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1598.]
The coronation.
Disorders at Stockholm. CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND.
Old abuses renewed.
Postulates of the nobles. 187
bishop Bellinus of Westerns performed the coro-
nation of the king and queen in the cathedral of
Upsala. The archbishop read the prayers. As
the king dropped his hand during the oath, Charles
reminded him to keep it upright. He himself took
his oath to the king without bending the knee,
but laid his ducal cap at the royal feet. His rights
as duke were confirmed, without the contested
limitations, and he received Dalsland in addition
as a pledge for his loan to the crown.
"
Sigismund was slov/ in confirming all clerical
and laical privileges," says the great Gustavus
Adolphus; "and as he promised with hesitancy, so
he kept to it no longer than between Upsala and
Stockholm; for hardly was he arrived in Stockholm
when he made the count Eric Brahe (a Catholic) to
be lieutenant there, which was not the least office in
Sweden. Malaspina, the evil thorn that stuck in
the king’s foot, made him halt sorely in his pro-
mises ; popish schools, popish churches were erected ;
around Stockholm divine service was interrupted
by disturbance; men were obliged to go armed to
the church ; complaint thereof was made to the
king, but little good thereby effected. Moreover
the king’s councillors found it good to fish in the
troubled water. Sweden must be stirred up to
civil discords, that one heretic might be extirpated
by another. The king hastened to Poland. Here
all was to remain in disorder and confusion, no one
bound to obey another, that the more speedily,
among so many magnates (for every province had
its lieutenant), mischiefs might spring up. But as
the majesty of the realm of Sweden was by God’s
succour defended and maintained up to this day, so
that it never was transferred to another monarchy,
but by God’s blessing and Swedish valour was pre-
served to this country and nation, so too were now
found men who would not allow this design of the
king’s to be effected. The council, which was in
Stockholm, ^irotested against him, that it was not
competent for him to remove the kingly govei-n-
ment out of the land; he should appoint a govern-
ment within the realm, that should manage affairs
instead of his. They also gave king Charles, (so
Gustavus Adolphus constantly styles his father,)
who lay sick at Nykoping, to understand this. The
king indeed made out, although with no good will,
a warrant (which was in tenor accordingly), where-
in with few words my father was empowered to
manage the administration with the council of
state ; but the lieutenants of the provinces were
enjoined to pay this government no regard. Thus
they did whatsoever they wished. To the people,
who (in Sweden especially) were accustomed to
law and justice, it appeared strange that they were
treated so ill
by the lieutenants nominated ;
and as
the people are besides prone to complain, so when
they found themselves oppressed, they ran in crowds
to Stockholm, where they were wont to find redress.
The government would gladly have had from Sigis-
mund a better warrant and fuller instructions, after
which they might have ruled people and realm for
the king’s behoof; which also, while the king was
in Stockholm, was sufficiently promised; yet it was
deferred from day to day, until the king was ready
to sail, and no other could be obtained, whence all
the disorder afterwards flowed ^."
’ MS. from the hand of Gustavus Adolphus, before
cited.
We know the nature of the government which
Sweden had under the former Union ;
on the one
side provincial magnates, who, under the title of
councillors of state, governed in the name of an
absent king ;
on the other a turbulent crowd,
which joined the standard of him among those
who ventured to separate himself from the rest in
order to maintain, under the name of administra-
tor, at least the appearance of a national sove-
reignty. To w-hat degree the new Union with
Poland produced similar relations, biinging up
again old pretensions and abuses, just as if a Gus-
tavus Vasa had never appeared in Sweden, this
has not been adequately and truthfully shown, and
yet herein lies the key to the transactions of the
time.
We return to the chancellor, Eric Sparr€, the
undaunted defender of that which his order styled
old Swedish freedom. On Sigismund’s arrival in
Sweden he presented to the king that tract which
is known under the name of Postulata nobiliitm, or,
according to its more detailed title,
"
Supplication
and submissive request of the council of state, the
knights, and the lesser nobility, to enjoy their an-
cient liberties and privileges in equal measure with
the other estates of the realm." It is subscribed
by the principal members of the council ;
some
passages towards the end, where the author’s pen
seemed too blunt, having been erased. After con-
gratulations to Sigismund upon his arrival in his
hereditary dominions,
"
against the will and pur-
pose of many," and extolling the advantages of the
Union with Poland, which the author seems to love
as his own work, he proceeds to prove that Sweden
had been fi’om of old a state free and controlled by
the law, and could not, as a hereditary kingdom,
have ceased to be so ; although it had since en-
dured many sufferings, which in recent times had
reached their highest point, and which are drawn
in the darkest colours.—Unbounded power was
contrary to God’s word, repugnant to the wisdom
of the ancients, against reason and the law of Swe-
den, and king Eric’s example had shown that even
a hereditary king might justly be deposed on
account of tyranny. To govern absolutely would
of yore have been a word unheard in Sweden ;
nevertheless there were those who now maintained
that before the time of king Gustavus there liad
been no liberties and privileges in the kingdom,
and that it was something new in Sweden to speak
of estates to whom these liberties should belong.
Were there then no estates when the hereditary
settlement was agreed to ? Who else then could
have sanctioned it ? Were there not here princes,
knights, and nobles, bishops and priests, and a con-
siderable army, although exhausted by a tedious
and wasting war ? Were there not here burgesses,
miners, and yeomen, who, as men’s memory can
yet testify, were here of more weight than in any
other country, and partly more respected as being
yeomen 1 And although some say that king John
wished to reserve to himself all affairs, as well spi-
ritual as temporal, yet men must in general con-
sider rather what ought to be than what had been.
Howbeit these were no outlandish, no excessive
and intolerable rights which were now requested
(of these the Swedish nobles had scant experience,
and sought not after them), but only what had been
anciently held good in Sweden.—Thereupon fol-
lows a copious collection of fomier privileges of the
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