King Sigismund arrived in the summer of 1598 with an army of 5,000 Poles, gathering a good deal of strength by reinforcements from Gothaland. The duke had his stronghold in Svealand, the Dalecarlians rising to join him. The Uplanders warded off an attempt made by Stolarm to land with his army; they were led by Nicolaus Bothniensis, the Upsala professor, who called his exploit “a crusade.” The two princes met in East Gothland, near Stegeborg. The duke and his peasant army were surrounded by the king’s cavalry, and would have been doomed if not for the outcry of one of the king’s followers that his subjects would be killed on either side. The king gave order to stop the attack, feeling pity at the sight. The duke was deeply moved by this act and offered to leave the land with his family. But the deliberations which followed were without result.
On the 25th of September a battle was fought at Stongebro, near Linkœping, ending in the defeat of the royal army. An armistice followed. The conditions of peace were that the king should remain in Sweden, dismissing his foreign troops, and take charge of the government. No one should be punished except five of the nobles, to be placed before a jury of ambassadors. The king agreed to the conditions, but soon left Sweden never to return. A meeting of nobles and clergymen, in 1599, accepted him as reigning king if willing to return within four months. In July, a Riksdag was called at Stockholm, which declared Sigismund dethroned and his son Vladislav king if sent to Sweden to be educated in the Lutheran faith. Sigismund took no heed of these stipulations, planning to regain his throne by force.
Charles followed up the punishment with such unprecedented severity that it has left a stain upon his memory. Three nobles were beheaded after Kalmar was taken, and proceeding to Finland, the duke applied capital punishment to a wide extent, in more than twenty cases at Abo alone. At a Riksdag in Linkœping, in 1600, the duke appeared as an accuser against the five imprisoned nobles and several others, eight state councillors being among them. The accused, thirteen in number, were sentenced to death for high treason, but the majority were pardoned upon confession of guilt. The councillors Gustavus Banér, Eric Sparre, Sten Banér and Ture Bielke were beheaded. They were all men of learning and great ability, who had faithfully served their king. During John’s reign they had already suffered years of imprisonment for intrigues against a hereditary kingdom and a strong government.
Charles IX. was chosen king at the bloody Riksdag of Linkœping, and his son Gustavus Adolphus heir-apparent. The hereditary rights of Duke John, second son of John III., were acknowledged, and a duchy, consisting of East Gothland and Leckœ Castle, granted him; but he was passed over as too young and too closely related to Sigismund. Measures to strengthen the financial administration and the army were passed.
Sigismund prepared, by alliances with Catholic powers, to gather support, Charles turning to England and France for the same purpose. A conflict was unavoidable, and Charles decided to invade the disputed province of Livonia, which he captured, only to be ousted by the Polish general, Zamoisky. The castle of Volmar was long and heroically defended by the Swedes under Jacob de la Gardie, a son of General Pontus, and Charles Gyllenhielm, an illegitimate son of Charles IX. After their surrender the former received for five years a tolerable treatment, the latter a most severe one for twelve years. After attempts to place conditions on a better footing in Finland, where the peasants had long suffered through aristocratic oppression, Charles increased the army still further and invaded Livonia once more, in 1604. He met with a crushing defeat at Kerkholm, close by Riga, at the hands of the Pole, Chodkiewitz, losing 9,000 men. But the Poles did not understand how to use their victory, and the centre of the conflict changed to Russia.
On Russian territory, the troops of Sigismund and Charles were to meet. The line of Rurik became extinct in 1598, its last descendant, Dimitri, being murdered. Great complications ensued with usurpers and two “false Dimitris” in succession. Sigismund supported the false Dimitris in order to gain ground and place the royal line of Vasa upon the throne of Russia after that of Rurik. Charles sided with Vassili Schuisky against the second false Dimitri. In 1607 an agreement was made that Sweden, upon the receipt of the province of Kexholm, should send an army to Russia to support Czar Vassili. In 1609, a small Swedish army, consisting of Swedes, Finns and some hired troops, entered Russia, under command of Jacob de la Gardie. It was received at Novgorod with the blaze of cannon and tolling of church bells. A victory was won at Tver over the pretender, but further progress was impeded by mutiny among the hired troops, the stubborn Finns returning home. With his 1,200 faithful Swedes, reinforced by hired troops to 5,000, De la Gardie made a daring march eastward to Moscow, scaring away the Polish army, attacking it and making a triumphant entry into the Russian capital. Sigismund was at Smolensk, and met De la Gardie at Klusina, winning the battle on account of renewed mutiny of the hired troops in the Swedish army. De la Gardie was given free leave with 400 men, upon pledge not to support Czar Vassili, and later captured the promised Kexholm, while Sigismund’s son Vladislav for a short time became czar of Russia.
