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1598]
Treaty of Linkoeping.
Flight of Sigismund. CHARLES IX.
Decrees of the estates
against Sigismund.
195
fight of Stangbridge (Stangebro). Sigismund
would probably have been made pi-isoner him-
self, had not Charles granted a truce, notwith-
standing a shot treacherously fired at him
daring the negociation. The king and the duke
had, immediately after the engagement, a per-
sonal conference. The sequel was the conven-
tion of Linkoping, on the 28th September, wherein
it was provided that both sides should lay down
their arms ;
that the foreign troops, except the
king’s body-guard, should be sent away, the govern-
ment committed to the king, who shoidd conduct it
in accordance with his oath, and convoke a diet
within four months, till which time the officers ap-
pointed by the duke should continue in their
charges. From the promised oblivion of the past
the duke excepted the five councillors who had
followed the king to Poland, Gustave and Steno
Baner, Eric Sparre, Thure Bielke, and George
Posse, whose surrender he demanded. The king
sought in vain, through count Eric Brahe and
others, to obtain a remission of these conditions.
"
Against j’ou, count Eric," said the duke," I have
nothing, for ye hold the same faith as the king,
and have but acted according to your conscience.
But not so the other five ;
and if the king will not
approve their delivery, men are to be found here
who will of a surety drag the foes and traitors to
their country out of the king’s ranks." Here he
pointed to a crowd of armed peasants, who but now
had come to his succour. The lords were delivered
up. They were heard to say, that if they had been
faithful to the duke as to the king, they would have
been otherivise requited. Yet they were to be
tried by judges impartial, and not natives. The
king and the duke parted at Linkoping. Sigismund
embarked at Stegeborg, was driven by storm to
Calmar, left there a Polish garrison, and sailed, not
to Stockholm but to Dantzic. By the treaty of
Linkoping it was stipulated that the estates should
have the right of opposing whosoever should break
its provisions. These assembled at Jenkoping, in
the outset of 1 599, and renounced their fealty and
obedience to Sigismund, albeit conditionally. At a
new diet in Stockholm this renunciation was (July
24) made absolute, witii the addition, that if within
six months Sigismund should not send his son
Vladislaus to Sweden, in order to be educated to
the crown in the evangelic faith, his family should
forfeit for ever its hereditary i-ight to the Swedish
throne. The duke was declared reigning Px-ince
Hereditary of the realm. The Finns^ if they did
not voluntarily submit, were to be compelled to
obedience ; whosoever opposed these resolutions of
the estates should be punished as a traitor.
This was the end of Sigismund’s power, even in
name, within his paternal dominions. Sweden
learned to know him more as a zealous Catholic
than as a king. On the Polish throne, which he pos-
sessed to his death, he showed rather the virtues of
a private man than of a ruler. The long wars,
which the branch of the Vasa family, now deposed
for their religion, occasioned by their pretensions,
conducted the Swedish nation on the path of con-
quest, rich in honour, as in misfortune.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHARLES IX.
CONSEQUENCES OF SIGISMUND S FLIGHT. SEVERITIES AGAINST HIS PARTY. DIET OF LINKOEFING. TRIAL
AND CONDEiMNATION OF THE ROYALIST LORDS OF THE COUNCIL FOR HIGH TREASON. DEPOSITION OF
SIGISMUND AND HIS HEIRS BY THE ESTATES. CONTINUANCE OF HOSTILITIES WITH THE POLES. EVENTS
OF THE WAR.. VISIT OF CHARLES TO FINLAND. DIET AT STOCKHOLM. RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF CHARLES.
HIS ACCEPTANCE OF THE CROWN FROM THE ESTATES AT NORRKCEPING, IN 1604. STATE OF THE LAW AND
JUDICATORY. ENCOURAGEMENT OF PUBLIC INDUSTRY. RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN POWERS. WAR WITH
RUSSIA, AND WITH DENMARK. THE KING’s DEATH.
A. D. 1599—1611.
Werwing relates that Charles, before the diet of
Soderkoping in the year 1595 had the following
dream ;
" It seemed to the duke that he sat at
table in Reval, and a Livonian nobleman, Fitting-
hoif the elder, placed before him various dishes.
When the plates were uncovered, there appeared to
him in one of the same the Swedish arms, and in
another a dead man’s scull, with many bones
around it. From this strange dream the duke
forthwith awakened in alarm, and when his cham-
berlain, Ludbert Kauer, shoi*tly after entered, he
told him the same ; which he as a learned and ex-
perienced man might interpret to the duke, corres-
ponding to the mournful events which thereafter
ensued."
Of different other forewnrnings at this time
mention is made, as that it rained blood in Stock-
holm before Charles went to Finland ; that the
peasants about Linkoping saw armies fightmg in
the air before the battle of Stangbridge, and the
Oelanders’ fleets engaging in Calmar Sound. We
allege not these as external but as inner signs of a
vehement disquiet, of which the heart was full.
Since Sweden was settled, it had been scarcely so
shaken to its deepmost foundations as in the convul-
sions which overthrew the last fragments of Catho-
licism, and wrested the crown from the line of John.
Sigismund’s flight reduced his still numerous
adherents to despair. Count Eric Brahe wrote to
Poland, that such an example was scarce to be
found in the whole history of the world ;
loss of
property, honour, life, gallows and wheel, were the
only things which the king’s friends had now to
expect. Sigismund replied, that he hoped still to
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