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130 Ecrown0du0es!he HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
belongs to the crown," applying it not only to
the salmon fisheries in the streams of Norrland
and Vermeland, but also to water-mills which had
been or might be constructed on them 2. Lastly, he
declares it to have been determined that all veins of
ore in Sweden shall belong to the crown 3. And his
appeals in this as in other questions to " the law of
Sweden," and to "all charters of the kings, princes,
and lords, his deceased predecessors," though not
always well-founded, would be the more readily
received, that men had had sufficient time during the
Union to forget what really was or was not a right
of the crown.
These extended claims served indeed, on the one
side, to make the resources for the support of the
population more generally accessible, wherefore the
king states it as a corollary from the rights of the
crown in respect to mines," that every man should
have liberty to open mines in the domain of the
crown, who would consent to discharge the crown
dues therefrom, according to compact with the
bailiff of the mines." On the other side, a
discretionary power was confided to the king’s hands,
which might become dangerous for individual
rights of property, especially as the logic of
Gustavus was not lightly deterred by fears of
possibilities. His arguments against the exemption of
the clergy from payments to the state are
remarkable. " This can we with our poor understanding
divine, although ye will not,"—he writes in 1525 to
bishop Brask,—" that land that is tax-free has first
of all been made assessable and after become
tax-free, not that the king should then have nought
more to do with it, as ye write, but that service
should therefore be done to the king. If the
sovereign shall have nothing to do with churches and
convents, where abideth the service which should
be performed for that land free of taxes which is
now under churches and convents ? Therefore ye
are not to write that the crown has laid out nothing
there, and consequently ought not to raise any thing
thence." We have here only the first link of the
chain of conclusions, which stretched much further.
All waste land was now regarded as belonging and
having ever belonged to the crown ; it was held to
be unquestionable that, consequently, all
socage-farms4 had been founded upon the crown-lands ;
and that the royal bounty by which the occupants
received grants in perpetuity, was the only cause
which had dissevered these from the proper domain
of the crown 5. The number of estates originally
comprised in this was small, but it was
considerably’augmented in this reign, perhaps by
prejudications of the same kind. Gustavus strictly
maintained and acted upon this proposition. To the
2 To the councillor of the exchequer, Botved Larson, upon
the fishery in Skelleftea, Pitea, and Tornea, February 16,
1548. " We hear that in the upper country there are some
good salmon fisheries, which belong to us." To the same,
March 11, "upon the streams of Vermeland, where there are
opportunities for salmon fisheries and saw-mills, whence the
crown may derive some advantage." Registry in the
Archives.
3 Prohibition to the miners of Nora Forest to enclose
crown mines. Westeras, March 29, 1551. Register of the
Archives.
4 This is the nearest expression I can find for skatte-hem-
man, granges or farms of which the proprietor was bound to
pay rent, or do service to the king, and which were thus
held by a tenure similar to that of socage. T.
The king’s method of
government.
sokemen of Upland he writes, " that they allow
themselves to fancy, that when they have acquired
such fee-farms by lawful inheritance, purchase, or
otherwise, they may deal therewith as it pleases
them. To that we answer, that so long as they
maintain such granges with the requisite buildings
in good condition, and perform other obligations,
they may keep possession of the same ; but if they
fail in that, then their tenements escheat to us and
the crown of Sweden6." He refutes the same
" perverse opinion" among the sokemen in
Sma-land with the same logic, and when the
independent peasants complained that the king’s bailiffs
held surveys of their buildings, he answered (Feb.
C, 1550) ; "yet do we think that it well befits
us, as the lord of this realm, to see that surveys
are held upon the houses of the crown peasants,
the nobles having like power in respect to the
peasants of their manors." " It will be well they
should be brought to account for waste," the king
writes on another occasion 7, " when they have
allowed wood to grow up in the meadows, and
neglected or badly manured the fields ; the interest
of the crown will by no means suffer that we
overlook this." And, what is most important, many
peasants, upon such grounds, forfeited their right
of property to the king.
Gustavus commonly showed that he entertained
the most exalted notions of the powers of his regal
office, and though he ascribed its origin to God and
to the people, to judge from his favourite saying and
his last words, yet the divine right appears to have
had the preference in his inclinations at one period
of his life. " In the name of the Holy Trinity,"
he said, when the council in the year 1540 swore
obedience to him, upon his bare sword, as an
hereditary sovereign, " and out of the Divine strength
and power of Almighty God, which is bestowed
upon us and all the royal and princely lords, heirs
of our body, from generation to generation, to rule
and dispose over you and all our subjects upon
earth, we hold this sword of righteousness over you
to witness ; herewith swear8." Immediately
thereafter he styled himself king hereditary 9, without
waiting for the formal act of settlement
subsequently passed at Westeras.
With this disposition the king did not feel it to
be at all incompatible to declare upon any outbreak
of popular discontent, that he was ready to change
and to amend whatever might be faulty in his
government ; they might well make their discontent
known without feud or revolt; they should
complain to the king, if his officers transgressed in any
thing ; he could not travel to every man in the
kingdom and hear how it went with him. We have
’ Bergfalk, ib. 33.
6 To his bailiffs in Upland, dated Upsala, April 15, 1541.
That the peasants themselves should let out their lands, and
thereby draw "stiff corn-rents," so that the farms fell to
ruin, was not to be permitted. On May 26, 1553, the
labourers of the peasants are forbidden to pay rent to any one
but the king.
7 To Mats Ingemarson, Gripsholm, June 29, 1547. To the
crown peasants in Smaland who do not keep their farms in
order, February 4, 1553. Registry in the Archives.
8 See the oath in Tegel.
9 " Your rightly reigning hereditary king." Form of
government in West-Gothland, April 9, 1540. Stjemman,
Statutes, i. 163. To the common people at the fair of Dis-
I ting, February 3, 1541. Registry.
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