CHAP. XXXI.] ACCESSION OF AMURATH IV. 139 consented to renounce the pilgrimage itself, an attack was made on the Seraglio; and, in the midst of the confusion, a cry of Mustapha Khan for Sultan, echoed by thousands of voices, became the watchword of the revolution. The unhappy Mustapha, wasted to a shadow by want of air and food, and expecting death rather than a crown, was dragged from his obscure dungeon, carried to the throne room, and saluted Padishah. Osman, contemplating flight when it was too late, abandoned his Grand-Vizier and Kislar-Aga to the fury of the soldiers, by whom they were horribly murdered; the Janissaries, who would listen to no terms, though large offers were made, occupied the Seraglio, and directed all the actions of the Sultana Valide, the mother of the crazy Mustapha; and Constantinople was abandoned to plunder and devastation. Osman, who had fled to the palace of the Aga of the Janissaries, was dragged from his hiding-place, and conducted, with abuse and derision, first to the barracks of the mutineers, and then to the Seven Towers. On the way, his faithful adherent, Hussein Pasha, was murdered at his feet; and he himself was soon after put to death, by order of the Valide and her Vizier, Daud Pasha.1 During the brief second sultanship of Mustapha I. a peace with Poland was the only event of importance, effected chiefly through Sir Thomas Roe. On the 30th of August, 1623, a counter revolution took place at Constantinople. Mustapha was deposed with the consent of the Janissaries, who even renounced on this occasion the accustomed donative, and the eldest surviving son of Achmet I., now fourteen years of age, ascended the throne with the title of Amurath IV. The unhappy Mustapha survived his deposition sixteen years. James I. during these events, the Spanish match being still in hand, had instructed Sir Thomas Roe to maintain peace between the Porte, the Emperor, and the King of Poland; although, as we have seen, the British King had secretly afforded some trifling aid to his son-in-law the Palatine, both by sending him a few troops, and by endeavouring underhand to excite Bethlem Gabor to action. In 1623 this Prince, whom Sir Isaac Wake, the English minister at Venice, characterized as a Janus with one face towards Christendom and another towards Turkey, renewed the war against Ferdinand; and, though he could then count but little on the help of the Turks, he entered Hungary, took several places, and even threatened Pressburg, Raab, and Comorn. On the approach of For this revolution see Antoine Galland, La Mort du Sultan Osman; and the Despatches of Sir Thomas Roe. 140 RETROSPECT OF SCANDINAVIAN HISTORY. [CHAP. XXXI. winter, however, he was compelled to dismiss his army; when the Tartars, of which it was partly composed, carried off 20,000 Hungarians into slavery. In May, 1624, Gabor again concluded a peace with the Emperor, which did not differ much from that of Nikolsburg. As the Spanish match had now gone off, we find secretary Calvert instructing Roe, May 28th, 1624, to do all in his power to keep well with the Transylvanian Prince.' While Poland was attacked in the south by Osman and the Turks, Sigismund III. had to defend himself in the north from his kinsman, the renowned Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden: and as this last country, as well as Denmark, by the part which they took in the Thirty Years' War, were now about to become of great importance in the European system, it will here be proper to take a brief review of their history. 2 We need not carry our retrospect beyond the Union of Calmar in 1397; by which the three northern Kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were joined together under the famous Danish Queen Margaret. The most noteworthy articles of the Act of Union were: that the right of electing a Sovereign should be exercised conjointly by the three Kingdoms; that a son of the reigning King, if there were any, should be preferred; that each Kingdom should keep its own laws and customs; and that all should combine for the common defence. But this confederacy, which seemed calculated to promote the power and tranquillity of Scandinavia, proved the source of much discontent and jealousy and of several bloody wars. Margaret was succeeded on her death, in 1412, by Eric of Pomerania, the son of her sister's daughter. Eric, who was at that time