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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
Sweating System
1911
Encyclopædia Britannica
Volume 26
Sweden
by
Frederick Beck
Robert Nisbet Bain
Oskar Dumrath
Osbert Howarth
and
Edmund Gosse
Swedenborg, Emanuel
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1663551
1911
Encyclopædia Britannica
Volume 26
— Sweden
Frederick Beck
Robert Nisbet Bain
Oskar Dumrath
Osbert Howarth
and
Edmund Gosse
SWEDEN
Sverige
], a kingdom of northern Europe, occupying
the eastern and larger part of the Scandinavian peninsula.
It is bounded N.E. by Finland (Russian Empire), E. by the
Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea, S.W. by the Cattegat and
Skagerrack, and W. by Norway. It extends from 69° 3′ 21″
to 55° 20′ 18″ N., and from 11° 6′ 19″ E. on the south-west
coast to 24° 9′ 11″ E. on the Finnish frontier, the extreme
length being about 990 m., the extreme breadth (mainland)
about 250 m., and the total area estimated at 173,547 sq. m.
Out of a detailed total estimate of the boundary line at
6100 m., 4737 m. are coastal, the Norwegian frontier is 1030 m.,
and the Finnish 333 m.
Physical Features
.—The backbone of the Scandinavian peninsula
is a range, or series of masses, of mountains (in Swedish
Kölen
the
keel) extending through nearly the whole length of the peninsula
towards the western side. The eastern or Swedish flank has, therefore,
the slighter slope. This range forms, in a measure, a natural
boundary between Sweden and Norway from the extreme north to
the north of Svealand, the central of the three main territorial
divisions of Sweden (Norrland, Svealand and Götaland); though this
boundary is not so well markd that the political frontier may follow
it throughout. Sweden itself may be considered in four main physical
divisions—the mountains and highland district, covering all Norrland
and the western part of Svealand; the lowlands of central
Sweden; the so-called Småland highlands, in the south and south-east;
and the plains of Skåne, occupying the extreme southward
projection of the peninsula.
The first district, thus defined, is much the largest, and includes
the greatest elevations in the country and the finest scenery. The
highest mountains are found in the north, the bold
peak of Kebnekaise reaching 7005 ft., Sarjektjåcko,
6972 ft., being the loftiest point of magnificent group
including the Sarjeksfjäll, Alkasfjäll and Partefjäll, which range
Northern Highlands.
from 6500 ft. upwards; and, farther south, Sulitelma, 6158 ft.,
long considered the highest point in Scandinavia. Elevation then
decreases slightly, through Stuorevarre (5787 ft.) and Areskutan
(4656 ft.), to the south, of which the railway from Trondhjem in
Norway into Sweden crosses the fine pass at Storlien. South of
this again, before the main chain passes into Norway, are such
heights as Helagsfjäll (5896 ft.) and Storsylen (5781 ft.); and a group
of mountains in the northern part of the province of Dalecarlia
(Dalarne) ranges from 3600 to 4500 ft. in height. The neighbourhood
of Areskutan and the Dalarne highlands, owing to the railway
and the development of communications by steamer on the numerous
lakes, are visited by considerable numbers of travellers, both
Swedish and foreign, in summer; but the northern heights, crossed
only by a few unfrequented tracks, are known to few, and to a considerable
extent, indeed, have not been closely explored. From the
scenic standpoint the relatively small elevation of these mountains
finds compensation in the low snow-line, which ranges from about
3000 ft. in the north to 5500 ft. in the south of the region. All
the higher parts are thus snow-clad; and glaciers, numerous in the
north, occur as far south as the Helagsfjäll. The outline of the
mountains is generally rounded, the rocks having been subjected
to erosion from a very early geological age, but hard formations
cause bold peaks at several points, as in Kebnekaise and the
Sarjeksfjäll.
From the spinal mountain range a series of large rivers run in
a south-easterly direction to the Gulf of Bothnia. In their upper
parts they drain great lakes which have resulted from
the formation of morainic dams, and in some cases
perhaps from the incidence of erratic upheaval of the
land. All lie at elevations between 900 and 1300 ft. All are narrow
Rivers of the North.
in comparison with their length, which is not infrequently magnified
to view when two lakes are connected by a very short stretch of
running water with a navigable fall of a few feet, such as those
between Hornafvan, Uddjaur and Storafvan on the Skellefte river.
The following are the principal rivers from north to south: The
Torne, which with its tributary the Muonio, forms the boundary
with Finland, has a length of 227 m., and drains lake Torne (Torneträsk),
the area of which is 126 sq. m. The Kalix is 208 m. in
length. The Lule is formed of two branches, Stora and Lilla
(Great and Little) Lule; the length of the main stream is 193 m.
The Stora Lule branch drains the Langas and Stora Lule lakes
(Langasjaur, Luleträsk), which have a length together exceeding
50 m., a fall between them of some 16 ft. and a total area of only
87 sq. m., as they are very narrow. Below Stora Lule lake the river
forms the Hårsprang (hare's leap; Njuommelsaska of the Lapps),
the largest and one of the finest cataracts in Europe. The sheer fall
is about 100 ft., and there is a further fall of 150 ft. in a series of
tremendous rapids extending for
m.
Farther up, at the head
of Langasjaur, is the Stora Sjöfall (great lake fall; Lapp, Ätna
Muorki Kartje), a fall of 130 ft. only less grand than the Harsprång.
Both are situated in an almost uninhabited count and are rarely
visited. Following the Pite river (191 m.), the Skellefte (205 m.)
drains Hornafvan and Storafvan, with a fall of 20 ft., and an area
together of 272 sq. m. Hornafvan is a straight and sombre trough,
flanked by big hills of unbroken slope, but Storafvan and the intervening
Uddjaur are broad, throwing, off deep irregular inlets, and
picturesquely studded with numerous islets. The Ume (237 m.)
receives a tributary, the Vindel, of almost equal length, on the
north bank some 20 m. from its mouth, and among several lakes
drains Stor Uman (64 sq. m.). The further principal rivers of this
region are the Ångerman (242 m.), Indal (196 m.), draining the
large lakes Kallsjö and Storsjö, Ljusnan (230 m.), Dal and Klar. Of
these the two last rise in the southernmost partof the mountain region
described, but do not as a whole belong to the region under consideration.
The Ångerman receives the waters of a wider system of
streams and lakes than the rivers north of it, and has thus a drainage
area of 12,591 sq. m., which is exceeded only by that of the
Torne (16,690 sq. m.), the average of the remaining rivers named
being about 7700 sq. m.
Beyond the Harsprång and the Stora Sjöfall the northern rivers
do not generally form great falls, though many of the rapids are
grand. The Indal, by changing its course in 1796 near Bispgården
on the northern railway, has left bare the remarkable bed of a fall
called Döda (dead) Fall, in which many “giant's caldrons” are
exposed. In the uplands above the chain of lakes called Strömsvattudal,
which are within the drainage area on the Ångerman,
the Hälling stream forms the magnificent Hällingså Fall. In the
southern mountain valleys of the region there are several beautiful
falls, such as the Tännfors, not far from Åreskutan, the Storbo,
Handöl and Rista.
Eastward from the main mountain range the highland region
is divided into two belts: a middle belt of morainic deposits and
marshes, and a coastal belt. The middle belt is gently undulating;
viewed from rare eminences the landscape over the boundless
forests resembles a dark green sea, through which the great rivers
flow straight between steep, flat-topped banks, with long quiet
reaches broken by occasional rapids. The few lakes they form
in this belt are rather mere widenings in their courses; but the tributary
streams drain numerous small lakes and peat-mosses. In
the extreme north this belt is almost flat, a few low hills standing
isolated and conspicuous; and the rivers have serpentine courses,
while steep banks are absent. The middle belt merges into the
coastal belt, covered by geologically recent marine deposits, reaching
an extreme height of 700 to 800 ft., and extending inland some 60
to 80 m. in the north and 40 m. in the south. Small fertile plains
are characteristic, and the rivers have cut deep into the soft deposits
of sand and clay, leaving lofty and picturesque bluffs (
nipor
).
The orographical division of the central lowlands bears comparison
in formation with the coastal belt of marine deposits to
the north. Here are flat fertile plains of clay, well
wooded, with innumerable lakes, including the four
great lakes, Vener, Vetter, Mälar and Hjelmar. These,
except the last, far exceed in area any of the northern lakes, and even
Central Lowlands.
Hjelmar (185 sq. m.) is only exceeded by Hornafvan-Storafvan.
The areas of the other three lakes are respectively 2149, 733 and
449 sq. m. Vener, Vetter and Hjelmar are broad and open; Mälar is
very irregular in form, and of great length. Mälar, Vener and Hjelmar
contain many islands; in Vetter there are comparatively few.
None of the lakes is of very great depth, the deepest sounding
occurring in Vetter, 390 ft. In Hjelmar, which measures 38 m.
from east to west, and is 12 m. in extreme width, the greatest
depth is only 59 ft., but as its flat shores were formerly subject
to inundation its level was sunk 6 ft. by deepening the navigable
channel through it and clearing out various waterways (the
Eskilstuna river, Hjelmar canal, &c.) in 1878–1887. The scenery of
these lakes, though never grand, is always quietly beautiful, especially
in the case of Mälar, the wooded shores and islands of which
form a notable feature in the pleasant environs of the city of Stockholm.
The elevation of the central lowlands seldom exceeds
300 ft., but a few isolated heights of Silurian rock appear, such as
Kinnekulle, rising 988 ft. above sea-level on the south-eastern shore
of Vener, Billingen (978 ft.) between that lake and Vetter, and
Omberg (863 ft.) on the eastern shore of Vetter. Noteworthy
local features in the landscape of the central lowlands are the eskers
or gravel-ridges (
åsar
), traversing the land in a direction from
N.N.W. to S.S.E., from 100 to 200 ft. in height above the surrounding
surface. Typical instances occur in the cities of Stockholm
(Brunkebergsåsen) and Upsala (Upsala-åsen).
South of the central lowlands the so-called Småland highlands
extend over the old province of Småland in the south-east, and lie
roughly south of Lake Vetter and of Gothenburg,
where they reach the south-west coast. The general
elevation of this region exceeds 300 ft., and in the eastern
part 600 ft.; the principal heights are Tomtabacken (1237 ft.) and
Småland Highlands.
Ekbacken (1175 ft.), about 25 m. respectively south-east and west
of the town of Jönköping at the southern extremity of Lake Vetter.
Gentle forest-clad undulations, many small lakes and peat-mosses,
are characteristic of the region; which, in fact, closely resembles
the middle belt of the northern highland region. The Småland
highlands abut southward upon the plains of Skåne, the last of
the main orographical divisions, which coincides roughly with the
old province of Skane (Scania). Level plains, with rich open
meadows and cultivated lands, the monotony of which is in some
parts relieved by beech woods, are separated by slight ridges with
a general direction from N.W. to S.E., such as Hallandsåsen in the
north-west, with an extreme elevation of 741 ft.
The hydrographical survey may now be completed. The Dal
river, which enters the Gulf of Bothnia near Gefie, is formed of the
union of eastern and western branches (Oster Dal,
Vester Dal) not far from the town of Falun. The eastern
branch drains various small lakes on the Norwegian
frontier, and in its lower course passes through the beautiful Lake
Rivers of the South.
Siljan. The length of the whole river including the eastern as the
main branch is 283 m. The Klar river (228 m.) rises as the Faemund
river in Faemundsjö, a large lake in Norway close west of the sources
of the Dal. The Klar flows south into Lake Vener, which is drained
to the Cattegat by the short Göta river, on which, not far below
the lake, are the celebrated falls of Trollhättan. Lake Vetter
drains eastward by the Motala to the Baltic, Lake Mälar drains
in the same direction by a short channel at Stockholm, the normal
fall of which is so slight that the stream is sometimes reversed.
The Småland highlands are drained to the Baltic and Cattegat
by numerous rivers of less importance. Excepting Finland no
country is so full of lakes as Sweden. About 14,000 sq. m., nearly
one-twelfth of the total area, are under water.
The coast of Sweden is not indented with so many or so deep
fjords as that of Norway, nor do the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia,
the Baltic and the Cattegat share in the peculiar
grandeur of the North Sea coast. All, however, have
a common feature in the fringe of islands which, throughout nearly
the entire length, shelters the coast of the mainland from the open
Coast.
sea. This “skerry-fence” (in Swedish,
skärgård
) is only interrupted
for any considerable distance (in the case of Sweden) round the
southern shore off the flat coast of Skåne, between the towns of
Varberg on the west and Åhus on the east. Between it and the
mainland lies a connected series of navigable sounds of the greatest
advantage to coast wise traffic, and also of no little importance as
a natural defence. The skärgård of the Cattegat, north of Varberg,
is bald and rugged. The two largest islands are Orust and Tjörn,
north of Gothenburg. Off the south-east coast the place of the
skärgård is in a measure taken by the long narrow island of Öland,
but north of this the skärgård begins to widen, and the most considerable
fjords are found, such as Bråvik, which penetrates the
land for 35 m. nearly up to the town of Norrköping. The island
belt is widest (some 45 m.) off the city of Stockholm, the approach
to which from the sea is famous for its beauty. Farther north,
a narrow sound (Ålands Haf) intervening on the Swedish side, the
vast Åland archipelago, belonging to Russia, extends across to the
Finnish coast. The skärgård of the Gulf of Bothnia is less fully
developed than that of either the Baltic or the Cattegat. The
islands of the skärgård as a whole are rugged and picturesque,
though never lofty like many of those off the Norwegian coast. In
the Baltic many are well wooded, but the majority are bare or heath clad,
as are those of the Gulf of Bothnia. Of the large islands
in the Baltic and Cattegat, besides Öland, only Gotland is Swedish.
Geology
.—The fundamental rocks of Sweden belong to the Azoic
or pre-Cambrian formation, and consist of crystalline rocks. Three
divisions are distinguished by some authors—the grey gneiss, the
red iron gneiss and the granulate.
The grey gneiss predominates in the northern and eastern parts
of the country, from Vesternorrland down to the province of Kalmar.
The rock has a prevalent grey colour, and contains as characteristic
minerals garnet and in some parts graphite.
The red iron gneiss prevails in western Sweden in the provinces
of Vermland, Skaraborg, Elfsborg, and down to the province of
Kristianstad. The formation is very uniform in its character, the
gneiss having a red colour and containing small granules of magnetite,
but, nevertheless, not a single iron mine belongs to this region. The
red gneiss contains in many places beds or masses of hyperite.
The granulate, also called eurite and hälleflinta, is the most
important of the Pre-Cambrian formation, as it contains all the
metalliferous deposits of Sweden. It prevails in the middle part
of the country, in Kopparberg, Vestmanland, Upsala and parts
of Vermland. It occurs also in Östergötland, Kalmar and Kronoberg.
The rock is a very compact and fine-grained mixture of
felspar, quartz and mica, often graduating to mica schist, quartzite
and gneiss. With these are often associated limestones, dolomites
and marbles containing serpentine (Kolmården). The metalliferous
deposits have generally the form of beds or layers between the
strata of granulate and limestone. They are often highly contorted
and dislocated.
The iron deposits occur in more or less fine-grained gneiss or
granulate (Gellivara, Grängesberg, Norberg, Striberg), or separated
from the, granulate by masses of augitic and amphibolous minerals
grönskarn
), as in Persberg and Nordmark. Sometimes they are
surrounded by hälleflinta and limestone, as at Dannemora, Långban,
Pajsberg, and then carry manganiferous minerals. Argentiferous
galena occurs at Sala in limestone, surrounded by granulate, and at
Guldsmedshytta (province of Örebro) in dark hälleflinta. Copper
pyrites occur at Falun in mica-schists, surrounded by hälleflinta.
Zinc-blende occurs in large masses at Ammeberg, near the northern
end of Lake Vetter. The cobalt ore consists of cobalt-glance
(Tunaberg in the province of Södermanland) and of linneite (at
Gladhammar, near Vestervik). The nickel ore of Sweden is magnetic
pyrites, containing only a very small percentage of nickel, and generally
occurs in diorite and greenstones. Besides the crystalline
gneiss and hälleflinta there are also sedimentary deposits which are
believed to be of pre-Cambrian age. The most important of these
are the Dala Sandstone (chiefly developed in Dalarne), the Almasåkra
and Visingsö series (around Lake Vetter) and the Dalsland
formation (near Lake Vener).
Large masses of granite are found in many parts of Sweden, in
Kronoberg, Örebro, Göteborg, Stockholm, &c. Sometimes the
granite graduates into gneiss; sometimes (as north of Stockholm) it
encloses large angular pieces of gneiss. Intrusions of hyperite,
gabbro (anorthite-gabbro at Rädmansö in the province of Stockholm)
and diorite are also abundant.
The Cambrian formation generally occurs along with the Ordovician,
and consists of many divisions. The oldest is a sandstone,
in which are found traces of worms, impressions of
Medusae
, and
shells of
Mickwitzia
. The upper divisions consist of bituminous
limestones, clay-slates, alum-slate, and contain numerous species
of trilobites of the genera
Paradoxides
Conocoryphe
Agnostus
Sphaerophthalmus
Peltura
, &c. The Ordovician formation occurs
in two distinct facies—the one shaley and containing graptolites;
the other calcareous, with brachiopods, trilobites, &c. The most
constant of the calcareous divisions is the Orthoceras limestone, a
red or grey limestone with
Megalaspis
and
Orthoceras
. The subdivisions
of the system may be grouped as follows: (1) Ceratopyge
Limestone; (2) Lower Graptolite Shales and Orthoceras Limestone;
(3) Middle Graptolite Shales, Chasmops and other Limestones,
Trinucleus beds. The Cambrian and Ordovician strata occur in
isolated patches in Vesterbotten, Jemtland (around Storsjö), Skaraborg,
Elfsborg, Örebro, Östergötland and Kristianstad. The whole
of the island of Öland consists of these strata. The deposits are in
most places very little disturbed and form horizontal or slightly
inclined layers. South of Lake Vener they are capped by thick
beds of eruptive diabase (called
trapp
). North of Lake Siljan (province
of Kopparberg), however, they have been very much dislocated.
The Silurian has in Sweden almost the same character as the Wenlock
and Ludlow formation of England and consists partly of graptolite
shales, partly of limestones and sandstones. The island of Gotland
consists entirely of this formation, which occurs also in some parts
of the province of Kristianstad. In the western and northern
alpine part of Sweden, near the boundaries of Norway, the Silurian
strata are covered by crystalline rocks, mica schists, quartzites, &c.,
of an enormous thickness, which have been brought into their present
positions upon a thrust-plane. These rocks form the mass of the
high mountain of Åreskutan, &c.
The Triassic formation (Rhaetic division) occurs in the northern
part of Malmöhus. It consists partly of sandstones with impressions
of plants (cycads, ferns, &c.), and partly of clay-beds with coal.
The Cretaceous formation occurs in the provinces of Malmöhus
and Kristianstad and a few small patches are found in the province
of Blekinge. Only the higher divisions (Senonian and Danian) of
the system are represented. The deposits are marls, sandstones
and limestones, and were evidently formed near the shore-line.
The most recent deposits of Sweden date from the Glacial and
Post-Glacial periods. At the beginning of the Glacial period the
height of Scandinavia above the level of the sea was greater than at
present, Sweden being then connected with Denmark and Germany
and also across the middle of the Baltic with Russia. On the west
the North Sea and Cattegat were also dry land. On the elevated
parts of this large continent glaciers were formed, which, proceeding
downwards to the lower levels, gave origin to large streams and
rivers, the abundant deposits of which formed the diluvial sand
and the diluvial clay. In most parts of Sweden these deposits
were swept away when the ice advanced, but in Skåne they often
form still, as in northern Germany, very thick beds. At its maximum
the inland ice not only covered Scandinavia but also passed over the
present boundaries of Russia and Germany. When the climate
became less severe the ice slowly receded, leaving its moraines,
called in Sweden
krosstenslera
and
krosstensgrus
. Swedish geologists
distinguish between
bottengrus
(bottom gravel, bottom moraine)
and ordinary
krossgrus
(terminal and side moraine). The former
generally consists of a hard and compact mass of rounded, scratched
and sometimes polished stones firmly embedded in a powder of
crushed rock. The latter is less compact and contains angular
boulders, often of a considerable size, but no powder. Of later origin
than the krosstensgrus is the
rullstensgrus
(gravel of rolled stones),
which often forms narrow ranges of hills, many miles in length,
called
åsar
. During the disappearance of the great inland ice
large masses of mud and sand were carried by the rivers and
deposited in the sea. These deposits, known as glacial sand and
glacial clay, cover most parts of Sweden south of the provinces of
Kopparberg and Vermland, the more elevated portions of the provinces
of Elfsborg and Kronoberg excepted. In the glacial clay
shells of
Yoldia arctica
have been met with in many places (
e.g.
near
Stockholm). At this epoch the North Sea and the Baltic were
connected along the line of Vener, Vetter, Hjelmar and Mälar.
On the other side the White Sea was connected by Lakes Onega and
Ladoga with the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic. In the depths of
the Baltic and of Lakes Vener and Vetter there actually exist
animals which belong to the arctic fauna and are remnants of the
ancient ice-sea. The glacial clay consists generally of alternate
darker and lighter coloured layers, which give it a striped appearance,
for which reason it has often been called
hvarfvig lera
(striped clay).
The glacial clay of the Silurian regions is generally rich in lime and
is thus a marl of great fertility. The deposits of glacial sand and
clay are found in the southern part of Sweden at a height ranging
from 70 to 150 ft. above the level of the sea, but in the interior of
the country at a height of 400 ft. above the sea.
On the coasts of the ancient ice-sea, in which the glacial clay
was deposited, there were heaped-up masses of shells which belong
to species still extant around Spitzbergen and Greenland. Most
renowned among these shell-deposits are the Kapellbackarne near
Uddevalla. With the melting of the great ice-sheet the climate
became milder, and the southern part of Sweden was covered with
shrubs and plants now found only in the northern and alpine parts
of the country (
Salix polaris
Dryas octopetala
Betula nana
, &c.).
The sea fauna also gradually changed, the arctic species migrating
northward and being succeeded by the species existing on the coasts
of Sweden. The Post-Glacial period now began. Sands (
mosand
and clays (
åkerlera
and
fucuslera
) continued to be deposited on the
lower parts of the country. They are generally of insignificant
thickness. In the shallow lakes and enclosed bays of the sea there
began to be formed and still is in course of formation a deposit
known by the name
gyttja
, characterized by the diatomaceous
shells it contains. Sometimes the gyttja consists mainly of diatoms,
and is then called
bergmjöl
. The gyttja of the lakes is generally
covered over by peat of a later date. In many of the lakes of Sweden
there is still in progress the formation of an iron ore, called
sjömalm
ferric hydroxide, deposited in forms resembling peas, coins, &c.,
and used for the manufacture of iron. (
P. La.
Climate
.—The climate of the Scandinavian peninsula as a whole
is so far tempered by the warm Atlantic drift from the south-west
as to be unique in comparison with other countries of so high a
latitude. The mountains of the Keel are not so high as wholly
to destroy this effect over Sweden, and the maritime influence of
the Baltic system has also to be considered. Sweden thus occupies
a climatic position between the purely coastal conditions of Norway
and the purely continental conditions of Russia; and in some years
the climate inclines to the one character, in others to the other.
As a result of the wide latitudinal extent of the country there are
also marked local variations to be contrasted. About one-seventh
of the whole country is north of the Arctic Circle. The mean annual
temperature ranges from 26.6° F. at Karesuando on the northern
frontier to 44.8° at Gothenburg and 44.6° at Lund in the south
(or 29.5° to 45° reduced to sea-level). Between these extremes the
following actual average temperatures have been observed at certain
stations from north to south which are appropriately grouped for
the purpose of comparison (heights above sea-level following each
name):—
Jockmock (850 ft.), at the foot of the lake-chain on the Little Lule
River—29.7°; and Haparanda (30 ft.), at the head of the Gulf of
Bothnia—32.4°.
Stensele (1076 ft.), at the foot of the lake-chain on the Ume—31.8°;
and Umeå (39 ft.) at its mouth on the Gulf of Bothnia—34.9°.
Östersund (1056 ft.) on Storsjö—35.2°; and Hernösand (49 ft.)
on the Gulf of Bothnia—37.8°.
Karlstad (180 ft.) at the head of Lake Vener—42.3°; Örebro
(102 ft.) at the west of Lake Hjelmar—41.4°; and Stockholm (144 ft.)—42.1°.
Gothenburg (26 ft.) on the Cattegat—44.8°; Jönköping (312 ft.)
at the south of lake Vetter—42.4°; and Vestervik (43 ft.) on the
Baltic—43.2°.
But the local variations thus indicated are brought out more fully
by a consideration of seasonal, and especially winter, temperatures.
In Sweden July is generally the hottest month, the average temperature
ranging from about 51° to 62°. In January, however, it ranges
from 4° to 32° (February is generally a little colder). Moreover,
there are two well-marked centres of very low winter temperature
in the inland parts. The one is in the mountainous region of the
south of jemtland and the north of Dalarne, extending into Norway
and thus lying in the middle of the peninsula about 62° N. Here
the average temperature in January is 8.5°, whereas at Ostersund
it is over 15°. The other and more strongly marked centre is in
the far north, extending into Norway and Finland, where the
average is 3.8°. The effect of the spinal mountain range in modifying
oceanic conditions is thus illustrated. The same effect is well
shown by the linguiform isotherms. In January, for example, the
isotherm of 14°, after skirting the north coast of the Scandinavian
peninsula, turns southward along the Keel, crossing the upper part
of the district of the great northern lakes. It continues in this
direction as far as the northern end of Lake Mjösen in Norway
(61° N.), then turns sharply north-north-eastward, runs west of
Lake Siljan and bends north-east to strike the Bothnian coast near
Skellefteå. In July, on the other hand, the isotherms show an
almost constant temperature all over the country, and the linguiform
curves are wanting.
The relative length of the seasons shows contrasts similar to those
of temperature. In the north spring begins in May, summer in the
middle of June and autumn in the middle of August. In the south
and south-west spring begins in March, summer in the middle of
May and autumn in October. At Karesuando the last frost of
spring occurs on an average on the 15th of June, and the first of
autumn on the 27th of August, though night frosts may occur
earlier; while at Stockholm 4½ months are free of frost. Ice forms
about October in the north, in November or December in the
midlands and south, and breaks up in May or June and in April
respectively. Ice covers the lakes for 100 to 115 days annually
in the south, 150 in the midlands and 200 to 220 in the north. A local
increase of the ice period naturally takes place in the upper parts of
the Småland highlands; and in the case of the great lakes of Norrland,
the western have a rather shorter ice period than the eastern. As
to the seas, the formation of ice on the west and south coasts is rare,
but in the central and northern parts of the Baltic drift-ice and a
fringe of solid ice along the coast arrests navigation from the end
of December to the beginning of April. Navigation in the southern
part of the Gulf of Bothnia is impeded from the end of November to
the beginning of May, and in the north the gulf is covered with ice
from November to the last half of May. Snow lies 47 days on an
average on the plains of Skåne, while in the north it lies from 140
to 190 days.
The northern summers find compensation for brevity in duration
of sunshine and light. At Karesuando in 68° 26' N. and 1093 ft.
above sea-level the sun is seen continuously above the horizon from
the 26th of May to the 18th of July; at Haparanda for 23 hours,
at Stockholm for 18½ hours and at Lund for 17½ hours at the summer
solstice. Atmospheric refraction causes the sun to be visible for
periods varying from south to north for a quarter to half an hour
after it has actually sunk below the horizon. With the long twilight,
perhaps the most exquisite period of a season which provides a
succession of beautiful atmospheric effects, daylight lasts without
interruption from the 16th to the 27th of June as far south as Hernösand
(62° 38' N.).
The average annual rainfall for Sweden is 19.72 in., locally increasing
on the whole from north to south, and reaching a maximum
towards the south-west, precipitation on this coast greatly exceeding
that on the south-east. Thus the average in the north of Norrland
is 16.53 in., in the south of Norrland 22.6 in. At Borås, midway
between the south end of Lake Vetter and the Cattegat, the average
is 35.08 in., and 45.82 in. were registered in 1898. At Kalmar,
however, on the Baltic opposite Öland, the average is 14.6 in. This
is an extreme instance for the locality, but the minimum for all
Sweden is found at Karesuando, with 12.32 in. The period of
maximum is generally the latter half of summer, and the minimum
in February and March; but the maximum occurs in October at
coast stations in Skåne and in the island of Gotland. The proportion
of total precipitation which falls as snow ranges from 36% in
the north to 9% in the south.
Flora
.—In the preceding physical description indications are given
of the vast extent of forest in Sweden. The alpine treeless region
occupies only the upper flanks of the spinal mountain-range above
an elevation varying from 1800 ft. in the north to 3000 ft. in the
south. It is belted by a zone of birch woods, with occasional
mountain-ash and aspen, varying in width from about 20 m. in the
north to a fraction of a mile in the south. Below this extends a
great region of firwood covering the whole country north-east of
Lake Vener and north of the Dal River. The fir (
Pinus sylvestris
and pine (
Pinus abie
s) are the predominating trees. Spruce is
common, and even predominates in the higher parts (between the
great valleys and immediately below the birch-belt) in the north
of Norrland. South of the southern limit indicated in the midland
district of the great lakes, the oak (
Quercus pedunculata
) appears
as well as pine and fir; and, as much of this area is under cultivation,
many other trees have been introduced, as the ash, maple, elm and
lime. South of a line running, roughly, from the foot of Lake Vener
to Kalmar on the Baltic coast the beech begins to appear, and in
Skåne and the southern part of the Cattegat seaboard becomes
predominant in the woods which break the wide cultivated places.
Of wild flowering plants only a very few are endemic species (though
more are endemic varieties); the bulk are immigrants after the last
glacial epoch. Of these most are common to arctic lands, or occur
as alpine plants in lower latitudes. The number of species decreases
according to geographical distribution from south to north; thus
while upwards of 1000 are found in Skåne, there are only about 700
in the midlands, 500 in the lower parts of southern Norrland and
less than 200 in the extreme north.
Fauna
.—The effects of the great latitudinal range of Sweden
on its climate and flora has its parallel to a modified extent in the
case of fauna. Only a few animals are common to the entire
country, such as the hare (
Lepus timidus
) and the weasel; although
certain others may be added if the high mountain region be left
out of consideration such as the squirrel, fox and various shrews.
Among large animals, the common bear and the wolf have been
greatly reduced in numbers even within later historic times. These
and the lynx are now restricted to the solitary depths of the northern
forests. Characteristic of the high mountainous region are the arctic
fox, the glutton and the lemming, whose singular intermittent
migrations to the lowlands have a considerable temporary influence
on the distribution of beasts and birds of prey. There may also be
mentioned the wild reindeer, which is rare, though large domesticated
herds are kept by the Lapps. The elk, carefully preserved, haunts
the lonely forests from the Arctic Circle even to the Småland highlands.
The roe-deer and red-deer are confined to the southern parts;
though the first is found in the south of the midland plains. In
these plains the fox is most abundant, and the badger and hedgehog
are found. Martens and otters are to some extent hunted for their
skins. A white winter fur is characteristic of several of the smaller
animals, such as the hare, fox and weasel. The common and grey
seals are met with in the neighbouring seas, and
Phoca foetida
is
confined to the Baltic. Among birds by far the greater proportion
is migrant. Characteristic types common to the whole country are
the teal, snipe, golden plover and wagtail. In the northern mountains
the ptarmigan is common, and like other creatures assumes a
white winter dress; ducks and other water-fowl frequent the lakes;
the golden eagle, certain buzzards and owls are found, and among
smaller birds the Lappland bunting (
Plectrophanes laponicus
may be mentioned. In the coniferous forests the black grouse,
hazel grouse and willow grouse, capercailzie and woodcock are the
principal game birds; the crane is found in marshy clearings, birds
of prey are numerous, and the Siberian jay in the north and the
common jay in the south are often heard. But in the northern
forests small birds are few, and even in summer these wilds give a
strong general impression of lifelessness. In the midlands the partridge
is fairly common, though not readily enduring the harder
winters; and ring-doves and stock-doves occur. The lakes are the
homes of a variety of aquatic birds. On the coasts a number of
gulls and terns are found, also the eider-duck and the sea-eagle,
which, however, is also distributed far over the land. The species
of reptiles and amphibians are few and chiefly confined to the
southern parts. There are three species of snake, including the
viper; three of lizard; and eleven of batrachians. The rivers and
lakes are generally well stocked with fish, such as salmon, trout
of various species, gwyniad and vendace (especially in the north),
pike, eels, perch of various species, turbot, bream and roach. The
few sportsmen who have visited the higher parts of the great northern
rivers have found excellent trout-fishing, with pike, perch, char and
grayling, the char occurring in the uppermost parts of the rivers,
and the grayling below them. The fisheries, both fresh-water and
sea, are important, and fall for consideration as an industry. The
herring, cod, flatfish, mackerel and sprat are taken in the seas,
and also great numbers of a small herring called
strömming
. In
the brackish waters of the east coast sea fish are found, together with
pike, perch and other fresh-water forms. The crayfish is common
in many places in central and southern Sweden. Pearls are sometimes
found in the fresh-water mussel (
Margaritana margaritifera
);
thus a tributary of the Lilla Lule River takes its name, Perle River,
from the pearls found in it. Among the lower marine animals a
few types of arctic origin are found, not only in the Baltic but even
in Lakes Vener and Vetter, having remained, and in the case of the
lakes survived the change to fresh water, after the disappearance
of the connexion with the Arctic seas across the region of the great
lakes, the Baltic, and north-east thereof. The molluscan fauna
is fairly rich, and insect fauna much more so, even in the north.
