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1569 ] His profusion. War in Livonia. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. John’s views on Poland. He is made prisoner. 149
that Eric did not, according to the promise he had
given, deduct from his portion of the inheritance
the amount expended upon his English courtship
before his father’s death. His greed of pomp knew
in general no bounds. For his English journey he
caused more than a hundred suits of the costliest
raiment to be prepared. We are astonished by all
the appliances ordered for his coronation from
Antwerp and London ; new regals, the most
sumptuous robes, arms, vessels, ornaments,
caskets full of pearls, jewels, and trinkets, besides
" various rare animals for the spectacle, lions,
ure-oxen, camels, 200 rabbits, and whatever else
could be thought still strange in Sweden2." So
early as 1561 the king requests John to borrow,
" because no more would be in hand" until the
silver yet remaining were coined.
It was amidst war and revolt that Eric thus
disposed of his father’s treasures and his affairs of the
heart. We have mentioned the events which
prepared the interference of Sweden in the quarrels of
Livonia, and already in the lifetime of Gustavus
provoked the ambition of his sons. It was in
respect to this very matter that they were first to
become open enemies. Immediately after his father’s
death, John reminds his brother of his promise to
win " a piece of land in Livonia," for which reason
he was inclined to offer the town of Reval his
protection against the dreaded advance of the
Russians 3. But Eric, when solicited for assistance
after his elevation to the throne, himself assumed
the direction of the affair, and sent over Clas
Christerson Horn towards the end of April, 1501,
with an army which was received into the town 4.
In June, the nobles of Esthonia and Reval
submitted to Swedish rule, and upon the coronation of
king Eric, their deputies obtained the royal
sanction to their privileges. From this time Eric
wrote himself " king of the Swedes, Goths, and
Vandals, with their several dependencies, lord of the
Livonian territory and of Refie." This was
Sweden’s first step beyond the Baltic, and the beginning
of a war of one hundred and sixty years.
A rupture with Russia was with difficulty
averted, yet peace was for the moment preserved
through the common interest of both kingdoms
against Poland, after the sword-knights had
dissolved their order, and their last grand-master,
Gotthard Kettler, had placed all Livonia under
Polish supremacy, reserving Courland as a fief for
himself. On the other hand John linked himself
closely to the Poles, and advised Eric to an alliance
against Russia, as also to cede to Poland all that
Sweden already possessed in Livonia 5. The king’s
answer was an order to Horn to attack Pernau and
Wittenstein, which, as well as several other places,
were reduced. He informs John that Christopher
duke of Mecklenburg, coadjutor of the now
deceased archbishop of Riga, had submitted himself
and the archbishopric to the crown of Sweden, but
that the Poles had seized on the district. Yet
Eric gives his consent that John should in Poland
urge his suit personally to Catherine Jagellonicn.
sister of king Sigismund II. In the views upon
the crown of Poland which were opened by this
alliance, he wishes the duke success, although, he
adds, the Polish envoy in Stockholm G offered,
upon the throne falling vacant, to use his best
diligence for the king himself. He soon repented
this approval, and recalled John from Dantzic,
albeit this did not prevent the latter from seeking
his bride in Wilna. The conditions of the
nuptial contract were kept secret. What is related,
that John gave a promise thenceforward to act as
a free and independent prince, is probable; that he
brought along with him a large quantity of his
father’s silver bars which he bestowed for the
furtherance of his brother-in-law’s projects, upon
the security of seven castles in Livonia, as also that
war between Sweden and Poland shortly after
broke out, is certain. New causes of dissension
between the brothers had also previously revealed
themselves. In the autumn of 1561, John requested
that the tithes of all Finland, though the northern
division did not belong to his dukedom, might be
conceded to him; this was refused:—that he might
not be obliged to furnish the full number of
soldiers for the public service: denied, although
subsequently a diminution was in effect acceded to :
—that the ships with which he had reinforced Eric’s
fleet at Elfsborg might be restored ; rejoinder,
that he should have them when he gave back
those which had been lent to him during his father’s
lifetime for the Livonian business. The king added:
" With us here in Sweden there is but too close
shearing and paring, so that we have not much left
of that which appertains to the crown 7." Returned
to Finland with his consort, John was greeted
by Eric’s reproaches that he had formed
connexions with the enemies of the realm. This was
soon followed by the king’s order to the Finnish
nobles to commence their march towards Livonia
for hostilities against Poland, and by a summons
to John to appear before the court of Stockholm ;
whereupon he made prisoners the royal
commissioners, and called the Finns to his defence,
requiring from them a separate oath of fidelity and
seeking for help in Poland and Russia. On the
accusation of Eric, the estates of the realm
convoked in Stockholm, but attending only in small
numbers, adjudged him to death for rebellion,
unless the king should be pleased to overrule the
law by a pardon. Shut up in the castle of Abo,
which, as all foreign assistance was withheld,
capitulated after an investment of two months,
John was obliged, on the 12th August, 1563, to
render himself a prisoner. Transported to Sweden,
he was received with an exprobatory address by
George Person, who, at the command of Eric, now
absent on the Danish frontier, proffered to John’s
wife a royal castle and a princely maintenance if
2 Inventory of articles needed for the coronation, and letter
to Dionysius Beurreus, Feb. 17, 1561. Eric had a great
fondness for animals. April 21, 1563, he orders his architect,
master Pafvel (Pope), " to set an aviary of copper wire on
the western bastion of the castle of Upsala," the building of
which he continued.
3 Letter of October 9. Registry for 1560.
4 The castle, whose garrison was true to the grand-master,
was surrendered after a siege of six weeks.
4 Feb. 14, 1562. "Because the Poles give us no good
answer." John’s designs are clear from Eric’s letter to him
of the 5th January preceding, though this is still in a friendly
tone. The first unfriendly letter from Eric to John is of June
16, in which the king reproaches him with taking so ardent
and unlimited a part in favour of the Poles, just as if he
were right and Eric wrong in every thing. Reg. for 1562.
6 The count Teczin, who was himself a suitor to the
princess Cecilia.
7 Letter to John of November 11. Reg. for 1561.
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