The Blood-bath Of Stockholm

The most cruel tyrant the northern lands ever knew was Christian II. of

Denmark, grandson of Christian I., whose utter defeat at Stockholm has

been told. For twenty-seven years Sweden remained without a king, under

the wise rule of Sten Sture. Then Hans of Denmark, son of Christian I.,

was chosen as king, in the belief that he would keep his promises of good

government. As he failed to keep them he was driven out after a four

years' rule, as we have told in the last tale, and Sten Sture became

practically king again.



How Christian, who succeeded Hans as king of Denmark, and had shown

himself a master of ferocity and bloodthirsty cruelty in Norway and

Denmark, overcame the Swedes and made himself king of Sweden, is a story

of the type of others which we have told of that unhappy land. It must

suffice to say here that by force, fraud, and treachery he succeeded in

this ambitious effort and was crowned king of Sweden on the 4th of

November, 1520.



He had reached the throne by dint of promises, confirmed by the most

sacred oaths, not one of which he had any intention of keeping, and the

Swedes might as well have set a wolf on their throne as given it to this

human tiger. One thing he knew, which was that the mischief and disquiet

in Sweden were due to the ambition of the great lords, and he mentally

proposed to ensure for himself a quiet reign by murdering all those whom

he feared.






Under what pretence of legality it could be done, and leave to him the

appearance of innocence in the matter, was a difficult question. To

attempt the bloody work with no ostensible motive might lose for him the

crown which he had striven so hard to win, and in the dilemma he

consulted with his confidential advisers as to what should be done.



Some of them proposed that a quarrel and uproar between the Danes and

Swedes in the town should be fomented, which the lords might be accused

of bringing about. But there was danger that such a pretended quarrel

might become a real one, and endanger his throne. Others advised that

gun-powder should be laid under the castle and the lords be accused of

seeking to blow up the king. But this was dismissed as too clumsy a

device.



Finally it was proposed to proceed against the lords as heretics, they

having some years previously been excommunicated by the Pope for

heretical practices. The king, indeed, had solemnly sworn to forget and

forgive the past, but his cunning advisers told him that while he might

speak for himself, he had no warrant to speak for the Church, the laws

and rights of which had been violated. This pretext was seized upon by

Christian with joy and he proceeded to make use of it in a way that every

churchman in the land would have condemned with horror.



On the 7th of November, the day after the coronation festivities ended,

the king proceeded to put his treacherous plot into effect. A number of

noble Swedes who had attended the festivities were brought to the castle

under various pretences, and were there ushered into a large and spacious

hall. With alarm they saw that the doors were closed behind them so that

none could leave, though others might enter.



When all were gathered Christian entered and took his seat on the throne,

with his council and chief lords about him. Archbishop Trolle was also

present as representative of the Church, but without knowledge or

suspicion of the secret purpose of the king, who had brought him there to

sanction by his presence the intended massacre.



The charge which it was proposed to bring against the senators and lords

was that of trespass against the archiepiscopal dignity and to demand

retribution for the same, and this charge was accordingly brought in the

name of the Church. The king then turned to the archbishop and asked:



"My Lord Archbishop, do you intend to have this matter brought to peace

and friendship according to the counsel of good men or will you have it

judged by the law?"



Archbishop Trolle answered, "The offence being one against the Church,

the cause of the accused should be judged by the Pope."



This was a mode of settling the matter which by no means conformed with

the king's intention, and he answered:



"This is a matter not to be referred to the Pope, but to be terminated at

home in the kingdom, without troubling his Holiness."



In this decision he was not to be shaken, knowing well that if the

archbishop's proposal to refer the matter to the Pope were carried out

his secret sanguinary purpose would be defeated. What he proposed was the

murder of the lords, and he had no intention of letting the matter escape

from his control.



Lord Sten Sture, against whom the accusation had been chiefly directed,

was dead, but his widow, the Lady Christina, was present, and was asked

what defence she had to offer for herself and her husband. She replied

that the offences against the archbishop were not due to Lord Sten alone,

but were done with the approbation of the senate and the kingdom and she

produced a parchment in proof of her words, signed by many of the persons

present. Christian eagerly seized upon the incriminating document, as

giving him a warrant for his proceedings and evidence against those whom

he most hated and feared.



