where they proposed to spend the night. To their surprise no preparations
had been made for them, but a knight met them and saluted them in the
king's name, adding that he earnestly requested them not to repose until
they reached Nyköping, as his longing to meet them was so great that he
could not rest until they arrived.
On receiving this warm request they rode on, reaching Nyköping in the
evening. The king advanced from the castle gate to meet them, greeting
them in an affectionate manner, and taking each of them by the hands as
he led them into the castle. They found a rich feast prepared for them,
at which neither mead, wine, nor fair words were wanting. At length Duke
Valdemar grew suspicious and said to his brother that they were drinking
too much wine. But this was soon forgotten and the feast went on, Queen
Martha showing herself very gay and lively and every one being full of
the spirit of enjoyment.
It was late at night before the merrymaking ended and the dukes went to
their rooms. The queen then said to their men, who had also been well
taken care of:
"Lodging has been prepared for you in the town, as there is not room
enough for you in the castle."
As they went out Chancellor Brunke stood at the gate, making sure that
they had all gone, when he shut the castle gates behind them. Then he
armed the servants and led them to the king. Birger, who seemed in some
doubt, bade them to retire and turned to Sir Knut Johanson, asking if he
would assist in making prisoners of the dukes.
"I will not, my lord," said Sir Knut. "Whoever has counselled you to do
this is leading you into a great treachery. What, would you deceive and
murder your brothers who came here trusting in your good faith? The devil
himself must be your tempter. Let who will be angry on this account, I
will never help you in it."
"Small care you have for my honor," said the king angrily.
"Little honor can accrue to you from such an act," answered Sir Knut
sturdily. "If you should carry out this design your honor will be less
here-after."
Two other knights warned the king against so treacherous a deed, but he
was so displeased with their words that he ordered them to prison.
Then he led his armed servants to the sleeping apartment of the dukes and
broke open the door, the noise awakening the sleepers. Valdemar sprang
up, and seeing armed men entering the room, he seized one of them and
threw him down, calling on his brother for help.
"There is no use in resisting, brother," said Erik, seeing the room
filling with armed men.
The king now rushed in and called out savagely:
"Do you remember Hatuna? It will not be better for you here than it was
for me there, for you shall have the same fate, though it has tarried so
long."
Hatuna was the place where the king had previously been taken prisoner by
his brothers, in somewhat the same treacherous manner. But they had not
treated him with the same shameful cruelty with which he now treated
them.
They were taken barefooted deep into the tower and fastened in a dungeon,
with a great chain on their legs, while their servants in the town were
taken prisoners and locked up in one ward to the number of twenty, all
their possessions being divided among their captors. This being done, the
king clapped his hands, saying:
"The Holy Ghost bless my queen! Now I have all Sweden in my hand!"
When he set out soon afterwards on an errand of conquest, he left his
brothers in the charge of a Livonian knight, who had evidently been
bidden to treat them harshly, for he removed them to the lowest dungeon
and placed a beam upon their legs. They were fastened to the wall by
thick iron round the throat and chains weighing one hundred and forty
pounds were riveted on their wrists, the other end being fastened to the
beam. When the chain was fastened upon Erik it was done with such
violence that a piece of iron broke out, cutting him on the eye so that
blood ran down his cheek.
Their dungeon was at the bottom of the tower, where they lay on the bare
rock, a pool of water lying between them. Their food was wretched, their
clothing was wretched, and there was every indication that their wicked
brother did not wish to have them leave that prison alive.
But the cruel and treacherous king did not find it so easy to bring all
Sweden under his rule. The news of his wicked act got abroad and spread
through the land, exciting general horror and detestation. When he rode
up to Stockholm to take possession he found it closed against him and the
burghers made a sally against him, putting his forces to flight. It was
the same way everywhere, the whole country rising against him. The wicked
king now began to learn that the way of the transgressor is hard, and in
his fury of disappointment he locked the door of the dungeon in which his
brothers lay and threw the key into the stream, leaving them to die of
starvation.
But the poor victims were to be thoroughly avenged, for the people were
implacable in their wrath, and in a short time had so environed the king
that the fortresses of Nyköping and Stegeborg were alone left to him, and
both of these were besieged.
