The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa

Produced by Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                        THE
                 SWEDISH REVOLUTION
                       UNDER
                   GUSTAVUS VASA


                         BY

                 PAUL BARRON WATSON
 AUTHOR OF "MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS" AND MEMBER OF
          AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION


                       BOSTON
             LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY




 _Copyright, 1889_,
 BY PAUL BARRON WATSON.


 UNIVERSITY PRESS:
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.




    Transcriber's Note

    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
    Original spellings have been retained.

    The carat symbol [^] has been used to note 'superscript'.




PREFACE.


No name in history lies deeper in Swedish hearts than the name Gustavus
Vasa. Liberator of Sweden from the yoke of Denmark, and founder of one
of the foremost dynasties of Europe, his people during more than three
centuries have looked back fondly to the figure of their great ruler,
and cherished with tender reverence every incident in his romantic
history. This enthusiasm for Gustavus Vasa is more than sentiment; it
belongs to him as leader in a vast political upheaval. When Gustavus
came upon the stage, the Swedish people had long been groaning under a
foreign despotism. During more than a century their political existence
had been ignored, their rights as freemen trampled in the dust. They had
at last been goaded into a spirit of rebellion, and were already
struggling to be free. What they most needed was a leader with courage
to summon them to arms, and with perseverance to keep them in the
field. Possessing these traits beyond all others, Gustavus called his
people forth to war, and finally brought them through the war to
victory. This revolution extended over a period of seven years,--from
the uprising of the Dalesmen in 1521 to the coronation of Gustavus in
1528. It is a period that should be of interest, not only to the student
of history, but also to the lover of romance. In order to render the
exact nature of the struggle clear, I have begun the narrative at a time
considerably before the revolution, though I have not entered deeply
into details till the beginning of the war in 1521. By the middle of the
year 1523, when Gustavus was elected king, actual warfare had nearly
ceased, and the scenes of the drama change from the battle-field to the
legislative chamber. In this period occurred the crowning act of the
revolution; namely, the banishment of the Romish Church and clergy.

The history of the Swedish Revolution has never before been written in
the English language. Even Gustavus Vasa is but little known outside his
native land. Doubtless this is due in large measure to the difficulties
which beset a study of the period. It is not a period to which the
student of literature can turn with joy. One who would know Gustavus
well must traverse a vast desert of dreary reading, and pore over many
volumes of verbose despatches before he can find a drop of moisture to
relieve the arid soil. Sweden in the early part of the sixteenth century
was not fertile in literary men. Gustavus himself, judged by any
rational standard, was an abominable writer. His despatches are in
number almost endless and in length appalling. Page after page he runs
on, seemingly with no other object than to use up time. Often a document
covers four folios, which might easily have been compressed into a
single sentence. Such was the habit of the age. A simple letter from a
man to his wife consisted mainly of a mass of stereotyped expressions of
respect. Language was used apparently to conceal vacuity of mind. Toward
the close of the monarch's reign there was a marked improvement in
literary style, and some few works of that period possess real worth.
These have recently been printed, and as a rule have been edited with
considerable care. The king's despatches are also being systematically
printed by the authorities of the Royal Archives at Stockholm, and the
cloud of ignorance which has hitherto hung over the head of Sweden's
early monarch is lifting fast. The tenth volume of the king's
despatches, known as _Gustaf I.'s registratur_ has now been published,
carrying this contemporary transcript of the king's letters down to the
summer of 1535. The only documents bearing on the Swedish Revolution and
not yet published, are the MSS. known as _Gustaf I.'s rådslagar_,
_Gustaf I.'s acta historica_, and _Gustaf I.'s bref med bilagor_,--all
to be found in the Royal Archives at Stockholm,--and the MSS. known as
the _Palmskiöld samlingar_ in the Upsala Library. All these I have
carefully examined. I have also browsed during several months among the
libraries of Sweden, and have spared no pains to get at everything,
written or printed, contemporary or subsequent, that might throw light
upon the subject.