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1645]
New levy.
Inquiry into abuses. CHRISTINA. THE REGENCY. New division and
allocation of the army.
309
Form of Government, and whereof it is said, tliat in
it those affairs should be discussed and despatched
which do not require a general diet. In October,
163G, the members of the council and the colleges,
with several of the baronage and nobility, were
convened at Stockholm. The chief point in the
propositions was the necessity of a new levy, which
was ordained and accomplished without further
reference to the estates. On the other hand, the
chancellor would lay on no weight of new taxes.
To make the burden of the war tolerable, some
abuses must be removed, he said, "since the peo-
ple can bear no more ^." And here all his pro-
posals struck at the nobility; as, restriction of the
superfluous manor-houses of the nobility, mider
cover of whose privileges many other estates were
drawn ;
maintenance and enforcement of the rights
of the crown in respect to the crown-tithes, which
had furnished constantly, since the Reformation,
an important aid, but now were dilapidated by per-
sons of rank on all hands, so that little or nothing
came in *
; suspension for four years more of the
freedom from customs enjoyed by the nobility; a new
muster of the troopers under the equestrian tenure
throughout the kingdom ; and abolition of various
abuses in militai-y affairs. All this the chancellor
was unable to carry, and in the previous dehbera-
tions of the council he replied to the defenders of the
extension of the privileged manors: "This ye think
to be freedom, to give nothing to the crown 5."
From the congress of which we have made men-
tion, several councillors of state absented them-
selves. In consequence thereof the following reso-
lution was drawn up, manifestly by the chancellor :
When upon the more important occasions, tlie
administration convokes the councillors of state,
these are boimd, if they have no legal excuse, to
attend; the absent are to be content with the ordi-
nance passed by those present, and every man is
equally responsible for it, in case he cannot prove
that what has been determined contravenes God’s
and Sweden’s law ;
else no reclamations avail, and
he who from apprehension or other unreasonable
motives holds back, shall be held unworthy to fill
the office of councillor ’’. In the preamble to this
ordiuance, the council of the realm is spoken of as
"representing the estates."
The chancellor writes to Baner,
" We have been
obliged to resolve for a levy. It would have been
very good to treat thereupon with the estates, but
forasmuch as not
long ago (namely in 1635) a ge-
neral diet hath had place, and a connnission of
the principal estates was besides assembled last
summer, we would not vex them therewith. So it
was found good to determine the matter in the
council, and to communicate what had been deter-
mined to the colleges, and others here present of
3 Points propounded, Oct. 30, 1G36. Reg.
» See further on tliis point, the statute of the Diet of 1G38,
in Stiernman.
* Extract from the protocol of council for 1G36, in the
Palmskijld Collections, t. 190, p. 390.
6 Resolution of the administration and the council, how,
during the term of the guardians, all shall be set for delibe-
ration and discussion; Dec. 14, 1636. Reg.
^
Subsequently we find, nevertheless, that great frauds
were carried on in this department, and that, as the chan-
cellor, in 1641, expressed himself in tlie council, the coun-
cillors of the exchequer were at the bottom of them. One of
these, Jost Hanson, who had amassed great wealth, and was
the nobility, and then to recommend the whole
business to the prefects and the bishops. In re-
spect to means it was not found advisable to apply to
the estates for new subsidies. We must look to regu-
late and improve the revenues of the crown, namely,
so that the realm’s debit and credit may be exa-
mined, and unnecessary expenses be cut off’; abuses
with the crown-tithes and free-manors redressed;
mines, tolls, and commerce be cultivated. Depu-
ties are now chosen to supervise the chamber of
accounts. Next year, under the treasurer and his
council, a revision of the receipts of taxes in the
provinces shall be taken in hand ’. The war-college
shall strike off’ the lists inefficient officers ; the
mining tracts shall be explored *." In short, we
see a comprehensive inquiry instituted into all
branches of the administration.
The distribution of the army, established by
Gustavus Adolphus, was now first compared with
the directions enounced in the form of government
of 1G34, and regulated, though not in complete
accordance with these. The ministry and the
council, it is declared in a rescript of the 23d
March, 1637, liad during the last autumn revised
the public accounts, as also the state of the ordinary
militia, into which, because of the pressure of the
times, some confusion had crept, so that the militia
of horse and foot ran to a larger amount than the
Form of Government allowed of, or the realm could
bear. The officers were double what was required,
so that the Germans remained and others were ap-
pointed for the Polish war 9, by which the number
had mounted too high, to the aggravation of the
crown’s expenditure. The cavalry in Sweden was
now fixed at four complete regiments, those of
Upland, West Gothland, Smaiand, East Gothland;
the quota of the other provinces being distributed
among these. In Finland there were to be three
complete regiments of cavalry. The regiments of
foot were in all twenty-three, fifteen in Sweden and
eight in Finland. The troops abroad were to be
arranged according to this list ;
and in case of any
vacancies occurring among the officers, their places
were not to be filled up until this plan was brought
into operation’. Preparatory measures had been
already taken in the previous year. On the 23d
April, 1637, the ministry write: " In order to be
quit of the intolerable burden of the superflu-
ous officers, we have resolved to arrange in every
province a division of the soldiery into companies
and regiments, both of horse and foot, according to
the Form of Government, as also to make out a just
ground-rent book for all the granges assigned to
the support of the soldiery, as well officers as pri-
vate troopers, over the whole kingdom 2." Great
abuses still remained to be abohshed. It has
been made to appear to us, say the ministry in
ennobled in the year just named, was condemned to deatli in
1642 for great malversations, liis patent of nobility being
torn up. How powerful his accomplices were, appears from
this, that they induced even the young queen to beg for his
life ;
but the more rigorous disposition of the chancellor pre-
vailed. Compare the letters of Bennet Baaz, in Adlersparre’s
Collections, iii. 226. 2S3.
8 To J. Baner, Dec 3, 1636. Reg.
9
Namely, the expedition to Prussia, under Jacob de la
Gardie, before the renewal of the Polisli truce.
1
Memorial for Grubbe to Herman Wrangel, March 23,
1637. Reg.
2 The ministry to the chancellor, April 27, 1636. Reg.
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