Charles IX of Sweden: Encyclopedia II - Charles IX of Sweden - Duke Charles

Charles IX of Sweden - Duke Charles

In 1568 he was the real leader of the rebellion against Eric, but took no part in the designs of his brother John III of Sweden against the unhappy king after his deposition. Indeed, Charles's relations with John were always more or less strained. He had no sympathy with John's High-Church tendencies on the one hand, and he sturdily resisted all the king's endeavours to restrict his authority as Duke of Södermanland on the other. The nobility and the majority of the Riksdag of the Estates supported John, however, in his endeavours to unify the realm, and Charles had consequently (1587) to resign his pretensions to autonomy within his duchy; but, fanatical Calvinist as he was, on the religious question he was immovable. The matter came to a crisis on the death of John III in 1592. The heir to the throne was John's eldest son, Sigismund of Sweden, already king of Poland and a devoted Catholic. The fear lest Sigismund might re-catholicize the land alarmed the Protestant majority in Sweden, and Charles came forward as their champion, and also as the defender of the Vasa dynasty against foreign interference.

It was due entirely to him that Sigismund was forced to confirm the resolutions of the council of Uppsala, thereby recognizing the fact that Sweden was essentially a Protestant state. In the ensuing years Charles's task was extraordinarily difficult. He had steadily to oppose Sigismund's reactionary tendencies; he had also to curb the nobility, which he did with cruel rigour. Necessity compelled him to work rather with the people than the gentry; hence it was that the Riksdag assumed under his government a power and an importance which it had never possessed before. In 1595 the Riksdag of Söderköping elected Charles regent, and his attempt to force Klas Flemming, governor of Finland, to submit to his authority, rather than to that of the king, provoked a civil war. Technically Charles was, without doubt, guilty of high treason, and the considerable minority of all dasses which adhered to Sigismund on his landing in Sweden in 1598 indisputably behaved like loyal subjects. But Sigismund was both an alien and a heretic to the majority of the Swedish nation, and his formal deposition by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1599 was, in effect, a natural vindication and legitimation of Charles's position.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Duke Charles", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki