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to do for a prince, and was in constant terror lest some harm would befall the royal boy when he saw him taking part in the rough games in which he had great delight. The king forgave the canon, but he wrote an earnest letter to his kinsman, the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg, begging him to send to Denmark, without fail, a stern and learned man who would know how to manage the unruly young prince. The Elector looked about him for the right kind of man, and soon a great scholar, known as the Magister, or Master Conrad, came from Germany, and taught his pupil to such good effect, that Christian for the rest of his days spoke and wrote in Latin as well as the most learned university-professors of his times. But although the young prince loved learning and made good progress, he loved his own amusements better; and we are told as a proof how well King Hans followed Solomon's precept not to spare the rod, that when he found his son was in the habit of bribing the palace-watch to let him pass freely in and out whenever he wanted to join the entertainments of the citizens, he used a horse-whip so sharply on Christian's back and shoulders as to force him to go on his knees and promise amendment. But at last the time came when the father could no longer use the rod, and in 1501 Hans sent Prince Christian into Norway as independent governor, or viceroy of that kingdom.

Christian in Norway.-It was here that the prince first showed the resolution and cruelty of which he was capable, for although he was only twenty years old at the time, he put down every attempt at rebellion with such quickness and sternness, that the nation was soon nearly crushed, and almost every Norwegian noble or knight of standing killed or banished. He seems from his boyhood to have had a hatred of the nobility generally, and although he knew how to win over the Danish nobles and prelates, when he required their support at the death of his father King Hans, in 1513, to confirm his early election to the throne, he usually avoided their society, and chose his friends and officers from among the lower classes. The hard terms which the Danish Council of State imposed upon him as the price of his crown, estranged him still more from the nobles, who, in the new charter signed by Christian at his coronation,

had secured for themselves so many privileges as to leave the king no real power in the state.

Christian on his accession made the crown of Sweden the great object of his ambition. His cause was supported by Gustaf Trolle, the primate of Upsala, and many others belonging to the ancient nobility, who, in their jealousy of the power enjoyed by the Sture family, were ready to proclaim Christian King of Sweden. But the greater number of the Swedes were devoted to their ruler, Sten Sture the younger, and looked upon the Danes with hatred and jealousy, and from the moment King Hans died the people showed very clearly that they would never submit willingly to a Danish ruler. During the war which broke out between Sture and the archbishop's party, Christian sent his armies year after year into the country, but he gained no footing there till 1520, when his general, Otte Krumpe, surprised Sten Sture by marching along the frozen streams and lakes till he came unawares upon the Swedes, and gave them battle on the ice, at Aasund in West Gothland. The Danes beat the Swedish army, which dispersed when it became known that their leader Sten Sture had died on the road to Stockholm, from the severe wounds which he had received at Aasund. His brave widow then closed the gates of Stockholm against the Danes, but treachery on the part of the townspeople forced her to submit, and then by the help of the Swedish bishops Christian was able to make himself master of the throne, which he had been so eager to win.

PART II.

THE SWEDISH CROWN LOST.

The Blood Bath.-In the autumn of 1520 Christian was crowned at Stockholm with great pomp; and by the grace and affability of his manners he charmed all the Swedes who took part in the festivities, which were held in honour of his coronation. At the moment, however, when the Swedish nobles thought their troubles at an end, the king's chief officers of state, the Westphalian Didrik Slaghoek and Jens Beldenak, Bishop of Odensee, stepped forward before Christian while he was

surrounded by his court, and in the name of the primate, Gustaf Trolle, demanded reparation for the wrongs which it was pretended the archbishop had suffered at the hands of Sten Sture the younger, and his councillors, in having been deprived of his see. Christian, on pretence of upholding the dignity of the Church, required to know the name of all who had signed the act of deposition, which, as he well knew, had been passed in consequence of the primate's treason in fighting with him in former years against his own countrymen. The document was produced, and all whose names were attached to it were arrested on the spot, although it was shown that they had merely acted in conformity with the orders of the national diet. The next morning early they were brought before a court, composed of twelve ecclesiastics, who were all Swedes excepting Beldenak, and were asked one question only: whether men who had raised their hands against the Pope and the Holy Roman Church were heretics? As they were forced to reply in the affirmative, they were told that they had passed judgment of death on themselves.

