Word of the brutal massacre by foreigners spread. Muscovites in the outer parts of the city took up arms and moved against the city’s occupiers, forcing them to retreat into the Kremlin and the city center. Parts of the capital were set afire and burned to the ground. Within days the Cossacks, peasants, even boyars and nobles from the south, east and west had encamped outside the city. Over 100,000 Russians besieged the foreign army in the center of the capital.
On June 3 Sigismund finally took Smoleüsk by storm. The Polish king sent his general Zólkiewski on to Moscow with a relief force, but he could not get through and was finally turned back.
Meanwhile, dissention erupted in the encampment outside the city. Arguments between the various factions grew until the Cossacks decided to take charge by force, attacking several of the gentry leaders. Much of the camp broke up and returned to their homes. The desperate Polish army in the Kremlin thought they saw in this an opportunity and brought Patriarch Hermogén to Red Square to address the citizens. He was ordered to persuade the people not to resist the Polish occupation. But when allowed to speak Hermogén declared: “Blessed be those who come to save the Moscow sovereignty; and you , traitors, be accursed.”6 The patriarch was quickly pulled from the podium and returned to prison where he died a few months later of starvation.
In late 1611 a second nationalistic movement began, this time in the north. In Novgorod gentry and nobles made large donations to sustain a growing army. Swedish forces made no attempt to interfere with this assemblage advancing from its quarter toward Moscow. At the outskirts of the city they met with what was left of the previous host now dominated by the Cossacks. At about the same time Zólkiewski arrived with an army in a second attempt to relieve the Polish garrison trapped in the Kremlin.
Dissention between the two Russian groups allowed Zólkiewski to penetrate all the way to the western gate of Moscow by the end of August. In early September, however, the Cossacks were persuaded into joining the new nationalist host and Zólkiewski was driven off for a second time. In October the Cossacks stormed the inner city and in November the Polish garrison surrendered. The Kremlin was back in Russian hands after a year and a half of Polish occupation. Many clergy, gentry and boyar leaders were set free, including a young nobleman named Michael Romanov. Early the next year letters were sent to all the towns across Russia inviting them to send representatives from the clergy, trades, artisans and peasants to elect a tsar. The assembly gathered at Moscow in January 1613. After all the hostilities with the Poles, Wladislav was no longer acceptable and the assembly turned to Karl Filip, backed by the Novgorod delegation. It looked like de la Gardie’s efforts were about to be brought to fruition. On February 7 the delegates agreed to offer Karl Filip the throne. But now there was delay at the Swedish court. The royal family and the council were reluctant to send the Swedish prince into this maelstrom of Russian politics. Finally, Karl Filip left Stockholm and arrived at Viborg ready to present himself to the assembly, but by then it was too late.
On February 21, 1613, the Russian Assembly selected Michael Romanov as tsar. His candidacy had been proposed by a faction of the gentry and was acceptable to the Cossacks who opposed any foreign name, Pole or Swede. He was relatively unknown, not tainted by the Time of Troubles intrigues. Above all he had been blessed by the honored patriarch of Moscow (now dead) and he was a relative by marriage of the last great tsar, Ivan IV. Thus, Michael was connected to the ancient dynasty of Rurik (the Varangian princes) which the Russian people always turn to in their hour of need.
With the election of Michael, the Russian Time of Troubles came to an end. There was, for the most part, a united country behind the new tsar. The nation had chosen a native prince behind whom nearly all factions could unite. Some of the disgruntled Cossacks returned to the steppes of southern Russia to foment rebellion. If the new tsar’s internal problems were somewhat decreased, his border troubles were almost overwhelming.
To the north Sweden held the provinces of Novgorod and Ingria and to the west Poland occupied Smoleüsk with an army ready to enforce Sigismund’s still active aspirations for his son. In the southwest Turkey was threatening. Only in the east was there unremitting good news.
