Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. Eric and his Brothers. A.D. 1560—1569
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
160 Plots for his release. HISTORY OF THE SWEDES. Designs upon his life. [15C0—
offers to the king of Denmark Elfsborg and
War-berg, if he should be replaced on the throne before
Michaelmas 4. From fear of his native supporters
Eric was next removed to the castle of Abo, where
he remained two years. Upon alarms from Russia
he was carried in 1571 to Castleholm in Aland ;
and afterwards in the autumn of the same year to
the castle of Gripsholm, with the approbation of
Charles, but under a condition for which John
stipulated, that his own men should guard the
prisoner, for the castle was situated in the dukedom of
Charles. On the 7th January, 1571, John writes
to Charles that many treasonable reports were
current in the country, partly of disunion betwixt the
twain, partly of Eric’s liberation, for which the
Russ was also clamouring among other insufferable
demands ; how would things go if internal sedition
should be combined with external hostility ? "
Therefore we beseech the counsel of your affection, how
we shall demean ourselves in the matter of king
Eric, where we found such treason, seeing we have
sufficiently learned that we shall never possess a
tranquil government in this realm so long as he
shall live." Charles answered that he had heard
nothing of such discourses, but if the people of
some provinces were bent on revolt it would by
God’s help come to nothing, provided Gripsholm
were garrisoned with good and true men, so that it
might sustain a siege of several months ; this was
his brotherly advice. In fact, although several of
the council of state superintended continually by
turns the custody of Eric, the soldiers to whom it
was entrusted were so ill-treated, even in matters
of food and raiment, that they in the end became
mutinous. This negligence, not less than the
vehemence wherewith John received information thereof,
is characteristic of him and his government. In
one day (May 15) he writes no fewer than seven
letters for keeping a more vigilant guard upon Eric,
with an injunction to Eric Gyllenstierna,
Christopher Torstenson, Peter Ribbing, Eric’s keepers,
and to Clas Fleming and Henry Matson, with
whom their number was now augmented, upon the
slightest danger which might arise, " to abridge
king Eric’s life in the manner which their
warrant pointed out." Upon the method itself we
have no more exact information than is afforded
by the answer of the wardens, who say in their
answer, that they could not effect what was
commanded them, "because master Anders, the
barber, was not present;" wherefore John orders the
barber without delay to repair to Gripsholm. The
execution was however deferred, either because the
danger was not so pressing, or from fear of Charles,
so long as the captive was still lodged within the
duchy. Doubtless this fear was one of the motives
from which Eric was removed in June, 1573, from
Gripsholm to the castle of Westeras5. In the
autumn of 1574 he was carried thence to the
castle of Orby in Upland.
We have quoted the first proof which the
registers of the kingdom contain upon the design of
shortening Eric’s life, but of this other records
preserve later testimonies. Already, after the
discovery of the first conspiracy, the councillors of
state, with the exception of John Axelson Bielke,
had agreed upon this step, and so early as the 13th
of September, 1569, the old archbishop Laurence
Peterson, with the bishops John of Westeras 6 and
Nicholas of Strengness, had subscribed a special
minute, to the effect " that they, with the good
lords of the council of state and other true
inhabitants of the realm of Sweden, completely free
and unconstrained, had taken counsel and agreed
that if any revolt and disorder should be begun
and carried on within the realm for king Eric’s
sake, then the life of the aforesaid king Eric should
not be spared, but he should be punished according
to his due and desert." Here no secret execution
is specified, but that such nevertheless was the
intent is clear, both from the circumstance that this
resolve was concealed, and also from the words with
which John exhorts Eric’s wardens to his
execution, for it was in consequence of this resolve that
the warrant referred to had been issued to them.
Several subsequent conspiracies, for the most
part enveloped in obscurity, are mentioned. In
1573, under pretext of Ei-ic’s liberation, an
insurrection broke out in Smaland7. The same year
Charles de Mornay returned into the kingdom with
5000 Scots, whom he had had a commission to levy.
He is said to have intended to murder John during
a sword-dance, exhibited by some of these in the
castle of Stockholm. One of the Scots who
denounced him, was himself punished by death for a
false accusation. After the disaster which befell
the Scots in Livonia, this charge was repeated by
several of them, and Mornay, who at first sought
and received the protection of duke Charles, was at
length delivered up, with an acknowledgment that
he had offered the crown to the duke. In a Latin
letter to John, Mornay confesses his offence iti
general terms, and solicits pardon. He was
adjudged to death, August 21, 1574, and executed.
Next year a like fate overtook Gilbert Balfour,
accused as his accomplice. Shortly after, when
Eric had been brought to Orby, a design was
discovered among the peasants in the neighbourhood
to set him at liberty 8. The resolution to put him
to death was now renewed. " The unanimous
deliberation and decision of the council of state,"
is dated the 10th of March, 1575. In this public
letter so called, although kept secret, it is declared
that in case be could not be kept in prison, where
he continued to behave like a mischievous and rude
man, he should be taken off by one of the methods
which might be employed thereto, seeing that such
* Palmskold MSS.
5 John’s order of August 10, 1572, that without his written
permission, no one, whosoever he might be, should be admitted
to the castle of Gripsholm, is also plainly directed against
Charles himself. Register.
6 Not Erasmus Nicolai, as Stiernman says in his
Annotations to Tegel’s Chronicle of Eric, p. 303 ; for he was not
bishop until after John Ofeg, who died in 1574. We have
followed copies of original documents in the Palmskold
Collections.
1 Peter Berg, its instigator, fled with his chief followers to
Denmark.
8 Letter of John to Jacob Bagge of Nov. 18, that some
traitors had drawn together round Upsala and Orby, in order
to free Eric. Nov. 23, to Peter Larson, bailiff of the castle
of Upsala, to send to the king one named Charles Marcusson
of Satuna in the parish of VV’axala, with others of his
complices. Jan. 3, 1575, to Eric’s keepers, that the traitors had
confessed they had been in the mind to invite the former to
a revel, in order thereat to slay them and release king Eric,
or to make use of the occasion of the delivery of the
corn-rent at Orby, to possess themselves of the castle. Register
for 1574 and 1575.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
