Full resolution (JPEG)
- On this page / på denna sida
- XII. John and Charles. A.D. 1569—1592
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
180
Thn king’s return ;
his
disarust wiih the council. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
The estates convoked.
Arraignment of six lords. [I sca-
the kingdom
*
;
for the rest, their majesties might
be assured of tlie fidehty of the lords, and that
they would not spare tlicir blood or lives for the
defence of Sigisinund’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 officei’s
repaired to the castle, and laid down their standards
before the two kiugs’ 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 m
Stockholm, wrote that duke Charles had begun to
excite disturbances in Sweden. Sigismund tore
himself on the 30th September from the arras of
his father, and John, having despatched plenipo-
tentiaries to negotiate with the Russians, passed to
his ships thi’ough 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
I’emained 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 ^.
Charles was replaced in possession of all his rights
in the principality, and assumed in 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, mterested
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 Spai’re’,
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 wei’e 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
* In the accusation before the estates, and in their decla-
ration hereby produced, it is said the lords had employed the
followinj; expressions: "to bar the king«iom against both
their majesties." The expressions quoted in the text are as
they are found in Werwing, Appendix 29, and in Eric Sparr6’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
di-awn 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
ascertam 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 hereditai-y 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, tlie nobility declared that they, as faith-
ful adherents of the hereditary settlement, would
completely cut off the said lords from their body,
imless they could defend themselves upon sufficient
grounds, to which declaration tlie 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 Bralie, on the
occasion of the Cahnar Statutes passed in 1587, is
said to have expressed hopes of the restoration of
an elective monarchy in Sweden "
;
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
by John himself?—With more reason might Charles
complain of them. Thus he was hardly reconciled
to the kin" 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
’ To duke Charles, upon certain affairs of 1589, after the
return from Reval. Registry.
6
Messenius, vii. 86. Eric Sparr^ 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 of the other, since there was a great difference
between word and deed.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Project Runeberg, Sun Dec 10 07:08:34 2023
(aronsson)
(download)
<< Previous
Next >>
https://runeberg.org/histswed/0206.html
