Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - II. The Swedish People - 3. National Characteristics. Moral and Social Conditions - Social Conditions, by Theophil Andersson, Ph. D., Actuary at the Board of Trade, Stockholm
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142
II. TH B SWEDISH PEOPLE.
In the 14th century — a time of great unrest and frequently of general
lawlessness — the aristocracy arrogated nearly all the power in the body
social, and endeavoured to put into force, in Sweden too, the principles of
feudalism. The Swedish Peasantry, however, averted this danger by rising
in arms (1434), under the leadership of Engelbrekt, to oppose King Erik XIII.
The vigorous national movement that succeeded this effort and lasted
throughout the protracted Union wars with Denmark, raised the Swedish peasantry to a
height of importance which that of no other country attained, not even of
Switzerland, whose peasants fought, it is true, for their freedom, but did not
exercise any influence on the political affairs of the country. In Sweden, however,
during a period of over a hundred years (1434/1543), that may fitly be
termed: -»The Peasants’ Epoch of Greatness», the peasantry, in conjunction with
the patriotic section of the nobility, occupied the proud position of being in
fact the ruling caste in the realm. As the Swedish Diet (Riksdag), was at
this very time becoming established in more definite forms, it was a matter of
course that the peasant class became a participating element in its constitution.
A check was given, it is true, by Gustavus Vasa, to the preponderance
of the peasants, but their legal and social status was nevertheless secured
for once and all. The reform in the Church organization carried out by Gustavus Vasa
and the enforced forfeiture of the lands belonging to the Church, involved the
fall of the ecclesiastical aristocracy. The new Protestant clergy came in, too,
for its share of privileges, and became, in course of time, one of the four
Estates into which the Riksdag was subdivided; its wealth and influence were,
however, no longer what they once had been, and in succeeding centuries it
always sided with the lower classes against the nobility.
The Estate of the Nobles, who, in the reign of the weak successors of Gustavus
Vasa, were in 1569 expressly declared to possess hereditary rights— being
thereby freed from the obligation of discharging military service as horse-soldiers
— gained more and more influence during the wars of succession in the
house of Vasa, and this finally attained to the height of its power during the
great wars that shed a lustre on the land of Sweden in the 17th century.
The »Nobles1 Epoch of Greatness» had therewith set in, in its way no
less remarkable than that of the peasants in the preceding age. The citation
here of the names of Axel Oxenstierna, of world-wide renown, of the statesman
Johan Gyllenstierna — foreseeing in so many respects — and of Per Brahe,
the great re-creator of Finland, must suffice, but it may be added that nearly all the
eminent and illustrious men that Sweden produced in that age belonged to
the nobility. To some extent, however, that state of things was due to the
numerous new men who were raised to the dignity of noblemen. Broadly
speaking, it may be asserted that the titled aristocracy of Sweden have a finer
record of achievements for their country than that of any other land, and not
only are the instances of genuine desert very numerous but the acts of
encroachment upon the rights and privileges of other classes of the community, are
comparatively few in number.
The latter circumstance is not, however, to be understood as implying that the
status thus attained by the nobility was not burdensome to the other Estates.
More particularly did the immunity they continued to enjoy from the majority of
the general taxes weigh heavily on the rest of the population, who were
consequently constrained to pay all the more themselves. Most seriously threatened
was the peasantry, being brought, as three centuries before, to the verge
of social and financial ruin. On this occasion, they were rescued by the
King and the Riksdag (in which assembly the Nobles were outvoted by the
Clergy, the Burghers, and the Peasants). After a series of struggles, extending
over more than thirty years (1650/82), Charles XI was at length enabled
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