wedes; and
the magnates should be free to fortify their estates and refuse the king
admittance. This decree, if strictly followed, would have practically
freed Sweden from the yoke of Denmark. But as a matter of fact it was
several years before it was destined to go into operation at all. The
Swedish Cabinet were determined that no step should be taken to put the
decree into effect until certain preliminary duties were discharged;
among them, the cession of the island of Gotland to Sweden. These
preliminaries Hans was in no hurry to perform. Meantime Sten Sture
continued to act as regent. His path remained as rugged as before. Beset
on all sides by enemies, each struggling for his own aggrandizement,
Sten had all he could do to keep the kingdom from going to pieces. In
every measure to increase the income of the crown he was hampered by the
overweening power of the Cabinet, who were reluctant to give up a jot or
tittle of their ill-acquired wealth. Chief among his opponents was the
archbishop, Jacob Ulfsson,--a man of rare ability, but of high birth and
far too fond of self-advancement. Another enemy, who ought to have been
a friend, was Svante Sture, a young magnate of great talent, who first
became imbittered against his illustrious namesake because the latter,
on the death of Svante's father, in 1494, claimed that the fiefs which
he had held should be surrendered to the crown. Of Erik Trolle, another
opponent of Sten Sture, we shall see more hereafter. His strongest
supporter was one Hemming Gad, a learned, eloquent, and dauntless
gentleman, who also was to play a leading role before many years were
past. In 1493 war broke out again with Russia, and Hans resolved to
seize this opportunity to make good his claims in Sweden. He opened
negotiations once more with the disaffected members of the Cabinet,
still hoping to make compromise with Sture; they hesitated, they
promised, and then made new demands; and it was in the midst of this
elaborate trifling, while the regent was in Finland conducting the
Russian war, that Gustavus Vasa was born at Lindholm.

Affairs in Sweden were now fast coming to a crisis. The fitful struggle
of a century had at last assumed a definite and unmistakable direction.
All Sweden was now divided into two distinct and hostile camps, and to
the dullest intellect it was clear as day that Sweden was soon to be the
scene of open war. In the autumn of 1496 the Cabinet, seeing that Sture
was thoroughl