Gustavus Vasa and his stirring times. Scenes from history told for youthful readers

Preface

. PjV? HE following authors have been consulted, tyr and in part utilized, in this unpretentious a\ little work for youthful readers, viz., the ji#j historians E. G. Geijer, Anders Fryxell, George Starbeck and T. R. von Kræmer, and the peasant writer, Pehr Thomasson, all in Swedish, and Miss Otte's History of Scan dinavia. The reader is respectfully reminded that the chapters leading up to Gustavus Vasa's time, as well as those relating to his unhappy son and grand son, have been deemed necessary in order to give a faithful picture of the stirring times of that period, as we have undertaken to do in the second title ot our book. ALBERT ALBERG. London, CONTENTS FACE

Chapter I

Prologue. "COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEFORE." P'HROUGH her isolated and distant situation in the north, Sweden had long remained uninfluenced by the civilization of Southern Europe. Christianity had but late and slowly obtained a footing, $|f after long and repeated intervals of neglect and persecution. From numberless small fiefs, the chiefs of which styled themselves kings, the land had, gradually, during the dark ages, been amalga mated into one kingdom, the throne of which was elective ; although through influence the successor was generally chosen from among the nearest of kin B to the ruler. During the party strifes consequent thereon, many warlike families came into great power, until their mutual jealousies waxed so strong, when each magnate sought to gain the throne for himself, that at last they resolved to call in foreign princes to rule over them, in order to prevent any king being chosen from the native rival families.

Every family of influence hoped to acquire greater power and prestige under a foreign prince, who naturally agreed to all the terms that the electors chose to dictate as the price of the bauble crown. Still, with the old udalmen, or freemen, lay the effective power, whenever matters came to a crisis during the reign of these feeble and frivolous foreign kings ; and to do the memory of the brave old freemen justice, history says, that during the two centuries 1230-1430, when Sweden was under the sway of ten kings, and one Queen Regent, mostly Germans or Danes, they dethroned no less than eight kings, and only remained quiet when enjoying peace and prosperity as under the two kings and the Queen Margarite. During the reign of one of these puppet kings, named Albrecht of Mechlenburg, there lived a powerful noble, Bo Jonson, who, carrying a griffin on his coat of arms, was called " Grip ;" he possessed no less than two-thirds of the whole realm and many strono castles.

He was the wealthiest man of his time, and, QUEEN MARGARITE. Prologue. 5 comparatively, of any time, in Sweden ; he inherited much of his vast wealth, and the rest he grasped in the lawless times which followed upon the fearful havoc made by the " black death," or plague. King Albrecht was forced, in 1369, to appoint this powerful chief "Lord Protector, and master of all his castles, his court, possessions, estates and revenues, stewards and servants, with power over them of even life and death," after which act the people said : — " The king was a mere golden image, to whom all bowed, but whom everybody despised." The neighbouring realms of Denmark and Norway were at this period ably governed by Queen Mar garite, who had inherited them on the death of her husband and young son. King Albrecht's rapacious German stewards oppressed the Swedes so hard, that they likened them unto " birds of prey, that from their aeries made frequent descents upon the peasant quarry."

The king now tried to reclaim a great portion of Bo Jonson's possessions, on the death of that formidable subject, but the heirs prevented this by offering the Swedish crown to Queen Margarite, who had wisely kept aloof from the internecine strifes in Sweden, until at last her assistance became urgent and indispensable. After a little dissimulation, not to appear too eager, she accepted the offer, Albrecht still retaining some power and adherents. He made B himself merry at the expense of this " breechless king," as he designated the rival queen, and even sent her a large stone to " whet her needles on," as well as other deriding and insulting messages. At last the armies of both met for a decisive battle in the year 1389, and King Albrecht, sure of victory, was foolish enough to charge with his heavily accoutred cavalry across the ice of a frozen bog, which soon gave way and left him and many of his boasting followers sticking in the mud, thus enabling the queen's troops to gain an easy victory, while the king and his son were taken prisoners.

