Vincens Lunge to fru Inger on King Christian's ships
DN 8/657 · 1 Decbr. 1531 · Lungegaard
Fru Inger Ottesdatter had taken possession of the Giske estate, and her daughter Eline and son-in-law Nils Lykke had bailiffs in Sunnmøre and Romsdal. The letter does not say what the bailiffs managed, but it may have been the Giske estate.
What the letter says
Vincens Lunge writes in haste from Lungegården in Bergen on 1 December 1531 to his mother-in-law fru Ingerd Ottesdatter at Austrått. A Hamburg bojert has brought news of King Christian II's fleet: a ship with 400 Landsknechts capsized off Jutland, the Bishop of Bergen's ship was lost with 109 men, and three ships with more than a thousand men have been lost off Lista and Jæren. No ships have come to this side of Lindesnes. Lunge asks fru Inger to get her daughter Eline to stop her bailiffs in Sunnmøre and Romsdal, who are demanding dues from his poor Finnmark traders.
The letter in modern English
Filial, loving greeting, loyalty and good will with the good I am able. Dear mother, you must know that on St Andrew's Eve [29 November] a Hamburg bojert [a sailing vessel] came in here, which had been only four days on the way [uncertain reading], and it has on board some of the people who ran out from Holland with King Christian. They say as certain news that one of his ships with two masts capsized off Jutland with 400 Landsknechts, and the Bishop of Bergen's ship, which he had taken at Amsterdam, was lost off the land Uosthen [uncertain reading] with 109 Landsknechts and seamen, besides three ships that have been lost off Lista and Jæren with a thousand men and more, as I have written to you before. No ships are now here on this side of Lindesnes, and they have not plundered or taken anything here along the coast. It concerns Denmark first and then Sweden, he probably means to get Norway with a piece of paper etc. [uncertain reading]. My wife is to go to church on New Year's Eve after [the birth of] our young daughter. Dear mother, get my sister Eline to write sternly to her bailiffs in Sunnmøre and Romsdal that they are not to tax and harass my poor subjects, the Finnmark traders, so unlawfully. They want a våg of rotskjær [about 18 kg of stockfish] from each man before they may buy their food, and a våg or half a våg in leidang, and a våg for each ship or jakt.
Original text
Sønlig kerlig helssen trohet och velwillighet met hues ieg got formoer. kere moder moe i viide ath sancti Andree affthen kom her en Hamborger boiart ind som var her imellom iche vden fire dage och haffwer hand inde aff thet folch som løbe aff Holland met kong Kristiern. The sige for viisse tyende ath eth hans skyff met tw mertz bleffwe kwlseilde vnder Iwtland met iiijc lantzknecte och bispens aff Bergenss skyff som hand for Amsterdam tage lod thet bleff for lanthe Uosthen met jc oc ix
Background
In the autumn of 1531 the deposed King Christian II sailed from the Netherlands to win back his kingdoms, and storms scattered his fleet. He came ashore in eastern Norway in November 1531, and Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson went over to him the following winter. Vincens Lunge, who was married to fru Inger's daughter Margrete, was in Bergen and held with King Frederik, and Lungegården was his manor by the town. That Eline Nilsdatter, married to Nils Lykke, had bailiffs in Sunnmøre and Romsdal suggests that she and her husband had control of fiefs or estates there. The letter does not say what the bailiffs managed, but it may have been the Giske estate, which fru Inger had taken over. The Finnmark traders were people who sailed north to the fishing and trade in Finnmark, and the bailiffs demanded from each man a våg of rotskjær before they could buy food, a våg or half a våg in leidang and a våg for each ship. Lunge also tells that his wife is to go to church on New Year's Eve after the birth of a daughter, that is the churching, when a woman was led back into the church after childbirth.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)