Leading up to the events of the nineteenth century in Sweden were centuries of splendid history, some points of which will be briefly touched upon to connect the present-day Sweden with the mediaeval state.

During the Folkung Dynasty, in the fourteenth century, the royal houses of Sweden and Norway became united through the marriage of Duke Eric, of Sweden, and Ingeborg, only child of King Haakon, of Norway; and Duke Valdemar to the king's niece of the same name. In May, 1319, King Haakon died, and Magnus Ericsson, the young son of Duke Eric and Princess Ingeborg, inherited the crown of Norway, and July 8 of the same year was elected King of Sweden, at Mora in Upland.

For the attainment of this end, Magnus' mother, Duchess Ingeborg, and seven Swedish councillors had worked with great activity. They had taken part in shaping the first Act of Union of the North in June, 1319, and from Oslo, in Norway, hastened to have Magnus elected at the Stone of Mora, where the Swedish kings since time immemorial were nominated. The Act of Union stipulated that the two kingdoms were to remain perfectly independent, the king to sojourn an equally long part of the year in each, with no official of either country to accompany him further than the frontier. In their foreign relations the countries were to be independent, but to support each other in case of war. The king was the only tie to bind them together.

There was another Magnus whose candidacy was spoiled by this union. He was the son of King Birger, already as a child chosen king of Sweden in succession to his father. Magnus Birgersson, a prisoner at Stockholm, was beheaded in 1320, to make safe the reign of his more fortunate cousin. King Magnus was only three years old, and Drotsete Mattias Kettilmundsson presided over the government during his minority, the nobles of the state council having great power and influence. Both in Sweden and Norway the nobility had by this time attained a supremacy which was oppressive both to the king and the people, not so much through their privileges as through the liberties they took. Their continual feuds between themselves disturbed the peace of the country.

In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character, and was not able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar, in 1832, both provinces were united to Sweden. But the king had to pay heavy amounts in settlement, which were increased when Halland was procured in a similar way.

King Magnus was, at his zenith of power, one of the mightiest monarchs in Europe, having under his rule the entire Scandinavian peninsula and Finland, a realm stretching from the sound at Elsinore to the Polar Sea, from the river Neva to Iceland and Greenland. In 1335, King Magnus decreed that no Christian within his realm should remain a thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery.

But financial difficulties arose, an unsuccessful crusade was attempted, the "Black Death" came from England to Norway in 1350 and spread with great rapidity, and several other things convened to fill the people with discontent, so that the union with Norway did not prove a happy one. A separation was brought about in 1844, when Haakon, the younger son of Magnus, was made king of Norway, Magnus remaining in power until Haakon came of age, and his older son, Eric, was chosen king or heir-apparent of Sweden. It seems that this division had been preconceived by King Magnus when he gave this older son the Swedish name of Eric and to the younger the Norwegian name of Haakon, both equally characteristic of the royal lines of the respective countries.

It was during the Folkung period that there flourished one of the most remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, St. Birgitta. At the Swedish court, she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, where she gathered deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful world. By some she is considered a reformer before Luther, because she insisted on direct communication between the communicant and God without the mediation of priests or saints. Yet there was a difference between Birgitta and Luther, because the latter sought to reform institutions, while the former would reform the upholders of the institutions.

After the reign of Magnus and his sons, there came for a brief season Albrecht of Germany, and after him Queen Margaret, who united for the first time in history the three Scandinavian countries and their dependencies. This period was denominated one of unionism against patriotism, and closed with the rebellion of Denmark and the ascending of the Swedish throne by Christian of Denmark, who claimed the right of his descent from St. Eric. Then followed the public execution under edict of King Christian, when eighty-two persons were beheaded, including many bishops and men of note in Sweden.

It is needless to say that this period was followed immediately by one of revolution and reformation, characterized by much heroism and patriotism, and bringing into prominence those splendid warriors, Gustavus Vasa, Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII, and others, and the memorable battle of Pultowa and other lesser engagements.

After this came a period of political grandeur under various rulers, notably Queen Christine, followed by what has been called the period of Liberty, or the Aristocratic Republic, under Queen Ulrica Eleonore, when literature and the arts and sciences flourished, and Swedenborg, Linnaeus, Dahlin, TegnÉr, and many others came into prominence.

