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174
Reflections on the
king’s conduct. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. His second marriage.
Aft’airs of Poland. [I5C9-
Tlie Red Book (so Joliii’s liturgy was called)
undoubtedly accelerated the unhaiii)y fate of Eric ;
it likewise imparted the most perilous character to
the misunderstandings between John and Charles.
In the latter, men saw the upholder of the reform-
ation, of the work of Gustavus Vasa ;
this he
was, and his course was conformable. The quarrel
that set the brothers at variance, was in truth the
same which now tore the world asunder. That
John vacillated, was prejudicial only to his own
cause, not his brother’s, who, as soon as the con-
flict was transferi’ed to this field, found a basement
of independence strong enough to bear that throne,
which was destined in aftertime to be the stay of
Protestantism in Europe. We now discern the
foretokens of an eruption which extended far in all
quarters, and determined the fate of Sweden in
more than one respect. From one marge to the
other this was to swallow up victims enough, yet
most surely those who had built their house over
the abyss that was now opening.
Notable and ever alike in history is the conduct
of those who, without self-dependence, yet seek a
point of support in a seeming equipoise between
opposites ; who, without conviction of their own,
live in the practice of chaffering with convictions,
take their principles from one side and their con-
clusions from another, and, as such procedure is
devoid of all inner substance, fill up the gap with
marvellous figments of their own personal import-
ance. Withal has their conduct the incon-
sequence necessarily resulting from a false position,
and may be desci-ibed in few words : fair means
with bad ends, or fair ends with bad means.
Such are the tribe of those by whom revolutions
are ripened, and who are stunned at their own
handiwork.
What glittering plans did not John sketch out
on the fiUse ground he had laid ! And not he alone ;
what did not his council at this time wish and hope
for in another direction ? Could the magnates
abandon the notion of again seeing a Union in
Sweden ?
Hope of the Polish crown had long lived
in the breasts of John’s family *, and was at length
fulfilled. The nobles who assisted in its attain-
ment were not so short-sighted as to overlook their
own prospective advantages during the absence of
a king who was also severed from his countrymen
by religion. The old hierarchy was mustering its
forces ;
the old aristocrats stood on the watch to
establish, with or against these, their own power
anew. Besides, was not Poland an elective mon-
archy ? What if Sweden should become so again ?
The Poles actually called Sigismund king nominated
and elect of Sweden.
John, changeful and selfish, at once hot-tempered
and feeble, at all times allowed his courtiers great
influence. Not a year had elapsed since Catharine
Jagellonica was consigned to the tomb, when the
king, as he himself says, to expel his deep-seated
and oppressive sorrows, turned his eyes upon the
daugliters of his people. His choice ultimately fell
upon Gunnila Bielke, a maiden of sixteen, daughter
tliat the ministers’ wives should enjoy the benefices one
year after tlieir husbands’ death.
5 When Jolin liimself souglit the Polish throne, it is stated
in an opinion of tlie council thereupon, dated Vasby, April
14, 1.573; "The good lords have thought it advisable not
only not to let slip this opportunity, but contrariwise, as far
as may be done conveniently, to watch and practise that the
of the councillor of state John Bielke ;
and the
nuptial was celebrated with pomp (on the 21st
February, 1585) at the castle of Westeras. The
new consort brought a new influence to bear upon
public affairs. The Catholics had lost their stay ;
tlie new queen favoured their adversaries’’, while
the king himself, with his accustomed violence,
advanced in his own mid-way. Through this con-
nexion he had offended all his kiiulred. His
children by the former marriage, Sigismund and
Ann, saw with no good-will the erewhile chamber-
woman of their mother advanced to be their queen
and step-dame ;
his sisters declared their annoy-
ance in biting epistles, and received others still
sharper in reply ; Charles, who had dissuaded from
the marriage, was not present at the bridal. The
new influence fell in reality to the council and the
old families, with whom John now found himself
more closely allied.
We observe traces of this influence in the
complaints made by Charles relative to " inter-
lopers," and in the suspicions fomented between the
brothers, which went so far that John, travelling in
1585 through the principality, made such haste as if
he had feared the seizure of his person ’, and at the
instance of the council precluded his son from taking
the diversion of the chase, lest Charles might lay an
ambush for him *. Meanwhile the duke refused to
present himself at the congress of Vadstena, in
Febmiary, 1587, without safe-conduct given, having
already declared, that such caution on his part was
not to be wondered at, since he was accused of
having attemjited infringements of the majesty and
regalities of the king ;
an offence with respect to
which "
history shows, that neither brothers have
spared one another, nor parents their children "."
It was by the strengthening of his connexion with
the magnates that John became powerful enough
for the moment to dictate laws to his brother, at
the congress above-mentioned, in all save religion.
Not less recognizable is this influence in the
question touching the election to the Polish crown.
The first account of the now favourable prospects,
brought by a messenger from the Polish queen
dowager, was joyfully received at the court of
John, and a Swedish embassy set out to complete
the election. In this business the estates of
Sweden were never consulted. Duke Charles gave,
as requested of him, a renewed engagement, that
he would remain true in all cases to Sigismund as
the heir of the Swedish throne, and only made re-
servation for himself, that Estland should not be
ceded. The demand of the Poles in relation to this
point, the countei’-election of the arch-duke Maxi-
milian, whose party it was afterward found neces-
sary to suppress by arms, the fear of committing
his only son into the hands of a foreign and turbu-
lent people, all this nevertheless produced so keen
an effect at the last moment upon John’s suscepti-
bilities, that the Polish envoy, who had come with
tidings of the issue of the election, was met by a
choice may fall on the king’s majesty’s own royal person."
Deliberations in king John’s time, in the Archives.
6 Adversarii Gunilam habuere patronam, ut Catholici
prius Catharinam. Messenius, vii. 73.
7 Charles complains, in a letter to Sigismund, of this dis-
trustfulness.
8
Werwing, i. 55. Charles used to send hunting-dogs to
Sigismund.
9
Reply to John, Sept. 10, 1575. Registry of Duke Charles.
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