In summer in the uplands and the north the mosquito is sufficiently
common to cause some little annoyance.
People
.—The population of Sweden in 1900 was 5,136,441.
The census is taken in an unusual manner, being drawn up from
the registries of the clergy according to parishes every ten years.
Approximate returns are made by the clergy annually. The
following table shows the distribution of population in that year
through the
län
or administrative districts. The first column
shows the older divisions of the county into provinces, the names
and boundaries of which differ in many cases from the
län
These names, as appears elsewhere in this article, remain in
common use. The distribution of provinces and
län
between
the three main territorial divisions, Norrland (northern),
Svealand (central) and Götaland (southern) is also indicated.
Old Provinces.
Län.
Area
sq. m.
Pop.
1900.
Norrland
Lappland, Norrbotten
Norrbotten
40,867
134,769
Lappland, Vesterbotten
Vesterbotten
22,771
143,735
Ångermanland, Medelpad
Vesternorrland
9,855
232,311
Jemtland, Herjedal
Jemtland
19,675
111,391
Helsingland, Gestrikland
Gefleborg
7,615
238,048
Svealand
Dalarne (Dalecarlia)
Kopparberg
11,524
217,708
Vermland
Vermland
7,459
254,284
Vestmanland
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}
Nerike
Södermanland
Uppland
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}}
Örebro
3,511
194,924
Vestmanland
2,612
148,271
Södermanland
2,631
167,428
Upsala
2,051
123,863
Stockholm dist.
3,015
172,852
Stockholm, city
13
300,624
Götaland
Östergötland
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}
Vestergötland
Dal
Bohuslän
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}}
Östergötland
4,264
279,449
Skaraborg
3,273
241,069
Elfsborg
4,912
279,514
Göteborg och Bohus
1,948
337,175
Halland
Halland
1,900
141,688
Småland
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}}
Jönköping
4,447
203,036
Kronoberg
3,825
159,124
Kalmar
4,456
227,625
Blekinge
Blekinge
1,164
146,302
Skåne
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}}
Kristianstad
2,488
219,166
Malmöhus
1,864
409,304
Gotland
Gotland
1,219
52,781
Öland
Total
172,875
5,136,441
The population in 1908 was about 5,429,600. In 1751 it was
1,802,373, and in 1865, 4,114,141. The average annual increase
was 7.86 per thousand in the 19th century, reaching a maximum
of 10.39 in 1841–1860, before the period of extensive emigration
set in. Emigrants numbered 584,259 men and 424,566 women
between 1851 and 1900, these figures helping to account for the
considerable excess of women over men in the resident population,
which in 1900 was as 1049 to 1000. The periods of greatest
emigration were 1868–1873 and 1879–1893; the decline in later
years is regarded as a favourable sign. The United States of
America receive a large majority of the emigrants, and only a
very small percentage returns. The Swedish people belong
to the Scandinavian branch, but the population includes in
the north about 20,000 Finns and 7000 Lapps. Other foreigners,
however, are few, and the population is as a whole homogeneous.
Immigrants in the period 1851–1900 numbered only 165,357.
Population is naturally denser in the south than in the north,
and densest of all in the districts along the southern coasts; thus
Malmöhus Län has about 220 persons per sq. m., Göteborg och
Bohus Län 174 and Blekinge 127. In Norrland as a whole, however,
there are less than 9 persons per sq. m., in Norrbottens Län less
than 4, and in the uplands of this division and Vesterbottens Län
much less than this. However, the annual increase per thousand
has been greater in Norrland than elsewhere. The annual excess
of births over deaths is high, the proportion being as 1.68 to 1.
The birth-rate between 1876 and 1900 averaged 28.51 per thousand;
the death-rate between 1891 and 1900 was 16.36 per thousand, the
lowest ever recorded over such a period for any European country.
The lowest mortality is found in the districts about Lakes Vener and
Vetter; the highest in Norbotten, the east midland districts, Skåne,
and Göteborg och Bohus Län.
The percentage of illegitimacy is rather high (though it decreased
during the second half of the nineteenth century); one cause of this
may be found in the fact that the percentage of married persons
is lower than in most European countries. As regards social
evils generally, however, the low, though undoubtedly improving,
standard of Sweden has had one of its chief reasons in the national
intemperance. In 1775 Gustavus III. made the sale of spirits
brännvin
) a government monopoly, and the drinking habit was
actually fostered. About 1830 this evil reached its highest development,
and it is estimated that nine gallons of spirits were then
consumed annually per head of the population. Mainly through
the efforts of Peter Wieselgren, dean of Gothenburg (1800–1877),
a strong temperance reform movement set in, and in 1855 important
liquor laws were passed to restrict both production and sale of
intoxicating liquors. The so-called Gothenburg System, providing
for municipal control of the sale of intoxicants (see
Liquor Laws
),
came into full operation in Gothenburg in 1865. The temperance
movement has had its reward; the average of consumption of beer
and spirits in Sweden is considerably lower than in Europe as
a whole, though the effect of intoxicants is sometimes very apparent.
A marked difference of temperament is noticeable between
the Swedes and Norwegians, the Swedes being the more lighthearted
and vivacious. In some of the more remote parts of
the country old customs are maintained and picturesque local
costumes still worn, as in
Dalecarlia
q.v.
). The Lapps moreover
retain their distinctive dress. In other cases early costumes
are preserved only as a historical reminiscence at festivities.
Although the characteristic celebrations at weddings or periodical
festivals are, as elsewhere, decreasing in favour, there are certain
occasions which are observed as holidays with much ceremony.
Such are Christmas Day, and, not unnaturally in this northern
land, Midsummer (June 23 and 24). The food of the people
in the midlands and south is plentiful and good; in the remoter
parts of the north an unfavourable summer is followed by a
winter of scarcity or even famine; and in these parts meat is
little used. Rye is extensively employed in the rural districts
for the making of a hard bread in flat cakes (
knäckebröd
). A
prevalent custom among the better classes is that of beginning
meals with a selection of such viands as anchovies, smoked
salmon or slices of meat, of which a number of small dishes are
provided (
smörgåsbord
). These are taken with bread and butter
and a glass of spirits. The more characteristic Swedish sports
are naturally those of the winter. These include ski-running
skidlöpning
), skating and skate-sailing, tobogganing and
sledging. The numerous inland waters and sheltered channels
within the
skärgård
have caused the high development of sailing
as a summer sport, the Royal Swedish Yacht Club having its
headquarters in Stockholm. Athletic sports are in high favour,
especially such winter sports as snow-shoeing (ski), and, among
ball games, lawn-tennis, and to some extent football, together
with the game of
pärk
, peculiar to Gotland, are played.
Towns
.—In the first half of the 19th century the percentage of
urban population remained nearly stationary at a little less than 10.
In 1880 it was 15.12, and in 1900 21.49. The towns with a population
exceeding 15,000 in 1900 are Stockholm (300,624), Gothenburg
(130,609), Malmö (60,857), Norrköping (41,008), Gefle (29,522)
Helsingborg (24,670), Karlskrona (23,955), Jönköping (23,143),
Upsala (22,855), Örebro (22,013), Lund (16,621), Borås (15,837),
Halmstad (15,362).
Swedish towns, though rarely of quite modern foundation,
generally appear so, for the use of brick in building is mainly of
modern introduction, and is still by no means general,
so that the partial or total destruction of a town by
fire is now only less common than formerly. The
rectangular method of laying out streets is general, and legislation
Architecture.
has been directed against narrow streets and buildings of excessive
height. The common material of the characteristic domestic
architecture in rural districts is wood, except in Skåne, where stone
is available and has been used from early times. Some of the old
wooden farm-buildings, especially in Dalarne, such as are preserved
in Skansen Museum at Stockholm, are extremely picturesque.
Another notable form in old wooden building is the belfry
klokstapel
) of some village churches, examples of which are seen at Habo
near Jönköping and Håsjö in Jemtland on the northern railway.
In the midlands and south fine castles and manor houses of the
16th and 17th centuries are fairly numerous, and there are a few
remains of previous date. The fortified dwelling-house at Glimmingehus
in the extreme south near Simrishamn is a good early
example. Several of the southern ports have old citadels. That of
Kalmar, on its island, is specially fine, while those at Vestervik
(Ståkeholm), Malmö, Falkenberg and Varberg may also be mentloned.
Among country palaces or mansions that of Gripsholm
is notable, overlooking Lake Mälar, the shores of which are specially
rich in historic sites and remains. In ecclesiastical architecture
Sweden possesses the noble cathedrals of Lund, Upsala and Linköping;
while that of Skara, near the southern shore of Lake Vencr,
dates originally from 1150, and that of Strengnäs on Lake Mälar
was consecrated in 1291. There is a remarkably perfect Romanesque
church, with aisles, eastern apse and ambulatory, at Varnhem
in Skaraborg Län, and there are a few village churches of the same
period in this district and in Skåne. The monastic church at
Vadstena on Lake Vetter is a beautiful example of Gothic of the
14th and 15th centuries. But the richest locality as regards ancient
ecclesiastical architecture is the island of
Gotland
q.v.
).
Travel and Communications
.—As a resort for foreign travellers
and tourists Sweden lacks the remarkable popularity of Norway.
The Göta canal route, however, is used by many; the uplands of
Dalecarlia (Dalarne) are frequented; and the railway through the
Jemtland highlands to Trondhjem gives access to a beautiful region,
where numerous sanatoria are in favour with the Swedes themselves.
The northern railway offers a land route to the Arctic coast of Norway.
Along the southern coasts there are many watering-places.
Marstrand near Gothenburg is one of the most fashionable; Strömstad,
Lysekil and Varberg on the same coast, Ronneby on the Baltic,
with its chalybeate springs, Visby the capital of Gotland, and several
villages in the neighbourhood of Stockholm may also be noted.
The headquarters of the Swedish Touring Club (
Svenska
Turistföreningen
) are in Stockholm, but its organization extends throughout
the country, and is of special value to travellers in the far north.
The first railway in Sweden was opened for traffic in 1856, and the
system has developed extensively; more so, in fact, in proportion
to population, than in any other European country.
About 8000 m. of railway are open, but extensions are
constantly in progress. About two-thirds are private lines and one-third
government lines. The central administration of the government
Railways.
lines is in the hands of a board of railway directors, and there
are local administrative bodies for each of five districts. A railway
council, created in 1902, acts as an advisory body on large economical
questions and the like. Private railways are controlled by the regulations
of the board, while a joint traffic union has as its object
the provision of uniformity of administration, tariff, &c. The
government has made grants towards the construction of some of
the private lines, and has in a few cases taken over such lines.
The railways form a network over the country as far north as Gefle
and the district about Lake Siljan. The government works the trunk
lines from Stockholm to Malmö, to Gothenburg and to Christiania
as far as the Norwegian frontier, and other important through
routes in the south. The great northern line is also worked by the
government. It runs north from Stockholm roughly parallel with
the east coast, throwing off branches to the chief seaports, and also
a branch from Bräcke to Östersund and Storlien, where it joins a
line from Trondhjem in Norway. At Boden the main line joins a
line originally built to connect the iron-mines of Gellivara with the
port of Luleå; the system is continued past Gellivara to Narvik
on the Ofoten Fjord in Norway, this being far north of the Arctic
Circle, and the line the most northerly in the world. The gauge
of all the government lines and about 66% of the private lines is
1.435 metres
(4 ft. 8
in.).
Nearly all the lines are single. Passenger
travelling is slow, but extremely comfortable. The principal
connexions with the south are made across the sound from Malmö
to Copenhagen, and from Trelleborg to Sassnitz in Germany.
The extensive system of natural waterways, especially in central
Sweden, has been utilized to the full in the development of internal
navigation, just as the calm waters within the skärgård
afford opportunity for safe and economical coastwise
traffic. The earliest construction of canals dates from
the 15th century, the patriot Engelbrekt and King Gustavus
Inland Navigation.
Vasa both foreseeing its importance. The theories of construction
remained rudimentary until early in the 19th century, when the
Göta
q.v.
) canal was opened. The total length of the canalized
water-system of Sweden is a little over 700 m., though wholly
artificial waterways amount only to 115 m. out of this total. A large
local traffic is carried on by steam launches on the lakes during
the season of open navigation; and vessels have even been introduced
on some of the lakes and rivers of the far north, principally in connexion
with the timber trade. Posting, which is of importance
only in the highland districts and the valley roads of Norrland, is
carried on by posting-stations (
skjutsstation
) under government
regulations; similar regulations apply when, as in the upper valleys
of the great northern rivers, rowing boats on the lakes form the only
means of travel. The condition of the high roads is fair as a whole,
and has been much improved by increased state grants towards
their upkeep; but in Norrland they are naturally not of the best
class. The postal and telegraph system is efficacious, and the
telephone service, maintained partly by the state and partly by
companies, is very fully developed. About twenty telephones are
in use per thousand of population, and a system of trunk-lines
between the important towns has been established since 1889.
Agriculture
.—Of the total land area of Sweden only about 12% is
arable or meadow land, but the percentage varies greatly in different
parts. as will be understood from a recollection of the main physical
divisions. Thus in Skane nearly 69% of the land is under cultivation;
in the midlands about 30%; in the north from 4.5% in
southern Norrland to 3% in northern Norrland. Almost
exactly half the total area is under forest, its proportion ranging
from 25% in Skane to upwards of 70% in the inland parts of Svealand
and in the south of Norrland. Land which is neither cultivable
nor under forest (marsh land or, in the northern mountainous
districts, land above the upper limit of the forests) amounts to 61%
in the far north and 36% in the Småland highlands, but only to 15%
in the central plains and in Skåne. In the more highly cultivated
districts of the south reclamation of such lands is constantly proceeding.
Agriculture and cattle-breeding employ over one-half
the whole population. The average size of farms is 25 acres of
cultivated land; only 1% exceeds 250 acres, whereas 23% are of
5 acres or less. The greater part of the land has always been held
by small independent farmers (only about 15% of the farms are
worked by tenants), but until late in the 18th century a curious
method of parcelling the land resulted in each man's property
consisting of a number of detached plots or strips, the divisions
often becoming so minute that dissension was inevitable. Early
in the 19th century various enactments made it possible for
each property to become a coherent whole. A legal parcelling
laga skifte
) was introduced in 1827 and slowly carried out in the face
of considerable local opposition; indeed, in the island of Gotland
the system could not be enforced until 1870–1880. Roughly
about 48.5% of the total cultivated area is under cereals, 33.8 under
fodder plants, 5.8 under root-crops, and 11.8 fallow, this last showing
a steady decrease. Oats, rye, barley, mixed grain and wheat are the
grain-crops in order of importance. During the 19th century the
percentage under wheat showed a general tendency to increase;
that under oats increased much in the later decades as livestock
farming became common, rye maintained a steady proportion, but
barley, formerly the principal grain-crop, decreased greatly. This
last is the staple crop in Norrland, becoming the only grain-crop in
the extreme north; in the richer agricultural lands of the midlands
and south rye is predominant in the east, oats in the west. The
high agricultural development of the plains of Skåne appears from
the fact that although that province occupies only one-fortieth of
the total area of Sweden, it produces 30% of the entire wheat
crop, 33% of the barley, 18% of the rye and 13% of the oats.
A system of rotation (cereal, roots, grass) is commonly followed,
each division of land lying fallow one year as a rule; not more than
two ripe grain-crops are commonly taken consecutively. Potatoes
occupy 4.4% of the total area, and other root-crops 1.4%.
These include the sugar-beet, the profitable growing of which is
confined to Skåne and the islands of Öland and Gotland. The sugar
industry, however, is very important. Orchards and gardens occupy
about 1% of the cultivated area. Fruit-trees are grown, mainly
in the south and midlands; northward (as far as Hernösand) they
flourish only in sheltered spots on the coast. Between 1850 and 1900
the total head of livestock increased from 4,500,000 to 5,263,000,
and the great advance of cattle-farming is evident from the following
proportions. Whereas in 1870–1875 imported cattle and cattle-farming
produce exceeded exports as 12 to 7, in 1900 the value of
exports was nearly double that of imports; and it may be added that
whereas as late as 1870–1880 the exports of agricultural produce
exceeded imports in value, in 1896–1900 they were less than one-tenth.
The principal breeds of cattle are the alpine in Norrland,
and Ayrshire, short-horn, and red-and-white Swedish in the midlands
and south. The Gotland, an old native light yellow breed, survives
in the island of Gotland. Oxen, formerly the principal draught
animals, have been replaced by horses. Cattle, especially cows,
and pigs form the bulk of the livestock, but sheep and goats have
greatly decreased in numbers. The Lapps own upwards of 230,000
head of reindeer. Dairy-farming is profitable, England and Denmark
being the principal foreign consumers of produce, and the
industry is carefully fostered by the government. A board of
agriculture had been in operation for many years when in 1900 a
separate department of agriculture was formed. There are one or
more agricultural societies in each län, and there are various state
educational establishments in agriculture, such as the agricultural
high schools at Ultuna near Upsala, and at Alnarp near Lund in
Skåne, an important agricultural centre, with dairy schools and other
branch establishments. Finally, there are numerous horticultural
societies, large nurseries and gardening schools at Stockholm, Alnarp
and elsewhere, and botanical gardens attached to the universities
of Lund and Upsala.
Forests and Forestry
.—Of the forests about one-third are public;
the majority of these belong to the Crown, while a small proportion
belongs to hundreds and parishes. The remainder is in private
hands. The public forests are administered by the office of Crown
lands through a forest service, which employs a large staff of forest-masters
and rangers. The private forests are protected from abuse
chiefly by the important legislation of 1903, which prescribes
penalties for excessive lumbering and any action liable to endanger
the regrowth of wood. The administration of the law devolves
upon local forest conservancy boards. In the great fir forests of
the north the limit set in respect of cutting down living trees for
sawing and export is a diameter of the trunk, without bark, of
in.
at
15
ft.
from the base. Members of the forest service
undergo a preliminary course of instruction at a school of forestry,
and a further course at the Institute of Forestry, Stockholm, which
dates from 1828. There are very numerous sawmills, using water power,
steam and electricity; they are situated chiefly in the coast
districts of the Gulf of Bothnia, from Gefle northwards, especially
in the neighbourhood of Sundsvall and along the Ångerman River,
and in the neighbourhood of all the ports as far north as Luleå and
Haparanda. There are also upland mills in Dalarne and Vermland,
and a considerable number in the neighbourhood of Gothenburg.
The wood-pulp industry centres in the districts west and north of
Lake Vener and south of Lake Vetter. In the north vast quantities
of timber are floated down the great rivers, and the lesser streams are
used as floating-ways by the provision of Humes and dams. The
mill owners either own forests, or lease the right of cutting, or buy
the timber when cut, in the Crown or private forests. Among the
special articles exported may be mentioned railway-sleepers,
pit-props, and wood-pulp.
Fisheries
.—The sea-fisheries, which are prosecuted principally in
the calm waters within the skärgård, are a variable source of wealth.
For example, in 1894 nearly 2,000,000 cwt. of fresh fish (principally
herring) were exported, but in subsequent years the fisheries were
much less prolific; in 1900 only 80,000 cwt. were exported, and in
1903 less than 150,000 cwt. As a rule each crew jointly owns its
boat and tackle. The fishery is of ancient importance; at the old
towns of Falsterbo and Skanör, south of Malmö, thousands of fishermen
were employed until the harbours became choked in 1631, and
the fish were a valuable item in the Hanseatic commerce. There are
rich salmon-fisheries in the lower parts of the great northern rivers,
especially the Torne, Kalix, Lule, Ångerman and Indal; in the Dal,
the Klar and Göta, and several of the lesser rivers of the south. In
the majority of rivers no special necessity has been found to protect
the fishing. As a general rule the owner of the shore owns the river fishing.
The chief inspector of fisheries is a member of the board
of agriculture.
Mining
.—The iron-mining industry is of high importance, the
output of iron ore forming by far the largest item in the total output
of ores and minerals. Thus in 1902 the total output was nearly
3½ million tons, of which 2,850,000 tons were iron ore. The output
of iron ore has greatly increased; in 1870-1880 it averaged annually
little more than one-quarter of the amount in 1902. The deposits
of iron ore are confined almost wholly to the extreme north of Norrland,
and to a midland zone extending from the south of the Gulf
of Bothnia to a point north of Lake Vener, which includes the
Dannemora ore fields in the eastern part. In Norrland the deposits
at Gellivara have long been worked, with the assistance of a railway
to the Bothnian port of Luleå, but in 1903 the northern railway was
completed across the Norwegian frontier to Narvik on Ofoten Fjord,
and the vast deposits at the hills of Kirunavara and Luossavara
began to be worked. These deposits alone are estimated to have
an extent exceeding one-quarter of the total ore fields worked in the
country. The deposits are generally in pockets, and the thickness
of the beds ranges from 100 to nearly 500 ft. at Kirunavara, up to
230 ft. at Gellivara, and in the midland fields generally from 40 to
100 ft., although at the great field of Grängesberg, in Kopparberg
and Örebro Län, a thickness of nearly 300 ft. is found. Nearly all
the ore is magnetite, and in the midlands it is almost wholly free of
phosphorus. The percentage of iron in the ore is high, as much as
66% in the Kirunavara-Luossavara ore; and little less in that of
Grängesberg; this far exceeds other European ores, though it is
equalled by some in America. Sweden possesses little coal, and
pig-iron is produced with charcoal only; its quality is excellent,
but Sweden's proportion to the world's produce is hardly more than
1%, whereas in the 17th and 18th centuries, before the use of coal
elsewhere, it was much greater. As an industry, however, the production
both of pig-iron and of wrought iron and steel is increasingly
prosperous. The ironworks and blast-furnaces are almost wholly
in the midland districts. Copper has been mined at Falun since the
14th century; it is also produced at Åtvidaberg in Östergötland.
The production, however, has greatly decreased. A little gold and
silver are extracted at Falun, and the silver mines at Sala in Vestmanlands
Län have been worked at least since the 16th century,
but here again the output has decreased. Lead is produced at Sala
and Kafveltorp, and zinc ore at Åmmeberg. Coal is found in small
beds in Skåne, east and north of Helsingborg, at Billesholm, Bjuf
and Höganäs; but the amount raised, although increasing, is only
some 300,000 tons annually. Mining administration is in the charge
of a special bureau of the board of trade. The iron Institute
Järnkontoret
) was established in 1748 as a financial institution, in
which the chief iron-mining companies have shares, for the advancement
of advantageous loans and the promotion of the industry
generally. It maintains a special education and investigation fund.
There are schools of mining at Stockholm (the higher school), Falun
and Filipstad in Vermland.
Manufactures
.—If the total value of the output of the manufacturing
industries in Sweden be taken as 100, the following are the
most important of those industries, according to the approximate
percentage of each to the whole: iron industries 18.3, and mechanical
works 4; saw-milling 12.5 and wood-pulp works 2.5; cloth-factories
and spinning-mills 8; flour-mills 6.4; sugar-refining and beet-sugar
works 6; spirit distilling and manufacture 4.7, and brewing 2.6;
dairy products 4.4; paper making 1.6; leaving a remainder of 29%
for other industries. The total annual value of the output is about
£72,000,000. The great mechanical works are found at or near
Malmö, Stockholm, Jönköping, Trollhättan, Motala on Lake Vetter,
Lund, Gothenburg, Karlstad, Falun and Eskilstuna, which is
especially noted for its cutlery. A few other establishments including
both mechanical workshops and ore-extraction works may be
mentioned: Domnarfvet, on the Dal River, near Falun; Sandviken,
near Gefle; and Bofors in Örebro Län. The principal centres of the
textile industry are Norrköping in Östergötland and Borås in Elfsborg
Län, where there are weaving schools; and the industry is
spread over Elfsborg Län and the vicinity of Gothenburg. There
is a linen industry in Småland and in the south of Norrland. One
of the most notable special industries of Sweden is match-making,
for which there are large works at Jönköping, Tidaholm in Skaraborg
Län and in the neighbourhood of Kalmar. The centre of the beet-sugar
industry is Skåne, but it is also carried on in the island of
Gotland; its great access of prosperity is chiefly owing to the existence
of a protective duty on imported sugar. Spirit distillation centres
in Kristianstad Län. Among other industries may be mentioned
the earthenware works at Höganäs at the north end of the Sound,
the cement works of Lomma in this vicinity, and the pottery works
of Rörstrand in, and Gustafsberg near, Stockholm; where beautiful
ware is produced. Stone is worked chiefly in Göteborg och Bohus
and Blekinge Län.
Commerce
.—Exports approach £30,000,000 and imports £40,000,000
in average annual value.
Of the total exports that of timber, wrought and unwrought,
represents 50%; the other principal exports with approximate
percentage are: iron and steel 13.5, iron ore 3.6, machinery and
implements 3.2, and other iron and steel goods 2.7; butter 10; paper
3.4; carpentry work 3; matches 2.3. The principal imports with
percentage to the whole are: coal and coke 15, grain 8, coffee 4.6,
machinery 4, wool, yarn, thread, cotton and woollen goods 9.4;
hides and skins 2.5. Oil and fish are also important. The principal
countries trading with Sweden are the United Kingdom (exports
from Sweden 38.2%, imports to Sweden 25.7), Germany (exports
16%, imports 39) and Denmark (exports 14%, imports 12.5).
Other countries with which Sweden has mainly an export trade are
France, the Netherlands and Norway. With Russia on the other
hand the trade is principally import. In the case of the United
Kingdom, Germany, Denmark and Norway, the transit trade forms
an important proportion of the whole. The coal imported (which
forms over 90% of the whole consumed) comes mainly from Great
Britain; while most of the colonial produce, such as coffee and
tobacco, comes through Germany. The match and paper export
trade is principally with the United Kingdom. Between 1865 and
1888 Sweden employed a modified system of free trade, but various
enactments in 1888 and 1892 reintroduced methods of protection.
Shipping
.—The total number of vessels in the Swedish commercial
fleet is about 3000 of 650,000 tons register; of which steamers
represent about 380,000 tons. On an average about 73,000 vessels,
of an aggregate tonnage of 17,500,000, enter and clear the ports.
The principal ports of register are Gothenburg, Stockholm, Helsingborg
and Gefle, in order; though the principal commercial ports are
Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Owing to the natural configuration
of the coast and the skärgård excellent natural harbours are
almost without number. Artificial harbours are consequently few,
but those at Helsingborg, Malmö, Halmstad, Ystad and Kalmar
may be mentioned. The principal docks are at Gothenburg, Stockholm,
Malmö, Oskarshamn and Norrköping, besides the naval docks
at Karlskrona; and the principal ports where large vessels can be
accommodated on slips are Malmö, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Karlskrona
and Gefle. A list of the chief ports may be conveniently
classified. On the west coast north of Gothenburg are Strömstad,
near the Norwegian frontier, and Uddevalla, on a deep inlet behind
the island of Orust, 35 m. from the open Cattegat. South of Gothenburg
on the open coast are Varberg and Halmstad; and on the Sound
are the three large ports of Helsingborg, Landskrona and Malmö.
Passing to the Baltic, Trelleborg and Ystad lie on the southernmost
coast of the country, and Simrishamn, Åhus the outport of Kristianstad,
Karlshamn, Ronneby and Karlskrona on the wide Hanö Bay.
On Kalmar Sound are Kalmar and Oskarshamn; and continuing
northward, Vestervik, Söderköping at the head of the inlet Slätbäken,
Norrköping, similarly situated on Bråviken, and Stockholm,
far within the skärgård. On the Bothnian coast there is a port at
or near the mouth of each great river, where the timber floated down
from the interior is both worked and exported. The chief ports
here, from south to north, are: Gefle, Söderhamn, Hudiksvall,
Sundsvall, Hernösand, Ornsköldsvik, Umeå, Skellefteå, Piteå and
Luleå, the last exporting the ore from the northern iron-mines.
Banks
.—The first Swedish bank, called the Palmstruch bank
after its founder, Johan Palmstruch, was incorporated in 1656.
It began to issue notes in 1661. It was shortly afterwards bankrupt,
and in 1668 the Bank of Sweden (
Sveriges Riksbank
) succeeded it.
This is managed by a board of seven delegates, the chairman being
elected by the government, while the Riksdag (parliament) elects
the remainder. It began to issue notes in 1701. This ability was
shared by private banks with solidary responsibility until 1903,
but under a reform of 1897 the riksbank took over, from 1904,
the whole right of issuing paper currency, which is in wide use. The
capital of the riksbank is 50,000,000 kronor (£2,250,000). The
other banks are joint-stock banks and savings-banks, of which
the first was opened at Gothenourg in 1820. The post office savings
bank was opened in 1884.
Coinage
.—The counting unit in the Swedish coinage is the krona,
equal to 1.1 shilling. The monetary unit is 10 kronor gold, and gold
pieces, not widely met with in circulation, are struck of 20, 10 and
5 kronor. The krona equals 100
öre
. Silver pieces of 2 and 1 krona,
50, 25 and 10 öre are struck, and bronze pieces of 5, 2, and 1 öre.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark have the same monetary system.
Finance
.—In the budget for 1910 revenue and expenditure were
estimated at £12,674,300. The principal sources of income in the
ordinary revenue are railways, forests, telegraphs and rent from Crown
lands; and those in the revenue voted (
bevillningar
), which is about
seven-eighths of the whole, customs, the taxes on spirits and beet sugar,
and income from the post office. The departments to which
the bulk of expenditure is devoted are those of the army, the interior,
the navy and education. A large proportion of the army expenditure
was formerly defrayed by a system of military tenure on certain
lands. Land-taxes, however, were finally abolished in 1904, and
their place was taken by an increased taxation on real estate, revised
triennially, and by an income tax arranged on a sliding scale, up to
4% of the income (9.6 pence in the £), settled according to individual
declaration. The national debt was practically nil until
c.
1855,
and the debt contracted thereafter owes its existence almost wholly
to railway construction. It increased from about £2,300,000 in
1860 to £6,400,000 in 1870 and £18,600,000 in 1900. In 1904 it
exceeded £19,000,000. The greater proportion of communal revenue
comes from income and property tax. the sale of spirits under the
Gothenburg System, and contributions from the treasury. Primary
education, poor relief, and Church purposes form the principal items
of expenditure.
Constitution and Government
.—Sweden is a limited monarchy,
the constitution resting primarily on a law (
regerings-formen
of the 6th of June 1809. The king is irresponsible, and executive
power is vested in him alone. All his resolutions, however,
must be taken in the presence of the cabinet (
statsråd
). The
cabinet councillors are appointed by the king and are responsible
to the parliament (
Riksdag
). They are eleven in number, one
being prime minister, two others consultative ministers, and
the remaining eight heads of the departments of administration,
which are justice, foreign affairs, land defence, naval defence,
home affairs, finance, public works, agriculture. The councillors
must be of Swedish birth and adherents of the Lutheran
confession. The appointment of the majority of public officials
is vested in the king, who can himself dismiss cabinet ministers
and certain others, whereas in most cases a judicial inquiry is
necessary before dismissal. The king shares legislative powers
with the Riksdag, (parliament or diet), possessing the rights of
initiation and absolute veto. He has also, in certain administrative
and economic matters, a special legislative right.
The Riksdag consists of two chambers. The members of the
first chamber are elected by the
landsthing
, or representative
bodies of the
län
, and by the municipal councils of some of the
larger towns. They number 150, and are distributed among
the constituencies in proportion to population; the distribution
being revised every tenth year. Eligibility necessitates Swedish
birth, an age of at least 35 years, and the possession, at the time
of election and for three years previously, either of real property
to the value of 80,000 kronor (£4400), or an annual income on
which taxes have been paid of 4000 kronor (£220). Members
are unpaid. The members of the second chamber number 230,
of whom 150 are elected from rural constituencies and 80 from
towns. The members receive a salary of 1200 kronor (£66),
and are elected for a period of three years by electors, or directly,
according to the resolution of the electoral district. If a member
retires during that period, or if the chamber is dissolved, succeeding
members are elected for the remainder of the three
years, and thus the house is wholly renewed at regular intervals,
which is not the case with the first house. The franchise was
for long extremely limited in comparison with other countries,
but in 1907 universal manhood suffrage was introduced, after
protracted dissension and negotiation between the two houses.
Eligibility to the lower house necessitates possession of the
elective franchise, an age of at least 25 years, and residence
within the constituency. Both chambers have in theory equal
power. Before bills are discussed they may be prepared by
committees, which play an important part in the work of the
house. The agreement of both chambers is necessary before
a bill becomes law, but when they differ on budget questions
the matter is settled by a common vote of both, which arrangement
gives the second chamber a certain advantage from the
greater number of its members. By revisers elected annually
the Riksdag controls the finances of the kingdom, and by an
official (
justitieombudsman
) elected in the same way the administration
of justice is controlled; he can indict any functionary
of the state who has abused his power. The bank of the kingdom
is superintended by trustees elected by the Riksdag, and in the
same way the public debt is administered through an office
riksgäldskontoret
), whose head is appointed by the Riksdag.