When, late at night, they were brought face to face with the victorious queen, at the castle of Bohus, the king sued abjectly for mercy ; but the insulted queen answered that it was " too late," and that " he should have thought of that before." As Albrecht had vaunted that he never would wear a cap until he had vanquished Margarite, she now had him arrayed in a fool's cap with nineteen ells of train, and in this spiteful way revenged herself, also keeping both him and his son prisoners at the castle of Lindholmen for seven years. The poor king eventually ended his days in exile and poverty in Germany, dying of a broken heart, grieving over the death of his son, who had been beheaded. Margarite planned and brought about the union Prologue. 7 of the three Scandinavian countries under one triple crown, in 1 397, whence peace was to reign evermore ; but which, instead, brought about dissension, disasters, and wars during the 126 years' duration of this famous " Calmar Union."

What Margarite herself con sidered of the three countries, may be gathered from what she is reported to have said, viz., " I live upon Sweden, clothe myself from Norway, and defend myself with Denmark." The Norwegians looked upon her with indifference, the Danes adored her, and the Swedes hated her. But she was undoubtedly one of the ablest rulers the world has ever seen. Being without heirs, she nominated her relative, Prince Henrik of Pomerania, as her successor. He was the grandson of her sister Ingeborg, by Duke Henrik, the brother of King Albrecht of Mechlen burg. In accordance with this project, the queen caused him to be crowned joint-king during her own lifetime, he taking the name of Eric. As long as Margarite lived and exercised her power, all went on prosperously ; but when, on her death, which occurred in the year 1412, of the plague, Eric assumed the whole responsibility himself, then followed disasters, one upon another.

But by his side stood his guardian angel — his wife — Philippa, one of the brightest and fairest daughters of Albion that ever lived. Her father, King Henry IV. of England, had not con sulted his child's affections, but had arbitrarily married her to Eric, the king of three realms ; but he proved himself unworthy of the pearl bestowed upon him ; and when, at the siege of Copenhagen, in 1428, by the Liibeck fleet of 260 ships of war, the king fled and hid himself in the Monastery of Soro in Denmark, Philippa, his beautiful young queen, though slender and small in stature, donned the warrior's armour, and, sword in hand, urged the citizens to a brave defence of their capital. At the time of Eric's pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she had ably governed the realm during his two years' absence, and now she proved herself as brave as before she had been wise and charitable.

She succeeded in repelling the enemy, and great were the rejoicings of the brave citizens on the liberation of the city. The cowed king returned from his hiding-place to participate in the feast. When the fleet of seventy-five ships, sent out at the queen's command and expense in pursuit of the enemy, experienced some reverses and lost fifteen ships, the king became enraged, and, it is said, even dared to lay violent hands on the person of the darling heroine of the nation, instigated by jealousy of the love and popularity she enjoyed, both being refused to him. This dastardly conduct caused the young queen Prologue. 9 to leave her throne and retire to the convent of Vadstena, in Sweden, where, but two years after wards, in 1430, she died, a broken-hearted nun, at the early age of twenty-six.

To her memory, bright and radiant as a star, too little prominence is given in either the histories of Denmark or Sweden, and few in her own native country are even aware of her existence, and of her sad fate. Eric's good genius being dead, he, when too late, saw his loss, and the feeble ruler could not control his German and Danish stewards and bailiffs in the Swedish provinces. They continued their oppression in the same spirit as under the rule of King Albrecht, and earned the execrations of the peasantry. Most notorious among these miscreants for bar barous cruelty was Josse Ericsson, the royal bailiff over the provinces of Westmanland and Dalcarlia. He pressed the beggared peasantry unmercifully for taxes, and, when they were unable to yield to his demands, he would cut off the ears of the defaulters.

Once he hung five peasants, " to dry like herrings in stifling smoke," while others he yoked like oxen to ploughs, and young mothers he harnessed, and made them drag along the heavy hay-laden carts. This inhuman conduct at last roused the wrath of the sturdy Dalcarlians, and in their slavery they addressed themselves to one of their own landowners, Engelbrekt Engelbrektson, a man known to be a true-hearted patriot, prudent and eloquent, and skilled in the use of arms. Engelbrekt was a man of small stature, but endowed with a great heart and true nobility of soul. He accepted the onerous task of spokesman to the king, and started for Copenhagen, where he laid the grievances of the people before Eric, offering himself as hostage for their just cause, to be kept in prison until the king had time to examine into the state of affairs.

