Page images
PDF
EPUB

1660-72]

Magnus de La Gardie.

Bonde

565

taciturn but efficient Gustaf Bonde, proved himself likewise a stubborn patriot, and his budget of 1662 came to be regarded as a pattern from which it was almost treason to depart. Brahe and Bonde, with three colleagues, formed the Regency which gave Sweden peace with all her enemies, arrived at a settled plan of government, exerted itself for the advancement of trade and justice, and met the Diet of 1664 with a record of four years' active and equitable administration.

Although the administration of the Regency in its early years is entitled to fair credit, yet signs were not wanting that the kingdom lacked a king. The Regents owed at least a nominal responsibility to the Council, and both Regents and Council were substantially delegates of the nobles. The familiar weaknesses of party government therefore made their appearance. Crown lands were bestowed upon the Regents and their friends, while in three years more than forty families received ennoblement. Worst of all, the Chancellor and the brother-in-law of the Queen, Count Magnus Gabriel de La Gardie, attained to an influence which only the weakest of kings would have allowed. Himself of French ancestry, La Gardie shed over the rugged Swedish Court something of the lustre of Versailles. Rich, handsome and urbane, he knew no rival as an orator and as a man of feeling. All his contemporaries pronounce his talents and his person brilliant. He was the Maecenas to whom Sweden owed many of the literary and artistic achievements which mark the age. In forming and consolidating his political influence he proved adroit, while on occasion he showed himself both penetrating and energetic. But there was in him something too superficial for his station and his times. A lover of dignified ease, he would abandon politics for months together. During four months of the year 1672 he spent twelve days at Stockholm. When stoutly opposed he yielded, and in the hour

of disaster he collapsed.

[ocr errors]

For nearly fifteen years, however, La Gardie was the cynosure of Sweden. His power, it is true, depended on a majority in the Council; and this was by no means always at his command. But, on the whole, his influence was predominant, and under it the national ruin was almost consummated. At the beginning of the year 1661 the National Debt amounted to some ten and a half million dollars a sum which mocked at mere retrenchment. Financial equilibrium could not be honestly established in the near future except by special votes of supplies or by substantial resumptions of the alienated Crown lands. But the former was refused by the Diet, and the latter the "Reduction" resolved on in 1655-broke down. In vain Bonde struggled with the passive resistance of Brahe and the active hostility of La Gardie. The common vice of oligarchy proved too strong. The endowment of the State was now firmly regarded as the inheritance of a caste. Those who had as yet received none of the Crown lands demanded that they should not be left out in the cold; and the annual protest of the Treasury fell on deaf ears.

[ocr errors]

566

Sweden in alliance with France

[1667-72

In 1667 Bonde died. No longer opposed by this champion of Swedish honesty and independence, La Gardie held the Treasury at his mercy. To the end of his career he never understood how facts could be too hard for graceful words; and he now turned inevitably to financial jugglery, in order to meet the heavy annual deficit. "Cease paying off debt," he urged, "and borrow, anticipate, take foreign subsidies; and not a doit of deficit will remain."

Warning voices were heard in opposition to a policy so ruinous in time of peace. Per Brahe, the quasi-monarch of mid-Sweden, urged retrenchment, but in vain. Year by year, the finances grew more involved, until at last their chaos spread to the department of foreign affairs. Bonde had struggled hard to keep expenditure within the limits of revenue and had even contrived to pay off a small part of the debt. In 1667, however, a Commission reported a deficit of over three million dollars the result largely of the gifts, exemptions, and privileges lavished by the Regency upon themselves and their supporters. It was under the pressure of financial necessity, which Regency, Council, and Diet would make no sacrifice to meet, that in 1672 La Gardie embarked Sweden on the venture, equally dishonest and disastrous, of an alliance with France.

