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| PRIVATE LIBRARY
OF
CHARLES A. KOFOID. i
| Nod.7.% Cost. Lv
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY
PROF.CHARLES A.KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W, KOFOID
 
 
Uoune Houys’ DISTORIES.

HISTORY

or

NORWAY, SWEDEN anp DENMARK,

FROM THE MYTHIC AGE 70 THE
PRESENT T1IUL.

WITH COPIOUS NOTES, ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP.

 

NEw York.
WILLIAM L. ALLISON,
93 Chambers Street,

 

1889,

ae
 
 

PREFACE.

It has been the author’s aim to present the principal
events of Scandinavian history with sufficient fullness to
retain the freshness and vitality of the story. It has
been a work of real pleasure which we hope the reader
will share. The history is one full of striking contrasts,
and to Americans it is one of special interest; not
merely from the reputed discovery of our continent by the
old Norwegians, and the memorable events which have
had so marked an influence on the history of the world,
but from the hosts of sturdy yeomen from those northern
regions and their descendants, who live in our midst
and have contributed to the rapid development of our
Western Empire. Not only the wild and rugged scenery
of those ice-girt lands, but the weird legends of ancient
Scandinavia, its mysterious pantheon, which carries us
back to those antediluvian days when the ‘sons of god
walked with men ;”—the Valhalla of the gods—its inti-
mate connection with classical myths ; its mighty Odin
and Thunderer Thor*, Baldr his son, the fairest and
purest of the gods—have a never-failing interest to the
countless readers, thinkers and travellers, both old and
voung,t of this growing Western Hemisphere.

* See Carlyle’s ¢“ Heroes and Hero Worship" (Wm. L. Allison, New York,
Publisher).
t Al-o read “Hans Christien Andersen’s Fairy Tales.”  ¢ 4
 
 

CONTENTS.

 

CHAPTER L

The Mythic Age, «wie el el Ce Te ie

CHAPTER II
The Cloudland of History,- - =. = eo eo

CHAPTER IIL
~ The Dawn of History, - - + + ao eo =

CHAPTER IV.
Piratical Expeditions, . - - . > °

CHAPTER V.

The Introduction of Christianity to the Time of its Final
Triumph in Denmark under Canute the Great, .

CHAPTER VIL
Introduction and Final Establishment of Christianity § in
Norway, - - -
CHAPTER VIL

Establishment of Christianity in Sweden—History of Den-
mark to the Accession of Valdemar the Great,

1157 A.D.,- - - . . . . . .
CHAPTER VIIL
Norway from 1066 to the Union with Denmark, =.
CHAPTER IX.
Desmark from the Acsossion of Yaldomm the Great until
> . - -
CHAPTER x

Denmark from 1259 to the Union with Norway, 1350, : Sy

 

41

58

71

102

113
CONTENTS. 4

CHAPTER XI. .
AGE
Sweden from 1250 to the Act of Calmar, 1393, « « 123

CHAPTER XII.
fiom the Act of Calmar to 1520, oe erie sii]B]

CHAPTER XIIL

Deniars from 1513 until the Reformation, and the Dealt
of Christian IIL in 1559, . . 145

CHAPTER XIV.

Sweden from the Accession of Gustavus Vasa to the Ac-
cession of Gustavus Adolphus, wiiie i wile Id

CHAPTER XV.
Denmark from 1559 to the Death of Christian IV, in 1648, 170 ;

CHAPTER XVI,
$ustavus Adolphus, - - = « « ce «o . 170°

CHAPTER XVII.

Venmark and Sweden from the Death of Gustavus Adol-
TE in 1632 ® te Accession of Charles XIL ino
697, - : - 186

CHAPTER XVIII
hares SIL, =~ + + + oe eo T.I08

CHAPTER XIX.

From the Death of Charles XII. (1718) to the Selection of
... Bernadotte as Crown-Prince, - Bo. _- 206.

i" CHAPTER XX.
Denmark from 1730 to 1839, ile igi ee 210

CHAPTER XXI.

Sweden Yor the Aovessiono of Bernadotte. Denmark from
183! Rae wl n¥ BENE aati +233 od

»
 

 

HISTORY OF

‘NORWAY AND SWEDEN.

 

CHAPTER L
THE MYTHIC AGE

THE early history of Scandinavia is wrapped in obscurity.
Strange traditions are to be met with connected with
the names of Japhet, the son of Noah, of Gomer and
Magog, sons of Japhet, of Hercules, and of sundry giants
or trolls, who were supposed to be a remnant of the
Anakim whom Joshua drove out of Canaan, all of which
may safely be passed by.

Nor are the Grecian dreams about the Hyperboreans

~—people dwelling, for so their name imports, * beyond
the north-wind"—aniy nearer the realms of history. They
are more Utopian than Utopia itself. They were a truly
happy people, living in unbroken peace among themselves
and with the gods—free from want, care, or disease—in
the enjoyment of perpetual spring: Death came not
to these fortunate people in the usual form heralded by
pain or weakness, but in extreme old age, when wearied
with very satiety of life. Crowning their heads with
flowers, they joyously plunged into the sea, and thus
ended their lifejourney.

The earliest historical record of these Northern people,
and that but very dim and obscure, is to be found in the
fragmentary accounts of the voyages of Pytheas, pre-
served to us by Strabo and Pliny. Pytheas was a native =
of Massilia (Marseilles), and lived ‘about the same time
as Alexander the Great. Probably he made two. voyages
 

 

 

10 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP.T,

to these distant shores, and, considering the time in
which he lived, he must have been skilled in science,
especially astronomy. We are told he was a pocr man,
and therefore it is presumed that he was commissioned
to visit these lands at the public expense. A supposed
reason for such a mission is that he might obtain some
information respecting the countries from which the
Carthaginians, the commercial rivals of the Massilians,
obtained their supplies of amber. Dut be this as it may,
Pytheas must have possessed that very heart of oak
and triple brass of which Horace speaks, to have left the
sunny shores of the sonth, and to have ventured into
these strange. inhospitable seas.

Ancient writers seem to have given no credence to his
statements. Strabo plainly calls him a great liar, Lut
modern investigations have successully vindicated his
reputation. He visited Britain, and sailing in a north-
east direction, in six days he reached what he believed
to be the island of Thule, or Ultima Thule, as it is more
generally termed. Many have been the diseussions about
the position of this Thule. It lias been identified with
the Orkney Islands, the Shetlands, and, still more gene-
rally, with Iceland, The late Dr. Wheaton and others
believe it really to have been the southern part of the
mainland of Norway, where traces of the ancient name
may still be traced in the province of Tillemack or
Thylemach, and the Thulian mountains. It is certain it
is somewhere in the extreme north, from the remarks he
makes about the length of the days and nights. He tells
of the people thrashing ont and storing the corn under
covered buildings; of their having enclosed gardens, in
which were grown hardy plants. and berries which they
~ used for food ; of their keeping bees, and making a plea-
sant drink with the honey ; and of their eagerness after
trade with those foreigners who eame for aber.

He describes what Ve calls “the lung of the sea,” a
something which was neither earth, sea, nor air, but a
Bort of mixture of all these, like to the molluseca, in which
the earth and the sea and everything else are suspended,
 

 

\

“© YHE MYTHIC AGE. 11

and which could not he penetrated either by land or by
gea. “For a long while.” says Otté,* “this extraordinary
thing excited the wonder of all who read or heard of
Pythens’ account of it. But the wonder has ceased since
it bas been discovered that lung of the sea was a common
name among the Greeks for the jelly-fish or medusa,
numbers of which abound in the Mediterranean, and
must have been well known to his countrymen of Mas-
silia. Hence it has not unreasonably been conjectured
that Pytheas, wishing to describe to his friends at home
the appearance of ice floating on the waters of the ocean,
which they had never seen. compared it to the shoals of
jelly-tish which fringed their shores in a living girdle of
moving, white, half-transparent water.”

From the time of Pytheas centuries pass by without
throwing any light upon the history of these northern
races. We can only conjecture from what we know of later
times what must have happened in these earlier days.
~ We may be tolerably sure thata colony of Goths, a branch
of that vast Scythian tribe who left their native settle-
ments. probably near the Caspian Sea. at some remote
period before the Christian era. after a long series of wan-
derings. at last took possession of the numerous islands of
the Baltic, and ultimately of the mainland. Here they
dispossessed a still older race, who were driven by these
new invaders into the mountain fastnesses of the extreme
north. where their descendants, the modern Laplanders
and Finns, still dwell, and retain the traces of their sepa-
rate race.

The readers of Roman history will easily remember the
alarm, amounting to panic, which spread through the
proud city a listle more than 100 years before Christ at
the terrible news of a new and apparently invizzible
host of barbarians hurrying down through the plains of
Northern Italy. and supposed to be already feasting in
imagination over the spoils of Rome itself. Six consuls
had been defeated in succession. It seemed as if the days
of Rome were numbered. All hopes were centred in one

* Scandinavian History. By E. C. Otté, page 8
 

   

12 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. L

man, the renowned Caius Marius. For four successive
years, a thing unknown hitherto in Roman history, he
had been appointed consul, when in the year 102 B.c. he
met one part of these dreaded foes, the Teutones, and
inflicted upon them a terrible defeat at Aqua Sextiz, the
modern Aix, about eighteen miles north of Marseilles.
‘While engaged after the battle in collecting the heaps of
broken arms and setting fire to them as a thank-offering
to the gods, horsemen rode up bringing the grateful
intelligence that for the fifth time he was appointed
consul. In the following year, 101 B.c.,, he met the
cther part of this invading host, the Cimbri, near Ver-
celle, and, it is said, left 120,000 dead on the field, and
took 60,000 prisoners. Notwithstanding the uncertainty
that surrounds the history of these barbarian tribes, it is
probable that the Cimbri had their home in Jutland.
During the earlier Roman emperors, the continual
advance of Roman armies towards the north would gra-
dually spread more correct ideas about the people and
geography of Scandinavia ; and-it is by no means impro-
bable that the demands of fashion, which were as inexor-
able in ancient as in modern society, may have helped to
extend this knowledge. Amber ornaments were fashion-
able, and Roman ladies must have them at any cost.
Traders were ready to brave all dangers to supply this want.
The old Norsemen were distinguished for their fair
complexions, light hair, and eyes. Black hair, dark
skins, and especially black eyes, were considered ugly—
the marks of an alien, and therefore of a hated and
despised race. The one ennobling aim and pursuit of life
was war by land or by sea. In the house, the field, the
assembly, the spear, as the common weapon of all freemen,
was ever seen in the hand of the Norseman; but the
sword, that weapon which could only be wielded effec-
tively by a strong and practised arm, face to face with the
foe, was the darling of the warrior. It was to him a living
reality, spoken of and loved as a person. The northern
Sagas are full of the praises of good and trusty swords.
Second only to the sword and more in common use,
 

_ THE MYTHIC AGE. 18

per

was the axe. It was sometimes silvered or gilded, and
its haft studded with iron, silver, or golden nails—* A
gift,” says Dasent, “fit for a king to give, but woe to
the giver if the temper of the steel belied the golden
promise of the haft. Such a great curved axe, with
gilt head and silver-studded haft, King Eric Blodazxe, of
Norway, sent his friend, the Tcelander, Skallagrim. But
no sooner did the old warrior receive it than, to try it,
‘he smote off the heads of two oxen. The heads flow
“off, but down came the axe with tremendous force on a
stone which had been purposely placed under the necks
of the animals, and lo! the whole edge is splintered off,
and the steel that remains is full of flaws and cracks.
So Skallagrim laid it up on a beam over the kitchen fire,
and smoked it well, and in that state sent it back by the
first opportunity to his friend the king.” *

The ship, the very sight of which caused many a heart
to tremble in Saxon England, was to the Norseman an
object of special veneration. We still speak of the ship
as a person, almost the only inanimate thing which we
honour as feminine. To the Norseman it was a dragon, an
eagle, a horse, or any animal suggesting beauty or strength.

Their chief god—the All-fadir, or All-father—was
Odin, wielding in his hand his good lance Gujner, and
riding on his strange, eight-legged horse Sleipner. His
two ravens perch on his shoulder after their journey
round the world, and tell him all they have seen. He
dines apart in Valhalla, and lives entirely on wine,
Before the birth of Time he had been with the Himthur-
sar, the giants of Frost and Snow, whom he and his
children, the (Esir, afterwards deposed. As the cold
rime and frost that came out of the northern Niflheim,
the home of mist and snow, met the hot blasts from the
southern Muspell, the abode of heat and brightness, the
frost melted and assumed a human shape, Y mir, the sire
of this giant race.

Between the (Esir, the children of Odin, and the giants

% aid t # The Norsemen in Iceland” (Ozford Zeeyy 195,
Pp
h¢ IIISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. (5:78 2 Yt

there wag continnal war until Ymir was slain, and all
his race were destroyed save only one, from whom a later
‘race of giants sprung, and thus the reign of these older
powers was at an end, being dispossessed by Odin and
his race for a time. Only for a time! In Misgard, the
centre of the earth, the new zods erected for themselves
a castle called Asgard, the Olympus of the north, tower:
ing high above the earth. Here, with his venerable wife,
Frigga and his twelve (Esir, Odin dwelt, surveying the
whole world, and watching all the doings of mortals. One
the other side of an impassable sea the later giant race,
descended from the sole surviving son of Ymir, dwelt in
a region called Utgard. Into this dismal region the
(Esir sometimes entered, but at considerable risk.

Next in power to Odin is his first-born son Thor, the
Thunderer, with his mighty hammer. But by far the
most attractive being in this strange pantheon is Baldr,
Odin’s second son—fairvest, loveliest, purest in mind and
body of all the gods. They all, the All-fadir and his
‘twelve sons, meet daily at their holiest place in Asgard,
under the ash tree Yggdrasill, the Norse Tree of Life!
The readers of Carlyle’s Heroes and Hero-Worship will
readily recall the graphic description of this tree—‘ The
Ash Tree of existence, which has its roots deep down in
the kingdoms of Hela or Death ; its trunk reaches up
heaven-high, spreads its boughs over the whole Universe:
it is the Tree of Existence. At the foot of it, in the
Death-kingdom, sit Three Nornas, Fates —the Past,
Present, Future—watering its roots from the Sacred Well.
Its boughs are Histories of Nations. The rustle of it is
the noise of Human Existence, onwards from of old. Tt
grows there, the breath of Human Passion rustling through
it;—or storm-tost, the storm-wind rushing through it like
the voice of all the gods.” *

® See a very interesting account of this beautiful conception
of Ygedrasill in W. and M. Howitt’s Literature and Romance of
the North, vol. i. p. 44, where the pertinent question is asked
Is not the Yggdrasill the real origin of the ts {and Eng-
lish) Christmas tree?
 

SHE MYTHIC AGE. 15

But side by side with Odin and his (Fsir is another
divinity, who uses his mighty power not to bless but to
curse ; fair of face, fickle in mood, evil in design— Loki,
son of Farbanti the giant, one of the old race whom Odin
had dispossessed, and whose wrath he had vainly hoped
to avert by adopting him as one of his own children. His
schemes, and plots, and quarrels bring strife and distrust
upon the scene. The character of the Odin worship is
itself strongly modified by the evil influence of this
traitor Loki. Ha becomes not so much the protecting
and loving All-fadir, the source of all good, as the Val-
fadir, the god of those who die in the battle-field. For
such only is the feast in Valhalla prepared. Mead and
roasted pork form the dietary of the warriors in Valhalla,
who are called Einheriar. The pork is cut from a hog
called Schrimner, which, though roasted and eaten daily,
grows again, and is found entire every morning. Their
one amusement is to go out each day and tight, but
happily the wounds inflicted heal spontaneously. Death
by sickness or age closes the entrance to Valhalla, and
consigus its victims to the dark and cold domains of Hel,
the daughter of Loki. No wonder that, with such a creed,
war was the passion and delight of the Norse. A life of
tranquil occupation was locked upon as disreputable; war
and tighting were the only avenues to fame, glory, and a
happy immortality. In comparison with this master-pas-
sion, riches were despised, and life itself was of little value.
An old warrior, no longer able to wield his sword, often
caused one of his friends to kill him, that thus he might

avoid that natural death which would exclude him from

the wondrous feast of Valhalla. The Hall of the Slain,
~ where this feast is enjoved, has five hundred and forty
doors, from each of which eight hundred warriors can
pass out at once,

For the actually wicked a place of torture was reserved

dn Ni-strand.

The strife between the (Esir and Loki and his hateful
progeny waxed deeper and deeper. Omens of impending

fate caused sorsow aud alarm to the Qdsir; bu so loug
 

 

16 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. 1.

as Baldr, the god of purity and innocence, remained
among them they were safe. His presence in Asgard
was the one inviolable pledge that sin and wickedness
could not prevail. But forewarnings of his death were
not wanting. His mother, Freya or Frigga, determined

to make one supreme effort to preserve a life so valu- -

able and so beautiful. She extracted an oath from all
created things—fire, water, earth, stones, trees, metals,
animals, birds, reptiles, from every form of person and
disease—that they would never injure the loved Baldr.
The oath was taken, and, to prove its efficacy, some of
the gods assailed him with stones and other weapons, but
no injury could be inflicted on his charmed body. This
troubled the jealous and spiteful Loki. Assuming the
disguise of an old woman, he visited Frigga to see if
haply he might find means to accomplish his wicked end.
Frigga, though possessed of wondrous power, did not
possess the art of penetrating the disguise of Loki. She
even volunteered the information that no weapon or tree
could hurt Baldr: she had taken an oath of them all
“ What! had all things sworn to spare Baldr?” asks the
apparent old woman. ‘Yes, all save one! It was hardly
thought necessary to take an oath of the mistletoe ; that
was too young to ask for an oath.” The traitor had
gained the desired information. He took a mistletoe
wand, and joined the meeting of the gods. Hodr, the
blind god, stood by doing nothing, while the others, as
usual, were enjoying the sport of shooting at Baldr. Loki
suggests that he should try his hand, but he pleads his
blindness as an excuse, and, besides, he was unprovided
with a weapon. Loki puts the mistletoe wand into his
hand, and guides it, that he too may share the sport.
The blow is fatal ; Baldr falls dead to the earth.

But Saxo Grammaticus gives a totally different ver-
sion. Hodr, who had been educated by Gervar, King
of Norway, is elected King of Denmark, owing to the
previous king's death without issue. He had won the
_ affections of Gervar's daughter, Nanna. But unhappily
she had also touched the heart of Baldr, a most dangerous
 

A Act RIAL ATR

 

THE MYTHIC AGE. 17

rival. Baldr determined to remove Hodr out of the way
by violence, but supernatural friends interfered on his
behalf, The King Gervar favoured the suit of his foster
son, but he dreaded the wrath of Baldr; however, being
himself a magician, he instructed Hodr how and where
to obtain a wondrous sword that would have power to
slay even Baldr, and also some bracelets, the possession
of which would marvellously increase his own strength.
At great peril these priceless treasures were secured.
Nanna turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of Baldr, and
remained true to her mortal lover. Baldr, joined by the
army of the gods, flew to arms, but even in this desperate
conflict Hodr obtained the victory, and thus secured the
hand of his bride, with a portion of Sweden to be added
to his dominions. But reverses came. Baldr wrenched
Denmark from his rule, and the unfortunate Hodr was
compelled to seek safety in exile. In his wanderings he

meets again with the weird sisters who had previously

assisted him. From them he obtains a magic belt which
would insure him the victory over all enemies. Again
he seeks Baldr in the battle-field, and inflicts a mortal
wound upon his rival. Thus the blind and old god of
the one legend becomes the martial and valiant prince of
the other. But the confusion does not end here. Odin,

- the bereaved father, erects a funeral pile, and there the
body of his wife, who had died through grief, is laid

by the side of her fallen husband. The Edda expressly

~ calls her Nanna, but assigns to her another father than

Gervar.

An attempt was made to recover the soul of Baldr
from the realms of Hela. According to one tradition, it
was Odin himself who undertook the dangerous journey.
This has been familiarised to English ears by Gray's
poem on “The Descent of Odin.” But according to an»
other version, it was Hermod, another son of Odin, who
determined, at his mother’s entreaty, to brave the perils

- of the journey. He saddled Sleipner, the famous black
steed, and prosecuted his journey for nine days and
nights. He found the gates of Hela’s kingdom closed,

 
 

18 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. I.

but with such a horse he cleared the gate and en-

tered the hall. He was entertained for the night,
and obtained a promise that if all objects, animate
and inanimate, would weep for Baldr he shonld be re-
stored. One hard-hearted old sorceress refused to weep,
and Baldr remained a denizen of the cold, dark realms of
Hela. This Baldr appears in another form of the legend
as viceroy over the Angles, in the southern part of the
Cimbric peninsula (Denmark), and hence our Anglian
princes traced their origin from him as a common ances-
tor. This strange confusion arises from the different
sources consulted by the historians. Saxo Grammaticus,
from whom some of the legends are taken, was a Danish
historian, a learned ecclesiastic, who flourished at the
close of the twelfth century, who countined himself natur-
ally to Danish sources, while, as we shall see afterwards,

~ the wilder traditions of Iceland furnished the ground-
work of the Eddas. Saxo, as was to be expected, made

“light of the pretensions to divine honours, and considers
the family of Odin merely as magicians and priests of
false gods. He could not be expected to shake himself
free from the prevailing belief in magic and supernatural
interferences, however he might shrink from recognising
any form of Pagan idolatry. Hengist and Horsa, the
two famous Saxon leaders, claimed descent from Odin,
or Hodin, as he was named in their dialect.

We must anticipate our story to some extent, in order
to describe Odin’s last appearance upon earth. The
skalds or poets of Sweden and Denmark dwell with great
delight upon the great battle of Bravalla, fought some
time during the eighth century,* between Harald Hildet-
and (Golden Tooth) and his kinsman, young Sigurd Ring.
Odin, being informed by his attendant ravens —the sacred
bird of the Norse mythology—of the enormous prepara-

® The account of this celebrated battle, which marks a critical

int in the chronology of Sweden, is the subject of an interest.
ing investigation in an article on the early history of Sweden,
in vol. ix. of the 7raunsactions of the Royal Historical Society.
The date is tixed at about 775 A.D,
 

THE MYTHIC AGE. Sh 19

tions that were going on for this battle, determined
himself to take part therein. Springing on the chariot
of the aged and blind Harald, King of Denmark, the
god hurried him into the midst of the fight. Harald,
recognising the superhuman power by which he was
impelled, implored the god not to forsake his faithful
Danes, but in vain. Up to that moment he alone of all
mortals, as he believed, knew the art of drawing up his
men in a wedge-like form, a secret imparted to him by
Odin himself. But now Odin tells him the secret has
been imparted to Sigurd as well. All hope then forsook
the blind old warrior, and he fell by Odin’s own hand.
His body was discovered amid heaps of slain, and, by
Sigurd’s orders, was burnt on a magnificent funeral pile,
with his armour, his chariot, and war-horse. This, as
we are told by the skalds, was Odin’s last appearance
upon earth.

But we have historical records of an Odin, who is
supposed to have arrived in Sweden about the middle of
the last century before the Christian era. As usual, the
accounts are various and somewhat contradictory, but
‘adopting the account given by Snorre Sturleson,* Odin
came from Asaland or Asalieim, a district eastward of
the Tanais, the capital of which was the sacred Asgard,
and the people Asar or (sir. His real name was Sigge.
Over the temple at Asgard twelve pontiffs or priest-
statesmen presided, and at their head was Odin. He
lived in a state of constant war with his Asiatic neigh-
bours, and such was his prowess that success invariably
attended him. At length the invincible legions of Rome
approached his capital, and Odin, being informed by the
fates that settlement was provided for him in the north,
and perhaps willing to believe that prudence was then
as now the better part of valour, leaving his two brothers
in Asaheim, attended by a great number of followers, set
out westward through Germany. He remained some
‘time in Denmark, on the island of Fyen, and founded

5 * Snorro Sturleson, author of 7%he Younger or Prose Edda,
ee p. :
 

 

20 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. L

there the town called after himself Odinesse.* The
country seems to have submitted to him with but little
resistance. Leaving his son to reign in Denmark, he
advanced to Sweden, where he compelled the reigning
prince Gylfe to yield to him the eastern part of his
dominions. Odin founded a town on Lake Malar, calling
it after bis original name Sigtuna, or Sigge’s town. Here
be built a temple, established a council of twelve pon-
tifls, and levied a poll-tax, or, as he called it, a nose-tax.

Still unsatisfied, he sought to add Norway to his do-
minions, and success again attended his arms.

His death corresponded with his life, While his friends
were seated around him he called for his weapon, and
‘announcing to them that he was about to return to
resume his place among the gods at Asgard, he inflicted

on himself nine wounds, that he might go before his
~ people to Valhalla, and prepare a reception for them. He
became thus the patron of all who died in battle. His
remains were bumed with great pomp on a magnificent
funeral pile, and, in accordance with the tenets he had
himself taught, the higher the smoke ascended, the higher
would be his place among the gods.

To this Odin the noblest qualities of bedy and mind
were assigned. To his friends his face was handsome and
noble, but to his foes it presented a terrific aspect. He
could, like the fabled Proteus of classical story, assume
any form he chose. while he rivalled the Thracian Orpheus
in bis musical skill. He excelled all men in poetry and
eloquence. To him was ascribed the invention of the
Runic characters. He had a ship called Skidbladner,
which could be folded up like a handkerchief, and could
sail in safety through the most dangerous seas.

To attempt to explain these conflicting accounts would
indeed be a thankless task. Is it an attempt to reduce
the older mythology into the more modest dimensions of
hero-worship, as Gibbon seemed to think 71

* The modern Funen.

+ Compare Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, vol. i., ch. x., p. 254,
and vol. vi, ch Ixxi, p. 417, Milman’s edition, 1846. He
distinctly denies the existence of the later Odin altogether,

 
 

THE MYTHIC AGE, - 21

~ Dr. Dunham™ traces in the records of the historical
Odin—if we may so term him, to distinguish him from
the mythological one—the evidences of an older and per-
haps a purer faith, for while in Denmark and Sweden
Odin was esteemed the first of the gods, in Norway we
find Ther more highly venerated. Hence he concludes
that Thor was the native deity; Odin a later and
foreign importation. He deliberately adopts the con-
clusion that Odin lived and reigned and conquered in
the north ; and he imagines that his great renown as a
ruler, a lawgiver, and a conqueror was gradually magni-
fied into a religious worship, partly absorbing and partly
displacing an older form of religious belief. Traces of
Thor-worship lingered for a long time among the Finns
and Laps of the extreme north, and probably even now
may not be entirely obliterated.

A simpler explanation may be that this Odin, whose
original name is said to have been Sigge, being driven
northward by the advancing legions of Rome, and find-
ing that Odin was worshipped in all these northern lands,
took the name of Odin, and, by his craft and prudence,
succeeded in impressing a credulous people that he was
in very deed in human form the being whom for centuries
they had worshipped. One point seems tolerably clear,
that the existence of two or even more Odins must be
abandoned as a fiction. Some of the Swedish historians.
record three conquerors of the same name—OQOdin the Old
(Hin Gamle), the founder and the presiding deity of the
Scandinavian kingdoms; the second, mentioned by Saxo;
and the third, the one whose exploits we have briefly
recorded, who is assigned to the time of Pompey, by
whose superior skill in the Mithridatic war Odin, like
the Scythian chieftains, was driven from his kingdom. }
This Odin is said to have brought the Suiones with him,

* Dr. Dunham's ‘History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway,”
in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia, vol. ii., p. 82.
; 4 Ses Fryxell's History of Sweden, edited by Mary Howitt,

: Compare Crichton’s Scandinavia, vol. i., p. 77,
 

22 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. II

‘who gradually displaced the Goths, and became the domi-

nant tribe. That later tribes did enter Sweden may be
fairly accepted, but what of truth and what of fable there
is in this account of Odin and his Suiones cannot now be
ascertained. Tacitus mentions the Suiones in connection
with the Gothones as inhabiting the extreme north,

 

CHAPTER IL
THE CLOUDLAND OF HISTORY.

BEFORE passing on to historic times, it may be well to
describe more fully some of the institutions connected
with the mythic period of Scandinavian history, as they

will serve to throw some light on the character of the

ple.
Pro Odin, as we have said, was ascribed, by the vene-
vation or credulity of succeeding ages, the invention of
the sixteen Runic characters. The origin of letters has
been ascribed by universal tradition to the East, and their
introduction undoubtedly confirms the legend that fixes
the original home of Odin in the East. These Runes
have a very faint resemblance to those sixteen letters
which Cadmus is said to have introduced into Greece from
Pheenicia, as they are entirely free from curved or wavy
lines. But although these Runic letters were known
from the remotest times and highly prized by the Scandi-
navians, they never seem to have been employed for what
we should call literary purposes. Occasionally we do
find letters written on special occasions in Runic charac-
ters, but their popular use was to impress upon the people
the belief in the marvellous magical power supposed to
reside in them. The word rune is derived from ran, a

secret or mystery. The verb roune, to whisper, occurs

in English literature, as in Chaucer's Friar’s Tale one is
described as drawing near to his companion—

“ Ful prively, and rouned in his ere;”
HE CLOUDLAND OF HISTORY, 23

Spenser uses the same word, slightly altered (Faery
- Queene, iii. 10-35)—
: ¢ And in his eare him rounded close behinde.”

There were both plain and artificial runes, called Lin-
runes (the Scandinavian word Lon denoting secret), with
the latter of which a great superstition was connected,
the priests believing, by aid of them, to be able to haunt
a place, to dull weapons, to stop thunder and hurricames,
to cure or occasion diseases, -and so on; and when
engraved on nails, wrists, rudders of ships, handles of
swords, these Lonrunes were supposed able to bring a
thing to a happy issue, or avert dangers.* They were
employed also for lapidary inscriptions, or for memorials
of the dead; and though the first preachers of Christianity
endeavoured to destroy them, as tending to keep up
Pagan recollections and associations, yet some hundreds
have been discovered, of which the greater part belong to
the province of Upland, in Sweden, which was the chief
seat of the ancient heathen worship, but no Runic books
have been found. Letters written in Runic characters
were said to be sent during the eighth and ninth centu-
ries from one prince to another; and even in the imperial
palace of Constantinople, the body-guards of the emperor,
known as Veringjar, or wanderers, were Northmen, who
could decipher these mystic characters.

Doubtless the very fact of communicating ideas at all
by means of marks or notches on sticks or stones would
“of itself seem supernatural to the ancient Scandinavians,
and their imaginations would be easily excited to credit

* Sinding’s History of Scandinavia, p. 28. A very interest-
ing account of the Runic alphabet, and probable fac-similes of
the letters are given in Earle’s Philology of the English Tongue,
parag. 96, Second Edition. When our Saxon ancestors adopted
‘the use of the Roman alphabet they retained two of the Runic
forms, the p or th, and the more local p, called Wen. The for-
mer of these remained for some time, and still survives in the
peculiar contractions yt and yt for the and that. An explana-
‘tion of these contractions, aricing from the blunders of our early

rinters, i~ given in Marsh’s Lectures on the English Language,

ture xx., p. 311.
 

 

24 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. If.

any wonders that were attributed to them. “They were
precisely,” say the authors of the Literature and Romance
of the North, “in the case of the South Sea islanders,
who set up and worshipped a chip on which Williams,
the missionary, had written a message to his wife. They
were persuaded that there was a spirit in the chip; and
the ancient Scandinavians, in their superstitious simpli-
city, were persuaded that there was a mighty spirit in
the runes.”

“In the second part of the Edda, in the Brynhilda
Queda, or Song of Sigurd and Brynhilda, one of the
originals of the celebrated ¢Nibelungen Lied,’ we have
perhaps the most perfect specimen of the rune doctrine.
Sigurd, the Siegfried of the German poem, finds Bryn-
hilda sleeping an enchanted sleep on a hill in Frankland,
in the midst of a skoldborg, a circle of shields. She is a
Valkyria, mighty in runes. She gives him a love-drink ;
they mutually plight their troth; and Sigurd begs her
to teach him the knowledge of runes. She then says,
‘Drink I give thee, mingled with might and the strength
of gods, full of songs and healings, good songs and glad
runes. Runes of victory, must thou know, if thou wilt
be victorious. Thou must carve them on the blade of
thy sword, twice naming Tyr’” (the god of victory).
~ “¢Drink-runes’ must thou know, if thou wilt main-
tain thy power over the maiden whom thou lovest. Then
shalt thou score on the drinking-horn, on the back of thy
hand, and the word naud (need, necessity) on thy nail
‘Bless the full cup to guard thee from danger. Lay herbs
in thy bed, then know I that no mead can be mixed to
thy injury. ‘Runes of Freedom’ shalt thou know, if thou
“wilt rescue others. If thou wilt ease the pains of child-
‘birth, thou must inscribe them in the hand, clasp them
round each joint, and call the goddesses to aid. ‘Storm-
‘runes’ must thou know, if thou wilt have all power over

thy sails at sea. On the mast shalt thou carve them,

and oun thy rudder. Fling fire into the track of the keel,
‘and though the very sea burnt, and dark and livid were
the billows, thou shouldst come safe to land. ‘Herb-

 
THE CLOUDLAND OF IIISTORY. 25

rines’ shalt thon know, if thou wilt cure sickness or heal
wounds. In the bark shalt thou cut them, and in the

. boles of the wood where the branches bend eastward.

¢ Speech-runes’ shalt thon know, if thou wilt that no one
shall do thee cruel injury. [Let them be rolled up,
wound together, and cast all over the Ting (place of
judicial assembly), where thy people go to the trial,
* Mind-runes’ shalt thou know, if thon wilt be more intel-
lectually endowed than all other men. . . . There
are the book-runes, and help-runes, and all drink-1unes,
and power-runes, precious for him who, unbewildered
and uncorrupted, can employ them for his benefit. If
thou comprehendest them, enjoy them till the dissolution
of the heavenly powers.” *

It is not to the runes that we must look for the
remains of the early literature of the Scandinavians, but
to the skalds, or poets. Like the Grecian rhapsodists,

the Welsh bards, or the Scottish minstrels, these skalds

were the historians and the poets of their time. The
deeds of heroes and kings were handed down from age
to age, and we may be quite sure they lost nothing of
their marvellous element by transmission. The brave
would soon become the wonderful, the wonderful would
expand into the marvellous, and the marvellous would
very quickly be surrounded with a halo of miraculous
and supernatural glory. It is well known that in the
absence of a written literature the powers of memory are
indefinitely increased by practice; and it may safely be
presumed that where memory failed, imagination and
invention might safely be relied upon to fill up the gap.

* Abbreviated from the Literature and Romance of the North,
by W. and M. Howitt, vol. i, p. 74. In the Royal Library
at Copenhagen there is a parchment Cole of the Scanlan Law
in Ruuic characters (the oldest extant) of the fourteenth century.
Runes were employed as ciphers for secret instructions by one
of the generals of Gustavus Adolphus; and so late as last cen-

tury the Dalecarlians used a sort of Runie alphabet, to which

some Latin characters were added.—Crichtou’s #istory, vol. i.,
p- 133, note. Mr. Howitt hints that the faith in runes is nob
yet perfectly extincs in Iceland, p. 73.
 

26 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP If.

Dr. Crichton relates two stories which go far to justify
this impression. A skald repeated before Harald Sigurd-
son sixty different lays in one evening, and being asked
if he knew any more, he replied that these were but the
half of what he could sing. Snorro Sturleson relates of
one who had composed a lay in honour of Canute the
Great (or as other authorities state, and with more pro-
bability, in honour of Eric Blodaxe), being impatient to
recite it in his presence, he assured him it was ‘very
short.” The king, who was just rising from table sur-
rounded by courtiers, did not exactly feel the force of the
recommendation, and angrily remarked, “ Are you not
ashamed to do what none but yourself has dared—write
a short poem upon me? Unless by dinner-time to-morrow
you produce thirty stanzas more on the same subject, your
life shall be forfeited.” The skald proved equal to the
occasion, and was fitly rewarded.

The profession of skald was not only held in high
honour, but was looked upon as endowed with sanctity.
Members of this honoured profession often married the
daughters of princes, and an instance occurs of one being
raised to the throne of Jutland. They accompanied the
kings to battle, acted as ambassadors, and often played
the part of heroes themselves. They were not only the
poets but the statesmen of their age—the chosen com-
panions and counsellors of the monarch. Olaf the Saint,
“we are told,* though so zealous for the extinction of the
old religion, still kept his Icelandic skalds about him,
honoured them with the chief seats, took them into his
counsels, and in his last battle when he fell, had them
placed in the skoldborg, a circle of shields formed
round him by his bravest warriors, and bade them see
the battle, that they might not speak of it from hearsay,
and two of them fell by his side. The Norse Agamemnon
evidently was determined not to be deprived of his
Homer. :

Besides the skalds were the saga-men, who related

* Literature and Romance of the North, vol. i., p. 23.
 

- THE CLOUDLAND OF HISTORY. 27

stories of great deeds in prose, and who shared the hon-
ours awarded to the skalds.

There are few facts connected with literature more full
of romantic interest than the preservation of these Sagas
from oblivion. “In that strange island, Iceland,” says
Carlyle,* “burst up, the geologists say, by fire from the
bottom of the sea; a wild land of barrenness and lava;
swallowed many months of every year in black tempests,
yet with a wild gleaming beauty in summer-time ; tower-
ing up there, stern and grim, in the North Ocean ; with
its snow jokuls, roaring geysers, sulphur-pools, and horrid
volcanic chasms, like the waste chaotic battlefield of
Frost and Fire ;—where, of all places, we least looked
for Literature or written memorials, the record of these
things was written down. On the seaboard of this wild
land is a rim of grassy country where cattle can subsist,
and men by means of them and of what the sea yields;
and it seems they were poetic men these, men who
had deep thoughts in them, and uttered musically their
thoughts. Much would be lost had Iceland not been
burst up from the sea, not been discovered by the North-
men! The old Norse Poets were many of them natives
of Iceland.”

This island, first discovered and colonised about the
middle of the ninth century, was destined to be the
sanctuary and preserver of the marvellous literature of
Scandinavia; and it is perhaps still more remarkable
that it is to a Christian priest, Seemund Sigfusson, that
we owe this preservation of legends relating the struggles
and triumphs of an alien faith. Scemund flourished at
the close of the eleventh century, and collected the songs
or lays which had been handed down from heathen times
in the Poetic or Elder Zdda. To this illustrious priest
the name of the Homer of Iceland has been fitly applied,
though the Edda differs widely from the Iliad. It rather
represents the detached materials, such as we may well
suppose the Greek rhapsodists had sung of the different
- scenes in the story of Troy before a Homer had arisen
* Lectures on Heroes. Lecture i, p. 15. People’s Edition,
 

 

28 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cma it,

to mould them all into one stately and immortal epic.
“The story of Siegfried and Brynhild, which occupies
the latter portion of the Edda, found a poet in after ages
in Germany to mould it into the great and beautiful
Nibelungen Lied, though much altered, probably by
German tradition; but the poems of the Edda remain
to show us what the myths of Greece would have been
without Homer. They remain huge, wild, and frag-
mentary; full of strange gaps rent into their very vitals
by the accidents of rude centuries; yet, like the ruin
of the Colosseum or the temples of Peestum, standing
aloft amid the daylight of the present time, magnificent
testimonies of the stupendous genius of the race which
reared them. A strange mixture of simplicity and
strength, of the little and the great, the sublime and
the ludicrous, runs through this ancient production, or
rather collection of productions, betraying at once an
age of primitive vigour, and of almost infantine nuiveté.
Odin fights daily with his hero-souls in the neighbour-
hood of Valhalla, or goes forth on some curious mission
amongst giants and men; Thor thunders with his hammer
amongst the rocks; Loke plays off his spitetul tricks on
high and low; the leaves of Yggdrasil rustle in the winds
of heaven; the waters of the ocean roll glitteringly
between Midgard and Jotunheim, the outer region of
the Giants of Frost; the gods travel daily over the
beautiful bridge Biirost, the Rainbow; and men, the
descendants of Ash and Embla, claim kindred with the
divine Asar, and doubt not to reach Valhalla by deeds
of hardihood and endurance.”* The word © Edda” is
supposed to mean ‘ Grandmother;” and it is quite in
accordance with the spirit and habits of these primitive
times to imagine the younger members of the household
gathering round the knee of a venerable matron, and
listening, awe-struck and breathless, to the wonderful
tales of the olden days.

What the enlightened literary zeal of one Christian
priest has thus happily rescued for us from oblivion was

* Literature and Romance of the Norih, p. 29.
 

- ¥HE CLOUDLAND OF HISTORY. 29

well nigh lost by the blinder zeal of his successors. The
monks tried every means to exterminate what they
deemed the pernicious memorials of Pagan idolatry; and
in process of time, the knowledge of these ancient lays
was extinct. About the middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury, Bishop Svenson sent Semund’s Edda from Iceland
to the learned Torfeeus, who was also a native of Iceland,
and had removed to Copenhagen, and thus this wonder-
ful collection was again brought to light. The name of
Avre-hin-Frode, or Frode the Wise, must be mentioned
as another Icelandic writer—in fact, the first annalist
of Iceland. He was a contemporary of Semund’s. His
annals are, for the most part, lost. Other writers after
Szmund seem also to have drawn up histories. Isleif,
the first Bishop of Iceland, who died in 1080, is said
to have written a history of Harald Fairhair and his
successors, and his son continued the work.

After the lapse of a century and a half, Snorro Sturle-
son compiled a prose Edda, usually called the Younger
Edda. Snorzo was an Icelandic gentleman of high
family—in fact, he belonged to the old royal stock—
and educated by a grandson of Semund. Carlyle de-
scribes his work as one “constructed really with great
ingenuity, native talent; what one might call unconscious
art; altogether a perspicuous, clear work, pleasant read-
ing still.” Snorro was born in 1178; and, after a life
of adventure, was murdered 1241. He also wrote a
work known as the Heimslkringla which means “The
World's Circle,” that being the first prominent word of
his manuscript. It is a chronicle of the kings of Nor-
way, and really constitutes a most admirable history of
northern Europe, from the time of the Christian era to
1177 A.D. Snorro possessed that dramatic power which
imparts to all his characters a living freshness and reality
which is the true mark of historic genius. There are
few facts in the history of literature more notable than
‘this wonderful outburst of literary life and vigour in this
obscure corner of the world.

The Sagas make frequent mention of the Berserker,
 

   

30 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP If

or “men in bare shirts or sarks.”* The name was given
to warriors in attendance on the chiefs by sea or land,
who worked themselves up into a frenzy before going into
battle. Under the influence of this frenzy, they struck
out indiscriminately against friends or foes, and attacked
trees and rocks in their blind fury, or in the absence of
other foes, they often turned their arms against each
other. They worked themselves up to such a state of
excitement as to render themselves unconscious of pain.
Thus they disdained the use of arms, and hence their
name, derived from ber, bare, and serker, shirt. The
‘martial songs of the Scalds, the tenets of their faith,
ensuring present glory and future immortality in the hall
of Valhalla, and perhaps the more material excitement
caused by unstinted potations may account for this
strange frenzy. We are told in one Saga of two Ber-
serkers whose tempers became so fierce and turbulent,
in consequence of their being denied alliance with a
beautiful and high-born maiden, that it was found ad-
visable to suffocate them privately in a bath of boiling
water! These Berserkers were formed into fraternities,
and bound by certain rules and conditions. Rolf, a
prince of Norway, had a famous society of this kind.
No man unable to lift a stone which lay in his court-
yard, and which twelve ordinary men could not raise,
was admitted. The members were forbidden to sleep
under a roof; they were compelled to shun female society;
they were not allowed to have their wounds dressed until
the battle was over, or to seek shelter during a storm
at sea. This strange passion for fighting was not con-
fined to the male sex; women of gentle birth often shared
the perils of battle on land, and piracy by sea. They
were called Skiold-meyar, or Virgins of the Shield. Two

* Among the innumerable traces of Norse influence upon Eng-
lish life and history, of which more will be said hereafter, this
word ‘‘sark” still survives in the North Riding of Yorkshire
as a provincialism for shirt. ‘Don’t rive your sark ” is the con-
temptuous advice often given to persons who show signs of

excessive rage. The valley of the Ouse abounds with such traces
of Norse influence. The word is common also in Scotland.
 

 

THE CLOUDLAND OF HISTORY. 31

of these shield-maidens, Hetha and Visina, are said to
have been present at the battle of Bravalla,* the one
with a hundred gallant heroines, and the other with'a
troup of savage Svends, armed with azure bucklers and
long swords.

Of the far-famed and dreaded Vikings we shall speak
more fully when we come to describe the foreign expedi-
tions and conquests of the Northmen and Danes.

It is somewhat difficult to define the constitution of
these rude northern people. The king resembled rather
the chief of a tribe than a monarch in the modern sense.
This fact may probably help to explain the inextricable
confusion and contradiction of the various chronicles.
Tribal chiefs are confounded with each other. Thus the
title of King of the Danes is sometimes applied to the
governors of Jutland ; sometimes to those whose seats of
government were in Zealand or Scania. So, too, in
Sweden. The Suiones, who accompanied Odin from the
East, found a Gothic tribe, the Gothones, already settled
along the coast, and extending inland to the centre of
Sweden. Some chroniclers mingle together the chiefs
or kings of the Goths and Swedes, while the Icelandic
authorities give only those of the Swedes. Added to
this, the continual revolutions form another serious dis-
turbing element. Names and dates are mingled in hope-
less confusion. The kings seemed to have been chosen
from a particular family, or rather the hereditary prin-
ciple was recognised with considerable latitude, as in the
case of the earlier kings of England. The choice was
confirmed by the people assembled at their local courts
or Lands-thing. The Al-thing, or general assembly, met
in the open air. In Sweden, the usual place of meeting
‘was at the Mora-stone, near Upsala; in Denmark, at the

* See p. 18.

% Dr. Dunham brings out very clearly the fact of this con-
fusion by printing together several lists of sovereigns all widely
divergent. Thus, one list gives 110 names, while another for
‘the same period gives 37, and chiefly all quite different names.

- He also attempts to show the causes of this divergence (vol. i.,.
p- 66 and p. 124, and elsewhere). Pe
 

 

 

33 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IL

Ise Fiord, in the north of Zealand, at St. Luber’s Hill,
near Lund, in Scania ; and at Viborg, in Jutland. *

All freemen had a right to attend the deliberations of
the Thing, and to record their votes, just as was most pro-
bally the case according to the opinion of Dr. Freeman, in
the Witena-gemot of onr own country. The idea of formal
representation was then unknown. While the right to
attend the Thing was unlimited in appearance, it would
naturally become limited by circumstances,—the more
distant or less wealthy members gradually ceasing to
attend, except on very important occasions.

Besides the principal kings, there were others of an
inferior grade—the Sma-Konungar, or petty chiefs ; the
Fylke-Konungar, the sea-kings; the Vikings, or creek-
kings. :

To these kings their subjects assigned large farms
and Jordships, and gave to them also a considerable
part of the spoils of war. Forests and untilled tracts of
land belonged to the king, From the wealthier families
—for wealth would usually be the measure of personal
courage, as this was the only means of obtaining or of
retaining wealth—the kings appointed their Jarls (earls),
who acted as their viceroys. and constituted the court.

The laws were few and simple. The system known in
England as the were-geld, existed in full force in the
Northern kingdoms. Most offences had their money-
value, or rather were estimated by a certain value in
cattle, which was the only money current in the bar-
barous ages. Some special crimes were punishable by
slavery, exile, or death. As we should expect, with
such a warlike people, slavery existed, and the ranks of
the unhappy slaves were perpetually reinforced by fresh
prisoners of war. Trial by ordeal —of water or fire—
existed there as in our own country.

* Crichton and Wheaton’s Scandinavia, vol. i., p. 15&
 

THE DAWN OF HISTORY. 33

CHAPTER IIL
THE DAWN OF HISTORY,

Ir hitherto we have spoken of the different countries
comprised under the general term Scandinavia as but
one, speaking one language, adopting one form of faith,
with some local variations, we can only plead the neces-
sities of the case. Nations and kingdoms, in our sense
of the word, did not then exist, but simply an assem-
blage of tribes, ruled over by petty chieftains, and
subject to the ceaseless changes of war and revolution,
In such a condition, a connected history can have no
existence. But now we are approaching a period when
more definite organizations are beginning very slowly to
emerge from the surrounding anarchy.

We shall find the early chronicles full of confusion and
- contradiction. Not until the tenth century can we be
said to be treading on firm ground. Violence and bloud-
shed, attended with circumstances of supernatural awe
and mystery, form the one unchanging topic of these early
chronicles. It would be a tedious and noprofitable task
to go through the harrowing details. We shall select a
few of the legends, which, if they have no historic worth,
have a value of their own, as illustrating the character of
the people among whom they found ready acceptance.

The researches of the Danish historian, Saxo Gram-
maticus,” enable us to get earlier glimpses of the history
of Denmark than of Sweden or Norway. The name of
Skio'd is mentioned as the reputed founder of the Danish
monarchy, to whom was ascribed Herculean strength,
and the nobler, and probably raver, qualities of true
wisdom and generosity. One saving of his will illustrate
the better side of his character, that—While money was

* In the paper already referred to, vol. ix. of the Transactions
of the Royal Historical Society, will be found a very careful
estimate of the authority of this writer. His chronology is
very unreliable. an | Lis patriotic zeal did not always scruple to
appropriate to Danish history materials which belonged to other
countries,
 

 

 

 

 

 

3

34 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. |CHAP. IIL

the reward of the soldier, glory was enough for the general.

The royal stock in Denmark were called the Skioldungs,

and were long held in reverence.

The honour of uniting Denmark under one rule is
ascribed by general tradition to Dan, surnamed Mykillati,
who is said to be sixth in descent from Skiold. The
date assigned to him is 270 A.p. It is doubtful whether
Jutland was included under his rule, since we read of

separate kings of that country as late as the eighth

century.

A successor of Dan's, Frode I. or Frode III, has left
behind a reputation of rare nobility as a ruler, re-
minding us of our own honoured Alfred. He was not
only renowned as a warrior, but as a strict and righteous
sovereign, putting down with a strong hand the numerous
banditti that infested the country, and passing laws
ameliorating the condition of women. It is recorded
that during his reign, when articles of value were left
on the highway, no man dared to touch them : yet it is
considered no detraction from his high virtues to state,
that he was himself a distinguished and successful pirate.

Amid the confused records of these times, the name
and wondrous exploits of a noted Berserk, named
Steerkodder, stand out prominently. He was not only a
warrior of gigantic size, gifted with more than human
prowess, but a Scald. He travelled to foreign lands
like a knight-errant; but his greatest deeds of valour
were performed in his own country. In order to protect
Helga, daughter of the King of Denmark, he fought and
slew nine warriors of unusual bravery, though he was
himself severely wounded in the unequal encounter. In
his poem he boasts that his joy is in carnage and
slaughter ; he loves to cleave shields and helmets, and
to fatten the earth with human blood. He was a great
ascetic, a worthy forerunner of the hermits of later
times, and actually composed an ode, of which Saxo
gives us a Latin version, in praise of raw flesh, and
toast and water! But old age crept upon him, and
enfeebled his stalwart frame; blindness was added to

cB RB

 
 

THE DAWN OF HISTORY. a8

his misfortunes, and he resolved to die. But how? A
~ peaceful, quiet death would be an inglorious termination
to such a distinguished career, and “would exclude him
frow the halls of Valhalla. Suppor ting himseif,” says
Dr Dunham, “on two crutches, with vo swords at his
side, he placed himself by the highway, having round
his neck the gold which he had received for the murder
of Olo,* and which was to be the reward of the man who
should do the same friendly office for him. But he
scorned to die by an ignoble hand, and when a rustic,
thinking two swords were too many for an old man,
asked him for one, he bade the rustic approach for it, and
killed him on the spot. Two companions of a prince,
whose father Steerkodder had killed, one day advanced
against him ; but he killed both with his crutches. The
prince himself, Hother, struck with equal admiration and
fear, approached, aud a conversation of some length, in
which the hero boasted of his past deeds, followed between
them. At the c nclusion, Sterkodder, aware of the
youth's noble birth, and convinced he could not die by a
better hand, begged Hother to kill him, and held out
his sword for the purpose. The prince hesitated ; but
being told that the act would be a pious duty towards
the manes of his father, and being still more influenced
by the view of the gold, he separated the head from the
gigantic body of the hero.” But in fact Sterkodder
was rather a demi-god than a mortal. His name is
continually reappearing; and he, too, like Odin, only
disappears finally after the battle of Bravalla, some three
or four hundred years later.

