rich land, under sunny skies, where grains and fruits ripened without the toil of the husband man and plenty and comfort were the common lot of all. There none suffered by sickness and pain; neither the young nor the old died by disease, but those who became weary of life ended their days by casting themselves from some lofty cliff into the foaming and mysterious depths of the sea. Later it began to be doubted if mortals were really in possession of such charming abodes anywhere on the earth and the Hyperborean conception began to drop out of belief. The oldest account of the North which has been preserved to modern history is that given by Pytheas, who lived three hundred and fifty years prior to the Christian era. This man was a native of the Old Grecian city, now Marseilles in France, who was sent by his government to make inquiries into the situation and condition of those remote lands of the North from which Phoenicians brought valuable articles of commerce. Pytheas must have been a well instructed man for his time, and of a bold resolution; for he had to leave the bright skies of Southern Europe, take his perilous chances along the uncertain shores of the Atlantic to that distant region which the learned men of his time believed covered with snow and mist. The spirit of commerce is often bolder than science itself; and, as a citizen of an enterprising and commercial city, he felt the impulse of the atmosphere around him. The classic authors of Greece and Rome three centuries after him ridiculed his accounts; but the intrinsic evidence is now in favor of their authenticity in the opinion of modern historians. His voyages carried him to the shores of Britain and Scandinavia. Of his visit to the former country, which he called Albion, nothing is known, except that he traveled over a large part of what is now England and Scotland. He describes a place called Thule, which he regarded an island. From what he says of the great length of the days at midsummer, his description would apply to one of the numerous islands which are situated along the northern coasts of Sweden and Norway, though it might refer to the one of the Danish isles. Strabo represents Pytheas saying, that, in Thule, the nights at midsummer were only two or three hours in length. The weight of probability is, that it must have been somewhere in Scandinavia; and, for this reason, what is said of Thule and the lands in its vicinity has important value in its bearing on the early history of the Northmen. According to Pytheas, the inhabitants of the country at the south of Thule thrashed their grain in roofed buildings, where it was stowed away under cover, “because the sun did not always shine there, and the rain and the snow often came and spoiled the crops in open air.” They had a strong desire to trade with foreigners who came to their coasts, were keen to drive a bargain, and always ready to fight if they thought they had been insulted or ill-used. According to the view of the most careful of the Scandinavian historians, whose investigations as to all matters pertaining to their countries and people are elaborate and thorough, it is probable that Thule was a part of Scandinavia inhabitated and cultivated many centuries before the Christian era. It is certain that the picture which Tacitus traces of it, in the first Christian century, implies a culture more ancient. The states of Sueones, according to what Tacitus had learned, were important by their population, their fleets, and their arms. Their vessels were particularly fitted to the navigation of the coasts and rivers. They attached much value to fortune. The sea which surrounded them guaranteed them from the surprises of their enemies. It is thought that the Goths were the most ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia, occupying the south, and were earlier in Sweden than the Sueones. The Goths and the Sueones long fought each other, but finally fused, and formed the Swedish nation. The little that has come down to us, from the classic authors, of what Pytheas had written of his travels is all that we have of any voyager’s report of the North of Europe until the time of Alfred of England. Twelve hundred years after Pytheas, two travelers from Scandinavia, whose names were Wulfstan and Othere, came to the court of the English king, who always gave a warm welcome to those who would bring him information from foreign lands. Alfred was pleased to listen to their story of what they had seen, and of the country from which they came. From their account of their travels, he wrote a brief history, and made a chart of modern Europe. The description of Scandinavia in these books is valuable. During the twelve centuries from the Marseilles traveler to Alfred to England, nothing was heard in Central and Southern Europe of the lives, customs, and doings of the Scandinavian people in their own homes; although within that period tribes of half savage, resolute, blue-eyed, tall, strong men from the North poured southward, and became known to the Romans as Cimbri, Teutons, Germans and Goths. At first the novel and fierce modes of attack used by these men, and their great strength and courage, carried terror and defeat among the trained soldiers of Rome, who knew not how to break through the long wall of shields chained together which those strange and audacious foes brought against them. But in time the superior discipline and arms of the Romans overcame the fierce Northern warriors. Notwithstanding their sanguinary experience and dread of these warlike strangers from the North, the Romans did not take pains to discover the precise part of Europe from which they came. It is said that finally, by chance, some strings of amber beads had been brought to Rome; and soon these ornaments were so much admired that the fashionable ladies of that city thought their dress incomplete unless they had an adequate number to ornament the neck and hair. Then, as in modern times, fashion was powerful to stimulate commerce. As soon as the amber beads were in demand by the Roman ladies, the agencies of Roman trade were put in motion, and found their way along the great rivers and through the half salvage and little known countries of Eastern and Northern Europe, till they reached the shores of those seas where it was believed the precious material so much coveted could be found in abundance. In this way, by degrees, the Romans became better acquainted with the location and nature of the lands from which the Goths and Germans had come. The Northmen themselves aided to dispel the prevailing ignorance in their own regard; for, in their roaming and voyages they took with them their bards, who sung of the deeds of their ancestors and the wonderful manner in which they feasted, fought, and conquered in their far off homes among the fjords, mountains, and snows of the North. It is probable, that, in the course of time, these tales of the Gothic bards became known to the people of Southern Europe, and thus the latter came to know more of Scandinavia and its people.