For the next quarter of a century the efforts of France to make Sweden her dependant created the chief problems of Swedish foreign policy. A series of skilful diplomatists - Pomponne, Feuquières, Béthune, d'Avaux-formed and maintained at Stockholm the party of Louis XIV. But the French connexion, in later years accepted or rejected by the King after careful consideration of the national interest, was now accepted by the Regency in the fatuous belief that France would pay liberally for services which Sweden was unwilling, if not unable, to perform. "Let us act like merchants," said one of their number, "so as to get money enough and do naught else for it than sit still; but let us have our troops ready for all emergencies." In this spirit they prepared to bargain with the King of France. At this time Louis XIV wished to complete the isolation of the Dutch by paralysing their German allies. He therefore offered to Sweden an annual subsidy of 400,000 crowns in time of peace, and 600,000 in time of war, on condition of keeping 16,000 men for eventual action in Germany. La Gardie, an optimistic amateur in statecraft, hoped to line his own pockets and to avert the need for retrenchment at the cost of a mere promise. Sweden had joined the Triple Alliance of 1668 in the hope of receiving subsidies from the enemies of France at a time when peace was imminent. Now, by a new and equally censurable speculation, the Chancellor set in motion forces destined to overwhelm himself and to bring his country to the verge of destruction. On April 3, 1672, Sweden closed with France; and on the next day she concluded with England, the client of France, a treaty to the prejudice of the Dutch. Yet the States General were immediately assured

1672-4] Charles XI and La Gardie.-The “Reduction"

567

that Sweden would not deviate one hair's-breadth from her previous compact with them. Three days later, 200,000 Frenchmen crossed their frontier.

The Treaty with France had still nearly ten years to run when, in December, 1672, Charles XI became of age to govern. For a time, his reign seemed to be merely a prolongation of the Regency. Though the Estates were disposed to take a far less favourable view, the young King received the report of the Regents with a grateful declaration that they and their heirs were for ever freed from further indictment on account of their actions.

The sovereignty, though in name no longer fettered, had passed to a youth so untutored that later generations believed him still unable to read or write, and so shy that a foreign ambassador declared it cruelty to make him speak. His enthusiasm was for field sports, especially for mimic war. In all else, La Gardie, his uncle, seemed to be his tutor. Under such auspices, Sweden advanced gaily along the road to ruin. In the Swedish polity, however, it was impossible that any change connected with the throne should remain void of constitutional effect. Two grave consequences swiftly resulted from the majority of the King. La Gardie, rejoicing to govern through a docile youth instead of through a fickle assembly of forty members, began to withdraw portions of public business from the consideration of the full Council, and to transact them with the King and a few Councillors and Secretaries. Thus the Chancellor's dislike of criticism and the King's of ceremony caused a royal Cabinet to come into being. More immediately apparent, however, was the influence of the King in the departments of revenue and of war. A soldier cherishing a deep reverence for the royal office, Charles found himself a King who could neither borrow money, nor pay his servants-nor provide for the support of his army in time of peace. Unhampered by that regard for persons which had hitherto rendered it almost ineffective, he turned naturally to the "Reduction" (the origin of which has been explained in an earlier volume) to banish such infamy. Incited by the rough giant John Gyllenstierna, he pressed the claims of the Crown with so much vigour that in 1674 nearly 3000 homesteads were recovered. Many of these were assigned to the support of the army and navy; but even more important than the immediate relief to the services was the demonstration of the power of the Estates to decree, and of the Crown to procure, relief for the penury of the State at the expense of private persons.

Whither this might have led, how the King's character might have developed while the need of the State and the clamour of the people beat against the rampart of aristocratic power-these things can only be surmised. The "fourteen years in which it had pleased the Most High to vouchsafe that our dear fatherland should sit at peace" were drawing to a close. Early in 1674, Sweden found herself manoeuvred by

568

War with Brandenburg and Denmark [1674-5

prove

France into a war which she desired to avoid, and which she was to herself beyond all expectation incompetent to conduct. The young King, who had been trained for war and not for peace, dreamed of leading Swedish troops to fresh victories on German soil. La Gardie, corrupted by French gold, still hoped to gain subsidies by a show of arming. But the nation, heroically ready for sacrifice on behalf of its religion or its independence, loathed the conflict into which it was now betrayed. La Gardie raised an army which Sweden could not maintain unassisted, in order to receive without fighting subsidies which Louis soon refused to pay on these terms. In vain the duped Chancellor struggled to break through the net in which he had enmeshed his country. He tried to induce England to mediate for peace, Louis to change his policy, Holland to purchase Swedish neutrality, and the Great Elector to desist from war. As Feuquières had foreseen, however, the army transported to Swedish Pomerania to menace the Emperor was soon compelled. by lack of supplies, to cross the frontier of Brandenburg, so that in December, 1674, Sweden found herself at war with the Great Elector, the Emperor's ally. She sought in vain an alliance with Denmark; and, six months later, the Dutch joined the number of her foes.

