Charles IX, alsoCarl (Swedish:Karl IX; 4 October 1550 – 30 October 1611), reigned asKing of Sweden from 1604 until 1611. He was the youngest son ofKing Gustav I (r. 1523–1560) and of his second wife,Margaret Leijonhufvud, the brother of KingEric XIV and of KingJohn III, and the uncle ofSigismund, who became king both of Sweden and ofPoland. By his father's will Charles received, by way ofappanage, the Duchy ofSödermanland, which included the provinces ofNärke andVärmland; but he did not come into actual possession of them till after the fall of Eric and the succession to the throne of John in 1569.
He came into the throne by championing the Protestant cause during the increasingly tense times of religious strife between competing sects ofChristianity. Just under a decade after his death, these would re-ignite in theThirty Years' War of 1618–1648. These conflicts had already caused the dynastic squabble rooted in religious freedom that deposed Charles' nephew (Sigismund III) and brought Charles to rule as king of Sweden.
His reign marked the start of the final chapter[citation needed] (dated 1648 by some) both of theReformation and of theCounter-Reformation. With the death of his brotherJohn III of Sweden in November 1592, the Swedish throne went to his nephew, theHabsburg ally Sigismund of Poland and Sweden. During these tense political times, Charles viewed the inheritance of the throne ofProtestant Sweden by his devoutCatholic nephew with alarm. Several years of religious controversy and discord followed.
While King Sigismund resided in Poland, Charles and theSwedish privy council ruled in Sigismund's name. After various preliminaries, theRiksdag of the Estates forced Sigismund to abdicate the throne to Charles IX in 1595.[citation needed] This eventually kicked off nearly seven decades of sporadic warfare as the two lines of the dividedHouse of Vasa both continued to attempt to remake the union between thePolish and Swedish thrones with opposing counter-claims and dynastic wars.
Quite likely,[original research?] the dynastic outcome between the Swedish and Polish representatives of the House of Vasa exacerbated and radicalized the later actions of Europe's Catholic princes inthe German states such as theEdict of Restitution of 1629. In fact, it worsened European politics to the abandonment or prevention of settling events by diplomacy and compromise during the vast bloodletting of the Thirty Years' War.[citation needed]
Charles's parents as shown on their grave monument
Charles IX was born on 4 October 1550 atTre Kronor Castle in Stockholm as the youngest son of King Gustav Vasa and Queen Margaret. He was educated in childhood by his private tutor Jean d'Herboville. Upon Gustav Vasa's death in 1560, Charles received a duchy that included most ofSödermanland andNärke, some parishes inVästmanland, part of Vadsbo County inVästergötland, and all ofVärmland. According to Gustav Vasa's will, DukesJohn (III) and Charles were to have a partially independent position asvassals under their elder brotherErik XIV. After he was crowned king, however, in 1561 he had aRiksdag inArboga decide to restrict the independence of the duchies, the so-called Arboga Articles.[1] At the age of 15, Charles participated in theNorthern Seven Years' War where he commanded theartillery at the conquest of Varberg in 1565.
Duke Charles (as he then was called) in 1596 by H. Nützel
In 1568, he was the real leader ofthe rebellion against Eric XIV. However, he took no part in the designs of his brotherJohn III against the unhappy king after his deposition. Charles's relations with John were always more or less strained. He was at least suspected of being implicated in theMornay Plot to depose John III in 1574,[2] and was one of the alternative regents suggested by the conspirators of the1576 Plot. 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 theRiksdag 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, steadfastLutheran 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 III Vasa, already king ofPoland and a devotedCatholic. The fear that Sigismund might re-catholicize the land alarmed theProtestant majority in Sweden—particularly the commoners and lower nobility, and Charles came forward as their champion, and also as the defender of theVasa dynasty against foreign interference.[3]
It was due entirely to him that Sigismundas king-elect was forced to confirm the resolutions at theUppsala Synod in 1593, thereby recognizing the fact that Sweden was essentially aLutheran Protestant state. Under the agreement, Charles and the Swedish Privy Council shared power and ruled in Sigismund's place since he resided in Poland. In the ensuing years 1593–1595, Charles's task was extraordinarily difficult. He had steadily to oppose Sigismund's reactionary tendencies and directives; he had also to curb the nobility which sought to increase their power at the expense of the absent king, which he did with cruel rigor.[3]
Necessity compelled him to work with the clergy and people rather than the gentry; hence it was that the Riksdag of the Estates assumed under his regency government a power and an importance which it had never possessed before. In 1595, the Riksdag ofSöderköping elected Charles regent, and his attempt to forceKlas Fleming, governor ofFinland, to submit to his authority, rather than to that of the king, provoked a civil war.[3] Charles sought to increase his power and the king attempted to manage the situation by diplomacy over several years, until fed up, Sigismund got permission from the Commonwealth's legislature to pursue the matters dividing his Swedish subjects, andinvaded with a mercenary army.