According to the records of the Northmen and the evidences of modern research, the Scandinavians were a Gothic or German race. Like all the nations who now people Europe, they came originally from Asia and belong to the Aryan race. Leaving their home in the East, they made their way westward, till they turned aside to follow the route which each tribe selected for it. The special German nation to which the Scandinavians belong was early known as the Goths. These people had pushed themselves, from their old Eastern homes, westward and northward, until they arrived on the shores of the Baltic and the German seas, where they took possession of the islands and coast lands, driving out or enslaving the older tribes, which, long before, had come from the regions beyond the Black Sea. The people driven out by the new comers were compelled to find homes in colder and less fruitful lands, where their descendants, in modern times, are known as Finns and Lapps. There are no reliable data to show the precise time when the Goths first came to the North of Europe. These people, in their new homes, in time increased so in numbers that they began to swarm south in pursuit of more fertile lands, and for war and pillage. For centuries from the declining period of the Roman Republic, the Northmen were known as a restless, wandering, piractical race of people, who continually invaded and ravaged the more southern countries of Europe, ever eager to plant themselves on the first fertile spot which promised them food and shelter, or to capture and sack the village or town which promised them rich plunder. Tribe after tribe appeared almost every year with the opening of spring; and when Rome ceased to exist as a dominating power, and Charlemagne had organized a new European empire, these Goths from the North continued their roving and aggressive habits, hanging on every frontier and coast, and penetrating through bay and river which opened the way to successful attack and pillage. The Viking expeditions were a terror to every city and country on the Atlantic coasts and inlets from the English Channel to the Mediterranean. Their boldness, fierceness, and vigor of body and mind, made an ever-enduring impression on the people of the more favored countries of the South. Of authentic and entirely reliable history of that portion of the Scandinavian people who became known as the Swedes, there is not much until the Christian period of Swedish history. There is a degree of probable history of Scandinavia and its people in the sagas, the general name of those compositions which contain the history and mythology of the Northern people of Europe. At the courts of the Northern kings, the skald or bard, was accustomed to compose poetry and chants in honor of those who had distinguished themselves in warlike exploits, and to recite and sing them on festive and public occasions. These productions abounded in historical recitals of the chief families, and the ancestry of those who listened to them with lively interest. These were repeated until they were fully engraved in the memory of those who heard them, and handed down from one generation to another. Later this oral poetry was put in writing, and constituted the sagas. The most important of these were the productions of Icelanders, who made considerable progress in literature in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The “New Edda” is a Scandinavian work drawn from these sagas by Snorre Sturleson, who was a judge in Iceland from 121 5 to 1222. This book contains an account of the mythology, poetry, and philosophy of the Scandinavian people, and gives valuable information on their history. These recitals of the sagas are too much intermixed with mythology and fiction to furnish very much positive data for authentic history, so far, at least, as Sweden is concerned. It would be foreign to the historic sketch we are now attempting, to bring forward this class of testimony. As tending to show the spirit, resolution, vigor, and character of the Northmen, these sagas are referred to as of value, and, were we not here making but a meagre outline would be considered at length. It is correct to say, that the reliable history of Sweden of chief importance begins after the introduction of Christianity into the country in the reign of King Olaf, which was from 993 to 1024. Of the three Scandinavian countries, Sweden became known to the intelligent world of Europe at a later period than the other two. Denmark was farther south, and composed of islands favorably situated, and that country and Norway were more adjacent to the Atlantic, which made them more accessible to the nations of the South; while Sweden, which had its water domain chiefly on the Baltic, became known to the more advanced people of Europe at a later date than Denmark and Norway, whose theatre of activity was more on the western seas. The mythology and religion of the Swedes show them, as well as the Danes and Norwegians, to have been a vigorous, warlike people, among whom personal independence and strength of character were fostered. Like the Danes, the Swedes traced the descent of their early kings back to Odin. Throughout the North every king was the pontiff, or high-priest, of his people; and one of his chief duties was to offer annual sacrifices within the temples of his kingdom. The accounts given of the rise of the Swedish monarchy, in the legend known as the “Ynglina Saga,” was written by the Iceland scribes from the old songs brought