All whose names were attached to it were brought up, one after another,

there being among them several bishops, who had taken part in the matter

on patriotic and political grounds, and a number of senators. Every one

tried to excuse himself, but of the whole number Bishop Otto was the only

one whose excuse was accepted. At the end of the examination all those

accused were seized and taken from the hall, the whole number, senators,

prelates, noblemen, priests and burghers, being locked up together in a

tower, the two bishops among them being alone given a better prison. The

true reason for proceeding against the churchmen was that they had been

the friends of Sten Sture and might prefer their country to the king. The

wicked tyrant, who in this illegal manner had sought to make the Church

responsible for his bloodthirsty schemes, hesitated not to condemn clergy

and laity alike, and ended the session by the arbitrary decision that all

the accused were heretics and as such should die.



Irreligious, illegal, and ruthless as had been this whole proceeding,

into which the artful king had dragged the archbishop and sought to make

him a consenting party to his plot, Christian had gained his purpose of

providing a pretext for ridding himself of his political enemies, actual

or possible, and proceeded to put it into execution in the arbitrary

manner in which it had been so far conducted, regardless of protests from

any quarter.



The next day the city gates were closed, so that no one could enter or

leave. Trumpeters rode round the streets in the early morning,

proclaiming that no citizen, on peril of life, must leave his house,

unless granted permission to do so. On the chief squares Danish soldiers

were marshalled in large numbers, and on the Great Square a battery of

loaded cannon was placed, commanding the principal streets. A dread sense

of terrible events to come pervaded the whole city.



At noon the castle gates were thrown open and a great body of armed

soldiers marched out, placing themselves in two long lines which reached

from the castle to the town hall. Between these lines the accused lords

were led, until the Great Square was reached, where they were halted and

surrounded by a strong force of Danish soldiers. Around these gathered a

great body of the people, now permitted to leave their houses. Alarm and

anguish filled their faces as they saw the preparations for a frightful

event.



On the balcony of the town hall now appeared Sir Nils Lycke, a knight

newly created by the king, who thus addressed the agitated multitude:



"You good people are not to wonder at what you now behold, for all these

men have proved themselves to be base heretics, who have sought to

destroy the holy Church; and moreover traitors to his Majesty the King,

since they had laid powder under the castle to kill him."



At this point he was interrupted by Bishop Vincent from the square below,

who called out indignantly to the people:



"Do not believe this man, for all he tells you is falsehood and nonsense.

It is as Swedish patriots that we are brought here, and God will yet

punish Christian's cruelty and treachery."



Two of the condemned lords also called out to the people, beseeching them

"never in future to let themselves be deceived by false promises, but one

day to avenge this day's terrible treachery and tyranny."



Fearing an outbreak by the indignant people, if this appeal should

continue, the soldiers now made a great noise, under order of their

officers, and the king, who is said to have gloatingly witnessed the

whole proceedings from a window in the town hall, ordered the execution

to proceed, Klas Bille, an official, placing himself to receive the

golden chain and ring of each knight before he was beheaded.



The prisoners implored that they might confess and receive the Holy

Sacrament before they were slain, but even this was refused, and Bishop

Matthew was led forth first. While he was kneeling, with clasped and

uplifted hands, two horrified men, one of them his secretary, rushed

impulsively towards him, but before they could reach the spot the fatal

sword had descended and the good bishop's head rolled to their feet on

the ground.



They cried out in horror that this was a frightful and inhuman act, and

were at once seized and dragged within the circle, where they would have

suffered the fate of the victimized bishop had they not been rescued by

some German soldiers, who believed them to be Germans.



Bishop Vincent next fell beneath the encrimsoned sword, and after him the

senators, seven in number, and thirteen nobles and knights of the senate.

These were followed by the three burgomasters of Stockholm and thirteen

members of the town council, with fifteen of the leading citizens, some

of them having been dragged from their houses, without the least warning,

and led to execution. One citizen, Lars Hausson by name, burst into

tears as he beheld this terrible scene, and at once was seized by the

soldiers, dragged within the fearful circle, and made to pay by death for

his compassion.



With this final murder the executions for that day ended, the heads being

set on poles and the dead bodies left lying where they had fallen. A

violent rain that came on bore a bloody witness of the sanguinary scene

into the streets, in the stream of red-dyed water which ran down on every

side from the Great Square.



