Nor have Scottish and English historians[8] and writers, so deeply interested in the question, been more successful in discovering and making use of authentic contemporary documents. A careful examination of their several descriptions, both of Mönnichhofen's expedition and of that of the Scots, reveals the fact that their information had been derived either from the old Danish and Swedish historians already mentioned, or more recently from the traditions current in Gudbrandsdalen. Those accounts may consequently be dismissed as unworthy of serious attention.
But the Public Record Office in London has at last delivered up its long-hidden treasures, consisting of the correspondence that passed between King James I. of England (VI. of Scotland) and Sir Robert Anstruther, his ambassador or envoy at Copenhagen, on the subject of the Scottish levies for Sweden in 1612.[9] In the General Register House, Edinburgh, have also been preserved[10] the acts and proclamations of the Scottish Privy Council in respect of those proceedings; while the keeper of the State Archives in Stockholm has supplied copies of several documents[11] that have not hitherto been published, amongst which must be mentioned a letter or commission issued by Gustavus Adolphus II.[12] to Sir James Spens of Wormiston, a Scottish officer of high rank, found sometimes in the service of James I., sometimes in that of Sweden.
That commission is of more especial value, since it explains the connection between the expedition of Mönnichhofen and that of the Scots.
The former enterprise—an important part of the famed Skottetog—is not the subject of any Norwegian Sagas, or of any popular ballads, but Scandinavian historians have dealt with it somewhat more correctly than with the Scottish expedition, probably because the Dutch contingent reached Sweden, and thereby supplied living testimony as to the circumstances that attended its march through Stordalen into Jemtland.
Nevertheless, the first documents relating to that daring exploit were not published before 1858, in a Norwegian historical magazine. These were copies of letters from Steen Bilde, amtmand, or prefect; Christian Jensson Jude, burgomaster; and Jacob Pederson, lagmand,[13] all of Trondhjem—addressed to the Danish Chancellor, and dated severally between the 15th August 1612 and the 19th February 1613.
Some years later—namely, in 1877—Dr. Yngvar Nielsen of Christiania published[14] "Some Notices respecting Johan von Mönnichhofen," derived from a series of letters from Swedish agents at Amsterdam which he found in the State Archives at Stockholm.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] For Norwegian traditions and literature, see [Part II].
[2] Two of the most celebrated artists of Norway—Gude and Tiedemann—have jointly produced a very beautiful, but fanciful, picture representing the arrival of "Colonel Sinclair" on the coast of Romsdalen with five or six vessels, and the plundering of the inhabitants by his followers, one of whom, in the garb of a Calvinistic priest, is engaged in abducting a fair Norwegian maiden, while the rest are engaged in looting.