Although the short reign of Charles IX. was filled with continual warfare, the king never for a moment lost interest in the peaceful development of the country. He continued his father’s work in furthering the mining industry, and tried to build up the commerce and trade relations. He founded the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast, in the island of Hising, opposite Elfsborg, also founding the towns of Karlstad, Christinehamn, Mariestad and Philipstad. The aristocracy looked upon his administration with coldness. It received sanction of the privileges granted by John III., but nothing more, except in return for additional russtjenst. The peasants were his favorites and he was surnamed the “Peasant King.” To the Church, Charles stood in a good relation, supporting its re-established Reformation with his whole authority. Also the University had in him a patron, although he severely criticised the too conservative spirit in both, exchanging a series of pamphlets with the archbishop on theological questions, firm in his Calvinistic tendencies. To make the government stronger it was stipulated that four members of the state council were always to hold the four principal offices, with the titles of drotsete, kansler (chancellor), admiral and treasurer. The greatest economy was enforced at court and throughout the whole system of government, various minor country offices being established for the enforcement of order, justice and economy. The king was liberal only with severe orders and harsh words, the artistic tendencies of his youth succumbing to the cruel necessities of his reign.
In private he was as severe as in public life. His first consort, Maria of the Palatinate-Zweibrucken, had a quieting influence upon him, but the second, Christine of Holstein, stern and sharp like the king, strengthened the harshness and violence of his disposition. During the last years of his reign, Charles gave his attention to the critical European situation, desiring to join the Netherlands, England, France and the Protestant German princes into an alliance against the forming Catholic league. This man, so assured of his power to reign and so unscrupulous as to his means, was very careful not to do any act of importance without the sanction of his people, and for a long time refused to be called king. In 1604 he agreed to accept that name, but was in 1606 ready to cede it to Duke John. Still, after his coronation he admitted the hereditary right of his nephew, who was a good-natured man without the qualifications of a ruler. At the Riksdag of Norrkœping, in 1604, the crown was made hereditary among the descendants of Charles, also in the female line, provided that the monarch confessed the Lutheran faith and had not accepted the government of, or residence in, any other country.
The stress placed upon Charles was greater than his originally strong health could carry. In 1609 he suffered a stroke of paralysis, which deprived him of his full power of speech. He still stood firm at the head of the government, with Prince Gustavus Adolphus, now sixteen years of age, at his side, who took part in the affairs of State and spoke for the paralytic king. The young and ambitious Christian IV. of Denmark thought that the opportune moment was come to turn down the rising power of Sweden. He declared war, in April, 1611, in spite of the efforts made by King Charles to avoid the conflict, pointing to Germany, where their joined forces would be needed. Christian captured the town of Kalmar, while its castle withstood his attacks, being handed over to him by treason. In his wrath and disgust, Charles sent word to Christian to meet him in a duel face to face, which the latter refused to do in a letter of abusive contempt. Gustavus Adolphus had made a dash into Bleking, capturing the store of provisions at Christianopel. In the autumn, the war came to a temporary standstill.
Charles started for Stockholm from Kalmar, but was taken ill during the journey and died at Nykœping, October 11, 1611, surrounded by his sons and councillors. To his death-bed came the news that Jacob de la Gardie had captured the important city of Novgorod, and that the Russians offered the crown to either of his sons, Gustavus Adolphus or Charles Philip. With Charles died the only worthy son of Gustavus I. Vasa. In strength of intellect and stern power, he stands first among Swedish rulers. Devoted to the work of his great father, he educated the Swedish people, through hardships and sacrifices, to its political grandeur.