Nyköping was soon so severely pressed that the garrison brought up the
dead bodies of the dukes and laid them under a dais outside the castle,
saying to the besiegers:
"Your siege will now answer no purpose, for the dukes are dead and King
Birger is heir to all the kingdom."
"No one can hope to win an inheritance by murder," they replied. "We now
serve as our ruler, Lord Magnus, Duke Erik's son."
The bodies of the murdered dukes were carried to Stockholm, where they
were buried with much ceremony. But the siege of the castle was continued
until the garrison was forced to surrender. On obtaining possession of it
the enraged people razed it to the ground.
Stegeborg, where Prince Magnus, King Birger's son, was in command, held
out much longer. The king and queen, with Brunke, their confederate, were
in Gothland, which province alone they held, and from which they sent a
number of ships to Stegeborg with provisions and troops. These had no
sooner appeared in the river Skares, however, than they were attacked and
taken, leaving Prince Magnus as bad off as ever. When this news was
brought to the king and queen they exclaimed in despair:
"Where shall we turn now, since God has sent us such a misfortune?"
Brunke, the cruel chancellor, volunteered to lead an expedition himself,
saying that he would no more spare the dukes' people than they had spared
the king's. Gathering some vessels, he had them strongly planked all
around, and loading these with provisions and the remainder of the king's
forces, he set out for Stegeborg.
On entering the Skares the people attacked him with stones and other
missiles, but he and his men protected themselves behind the planks.
Seeing this, fire-rafts were sent off from the shore against the ships,
and despite all that could be done to keep them off they drifted upon the
vessels, setting three of them on fire, from which the flames spread to
the others.
Brunke and his men leaped overboard, hoping to escape by swimming, but
they were all taken and Brunke and three of his chiefs sent to Stockholm,
where they were soon afterwards beheaded. Stegeborg was now in a
desperate state and was soon forced to surrender, on the condition that
the life of Prince Magnus should be spared. This condition was not kept,
notwithstanding the fact that he was innocent of his father's crime. The
indignant people were not willing to leave any scion of their wicked king
alive and the poor boy's head was cut off.
Thus the unholy treachery of King Birger met with retribution. Sir Matts
Kettilmundson, the brave knight who had shown such courage in Russia, was
made Administrator of the kingdom and soon defeated a Danish army which
had been sent to King Birger's aid. Then Birger and his wicked queen were
obliged to flee to Sweden, where grief soon brought him to his death-bed.
Queen Martha lived long, but it was a life made bitter by memory of her
crimes and Heaven's retribution.
[Illustration: From stereograph, copyright by Underwood and Underwood,
N.Y. MORNING GREETINGS OF NEIGHBORS, SWEDEN.]
_QUEEN MARGARET AND THE CALMAR UNION._
We have next to tell how the three kingdoms of Scandinavia, between which
rivalry and hostility had often prevailed, became united into one great
Scandinavian realm, under the rule of a woman, the great Queen Margaret.
This was a very important event, as its results continued until our own
day, the subjection of Norway, which was then achieved, not being broken
until the early days of the present century. It is important to describe
the various steps by which this union was brought about.
From 930, when Harold Fair-Haired, the maker of Norway, died, until 1319,
when a king known by the odd title of Haakon Longlegs followed him to the
grave, the throne of Norway had been nearly always filled by some one of
Harold's many descendants. But with the death of Haakon the male line of
King Harold's descendants was finally broken, and only a woman remained
to represent that great royal stock, Princess Ingeborg, the daughter of
King Haakon. This fair maiden was promised in marriage while still a
child to Duke Erik, son of the late king of Sweden. They were married in
1312, and on the same day Duke Valdemar, Erik's brother, married another
princess of Norway, also named Ingeborg. About four years later a son was
born to each of these happy couples, and King Haakon was full of joy,
for he now felt that the old royal line was restored.
