Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Foreign Kings. The Union, until the Administration of the Stures. A.D. 1365—1470
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A new election.
Attempt on Gottland.
KING CHARLES CANUTESON.
Wisby burned.
Loss of Norway.
67
Charles Canuteson, who had continued to reside
at the castle of Wiborg, remained in Finland four
months after receiving intelligence of the king’s
death. With followers well armed and equipped
he arrived, May 3,1449, in Stockholm, whither the
bishops, prelates, knights and nobles, with the
franklins, and the deputies of the peasants and the
towns, had been summoned to a general diet9.
Prophecies of persons who were regarded as saints,
by which Charles was designated as foredoomed to
wear the Swedish crown, were again bruited about,
and the circumstance of rain falling during his
entry into the town was deemed by the people a
presage of good, inasmuch as the kingdom for several
years previously had been visited by continual
drought. Charles took up his quarters with his
followers in the body of the town ; the castle was
held by his opponents, the brothers Bennet and
Nils Jonson (Oxenstierna), who at the previous diet
of Barons at Jenkoping had been named
administrators, and had held, together with the deceased
archbishop, the chief share in the government
during the time of king Christopher. To the vacant
office of archbishop was named the young Jens
Bennetson Oxenstierna, equally with his father and
brother, the two administrators, the enemy of
Charles. This powerful family is accused of
having aimed at the crown, a purpose however which
its heads soon renounced, in order to bring into
play against the authority of the more powerful
Charles the usual policy of the Union. Both
factions provoked one another from the castle and
from the town by the interchange of contumelious
epithets, and they were upon the point of
proceeding to blows, when at last it was agreed to
proceed to the election of a new king, which however
was not conducted in the ancient form enjoined by
the land’s-law l. Seventy chosen plenipotentiaries
gave their votes in secret, of which sixty-two fell
upon Charles ; the commonalty added their assent
by acclamation. After the usual homage had been
offered at the Mora Stone, the king’s coronation was
celebrated at Upsala on the 29th of June ; and
a few days after his consort Catharine2 was crowned
by the new archbishop, who had been consecrated
in the interval. By this act the prelate gave a
public proof that he acknowledged the new order of
things, although his recognition had been tardy,
arid not yielded without reluctance.
The first object to which the new sovereign’s
attention was directed, was an expedition against
Gottland and the old king Eric, and singularly
enough, he conferred the command on Magnus
Gren, an ancient foe and new friend, whose good
faith was more than suspected. The issue was as
might be looked for. An easy reduction of the
island and its town was followed by a long truce,
which lasted until time was obtained for Eric to
surrender the castle, and for Magnus Gren both
the island and the Swedish squadron, to the Danes,
who under the command of king Christian himself,
surprised the Swedish garrison of Wisby (by
treachery, as an old Swedish song complains), and set
the town on fire.
Thus was Gottland won and lost, and in a short
time the crown of Norway also disappeared. Upon
this Charles had cast eyes of hope, the more
confidently that the Norsemen had already in 1441
concluded a separate alliance with Sweden 3, for the
maintenance of the common liberties of both
kingdoms, and now showed little inclination to follow in
the steps of the Danes, who had raised Christian
of Oldenburg to the throne 4. The archbishop of
Drontheim with several of the Norwegian council
and the mass of the peasants5, declared for Charles,
who was chosen king, and crowned November 23,
1449, in the cathedral of the town. The
collective body of the Norwegian commonalty both
North and South of the Dofre mountains, now
despatched a letter of renunciation to Christian,
purporting that they would acknowledge neither him
nor any other Dane or German as king of Norway,
but had elected Charles to be their sovereign,
seeing that Sweden and Norway, which two kingdoms
God had so closely joined together, had from of old
consorted in harmony and love. Two of the
Norwegian council were named to manage the
government, and Charles returned home by way of
Jem-teland.
Energy and unanimity, however, sufficient to
maintain what thus had been won were wanting,
and Christian’s party speedily attained
predominance in Norway, although the people, especially in
the northern portion of the country, to the last
remained faithful in the cause of Charles. A vain
attempt to besiege Opslofi, which had admitted a
Danish garrison, is all that is related to have been
done for the defence of the Norwegian crown ; and
at a conference held in Halmstad, May 1, 1450,
twelve Swedish and Danish barons, specially
deputed on either part, resolved that thenceforward,
for the maintenance of the Union, both countries
should choose one common sovereign. Meanwhile
the plenipotentiaries of Charles himself renounced,
on their own impulsion, and under the strictest
personal responsibilities in case the stipulation was
» Episcopi, prselati, milites, nobiles, liberti, ac rusticorum
et civitatum nuntii speciales. Ericus Olai.
i Non secundum formam legisterii. Ibid.
2 Af alia de fruer man kan leta,
Skal man aldrig skonare quinna weta.
Of all dames heart can wish, I ween,
A fairer sure was never seen.
The Rhyme Chronicle.
This lady, the second wife of Charles, died in 1450. She
was (laughter of Charles Ormson, councillor of state, of
Norwegian family, mother of four sons and five daughters, of
whom all the former died in their childhood, and of the
daughters, Magdalene was married to Ivar Axelson Tott.
Charles Canuteson was first wedded to Bridget, daughter of
Thure Bielke, and Christina, the offspring of this marriage,
espoused Eric Ericson Gyllenstierna. On his death-bed the
king was married to Christina, daughter of a captain in the
castle of Roseborg, in order by this means to legitimate the
son he had by her. But this union, to which the council
were highly averse, was never recognized as valid, and the
son lived and died in obscurity. Charles Ormson is
mentioned in 1411 as Norwegian lieutenant of Jemteland, and
contributed by his connections to the king’s election in Norway.
3 The 9th February and 24th June, 1441. See Hadorph,
Appendix to the Rhyme Chronicle.
4 Son of Count Frederic of Oldenburg, and born in 1425.
The settlement of the Danish crown upon him dates from
the 1st September, 1448. He married Dorothy widow of
King Christopher. It has been made matter of dispute
whether the election of king took place earlier in Sweden or
Denmark; but according to Eric Olaveson that of Charles
Canuteson was prior.
5 See the different letters of the commons of Norway at
FrostaTing, in Voss, Hedemark, the Uplands, and Romerige,
in Hadorph, ibid.
s Now Christiania. T.
f 2
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