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1523.]
He repairs to
Calrnar.
GUSTAVUS VASA. THE LIBERATION.
Attempts to raise tlie
Smalanders.
99
This shall no honourable man establish on any
good grounds,—that I am a captive and not a
host-age, who with other good lords, my companions,
came to the king of Denmark according to his own
wish, upon his oath and promise, letter and seal,
that we should again return back to our chief, lord
Steno, without danger or hindrance. Let one
appear who may prove fairly and in truth, in what
skirmish and fight we were made prisoners, and who
those were that took us. Hence it befits not we
should be called prisoners, but men surprised,
overreached, and deceived. For with what justice can
he be called a captive that never merited captivity,
and whom neither obligation, nor law, nor justice,
has brought into bondage7!" "Yet would this
have little helped," continues the Chronicle, " had
not Master Nicholas Broms, burgomaster of
Lubeck, and the principal men of the council
remembered, how it had been the purpose of king
Christian to oppress the Vendish towns, the rather
that he was now also lord of Sweden. For that
reason they deemed it was better to dismiss this
Gustavus Ericson to his own country ; for who
knew what he might effect ?"
Stockholm and Calmar were the only strong
places in Sweden which the enemy had not yet
won, and, singularly enough, they were both
defended by women. Gustavus had wished to
offer his services to Christina Gyllenstierna, and
the merchant-ship from Warnemunde which took
him on board was bound to Stockholm. But
Christian had already blockaded the capital by
sea and land, while before Calmar lay a
detachment of the Danish fleet, under Severin Norby.
Gustavus landed secretly at Stensoe, a promontory
in the vicinity of Calmar, and proceeded to the
town. John Magnusson, who had hitherto held
the command, was the son of the assassin of
Engel-bert, whom he resembled both in his untameable
passions, for he was an accomplice in the homicide,
and in his hatred of the Danes. His father, we are
told, sacrificed to his remorseful vengeance several
Danes who had instigated him to the commission
of the deed, and was at last incited by anguish of
conscience to an attempt on his own life
Magnus-son had lately refused admittance with contumely
to Christian himself’9 ; but he was now dead, and
the castle was held by Anne Bielke, his widow.
To her Gustavus repaired and found but a
comfortless welcome ; for the courage of the
burghers had sunk, and the German garrison in
the castle was so ill-disposed, that they threatened
him with death when he exhorted them to a valiant
defence. Being with difficulty protected by the
burgesses, he quitted the town on the same day
on which it was summoned by Severin Norby, and
retired to the hilly district of Smaland, among
some peasants who held land of his father. He
found the whole country filled with discords and
mutual treachery ; for the Swedes, it is said,
" were so dull and blinded, that they became in
many ways the helpers of their oppressors and
enemies, who gladly saw them slandering,
calumniating, deceiving, and ruining one another." The
Smalanders showed anxiety for their own safety in
the first place, and had concluded a league with
their neighbours of the then Danish province of
Bleking, for peaceful intercourse and mutual
defence against all acts of violence which might be
attempted by either of the two kingdoms. They
took also the oath of fidelity to the envoy of
Christian, who traversed the country and distributed
letters of protection from the king. Many such
were at this time issued for the chief men, whether
barons or yeomen, of the different provinces, " so
that the letter was of more power than the sword
Gustavus sometimes appeared in assemblages of
the peasants, and " warned them against the
banquet which was now prepared for the Swedes.’’
Their usual answer was, that king Christian would
take order that there should be no scarcity either
of herrings or salt in the country ; and some shot
bolts and arrows at him. A revolt of the
East-Goths was already quelled ; the West-Goths and
the Vermelanders, as also the Smalanders, had
submitted to the king 2. Upper Sweden alone was
disturbed, and Gustavus from the first determined to
repair to Dalecarlia, as we learn from his proposal
to a nobleman of Smaland to accompany him
thither3. Pursued, disguised, and wandering
mostly in lonely tracks, a price having been already
set upon his head where he concealed himself
during a great portion of this summer is unknown ;
but in the month of September he arrived without
money or clothes at the manor of Tarna, in
Suder-mania, where he found his brother-in-law, Joachim
Brahe, already summoned to the coronation 5, and
in vain entreated him not to obey the call.
The son of Joachim Brahe, in his Chronicle, has
acquainted us with his father’s answer. " I am
specially cited to the coronation," he said ; " if I
should remain absent, what would then become of
my wife and children ? Perhaps ill might even
come of it for her and your parents, as well as for
others of our friends. With you the matter stands
quite otherwise, for not many know where you are
stead. It can go no worse with me than with all
the Swedish lords who are already gathered about
the king." In this prudent mood the baron
departed, to meet in their company an unexpected
death.
After visiting his brother-in-law and his sister
Margaret, Gustavus repaired to his father’s estate
of Rsefsness, and there lived for some time under
hiding. He made himself known to the old arcli-
? Even after his elevation to the throne, Gustavus
defended himself against the charge of having broken his word
to Eric Baner, and drawn upon him by flight the appointed
penalty, which Christian in fact demanded. " We lay not
there," he says, " as a captive, and had given him no pledge
to remain there, although we hear that he so allegeth without
any proof." Letter to Magnus Goye, to bid Eric Ericson
desist from such words as stain the king’s honour and good
repute. Register in the State Archives for 1529.
8 Joannes Magnus, who had been tutor in the son’s family.
9 He complains in a letter to the West-Goths, dated Calmar
Sound, May 3, 1520, of the refractoriness and insolence with
which he had been repelled at Calmar. Hadorph on the
Rhyme Chronicle.
1 Olave Peterson.
2 Messenius, Scondia, iv. 85.
3 Bengt Ericson of Scalsness, in the parish of Hult,
hundred of South Wedbo. He had already received the king’s
protection, repaired to Stockholm, and perished in the
massacre.
* Narrative of Clement Rensel, Scandinavian Memoirs, ii.
5 This summons could not have been issued before the
surrender of Stockholm on the 7th September, after which
the king, returning for a short time to Denmark, convoked
the coronation diet for the 1st November.
ii 2
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