den's king."
That event came to pass at the Diet of Strengess, June 7, 1523. Thus was
the union dissolved, after enduring one hundred twenty-six years. Norway
wavered at this critical moment. The inhabitants of the southern portion
declared, when the Swedes under Thure Jenson (Roos) and Lawrence
Siggeson (Sparre) had penetrated into their country as far as Opslo,
that they would unite with Sweden if they might rely upon its support.
Bohusland was subdued, Bleking likewise on another side, and Gustavus
sought, both by negotiation and arms, to enforce the old claims of
Sweden to Scania and Halland. The town of Kalmar was taken on May 27th,
and the castle on July 7th. Stockholm having surrendered on June 20th,
on condition of the free departure of the garrison with their property
and arms, and of every other person who adhered to the cause of
Christian, Gustavus made his public entry on Midsummer's Eve; before the
end of the year Finland also was reduced to obedience. The kingdom was
freed from foreign enemies, but internal foes still remained; and Lubeck
was an ally whose demands made it more troublesome than it would have
been as an enemy.

A town wasted in the civil war had been the scene of the election of
Gustavus Vasa to the throne. In the capital, when he made his public
entry, one-half of the houses were empty, and of population scarcely a
fourth part remained. To fill up the gap, he issued an invitation to the
burghers in other towns to settle there, a summons which he was obliged
twelve years afterward to renew, "seeing that Stockholm had not yet
revived from the days of King Christian." The spectacle which here met
his eyes was a type of the condition of the whole kingdom, and never was
it said of any sovereign with more justice that the throne to which he
had been elevated was more difficult to preserve than to win.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] Translated by J. H. Turner, M.A.

THE PEASANTS' WAR IN GERMANY

A.D. 1524

J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE

The Peasants' War was the most widespread and most bloody of
the mediaeval forerunners of the French Revolution. Like the
rebellion of the Jacquerie and many another ferocious,
desperate outburst of the downtrodden common folk, it
foretold a day of vengeance to come. These early uprisings
were all hopeless from their start, because the untrained
and naked bodies of the people, however numerous, could not
possibly hold an open batt