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1632.]
Reflections on the
life, character,
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. GERMAN WAR. and designs of
tlieking.
287
Gustavus Adolphus was taken away in his thirty-
eighth year. Never has one man’s death made a
deeper impression throughout a whole quarter of
the world. Wheresoever his name had been heard,
a ray of hope for the oppressed had penetrated.
Even the Greek, at its sound, dreamed of free-
dom ’
;
and prayers for tlie success of the Swedish
monarch’s arms were sent up at the Holy Sepul-
chre ’. What then must he not have been for the
partners of his faith ? We may conceive this ; nay
rather, it is no longer possible to do so. The feel-
ings with which the inhabitants of Augsburg, with
streaming tears, crowded to the evangelical worship
restored by Gustavus Adolphus ;
the feelings with
which the people in Saxony, on bended knees,
stretched out thankful hands to the hero, for the
second time their saviour, are become sti’ange to
the world in which we live. In those days men
felt their dangers, and knew how to requite their
deliverer worthily. We speak of the people, whose
champion Gustavus Adolphus was by his cause as
well as by his qualities ^. The agency of both ex-
tended far, and burst even the bonds of hate and
prejudice ;
for he is perchance the only man (so
great was the might of his virtue) whose image is
reflected with truth, even in the portraiture of his
enemies. It is not only Axel Oxenstierna who
has said of liirn, "Hewas a prince God-fearing in
all his doings and transactions, even to the death ^"
Lutheran theologians have wished in some sort to
erect him into a saint of tlieir persuasion. Jf
withal he had too much of Csesar and Alexander
(whom be admired), we must acknowledge on the
other side, that he was better than his spiritual ad-
visers, and far above his age in Christian tolerance.
What of mortal destiny befell him at the height
^ A plan for the liberation of Greece through Gustavus
Adolphus was given by the Greek Ronianus Nicephori
(though after the king was no more) to Adler Salvius on
the 12th December. Palmsk. Col. Acta ad Hist. Reg. Suec.
Appendix, t. i.
8
Cyrilli Patriarchas ConstantiiiopoUtani Litterae ad Axe-
lium Oxenstjerna (manu senili et tremula), with complaints
anent the encroachments of the Catholics, to the injury of
the Greeks, at the Holy Sepulchre. Nordin Col. n. 175.
3 In Gerniania plurimi, praesertim rustici, si non palam,
saltem secrete, Calvini aut Lutheri hreresim sectantur, says
a Catholic contemporary who fought in the emperor’s army.
Petri Baptistse Burgi Genuensis de Bello Suecico Com-
mentarii, 1. iii. c. 2.
>
Protocol of the Council, 1641. Palmsk. MSS.
2 The only man who, so far as is known to me, arrogated
to himself the name of " the fortunate," I mean Sylla, was
by nature rather sensitive than hard. (See his Life in Plu-
tarch.) He was cruel through his trust in fortune.
3 Animee magnee prodigus.
< In a Latin letter of March 28, 1633, from the Swedish
council to the chancellor in Germany, it is said; "The
council knew that between his late majesty, of happy me-
mory, and the elector of Brandenburg some secret treatings
(tractatus quosdam secretiores) in relation to the marriage
of his majesty’s daughter with the son of the elector had
occurred, although the matter had come to nothing by rea-
son of the unexpected death of his majesty ; wherefore, as
they learned that the elector was anew inclined to it, Oxen-
stierna was commissioned to continue the negotiation, but
first to ascertain whether the stipulations made therein by
the king, that the electoral prince should quit the Calvinistic
for the Lutheran confession, and be educated in Sweden,
would be acceded to." In a memorial to the chancellor of the
29th March following, among other grounds which spoke for
of greatness to which he had ascended—by bis
designs and plans dying with him,—belongs, how
extraordinary soever he was, to the common lot of
mankind, and may silently be added to the immea-
surable sum of hopes frustrated. There is a higher
presence in the whole life of Gustavus Adolphus,
which may more easily be felt than described.
There is that boundless reach of view over the
world which with conquex’oi’S is inborn. Like all
his compeers, he was by no means surprised at his
own fortune, amazing as it may appear. His deep
belief in it is conspicuous in all the transactions of
his life. Nothing hardens the heart so much as
prosperity ^. That Gustavus Adolphus was never-
theless humble and meek, speaks most loudly for
his work as a man. In his vocation he acknow-
ledged a guidaueo from on high. He was far from
looking upon himself as indispensable ;
for his goal
was placed far above his own personality. There-
fore was he, like the high-hearted Roman, not nig-
gardly of his great life ^.
" God the Almighty
liveth," he said to Axel Oxenstierna, when that
statesman warned him in Prussia, not so rashly to
expose himself to death. More cheerful and heroic
courage never walked on earth.
What beside did he purpose ? A great monarchy,
without doubt ;
for whose future props in Germany
he counted upon the young Frederic William of
Brandenburg, afterwards the great elector, and
Bernard of Weimar, intending for the one the hand
of his daughter, for the other that of his niece *.
Probably even a Protestant cmpery was not foreign
to his contemplations ’’. For the rest nothing was
determined, even in his own breast. The sphere
of his vision stretched wide around. It was his
pleasure to hold in his hand the threads of many
such a marriage the following are enumerated :
—That the
persons, as well in respect to their age as their extraction
and power, were fitted for one another ; that it had been the
will of the deceased king ; that by this connexion between
Sweden and Brandenburg the Swedish power would be con-
siderably reinforced, the acquisition of Pomerania prepared,
the dominion of the Baltic established, and the carrying on
of the German war made easier; hence the council, in spite
of divers scruples, as the safety and increment of the country
outweighs all, is of opinion that this match must not be re-
jected, if it went forward with tolerable conditions, especially
in reference to religion. Concerning duke Bernard, the let-
ter of the council to the chancellor, of August 14th in the
same year, says:
" It seems advisable that duke Bernard of
Weimar be contented (with the investiture of the dukedom
of Franconia) as well on account of his qualities as because
he is the only man whom we have to consider, and from the
marriage with Christina, daughter of the Palsgrave, which
was in treaty. Although what he asks appears too much,
yet we must consider that the country is far distant, and if
we should lose it, as good it should be taken from him as
from us." All is referred to the chancellor. Reg. for 1633.
The princess mentioned was Christina Magdalena, daughter
of the Palsgrave John Casimir by Catharine, half-sister of
Gustavus Adolphus, born in 1616, and married in 1642 to
Frederic VI., Margrave of Baden- Durlach.
5 The interpretations given to the medal struck during his
stay in Augsburg, with the inscription : Gustava et Augusta,
caput Religionis et Regionis, are well known. The letter of
Adler Salvius to the Council, Hamburg, Oct. 24, 1631, states
of the elector, John George of Saxony, that at his conference
with the king at Halle, after the battle of Leipsic, he pre-
sented himself as the man who would truly counsel and help
to have the Romish crown set upon the head of his majesty."
Stockholm Magazine, 1781, 324.
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