King Eric replied, that he thought Engelbrekt was a daring man, but he would cause his councillors of state to look into the matter. Engelbrekt departed for bis home again, but no redress was obtained. The stewards tyrannized as cruelly as before. Engelbrekt, with the patience and energy characteristic of a true Dalcarlian, started again to King Eric in Copenhagen. But the treacherous stewards had in the meantime gained the king's ear, and they assured him that the peasantry only made these complaints in order to escape paying taxes ; so the king received Engel brekt this time very ungraciously, and bade him instantly depart and never show his face again. Engelbrekt, ever composed, on going, calmly said, " I shall return once more." IN DALCARLIA AT THE TIME OF JOSSE ERICSSON. Prologue. 13 He took his departure and returned to Dalcarlia, and then at once caused the bells of Mora church to sound the tocsin, which was always the signal of danger to the country.

The summons spread like wildfire, every able-bodied man left his home, armed with bows and arrows, and with this undisciplined army he, in the year 1434, advanced towards the strongholds of the tyrannical stewards, who fled everywhere before the enraged masses. He razed a number of these nests to the ground, and burnt others that were built of wood. The peasant army swelled until it reached near upon 100,000 men ; it was then divided into three divisions, and swept over the land like an overwhelming flood, carrying every thing before its invincible progress ; and yet such strict discipline was maintained among the honest peasant army that it was said, " No one lost any thing, to the value of a hen," wherever they en camped. Josse Ericsson had taken sanctuary in the monas tery of Vadstena, but two years afterwards the peasants tore him from there and summarily executed him.

In his progress southwards, Engelbrekt found the council of state assembled at Vadstena. He took with him 1,000 of his army, all picked men, and himself entering the council chamber, demanded ot the assembly to withdraw from the king their oath of allegiance. This they refused to do, on the plea that it was illegal. Engelbrekt remonstrated with them, alleging that the king had broken his oath to his subjects, as every man well knew. They still persisted in their refusal to comply, when Engel brekt, though a man small in stature, seized a bishop by the neck, and threatened to throw him and all the others through the windows to the enraged peasant soldiers outside. His undaunted mien scared them into compliance, and they then subscribed an act by which King Eric was deposed from the throne of Sweden.

The great nobles were all jealous of the power and popularity of Engelbrekt, a low-born man ; they therefore invested the power in a brave young noble, Charles Knutson Bonde, whom they created regent. Others sided openly with the Danish king, Eric, who was now formally deposed from the Swedish crown. Amongst these royalists was a knight named Mans Bengtson, whose escutcheon was one-half black while the other half was white ; hence his family were called " Night and Day." He, having a per sonal spite against Engelbrekt, and living at the neighbouring castle of Goksholm, which lay within a short distance of the town of Orebro, the castle of Prologue. 15 which had been assigned to Engelbrekt for his residence by the interim council of state, Engelbrekt requested the knight to visit him, and then proposed to him that they should live at peace with each other, and refer their private quarrel to the state council for decision.

This was agreed upon, and Engelbrekt then entertained his guest, and at the repast told him that he had been summoned to Stockholm for an interview with the council on affairs of state, and that though he had but recently returned home from the siege of the castle of Axevalla, which he was forced to leave on account of his health, yet he must set out on his journey for Stockholm. The knight, now a seeming friend, knowing that Engelbrekt was too ill to ride, advised him to proceed by boat across the lake Hjelmaren, which course Engelbrekt resolved to take. They then parted. Early the next day the heroic liberator, together with his wife, children, and a few servants, set out in two small boats across the large lake. They rowed hard the whole day, and at nightfall arrived at a narrow sound near the castle of Goksholm.

