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FREDERICK III
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See also:FREDERICK III
., See also: Yet the Swedish Empire was rather a geographical expression than a See also:state with natural and See also:national boundaries . Modern Sweden is bounded by the Baltic; during the 17th See also:century the Baltic was merely the See also:bond between her various widely dispersed dominions . All the islands in the Baltic, except the Danish See also:group, belonged to Sweden . The estuaries of all the great German See also:rivers (for the Niemen and See also:Vistula are properly See also:Polish rivers) debouched in Swedish territory, within which also See also:lay two-thirds of See also:Lake See also:Ladoga and one-See also:half of Lake See also:Peipus . Stock-holm, the See also:capital, lay in the very centre of the empire, whose second greatest See also:city was See also:Riga, on the other side of the See also:sea . Yet this vast empire contained but half the See also:population of modern Sweden—being only 2,500,000, or about 140 souls to the square mile . Further, Sweden's new boundaries were of the most insecure description, inasmuch as they were See also:anti-ethnographical, parting asunder races which naturally went together, and behind which stood powerful neighbours of the same stock ready, at the first opportunity, to reunite them . Moreover, the commanding See also:political See also:influence which Sweden had now won was considerably neutralized by her loss of moral See also:prestige . On Charles X.'s See also:accession in 1655, Sweden's neighbours, though suspicious and uneasy, were at least not adversaries, and might have been converted into allies of the new great power who, if she had mulcted them of territory, had, any-how, compensated them for the loss with the by no means contemptible douceur of religious See also:liberty . At Charles X.'s death, five years later, we find Sweden, herself bled to exhaustion point, surrounded by a broad See also:belt of desolated territory and regarded with ineradicable hatred by every adjacent state . To sink in five years from the position'of the See also:champion of Protestantism to that of the See also:common enemy of every See also:Protestant power was a degradation not to be compensated by any amount of military See also:glory . Charles's subsequent endeavour, in stress of circumstances, to gain a friend by dividing his Polish conquests with the aspiring elector of Brandenburg was a reversal of his See also:original policy and only resulted in the See also:establishment on the southernconfines of Sweden of a new See also:rival almost as dangerous as Denmark, her See also:ancient rival in the See also:west .
In 166o, after five years of incessant warfare, Sweden had at length obtained peace and with it the opportunity of organizing and developing her newly won empire
.
Unfor- Minority of tunately, the regency which was to govern her during Charles x1. the next fifteen years was unequal to the difficulties
of a situation which might have taxed the resources of the wisest statesmen
.
Unity and vigour were scarcely to be expected from a many-headed See also:administration composed of men of mediocre See also:talent whose contrary opinions speedily gave rise to contending factions
.
There was the high-aristocratic party with a leaning towards See also:martial See also:adventure headed by See also:Magnus de la Gardie (q.v.), and the party of peace and See also:economy whose ablest representative was the liberal and energetic Johan See also:Gyllenstjerna (q.v.)
.
After a severe struggle, de la Gardie'S party prevailed; and its See also:triumph was marked by that See also:general decline of See also:personal and political morality which has given to this regency its unenviable notoriety
.
See also:Sloth and carelessness speedily invaded every See also:branch of the administration, destroying all discipline and leading to a general neglect of business
.
Another characteristic of the de la Gardie See also:government was its See also:gross corruption, which made Sweden the obsequious hireling of that See also:foreign power which had the longest See also:purse
.
This shameful "See also:subsidy policy" See also:dates from the Treaty of See also:Fontainebleau, 1661, by a See also:secret See also:paragraph of which Sweden, in See also:exchange for a considerable sum of See also:money, undertook to support the French See also:candidate on the first vacancy of the Polish See also:throne
.
The complications ensuing from See also:
ith See also:France
.
herself, in return for 400,000 crowns per annum in
peace and 600,000 in war-time, to attack, with 16,000 men, any German princes who might be disposed to assist See also:
Two accidents at this crisis alone saved Sweden from ruin—the splendid courage of the See also:young king who, resolutely and success-fully, kept the Danish invaders at See also:bay (see CHARLES XI., king of Sweden), and the See also:diplomatic activity of Louis XIV
.
