BOOKS.

GUSTAVUS VASA.* THE story of Gustaf Vasa—a mere name to most people— was well worth the telling, if only for the fact that he, a Swedish gentleman, led and carried through' al political and religious revolution, founded a Royal house, and had two such descendants as Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. We cannot say, however, that Mr. Watson has told the story well. He has gone to the original sources in Stockholm and else- where; he has been industrious and painstaking; he shows a love for his subject ; but neither his style nor his method is attractive, and he does not know how to grasp, compress, and vivify the abounding details at his disposal, so as to make them a background for the figure of his hero, who played the principal part in an interesting episode of European history which is crowded with great events and ;great men. Charles and Francis, Luther and Leo, Henry and Wolsey, and a host of others throw into shadow the Swedish romance of real life having the young Gustavus for its central figure, so that it is but dimly seen through the splendour which lights up the earlier years of the sixteenth century. Mr. Watson has done something—it were to be wished that hel had done more—to put life into the Swedish drama, and to bring Gustavus Vasa., who has been called " the first Protestant King," and the especial enterprises which he accomplished, more distinctly before the mind's eye. The assiduous student of old and weari- some books and manuscripts has done his best, and is to be commended for his spirit and purpose ; but the grandfather of the rare captain who died at Liitzen deserved a brighter and more animated tribute to his strength and genius.

Gustavus was born in 1496 at Lindholm, about twenty miles to the north of Stockholm. His ancestors on both sides belonged to governing families of Sweden ; but unless his grandmother, as some contend, " descended from the ancient Swedish Kings," a bit of heraldic genealogy, he was not of Royal blood. His childhood was spent on the shores of the Baltic, hard by the capital, and, as the fashion was, after a

• The Swedish Revolution uncle: Gust ;rug Vasa. By Paul Barron Wk.tson. London : Sampson Low and Co.

stay at the University of Upsala, he became a soldier. He comes before us dimly in 1517, when he was fighting on the side of the young Regent, who modestly signed himself as " Sten Sture, soldier," against Christiern II. of Denmark, intent on asserting his claim to the throne of Sweden. For the next ten years of his life, Gustavus was engaged in that fierce struggle from which, by stoutness, dexterity, and good hap, he emerged a victor. It is his trials and adventures, as well as those of his country, a house divided against itself, that Mr. Watson undertakes to narrate. The Danish invader was thwarted at all points in 1517-18, and driven to his ships. Then, having recourse to diplomacy, he tried to lure Sture on board his squadron, and failing, proposed to meet him in a conference on shore, asking for hostages, the young Gustavus among them, probably because he was a relative of the Regent. The hostages were sent to the King, who straightway sailed off, carrying them to Copenhagen,—a black act of treachery. Gustavus was placed in charge of a distant relative, Com- mandant of Kalo Castle, who treated him kindly and gave him much liberty, merely exacting from him a promise that he would make no effort to escape. The temptation was stronger than his sense of honour ; he broke his parole, fled in disguise to Lubeck, was tracked thither, yet not surrendered, and was finally, after a detention of eight months, allowed to flit away and sail for Sweden. When he landed at Kalmar, a victorious Danish army was moving through Sweden ; " Sten Stare, soldier," had been slain in battle on the ice ; his gallant widow, Christina, held Stockholm, the last refuge of defence ; and King Christiern, with his fleet, was before the capital, as "champion of the Pope." The brave lady resisted all the summer, but at length was compelled to surrender. In November, Christiern had himself crowned in the Great Church ; and, a few days afterwards, he collected more than seventy magnates, his opponents, had them slaughtered in the public square, together with many burghers, and carried off Christina and her sons to a Danish prison.

It was now the turn of Gustavus to enter on the scene. He had lain perdu all the summer and autumn in a farm- house on the Mallir, after having vainly tried, during his wanderings from Kalmar, to rouse the peasants. It was in this refuge that he heard the appalling report of the Stockholm massacre, and that his father, Erik, was among the victims. Forth he sped, first to the valley of the Daleif, where some sheltered him, but where, though quick to rebel, none would heed his fiery appeals ; thence to Mora, at the head of Lake Siljan ; again the people were unmoved by his eloquence, and he strode on towards Norway. But now came to the mountain men full reports of the bloodshed at Stockholm, and of the deeds which were to follow. The peasants took fire, and, eager for a leader, pursued and brought back Gustavus, who joy- fully accepted the task. Thus began an insurrection which soon swelled into a revolt. In less than two years, so ubiquitous was his activity, so fertile was he in expedients, and so well was he supported, that he had freed the realm. There was much valour, much stratagem of the small sort, much fury in the war carried on by the untrained, badly armed bands ; but at last they harried and routed the Danes and Danish party out of Stockholm. Christiern could not meddle himself—indeed, he lost his own throne— and his mainstay in the conflict before, and after that event, was one Norby, a bold seaman and " pirate," who held out for himself a long time. Gustavus, however, beat him on his own element, for he obtained supplies and a squadron from Lubeck, and from Lubeck also, on the strength of a promissory note, he borrowed largely, which led to trouble in after-times. Du ring the heat of the strife, a Diet at Vadstena desired him to become King, but he accepted only the title and office of Commander of the Army ; later, however, at Strengniis, another Diet chose him for King, and one of his first acts was the unwise concession of a monopoly of foreign trade to Lubeck and Dantzic, not by way of pay- ment for the loans, but as a special gift to mollify hard creditors. Shortly afterwards, the garrison of Stockholm having capitulated on condition of being sent home, he en- tered his capital. He had freed Sweden, and the people had made him a King.