As we have already said, the throne of Denmark fell
to the lot of Sigurd Ring after the battle of Bravalla.

_ * Olo, a king of Zealand, whom Steerkodder had heen bribed by
the offer of one hundred and twenty pounds of gold to murder.
It is a redeeming feature to know that the reward gave no pleasure,
but that remorse filled the soul of the murderer. According to
one form of the legend, Hother, who actually killed him, was the
son of the murdered Olo, and the sight of him so weakened the

rowess of his father’s murderer, that he was unable to defend
self, and thus fell a victim to his owu remorse,
36 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IiL.

His reign presents nothing worthy of note, beyond the
usual sea-roving expeditions. But his more famous son,
Ragnar Lodbrok, is the hero of marvellous exploits. His
history is so embellished by improbabilities and contradic-
tions that it is impossible to reconcile the various discre-
pancies. It has been suggested that the exploits of twe
different persons, bearing similar names, have been con-
fusedly assigned to one, but there is nothing whatever to
justify this explanation. His name occurs in Anglo-Saxon
annals, but it is assigned to a different century. According
to the Northern chronicles, he reigned in Denmark and
Sweden during the later part of the eighth century; but,
according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, he invaded
Northumbria about the middle of the ninth century.
His nickname of Lodbrog, or Leather Leggings, was
given him because he found it desirable to assume these
articles of dress as a necessary protection when seeking
the hand of a Gothic Princess Thyra, whose bower was
defended by a venomous serpent, which had the disagree-
able habit of biting the legs of all the suitors of the lady.
The famous story of his death-—wild and improbable as
it is—throws a ghastly light upon the habits and thoughts
of the times. After a long course of war and piracy,
(Ella, the king of Northumbria, seized him in the act of
invading his dominions, and caused him to be thrown
alive into a dungeon full of serpents, where, amid his slow
agony of torture, he sang a wonderful death-song, telling
of all his old fights, and calling on his sons to avenge his

“death. The call was not unheeded. His sons took a
barbarous revenge upon (Ella, and divided his kingdom
among themselves.

As the Skioldungs were the ruling house at Lethra in
Denmark, so we find the royal house in Sweden from
the time of Gylfe, when the crown was transferred to
Odin, were called the Ynglings. Between these two
reigning houses there scems to have been a constant
feud, until we shall find the Ynglings were thrust out of
Sweden, and succeeded by the Skioldungs.

As the immediate descendants of Odin, the Ynglings

 
 

THE DAWN OF HISTORY. 37

would naturally be vested with a kind of superstitious
awe, and would readily assume more or less of the
priestly character. They are generally spoken of as
“the pontiff-kings.” Still the same confusion as to
names and dates is found in the varying chronicles.
The annals of these pontiff kings are devoid of interest.
Deeds of violence mingled with wild legends constitute
the staple materials. We will give one or two of the
legends.” :

Freyer, second in succession from Odin, removed the
capital from Sigtuna to Upsala, where he built a temple,
and endowed it with ample revenues. He assumed the
surname of Yngve, and hence his descendants are
called Ynglingas or Ynglings. Dyggve, the tenth in
succession, first took the title of king. Instead of going
through the somewhat dreary details, we will content
ourselves with the following legend, which is taken from
Fryxell’s interesting History of Sweden.

The sixteenth king of the Ynglingar race was called
Ane. He feared war, and therefore remained quietly at
home in his own kingdom, being much addicted to
sacrifice. He was conquered and driven out by two
foreign kings, but survived them both, and returned to
the throne in Upsala. The last time he was one hundred
years old. It is said that he then every tenth year sacri-
ficed one of his sons to Odin that he might live long, and
that he received ten years’ life for each son. Thus he
sacrificed nine sons, and lived to one hundred and ninety ;
but was so weak that he was obliged to lie in bed, and
to suck nourishment from a horn like an infant. He,
notwithstanding, desired a longer life, and therefore
ordered that his tenth son should be sacrificed ; but this
“the Swedes would not permit, and thus Ane died of old
age, without sickness or pain; whence such a death has
been called after him Anesot, and was considered little
commendable by our forefathers. Ane himself obtained
the surname of Old, the appropriateness of which cannot
well be denied. 5

One of the later kings of this dynasty has left behind

 
 

   

38 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Itt,

him a reputation which makes us long for more particu-
lars of his life and reign. He was called Braut-Onund.
He sought his country’s welfare, not in deeds of valour,
nor in pursuit of so-called glory, but in works of useful-
ness, such as clearing forests, draining marshes, and
bringing waste lands into cultivation. His surname,
Braut, signifies the Cultivator, or the Road-maker. Peace
and plenty abounded in his reign, and as we read that
be was much loved, we may hope that the martial frenzy
of the older time and the older faith was giving way to
nobler and more peaceful enthusiasms. He is said to
have met his death by being overwhelmed with an
avalanche.

He was succeeded by his son Ingiald, who in early life
was of such a gentle disposition that he was easily van-
quished in some juvenile contests by others of his own
age. Such a disposition was deemed unsuitable for a king,
and strange means were adopted to remedy the defect.
His diet was wolves’ hearts, and, judging from his future
career, we must presume the remedy was highly successful.

At the inauguration festival of a new sovereign, which
took place at the funeral of his predecessor, it was the
custom for the heir to seat himself on the lowest step of
the vacant throne, surrounded by his nobles and tribu-
tary kings, until presented with the brage-beaker, or huge
ox-horn filled with wine. This he drained, after taking
the usual oaths, and then ascended the throne, and was

roclaimed king. Ingiald bound himself by an addi-
tional vow that he would double the extent of his king-
dom or die in the attempt, and at once proceeded to prove
that this was no empty form. Six of the tributary kings
were burnt to death that same night in the hall in which
they had been hospitably entertained as guests. Their
dominions were seized, but the popular indignation
showed itself by giving him the surname of Ill-rada, the
deceitful.

Other princes fell victims to his perfidy and treachery,
but his crimes brought upon him a righteous retribution.
His daughter Asa had been given in marriage to Gudrod,

 
 

 

THE DAWN OF HISTORY. 39

a tributary king of Scania. At her instigation Gudrod
contrived to murder his own brother Halfdan, King of
Denmark, and then he himself fell a victim to his wifes
treachery. Fearing revenge, Asa then fled to her father's
court for safety. Ivar Vidfadme, son of the murdered
Halfdan, resolved to avenge his father’s death, and entered
Sweden with a large army. Ingiald soon found himself
incapable of offering any resistance. His forces aban-
doned him in the hour of need. He and his daughter
formed and carried out a terrible resolve—to intoxicate
the whole court, set fire to the castle, and thus destroy
themselves and all the other inmates in one overwhelm-
ing destruction. His son Olaf fled before the foe, and
found refuge in Wermeland, on the border-land be-
tween Sweden and Norway, where he devoted himself
to the humble but useful occupation of felling the forests,
and thus making the land fit for human habitation. He
must have been a worthy descendant of his grandfather,
Braut-Onund. Deeds of quiet usefulness like his were
deemed unworthy of the attention of historian, or
chrenicler, or skald, and therefore all we know of him is
that he received, doubtless in derision, the nickname of
“Traztelje,” or the Tree-feller. It is with a painful shock
that we learn that he was afterwards offered up as a
sacrifice to Odin, in order to deliver the country from
the pressure of a terrible famine. This fact, taken to-
gether with the legend of the sacrifice of nine of his sons,
by Ane, indicates but too clearly the prevalence of human
sacrifice in Sweden. This was the end of the Ynglingar
dynasty in Sweden. The conqueror Ivar Vidfadme
brought in the Skioldung dynasty, while the descendants
of Olaf, passing over from Wermeland into Norway,
founded a kingdom there in the person of the renowned
Harald Haarfagr. The year 630 is given as the pro-
bable year of Olaf’s exile and the downfall of the Ynglin-
gar dynasty:

Sweden and Denmark were thus joined together under
the:strong arm. of Ivar Vidfadme. We: are: told in the
Sagas that, in addition, he conquered a: great: deal of
 

40. HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. ITL.

Saxon land—all the east country and a fifth part of
England. The part of England referred to is more ex-
plicitly defined in one Saga as Northumbria. Northum-
bria was not conquered nor ruled by a Norse king before
the ninth century; and it is clear that the deeds of Ivar,
the son of Ragnar Lodbrog, who did conquer it, have
been transferred to his ancestor Ivar Vidfadme, who is
supposed to have died in the seventh century.* From
Ivar the throne descended to his grandson, Harald Hilde-
tand, whose death on the battlefield of Bravalla has been
already described. The victory of Bravalla placed the
throne in the hands of Sigurd Ring, who was succeeded
by the renowned Ragnar Lodbrog. These three sove-
reigns all reigned in the eighth century.

The early annals of Norway present almost an entire
blank, filled up by idle and improbable traditions, until
we reach the time of Olaf, the Tree-feller. By his useful
and unobtrusive labours, Olaf laid the foundations of a
new kingdom in Wermeland, which was gradually ex-
tended through five successive reigns, which brings us
down to Halfdan Svart, or the Black, who, by his skill
and energy, extended and consolidated his kingdom.
Having lost his first wife, he obtained a second accord-
ing to the method most approved in those times. The
neighbouring province of Ringarik was ruled over by a
man of gigantic mould and unequalled bravery, named
Sigurd, surnamed Hiort, or the Stag, from his love of
the chase. He had a beautiful daughter, Ragnilda, and
an infant son. Sigurd’s chief delight was to wander
among the mountains and fight with beasts of prey. One
day; while on the look-out for his usual foes, he was met
by Hako, a noted Berserk, with thirty companions. It
certainly does not speak well for Hako’s sense of fairness
that he compelled Sigurd to engage in such an unequal
combat ; nor are we surprised to hear that the combat
was fatal to the gigantic Sigurd. But he did not fall
unavenged. .- Twelve of Hako's company, like Homer's

*" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. ix. +. 181
+ See above, p. 18. 5 Ror a

 

 
 

 

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS, ~ 41

heroes, kissed the ground in death, and Hako himself
lost a hand and was otherwise dangerously wounded before
Sigurd fell. However, he was carried to Ringarik, the
residence of the fallen hero, where his first purpose was
to seize the beautiful Ragnilda and claim her as his wife.
But he was compelled to submit to some delay on account
of his wounds. Halfdan hearing of the event, ordered
one of his own chieftains, Hareh, to fetch the princess to
his own palace. Taking with him a band of men, he
succeeded in the daring attempt, and brought Ragnilda
to Halfdan’s home. Hako, wounded as he was, attempted
to pursue, but in vain; and in despair, he fell upon his
sword, and was buried on the margin of Lake Wener.
Immediately on the arrival of Ragnilda—for no time was
lost in those days—her nuptials with Halfdan were cele-
brated, and the issue of this union was the far-famed
Harald Haarfagr, or the Fair-haired, whose exploits
must be reserved for the following chapter

 

CHAPTER 1V.

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS.

THE physical configuration of Scandinavia is such as at
once to suggest maritime enterprise as the necessary
means of subsistence for the inhabitants. In early days,
when agriculture was of the rudest description, the
struggle for life would naturally be very keen, and this
of itself would develop the energies and call forth all the
resources of the people, especially in Sweden and Norway.
In these countries the towering rocks which rise in bold
outline along the coast are intersected with innumerable
gulfs or fiords running far inland, abounding with fish,
while game abounds amid the mountain passes and
valleys of the interior. The severity of the climate, the
prolonged winters, the short and sudden summers, would
not tend to promote the practice of agriculture, while the
more exciting pleasures of the chase would seem to pre-
sent a better and more congenial means of subsistence.

 
 

42 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP.1V.

The abundance of fish would soon tempt a hardy people
to brave the perils of the deep, and thus a seafaring life
would gradually become habitual. The extensive forests
and fens of the north would render agriculture almost
impossible except it was preceded by what would seem the
tedious and useless operation of clearing the forests or
draining the fens. This latter operation would demand re-
sources far beyond the reach of those primitive times. In
the more southern parts nature would, with very little
labour, provide for the scant necessities of a people who
trusted rather to the chances of the chase or of the fish-
ing expeditions than to the produce of the field.
Denm:k is a flat country, covered far more extensively
in olden times with marsh and forest land where now
well-cultivated fields and gardens give richness to the
scene. The numerous inlets of the sea would soon fami-
liarise the people with the pleasures and perils of a sea-
faring life, while their passion for war, consecrated as it
was by the higher religious sanctions of their creed, would
readily suggest the advantages of piracy. “In the later
times of their wanderings, the leaders among the North-
men were known as Vikingar, a name derived from vik, a
bay, from the habit which: these men had of lying under
covert in some little bay or vik, and darting ont in their
barks to waylay and plunder any vessel passing by. The
act of coming unawares upon others, whether singly or
with a large fleet, was for this reason known as ‘viking.’”*
We have already seen how these Northmen looked
with fond reverence upon their ships; and extensive
practice soon made them more than usually skilful in
the management of their vessels. Circumstances, how-
ever, arose which gave to their piratical expeditions a
far wider range, and left their permanent impress upon
general European, and especially upon our own English
history and life. We must now trace these circum-
stances, and endeavour to point ont with some detail the
innumerable threads of connection which unite the Eng-
land of to-day with the old Norse pirates and vikings, -
: * Otte’s Scandinavia, p. 16. Rr

 

 
 

A

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS. 43

Hitherto we have been able to gather np but broken
links of the history. If our narrative is imperfect and
disjointed, it represents but too faithfully the confusion
that prevailed. But now the royal power was gradually
becoming more consolidated, and though this gave unity
and strength to the nation, it may well be donbted
whether at first it was not attended by a painful diminu-
tion of individual freedom, The reconciliation of national
unity with personal liberty was a work left for later and
more peaceful times, when statesmen rather than warriors
were the chief moulders of national life, when thinkers
and philosophers proved the pen to be a mightier weapon
than the sword, and when other and higher objects of
aspiration nerved men to action than the Valhalla of
Odin.

Within a few years of each other three men arose in
the several kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden
—namely, Harald Haarfagr, Gorm the Old, and Eric,
who succeeded in establishing their own anthority on the
ruins of that of the independent chieftains or tribal kings,

Gorm, or, as he is usually called, Gorm the Old, the
great-grandson of Ragnar Lodbrog, was accepted, at his
father’s death, as King of Lethia, in the Danish island
Sjalland. This Lethia was looked upon as one of the
most sacred spots in the north, as there the great sacrifices
of Odin were celebrated, and thither every year all per-
sons, rich or poor, were expected to bring their offerings
to the twelve priests, of whom the king was the chief.
Every ninth year a sacritice of more than usual solemnity
was offered, including, among other objects, human vie-
tims. The king, as chief pontiff, would naturally amass
great wealth, and wield a mighty and almost a super-
natural power. Gorm seems to have taken full advantage
of his position, and before his death he had become ruler
of all Denmark, including Jutland and all the surround-
ing islands, with some portions of Norway, and the
Swedish provinces of Bleking and Scania, which continued
for several hundred years to constitute a part of the
Danish monarchy. The steps by which he gained this
 

 

44 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP.IV.

power are lost im obscurity, but as a matter of fact he
ruled over a greater expanse of kingdom than is included
in the Denmark of to-duy. His reign was unusually
long ; he died in 935 or 941.

After the expulsion of the Ynlingar kings of Sweden,
the annals of that country became very indistinct. The
kingdom was for a time united with that of Denmark. On
the death of Ragnar Lodbrog the throne of Sweden was
assigned to one of his sons, Biorn I., who was followed by
others, of whom little more than the mere names survive.
The two main tribes, the Svea and the Goths, were in a
state of perpetual warfare, until we come to the reign of
Eric IV. or the Victorious, who seems to have extended
his power over the whole of the country, and who, after
some great victories, seems to have had a peaceful reign.
He died in 993.

Of the great Norwegian monarch, Harald Haarfagr,
we happily have a more detailed account, and we have
further the inestimable advantage of having his history
and life and that of his immediate successors imprinted
on our hearts and memories by the genius of Thomas
Carlyle, in his Early Kings of Norway. The birth of
Harald has already been mentioned. His reign is com-
puted to have lasted seventy or more years. Twelve
of those were spent in hard fighting and conquest. Love
was the motive power—if we may credit the legend
which fits in but too well with all the surroundings of
the times—which nerved his arm and inspired his heart.
He aspired to win the affections of the peerless Gyda,
but her proud answer, while apparently withdrawing the
prize from his grasp, yet made him the more eager to
deserve and obtain it. “Her it would not beseem to
wed any jarl or poor creature of that kind; let him
do as Gorm of Denmark, Eric of Sweden, Egbert of
England, and others had done—subdue into peace and
regulation the confused, contentious bits of jarls round
him, and become a king. Then, perhaps, she might
think of his proposal; till then, not.”* He recorded a

-* Carlyle.

 

 

 

 

 
 

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS, 45

solemn vow. His hair should neither be cut nor combed
until Gyda’s condition was fulfilled, and he could claim
her as his own. For twelve long years the work of
conquest went steadily on. The jarls (earls), or chief-
tains of different tribes, fell one after another under his
power. The contest was long and severe, but many of
the bravest swords and stoutest arms in Norway were on
Harald’s side, and ultimately he gained his kingdom and
his bride. Then when his shaggy head was cut and
combed and trimmed, he gained the surname of Haarfagr,
or Fair-haired, by which he has ever since been known.

In the piratical expeditions of the Northmen the dif-
ferent stages must be carefully noted. Thus Dr. Freeman *
divides the Danish inroads into England into three
periods :—

First, When they merely landed to plunder, and then
went away again. This extends from 787, the date of
the first Danish landing on the coast of Dorsetshire.

Second, When they came to conquer some part of the

land, and to settle in it. The Danish conquest of East
Anglia under Guthrum, in 870, secured the first Danish
settlement in England.
Thirdly, When kings of all Denmark came to conquer
the kingdom of England, and to make themselves kings
thereof. This marks the period from 855 to 912
A.D. This distinction is as true of expeditions of the
Northmen to other countries, as of the Danish invasion
of England.

Of the earlier period, when their invasions were little
more than raids for plunder, leaving no permanent
effects, little need be said. They were confined chiefly
to Germany and France, in addition to England, though
Spain, and even Italy, were by no means safe from
attack. Over the entrance to the arsenal at Venice may
still be seen one of the sculptured lions which once
adorned the Pirzus at Athens. The marble is deeply
scored with Norse runes, which have been deciphered,
and which prove to be a record of the capture of the

* Old English History, p. 92.

 
 

 

i6 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IV.

Pirseus by Harald Hardrada, the Norwegian king, who
fell at Stamford Bridge in 1066.* Sir Francis Palgrave
has graphically described the extent aud frequency of
these raids as follows: —* Take the map, and cover with
vermilion the provinces, districts, and shores which the
Northmen visited, as a record of each invasion, the
colouring will have to be repeated more than ninety
times successively before you arrive at the conclusion of
the dynasty of Charles the Great. Furthermore, mark by
the usual symbol of war, two crossed swords, the localities
where battles were fought by the pirates, where they
were defeated or triumphant, or where they pillaged,
burned or destroyed, and the valleys and the banks of
the Elbe, Rhine and Moselle, Scheldt, Meuse, Somme
and Seine, Loire, Garonne and Adour, and all the coasts
and coast-lands between estuary and estuary, all the
countries between the river-streams will appear bristling
as with chevaux-de-frise. The strongly dependent bour-
gades, often more flourishing and extensive than the
ancient seats of government, the opulent sea-ports and
trading-towns, were all equally exposed to the Danish
attacks, stunned by the Northmen’s approach, subjugated
by their fury.” This will reveal the extent of their inroads
in France and Germany, but the process must be repeated
for England and Scotland, in order to show the full
extent of the misery and devastation they wrought. The
Danes were the principal foes of England, while Scot
land, and the islands surrounding, extending to the south
as far as Anglesea and Ireland, were ravaged by Nor-
wegians, and the Swedes devoted their attention chiefly
to Russia.

The Northmen or Norwegians first appeared in the
Orkney and Shetland Isles about the close of the eighth
century; but in the reign of Harald Haarfagr, these N or-
wegians, driven from their positions of uncertain inde-
pendence by his strong hand, settled in these islands,
and revenged themselves for their expulsion by leading
piratical expeditions to their own country. Harald

* Taylor's. Words and Places, p. 155.

i

 

 

5 laa

 

 
 

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS. 47

resolved to extirpate these pirates, and having overrun
their new homes, offered it to his chief adviser, Rogn-
wald, father of the more celebrated Rollo, first Duke of
Normandy. Rognwald sent over his brother Sigurd,
who extended his dominion over Caithness and Suther-
land. In the eleventh century Caithness and Suther-
land were finally wrested from the kingdom of Scotland,
and formed one of the eleven jarleddmmer or earldoms
which extended over all the Hebrides and a large part
of Ireland and the Isle of Man. The Orkneys and Shet-
land Isles were not reunited to Scotland until the year
1469. The existing traces of this Norse supremacy are
full of interest. It solves what must at first sight appear
to be a dificult problem, that the extreme north-western
corner of Great Britain shou'd be called Sutherland, or
southern land. No Scotchmai coul | ever have given that
name to the county,and hence we und the Gaelic peasantry
called it Catuibh. Sutherland was, in fact, the mainland
to the south of the Orkney jarldom. Here and in Caith-
ness Norwegian names abound. The name of 7Aurso
not only tells of Norse supremacy, but of the old rever-
ence for Thor, the word 7/urso meaning Thor's stream. *
In the Shetlands, every local name without exception is
Norwegian. In the whole of the Orkneys, there are only
two or perhaps three Celtic names, while the noble strue-
ture of St. Magnus’s cathedral in Kirkwall, the metropolis
of the Orkneys, abides as a standing memorial of Nor-
wegian rule. The close of the eighth century witnessed
the commencement of the incursions of the Northmen in
the west of Scotland and the Western Isles. In the
year 795, we tind them plundering the island of Tona.
By the end of the ninth century a sort of naval empire
had arisen, comprising the Hebrides, parts of the western
coast of Scotland, especially Argyleshire, the Isles of
Man and Anglesea, and some of the eastern parts of
Ireland.

The Norsemen called the Hebrides the Swdrevjar or
southern islands. In the eleventh century the two sees

* Worsaae’s Danes, p. 253.
 

48 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP IV.

of the Sudrevjar and the Isle of Man were united, and
made dependent on the archbishop of Trondhjem. Though
the Hebrides have long since ceased to be under episcopal

jurisdiction, the memory of the past still survives in the

designation of the bishopric of Sodor and Man,

The interesting Isle of Man affords many incontestable
proofs of not only being a Norse settlement, but of having
been under the rule of a northern power. The highest
mountain in the island bears the purely Norwegian name
of Snae-fell (snow-hill). The comparatively large number
of places ending in “by” in the island indicates the pre-
sence of Danish colonists probably from Cumberland.
The T'ynwald Hill, near Peel, so well known to the
tourist, is a most interesting memorial of the govern-
ment of the Northernmen. The old Norse Zhing still
assembles to hear the laws proclaimed on this hill on
every John the Baptist’s day (June 24th).

The battle of Tara (980), and the still more decisive
one of Clontarf (1014), put an end to the Norse power
in Ireland. The battle of Largs in 1263 completely
broke up the Norse supremacy over the western coasts
and islands of Scotland, when they were formally ceded
to Alexander III, and an alliance was cemented between
the two kingdoms by the marriage of Alexanders daughter
Margaret to Eric of Norway.

As the power of Harald Haarfagr increased in Nor-
way, the number of those who wished to escape from his
strong will, and to preserve some vestiges of their former
~ independence in other lands, increased also. Happily a
new and convenient refuge for these wanderers was found.
Naddod, the viking or sea-rover, sailing from Norway
to the Faroe Islands was driven out of his course, and
discovered a great land which he called ‘Snowland.”

On his return he highly praised the new land. Then

Gardar, a Swede, came in search of Snowland, and con-
firmed the flattering report of Naddod. Then others

came in a colder season, gave a far less favourable report,

and called: the land ¢ Iceland,” the name which it has
ever since retained. “Such,” says Dasent, “ was Iceland

   

 
 

 

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS. 49

as it first rose before the eyes of the old sea-rovers. To
some, a cold inhospitable land; to others, a tolerable
abode, which it was possible to praise as well as to blame.
And so, we may say, Iceland has continued till the pre-
sent day ; a land bleak and inclement by nature, but still
with its own advantages; a land abused by its enemies,
and praised by its friends; a land now woodless and
grainless, though it was not so of old, but still able to
feed countless herds on the abundant pasture of its dales
and hills.”

But the pressure of Haarfagr’s rule soon induced
colonists to settle in this distant land. First came Ingolf
Arnarson in 874, and settled at Rykyavik. The reason
why he settled there was peculiar. On approaching the
land, Ingolf threw overboard the pillars of his high seat
for luck, and said he would fix his home wherever those
pillars came on shore. He landed and wandered about,
and of course had some fighting with some Irish thralls -
or slaves who had been captured by Ingolf’s foster-
brother Leif, or Hjérleif, and who had murdered their
master, but not until the third winter did he find his
pillars near Rykyavik, so that became his home. The
settlement in Iceland differs therefore in its character
from the other settlements of the Northmen. To this
island the colonists transferred their system of clan
government, and established an All-thing or general
assembly over the different clans. It was, in fact, an
aristocratic republic. Of the remarkable preservation of
the literature of the north in Iceland, we have already
spoken. From Iceland these sea-rovers discovered Green-
land, and settled there in 981. Here a prosperous colony
was established ; but in the fourteenth century the un-
happy colonists were destroyed by the plague, which at
that time ravaged Europe, and not a single trace remains,
nor is the precise spot known where it was located.
According to some traditions, some of them sailed away
and discovered Vinland or America. Thorfin, a Nor-
wegian chief, is said to have colonised Vinland in the
year 1009. He remained there three years, and died in
 

50 HISTORY Of NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cmA®P, iV.

Jeeland. In the year 1050 a priest went from Iceland,
which had then been Christianised, to preach Christianity
in Vinland, and in 1121 a bishop went there for the same
purpose, but we have no record of the results. The
colony was so entirely lost, that some have doubted its
existence.

In Russia the Swedes, who had taken little or no part
in the expeditions westward or southward, being excluded
by their geographical position, had formed important
settleenents in the ninth century, and had become rulers
and princes in the land. Ruric was the name of the
leader. By intermarriage with the original inhabitants,
the family of Ruric eventually held the throne of the
empire for upwards of seven centuries—in fact, until the
accession of the present reigning house of Romanoff.

One of the most important and interesting expeditions
yet remains to be told. When Harald Haarfagt’s vow
was fulfilled, and his bride obtained, he selected among
his subject-jarls the most trusted and honoured of them
all, Jarl Rognwald, to cut and trim, what Carlyle calls.
his “unkempt and almost unimaginable head of hair” of
twelve years’ growth. It was to this same Rognwald that
Harald, as we have seen, offered the government of the
Orkneys and Shetlands. But the favour of Harald aroused
the jealousy of his sons, and they surrounded the house
of Rog wald, and burnt to death him and sixty of his
men. One of his sons, an illegitimate one, named Einar,
had been sent off to govern the Orkneys after the death
of Sigurd. His mother was a slave; he himself was of a
repulsive countenance, and had lost one eye. No other
son cared to be appointed to such a distant government.
Einar asked if he might go, as he was little cared for
at home, and if sent he promised he never would trouble
his father more. ¢ Here,” says Carlyle, “is the parting
speech his father made to him on fitting him out with a
‘long ship’ (ship of war, ¢dragon-ship,’ ancient seventy-
four), and sending him forth to make a living for him-
self in the world. ¢1t were best if thou never camest
back, for I have small hope that thy people will have

 

 
 

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS, 51

honour by thee; thy mother’s kin throughout is slavish.’”
His father’s hopes were realised. The lad, thus unwill-
ingly sent from his father’s home, never returned. But
he left behind him in the Orkneys the reputation of
an able and successful ruler—formidable to his foes,
beloved by his subjects. His name is handed down with
a strange surname, Turf-Einar, from his introducing the
use of peat as a fuel into the islands, as he found the
wood all gone, and coal of course not yet dreamt of.

But for another son, Rollo, or Rolf the Ganger, a still
higher destiny was reserved.

The inroads of the Northmen into Gaul began about
the same time as in England, and the history of their
proceedings in the one country, with a necessary change
of names, would almost serve for the other. The hetero-
geneous empire of Charlemagne was rapidly falling to
pieces. His children were scrambling and fighting for a
share of the spoils. The people were ready to rally round
any standard where they might hope to find protection.
The Northmen were not their only external foes. Hun-
garian cavalry were devastating the south-eastern pro-
vinces, and were scouring the rich plains of Lombardy,
while the Saracens, smarting from their defeat by Charles
Martel at Poictiers in 732, were harassing the south of
Gaul, and had joined the Hungarians in Provence and
the Alps.

The Norse inroads in Gaul naturally divide themselves
into three groups, determined by the river-courses. The
first included the territories around the Rhine, the
Scheldt, and the Elbe, the farthest southern point being
the Neckar and the Rhine. The second included the
districts of the Loire and Garonne, reaching as far as
Spain. The third were those that centred round the
Seine, the Somme, and the Oise. But they were not
continuous like those of the Danes in England, there-
fore, with one remarkable exception, the effects of these
inroads were not permanent. One of the most renowned
of these pirates was Hastings, who sailed along the coast
of Gaul, ravaging and burning every thing in his way.
 

 

52 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. 1V.

He ascended the Somme, setting fire to the towns on its
~ banks, and murdering the inhabitants. Lower down

he took Nantes, and put to death all who had taken
- refuge in the cathedral. At the head of his freebooters
he appeared before the gates of Paris, spread dismay
through the city, and was only persuaded by bribes to
depart. We know, too, that this sume Hastings landed
in Kent in 893 during the reign of Alfred, and caused
endless trouble, but the superior generalship of Alfred
compelled him to retreat. No wonder that from many
a cathedral choir and village church, from many a bur-
dened and bleeding heart, the prayer would arise, * From
the fury of the Northen, good lord, deliver us!”

And it was no less strange how that prayer was heard
and saswered.

The mouth of the Seine had always afforded a tempt-
ing opening for these wild rovers of the sea. About the
year 876, if we may trust the chronology of the Saxon
chronicle, Rolf the Ganger or Walker, because he was
said to be too tall and stout for any horse to bear, entered
the Seine and overran Normandy. He was lord of three
little islets far north, near the fiord of Folden, called the
Three Vigten Islands, but sea-robbery was his chief
occupation and support. Harald Haarfagr had put down
this sea-robbery with a strong hand, as we have seen, and
thus driven many of his subjects away to settle in Ice-

land and the Orkneys. That is to say, Harald would
have none of it as between his own dominions, but as
against foreign countries it still was, as it ever had been,
the one profession befitting a gentleman. In the year
838, we find Rollo beginning the famous siege of Paris.
Eudes, its count, for a time successfully defended it. A
gap in the chronicles prevents us following the story
step by step. But this we know, that in the year 912
the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, by a
treaty ceded to Rollo the district since known as Nor-
mandy, and the over-lordship of Brittany. Rolf, or as
he is more commonly called Rollo, was to marry Gisela,
the daughter of Cuarles, and to accept Christianity. The

 

 
 

PIRATICAL EXPEDITIONS. 53

~ characteristic story is told that when asked to do homage

to Charles by kissing his toe, Rollo indignantly refused,
and at last only consented to do it by proxy. However,
when the king raised his foot, the deputy seized hold of
it, and threw the monarch backwards on the stool of
state on which he was sitting. Rollo ruled bravely over
his new subjects, and became the legislator and father of
his people, proving a safe and reliable defence against
any further sea-roving expeditions. He lived, it is said,
to extreme old age, and became the ancestor of our
William the Conqueror. So entirely did the followers
of Rollo become Frenchmen in character, and assume
the language of their adopted country, that Rollo’s own
grandson had to be sent to the district of Bayeux, which
longest retained its Scandinavian character, to learn the
language of his forefathers.* Of the Danish incursions
into England we do not purpose to say much in detail.
They belong so entirely to our own history, that in these
pages we may pass them over very briefly.

In 878 the great Alfred signed the peace of Wedmore,
after a seven years’ struggle with Guthrum, who had, as
we have seen, already effected a settlement in East Anglia,
and had invaded Wessex. By this peace England. was
divided into two nearly equal parts; Alfred retaining
Kent, Sussex, Wessex, and part of Mercia, while all
north of this was ceded to Guthrum, who, at the same
time, consented to adopt Christianity. This seems, at
first sight, to have been a terrible blow to England, but
in the end it proved otherwise. The limits of the Danish
‘kingdom were defined, and for some time the ravages of
the country ceased. The northern church revived, and
churches and convents began to rise from their ruins.
Wessex was consolidated, and that silent process of fusion
of the two races commenced which in later times pro-
duced such happy results. The circumstances that led

 * A clear and connected although brief account of these Norse
incursions, is given in an admirable handbook, 7'he Normans
in Europe, oy the Rev. A. H. Johnson, to which I am glad to
express my deep indebtedness in this chapter,

 

 
 

  

54 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IV,

to a fresh outbreak, and to the conquest of the whole land
by Sweyn and Canute, will be given afterwards.

It may be more useful and interesting to indicate very
briefly some of the traces of this northern occupation
which still remain.* In England we speak of the Danes,
but, as we shall see, even in the north of England they
were intermingled with Norwegian settlers; and the
farther north we proceed, the more do the Norwegians
preponderate. In the highlands and islands farthest
towards the north and west, the country was conquered
and in part peopled by Norwegians only. Although the
Norwegian kingdoms on the coasts of Scotland subsisted
long after the downfall of the Danish power in England,
still the effects of the Norwegian conquests in Scotland
were far from being so great or so universally felt there
as the results of the Danish conquests were in England.

The most interesting and obvious trace of the Danish
element in our English history is that furnished by the
names of places. The most important test-word indicat-
ing a Danish settlement is the termination “by.” The
word originally meant a dwelling or a single farm, and
still lingers in the familiar phrase “Bye-laws,” or the
local laws enacted by a township.

At the outset we are met by a puzzling contradiction.
East Anglia, that is, Norfolk and Suffolk, was the first
Danish settlement. Here, therefore, we should expect
to find a large number of places with the Danish termi-
nation by. But they are by no means common there.
Dr. Freeman's explanation of this anomaly is ingenious
and interesting: “Yet it is certain that Danish names
of places and the like are more common in some other
parts of England, as in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, than
they are in East Anglia. But perhaps this may be for

‘the very reason that East Anglia was the first complete
Danish conquest. As it was conquered so easily, it is
not unlikely that it was really less ravaged, and that the

* For the materials of this part of the chapter I am chiefly
indebted to Worsaae’s work on The Danes and Norwegians in
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to Taylor's Words and Places.

 
DANISH NAMES, 55

English inhabitants were less disturbed than happened
in some other parts. In other parts, even if the English
‘were not driven out as the Welsh had been before them,
yet at least the chief property in the land must have
passed into the hands of Danes. I mean those parts
where most of the places bear the name of Danish occu-
piers—Haconby, Kettilby, and such like. These names
are very common in Lincolnshire, but are seldom found
in East Anglia” (Old English History, p. 109, note.)
Mr. Wersaae thinks this lack of Danish names in East
Anglia is to be explained by the fact that the Danes did
not remain firmly established in this province, owing to
its proximity to the centre of the English or Anglo-Saxon
power. But the Danish termination #of¢ is common in
East Anglia. It signifies an enclosure. Other Danish
endings are thorp, throp, or trop, meaning an aggregation
of habitations, or a village ; and in the extreme north-
east corner of Norfolk we find a remarkable cluster of
names which are unmistakably Norse. In the North
Riding of Yorkshire, in Lincolnshire, and Leicestershire,
the ending by abounds. About one-fourth of the village
names in Lincolnshire have this ending. Sometimes
these names clearly reveal their personal origin. Thus
Rollesby, one of the few with this ending in Norfolk,
points to Rollo, or Rolf, who is believed to have fought
in England before settling in Normandy; and Ormsby
most probably refers to Gorm, and so with many others.
Some point to a still more lofty origin. Baldersby, in the
North Riding, must have derived its name from Balder,
Fraisthorpe from Freya, and Tursdale from Thor. The
name Upsall, which occurs twice in Yorkshire, recalls
that of Upsal, the most sacred sacrificial place in Sweden.
This seems the only trace of Swedish settlement in Eng-
land. But as Upsal was “the Teutonic Delphi,” the
name may not indicate the origin so much as the sacred
occupation of its inhabitants,

There is a very peculiar distinction between the
Danish settlements in Yorkshire, and the more southern
ones in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. Among those
 

 

   

56 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. 1v.

settlements in Yorkshire, it is very common to hear the.
less educated classes use the first personal pronoun with
the third person of the verb, as “I is,” “I thinks,” ete.
In the more southern settlements no such provincialism
occurs. This is in fact but a survival of the Danish
inflection, or rather want of inflection, but it seems to
tell in language that cannot be misunderstood, that the
Danes remained longer, or became more firmly rooted,
in Yorkshire than elsewhere. It is a very singular fact
that the Danish “are” should have held its place among
the recognised inflections of the otherwise purely English
verb ‘to be.” :

We have evidence that some of these names ending in
by have displaced older English names. Thus Derby, or
Deoraby, the place of the deer, has displaced the
older name Northweorthig, or Norworth, as it would
now be written. So the English Streoneshalch has
happily been transformed into Whitby. In like manner,
Eboracum, the chief Roman town in Britain, was called
“Jorvik ” by the Danes, from whence the present name
of York is derived. South of Rugby there are compara-
tively few places ending in by.

As to the other test-endings, thorp, or throp, or trop,
Bishopthorpe, the seat of the archiepiscopal residence
near York, as also Nunthorpe, Kirkby, Crosby, and
“others, sufficiently prove that the Christian priests had
displaced those of Odin, and that church and cross were
erected where heathen altars had formerly stood.

In the Lake district, the Norwegian element begins to
assert itself. The ending thwaite, which means a forest
clearing like the English field, i.e., where the trees have
been felled, occurs very frequently in Cumberland. The
words beck, a brook; force, a waterfall; and fell, a
hill, are exclusively Norwegian, and are familiar to
every tourist. The ending wick, or wich, is found both
in old English and in Norse names. In Old English, it
means simply a station, a house, or a village ; but with
the Northmen it was a station for ships, hence a small
creek or bay. The sea-rovers derived their name of

 
DANISH NAMES IN ENGLAND, 57

vik-ings, or creekers, from the wics or creeks in which they
anchored. The word came to be used for any robber,
and in a Norse Biblical paraphrase, we tind Goliath is
termed a viking. The inland wicks are mostly Saxon,
while those which fringe our coasts are mostly Norse,
and indicate the statious of pirates rather than of
colonists. The ships of the Danish vikings constantly
swarmed at the mouth of the Thames; hence we shall
find the ending common in that district. So, too, the
suflix ford belongs both to the Old English and the
Norse, but it has a significant ditference in meaning.
Derived from the Old English furan, to go, to fure, the
English meaning is simply a passage across rivers; but
the Norse meaning is passages for ships up arms of the
sea, like the fjords of Iceland and Norway, and the friths
of Scotland. The church of St. Clement Danes, the two
churches dedicated to Saint Olave, and Tooley Street, a
corruption of St. Olave’s Street, still remain in London
among many others as memorials of the now forgotten
Danes.

The hustings, which until very recently were usually
the scene of noisy demonstrations at a contested election,
are but a relic of the “ Norse 'Lhings,” or meetings, of
the duly qualified householders. The word “meeting,”
according to Dr. -Dasent, is the mot thing, or assembly
of freeholders. The traces of the Danish language among
the provincialisms in Danish districts and in Scotland
are very numerous,®* and many of our nautical terms
are Norse. Our earls are the jarls of Scandinavia but
slightly transformed, while most of our other titles of
rank, with the marked exception of king, were introduced
at the Norman Conquest. The subject is a very large
one, and full of interest. We can only give these brief

indications connecting the Englishmen of the nineteenth
century with the fierce Northmen of old.

* See an interesting table in Worsaae, pp. 85, 86.

 

 
 

 

58 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP ¥.

CHAPTER V.

THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE TIME OF ITS
FINAL TRIUMPH IN DENMARK UNDER CANUTE THE GREAT.

WE must slightly retrace our steps in order to carry on
our narrative more regularly, and especially to trace
more clearly the introduction and gradual spread of
Christianity.

We have spoken of the horrible death of Ragnar
Lodbrog, and his wild triumphant death-song. After his
death, one of his sons, Sigurd, the Snake-eyed, obtained
the sovereignty of a part of Denmark, Biorn became
King of Sweden, and Gudrod, or Godfred, of Jutland.
This Godfred came into collision with Charlemagne, and
even attempted to surprise him at Aix-la-Chapelle, but
in 810 he was assassinated, With his nephew and
successor, Hemming, Charlemagne made a treaty in 813,
according to which the Eyder was to be the great
boundary between Denmark and the vast kingdom of
the great emperor. Sigurd had fallen in battle against
the Franks in 803, leaving a youthful heir under the
guardianship of his uncle Godfred. During his minority
great commotions had arisen, during which Harald
Klak, a tributary king of Sleswig, was compelled to
flee from his country, and seek the protection of Louis
le Debonnaire, the son of Charlemagne, who had died
early in the year 814. Very inferior to his illustrious
father in force of character, this monarch was far more
devoted to the interests of the church, and his first and
greatest anxiety was to win over the fugitive prince to
the doctrines of the Cross.

It would be interesting to know by what arguments
Harald was won over. The contrast between the
teachings of Odin and that of Christ is marvellous
indeed. The outward splendours of the rites of the
church, one would imagine, would be but a poor sub-
gtitute for the feast of Valhalla, and the necessity for
* keeping under the body ” by fasting and prayer would
 

CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 59

seem a sorry exchange for riot and unbridled self-indulg-
ence; but above all, to put aside the glories of heroism and
the excitement of battle, and instead thereof to sing the
praises, and to follow the example of the meek and lowly
Jesus,—this would seem a sacrifice indeed. But strange
as it may seem, it was accomplished, slowly, painfully,
with many drawbacks, many lapses, and not as in many
neighbouring lands, especially in Saxony, by the drastic
method adopted by Charlemagne, but by the intrinsic
power of Christianity itself. No wonder that at first
Christianity and cowardice were convertible terms, but
perhaps the marvellous power of endurance, the untiring
zeal and self-denial of the first missionaries would teach
the silent lesson that there is a courage and a boldness
far grander, far holier, than that which is excited and
sustained by the shrieks of the wounded and the agonies
of the dying on a battle-field.

In the year 826 Harald, his queen, and a large retinue
of Danes, were baptized with great pomp in the vast
Dome of Mayence. The emperor and his wife Judith
stood sponsors for them all. It will be interesting to

listen to the words of the baptismal vow :—* Forsachista

Diabolac? (Dost thou forsake the devil?) Each one
answered, ““ Ec forsacho Diabole” (I forsake the devil.)
Then the primate Ebbo added, “ End allum Diaboles
wercum ?” (and all the works of the devil?) to which
the reply was given, “ End allum Diaboles wercum end
wordum, Thuner, end Woden, end allum them unholdum,
the hira genotas sint” (and all the works and words of
the devil, Thor, and Woden, and all the ungodly ones,
who are their helpers).

But the pious emperor did not rest here. A council
of the chief bishops and nobles was called—* Who will
come forward to carry on the good work? Who will
volunteer to go to those fierce heathens to proclaim the
gospel of Christ 1”

Ebbo himself, Archbishop of Rheims, had already been
there some four years previously, but his mission, like
the earlier missions of St. Wilfrid and St. Wilibrod,

Vv
 

60 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP ¥.

seems to have been a failure. In the seventh century,
St. Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, while acting as a mis-
sionary, and providing churches in Friesland, attempted
to gain an entrance into Denmark. Somewhat later, in
697, his successor, St. Wilibrod, renewed the attempt, but
the terror inspired by a ferocious Dane, Oryend, frustrated
all his efforts, and he could only succeed in bringing
away with him thirty youths to educate at Utrecht as
future missionaries.

But now the emperor's cousin, Abbot of Corbey, in
Picardy, announced that he knew a young mouk whose
heart was filled with holy zeal, and whose highest earthly
ambition was that he might be thought worthy of a
martyr’s crown. This youth, the apostle of the north,
was Anscarius or Anskar,* now in his twenty-sixth year,
accompanied by his friend Autbert, a man of noble birth,
the only one from the monastery of New Corbey, over
which Anskar was abbot, who dared to share with him
the perils of his enterprise. He set sail, and landed at
Slesvig, where he at once began his work by obtaining
by purchase or otherwise from Harald young captives,
and baptizing them. Thus two years of silent work and
prayer passed on. His faithful friend and companion
Autbert sickened, and was obliged to return home, where
he died. Harald’s apostacy from his ancestral faith
was bitterly resented by his people. He was compelled
to flee, and again to take refuge with the emperor, and
Anskar was compelled for a time to give up his work.

In 829 Bjorn, King of Sweden, wrote to the Emperor
Louis, begging that some Christian monks might be sent
to his country. Anskar, nothing daunted, again volun-
teered. Probably the teaching of some Christian captives,
and the increasing commerce of the country, may have
brought to his ears so much about the new faith, as to

* For an interesting account of the life and labours of this
saintly man, see Dr. Maclean's Apostles of Medieval Europe.
For a and thoughtful estimate of these apostles, I cannot
forbear from referring to the ninth lecture in Charles Ringley ®

su -vestive volume, 2%e Roman and the Teuton.

 
ANSEAR. «5 isi 61

make him and some of his people anxious to learn more.
A monk, named Gislema, was left with Harald, and a
new companion Witmar, a monk of Corbey, was willing to
share Anskar’s perils, But the voyage proved disastrous.
They were attacked, and after a stout resistance, over-
come by pirates. The presents they were bringing from -
Louis, their ecclesiastical vestments, and, worst of all,
their sacred books were taken—forty priceless manu-
scripts. Sick, weary, hungry, and almost naked, they
were put on shore, and ignorant of the language, through
dangerous forests and over snow-covered mountains, these
brave men toiled on until they reached Birka, a haven on
the M=lar Lake, not far from Sigtuna, the ancient
capital. * Surely the heroes and the martyrs of missionary
enterprise are not confined to our times or to our faith.
Here the work of conversion prospered. One of the
king's counsellors, Herigar, declared himself a convert,
and built a church on his estate. After the lapse of a
year and a half Anskar returned to report to Louis all
that had been done, whereupon Louis resolved to make
Hamburg an archiepiscopal see, to which Anskar was
appointed, that he might from thence guide and super-
intend the mission in the north, while Gauzbert was
raised to the episcopate, and entrusted with the more
immediate care of the infant Swedish church. Three
years afterwards it is sad to find Erik, King of Jutland,
attacking Hamburg, burning both church and monastery,

# ¢“The position of this port has been much contested, and it
is only in recent years that its site has been placed beyond all
question.

‘¢ Among the many islets which dot the beautiful Malar Gulf,
whose rocky bosses, covered with many-coloured lichens, and
draped with birch and pine, form one of the most striking
pictures in the memory, is an obscure island, still called Biorke,
s.e., ‘the Birch Island.” Here, a few years ago, a wonderful
mine of archzological treasures was discovered on the site of
an old city, strewn with burnt wood, the remains of domestic
animals, ornaments, and arms, and extending over many acres.
This is now being explored by the Swedish antiquaries, and it
no doubt represents the site of the ancient mart of Birka.”—
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. ix., p. 202.

 
   

62 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP ¥.

and Anskar, deprived of all, save his faith and resigna-
tion to the Divine will, becoming, as it were, a vagabond
in his own diocese. Gauzbert, too, is driven from Sweden,
and thus all the patient work of years seems uprooted.
But Anskar never lost hope. He found that Herigar
still remained faithful to his Christian profession, and,
if we might believe the legend, miracles were not want-
ing to enable him to convince his countrymen of the
superiority of the Christian’s God. Brighter days came
on, and Anskar, unable to persuade Gauzbert again to
revisit the scene of his former labours and peril, resolved
himself to go to Sweden once more. This was in the
year 853. After some difficulties and discussions, at
length Anskar was permitted to remain; the king gave
a grant of land for the building of a church, and a
colleague of Anskar’s was welcomed as director of the
Swedish mission. In Denmark, too, after some difficulty,
he gained a welcome, received a grant of land for the
erection of a second church at Ripa, in Jutland, and
placed a native Rimbert in charge, urging him to win
the hearts of his flock by the sincerity and devotion of
his life. He returned to Hamburg, and devoted the
remainder of his life to the administration of his diocese.
Let the following story, told by Dr. Maclear, show us
what manner of man and bishop he was :—* One of the
latest acts of his life was a noble effort to check the in-
famous practice of kidnapping and trading in slaves. A
number of native Christians had been carried off by the
northern pirates, and reduced to slavery. Effecting their
escape, they sought refuge in the territory of North-
altringia. Instead of sheltering the fugitives, some of
the chiefs retained a portion of them as their own slaves,
and sold others to heathen and even professedly Christian
tribes around. News of this reached Anskar, and at the
risk of his life he sternly rebuked the chiefs, and suc-
ceeded in inducing them to set the captives free, and to
ransom as many as possible from the bondage into which
they had sold them.” One more quotation from the same
author we must give :—‘Such a practical exhibition of

AALRE eS de J si

 
 

ANSKAR, 63

Christian love [as this archbishop gave by his silent
self-denial, his unbounded charity, his sweet humility],
could not fail to exercise a gradual influence even over
the rough pirates of the north, and they testified their
sense of the power he wielded over them by ascribing to
him many miraculous cures. But he was not one to
seek a questionable distinction of this kind. ‘One
miracle,” he once said to a friend, ‘I would, if worthy,
ask the Lord to grant me, and that is, that by his grace
he would make me a good man.”” He died at Bremen,
which had been joined to his archbishopric of Hamburg,
February 3, 865, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
In the course of our history, with its heroes and leaders,
we shall find no sweeter, nobler character than this of
Saint Anskar, Thus was the good seed sown, but after
the death of Anskar it seemed to have quite died out,
and many long and weary years passed away before
Christianity was universally received in Denmark, and
a still longer time before it became the accepted faith of
Norway and Sweden. We shall meet here and there
with individual instances of a higher faith and a nobler
creed, but paganism ruled the land.

It was at this period that a revolution occurred in
Denmark, of which the result was to place Gorm the
Old upon the throne of a united Denmark, as we have
already seen. He married Thyra, said by some to be a
daughter of Harald Krak, whose baptism has been
described. But her parentage is doubtful. By some
she is said to be the daughter of an English prince, and
by others of a Holstein chief, who had accompanied
Harald Krak on his visit to the emperor in 826. Thyra,
however, had been baptized, and seems to have been
allowed to maintain her Christian profession, but Gorm
was one of the bitterest enemies of the Christian faith,
From his Christian subjects he gained the nickname of
the ‘“church’s worm,” because he was always gnawing
at its supports.

Though the annals of this reign are very confused, we
can easily see that Gorm was at least an active and an
 

64 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN, [CHAP Y,

enterprising ruler. In the vear 882 we hear of him at
the head of a band of rovers carrying devastation in
Northern Germany, and plundering the splendid chapel
at Aix-la-Chapelle where the great Charlemagne lay
buried. The Emperor Charles the Fat, a degenerate
successor of Charlemagne, preferred to buy off the in-
vaders with heavy bribes rather than to draw his sword,
and doubtless Gorm and his robber-bands preferred it
too! In 885 we find him besieging Paris, then a very
insignificant place. The siege lasted fifteen months, and
in the latter part of the following vear the emperor ad-
vanced with a large army, not to fight the Danes, but
to promise them the province of Burgundy for winter
qrarters and a payment of 700 lbs. of silver in the fol-
lowing March. But in 891 Gorm was compelled to
return to his own country, having been thoroughly beaten
by Arnulf in the battle of Louvaine. From the Frankish
chronicles we find that the conduct of Gorm aroused the
anger of Henry the Fowler, the great German Emperor,
who marched to the Eyder and compelled the Danish
monarch to pay tribute, and to refrain from persecuting
the Cliristians,

During his protracted absence, the kinoedom seems to
have been well and wisely governed by Queen Thyra,
who is called “ Danebod,” or the * Danes’ hope.” She
erected a wall of defence across the peninsula, north of
the boundary river the Eyder, eight miles in length,
called the Dannevirke. Traces of this great work can
still be found. She possessed also the still higher qnali-
ties of tact and self-control. One storv told about her
will illustrate this. Her two sons, Knut and Harald,
were jealous of each other. The elder one, Knut, was
the father's favourite. Gorm swore an oath that he
would put to death any one who should attempt the life
of his first-born son, or even who should tell him that he
had died. The news came that he had been drowned
while bathing off the coast of England, and hints of further
foul play—of a wound caused by an arrow aimed from
his own ship—were not wanting to add to the mystery,

 
HARALD BLAATAND, 63

How was the king to be informed of this event? The
queen and her attendants arrayed themselves in deep
mourning, and the large hall of the palace was hung
round with the emblems of death. The king enters, and
struck by the scene, and by the sorrow and silence of the
gueen, he exclaims, “Surely my son Knut is dead!”
“ You have said it, and not I,” replied the queen; and
thus the threatened vengeance was averted. Gorm died -
at an advanced age about 936 A.D.