Local Government
.—For the purposes of local government Sweden
is divided into 25 administrative districts called
län
, a list of which
is given in the paragraph dealing with population. The elected
representative body in each is the
landsthing
, which deliberates on
the affairs of the län and has a right to levy taxes. The chief
official of the län is the
landshöfding
, under whom are secretarial
and fiscal departments. Privileged towns, receiving their privileges
from the government (not necessarily on the basis of population),
are under a mayor (
borgmästare
) and aldermen (
rådmän
), the aldermen
being elected by the citizens, while the mayor is appointed
by the government from the first three aldermen on the poll, is paid,
and holds office for life. Gothenburg has two mayors, and the city
of
Stockholm
q.v.
), a län in itself, has a special form of government.
The major rural divisions are the
fögderier
, under bailiffs,
a subdivision of which is the
länsmansdistrikt
under a
länsman
Justice
.—Justice is administered by tribunals of three instances.
(1) There are 119 rural judicial districts (
domsagor
), which may be
subdivided into judicial divisions (
tingslag
). Each
tingslag
has a
court (
häradsrätt
), consisting of a judge and twelve unpaid assessors
nämndemän
), of whom seven form a quorum, elected by the people.
These, if unanimously of a different opinion to the judge, can outvote
him. The town-courts in the privileged towns are called
rädstufvurätter
, and consist of the mayor and at least two aldermen.
(2) There are three higher courts (
hofrätter
), in Stockholm, Jönköping
and Kristianstad. (3) The Supreme Court (
Högsta Domstolen
passes sentences in the name of the king, who is nominally the
highest judicial authority. The court has a membership of 18
justices (
justitieråd
), two of whom are present in the council of state
when law questions are to be settled; while the body also gives
opinion upon all proposed changes of law.
Army and Navy
.—General military service is enforced. Every
Swedish man belongs to the conscripts (
värnpligtige
) between
the age of 21 and 40, during which time he serves eight years in the
first levy, four in the second, and eight in the reserves. The conscripts
were formerly trained for 90 days, but according to the law
of 1901, the conscript is bound to serve in time of peace—in the
infantry, position artillery, fortress artillery, fortress engineers, and
the army service corps a total of 240 days; and in the cavalry, field
artillery, field engineers, and field telegraph corps a total of 365 days.
The permanent cadres number about 22,000, and about 85,000 men
are annually trained as recruits or recalled for further training. The
organization of the army in time of peace is as follows: 82 battalions
of infantry (28 regiments), 50 squadrons of cavalry, 71 field artillery
and 7 position artillery batteries, 10 fortress artillery, 16 engineer,
and 18 army service corps companies. There are six divisions,
quartered at Helsingborg, Linköping, Sköfde, Stockholm (two),
and Hernösand; in addition to the Gotland troops quartered at
Visby. A division in time of war would probably consist of 2 battalions
of infantry (4 regiments, 12 battalions), with 4 squadrons of
cavalry, 1 artillery regiment, 1 company of engineers, &c. A
cavalry division would consist of 2 brigades of 8 squadrons each,
and 1 brigade of horse artillery. It is estimated that 500,000 men
are available for service in the various capacities in case of war.
There are fortresses at Stockholm (Vaxholm and Oscar-Fredriksborg),
Boden on the northern railway near the Russian frontier,
Karlsborg on Lake Vetter, and Karlskrona; and there are forts at
Gothenburg and on Gotland. The reforms of 1901 abolished the
indelta
, a body including both infantry and cavalry who lived in
various parts of the country, in some cases having their houses
provided for them. This peculiar system of military tenure (
indelningsverket
originated in the 17th century, when certain landowners
were exempt from other military obligations if they provided and
maintained armed men. The navy is small, including 11 ironclads
of 3100 to 3650 tons. The personnel consists of a cadre, reserve and
about 17,000 conscripts. It also includes two coast-artillery regiments,
with headquarters at Vaxholm and Karlskrona. The principal
naval station is Karlskrona, and there is another at Stockholm.
Religion
.—More than 99% of the total population belong to the
Swedish Lutheran Church, of which the king is the supreme head.
Sweden is divided into 12 dioceses and 186 deaneries, the head
of the diocese of Upsala being archbishop. The parish is an
important unit in secular as well as ecclesiastical connexions.
The rector presides over the local school board, which is appointed
by the church assembly (
kyrkostämman
), and thus an intimate
relation between the church and education has long been maintained.
A peculiar duty of the clergy is found in the
husförhör
or meetings
designed to enable the priest to test and develop the religious
knowledge of his parishioners by methods of catechism. It was
formerly enjoined upon the clergy to visit parishioners for this
purpose, and the system is still maintained in the form of meetings,
which have in some cases, however, acquired a character mainly
devotional. The parishes number 2556, but one living may include
more than one parish. In the sparsely inhabited districts of the
north the parish is sometimes of enormous extent, thus that of
Gellivara has an area of about 6500 sq. m. In such cases the priest
often makes protracted journeys from farm to farm through his
parish, and on certain occasions the congregation at his church will
include many, both Swedes and Lapps, who have travelled perhaps
for several days in order to be present. Dissenters are bound to
contribute to the maintenance of the Swedish Church, in consideration
of the secular duties of the priests.
Education
.—The connexion between the church and education
is so close that the control of both, is vested in a single department
of the government. Primary education is carried on in common
schools of different grades, under both local and state inspection,
the parish being the school district. Seminaries are
maintained for common school teachers, with a four years’ course.
At Haparanda and Mattisudden in Norbotten there are special
institutions for teachers for the Finnish and Lapp population
respectively. Wide attention was attracted to Swedish educational
methods principally by the introduction of the system of Sloyd
slöjd
), initiated at the Nääs seminary near Gothenburg, and concerned
with the teaching of manual occupations, both for boys and
for girls. The higher education of the people is provided by people’s
high schools in the rural districts, especially for the peasantry,
maintained by the county councils, agricultural societies and the
state, and providing a two years’ course both in general education
and in special practical subjects according to local needs. The
men’s course is held in winter; and a women’s course, in some instances,
in summer. The workmen’s institutes in the towns have
a similar object. A system of university extension has been developed
on the English pattern, summer courses being held at Upsala
and Lund. In connexion with the army reform of 1901 a system
of army high schools was proposed for conscripts while serving.
Technical education is provided in higher schools at Stockholm,
Gothenburg and certain other large industrial centres; and in lower
schools distributed throughout the country, in which special attention
is given to the prevailing local industries. The agricultural
and forest schools have been mentioned in the paragraphs on these
subjects. Public schools for boys are provided by the state, each
bishop being superintendent (
eforus
) of those in his diocese. In the
three lowest classes (out of a total of nine) a single system of instruction
is practised; thereafter there are classical and scientific sides.
Greek is taught only in a section of the upper classical classes. Of
modern languages, German is taught throughout; English in all
classes of the scientific side, and the upper classical classes. Much
attention is paid to singing, drill and gymnastics. The school
terms together occupy 34½ weeks in the year. At the schools
examinations are held for entrance to the universities and certain
higher special schools. Owing to the high development of state
public schools, private schools for boys are few; but higher schools
For girls are all private, excepting the higher seminary for teachers
and the state normal school at Stockholm. The state universities
are at Upsala and Lund, and with these ranks the Caroline Medical
Institution at Stockholm. There are universities (founded by
private individual benefactions, but under state control) at Stockholm
and Gothenburg. The faculties at Upsala and Lund are
theology, law, medicine and philosophy (including both art and
science). The courses are long, ranging from six to nine years; and
the degrees are those of candidate, licentiate and doctor. The
students, who are distinguished by their white caps, are divided for
social purposes into “nations” (
landskap
) of ancient origin, based
upon the distinctions between natives of different parts.
Scientific Institutions
.—Among the scientific and literary societies
are to be noted the Swedish Academy, consisting of 18 members,
which was instituted in 1786 by Gustavus III., after the
pattern of the Académie Française, for the cultivation of the
Swedish language and literature; and the Academy of Science,
founded in 1739 by Linnaeus and others for the promotion
of the natural sciences. The first distributes one and the second
two of the prizes of the Nobel Foundation. A fourth prize is distributed
by the Caroline Institution at Stockholm. There may be
mentioned further the Royal Academies of Literature, History and
Antiquities (1786), of Agriculture (1811), of Arts (1735) and of Music
(1771). The principal museums and art and other collections are
in Stockholm, Upsala and Lund, and Gothenburg. The Royal
Library in the Humlegard Park at Stockholm, and the university
libraries at Upsala and Lund are entitled to receive a copy of every
publication printed in the kingdom. Certain of the large towns have
excellent public libraries, and parish libraries are widely distributed.
See
Sweden, its People and its Industry
, a government publication
(ed. G. Sundbärg) dealing with the land and people in every aspect
(Eng. vers., Stockholm, 1904);
Bidrag till Sveriges officiela statistik
(Stockholm, 1857 seq.);
Statistisk Tidskrift
, periodically from 1862;
Publications (year-book, guides, &c.) of the
Svenska Turistföreningen
(Swedish Touring Club) Stockholm; periodical
Bulletin
of the
Geological Institute of Upsala University, in which may be noted
K. Ahlenius,
Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Seenkettenregion in Schwedisch-Lappland
No. v. (1900); Also Dahlman,
Inledning til Sveriges
physikalska geografi
(Stockholm, 1857);
Statistiskt Lexicon ofrer
Sverige
(Stockholm, 1859–1870); M. Höjer,
Konungariket Sverige
(Stockholm, 1875–1883); C. Almqvist,
La Suède, ses progrès sociaux
(Stockholm, 1879); P. B. Du Chaillu,
The Land of the Midnight Sun
(London, 1881); C. M. Rosenberg,
Geografiskt-statistiskt handlexicon
öfrer Sverige
(Stockholm, 1882–1883); W. W. Thomas,
Sweden and the
Swedes
(Chicago and New York, 1891); Healey,
Educational Systems
of Sweden
Norway and Denmark
(London, 1893); Nystrom,
Handbok
Sveriges geografi
(Stockholm, 1895), and
Sveriges rike
(Stockholm,
1902); G. Andersson,
Geschichte der Vegetation Schwedens
(Leipzig,
1896); K. Ahlenius,
Sverige, geografisk, topografisk
statistisk beskrifning
(Stockholm); and for geology, A. G. Nathorst,
Sveriges geologi
(Stockholm). For more detailed accounts of the various districts
see the publications of the
Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning
and also the volumes of the
Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm
Förhandlingar
O. J. R. H.
History
Remains dating from the Stone Age are found scattered over
the southern half of Sweden, but it is only along the south coast
and in the districts bordering on the Cattegat that they occur
in any considerable quantity. The antiquities of the Bronze
Age are much more widely distributed and reach as far as the
north of Helsingland. It is evident that the country must at
this time have been fairly populous. So far as can be judged
from the human remains found the population in general in
both the Stone and Bronze Ages seems to have been similar
in type to that of the present day, and there is no clear evidence
for the advent of a new race. The Iron Age probably began
in the south of Sweden at any rate some three or four centuries
before the beginning of the Christian era. (See further
Scandinavian Civilization
.)
The first historical notice relating to Sweden is contained in
Tacitus,
Germania
, cap. 44. This book was probably published
in
A.D.
98 or 99 and in the passage mentioned we find the
name of the chief people of the peninsula, the
Swedes proper, Suiones (O. N.
Sviar
, Swed.
Svear
, A. S.
Sweon
), who eventually gave their
Early Races
and Divisions.
name to the whole country. According to Tacitus they were
governed by a king whose power was absolute and comprehensive,
and possessed a strong fleet which secured them from the
fear of hostile incursions. Hence arms were not borne in times
of peace but stored away under charge of a slave, and Tacitus
suggests in explanation that the royal policy did not commit this
trust to noble, freeman or freedman. Their original territories
lay on both sides of the Mälar, in the provinces later known as
Upland, Södermanland and Westmanland. Tacitus mentions
another tribe, the Sitones, which he places next to the Suiones,
but they have not been identified, and it is not clear from his
description whether they lived within the peninsula or not.
The only information he gives about them is that they were
ruled over by a woman. Other early Roman writers, Mela and
Pliny, mention the country under the name Scandinavia
(Skåne), a name which in native records seems always to have
been confined to the southernmost district in the peninsula.
Little information, however, is given by these authorities
with regard to the inhabitants.
The people next in importance to the Suiones in the
peninsula (Swed.
Götar
, O. N.
Gautar
, A. S.
Geatas
) are first
mentioned by Ptolemy (under the form Goutai for Gautoi),
together with a number of other tribal names, most of which
unfortunately cannot be identified, owing to the corrupt state
of the text. Ptolemy puts the Götar in the southern part of
the country, and from the earliest historical times their name has
been given to the whole region between the Cattegat and the
Baltic, exclusive of the provinces of Halland and Skåne which
down to the 17th century always belonged to Denmark. The
coast of the Cattegat north of the Göta Elv was reckoned in
Norway. Götaland consisted of the provinces of Vestergötland
and Östergötland divided from one another by Lake Vetter,
together with Småland. In early times Vestergötland seems
to have been by far the most important.
Vermland, the district to the north of Lake Vener and the
whole of the country to the north of Svealand seem to have
been of small importance. Jämtland was always considered
a part of Norway. After the time of Ptolemy we
Account of Jordanes.
hear no more of Sweden until the 6th century, when
a surprisingly full account of its peoples is given
by the Gothic historian Jordanes. He mentions both the Svear
(Swethans) and the Götar together with other peoples, the
names of several of which can be recognized in the district—names
of later times, in spite of the numerous corruptions of the
text. He praises the horses of the Svear and speaks of their
great trade in furs of arctic animals which were transferred
from merchant to merchant until they reached Rome. About
the other peoples of Sweden he gives a few details, chiefly of
physical or moral characteristics, commenting upon the warlike
nature of the Visigauti, the mildness of the Finns, the lofty
stature of the Vinovii and the meat and egg diet of the Rerefennae.
Jordanes's statement regarding the prevalence of trade
with Sweden is corroborated by the fact that many coins and
bracteates of the period have been found in the country. Of
these the coins are chiefly Roman and Byzantine gold pieces
of the 5th century, the bracteates copies of Roman coins of
the same period.
Procopius, the contemporary of Jordanes (
Gothica
, ii. 15)
likewise gives an account of Sweden, which he calls Thule, but
the only tribes which he names are the Skrithephinnoi
Beowolf.
(A. S. Scriðefinnas), a wild people of Finnish stock,
and the Götar (Gautoi) whom he describes as a “nation
abounding in men.” For the same period we derive a considerable
amount of information with regard to Swedish affairs from
the Anglo-Saxon poem
Beowulf
. The hero himself belonged
to the Greatas (
i.e.
in all probability Götar, though the identification
is disputed by some scholars), his mother being the daughter
of their king Hrethel. Haethcyn, the son and successor of this
Hrethel, is said to have perished in a disastrous battle against
the Svear, but his fall was avenged by his brother Hygelac in
a subsequent engagement in which the Swedish king Ongentheow
was killed. This Hygelac is clearly identical with that Chochilaicus
wrongly described as a Danish king by Gregory of Tours
(iii. 5) who made a piratical expedition to the lower Rhine which
ended in his defeat and death in a battle with the Franks under
Theodberht about
A.D.
520. The poem contains several allusions
to this disaster. We learn further that about the time of
Hygelac's death strife broke out in the royal family of the
Svear, between Onela, the son and successor of Ongentheow, and
Eanmund and Eadgils, the sons of his brother Ohthere. The
latter fled for protection to the Götar and the war which ensued
cost the lives of Eanmund and of Heardred the son and successor
of Hygelac. According to the poem Beowulf himself now became
king of the Götar and assisted Eadgils in a campaign which
resulted in the death of Onela and the acquisition of the throne
by his nephew. What is said in the poem with regard to the
end of Beowulf belongs to the realm of myth, and for three
centuries after this time we have no reference to Swedish affairs
in English or other foreign authorities. Moreover after the time
of Beowulf and Jordanes there are very few references to the
kingdom of the Götar and in Olaf Sköttkonung's time it was
merely an earldom. The kingdom must have come to an end
between the 6th and 10th centuries
A.D.
, and probably quite
early in that period.
The Ynglingatal, a poem said to have been composed by
Thioðolfr of Hvín, court-poet of Harold Fairhair, king of Norway,
he gives a genealogy of Harold's family, which it carries
back to the early kings of the Svear. Snorri
The Ynglingatals and Ynglinga Saga.
Sturluson (1178-1241) the Icelandic author using this
poem as a basis and amplifying it from other
sources, wrote the Ynglinga Saga, which traces back the
history of the family, generation by generation, to its beginning.
In this saga Aðils (the Eadgils of
Beowulf
), son of Ottarr is one
of the most prominent figures. The account given of him agrees
in general with the statements in
Beowulf
, though the nature
of his relations with Ali (Onela) has been misunderstood. The
decisive battle between the two kings is said to have taken place
on the frozen surface of Lake Wener. Ongentheow appears
to have been entirely forgotten in Norse tradition and his place
is taken by a certain Egill. The saga further states that Aðils
was an enthusiastic horse-breeder and that he met with his death
through a fall from his horse. This point is of interest in connexion
with the notice of Jordanes, mentioned above, with
regard to the horses of the Svear. Other northern authorities
such as Saxo and the Hrolfs Saga Kraka represent Aðils in a
very unfavourable light as niggardly and addicted to sorcery.
The Ynglingatal and Ynglinga Saga enumerate Aðil's ancestors
to no less than seventeen generations, with short accounts of
each. We have no means of checking the genealogy from other
sources, and the majority of the characters are probably to be
regarded as mythical. The origin of the family is traced to
the god Frey, son of Niörðr, who is said to have founded Upsala,
the ancient capital of Sweden. His reign is represented as a
golden age of peace and prosperity and the great wealth of the
sanctuary is said to have taken its beginning from the offerings
at his tomb. His full name appears to have been Yngvifreyr
or Ingunar Freyr and his descendants are collectively termed
Ynglingar, though we also occasionally meet with the name
Skilfingar, which corresponds with the name Scilfingar borne
by the Swedish royal family in
Beowulf
After the time of Aðils the Ynglingar remained in possession
of Upsala for four generations according to the saga. Ultimately
the treachery and the murderous disposition of the king named
Ingialdr led to his overthrow by a prince from Skåne, called
Ivarr Viðfaðmi. His son Olafr Trételgia withdrew to Vermland,
which he brought into a state of cultivation, though he was
subsequently sacrificed by his subjects in a time of famine. It
is stated in the saga that the Swedish kings were believed to
have control over the seasons like their ancestor, the god Frey,
and traces of this belief seem to have lingered in the country
down to the times of Gustavus Vasa. The sons of Olafr Trételgia
moved westward into Norway, and if we may trust the saga,
the Swedish kingdom never again came into the possession of
their family.
The subsequent kings of Sweden are said to have been descended
from Ivarr Viðfaðmi. The most prominent figures in this family
are Haraldr Hilditönn Ivarr's grandson and his
Introduction of Christianity.
nephew Sigurðr Hringr. The story of the battle
between these two at Bråvik, in which Haraldr lost
his life, is one of the most famous in northern literature. But
the position of these kings with regard to Sweden is far from
clear. Their home is probably to be placed on the Cattegat
rather than on the Baltic. The same is true also of Ragnarr
Loðbrók, who is said to have been the son of Sigurðr Hringr.
About the year 830 the missionary bishop Ansgar made his
first expedition to Sweden. He made his way to Birca on the
Mälar. The king whom he found reigning there is called Björn
(Bern) and is generally identified with the king Björn for whom
Bragi the Old composed the poem called
Ragnarsdrápa
. On
his subsequent journeys to Sweden Ansgar encountered kings
called Olafr and Önundr. He appears to have met with considerable
immediate success in his missionary enterprises, although
there is no evidence to show that the churches he founded long
survived his death, and no serious mission seems to have been
attempted for more than a century afterwards.
During the 9th century extensive Scandinavian settlements
were made on the east side of the Baltic, and even as early
as the reign of Louis I. we hear of piratical
Scandinavian Settlements in Russia.
expeditions on the Black Sea and on the Caspian. The
famous expeditions of Rurik and Askold which
resulted in the origin of the Russian monarchy
appear to have taken place towards the middle of the 9th
century, but it has not been found possible to connect these
names with any families known to us from Swedish tradition.
Proofs of extensive Scandinavian settlement in Russia are to
be found partly in the Russian names assigned to the Dnieper
rapids by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, partly in references
to this people made by foreign representatives at the court of
Byzantium. The fact that many of the names which occur
in Russian chronicles seem to be peculiarly Swedish suggests
that Sweden was the home of the settlers, and the best authorities
consider that the original Scandinavian conquerors were Swedes
who had settled on the east coast of the Baltic.
In the time of Harold Fairhair, probably about the beginning
of the 10th century, we hear of a king named Eric the son of
Emund at Upsala, whose authority seems to have
Kings in the 10th Century.
reached as far as Norway. Later in the century
there is record of a king named Björn á Haugi
who is said to have been the son of Eric and to have reigned
fifty years. Björn's sons and successors were Olaf and Eric
the Victorious. Styrbiörn Starki, the son of Olaf, being refused
his share of the government by Eric after his father's death,
made himself a stronghold at Jomsborg in Pomerania and spent
some years in piratical expeditions. Eventually he betook himself
to Harold Bluetooth, then king of Denmark, and endeavoured
to secure his assistance in gaining the Swedish throne
by force of arms. Although he failed in this attempt he was
not deterred from attacking Eric, and a battle took place between
the two at the Fyriså (close to Upsala) in which Styrbiörn was
defeated and killed. Eric himself died ten years after this battle,
apparently about 993. According to the story he had obtained
victory from Odin in return for a promise to give himself up at
the end of ten years. Under his son and successor Olaf, surnamed
Sköttkonung, Christianity was fully established in
Establishment of Christianity.
Sweden. Olaf Tryggvason, the king of Norway,
had married his sister Ingibiörg to Ragnvald, earl
of Vestergötland, on condition that he should receive
baptism, and the Swedish king's wife was also a Christian, though
he himself was not baptized until 1008 by Sigfrid at Husaby.
A quarrel arose in the last years of the 10th century between
Olaf Sköttkonung and Olaf Tryggvason. The latter had applied
for the hand of Sigrið, the widow of Eric the Victorious, but had
insulted her on her refusal to become a Christian. In the year
1000, when the Norwegian king was in Pomerania, a coalition
was formed between the king of Sweden, Sweyn Forkbeard,
king of Denmark, and earl Eric of Lade, and the allies waylaid
their enemy off the coast near Rügen and overthrew him in
the great sea-battle of Svolder. Under
Reign of Olaf Sköttkonung.
Sköttkonung Sweden became the mightiest of the kingdoms
of the north, in spite of the king's own
inactivity. She lost her lands east of the Baltic, but received as
compensation in Norway part of Trondhjem and the district
now called Bohüslan. These lands Olaf handed over to Earl
Sweyn, brother of Earl Eric (whose father Haakon had governed
Norway), as a marriage portion for his daughter Holmfrið.
Some years later we hear of hostilities between Olaf Sköttkonung
and another Norwegian prince, Olaf Haraldsson (the Fat), who
raided Sweden and was besieged in the Mälar by the Swedish
king. In 1014, the year of Earl Eric's departure to England
with Canute, Olaf Haraldsson, returning to Norway as king, put
an end to the Swedish and Danish supremacy, and in 1015 he
forced Earl Sweyn to leave the country. Trifling border-quarrels
followed, but in 1017 a truce was arranged between Norway
and Vestergötland, where Earl Ragnvald was still in power.
Olaf of Norway now sent his marshal Bjorn to Ragnvald to
arrange a peace. Ragnvald brought him to a great assembly
at Upsala in February 1018. At this meeting Björn, supported
by the earl, asked for peace, and Olaf was compelled by the
pressure of the lawman Thorgny to agree to this and also to
promise his daughter Ingegerð in marriage to the Norse king.
The marriage, however, never got beyond the betrothal stage,
and at Earl Ragnvald's suggestion Astrid, her half-sister, was
substituted, contrary to the will of Olaf Sköttkonung. Such was
the anger of the king that Ragnvald was forced to accompany
Ingegerð to Russia, where she was married to the grand-duke
Jaroslav at Novgorod. In Sweden, however, both the Vestgötar
and the Upland Sviar were discontented, the former on account
of the breaking of the king's promise to Olaf of Norway and the
latter on account of the introduction of the new religion, and
their passions were further inflamed by the lawman Anund of
Skara. A rising in Upland compelled Olaf to share his power
with his son Jacob, whose name was changed to Anund by the
leaders of the revolt. A meeting was then arranged between
the kings of Norway and Sweden at Kongelf in 1019, and this
resulted in a treaty. The death of Olaf Sköttkonung is assigned
by Snorri Sturluson to the winter of 1021-1022. His grave is
still shown at Husaby in Vestergötland.
Anund, now sole king, early in his reign allied himself with
Olaf Haraldsson against Canute of Denmark, who had demanded
the restitution of the rights possessed by his father
King Anund, c. 1022-c. 1050.
Sweyn in Norway. The allies took advantage of
the Danish king's absence to harry his land. On
his return an indecisive battle was fought at Helgi Å,
and Anund returned to Sweden. Olaf was driven from
Norway by the Danes, but returning in 1030 he raised a
small army in Sweden and marched through Jämtland to Trondhjem
only to meet his death at the battle of Stiklestad. After
death he was worshipped in Sweden, especially in Götland. We
hear from Adam of Bremen that Anund was young in years but
old in wisdom and cunning; he was called Kolbrännea because
he had the houses of evildoers burnt. Like Olaf Sköttkonung
he caused coins to be struck at Sigtuna, of which a few remain.
The moneyers' names are English. The coins of Anund surpass
all that were struck during the next two centuries. He appears
to have died about 1050, according to Adam of Bremen. He
was succeeded by his brother Emund the Old, who
Emund the Old, 1050-1060.
had been previously passed over because, his mother
was unfree, the daughter of a Slav prince and
captured in war. This king had become a Christian, but
soon quarrelled with Adalhard, archbishop of Bremen, and
endeavoured to secure the independence of the Swedish church,
which was not obtained for another century. Emund, who was
given the name Slemme, had territorial disputes with Denmark in
the early part of his reign. These disputes were settled by a
rectification of boundaries which assigned Blekinge to Denmark.
With the death of Emund, which took place in 1060, the old
family of Swedish kings dies out. The successor of Emund the
Old was a king named Steinkel who had married
Steinkel, 1060-1066.
the daughter of his predecessor. He was the son
of a certain Ragnvald, perhaps connected with the
Vestergötland Ragnvald, of the reign of Olaf Sköttkonung.
Steinkel was born in Vestergötland and was warmly attached
to the Christian religion. The Adalhard who had quarrelled
with Emund the Old now sent a bishop, Adalhard the younger,
to Scara. Christianity was by this time firmly established
throughout most of Sweden, its chief strength being in Vestergötland.
The Uplanders, however, still held out against it, and
Adalhard, though he succeeded in destroying the idols in his
own district Vestergötland, was unable to persuade Steinkel
to destroy the old sanctuary at Upsala. During his reign grants
of land in Vermland made by the king to the Norse earl Haakon
Ivarsson led to a successful invasion of Götaland by Harold
Hardrada of Norway. Steinkel also had disputes with Denmark.
On his death in 1066 a civil war broke out in which the leaders
were two obscure princes named Eric. Probably the division
of feeling between Vestergötland and Upland in the matter of
religion was the real cause of this war, but nothing is known of
the details, though we hear that both kings as well as the chief
men of the land fell in it.
A prince called Haakon the Red now appears as king of
Sweden and is said to have occupied the throne for thirteen
years. In the Vestergötland regnal lists he appears
Haakon the Red, 1066-1979?
before Steinkel and it is possible that the authority
that king was not regularly acknowledged in
the province. In 1081 we find the sons of Steinkel, Inge
and Halstan, reigning in Sweden. Inge's attachment to
Christianity caused him to be expelled after a short time by
Halstan, Inge and Blotsweyn
his brother-in-law Sweyn or Blotsweyn, so called
from his revival of the old sacrifices. Sweyn retained
the kingship only for three years. After that
interval Inge returned and slew him, and his fall marks the
final overthrow of the old religion.
The interesting account of Upsala preserved by Adam of
Bremen in his
History
(iv. 26) apparently dates from the period
immediately preceding these events. He describes the temple
as one of great splendour and covered with gilding.
Temple at Upsala.
In it stood the statues of the three chief deities
Thor, Odin and Fricco (by whom he probably means
Frey). Every nine years a great festival was held there to which
embassies were sent by all the peoples of Sweden. A large number
of animals and even men were sacrificed on such occasions. In
the neighbourhood of the temple was a grove of peculiar sanctity
in which the bodies of the victims were hung up. After the
introduction of Christianity the importance of Upsala began
steadily to decline, and owing to its intimate associations with
the old religion the kings no longer made it their residence.
Authorities for Early History
.—Tacitus,
Germania
, cap. 44;
Claudius Ptolemaeus,
Geographica
ii. 11
ad fin.
; Jordanes,
De
origine actibusque Getarum
, cap. 3; Procopius,
De bello gothico
, ii.
15;
Beowulf
, Rimbertus,
Vita S. Ansgarii in monumenta Germaniae
historica
, ii. 683-725 (Hanover, 1829); King Alfred's translation
of
Orosius
i. 1; Adam of Bremen,
Gesta hammaburgensis
ecclesiae pontificum
iii. and iv.;
Ynglinga Saga
, with the poem
Ynglingatal
contained in the
Heimskringla
Olafs Sagan Tryggvasonar
and
Olafs Saga hins Helga
, both contained in
Heimskringla
and in
Fornmanna sögur
Saxo grammaticus, gesta Danorum
; a collection
of later Swedish Chronicles contained in
Rerum suecicarum scriptores,
vol. iii. (ed. Annerstedt, Upsala, 1871 and 1876);
Sveriges
historia
, vol. i. (Montelius & Hildebrand, Stockholm, 1875–1877);
Thomsen,
The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia and
the Origin of the Russian State
(Oxford and London, 1877).
F. G. M. B.
Under Blotsweyn's grandson, King Sverker (1134–1155),
who permanently amalgamated the Swedes and Goths (each
of the two nations supplying the common king
alternately for the next hundred years), Sweden
began to feel the advantage of a centralized monarchical
Organization of
the Kingdom.
government. Eric IX. (1150–1160) organized the
Swedish Church on the model prevalent elsewhere, and undertook
a crusade against the heathen Finlanders, which marks the
beginning of Sweden's overseas dominion. Under Charles VII.,
the archbishopric of Upsala was founded (1164). But the
greatest medieval statesman of Sweden was Earl Birger,
who practically ruled the land from 1248 to 1266. To him
is attributed the foundation of Stockholm; but he is best
known as a legislator, and his wise reforms prepared the way
for the abolition of serfdom. The increased dignity which the
royal power owed to Earl Birger was still further extended by
King Magnus Ladulås (1275–1290). Both these rulers, by
the institution of separate and almost independent duchies,
attempted to introduce into Sweden a feudal system similar
to that already established elsewhere in Europe; but the danger
of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though
not without violent and tragic complications. Finally, in 1319,
the severed portions of Sweden were once more reunited.
Separation of
the Estates.
Nobles and Burghers.
Meanwhile the political development of the state was
of the steadily proceeding. The formation of separate
orders, or estates, was promoted by Magnus Ladulås,
who extended the privileges of the clergy and founded an hereditary
nobility (Ordinance of Alsnö, 1280). In connexion with
this institution we now hear of a heavily armed cavalry as the
kernel of the national army. The knights too now
became distinguishable from the higher nobility.
To this period belongs the rise of a prominent
burgess class, as the towns now began to acquire charters. At
the end of the 13th century, and the beginning of the 14th too,
provincial codes of laws appear and the king and his council
execute legislative functions.
The first union between Sweden and Norway occurred in 1319,
when the three-year-old Magnus, son of the Swedish royal duke
Eric and of the Norwegian princess Ingeborg,
who had inherited the throne of Norway from his
grandfather Haakon V., was in the same year elected
First Union with Norway.
king of Sweden (Convention of Oslo). A long minority weakened
the royal influence in both countries, and Magnus lost both his
kingdoms before his death. The Swedes, irritated by his misrule,
superseded him by his nephew, Albert of Mecklenburg (1365).
In Sweden, Magnus's partialities and necessities led directly
to the rise of a powerful landed aristocracy, and, indirectly,
to the growth of popular liberties. Forced by the unruliness
of the magnates to lean upon the middle classes, the king summoned
(1359) the first Swedish
Riksdag
, on which occasion
representatives from the towns were invited to appear along
with the nobles and clergy. His successor, Albert, was forced
to go a step farther and, in 1371, to take the first Coronation
oath. In 1388, at the request of the Swedes themselves, Albert
Union of
Kalmar, 1397.
was driven out by Margaret, regent of Denmark
and Norway; and, at a convention of the
representatives of the three Scandinavian kingdoms held
at Kalmar (1397), Margaret's great-nephew, Eric of Pomerania,
was elected the common king, but the liberties of each
of the three realms were expressly reserved and confirmed.
The union was to be a personal, not a political union.
