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1632.]
Sketch of his
early life
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS. hy chancellor
Oxenstierna. 211
Adolphus,
" honour father and mother, show bro-
therly affection to those of thine own blood, love the
servants of thy father, requite them after their
due, be gracious to thy subordinates, punish evil,
love goodness and meekness, put good trust in all,
yet with moderation, and learn first to know the
persons ; hold by the law without respect of per-
sons ; impair no man’s well-won privileges, in so
far as they agree with the law ;
minish not thy
princely income, but with precaution, that they who
taste thy bounty may remember the source from
which it flowed’." To his second son, Charles
Philip, the king writes letters as earnest as they are
full of lovingness *. His consort was a proud and
austere dame ;
afterwards partial enough in the
cause of this younger son, whose rights as duke she
defended with a zeal that might easily have led to
consequences dangerous for the kingdom, if Gusta-
vus Adolphus had not been as good a son as he
was a great king ’. From the ladies of her house-
hold she exacted daily their prescribed task of
spinning and weaving ’, and in spite of all the re-
monstrances of Denmark, she maintained as long
as she lived the title of sovereignty
" over the
Lapps of Northland," which proved one of the
causes of war with that power, and was therefore
laid aside by Gustavus Adolphus 2.
Next to his great natural endowments and liis
extraordinary progress in knowledge, his timous in-
troduction to public life claims our attention. This
was partly to be ascribed to the manners of the
time ; but Charles was also moved by reasons of
his own. Upon the throne, yet insecure, it was of
importance to him that the nation should early
learn to know his successor; and of Gustavus
Adolphus we may say, that he grew up under the
eyes of the people. The choice of his instructors
was committed to the estates’. Already in his
tenth year he is brought into the council ; and
scarcely fourteen, being engaged with the queen
in a journey to the southern portron of the king-
dom, he receives from the king his father the
following exhortation :
" Be kind to those who
seek thy help, so that thou let them not go com-
fortless from thee ; neglect not, when any man
makes known to thee a reasonable grievance, to
hear it and give lis to undei’stand it. So far as
’ " A Minute of remembrance for my Son Gusta^ois Adol-
phus." Palmsk. MSS. t. 58, p. 467. Ex Manu?cripto Regis
Caroli IX.
8 To duke Charles Philip, for his princely grace to study
assiduously, Oct. 7, 1611. " Because we hear that thou wilt
not give close heed to thy studies, and we by no means intend
that thou shouldst give up the same ;
therefore have we sent
herefrom to thee this gentleman, the noble and well-born
Matthias Soop, whom we would have about thee, and who
shall teach thee French ; also shall thou obediently and at-
tentively study with doctor John, that thou mayst learn Latin
likewise. If thou wilt do this, we shall make thee jjartaker
of much good, in our paternal complacence. Be assiduous,
so sh^t thou be wise and understanding." Charles Philip,
born April 23, 1601, was then in his eleventh year. The
above-mentioned doctor John appears to be John Chesneco-
pherus, tutor of the prince, although John Skytte also was
charged with the education of Charles Philip.
9 He begs that " she may not turn from him her maternal
heart." To her majesty the queen, Swartsice, March 3, 1618.
1
This was then brought into the treasury of the crown,
and an account kept thereof. Palmsk. MSS. t. 78. It is
related that the queen measured out the thread for sewing
with an ell-wand.
rests with thee, assist every man to his right, and
press this sedulously on our lieutenants, bailiffs,
and officers ;
thus will prosperity, with God’s help,
be thine *." We find likewise actual affairs of
government soon managed by Gustavus Adolphus,
partly in his own duchy, partly for the general
service of the king, wherein he sometimes used his
influence for petition and intercession by advice of
his mother. Not less early was his passion for
war manifested. The youth of fifteen ventured in
the year 1610 to prefer his claim to the command
in the war against Russia. "
Howbeit, since this
was enti-usted to others *," says Axel Oxenstierna,
" he was, not without his discontentment, restrained
for the year, to abide at the court of his lord father,
until he had passed his sixteenth year, and entered
his seventeenth. Then, namely in April of the
year IGU, as king Christian IV. of Denmark had
renounced peace and declared war, the prince was
by his father, according to ancient custom, pro-
nounced in the diet of the 24th April fit to bear
the sword, with which, the day following, he was in-
vested in most splendid guise. Thereafter straight-
way he caused the forces of West-Gothland to
assemble, especially the foreign troops which had
winter quarters there, in order to join his father
with the same at Jenkoping, as came to pass, and
likewise march to Calmar, at that time beleaguered,
for the relief of the town. In this expedition of
Calmar did the young lord, under the guidance of
his father king Charles, endure the first trial of
warfare, being present at all the remarkable
encounters and actions, in the chief himself mostly
leading and bearing conmiand, from the beginning
to the end ^." The truth of this statement is at-
tested by the destruction of Christianople, the
principal Danish place of arms in Scania ’, and the
reconquest of Oeland, both achievements of Gusta-
vus Adolphus, and the most fortunate occurrences
of this war. Calmar, notwithstanding its scanty
means of defence *, would probably not have been
lost without the treason of Christian Some ; since,
as a foreign contemporary historian, by no means
jjartial to Sweden, obsei’ves of the Swedes of this
time,
"
they defended not their men by walls, but
theii* walls by men ^."
2 See the Danish complaints of 1619, and the queen’s
answer; Hallenberg, History of Gustavus Adolphus (Gustaf
Adolfs Historia), iv. 815.
" Her son had power to govern
his kingdom, but not to order any thing touching herself
personally."
3 The choice of John Skytte is said to have been made
" auctoritate ordinum regni."
1 Letter of Charles IX. to Gustavus Adolphus, July 12, 1608.
5
Jacob de la Gardie, who received the command, Sjies
himself "appointed lieutenant" of Gustavus Adolphus.
Hallenberg, i. 47.
6 Axel Oxenstierna’s forecited account of the youth of
Gustavus Adolphus.
7
Jahn, History of the Calmar war (Historie om Calmar-
krigen). Copen. 1820, p. 127.
s In his last answer to Christian IV., Charles seems to
acknowledge that the want of powder, which Christian
Some alleged, might have been real.
" If powder failed
him, he should have defended himself with stones," writes
the king. For the rest, that Christian Some was a traitor, is
shown by his calling upon the Swedish commander at Bork-
holm to surrender likewise, and by his Danish pension.
9 Peleus. Histoire de la derni^re guerre de Su^de, en
laquelle sont araplement decrits les sieges, combats, ren-
contres, et batailles des Su^dois contre les Danois (History I
p 2 I
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