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186
The king’s arrival.
Piet of Upsala.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. His acceptance of the
conditions proposed.
[1592—
communicated with Charles, with the fleet from
Finland to Dantzic, took on board Sigismund with
his wife, sister, and train, and landed after a
troublous passage at Stockholm on the 30th Sep-
tember, 1593. Charles took his stand on the
castle-bridge to receive the king. The newly-
elected archbishop, Abraham Angemian, the most
vehement opponent of the liturgy, was a sight as
little agreeable to the new-comer, as the papal
legate Malaspina to the prince ^. After a short in-
terview, during which the duke, even in the king’s
presence, gave way to his wrath against Clas Flem-
ing and count Axel Leyonhufvud, Charles retired
into his principality, and committed to the council
the business of negotiating with the king.
Further demands touching the securities so re-
quested were pi-essod. But Sigismund would con-
tirm neither the acts of the Synod of Upsala, the
printing of which he forbade, nor the choice made
of an archbishop ;
his Jesuits and the clergy of
Stockholm preached against one another. He
wished to concede the use of a church in the
former monastery of the Franciscans to the Catho-
lics, and enforced there an interment after the
Catholic ritual, at which the Poles and Swedes came
to blows in the church itself, so that blood was
shed. Of natives, only those surrounded him who
had embraced Catholicism, and now showed them-
selves most zealous for its extension. Otherwise
he held converse mostly with the papal legate and
his own Polish retinue, rarely saw the Swedish
council, and refused to receive the deputies of the
Swedish clergy ^. In his answer to the council in
Jannary, 1594, he expresses surprise, that any con-
ditions should be demanded of him before the coro-
nation. Men should know the distinction between
a hereditary and an elective monarchy. This, says
the great Gustavus Adolphus, his councillors, the
Jesuits,
" who stir up every subtlety that is good
for nought," had taught him. Of the same school
is another answer of the king : as king elective,
he said, his conscience would have forbidden
him to approve any other i-eligion than that
which he himself held to be true ;
now being born
king hereditary of subjects differing in faith, he
would leave them unmolested, it
being first de-
clared what privileges they would permit his fellow-
believers the Catholics to enjoy ^. —Thus with minds
mutually exaspei’ated, men repaired to Upsala,
where the estates wei’e assembled, to solemnize at
once John’s entombment and Sigismund’s corona-
tion. The former was conducted with great pomp ;
but the papal legate was extruded from the funeral
procession, and the Jesuits theatened with death if
rulers, though he guides himself by no more than one, who
is called king Sigismund; come, my mates, to command me
too, and see if I do not knock them on the head."
9 " It is also singular that master Abraham, who had
fallen into disgrace with our late father, should now be the
person to receive us in the name of all the clergy," Sigismund
afterwards wrote to Charles. The duke demanded the re-
moval of the papa! legate, which the lords of the council
sent to meet Sigismund had already urged in Dantzic. The
answer was, that he was not sent to the kingdom, but to the
king’s person, and had well merited another requital by the
trouble he had taken in furthering the king’s journey. He
would not interfere in the coronation, and had been silent
upon questions of religion, although the clergy were crying
out against him. Sigismund’s Register, 1594.
’ " For that we did not give such answer to the clergy,
who some time ago were in Stockholm, as they more reck-
they ventured into the church. Next day, the
warden of the cathedral of Upsala averred that
he and several others had seen the grave of king
John sprinkled with blood ’. Charles came thither,
but with a train of three thousand men on foot and
horse, whom he quartered on his hereditary estates
in the surrounding tracts. To the estates he said :
" I part not myself from you ;
if Sigismund will be
your king, he nuist fulfil your requests." To the
king he declared that no coronation could previously
be permitted. On the delivery of this intimation
he was accompanied at the castle of Upsala by the
council and nobility and the applauding shouts of
the people who stood without. The order of pea-
sants offered him the crown, but he enjoined them
to be silent. Others talked of placing the young
prince John on the throne under a government of
guardians.
The court spent its time in evasive answers, and
endeavours to disunite the estates. Rumours were
current of an attempt against the duke’s life. A
Netherlander who at this time resided in the court,
himself a Catholic and partisan of Sigismund, re-
lates that such a proposal was made to the king,
and absolution promised him for the crime *. That
Sigismund rejected the crime, we should be war-
ranted in believing from his whole character, even
if prudence had not forbidden him to risk such a
step against a rival emboldened by the devotion of
the estates, and whose army was the stronger.
Meanwhile Charles redoubled his vigilance, and
kept his cavalry in readiness. The estates vowed
unanimously, with prayers and upon their knees,
to uphold the acts of the synod of Upsala. No
Catholic was to be thenceforth capable of filling
any office in Sweden ;
whosoever should embrace
the Catholic faith or permit his children to be
educated therein, was to lose his rights of citizen-
ship ;
Catholics might reside in the kingdom if
they conducted themselves peaceably, but no
Catholic service should be performed except in
the king’s chapel ’. This was all the court could
obtain ;
and when the duke at last threatened to
depart and dismiss the estates to their homes, un-
less a decisive answer followed within four-and-
twenty hours, the king submitted to the conditions
prescribed. The estates sang Te Deum as for a
victory won. Even the newly elected archbishop
was confirmed in his office, but the king was
determined not to receive the crown fi’om a man so
odious to him. The same day on which the as-
surance was given* (February the 19th, 1594),
lessly than discreetly requested, thereto we had good reason."
Sigismund to Charles, Jan. 22, 1594. Ibid.
2 Baazii Inventarium Eccl. SuioGoth. 547.
3 Messenius.
* Jac. Typotius, Relatio Hist, de regno SueciEe. This
person had gained no good repute in Sweden. An Italian
named Stozzi gave the duke warning. Charles himself after-
ward said, he had been informed from abroad, that about the
time of the coronation designs were thrice entertained against
his life, as well as subsequently in Stockholm, before the
king’s departure. Declaration to the Council, March 6, 1595.
Register.
5 Covenant of the Estates of the Realm anent Religion.
Upsala, Feb. 16, 1594.
s The King’s Assurance anent Religion, as found in the
Registry, differs from the version printed in Stiernman, in
that the king reserves to himself the power of afterwards
granting, with the approbation of the estates, more tolerable
conditions to his fellow-believers.
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