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288 HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. [1633—
pof5sibilities. Thus we see him entertain the pro-
posal to be himself, after SigismunJ’s death, elected
king of Poland tlirough the Polish dissidents".
Thus we find him in alliance with the prince of
Ti-ansylvania, the Crimean Tartars, and Russia, for
the weakening of the Austrian interest, as well in
Poland as Germany.
Designs so great were not the greatest which
were extinguished with his life on the battle-field
of Lutzen. But even in death he conquered. In
that he set bounds to constraint of conscience his
immortality consists ;
and therefore does human-
kind reckon him among its heroes.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHRISTINA’S MINORITY. THE GUARDIANS.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE CHANCELLOR WITH THE COUNCIL OF STATE UPON THE KING’s DEATH. DIET OF
1633. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF QUEEN CHRISTINA BY THE ESTATES, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF A REGENCY OP
GUARDIANS. CONSTITUTION OF 1634. INTERNAL REFORMS PROJECTED BY OXENSTIERNA. THE DIRECTORY
OF THE GERMAN WAR COMMITTED TO HIM. UNION OF HEILBRONN. SEDITION OF THE OFFICERS OF THE
ARMY. DISSENSIONS OF THE SWEDISH AND GERMAN COMMANDERS. OPERATIONS ON THE RHINE AND
DANUBE. DEFEAT OF NORDLINGEN. OUTLAWRY AND ASSASSINATION OF WALLENSTEIN. PEACE OF PRAGUE
CONCLUDED BY SAXONY. CHANGE IN THE PROSPECTS OF THE WAR. INTERVENTION OF FRANCE. CAM-
PAIGNS OF BANER AGAINST SAXONY AND AUSTRIA. RETURN OF OXENSTIERNA TO SWEDEN ; HIS ADMINIS-
TRATION OF DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. VICTORIES OF TORSTENSON IN SILESIA AND MORAVIA. SECOND BATTLE OF
LEIPSIC. RUPTURE WITH DENMARK. ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY AND ITS GOVERNMENT AT THIS TIME BY
A SWEDISH MINISTER. REDUCTION OF ITS CONTINENTAL PROVINCES BY TORSTENSON. TERMINATION OF THE
DANISH WAR BY THE PEACE OF BROMSEBRO.
A. D. 1633-1645.
As soon as the king’s death was known in his
dominions, the council convoked the collective es-
tates to a general diet in Stockholm, for Feb. 6, 1633,
and immediately sent count Peter Brahe to Ger-
many, to wait upon the queen-dowagei’, and take
the advice of the chancellor upon all affairs, and
especially upon the manner in which the German
war should be waged ’. In a letter to the chan-
cellor, the councillors say, they had understood
that no form of government had been subscribed
or appointed by the late king, which yet they
would have wished from their hearts. They re-
quested, therefore, that the chancellor might com-
municate to them that constitution which he men-
’ The dissidents requested, in reliance on the arms of
Gustavus Adolphus, equality in religious and political rights.
Piasecki Chronica, p. 528.—In respect to the design on Poland
the following is found in the King’s Answer to the Queries
of the Chancellor, Berwald, Jan. G, 1G31 :
" His majesty can
admit no mediation in a treaty of peace with Poland, as far
as concerns his own acknowledgment as king of Poland ;
and his majesty willeth that the chancellor should privately
remonstrate with the principal Polish lords, especially the
evangelical and those who are disgusted in any thing, that
there will be little hope of reconcilement between the two
kingdoms, if these cannot be brought under one head after
the present king’s death. Although his majesty doth not
very eagerly desire the Polish crown, it might yet be profit-
able to raise factions in Poland to that end." With his first
negotiator in this matter, Roussel, who incautiously applied
with his letters to the Polish Estates (the Poles caused the
letters to be burned), the king was discontented; wherefore
it was now his will that the chancellor, who had more intel-
ligence and respect, should charge himself with the affair, in
order to correspond with Radziwill and others, who might be
tioned as drawn up by himself, that tliey might
thereby in time have some rule for their guidance *.
The first letter of the chancellor to the council,
after the death of Gustavus Adolphus, is dated
from Frankfort on the Maine, November 14th,
1632. " I know that it will have come to your
ears," he writes, ’-ere my letter arrive; and I
leave the more detailed account (which I have not
yet myself received) to others, or spare it to a more
convenient season. But I lament for my fathei’-
land, my queen, the conmionwealth imperilled
herein, and my longsomeness of life, that I should
have lived to see this day. Such a king the world
hath not now, and his like it hath not had in many
inclined to the Swedes for religion’s sake. At least the mat-
ter must be brought to this point, that none of the sons of
Sigismund, but some one who might have a more moderate dis-
position towards Sweden, should become king of Poland. In
a subsequent letter from Demmin, of Feb. 13, to Oxenstierna,
the king says ;
" We remark by your last note what difficul-
ties you believe to exist for us, in setting on foot any com-
petition for the Polish crown. We have also a fully sufficient
burden in one government. But our meaning is, that you
should publicly spread abroad what profit the Polish Estates
might have therefrom, so that we might bring some con-
fusion into their councils." After the death of Sigismund
(April 30, 1G32,) and Gustavus Adolphus, Uladislaus, the
Polish king then elected, caused secret proposals to be made
at the close of the same year to the Swedish legate Steno
Bielke in Stettin, whether peace could not be made between
Sweden and Poland on condition that he (Uladislaus) might
be king of Sweden as well as Poland. Adlersparre, Hist.
Col. V. 16.
? Count Peter Brahe’s Note- Book.
« To the chancellor, Jan. 7, 16.13. ileg.
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