Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

“ Christian IV. of Denmark had attempted a diversion in favour of the German Protestant princes, and had not only been repulsed, but had drawn the Austrian generals into his own kingdom with fire and sword. But in Sweden had risen up a king, able, pious, earnestly desirous of the restoration of Protestantism, and qualified by long military experience, though yet a young man, to cope with any general of the age. Gustavus Adolphus had mounted the Swedish throne at the age of eighteen, and was now only seven-and-thirty ”

“ Let us pause in passing to consider the mysteries of fate that heaped upon this man, sandwiched in between the maniacs and weaklings of his family, all the gifts of mind and heart ever allotted to mortals. If great men are divine, then heredity is, for Gustavus Adolphus is but a perfect repetition of his illustrious grandfather.
After the death of the great king, Sweden passed into the hands of a regency for Christina, his only child. ”

“ As early as the year 1624, the great Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, the hero of his age, and the champion of the Protestant faith in Europe, entertained a design of extended colonisation in the New World. A commercial company, under the patronage of the king, was incorporated in Sweden, the monarch himself pledging 400,000 dollars of the royal treasure for the purposes of its advancement. “Men of every rank were invited to engage in the enterprise, and colonists from all countries of Europe.” ”

“ The unbroken chain of Swedish victories, the noble character of the king and the severe discipline upheld among his men, who commenced and ended their battles with prayers and hymns, astounded the world. The exalted nobility of Gustavus Adolphus appears to us all the more striking, contrasted with the faithlessness, vanity and cowardice of the contemporary reigning princes of Germany and Denmark. His victories appear all the more remarkable because the greatest warriors of the age—Tilly, Wallenstein and Pappenheim—were his adversaries. ”

“ Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, invaded Germany in 1630 and called on the Protestants to help him in the fight to save their faith. All Europe had grown afraid of the [Pg 72] tremendous and increasing power of the Hapsburg Emperor. Not only was Protestant England in league with the Swedes, but Catholic France, under its shrewd minister, Richelieu, also upheld them. Still the burden of actual fighting fell upon Gustavus Adolphus, who proved himself the greatest military leader of the age, and, in the eyes of Protestant Europe, the noblest and sublimest man since Luther. ”

“ The Thirty Years’ War is the last of the great wars of religion, and the first of the great wars of politics. In Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of the war, both aspects are united. When he landed in Pomerania in July 1630, he came distinctly as the champion of Protestantism, to save German Protestantism from being overwhelmed by brute force; but he came no less distinctly as the national king of Sweden, to defend and establish that supremacy over the Baltic sea and the Baltic coast, which was essential to the prosperity and existence of his country. ”

“ Supported by England with a subsidy for one year of £1,200,000, and the assurance of auxiliary troops, Sweden presented a bold front. A Russian army overran Finland; but Gustavus quarrelled with Sir John Moore, who had come to his assistance with 10,000 English troops; he forbade their landing, and the English general returned home in disgust. With more than 100,000 Swedes under arms, Gustavus managed never to have 10,000 together ”

“ Papacy and the Catholic League; and Germany, after its mighty effort at release, would have lapsed back into the Middle Ages. To few men the opportunity is offered to exercise such a far-reaching influence upon the history of mankind; but fewer still are those who see its full significance, and seeing it, seize it, and without one look behind march into the storm and stress of world-shaping events.
Gustavus Adolphus was born December 9, 1594. He was the son of King Charles IX. of Sweden, and the grandson of the renowned Gustavus Vasa. ”

“ Gustavus II or Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden from 1611 to 1632, was born at Stockholm, Dec. 19, 1594. He was highly educated, knew eight languages and was a fine musician. Upon coming to the throne, when 17, he found his country involved in wars and internal quarrels ”

