Historical Women: Märta Eriksdotter Leijonhufvud

I have not been able to find any
portray of Märta and I'm not sure
there are any known ones of her.
This is her family crest however.

“Beside every good man is a good woman, and she must always be ready to step in front"

~ Phryne Fisher, 

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: 

Deadweight

Today is the 497th birthday of one of my absolute favourite historical women: Märta Eriksdotter Leijonhuvud. She was born 24 December 1520 at the family estate Ekeby in Lillkyrka parish in the Swedish province Närke.

She's the daughter-in-law of Kristina Nilsdotter Gyllenstierna and the aunt of Cecilia Vasa who have featured before in my Historical Women series and the youngest child of Erik Abrahamsson Leijonhufvud and his wife Ebba Eriksdotter Vasa. Märta never got to meet her father though. He was executed in Stockholm's bloodbath about 1½ month before she was born. She also had five (Or six if you count the first sister called Anna who died at the age of one or two falling down the stairs at Örebro castle.) older siblings: Abraham (1512/1513-1556), Birgitta (Brita) (1514-1572), Margareta (1516-1551), Anna (1517-1540) and Sten (1518-1568). To protect his family, Erik sent them to the convent in Västerås, which probably saved them from going to prison in Denmark. After the bloodbath, Ebba returned to the family estate where she probably also gave birth to Märta.

Svante Sture

At the age of 18, Märta married Kristina Gyllenstierna's son Svante Sture who was three years older than herself and from what you can get out of the available sources, it seems like they were quite happy.

I do not agree with the Swedish historians claiming Svante to be a boring character. On the contrary, I find him appealing and interesting. He did not have such an easy childhood. He lost his father, the Swedish regent Sten Sture the younger and was imprisoned by king Krisian II at the age of three. Even though it is said that Kristian's wife, queen Elisabeth, had him and his brother fostered out to a noble family in Kalundborg, Denmark where the Swedish noble women and children who had been captured at the bloodbath were imprisoned.

In 1534 he went to the Hanseatic town Lübeck (according to himself, he was tricked to come there) where he was offered the Swedish crown. The town had helped Gustav Vasa break free from the Kalmar union a few years earlier and Gustav refused to pay them. They had also got involved in the Danish civil war called The Count's Feud (1534-1536). Svante however refused the offer and was therefore held prisoner for some time afterwards. It was not the last time, people tried to use him in their rebelling against Gustav. During the so called Dacke War, he and Märta were offered to become king and queen of Sweden by the rebels from the province Småland, but they refused.

Historians (mainly male ones!) often says this is a survival strategy Svante stuck to. The Stures and Kristina Gyllenstierna were popular among the Swedish people who had not yet forgot their time ruling Sweden. Svante's older brother Nils was most likely also the young rebel who Gustav Vasa labelled as "Dalajunkern" who was executed in Rostock in 1527. I, however, see him in a slightly different light. Of course his background matter. However, I also think he had more or less the opposite personality as his older brother. While the difficult circumstances of their childhood made Nils Sture into a unruly teenager, I think it made Svante turn inwards into himself. I see him as a man who was not really interested in power. I think he had the societal position he had mostly because of his DNA and I also think he would be labelled as a geek if he had lived today. Historians, who are interested in power structures, often describes him as "boring" and Märta is said to be the more feisty character out of the two and I do not think it is really fair. Based on their letter exchange, Märta was also very close to her sister, queen Margareta, which probably did not make her too keen to take over the throne.

There is a story that Svante was first betrothed to Märta's older sister Margareta and that he rushed to see her when he learned that she had married Gustav Vasa and that Gustav had found him on his knees in front of her and Margareta had told her husband that Svante had come to ask for Märta's hand in marriage. I have not really decided what I think about this. It certainly is an interesting story, but it might just be that too: a story. Before he married, Svante spent a lot of time outside of Sweden and he did not return until 1536 when Margareta and Gustav married. However, they did not marry until 1 October and depending on when Svante got back to Sweden it might be true. What is true is that he married Märta and it seems like it was both a beneficial and a happy match.

The Sture burial choir in the
Uppsala cathedral

Svante was made one of the first counts in Sweden in 1561 so technically Märta became a countess. She did not however use the title until she after had been made widow.

ÅÅren effter Christi födilsse mdxxxviij emillen mondagen och tisdagen tå xi slog , wartt jomfrv Sigriidtt, Swantis och frv Märtis dotter, födh, i i j:e daga för nysdag, Gudi tiill loff, heder och ære. Amen.
(The years after Christ's birth 1538 between Monday and Tuesday when the clock hit 11, maid Sigrid, Svante's and Märta's daughter [unclear]. To God's honour.)

~ Märta's mother-in-law, Kristina's note when Märta's 

and Svante's first child was born in 1538.

(Quoted in Flemberg 2017.)

Märta and Svante got fifteen children in twenty-two years. Ten of them lived into adulthood. Among other's they had three sons named Nils, Sten and Erik. Sten died in the Action of 7 July 1565. Nils, Erik and also Svante were killed by king Erik XIV on 24 May 1567 in the event that is known in history as the Sture Murders.

