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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7 8
Papal ban and Interdict
on the Swedes.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
Christian 11.’s
Invasion.
s a. d.
) 1513—2
and honest man 8, though occasionally violent and
cruel, as the murder of his secretary and chancellor
proves9. He was subject to attacks of moody and
savage caprice, which sometimes irritated him to
frenzy, and was inherited in too great measure by
his son.
Christian Uncalled in Sweden the ungentle,and
also the tyrant, whose administration in Norway
had already been stained with blood, and who now
succeeded his father in that country as in
Denmark, laid claim also to the Swedish throne, to
which he was once elected, and commenced
nego-ciations, whereby the truce concluded with
Denmark was several times renewed. Tn 1516, the
war broke out anew, produced by the intestine
commotions which the new archbishop Gustavus
Trolle excited. This prelate sprung from a
family linked with the Union interest by its large
possessions in Denmark, and which for two
generations back had been inimical to the Sture’s. An
attempt had already been made by one faction to
set up his grandfather, Arvid Trolls, against Steno
the elder, while his father Eric Trolle had lost the
government by the election of the younger Sture.
This Gustavus Trolls was of a temper that never
forgave a past wrong, real or fancied, although the
administrator himself, to bring about a
reconciliation, had promoted his election to the archbishopric.
Their animosities now led to open war, in
consequence whereof Gustavus Trolle, after a Danish
fleet had fruitlessly endeavoured to relieve him,
was unanimously declared at the diet of Arboga to
have forfeited his office, and his fortified castle of
Stacket was demolished. Next year Christian
himself accomplished a landing in the
neighbourhood of Stockholm, but suffered a complete
overthrow from Steno Sturd. In this battle, fought at
the Brenn-kirk, July 22, 1518, and celebrated in a
popular ballad, the Swedish banner was borne by
the young Gustavus Ericson Vasa. Being
afterwards sent as a hostage to the Danish fleet on
occasion of a personal interview which the king
requested with the administrator, he was carried
off prisoner to Denmark, contrary to the pledged
faith of the former, along with Hemming Gadd and
four other Swedish nobles. Thither Christian also
returned, after he had so treacherously broken off
the negociations which lie had himself commenced.
By the papal command, an investigation was
instituted into the charges which the deposed
archbishop had brought against Steno, at the see of
of Rome. A spiritual court commenced its sittings
in Denmark ; the administrator with all his
adherents was excommunicated, and the whole
kingdom was placed under an interdict
" The Swedes," says Olave Peterson, " did not in
the least regard this ban and interdict." Christian
however procured the execution of the sentence to
be committed to himself, and the whole of the year
1519 was spent in making preparations. New taxes
were imposed ; levies were made in various
countries ; and in the beginning of 1520, the Danish army
broke into Sweden under their general Otho
Krum-pen, who caused the papal ban to be affixed to all
the churches upon the march. Steno encountered
the invaders on the ice of lake Asunden, by
Boge-sund, in West-Gothland ; he was wounded in the
opening of the battle, and obliged to be carried
out of the conflict, the issue of which was decided
by this disaster. Being conveyed to Strengness, he
soon received intelligence that the Danes, to whom
a Swedish nobleman 2 pointed out the way, had
surrounded the entrenchment in the forest of Tived,
cut to pieces the troops stationed there, and were
already on their march to Upland. Collecting the
remains of his strength, he hastened to Stockholm,
but died in his sledge upon the ice of Lake Malar,
February 3, 1520. By his death, all government
in Sweden was dissolved ; the magnates indeed held
consultations, but no one had courage to command,
or will to obey. The country-people gathered in the
view of attempting a stand against the enemy, but
from want of a leader were soon dispersed by the
foreign soldiery, whose track was marked by
homicide and conflagration, and who insolently boasted,
that they would not care although in Sweden it
should rain peasants from heaven. The heroical
Christina Gyllenstierna alone, widow of Steno, and
the mother of four children still of tender age, did
not lose heart; she continued to defend Stockholm,
and refused to accede to the convention ratified
with the Danish generals at a baronial diet
convoked in Upsala, by which Christian was
acknowledged king, on condition that he should govern
conformably to the laws of Sweden and the treaty of
Calmar, and not exact vengeance for what had
passed. These engagements were personally
confirmed by the king upon arriving with his fleet
before Stockholm, with the express addition, that the
measures adopted against Gustavus Trolls, who was
now restored to his office, should be forgotten and
forgiven. The same promises were repeated in the
king’s letter to all the provinces, and being seconded
by the efforts of the prelates and nobility,
completely disarmed the resistance still kept up by the
people. These assurances were again renewed,
when Hemming Gadd, after a life spent in
struggling against Danish domination, now appeared in
his old age as its advocate, and by the weight of his
influence at length induced Christina Gyllenstierna
to surrender Stockholm, although against the wish
of the burghers. When the king in the autumn
returned to Sweden, and was crowned in
Stockholm, he once more confirmed by oath and
reception of the sacrament the securities he had given.
But at this very moment Christian had resolved
that the blood of the chief men of Sweden should
be shed, although he himself " appeared friendly to
all, and was very merry and pleasant in his
demeanour, caressing some with hypocritical kisses,
and others with embraces, clapping his hands,
smiling, and displaying on all hands tokens of
affection3." The instigator of this resolution was
Theodoric Slaghoek, formerly a barber, and a rela-
8 Olave Peterson.
9 See the Relations of Andrew the secretary, and Paul
Laxman, in Hvitfeld.
1 Proclaimed by Birger, Archbishop of Lund, in the spring
of 1517. T.
2 The above named Eric Abrahamson.
3 See Proclamation of the Council of State (Ricksens RadR
Utskrifvelse, &c.), respecting the tyrannical government of
king Christian in Sweden, Strengness, June 6, 1523; in
Stiernman, Acts of Diets and Conventions (Riksdags och
Motens Beslut), vol. i. It was Christian’s manner thus to
conceal his designs. Tyrannus est statura justa, corpore
amplo, truci vultu; sed quem in congressibus praecipua
comitate contegat, are the words of Jacob Ziegler, who
describes the massacre of Stockholm after contemporary
accounts, in an appendix to his Scandia.
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