In See also: The See also:remainder of the reign of Charles XI. is remarkable for a revolution which converted the government of Sweden into Charles XI. a semi-See also:absolute See also:monarchy . The king emerged from and the the war convinced that if Sweden were to retain her Swedish position as a great power she must radically reform constttu- her whole economical See also:system, and, above all, cir- See also:eton. cumscribe the predominant and mischievous influence of an See also:aristocracy which thought far more of its privileges than of its public duties . He See also:felt that he could now draw upon the confidence and liberality of the See also:lower orders to an unlimited extent, and he proceeded to do so . The Riksdag which assembled in Stockholm in October 168o begins a new era of Swedish See also:history . On the See also:motion of the See also:Estate of Peasants, which had a long memory for aristocratic abuses, the question of the recovery of the alienated crown lands was brought before the Riksdag, and, despite the stubborn opposition of the magnates, a See also:resolution of the See also:Diet directed that all countships, baronies, domains, manors and other estates producing an See also:annual See also:rent of more than £70 per annum should revert to the Crown . The same Riksdag decided that the king was not See also:bound by any particular constitution, but only by See also:law and the statutes . See also:Nay, they added that he was not even obliged to consult the See also:council of state, but was to be regarded as a See also:sovereign See also:lord, responsible to See also:God alone for his actions, and requiring no intermediary between himself and his See also:people . The council thereupon acquiesced in its own humiliation by meekly accepting a royal brief changing its See also:official See also:title from Riksrdd (council of state) to Kungligardd (royal council)—a visible sign that the senators were no longer the king's colleagues but his servants . Thus Sweden, as well as Denmark, had become an absolute monarchy, but. with this important difference, that the right of the Swedish people, in See also:parliament assembled, to be consulted on all important matters was recognized and acted upon . The Riksdag, completely overshadowed by the throne, was during the reign of Charles XI. to do little more than See also:register the royal decrees; but nevertheless it continued to exist as an essential part of the machinery of government . Moreover, this See also:transfer of authority was a voluntary See also:act . The people, knowing the king to be their best friend, trusted him implicity and co-operated with him cheerfully . The Riksdag of 1682 proposed a fresh Reduktion, and declared that the whole question of how far the king was empowered by the law of the land to bestow fiefs, or, in See also:case of urgent national See also:distress, take them back again, was exclusively his See also:majesty's affair . In other words, it made the king the disposer of his subjects' temporal See also:property . Presently this new principle of See also:autocracy was extended to the king's legislative authority also, for, on the 9th of December 1682, all four estates, by virtue of a common See also:declaration, not only confirmed him in the possession of the legislative See also:powers enjoyed by his predecessors, but even conceded to him the right of interpreting and amending the common law . The recovery of the alienated crown lands occupied Charles XI. for the See also:rest of his See also:life . It was conducted by a See also:commission which was ultimately converted into a permanent See also:department of state . It acted on the principle that the titles of all privatelanded estate might be called in question, inasmuch as at some time or other it must have belonged to the Crown; and the See also:burden of See also:proof of ownership was held not to See also:lie with the Crown which made the claim, but with the actual owner of the property . The amount of See also:revenue accruing to the Crown from the whole Reduktion it is impossible to estimate even approximately; but by these means, combined with the most careful management and the most rigid economy, Charles XI. contrived to reduce the national See also:debt from £2,567,000 to £700,000 . These operations represent only a part of Charles XI.'s gigantic activity . Here we have only space sufficient to glance at his reorganization of the national armaments . Reorganize . Charles XI. re-established on a broader basis the tion of indelningsverk introduced by Charles IX.