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1592.]
Des[iolic conduct of
the king.
JOHN AND CHARLES.
Tlie Russian war. Horn’s
heroism; liis reward. 181
advice and consent of Us and the Estates of the
Reahn ’." In Hke fashion he requested from Eric
Sparre
"
his copious memoir upon the king’s regaU-
tiesand the rights of tiie princes*," wliich had been
read in 1587 before the king at Vadstena ;
and the
conditions which John dictated to the duke at this
congress were also laid by way of charge upon
the lords. Their trial, if we may give that name
to a proceeding devoid of all the forms of law,
lasted above two years, their endurance being
tried by imprisonment, threats, and demands of
explanations, which the king never found satis-
factory, and which, as Eric Sparre more than once
secretly protested against what he had publicly
admitted, appear to have been not very sincere.
Charles at length pardoned them, and effected a
kind of reconciliation between John and count Axel
Leyonhufvud, though in the draught of the king’s
will he is named among those of the councillors
who were unworthy of any confidence.
Tiie king’s bitterness against the council con-
tinued, and was vented in expi’essions heretofore
unheard of in Sweden. In the answer to the re-
presentations in Reval he says, that in future, as
hitherto, he would reign as an " absolute king."
A new oath, to the effect
" that no one should dis-
approve or speak against it, if the king found it
good to follow his own counsel," was proposed to
the new councillors, who filled the places of the
deprived lords ^. Towards the accused he was the
more inexoi’able, as they were really a sacrifice for
many. Vain were the intercessions of their wives
and connexions, and of Sigismund himself. " For
the behoof of his father-land," wrote the latter (on
the 14th August, 1590), he had accepted the crown
of Poland ;
as he had not been able to attain this
object, and must be rather an injury than a help to
Sweden in the war against Russia, he had been
and still was willing to renounce his throne in
Poland. He now understood, that the disgrace
with which his father had visited the chief lords of
Sweden had its foundation therein, that they had
dissuadedhis departure from Reval. Even were they
not altogether guiltless, yet should his majesty let
grace stand for law, and ponder, how grievously it
would fall out for his son to come into a government,
where widows and orphans, in part not distantly re-
lated to the royal house, would cry vengeance upcm
him as the author of their woes ’." In another letter
he requests to know how he was to deal with the
Russian envoy, vvho had come to Poland. To this
John replied : that he would grant peace to the
grand duke, if he " would cast his head before
him 2, inquire by an embassy the conditions which
the king would dictate, and cease to call him-
self lord of all the Russias, since a portion of
Russia belonged to Sweden."
It was while the government of Kexholm and
lugermanland had been again lost, while Finland
was laid waste, and a Swedish force of 20,000
’ To Hogenskild Bielke, Feb. 10 and 20, 1.590. Reg.
**
Namely the treatise, Pro rege, lege, et grege. Letter to
Eric Sparre, Feb. 2S, 1590. Reg.
«
Fryxell, from documents in the Archives, IV. 103, 125.
’
Werwing, i. 95.
2 Id. 98. An oriental mark of subjection, by touching the
earth with the forehead. Ivan Wasiliewitz II., as cowardly
as he was cruel, performed it in 1371 before the envoys of
the Khan of Crim Tartary, after the latter had taken and
burned Moscow. Karamsin, viii. 149.
men ’
was fighting against a Russian of more than
100,000 in Estland, that John held this language.
Thi.s Russian inroad, which fell out in the winter of
1590, ensued upon the breaking off of the negotia-
tions commenced after the meeting in Reval. The
Czar came himself with his whole army. Gustave
Baner, lieutenant in Livonia, retired out of luger-
manland, and on liis march neglected to reinforce
Narva, where the heroic Charles Henrvson Horn
withstood siege and storm by the whole Russian
force, with so small a garrison that at last he had
but four hundred men in a serviceable condition.
Narva was not taken, and Estland was saved by a
convention, in virtue of whicli Horn obtained the
retreat of the Czar, for the cession of Ivangorod
(or the so-called Russian Narva), and Koporie,
with free quittance for the Swedish garrisons.
Kexholm was left to further negotiations. For
this was Horn, together with Baner, recalled,
thrown into prison, and declared a traitor by the
king, who could not forgive him for having sub-
scribed the remonstrance at Reval. In Estland
the troops were so weary of the tedious war, that
they inclined finally to make peace for themselves.
Sigismund actually concluded peace for Poland, and
stipulated at the same time a truce of a year’s
duration for Sweden. This had the effect of in-
censing John, wlio said that neither his son tmv
his brother sliould be his guardian, and ordered
the contimiation of the war. For the rest, new
levies in Sweden, mutinies of the troops from
defect of pay, appointment and depriv;ition of com-
manders (Charles himself went over to Livonia for
a short time in 1590), mutual devastation, and on
the Swedish side occasionally successful feats of
arms, were the chief features of this war during
the last two years of John’s life. Charles Henry-
son Horn demanded and obtained inquiry and
judgment. His defence, which he was refused per-
mission to reduce to writing, although he declared
that he was sick and weak from iiuprisonment, and
" a man with few gifts of the tongue," was full of
magnanimity. One error he acknowledged, hoping
it would be overlooked ;
that he had allowed Gus-
tave Baner, who after had left him without relief,
to take too many troops from Narva ;
he had so
often with few soldiers beaten the Russians, and
held them not then more fonnidable than in 1577
at Reval, which himself and his father defended
against 50,000 men. The 20th February 1591, on
the anniversary of the assault of Narva, he was
condemned to death, but was kept in confinement
for another year, and at length pardoned on the
place of execution. To obtain grace from the long
implacable king, the prayers of prince John, wlio
was yet a child, had been employed. When Charles
succeeded to power, Horn again received the go-
vernment of Livonia. He had grown up in this
war by the side of his father, old Henry Horn, who
was able to pride himself on this son and on a
nephew like Clas Christerson Horn*. Charles had
3 So the Russian account. Karamsin, ix. 175. Probably
the numbers are too large, although yet grosser exaggerations
respecting the Russian army are found in their chronicles.
These state it at 300,000 men; while the Swedish chronicle
of /Egidius Girs speaks, it is true, of 100,000 Russians, but
says, that the Czar first appeared before Jamgorod in Inger-
manland with but 30,000.
^ The High Admiral Clas Christerson Horn, who in Eric’s
time commanded the Baltic with the Swedish fleet, was a
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