He was succeeded by his son Harald Blaatand, or Blue
Tooth. His protracted reign began brilliantly, but, as
so often happens, ended disastrously. We find him
rendering assistance to Richard the Fearless, Duke of Nor-
mandy, and grandson of the great Rollo. Richard's father,
William Longsword. had met his death at the hands of
assassins, Y42 A.D., leaving Richard to take the reins of
government at a very early age, and under very peculiar
ditficulties. The king of France, Louis d’'Outremer, was
watching his opportunity to reunite Normandy to his
dominions, and was assisted by Hugh, Duke of Paris,
father of the future king Hugh Capet. Internal dissen-
sions further weakened the power of the youthful Duke
Richard. To his help the enterprising Harald deter-
mined to come, and he delivered Richard out of immi-
nent peril. He rallied the Normans round his standard,
and utterly defeated Louis, or the Dives, A.p. 945. He
then turned his attention to Norway, and, amid the dis-
tractio s and confusious of that country, assisted Hakon
Jarl to get the supreme power, though he never assumed
the title of king. The story is a confused one, but is
most graphically told in the striking language of Carlyle.
Treachery and murder were the chief instruments by
which at last this Hakon Jarl obtained his power, pro-
mising to pay tribute to Harald Blaatand—a promise very
indifterently performed.

During the reign of Harald Blaatand, the extension
of Christianity was vigorously promoted by Adeldag, a
successor of Anskar in the archbishopric of Hamburg
Three bishoprics were established in Sweden, but the

 
 

66 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. V.

Emperor Otho claimed homage as the secular head of the
church, in virtue of his position as king of Rome, as the
pope was the spiritual head; and in virtue of this claim
he granted charters to those bishops, and freed them from
the payment of all taxes and service to the Danish
crown. Harald determined to resist such a claim, and
seized upon their lands. The second Otho, who succeeded
to.the empire, enforced his claims by arms, defeated the
Danish king in Schleswig, broke through the famous
fortification of the Dannevirke, penetrated into Jut-
land as far as Lymfiord, and extorted a treaty of peace,
according to which both Harald and his son Swen were
baptized, and the bishops were left unmolested. Domestic
troubles intervened. Swen, though baptized a Christian,
was determined to follow in the steps of his grandfather
Gorm. He had been trained up in the family of a reso-
lute pagan named Palnatoke,* by whom he was taught
to despise his father’s faith. This led to an enmity
between Harald and Palnatoke. Respecting this Pal-
natoke, a legend is told by Saxo Grammaticus, which it
is worth while copying:— ‘Nor ought what follows to
be enveloped in silence. Toki (Palnatoke), who had for
some time been in the king's service, had by his deeds, sur-
passing those of his comrades, made enemies of his virtues.
One day, when he had drunk too much, he boasted to those
who sat at the table with him, that his skill in archery
was such, that with the first shot of an arrow he could
hit the smallest apple set on the top of a stick at a con-
siderable distance. His detractors hearing this, lost no
time in conveying what he had said to the king. But the
wickedness of this monarch soon transformed the con-
fidence of the father to the jeopardy of the son, for he
ordered the dearest pledge of his life to stand in place
of the stick, from whom, if the utterer of the boast did
not at his first shot strike down the apple, he should
with his head pay the penalty of having made an idle
boast. The command of the king urged the soldier to

- # ««Palnatoke” is the title of one of Ochenschliger’s numerous
and splendid dramas,

 
 

PALNATOKE, THE WILLIAM TELL OF NORWAY. 67

‘do this, which was so much more than he had under-
taken, the detracting artifices of the others having taken
advantage of words spoken when he was hardly sober.
As soon as the boy was led forth, Toki carefully admo-
nished him to receive the whir of the arrow as calmly
as possible, with attentive ears, and without moving his
head, less by a slight motion of the body he should
frustrate the experience of his well-tried skill. He also
made him stand with his back towards him, lest he
should be frightened at the sight of the arrow. Then
he drew three arrows from his quiver, and the very first
he shot struck the proposed mark. Toki being asked by
the king why he had taken so many more arrows out of
his quiver, when he was to make but one trial with his
bow: * That I mi:ht avenge on thee,” he replied, ‘the
error of the first, by the points of the others, lest my
innocence might happen to be afilicted, and thy injustice
go unpuuisbed.”’ * No wonder that Palnatoke became
still more embittered against Harald, and he joined the

king’s uunatural son Swen in rebellion, during which, as:

some say, the unhappy king fell by the hands of the
rebel son, Palnatoke standing by, and probably assisting
in the cruel deed. According to one tradition, the aged
Hirald was driven into exile by his rebellious son, and
compelled to take refuge with the very Duke Richard of
Normandy, whom, in earlier and more prosperous years,
he had befriended.

Palnatoke founded. or perhaps revived and enlarged,
the tierce brotherhood of Jormsborg, a band of vikingar,
whose one most sacred duty was fighting, a strict
obedience to orders, and never to ask for quarter.
For some years they proved a frightful scourge to all
Christian lands within their reach. They were not finally
extirpated until 1170 A.p. Jor ishorg was situated near
the Lake of Pomerania, on the size of the modern Wollin,

* Gould’s Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 117. See also
other variations of this story from Norwegian history in this
book. raxo wrote in the 12th century. The date of William
Tell’s supposed similar exploit is 1307 A.D,

oo

 
 

 

68 "HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. V

He fell in 985, and Swen Treskaeg, or “Forked Beard,”
succeeded him.

Swen’s first expedition was against Hakon Jarl, who
refused to pay the promised tribute, but Swen’s forces
were defeated. More than once he fell into the hands
of the Jormsborg pirates, who had now become his
bitter enemies, and was only ransomed by very heavy
payments. On the last occasion, we are told, his ransom
was paid by the ladies of Denmark, who sacrificed their
jewels and ornaments, as the treasury was already empty.
In return for this generous act, Swen passed a law that
females should in future succeed by inheritance to a
portion of their father’s property.

The consolidation of the kingly power in Denmark
was producing the same effect that we have already seen
in Norway under Harald Haarfagr. The invasions of
England, which had been suspended for some time, were
renewed. The weakest king of the West-Saxon line
occupied the throne, (Ethelred, the Unready, that is the
man without rede or counsel; and, acting under foolish
advice, he commenced the system of giving money to the
Danes, in the hope of persuading them to go away and
to keep away. In 991, we read of a great invasion by
the Danes, and among the invaders the name of Olaf,
afterwards the famous Olaf Tryggvesson, occurs. The
brave Brihtnoth, alderman of the East-Saxons, met them
in the battle-field. After a gallant resistance, he was
killed, and then the old plan of paying money was again
resorted to. In 994, Swen himself, again accompanied
by this Olaf, who was now king of Norway, headed
another invasion. London was attacked, and the south
coast ravaged. Again money was paid. (Ethelred did,.
Liowever, manage to make a treaty with Olaf, who had
become a Christian, and Olaf promised never to invade
the country again, and faithfully he kept his promise.
Swen remained in the land, continuing his cruel ravages;
and returned to Denmark, leaving some of his army
behind. Then (Ethelred was driven to a deed of which
it is difficult to determine whether its cruelty or its

 

 
 

 

MASSACRE OF DANES IN ENGLAND, 69

folly is the more detestable. On St. Brice’s Day, 13th
November, 1002, he caused all the Danes remaining in
England to be massacred, and among them Gunhild
and her son, the sister and nephew of Swen. Then came
a time of dreadful reprisals. For eleven dreary years
the Danes wasted and desolated the land. Alphege, the
archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by these Danes
at Greenwich, where the church of St. Alphege now
stands.* In 1013 Swen, who had already been in the
land to direct the war of vengeance and had returned
home, now came again with the distinct purpose of con-
quering the country. He achieved his purpose, but in
the following year he died at Gainsborough. The story
of his death is a strange one. He had sent to the priests
of St. Edmund’s Bury demanding a great sum of money,
and ridiculing the idea of St. Edmund, who was martyred
in the ninth century, being a saint at all. If the money
was not forthcoming, he would come and burn the town
and all the folk in it, pluck down the minster to the
ground, and put priests and clerks to death with torture.
“ And Swen the Tyrant gathered together his wise men
and his captains and all his host, and spake unto them
in a like manner. And he sat on a goodly horse at
the head of his host. And while he was yet speaking,
he saw one coming towards him like an armed man,
with a spear in his hand ; but no man saw the armed
man save only Swen the Tyrant. And Swen cried,
¢ Help, help, my soldiers, for lo, the holy King Edmund
cometh against me to slay me.”” So St. Edmund smote
Swen the Tyrant with his spear, so that he fell from his
horse, and died that night in great pain and anguish.
Thus did St. Edmund avenge his minster. }

Swen was succeeded by his more famous and more

*1 cannot refrain from referring to the interesting conversation
between Lanfranc and Anselm, near the close of the century upon
the claims to sanctity which the English people of the day
Pressed on behalf of Alphege. It is given at full length in

aurice’s Medieval Philosophy, p. 94. :

+ Freeman’s Old English History, p. 224.

Ee a a

 

 
 

 

70 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. V.

noble son, Canute the Great. The larger part of the
history of his reign belongs to English rather than to
Danish history, and is particularly distinguished by the
final triumph of Christianity in Denmark. His grand-
father, Harald Blaatand, had given paganism a check.
He had transferred the seat of government from Ledia to
Roskilde, further north in the island of Sj=lland, where
he built a cathedral; this city continued to be the
capital until the seat of government was transferred to
Copenhagen. Swen restored the pagan temples, and
even revived human sacrifices; but Canute (more
correctly Knut) finally removed all the vestiges of pagan
worship, and established Christianity. He was only
fourteen years of age at his father’s death. The kingdom
of Denmark was left to his younger brother Harald; but
at his death in 1018, Canute was chosen king of that
country. One of the most interesting events of this
reign was Canute’s pilgrimage to Rome in the year 1027,
and the striking and beautiful letter he wrote to the
bishops and nobles of England, describing his kind
reception in the Holy City, the splendid presents he had
received, and his successful pleading for the removal of
various tolls and other grievances to which his English and
Danish subjects had been exposed. But the most touch-
ing part of the letter is the expression of his resolution
to rule righteously, and to make compensation for any
wrongs he had done. ¢ Therefore,” he adds, “I beg and
command those to whom I have confided the rule, as
they wish to preserve my friendship, or save their own
souls, to do no injustice either to rich or poor. Let all
persons, whether noble or ignoble, obtain their rights ac-
~ cording to law, from which no deviation shall be allowed,
either from fear of me, or through favour of the powerful,
or for the purpose of supplying my treasury. I have no
need of money raised by injustice.” Though stained by
.some crimes of violence, yet his reign was, especially in
the latter part, fully in harmony with these noble words.
I. died in 1035, being not more than forty years old.
At bis death, one son, Harald, obtained the throne of

 
 

 

FAMILY OF HARALD HAARFAGR. 71

England, and his younger, Hardicanute, the throne of
Denmark. Harald Harefoot, as he was called, soon
died, and the two crowns were united in the person of
Hardicanute, whose drunken habits soon brought his life
to a close, and with him perished the grand designs of
the great Canute. As we shall soon see, for a time Den-
mark and Norway were united under Magnus.

 

CHAPTER VL.

INTRODUCTION AND FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY
IN NORWAY.

Ix spite of the pretty legend of Harald Haarfagr’s vow,
his twelve years of hard fighting, and perhaps still
harder waiting, and at last his reward by gaining the
hand of the beautiful Gyda, it is disappointing to find
he was by no means a constant husband. He seems to
have had at least six other wives, and a large family.
It will be no surprise to learn that his latter days weie
embittered by the ambitions and dissensions of his sons.
He first tried to heal these dissensions by dividing his
large kingdom, assigning a province to each of his sons,
with the title and prerogatives of royalty. This aggra-
vated rather than healed the mischief. He then resolved
to abdicate in favour of one of his sons, Erik, and after
three years’ retirement, died at an advanced age, about
the year 933.

A peculiar incident in his life connects him witi
England. At the age of seventy he had a son, named
Hakon, by a slave taken captive in war, but of noble
birth. One evening, as the story goes, a messenger frou
Athelstan, king of England, entered the banqueting
hall of Harald, and presented to him a magnificent
sword. The king accepted the gift, when to his surprise
the messenger reminded him that by acceptance of the
sword, he had become Athelstan’s man, bound to him by
feudal allegiance. Harald determined not to be outdore,

 
 

2 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. V1.

and in the following summer he sent his little son Hakon,
under the charge of one of his warriors, Hank, to England
with special instructions. Accordingly Hank, attended
by thirty followers, enters the ball of Athelstan, and
places the child upon the king’s knee. In answer to the
natural enquiry as to who he was, and what this strange
proceeding meant, he was told: “This is King Harald’s
son, whom he gives to thee as foster-child.” Athelstan
angrily drew his sword, intending mischief, but Hank
coolly remarked, “Thou hast taken him on thy knee
(common symbol of adoption); thou canst kill him if
thou wilt ; but thou dost not thereby kill all Harald’s
sons,” The king's anger passed off, he accepted the gift,
carefully brought up the child, and from him in due
time the first tidings of Christianity were brought to
Norway. It is more probable that Hakon was sent to
Athelstan as a means of protection from the cruelty of
his half-brother Erik, whose unscrupulous ambition was
probably becoming known to his father. Dr. Freeman is
of opinion that the child, who in after times was always
known as ‘“ Athelstan’s foster,” was not sent to King
Athelstan at all, but to Guthrum, king of East Anglia,
who at the time of his baptism took the additional name
of Athelstan—Guthrum-Athelstan, and that the two
Athelstans have been confounded.* We have, however,
records of intercourse between Harald and King Athel-
stan, and of the interchange of costly presents. On the
death of Harald Haarfagr, his son Erik, who obtained
the ominous nickname of Blod-oxe or Blood-axe, governed
with more severity and cruelty than he had ventured to
do during the three years his father’s life was prolonged.
His wife Gunhilda, was a worthy mate of such a man—
ambitious, violent, and unscrupulous. The family quarrels
deepened into bloodshed and murder, and nearly all Erik’s
immediate relations fell victims to his craft or violence.
At last the people rose in their might, and determined to
rid themselves of such an odious tyrant. They invited

* Freeman's Old English History, p 159.
 

HAEON THE GOOD, - ~~ 73

Hakon, “Athelstan’s foster,” who was now about four-

teen or fifteen years of age, to occupy the throne, Erik
* with his wicked queen, and seven young children, were
compelled to flee. He took refuge in the Orkney Isles,
and renewed his old habits of a sea-rover by committing
_depredations upon the English coast. Athelstan ap-
pointed him king or lord of Northumbria, on the under-
standing that he should accept Christian baptism, and
defend the province from other pirates. But Erik was
not the man to carry out such designs. He carried on
his ravages, was compelled to fight in order to regain
Northumbria, which had been seized by king Edred, and
fell on the battle-field. In spite of his submitting to
Christian baptism, he is represented in one of the last of
the heathen skalds as taking an honoured place at the
feast of Valhalla.

Hakon began to reign in 938 A.p. His reign was a
worthy and honoured sequel to his careful training in
the court of the English king. He was called by his
grateful people Hakon the Good. Nor can we read of
his unwearying efforts to introduce Christianity among
his people, or even to practise it in his own person,
without deep sympathy with him under his peculiar
difficulties and disappointing failures. He endeavcered
to extend and improve the laws of his country, while
in every way to secure the welfare of his people, and
in return they gave him their most loyal obedience
and confidence in every thing save one. His new faith
they could not, they would not accept. At a national
assembly or Thing, held at Trondheim, this zealous
monarch pleaded earnestly with his people that they
would be baptized, acknowledge Jesus Christ the son of
Mary as their Redeemer and God, fast every Friday,
and ‘abstain from work every Sunday. The idea of
fasting one day, and not working on another, was
more than they could submit to, and a very decided
reply int the negative was the only answer the king could
obtain. Once at a Yule-feast it behoved him as king to
drink the Yule-beer in honour of Odin. - The king

 

 

 
 

 

4 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cmap vi,

naturaily hesitated. The murmurs of the people were
rising louder and londer. His uncle, Sigurd Jarl, who
was his ever present and faithful adviser, and who,
though not himself openly a Christian, yet symypathised
with the mouarch’s conscientious scruples, urged him for
peace’s sake to comply with the usual custom, at the
same time so standing that he might shield his nephew
as far as possible rom view, The king raised the cup
to his lips, and hastily made the sign of the cross over:
the hateful draught. The mysterious movement was
noticed, and the demand was somewhat angrily made, —
“ What meant that strange movement of the hand?”
Sigurd quickly advanced. and assured the multitude that
kis nephew was only making the sign of Thor’s hammer !
He then was compelled to eat part of a horse's liver,
which was looked upon as a religious rite; and the
conscience-stricken king retired to his country house to
atone for his inconsistency by acts of’ penance and prayer.
But his retirement was broken in upon by rumours of
war and invasion. Erik, we have seen, died in England,
but his sons had taken refuge in the court of Harald
Blaatand, King of Denmark, who, though professing
Christianity himself, and vigorously extending it in his
own kingdom, did not scruple to help the refugees to
recover the throne of Norway. from which their father
had been ignominiously expelled. The whole of Hakon’s
reign was troubled by these invasions from Denmark.
The people of Norway rallied loyally round the standard
of their king, and would have none of Erik’s family to
rule over them. At last, in 983, the hateful Gunhilda
herself brought over a fleet. King Hakon resisted
Lier gallantly, but in the hour of victory he was mortally
wounded, and prepared to die. Having only one daughter
and no son, Le sent for the sons of Erik, and entreated
them to rule justly, and to spare his friends and kindred,
adding, with touching pathos, * If a longer life be granted
to me, I will go out of this land to Christian men, and
do penance for what 1 have committed against God.”
W Len asked if he wished his body to be sent to England,
 

N

: FTARON JARL, 77 1700 75

to be buried in 1 scordance with the rites of the Church
of England, his pathetic answer was, “ As a heathen I
have lived, as a heathen, and not a Christian, must I be
buried.” His life was not a failure. We rejoice to
believe that he did “ shake the old edifice of heathendom,”
and did * introduce some foundation for the new and
better rule of faith and life among his people.”

Then follows another time of anarchy and confusion,
treason and bloodshed. Harald Graafell, eldest son of
Jorik Blod-oxe and Gunhilda, became the nominal king.
Two of his brothers, and two principal chieftains, Tryggve
and Gudrod, also grandsons of Harald Haarfagr, held
separate governments, and Sigurd Jarl retained an inde-
pendent jurisdiction over the province of Trondheim.
The ambitious and unscrupulous Gunhilda was still
carrying out her deep and hateful designs. She insti-
gated the murder of T'ryggve and Gudrod, and the aged
and noble Sigurd Jarl also fell a victim to her relentless
and intriguing cruelty. But this last and foulest act
bronght its own punishment. The people of Trondheim
would have none to succeed the murdered Sigurd save
his son Hakon, and Graafell was obliged to sanction -
the appointment. Then follow intrigues and civil com--
motions. This Hakon bad little ditliculty in inducing
Harald Blaatand, King of Denmark, to assist in driving
out Graafell. Hakon becomes jarl over several provinces
of Norway, under promise of paying tribute and al-
legiance to Blaatand. By careful watching and waiting
—not without intrigue and murder— Hakon rids himself
of each of his rivals, and, though never assuming the
title of king, he succeeds in throwing off’ his allegiance
to the King of Denmark, and becomes undisputed lord
of the whole of Norway. He was a determined foe of
the Christians, and as good seasons prevailed during his
government, the people did not fail to see in the unbroken
"prosperity a sure proof of the favour of their gods. He
waged a terrible war with the pirates of Jormsborg, and
at the Cape of Stad a battle was fought, in which though
for a long time the issue was doubtful, at last victory was
4

 

76 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VI.

declared for Hakon. Though humbled for a time, these
dread pirates continued for some time longer to spread
terror and devastation in the north of Europe. This
successful war raised Hakon’s popularity to a very high
pitch. As is so often the case, his popularity and pros-
perity worked his ruin. He gave way to unbridled
licentiousness, and brought dishonour and disgrace into
many a home. At last, news of a dangerous rival, one
of the descendants of Harald Haarfagr, is heard of—
fathers and husbands stung by the bitterest and deepest
of human wrongs, rise up in anger—crowd round the
approaching standard of Olaf Tryggveson, and Hakon
Jarl with but one slave attendant is compelled to run
for dear life. But whither? Alas! his heartless and
immoral conduct has closed every heart, every home
against him. The valley to which he first fled still bears
the name of Hakon’s Vale. Perhaps there was one heart
would still be open to his prayers. Thora, a forsaken

~ mistress—might not she have pity on the fallen jarl?

To her villa he repairs. It is his last—his only hope!

His enemies are in hot pursuit. With all a woman's

faithfulness, forgetting all else save her former love,

she receives and shelters the deserted hero, the remorse-
stricken man. But her house, she is sure, would soon
be strictly searched and closely watched. 7%ere he must
not stay. But there 1s one place where surely none
would ever look for a prince—under the pigsty. A
cellar is extemporised, and there, with his attendant
slave, the jarl passed two long and weary days. Then, to
make the story more complete, we are told that his ene-
mies soon arrived, searched high and low, but no traces
of the jarl could they find. Nay, Olaf Tryggveson him-

~ self sat down on the very stone that had been placed at

the entrance to the cellar, and in the hearing of Hakon

and his slave, urged on his followers by promises of

honours and rewards to bring to him the head of thn
wicked Hakon. Fearing treachery from his own slave,
the wretched jarl dare not sleep. The slave, also fearing
treachery, tried to keep awake. At last Hakon was
 

 

ERIK THE RED, 7”

overcome, and the slave swiftly cut off his head, and
hastened to Olaf, longing to receive the promised reward.
But Tryggveson, glad as he was to receive the head of
his foe, detested the treachery of the slave, and ordered
his head to be cut off, and hung up side by side with
Hakon’s.* It is said that towards the end of this reign
(985) the discovery of America (or Vinland) took place.
To an Icelander, Erik the Red, the honour of this dis-
covery belongs. ‘It appears to be certain,” says Carlyle,
in his own quaint fashion, “that from the end of the
tenth century to the early part of the fourteenth, there
was a dim knowledge of those distant shores extant in
the Norse mind, and even some straggling series of visits
thither by roving Norsemen ; though as only danger,
difficulty, and no profit resulted, the visits ceased, and
the whole matter sank into oblivion, and but for the
Icelandic talent of writing on the long winter nights,
would never have been heard of by posterity at all.”

Hakon’s death opened the way for the succession of
Olaf Tryggveson to the whole kingdom of Norway, as
ruled over by Harald Haarfagr. This happened in the
year 996. Hakon was the last of the heathen rulers of
Norway. The hopes, the prayers of the first Hakon are
fulfilled at last.

We have already mentioned the name of Olaf Trygg-
veson in connection with the Danish invasions of
England. We must now give a fuller account of him.
He was the son of Tryggve, grandson of Harald
Haarfagr, who held a separate government during the
reign of Harald Graafell, and was one of the many
victims of the intriguing and ambitious Gunhilda. Olaf
was not born until after his father’s death, and his early
years were passed amid circumstances of want and peril,

* ¢Hakon Jarl” is the title of another of Oechenschliger’s
dramas. The scene of the meeting of Hakon and Thora forms a
prominent feature, and other circumstances are interwoven so as
to heighten the dramatic interest. Some idea of the power and
beauty of the production may be gathered from a very spirited
translation in vol. ii. of Howitt’s interesting work on the Litera-
ture and Romance of the North. /

 
 

i8 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VI.

and even sla =~— “or some years, pursned by the unresting
hate of “i, mather’s mur I rer, Ganhilda. In early man-
~2% he became one of the most daring vikingar of his
time, In the pursuit of his profession he seems to have
~ travelled far and wide, and visited not only England and
the Hebrides, but northern Germany, Russia, and, ac-
cording to his biographers, Greece and Constantinople,
During one of his voyages he visited the Scilly Islands
(or, as "Mr. Worsaae suggests, the Skellig Isles, on the
S.W. coast of Ireland. on one of which there was at that
time a celebrated abbey),* where he received Christian
baptism. So far as his hatred of paganism went, there
could be no doubt of his Christianity, but his method of
extending and enforcing his new doctrine partook far
more of the spirit of Odin than of Christ. He remained
for some time in England and Ireland, baving married
an Irish princess. The fame of his exploits had reached
Hakon Jarl, who soon divined a dangerous rival in that
famous sea-rover. He attempted by craft to get him
into his power, but his stratagems recoiled on his own
head. Olaf was induced to come to Norway, just at the
time when the chiefs and people were rising in arms
against Hakon Jarl, and as a descendant of Haarfagr

~ Olaf was at once called to the throne by the unanimous
voice of the people at a general Thing held at Drontheim,
995 A.p. His short reign of five years was one continued
struggle against paganism. Every heathen idol or temple
that he could reach was destroyed. Those who accepted .
the new faith were honoured; those who did not were
mutilated, banished, or even killed. In the southern part
of his dominions his strong measures produced at least
outward compliance. In the north he encountered a
~ stronger resistance. One instance of the way in which
the resistance was met may suffice as a specimen of the
conversions which he affected. He resolved to make a
feint of submission. A midsummer sacrifice was to take
place at Maere, the site of an ancient temple in the
Drontheim district. Thither the great chiefs and bonders

+ Worsaae’s Danes and Northmen, p. 333.

 

 
 

OLAF TRYGGVESON, 79

(peasants) repaired. Olaf ordered a great feast to be
prepared at Lade, where the mead-cup circulated freely.
As he was about to renew the practice of offering sacri-
fices, he informed his guests he should at once offer the
highest and the best, viz., human sacrifice,—not, as was
usual, captives or malefactors, but the greatest men of
the land; and he at once ordered eleven of the chiefs
before him to be seized. Under such circumstances they
preferred the milder alternative of baptism, but they
were not permitted to leave until they had placed
sufficient hostages in the king's hands. Iceland, too,
was the scene of his missionary zeal. He sent over there
Thangbrand, a priest from Saxony, whose system of con-
version was somewhat similar to that of his royal master.
One or two chiefs submitted, but the skalds lampooned
him, and two of them were killed by the enraged Thang-
brand. He returned to Olaf to announce his failure.
The king then sent a man of a milder temperament,
Thormod, who gained a greater success, and Christianity
was adopted at Thingvalla by the general Thing of Ice-
land.

“ By unwearied industry of this and better kinds,” says
Carlyle, “ Tryggveson had trampled down idolatry, so far
as form went—how far in substance may be greatly
doubted. But it is to be remembered withal, that always
on the back of these compulsory adventures there fol-
lowed English bishops, priests, and preachers; whereby
to the open-minded, conviction, to all degrees of it, was
attainable, while silence or passivity became the duty or
necessity of the unconvinced party.”

Olaf’s matrimonial adventures were numerous and
somewhat romantic, and were sadly at variance with his
principles and profession as a Christian, He had made
overtures of marriage to Sigrid, Queen-dowager of Sweden,
a proud imperious woman. Matters were progressing
favourably, until the one essential condition was proposed
by Olaf—the absolute renunciation of paganism, and the
adoption of Christianity. This was absolutely refused,
and angry words ensued. Sigrid became his bitter foe,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

80° HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Vi.

and married Sven, King of Denmark, the future conqueror
of England. Olaf married Thyra, Sven's sister, without
asking her father’s consent. A deadly feud sprung up
between the two monarchs—Sven being urged to ex-
tremities by his imperious wife, Sigrid, who had not
forgotten her altercation with Olaf. War ensued. Sven
was joined by the King of Sweden, and by Jarl Erik,
one of the sons of Jakon Harl, and Olaf Tryggveson, for-
saken by many of his subjects, who disliked his high-
handed efforts to force Christianity upon them, was
defeated in a great sea-fight at Svold on the Pomeranian

coast. The dauntless king, unable to resist such a great -
confederacy, and determined not to fall into the hands of

his enemies, jumped overboard, “and sank in the deep

waters to his long rest.” His widow, Thyra, refusing to

survive her beloved Olaf, starved herself to death.

Olaf’s strength, agility, and personal beauty were
the theme of the admiration of the skalds, of whom he
was a munificent patron. He encouraged the art of ship-
building, and founded the city of Nidaros, at the mouth
of the river Nid, which afterwards took and still retains
the name of Trondheim, from the name of the province
of which it is the capital. We are not surprised to hear
that the belief lingered for some time that he had saved
himself by swimming. According to his two Icelandic
biographers, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and after
many years died in the Holy Land. But he ¢ was never
seen in Norseland more.” The date of his death is put
down at 1000 A.D.

The conquerors, Svend of Denmark, Olaf of Sweden,
with Erik and Svend, sons of Hakon Jarl, as governors,
divided the kingdom among them, and seemed to have
ruled justly for fourteen years. During this period
Christianity made slow progress, but its followers were
left unmolested.

In 1015, Olaf, son of Harald Greenske, a cousin of Olaf
Tryggveson, and titular king over some district of Nor-
way, freed the country from her many rulers. His name
has been immortalised as Olaf the Saint. But, like his
>

 

OLAF THE SAINT. 81

predecessor Tryggveson, he relied chiefly upon force and
compulsion as the means by which the new faith was to
be spread. He seems to have been a conscientious Chris-

tian, but he could not readily shake oft the old habits of 3

bloodshed and self-indulgence. The viking—as he too had
been in his earlier days— was scarcely likely to be entirely
transformed into our ideal of a true servant of Christ.
Canute the Great, not content with England and Den.
mark, could not forget that his father Sven of the Forked
Beard had conquered Norway. He therefore sent to
claim tribute from Olaf as a proof of allegiance. This
Olaf indignantly refused. By a profuse distribution of
money among the Norwegians, who were disaffected on
account of Olaf’s violent zeal in his efforts to spread
Christianity, Canute succeeded in weakening Olaf’s hold
upon his people. Olaf for a time went into exile, but,
ever hankering after his country, he made one more
attempt, and fell in the battlefield at Stiklestad in 1030.
His death wrought a change in the affections of the
people. When too late, they recognised the stern justice
and unbending vighteousness of his rule; he became the
patron saint; pilgrims flocked to his tomb, where miracles
were recorded of him, and his name was handed down
among the benefactors of his kingdom. Odinism was a
dying faith. Schools and monasteries arose ; the monks,
the highest representatives of existing civilization, spread
a knowledge of agriculture; new industries were formed ;
and the profession of viking was soon a thing of the past.

Canute now became undisputed sovereign of Norway,

but the weight of his vast empire was already as heavy
as he could bear, and he placed Lis illegitimate son Sven
over the conquered country. But he never secured a
firm footing in the land. His only support was the power
of the great Canute, and when he died at an early age in
England, the hearts of all Norway turned to a surviving
son of the sainted Olaf. This son was illegitimate—

which was scarcely considered a stain in those days of]

at least, imperfect Christianity. The origin of his strange
Latin name, Magnus, is suggestive. At birth the child

 

 

 

 
 

82 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. v1.

was very weakly, scarcely likely to live. Baptism was
an immediate necessity, but what name should the child
receive? Olaf was asleep; none dare to awaken him.
The crisis was serious. At last, Sigvat, an Icelandic
skald, declared he preferred the responsibility of giving
a name to the child, rather than awaken the sleeping
monarch. The child shall be called Magnus. On the
morrow the king was somewhat incensed at such a liberty
being taken without consultation with him, but Sigvat
appeased his anger by reminding him that he was named
after the great Emperor Charlemagne, the greatest of
mankind. Thus, the strange name Magnus received an
honoured place among the names of the Northmen, which
it retains even to this day.

Magnus had accompanied his father into exile, and
was hospitably entertained by the grand prince of Russia.
Learning how matters were advancing in Sweden he
resolved to return, and received a hearty welcome. Sven
found it hopeless to resist, and he fled into Denmark,
wheve he died that same year, 1035, in which year his
father Canute the Great also died. Harda-Canute, his
son, claimed the crown of Norway, but hostilities were
prevented by the peculiar arrangement that if either he
or Mugnus died without children, his kingdom should go
to the survivor. Magnus, during his short reign, proved
himself a wise and noble king. He gave to his people
the first book of written laws, and finally extinguished
the Jormsborg pirates, the last and most desperate repre-
sentatives of vikingism. The death of Hardacanute in
England, through intemperance, in 1042, without issue,
enabled Magnus to ascend the throne of Denmark,
according to the treaty. His reputation as the son of
Saint Olaf, and his own high reputation, secured him a
cordial welcome among the Danes. But disaffection soon
began to spread. Probably dislike to a foreign ruler or
dissatisfaction with his strict and upright rule, or
sympathy with the old line of kings, prompted this dis-
affection. Another Sven, nephew of the great Canute,
asserted his claims to the crown. He had been taking
 

 

MAGNUS THE GOOD. 83

refuge in the court of the Swedish king, and Magnus,

with a somewhat rare and perhaps imprudent mag-

nanimity, appointed him jarl of Denmark. In return for

such noble confidence he revolted ; and though he was

never able to succeed during the lifetime of Magnus, he
did eventually secure the throne, and became the sire of

a long race of kings. Another competitor came forward,
but he claimed the throne of Norway—Harald, familiar
in English history as Harald Hardrada, or the Severe.

He was a relation of Olaf the Saint. He had wandered

far and wide, and became captain of the Veeringar, the

body-guard of the Emperor of Constantinople. Innu--

merable adventures are related of him, and strange
romances, as one notable result of which he became
immensely rich. Instead of plunging into war, for which
Magnus was eagerly preparing, they had recourse to policy,
and an arrangement was made by which Magnus should

yield half of his Norwegian kingdom and Harald half of
his treasures; and, strange to suy, the compact was.

honourably and pleasantly carried out, until the death of
Magnus in the following year. This noble-minded Magnus
died in 1047, being killed in a battle with the ungrateful
Sven, whom, with his last breath, he begged his people
to accept as king of Denmark, while Harald Hardrada
succeeded to the undivided throne of Norway, Few

kings have more richly deserved the title by which he

is still remembered and honoured in the north—Magnus

the Good. Sigvat’s choice of a name had been amply

justified.

 

CHAPTER VIL
ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN SWEDEN—HISTORY

OF DENMARK TO THE ACCESSION OF VALDEMAR THE

GREAT, 1157 A.D.
Section 1.

THE confusion of Swedish history from the eighth to the
tenth century is very great. The names of the sovereigns =

i

 

 

 

 

 

 
84 HISTORY. OF NORWAY: AND SWEDEN. [cmar. vir,

of the two principal tribes, the Svea or Swedes and Goths,
are hopelessly mixed up, and sometimes the successors of
Olaf Treetilge in Vermeland are joined with them. It
seems clear that Erik IV., surnamed the Victorious,
gained the sovereignty of the whole country, but the
annals of his reign are brief and obscure. He began to
reign about the middie of the tenth century, and died
993 A.p. There is a doubtiul story of his driving Sven
of the Forked Beard out of his kingdom, and having
Denmark under his power for a time. His wife was that
Sigrid to whom Olaf Tryggveson afterwards made over-
tures of marriage with somewhat sad results. Erik found
her unmanageable, and abandoned her. Harald Greenske,
father of Olaf the Saint, and another king from Russia
were suitors for her hand after her divorce from Erik,
and they wet at the same time at her palace. She plied
them well with mead and ale, and sent them off for the
night. She set tire to the hall where they slept, and
burned them to death. ‘For thus,” she said, “she would
teach petty kings to come making love to her!”

Eric was succeeded by Olaf the Lap-king, so called
because, like our Henry VI, he was but an infant in
arms when he received the homage of his people. He
was the first Christian king of Sweden, being instructed
in the faith by Siegved of York, and publicly baptized
about the vear 1000 A.D. He inherited much of the
imperions disposition of his mother Sigrid, and did not
scruple to be guilty of falsehood to carry ont his wishes.
His reign was marked by continual quarrels with Olaf
the Saint. However, finding himself compelled by the
very plain-spoken remonstrances of his people, as ex-
pressed by Thorgny, a venerable expounder of the law,
the Lap-king reluctantly consented to give his daughter
Ingegard to the Norwegian king, Olaf the Saint, in
marriage. But he tried to evade his solemn promise,
and sent the lady to Russia to marry the Grand Duke.
Saint Olaf was naturally angry, but he was persuaded to
take another daughter, Astrid, whose illegitimacy was
not considered any very important barrier to the union,

 

<<
 

 

~~ CHRISTIANITY SETTLED IN SWEDEN. 83

This act of deceit roused the indignation of the peasants,
and Olaf the Lap-king was compelled to admit his son
Anund as joint-king. After Anund’s death his brother
Emund, surnamed Gammal, or the Old, reigned for a short
time, Little is known of him, but that little shows us
he was unpopular. He showed no zeal for Christianity,
and it is said he even allowed persecution. The probable
date of his death is 1055 A.p., leaving no issue. :

As was too often the case, the appointment of a new
sovereign revealed the divided state of the kingdam ; the
Swedes chose Stenkil, the Goths Hako the Red, for their
respective kings. However, an arrangement was made
by which the kingdom of the one who died first should
revert to the survivor, and thus, by Hako’s earlier death,
Stenkil became king of the whole country. During his
reign Christians and pagans continued to live together in
mutual toleration. Stenkil was celebrated for his gigantic
size and strength, but in disposition he was mild and
gentle. From his death in 1066, for upwards of half a
century, a period of confusion, d’sunion, and anarchy
prevailed, during which Christianity was well nigh ex-
tinguished.

In 1135 (or, according to another authority, 1148, such
is the prevailing confusion) Sverker Karlsson was called
to the throne, He built churches and monasteries, and
invited the monks of St. Bernard from Clairvaux to take
charge of them. Cardinal Nicholaus Albinensis* was
sent over by the pope to arrange for the establishment of
a hierarchy in Sweden, under full and independent epis-
copal supervision ; but though the mutual jealousies of
the Swedes and Goths prevented the carrying out of this
design, the cardinal did secure the payment of Peter's
pence to the pope, as the first public acknowledgment of
the union with Rome. This tax was sanctioned, 1153
A.D., at the first synod ever held in the country.

From this time Christianity may be considered as
finally established in the land. Sverker’s advancing
* Nicholas Breakspear, afterwards Adrian IV., the only Eng-
 

86 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VIL

years were sadly troubled by the licentious conduct of his
eldest son, Prince Johan, and the supposed indulgence of
his father towards the vices of the son aroused an angry
feeling among the people. The gross and shameless con-
duct of this prince towards the governor of the Danish
province of Halland, in the south of Sweden, brought
upon the troubled land the wrath of the King of Den-
mark, whoinvaded the country. The aged and unwarlike
king left the inhabitants of Smaaland to meet the inva-
sion as best they could. Though by their unyielding
courage they drove back the invader, the feeling of dis-
content ripened so rapidly that the aged king was mur-
dered while on his way to early service at Tolestad’s
Church, on the morning of Christmas-day, 1155.

After the usual display of rivalry between the Swedes
and Goths, Erik, known as Erik the Saint, obtained the
throne. The Sagas tell us that his great desire was to
carry out three resolves: “To build churches and to
improve the services of religion, to rule his people accord-
ing to law and right, and to overpower the enemies of his
faith and realm.” He succeeded in founding an archi-
episcopal see at Old Upsala, and appointed Henrik as the
first archbishop. He compiled a code of laws, and earned
the gratitude of the women in Sweden by the laws which
he passed in their favour, securing to them many rights
which they had hitherto been denied, giving to the wife
equal power with the husband “over locks, bolts, and
bars,” and granting her one-third of his substance after
his death. Assisted by his warlike prelate, Archbishop
Henrik, he subdued Finland, not without the exhibition *
of excessive severity and ferocity, and for a long time
that land remained united to Sweden. But his short
reign was terminated by an attack of a Danish prince,
Magnus Henrikson, who laid some sort of a claim to the
Swedish throne. He made a sudden attack upon Upsala
while the pious monarch was at church. Though warned
of the approach of Magnus, he refused to leave until the
service was ended. He rushed out, fought manfully, but
was stricken down by the invaders and killed, 1160 A.D,

 
 

 

RISE" OF THE CLERGY. 87

Though never actually canonised, his memory was held in
the highest reverence by his sorrowing people, and he was
recognised as the patron saint of the kingdom. His arms
were emblazoned on the national flag, and his figure still
appears on the banner and seal of the city of Stockholm.

This Erik had been chosen by the Bondar, or peasant
freemen. Though a cousin of the preceding King
Sverker, his father belonged to that class, and now for
about a century the throne was occupied either by one
of the Bondar race or one of the Sverker line. Murder
was the chief means by which the one race superseded
the other, and thus dissension and anarchy again pre-
vailed. During these dark and disordered times the
clergy increased in power, and the monks were busily
carrying on their silent but beneficent work of tilling the
ground, improving agriculture, planting and cultivating
gardens, building water-mills, and making roads and
bridges. These men, of some of whom the memory long
lingered as the true benefactors of the land, were the
only makers of history. Their names generally are
unknown, but their works still remain, while of kings
and courts history is wisely silent. The tale would only
be one of violence and bloodshed. :

Erik Knutsson, who reigned from 1210 to 1216, was
the first king of Sweden who was crowned, as hitherto
“they had only been proclaimed. He is further remarkable
as having died a natural death. After an interval of six
years his son, Erik Lespe, or the Halt, obtained the
throne. = He was wise and prudent, but these high qua-
lities id not suffice to secure him an untroubled reign.
More than once he was compelled to take refuge in
‘Denmark with his mother’s kinsmen. A new and power-
ful family, the Volkingar family, were rapidly rising into
power, and one of them Erik was obliged to appoint jarl
of the Swedes and Goths. This Jarl Berjer gained the
goodwill of the clergy, especially by his crusade against
the Finns, who had relapsed into idolatry; and before
his return King Erik died, not without suspicion of
poison, in 1250. He was the last of the Bondar race.

 
 

88 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. CHAP. VH,

Section 2.

We have seen how Sven, nephew of Canute the Great,
had succeeded to the throne of Denmark at the death of
‘Magnus in 1047. He is known by the name of Sven
Estridsen. His father’s name was Jarl Ulf, and we
should have expected the son to call himself Ulfsen (or
in Swedish, Ulfson). Though UM was related to the
royal family of Norway, his mother, Estrid, the sister of
the great Canute, was of higher rank, and therefore her
name is adopted as a surname.

Sven’s licentious habits forbid us to speak of him as
a good man, but he was an able ruler, and a muniticent
friend to the church. He founded and endowed new
“bishoprics. ==

His reign was a troubled one. Harold Hardrada, who
had succeeded to the throne of Norway, laid claim to
that of Denmark too, and for seventeen years harassed
‘the unhappy Danes, and sometimes put the king to very
serious peril. At last, happily for Denmark, Harold
was tempted to lead an expedition into England to assist

Tosti, who had broken out into rebellion against his
brother, the English Harold. Xing Harold fell un-
expectedly upon the rebels, and at the well-known battle
of Stamford Bridge, Tosti and Harold Hardrada were
slain on September 25, 1066. The victorious Harold
hastened to the south to meet his own death on the fatal
field of Hastings, on the 14th of the following month.

~ Sven, who was not personally distinguished for bravery,
sent out an expedition to England in 1069, to assist
some English rebels who were seeking to free themselves
from the heavy hand of William the Conqueror. They
carried York by assault, and burnt the cathedral. The

Archbishop Aldred is said to have died “of very grief

~ and anguish of mind” at the news of their approach.
~ But the Danish fleet was compelled to return home.

This was the last of the Danish attempts upon England.

In 1075 Canute, second son of this Sven prepared a large

fleet, intending to make a descent upon England, and

 
 

_ SVEN ESTRIDSEN, 89

William made great preparations for defence. hut a
quarrel arising between Canute and a brother of his, the
expedition never started.

Sven sought the society of bishops and churchmen,
and one of his most intimate friends was an Englishman
named William, bishop of Roeskilde, which was now the
capital of the country. On one new-year's eve the ser-
vants in the palace had been merry-making, and indulged
somewhat freely in remarks about their master, of no
very complimentary nature. As usual, the sting of these
remarks lay in useir truth. Sven, overhearing these
words, commanded the olfenders to be put to death while
they were at matins in the cathedral on the following
morning. On the next day, he proceeded as usual to the
church, when Bishop William, putting his crozier across
the door. forbade his entrance as one unworthy to enter
while stained with the blood of his fellow-creatures,
His attendants threatened force, but the conscience-
stricken king forbade them, and returned to his house to
exchange his royal robes for the dress of a penitent.
- After three days he presented himself as a penitent
before the gates, and the bishop receiving his confes-
sion permitted him to join the service. But yet he had
to make a public confession of his crime, and to make
full compensation to the families of the murdered men
before he could receive full absolution. Another of
his friends was Adam of Bremen, canon of the cathe-
dral there, whose chirouicle, much of which was received
from the king's own mouth, has preserved to us a
very life-like picture of the times, and gives us much
information about the habits and customs of the Danes,”
which otherwise we should not have known, Sven died
in 1076.

He left behind him a large family of illegitimate chil-
dren, tive of whom in succession occupied the throne
of Denmark. Their reigns are devoid of any interest
beyond that arising from deeds of violence and murder.
. They will not detain us long. :
Next came Harald Hen, or the Gentle. Ie abolished

 
 

 

 

 

90 _ HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VIL

the judicial combat, and substituted purgation by oath.

He only reigned four gears, and died in 1080.

He was succeeded by his brother Canute, a man of much

~ more active and warlike tendencies than his brother.

Vigour marked every branch of his administration, but it
was not always tempered by justice. He put down pirates
with a very strong hand, but in so doing he incurred
the penalty which all rulers must incur who are in
advance of their age. Piracy was looked upon as an
occupation fit for a gentleman, and not to be confounded
for one moment with robbery on land. In his anxiety
to show favour to the bishops and the church, he enforced
the payment of tithes to the clergy, or in case of re-
fusal, of heavy fines, with a severity not at all calculated
to elevate the church in the eyes of the people. No
wonder that disaffection and disloyalty were rife in the
land. Doubtless he wished to do right, and he believed
he was acting for the best interests of his people, but his
zeal was utterly wanting in discretion. In Jutland the
disaffection broke out into indignation, and as the king
was journeying through the land, he was followed by
loud cries of anger and hatred. Passing over to the
island of Fyen, he sought refuge in the church of St.
Alban’s in Odensee. The incensed Jutlanders followed
him, and were joined by the inhabitants of the town.
The church was surrounded ; the doors were burst open,
and in rushed the angry crowd. His brothers Benedict
and Erik stood ready to defend him, as he knelt before
the altar. Benedict was cut down, and the monarch,
struck by a spear, fell dead before the altar. Erik made
his escape, and lived afterwards to ascend the throne.
The clergy obtained for the murdered king, whom they

~ called the proto-martyr of Denmark, the honours of

canonization, and he became the patron saint of Denmark.
It is a sad concidence that his only son Karl, a mere
infant, afterwards met with precisely the same fate, at
about the same age, in the church of Our Lady at Bruges

in the year 1127. The date of Canute’s death is 1080.

The next king is known by the unpleasant name of

 
 

ERIK EJEGOD. 01

Olaf-Hunger. At the time he was a prisoner in Flanders,
but the Danes paid a heavy ransom for him, and after
some little trouble he was enabled to return to his own
country. He reigned nine years. Bad seasons followed
each other in succession, and produced a terrible famine
in the land—hence his surname of Hunger. The clergy
attributed these disasters to the anger of heaven at the
unrighteous murder of Canute, and unhappily the king
instead of trying what he could do to alleviate the suffer-
ings of his people, spent his time in luxurious indulgence,
and kept up more state than any of his predecessors.
He died in 1095.
Next came Erik, who from his personal beauty was sur-
named Ejegod or “ Good for the eyes,” who had escaped
from the church where his brother Canute was murdered.
He possessed higher qualifications than mere beauty. He
was possessed of great strength, and was skilled in all
the arts dear to the Norsemen of riding, steering, hurling
the spear, playing the harp, or composing verses. He
was an accomplished linguist, and in his conduct towards
his subjects he was genial and friendly. He subdued
the Wends and other Pagan pirates who had for a long
time harassed the Danes. He also secured the eccle-
siastical independence of the church by obtaining from
the pope permission to raise the see of Sund to an arch-
bishopric. Hitherto the archbishop of Bremen had
exercised spiritual jurisdiction over the country. He
had secured this great boon, as also the canonization of
his brother Canute, in his first pilgrimage to Rome. In
the seventh year of his reign, he resolved, against the
strong remonstrances of his people, to make a second
pilgrimage, and to extend it to Jerusalem. The reason
of this resolution is not quite clear. He set out never
to return, and in 1103 he died in Cyprus. His queen
came within sight of the gates of the Holy City, when
she too died.
The fifth son of Sven Estridsen—Niels or Nicholas,
then succeeded. He reigned from 1104 to 1134; but he
was a weak and feeble ruler, and the country enjoyed

 
 

 

92 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN, (CHAP. VIL

but little peace or prosperity under his sway. The chief
interest of his reign centres in Canute the son of Erik
Ejegod, whom Niels appointed as chief lord of Slesvig or
South Jutland, as he was himself incapable of keeping it
free from pirates. Canute proved himself a wise and
valiant ruler, and he was appointed king of the Obotrites
or western tribes of the Sclavonic nation. He seems to
have obtained this honour from the Emperor of Germany
as a reward for his defence of the lands of Holstein,
adjoining Sleswig, from the Wend pirates, who had re-
sumed their attacks. But he was equally great in works
of peace. He encouraged agriculture, built mills, invited
mechanics from Germany to teach his warlike people the
noble art of peace. He was one of the allest and most
beneficent rulers of his age. Canute’s success, however,
roused the jealousy of the weak Niels and his impetuous
son Magnus. This latter prince suspected very strongly
that, in case of his father’s death, his claims to the throne
would have to give way to those of his more brilliant
cousin. However, these feelings were carefully concealed
under the disguise of courtesy and good fellowship.
Canute was invited to spend the Yule-tide at Roeskilde.
Conscious of no evil design himself, he believed others
as honourable and noble as himself, and he went without
suspicion. Right heartily was he welcomed, and right
nobly treated. He bade a friendly farewell, and set off
on his journey homeward. Prince Magnus accompanied
him on some pretence with an armed retinue, and while
halting in a wood near Ringsted, he fell upon the unsus-
pecting Canute and killed him. Such was the disgrace-
ful end of the noble and honoured Canute Lavard
or Lord.

But the deed brought with it a righteous retribution.
Canute’s brother, Erik Emun, appealed to the people at
the great Thing for assistance to avenge his brother's
fate. This was willingly granted, for Canute had been
dearly loved. Erik ue; the king's army at Fodevig, in
‘Skaania, early in 1134, where the wretched Maguus and
a large number of priests and bishops were slain. King

 
 

ANARCAY IN DENMARK, 93

“Niels escaped, and in his despair hurried to the very place,

Sleswig, where Canute had lived, and where his worth
was best known and appreciated. When the con-
temptible Niels was reminded of his danger, he laugh-
ingly replied, “It would be a shame if Sven Estridsen’s
son should have a fear of cobblers and brewers.” But
he soon learnt that cobblers and brewers could avenge
such a foul murder as that of their beloved prince, and
in proof thereof they assassinated the monarch, and those
who had followed in his train. Thus, in 1134, the last
of Sven Estridsen’s sons met his death about sixty years
after the death of his father.

Then follows another episode of anarchy and blood-
shed. Erik, brother of Canute Lavard, succeeds to the
vacant throne. He showed his bravery by keeping his
country free from the attacks of the Wend pirates, but
he also showed his cruelty by ordering his brother Harold
and all his sons to be murdered. The youngest Olaf
escaped in a peasant’s dress into Sweden. The career of
Erik was speedily terminated by assassination in 1137.

