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122
Movements of
Christian.
history of the swedes.
Lands in Norway.
Attempt on Sweden.
[1524—
magistrates of Stockholm, in a negociation with the
insurgents of Dalecarlia. At their head, in the
present attempt, appeared men who had heretofore
been the most faithful adherents of the king. The
peasants of the Dales, said these, would not again
allow themselves to be pinned in a ring, as once
upon Tana Heath ; to come across the Dal-elf at
Brunback without the Dalesmen’s leave was what
no king or lord of the land had ever dared ; even
Gustavus should not come into their country
without safe-conduct, or with a greater following than
they themselves should appoint; nor would they
suffer any other officers to live among them other
than such as they had themselves consented to
receive, and as had been born among them8. All
this they alleged to be the old custom of their
country, and they now kept armed guard upon the
borders. When the king came to hear this, he
said, it was now the time of the Dalesmen, but that
his own time was coming, and to the astonishment
of all, he nominated one of the principal insurgent
leaders to be governor of the Dales.
This caution was rendered necessary by the
perils which threatened from another quarter.
Christian II., though dethroned, was ever busied
with plans for recovering the kingdoms of which
he had been master, and he had more than once
collected troops for this purpose, whom yet he
never succeeded in keeping together. An army of
26,000 men, which he led against Holstein in
1523, with his brother-in-law the elector of
Brandenburg, disbanded for want of pay, and the king
was forced to hide from his own soldiers. In the
year 1526, Gustavus was informed by a letter of
the Danish council, that Christian was again in
march towards Holstein with 10,000 men9. This
armament was to operate in conjunction with the
partisans of Severin Norby, whose designs upon
Sweden have been already mentionedl, but the
army, upon the report of Norby’s flight, dispersed.
Meanwhile the dwelling of Christian in the
Netherlands, where he lived under the protection of the
emperor, was a point of re-union for all the
Swedish malcontents and exiles. Here resided
the former archbishop Gustavus Trolle, who had
carried off with him the old records of the
kingdom 2 ; here were gathered Thure Jenson, bishop
Magnus of Skara, and Jon Ericson, dean of Upsala,
who held communication with bishop John Brask,
now likewise a refugee. In the year 1530, they
bound themselves by a special covenant3 to
replace Christian " by the arms of their adherents"
on the throne, and invoked the aid of the emperor,
" to free Sweden, for the boot of Christendom,
from a tyrant who cared neither for God nor men,
for word, honour, nor repute4." The return of
Charles V. to the Netherlands at this time
inspired Christian with new hope ; in Denmark and
Sweden it awakened new terrors. By lavish
promises and prospects of booty, a band of military
adventurers was collected round him, which soon
formed an army of 12,000 men, whose first exploits
consisted in plundering the country. The emperor,
who was otherwise little satisfied with his
brother-in-law, at length paid over to him the arrears of
the dowry of his deceased sister, and the Hollanders
furnished ships and artillery, solely in order to be
rid of their troublesome guests. From Norway,
whither Gustavus Trolle had previously repaired,
money and plate gleaned from the churches were
sent. By the end of October 1531, Christian put
to sea with a fleet of twenty-five vessels, and
though these were dispersed by a storm in which
several were lost, he was himself fortunate enough
to effect a landing in Norway at Opslo5. The
Norsemen, who had long been disaffected to Danish
rule, perceived in Christian the instrument by
which they might regain independence. Although
he had embraced the principles of the reformers
(in whose communion his consort had died, as the
king himself wrote to Luther), he now appeared as
the defender of the Catholic faith in the north.
Olave, archbishop of Drontheim, and all the
bishops of Norway with the exception of Bergen,
the clergy, the nobility, and the greater part of the
people declared for his cause. On the 30th of
November, 1531, the council of Norway renounced
fealty and obedience to king Frederic, exhorting
the Danes to make common cause with them, and
Christian was again acknowledged as king of
Norway. At the same time the banished Swedish
lords who were among his train, endeavoured
actively to promote his interest in Sweden. They
wrote to the insurgent Daleearlians, as also to
West-Gothland and other provinces, that king
Christian had changed to a pattern of pure justice
and meekness, and that he had come to restore the
Christian faith. But in Sweden, the conquest of
which Thur£ Jenson had deluded the king into
thinking an easy matter G, these intrigues produced
8 In the Registry of the Archives for 1526 exists a letter of
the king, written during the rebellion in the Dale-land
instigated by Peder SunnanvEeder, to the miners of the
Kop-parberg, on the nomination of a new bailiff; " which yet," he
says, "we cannot do without the consent and presence of
you all, nor will, against your privileges." The Register
notes, however, that this letter was never sent forth.
8 Letter from Tyge Krabbe and Claas Bille, councillors of
Denmark, to king Gustavus, October 1, 1526 ; "that king
Christian was in motion with 3000 horse and 7000 pikemen,
but when they learned that Severin Norby had miscarried,
their courage failed them." Reg. of the Archives.
1 His last attempt,in 1526, to make war on Gustavus with
the assistance of Denmark, which was refused, is mentioned
by Tegel, i. 124. He fled to Russia, and was kept prisoner
there till 1529, when he entered into the service of the
emperor Charles V.; next year he was killed at the siege of
Florence. He was by birth a Norwegian.
2 In a letter from Antwerp, March 12, 1530, Gustavus
Trolle tells king Christian that it is not advisable to keep the
register of the kingdom of Sweden any longer in the Bur-
gundian dominions, because the Burgundians were not to
be depended upon, but he would deposit it for the king’s use
elsewhere, and acquaint him with the place. Archives of
Christian II. Where it was preserved is now unknown.
3 Dated at Antwerp, September 27, 1530, and drawn up in
the name of all the above-named lords, but not subscribed
by Brask, who was still in Prussia. Compliance with the
spirit of the times induced the insertion in this bond of an
article providing that estates of which the crown had been
wrongfully deprived, might be again resumed by the
sovereign.
« So Gustavus is styled in the draught of a memorial to
the emperor, conceived with implacable bitterness. Among
other statements, it is there asserted that in Sweden the
nuns had become public courtezans, and that the king
proceeded to such lengths in his plunder of the churches, that
he caused the church-yards to be dug up in order to boil
saltpetre from the bones of the dead.
5 Now Christiania. T.
6 " Baron Thure Jenson often asserted that he would with
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