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Hans, over the duchies, she obtained for him the right of choosing which part of Slesvig he should hold as his own. The duchy had been divided in the year 1480 into two parts, the Segeberg and the Gottorp lands, but after choosing the latter he had grown dissatisfied with his choice, and been allowed by his brother to change it for the Segeberg portion of Slesvig. This indulgence only made Frederick bolder in asking for greater favours, and at last he demanded, as a right, that he should be allowed to rule over the islands of Laaland, Falster, and Moen, and be crowned joint king over Norway. These demands were, however, too much even for the indulgent Hans, and refusing to listen to his brother's request, he called together a diet, or meeting of the Lands-Thing at Kallunborg, and with the full assent of the members formally rejected Frederick's pretensions, and threatened him, in case he should ever renew them, with the forfeiture of the lands which he held in Slesvig. Prince Frederick was forced after this to be more careful in his conduct, but his restless, discontented nature led him to foment troubles and excite wars whenever he was allowed to use his influence with his brother. Thus it was chiefly by his persuasions, but against the advice of the Queenmother, that the king resolved upon trying to gain the Swedish throne by force. He had for many years let himself be satisfied by the promises of the Swedish Regent and his Council of State, and believed their declarations that they would offer him the throne whenever they saw that the moment had arrived for proclaiming his authority in the kingdom. Fourteen years

passed without bringing King Hans the crown he coveted, and then losing all patience, he listened to the advice of his brother and sent a large army of German hired troops into Sweden. Success attended him everywhere, and after defeating the Regent-Marshal Sten Sture, and forcing him to lay down his offices and give account of his government, Hans was, in 1495, crowned King of Sweden, and his son Christian proclaimed as his successor.

This easy conquest of Sweden did not, however, prove very lasting, for when in the year 1500 Hans suffered a signal defeat in the Ditmarshes, the Swedish nobles seized the opportunity of freeing themselves from the power of Denmark,

and having taken Sten Sture for their leader, they drove the Danes out of Stockholm, renounced their allegiance to King Hans, and kept his queen, Christina of Saxony, a prisoner for three years. The hatred of the Swedes towards the Danes now showed itself in all parts of the kingdom, and was as great amongst the higher as amongst the lower classes. The sudden death of the Marshal Sten Sture in 1503, when he was returning from Denmark after escorting the released Queen Christina to her husband's court, was ascribed to poison given to him, it was said, by the orders of Prince Frederick, and this event increased the general feeling of bitter hatred. When Hemming Gade, Bishop of Linköping, addressed the people at Upsala after Sten Sture's death, he ended his speech with these words: "The Danes are a nation of murderers and thieves and have been so from all time, but let us not despair, for the Almighty, who has saved seven parishes in the Ditmarshes from their hands, will not fail to rescue a whole kingdom!"

When King Hans heard what had happened in Sweden he appealed to the Emperor and Pope to punish the rebels; but this had little effect in changing the feelings of the people towards him, and as he was unable to send any more armies into the country, he was obliged to submit, and he never again renewed the attempt to gain the Swedish crown by force.

PART III.

THE BRAVE DITMARSHERS.

Defeat of Danes.-The losses of King Hans in the Ditmarsh campaign, to which we must now return, had, moreover, been so great, that he had no wish after that inglorious defeat to enter on new wars. The inhabitants of the Ditmarshes, which adjoined the Holstein lands, were not pure Germans, but belonged to those Frisian tribes occupying the north-western parts of Germany and Holland and the islands near the Slesvig-Holstein coasts, who were descended from the ancient Frisii, known to the Romans for their bravery and love of freedom. The same spirit had always animated these people, and they had age after

age made many a gallant stand against the neighbouring princes who had attempted to subdue them. Geert the Great and other rulers of Slesvig and Holstein had from time to time suffered defeat at their hands, and although the Emperor Frederick had formally given over their lands to Christian I. of Denmark to be joined with the Holstein territory, the Marshmen had refused to own themselves subject to the power of Denmark. When Prince Frederick obtained the title of Duke of SlesvigHolstein he had called upon the Ditmarshers to pay taxes to him, and to do homage for their lands; and on their neglecting to attend to his summons, he had induced his brother; King Hans, to invade the Marshes in the winter of the year 1500.

