Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Steno Sturé the Elder. King John. Suanto Sturé. Steno Sturé the Younger, and Christian the Tyrant. A.D. 1470—1520
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a.d. ]
1509—13.!
Peace with
Russia.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE STUIlES.
Steno the younger,
guardian.
77
ing, but not in his manner or character, designated
to the crosier, but never its actual possessor, and
oftener seen at the head of an army or a Heet than
at the altar ; for the rest, well experienced in state
affairs, and ardent in hate towards the Danish
name. Their government, for we may speak of it
as conjoint, was an uninterrupted war with
Denmark, carried on by yearly’ predatory expeditions,
the intervals between them filled up with
negotiations and congresses, which, if little else is to
be learned from thein, at least, through the names
of the managers, make us acquainted with the
persons who stood at the head of the peace party in
Sweden.
Among these we observe the lord Eric Trolle,
with a great proportion of the council and all the
bishops excepting Hemming Gadd, who did not
scruple publicly to reproach the others with
carrying Danish hearts under the mantle of Swedish
bishops. Proposals were continually made for a
new recognition of king John, who appealed to the
emperor, and obtained a declaration of outlawry
against his Swedish foes, in which we find even the
deceased Steno Sture included. In 1509, the
plenipotentiaries of the Swedish council in
Copenhagen, agreed that Sweden should pay yearly
13,000 Stockholm marks, of which twelve and a
half were reckoned equal to one mark of silver,
until the king or his son were again admitted into
the kingdom. But Suanto Sture and Hemming
Gadd, with their adherents, protested against this
compact, " because the commonalty," as the words
run, " by voice and hands uplifted, had renounced
king Hans and all his descendants, and wei’e not
inclined to send any sum of money out of the
kingdom as acknowledgment." They also took notice
that nothing was determined respecting the
restitution of Gottland, and reproached the king that he
continued with his sworn brothers the Russians to
plot mischief against Sweden. In the following
year, ambassadors from Russia came to Stockholm,
and concluded a peace to last for sixty years. An
event of more importance was the intervention of
the Hanse towns in the struggle. These, after
their alliance with Steno Sture’, had for a time
composed their differences with the king, but as he
continued obstinately to shut them out from all
commercial intercourse with Sweden, and to fill the
Baltic with privateers, they renewed their alliance
with Suanto Sture, and in 1510, declared war
against Denmark. Hemming Gadd received the
envoys of Lubeck in the Swedish council with a
long oration, in which he gave vent to all his hate
against the Danes, describing them as a nation of
robbers, who, with continual blasphemies on their
tongue, lurked among the sand-banks of Jutland
for the spoils of shipwreck, plundered trading
vessels sailing through the Sound, and gathered
upon their islands a scum of all nations, subsisting
on the trade of piracy3. With the support of
Lubeck he was now able to blockade by sea, and
eventually to capture, the castle of Calmar, called
by the Danes the key of Sweden, which had been
already besieged for six years. Oeland and
Bork-holm were also recovered by him, nor was he
deterred by an age of seventy years from taking
part in the cruise of the Hanseatic squadron against
the Danish islands, or by his ecclesiastical office
from plundering and threatening with conflagration
the monasteries of Laland, in revenge for the
desolation of Finland and the burning of Abo by
the Danes.
In an incursion into Halland and Scania, fell the
valiant Aclto Johanson, whose slayer was rewarded
by king John with letters of nobility. West
Gothland was devastated by prince Christian, from
Norway ; the administrator, who marched against
him, not risking a battle, but endeavouring to
entice the prince into the forest of Tived.
Christian however turned aside to East Gothland, and
was driven back by the peasantry. During this
warlike turmoil Suanto Sture’ expired on the 2nd
January, 1512 ; his death occurring suddenly at
Westeras, while a consultation was proceeding
relative to a silver mine newly discovered. The
assembled miners immediately made themselves
masters of the castle of Westeras, and having,
before the news of the death of their beloved chief
had spread abroad, secured by his partisans that of
Stockholm likewise, they immediately despatched a
letter in the name of the deceased to all the
inhabitants of the realm, calling upon them to
acknowledge his son, the young Steno Sture, as his
successor.
Steno, surnamed the younger, son of Suanto, by
his first marriage4, and his only surviving child,
the noblest and most chivalrous of his family,
although flatterers sometimes abused his youthful
inexperience, was regarded with great love by the
people, for the alleviation of whose burdens he often
employed his influence with his father. The
younger barons appear also to have been
favourable to him, while their elder compeers and the
council were zealous for Eric Trolls, a learned
nobleman, of whom Gustavus I. remarks, " that he
showed himself more fit for the priesthood than for
the functions of secular government5." The
principal lords who attended entered into a covenant,
which they confirmed by oath, to resist with all
their strength those who designed to strip the
council of state of that privilege, power, and
authority, belonging to it from of old according to the
laws of Sweden, namely, of regulating the
government when the country was without a king ;
binding themselves therewithal to restore harmony
with Denmark, which had already concluded a
peace with the Hanse townsG. Both parties
remained in arms against each other, and when at
length the council was obliged to yield, the
exasperation of men’s minds was so great, that the feast
with which the election of Steno Sture’ was
celebrated in the castle of Stockholm, did not pass
over without the spilling of blood7.
King John died on the 21st of February, 1513 ;
even by the testimony of Swedish writers, a pious
i With I liana Giidda.
s See the letter of Gustavus to his sons Eric and John,
concerning the chronicle of Olave Peterson. Script. Rer.
Suec. ii. sectio posterior, p. 153.
8 In Malmo, April 23, 1512.
7 Eric Abrahamson (Lejonhufvud), who belonged to the
Danish faction, transfixed with his sword another noble who
was present.
chosen, the latter, because they had promoted the choice.
Hemming Gadd, to whom, in consequence of this, the council
had denied investiture in the bishopric, at length gave up all
claim to it in 1512. Next year Bishop John Brask was
chosen, who was confirmed by the pope, on condition of
paying a yearly income to the above-mentioned cardinal.
3 Joannes Magnus.
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