ck will not raise
objections, for she has wished to have the Baltic to herself." A few
days later Gustavus put out a feeler to his Cabinet in the south of
Sweden. "So far as we know," he wrote with caution, "our relations with
Lubeck and the Vend Cities do not forbid this treaty." By the spring of
1527 he had grown more confident of his position, and wrote as follows:
"The provisional arrangement made with Holland has proved greatly to our
advantage. We now desire to make a perpetual treaty with her before
Whitsunday next, and for this purpose recommend that Olaus Magni be sent
at once to Amsterdam." Two weeks after this he added: "The privileges
which the German cities wrung from us in Strengnaes are so grinding that
we can no longer adhere to them in all their points." On the 22d of
April the monarch had so far removed his doubts as to commission Magni
to negotiate the treaty, and he intrusted him with a written promise
over the royal signature and seal, conferring on Holland, Brabant,
Zealand, and East and West Friesland the right to enter all the Swedish
rivers and harbors, on payment of the customary duties. It is noticeable
that in this document Gustavus did not remit the duties, as had been
desired, nor even promise that salt should be admitted free; and in the
letter to his envoy the diplomatic monarch used these words: "Do not be
too liberal, especially in the matter of duties. If they really insist
upon free-trade, you must discreetly avoid promising it, and suggest
that probably the privilege will be granted them as a favor." Brask, who
feared lest these negotiations might cause trouble, hastened to throw a
favorable light upon his own position. "You will remember," he wrote his
fellow-counsellors, "that I opposed the grant of these great privileges
to Lubeck, believing them injurious to the welfare of our people."
Magni, in conformity with the king's injunctions, proceeded to the town
of Ghent, where he was given an audience of Margaret, regent of the
Netherlands. As soon as the letters of May 12, 1526, and April 18, 1527,
were translated for her, she raised a number of objections, chief of
which were that the latter letter did not provide that salt should be
admitted free, and did not seem to open to her vessels all the Swedish
ports. To these objections Magni answered that certain harbors were made
ports of entry out of convenience to Gustavus, and as to duties, Magni
seems to have assured her that they woul