—a system Armaments. of military See also:tenure whereby the national forces were bound to the See also:soil . Thus there was the ruslhdll tenure, under which the tenants, instead of paying rent, were obliged to equip and maintain a See also:cavalry soldier and See also:horse, while the knekthdllarer supplied duly equipped See also:foot soldiers . These indelning soldiers were provided with holdings on which they lived in times of peace . Formerly, See also:ordinary See also:conscription had existed alongside this indelning, or See also:distribution system; but it had proved inadequate as well as highly unpopular; and, in 1682, Charles XI. came to an agreement with the peasantry whereby an extended indelning system was to be susbstituted for general conscription . The See also:navy, of even more importance to Sweden if she were to maintain the dominion of the Baltic, was entirely remodelled; and, the See also:recent war having demonstrated the unsuitability of Stockholm as a See also:naval station, the construction of a new See also:arsenal on a gigantic See also:scale was simultaneously begun at See also:Karlskrona . After a seventeen years' struggle against all manner of See also:financial difficulties, the twofold enter-prise was completed . At the death of Charles XI . Sweden could boast of a See also:fleet of See also:forty-three three-deckers (manned by 11,000 men and armed with 2648 guns) and one of the finest arsenals in the See also:world . Charles XI. had carefully provided against the contingency of his successor's minority; and the five regents appointed by him, if not great statesmen, were at least See also:practical Charles XII., politicans who had not been trained in his austere /697,4718 . school in vain . At See also:home the Reduktion was cautiously pursued, while abroad the successful conclusion of the great peace congress at See also:Ryswick was justly regarded as a signal triumph of Sweden's pacific diplomacy (see OXENSTJERNA See also:FAMILY) . The young king was full of promise, and had he been permitted gradually to gain experience and develop his naturally great talents beneath the guidance of his guardians, as his See also:father had intended, all might have been well for Sweden . Unfortunately, the sudden, noiseless revolution of the 6th of November 1697, which made Charles XII. absolute See also:master of his See also:country's See also:fate in his fifteenth See also:year (see CHARLES XII.), and the See also:league of Denmark, See also:Saxony and Russia, formed two years later to See also:partition Sweden (see See also:PATKUL, JOHANN See also:REINHOLD; See also:PETER THE GREAT; CHARLES XII.), precipitated Sweden into a sea of troubles in which she was finally submerged . From the very beginning of the Great See also:Northern War Sweden suffered from the inability of Charles XII. to view the situation from anything but a purely personal point of view .
Great
His determination to avenge himself on enemies Northern
overpowered every other See also:consideration
.
Again and War again during these eighteen years of warfare it was in his power to dictate an advantageous peace
.
After the dissipation of the first See also:coalition against him by the peace of Travendal (Aug
.
18, 1700) and the victory of See also:Narva (Nov
.
20, 1700), the Swedish See also:chancellor, See also:Benedict Oxenstjerna, rightly regarded the universal bidding for the favour of Sweden by France and the maritime powers, then on the See also:eve of the War of the Spanish See also:Succession, as a See also:golden opportunity of " ending this See also:present lean war and making his majesty the arbiter of Europe." But Charles, See also:intent on dethroning See also:Augustus of Poland, held haughtily aloof
.
Subsequently in 1701 he rejected a personal See also:appeal from See also: Even now he could have made See also:honourable terms with his numerous enemies . The resources of Sweden were still very far from being exhausted, and, during 1710 and 1711, the gallant Magnus See also:Stenbock (q.v.) upheld her military supremacy in the See also:north . But all the efforts of the Swedish government were wrecked on the determination of Charles XII. to surrender nothing . Thus he rejected advantageous offers of mediation and alliance made to him, during 1712, by the maritime powers and by Prussia; and, in 1714, he scouted the friendly overtures of Louis XIV. and the emperor, so that when peace was finally concluded between France and the Empire, at the congress of See also:Baden, Swedish affairs were, by common consent, See also:left out of consideration . When, on the 14th of September 1714, he suddenly returned to his dominions, Stralsund and See also:Wismar were all that remained to him of his See also:continental possessions; while by the end of 1715 Sweden, now fast approaching the last See also:stage of exhaustion, was at open war with See also:England, See also:Hanover, Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Denmark, who had formed a coalition to partition her continental territory between them . Nevertheless, at this the See also:eleventh See also:hour of her opportunities, Sweden might still have saved something from the See also:wreck of her empire if Charles had behaved like a reasonable being (see CHARLES XII.; PETER THE GREAT; See also:GORTZ, GEORG HEINRICH VON; See also:OSTERMAN, ANDREI); but he would only consent to See also:play off Russia against England, and his sudden death before See also:Fredrikshald (Dec . II, 1718) left Sweden practically at the end of her resources and at the See also:mercy of her enemies . At the beginning of 1719 pacific overtures were made to England, Hanover, Prussia and Denmark . By the See also:treaties of Stockholm (Feb . 20, 1719, and Feb . 