The king sends Erling to negotiate with Lübeck
DN 8/141 · 10 May [1341.] · Stockholm
What the letter says
An extract from a letter from King Magnus, written in Stockholm on 10 May, probably 1341, asks the city of Lübeck to send two plenipotentiaries to Bergen around Midsummer. There they are to meet Lord Erling, the king's knight, and the king's treasurer to negotiate about the dispute between the king's bailiff in Bergen and the citizens of Lübeck and about the tolls. The king demands full redress for the harm he and his people have suffered, and tolls and rights as full as his forefathers had. In return he promises to keep the customary liberties and privileges for the Lübeck merchants.
The letter in modern English
[Opening in the copy: From the illustrious lord king of Sweden, among other things, this is contained:] Further, concerning the outrages or quarrels which, as is said, have arisen between our bailiff in Bergen and your citizens, we exhort your prudence to send two worthy men of your said city to Bergen around the coming feast of St John the Baptist, with authority from you. To meet them we will take care to send Lord Erling, our knight, and our treasurer, to negotiate and come to agreement both about the said outrages and about our tolls, over which we have heard there has been dispute there. Towards you we will hold firmly to this: for the wrongs that have so far been done to us and ours there by your people or by anyone else, or that may be done hereafter, which we do not wish, we want such and so great justice done to us, and as regards the tolls and our other rights, we want as full a rendering as any of our forefathers, the kings of Norway, had when they had it most fully and freely. To you and yours who come there we will firmly and kindly keep the customary liberties, favours and privileges, as they did. Farewell in Christ. Written in Stockholm on the day of the blessed Gordian and Epimachus.
Original text
Ex parte jllustris domini regis Swecie inter cetera continentur hoc modo: Ceterum super insolenciis seu dissensionibus inter advocatum nostrum Bergis, et civitatenses vestros, ut dicitur, suscitatis, prudentiam vestram hortamur, ut duos probos viros de vestra civitate predicta, circa festum beati Johannis baptiste proximum Bergis, potestatem a vobis habentes, dirigere studeatis, quibus dominum Erlingum militem nostrum et thesaurarium nostrum ibidem destinare curabimus in occursum, ad tractandum
Background
The German merchants, especially from Lübeck, had great power in Bergen, where they bought stockfish and sold grain. The king's bailiff in the town often came into conflict with them over tolls and rights. The king was in Sweden and chose Erling Vidkunsson, the experienced former drottsete, to conduct the negotiations. This was decades before the German Kontor (Hanseatic office) in Bergen took its settled form around 1360, but the letter shows that the struggle for power in the town was already under way. The letter survives as an extract in a copy.
People: Erling Vidkunsson