The archbishop's carvel seizes Lunge's ship off Bergen
DN 13/536 · 15 July 1529 · Bergenhus
What the letter says
Esge Bille writes from Bergenhus on 15 July 1529 to Vincens Lunge, who has reported that he and fru Inger came to Oslo and learned there that King Frederik could not come to his coronation but is sending Duke Christian. Esge reports that the archbishop only replied that he would do Lunge and fru Inger the worst harm he could. Lunge's ship from Holland was taken by one of the archbishop's carvels on the Sunday before Midsummer, and after negotiations in the cathedral on Midsummer Eve it was laid up in Vågen until the archbishop replies. He also asks Lunge to accept that he has borrowed two masons for the castle tower, and sends greetings to fru Inger and Lunge's wife.
The letter in modern English
To Lord Vincens. Friendly and loving greetings always written before with our Lord. Dear kinsman and especially good friend. You write to me that fru Inger and you came to Oslo, and that you found there letters and envoys from His Royal Majesty, our dear gracious lord, reporting that His Royal Majesty could not come to Oslo in his own person to attend his royal coronation, as His Grace had written, for some important reasons and circumstances, which I have well noted in your letter, etc. Dear kinsman, I also note in your letter that since His Royal Majesty's circumstances are such that His Grace cannot attend the coronation, His Grace intends to send his son Duke Christian here into the realm to Oslo with some of the Council of the Realm of Denmark, to help every man there to law and justice. May almighty God grant His Grace and the good lords who then gather that they may decide in a way that pleases almighty God and brings benefit and support to these two realms and lands and their inhabitants, both in soul and body. Dear kinsman, as you also write about the envoys whom Niels Jepsen and I had with the archbishop in Trondheim about the ill will between him and you, you shall know that six or eight days after you left here, these envoys came back here again.
Original text
Tiill Her VincentzVenlig oc kierlig helsen altiidt forscreffuit mett wor herre Kiere frende oc synderlig gode wen Szom i schriffue meg tiill att frw Inger oc i komme tiill Obsloug attj tha funde for ether kongelig maiestatz wor kierte nade herris scriffuelsze oc szendebudt lydindis huorlunde att :k: mat: kunde ey komme till Obsloug i szyn eigen perszone att beszøge syn kongelig krøning som hans nade forscreffuit haffde, for nogle merckelig orszager oc leilighetz skyldt som ieg well fermerckt
Background
Vincens Lunge and his mother-in-law fru Inger of Austrått (died 1555) had travelled from Bergen to the herredag in Oslo, where King Frederik I was to be crowned, but the king stayed in Denmark and sent his son. While they were away, Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson struck at Lunge's trading ship coming from Holland, probably carrying goods Lunge traded in himself. A carvel was a large sailing ship, built with smooth planking. That the archbishop's ship sailed into Bergen harbour, the king's «free waters», below the castle, Esge Bille saw as an insult to the king. The letter shows how the bishop of Bergen and the cathedral were used as neutral ground for negotiations. Lunge's wife was Margrete Nilsdatter, fru Inger's daughter. One paragraph is struck out in the original and rewritten just after, and both versions are included.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)