For Märta, the murders was a great tragedy. The letters she writes during her sons's and husband's get more and more angst-filled and desperate as time progressed and she gets less and less answer. Four letters have survived, but there might have been many more.

The Sture costumes

16th century letters from the royal and noble families are filled with rhetoric and titles but in those letter, Märta puts more and more of that aside and bares her true feelings and pours her angst and desperation into the letters the more precarious her situation gets. What is so tragic about the last one of them is that, her husband and sons were most likely already dead inside Uppsala castle without her knowing it.

Days later the queen dowager and Märta's niece (Margareta died already in 1551 and Gustav Vasa then married her and Märta's niece.) Katarina Stenbock is said to have broken the news to her. Katarina then rushed to Stockholm to meet Erik XIV who had run away from the castle in Uppsala in the middle of the event. He was found a couple of days later in Odensala. He sends her to Märta and the other relations of the other victims (Abraham Stenbock and Ivar Liljeörn) her as compensation for the lives of her husband and sons.

The arranged the funerals of the victims. Svante, Nils and Erik were laid to rest in the Sture family grave inside Uppsala cathedral. Märta was also given silver bricks which she called: "Ett olyckligt förbannat silver, som mig ett så dyrt värde kostat" ("An unfortunate cursed silver, that has cost me so dearly").

Märta had always held a prominent position in the Swedish nobility and because her husband was often away, she was the one to handle the family estates and fiefs. For this she gained the nickname Kung Märta (King Märta). In a way, this was the beginning of a new life for Märta. As widow she gained authority and she used it very well. When Erik gained back his health after his mental collapse in connection to the Sture murders, he wanted the silver back, but Märta refused. Instead she used "the blood bricks" which she called them to support Erik's brothers rebellion. When Johan got the throne, he repaid her by giving her back her husband's county which was also expanded. Together with her sister Brita and sister-in-law Ebba Lilliehöök she was one of the greatest fief-holders in Sweden at the time. However, she did no longer have direct access to the Council of the Realm, but to get her opinion known she used her two remaining sons Mauritz and Karl (15 and 12 at the time of the murders) and her son-in-laws.

Märta's chest

To make sure people did not forgot what had happend, Märta put her husband and sons's clothes that they had worn during their murders in a chest and placed it on their grave. This clothes have survived and are, together with the chest, on display in the Uppsala cathedral museum. They are known as The Sture Costumes today.

The lock of Märta's chest, I find it totally mesmerizing

Märta herself died in 1584 and was buried alongside her husband and children in the Sture grave in Uppsala cathedral.




References

• Ericson, Lars 2004. Johan III. En biografi, Riga
• Eriksson, Bo 2017. Sturarna. Makten, morden, missdåden, Latvia
• Flemberg, Marie-Louise 2017. Kristina Gyllenstierna. Kvinnan som stod upp mot Kristian Tyrann, Falun
• von Konow, Jan 2003. Sturemorden 1567. Ett drama i kampen mellan kungamakt och högadel, Karlskrona
• Larsson, Lars-Olof 2002. Gustav Vasa - landsfader eller tyrann?, Falun
• Larsson, Lars-Olof 2005. Arvet efter Gustav Vasa. En berättelse om fyra kungar och ett rike, Falun
• Petersson, Erik 2008. Den skoningslöse. En biografi över Karl IX, Falun
• Tegenborg Falkdalen, Karin 2010. Vasadöttrarna, falun
• Tegenborg Falkdalen, Karin 2015. Vasadrottningen. En biografi över Katarina Stenbock 1535-1621, Lithuania
• Tegenborg Falkdalen, Karin 2016. Margareta Regina - vid kung Gustav Vasas sida. En biografi över Margareta Leijonhufvud (1516-1551), Lithuania
• https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=34643
• https://sok.riksarkivet.se/Sbl/Presentation.aspx?id=11172

The portrait of Svante Sture was borrowed from his Wikipedia page and the one of the Leijonhufvud family crest was borrowed from Märta's own.

Happy Birthday Phryne Fisher!

According to Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, today (21 December) is Phryne Fisher's birthday. Last year, I wrote an entry about her similarities to the Norse goddess Freja who also seems to have been connected to the winter (or for the Australians, summer) solstice.

I have written so much about Phryne on this blog over the past 1½ years and I am sorry if you think I repeat myself, but I love her too much not to write another post about her.

A couple of days ago I celebrated my second Essiversary. 15 December 2015 was the date when I watched The Babadook for the first time. That film became deeply personal to me and Essie is so wonderful in it, that I straight away became a big fan of her.

I found Phryne sort of more as a secondary person to Essie, but I love her just as much. She is such a wild, beautiful, wonderful character that you cannot help loving her. There is a big reason why an entry about her was the first one I published on this blog.

For such a happy person as Phryne it fits very well that she was born on the, to Australians, brightest day of the year (Here in Sweden it's the darkest.). The series is set in 1928 and in a way, Phryne is a personification of the decade, not least of the popular image of the time period.

