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1G2U.]
Internal state of
Russia. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. POLISH WAR. Intrigues of
Sigisniund.
241
morasses, and strong fortresses part him from us ;
Russia is excluded from the Baltic ;
and I hope
to God, the king adds, it will henceforth be hard
for the Russians to leap over that brook." The
ground on which St. Petersburg now stands was
Swedish. On the frontier a stone was raised bearing
the three crowns of Sweden and the following in-
scription in Latin :
" Here Gustavus Adolphus,
king of Sweden, set the limits of tlie realm. May
his work, under a Gracious Providence, be lasting 2."
Never afterwards did he neglect to keep a watch-
ful eye on Russia. He was careful, in the midst
of his career of victory in Germany, to procure
intelligence of its internal condition, and three
separate memoirs upon this subject, presented to
the king by the three sons of the councillor of
state John Skytte’, still exist. The reigning grand
duke, these allege, was unwarlike ;
his father, the
patriarch, in fact exercised the highest power.
The higher nobles, or knesses, had been diminished
by the tyranny of the dukes to some few families ;
the inferior nobles, or boyars, on the contrary,
were very numerous ;
both were obliged to serve
from the lowest grades upwards, and all were
bound to yield property and life to the grand duke.
All the nobility was mai’tial, but had a common
jealousy of the foreign troops in the service of the
grand duke, who lived in abundance. There were
two main causes of the weakness of Russia ; one
was the corruption of the clergy (for where a crime
was committed, a monk had part), whence the
education of the people was wretched, so that
gluttony and bloodshed were vices made matters of
boast ;
the other was the foreign soldiery. For
the Moscovites, although they hated every thing
outlandish, could effect nothing against foreigners
without foreign aid. All that they accomplished
was done by treachery and superiority of numbers.
The indigenous soldier received no pay, wherefore he
robbed ;
in the defence of fortresses he had always
shown himself stout. The nobles were obliged to
defray their own charges in embassies and military
expeditions ;
for with respect to taxes there was no
defiiaite law, but the lieutenants extorted what they
could, or took bribes for their remissness. The
condition of the lower class in the Russian do-
minions was miserable from four causes, through
slavery, through the multiplicity of races, through
the weight of imposts, and lastly the number of
festival days, which were consumed in debaucheries.
The safe-guards of laws were unknown. The
peasants, who must labour five days of the week
for their lords, had only the sixth and seventh to
themselves. The revenues of the grand duke arose
from several sources : L From the coinage, which
formerly had been good, but now was depressed
by the foreign coins to a lower value, on which
the grand duke gained every third penny: IL From
grain, the prices of which were fixed arbitrarily
by the grand duke: IIL From liquors; for all
drinks saving water, especially the so-called quass,
could only be sold throughout the whole realm of
2 " Hue regni posuit fines Gustavus Adolphus
Rex Sueonuni, fausto Numine duret opus."
Limites positi an. 1617. The demarcation of the boundaries
was completed in 1621 after protracted negotiations, in
wliich on one occasion the Russians turned their backs on
the Swedes, and declared that two saints, a hundred years
dead, had risen up again and promised in the name of the
Russia in the grand duke’s taprooms ;
even the
use of baths, of which the nation was particularly
fond, was forbidden to the people in their own
houses, and they must pay a stiver for one in the
crown-baths : IV. Fi’om sable-skins, which as a
monopoly of the grand duke were so high-priced,
that they might be bought cheaper in Livonia
and Germany tliaia in Russia : V. Otherwise from
trade, which the grand duke now pursued through
his own agents, to the great loss of the English
trading company in Russia ;
of the wares he
selected the best for himself ; what could not be
sold, he usually made over to some rich merchant
for payment, who must give thanks for it as for a
favour. Thraldom was regarded by the Mus-
covites not as a shame, but as an honour. All
boasted of being the serfs of the grand duke ; his
will was law, even if he should command a man to
slay father or mother. That such a condition of
things might be maintained, egress from the king-
dom was forbidden them, out of fear that if
they
came to fox’eign princes and nations, their civiliza-
tion might make slavery abhorrent to them. The
Swedes (continues the relation) were loved by them
before others, but also more feared ;
and they
were of opinion that with these none were to be
compared for the art of war, esj)ecially since they
had heard of his majesty’s successes, passing all
conjecture, in Germany against the Papists, whom
they detested ^.
After the peace with Russia, the fame of Gus-
tavus Adolphus began to be spi’ead throughout
Europe. Councillor John Skytte’, who in 16 17
departed on an embassy to Denmark, Lubeck, the
Netherlands, and England, to counteract the pro-
jects of Sigisniund, writes home, that he every
where heard his sovereign extolled, and therefore
deemed his country fortunate *.
The war with Poland still continued. Its theatre
had been Livonia, the Swedes possessing, of the
chief fortresses. Revel, Narva, and Wittenstein ;
the Poles, Riga, Dunamunde, and Kockenhus. On
the death of Charles IX. a truce was made till
June, 1612; it was prolonged to October 1, 1613;
thereafter for four months more, and at length for
two years, or to the 20th January, 1616. Towards
the end of its term, Polish intrigues began again
to be particularly active in Sweden, connected
with extensive plans previously entertained, which
we cannot here pass over in silence, because they
point towards the future. Sigismund was by re-
ligion and kindred nearly allied to the house of
Hapsburg. Ferdinand, afterwards the second em-
peror of that name, and Philip III. of Spain, were
his brothers-in-law. To the latter he sent an
emigrated Swede, who obtained that all Swedish
ships and cargoes in Spanish ports and waters
should be declared lawful prizes ^. About the
same time a Dutch historian mentions a secret
project, discovered by the correspondence of a
Jesuit *. Denmark was to be instigated to make
Lord, that Russia should extend its frontier to Abo, if war
again fell out with Sweden. Hallenberg, iv. 788.
3 Relationes Muscoviticse Johannis, Benedict!, et Jacob!
Skytte. Palnisk. MSS. tt. 97, 186.
• LitterEE Johannis Skytte ad Axelium Oxenstjerna. Lon-
diiii, 8 Dec. 1617. Palmsk. MSS. t. 371.
5 Id. t 190.
6
Hallenberg, i. 97, after Meteren.
R
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