why Viken should be given up to
Fredrik unless Gotland should be given up to him. In answer, therefore,
to repeated solicitations, he declared his readiness to meet the Danish
king half-way; he would treat with him concerning Viken, but at the same
time some definite conclusion must be reached about the isle of Gotland.
When negotiations had reached this point, they were interrupted for the
moment by a new dispute.[133]

Ever since the fall of Kalmar, Christina's boy had been in Stockholm,
under the surveillance of the king. Gustavus for some reason had never
liked the boy, and in April, 1527, he sent him to his mother with a
reprimand, at the same time urging that he be placed for a period under
the quiet influence of some rural town. This incident was the signal for
another conspiracy against the crown. This time the aspirant was a gay
young hostler, who conceived the desperate project of posing as the
regent's son. Relying on his own audacity and on the perennial state of
insurrection in the north of Sweden, he went to Dalarne with the story
that he had escaped the clutches of Gustavus, whose orders were that he
be put to death. He then proceeded from one village to another,
extolling the virtues of the young Sten Sture, and urging the people,
since they had sworn allegiance to his father, to do the same to him.
The support which he received was small. One or two villages were at
first deceived, but the majority of them told him flatly that he lied.
He therefore followed the course of earlier impostors, and betook
himself to Norway. Approaching first the archbishop of Trondhem, he told
his story and awoke the archbishop's interest by announcing that
Gustavus had fallen from the faith. It being bruited that certain of the
church dignitaries were on terms of friendship with this impostor, the
archbishop received him kindly, and though he refused to give him
shelter, promised he would take no steps to harm him. Gustavus then
addressed the archbishop and the Cabinet of Norway, urging that the
traitor be returned. He pointed out, moreover, that, Sten Sture having
been married only fourteen years before, it was impossible that this
traitor was his son. This argument producing no effect, Gustavus
prevailed upon Fredrik's emissaries, then in Stockholm, to join him in
his appeal. An answer then came back from the archbishop of Trondhem
that he had refused to shelter the impostor, though he had promised that
he would not harm