In Swedish we even call it Det glada 20-talet (the Happy 20's). Despite the image that this provokes, the 1920's was not totally happy, a fact that both the TV show and Kerry Greenwood's books deal with very well. There is an ever-present, sort of collective, PTSD sense to pretty much all the characters and the world that they inhabit. The First World War lingers despite having been over for ten years.

Phryne also has a very dark past and there certainly are dark sides to her, which I explored in my latest two blog entries about her (They can be found here and here if someone is interested.). However, she never lets them affect her very much. She is very much her happy self most of the time and I love her for it.

Another aspect that ties Phryne to the solstices is the fact that she works as a light in other people's lives. She takes in Dot and Jane and also makes Jack far more happy than he seems to have been in quite some time. She also sheds light in her crime investigations.

This summer, I created Phryne and her "family" out of Legos (They have their own Instagram account that can be found here.). Last week I made her Lucia when I let the Lego gang have a Lucia celebration. You can see her here to the left. Lucia is a light festival that is tied to the winter solstice in Sweden, therefore it fits for Phryne to be Lucia.

Happy Birthday Phryne! You are the female superhero we all need in our lives!

Peter Jöback - I ❤️ Musicals

I seriously have no idea, why this post has remained a draft since I went to the concert in June, but better late than never: Here is my thoughts about the  I ❤️ Musicals concert I went to in Göteborg 17 June.

Swedish singer and musical artist Peter Jöback has a couple of times before invited stars from West End and Broadway to a tour across Sweden singing songs from different musicals. This year, he decided to go all in and invited famous Swedish artists Helen Sjöholm and Tommy Körberg to a much bigger concert at Ullevi in Göteborg. The international stars were Ma-Anne Dionisio (who was in the shows back in 2012 and 2013), Scarlett Strallen (who was in the  I ❤️ Musicals tour of 2013) and Tam Mutu (who is a new-comer in this context). For the Phantom of the Opera duet, Peter Jöback also brought in Emmi Christensson who played opposite him in the Stockholm production of Phantom of the Opera over the past year.

Emmi was also a bigger part of the I ❤️ Musicals-tour of 2015. I had really hoped they would do the duet in Swedish. Not that they were not good in English, but I think they do it better in Swedish.

Det finns nog miljarder stjärnehopar 

Bortom sol och måne 

Röster ur den svarta rymden ropar

Bortom sol och måne 

Sökare ska hon heta 

Allting vill hon veta 

Ja, människan kan aldrig sluta leta 

Bortom sol och måne

(There probably are billions of star clusters, Beyond the sun and the moon. Voices out of black space call, Beyond the sun and the moon. She will be named searcher, She wants to know everything. Yes, homo sapiens can never stop looking beyond the sun and the moon.)

~ Bortom sol och måne, Hjälp sökes, Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

I thought I had a farily good knowledge about what Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson have made when it comes to musicals, but in the show was a song called Bortom sol och måne (Beyond the sun and the moon) from a musical named Hjälp sökes (Help wanted) that I had not heared of. (A link to the song, sung by Sofia Pekkari can be found here.) Since I thought the title sounded more like a farce and I had a hard time getting the lyrics of the song to fit with the title, I had to look it up. It did not exactly clear my mind because the plot is described as two brothers on a farm putting an add in the paper for help with their farm and a woman and her daughter show up.



Musical pictures was borrowed from:
http://www.syntolkning.nu/blad/130427.html#.WVv831FLfIU

The Nyköping Banquet

Portrait of Birger Magnusson

Nyköpings gästabud (The Nyköping Banquet) happened on this day 700 years ago (10 December 1317) and is one of the more well-known incidents in Swedish history. But it did not really start there. One can say that the prelude started already in 1290 when Swedish king Magnus Ladulås died.

Magnus had three sons and two daughters. The oldest son was Birger who had been elected king at the age of four, was only ten years old at the time of his father's death wherefore the Lord High Constable of Sweden, Torgils (or Torkel) Knutsson, became protector until 1298. Birger married the Danish princess Margarete who in Sweden was known as queen Märta.

Birger's two brothers Erik and Valdemar became dukes, but Erik wanted more power. With the support of Valdemar, he captured Birger at his kongsgård Håtuna by the lake Mälaren in what is known in Swedish history as Håtunaleken (The Håtuna game) on 29 September 1306. Erik and Valdemar then took their brother to the castle Nyköpingshus where they kept him imprisoned for two years.

The seal of Erik

Erik then got to power and through his marriage to the Norwegian princess Ingeborg, he hoped he would inherit the Norwegian throne as well. They got the son Magnus and the daughter Eufemia.

The relationship between the three brothers continued to be strained and the Danish and Norwegian kings felt a need to interfere. A peace treaty was sign in Helsingborg in 1310 which divided the country into three parts: Birger got eastern Sweden, Erik got western Sweden and Valdemar got Stockholm and Finland (Finland was a part of Sweden at the time.).