In April 1597, after having subdued theCudgel War and preparing to resist the expected invasion of Charles, Fleming died and was succeeded as governor byArvid Stålarm the Younger. In August 1597, Charles and his army invaded Österland, tookÅland, which was the fief of her sister Queen Dowager Catherine, and besiegedTurku Castle. Fleming was still not buried, and, according tolegend, Charles had the coffin opened to reassure himself that Fleming was indeed dead. After having identified the face of Fleming, he was to have pulled Fleming's beard with the words, "If you had been alive, your head would not have been safe", upon which Fleming's wifeEbba Stenbock replied, "If my late husband was alive, Your Grace would never have been here."[4]
Despite some initial successes, Sigismund lost the decisiveBattle of Stångebro and was captured. He was then forced to surrender several Swedish noblemen, whom Charles and theRiksdag of the Estates had named traitors. These noblemen were later executed in what became known as theLinköping Bloodbath.[5] With Sigismund defeated and exiled—seen as both an outsider and a heretic by most of the Swedish nation—his formal deposition by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1599 served as both a natural vindication of Charles's actions and a retroactive legitimization of his claim to power. In the same session, the Riksdag named Charles as regent.[3]
Finally, the Riksdag at Linköping, 24 February 1604 declared that Sigismund abdicated the Swedish throne, that duke Charles was recognized as the sovereign. He was declared king asKarl IX (anglicized as Charles IX). Charles's short reign was one of uninterrupted warfare. The hostility of Poland and the breakup ofRussia involved him in overseas contests for the possession ofLivonia andIngria, thePolish–Swedish War (1600–1611) and theIngrian War. In the final year of his reign, his claims to all ofLapland west of theVarangerfjord and extending to theArctic Ocean led to theKalmar War withDenmark-Norway.[3][6]
In all these struggles, he was more or less unsuccessful, owing partly to the fact that he and his forces had to oppose superior generals (e.g.Jan Karol Chodkiewicz andChristian IV of Denmark) and partly to sheer ill-luck. Compared with his foreign policy, the domestic policy of Charles IX was comparatively unimportant. It aimed at confirming and supplementing what had already been done during his regency. He did not officially become king until 22 March 1604. The first deed in which the title appears is dated 20 March 1604; but he was not crowned until 15 March 1607.[3]
Charles IX's and Queen Christina's funeralregalia once stolen and then found in a rubbish bin[7][8][9][10]
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Four and a half years later Charles IX died atNyköping, 30 October 1611 when he was succeeded by his seventeen-year-old sonGustavus Adolphus ; he had participated in the wars.[11] As a ruler, Charles is the link between his great father and his still greater son. He consolidated the work of Gustav I, the creation of a great Protestant state; he prepared the way for the erection of the Protestant empire ofGustavus Adolphus.[3]
Funeral monument of Carl IX and family atSträngnäs Cathedral, worked on by 12 goldsmiths in 1611
The helmet of the armor opened and photographed, unknown date
Reveal of a grand statue of him inGothenburg, 1904
Statue in Göteborg
His motto inscribed:Jehovah solatium meum ("Jehovah is my Solace")
^Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (1895).Gustavus Adolphus: a history of the art of war from its revival after the Middle Ages to the end of the Spanish Succession War, with a detailed account of the campaigns of the great Swede, and of the most famous campaigns of Turenne, Condé, Eugene and Marlborough. Greenhill Books.ISBN1-853-67234-3.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
1Also prince of Norway 2Also prince of Poland and Lithuania 3Lost his title due to an unequal marriage 4Not Swedish prince by birth, but created prince of Sweden
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