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1592.]
Dispute as to
Livonia.
john and charles. 1c5
Intentions of Gustavus I.
as to the government.
intricate. He had publicly disapproved the
limitations of the ducal power made in 1561, and the
Articles of Arboga,as " hard and intolerable," were
adduced among the grounds of Eric’s deposition.
In the confirmation of the dukedom of Charles,
shortly afterwards granted, it is alleged that Eric
had compelled his brothers to embrace conditions
wholly repugnant to their father’s testament;
conformably to which, therefore, Charles was now
invested with all his princely rights. Him, most of all,
had John to thank for his crown. Under such
circumstances it was difficult not to allow an
interpretation of the testament favourable to his brother.
The king sought to stave off his claims by single
concessions. As compensation for his share of the
treasure left by their father, Charles received
2500 ounces of silver. His principality was
augmented with the hundreds of Wassbo and Walla in
West-Gothland, to which John in 1571 added the
government of the Swedish portion of Livonia.
But Charles insisted on an indemnity for the whole
period during which he had been deprived of the
revenues of his principality ; and when he
subsequently abandoned this demand, he the more firmly
pressed for a grant of Stromsholm and its fief,
which, according to the oral disposition of king
Gustavus, was held by the queen dowager, but by
the testament appertained to the principality.
Charles offered money in exchange, but maintained
his right to the lattex-, tln’catened at last to assert it
by force, and once went so far as to place under
sequestration the rents of the hundreds annexed to
Stromsholm3. For what concex-ned his Livonian
commission, he cherished suspicion of a plan tliex’ein
to devolve upon him the burden of the Russian
war, and made no great haste. At last the king,
whose poverty is evident in all these transactions,
makes a px’oposal to him to pux-chase a portion of
the country which was then in the hands of the
enemy 4. After the success of de la Gax-die’s
opex-a-tions he wished to hear no more of this; and when
Charles, on the attempt of John to gain the crown
of Poland, advanced a pi-oposal, that for the
adjustment of their disputes respecting Livonia the
country might be ti’ansferred to him as a Polish fief 3,
the king took it so ill, that he had apprehensions for
his personal safety, and believed his brother already
prepared for war. Thus was Livonia the germ of
discord between Charles and John, as formerly
between John and Eric.
The testament of Gustavus I. was particularly
ambiguous on the question as to the x’ights of the king
and the princes. It is declax-ed on one side, indeed,
that the princes should have no x’ight to sever
themselves or their fiefs from the crown of
Sweden, that they were bound to be true to the king,
and obliged to assist him with the lax’gest force
they could x-aise; they ax’e even denominated
subjects ; but on the other side the king says, that the
principalities are delivered up to them "with all
their appurtenances and advantages, as we have
possessed the same on behalf of the crown, without
exception." When he adds,—"our dear sons, as
well he who comes into the thx-one and govennnent
as the othei’s with their heirs, shall, in relation to
those affairs on which the general welfare of the
realm depends, undertake, transact, or conclude
nothing, be it war or peace, or alliances, compacts
or other matters important to the state, unless it be
done with the counsel and assent of all their estates
and divers of the chief men of the realm;" it would
be difficult to expx’ess a conjoint x’eign mox’e
distinctly, especially as each of the brothers is even
allowed, in cases where any gi’eater and more
manifest advantage can be gained for the realm of
Sweden, and time does not pennit a common
delibera-tion, to follow his own x-esolution. Finally, the old
king exhorts, beseeches, enjoins every subject of the
kingdom, from honest, truehearted purpose, and by
the bitter death of God’s Son, to maintain harmony
among them. The pi’inces are requii’ed to render
an account of their conduct towards their country
before the estates general and all Swedish men ;
and if differences shall arise, only persons who ax’e
natives and chosen on both sides out of the
prin-pal men of the country, may decide as arbitrators
with whom right and reason lie. In a wox-d,
Gustavus Vasa, between fear and hope, but with a
foreknowledge of the future which often distinguishes
men of his class, committed the care of his work to
all his sons; and the hour appi’oached which was in
fact to transfer the responsibility to the only one of
them who was fitted to beax* its load.
Charles acted throughout as if this conjoint
responsibility were a matter of course. He sends
back John’s letter, as styling him " hereditai’y
prince of our kingdom ;" Sweden was no more
John’s peculiar possession than that of the other
hereditary princes.
One of the most resultful points of contention
was, whether knight-service within the principality
was due to the king or the duke, since here the
nobility intervened between both. The king had
considerably lightened its burden, and besides
scarce ever held an inspection6. He made the
nobles an offer of ransoming themselves from the
whole obligation, which had no effect, and
complains that they besides appx-opriated the rents of
those manors which were set apart for the support
of the crown’s own horsemen. Examples are found
during his time of peasants acquiring their free-
3 Charles had accepted the hundreds of Wassbo and Walla
as a compensation for Stromsholm. The contestation
regarding Tynnelsoe, which he demanded back in virtueof the will,
appears to have renewed that regarding Stromsholm.
4 To Charles upon Lifland, that after the disasters which
had befallen there, the king could do nothing more.
Stockholm, May 4, 1574. Still on the 26th May, 1581, he offers to
the duke Narva, Lode, Leal, Pernau, Ilapsal, " when they
were obtained," as fiefs of the crown of Sweden, with the
same jurisdiction as the principality. Shortly thereafter,
and before the end of the year, Charles Henryson Horn and
Pontus de la Gardie took Lode, Leal, Vickel, Hapsal,
Wit-tenstein, and all Ingermanland with its fortresses. John
adv ises Charles of this, and requests more troops from him,
but no more is said of the offer above-mentioned.
5 Memorial of Swen Elofson (now secretary of Charles) to
John. Register of duke Charles for 1574. That Charles
herein did not look wholly to his own advantage, is clear
from another of his propositions to John in 1582, for the
adjustment of the disputes with the Poles respecting Lifland,
to the effect that Sigismund should hold the Swedish
possessions there as a hereditable fief under Polish superiority,
yet so that it should never be taken by a king of Sweden as
such, but as duke of Lifland. This result would be more
beneficial than that Sweden should go to war with Poland
for Livonia, as was then apprehended. Reg. for 1582. In
respect to the Russian war, also, which John might more
than once have ended advantageously, the counsels of Charles
are marked by moderation, sagacity, and apparently also by
uprightness.
6 Vdjje/isyn, the wapenshaw. T.
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