The memory of Engelbrekt is one of the most honored and most beloved in Swedish history. He waged the first battle against the oppression which foreign intrigues had brought upon his country, and saved from the peril of slavery the ancient freedom and independence of the Swedish people.
Through a remarkable coincidence, a cousin of Engelbrekt’s murderer, Nils Bosson, a young follower of the popular hero, who took his mother’s family name of Sture, was to become the father and grandfather of two of the most revered of Engelbrekt’s successors; Nils Bosson himself being as sympathetic and upright a type of nobleman as any time or country has produced.
Charles Knutsson, after Engelbrekt’s death, was the most influential man in Sweden. But he was a very different man. Belonging to the highest aristocracy, he was himself of great wealth, highly talented, well read, and a great traveller. He was exceedingly handsome, dignified, amiable, eloquent, and possessed a voice of unusual charm and strength. But he was a prey to ambition, determined to make his way to the throne, but little careful in the selection of his means toward that end. He aroused the suspicion and hatred of Eric Puke, whom he irritated to revolt only to get him in his power. This noble but headstrong man was executed for treason, while Drotsete Krister Nilsson, who signed the death-warrant in the interest of Charles, himself was persecuted by the latter and deprived of all his fiefs save one. Charles showed great severity in punishing the peasants, who were Puke’s supporters, four of them being burned alive; thus losing the popular sympathy, while becoming an object of envy in the eyes of the nobles. These recalled King Eric, who was again found impossible and soon dethroned also in Denmark.
Christopher of Bavaria, a nephew of Eric, was elected to succeed him (in 1440) by the nobles of Denmark and Sweden. He was a good-natured man, who allowed the aristocrats of Sweden to rule as they pleased, only keeping an eye on Charles Knutsson. Christopher died in 1448. During his reign a new state law was issued in 1442, called “King Christopher’s land’s law,” although the king probably had very little to do with its form or stipulations. It offered a few improvements, but in general so closely resembled the older state law that the one was often mistaken for the other and both remained valid until 1736.
Charles Knutsson (Charles VIII.) returned from Finland, which duchy had been held under his supremacy, four months after Christopher’s death, and was by an overwhelming majority elected king of Sweden. Shortly after his coronation at Upsala he was elected king of Norway and crowned at Drontheim, in 1449. His reign opened with a lucky expedition to the island of Gothland. But in the following year King Charles lost both Gothland and Norway to Christian of Denmark, with whom the Unionist party of Sweden entered into secret plots against the king. Invasions and intrigues followed. Christian invaded Smaland, East Gothland and Vermland, to which Charles responded by an invasion of Scania, destroying the old town of Lund with nineteen of its twenty churches, the cathedral alone being spared. Christian took revenge by an invasion of West Gothland, capturing Lœdœse. Another Danish army marched through East Gothland, but met defeat at Holaveden through an onslaught made by Swedish peasants. The valiant Tord Bonde, a cousin of King Charles, took the Danes by surprise, recapturing Lœdœse. An armistice of two years was agreed on, in May, 1453.
In the battle against open and secret enemies things turned out badly for King Charles. The best supporter of his cause, his cousin Tord, was murdered by a Danish traitor in his service, in 1456, and a new and dangerous enemy was encountered in the Church. The king had confiscated to the crown a number of estates which the Church had gained in an illegal way. While preparing for an expedition to Œland, and having instructed the archbishop to gather troops for him, Charles learned that this man, Jœns Bengtsson Oxenstierna, had turned against him. The archbishop deposited his ecclesiastical robe at the high altar of the Upsala cathedral and started, sword in hand, with his forces to meet the king. Charles tried to surprise him, but was himself caught in a trap and met his enemy on the ice of Lake Mælar. The encounter proved a defeat to Charles, who in haste stored his treasures in a convent in Stockholm and sailed for Dantzic.
Christian of Denmark was called in by the archbishop and chosen king of Sweden. Christian was a sagacious ruler, but his great need of money, incurred by the redeeming of Schleswig and Holstein, made him unpopular. As the easy-going Christopher had been surnamed “Bark-king,” on account of dearth experienced in Sweden during his reign, when the people had to mix bark with their flour, thus Christian, on account of his avidity, was called “The Bottomless Purse.” During Christian’s war with Russia, the archbishop was commissioned to collect the increased taxes, but failing to do so, to the full extent demanded, he was imprisoned at the command of the king. This caused indignation.
Kettil Karlsson Vasa, a nephew of the archbishop, and the bishop of Linkœping, revolted and defeated the king and his army at Haraker’s church, in Westmanland, in 1464. The victors then marched on Stockholm. The popular opinion of the country demanded the reinstallation of King Charles. The peasants wanted him “because Sweden was of old a kingdom, not a regent’s land or a diocese.” King Charles returned in the same year, but soon left the throne again on account of a conflict with Bishop Kettil. This latter turned to Christian, promising a safe return to the crown if he set free the archbishop. Christian immediately did so, the worthy bishops commencing operations against Charles, who, defeated and forsaken by all, abdicated his throne, January 30, 1465. The once upon a time richest man of Sweden was now deprived of all, Christian having taken his hidden treasures. He retired to Raseborg, a castle in Finland, which after some hesitation was granted him. “We have,” wrote he, “in such manner departed from Sweden, that never longeth us to return thither the third time.” He also complained of his misery in the following strophe of assonance verse:
While I was lord of Fogelwick
Then I was both mighty and rich,
But since made the king of Svea land
I am a poor and unhappy man.
Great confusion reigned in Sweden during the next two years. Bishop Kettil, who styled himself regent, tried to conduct the government in common with the archbishop, but the great nobles did their own pleasure. At last one of them, Ivar Axelson Tott, who had the island of Gothland in fief, joined the party of Charles, marrying his daughter. His brother, Eric Axelson, was made regent. Nils Bosson Sture had been repeatedly asked to accept this dignity, as also the crown, but he refused. He and Sten Sture, of the original Sture family, who led the army under Bishop Kettil at Haraker, now made possible the second reinstallation of Charles, in 1467, the ambitious archbishop dying in the same year. But Charles was old and weary of the vanities of life, for which he had made so many sacrifices. It was only the valor and strength of the two Stures that made it possible for him to keep the crown and to die in the purple, in 1470. He designated Sten Sture as his successor at the rudder of state, but warned him not to seek the crown. “That ambition,” he said, “has crushed my happiness and cost my life.”