Fru Inger on Peder the chancellor, the chaplain at Austrått and the Evje estate
DN 14/551 · 20 Septbr. 1526 · Bergen
What the letter says
On 20 September 1526 fru Inger writes from Bergen to Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson. She is displeased that herr Peder the chancellor, whom she had taken in as a sick guest and who had the archbishop's safe conduct, was seized at the royal estate of Fosen, which she held as a fief, and she asks that he not be handed over to his enemies. She herself is staying in Bergen over the winter with her son-in-law Vincens Lunge, and she is sending the chaplain herr Jakob to Austrått to say masses for her late husband and for their parents. In a postscript she asks for a writ of summons against herr Gaute Galle concerning Evje and the Evje estate, and she mentions the farm of Strøm in Edøy fief, which was not included in the division.
The letter in modern English
My humble, loving greeting always sent first with our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear lord, I thank your grace for all the favour, kindness and friendship your grace has shown me and my friends. May God reward your grace for it, and I will repay it with my poor humility. Dear lord, I have heard that the poor man herr Peder the chancellor was seized at our most gracious lord the king's estate of Fosen. It seems to me that I was somewhat slighted in this, on behalf of our dearest most gracious lord. For had I seized a farmer's lad on a farm that had freedom, either from priests or from farmers, I would have been sharply called to account for it. Had another done the same to me, I would have spoken further about it. Dear lord, since it has now been done, I ask that your grace, for God's sake and for the sake of my prayer, will look to his welfare and not hand him over into his enemies' hands, so that he innocently loses life or honour in any way, for he is after all a poor priest. I invited him out to me because he was a sick man, so that he might have milk and fresh food and recover somewhat. He told me that he had your grace's safe conduct, otherwise I would not have taken him in. Even so I think so well of your grace that it has not happened without special and weighty reasons.
Original text
Myn ydmygeligh kerligh helsen altiid fforsenth met wor herre Iesu Christo Kiere herre taker iegh ether nade ffor ald gwnsth dyd och venskaff ether nade haffer megh och mynne venner bewisth hwilket ether nade gud lønæ oc iegh met myn ffatighe ydmyge fforskylle wiil Kiere herre haffer iegh hørdt ath then ffatighe mandt her Pædher canszeler vor grepen paa vor nadigiste herre kongens gardt Foszen hwilket megh tyker ath megh skede noget fforstaket ther vtj paa vor kieriste nadigiste herris vegnæ
Background
According to generally known history, herr Peder the chancellor was the Swedish chancellor Peder Jakobsson, who had fled from Gustav Vasa to Norway. He was later sent back and executed in Sweden in 1527 (compare DN 9/612). Fosen was a royal estate and a fief governed by fru Inger, and she considered it an affront that someone seized a man in her territory without asking her. Austrått was her own manor at Fosen, and the masses for «my lord» were for the soul of her husband, Nils Henriksson, who died in 1523. According to DN the Evje estate lay in Rygge, and it had been divided between Gaute Galle's maternal grandfather and Nils Henriksson's mother, so the dispute concerned property in her husband's family that Inger and her children now claimed. According to DN, Strøm in Edøy fief is Kanestraum on Nordmøre. A writ of summons was a letter calling the other party before the court.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)