with the arrangement, and their repeated efforts to regain a distinct existence reduced the power of the monarchy. To this source of weakness must be added continual broils between the King and his nobles, and between the nobility and the clergy. Population dwindled; trade and navigation declined; and the adjacent seas were swept by Danish pirates, who revived the lawlessness of

See the Volume on the Middle Ages, p. 523.

Danish history as

Danish States elected Christian, Count of Oldenburg, to the throne. The union of 1397 was broken up, or depended only on the precarious successes of conquerors. Christian II., known in Danish history as "the Wicked," "the Angry," and "the Nero of the North," began his reign in 1513, and at once made himself hated for his treacherous cruelty. With the Danish peasants, indeed, he was popular, for he protected them against the nobles; but in other respects he was

amidst snow and ice, he was enabled to make himself master of a country already torn in pieces by the quarrels of the secular administrator, or Protector, Sten Sture, and the Archbishop of Upsal, Gustavus Trolle. The latter sided with the national enemy, and the capital was surrendered. Having thus established his supremacy, Christian assembled the chief nobles and ecclesiastics of Stockholm in November, 1520, under pretence of their attending his coronation, and, suddenly ordering their arrest, caused them to be executed.

were then let loose, to slaughter the burghers of Stockholm and the unoffending crowd. Sten Sture had previously died of wounds received in the battle which proved so disastrous to the Swedes; and it is said that Christian, in the mad excesses of his fury, had the body dug up, and actually tore it with his teeth and nails. The widows of his victims were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and he then returned to Denmark, leaving behind him, in Sweden, the exhaustion of suffering, and the brief tranquillity of terror.

This state of things, however, could not last. The spirit of the Swedes was destined to revive, and a man was then wandering, almost homeless, in the province of Dalecarlia, who was shortly to restore the independence of his country. Gustavus Erikson, afterwards known as Gustavus Vasa, belonged to an ancient and distinguished family of Sweden, which had always been strongly opposed to the predominance of Denmark. Gustavus himself had been concerned in resisting the attack of Christian II., and, after being taken prisoner, and detained a year in Jutland, had escaped, and got back to his native land. Here he lived for some time in poverty and danger. A price was set upon his head, and it was only by moving about from place to place that he escaped capture. The father of Gustavus was included in the frightful massacre of November, 1520, which the Swedes have ever since commemorated as "the Blood-bath;" and the son resolved to avenge his death by exciting a revolt against the tyrant. At first he met with little support, for the people dreaded the ferocity of the Danish sovereign and his agents. But a more masculine spirit was at length aroused; the peasantry of Dalecarlia flocked to the standard of the deliverer; and, at the head of a large though irregular force, he burst upon the fortified posts of the national enemy, and before the close of 1521 had taken several. Stockholm was next besieged, and a war of extermination set in. Christian II. murdered the mother and sister of Gustavus, and ordered his commanders to slay all the Swedes who fell into his hands; Gustavus retaliated in kind; and matters might have proceeded to even greater extremities, had not a revolution in Denmark itself abolished the power of the despot in 1523.

The violence of Christian had by this time made him hateful to some even of his Danish subjects. It is difficult to determine the exact character and motives of this sovereign. With the poor and humble he seems to have had a real sympathy, unless it was nothing more than a politic device to favour democratic views as a counteraction to the dangerous power of the aristocracy and clergy. He suppressed the temporal jurisdiction of the Bishops, prohibited the plundering of shipwrecked vessels, forbade the lords of the soil to sell their serfs, and allowed the peasant to quit the estate on which he had been born. All these reforms were admirable; but it would seem that they were carried out too much in the spirit of an scrupulous despot. At any rate, the opposition was extreme and bitter. The Jutlanders were goaded into revolt, and, meeting with great success, pronounced the deposition of the King. Christian

un

was still master of Copenhagen, of the islands, and of Norway; but he distrusted his own officers, and flight seemed the wisest resource. He therefore retired into Germany, where, as the brother-in-law of the Emperor Charles V., whose sister Isabella he had married, he hoped for a hospitable reception. Charles, however, declined to furnish him with military assistance; but in 1531, after a lengthened residence in Flanders, he persuaded Queen Mary, Charles's sister, and the representative of the Imperial power in the Netherlands, to fit out a naval force on his behalf. Thus aided, and countenanced by the Romanist clergy, whose cause he undertook to champion, he made an attempt to recover Sweden, which, after his withdrawal from Denmark in 1523, had completely established its independence; but the expedition failed, and Christian was intercepted in his retreat, taken prisoner, and given up to his uncle and successor, Frederick I. of Holstein, who confined him closely in a vaulted chamber of the castle of Sonderborg, with a dwarf for his only attendant. He was afterwards removed to another fortress, where, being allowed a little more freedom, he lived many years in obscurity, dying at an advanced age in 1559, with the reputation of a tyrant who had survived his failure.