down from former generations. This and other sagas, which give an account of the royal races of Sweden, were doubtless based on real facts which had become intermixed with many fables. That these people, in their dark and bloody Paganism, lived in much turbulence and strife, cannot be doubted. Their kings were elective, and often changed. The people with arms in their hands were powerful, though they followed their sovereigns with obedience in warlike enterprises. In the period in which the Danes were hovering on the coasts of Great Britain, and making hostile inroads into Germany and Gaul, the Swedes were striking out boldly into Eastern Europe, turning their arms against the Finns, Lapps, and Wends, and making much of the territory which is now in Russia, the theatre of their warlike success. Making, thus, a brief glance at these early centuries of Swedish history, we come to the time when Olaf became known as the first Christian king of Sweden, since whose reign there are reliable data for history. He was taught Christianity by Siegfred, an English missionary, who devoted a long life to the work of teaching the Pagan Swedes the religion of the gospel. Olaf had been seven years king when he received Christian baptism, about the year 1000. He died in 1024, not having been able to induce his people to follow his example in adopting the new faith. They compelled him to leave them free to follow the religion of their fathers; while they allowed him to erect a bishopric, and gave him choice of any district in Sweden in which he might build Christian churches. For this purpose, he selected West Gothland, which continued to be the chief seat of the Christian faith; while the lands of the Svea would not allow Christian priests within their limits, or acknowledge Christian kings for their rulers, for more than a hundred and fifty years after the death of Olaf. An effort had been made to introduce Christianity into Sweden more than a hundred and fifty years earlier by Frankish monks. The son and successor of Charlemagne, Louis le Debonnaire, took an ardent interest in sending Christian missionaries to the Pagans of the North. Under the auspices of this pious emperor, a monk from Picardy named Anscarius, and his friend, another monk, called Autbert, went to Denmark in 827. But these missionaries did not meet with the reception they expected, and were soon driven from the country to which they had gone with such devotion and sacrifice. This was a keen disappointment to the pious Louis, as well as to Anscarius and his friend. Two years later, in 829, Bjorn, a Swedish king, sent to Louis, asking him to send Christian teachers to his country, that he and his people might be taught the new religion. This Bjorn was king of Upper Sweden, and had his royal residence and chief town at Upsala, near the great temple of Odin, and the consecrated centre of the Norse Paganism. Receiving this information, the Emperor Louis again sent for Anscarius, who at once responded to the call, and, with monks and servants, entered on their long and dangerous journey to the North. In the course of their voyage on the Baltic they were beset with pirates, robbed of the valuable manuscript-books given them by the emperor, and put on shore in destitution. In this forlorn condition they made their way to Sweden, where they were well received by the king and his people, and allowed to preach to and baptize all who were willing to accept the new faith As soon, however, as Anscarius went away, the influence of his work rapidly disappeared. Twenty years later, when he returned, he found the Swedes so afraid of bringing on their heads the wrath of the gods if they listened to the Christian teachers, that they threatened to put them to death unless they immediately abandoned the country. Thus the missionaries, whom the son of Charlemagne had induced to go to the remote North to convert the Pagans, were compelled to leave their work unfinished. Other attempts were made to introduce the Christian doctrines among the Swedes at different times after Anscarius and his fellow monks were driven from the country; but it was more than one hundred and seventy years from the first unsuccessful effort of the Emperor Louis and his monks to evangelize the people of Sweden, to the date of the baptism of Olaf, the first Christian king. Olaf had passed some of his early life in Denmark, where Christianity had sooner made progress; and there he had undoubtedly been favorably impressed in its regard. But the stern resistance it met with among his people after his own public adoption of the new faith showed how little real hold it had then obtained, and how tenaciously the old religion maintained its power over the inhabitants of Sweden. Siegfred, the English missionary, had, indeed, been more successful than Anscarius, but to a limited degree only. A long and troublesome struggle was to continue between the old Scandinavian religion and what was then taught as Christianity, before the latter would acquire full supremacy in the country. The Swedish peasants of that age had great power in the State, and were not slow to exercise it, not alone in matters of religion, but in other important affairs. The baptism of their king to the new faith, and the authority his example implied, were not enough to win or compel them to its adoption, as the sequel most forcibly showed. Olaf died in 1024; and his two sons, Jacob and Edmund, successively reigned nearly thirty years, the last dying about 1054.
