nd Thure Jenson (Roos) in West-Gothland, all
three councillors of state, were still in arms for Christian. That the
first-named nobleman joined the party of Gustavus before the end of the
year we know from his letter of thanks for a fief of which he received
the investure. Both the latter were proclaimed in 1523 to be enemies of
the realm, as also was the archbishop Gustavus Trolle. He had repaired
to Denmark two years before, in order to obtain, by his personal
instances with the King, the often-promised relief for the besieged
garrison of Stockholm, but was received with coldness and reproaches.

After the baronial diet of Vadstena, the Gothlanders acknowledged the
authority of the administrator, and, the Danes having been driven out
West-Gothland and Smaland, the seat of the war was removed to Finland.
By the commencement of the next year the principal castles of the
interior had fallen into the hands of Gustavus, and some, as those of
Westeras and Orebo, were razed to the ground by the now exasperated
peasantry. Stockholm and Kalmar, as well as Abo in Finland, yet stood
out, and by help of reenforcement which they received at the beginning
of 1522, through the Danish admiral Severin Norby, the enemy were again
able to resume the offensive. By sallies from the beleaguered capital on
April 7th, 8th, and 13th, the camp of Gustavus was set on fire and
destroyed, and for a whole month afterward no Swedish force was seen
before the walls of Stockholm. The besiegers of Abo were likewise driven
off, and the chief adherents of Gustavus, being obliged to flee from
Finland, Arvid, Bishop of Abo, with many noble persons of both sexes,
perished at sea.

Christian himself by new cruelties added to the detestation with which
he was regarded in Sweden. The wives and children, of the most
distinguished among the barons beheaded in Stockholm, had been conveyed
to Denmark, and among them the mother and two sisters of Gustavus, whom
the King, in spite of the entreaties of his consort, threw into a
dungeon. Here they died, either by violence, as Gustavus himself
complains in a letter of 1522 concerning the cruel oppression of King
Christian, directed to the Pope, the Emperor, and all Christian princes,
or, as others assert, of the plague. An order had also been recently
issued by the King to commanders in Sweden to put to death all the
Swedes of distinction who had fallen into their hands. The chronicles
say that Severin Norby had rece