The successful revolution headed by Gustavus Erikson brought the union of Calmar to an end. Norway still remained to Denmark; but when Frederick I. demanded recognition in Sweden, the representatives of the people declared the Diet of Strengnaes that they would have no other king than the hero who had delivered them from their oppressor. Gustavus was crowned in 1525, and, abandoning his second name of Erikson, assumed that of Vasa, which appears to have been derived from some symbol in his coat of arms. He had long hesitated to accept the regal dignity and title, preferring the more republican appellation of Stadtholder; but when the Roman Catholic party, and the adherents of Christian II., disturbed the country by their intrigues, it was considered advisable to institute a more fixed and authoritative government. The Reformation was now spreading throughout Scandinavia, and the ecclesiastics of the older faith were trembling for their supremacy. Christian of Denmark had for a time shown some disposition to favour the views of Luther; but his motive was apparently a desire to possess himself of the church lands, and he speedily recoiled before the terrors of a Papal Bull. In Sweden, Gustavus Vasa was heartily in favour of the new doctrines, and his example did much towards establishing the Reformation in the extreme North of Europe.

A.D. 1533.]

Lutheran missionaries were sent by him into Lapland, which was then first converted to Christianity; and he supplied the Finns with Bibles and hymn-books, printed in their own tongue. The Reformation was completely established in the dominions of Gustavus; the Romanists were treated with some severity; and the fanaticism of change contended with the bigotry of prescription. Crown lands formerly made over to the Church were now resumed; the sale of indulgences was abolished; appeals to Rome were forbidden; the Bishops were deprived of their castles and strongholds; a large proportion of the taxes was laid upon the Romish clergy; and in some instances attempts were made by Lutheran ministers to force the new doctrines upon unwilling minds.

These acts arrayed the priesthood against the Swedish King, who had to encounter several plots and insurrections, one of which, in Dalecarlia--the very province which had first given support to Gustavus, and had contributed in the largest degree to his success-was particularly menacing. Yet the cause of the reformers triumphed in the end, and in 1542 the States took an oath for the maintenance of the Protestant faith, to the exclusion of all others within the realm. That this decision contravened the very principle of freedom which the dissenters from Rome asserted, is not to be gainsaid; but it was long before Protestantism, in any country, could deliver itself from the old leaven, and fully understand its meaning and its actual task. In other respects, the government of Gustavus was admirable. Commerce, science, and letters, were encouraged; education was promoted; roads and bridges were constructed, and canals begun; fairs for foreign traders were established, and commercial treaties were arranged with other countries. Sweden, which had been little better than a desert when Gustavus acquired power in 1523, was a prosperous and civilised State at his death in 1560; and its independence was guarded by an army of 15,000 men, and a fleet of respectable proportions. The crown had previously been declared hereditary in the house of Vasa, and Erik XIV., the eldest son of Gustavus, succeeded to a possession which was now secure.

The religious teachings of Luther made progress in Denmark as well as in Sweden, although the revolution in the former country, which resulted in the accession of Frederick I., had been assisted by the Bishops, who hoped to extract more from the uncle than from the nephew. In this anticipation they were disappointed. Frederick cared little for his ecclesiastical friends, and was chiefly intent on conciliating the nobles, whose power had

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been greatly curtailed by Chistian II., but who now demanded and obtained jurisdiction over the lives of their serfs. Early in the new reign, the preaching of the evangelical faith was not only permitted, but encouraged, and in 1527 the States of Odensee decreed liberty of conscience, released the clergy from their vows of celibacy, and broke off all connection with the Romish See. When Frederick died, in 1533, the Danish ecclesiastics of the older religion endeavoured to recover the power they had lost. They sought to place on the throne a boy of eight, the youngest son of the deceased monarch, to the exclusion of the eldest son, Christian, who was known to be heretical. The child had not as yet shown any leaning towards the reformed religion, and might of course be easily moulded to the views of his partisans. But, as the real design could not easily be avowed, it was necessary to put forward some plausible excuse for altering the succession. The Romanists accordingly insisted much upon the fact that the youngest son of Frederick had been born in Denmark, and had spoken the language of the country from his infancy, while his brother was to all intents a German. Nothing could be more ingenious than this pretext for recommending what was in truth a revolutionary act. It appealed to the national sentiment, and to the love of independence; but it appealed in vain.

