Vincens Lunge to fru Inger on the tax, the plague and the inheritance from Ingerd Erlandsdatter
DN 8/538 · 5 Novbr. 1525 · Bergenhus
What the letter says
From Bergenhus on 5 November 1525 Vincens Lunge writes to his mother-in-law fru Inger. He has sent the tax from the north to King Frederik and lists the coins, the silver, the stockfish (rotskjær) and the whale blubber. He tells her that the men of Hamburg have captured the privateer Claus Kniphoff, and that Otte Holgersson Rosenkrantz and his wife have died of plague in Lübeck. He has gone through Roman law and the family table and believes that Ture Jönsson, fru Inger and the maiden Karine are equally close heirs to the old fru Ingerd Erlandsdatter, and he asks Inger to come to Bergen as soon as winter is over. In a postscript he writes that he hopes to win Nessen and five or six other pieces of land in Ryfylke for her.
The letter in modern English
Friendly, loving greeting always sent first with our Lord. Dear mother, I thank you warmly and gladly for the virtue, honour and motherly kindness you have always shown me. As long as I live you shall always find me willing to repay it in all due measure towards you and yours. Dear mother, on St Michael's eve [28 September] I sent the tax from here north of the mountains down to our dearest gracious lord, and it arrived safely, first in Oslo, etc. The tax amounts to 1169 [uncertain reading of the number] Rhenish guilders, 64 ducats, 24½ [uncertain reading] angelots, 17 rose nobles, 23 Joachimsthalers, reckoned at one Rhenish guilder apiece, 6 French crowns, 4632 [uncertain reading] lodd of silver [a lodd is about 15 grams] with two new silver jugs, 5740 marks and 3½ [uncertain reading] in Danish hvitter, 120 våger of rotskjær [split and dried cod, a våg is about 18 kg] and half a last of whale blubber, besides the arrears still outstanding. God grant that it reaches his grace safely. I have spared no trouble. My clerk shall give full account and reckoning for all of it, etc. Yesterday two winter ships came here from Lübeck with news that Claus Kniphoff had intended to come here with 1200 men and five carvels which Jørgen the clerk had sold [uncertain reading: «soldet»] on King Christian's behalf.
Original text
Venlig kerlig hilssen altit forsendt met vor herre. kere moder taccher ieg ether kerligen gerne for dyd ere oc moderligit skeld som i meg altit bewist haffwe hwilchet i altit then sthwnd ieg leffuer i ald tilbørlighet skwlle meg veluillig til befynde imod ether oc ethers at forskylde. Kere moder haffwer ieg nw sancte Michels affthen sendt skatthen her nordenfels aff neder til vor kereste nadige herre som vel fremkom først til Opslo etc.
Background
Vincens Lunge was a Danish nobleman, married to Inger's daughter Margrete and the king's regent north of the mountains. The old fru Ingerd Erlandsdatter in Bergen was the widow of Arild Kane, and she had regarded her kinsman Otte Holgersson Rosenkrantz as her son and heir (see DN 10/514). When he died, it became an open question who would inherit her large estate. «Keiserloven» (imperial law) was Roman law, and under it Ture Jönsson, Inger and Karine Alvsdatter would get equal shares because all were related to her in the third degree. Under Norwegian law Ture might lose out «for the sake of the shield side», probably because his kinship ran through a line that Norwegian inheritance law ranked lower. Ingerd Erlandsdatter inherited from her mother's mother's brother herr Sigurd Jonsson (DN 10/514), which suggests that the common ancestress was Katarina Jonsdatter, sister of Sigurd Jonsson and great-grandmother of Karine, but the letter does not say so. The letter shows how Lunge and fru Inger worked together on both fiefs and inheritance in the years when they were the most powerful people in Bergen and Trøndelag.