The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa Part 11

[154] _Dipl. Dal._, vol. ii. pp. 105-109 and 112-113; _Handl. ror. Sver.

inre forhll._, vol. i. pp. 64-67; and _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 169-174, 177-180, 183-184 and 198-199.

[155] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 121-123; _Alla riksdag. och mot.

bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 75-89; and _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 226-240 and 249-250.

[156] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 123-126; _Alla riksdag. och mot.

bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 56-67; _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol.

iv, pp. 200-215; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 65-75.

[157] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, p. 126.

[158] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 126-128.

[159] _Ibid._, p. 128.

[160] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 128-131.

[161] _Ibid._, pp. 131-133.

[162] _Alla riksdag. och mot. bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 67-70; _Kon. Gust.

den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 216-220; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 75-78.

[163] _Alla riksdag. och mot. bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. _70-72_; _Kon. Gust.

den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 220-222; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 78-80.

[164] _Alla riksdag. och mot. bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 72-74; _Kon. Gust.

den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 223-226; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 80-82.

[165] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, p. 133; _Alla riksdag. och mot.

bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 75-79; _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol.

iv. pp. 226-231; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 82-87.

[166] There is a Latin version of the "Ordinantia" containing certain regulations not given in the Swedish. They are these: The contribution known as "Peter's penning" shall not be given hereafter to the pope, but shall go to swell the royal revenue. A like disposition shall be made of the money which the monasteries are wont to send to the superiors of their orders. Bishops and other prelates shall not hereafter pay anything to the pope for confirmation. It will be sufficient if they take their office by consent of the king. All property, real and personal, donated to the cathedrals, monasteries, and parochial or prebendal churches, shall belong to the descendants of the n.o.blemen who gave it, and if there is any residue, it shall be conferred by the king on whomsoever he will. All real property sold or pledged to churches may be redeemed on payment of the sum received for the property. To augment the crown's resources the bishops, cathedrals, and canons ought to hand over to the king as large a sum as they can spare. All these regulations in the Latin version bear on their face the stamp of forgery. They are drawn in a careless manner, and convey the impression of being part of a rough draught that never was perfected. Certainly they never were enforced. See _Alla riksdag. och mot. bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 90-93; _Kon.

Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 241--247; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 89-96.

[167] _Alla riksdag. och mot. bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 79-82 and 89; _Kon.

Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 249-256; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, pp. 87-88 and 96-100.

[168] _Dipl. Dal._, vol. ii. pp. 110-112 and 115-116; _Handl. ror.

Skand. hist._, vol. xvi. pp. 70-75, 78-80, 98-100, 105-106, 119-122 and 124-127; _Handl. ror. Sver. inre forhll._, vol. i. pp. 58-59 and 60-62; _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 3-4, 12-13, 42-43, 54-55, 111-112, 175-176, 400-404, 406-407, 417 and 419-420; _Monumenta polit. Eccles._, pp. 10-11 and 17-18; and _Skrift. och handl._, vol. i.

pp. 352-353.

[169] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 133-134; and _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. p. 259.

[170] _Handl. ror. Sver. inre forhll._, vol. i. pp. 105-107; and _Kon.

Gust. den Forstes registrant._, vol. iv. pp. 287-289.

[171] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 134-135; _Handl. ror. Sver. inre forhll._, vol. i. pp. 120-123, 129 and 135-138; _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 315-318, 325-326, 327-328, 340-343 and 391-394; and _Sml. archiv._, pp. 175 and 177.

CHAPTER IX.

CORONATION OF THE KING. 1528.

Reasons for Delay of the Coronation.--Preparations for the Ceremony.--Consecration of the Bishops.--Coronation Festival.--Retrospect of the Revolution.--Character of Gustavus.

There is but one scene needed now to bring the drama of the Swedish Revolution to its close. During a period of over four eventful years Gustavus Vasa had been seated on the throne, but the final act deemed necessary in the election of a king had not yet taken place. Again and again the people had urged Gustavus to be crowned, but on one pretext or another he had put them off, and the ancient rite of coronation was not yet performed. The mystery of this strange delay can easily be explained by looking for a moment into the condition of the Swedish Church.

It was a time-honored theory all over Christendom that no person could be legally installed in any royal post without first having the sanction of the Church of Rome; and such sanction, it was held, could only be conferred through the consecrated archbishop of the land. When Gustavus was elected king, the Swedish archbishop was in voluntary exile, and n.o.body expected that he ever would return. Indeed, he was so far an object of suspicion at the papal court that, shortly after the election of Gustavus, the pope appointed another prelate to perform the duties of archbishop till the charges brought against Gustaf Trolle should be set at rest. It is matter of common knowledge that Trolle never succeeded in vindicating his position; and Magni, though not confirmed, continued to perform the duties of archbishop.

