The priest of Sværdsjœ held Gustavus in concealment for three days, but advised him to seek a more secure hiding place. He sent Gustavus to Swan Elfsson, a hunter to the king, who dwelt in Isala, a short distance from the church of Sværdsjœ. Gustavus had hardly reached this place before the men sent after him by the bailiff arrived. Gustavus stood by the oven warming himself after the ride. The wife of Swan Elfsson was busy baking bread. The men entered, asking if any stranger had been noticed in the neighborhood. The woman of the house saved the situation by resolutely dealing a blow with the bread spade to Gustavus, who was turning his back to her. In an irritated voice she said: “Why dost thou stand here gaping at the strangers? Hast thou never seen people before? Get thee at once out to the barn and do some threshing.” The men did not suspect in the snubbed servant the noble fugitive for whom they were looking. But Swan Elfsson was not sure of the safety of his guest if he remained in Isala. So he concealed Gustavus in a load of hay and left his house with the great unsettled districts as his destination. He met some Danish spies on the way. These suspected the peasant and pierced the load of hay with their lances repeatedly. Gustavus was wounded in the leg, but kept his breath and lay perfectly still. The spies were satisfied that everything was right and told Swan Elfsson to move on. But the peasant noticed that blood was dripping from his load, leaving scarlet tracks on the snow. He quickly drew his knife and cut his horse a deep wound in one foot. After a while the spies noticed the bloody tracks. They returned and commanded Swan Elfsson to halt, inquiring about the blood. Swan Elfsson pointed to the injured foot of his horse and succeeded in making them believe that the horse had met with an accident.
Swan Elfsson left Gustavus at the village of Marnæs, situated in the Finn woods, where he was received by other hunters. These escorted the noble outlaw to a place further away in the woods, where he for three days remained in concealment under a big fallen fir tree. The peasants in the neighborhood brought food to him. The still hunt seemed to be at an end, and so Gustavus risked a visit to the church of Rettvik, situated on the eastern shore of Lake Siljan. He spoke to the yeomanry collected around the church after divine service, reminding them of the stanch patriotism and manliness of their ancestors, and imploring them to save their country from destruction. The yeomen of Rettvik gave a satisfactory answer, telling him that they were ready to resist the Danes. But as they had not heard the opinion of the people of the other parishes, there was nothing to be done for the moment.
Gustavus continued his way to Mora, one of the most densely populated parishes of Dalecarlia and situated on the northern shore of Lake Siljan. The priest of the parish was afraid to hide the outlaw, but confided him to a peasant, Tomte Mats, in the village of Utmeland. Gustavus remained for several days concealed in a vaulted cellar, which was reached only through a hole in the floor of the cottage above. One day the bailiff’s men entered to search for Gustavus. The woman of the house was busy brewing the Christmas ale. She saved Gustavus by quickly placing a big barrel over the hinged door, which covered the opening to the cellar. One of the holidays during Christmas Gustavus addressed the peasants of Mora when coming from church. He stood on a small hill near the churchyard. The noonday sun was shining brightly over the snowy landscape and a fresh northerly wind was blowing. Gustavus spoke in a loud voice and with great eloquence. He asked the men to reflect on what kind of government foreigners always had given Sweden, and to remember what they had themselves suffered and risked for the liberty of their country. He thought that the memory had not died either of the deeds of violence perpetrated by Jœsse Ericsson or of the deeds of heroism done by Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson. He then told them of the treacherous villany of King Christian and of the Carnage of Stockholm. “My own father,” he said, with tears in his eyes, “rather wished to die with his brethren, the honest lords, in the name of God, than to be spared and live in dishonor after them.” If the Dalecarlians wanted to save Sweden from thraldom, he was ready to offer himself as their leader in the name of the Almighty. The speech of Gustavus made a deep impression upon the men of Mora, and some of them were anxious to rise at once. The majority ruled, deciding that no action should be taken before the other parishes of Dalecarlia had been heard from. They advised Gustavus to seek a safer hiding-place further up in the woods. Gustavus left Mora utterly discouraged, seeking the paths that led along the Dal River into desert wilds.
