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182
Second mariiage
of Charles. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Death of king
John. L1592—
four sons, all distinguished men, and among them
Gusfave Horn, the youngest and greatest. There
was more than one Swedish family which in this time
bore such offspring. Already they foreshadowed
the days of the mighty Gustavus Adolphus.
Charles had wedded a second time at Nykoping,
August 22, 1592, with Christina of Holstein \ This
drew upon him the king’s disfavour, and old sus-
picions were again awakened. Sigismund had in-
tended to woo the bride of Charles before his depar-
ture to Poland, and already sent her his portrait
and valuable presents, when the negotiation was
broken off. She was a princess of harsh temper,
and is said, at an after-day, as the consort of
Charles, not to have promoted concord between him
and his nephew ’’. In spring of the same year
John was brought low by a wasting malady. On
his sick-bed he again withdrew the pardon ho had
granted to the lords of the council. He declared
also that if God should prolong his life, he would
never again constrain any man in matters of faith,
as the liturgy had occasioned so much disturbance
and scandal. This was his last answer to the re-
presentations of the clergy of Smaland. Half a
year after his death, his liturgy was preserved only
in the chapel of the queen dowager Gunnila.
King .John died in the castle of Stockholm, on
the 17th November 1092, in his fifty-fifth year.
His death was for some time kept secret. The
queen was suspected of having in the mean time
appropriated whatever of the property left she
wished for. Much was missed on search being
had ;
but she pleaded in defence .John’s letter of
bequeathment. The king had besides enjoined
that no account should be demanded of her ’. Duke
Charles first brought sorrow, and wrath alike, into
the royal castle*. The body which had been
carried into an ill-ari’ayed chamber, he caused to
be wrapped in a sumptuous vestment, and watched
in one of the chief halls of the castle. The queen,
together with the councillors of state Clas Bielkd’
and George Posse, who had been present during
the king’s last moments, Avas obliged to endure
sharp upbraidings. They had delayed for two days
informing the duke of the royal demise, though he
was but three hours’ distance from the capital".
He forthwith commanded the queen to remove,
who however did not give obedience, and even in
the following year we find complaints by Charles
respecting the crowd of useless mouths which
were subsisted in the castle.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHARLES AGAINST SIGISMUND.
PROCEEDINGS OF DUKE CHARLES AND THE COUNCIL OF STATE IN THE ABSENCE OF SIGISMUND. ASSEMDL?
OF THE CLERGY AT UPSALA ;
MEASURES TOUCHING THE LITURGY AND DOCTRINE. PROMISES OF SIGISMUND.
FEARS AS TO HIS ADMISSION. HIS ARRIVAL IN STOCKHOLM. DIET OF UPSALA. ACCEPTANCE BY THE KING
OF THE CONDITIONS PROPOSED TO HIM. CHARTER TO THE NOBILITY. INTRIGUES OF THE COURT, AND DIS-
ORDERS IN THE CAPITAL. DISAFFECTION TO THE KING ;
HIS DEPARTURE. CONVOCATION OF THE ESTATES
BY DUKE CHARLES AT SCEDERKCEPING. DIET OF ARBOGA. HOSTILITIES BETWEEN SIGISMUND AND CHARLES.
TREATY OF LINKCEPING. DECREE OP THE ESTATES AT STOCKHOLM AGAINST SIGISMUND ;
CHARLES DECLARED
HEREDITARY PRINCE REGNANT.
A. D. 1592—1598.
The man who could have promised, writes Eric
Sjiarre, out of his own prison *, that a prince who
was born in a dungeon under a tyrannical govern-
ment 2, should once be king over two monarchies,
might well have expected another guerdon than
they have obtained, who are now accused of having
played into his hands the crowu of Poland. With
hope of this, we are told, he was nurtured from his
infancy ;
with this his parents sweetened the days
of their captivity. Therefore he was educated in
the Catholic faith, although John gave liim also
Lutheran instructors for appearance’ sake, and at-
tended with him the public services of the church ".
When his father changed his opinions, he essayed
son of Christian Horn, the brother of Henry, and ancestor of
the Horns of Aminne, as Henry was of the Horns of Kaukas.
5
Daughter of Adolphus, duke of Holstein Gottorp, by
Christina, daughter of the landgrave Philip of Hesse.
6
Werwing. The proposition of marriage above mentioned
came from Sigismund’s aunt, the duchess Elizabeth of Meck-
lenburg, who herself subsequently advised against it.
^ See what duke Charles calls
" The Prelude to the King’s
Testament," Stiernman, i. 385. That testament in relation
to the government after his death, which the king had re-
served to himself to draw up, was not found.
"
Regis tectis luctum induxit. Messenius.
9 Nov. IC. A day before the death, the duke writes to the
by threats to compel his son to defection from his
mother’s faith, and the council also made repre-
sentations in this respect to the royal children *.
The princess Anne was induced to renounce her
religion ; Sigismund not only remained true to his,
but reckoned it an honour not to calculate the con-
sequences of his zeal for its doctrines.
That which in Sweden is called his reign, shows
us but the complete outbreak of those troubles, for
which the preceding must be held accountable.
John had been untrue to all those principles, to
which the house of Vasa owed its elevation. This
his son was to atone for by the loss of his crown,
council from Nykoping, that he had understood from their
letters the very weak state of the king, and would fake the
road for the capital. On the journey he stayed at Sodertelye,
as would seem, to wait for further intelligence; but it was
delayed for two days.
’
In his defensive memoir.
-
Sigismund was born during the imprisonment of his
parents in the castle of Gripsholm, June 20, 15G6.
3 On the other hand, when Arnold Grothusen, who, after
the Catholic doctor Nicolaus Mylonius, was Sigismund’s
teacher, once ventured to lead the prince away from the Ca-
tholic mass, John drew his swovd over his head, exclaiming,
" Educabis filium meum in spem utriusque regni !"Werwing.
• Messenius.
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