Joachim Lykke asks Eske Bille to be guardian of Nils Lykke's children
DN 13/624 · 17 August 1536 · Östrup
What the letter says
The Danish knight Joachim Lykke writes from Østrup on 17 August 1536 to Eske Bille and his wife, regretting that they have been held prisoner by the archbishop, whom he calls an open traitor. He has heard that the archbishop has tortured his son, Nils Lykke, to death, and because he himself is an old and worn-out man, he asks Eske to take on the guardianship of Nils Lykke's children. He sends a power of attorney with Knud Bagge, who served first fru Ingerd and then Nils Lykke and knows the whole estate, and whom he wants as bailiff over the children's property. He also asks for one of Nils Lykke's vessels and thanks Eske for looking after his daughter Karine, who lives with him.
The letter in modern English
Friendly and loving greeting always written before to you with our Lord. Dear herr Eske Bille, my heart's dear brother and especially good friend. I thank you humbly, lovingly and gladly, and your dear wife, my dear kinswoman and heart's dear sister, as I may well call her, for the great goodwill and love you have shown me and my children. I fear that I shall not be man enough to repay you for your good will, but almighty God shall be your reward where my good cannot reach. You should know that when I heard that you and your wife and children were captured, which God grant I never hear again, I was deeply grieved. I beg you for the sake of the Son of the living God to take good care of yourself and not to trust every man too well, so that you do not come [into captivity] a third time. Even though that open traitor and rogue and man without honour before God and all the world, the archbishop, dealt so cruelly [uncertain reading] with my son, God, who knows all things, knows that it grieved me more when I heard that he had captured you and your wife than all the treachery he has practised against my son. Dear brother, now that I hear that he has tortured [uncertain reading] him to death, I believe that I should now be guardian of the poor children. You can well imagine that I am an old, worn-out man and no longer able to travel here or there [uncertain reading].
Original text
Wennliig oc kierliigenn helssenn altiidt till edher for screffuett mett wor herre Kiere her Esky Bylde oc mynne hiarte kiere brodher och besøndherliigen gode venn tacker jeg edher jdemygelig kerliigenn oc giernne oc edher kiere høstrw mynne kiere fencke oc mynne hiarte kiere søsther som jeg maa vell scriffue ffor then store vellighedt oc kierlighedt j haffuer bewist meg oc myne børn huilckett jeg beffrøcther megh at jcke bliffue mandt for at bettalle edher etthers gode villie vell jghin then
Background
Nils Lykke died in captivity at Steinvikholm towards the end of 1535, and his father had heard that he was tortured to death. In January 1536 Vincens Lunge was killed in Trondheim during the archbishop's reckoning with his opponents, and Eske Bille and his wife Sophie were taken prisoner and held at Steinvikholm for a time that same spring. Nils Lykke's children were probably the children of Eline Nilsdatter, fru Inger's daughter, and thus her grandchildren. Knud Bagge had thus been in fru Inger's service and moved on to Nils Lykke. That shows how closely the households at Austrått and on Fosen had been bound together. A guardian managed the property of children under age, and a bailiff rode round the estate and collected the land rent. Fru Inger is mentioned only in passing, and the letter does not say what the children's property consisted of.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)