One of the most loved rulers of this period was Gustavus III. By his influence a revolution similar to that in France was put down, for which, at a mask ball in the Royal Opera, he was assassinated by conspiritors. It is true, historians tell us, that he was superficial, that he violated the law, had no regard for a constitutional government, and led the people into adventurous and expensive wars. Yet his noble patriotism, frank heroism, brilliant genius, and great generosity compelled the love of his countrymen. In this mixture of patriotism and universal cosmopolitanism, true genius and superficiality, earnestness and recklessness in the character of Gustavus III, the Swedes recognized peculiarities of their own national temperament, for which they love him dearly, and TegnÉr has voiced this love in a few lines of his eulogy:

There rests o'er Gustav's days a golden shimmer,
Fantastic, foreign, frivolous, if you please;
But why complain when sunshine caused the glamour?
Where stood we now if it were not for these?
All culture on an unfree ground is builded,
And barbarous once the base of patriotism true;
But wit was planted, iron-hard language welded,
The song was raised, life more enjoyed and shielded,
And what Gustavian was, is, therefore, Swedish too.

On his death-bed, Gustavus III appointed his brother Charles and Charles Gustavus Armfelt members of the government during the minority of his son. Gustavus IV Adolphus was declared of age and took charge of the government when eighteen (in 1796). His guardians retired, and the new monarch ruled alone, without favorites or influential advisers. This proved most unfortunate for Sweden, for he was entirely without the gifts of a regent. He was a lover of order, economy, justice, and pure morals, but through lack of mental and physical strength his good qualities were misdirected. His father's tragic fate had a sinister effect upon his mind, the equilibrium of which was also shaken by the outrages of the revolutionists in France. Of a morbid sensibility, and without inclination to confide in any one, his religious mysticism led him into a state close to insanity. He imagined himself to be the reincarnation of Charles XII, while in Napoleon he recognized the monster of the Apocalypse, which he himself was sent to fight and conquer.

He refused any alliance with Russia and Denmark, and stubbornly resisted the friendship France wished to bestow. By his imbecility he lost Finland to the kingdom, and was compelled to abdicate in 1808. This "lunatic monarch," as he was called, was escorted out of the country with his family, never to return, and died in St. Gallin, in 1837.

Under these conditions we find Sweden at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Charles XIII was chosen to succeed his nephew, the abdicated Gustavus IV Adolphus. Charles XIII was one of the most unsympathetic of Swedish kings, but his reign marks a new period in Swedish history, commencing the era of constitutional government. The new constitution to which the king subscribed was not a radical document; it only reduced the power of the king. Hans Jaerta, one of the nobles who had renounced their privileges and been active in the conspiracy against Gustavus IV, was the leading spirit of the constitutional committee, and was appointed secretary of state in the new cabinet.

It was necessary to select an heir to the throne, as Charles XIII was childless, and Prince Christian August of Augustenborg was chosen, much in opposition to the nobles, who wanted the son of Gustavus IV.

The Prince of Augustenborg, who was Danish governor-general of Norway, accepted, and was adopted by the king, changing his name to Charles August. Beloved by the lower classes who had effected his selection, he was treated coldly by the Gustavian aristocrats, and reports of attempts to poison the heir-apparent were in circulation even before he arrived in Sweden. Prince Charles August himself said he had often been warned that he would die young of paralysis, but paid no attention to the warnings given him. During a parade of troops at Qvidinge, in Scania, he was suddenly seen to lose consciousness and dropped dead from his horse. A report that seemed to favor the supposition that death resulted from poison, threw the populace into a frenzy, and the stoning to death of Count Fersen resulted. This occurred at the burial of the dead prince, when Count Fersen, as marshal of the realm, opened the procession. Approaching the church of Riddarholm, his carriage was pelted with stones, Fersen himself seeking shelter in various places, but being pursued by the mob and killed. Thus perished a man who, with Curt von Stedingk, had received the order of Cincinnatus from the hands of George Washington, and who once was so near saving Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their cruel fate. Fersen's brother was saved only by mere chance, and his sister by a flight in disguise.