Neither Margaret herself nor her successors observed the
stipulation that in each of the three kingdoms only natives
should hold land and high office, and the efforts
of Denmark (at that time by far the strongest
member of the union) to impose her will on
Breach of the
Union, 1436.
weaker kingdoms soon produced a rupture, or,
rather, a series of semi-ruptures. The Swedes first broke away
from it in 1434 under the popular leader Engelbrecht, and
after his murder they elected Karl Knutsson Bonde their
king under the title of Charles VIII. (1436). In 1441
Charles VIII. had to retire in favour of Christopher of
Bavaria, who was already king of Denmark and Norway; but,
on the death of Christopher (1448), a state of confusion ensued
in the course of which Charles VIII. was twice expelled and
twice reinstated. Finally, on his death in 1470, the three
kingdoms were reunited under Christian I. of Denmark, the
prelates and higher nobility of Sweden being favourable
to the union, though the great majority of the Swedish
people always detested it as a foreign usurpation. The
national party was represented by the three great
Riksföreståndare
or presidents of the realm, of the Sture family (see
Sture
), who, with brief intervals, from 1470 to 1520 successively
defended the independence of Sweden against the Danish kings
and kept the national spirit alive. But the presidentship
Election of Gustavus Vasa, 1523.
was too casual and anomalous an institution to
rally the nations round it permanently, and when
the tyranny of
Christian II.
q.v.
) became intolerable
the Swedish people elected Gustavus Eriksson Vasa, who
as president had already driven out the Danes (see
Denmark
History
), king of Sweden at Strengnäs (June 6, 1523).
The extraordinary difficulties of Gustavus (see
Gustavus I.
were directly responsible for the eccentric development, both
political and religious, of the new kingdom which
his genius created. So precarious was the position
of the young king, that he was glad to make allies
Gustavus I.,
1523–1560.
wherever he could find them. Hence his desire to stand well
with the Holy See. Only three months after his accession,
he addressed letters to the pope begging him to appoint new
bishops “who would defend the rights of the Church without
detriment to the Crown.” He was especially urgent for the
confirmation of his nominee Johannes Magni as primate, in
the place of the rebellious archbishop Gustavus Trolle, who as
a convicted traitor had been formally deposed by the Riksdag
and was actually an outlawed exile. If the pope would confirm
the elections of his bishops, Gustavus promised to be an obedient
son of the Church. Scarcely had these letters been dispatched
when the king received a papal bull ordering the immediate
reinstatement of Gustavus Trolle. The action of the Curia on
this occasion was due to its conviction of the imminent triumph
of Christian II. and the instability of Gustavus's position. It
was a conviction shared by the rest of Europe; but, none the
less, it was another of the many blunders of the Curia at this
difficult period. Its immediate effect was the loss of the Swedish
Church. Gustavus could not accept as primate an open and
determined traitor like Trolle. He publicly protested, in the
sharpest language, that unless Johannes Magni were recognized
at Rome as archbishop of Upsala, he was determined,
Breach with Rome.
of his own royal authority, henceforward to order
the affairs of the Church in his realm to the glory
of God and the satisfaction of all Christian men. But the Holy
See was immovable, and Gustavus broke definitely with Rome.
He began by protecting and promoting the Swedish reformers
Olavus and Laurentius Petri, and Laurentius Andreae. The
new teaching was allowed to spread, though at first unostentatiously
and gradually. A fresh step in the direction of Lutheranism
Progress of the Reformation.
was the translation of the New Testament into
Swedish, which was published in 1526.
Simultaneously, a systematic attack was made upon the
religious houses, beginning with the sequestration of the
monastery of Gripsholm in January 1526. But the affair
caused such general indignation that Gustavus felt obliged,
in May, to offer some justification of his conduct. A few months
later there was an open rupture between the king and his own
primate, who ultimately was frightened into exile by a sudden
accusation of treason. But the other bishops were also against
Gustavus, and, irritated by their conscientious opposition, the
king abandoned the no longer tenable position of a moderator
and came openly forward as an antagonist. In 1526 the
Catholic printing-presses were suppressed, and two-thirds of
the Church's tithes were appropriated to the payment of the
national debt. On the 18th of February 1527 two bishops,
the first martyrs of Catholicism in Sweden, were gibbeted at
Stockholm after a trial which was a parody of justice. This
act of violence, evidently designed to terrorize the Church into
submission, was effectual enough, for at the subsequent Riksdag
of Vesterås (June, 1527), the bishops durst not even present
a protest which they had privately prepared, and the assembly
Recess and Ordinance of Vesterås, 1527.
itself was bullied into an absolute submission to the
royal will. The result was the Vesterås Recess
which transferred all ecclesiastical property to the
Crown. By the subsequent Vesterås Ordinance
the Swedish Church was absolutely severed from Rome. Nevertheless,
the changes so made were mainly administrative.
There was no modification of doctrine, for the general resolution
that God's Word should be preached plainly and purely was not
contrary to the teaching of the ante-Tridentine Church. Even
at the synod of Örebro, summoned in February 1529, “for the
better regulation of church ceremonies and discipline according
to God's Word,” there was no formal protest against Rome;
and the old ritual was retained for two years longer, though it
was to be explained as symbolical. Henceforth the work of the
Reformation continued uninterruptedly. In 1531 Laurentius
Petri was elected the first Protestant primate of Sweden. Subsequently
matters were much complicated by the absolutist
tendencies of Gustavus. From 1539 onwards there was a breach
between him and his own prelates in consequence of his arbitrary
appropriation of the Church's share of the tithes, in direct
violation of the Vesterås Recess. Then Gustavus so curtailed
the power of the bishops (ordinances of 1539 and 1540) that they
had little of the dignity left but the name, and even that he was
disposed to abolish, for after 1543 the prelates appointed by
him, without any pretence of previous election by the cathedral
chapters, were called ordinaries, or superintendents. Finally,
at the Riksdag of Vesterås, in 1544, though no definite confession
of faith was formulated, a final breach was made with
the traditions of the old religion.
Thus the Reformation in Sweden was practically the work
of one strong man, acting (first from purely political and latterly
from purely economical reasons) for the good of the state as
he understood it. In this Gustavus acted contrary to the
religious instincts of the vast majority of the Swedish nation;
for there can be no doubt at all that the Swedes at the beginning
of the 16th century were not only still devoted to the old Church,
but violently anti-Protestant. This popular Romanism was
the greatest of all Gustavus's difficulties, because it tended to
alienate the Swedish peasants.
For the last hundred years the peasants had been a leading
factor in the political life of the land; and perhaps in no other
contemporary European state could so self-reliant
The Peasants.
a class of yeomen have been found. Again and
again they had defended their own and the national liberties
against foreign foes. In the national assemblies, too, their voice
had always been powerful, and not infrequently predominant.
In a word, they were the sound kernel of the still but partially
developed Swedish constitution, the democratic safeguard
against the monarchical tendency which was enveloping the
rest of Europe. Gustavus's necessities had compelled him to
break with the ecclesiastical traditions of Sweden; and they
also compelled him, contrary to his masterful disposition, to
accept constitutionalism, because without it his footing in his
own kingdom would have been insecure. The peasants therefore
were his natural allies, but, from the nature of the case,
they tended to become his most formidable rivals. They prided
themselves on having “set King Gus in the high seat,” but they
were quite ready to unseat him if his rule was not to their liking,
and there were many things with which they were by no means
contented. This anomalous state of things was responsible
for the half-dozen peasant risings with which Gustavus had to
contend from 1525 to 1543. In all these rebellions the religious
difficulty figured largely, though the increasing fiscal burdens
were undoubtedly grievous and the peasants had their particular
grievances besides. The wholesale seizure and degradation
of Church property outraged them, and they formally protested
against the introduction of “Luthery.” They threatened,
more than once, to march upon and destroy Stockholm, because
the Reformers had made of it “a spiritual Sodom.” They
insisted on the restoration of the ancient Catholic customs, and
would have made neglect of fasting and other sins of omission
penal offences. Though he prevailed in the end, Gustavus was
obliged to humour the people throughout. And thus, though
he was strong enough to maintain what he had established and
finish what he had begun, he was not strong enough to tamper
seriously with the national liberties or to crush altogether
Catholic aspirations. At the time of his death the Riksdag
was already a power in the state, and a Catholic reaction in
Sweden was by no means an impossibility, if only the Catholics
had been able to find capable leaders.
Gustavus's foreign policy at first aimed at little more than
self-preservation. Only with the pecuniary assistance of the
wealthy merchants of Lübeck had he been able to
Foreign Policy of Gustavus.
establish himself originally; and Lübeck, in return,
had exploited Sweden, as Spain at a later day
was to exploit her American colonies. When, with the aid
of Denmark, Gustavus at last freed himself from this greedy
incubus (see
Denmark
Gustavus I.
Christian III.
) by
the truce of the 28th of August 1537, Sweden for the first time
in her history became the mistress of her own waters. But
even so she was but of subordinate importance in Scandinavian
politics. The hegemony of Denmark was indisputable,
and Gustavus regarded that power with an ever-increasing
suspicion which augured ill for peace in the future. The chief
cause of dispute was the quartering by the Danish king of the
three crowns of Sweden on the Dano-Norwegian shield, which
was supposed to indicate a claim of sovereignty. Still more
offensive was the attitude of Sweden's eastern neighbour Muscovy,
with whom the Swedish king was nervously anxious to stand
on good terms. Gustavus attributed to Ivan IV., whose resources
he unduly magnified, the design of establishing a universal
monarchy round the Baltic.
Nevertheless events were already occurring which ultimately
compelled Sweden to depart from her neutrality and lay the
foundations of an overseas empire. In the last
year of Gustavus's life (1560), the ancient military
Expansion of Sweden.
order of the Sword, amalgamated, since 1237, with the
more powerful order of the Teutonic Knights, had by the secularization
of the latter order into the dukedom of Prussia (1525)
become suddenly isolated in the midst of hostile Slavonians.
It needed but a jolt to bring down the crazy anachronism, and
the jolt came when, in 1558-60, floods of Muscovites poured
over the land, threatening the whole province with destruction.
In his despair the last master of the order, Gotthard von Kettler,
appealed to all his more civilized neighbours to save him, and
his dominions were quickly partitioned between Poland,
Denmark and Sweden. Sweden's original share of the spoil
was Reval, which, driven to extremities, placed itself beneath
the protection of the Swedish crown in March 1561. From the
moment that Sweden got a firm footing in Esthonia by the
acquisition of Reval she was committed to a policy of combat
and aggrandisement. To have retreated would have meant
the ruin of her Baltic trade, upon which the national prosperity
so much depended. Her next-door neighbours, Poland and
Russia, were necessarily her competitors; fortunately they
were also each other's rivals; obviously her best policy was to
counterpoise them. To accomplish this effectually she required
to have her hands free, and the composition of her long outstanding
differences with Denmark by the Treaty of Stettin
on the 15th of December 1570 (see
Denmark
History
), which
put an end to the Dano-Swedish war of 1563-1570, the chief
political event of the reign of Eric XIV. (1560-1568), the eldest
son and successor of Gustavus Vasa, was therefore a judicious
act on the part of the new king of Sweden, John III. (1568-1592).
Equally judicious was the anti-Russian league with Stephen
Bathory, king of Poland, concluded in 1578. The war between
Russia and Sweden for the possession of Esthonia and Livonia
(1571-77) had been uninterruptedly disastrous to the latter,
and, in the beginning of 1577, a countless Russian host sat down
before Reval, Sweden's last stronghold in those parts. The
energetic intervention of Bathory, however, speedily turned
the scales in the opposite direction. Six months after his
humiliating peace with the Polish monarch, Ivan IV. was glad
to conclude a truce with Sweden also on a
uti possidetis
basis
at Pliusa (Aug. 5, 1582).
The amicable relations between Sweden and Poland promised,
at first, to be permanent. Sixteen years before his accession
to the throne, John III., then duke of Finland, had
Sweden and Poland.
wedded Catherine Jagiellonica, the sister of Sigismund
II., king of Poland (Oct. 4, 1562). Duke
Sigismund, the fruit of this union, was brought up by his mother
in the Catholic religion, and, on the 19th of August 1587, he
was elected king of Poland. Sixteen days later the Articles
of Kalmar, signed by John and Sigismund, regulated the future
relations between the two countries when, in process of time,
Sigismund should succeed his father as king of Sweden. The
two kingdoms were to be in perpetual alliance, but
each of them was to retain its own laws and customs.
Articles of Kalmar, 1587.
Sweden was also to enjoy her religion, subject to
such changes as a general council might make; but neither
pope nor council was to claim or exercise the right of releasing
Sigismund from his obligations to his Swedish subjects.
During Sigismund's absence from Sweden that realm was to
be ruled by seven Swedes, six elected by the king and one by
his uncle Duke Charles of Sudermania, the leader of the Swedish
Protestants. No new tax was to be levied in Sweden during
the king's absence, but Sweden was never to be administered
from Poland. Any necessary alterations in these articles were
only to be made with the common consent of the king, Duke
Charles, the senate and the gentry of Sweden.
The endeavours of Swedish statesmen to bind the hands of
their future king were due to their fear of the rising flood of
the Catholic reaction in Europe. Under Eric XIV.
Sweden and the Catholic Reaction.
the Reformation in Sweden had proceeded on much
the same lines as during the reign of his father,
retaining all the old Catholic customs not considered contrary
to Scripture. Naturally, after 1544, when the Council
of Trent had formally declared the Bible
and
tradition to be
equally authoritative sources of all Christian doctrine, the
contrast between the old and the new teaching became more
obvious; and in many countries a middle party arose which
aimed at a compromise by going back to the Church of the
Fathers. King John III., the most learned of the Vasas, and
somewhat of a theological expert, was largely influenced by
these “middle” views. As soon as he had mounted the throne
he took measures to bring the Swedish Church
back to “the primitive Apostolic Church and the
John III. and the Swedish Church.
Catholic faith”; and, in 1574, persuaded a synod
assembled at Stockholm to adopt certain articles framed by
himself on what we should call a High Church basis. In February
1575 a new Church ordinance, approximating still more closely
to the patriotic Church, was presented to another synod, and
accepted thereat, but very unwillingly. In 1576 a new liturgy
was issued on the model of the Roman missal, but with considerable
modifications. To a modern High Anglican these innovations
seem innocent enough, and, despite the opposition of
Duke Charles and the ultra-Protestants, they were adopted
by the Riksdag of 1577. These measures greatly encouraged
the Catholic party in Europe, and John III. was ultimately
persuaded to send an embassy to Rome to open negotiations
for the reunion of the Swedish Church with the Holy See. But
though the Jesuit Antonio Possevino was sent to Stockholm
to complete John's “conversion,” John would only consent
to embrace Catholicism under certain conditions which were
never kept, and the only result of all these subterraneous negotiations
was to incense the Protestants still more against the new
liturgy, the use of which by every congregation in the realm
without exception was, nevertheless, decreed by the Riksdag
of 1582. At this period Duke Charles and his Protestant friends
were clearly outnumbered by the promoters of the
via media
Nevertheless, immediately after King John's death, a synod
summoned to Upsala by Duke Charles rejected the new liturgy
and drew up an anti-Catholic confession of faith (March 5, 1593).
Holy Scripture and the three primitive creeds were declared
to be the true foundations of Christian faith, and the Augsburg
Confession was adopted. That Sigismund, now the lawful
Civil War. Expulsion of Sigismund.
king of Sweden, should regard the summoning of
the synod of Upsala without his previous knowledge
and consent as a direct infringement of his
prerogative
was only natural. On his arrival in Sweden, however,
he tried to gain time by provisionally confirming what
had been done; but the aggressiveness of the Protestant
faction and the persistent usurpations of Duke Charles (the
Riksdag of 1595 proclaimed him regent though the king had
previously refused him that office) made a civil war inevitable.
The battle of Stångåbro (Sept. 25, 1598) decided the struggle
in favour of Charles—and Protestantism. Sigismund fled
Proclamation of Charles IX., 1600.
from Sweden, never to return, and on the 19th of March 1600
the Riksdag of Linköping proclaimed the duke king
under the title of Charles IX. Sigismund and his
posterity were declared to have forfeited the Swedish
crown which was to pass to the heirs male of Charles.
Not till the 6th of March 1604, however, after Duke John, son
of John III., had formally renounced his hereditary right to
Proscription of Catholics.
the throne, did Charles IX. begin to style himself king. At
the Riksdag of the same year, the estates committed
themselves irrevocably to Protestantism by excluding
Catholics from the succession to the throne, and
prohibiting them from holding any office or dignity in Sweden.
Henceforth, too, every recusant was to be deprived of his estates
and banished the realm.
It was in the reign of Charles IX. that Sweden became not
only a predominantly Protestant, but also a predominantly
Establishment of a Regular Army.
military monarchy. This momentous change, which
was to give a martial colouring to the whole policy
of Sweden for the next hundred and twenty years,
dates from a decree of the Riksdag of Linköping
establishing, at the urgent suggestion of Charles, a regular army;
each district in the country being henceforward liable to provide
and maintain a fixed number of infantry and cavalry for the
service of the state. The immediate enemy was
Poland, now dynastically as well as territorially
opposed to Sweden. The struggle took the shape of a
War with Poland and Russia.
contest for the possession of the northern Baltic provinces.
Esthonia was recovered by the Swedes in 1600, but their
determined efforts (1601–9) to gain a foothold in Livonia
were frustrated by the military ability of the grand hetman
of Lithuania, Jon Karol Chodkiewicz. In 1608 hostilities were
transferred to Russian territory. At the beginning of that year
Charles had concluded an alliance with Tsar
Basil IV.
q.v.
against their common foe, the Polish king; but when, in 1611,
Basil was deposed by his own subjects and the whole tsardom
seemed to be on the verge of dissolution, Sweden’s policy towards
Russia changed its character. Hitherto Charles had aimed
at supporting the weaker Slavonic power against the stronger;
but now that Muscovy seemed about to disappear from among
the nations of Europe, Swedish statesmen naturally sought some
compensation for the expenses of the war before Poland had had
time to absorb everything. A beginning was made by the siege
and capture of Kexholm in Russian Finland (March 2, 1611);
and, on the 16th of July, Great Novgorod was occupied and
a convention concluded with the magistrates of that wealthy
city whereby Charles IX.’s second son Philip was to be recognized
as tsar, unless, in the meantime, relief came to Great Novgorod
from Moscow. But now, when everything depended on a
concentration of forces, Charles’s imprudent assumption of
the title of “King of the Lapps of Nordland,” which people
properly belonged to the Danish Crown,
War of Kalmar.
involved him in another
war with Denmark, a war known in Scandinavian history
as the war of Kalmar because the Swedish fortress
of Kalmar was the chief theatre of hostilities. Thus
the Swedish forces were diverted from their real
objective and transferred to another field where even victory
would have been comparatively unprofitable. But it was
disaster, not victory, which Charles IX. reaped from this foolhardy
Peace of Knäred, 1613.
enterprise. Still worse, the war of Kalmar, prudently
concluded by Charles’s son, Gustavus Adolphus,
in the second year of his reign, by the peace of Knäred
(Jan. 20, 1613) imposed such onerous pecuniary
obligations and such intense suffering upon Sweden as to enkindle
into a fire of hatred, which was to burn fiercely for the
next two centuries, the long smouldering antagonism between
the two sister nations of Scandinavia which dated back to the
bloody days of Christian II.
The Russian difficulty was more easily and more honourably
adjusted. When Great Novgorod submitted provisionally to
the suzerainty of Sweden, Swedish statesmen had
believed, for a moment, in the creation of a Trans-baltic
dominion extending from Lake Ilmen northwards
Peace of Stolbova, 1617.
to Archangel and eastwards to Vologda. The rallying
of the Russian nation round the throne of the new tsar, Michael
Romanov, dissipated, once for all, this ambitious dream. By
the beginning of 1616, Gustavus had become convinced of the
impossibility of partitioning reunited Muscovy, while Muscovy
recognized the necessity of buying off the invincible Swedes
by some cession of territory. By the Peace of Stolbova
(Feb. 27, 1617), the tsar surrendered to the Swedish king the
provinces of Kexholm and Ingria, including the fortress of
Nöteborg (the modern Schlüsselburg), the key of Finland.
Russia, furthermore, renounced all claims upon Esthonia and
Livonia, and paid a war indemnity of 20,000 roubles. In return
for these concessions, Gustavus restored Great Novgorod and
acknowledged Michael Romanov as tsar of Muscovy.
The same period which saw the extension of the Swedish
Empire abroad, saw also the peaceful development of the Swedish
constitution at home. In this, as in every other
matter, Gustavus himself took the initiative.
Nominally the Senate still remained the dominant
Rule of Gustavus Adolphus.
power in the state; but gradually all real authority had
been transferred to the crown. The Riksråd speedily lost its
ancient character of a grand council representing the
semi-feudal landed aristocracy, and became a bureaucracy holding the chief offices of state at the good
pleasure of the king. The Riksdag also changed
its character at the same time. Whilst in every other European
country except England, the ancient popular representation
by estates was about to disappear altogether, in Sweden
Constitutional Changes.
under Gustavus Adolphus it grew into an integral portion
of the constitution. The Riksdag ordinance of 1617 first
converted a turbulent and haphazard mob of “riksdagmen,”
huddling together like a flock of sheep “or drunken boors,”
into a dignified national assembly, meeting and deliberating
according to rule and order. One of the nobility (first
called the
Landtmarskalk
), or marshal of the Diet, in the Riksdag
ordinance of 1526) was now regularly appointed by the king
as the spokesman of the
Riddarhus
, or House of Nobles, while
the primate generally acted as the
talman
or president of the
three lower estates, the clergy, burgesses and peasants, though
at a later day each of the three lower estates elected its own
talman
. At the opening of every session, the king submitted
to the estates “royal propositions,” or bills, upon which each
estate proceeded to deliberate in its own separate chamber.
The replies of the estates were delivered to the king at a subsequent
session in congress. Whenever the estates differed
amongst themselves, the king chose whatever opinion seemed
best to him. The rights of the Riksdag were secured by the
Konungaförsäkran
, or assurance given by every Swedish king
on his accession, guaranteeing the collaboration of the estates
in the Work of legislation, and they were also to be consulted
on all questions of foreign policy. The king possessed the
initiative; but the estates had the right of objecting to the
measures of the government at the close of each session. It is
in Gustavus’s reign, too, that we first hear of the
Hemliga
Utskott
, or “secret committee” for the transaction of extraordinary
affairs, which was elected by the estates themselves.
The eleven Riksdags held by Gustavus Adolphus were almost
exclusively occupied in finding ways and means for supporting
the ever-increasing burdens of the Polish and German wars.
And to the honour of the Swedish people be it said that, from
first to last, they showed a religious and patriotic zeal which
shrank from no sacrifice. It was to this national devotion
quite as much as to his own qualities that Gustavus owed his
success as an empire-builder.
The wars with Denmark and Russia had been almost exclusively
Scandinavian wars; the Polish war was of world-wide
significance. It was, in the first place, a struggle
for the Baltic littoral, and the struggle was intensified
by the knowledge that the Polish Vasas denied the
War with Poland.
right of Gustavus to the Swedish throne. In the eyes
of the Swedish king, moreover, the Polish War was a war
of religion. Gustavus regarded the Scandinavian kingdoms
as the two chief pillars on which the Evangelical religion reposed.
Their disunion, he argued, would open a door in the north to
the Catholic league and so bring about the destruction of Denmark
and Sweden alike. Hence his alliance with Denmark to
defend Stralsund in 1628. There is much of unconscious
exaggeration in all this. As a matter of fact the Polish republic
was no danger whatever to Protestantism. Sigismund’s obstinate
insistence upon his right to the Swedish crown was the
one impediment to the conclusion of a war which the Polish
Diet heartily detested and very successfully impeded. Apart
from the semi-impotent Polish court, no responsible Pole
dreamed of aggrandisement in Sweden. In fact, during the
subsequent reign of Wladislaus IV. (1632–1648), the Poles prevented
that martial monarch from interfering in the Thirty
Years’ War on the Catholic side. Gustavus, whose lively
imagination was easily excited by religious ardour, enormously
magnified clerical influence in Poland and frequently scented
dangers where only difficulties existed.
For eight years (1621–29) the exhausting and expensive
Polish war dragged on. By the beginning of 1626 Livonia was
conquered and the theatre of hostilities was transferred to the
Prussian provinces of Poland (see
Gustavus II. Adolphus
Koniecpolski [Stanislaus]
). The fertile and easily defensible
delta of the Vistula was now occupied and Gustavus treated it
as a permanent conquest, making his great minister Axel Oxenstjerna
its first governor-general. But this was the limit of the
Swedish advance. All Gustavus’s further efforts were frustrated
by the superior strategy of the Polish grandhetman Koniecpolski,
and, in June 1629, the king gladly accepted the lucrative
truce of Altmark. By this truce Sweden was, for six years, to
retain possession of her Livonian conquests, besides holding
Elbing, the Vistula delta, Braunsberg in West, and Pillau and
Memel in East Prussia, with the right to levy tolls at Pillau,
Memel, Danzig, Labiau and Windau. From these tolls Gustavus
derived, in 1629 alone, 500,000 rix-dollars, a sum equivalent to
the whole of the extraordinary subsidies granted to him by the
Riksdag. Thus Sweden held, for a time, the control of the
principal trade routes of the Baltic up to the very confines of
the empire; and the increment of revenue resulting from this
commanding position was of material assistance to her during
the earlier stages of the war in Germany, whither Gustavus
transferred his forces in June 1630.
The motives of Gustavus in plunging into the Thirty Years'
War and the details of the struggle as regards Sweden are
elsewhere set forth (see
Gustavus II.
Oxenstjerna [Axel]
Banér [Johan]
Torstensson [Lennart]
).
Sweden and the Thirty Years' War.
Here the only point to be insisted upon
is the extreme precariousness of the Swedish position from
first to last—a precariousness due entirely to inadequacy
of material resources. In 1632 all Germany lay at the
feet of Sweden; two years later a single disaster (Nördlingen)
brought her empire to the verge of ruin. For the
next seven years the German War as regards Sweden was
a struggle for existence. She triumphed in the end, it is true,
but it was a triumph due entirely to a lucky accident—the
possession, during the crisis, of the greatest statesman and the
greatest captain of the age. It was the exploits of Oxenstjerna
and Banér which alone enabled Sweden to obtain even what she
did obtain at the great Westphalian peace congress in 1648.
Her original demands were Silesia (she held most of the fortresses
there), Pomerania (which had been in her possession for nearly
twenty years), and a war indemnity of 20,000,000 rixdollars.
What she actually got was (1) Upper Pomerania,
with the islands of Rügen and Usedom, and a strip of Lower
Pomerania on the right side of the Oder, including the towns of
Stettin, Garz, Damm and Gollnow, and the isle of Wollin, with
the right of succession to the rest of Lower Pomerania in the
case of the extinction of the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns; (2)
the town of Wismar with the districts of Poel and Neukloster;
(3) the secularized bishoprics of Bremen and Verden; and (4)
5,000,000 rix-dollars. These German possessions were to be
held as fiefs of the empire; and in respect thereof Sweden was
to have a vote in the imperial Diet and to “direct” the Lower
Saxon Circle alternately with Brandenburg. France and Sweden
moreover, became joint guarantors of the treaty with the
emperor, and were entrusted with the carrying out of its provisions,
which was practically effected by the executive congress
of Nüremberg in 1650.
Sweden's reward for the exertions and sacrifices of eighteen
years was meagre, almost paltry. Her newly won possessions
were both small and scattered, though, on the other
hand, she had secured the practical control of the
International Position of Sweden.
three principal rivers of north Germany—the Oder,
the Elbe and the Weser—and reaped the full
advantage of the tolls levied on those great commercial
arteries. The jealousy of France and the impatience of Queen
Christina were the chief causes of the inadequacy of her final
recompense. Yet, though the immediate gain was small, she
had not dissipated her blood and treasure altogether in vain.
Her vigorous intervention had saved the cause of religious liberty
in Europe; and this remains, for all time, her greatest political
achievement. Henceforth till her collapse, seventy years later,
she was the recognized leader of Continental Protestantism.
A more questionable benefit was her rapid elevation to the rank
of an imperial power, an elevation which imposed the duty of
remaining a military monarchy, armed
cap-à-pie
for every
possible emergency. Every one recognizes now that the poverty
and sparse population of Sweden unfitted her for such a
tremendous destiny. But in the middle of the 17th century
the incompatibility between her powers and her pretensions was
not so obvious. All her neighbours were either decadent or
exhausted states; and France, the most powerful of the Western
powers, was her firm ally.
For the moment, however, Sweden held the field. Everything
depended upon the policy of the next few years. Very careful
statesmanship might mean permanent dominion
Queen Christina, 1644-1654.
on the Baltic shore, but there was not much margin
for blundering. Unfortunately the extravagance
of Gustavus Adolphus's two immediate successors, Christina
and Charles X., shook the flimsy fabric of his empire
to its very base. Christina's extravagance was financial.
At the time of her abdication the state was on the verge of bankruptcy,
and the financial difficulty had superinduced a serious
political agitation. The mass of the Swedish people was penetrated
by a justifiable fear that the external, artificial greatness of their
country might, in the long run, be purchased with the loss of
their civil and political liberties. In a word, the natural equilibrium
of Swedish society was seriously threatened by the preponderance
of the nobility; and the people at large looked to
the new king to redress the balance. A better
arbiter between the various estates than Charles X.
Charles X., 1654-1660.
it would have been difficult to find. It is true that,
primarily a soldier, his whole ambition was directed towards
military glory; but he was also an unusually sharp-sighted
politician. He affected to believe that only by force of
arms could Sweden retain the dominion which by force
of arms she had won; but he also grasped the fact that
there must be no disunion at home if she were to continue
powerful abroad. The most pressing question of the day,
the so-called
Reduktion
, or restitution of the alienated crown
lands, was adjusted provisionally at the Riksdag of 1655. The
king proposed that the actual noble holders of crown property
should either pay an annual sum of 200,000 rix-dollars, to be
allowed for out of any further crown lands subsequently falling
in to them, or should surrender a fourth of the expectant property
itself to the estimated amount of 600,000 rix-dollars. The
nobility attempted to escape taxation as cheaply as possible by
stipulating that the 6th of November 1632, the day of Gustavus
Adolphus's death, should be the extreme limit of any retrospective
action on the part of the crown in regard to alienated crown
property, and that the present subsidy should be regarded as
“a perpetual ordinance” unalterably to be observed by all
future sovereigns—in other words, that there should be no
further restitution of alienated crown property. Against this
interpretation of the subsidy bill the already over-taxed lower
estates protested so energetically that the Diet had to be suspended.
Then the king intervened personally; not to quell the
commons, as the senate insisted, but to compel the nobility to
give way. He proposed that the whole matter should be
thoroughly investigated by a special committee before the
meeting of the next Riksdag, and that in the meantime a contribution
should be levied on all classes proportionately. This
equitable arrangement was accepted by the estates forthwith.
Charles X. had done his best to obviate the effects of the
financial extravagance of Christina. It may well be doubted,
however, whether his own extravagant desire for
military glory was not equally injurious to his
Charles X.'s Wars.
country. In three days he had succeeded in persuading
the Swedish estates of the lucrative expediency of his
unnecessary and immoral attack on Poland (see
Poland
History
); but when he quitted Stockholm for Warsaw, on the
10th of July 1654, he little imagined that he had embarked on
an adventure which was to contribute far more to his glory than
to the advantage of his country. How the Polish War expanded
into a general European war; how Charles's miraculous audacity
again and again ravished favours from Fortune and Nature
e.g.
the passage of the Belts) when both those great powers
combined against him; how, finally, he emerged from all his
difficulties triumphant, indeed, but only to die of sheer exhaustion
in his thirty-eighth year—all this has elsewhere been described
(see
Charles X.
, king of Sweden;
Czarniecki [Stephen]
Frederick III.
, king of Denmark). Suffice it to say that,
immediately after his death, the regency appointed to govern
Charles XI.
Sweden during the minority of his only son and
successor, Charles XI., a child four years old,
hastened to come to terms with Sweden's numerous enemies,
which now included Russia, Poland, Brandenburg and Denmark.
The Peace of Oliva (May 3, 1660), made under
Peace of Oliva, 1660.
French mediation, put an end to the long feud with
Poland and, at the same time, ended the quarrel
between Sweden on the one side, and the emperor and the
elector of Brandenburg on the other. By this peace, Sweden's
possession of Livonia, and the elector of Brandenburg's
sovereignty over east Prussia, were alike confirmed; and the
king of Poland renounced all claim to the Swedish crown. As
regards Denmark, the Peace of Oliva signified the desertion of
her three principal allies, Poland, Brandenburg and the emperor,
and thus compelled her to reopen negotiations with Sweden
direct. The differences between the two states were finally
adjusted by the peace of Copenhagen (May 27, 1660), Denmark
ceding the three Scanian provinces to Sweden but receiving
back the Norwegian province of Trondhjem and the isle of
Bornholm which she had surrendered by the peace of Roskilde
two years previously. Denmark was also compelled to recognize,
practically, the independence of the dukes of Holstein-Gottorp.
The Russian War was terminated by the Peace of
Kardis (July 2, 1661), confirmatory of the Peace of Stolbova,
whereby the tsar surrendered to Sweden all his Baltic provinces—Ingria,
Esthonia and Kexholm.
