- Project Runeberg -  The History of the Swedes /
190

(1845) Author: Erik Gustaf Geijer Translator: John Hall Turner
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190
The new lieutenants.
Ueerectioii of the HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. University. Peace
witli Russia. [1592—
to this day; natheless we have, in order that the
affairs of the realm may not be entirely wrecked,
been obliged to take on ourselves the government,
according to the compact with the council, which
here follows ’." It .soon appeai-ed that these new
lieutenants i-egarded themselves as independent.
Clas Fleming took the fleet for his own use to Fin-
land, and separated himself openly from the Swedish
government. Arvid Stenbock denied obedience to
the commands of the duke, and was five times sum-
moned by him to make answer without complying ",
His brothers gave no better obedience. The duke
complains of Eric Brahe, that he issued orders at
his pleasure in the castle of Stockholm. Eric
Sparre, at first popular in Dalecarlia, and avoiding
longest an open breach with the duke, ultimately
showed his real inclinations. The last time of his
holding a court in Dalecarlia, ere he quitted the
kingdom, he drove, to the astonishment of the
Dalesmen, with his wife and children m gilded
cars, preceded by trumpeters. He kept a guard
round himself like a royal personage, and levied
great sums for his table-money. At length the
peasants were so exasperated against him that,
two years afterwards, on a false report of his
arrival in Dalecarlia, they chose out twenty of the
stoutest among them to seize him as duke Charles’
enemy in the house of the minister of Tuna’.
In the year 15!)4, the 9th December (O. S.),
at eight in the morning, Charles’ son, Gustavus
Adolphus, was born in the castle of Stockholm.
More besides Tycho Brahe might have foretold
him a crown. The solemnities at the baptism (on
New Year’s Day, 1595) still evinced such concord
between the duke and the council, that Sigismund’s
suspicions against the latter were strengthened.
Charles celebrated his son’s birth-feast b}’ the re-
storation of the University of Upsala, which had
been partly raised from its decay by John, but
again dissolved ’, while the recent revolutions, de-
cisive of the fortunes of the Reformation in Swe-
den, had engrossed universal interest. The pro-
fessors of Upsala \yeve leaders in the struggle
against the liturgy, and suffered on that account a
protracted persecution. In general the teachers of
the schools throughout Sweden were the props of Pro-
testantism. Schoolmasters were summoned to the
synod of Upsala ^, a rector of a school drew up the
protocol, a professor was speaker, and the restora-
tion of the University of Upsala, as a pillar for the
upholding of the Reformation, was one of the points
demanded by the estates from Sigismund *. Charles
5 Letter to the king, Stockliolm, Sept. 17, 1594. Reg.
Covenant of the councillors of state with duke Charles anent
the government. Sep. 2, 1394. Stiernman.
s " We have received your tedious and offensive memorial,
and you are to know, that although his majesty hath ap-
pointed you the supreme commander in the province, your
povper yet doth not reach so far, that you should set yourself
near us." Charles to Arvid Gustaveson Stenbock. Stock-
holm, Nov. 15, 1594. In January, 1595, five letters of cita-
tion to him occur, without his having appeared to any.
7
Ihre, de tumultu Dalekarlorum, vulgo, Nseftaget (Nief ’s
raid). Upsala, VtiS.
8 Towards the end of his life the king had again appointed
some of the former teachers.
9
They bore an important share in its deliberations. The
rector of the duke’s school at Nykoping, Olave Martinson,
drew up the protocol, was afterwards archbishop upon the
deposition of Abraham Angerman, and carried on with
Charles, when king, a theological controversy. The brief of
did not neglect to remind him of it ; and although
the king returned one of liis ordinary fretful an-
swers 2, he was yet obliged to engage in his as-
surance to maintain the Academy efficiently
" in the
general religion of the kingdom," and to provide in-
structors and students with proper support. The
execution of the resolve was committed to the duke
and the council^, but deferred until Charles, on the
15th March, 1595, issued the charter of the Acade-
my’s privileges, whereto at that time belonged the
revision of all the schools in Sweden *. To tliree
professors of theology and four of philosophy lie
assigned adequate incomes from the tithes, with pre-
bendal residences and other houses ’, and founded
a common-room, where forty students received
free maintenance. He besides supported at his
own cost several pupils at foreign seminaries of
learning *’.
An achievement which the people valued still
more highly was the peace that brought to an end
the six-and-twenty years’ war with Russia. A two
years’ truce had been concluded in 1593. Sigis-
mund was not greatly satisfied with the peace, be-
cause he wished to keep together the army under
Clas Fleming. After tedious negotiations Charles
succeeded, on the 14th May, 1595, in concluding
the so-called perpetual peace of Teusin. Narva,
Reval, with all Estland, remained part of the Swe-
dish dominions. On the other hand, Kexholm
with its government was to be ceded, which, how-
ever, Clas Fleming under manifold pretences de-
ferred, in order not to be compelled to dismiss his
troops. With difficulty the duke averted the out-
break of a new war. Civil \\ar in fact broke forth
in Finland, through the unheard-of inhumanities
practised by Fleming’s horsemen, and it was not
till after his death, in 1597, that Kexholm could
be surrendered and the peace with Russia secured.
This procedure of Fleming was a new ground for
convening the estates, which Charles had threatened,
contrary to Sigismund’s prohibition at his departure.
Tlie fulfilment of the menace necessarily set the
duke and the council at variance. We relate tiie
course of events mainly on the authority of a par-
tisan of the council ’’. To the memorial which duke
Charles wrote to Sigismund anent another amended
order of government the king replied, that both
the duke and the council must be content with the
order which had been given, until he should return
to the kingdom. When the prince heard this an-
swer, dissension arose between him and the council
homage by the unnoble estates to Sigismund, after he had
given the assurance, is emitted by bishops, prelates, ministers,
and schoolmasters.

Letter of the council and estates, Feb. 6, 1594. Baazii
Invent. Eccles. Suiog. 550.
2 "Anent the Academy, thekingwilllethimself be dictated
to in nothing." Answer to duke Charles’ Articles, Feb. I,
1594. Register.
3
King Sigismund’s Assurance anent Religion, March 16,
1594. Stiernman.
i With the right of examining, and along with the bishops,
of appointing the rectors of the schools, §§ 8, 0.
5 The so-called kirk-houses at Upsala, formerly attached
to the cathedral, sequestered by Gustavus I. and partly
granted to the nobility.
6 In February, 1600, for the first time after the restoration
of the university, seven masters of philosophy were instituted
with cap and ring.
7 Memoirs of the treasurer Canute Person. A contem-
porary witness. Scandin. Memoirs, v. x.

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