year 1590, as the latter got the mayor of Roskilde and another man to go over to Hveen on the 15th July to try and settle the matter.[1] They cannot, however, have succeeded, and Tycho wanted a decree of eviction against the tenant, but the court which tried the matter, and which was composed of four noblemen, did not grant the decree. Tycho now appealed to the king, who summoned the four nobles and the litigants to appear before the High Court of Justice in July 1591. From the judgment of the four Commissioners it appeared that the tenant had been disobedient and had refused to come to Tycho when ordered, but that Tycho, notwithstanding the lease for life which the tenant held of his farm, had let other people plough and sow the land, and in the previous October (six months before he tried to have him legally evicted) had taken the farm from him. Tycho had furthermore taken the law into his own hands by having Rasmus put in irons at his own table, from whence he was carried off to Hveen, where he was detained for six weeks or more. And as Rasmus had represented that he had feared the severity of Tycho, and did not go to him when ordered because Tycho would not give him a safeguard, the Commissioners had thought that six weeks' imprisonment was a sufficient punishment for this act of disobedience, and that Rasmus should not be evicted from the farm, of which he had only purchased the lease four years before, and on which he had built a house. Although Tycho had forbidden Rasmus to work his farm, this was not according to law, as long as the tenant had not legally forfeited his lease. As to the house on the farm, which Tycho complained had been sold by the tenant, it appeared that it was still standing in the garden, and formed
- ↑ Meteor. Diary. In Breve og Aktstykker, p. 3, is a letter from Tycho dated June 1591 to the Rector of the University asking for the testimony of Dr. Krag and Magister Kolding, who had been present at Hveen when the two men came over from Roskilde.