Some years past and the brothers relations seemed to be fine. On 10 December 1317, Birger invited his brothers to a banquet at Nyköping castle. At first everything seemed fine and queen Märta is said to have been happier than usual. When time came to go to bed however, Birger claimed that there was no room for Erik and Valdemar's soldiers in the castle, so they left to find sleeping arrangements in town instead.

In the middle of the night, the dukes were woken up and captured by Birger and his men saying: "Minns ni något av Håtunaleken? Jag minns den mycket väl. Denna är inte bättre än den." ("Do you remember the Håtuna game? I remember it very well. This one is not better.")

It is said that Erik and Valdemar were thrown barefoot into the prison in one of the towers were they starved to death.

The seal of Valdemar

The only real historical source we have is Erikskrönikan (The Erik Chronicles) which is the oldest (surviving) Swedish chronicle. The author is not known,but it is thought to have been written down some time between 1320 and 1335 (i.e. not long after the events described in this post. It is written in the old German verse meter called Knittlevers. The protagonist and hero of the chronicle is actually duke Erik Magnusson wherefore you cannot say that the chronicle is particularly reliable. It is a good source if you want to study the self-image of the aristocracy at the time though.

On 18 January 1318, the dukes wrote their wills in which it says that they are still healthy even though they are imprisoned. This information, even if they were forced to write it, goes against Erikskrönikan's description of them dying within days of the banquet and also about the terrible condition it describes they had inside the prison.

Birger thought this would make him king over all of Sweden (and Finland) again, but Erik's wife Ingeborg took up the fight for the sake of her and Erik's three year old son Magnus. That, however, is a different story worth a post in my Historical Women series wherefore I leave it for now. The Nyköping Banquet (together with Håtunaleken) is one of the most well-known events of the Swedish Middle Ages and something Swedes often remember from history lessons in school.

References

• Harrison, Dick 2002. Sveriges historia. Medeltiden, Falköping
• Harrison, Dick 2009. Norstedts Sveriges historia 600-1350, Värnamo
• Larsson, Lars-Olof 2006. Kalmarunionens tid, Falun
• Lindkvist, Thomas & Sjöberg, Maria 2016. Det svenska samhället 800-1720. Klerkernas och adelns tid, Lund
• Vetenskapsradion Historia - Nyköpings gästabud 700 år. 

Photos were borrowed here.

The six queens of Henry VIII

Divorced, beheaded and died.
Divorced, beheaded survived.
I'm Henry VIII I had six sorry wives,
Some might say I ruined their lives. 

~ Horrible Histories

If you know me, you have probably realised that I have a big interest in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in European history. My main interest is the Swedish royal dynasty Vasa, but I never say no to watching or reading about the English Tudors.

The Tudor dynasty is far more frequently portrayed in popular culture than the Vasas and I recently came across a documentary in four parts about the six wives of Henry VIII (1491-1547) that from what I have understand is made by BBC and where historians Suzannah Lipscomb and Dan Jones tell the stories of the six queens.

I really enjoy watching a documentary about the six queens and the focus is very much on them throughout the four episodes. I do feel sorry for all of them even though Anne Boleyn seems to have been quite cruel to be honest.

On the annual big Swedish book sale in 2005, I bought Antonia Fraser's book The six Wives of Henry VIII translated into Swedish by Margareta Eklöf. It was over ten years since I read it, so it was nice to have a reminder of them even though the documentary (for obvious reasons) was not as thorough as the book was.

The queens all deserve posts in my Historical Women series, but I will give you a short overview of each of them here.

Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) is the first of Henry's wife and they seem to have actually loved each other from the beginning. She originally came from Spain at the age of 15 to marry Henry's older brother Arthur in November 1501, but he died pretty soon after their wedding. Henry VIII's father, king Henry VII, then said that Catherine could marry prince Henry instead if Catherine's father (Ferdinand II of Aragon) could send her dowry in advance. For some reason Ferdinand did not do this and Catherine was left without money to even buy for food. Seven years later, in 1509 Henry VII died of tuberculosis and Henry VIII was now king and free to marry whoever he wanted and he chose Catherine who he actually seems to have loved.

Their struggle (and failing) to get a healthy child is well-known and the only one who lived through the first few weeks was their daughter who would later be known as king/queen Mary I. What is far lesser known I think is Catherine's  war victory over the Scots.

Henry named her regent while he was at war against France in 1513 and the Scottish king James IV saw a chance to invade England. Catherine however countered with sending two armies and leading a third one and at the battle of Flodden Field on 9 September king James was killed.

Catherine really seems to have been a pretty fierce fighter and she did not give up her husband without a fight. She was forced to do so in the end and live the rest of her life in poverty.

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn (c 1501-1536) was made queen in 1533 when she married Henry with a promise that he would give him a son. What surprised me was how soon after Catherine's death Anne was beheaded. I thought there was at least a year apart and not only a couple of months. One can definitely say that she must have fallen from grace as fast as she rose to it.

She too failed to give Henry a living son. The only living child they got was king/queen Elizabeth I.

