BEFORE the Count's war was completely brought to an end, viz. in September, 1535, Christian the Third visited his kinsman in Stockholm, and was received by him both with a cordial welcome and a princely hospitality. Gustavus advanced him a still further loan, and received Warberg, Aggerhus, and Viken as pledges for the repayment. Christian, moreover, relinquished his claim to certain estates in Halland, and gave Gustavus a written promise not to conclude any treaty with the Lubeckers without his privity and consent.1

A few days after he left Sweden Queen Catherine died rather suddenly, which gave occasion to a malicious report that her death had been occasioned by the King's violence, exhibited towards her because she had betrayed to their late guest some state secrets. This calumny, the origin of which Celsius traces up

1 Tegel, 1535; Scond. Illust., tom. v. p. 72.

CHAP. XII.

HIS SECOND MARRIAGE.

217

to the Hanse Towns, the greater part of the Swedish historians pass over in silent contempt.'

The marriage had not been a happy one. Had it been otherwise, the King, as subsequent events proved, was not a person to be prevented by that circumstance from quickly forming a new engagement. But now state reasons combined with inclination to make him resolve upon a second marriage as soon as possible.

The object of his choice was Margaret, daughter of Eric Abrahamson (Lejonhufvud), who had acted as guide to the Danes against Sten Sturé the younger, and afterwards perished at the massacre of Stockholm. She had been betrothed to Swanté Sturé beyond a doubt; but Celsius and Geijer have perhaps too hastily adopted the idea thrown out by Messenius (who, as a Roman Catholic, was no friend to the King), that there was between the affianced a mutual attachment. Marriages at that time, we know, were contracted between the heads of noble houses for their children with very little regard to their inclinations, and it is far from improbable that both Gustavus and Sturé felt that, in the substitution of a younger sister of Margaret for Margaret herself, Sturé had obtained all the advantages contemplated by the alliance. Two circumstances confirm to some

1 Qui (Historici Danorum) similiter insinuant Reginam Catherinam, post Regis Christiani abitum, ob prodita ipsi secreta tantopere a marito fuisse pulsatam ut 23 Septembris indè animam exhalaret.-Scond. Illust., tom. i. p. 73.

2 Scond. Illust., tom. i. p. 76; Messenii Comad. Gustaf., act 4, sc. 8, apud Celsium, vol. ii. p. 151; Geijer, vol. i. p. 106.

extent the impression, that the affections of the betrothed were not deeply engaged to one anotherthe first, that Gustavus's marriage with Margaret was attended with great happiness to both; and the second, that, notwithstanding the temptations offered to Sturé in the ensuing war, his loyalty remained unshaken.

The marriage took place at Stockholm on the 1st October, 1536.1

During the nuptial festivities Magnus Sommar, Bishop of Strengness, was deposed and imprisoned for declaring that he could no longer support the Lutheran religion. His successor an evangelical canon of Linköping named Bothvid-being afterwards asked by the King, who had cast a longing eye upon the episcopal palace, "In what chapter of the Bible it was written that the Bishops of Strengness should live in palaces of stone," answered, "In the same chapter that gives the Kings of Sweden the church tithes." By this indiscreet repartee he had well nigh provoked the fate of his predecessor.2

It was now resolved to punish the Smålanders, who had assisted the enemy during the late war. Troops were assembled in Linköping for the purpose, but finally the delinquents were allowed to compound for their proceedings, the richer peasants, who became bound for the rest, being imprisoned in Calmar castle until satisfaction should have been made.3

The civil war thus avoided for a time broke out in

2 Scond. Illust., tom. i. p. 77.

1 Tegel, 1536.

3

Tegel, 1536, 1537.

CHAP. XII.

THE DACKE WAR.

219

1537 under one John Anderson, and again in 1538 under a far more celebrated leader, Nils Dacké, from whom it took the name of the Dacké war.

A complication of causes produced this formidable insurrection. The Smålanders, like most borderers, were high-spirited and warlike, and they were exasperated by the frequent oppression of their nobles, by the changes which Gustavus had made in respect to religion, by the heavy imposts which he continually levied, by his forest laws, and by a regulation which forbade them either to export their oxen or to sell them in the kingdom for more than sixteen Danish marks (as some say) the yoke.' This regulation, which interfered with the staple trade of the province, excited the liveliest discontent.

Dacké, a yeoman, born in Blekinge and therefore a foreigner, but connected with the richest families of that class in Småland, was a man of violent passions, upon which he put little or no restraint. A lawsuit with another yeoman having gone against him, he slew the King's provost, and, when all his possessions were insufficient to pay the fine for which he had been allowed to compound the murder, he contrived to escape from prison and join the insurgents. The war continued from 1537 to 1543, spreading from parish to parish, or rather, says Geijer, "from wood to wood." The insurgents, who knew their strength and their weakness, could not be induced to come 1 Bruzelii Hist. 294. See Appendix, on the value of money and commodities in the time of Gustavus Vasa.

2 Dacké joined the rebels in 1538.-—Tegel.

2

out of their natural fastnesses to be killed secundum artem in a pitched battle, and the soldiers bitterly complained that "they were no sooner pursued than they skulked back again, like wolves, into the forest.” In their plundering sallies they spared the traders and the clergy, who still clung to the old faith; but the great landowners, the rich peasants-who were held as little better than aristocrats in disguise-and the married priests, were pillaged without mercy.'

In 1542 the insurgents, having gathered strength and confidence, marched to Woxtorp, captured the King's lieutenant and Arvid Westgöthe, the celebrated general, stripped them naked, tied them to trees, and shot them dead. From Blekinge they were supplied with ammunition, and continued to burn and pillage, increasing in numbers day by day."

On the 22nd of July Dacké wrote to Swanté Sturé, who was the commandant of Stekeborg, offering to place him on the throne, but received a positive refusal; and a defeat of 300 of Dacke's followers, with some other advantages gained by the King's troops, led to negotiations. The King admitted that the complaints which the insurgents put forth were not altogether groundless. "You rend and tear from the poor peasants," he writes to his lieutenants, "all that they possess, sometimes perhaps for a mere trifle, and the consequence is that, when they are thoroughly impoverished, they have no other resource but to join the brigands in the forest."

1 Geijer, vol. ii. p. 100.

2 Tegel, 1542.