Once more in Sweden the Codex Argenteus was made the subject of close attention, a new edition of it being published, in 1671, by Georg Stiernhielm, the innovator of Swedish language and literature.[3] That Bishop Wulfila’s Bible should ultimately harbor in Sweden does not seem out of place, for of all languages now spoken the Swedish comes closest to the language of the Goths as crystallized during its classical epoch. The interest taken by Swedish scholars in the book has always been great and fruitful of results, in times when it was thought to be written in the mother tongue of all the Teutonic languages, as well as later, when Gothic was found to be, not the mother, but the oldest sister in the family.
At the Riksdag of 1649 considerable dissatisfaction was directed against the nobility and the extravagance of the queen in deeding over to favorites all the possessions of the crown, in form of counties and baronies. The nobility sided against the queen, desirous of reducing her power. But Queen Christine received gracefully the complaints made, and promised to institute a reduction of taxes and payments. In the following year the commotion increased when the same taxes were asked as in time of war. The queen continued her policy of earnestly considering the requests of the lower Estates, thus gaining the controlling power. The nobility, suffering strife between its various classes, was forced to seek a shelter in the royal power it desired to crush, and humiliated itself before the queen. Christine received a joint appeal from the lower Estates for a restitution to the crown of all property illegally turned over to the nobility, but she managed to have the reform postponed upon promise of some minor privileges and a reduction of taxes. She refused the appeals of the nobility to have the clergymen and others punished who had used hard language against the aristocrats. But the discontent was spreading and turned against the queen personally. The ministers preached against the wrongs and violence of the mighty ones; the nobles and the peasants threatened each other. Peasants in Finland refused to work for aristocratic masters, and a general rebellion seemed imminent. In the meantime Queen Christine was crowned at Upsala amid great display and elaborate festivities, the count-palatine Charles Gustavus, her cousin, being installed as heir-apparent to the throne.
But Queen Christine was not able to still the storm around her. The finances of the crown were utterly ruined by her extravagance, and she dared not take by violence from the nobility what she had given by grace. In 1651 she declared it to be her intention to leave the government, but was persuaded to remain. Her cousin was placed in a very difficult position, apparently taking no interest in what was going on, but following everything with the keenest attention. The son of John Casimir, count of Palatinate-Zweibrucken, and Princess Catherine, he was born at Nykœping in Sweden, in 1622, and designated as the future consort of Queen Christine. Charles Gustavus was educated in simplicity and rigor, and was, as his father before him, utterly neglected by Axel Oxenstierna and the government. He slept in a room without wallpaper, and when through with his lessons he sawed wood with his teacher, Professor Lenæus. Burning with ambition, and perhaps also in love with his brilliant cousin, he proposed to her repeatedly, but in vain. After several years of extensive travel he joined Lennart Torstensson, refusing a command and working himself up through the military degrees. He took an honorable part in the victory at Jankowitz, and was appointed supreme commander of the Swedish armies shortly before the close of the German war. When the opposition against Christine reached its climax a good deal was expected from Charles Gustavus, which he, on account of his singular position, could not undertake to do. A petition replete with abusive language about the queen was sent him, asking him to take hold of the government. Charles turned the document over to the queen. Its author, the promising young Arnold Messenius, and his father, an able historian, suspected as having inspired his son, were accused of high treason, condemned to death and executed.
This act of force produced an impression, and the new taxes demanded at the next Riksdag were granted without opposition. But the queen felt that the discontent was only subdued, not suppressed, and, having no further means to keep up a luxurious court, she did the wisest act of her reign, that of resigning, at Upsala, in June, 1654, Charles Gustavus being crowned the same day. The scene of her abdication was very impressive, Queen Christine carrying herself with noble and lofty dignity, an inheritance from her father which she made use of when she saw fit. Leaving the crown and the royal emblems, one by one, to the Riksdrotset, she descended the throne, from the lowest steps of which she spoke an eloquent and touching farewell to the four Estates of the Riksdag. She suddenly left the country after having secured for herself a princely income. At Innsbruck, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus joined the Catholic church, thereby, and by her fame as a learned woman, creating a sensation. She died in Rome in 1689, after having made two unsuccessful attempts to regain her Swedish throne, and one equally unsuccessful to succeed the last king of the Polish line of the Vasa dynasty, and was buried in the church of St. Peter.
Among the many learned men who at one time surrounded Christine were Vossius, Heinsius, Salmasius, Huet, Freinshemius, Loccenius, Meibom, Bœclerus, Ravius, Schefferus, and others. The greatest of them all, the philosopher Cartesius (René Descartes), died in Stockholm, in 1650.
After the love-story of Gustavus Adolphus had come to an end, he long felt a disinclination to marry. His sister Catherine is said to have tried to rouse him to the necessity of choosing a consort. His answer was always: “Never mind, dear sister, you shall yourself bring up a son to inherit the crown and continue my work.” This son of Catherine became Queen Christine’s successor.
[CHAPTER XII]
Period of Political Grandeur—Charles X. and Charles XI.
Charles X. was one of the most ambitious men ever placed upon a throne, and Europe was soon to realize that a new war-lord was come. His ambition, so long unsatisfied and secreted, burst forth with uncontrollable strength, in compass only to be equalled by his rare gifts of mind and heart. Charles Gustavus had suffered a good deal of neglect, coldness and hatred, but when ascending the throne he seemed to have forgotten all this. Oxenstierna died a few months after the abdication of Queen Christine, deeply impressed by the magnanimity and genius of the new sovereign. Charles Gustavus was one of the most highly gifted of Swedish monarchs. He had a great deal of interest in and rare discernment for the requirements of a peaceful development. But reared in the most warlike of times, when a reputation could be made only by winning so and so many “victorias” for the firm establishment of a hero’s “gloire,” Charles Gustavus thought that only the monarch favored by “Fama” would have the prestige to lead firmly the fate of his people. He often expressed the wish to rest from his campaigns in order to contemplate his work and make it beneficial to his people, but such a rest he never gave himself time to enjoy during his short and remarkable reign.