At New Year of 1521 Lars Olsson, a soldier who had done good service in the times of the Stures, arrived at Mora, bringing particulars of the doings of King Christian. He told the peasants that the king had ordered gallows to be erected at every sheriff’s residence to mark the way of his Eriksgata. The peasants were touched to the quick and regretted having sent away the young nobleman. Lars Olsson advised them to call him back. Two expert ski runners were sent after Gustavus Ericsson, and after a ride of a night and a day through the woods, they overtook him close by the Norwegian frontier, which he was ready to cross in despair.
Gustavus returned to Mora and was made the leader of the peasants in that locality. With these men he started his work of liberation, which was the commencement of one of the most remarkable of revolutions that the world ever saw. In the beginning of February, 1521, Gustavus marched southward with a few hundred men. At Falun he captured the bailiff of the mines, confiscating the royal taxes. Returning to the starting point, he left it again, with an army of 1,500 men. Entering Norrland, where he was joined by the peasants of Gestrikland, and the burghers of Gefle, while the people of Helsingland asked for time to consider the matter, he learned upon his return how one of his commanders, Peder Swensson, had won a glorious victory over a Danish army 6,000 strong at the ferry of Brunnbæck, by the Dal River. Gustavus began training his troops, enforcing severe discipline and providing them with better arrows and longer lances. He declared war upon Christian in a formal way and marched on Westeros, where the Danish troops had centred. The town and castle were captured in spite of a force of superior Danish cavalry.
Gustavus shifted his army into divisions which marched in various directions to capture the castles of surrounding provinces. The people of Upland reinforced the Dalecarlians, who were sent home to tend to their sowing. The Upland forces captured the archbishop’s seat during his absence, and were joined by Gustavus at Upsala, who made an exceedingly severe speech to the ecclesiastics, asking them to decide their nationality, whether they were Swedes or not. They asked permission to consult Archbishop Trolle, which was granted. “I will bring the reply myself,” said Trolle, starting from Stockholm with a splendid body of German troops. Gustavus was near being taken by surprise, but gathering troops he fought the archbishop, whose force met with a crushing defeat, and he escaped with difficulty to Stockholm.
At midsummer, 1521, Gustavus arrived at Brunkeberg, laying siege to Stockholm. The capital was strongly fortified, and Norrby with a Danish fleet supported and relieved it. Twice the Danes routed the Swedish troops with the intermission of one year, but Gustavus provided reinforcements. He travelled through the country, visiting the forces who laid siege to the various Danish strongholds, these surrendering one by one. It was not a chain of glorious exploits, this work which Gustavus carried to a successful end, but one of infinite patience and sagacity, saddened by the news that the revengeful Christian had ended the lives of his captive mother and sister in the miserable Danish dungeon. Bishop Brask was scared into submission, turning his castle Stegeborg and part of his troops over to Gustavus, who at a Riksdag at Vadstena was elected regent in August, 1521.
Gustavus entered into an alliance with Lubeck, and it sent a fleet to Stockholm, thus encircling it also from the sea. Norrby left with his ships and was nearly caught in the ice in the following spring. In Denmark, Christian’s reign came to an end. With his usual violence he attacked the nobles and the ecclesiastics in order to better the conditions of the peasants, for whom he had a tender sympathy. In so doing, he brought the nobles to open revolt against his rule. He left his throne in April, 1523. Now Gustavus found the opportune moment to accept the Swedish crown offered him. He called a Riksdag at Strengnæs, in June, 1523, where Gustavus was chosen king of Sweden “by the councillors of state with the consent of the common people.” At this occasion a tax was agreed on to pay the German troops engaged in the siege of Stockholm, and to Lubeck for its timely support. In that very month Stockholm surrendered, and Gustavus held his proud entry into the capital on the eve of Midsummer day.