One person was not pleased by the birth of these princes. This was King
Birger of Sweden, who had long been at sword's point with his ambitious
brothers and wanted the throne of Norway as well as that of Sweden to
descend to his own son Magnus. He pretended to be pleased, however, for
he had in mind a treacherous plot to destroy his brothers and their
children and thus leave the way clear for his ambitious schemes. The
steps he took to bring this about and their fatal end to his brothers and
his son we have told in the previous tale. After the indignant people had
driven King Birger from the throne the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway were
left in a strange plight. Magnus, the son of Duke Erik and Ingeborg, was
only three years old when his grandfather, the king of Norway, died. This
left him the successor to the Norse realm. But the deposition of King
Birger and the execution of his son left this royal infant the king of
Sweden also, so that these two kingdoms became for the first time united,
and this under the rule of a three-year-old child, with regents to govern
in his name. But the two countries remained separate in everything except
that they had now but one king.
When King Magnus became old enough to act as monarch in reality, he took
the government of both countries into his hands. But he proved unfit to
govern either of them, being a weak and good-natured man, so anxious to
please everybody that he pleased nobody. Born and brought up in Sweden,
he knew little and cared less about affairs in Norway and the people of
that country grew much incensed at his neglect of their interests. They
made him promise, at a public meeting, to divide the two kingdoms between
his two sons; Erik, the elder, to succeed him in Sweden, and Haakon, the
younger, to be given the crown of Norway when he came of age. Events
happened, as will be seen, to prevent this taking place and to combine
all Scandinavia under one great queen.
This is how it came about. King Magnus made a visit to Denmark, where it
was arranged to marry Prince Haakon to Margaret, daughter and heir of the
Danish king, Valdemar. This marriage took place in due time, and not very
long afterwards both King Magnus and Prince Haakon died and Prince Erik
was poisoned by his mother, who was a wicked woman and was angry because
he opposed her in one of her base schemes.
Thus as the death of King Birger had left the crowns of Sweden and Norway
to a boy of three, the deaths here named left these crowns and that of
Denmark also to another child, the son of Haakon and Margaret. This
little fellow, Olaf by name, too young to appreciate how great he had
become, did not live to enjoy his greatness. He died at the age of
seventeen, leaving his royal rights to his mother Margaret.
It is interesting to learn that the turbulent kingdoms named, the land of
the sea-kings and the warlike barbarians of the north, each of which had
needed the hand of a strong man to control them, all now fell under the
sceptre of a woman, who at first reigned over Denmark and Norway and soon
added Sweden to her dominion.
But Queen Margaret was no weakling. She was a woman born to command,
strong in mind and body, and more like a man than a woman. In Sweden, to
which she quickly turned her attention, she had a bitter enemy in Duke
Albrecht of Mecklenburg, who had been declared king of that country after
the death of King Magnus, and who also claimed the crown of Norway, being
remotely related to its royal house.
He bitterly hated Margaret, whom he called "Queen Breechless," and by
other satirical and insulting names. Finally he took the bold step to
call himself king of Denmark and Norway, a baseless claim which he
proposed to enforce. He made a vow never to use a hat until he had driven
out Margaret, and sent her a whetstone several yards long, advising her
to use it to sharpen her scissors and needles instead of using a sceptre.
He was much too hasty, as he had only a weak hold upon Sweden even, whose
nobles did not like his habit of bringing in Germans to fill the posts of
honor and were anxious to get rid of him.
Therefore it came about that he found himself confronted by an army of
Danes, Norsemen, and Swedes, and a battle followed in which Albrecht
riding with his heavy cavalry upon a frozen marsh, broke through the ice
and was taken prisoner. He was now in the power of Queen Margaret, who
had at length the opportunity to repay him for his insults. To replace
the crowns of Norway and Denmark, which he had sought to wear, she put
upon his head a fool's cap, with a tail twenty-eight feet long, and
repaid him for his insults and jests in other ways. After she had done
her best to make him an object of laughter and ridicule she locked him up
in a strong prison cell, where he was given six years to reflect on his
folly.
It took these six years for Margaret's army to subdue the city of
Stockholm, which held out stoutly for Albrecht. She won it at last by
setting him free with the proviso that he should pay a ransom of sixty
thousand marks. In ease he could not provide it within three years he was
to return to prison or surrender Stockholm. He did the latter and
Margaret became mistress of Sweden.