The Stenkil line of kings began in 1055, and continued nearly seventy years. During that period the country was torn by factions, religious wars raged with violence, and finally all the reigning family and many of the chief men were slain together. In this state of violence and anarchy no bishops remained in Sweden, and the old religion regained chiefly its ascendancy. In 1 130 the Sverker line of kings began its rule, and continued ninety or more years. This also was a period of turbulence, strife, and bloodshed. Sverker Carlsson, who reigned from 1,135 to 1,155 under whom the condition of the country somewhat improved, was a believer in Christianity; and under him the Church of Rome obtained some form of official recognition. In his old age this Sverker king was troubled by civil wars, and finally slain by his own servants while on the way to hear mass in a Christian church. He was succeeded in 1155 by Erik, whose reign formed an epoch in Swedish history. This king (after his death called St. Erik) worked earnestly and effectively during his reign to improve the state of the country. The old sagas assert that King Erik sought to accomplish three things: “to build churches and improve the services of religion, to rule his people according to law and right, and to subdue the enemies of his faith and realm.” He enjoys the credit of having gained the love and gratitude of all the women of Sweden by the laws which he made to secure them valuable rights, of which the following were the most important, —that “every wife shall have equal power with her husband over locks, bolts, and bars; that she may claim half his bed during his life, and enjoy one-third of his property after his death.” It was not until the reign of this king that the Christian religion fully secured its ascendancy in Sweden. Until this time the worship of Odin had been kept up, at the cost of Christians as well as Pagans. He was the first king who erected a church at Upsala, thus disregarding the Pagan claims as to its special sanctity as the long-recognized centre of the old faith. Under his protection an archbishopric was created, to which Henrik, who had reputation of being a learned and pious man was appointed. This prelate Went with the king on an expedition to Finland. The idolaters of that country had repeatedly desolated the coasts of Sweden, and it became necessary to bring them to better behavior. Accompanied by Henrik as Christian missionary, King Erik succeeded in putting down Paganism in that country by the establishment of the new faith, and probably planted there some Swedish colonies. Bishop Henrik was the first Christian apostle to the Finns, and died a martyr. It was during the reign of this king that Finland, a large and important country, was joined with Sweden, — a union which remained unbroken until the Machiavellian insinuation of Napoleon on the raft of Tilsit, and the ambition of the czar, caused the former country to be absorbed in the Russian Empire, after the connection had been maintained with Sweden six hundred and fifty years. King Erik lost his life in an attack by Magnus Henriksson of Denmark, who, claiming to have some rights to the Swedish throne, arched in force to Upsala. Erik was then attending mass at the church, and, when warned of the near approach of the enemy, would not quit service until its close. He then pressed forward at the head of his men to encounter the force of the hostile prince, and, in the fierce fight which ensued, was slain by the invaders on the public square, May, 1160. The virtues and religious devotion of this king gained for him the love of the Swedes, who cherished him as their patron saint. For a long time his remains were preserved in the cathedral at Upsala, and venerated as holy relics. His arms were emblazoned on the national flag, which the Swedes bore in the wars against the enemies of the State. They celebrated the anniversary of his death, and