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Process against llie
six magnates.
heard before the king’s court, yet no mention of it is
made in the records of that tribunal6. We must
draw our knowledge of the charges and their proofs
from the judgment which George Person
afterwards laid before the estates for their subscription.
The witnesses were the following :—Peter Sastorp,
a German trader’s clerk, who deposed that at the
time when Nicholas Sture’ was despatched from
Stockholm, Clas Akeson Tott, Abraham Gustaveson
Stenbock, Ivar Ivarson, and Joshua Genewitz, a
German noble, previously employed by Eric in
raising men, and then travelling for the same
object, had assembled in Sturm’s ship, and there
concerted to deprive the king of his crown and
life7; this Sastorp had heard afterwards from
Joshua Genewitz in Germany. Alexander, the
king’s organist, had heard the same in the German
town of Ryvold ; Paulus Smith, swore, that as soon
as Nicholas Sture and Joshua Genewitz had come
to Stralsund, they had set on foot intrigues against
the king’s majesty and the realm of Sweden, which
report was current over all Germany ; Hans Wolf
and Christopher, servants of Abraham Gustaveson
and Ivar Ivarson, had heard Hans Eller, servant
of count Suanto, express his joy that the insult to
Nicholas Sture would be avenged, whereupon the
count was’ said to have talked with the two lords
mentioned with closed doors. Magnus, duke of
Saxony 3, related that Steno Ericson Leyonhufvud,
Abraham Gustaveson, and Ivar Ivarson, had in his
own presence openly declared their resentment at
the treatment of Nicholas Sture’, which should not
be left unavenged. As he was the only witness who
spoke to what he had himself heard from the
accused, additional proofs appear to have been
necessary. Well-nigh all the accounts of this event
agree in the circumstance that Abraham
Gustaveson Stenbock was forced at Swartsioe to subscribe a
letter to Joshua Genewitz, in which he is prayed to
hasten the levy of troops, and is promised a sum of
money, with the addition, " when chains and
harness are ready, what is to be done on our side will
soon be ready ; more must not be trusted to the
pen Stenbock, albeit threatened with the rack,
yet refused to subscribe this letter, till he received
from George Person a written document, stating
that this was done only by the king’s order ; which
was found in his clothes after the execution in
Upsala. The letter itself was afterwards read by the
king to the estates, but is not mentioned in the
sentence. This on the other hand refers to another
writing of Eric Sture’; "and although no name "—
it is said—" was found in the said letter, which was
directed to an ensign, yet we may assume from the
circumstances and the purport, that it is written
from the party of traitors to Nicholas Sture’." The
letter is still preserved and was written by Eric
Sture’ and some young men to a damsel whom they
called " dear ensign," because at the marriage of
Siward Kruse (which was celebrated on the 9th
February in the castle of Stockholm) she had for
diversion caught up a standard and carried it round
Murder of
Nicholas Sture.
the room. With respect to the words which duke
Magnus had heard, the accused replied, that their
vengeance was to be exercised on George Person,
Jacob Teit, a member of the royal court, and their
adherents, but not on the king. Abraham
Stenbock and Ivar Ivarson were already condemned to
death at Swartsioe 2, although the execution of the
sentence was deferred. The court was prepared to
condemn count Suanto also, when the king gave
command that the investigation should be continued
in Upsala3, whither all the prisoners were conveyed.
He himself followed them, already an object of
detestation. He compl ains that upon the way from
Flotsund to the town all his servants had deserted
him, so that he had arrived alone and on foot,
received by no one but the archbishop Lawrence
Peterson and the high chancellor Nicholas
Gyllen-stierna. Upon Whit-Monday, the 19th May, he
had appointed to meet the estates. On the
previous day he had drunk an unusual quantity, could
not find the speech he had written for the occasion,
and complains that he must appear unprepared.
In the course of his address he enlarged especially
upon the treason of Nicholas Sturd and his
accomplices, appealed to the testimony of the witnesses
examined, and read the letters above-mentioned.
The reception of the oration was dubious. Some,
especially the priests, murmured. Seditious
exclamations were heard, while one and another
remarked that the lords had defended themselves
well. The din waxed loud, so that the king hastily
dissolved the assembly. He committed to George
Person and Dionysius Beurreus the discussion of the
matter with the estates, wavering himself between
the most conflicting emotions. His fears were
augmented when, on the 21st May, Nicholas Sture
returned, bringing from Lorraine plight, ring, and the
portrait of the princess. The visit of this
nobleman on his homeward journey to Stralsund, where
under the emperor’s mediation a congress was held
for the restoration of peace in the North, had
supplied new fuel to the king’s suspicions. He
received orders to place himself in confinement. Yet
Eric heard a statement of the issue of his embassy,
and wrote upon the 22d of May to count Suanto
Sture, that how inveterately soever he and his sons
might be pursued by the charges of malignants,
neither he nor they should sustain any detriment
to their honour or life.
It was on the evening of the 24th May—at noon
of the same day the king is said to have prayed
forgiveness of Steno Leyonhufvud and Suanto Sture,
and to have promised them their freedom—that
Eric, after a walk with Peter Carlson, ordinary of
Calmar, was seen returning into the castle in high
excitement. He had beeji informed that duke
John was escaped, and that revolt had begun. He
rushed with drawn dagger in hand into the prison
chamber of Nicholas Stur£ and stabbed him in the
arm ; the murder was completed by his
guardsman, Peter Welamson, nephew of George Person.
Scarcely had the deed been done when the door of
the unhappy father’s dungeon was thrown open,
eric and ii is brothers.
6 This sentence is printed by Nettelbladt. Swedish
Library (Schwedische Bibliothek) 4, p. 150.
1 It was a visit of leave-taking in which several took part,
and among them duke Charles.
8 Magnus III. of Saxe-Lauenburg, now in the Swedish
service, was married in 156S to the royal princess Sophia.
s See the letter in Fant; Examen caussae Sturianae.
Ups. 1784, p. 17.
1 Printed, 1. c.
2 Fuerunt in judicio dominus Abrahamus et Iwarus, et
condemnati sunt ad mortem, ut retulit mihi Georgius Petri;
hoc undecima Maii contigit. King Eric’s Journal for 1567.
3 14 Maii comparuit coram judicio comes Svanto in mea
praesentia ; et cum omnes judices, ut apparebat, facile eum
condemnassent, mandavi ut causa penitus audiretur. Ibid.
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