The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa

ure.-Dissolution of the Swedish Army.-Heroism of Christina.-Battle of Upsala.-Gustavus at Kalmar.-Fall of Stockholm.-Coronation

veller's face and bearing that gave him the look of a person prematurely old. Of large frame, tall and broad-shouldered, with heavy massive face, high cheek-bones, a careworn dark blue eye, large straight nose, and compressed lips,-the under lip projecting slightly,-he would have been pointed out anywhere as a man not easily to be led. The face would not, perhaps, be regarded as particularly intellectua

, in those September days, were red with buckwheat. Occasionally a broad meadow spread out before him, and, to avoid the husbandmen gathering in their crops, he was often forced to make a long circuit through thick forests of beech and maple. Here and there he came on mighty barrows raised over the bodies of Danish warriors and kings. Well might it make his blood boil within him to wi

ubeck was, therefore, at this time a peculiarly favorable asylum for one who was at enmity with Christiern. Gustavus doubtless had reckoned on this advantage, and had resolved to throw himself on the mercy of the town. He went directly to the senate, laid his case before them, and asked them boldly for a ship and escort to take him back to Sweden. This request apparently was more than they were prepared to grant. They hesitated, and in the mean time the commandant of Kal? Castle tracked his prisoner to Lubeck, and appeared before the senate to demand that he be sur

they went. Sture at once issued a broadside to the people, calling them to arms. He likewise sent his messengers to Trolle, to beg him to use his influence against the enemies of Sweden. The deposed archbishop, now cringing before his victor, yielded his assent. Sture, thus emboldened, moved forward with his army to meet the Danes. Knowing that they were advancing through the province of Vesterg?tland, and that their line of march in the winter season would be across the lakes, Sture took up his position in a narrow cove at the northern end of Lake ?sunden. In the centre of this cove, through which the Danes must pass, he raised a huge bulwark of felled trees, and within the bulwark stationed his infantry, with provisions enough to last two months. He then chopped up the ice about the fort, and retired to the north with his cavalry to await the onset. It was not long he had to wait. On the 18th of January the Danish army drew near, and seeing the fortification began to storm it with their catapults. As they approached, the Swedish cavalry, with Sture at their head, dashed out along the shore to meet them. The regent was mounted on a fiery charger, and carried into the very thickest of the fight. But scarcely had the first shot been fired when a missile glancing along the ice struck Sture's horse from under him, and in a moment horse and rider were sprawling on the ice. So soon as Sture could be extricated, he was found to have received an ugly wound upon the thigh. His followers bore him bleeding from the field, and hastened with his lacerated body to the north. But the battle was not yet over.

s, he died; and the loved one for whose sympathy he had longed was given nothing but her husband's lifeless corpse.[39] They buried of him all that earth could bury; but his undaunted spirit remained still among his people, cheering them in their misfortunes, and ever calling upon them to resist the hand of the oppressor. Sten Sture's character is one which draws forth a warmth of sentiment such as can be felt for no other character of his time. Living in an age when hypocrisy was looked upon with honor, and when falsehood was deemed a vice on

g messengers one after another to implore them to unite in defence of their native land. At length it seemed as if her supplications were destined to prevail. A firmer purpose spread among them, and they girded up their loins for another conflict. Their spark of courage, however, proved abortive. No sooner did the enemy again appear than the patriots turned their backs and fled in wild dismay. On coming once more together after this bloodless battle, they resolved without further ado to lay down arms. A letter was despatched to Krumpen requesting parley. This was granted; and on the 22d of February it was agreed that the two parties should hold a conference in Upsala on the 3d of March, for the purpose of making terms. The Swedish party then urged Christina to attend the conference. She however turned a deaf ear to their entreaties, and sent off a despatch at once

h to Stockholm, a couple of ambassadors being sent ahead to invite Christina to a conference outside the town. The reception which they met was such as to convince them that the regent's widow possessed, at any rate, a portion of her husband's courage. No sooner did they near the cap

wind was going to blow, and for the time being it seemed likely to blow in favor of the Swedes. The regent's widow used every effort to rouse the people from their lethargy, and with increased success. All winter long the king of Denmark was burning to send reinforcements, and dickering with the Powers of Europe to obtain the necessary funds. But his credit was bad, and it was only with great difficulty that he at last despatched a body of some fifteen hundred men. Christina, on the other hand, was being reinforced by the Hanse Towns along the Baltic, and in the early sp

