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The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa. Paul Barron Watson
Читать онлайн.Название The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa
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isbn 4064066225094
Автор произведения Paul Barron Watson
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
[2] Originally the Vasa arms were black, the bundle of sticks representing one of the old fascines used in warfare to fill up ditches. Gustavus changed the color of his arms to gold, and altered the old fascine into a sheaf of grain.
[3] Svart, Ährapred., pp. 46–47; and Tegel, Then stoormecht., pp. 1–2. On this point our authorities agree. Tegel gives a table showing Birgitta to have been a great-granddaughter of Karl Ulfsson, who, according to the same table, was a great-grandson of King Erik X. As the descent is traced through a line of females about whom history is silent, we lack the means with which to disprove the assertion of our chroniclers.
[4] Until recently, historians have asserted that Margaret, at the coronation of her nephew, signed a document providing, among other things, that the three kingdoms were thereafter to be governed by a single sovereign, to be elected alternately, if his predecessor died childless, by each kingdom; that, in case of war in one kingdom, both the others were to come to the rescue; and that each kingdom was to be governed strictly according to its own laws. As a matter of fact, Margaret signed nothing of the kind. The document which gave rise to this error is still to be seen in the Private Archives at Copenhagen. It is dated at Kalmar, July 20, 1397, purports to be the work of sixteen of the chief Swedish magnates, and declares that unless the terms which it contains are drawn up in six copies, signed by the king, the regent, the Cabinet, and others, there shall be no lawful union. These six copies, so far as we know, were never drawn up or signed. But unhappily the union had been already formed at the coronation a month before, and, seven days before, these very magnates with fifty-one other persons had attached their seals to an affidavit of allegiance to their new king. This affidavit, dated at Kalmar, July 13, 1397, is also still preserved in the Private Archives at Copenhagen. Both documents are printed in full in O. S. Rydberg's Sverges traktater med främmande magter, Stockh., 1877–1883, 2 vols. 8vo, vol. ii. pp. 560–585.
[5] Handl. till upplysn. af Finl. häfd., vol. i. p. 187.
[6] Svart, Gust. I.'s krön., p. 2, and Tegel, Then stoormecht., p. 3. Tegel makes this incident occur in the child's seventh year, in 1497. Here we have another proof that Tegel places the birth of Gustavus too early. If the child had been born in 1490, this incident could not have taken place till still later than his seventh year, for Hans did not become king till 1497.
[7] Kongl. och furstl. förlijkn., pp. 383–384.
[8] Tegel, Then stoormecht., p. 3.
[9] In Reuterdahl, Swensk. Kyrk. hist., vol. iii. pt. ii. pp. 558–559, are two letters, dated at Rydboholm, from Erik and his wife to the regent, Svante Sture.
[10] Svart, Gust. I.'s krön., p. 2.
[11] Svart, Gust. I.'s krön., p. 2, and Ährapred., pp. 50–51. Tegel, Then stoormecht., p. 3, agrees that it was in 1509 that Gustavus was sent to Upsala, but seems to assert that he was admitted at once to the University.
[12] C. A. Örnhjelm's Diplomatarium, a manuscript preserved in the Vitterh., Hist., och Antiq. Akad. at Stockholm.
[13] Svart, Gust. I.'s krön., p. 2, and Ährapred., pp. 50–51.
Chapter II.
FIRST MILITARY ADVENTURES OF GUSTAVUS; A PRISONER IN DENMARK. 1514–1519.
Description of Stockholm.—Christina Gyllenstjerna.—Hemming Gad.—Christiern II.—Gustaf Trolle.—Dissension between Sten Sture and Gustaf Trolle.—Siege of Stäket.—First Expedition of Christiern II. against Sweden.—Trial of the Archbishop.—Arcimboldo.—Second Expedition of Christiern II. against Sweden.—Capture of Gustavus Vasa.—Resignation of the Archbishop.—Hostilities of Christiern II.—Farewell of Arcimboldo.
THE old town of Stockholm was beyond all doubt the most picturesque capital in Europe. Perched on an isle of rock at the eastern extremity of Lake Mälar, it stood forth like a sentinel guarding the entrance to the heart of Sweden. Around its base on north and south dashed the foaming waters of the Mälar, seeking their outlet through a narrow winding channel to the Baltic. Across this channel on the south, and connected with the city by a bridge, the towering cliffs of Södermalm gazed calmly down upon the busy traffic of the city's streets; and far away beyond the channel on the north stretched an undulating plain, dotted with little patches of green shrubbery and forest. On the west the city commanded a wide view over an enchanting lake studded with darkly wooded isles, above whose trees peeped here and there some grim turret or lofty spire. Finally, in the east, the burgher standing on the city's walls could trace for several miles the current of a silver stream, glittering in the sunlight, and twisting in and out among the islands along the coast until at last it lost itself in the mighty waters of the Baltic.
The town itself was small. The main isle, on which "the city," so called, was built, stretched scarce a quarter of a mile from east to west and but little more from north to south. Nestling under the shadow of the main isle were two smaller isles, Riddarholm on the west and Helgeandsholm on the north, both severed from the city by a channel about fifty feet in width. Through the centre of the main isle ran a huge backbone of rock, beginning at the south and rising steadily till within a few feet of the northern shore. The summit of this ridge was crowned by the royal citadel, a massive edifice of stone, the northern wall of which ran close along the shore, so that the soldier on patrol could hear the ripple of the water on the rocks below. From either side of the citadel the town walls ran south at a distance of perhaps a hundred feet from the shore, meeting at a point about the same distance from the southern channel. Within the triangle thus formed, not over twenty-five acres all told, lived and moved five thousand human beings. The streets, it need scarce be said, were narrow, dark, and damp. The houses were lofty, generally with high pitch-roofs to prevent the snow from gathering on them. The doors and windows were high, but narrow to keep out the cold, and were built in the sides of the house, not in front, owing to the darkness and narrowness of the streets. To economize space, most of the houses were built in blocks of five or six, wholly separated from their neighbors and forming a sort of castle by themselves. The only church