the city of Stockholm has his image on its seal and banner. For nearly a hundred years after the death of St. Erik kings of his line continued to reign in Sweden and during this period there was much turbulence and repeated civil war. There was frequent repetition of bitter and destructive struggles for the throne between rival princely aspirants and their partisans. The prelates and the nobles increased their power and pretensions amid these bloody turmoils, and assumed the right to elect the king, which in former generations had long been the prerogative of the people assembled with arms in their hands. Compacts and conventions were often arranged for the transmission of the royal scepter, made with armed hands, and written in blood, and as often broken after brief continuance. To this internal strife were added bloody quarrels with Denmark and Norway, with which dynastic claims and ambitions had more or less to do. The murder of rival royal families by the successful aspirant to power was carried to the extent of slaying even the sons and grandsons, and assassination was a frequent expedient of the contending factions. The last of the house of Sverker having died in 1222, Erik Eriksson came to the vacant throne. Though the last scion of the family who had disputed with his own for its possession had gone to the tomb, Erik did not long enjoy its undisputed control. These continual struggles of the rival monarchical families tended to weaken the royal power, and to increase the influence and pretensions of the chief nobles, from whom now sprang a powerful family who finally obtained the throne, —the Folkungar race, who were to hold the: kingly office for a century. One of its members, Birger Brosa, exercised the functions of jarl, dying in 1202, for the ancient princely dignity of jarl had become the first place of the court and the government. He who filled it had the title of Jarl of the Swedes, of the Sueones, and of the Goths, prince by the grace of God. In official acts he came next after the king. His functions and relation to the royal power were similar to those once held by the mayors of the palace among the French. Out of this family was now to come a more powerful man than Birger Brosa. It was after the Sverker line of kings had become extinct, nearly one hundred years after St. Erik, that a man of conspicuous ability and force of character ruled the kingdom, though he never became the crowned king. This man, Birger Jarl, ruled in the name of another. In 1248 he was clothed with the dignity of jarl. The words of the Roman prelate in regard to him gave the measure of power of this prince: “The whole country is governed by this man.” The legal king dying in 1252, in which the family of Erik became extinct, the question of a new king being raised, Birger Jarl being then in Finland, choice was promptly made of the young son of Jarl, named Valdemar. To raise the child Valdemar to the throne was to give the government to the father, who administered it with marked energy and success. He made several improvements in the laws and regulations of the kingdom. He abolished the custom of liquidating crime by money, and put an end to the trial by red-hot iron. The foundation of Stockholm is attributed to him. He sought to open relations with England, was esteemed as a mediator in the differences between Denmark and Norway, and gave asylum at his court to the Grand Duke of Russia. He died in 1266. The powerful family of Folkungar, of whom Birger Jarl was its ablest representative, was excluded from the throne in 1365, after having ruled a century. During that period important changes took place, —the people lost much of their influence in the affairs of their government, special privileges to the clergy were secured, the power of the nobles was increased, and the authority of the king extended. The animosity and strife of rival princes continued, and violence and war often prevailed.