She was accused of having affairs with several of the male court members (among others her own brother!) and was beheaded in May 1536. The documentary does not seem to think she was guilty of the claims but rather that she was a flirty person in a very flirty court who did not really know how to tread on the fine line of flirting without upsetting her husband.

Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (c 1508-1537) is often described as pretty meek. She became engaged to Henry the day after Anne's excecution in 1536.

Jane rewith his oldest daughter Mary whom she seems to have befriended and cared for.

She died only days after having given birth to hers and Henry's son king Edward VI in October 1537.

Anna von Kleve (1515-1557) (Or Anne of Cleves as she is usually called in English.) came from Germany to marry Henry in 1540.

When Jane died, Henry sent out his painter Hans Holbein the younger to look for a new wife. Among other ones, he painted the portrayed above to the right and the one of princess Christine af Denmark whose involvement with Henry I will get to later.

Anna von Kleve

Henry was suspicious, so he decided to disguise himself and seek her up. If she would recognise him, he decided she was the love of his life. She did not recognise him at all and of course being approached by a man in discguise scared her. (Based on the #metoo-movement I cannot say that I blame her either.) Henry also found her ugly saying she looked like a horse.

The marriage therefore was annuled after only a few months and this is one of the main problems I have with the documentary. They sort of leave her story unfinished showing no interest in her life after the divorce even though she got a really powerful position as The king's beloved sister. She also befriended Henry and cared for his children. She also outlived both Henry and his other wives and got to see Mary I being crowned.

Jane Seymour

The fact that this is left out is a bit confusing based on the title of the documentary. It seems that even though it was a documentary in four episodes about his wives, the leading character in it was still really Henry.

Catherine Howard (c 1523-1542) was the cousin of Anne Boleyn and she was married to Henry almost as soon as his marriage to Anna of Cleves was annuled.

As was the tradition of Henry's wives, she did not last long. In five years, he actually had four failed marriages.

Catherine was accused of treason for commiting adultery with the male courtier Thomas Culpeper and was beheaded in February 1542.

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr (c 1512-1548) was to be Henry's last wife. They married in 1543. She had been married twice before and really knew how to take care of both him and his children. It seems like she had a keen eye to Thomas Seymour, the brother of Henry's third wife Jane. When the king proposed however, she must have thought she could not refuse him.

She was far more political than I would have thought to be honest. She too is also often portrayed as meek. She tried to urge Henry on to finish the reformation, but the bishop of Winchester put a stop to it.

Henry died in 1547 and Catherine left the court after Edward VI's coronation. She married Thomas Seymour, but died in childbirth only a year later.

Christine af Denmark

That was a very shortened version of the life of each of Henry's queens. Overall I liked the documentary, but there were a few things that they could have thought about. Like I said, the leaving out the rest of Anne of Cleves life in England did not fit into the focus of the documentary.

Another thing really bothered me even though I cannot say it surprised me either. They hosts said that Henry was not keen to leave the throne to one of his daughters because every time a woman had tried to rule England before it had ended in civil war. While this is true, they completely left out the fact that the civil war parts of the female rulers's reign was not really their fault, but caused by men not wanting a woman to rule at all...

I also find it rather ironic that the woman who played Anne Boleyn looked a bit like Catherine of Aragon. It was like the play I saw of Swedish king Erik XIV's life at the castle in Kalmar this summer where the court musician was more or less a clone of the 16th century king while the man playing Erik did not look at all like him.

And last of all I would also have liked them to include Henry's proposal to the Danish princess Christina (The portrait above to the right is the one Hans Holbein the younger made that I mentioned above.), daugther of king Christian II and his wife Isabella of Austria, who is said to have refused him saying that she only had one head and she would very much like to keep it!

Stockholm blood bath

Stortorget, Stockholm 7 November 2017

"Tå nw sådana gruffuelighit mord i Stocholm skeedt war" ("A gruesome murder happened in Stockholm")

~ Olaus Petri, En Swensk Cröneka

During the later part of the Middle Ages, all the Nordic countries were united in the Kalmar union. I have talked about it in previous entries on this blog and here comes some more information about it (but also feel free to follow the link above and read all the other entries I have written about it). The most important thing to know for this entry is that all the Nordic countries were united and ruled mostly from Denmark. To say that it's a matter of nationalities fighting is really to simplify it all too much, which will be evident in this entry. It has more to do with "unionists" versus "anti-unionists".

Carl Gustaf Hellqvist's painting of Sten Sture's death

The king during the last few years of the Kalmar union was called Kristian II (1481-1559) but the Swedish Riksråd (Privy Council) was ruled by the Swedish regent Sten Sture the younger (1492-1520). He belonged to the anti-unionist fraction of the Swedish nobility. He was in a power struggle with the union-friendly archbishop Gustav Trolle (1488-1535) and the Riksråd had had him removed from office.

(Gustav Trolle can be said belongs to the category Swedes today normally call "vita, kränkta män"(white, offended men) which will be obvious later on in this entry.)

Kristian II of Michael Sittow

Sten died in early 1520 on his way back to Stockholm after the battle of Bogesund (today Ulricehamn) in the province Västergötland in Sweden.

