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a. d. 1457—63 ; Unpopularity of the king, i Feud with the archbishop. CHRISTIAN I. OF OLDENBURG. Flight of Charles and choice of Christian. 69
The people, in whose memories Engelbert lived,
were averse to Charles, and when he attempted to
revive the old contest regarding the liberty of
testamentary bequests to the church, and attacked
the property and privileges of the clergy *, his
position became the more critical from his want of the
martial qualities which might have enabled him
successfully to oppose an order, whose members in that
day were not seldom wont to bear the episcopal
staff conjointly with the sword.
The intrigues of the archbishop Jens Bennetson
and his party did not remain hidden from the king.
The former, with Sigge bishop of Strengnas, had
once already been convicted of treason, and
forfeited his fiefs. He had been reconciled to the king
through the interposition of the council, but
continued to hold a hostile tone. At a baronial diet in
Westeras he openly expressed his discontentment
with the administration of Charles, and his
inclination to Christian. To this the king paid no regard,
confiding in his treasures and his stipendiary
troops3.
At the outset of 1457, when the archbishop was
the king’s guest in the castle of Stockholm, and
each loudly upbraided the other with new
grievances, a summons was again issued for one of those
fruitless campaigns which every year of this reign
witnessed. Oeland, which the Danes had seized,
was now the object; and while Charles himself
directed his march southwards, the archbishop
received a mandate to accelerate his preparations in
the upper portion of the country. But Jens
Bennetson repaired instead to the cathedral of Upsala, and
depositing his priestly vestments on the high altar,
girt on helmet, sword, and armour, affixed to the
church door a declaration of war against his
sovereign, and immediately commenced hostilities.
Chaules indeed hastened his return, and opposed to
the disorderly crowd collected by the prelate a
disciplined, if not numerous, army; but he allowed
himself with incomprehensible carelessness to be
surprised in Strengnas. After a short conflict,
being wounded by an arrow, he fled to Stockholm,
where he with difficulty obtained admission. "And
because he saw," says Olave Peterson, " that the
archbishop and those of his party had undertaken
the matter in such a way as that they intended to
carry it through, and he also dreaded that the
burghers of Stockholm, now that the country was
adverse to him, would not stand fast by his cause,
he disposed of his gold and silver, of which he had
great store, went secretly on board ship by night c,
and so came to Dantzic the third day afterwards,
where he received safeconduct, and abode for seven
years."
The Swedish nobles whom fear of Charles had
driven into exile now re-entered the country. The
town of Stockholm, which in Albert’s time had
sustained a siege of seven years, surrendered within
a month to the Archbishop, who now styled himself
prince and administrator of the realm. The
governor of the castle yielded up both the fortress,
and the children of his sovereign, who had been
entrusted to his charge, without stroke of sword,
only stipulating that no account should be required
from him of the monies which had passed through
his hands. His compeers, the royal govei’nors in
the various provinces, excepting only Gustavus
Carlson7 at Calmar, " who stoutly upheld his
knightly honour," all followed the example set
them with so much alacrity, that when king
Christian came before Stockholm with his fleet at
Whitsunday, the Danes complained that nothing
was left for them to do, and overwhelmed the
clergy especially with scoffing eulogies. Yet
realities were not forgotten for words, and the
clerical order were gratified by a complete
confirmation of all their privileges.
Christian I. of Oldenburg was now chosen king
of Sweden, crowned at Upsala, June 19, 1457,
and at a congress of the councils of all three
kingdoms held next year in Skara, he obtained their
conjoint guarantee for the succession of his son.
Even the peasants, against whose wishes he had
been invited into the kingdom, although they had
assisted the archbishop against Charles, acquiesced
in the arrangement which had been effected, and
to use the words of the chronicle, " it first went
well with the land under the rule of king Christian."
But when he had reigned some years, it is said,
" he began to lay many new taxes upon the country,
and all who had any money were obliged to lend
him large sums, of which they received nothing
back. He bought the land of Holstein from the
Count of Schaumburg, and his brother Count
Gerdt, for which end he gathered much money out
of all his kingdoms. By reason of the burden of
these tallages, and because he took all out of the
land with him, he drew on himself much ill-will
throughout the kingdom, and his unfriends began to
call him a bottomless pouch, and said that he was a
public spoiler, although he was otherwise a pious
and good-natured man 8." In 14C3, a rumour was
spread that king Charles would return with an
army to reassert his claims to the crown, which
proved ultimately to be unfounded. But a trader
whom the archbishop caused to be imprisoned, was
said to have brought with him letters of that
purport to the relatives and partisans of Charles ;
several of whom, with the pretended letter-bearer,
were subjected to the cruellest torture by the
rack, so that some died, and others lost the use of
their limbs. By these steps deep hatred was
excited against the archbishop, who was a man of so
4 In 1451, when the clergy drew up a peremptory and
detailed protest against his measures. Charles not only
demanded that restrictions should be laid upon bequests to the
church, but he confiscated a number of its estates, and
insisted that no noble should be permitted to enter the spiritual
order before he had sold his estates to his relatives.
Investigations with a view to the reduction were prosecuted
throughout the kingdom by his son-in-law, Eric Ericson
Gyllenstierna, and the chancellor, Dr. Nicholas Ryting.
5 The Rhyme Chronicle.
6 February 24, 1457. Olave Peterson remarks, that of the
" large treasure" which Charles carried with him, he lent a
great sum in gold to the Prussian lords. Of this loan, made
in 1458 to the town of Dantzic, King Charles XII. exacted
payment, in 1704, principal and interest, for the family of
Gyllenstierna, which is descended from Christina, daughter of
Charles Canuteson. Another part of his treasure was
concealed in the Dominican monastery at Stockholm, but was
betrayed by the monks to King Christian.
" Son of Charles Ormson, the king’s father-in-law, before
mentioned; he afterwards did homage to Christian.
8 Olave Peterson. Holstein had become vacant in 1459
by the death of Duke Adolphus, whereupon, the year
following, Christian received homage as Duke and Count of
Sies-wick and Holstein, and bought off the claims of the other
pretenders.
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