Warrior Kings of Sweden

by Gary Dean Peterson

  Christina recovered, but she had seen that her efforts to secure the throne for Karl and to guarantee a strong monarchy were in jeopardy. She needed to protect both further by getting a bill passed by the Riksdag and made law. As a lever the queen was able to use the current bitter dispute between the peasants and the aristocracy. In prior days the difference between crown property, nobility lands and free peasant property was clear. On crown land peasants paid rent directly to the monarch in kind. On the noble’s land the peasants paid rents to the noble who then paid taxes to the crown in coin. This was a change from the Middle Ages when the nobility was exempt because they supplied mounted troops. Finally, the free peasants, who owned their land, paid taxes in kind, directly to the monarch. But the difference between crown land and free peasant land had become blurred. More and more, free peasant land was also considered crown property, which could be turned over to nobles for supervision and collection of rent allowing the monarch to collect taxes in coin. The free peasants were supposed to retain special rights, but these may or may not be recognized by any particular noble.

  Gustav Adolf, the Regency, and now Christina all continued the practice of turning additional land over to the aristocracy. At every Riksdag the peasants clamored for relief from the excessive levies placed upon them by both the crown and the nobility. Now their queen began to listen. She promised a measure of relief from the tax burden and additional levies placed on the peasants. The Peasant Estate moved to her camp. She went on to promise tax relief to the burghers and to exempt the clergy from particular communal dues. Christina further advised the Commoner Estates to demand that the special exemptions granted the nobility in paying certain dues be revoked. She won over the Commoner Estates.

  But the commoners wanted to go further, to a reduction, actually reversing the prevailing process and return aristocracy lands to the crown. The one area Christina agreed with Oxenstierna on was the financial system that had allowed the government to conduct its extensive wars. She was not about to upset a system that had worked so well. On this issue she could side with the nobles without a qualm. However, she could also use this issue in her campaign. Her price for condemning the reduction program was the Noble Estate’s vote for the duke as hereditary prince of Sweden. On October 9, 1650, Christina’s bill was passed by the Estates making Karl Gustav and his eventual male descendents hereditary princes of Sweden. They had met her demands. Christina now held the authority of the government in her hands. The monarchy stood supreme over the country.

  Surprises from the 24-year-old queen were not over, however. On August 7, 1651, Christina summoned the fifteen members of the Råd to assemble in Stockholm. She was presiding over an august group led by Axel Oxenstierna, Per Brahe and Jakob de la Gardie. Younger members included Adler Salvius and Herman Fleming. After the preliminaries, the young queen spoke. “Her Majesty finds herself obliged to inform the Council of the primary reason for this.”9

  Here she was referring to the intention to call the Estates to assemble in September. Christina told them of her enjoyment in presiding over the Råd for the past eight years. She was satisfied that the country was at peace abroad and unified at home. It was time, she said, “to hand over to Duke Karl, the hereditary prince, the government of the country.”10 She concluded by declaring that she did not need the council’s advice only their approval, which was necessary for her abdication.

  The Råd must have been stunned as there is no indication they had any idea of her intentions until that moment. The council flatly refused her request describing her as “wise, possessing courage and more qualified than other womenfolk.”11 No argument could dissuade them. Christina had lost the first round.

  But why was the queen making this almost unheard of request? What prompted her intention to give up the throne? She answered that the nation, the duke and she herself would be better served. The nation needed a king that could lead the army into battle in times of danger as she could not. The duke’s succession would be secured by the changeover now and finally there was her health, her recurring illnesses. All these were probably factors, but the deciding issue was one unknown to all except a half dozen confidents. The queen had decided to convert to Catholicism.

  Christina’s interest in the religion anathema to her nation might be traced back to her religious instructor, Johannes Matthiae, one of the very few men, let alone clergymen, with a tolerant view of religions.

  She had learned much about the Catholic faith from the French ambassador, Chanut, who was at the Swedish court from 1646 to 1651. It was he who paved the way for René Descartes’ presence from 1649 until his death in 1650. From these two men she learned the tenets of the faith.