What did Kristian want then? Well, he saw himself as the rightful king of the entire Kalmar union of course and he had a dream. He wanted to build an economic and political super power in Northern Europe that could challenge the monopoly the "German" Hanseatic League held over the Baltic Sea region. This was well in line with the original plan for the Kalmar union that was made up by Danish king Valdemar Atterdag (1320-1375) and Swedish-Norwegian king Magnus Eriksson (1316-1374) back at the first half of the 14th century even though Margaret Valdemar's daughter (1353-1412), the daughter of Valdemar, was the big political mastermind who implemented the union in 1397.

Statue of Kristina Gyllenstierna, Stockholm

Sweden (which included Finland too!) was important to Kristian's dream, but the Swedes felt overlooked and had been revolting against the Danish rulers since the 1430's and they fought hard against Kristian II. However, when Sten Sture died, the resistance fell apart, even though Sten's widow Kristina Gyllenstierna (1494-1559) (I have written about her in my series about Historical Women.) tried to take up her husband's leadership and also deligate it to others, but barely anyone came to her aid. Kristian promised her and the other people loyal to Sten Sture amnesty and Kristina capitulated in early September 1520.

On 1 November 1520 Kristian marched in triumph into Stockholm and was elected Swedish king as well. He was coronated by Gustav Trolle who had been reinstated as archbishop by Kristian.

Part of the fountain at Stortorget

He invited everyone to a big party that lasted for three days, but on the fourth (7 November 1520) Kristian had the doors locked and started a council where Gustav Trolle accused pretty much everyone present of heresy wherefore the promise of amnesty was not valid anymore

In the next two days (8-9 November 1520) about 100 people were executed at Stortorget (the big square) in Stockholm. It started with the bishops, then the noblemen, then the burgess and then servants working for the men in the former categories (A list of known victims can be found here). The bishops and noblemen were beheaded while the others were hung. The archbishop also had bodies of his dead enemies (among others Sten Sture) dug up from their graves to be burned at the stake on Södermalm together with the executed ones.

No noblewomen were executed even though Kristina came close to being the only one. Instead they were placed in Danish prison where a lot of them died. The rest of them were freed a couple of years later when Gustav Vasa had The houses of the executed stockholmers were plundered and all the riches taken from them. The widows were allowed to stay in the houses however.

On 10 November Kristian's daughter Dorotea (1520-1580) was born and as a last cruel act against the stockholmers, Kristian "invited" (more like forced!) the stockholmers to celebrate her birth only a few days after on the very place where their friends and family had been killed...

The Stockholm blood bath is one of the most famous incidents in Swedish (to not say Scandinavian!) history, but Kristian did not really stop in Stockholm. No, he continued to blood bath himself through pretty much all of Sweden and Finland. At the monastery in Nydala in the province of Småland, he drowned a lot of monks in January/February 1521 when he was heading back to Copenhagen. One of the few surviving monks wrote that "the evil tyrant Kristian" came and killed everyone. After this, Kristian II has been known as "Kristian the tyrant" in Swedish history.

References

• Ericson Wolke, Lars 2006. Stockholms Blodbad, Falun
• Eriksson, Bo 2017. Sturarna. Makten, morden, missdåden, Lettland
• Flemberg, Marie-Louise 2017. Kristina Gyllenstierna. Kvinnan som stod upp mot Kristian Tyrann, Falun
• Harrison, Dick & Eriksson, Bo 2010. Norstedts Sveriges historia 1350-1600, Värnamo
• Larsson, Lars-Olof 2002. Gustav Vasa. Landsfader eller tyrann?, Falun
• Larsson, Lars-Olof 2006. Kalmarunionens tid, Falun
• Petersson, Erik 2017. Furste av Norden. Kristian tyrann, Falun

The photos from Stortorget and of the statue of Kristina Gyllenstierna are my own, but the painting of the dying Sten Sture the younger was borrowed here and the one of Kristian II was borrowed here.

Historical Women: Kristina of Saxony

Kristina was born on christmas eve 1461 and was the daughter (and oldest child) of the Elector of Sachony Ernst and his wife Elisabeth of Bavaria. In 1477, Kristina was bethrothed to Hans, son of Kristian I, the king of the Kalmar union. I have talked about it in previous entries to this blog, but the union was created by queen Margaret (I normally do not use English versions of Scandinavian names, but in this case Margaret is called Margareta in Sweden, Margrét in Iceland, Margareeta in Finland and Margrete in Denmark and Norway so a more neutral name was in order.) in 1397. She had the idea to build a strong, united Scandinavia ruled by one king. This king was mostly Danish and situated in Copenhagen, which did not really suit the Swedish nobiles all the time.

On 6 September of 1478, Kristina and Hans married in Copenhagen. They came to have five (perhaps six) children: Hans and Ernst born in 1479 and 1480 respectively and died as babies. Kristian born in 1481 who came to rule the Kalmar union under the name Kristian II. Elisabeth was Christina and Hans's only daughter, born in 1485 and in 1497, they got the son Frands.

They might also have had a son named Jakob (born between Kristian and Elisabeth), but there are some critical problems with this. He is only known from a Mexican written source from after he died there in 1566. The text says he is the son of a king who gave up everything to became a Christian missionary monk in Mexico. Erik Petersson is very sceptical to this story in his biography over Kristian II, Furste av Norden (2017), especially since there are no Danish or general Scandinavian sources who mentions Jakob.

At first everything seems to have been good between the spouses and the growing family settled in Nyborg on the Danish island of Funen. In 1481, Kristian I died and Hans inherited the throne. After this he was mostly out travelling or in Copenhagen discussing politics.

There is also a discussion about whether Kristian really was Hans's son. An Italian ambassador was present at the court in Copenhagen in 1480 and Kristina seems to have liked him and he was often seen in her company. He left, but when after a few years, Kristian did not really look like any one of his parents the gossip started to spread. One of the things that could be used against Hans being the biological father is the fact that both he and his wife had blue eyes, while Kristian ended up with brown ones. Genes are not simple or straight forward however and the DNA tombola quite often ends up bringing out hidden genes from past generations, so even though it is uncommon, two blue-eyed parents might end up with a brown-eyed son. In this case the biological paternity really does not matter either because Hans treated Kristian as his own son, raising him to take over the throne no matter what.

In 1497, Hans and Kristina were finally elected king and queen of Sweden too, but the peace did not last long because Sten Sture (the older) started collecting nobiles for a new uprising in the spring of 1501. At the end of the autumn that year, Hans left Kristina in charge of 1000 soldiers at the castle Tre kronor in Stockholm and went home to Copenhagen. The winter would be extremely hard on the people captured in the siege at Tre kronor. The food and drinks were sparse and at the end it was only salted meat left and a lot of the soldiers became ill and died in scurvy. More and more of her men also wanted to give up, but was given a cold sholder from Kristina who really seem to have thought her husband would come save them and Stockholm when the ice thawed on the sea in the spring.

Hans on the other hand, seems to have had everything else in mind but save his wife. At first he got into some other troubles with the Western parts of the union. Akershus in Oslo was taken by the nobilies Knut Alvsson Tre rosor at about the same time as Sten Sture's uprising started in Stockholm and from there he also threatened what is now the Swedish west coast. It all sort of solved itself when Knut suddenly died in August 1502, but Hans still did not send ships to aid Kristina and his men in Stockholm. Instead he thought it more important to arrange a suitable marriage for their daughter Elisabeth. She was soon married off to Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg.

In early May, Kristina had no other choice but to capitulate to Sten Sture and even though she was promised freedom, she was taken as his prisoner at first the Black Friars's Monastery and then the Grey Friars's Monastery in Stockholm before being handed over to the nuns at the Birgitta convent in Vadstena. Only a few days after she gave up the castle Hans's ships finally turned up on the sea. He refused to disembark, turning the ships around and went back to Copenhagen where he had a (married) mistress named Edele Mikkelsdatter Jernskjaeg.

Kristina was to be kept hostage for more than one and a half year before Hans finally bothered to negotiate with Sten for her freedom in the autumn of 1503. There is no prof that she suffered particularly during this time, but she was still not a free person. After getting her freedom, Sten escorted her to Halmstad where she met Kristian who brought her back to Copenhagen. When getting home, she had had enough. Without seeking premisons from the German electors whose land she would travel she almost immediately went on a tour to visit Elisabeth in Brandenburg. This could have turned really ugly for her, but she made it to her daughter where she stayed for awile before returning home to Denmark. She settled at her farm outside of Odense where she lived until her death on 8 Octboer 1521.

In cases like Kristina, you really wish that the Medieval sources for Scandinavia would be more informative. Like with so many women, the posternity has not been kind to her. She is mostly portrayed as a religious fanatic bullied for being a passive hypochondriac. The little we know about her character however and from what can be read through her actions show a brave, politically gifted women with a strong will and it is obvious that Kristian did inherit his temperament and stubborness from her.


References

• Erik Petersson 2017, Furste av Norden, Falun
• Lars-Olof Larsson 2006, Kalmarunionens tid, Falun

Picture was borrowed from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_of_Saxony

Phryne, Jack and Phrack - response to comments

Back in June I published the entry The Development of Phryne Fisher. I discussed a little how I see how Phryne's background has affected her. It seems like the entry was very well recieved, but I also got some strange comments that I have felt I need to address. I know it was a long time ago, but as you probably have noticed, I have not been able to keep up with my regular posting speed in quite some time due to PhD applications and other projects in real life. In the last week however, I have been bedridden with a nasty cold, wherefore I have been forced to stress down, which I think was well needed because of the circumstances.

If I, in any way, insinuated that I thought Phryne was "damaged goods", I think you must have misunderstood what my intentions with the entry were!

Phryne has had a difficult time in the past and she clearly has suffered from some heartache due to the loss of her little sister and her, from what it seems, rather traumatic relationship with René Dubois (I think I will have reasons to explore that part of Phryne's life more in a future entry.). However, to me she cannot be considered "damaged goods". To be honest, I think that term is very degrading of her as a character. (Not least, if this was said in regard for the many men that occupy her bed from time to time.)

