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296
His views upon the conduct
of the war. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
His negotiation with the
Saxon court at Dresden. [1633—
It would be of great benefit to the kingdom if the
navigable lakes of Sweden could be connected by
means of sluices with the Baltic and each other, so
that men might come from lake Hielmar to Stock-
holm *, from lake Vetter to Norrkoeping, from lake
Vener to Gotteuburg, from lake Silian to the
Kopparberg, whereby the country and towns might
be peopled, our forests and wastes made productive,
as also the revenues and customs of the crown be
largely augmented by navigation and commerce.
Furthermore, for the encouragement of shipping,
it deserves to be taken into consideration whether
a remission should not be granted upon all the
goods which are carried in Swedish ships, in all
trading towns and havens which are at the disposal
of Sweden." These reflections, sent forth into a
world convulsed by disputes and troubles, mostly
returned to their author without fruit, since for
none of them was it possible to biing home a leaf
of the olive-branch of peace ;
but they are as
little alien to his fame, as to the welfare of his
country and mankind.
The war engaged his liveliest solicitudes, the
rather as the dearth of the year 1633 had stricken
with especial severity the northern provinces of
the kingdom (several scanty harvests following),
and the levies, although they continued to be voted
by the estates, were so dreaded, that examples of
voluntary mutilation occurred, and in the border
districts flight out of the country was resorted to
in order to escape them ^.
" We have fallen into
an embarrassing state," the chancellor writes home
from Germany.
" If we let the difficulties overcome
us, all is lost. If we meet them manfully, there is
hope that by God’s grace we may escape from them
with honour’’." "For the avoidance of embroil-
ments with our neighbours we hold the following
counsels the most appropriate; to observe parties,
to give on our side no occasion for contrariety, to
raise no disputes about small matters which befall,
and ai’e of no great consequence. When this reso-
lution is taken, that other too may be embraced,
of maintaining the dignity, right, and majesty of
the realm in honour and esteem, no where letting
be seen or discovering any pusillanimity, fear, or
indecision, but doing all, by God’s help, with under-
standing and courage; so that every where it
may
appear as if the realm had lost nothing by the
death of his late blessed majesty, in the constant
thought that kings are no less mortal than other
men, but that the commonwealth should be im-
mortal ^."
In the beginning of 1633 the chancellor had pre-
sented an account of the state of the war in Ger-
many, from which we extract some outlines: " After
I had broken up from Erfurt towards Dresden, I
despatched to you the secretary Laurence Grubbe’,
with a letter and memorial respecting all matters
which it occurred to me at the time to remind you
of, and stated besides the cause for which I was
mining pursuits ; tlie teinds imposed also were not collected,
and on the 9th June, 1
636, the Copper Company was renewed
by letters patent, calling upon the public to take shares. The
lowest shares were of 100 dollars specie. Stiernman, Econ.
Ordin. ii. 3S. 10.
< The works on the Hielmar Canal were still in progress.
June 7, 1633, some remission of taxes was granted to the
raining districts of Akerbo, Glanshammar, and West Rekarne,
"
since something still remained to be done on the sluices
’’
Reg.
obliged to travel to the army and the elector of
Saxony. When I came to Altenburg in Meissen,
I found there that army quartered in the neigh-
bourhood which had been under the late king’s
own orders, and was commanded by duke Bernard
of Weimar and major-general Kniphausen. The
major-general had the same day taken the castle
of Leipsic, and delivered it again to the elector.
Chemnitz was captured some days earlier ; the
enemy had abandoned Freiberg as well as Frauen-
stein, and in Meissen nothing but Zwickau re-
mained in his possession. Therefore I resolved
that our men should draw together and assault
Zwickau, to try whether it might be taken, and
thus Meissen be wrested out of the enemy’s hands.
Meanwhile I
journeyed to Dresden, where I arrived
on the 15th December, and was treated as a legate
of the crown of Sweden, no otherwise than as if the
king’s majesty was still
living. I said ; there ap-
pear to me to be three counsels or means, whereof
one must be selected. The first, that a body of all
the evangelical electors and estates in the Roman
empire should be formed, allied with the crown of
Sweden, and obliged to the carrying on of the war,
—and since his late majesty laid the foundation of
this war, heretofore du-ected it and sealed it with
his blood, as also the crown of Sweden possesses
the principal bishoprics of the empire, and much of
the hereditary territories of the emperor, therefore
Sweden should have the direction of the war ; yet
so that a formal council of the estates were joined.
Or, secondly, that two bodies should, as at present,
subsist, the crown of Sweden and its aUies under
its directory, and the elector of Saxony for himself,
and that a strong correspondence should be arranged
between them for mutual succour, no one concluding
upon any treaty or peace without the knowledge of
the others; or, thirdly, in case they professed no
further to need the assistance of Sweden, or the
senate and estates of Sweden should no longer be
willing to adhere to the agreement, that then my
country should enjoy a reasonable satisfaction, and
the evangelical princes and estates should arrange
matters among themselves, as might be pleasing to
them, and they might conceive to be most expedient
in their condition. More methods that would avail
I could not see. But if one of these three were not
embraced in time, and affairs guided accordingly,
no doubt was left that the ruin of all interested
would ensue. I represented to them their danger
from Spain, from France, the Netherlands, Eng-
land, Denmark, and even from Poland and other
quarters, as also from their domestic differences.
All this they heard with patience, and though I
would willmgly have had conversation with them
upon the subject, yet they would give no answer
beyond this decision, that since affairs were so
weighty, and the elector considered himself bound,
according to the hereditary settlement between the
families of Saxony and Brandenburg, to do nothing
^ To Joachim Hansson, respecting a peasant lad of Frij-
tuna, who had cut off four fingers, that he should be brought
before the court. June 6,1633. Reg.
6 " 1 see—he adds—that the dog who shows his teeth
escapes with a whole skin sooner than he who takes to his
heels with Iiis tail between his legs." To the council, May
13, 1633. The simile is not a noble one, but noble-minded.
’
Regum personas non minus quam caeterorum hominum
esse mortales, rempublicam immortalem esse debere. To
the council, Feb. 12, 1633. Palmsk. MSS. t. 369, p. 249. 259.
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