“ Unfortunately, with all his gifts, Christian was no statesman, and was incapable of a consistent policy. He would neither conciliate Sweden, henceforth his most dangerous enemy, nor guard himself against her by a definite system of counter-alliances. By mediating in favour of the emperor, after the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, he tried to minimize the influence of Sweden in Germany, and did glean some minor advantages. But his whole Scandinavian policy was so irritating and vexatious that Swedish statesmen made up their minds that a war with Denmark was only a question of time ”

“ Gustavus Adolphus had resumed his course of success: he came up with Tilly again on the Leek, April 10, 1632, and crushed his army; the general was mortally wounded, and the King of Sweden, entering Augsburg in triumph, proclaimed religious liberty there. He had moved forward in front of Ingolstadt, and was making a reconnaissance in person. “A king is not worthy of his crown who makes any difficulty about carrying it wherever a simple soldier can go,” he said. ”

“ Gustavus Adolphus had been only fourteen months in Germany, but he had by his broad, prescient, cautious, and well-digested scheme, crowned by the victory of Breitenfeld, completely changed the prospects of the Protestants. He had got a firm footing in northern Germany, where he now held most of the strong places. He had secured his communications with Sweden by the possession of the sea. He had grown in strength by his treaties with Hesse Cassel and Saxony, and by accessions of troops from all quarters. He had gained enormously in moral weight, and his army in aplomb and confidence. ”

“ Gustavus II. Adolphus is the greatest figure of Swedish history, revered and beloved as one of the noblest of heroes, a genius in whom the qualities of the great statesman and warrior were blended with the faith of a man ready to sacrifice his life for the loftiest of causes—religious liberty. ”

“ Crown Prince Gustavus Adolphus, who is yet little known in Norway, enjoys great popularity in Sweden, where his harmonious, sagacious nature and resolute energy are highly respected.
The reign of Oscar II. in Sweden has been marked by reactionary movements in Church and State, but the king has been in such close contact with his people that they have recognized in him a sovereign who stands above the parties. The king has used the conservative elements of his country to strengthen her defences and to maintain the Union with Norway, which have been the great goals of his policy of peace. ”

“ The first duty of the new government was to make peace for the bleeding country. This was effected in 1660 through the treaties of Oliva and Copenhagen, and in a most satisfactory manner, speaking high for the diplomatic ability of the governing ones, but also of the ignorance of the powers of the utter helplessness of Sweden, in great contrast to her outward political grandeur. Poland ceded Livonia to Sweden, and Denmark all the territory gained by Charles X., except the district of Drontheim and the island of Bornholm, while Russia was satisfied with the boundaries set by Gustavus Adolphus. ”

“ A thousand flags that once waved to the peal of music and the clang of arms, to the darted javelin and the cannon's roar, moulder away here: they hang in long rags from the staff, and the staves lie cast aside, where the flag has long since become dust. Almost all the Kings of Sweden slumber in silver and copper coffins within these walls. From the altar aisle we look through the open-grated door, in between piled-up drums and hanging flags: here is preserved a bloody tunic, and in the coffin are the remains of Gustavus Adolphus. ”

“ Another name that is honoured by every true Swede, and by many who are not Swedes, is Gustavus Adolphus I. He is chiefly and justly held in honour because of what he did for the Protestant cause [Pg 6] in Europe. The Protestant Princes had lost heart, as they had suffered very much at the hands of Generals Tilly and Wallenstein. Gustavus resolved to go to the aid of the Princes. With only 13,000 Swedes he set sail, but as soon as he reached Germany, large numbers of men joined his army. ”

“ We have shown each other our inmost emotions. He is actuated by the feelings of injured honor, the safety of his empire, and above all else by his devotion to our faith. He is travelling a dangerous road. May God be his helper.”
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Upon the afternoon of the same day Gustavus Adolphus entered Berlin with his army. In the evening a treaty was made between the Electorate of Brandenburg and Sweden. Spandau was given over anew to the Swedes, the opening of Cüstrin was promised in case of retreat, and thirty thousand thalers monthly was guaranteed for the support of the Swedish army. ”

