SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



474 



Sigismund, who received at the ^.imc lime the Po- 

 Ibh crown, was dethroned, in KiU'2, in Sweden, by 

 his ambitious uncle, Charles, a zealous Lutheran, 

 who was formally crowned, in 1604, as Charles IX. 

 The wars, in which he became involved with Rus- 

 sia, Poland and Denmark, were happily concluded 

 after his death, in 1611, by the great Gustavus 

 Adolphus II. (q. v.V who fell at Liitzen, in lti:i 

 (See Thirty Years War.') In the reign of his 

 daughter, Christina (q. v.), the war in Germany 

 was honourably carried on and completed. During 

 its progress, Sweden was menaced by Denmark ; 

 but the victories of Torstenson, and the mediation 

 of France, led to the peace of Bromsebro (1645), 

 by which Denmark gave up to Sweden Jiimtland 

 and Herjedalen, with the islands Gothland and 

 (Esel, agreed to surrender Halland for twenty-five 

 years, and exempted Swedish vessels from the sound 

 dues. By the peace of Westphalia, Sweden obtained 

 the German duchies of Bremen, Verden, Hither 

 Pomerania, a part of Further Pomerania, and Wis- 

 mar, with a seat in the German diet. In 1654, 

 Christina resigned her crown to Charles X., Gusta- ' 

 vus of Deux-Ponts, the nephew of Gustavus Adol- 

 phus. This martial prince administered the govern- 

 ment till 1660. He had to contend with the Poles, 

 Russians and Danes, and astonished the world by 

 his daring enterprises ; but he was unable to procure , 

 permanent tranquillity for his nation. The guardi- 

 ans of his son, Charles XI., concluded the peace of 

 Oliva (q. v.), with the Poles, in 1660, by which all 

 Livonia to the Dwina was transferred to Sweden ; 

 the peace of Copenhagen, with Denmark, by which 

 they restored Drontheim and Bornholm (gained by j 

 Charles Gustavus in the peace of Roschild with ! 

 Denmark (1658), together with Bleckingen, Scho- j 

 nen and Halland), and came to a reconciliation with 

 Russia, on the basis of the peace of Stolbow. Swe- 

 den became involved in an unsuccessful war against 

 Brandenburg, Holland and Denmark ; but, by the 

 peace of St Germain and Lund, in 1679, she lost 

 only the part of Pomerania beyond the Oder. 

 Charles XI. entered upon the government in 1682, 

 and admitted females to the succession. He im- 

 proved the internal condition of his kingdom, re- 

 voked the grants of the crown lands, augmented the 

 revenue, but made many enemies among the nobles, 

 and left a full treasury to his son Charles XII. (q. 

 v.), who reigned from 1697 to 1718. But all his \ 

 treasures were expended, together with the blood 

 of his subjects, in protracted and useless wars. (See 

 Gaertz, and Northern War.) On the death of 

 Charles, in 1718, Ulrica Eleanora, his youngest sis- 

 ter, the last of the house of Wasa, succeeded to the 

 throne, less by hereditary right than by the volun- 

 tary choice of the states, who revived the ancient 

 form of government, but with greater limitations of 

 the royal power. The ruling party, by the peace 

 of Stockholm, in 1719, ceded Bremen and Verden 

 to the elector of Brunswick, and, in 1720, Stettin 

 and Hither Pomerania, as far as the Peene, to Prus- 

 sia; by the peace of Nystadt, in 1721, Livonia, 

 Esthonia, Ingria, Wiburg, and a part of Carelia, to 

 Russia ; and, by the peace of Fredericksborg, with 

 Denmark, in 1720, renounced all claim to the ex- 

 emption from sound dues. Frederic of Hesse, the 

 husband of Ulrica Eleonora, who assumed the go- 

 vernment, with the consent of the states, and ad- 

 ministered it from 1720 to 1751, was a weak prince, 

 ruled by his nobles ; and the council of state made 

 itself entirely independent. Instigated by France, 

 he engaged in a new war with Russia (1741), for 



the recovery of the provinces that had been ceded 

 to Russia. By the peace of Abo (q. v.), which 

 concluded the war, in 1743, he lost part of Finland. 

 to the river Cymmene ; and, as the queen was 

 childless, the succession was settled on Adolphus 

 Frederic, duke of Holstein and bishop of Lu'bcck. 

 Adolphus Frederic, in whose person the house of 

 Holstein ascended the Swedish throne, reigned from 

 1751 to 1771. He took part feebly in the seven 

 years' war. (q. v.) The kingdom was distracted 

 by the factions of the hats and caps, and the regiil 

 authority became a mere shadow. Gustavus 111. 

 (q. v.) at length happily threw off the yoke of the 

 aristocracy. He restored to the kingdom its strength 

 and its honour; but, in 1792, he fell a victim to a 

 conspiracy. His son, Gustavus IV. (q. v.), ascended 

 the throne under the guardianship of his uncle, but 

 lost it in 1809. His uncle, who assumed the go- 

 vernment under the title of Charles XIII. (q. v.), 

 gave the kingdom a new constitution, and chose, 

 for his successor, prince Christian Augustus of 

 Sleswic-Holstein-Sonderburg- August enburg, who 

 adopted the name of Charles Augustus. He con- 

 cluded the war with Russia by the peace of Frie- 

 drichshamm, in 1809, by which he ceded all Finn- 

 land, and, in 1810, renewed the previous relations 

 of the kingdom with France. The crown- prince, 

 however, died suddenly ; and the diet of Oerebro 

 chose, for his successor, the French marshal Berna- 

 dotte, prince of Ponte Corvo, who was adopted by 

 the king under the name of Charles John. (See 

 Charles XIV.) Sweden now declared war against 

 Great Britain ; but the pressure of the war, and 

 the increasing encroachments of France, produced 

 a change of policy (1812), and she joined the allies 

 against Napoleon. (See Charles XIV., and Rus- 

 sian-German War.) By the peace with Denmark, 

 concluded at Kiel (January 14, 1814), Sweden re- 

 ceived Norway as an independent, free, indivisible 

 and inalienable kingdom, in return for her posses- 

 sions in Pomerania and the island of Ru'gen. 



Since the union of Norway and Sweden, con- 

 cluded by the storthing at Christiania, October 18, 

 1814 (see Norway), this double kingdom has com. 

 bined, under one king and two very different con 

 stitutions, two proud and free-spirited nations, each 

 jealous of its peculiar privileges. The political 

 condition of Sweden and Norway forms a permanent 

 partition between them : there, a jealous aristocracy 

 is perpetually watching over its ancient privileges, 

 here, the democracy struggles to defend its new- 

 born rights. In both kingdoms, the peasantry and 

 the citizens hold a higher rank than in most Euro- 

 pean states. In Norway, there is no hereditary 

 nobility, and the veto of the king is only condition- 

 al. These circumstances seem to separate the 

 Scandinavian peninsula from the European system 

 of politics, with which, however, it is closely con- 

 nected. To the discrepancy of domestic and foreign 

 relations is added an incessant struggle with the 

 climate and soil, with obstructions in trade, depre- 

 ciated paper money, and an oppressive public debt. 

 Charles XIV. is a sovereign suited to the countiy 

 and the age. Looking steadily to the future, he 

 meets present difficulties with firmness and wisdom. 

 He possesses the affections of the majority of the 

 nation, and especially of the army ; and has imbued 

 his successor with his own principles. The crown- 

 prince, Oscar, lives and thinks as a Swede. He 

 met with a distinguished reception, at Verona, at 

 the time of the congress, October 26, 1822, where 

 the visits of the two emperors seem to confirm the 



