Fru Inger on the jewels in Deventer
DN 5/1095 · 24 May 1539 · Sæm
Fru Inger, who held Giske for a time, here pursues the case of the jewels belonging to Nils Lykke's children, which the archbishop had taken to Deventer. The letter concerns her grandchildren and not the Giske estate.
What the letter says
Fru Ingerd Ottesdatter writes from Sem on Whitsun Eve 1539 to the secretary of Deventer, Master Nicolaus Verheyden. She thanks him for his letter about the property and jewels belonging to the children of Sir Nils Lykke, which lie packed in a half-barrel. The draft power of attorney he sent with Gaudo has been lost, and she asks for a new one. King Christian of Denmark has given the children's kin leave to take the property in Deventer, and she asks him to hold it back until he receives her letter and seal or her own messenger. She explains that the children's mother was her daughter, and that she herself gave her daughter the greater part of the property before she married Nils Lykke.
The letter in modern English
My friendly greeting beforehand and whatever good I can do. Honoured, dear Master Nicolaus, I thank you kindly for all good things and especially for your kind letter, which you wrote to me about the property and jewels of the late Sir Nils Lykke's surviving children, packed in a half-barrel, and that still more jewels are well kept and shall remain well kept. Dear Master Niclas, as you write, you gave the said Gaudo a draft to take with him, from which I was to have the power of attorney made in order to obtain justice in the matter. That draft has slipped from my hands, so that it cannot be found again. Therefore my friendly request to you is that you will help me to obtain another, correct in form, so that I may have another made from it, so that the poor fatherless children may come into their own. You shall be well paid for your trouble. Dear Nicolaus, we, the children's friends [kin], have now been given leave by our gracious lord King Christian, the King of Denmark, to take to us the children's property that is in your town of Deventer. Therefore my friendly request to you is that you keep that property with you until you receive my letter and seal or my own sure messenger, for one cannot trust everyone now. I am the children's grandmother. The children's mother was my daughter, and I gave her the greater part of that same property before she married Sir Nils Lykke.
Original text
Mynenn vruntlykenn grueth thouoeren ende wes ich gudes vormach. Erszamme leue meister Nicolaus dancke ich v vruntlijken vor alle guth ende besunderliken voer jwen leslykenn to schryuen alzse gy my to scriuen vmme seliger nagelaten her Nicles Lyckes kynderen guth ende clenodien beslagen in en haluen tonne ende noch mere clenodie wol bewarth synth ende scholen woll bewart blyuen leue meister Niclas alsze gy schryuen dat gy deden Gaudo vursz een concept mede gegeuen hebben dar ich de vulmacht nae
Background
Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson fled Norway in April 1537 and died in the Netherlands the following year. He had taken with him the Church's silver and other valuables and placed them in safekeeping in the town of Deventer. Among them was a half-barrel of jewels belonging to the children of Nils Lykke, who died in the archbishop's custody in 1535. The children, Nils and Helvig, lived with fru Inger, and their mother was Inger's daughter Eline. The letter is written in Low German, the language of trade on the North Sea and the Baltic, and shows that Inger had connections among the merchants in Bergen who traded with Deventer. Sem near Tønsberg was a royal estate, and the letter does not say why Inger was there.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)