in his thirtieth year, had married, in 1406, Philippa, daughter of Henry IV. of England, a lady distinguished by her understanding, goodness, and courage. In 1428 Philippa defended Copenhagen against the combined fleet of Holstein and the Hanse towns, whilst Eric lay hid in a convent at Sord. Eric's reign was tyrannical and turbulent. In 1439 the Danes and Swedes renounced their allegiance; and Eric, who was then in the island of Gothland, had henceforth to eke out a subsistence by piracy. The Kingdoms elected in Eric's stead Christopher of Bavaria, son of his sister Catharine by John, Duke of the Upper Palatinate; but, after Christopher's death, in 1448, 1 Roe's Negociations, p. 244. 2 For these countries may be consulted, Mallet, Hist. de Dannemare; Allen, Haandbog i Fædrelandets Historie (übersetzt von Falck); Vertot, Révol. de Suede; Geijer, Gesch. Schwedens (translated from 3 Philippa herself died in the convent of Wadstena, in 1430, without issue. Geijer, Gesch, Schwedens, B. i. S. 197. CHAP. XXXI.] UNION OF CALMAR RENEWED. 141 the Calmar Union was dissolved. The Danes now elected for their King Count Christian of Oldenburg; while the Swedes and Norwegians chose Charles Knutson. But in the following year Charles was compelled to resign Norway to Christian, and in 1457 he lost even Sweden through an insurrection led by the Archbishop of Upsala. Christian was at once chosen in his place, and crowned at Upsala; and in the following year the Councils of all three Kingdoms, assembled at Skara, recognized Christian's son John as his successor. King Christian I. became still more powerful by being chosen to succeed his maternal uncle in Sleswick and Holstein.' He had, however, to strive for a long while with Charles Knutson for the throne of Sweden, and after Charles's death, in 1470, with Sten Sture, a nobleman of Dalecarlia, to whom Charles had bequeathed the administration of the realm. In 1471 a battle was fought on the Brunkebjerg, a height now enclosed in the city of Stockholm, in which the Danish King was utterly defeated, though, of course, he continued to hold the old Danish lands beyond the Sound, viz., Scania, Halland, and Bleking. Christian died in 1481, and was succeeded in Denmark and Norway by his son John. The Swedes, in 1483, acknowledged John's supremacy by renewing the Union of Calmar; yet, in spite of all his efforts and the domestic dissensions prevailing in Sweden, John could never really establish himself in that country. Sten Sture's regency had excited much discontent in Sweden. In 1503 he died, and was succeeded by Swante Sture, who, though a namesake, was no kinsman. Swante Sture, after some struggles and vicissitudes, succeeded in retaining the regency, and on his death in 1512, his son, Sten Sture the younger, was elected in his place. King John died in 1513. The education of his son and successor, Christian II., recalls the patriarchal ages, and shows how rude were the manners at that time even of the highest classes in Scandinavia. Young Christian was put to board with one Hans, a bookbinder, till Hinze, a canon, took charge of him, taught him his catechism and to sing in the choir: and he was then handed over to Master Conrad of Pomerania to be instructed in Latin. As he approached adolescence he was lodged in the palace, where his unruly habits often procured him a beating from his father, for he would scour Copenhagen at night drinking and amusing himself wherever he was invited. In 1502, being in his twentieth Holstein was erected into a Duchy in favour of Christian by the Emperor Frederick III. in 1474. Pfeffel, t. ii. p. 43. 142 ACCESSION OF CHRISTIAN II. [CHAP. XXXI. year, he was sent as Viceroy into Norway to quell an insurrection, which he effected in the most brutal manner; and during the eight years that he remained in that country he almost annihilated the nobility. At Bergen, where he resided, then the staple of the northern Hanseatic trade, he fell in love with a girl called Dyveke, or Little Dove, daughter of Sigbrit, a huckstress of Amsterdam, who had set up a tavern at Bergen. From these women, who completely ruled him, Christian seems to have imbibed the democratical principles common in the Netherlands. He was the enemy of nobles and prelates, and opposed the oppression which they exercised over the peasants, who in Denmark were then nothing but serfs. It must be