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218
Aristocratic and democratic
parties.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
Oxeiiktieina and
Sliytte.
[ICIl—
For this rising influence any aristocratical plan
was hardly needed. Yet such did exist among
the magnates of the time, of whom Axel Oxen-
stierna was the most enlightened and high-minded.
To tlio notions, proper to old Swedish freedom, of
the limits on regal power, as they were understood
by his order, he paid absolute homage, and, albeit
he concealed not his way of thinking *, remained
the friend of Gustavus Adolphus. Thus do great
souls understand one another.
There is a story cuiTent in Swedish annals, of
the conflicting political principles of the parties of
OxENSTiERNA and Skytte ;
a strife of aristocracy
and democracy, at the head of which on the one
side is placed the high chancellor, on the other
John Skytte, tutor of Gustavus Adolphus, and
afterwards councillor of state *. Conformably with
this assumption, some remarkable sayings are
ascribed to the king, which do not contradict what
is otherwise known to us of the persons and affairs
of this time 3. In the year 161.3, we find John
Skytte complaining that he had been disturbed in
his repose, and removed from the king’s person by
other charges; that such was done by the king’s
will, and that there had even been a question of
dismissing him from the king’s service; he entreats
Axel Oxenstierna to counteract these designs*.
’ " This is disreputable,—speaking of commotions of sub-
jects. If you yield, then follows intestine revolt. If in such
cases you deny subjects leave to speak, then men agree to
bring tyranny into the commonwealth, and confusion of all
things. In such cases, where one sees his country oppressed,
all rights of majesty overturned, and the whole kingdom
reduced into the form of a province, shall he let himself be
persuaded to silence? That is an undertaking, which costs
many heads. Had our forefathers under Engelbert and old
king Gustavus not plucked up good resolution, we had at
this day been lying (vi hade i denna dag legat) under Den-
mark in the same condition as Norway." Axel Oxenstierna,
in the council, 1640. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. (As a curious
specimen of Swedish diplomatic language, or jargon, at that
day, I subjoin the first part of this passage : Det ar disrepu-
terligt att tala om subditorum motibus. Nekar man subdili
uti sadana fall att tala, sa bifalla man och indrager tyran-
nidem in rempublicam et rerum omnium confusionem, &c.
T.) Compare his language to Whitelocke upon the revolu-
tion in England, in his journal of his embassy to Sweden in
1653. Yet he required a strong government, and was not
favourable to republican institutions.
"
Every man knows,
what beast a republic is. Sweden cannot be governed with-
out kingship. In Sweden the people is powerfulest, if it be
not curbed by kings," he said to the council in 1650.
2 A lampoon written against Charles, asserts that he was
a natural son of that king, whom he is said to have re-
sembled in appearance and shape of body. When Gustavus
Adolphus made Skytte a baron, he took his place in the
Swedish hall of barons next after Gyllenhielm, the natural
son of Charles IX.
3 " Master John Skyttfe was secretly at political rivalry
with the chancellor, the lord Axel Oxenstierna. Skytte
wished quite to make cabbage of the old leading nobility,
whose arrogance Charles IX. had so potently broken. The
king believed that it was now no longer so dangerous, and
that if his majesty cajoled and held short both parties, it
might well be that they would keep watch upon each other,
without either getting the upper hand. The king had, be-
sides, his own thoughts of Skytte’s idea, and mistrusted its
consequences to be more threatening to his regal power
than to present projects of the old nobility. He declared
to the sagacious lord Steno Bielke, In whom he had great
confidence :
’
The Skyttians may well have the notion of
reigning without a king, while ye others would at least
keep one for seeming. The nobility is a middle order, and
Afterwards we hear of sharp words exchanged
between the two statesmen ^. Skytte, though he
continued to be employed in high and weighty
affairs, was yet more a man of theory than of
practice, and appears not to have possessed the
uutiring activity of the chancellor, which was the
surest course to the favour of Gustavus. For this
he had at length, as governor-general of Livonia,
to submit to somewhat severe rebukes from the
king ^. On the other hand, the chancellor rose in
the confidence of his sovereign, nay, enjoyed such
a friendship, as nobler was never known between
a monarch and his subject
’
; yet Gustavus, though
his aversion to popular rule is known from others
of his sayings*, kept himself independent of his
ministers in political opinions ;
for proof whereof
may be alleged his sentiments in respect to the
privileges of nobility.
Between the privileges offered by Charles and
those issued by Gustavus Adolphus on his mounting
the throne, although the latter are the more ample,
the difference is smaller than might be supposed.
Even the determination of the trooper-service to
one good horse and one able-bodied man for 400
marks’ rent (about 266§ rix-doUars specie), re-
mained the same as in king John’s privileges
especially the rich among them, that may balance the
Skyttians, and so hinder them from scratching the king
with their coaxing cats’-paws. Ye others are of too high
cast by nature to go to work so; we must only fend our-
selves from j’ou, that ye come not to rule under the name
of a king ;
for aristocracy is hard-handed. But yet I hold
with the chancellor, that the democrats, again, are blood-
thirsty when they get into power. Besides, no glory shines
on their eternal grudges and quarrels j
such the annals of
all time prove this party’s manner of governing to be; and
pitiable the king that lets himself be fooled by their dainty
meats, worse than the hard gripe of others.’
"
Remarks upon
king Gustavus Adolphus the Great, in the Memoirs for the
History of Scand. viii. 10. The unknown author did not
write before 1739. He gives his account as traditional, but
traces its origin from a man of note, who forged himself his
own fortune, the count Lindskold, royal councillor in the
list of 1680, who derived it from the times of Gustavus
Adolphus. We find the same tradition in the well-known
Anecdotes de Sufede, which are of Charles XL’s days.
1 Litterae Joh. Skytte ad Ax. Oxenstierna. Gripsholm,
d. Julii 26, 1613. Palmsk. MSS. t. 371.
5
Skytte once coming late into the council. Axel Oxen-
stierna remarked that he had probably been detained by
reading Machiavel. " You know him by nature," was the
reply of Skytte. When, after the king’s death, Oxenstierna
came back from Germany, and sat at Skytte’s table, tlie
host’s little grandson asked, "Is this one of the five kings?"
Skytte reprimanded the boy; Oxenstierna smiled, and said,
’•
The young pig grunts after the old sow." " Rem acu teti-
gisti," he said once, when Skytte held an opposite opinion in
the council—an allusion to Skytte’s father, the burgomaster
of Nykoeping, who was called Bennet (Bengt) Tailor. Hcr-
melin, Apophthegmata. Nordin MSS.
6 " All the draughts you transmit are stuffed with a heap
of excuses and arguments. We beg you will take example
by others, who stand in much greater difficulties, and yet
find means to come to our help; whom if you will emulate,
opportunity will hardly fail you." Gustavus Adolphus to
John Skytte, Stettin, March 1, 1631. Register in the Ar-
chives. Another letter of reproof is dated Usedom, June
28, in the same j’ear. Ibid.
? See especially the well-known letter of Dec. 30, 1630.
8 " For in it (the populace) is no counsel, no reason, no judg-
ment, no diligence." Gustavus Adolphus to his brother-in-
law, the elector of Brandenburg (the letter is manifestly to
him), Jan. 25, 1620. Palmsk. MSS. t 36. BOS.
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