the enemy. The sky was heavily overcast, and at the very beginning of the battle a driving storm with rain and sleet came beating down in the faces of the Danes, thus blinding them. Their cavalry, too, was almost useless; for the ground was covered with melting snow, which formed in great cakes under the horses' hoofs, and soon sent horses and riders sprawling on the ground. The patriots, however, being without cavalry or muskets, suffered little from the rain. They were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity thus afforded them, and pressed forward madly on the left wing until finally it began to yield. The standard-bearer, half frozen, was about to drop the standard, when a Danish veteran rushed forward, seized it from his hands, and fixed it in the nearest fence, at the same time shouting: "Forward, my men! Remember your own and your fathers' valor! Shall this standard of your country fall unstained into the hands of the enemy?" At these words the company rallied and, hacking at the hands of the patriots

was delayed only till the breaking of the ice. Towards the close of April, 1520, Christiern set sail with a large fleet for Sweden, having on board the Archbishop of Lund and some other influential prelates, to lend to his expedition the aspect of a religious crusade. Proceeding first to Kalmar, he called upon the castle to surrender, but in vain. Seeing that his only mode of r

are mere numbers without a leader. For years the whole country had been almost continuously immersed in blood. One moment the peasantry were all in arms, burning to avenge their wrongs, and the next moment, just on the eve of victory, they scattered, each satisfied with promises that his wrongs would be redressed and willing to let other persons redress their own. What was needed above all else was a feeling of national unity and strength; and it was this feeling that from the very outset the young Gustavus sought to instil in the minds of the

e burghers, and sought in every way to rouse their drooping spirits. He even approached the German soldiers with a view to inspire comfort in their souls. But his words of courage fell on stony ground. It is the nature of mercenaries to fight like madmen when the prospect of reward is bright, but no sooner does a cloud gather on the horizon, than they throw down their arms and begin to clamor for their pay. Such at that moment was the state of things in Kalmar. Christiern, backed by the leading powers of Europe, and upheld in his expedition by the authority of Rome, had just arrived in Sweden wi

and swamps of Sm?land. Here he went from house to house, inciting the peasantry to rebel. Among others he sought out some of his father's tenants, in the hope that they at least would hear him. But he found them all sunk in lethargy, cowering under the sword of Christiern. His voice was truly the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The golden hope of lifting his country out of her misery seemed shattered at a blow. Instead of being received with open arms as a deliverer, he was jeered at in every town, and f

520, the report had spread through Sweden that Gad had turned traitor to his native land, and we find him writing to the people of Stockholm to tell them that he and they had done Christiern wrong, and begging them to reconcile themselves to Christiern as he had done. Gad was a statesman,-a word synonymou

people to revolt. On the 27th of June a large body of the patriots laid siege to the palace of the bishop of Link?ping. About the same time also the monastery of Mariefred, inhabited by the old archbishop Ulfsson, was threatened; and a throng of peasants marched to Strengn?s to burn and plunder. How crude the patriot forces at this time were is apparent from a letter from a Danish officer to Krumpen, in which it is said that out of a body of about three thousand only one hundred and fifty were skilled soldiers. Christiern finally deemed it best to send a force to Vester?s to storm the castle. This was done, the castle fell, and the officer in command was taken prisoner. It was now August, and the Stockholmers, no aid thus far having come to

he Great Church, where he offered thanksgiving to Almighty God. That over, he proceeded to the citadel and took possession. The same day and the day following he obtained two documents,-one from the Cabinet members then in Stockholm, and the other from the burgomaster and Council,-granting the castle to C

and he was present at the diet. When the appointed day arrived, the delegates were summoned to a hill outside the town, and were shut in on every side by the pikes and rapiers of the royal soldiers. The proceedings were cut and dried throughout. A pompous oration was delivered by one of the king's satellites, declaring the grounds on which his master claimed the throne of Sweden, at the close of which the people were asked whether they would have him for their king, and with their tyrants' weapons brandished before their eyes they answered yes. With this elaborate farce the ceremony ended and the people scattered, being fi

pter. The whole chancel was one blaze of gold and silver; and as the king marched through the main aisle with his splendid retinue, every eye was bent upon him and every whisper hushed. Proceeding straight up to the high altar, he bent his knee before the God whose name he was now so soon to desecrate. Then the archbishop raised from the altar a crown of gold glittering with precious jewels, and placed it reverently upon the monarch's brow. The sacred rite of consecration over, the monarch rose and turning was met

