Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XV. Gustavus II. Adolphus. His Internal Administration A.D. 1611—1632
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
1632.]
New
provisions
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS.
of the
royal warranty.
213
foryUkran) of Gustavus Adolphus may be termed
a new form of government, which aimed at con-
fining power on all sides within the bounds of law.
But how wa.s it adopted ? In haste, amidst war
and distress. How was its operation to be de-
veloped ? Under a continuance of war and dis-
tress, although with increase of glory. Circum-
stances were too favourable to tlie more potent for
freedom not again to become aristocratic property,
at the cost of king and people.
The Royal Warranty of Gustavus Adolphus is
founded upon the king’s oath introduced in the
ancient law-book, but contains besides divers more
exact definitions and limitations. The arbitrariness
to which, under the foregoing reign, so much
calamity was chargeable, now gave occasion to a
more express confirmation of the principle sanc-
tified by the law, that no one should be appre-
hended or condemned upon a mere allegation, or
without knowing his accuser, and being brought
face to face with him before the judgment-seat.
The king was to insure to all orders, especially
that of tlie nobility, their due respect, and to every
office its dignity and power, depriving and de-
grading no man from such offices, unless he should
be lawfully adjudged thereto. The enactment in
the Land’s- Law (Lands-lag), that without consent
of the people neither a new law should be nmde
nor a new tax imposed, was ratified anew with
the addition, that the assent of duke John, of the
council, and of the estates, should likewise be requi-
site thereto. Without this neither war, peace,
truce, nor alliance could be made. The council
was reinstalled in its position of mediator between
king and people, and the estates deprecated their
being burdened with too frequent holding of diets.
Hereby, in the great necessities of the crown, the
right of the estates to tax themselves was brought
into jeopardy, especially as the expi’essions of the
king’s oath i-especting the taxes are very indefinite,
namely,
" that they shall not be imposed without
the knowledge of the council, and the consent of
those to whom it belongeth." Thus was the power
of the council augmented from the side both of the
king and the people ;
and in proof thereof, lh;it
provision of the old regal oath which forbids the
king of Sweden to alienate or diminish the property
of the crown was omitted, from the form of war-
ranty pronounced by the young Gustavus Adol-
phus.
King Charles IX. had not confirmed the privi-
leges of the nobility. There exists a sketch of a
projected confirmance which that sovereign, after
his coronation, laid before the councU ’’
;
but they
refusing to decide upon it without the participation
of the nobles, the king summoned the order to send
deputies from every province to Stockholm upon
the tenth of June, 1608, to declare their opinion
touching the pi’ivileges. The convention appears
to have met, but without results ;
for in the king’s
answer to the memorial presented by the nobility
it is set forth, that the privileges offered, which
had been conceded out of especial grace and good
liking, and not out of obligation, should rather
have been accepted with thankfulness, particularly
as they were more advantageous than those of
king John; but as the nobility was not content
therewith, the king repeats his offer, once before
5
Orebio, Feb. 22, 160S. Palmsk. MSS. t. 152, p. 7l7.
made, to confirm the privileges of king John. But
neither was this carried into effect *. The charter
of privileges offered by Charles, if not fully match-
ing those of Sigismund, yet actually contains, com-
pared with John’s, greater advantages, nay, new
liberties for the nobility. Such, for example, is the
right of themselves choosing the marshal of the
kingdom, or commander-in-chief, from three lords
proposed by the king to the order. We find, more-
over, what we should not be apt to seek in such a
document—a project for a new arrangement of the
government itself, by the distribution of the council
in various departments. Besides the five high
officers of state, the steward, the marshal, the
admiral, the chancellor, and the treasurer, who
have the custody of the ensigns of royalty, there
were to be twenty more councillors (which seemed
to the nobility too few) ;
of these four (one the
academic chancellor) were to be ])laced over the
university of Upsala and all the schools of the
country, two were to submit to the king all capital
causes, and four were to be councillors of the
treasury. Further, an equerry was to have the
superintendence of all the king’s cav:dry, and an
ordnance-master of the artillery and ammunition,
though these, as well as the councillors of the
treasury, might be taken from among deserving
noblemen out of the council. These proffered
advantages appear all to have been regarded as
doubtful, as the king wished to make the amount
of horse-service by the nobles the subject of a new
valuation, the yearly rent on which it was to be
performed being left open in the project ;
and this
circumstance, contrasted with the king’s former
ofter to abolish the horse-service for ever, upon
the nobility engaging to pay for their estates an
equal proportion of taxes with others, shows that
Charles can only be called an enemy of the nobility,
in so far as he wished that their obligations should
be corresponsive to their rights.
In truth, he himself paid stricter homage than
any one else to the views of his time anent the
nobility, according to which the nobleman was be-
fore all others the born servant of the kuig and the
crown. Every nobleman, knight or squire, must
appear in person at the yearly weaponshow upon
his gallant steed, with full armour " both for body
and limb," ready at his own cost to follow his sove-
reign to the borders, and fourteen days beyond
them. This was the custom and law of Sweden ^
for every nobleman alike. For it is worthy of re-
mark, that just as the old assessment imposed equal
taxes on every so-called well-bestead yeoman, with-
out regard otherwise to the larger or smaller extent
of his landed property, so too the ancient law knows
no difference, beyond the personal knight-service
by which exemption from taxes was gained, be-
tween the richer and the poorer noble. To this
alone regard was to be had, that he who desired
to earn his freedom by such means, should possess
property sufficient to find furniture for himself and
his horse. Doubtless inequality of property would
make, in I’espect to the horse-service, a considerable
difference, in times when the power of a baron was
usually measured by the number of people with
which he rode about the country. This power had
shown itself formidable too often to be unknown;
5 The confirmation exists in writing, but was not issued.
’
Land’sLaw.Sectionofthe King(Konunga-Balken),c. 11
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