This able woman had now won a proud position, reached by none of the
kings before her. She was ruler of the whole of Scandinavia, with its
three ancient kingdoms. The triple crown was hers for the lifting, but
she was not ambitious to wear it, and preferred to put it on the head of
her grand-nephew, Erik of Pomerania, though she retained the power in her
hands until her death in 1412. Representatives of the three kingdoms were
summoned by her to a meeting at Calmar, where, in July, 1397, a compact
uniting the three kingdoms under one ruler was drawn up and signed.
This was the famous Calmar Union, which held Norway captive for more than
four hundred years. From that time until the present century Norway had
no separate history, though her people vigorously resisted any measures
of oppression. In 1536 this ancient kingdom was declared to be a province
of Denmark, being treated like a conquered land; yet there was not a man
to protest against the humiliation. The loss of national standing had
come on so gradually that the people, widely scattered over their
mountain land and absorbed in their occupations, scarcely noticed it,
though they were quick enough to resent any encroachment upon their
personal liberty and rights. There were outbreaks, indeed, from time to
time, but these were soon put down and the Danish rule held good.
This was not the case with Sweden, a more thickly settled and civilized
land. The struggle of the Swedes for freedom continued for some
seventy-five years and was finally accomplished in 1523. How this was
done will be told in other tales. As for Norway, it was ceded by Denmark
to Sweden in 1814, and the people of that mountain land regained their
national rights, with a free constitution, though ruled by the Swedish
king. This union held good until 1905, when it was peacefully broken and
Norway gained a king of its own again, after being kingless for more than
five hundred years.
_HOW SIR TORD FOUGHT FOR CHARLES OF SWEDEN._
In the year 1450 and the succeeding period there was great disorder in
the Scandinavian kingdoms. The Calmar Union was no longer satisfactory to
the people of Sweden, who were bitterly opposed to being ruled by a
Danish king. There were wars and intrigues and plots and plans, with
plenty of murder and outrage, as there is sure to be in such troublous
times. There was king after king, none of them pleasing to the people.
King Erik behaved so badly that neither Sweden nor Denmark would have
anything to do with him, and he became a pirate, living by plunder. Then
Duke Christopher of Bavaria was elected king of Scandinavia, but he also
acted in a way that made every one glad when he died. In those days there
was a great nobleman in Sweden, named Karl Knutsson, who had a hand in
everything that was going on. One thing especially made him very popular
at that time, when a new king was to be elected. The spring had been very
dry and there was danger of a complete failure of the crops, but on the
day when Karl landed in Stockholm, May 23, 1450, there came plentiful
rains and the people rejoiced, fancying that in some way he had brought
about the change of weather. So, when the lords assembled to elect a new
king, Karl received sixty-two out of seventy votes, while the people
shouted that they would have no other king. He was then crowned king as
Charles VIII. There had been only one Charles before him, but somehow the
mistake was made of calling him Charles VIII., and in later years came
Charles IX., X., etc., the mistake never being rectified.
All this is in introduction to a tale we have to tell, that of a bold
champion of King Charles. For the new king had many troubles to contend
with. The king of Denmark in especial gave him much trouble, and the
southern province of West Gothland was in danger of seceding from his
rule. In this dilemma he chose his cousin, Sir Tord Bonde, a young but
daring and experienced warrior, as the captain of his forces in that
province. He could not have made a better choice, and the stirring career
of Sir Tord was so full of strange and exciting events that we must
devote this tale to his exploits.
Lödöse, a stronghold of Gothland, was still held by the Danes, and Sir
Tord's first adventure had to do with this place. On a dark, rainy, and
stormy night he led a party of shivering horsemen towards the town,
galloping onward at headlong speed over the muddy road and reaching the
place before day-dawn. Utterly unexpectant of such a coming, the Danes
were taken by surprise and all made prisoners, Sir Tord's men feeding
luxuriously on the enemy's meat and wine as some recompense for their wet
night's journey.
Master of the place without a blow, Sir Tord found there a bag of
letters, containing some that had to do with plots against the king.
These letters he sent to King Charles, but they put him upon a new
adventure of his own. One of the traitors was Ture Bjelke, master of
Axewalla Castle, and Sir Tord, fancying that the traitor would be as
welcome a present to the king as his letters, set out for the castle with
thirty men.