The next period of Swedish history, from 1365 to 1470, is termed that of the foreign kings and the union of the three crowns. In the latter part of the reign of the Folkungar family, the royal power was much constrained by the intrigues and grasping ambition of the higher nobles. It was by the efforts of these Swedish lords that foreign rulers were brought into the country. Disturbed by the turbulence of these lords, Magnus, the last of the Folkungar kings, had driven twenty-four of them into exile. These went into Germany. Arrived at the court of Mecklenburg, they offered the crown of Sweden to Albrekt, a son of a sister of Magnus married to a German prince. A fleet transported Albrekt, with the exiled lords, into Sweden. This German prince was proclaimed king at Stockholm. Thus the higher nobles disposed of the throne and the destiny of the country according to their own ambitions and interests. And it was through their intrigues and influence that the union of the three crowns of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway was brought about, — called the Union of Calmar, taking its name from the old Swedish city of Calmar on the Baltic coast of the southeastern part of the kingdom. This period of a century was one of great calamities, strife, and bloodshed for Sweden. A united Scandinavia would seem to be a result plainly indicated by geography and the ethnology of the people who inhabit it; but it failed at this time, chiefly because those men who brought it about sought to wield its power and advantages for the promotion of their personal and family interests. It was obnoxious to the people of Sweden; because these privileged lords, a limited number, were the representatives and executive agents of a foreign rule, chiefly to their own aggrandizement. Therefore the country was continually distracted by the violent efforts made to get rid of what seemed foreign despotism. The union, which became so detested in Swedish memories and Swedish history, was consummated in 1387. The king of Denmark died in 1375, and the king of Norway in 1380. The son of the latter (Olaf, after his father) reigned over Denmark and Norway until his death, in 1387, when his mother, Margaret, was proclaimed regent of these two kingdoms; and the same year she received the Swedish crown from those in the kingdom who had concentrated in their hands the interests and the power of the factions hostile to Albrekt and the German rule. The long period of misgovernment, violence, and anarchy which followed brought their evils to all; but the peasantry, as usual, were the greatest sufferers. Ambitious nobles, powerful prelates, and rival competitors for the throne, were the agencies of strife. The elements of opposition to the union and foreign rule finally concentrated around the family of Sture, who became in a large degree the representative of Swedish patriotism and nationality. Sture the elder became the real ruler of the country in 1470, though he did not assume the title of king. Several years before, the cry had been raised throughout the country, “Sweden is a kingdom, not a farm or a parish, to be ruled over by bailiffs; and we will have no Danish overseers, but a genuine Swede for our king.” The resistance to Christian I of Denmark was so strong that the Swedish Council of State was obliged to yield; and Charles Knutsson was recalled to the throne, Christian having been defeated and driven from the kingdom. This Charles Knutsson had been previously twice temporarily on the throne. He died in 1470, after having committed the government of the country to his nephew, Sten Sture, earnestly entreating him never to attempt to gain the throne for him. The Council of State proclaimed him regent in 1471. Six months later, Christian I made another and last attempt to regain control of the kingdom by landing, near Stockholm, a numerous army of hired German troops, and was signally defeated. For a short period Sweden was said to have enjoyed more quiet and prosperity than it had known for a long time. Christian I reigned ten years after his defeat
in the Swedish capital, and died in 1481, leaving to his son Christian II. The crowns of Denmark and Norway, and his claim to the throne of Sweden, which the Calmar Union gave him. The successful party did not long have quiet and uncontested rule in Sweden. The partisans of the Danish dynasty were still strong, and improved their opportunities to sow discord and disaffection to the rule of the Stures. Hans, the son of Christian, was resolved to regain control of the Swedish kingdom. The nobles who had assented to the rule of Sture as regent did not like him; for he was the favorite of the peasants, and defended them against the cruel exactions of the nobles. Hans with his army and naval force, aided by his powerful Swedish partisans, finally regained the upper hand, and was crowned king at Stockholm in 1499, when he conferred knighthood on all the nobles who had taken part in his proclamation as lawful sovereign. But Sten Sture was still popular with the Swedish peasants. In 1500 a powerful and successful revolt took place against the Danish king and his partisans; and Sture, in the name of the Swedish people, declared the country independent of Denmark. Sten Sture died in 1503; and, having adopted Svante Sture as his heir, the latter was made regent and marshal of the kingdom. This man was of a daring, frank, and generous nature, with the spirit and bearing of a warrior. He cherished the soldiery, and cared more for war than peace. He and his friend, a bishop, Hemming Gade, who were the real rulers of die country during the lifetime of the former, were very hostile to the union, and did what they could to foster hostility to the Danes. Svante Sture died suddenly in 1512; and his son, Sten Sture, was chosen to fill his place. This man was regarded as the best of the Sture race; and he did much to relieve the people from oppressive burdens of taxation, and to ameliorate their general condition, while