Here Russian colonizers were steadily advancing eastward across Siberia led by the enterprising Cossacks. These marvelously adaptable pathfinders pushed on through tundra and dense forests on foot or on more traditional horseback. When they encountered river and stream networks common to parts of Siberia these horsemen became boatmen, adopting and inventing methods and craft allowing them to swiftly subdue this frontier. By the 1620s they had reached the halfway point, founding the town of Eniseisk. In the forties settlers were locating along the Lena River and by 1643 they had reached the Pacific. Resistance was scattered and only on a local level. Tribes and villages were overcome individually with no established nation or organized armies to defeat. The conquest of Siberia was, in some respects, analogous to America’s winning of the West. Both would supply their conquerors with untold wealth in natural resources, but Siberia was not as hospitable as western North America and never saw the mass migrations responsible for welding the vast American frontier to its progenitor.
Besides the invading armies, the new tsar had to deal with a battered economy. Large areas of the country had been devastated by the wars; in some areas whole sections of peasant populations had picked up and left the land. Michael, who turned out to be a weak personality and came to be dominated by courtiers, had to extract his country from these wars and the devastation. Of the antagonists Sweden seemed to be the most likely to be willing to deal. Gustav was being pressed by the Råd to conclude hostilities with Russia before Poland did, freeing his cousin to turn on Livonia.
A peace conference met at Viborg in 1613 where Gustav laid out his demands. Sweden was to be given the provinces of Ingria, Kexholm and Novgorod, and the towns of Gdov, Pskov and Archangel in exchange for a peace treaty. His idea was to create a buffer area around Finland and gain control of all of Russia’s trade to the west. Like the demands of Johan III in 1583 these conditions were outrageous. Negotiations dragged on for several months and then collapsed.
Gustav left for the Muscovy front and in so doing left behind a romance that had titillated the courts of Europe. One of the beauties at the Swedish court had caught the young monarch’s eye. This was a lady-in-waiting to the queen mother, Countess Ebba von Brahe. She was from one of the great magnate families of Sweden and entirely eligible to be the king’s wife. In spite of this she seems to have had doubts about the intentions of the young monarch. These misgivings were overcome and Gustav made some efforts to arrange an engagement, but was blocked and outmaneuvered by his mother. Kristina felt her son needed a match that would strengthen the throne or build an alliance.
When Gustav arrived in Ingria in June 1614, he found the fortresses of the province firmly in Swedish hands. He combined his reinforcements with de la Gardie’s army, then advanced on Gdov, which fell later that year. Pskov was attacked next, but resisted stoutly. The siege continued through 1615 when both countries, fearing Polish adventurism, again began looking for a way out. Talks were begun that year at Diderina with the Dutch and English mediating.
Negotiations dragged on into the new year because Gustav was holding tough on his demands. When the Peace of Stolbova was finally signed on February 27, 1617, the Swedish king obtained much of what he wanted. He gave up Novgorod and Pskov and renounced Karl Filip’s pretensions to the Russian throne, but he retained the provinces of Kexholm and Ingria with their strong fortifications of Kexholm, Nöteborg, Jama, Ivangorod and Kopo΄re. Finland and Estonia were now protected by buffer provinces and Russia was cut off from the Baltic. Indeed, a man could now ride from Stockholm to Reval entirely in Swedish territory.
The treaty came none to soon for Russia as later that year Poland mounted a campaign led by Wladyslav and supported by the Dnieper Cossacks that carried all the way to the gates of Moscow. A truce followed and also an exchange o
f prisoners which freed the tsar’s father. Once out of confinement, Philaret took charge in Moscow, removing the court favorites who had gained control of the government. The Russian state was gradually righting itself.
Not all of Gustav’s time was taken up with events of war. For the first few months he was in Russia, the young king wrote often to Ebba Brahe, but gradually the letters became more infrequent. The queen mother had won as Gustav’s attentions wandered elsewhere. At the siege of Pskov the king had an affair with the wife of one of his Dutch sapper officers who would die in the fighting. Margareta Slots would bear Gustav a son, move to Sweden where she was provided with a comfortable living, and later marry an engineer in the Swedish army. Ebba married Gustav’s famous eastern front general, Jakob de la Gardie, whom the king elevated to count. He bestowed on the couple an earldom in Sweden, the only such estate he ever created inside the country.
