Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIX. Christina's Government and Abdication. A.D. 1644—1654
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340
Its rejection.
—She pro-
poses to the council HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. that the prince he declared
her successor. [1644—
right earnest. Touching the marriage she would
neither give me hopes nor deprive me of them,
but promised me, on the contrary, to give her
hand to no one else in the world, if she should
ever enter into the married state ;
if that might
not be, she vi^ould seek to declare me her successor
on the throne. If I were not content with that,
she had no other resolution to give me. Hereupon
I was silent for some time, being unable to find
words, when her majesty repeated what she had
just said, adding, that in this she took no account
either of her person or mine, but only of the
security and weal of her country ;
no other thought
but this was in her mind ;
therefore her majesty
would send me to take the command of the ai’my,
in order thus to place both myself and the realm in
security against all casualties. Hereupon we fell
into shai’p converse. I averred that T desired
nothing but marriage ;
if hope of this were bereft
me, I would rather content myself with a piece of
bread, and never again see Sweden ;
which her
majesty took ill, declaring that it was a fanfai’onade
and a chapter out of a romance ; our Lord had not
created me to sit down on my father’s lands,
but for something higher ;
she knew my humour
well too, that I would be but ill satisfied with that.
I protested that I was sincere, and reminded her
majesty of what she had said to me at the time of
the marriage of count Magnus ’, JIarch 2, 1647,
that she would possibly yield, in regard to the
match, if not from affection for my person, yet in
deference to the wishes of her subjects ;
if I had
known that she would not adhere to the promises
given to me in her years of childhood, I would
never have returned to Sweden 2. She replied,
that what she had promised in her youth, had been
done out of youthful folly, nor would she be bound
by it ; then she had no power to dispose of a
peasant’s croft, much less of her person. But she
would honourably keep what she now promised.
I replied, and ever held by my first opinion as to
the marriage. I wished that God might keep
me from living to see the day, when after the
death of her majesty I should be in the hands
of these lords ;
I should never agree with them,
and would not stain my hands with their blood.
I could be far better content, vmder such con-
ditions, never to have a hope of the crown. Her
majesty rejoined, that she would take good pre-
caution that I should not soil myself with their
blood ;
on the contrary, she hoped by my person to
avert all disorder ^."
The estates had more than once solicited the
queen to maiTy, and the unnoble estates had also
expressed their wish that she would give lier hand
to Charles Gustavus. At the diet of 1G49, on the
23d February, a deputation of the estates anew
preferred their petition, that she would embrace
some resolution. The following day Christina sur-
prised the council with the proposition, that the
prince should be nominated her successor. For
three years she had meditated this, since she could
not decide on a marriage; an indeterminate succes-
sion would entail great dangers on the monarchy;
Charles Gustavus had no hereditary right to the
• With the princess Maria Euphrosina, sister of Charles
Gustavus ;
a match brought about by Christina.
2 Charles Gustavus had returned to Sweden in 1645, after
permission received from field marshal Torstenson, under
crown, but was of kingly blood, and her nearmost
relative, born in Sweden, and brought up in the
religion, language, manners and laws of the land,
highly esteemed by all on account of his friendly,
benevolent character, and other virtues; of his un-
daunted courage he had given sufficient proofs
against the enemies of the realm; no foreign views
would deter him from dedicating himself wholly to
the service of Sweden. A general silence in the
council followed this address. At length almost
all zealously declared themselves against it. It
would be highly dangerous to appoint a successor
to the queen in her lifetime, especially as he was
not to be her husband; an undetermined succession
was a great evil, a disputed succession was a still
greater; in Sweden men had had sufficient expe-
rience of discords in the royal family; Eric and his
brothers, Sigismund and Charles, were still
freshly
remembered; even between Gustavus Adolphus
and Charles Philip a secret jealousy had prevailed,
which might easily have become dangerous, had
not Providence set bounds to it. If the palsgrave
were declared successor, without certain expecta-
tion of the queen’s hand, he would either marry in
the end some one else, or not at all; in the former
case, if the queen afterwards married, there might
easilj’ be two lines of hereditary princes in the
realm; in the latter, the succession would be anew
uncertain, and the palsgrave, if he did not die be-
fore the queen, must, by the law of his own posi-
tion, endeavour to secure the crown for his family,
perhaps for his brother. To Charles Gustavus
they wished all good, but could only advise mar-
riage; the queen might therefore fulfil the promise
she had once given to the prince. Christina pro-
tested that she had only promised not to marry
another person. She had resolved for the safety
of the realiu to procure the nomination of a suc-
cessor, and they could not wonder if she chose him
whom the estates had deemed worthy of becoming
her consort; the renewal of foi-mer dangers might
be avoided by declining to iiivest him with a duchy.
The altercation became vehement, and arguments
were of the less avail, as every one could divine
that under the queen’s announced resolve some-
thing lay concealed, by which alone that resolve
was to be explained, while yet she would not de-
clare her mind. She herself felt this; she was
constrained to resort to the high hand, and she did
so. The young sovereign tried her power over
gray-headed statesmen and warriors, before whom
Europe had trembled, and silenced them by the
boldest impeachments. She knew well (they were
haughtily told) that the senate wished again to
introduce elective monarchy and aristocracy in
Sweden ; the plans of the chancellor and the
steward, the expectations of the Oxenstiernas and
Brahes were no secrets; they had spoken of a con-
test of hereditary princes for the crown; was it
better, then, that it should thenceforth become an
apple of discord between their own children ?
Declare Charles Gustavus, she said, my successor;
if 1 die without that being done, I will wager both
ray ears that he never comes to the throne. When
whom he served. He repaired again to Germany in 1C48,
being named by the queen generalissimo of the Swedish
armies; with what view is manifest from the conversation
quoted.
3 C. Adlersparre’s Hist. Col., ii. 219.
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