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1500.] Eric’s love-suit. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. Contest in Livonia. 141
turned from his purpose by John’s intercession. It
is certain that those two brothers, of whom
Messe-nius says 7 that they lived in incessant contention,
first in their play, next in reference to lands and
governments, and lastly for the crown, appear during
their father’s last days to have had a secret
understanding against him, though each probably for his
own objects.
Eric kept his court at Calmar with all manner of
wild and riotous excess. In his sports it was no
uncommon thing to see eyes dashed out, and arms
and legs lopped off8, which only served to provoke
his laughter. Among his attendants we already
observe Goran Person, afterwards his principal
adviser, who having filled a place in the service of
Gustavus had been dismissed from it9, and found a
refuge at the court of Eric. Otherwise the young
king lived mostly with Frenchmen, the chief of
whom were Denis Burrey (or as he is usually called
Dionysius Beurreus), formerly Eric’s tutor and
Charles de Mornay 2. Burrey, a zealous Calvinist,
advised his master to make proposals for the hand
of Elizabeth of England 3, a suggestion which the
latter embraced with his usual vehemence. What
castles in the air were built upon the loosest hopes
in reference to this alliance is best shown by the
conditions which it was considered necessary in
Sweden to require from Eric in case he should
become king of England Another surprising
feature of this transaction is, that John appears in it
as the most zealous intercessor in Eric’s behalf
with his reluctant father, placing himself at the
head of the costly embassy which was sent to
England to prosecute the suit, and on his return
advising his brother to present himself personally to
the object of his vows 5, which incited him to form
the most romantic projects. Sometimes he
determined to surprise Elizabeth in a disguise, sometimes
again to captivate her by the display of all his
regal pomp. In thus zealously promoting Eric’s
darling plan, John was not unmoved by some hopes
of recompense. At the same time we find both the
brothers in apparent harmony, and actively
engaged in another design of acquiring for John a
portion of Livonia.
In February, 1559, after the Russians had
plundered the whole country to Riga, Ivan Vasilievitsch
II. was informed by his commanders that Livonia
lay in ashes 6. Before this invasion, commenced in
the year previous, fell the old but now shattered
dominion of the sword-knights ; and as aid was
sought from Poland, the emperor, Denmark, and
Sweden, the country was now about to become the
theatre for the settlement of their contending
pretensions, as throughout a whole century it
continued. Here was already opening that series of
wars beyond the Baltic in which Sweden was to be
engaged; and it was not without good grounds that
he, who is justly styled the father of his country,
scrupled to enter on a path so full of uncertainty 7.
All the sentiments recorded as having fallen from
him in his last year show that he viewed with the
profoundest auxiety the prospect of Sweden’s
future. The very expedient he adopted to avoid
setting her all to hazard in the dangerous hands of
Eric, involved risks which undoubtedly did not
escape his penetration. All around clouds were
darkening the political horizon. He had received
information that another last attempt was. about to
be made on behalf of the family of his old enemy
Christian; and on the side of Denmark under the
new king Frederic II. (since 1559), the chances of
war seemed so imminent that Gustavus kept his
army and fleet in readiness 8. Those who now
invoked his assistance for Livonia, the granting of
which would have provoked a new war with Russia,
were the same who deserted him in his former war
with that country. He discerned only one Swedish
interest at stake in the whole quarrel, that of
setting bounds to the augmentation of the Danish
power in this quarter, after Reval had offered, in
1558, its submission to king Christian III. 9 ; and
beyond question this was his motive in binding
himself to support the grand-master of the order
7 Scondia, v. 114. Messenius, as secretly a Catholic,
writes of Gustavus I. with ill suppressed bitterness.
8 Peder Brahe.
9 He is said to have been condemned to death by
Gustavus, who commuted the sentence for one of banishment.
Fant, de Georgfo Petri Salse Montano, Ups. 1807. He was
son to a priest at Sala, and haa studied at Wittenberg. He
was accustomed to inveigh against Gustavus I., upon which
the old baron, Biorn Pederson Bat is said to have remarked
to him; " Know, Goran Person, that it is unjust so to blame
old king Gustave; ye do it out of malignity, demeaning
yourself like the hounds that bark at the moon ; true he has
his faults, which you cry out upon; but yet he is a
masterpiece of God." Scandin. Memoirs, 3, 32.
1 In this office he succeeded the deceased Goran Norman
in 1553 ; but he was ia Sweden in 1547, as his bond of fealty
to the king, and a grant of land to him, are preserved in the
archives. He was afterwards under Eric councillor of state
and chief rentmaster.
2 He styled himself baron of Varennes and came to Sweden
in 1558
3 He travelled as Eric’s envoy to London in 1558, before
Elizabeth had mounted the throne, and kept alive the prince’s
hopes by her and his own fair words through a stay of
considerable duration ; " doubtless because the air there agrees
with him better," writes the king ironically, who at once saw
the futility of these expectations.
* Tegel, ii. 411, 412.
5 " We have herein yielded at a great charge to thine and
thy brother’s will," writes the old king to John. The equip-
ment of the duke’s embassy cost 200,000 guilders (15,000/.),
and another was besides afterwards sent, consisting of
Charles Holgerson Gere, Gustavus Johanson Itoos and
Charles de Mornay. " So eager were we Swedes in this
business (excepting king Gustavus), and most of all was
king Eric bent upon the wooing, from which many conceived
great hopes." (Sueilo Elofson). "For what concerns the
English affair and the expedition thither, to which your grace
hath advised us, we have yet received no answer thereupon
from the king’s majesty." Eric to John.
6 Karamsin, History of the Russian empire, vii. 426.
7 " When I consider, of what praise he was worthy for all
the good he accomplished, me seemeth as if I were wanting
in understanding and word3, to speak it rightly and
according to his merit. Burt one thing I say, that if ever ruler
was deserving to be called ’ pater patriae,’ king Gustavus
should bear that name with all honour and commendation."
Sueno Elofson, Paralipomena.
8 Tegel, ii. 364.
9 " We would have thee to think, dear son, what detriment
it might work for our affairs, if the Danes should become our
neighbours on this side also; whether it be not better to
forestall than to be forestalled; to take the piece from the
hound in time than to be bitten by him. Give us thy
opinion hereupon." Letter of the king to Eric, December 8
and 10, 1558. Register. The peace-loving Christian III.
rejected the offer above-mentioned; but his son Frederic II.
transferred the claims he had acquired by purchase in 1559,
to the bishoprics of CEsel, Courland, and Reval, to his
brother Magnus.
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