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1543.] Pl0ts0f0sture6h0use GUSTAVUS VASA. THE REFORMATION.
into prison, and made away with or banished her
son Nicholas Sture’.
This happened at the very time when Gustavus
had procured the release of Sture"s widow from a
Danish prison. Christina Gyllenstierna met at
Calmar her eldest son Nicholas Sture’, who was
now in his twelfth year, and had lately returned
from Dantzic, whither he had been sent in 1520,
to escape the persecutions of Christian. Bernard
of Melen sought by detaining young Sture in his
charge, to give a colour to his own defection, and
left a servant of the house of Sture’ in command of
the castle of Calmar 9. Rumours were soon spread
both in and out of Sweden, that Severin Norby
was aiming at the hand of Christina Gyllenstierna,
and through her, at the government of Sweden
Gustavus publicly alludes to this report as the
loose talk of the common people, which was
circulated by mischievous intriguers2. He secretly
suspected Christina Gyllenstierna of participating
in this design 3. She herself denied that Norby,
although she had given him hopes, ever received
her plighted troth 4, and allowed the king to choose
for her another husband. Gustavus received the
young Nicholas Sture into his court, and sent him
in the spring to his mother, but lie died in the
summer of the same year at Upsala 5. The king
was dissatisfied with the conduct of this youth. A
report was spread by traitorously inclined persons,
that he had fled to save his life, and we shall soon
see a false Sture appearing under his name in
Dalecarlia.
Irreconcilable interests had combined in these
plots, which had the double object of elevating to
power the house of Sture’, and of restoring king
Christian. That the latter entered into Norby’s
intentions, we learn from a written promise of the
fugitive prince, by which he engaged " that if lord
Severin should marry the lady Christina, and
thereby come into the government of Sweden, he should
hold the kingdom absolutely as the king’s
lieutenant for a yearly tribute 6." Christian moreover
issued a public letter, purporting that he had
Punishment of the
bishops.
transferred his power to Norby until he should
himself return to his dominions7. Norby, who
still remained in Gottland, made a descent
therefrom upon Scania in the spring of 1525, where
both the country and towns, excepting Malmoe,
again did homage to Christian. At the same time
the factious bishops attempted to induce the
Dalesmen to march against Gustavus 8. Letters forged
in their name, with false accounts of insurrectionary
movements, and exhortations to a general rising,
were circulated throughout the kingdom about
Easter. Not finding, however, the support on
which they had counted, the prelates fled from
Dalecarlia into Norway, whence upon the demand
of Gustavus they were sent back under a promise
of safe-conduct on his side 9: yet with the
condition that " they should abide the sentence of
their legitimate judges, and suffer and make
atonement as the award should direct." Olave,
archbishop of Drontheim, seeing himself obliged to
deliver up the fugitives, declared in his letter to
the king that " their legitimate judges" were " the
prelates of the Church, seeing that the accused
were men of the priestly order1." But this was
far from being the opinion of Gustavus. He caused
them both to be tried by the council as traitors,
without regard to the protest of the bishops who
were present, and of the chapter of Upsala, and
inflicted the punishment to which they were
condemned, in spite of every intercession2.
Previously to their execution, they were subjected to
contumelies which cannot be vindicated, although
the object doubtless was to show how little
ecclesiastical dignity would protect the guilty. Clad in
tattered vestments, and sitting backwards on
starveling jades, the offenders were led into
Stockholm, the one with a crown of straw, the other
with an episcopal mitre of birch-rind on his
head. Mountebanks in antick dresses
encompassed them, who bawled, " Here comes the new
king, lord Peter Sunnanvseder." In this fashion
they made the circuit of the town, and were forced
at last to drink fellowship with the hangman 3.
9 Bishop Brask writes to Thure Jenson, that Bernard of
Melen had named Henry the Jute, who had been in the
service of Christina Gyllenstierna, to be captain of the castle,
and that the latter had with him Nicholas Sture, which caused
much blame to be cast upon the lady Christina. Scan. Mem.
xiv. 63, 64.
’ A letter from Mecklenburg in the Archives of Christian
II. (without name of writer or date) mentions that Severin
Norby will wed Steno Sture’s widow, and receive with her
the whole kingdom of Sweden.
2 Letter to the nobility and commonalty of Smaland, 25th
March, 1525. Scan. Mem. xiv. 44.
3 Gustavus writes to bishop Brask, that Severin Norby had
sent messages to Lady Christina, proposing marriage, by
which she and her children might arrive at the government,
" into which indiscretion she had allowed herself to be
misled ;" 1. c. 32; and to Magnus Brynteson (Liliehok),
commander at Elfsborg, on February 15, 1525, that mischievous
intrigues had been set on foot, especially by the lady
Christina and her party, for the discovery of which the king begs
him to employ his spies, both within and without the
kingdom. Registry of the Archives.
i In a letter of December 29, 1526 (quoted by Hvitfeld in
his History of Frederic I.), she begs that influence may be
used to induce Norby to desist from such discourse. She had
indeed written to him that she would prefer him to every
other suitor, if she should ever contract another marriage,
and had presented him with a ring, but had never given him
her promise. At Christmastide, 1526, the king betrothed
her to John Thureson (Roos), son of the high steward Thure
Jenson.
5 " We send to you, according to your request, your son
Nils, well perceiving that he can have little fruit of
instruction or good manners with us, where he gives small heed to
his service, and shows no will or liking to be at hand where
we are, but rather shuns us and holds himself apart where
it is possible for him, though this be very displeasing to us,
and we have chastised him for it with words and meet
correction. Seemeth to us therefore advisable that you should
send him for some time to another place, where he may more
improve himself, not spending his time unprofitably." Letter
from the king to Lady Christina by Nils Stenson. Grips
holm, April 1, 1527. Reg. of the Archives.
6 Articles for Severin Norby by Roloff Matson, March 20,
1525, in the Archives of Christian II.
? The letter, which was intercepted, may be read in
Hvit-feld’s History of Frederic I.
8 Confession of Peter Grym. Troil, Memoirs, ii. 282.
9 See the letter of safe-conduct in Tegel.
1 Letter of the archbishop to the king, dated Nidaros,
July 5, 1526. Registry of the Archives.
2 " Thereto his grace made answer, that such matters could
not be so easily passed over." Minute-book of the town of
Stockholm. Troil, Memoirs, ii. 269.
3 This took place in the autumn of 1526, when the sentence
had been passed on Master Canute, but not on Peter Sun-
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