That did not by any means end his labours. He did not on his coins call himself King, but Governor, and he would not be crowned until the work was finished. The next four years were fully occupied in keeping off the Danes ; in frustrating conspiracies ; in devising expedients to quiet his relentless Lubeck creditors, anxious for their money; in contending with the unquiet Norby ; in a severe battle with the Church_ and the Churchmen, and a perpetual vexation which grew out of the debased coinage issued during the early stress of the war. His greatest internal difficulty was with the Church, not only because be demanded and took large sums. from the Bishops and clergy, but because he also favoured and ended by adopting the Lutheran doctrines, which had taken a, strong hold on the people. His progress from Rome was

tolerably rapid, but Mr. Watson seems to put too severe an interpretation on his conduct when he describes him as devoid of conscientious motive. He wrote strongly to the Pope, and- more strongly to his legate, saying to the latter : " We shall not suffer our people to bend beneath a foreign yoke, for we are

confident that Christ, who is our High Priest, will not let the people die to suit the Pope's caprice." While he took from the overgrown wealth of the Church, not for himself, but for the State's necessities, he urged on the translation of the Bible into the native tongue, insisting that it was as necessary for the priests as the people. His constant reply to charges of heresy was, that he ordered that nothing should be taught but the Word of God. At length matters came near a crisis, and feeling strong, although the headstrong Dalesmen were in revolt, he summoned a diet at Westerns, and there the knot was cut rather than untied. The King, through a Minister, stated his case, and it was a fine picture of the difficulties

which had arisen all round. The Bishops, who had held a. secret session, were in opposition, and no one answered their

orator, the able and accomplished Brask, who could never quite reconcile his oath of allegiance to the King with his vows to the Pope. Gustavus broke the silence by uttering a vehement speech, exclaiming : " I have no further desire, then, to be your King." And he went on in a like strain :—

" I now no longer wonder at the perversity of the people since they have such men as you for their advisers. Have they no rain ? They lay the blame on me. Have they no sun ? Again they lay the blame on me. When hard times come, hunger, disease, or whatever it may be, they charge me with it, as if I were not a

man, but God I have borne more labour and trouble, both.

at home and abroad, than any of you know or understand

You would now set monks and priests and all the creatures of the Pope above my head, though we have little need of those mighty bishops and their retinue. In a word, you would all lord it over me; and yet you elected me your king. Who under such cir- cumstances would desire to govern you? Not the worst wretch in hell would wish for the post, far less a man. Therefore, I, too, refuse to be your king. I cast the honour from me, and leave you free to choose him whom you will Pay me for my pro- perty in the kingdom, and return to me what I have expended in your service. Then I declare to you, I will withdraw, never to to my degenerate, wretched, thankless land."

With that fierce rebuke he left the hall. For three days the Diet did nothing; but then, first a Bishop gave way, then the burghers and peasants broke out, uttering threats to the Knights and Bishops, and finally all succumbed, beseeching Gustavus to return. He came back as master. The Diet forth- with made a clean sweep of the existing state of things, and established the Reformation, which had been growing up during the struggle. Mr. Watson thinks that Gustavus was acting, and that the Diet was subservient; but there is no solid reason for supposing that both King and people were not in grim

earnest. That was the turning-point in the strife ; and if it fixed the elected King on his throne, it also decided the

religious issue. Bishop Brask alone resisted the ordinances ; and when he was obliged to give way, he quitted the Kingdom.

The monarch with whom he so stoutly contended was crowned in the Cathedral of Upsala, in January, 1528, but not before he had caused his unconsecrated Bishops to be consecrated by one who derived his authority from Rome. Few revolutions have been more compact and complete than that of Sweden in the sixteenth century; and we can only again regret that the moving drama in which the heroic Gustavus Vasa is the centre

figure was not told with equal carefulness and more graphic- force by some one who had power to show us " the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure."