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Rh influence had greatly increased, instigated the king to the most extreme cruelties. Meanwhile great preparation was made in Sweden to resist the Danish invasion. The Swedish administrator or regent, Sten Sturé, had appointed Gustavus Trollé to the archbishopric of Upsal. The new primate, still young, had completed his religious studies at Rome, and on his way home had met at Lübeck a confidential agent of Christian, who had little difficulty in obtaining a promise to support the pretensions of the king. Christian found means also to gain over to his cause, at least in appearance, the papal legate; but that personage disclosed to the regent the projects of Christian, as well as the treason of Trollé and of certain commanders of fortresses bribed by the Danes. The governors of the fortresses were arrested, and revealed the plot, which they said was directed by Trollé, who, disregarding a summons to appear before the diet, fortified himself in his castle. A Danish army, which had landed to relieve Trollé, was attacked by the regent and driven back. Sturé then forced the castle of the archbishop, compelled his abdication, sent him a prisoner to the monastery of Wodstena, and razed his castle to the ground. The pope placed Sweden under interdict. The regent and his followers were excommunicated, and condemned to pay to Trollé 100,000 ducats, and to rebuild his castle. The execution of the bull was intrusted to Christian, who besieged Stockholm with a powerful fleet and army, but was driven off by Sturé. Feigning a wish to treat, he obtained from the regent provisions for his fleet, and put in irons six Swedish nobles, among them Gustavus Vasa, who had been sent to him as hostages during the truce. These, he sent word to Sturé should be put to death unless Danish authority were immediately accepted. The Swedes made a sharp attack, but the wind setting fair, Christian weighed anchor and sailed with his prisoners to Copenhagen. Next year he seized a quantity of copper belonging to the papal legate which was about to pass the strait at Elsinore. This, in addition to the payment by Charles V. of part of his sister's marriage portion, enabled him to resume his operations against the Swedes, and the expedition was embarked in January, 1520. At the first battle, fought at Bogesund, the Swedish regent fell mortally wounded. The Danes advanced by forced marches between the lakes Wenner and Wetter, and reached the forest of Tiwed, the ancient rampart of northern Sweden. Here the peasants made a desperate stand against the invaders, who however outflanked them, cut them to pieces, and gained the high road to the capital. A baronial diet, which had been convoked at Upsal, saw that resistance was hopeless, and entered into a convention with the Danes that Christian, on condition of a promise of general amnesty, should be crowned king of Sweden. Christian, who had remained at Copenhagen, signed the convention in that city

on March 31, 1520. Stockholm and Calmar, the two great fortresses of Sweden, still held out against the invaders, and were defended each by a woman. The widow of the regent, Christina Gyllenstjerna, refused to accept the treaty, and aroused the burghers of Stockholm to a desperate resistance. Lübeck and Dantzic promised her assistance; and the peasants from the neighboring farms engaged to harass the enemy in the rear, but they had no leader. Christina held out for four months, when she was compelled to capitulate. Calmar shared the same fate, and in September Christian was everywhere acknowledged. He now resolved upon the extirpation of his enemies. As executor of the papal bull, he pretended that his promise of amnesty as king must not conflict with his duties as representative of the supreme pontiff. The coronation was solemnized in the presence of the Swedish nobles and clergy. Festivities followed during the next three days, when an assembly was held in the great hall of the palace. Christina was summoned to hear her husband denounced and reviled by the creatures of the king. His surviving adherents among the nobles were at once declared and condemned as heretics. The city gates were closed and guarded. Scaffolds and blocks arose during the night in the great square. The first head to fall was that of the venerable bishop of Strengnäs; immediately after him the bishop of Skara and 13 nobles, among whom was the father of Gustavus Vasa. For two days the butchery continued, and dead bodies lay in masses in the streets. The king at length permitted the corpses to be removed to an eminence outside of the city. Upon them he caused the remains of the regent and of his infant child to be flung; and then they were burned. The widows and daughters of the murdered men were abandoned to the soldiery. Christian travelled through the country, marking every stage of his journey with blood; whole families were extirpated. Gustavus Vasa had now escaped to Sweden, and, reaching the borders of Dalecarlia, had aroused the peasants of that province. He issued from the northern provinces at the head of 20,000 men, and went on from victory to victory. Christian summoned him, upon pain of the instant execution of his mother, who was imprisoned with his sisters at Copenhagen, to lay down his arms; he refused, and their death followed shortly afterward in their dungeon. Christian meanwhile, leaving the defence of Sweden to his generals, made a visit to his brother-in-law, the emperor Charles V., in the Netherlands, to solicit the arrears of his queen's dowry, and assistance in a quarrel with the duke of Holstein and the Hanse towns. He was received at Brussels with great magnificence, but obtained little or no satisfaction in his suit. His dominions now were everywhere distracted. Slaghöck, the king's confessor, had meanwhile been made archbishop of Lund; and there now arrived a papal nuncio demanding