CHAPTER VIII.
CONDITIONS IN SWEDEN.
When Gustavus was only twenty-six years of age, in the midst of wars and struggles, he was laying the foundations for a greater Sweden. In 1620 he inquired of the bishops how knowledge could be disseminated among the people. He claimed that he had a greater want than that of money, namely, competent persons for civil and military positions.
He inquired what schools for the common people, what seminaries, what colleges were necessary to educate the people. He inquired where good teachers could be obtained from foreign countries, and required that they should be brought to Sweden. He said, "The instruction in religion may be passable, but as the clergy do not understand matters of government and of civic life, they cannot be expected to prepare men for the State." So men of affairs were now secured to assist in teaching.
In 1625 he granted to the Upsala Academy, as he called what is now the great University, from his own hereditary estates, three hundred and fifty manors, besides the crown tithes in several parishes, a stipend for many professors, and $3,250.00 yearly for the community or student house, with $2,500.00 yearly for maintenance, besides setting apart money for prizes.
He transferred to the Library at Upsala his printing plant, and began the library by presenting his own books. He erected a library building, and arranged for its endowment. He established four gymnasiums, or, as we would call them, colleges, and laid the foundation for that general course of schools, colleges and universities which has made Sweden one of the best educated nations on earth.
From 1627 Sweden had by letters patent opened the doors to Protestant exiles. The Dukes of Mecklenburg had there found asylum and honorable occupation for their sons.
The women and children of wealthy Germans had been sent to Sweden, and the common people were well informed as to the devastating wars in Germany.
Oxenstiern was not favorable to Gustavus going to the relief of Germany. He feared for the life of his friend, and for the succession of the Vasas. The same view was taken by Skytte, his old tutor. The daughter of Gustavus was not yet quite four years of age.
Before the Estates the king did not urge the defence of Protestantism so much as patriotism. He said, "Denmark is used up. The Imperial army of Papists have Rostock, Wismar, Stettin, Wolgast, Greifswald and nearly all the other ports. Rugen is theirs, and they continue to threaten Stralsund. They aim to destroy Swedish commerce and to plant a foot on the southern shores of our Fatherland. The fight is for house, home and faith."
The Estates voted at once for regular and heavy taxes for three years. The nobles renounced their privilege of freeing tenants from service and taxation. The mercantile companies gave up their subsidies to provide for the fleet. Many had spoken against the war, but when the vote was taken all voted to sustain their king.
Gustavus said: "I did not call you together because of any doubt in my mind, but that you might oppose me if you wished. That freedom you no longer enjoy. You have spoken. My view is this, that for our safety, honor and final peace, I see nothing but to make a bold attack on the enemy. I hope it will be for the advantage of Sweden, but I also hope, if the day go hard with us, no blame will be laid upon me, for I have no other end in view but that advantage. I do not underrate the difficulties, such as the want of means, or the doubtful issue of battle. It is no idle glory I am seeking, the king of Denmark is sufficient warning to me against that, besides the judgment of posterity leaves a man very little glory. I am satisfied with glory and want no more. Your duty is clear, to exhort all my subjects to continue in their present devoted attitude. For myself, I see that I have no more rest to expect but the rest of eternity."
From this time Gustavus Adolphus met no further opposition among his own people. All Sweden at that time had only about one and a half million people, not so many as now live in New York City.
Richelieu sent a wily ambassador to Gustavus, but the king was careful to enter into no hampering alliance with a Catholic power. Charnace, the emissary of Richelieu, twice visited Sweden, in the winter and spring of 1629 and 1630. He assured the king that the Protestant States would receive him with open arms. The king replied that such was not the case. Gustavus well knew that the Elector of Saxony, although a Protestant, was an ally of the Emperor simply to save his country from devastation, and that his brother-in-law of Brandenburg was a slothful glutton, wanting only to be let alone.
As long as Denmark might "bite Sweden in the heel," Gustavus felt loth to leave his kingdom. He now had a personal interview with Christian IV. of Denmark and assured himself of goodwill on that side, he renewed the guards along the side next Russia and Poland, and quietly made ready his army, both by land and sea, for going to the relief of Germany.
