Norwegian Life | Page 9

parties, with
the addition of two independent members. The Riksdag authorized the
government to negotiate a loan of $25,000,000 for works of defense,
and declared the harbors of Stockholm, Karlskrona, Gothenburg, and
Farosund to be war ports from which all foreign naval vessels were to
be excluded. Norway's army was also mobilized and brought near the
Swedish boundary.
Notwithstanding these warlike aspects, a peaceful dissolution of the

union between Sweden and Norway was finally effected. The
conference at Karlstad between the representatives of the two nations,
on Sept. 23, 1905, drew up a protocol which became a treaty when
subsequently ratified by the Riksdag and the Storthing, on the ninth of
the following October. Thereupon Sweden canceled the charter of 1815
which governed the union of the two countries, and King Oscar
declared Norway to be again separate and independent. Thus were
severed the political relations between two countries, which, during a
period of ninety years, had led to ever-increasing discord.
King Oscar II of Sweden steadfastly refused, however, to allow any
prince of his house to be chosen as the new king of Norway, and the
choice finally fell upon Prince Charles of Denmark, who was elected
by an overwhelming majority at the plebiscite held throughout Norway
on Nov. 12, 1905. He accepted the throne offered him and was crowned
June 22, 1906.
The idea is prevalent that there is ill will between the Norwegian and
Swedish peoples. This is a popular misconception. The Norwegian and
Swedish peoples are racially very similar in character and habits, and
mutually respect each other. King Oscar was as beloved and honored in
Norway as he was in Sweden, and deservedly so. The Norwegians felt
proud of his character, life, and statesmanship. They appreciated his
wisdom and moderation, and gave him full credit for his earnest
conviction that he was right in his differences with the Norwegian
government. And yet, the dissolution was a blessing to both countries
concerned. So long as Norway and Sweden were united under one king,
there would have been friction. In like manner the long union between
Norway and Denmark was a continuous source of irritation, but after
the dissolution they were the best of friends. It has been suggested that
Russia has long had her eye on the ice-free harbors of the Norwegian
coast and has coveted them; that she has built her railroads across
Finland close up to the Norwegian frontier, and that there is trouble
ahead for Norway, because she has isolated herself from Sweden, her
natural protector. But we see in the division a Greater Scandinavia.
There are now the three great Scandinavian nations, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, and it can be imagined that, so close of kin, any one of them

would rush to arms in defense of the others. A united Norway and
Sweden under one king brought constant bickerings; a separate Norway
and Sweden can be of mutual help.[b]

CHAPTER III
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