recollected, however, that the constitution of Denmark, as well as of Norway and Sweden, consisted then of an aristocracy, or rather oligarchy, of nobles, which left the King but little real power, and which he of course regarded with aversion. After Christian's accession, in 1513, he openly lived with his mistress Dyveke, and she and her mother continued to retain their influence over him in spite of his marriage with Isabella, a sister of the Emperor Charles V. It was during the reign of Christian II. that Denmark first began to have much connection with the rest of Europe. In the year of his accession, he allied himself with the Wendish group of towns of the Hanseatic League, whose capital was Lübeck; and he subsequently formed alliances with Russia, France, England, and Scotland, with the view of obtaining their aid in his contemplated reduction of Sweden; but he deferred any expedition against that country till a favourable opportunity was presented through Gustaf Trolle, Archbishop of Upsala, who, with many of the old Swedish nobility, hated the Sture family. In 1517 Trolle levied open war against the administrator Sten Sture, in which Christian supported him with a fleet; but Sten Sture succeeded in capturing Trolle, had him deposed from his see in a Diet convened at Arboga, and razed to the ground his strong castle of Stäket. In the next year Christian again appeared before Stockholm with a fleet and army, in which were 2,000 French sent by Francis I. Christian was defeated by Sten Sture in a battle near Bränkirka, after which he sought an interview with the regent, in the meantime demanding hostages till he should have safely returned to his ships. Six noble Swedes were accordingly placed in his hands, and among them the young Gustavus Ericson who had carried the Swedish banner in the battle; but, with an infamous breach of faith, Christian had no CHAP. XXXI.] HIS INHUMAN CONDUCT. 143 sooner got back to his ships than he carried the hostages off with him to Denmark. The Archbishop of Upsala having gone to Rome to complain of Sten Sture, the Pope appointed in Denmark an ecclesiastical commission, which excommunicated the administrator and his party, and laid all Sweden under an interdict. This proceeding, which served to pave the way for Sweden's acceptance of the Lutheran reformation, afforded Christian II. a pretence for getting up a crusade against that country, and levying money both on clergy and laity; and he employed the year 1519 in gathering a large army, to which adventurers flocked from all parts of Europe. Early in 1520 this army invaded Sweden, under command of Otte Krumpe, who caused the Papal interdict to be placarded on all the church doors. Sture was defeated and wounded in a battle fought on the ice at Aasund in West Gothland; and a traitor offered to lead Krumpe into Upland, by avoiding the abattis with which the passes had been protected. At this news Sten Sture, in spite of his wound, hastened to the defence of Stockholm, but died on the way in his sledge on Mälar Lake. The Swedes were routed in a second battle near Upsala, after which a treaty was concluded to the effect that Christian should reign in Sweden, agreeably to the Union of Calmar, but on condition of granting an entire amnesty. Christian now proceeded to Stockholm, where in November his coronation was performed with great splendour. Christian at first behaved in a most friendly manner, and promised to be not only a King, but even a father, to the Swedes; yet he had no sooner received the crown than he took the most inhuman vengeance on his confiding subjects. Two bishops, the burgomaster of Stockholm, the town council, and many nobles, were beheaded in the market-place; other executions, often preceded by torture, followed, during a space of four days; and the city was given up to be plundered by the soldiers like a place taken by storm. Orders were despatched to Finland to proceed in a similar manner, while the King's progress southward was everywhere marked by executions. These cruelties, for which Christian was reproached by his brother-in-law, Charles V., procured for him the name of the Nero of the North, and brought on insurrections in all his dominions. That in Sweden was led by Gustavus Ericson, the hostage already mentioned, a young man remarkable alike by his origin, talent, and courage; whose family, for what reason is not |