Engelbrekt decided to rest here on a small island for the night, as they could not proceed further in the darkness across the bewildering expanse of the lake. A large fire was soon kindled, and all warmed themselves in the chilly night around the genial flames. In the stillness that prevailed they now heard the measured stroke of oars that brought a boat across the sound. One of the servants said, " It was evidently a message from the Knight of Goksholm, and that he could descry the son and heir, young Magnus, at the helm." " How kind ! " said Engelbrekt ; " Sir Bengt will ask me to his castle for the night, but I cannot go, my rheumatism prevents me." He now ordered the servants to the strand to point out the best landing-place, and he even him self limped off on his crutches to welcome the younker.

But noble -hearted Engelbrekt was mistaken ! The young man leaped ashore, and, brandishing an axe, ran towards the defenceless cripple, calling out in rage, "Are we to have no peace in the country on your account ?" " Don't you know," replied Engelbrekt, " that your father and I have become reconciled ? " The young man gave no answer, but struck at his foe with his axe, while Englebrekt raised his crutch to ward off the blow, but the sharp axe descended quick as lightning, and cut off three fingers of Engelbrekt's hand ; a second blow from the axe struck him in the neck, and the third rapidly smote his skull and cleaved his head in twain, and the noble- ENGELBREKT. C Prologue. 19 hearted hero and liberator of his country fell a corpse to the ground ! Magnus, mad with passion, glutted his spite on the vanquished foe by shooting several arrows through his noble frame.

The frantic wife with her children and servants were all carried prisoners to the castle, while the lifeless corpse was left in its reeking gore on the lone island, and the native soil drank the hero's life blood in that dark hour, and called, in the cold starry night, to Heaven for ven geance. The news of this dastardly murder soon filled the land, and the enraged peasant army surrounded and stormed the castle, but the two, " Night and Day " father and son, had already fled to Denmark. With loud lament the true-hearted peasants bore away their beloved chief, and carried him amid the ringing of church bells to his last resting-place in a small country church. The simple peasants now asked each other in dismay, " whether God had for saken Sweden, since He could allow its noblest son to be murdered ?

And whom would He now send to become their protector ? " Inscrutable are the ways of the Lord, in the his tory of nations, as in the lives of individuals ! Many more foul deeds remained behind, before Sweden would be ripe to become truly free. It was to be C regenerated by a baptism of blood, that would lead to political salvation and religious reformation. This was but the prologue to the great drama of the nation.

Chapter II. Shifting Scenes, And

A RACE OF TRUE PATRIOTS. Pf N the death of Engelbrekt, Charles Knuti son Bonde issued a decree exonerating ' Mans Bengtson, " Night and Day," from | any punishment whatever for his grim and bloody deed, which exemption naturally aroused the indignation of the masses against the Regent. His undivided power was dis puted by two powerful nobles, but he speedily rid himself of both in the usual arbitrary way of the times, by having them secretly beheaded. However, there was still a powerful array of nobles and pre lates, who, jealous of the Regent's power, always favoured the union with Denmark, because during the rule of foreign potentates their own arrogance and feudal power had greater scope. These offered the crown to the Danish king, Christofer of Bavaria, who readily accepted the offer. When on his entry into the capital, Stockholm, in 1441, he was walking arm-in-arm with the now deposed Regent, the citizens, on beholding the insig nificant-looking, but merry little German king, quite dwarfed by the noble presence and handsome figure of Charles Knutson, regretted the seeming bad change of rulers, and gave vent to their discontent by such utterances as, " The Regent is a finer man than the king, and far more worthy to wear the crown ; woe unto them who have made this change."

Upon hearing this, the jovial little monarch only remarked, " My subjects are a free-spoken people!" However, the Regent soon retired to his fief in Finland, the whole of which, together with various castles in Sweden, had been assigned to him by way of recompense for his lost power. King Christofer took things easy, as when, for instance, complaints were lodged against the dethroned King Eric, who had taken refuge in the castle of Wisborg, on the island of Gothland in the Baltic, and there for ten years led the life of a pirate, the merry king replied, " Well, my uncle, you know, must have something to live on." However, this lenient and frivolous king died suddenly in the year 1448, and leaving no issue, Charles Knutson, who came from his Fin land home with 800 retainers to be present at the election of ruler at Stockholm, was unanimously chosen king, being very popular with the freemen.