his efforts to achieve the freedom of his country from the Danes, and to strengthen the national sentiment, made him a favorite with his countrymen. He had a powerful opponent in the Archbishop Trolle, who hated the Stures, and finally became a traitor to his country. This man became the leader of the party in Sweden which wished to bring the Danish king to the throne. Hans of Denmark died in 1513; and Christian II was proclaimed king of that country, and came into possession of whatever legal right there may have belonged to his family to the crown of Sweden. He was a more resolute and determined man than his father, and had the support of Archbishop Trolle and a strong faction of partisans. The young nobility and the peasantry generally favored Sten Sture, but the old senators followed the lead of Trolle in the support of Christian II and his cause. The principal senators, who were no more nor less than the chief nobles, who had been gathering, step by step, as much power as possible in their hands, banded themselves together, under oath, to resist, with all the means at their command, every attempt to take from them what they termed their liberty, their influence, and the right, which they claimed to have possessed for a long time, to regulate the administration of the kingdom whenever the throne became vacant. They agreed to hold fast to the union with Denmark and to restore the authority of the Danish sovereign; but the resistance led by Sture was so strong that the higher nobles were obliged to yield. This concession by the chief lords to Sture and his party had been made before the death of Hans and the coming to the throne of Christian II. When the latter assumed power, and made vigorous assertion of his legal claims to the Swedish throne, the opponents of Sture at once assumed a determined front. Christian brought an army to the gates of Stockholm, but was defeated by Sture and his adherents in 1518. After the battle, the Danish king sought an interview with Sture, and, in proof of good faith, asked -that Swedish hostages should be sent on board the Danish fleet, and there remain until Christian returned safe from the interview. Sture agreed to this proposition, and made choice, with their own assent, of bishop Hemming Gade and five other persons of noble birth, one of whom was young Gastavus Vasa, who was to play such an important part in the future history of Sweden. This young man was a warm supporter of the party hostile to Danish rule and in the recent war had borne the standard of his country in the battle before Stockholm. While the meeting between Sture and Christian was taking place, by the order of the latter the Danish ship on board of which were the six hostages sailed to Denmark, where Hemming Gade, Gustavus Vasa, and their four associates were kept in prison as rebels. The result of this infamous and cruel breach of faith was the renewal of the civil war. On his return to Copenhagen, Christian sought and obtained a bull from the Pope to place Sweden under an interdict, and to excommunicate Sten Sture and all his supporters.
Thus terminated Christian’s treacherous pretension of the wish to be reconciled with the regent and his party. A Danish army was sent into Sweden, and its commander ordered to affix to all church-doors throughout the kingdom copies of the papal decrees. Although at first the forces of Christian were defeated, their superior strength, aided by the partisans of the union in Sweden, led by the archbishop finally prevailed. Sten Sture died in 1520, and his loss to the party of Swedish independence left his country at the mercy of Christian II and his imbittered and sanguinary partisans. In the autumn of the same year Christian was crowned at Stockholm with much splendor, and, by his affability and grace of manners, made a strong impression on the Swedes who took part in his coronation. The Swedish chroniclers say that he showed himself benevolent, pleasant, and gay, receiving some by embracing them, and others by grasping their hands, and that all his conduct announced reassuring dispositions; and this when he must have had in mind the atrocious proceedings which soon followed, which stained his memory forever as a brutal tyrant. Immediately after these reassuring indications, the king’s chief officers of state came before Christian while surrounded by his court, and, in the name of the Archbishop Trolle, demanded justice for the wrongs which the latter claimed to have suffered at the hands of Sture and his councilors, who had deprived him of his see for his treasonous conduct. On the pretence of maintaining the authority of the church, Christian demanded to know the names of all who had signed the deposition of Trolle. The document was produced; and all those whose names were attached to it were arrested at once, although they were bravely defended by Christine Gyllenstjerna, the widow of the regent Sture, who showed plainly that the doomed men had acted only in conformity with the act of the national Diet. On the 8th of November, 1520, only a few days after the pompous and flattering circumstances of the coronation, ninety persons, who had been the chief supporters of Sture and the patriotic cause, were led forth into the marketplace of Stockholm, where, surrounded by the Danish troops, they were decapitated, one after the other, in the presence of the terror-stricken Swedes. The first who suffered was a Bishop Mads, who, as the fatal blow was about to be struck, cried aloud, “The king is a traitor, and God will avenge this wrong.” Among the condemned was Erik Johansson Vasa, the father of the future kings of Sweden. When he was led out, a messenger came to him from Christian, offering him pardon. “No,” he cried: “for God’s sake, let me die with all these honest men, my brethren!” and then laid his neck on the block. Of such parentage was the young hero who had been treacherously carried away as a hostage, and who was to play such a part in the future history of his country.
