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100 Clergy and nobles favour the Danes. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. News of the massacre. Flight of Gustavus. [1520—
bishop, Jacob Ulfson, who had sought refuge in the
neighbouring cloister of Mariefred, and received
from him a detail of the state of things in this part of
the country, where the enemy, on first penetrating,
had been met by a stout resistance, though from a
peasantry left without leaders. In the conflict of
Balundsas6, and the still bloodier action fought
shortly after at Upsala, which might have been
changed into a victory, had not the peasants
dispersed to plunder’, the royal forces had suffered
great loss. The Dalesmen had taken part in this
rising; whence their first answer to Gustavus
when he attempted to rouse them was, that they
well remembered Good-Friday at Upsala8.
Exasperation against the prelates, all of whom,
excepting bishop Arvid of Abo, were of the Danish
faction, and the barons, who had allowed
themselves to be employed by the king as intriguers,
had occasioned tumults and violence in some places.
Jacob Ulfson had been himself surprised in his
manor of Arnoe ; bishop Otho of Westeras was
seized in his own cathedral; bishop Brask of
Lin-koping was besieged by the East-Gothlanders;
Eric Abrahamson, who had pointed out to the
enemy the road across the Tiwed, was made
prisoner by the peasants of Nerike; and Hemming
Gadd was well-nigh slain when he ventured to
speak of the capitulation of Stockholm.
Since the resolution taken by Steno Sture the
younger, with the estates at the diet of Arboga in
1517, "rather to die sword in hand than to submit
to king Christian," rapid progress had been made
with the fortifications of Stockholm. The old
defensive works had been improved or
reconstructed. The town was well supplied with military
stores, and the king, who had besieged it
throughout the summer, gave it up for lost if it were not
reduced before the winter. This the Swedish barons
in his camp procured, and Stockholm was given
up by the nobles in the town, " against the will of
the commonalty 9."
The clergy at this juncture saw more distinctly
than any other class, that the fate of the union
must now be decided once for all, and wished to
soften the impending eruption by dexterous
management. " If we inquire," said bishop Matthias
of Strengness to the peasants of Nerike, " the real
cause of those pernicious troubles which have so
long raged in this realm, the truth plainly is, that
their source and commencement were the
dissensions prevailing among the barons ; of whom
there were some that raised themselves to the
power of kings and chiefs, stripping the council of
its legitimate authority, and by lying discourses
and rumours crept into favour with the commons
of Sweden, whose simplicity and good-will they
used for their own purposes in the name of the
country 1 !" These expressions of the bishop found
many who assented to them, and a similar
judgment was often passed upon the Stur£s. The king
rewarded all submission with the most gracious
promises, while the infliction of the cruelest
penalties on those who had ventured to stir up the
peasants discovered the lengths to which his
vengeance might extend. Most of those who possessed
any rank or consequence in the country at this time,
desired that the state of insecurity and confusion
which had so long subsisted should be terminated ;
and the father of Gustavus himself, in conjunction
with the remaining barons of the kingdom, set his
seal to the act by which Christian, 011 the 30th
October preceding his coronation, was declared
hereditary king of Sweden 2.
The old archbishop advised Gustavus likewise to
submit to the present order of things, informing him
that he was already included in the amnesty which
had been stipulated at the surrender of Stockholm 3,
and offered his mediation with the king. Once after
such a conversation, when Jacob Ulfson had
employed his eloquence in vain, it happened that an
old servant of Joachim Brahe presented himself
at the castle of Gripsholm4, and rather by sighs
and tears than words, imparted the first tidings of
the massacre of Stockholm. The terrible news was
soon confirmed. The archbishop was dumb from
horror, and Gustavus prepared for flight.
It was 011 the 25th November that he rode away
secretly from the house at Rsefsness, accompanied
by a single servant, who robbed and deserted him
at crossing Kolsund’s Ferry. Gustavus took his
way to Dalecarlia, and arrived at the Kopparberg
at the end of the month. He was now clad in a
peasant’s dress, and worked for daily hire in this
quarter, where the common people still remember
with pride, that Gustavus plied axe and flail among
their forefathers, and have stored up in their
memories his adventures and perils. The barn in
which Gustavus threshed at Rankhytta, is
preserved as " a state monument5 ;’’ as are also the
barn in the hamlet of Isala6, where he likewise
6 Ilalf a mile east of Westeras. The place is still called
Jute-bog.
" " Because they had no such leaders as they greatly
needed." Olave Peterson. He reckons the peasants slain
on this occasion at some hundreds, while Hvitfeld, who
generally follows his authority in Swedish affairs with literal
closeness, makes them ten thousand, and others double the
number. So discrepant are the historical accounts of this
war, composed after popular legends.
8 The battle took place 011 Good-Friday, April 5, 1520. See
the old Dale song in the Svenska Folkvisor (Swedish Popular
Songs), v. ii.
9 Olave Peterson. The capitulation of Stockholm is
subscribed by the archbishop Gustavus Trolle, the bishops
Matthias of Strengness and Otho of Westeras, as also by twelve of
the councillors present, and among them Gustavus’s father.
In this they engage to hold the castle for king Christian, and
after his death for his queen and son; on the side of the
burghers a similar guarantee was given; both are dated
Sept. 8, 1520. The originals are in the archives of Christian
II., transmitted to his majesty (Charles John) from Munich,
and now in Christiania.
1 Assurance of the burgesses of Orebro, and yeomanry
of Nerike, September 29, 1520. lladorph on the Rhyme
Chronicle.
2 In support of this nomination were alleged the pretended
descent of Christian from St. Eric, as well as that enactment
of the Land’s Law, that the king’s sons should have preference
in the election ; wherefore, as Christian was the sole surviving
son of his father, the principle of hereditary right, and not
that of election, should be applied. So had the imperial legate,
Dr. Suckot, and the Danish bishop, Jens Beldenacke,
explained the law of Sweden to the estates. See the document
in Hvitfeld.
3 His name is found in the letterof protection to Christina
Gyllenstierna. Hadorph, ibid.
4 He is called the Goodman (gubbe) of Trannevick;
Joachim Brahe’s farmer or renter; though Celsius has
made of the latter term a rentmaster, or intendant.
5 Royal letter of April 26, 16G8.
6 King Charles XI. visited it in 1084. It is now marked
by a monument of porphyry, with this inscription, " Here
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