The position of the king was a most difficult one. The crown was ruined through the previous state of anarchy and the expense of war. The Church was in undisturbed possession of its wealth, but not willing to yield any of its power or income. Christian was preparing a plan by which to recapture his lost crowns. Norrby, who had aspirations of becoming Christian’s regent in Sweden, tried to persuade Christine Gyllenstierna, lately set free from her prison, to marry him in order to obtain the prestige of the Stures. The common people, whom Gustavus so recently used to free the country, grew restive and rebellious when he could not at once grant them guarantees of comfort and prosperity in return. In a marvellous manner Gustavus understood how to face the situation and how to use to the utmost the resources within reach.
When the outlawed youth of twenty-four spoke of revolt to the peasants at Mora, Martin Luther was burning the ban placed on him by the pope. There were several warm friends of Luther in Sweden, principally Olaus Petri, himself a pupil and friend of the German reformer, his brother, Laurentius Petri, and Laurentius Andreæ. Olaus was a soul of fire and enthusiasm. He was lacking in self-control, but possessed a power which if not restrained would have led him and his work of reform further than the goal set by Luther. The two Laurentii were, like him, men of learning and, in addition, of greater sagacity. The king took interest in these men. He was contemplating a reduction of the ecclesiastical power, and they were to prepare the soil by freeing the people from undue respect for the Roman Church and its worldly power. Laurentius Andreæ was made the king’s chancellor, and Olaus Petri secretary to the town council of Stockholm, later pastor of the Cathedral Church. Olaus preached in the Stockholm Cathedral fiery sermons against Rome and the pope, responded to sometimes by irate monks, sometimes by various projectiles from the audience. Gustavus took pains to fill the vacancies of the Church, which were many, by appointing able men. But he made two serious mistakes in making Master Knut, dean of Westeros, archbishop, and Peder Sunnanvæder, formerly secretary to Svante Sture, bishop of Westeros. He came in possession of a correspondence, which proved that Bishop Peder tried to bring the Dalecarlians to revolt, and when accusing him and finding Master Knut on the side of the defence, Gustavus deprived them of their new dignities. The king commanded that a new bishop should be appointed and himself selected Johannes Magni as archbishop. This prelate, a very learned man, was the representative of Sten Sture in Rome, returning to his native land as a papal legate. Gustavus had a rupture with him when, according to his instructions, he demanded that Trolle should be reinstated as archbishop. Archbishop Johannes was lacking in moral courage; brushed aside by the tide of Reformation, he retired to Rome, where he died after writing the history of Sweden in Latin, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. Master Knut and Peder Sunnanvæder turned their steps to Dalecarlia, fanning the brewing malcontent and opening connections with Norrby, who styled himself the betrothed of Christine Gyllenstierna and made ready to attack Gustavus from the sea. Berndt von Melen, a German commander, in whom Gustavus placed much confidence, was to chase Norrby away from his stronghold, the island of Gothland, but turned a traitor, joining Norrby instead, in 1524. Gustavus called a Riksdag at Westeros, in 1525, resolved to use his diplomacy to the utmost. Upon receiving a letter from the Dalecarlians, in which they stoutly swore off their allegiance to him on account of heavy taxes, foreign influence and disregard for the Church, the king offered to abdicate. The representatives at the Riksdag persuaded him to remain, whereupon the king sent the Dalecarlians a sagacious letter, promising to improve the state of things as much as possible, but pointing out the two prelates as traitors in conspiracy with the Danes. The Dalecarlians were pacified, Knut and Peder finding it safest to leave for Norway. In the following year the king met the revolting peasants of Upland at Old Upsala, where he in a fiery speech unfolded his policy toward the Church. The peasants resented; they wanted to keep their monks and their masses. The king commanded one of his followers to make a speech in Latin, the peasants shouting that they did not understand. “Why do you, then, love so dearly your Latin mass?” the king asked them smiling. A few days later Gustavus made a crushing speech against lazy and worthless ecclesiastics before the chapter of Upsala. The archbishop was sent away on diplomatic errands to Poland and Russia never to return. After his departure Bishop Brask became the chief representative of papal interests. He was patriotic, but never yielded an inch of the worldly power of the Church except to force, opposing the Reformation with his whole strength.