SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Leading up to the events of the nineteenth century in Sweden were
centuries of splendid history, some points of which will be briefly
touched upon to connect the present-day Sweden with the mediaeval
state.
During the Folkung Dynasty, in the fourteenth century, the royal
houses of Sweden and Norway became united through the marriage of Duke
Eric, of Sweden, and Ingeborg, only child of King Haakon, of Norway;
and Duke Valdemar to the king's niece of the same name. In May, 1319,
King Haakon died, and Magnus Ericsson, the young son of Duke Eric and
Princess Ingeborg, inherited the crown of Norway, and July 8 of the
same year was elected King of Sweden, at Mora in Upland.
For the attainment of this end, Magnus' mother, Duchess Ingeborg, and
seven Swedish councillors had worked with great activity. They had
taken part in shaping the first Act of Union of the North in June,
1319, and from Oslo, in Norway, hastened to have Magnus elected at
the Stone of Mora, where the Swedish kings since time immemorial were
nominated. The Act of Union stipulated that the two kingdoms were to
remain perfectly independent, the king to sojourn an equally long part
of the year in each, with no official of either country to accompany
him further than the frontier. In their foreign relations the
countries were to be independent, but to support each other in case of
war. The king was the only tie to bind them together.
There was another Magnus whose candidacy was spoiled by this union. He
was the son of King Birger, already as a child chosen king of Sweden
in succession to his father. Magnus Birgersson, a prisoner at
Stockholm, was beheaded in 1320, to make safe the reign of his more
fortunate cousin. King Magnus was only three years old, and Drotsete
Mattias Kettilmundsson presided over the government during his
minority, the nobles of the state council having great power and
influence. Both in Sweden and Norway the nobility had by this time
attained a supremacy which was oppressive both to the king and the
people, not so much through their privileges as through the liberties
they took. Their continual feuds between themselves disturbed the
peace of the country.
In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of
benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests
he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character, and was not
able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and
Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into
German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as
security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for
protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar, in 1832, both
provinces were united to Sweden. But the king had to pay heavy amounts
in settlement, which were increased when Halland was procured in a
similar way.
King Magnus was, at his zenith of power, one of the mightiest monarchs
in Europe, having under his rule the entire Scandinavian peninsula and
Finland, a realm stretching from the sound at Elsinore to the Polar
Sea, from the river Neva to Iceland and Greenland. In 1335, King
Magnus decreed that no Christian within his realm should remain a
thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery.
But financial difficulties arose, an unsuccessful crusade was
attempted, the "Black Death" came from England to Norway in 1350 and
spread with great rapidity, and several other things convened to fill
the people with discontent, so that the union with Norway did not
prove a happy one. A separation was brought about in 1844, when
Haakon, the younger son of Magnus, was made king of Norway, Magnus
remaining in power until Haakon came of age, and his older son,
Eric, was chosen king or heir-apparent of Sweden. It seems that this
division had been preconceived by King Magnus when he gave this older
son the Swedish name of Eric and to the younger the Norwegian name
of Haakon, both equally characteristic of the royal lines of the
respective countries.
It was during the Folkung period that there flourished one of the most
remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, St. Birgitta. At the Swedish
court, she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, where she
gathered deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful
world. By some she is considered a reformer before Luther, because
she insisted on direct communication between the communicant and God
without the mediation of priests or saints. Yet there was a difference
between Birgitta and Luther, because the latter sought to reform
institutions, while the former would reform the upholders of the
institutions.
After the reign of Magnus and his sons, there came for a brief season
Albrecht of Germany, and after him Queen Margaret, who united for
the first time in history the three Scandinavian countries and their
dependencies. This period was denominated one of unionism against
patriotism, and closed with the rebellion of Denmark and the ascending
of the Swedish throne by Christian of Denmark, who claimed the right
of his descent from St. Eric. Then followed the public execution
under edict of King Christian, when eighty-two persons were beheaded,
including many bishops and men of note in Sweden.
It is needless to say that this period was followed immediately by
one of revolution and reformation, characterized by much heroism and
patriotism, and bringing into prominence those splendid warriors,
Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII, and others, and the
memorable battle of Pultowa and other lesser engagements.
After this came a period of political grandeur under various rulers,
notably Queen Christine, followed by what has been called the period
of Liberty, or the Aristocratic Republic, under Queen Ulrica Eleonore,
when literature and the arts and sciences flourished, and Swedenborg,
Linnaeus, Dahlin, Tegnér, and many others came into prominence.
