Arboga

But the people were well pleased with the duke's course and stood faithfully by him.

Charles offered to resign the regency, but summoned another meeting of the estates in 1597, this time at Arboga.

There the higher and more conservative classes, the nobility and the clergy, separated from him, but the peasants, brandishing their clubs and axes, exclaimed that they would defend the duke as long as their blood was warm.

The nobles who opposed him had to leave the country.

His enemies were declared to be enemies of the country.

A civil war ensued, but ended soon in the complete triumph of Charles.

Several of the king's adherents were executed in accordance with the decrees of Arboga.

Sigismund, fearing that he might lose even the semblance of authority in Sweden, appeared in that country in the summer of 1598 with a force of 5,000 Polish soldiers.