the queen and the court ladies, all begged for mercy, the king was unmoved, and Torben Ox was executed. The crown of Sweden was the great object of King Christian's ambition; but it took years before he reached this goal. The Swedish regent, Sten Sture the Younger, was very popular and had undisputed power, until he was antagonized by the newly-elected archbishop at Upsala, Gustaf Trolle, who, with many members of the old nobility, became jealous of the power enjoyed by the Sture family and preferred to support King Christian. Sten Sture defeated Gustaf Trolle, who was deprived of his see and compelled to flee from his castle. Afterward Sten Sture was placed in the ban of the church, and the archbishop received aid from Denmark. King Christian made several expeditions to Sweden, and finally his general, Otto Krumpen, defeated Sten Sture's army in a battle on the ice at Bogesund, where Sten Sture was mortally wounded (February, 1520). Sture's widow, the courageous Christina Gyldenstierna, tried to hold the party together, and, for a few months, defended Stockholm; but finally had to surrender the city. The Swedes now acknowledged Christian as hereditary king, and, on the 4th of November, 1520, he was crowned by Gustaf Trolle in the Grand Church in Stockholm. After the coronation great festivities were held for three days. On the fourth day a number of the Swedish nobles were summoned to meet at the palace. While the king was surrounded by his court, the representatives of Gustaf Trolle stepped forward and demanded reparation for the wrongs committed against the archbishop. Christian, who wished to subdue the Swedish nobles, availed himself of the opportunity and followed the bad advice given him. The document by which Gustaf Trolle had been deposed was produced, and all who had signed it were arrested on the spot. The following day, November 8, 1520, the accused were brought before a court consisting of eleven Swedish priests and one Danish bishop. The only question asked was whether men who had raised their hands against the Pope and the Holy Church were heretics. The members of the court answering in the affirmative, the accused were declared to be heretics, and the king fixed the punishment at death. The condemned were at once conveyed to the great market-place, where two bishops, thirteen Counsellors of State and knights, and many other prominent men, in all about fifty, were beheaded. This was the notorious Carnage of Stockholm. After having left the conduct of the fight in Sweden in the hands of his able admiral, Soefren Norby, King Christian now returned to Denmark, where, during the next two years, he introduced several excellent laws for the improvement of commerce, industry and culture. But he also tried to establish himself as an autocratic king. He abolished several of the privileges of the nobility and the bishops, and planned the gradual extinction of the Council of State, by not appointing any successors to members who died.