Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/538

nation of the deaths of prelates and others in Sweden. The king accused his unhappy confessor as the cause of the executions. Slaghock was imprisoned, tortured, and burned at the stake, while the nuncio pronounced the king innocent of all sin. A second legate, however, insisted upon the deposition of Trollé. About the same period two legislative measures, wise in themselves, but which struck at the privileges of the aristocracy, precipitated the fall of Christian. He published a decree which forbade the sale of serfs. A second decree affected property in wrecks: everything cast on shore by the waves had at one time been royal property; but the barons had lately usurped this right, and now it was decreed that the waifs should be delivered to the king's bailiffs, to be by them returned to the shipwrecked mariners within the space of one year. Failing this, the property was to be sold, two thirds of the proceeds to go to the king, and the remainder to the church. One year after the sacrifice of Slaghock, Christian received mysteriously the first announcement of his impending fall. A glove containing a letter from a number of nobles and priests was left in his tent during the night. The king had taken the field against a Lübeck army invading Seeland and Scania. A vast conspiracy of Jutland clergy and nobles was now disclosed to him, and the letter contained their renunciation of allegiance, and announced that they were about to offer the crown to Frederick, duke of Holstein, who accepted the invitation. Christian sent an envoy to the rebellious barons, acknowledging his errors, and praying them to accept again their repentant sovereign. His offers were rejected, and he hurried to Copenhagen, and wandered about the streets, imploring the people to save him from his enemies. Seeland and Scania swore allegiance anew, and Christian might yet have saved his crown. But the weakness which he continued to exhibit cost him every trustworthy friend, and, collecting some 20 ships, he embarked with his family, carrying off the public records, the crown jewels, and all the treasures within his grasp. Sigbrit, who durst no longer show herself, was carried on board secretly in a clothes chest. The king, his wife, children, and a few faithful servants followed, and the fleet sailed from the harbor. This event, which occurred in April, 1523, ended for ever the famous Calmar union, after a period of 126 years. In Denmark the flight of Christian was a serious calamity to the people. His municipal regulations, due to the woman Sigbrit, no doubt were excellent and original. Advocates were admitted to courts to plead the cause of the accused, and to appeal from the tribunals to the crown. He reformed and regulated the customs tariff and taxes. He established inns and post offices for the first time in Denmark. The poor of Denmark deplored the loss of the king who is known in history as a remorseless tyrant. On quitting the harbor of Copenhagen, Christian's fleet was dispersed by a violent storm. After having been nearly wrecked upon the coast of Norway, he at length reached Antwerp in safety. He found means to invade Holstein with 10,000 men, but was again compelled to flee. In 1531 he sailed again at the head of 12,000 men; his fleet was dispersed, but he landed in Norway, where the new king of Denmark, Frederick, was hated. The Norwegian bishops and nobles declared for Christian, and on Nov. 30, 1531, he was solemnly acknowledged king. The common danger meanwhile brought about peace between Frederick and Gustavus Vasa. A treaty for mutual defence was concluded, and a Swedish army entered Norway. Christian's fate was soon decided. His ships were burned, his troops mutinied from hunger and want, and he was forced to surrender himself to the Danish admiral, stipulating for a safe conduct to Denmark, in order that he might confer personally with his uncle King Frederick. If no amicable compromise of their differences should be arrived at, it was understood that he should be free to quit the kingdom. Frederick was not permitted to ratify the agreement, but was compelled to declare that the admiral had exceeded his powers. So bitter was the hatred of the Danish nobles against their late king, that Frederick was obliged to give them a written assurance that Christian should be kept in perpetual imprisonment. The document containing the pledge was formally committed to the custody of eight barons; and the condemned king entered upon 27 years of retribution. He was first conveyed to the castle of Sonderburg, in the island of Alsen. Here he was placed in a vaulted apartment of which all the windows were walled up, one little aperture near the ceiling alone excepted for air and light, and through which to receive his food. In this dismal dungeon, with a Norwegian dwarf who was given him for a companion, he passed 17 years, the first 12 without any alleviation whatever of his misery. A stone table remains in the castle, around the edge of which is still shown a line of indentation, worn it is said by the hand of Christian, whose sole exercise and pastime in this narrow abode consisted in walking around the table, with his hand resting on it. Still another war was waged for his liberation, but without success. In 1544, at the intercession of the emperor his brother-in-law, the rigors of his imprisonment were somewhat mitigated; and at length, upon the renunciation of all his pretensions in 1549, he was removed to the castle of Kallundborg in Seeland, on the coast of the Great Belt, and made comfortable, with a fixed income, and with permission occasionally to hunt in the adjoining forest. But calamity had worked upon his mind, and attacks of despondency became of frequent occurrence. These were made violent by immoderate use of wine, and at Kallundborg his malady often assumed the charac-