  In the summer of 1650 a new Portuguese ambassador arrived at court who spoke only his native language. He brought, as his interpreter, one Father Antonio Macedo. Father Macedo was a Jesuit priest though this was not made known to the Swedish court. Christina was not slow in figuring out the interpreter’s true identity and subsequently began an intermittent dialogue with him. In August 1651 she dispatched Father Macedo to Rome to the Jesuit general requesting that two Jesuit fathers be sent to Stockholm to confer with her on religious matters.

  The general replied that he would send two Italian Jesuits as requested. He selected Francesco Malines, professor of theology at Turin, and Paolo Casati, professor of mathematics and theology at the Collegio Romano in Rome. These would be two clergymen not only well versed in the theology of the church, but who would have a broad range of knowledge and be on the queen’s intellectual level. The two traveled to Stockholm disguised as Italian noblemen on an excursion through northern Europe.

  During private meetings with the queen they held long and wide ranging discussions on all facets of religion and other topics. By mid–May 1652 Casati was on his way back to Rome with the news that the queen had decided to become a member of the Catholic Church.

  Her abdication was now mandatory. By the 1604 Norrköping Hereditary Edict, no one could be sovereign of Sweden who did not abide by the Christian religion of the nation. Further, the 1617 Religious Statutes prescribed that any person converting to the papal religion would be relieved of all inheritance and other rights and outlawed throughout the realm.

  In February 1654 Christina again summoned the Råd and declared her intention to renounce the throne citing, “the true reason for this would emerge fully in time, only God knows the real motive.”12 This time she was adamant and the Estates were summoned. On June 6, 1654, the 27-year-old queen relinquished her crown.

  After abdicating, Christina left Sweden for the Spanish Netherlands where she established residence. On Christmas Eve 1654 she secretly embraced the Catholic faith. The former queen of Sweden reached Rome on December 19, 1655, and was received by Pope Alexander VII.

  For a time Christina was content to delve into her studies and conduct scientific experiments, but in 1657 she conspired with Cardinal Mazzarini to seize Naples and become its queen. The plot was foiled when her servant exposed her scheme to the pope. She had the offender killed in her presence, causing a scandal throughout Europe and alienating the pope.

  In 1660 Christina visited her estates in Sweden and studied the theories of the philosopher’s stone. By 1666 she was deep in the study of astronomy with Lubenitz. A year later she returned to Sweden in an attempt to gain the throne of Poland, left vacant due to the abdication of her second cousin John II Casimir Vasa. The campaign failed and she returned to her beloved Rome.

  Christina remained politically active, supporting Pope Innocent XI in his war against the Turks and writing letters and manifestos on tolerance of the French Huguenots and defending Jews in Rome. Her apartments in Rome served as one of the great salons of Europe where intellectuals and politicians gathered. She set up an observatory in her palace in Rome and continued her studies in a wide range of subjects. She was one of the founders of the first opera house in Rome and continued to be a strong patron of the arts until her death in 1689. She is buried a
t St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

  As queen, Christina brought peace to her country and returned power to the throne. She enlivened the capital with culture and learning. Her father had made Sweden a world power militarily, but Christina raised the Swedish royal court to be the equal of any in Europe intellectually and culturally. She added that other dimension to complete Sweden’s status as a great European nation.

  20. Karl X—The Swedish Empire at Its Height

  Karl Gustav, a Vasa through his mother, became Karl X of Sweden on June 6, 1654, thanks to the indomitable will and political astuteness of his cousin Christina. He was an experienced soldier and general, and would make his name as one of Sweden’s aggressive warrior kings in the vein of Gustav Adolf. Karl X became king of a Sweden at peace, feared militarily and envied by its neighbors for the territories the nation had acquired at their expense.