Flight is the method Phryne uses to avoid having to deal with the darker sides of her past. She might have picked this up because the family got an opportunity to move to England after the abduction of her little sister Jane. She is not "damaged", broken or even unhappy however. In fact she flees just to avoid being any of it. This is probably also why she does seem to keep other people at arm's length. This does not mean that she does not have many friends. In fact she seems to know pretty much everyone. However, she also seems to only opening herself up to a small numbers of select few. Mac is one of them and I would so love to see more of their back story on the show because of this.

To me season 1 is pretty much all about Phryne being forced to face the demons from her past. This is illustrated by the overarching plotline with her sister’s kidnapper Murdoch Foyle. Right before Cocaine Blues, she has come to know that he will be released from prison. This is what makes her return to Melbourne in the TV show (not the books, but I am focusing solely on TV-Phryne in this blog post). In the episode Murder in Montparnasse she also comes face to face with her abusive ex-boyfriend René Dubois. But instead of fleeing yet again, Phryne deals with both of these past abusers and this is where she stabilise as a character (mature if you so want, but that was another comment I got and if that is so important I will rephrase it) and grows.

However, she does not do so all alone. Over the course of the first two episodes of the show, Phryne starts tying people to herself and they become family. Anthony Sharpe who plays Cec on the show, said in an interview with Sherri Rabinowitz for her podcast Chatting with Sherri a while ago that the people around Phryne are all so different that you would expect it not to work out, but it does. Phryne has made it clear that the others are in her life, but they need to except that the others are also parts of it. For Ethnology class, I recently read the article En säker plats. Alternativa familjer, relationsanarki och flersamhet bland unga queeraktivister (2010) by Swedish anthropologist Fanny Ambjörnsson about how chosen families can make you feel better when your biological family does not understand you. I found myself thinking about Phryne’s situation as I read it. It deserves its own entry when I have the time, so I will leave it for the time being.

Phryne: Which reminds me, you never did tell all about the Chinese brothel. 
Jack: I have trouble recalling trauma. 
Phryne: Jack Robinson, you promised me. Do I have to put you on the couch and psychoanalyse you?

~ Death and Hysteria, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries 

If you still go ahead claiming that Phryne is damaged, you really cannot deny that Jack Robinson is at least just as much damaged as she is. To be honest, after the madness that was my last Jack entry, Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, I never thought I would delve into his character again, but here we go.

Phryne was greatly affected by the war, but from the little we have learned about his past, Jack was even more so. Another theme from the show that I wish to address one day is the sort of collective posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that was a result of The First World War. It is a side to the war that I have not seen so much in other portrayals, but still makes sense as part of the outcome of the war. Like with the chosen family theme, mentioned above, I would not be able to do it justice in this entry, since it will be far too long anyway. Therefore it will have to wait.

Jack: I went to war a newlywed. 
Phryne: But you came home. 
Jack: Not the man my wife married... 16 years ago. 
Phryne: War will do that to you.

~ Raisins and Almonds, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

We do not exactly know how much Jack was affected by the war, but his sensitive nature and the little we have learned about him in the show indicate that it might have given him a depression and making him at least a bit shell shocked (the term used for PTSD at the time) from his war experiences.

Like I wrote in my former Jack post, I think the Swedish notion of vemod suits Jack very well. Just like Phryne, he is not broken or damaged! There is a sad aspect to his character, but I would not say that he is unhappy per se. I do think both he and Phryne have been broken, but time and circumstances have provided them both with reasons and energy to pick themselves up again.

I do not like the insinuation about them being total messes who can only be cured by love and I do not really think that is how they are portrayed in the show either to be honest. 

I normally am a bit opposed to the cliché of crime shows about how a male and a female crime investigator who work together also for some reason need to get together romantically, but to me the Phryne and Jack pairing is different from most of those. In my latest entry Phrack, a kickstarter video and romanticized farewells, I mentioned how the show often takes troupes and clichés and twist them and that really is the case when it comes to the Phryne and Jack pairing, by fans named Phrack. I wonder how much of it comes from the gender fluidity of the characters. Both are created with both traditionally male and female traits and regarding their characters, Jack is actually more traditional female with his sensitive and Phryne is the traditional much less feeling man. I absolutely love how they come together. They are clearly attracted to each other at least from Murder on the Ballarat Train and forward, but neither of them is really prepared to act on it. Instead they both need to grow as characters and they do so together. This, to me, creates a better foundation for a lasting, equal relationship.

Since I received those comments in June/July, I have reflected a lot upon it whenever Vikings have not “raided my brain” too much. It is so easy to just ask if the commentators are watching the same show as I do, but I think there is more to it than that. Maybe we are so used to see movies and TV-shows where gender roles and romantic relationships are portrayed in a certain, stereotypical way reflecting societal norms that our expectations and prejudices somehow try to interpret whenever we see something different according to those norms and stereotypes.