Three candidates then came forward for the crown,
Canute, son of Magnus, and grandson of Niels; Sven, a
natural son of the last king; and Valdemar, the son of
Canute Lavard. None were thought old enough, so the
choice fell on Erik the Lamb, a grandson of Erik Ejegod.
His surname fitly represents his character. Olaf, whose
escape we have just mentioned, claimed the crown, but
ater some alternation of fortune he was slain (1143).
But the cloister was more suitable to the tastes and
“character of the king than the throne, and at last, after
dragging on under the weary burden of royalty for ten
years, he found more congenial rest in the cloister of
Odensee, where he lived a short time in pious and, we
trust, happy retirement. The three candidates again
‘came forward, and Canute and Sven were both chosen,
~ As the natural result a civil war broke out which deso-

“lated the land for ten long wretched years. Canute was
assassinated in 1156 by order of Sven, when joining in
a festival which was supposed to ratify a treaty of peace

 
 

hd

SI HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VIL

and friendship. In the following year Sven being com-
pelled to flee from the battle-field, near Viborg, in an
engagement with Valdemar, was overtaken in a morass
and beheaded, and thus the way was opened for Valde-
mar’s accession to the throne. Here at last we have
reached a crisis in the history of Denmark, which happily
inaugurates a new and better era; here then we pause,
and return to the affairs of Norway.

CHAPTER VIII
NORWAY FROM 1066 TO THE UNION WITH DENMARK.

HaroLp HARDRADA, who succeeded to the throne of
Norway at the death of Magnus in 1047, met his death,
as we have seen, at Stamford Bridge, in Yorkshire, in
1066. His son, Olaf, known as Olaf Kyrre, or the
Peaceful, had accompanied his father on his fatal expedi-
tion to England, and was left in charge of the ships while
the army advanced to meet the English Harold. It is
said that Harold, after the victory, allowed Olaf, with
the jarl of Orkney, to depart upon giving a promise that
they would maintain faith and friendship with England.
The bloodshed of the day is also said to have taught the
youthful Olaf the horrors of war, and to have secured a
period of rest for his country under his gentle and peace-
ful reign. He thought more of his people's comfort than
of martial glory. He introduced glass, and the use of
chimneys ; he established commercial guilds, and an em-
porium at Bergen, for the increase of trade; and, best of
all, he paved the way for the abolition of serfdom, by per-
suading the Thing to pass a law that in each district one
serf should be set free every year. He was also a
generous patron of the church, and commenced the
building of the stone cathedral at Trondheim. He died
in 1093.

He was succeeded by his son, Magnus Barfod. Hako,

 

 
 

MAGNUS BARFOD. 5% 95

a nephew of the late king, disputed his right, and was
acknowledged in the northern provinces, But his death
soon left Magnus in sole possession,

Magnus possessed the restless warlike disposition of
his grandfather, Harold Hardrada, rather than the pacific
one of his father. The jarls of the Scottish islands had
thrown off their allegiance to Norway, and Magnus at
once fitted up an expedition and sailed forth to reduce
them to subjection. The rebellious jarls were sent home
as prisoners, and Sigurd, son of Magnus, was left in
charge of the government, or even as first king of the
Suderder (Southern Isles, now called Sodor). Magnus
wasted Sutherland, and advanced to the Hebrides, the
Isle of Man and Anglesea, all of which were subdued.
He visited Iona, and showed great veneration for the
memory of its great saint, Columba, It was during these
visits to the Western Isles that he adopted the Scotch
costume of kilt and tartan, from whence he obtained the
surname of Barfod, or Bare Legs. On his return home,
he had a boundary quarrel with the King of Sweden,
which, after continuing two years with varying success,
was terminated by a treaty, and the marriage of Magnus
to the daughter of the Swedish king. Then came another
expedition to Ireland, where he spent the winter, and
when on the point of returning home, having accom-
plished his object, he was cut off from his ships by a
large band of Irish peasants, and he and all his men
were slain (1103).

The place of his death is uncertain. After his death,
the sovereignty was divided among his three sons.
Sigurd (king of the Suderder) took the southern pro-
vinces, deputing jarls to look after the Scottish Isles.
Eisten reigned in the north at Trondheim, and Olaf took
the central districts. Olaf died while yet a child, in
1116, and Eisten six years later. They ruled wisely and
prudently, but their deaths left Sigurd the king. He is
celebrated in northern chronicles for his adventures in
travel. Having a strange love of adventure, and being by
‘no means averse to a little plundering, and, at the same

 

 
 

96 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. |CHAP, VIII

time, animated with a spirit of devotion, he was prompted
to undertake the jonrney to the Holy Land. On his
return he visited Constantinople, where he was munifi-
cently received by the Emperor Alexins Commenus.
I here is a romantic tradition of the interchance of most
c stly presents between the imperial host and his royal
guest, winding up with the gift on Sigurd’s part of all
bis sixty ships to Alexius, and receiving in return horses
and guides to conduct him homeward. In consequence
of these travels, he received the surname of Jorsalafare,
or the Jerusalem Wanderer, and his fame was recorded
in several Icelandic skalds. He died in 1130, after a
reign of twenty-seven years. He was a firm supporter
of the system of trial by ordeal, especially by th:t of hot
iron, and in a very strange way was this partiality turned
to his own discomfort.

~ Towards the end of his life, a man came to Norway
from Iceland, declaring himself to be an illegitimate son
of Maanus, Sigurd’s father, and calling himself Harald
Gille Magnusson. He appealed to the ordeal to test the
truth of his statement. Sigurd could not consistently
retuse. Nine red-hot ploughshures were laid down, and
the strancer walked with naked feet over them unhurt.
After this doubt was impossible, but Sigurd obtained a
promise that during his lifetime no claim should be made
for anv part of his dominions.

Then, again, as in Denmark and in Sweden, we come
upon another terrible episode of civil war, bloodshed, and.
anarchy. “Th re are reckoned,” says Carlyle, “fiom
the time of Sigurd’s death (a.p. 1130) about a hundred
vears of civil war: no king allowed to distinguish him-
self by a solid reign of well-doing, or by any continuing
reign at all—sometimes as many as four kings simul-
taneously fighting ;—and in Norway, from sire to son,
nothing but sanguinary anarchy, disaster, and bewilder-
ment ; a country sinking steadily as if towards absolute
ruin.”

Magnus succeeded his father, hut Harald Gille soon
put in his claim, Magnus couquers, Harald takes

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

CARDINAL NICITOLAS ALBINENSIS, 97

refuge in Denmark, and the Danish king gives him
assistance. He returns, takes Maguus by surprise. puts
out his eves, and confines him in a monastery. In the
following vear Harald Gilie is himself murdered (1136)
by one Sigurd, who also clai ns to be an illegitimate son
of Magnus Barfod, and another competitor for the throne.
We need not enter into the details of this miserable
period. but rather select a few salient points of interest
or importance. In 1152, we find the Cardinal Nicholas
Albinensis (who, we must not forget, was afterwards
the only English pope, Adrian 1V.), whose embassy to
Sweden has already been described, arrived in Nor-
way. He had two purposes to fulfil, and in both he
succeeded —to restore peace, and to establish an arch-
bishopric. For a time the rival monarchs—brothers—
laid down their arms, and all hailed with joy the estab-
lishmeut of the archbishopric of Trondheim, with a juris-
diction extending over leeland, Greenland, the Faroe
Isles, the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the
Isle of Man. He also obtained the payment of Peter's
pence. Another very important reform was effected by
this able and vigorous prelate. Jn the hopes of putting
a stop to the scenes of violence and of bloodshed which
sometimes disgraced the meetings of the Thing, he induced
the chiefs to promise to attend without arms. But after
his departure for Sweden, the peace between the rival
monarchs was broker, and the old, old scenes of strife
and confusion were renewed.

lu the year 1177 one Sverre, apparently the son of a
brushmaker or smith at Trondheim, came forward as the
leader of the Birke benerne, or “the Birch-legs.” ‘I'hese
men were poor peasants, the most downtrodden race, on
whom the burden of their country’s misery and woe was
pressing most severely, who for sheer want of proper
clothing were compelled to wear sandals or leggings
made of birch bark; as Carlyle truly and graphically
says, “theirs the deport stratum of misery, and the
densest and the heaviest, in this the general misery of
Norway, which had lasted towards the third generation,

 
 

98 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VIIL

and looked as if it would last for ever ; whereupon they
had risen proclaiming, in this furious dumb manner,
unintelligible except to Heaven, that the same could not,
nor would not, be endured any longer!” This Sverre
had been trained for the priesthood, and had therefore
received some education. He gave himself out as an
illegitimate son of one of the kings. Strange dreams, he
asserted, had pointed out to him a high destiny, and his
ambition was by no means averse to accept such flatter-
ing omens. By constant fighting, aided by his fierce
followers, goaded almost to the madness of despair, amid
the most violent alternations of fortune, this strange
adventurer from the Faroe Isles, where he had been
brought up, did actually succeed in 1184 in securing the
homage of the Norwegians, and was crowned at Bergen.
But bis whole reign was one continuous struggle to keep
what he had thus got—struggles with the dignitaries of
the church, by whom he was bitterly opposed for his
having married, and thus broken his priestly vows—for
he had actually been ordained priest—and struggles with
competitors for his throne. At last, though he proved
himself a wise and exemplary ruler, he was unable to do
all the real good that he wished to bis people. He died,
worn out with continual strife and wars, in 1202. But
he founded a new dynasty, under which ultimately the
distracted country enjoyed some return of peace and
prosperity.

In 1297 his grandson Hakon IV. ascended the throne,
at the early age of thirteen. The ‘ Birch-legs,” who
owed so much to their late leader, the great king Sverre,
remained loyal to his grandson during all the troubles
and commotions of the early years of Hakon’s reign.
For upwards of twenty years the young king had to con-
tend with factious parties, with the clergy, and with the
ambitious Jarl Skull, his own father-in-law. But one by
one, all were overcome, and when in 1240 Skull met his
death by violence, having made one supreme effort for
the crown, the long and weary period of civil dissension
came to an end, and under the wise and able government

 

 
 

 

fIARON IV. ICELAND SUBDUED, 99

of one of Norway's noblest rulers, the distracted land
once more was permitted to enjoy the blessings of peace.
“In activity and ability Hakon Hakonson,” says Pro-
fessor Sinding; “holds perhaps the foremost rank of all
the kings of old Norway on record. He improved agrie
culture, enacted judicious laws, erected churches and
cloisters for the promulgation of Christianity, surrounded
the cities of Bergen and Tonsberg with stronger fortifica-
tions, and kept a fleet of three hundred ships of war.”
He was invited by St. Louis of France to join him on a
crusade, and was tempted by the pope with the offer of
the imperial crown if he would help him to subdue
Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen. But he preferred the
claims of duty at home to the more tempting baits of
giory in foreign war. :

Iceland became under his reign a province of Norway.
Since the days of its colonization in the time of Harald
Haarfagr, it bad enjoyed freedom under its more repub-
lican form of government. - But jealousy and rivalry
sprang up and rendered the island an easy prey to the
Norwegian power, in the strong hands of Hakon. Snorro
Sturleson, the distinguished author of the Younger or
Prose Edda, who had amassed great wealth, was at the
head of the island at this time. He had visited Norway,
and was nominated as cup-bearer by Hakon. His conduct
at home had raised enemies round him, and in 1241 he
was murdered in his own house by his sons-in-law. He
had brought down his narrative to the commencement of
the reign of Sverre. Shortly after his death the annexa-
tion to Norway was accomplished.

Alexander IIL, King of Scotland, had naturally been
anxious to annex the Hebrides to his dominions. The
accounts in the chronicles are so contradictory, that it is
not easy to trace the successive steps ; but stories of cruel
incursions of the Thane of Ross were brought to the ears
of the king, and it seemed essential for Hakon either to
surrender these distant dependencies, or to go himself
with a fleet in their defence, which he did in 1261. The
Scotch chronicles affirm that he took Arran and Bure,

 
 

100 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. VIIL

and laid waste the district round Loch Fyne. He then
attempted a landing at the mouth of the Clyde, but when
some of his troops had landed a terrible storm arose, and
drove the fleet out to sea. Those who had landed were
overpowered after a gallant resistance at Largs.

The discomfited king gathered together what remained
of his fleet, and with breaking heart sailed for the Ork-
neys.. Tradition says that the narrow pass between the
Isle of Skye and Lochaish received its present name of
Kyle Akin (Hakon’s Strait) as a memorial of this last
sad voyage of the great monarch. At Kirkwall he was
seized with illness, which terminated his life in the early
spring of 1262. His body was laid in the cathedral of
- St. Magnus, but was afterwards conveyed to Bergen. At
this point we are deprived of the guidance of the power-
ful pen of Carlyle, whose Early Kings of Norway is nob
the least charming or suggestive of his weird-like and
massive productions.

The battle of Largs virtually put an end to the Nor-
wegian rule over the Hebrides. The Norse chronicles
assert that Magnus, Hakon’s successor, sold them to
Alexander for a large sum, but according to the Scottish
account, Magnus was compelled to renounce all further
claims. Magnus and Alexander remained on most
friendly terms during the remainder of their lives, and
Alexander's daughter was married to Erik, the son and
successor of Magnus. The great work achieved by this
monarch was the thorough revision of the laws, whereby
he has gained the honourable surname of ZLaga-bater or
“ Law-betterer.” Though he seems to have been an able
ruler, the prosperity of the country declined, and its
commerce came almost entirely under the control of the
powerful Hanseatic League. Magnus died in 1280.

He was succeeded by Erik, known as Preste-hader, or
the “ Priest-hater,” because he succeeded in defeating the
extravagant claims of the Archbishop of Trondheim to
render the church entirely independent of secular autho-
rity. His reign was a turbulent one, marked by a
succession of quarrels. He had disputes not only with
 

HARON V. : 101

the Church, but with the Hanseatic League, whose trading
rights he had tried to curtail. He offended the clergy
by insisting upon their payment of taxes, and he was
constantly at war with Denmark on account of his
mother’s dowry, which had never been paid, and also on
account of the protection he had given to the murderers
of the Danish monarch, Erik Glipping. His life was
clouded by the death of his daughter Margaret, grand-
daughter of Alexander III. of Scotland, and known to
all readers of English history as “ The Maid of Norway.”
As heiress of the two crowns of Scotland and Norway,
she was on her way to assume the throne of Scotland,
when her death on the voyage opened the way to the
disastrous wars in Scotland during the reign of our
Edward I.

As Erik had no other children, his brother Hakon V.
succeeded to the throne on his death in 1299. He at
once resumed negotiations with Denmark, but it was
not until 1308 that a definite treaty of peace was signed.
Having no sons, his wise rule made him so popular among
his subjects, that he obtained permission to settle the sue-
cession on the ehildren of his daughters. One of his
daughters had married Erik, younger brother of Berger,
King of Sweden, who had been cruelly put to death by the
king his brother. This murder so turned away the hearts
of his subjects that Berger was compelled to abdicate,
and Erik’s young son, Magnus, was called to the throne
of Sweden. This Magnus was also heir to the throne of.
Norway, and on the death of Hakon V. in 1319, he was
accepted by the Norwegians as their king. In 1343
Magnus resigned the Norwegian sceptre to his son
Hakon VI, who, dying in 1330, was succeeded by his

infant son Olaf, under whose reign, as we shall see,
Denmark and Norway were united, and from that time
Norway ceased to be an independent kingdom.

The constant wars between Denmark and Norway had
inflicted severe blows on the growth and prosperity of
Norway. Industry had declined, and the national wealth
bad been squandered in war, The commercial interests

 
 

102 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IX.

of the country were seriously imperilled by the encroach-
ments and monopoly of the Hanseatic League. Hakon
IV., through a mistaken policy, had granted them exclu-
sive privileges. Succeeding kings had released them from
many imposts to which they were liable, and these ex-
tended privileges were used, not for the benefit of the
country, but for their own enrichment. The people were
shut out from commercial enterprise, and thus deprived
of all the healthy and pacific influences which arise from
the development of the commercial spirit. The growing
luxury of the court also exerted a baneful influence upon
the national prosperity. These causes of slow but sure
decline were terribly aggravated by the ravages of pes-
tilence. During the latter half of the fourteenth century,
the fearful plague known as the Black Death ravaged
and desolated the land, checking all agricultural occupa-
tions, and spreading dismay and death on all sides.

 

CHAPTER IX.

DENMARK FROM THE ACCESSION OF VALDEMAR THE
GREAT UNTIL 1259.

IN Chapter VII. we described the scenes of confusion
and bloodshed which were at last—for a time at least—
terminated by the accession of Valdemar in 1157. He
bad already given proofs of his energy and ability, and
it was a source of universal joy to find the reins of
government in such able hands. Nor did this truly
great monarch belie these expectations. When he
came to the throne at the age of twenty-six, he found,
says Otté, “no money, no soldiers, no trade, and no
order in the kingdom. But when he died he left to
his son a flourishing, well-defended, busy, and peaceful
monarchy, to which he had added large tracts of land
on the pagan shores of the Baltic, where the Wends
and KEsthonians had been made to submit to him, and
 

VALDEMAR I. AND THE WENDS. : 103

to receive Christian teachers, and renounce their cruel
heathen practices.”

The Wends were a tribe of sea-rovers extending along
the southern shore of the Baltic, from the Gulf of Fin-
land to the Elbe. As heathens they were peculiarly
hostile to any thing and every thing connected with the
Christian religion, and Danish churches and monasteries
were ruthlessly committed to the flames, and the inmates
mercilessly consigned to slavery. Hemmed in on one
side by the-rapidly-increasing German empire, and on
the other by the vikings of the north, they had long re-
sisted every effort to curb their independence, or to plant
the seeds of Christian civilization. Among the Wends
living on the Continent some few scattered missions had
~ from time to time been established, but they were gene-
rally soon overwhelmed in some sudden outbreak. St.
Vicelin, the apostolic bishop of Oldenburg, had been
more successful than most of his predecessors, but the
warlike and piratic disposition of the people still rendered
them restless and troublesome neighbours to the northern
kingdom. The Island of Rugen was one of the chicf
fortresses and asylums of Sclavonic superstition, and its
chief town, Arcona, situated on the most northern ex-
tremity on chalk cliffs, commanding an extensive view,
was the stronghold of the Wends, containing the temple
of the gigantic four-headed idol Swantevit. Here idola-
trous sacrifices were offered, and feasts were held in
honour of their god, where, as we are told by Saxo, in-
temperance was a virtue, and sobriety a sin, until the
latter half of the twelfth century, nearly six hundred
years after Christianity had been planted in this country
by St. Augustine, and five hundred years since the
Church of England had assumed its existing organization
under the hands of Archbishop Theodore.

Assisted by Absalon, at that time bishop of Roeskilde,
afterwards archbishop of Lund, and primate, Valdemar
determined to subdue these pirate hordes. Expedition
after expedition was fitted out against them with varying
success, till in 1168 Arcona was taken, the idol temple
 

104 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IX.

was destroyed, and to the horror of the inhabitants, the
huge image of Swantevit was thrown down. No native
dared to touch the fallen image, but a few captives and
foreigners were prevailed upon to give them help. Ropes
were attached, and amid some lamentations, not unmixed
with mockery and laughter, it was dragged into the
Danish camp, hewn to pieces, and used as fuel. Other
idols were destroyed in like manner. Churches were
built and maintained at the cost of the zealous bishop,
and one of the last strongholds of European heathenism
became a centre of Christian life and light. Absalon
was no ordinary man. Zealous as a bishop, the chief
adviser of the king in all matters of state, his military
talents were of no mean order, and scenes of martial
enterprise were truly dear to his soul. Anxious to shield
his flock from the attacks of pirates, he caused some huts
to be erected on the more exposed parts of the coast, and
in one of these he lived himself, always ready to take
the lead in any fray. One Palm Sunday he was told of
the arrival of a pirate band, and putting aside mitre and
crozier, and his ecclesiastical vestments, he hastily armed
his choristers and vassals, and coming suddenly upon the
foe, drove them in confusion to their ships.
We can well believe the story that he was descended
from Palnatoke, the famous founder of the Jormsborg
os vikingar. He was, as we have seen, a zealous bishop,
and a generous patron of letters. It was owing to his
patronage that Saxo Grammaticus was enabled to write
his Dauish history. He promoted schools, but his great
fault—too often the fault of strong-willed masterful
minds—was a want of proper consideration for those in
humbler station, and thus we find that to those placed
under his more immediate control he was not always a
good or a just master. His overbearing conduct pro-
duced serious outbreaks in Skaania, which the king, by
milder means, tried hard to repress. The peasantry had
refused to pay tithe, and Absalon forced them to submit. .
Alas! he could not see that victories gained by such
means are far more disastrous than defeats. Absalon

 

 

 

 

 
 

DEATH OF VALDEMAR IL 105

has another claim to our remembrance. He first gave
historical importance to the site of the present capital of
Denmark. An obscure fishing village then occupied the
ground. Here the warlike bishop, to protect the coast
against these sea-rovers, built a castle called Axelhuus,
where now the splendid palace of Christiansborg stands.
The town which grew up round the castle was called
Kiobmens havn, or merchants’ haven, from whence
comes the modern COPENHAGEN,

In 1170 Valdemar attacked the famous city of Joms-
borg, the home and last refuge of the once dreaded
vikingar. It had already been taken by Canute the
Great in 1019, and by Magnus the Good in 1044, but it
had risen again from its ashes. But Valdemar achieved
his objeet completely, and it gradually sunk into the
obscure town of Wollen.

Nor was this great monarch indifferent to the internal
administration of his government. Codes of laws were
drawn up, the right of the different classes of society were
more carefully defined, and the peasants were deprived
of the somewhat dangerous privilege of appearing armed
at the National Council, and for a time this class un-
doubtedly sank under the increasing power of the feudal
chiefs on the one L.._J, and the growing hierarchy on the
other.

At last, amid the bitter grief of his people, this great
king died suddenly in the forty-eighth year of his age, in
the year 1182. Bishop Absalon, faithful to the last,
could not read the funeral service through from excessive
emotion, and the people exclaimed in their deep sorrow
that now Denmark’s shield and the pagan’s scourge was
taken from them, and the country would soon be overrun
by the dreaded Wends.

His son Canute, at the age of twenty, succeeded to the
throne, with the martial bishop as his faithful friend and
counsellor. As long as Ae lived, we may be sure that
Denmark need fear no foes, and Canute proved himself
a worthy son of his illustrious sire. The Emperor Frede.
rick Barbarossa, who, according to some accounts, ha
  

106 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IX.

received homage from Valdemar at his accession, de-
manded that Canute should repair to Ratisbon, and there
receive his crown asa gift from the emperor. The king
sent back a bold and defiant refusal, and the request was
never repeated, though Frederick lost no opportunity of
harassing Denmark during the rest of his life.

The first proof of Frederick’s restless enmity was seen in
the uprising of the Duke of Pomerania at the head of the
still heathen Wends to overrun Denmark, but the un-
daunted Archbishop Absalon was ready. Five hundred
large vessels had been fitted out for this expedition, but
only thirty-five remained fit to keep out at sea. Such
was the emphatic result of Absalon’s fierce attack. No
wonder that tales and songs were composed to herald
forth the exploits of this loyal, patriotic, and martial
prelate. The northern nations had never been moved to
Join the crusades to the Holy Land, perhaps because they
felt conscious of the pressure of similar duties nearer
home. While pagans were threatening their own shores,
they did not realise the necessity of warring against the
distant infidels of Palestine.

It was therefore in somewhat of a crusading spirit that
Canute led several expeditions against the Esthonians on
the eastern coast of the Baltic, between the Gulfs of Fin-
land on the north, and Riga on the south. The conver-
sions were numerous and successful during the stay of the
Danish forces, but the relapse into their old faith was
very general after their departure. But the Emperor
Frederick had succeeded in raising another enemy nearer
home to give trouble to Canute. This was Valdemar,
bishop of Sleswig, grandson of the Prince Magnus who
had slain Canute Lavard. This intriguing bishop entered
into alliance with any whom he knew to be hostile to
Canute, and he found a willing helper in Count Adolf,
count of Holstein. He obtained supplies also from
Norway.. But the king's brother, the warlike and un-
daunted Prince Valdemar, soon crushed the rebellion,
and took his rebel namesake captive, and kept him in
somewhat cruel confinement in Soborg Castle, in the

 
 

VALDEMAR II, : 107

extreme north of Sjzlland, where he was soon joined by
his ally Count Adolf.

In 1201 the great Archbishop Absalon died, having
been to the last a true and loyal friend to King Canute
and his brother Valdemar ; and shortly after the king
himself followed him to the grave in 1202. Leaving no
children, his brother Valdemar occupied the throne.
During Canute’s reign not only did commerce increase,
but a love of knowledge was extended through the land.
Canute’s sister was married to Philip Augustus, King of
France, well known in English history as first the com-
panion, and then the bitter rival of our own Richard L
in the Crusades. This marriage, though in itself far from
happy, led the way for more constant communication, and
many Danish youths were annually sent to Paris, where
some became distinguished in the different faculties.

Valdemar II. commenced his reign by offering to re-
lease Count Adolf on condition that he would promise
to give no more trouble to Denmark—a promise faith-
fully kept. He also renounced all claims upon Holstein
and any other lands north of the Elbe, which Valdemar
at once granted to his own nephew, Albert of Orlamunde,
who, as ruler of the Sleswig-Holstein dominions, proved
a good protection to the Danish frontiers against the
inroads of the Germans. At the intercession of his
queen, the gentle and honoured Dagmar (Day’s maiden,
as the Danes proudly named her), he also released his
namesake, the restless Valdemar, Bishop of Sleswig. He
became Archbishop of Bremen, but though unable to
do much harm to the prosperous king, he never ceased
intriguing against him for the remainder of his life. He
was excommunicated by the pope, and retired to a
monastery.

Valdemar subdued and annexed Pomerania, and ob-
tained from the Emperor of Germany the cession of all
the territories north of the Elbe. The hope of finally
securing the conversion of Esthonia, coloured and intensi- ./
fied probably by the more carnal hope of extending his
dominions over the whole of the southern coasts of the

#

 
 

108 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IX.

Baltic, induced the king to fit out another expedition to
Esthonia. Early in his reign he had made a similar
attempt, but with very doubtful success. A large arma-
ment was prepared ; the Esthonians were defeated ; the
city of Revel was built, and made into a bishop's see, and
the work of conversion went on gaily. But a powerful
guild of knights, founded by the Bishop of Riga—the
Livonian Knights of the Sword—interfered. 7hey were
the only persons whose right and privilege it was to con-
vert and baptize the Esthonians, and it is asserted that
one unfortunate Esthonian prince was hung by the
Danish authorities for the novel but unpardonable offence
of having received baptism at the hands of one of the
dependents of the Livonian Bishop of Riga! It was
during this war that the Danes record the first appear-
ance of the Dannebrog or national standard, which, ac-
cording to the legend, fell from heaven, like the golden
shield in the reign of Numa at Rome. Be this as it
may, the conquest of Esthonia seemed to justify the
- miracle.

Still greater schemes of conquest were floating before
the mind of this able but ambitious monarch. Already
the loyal pride of the people had invested him with the
surname of Se¢jr, or “the Conqueror,” when, as Professor
Sinding graphically remarks, “one disastrous night
annihilated the fruits of the toils of three kings, and of
the victories of sixty years.” History scarcely records
an instance of a more sudden and disastrous reverse. A
distinguished career like that of Valden.ar’s could not
fail to produce many and bitter enemies. Among these
was Henry, Count of Schwerin, a vassal of the Count of
Holstein, whom Valdemar had deposed. For some
reason or other this Henry had been deprived of his fief
by Valdemar, who had conferred it on one of his own
illegitimate sons. His bitter enmity was concealed under
the cloak of obsequious friendship, by which the sus-
picions of the frank and open-hearted king were entirely
lulled. Every movement of the king's was carefully
watched, and when, after being engaged in the pleasures

 
 

REVERSES OF VALDEMAR II 109

of the chase on the little Island of Ly6 by Fjunen, he
retired to his unguarded tent for the night with his son,
the two were suddenly seized by the perfidious Count,
gagged, put on board a ship and carried to Germany,
where they were kept in close and cruel confinement for
three years in the castle of Danneberg in Hanover.

The Danes, deprived of their leader, were stunned.
All were eager for revenge, and for the rescue of their
beloved monarch, but the king's sons were but children,
and the more distant members of the royal family had
been banished. At last his nephew, Albert, who had
been appointed Count of Holstein, learning where the
king was confined, hastily marched into Hanover to
rescue his unhappy uncle. But the result was disastrous.
Albert was taken prisoner, and sent to share his uncle
and cousin's prison. The Danes were defeated, and the
rigours of captivity were increased. The Pope and the
“Emperor both threatened Count Henry, and demanded
the release of the captives, but they were too far away to
render effective help, and Count Henry knew full well
that the majority of the princes of North Germany would
rejoice at the downfall of the great conqueror.

At last Valdemar was compelled to obtain his freedom
on condition of resigning Holstein to Count Adolf, never
to make war again, and of paying 45,000 silver marks
for himself and son, and sending his three younger sons
to the same prison, to keep poor Count Albert company
until the whole ransom was paid. During his captivity
the fruit of all his conquests was lost. Livonia and
Esthonia were freed from dependence on his crown;
Pomerania asserted its independence ; the city of Lubeck
shook off the Danish yoke, succeeded in securing its free-
dom, was declared a free Imperial city, and became the
headquarters of the great Hanseatic League.

The dispirited king returned to his kingdom. His
first act was to seek and obtain from the pope absolution
from his promise to send his own sons to the cruel cap-
tivity from which he had just escaped. He attempted,
despite his promise, to recover some of his lost provinces,
 

110 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cmap 1x.

but fortune had deserted him; and at last he resigned
himself to the more careful discharge of his duties at
home, and spent the remaining fourteen yeas of his reign
in the more humble but more useful and honourable
occupation of drawing up and revising several codes of
laws for the various provinces. Some of these laws are
still valid in Slesvig, and were not abrogated in Denmark
until 1685. The trial by ordeal had already been
~ abolished by Valdemar I., but now the system of trial by
jury was extended and completely established. He also
drew up a general survey of the kingdom, somewhat
resembling our Domesday Book. The greater part of
this interesting document is still preserved. He died in
1241, in the seventy-first year of his age, leaving behind
him a memory highly cherished by the Danes as the
greatest and most patriotic of their kings. His first
queen is spoken of in terms of the highest praise in many
a national rhyme, but his second wife, Berangaria, was
held in as deep detestation. From her tomb in Ringsted
Abbey, so says the superstition of the times, fierce and
loud cries of rage are heard at midnight, while from the
neighbouring grave of the loved Dagmar sweetest strains
of heavenly music may be heard floating on the solitary
midnight breeze. The proverb arose among the peas-
antry, “ Blessed be Dagmar; cursed be Berangaria, the
old hag; the Lord be with the king.”

At this period agriculture, the feeding and rearing of
cattle, fishing and commerce, all on a small scale, were
the chief resources of the people. The herring grounds
of the Lymfiord and (Eresund were celebrated for their
abundant yield. Poetry was cultivated among the
nobility, and the minnesingers, or love poets delighted
to chant the praises of the fair.

Nearly a century had passed from the accession of
Valdemar I. to the death of his grandson, Valdemar the
Conqueror, from 1157 to 1241, and this century may be
called the golden age of Denmark. The following cen
tury of confusion, bloodshed, and decline, affords a sad

and painful contrast.
 

MURDER OF ERIK PLOG-PENNING. 111

Valdemar II. left three sons; and with the hope, pro-
bably, of preventing dissension, he divided his kingdom
among them, leaving to the eldest, Erik, the crown,
giving Slesvig, with the title of duke, to Abel, Laaland
and Valster to Christopher, and Bleeking and Halland -
to his grandson, Nicholas. If the prevention of discord
were his motive, it was sadly belied by the results ; fatal
alike to the true dignity of the crown and to the inde-
pendent spirit of the people. Abel resolved to make
Slesvig an independent and I+ ~7itary sovereignty. Civil
war arose, and the unhapj) peasants were harassed,
ruined, and slain, while the brothers were deciding who
was to be master. Abel was, however, obliged to submit.
Erik was anxious to reclaim his father’s former posses-
sions of Esthonia and Livonia. The diet consented; but
when Erik urged the necessity of a liberal “vote of
supply,” and suggested the additional tax of a small sum
to be paid by each plough, he was at once greeted with
the strange surname of * Plog-penning,” or * Plough-
penny.” He attempted to recover Lubeck, but the
approach of a superior squadron from Sweden compelled
him to desist. Then the flames of civil war burst out
again with redoubled fury. His brothers refused to do
him homage. "At last a truce was concluded, and the
brothers seemed restored to friendship, and with some
difficulty the new impost was raised, and the expedition,

“the last of the kind, into Esthonia, was undertaken. The
results are very uncertain. The king seems to have
gained some glory, but no real or lasting advantage. On
his return he paid a visit to his brother, Duke Abel,
where he was most warmly and hospitably received. But
murderous designs lurked under this outward show of
fraternal love. He was seized unawares, dragged on board
a boat upon the River Slie, which ran past Abel’s castle,
and beheaded. Having passed heavy chains round his
headless trunk, they threw it into the stream. Duke
Abel tried to explain the sudden disappearance of his
brother by saying that the boat had foundered ; but the
headless body was afterwards discovered, and taken up

 
 

112 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. IX.

by some monks. The date of this unnatural crime is
1250 A.o.

In order to secure the kingdom Abel went still farther.
He took a solemn oath before the Thing of his innocence,
and by some arguments which are not told to us, but
which we may shrewdly guess, he induced twenty-four
nobles to swear to the truth of his words, “to the best
of their belief.” Though received with suspicion and .
distrust, his people found some rest under his rule. He
defended the country against the excursions of the
pirates. In order to secure peace he made some wise
‘concessions—especially giving up to the Teutonic Knights
most of what yet remained to him in Livonia. But his
great title to remembrance is, that during his short reign
the burgher classes were called upon to send representa-
tives to the * Danehof,” or national assembly. Local
self-government was also extended among the towns.
After a reign of two years, on his return from an expedi-
tion against the inhabitants of Friesland, who had refused
payment of the taxes, he sank into a morass, from which,
weighed down by his armour, he was unable to extricate
himself. In this helpless condition he was slain by some
of the insurgents in 1252.

Abel's sons being young, and also being under the
care of the Counts of Holstein, their mother’s brothers,
whom the Danes looked upon as enemies, his brother
Christopher, third son of Valdemar the Conqueror, was
called to the throne. These Counts at once called upon
the king to confirm the sons of Abel in the duchy of
Slesvig, which had belonged to their father, and to allow
them to hold it independent of him. Upon his refusal
war broke out, but after some complications Valdemar,
eldest son of Abel, was at last permitted to hold the
duchy, but the exact terms were left undefined, as the
fruitful seed of future wars.

The remainder of this reign was embittered by very

~ serious quarrels between the king and the bishops.” The
primate, Jacob Erlandsen, a man of great power and
learning, maintained such lofty views of his position and
 

ERLANDSEN, ARCHBISHOP OF LUND, 113

privileges as Archbishop of Lund, as to imperil the in-
dependence of the crown. He was a fellow-student of
Innocent IV., a pope who was not inclined to abate one
jot or tittle of his pretensions as pope, and Erlandsen,
who was in thorough sympathy with such claims, was
sure of the active support and sympathy of the occupant
of St. Peter’s chair. He claimed to appoint bishops
without asking the royal consent, to bring secular matters
under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to appropriate fines
and perquisites which had hitherto belonged solely to the
crown. The king convoked a meeting of the Danehof.
The haughty prelate replied by summoning a synod, and
threatening an interdict if any bishop in the land were
deprived of life, liberty, or limb, or suffered any other
atrocious injury. Matters went from bad to worse until
the enraged king causzd the primate to be seized in his
own palace, and carried off in chains to one of the royal
castles. This, of course, brought down an interdict upon
the land, and the sentence of excommunication upon the
king. The king appealed to Rome, and tried to show to
the pope his view of the case. He endeavoured, too, to
stir up the sympathies of the neighbouring Kings of
Norway and Sweden, but before matters were settled the
king died suddenly. Suspicions of poison naturally arose,
but nothing was ever proved. He died in 1259.

 

CHAPTER X.

DENMARK FROM 1259 TO THE UNION WITH NORWAY,
1380.

Erik, surnamed @lpping, son of the late king, when
only ten years of age, succeeded to the dangerous inheri-
tance of an impoverished kingdom, and a divided nation.
His mother, Margaret of Pomerania, a woman of great
decision of character and prudence, assumed the reins of
‘government. All her wisdom and prudence failed, how-
ever to avert the continual troubles which rendered the

 
 

114 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP X.

reign a very unhappy one, and brought sorrow and woe
upon the long-suffering people. The turbulent Arch-
bishop Erlandsen was in prison. The interdict still hung
over the nation like a pall. Erik, Duke of Slesvig,
~ claimed the crown. The Prince of Rugen, Jarimar, came
forward to assist him, and also to secure the liberation
of the imprisoned prelate. The queen at once released
the archbishop, but his restoration to freedom only gave
him another opportunity to harass her and the king.
He joined the insurgents, and a terrible battle was fought
at Nestved, where Margaret was defeated, and ten
thousand of her unhappy subjects were left dead on the
field, to whom the Bishop of Roskilde refused the poor
consolation of Christian burial. The dismemberment of
the kingdom seemed imminent, when the death of Jari-
mar averted this danger.

Duke Erik of Slesvig then demanded the cession of
his duchy as an hereditary fief, and enforced his demand
by arms. Again the energetic queen was defeated, and
both she and.her son were taken prisoners—the queen
being conveyed to Hamburg, and the youthful king to
the fortress of Norborg, in the island of Alsen, where he
remained three years.
~ Meantime the restless Erlandsen was pressing on his
claims, and refused even to enter his diocese until the
pope had given his decision. The queen sent special
messengers to Rome to state the case. Pope Alexander,
to whom Erlandsen had originally appealed, bad been
succeeded by Urban IV., who was induced to take the
part of the queen in the quarrel, and ordered the haughty
primate to resign his diocese into other hands. But
another change in the popedom occurred, and his suc-
cessor, Clement IV. supported the prelate. For seven
years the dispute went on, but at last in 1275 the inter-
dict, after being in force for fourteen years, was removed,
and Erlandsen was authorised to receive 15,000 ounces
of silver, and to be replaced in his dignities ; but, doubt-
less to the king's greac relief, the intriguing bishop died
on his way from Rome,

 

 
 

ERIK MENVED. 113

In addition to these open commotions, a spirit of
disloyalty was secretly fostered by the weak and vicious
character of the king. Plots were formed against his
life, and in 1286 his unhappy life and turbulent reign
were ended by assassination. :
~ During this reign several of the principal towns re-
ceived charters of incorporation, indicating the gradual
growth of the mercantile and commercial classes. His
mother, the wise and able Queen Margaret, died a few
years before him. It is a suggestive fact that in less than
fifty years four Danish sovereigns had fallen a prey to
assassins,

The troubles and miseries of the country were in no way
diminished under the long reign of his successor Erik
Menved. In fact, with a few exchanges of names and cir-
cumstances, it seems almost a repetition of the previous
reign. The king is again a minor, and his mother, Queen
Agnes of Brandenburg, acts as regent. She was, however,
compelled to admit Valdemar, Duke of Slesvig, to a share
in the government. Their first duty was to exact penalties
for the murder of the late king. The King of Norway,
incensed at the fact that the dowry of his mother, a
Danish princess, remained yet unpaid, befriended the
assassins. At the head of a large fleet he wasted the
coasts of Denmark, and would listen to no terms until a
free pardon was granted to these murderers. For nine-
teen weary years this war dragged on its baneful course,
and was terminated by the Peace of Copenhagen in 1308,
In accordance with the terms, Erik consented that the
King of Norway should hold northern Halland as a fief
from him, that the more guilty of the regicides should
not be permitted to revisit the country, but should have
three years granted them, during which they might dis-
pose of their property ; the rest should be permitted to
return. Of the two ringleaders, Marshal Stig and Rane
Jonsen, the former had died, and the latter was broken
on the wheel in 1293.
~ Troubles with the church again reappeared. Grands,
the new primate, followed the example of Erlandsen, and

 
 

 

EL

116 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP.X,

entirely ignored the royal sanction to his appointment.
But a darker and more personal cause was at work to
inflame the ill feeling against the prelate. There were
good reasons to suspect him of being an instigator of the
late king’s murder. On his retwrn from Rome, where
he had gone to secure the papal confirmation of his
appointment, he was seized by the king's brother Chris-
topher, and hurried oft to the fortress of Soborg, where
he was treated with cruel severity. After confinement
for some months, Grandt managed to escape, and make
his way to the pope at Avignon, who, indignant at the
cruel treatment the primate had received, inflicted a fine
of 40,000 silver marks upon the king, excommunicated

the king and his brother, and again laid the kingdom

under an interdict. After holding out for five years, the
king was compelled to submit. He wrote in the most
abject terms to the pope, and obtained the reduction of
his fine to 10,000 marks, which was paid, and the inter-
dict removed, and the obnoxious prelate was transferred
to the see of Bremen.

Then those bitter family feuds, which seemed the
special bane of these northern nations, burst forth.
Quarrels, outbreaks of war and devastation, embittered
by personal enmity, broke out between the king and his
brother Christopher. Family sorrows supervened. Of
his fourteen children, thirteen had died, and the youngest,
meeting with a fatal accident, his broken-hearted mother,
Ingeborg of Sweden, retired to a convent, and died shortly
before the king. In 1319 the childless monarch followed
wife and children to the grave, leaving the kingdom
weakened by the mortgaging of fiefs and revenues, and
overshadowed by the growing power of the Hanseatic
League, which left almost all the imposts in the hands of
these German merchants.

The unhappy country, under the disastrous reign
of Christopher II, the brother of the late king, reached
the nadir of its misery and misfortunes. It was a reign
beginning in weakness and ending in dishonour and
disgrace. The late king, knowing too well Christopher's
 

NIELS EBBESON. nr.

v

unfitness to govern, had urged his nobles to pass him
over in the succession. Erik, the Duke of Slesvig,
put in a claim to the crown. The nobles and prelates
seized the favourable opportunity, utterly regardless of
their country’s good, to secure more power to themselves,
leaving the monarch only the shadow of authority ;
especially securing for themselves freedom from taxa-
tion, thus throwing a most unrighteous burden upon the
commonalty. To nobles, clergy, and foreign allies Duke
Erik made the most liberal promises and the most lavish
grants, intending, at the first opportunity, to break the
one and recall the other. Deprived both of revenue and
authority, this was no easy task. The king endeavoured
to impose new taxes; the nobles refused payment. Civil
war resulted, and in 1325 Count Gerhard of Holstein,
known as “ Black Geert,” came to the assistance of the
nobles, drove the wretched king out of the country, and
became virtually king of the country, though the mere
name of king was conferred upon Duke Valdemar of
Slesvig, a minor. Though Christopher and his sons suec-
ceeded in regaining their power for short intervals, they
could never retain it long. The king died in 1332,
owning at his death only the city of Skanderborg, in
Jutland, a piece of Laaland, and a few possessions in
‘Esthonia, leaving the hateful and hated Geert in undis-
puted possession of supreme power.

In 1340 Denmark was delivered from the tyranny of
Geert by a noble Jutlander, Niels Ebbeson, who, with
a band of conspirators, forcing their way into the castle
of Randers, in Jutland, slew him in the midst of his own
retainers.

“The notice of the death of the tyrant,” says Professor
Sinding, “was followed by general acclamation. But
the brave and fearless deliverer of his fatherland soon
after lost his life at Skanderborg in Jutland, in a battle
against Geert’s sons, who would avenge the death of
their father. But Niels Ebbeson has never lost the
grateful memory of the Danes, who, in a charming forest
close by his mancy-gsat, have erected a marble column,

 
 

118 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. X.

-

on which an inscription, with Spartan brevity, tells his
patriotic exploit; and yearly, in the summer season, the
citizens of Aarhus, and the scholars of the Latin School,
take a walk to Norreriis, where, by spirited songs, they
call back to their minds his magnanimous and heroic
deed.” *

Another extract from Otté will fitly close this dark
episode in the history of Denmark. ¢ From the moment
Christopher obtained the crown (1319) till the murder of
Geert in 1340, the country had been torn by civil war,
brought on either by the treachery of the king or the
ambition of the Holstein prince ; and while a few of the
nobles made themselves rich at the expense of the crown,
“many old families were reduced to beggary, trade was
destroyed, and the peasants were so crushed that they
fell into a state that was little better than slavery.” t

Geert’s stern rule had blotted out of memory the feeble
and contemptible reign of Christopher II., and to his
family the eyes of the nation were turned in search of a
king. Of Christophers three sons, the eldest, Erik, had
died before his father, the second, Otto, was a prisoner in
Holstein, and the third, Valdemar, was living at the
court of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria. On him the
choice of the nation fell, and, with the assistance of the
Emperor Louis, he ascended the vacant throne. His
namesake, Valdemar of Slesvig, was considered by some
as the rightful heir, but he willingly renounced his claims,
and gave his sister in marriage to the young king, with
a dowry of 24,000 silver marks.

Valdemar, during his long reign of thirty-five years,
~ from 1340 to 1375, was very eager after the acquisition
of money, and this seems to have presented his character
under two very opposite aspects. In his anxiety to
secure it he was not over-scrupulous as to the means
used, and hence he was considered mean and crafty; in
the good use he made of it in redeeming the lost pro-
vinces of Denmark, he was looked upon as a wise and

® Professor Sinding’s History of Scandinavia, p. 151.
+ Scandinavian History, by E. C. Otté, p. 135
 

VALDEMAR ATTERDAG. i19

prudent monarch. The more favourable estimate seems
to be justified by the fact that he was determined to make
the laws respected, and to secure this end he presided in
the tribunals himself for some time. Another very
admirable element in his character was, that he gave a
detailed account of the way in which his money was
spent. His handsome dowry was expended in redeeming
a large part of Jutland. The distant province of Esthonia
he wisely surrendered to the German knights, for pay-
ment of 19,000 silver marks, which was spent in redeem-
ing the remainder of Jutland and Zealand. A more’
questionable proceeding was his ceding the province of
Skania to Magnus, King of Sweden, Sor 49,000 silver
marks, and thus he was again enabled to redeem some of
the provinces nearer home, “especially the islands of Falster
and Laaland. The King of Sweden, to whom the province
of Skania had been ceded, became so unpopular at home
that he was compelled to seek the aid of Valdemar to
recover his throne. That aid was willingly granted, but
for a consideration. ‘Restore to me the ceded province
of Skania, and I am at your service.” The condition
was hard, but it was accepted, and the wily monarch was
soon enabled to restore the province to his dominions.
He was anxious to make such matrimonial engage-
ments as might help to restore the power of the kingdom.
He was very anxious to marry his daughter Margaret to
Hako, heir to the the thrones of Norway and Sweden.
A solemn contract of marriage was duly entered into, and
deep, indeed, was Valdemar’s annoyance and disgust to
find, that to please his Swedish subjects Hako had re-
solved to break off his engagement with Margaret, and
marry Elizabeth, a princess of Holstein. But fortune
favoured the ever-watchful king. Elizabeth was on her
way to Sweden to effect the union so much desired alike
by Swedes and Holsteiners. Her vessel was driven into
Denmark by stress of weather. The princess was most
kindly received by Valdemar, but she soon found that,
under all the show of courtesy and hospitality, she was
confined under a gentle but real imprisonment. Mean-

 

 

 
 

120 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP X.

time the expectant bridegroom was earnestly invited to
come to Denmark. He accepted the invitation, and was
persuaded after all to marry Margaret. This union, so
strangely brought about, ultimately led to the union of
the crowns of Norway and Denmark, which remained
unbroken until very recent times.

One of the methods adopted to obtain wealth seems
utterly incapable of justification. Wisby, the eapital of
the island of Gothland, one of the richest and most
flourishing Hanse towns, he suddenly seized and demo-
lished, bringing away very large booty. One explanation
of this strange proceeding is, that the inhabitants had
refused to pay certain imposts to their own King Magnus
of Sweden. He appealed to Valdemar for assistance in
enforcing payment. It was at the best a peculiar way
of helping an ally, by thus plundering a wealthy port for
his own benefit! But the success of the expedition
proved disastrous to Valdemar. The Swedes compelled
their feeble king Magnus to abdicate, and shut him up
in a fortress. An alliance was formed against Valdemar
by the Counts of Holstein, the Hanse towns, and the
Swedes with other neighbouring powers. Copenhagen
was reduced and plundered, and after making unavailing
efforts to overcome this formidable league, in some of
which he gained important successes, the king resolved
at last to yield to fate, and in 1368 he left his kingdom
for four years, and retired into Germany, in the hopes of
finding assistance there. He had previously, in 1345,
left his kingdom, and paid a hasty visit to the Holy Land,
but he returned in the following year. The affairs of his
~ kingdom must have been in a more settled and prosperous
condition than our narrative would seem to suggest, to
allow of his absenting himself on such a distant expedition.
During this second absence of four years, the Holsteiners
and the leaders of the Hanseatic League ran riot in Den-
mark. The regents to whom the government had been
entrusted were “compelled to make a somewhat humiliat-
ing treaty, and several of the districts which Valdemar had
regained were obliged to be again given up. After ratify-
 

DEATH OF VALDEMAR ATTERDAG. 121

ing this treaty the king was permitted to return, but he was
also obliged to promise that for the future the members
of the Hanse League should have a voice with the nobles,
prelates, and burghers of Denmark in the election of the
‘sovereign. In the short remainder of his life he devoted
himself entirely to the internal administration of his
kingdom, laying out highways, increasing the revenues,

and looking after their wise expenditure. No doubt his
untiring activity, his determination to uphold the law
and repress abuses, would create innumerable enemies,
by whom his name is branded with the bitterest re-
proaches. His greed for money, and his restless ambition,
would afford ample material for such reproaches, but his
patriotism, his struggles for his country’s advancement
under circumstances of unusual difficulty, would cause
his name to be gratefully remembered by the larger part
of his people. He died at his favourite residence at
Gurre near Elsinore, in 1375. He was surnamed Atterdag,
from his favourite maxim, that if one day brings trouble
the next will bring compensation—which enabled him to
bear up cheerfully and hopefully amid the many troubles
of his reign. Leaving no sons behind him, in him the
male descendants of Sven Estridsen’s line terminated.
During this reign the terrible plague known as the
Black Death raged fearfully in the Northern Kingdoms.
The king, regardless of his own safety, did what he could
to stay its course, but its ravages were dreadful.

In 1374, Henry, Duke of Slesvig, another male de-
scendant of Sven Estridsen, died, leaving no issue.
Valdemar hoped once more to reunite the province to
the crown of Denmark, but his own death in the follow-
ing year prevented the carrying out of that design.

The nearest male heirs were the sons of his two daugh-
ters. The eldest daughter had married Count Albert of
Mecklenburg, and left one son, Albert. The second,
while but a child, had, as we have seen, married Hakon,
King of Norway, and had one son, Olaf, who succeeded
his grandfather on the throne of Denmark. According
to our modern notions Albert of Mecklenburg should

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

122 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. %.

have succeeded, but the alliance between the Mecklen-
burg family and the Counts of Holstein, the hereditary
- enemies of Denmark, made the Danes so distrustful of
him, that he was passed by.

As Olaf was but five years old at his accession, his
parents, Hakon and Margaret, took the oaths for him,
“and in his name signed a charter securing to the nobility

the same rights, privileges, and immunities as had been
demanded from the feeble Christopher IL in 1319.

In 1380 Hakon, King of Norway, died, and thus Olaf,
yet but a child, became also king of that country. In
1387 Olaf himself died, before he had been able to
exercise independent authority. But his mother Mar-
garet had given such proofs of wisdom and ability, that

no difficulty was felt in permitting her to retain her
power. One step she took which, though many reasons
might be urged in justification, proved a fertile source
of future trouble. In 1386 she confirmed Count Gerhard
of Holstein in the Duchy of Slesvig, and thus frustrated
the designs of her father, who was only prevented by
his death from annexing that duchy to his dominions.
The great reason which prompted this sacrifice was, no
doubt, the hope of alienating Gerhard from the alliance
which Albert, Count of Mecklenburg, was forming against
Denmark. Albert had not forgotten his claims to the
crown.

In the thirty-fourth year of her age this remarkable

woman, who has been styled the Semiramis of the North,
~ was called to rule over the united kingdoms of Denmark
and Norway—a union which lasted for four hundred and
thirty-four years, until the year 1814. The events of
her illustrious reign, and her adding the third kingdom
of Sweden to her other dominions, must be reserved until
we have traced the fortunes of Sweden from the times of
Erik Leespe.
 

