144

GUSTAVUS VASA IN DALECARLIA.

[CHAP. XXXI. precisely known, afterwards assumed the name of Vasa, which was borne neither by himself nor by his forefathers.1 During his captivity in Denmark, Gustavus Vasa had been intrusted to the custody of his kinsman, Eric Baner, a nobleman of Jutland, who kept him in his castle of Kallö. At his keeper's table Gustavus heard of the preparations for war with Sweden, and was insulted by the boasts of the young Danes, how they would divide Swedish lands, how they would cast lots for Swedish maidens, so that he could rest neither day nor night. He escaped one morning from Kallö, disguised himself as an ox-driver, and, in September, 1519, reached Lübeck in safety, where he remained eight months. In May, 1520, soon after the death of Sten Sture, and when the Danes under Christian were besieging Stockholm, the Lübeckers landed Gustavus secretly at Stensö, near Calmar; but he found among his countrymen no response to his appeals to them to arm, and was fain to fly. How he spent the summer, disguised and wandering in by-paths in order to escape recognition-for a price had been set upon his head-is not known. It was September before he arrived at Tarna, the estate of his brother-in-law Joachim Brahe in Södermanland; whom, however, he could not dissuade from attending Christian's coronation. Brahe went to Stockholm, which city, as we have said, had been entered in the autumn by Christian, and there met his death. The father of Gustavus was among those who had signed the deed conferring the Swedish Crown upon Christian, but he was, nevertheless, as well as his son-in-law, one of the victims of that monster. At Räfnas, his paternal estate, to which he had proceeded on leaving Tarna, Gustavus heard the news of the massacre, and he mounted his horse and fled, attended by a single servant, who robbed and forsook him. Gustavus now took the road to Dalecarlia, a land noted for its love of freedom and hatred of Danes. Here he worked in peasant's clothes, for daily wages, in hourly danger from his pursuers, from whom he had many narrow escapes; and was once wounded with a lance as he lay hidden under a heap of straw. His adventures, which remind us of those of our own Alfred, are stil! related in that neighbourhood; the barns at Rankhytta in which he thrashed oats, the building near Ornäs where his life was saved by a woman, are preserved as national monuments; the spot near Marnaas where he lay hid under a felled pine trunk,

1 Geijer, B. ii. S. 1. Modern writers, however, give him the name of Vasa,

which we shall retain. The year of his birth was probably 1496. Ibid. S. 3.

CHAP. XXXI.]

HE IS APPOINTED REGENT.

145

the hill near Asby surrounded with marshes, where he found refuge, the cellar in the village of Utmetland, where he hid himself, are still pointed out.

The news of Christian's "blood bath" procured Gustavus Vasa many followers; he was elected for their leader by a great assembly of peasants at the Mora Stone, and found himself at the head of thousands of men; whom, though undisciplined and armed only with spears, clubs, bows, swords, and such weapons as chance afforded, he soon rendered fully a match for the Danish troops. His situation was embarrassing as well as difficult; for the Danes, besides possessing all the fortresses and castles in the Kingdom, had carried off as hostages some of the most distinguished Swedish ladies, including the mother and two sisters of Gustavus himself. Nevertheless, he boldly went to war, and in June, 1521, he invested Stockholm; but the siege, for want of proper artillery and engineering skill, was protracted two years. During this period his command was confirmed in a Herrendag, or assembly of nobles, at Wadstena, August 24th; the Crown was proffered to him, which he declined, but accepted the office of Regent. The Danes were now by degrees almost entirely driven out of Sweden; and Christian II., so far from being able to relieve Stockholm, found himself in danger of losing the Danish Crown. He had quarrelled with his uncle, Duke Frederick of Holstein; he had offended his own Danish subjects, as well as the Hanse towns, by his commercial regulations, and especially by an ordinance forbidding the sale of agricultural produce to foreigners, and directing it to be brought to Copenhagen and there sold to Danish merchants; and he had alienated the nobles by laws, good and just in themselves, but contrary to the capitulation he had entered into on his accession; among which was, that they should not be allowed to sell the peasants with the He had made enemies of the clergy by prohibiting them from buying farms, unless they should marry like their forefathers. He had also done many acts of barbarity and cruelty; and to escape the odium which they brought upon him, he caused Didrik Slaghoek, whom he had made Archbishop of Lund, to be burnt alive as the author of them.

land.

By his connection with the House of Austria, as well as through the influence of Sigbrit, Christian had been led in his commercial policy to favour the Netherlanders at the expense of the Hanse towns; and the cities of Lübeck, Dantzic, Wismar, and Rostock now took their revenge by declaring for Gustavus

