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290
Oxenstieriia’s draught of
a constitution. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Ackno^Smlnofchristina. C’«’’3-
maiul which ho had ah-eady given, in case of any
accident to his person, enjuined him to give me an
education worthy of a dauglitcr who was to inherit
his throne, bound him to serve and aid tlie queen
my mother, to honour and comfort her, but never
to let her take any share in the government, or
in my education ^."
Axel Oxenstierna’s concept, drawn up by his
own hand, for the form of government of the year
1634, under the title, Ordinance anent the State
and Government of the Realm, is preserved in the
library of Upsala. This sketch, in some heads not
so minute, and in others (although unimportant)
differing from that afterwards adopted by the
estates, is without date, but composed in the name
of Gustavus Adolphus. Internal signs appear to
indicate that this was done several years before
the king’s death, probably after his wounds in the
Prussian war. That Gustavus Adolphus approved
in the main his chancellor’s project we are along
with his daughter convinced ^, although the king
himself looked upon it
only as an outline ;
and we
may doubt whether he, upon his far-stretching
career, had irrevocably fixed his views on this
head more than on others. His intention to regulate
and determine the constitution of the realm is at-
tested by his words at his setting out for tlie Ger-
man war,
—" A monarchy consists not in persons,
but in the laws," and furthermore by the whole
spirit of his government, which in this respect con-
stitutes an epoch. The problem, as it was pre-
sented to him, was to reconcile finally to the here-
ditary monarchy, as soon as possible, that nobility
which his father had oppressed. To their power
he opposed that of an official class dependent on the
sovereign. The form of government of 1634, in
this respect, merely developes the fundamental
principles laid down by his administration. That
this official class rose to be a new aristocracy was
occasioned by circumstances inevitable to a go-
vernment of guardians, which perhaps contri-
buted thereto still more by its merits than by
its faults.
Until the assemblage of the estates affairs were
administered by the councillorsconjointly. Thecouu-
cillors of the realm,
—it is observed in their letter to
the chancellor,
—have constantly managed the go-
vernment hitherto, and will manage it henceforth,
until the opinion of the diet can be taken upon the
form of government; meanwhile we keep a watchful
eye upon the border fortresses and the fleet, and
incite the superior functiouaries to fidelity in their
charge. For what concerns the taxes, it is undoubted
that as in the late king’s time not a few complaints
were heard thereupon, such will now be still more
loudly uttered, especially anent the enhancement of
themill-toll and licences (grain and salttaxes), which
for a long time have been collected without any
statute of the diet ;
but since great inconveniences
would follow if
they should be abolished instantly,
the government will at least maintain them so long
as the body of his majesty is still above ground;
yet some alleviation might be necessary to prevent
s Life of Queen Christina, by herself, id. iii. 35.
« " lie ordered all according to the instructions of the late
king; adding to them of his own what he judged proper for
the regulation of several other very important affairs of the
government and finances during tlie
minority," iljid. 36.
7 To the chancellor, Jan. 14, 1C33. Reg. In the diet of
any disorders arising ’. Foreign intrigues had not
been ineffectual. Among the peasants, especially
in Smaland and Finland, a report was propagated
that the sons of Sigismund had offered to pass over
to the Augsburg Confession, and to come from Po-
land into the kingdom ;
as also, that the deceased
king had himself wished them to be his successors
on the Swedish throne, seeing that he had no male
heirs *.
" Who is this Christina," a peasant at the
opening of the diet is said to have called out,
" we
know her not, and have never seen her." When
the six years’ old queen was placed before him and
his associates, and they had viewed her, the same
person said ;
" It is she, it is Gustave Adolph’s
nose, eye, and brow ;
let her be our queen ^."
In the dietary statute of 1633, the estates say
that as it had pleased God to take from them their
head, the king and father of the country, without
male heirs who could sit upon his chair, so they
had not unseasonably called to mind what had been
covenanted at Norrkoeping in 1604, on the renewal
of the hereditary settlement, respecting the daugh-
ters of kings and hereditary princes, and especially
what had been resolved at Stockholm on the 4th
December, 1627, that if the king’s majesty died
without male heirs, they would then take his
daughter for their queen ;
wherefore they now
unanimously declare the most mighty and high-
born princess and lady Christina, daughter of the
late king Gustavus the Second and Great, for the
queen elect and hereditary princess of Sweden.
They would indeed have wished that some stable
and consummate ordinance, as to how the govern-
ment should be carried on during the queen’s mi-
nority had been made by his late majesty with the
assent of the estates. But inasmuch as this had
not been done, and they natheless understood that
the king in his lifetime had intimated his opinion
thereupon to the council, and given command to
draw up an ordinance whose contents he had ap-
proved, and which had now been communicated to
some of the estates; therefore until the same sliould
be confirmed by the collective estates, and made
publicly known, the good lords of the council, espe-
cially the five high officers, the steward, the mar-
shal, the admiral, the chancellor, and the treasurer,
as administrators of the realm during the queen’s
yet immature years, might meanwhile adapt and
bring into operation this ordinance of government
to the well-being of the country. Of these high
offices of state only two were vacant. The steward,
count Magnus Brahe, died on the 3rd March, 1
633,
as is said from grief for the death of Gustavus
Adolphus. The office of treasurer the king had
left unfilled, while he latterly committed the busi-
ness to the jjalsgrave John Casimir, his brother-in-
law, who showed great skill in its management.
At the solicitation of the council he continued in it
until the convention of the estates. The young
queen’s education remained under the constant
supervision of his wife ;
but no place was left for
him in the administration of the guardians. It has
lfi83 the augmentation of the petty toll and the mill-tax,
which had heeu passed, was remitted. The cause of the
increase had been the depreciation of the copper coins, on
which account the government, June 16, 1631, ordered both
tolls to be collected in silver money. Reg.
8 Puffendorf.
* Memoires de Christine, i. 23.
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