On arriving there Ture, not dreaming that his treason had been
discovered, admitted his visitor without hesitation. The troopers were
also permitted to enter, Sir Tord having told them to come in groups of
five or six only, so as not to excite suspicion by their numbers.
That night, while they sat at table, and just as the cabbage was being
carried in, Sir Tord sprang up and seized Ture firmly by the collar,
calling out that he arrested him as a traitor to the king. The knight's
men sprang up to defend him, but Sir Tord's men attacked them with sword
and fist, the matter ending in the men as well as their master being
taken prisoners, and the castle falling into Sir Tord's hands.
On receiving the letters, Charles laid them before the senate at
Stockholm, but the traitors were men of such power and note, and there
was so much envy and jealousy of Charles among the lords, that he dared
not attempt to punish the plotters as they deserved, but was obliged to
pardon them. As for Ture and his men, they managed to escape from the
place where they had been left for safe keeping, and made their way to
Denmark.
[Illustration: From stereograph, copyright by Underwood and Underwood,
N.Y. GRIPSHOLM CASTLE, MARI.]
Meanwhile Sir Tord Bonde was kept busy, for King Christian of Denmark
several times invaded the land. On each occasion he was met by the
valiant defender of West Gothland and driven out with loss. On his final
retreat he built a fortress in Smaland, which he called Danaborg, or
Danes' castle, leaving in it a Danish garrison; but it was quickly
attacked by Sir Tord with his men-at-arms and a force of armed peasantry
and the castle taken by storm, the Danes suffering so severe a defeat
that the place was afterwards known as Danasorg, or Danes' sorrow.
Sir Tord, to complete his chain of defences, had built several fortresses
in Norway, then claimed by King Christian as part of his dominions. He
had with him in this work about four hundred men, so small a force that
Kolbjörn Gast, one of Christian's generals, proceeded against him with an
army three thousand strong, proposing to drive the daring invader out of
the kingdom.
Weak as he felt himself, Sir Tord determined to try conclusions with the
Danes and Norsemen, proposing to use strategy to atone for his weakness.
One hundred of his men were placed in ambush in a clump of woodland, and
with the remaining three hundred the Swedish leader marched boldly on the
enemy, who were entrenched behind a line of wagons. Finding that he could
not break through their defences, Sir Tord and his men turned in a
pretended flight and were hotly pursued by the enemy, who abandoned their
lines to follow the flying Swedes. Suddenly Sir Tord turned and led his
men in a fierce attack upon the disordered pursuers, falling upon them
with such bold fury that he had two horses killed under him. At the same
time the hundred men broke from their ambush, sounding their war-horns
loudly, and fell on the flank of the foe, though they were so badly armed
that they had no iron points on their lances.
Confused and frightened by the double attack and the blare of the
trumpets, the Norsemen broke and fled, crying out that "all the might of
Sweden was in arms against them"; but they were pursued so closely that
the leader and all his men were taken by the brave four hundred.
Thus the bold and skilful Sir Tord defended the king's cause in those
quarters, winning victories by stratagem where force was lacking and
keeping off the attacks of the Danes by his watchfulness, bravery, and
sound judgment; until men came to say, that his brave cousin was the
king's chief support and that his secret enemies dared not undertake
anything against him while he had so skilful and courageous a defender.
There are two ways of disposing of a troublesome foe, one by fair and
open warfare, one by treachery. As Sir Tord could not be got rid of in
the former manner, his enemies tried the latter. Jösse Bosson, one of his
officers, though born a Dane, had proved so faithful and won his
confidence to such an extent that the valiant Swede trusted him
completely, and made him governor of the fortress of Karlborg. He did
not dream that he was nourishing a traitor and one capable of the basest
deeds.
During the warfare in Norway Sir Tord reached Karlborg one afternoon,
proposing to spend the night there. He was received with much show of joy
by Jösse, who begged him to take the repose he needed, promising to keep
strict watch in the fortress during his stay there. Without a thought of
danger Sir Tord went to the chamber provided for him. Jösse said the same
to the followers of his guest, and as they were weary they were glad to
go to their beds.