The royal army, which was commanded by the king and the Slesvig-Holstein duke, was composed of an unusually large proportion of nobles and knights, who showed their contempt for their peasant foes by going to the attack clad in their ordinary hunting costume, and carrying only light arms. But they soon found how ill they had judged the Marshmen, for instead of submitting to them, as they had expected, these men fought desperately whenever they came in contact with the royal troops; and although Meldorf, the chief town of the Marshes, was taken and sacked, and the inhabitants killed with great cruelty, only a small number of the Danes and Germans who had formed part of the invading army escaped alive from the Marshes. They were on their way from Meldorf to Hejde, on the afternoon of a cold winter's day in the year 1500, when they found their advance checked by a line of earthworks thrown up against a dyke, known as "Dusind Dyvel's Werff," near Hemmingstedt, and defended by 500 Ditmarshers under their leader, Wolf Isebrand. The royal German guard rushed to the attack, shouting " Back, churls, the guards are coming!" and three times forced the Marshmen to retreat, but they as often rallied. At that moment the wind changed, bringing a thaw with it, and as the troops were struggling on, blinded with the sleet and snow and benumbed with cold, the sluices were suddenly opened by the peasants, when the water, driven on by the rising tide, soon covered the marshes and swept everything before it. Then the Ditmarshers, who were accustomed to make their way quickly through the marshes by the help of their

poles and stilts, threw themselves upon the invaders, and cut them down, or pierced them dead with their long spears. Six thousand men perished in this way, and an immense booty fell into the hands of the victors, including seven banners, of which the most noteworthy was the Danish national standard Dannebrog, which was carried in triumph to Oldenwörden, and hung up in the church as the greatest trophy of the victory.

The king and Duke Frederick barely escaped falling into the hands of the Marshmen, and they and the other leaders rated their loses in money, stores, and ammunition, in that afternoon's defeat, at 200,000 florins or guldens. King Hans may be said to have owed the loss of Sweden to his evil fortune in the Marshes, while his power in Norway was threatened by the same cause; for the Norwegians under a leader, called Knud Alfson, made several attempts to throw off their allegiance to Denmark after they learnt the result of the king's campaign against the Marshmen. Hans had earnestly begged his brother for help to put down the rebels, but when the duke refused to aid him unless he would promise to have him proclaimed as joint King of Norway, he sent his young son, Christian, to quell the disturbance, and refused to listen to Frederick's demands. Prince Christian performed his task so thoroughly that in the course of a few months order was restored, but he at the same time used his powers with such great cruelty, that before he left the kingdom he had nearly rooted out all the old Norwegian nobles.

The only war undertaken in this reign, which brought any good results to the Danes, was that carried on against the Lübeck Traders, who had shown great insolence to King Hans when they learned that he had granted rights of trading in his dominions to English merchants as well as to the German Hansers. The Lübeckers, trusting to the strength of their ships, attacked the Danish fleet without waiting for its advance, but the admirals, Sören Norby and Otte Rud, beat them back, and so thoroughly routed them, that they were glad to accept peace at the cost of paying 30,000 gulden to defray the expenses of the war. Soon after this one successful event, Hans died at Aalborg, in the year 1513. With the Danes he had always been a great favourite, and even among the Swedes and Nor

wegians he was personally liked in spite of their hatred of the Danish rule. His many good qualities were marred by violent fits of passion, but these occurred only rarely, and were thought by his subjects to be due to short, but uncontrollable attacks of insanity.

PART IV.

THE FALL OF THE STURES.

Sweden under Sten Sture.-We have seen1 that while Christian I. of Denmark was always wasting and wanting money, and little or nothing was done during his reign to improve the condition of the Danes, the Swedes enjoyed peace and prosperity for some years under the rule of their marshal or chief governor, Sten Sture, the nephew of King Karl Knudsson. This better state of things was, however, at length interrupted by a succession of bad seasons and many public calamities, while the death of Christian I., in 1481, also gave rise to much disquiet and disturbance in the country, since his eldest son and successor, Hans, laid claim to the crowns of Sweden and Norway as soon as he had made himself master of that of Denmark. The Norwegians, who had kept themselves as quiet as they could under the constant turmoil and dissensions of Christian's reign, came forward at his death to propose to their Swedish neighbours that the two ancient kingdoms should unite together, and that counsel should be taken as to the terms under which the Union of Calmar might be revived without bringing the same miseries as before upon the northern lands. But these negotiations were not followed by any active results, and soon afterwards the Norwegians allowed themselves to be persuaded to accept Hans as their king. The Swedish nobles had by that time become dissatisfied with Sten Sture, whose popularity with some of the lower classes had also been weakened on account of the many evils which had befallen the kingdom during the latter part of his rule, through destructive storms, droughts and other troubles, as the plague,

1 See Chapter xiv.

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