Thus Sweden emerged from the war not only a military power
of the first magnitude, but also one of the largest states of
Europe, possessing about twice as much territory
Sweden as a Great Power.
as modern Sweden. Her area embraced 16,800
geographical square miles, a mass of land 7000
sq. m. larger than the modern German Empire. Yet the
Swedish Empire was rather a geographical expression than a
state with natural and national boundaries. Modern Sweden
is bounded by the Baltic; during the 17th century the Baltic
was merely the bond between her various widely dispersed
dominions. All the islands in the Baltic, except the Danish
group, belonged to Sweden. The estuaries of all the great
German rivers (for the Niemen and Vistula are properly Polish
rivers) debouched in Swedish territory, within which also lay
two-thirds of Lake Ladoga and one-half of Lake Peipus. Stockholm,
the capital, lay in the very centre of the empire, whose
second greatest city was Riga, on theother side of the sea. Yet
this vast empire contained but half the population of modern
Sweden—being only 2,500,000, or about 140 souls to the square
mile. Further, Sweden's new boundaries were of the most
insecure description, inasmuch as they were anti-ethnographical,
parting asunder races which naturally went together, and behind
which stood powerful neighbours of the same stock ready, at
the first opportunity, to reunite them.
Moreover, the commanding political influence which Sweden
had now won was considerably neutralized by her loss of moral
prestige. On Charles X.'s accession in 1655, Sweden's neighbours,
though suspicious and uneasy, were at least not adversaries,
and might have been converted into allies of the new
great power who, if she had mulcted them of territory, had, anyhow,
compensated them for the loss with the by no means contemptible
douceur
of religious liberty. At Charles X.'s death,
five years later, we find Sweden, herself bled to exhaustion point,
surrounded by a broad belt of desolated territory and regarded
with ineradicable hatred by every adjacent state. To sink in
five years from the position of the champion of Protestantism
to that of the common enemy of every Protestant power was a
degradation not to be compensated by any amount of military
glory. Charles's subsequent endeavour, in stress of circumstances,
to gain a friend by dividing his Polish conquests with
the aspiring elector of Brandenburg was a reversal of his original
policy and only resulted in the establishment on the southern
confines of Sweden of a new rival almost as dangerous as
Denmark, her ancient rival in the west.
In 1660, after five years of incessant warfare, Sweden had at
length obtained peace and with it the opportunity of organizing
and developing her newly won empire. Unfortunately,
the regency which was to govern her during
Minority of Charles XI.
the next fifteen years was unequal to the difficulties
of a situation which might have taxed the resources of the
wisest statesmen. Unity and vigour were scarcely to be expected
from a many-headed administration composed of men
of mediocre talent whose contrary opinions speedily gave rise
to contending factions. There was the high-aristocratic party
with a leaning towards martial adventure headed by
Magnus de la Gardie
q.v.
), and the party of peace and economy whose
ablest representative was the liberal and energetic
Johan Gyllenstjerna
q.v.
). After a severe struggle, de la Gardie's
party prevailed; and its triumph was marked by that general
decline of personal and political morality which has given to
this regency its unenviable notoriety. Sloth and carelessness
speedily invaded every branch of the administration, destroying
all discipline and leading to a general neglect of business.
Another characteristic of the de la Gardie government was its
gross corruption, which made Sweden the obsequious hireling
of that foreign power which had the longest purse. This shameful
“subsidy policy” dates from the Treaty of Fontainebleau,
1661, by a secret paragraph of which Sweden, in exchange for a
considerable sum of money, undertook to support the French
candidate on the first vacancy of the Polish throne. The complications
ensuing from Louis XIV.'s designs on the Spanish
Netherlands led to a bid for the Swedish alliance, both from the
French king and his adversaries. After much hesitation on the
part of the Swedish government, the anti-French faction prevailed;
and in April 1668 Sweden acceded to the Triple Alliance,
which finally checkmated the French king by bringing about the
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. For the next four years Sweden
remained true to the principles of the Triple Alliance; but,
in 1672, Louis XIV. succeeded in isolating the Dutch republic
and regaining his ancient ally, Sweden. By the Treaty of
Stockholm (April 14, 1672), Sweden became, for
Alliance with France.
the next ten years, a “mercenarius Galliae,” pledging
herself, in return for 400,000 crowns per annum in
peace and 600,000 in war-time, to attack, with 16,000 men, any
German princes who might be disposed to assist Holland. In
1674 Louis XIV. peremptorily called upon Sweden to fulfil
her obligations by invading Brandenburg. In the course of
May 1675 a Swedish army advanced into the Mark, but on the
18th of June was defeated at Fehrbellin, and hastily retreated
to Demmin. The Fehrbellin affair was a mere skirmish, the actual
casualties amounting to less than 600 men, but it rudely divested
Sweden of her nimbus of invincibility and was the signal for a
general attack upon her, known as the Scanian War.
The Scanian War.
In the course of the next three years her empire
seemed to be crumbling away everywhere. In
1675 Pomerania and the bishopric of Bremen were overrun
by the Brandenburgers, Austrians and Danes. In December
1677 the elector of Brandenburg captured Stettin. Stralsund
fell on the 15th of October 1678. Greifswald, Sweden's
last possession on the Continent, was lost on the 5th of
November. A defensive alliance with Sobieski (August 4,
1677) was rendered inoperative by the annihilation of Sweden's
sea-power (battle of Gland, June 17, 1676; battle of Fehmarn,
June 1677) and the difficulties of the Polish king.
Two accidents at this crisis alone saved Sweden from ruin—the
splendid courage of the young king who, resolutely and successfully,
kept the Danish invaders at bay (see
Charles XI.
, king
of Sweden), and the diplomatic activity of Louis XIV. In
March 1677 a peace congress began its sessions at Nijmwegen;
and in the beginning of April 1678 the French king dictated
the terms of a general pacification. One of his chief conditions
was the complete restitution of Sweden. A strong Sweden
was necessary to the accomplishment of his plans. He suggested,
however, that Sweden should rid herself of her enemies by
making some “small cession” to them. This Charles XI.
refused to do, whereupon Louis took it upon himself to conclude
peace on Sweden's account without consulting the wishes of
of the Swedish king. By this Treaty of Nijmwegen
Treaty of Nijmwegen, 1679.
(Feb. 7) and of St Germain (June 29, 1679)
Sweden virtually received full restitution of her
German territory. On the 2nd of September by the Peace
of Fontainebleau (confirmed by the subsequent Peace of Lund,
Oct. 4, 1679), Denmark was also forced to retrocede her
conquests. It is certain that Sweden herself could never have
extorted such favourable terms, yet “the insufferable tutelage”
of France on this occasion inspired Charles XI. with a personal
dislike of the mighty ruler of France and contributed
to reverse the traditional diplomacy of Sweden by giving it a
strong anti-French bias (see
Charles XI.
Oxenstjerna, Benedict
).
The remainder of the reign of Charles XI. is remarkable for
a revolution which converted the government of Sweden into
a semi-absolute monarchy. The king emerged from
Charles XI. and the Swedish Constitution.
the war convinced that if Sweden were to retain her
position as a great power she must radically reform
her whole economical system, and, above all,
circumscribe the predominant and mischievous influence
of an aristocracy which thought far more of its
privileges than of its public duties. He felt that he could
now draw upon the confidence and liberality of the lower
orders to an unlimited extent, and he proceeded to do so. The
Riksdag which assembled in Stockholm in October 1680
begins a new era of Swedish history. On the motion of the
Estate of Peasants, which had a long memory for aristocratic
abuses, the question of the recovery of the alienated crown
lands was brought before the Riksdag, and, despite the stubborn
opposition of the magnates, a resolution of the Diet directed
that all count ships, baronies, domains, manors and other estates
producing an annual rent of more than £70 per annum should
revert to the Crown. The same Riksdag decided that the king
was not bound by any particular constitution, but only by law
and the statutes. Nay, they added that he was not even
obliged to consult the council of state, but was to be regarded
as a sovereign lord, responsible to God alone for his actions,
and requiring no intermediary between himself and his people.
The council thereupon acquiesced in its own humiliation by
meekly accepting a royal brief changing its official title from
Riksråd
(council of state) to
Kungligaråd
(royal council)—a
visible sign that the senators were no longer the king's colleagues
but his servants.
Thus Sweden, as well as Denmark, had become an absolute
monarchy, but with this important difference, that the right
of the Swedish people, in parliament assembled, to be consulted
on all important matters was recognized and acted upon. The
Riksdag, completely overshadowed by the throne, was during
the reign of Charles XI. to do little more than register the royal
decrees; but nevertheless it continued to exist as an essential
part of the machinery of government. Moreover, this transfer
of authority was a voluntary act. The people, knowing the
king to be their best friend, trusted him implicit and
co-operated with him cheerfully. The Riksdag of 1682 proposed a
fresh Reduktion, and declared that the whole question of how
far the king was empowered by the law of the land to bestow
fiefs, or, in case of urgent national distress, take them back
again, was exclusively his majesty's affair. In other words,
it made the king the disposer of his subjects' temporal property.
Presently this new principle of autocracy was extended to the
king's legislative authority also, for, on the 9th of December
1682, all four estates, by virtue of a common declaration, not
only confirmed him in the possession of the legislative powers
enjoyed by his predecessors, but even conceded to him the right
of interpreting and amending the common law.
The recovery of the alienated crown lands occupied Charles XI.
for the rest of his life. It was conducted by a commission
which was ultimately converted into a permanent department
of state. It acted on the principle that the titles of all private
landed estate might be called in question, inasmuch as at some
time or other it must have belonged to the Crown; and the
burden of proof of ownership was held not to lie with the Crown
which made the claim, but with the actual owner of the property.
The amount of revenue accruing to the Crown from the whole
Reduktion it is impossible to estimate even approximately;
but by these means, combined with the most careful management
and the most rigid economy, Charles XI. contrived to
reduce the national debt from £2,567,000 to £700,000.
These operations represent only a part of Charles XI.'s
gigantic activity. Here we have only space sufficient to glance
at his reorganization of the national armaments.
Reorganization of Armaments.
Charles XI. re-established on a broader basis the
indelningsverk
introduced by Charles IX.—a system
of military tenure whereby the national forces were bound
to the soil. Thus there was the
rusthåll
tenure, under
which the tenants, instead of paying rent, were obliged
to equip and maintain a cavalry soldier and horse, while
the
knekthållarer
supplied duly equipped foot soldiers. These
indelning
soldiers were provided with holdings on which they
lived in times of peace. Formerly, ordinary conscription had
existed alongside this
indelning
, or distribution system; but it
had proved inadequate as well as highly unpopular; and, in
1682, Charles XI. came to an agreement with the peasantry
whereby an extended
indelning
system was to be substituted
for general conscription. The navy, of even more importance
to Sweden if she were to maintain the dominion of the Baltic,
was entirely remodelled; and, the recent war having demonstrated
the unsuitability of Stockholm as a naval station, the
construction of a new arsenal on a gigantic scale was simultaneously
begun at Karlskrona. After a seventeen years' struggle
against all manner of financial difficulties, the twofold enterprise
was completed. At the death of Charles XI. Sweden
could boast of a fleet of forty-three three-deckers (manned by
11,000 men and armed with 2648 guns) and one of the finest
arsenals in the world.
Charles XI. had carefully provided against the contingency
of his successor's minority; and the five regents appointed by
him, if not great statesmen, were at least practical
politicans who had not been trained in his austere
Charles XII., 1697-1718.
school in vain. At home the Reduktion was
cautiously pursued, while abroad the successful conclusion of
the great peace congress at Ryswick was justly regarded as a.
signal triumph of Sweden's pacific diplomacy (see
Oxenstjerna Family
).
The young king was full of promise, and had he
been permitted gradually to gain experience and develop his
naturally great talents beneath the guidance of his guardians,
as his father had intended, all might have been well for Sweden.
Unfortunately, the sudden, noiseless revolution of the 6th of
November 1697, which made Charles XII. absolute master of
his country's fate in his fifteenth year (see
Charles XII.
),
and the league of Denmark, Saxony and Russia, formed two
years later to partition Sweden (see
Patkul, Johann Reinhold
Peter the Great
Charles XII.
), precipitated Sweden into a
sea of troubles in which she was finally submerged.
From the very beginning of the Great Northern War Sweden
suffered from the inability of Charles XII. to view the situation
from anything but a purely personal point of view.
His determination to avenge himself on enemies
Great Northern War.
overpowered every other consideration. Again and
again during these eighteen years of warfare it was in his power
to dictate an advantageous peace. After the dissipation of
the first coalition against him by the peace of Travendal
(Aug. 18, 1700) and the victory of Narva (Nov. 20, 1700),
the Swedish chancellor, Benedict Oxenstjerna, rightly regarded
the universal bidding for the favour of Sweden by France
and the maritime powers, then on the eve of the War of
the Spanish Succession, as a golden opportunity of “ending
this present lean war and making his majesty the arbiter of
Europe.” But Charles, intent on dethroning Augustus of
Poland, held haughtily aloof. Subsequently in 1701 he rejected
a personal appeal from William III. to conclude peace on his
own terms. Five years later (Sept. 24, 1706) he did, indeed,
conclude the Polish War by the peace of Altranstädt, but as
this treaty brought no advantage to Sweden, not even compensation
for the expenses of six years of warfare, it was
politically condemnable. Moreover, two of Sweden's Baltic
provinces, Esthonia and Ingria, had been seized by the tsar,
and a third, Livonia, had been well-nigh ruined. Yet even now
Charles, by a stroke of the pen, could have recovered nearly
everything he had lost. In 1707 Peter was ready to retrocede
everything except St Petersburg and the line of the Neva, and
again Charles preferred risking the whole to saving the greater
part of his Baltic possessions (for details see
Charles XII.
Peter the Great
). When at last, after the catastrophe of
Poltava (June 1709) and the flight into Turkey, he condescended
to use diplomatic methods, it was solely to prolong, not to
terminate, the war. Even now he could have made honourable
terms with his numerous enemies. The resources of Sweden
were still very far from being exhausted, and, during 1710 and
1711, the gallant
Magnus Stenbock
q.v.
) upheld her military
supremacy in the north. But all the efforts of the Swedish
government were wrecked on the determination of Charles XII.
to surrender nothing. Thus he rejected advantageous offers of
mediation and alliance made to him, during 1712, by the maritime
powers and by Prussia; and, in 1714, he scouted the friendly
overtures of Louis XIV. and the emperor, so that when peace
was finally concluded between France and the Empire, at the
congress of Baden, Swedish affairs were, by common consent,
left out of consideration. When, on the 14th of September 1714,
he suddenly returned to his dominions, Stralsund and Wismar
were all that remained to him of his continental possessions;
while by the end of 1715 Sweden, now fast approaching the last
stage of exhaustion, was at open war with England, Hanover,
Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Denmark, who had formed a
coalition to partition her continental territory between them.
Nevertheless, at this the eleventh hour of her opportunities,
Sweden might still have saved something from the wreck of her
empire if Charles had behaved like a reasonable being (see
Charles XII.
Peter the Great
Görtz, Georg Heinrich von
Osterman, Andrei
); but he would only consent to
play off Russia against England, and his sudden death before
Fredrikshald (Dec. 11, 1718) left Sweden practically at the end
beginning of her resources and at the mercy of her enemies. At the
Treaties of Stockholm and Frederiksborg, 1719 and 1720
beginning of 1719 pacific overtures were made to England,
Hanover, Prussia and Denmark. By the treaties of
Stockholm (Feb. 20, 1719, and Feb. 1, 1720) Hanover
obtained the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden for
herself and Stettin for her confederate Prussia.
By the treaty of Frederiksborg or Copenhagen
(July 3, 1720) peace was also signed between Denmark
and Sweden, Denmark retroceding Rügen. Further
Pomerania as far as the Peene, and Wismar to Sweden,
in exchange for an indemnity of 600,000 rix-dollars, while
Sweden relinquished her exemption from the Sound tolls and
her protectorate over Holstein-Gottorp. The prospect of
coercing Russia by means of the British fleet had alone induced
Sweden to consent to such sacrifices; but when the last demands
of England and her allies had been complied with, Sweden
Peace of Nystad, 1721. Loss of the Baltic Provinces.
was left to come to terms as best she could with
the tsar. Negotiations were reopened with Russia at
Nystad, in May 1720, but peace was not concluded
till the 30th of August 1721, and then only under
the direst pressure. By the peace of Nystad Sweden
ceded to Russia Ingria and Esthonia, Livonia, the Finnish
province of Kexholm and the fortress of Viborg. Finland
west of Viborg and north of Kexholm was restored to
Sweden. She also received an indemnity of two millions of
thalers and a solemn undertaking of non-interference in her
domestic affairs.
It was not the least of Sweden's misfortunes after the
Great Northern War that the new constitution, which was
to compensate her for all her past sacrifices, should contain
within it the elements of many of her future calamities.
Early in 1720 Charles XII.'s sister, Ulrica Leonora, who had
been elected queen of Sweden immediately after his death,
was permitted to abdicate in favour of her
husband the prince of Hesse, who was elected king
Frederick I., 1720-1751. The Limited Monarchy.
under the title of Frederick I.; and Sweden was,
at the same time, converted into the most limited
of monarchies. All power was vested in the people as
represented by the Riksdag, consisting, as before, of four
distinct estates, nobles, priests, burgesses and peasants, sitting
and deliberating apart. The conflicting interests and mutual
jealousies of these four independent assemblies made the work
of legislation exceptionally difficult. No measure could now
become law till it had obtained the assent of three at least of
the four estates; but this provision, which seems to have been
designed to protect the lower orders against the nobility, produced
evils far greater than those which it professed to cure.
Thus, measures might be passed by a bare majority in three
estates, when a real and substantial majority of all four estates
in congress might be actually against it. Or, again, a dominant
action in any three of the estates might enact laws highly detrimental
to the interests of the remaining estate—a danger the
more to be apprehended as in no other country in Europe were
class distinctions so sharply defined as in Sweden.
Each estate was ruled by its
talman
, or speaker, who was now
elected at the beginning of each Diet, but the archbishop was,
ex officio
, the
talman
of the clergy. The
landtmarskalk
, or speaker of the House of Nobles, presided
Constitution of the Estates.
when the estates met in congress, and also, by
virtue of his office, in the
hemliga utskott
, or secret committee.
This famous body, which consisted of 50 nobles, 25 priests,
25 burgesses, and, very exceptionally, 25 peasants, possessed
during the session of the Riksdag not only the supreme executive
but also the surpeme judicial and legislative functions. It prepared
all bills for the Riksdag, created and deposed all ministries,
controlled the foreign policy of the nation, and claimed and
often exercised the right of superseding the ordinary courts
of justice. During the parliamentary recess, however, the
executive remained in the hands of the
rad
, or senate, which
was responsible to the Riksdag alone.
It will be obvious that there was no room in this republican
constitution for a constitutional monarch in the modern sense
of the word. The crowned puppet who possessed a casting vote
in the
råd
, of which he was the nominal president, and who was
allowed to create peers once in his life (at his coronation), was
rather a state decoration than a sovereignty.
At first this cumbrous and complicated instrument of government
worked tolerably well under the firm but cautious control
of the chancellor,
Count Arvid Beernhard Horn
q.v.
). In his anxiety to avoid embroiling his country
Political Parties. Hats and Caps.
abroad, Horn reversed the traditional policy of
Sweden by keeping France at a distance and drawing
near to Great Britain, for whose liberal institutions he
professed the highest admiration. Thus a twenty years'
war was succeeded by a twenty years' peace, during which
the nation recovered so rapidly from its wounds that it began
to forget them. A new race of politicians was springing up.
Since 1719, when the influence of the few great territorial
families had been merged in a multitude of needy gentlemen,
the first estate had become the nursery and afterwards
the stronghold of an opposition at once noble and democratic
which found its natural leaders in such men as Count Carl
Gyllenborg and
Count Carl Gustaf Tessin
q.v.
). These men and
their followers were never weary of ridiculing the timid caution
of the aged statesman who sacrificed everything to perpetuate
an inglorious peace and derisively nicknamed his adherents
“Night-caps” (a term subsequently softened into “Caps”),
themselves adopting the sobriquet “Hats,” from the three-cornered
hat worn by officers and gentlemen, which was considered
happily to hit off the manly self-assertion of the opposition.
These epithets instantly caught the public fancy and had
already become party badges when the estates met in 1738.
This Riksdag was to mark another turning-point in Swedish
history. The Hats carried everything before them; and the
aged Horn was finally compelled to retire from a scene where,
for three and thirty years, he had played a leading part.
The policy of the Hats was a return to the traditional alliance
between France and Sweden. When Sweden descended to
her natural position as a second-rate power the
French Alliance.
French alliance became too costly a luxury.
Horn had clearly perceived this; and his cautious
neutrality was therefore the soundest statesmanship. But
the politicians who had ousted Horn thought differently. To
them prosperity without glory was a worthless possession.
They aimed at restoring Sweden to her former position as
a great power. France, naturally, hailed with satisfaction
the rise of a faction which was content to be her armour bearer
in the north; and the golden streams which flowed
from Versailles to Stockholm during the next two generations
were the political life-blood of the Hat party.
The first blunder of the Hats was the hasty and ill-advised
war with Russia. The European complications consequent
upon the almost simultaneous deaths of the emperor
Charles VI. and Anne, empress of Russia, seemed
War with Russia, 1741.
to favour their adventurous schemes; and, despite
the frantic protests of the Caps, a project for the invasion of
Russian Finland was rushed through the premature Riksdag
of 1740. On the 20th of July 1741 war was formally declared
against Russia; a month later the Diet was dissolved and the
Hat
landtmarskalk
set off to Finland to take command of the
army. The first blow was not struck till six months after the
declaration of war; and it was struck by the enemy, who routed
the Swedes at Villmanstrand and captured that frontier fortress.
Nothing else was done on either side for six months more; and
then the Swedish generals made a “tacit truce” with the
Russians through the mediation of the French ambassador at
St Petersburg. By the time that the “tacit truce” had come
to an end the Swedish forces were so demoralized that the mere
rumour of a hostile attack made them retire panic-stricken to
Helsingfors; and before the end of the year all Finland was in
the hands of the Russians. The fleet, disabled by an epidemic,
was, throughout the war, little more than a floating hospital.
To face the Riksdag with such a war as this upon their
consciences was a trial from which the Hats naturally shrank;
but, to do them justice, they showed themselves better parliamentary
than military strategists. A motion for an inquiry
into the conduct of the war was skilfully evaded by obtaining
precedence for the succession question (Queen Ulrica Leonora
had lately died childless and King Frederick was old); and negotiations
were thus opened with the new Russian empress,
Elizabeth, who agreed to restore the greater part of Finland
if her cousin, Adolphus Frederick of Holstein, were elected
successor to the Swedish crown. The Hats eagerly caught at
the opportunity of recovering the grand duchy and their own
Peace of Åbo, 1743
prestige along with it. By the peace of Åbo (May 7, 1743) the terms of the empress were accepted,
and only that small part of Finland which lay
beyond the Kymmene was retained by Russia.
In March 1751 old King Frederick died. His slender
prerogatives had gradually dwindled down to vanishing point.
Adolphus Frederick
q.v.
) would have given even less
trouble than his predecessor but for the ambitious
Adolphus Frederick II., 1751-1771.
promptings of his masterful consort Louisa Ulrica,
Frederick the Great's sister, and the tyranny of the
estates, who seemed bent upon driving the meekest of princes
into rebellion. An attempted monarchical revolution, planned
by the queen and a few devoted young nobles in 1756, was
easily and remorselessly crushed; and, though the unhappy king
did not, as he anticipated, share the fate of Charles Stuart, he
was humiliated as never monarch was humiliated before.
The same years which beheld this great domestic triumph
of the Hats saw also the utter collapse of their foreign “system.”
At the instigation of France they plunged recklessly into the
Seven Years' War; and the result was ruinous. The French subsidies,
which might have sufficed for a six weeks' demonstration
(it was generally assumed that the king of Prussia would
give little trouble to a European coalition), proved quite inadequate;
and, after five unsuccessful campaigns, the
The Seven Years' War.
unhappy Hats were glad to make peace and ignominiously
withdraw from a little war which had cost the
country 40,000 men and £2,500,000. When the Riksdag met
in 1760, the indignation against the Hat leaders was so violent
that an impeachment seemed inevitable; but once more the
superiority of their parliamentary tactics prevailed, and when,
after a session of twenty months, the Riksdag was brought to a
close by the mutual consent of both the exhausted factions,
the Hat government was bolstered up for another four years.
But the day of reckoning could not be postponed for ever;
and when the estates met in 1765 it brought the Caps into power
at last. Their leader, Ture Rudbeck, was elected marshal of
the Diet over
Frederick Axel von Fersen
q.v.
), the Hat candidate,
by a large majority; and, out of the hundred seats in the
secret committee, the Hats succeeded in getting only ten.
The Caps struck at once at the weak point of their opponents
by ordering a budget report to be made; and it was speedily
found that the whole financial system of the Hats
had been based upon reckless improvidence and
Rule of the Caps.
wilful misrepresentation, and that the only fruit
of their long rule was an enormous addition to the national
debt and a depreciation of the note circulation to one-third
of its face value. This revelation led to an all-round
retrenchment, carried into effect with a drastic thoroughness
which has earned for this parliament the name of the “Reduktion
Riksdag.” The Caps succeeded in transferring £250,000
from the pockets of the rich to the empty exchequer, reducing
the national debt by £575,179, and establishing some sort of
equilibrium between revenue and expenditure. They also
introduced a few useful reforms, the most remarkable of which
was the liberty of the press. But their most important political
act was to throw their lot definitely in with Russia, so
Russian Alliance.
as to counterpoise the influence of France. Sweden was
not then as now quite outside the European Concert.
Although no longer a great power, she still had many of the
responsibilities of a great power; and if the Swedish alliance
had considerably depreciated in value, it was still a marketable
commodity. Sweden's peculiar geographical position made her
virtually invulnerable for six months out of the twelve, her
Pomeranian possessions afforded her an easy ingress into the
very heart of the moribund empire, while her Finnish frontier
was not many leagues from the Russian capital.
A watchful neutrality, not venturing much beyond defensive
alliances and commercial treaties with the maritime powers,
was therefore Sweden's safest policy, and this the older Caps had
always followed out. But when the Hats became the armour-bearers
of France in the north, a protector strong enough to
counteract French influence became the cardinal exigency of
their opponents, the younger Caps, who now flung themselves
into the arms of Russia, overlooking the fact that even a pacific
union with Russia was more to be feared than a martial alliance
with France. For France was too distant to be dangerous.
She sought an ally in Sweden and it was her endeavour to make
that ally as strong as possible. But it was as a future prey,
not as a possible ally, that Russia regarded her ancient rival in
the north. In the treaty which partitioned Poland there was a
secret clause which engaged the contracting powers to uphold
the existing Swedish constitution as the swiftest means of subverting
Swedish independence; and an alliance with the credulous
Caps, “the Patriots” as they were called at St Petersburg,
guaranteeing their constitution, was the corollary to this secret
understanding. Thus, while the French alliance of the warlike
Hats had destroyed the prestige of Sweden, the Russian alliance
of the peaceful Caps threatened to destroy her very existence.
Fortunately, the domination of the Caps was not for long.
The general distress occasioned by their drastic reforms had
found expression in swarms of pamphlets which bit and stung
the Cap government, under the protection of the new press
laws. The senate retaliated by an order in council (which the
king refused to sign) declaring that all complaints against the
measures of the last Riksdag should be punished with fine and
imprisonment. The king, at the suggestion of the crown prince
(see
Gustavus III.
), thereupon urged the senate to summon
an extraordinary Riksdag as the speediest method of relieving
the national distress, and, on their refusing to comply with his
wishes, abdicated. From the 15th of December to the 21st of
December 1768 Sweden was without a regular government.
Then the Cap senate gave way and the estates were convoked
for the 19th of April 1769.
On the eve of the contest there was a general assembly of
the Hats at the French embassy, where the Comte de Modène
furnished them with 6,000,000 livres, but not till they had
signed in his presence an undertaking to reform the constitution
in a monarchical sense. Still more energetic on the other side,
the Russian minister, Ivan Osterman, became the treasurer as
well as the counsellor of the Caps, and scattered the largesse
of the Russian empress with a lavish hand; and so lost to all
feeling of patriotism were the Caps that they openly threatened
all who ventured to vote against them with the Muscovite
vengeance, and fixed Norrköping, instead of Stockholm, as the
place of meeting for the Riksdag as being more accessible to the
Russian fleet. But it soon became evident that the Caps were
Defeat of the Caps.
playing a losing game; and, when the Riksdag met
at Norrköping on the 10th of April, they found themselves
in a minority in all four estates. In the
contest for the marshalate of the Diet the leaders of the two
parties were again pitted against each other, when the verdict
of the last Riksdag was exactly reversed, Fersen defeating
Rudbeck by 234, though Russia spent no less a sum than
£11,500 to secure the election of the latter.
The Caps had short shrift, and the joint note which the
Russian, Prussian and Danish ministers presented to the estates
protesting, in menacing terms, against any “reprisals” on the
part of the triumphant faction, only hastened the fall of the
government. The Cap senate resigned en masse to escape
impeachment, and an exclusively Hat ministry took its place.
The Reaction Riksdag.
On the 1st of June the Reaction Riksdag, as it
was generally called, removed to the capital; and
it was now that the French ambassador and the
crown prince Gustavus called upon the new senators to redeem
their promise as to a reform of the constitution which they had
made before the elections. But when, at the fag-end of the
session, they half-heatedly brought the matter forward, the
Riksdag suddenly seemed to be stricken with paralysis. Impediments
multiplied at every step; the cry was raised: “The
constitution is in danger”; and on the 30th of January 1770
the Reaction Riksdag, after a barren ten months' session, rose
amidst chaotic confusion without accomplishing anything.
Adolphus Frederick died on the 12th of February 1771.
The elections held on the demise of the Crown resulted in a
partial victory for the Caps, especially among the
lower orders; but in the estate of the peasants
Gustavus III., 1771-1792.
their majority was merely nominal, while the mass
of the nobility was dead against them. Nothing could
be done, however, till the arrival of the new king (then at
Paris), and every one felt that with Gustavus III. an entirely
incalculable factor had entered into Swedish politics. Unknown
to the party leaders, he had already renewed the Swedish
alliance with France and had received solemn assurances of
assistance from Louis XV. in case he succeeded in re-establishing
monarchical rule in Sweden. France undertook, moreover,
to pay the outstanding subsidies to Sweden, amounting to one
and a half millions of livres annually, beginning from January
1772; and Vergennes, one of the great names of French diplomacy,
was to be sent to circumvent the designs of Russia at
Stockholm as he had previously circumvented them at Constantinople.
Immediately after his return to Stockholm,
Gustavus endeavoured to reconcile the jarring factions by inducing
the leaders to form a composition committee to adjust
their differences. In thus mediating he was sincere enough,
but all his pacific efforts were frustrated by their jealousy of
him and of each other. Still worse, the factions now in trenched
still further on the prerogative. The new coronation oath contained
three revolutionary clauses. The first aimed at making
abdications in the future impossible by binding the king to
reign uninterruptedly. The second obliged him to abide, not
by the decision of all the estates together, as heretofore, but
by that of the majority only, with the view of enabling the
actually dominant lower estates (in which was a large Cap
majority) to rule without, and even in spite of, the nobility.
The third clause required him, in all cases of preferment, to be
guided not “principally,” as heretofore, but “solely” by merit,
thus striking at the very root of aristocratic privilege. It was
clear that the ancient strife of Hats and Caps had become
merged in a conflict of classes; the situation was still further
complicated by the ominous fact that the non-noble majority
was also the Russian faction.
All through 1771 the estates were wrangling over the clauses
of the coronation oath. A second attempt of the king to mediate
between them foundered on the suspicions of the estate of
burgesses; and, on the 24th of February 1772, the nobility
yielded from sheer weariness. The non-noble Cap majority
now proceeded to attack the senate, the last stronghold of the
Hats, and, on the 25th of April, succeeded in ousting their
opponents. It was now, for the first time, that Gustavus,
reduced to the condition of a
roi fainéant
, began seriously to
consider the possibility of a revolution; of its necessity there
could be no doubt. Under the sway of the now dominant
faction, Sweden, already the vassal, could not fail speedily to
become the victim of Russia. She was on the point of being
absorbed in that Northern System, the invention of the Russian
minister of foreign affairs,
Nikita Panin
q.v.
), which that patient
statesman had made it the ambition of his life to realize. Only
Monarchical Coup d'état of 1772.
a swift and sudden
coup d'état
could save the
independence of a country isolated from the rest of
Europe by a hostile league. The details of the
famous revolution of the 19th of August 1772 are elsewhere
set forth (see
Gustavus III.
Toll, Johan Kristoffer
Sprengtporten, Jakob Magnus
). Here we can only dwell
upon its political importance and consequences. The new
constitution of the 20th of August 1772, which Gustavus
imposed upon the terrified estates at the bayonet's point,
converted a weak and disunited republic into a strong but
limited monarchy, in which the balance of power inclined,
on the whole, to the side of the monarch. The estates could
only assemble when summoned by him; he could dismiss
them whenever he thought fit; and their deliberations were to
be confined exclusively to the propositions which he might
think fit to lay before them. But these very extensive powers
were subjected to many important checks. Thus, without the
previous consent of the estates, no new law could be imposed,
no old law abolished, no offensive war undertaken, no extraordinary
war subsidy levied. The estates alone could tax
themselves; they had the absolute control of the Bank of Sweden,
and the inalienable right of controlling the national expenditure.