The divided state of the country invited attack from abroad, and a war of a serious nature followed on the intrigues of the Danish ecclesiastics. Near the southern shores of the Baltic, the free city of Lübeck had existed for some ages under the protection of the German Empire, which, nevertheless, did not interfere with the self-government of the community. So important a member of the Hanseatic Federation was Lübeck, that in 1260 it became the head of that powerful body, the seat of its government, the repository of its archives, and the station of its fleet. To the command of the united naval forces of the League, the citizens of this flourishing commercial centre had the right of appointing one of their own population; and the prosperity of the place was so great that at one time its walls contained 200,000 people. But Lübeck had an old quarrel with Denmark, which, for a brief period in the early part of the thirteenth century, reduced it to an unwilling servitude. It would seem that this feeling had not died out three hundred years later, and in 1534 the Government of Lübeck, which was at that time under the direction of two violent demagogues, named Marcus Meyer and George Wullenwever, resolved to interfere in the affairs of the small

northern peninsula. These persons offered to assist Duke Christian to the disputed throne, but on terms which he could not accept; and their next resource was to employ Count Christian of Oldenburg to invade Denmark, under pretence of restoring Christian II., then languishing in the dark and solitary vaults of Sonderborg. Meyer and Wullenwever were the inspiring genii of this enterprise, the active direction of which was in the hands of Count Christian, a poor adventurer, who had fought against the Turks, who could read Homer in the original, but whose highest ambition was to make a purse for himself.

The contest that ensued has been called "the Count's War," and the memory of it has not died out in Denmark. The invader met with considerable support in certain quarters; but the oligarchy rallied round the eldest son of Frederick, and placed him on the throne, with the title of Christian III. The Count of Oldenburg maintained his position until, in the following year, Gustavus Vasa went to the assistance of the Danish monarch. The Lübeckers had previously declared war against Sweden, in consequence of some long-standing disagreements, and Gustavus was in truth acting in self-defence. In the course of 1535, the Danish malcontents and their Hanseatic allies were defeated in several engagements, both by sea and land; Copenhagen surrendered under the pressure of famine; and peace was concluded in 1536. In this unhappy conflict, the peasants had co-operated with the priests, and their discomfiture was followed by the increased power of the nobility, and the official establishment of Protestantism in Denmark and Norway. All the Danish Bishops were arrested on one day; their ecclesiastical property was confiscated; superintendents were sent throughout the country, charged with the duty of preaching Lutheranism; and the principles of the reformed religion spread amongst a simple-minded people, whom the Romish priesthood had long used for their own ends. Iceland also, the new opinions were propagated with undue violence; and the dominion of the Papacy was subverted in the extreme North of Europe. We may regret that this result was not achieved in the spontaneous way that distinguished several parts of Germany; but organised despotisms are frequently destroyed by methods similar to their own.

In

It was about this period that Francis I. of France, having come to an understanding with the Emperor Charles V., and being, therefore, no longer under any necessity of flattering the Protestants, withdrew from the reformed com

munions of Germany the precarious and interested favour he had formerly shown. The two potentates appear to have determined, during their interview. at Aigues Mortes, in 1538, that heresy should be rigorously suppressed; and Francis lost no time in acting up to that agreement. He cooled once more towards Henry VIII., and even listened to a project for invading and partitioning England, the northern portion of which was to be given to Scotland, while the Emperor took the midland counties, and France the region south of the Thames. The details of this scheme were elaborated by the French ambassador at London; but the general idea was due to Pope Paul III., or to the English Cardinal, Reginald Pole, a member of the royal House of York, who resided at Rome, and was a confidential adviser of the Pontiff. Charles did not listen to the suggestion, and Francis would not stir in so difficult an enterprise without the powerful help of his new ally. Henry, however, seems to have been aware of some such conspiracy, and made considerable preparations for guarding the coasts, and resisting any attack. He also improved his relations with the confederates of Smalcalde, and for a time gave more encouragement to the reforming party in England.

It is difficult to understand the deadly animosity which divided the Christian world into antagonistic sections, when both were equally threatened by the Turks. Compelled to abandon his attack on Naples, Solyman turned his arms against Venice in the summer of 1537, and obtained some important successes against the Greek islands belonging to that Republic. The hero of this war, which was chiefly naval, was the Algerine corsair, Barbarossa II., who received some aid from the French; and in the negotiations which followed, in 1539, a Spanish adventurer, then acting as the envoy of France, betrayed the exhausted condition of the Venetians to the Turks, and thus aggravated the severity of the terms imposed by the latter when peace was at length made in 1540. Venice was now so miserably reduced that she was glad to accept the protection of France; a large part of south-eastern Europe, long resting secure beneath the standard of St. Mark, passed under the rule of the Sultan; and the reputation of Barbarossa as a sea-captain was immensely increased. In many other directions, good fortune attended on the enterprises of Solyman the Magnificent. Armenia and Irak had been detached in 1534 from the Persian monarchy; shortly afterwards, Yemen and other parts of Arabia were subjugated by the Ottoman Pasha of Egypt; and armaments were