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„,, Charles Canuteson high steward, titctiidv nr ’I’tit? swrnra Design to surprise Lubeck. j a. d.
00 Jealousies of the Magnates. tllOlUKY Ul< 11 1U. » W J^JJIjS. Death of the king. f 1442—4
Vadstena observes upon his election ; " it took
place conformably to the will of the prelates—God
grant, of heaven." At his coronation and during
his Eric’s-gait, he showed dispositions so favourable
to the clergy, that these now gave their consent to
a measure which for a hundred years they had
obstructed, the adoption of the general land’s-law.
This code accordingly received the royal sanction
on the second of May, 1442, with reservation of the
inviolability of privileges, both clerical and laical.
The archbishop of Upsala, Nils Ragwaldson,
formerly known as the representative of the Swedish
church at the council of Basle, in 1434, obtained
possession in perpetuity of the castle of Stacket,
built and fortified by him, which was to attain
mournful celebrity from its position during future
internal commotions. At his visit to the monastery
of Vadstena, the king, although his parade of
devotion harmonized ill with his jovial temperament
and the laxity of his manners, caused himself to be
admitted into the holy brotherhood, which now
instituted the first trial for heresy that Sweden had
yet seen. A simple peasant, who styled himself
the ambassador of the Holy Virgin, had declared
before the monks various opinions, some of them
relating to the life of the cloister, which occasioned
an inquiry into the circumstances and the
imprisonment of the accused, until, weakened by long
fasting, he renounced his errors. His public
recantation was solemnized by a procession in which the
sinner, naked to the middle, carried a burning
torch in his hand and a bundle of wood upon his
back, thereby consigning himself to the flames if
he should relapse into heresy.
Charles Canuteson, whom the king at first
gratified with the appellation of father, the honour of
knighthood, and the office of high steward, at the
same time confirming and augmenting the fiefs
which he held, soon found himself superfluous at
court. Among his many and powerful foes the
first to move against him was Christer Nilson, the
old steward, who, returned from exile, was loud in
his complaints of the wrongs he had suffered. To
him and his heirs, Charles was compelled to
relinquish a portion of Finland. Shortly afterwards
he was summoned by the king to Stockholm, and
though he repaired thither with ten ships and five
hundred knights and squires, Abo, Tavasteborg,
Oeland, and Swartsio, were demanded from him ;
and he was obliged in effect to surrender the first
named place, for which he received Wiborg, now
vacant by the death of Christer Nilson.
Hastening to escape from the load of charges now poured
upon him, he was forced to see himself excluded
from the government to which the king, upon his
own departure, committed affairs. This was
composed of Swedish barons, who were for the most
part enemies of Charles ; foreign governors were
now no longer appointed, and in the only case in
which an attempt was made to place fiefs in the
possession of a foreigner, the king is said to have
abandoned it upon remonstrance being made5. On
the other hand the eagerness of the Swedish
magnates to obtain them was sharpened, and the king
availed himself of their rivalry, to excite jealousies
» Hvitfeld.
6 Ita ut infra unius anni circulum octo vel decern unum
feudum taliter comparassent. Adeo autem erant Sueci sua
ambitione et mutua invidia excsecati. Elicus Olai.
among them, and to procure money for his own
purposes, for the fiefs were sold in his chancery to
every one who would pay the price of them, and
the same often to several persons ’’. At this time
the country was afflicted by scarcity and famine ;
and when the king, in 1440, again visited Sweden,
accompanied by his young bride Dorothea of
Brandenburg 7, complaints were raised that every
day five loads of corn were used for the horses of
the royal household, while the common people were
obliged to eat bark. Hence the peasants styled
Christopher the bark-king, and called to mind the
government of Charles Canuteson, with longing
wishes for the return of those good times.
At a baronial diet in Stockholm, to which
Charles was summoned from Finland, a convention
was formed with the Livonian knights for a joint
assault upon Novogorod, and the Swedes are said
also to have subsequently participated in an
irruption across the Russian frontier An expedition
against Gottland was at the same time determined
upon, as the pirates commissioned by the old king
continued from that station to annoy the coasts and
trade of Sweden. Nothing more came of this
project, however, than a peaceful visit of Christopher
to his uncle, which in Sweden was regarded as
barren of good results, and ended on the return
voyage in a shipwreck, by which the king lost all
that he had amassed during his stay in Sweden.
In general the king resorted to every possible
expedient to procure money ; in 1440 he caused a
number of English and Dutch ships passing through
the Sound to be brought in as prizes, and their
cargoes to be sold. An enterprise of magnitude
was planned by the king at this period. Drawing
together a considerable force, he appeared with a
fleet before the Venedic seaports, demanding a free
passage through their territory for himself and his
followers, upon pretence of a pilgrimage to
Wils-nach, in Brandenburg. Rostock is said to have
consented, Wismar and Stralsund to have refused
compliance. The real design was to surprise
Lubeck, to which place meanwhile several German
princes, secretly confederated with Christopher, had
repaired, as if on a friendly visit, carrying with
them a supply of arms concealed in wine casks. A
conflagration, which broke out during the night, was
mistaken by them for the expected signal of assault,
and hastening to take arms, they were discovered
by the citizens and expelled from the town.
Christopher now desisted from his abortive attempt and
repaired to Sweden, having appointed to meet the
council at Jenkoping. He fell sick on the journey
at Helsingborg, and died on the 5th January,
1448, of an imposthume, according to the Rhyme
Chronicle, which, in common with every other
domestic authority, knows nothing of the Palatine
account making him to have been poisoned. I
Upon his death-bed he is said to have declared
that his treasury had only been filled by him in
the intent to annex Lubeck to the Danish
dominions. He left no heirs. In Sweden he was
lamented, we are told, by no one except Archbishop
Nils, who on hearing the news of his death shed
tears, and a few days after followed him to the
grave.
7 Daughter of Margrave John, the alchymist, married in i
Copenhagen, 1445.
" In 1448. Karamsin.
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