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Rising of Engelbert.
foreign governors, whose character may be judged
from the fact that, among the commanders of the
Swedish castles, were found four of the most
notorious pirates of that day. In this trade, one of
Eric’s own chaplainseven when archbishop
of Upsala, was shameless enough to participate. A
Danish nobleman, Josse Ericson, born in Jutland,
and for many years royal governor of
Westman-land and Dalecarlia, is charged with having
tortured the peasants by hanging them up in smoke,
and with having yoked pregnant women to hay
waggons. An old Swedish ballad relates similar
cruelties of the tyrannical feudatory of Faxaholm
in Helsingland.
Not far from the Kopparberg, in Dalecarlia,
there dwelt at this time a miner, by name
Engel-bert Engelbertson 2, a man of great spirit though
of slight frame, having such skill in war as might
be learned by one who had passed his youth in the
households of great barons, eloquent and brave.
This person undertook to lay before long Eric the
grievances of the Dalecarlians, and repaired to
Denmark, where he preferred a demand for justice
against the tyranny of the governor, engaging to
deliver himself up for imprisonment, and to stake
his life against that of the accused, in case the
latter should be found innocent. A royal mandate
was sent to the Swedish council, agreeably to
which an investigation was instituted, proving the
charges to be well-founded ; but as the council
confined themselves to admonitions, and the
governor would not consent to relinquish his office,
Engelbert lost no time in again repairing to the
king, before whom he urged the punishment of
the offender with such boldness, that Eric in
wrath commanded him to be gone, and never again
to appear in his presence. Engelbert replied,
" Yet once more will I return." The men of his
province chose him for their leader, and he marched
with them against Westeras, which was held by
Josse Ericson. The council indeed interposed its
mediation, and twice induced the Dalecarlians to
return home. But the governor continuing with
impunity to enforce the payment of his
contributions, and his place, when at length he was removed,
being filled up by a foreigner, who was regarded
with dread, all the Dalesmen rose upon
Midsummer’s Day of 1434, it is said, " like one man, and
swore to drive the strangers out of the land." The
castle of Borganas, lying upon an island in the
Dal-elf, was stormed and burned to the ground. The
Dalecarlians next invaded Westmanland, the
peasants of which province joined the insurgent force.
Westeras speedily surrendered, and thither
Engei.-bert summoned the surrounding nobility, calling
upon them to give their aid, and warning them that
if they refused, they must look themselves to the
security of their lives and properties. They
promised fidelity to him and to the popular cause.
His meeting with the
council.
At Upsala, the Uplanders came to join his
banner. Here, in an immense assembly of the people,
he explained the occasion and the object of his
enterprise, the people answering with blessings.
Speaking so loudly that his voice was heard
throughout the whole multitude, he asked them
whether they would assist him in his endeavours to
liberate the realm from the slavery in which it was
held. Every man declared himself willing to follow
his banner. With the assent of the nobles who
were present, Engelbert now remitted a third part
of the imposts. His letters and messengers
traversed every district of the country. The
Norrlanders and East Bothnians took up arms
under Eric Puke’; the Sudermanians stormed
Gripsholm, whose detested governor took to flight,
and himself set the castle on fire. For the town of
Stockholm, a truce was concluded with the knight
Hans Cropelin, the only one of the foreign
commanders who was esteemed for his justness and
mildness towards the people. A convention was
entered into with the governors of Nykoping and
Orebro, by which these towns were to be
surrendered if not relieved within six weeks. In
Vermeland and Dalecarlia, the castles of the
governors were razed to the ground by the peasants. At
Vadstena, Engelbert, on his way to the southern
division of the lungdom, met the Swedish council
which was returning from Denmark. He exhorted
them to join him in restoring the ancient rights
and liberties of the kingdom ; since the times of
the last king Magnus 3, he told them Sweden had
been ruled by tyrants, not kings. The council
appealed to the oath they had taken to the sovereign,
but he, Engelbert replied, had broken his oath.
" They said him nay, nor stirred a jot,
But swift he caught them by the throat,"
and threatened the bishops who acted as their
spokesmen, that he would cast them out among the
people 4. The council now showed themselves
inclined to be pliable. An absolute renunciation of
fealty and allegiance to king Eric was subscribed
upon the spot, and immediately despatched by
Engelbert to Denmark. He now divided his
forces into three companies, and marched
southwards, but not before he had exhorted the
Uplanders in a public letter, to pay time service and
obedience to the council of the kingdom at
Stockholm, for the capital had in the mean time passed
over to his party. The style he adopted in this
communication was, " I Engelbert Engelbertson,
with all my coadjutors." Throughout all the
provinces, the people took up arms and streamed in
troops to his standard. If we may trust an
account of later times, his army at last amounted to a
hundred thousand men 5. More than twenty
strongholds and fortresses in all quarters of the kingdom
ERIC OF POMERANI A.
1 Arendt Clemens. " A worse knave was no priest of that
day," says the Rhyme Chronicle. A former archbishop, John
Jerechini, a foreigner like the other, and like him thrust
upon the chapter, was deposed for his many notorious vices,
and thereafter appointed to the bishopric of Skalholt in
Iceland. Here, after new enormities, the peasants tied a large
stone about his neck, and drowned him in the Bruar stream.
2 Ingenuus seu libertus, Eric Olaveson styles him, which
in that writer’s phraseology means a fraelseman or franklin.
(I use the English form instead of the Swedish Engelbrekt.
Bergsmun may be rendered either miner or mountaineer,
and there are authorities for both designations. See
Lager-bring, iv. 71; Tuneld, Engelbrekt Engelbrektson’s Historia,
p. 76. T.)
3 Magni regis ultimi. Eric Olaveson. The manuscripts
used for the edition of the Chronicle of Olave Peterson in the
Script. Rer. Suec. have Magnus Smek (not Magnus Ladulasl.
4 The Rhyme Chronicle, which adds, "then he first
grasped Bishop Canute (of Linkoping), and was about to
drag him out to the people ; Bishop Sigge of Skara he made
as if he would treat likewise ; Bishop Thomas of Strengnas
was in trouble too," &c. Script. Rer. Suec. i. 32, p. 70. T.
5 Joannes Magnus.
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