146 CHRISTIAN II. EXPELLED FROM DENMARK. [CHAP. XXXI.

Vasa, ravaging the Danish coasts, seizing Danish ships, occupying Bornholm, and plundering Helsingör. The same towns also concluded an alliance with Christian's uncle Frederick, who had formed secret connections with the Danish nobles, and induced them to renounce their allegiance to his nephew, and place himself on the throne with the title of Frederick I. The Union of Calmar was now again dissolved. The Norwegians, indeed, agreed to accept Frederick's sovereignty; but when Frederick called upon the Swedish States to recognize his title in conformity with the Union, they replied that they had already chosen Gustavus Ericson for their King; which was done at the Diet of Strängnäs, June 7th, 1523. Three weeks after Stockholm surrendered to Gustavus. Bewildered by this revolution, Christian II. fled from Copenhagen in April, before there was any necessity to do so; indeed that city, Malmö, Kallundborg, and some other places, did not acknowledge Frederick till the beginning of 1524; at which time the island of Gothland was all that remained faithful to Christian. From Copenhagen Christian and his wife sailed to the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, in Sweden, Gustavus was consolidating his power, partly by moderation and mildness, partly by examples of necessary severity. He put himself at the head of the reformation, as Frederick I. also did in Denmark; and he acted with that mixture of softness and dissimulation, combined with boldness in action, which always distinguished him. Luther's doctrines had been first introduced into Sweden in 1519, by two brothers, Olaus and Lawrence Petri, who had studied at Wittenberg. The Petris soon attracted the attention of Gustavus, who gave them his protection, and entered himself into correspondence with Luther. The designs of Gustavus were helped by the circumstance that, at his accession, four out of the six Swedish bishoprics were vacant: and Gustaf Trolle, Archbishop of Upsala, who had taken part against him, had been declared an enemy of his country. As in other parts of Europe, the nobles were induced to join the movement by the prospect of sharing the spoils of the Church; and in a great Diet at Westeräs in 1527, the reformation was introduced. The castles and lands of the prelates were then seized; convents were suppressed, and their inmates turned adrift; and many were inclined to withhold even the tithes of the parochial clergy, had not the King issued an order for their payment. There seems to have been no great difficulty in introducing the Reformation among this simple people, for the majority of the Swedes

CHAP. XXXI.]

HE IS IMPRISONED FOR LIFE.

147

were so ignorant as not to know the difference between Romanism and Lutheranism. Gustavus I. always denied that he had introduced a new doctrine; and even under his son and successor, John III., a great part of the people still believed themselves to belong to the Romish faith. The Reformation in Sweden was not, however, unaccompanied with disturbances on the part of the higher classes, and many years elapsed before it was completely established.

Meanwhile Christian II., a wanderer and an exile, was seeking the aid of foreign Princes to re-establish himself on the throne of Denmark. The merchants of the Netherlands whom he had befriended, as well as some of the German Princes, were in his favour; and, in 1531, the government of the Netherlands allowed him to raise in Holland an army of 8,000 or 10,000 men, who were embarked in Dutch ships with the intention of landing them in the Danish province of Halland, beyond the Sound; but the fleet was driven by stress of weather on the coast of Norway, and towards the end of autumn a landing was effected at Opslo. Here, during the winter, Christian was secure from the attacks of Frederick and Gustavus, who had combined against him. Christian had been a convert to Lutheranism, but, as his faith sat easy upon him, he now declared himself the protector of Catholicism in Norway; the whole country, except a few fortified places, declared in his favour, and he was even proclaimed King of Norway. In the spring of 1532, however, when the ice had broken up, a Swedish army had entered Upper Norway; the Danish and Wendish Hanse fleets landed a large force at Opslo; and Christian, whose men were daily deserting because he had no means to pay them, was compelled to shut himself up in the castle, and enter into negotiations with the Danish commander. By a treaty signed at Aggerhuys, July 1st, it was agreed that Christian should be carried into Denmark, to treat in person with his uncle Frederick; and that he should be at liberty to quit the Kingdom if no agreement should be concluded: but such was the hatred of the Danish nobles towards him, that they compelled Frederick to condemn him to perpetual imprisonment, and to give eight written promises to that effect into the custody of four Danish and four Holstein noblemen. The unhappy Christian was immured in the Castle of Sonderborg; all the windows of his vaulted chamber were walled up, except one, through which his food was conveyed; and a half-witted dwarf was appointed to be his only attendant 1 Geijer, B. ii. S. 218.

2 Ibid. B. ii. S. 81.

148

ELECTION OF CHRISTIAN III. [CHAP. XXXI.

and companion. In this miserable prison he continued seventeen years, till in 1549 he was removed to the Castle of Kallundborg, and there during the remainder of his life, which lasted till 1559, he was treated with something like royal dignity; but his health and spirits had already been completely broken.

Frederick I. died at Gottorp, his usual residence, in 1533, when a contest began for the Danish Crown. The Diet was assembled, but the election of a King was deferred for a year by the State Council, who during the interregnum exercised supreme power. The city of Lübeck, now governed by two enterprising democrats. Marcus Mejer, and George Wollenwever, seized the opportunity to endeavour to place a protégé of their own on the throne of Denmark, and thus revive the waning power of the Hansa; and they associated in their undertaking the burgomasters of Malmö and Copenhagen. As Duke Christian of Holstein, eldest son cf Frederick I., would not submit to the terms which they prescribed as the conditions of helping him to the throne, they employed Count Christian of Oldenburg to invade Denmark on pretence of restoring Christian II. The Count having raised an army with the money of Lübeck, demanded from the Duke of Holstein the liberation of the imprisoned King, and passed over into Denmark with the Hanse fleet. He was favourably received in Malmö and Copenhagen; all Scania and Seeland submitted to him as the representative of Christian II.; and the peasants of Jutland were also in his favour. Alarmed at these proceedings, the Council now chose the Duke of Holstein for their King, with the title of Christian III. (July, 1534); but the Count of Oldenburg maintaine-i himself in Denmark throughout the year, till the new Sovereign was helped by the arms of the King of Sweden.

Gustavus was now at variance with the Wendish Hanse towns. They had, indeed, liberally assisted him in his struggle in Sweden: but they made exorbitant claims upon his gratitude. They demanded that the Netherlanders, with whom Gustavus had corcluded a treaty in 1526, should be excluded from the commerce of the Baltic; and Lübeck required with such impatience the repayment of a loan of 28,000 rix-dollars, that Gustavus, to satisfy the demand, was compelled to order every parish to contribute one of its church bells. As the strict and vigorous government of Gustavus had occasioned considerable discontent in Sweden, the Lübeckers took advantage of it to declare war against him. Among the malcontents was the King's own brother-in-law, the Count of Hoya, who fled to Lübeck with his wife and children: