Pending these deliberations, Christian, who was detained in the port on board the vessel which had brought him, did not understand why he was left there. He grew weary, wondered at these intolerable delays, and began to be somewhat disquieted. All the men who were on board were at liberty to go ashore and to return; he alone was not allowed to leave the ship. The officers of the ship attributed the delay which surprised him to the circumstances of Frederick’s being then at Flensborg, in Schleswig; and this was, indeed, partly the cause. At length it was announced to the ex-king that the interview with his uncle would take place in that town, and that they were going to take him there. A superior officer of the fleet, furnished with secret instructions, took command of the ship and gave orders to set sail. The vessel sailed, escorted by a small squadron; and this, it was said, was a mark of honor. But the real intent was to prevent any attack being made with a view to the rescue of the prince.
After having sailed within sight of the island of Zealand, they passed before those of Moen, Falster, Laaland, Langeland, and Aero. Christian was not free from distress of mind. He had been treated at Copenhagen as a prisoner; and this terrible man, who in a single day had caused the élite of Sweden to be massacred in nearly analogous circumstances, questioned with himself what they meant to do with him. A dark cloud arose in his soul. He strove to cast off the fears which he would fain believe to be puerile. He dared not disclose to any one the distress which agitated him, but remained dumb with shame, spite, and grief. The fleet approached the coast of Schleswig, and he rejoiced that the moment was not far off when he was to have the interview with his uncle. He was standing on the deck in deep silence. Suddenly he perceived that the ship, instead of entering the Gulf of Flensborg, was standing off the cape to the north |His Fate.| towards the island of Alsen. At this moment the veil was rent; the unhappy prince discovered the fate which awaited him. He uttered a cry and burst into tears. He would fain have arrested the pilot; but he knew that any attempt was useless. He broke out into bitter complaints, but his voice was soon stifled by sobs. The fleet continues its course northwards, and entering the strait of Sonderburg, stops before the town of that name. The gates of the old impregnable castle open before the fallen king and then close. The guards set over him conduct him to a gloomy donjon; and they shut up with him a dwarf who, as if in derision, was to be the sole companion of the colossus of the North. No sooner has he entered than the door is walled up behind him. There is no more hope. A single window feebly lighted up the gloom of this place; and it was through bars of iron that he, thenceforth, received his food.[[324]] The monarch who was so long formidable was treated like the vilest of his people. The king who sat on three thrones has nothing now to lean on but damp walls. The prince, nephew of the king, brother-in-law of the emperor Charles the Fifth, of King Ferdinand, and of Queen Mary; this ally of Henry VIII., of the princes of Germany and other powerful houses, has no longer any companion but a wretched dwarf. His food is of the meanest kind, and his jailers treat him with the utmost rigor. What monarch ever displayed greater barbarity than he did in the public place at Stockholm, in October, 1520? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. At the recollection of that massacre all the people shuddered. The name of Christian was the terror of the North. Frederick had been obliged to promise the nobles and the councillors of the crown by a formal instrument never to restore him to liberty. In vain were some hearts affected by this vast calamity; in vain were some voices raised in behalf of the wretched monarch. Public peace requires it, was the reply; and there was nothing more to be said. Punishment, though delayed, had at last overtaken him. This strange champion of Roman Catholicism was ruined, and his disappearance from the stage of the world ensured the triumph of the Reformation in the whole of Scandinavia.[[325]]
No sooner was Christian a captive than his kinsmen and his allies deserted him. The emperor, his brother-in-law, turned his back on him, and even offered an apology to Frederick for having taken any part in the last enterprise of his rival. The regency of the Netherlands informed the victor-king that it was without their knowledge that the late campaign had been undertaken by any of their subjects.
One man in all Europe, however, had compassion on him, one only, so far as is known, and endeavored to alleviate his misfortune. This was Luther. The reformer of course knew well that Christian had said he would crush the Reformation, and had called it in his proclamation a damnable work; but the great doctor had the heart of a Christian. King Frederick received a letter from him in which were these words—‘We know that God, the just Judge, has given your Majesty the victory over your nephew, and we do not doubt that you will use this triumph in a humble and Christian way. Nevertheless, the misfortune of my gracious lord, King Christian, and the fear lest any should stir up your Majesty against him, encourage me humbly to entreat you to have pity on your captive kinsman; to follow the example of Christ who died for us, his enemies, to the end that we also might be full of compassion towards our enemies. You will do so the more readily, Sire, because your nephew, as I am told, was not taken in arms against you, but surrendered himself into your hands like an erring son into the hands of a father. Your Majesty will offer a noble sacrifice and render the highest honor to God, by giving to the poor prisoner a pledge of his grace and of his fatherly faithfulness. And this good work will be for yourself, on your death-bed a great consolation, in heaven a great joy, and at the present time on earth a great honor.’[[326]]
This letter was written by Luther on the 28th September, 1532. Frederick, who was not hard-hearted, could not but be touched by it. But reasons of state were in this case opposed to Christian motives; and there are considerations which may be put forward in excuse for the imprisonment of his nephew. It was not within the power of the king to do what he liked with regard to Christian. The king was in ill health; he felt greatly the need of rest, and he knew that he should never have a tranquil moment so long as his antagonist was at large. But these circumstances were no palliation of the rigorous treatment adopted towards the prisoner. Reasons of state were in this case opposed to Christian reason; and the former generally win the day in this world. Frederick was to be blamed for permitting treatment so severe to be dealt out to his brother’s son. He did not, however, take vengeance on the allies of Christian, the Dutch, although he had at first intended to close the Sound to their ships.
An event had occurred which still further secured the crown to the younger branch of the family. Prince John, the only son of Christian, who had been a pupil of the famous Cornelius Agrippa, and of whom the highest hopes were entertained, died at Ratisbon at the age of fourteen. In him the elder line became extinct.
Death Of Frederick.
Frederick, long threatened with a decline, had taken up his abode for the sake of quietness in the castle of Gottorp, near Schleswig, his favorite seat. At the moment of Christian’s entrance into his prison, the time was not far off when Frederick must quit his throne. In the spring of 1533, on the 10th of April, Thursday in Passion Week, he died, at the age of sixty-two. All good men deplored his death.[[327]] They proclaimed him a ‘wise, merciful, and virtuous prince.’ They recalled to mind the moderation which he had displayed in the religious discussions, and the freedom which he had allowed to conscience; and if the usual kindness of his character had been wanting in the treatment of Christian, they attributed it only to the force of circumstances, to the illness which rendered it impossible for him to direct details, and to the influence of the leading men. He left four sons: Prince Christian, of whom we have spoken; Adolphus, who took the title of duke of Holstein-Gottorp from the castle in which his father died, and who became the founder of a younger line from which sprang the imperial family now reigning in Russia;[[328]] Frederick who became bishop of Schleswig and afterwards of Hildesheim; and John, the youngest. It is of the eldest and the youngest sons of this house that we have now to take notice.
CHAPTER IV.
INTERREGNUM—CIVIL AND FOREIGN WAR.
(1533.)
Prince Christian.