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1569.] His death by poison. ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS.
might be done by laws divine and human ; in that
his life had been so long spared oil account of
his rank, it was to be feared they had acted more
against than according to God’s good pleasure ;
also it were better and more Christianlike, that
one should suffer than that many should come to
perdition.—Compare the spiritual unction of these
words with their purport ! — The document is
signed and sealed by Peter Brahe, Thure’ Bielke’,
Nils Gyllenstierna, George Gere, Eric Gustaveson
(Stenbock), Hogenskild Bielke’, Eric Gyllenstierna,
Gustave Baner, with Laurentius Petri Gothus
(the new archbishop), Martin, bishop of Linkoping,
James of Skara, Nicholas of Strengness, Erasmus
of Westeras, Olave Peterson 9, pastor of Stockholm,
Sweii Bennetson, provost of the chapter of Skara,
Reynold Ragwaldson, pastor of Strengness John
Axelson Bielke now also intimated his assent by a
separate opinion. The accomplishment of the
resolve was delayed for two years more, perhaps by
the repugnance of the barons to whom Eric’s
custody was confided. For Maurice Goranson of
Diula, one of the number, was in the ensuing year
fruitlessly reminded, as well of the written warrant
as of the " oral " directions which he had received2.
Ultimately John’s own servants were obliged to
perpetrate the murder, and the purport of the
often-cited warrant is repeated in the king’s own letter of
January 19, 1577, to his comptroller, Eric
Anderson of Biurum, then governor of Orby. With the
assent of the council, lie there declares, it had been
determined that if any danger were impending, " a
draught of opium or mercury should be given to
king Eric, so strong that he could not live more
than a few hours. And in case he refuse in any
wise to take such draught, then shall the persons
thereto commissioned by us place him 011 a chair,
and open the veins both of his hands and feet, so that
the blood may run from him, till he die. If he will
not permit such opening of his veins, then shall they
either hold him by force, or bind him with towels until
it is over ; or lay him upon his bed by violence, and
strangle him with bolsters or great cushions, yet so
that he shall first have a priest and the blessed
sacrament." It is not known that any particular dan-
His widow and
children.
ger was apprehended upon this occasion ; the warrant
consequently was followed by fresh orders. Their
performance was entrusted to John Henryson, the
king’s clerk, who brought with him a poison
prepared by one of the royal chamberlains and Philip
Kern, a surgeon of the army 3. Eric received it
mixed with pea-soup, and died of it at two o’clock in
the night of the 26th Feb. 1577, in the forty-fourth
year of his age and the ninth of his incarceration.
At Westeras in 1574 he for the last time saw his
wife and children, for whom he had invariably
expressed the greatest tenderness. His ardent love
for Catharine Magnus’ daughter, the people could
not explain without witchcraft, and Catharine
herself accuses George Person’s wife as a spreader of
this rumour 4. This love, which raised the serving
wench to the throne, remained in misfortune and
imprisonment the same, as lively and jealous as
at the first; and although not seldom received with
reproaches, quarrels, and railing 5, it inspired Eric
with the tenderest letters. After his death his
widow besought John’s favour for herself and her
children. " We have received your memorial, lady
Karin,"—ran his answer of August 29, 1577,—
" wherein you submissively request that we will
receive you and those who belong to you into our
kingly shelter and protection, as also that we will
guard your son’s welfare, for whom you have asked
that he may be sent out of the kingdom.—We have
furnished you with lands and houses, which we will
better upon occasion if you will conduct yourself as
is due towards us and our dear housewife, and the
heirs of our body. For what you write regarding
your children, we will so order it that they shall
suffer no want wheresoever they may be, within or
without the realm 6."
Of these children two still lived ; the daughter
Sigrid, born, according to Eric’s own note7, at
Swartsioe, October 15, 1566, and the son Gustave,
born at Stockholm, February 28, 1568, both before
marriage ; on which account, when the nuptial
benediction was pronounced over their parents in the
high church of Stockholm, they were held by two
councillors of state at the side of king Eric. The
daughter was by her first marriage 8 ancestress of
s Not to be confounded with the reformer of the same
name, who died April 19, 1552.
1 The document is printed in Stiemman’s Resolutions of
the Diets ; the original, with the autograph signatures, is in
the State Archives. (Deliberations in king John’s time, from
1569 to 1591.) Of the subscriptions of the clergymen one is
wanting, which was never added; in its place is only the
impression of the seal with the letters N. K., and under them a heart.
2 Letter of John, Aug. 27. Reg. for 1576.
3 Cum ferali Johannes Secretarius ferculo, quod Philippus
Chernius, regis chirurgus.miscuisset, ad Qirbyensem missus
arcem Domini inandato procuravit, ut Ericus Christiane
mo-riturus 22 Februarii die, qui et Dominicus fuit, sacram,
im-petrata peccatorum absolutione, accederet synaxin. Sequens
deinde hiduum citra vitae periculum merito trausegit, et
postea funestus illuxit dies 25 Februarii, quo toxicum
ignarus in pisonum, ut fertur, jusculo praebitum absorpsit,
indeque miseram efflavit animam. Messenius, Scondia, vii.
48. Philip Kern was afterwards commander of the castle of
Upsala, where he practised great cruelties with impunity.
Of his own authority he threw into prison the son of the old
archbishop, Laurence Peterson, "for nothing else than that
he had taken his sisters to himself, and wished to tend their
heritage and his own," so that Duke Charles was obliged to
liberate the prisoner. He arrested the peasants of duke
Charles, and broke open his barns. See the letters to Philip
Kern, of April 1, 1587, Feb. 2 and April 2, 1589, in the
Registers of Duke Charles for this year. Several of John’s
letters contain directions respecting Eric’s secure custody at
Orby; for gratings before the windows, the erection of a high
paling on the outside round the wall of the castle court, and
of breast-works, the mounting of cannon, &c. The two
prison-chambers receive a scanty light through small
windows in walls eight feet thick. In the interior, where Eric’s
murder was done, we see upon a marble table ail inscription
ending with these words, " Propter facinora rege indigna
indigne sublatus est consultu clandestino senatus et
episco-porum Suetiae."
4 This was before the council, when George Person, in Oct.
1567, was adjudged to death the first time; and according to
Messenius (Scondia, vi. 46), his wife also was then condemned
on this charge.
s What jEgidius Girs relates hereupon, in his Chronicle
of king Eric XIV., is supported by the king’s journal.
s Reg. for 1577.
7 The statement in Rosenhane’s Catalogue of the kings of
Sweden, p. 52, may be corrected after this. The sons, Henry
and Arnold, died early. By a damsel named Agda, Peter’s
daughter (afterwards married to Joachim Fleming), the king
had three daughters before. By one of his first letters as king
he grants to Agda a manor during her lifetime, " for the
support of our children." Register for 1560.
8 With Henry Classon Tott. The family became extinct
with the grandchild Clas Akeson Tott in 1674.
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