The Emperor said: "We shall now have another little enemy to fight." Wallenstein said that he could expel Gustavus, with the judicious use of a rod, as he might have spoken of a recalcitrant boy. At the same time Wallenstein offered thirty thousand dollars to anyone who would assassinate the king of Sweden, and thus save him using the rod.
Falkenberg, a Swedish ambassador, visited the courts of Holland and of different Protestant German States, receiving fine verbal promises of assistance, but they utterly refused to enter into a written alliance with Sweden. Lubeck and Hamburg advanced him money and agreed to accept Swedish copper in return.
Every Swedish regiment was now made up to its full complement. Thirty men-of-war, two hundred transports and fifteen thousand men were now ready to take their share in one of the most dangerous campaigns of the great war. It was a small army, but it was composed of veterans. Every individual had been seasoned in previous wars, and was perfect in discipline, courage and in devotion to his commander and king. The army was composed mostly of Swedes, but had several regiments of Scots and several more regiments of Germans. The king had a small but well-equipped corps of artillery. He was also well provided with shovels, spades and picks, with which to construct earthworks.
Oxenstiern, at the time of the king's embarkation, was also sent, with ten thousand more men, to guard the frontier of Poland, and almost as many as Gustavus took with him were left to guard against sudden and unexpected invasion at home.
He set every part of his kingdom in order, as one who goes forth to meet the doubtful issues of a great war. The law-making power of Sweden was vested in the four Estates: Nobility, Clergy, Burghers and Peasants. The consent of at least three of these was necessary to the king for every forward movement.
So now, on May 19th, 1630, he called the Estates together, to rehearse before them the causes and conditions which forced the Swedish nation into the war. He was accompanied by the queen, also by the Council of State, in whose hands he was to leave the government. He carried in his arms his little daughter, Christina, then only four years of age. He presented her to the Estates as his successor in case of his death, and secured their renewed allegiance to her should he not return. He read the ordinances for the government in his absence, or during the minority of his daughter.
The assembly was in tears, and the king had to wait a few moments to overcome his own emotion before giving his farewell address:
"Not lightly nor wantonly," said he, "am I about to involve myself and you in this new and dangerous war. God is my witness that I do not fight to gratify my own ambition, but the Emperor has wronged me most grievously in the persons of my ambassadors; he has supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and brethren; he has trampled my religion in the dust, and even stretches his arm against my crown. The oppressed States of Germany call loudly for aid, which by God's help we will give them.
"I am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life will be exposed. I have never shrunk from dangers, nor is it likely I shall escape them all. Hitherto Providence has wonderfully protected me, but I shall at last fall in defence of my country. I commend you and all my absent subjects to the protection of heaven, and hope that we shall meet in eternity.
"To you, my Councillors of State, I first address myself. May God enlighten you, and fill you with wisdom to promote the welfare of my people. You, too, my brave Noblemen, I commend to the divine protection. Continue to prove yourselves the worthy successors of those brave Goths whose bravery humbled to the dust the pride of ancient Rome. To you, Ministers of Religion, I recommend peaceableness and piety; be yourselves examples of the virtues which you preach, and abuse not your influence over the minds of my people. On you, the Burghers and Peasants, I entreat the blessing of heaven; may your industry be rewarded by a prosperous harvest, your stores be plenteously filled, and may you be crowned abundantly with all the blessings of this life. For the prosperity of all my subjects, absent and present, I offer my warmest prayers to heaven. I bid you all a sincere—it may be an eternal farewell."
The whole assembly was in tears, the king himself was weeping, but after a few moments he said, in a natural voice, the words of the Psalm which he was accustomed to say aloud before entering on any new undertaking. We give only the closing part, upon which he seemed to lay most emphasis:
"Oh, satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it."
He set apart the first Friday of July, August and September as days of fasting and for prayer for the nation and for the army.
In about ten days after this, at the beginning of June, he embarked at Elfsnabbe, surrounded and cheered by a concourse of weeping relatives and friends, but sent forward with their blessing and best wishes.