The king, indeed, soon found himself in grave difficulties. Sweden violated the union of Calmar and declared itself independent of Denmark; and Troll, the archbishop of Upsala, for endeavoring to uphold the Danish suzerainty, was imprisoned by the Swedes. The pope was angry and came to the help of Christian by laying the country under an interdict. At the same time the king defeated the Swedes. It is not our business to enter into the details of this struggle; we must limit ourselves to the narration of the frightful crime by which this prince sealed his triumph. In November, 1520, Christian II., the conqueror of his subjects, was to be crowned at Stockholm. The insurrection in Sweden had greatly irritated him; his pride had been exasperated by it, and the violent excitement of his temper had not been allayed. He was bent on a signal and cruel act of vengeance, but he dissembled his wrath and let no one know his scheme. The prelates, nobles, councillors, and other notables of Sweden, on being invited to the ceremony, perceived that the coronation would be performed with very remarkable solemnity. The creatures of the king said that it was to be terrible. [Sidenote: Murder Of The Swedish Nobles.] Christian had for his adviser and confessor a kinsman of Sigbrit, a fellow who had been a barber; and this man, knowing his master well, was always suggesting to him that if he meant to be really king of Sweden he must get rid of all the Swedish leading men. The prince, leaning on the pope’s bull which had thundered the interdict over the whole kingdom and all its inhabitants, undertook to be the arm of the Roman pontiff, and resolved to indulge without restraint his barbarous passions. He invited to the castle about a hundred nobles, prelates, and councillors, received them with gracious smiles, embraced them, deluded them with vain promises and false hopes, and desired that three days should be dedicated to all kinds of amusement. Brooding all the time on frightful schemes, he chatted, laughed, and jested with his guests; and these were charmed with the amiability of a prince whose malice they had been taught to dread. Suddenly, on November 7, all was changed. The fêtes ceased, the musicians and the buffoons disappeared, and their places were taken by archers. A tribunal was set up. Archbishop Troll, as had been arranged with the king, came forward boldly as accuser of the lords and other Swedes who had driven him from his archiepiscopal see. The king immediately constituted a court of justice, of which he took care that none should be members but enemies of the accused. The judges, who hardly knew what crime they had to punish, got over the business by declaring _heretics_ the sacrilegious men who had dared to imprison a bishop. Now heresy was a capital crime. The next day, November 8, in the morning, the gates of the town and the doors of all the houses were closed. The streets were filled with soldiers and cannon; and, at noon,