“ If, without incurring the reproach of selfcomplacency, we may be allowed to believe that an establishment, destined to cultivate a language of heroes, to excite the poet and the orator to immortalize the proofs of Swedish valour, to keep alive among us a taste for the sublime, the beautiful, the pathetic, the noble, and the natural; if we ought to believe that such an institution is in some degree connected with the glory of our country, what name could more forcibly animate us to persevere in the pursuit of this grand object than that of Gustavus-Adolphus? ”

“ With you, my worthy nobles, those gentlemen are this day united, who have both enriched and embellished the Swedish language; and in the midst of an assembly, whose talents are consecrated to the eulogy of the national heroes and benefactors, and whose anniversary festival is to be celebrated on the birth-day of the great Gustavus-Adolphus, how can that man be forgotten, whose name will ever be inseparably united with that of the illustrious hero, whose death he has with such pathetic elegance lamented? ”

“ Of the one million men which inhabited the country in the days of Gustavus Adolphus, seventy thousand enlisted and were killed in the wars. I do not know for how many Charles X, Charles XI, and Charles XII were responsible; but it is easy to picture the offspring of those who remained behind, the men whom the crown had rejected as unfit for service.
"I repeat my statement that Sweden has no nationality. Can anybody tell me of anything Swedish in Sweden except her firs, pine trees, and [265] iron-mines? And the latter will soon disappear from the market. ”

“ In 1520 Gustavus Ericsson excited a rebellion against Christian II., of Denmark, who had murdered his father and many other Swedes. This revolution was successful three years later, and its leader made king, under the title of Gustaf I., often called Gustavus Vasa, or Wasa. He was succeeded by his son, and the throne continued in his family; but the next notable sovereign was Gustaf II., or Gustavus Adolphus. ”

“ No Swedish king has done so much for education as Gustavus Adolphus. To the University of Upsala he donated 300 of his hereditary estates, founding its library, improving its courses, banishing misrule, and appointing his old teacher, John Skytte, its chancellor. ”

“ Midsummer Day, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus landed with his troops at the island of Ruden, on the coast of Pomerania. Two days later he proceeded to the larger island of Usedom. His troops consisted of 13,000 men. Gustavus Adolphus was himself the first to land. He knelt on the shore and prayed to God in a loud voice; his prayer moved those surrounding him to tears. When the king noticed it he said: “Do not cry, but pray to God with fervor. The more of prayer, the more of victory; the best Christian is the best soldier.” ”

“ A body-guard of 400 men is appointed him; Adolphus is chosen captain, having now returned, and disclosed the supineness and neglect of the Danish garrison. Gustavus declares his intentions of storming the castle; arranges the troops, and bids all be ready by midnight. They retire.
BOOK THE EIGHTH.
The proceedings of Christiern, Trolle, and Norbi, from the conclusion of Book 4, severally described.—Gustavus secretly dismisses the unfaithful tribes.—The Genius of Sweden appears to him in a dream; foretels his future exaltation, and the disgraceful end of Christiern and his party. ”

“ The hero and his army entered Stockholm in triumph; and such of the old nobles as were left, gathered in a council and offered him the crown which he had wrested from Denmark. He refused it, saying he had labored for his country, not himself, and bade the nobles choose from among themselves some older man. But the whole country cried out that they would submit to no man but him; he had freed them, he should rule them. So there was, what seldom has been in history, a free choice of a king by a united people; and Gustavus, son of Eric, became Gustavus I., King of Sweden. ”

“ Where is the man, indeed, whose title to immortal fame was ever better founded than that of the heroic Gustavus-Adolphus?—A monarch mighty among kings: though receiving a kingdom, distracted by dissensions, and surrounded by enemies, he transmitted it to his successors in perfect peace, aggrandized by his efforts, dreaded by the neighbouring potentates, and respected throughout all Europe—A monarch mighty among heroes ”