Axel Oxenstierna: Encyclopedia II - Axel Oxenstierna - Power behind the throne

Axel Oxenstierna - Power behind the throne

He inspired the despairing Protestants both in Germany and Sweden with fresh hopes. He reorganised the government both at home and abroad. He united the estates of the four upper circles into a fresh league against the common foe (1634), in spite of the envious and foolish opposition of Saxony. By the patent of January 12, 1633 he had already gained the appointment of legate plenipotentiary of Sweden in Germany, with absolute control over all the territory already won by the Swedish arms. No Swedish subject, either before or after, ever held such an unrestricted and far-reaching authority. Yet he proved more than equal to the extraordinary difficulties of the situation. To him both warriors and statesmen appealed invariably as their natural and infallible arbiter. Richelieu himself declared the Swedish Chancellor "an inexhaustible source of well-matured counsels". Less original but more sagacious than the king, he had a firmer grasp of the realities of the situation. Gustavus would not only have aggrandised Sweden, he would have transformed the German empire. Oxenstierna wisely abandoned these vaulting ambitions. His country's welfare remained his sole object. All his efforts directed themselves towards procuring for the Swedish crown adequate compensation for its sacrifices.

Simple to austere in his own tastes, he nevertheless recognised the political necessity of impressing his allies and confederates by an almost regal show of dignity; and at the abortive Congress of Frankfurt in March 1634, held for the purpose of uniting all the German Protestants, Oxenstierna appeared in a carriage drawn by six horses, with German princes attending him on foot. But from first to last his policy suffered from the slenderness of Sweden's material resources, a cardinal defect which all his craft and tact could not altogether conceal from the vigilance of her enemies. The success of his system postulated an uninterrupted series of triumphs, whereas a single reverse had the potential to overturn it. Thus the frightful disaster of Nördlingen on September 6, 1634 brought him, for an instant, to the verge of ruin, and compelled him, for the first time, so far to depart from his policy of independence as to solicit direct assistance from France. But, well aware that Richelieu needed the Swedish armies as much as he himself needed money, he refused at the Conference of Compiègne in 1635 to bind his hands in the future for the sake of some slight present relief. In 1636, however, he concluded a fresh subsidy-treaty with France at Wismar. The same year he returned to Sweden and took his seat in the Regency. His presence at home overawed all opposition, and such was the general confidence inspired by his superior wisdom that for the next nine years his voice, especially as regarded foreign affairs, remained omnipotent in the Privy Council.

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