Thus the parliament held the purse; and this seemed
a sufficient guarantee both of its independence and its frequent
convention. The senate, not the Riksdag, was the chief loser
by the change; and, inasmuch as henceforth the senators were
appointed by the king, and were to be responsible to him alone,
a senate in opposition to the Crown was barely conceivable.
Abroad the Swedish revolution made a great sensation.
Catherine II. of Russia saw in it the triumph of her arch-enemy
France, with the prolongation of the costly Turkish War as its
immediate result. But the absence of troops on the Finnish
border, and the bad condition of the frontier fortresses, constrained
the empress to listen to Gustavus's pacific assurances,
and stay her hand. She took the precaution, however, of
concluding a fresh secret alliance with Denmark, in which
the Swedish revolution was significantly described as “an
act of violence” constituting a
casus foederis
, and justifying
both powers in seizing the first favourable opportunity for
intervention to restore the Swedish constitution of 1720.
In Sweden itself the change was, at first, most popular.
But Gustavus's first Riksdag, that of 1778, opened the eyes of
the deputies to the fact that their political supremacy had
departed. The king was now their sovereign lord; and, for all
his courtesy and gentleness, the jealousy with which he guarded
and the vigour with which he enforced the prerogative plainly
showed that he meant to remain so. But it was not till after
eight years more had elapsed that actual trouble began. The
Riksdag of 1778 had been obsequious; the Riksdag of 1786 was
mutinous. It rejected nearly all the royal measures outright,
or so modified them that Gustavus himself withdrew them.
When he dismissed the estates, the speech from the throne held
out no prospect of their speedy revocation.
Nevertheless, within three years, the king was obliged to
summon another Riksdag, which met at Stockholm on the 26th
of January 1789. His attempt in the interval to rule without a
parliament had been disastrous. It was only by a breach of
his own constitution that he had been able to declare war against
Russia (April 1788); the conspiracy of Anjala (July) had paralysed
all military operations at the very opening of the campaign;
and the sudden invasion of his western provinces by the
Danes, almost simultaneously (September), seemed to bring
him to the verge of ruin. But the contrast, at this crisis,
between his self-sacrificing patriotism and the treachery of the
Russophil aristocracy was so striking that, when the Riksdag
assembled, Gustavus found that the three lower estates were
ultra-royalist, and with their aid he succeeded, not without
running great risks (see
Gustavus III.
Nordin, Gustaf
Wallqvist, Olaf
), in crushing the opposition of the nobility
by a second
coup d'état
(Feb. 16, 1789), and passing the
The Act of Union and Security, 1789.
famous Act of Union and Security which gave the
king an absolutely free hand as regards foreign
affairs and the command of the army, and made
further treason impossible. For this the nobility
never forgave him. It was impossible, indeed, to resist openly
so highly gifted and so popular a sovereign; it was only by
the despicable expedient of assassination that the last great
monarch of Sweden was finally removed, to the infinite
detriment of his country.
The ensuing period was a melancholy one. The aristocratic
classes loudly complained that the young king, Gustavus IV.,
still a minor, was being brought up among
Gustavus IV., 1792-1809.
crypto-Jacobins; while the middle classes, deprived of
the stimulating leadership of the anti-aristocratic
“Prince Charming,” and becoming more and more inoculated
with French political ideas, drifted into an antagonism
not merely to hereditary nobility, but to hereditary monarchy
likewise. Everything was vacillating and uncertain; and
the general instability was reflected even in foreign affairs,
now that the master-hand of Gustavus III. was withdrawn.
Sweden and Revolutionary France.
The renewed efforts of Catherine II. to interfere
in Sweden's domestic affairs were, indeed, vigorously
repulsed, but without tact or discretion, so that the
good understanding between the two countries
was seriously impaired, especially when the proclivities of
Gustaf Reuterholm
q.v.
),
who then virtually ruled Sweden,
induced him to adopt what was generally considered an
indecently friendly attitude towards the government at Paris.
Despite the execution of Louis XVI. (Jan. 21, 1793), Sweden,
in the hope of obtaining considerable subsidies, recognized
the new French republic; and secret negotiations for contracting
an alliance were actually begun in May of the same
year, till the menacing protests of Catherine, supported as
they were by all the other European powers, finally induced
Sweden to suspend them.
The negotiations with the French Jacobins exacerbated the
hatred which the Gustavians already felt for the Jacobin
councillors of the duke-regent (see
Charles XIII.
, king of
Sweden). Smarting beneath their grievances and seriously
believing that not only the young king's crown but his very life
was in danger, they formed a conspiracy, the soul of which was
Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt
q.v.
), to overthrow the government,
with the aid of a Russian fleet, supported by a rising of the
Dalecarlians. The conspiracy was discovered and vigorously
suppressed.
The one bright side of this gloomy and sordid period was the
rapprochement
between the Scandinavian kingdoms during the
revolutionary wars. Thus, on the 27th of March
Alliance with Denmark.
1794, a neutrality compact was formed between
Denmark and Sweden; and their united squadrons
patrolled the North Sea to protect their merchantmen from the
British cruisers. This approximation between the two governments
was happily followed by friendly feelings between the
two nations, under the pressure of a common danger. Presently
Reuterholm renewed his coquetry with the French republic,
which was officially recognized by the Swedish government on
the 23rd of April 1795. In return, Sweden received subsidy
of £56,000; and a treaty between the two powers was signed on
the 14th of September 1795. On the other hand, an attempt
to regain the friendship of Russia, which had broken off diplomatic
relations with Sweden, was frustrated by the refusal of
the king to accept the bride, the grand duchess Alexandra,
Catherine II.'s granddaughter, whom Reuterholm had provided
for him. This was Reuterholm's last official act. On the 1st
of November 1796, in accordance with the will of his father,
Gustavus IV., now in his eighteenth year, took the government
into his own hands.
The government of
Gustavus IV.
q.v.
) was almost a pure
autocracy. At his very first Riksdag, held at Norrköping in
March 1800, the nobility were compelled, at last, to ratify
Gustavus III.'s detested Act of Union and Security, which
hitherto they had steadily refused to do. Shortly after this
Riksdag rose, a notable change took place in Sweden's foreign
policy. In December 1800 Denmark
Sweden and Russia
acceded to a second Armed Neutrality of the North, directed
against Great Britain; and the arsenal of Karlskrona, in all
probability, was only saved from the fate of Copenhagen by the
assassination of the emperor Paul, which was followed by another
change of system in the north. Hitherto Sweden had kept
aloof from continental complications; but the arrest
Gustavus IV. joins the European Coalition, 1804
and execution of the duc d'Enghien in 1804 inspired
Gustavus IV. with such a hatred of Napoleon that
when a general coalition was formed against the
French emperor he was one of the first to join it
(Dec. 3, 1804), pledging himself to send an army corps to co-operate
with the English and Russians in driving the enemy out
of Holland and Hanover. But his senseless quarrel with Frederick
William III. of Prussia detained him in Pomerania; and when
at last (December 1805) he led his 6000 men towards the Elbe
district the third coalition had already been dissipated by the
victories of Ulm and Austerlitz. In 1806 a rupture between
Sweden and Prussia was only prevented by Napoleon's assault
upon the latter power. After Jena Napoleon attempted to win
over Sweden, but Gustavus rejected every overture. The result
was the total loss of Pomerania, and the Swedish army itself was
only saved from destruction by the ingenuity of
J. K. Toll
q.v.
).
At Tilsit the emperor Alexander I. had undertaken to compel
“Russia's geographical enemy,” as Napoleon designated Sweden,
Russian Conquest of Finland, 1808.
to accede to the newly established Continental
System. Gustavus IV. naturally rejected all the
proposals of Alexander to close the Baltic against
the English; but took no measures to defend Finland
against Russia, though, during the autumn of 1807, it was
notorious that the tsar was preparing to attack the grand
duchy. On the 21st of February 1808 a Russian army crossed
the Finnish border without any previous declaration of war.
On the 2nd of April the king ordered a general levy of 30,000
men; but while two army corps, under Armfelt and Toll,
together with a British contingent of 10,000 men under
Moore, were stationed in Scania and on the Norwegian
border in anticipation of an attack from Denmark, which,
at the instigation of Napoleon, had simultaneously declared
war against Sweden, the little Finnish army was left
altogether unsupported. The conquest of Finland, after
an heroic struggle against overwhelming odds, is elsewhere
recorded (see
Finland
History
). Its immediate consequence
Deposition of Gustavus IV., 1809.
in Sweden proper was the deposition of Gustavus
IV. (March 13, 1809), who was clearly incapable of
governing. The nobility took advantage of this
opportunity to pay off old scores against Gustavus III. by
excluding not only his unhappy son but also that son's whole
family from the succession—an act of injustice which has never
been adequately defended. But indeed the whole of this intermediate
period is full of dark subterranean plots and counter plots,
still inexplicable, as, for instance, the hideous Fersen
murder (June 20, 1810) (see
Fersen, Hans Axel von
evidently intended to terrorize the Gustavians, whose loyalty
to the ancient dynasty was notorious. As early as the 5th of
Charles XIII., 1809-1819.
June 1809 the duke regent was proclaimed king,
under the title of
Charles XIII.
q.v.
), after accepting
the new liberal constitution, which was ratified by
the Riksdag the same day.
The new king was, at best, a useful stopgap, in no way likely
to interfere with the liberal revolution which had placed him on
the throne. Peace was what the exhausted nation now required;
and negotiations had already been opened at Fredrikshamn.
But the Russian demands were too humiliating, and the war
was resumed. But the defeats of Sävarsbruk and Ratan
(Aug. 19, 1809) broke the spirit of the Swedish army; and peace
was obtained by the sacrifice of Finland, the Åland islands,
“the fore-posts of Stockholm,” as Napoleon rightly described
them, and Vesterbotten as far as the rivers Torneå and Muonio
(treaty of Fredrikshamn, Sept. 17, 1809).
The succession to the throne, for Charles XIII. was both
infirm and childless, was settled, after the mysterious death
(May 28, 1810) of the first elected candidate,
Bernadotte chosen as Crown Prince.
Prince Charles Augustus of Augustenburg, by the
selection of the French marshal, Bernadotte (see
Charles XIV.
, king of Sweden), who was adopted
by Charles XIII. and received the homage of the estates on
the 5th of November 1810.
The new crown prince was very soon the most popular and
the most powerful man in Sweden. The infirmity of the old
king, and the dissensions in the council of state,
Influence and Policy of Bernadotte.
placed the government and especially the control of
foreign affairs almost entirely in his hands; and he
boldly adopted a policy which was antagonistic indeed to the
wishes and hopes of the old school of Swedish statesmen, but,
perhaps, the best adapted to the circumstances. Finland he
at once gave up for lost. He knew that Russia would never
voluntarily relinquish the grand duchy, while Sweden could not
hope to retain it permanently, even if she reconquered it. But
the acquisition of Norway might make up for the loss of Finland;
and Bernadotte, now known as the crown prince Charles John,
argued that it might be an easy matter to persuade the anti-Napoleonic
powers to punish Denmark for her loyalty to France
by wresting Norway from her. Napoleon he rightly distrusted,
though at first he was obliged to submit to the emperor's dictation.
Thus on the 13th of November 1810, the Swedish government
was forced to declare war against Great Britain, though the
British government was privately informed at the same time that
Sweden was not a free agent and that the war would be a mere
demonstration. But the pressure of Napoleon became more
and more intolerable, culminating in the occupation of Pomerania
by French troops in 1812. The Swedish government thereupon
concluded a secret convention with Russia (treaty of Petersburg,
April 5, 1812), undertaking to send 30,000 men to operate
against Napoleon in Germany in return for a promise from
Alexander guaranteeing to Sweden the possession of Norway.
Too late Napoleon endeavoured to outbid Alexander by offering
to Sweden Finland, all Pomerania and Mecklenburg, in return for
Sweden's active co-operation against Russia.
The Orebro Riksdag (April-August 1812), remarkable besides
for its partial repudiation of Sweden's national debt and its
reactionary press laws, introduced general conscription into
Sweden, and thereby enabled the crown prince to carry out his
ambitious policy. In May 1812 he mediated a peace between
Russia and Turkey, so as to enable Russia to use all her forces
against France (peace of Bucharest); and on the 18th of July, at
Örebro, peace was also concluded between Great Britain on one
side and Russia and Sweden on the other. These two treaties
were, in effect, the corner-stones of a fresh coalition against
Napoleon, and were confirmed on the outbreak of the Franco-Russian
War by a conference between Alexander and Charles
John at Åbo on the 30th of August 1812, when the tsar undertook
to place an army corps of 35,000 men at the disposal of the
Swedish crown prince for the conquest of Norway.
The treaty of Åbo, and indeed the whole of Charles John's
foreign policy in 1812, provoked violent and justifiable criticism
among the better class of politicians in Sweden. The immorality
of indemnifying Sweden at the expense of a weaker friendly
power was obvious; and, while Finland was now definitively
sacrificed, Norway had still to be won. Moreover, Great Britain
and Russia very properly insisted that Charles John's first duty
was to the anti-Napoleonic coalition, the former power vigorously
objecting to the expenditure of her subsidies on the nefarious
Norwegian adventure before the common enemy had been
crushed. Only on his very ungracious compliance did Great
Britian also promise to countenance the union of Norway and
Sweden (treaty of Stockholm, March 3, 1813); and, on the
23rd of April, Russia gave her guarantee to the same effect. The
Swedish crown prince rendered several important services to the
allies during the campaign of 1813 (see
Charles XIV.
, king of
Sweden); but, after Leipzig, he went his own way, determined
at all hazards to cripple Denmark and secure Norway.
How this “job” was managed contrary to the dearest wishes
of the Norwegians themselves, and how, finally (Nov. 14,
Union with Norway.
1814), Norway as a free and independent kingdom
was united to Sweden under a common king, is
elsewhere described (see
Denmark
Norway
Charles XIV.
, king of Sweden;
Christian VIII.
, king of
Denmark).
Charles XIII. died on the 5th of February 1818, and was
succeeded by Bernadotte under the title of Charles XIV. John.
The new king devoted himself to the promotion of
Charles XIV., 1818-1844.
the material development of the country, the Göta
canal absorbing the greater portion of the twenty-four
millions of dalers voted for the purpose. The external debt
of Sweden was gradually extinguished, the internal debt considerably
reduced, and the budget showed an average annual surplus
of 700,000 dalers. With returning prosperity the necessity for
internal reform became urgent in Sweden. The antiquated
Riksdag, where the privileged estates predominated, while the
cultivated middle class was practically unrepresented, had
become an insuperable obstacle to all free development; but,
though the Riksdag of 1840 itself raised the question, the king
and the aristocracy refused to entertain it. Yet the reign of
Charles XIV. was, on the whole, most beneficial to Sweden;
and, if there was much just cause for complaint, his great
services to his adopted country were generally acknowledged.
Abroad he maintained a policy of peace based mainly on a good
understanding with Russia. Charles XIV.'s son
and successor King Oscar I. was much more liberally
Oscar I., 1844-1859.
inclined. Shortly after his accession (March 4, 1844)
he laid several projects of reform before the Riksdag; but the
estates would do little more than abolish the obsolete marriage
and inheritance laws and a few commercial monopolies. As the
financial situation necessitated a large increase of taxation, there
was much popular discontent, which culminated in riots in the
streets of Stockholm (March 1848). Yet, when fresh proposals
for parliamentary reform were laid before the Riksdag in 1849,
they were again rejected by three out of the four estates. As
regards foreign politics, Oscar I. was strongly anti-German.
On the outbreak of the Dano-Prussian War of 1848-49, Sweden
sympathized warmly with Denmark. Hundreds of Swedish
volunteers hastened to Schleswig-Holstein. The Riksdag voted
2,000,000 dalers for additional armaments. It was Sweden, too,
who mediated the truce of Malmö (Aug. 26, 1848), which
helped Denmark out of her difficulties. During the Crimean War
Sweden remained neutral, although public opinion was decidedly
anti-Russian, and sundry politicians regarded the conjuncture
as favourable for regaining Finland.
Oscar I. was succeeded (July 8, 1859) by his son,
Charles XV.
q.v.
), who had already acted as regent during his father's illnesses.
He succeeded, with the invaluable assistance
Charles XV., 1859-1872.
of the minister of justice,
Baron Louis Gerhard de Geer
q.v.
), in at last accomplishing the much-needed
reform of the constitution. The way had been prepared in 1860
by a sweeping measure of municipal reform; and, in January
1863, the government brought in a reform bill by the terms of
which the Riksdag was henceforth to consist of two
chambers, the Upper House being a sort of aristocratic
Constitutional Reform, 1866.
senate, while the members of the Lower
House were to be elected triennially by popular
suffrage. The new constitution was accepted by all four
estates in 1865 and promulgated on the 22nd of January
1866. On the 1st of September 1866, the first elections under
the new system were held; and on the 19th of January 1867,
the new Riksdag met for the first time. With this one
great reform Charles XV. had to be content; in all other
directions he was hampered, more or less, by his own creation.
The Riksdag refused to sanction his favourite project of a reform
of the Swedish army on the Prussian model, for which he laboured
all his life, partly from motives of economy, partly from an apprehension
of the king's martial tendencies. In 1864 Charles XV.
had endeavoured to form an anti-Prussian league with Denmark;
and after the defeat of Denmark he projected a Scandinavian
union, in order, with the help of France, to oppose Prussian
predominance in the north—a policy which naturally collapsed
with the overthrow of the French Empire in 1870. He died on
the 18th of September 1872, and was succeeded by his brother,
the duke of Gothland, who reigned as Oscar II. (
R. N. B.
The economic condition of Sweden, owing to the progress in
material prosperity which had taken place in the country as the
result of the Franco-German War, was at the accession
of Oscar II. to the throne on the 18th of September
Oscar II., 1872-1907.
1872 fairly satisfactory. Politically, however, the outlook
was not so favourable. In their results, the reforms
inaugurated during the preceding reign did not answer expectations.
Within three years of the introduction of the new
electoral laws De Geer's ministry had forfeited much of its former
popularity, and had been forced to resign. In the vital matter of
national defence no common understanding had been arrived at,
and during the conflicts which had raged round this question, the
two chambers had come into frequent collision and paralysed the
action of the government. The peasant proprietors, who, under
the name of the “Landtmanna” party,
formed a compact
majority in the Second Chamber, pursued a consistent policy of
class interests in the matter of the taxes and burdens that had, as
they urged, so long oppressed the Swedish peasantry; and consequently
when a bill was introduced for superseding the old system
of army organization by general compulsory service, they demanded
as a condition of its acceptance that the military burdens
should be more evenly distributed in the country, and that the
taxes, which they regarded as a burden under which they had
wrongfully groaned for centuries, should be abolished. In
these circumstances, the “Landtmanna” party in the Riksdag,
who desired the lightening of the military burden, joined those
who desired the abolition of landlordism, and formed a compact
and predominant majority in the Second Chamber, while the
burgher and Liberal parties were reduced to an impotent
“intelligence” minority. This majority in the Lower Chamber
was at once attacked by another compact majority in the Upper,
who on their side maintained that the hated land taxes were only
a kind of rent-charge on land, were incidental to it and in no way
weighed upon the owners, and, moreover, that its abolition would
be quite unwarrantable, as it was one of the surest sources of
revenue to the state. On the other hand, the First Chamber
refused to listen to any abolition of the old military system, so
long as the defence of the country had not been placed upon a
secure basis by the adoption of general compulsory military
service. The government stood midway between these conflicting
majorities in the chambers, without support in either.
Such was the state of affairs when Oscar II., surrounded by his
late brother's advisers, began his reign. One of his first cares
was to increase the strength of his navy, but in
The Party Compromise of 1874.
consequence of the continued antagonism of the
political parties, he was unable to effect much.
In the first Riksdag, however, the so-called “compromise,”
which afterwards played such an important part in Swedish
political life, came into existence. It originated in the small
“Scania” party in the Upper House, and was devised to establish
modus vivendi
between the conflicting parties,
i.e.
the champions
of national defence and those who demanded a lightening of
the burdens of taxation. The king himself perceived in the compromise
a means of solving the conflicting questions, and warmly
approved it. He persuaded his ministers to constitute a special
inquiry into the proposed abolition of land taxes, and in the
address with which he opened the Riksdag of 1875 laid particular
stress upon the necessity of giving attention to the settlement of
these two burning questions, and in 1880 again came forward
with a new proposal for increasing the number of years of service
with the militia. This motion having been rejected, De Geer
resigned, and was succeeded by Count Arvid Posse. The new
prime minister endeavoured to solve the question of defence in
accordance with the views of the “Landtmanna” party. Three
parliamentary committees had prepared schemes for a remission
of the land taxes, for a new system of taxation, for a reorganization
of the army based on a
stammtrupp
(regular army), by the
enlistment of hired soldiers, and for naval reforms. In this last
connexion the most suitable types of vessels for coast defence as
for offence were determined upon. But Count Posse, deserted
by his own party over the army bill, resigned, and was succeeded
on the 16th of May 1884 by Oscar Themptauder, who had been
minister of finance in the previous cabinet. The new premier
succeeded in persuading the Riksdag to pass a bill increasing
the period of service with the colours in the army to six years and
that in the militia to forty-two days, and as a set-off a remission
of 30% on the land taxes.
Influenced by the economic reaction which took place in 1879
in consequence of the state of affairs in Germany, Where Prince
Bismarck had introduced the protectionist system, a
Protectionist Movement.
protectionist party had been formed, which tried to
gain adherents in the Riksdag. It is true that in
the Riksdag of 1882 the commercial treaty with France was
renewed, but since 1885 the protectionist party was prepared to
begin the combat, and a duty on corn, which had been proposed
in the Riksdag of the same year, was rejected by only a slight
majority. During the period of the unusually low price of corn
of 1886, which greatly affected the Swedish farmers, protection
gained ground to such an extent that its final triumph was
considered as certain within a short time. During the Riksdag
of the same year, however, the premier, Themptauder, emphatically
declared himself against the protectionist party, and while
the parties in the Second Chamber were equal in number, the
proposed tax on corn was rejected in the First Chamber. In the
Riksdag of 1887 there was a majority for protection in the Second
Chamber, and in the first the majority against the tax was so
small that the tax on corn would have triumphed in a combined
meeting of the two chambers. The government, availing itself
of its formal right not to dissolve the chamber in which it had
the support of a majority, therefore dissolved only the Second
Chamber (March 1887).
The new Riksdag assembled in May with a free trade majority
in the Second Chamber, but nothing in connexion with the great
question of customs was settled. In the meantime, the powerful
majority in the Second Chamber split into two groups—the
new “Landtmanna” party, which approved protection in the
interests of agricultural classes; and a somewhat smaller group,
the old “Landtmanna” party, which favoured free trade.
The victory of the free traders was not, however, destined to
be of long duration, as the protectionists obtained a majority in
both chambers in the next Riksdag (1888). To the First Chamber
protectionists were almost exclusively elected, and in the Second
all the twenty-two members for Stockholm were disqualified,
owing to one of their number not having paid his taxes a few
years previously, which prevented his being eligible. Instead,
then, of twenty-two free traders representing the majority of the
Stockholm electors, twenty-two protectionists, representing the
minority, were elected, and Stockholm was thus represented in
the Riksdag by the choice of a minority in the capital. This
singular way of electing members for the principal city in the
kingdom could not fail further to irritate the parties. One
result of the Stockholm election came at a convenient time for
the Themptauder ministry. The financial affairs of the country
were found to be in a most unsatisfactory state. In spite of
reduced expenses, a highly estimated revenue, and the contemplated
raising of taxes, there was a deficit, for the payment or
discharge of which the government would be obliged to demand
supplementary supplies. The Themptauder ministry resigned.
The king retained, however, for a time several members of the
ministry, but it was difficult to find a premier who would be
able, during the transition from one system to another, to command
sufficient authority to control the parties. At last Baron
Gillis Bildt, who, while Swedish ambassador in Berlin, had witnessed
the introduction by Prince Bismarck of the agrarian
protectionist system in Germany, accepted the premiership, and
it was under his auspices that the two chambers imposed a series
of duties on necessaries of life. The new taxes, together with an
increase of the excise duty on spirits, soon brought a surplus into
the state coders. At a council of state (Oct. 12, 1888) the
king declared his wishes as to the way in which this surplus
should be used. He desired that it should be applied to a fund
for insurance and old age pensions for workmen and old people,
to the lightening of the municipal taxes by state contributions
to the schools and workhouses, to the abolition of the land taxes
and of the obligation of keeping a horse and man for military
service, and, lastly, to the improvement of the shipping trade;
but the Riksdag decided to devote it to other objects, such as
the payment of the deficit in the budget, the building of railways
and augmentation of their material, as well as to improvements in
the defences of the country.
Baron Bildt resigned as soon as the new system seemed settled,
making room for Baron Gustav Akerhjelm. The latter, however,
also soon resigned, and was succeeded on the 10th of July 1891 by
Erik Gustav Boström, a landed proprietor. The protectionist
system gained in favour on the expiry of the commercial treaty
with France in 1892, as it could now be extended to articles of
industry. The elections of 1890, when the metropolis returned
free traders and Liberals to the Second Chamber, certainly
effected a change in the latter, as the representatives of the towns
and the old “Landtmanna” party joined issue and established a
free-trade majority in the chamber, but in the combined meetings
of the two chambers the compact protectionist majority in the
First Chamber turned the scale. The customs duties were,
however, altered several times in accordance with market prices
and ruling circumstances. Thus in 1892, when the import duty
on unground corn was reduced from 2s. 10d. to 1s. 5d., and that
on ground corn from 4s. 9d. to 2s. 10d. for 100 kilogrammes, the
same duties were also retained for the following year. They were
also retained for 1894 at the request of the government, which
desired to keep faith with their promise that while the new
organization of the army was going on no increase of duties on
the necessaries of life should take place. This measure caused
much dissatisfaction, and gave rise to a strong agrarian movement,
in consequence of which the government, in the beginning
of 1895, before the assembling of the Riksdag, made use of its
right of raising the two duties on corn just referred to, 3s. 7d.
and 7s. 2d., which were afterwards somewhat reduced as far as
seed corn for sowing purposes was concerned.
The question of customs duties now settled, that of national
defence was taken up afresh, and in the following year the
government produced a complete scheme for the
National Defence.
abolition of the land tax in the course of ten years,
in exchange for a compensation of ninety days' drill
for those liable to military service, proposed to retain the old
military system of the country and to strengthen the defences
of Norrland, and the government bill for a reorganization of the
army was accepted by the Riksdag in an extraordinary session.
But it was soon perceived that the new plan was unsatisfactory
and required recasting, upon which the minister of war, Baron
Rappe, resigned, and was succeeded by Colonel von Crustebjorn,
who immediately set to work to prepare a complete reorganization
of the army, with an increase of the time of active service
on the lines of general compulsory service. The Riksdag of 1900,
in addition to grants for the fortifications at Boden, in the province
of Norrbotten, on the Russian border, and other military
objects, voted a considerable grant for an experimental mobilization,
which fully exposed the defects and faults of the old system.
In the Riksdag of 1901 E. G. Boström resigned, and was succeeded
by Admiral F. W. von Otter, who introduced a new bill for the
army reorganization, the most important item of which was the
increase of the period of training to 365 days. The cost in connexion
with the new scheme was expected to amount to 22 millions
of kronor. The Riksdag, however, did not accept the new plan
in its full extent. The time of drilling was reduced to 240 days
for the infantry, to 300 days for the navy, while for the cavalry
and artillery the time fixed was 365 days. The plan, thus
modified, was then accepted by the government.
After the elections in 1890, the alliance already mentioned
between the old “Landtmanna” party and the representatives
of the towns had the result that the Liberals in the
Franchise Reform.
Second Chamber, to whom the representatives of the
towns mostly belonged, were now in a position to
decide the policy which the two united parties should follow. In
order to prevent this, it was proposed to readjust the number of
the members of the Riksdag. The question was only settled in
1894, when a bill was passed fixing the number of the members of
the Riksdag in the First Chamber at 150, and in the Second at
230, of which 150 should represent the country districts and 80
the towns. The question of protection being now considered
settled, there was no longer any reason for the continued separation
of the two “Landtmanna” parties, who at the beginning of
the Riksdag of 1895 joined issue and became once more a compact
majority in the Second Chamber, as they had been up to the
Riksdag of May 1887. The influence of the country representatives
was thus re-established in the Second Chamber, but now
the demands for the extension of the franchise came more and
more to the front, and the premier, Boström, at last felt bound
to do something to meet these demands. He accordingly introduced
in the Riksdag of 1896 a very moderate bill for the extension
of the franchise, which was, nevertheless, rejected by both
chambers, all similar proposals by private members meeting the
same fate. When at last the bill for the reorganization of the
army, together with a considerably increased taxation, was
accepted by the Riksdag of 1901, it was generally acknowledged
that, in return for the increased taxation, it would only be just
to extend the right of taking part in the political life and the
legislative work of the country to those of the population who
hitherto had been excluded from it. The government eventually
laid a proposal for the extension of the franchise before the
Riksdag of 1902, the chief feature of which was that the elector
should be twenty-five years of age, and that married men over
forty years should be entitled to two votes. The Riksdag, however,
finally agreed to a proposal by Bishop Billing, a member of
the First Chamber, that an address should be presented to the
king asking for a full inquiry into the question of extending the
franchise for the election of members to the Second Chamber.
In 1897 the Riksdag had received among its members the
first socialistic representative in the person of R. H. Brauting,
the leader of the Swedish Social Democrats. The
Labour Movement.
Socialists, who had formerly confined their activity
to questions affecting the working classes and their
wages, took, however, in 1902 an active part in the agitation for
the extension of the franchise. Processions of many thousands
of workmen were organized, in Stockholm and in other towns
of the kingdom, just before the Riksdag began the discussion
on the above-mentioned bill of the government, and when
the bill was introduced in the chambers a general and well organized
strike took place and continued during the three days
the debate on the bill lasted. As this strike was of an exclusively
political kind, and was intended to put pressure on the
chambers, it was generally disapproved, and failed in its object.
The prime minister, Admiral von Otter, resigned shortly after the
end of the session, and was succeeded by Boström, the ex premier,
who at the request of the king again assumed office.
The relations with Norway during King Oscar's reign had
great influence on political life in Sweden, and more than once it
seemed as if the union between the two countries was
on the point of being wrecked. The dissensions
Relations with Norway.
chiefly had their origin in the demand by Norway
for separate consuls and foreign ministers, to which reference
is made under
Norway
. At last, after vain negotiations and
discussions, the Swedish government in 1895 gave notice to
Norway that the commercial treaty which till then had existed
between the two countries and would lapse in July 1897 would,
according to a decision in the Riksdag, cease, and as Norway at
the time had raised the customs duties, a considerable diminution
in the exports of Sweden to Norway took place. The Swedish
minister of foreign affairs, Count Lewenhaupt, who was
considered as too friendly disposed towards the Norwegians,
resigned, and was replaced by Count Ludvig Douglas, who
represented the opinion of the majority in the First Chamber.
When, however, the Norwegian Storthing, for the third
time, passed a bill for a national or “pure” flag, which
King Oscar eventually sanctioned, Count Douglas resigned
in his turn and was succeeded by the Swedish minister at
Berlin, Lagerheim, who managed to pilot the questions of the
union into more quiet waters. He succeeded all the better
as the new elections to the Riksdag of 1900 showed clearly
that the Swedish people was not inclined to follow the ultraconservative
or so-called “patriotic” party, which resulted in
the resignation of the two leaders of that party, Professor Oscar
Alin and Count Marschal Patrick Reutersvard as members of the
First Chamber. On the other hand, ex-Professor E. Carlson,
of the High School of Gothenburg, succeeded in forming a
party of Liberals and Radicals to the number of about 90
members, who, besides being in favour of the extension of the
franchise, advocated the full equality of Norway with Sweden
in the management of foreign affairs. (
O. H. D.
The state of quietude which for some time prevailed with
regard to the relations with Norway was not, however, to be of
long duration. The question of separate consuls
The Dissolution of the Union with Norway.
for Norway soon came up again. In 1902 the
Swedish government proposed that negotiations in
this matter should be opened with the Norwegian
government, and that a joint committee, consisting of representatives
from both countries, should be appointed to consider
the question of a separate consular service without in any way
interfering with the existing administration of the diplomatic
affairs of the two countries. The result of the negotiations was
published in a so-called “communiqué,” dated the 24th of March
1903, in which, among other things, it was proposed that the
relations of the separate consuls to the joint ministry of foreign
affairs and the embassies should be arranged by identical laws,
which could not be altered or repealed without the consent of
the governments of the two countries. The proposal for these
identical laws, which the Norwegian government in May 1904
submitted, did not meet with the approval of the Swedish
government. The latter in their reply proposed that the
Swedish foreign minister should have such control over the
Norwegian consuls as to prevent the latter from exceeding their
authority.
This proposal, however, the Norwegian government
found unacceptable, and explained that, if such control were
insisted upon, all further negotiations would be purposeless.
They maintained that the Swedish demands were incompatible
with the sovereignty of Norway, as the foreign minister was a
Swede and the proposed Norwegian consular service, as a Norwegian
institution, could not be placed under a foreign authority.
A new proposal by the Swedish government was likewise rejected,
and in February 1905 the Norwegians broke off the negotiations.
Notwithstanding this an agreement did not appear to be out of
the question. All efforts to solve the consular question by itself
had failed, but it was considered that an attempt might be made
to establish separate consuls in combination with a joint administration
of diplomatic affairs on a full unionistic basis. Crown
Prince Gustaf, who during the illness of King Oscar was appointed
regent, took the initiative of renewing the negotiations between
the two countries, and on the 5th of April in a combined Swedish
and Norwegian council of state made a proposal for a reform both
of the administration of diplomatic affairs and of the consular
service on the basis of full equality between the two kingdoms,
with the express reservation, however, of a joint foreign minister—Swedish
or Norwegian—as a condition for the existence of the
union. This proposal was approved of by the Swedish Riksdag
on the 3rd of May 1905. In order that no obstacles should be
placed in the way for renewed negotiations, Mr Boström, the
prime minister, resigned and was succeeded by Mr Ramstedt.
The proposed negotiations were not, however, renewed.
On the 23rd of May the Norwegian Storthing passed the
government's proposal for the establishment of separate
Norwegian consuls, and as King Oscar, who again had resumed the
reins of government, made use of his constitutional right to veto
the bill, the Norwegian ministry tendered their resignation. The
king, however, declared he could not now accept their resignation
whereupon the ministry at a sitting of the Norwegian Storthing
on the 7th of June placed their resignation in its hands. The
Storthing thereupon unanimously adopted a resolution stating
that, as the king had declared himself unable to form a government,
the constitutional royal power “ceased to be operative,”
whereupon the ministers were requested, until further instructions,
to exercise the power vested in the king, and as King Oscar
thus had ceased to act as “the king of Norway,” the union with
Sweden was in consequence dissolved.
In Sweden, where they were least of all prepared for the turn
things had taken, the action of the Storthing created the greatest
surprise and resentment. The king solemnly
protested against what had taken place and summoned
The First Extraordinary Riksdag, 1907.
an extraordinary session of the Riksdag for the 20th
of June to consider what measures should be taken
with regard to the question of the union, which had
arisen suddenly through the revolt of the Norwegians on the
7th of June. The Riksdag declared that it was not opposed to
negotiations being entered upon regarding the conditions for
the dissolution of the union if the Norwegian Storthing, after
a new election, made a proposal for the repeal of the Act
of Union between the two countries, or, if a proposal to this
effect was made by Norway after the Norwegian people,
through a plebiscite, had declared in favour of the dissolution
of the union. The Riksdag further resolved that 100 million
kroner (about £555,000) should be held in readiness and be available
as the Riksdag might decide. On the resignation of the
Ramstedt ministry Mr Lundeberg formed a coalition ministry
consisting of members of the various parties in the Riksdag,
after which the Riksdag was prorogued on the 3rd of August.
After the plebiscite in Norway on the 13th of August had
decided in favour of the dissolution of the union and after the
Storthing had requested the Swedish government to
The Karlstad Convention.
co-operate with it for the repeal of the Act of Union,
a conference of delegates from both countries was
convened at Karlstad on the 31st of August. On the 23rd
of September the delegates came to an agreement, the
principal points of which were: that such disputes between
the two countries which could not be settled by direct
diplomatic negotiations, and which did not affect the vital
interests of either country, should be referred to the permanent
court of arbitration at the Hague, that on either side
of the southern frontier a neutral zone of about fifteen kilometres
width should be established, and that within eight months the
fortifications within the Norwegian part of the zone should be
destroyed. Other clauses dealt with the rights of the Laplanders
to graze their reindeer alternatively in either country, and
with the question of transport of goods across the frontier by
rail or other means of communication, so that the traffic should
not be hampered by any import or export prohibitions or
otherwise.
From the 2nd to the 19th of October the extraordinary
Riksdag was again assembled, and eventually approved of the
arrangement come to by the delegates at Karlstad
with regard to the dissolution of the union as well
as the government proposal for the repeal of
The Second Extraordinary Riksdag.
the Act of Union and the recognition of Norway
as an independent state. An alteration in the Swedish flag
was also decided upon, by which the mark of union was
to be replaced by an azure-blue square. An offer from
the Norwegian Storthing to elect a prince of the Swedish
royal house as king in Norway was declined by King Oscar,
who now on behalf of himself and his successors renounced
the right to the Norwegian crown. Mr Lundeberg, who had
accepted office only to settle the question of the dissolution of the
union, now resigned and was succeeded by a Liberal government
with Mr Karl Staaff as prime minister.
The question of the extension of the franchise, which was a
burning one, was to be the principal measure of the Staaff
government. It brought in a bill for manhood
suffrage at elections for the Second Chamber,
together with single member constituencies and
The Franchise Question.
election on the absolute majority principle. The bill was
passed by the Second Chamber on the 15th of May 1906,
by 134 to 94 votes, but it was rejected by the First
Chamber by 126 to 18. The latter chamber instead
passed a bill for manhood suffrage at elections for the Second
Chamber, on the condition that the elections for both chambers
should take place on the basis of proportional representation.
Both chambers thereupon decided to ask the opinion of the king
with regard to the simultaneous extension of the franchise to
women at elections for the Second Chamber. The government
bill having, however, been passed by the Second Chamber, the
prime minister proposed to the king that the Riksdag should
be dissolved and new elections for the Second Chamber take
place in order to hear the opinion of the country, but as the king
did not approve of this Mr Staaff and his government resigned.
A Conservative government was then formed on the 29th of
May by Mr Lindman, whose principal task was to find a solution
of the suffrage question which both chambers could accept. A
government bill was introduced, proposing the settlement of the
question on the basis of the bill carried by the First Chamber in
the Riksdag of the preceding year. A compromise, approved of
by the government, was adopted by the First Chamber on the
14th of May 1907 by 110 votes against 29 and in the Second
Chamber by 128 against 98. By this act proportional representation
was established for both chambers, together with universal
manhood suffrage at elections for the Second Chamber, a reduction
of the qualifications for eligibility for the First Chamber
and a reduction of the electoral term of this chamber from nine
to six years, and finally payment of members of the First
Chamber, who hitherto had not received any such emolument.
King Oscar II. died on the 9th of December 1907, sincerely
regretted by his people, and was succeeded as king of Sweden by
his eldest son, Prince Gustaf. During King Oscar’s reign many
important social reforms were carried out by the legislature, and
the country developed in all directions. In the Riksdag of 1884
a new patent law was adopted, the age at which women should
be held to attain their majority was fixed at twenty-one years
and the barbarous prison punishment of “bread and water”
abolished. In order to meet the cost of the new army organization
the Riksdag of 1902 increased the revenue by progressive
taxation, but only for one year. Bills for the improvement of the
social conditions of the people and in the interests of the working
classes were also passed. During the five years 1884–1889 a
committee was occupied with the question of workmen’s insurance,
and thrice the government made proposals for its settlement,
on the last occasion adopting the principle of invalidity
as a common basis for insurance against accidents, illness or
old age. The Riksdag, however, delayed coming to a decision,
and contented itself by earmarking money for an insurance
fund. At last the Riksdag of 1901 accepted a Bill for insurance
against accidents which also extended to agricultural labourers,
in connexion with the establishment of a state institution for
insurance. The bill for protection against accidents, as well as
for the limitation of working hours for women and children, was
passed, together with one for the appointment of special factory
inspectors. When in 1897 King Oscar celebrated his jubilee
of twenty-five years as king, the exhibition which had been
organized in Stockholm offered a convincing proof of the
progress the country had made in every direction.
Authorities
.—
Historiska handlingar rörande Skandinaviens
historia
(Stockholm, 1816–1897, &c.);
Svenska Riksdagsakter, 1521–1718
(ibid., 1887);
Sveriges historia
(ibid., 1883–1887); P. Backström,
Svenska flottans historia
(ibid., 1884); R. N. Bain,
Scandinavia,
1513–1900
(Cambridge, 1905);
Bidrag til den store nordiske krigs
historie
(Copenhagen, 1900); F. F. Carlson,
Sveriges historie under
konungarne af Pfalziska Huset
(Stockholm, 1883–1888);
A. Fryxell
Berǎttelser ur svenska historien
(ibid., 1831, &c.); C. Grandinson,
Studier i hanseatisk svensk historia
(ibid., 1884); C. G. Malmström,
Sveriges politiska historia
(ibid., 1893–1901); A. Nyström,
Striderna i östra Europa mellan Ryssland
Polen och Sverige
(ibid., 1903); E. Seraphim,
Geschichte Liv- Est- und Kurlands
bis zur Einverleibung in das russische Reich
(Reval, 1895);
C. Silfverstolpe,
Historiskt bibliothek
(Stockholm, 1875); R. Tengberg,
Sverige under partihvalvet
(ibid., 1879
;)
);
K. G. Westman,
Svenska Rådets historia
(Upsala, 1904);
Bidrag till Sveriges
medeltids historia
(Upsala, 1902); A. Szelagowski,
The Fight
for the Baltic
(Pol.; Warsaw, 1904); K. Setterwall,
Förteckning öfver
Acta Svecica
(Stockholm, 1889); J. Mankell,
Öfversigt af svenska
krigens historia
(ibid., 1890); A. Strindberg,
Les Rélations de la
France avec la Suède
(Paris, 1891); Pontus E. Fahlbeck,
La Constitution
suédoise et le parlementarisme moderne
(1905); E. Flandin,
Institutions
politiques de l’Europe contemporaine
(1909), tome iv. See also
the bibliographies attached to the articles
Denmark
History
Norway
History
Finland
History
; as well as the special bibliographies
attached to the various biographies of Swedish sovereigns
and statesmen.
Swedish Literature
Swedish literature, as distinguished from compositions in the
common
norraena tunga
of old Scandinavia, cannot be said to
exist earlier than the 13th century. Nor until the period of the
Reformation was its development in any degree rapid or copious.
The oldest form in which Swedish exists as a written language
(see
Scandinavian Language
) is the series of manuscripts
known as
Landskapslagarne
, or “The Common Laws.” These
are supposed to be the relics of a still earlier age, and it is hardly
believed that we even possess the first that was put down in
writing. The most important and the most ancient of these codes
is the “Elder West Göta Law,” reduced to its present form by
the law-man Eskil about 1230. Another of great interest is
Magnus Eriksson’s “General Common Law,” which was written
in 1347. These ancient codes have been collected and edited by
the learned jurist, K. J. Schlyter (1795–1888) as
Corpus juris
Sveo-Gotorum antiqui
(4 vols., 1827–1869). The chief ornament
of medieval Swedish literature is
Um styrilse kununga ok
höfdinga
(“On the Conduct of Kings and Princes”), first printed
by command of Gustavus II. Adolphus, in 1634. The writer
is not known; it has been conjecturally dated 1325. It is a handbook
of moral and political teaching, expressed in terse and vigorous
language. St Bridget, or Birgitta (1303–1373), an historical
figure of extraordinary interest, has left her name attached to
several important religious works, in particular to a collection of
Uppenbarelser
(“Revelations”), in which her visions and ecstatic
meditations are recorded, and a version, the first into Swedish,
of the five books of Moses. This latter was undertaken, at her
desire, by her father-confessor Mattias (d. 1350), a priest at Linköping.
The translation of the Bible was continued a century
later by a monk named Johannes Budde (d. 1484).
In verse the earliest Swedish productions were probably the
folk-song.
The age of these, however, has been commonly
exaggerated. It is doubtful whether any still exist which are
as old, in their present form, as the 13th century. The bulk are
now attributed to the 15th, and many are doubtless much later
still. The last, such as “Axel och Valborg,” “Liten Karin,”
“Kämpen Grimborg,” and “Habor och Signild,” deal with the
adventures of romantic medieval romance. Almost the only
positive clue we hold to the date of these poems is the fact that
one of the most characteristic of them, “Engelbrekt,” was
written by Thomas, bishop of Strengnäs, who died in 1443.
Thomas, who left other poetical pieces, is usually called the
first Swedish poet. There are three rhyming chronicles in
medieval Swedish, all anonymous. The earliest,
Erikskronikan
10
is attributed to 1320; the romance of Karl Magnus,
Nya
Karlskrönikan
, describing the period between 1387 and 1452, which is
sometimes added to the earlier work, dates from the middle of
the 15th century; and the third,
Sturekrönikorna
, was probably
written about 1500. The collection of rhymed romances which
bears the name of
Queen Euphemia's Songs
must have been
written before the death of the Norwegian queen in 1312. They
are versions of three medieval stories taken from French and
German sources, and dealt with the Chevalier au lion, of Chrestien
de Troyes, with Duke Frederick of Normandy, and with Flores
and Blancheflor. They possess very slight poetic merit in their
Swedish form. A little later the romance of
King Alexander
11
was translated by, or at the command of, Bo Jonsson Grip; this
is more meritorious. Bishop Thomas, who died in 1443, wrote
many political songs; and a number of narrative poems date
from the close of the century. A brilliant and pathetic relic
of the close of the medieval period exists in the
Love Letters
addressed in 1498 by Ingrid Persdotter, a nun of Vadstena, to
the young knight Axel Nilsson. The first book printed in the
Swedish language appeared in 1495.
The 16th century added but little to Swedish literature, and
that little is mostly connected with the newly-founded university
of Upsala. The Renaissance scarcely made itself felt in Scandinavia,
and even the Reformation failed to waken the genius of the
country. Psalms and didactic spiritual poems were the main
products of Swedish letters in the 16th century. Two writers,
the brothers Petri, sons of a smith at Orebro, take an easy
prominence in so barren a period. Olaus Petri (1493–1552) and
The Petri.
Laurentius Petri (1499–1573) were Carmelite monks
who adopted the Lutheran doctrine while studying
at Wittenberg, and came back to Sweden in 1518 as the apostles
of the new faith. Olaus, who is one of the noblest figures in
Swedish annals, was of the executive rather than the meditative
class. He became chancellor to Gustavus Vasa, but his reforming
zeal soon brought him into disgrace, and in 1540 he was
condemned to death. Two years later he was pardoned, and
allowed to resume his preaching in Stockholm. He found time,
however, to write a
Swedish Chronicle
, which is the earliest prose
history of Sweden, a mystery-play,
Tobiae comedia
, which is the
first Swedish drama, and three psalm-books, the best known
being published in 1530 under the title of
Någre gudhelige
vijsor
(“Certain Divine Songs”). His
Chronicle
was based on
a number of sources, in the treatment of which he showed a
discrimination which makes the work still useful. Laurentius
Petri, who was a man of calmer temperament, was archbishop of
all Sweden, and edited or superintended the translation of the
Bible published at Upsala in 1540. He also wrote many psalms.
Laurentius Andreae, 1552, had previously prepared a translation
of the New Testament, which appeared in 1526. He was a
polemical writer of prominence on the side of the Reformers.
Finally, Petrus Niger (Peder Svart), bishop of Vesterås (d. 1562),
wrote a chronicle of the life of Gustavus I. up to 1533, in excellent
prose. The same writer left unpublished a history of the
bishops of Vesterås, his predecessors. The latter half of the
16th century is a blank in Swedish literature.
With the accession of Charles IX., and the consequent development
of Swedish greatness, literature began to assert itself in
more vigorous forms. The long life of the royal
librarian, Johannes Bure or Buraeus (1568–1652),
formed a link between the age of the Petri and that of Stjernhjelm.
Buraeus studied all the sciences then known to mankind,
Buraeus.
and confounded them all in a sort of Rabbinical cultus of his
own invention, a universal philosophy in a multitude of unreadable
volumes.
12
But he was a patient antiquary, and advanced
the knowledge of ancient Scandinavian mythology and language
very considerably. He awakened curiosity and roused a public
sympathy with letters; nor was it without significance that two
of the greatest Swedes of the century, Gustavus Adolphus and
the poet Stjernhjelm, were his pupils. The reign of Charles IX.
saw the rise of secular drama in Sweden. The first comedy was
the
Tisbe
of Magnus Olai Asteropherus (d. 1647), a coarse but
witty piece on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, acted by the
schoolboys of the college of Arboga in 1610. This play is the
Ralph Roister Doister
of Swedish literature. A greater dramatist
was Johannes Messenius (1579–1636), who was the son of a
miller near Vadstena and had been carefully educated abroad by
the Jesuits. Being discovered plotting against the government
during the absence of Gustavus in Russia, he was condemned to
imprisonment for life—that is, for twenty years. Before this
disaster he had been professor of jurisprudence in Upsala, where
his first historical comedy
Disa
was performed in 1611 and the
tragedy of
Signill
in 1612. The design of Messenius was to write
the history of his country in fifty plays; he completed and produced
six. These dramas
13
are not particularly well arranged,
but they form a little body of theatrical literature of singular
interest and value. Messenius was a genuine poet; the lyrics
he introduces have something of the charm of the old ballads.
He wrote abundantly in prison; his magnum opus was a history of
Sweden in Latin, but he has also left, in Swedish, two important
rhyme-chronicles. Messenius was imitated by a little crowd
of playwrights. Nikolaus Holgeri Catonius (d. 1655) wrote a fine
tragedy on the Trojan War,
Troijenborgh
, in which he excelled
Messenius as a dramatist. Andreas Prytz, who died in 1655 as
bishop of Linköping, produced several religious chronicle plays
from Swedish history. Jacobus Rondeletius (d. 1662) wrote a
curious “Christian tragi-comedy” of
Judas redivivus
, which
contains some amusing scenes from daily Swedish life. Another
good play was an anonymous
Holofernes and Judith
(edited at
Upsala, 1895, by O. Sylwan). These plays were all acted by
schoolboys and university youths, and when they went out of
fashion among these classes the drama in Sweden almost entirely
ceased to exist. Two historians of the reign of Charles IX., Erik
Göransson Tegel (d. 1636) and Aegidius Girs (d. 1639), deserve
mention. The chancellor Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie (1622–1686)
did much to promote the study of Swedish antiquities.
He founded the College of Antiquities at Upsala in 1667, and
bought back the Gothic
Codex argenteus
which he presented to the
university library.
The reign of Gustavus Adolphus was adorned by one great
writer, the most considerable in all the early history of Sweden.
The title of “the Father of Swedish poetry” has
been universally awarded to Göran Lilja, better
known by his adopted name of
Georg Stjernhjelm
q.v.
; 1598–1672).
Stjernhjelm.
Stjernhjelm was a man of almost universal attainment,
but it is mainly in verse that he has left his stamp upon
the literature of his country. He found the language rough
and halting, and he moulded it into perfect smoothness and
elasticity. His master, Buraeus, had written a few Swedish
hexameters by way of experiment. Stjernhjelm took the form
and made it national.
The claim of Stjernhjelm to be the first Swedish poet may
be contested by a younger man, but a slightly earlier writer,
Gustaf Rosenhane (1619-1684), who was a reformer
Rosenhane.
on quite other lines. If Stjernhjelm studied
Opitz, Rosenhane took the French poets of the Renaissance
for his models, and in 1650 wrote a cycle of one hundred
sonnets, the earliest in the language; these were published under
the title
Venerid
in 1680. Rosenhane printed in 1658 a “Complaint
of the Swedish Language” in thirteen hundred rattling
rhyming lines, and in 1682 collection of eighty songs. He
was a metrist of the artistic order, skilful, learned and
unimpassioned. His zeal for the improvement of the literature
of his country was beyond question. Most of the young poets,
however, followed Stjernhjelm rather than Rosenhane. As
personal friends and pupils of the former, the brothers Columbus
deserve special attention. They were sons of a musician
and poet, Jonas Columbus (1586-1663). Each wrote copiously
in verse, but Johan (1640-1684), who was professor of poetry
at Upsala, almost entirely in Latin, while Samuel (1642-1679),
especially in his
Odae sveticae
, showed himself an apt and
fervid imitator of the Swedish hexameters of Stjernhjelm, to
whom he was at one time secretary, and whose Hercules he
dramatized. His works were included by P. Hanselli in vol. ii.
of
Samlade vitterhets arbeten
, &c.
Of a rhyming family of Hjärne, it is enough to mention one
member, Urban Hjärne (1641-1724), who introduced the new
form of classical tragedy from France, in a species of transition
from the masques of Stjernhjelm to the later regular rhymed
dramas. His best play was a
Rosimunda
. Lars Johansson
(1642-1674), who called himself “Lucidor the Unfortunate,”
has been the subject of a whole tissue of romance, most of which
is fabulous. It is true, however, that he was stabbed, like
Marlowe, in a midnight brawl at a tavern. His poems were
posthumously collected as
Flowers of Helicon, Plucked and
Distributed on various occasions by Lucidor the Unfortunate.
Stripped of the myth which had attracted so much attention
to his name, Lucidor proves to be an occasional rhymester of
a very low order. Haquin Spegel (1645-1714), the famous archbishop
of Upsala, wrote a long didactic epic in alexandrines,
God's Labour and Rest
, with an introductory ode to the Deity
in rhymed hexameters. He was also a good writer of hymns.
Another ecclesiastic, the bishop of Skara, Jesper Svedberg
(1653-1735), wrote sacred verses, but is better remembered as
the father of Swedenborg. Peter Lagerlöf (1648-1699) cultivated
a pastoral vein in his ingenious lyrics
Elisandra
and
Lycillis
he was professor of poetry, that is to say, of the art of writing
Latin verses, at Upsala. Olof Wexionius (1656-1690?) published
his
Sinne-Afvel
, a collection of graceful miscellaneous
pieces, in 1684, in an edition of only 100 copies. Its existence
was presently forgotten, and the name of Wexionius had dropped
out of the history of literature, when Hanselli recovered a copy
and reprinted its contents in 1863.
We have hitherto considered only the followers of Stjernhjelm;
we have now to speak of an important writer who followed in
the footsteps of Rosenhane. Gunno Eurelius,
Dahlstjerna
afterwards ennobled with the name of
Dahlstjerna
q.v.
; 1661-1709), early showed an interest in the poetry
of Italy. In 1690 he translated Guarini's
Pastor Fido
, and
in or just after 1697 published, in a folio volume without
a date, his
Kunga-Skald
, the first original poem in
ottava rima
produced in Swedish. This is a bombastic and vainglorious
epic in honour of Charles XI., whom Eurelius adored; it
is not, however, without great merits, richness of language,
flowing metre, and the breadth of a genuine poetic enthusiasm.
He published a little collection of lamentable sonnets when his
great master died. Johan Paulinus Liljenstedt (1655-1732),
a Finn, was a graceful imitator of Ronsard and Guarini. Johan
Runius (1679-1713), called the “Prince of Poets,” published a
collection entitled
Dudaim
, in which there is nothing to praise,
and with him the generation of the 17th century closes. Talent
had been shown by certain individuals, but no healthy school
of Swedish poetry had been founded, and the latest imitators
of Stjernhjelm had lost every vestige of taste and independence.
In prose the 17th century produced but little of importance
in Sweden. Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) was the most
polished writer of its earlier half, and his speeches
take an important place in the development of the
Rudbeck.
language. The most original mind of the next age was Olof
Rudbeck (1630-1702), the famous author of
Atland eller
Manhem
. He spent nearly all his life in Upsala, building
anatomical laboratories, conducting musical concerts, laying
out botanical gardens, arranging medical lecture rooms—in
a word, expending ceaseless energy on the practical
improvement of the university. He was a genius in all the
known branches of learning; at twenty-three his physiological
discoveries had made him famous throughout Europe. His
Atland
(or
Atlantika
) appeared in four folio volumes, in Latin and
Swedish, in 1675-1698; it was an attempt to summon all the
authority of the past, all the sages of Greece and the bards of
Iceland, to prove the inherent and indisputable greatness of the
Swedish nation, in which the fabulous Atlantis had been at last
discovered. It was the literary expression of the majesty of
Charles XI., and of his autocratical dreams for the destiny of
Sweden. From another point of view it is a monstrous hoard
or cairn of rough-hewn antiquarian learning, now often praised,
sometimes quoted from, and never read. Olof Verelius (1618-1682)
had led the way for Rudbeck, by his translations of
Icelandic sagas, a work which was carried on with greater
intelligence by Johan Peringskjöld (1654-1720), the editor
of the
Heimskringla
(1697), and J. Hadorph (1630-1693). The
French philosopher Descartes, who died at Christina's court
at Stockholm in 1650, found his chief, though posthumous,
disciple in Andreas Rydelius (1671-1738), bishop of Lund, who
was the master of Dalin, and thus connects us with the next
epoch. His chief work,
Nödiga förnuftsöfningar
. . . (5 vols.)
appeared in 1718. Charles XII., under whose special patronage
Rydelius wrote, was himself a meta physician and physiologist
of merit.
A much more brilliant period followed the death of Charles
XII. The influence of France and England took the place of
that of Germany and Italy. The taste of Louis XIV., tempered
by the study of Addison and Pope, gave its tone to the
academical court of Queen Louise Ulrica, who founded in
1758 the academy of literature, which developed later into the
academy of literature, history and antiquities.
Sweden became completely a slave to the periwigs of literature,
to the unities and graces of classical France. Nevertheless
this was a period of great intellectual stimulus and activity, and
Swedish literature took a solid shape for the first time. This
Augustan period in Sweden closed somewhat abruptly about
1765. Two writers in verse connect it with the school of the
preceding century. Jacob Frese (1692?-1728?), a Finn,
whose poems were published in 1726, was an elegiacal writer
of much grace, who foreshadowed the idyllic manner of Creutz.
Atterbom pronounces Frese the best Swedish poet between
Stjernhjelm and Dalin. Samuel von Triewald (1688-1743)
played a very imperfect Dryden to Dalin's Pope. He was the
first Swedish satirist, and introduced Boileau to his countrymen.
His
Satire upon our Stupid Poets
may still be read with
entertainment.
14
Both in verse and prose
Olof von Dalin
Dalin.
q.v.
; 1708-1763) takes a higher place than any
writer since Stjernhjelm. He was inspired by the
study of his great English contemporaries. His
Swedish
Argus
(1733-1734) was modelled on Addison's
Spectator
, his
Thoughts about Critics
(1736) on Pope's
Essay on Criticism
his
Tale of a Horse
on Swift's
Tale of a Tub
. Dalin's style,
whether in prose or verse, was of a finished elegance. As a
prose writer Dalin is chiefly memorable for his
History of the
Swedish Kingdom
(4 vols., 1746–1762). His great epic,
Swedish
Freedom
(1742) was Written in alexandrines of far greater
smoothness and vigour than had previously been attempted.
When in 1737 the new Royal Swedish Theatre was opened,
Dalin led the way to a new school of dramatists with his
Brynhilda
, a regular tragedy in the style of Crébillon
père
. In his
comedy of
The Envious Man
he introduced the manner of
Molière, or more properly that of Holberg. His songs, his satires,
his occasional pieces, without displaying any real originality,
show Dalin's tact and skill as a workman with the pen. He
stole from England and France, but with the plagiarism of a
man of genius; and his multifarious labours raised Sweden to a
level with the other literary countries of Europe. They formed
a basis upon which more national and more scrupulous writers
could build their various structures. A foreign critic, especially
an English one, will never be able to give Dalin so much credit
as the Swedes do; but he was certainly an unsurpassable master
of
pastiche
. His works were collected in 6 vols., 1767.
The only poet of importance who contested the laurels of
Dalin was a woman. Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718–1763)
was the centre of a society which took the
name of
Tankebyggare Orden
and ventured to rival
that which Queen Louise Ulrica created and Dalin
adorned. Both groups were classical in taste, both worshipped
Fru Nordenflycht.
the new lights in England and France. Fru Nordenflycht
wrote with facility and grace; her collection of lyrics,
The
Sorrowing Turtledove
(1743), in spite of its affectation,
enjoyed and merited a great success; it was the expression of a
deep and genuine sorrow—the death of her husband after a
very brief and happy married life. It was in 1744 that she
settled in Stockholm and opened her famous literary salon.
She was called “The Swedish Sappho,” and scandal has been
needlessly busy in giving point to the allusion. It was to Fru
Nordenflycht's credit that she discovered and encouraged the
talent of two very distinguished poets younger than herself,
Creutz and Gyllenborg, who published volumes of poetry in
Creutz.
Gyllenborg.
collaboration.
Count Gustaf Philip Creutz
q.v.
1731–1785) was a Finlander who achieved an extraordinary
success with his idyllic poems, and in particular
with the beautiful pastoral of
Atis och Camilla
, long the most
popular of all Swedish poems. His friend Count Gustaf Fredrik
Gyllenborg (1731–1808) was a less accomplished
poet, less delicate and touching, more rhetorical
and artificial. His epic
Tåget öfver Bält
(“The Expedition
across the Belt”) (1785) is an imitation, in twelve books, of
Voltaire's
Henriade
, and deals with the prowess of Charles X.
He wrote fables, allegories, satires, and a successful comedy of
manners,
The Swedish Fop
. He outlived his chief contemporaries
so long that the new generation addressed him as “Father
Gyllenborg.” Anders Odel (1718–1773) wrote in 1739 the famous
“Song of Malcolm Sinclair,” the
Sinclairsvisa
. The writers of
verse in this period were also exceedingly numerous.
In prose, as was to be expected, the first half of the 18th
century was rich in Sweden as elsewhere. The first Swedish
novelist was Jakob Henrik Mörk (1714–1763). His
romances have some likeness to those of Richardson;
they are moral, long-winded, and slow in
evolution, but written in an exquisite style, and with much
Prose Writers.
knowledge of human nature.
Adalrik och Göthilda
, which
went on appearing from 1742 to 1745, is the best known;
it was followed, between 1748 and 1758, by
Thecla
. Jakob
Wallenberg (1746–1778) described a voyage he took to the
East Indies and China under the very odd title of
Min son
på galejan
(“My Son at the Galleys”), a work full of humour
and originality.
Johan Ihre (1707–1780), a professor at Upsala, edited the
Codex argenteus
of Ulfilas, and produced the valuable
Svenskt
Dialect Lexicon
(1766) based on an earlier learned work, the
Dialectologia
of Archbishop Erik Benzelius (d. 1743). He
settled for some time at Oxford. Ihre's masterpiece is the
Glossarium suengothicum
(1769), a historical dictionary with
many valuable examples from the ancient monuments of the
language. In doing this he was assisted by the labours of
two other grammarians, Sven Hof (d. 1786) and Abraham
Sahlstedt (d. 1776). The chief historians were Sven Lagerbring
(1707–1787), author of a still valuable history of Sweden down
to 1457 (
Svea Rikes historia
, 4 vols., 1769–1783); Olof Celsius
(1716–1794), bishop of Lund, who wrote histories of Gustavus I.
(1746–1753) and of Eric XIV. (1774); and Karl Gustaf Tessin
(1695–1770) who wrote on politics and on aesthetics. Tessin's
Old Man's Letters to a young Prince
were addressed to his pupil,
afterwards Gustavus III. Count Anders Johan von Höpken
(1712–1789), the friend of Louise Ulrica, was a master of
rhetorical compliment in addresses and funeral orations.
In spite of all the encouragement of the court, drama did
not flourish in Sweden. Among the tragic writers of the age
we may mention Dalin, Gyllenborg, and Erik Wrangel (1686–1765).
In comedy Reinhold Gustaf Modée (d. 1752) wrote
three good plays in rivalry of Holberg.
In science Linnaeus, or Karl von Linné (1707–1778), was
the name of greatest genius in the whole century; but he wrote
almost entirely in Latin. The two great Swedish chemists,
Torbern Olof Bergman (1735–1784) and Karl Vilhelm Scheele
(1742–1786), flourished at this time. In pathology a great
name was left by Nils Rosén von Rosenstein (1706–1773),
in navigation by Admiral Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (d.
1808), in philology by Karl Aurivillius (d. 1786). But these
and other distinguished savants whose names might be enumerated
scarcely belong to the history of Swedish literature.
The same may be said about that marvellous and many-sided
genius, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who, though the
son of a Swedish poet, preferred to prophesy to the world in
Latin.
What is called the Gustavian period is supposed to commence
with the reign of Gustavus III. in 1771 and to close
with the abdication of Gustavus IV. in 1809. This
period of less than forty years was particularly
rich in literary talent, and the taste of the people
in literary matters widened to a remarkable extent. Journalism
The Gustavian period.
began to develop; the Swedish Academy was founded;
the drama first learned to flourish in Stockholm; and literature
began to take a characteristically national shape. This fruitful
period naturally divides itself into two divisions, equivalent
to the reigns of the two kings. The royal personages of Sweden
have commonly been protectors of literature; they have strangely
often been able men of letters themselves. Gustavus III.
(1746–1792), the founder of the Swedish Academy and of the
Swedish theatre, was himself a playwright of no mean ability.
One of his prose dramas,
Siri Brahe och Johan Gyllenstjerna
held the stage for many years. But his best work was his
national drama of
Gustaf Vasa
(1783), written by the king in
prose, and afterwards versified by Kellgren. In 1773 the
king opened the national theatre in Stockholm, and on that
occasion an opera of
Thetis och Pelée
was performed, written by
himself. In 1786 Gustavus created the Swedish Academy, on
the lines of the French Academy, but with eighteen members
instead of forty. The first list of immortals, which included
the survivors of a previous age and such young celebrities
as Kellgren and Leopold, embraced all that was most brilliant
in the best society of Stockholm; the king himself presided,
and won the first prize for an oration. The works of
Gustavus III. in six volumes were printed at Stockholm in
1802–1806.