VALDEMAR 1.

CHAPTER XL
SWEDEN FROM 1250 TO THE ACT OF CALMAR, 1398.

Erik Laspe died during the absence of Berger Jarl in
Finland, and when the diet met for a new election they
chose Valdemar I., the eldest son of Berger, as their king.
On his return Berger Jarl did not conceal his anger at
his son’s election in preference to his own, but after a
. somewhat sharp altercation with some members of the
diet, he resolved to submit, and the more readily, because
he well knew that though deprived of the name of king,
he should wield all the power. For the remainder of
his life, even after his son attained to manhood, the
royal power was exercised by him, and he proved himself
an abler and more powerful ruler than many who bore
the regal title. He was the first to assume the title of
duke. He put down the practice of personal retaliation
for injuries which had hitherto prevailed, and compelled
every one to seek redress for their wrongs in recognised
courts of law. He abolished trial by ordeal, and kept in
check the lawlessness of the nobles. One of his wisest
laws was that by which he gained the gratitude of all his
women-subjects, and which allowed them to claim half
as much of the family property as their brothers,
Hitherto, according to the legal formula, ¢“ Where the
hat comes in, the cap goes out,” the daughters even of
wealthy men could claim no share as long as they had
brothers living. The origin of this unfair arrangement
is probably to be sought in more remote times when
fathers generally had nothing to leave to their children
but their arms, consisting chiefly of arrows, which in the
old language were called Arf, whence that word is now
used for every kind of inheritance.* As such inheritance
would be quite useless to the daughters, the custom arose
that they should have none at all. In the same spirit,

* See above, chap. vii, p. 86. Fryxel’s History of Sweden,
vol i, p. 217.

~

 
 

 

124 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. £t.

Berger decreed that the wife should possess a right to
one-third of her husband's property. The plan of poor
persons giving themselves up to slavery on condition of
maintenance for life was also checked, and with the
hearty concurrence of the clergy he put a stop to the
abominable practice of plundering and enslaving those
who escaped from wrecked vessels, At this period
chimneys were built, and improvements in the social
habits of the people were introduced. He first built or
at least fortified Stockholm, and founded its first church,
the Stor Kyrkan, or the High Church. He died in 1266,
leaving his son Valdemar king; making Magnus, his
second son, Duke of Sédermanland; his third, Beugt, Duke

‘of Finland ; and his youngest, Erik, Duke of Smiland.

This policy of division produced its usual fruits of
jealousy and dissension. The king, now left master of
himself, did not show himself possessed of the same
capacity for governing as his brother Magnus. He
brought disgrace upon himself, and scandal upon the
church, by a criminal connection with his wife's sister
Jutta, who had been a professed nun. In order to gain
absolution for this offence he was summoned to appear
before the pope at Rome. During his absence of three

- years Magnus acted as regent, and highly increased his

popularity. On the king's return the feud broke out,
but matters would have probably been amicably arranged

* had not Erik Glipping, King of Denmark, interfered,

and supplied both men and money to the brothers. After
some fighting the kingdom was divided between Valdemar
and Magnus, but this arrangement did not last long. As
Magnus was unable to pay the Danish king for his help,
that sovereign transferred his active sympathies to Val-
demar ; but, in spite of that, the result was that Valdemar
was compelled to resign the kingdom to Magnus, and
retire to Denmark. Still plotting, he was put into mild
confinement in Nykoping, where he remained until his

- death in 1302.

In 1279 Magnus assumed the kingly name and power.

‘He is known by the peculiar surname of Ladu-laas, or
 

MAGNUS LADU-LAAS, 195

Barn-lock, a name of no small honour, when it is remem-
bered that it was given to him in consequence of a law
which he caused to be passed, compelling travellers of
high birth to pay for the straw and corn which they
required on their journeys. The fact that such a law
was needed is a significant commentary on the state of
society at the time,

Another very important institution owes its origin
to him. It may perhaps be best described in the words
of Fryxel: “In former times every Swedish man was
bound, at the king’s summons, to present himself ready
for war, that is to say, according to the fashion of that
day, with shield, helmet, sword, bow, and three dozen of
arrows, as well as provisions for a considerable time.
But another style of warfare had already been introduced
in the south of Europe. The knights were clad in mail
from head to foot, their very horses were covered with
plates of iron, and their arms were a sword and very
~ long lance. So strongly defended, they little dreaded the
blows or arrows of the infantry, and when a serried troop
of such riders holding their long lances in rest rushed
against the infantry as it was first equipped, it was im-
possible for them to make resistance. They were pierced
by the lances before they could in any way get at their
antagonists ; the first line fell, the ranks were broken,
and the rest were trampled under the feet of the heavy
horses. In the war with Denmark, Magnus saw the use
of such cavalry, and wished to introduce it, but the poor
+ could not afford the armour. He therefore offered, that
whoever equipped a horse and rider for the king’s service
should enjoy perfect freedom from every other tax on his
estate. Such an estate was then called frdlse or free, and
“its owner frilseman ; and this was the origin of the free-
dom from taxation of the noble classes and their ground.
With the knightly armour the distinctions on the shields
were also adopted, whence arose the heraldry of Sweden,
as well as that of other countries.”* This service was
called russ-tjenst, and in time it grew into a recognised

i * Fryxel, History of Sweden, p. 228.

 

 
 

126 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xi.

order of knights. To the church and to the peasantry
Magnus was a very firm friend and benefactor. Five
monasteries owed their foundation to his liberality. He
maintained a brilliant and expensive court, and obtained
from the states a considerable addition to his revenues by
large grants of certain returns from the numerous mines
and lakes of Sweden. He died in 1290, and by his own
desire was buried in the Franciscan monastery which
he had founded in Stockholm.

Magnus left three sons, Berger, Erik, and Valdemen,
of whom the eldest was but eleven years old. The
regency was entrusted to Torkel Knutson, who proved
himself a loyal friend to the princes and a true benefactor
to his country. One enactment alone would suffice to
enrol his name among those who were really worthy to
hold rule. He prohibited the trade in slaves, on the
ground “that it was unjust for Christians to sell each
other when Christ had made all free.” The eastern
tribes of Finland, who were called Karchans, and had
hitherto clung to their original heathenism, were brought
over to Christianity and subjected to the crown of Sweden.
He compelled the clergy to bear their share of the public
burdens, he improved the laws, and in many ways ad-
vanced the good of the kingdom.

But when Berger assumed the reins of government,
the pleasant prospect was soon darkened by clouds of in-
testine warfare and dissensions. Berger and his brothers
quarrelled, and then became reconciled. But a fearful
price was paid for the hollow reconciliation. The faith-
ful Thorkel was charged with being the author of the
ill-feeling between them, and his loyal and noble services
were requited by his execution, after being subjected to
the grossest cruelty and indignity. Again the strife
between the brothers burst forth, again they were recon-
ciled. The farce was repeated a third time. During
the second quarrel, Berger and his queen were taken
prisoners, and confined in the fortress of Nykoping, and
he only regained his freedom by conceding to his brothers
absolute independence in their respective governments.
 

TREACHERY AND DEATH OF BERGER, 127

After the third reconciliation, a seeming peace prevailed
for some time, but the people were heavily burdened to
maintain three independent and luxurious courts, and,
as usual, the sufferings of the peasantry were extreme.
Then it was in 1317 that Berger resolved, as he hoped,
to free himself from his difficulties with his brothers by
a deed of foul revenge. He invited his brothers to spend
their Yule-tide with him at Stockholm. They accepted
the invitation, and were most hospitably received, the
king only expressing his regret at his inability to lodge
their servants within his castle, The retainers being
thus got rid of, the drawbridge raised, and the gates
locked against them, in the dead of the night he ordered
his unsuspecting brothers, who had drunk deeply, to be
seized, and cast into the lowest dungeon. The servants
were also taken prisoners, and then the king, overjoyed
at his apparent success, boasted that now he really had
all Sweden in his hands. But his triumph was of short
duration. In every part of his kingdom, when the news
of his cruel deed was known, the people rose against
him in detestation of his treachery. In desperation
he locked the door where the wretched princes lay, threw
away the keys, and left them to die of hunger. This
barbarity only served to increase the feeling against him.
Stockholm closed its gates against him when he drew
near. The dead bodies of the princes were exposed at
Nykoping. The people who were besieging the castle,
in the hopes of rescuing the princes, seeing. that their .
efforts were too late, roused to frenzy, attacked the fort,
and razed it to the ground. For a time the treacherous
king obtained help from Erik Menved, King of Denmark,
but at last, in 1319, with his queen and daughter, he
fled to Denmark, never again to return. His son Magnus,
who had no part whatever in the murder of his uncles,
was taken, and compelled to pay the penalty for his
father’s crimes by being beheaded at Stockholm. This
-was too heavy a blow for Berger, and, bowed down with
remorse and grief, in the following year, 1320, he died.
The only representative of the royal family remaining

 

 
i

 

 

128 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XL

was Magnus, the son of Erik, one of the victims of:
Berger's treachery, a child of only four years old. Mats
Ketilmundson, who had been at the head of the party
which drove Berger from the throne, and put his inno-
cent son Magnus to death, now became regent, and while
he exercised supreme power, he secured unbroken peace,
and enlarged the boundaries of the kingdom. But after
his death, when the king began to act for himself, a sad
change soon came over the country. The King of Nor-
way having died without male issue, Magnus, as the son
of his daughter, succeeded to the throne of Norway, and
thus united the two crowns. Skania was sold, as we
have seen, by Valdemar Atterdag, to the King of Sweden,
and thus Magnus might have laid the foundation of a
owerful monarchy, had not his utter want of discretion
blighted all these hopes. His wife, Queen Blanka, or
Blanche, exercised such a baneful influence over him,
that the Swedes lost all respect for their king, and all
confidence in him. The popular discontent was deepened
by the great favour shown by the king and queen to a
low-born intriguing favourite, Bengl Algotson, until at
a meeting of the diet in 1350 it was resolved to appoint
his eldest son Erik as King of Sweden, while the Nor-.
wegians selected Hakon, his second son, as their sovereign.
The sudden death of Erik, who, according to the popular
belief, had been poisoned by his own mother, put an end
to this arrangement. Magnus still further increased
“the popular hatred by his friendship with Valdemar
Atterdag, who had craftily persuaded the weak Magnus
to resign the provinces of Skania, Halland, and Bleeking
again into his hands, on the promise on Valdemar’s part
of help against the Swedish council of state. Then when
Valdemar further induced Magnus to consent to the
marriage of his son Hakon, King of Norway, to Valdemar’s
daughter Margaret, the anger of the people knew no
bounds. An appeal had already been made to this Hakon
to take his father’s throne, but the unpopular marriage
with Margaret caused the Swedes to determine that both
father and son should be excluded, Some nobles whe
 

  

ALBERT, COUNT OF MECKLENBURG. - 129

had been banished by Magnus offered the crown to
Albert, Count of Mecklenburg, son of the only sister of
Magnus. In 1363 Albert, accompanied by the banished
nobles, landed in Sweden, when the choice was at once
confirmed by the great Thing. For two years Magnus and
his son contrived to keep up a semblance of authority,
but in 1365 a battle took place at Enkoping, when
Magnus was taken prisoner, and was kept in captivity
for six years. A treaty was made in 1371 between
Albert and Hakon, by which it was agreed that Magnus
might enjoy certain revenues on condition of renouncing
all claims to the throne. He retired to Norway, and
spent the remainder of his unworthy life with his son
Hakon. He died in 1374. Hakon never attempted to
get the crown of Sweden for himself.

During this reign the Plague called the Diger-Death
or Great Death, raged with awful fierceness in Sweden,
In West Gothland we are told four hundred and sixty-
six priests fell victims to its frightful power.

The deposition of Magnus put an end to the Volkungar
dynasty, which had produced some able rulers, but its
period of supremacy was painfully stained with war
and bloodshed, arising chiefly from intestine quarrels.

The experiment of a foreign ruler did not succeed.
Albert, with a lamentable want of discretion, showed
such a marked preference for his German friends and
retainers as to arouse very speedily the indignation of
his high-spirited subjects. Germans were introduced
into the senate contrary to the law; German troops
swarmed in the land; and additional taxes were de-
manded to support these rapacious intruders. As usual,
the peasantry suffered most severely. Crimes were com-
mitted with impunity upon their property and their
persons.

The smouldering discontent was fanned into a flame
when this foolish king convoked the diet, and demanded
one-third of the whole revenues, civil and ecclesiastical,
in order to keep up his state. In order to avert the
rising danger, Albert selected Bo Jonsson, the richest

 

 

 
 

 

130. HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XL

nobleman ir the kingdom, as his “all-powerful helper,”
and in reality invested him with supreme power. This
position Bo Jonnson retained until his death in 1385,
but he seems to have used his power to encourage rather
than to restrain the spirit of lawless licence that was
running riot in the land. His own example certainly
was not calculated to repress that lawless spirit, since we
read of him pursuing his foe Karl Nillson into the church
of the Franciscans at Stockholm, and cutting him to
pieces before the great altar, and none dared to raise a
finger against him, After his death, the king hoped to
‘be able to free himself from the power of the nobles, but
all eyes were turned toward Margaret, now queen of
Denmark and Norway, and she was invited to take pos-
session of Sweden as her third kingdom. The members
of the Hanseatic League, to whom Albert had granted
many privileges, and some of the German princes, sent
help to King Albert, while many of the Swedes, dread-
ing the idea of a Danish sovereign, only gave the queen
at the best a reluctant half-hearted service. The foolish -
king indulged in derisive jests about the queen, and sent
her a whetstone, advising her to keep her scissors and
needles sharp instead of presuming to wield a sceptre.
But he soon found to his cost that Margaret was not a
foe to be jeered at or despised. She sent an army into
Sweden, met Albert's troops near Falkoping, and defeated
them in 1388. Albert and his son were taken prisoners,
and kept in strict confinement until 1395. He then re-
turned to his old home in Mecklenburg, where he spent -
the remainder of his days in obscurity, eventually dying
in the same year as his victorious foe Margaret, in 1412.
Some time elapsed before the victorious queen was
able to secure possession of Stockholm, but in 1398 she
made a solemn entry into her capital, bringing with her
her young nephew, Erik of Pomerania, who was formally
crowned. On this occasion the famous Act, known as
the Calmar Act of Union, was first publicly promulgated.
This Act had been drawn up at Calmar, in Smaaland, in
the previous year. According to its terms, the three
 

 

THE ACT OF CALMAR. 131

kingdoms were declared to be for ever united, the king
in future was to be chosen by the votes of the senate of
the three united kingdoms, and each kingdom was to
retain its own laws and customs.

It will be guite obvious that a union patched up so
hastily, after centuries of strife and enmity, could only
grow into a real and permanent cohesion after a pro-
longed course of wie and careful administration under
able and prudent sovereigns. But unhappily this con-
dition was wanting, Margaret's successors possessed
neither her ability nor force of character, and this Act
of Calmar, which might have proved an untold blessing,
and welded the three northern kingdoms into one power-
ful monarchy strong enough to counteract the increasing
power of the Hanseatic League, and to keep in check
any enemies from Germany, did in fact become but a
seed -plot of strife and blcodshed, embroiling Sweden and
Denmark in wars which last=d for a century. The union
did indeed continue to exist, but it was merely external,
withont any cohesion or harmony, bringing with it no
blessing, and leaving a sad memory behind.

 

CHAPTER XII.
FROM THE ACT OF CALMAR To 1520.

MarcArET found her triple throne no bed of roses, but
by her tact and prudence she ensured for her kingdoms a
period “of rest and quiet, to which they had long been
strangers. She too had her enemies, and one strange
method adopted to cause her disquiet was to bring for-
ward an impostor who claimed to be her son, King Olaf,
who had died suddenly, as we have seen, in 1387. His
death at the time was cruelly atributed to poison by his
mother’s hand, and now he is supposed to come forward
again to claim the throne. He was able to fortify his
claims by statements of facts which could be known only

 

 
 

 

132 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. XII,

to the child and his mother, but Margaret was able to
prove the imposture most clearly, and as a warning to
other pretenders, she had him seized, broken on the
wheel, and his body publicly burnt in the market-place
of Fals-terbo,

Knowing the deep prejudice that existed against
female sovereignty, Margaret associated her nephew,
Erik of Pomerania, in the government, though she re-
tained the chief direction during her life. Erik was
publicly erowned king of the three countries in 1397.
Her reign was one of quiet progress and growth. Aware
of the deep-seated jealousies of the three nations, by her
incessant activity and unfailing tact she contrived to
maintain at least an outward semblance of unity. Her
chief source of anxiety was the growing incapacity of her
nephew Erik, who seemed headstrong and conceited,
hiding, or perhaps we should say revealing, his real
feebleness by violent outbursts of temper. He conducted
an army against the Count of Holstein, which met
with a disastrous defeat. The foolish king became more
self-willed and intractable, used insulting language to
Margaret, to whom he owed all he possessed, and even
caused one of her most trusted friends and counsellors
to be put to death.

Seeing how unable her wayward nephew was to con-
duct a war, the queen resolved to try to restore peace,
and meeting Countess Elizabeth, the widow of the last
‘Count of Holstein, arrangements were soon made by
which it was hoped peace would be restored, when sud-
denly the great queen herself laid down her crowns and
her life, at the age of sixty, in 1412. Her reign is an
apt illustration of the old proverb, Happy is the nation
that has no annals.” It occupies but a small space in
history, but a very large place in the grateful remem-
brance of her people.

The absence of the ruling mind and the strong hand
was soon painfully felt. Margaret had kept the nobles
in subjection, while retaining their loyal allegiance. She
secured the confidence of the church, and—most difficult
 

ERIK OF POMERANIA. 133

task of all—she had kept the jealousies and discontents

of the people so thoroughly under control, that no

opposition was offered to her authority. But now all
was changed.

One of Margaret's last acts of kindness to her unworthy
nephew was to procure him an excellent wife in the
person of Philippa, daughter of our Henry 1V., who
had to learn by bitter experience how unworthy he was

of such a wife. His utter incapacity was shown by the

fact that many years of his miserable and turbulent
reign were spent in an unavailing effort to maintain his
authority over one of his vassals, the Count of Holstein.
Misfortune and disaster seemed to follow his footsteps,
attributable to his utter want of discretion, and his
headstrong reckless self-will, while his eruelty created
enemies on all sides. Nor did he really mend matters by
his fits of remorse. Unable in any other way to gain his
ends with respect to the Count of Holstein, he went to
Germany to lay his appeal before the Emperor Sigismund,
where he succeeded in obtaining a decision in his favour.
Instead of returning home to take advantage of this

~ decision, he went with a small retinue on a pilgrimage to

the Holy Land. Even here misfortune followed him.
He was taken captive by the infidels, and only obtained
his freedom by the payment of a heavy ransom. Itis
said that on his way there, a son of the Greek emperor
had seen him and sketched his likeness, which he sent
to the Sultan of Egypt, and this led to his recognition by
his captors.

During his absence his queen Philippa managed the
affairs of government. One of her first acts was to
restore the coinage, which had been shamefully debased
by Erik, to its proper standard, though on his return

_ matters soon became as bad as ever again. She repulsed
an attack made by the fleet of the Hanseatic League
- upon Copenhagen, and determined to retaliate by carrying

the war into the enemy’s country, and invested Stralsund,
but in this effort she failed. Her brutal husband, in-

different fo all she had done for him, enraged by this

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

134 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xii.

~ disaster, actually inflicted blows upon her. The unhappy
queen retired to a monastery, and shortly after died,
deeply lamented by all her subjects.

The miserable war with Holstein was at last brought
to a termination by the treaty of Wordingborg in 1435.
The rising murmurs of his people, borne down by heavy
taxation and disgusted with the folly and incompetence
_ of their king, had hastened the completion of this peace.
These murmurs were most loudly expressed in Sweden.
By this treaty Count Adolphus, the only survivor of his
family, was to retain the duchy of Schleswig, and his
heirs for two years after his decease.

Erik’s internal government was as unsatisfactory as
his warlike exploits, and the disaffection of the people
soon found utterance both in word and deed. One of his
officers, Jossen Erichsson, ruler of Westmania and Dale-
carlia, was guilty of the most ferocious cruelty in his
distant government, and goaded the hardy and honest
peasants into open rebellion. Engelbrecht Engelbrechts-
son, a man small in stature but resolute in spirit, came
~ forward as their leader, who, drawing up a statement of
the wrongs which the Swedish people had endured, pro-
ceeded to Stockholm, attended by a large body of
followers, laid his statement before the council of state,
and demanded the deposition of the unworthy king.

In order to avert the threatening danger, the king
promised to investigate the alleged wrongs, but no
attempt at redress was forthcoming. The Dalecarlians
openly revolted, and appointed Engelbrechtsson their
leader. The nobles, much as they disliked the king’s
rule, were still more averse to the authority of a peasant
like Engelbrechtsson, and were willing to rally round
their lawful sovereign, if he would only hold out any
hopes of amendment. To this end they appointed Karl
Canutson as marshal or viceroy over the kingdom of
Sweden. But meantime the revolt was rapidly gaining
ground, while the nobility, and especially the bishops,
were anxious to uphold the union with Denmark, and
a compromise was arrived at, that twelve arbitrators
  

ERIK OF POMERANIA, 135

should be appointed to examine into the claims of the
insurgents. The Act of Union was confirmed, the king
promised to reign according to the laws, and the Swedes
undertook to restore such castles as had not been burnt.
But nothing could check the king in his downward
career. His promises were soon forgotten, the flames of
revolt burst out afresh. Stockholm opened its gates to
the rebel forces, and the Danish garrison which the king
had placed in the citadel were besieged. Jealousies
broke out between the viceroy and Engelbrechtsson,
who was still at the head of the army, which culminated
in the murder of the brave and patriotic Engelbrechtsson.
If not perpetrated by the actual orders of the viceroy,
yet the fact of his granting not only pardon but protec-
tion to the actual murderer, was a significant proof of
his approval of the act. Congresses were held, com-
promises arranged, with the double view of preserving the
union intact, and of keeping the king within bounds;
when, with a caprice akin to madness, the infatuated
monarch left his people to their fate, and retired to the
island of Gothland, refusing to fulfil his promise to con-
voke a diet in order to arrange the affairs of the distracted
countries. Hoping to be able to win over the Danes, on
whom he had lavished his most favourable attentions, he
tried to persuade them to elect a cousin of his, Bogislaus,
Duke of Pomerania, as his successor, but the Danes had
already fixed their thoughts upon another candidate,
Christopher of Bavaria, a descendant of Valdemar
Atterdag through the female line. Again the king
retired to his island solitude, carrying with him the
treasures and even the archives of the crown. Insurrec-
~ tions were desolating Jutland ; Sweden was distracted
by troubles; deputations from the countries entreated
the king to return, but all in vain. At last both Swedes
and Danes resolved to have no more to do with their
worthless sovereign. The Swedes elected Canutson, the
viceroy, as king, while the Danes offered their crown to
Christopher of Bavaria, son of the only sister of the late
king. Norway for some time clung to the fortunes of

 

 

 

 
 

 

136 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIL

the fallen king, but when he revealed his true character,

and adopted a life of piracy, the Norwegians abandoned

his cause. He was deposed in 1439, and for ten years

he dragged on a heavy and degraded existence, dying
neglected and despised in Pomerania in 1449. It would
be no easy matter to find a parallel to such a history in
the annals of any civilised country. In justice we must
mention his one redeeming quality. He seems to have -
had some taste for literature, and some disposition to
patronise the arts. He even prevailed upon the Pope
Martin V. to grant permission to found a university in
Copenhagen, though he was unable to carry that inten
tion into effect.

In 1438 Christopher assumed the supreme power in
Denmark, but did not take the name of king until the

following year, when he was crowned in Viborg in Jut-

land. His easy temper and pleasant manners made him
a general favourite among the Danes, but they soon
found out that other and stronger qualities than these
were needed for a king in these troubled and disjointed
times.

In Sweden his prospects of success were for a time
extremely doubtful, but the clergy, who were extremely
anxious to maintain the union of the kingdoms, were on
Christopher's side, and to make them still more zealous in

his cause, he promised them so many privileges, that the
peasants, who were not very warm partisans of his,
called him in derision “The Bishop's King.” But Karl
Canutson had to be bought over as well. He claimed
for himself the duchy of Finland as his hereditary fief,
and the island of Oeland for a definite term of years, on
condition that the crown at any time should have the
power to redeem them for forty thousand silver marks.

The beginning of Christopher's reign was disturbed by

the outbreak of a serious peasants’ war in Jutland. A

person: of noble birth, Henrick Tagesons, acted as their =
leader, and bringing 35,000 men into the field, he gained .

a decisive victory over the royal troops, The rights of
property, and the maintenance of order were imperilled
 

CHRISTOPHER OF BAVARIA. 137

by the success of the insurgents, but at last they were

thoroughly defeated near Aagard in Jutland, com-

pelled to pay heavy fines to the crown, and what was
still more distasteful, to give tithes to the clergy. In
Sweden Christopher never became popular. Bad seasons
happening to set in, and famine threatening the poor, the
sight of the royal luxury and extravagance raised a feel-
ing of deep discontent among the people, who expressed
their derision by calling Christopher “The Bark King,”
because they were compelled to grind flour of bark, The
anger of the Swedes was deepened by the king’s apparent
indifference to the ravages of the late king, Erik, whose
piracies were causing serious trouble to the coasts. In
answer to the demand that the pirate-king should be
pursued and severely punished, he is said to have
replied, “Well, it certainly is a pity that my- uncle
cannot find a more honest way of getting his living, but
after robbing him of his three kingdoms I do not think
we ought to be very bard upon him if he snatches a
dinner now and then without paying for it. A man
cannot live on nothing, you know.”

Always in want of money, Christopher was glad to do
a little piracy on his own account, and consequently
waylaid some English and Dutch vessels while passing
through the Sound, and seized all the money that had

been received for the cargoes landed in Denmark. He

attempted also to seize the wealthy city of Lubeck by
stratagem, but failed. He made several efforts to check
the overweening power of the Hanseatic towns, and
while preparing an expedition against some one of these

towns his career was suddenly cut short by death in

1488. He made Copenhagen the capital of the kingdom,
and transferred his court from Roeskilde in 1443. ¢ The

event,” says Dr. Dunham, “justified his wisdom. Scarcely
was the court removed thither, when the buildings, the:

inhabitants, and the trade increased in a surprising
degree; and the place soon became a rival to the most
flourishing commercial cities of the north.”

The death of Christopher was the precursor of another

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

138 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XII.

of those short and hitter periods of anarchy and intrigue,
especially in Sweden, which are so frequently to be met
with in the chequered history of these northern king-
doms. He had died childless, The senate of Denmark,
without waiting to consult the general diet, offered the
crown to Adolphus, Duke of Slesvig and Count of Hol-
stein, in the hopes of once more uniting these provinces
with the Danish monarchy. Adolphus was descended
on the female side from Erik Glyping. But the glitter-
ing prospect did not tempt the aged Adolphus to accept
it. He recommended his nephew, Christian, Count of
Oldenburg, also descended from Erik Glyping, to the
notice of the senate. The recommendation was accepted,
and Christian, the first monarch of the Oldenburg
dynasty, which still occupies the throne of Denmark,
was called to the throne 1448 A.D.

The Union of Calmar had never been heartily accepted
in Sweden except by the clergy. During the previous
reign, the populace in Stockholm had not ceased to ex
press their preference for the tall and handsome Karl
Canutson over the less imposing reigning sovereign
‘Christopher. The news of Christopher’s death brought
Karl from Fiula'd with a large array of troops, and after
some little conflict he was elected king of Sweden. He
aimed. too, at annexing Norway to his dominions, and
was actually crowned at Trondheim. But he was unable
to keep what he had obtained. Christian of Denmark
sent his armies into that unbappy country, which was
thus turned into a battlefield, while the combatants were
eagerly seeking to advance their own interests, and secure
what booty they could. However, after some indecisive
fighting, and an appeal to the pope, a congress was
held at Halmstadt, where the ambassadors of Karl,
disavowing his specific instructions, yielded the crown
of Norway to Ciristian, as an indivisible part of the
Danish dominions.

Meantiwe, as usual, Karl Canutson failed to satisfy the
hopes he had raised, and he became unpopular among his
subjects. The clergy were especially displeascd with him, =

 
    

ARCHBISHOP BENGTSSON, 139
on acconnt of his having caused laws to be passed which
prevented the church from obtaining gifts from persons on
their death-beds. 'I'hen came rebellions and attempts by
Christian to reunite Sweden to Denmark and Norway
as under the Union of Calmar. One strange figure
stands forward somewhat prominently amidst the pre-
vailing confusion. He might be called the main cause
of it ; and it is the figure of an archbishop. The sword
and the battle-axe were more titting symbols of 4is office.
than the crosier and the mitre. This was Jons Bengts-
son, Archbishop of Upsala. Placing his mitre and staff
and episcopal vestments on the high altar, he put on
armour, and, sword in hand, posted on the church door.
a declaration of war against the king. Karl at once bent
to the storm, and in the exercise of that discretion which
is sometimes the better part of valour, he hastily collected
all the wealth he could, and sailed for Dantzig, where he
remained seven years, Then Christian, aided by the war-
like archbishop, obtained the crown of Sweden,and secured
a promise that it should descend to his son. But success
was only the precursor of failure and defeat. Christian
failed to gain the confidence or good-will of his subjects.
His thriftless habits, which procured for him in Den-
mark the nickname of “The Stringless Purse,” compelled
him to have recourse to heavy taxation. The archbishop,
who was acting as regent, incurred severe odium on
account of these heavy demands, and when he endea-
voured to stifle the rising discontent by listening to the
angry prayers of the people, he incurred the wrath of
the king, who ordered his arrest and imprisonment. This
again roused the indignation of the people. In the
winter of 1464, the king, who had come to quell the
insurrection, endeavoured to subdue the insurgents by
force, but he was craftily led into a thick wood in West-
mannland, where he was severely defeated, and forced to
return to Denmark, without achieving his object.

Karl Canutson was again called to the throne, and
again had to give way to Christian. For a third time
he was recalled, when he retained his throne until hig

 

 

 
 

 

140 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. |CHAP. XII,

death in 1470, entrusting the government to his nephew,
Sten Sture, whom he earnestly advised never to attempt
to gain the throne for himself. In the spring of 1471
Sten Sture was formally acknowledged Regent and
Marshal of Sweden. Christian landed shortly after, and
boastfully declared how he would humble the upstart
regent. But the battle at Brunkebjerg proved fatal to
his boastings, and for some years Sweden was freed from
all further attacks from Denmark, and enjoyed a much
needed period of repose under Sten Sture. To his wise
and beneficent rule Sweden owes the foundation of the
University of Upsala in 1476.

Christian’s restless ambition to force Sweden into a
union with Denmark, and his utter want of prudence
and thrift, brought heavy burdens upon his people. But
heavy taxation was not the bitterest cross they had to
bear. In return for a large sum of money he permitted
the Hanse merchants to keep the trade of the Baltic in

their own hands, and actually to draw away the Danish
vessels, thus enriching the Germans at the expense of
his own people. The royal line of Slesvig-Holstein
having died out in 1459, he secured the province of Sles-
vig, but in order to secure Holstein too, which was a fief
of the German empire, he was compelled to make such
terms as left to him the barren name of Count of Holstein,
without a shadow of real power, while at the same time
his people had to contribute largely to enable him to pay,

as he had promised to do, all the claims on the empty =

heritage.

His want of thrift has left an enduring mark upon the
‘history of the British empire. A marriage was arranged
between his young daughter Margaret and James IL of
Scotland in 1469. The dowry of the bride was fixed at
60,000 florins. ‘The marriage was highly popular in
Denmark, and the required sum was easily raised by the
people, and paid to the king. But it went no farther.

Only 2000 florins ever reached Scotland. “In order to

stop all farther demands, the thriftless king pledged the
Shetland and the Orkney Islands to the king of Scotland,
 

CHRISTIAN L = 14]

and thus these islands still remain an integral part of the
British Empire.

In 1474 the king made a pilgrimage to Rome, where
he obtained permission from the pope to establish the
University of Copenhagen. But five years had to pass
before the university was opened in 1479. The clergy
had supplied the money before the charter from the pope
was applied for, an! even when opened only the three
chairs of divinity, law, and physic could be endowed.
It was not until the Reformation that complete instruc-
tion could be obtained within the walls. He died in
1481. It was a somewhat significant fact that neither
this king, nor his queen Dorothea, widow of his pre-
decessor, ever took the trouble to learn the Danish
language, or to observe the customs of their adopted
country.

Though we have referred to Christian’s unpatriotic
concessions to the Hanseatic League, it must at the same
time be recorded that the power of this formidable body
was already beginning to decline. England and Holland
especially were beginning to carry on an independent
trade in the Baltic; and, to assist the movement, Christian
entered into an alliance with England, Scotland, France,
and Burgundy. The decline of this league laid the
foundation of the manufacturing and commercial pros-
perity of the northern kingdoms.

Christian I. was succeeded by his son Hans (John),
who was immediately recognised by the Danes as their
king. Two years elapsed before he was acknowledged
in Norway, but in the absence of any recognised leader,
the nobles of Norway, at a meeting held in Halmstadt in
1483, declared him their monarch, baving previously
compelled him to sign a charter extending their privileges.
It is a painful fact that we see in these successive charters
no recognition of the claims or rights of the people. But
six years passed before Hans was acknowledged in
Sweden, and even then he only retained the crown for a
brief periodsz > =u vv we fp vis Bree

His first difficulties were with the provinces of Sles-

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

142 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. x11,

vig and Holstein. The right to elect their own rulers
had been so especially secured to them by the treaty with
. Christian 1., that no objection could be urged when they
declared their preference for Frederick, the second son of
Christian I. It was only by making very large promises
that Hans could secure any votes, and then he was com-
pelled to accept his brother Frederick as joint ruler in
Slesvig-Holstein. The duchy had already been divided,
and Frederick, who was strongly supported by his mother,
Queen Dorothea, was permitted to make his choice. He
chose the Gottorp lands, and then wished to exchange
them for the other division, the Segeberg portion of
Schleswig, and proceeded to make still further demands.
At last Hans was obliged to make a firm stand, and the
~ ambitious Frederick was compelled for a time to keep
quiet. 2

The difficulty in Sweden was caused by the wise and
active exercise of authority by Sten Sture. The nobles
were jealous of Sture, and a succession of bad seasons

made him unpopular with the ignorant peasantry, who,
by some peculiar logic of their own, made the marshal
directly responsible for these unfavourable circumstances.
At the same time, a very strong anti-Danish feeling pre-
vailed among all classes, except the higher clergy, who
were always in favour of the Union of Calmar. Personal
Jealousy, however, triumphed, and in 1497 Hans was
proclaimed king of Sweden in Stockholm and Upsala,
Sture retaining the office of marshal.

In the year 1500 Hans was persuaded by his restless
brother to attempt the subjugation of the Ditmarshers.
The district inhabited by this brave race was a small
territory, not quite seven Danish miles in extent, situated
between the Elbe and the Eyder. It was protected from
the sea by large artificial mounds or dykes, and from the
land by a barrier of forest and fen, with lakes and bogs.
The country was intersected by canals and embankments.
The people were a high-spirited and independent race,
and had been a free commonwealth, owing only a nominal
allegiance to the crown of Denmark. Against this small
 

THE DITMARSHERS, 143

band of people Hans brought a formidable army of 3000
soldiers in the depth of the winter. To show their con-
tempt for their insignificant foes, the Danish knights and
nobles marched in hunting costume, very lightly armed,
and soon gained an easy victory, resulting in the capture
of the chief town of the marshes, Meldorf, and the cruel
massacre of the inhabitants, though the wives and chil-
dren had previously been sent into the interior. But
this first victory was also the last. In marching from
Meldorf to Hemmingstadt, the Danish army came to a
redoubt defended by a few pieces of cannon and 500 men.
Full of confidence the Danes rushed on, and three times
forced the defenders to retreat, but the intense cold, and
an inclement storm of snow and hail, benumbed the
advancing army. Then they had to face a new and
resistless foe. The sluices were suddenly opened, and
the rising tide swept everything before it. Few of the
Danes ever returned home. An immense booty was
taken, and, most humiliating of all, the great national
standard of Denmark, the Dannebrog was captured. The
king and his brother only escaped with difficulty, and
the independence of the little republic was secured for
some time to come. fig
This defeat aroused the hopes of the national party in
Sweden, and Sten Sture was again recalled to exercise
the supreme authority. Hans only remained master of
the fortresses of Calmar and Stockholm, which were de-
fended by his queen Christina. These fortresses were
soon compelled to surrender, and the queen was subjected
to gentle imprisonment in the convent of Wadstena.
The Norwegians also revolted under the leadership of
Canute Alfson, who was soon treacherously murdered.
The king sent his son Christian to put down the revolt,
which he succeeded in doing with great severity. The
remaining leaders were cruelly tortured and put to death,
and Norway was subdued. Queen Christina was detained
~ for two years in confinement, but at last she was restored
to her husband, Sten Sture’s latest act was to conduct
ber in person to the frontier, when he suddenly died,

 
 

 

 

144 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xit.

and, as usual, not without suspicions of poison. His
‘death took place in 1503. During his reign—as reign
it may. well be called, though he never assumed the
title of king—the art of printing was introduced into
Sweden, and the first book was printed in 1483. He
was succeeded by his kinsman and adopted heir, Svante
Nielson Sture.

In conjunction with Hemming Gade, Bishop of Linkop-
ing, the new regent still kept up the enmity against
Denmark. Meetings and conferences were held one after
the other, but no solid reconciliation was arrived at. The
Hanse towns sided first with one party then with the
other. In 1513 Svante Sture suddenly died, and his
son, Sten Sture ‘the Younger,” succeeded him.

In the meantime a gleam of success brightened the
closing years of Hans’s reign. Lubeck, the head of the
Hanseatic League, annoyed at the Danish king entering
_ into commercial alliance with England, declared war
against Denmark. A naval engagement took place, in
which Lubeck suffered a severe defeat, and was glad to
purchase peace by the payment of a large sum of money.
In the following year, 1513, King Hans died, and was
succeeded by Lis son, Christian 11. Among the Danes
the memory of Hans is loyally cherished as of one who
always wished to do well to his people. His cordial
adoption of the language and manners of his people, in
opposition to the conduct of his father and brother
Frederick, naturally tended to increase his popularity.

In Sw eden, Sture the Younger was not permitted to
enjoy the undisputed exercise of authority. Again, a
. churchman and an archbishop proved himself a dangerous
and unpatriotic rival—Gustaf Trolle, Archbishop of
Upsala. His great anxiety was to carry out in its
integrity. the Union of Calmar, and to see Christian IL
acknowledged as king of Sweden. In vain did Sture
_ strive to gain the confidence and good-will of this restless
and intriguing prelate by every act of courtesy and kind-
_ ness he could think of, until finding all his efforts un-
availing, he at last seized the archbishop and compelled
 

DANISH TREACHERY. 145

him to retire to a monastery. Christian seized the
opportunity of showing his zeal for the Church, and of
gaining, as he hoped, the crown of Sweden by sailing
with a large fleet to Stockholm to demand his release.
But fortune was against him, his forces were defeated,
and the humbled monarch professed himself anxious for
a personal interview with Sture if six hostages were sent
to his camp as pledges of his safe return. The hostages
were sent, and among them we find Gustavus Ericksson
Vasa, the future king and liberator of Sweden. During
the interview between Christian and Sture, the Danish
ship, in which the unsuspecting hostages were confined,
weighed anchor according to the king's orders, and sailed
for Denmark, where, under the flimsy pretence of being
rebels; they were consigned to prison. But this was not
all. Christian applied to the pope, and induced him to
lay the kingdom of Sweden under an interdict, and to
excommunicate Sten Sture. In 1620 a still larger army
was sent toSweden,and the gallantregent received amortal
wound. His army left without a leader, was defeated
near Lake Aasund, in West Gothland, and the unhappy
country lay at the mercy of the King of Denmark. The
brave widow of Sten Sture made a gallant stand; but
all was of no avail. But the hour of her deliverance was
at hand.

 

CHAPTER XIII

DENMARK FROM 1513 UNTIL THE REFORMATION; AND
THE DEATH OF CHRISTIAN IIL. IN 1559.

THE reign of Christian II. is a striking illustration of
the combination of strong virtues and excessive vices in
the monarch. It is a reign marked by fearful outbursts
of tyranny and bloodshed, relieved by great and noble
qualities. The strange bringing-up of the king may
help to explain the paradox. During the frequent
absences of his parents, the child was placed in the

 
®

 

146 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xiit.

hands of a tradesman of Copenhagen, Hans Metzenheim,
—a man of some standing, who, having no children of his
own, really tried to do his best for his adopted charge.
He obtained the services of an ecclesiastic, George
Hinze, to superintend the education of the young prince.
As with advancing years, the boy showed unmistakeable
symptons of self-will and daring, the worthy Hans
Metzenheim suggested that he should be transferred
entirely to the care of Hinze. Finding that he could not
be trusted, Hinze took his pupil with him whenever he
went to church, and placed him among the choristers,
where he might develop his natural taste for music.
The king, his father, strongly disapproved of this pro-
ceeding, and obtained the services of a German scholar,
Master Conrad, who succeeded in making him a proficient

- in Latin, and able to speak and write it with freedom and

elegance. How far his father’s use of the whip, which
according to popular belief was applied pretty freely, had
to do with this result we are not told. Such a training may

have implanted in the youthful breast those sympathies

for the burgher and peasant class which he manifested
through life, and made him anxious to repress the
powers of the nobility and clergy. When twenty years
of age, he was sent, as we have seen, to Norway to put
down a rebellion there, which he did with no gentle
hand. He remained in that country as viceroy, where
he formed a connection with a handsome young woman
of ignoble birth, named Dyveke, whose mother kept
a tavern at Bergen. Both Dyveke and her mother Sig-
brit exercised a very powerful and, according to the
universal popular belief, a very baneful influence over the
king, one result of which, however, must have been very
valuable. This was the introduction of the culture of
esculent roots and vegetables, a knowledge of which

* they had brought with them from their native Holland,

and which through their patronage became common in
Denmark.

In 1513 Christian II. was acknowledged king of
Denmark and Norway, but Sweden, as we have seey,

-
1
1

]

 
 

MORE DANISH TREACHERY, 147

took no part in the election. In 1515 he strengthened
his position by marrying Elizabeth, the sister of the
Emperor Charles V. and she, anxious to gain her
husband’s love and confidence, sent to Holland for
gardeners, and assigned to them the little island of
Amager, close by Copenhagen, which was soon brought
into a high state of cultivation. The Amager peasants,”
says Otte, “still enjoy the rights that Christian gave
them, and even to the present day they retain the dress
and habits of the Flemish homes of their forefathers,
brightening up the old market-place of Copenhagen
with their quaint, highly-coloured costumes, and sup-
plying the citizens with the finest fruits, flowers, and
vegetables that can be raised in the long cold winters
and short hot summers of Danish Sjelland.”

It has already been related how, in 1518, Christian
was defeated by Sten Sture the Younger, in his attempt
to force the Swedes to acknowledge him as their king:
how, failing in arms, he tried treachery, and carried off
Gustaf Ericksson Vasa and his five companions hostages,
and put them into cruel confinement; and, how in 1520,
his army, under Otte Krumpe, overcame the forces of
Sweden ; how the gallant Sten Sture was killed, and the
allegiance of Sweden seemed fully secured. It is an in-
teresting personal incident to know that in Otte Krumpe’s
army the celebrated Paracelsus served as a surgeon in
his earlier and perhaps happier days.

The intriguing Archbishop Gustaf Trolle was a
firm friend to the Danish cause, and on the death of
Sture he was recalled from his monastic confinement, and
restored to his see. In the May of 1520, Christian him-
self arrived in Stockholm with a considerable reinforce-
ment, resolved to crush all opposition and obtain the
crown of Sweden. Christina Gylleustrema, widow of
Sten Sture, still held out, and, finding force unavail-
ing, Christian had recourse to treachery. Through the
connivance of two bishops he gained an entrance into the
citadel which was held by the heroic woman. As a
condition of entry, he had made the most solemn promises

 
 

 

$148 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIII,

of a general pardon, and the promise was publicly repeated
on the occasion of his coronation at Stockholm in the
autumn. But his thirst for vengeance was not thus
to be satisfied. Gustaf Trolle was ready with a scheme
for satisfying that vengeance without breaking the letter
of his promise. Wrongs to the state must be pardoned,
according to promise ; but how about wrongs done to the
church? These the king had no power to pass over.
Had not the archbishop himself been deposed from his
office and consigned to a monastery? One of the king's
low companions and counsellors, Didrik Slaghek, a
relation of Sigbrit’s, supported the plan, and on November
8, 1520, some ninety persons, chiefly nobles, including
two bishops, with a few burghers, were led into the great
market-place of Stockholm, and beheaded one by one.
Bishop Mads was the first victim, and among them was
Erik, the father of Gustaf Ericksson Vasa. This horrid
event is still remembered as “the blood-bath.” The
~ peasant class, in whose interests the king pretended this
bloody deed had been done, were stunned with horror, and
the name of the king was remembered henceforth only as
“the Tyrant.” “It has been well said,” as Otté remarks,
“that the Union of Calmar was drowned in the ‘blood-
bath ’ of the 8th of November, 1520, for from that day
till the spring of 1523, when Gustaf Vasa was crowned
king of Sweden, the Swedes never gave up their deter-
mivation to release themselves from the Danish bonds.”
It is pleasant to turn from this scene of carnage to the
better side of this monarch’s reign. He caused laws to
be passed in favour of the trading and labouring classes,
and took great pains to promote education. In Copen-
hagen and some of the larger cities and towns of his
dominions he established a system of compulsory educa-
tion. He increased the salaries of the teachers, and
compelled them to give proof of their fitness for their
work by submitting to public examination. Though
upwards of 300 years have passed, England has only
taken a very short step in this direction yet. He
established the first rudiments of a post-office, by consti
 

-ARCEMBOLDUS. ~~ = 149

tating bands of fast runners to carry letters between the

capital and the chief towns. Wayside inns were built at
stated distances along the roads, and an order was issued
that if any travellers were injured by the badness of the
roads, the parishes where the roads lay should be com-
pelled to make compensation. It is still more strange
to read that it was reserved for this king to forbid the
nobles and the higher clergy from seizing wrecks and
appropriating the booty! When remonstrated with by
some bishops, who had obtained large incomes by this
nefarious practice, his answer was, “let the lord prelates
go back and learn the eighth commandment by heart.”
He put an end to the prevailing custom of selling human
beings like other chattels along with the land.

During this reign a papal legate, Arcemboldus,came into
the north on the same errand as the more celebrated Tet-
zel had proceeded to Germany—to sell papal indulgences,
Christian received him with marked courtesy; admitted
him to his inmost confidence; revealed to him all his
designs upon Sweden, and hoped to obtain the powerful
aid of the legate in subduing that country and in secur-
ing at the same time the favour of the pope. But the
legate proved a false friend. On reaching Sweden he
found the administrator, Sten Sture the Younger, as
anxious to win his favour as Christian had been, and in
the end he revealed all Christian's designs to Sten Sture.

But deceit and treachery seemed to have marked
Christian’s conduct in matters ecclesiastical as well as in
all other affairs. When the pope, deeply grieved at the
slaughter of Stockholm, especially as two bishops were
among the victims, sent a nuncio to Copenhagen to
enquire into the affair, the king, to avert the danger
from his own person, threw all the blame upon his friend
and counsellor Didrik Slagheek. This worthless man had
taken orders in the church, and had been promoted by
the king to the Archbishopric of Lund; but as the
appointment had not yet secured the sanction of the
pope, he was formally deposed and publicly burned alive
in the market-place of Copenhagen, If the victim of

 
 

150 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. |CHAP. XIIL

such treachery deserves little pity, the treachery itself is
not the less to be abhorred. But with all this deference
to the pope, the clergy were extremely distrustful.
They believed, and with good reason, that he was
by no means disposed to check the progress of the
Reformed faith. It is said he invited the great Reformer
himself, Martin Luther, to come over to Denmark, and
he actually did obtain the services of two eminent disciples
of his to proclaim the new doctrine—Martin Reinhardt
and Carlstadt. Their ignorance of the language pre-

- vented them from making much way among the people.

The king's evident sympathy with the burghers and
peasants made him hated by the nobility, while his out-
bursts of violence and treachery made him feared by all
In 1517 his favourite Dyveke suddenly died, to his great
grief. A nobleman, Torbe Oxe, was suspected of having
poisoned her. It was quite enough to know that the
unhappy man had been an admirer of the deceased
favourite. He was brought to trial—mo proof of guilt
could be found, but nothing short of the life of the sup-
posed culprit would satisfy the vengeance of the king,
and Torbe Oxe was beheaded. Sigbrit, the mother of the
favourite, rose to still higher power, and treated the
nobles with the utmost disdain, keeping, it is said, the
highest officers of state waiting for hours in the depth of
winter at her doors, while she amused herself by watch-
ing their discomfort from her own comfortable apartments.
All these things combined to raise up a universal feeling
of dread and dislike, and the king’s overthrow was
determined upon. His end was indeed sad, and we
should say, richly deserved, but the conviction that his
good deeds, his acts of sympathy with the lower classes
had at least as much to do with his downfall as his acts of
cruelty, compels us to be silent.

In the year 1523 the king found a paper crushed into
a glove, which had been placed where he might find it,
revealing to him the resolve of the nobles to call in his
uncle, Frederick, Duke of Holstein, as their king.
Christian's heart at this moment failed him, He still
 

DEATH OF CHRISTIAN If. 151

had friends, but he yielded to the storm, and with his
wife, his children, and the notorious Sigbrit, he fled to
Holland, hoping to excite the sympathy and obtain the
help of his brother-in-law, the Emperor Charles V. In
this hope he failed, and in three years his gentle queen
died, among her own people, at the early age of 26.* The
remainder of his wretched career is soon told. Frederick,
Duke of Slesvig and Holstein, at once accepted the
offered crown in 1523. Attempts were made by his
friends to restore Christian to the crown. He landed in
Norway in 1531, where he was hailed with joy, but his
success was only brief. His troops were defeated. In
1532, under promise of a safe conduct, he set sail for
Copenhagen, to treat in person with his uncle, when,
in spite of the safe conduct, he was taken prisoner, and
carried to the castle of Sonderborg, on the island of Alsen,
in the Baltic, where, in a dismal tower, with no other
companion than a Norwegian dwarf, he dragged out
seventeen years of his wretched life. After Frederick’s
death, in 1549, his son and successor, Christian ITIL
relaxed the rigour of his imprisonment, and removed him
to Kallundborg Castle, in Sjcelland, where he passed the
remaining ten years of his life in comparative comfort
until his death in 1559. The strong contrasts in this reign
are well expressed by Wheaton, who speaks of Christian
as a “Titus in his laws and a Domitian in his actions.”
The accession of Frederick I. brought with it a com-
plete reversal of the policy of Christian II. Called to
the throne by the nobles and the higher clergy, his first
act was to sign a charter, by which their power was
immensely increased and his own seriously diminished.
Denmark and Norway were no longer to be hereditary
but elective monarchies. Neither war nor peace was to
be declared without consent of the nobility, and the
Reformed religion was to be zealously put down. All
this explains but too clearly that the real reason of
~ * She was buried in Holland, from whence, during this present

Io (May 1883), her remains were removed to Denmark to rest
y the side of those of her husband.

 

 
 

 

 

152 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XI.

Christians expulsion from his kingdom was not so much
his acts of cruelty as his determination to exalt the
burgher and peasant class at the expense of the nobility.
His laws in favour of the peasantry were publicly burnt
as contrary to “the good old customs,” the schools were
closed, while the nobles rejoiced in the rule of a monarch
who was willing to be such a tool in their hands.

