LITMIR.BIZ

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with this history. My descriptions of the leading contemporaries of Gustavus are based on a careful study of the portraits in the Gripsholm gallery, most of which were painted from life.

      Finally, a word of thanks is due to the libraries and archives from which I have derived most aid. Of these the chief are the British Museum, the University Library at Upsala, and above all, the Royal Library and the Royal Archives at Stockholm. To the last two institutions I owe more than I can express. They are the storehouses of Swedish history, and their doors were thrown open to me with a generosity and freedom beyond all that I could hope. I wish here to thank my many friends, the custodians of these treasures, for the personal encouragement and assistance they have lent me in the prosecution of this work.

      August 15, 1889.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

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Page
Seal of Bishop Brask. Bears the inscription: S[IGILLVM] IOH[ANN]IS DEI GRA[CIA] EPI[SCOPI] LINCOPENSIS	103
"Klipping" issued by Gustavus Vasa in 1521 or 1522. On one side, the bust of a man in armor. On the other, crowns and arrows, with the inscription: ERI[KS]SO[N]	107
Medal struck in commemoration of the deliverance of Sweden in 1522. On one side, a half-length figure of Gustavus Vasa, with the date 1522 and the inscription: GVSTAF ERICSEN G[VBERNATOR] R[EGNI] S[VECIAE]. On the other, crowns and arrows, with the inscription: PROTEGE NOS IESV	116
Coin issued in Stockholm in 1522. On one side, the inscription: GOSTA[F] ERI[KS] SO[N] 1522, and in the centre, G[VBERNATOR]. On the other, a crown, with the inscription: MONET[A] STO[C]KHOLM[ENSIS]	122
Coin issued in Stockholm in 1522. On one side, a full-length figure, with the inscription: S[ANCTVS] ERICVS REX SWECIEI. On the other, crowns and arrows, with the inscription: MONE[TA] STO[C]KHOLM[ENSIS] 1522	122
Coin issued in Stockholm in 1522 or 1523. On one side, three crowns, with the inscription: S[ANCTVS] ERICVS REX SVE[CIAE]. On the other, the inscription: MONETA STOC[K]HO[LMENSIS]	122
Coin issued in Upsala in 1523. On one side, a bust with arrows and sheaves of corn, and the inscription: S[ANCTVS] ERICVS REX SWECIE. On the other, three crowns, with the inscription: MONE[TA] NOVA VPSAL[ENSIS] 1523	123
Coin issued in Vesterås in 1523. On one side, a crown, with the inscription: GOST[AF] REX SWECIE. On the other, three crowns, with the inscription: MONE[TA] NOVA WESTAR[OSIENSIS]	123
Coin issued at the coronation of Gustavus Vasa in 1528. On one side, a full-length figure of the king, with crown, sword, and sceptre, and the inscription: GOSTAVS D[EI] G[RACIA] SVECORVM REX. On the other, the inscription: MONET[A] NOVA STO[C]K[H]OL[MENSIS] 1528	272

THE SWEDISH REVOLUTION.

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Chapter I.

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CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF GUSTAVUS VASA. 1496–1513.

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      Birth of Gustavus.—His Ancestors.—Anarchy in Sweden.—Its Causes: Former Independence of the People; Growth of Christianity; Growth of the Aristocracy; the Cabinet; Enslavement of Sweden; Revolt of the People against Denmark.—Christiern I.—Sten Sture.—Hans.—Svante Sture.—Sten Sture the Younger.—Childhood of Gustavus.—His Education at Upsala.

THE manor of Lindholm lies in the centre of a smiling district about twenty miles north of the capital of Sweden. Placed on a height between two fairy lakes, it commands a wide and varied prospect over the surrounding country. The summit of this height was crowned, at the close of the fifteenth century, by a celebrated mansion. Time and the ravages of man have long since thrown this mansion to the ground; but its foundation, overgrown with moss and fast crumbling to decay, still marks the site of the ancient structure, and from the midst of the ruins rises a rough-hewn stone bearing the name Gustavus Vasa. On this spot he was born, May 12, 1496.[1] The estate was then the property of his grandmother, Sigrid Baner, with whom his mother was temporarily residing, and there is no reason to think it continued long the home of the young Gustavus.

The family from which Gustavus sprang had been, during nearly a hundred years, one of the foremost families of Sweden. Its coat-of-arms consisted of a simple vase, or bundle of sticks; and the Vasa estate, at one time the residence of his ancestors, lay only about ten miles to the north of Lindholm.[2] The first Vasa of whom anything is definitely known is Kristiern Nilsson, the great-grandfather of Gustavus. This man became noted in the early part of the fifteenth century as an ardent monarchist, and under Erik held the post of chancellor. After the fall of his master, in 1436, his office was taken from him, but he continued to battle for the cause of royalty until his death. Of the chancellor's three sons, the two eldest followed zealously in the footsteps of their father. The other, Johan Kristersson, though in early life a stanch supporter of King Christiern, and one of the members of his Cabinet, later married a sister of Sten Sture, and eventually embraced the Swedish cause. Birgitta, the wife of Johan Kristersson, is said to have been descended from the ancient Swedish kings.[3] The youngest son of Johan and Birgitta was Erik Johansson, the father of Gustavus. Of Erik's early history we know little more than that he married Cecilia, daughter of Magnus Karlsson and Sigrid Baner, and settled at Rydboholm, an estate which he inherited from his father. To this place, beautifully situated on an arm of the Baltic, about ten miles northeast of the capital, Cecilia returned with her little boy from Lindholm; and here Gustavus spent the first years of his childhood.

      Sweden at this period was in a state of anarchy. In order to appreciate the exact condition of affairs, it will be necessary to cast a glance at some political developments that had gone before. Sweden was originally a confederation of provinces united solely for purposes of defence. Each province was divided into several counties, which were constituted in the main alike. Every inhabitant—if we except the class of slaves, which was soon abolished—was either a landowner or a tenant. The tenants were freemen

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