In January, 1526, the Cabinet urged Gustavus to be crowned, and he declared that he would do so in the coming summer, trusting presumably that Magni would receive his confirmation ere that time. A tax was even levied to defray the expenses of the ceremony. But some opposition was encountered when the royal officers endeavored to collect the tax, and, the kingdom being then in need of revenue, the project had to be postponed. There is evidence, moreover, that Gustavus was not eager for the confirmation of the prelates. On one occasion he expressed a fear that they were seeking to obtain their consecration with a view to transfer their allegiance from himself to Rome. Apparently his object was, by continual postponement of the coronation, to have a standing argument whenever he desired to obtain new funds.[172]

Matters therefore dragged on in the same way till Archbishop Magni had been banished and the diet of Vesters had voted an addition to the income of the king. As the Cabinet had been beyond all others urgent in their solicitations, the announcement of the monarch's resolution was addressed to them. He would have still preferred, he said, to delay his coronation till the summer of 1528; but fearing that at that time he should be too busy, he had resolved to have the rite performed soon after Christmas, and the day he fixed at January 6. Invitations were then sent out to all the n.o.blemen of the realm, who were instructed also to appear with all their retinues, and to bring their wives and daughters with them. Each town was asked to send two delegates to the coronation, and a certain number of persons were to represent the different parishes throughout the land. Sheep, geese, and hens were ordered in enormous quant.i.ties to be collected by the royal stewards for the festival. These the thrifty monarch arranged should be provided by the parishes themselves. Lest the Dalesmen, already somewhat irritated, should have new cause for discontent, Gustavus wrote them that they need not take part in the contribution, nor even send their representatives if they did not feel inclined.[173]

Although the Swedish Church was practically severed from the Church of Rome, a doubt still lingered in the monarch's mind as to the propriety of a coronation by prelates whose authority had not been sanctioned by the pope. Therefore, to remove all chance of contest, he directed that those bishops who had not received their confirmation should be sanctified through laying on of hands by those who had. As a matter of fact the only bishops whose authority had been derived from Rome were the bishops of Vexio and Vesters. The former was too old to undertake the active duties of his office. The bishop of Vesters was selected, therefore, to consecrate the bishops of Skara, Strengnas, and bo. This was effected on the 5th of January,--just before the coronation festival began.[174]

The gorgeous ceremony was performed, according to ancient practice, in the Cathedral of Upsala. Representatives from every portion of the realm were present, and the huge edifice was filled from choir to nave with all the wealth and beauty that the land could boast. It was the final tribute of grat.i.tude to one whose ceaseless energy had saved the nation from long years of tyranny. Never had the Swedish people been more deeply bounden to revere their ruler. If in the annals of all history a king deserved to wear a crown, Gustavus Vasa was that king. The honor, however, was not all his own. The ceremony of coronation over, Gustavus selected from among his courtiers twelve to whom he granted the degree of knighthood. Here again, as on the day of his election, he displayed the sentiments that inspired his whole reign. No longer do we find among the monarch's chosen counsellors the names of men ill.u.s.trious in the Church and Chapter. It was from the ranks of the lower cla.s.ses that the persons whom he was to knight were chosen, and from this time forward the knights to all intents and purposes composed his Cabinet. No stronger argument can be offered to show the utter humiliation of the Church.[175]

The act of coronation was followed by a period of mirth. A rich repast was offered by the king, at which the representatives of all the cla.s.ses were invited to be present. A new coin, also, bearing the full-length figure of Gustavus, with his sword and sceptre, and wearing on his head a crown, was issued and distributed gratuitously among the people. On the following days the ceremony was prolonged by tilt and tourney. With all the gallantry of a warmer climate two gladiators entered the lists to combat for the hand of one of Sweden's high-born ladies. The chronicler has immortalized the combatants, but the fair lady's name, by reason of a blemish in the ma.n.u.script, is gone forever. From beginning to end the scene was one which no eyewitness ever could forget. Years later, it stirred the spirit of the author whose zeal has given us the leading features of our narrative. It is a fitting picture with which to close this tale.[176]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The Swedish Revolution now was at an end, and the great achievements of Gustavus Vasa had been done. Though not yet thirty-two, the youthful monarch had already secured a place among the foremost leaders of the world. We have watched the Swedish nation rise from insignificance, through a series of remarkable developments, till its grandeur cast a lengthened shadow across the face of northern Europe. In some regards this revolution stands pre-eminent above all others known in history.