These events had doubtless much to do with the
growing popularity of the Reformed doctrines among the
people. The doctrines of the unreformed church were
too closely connected with the haughty exclusiveness and
overbearing tyranny of the nobles and the clergy to be
passively accepted by a down-trodden and despised race.
They saw in the Reformed faith some hopes of social and
political freedom and elevation. The preaching of Hans
Tausen, a monk and the son of a peasant, was listened
to and accepted with joy. The king was secretly a
favourer of the Reformers’ cause. He, too, saw in the new
faith some hopes of liberation from the increasing power
of the nobles, and he had protected Herman Tast, who
had already spread the knowledge of the Reformed doc-

_trines through the duchies of Slesvig and Holstein. The
bishops used every effort to put down the new faith, but
they were unable to overawe the people. In 1524 the
New Testament was translated into Danish by Hans
Mikkelsen, and published at Antwerp, and in 1529 an
improved version was issued by Pedersen, who also
translated the Psalms. As in England and in Germany,
so also in Denmark, the issue of this version of the New
Testament had a marked effect upon the national language.
It revived and improved the Danish language, which
had been almost displaced as a literary language by Latin.
In 1527 a diet was held at Odensee, by whose authority
an Edict of Toleration was issued, leaving every subject
of Denmark and Norway free to adopt the doctrines of
the Church of Rome or the tenets of Luther, and giving
permission to the clergy to marry. In 1533 King

~ Frederick died. : :

Owing to the unsettled state of the nation on religious

 
 

 

ADOPTION OF THE REFORMED FAITI. 153

questions, Frederick's death was followed by a troubled
interregnum of three years. The nobles and clergy were
strongly convinced that the maintenance of their power
was virtually connected with the supremacy of the un-
reformed church. Frederick had gone much farther
than they approved in the way of toleration, and was
believed to have avowed himself a Protestant before his
death. His son was known to inherit the same con-
victions more decidedly. In addition to this source of
division, there was a second party favourable to the
restoration of the imprisoned king Christian II., while a
third party, who wished above all things to retain the
ancient church and the ancient order of things, threw
in their interests on the side of Prince Hans, a younger
son of the late king, who was only twelve years old, and
whom they hoped to be able to monld according to their
own wishes, Count Christian of Oldenburg was doing
all he could to restore his imprisoned cousin Christian I1.,
but in 1536, finding all his efforts futile, he gave up the
contest, when the nobles and clergy at last agreed to
offer the crown to Christian III. From this time it has
been the custom to have no other names in the succession
of kings but these two, Frederick and Christian—a
custom which is still maintained.

The great event which rendered this reion memorable
was the adoption and establishment of the Lutheran
doctrines as the national relirion of Denmark and Nor-
way. A diet was summoned to meet in Copenhagen in
1536, when the nobles were bought over by the promise
of getting the estates of the dispossessed clergy. The
bishops of the whole kingdom were put under arrest, but
were liberated on the promise of offering no opposition,
save the bishop of Roeskilde, Joachim Rennot, who was
kept in prison until his death. The Lutheran clergy at
the head of the church were at first called ‘ overseers,”
bunt very soon the old title of bishop was revived.
Christian tried as far as he could to devote the wealth of
the unreformed church to the endowment of schools, but
~ the nobles took good care to keep the lion's share. The

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

154 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. XIV.

university of Copenhagen, which had been miserably
endowed by that thriftless king, Christian I., was now
enabled to take a much higher place, and carry out a
much more complete education. As if to show that
persecution is not the monopoly of any one church or
sect, it is sad to find that the Lutheran church treated
with severity and cruelty any other Reformed teacher who
adopted the doctrines of Calvin, or of any leader save
Luther. The convents and monasteries were left undis-
turbed, but as the inmates died, one after another was
closed. In 1550 Palladius, professor of theology in the
university of Copenhagen, issued the first complete
Danish translation of the Bible.

Trade revived in this reign, and Copenhagen and some
other towns began to be distinguished for their commercial
and manufacturing industry. The decline of the Hanse-
atic League, and the downfall of their monopoly, brought
great trade and wealth to Copenhagen. The king im-
proved the coinage, and introduced uniform weights and
measures throughout the kingdom. In 1559 Christian
died in Copenhagen, leaving his kingdom in a much
more peaceful and prosperous condition than it had been
for some time.

 

CHAPTER XIV.

SWEDEN FROM THE ACCESSION OF GUSTAVUS VASA TO THE
ACCESSION OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.

No doubt, when Christian IL, in 1518, saw the vessel
sail away from Stockholm, carrying with it Gustavus
or, as he is more correctly called, Gustaf ;Vasa* and
his five companions, he considered he had effectually
secured himself from all danger so far as they were
concerned. Gustaf had already distinguished himself
in the war against the Danes in the previous year,
and the knowledge of this fact, as well as his intimate
connection with Sten Sture, may have induced the king
to carry out a piece of treachery which he fondly hoped

* See above, p. 145, : :

 
 

       

GUSTAF VASA. 155

might free him for ever from a dangerous foe. The
hopes of Christian were, happily for Sweden, doomed to
disappointment. Born in 1496,* Gustaf was about 22
years old at the time of his capture. He was consigned
to the custody of a kinsman, Erik Bauer, who had begged
to be permitted to take charge of his young relative,
under a penalty of 6000 rix-thalers (about £500), should
he effect his escape. By feigning absolute resignation to
his lot, Gustaf so entirely lulled suspicion that in 1519
he was enabled to escape, and made his way to Lubeck.
Here he remained some months, during which he seems
to have adopted the Reformed doctrines. In the spring
of 1520 he landed secretly in Sweden, when he found
Stockholm and Calmar, the only fortified towns remain-
ing in the hands of the Swedes, and defended by two
heroic women ; Stockholm by Christina Gyllenstjerna, and
Calmar by Anna Bjeltre. All the other fortified places
were in the hands of the Danes. The people were sul-
lenly indifferent. “Whoever is king, we must labour.

We have herring and salt under Christian, and we
should have no more under any other.” A price was
set upon Gustaf’s head, and he required all his cunning
and ingenuity to avoid being retaken. Reaching the
house of a brother-in-law, where he announced his design
of liberating his country from the Danish power, he was
urged to abandon a design which could only lead to his
ruin. Thus the summer passed away, and towards the
close of the year the news of the horrid massacre at
Stockholm, and the fact of his father being among the
victims, reached the wanderer, and only nerved him to
greater efforts to secure his country’s freedom. He found
a refuge in the remote and impassible district of Dalecar-
lia, where, according to some accounts, he worked in the
mines as a common labourer.f{ But amid dangers and
perils, endurance of hardships and marvellous escapes,

* The year of Gustaf Vasa’s birth is very uncertain. Some
authorities give 1490 as the date.
+ This fact is doubted by Dr. Dunham (Lardner’'s Cabinet

Cyclopedia, vol. iii., p. 78).

 
 

166 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. X1¥.

he began to gather a few friends and supporters around
him. Even when the people distrusted him they would
not betray him. Meantime the story of the blood-bath
was spreading among the people, and raising a feeling of
horror and disgust against the Danish tyrant ; and at the
Mora Stone the peasants from the neighbourhood thronged
around him, and accepted him as their leader.

At Stockholm the authority of the Danish king was
maintained by the notorious Didrik Slagheek, as regent,
and the unpatriotic prelate, Gustaf Trolle. They sent
out an army to crush the rising rebellion; and on the
banks of the Dal, near the Briinnbak’s Ferry, the opposing
forces met, and victory was declared on the side of the
Swedish patriot. Though not without reverses, the
power of Gustaf increased daily. Castle after castle was
taken from the Danes, and the continued cruelties of the
Danish tyrant only served to increase the determination
of the Swedes to be rid of him for ever. In 1522 the
intelligence came that many of the widows and children
of the victims of the “ blood-bath ” had perished in Danish
dungeons, and that the mother and two sisters of Gustaf
~ himself had been among the first who sank under this
cruel treatment.
~ While the hearts of the Swedes were thus utterly
alienated from the tyrannical Christian, his enemies in
his own land were increasing in number and virulence,
and, as we have seen, in 1523 he was formally deposed.
At a meeting of the diet at Stringnis in the same year,
on June 23, Gustaf Eriksson was proclaimed king of
Sweden, and the union with Denmark, which had lasted
in name for one hundred and twenty-six years, and had
been the cause of endless wars and bloodshed, was for-
mally dissolved. The provinces of Skaania, Blekingen,
and Halland, which had always belonged to Denmark,
were now incorporated with Sweden, to which, by geo-
graphical position, they properly belonged. Finland
also acknowledged Gustaf as king, and thus the whole
country was united under the brave and patriotic hero.
He is generally known as Gustavus Vasa, though the
 

DIFFICULTIES OF GUSTAF VASA, 157

name of Vasa was never used by Gustaf himself. Most
probably the name of Vasa was taken from the arms of
the family, which were a fascine (or vase), such as was
used in storming.

One of his first acts was to secure the liberation of
Christina, the heroic widow of Sten Sture, who, with her
two sons, had been kept in confinement in Denmark
since the massacre of Stockholm in 1520. The rest of
her life was spent in retirement. Only once did she for
one brief moment emerge from her retirement. In a
later period of the reign an impostor appeared, claiming
to be the eldest sort of Sten Sture, the late administrator.
She came forward, asserted the fact of her eldest son’s
death, and that her second son was still living in
the Iroyal palace. The imposture was thus speedily
discovered, and the impostor’s career was ended by a
violent death.

Gustaf had now attained the height of his ambition—
the chosen sovereign of a free and united people. But
his was no easy or enviable post. Long years of war and
misgovernment had left their mark on the country.

The capital was in a ruined and desolate condition; the
people were worn down with want and ruinous taxation,
the nobles and clergy having already freed themselves
from taxation, except in the case of foreign invasion; the’
trade was in the hands of the Hanseatic League, who
pressed for payment of sums that the king had been
obliged to promise in return for valuable help during the
siege of Stockholm, while the government was without
money. No wonder that, with strong but hitherto con-
cealed sympathy with the Lutheran doctrines, the king
should cast wistful eyes upon the property of the church,
especially when he recalled to mind how all the wealth
and influence of the higher clergy had been freely spent
to prevent Sweden from throwing off the hated yoke of
Danish supremacy.

The brothers Olaus and Laurentius Petri, who had
studied at Wittenberg, had been spreading the Reformed
doctrines in Sweden since the year 1519, and as Gustaf

 

 
 

158 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIV.

rose in power, he gave them all the support he could
safely give, yet not avowedly seceding from the elder
church. But it may well be doubted if the haughty and
unpatriotic conduct of the ambitious and turbulent pri-
mate, Gustaf Trolle, his complicity with the massacre of
1520,his open avowal of his Danish sympathies, and his
support of the tyrant Christian II., had not quite as much
to do with converting the Swedes to Lutheranism as the
zealous and eloquent preaching of the brothers Petri.
Gustaf also chose for his chancellor Laurentius Andres,
who had not only renounced Catholicism, but had trans-
lated the New Testament into Swedish. The bishops
called upon the king to suppress this work as heretical.
The king was still avowedly an adherent of the un-
reformed faith, but he feigned indifference. Any one
convicted of heresy he would certainly condemn, but he
must be quite sure of the heresy first. He should like
to hear for himself and judge. A public disputation was
suggested, and the day fixed. The errors of the new
translation were carefully scrutinised and severely criti-
cised. Then the king suggested, as the best way of
refuting the errors of one translation, that the bishops
themselves should prepare another, that thus the people
might judge for themselves. The bishops assented, and a
new translation speedily appeared.

In 1526 the king determined to strike a blow by
demanding two-thirds of the tithes to be devoted to the
support of the army, and that the debt due to the city
of Lubeck, as head of the Hanseatic League, might be

paid by the sale of the superfluous church plate! Of
course the nobles were perfectly willing, so long as they
were left free, while the people rejoiced to see the proud
clergy humbled.

In 1527 a diet was held at Vesteraas, when the
power of the clergy was completely crushed. But this
was not effected without much opposition. The bishops,
of course, resisted strongly, and declared they must
appeal to the pope, and when the king appealed to the
council of state for their opinion, one of their number,
 

ADOPTION OF THE REFORMED FAITH, 159

Ture Jonsson, replied that they knew nothing better to say.
‘Then in anger the king declared he would no longer be
their king, and bursting into tears he left the hall. The
news of this sudden act, in which the king persisted,
roused the peasantry. They could not and would not
give up their new king. The bishops yielded, and after
some further parley, the nobles, alarmed at the attitude
assumed by the peasantry, gave up their special privileges,
and Gustaf only undertook to resume the government when
each one of his proposals for compelling both nobles and
prelates to contribute to the necessities of the kingdom
was fully and unconditionally accepted. Castles and
lands were taken from the prelates; they were never
again permitted to take their seats in the council of state ;
and the Reformed teachers were permitted to preach un-
molested, “so long as they used the Scriptures only, and
had nothing to do with false miracles and such-like fables.”

In Iceland only the introduction of the Reformed faith
was attended with bloodshed, the bishops of Holum
and Scalholt sealing their faith in the Church of Rome
by their lives. After that, the new doctrine gained a
footing in the island, and thus the Lutheran Church
became the established church of the whole of Scandi-
navia. The final triumph was marked by very stringent
laws against other forms of Protestantism, and religious
bigotry flourished though under a new name. Some
exiled Calvinists, headed by John a Lasco, a Polish
nobleman, having taken refuge in Denmark from cruel
persecution in England, were cruelly banished in the
depth of a severe winter, with their wives and children,
and found a home in Germany. Truly the sacred privi-
lege of persecution is not a monopoly ! It belongs to no
one age, and to no one form of faith.

After the Diet of Vesteraas, Gustaf consented to be
crowned in 1528, and at once took decisive measures
to put down insurrections that were springing up on
behalf of the old form of religion in Smailand, and
especially in the more northerly province of Dalarna.
The leaders were put to death, and for a time further

 

 
  

 

160 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIV.

bloodshed was stopped. Only for a time. Conspiracies
and rebellions still kept springing up. New causes of
disaffection were not wanting. Gustaf kept no light
band on the repressed clergy. Olaus Petri denounced
the harsh interference of the king with the rights and
_ revenues of the clergy. Christian IL, the deposed tyrant
of Denmark, and his friends, were making new attempts
~ to regain the crowns of Sweden and Denmark. The
nobles were discontented at their increased burdens ;
while regrets for the older forms of faith and worship
caused many to waver in their allegiance. For some
years the king was kept in a constant state of unrest by
attacks and rebellions from many quarters. A friendly
alliance was formed between him and Frederick of Den-
mark. In 1542 a serious rebellion broke out in Smailand,
under the leadership of Nils Dacke, which, after some
difficulty, was so thoroughly subdued that peace was
‘secured for the remainder of his reign. So firmly had
he secured his power that in 1544 he was able to pro-
‘cure the passing of a law which declared the throne
hereditary in his family. He reorganised the finances
of the country, and at his death left a well-filled treasury.
He examined into every department himself, and, as we
have seen, looked very closely after the clergy. He did
much to promote the trade of his country, and paid great
attention to the schools in the land. The university of
Upsala found in him a great benefactor. He ruled with |
a strong hand, but he ruled wisely. He was thrice
“married, and had very serious family troubles, especially
with his eldest son and successor Erik. Knowing his
headstrong disposition, Gustaf tried to make his younger
sons independent of him by assigning to them separate
duchies. He died in 1560 at the age of sixty-four, and was
“buried in the cathedral of Upsala. He was extremely
fond of music, and especially of playing upon the lute;
and when possible he spent some hours in the evening
with this instrument. By this means he kept his court
light and gay, and promoted a taste for healthy and
elevalinz recreation among his people,

 
 

 

 

ERIK. 161

If the reion of Gustaf can be cited as an illustration of
the blessings of personal rule in the hands of a wise and
truly patriotic king, who felt his own highest happiness
reflected from the happiness of a free and united people,
surely with no less truth can the reign of his son Erik
be referred to as an illustration of the miseries and
wretchedness of such a rule in the hands of a weak and
foolish tyrant. Carefully brought up, gifted with an
active body and a well-endowed mind, learned in the
learning of his age, skilled in music and in poetry, he
might have been fairly expected to be a worthy successor
of his illustrous parent. Such hopes were doomed to a
cruel disappointment. His headstrong, fickle, and thrift-
less character was seen to dominate over all his better
qualities, and brought sorrow to his people, and misery
to himself.

On his accession to the throne in 1560, Erik had
already set out to England with the intention of seeking
the hand of our Queen Elizabeth in marriage, but hearing
of his father’s death he returned to Stockholm. After
his coronation he resumed his negotiations with Elizabeth,
to whom he sent most valuable presents. Elizabeth, as
usual, dallied with him, and took good care to retain his
gifts. But in the meantime the inconstant and amorous
king sent messengers with offers of marriage to the
beautiful Mary Queen of Scots, and also to the daughter
of the Landgrave of Hesse, and in every case his efforts
were unsuccessful. At last he married a country girl in
the last year of his reign. Were these the worst speci-
mens of his capricious character one might well afford to
smile, for these were only the childish but ruinously ex-
pensive diversions of a fool; he had yet to exhibit the
savage cruelty of a madman.

Jealousy led him into a quarrel with his ambitious
brother Johan, Duke of Finland, who had married the
sister of Sigismund II. of Poland. The conduct of
Johan was by no means free from suspicion. Alliances
were formed with the enemies of Sweden, until Erik
succeeded in consigning his brother, with his wife, to

 

 
 

 

162 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN.[CHAP. XIV.

prison, where he remained for four years. It is said
that the king went more than once into his brother's cell,
with the intention of killing him with his own hand, but
his heart relented, and at last he restored him to his
liberty.

During this reign the terrible Danish Seven Years’
War broke out. This disastrous war owes its origin to
some childish dispute about the use of the three crowns
in the Danish coat of arms. It lasted from 1563 to
1570, and was marked by great atrocities. The Swedes
were generally the conquerors on sea, while the Danes
under their able leader Daniel Rantzau, were victorious
on land. It lasted beyond Erik's reign, and was termi-
nated by the treaty of Stettin, by which Sweden was
compelled to pay Denmark 150,000 rix-dollars, and to
renounce all claim to Norway, Skane, Halland, and
Bleking, while Denmark acknowledged the independence
of Sweden.

In his treatment of the family of the Stures, Erik
revealed the darker side of his strangely chequered
character. He charged the losses and disasters of the
Danish war upon Nils Sture, who had the chief command
of his army, and he caused him and all the members of
his family to be tried and condemned to death on a
charge of treason. Before the death-warrant was signed,
the king in a fury rushed into the prison and stabbed
Nils Sture to the heart. Many of the other members of
this distinguished family were massacred. This outburst
of fury was followed by an equally insane outburst of
remorse. He rushed about the woods howling in an
agony of remorse ; and no one save the peasant girl whom
he afterwards marr ied, Karren or Katherina Mannsdatter,
was able to induce him to return home.

His brother Johan, now released from confine,
induced his brother Karl to join him in deposing Erik
from the throne. Goran Persson, the favourite and evil
counsellor of the king, was put to death, and Erik fell
into his brother's hands, and in 1568 he was deposed.
He was induced to surrender on condition of retaining

 

 
 

 

ECCLESIASTICAL TROUBLES. 163

his liberty and his life. But the condition was ruthlessly
broken, and the wretched king was condemned to a cruel
confinement of eight years. Music and reading were his
chief amusements, but of these he was deprived. Some-
times his faithful wife was permitted to see him, but
that joy was at last denied him. His bitter sorrow found
expression in poetry, and some hymns in the Swedish
hymn-book, full of tenderest pathos, were composed by
the unhappy monarch. They are set to music, also of
his composing, and worthy of the words. In 1577, in
this forty-fourth year of his age, he was compelled by his
inhuman brother to terminate his life by poison. His
crimes were many, his punishment brutal, and his humi-
liation and penitence were touching.

This revolting murder was followed by a period of great
unsettlement in ecclesiastical matters, which presents
peculiar difficulty to the writer or the student of history.
The temptation to estimate the characters and motives of
the chief actors in the scene according to our personal
- sympathies with their opinions is a very subtle and a
very fatal one. Hence Romanist writers eulogise the
two succeeding sovereigns, Johan and Sigismund, while
Protestants reserve all their laudations for Charles, the
successor of Sigismund. Our effort shall be to state the
true facts of the case, that each reader may judge for
himself.

Our first fact cannot be considered favourable to Duke
Johan, the successor of the unhappy Erik. In all the
transactions that led to the deposition and imprisonment
of Erik, the names of the two brothers Johan and Karl
were associated. Both must share the responsibility.
But when Erik was out of the way, Johan at once
asserted his right to become sole monarch, and began to
show his suspicion of the brother whose help he had so
cordially welcomed during Erik’s reign. Johan's mar-
riage to the sister of Sigismund II., King of Poland, a
strict Roman Catholic, naturally inclined him not merely
to a tolerance of the older faith, but to a more active
sympathy with it. It is difficult to consider him 8

 
 

164 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIV.

sincere and hearty adherent when we find that, by his
second marriage with a lady of decided Protestant sym-
pathies, his zeal for the Roman Catholic Church sensibly
declined.

For the inhuman cruelties practised upon the im-
prisoned Erik, and his being compelled after nine years’

arsh captivity to swallow poison at Oerbyhus near
Wendel in Upland, Johan is solely responsible. If he
could thus treat an elder brother, we are not surprised
to find him acting somewhat arbitrarily with a younger.

During the life of his first wife, we find this sovereign
using every means to restore the supremacy of the Roman
Catholic church, but his efforts were marked by such
duplicity that Pope Gregory ITI. himself condemned his
conduct, and urged him to act openly and boldly. He
caused a liturgy to be drawn up in the hopes of reconcil-
ing the adherents of the old and of the Reformed faith,
but it met the fate which one might have expected. It
was condemned by the court of Rome, while the large
number of Protestants who objected to its use found a
refuge from threatened persecution in the court of his
hrother Duke Karl, who resolutely refused the admission
of the liturgy into his duchy of Veermland and Sceder-
manland. The nobles looked with disfavour upon Johan's
attempts to restore the supremacy of the Romish church,
and we may well imagine that the fear of being called
upon to restore their lands had more to do with this dis-
favour than their religious zeal. Angry words and harsh
acts of persecution were resorted to in order to win over
the clergy to the new ritual, but all of no avail. The
firm attitude of opposition manifested by Duke Karl,
the death of his queen, and his marriage with a young
girl, the daughter of zealous Lutherans, induced the king
to stop in his career, and even to turn round and favour
the Lutheran par ty.

The seven years’ war with Denmark which was ter-
minated by the peace of 1570, and the payment of
150,000 rix-dollars to Denmark as compensation for the
recovery of Elfsborg, the wars with Poland and Russia,

 

 
 

 

SIGISMUND, 165
the succession of bad seasons, and the renewal of religious
differences caused great distress among the peasants, ani
seriously impaired the finances of the kingdom. -

In 1587 his son Sigismund was elected king of Poland,
but he found his position so uncomfortable that both
- father and son were anxious that the crown of Poland
should be resigned, and Sigismund should return to
Sweden. This scheme was so strongly objected to by
the Swedish councillors that it was found impossible to
be carried out, Johan, enraged at their opposition,
deprived the leading members of the council of all their
dignities, and kept them in confinement until his death,
and at the same time became fully reconciled to his
brother Karl. Finding his end approaching, the king
seems to have repented of many of his acts, and especially _
of his attempts to enforce the use of his liturgy, but the
hand of death was upon him, and in 1592 he breathed
his last. He was a studious and learned man, and pro-
bably his apparent inconsistencies on religious matters
may have arisen from his desire to see the different
religious parties united on a wider and more philoso-
phical basis. If so, he was not the first, nor will he be
the last of those who have drea ned bright and beautiful
dreams of comprehension, and have awoke, when too late
to the sad reality that “Lo! it was a dream!”

The succeeding reign presents a still more abnormal
condition of affairs. At the death of Johan, the crown
devolved upon his son Sigismund, who was already king
of Poland. About his religious views there could be no
shadow of doubt. Brought up in the Roman Catholic
faith, he was by education and by conviction a firm
adherent of that church. But as king of Poland he was
unable to leave his kingdom except under close restrio-
tions, and in the meantime the administration of Sweden
naturally fell into the hands of his uncle Duke Karl,
who was a firm adherent of the Reformed faith. The
first act of the regent was to settle the ecclesiastical
position of Sweden in favour of Lutheranism, that any
efforts on the part of the new sovereign to restore Roman

 
 

166 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIV.

Catholicism might prove futile. In 1593 a meeting of
the clergy and representatives of the other orders of the
state was convened at Upsala, where, after long discus-
sion, not without the usual theological rancour, the
Augsburg Confession, which had been adopted by the
Lutherans of Germany, was recognised as the national
form of faith for Sweden. This meeting is regarded as
so important in the ecclesiastical history of Sweden, that
its centenary in 1693, and its _bicentenary in 1793, were
celebrated with solemn services of thanksgiving. In
September 1593 Sigismund obtained permission from the
Polish Diet to visit his hereditary kingdom, and remain
only so long as was necessary to regulate the affairs of
that kingdom. He was met on the castle bridge at
Stockholm by Duke Karl, attended by Angermannus
the newly elected Lutheran primate of Sweden. The
king was attended by a brilliant retinue of Polish gentle-
men, and by Malaspina, the papal legate, no very happy
augury of a peaceful reign. The flame of theological
bitterness burst out with ominous fury. The Jesuits of
Poland and the Lutherans of Sweden thundered against
each other from the different pulpits, and on one occasion,
when a solemn mass for the repose of the soul of the
deceased king was being sung, the Swedes and Poles
came to blows, and blood was shed in the church. Some
of the nobles conformed to the faith of the king, but the
people generally looked on sullenly at the attempt to
restore the old forms and ceremonies, and clung to their
Reformed convictions. At last the king consented to
ratify the decrees of the diet of 1593, and to confirm the
appointment of Angermannus as primate of Sweden, and
was crowned in the spring of 1594 with great ceremony
in the cathedral of Upsala. He tried to evade these
conditions on his return to Stockholm, and to establish
Roman Catholic schools and churches, but finding all his
efforts useless, he returned to Poland, leaving matters in
Sweden in the utmost confusion.

To this state of confusion there could be but one
termination. The king, already the possessor of a foreign

 
 

DUKE KARL, GOVERNOR-GENERAL. 167

crown, necessarily absent, an alien in faith, and ap-
parently possessing no special qualities fitting him for
surmounting these disadvantages; while on the spot was
an able, experienced, and ambitious regent, the youngest
son of the great national hero Gustaf Ericksson, the firm
upholder of the national faith—the former of these pos-
sessing the nominal, the latter the real power in the state.
The two could not remain long in separate hands.

Before his departure the king had appointed Catholic
governors over the different provinces. The council at
once proceeded to put down the Catholic religion. All
children were to be brought up in accordance with the
Augsburg Confession or be disinherited, and no Roman
Catholic was te be capable of holding any place of trust,
or any preferment under the government. Klas Fleming,
one of the nobles who had conformed to the Catholic
faith in the early part of the reign, and had been
appointed governor of Finland, naturally resented these
harsh measures. Duke Karl rightly or wrongly charged
the council with aiding and abetting this dangerous rebel.
The king being informed of the state of affairs, ordered
the regent to be excluded from all share in the govern-
ment, upon which Karl convoked a general diet, and
secured his appointment as governor-general of the king-
dom, and the ratification of all his acts. In 1595 he
made a favourable peace with Russia, who was giving
great trouble in Livonia, which bordered upon the
Russian dominions on the east side of the Baltic.
Esthonia and Narva were secured to Sweden, while
Kexholm and some other places on the borders of Fin-
land were assigned to Russia. Klas Fleming’s soldiers
were quartered in Kexholm, and hostilities were kept up
with the regent until Fleming's death in 1597, when the
territory was ceded to Russia.

Being secure in his position, the regent threw all his
energies on the side of the smaller landowners and
peasants, and strove to humble the power of the nobles.
Many fled- to Poland, and carried their grievances to the
ears of the king. In 1698 the king despatched a power:

 
168 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIV.

ful armament to Sweden to depose the regent, but he
could not overpower the more skilled tactics of Karl.
At Stingebro near Linkoping the forces met. Sigismund
was defeated, and compelled to agree to terms extending
his uncle’s power. Though Karl renewed his oath of alle
giance, he only did so on the condition that five of the
senators accompanying the king should be surrendered to
him, and the future government was to be decided by the
states. The end was not far off. On his return to Poland,
the king protested against the condition he had been
compelled to sign. This gave the senate the opportunity
they desired. They renounced their allegiance to the
king, and offered the crown to his son on the impossible
condition that he should reside in Sweden, and conform
to the Lutheran faith. Failing this, Sigismund and all
his descendants were to be for ever excluded from the
throne, and the matter ended, as all must have foreseen,
by the offer of the crown to Karl, or as he is better
known, Charles IX. * In 1600 the offer was accepted,
though he was not actually proclaimed king until the
meeting of the diet at Norkoping in 1604. During the
negotiations with Sigismund, Duke Karl had advanced
into Finland with an army to put down some of the
nobles who were firm friends of Sigismund’s. The pro-
vince was entirely reduced to submission, and twenty-
nine of the leaders were put to death at Abo in the
presence of the duke, under circumstances of ferocity
only inferior to that which characterised the blood beth
of 1520. Sigismund continued to reign over Poland
until 1632, where his intolerance brought ne little injury
_ to his kingdom.
Charles IX. was the ablest of Gustaf Vasa’s children.
Like all the rest he had a taste for learning, but he
~ joined with it the practical power of mastering details,
and of carrying out comprehensive plans, which was

~ * The numerals attached to the names of the kings are ex-
tremely puzzling. Charles’s eldest brother is called Erik XIV.

~ but how he 1s made the fourteenth, or this Charles the ninth, is
not easily explained.

 
 

CHARLES IX, - : 169

‘lacking ‘in the other members of his family. His final
establishment of Lutheranism in Sweden has made him
a great hero among Protestant historians; but we have
already seen his character was not without its darker
side. He watched with a keen eye the struggle for
~ religious supremacy which was already beginning in
Germany, and seems to have anticipated the time when
Sweden would be called to take her part in the struggle.
How nobly that anticipation was realised in the brilliant
career of his distinguished son Gustavus Adolphus will
soon be told, though its general outlines are already
familiar to most readers. It cannot be denied that in
“his zeal for Protestantism he seized with avidity the
opportunity of crushing his private foes. His reign was
“occupied with constant wars against Russia or Denmark.
The war in Russia was occasioned by disputes for the
crown, but the results seem very incommensurate with
the loss of life. The war with Denmark, usually called
the Calmar War, because fought in the neighbourhood of
~~ that town, was caused by the anxiety of the Danish king,
- Christian IV., to punish Sweden for the injury done by
the Swedish monopoly of the trade of Riga. In this
war the heroic Gustavus Adolphus first distinguished
himself. After a siege of three months, despite all thg
efforts of the king and of his son, Calmar fell into the
“hands of the Danes, and the result of the war generally
was unfavourable to Sweden.*
During the early period of this war, King Charles
~ died at the age of sixty in the year 1611. At the time
of his death he had sent embassies to the English king,

* During this Calmar war, a number of soldiers (the number
stated is 1400, but that is most probably an exaggeration, Mr.
“Lang reduces it to 150) from Caithness in Scotland, under
- Colonel Sinclair, were engaged by the king of Sweden. Their
furious and reckless conduct enraged the Norwegian peasants,
who met them in a pass called Kringelen, where all save two
:were massacred. = The one returued home to tell the sad story;
‘the other remained and founded a glass furnace in Norway. A
: monument on the spot still marks the place where Colonel
Sinclair was shot, August 26th, 1612.

 
 

 

 

 

 

170 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xv.

James I., asking him to join in an alliance against the
two great Catholic powers, Austria and Spain. Thus
Sweden for the first time was taking her place in the
great political system of Europe.

Charles was distinguished as a poet, and wrote Latin
poems, and also—which seems a special feature in his
family—several hymns and prayers. Dr. Dunham says
of him: “He seems to have been devoid of every good
quality, and to have been cursed with most of the vices
which history has ascribed to kings.” We cannot join
in this severe condemnation, but we have not concealed
the darker features of his character. Before entering
upon the career of his distinguished son, we must revert
to the history of Denmark.

 

CHAPTER XV,

DENMARK FROM 1559 TO THE DEATH OF CHRISTIAN IV.
IN 1648.

We left Denmark peaceful and prosperous at the death
of Christian III. in 1559. Christian was succeeded by
his eldest son Frederick TI. His first act was to wipe
out in blood the remembrance of the defeat which the
brave Ditmarshers had inflicted upon Denmark in the
year 1600. To this effort he was prompted by the
instigation of his uncles Counts Hans and Adolph. In
fact Adolph had tried to persuade Christian IIT. to
attempt the conquest of the brave republic, and not
succeeding in these efforts, he determined himself to
“attempt its conquest. To prevent this usurpation of
authority on the part of his uncle, Frederick, who was
-by no means wanting in ambition, resolved to put him-
‘self at the head of the movement. An army of 20,000
*Danes,-under the command of the veteran Count Johan
Rantzau, was led against the doomed but gallant foe.

 
 

AY

DEFEAT OF THE DITMARSHTANS, 171

“ After a most heroic resistance at Heide,” says Profes-
sor Sinding, “ where women fought as well as men, the
valiant Ditmarshians were forced to succumb to over-
whelming numbers, and with white staffs in their hands
to implore the king’s mercy; after which peace was soon
concluded on terms advantageous to the king and the
dukes, who now divided the country between themselves.
The talented historian, Professor Molbech, of Copen-
hagen, has eloquently described and particularised that
heroic defence of the little people who had determined
either to conquer or to die; and he has properly com-
pared their heroism with that of the immortal three
hundred who, at Thermopylz, under Leonidas, gloriously
fell, opposing the countless hosts of Xerxes. A marble
column, as we know, was erected in honour of Leonidas
and his brave Lacedemonians, but no monument has
pointed out to the traveller the spot where the heroic
band of the Ditmarshians fell.”

Before his coronation was allowed to take place,
the rapacious nobility extorted from the king the
concession of the sole right of selling fish and cattle
to home and foreign traders, and other advantages.
Flushed with his success over the Ditmarshians,
Frederick foolishly assumed three crowns on the national
standard, thus silently asserting a sort of claim upon the
Swedish crown. This act excited the anger of the head-
strong Erik King of Sweden, who did precisely the same
with his standard, and thus led to the disastrous Seven
Years’ War. The peace of Stettin, which terminated
this war, was very favourable to Denmark, for though
she ~wve up her pretentions to Sweden, which never could
have been established, she secured her own rights over
Norway, Skaania, Halland, and Bleking. In this success-
ful treaty, Frederick was chiefly indebted to his able
minister Peder Oxe, who, by his judicious management of
the finances, procured the means for meeting the heavy
‘expenses of the war. Nor was this the only service
rendered to his country by this distinguished statesman. .
‘He introduced many fruits, vegetables, and flowers, as
 

172 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XV.

also the carp, the pike, and the craw-fish. He encouraged
learning and trade, and did much to improve the con-
dition of the serfs,
Intolerance, the master-passion of that age of religious
strife and controversy, was a dark feature in the character
of Frederick. Calvinism was the special object of his
fanatical hatred. One of the most distinguished victims
of his intolerance was Nils Hemmingen, the friend and
pupil of Melancthon, who was deprived of his professor-
ship of theology in the university of Copenhagen, and
forbidden to teach on account of his Calvinist leanings.
But learned and distinguished men-——provided they were
Lutherans—found a warm friend in the king, especially
the great astronomer Tycho Brahe. The distinguished
talents of this great astronomer were not powerful enough
to shield him from the anger of his family for having con-
tracted a marriage with a girl of the peasant class. So
warmly was this anger expressed, that the devoted hus-
band determined to leave his native place, Knudstorp, in
* Skaania, and reside in Basle, when the king won him back

to Sweden by offering him the beautiful little rock-island of
- Hwén, where Tycho Brahe erected a castle, named Urania-
- burg, and an observatory called Stjerneburg (Star-burg).

~~ Here he remained, engrossed in study and making those

- discoveries which have immortalised his name, for twenty-
one years. The king's death in 1588 brought this happy
period of his life to a close. His relations, who belonged

~ to the oldest nobility, looked upon his devotion to science

“as a disgrace to his and their position, and spared no

_ pains to inflame the envy and suspicion of the govern-

ment against him. Professor Sinding has well told the
~ story of his removal from Denmark. «He enjoyed so

~ high a reputation that even foreign potentates visited
* him on his astronomical island, amongst others James
- VI. of Scotland (our James I. ) who had come to Den-
mark to celebrate his marriage with Princess Anna,

© daughter of Frederick II. The Scottish king requested

© Tycho Brahe to ask a favour of him, and Tycho begged
“wo English dogs, which became the innocent cause of

 
 

 

TYCHO BRAHE, “143

‘his ruin. = The lord high-chancellor, Christopher Walken-
. dorph, visiting him, the dogs, lying at the door, barked at
the chancellor, who kicked them. Tycho Brahe, in general
easily provoked, was so exasperated that he severely
rebuked Walkendorph, who, greatly offended by this
harsh language, tried to disgrace him with the young
King Christian IV. At Walkendorph’s request the king
sent Thomas Vinche, professor of mathematics at the
university of Copenhagen, to Hwén, to examine Brahe's
astronomical instruments. The professor, jealous of all
the honour and esteem conferred upon Brahe, declared
that they were too expensive and superfluous. All this
mortified the astronomer so much as to make him weary
of his fatherland, which he left in the month of April,
1597. He repaired to Bohemia, where the emperor,
Rudolph IL, highly instructed in learning and science,
_ cordially received him, and gave him a large yearly
salary, with a palace called Benach, close by Prague,
where he lived till his death in 1601. His contemporary,
the great astronomer, John Kepler, lodged in Brahe’s
house at Benach, both applying themselves to the deepest
astronomical observations.”

Frederick died in 1588. His son, Christian IV., suc-
ceeded him, and his eldest daughter, Anne, was the wife
of our James I., and the direct ancestress of our present
queen. His claims to the gratitude of posterity are very
strong. He was an active and wise patron of science
and literature. He enlarged the university of Copen-
hagen, and founded schools in many parts of his dominions.
He chose able ministers to assist in the great work, not .

only of governing, but of elevating his people. His
intolerance was his greatest defect, but that was the
characteristic defect of his age.

At Frederick's death his son Christian was scarcely

‘twelve years of age. His mother, Frederick’s widow,
and one of his uncles, claimed the regency, but the senate
had sufficient authority to exclude both, and appoint four

of their own number: to conduct the affairs of the king-
~ dom during Christian’s minority. No higher testimony
 

174 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xv.

to the integrity and ability of these regents, in the dis-
charge of their heavy responsibilities, could possibly be
given, than the fact that they preserved the peace and
prosperity of the country. They also gave a wise and
liberal training to the young monarch, which made him
one of the most learned and cultured men of his time.
His early love for the sea was cultivated by the posses-
sion of a beautiful little frigate, which was launched upon
the lake near his palace of Skanderborg, and by careful
instruction in all the details of the construction and
management of vessels by competent instructors. To
his love of learning, thus carefully nurtured by a thorough
education, he added a spirit of restless activity and un-
tiring zeal, which prompted him, on his taking the reins
of government into his own hands as Christian IV, to
reform many abuses and redress many grievances, but, un-
happily for him and for his country, also urged him on to
constant war. His judgment seems to have been scarcely
equal to his zeal and activity, and hence he was more
than once brought into circumstances of imminent peril.
His courage forms the theme of the existing national song
of Denmark.

No part of his dominions had been more grossly
neglected than Norway. One fact alone may be cited as
a proof of this. Of all the crown fiefs in that kingdom,
only three had been conferred on natives. One of his
first acts was to visit this country, and explore all the
fiords of the coast as far as Lapland, receiving complaints
and redressing grievances. It is said that during his
reign he visited Norway no less than fifty times. In
1606 he visited England to see his sister Anne, wife of
our James I., and took his nephews, Henry, Charles, and
James, for a cruise in the Channel in his ship the Z'rinity,
for which he had himself given the model. Hislearning,
his skill in athletic exercises, his eagerness for knowledge,
and his marvellous power of consumption of beer and
wine, astonished the courtiers of James.

To such a spirit the perils and adventures of war

‘would have a great attraction, in the absence of those

 
 

GALMAR WAR. THIRTY YEARS’ WAR, 175

boundless fields of enterprise and research which the
present century has opened up for such restless and
ambitious natures. The Swedish king, Charles IX.,
had not only endeavoured to monopolise the trade with
Courland and Livonia, but also to exact tribute from the
Lapps, and even to assume the title of “King of the
Norwegian Laplanders,” while Christian maintained that
Lapland, as a part of Norway, was included in the Danish
dominions. The war which broke out in 1611 is called
The Calmar War. The sufferings to both countries
caused by this war were real and severe, the advantages
very unreal and uncertain, though the terms of peace
were generally favourable to Denmark. Sweden surren-
dered all claims to Norwegian Lapland for six years, after
which period she was permitted to redeem that district
and the port of Alfsborg from Denmark, on payment of
one million silver dollars, which, to the surprise of the
government of Denmark, was duly paid.

In 1618 the Thirty Years’ War broke out in Ger-
many. The causes of that disastrous war, which pro-
bably produced more misery than any other war of
modern times, and the fluctuations which marked its
progress, belong to German rather than Scandinavian
history. It was essentially a religious war,* to decide
whether Protestantism was to be allowed to exist, and
‘whether any modus vivendi for the rival systems could
be found or not. But political suspicions were not
‘wanting to inflame the angry feeling. The theatre of the
war was gradually widening and approaching the lands
of the Baltic. All the Protestant powers were becoming
alarmed, and none were watching the progress of events
more eagerly than the kings of Denmark and Sweden.
Christian, as Duke of Holstein, was a member of the
lower Saxon circle of the empire. In order to intercept
the commerce of Hamburg, he had erected the strong

* As to the question, * Was this a war of religion?” see an
interesting discussion in Archbishop Trench’s Lectures on Gus-
tavus Adolphus in Germany, p. 9. Long before its close it had
become a purely political contest.

 
 

176 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XV.

fortifications of Gluckstadt. Fears for its safety were
rendering him anxious. The interests of Protestantism,
we cannot doubt, were also dear to him. In 1624 an
ambassador from his brother-in-law, James I. of England,
arrived in Denmark, urging Christian to join with him
for the recovery of the Palatinate, and the restoration of
the old condition of things in Germany. The terms were
soon agreed upon. Six thousand men at a cost of £30,000
a month were to be supplied by England—a promise
which, owing to James's death and the troubles between
Charles I. and his parliament, was only very imperfectly
fulfilled. Holland and France also urged on the gallant
king. In 1626 he measured his skill with that of the
renowned Tilly, the Imperial general, and received a
severe defeat with the loss of 4000 men. In the follow-
ing year the Danes were driven out of Germany, and the
imperial troops, consisting of 100,000 men, overran the
whole of Holstein, Slesvig, and Jutland, and imperilled
the very existence of the Danish kingdom. But a
greater hero and general, Gustavus Adolphus, was ap-
pearing on the scene, and Denmark was saved. Christian
was glad to purchase peace at Lubeck by promising to
abstain from all further interference in the war, and on
condition of abandoning his German allies, and giving up
all claims to some Protestant bishoprics which he had
laboriously acquired for his sons.

No doubt the failure of Christian's efforts may fairly
be attributed to the failure of his allies to keep their
promises, and to the inadequate support he received from
his own kingdom. But the expenses of the four years’
war on the part of Denmark had seriously affected that
kingdom. Its agriculture was neglected, its commerce
shattered, and its industry paralysed. One of the means
adopted to restore his finances was to increase the Sound
dues at Elsinore.

The kingdom soon began to recover, but new troubles
were in store. The brilliant successes of Gustavus Adol-
phus and his successors in the great war of Germany
aroused Christians jealousy of Sweden, and increased
 

INVASION OF DENMARK. 177

the arrogance of the acting rulers of Sweden towards
him. The chancellor Oxenstiern, the regent of Sweden,
resolved to humble Denmark by a sudden invasion. The
command was given to the famous general Torstenson,
who, in 1643, suddenly burst in upon Holstein, Slesvig,
and Jutland, while another division attacked the Danish
provinces in Sweden, Skaania, Halland, and Bleking.
Christian had foreseen this invasion, but so restricted
was his power that he could do nothing, and his senate
could not be induced to grant the supplies necessary for
the defence of his kingdom. Everything that skill, and
energy, and courage could do to save his country was
done by the aged king. It was during this war that a
terrible engagement took place at sea on July 6th, 1644,
when the old and gallant king took the command in
person, and while standing at the foot of the mast of
his ship he was dangerously wounded by a splinter,
which caused the loss of an eye, and killed twelve men
around him. The king remained at his post until the
victory was won. This engagement took place near the
island of Femern, off the coast of Holstein, The Swedes
were compelled to retreat into the Bay of Kiel. The
king ordered a line of ships to be drawn across the bay,
and left his admiral Peder Galt to watch the foe who
were thus imprisoned within the bay. By some un-
accountable carelessness Galt allowed the enemy to escape.
He was, however, brought before a court-martial and
condemned to death. The king’s personal courage in
this action was made the theme of a stirring war-song
by one of Denmark’s most illustrious poets—the brilliant
but unhappy Ewald.* It has been well translated by
Longfellow :—
‘“ King Christian stood by the high mast,” etc.

It is now sung as the national war-song of Denmark.
Holland sent a naval squadron to assist the Swedes;
and at last, in 1645, the ill-fated Christian was com-
* A most interesting account of this brilliant genius, great in
his misfortunes and his sufferings, will be found in Howitt’s
Literature and Romance of the North, vol. i., page 384.

 
 

178 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XV.

pelled to submit to a very disadvantageous peace at
Bromsebro. Sweden was exempted from the payment
of Sound dues, and Holland obtained a considerable
‘reduction, and the Danish revenue was diminished by
200,000 dollars. All the king’s plans for improving the
condition of his revenue were thwarted by his greedy
and selfish nobles, who were exercising a galling tyranny
over the people. None of the clergy, or of the burgher
or peasant class, could make any written application to
the king unless countersigned by a nobleman. Thus the
last days of the king were clouded by troubles and
anxieties, and in 1648 he was released from the heavy
burdens of royalty by the kind hand of death. Though
records of war and disaster occupy the larger space in
the history of his long reign of sixty years, yet he left
behind him brighter memorials of his reign. The maguni-
ficent castles of Fredericksborg and Rosenberg, built
after designs by Inigo Jones, the royal observatory and
other public buildings in or near Copenhagen, testify to
the artistic skill and taste of this monarch, as generally
he drew his own models and plans. He enlarged and
enriched the metropolitan university, and erected in
the town of Soro an academy for the nobility. He en-
couraged the fine arts, and established various manu-
factures. He promoted foreign commerce, and may
almost be considered a rival of the renowned Prince
Henry of Portugal* in giving an impetus to maritime
discovery. He opened up the trade with the East Indies,
and sent out two expeditions to explore Greenland. He
tried to find a north-west passage to Asia, and sent out a
Norwegian navigator, Hans Munk, for this purpose,
who, after enduring great hardships, returned home—of
course, without fulfilling 1 object. In Norway he
founded Christiania, the pi. ut capital, Christiansand
and Kongsberg, and thus, despite the misfortunes which
marked his reign, he has left behind a name deeply
reverenced in Denmark,

* This renowned prince, who did so much to stimulate the
maritime enterprise of the 15th century, died in 1460,

 
 

 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, 179

CHAPTER XVI
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.

Few kings have ascended the throne under more unpro-
mising circumstances than Gustaf Adolph, better known
as Gustavus Adolphus. Archbishop Trench thus sums
up the difficulties of his position: —“ When in the year
1611 he ascended, at his father’s death, the Swedish
throne, being then in his eighteenth year, he found an
exhausted treasury, an alienated nobility, a not undis-
puted succession; and with all this, no less than three
wars upon his hands—one with Denmark actually raging,
the Danes occupying many strongholds in his dominions;
the seeds of two other wars, with Russia and with
Poland, sown; those of the first shortly, and of the
second surely, though after a longer interval, to spring
up.”* But Gustavus was one of those royal souls
formed to shine the more brightly amid disasters, and
to rise superior to the difficulties which surrounded
him. He was not the creature, but the controller of
circumstances, one of the few men who have changed
the current of events, and stamped their personality
indelibly upon the world’s history.

He was born in 1594 the most gifted of a highly gifted
family, distinguished for a literary culture, and especially
for a love of music, which must have been extremely rare in
the northern kingdoms, He was fortunate in the posses-
sion of a wise and sympathising teacher, and he proved
not only a most apt, but also a most grateful scholar.
John Skytte was the name of this fortunate teacher.
At a very early age Gustavus was able to speak Latin,
German, Dutch, and French well, and had some know-
ledge of Polish and Italian. He was not unacquainted
with Greek, but, says Trench, “took pleasure during all
his life in its great masterpieces; while yet the soldierly
instinct, overbearing in him the literary, spoke out in

* Lectures on Gustavus Adolphus in Germany, p. 23,
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

180 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XVI

the fact that Xenophon was his favourite author.” But
the study of the art of war, in a troubled and warlike
age, was his chief delight, his master-passion. In the
Calmar war he had his first practical lesson in warf: ce.
This war was ended by the peace of Knaerod in 1613 on
conditions on the whole favourable to Denmark. A war
with Russia followed, in which the renown of Gustavus
was increased, and Sweden gained some solid advantages.
The conclusion of this Russian war left Gustavus at
liberty to devote himself to the internal government of
his distracted and impoverished kingdom. He showed
in every transaction the true spirit not only of an eager
but of a wise reformer. He strove to carry his people
with him in all his reforms. His aim was to teach his
people to govern themselves, by establishing high courts
~ at Stockholm, and also by convoking the diet every year,
and leaving each order to decide for themselves the
questions that interested them most deeply. While he
granted privileges to his nobles, he also exacted duties,
so that no one class should be enriched at the expense of
others. Schools and places of instruction were established
throughout the kingdom, and the university of Upsala
owed to him extended means for carrying on the higher
education of the country. He built about sixteen new
cities and trading ports, of which Goteborg may be
‘mentioned as an example. The mineral wealth of the
country was developed, and the material comfort and
commercial prosperity of his people was advanced by the
importation of flocks from Germany, and the consequent
improvement of the breed of sheep. . Foreigners of dis-
tinction were invited to settle in his kingdom, and at
the time when he set out on his glorious but fatal cam-
‘paign in Germany, his court was celebrated for the
number of distinguished statesmen and generals who
had beer. attracted by his noble qualities, and who
accompanied him in his expedition.

It must not be forgotten that his cousin Sigismund,
who had been compelled to resign the crown of Sweden
to Charles IX. father of Gustavus Adolphus, was still
 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN POLAND, 181

reigning as King of Poland. He could not resign him-

self to the loss of Sweden, and so persistently did he
strive to enforce his claims, that Gustavus in person
conducted an army into Poland to settle the question
decisively. The provinces of Livonia and Karelia, and
~ the city of Riga fell into his hands. Sigismund was
assisted by an army of Imperialists, commanded by
Arnheim, one of the generals of the renowned, and as
it was then believed, the invincible Wallenstein, As a
devoted adherent of the Roman Catholic Church, the

claim of Sigismund to the throne of Sweden was warmly

supported by the Imperialist forces, as their avowed aim
was the maintenance of the Catholic supremacy. But
Gustavus proved himself more than a match for his com-
bined foes, and Tilly and Wallenstein, the great generals
of the Imperial army, who had almost succeeded in
stamping out of existence the Protestant power in Ger-
many, saw clearly that all their work would prove futile.
unless the new Protestant champion could be humbled
into submission. This Polish war continued for some
years, during which the hero king was often exposed to
the most imminent danger. But a wider theatre of war
was opening before him, and in 1529 a six years’ truce
was agreed upon, which left Livonia and parts of Polish
Russia in the hands of Gustavus, and opened his way
for the more important scenes where he was destined to
take a brilliant and decisive part.

For twelve years that terrible war, the most protracted,
the most disastrous, the most productive of human misery,
which modern Europe has ever seen, had been spreading
more and more widely throughout Germany. The very
name by which it is now universally known—The Thirty
Years’ War—indicates but too plainly the misery, the
bloodshed, the utter degradation of all moral, social, and
religious life which it wrought in Germany.*

The war may well be divided into three geriods of
very unequal length. The first of these, da ¢~ from its

* Archbishop Trench’s interesting volume forciby, =~ sates
the terrible effects of this war,
 

182 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. |CHAP. XVI

commencement in 1618 to 1630, when Gustavus appeared
on the scene, was now drawing to its close. It was a
period of almost unchecked triumph for the Imperialist
and Catholic party. The Protestant princes, the king
of Denmark, each one by one had been compelled to sur-
render or withdraw. “All Germany,” says Trench,
“lay prostrate at the feet of the emperor and of Wallen-
stein his great commander.”

