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1632.]
Prevalence of the
iiiUitary spirit
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. INTERNAL RELATIONS.
in the
government.
215
Charles extended, through his shield-bearers, to
those likewise who served on foot at their own
cost for equipment *. The equestrian service for
estates or rents of the crown granted out iu fief
was performed also by public officers, who, noble
or not, were all paid iu this manner ;
and we find
that Charles exacted it even from the bailiff’s, as-
sessors of hundreds, and prefects^. This was a
relic of that barbarism, iu which all service to
the crown was war-service, and all clerkdom (as
studies were formerly called) was confined to the
church. After the Reformation the sphere of view
in this direction widens; and when Charles wished
to enact in the law of Sweden that a nobleman
should forfeit his freehold (fra?lse) if he did not
make his son, by arms or learning, fit for the pub-
lic service, he plainly enough declared what he
expected from the nobility of the realm.
We have considered it of moment, to unfold the
view under which Gustavus Adolphus compre-
hended the nobility of Sweden. Within its ranks
were included all having command, whether civil
or military, and almost all the public servants of
the realm in the secular departments. Hence the
nobles looked upon their claim to offices of state as
their highest right
’
;
as their body also received,
by ennoblement, all the ability that was qualified
to fill these ;
a point which they did not neglect to
urge against the yeomanry, although not alwajs
with success, when the latter complained of the in-
crease of the nobility ^. At the same time, it was
properly a military order ;
for every noble was
at least a common soldier, if nothing else, and
thereto born. Charles had strengthened the in-
s " In the times of king Charles IX. many a man was
called noble and well-born who was not of the nobility; and
all soldiers who demeaned themselves gallantly were then
held for noblemen." The high marshal count de la Gardie
in the council, 1648. Palmsk. MSS. t. 190. {Skdld-kuektar,
Ger. schildknechte, armigeri, is the term I have rendered
shield-bearers. T.)
9
Hallenberg, i. 160. (The hdrads-skrifware, or clerk of
the hundred, adjusted the quota of taxes paid by each.
Liinsinan is generally used as prefect or governor of a dis-
trict. Fogd is bailiff. The terms appear to be mistranslated
in the German version. T.)
1 "It is the highest right (jus) we possess, that we are
capaces munerum publicorum, which is an onerous right,"
said A.xel Oxenstierna in the council. Palmsk. AISS. t. 190.
2 When at a diet the high chancellor said in reply to the
complaints of the yeomen anent the increase of the nobility,
" It is your own sons who are ennobled ;" one of the crowd
made answer,
" You bring us little joy, by swelling the num-
bers of the heathen." Hermelin, Apophthegmata Sveonum.
Nordin MSS.
3 From the dletofSbderkoeping in 1595. At the diet of 1611,
when Gustavus Adolphus mounted the throne, the body of
officers was forgotten in the first writ. But this was compen-
sated by a special summons, according to which every cap-
tain of horse (ryttmaster) and of foot (hbfvidsman or head-
man) was to attend with some of his officers. We find other-
wise that every company sent its delegates. To the diet of
Helsingfors in 1616 were summoned the captains of horse
and foot, with one of the officers and two private horse or
foot soldiers. Hallenberg, iii. 486, note a.
* " Sweden hath made, ex necessitate temporum, the mili-
tary class to be an estate of the realm, which nowhere else is
found." Declaration in the council, 1642. Palmsk. MSS.
t. 190, p. 483.
5
Among the demands of the nobility at the accession of
Gustavus Adolphus, was, that before each diet they should
be made acquainted with the most weighty matters to be
discussed thereat, for the purpose of considering them at
fluence of the army, by summoning to the diets a
number of officers as its representatives’, a prac-
tice which continued long afterwards. Axel Ox-
enstierna remarks this as a custom peculiar to
Sweden *. The military, who sent deputies both
of the officers and the privates (though having no
votes), strengthened the nobility at the diets, whore
every nobleman come to lawful years was bound
to give his attendance*. Add hereto longsome
and prosperous wars, and the military monarchy
is complete. Such Sweden had now become ;
and
imder this aspect it was regarded by its greatest
statesmen^. The military spirit pervaded all; and
Swedish diplomatists and literates, persons who
lived with the pen in hand, speak with small
respect of foreign unwarlike princes :
" Old lords,
reared away from war, in easy lives, who are
themselves no soldiers, and have no soldiers in
their council, but only a heap of economists (ceco-
nomos) and literates." Such is here the common
evil, writes Adler Salvius concerning the estates
of Germany ’’. With such a spirit, and a young
hero wearing the crown, we may not wonder at
claims which so nearly coincided with the reality,
but first after the death of the hero were more
distinctly heard, that the nobility was pre-
eminently the estate of the realm of Sweden, that
the nobleman was immediately, the peasant (under
him) only mediately the subject of the realm ^;
claims which, finally, under administrations of
guardians, led to the formally expressed assertion
of the nobilitj-,
" that they could not be out-voted
at the diets by the other estates ’."
home, in order that every one of their number might not be
compelled to attend the diet. Afterwards the presence of
military officers at the diet was ascribed to Gustavus Adol-
phus. The knights and nobles speak, in 1664, of that mon-
arch’s "
good intention , which, not to mention other benefits
he had conferred on the nobility, had given them the deputies
of the army for their assistance, who, without votes of their
own, should stand by the aforesaid order, so that in conjunc-
tion with the councillors of stale, they might be able to
balance the other orders." Adlersparre, Historical Collec-
tions (Histor. Samlingar), iii. 383.
6 " That Sweden cannot be long without a war, the natural
position of the kingdom (situs regni et loci) proclaims, and
hereof our kings, or bull-heads, as some say, have noways been
the causes." Axel Oxenstierna in the council, 1636. I.e. 392.
7 "
They decide according to the civil law, when only the
law of cannon isnecessary." So wrote at this time a Swedish
juris utriusque doctor, himself the son of a burgher, Alder
Salvius, respecting the court of Celle, to the council. Lu-
beck, Jan. 20, 1631. Palmsk. MSS. Ministerial Letters.
Yet we may remember that he was long secretary to Gus-
tavus Adolphus, and so versed in military affairs, that he
himself drew up military plans when Swedish minister in
Hamburgh.
8 " We are all subditi regni, the peasants mediate, we im-
mediate." The high steward, count Peter Brahe, in the
council.
" In reason we ought highly to estimate the pri-
vileges of the baronage (Ridderskapets) here in Sweden,
since they are more excellent than the privileges of the
German noblemen, who are not immediate estates in the
Roman empire, but little more than slaves of the princes."
Axel Oxenstierna, in the council, 1636. Palmsk. MSS.
t. 190. The steward, Peter Brahe, highly desertful else,
changed in 1642 his forecited opinion, when he maintained
in the council, that the king’s majesty should not in his
rescripts entitle the nobility subjects, since that was servile,
and the higher the lord, the higher the servant. Adler-
sparre, Hist. Collections, iv. 115.
9 Extract of the protocol passed in the council chamber,
1664. Adlersparrfe, id. iii. 362.
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