Christofer had been succeeded in Denmark by Christian the First, who also claimed the Swedish throne ; hostilities were the natural consequence. During the winter of 1450 Charles, who called him self the Eighth (though history is unable to discover in the sparse records of dim antiquity more than one preceding Charles), made fearful havoc in the Danish provinces, and laid waste the land by fire and sword. Arrived at the town of Lund, then the see of the Archbishop Tuve, he tried in vain to prevail upon that powerful prelate to declare for him, and who, when pressed too hard, dauntlessly replied, " Thou canst not make me greater than I am as Archbishop of Lund and Primate of the Swedish Church, nor poorer than I have been, when as a starving schoolboy I had to earn my bread by wandering from door to door singing ballads, and when I thought myself fortunate if in the fight with other lads I was able to get a crust of bread for myself."

This reply seemed at first to touch the heart of the warrior king, but did not save Lund, which was captured, pillaged, and burnt, so that of its twenty four churches only the noble cathedral remained. Descriptive of the times is the account of the in stallation of the king's little daughter, only eight years old, as a nun in the convent of Vadstena, on which pitiable occasion the handsome monarch and father, wearing his crown, and attired in his royal robes, sang from the altar steps, to the kneeling mul titude, a selection from the Evangelium itself, as an inauguration ritual, which was to consign his little child to a joyless and dreary life, a flower to dwell in a living tomb. Shortly afterwards, the splendour-loving monarch celebrated the wedding of his brave young cousin, Thord Bonde, who had proved himself his most faithful captain, and had once been the means of discovering and crushing a powerful conspiracy amongst the nobles, the soul of which had been Lady Brita Tott, of Danish extraction ; the bridal banquet was served up on no less than 1,400 silver plates, which indicated the wealth of the king and the magnificence of the feast.

The noble young bridegroom, however, was soon afterwards foully murdered in his sleep one night by a treacherous Danish servant, in whom he had great confidence. With this faithful friend's death, King Charles's sun seems to have set, for constant strifes and wars, and heavy reverses befell him for the rest of his life. At another wedding festival, which he celebrated with his accustomed splendour, that of the Thord Bonde's sister Brita, to which he had invited the Archbishop of Upsala, Jons Bengtson Oxenstjerna, and his friends, when the passionate, revengeful, and ambitious prelate seemed, for the time, all affability, and vowed and declared his unalterable love and fealty to the king. But the festivities had barely ended when the false priest (who owed King Charles a grudge because one of his own family had not been chosen king), attired in the full splendour of his high office, advanced to the altar of the cathedral of Upsala, and there divesting himself of his mitre and robes, dressed himself in full armour and hel met, and, sword in hand, swore " never to rest until he had driven King Charles into exile."

The realm was already ripe for a change, discontent had grown with marvellous rapidity, the nobles were rebellious because the king had not liberally enough endowed them with castles and feoffs for rendered support and services ; the prelates, because of the reduction of their prebendary stalls and revenues, and the peasantry for the taxes, and because of the failure of the crops, and consequent dearth, as if the king could be held accountable for that. Charles hastened to meet the rebellious arch bishop, but his clerical foe dexterously managed to surprise him by traversing the ice-covered lake of Malar, when he completely routed the royalist troops, so that the king himself had to fly in hot haste, though wounded, to Stockholm ; and having gained admittance into the castle, and reflecting that the archbishop made war in full good earnest, he hastily collected some valuables, and, embarking in the night-time, precipitately left his crown and realm for Dantzic, in Germany, where he remained for seven years.

