Resolution of internal problems
Meanwhile, the internal tensions that Gustav Adolf had inherited had been largely resolved. The charter that the Estates extorted from Gustav when he became king in 1611 might well have entailed the virtual subjection of the monarchy to the council and the high aristocracy. This, however, did not happen; for the man who had drawn the charter, the chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, became, in fact, the king’s closest collaborator and remained so for the whole of the reign—a great historic partnership in which the temperaments and gifts of each supplemented those of the other. The king observed the spirit of the charter. The aristocracy found in Gustav a king favourable to their interests. He enlisted the nobility in the service of the state and thus provided them with numerous economic benefits. It was one of the healthiest features of Swedish society during this period that the nobility served the state, prepared to sacrifice even its privileges in the interests of the country. Thus the long-standing constitutional struggle between crown and aristocracy was suspended during his reign, largely because of the personality of the sovereign and the unique collaboration between himself and Oxenstierna. In this improved climate it was possible to undertake measures of sweeping reform.
The first decade of the reign, therefore, saw the creation of the Supreme Court (1614) and the establishment of the Treasury and the Chancery as permanent administrative boards (1618), and by the end of the reign an Admiralty and a War Office had been created—each presided over by one of the great officers of state. The Form of Government of 1634 summed up these reforms in a general statute giving Sweden a central administration more modern and efficient than that of any other European country. Stockholm became a true capital with a permanent population of civil servants, the most important of whom were noblemen. And in the 1620s a thorough reform professionalized local government and placed it securely under the control of the crown. The Council of State became, for the first time, a permanent organ of government able to assume charge of affairs while the king was fighting overseas. An ordinance of 1617 fixed the number of estates in the Riksdag at four (nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants) and regulated its procedures on a basis that lasted until 1866. Both council and Riksdag were identified with the king’s policies, not least because of Gustav’s brilliant gift for expounding them: his speeches reveal him as a master of debate and an orator of extraordinary eloquence and force. And the decisions were always his, though they were usually arrived at after intimate consultation with Axel Oxenstierna. Gustav’s creation of the Gymnasia in the 1620s gave Sweden, for the first time, an effective provision for secondary education; his splendid munificence to the University of Uppsala gave it the financial security that was essential to its development; and his foundation of the University of Tartu provided the first centre for higher learning in the Baltic provinces. During Gustav’s reign many town charters were granted, among them that of Gothenburg (1619). He also promoted the Swedish economy through immigration and the infusion of foreign capital. Immigrants, such as Dutchman Louis de Geer, who founded the Swedish arms industry, came from Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and Germany and made important contributions to the economy . During the 17th century Swedish cannons enjoyed an excellent reputation and were sold to the Dutch, British, and French armies.
In 1620 he married Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg. In 1621, taking advantage of a Turkish attack upon Poland, Gustav renewed the war with Sigismund. His capture of Riga was followed by a gradual conquest of Livonia (present-day northern Latvia and southern Estonia). His object was to compel Sigismund to renounce his claims to Sweden, and he hoped to gain his end by the economic pressure that would result from Poland’s loss of access to its main export routes to western Europe. It was in pursuit of this policy that, in 1626, he transferred the seat of war to Prussia: a stranglehold on the Vistula River, he hoped, would bring Poland to its knees. But already he was concerned with the larger question of the danger to German Protestantism entailed by the victorious campaigns of the Habsburg commanders, Johann Tserclaes von Tilly and Albrecht von Wallenstein. He saw his Polish campaigns as one aspect of the general struggle of Protestantism against the Counter-Reformation: if Sigismund were restored to the Swedish throne, the re-Catholicization of Scandinavia would follow soon after, the Habsburgs and their allies would be able to close the passage into the Baltic to Dutch shipping, and the United Netherlands might then be unable to continue their struggle against Spain.
Thus, the fate of Europe was bound up with what happened in Livonia or Prussia. Protestant Europe was slow to appreciate the connection, but as the Protestant cause plunged to disaster in Germany, its leaders increasingly turned their eyes to Gustav as a possible saviour. But before he was prepared to commit himself to any Protestant league and undertake a military campaign in Germany, Gustav required adequate assurance of support. The disastrous defeat (1626) of Christian IV of Denmark, who had intervened in Germany without such an assurance, justified his caution, but it also made Swedish intervention inevitable. The Habsburg forces’ occupation of the German Baltic shore and their plans for a Habsburg-Polish navy seemed to pose a direct threat of invasion. In this emergency, Gustav and Christian joined forces to send an expedition to Stralsund, the last remaining Protestant bastion in Pomerania, which arrived just in time to prevent its capture by Wallenstein (1628). From this moment, full-scale involvement in the German war became simply a question of time. The Polish war was resolved in 1629 by the Truce of Altmark, and Gustav was at last free to turn his attention to Germany. In June 1630 the Swedish expeditionary force landed at Peenemünde.