One of the most loved rulers of this period was Gustavus III. By his
influence a revolution similar to that in France was put down, for
which, at a mask ball in the Royal Opera, he was assassinated by
conspiritors. It is true, historians tell us, that he was superficial,
that he violated the law, had no regard for a constitutional
government, and led the people into adventurous and expensive wars.
Yet his noble patriotism, frank heroism, brilliant genius, and great
generosity compelled the love of his countrymen. In this mixture
of patriotism and universal cosmopolitanism, true genius and
superficiality, earnestness and recklessness in the character of
Gustavus III, the Swedes recognized peculiarities of their own
national temperament, for which they love him dearly, and Tegnér has
voiced this love in a few lines of his eulogy:
There rests o'er Gustav's days a golden shimmer,
Fantastic, foreign, frivolous, if you please;
But why complain when sunshine caused the glamour?
Where stood we now if it were not for these?
All culture on an unfree ground is builded,
And barbarous once the base of patriotism true;
But wit was planted, iron-hard language welded,
The song was raised, life more enjoyed and shielded,
And what Gustavian was, is, therefore, Swedish too.
On his death-bed, Gustavus III appointed his brother Charles and
Charles Gustavus Armfelt members of the government during the minority
of his son. Gustavus IV Adolphus was declared of age and took charge
of the government when eighteen (in 1796). His guardians retired,
and the new monarch ruled alone, without favorites or influential
advisers. This proved most unfortunate for Sweden, for he was entirely
without the gifts of a regent. He was a lover of order, economy,
justice, and pure morals, but through lack of mental and physical
strength his good qualities were misdirected. His father's tragic fate
had a sinister effect upon his mind, the equilibrium of which was also
shaken by the outrages of the revolutionists in France. Of a morbid
sensibility, and without inclination to confide in any one, his
religious mysticism led him into a state close to insanity. He
imagined himself to be the reincarnation of Charles XII, while in
Napoleon he recognized the monster of the Apocalypse, which he himself
was sent to fight and conquer.
He refused any alliance with Russia and Denmark, and stubbornly
resisted the friendship France wished to bestow. By his imbecility he
lost Finland to the kingdom, and was compelled to abdicate in 1808.
This "lunatic monarch," as he was called, was escorted out of the
country with his family, never to return, and died in St. Gallin, in
1837.
Under these conditions we find Sweden at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, when Charles XIII was chosen to succeed his
nephew, the abdicated Gustavus IV Adolphus. Charles XIII was one of
the most unsympathetic of Swedish kings, but his reign marks a new
period in Swedish history, commencing the era of constitutional
government. The new constitution to which the king subscribed was
not a radical document; it only reduced the power of the king. Hans
Jaerta, one of the nobles who had renounced their privileges and been
active in the conspiracy against Gustavus IV, was the leading spirit
of the constitutional committee, and was appointed secretary of state
in the new cabinet.
It was necessary to select an heir to the throne, as Charles XIII was
childless, and Prince Christian August of Augustenborg was chosen,
much in opposition to the nobles, who wanted the son of Gustavus IV.
The Prince of Augustenborg, who was Danish governor-general of Norway,
accepted, and was adopted by the king, changing his name to Charles
August. Beloved by the lower classes who had effected his selection,
he was treated coldly by the Gustavian aristocrats, and reports of
attempts to poison the heir-apparent were in circulation even before
he arrived in Sweden. Prince Charles August himself said he had
often been warned that he would die young of paralysis, but paid no
attention to the warnings given him. During a parade of troops at
Qvidinge, in Scania, he was suddenly seen to lose consciousness
and dropped dead from his horse. A report that seemed to favor the
supposition that death resulted from poison, threw the populace into
a frenzy, and the stoning to death of Count Fersen resulted. This
occurred at the burial of the dead prince, when Count Fersen, as
marshal of the realm, opened the procession. Approaching the church
of Riddarholm, his carriage was pelted with stones, Fersen himself
seeking shelter in various places, but being pursued by the mob and
killed. Thus perished a man who, with Curt von Stedingk, had received
the order of Cincinnatus from the hands of George Washington, and who
once was so near saving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their
cruel fate. Fersen's brother was saved only by mere chance, and his
sister by a flight in disguise.
Sweden was once more without an heir-apparent to the throne, and,
though others had been proposed, King Charles sent two emissaries
to Napoleon to notify him of the death of Charles August and the
selection of his brother. Then one of the most original and daring
schemes ever attempted on such a line was carried through by Count
Otto Moerner, one of the emissaries. On his own responsibility, he
inquired of Marshal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's ablest generals,
if he would consent to become heir-apparent to the Swedish throne.