  With the geographic expansion had come an increase in population. The Sweden of Gustav I numbered perhaps a million people. The kingdom of Karl X would top 2.5 million. By conquest alone the nation would increase its population by two and one half times in less than a hundred years. With more people came more and diverse products. Trade flourished due to Sweden’s control of the Baltic. An expanding economy provided Christina the means to elevate Sweden culturally, importing science and the arts, but it had been achieved at a cost. The booming economy of her early reign had been depressed by the large expenditures that did not contribute to the country’s financial well being.

  Karl saw as Sweden’s two greatest problems the crown’s weak financial position and the feeble national economy. To solve the first problem he would reverse the previous two monarchs’ practice of alienating crown lands by converting aristocracy territory back to ownership by the king. In tackling the second problem his solution was to fulfill Gustav II Adolf’s policy of the conquest of the Baltic rim. In particular, he would retake the Prussian towns and ports making the Baltic a Swedish lake and securing the taxes and duties from these ports and municipalities to facilitate the recovery of the Swedish economy. Control of the ports would allow Swedish merchants unrestricted access to the markets of northern Europe, further strengthening the economy.

  Returning lands to the crown previously passed to the nobility is termed reduktion in Swedish history. At the Riksdag of 1655 Karl was able to force through a limited reduktion. Indeed, he had probably arranged for this move even before gaining the throne. The process proceeded so swiftly that he must have worked out deals with Christina, Oxenstierna and key members of the Estates Committee before his coronation. This reduktion was just a first step, affecting only land the nobility had acquired from the crown since 1632, but it paved the way for the more substantial programs that would be introduced by his son Karl XI.

  At the same time the king was pushing through his reduktion bill, he was lobbying for a continuation of the foreign wars. Both these issues would test his political strength. Because Christina had both the Råd and the Riksdag formally accept Karl as her heir, Karl did not have to politick to gain the crown. He was not forced into accepting a charter at his coronation that might severely limit his authority as had been the case for the last few monarchs. The charter the new king was obliged to sign simply had him promise to do his best to keep the country out of war and required him to get the consent of the Råd and Riksdag before making changes necessary for the security and welfare of the country. The terms of Karl’s oath of office restricted him only vaguely on domestic matters and not at all on foreign policy except for the anti-war clause which was considered just a formality.

  Karl began preparations for war immediately upon ascending the throne. In December 1655 he applied to the Råd for the backing of a military campaign across the Baltic. The council, dominated by members of the war party, consented and Karl began hiring mercenaries which would constitute most of his army. By the time the Riksdag met in March 1655, the troops were being assembled and a cancellation by the Estates would have entailed a huge financial loss for the country. The other argument the king used was that once on foreign soil the army would pay for itself and then bring economic advantage to the homeland in terms of booty, levies and tolls collected on conquered lands. The Estates acquiesced and Karl embarked with his army in March 1655. He would be out of the country continuously until his death in 1660 except for three months in the spring of 1658 when he was in Göteburg preparing for a new campaign, and the last month of his life when he was again in Göteburg to open a Riksdag.

  During his absence the government, in terms of domestic affairs, was run by the Råd and the five cabinet officers. Foreign policy, however, was conducted by Karl wherever he was located. Oxenstierna died in the autumn of 1654, leaving the chancellery in the hands of his son Erik, who died two years later. Karl did not even appoint a replacement until 1660. During the last month of his life Karl finally appointed Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie. For six years there was no strong hand in the government to oppose the king’s wishes, only men with the training, experience and dedication to keep the machinery of government moving in Karl’s behalf.

  The reduktion was carried out by the College of Reduction which was responsible directly to the king and could not be interfered with by the Råd. The administration of crown revenues was handled by the Exchequer College presided over by Herman Fleming, who acted as an agent for the king in seeing to it Karl’s wishes were carried out by the Råd. He was also president of the College of Reduction and appointed high admiral. About the only member of the Råd in a position to contradict the king was Per Brahe, the high steward. But he was generally absent from Stockholm himself, directing the defense of the southern provinces against the Danes. Thus, the aristocracy’s hold on the government was weak during Karl’s reign in spite of his persistent absence.

