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1654.]
Their detection and
punishment.
CHRISTINA’S ADMINISTRATION. Extravagance and dissolule-
nesa of the court. 343
fearless nature, Christina, who ou the first in-
telligence of these machinations expected a revolt,
is said to have wished to let the affair take its
course, in ordei*, as she said, to wile the conspira-
tors into a snare ^. Subsequently she changed
her mind, a^nd appears not to have wished to know
all. The pamphlet above mentioned, whose au-
thor was soon discovered, was a pasquinade against
the queen, her former guardians, and the favourite,
count Magnus de la Gardie; in which the heredi-
tary prince was called upon to make himself mas-
ter of the government, and assured, that as the
legitimate heir of the crown, oven without election,
he might count upon the younger nobility, and the
co-operation of the unnoble estates. Charles Gus-
tavus, who was residing in CEland, sent the pam-
phlet immediately to the queen. He was, by pru-
dence as well as gratitude, far removed from the
approbation of such designs. The Messenians,
fatlier and son, suffered death, thus ending their
unfortunate race ;
the grandfather had died after
an imprisonment of twenty years *. Terserus,
Nils Nilson, burgomaster of Stockholm, with the
secretary of the magistrates, were accused as ac-
complices, but acquitted ; the burgomaster, how-
ever, being obliged to give bail, as was also Ben-
net Skytte. The records of the trial were de-
stroyed by the queen’s orders. She had the
courage to meet another general diet, in 1652,
without making mention of abdication. A pros-
pect of war again opened from the misunderstand-
ings with Poland, Denmai’k, and the emperor, and
she obtained a three years’ conscription to com-
plete the army and man the fleet, with an aug-
mentation of imposts for the same period, the
nobility agreeing to a separate gi’ant’.
The remainder of the queen’s reign was spent
in such a manner as if she were determined that
she should not be regretted. Profusion abounded
on all sides ;
and to donations of all kinds there
was no end. In letters of infeofifmeut to estates
began to be inserted the phrases,
" if it be not
never tranquil, and never prosperous, on account of the tur-
bulent fellows who aimed at ruling them. One state, the
Lacedaemonians, had a sort of kings, whom I cannot look
upon as aught else than the fools of the demagogues ; and
these were the only kings in Greece." Mem. for the Hist,
of Scand. ix. 138.
7 " The Messenian intrigue was of far greater consequence
with regard to public tranquillity than could then be con-
ceived. The queen heard of it in the evening, just as she
was about to go to bed. Shortly after appeared governor
Hermann Fleming, bringing the intelligence which she had
already heard, through some one who had betrayed the
Messenians. The queen, who was a fearless and discreet
princess, stood and looked very quietly at Fleming, and after
considering a short time, replied :
’
What you say, lord Her-
mann, is well judged ; but what think you of the hereditary
prince ? For I know maybe more than you ; I know that
they have communicated their damnatory projects to the
prince. You, who are in his confidence, what think you of
it?’ Lord Hermann answered, ’It is very possible; but
what I know for certain is, that his royal highness does not
bite the hook.’ Then the queen said to lord Hermann, ’
In
order to get exact knowledge of all the conspirators, we
must let the matter come to a rising, and have them all to-
gether on the stage, before we drop the curtain and catch
them all in the trap. We may well see a fray of it; but I
with my people fear the issue not a jot.’ Lord Hermann
had enough to do to draw the queen from this daring and
bloody idea, assuring her that all would yet come to her
already granted to another," or "if it be still
reserved to us and the crown." To previous dona-
tions were often anne.xed "
amendments," as they
were called, under various unusual names, such as
conditional or provisional amendment *. Conces-
sions of this sort were vended by the secretary
of the chancei-y. A secretary’s clerk, who had
sold forty-two forged donations and letters of free-
hold, was executed April 13, 1651, on the mai’ket-
place of Norrmahn 2. For a long time no more
counties and baronies remained to be assigned
to the many new counts and barons. Christina,
during her reign, increased the house of barons by
eight families bearing the title of count, twenty-
four that of free barons, and four hundred and
twenty-eight newly ennobled. Among the latter
was the court-tailur, Jan Holm, who assumed the
imposing name of Leyoncrona (Lioncrown)^. He
was likewise made intendant of the household,
and was aia opulent man, but found himself obliged
to quit the court when the chamberlain, baron
Clas Bauer, refused to serve with him. " From
this time," says one narrative *,
" dates the ruin
of pure and decorous morals. Youth began to
take precedence of its elders unabashed ; and the
fear of God was treated with equal levity. One
and the other scoffed at Divine service, acting as if
they only resorted thither for appearance sake ;
and so the queen herself did at last. Arrogance
was the badge of the young nobihty. Guttling
and toping were already common since tlie Ger-
man war ; yet this was blended with a chivalrous
gallantry, which shed a generous exhilaration on
social life ;
the ladies were the goddesses of the
day." Cromwell’s ambassador, Whitelocke, who
in 1654 concluded a treaty witli Sweden in the
name of the Protector, saw with disgust, during
the residence of the court at Upsala, young nobles
rambling noisily through the streets on a Sunday,
and drinking the queen’s health on their knees in
the market-place *. Ballets, in which the queen
herself danced, entertainments, and running at the
ring, filled up the time ^. For entire months she
knowledge, and the matter be quashed without noise. The
most notable circumstance was, that just so much time as an
express takes to go to Oiland and return at the utmost
speed, elapsed between the queen’s conversation with
governor Fleming and the arrival of the prince’s letter to
the queen, informing her of the audacious designs of the
Messenians." Ibid. ix. 107, seq.
8
Namely old John Messenius, who died at Uleaborg in
1636. His son Arnold John Messenius, in the first instance,
suffered fourteen years’ imprisonment; after his release and
recovery of his father’s manuscripts from Poland, he, in like
manner, was appointed historiographer royal. His son was
the young Arnold Messenius, who had been page in the ser-
vice of Charles Gustavus and his brother.
3 The old cattle-tax, which in 1642 had been transmuted
into a tax of two dollars on every crown and scot-farm, and
in 1650 remitted, was again adopted. In 1642 money-dues
were introduced instead of free portage, and in 1649 these
were made permanent.
’
Examples are found in the registers of the year 1653.
2 Mem. for the Hist, of Scand. xx. 314.
3 It was in consequence of this that Charles XI. after-
wards, in 1C87, forbade any one, on being ennobled, to take
the word Irona into his name, or bear a crown on his arms,
without special permission.
* Scand. Mem. ix. 100.
’>
Comp. Whitelocke’s Journal of his Embassy.
’ " Now there is so much ado with ballets and running at
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