1, 1720) Hanover obtained the bishoprics of Bremen and See also:Verden for herself and Stettin for her confederate Prussia . By the treaty of Frederiksborg or Copenhagen (July 3, 1720) peace was also signed between Den-mark and Sweden, Denmark retroceding See also:Rugen, Further Pomerania as far as the Peene, and Wismar to Sweden, in exchange for an See also:indemnity of 600,000 See also:rix-dollars, while Sweden relinquished her exemption from the See also:Sound tolls and her See also:protectorate over Holstein-Gottorp . The prospect of coercing Russia by means of the See also:British fleet had alone induced Sweden to consent to such sacrifices; but when the last demands of England and her allies had been complied with, Sweden Peace of was left to come to terms as best she could with Nystad, the tsar . Negotiations were reopened with Russia at 1721 . Loss Nystad, in May 1720, but peace was not concluded oftheBaltic till the 30th of August 1721, and then only under Provinces. the direst pressure . By the peace of Nystad Sweden ceded to Russia Ingria and Esthonia, Livonia, the Finnish province of Kexholm and the fortress of See also:Viborg . See also:Finland west of Viborg and north of Kexholm was restored to Sweden . She also received an indemnity of two millions of thalers and a See also:solemn undertaking of non-interference in her domestic affairs . It was not the least of Sweden's misfortunes after the Great Northern War that the new constitution, which was to compensate her for all her past sacrifices, should contain within it the elements of many of her future calamities . See also:Early in 1720 Charles XII.'s See also:sister, Ulrica Leonora, who had been elected See also:queen of Sweden immediately after his death, was permitted to abdicate in favour of her hus- See also:Frederick 1, See also:band the See also:prince of See also:Hesse, who was elected king 1720-1751 . under the title of Frederick I.; and Sweden was, The Limited at the same time, converted into the most limited Monarchy. of monarchies . All power was vested in the people as represented by the Riksdag, consisting, as before, of four distinct estates, nobles, priests, burgesses and peasants, sitting and deliberating apart . The conflicting interests and mutual jealousies of these four See also:independent assemblies made the See also:work of legislation exceptionally difficult . No measure could now become law till it had obtained the assent of three at least of the four estates; but this See also:provision, which seems to have been designed to protect the lower orders against the See also:nobility, produced evils far greater than those which it professed to cure . Thus, See also:measures might be passed by a See also:bare See also:majority in three estates, when a real and substantial majority of all four estates in congress might be actually against it . Or, again, a dominant See also:action in any three of the estates might enact See also:laws highly detrimental to the interests of the remaining estate—a danger the more to be apprehended as in no other country in Europe were class distinctions so sharply defined as in Sweden . Each estate was ruled by its talman, or See also:speaker, who was now elected at the beginning of each Diet, but the See also:archbishop was, ex officio, the talman of the See also:clergy . The landt- constitumarskalk, or speaker of the See also:House of Nobles, presided See also:don of the when the estates met in congress, and also, by Estates . virtue of his See also:office, in the hemliga utskott, or secret See also:committee . This famous See also:body, which consisted of 50 nobles, 25 priests, 25 burgesses, and, very exceptionally, 25 peasants, possessed during the session of the Riksdag not only the supreme executive but also the surpeme judicial and legislative functions . It pre-pared all bills for the Riksdag, created and deposed all ministries, controlled the foreign policy of the nation, and claimed and often exercised the right of superseding the ordinary courts of See also:justice . During the See also:parliamentary See also:recess, however, the executive remained in the hands of the rad, or See also:senate, which was responsible to the Riksdag alone . It will be obvious that there was no See also:room in this republican constitution for a constitutional monarch in the modern sense of the word . The crowned puppet who possessed a casting See also:vote in the rad, of which he was the nominal See also:president, and who was allowed to create peers once in his life (at his See also:coronation), was rather a state decoration than a sovereignty . At first this cumbrous and complicated See also:instrument of government worked tolerably well under the See also:firm but cautious See also:control of the chancellor, See also:Count Arvid Beernhard See also:Horn political (q.v.) . In his anxiety to avoid embroiling his country parties, abroad, Horn reversed the traditional policy of Hats and Sweden by keeping France at a distance and draw- caps. See also:ing near to Great See also:Britain, for whose liberal institutions he professed the highest admiration . Thus a twenty years' war was succeeded by a twenty years' peace, during which the nation recovered so rapidly from its wounds that it began to forget them . A new See also:race of politicians was springing up . Since 1719, when the influence of the few great territorial families had been merged in a multitude of needy See also:gentle-men, the first estate had become the nursery and afterwards the stronghold of an opposition at once See also:noble and democratic which found its natural leaders in such men as Count Carl Gyllenborg and Count Carl Gustaf See also: |