  Having raised his army, Karl had to decide where to use it. Would it be Denmark at his back door, or one of the old eastern enemies, where he might take advantage of an opportunity? War had again broken out between Russia and Poland-Lithuania after a time of peace for the Commonwealth.

  In 1619 Michael Romanov was tsar of Russia, but was dominated by his father, Patriarch Filaret, who returned from Polish captivity that year. Filaret, who hated Poland, would effectively run the Russian state until his death in October of 1633. In 1630 he began a rebuilding and modernization of the Russian army along the lines of western European military structure, training and tactics. Gustav had encouraged the undertaking, even helping by selling Russia modern Swedish guns and cannon, and supplying instructors. The project was well advanced, but not complete when Sigismund III died in April 1632.

  The death of the monarch of the Commonwealth with its ensuing election meant no central leadership for a time and this was just too much of an opportunity for the Russians to pass up. Though not fully prepared, the new Muscovite army was mobilized and on the move by late September. Its objective was the recovery of Smoleüsk. Thirty-four thousand troops led by Mikhail Borisovich Shein took Dorogobuzh and a number of smaller forts, arriving at Smoleüsk on October 28.

  Shein constructed massive trenches, building extensive siege fortifications around the city, but the campaign had been mounted so hurriedly that the heavy siege artillery had been left behind. It began arriving in December with the nineteen heaviest siege guns not arriving until March 1633.

  Fortunately for Poland-Lithuania, Wladyslav IV was elected and proclaimed the new king in November 1632 without a protracted contest. He immediately prepared to relieve the siege. In February at the coronation the Sejm authorized the raising of a 23,400 man army.

  While he was organizing the army, Wladyslav sent 300 men with gunpowder and other supplies to Smoleüsk. They managed to slip by the Russians and enter the city, which had been reduced to desperate straits by that time.

  In early September Wladyslav arrived leading 14,000 men with the rest of the army following, including 15,000 Ukrainian Cossacks. He launched his campaign on September 7 with a series of attacks and maneuvers tha
t forced Shein’s army to abandon the siege and retreat to its main camp on the south side of the Dnieper east of Smoleüsk.

  Wladyslav had Shein on the defensive and penned in so Wladyslav could operate freely in the area. He surrounded the Russian camp, placing his guns on the perimeter to shell the camp at will. He severed the Russian supply line and then sent Aleksander Piaseczyüski on a raid to Dorogobuzh, some sixty miles away, where he destroyed the Russian supply base. Shein was forced to surrender. He and his army, stripped of weapons, were set on the road back to Moscow in total humiliation.

  As part of the Eternal Peace of Polianovka which followed, the Commonwealth obtained recognition of its right to the Deulino territory and a war indemnity in exchange for Wladislav’s renouncing the Russian throne. The Russians tried and executed Shein and his second-in-command. Their families and many of the high officers were exiled.

  Shein had had the advantage in men and defensive earthworks, yet he lost the campaign even though his infantry and artillery preformed well. It was the Polish cavalry that tipped the scales in Wladyslav’s favor. He outmaneuvered the Russians, trapping them in their own fortifications. Using his horse he could screen the movement of his foot and guns allowing him to concentrate forces at a single point of attack. In addition the Commonwealth’s king showed brilliant military abilities, a hereditary characteristic of the Vasas.

  Simultaneously with Wladyslav’s success defense of Smoleüsk, Koniecpolski was defending Polish territory in the south where a combined Turkish and Tartar army of 24,500 had invaded the country. The Polish hetman, leading an army of only 11,300, met the more numerous enemy force at Kamieniec in October 1633. Taking full advantage of his superior firepower in both muskets and artillery, Koniecpolski decisively defeated the Moslem force, driving them back out of Commonwealth lands.

  Flush with two victories the new king now pushed for an attack on Sweden with whom the Treaty of Altmark expired that same year. In 1635 the Sejm, still smarting from the loss of Prussian territory and angered by Gustav’s encouraging the Russian attack, voted money to raise a new army of 9,000 cavalry and 11,800 infantry and dragoons.