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19G
Consequences of
Sigismund’s flight.
HISTORY OF THE SWEDES.
Disorders in Upper
Sweden. [1599—
have more partisans in Sweden than could fall by
gallows and wheel ; altliosifjh a great number of
tlie troo])ersof Snialand and Westgothland, by their
conduct in the battle of Stangbridge, had deserved
no better*’. To Charles he had already written ;
that no man could wonder at his depai’ture who
knew the circumstances ;
after he had been driven
from Stegeborg to Cahnar bv storm, and he had in-
timated to the duke that he mtended to go to
Stockholm, letters had arrived from Poland that
great troubles were on the point of breaking out
there. In Poland he would also be nearer other
potentates, with whom he could concert to send
their envoys to Sweden at the time of the appointed
diet. The only object of this diet was the process
between the duke and the lords of the council ;
their cause must be investigated indeed by im-
partial men, but to the king himself belonged, after
the law, the last decision ;
the duke should know
that it beseemed not him to inflict aught on the
lords of the council against law and justice, nor to
undertake aught hostile against the king’s castles,
especially Stockholm, Calmar, and Elfsborg, any
more than to persecute the king’s subjects, or for-
bid the promulgation of his letters, and allow in-
sults to his name ;
if any other conduct were held,
it would be impossible that any gilding, how thickly
and strongly soever laid on, could keep it
longer hid’.
John Sparr^ received orders,
"
upon his temporal
and eternal weal," to hold out over the winter in
Cahnar ;
all negociation and capitulation with the
duke was forbidden him ;
if the duke would con-
strain him, even by threatening the taking the life
of his brother Eric Sparr^ and the other lords of
the council, he should reflect on his oath and truth,
his noble rank, and his famous name in ai’ms ;
he
should treat the people fairly (he was named
lieutenant in Smaland also), and represent to
them, that the king designed no inhumanity
against the Swedes ;
he had come as a peace-
ful sovei’eign and as such had departed, to
treat with the Roman emperor and other
powers, things that might further the welfare of
both kingdoms *. In his letters to Arvid Stalarm
and Axel Kurk, his commanders in Finland, Sigis-
mund complains of Charles having given out that
he had run away from his kingdom, and that
Sweden was now without a king ;
in proof thereof
the duke had struck gold coins without the king’s
name ;
on the one side were seen only the words,
" Coins of the kingdom of Sweden," and on the
other the name of Jehovah in a pillar of fire ^.
Sigismund’s late disaster seems to have totally
^ To Count Eric, Jan. 5, 1599. Sigismund’s Reg. Count
Eric Brahe afterwards made his peace with tlie duke.
7 To Charles, Warsaw, Dec. 15, 1598. Reg.
8 Instruction for John Sparre before the king’s leaving
Calmar, Oct. 21, 1598. Reg.
9 To Arvid Ericson and Axel Kurk, Warsaw, Feb. 18,
1599. Register.
’
Anent a partisan in the club-war, Hans Hanson of Mo-
nikala, who had been previously employed by the duke,
afterwards offered his services to Sigismund, and ended by
being suspected by both. Arvid Stalarm had taken him
and acquainted Sigismund with the fact. The king wrote to
Stalarm and Axel Kurk respecting his punisliment, Dantzic,
Nov. 24, 1598: "First, he shall be admonished while the
(jourt is sitting of all his traitorous acts and plots, and then
shall judgment pass upon him. Tlureaflerd) he shall be
tortured upon tlie rack and with brandy (which was burned
deprived him of self-posse’5sion. His letters and
orders sliow exasperation as deep as it was impotent
ag.ainst Charles, whom he styles the dishonoured,
perjui-ed prince. In Finland, which was still in
ins power, he gave orders that sundry sworn offi-
cers should be appointed in all the towns an(l
parishes to watch over suspected persons ;
whoso-
ever was found in communication with the duke or
his faction, should have his property delivered over
to the soldiers to be plundered. Otherwise sparing
of words, he now descends himself to give directions
in a particular case, how the degrees of the rack
are to be applied ’. He caused a violent pamphlet
against Charles to be written and distributed to
foreign courts, for which Eric Sparr^ and others
furnished materials ^, A naval expedition under
John Gyllenstierna was undertaken from Dantzic
against Elfsborg, in which a revolt of the king’s
adherents in Westgothland was also reckoned
upon. The i-ising, however, did not take place,
and the enterprise failed, although countenanced by
the king of Denmark. How far projects or the
suspicion of them extended, may be seen from
Sigismund’s letter to Christian IV., not to believe
the allegation of duke Charles, that the king in-
tended something with the aid of Spain against
Denmark and Norway *.
While the feud between Charles and Sigismund
was decided in Gothland, Upper Sweden did not
escape a civil war. A landing of the Finns was
continually apprehended, and it was in fact a plan
of the royalist party that these, combined with the
troopers of Upland (who had been ah’eady era-
ployed in Finland under Clas Fleming), and sup-
ported from the capital, should reduce to obedience
the provinces conspicuous for their devotion to the
duke. Commissioners of the king and the lords of
the council traversed the country. When the
govei’nor, Jacob Naef, a Scotsman, came to Dale-
carlia on this business, the inhabitants rose and
put him to death. The Dalecarlians renewed their
old league with the Westmanlanders, Gestricers,
and Helsingers, plundered and assassinated with
ingenious cruelty the adherents of Sigismund, and
were already on their descent to the lower country
to join the duke, when tidings of the convention of
Linkoping arrived. Even then they could with
difficulty be restrained, would not credit the reality
of the treaty, and were bent on marching onwards,
as they said, to scour the land of its evil coun-
sellors, who had already attempted, in king John’s
time, to extirpate the family of old king Gustavus
by intestine discord. We may look upon this as an
upon the naked body on such occasions), and what he con-
fesses shall be exactly taken down. The day after let him
be taken to what place shall seem best to you, there to un -
dergo the punishment of a traitor. This is to be executed
so that the seventh or eighth day after the arrival of this
letter sliall be the last of this traitor in the world, if ye lay
any weight on our royal favour and grace. Let this be your
guide. We commend you to God." Sigismund’s Reg. 1598.
The punishment, however, was not inflicted, and it was first
by the command of Charles in 1605, that Hans Hanson of
Monikala suffered death for his double treason.
2 This rare anonymous tract, to write which a professor
Stureius was brought from Rostock to Dantzic, was printed
there in 1598, under the name Ansa Caroli, &c. It is found
in Sigismund’s Registry for 1593—98, let. E.
3 To the king of Denmark, Warsaw, Aug. 12, 1599. Sigis-
mund’s Register.
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