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156 The king’s frenzy. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Discussion of its nature. [1560—
and he saw the king fall at his feet, ejaculating,
" For God’s sake pardon me the evil which I have
done to you." " All of it," was the answer ; " but if
aught be practised against my son’s life, that shall
you answer to me before God." " See now," the
king exclaimed, " that will ye never forgive to me ;
therefore must the same lot be yours "—and he
ran forth in frenzy on the road to Flotsund,
accompanied only by some guardsmen. One of them soon
returned with an order that all the prisoners in the
castle, except lord Steno, should be put to death.
There were two who bore this name ; Steno
Leyon-hufvud and Steno Bauer. The provost Peter Gadd,
who descended from the castle into the town to ask
advice hereupon of George Person, whom he found
at the play-table, received for answer that he must
take his own counsel. The ambiguity of the order
saved the lives of the two noblemen. The rest,
Suanto Sture, his second son Eric, Abraham
Sten-bock, and Ivar Ivarson were all slaughtered. The
castle gates remained barred for several days.
The food which the connexions of the prisoners
continued to send them was taken in as usual
at the door by Peter Gadd and his men. George
Person, who had drawn up a judgment in the name
of the estates, meanwhile sought to obtain
signatures to it before the homicide became known, and
—one proof of the equity of popular assemblies !—
actually succeeded. The sentence of the estates
is dated the 19th May, 1567, the same day on which
the king had propounded the matter to them. It
is said to have been subscribed in the church upon
the 26th May, consequently two days after the
murders, under constraint and without having been
read 4. The clergy subjoined to the doom a
separate declaration, purporting : That although George
Person had brought forward the subject in the king’s
name, with a request that they would give their
opinion thereupon, they yet did not regard this as
consonant to their office, but remitted the
judgment to the good men of the king’s court; howbeit,
if such designs as those imputed to the accused had
of a truth been entertained, then they could say no
otherwise than that the aforesaid were in so far
untrue, faithless, and perjured men, and deserving
the punishment of traitors, in case the king, in
respect to all or some of them, would not allow his
grace to go for law.
Eric had taken flight to the woods. Dionysius
Beurreus, the first who overtook him, was cut down
at the command of the frantic prince by Peter
Welamson, who with some guardsmen still followed
him. From them too he soon parted, and wandered
up and down beyond their ken. On the third day
after the murders, he came clad in a peasant’s
dress to a hamlet in the parish of Odensal, where
he was recognized5 ; and at the tidings many of
his former attendants again gathered round him.
He called out that he was not king, that like Nero
he had slain his tutors, and that Nicholas Sturtf
was administrator. No one was able to induce
him to eat any thing or to sleep, until his mistress,
Catharine Magnus’ daughter, persuaded him to
take refreshment, on which he became more
tranquil, and permitted himself to be reconducted to
Upsala. Thence he was removed for some days to
Swartsioe, and on the 3d of June, came to
Stockholm, which he entered praying with eyes and
hands uplifted to Heaven.
What had come to pass was manifestly an
outbreak of frenzy ; and this, though milder in
kind after the first violence, is stated to have
lasted for several months afterward. During these
the king is said to have been unable to occupy
himself with the government, which in the mean
time was managed by the council, especially Steno
Ericson Leyonhufvud and Peter Brahe. This
period began with a confession of his deep
remorse,—a declaration of the innocence of the
murdered lords,—the distx-ibution of gi-eat sums of
money to their relatives, and presents to the
members of the estates,—the delivery of George
Person to justice. The king himself calls this his
time of infirmity.
It must then awaken astonishment, that the
public records during this period show an activity
on the king’s part by no means diminished, but
rather augmented. Eric, in general a gx’eat
penman, never wrote more assiduously. We find
often sevex’al letters in one day upon business of
administration, with neither more nor less method
than was usual with him. They cannot have been
issued by the council in the king’s name ; for it
did not remaiix near his person ; they relate in
part to his own affairs, and some are directed to
the council. If this be repugnant to the general
opinion of his condition of mind at that time, on
the other side he is not less at variance with
himself ; for during a portion of this time, he seems to
have believed himself a captive. If we compare
all this with his previous conduct ; if we x-eflect
that it belongs to the deep mysteries of madness,
that it may be conjoined not only with a certain
clearness, but even with acuteness, cunning, and
great power of dissimulation, that wily, dangerous,
and cruel passions and fears respecting life are not
seldom its attendants,—we shall find ourselves
warranted in ascribing to madness a more extended
influ nee upon Eric’s whole character than is
ordinarily allowed. This agx’ees well with the
cii-cumstance, that his behaviour after the murder
of the Stares sprang at least as much from fright as
fx’om repentance. An eye-witness who belonged to
his train says, " he would not x’enounce the
govern-ment, feigning as if he had not X’eason, until he
could first appease the neax-est kinsmen of the
deceased lords6." It is also worthy of remark,
that his so-called amendment by no means
em-bx-aces any change in his state of mind, but only
courage again to show his x-eal condition. He
defends what he had done, recalls what he had
admitted, and is the same man he was before.—One
remark further may be here iix place. We have
4 Nec Georgins Petri (Goran Persson) hactenus fuerat
otiatus, qui antequam flagitii fama inter ordines emanaret,
sententiam mortis in cassos impetraturus, hacque scelus
postea defensurus, illam nomine Statuum concinnat, quam
postridie eaedis, videlicet xxiv Maii cogit ordines sacris in
ecclesia operam dantes, non perlectam subsignare.
Messenius, Scondia VI. 45. (There is here a trifling incon-
sistency in the dates, which are left as they stand in the
original. Trans.)
5 The king’s next letter after the murder is dated Upsala,
May 27, and contains an order for distributing half a tun of
salt to every member of the diet. He gave moreover to the
principal men of the estates all the gold and silver he had
brought with him.
6 Upon the transactions of king Eric, by D. Magnus
Stig-tomtensis.
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