Boats from Austrått for the hunt for Nils Lykke
DN 11/622 · 29 June 1535 · Österaat
What the letter says
On 29 June 1535 fru Inger thanks Archbishop Olav for the letter she received the day before with Olav Mogensson and Jørgen Pedersson, and for the offer to come to Steinvikholm should there be unrest. At the request of the two men she sent five or six boats with men out with them to Fosen, where Nils Lykke was. She asks that his life be spared if he does penance before God, the archbishop and her family and gives up his wish to marry her daughter, who has promised to let him go. If he is captured, she asks at least for mercy for his innocent children.
The letter in modern English
My humble and loving greeting always sent before with our Lord Jesus Christ. Dearest lord, I thank Your Grace's dignity for all the kindness and goodness Your Grace has always shown me, and I will always gladly and lovingly repay it in my poor humility as best I can. Dear lord, Your Grace should know that Your Grace's servants, the honest and sensible man Olav Mogensson and the well-born squire Jørgen Pedersson, were with me yesterday and gave me a letter from Your Grace. It said that if any storm, God forbid, should come upon me that could harm me, I should be welcome with Your Grace at Steinvikholm. For that message I thank Your Grace lovingly and gladly. Dear lord, they also gave me to understand that they wished me to send some men with them out to Fosen, and that I did. I had no more than five or six boats with fellows and lads. Your Grace can well understand that I am a poor defenceless woman and cannot muster many more men. Nor do I keep up any great feud with anyone, and I place my cause in the hands of almighty God and with Your Grace and more of my friends. Therefore I ask Your Grace for God's sake and for the sake of justice that I might be allowed to sit in peace with my poor children and servants, for I have not the heart to help take his life, for the sake of his poor children.
Original text
Mynn ydmygelig och kerlig helssenn altiid for sendtt mett vor herre Jesu Christo. allerkeriste herre tacker ieg eders nadis werdughedt for alld dyd och gott som eders naade meg altiid bewisth haffuer hvilkitt ieg mett myn fattig *ygmygdt altiid gerne kerlige forskyll(e) will effther myn macht. kere herre werdis eders naade att wide att eders nadis thienere erlig och fornwmstig mand Oluff Mauffszens och welbyrdug swend Giøren Pedersen wore hoes meg i gaar och finge meg eitt eders naadis breff
Background
Steinvikholm was the castle Archbishop Olav had had built on an islet in the Trondheimsfjord a few years earlier, and it was his safest refuge. The daughter Nils Lykke wanted to marry was Lucie Nilsdatter, the sister of his late wife Eline. Such a marriage was forbidden by canon law, and the councillors in the south called the relationship heresy (DN 15/507). Fru Inger was in a difficult position. Nils Lykke was her son-in-law and the father of her grandchildren, but she depended on the archbishop's protection and lent boats and men to capture him. She writes that she does not want him so close to her again and would rather see him get away. The letter shows how honour, kinship and faith pulled in different directions.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)