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which the fascine in his armorial bearings resembled), who had
been unjustly imprisoned by Christian, but escaped to Liibeck in
1519. In May, 1520, he returned to Sweden, and on hearing of
the death of his father at the Stockholm Blood-bath he betook
himself to Dalecarlia, where on former occasions Engelbrekt and
the Stures had been supported by the peasantry. The rising began
in 1521 and soon extended over the whole of Sweden. In August
of that year Gustavus was appointed administrator at Vadstena,
and in June 1523 he was proclaimed king at Strengnäs.
Sweden thus finally withdrew from the union, and Christian
soon afterwards lost his two other kingdoms. Ilis favour to the
Reformation aroused the enmity of the church, and at the same
time he attacked the privileges of the nobility. From the tenor
of several provincial and municipal laws framed by the king in
1521-22 it is obvious that he proposed to counteract the influence
of the clergy and aristocracy by improving the condition of the
lower classes. Among several excellent provisions w’ere the
abolition of compulsory celibacy in the church and a prohibition
against the sale of serfs. A war with the Liibeckers, who even
threatened Copenhagen (1522), next added to Christian’s
difficulties, soon after w’hich the Danes elected his uncle Frederick, Duke
of Slesvig-Holstein, as his successor and renounced their allegiance
to Christian. At length, after fruitless negociations. Christian
quitted Copenhagen in 1523 and sought an asylum in Holland.
Nine years later, after an unsuccessful attempt to regain his throne,
he was thrown into prison, where he languished for 27 years.
The condition of the Constitution during the union was far
from satisfactory. The qmion existed in little more than the name.
Each nation continued to be governed by its own laws, neither
the troops nor the revenue of one could be employed for the
purposes of either of the others, and no one could be summoned
before any tribunal out of his own country. The supreme authority,
next to that of the king, was vested in his council, which
consisted of the prelates, a number of the superior clergy, and a
fluctuating number of nobles nominated by the king, but not
removable at his pleasure. In matters of importance the king
could only act with the consent of his counsellors, and they were
even entitled to use violence in opposing unauthorised measures.
Nominally the church continued to enjoy all its early privileges,
and the concessions made at Tønsberg in 1277 w’ere expressly
confirmed by Christian I. in 1458, but invasions of its rights were
not infrequent, and with its increasing solicitude for temporal
pjwer its hold over the people decreased. The church was most
powerful in Norway and least so in Sweden, while with the
influence of the nobility the reverse was the case. In Sweden the
estates of the nobility enjoyed immunity from taxation, but
Christian I. and his successors were obliged to relax this privilege.
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