That tragic episode in Swedish history has been well named the “blood-bath,” and its author handed down the ages as a tyrant. Others were hanged, or perished in tortures. The murders continued several days. The bodies of the victims remained three days on the public square, after which they were dragged into a suburb of the city, and burned. The remains of Sten Sture and those of his child were taken from their tomb, and thrown into the flames. On all roads, as he quit Stockholm, Christian scattered terror by similar deeds of cruelty; and at the commencement of 1521, before he had passed the frontiers of Sweden, more than six hundred persons had perished by his vengeance. Thus the Union of Calmar had finally been drowned in blood, and was thereafter, for the patriotic Swedes, to be but a synonym of treachery and brutal violence; and their writers have not unfittingly called the time of the Stockholm massacre their Bartholomew’s Day.
WHILE THESE SANGUINARY PROSCRIPTIONS WERE occurring, the young Gustavus Vasa, having escaped from his enemies, was wandering in the forests of Dalecarlia, a province of the country where the spirit of resistance to tyranny had before repeatedly manifested itself with vigor and determination, as it did in subsequent times. Flying from the minions of Christian and Trolle, he was able to conceal himself from his persecutors, sometimes in a carriage loaded with straw, sometimes under the branches of trees, and at other times in caves and ditches, cherishing the firm resolution to save his country, with the assistance of God and the Swedish peasants. Everywhere the terrorizing effects of the recent successes of Christian and the organized force at his command had intimidated the Swedish population, and tended to make his authority supreme. But Gustavus soon obtained a small following among the Dalecarlian peasantry. At first cautious, and reluctant to follow him, the fervid eloquence of the young hero, who had escaped from the captivity of which he had been so perfidiously made the victim, his vivid representation of the wrongs of his countrymen, of the bloody proceedings of Christian and his partisans and their hired mercenaries, finally told on the peasants, and brought to his standard a small force, with which he marched against his enemies. The first successes of his arms soon brought numbers to his standard; and he finally defeated the main army of Christian, in which served nearly eight thousand Germans. This victory was the turning-point in the career of the Swedish leader, and rendered his country’s deliverance only a question of months. He showed great skill and energy in organizing his party, and securing the necessary financial means to resist successfully the powerful elements of force still at the command of Christian and his partisans. The Lubeck merchants and brokers, always ready to advance money to those whose necessities obliged them to pay large dividends, favored him by loans, which, added to what he had been able to secure in Sweden by great diligence and care, put him in financial condition to maintain his army. In the mean time the cruelties and brutalities of Christian and his adherents became more and more known to the entire kingdom. At the time of the blood-bath on the public square of Stockholm, in November, 1520, many of the widows and children of the victims had been carried away to Denmark. The news now came, that these prisoners had perished in horrible dungeons into which they had been thrown. At this tragic intelligence the anger of the Swedes knew no bounds. The mother of young Gustavus and his two sisters were among these victims, the husband and the father of who had before perished on the block. These sanguinary transactions of the Danish king were laid before the Pope and the Emperor Charles V in a letter by young Gustavus, as justification of his taking up arms. When the information of this came to the ears of Christian, he sent orders to his commander to put to death every Swedish noble he could lay his hands on. This cruel order was evaded, to the credit of the Danish general, saying it was “better those men should have a chance of getting a knock on the head in battle, than to wring their necks as if they were chickens.” Other officers of King Christian were less scrupulous, and carried out his relentless orders of murder. Finally driven from Sweden by the general uprising and the able leadership of young Vasa, on the 23rd of June 1523, at a meeting of the Swedish Diet, the union with Denmark, which had lasted one hundred and twenty six years, was forever dissolved and Gustavus Vasa proclaimed king of Sweden. The Danish garrisons were driven from all the fortified places and the national independence of Sweden became an accomplished fact. By the commencement of 1524 Finland declared in favor of Gustavus; and thus the entire dominion of Swedes recognized the new order of things, and came under the rule of the heroic leader whose strong and brilliant qualities inspired the hopes of the nation.