No doubt religious and political motives combined to
convince Gustavus that he must descend into the bloody
arena. The religious motives may be more easily felt
than described, but his whole career, brief as it was,
decisively shows how real those motives were. His
political motives may perhaps be more readily divined.
He must have seen how real the danger to Sweden would
be if the entire liberties of Northern Germany were
trodden out, and the strong cities of the now decadent
Hanseatic League should become hostile outposts com-
manding the supremacy of the sea, and thus putting the
commercial freedom of Sweden at their mercy. He must
have seen that if he had not gone out to meet the war,
it would soon have invaded his shores, and extended to
Sweden that misery of which Germany had such a bitter
experience. He saw the dangers and the perils. He
had, what so few kings possess, a real friend in his great
and distinguished chancellor, Oxenstiern, who put all the
difficulties of the course plainly before him. But the
~ way of duty was plain. Committing his only daughter,
not yet four years old, to the care and protection of his
diet, and fully assured that he should never return, and
that, in his own touching words, “ For me there remains
henceforth no more rest but the eternal,” he set out with
15,000 men, and on midsummer day, 1630, he landed on
the little island of Usedom, at the mouth of the Oder.
His arrival marks the commencement of the second
period of th~ war. The fortunes of the down-trodden
Protestars oegan to revive. On November 2, 1631,
Tilly, #”., had never before experienced a reverse, was
# defeated by Gustavus at Breitenfeld, near Leipsic.

 
DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 183
In December, Mayence, the ancient ecclesiastical metro-
polis of Germany, whose archbishop held the first rank
among the elector-bishops, was occupied by Gustavus.
Tilly withdrew into Bavaria, and in the spring of 1632
he was again attacked by the gallant Swedes while
attempting to prevent them from crossing the river
Lech. In the engagement he received a mortal wound.
Wallenstein, who had been compelled to retire, was
again called to the supreme command. While attacking
Wallenstein’s entrenched camp before Nuremberg, Gus-
tavus received a severe repulse, but he quickly followed
the victorious general into the rich province of Saxony,
and on the 6th of November, 1632, the armies of Gustavus
and Wallenstein met in mortal combat on the field of
Lutzen, only a few miles from the Breitenfeld, the scene
of his great victory over Tilly. There at an early hour
for the last time he joined in singing Luther's far-famed
hymn, “Eine feste Burg ist nnser Gott,” and his own
favourite one, “Jesus Christ unser Heiland.” In a few
brave words he spoke to his soldiers, and his German
and Scotch auxiliaries, of whom there were many among
his army, and was among the foremost to advance to
meet the foe. Under the heavy mist which prevailed,
the king found himself suddenly face to face with some
of the Imperial forces. He was wounded more than
once, and fell from his horse, which rushing wildly along
the Swedish lines first announced to all that some disaster
had happened to the king. The body of the hero king
was found after the battle despoiled and stripped to the
shirt, trodden and trampled in the mire, and disfigured
with many wounds. Thus fell the noblest and greatest
of Sweden's kings, one whose name stands second to few of
earth's greatest and noblest, at the early age of thirty-eight
—a short life indeed if measured by the number of years,
but not short if measured by its effects. His death did not
prevent, nay, it rather helped to secure the completeness of
‘the victory against overwhelming numbers. Pappenheim,
one of Wallenstein’s ablest generals, who appeared late
on the field with fresh troops, fell in the closing engage-
 

 

184 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xi.

ment, and the artillery and ammunition of Wallenstein
fell into the hands of the victors. We need not attempt
to describe the consternation caused by the fall of Gus-
tavus, but his work was done. His short career marks
the duration of the second period, the turning point of
the war. The remaining period is thus described by
Archbishop Trench: —*“The third act of the tragedy
commenced with his death. The cause which he came
to support, staggered for a season under this blow, was
brought at one moment very low, yet never entirely lost
the ascendancy which his victories had given it. Sweden,
it is true, could not of herself have brought the contest
to a close; but France stepped in, a mightier helper;
and when, sixteen years after his death, in 1648, the
end at length arrived, then, by the treaties of Westphalia,
the entirely equal rights of the two confessions (the
Catholic and the Lutheran) were recognised; and not of
these only, for a third, the Reformed or Calvinist, was
admitted to a footing of equality, and this has remained
the public law of Germany from that day to the present,
nor has it at any time since then been seriously disturbed.”
We may as well here anticipate the result. When
that long-delzyed peace came in 1648, Sweden obtained
Western Pomerania with Rugen and Stettin, Weimar
and Bremen, and the promise of five million rix-dollars
as a poor compensation for eighteen years of sacrifice, of
toil, and bloodshed. Some of these acquisitions were
lost half a century later in the wild expeditions of
Charles XII., but the rest remained with her until, at
the congress of Vienna in 1814, she accepted Norway in
_ their stead. Her armies were not to quit Germany
until the promised five millions were paid, and they
~ consequently remained on German soil until 1652.
Archbishop Trench has drawn a parallel between
Gustavus Adolphus and our own illustrious Duke of
Wellington, which, despite its length, I cannot refrain
from quoting. “ When we thus regard Gustavus as the
ablest commander of his age, it becomes doubly interest
. ing to note the striking resemblance between the plans

 
 

 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND WELLINGTON. 185

which he adopted and the tactics which he pursued on
his first landing in Germany, and those of our great
duke in the early period of his career in the Peninsula.
There were many points of similarity in their situations.
Each was challenging to the conflict a foe to all appearance
immeasurably stronger than himself—one who could
bring armies four or five times larger into the field ; who,
in fact, had such armies already on foot. Each was
well aware that if the army which he brought “with
him were lost, it would be next to impossible to obtain
another. Each had need to combine qualities seemingly
the most opposite—the utmost prudence, patience,
caution, with the extremest boldness and promptitude
to strike a decisive blow when the opportunity for this
arrived. And, exactly as our duke, after long tarrying
by his ships, or behind his triple lines, seized his hour,
struck terribly to the left and to the right, the two
gates of Spain, Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, yielding to
his blows; so too, after long months, during which
Gustavus tarried in remote Pomerania, painfully win-
ning for himself a secure ‘seat of war,’ * besieging and
taking one little town after another, till they called him
in derision, The Snow King, such as could only endure
in those colder regions, and would melt if ever he
advanced southward. After more than a year of this
hugging of the coasts of the Baltic, he too, when his
hour was come, stept forth the boldest of the bold, and
showed himself as daring now as he had showed himself
cautious before. I may add that his fortified camp at
Werben, at the confluence of the Elbe and the Havel,
to which when overmatched for a while he retired,
suffering his adversaries to waste their strength before it,
bore no little resemblance, in the spirit which dictated it,
and the use to which it was turned, to the Duke of
Wellington's lines at Torres Vedras.”

It only remains to add that the body of the fallen king,

* The *“seat of war” meant then what would now be called

the base of military operations, and not, as now, the actual
theatre of hostilities.

 
 

186 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. XVIL

after being deposited for a time in the Castle church at
Wittenberg, was conveyed to Sweden, guarded by 400
survivors of the Smaaland cavalry, at whose head the
king had fallen. In the summer of 1634, his body was
laid in the grave which he had himself caused to be pre-
pared in Riddarholm’s church. On the day after the
battle a huge stone step, still known as the Swede’s stone
. (or Schwedenstein) was dragged by some peasants from a
neighbouring hill, with the intention of marking the
exact spot where Gustavus fell. Being unable to com-
plete their task, it was left about forty paces distant
from the spot, where it remained until, in 1832, a monu-
ment was erected by the German people in grateful
. membrance of their brave and noble champion and
deliverer; and the battle-field of Lutzen has since been
trodden by many a pilgrim anxious to see the ground
consecrated by his heroic death.

 

CHAPTER XVIL

DENMARK AND SWEDEN FROM THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS
ADOLPHUS IN 1632 TO THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES XII.
IN 1697. .

Wren Gustavus fell on the field of Lutzen, his only
child Christina had not quite completed her sixth year.
Oxenstiern, with four other great officers of state, carried
on the government in her name until, on the completion
of her eighteenth year, she was declared capable of ruling
in her own name. Of course the interest of Swedish
history centred for some time on German soil. The
great generals who had been trained by Gustavus—
Gustavus Horn, Bauer, and, most distinguished of all,
Torstensson, all of whom had been described by Gustavus
himself as fit to command armies—remained to carry on
his work. It was owing to their skill and their loyalty
to the memory of their great master that the hopes of

 

 

 
 

 

END OF THIRTY YEARS’ WAR. 18%

immediate peace, founded on the utter prostration of the
Protestant powers and the humiliation of Sweden, were
doomed to disappointment. At times the cause for
which Gustavus had fought and died seemed at a very
low ebb—never more so than when in 1634 the Swedish
troops suffered a severe defeat at Nordlingen, and the
brave but impetuous commander, Gustavus Horn, was
taken captive, and was esteemed the most precious
trophy and result of a victory in which an entire Swedish
army had been taken or destroyed. Under Bauer, the
discipline and the morals of the Swedish army grievously
degenerated, and gross cruelties were perpetrated. Yet
notwithstanding these difficulties, and what was far
worse, the bad faith of those who professed to be their
allies, the gallant army of Sweden maintained its reputa-
tion, and was never entirely overshadowed by the larger
armies of France. The defeat at Nordlingen was effaced
by the victory of Wittstock, in 1636. Torstensson, sur-
named the Swedish lightning, gained a second victory
on the field of Breitenfeld, when he was called away for
a time, in 1643, to lead an army against Christian IV.*
Just before the close of the war, still another Swedish
hero, Wrangel, came forward to maintain his country’s
reputation, but the treaty of Westphalia, in 1648, soon
deprived him of the opportunity of gaining renown,
Meanwhile Christina, the only queen-regnant of
Sweden, was growing up under most careful supervision,
and, inheriting much of the talent of her family, she
became one of the most learned and accomplished women
of her times. She possessed great powers of penetration
and fascination, but unhappily these noble qualities were
marred by a capricious self-will and a want of judgment
and self-control, which shed a dark cloud over the happi-
ness and moral purity of her life. On her favourites she
lavished the most excessive gifts, and seemed regardless
of the nation’s ery for quiet and thrift until the terrible
losses caused by the German war could be repaired. She
determined to win distinction for herself and for her
* See above, page 177.

 
 

 

188  fsTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. VIL,

country by drawing all the distinguished scholars and
artists of the age to her court. Grotius, and the still more
celebrated philosopher Descartes, were among the men thus
brought to her court to enjoy her liberal patronage. The
change of climate and of habits soon proved fatal to
Descartes, who died in 1650, the year after he exchanged
his retreat in Holland for the court of Stockholm. Though
earnestly pressed to marry she sternly refused. Her cousin,
Gustavus Charles, son of her father’s sister, who pleaded
for her hand, was declared her successor, and when that
point was settled, she was herself crowned with more
magnificence than had ever before been witnessed in
Sweden. Then amid all her reckless squandering of the
crown revenues, disquieted by the dissensions in her
diet, and by threatened revolts, in 1648 she announced
“her intention of abdicating the throne. She was induced
by her councillors to postpone her strange design for a
time, but in six years she repeated her announcement.
During the interval she had scattered lands, titles, and
patents of nobility freely on all sides. Meantime her
tastes and amusements became more and more frivolous,
and in 1654 she finally, with much solemnity, resigned
the crown to her cousin, who succeeded under the title
of Charles X. Reserving for herself a considerable
income—which, however, often proved inadequate to her
wants, as we read of her kitchen being twice closed for
want of funds, and her servants begging a dinner for her
and for themselves—she left the country. By the strange
irony of fate, in the following year, 1655, she made a
public profession of her adherence to the Roman Catholic
Church, and was received with marked distinction at
Rome as an illustrious convert. But her strange con-
duct, her chronic state of poverty. her licentious habits,
and her uncontrolled jealousy, inciting her even to the
murder of a favourite in the gallery of Fontainebleau,
made her everywhere an undesirable and unwelcome
guest. Twice she returned to Sweden, in the hopes of
regaining the crown she had laid aside; and in 1668 she
became a candidate for the throne of Poland. Her
 

CHARLES X. 189

frivolous and wasted life was ended at Rome in 1689, at
the age of sixty-three. The inheritor of a glorious name,
and of very superior abilities, she might have left behind
her a great and honoured reputation, but her frivolity,
her want of self-control and of common prudence wrecked
all her nobler qualities, and made her an object of uni-
versal contempt.

On the abdication of Christina in 1654, her cousin
ascended the throne under the title of Charles X. His
reign, though short, was one continued scene of warfare.
His first and most imperative duty was to replenish his
exhausted treasury by obtaining the restitution of the
lands and revenues which had been so freely lavished in
the previous reign. Then, to gratify his own passion for
warlike adventure, and to find employment for his rest-
less and discontented people, he resolved upon fighting
somewhere. Poland and Denmark were fixed upon as the
objects of attack, as the foolish conduet of the King of
Poland furmshed an excellent pretext for an immediate
invasion. The king, John Casimir, the youngest son of
Sigismund—the cousin of Gustavus Adolphus, who
had been deprived of the throne of Sweden, asserted
his claim to his father’s throne. Charles poured in his
troops, and Poland was speedily overrun. A desperate
engagement lasted for three days, near Warsaw, which
ended in Casimir’s utter defeat, and his flight into Silesia.
The Elector of Brandenburg was at the same time com
pelled to acknowledge himself the vassal of Sweden.

But the very brilliance and rapidity of these conquests
raised up enemies. The Russians began to attack Livonia
and Esthonia, Austria was sending an imperial army to
assist the Poles, and the King of Denmark, Frederick
IIT, seized what he considered the golden opportunity
to strike down a hated rival, and to recover some of the
territories that had been torn from his kingdom by the
treaty of Bromsebro. Charles at once abandoned his
hasty conque_ts, and turned the tide of war upon Den-
mark, His first inroad placed Denmark at his mercy.
Holstein, Schleswig, and Jutland were overrun with

 
 

190 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP XVii.

marvellous rapidity, and in 1658 Denmark was glad to-
purchase peace by the treaty of Roeskilde, in which
she gave up the old provinces of Skaania, Halland, and
Bleking, Danish provinces in the Swedish mainland,
which still remain an integral portion of the Swedi.h
dominions. Trondheim, also in Norway, and the island
of Bornholm were yielded to the conqueror. The pros-
tration of Denmark invited the restless Charles to r-new
the attack. Five times between 1658 and his death in
1660 he made war on the Danish monarch ; Copenhagen
was besieged more than once, and the Danish fleet was
almost destroyed by Wrangel, who had begun to win his
laurels in the Thirty Years’ War, just before its close.
The peace of Roeskilde was signed in February 1658,
and in October of the same year we find Charles again
besieging Coper' en, and the unhappy Danes endeavour-
ing to defend themselves, their capital, and their national
existence, with all the courage of desperation. Pro-
~ visions were beginning to fail, and it seemed as if the
very independence of Denmark must be sacrificed, when,
to the great joy of the Danes, a Dutch fleet, under
Admiral Opdam, arrived and defeated Wrangel, the
Swedish admiral. Still the siege dragged on, and in
February 1659 Charles resolved to attempt to take the
city by storm. The Swedish soldiers were excited to
fury by the promise of an unrestrained plunder for three
days, when no mercy was to be given. White sheets
were worn over the armour of the Swedes, that their
approach during the night in the snow might not be per-
ceived. But the Danes had been forewarned. The king,
Frederick III., and his queen exerted themselves to the
utmost to animate the bravery of the besieged; the
plans of Charles were doomed to failure, and Copenhagen
was saved. The Elector of Brandenburg poured an army
into Jutland, and drove out the invading Swedes; the
island of Bornholm threw off the Swedish yoke, and
Trondheim and other Norwegian towns repulsed the
Swedes. The English and Dutch sent a combined fleet
to assist the Danes. and Charles, making yet another

 
 

 

 

DEATH OF CHARLES X. 181

attack upon the island Funen, met with an overwhelming
defeat. Still meditating other warlike designs, in 1660
his ambitious career was cut short by death, and a treaty
of peace was signed at Copenhagen, which saved Denmark
when just on the brink of ruin. As a soldier and general
Charles was a worthy disciple and pupil of his great
uncle, Gustavus Adolphus, but utterly without those
high moral aims which throw a lurid light on the horrors
of war, and redeem it from some of its more hideous fea-
tures. No cause of freedom or of truth was elevated
by his success ; no enthusiasm of patriotism or religious
fervour attended his progress; no blessings followed his
victories. In such a career of rapine, plunder, and blood-
shed, we see nothing to admire or extol. His death left
an impoverished country, surrounded by bitter enemies
thirsting for revenge, and it was but a small compensa-
tion for the miseries he had inflicted, that with his dying
breath he exhorted his ministers to make peace with
their enemies,

Charles left behind him an infant son. A regency of
five great officers of the kingdom, with the queen-mother
at their head, was appointed to carry on the government.
If Sweden was exhausted by the ceaseless wars of the
late monarch, her enemies were in a similar position, and
all parties were therefore not disinclined to come to
terms. Very speedily was peace arranged with Poland.
The Polish king renounced all claims upon the crown of
Sweden and upon Livonia, and thus the feud between
the Catholic and Protestant branches of the house of
Vasa was closed. Frederick III. of Denmark was at
first unwilling to listen to any terms, hoping that he
might be able, during the minority of the King of Sweden,
to avenge the wrongs and redeem the losses that had
been inflicted upon him in the previous reign. But he
was at length induced by the strong remonstrances of
England and Holland to consent to the confirmation} of
‘Sweden's possession of Halland, Bleking, and Skaania,
while Trondheim and the isle of Bornholm were restored
to Denmark. The history of Denmark and Sweden be-

 
 

 

 

 

192 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. CHAP. XVIL

comes so involved that it is impossible to keep the two
separate.

This year, 1660, marks an important era in the history
of Denmark. The attitude of the nobles had long been
growing intolerable. Sharing no burdens, relieved to a
great extent from taxation, which they could best afford
to pay, and thus throwing a far heavier burden upon the
trading and peasant class, thwarting every effort on the
part of the sovereign to promote the welfare of the
humbler classes, using their privileges merely for their
own self-aggrandizement, they had excited the hatred
and, what was more dangerous, the contempt of all
classes. To this selfish apathy and opposition all the mis
fortunes and disasters of Christian IV. were attributed,
and the more recent humiliations and miseries inflicted
by the invasions of Charles X. were with unreasoning
unanimity ascribed to the same cause. The king well
knew that any effort to put down the hyde -headed
tyranny of this faction would be hailed with joy by
the people. Nor were still more persuasive arguments
in the form of money and lavish promises wanting to
win over some of the popular leaders. On September 8th
a diet was summoned at Copenhagen, when the clergy
and the mercantile classes, headed by Hannibal Schested
—the one nobleman who sided with the king and the
malcontents, compelled the nobles to consent to the
investment of the monarch with absolute power. The
institutions of the country were carefully adapted to the
new constitution, commerce was encouraged, the arts
and sciences liberally patronised, and the magnificent
royal library, now one of the largest in Europe, was
established. The lot of the peasants remained un-
changed, and the right of the lord of the manor to put
out the eyes of the peasant who shot a deer on his lands,
or even under certain conditions to hang him, was not
interfered with. After a remarkable reign of twenty-
two years Frederick died in 1670, and it is no small
distinction to be able to say of him, that he used the
new and excessive powers conferred upon him by the

 

 
 

   

SWEDEN, AN ALLY OF FRANCE. 193

Revolution of 1660 with prudence and moderation.
Some acts of vindictive cruelty have left a stain upon his

memory, but they seem to have been mainly due to the

evil influence of his wife, the queen Sophie Amalia.

One of his sons was the Prince George of Denmark, the

husband of our Queen Anne, and his daughter, Ulrica

Eleonora married Charles XI of Sweden, and thus

became the mother of the renowned Charles XII.

In the meantime Sweden was enjoying an unusually
protracted period of quiet and peace, under the regency
that was conducting the government during the long
minority of Charles XI. But it was not altogether a
healthy peace, during which the moral and material well-
being of the people was deepened and secured, but a
false peace, growing out of the mutual jealousy and
neglect of the governing powers,—a peace in which every
department was mismanaged, the defences of the country
left to decay—a peace which was the harbinger of future
suffering and war rather than the herald of increasing
prosperity.

When Christian V. succeeded his father Frederick ITI.
on the throne of Denmark in 1670, Sweden was still
under a regency. At this time the restless ambition of
Louis XIV. of France was beginning to make itself felt,
and the northern kingdoms were drawn into the vortex.
At first the regency was inclined to join the alliance
which was formed to protect the Netherlands against the
designs of Louis, but the gold of France proved too
strong a temptation, and Sweden entered into an alliance
with the King of France. In 1674, Sweden was called
upon to take her share in the war by sending an army
into Germany. But before the Swedish forces could
effect a junction with those of France, they were
unexpectedly attacked and defeated at Fehrbellin by
the Elector of Brandenburg. Holland and Denmark,
encouraged by this defeat, and by the fact that the
defences of Sweden had been shamefully neglected by
the regency, declared war against that country, hoping
#hus to recompense themselves for all past injuries, and

 
 

194 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XVIL

permanently to disable a hated and a dreaded rival.
The state of affairs became so alarming, that in 1675
Charles XI. resolved to take the management of affairs
into his own hands. The course of the war was decidedly
unfavourable to Sweden. The Danes, under their great
admiral Neils, inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Swedish
fleet, while in 1676 Charles won a victory over the
Danes near the town of Lund, but the victory was dearly
purchased by the loss of more than half his men. In
Germany, despite the skill and heroism of the Swedish
general Otto Konigsmark, the fortune of war did not
smile on the Swedish arms. But her great ally was
triumphant, and in the peace which was signed at St.
Germains in 1679, Louis stoutly upheld the claims of
Sweden. The whole of Pomerania was restored to her,
and all Swedish and Danish conquests were mutually
restored. The peace was cemented by the marriage of
Charles XI. to Ulrica Eleonora, the kindly and gentle
sister of Christian V. of Denmark.

Peace being thus restored, Charles resolved to attempt
to carry out such a change in the constitution as his
father-in-law Frederick III had carried out in Denmark,
As in Denmark, so in Sweden, the commonalty were
willing and anxious to exalt the power of the crown at
the expense of the nobility, and by their help Charles
gradually succeeded in his designs. In 1693 an act was
passed, by which the king was made absolute. No
doubt the tyranny of the nobles, by which not the
peasants only, but also the burghers, were left helpless,
had brought about this bloodless revolution. The
tyranny of one man could not, they thought, be so far-
reaching and so galling as that of a whole class. His
extended power was wisely used. The army and navy
were put into a thorough state of efliciency, by means of
the money which he compelled the nobles to refund.
The church was brought under new regulations, and
bishops and clergy were instructed to see that all the
persons in their parishes were taught to read, and were
carefully instructed in the rudiments of the Christian
 

 

COUNTER-REVOLUTION IN DENMARK. 195

faith. By his geniality, and his warm sympathy with
the people in their complaints and their amusements, he
won a general popularity. His life was prematurely cut
off in 1697 by a long and painful illness, at the age of
forty-two, leaving behind him three children, of whom
the eldest, Charles XII., succeeded him on the throne.
He was destined to fill a large place in the history not
only of Sweden, but of Europe.

Christian V. ascended the throne of Denmark in 1670.
The result of the war into which he plunged with Sweden
has been already told. Though the honours of victory
usually belonged to Denmark, the fruits of victory fell to
the lot of her more fortunate antagonist. This contradic-
tion is explained by the fact that Sweden’s powerful ally,
Louis XIV. of France, insisted that all that had been taken
by Denmark from Sweden should be restored to the latter
power. The only gain which fell to Denmark’s lot was
the fact that both her fleet and her army obtained a
thoroughly good training, and became much more efficient.

The most remarkable event in this reign was what
might be called the counter-revolution effected by
Christian. Hereditary titles had hitherto been unknown
among the Danish nobility ; they were simply known by
the general name of nobles, and, as we have seen, they
had been effectively humbled by the previous sovereign,
Frederick III. But now a new order of nobility was
created, with the different names and gradations of rank,
and two orders of knighthood—the Dannebrog and the
Elephant—were established. ‘I'hese new titles were
generally purchased by money, and thus a splendid
court, distinguished by all the rigid formality and
ceremonial, as well as by the immorality of Versailles,
surrounded the king, and gratified his love of display.
Some of the unrighteous privileges conferred upon the
old nobility were granted to the new order of grandees,
especially the exemption from taxation, except in case
of war, and personal freedom from arrest, though their
estates might be sequestrated for debt.

The country was indebted during this reign for many

 
 

196 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. XVI.

practical benefits to the great astronomer and mathema-
tician, Olaus Romer. He reformed the coinage, repaired
the roads, and organised an improved system of lighting
and watching the streets of Copenhagen. He also drew
up a new survey of the land, which became the basis of
a more equitable taxation of the different estates.

The bigotry of the Lutheran Church deprived
Denmark of the valuable labours of the Huguenots, who,
when driven out of France by the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes in 1685, petitioned for leave to settle
in the country. Refused admission, they betook them-
selves to other lands, where the doctrines of Calvin were
tolerated, and where their skill and industry enriched not
only themselves, but the countries where they settled.
The creation of the new orders of nobility tended to
degrade the peasants, who were reduced almost to
serfdom, and to impoverish the land. Christian V.
died in 1699, after a reign of thirty years,

CHAPTER XVIIL
CHARLES XIL

Tue death of Charles XI., in 1697, opened the way for
the accession of his distinguished son Charles XIL—
then in his fifteenth year. His excellent mother, Ulrica
Eleonora, had died shortly before her husband. The
queen-dowager therefore was placed at the head of the
regency, to conduct the affairs of the kingdom, until in
accordance with the late king's will, Charles should
attain his eighteenth year. His early youth gave some
promise of his future character. A love of sport—the
more loved in proportion to its danger—was his dis-
tinguishing feature. In the very first year of his
nominal reign—being present at a martial review —he
communicated to two of his companions his wish and
determination to take the meigns of government in his

 
 

CHARLES XII. BEGINS TO REIGN. 197

own hands. His councillors willingly assented, as their
recent experiences of a regency during the late reign
were far from encouraging. The queen-dowager was
surprised at the demand, but she deemed it the wiser
policy to submit; and thus, while but a lad, Charles
found himself the undisputed sovereign of a large and
important kingdom. At his coronation, he gave an
indication of that independent spirit and impatience of
control which marked his whole career. During the
simple ceremony, he snatched the crown from the hands
of the primate Archbishop of Upsala, and placed it on
his own head—an example followed, it will be remem-
bered, by Napoleon Bonaparte at his coronation. Dr.
Dunham thus describes the condition of the country at
his accession :—‘ When Charles ascended the throne,
he found the kingdom in a flourishing state. Internally,
the continuance of peace had given an impulse to
industry and commerce. Externally, the possessions of
Sweden were vast, and formed so many admirable marts
for the disposal of her traffic. The great provinces of
Livonia, Carelia, and Ingria, the strong towns of Wismar
and Viborg, the isles of Rugen and Oesel, the sees of
Bremen and Verden, with the greater part of Pomerania,
were, when added to Sweden and Finland, ample enough
for anything short of that unmeasured ambition, which
thinks nothing gained so long as anything remains to
be gained.” *

But the youth and inexperience of Charles, his
apparent indifference to the cares and duties of govern-
ment, seemed to present an opportunity not to be missed
for the enemies of Sweden to gain an easy triumph, and
to exact a bitter and lasting revenge for the cruel and
unrighteous wars of Charles X. These enemies were
Denmark, Poland, and Russia. Frederick IV., who
had succeeded Christian V. on the throne of Denmark
in 1699, was anxious to seize the territories of a name-
sake, Frederick, duke of Holstein-Gottorp, who had

* Dr. Dunham’s History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway,
vol. iii., p. 249,
198 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XVIIL.

married the eldest sister of the King of Sweden. The
humiliation of Sweden was therefore necessary to the
carrying out of Ais plan. Augustus, King of Poland
and Elector of Saxony, cast longing eyes upon Livonia,
which was separated from his dominions only by the
river Dwina, while the Baltic Sea lay between it and
Sweden. Peter the Great, czar of Russia, fancied that
Ingermanland, also on the eastern side of the Baltic,
would be a most valuable addition to his territories.
Sweden, with its youthful monarch, was the only obstacle
to all these schemes. What could be more easy than to
form a triple alliance, humble Sweden, and then arrange
matters to their own liking? But they reckoned without
their host. They little knew the fiery spirit, the indomit-
able courage, the obstinate perseverance, the haughty
independence that lay hidden within the soul of the
youthful, sport-loving, frivolous, and inexperienced
Charles. :
Frederick IV., who afterwards proved one of Denmark’s
ablest and wisest rulers, commenced his reign most
inauspiciously by seizing upon the territories of the
Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. The duke at once hastened
to Stockholm, to lay the matter before Charles and his
councillors. The news of this threefold alliance had been
whispered among them, but now it was an accepted fact.
The councillors were panic-stricken. What could Sweden
do against such a combination? One person alone
remained calm and unmoved—the young king. He
assured his advisers that he would never commence an
unjust war, but he would never conclude a just one until
his enemies were destroyed. “I will attack,” he continued,
“the first that shall declare against me, and having
conquered him, I hope I shall be able to strike terror
in the rest.” Nor were these merely fine words. He
at once carried them out in deeds. He abandoned all
his amusements, never to resume them, adopted the
‘plainest mode of living, sharing the humblest and simplest
fare with his soldiers, and accustomed himself to endure
the severest hardships and privations. Troops and ships
 

BATTLE OF NARVA, 199

were speedily collected, and Charles landed in Sjelland,
and advanced in person to Copenhagen. Meantime he
found a powerful ally in William III. of England, who
sent a large fleet of English and Dutch ships into the
Baltic to co-operate with Charles. The capital was
exposed to attack both by land and by sea. Charles
maintained strict discipline in his army, and insisted
upon full payment being made for every requirement; he
thus won the admiration even of the peasantry of the
island he came to conquer. King Frederick, alarmed
for the safety of his capital, was glad to make a hasty
peace with Duke Frederick of Holstein, by granting him
the undisturbed sovereignty of his dominions, and the
promise of payment of 260,000 rix-dollars. This was
the result of a few weeks’ work. The peace of
Traventhal was concluded in August 1700.

Then at once the impetuous Charles crossed the Baltic
to meet another of his foes. Riga was invested by a
combined army of Poles, Saxons, and Russians, but
Charles drove off the assailants and relieved the garrison.
An army of 60,000 Russians were besieging Narva,
against whom Charles fearlessly advanced with an army
of 8000 men, and after an engagement of three hours,
the Russian army was routed, and all the artillery,
ammunition, and baggage of the Russians fell into the
hands of the conqueror. Eighteen thousand Russians
were drowned in the river Narva, and the number of
prisoners taken were more than three times the number
of the whole Swedish army.

Poland still remained to be subdued. Having spent
the winter at Narva, Charles advanced into that country
in 1701. Tt was to no purpose that the enemy disputed
the passage of the boundary-river, the Dwina. Warsaw
was taken by storm in 1702. Augustus was utterly
defeated in the two battles of Klissov and Pultusk, and
was glad to resign his Polish crown® and retire to his

* Dr. Crichton quotes from Voltaire the following characteristic

anecdote :—*‘ As a last alternative, Augustus resolved on a
personal interview, in the hope that his presence might soften

 
 

200 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XVIIL

own electorate of Saxony; and by the conqueror’s
influence Stanislaus Leczinsky was elected king by the
Diet of Warsaw in 1704. The Poles hesitated somewhat
on account of the youth of Stanislaus, but Charles soon
removed their difficulties by the suggestive remark, “If
I am not mistaken, he is as old as I am!” The czar
made some efforts to help the fallen Augustus, but
Charles at once advanced to meet him in Lithuania, and
drove out an army of 20,000 Russians, strongly entrenched.

Thus the three conspiring foes were effectually humbled,
and if now we could tell of Charles, sated with glory, re-
turning to his kingdom, and devoting his mighty energies
to the peaceful development of his kingdom, what a
brilliant page of history might be written! But prosperity
and success had done their baneful work. Flattery had
inflated his vanity, and intensified his self-will, and he
was urged on by mad schemes of conquest which brought
ruin and misery to himself and to his kingdom. The
career of Charles is but another illustration of the truth
that while adversity slays its thousands, prosperity slays
its tens of thousands.

Charles remained for some time in Poland, and even ad-
vanced into Saxony with a view of still further humbling
his adversary. Queen Anne of England, apprehensive lest
the interference of Charles might have an unfavourable
effect upon the war in the Netherlands, instructed the
Duke of Marlborough to repair to Saxony and seek an
interview with Charles in order to ascertain if he had
any scheme for forming an alliance with the declining
the heart of his inexorable adversary. The two monarchs met,
for the first time, in the Swedish camp at Guatersdorff. Charles
was in his usual homely garb,—a coarse blue coat, with gilt
brass buttons, buckskin gloves that reached to the elbows, and
a piece of black taffety tied round his neck instead of a cravat.
Not a syllable was uttered on the subject of his journey; the
conversation turned wholly upon the king’s jack-boots, which he
told his royal guest he had worn constantly for six years, never
laying them aside except when he went to sleep. Every mark
of outward respect was paid to the ex-sovereign, but he could
obtain no mitigation of the severe mandate that stript him of his
crown.”’—Crichton’s Scandinavia, vol. ii., p. 127.

 
 

TURNING-POINT IN CHARLES’ CAREER, 201

cause of Louis XIV. Voltaire has given us an interest-
ing account of the interview which took place in the
camp at Altranstadt. The courtly dress, the finished
elegance of the duke surprised Charles, who could not
understand how any man, still less such a man, could
care for such trifles. The cautious Marlborough soon
ascertained, without making any formal proposals, that
Russia was the next enemy that would be assailed. He
had deposed a king of Poland-—could he not depose a
czar of Russia? And then the pope—he had condemned
certain concessions to the Protestants of Silesia—could
not he be deposed as well? Then Turkey, Egypt, and
Persia might come afterwards in succession. Surely the
poison of success had done its work too well.

In September, 1707, he left Saxony with an army of
43,000 men. Another army of 20,000 was awaiting him
in Poland under one of his best generals, Levenhaupt; a
detachment of 15,000 was stationed in Finland, and
recruits were expected speedily from Sweden. But none
knew his destination. During the absence of Charles in
Poland and Saxony, Peter the Great, despite the crushing
defeat at Narva in 1700, had been carefully securing his
ground in Ingermanland and Livonia, as he was resolved
to advance the Russian boundaries to the shores of the
Baltic. As an effectual means of doing this he actually
resolved to build his new capital, the future Petersburg,
on the banks of Neva in the Swedish province of Inger-
manland. The Swedish commanders could’ make no
stand against the overwhelming numbers of the Russians.
With a strange mixture of audacity and rashness, Charles
resolved to change the whole current of the war by plung-
ing into the heart of the country, and announced his
intention of treating with Peter at Moscow. On hearing
of this intention, Peter coolly remarked, “ My brother
Charles affects to play the part of Alexander, but I hope
he will not find in me a Darius.”

The advance of the Swedes in a direct line was sorely
impeded by the breaking up of the roads and the devasta-
tion of the country which Peter had ordered. The winter
 

 

202 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XVIIL

was unusually severe, and Charles, after crossing the
Dnieper and enduring the severest privations in the
midst of a hostile and almost desolate country, was com-
pelled to abandon the hope of reaching Moscow. His
general, Levenhaupt, after a brave resistance, was over-
powered by an immense army of Russians while on his
way to join his master; and at last, with a remnant of
6000 men in a shattered condition, having lost all their
baggage and stores, he reached the Swedish lines only to
prove an additional burden on their rapidly diminishing
resources. With an army reduced to 18,000 men, Charles
laid siege to Pultowa, hoping there to find food and
clothing, which were sorely needed. Peter was advanc-
ing to meet him with an army of 55,000 men. There,
on the 8th of July 1709, a desperate conflict took place,
and the Swedish forces were hopelessly ruined. The
brilliant conquests and startling successes of nine event-
ful years were lost in one day. Rashness amounting to
madness had lost what skill and bravery, rising to the
level of genius, had won. The king spared no effort, he
flinched from no danger, and though severely wounded
he maintained his post to the last. But all was in vain.
With but a few followers the defeated king was com
pelled to flee, and after incurring the greatest dangers
and privations he arrived with but a few followers at
Bender, a Turkish town in Bessarabia, abandoning all
his treasures to his conqueror Peter the Great. Of the
soldiers who survived that fearful day, most were taken
prisoners, and those who attempted to save themselves
by flight were overcome by fatigue and hunger, or cut
down by the pursuing Russians. Few ever saw their
home again.

The halo of glory was dimmed; the belief in the
invincibility of Charles was shattered. His defeat and
his flight into the Turkish dominions revived the courage
of his enemies. Again Frederick of Denmark and
Augustus of Saxony, encouraged by Prussia and Russia,
renewed their league, and Sweden was threatened with
danger on all sides. Frederick resolved to seize the

 
 

x

FURTHER SWEDISH VICTORIES, 208

opportunity of regaining the lost provinces of Skaania,
Halland, and Bleking. But the contagion of the king’s
high unconquerable spirit had not died out in Sweden.
General Steinback, who had accompanied Charles on his
ill-fated march into Russia, and was one of the few who
had been permitted, on account of bad health, to return
to Lis country, proved himself a worthy representative
of his monarch. Gathering together some 15,000 youths
of the peasant class, who though badly clothed and
armed, proved themselves able and valiant soldiers, he
was able to repel Frederick's advance. The nickname
of “Wooden shoes” given to these troops shows too
clearly their defective equipment, but the result also
shows their excellent training and discipline. Frederick
was compelled to return home, and from that day to the
present, the foot of a Danish invader has never trodden
the soil of Sweden. But on the Russian frontier Peter
was more successful, and succeeded in depriving Sweden
of the provinces of Livonia and Esthonia, and of a
considerable part of the ancient duchy of Finland.

Steinback again met the Danes on German soil, where
they were striving to wrest Pomerania from Sweden.
Again the gallant Swede defeated the Danish forces at
Gadesbusch in the duchy of Mecklenburg in 1712, but
being unable to master the allied troops, he retired to
Tonning in Schleswig, and on his way he sullied his fair
fame by burning the defenceless town of Altona, and
thus exciting the indignation of Europe. Being unable
to prevent the union of the Russian and Danish forces,
Steinback was compelled to yield himself to King
Frederick, and shortly afterwards he died in captivity at
Copenhagen in 1713.

The Danish fleet in the meantime was achieving great
triumphs under the leadership of the brave Tordenskjold.
But where was Charles himself all this time? He re-
mained in Turkey until the end of the year 1714, receiv-
ing a very handsome allowance from the Sultan Achmet
of 500 crowns a day, and repaying this generosity by
forming endless schemes and plots to embroil Turkey

 
 

204 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XVIII,

with Russia. His restless intrigues and obstinate temper
at last wearied out his host, and he was requested to
leave Bender. His removal was only effected by force
under circumstances almost too absurd even for ridicule.
With a few hundred men he defended himself against a
large number, and after some loss of life it was only by
setting his house on fire, and seizing him while he was
escaping, as he happened to fall by his spurs getting
entangled, that he could be overpowered. From Bender
he removed to a village near Adrianople, called Demotika,
where he remained for ten months, chiefly in bed, under
pretence of illness. When he saw he could obtain no
further help from Turkey he started off with his attendants,
and in the marvellously short period of fourteen days
made his way from Adrianople through Hungary, Austria,
and Germany, and arrived at the port of Stralsund. A
combined force of Prussians, Danes, and Saxons were
besieging the place. Charles defended it to the last with
his usual reckless courage, but after a siege of two
months the town was compelled to surrender. Charles,
embarking in a small boat, crossed the Baltic, and landed
safely in Skaania, though Tordenskjold was scouring the
seas to prevent his reaching Sweden.

The hostile alliance was now strengthened by the
adhesion of George I. of England. The King of Den-
mark had sold to him, as Elector of Hanover, the town-
ships of Bremen and Verden, and he sent an English
fleet into the Baltic to protect these cities. But nothing
could restrain the impetuous warrior. By the most
extraordinary exertions an army was raised, and he was
forming a plan to march over the ice and burst into
Holland. This design was prevented by an unexpected
thaw. Then Norway was attacked, but no success
attended his efforts. His plan of seizing Christiana was
thwarted by the patriotism of a clergyman’s wife, who,
making her way during the night through intricate forest
paths, was able to give warning to the nearest Norwegian
guards. While the king was thus fighting to humble
his rival of Denmark, his favourite minister Gortz was
 

»

DEATH OF CHARLES XII, 205

craftily negotiating with Charles’s old enemy Peter the
Great, who was dissatisfied with his former allies, and
was willing to form an alliance with Charles. What
might have been effected by the alliance of two such men
we are not left even to guess, for the sudden death of
Charles at the siege of Frederickshall deranged all these
plans. It was during the early morning of 11th December
1718, while leaning over the side of a breastwork giving
orders to some men in the trenches, that he was struck
by a ball in the temple, and immediately died.

Thus suddenly one of the bravest and most renowned
of the illustrious family of Vasa was cut off at the early
age of thirty-six. Brave and renowned he certainly was,
but it was the bravery of recklessness, the renown of a
restless ambition. He had many excellent and noble
qualities. His unfailing cheerfulness, his simple personal
habits, his calmness amid danger and excitement, his
hearty sympathy with his soldiers, sharing all their
privations and difficulties, his moderate use of the
absolute power with which he was invested, his moral
purity, his respect for religion surely form a strong claim
upon our respect and admiration; but we cannot dis-
cern in him the elements of a true statesman, who can
patiently build up new and stable organizations. Gus-
tavus Adolphus was his great model and example, but
we cannot place the pupil on the same lofty level as that
occupied by the master. The exact manner of his death
still remains an unsolved mystery. Did he die from the
effect of a chance shot directed from the besieged fortress,
or did he fall by an assassin’s hand? Opinions have been
and still continue to be divided; but on one point there
has been no difference of opinion. Such was the exhaustion
of the country, that for many years Sweden ceased to
have any influence in Europe, nor has she ever regained
the position won for her by the genius of Gustavus Adol-
pus, and forfeited by the infatuated madness of Charles

X11,

sma
206 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIX.

CHAPTER XIX.

FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLES XIL (1718) To THE
ACCESSION OF BERNADOTTE,

THE unexpected death of Charles XII. undoubtedly
delivered Denmark from a most serious peril. Gortz,
the able and ambitious minister of Charles, saw clearly
that the combination forming against his master must
be fatal to Sweden unless by some means he could pro-
duce division among the allied forces. Hearing that the
czar, Peter the Great, was dissatisfied, Gortz saw his
opportunity and seized it. The offer of the port of
‘Wismar, as a convenient retreat for his shipping, or of the
island of Rugen, and the provinces of Livonia and In-
germanland, he correctly surmised, would win over the
ambitious czar. Livonia and Ingermanland were not a
very great sacrifice, for they were really already in the
hands of Russia beyond the possibility of recovery. But
the czar swallowed the tempting bait, and on his part he
was ready to join Charles against all his enemies. The
cause of the Pretender was to be espoused as a means of
punishing George I. for seizing Bremen and Verden, and
Stanislaus was to be restored to the throne of Poland,
from which he had been driven by Augustus. Norway
was to be united with Sweden, and the King of Denmark
was to be compelled to renounce all further claims to
Holstein and Schleswig. Cardinal Alberoni, the astute
and unscrupulous minister of Spain, entered warmly into
these vast designs, fraught as they were with serious
danger to England, and threatening the very existence
~ of Denmark. But that solitary ball which sped its
mysterious flight through the darkness of the night on
the trenches before Frederickshall shattered all these
plans. No wonder when the gallant Tordenskjold
entered the audience chamber of Frederick IV. of Den-
mark, announcing the startling intelligence, ¢ Charles
XII. is dead, and there is not one Swede in the whole
GENERAL PEACE. 207

of Norway,” that the king joyfully embraced him, and
hung a chain of gold round his neck.

The boast of Tordenskjold was literally true. Prince
Frederick of Hesse, the husband of Ulrica Eleanora, the
sister of the deceased king, immediately raised the siege
of Frederickshall, and led his army back to Sweden. The
senate hastily met at Stockholm, and their first act was
to order the arrest of Gortz. The fallen minister was
seized while on his way from Aaland, where the secret
negotiations with the minister of the czar had been
carried on, was hurried to Stockholm, and somewhat
cruelly condemned to death.

The one cry from the whole country was for peace.
Charles's sister, Ulrica Eleanora, ascended the vacant
throne, but she only could secure her election by
abandoning all claim to absolute authority, and consent-
ing to rule under the control of the diet. Then every
energy was devoted to meet the one crying need. The
cession of Bremen and Verden to George I. as Elector of
Hanover was secured by the payment on his part of a
million of crowns, and his engaging to send a squadron
to the Baltic to aid Sweden in obtaining more favourable
terms from her other enemies, especially from Russia.
In 1721 peace with Russia was signed at Nystad, a town
of Finland, according to which, by the payment to
Sweden of two million rix-dollars, Peter the Great re-
tained Esthonia, Livonia, Ingermanland, and part of
Finland, and secured his dominion on the Gulf of Fin-
land as a highway for Russian commerce. To Prussia’s
lot fell the town of Stettin, the islands of Usedom and
Wollin, and that portion of Pomerania which lies between
the Oder and the Peene.

Denmark obtained very substantial benefit from the
treaty of Fredericksborg in the previous year 1720, by
which Sweden pledged herself to pay six hundred
thousand rix-dollars, and renounce her exemption from
paying sound dues, a privilege which she had enjoved
since the peace of Bromsebro in 1645. Sweden further
pledged herself to give no more assistance to the Duke
 

208 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. x1%

of Gottorp while the permanent possession of Schleswig
was guaranteed to Denmark by France and England.
And this was the outcome of all the glory, the fame, the
bloodshed, and the misery of the wars of Charles XIL.!
Sweden now had to drink to the dregs the cup of humilia-
tion, and sinking to a fourth-rate power, to live only on
the memory of her past renown and glory.

Frederick IV. of Denmark was undoubtedly guilty of
striking the first blow, which roused the lion-spirit of the
youthful and impetuous Charles of Sweden, and severely
had he suffered for it. But as we have seen, though the
sacrifice of human life was irreparable, in other matters
Denmark ultimately was largely benefited by the result.
Frederick proved himself a good and wise ruler. No
stronger proof of this could be given than the fact that
‘though he inherited a serious national debt from his pre-
decessor, Charles V., and had to meet the heavy expenses
of a long war, and though he had to incur a very large
outlay in gratifying the extravagant tastes of his queen
‘by the erection of the palaces of Fredericksborg and
Fredensborg, he yet succeeded in reducing that debt to a
small sum. Frugality in a sovereign is a virtue so rare,
and so widely beneficial, that when it is met with, it
deserves, on the part of the historian, a grateful recogni-
tion. As Englishmen, we all remember with pride the
public frugality of our own Elizabeth, and are willing to
speak with kindly forbearance of her many faults, not
even forgetting her personal extravagance. A succession
of public calamities marked Frederick's reign. Pestil-
ence, floods, and fire—all worked terrible devastation.
The fire at Copenhagen in 1728 not only involved a fear-
ful loss of life and of many public buildings, but included
amid its ravages the splendid university library. In all
these trials the king exerted himself to the utmost to
alleviate the sufferings of his people. He extended
education among his subjects by the establishment of
cadet schools in Copenhagen for the fleet and the army,
and he is said to have built and endowed two hundred
and forty schools.
 

“rar HATS” AND “THE 0APS.” 209

+n accordance with the policy often adopted among
the smaller kingdoms, he let out his armies to the greater
powers, and twenty thousand Danish soldiers served
under Eugene and our own Marlborough, with great
distinction, in the war of the Spanish succession. But
it is far more pleasurable to record of him that he founded
an orphan home and school, and that he was the first
sovereign who took any steps to spread the knowledge of
Christianity among his heathen colonial subjects. In
1721 Hans Egede and his wife, provided with ships and
money by the king, went to labour in Greenland, where
their lives were spent in striving to elevate and civilise the
people. At his death in 1736 his son, Paul Egede, took
up his work. Since then mission-houses and factories
have sprung up side by side, and the blessings of Christian
civilization have been extended to that long-neglected
country. The gallant deeds of Tordenskjold testify to
Frederick’s care for the defence of his country, and at
his death in 1730 he left behind a peaceful and a prosper-
ous kingdom.

The sister of Charles XII. having, as we have seen,
ascended the throne of Sweden after the death of that
monarch, with the consent of the diet in 1720, resigned
the sovercign power into the hands of her husband,
Prince Frederick of Hesse. He took the title of Frederick
L, and ruled over Sweden for a period of thirty years.
Thus the crown passed into foreign hands, and the great
dynasty of the Vasas was for a time suspended. This
reign was a period of deep humiliation, for which the
king was not so much to be blamed as his rash predecessor.

The recovery of their former power by the nobles led
to the outbreak of fierce party spirit among them, and
they were torn by rival factions under the fantastic
names of “The Hats,” of which party Count Horn
was leader, and “The Caps” (literally Nattmosser, “The
Night Caps”) under the leadership of Count Gyllen-
borg. “The Hats” were exceedingly jealous of Russia,
and looked for the support of France, while “The
Caps” were anxious to secure peace by confirming the
 

 

210 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. RIX.

territorial cessions already made to Russia. Tn 1738
“The Hats” gained a complete ascendency, and entered
into an alliance with France against Russia, and in 1741
war broke out with a result disastrous to Sweden. The
Swedes met with a terrible defeat at Nemanstrand,
when 3000 were killed or taken prisoners. The Swedish
army had to capitulate at Helsingfors, and Eastern Fin-
land was ceded to Russia. The execution of the two
Swedish commanders was necessary to appease the rage
of the people, but it was a sorry compensation for the
bitter humiliation. It was still more humiliating to be
obliged to beg help from the czar against Denmark, and
receive 10,000 Russians as protectors within her frontiers.
The loved Queen Ulrica Eleanora died, and the childless
king surrendered himself to amusement, and seemed in-
different to all going on around him. Disputes arose
about the succession, which were ultimately settled by the
selection of Adolphus Frederick, a prince of the Holstein-
Gottorp line, of the Vasa family, who, on Frederick's death
in 1750 quietly ascended the throne. Amid the internal
dissensions, and external humiliations of Frederick's reign,
it is worthy of notice that that invaluable esculent root,
the potato, was introduced into Sweden.

The reign of Adolphus Frederick from 1751 to 1771
was one of increasing humiliation and dissension. The
king was only king in name. All power was in the
hands of the council and nobles, who were torn by oppos-
ing factions. The king was amiable and well-disposed,
and did what he could to promote the social happiness
of his people, but he was wanting in that decision of
character which would enable him to control the turbu-
lent elements by which he was surrounded. He was
urged by his councillors to join the confederacy formed
by Russia, Poland, Austria, and France against the rising
power of Prussia under her great monarch, Frederick the
Great. In this war Sweden gained neither glory nor
territory, and only sunk deeper into the mire. Internal
dissensions became more and more violent; and Adolphus
Frederick, who had been already stripped of every vestige
 

 

GUSTAVUS III 211

of real power—in 1756 an act was passed that a stamp
might be used instead of the royal signature, in case the
king should refuse to signify his assent to any measure—
was relieved of his heavy burden by death in 1771.

The internal dissensions of the country were closely
connected with external intrigues. Stockholm was, in
fact, the battlefield of contending governments, where
diplomacy, bribery, and duplicity were the weapons used.
On the one hand, France favoured the Hat faction, while
the Cap party relied upon the joint support of England
and Russia. During part of the reign of Adolphus
Frederick schemes were continually put forward to upset
the Swedish constitution by playing off one of these
factions against the other, but the king could not make
up his mind to carry any of these schemes into effect.
What he failed to do was done under the more vigorous

reign of his son, Gustavus IIL
+ This prince was in Paris at the time of his father’s
death, when at the age of twenty-five he was called to the
throne of Sweden—if that could be called a throne, when
deprived of all power and all dignity. The purpose of
his visit to France was to obtain from that country pay-
ment of the arrears of subsidies, which had been promised
to Sweden during the Seven Years’ War. Count Scheffer,
who had been deputed to inform Gustavus of his father’s
death, and his consequent accession to the throne, so far
excited the compassion of Louis XV. by representing to
him the forlorn condition of Sweden that a large portion
of these arrears were paid.