Freed from two of the three wars his father had bequeathed him, Gustav could turn his attentions to Sigismund, his cousin, and the Polish threat. First, he and Oxenstierna searched for allies, support previous Swedish kings had done little to cultivate. Gustav I had not wanted to entangle his country with reciprocal agreements that could draw her into the affairs, and especially the wars, of his southern neighbors. His sons seem to have been almost reckless in their disregard for help they might have received from such alliances. But the new king was less concerned about foreign entanglements and more worried about conflicts draining scarce national resources. Commitments with other countries might encourage potential adversaries to think twice before attacking. Also, Gustav had a wider vision than his predecessors. Sweden was already a power around the north Baltic. He saw his country dominating the entire sea. Friendly nations would be needed to facilitate this kind of aggression. In this the Swedish monarch was unwittingly assisted by his old enemy Denmark.
During the Kalmar War Christian had menaced English and Dutch merchant shipping he felt was aiding Sweden. The Peace of Knäred was further proof to them that Danish dominium Maris Baltici was a potential. As a counterbalance, the United Provinces arranged a treaty with Lübeck in 1613 and before the year was out a treaty was also concluded with Sweden. Christian also aided Sweden’s cause by meddling through plots in Lower Saxony, trying to obtain counties for his son to rule. The northern German states became concerned and Maurice of Hesse-Kassel sent an embassy to Stockholm in 1613. Friedrich of Palatine’s representatives arrived the next year. Both urged Gustav to join the German Protestant Union. While Gustav maintained good relations with both old friends of Sweden and he was sympathetic with their causes, he refused too close a relationship. He could see, as everyone else could see, that the Catholic League and the Protestant states of Germany were headed for a showdown and he had no intention of becoming entangled in the conflict. He would help by pursuing objectives against Poland. Any campaign in Livonia would keep Sigismund occupied, preventing him from assisting the emperor and the Catholic cause. He might, however, make a different kind of alliance with one of the German states.
Gustav’s marriage ambitions had been twice frustrated by queens. Queen Ann of England had meddled all she could to prevent his marrying her daughter Elizabeth, now the wife of Friedrich V, and his own queen mother had blocked his advances toward Ebba Brahe, now wed to his general de la Gardie. This time he would conduct his own marriage project and he would look for a match providing political advantage.
His choice was Maria Eleonora, sister of George William, elector of Brandenburg. After Saxony, it was considered the most important Lutheran state in Germany. While the lady seemed willing her brother was appalled at the prospect which would jeopardize his own political schemes.
William came from the house of Hohenzollern. A branch of this line had ruled the duchy of East Prussia since 1525, but had died out in 1618. The duchy should have passed to the Hohenzollern existing family, but the duchy of East Prussia was subject to Poland and William needed Sigismund’s approval to obtain his title. To ensure success he had been carefully promoting the match of his sister to Sigismund’s son Wladyslav. However, there was a faction in Berlin that preferred the close ties to Protestant Sweden that a marriage to Gustav would provide.
Encouraged by this party, the Swedish monarch journeyed to Berlin in 1620. After pursuing his goal for a few months, he departed and made a tour of the other Protestant German courts. His purpose was twofold: to apply some pressure to attain his marriage goal and to see for himself the political and military situation in the Holy Roman Empire. He carried away a dismal picture of the Protestant position. The leaders of the Protestant party, he concluded, were feeble, militarily incompetent, self-serving and poorly organized. This view would not be enhanced by his experiences in the future.
Gustav returned to Berlin and with the assistance of the strong-willed electress-dowager secured the hand of Maria. They were married November 25, 1620. Though the Swedish monarch prevailed, the trophy proved to be less than he had hoped. True, the achievement was a poke in the eye of Sigismund, but the hoped for political advantages never materialized. Furthermore, Maria turned out to have a weak personality of little use at court or in the government. What is more, she would provide Gustav with no male heir.
