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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-lialf of the requirements of the horse-service
tenure, the first hereditary fiefs in counties and
free baronies, and the exemption from public
burdens of the seats of the gentry (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
Sweden’s nobles were " so contemned and oppi’essed,
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 councilloi’s of state are to
receive 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
prohibition of the year 1578, that he had reserved to
himself 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 110 nobles," the king
reserves 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
judicial 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 011 the
royal estates, from liability to military service
within 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
unable to keep horse and man completely should
transfer 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 3."
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
requested or wished for. As yet the whole
meaning 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 4."
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
captured vessels, and to refund the expenses of the
war. When king John at the diet of 15G9
demanded 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 pikes5." A new congress
between 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 Ilerjedale, and left the dispute regarding the
three crowns undetermined. The Swedish
possessions in Livonia were to be purchased by the
emperor, 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
accession of the new king Russian envoys were
present at Stockholm. Their commission to obtain the
delivery to the Czar of Catharine, the wife of John,
had made them objects of such abhorrence, that on
the taking of Stockholm they had well-nigh fallen
victims to popular fury, but were saved by duke
Charles, who defended them with his own hand.
They had resided two years in Sweden before their
return in 15<J9. 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
demanded 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.
2 This in fact subsisted previously. For when a poor
gentleman served one of the councillors or knights, "he was
spared the burden of horse-service," says count Brahe in his
household-book, written in 1585
3 The same words are repeated in the confirmation of the
new titles of count.
4 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.
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