e
regency of Sweden, had kept up continuous negotiations with their
friends in Denmark, with the object ultimately to place the king of
Denmark on the throne. Owing, however, to the manifest and growing
popularity of the young Sture, they deemed it wise to wait for a more
auspicious moment before making open demonstration, and for the time
being yielded to the regent with the best grace they could command. The
thing which they most needed, in order to counteract the influence of
the chivalric young Sture, was the infusion of new life among their
ranks. The archbishop and Erik Trolle both were old, and, though in the
full vigor of their intellectual ability, lacked the energy and
endurance required to carry on a policy of active war. It was resolved,
therefore, to throw the burden of leadership on younger shoulders. There
was at this time in Rome a man who seemed to possess more qualifications
than any other for the post. This was Gustaf Trolle. He was young,
highly educated, energetic, and above all a son of Erik Trolle, the
powerful leader of the Danish faction. He had seen much of the world,
and had lived on terms of familiarity with some of the greatest men in
Europe. But his whole power of usefulness was lost through his
inordinate personal and family pride. Weighted down by the sense of his
own importance, with haughty overbearing manners, and a dogged obstinacy
in dealing with his inferiors, he was the last man in the world to be
successful as a party leader. Yet it was on this man that the Danish
party fixed its hopes. The matter first took shape on the 31st of
August, 1514, when the archbishop in conversation with Sture suggested
that old age was now coming on so fast that he desired to resign his
office, and asked whom Sture deemed most fit to serve as his successor.
To this the courteous regent answered that he knew no one better fitted
for the post than the archbishop himself. With this the conversation
ended. On the 12th of October following, the crafty archbishop, not
averse to feathering his own nest, formed a compact with Erik Trolle by
which Ulfsson was to commend the latter's son for the archbishopric, and
in return Erik promised to support Ulfsson to the utmost of his power
and to see that Gustaf Trolle did not deprive Ulfsson of the
archiepiscopal rents during the latter's life.[17] This done, Erik
Trolle went to the regent and asked him to recommend Gustaf Trolle for
the post of archdeacon of Upsala.