GUSTAVUS AS A MAN.
Gustavus, the Grand Duke of Finland and Duke of Estland, as he was now
called, did not at once assume the throne. The kingdom was for two
months without a ruler.
The Diet was convened at Nyköping by the queen and by Duke John, who,
with six lords of the Council, had administered the affairs of the
government. On December 17th, 1611, the queen and Duke John, who was
five years the elder, renounced before each of the assembled Estates all
right and title to the throne of Sweden, and, although the age of
twenty-four was considered the legal majority, Gustavus, though only
eighteen, was declared of legal age, and the reigns of government were
placed in his young hands.
He took the title of his father: "Elected king and hereditary Prince of
the Swedes, Goths and Vandals." He chose for his chancellor, or
Secretary of State, the wisest man of his realm, Axel Oxenstiern, only
ten years older than himself.
Sweden had seen little of peace for fifty years. From the days of
Gustavus I. endless war had prevailed. In the civil strife between rival
branches of the same house, two kings had been overthrown. Gustavus
inherited a blood-sprinkled throne, and, could he have foreseen it, was
to be in almost perpetual warfare during his entire life.
To him came early the great passion which has made bad people good, and
quite as often made good people bad. From early boyhood he had loved a
girl, who became a handsome court lady, called Ebba Brahe. Her family
were of the nobility, though not royal. It was from early youth his
purpose to share his throne with the woman of his choice.
At Skokloster, Sweden, is preserved a fragment of their correspondence,
including some most ardent letters from the young king. When he could
not write to her, he sent the "forget-me-not" flower, which the girlish
heart interpreted aright. He exhibited the symptoms of other lovers in
writing sonnets to her, and at all times in seeking her society.
But his mother, Queen Christina, was a politician, and steadily set
before him that it was his duty to strengthen his kingdom by marrying
into a royal family which would become his friend in peace and his ally
in war. On one occasion, when he was about leaving on a military
campaign, the queen mother forced from him the promise that he would not
write to Lady Ebba for two years. To this he agreed on the condition
that, at the end of two years, all objection to their marriage would be
withdrawn.
He had scarcely reached the seat of war until the old queen forced Ebba
Brahe into a marriage with James de la Gardia, a polished noble
gentleman, but not the choice of her young heart.
All through his life the heart of Gustavus turned with unutterable
longing to the love of his youth. This is shown in several letters to
his friend, Chancellor Oxenstiern.
We would like to believe that, at least up to his marriage, he remained
the ideal lover, but truth compels us to say that he had a natural son,
Gustav Gustavson, born in 1616, to a Dutch lady.
That was an age in which morality along sexual lines was unusual among
royal men, but this one instance of immorality is the single instance
that even the worst enemy of Gustavus can bring against his good name.
On November 28th, 1620, in the great palace of Stockholm, Gustavus was
married to Eleanor Marie of Brandenburg. The marriage was one of great
pomp, and Gustavus recognized his duty to the state by marrying into a
strong Protestant royal family, and he also recognized his duty as a
Christian to be a true husband and a good man.
The young queen brought a large dower which greatly assisted the war
fund, but the marriage precipitated another war with Poland.
The marriage was a fairly happy one, as royal marriages go, but the
happiness of the family was clouded by a dead child being the first born
of the union. This great affliction Gustavus seems to have borne with a
truly Christian spirit. The following year a similar event occurred, so
that the royal family feared for the succession. At last, in 1632, after
being married twelve years, he was permitted to hold a living child in
his arms.
As he lavished upon her his paternal caresses, he said, "God be praised!
I hope this daughter may be as good to me as a son. May God who has
given her preserve her to me."
The life of this princess, whose history will be given later, proved
that what we pray too earnestly for, almost as it were forcing the hand
of God, may be given in answer to persistent requests, but the gift is
to our undoing. Like Hezekiah's prolonged life, the boon was given in
answer to prayer. Hezekiah's continued life proved to be full of
anguish, and Manasseh, one of the curses of Judah, was born to him. If
only we could pray: "O Lord, withhold, if not for my permanent good and
Thy ultimate glory."
No woman ever dishonored her parentage more than this daughter, known in
history as Queen Christina of Sweden.
This short history is to deal so much with the history of Gustavus
Adolphus, the hero general of the Reformation, that we have condensed,
for the most part, the history of his loves and domestic life into this
one chapter. Before leaving the subject, we would remind you that Queen
Eleanor Marie always acted as regent when Gustavus was absent on his
campaigns. She seems to have ruled wisely. After the death of Gustavus
she generously sent a portrait of the man they both loved so much to
Lady de la Gardia.
[Illustration:
CHRISTINA,
Daughter of Gustavus Adolphus II.
]