traying in ardent language the sufferings he had undergone. He declared that the cathedral at Upsala had been plundered while he was being besieged in St?ket. He dwelt at great length on the wrong which had been done him in the destruction of his castle. He drew attention to the conspiracy entered into against him by certain of the magnates, and their united oath never again to recognize him as archbishop. Finally, he denounced the conspirators by name, and called upon the king to visit them with the punishment which they deserved. At this Christina was summoned before the throne and asked for an explanation of her husband's conduct. She was at first struck dumb with terror; then, recovering herself, she pleaded that her husband had been no more guilty than the other conspirators, as would appear from the document which they all had signed. Christiern, learning for the first time of this document, demanded that it be produced. When this was done, and the king had examined it to his heart's content, he gave it to his clerk to copy, and called on each of the signers in turn to answer for his act. Christiern with his Cabinet then withdrew, leaving the patriot leaders in the great hall guarded by a body of Danish soldiers. At dusk two Danish officers entered with lanterns, "like Judas Iscariot" says a contemporary, and the doomed magnates were led out to the tower and thrown into prison to await the morn. When day broke, Christiern ordered the trumpets sounded and proclamation made that no citizen should leave his house. About noon the condemned patriots were led from their dungeons

pense, the iron entering into his very soul. Each day brought new intelligence of the victories of Christiern and the gradual dismemberment of the Swedish forces. His hopes were already well-nigh shattered when the report was wafted across the lake that his father, along with the other patriot leaders, had been slaughtered in the capital. Horror-stricken and overwhelmed with grief, he sprang to his feet, resolved to brave death rather than prolong this agony. Buckling on his sword, he mounted one of his father's steeds, and set forth for the north, filled with the dream of rescuing his native land. It was near the 25th of November, and the scenery was well in keeping with the dreary thoughts that flooded the horseman's mind. T

oticed that he wore a gold-embroidered shirt, and told her master; and this, coupled with his language and general appearance, led to his discovery. He thereupon appealed to his old schoolfellow to shield him from his enemies, but in vain. The danger was too great; and though full of sympathy for the young refugee, he told him he must leave the place. Thus once more an outcast, Gustavus hurriedly skirted the south shore of the lake, and after a narrow escape by breaking through the ice, reached the house of another schoolmate, who offered him protection and then went off to inform the Danish officers. From this catastrophe Gustavus was rescued by a warning from his betrayer's wife, and had fled ere the officers appeared. His next asylum was some twenty miles farther north, where he found protection at the hands of the parish priest. The king's officers were now upon the scent. The whole province was alive to the fact that it was harboring within its borders the regent's ward. The strictest vigilance was therefore necessary in order to save his life. So the priest kept him but a week, and then hurried him some thirty miles farther through the woods to R?ttvik, a hillside village at the eastern extremity of Lake Siljan. There he tarried several days, talking with the peasantry, and urging them to rebel against the tyranny of their Danish ruler. He was now on ground to be ever afterwards famous in Swedish history. Here for the first time his words were heard with some degree of favor. The proud spirits of these mountain peasants had been already often rous

words of Gustavus as to the cruelties in Stockholm, and added further that there were many magnates throughout the realm who not only had not bowed the knee to Christiern, but had declared that rather than do so they would die with sword in hand. Then the blood of the villagers of Mora boiled within them. Post-haste, and trembling lest it were now too late, they put men on the track of the young fugitive with orders to push on by day and night and not rest till they had found Gustavus and brought him back. They found him on the very frontier of Norway, and announced to him that their people were ready to joi

TNO

I., p. 387; and Svart,

aning, Christ. II., pp. 387-388; a

kr?n., pp. 316-317; Johannes Magni, De omn. Goth., p. 780; Svaning, Christ. II

] I

Svaning, Christ. II., pp. 299-315; Laurent. Petri, Then Svenska chr?n., p. 145; Bidra

?n., pp. 320-321; and Svanin

0-329; Laurent. Petri, Then Svenska chr?n., p. 145; Christ. II.'s arkiv, v

ist. II., pp. 330-341; Laurent. Petri, Then Svenska chr?n.

venska chr?n., pp. 145-146; Bidrag till Skand. hist., vol. v. pp. 632-634; Christ. II.'s arkiv., v

Gust. I.'s

ust. I.'s kr?

Skand. hist., vol

chr?n., p. 146; Ludvigsson, Collect., p. 87; Bidrag till Skand. hist., vol. v. pp. 637-648; Dipl. Dal., vol. i

362; Laurent. Petri, Then Svenska chr?n., p. 146; Acta hist. Reg.

7; Svaning, Christ. II., pp. 363-366; and L

; Svaning, Christ. II., pp. 366-369; and Lau

a kr?n., pp. 328-334; Johannes Magni, De omn. Goth., p. 781; Olaus Magni, Hist. de gent. Sept., p. 612; Svaning, Chris

ust. I.'s kr?

ust. I.'s kr?

ust. I.'s kr?