On August 26, 1617, the Estates gathered in Stockholm for Gustav’s coronation. He was twenty-three years old, had extracted the country from the Kalmar War and had engineered the Peace of Stolbova ending the Russian War under favorable conditions. As part of his welcoming speech he pointed out the strategic and economic advantages this peace would bring Sweden, but he also addressed internal problems the country faced: lawlessness, corruption, political favoritism, abuses in the judicial system, inconsistent taxation and moral decline. It is remarkable that a new monarch of such a young age would recognize these kinds of problems. With the help of Alex Oxenstiena and others he was about to revolutionize his country’s political system, judiciary and taxation.
There was a foundation to work from and suggestions for improvements had been made. The government had, from long held custom, five great offices of state: the high steward, marshal, admiral, treasurer and the chancellor. Of these only the treasurer had specific duties and a real political existence that carried over from one king to the next. The other offices might be important and carry political weight depending on the whims of the current monarch. The crown did have civil servants drawn from the gentry, but they had no fixed duties or regular salaries. The highest level of these offices was the secretaries which ran the government under the last Vasa monarchs. In addition the king had his bailiffs spread out across the country to collect taxes and look after his interests. There was no central court system. Each county and province had its own judiciary with the only appeal going directly to the king.
This whole system worked reasonably well under Gustav I who had the energy and business sense to run the nation as he would a manor. It worked less well under kings like Johan III who had neither the ability nor interest to manage the government in detail. Because of Johan’s inept management, the nobility had concluded it needed to be more directly involved in governing. This movement was given impetus by the rule of the secretaries.
Erik Sparre had developed a plan to reorganize the government as early as 1594. He proposed the creation of five departments, each headed by one of the officers of state, much like the U.S. presidential cabinet and its departments. The idea did not die with Sparre. It was given new life with the Charter of 1611 that Gustav was forced to sign. It called for central and local government offices to be filled with members of the Swedish nobility with fixed salaries. Gustav’s absence due to the Russian war further emphasized the need for a government that could run the country efficiently on its own. It would be left to Oxenstierna to take all these deficiencies and ideas and develop a sound administration capable of supporting a great European power.
Gustav Adolf was altogether as energetic, capable and thorough as his grandfather. He could and did run the country well when a
t home. But he was overseas much of his reign. Fortunately, he had a talent lacking in the first Gustav, that of selecting and then trusting good subordinates. Government administration was becoming too big and complicated for men of even Gustav and Oxenstierna’s abilities to control singlehandedly and both men would be out of the country for extended periods of time. Not only the nobility, but educated men from the lower classes would be required to operate this government of a great nation.
Gustav’s reforms began with the appointment of Axel Oxenstierna as chancellor on January 6, 1612, less than a week after his own assumption of power. Oxenstierna started with the judiciary, creating Sweden’s first supreme court. By the Judiciary Ordinances of 1614 and 1615, the high steward was made head of this court with four members of the council and nine assessors to assist him. Five of the assessors were to be from the nobility and expert in the law. Four were to be commoners. They were to hold court five months of the year in Stockholm and would be the final say in the law, although the king could still be petitioned to hear a specific case. The court would keep its own records providing an archive of case law. Precise rules of evidence emerged and the legal profession developed. Fairness and equitable treatment for all citizens throughout the nation became a reality.
Even more important for a country about to become a great European power was the reform of the treasury which Oxenstierna initiated in 1618. He established a board headed by the state treasurer to oversee the country’s finances. The treasurer was given a staff to keep precise records and for the first time financial planning for the nation became possible. In 1624 the board hired a Dutchman, Abraham Cabeljan, as auditor-general and he introduced the system of double-entry bookkeeping to the Swedish financial world. Without a solid financial organization the country would never have been able to support the far ranging wars and the taxation systems necessary to support them.
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