Few political upheavals have been more sudden, and few, if any, have been more complete. Seven years was all Gustavus needed to annihilate the ancient const.i.tution, and fas.h.i.+on another structure of an absolutely new design. The Cabinet, at one time the autocrat of Sweden, was now a mere puppet in the monarch's hand. Under the guise of leader of the people, Gustavus had crushed the magnates, with all their old magnificence and power, beneath his feet. In place of bishops and archbishops, whose insolence had been to former kings a constant menace, his court was filled with common soldiers selected from the body of the nation, and raised to posts of highest honor, for no other reason than their obedience to the monarch's will. Of the old ecclesiastical authority not a trace was left. Rome, in ages past the ultimate tribunal for the nation, had now no more to say in Sweden than in the kingdom of j.a.pan. The Reformation was so thorough that from the reign of Gustavus Vasa to the present day, it is a.s.serted, no citizen of Sweden has become a Romish priest.

The Revolution whose main incidents have here been followed recalls another Revolution enacted near three centuries later amid the forests of the great continent of North America. Both originated in a long series of acts of tyranny, and each gave birth to a hero whose name has become a lasting synonym of strength and greatness. The lessons of history, however, are more often found in contrasts than in similarities, and the points of difference between these two upheavals are no less striking than their points of likeness. The chief difference lies in the individual characteristics of the leaders. George Was.h.i.+ngton was pre-eminently a hero of the people. He embraced the popular cause from no other motive than a love of what he deemed the people's rights; and when the war of independence closed, he retired from public life and allowed the nation whose battle he had fought to take the government of the country upon itself. The result was the most perfect system of republican government that the world has ever known. Gustavus Vasa, on the other hand, though actuated in a measure by enthusiasm for the public weal, was driven into the contest mainly by a necessity to save himself. The calm disinterestedness which marks the career of Was.h.i.+ngton was wholly wanting in the Swedish king. His readiness to debase the currency, his efforts to humiliate the bishops, his confiscation of Church property, his intimacy with foreign courtiers,--all show a desire for personal aggrandizement inconsistent with an earnest longing to benefit his race. One must regret that the rare talents which he possessed, and the brilliant opportunities that lay before him, were not employed in more unselfish ends. It is true he gave his country a better const.i.tution than it had before; he freed it from the atrocities of a horrid tyrant; he laid the axe at the root of many religious absurdities; and he relieved the people from a heavy load of religious burdens. But he did not lay that foundation of public liberty which the blood poured out by the Swedish people merited. Of all nations on the face of the globe none are more fitted by temperament for a republican form of government than the Swedes. They are calm, they are thoughtful, they are economical, and above all else, they are imbued with an ardent love of liberty. It is hard, therefore, to repress the wish that Gustavus Vasa had been allowed, at the diet of Vesters, to lay aside the crown, and that in his place a leader had been chosen to carry on the good work on the lines already drawn. The Revolution had begun with a feeling that the Swedish nation was ent.i.tled to be ruled according to its ancient laws,--that it was ent.i.tled to a representative form of government; and it was only because of the nation's admiration for its leader that this object was relinquished. The people, having expelled one tyrant, chose another; and ere Gustavus closed his memorable reign, the principle of hereditary monarchy was once more engrafted on the nation. Nothing could demonstrate with greater clearness the extreme danger that is always imminent in blind enthusiasm for a popular and gifted leader.

FOOTNOTES:

[172] _Alla riksdag. och mot. bes.l.u.th_, vol. i. pp. 37-39 and 45-47; _Dipl. Dal._, vol. ii. pp. 77, 80-81 and 93; _Handl. ror. Sver. inre forhll._, vol. i. pp. 19-20; and _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iii. pp. 12, 22-23, 95-96, 236-237 and 414-415.

[173] _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 334-335, 360-366 and 416-417; and _Svenska riksdagsakt._, vol. i. pp. 102-107.

[174] Svart, _Gust. I.'s. kron._, p. 136; _Handl. ror. Sver. inre forhll._, vol. i. pp. 133-134; and _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. iv. pp. 368-369.

[175] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, p. 136; and _Kon. Gust. den Forstes registrat._, vol. v. pp. 9-11.

[176] Svart, _Gust. I.'s kron._, pp. 136-137.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.