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The king’s intentions
towards him.
history of the swedes.
Tj runny of
Eric.
[1520—
she would part from her husband. Instead of
answer, she pointed to her wedding ring with its
Latin inscription " Nought but death," and followed
her husband into his appointed prison at Gripsholm.
The duke was conveyed in a yacht through the
South Channel at Stockholm under the gaze of the
whole populace 8. Compelled to sit upon its deck,
he turned his eyes with horror from stake and
wheel to the gibbets on the surrounding hillocks,
which bore the corpses of many of his servants.
The chamber in which John was kept with his true
helpmate during the greater portion of a captivity
lasting more than four years, is still shown
unchanged at the castle of Gripsholm. It is
lightsome, of a cheerful aspect, and with neat
arrangements, according to the fashion of that time, such
as may yet be seen in the rooms of weleful yeomen,
but in the olden day not unworthy of a house of
condition. Higher up in the same tower we see the
dreary apartment in which Eric himself was
afterwards confined. Against the advice of George
Person he spared his brother’s life, and wavered ever
between fear and pity. That he purposed never
to restore his liberty we see by a letter of
assurance from duke Magnus in relation to the
sentence passed upon John, in which it is said :—
" Whereas your majesty hath showed us honour
before others of our dear brethren, and conferred
upon us the hereditary right which duke John
before possessed to the crown and government, and
given us thereon your written confirmation, we
promise on the other hand to be true to your royal
majesty and the heirs of your body, and to hold
your foes for our foes 9." Some further proceeding
against John was nevertheless in question between
Erie and Magnus ; if Magnus would consent, Eric
promised to obtain for him from the estates the
confirmation of the hereditary right ; " for albeit
John forfeits his right," he says, "yet your affection
will perceive of a truth how great a strife as to the
succession would be kindled among the subjects and
estates of the realm in case aught were to befall us;
and beyond doubt many would be found who would
gladly see him (duke John) remaining therein." In
what this " further assurance " against John
consisted we are not told; though we find that Magnus
would not give his consent to it, wherefore the
matter was postponed, he still continuing in the king’s
favour’. It was after this correspondence that the
intellect of Magnus became disordered. For the rest,
John was generally well treated in his captivity. The
fact, that the royal court on the 27th February,
1504, condemned the bailiff of Gripsholm to be kept
on bread and water during pleasure, because he had
allowed the duke and the princess to want necessary
sustenance, so that they must drink of the water
stoup, shows at least that acts of negligence were
punished. Eric also sent books to his brother,
among which, besides spiritual works, Ovid,
Plutarch, and Boccacio in the German translation,
are named. The princess was allowed to walk in
the garden, though under watch. After the
imprisonment of John, Eric felt that he had broken
with all the powerful maternal family2 of the
former, and with the nobles generally, whose
discontent with the hereditary settlement was
unknown to none of the sons of Gustavus.
Thenceforth we find him sometimes omitting to call the
nobility to his diets3, surrounding himself only
with low-born favourites, who from his youth
upwards had flattered his passions, and of whom
no one possessed the ability of George Person,
although many had hearts equally replete with
hate. And now too it came to pass that the
dis-trustfulness in which he had been nurtured,
darkened his whole soul, made him cruel, and robbed
him of understanding *.
Already in 1562, we find in the records a letter
upon slanders and calumnies against the king’s
person ; whosoever detected such, or gave information
of faithlessness in any of his officers, was to be
requited with especial favour, or with an honourable
present. In the following year the denouncer of
treason is promised half the property of the
offender, upon proof of the matter before the
court. At the same time the magistrates are
commanded to procure themselves spies among all
ranks in the towns and country. The head of this
espialage was George Person, and the power of the
accuser had previously, through the royal court,
received great extension, since in all quarters
functionaries called provosts (profosser) were now
ordinarily retained in pay, to make search for
offenders both high and low.
Celsius 5, who for more than fifty years has been
8 The original town is huilt on an island connected with
the main land by bridges on each side leading to Norrmalm
and Sodermalm, the north and south suburbs.—Trans.
9 Given at Jenkoping, October 1. Reg. for 1563.
> Letter to Magnus, Halmstad, October 10, 1563.
2 That of Lejonhufvud —Trans.
3 To the diet of 1566 the king summoned, by his bailiffs
over the whole kingdom, only two of the principal priests
and two discreet yeomen from each government (fogderi), as
in the preceding year to the congress of Caimar; and these
were to have with them the seals of their hundreds, in order
to seal what might be assented to and determined at the
said diet by the estates general (menige stander). Letter of
Feb. 1. Reg. for 1566.
4 " Eric eut pour ses vertus justement pu etre mis au
nombre des plus magnanimes princes s’il n’eut ete corrompu
par les ministres auxquels il se fiait par trop. Aussi i! a ete
nourrien perpetuellecrainte et quasi en dedain paries menees
de sa belle-m£re, qui lui etait fort contraire. Peut-etre que
de son naturel il etait un peu soupponneux, qui a
grande-ment ete augmente d£s son enfance par l’artifice de ses dits
familiers ministres, qui etaient des plus mechants et
per-nicieux qui se pouvaient trouver. II connaissait bien la
malignite des dils ministres, et s’en est souvent plaint au
chancelier de Sufede qui est a present, au feu sieur de Varenes,
et a d’autres qui me l’ont dit, dont je pourrais faire de
fort etranges recits." Correspondanee de Dantzai. (Eric
might for his virtues justly have been placed among the
most magnanimous princes, if he had not been corrupted
by the ministers, in whom he confided too much. He
was reared also in perpetual fear, and as it were in
disgrace, by the wiles of his mother-in-law, who was very
adverse to him. Perhaps by nature he was somewhat
suspicious, the which was greatly enhanced from his childhood
by the artifice of his said familiar ministers, who were the
most wicked and pernicious that could be found. He knew
well the malignity of the said ministers, and often complained
of them to the present chancellor of Sweden, to the late sieur
de Varenes, and others who have told it me, of which I
might narrate very strange stories.) He relates thereupon
that Eric had beaten one of them with his own hand. In
his opinion John would have lost his life, had not Mornay
interceded : " Le dit sieur de Varenes seul l’empecha par ses
pri£res et remontrances." According to Holberg, Mornay
was a kinsman of Dantzai.
5 Olaus Celsius, author of the History of Gustavus I. and
the History of Eric XIV. T.
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