The events of 1674 had shown the depths to which Swedish diplomacy had sunk since the days of Axel Oxenstierna. The campaign of 1675 was to show that Swedish strategy had sunk as low since the days of Charles X. The Council was for giving foreign Powers the least possible offence, while Wrangel, though full of martial ardour, was no longer capable of constructing a plan of operations. Midsummer was scarcely past, when the slow uncertain movements of the Swedish forces were rudely interrupted by the Great Elector's victory at Fehrbellin, described elsewhere, which at one blow changed the position of Sweden in Germany. For a quarter of a century to come, the military prestige of Sweden was shattered. Wrangel's army sank to 7000 men; and, unless a new host could cross the sea to his assistance, the whole of Pomerania was lost. Christian V suddenly overwhelmed the Duke of HolsteinGottorp and declared war upon Charles XI. La Gardie fell into a po litical stupor. The Estates, assembled at Upsala, plucked.up courage to call in question the policy of the Regents. Confronted by the prospect of an investigation, the Council showed itself timorous and divided. Per Brahe declared with tears that, though he had been at forty Diets, he had never heard the like; but the King undertook to comply with the wish of the Estates. At Michaelmas they dispersed, having placed a powerful weapon in the hands of the monarchy, and having voted men and money to the utmost of their ability.

In the hour of national disaster Charles XI began to play the dictator. But the most fevered energy could not remedy in a moment the military decay for which the Regency was to blame. In October, stimulated by the King's threats, a Swedish fleet put to sea, but only

+

1675-6]

The War of Scania

569

demonstrated its incompetence in navigation. Secure against invasion, the Danes took Wismar, and made preparations, both in Zealand and in Norway, to attack Sweden; while the Great Elector, the BrunswickLüneburg Dukes, and the Bishop of Münster rapidly overran Bremen, Verden, and Swedish Pomerania. The early months of 1676 merely developed the situation reached in 1675. In Germany, Königsmarck, with some 6000 ill-found troops, concentrated his efforts on the defence of Stralsund, Rügen, and Stettin. Meanwhile a naval disaster off Öland (June 1, 1676) confined the main force of Charles XI to the peninsula and enabled the Danes, at the end of June, to launch a triple invasion against their lost provinces.

During two eventful years the fate of Sweden hung upon the struggle Its earliest phase revealed the revolution in the comparative strength of the combatants which sixteen years of autocracy on the one side and aristocracy on the other had brought about. Instead of besieging Copenhagen, the Swedes were compelled to dispatch troops in all haste to man their decaying fortresses, and to withdraw the remnant of the army, less than 6000 strong, out of the invaders' reach. While one

force marched south from Norway under Gyldenlöve and another landed at Ystad in southernmost Sweden, Duke John Adolphus of HolsteinPlön crossed the Sound with 14,000 men. He soon proved his own quality and that of his men by capturing Landskrona, an invaluable base of operations, and by storming in two hours the fortress of Kristianstad, which was reputed impregnable. These successes made Scania once more a Danish province. The exulting peasants fell upon the estates and other property of the Swedish nobles and officials, and began a bitter guerilla warfare which Charles found it well-nigh impossible to extinguish.

The young King seemed for a time paralysed by events which belied the experience of two generations, and for days together would speak to no one. Feuquières, who tried in vain to cajole him into returning to Stockholm, reported that his crown was in peril. Then, suddenly, he rushed to the rescue of Halland and West Gotland. He had formed a fixed idea, which greatly embarrassed Helmfelt and his other generals, that he must deliver Sweden by a pitched battle. At Fyllebro near Halmstad he crushed a Danish detachment under Major-General Duncan, and took up a position which had the effect of frustrating the invasion of Gyldenlöve. He had now moreover become intimate with the patriot John Gyllenstierna, whose harsh genius gave him fresh inspiration against the national enemy and against the aristocracy which had brought his country so low. With the aid of Gyllenstierna and Erik Dahlberg, he assembled a national army more than 15,000 strong and engaged in a winter campaign of manœuvres. To regain Scania, however, proved a terribly difficult task. Operating in a hostile country, the Swedes, mainly through disease, dwindled to some 8000 men.

The

« PreviousContinue »