The principal writers of the reign of Gustavus III. bear the
name of the academical school. But
Karl Mikael Bellman
q.v.
; 1740–1795), the most original and one of the
most able of all Swedish writers, an improvisatore
of the first order, had nothing academical in his composition.
The riot of his dithyrambic hymns sounded a strange note of
Bellman.
nature amid the conventional music of the Gustavians. Of
the academical poets Johan Gabriel Oxenstjerna (1750–1818),
the nephew of Gyllenborg, was a descriptive idyllist of grace.
He translated
Paradise Lost
. A writer of far more power and
versatility was
Johan Henrik Kellgren
q.v.
; 1751–1795), the
leader of taste in his time. He was the first writer
Kellgren.
of the end of the century in Sweden, and the
second undoubtedly was Karl Gustaf af Leopold
15
(1756–1829),
“the blind seer Tiresias-Leopold,” who lived on to
represent the old school in the midst of romantic
Leopold.
times. Leopold attracted the notice of Gustavus III. by a
volume of
Erotic Odes
(1785). The king gave him a pension
and rooms in the palace, admitting him on intimate terms.
He was not equal to Kellgren in general poetical ability, but he
is great in didactic and satiric writing. He wrote a satire, the
Enebomiad
, against a certain luckless Per Enebom, and a
classic tragedy of
Virginia
. Gudmund Göran Adlerbeth (1751–1818)
made translations from the classics and from the Norse,
and was the author of a successful tragic opera,
Cora och Alonzo
(1782). Anna Maria Lenngren (1754–1817) was a very popular
sentimental writer of graceful domestic verse, chiefly between
1792 and 1798. She was less French and more national than
most of her contemporaries; she is a Swedish Mrs Hemans.
Much of her work appeared anonymously, and was generally
attributed to her contemporaries Kellgren and Leopold.
Two writers of the academic period, besides Bellman, and a
generation later than he, kept apart, and served to lead up to
the romantic revival. Bengt Lidner (1759–1793),
a melancholy and professedly elegiacal writer, had
analogies with Novalis. He interrupted his studies at the
Lidner.
university by a voyage to the East Indies, and only returned to
Stockholm after many adventures. In spite of the patronage
of Gustavus III. he continued to lead a disordered, wandering
life, and died in poverty. A short narrative poem,
The Death
of the Countess Spastara
(1783), has retained its popularity.
Lidner was a genuine poet, and his lack of durable success must
be set down to faults of character, not to lack of inspiration.
His poems appeared in 1788. Thomas Thorild (1759–1808)
was a much stronger nature, and led the revolt against prevailing
taste with far more vigour. But he is an irregular
Thorild.
and inartistic versifier, and it is mainly as a prose
writer, and especially as a very original and courageous critic,
that he is now mainly remembered. He settled in Germany
and died as a professor in Greifswald. Karl August Ehrensvärd
(1745–1800) may be mentioned here as a critic whose aims
somewhat resembled those of Thorild. The creation of the
Academy led to a great production of aesthetic and philosophical
writing. Among critics of taste may be mentioned Nils Rosén
von Rosenstein (1752–1824); the rhetorical bishop of Linköping,
Magnus Lehnberg (1758–1808); and Count Georg Adlersparre
(1760–1809). Rosén von Rosenstein embraced the principles
of the encyclopaedists while he was attached to the Swedish
embassy in Paris. On his return to Sweden he became tutor
to the crown prince, and held in succession a number of important
offices. As the first secretary of the Swedish Academy
he exercised great influence over Swedish literature and thought.
His prose writings, which include prefaces to the works of
Kellgren and Lidner, and an eloquent argument against
Rousseau's theory of the injurious influence of art and letters,
rank with the best of the period. Kellgren and Leopold were
both of them important prose writers.
The excellent lyrical poet
Frans Mikael Franzén
q.v.
; 1772–1847)
and a belated academician Johan David Valerius (1776–1852),
fill up the space between the Gustavian period and the
domination of romantic ideas from Germany. It
Hammarsköld.
was Lorenzo Hammarsköld (1785–1827) who in
1803 introduced the views of Tieck and Schelling
by founding the society in Upsala called “Vitterhetens Vänner,”
and by numerous critical essays. His chief work was
Svenska
vitterheten
(1818, &c.) a history of Swedish literature. Hammarsköld's society was succeeded in 1807 by the famous “Aurora
Atterbom
förbundet,” founded by two youths of genius, Per
Daniel Amadeus Atterbom (1790–1855) and Vilhelm
Fredrik Palmblad (1788–1852). These young men had at
first to endure bitter opposition and ridicule from the academic
writers then in power, but they supported this with cheerfulness,
and answered back in their magazines
Polyfem
and
Fosforos
(1810–1813). They were named “Fosforisterna” (“Phosphorists”)
from the latter. Another principal member of the
school was
Karl Frederik Dahlgren
q.v.
; 1791–1844), a
humorist who owed much to the example of Bellman. Fru Julia
Nyberg (1785–1854), under the title of Euphrosyne, was their
tenth Muse, and wrote agreeable lyrics. Among the Phosphorists
Atterbom was the man of most genius. On the side
of the Academy they were vigorously attacked by Per Adam
Wallmark (1777–1858), to whom they replied in a satire which
was the joint work of several of the romanticists,
Markall's
Sleepless Nights
. One of the innovators, Atterbom, eventually
forced the doors of the Academy itself.
In 1811 certain young men in Stockholm founded a society
for the elevation of society by means of the study of Scandinavian
antiquity. This was the Gothic Society, which
Gothic Society.
began to issue the magazine called
Iduna
as its
organ. Of its patriotic editors the most prominent
was
Erik Gustaf Geijer
q.v.
; 1783–1847), but he was presently
Geijer.
joined by a young man slightly older than himself,
Esaias Tegnér
q.v.
; 1782–1846), afterwards bishop of
Vexiö, the greatest of Swedish writers. Even more enthusiastic
Tegnér.
than either in pushing to its last extreme the
worship of ancient myths and manners was Per
Henrik Ling (1776–1839), now better remembered as the
father of gymnastic science than as a poet. The Gothic
Society eventually included certain younger men than
these—Arvid August Afzelius (1785–1871), the first editor of
the Swedish folk-songs; Gustaf Vilhelm Gumaelius (1789–1877),
who has been somewhat pretentiously styled “The
Swedish Walter Scott,” author of the historical novel of
Tord
Bonde
; Baron
Bernhard von Beskow
q.v.
; 1796–1868), lyrist
and dramatist; and Karl August Nicander (1799–1839), a lyric
poet who approached the Phosphorists in manner. The two
great lights of the Gothic school are Geijer, mainly in prose, and
Tegnér, in his splendid and copious verse. Johan Olof Wallin
(1779–1859) may be mentioned in the same category,
Wallin.
although he is really distinct from all the schools.
He was archbishop of Upsala, and in 1819 he published the
national hymn-book of Sweden; of the hymns in this collection,
126 are written by Wallin himself.
From 1810 to 1840 was the blossoming-time in Swedish poetry,
and there were several writers of distinguished merit who could
not be included in either of the groups enumerated
above. Second only to Tegnér in genius, the brief
Stagnelius.
life and mysterious death of Erik Johan Stagnelius (1793–1823)
have given a romantic interest to all that is connected
with his name. His first publication was the epic of
Vladimir the Great
(1817); to this succeeded the romantic poem
Blanda
. His singular dramas,
The Bacchantes
(1822),
Sigurd
Ring
, which was posthumous, and
The Martyrs
(1821), are
esteemed by many critics to be his most original productions.
His mystical lyrics, entitled
Liljor i Saron
(“Lilies in Sharon”;
1820), and his sonnets, which are the best in Swedish, may be
recommended as among the most delicate products of the
Scandinavian mind. Stagnelius has been compared, and not
improperly, to Shelley.
16
Erik Sjöberg, who called himself
Sjöberg.
“Vitalis” (1794–1828), was another gifted poet,
whose career was short and wretched. A volume
of his poems appeared in 1820; they are few in number and
all brief. His work divides itself into two classes—the one
profoundly melancholy, the other witty or boisterous. Two
humorous poets of the same period who deserve mention are
Johan Anders Wadman (1777–1837), an improvisatory of the
same class as Bellman, and
Christian Erik Fahlcrantz
q.v.
1790–1866).
Among the poets who have been mentioned above, the
majority distinguished themselves also in prose. But the
period was not one in which Swedish prose shone with any
special lustre. The first prosaist of the time was, without
question, the novelist,
Karl Jonas Ludvig Almqvist
Almqvist.
q.v.
; 1793–1866), around whose extraordinary
personal character and career a mythical romance has already
collected (see
Almqvist
). He was encyclopaedic in his range,
although his stories preserve most charm; on whatever subject
he wrote his style was always exquisite. Fredrik Cederborgh
(1784–1835) revived the comic novel in his
Uno von Trasenberg
and
Ottar Tralling
. The historical novels of Gumaelius have
already been alluded to. Swedish history supplied themes
for the romances of Count Per Georg Sparre (1790–1871) and
of Gustaf Henrik Mellin (1803–1876). But all these writers
Fredrika Bremer.
sink before the sustained popularity of the Finnish
Bremen poet
Fredrika Bremer
q.v.
; 1801–1865), whose
stories reached farther into the distant provinces
of the world of letters than the writings of any other Swede
except Tegnér. She was preceded by Sofia Margareta Zelow,
afterwards Baroness von Knorring (1797–1848), who wrote a
long series of aristocratic novels.
A polemical writer of great talent was Magnus Jakob Crusenstople
(1795–1865), of whose work it has been said that “it is
not history and it is not fiction, but something brilliant between
the one and the other.” As an historian of Swedish literature
Per Wieselgren (1800–1877) composed a valuable work, and
made other valuable contributions to history and bibliography.
In history we meet again with the great name of Geijer, with
that of Jonas Hallenberg (1748–1834), and with that of Anders
Magnus Strinnholm (1786–1862), whose labours in the field of
Swedish history were extremely valuable. Geijer and Strinnholm
prepared the way for the most popular of all Swedish
historians,
Anders Fryxell
(1795–1881), whose famous
Berättelser
ur svenska historien
appeared in parts during a space of
nearly sixty years, and awakened a great interest in Swedish
history and legend.
In 1850 the first poet of Sweden, without a rival, was
Johan Ludvig Runeberg
q.v.
; 1804–1877), whose reputation rivals
that of Tegnér. Bernhard Elis Malmström (1816–1865),
who was a professor of aesthetics at the university
of Upsala, was the author of many important books on
artistic and literary history, notably a monograph on Franzén.
Runeberg.
His poetry, although small in volume, gives him a place beside
Runeberg. A volume of elegies,
Angelika
(1840), established
his fame, and two volumes of poems published in 1845 and
1847 contain a number of ballads, romances and lyrics which
keep their hold on Swedish literature. He was an exact and
discriminating critic, and inclined to severity in his strictures on
the romanticists. The other leading verse-writers were Karl
Vilhelm Böttiger (1807–1878), the son-in-law and biographer
of Tegnér, who, in addition to his lyrical poetry, chiefly of the
sentimental kind, wrote an admirable series of monographs on
Swedish men of letters; Johan Börjesson (1790–1866), the last
of the Phosphorists, author of various romantic dramas; Vilhelm
August Detlof von Braun (1813–1860), a humorous lyrist;
“Talis Qualis,” whose real name was Karl Vilhelm August
Strandberg (1818–1877); Oscar Patrick Sturzen-Becker (1811–1869),
better known as “Orvar Odd,” a lyrical poet who was
also the author of a series of amusing sketches of everyday
life; and August Teodor Blanche (1811–1868), the popular
dramatist Blanche produced a number of farces and comedies
which were announced as pictures from real life. His pieces
abound in comic situations, and some of them,
Magister Bläckstadius
(1844),
Rika Morbror
(1845),
En tragedi i Vimmerby
(1848) and others, maintain their reputation. Fredrik August
Dahlgren (1816–1895) gained a great reputation as a dramatist
by his national opera,
Vermländingarne
(1846). He is also the
author of translations from Shakespeare and Calderon, and of
considerable historical works. Other notable plays of the period
were the
En Komedi
of J. C. Jolin (1818–1884) and the
Bröllopet
på Ulfåsa
(1865) of Frans Hedberg (1828–1908). But
Runeberg is the only great poetic name of this period.
In prose there was not even a Runeberg. The
best novelist
of the time was Emilie Flygare-Carlén (1807–1892). The
art was sustained by Karl Anton Wetterbergh (1804–1889),
who called himself “Onkel Adam,” by August Blanche the
dramatist, and by Marie Sofie Schwartz (1819–1892). Fru
Schwartz (née Birat) wrote novels demonstrating the rights of
the poor against the rich, of which
The Man of Birth and the
Woman of the People
(Eng. trans., 1868) is a good example.
Lars Johan Hierta (1801–1872) was the leading journalist,
Johan Henrik Thomander, bishop of Lund (1798–1865), the
greatest orator, Matthias Alexander Castrén (1813–1852) a
prominent man of science, and Karl Gustaf af Forsell (1783–1848),
the principal statistician of this not very brilliant period.
Elias Lönnrot
q.v.
; 1802–1884) is distinguished as the Finnish
professor who discovered and edited the
Kalevala
The most popular poet at the close of the 19th century was
the patriotic Finn,
Zakris Topelius
q.v.
; 1818–1898). Of less importance
were Karl Herman Sätherberg (1812–1897), a romantic
poet who was also a practising physician of distinction; the
elegiac poet Johan Nybom (1815–1889); and the poet, novelist,
and dramatist Frans Hedberg (d. 1908), who in his old age
made many concessions to the modern taste. The posthumous
poems of the bishop of Strängnäs, Adam Teodor Strömberg
(1820–1889), were collected by Wirsén, and created some sensation.
A typical academician was the poet, antiquary and connoisseur,
Nils Fredrik Sander (1828–1900). The improvisatory
of
Gluntarne
Gunnar Wennerberg
q.v.
; 1817–1901) survived
as a romantic figure of the past. Still older was the poetess
Wilhelmina Nordström (1815–1902), long a schoolmistress in
Finland. The aesthetic critic and poet, Carl Rupert Nyblom
(1832–1907), continued the studies, translations and original
pieces which had created him a reputation as one of the most
accomplished general writers of Sweden. His wife, Helene
Nyblom, was well known as a novelist. A. T. Gellerstedt
(b. 1836), an architect of position, was known as a poet
of small range but of very fine quality. Among writers of
the earlier generation were Achatius Johan Kahl (1794–1888),
the biographer of Tegnér; Per Erik Bergfalk (1798–1890), the
critic and supporter of Geijer; the distinguished historian and
academician, Karl Johan Schlyter (1795–1888) and the historical
writers, Fredrik Ferdinand Carlson (1811–1887), Vilhelm Erik
Svedelius (1816–1889), and Martin Weibull (1835–1902). The
work of King
Oscar II.
q.v.
) himself had given him a worthy
place among the intellectuals of the country. But the interest
of such veteran reputations is eclipsed by the more modern
school.
The serenity of Swedish literature was rudely shaken about
1884 by an incursion of realism and by a stream of novel and violent
imaginative impulse. The controversy between
the old and the new schools raged so fiercely, and
The Modern Movement.
the victory has remained so obviously in the hands
of the latter, that it is difficult, especially for a foreigner,
to hold the balance perfectly even. It will therefore be best
in this brief sketch to say that the leader of the elder school
was
Viktor Rydberg
q.v.
; 1828–1895) and that he was ably
supported by
Carl Snoilsky
q.v.
; 1841–1904) who at the
beginning of the 20th century was the principal living poet
of the bygone generation in Sweden. Snoilsky was prominent
for the richness of his lyrical style, his cosmopolitan interests and
his great width of culture. Carl David af Wirsén (b. 1842)
distinguished himself, and made himself very unhappy, by his
dogged resistance to every species of renaissance in Swedish
thought, or art, or literature. A man of great talent, he was a
violent reactionary, and suffered from the consequences of an
attitude so unpopular. He found a vehicle for his criticism
in the
Post och Inrikes Tidningar
, of which he was editor. He
published his
Lyrical Poems
in 1876;
New Lyrical Poems
in
1880;
Songs and Sketches
in 1885.
Four influences may be mentioned as having acted upon
young Sweden, and as having combined to release its literature
from the old hard-bound conventions. These are English
philosophy in the writings of Herbert Spencer, French realism
in the practice and the preaching of Zola, Norwegian drama
mainly through Ibsen, and Danish criticism in the essays and
monographs of Georg Brandes. Unquestionably the greatest
name in recent Swedish literature is that of
Johan August Strindberg
q.v.
; b. 1849). His drama of
Master Olaf
in 1878
began the revolutionary movement. In 1879 the success of his
realistic novel,
The Red Room
, fixed universal attention upon
his talent. It was the sensation caused in 1884 by the lawsuit
brought against Strindberg’s
Married
(a collection of short
stories dealing realistically with some of the seamy sides of
marriage) which brought to a head the rebellion against the elegant
and superficial conventions which were strangling Swedish
literature. He affronts every canon of taste, more by a radical
absence, it would seem, of the sense of proportion than by any
desire to shock. His diatribes against woman suggest a touch
of madness, and he was in fact at one time seized with an attack
of insanity. He writes like a man whose view is distorted by
physical or mental pain. His phraseology and his turns of
invention are too empirically pseudoscientific for the simplicity
of nature. With all these faults, and in spite of a terrible
vulgarity of mind, an absence of humour, and a boundless
confidence in the philosophy of Nietzsche, Strindberg is a writer
of very remarkable power and unquestionable originality. His
mind underwent singular transformations. After devoting himself
wholly to realism of the coarsest kind, he began in 1889 his
series of mystico-pathological novels about life in the archipelago
of Stockholm. This led him to a
culte du moi
, of which the
strangest result was an autobiography of crude invective,
Fool’s Confession
(1893), the printing of which in Swedish was
forbidden. He rapidly passed on, through books like
Inferno
(1897), the diary of a semi-lunatic, up into the sheer mysticism
of
To Damascus
(1898), where he reconciles himself at last to
Christianity. His best work is classic in its breadth of style,
exquisite in local colour and fidelity to the national characteristics
of Sweden.
A curious antidote to the harsh pessimism of Strindberg
was offered by the delicate and fantastic temperament of Ola
Hansson (b. 1860), whose poems came prominently before the
public in 1884, and who, in
Sensitiva amorosa
(1887), preached
a gospel of austere self-restraint. Hansson has been as ardent
in the idolatry of woman as Strindberg has been in his hostility
to the sex. Of those who have worked side by side with Strindberg,
the most prominent and active was Gustaf af Geijerstam
(b. 1858), in his curious and severely realistic studies of country
life in his
Poor People
(1884) and other books. In 1885 he produced
a gloomy sketch of student life at Upsala,
Erik Grane
which made a great sensation. Since then Geijerstam has
published more than forty volumes, and has become one of the
most popular writers of the north of Europe. A melancholy
interest surrounds the name of Victoria Benedictsson (Ernst
Ahlgren, 1850–1889), who committed suicide in Copenhagen
after achieving marked success with her sketches of humble
life in
Från Skåne
, and with the more ambitious works
Money
and
Marianne
. She was perhaps the most original of the
many women writers of modern Sweden, and
Money
was hailed
by Swedish critics as the most important work of fiction since
Strindberg’s
Red Room
. Her biography, a most affecting
narrative, was published by Ellen Key, and her autobiography
by Axel Lundegård (b. 1861), who, after some miscellaneous
writing, produced in 1889 a curious novel of analysis called
The Red Prince
, and who, becoming a devout clerical, published
a number of popular stories in a neo-romantic manner. In
1898–1900 he produced a historical trilogy,
Struensee
, tracing
the career of the minister from his early years as a doctor in
Altona to his final downfall. In 1904 appeared the first volume
of a second historical trilogy,
The Story of Queen Philippa
Fru Alfhild Agrell (née Martin), who was born in 1849, produced
a series of plays dealing with the woman question,
Rescued
(1883) and others. She also showed great ability as a novelist,
among the best of her books being a series of sketches of country
life (1884–1887). An historical novelist of unequal powers, but
great occasional merit, is Matilda Malling, née Kruse (b. 1864),
whose romance about Napoleon (1894) enjoyed a huge success.
Tor Hedberg (b. 1861) also began as a decided realist, and
turned to a more psychological and idealist treatment of life.
His most striking work was
Judas
(1886); he has written some
excellent dramas. Late successes in the novel has been those
of Hilma Angered-Strandberg (
On the Prairie
, 1898) and
Gustaf Janson (
Paradise
, 1900). The most remarkable of the
novelists of the latest group is Selma Lagerlöf (b. 1858), who
achieved a great success with
Gösta Berlings Saga
in 1891–1892.
She employs the Swedish language with an extraordinary
richness and variety, and stands in the front rank of Swedish
novelists. But perhaps the most cosmopolitan recent novelist
of Sweden is Per Hallström (b. 1866), who spent much of his
youth in America, and appeared as an imaginative writer first
in 1891. He has published volumes of ballads, short stories
and sketches, fantastic and humoristic, all admirable in style.
His play,
A Venetian Comedy
, enjoyed a substantial success
in 1904.
Among the recent lyrical poets of Sweden, the first to adopt
the naturalistic manner was Albert Ulrik Bååth (b. 1853),
whose earliest poems appeared in 1879. In his rebellion against
the sweetness of Swedish convention he proved himself somewhat
indifferent to beauty of form, returned to “early national”
types of versification, and concentrated his attention on dismal
and distressing conditions of life. He is a resolute, but, in his
early volumes, harsh and rocky writer. From 1882 onwards
Bååth was steadily productive. Karl Alfred Melin (b. 1849)
has described in verse the life in the islands of the Stockholm
archipelago. Among lyrists who have attracted attention in
their various fields are Oskar Levertin (1862–1906) and Emil
Kléen (1868–1898). Of these Levertin is the more highly
coloured and perfumed, with an almost Oriental richness;
Kléen has not been surpassed in the velvety softness of his
language. But by far the most original and enjoyable lyrical
genius of the later period is that of Gustaf Fröding (b. 1860),
whose collection of poems, called
Guitar and Accordion
humorous, amatory and pathetic, produced a great sensation
in 1891. Three other volumes followed in 1894, 1895 and
1897, each displaying to further advantage the versatility and
sensuous splendour of Fröding’s talent, as well as its somewhat
scandalous recklessness. In 1897 he was struck down with
insanity, and after three months' confinement in the asylum
at Upsala, although he recovered his senses, all his joyousness
and wildness had left him. He became gloomily religious,
and in a new volume of poems he denounced all that he valued
and enjoyed before his conversion. A younger poet is K. G.
Ossian-Nilssen (b. 1875), the author of several volumes of
vigorous dramatic and satiric verse.
The writer who was exercising most influence in Sweden at
the opening of the 20th century was Verner von Heidenstam
(b. 1859). He started authorship with a book of verse in 1888,
after which time he led a reaction against realism and pessimism,
and has turned back to a rich romantic idealism in his
novels of
Endymion
(1889) and
Hans Alienus
(1892), and in his
stories (1897) of the time of Charles XII. Heidenstam also
published interesting volumes of literary criticism, and he is a
lyrical poet of very high attainment. Miss Ellen Key (b. 1849),
a secularist lecturer of great fervour, became an author in
biographical and critical studies of remarkable originality.
She is distinguished from Selma Lagerlöf, who is simply an
artist, by her exercise of pure intellect; she is a moral leader;
she has been called “the Pallas of Sweden.” She published
in 1897 a biography of the Swedish author, Almqvist; in 1899
she collected her finest essays in the volume called
Thought
Pictures
; in 1900 appeared, under the title
Human Beings
studies of the Brownings and of Goethe; but the finest of Ellen
Key’s books is
The Century of Childhood
(1901), a philosophical
survey of the progress of elementary education in the last
hundred years. She exercises a very remarkable power over the
minds of the latest generation in Sweden. A polemical essayist
of elaborate delicacy of style is Hjalmar Söderberg (b. 1869),
who has been influenced by Strindberg and by Anatole
France. His ironic romance,
Martin Birck's Youth
, created
a sensation in 1901. Karl Johan Warburg (b. 1852) has done
good work both as an essayist and as an historian of literature.
But in this latter field by far the most eminent recent name in
Swedish literature is that of Professor Johan Henrik Schück
(b. 1855), who has made great discoveries in the 16th and 17th
centuries, and who has published, besides a good book about
Shakespeare, studies in which a profound learning is relieved by
elegance of delivery. Warburg and Schück have written an
excellent history of Swedish literature down to 1888. The poet
Levertin, who was also a distinguished critic, wrote a good book
about the Swedish theatre. Drama has rarely flourished in
Sweden, but several of the poets mentioned above have written
important plays, and, somewhat earlier, the socialistic problem pieces
of Anne Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, duchess of Cajanello
(1849-1893), possessed considerable dramatic talent, working
under a direct impulse from Ibsen; but her greatest gift was as a
novelist. The plays of Harald Johan Molander (1858-1900) have
been popular in the theatres of Sweden and Finland since his
first success with
Rococo
in 1880. Altogether a remarkable
revival of belles-lettres has taken place in Sweden after a long
period of inertness and conventionality. It is regrettable,
for its own sake, that the Swedish Academy, which in earlier
generations had identified itself with the manifestations of
original literary genius, has closed its doors to the new writers
with an almost vindictive pertinacity.
Swedish Philosophy
.—Swedish philosophy proper began in the
17th century with the introduction of Cartesianism. The protagonist
of the movement was J. Bilberg (1646-1717), who, in various theses
and discussions, defended the new ideas against the scholastic
Aristotelianism of the orthodox churchmen. A. Rydelius (1671-1738),
an intimate friend of Charles XII., endeavoured to find
a common ground for the opposing schools, and the Leibnitzio-Woltfian
philosophy was maintained by N. Wallerius (1706-1764).
Towards the close of the 18th century, a number of thinkers began
to expound the philosophy of the Enlightenment under the influence
of English and French ideas—J. H. Kellgren (1751-1795), K. G.
af Leopold (1756-1829), T. Thorild (1759-1808), K. A. Ehrensvärd
(1745-1800); while the Kantian dialectic was worthily defended by
D. Boëthius (1751-1810), whose work paved the way for a great
idealistic speculative movement headed by B. Höijer (1767-1812), the
poet P. D. A. Atterbom (1790-1855), a follower of Schelling, and
J. J. Borelius (b. 1823), the great Swedish exponent of Hegelianism.
All the above thinkers reflected the general development of
European thought. There exists, however, a body of thought
which is the product of the peculiar genius of the Swedish people,
namely, the development of the individual soul in accordance with
a coherent social order and a strong religious spirit. This
Personal
Philosophy
owes its development to
K. J. Boström
q.v.
), and,
though traceable ultimately to Schelling's idealism, received its
distinctive character from the investigations of N. F. Biberg (1776-1827),
S. Grubbe (1786-1853) and
E. G. Geijer
q.v.
) (1783-1847),
all professors at Upsala. Boström's philosophy is logically expressed
and based on the one great conception of a spiritual, eternal, immutable
Being, whose existence is absolute, above and external to the
finite world of time and space. It has for a long time exercised
almost unquestioned authority over Swedish thought, religious
and philosophical. It is strong in its unequivocal insistence on
personal purity and responsibility, and in the uncompromising
simplicity of its fundamental principle. Boström wrote little,
but his views are to be found in the works of two groups of thinkers.
The older group includes S. Ribbing (1816-1899), C. Y. Sahlin
(b. 1824), K. Claëson (1827-1859), H. Edfeldt (b. 1836), the
editor of Boström's works, A. Nyblaeus (1821-1899) and P. J. H.
Leander (b. 1831); the younger writers, less in agreement with one
another, but adhering in the main to the same tradition, are E. O.
Burman (b. 1845), K. R. Geijer (b. 1849), L. H. Aberg (1851-1895),
F. v. Schéele (b. 1853), J. V. A. Norström (b. 1856), of
Gothenburg, and P. E. Liljeqvist (b. 1865), of Lund. Of these,
Nyblaeus compiled a lucid account of Swedish philosophy from the
beginning of the 18th century up to and including Boström; Ribbing
Platos Ideelära
and
Socratische Studien
) showed how closely Swedish
idealism is allied to Greek. P. Wikner (1837-1888) broke away from
the Boströmian tradition and followed out a path of his own in a
more essentially religious spirit.
V. Rydberg
q.v.
) (1828-1895)
closely followed Boström, and in his numerous and varied writings
did much to crystallize and extend the principles of idealism.
Among prominent modern writers may also be mentioned H. Larrson
and A. Herrlin at Lund, and A. Vannerus in Stockholm.
Authorities.
—The
Svecia litterata
(1680) of J. Schefferus (1621-1679)
is the first serious attempt at a bibliography of Swedish literature.
The
Svenska siare och skalder
(Upsala, 1841-1855) contains
an admirable series of portraits of Swedish writers up to the end of
the reign of Gustavus III.; many of Atterbom's judgments are
reversed in the
Grunddragen af Svenska vitterhetens historia
(1866-1868)
of B. E. Malmström; and a body of excellent criticism of the
subsequent period was supplied by G. Ljunggren in his
Svenska
vitterhetens häfder från Gustaf död
(1818-1819; new ed. by Sondén
III.'s. 1833), which remains a classic exposition of the views of the
romanticists. The history of Swedish letters as it reflects the life of
the nation is dealt with by C. R. Nyblom,
Estetiska studier
(Stockholm,
1873-1884). Among general works on the subject, see
H. Schück,
Svensk literaturhistoria
(1885, &c.)
Schück and Warburg,
Illustrerad Svensk literatur historia
(1896); H. Paul,
Grundriss der
germanischen Philologie
(new ed., Strassburg, 1901, &c.). The official
handbook of
Sweden
prepared by the Swedish Central Bureau of
Statistics for the Paris Exhibition (English ed., Stockholm, 1904);
Ph. Schweitzer,
Geschichte der skandinavischen Litteratur
, forming
vol. viii. of
Geschichte der Welt Litteratur in Einzeldarstellungen
(Leipzig, 3 pts., 1886-1889); Oscar Levertin,
Svenska Gestalter
1904. (
E. G.
Emery Walker sc.
In Swedish the definite article (masc. and fem.
en
, neut,
et
) is
added as a suffix to the substantive (when there is no epithet).
Geographical terms are similarly suffixed to names, thus
Dalelfven
the river Dal. The commonest geographical terms are:
elf
ström
river;
sjö
, lake;
, island;
holm
, small island;
fjäll
, mountain, group
or range;
dal
, valley;
vik
, bay. In Norrland the following terms
are common:
, river, often attached to the names of the large
rivers, as Torneå, Luleå (although properly it means a smaller
river than
elf
); the names of towns at their mouths always following
this form;
träsk
(local, properly meaning marsh),
jaur
(Lapp),
afva
, lake (provincial Swedish, properly a kind of creek opening
from a river).
is pronounced
The island and adjacent islets.
Island included in Kalmar Län.
Including the four great lakes, Vener, Vetter, Mälar, Hjelmar,
3516 sq. m.
A legendary list of kings gives to this Charles six predecessors
of the same name. Subsequent kings of Sweden have always given
this Charles the title of Charles VII.
Christina's reign dates, properly, from 1644 when she attained
her majority. From 1632 to 1644 Axel Oxenstjerna was virtually
the ruler of Sweden.
The Swedish “Landtmanna” party was formed in 1867. It
consisted mostly of the larger and smaller peasant proprietors, who
at the time of the old “Standers Riksdag” were always opposed to
the nobility and the clergy. The object of the party was to bring
about a fusion between the representatives of the large landed
proprietors and the regular peasant proprietors, to support the
interests of landed proprietors in general against those of the town
representatives, and to resist Crown interference in the administration
of local affairs.
For further details see
Norway
History
Skanska folkvisor
, edited by E. G. Geijer and A. A. Afzelius
(3 vols., Stockholm, 1879).
See Cederschiöld,
Om Erikskrönikan
(1899).
Editions of these chronicles and romances have been issued by
the “Svenska Fornskrift Sallskapet” (Stockholm):
Ivan
Lejonriddaren
(ed. Stephens),
Hertig Fredrik of Normandie
(ed. Ahlstrand)
Flores och Blancheflor
(ed. G. E. Klemming), Alexander (ed. Klemming),
Carl Magnus (ed. Klemming, in
Prosadikter från medeltiden
).
Selections from his writings were edited by G. E. Klemming,
(Upsala, 1883–1885).
Edited for a learned society (Upsala, 1886, &c.) by H. Schück.
The works of the chief writers between Sternhjelm and Dalin
were edited by P. Hanselli (Upsala, 1856, &c.) as
Samlade vitterhets-arbeten-af
svenska författare
His works were edited by C. R. Nyblom (2 vols., 1873).
His collected works were edited by C. Eichhorn (2 vols.,
Stockholm, 1867–1868). Several of Stagnelius' poems were
translated into English by Edmund Gosse
1886).
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