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1560.] The king’s speech. GUSTAVUS VASA. THE HEREDITARY SETTLEMENT. His last illness. 143
must be made of every one’s manhood and repute,
according as the law prescribes, seeing that virtue,
intelligence, and courage make nobility8." In
addition, there were summoned to this diet the
ordinaries (as the bishops were now termed), two
clergymen, and two peasants, discreet men, from
every hundred, with four burgesses from each of
the towns.
June 16, Gustavus came to Stockholm, and
informed the estates, by message, that he would
meet them at the palace on the 2oth of the month.
On the appointed day he took his place in the hall
of assemblage, accompanied by all his sons, king
Eric, duke John, duke Magnus, and duke Charles ;
the last, who was still a child, standing at his
father’s knee, the others on his left hand, each
according to his age. The king having saluted the
estates, they listened for the last time to the accents
of that eloquence so well liked by the people, that
when in the diets he deputed one of his officers to
make a proposal, they were wont to cry that they
would have himself to speak. " They well
understood," he said, " and those of them who were fallen
in years had seen it too, beneath what oppression
and wretchedness their native land had groaned,
under foreign domination and alien rulers, last
under that cruel tyrant, king Christian, whom God
had punished, and driven out by his hands—a
divine help and deliverance to be held in
remembrance by all, old and young, high and low, lords
and servants. For what manner of man was I,"
proceeded the king, " to set myself against him,
who was so strong, the sovereign lord of three
kingdoms, befriended by that mighty emperor,
Charles V., and by the chief princes of Germany ?
But it was the doing of God, who had made him to
be a sign of his power, and been his comfort and
help in a government of forty years, the toils of
which had brought him with grey hairs to his
grave. He might compare himself, indeed, with
king David (here the tears burst from his eyes),
whom God had raised from a shepherd to be the
lord and ruler over his people ; for never could he
have supposed that he could attain to this honour,
when he was obliged to hide in forests and desert
mountains from the bloodthirsty sword of his
enemies. Grace and blessings had been richly
dispensed to him and to them through the true
knowledge of God’s word (from which might they never
depart!), and the seasonable abundance that lay
everywhere before their eyes. Yet would he not
shrink from acknowledging his faults. For the
errors and weaknesses which might be imputed to
him during the time of his government—these his
true liegemen might overlook and forgive : he
knew that in the opinion of many he had been a
hard king, yet the time was at hand, when Sweden’s
children would gladly pluck him out of the earth
if they could. He needed not to ask the stars of
his end ; by the signs in his own body he felt that
he had not much more time to look for. There-
fore, while yet in health, he had caused his
testament to be drawn up, and hoping that it x-ested on
good reasons, he requested that they would give it
confirmation." After the deed had been read,
approved, and confirmed by oath, the king stood
up and thanked them that they had willed him to
be father of a dynasty of Swedish kings. He then
committed the government to his son Eric,
exhorted his children to harmony among themselves,
stretched out his hands in benediction, and so took
leave of his people.
The following day Eric made a speech to the
estates in the high church, on the necessity of
concluding in person the negociation of the English
match, from which great advantages were
promised for Sweden. In this representation he was
seconded by John, whom he named in return to be
administrator of the kingdom during his absence.
Gustavus himself was at length obliged to give way
to the importunities of Eric, " after his dear son
John had given him a far better answer 9 ;" and
the young king showed himself so eager for the
journey, that not even his father’s illness restrained
him. Upon the 14th of August, the very day of
Eric’s departure, Gustavus lay on his death-bed,
" ill of a burning fever and ague, with the malady
called diarrhoea," says his confessor master
Johannes, who, with the king’s barber master Jacob,
and the apothecary, master Lucas acted likewise
as his physician. When therefore the first-named
person began a long discourse of devotion, the king
bade him cut it short, and instead of that, bring
him a medicine for a sick stomach and a brain that
felt as it were burning 2. He was heard to exclaim
that he had busied himself too much with the cares
of this world, but with all his wealth he could not
buy himself physicians. Such of his bailiffs as
were incarcerated for debts owed to himself, he
now restored to freedom. His mood was
capricious and changeable ; now harsh and morose, so
that his children trembled in his presence ; now
soft even to tears ; at other times merry and
jesting, especially at the endeavours of those who
wished to prolong his life. When one asked him if
he needed aught, his reply was, " The kingdom of
heaven, which thou canst not give me." He
seemed not to place overmuch confidence even in
his ghostly advisers ; when the priest exhorted him
to confess his sins, the king broke angrily out,
" Shall I tell my sins to thee ?" To the
bystanders he declared that he forgave his enemies,
and begged pardon of all for anything in which he
had dealt unjustly with them, enjoining them to
make known this to all. To his sons he said, " A
man is but a man ; when the play is out, we are all
alike ;" and enjoined them to unity and
stedfast-ness in their religion. The consort of the dying
king never quitted his side. During the first
three weeks of his illness he spoke often, sometimes
with wonderful energy, on temporal and spiritual
8 June 9, 1559.
9 Short Relation of the gracious end of the most high and
mighty Lord and Prince Gustavus Ericson, King of the
Swedes, Goths, and Vandals. Manuscript by the king’s
confessor.
1 This person was not, as Dalin says, the first apothecary
in Stockholm. In the minute-book of the town is the
following entry : " In 1496, a new apoticarius was sent by the
council of state fcr the public behoof, to do good and be
righteous in his office, and to take no other step than what
the doctor shall order, or his prescriptions point out."
2 He gave the king violet-syrup and pomegranates,
endive-water and chicory, " with something purgative ; but the
disease was too obstinate." Yet the king said mostly no to " all
confections, syrups, and draughts, and would by no means
take any," nor "almond-milk, soft-boiled eggs, and
heath-fowl roasted and boiled." A few days before the king’s death
arrived doctor Mathias Paludanus, and somewhat earlier
doctor Wilhelm, both sent by Eric.
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