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CHRISTINA’S ADMINISTRATION. 321
CHAPTER XIX.
CHRISTINA’S GOVERNMENT AND ABDICATION.
ASSUMPTION OF THE GOVERNMENT BY THE YOUNG QUEEN. DIET OF 1644. REPORT MADE BY THE GUAR-
DIANS TO THE ESTATES. EDUCATION AND CHARACTER OF CHRISTINA. CONCLUDING PERIOD OF THE WAR.
INVASION OF BOHEMIA BY TORSTENSON, AND BATTLE OF JANKOWITZ. EFFECT OF TORSTENSON’s VICTORIES.
PACIFICATORY CONGRESS AT OSNABURG, IN 1C45. INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SWEDISH COMMISSIONERS. DESO-
LATION OF GERMANY. CHARLES GUSTAVE WRANGEL APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CIIIEF. JUNCTION WITH
THE FRENCH UNDER TURENNE, AND CAMPAIGN IN UPPER GERMANY. FINAL CAMPAIGN OF 1648, AND
PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. PERTURBED STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING IN SWEDEN. DILAPIDATION OF THE
CROWN PROPERTY. RELATIONS OF OXENSTIERNA WITH THE NEW COURT. DIETS OF 1649 AND 1650.
DISPUTES OF THE FOUR ESTATES AS TO CLERICAL AND BARONIAL PRIVILEGES, AND THE ALIENATION OF
CROWN PROPERTY. LOVE-SUIT OF PRINCE CHARLES GUSTAVUS TO CHRISTINA. HE IS DECLARED, BY THE
COUNCIL AND ESTATES, PRESUMPTIVE SUCCESSOR. THE QUEEN’S RESOLUTION TO ABDICATE. CONSPIRACY
BY THE ADHERENTS OF THE PALSGRAVE. EXTRAVAGANCE AND DISSOLUTENESS OF THE COURT. THE
ABDICATION.
A. D. 1644-1654.
From the date of Cliristina’s assumption of tlie
government to her I’enouncement of its duties, ten
years more remain. Already in May, 1642, she
had begun to preside over the dehberations of the
council. On her eighteenth birth-day, December
6, 1644, she assumed the exercise of sovereignty.
For the sake of connexion, merely, we have con-
tinued our narrative in the preceding chapter to
the peace of Bromsebro in the following year.
The estates, convened for the 8th October, 1644,
met the queen at Stockholm ;
and the guardians
rendered an account of their administration. In
this report, composed by the high-chancellor, they
recall the difficult circumstances under which they,
by the will and order of the estates, had accepted
the office of rulers. They had entered upon their
task after a heroieal king, too earlj’ snatched away,
who had exalted his fatherland to the height of
renown, whereas their insignificance had found it
difficult to maintain that needful respect, without
which no government could subsist; they had had to
contend with many obstacles both intestine and ex-
traneous, even from the number of those who were
to bear rule, which ever led naturally to dissension;
yet, confiding in God, in the harmony and true co-
operation of the estates, in the obedience of the sub-
ject and the good disposition of the queen, they had
put tlieir hand to the work, striving to follow those
counsels and designs which the late king had pro-
posed to himself in his lifetime. They hoped that,
’
As the foundation both of the palace-court of Gothland,
and the university of Abo (by count Peter Brahe, in 16^0),
belongs to the regency of the guardians, it is plain that by
the phrase "augmented" is here meant the addition of a
new palace-court and university to those previously existing.
2 These are enumerated : Falun, at the Kopparberg,
Saeter, Linde, Nora, Askersund, Christiiiehamn, Amal,
Wennersborg, New Helsingfors.
3 Resolution by the administration and council, on account
of her majesty, our most gracious queen, concerning the sale
of assessable and crown estates; Stockholm, Nov. 5, 1638:
also, Deliberation and Resolution, May 15, 1641. Nordin
Collections. This had been already commenced in 1635, on
the equipment of the army for Prussia. The reason alleged
was needfulness; they being unable, or not daring to raise
if the hardness of the times had perchance ex-
torted from them any resolution which might have
been wished better, such might be interpreted
according to their intention and the practicability
of it, not after the censure of ill-willers and en-
viers. The measures of internal administration
which they submitted to the good pleasure of the
queen were principally the following:
—1. They
had been obliged to make divers ordinances and
statutes, partly with the consent of the estates,
partly on their own authority, for which they soli-
cited confirmation, in so far as these might be
found useful. 2. They had divided some too large
prefectures into two; had augmented the palace-
court in Gothland, as well as the academy in Abo ’,
and several gymnasia ;
had founded some new
towns ^, improved the old, and privileged some
mine-works and brass-foundries. 3. They had
found themselves induced to acquire for the crown,
by exchange, some freehold estates of noblemen,
partly for the building and extension of the towns,
partly’ for the benefit of the mine-tracts and ore-
pits. 4. By reason of the great expenses of the
kingdom, which exceeded the revenues, and be-
cause they had not ventured to burden the estates
with heavier taxes, and thereby to excite discon-
tent, which, however, had been sometimes immi-
nent, they had been compelled, in words, to sell,
but, in fact, to mortgage certain of the crown
estates*. They knew that this might be ill inter-
the taxes, the French subsidies being insufficient, and there
being no credit to procure a loan, so long as neither the
capital nor interest of the old debt could be paid. The
cai)ital of the old Copper Company was still vested in the
crown, and Gustavus Adolphus had engaged to pay for it
not less than twenty per cent. Although the shareholders
afterwards, "from their humble devotion," lowered the in-
terest to ten per cent., and a number of them in the late
king’s lifetime received payment in lands, the sum was yet
very large, and the new Copper Company yielded no profit, as
many of its shareholders were also interested in the old, and
now sought to indemnify themselves, It was therefore
resolved, in 1641, to cancel the old debt, to buy in the stock
and satisfy the holders with estates, "especially the nobility,
who held the largest share." In 1638, it was resolved to
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