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Misconduct of liis
son Eric.
which were afterward to be the fruitful sources of
so many disasters. They are styled dukes, though
at first without dukedoms : Eric, while bearing
this title, already addresses the people as
subjects8; he is called also king elect or heir-king,
and Gustavus speaks in 1554 of crowning him
during his own lifetime. John, at the age of
eleven, was invested with territorial fiefs in
Finland, in order, the king writes," that since we have
caused the estates-general of Sweden to choose our
son Eric king of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals9,
and have thus provided him with land and a
kingdom, others of our dear children also may be
endowed with such maintenance as is suited
to princesand this investiture was in 1556
extended to the whole of Finland. That John
designed to convert his government into " land and
a kingdom" for himself was already sufficiently
evident in his father’s lifetime. This first-born of
his deceased queen Margaret was the favourite of
Gustavus, though his affection for his son seems to
have been impaired towards the close of life, if we
may judge by the words which pain extorted from
the old king upon his death-bed. Addressing
Magnus (afterwards weak-minded), he said, " Thou art
dear to me; thou hast never incensed me."
Charles was still a child. With Eric he had long
been dissatisfied, and was troubled on seeing that
the prince inherited the wayward caprice of his
mother, as well as the vehemence, which marked
the temper of. his father ; qualities which took so
alarming a shape as to obscure eminent natural
abilities, cultivated by a careful education. To
pacify his impatience, Eric was in 1557 invested by
his father with Calmar, the castle of Kronoberg
with its dependencies, and Oeland. Suspicion was
awakened by the young king receiving the oath of
fidelity from the nobility in his own name ; and
Tegel states that Gustavus, after this time, kept
around him a German body-guard. In his
letters to Eric, however, we detect no trace of
ill-will at this time. He upbraids his son with being
inaccurate in his accounts, with burdening the
people too severely, and with vexing him about
trifles, sometimes to procure new clothes 2,
sometimes harness, and fittings for the representation of
stage-plays 3 : on the other hand, he receives Eric’s
opinion in affairs of state with complacency, himself
requesting his advice in weighty matters, and
generally testifies entire confidence. Other
occurrences arose • in aggravation of his unhappiness.
His eldest daughter Catherine was wedded in 1559
to Edward II., count of East Friesland. The mar-
The king’s
dissatisfaction.
riage festival, after some delay from an alarm of
war, was celebrated with splendour4, the bride’s
portion being one of royal magnificence. In the
train of the bridegroom was his brother count
John ; and the bride’s sister, the young, beautiful,
and light-headed princess Cecilia 5, accompanied the
newly married pair to Vadstena. There Eric
discovered an intrigue between Cecilia and count
John, seized the latter in the bed-chamber of the
princess at night, and sent him to the king. The
latter replied, that he was here called into counsel
like a reaper after the field had been mowed ;
Eric himself had made this grievous mishap
notorious, to his own discredit and shame, and that of
all his house ; what step could now be taken ?—As
the matter stood, the king dealt rigorously with the
culprits, threatened count John with death, kept
him prisoner nine months, and only set him at
liberty after repeated intercessions by his kinsmen
and several princes. Eric, after he had destroyed
his sister’s reputation, fancied that he could restore
it by striking a medal bearing the effigies of Cecilia
and the chaste Susanna ! To the admonitions and
reproaches of the king he answered sullenly, giving
his father to understand that he should not write to
his successor as to one of his bailiffs. This con {+-+}
duct, stubborn, insensate, and unstable, was
repugnant to the king’s inmost soul. " Dear son Eric,"
he writes in one letter, " thou sendest us many
writings, but with what gladness we may read
them, God truly knoweth. For his Son’s death
and sufferings, and for the filial love and obedience
which pious children should bear to their parents,
desist from this torment wherewith thou vexest
and wringest the heart of thine aged and sorrowing
father."—His entreaty of forgiveness in another
letter, in case he should have erred in his
vehemence, is deeply moving : " Dear son, our fatherly
request to thee is, that thou wilt take no
displeasure thereupon. God hath himself commanded
in holy Scripture, that men should do no hurt nor
shame to his anointed and to their blood, though
sometimes defect or transgression may be found in
them."—Sueno Elofson, his secretary, relates, that
he had seen tears trickling down his cheeks, when
he conversed with the queen upon what had
occurred at Vadstena, and the behaviour of Eric.
Not as if any weakness or humourousness had been
found in them, the narrator adds, but he was
troubled in heart so sorely, that the words forced
the tears from his eyes. It is even said, so great
was his indignation, that he intended a prison
instead of a throne for his offending son but was
history of the swedes.
8 " Dear subjects." Letter of duke Eric to the burghers of
Abo, November 3, 1551. Register.
9 Gustavus took the " Vandals" from the Danish title.
1 Letter of June 27, 1546. Register.
2 " We have received thy writing a short while since, by
which we perceive thou aesirest our service (yet we hope
not), that we should procure clothes to thy servants for
Christmas from Henry Tailor; thus, dear son, thou mayest
well wonder, how we should be able to provide for all things
that happen in this realm." Register for 1557.
3 That he should have a "show-play" on Shrove-Tuesday,
and borrow harness from the ordnance master, cannot be
permitted. " If thou wilt have a play, thou mayest have a show
of arms with our horsemen." Reg. for 1558.
4 " My heart’s love Catharine," writes Gustavus to his
queen, " we have received accounts which run more on strife
and war than wedding. Seemeth therefore to us not very
needful that thou shouldst hasten much with baking or other
matters, in preparation for the feast." Reg. for 1559. In
Sweden at this day neither king nor queen regarded such
household cares as being beneath their notice. August 27,
1558, he writes to his son Magnus: "Our dear housewife
Catharine sends thee five shirts of which thou shouldst take
care; item, to keep thy head clear, and not to run or ride
too much about Oeland."
5 Cecilia, who is called " the fairest of her family," was
united in 1564 to the Margrave Christopher of Baden, who,
like several other German princes, was then in the Swedish
service. After his death, she embraced the Catholic faith,
and was supported by her brother John III. She died at the
age of 87, after a dissolute life. The three remaining
daughters of Gustavus were, Anna, married in 1562 to
George John, palsgrave of Veldentz, Sophia, married in
1568 to Magnus III., duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, and
Elizabeth, married in 15S1 to duke Christopher of Mecklenburg.
6 Teder Brahe, in his Manuscript Chronicle.
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