Truid Ulfstand asks for help with Alv Knutsson's inheritance
DN 11/608 · 11 January 1535 · Varberg
What the letter says
Truid Ulfstand writes from Varberg on 11 January 1535 to Archbishop Olav about the war in Denmark: Count Christopher holds Funen, Zealand and Scania, Duke Christian holds Jutland, and the Swedes have taken Halmstad and lain before Varberg. The Swedes have burned and plundered his fief so badly that it will hardly recover in the lifetime of this generation, and he himself has lost over 20,000 mark since Easter. He asks the archbishop to help Jomfru Karine Alvsdatter and his wife Gjørvel Fadersdatter to recover the inheritance that has been taken from them by force. He has heard that other people have taken much property and many revenues from them, mostly in Nordlandene.
The letter in modern English
My humble service and loving greeting to Your Grace's dignity now and always sent before with our Lord. Dear lord, since I hear that a messenger has now come here from Your Grace, I will write to Your Grace what news there is here. My lord Count Christopher has been at a meeting with Duke Christian in Kolding, and they were not reconciled. Duke Christian holds Jutland. This winter he has killed many farmers there because they were disobedient to him. He is there with 16 companies [Fähnlein] of landsknechts and a thousand horses. My lord holds Funen, Zealand and Scania, and he has a good ten companies of landsknechts. So Your Grace can judge for yourself how things stand in these lands. A peace has also been made between Duke Christian and the Lübeckers. How it was made, I do not know the truth of. The Swedes have now invaded this country on Duke Christian's behalf and have taken Halmstad, and they have now lain here before this castle and this town for nine weeks [uncertain reading] and left as empty-handed as they came. Even so, they have done both me and my fief irreparable harm. They have carried off, burned and eaten up everything they came upon in this fief, so that the fief will hardly recover from it as long as the people now born are alive. I have suffered damage on my own part since Easter of more than twenty thousand mark, that I dare say on my oath.
Original text
Mynn jdtmig thienest oc kierlig hielszen edhers naadis werdughedtt nu oc altiid forsent mett wor herre, kiere herre, effther ieg hører her er nu nogett budtt fraa edher naade, saa wiill ieg scriffue edher naade tiill huadt her er for tydingher, myn herræ greffue Christoffer haffuer werett tiill ett mode mett hertug Christiernn i Kolling oc bleffu inttet forligtt, hertug Christiernn haffuer Jutland ynde, haffuer nu i thenne wintther slagett ther mange bøndher ihiell for the war hannwm wlydiig,
Background
Truid Ulfstand was a Danish councillor of the realm and commander of Varberg in Halland, and he was married to Gjørvel Fadersdatter. Gjørvel was the granddaughter of Knut Alvsson, and she and Karine Alvsdatter, daughter of Alv Knutsson and sister of Knut Alvsson, were heirs of Alv Knutsson and thus to the Giske estate. The Council of the Realm at Bud had awarded Giske to Karine in 1533, but during the Count's Feud it was hard to lay hands on the revenues. The letter does not say who the other people were, but the Giske estate had for many years been in fru Inger's hands, and a letter from 1536 shows that Vincens Lunge had granted part of it away as a fief (DN 22/293). Property in Nordlandene probably refers to the part of the Giske estate that lay in Helgeland. Truid seems to have been keeping something in safe custody for the archbishop, but the letter does not say what.