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or franklins, in return for military service to be performed by them. “All of the commonalty who chose or
were able to do service on horseback, were also ennobled, an appendage to the nobility; the rest remained
unennobled, ofrälse, a word in its proper sense meaning unfree, but which could not here receive its full
acceptation. For feudalism in Sweden wanted its proper foundation, namely, a people precipitated by
conquest into bondage. With us it has been organized from above, by the king as the first nobleman.
The fiefs, here in general never legally hereditary, (although by the earldoms and counties of Eric XIV.
they became so in part, and otherwise often enough through abuse,) were, at least the more considerable
of them, attached to the command of the royal castles and fortresses, to which the surrounding common
people were bound to render certain services [1].” On these relations turns much of the controversies
between the nobility and the other estates of Sweden. The obligation to military service was never
fully performed, and fell by degrees into desuetude; while the immunities of the nobles entailed manifold
grievances and oppressions on the commonalty, and Charles IX., as will be seen, made repeated
unsuccessful attempts to obtain their surrender, offering in exchange releasement from a merely
nominal burden.
The accession of the dynasty of Vasa to the throne, through the abilities and services of its founder,
marks the commencement of the modern period of Swedish history. By the measures of Gustavus I.
society was remodelled; and the impulse given to the national industry, with the augmentation of
resources during a period of comparative peace under his reign and that of Charles IX., prepared the
way for that series of brilliant achievements which gave to Sweden a high rank among the nations of
Europe, and crowned the radiant brow of Gustavus Adolphus with undying glory. Never was a country
more fortunate in its leaders than Sweden under the three great princes of the house of Vasa; never
were there monarchs, perhaps, who so thoroughly fulfilled the ideal of royalty, as the active and efficient
rulers, yet not the autocrats, of their kingdom, guides of their subjects in peace, and champions in war.
The crown of the Vasas derived its strongest support from the people. To Gustavus I. the tide of
popular fervour which had placed and sustained it on his head, brought an accession of influence
which enabled him to carry on the government in the face of foreign enmities and domestic revolts
encouraged by strong factions among the nobility and the clergy; augmenting the regal power in Sweden
proportionally as in other monarchies about the same time,—in England under Henry VII. and
Henry VIII. (with whose character that of Gustavus has some points of resemblance), in France under
Louis XI., in Spain under Ferdinand and Charles. From the same cause, Charles IX. derived force to
set aside the legitimate claims of Sigismund, backed by the arms of Poland, to change the order of
succession, and settle the state under a strong central government, animated by respect for popular
rights. Under Gustavus Adolphus, the love of his subjects, continued and heightened by his own great
qualities, imped the wings of victory, and the increment of dominion, enabling him to defy the combined
hostility of the other northern powers, to grapple with and overcome the house of Austria, to vindicate
the rights of Protestantism, and the freedom of Europe. Greatness and warlike glory are promised by
one of the most acute and knowing political thinkers to princes who advance the prosperity, and cultivate
the favour of the masses. On this principle these first two sovereigns of the house of Vasa acted; and
the realization of the subtle Florentine’s prophecy came in full measure with the third.
Sweden had been better prepared for the principles of the Reformation,—its reception was also
more necessary, than in some other countries of Europe. It is calculated that in the Catholic period
the Swedish church possessed fully two-thirds of the soil of the country; such was likewise the statement
of the high chancellor Anderson at the diet of Strengness [2]. Its vices were not unproportioned to its
wealth. The bishops were the most powerful men in Sweden; they had always appeared, along with
their clergy, as the supporters of foreign interests in the country, and had taken a peculiarly obnoxious
part in rivetting the yoke of Denmark. These and other political motives had doubtless a great share
in facilitating the Reformation, and in determining Gustavus I. to throw his weight into the scale of the
adherents to the new doctrine. But however the social revolution was brought about, the Swedes soon
embraced the religious tenets of the Reformers with the ardour of conviction, and stood by them with a
zeal and constancy which made Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus what England had been under
Elizabeth, and ceased to be under the Stuarts—the head of the Protestant interest in Europe. The
reign of that monarch, one of the greatest among soldiers and statesmen, and perhaps the only righteous
conqueror, has an epic grandeur, the solemnity of which is deepened by the sad recollection of his
untimely fall. Cut off in the bloom of years, the maturity of intellect, and the full career of victory, he
closed on the field of Lutzen a life, which, if prolonged, might have changed the destinies of modern
Europe, given unity to Germany under a Protestant emperor, and reconducted, with more enlightened
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