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1544—1560.]
gustavus vasa. the hereditary settlement.
127
CHAPTER X.
gustavus vasa. the hereditary settlement.
settlement of the crown of sweden in the house of vasa. internal tranquillity. regalities
over commons, waters, fisheries, and mines asserted. character of the king’s administration.
finance. measures for the promotion of agriculture, mining, and commerce. army and marine.
education. relations with denmark and russia. state of finland. family of gustavus. eric
and elizabeth of england. diet of stockholm. the king’s speech to the estates. his illness
and death. account of him by his nephew.
a. d. 1544— 15g0.
So early as the year 1526, when the council solicited
the king to choose a consort, provision was made
that if God should grant him sons, one of them, and
the eldest in preference, should be his successor,
while lands and fiefs were to be settled on the
others, as was beseeming for the children of a
sovereign. Six years elapsed before he wedded the
princess Catharine, daughter of Magnus, duke of
Saxe-Lauenburg, and sister to the queen of
Denmark. Eric, born on the 13th of December, 1533,
was his eldest son by this marriage, which was but
of short duration, for two years afterwards the
young Catharine suddenly died. This union was
not of the most happy, yet the fault probably was
not on the king’s side only, since his second
wedlock, contracted in 1536, was rich in domestic joys
and bliss, although his bride had been destined for
another. She was Margaret Lejonhufvud,
daughter of Eric Abrahamson of Loholm, a
councillor of state, beheaded at the massacre of
Stockholm, and had been previously betrothed to Suanto
Sture’, the same youth for whom the enemies of
Gustavus had intended the throne, and who was
now obliged to yield up to the royal love the object
of his own affections 8. Eric, and John (the king’s
first-born son by Margaret) were presented to the
council, convened at Orebro, on the 4th of January,
1540, along with several of the chief nobles and
prelates. The king drew his sword, and the
assembled peers, touching the blade, took an oath
administered by him, and confirmed by the
reception of the sacrament, in which they acknowledged
his sons as the legitimate heirs of the kingdom. Four
years afterwards, at the diet of Westeras, this act
was further confirmed, and the succession to the
throne settled according to priority of birth upon
the male heirs of the sovereign, the estates
recognizing and doing solemn homage to Eric as
crown-prince. A violent thunder-storm during the
ceremonial, and a brilliant rainbow which shone out at
its close, were regarded as prognostics, with terror
or hope, as men were differently inclined. In his
speech to the estates at the sitting of the diet, the
king once more expressed his attachment to the
principles of the Reformation : to serve God rightly,
to love him above all, and to believe in Jesus Christ
as our only Saviour; to hear and teach God’s word
with gladness; to be obedient to magistrates
according to his injunction ; to love one’s neighbour
as oneself ; and keep God’s commandments. This
was the true worship, these were the true good
works, and for this we had God’s bidding. But of
consecrated tapers, palms, masses for the dead,
adoration of saints, and the like, nothing was found
in scripture, and God had forbidden such offices,
like as he had instituted the holy sacrament as a
pledge and sign of the forgiveness of our sins, not
that we should set it in gold and silver and carry it
round the church-yards or other places. " Such we
let you understand and know, he said, trusting in
God that we herein do what is right. Therefore
is it much to be wondered that ye will so
stubbornly cling to the bishops and the old usages
of the church."
The Act of Hereditary Settlement passed at
Westeras, and dated the 13th of January, 1544,
is drawn up in the name of all the estates by
order of the nobles9, who here style themselves
" members and props of the crown of Sweden." At
the diet of Strengness in 1547, the estates declared
themselves likewise ready to acknowledge and
maintain " the testamentary disposition which the
king’s majesty has made or may yet make for the
princely heirs of his body." The statute for this
purpose was framed by the clergy although it is
plain from various records, that the other orders
also gave their assent to it. Now. for the first
time after the beginning of the Reformation, we
find this estate,-—no longer represented by the
bishops only, but also by pastors of churches both
in towns and rural parishes,—again mentioned as
present at the diet ; a proof that the greater
number at least2 were now Protestant. After the
act of settlement had been passed, an order was
made, "that the king’s majesty might not daily be
burdened and troubled with so many affairs," for
the councillors of state to be in attendance upon
him continually, two every month.
A peace of ten years following the troubles above
detailed, allows us time to contemplate Gustavus
in his internal administration. The Liberation was
his first work, the Reformation his most difficult,
and the establishment of the throne by the
hereditary settlement his last, of which the true scope
was to set the crown upon all the rest by securing
their permanency. But place them all together,
and how much do they not overpass the limits of
one man’s life ! Once again after the days of this
8 Suanto Sture, at the queen’s suggestion, was married in
1533 to her sister Mary. (Lejonhufvud, lit. Lionhead.)
9 Among the 143 persons of this order here enumerated
and present, one clergyman, Herr Pafvel of Floda, in the
diocese of Strengness, is named among the councillors of the
superintendent, or inspector (Tillsynesman), as he is also
termed, George Norman.
1 See Stjernman, Resolutions, i. 200.
2 The statute mentioned is drawn up by the clergy of the
dioceses of Upsala, Westeras, and Strengness.
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