On the next day Christian said that many had hid themselves who deserved

death, but that they might now freely show themselves for he did not

intend to punish any more. Deceived by this trick some of the hidden

leaders made their appearance and were immediately seized and haled to

the square, where the work of execution was resumed. Six or eight of

these were beheaded, many were hung, and the servants of the slaughtered

lords, who happened to come to the town in ignorance of the frightful

work, were dragged from their horses and, booted and spurred as they had

come, were haled to the gallows.



The king's soldiers and followers, excited by the slaughter and given

full license, now broke into many houses of the suspected, murdering the

men, maltreating the women, and carrying away all the treasure they could

find, and for some hours Stockholm seemed to be in the hands of an army

that had taken the city by storm.



For a day and night the corpses lay festering in the street, their bodies

torn by vagrant dogs, and not until a pestilent exhalation began to rise

from them were they gathered up and hauled by cartloads to a place in the

southern suburbs, where a great funeral pyre was erected and the bodies

were burned to ashes.



As for the tyrant himself, his bloody work seemed to excite him to a sort

of madness of fury. He ordered the body of Sten Sture the Younger to be

dug from its grave in Riddarholm Church, and it is said that in his fury

he bit at the half-consumed remains. The body of Sten's young son was

also disinterred, and the two were carried to the great funeral pile to

be burnt with the others. The quarter of the town where this took place

is still named Sture, in memory of the dead, and on the spot where the

great pyre was kindled stands St. Christopher's Church.



Such was the famous, or rather the infamous, "blood-bath of Stockholm,"

which still remains as a frightful memory to the land. It did not end

here. The dreadful work he had done seemed to fill the monster with an

insatiable lust for blood. His next act was to call Christina, the widow

of Sten Sture, to his presence. When, overwhelmed with grief and despair,

she appeared, he sneeringly asked her whether she would choose to be

burned, drowned, or buried alive. The noble lady fell fainting at his

feet. Her beauty and suffering and the entreaties of those present at

length softened the tyrant, but her mother was enclosed in a bag and

thrown into the stream, though she was permitted to be drawn out by the

people on their promise to the tyrant that he should have her great

wealth. But she, with her daughter Christina and many other women of

noble descent, were carried as hostages to Copenhagen and shut up in a

dreadful prison called the Blue Tower, where numbers of them died of

hunger, thirst and cold.



The massacre was not confined to Stockholm; from there the executions

spread throughout the country, and the old law of 1153 was revived that

no peasant should bear arms, Danish soldiers being sent through the

country to rob the people of their weapons. The story is told that some

of them, enraged by this act of tyranny, said:



"Swords shall not be wanting to punish the tyrant so long as we retain

our feet to pursue and our hands to revenge."



To this the reply was that "a hand and a foot might well be cut from the

Swedish peasant; for one hand and a wooden leg would be enough for him to

guide his plough."



This report, improbable as it was, spread widely and caused a general

panic, for so terrified were the people by the reports of Christian's

cruelty that nothing seemed too monstrous for him to undertake.



In December the tyrant prepared to return to Denmark, leaving Sweden

under chosen governors, with an army of Danes. But his outgoing from the

country was marked by the same sanguinary scenes. He caused even his own

favorite, Klas Hoist, to be hung, and two friends of Sten Sture being

betrayed to him, he had them quartered and exposed upon the wheel. Sir

Lindorm Ribbing was seized and beheaded, together with his servants. And,

most pitiable of all, Sir Lindorm's two little boys, six and eight years

of age, were ordered by the tyrant to be slain, lest they should grow up

to avenge their murdered father.



The scene, as related, is pathetic to the highest degree. The older boy

was beheaded, and when the younger saw the streaming blood and the red

stains on his brother's clothes, he said with childish innocence to the

executioner: "Dear man, don't stain my shirt like my brother's, for then

mamma will whip me."



At these words the executioner, his heart softened, threw down the sword,

crying:



"I would rather blood my own shirt than yours."



But the pathos of the scene had no effect on the heart of the tyrant, who

witnessed it unsoftened, and called for a more savage follower to

complete the work, ending it by striking off the head of the

compassionate executioner. With this and other deeds of blood Christian

left the land where he had sown deeply the seeds of hate, and the

terrible "blood-bath" ended.