The warlike archbishop called in Christian the First of Denmark, with whom was enacted the usual farce of making him king in name, while the real power was vested in the prelates and nobles. After a few years a quarrel arose between Christian and the archbishop, because the king imagined the primate had been too lenient in enforcing the taxes from the peasants. The ungrateful king made the prelate a prisoner, and brought him away to Copenhagen. The peasantry, of course, supported the archbishop, and under the command of another bishop, Kettil Vasa, the primate's cousin, they again came to the rescue, and, after losing a decisive battle, King Christian was compelled to fly. The exiled King Charles was not slow to take advantage of this favourable circumstance, and came with a large fleet from Dantzic to Stockholm, when there at once arose a cry amongst the peasants, that " Sweden was a kingdom, and not a parish, to be governed by a priest," and Charles was welcomed back again as their king, after seven years' absence.

The captive archbishop was, however, soon for given by King Christian, and returning to Sweden, united himself with his friend Bishop Kettil Vasa ; the two belligerent prelates again compelled King Charles, abandoned by all, to relinquish the throne a second time and return to Finland, where he lived for a couple of years in great poverty. New broils and civil wars followed for some years between the powerful bishops and the ambitious nobles, until suddenly one night a noble, Eric Axelson, took the quarrelsome prelates prisoners, and paved the way for Charles to return a third time to the throne of Sweden, which he again ascended, and reigned in peace for three years, until his death, which occurred in 1470. On his deathbed he chose for his successor, as regent, his nephew, Sten Sture the elder, earnestly enjoining him " never to strive to ascend the throne, as that ambition had cost him his life and happiness."

After a good deal of wrangling among the jealous nobles, it was at last settled that Sten Sture should be recognized as regent, supported as he was by the most influential noble, Ivar Axelson, and the new-made archbishop, Jacob Ulfson, his foster-father, and, like Engelbrekt, very popular with the whole country population of freemen. But King Christian returned the following summer to Stockholm with a fleet of seventy ships from Den mark, to assert his rights. After prolonged and frequent parleys, by which the archbishop managed to stretch out the time, to give Sture opportunity for armament, at last, late in the autumn, it came to a battle on the hill of Brunkeberg, close to Stock holm. King Christian and his followers made merry be forehand, and boasted how they would disgrace and dishonour the Swedes, whom they looked upon as a prey prepared for them, and the king said, laughing about his adversary and rival, Sten Sture, " that Master Sten sneaks about amongst wood and hill and dyke, and dare not show himself, but I will have him whipped with birch like a naughty page ;" and then he added, " I swear by the five wounds of Christ, that I will not return from this business as if I had been on a fool's errand !"

Just before the battle, Sten Sture's wife, Ingeborg, called the poor of the besieged town up into the castle and gave them food, and bade them pray earnestly for the successful issue of the pending battle. Then she ascended the turrets with her principal ladies, from where she could view the strife and pray for victory. Her noble husband, the commander, addressed a THE BATTLE OF BRUNKtUERG, 1471. Shifting Scenes. 31 few manly and encouraging words to his men, saying, " If you wish to dwell in peace in Sweden, and live with honour, so stand firmly by me to-day, for, as true as my name is Sir Sten, I stake my life that I will ward off misery from our country ! Will you also do that ? If so, as a token, hold up your hands." " Yes, yes ; we will, we will !" responded in chorus his eager men, numbering some 40,000.

Then they all knelt in prayer and heard the mass, after which the whole body advanced to battle singing the martial ballad of " St. George and the Dragon." Then Sten Sture stormed the royal encampments in vain four times with his hordes, armed only with bows and arrows and battle-axes ; but at last his trusty captain, Nils Sture, arrived with the sturdy Dalcarlians, who were mostly victorious, never fighting but for hearth and home. They had been delayed by the difficulty they experienced in crossing a dense and boggy wood, but, coming up in the nick of time, they changed the battle in favour of their hard-pressed countrymen, who had nearly proved inferior to King Christian's better trained and better-equipped soldiers. In front of the commander-in-chief pressed a stalwart peasant, called Starke Bjorn, i.e., the strong bear ; he wielded a broad and heavy sword to grim advantage, cleaving Gustavus Vasa. 32 a broad way for his hero, to whom he frequently turned round, and saying only, " Follow me, Master Sten."