Pageants in the reign of Gustavus Adolphus and Christina

It is fair to say that the official entry of the Baroque into Sweden came with the coronation of Gustavus Adolphus in October 1617. For the first time in our country, a carnival-like retinue of allegorical figures and classical heroes was to be seen, taking part in a pageant ("Aufzug") moving in procession to the tilt yard below Uppsala Castle. Never before had such a magnificent display been made of the prelude to a tournament.

The parade was modelled on a number of European examples. Very great use appears to have been made of a number of printed illustrated descriptions of running at the ring at the court in Stuttgart during the 1610s. There are great similarities. Ideas for the design and content of the allegorical cars were borrowed from these German "Aufzug". Chariots with mythological heroes in armour, the mountain of Parnassus with its muses, virtues and vices personified, and a ship manned by turbaned orientals were just a few of the floats.

The inaugural coronation tournament on 16th October heralds the age of Swedish greatness. The cartel or letter of challenge was issued by the King in person. Its content is reminiscent of a speech from the throne, the essence being that Sweden would remain invincible if its people were united and obedient to their king. In the tilt yard, the unity thus called for was symbolised by a temple constructed for the occasion and dedicated to Fidelity.

The competitions were shot through with patriotism and historicising romanticism. Gustavus Adolphus himself introduced ancient Swedish heroes and Gothic champions in his hastiludes. He signed his letter of challenge, not in his own name but in that of King Berik.

From the age of Gustavus Adolphus onwards, tournaments and tilting at the ring are as much as part of theatre history as of chivalric games. A host of objects relating to these games have come down to us. From the tournament arranged to mark the wedding of Gustavus Adolphus and Maria Eleonora on 25th November 1620, we have, for example, an abundance of textile materials in the form of tilting skirts ("bases") and magnificent horse caparisons. Studies of the armour tells us that the type of tournament practised was the so-called "Italian joust" (Welsch Gestech), a contest between two armed knights on different sides of a barrier. But there were also group tournaments - mêlées, as witness the small tourneying swords still extant and the identical pairs of horse housings.

The ballets, "Wirthschaft" spectacles and hastiludes of Christina's reign were a countinuing manifestation of national self-esteem in Sweden, which had been boosted by the Peace of Westphalia. Once again, cartels were issued alluding to the glory of the Gothic forebears. The Queen was the central figure in these festivities and her qualities were likened to those of Apollo and Minerva.

During the reign of Queen Christina, there was more emphasis on the theatrical, dramatic staging of the pageants. The scholars of the realm, headed by the poet Georg Stiernhielm, were engaged to give the festival programmes philosophical content and a fitting allegorical and mythological design.

Four pageants with tilting at the ring were organised in connection with Christina's coronation in 1650. The most famous of them, Lycksalighetens Ähre-Pracht, The Splendours of Felicity, was paid for by the heir to the throne, Karl Gustav (the future Charles X). The programme, with words in Swedish by Stiernhielm, was printed and distributed to the spectators. This pageant is also recorded in a unique series of gouache pictures, probably painted by the French artist Nicholas Vallari. The design of this coronation pageant was inspired by festivities at foreign courts, and once again the publications from the court of Stuttgart were emulated.

The ingenious, emblematically advanced content of the pageants was a closed book to many of the spectators. All they could see were expensive and incoherent masquerades. Jonas Petri of Hasle, a country person and a member of the Diet, was one of the crowd who saw the allegorical cast of Lycksalighetens Ähre-Pracht moving through the streets of Stockholm towards the tilt yard at Hötorget ("Haymarket"). This is how he sums up his impressions of Felicity (Lycksaligheten) personified and of the mountain of Parnassus moving past him:

Soon afterwards there came quite a big carriage in which there sat one who was disguised and strange to behold. Last after this came a big mountain walking and moving; on it there were also sitting many people dressed up in green and other clothes. Finally they rode at the ring for a while, and that was the end of it.

Tournaments based on more ancient traditions, known as foot combats, were also held at the court of Christina. These "certamen pedestre" events, in which the combatants fought in two groups armed with pikes and swords, were arranged by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie on two occasions. The two groups were led by ancient exemplars, also on foot, employing the names of heroes like Caesar and Mark Antony.