At noon on the same day, the 8th of November, 1520, ninety persons, belonging chiefly to the nobility, but including a few burghers, were led forth into the great market-place of Stockholm, where, closely guarded by Danish troops, they were beheaded one by one before the eyes of the terror-stricken citizens. The first who suffered was Bishop Mads of Strangnoes, who, as the axe was falling on his head, cried aloud, "The king is a traitor, and God will avenge this wrong!" When Erik Johansson Vasa, the father of the future kings of Sweden, was led out, a messenger from Christian came to him to offer him pardon and grace. "No," he cried, "for God's sake let me die with all these honest men, my brethren !" and he laid his head on the block.

A heavy storm of rain fell at the close of this frightful butchery, and the blood streamed along the streets, and gurgled and splashed up from the wet and muddy market-place. Then Christian, turning his back on the scene of this ghastly spectacle, left Stockholm in the full belief that nothing would hinder the scheme he had at heart, of raising the burghers and peasants to be as firm supports to the throne, as they had been in olden

times. But the lower classes, for whose welfare he pretended he had caused the death of the nobles, stunned by the horror of the deed, and seeing no prospect of good to themselves in such a frightful outbreak of fury, slunk back to their homes, with feelings of hatred and fear of the king, whom they and all Swedes since their time have remembered only as "the Tyrant." It has been well said that the "Union of Calmar was drowned in the blood bath" of the 8th of November, 1520, for from that day till the spring of 1523, when Gustaf Vasa was crowned king of Sweden, the Swedes never gave up their determination to release themselves from their Danish bonds.

Christian II. of Denmark had some great and noble qualities, which in the eyes of many of his subjects more than atoned for his occasional outbreaks of cruel fury. He not only caused several new and good laws to be passed in favour of the trading and working classes of the country, but he showed himself at all times anxious to diffuse education amongst the very lowest of his subjects, and was in fact the first king in Northern Europe who opened poor-schools in his dominions. In his earnest desire to promote the education of his people he went so far as to order the burghers of Copenhagen and all other large cities in the three Scandinavian kingdoms, under penalties of heavy money fines, to compel their children to learn to read, write, and cipher, and when they grew older to see that they were instructed in some trade. He also caused better books to be prepared and printed for the public schools; while he ordered that the children, who were intended for the learned professions, should not be boarded with unlearned persons, lest in their earlier years they might be taught evil, which they could never again forget. He made the first attempt at having post-offices in the country by forming a band of post runners, who both winter and summer passed between Copenhagen and the chief towns, carrying letters for which they were paid according to the number of miles they had brought them. Then he caused way-side inns to be built at certain distances along the roads, and ordered that if travellers received damage from the badness of the public roads, the parishes in which they lay should be made to pay for it. He forbade the

nobles and higher clergy to use strand rights, or to seize, as they had hitherto done, on wrecks; and when the bishops of Jutland, who drew good incomes from this practice, laid complaints before him of their heavy losses, saying there was "nothing in the bible against taking stranded goods," his only answer was, "Let the Lord-prelates go back and learn the eighth commandment by heart!" In the same manner when the clergy begged that for the good of the Church he would allow witches and wizards to be burnt as in the olden times, and not be let off with a whipping as he had decreed, he asked them if they had ever read the sixth commandment ? It was a pity that a king who knew so well how to reprove others had not taken that and other commandments to heart.

Christian did much for his navy, for he built good ships, put down pirates on the Baltic, and made the Hansers of Lübeck respect his authority. He caused equal weights and measures to be used in all towns, and passed many laws in favour of the peasants, to whom he granted the right to leave the lord on whose lands they worked whenever they wished it and could prove that they had been treated unjustly. He also put down the cruel custom of selling the poor peasants with the land, like beasts of the field, and punished masters for ill-treating their servants. The growth of flowers and vegetables was made the great object of his care; and, to teach the Danes how to manage gardens and orchards, he, by the advice of his queen, Elizabeth, sister of Emperor Charles V., sent for Flemish gardeners who were then the best in Europe. These men came to Denmark in 1516 and settled in Amager, a small island in the harbour of Copenhagen, which they soon changed into a blooming garden, and where, from that time forth they and their descendants lived. The Amager peasants still enjoy the rights that Christian gave them, and even to the present day they retain the dress and habits of the Flemish homes of their forefathers, brightening up the old market-place of Copenhagen with their quaint, highly-coloured costumes, and supplying the citizens with the finest fruits, flowers, and vegetables that can be raised in the long cold winters and short hot summers of Danish Sjælland.

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