Bernadotte consented, and the consent of Napoleon was obtained through
the Swedish ambassador in Paris. Upon his return, Moerner was ordered
to leave the capital, by the minister of state, who blamed him for his
unauthorized action. But, from Upsala, Moerner led an eager agitation,
with the result that the Riksdag of Oerebro selected Bernadotte, who
was represented by a secret emissary. Thus, the two generals who,
at the abdication of Gustavus IV, were, one in Norway, the other in
Denmark, with troops ready to attack Sweden, both within one year were
chosen to succeed Charles XIII. And this is how the Bernadottes,
the present reigning family of Sweden, came to the throne. Marshal
Bernadotte took the name of Prince Charles Johann.
It was in 1818, four years after Norway had been joined to Sweden,
that Charles XII died, at the age of seventy, and Charles XIV Johann,
the first of the Bernadotte dynasty, succeeded him, at the age of
fifty-four years. His reign was one of reconstruction--politically,
financially, and socially,--and during the last years of his life
he received strong and repeated evidence of the love of his people,
especially upon the twenty-fifth anniversary as king of Sweden.
Oscar I, his son, was forty-five years of age at the death of his
father. He did not possess his father's brilliant genius or power of
personal influence, but was fondly devoted to the fine arts, himself a
talented painter and composer. He was a hard worker, and also fond
of the pleasures of life. His health was injured through illness, in
1857, and he never recovered. The premature death of his second
son, Prince Gustavus, a talented composer and highly popular, had
a disastrous effect on him, and he died July 8, 1859, after a long
illness, beloved by the two nations who, during his reign, had enjoyed
the happiest epoch of their history.
It was during the reign of the late king, Oscar II, that Sweden
attained her greatest prosperity and made most progress. Oscar II,
brother of his predecessor, ascended the throne at a moment when
universal peace was restored after the great conflict between France
and Germany, and when an age of commercial prosperity for Sweden
seemed to have begun. King Oscar had received the same superior
education as his older brothers, was as brilliantly gifted as they,
and of a more scholarly mind. As a writer on scientific subjects,
a poet, and an orator, Oscar II distinguished himself before his
succession to the throne, and still he did not find it easy to gain
the love and admiration of the Swedish people, of which he was so
eminently worthy. He was the successor of one of the most popular
rulers the country ever saw, and, though appreciation came slowly,
he lived to see his own popularity almost outrival that of his
predecessor. During the last years of his life he was considered the
most learned and popular of the monarchs of Europe.
He showed great discernment in his arrangement of dynastic matters.
Himself married to the fervently religious Princess Sophie of Nassau,
the king brought about the marriage of his oldest son, Crown Prince
Adolphus, the present king of Sweden, to Princess Victoria of Bade, a
granddaughter of Emperor William of Germany, and a great-granddaughter
of Gustavus IV of Sweden. His third son, Prince Charles, Duke of West
Gothland, is married to Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, a granddaughter
of Charles XV of Sweden. These unions are well calculated to
accentuate the increasing political, commercial, and cultural intimacy
with Germany, the Scandinavian policy of life predecessor, and the
desire of King Oscar to see the descendants of the old royal line of
Sweden as heirs to the crown. In giving his consent to the marriage
of his second son, Prince Oscar, to Lady Ebba Munck, of the Swedish
nobility, King Oscar gave evidence of the fact that he was not a
matchmaker regardless of the feelings of the parties involved. Prince
Oscar, formerly Duke of Gothland, upon renouncing his share of
inheritance to the throne of Sweden, also the throne of Norway, for
the two kingdoms were then united, was allowed to marry the choice of
his heart. King Oscar also tried to heal the wounds of the past by
opening the vaults of the church of Riddarholm to the sarcophagi of
Gustavus IV, the exiled king, and his son, and by giving Queen Carola
of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of Gustavus, repeated proofs
of esteem and considerate distinction.
King Oscar with his two crowns received as an inheritance two
important problems to be solved--the reorganization of the Swedish
army and the settlement of the difficulties between Norway and Sweden.
How he handled the latter has been told about in the preceding
chapter. The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until
after twenty years of parliamentary struggle, but is now, thanks to
the energies and perseverance of King Oscar, on a solid basis.
During the nearly one hundred years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed
under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her
constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree.
The dreams of glory by conquest belonged to the days gone by, but in
the fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which
the world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867,
1878, and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876, and of
Chicago in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with
honor in the international competition. The railways of Sweden have
incessantly spun a more and more extended network of steel over the
country, opening connections for enterprises in new districts, and
furthering commerce and industrial art in a wide measure.
In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that
his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short
a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of
government were in his hands practically long before the death of his
father, who for several years suffered ill health. To say the least,
Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the
strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c]