Sweden was once more without an heir-apparent to the throne, and, though others had been proposed, King Charles sent two emissaries to Napoleon to notify him of the death of Charles August and the selection of his brother. Then one of the most original and daring schemes ever attempted on such a line was carried through by Count Otto Moerner, one of the emissaries. On his own responsibility, he inquired of Marshal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's ablest generals, if he would consent to become heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. Bernadotte consented, and the consent of Napoleon was obtained through the Swedish ambassador in Paris. Upon his return, Moerner was ordered to leave the capital, by the minister of state, who blamed him for his unauthorized action. But, from Upsala, Moerner led an eager agitation, with the result that the Riksdag of Oerebro selected Bernadotte, who was represented by a secret emissary. Thus, the two generals who, at the abdication of Gustavus IV, were, one in Norway, the other in Denmark, with troops ready to attack Sweden, both within one year were chosen to succeed Charles XIII. And this is how the Bernadottes, the present reigning family of Sweden, came to the throne. Marshal Bernadotte took the name of Prince Charles Johann.

It was in 1818, four years after Norway had been joined to Sweden, that Charles XII died, at the age of seventy, and Charles XIV Johann, the first of the Bernadotte dynasty, succeeded him, at the age of fifty-four years. His reign was one of reconstruction—politically, financially, and socially,—and during the last years of his life he received strong and repeated evidence of the love of his people, especially upon the twenty-fifth anniversary as king of Sweden.

Oscar I, his son, was forty-five years of age at the death of his father. He did not possess his father's brilliant genius or power of personal influence, but was fondly devoted to the fine arts, himself a talented painter and composer. He was a hard worker, and also fond of the pleasures of life. His health was injured through illness, in 1857, and he never recovered. The premature death of his second son, Prince Gustavus, a talented composer and highly popular, had a disastrous effect on him, and he died July 8, 1859, after a long illness, beloved by the two nations who, during his reign, had enjoyed the happiest epoch of their history.

It was during the reign of the late king, Oscar II, that Sweden attained her greatest prosperity and made most progress. Oscar II, brother of his predecessor, ascended the throne at a moment when universal peace was restored after the great conflict between France and Germany, and when an age of commercial prosperity for Sweden seemed to have begun. King Oscar had received the same superior education as his older brothers, was as brilliantly gifted as they, and of a more scholarly mind. As a writer on scientific subjects, a poet, and an orator, Oscar II distinguished himself before his succession to the throne, and still he did not find it easy to gain the love and admiration of the Swedish people, of which he was so eminently worthy. He was the successor of one of the most popular rulers the country ever saw, and, though appreciation came slowly, he lived to see his own popularity almost outrival that of his predecessor. During the last years of his life he was considered the most learned and popular of the monarchs of Europe.

He showed great discernment in his arrangement of dynastic matters. Himself married to the fervently religious Princess Sophie of Nassau, the king brought about the marriage of his oldest son, Crown Prince Adolphus, the present king of Sweden, to Princess Victoria of Bade, a granddaughter of Emperor William of Germany, and a great-granddaughter of Gustavus IV of Sweden. His third son, Prince Charles, Duke of West Gothland, is married to Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, a granddaughter of Charles XV of Sweden. These unions are well calculated to accentuate the increasing political, commercial, and cultural intimacy with Germany, the Scandinavian policy of life predecessor, and the desire of King Oscar to see the descendants of the old royal line of Sweden as heirs to the crown. In giving his consent to the marriage of his second son, Prince Oscar, to Lady Ebba Munck, of the Swedish nobility, King Oscar gave evidence of the fact that he was not a matchmaker regardless of the feelings of the parties involved. Prince Oscar, formerly Duke of Gothland, upon renouncing his share of inheritance to the throne of Sweden, also the throne of Norway, for the two kingdoms were then united, was allowed to marry the choice of his heart. King Oscar also tried to heal the wounds of the past by opening the vaults of the church of Riddarholm to the sarcophagi of Gustavus IV, the exiled king, and his son, and by giving Queen Carola of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of Gustavus, repeated proofs of esteem and considerate distinction.

King Oscar with his two crowns received as an inheritance two important problems to be solved—the reorganization of the Swedish army and the settlement of the difficulties between Norway and Sweden. How he handled the latter has been told about in the preceding chapter. The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until after twenty years of parliamentary struggle, but is now, thanks to the energies and perseverance of King Oscar, on a solid basis.

During the nearly one hundred years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree. The dreams of glory by conquest belonged to the days gone by, but in the fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which the world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867, 1878, and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876, and of Chicago in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with honor in the international competition. The railways of Sweden have incessantly spun a more and more extended network of steel over the country, opening connections for enterprises in new districts, and furthering commerce and industrial art in a wide measure.

In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of government were in his hands practically long before the death of his father, who for several years suffered ill health. To say the least, Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c]