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158
Frivolities of
Eric.
history of the swedes.
The dukes take
up arms.
[1560—
drew off and escaped, yet not wholly scatheless.
But king Eric acted as if that troubled him not,
but followed with his army, and in his company
were the three princes, duke John, duke Charles, and
duke Magnus of Saxony ; yet he effected nothing
else by his foray but some damage in the enemy’s
country, namely in the Hundred of Gceinge and in
Halland, and so returned again hither in spring,
when the roads were thawed." It was clear that
the king paid more attention to the dukes than the
enemy.—Eric’s passion for the external show of
warfare shows itself to the last. He was ever as
diligent a master of exercise as he was an
incompetent leader, and while yet the gift of fancy was
not employed in devising uniforms, his own was
chiefly displayed in badges. To this purpose we
find him requiring linen red, green, and yellow,
as well as red-coloured goose-feathers, as many
4< squirrel and fox-tails" as can be procured, and
many thousand " tree-cones 4" from Finland, which
are expressly mentioned as having been intended
for field-tokens. For the rest, he seems now to
have been in good spirits, and gives orders to send
from Stockholm to the camp in Smaland, for his
own use, " wines and spices, some good Malvoisie,
Muscatel unadulterate, Rhine and other wines
pleasant to drink, sugar-loaves, cinnamon,
preserved ginger, some baskets of raisins, and the
like 5." Returned to Suartsioe, the king amused
himself with the tendance of his garden and the
care of his grafts George Person, on whom the
sentence of death passed in the council-chamber of
Stockholm (October 19, 15G7,) was not executed,
soon recovered his former influence, and for a
word against his favourite, Eric stabbed his
secretary Martin Helsing with a fire-prong, so that he
died. To Person he gives authority to call in " the
great sums of silver and gold which we in our
weakness have disbursed to certain parties for the
harm that was wrought in Upsala through
hastiness 7," and celebrates his marriage splendidly on
the 4th of July with Catharine Magnus’ daughter.
On the following day the new queen was crowned ;
but with this 110 one seemed to be well-pleased.
Calamities were predicted from surer foretokens
than the falling of the crown on this occasion out
of the chancellor’s hands, and it was with difficulty
that the barons, who were to be honoured
therewith, were induced to receive the stroke of
knighthood.—Thereafter Eric issued a singular
proclamation upon the events which the year had brought
forth 8. He alleges that he had, in the fear of an
outbreak of revolt, put to death Nicholas Sture, who
had been rightfully condemned for his treason ;
that he thought to remove in him the new king out
of his way ; but his servants had on that occasion
cut off against his own will as well the innocent as
the guilty ; himself had fled to the wilds, deserted
by all, reckoning himself at last a deposed captive,
and despairing in this condition not only of his
throne, but even of his eternal salvation.
Meanwhile the government had been neglected and the
kingdom ruined ; but now God had restored him
to his health, faculties, and the exercise of his
regal authority, wherefore he ordained a universal
thanksgiving over all Sweden. Shortly after he
enjoins the nobility to fulfil more strictly the
conditions of the equestrian tenure ; " for ye and your
forefathers," he says, " were not raised to the class
of nobles in intent and act, merely that ye should
lead merry days, and do 110 good in return to the
realm of Sweden 9."
The king’s brothers had proffered him thanks
for his invitation to the nuptials, but had not
attended. John afterwards declared that it would
have cost them their lives if they had come. It
aroused misgivings that Eric should have secretly
promised in 156(i, to deliver John’s consort to
the Russian tyrant Ivan Wasiliewitz who had
formerly sought her hand, but had received from
Poland a contumelious refusal. It may afford an
idea of a man who in these and the ensuing times
maintained himself by serving all masters, that it
was the high chancellor Nicholas Gyllenstierna,
who in February, 1507, subscribed a convention at
Moscow, by which Eric engaged to deliver up his
sister-in-law, and the czar to desist from his claims
011 Estland, and to assist Eric against the Poles.
With the liberation of John and his consort from
prison, it was no longer in Eric’s power to fulfil
his promise. But a Russian embassy in
Stockholm, which demanded its completion, and a letter
from Eric to Ivan of the 18th April, 15G8, show
that the negotiations 011 the subject were not
broken off2. George Person afterwards denied
upon the rack, that the king had been in earnest in
this business, but confessed that assassins were
sent out against John and Charles, 011 the news of
the outbreak of the revolt.
Intelligence thereof arrived a few days after
the marriage. It was first said that both the
dukes had quitted Eskilstuna in haste, whither to
proceed was unknown. The king believed them to
be quitting the kingdom, and wrote therefore to
several places that they should be prevented from
passing over to the enemy. Tidings were soon
brought that they had made themselves masters of
Vadstena, and were in arms with many of the
chief nobles. The plan was doubtless not merely
the work of the moment, and the expressions of
John in a letter to his sisters3,—" We caused deal
with horsemen and foot, both inborn and foreigners,
and with others the estates of West and
East-Gothland, Smaland, Suthermanland, Nerike, and
other districts, who all joined hands with us
against the tyrannical government of king Eric
and George Person,"—relate probably not only to
the consequences of the outbreak, but also to the
preparations. The story goes that the first
conference between the brothers took place at
Knapp-forsen, in the parish of Biurkarn, in Vermelaud,
under an oak which is still called the king’s oak,
and if it be true it refers already to the autunm of
15G7, when John after his release passed some time
at Arboga. At Vadstena they fastened, in memory
of this, oak-leaves in their hats, which now became
4 Trdbagare, tree or wood-cups. T.
5 To the lieutenant in Stockholm; Nydala, February 16.
Reg. for 1 568.
6 To his gardener (tree-yardsmasler), April 10, 1568.
7 April 14. Reg. for 1568.
8 Stockholm, July 8, 1568.
9 " Sveriges Rike." Stockholm, July 12.
1 April 24, 1566, Eric remarks in his Journal, that his
envoys sent to Russia had written that the grand duke
would in no wise keep the peace without this condition. On
the treaty which had been concluded, compare Karamsin,
viii. 98, German Translation.
2 Reg. for that year. The letter is in vague terms.
5 To Catharine and Cecilia, Oct. 13. Reg. for 1568.
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