The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa | Page 7

distributing royal favors among them with a lavish hand, to the detriment of the Swedish magnates. These magnates therefore turned, in 1388, to Margaret, regent of Denmark and Norway, and offered her the regency of Sweden, promising to recognize as king whomever she should choose. In 1389 she entered Sweden with her army, overthrew King Albert, and got possession of the throne. In 1396 the Swedish Cabinet, at her desire, elected her nephew, Erik of Pomerania, already king of Denmark and Norway, to be king of Sweden; and on the 17th of June, 1397, he was crowned at Kalmar.[4] Thus began the celebrated Kalmar Union, one of the greatest political blunders that a nation ever made. It was the voluntary enslavement of a whole people to suit the whims of a few disgruntled magnates.
The century following this catastrophe was marked by violence and bloodshed. In all the setting up and pulling down of kings which ended in the Kalmar Union, the Swedish peasantry, now the body of the nation, had had no part. They had long watched in silence the overpowering growth of the magnates and of the Church; they had seen their own rights gradually, but surely, undermined; and they now beheld the whole nation given into the hand of a foreign king. All this tyranny was beginning to produce its natural effect. A spirit of rebellion was spreading fast. However, open insurrection was for the moment averted by the prudence of the regent; so long as she lived the people were tolerably content. She ruled the Cabinet with an iron hand, and refused to appoint a chancellor, the officer who had hitherto done much to bind the Cabinet together. After her death Erik attempted to carry out a similar policy, and introduced a number of foreigners into the Swedish Cabinet. But his continual absence from the realm weakened his administration, and gave great license to his officers, who by their cruelty won the hatred of the people. At last, in 1433, the peasantry of Dalarne rebelled against the tyranny of the steward whom their Danish ruler had put over them, and in 1435, under the leadership of a courageous warrior, Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, compelled the king to call a general diet, the first since 1359, consisting of all the people in the realm who cared to take part. This diet, under the enthusiasm of the moment, elected Engelbrekt commander of the kingdom. But the hopes of the peasantry were soon blasted. In the next year Engelbrekt was murdered by a Swedish magnate, and by a general diet Karl Knutsson, another magnate, was chosen to fill his place. King Erik was now tottering to his fall. He was no longer king in anything but name. His fall, however, benefited only the magnates of the realm. By a general diet of 1438, to which all people in the realm were called, Knutsson was elected regent. But his reign came in the next year to an untimely end. His fellow-magnates, jealous of his power, forced him to lay it down; and in 1440 the Cabinet called Erik's nephew, Christopher of Bavaria, already king of Denmark, to the Swedish throne. Thus ended the first effort of the Swedish peasantry to throw off the Danish yoke. It had begun with high promises for the people, but had ended in the restoration of the Cabinet to all its former power. From this time forth the Cabinet was again practically the governing body in the realm. But it was no longer at unity with itself. One party, led by the great house of Oxenstjerna, was for preserving the Union. The other consisted of the adherents of Karl Knutsson, who hoped to put the crown on his own head. In 1448 King Christopher died, and, in the difference of feeling which reigned, the Cabinet called a general diet of all the magnates with representatives from the peasantry and burghers, that the people at large might choose of the two evils that which pleased them best. The result was that Karl Knutsson was elected king. From this time till his death, in 1470, he was in perpetual warfare with the king of Denmark, with the Swedish priesthood, who had now grown fat under Danish rule and wished to continue so, and with the hostile party among the magnates. Twice he was forced to lay down the crown only to take it up again. Throughout his reign, though in some regards a despot, he was, at all events, the champion of the Swedish magnates as opposed to those who favored the continuance of foreign rule. In 1470 he died, after having intrusted Stockholm Castle to his nephew, Sten Sture. The dissension that now reigned throughout the land was great. On one side were the powerful Vasa and Oxenstjerna families,