The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus VasaWatson, Paul Barron
History
The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa
Watson, Paul Barron
Gustav I Vasa, King of Sweden, 1496-1560; Sweden -- History -- Gustav I Vasa, 1523-1560
In May, 1515, the young man was consecrated archbishop of Upsala by the
pope,[19] and started in the following summer for the North. Passing
through Lubeck, where he is rumored to have had an audience of
Christiern,[20] he pursued his journey by water, and at last cast anchor
off the Swedish coast about twelve miles from Stockholm. Here he was met
by certain of the Danish party, who urged him to give the cold shoulder
to the regent. Instead, therefore, of proceeding to the capital, he
drove direct to Upsala, and was installed in his new office: all this in
spite of the fact that the old archbishop had assured the regent, before
he wrote to Rome, that he would not hand over Upsala nor Stäket to
Trolle till the latter had sworn allegiance to Sture.[21] The immediate
effect of his investiture was to augment the haughtiness of the young
archbishop. Scarcely had he become domiciled in Upsala, when he wrote a
letter to the regent warning him that he, the archbishop, was about to
visit with punishment all who had wronged his father or grandfather, or
his predecessor in the archiepiscopal chair. To this the regent, wishing
if possible to avert trouble, answered that if any persons had done the
wrong complained of, he would see to it that they should be punished.
But the archbishop was in no mood for compromise. The breach now opened,
he resolved to make it wider; and he had no difficulty in finding
pretext. The fief of Stäket had long been a bone of contention between
the Church and State. Though for many years in the hands of the
archbishops, it had never been clearly settled whether they held it as a
right or merely by courtesy of the crown; and at the resignation of
Archbishop Ulfsson the fief was claimed by his successor, Trolle, as
well as by the regent. In order to put an end to this vexed question,
the regent wrote to Ulfsson asking him to produce the title-deeds on
which his claim was based. After considerable correspondence, in which,
however, the deeds were not produced, Sture, deeming it unwise to leave
the fief any longer without a steward, entered into possession, and
applied the incomes to the royal treasury, at the same time assuring
Ulfsson that if he or the Chapter at Upsala could prove a title to the
fief, they should enjoy it. This only added fuel to the flame. Trolle,
unable as it seems to prove his title, assumed the posture of one who
had been wronged, and scorned the urgent invitation of the regent to
come to Stockholm and discuss the matter. Indeed, there were rumors in
the air to the effect that Trolle was engaged in a conspiracy against
the throne.[22]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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