the peasantry were
represented. The wily Brask, who had once saved his head by a bit of
strategy, dared not put it in jeopardy again, and fearing that matters
of weight might be brought before the diet, was suddenly taken ill and
rendered unable to attend. The Cabinet, hitherto the sum and substance
of a general diet, was practically dead, having been carried off in the
fearful slaughter of 1520. One of the first things to be done,
therefore, after the opening of the diet, was to fill these vacant
seats. This was accomplished on the 2d of June, but whether the members
were chosen by Gustavus or by vote of the general diet we are not told.
Noteworthy it is, that the persons selected, nine in number, were all
of them laymen and warriors in the service of Gustavus. Four days later,
on the 6th of June, the question of electing a king of Sweden was
brought before the house. The proposal was received with shouts of
acclamation, and with one accord the delegates raised their voices in
favor of Gustavus. But the regent, so the reporter tells us, rose to his
feet, and, mid the deafening shouts of those about him, declared that he
had no wish for further honor, that he was weary of leadership, that he
had found more gall than honey in the post, and that there were others
more worthy than himself on whom to lay the crown. So importunate,
however, were the delegates, that at last he yielded, accepted their
allegiance, and took the royal oath. This done, the diet voted to levy a
tax to defray the expenses of the war. Among the very first Acts to
which the newly chosen monarch attached his seal was one which granted
the cities of Lubeck and Dantzic, with their allies, the perpetual
monopoly of all foreign trade with Sweden. At the same time it was
provided that Stockholm, Kalmar, Soederkoeping, and Abo should be the only
ports of entry for foreign merchants in the realm. This Act was the
result of an application made by Lubeck the year before, and was carried
by the importunities of Lubeck's ambassadors to the diet. It was a sop
to stay the flood of their demands for immediate payment of the debt
incurred to Lubeck by the war. As it granted these Hanse Towns entry for
all goods free of duty, it must be deemed a marked concession. One
favorable clause, however, was incorporated in the Act, providing that
no alien should thereafter be a burgher either of Stockholm or of
Kalmar. Another measure of weight which the diet passed provided th