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- XIII. Charles against Sigismund. A.D. 1592—1598
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15U8.]
Convention of the
estates at CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND. SoderkcEping. Their
proceedings.
191
of state, he wishing that they should agree with
him, to resolve and ordain all that he intended.
But the few who were present stubbornly opposed
him. Then the duke changed his plan, and ap-
pealed to the estates of the realm, wishing to con-
voke a diet. On the other hand, the council of
state stedfastly protested, and clung to their lord
and king. But the duke held to his way, that he
would not inquire the king’s will thereon, but had
himself the power of convening the estates.—What
was to be done now ? The councillors of the realm
warned the king in good time, and wrote collectively
to his majesty, requesting that he would provide
them with money and men, to resist the over-
weening power of the prince. But meanwhile
duke Charles issued his letters as well in his own
name as in that of the council, that a diet of lords
should be held on the 30th of September in Soder-
KtEPiNG. When the said letters were to be sub-
scribed, the councillors of state said that they could
by no means consent to this diet. Then the prince
used other language, telling them,
" Ye must sign
the letters, and betake yourselves thither too, or I
will show ye another way," and reminded them of
Engelbert the Daleman, who had been a peasant’s
son, and yet could constrain the council of the
realm. " I am a king’s son," said he,
" and prince
hereditary of this monarchy. After my will shall
ye do, and if
ye follow not after with good heart, I
will have ye bi’ought thither in bonds." Thus the
good lords were fain to subscribe the letters with
the prince, whether they wished or not. Yet the
council hoped for effectual assistance from the
knights and nobles. —Now when all were assembled
in Soderkojpiug, the prince, on the 20th October,
with great complaints, caused certain points touch-
ing the evils of the government to be given in to
the estates; saying that he wished to be spared the
toil thereof, if he might not have the power as well
as the name of an administrator; if that which was
contained in the king’s oath, specially anent reli-
gion, might not be fulfilled, and the lord Clas
Fleming, with other refractory chiefs, did not re-
ceive their punishment.
—Now when he had fully
di’awn up the statute of Soderkoeping, every one
who was there present behoved to subscribe and
set their seals to the same. Thereafter he caused a
bench of majesty
*
to be erected on the market-
place. Here he held a free conventicle ; and albeit
he directed his address to all the estates, yet he
turned to the common people ^, closing his parley
on this wise :
" After that we, honourable and good
men, both by means of the answers which ye gave
us on the points that were propounded to you, as
also by means of the points which we caused to be
annexed ’,
have arrived at a complete resolution,
here therefore cometh my question and inteii-oga-
tory, whether ye be minded to defend what here
hath been done and decreed, and will stand to the
same, all for one and one for all, seeing that it is
grounded upon the oath and assurance of the kmg,
8 So an elevated platform, built for the occasion, was
called, when the king wished to speak with the people under
the open sky.
9 Of them Sigismund writes in an answer to one of the
duke’s letters; "For what concerns the common men, his
majesty expected, that they would not presume to be his
guardians, since he had come to such years and understand-
ing, that he could legally manage his own affairs." Wer-
wing, i. 278.
and nought hath been done save what is profitable
to his royal majesty and to our fatherland."—Yet
another time he made the same demand. With
that the common people answered, yea, yea, yea,
gi’acious lord, and took the oath with uplifted
hands,
—" to hold by his princely grace all for one
and one for all," which form of speech the prince
was ever wont to use. Thereupon he turned to the
councillors of state, the bishops and nobles, who
stood by him upon the royal bench, and questioned
them in these words :
" And ye, what say ye to
this ? Hear ye what these have sworn ? Will ye
sever yourselves from them 1" The council of
state answered in the name of the collective body
of knights and nobles, and promised to his princely
grace obedience in all which should tend to the
weal and profit of king and fatherland. But the
prince raised his hand and said,
" So swear that
ye will obey me in that which I shall prescribe."
Then the greatest number lifted their hands, but
there were many who would not. Thereafter
the prince spoke of an aid for lady Anne’s portion,
and the payment of the army, saying,
" We will so
order it that it shall not fall heavily upon any man."
Then the people promised the tax forthwith, and
thanked the prince that he would not tallage them
too highly 2. But the letter of the council to king
Sigismund in Poland remained six weeks without
answer ;
and it was heard that some of the king’s
pernicious secretaries had said,
" Let duke Charles
and the councillors of state pluck and reive. It
hurteth them not. ’Tis good enough for heretics."
Let this stand as a sample of the procedixre of the
old Swedish diets. To what has been quoted, from
the same source, may be subjoined the following.
The estates advised the prince, we are told, tliat
another course should be taken in the diets; that all
points which were to be made generally known,
should be first handled by the indwellers of each
province, and then plenipotentiaries should be sent
by them to the diets, namely, the bishop with some
of the clergy, six of the nobility in the name of all
their peers, six from the army, divers of the bur-
gesses, and six of the commonalty, with the seal of
their province. Hence we discern how indetermi-
nately the representation still oscillated between
the old model by provinces and the new by estates,
such as it was first settled in the time of Gustavus
Adolphus.
The statutes of Soderka3ping v>ere promulgated
by Charles, as well in Swedish as in German and
Latin. By these the provisions previously passed
against the catholics of the realm were confirmed.
Their worship at Stockholm, Drottningholm, and
Vadstena, was interdicted ; their priests were
banished. The convent of Vadstena, the oldest and
most famous in Sweden, was now completely sup-
pressed. For the few remaining nuns Sigismund
provided a refuge in the Bridgettine convent at
Dantzic. A general church-inquest, to extirpate
•
The freedom which Charles used with the acts of the
diets, and of which his adversaries so often complained, he
here acknowledges himself. This was also his father’s
custom.
2 The treasurer says, that the tax was levied in three
j’ears, and amounted to some tuns of gold, but was applied
to the good neither of the princess Anne nor the troops.
The latter is probably an assertion springing from the
author’s ill-will to the duke ;
the former is true, for the
marriage came to nothing.
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