Gustavus ITIL. possessed many of the noble and attrac-
tive qualities of his illustrious family. He was eloquent,
handsome, and accomplished, full of self-confidence, and
animated by a strong desire that the reputation of the
name he bore should not be diminished in his hands.
His one aim was to liberate the kingly power from the
thraldom in which it was held by the nobles and coun-
cillors, and to gain his end, he was not over-scrupulous
as to the means to be used. In order to lull any sus-
picion, he at once wrote from Paris assuring the senate

 
 

 

212 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIX.

that he would accept the existing constitution and seek
for no increase of authority. Meantime his emissaries
were doing their work, and soon found that there were
many officers in the army who would willingly help the
king in his plans. A pretended revolt was organised,
which give him a pretext for calling together the troops.
Having gained over the juard, and being assured that the
burghers were on his side, for they could not imagine
that the tyranny of any sovereign could be more intoler-
able than the many-headed tyranny of the nobles, Gus-
tavus arrested the council, and laid before the diet a new
form of administration which the members were compelled
to sign. He addressed the soldiers before his palace, when
his noble presence, his facile eloquence, and the fact that
he was the first sovereign since the death of Charles XII.
who could address them in their own tongue, gave him
an overpowering advantage. The army and the people
declared for him with one united voice; and thus with-
out shedding one drop of blood, or even the loss of liberty
beyond a very brief detention of some of the senators, a
revolution was effected which secured to the king the
administrative power, still leaving to the diet the right
of approving or rejecting declarations of war, the control
of the taxes, and the mode of putting the laws into
execution. This revolution was effected in 1771.

The visit to Paris had imbued the king with a strong
admiration of French manners and customs, and as usual,
as the baser elements of national character are more
easily imitated and transferred to other lands than the
nobler and purer, the king's efforts to introduce French
habits, and to make the French language the language
of the court, had a very depreciating effect upon the
morals of the people.

The relations between Sweden and her ambitious neigh-
bour Russia were of a very strained character. The Em-
press Catharine IL, as able as she was ambitious and
unscrupulous, was by no means pleased with the successful
revolution which Gustavus had effected, while he on the
other hand had extremely small confidence in the honour
 

 

OUTBREAK OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 213.

of her designs towards Sweden. In 1788, while Russia
was engaged in the war with Turkey which added the
Crimea and other provinces of the Ottoman empire to
her growing empire, Gustavus foolishly was led into a
declaration of war, hoping to be able to humble Russia,
while already embroiled. But the resources, the artifices,
the address of Catharine were far too much for him.
Some of the Swedish officers were won over by her, and
refused to fight, and Gustavus was completely checkmated
by a declaration of war against him from Denmark. The
result would have been undoubtedly disastrous had not
the English and Prussian governments insisted upon the
signing of a truce.

The refusal of his officers to fight against Russia on
the ground that the war had been undertaken without
the consent of the diet, and was therefore illegal, deter-
mined Gustavus to claim the right of making war as an
essential part of the royal prerogative. Of the four
orders into which the diet was divided, three assented,
and by a somewhat arbitrary proceeding, having obtained
the sanction of the president of the nobility, the Act of
Safety, as it was termed, was passed, and the king's
power was thus increased. Again, war with Russia was
renewed with increased vigour, in which the ultimate
advantage rested with Sweden. Peace was, however,
made in 1790, which restored everything to its former
condition. The reason of this apparent failure was
the outbreak of that most portentous event of modern
times, the French Revolution, which—whatever its
future effects were—was for the moment an effectual
check to all other wars. Every government was watch-
ing with the deepest anxiety and foreboding, the new and
formidable phenomenon, and none were watching with
keener anxiety than Gustavus. His sympathies were
deeply moved by the unhappy condition of the royal
family of France, and strange and romantic schemes
were brooding in his active brain for a grand coalition,
of which he was to be the head and soul, for the
restoration of the French monarch, and the complete

 
 

 

214 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIX.

annihilation of the revolutionary principles which were
working so mightily. Money was above all things
essential for the carrying out of the scheme, and the
private extravagance of the king was not calculated to
render the diet more willing to respond to his incessant
demands. Dissatisfaction soon found expression in an
organised conspiracy, and in March 1792, while at a
masquerade in the opera house, the king was assassinated
by an officer of inferior rank, Ankerstroem, a man who
had private reasons for disliking the king, and whose
vindictive temper marked him out as a fitting instru-
ment to carry out the designs of the conspirators. For
thirteen days the king lay in great agony, during which
he not only showed great fortitude, but pleaded for mercy
for his murderers. So far as the actual murderer was
concerned, the wish of the dying monarch was unheeded, as
Ankerstroem was put to death with great torture. Amid
the stirring events of this reign, we must not omit to note
that the celebrated Linnzeus died in 1778. His early
struggles and his ultimate success, his steady persever-
ance under difficulties, and his well-earned fame, as the
founder of the science of botany, form a most interesting
study, and suggest a noble example. His death was
spoken of by the king as a national calamity. The Duke
Charles, brother of the murdered king, was appointed
regent during the minority of the late king's son, and’
such was the leniency or rather the indulgence with
which the remaining conspirators were treated as to give
rise to very reasonable suspicions that the regent himself
was to some extent implicated in the conspiracy.

Duke Charles did not follow out the policy of the late
king, but made an alliance with the French Republic
and joined the King of Denmark in a treaty signed in
March 1794, by which the two kingdoms formed a come
pact of armed neutrality to protect the commerce of the
Baltic, and a combined squadron of sixteen sail of the
line was equipped for the purpose of enforcing the treaty.
While all fear of war on the one side was thus averted,
these measures gave great offence to the Empress Catha-

L

 
 

GUSTAVUS 3V. 215

rine of Russia. War was on the point of breaking out,
which was only averted for a time by the proposition
that the young Swedish monarch, Gustavus IV. should
marry the Grand Duchess Alexandra, grand-daughter of
Catharine. The evening for the ceremony of the betrothal
arrived. Gustavus was present in St. Petersburg. A
state ball at which the event was to be announced was
arranged, but at the last moment the young king refused
to sign the marriage contract. The future queen was to
have secured to her the free exercise of her own religion,
and to have a chapel fitted up for her according to the
rites of the Greek Church. This, the king declared, was
contrary to the fundamental laws of the Swedish constitu-
tion, and so the whole matter broke down. In 1797 he
married the Princess Frederica of Baden, a union which
afterwards tended to bring him under the influence of
Russia, and gave an important colouring to the events of
his reign. The reign of Gustavus lasted from 1792 to
1809.

The somewhat romantic affection entertained by his
father Gustavus IIL. for the Bourbon kings of France,
assumed in the son the form of a fierce hatred of Napoleon
—a hatred evidently tinged somewhat deeply with
fanaticism, if not with insanity. Prophecy was studied
to find denunciation of the usurper, and the dark and
ominous types of the Apocalypse were supposed to find
their fulfilment in him. But when his prophetic st: d cs
were translated into acts, and he joined the triple coalition
formed by Austria, Russia, and England, to curb the
ambition of Bonaparte, the consequences became more
serious. Hostility to France, and to all who were allied
with France embroiled his whole reign in war, in which he
displayed great courage, but an utter want of prudence
and forethought. It would be a tedious and unprofitable
task to describe in detail the confused wars of this troubled
reign, now with France, and now with Russia and
Prussia, who had been forced by the Treaty of Tilsit
into an alliance with France, and now with Denmark,
The result was the whole of Finland was overrun by the

 
 

 

 

 

216 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP, XIX,

Russians, and declared an integral part of Russia, and
when England, his one true and faithful ally, sent the
gallant Sir John Moore with an army of 11,000 men to
the assistance of Gustavus, his obstinacy in insisting upon
taking the command himself was such that Moore
returned to England without striking a blow. At one
time he seemed to stand alone against the irresistible
Bonaparte, and it is no small testimony to the consistency
and sincerity of Gustavus that he withstood every induce-
ment to yield to the threats or the bribes of the con-
queror. Norway was held out as a tempting bait, but
gallantly refused. In Stralsund he made a determined
stand, but was compelled to retreat. In doing so he showed
some superior generalship, though, as Wheaton well re-
marks, it was not from the ramparts of Stralsund, but on
the field of Waterloo, that Europe was to look for her
deliverer.

But the minds of the people were harassed and be-
wildered by the shifting game of war and politics. Amid
every change, one result alone was certain. The obstinacy
and rashness of Gustavus brought sorrow and disaster
upon Sweden. Defeated by Russia, abandoned by
England, with Finland and Pomerania torn from them,
in their despair the people turned upon their king, and
a conspiracy was formed to compel him to abdicate.
Dearth and pestilence were added to the horrors of war,
and misery and wretchedness filled the land. Two
generals, Alderkreuz and Aldersparre, were at the head
of the conspiracy. On March 13, 1809, the king's
apartments were entered, and after some resistance, the
king was disarmed. He contrived to make his escape
through a concealed door, but he was immediately pur-
sued and overtaken by Captain Greiff, who was slightly
wounded in the strugele. However, he boldly seized the
king, and being a strong muscular man, he exclaimed,
« Make way, my friends, you see the king is very ill,
and I am bearing him to his chamber!” He was con-
veyed to the strong castle of Drottningholm, where he
was compelled to sign a deed renouncing for himself and

 
 

PEACE WITH RUSSIA. ; 217

for all his descendants the throne of Sweden. He was
formally banished the country, none raising a voice on
his behalf, and after wandering about from place to place,
visiting London in 1811, he died at St. Gall in Switzer-
land in 1837, in a state of poverty, gaining in a private
station more respect than would ever have been accorded
to him as a sovereign.

This act of abdication led to very unexpected changes
in Sweden. The uncle of the deposed king, Duke Charles,
was called to the vacant throne under the title of Charles
XIII. A new charter was drawn up securing the
administrative power to the sovereign, and the legislative
power, together with the all important point of control

of the taxation, to the diet, consisting of the four orders
of nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants. The hope that
the revolution which had deprived Gustavus of his throne,
and placed Duke Charles upon it, would lead to peace,
was doomed to disappointment. Russia and Denmark
were still at war with Sweden. Her position was indeed
critical. "While anxious to maintain a friendly inter-
course with Great Britain, Alexander, the czar of Russia,
would listen to no terms of peace except on the cruel con-
dition that Sweden should close her ports against English
commerce, and give up the whole of Finland. Though
contending against vastly superior numbers, Sweden
never lost heart or hope, and her troops, under every
disadvantage and privation, showed a bravery and courage
worthy of their ancient fame. At last, absolutely
wearied out, the czar was willing to make terms, and at
Fredericksham in 1809 a peace was concluded, which
deprived Sweden of some of her finest provinces,— Fin-
land, the island of Aland, East and West Bothnia, all of
which were ceded to Russia. “ The losses which Sweden
had sustained in the war,” says Dr. Wheaton, were com-
puted at a third of her population, and about a fourth of
her whole territory, with all the forts and bulwarks that
commanded the eastern coast of the two gulfs. Her
internal situation was truly deplorable; those districts
which had been the theatre of military operations were

 
 

218 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XIX.

completely ravaged, the soil was left uncultivated, the
pastures destroyed, the houses laid in ashes, and the
cattle carried off for the use of the army. The inhabit-
ants had either fled to avoid the violence and exactions
of a ferocious soldiery, or perished of hunger and sick-
ness. Public subscriptions were immediately opened for
their relief, and a generous sympathy with their suffer
ings was evinced in all parts of the kingdom.”* Such is
the price paid for the glories and triumphs of war !

The sacrifice of Finland, which for 600 years had been
a part of Sweden, was indeed a terrible one for Charles to
make in the very first year of his reign, but the crushing
burden of the war could be borne no longer. A peace
with Denmark restoring matters to their old footing
followed shortly afterwards.

But now another difficulty remained to be solved.
The descendants of the late king were distinctly excluded
from the succession. King Charles XIII. was childless—
who was to be the recognised heir to the throne? Prince
Christian Augustus, the Danish Statholder of Norway
was selected. At the conclusion of the peace with Den-
“mark, in 1809, he visited Stockholm, and was rapturously
received by the people as their future king. He had
already made himself very popular by his friendly con-
duct towards Sweden in the late war, and therefore his
selection as heir was very acceptable. But early in the
following year he suddenly died of apoplexy, while
reviewing some troops near Helsingborg. In their grief
at his sudden death, the people believed that foul means
had been used, and fixed their suspicions upon Count

“ Fersen, a wealthy and haughty nobleman, and in their
rage they literally tore him to pieces. The medical
evidence proved the cause of his death to be purely
natural.

By a strange revolution in the wheel of fortune, after
some delays, one of Napoleon's marshals, Bernadotte, was
next selected. No doubt the hope of gaining the protec-
tion and friendship of Napoleon was a strong motive in

* Crichton and Wheaton’s Scandinavia, vol. ii., page 262.

 
 

BERNADOTTE, 219

the selection, but Bernadotte was favourably known to
Sweden by the kind and generous manner he had acted
as administrator of Pomerania. Thus a foreigner was
introduced to replace the glorious line of the Vasas, with
all its grand traditions, and strange mutations,—and
perhaps stranger still, that the very act which seemed to
bind Sweden more closely than ever to France was the
means of her deliverance. Napoleon himself foresaw the
danger, and was jealous of the fame and independent
spirit of his marshal-prince. The success of this great
and novel experiment must be reserved for another
chapter. i

 

CHAPTER XX.
DENMARK FROM 1730 To 1839.

WE left Denmark peaceful and prosperous after the
death of Frederick IV. in 1730. The reign of his
successor, Christian VI., was chiefly distinguished un-
favourably by the foolishness of the queen, and the ill-
advised measures of the king to promote what he con-
sidered the interests of religion, though it was happily
redeemed by other and brighter qualities. The queen,
who was a German, took a childish pleasure in showing
her contempt for everything Danish, even trying to pre-
vent the crown prince from being instructed in his native
language. Every place of trust and honour was filled by
Germans. Her extravagance in building involved the
national finances in serious difficulties. The noble castle
of Axelhus, which had been enlarged and beautified in
‘the preceding reign, was destroyed, and seven years were
devoted to building an enormous palace at Christianborg.
‘Another hunting palace was erected on a swampy
foundation, and had to be pulled down. Unhappily these
childish extravagances had to be paid for out of the
people’s earnings, and though peace prevailed during the

 
 

          

220 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP.XX.

whole of the reign of sixteen years, the national debt
remained undiminished. =~ While the queen was thus
erecting monuments of her own folly at the expense of
the people, the king, acting under the advice of Bluhme,
the court chaplain, was vainly striving to coerce his
people into paying at least external respect for religion.
A period of Puritanic austerity and bigotry, unrelieved
by that deeper faith of the Puritans which shone so brightly
underneath their unlovely exterior, set in under royal
patronage. Amusements were prohibited, attendance at
church was enforced by fines and the pillory. Hypocrisy
and deceit were rampant, and many learnt under such
wretched discipline to view all the rites of religion with
thinly-veiled but keenly-felt disgust. A general church
inspection college was established in 1737, and the
ministers of religion were placed under a system of
espionage which, by crushing out all freedom of thought
and life, deprived the ministrations of the church of their
beauty and power. No doubt in all this the king was
impelled by noble motives, and great good was effected
in many departments. The interests of higher education
were promoted by increasing the number of professors in
the university, and by giving them more liberal remunera-
tion. Examinations in law were instituted for the first
time, and the writings of the learned Andreas Hoyer
imparted a new life to the science of jurisprudence in
Denmark. Two learned societies were established durin
this reign—the Literary Society of Copenhagen, and the
Society of the Danish Language and History—which have
done much to elevate the standard of learning and culture.
Christian VI. did much to promote the commercial
industry of the country. A bank was founded in Copen-
hagen, and the king spared neither trouble nor expense
to improve the domestic manufactures. The navy, under
the brilliant and prudent administration of Fredericl
Danneskjold, was brought to a high state of efficiency.
But the crowning glory of the reign was to be found in
the splendid literary productions of Holberg, the great
historian and dramatist of Denmark. His inimitable

 
 

FREDERICK V. 991

mock-heroic poem of “Peder Paars” made him famous, and
his series of comic dramas still continue to be the delight
of the Northmen. His “Political Tinker” hits off, in
most trenchant style, a character to be found in all
countries and in all ages.* The hero is one of that very
numerous class who fancies that he is born for the express
Pupose of putting everybody and everything right.
~Holberg died in 1754, but his influence still lives in his
numerous works, which are said to fill twenty-one octavo
volumes.

Christian VI. died in 1746 in the prime of life, and
was succeeded by his son Frederick V. The austere
gloom which had marked his father’s court was speedily
exchanged for a more cheerful and unrestrained mode of
diving. In fact, an excessive love of pleasure was the
one defect that marked the otherwise kindly and amiable
character of the king, and probably tended to shorten his
life. His wife was Louisa, daughter of our second
George, who, by her genial good humour and gentleness,
won the hearts of the Danes, and during her life the
reaction against the preceding Puritanic gloom was kept
svithin bounds of moderation and decorum. She died in
1751, and a second queen, Juliana Maria of Brunswick,
far inferior to the first in every way, introduced a greater
laxity and extravagance, which led the court into expenses
which could be ill afforded.

This monarch was fortunate in securing the services of
4 distinguished minister, Count Bernstorf, who succeeded
in keeping Denmark free from the entanglement of the
Leven Years’ War, which involved all the rest of Northern
Europe in war and bloodshed. A treaty was made
‘between Denmark and Sweden, by which the boundaries
of Norway and Sweden were definitely fixed, and a
marriage was arranged between a daughter of Frederick’s

“end the Swedish crown prince Gustavus, afterwards
King Gustavus IIL

* As before, I must again refer the reader to W. and M.
Howitt’ s Romance and Literature of the North, for a most interest-
ing account of this charming and versatile writer.

 
 

999 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XX.

But a more pressing danger appeared, which seemed to
threaten Demark with extinction, and her monarch with
‘deposition. The new czar of Russia, Peter III, con-

ceived a bitter hatred of the Danish king, and claimed
the immediate restitution of Schleswig. He made this
claim as head of the house of Holstein-Gottorp, and he
openly declared his intention of enforcing his claim by
_ driving the Danish royal family out of Europe, and com-
pelling them to take refuge in their East Indian settle-
ment of Tranquebar. Nothing seemed more probable
than the execution of this brutal threat. Denmark
gallantly rose to resist her great and bullying foe. The
hostile armies were approaching each other in Mecklen-
burg, when the news of Peter's sudden deposition and
death was received, and the crisis was averted. His
wife, who became empress under the name of Catharine IL,
entered into a treaty of peace and friendship with
Denmark. Arrangements were made by the skilful
diplomacy of Bernstorf, by which all cause of future
dispute on this point were removed. One of the results
of this treaty was that Hamburg was released from her
dependence on Holstein, and declared a free imperial city.
. Bernstorf expended both time and money in endeavour-
ing to improve the manufactures of Denmark.

If these plans were not always wise, they were quite in
harmony with the notions of political economy prevailing
at that time, when the researches of Adam Smith had
scarcely penetrated beyond the walls of his class-room
in the university of Glasgow.* The condition of the peas-
antry began to attract public sympathy and attention, and
Count Moltke, another of the able ministers of this
reign, was directed to this question, which resulted in a
great amelioration of their condition. To Count Bernstorf
was also due the encouragement of learning and science
during this period. At his instigation, the learned

. Niebuhr—father of the still more celebrated historian
—was sent to Arabia and the East; and Schlegel

* The Wealth of Nations was published in 1766, some years
after Smith had retired from his professorship.
 

STRUENZEE. 223

and Mallet, and other learned teachers, were invited
into the country. The academy of Soro, which had
fallen into decay, was revived chiefly by the co-operation
of the illustrious Holberg, who bequeathed his immense
riches and his splendid library to that institution.
Frederick V. died in the prime of life early in 1766,
after a quiet but generally useful reign of twenty years.

The succeeding reign introduced a sad change in the
affairs of Denmark. Christian VII. was only seventeen
years of age when his father’s death called him to the
throne. To the inexperience of youth was added the
obstinacy and self-will of a weak and depraved disposition,
The distinguished ministers who had shed such a lustre
upon the reign of the father were ignominiously dismissed
from the councils of the foolish and vicious son. In the
same year in which he obtained the crown he married
his cousin, Caroline Matilda, the beautiful and sprightly
sister of our George III. The king’s growth in years
proved only to be a growth in vice and self-indulgence.
His conduct soon alienated the confidence and respect of
his young queen.

In 1768 the young king undertook a tour through
Europe, and at Altona he met with a young medical
practitioner named Struenzee, who was destined to gain
a fatal ascendancy in the council of the foolish and
dissipated monarch, and to bring ruin upon himself and
the unhappy and deeply injured queen. That Struenzee
possessed great powers, great address, and great ambition,
is perfectly clear from the result. Appointed private
physician to the king, he accompanied him to England,
and while his master received the honorary degree of
D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, the clever but
unscrupulous physician also received an M.D. degree.
He soon made himself essential to his master. He knew
how to gratify every caprice, and minister to every
depraved desire. But he was as high in favour with the
queen as with her husband. ;

All pretence of common respect to her as his wife was
laid aside by the king, and not only did he treat her with

 
 

 

224 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. IX.

brutal coldness, but encouraged others to do likewise.
From such cruel treatment the crafty Struenzee strove to
set her free. What wonder that she repaid his kindness by
unbounded gratitude and devotion? Writhing under a
bitter sense of cruel wrong from the hands of the man
bound to protect and shield her, can we wonder that she
allowed her gratitude to go beyond the bounds of prudence
and decorum ? The vice of the king was deepening into
positive imbecility. Struenzee had risen step by step,
and was appointed in 1771 to the new office of Prime
Minister of the Privy Council. His intimate frien.
Brandt was admitted to the closest familiarity with the
king, and assisted in the carrying out of the plans of
Struenzee. The necessary result followed. Jealousy
and envy followed the favourite everywhere. His
good deeds were misinterpreted, his bad ones were ex-
aggerated, and every opportunity was seized on to hasten
his downfall.

The administration of such a man would necessarily
be a vigorous one, and often he acted without con-
sulting his colleagues, thus giving an effective handle to
his enemies. One benefit was conferred on the country

under his active rule—the liberty of the press; the

finances of the country were put under more methodical
arrangements ; and the administration of law was sim-
plified and improved. Complete religious toleration was
secured, and encouragement given to arts and manufac-
tures. These beneficent changes only intensified the
hatred and jealousy against him. In the meantime,
his conduct with the queen created a scandal which
was industriously fomented by the queen-dowager.
Every action was watched, distorted, and magnified, and
unfortunately the imprudence of the unhappy queen only
gave too strong a confirmation to these sinister rumours.

The contemptuous arrogance of Struenzee, his dis-
regard of all the observances of religion, his impetuous
haste in introducing changes, were adding fuel to the
flame. Utterly unsuspicious of danger, a plot was
formed against him, The king, sunk in sloth and im-

 

at
 

»

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE QUEEN. 229

bedlity, was coerced into signing an order for the arrest
of his queen, and of Struenzee and his colleague Brandt.
The queen, who had just returned from a ball, was
awakened out of her sleep, and hurried off with an
armed guard, in a close carriage, to the castle of Kronboig
near Elsinore. This happened on the night of April 20,
1772; and on the 28th of the same month, Struenzee
and Brandt were publicly executed, having previously
been maimed by having their right hands cut off. A
formal deed of separation was drawn up between the
king and queen, and finally she found a home at Zelle,
in Hanover, where, provided with ample means of
comfort by her brother, the king of England, she spent
the short remainder of her life in acts of unobtrusive
charity. She died in 1775, at the age of 24, declaring
with her latest breath her entire innocence of the charges
brought against her. She never saw her children again,
and her son, afterwards Frederick VI., was only four
years old when his unhappy mother was thus forcibly
removed from Copenhagen. :

The queen-dowager, Juliana Maria, who had been the
moving spirit of the conspiracy which involved the
queen and the minister in ruin, now gained the object of
Ler ambition. The king’s utter imbecility had become
notorious, and, though in name he continued to occupy
the throne which he had disgraced and degraded by
his vices for some time longer, the actual government
was carried on in her name, and that of her son,
until 1784, when the Crown Prince Frederick attained
his majority, and claimed his right to administer the
government in his father’s name. Count Gulberg, who had
been a leading instrument in thedownfall of Struenzee, was
the chief adviser of the queen-dowager. The laws which
Struenzee had brought into operation were abrogated,
and, as a consequence, the liberty of the press was with-
drawn, On the other hand, the use of the Danish
language, which had been suffered to fall into neglect, was
encouraged, and a more patriotic national feeling was
created, Bernstorf, a nephew of the celebrated minister

 
  

226 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP XX.

in the previous reign, administered the foreign affairs with
considerable skill ; and the Act of the Armed Neutrality,
by which Denmark, Sweden, and Russia united to
protect the neutral commerce from the privateering
expeditions sent out by England during the American
war which broke out in 1775, remains a noble monu-
ment of his skilful and foresighted diplomacy. By this
Act the principle that a free ship makes a free cargo
was first laid down, and this has now become the accepted
law of all the great European powers. But under
Gulberg’s rule the financial condition of the country be-
came much worse, and proved a fruitful source of future
trouble. From 1772 to 1784 the national debt was
raised from sixteen millions to twenty-nine millions of
rix-dollars ; and a system which was devised giving to the
government the control of the bank, and enabling them
to issue paper money at will, only intensified the evil,
When young Frederick assumed the reins of govern-
ment in 1784 Gulberg was dismissed, and Bernstorf, who
had retired from the public service in 1780, in conse-
quence of his dissent from Gulberg’s policy, was recalled.
~The armed neutrality proved an invaluable help and safe-
guard to Danish commerce, and an increasingly lucrative
trade with the Mediterranean and the West Indies was
the result, as also an important trade with China and
the East Indies. ¢ While the trading part of the com-
munity were thus gaining wealth rapidly, the govern-
ment, under the direction of the crown prince and Count
Bernstorf, were bringing about many great and useful
changes in the state. Their first care had been to inquire
into the condition of the peasants, and in 1788 a law
was passed giving this long oppressed class complete free-
dom from all the bonds by which they had hitherto been
kept in subjection to the lords on whose lands they were
born. In order to prevent any undue license on the part
of the younger peasants, the measure was not to come
- into full force till 1800 for those who were under thirty.
six years of age at the time of its first enactment. The
slave trade was also declared illegal at this period in all

 
 

DEATH OF BERNSTORF, 9217

the Danish West Indian islands, and the example thus
set by Denmark in 1792 was soon followed by England
and other European powers,” *

The flood of revolution was bursting forth with resist-
less fury in France. In 1793 the unhappy King Louis
XVI was brought to the guillotine, and was followed
by his wife and sister. Dceds like these were but the
fitting forerunners of a time of terrible war and blood-
shed, which involved almost every European power in
the fearful strife. But Denmark, under the able guid-
ance of Bornstorf, maintaining a strict nentrality, pre-
served during his lifetime the blessings of peace, and was
rejoicing in the benefits of a rapidly growing commerce.
This peace was only broken by a viciory gained over the
superior fleet of the Bey of Tripoli, who had merited this
chastisement by his molestation of Danish merchant ships.
By this victory the Dauish trade in the Mediterranean
was sccured from any further interference of the kind,

The progress of the revolutionary war made the position
of Denmark one of increasing difficulty ; the carrying
out of the Act of Neutrality often caused great umbrage
to the diferent belligerent powers, especially to England,
and as a crowning misfortune at this critical juncture,
the hand that was best able to guide the nation through
its difficulties was for ever stilled by death. Count Bern-
storf died in 1797, to the bitter regret of prince and
people alike. His character stands out in bright relief
from the acts with which his name is associated. He
was a sincere friend of true liberty, and an unflinching
supporter of the freedom of the press. “It is,” as he
said, “the inalienable right of every civilised nation, and
a government which limits its freedom depreciates itself.”
Hence, during his administration the press enjoyed the
fullest freedom, and Denmark became an asylum for free-
dom of thought throughout Germany. We are told thab
the crown prince visited him daily during his last illness,
and was present as a sincere mourncr at his funcral,

The consequences of his death were soon made pain-

* Otté’s Uisiory of Scandinavia, p. 524.
 

 

228 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XX.

fully apparent. The disputes arising out of the vexed
question of the right of search of neutral vessels in-
creased in frequency and intensity, and in 1800 a conven-
_ tion was signed between England and Denmark, which,
it was hoped, might avert any hostile outbreak. Russia,
Sweden, and Prussia, at the instigation of Napoleon, now
First Consul of France, formed a still stricter treaty of
armed neutrality, which was directly aimed at the naval
supremacy of England. Denmark was not only invited,
but on the part of Russia was sorely pressed to join this
compact.

England took alarm, and in the spring of 1801 sent
a fleet, under the command of Admiral Parker, with
Nelson as second in command, to prevent Denmark
from assisting Russia in her hostile designs. For such
a step Denmark was utterly unprepared. The result is
well known, as the name of Horatio Nelson has lent to
this event a specal interest for every Englishman. His
passing the Sound at Elsinore, his terrible bombardment
of Copenhagen, his daring disobedience to hissuperior when
ordered to cease firing, and the brave resistance of the
Danes, are all parts of a well-known tale. A significant
story is told of a Danish youth named Villemoes, who
had particularly distinguished himself on that terrible
and memorable day. In the interview between Nelson
and the crown prince to arrange the terms of a truce,
Nelson requested that the gallant youth might be intro-
duced to him, and, turning to the prince, Nelson hoped
that Villemoes might be made an admiral. The prince
replied, “If, my lord, I am to make all my brave officers
admirals, I should have no captains or lieutenants in my
service.”

The assassination of Paul, the fanatical czar of Russia,
and the consequent accession of Alexander I. to the
throne, produced an entire reversal of the policy of
Russia, and thus put an end to further hostilities. While
war was raging in almost every part of Europe, Denmark
for some years preserved her neutrality, and though she
was compelled to incur very heavy expenses in guarding
 

BOMBARDMENT OF COPENHAGEN, 229

her frontiers, her increasing commerce enabled her to
bear this burden with comparative ease. While every
other nation was at war with France, Denmark acted as
the general trading agent, and thus carried on a large
and profitable trade. But this was not destined to con-
tinue. It was believed that Napoleon, now emperor of
France, who was forming a great confederacy against
England, would compel Denmark to abandon her neutral
position, and even avail himself of the assistance of the
Danish navy to carry out his long cherished idea of an
invasion of England.

The moment was a critical one for Tngland With-
out any previous intimation a powerful fleet was sent
off to Denmark, to claim the immediate surrender of
the Danish fleet and naval stores, to be retained by
England as a deposit until the conclusion of the war.
That this was a high-handed proceeding cannot be
denied, and can only be justified under the imperious
plea of self-preservation; and more recent disclosures
have proved that the suspicions of the English govern-
ment were well founded. We cannot be surprised to
learn that the demand was instantly rejected, and Copen-
hagen was bombarded (September 1807). Though com-
pelled by superior force to submit, and to see their fleet
brought away under convoy of an English squadron, the
feeling against England found expression in bitter and
long-continued indignation. ~The Russian emperor broke
off his connection with England, and Denmark entered
into a close alliance with France. War was declared
against Sweden, whose infatuated monarch, urged on by
his fanatical hatred of Napoleon, was ready to break a
lance with any champion who should undertake his cause.
Shortly after this declaration of war Christian VII., who
had long been dissociated with government, ended his
worthless life, and his son, who for twenty-four years
had ruled the kingdom as crown prince, ascended the
throne of Denmark and Norway under the title of
Frederick VI.

French reinforcements, under the command of Berna-

 
 

 

230 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP XX.

dotte, were sent to the help of Denmark. The abdica-
tion of Gustavus IV. and the accession of his uncle,
Charles XTII., led not only to a peace with Sweden, by
which everything remained as before the war; but, as we
have seen, it was followed by the election of Bernadotte,
first as crown prince, and eventually as king of Sweden.

The situation of Denmark was now very serious.
Deprived of her fleet, her main arm of dec.ence, her
merchant ships ever liable to seizure by hostile powers,
overburdened with heavy expenses, ruin and bankruptey
seemed to stare her in the face. A large issue of paper
money was made by the government which, if it averted
national ruin, only did so by bringing ruin upon nearly
all the leading banking and mercantile houses, as the
paper money was speedily reduced to one-sixth of the
‘assumed worth. Misery and distress prevailed among
all classes.

But worse was to follow. Frederick had united his
fortunes to those of Napoleon when that emperor was in
the height of his power. But when Napoleon's power
began to decline, Frederick had to suffer with him. The
King of Sweden had allied himself with Alexander of
Russia against the Emperor of France, his alliance being
purchased by a secret offer made in 1812 by Alexander
of the accession of Norway to the kingdom of Sweden.
In 1813 Napoleon was signally defeated at Leipsic by
the allied forces of Prussian, Russian, and Swedish forces.
The conquering army rushed upon the frontiers of Den-
mark, and compelled the Danish army, which was en-
camped in Holstein, though fighting bravely against
superior numbers, to retreat. In 1814 a treaty of
peace was signed at Kiel, but the hard and bitter con-
dition was the surrender of Norway to Sweden. Ex-
hausted by seven years’ desolating war, the commerce of
his country well-nigh ruined, Frederick had no alterna-
tive but to submit. It is true that some sort of com-
pensation was offered by conceding to Denmark Swedish
Pomerania, which was again exchanged with Prussia for
the duchy of Lauenburg and a sum of money. At the

 
 

 

NORWAY SEPARATED FROM DENMARK. 231

game time, by a separate peace with England, Heligoland
was ceded to the British dominions.

Thus the union which had subsisted between Denmark
and Norway for four hundred and thirty-four years was
dissolved, much to the grief not only of Denmark, but of
Norway. Remonstrances were useless. In the pride of
conquest, the feelings, the wishes, the traditions of subject
provinces were little thought of. Such is but a small part
of that heritage of woe bequeathed by war. The Nor-
wegians even flew to arms, but the Swedish king met
and overcame them rather by liberal promises than by
force, though the fortress of Frederickshall was besieged.
These promises have been faithfully kept, and the lapse
of nearly three-quarters of a century has at length re-
conciled the Norwegians to their new colleagues, and
confirmed them in the possession of constitutional privi-
leges unsurpassed by those of any people in Europe.

The process of recovery for Denmark was slow and
tedious. In 1818 the royal bank was changed into a
national one, administered without the control of govern-
ment. This salutary measure immediately restored
public credit, which had been most severely shaken,
though its commerce has never been restored to the
prosperity it enjoyed in the very early years of the
present century. The worthless paper money was gradu-
ally replaced by good silver coinage. The growing pros-
perity of the people kindled a new interest in political
life, and in 1831 the king wisely yielded to the wishes
of the people by instituting for Denmark and for its
several provinces and duchies a representative council.
As might be expected, this concession did not fully meet
all the wishes of the people. The powers of these
chambers, at first but limited, were destined to grow by
wise and prudent management.

For some time a stand was made against the full liberty
of the press, and in 1835 the government attempted to
prohibit the publication of a weekly paper, conducted by
the distinguished David, Professor of Political Economy
in the university of Copenhagen. Dr. David was brought

 
 

 

 

232 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XX.

before the courts of law on a charge of seditious libel, but,
to the joy of the people, he was acquitted. After a long
and eventful reign, first as regent from 1784, and then
as king from 1808, Frederick died in 1839, leaving be-
hind a memory endeared to his people by his genial
manners, his upright character amidst severe temptations,
and his sincere efforts for his people’s happiness and pro-
gress. His blunders and mistakes were not a few. His
was not a strong or a great nature, but he was always
believed to act from the best motives, and his real love
for his country and his people was doubted by none.
Though not himself a man of learning, Frederick
always endeavoured to promote the advancement of
learning and science. In 1811 he founded the university

of Christiania in Norway, which, in memory of its

founder, is often called by the Norwegians, Frederick’s
University. It was in this reign that the natural philo-

~~ sopher Oersted made that discovery of the close relation

between magnetism and electricity which has immor-
talised his name and given birth to the science of electro-
magnetism. It was at the invitation of the crown prince

that Thorwaldsen, the great sculptor, returned to his

native land after a prolonged absence, but he only

remained there one year during this reign. The noble
poems of Oehlenschldjer, profuse in number and variety,
lyrical, epic, and dramatie, marvellously rich in manly

vigour and glowing imagination, breathing forth the

~ highest aspirations of national thought and hope, and

recalling into fresh life the glorious traditions of the
past, form the chief literary glory of this period. The
warm and intimate friendship of the crown prince, which

‘was in no way lessened when he became king, gladdened

his closing years. He died in 1850.

 
 

BERNADOTTE. 233

CHAPTER XXI.

SWEDEN FROM THE ACCESSION OF BERNADOTTE.
DENMARK FRrRoM 1839.

As we have already hinted, Napoleon did not view the
selection of his marshal Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte
Corvo, as Crown Prince of Sweden, with unmixed satis-
faction. His success in life had been rapid, and was
entirely the product of the revolutionary period in which
he lived, though uncompromised by its excesses or un-
stained by its crimes. Closely associated as he was with
Napoleon during the greater part of his career, and con-
nected with him by marriage, having married the sister
of Joseph Bonaparte’s wife, he had more than once showed
an independence of spirit which caused Napoleon some-
what to distrust him. ‘From thé moment,” says Dr.
Crichton, ‘the first overtures respecting the election
were brought to Paris by Baron Moerner, Bonaparte
could not conceal his chagrin at the event. “We have
not understood each other’ (he remarked to a friend
while conversing on the subject); ‘he has his own inter-
ests, his own policy, and I have mine; besides, he does
not love me.”” The event fully justified Napoleon's dis-
trust. On his arrival in Sweden, October 1810, Berna-
dotte publicly renounced his allegiance to the Roman
Catholic Church, and accepted Lutheranism, and was
adopted as crown prince under the name of Charles
John.

The infirmities of age already incapacitated the sove-
reign, Charles XIII, from the discharge of his duties, and
the burden of government was laid upon the shoulders
of the new crown prince. And a heavy burden it
proved. The important province of Finland had just
been severed from Sweden; a peace far from favourable
had been concluded with Denmark ; and Sweden seemed
entirely at the mercy of France. But this burden had
fallen on stalwart shoulders: the new prince proved himself
 

284 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XXL

fully worthy of the nation’s choice, and at once proceeded
by a happy union of wisdom, prudence, and boldness, to
extricate the country from her humiliating position.

Napoleon required the crown prince to declare war
against England, and refuse admission to any British
manufactures. The demand was languidly complied
with. But such compliance was not at all to Napoleon’s
taste. He demanded 2000 Swedish sailors for his fleet
at Brest. To these and other demands of a like nature,
dictating the tariff that Sweden should impose upon
colonial goods, and the establishment of French custom
officers in Swedish ports, a firm but decided negative was
returned. Napoleon commanded Swedish vessels to be
seized, and even took possession of Swedish Pomerania
and the island of Rugen. Then the last thread binding
Sweden to France was snapped. A secret alliance was
made with Russia, in an interview between the Czar
Alexander and the crown prince at Abo in Finland, and
the friendship of Great Britain was sought, as Napoleou’s
former general clearly foresaw the result of the march
into Russia. He assured the czar that Napoleon “rushing
into the desert regions of the north, so far removed from
his own frontiers, was in fact Lurrying on his own fate ;
that all which was necessary on the part of Russia was
to lay waste the country, to destroy its resources, and
meet him everywhere by famine and desolation. This
was to compel him to retreat, and retreat was his inevit-
able ruin. The advice was acted upon, and the world
knows the result.”

To the crown prince, it is said, is due the plan of
those skilful and complicate operations which culmi-
nated in the total defeat of Napoleon at Leipsic in
October 1813. The fidelity of Sweden to the cause
of the allies against Napoleon was rewarded, as we
have seen, by the annexaticn of Norway, which was
secured to her by the peace of Kiel in 1814. In 1815
the terms of the union were definitely drawn out; and the
respective functions of the Swedish “Riksdag” or diet
and the Norwegian “Storthing,” were clearly defined
 

A
CHARLES XIV. 235

“Sweden,” says Otté, “ by the decree of the Congress of
Vienna in 1814-15, was empowered to give up the whole
of her Pomeranian territories to Prussia in exchange for
4,800,000 rix-dollars,and this money Bernadotte, with the
consent of the diet, used to pay off the various foreign loans
which the Swedish government had incurred, and thus
gave Sweden the advantage which few other countries
enjoyed, of being free from a state debt.”

The death of the king in 1818 made no difference in
the conduct of affairs, beyond the change of name of
Bernadotte from crown prince to that of King Charles
John, or Charles XIV. His reign, which lasted until
1844, was devoted mainly to the development of the
_ internal resources of the country. Politically, the king's
popularity somewhat declined during his latter years, as
he showed himself unwilling to concede all the reforms
demanded from him. But the real benefits of his reign
are well summed up by Otté :—“ The period of Charles
John’s rule is, however, one of immense importance in
the history of Sweden, and is marked by improvements
in every form of the national life of the people. Trade
and commerce increased; canals, roads, and bridges
opened the country in every direction; colleges and
higher schools sprang up in all the towns, and parochial
national schools brought education within the reach of
the poorest in the land; while, among others, the names
of Berzelius the chemist, Gejer the historian, Tegner
the poet, and Fogelberg the sculptor, afford honourable
testimony to the scientific, literary, and artistic progress
of the Swedes during this period.” *

The political reforms denied, or at least delayed, by
the father, were willingly granted by the son, who
succeeded to the throne under the title of Oscar I. He
granted a fuller freedom to the press, and consented to
an Act for securing equal rights of heritage to brothers
and sisters-—a very elementary and necessary instalment
of “ woman's rights!” The wisdom of such concessions
was amply proved by the unbroken ealm which pre-

* Otté’s History of Scandinavia, p. 360.

 
 

 

 

236 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XXI.

~ vailed in Sweden when the sudden wave of revolutionary
disturbance broke over Europe in 1848. To the canals
planned and executed by the father, a network of rail-

ways was added by the son, involving a national debt of

upwards of twelve millions sterling, of which more than
one-fourth is put down to the expense of constructing
these railways—a debt, be it observed, incurred in pro-
ductive employment, and therefore far less burdensome
than one incurred in the wasteful prodigality of war.
Nor is it, we would fain believe, a less hopeful augury,
that this wise monarch strained every effort to remove
the jealousy and ill-feeling between Sweden and Den-
mark that had so often produced war and bloodshed.
International meetings for literary and scientific objects
were promoted; and in the struggle between King
Frederick VII. and his Schleswig-Holstein subjects,
King Oscar not only sent troops, but encouraged his
own subjects to serve as volunteers in the Danish ranks
—a happy omen, we may hope, of a still closer political
unity at no distant day.

Owing to feeble health, Oscar resigned the adminis-
tration into the hands of his eldest son, Charles, in 1857,

and died in 1859, deeply mourned and loved by his

people. His son, Charles XV., carried out his father’s
~ policy, extended the freedom of the government, and
still further developed the railway communications. A
momentary difficulty between the Swedish Riksdag and

the Norwegian Storthing, which seemed at one time
very ominous, was speedily and wisely surmounted ;
and in 1864 the two people joined heartily together

to celebrate the jubilee of their union. In 1866, the
form of government was considerably modified in the

interests of increasing freedom, and universal suffrage

was conceded under certain circumstances. Charles XV.
died in 1872, and was succeeded by his brother, the
present sovereign, Oscar IL.—the inheritor of grand tra-
ditions, of which, it is hoped, he will prove himself fully
worthy ; and of tremendous blunders, which he may
well be assured will be buried along with the innumer-

yay
A RN LE Sh

22
 

DIFFICULTILS IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. o37

able errors of effete and exploded systems of policy and
of government.

The history of Denmark since the close of the great
Napoleonic war has not been so quiet and peaceful as
that of Sweden. We still have to speak of internal
revolutions and wars, which have left their cruel mark
upon the country’s progress. In 1839, Frederick VIL,
having left no son, was succeeded by his cousin, Christian
VIII. He was a man of considerable literary talent
and scientific tastes. His accession was hailed with
delight, as it was fondly believed that such a man would
rejoice in securing and advancing the liberties of his
people, and extend the blessings of a free constitution.
He proved himself heartily willing to do all in his
power for his people. He extended the railroad system,
reorganised the public schools, extended to Iceland the
privilege of a representative council—a privilege already
conceded to Denmark and the duchies by his predecessor.
But he was not willing to entrust increased political
power to his people. The national debt was reduc:d,
but the nation was dissatisfied. A more liberal constitu-
tion was demanded by the people, but resolutely with-
held by the king. The relations between him and the
chambers became very strained, and matters were rapidly
ripening for an outbreak.

The spirit of discontent was fanned in the duchy
of Schleswig-Holstein by the Duke of Augustenburg,
and his brother, Prince Frederick of Noer, who were
the brothers of the queen, Caroline Amalia. For a
time the king, acting as it was supposed under the in-
fluence of his queen, seemed to sanction the proceedings
of the Augustenburg princes, by appointing the Prince
of Noer, in 1842, as commander-in-chief in Schleswiz
and Holstein, and president of the government, Em-
boldened by this appearance of royal favour, proposals
were made in the assembly at Schleswig that steps
should be taken for admission into the Germanic con-
federation, that the use of the Danish language should
be abandoned, and the Danish national flag, the Danne-
 

238 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. XXL -

brog, should be replaced by a united national flag for
Schleswig and Holstein. The king temporised ; the
indignation of the loyal Danes rose to fever-heat. Then,
in 1346, the Prince of Noer was deprived of his posts as
commander and president.

Some further discussions as to the right of succession
were carried on, and during this serious crisis the king
died in January, 1848, and was succeeded by his only son,
Frederick VII. Sinding asserts* that though Christian
VIII. had declined to grant a free constitution to Den-
mark, he had resolved at the close of his life to meet
the rising demand, and had himself drawn out the plan
of such a constitution, when his life was suddenly closed.
Certain it is that his son and successor at once promised
to grant the demand for a thoroughly free constitution,
a promise which won for him the long-sustained loyalty
of his people, and united the nation for the struggle
it was about to go through.

Many a middle-aged man now in England will vividly
recall the momentous events of that great year of revo-
lution 1848, when the future Emperor of the French
paraded the streets of London as a special constable, and
Chartism made its final appearance in England, to sink
for ever amid the scarce concealed laughter, not unmixed
with pity, of the nation. But what afforded a momentary
anxiety, and a prolonged source of amusement to Eng-
land, proved a much more serious crisis for many European
kingdoms, and Denmark was drawn into the vortex of
revolutionary war. The two duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein were resolved to make themselves independent
of Denmark.

The rebellion would probably soon have been crushed,
but Prussia found it convenient to interfere, and on
the other hand Oscar, king of Sweden, sent some
troops to assist the king of Denmark. After an in-
effectual attempt to arrange a truce though contending
against superior numbers, victory more than once declared
for the gallant Danes, who proved that they had in no

* Sinding’s History ef Scandinavia, p. 439%
 

NEW DANISH CONSTITUTION. 239

way degenerated from their ancestral bravery. At
Diippel, especially, their victory over the Prussian general
Wrangel, was very decisive and very glorious. In 1849
a treaty of peace with Prussia was signed, but the strife
with the insurgents still continued until 1851, when the
insurrection was finally crushed after almost continuous
fighting and frightful bloodshed.

The king then willingly turned from the scenes of
blood, and set about to fulfil the promises he had made
of granting more complete freedom to the people. A
new charter was drawn up in 1849, by which no public
measures can be adopted, no taxes imposed, and no law
passed without the joint consent of the king and the
diet. This diet meets every year, and to it the ministers
are responsible. It is divided into a Folksthing, which
is elected by universal suffrage, and a Landsthing con-
sisting of sixty-six members, twelve of whom are nomi-
nated for lite by the king, and the remainder are chosen
for eight years by deputies from Copenhagen and other
great towns. With such a constitution it is needless to
say that the fullest freedom of the press is secured,
and the personal liberty of the subject amply protected.

The remaining period of Frederick’s life was spent
chiefly in striving to meet and keep in check the
designs of Prussia, which were directed, with a persever-
ance which was only explained by future events, to keep
alive the flame of discord between Denmark and the
duchies. The Augustenburg princes had renounced all
further claims, and on that condition had received a free
pardon for their treason. They were compelled to retire
from the Danish dominions,and even accepted a large sum
of money as a full and final settlement of all their
claims, :

The late king had no direct heir, and by a treaty
signed by all the great European powers in London in
1852, the succession was vested in Prince Christian of
Glucksburg. In March 1863, Prince Christian’s daughter
Alexandra was married to the Prince of Wales, to the
great joy of the people of both countries, and in the

 
 

240 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [cHAP. xxi.

following November her father ascended the throne in

accordance with the London treaty, On the flimsy pre-

text that the renunciation of claims made by the father
could not bind the son, Frederick, eldest son of the Duke
of Augustenburg, assumed the title of Duke Frederick
VIII. of the united and independent province of Schles-
wig Holstein.

The meaning of this strange proceeding was soon
explained, and he was proved to be the mere cat’s-paw
in the hand of mightier agents behind the scenes—to
be used so long as might be convenient, and then to be
contemptuously tossed aside. The power of Prussia was
wielded by a strong and unscrupulous hand, whose
strength was as yet generally unsuspected. Bismarck
had made up his mind that the duchies must be, and
should be, annexed to Germany. Already the scheme of

a united Fatherland was taking shape in that marvellous

~ brain,—a scheme which we have seen converted into a
living reality. The Augustenburg claims were con-
venient,and were therefore put forward, but the Germanic
Diet urged claims which Denmark could not for one
moment listen to, and the enforcement of these claims
were put into the hands of Austria and Prussia.

Thus poor, weak, but gallant Denmark, found herself
engaged in mortal strife with the two colossal powers of
Austria and Prussia combined. Relying on the help of

; ne England, an army of 40,000 Danes advanced to defend the

- Dannevirke, only to retreat before the overwhelming forces
sent against them. Unwise -as it might have been for

ois England to interfere, it cannot be denied that the English

 

~ Government had given very good reason to lead the
Danes to expect not only their sympathy but their
practical and effective help. The sympathy of the
English people they undoubtedly had, a sympathy deeply
~ intensified by the immense popularity which the Princess
of Wales won by her charming manner, and her un-
affected goodness, and which she still retains after the

 

lapse of more than twenty years, but any kind of practical

help was resolutely withheld. The Danes fought bravely,
 

PRUSSIAN VICTORY. 241

and even won one little fight on the sea, defeating some
Austrian vessels off Heligoland. But it was all in vain.
The Prussian needle-gun, as Justin M‘Carthy reminds
us,* came into play with terrible effect in the campaign,
and it soon made all attempts at resistance on the part
of the Danes utterly hopeless. In 1864 peace was made
by Denmark surrendering the duchies to the disposal of
the allies. The Augustenburg claims were heard of no
more. But the full extent of the plot was not revealed
until the short and decisive campaign of 1866, which
placed Austria at the feet of Prussia after the battle of
Sadowa, and thus enabled Prussia to secure to herself the
complete dominion over the disputed provinces. Austria
had stipulated that north Schleswig should be uncon-
ditionally restored to Denmark, provided the people by
a universal vote should proclaim their wish to be so
reunited. Need we add that that vote has not yet been
solicited ? Schleswig-Holstein now forms an integral part
of the Germanic Empire, while Denmark, subdued but not
disgraced, has gone on peacefully in the path of true
happiness and progress, and in the enjoyment of complete
political and social freedom.

That resistless energy which once made the dreaded
Dane the terror of other lands, and notably of England,
now seeks its gratification in nobler forms of scientific
and literary enterprise. In every department of art and
science, this small country can boast of representatives
second to none. The stories of Hans Andersen still
fascinate the children of other countries than his own,
while the learned researches of Rask, Madvig, and
Worsaae find an honoured place in the libraries of the
scholar and the student. It is not among the smallest of
the debts of obligation England owes to two illustrious
. authors, William and Mary Howitt, one of whom still
survives, that they have done so much by their transla-
tion of the works of the Swedish Frederica Bremer, and
the Danish Hans Andersen, and by their charming
History of the Literature and Romance of the North, to

* History of our own Times, iii, 377,

 
 

 

242 HISTORY OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN. [CHAP. Xx.

familiarise Englishmen with the almost unknown but
rich and fertile field of Scandinavian literature.

It is a happy omen of our times that Scandinavia is
ceasing to be a strange and unknown land to Englishmen.
Every summer carries large armies of visitors to view
the glories of Norwegian scenery. Such tourists may miss
much which they would meet with in more familiar
scenes, but they will soon find that they are surrounded
by a people belonging to the same stock with themselves,
and who amid all the strange mutations of their eventful
history have ever been distinguished for that complex
assemblage of qualities to which we give the distinctive
and comprehensive name of--maniiness.

 
 
 

   

    

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