Fru Inger defends the Dalecarlian Junker to the archbishop
DN 9/607 · 17 April 1528 · Fosen
What the letter says
On 17 April 1528 fru Inger writes from Fosen to Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson. She promises to collect the gjengjerd, an extraordinary tax, in her fiefs, but asks for a letter from the king that can be read to the common people, since otherwise they will not believe it. She defends junker Nils, the Dalecarlian Junker (Daljunkeren), whom the Danish council of the realm calls an impostor, and explains that she and the others gave him only a few men and guns because they believed the rumour that King Gustav was dead. She also tells how she tried to reconcile Vincens Lunge and Johan Krukow over a fief.
The letter in modern English
My humble, loving greeting always sent first with our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear lord, I thank your grace humbly and warmly for the great honour and kindness your grace has always shown me and my friends. May Almighty God reward your grace for it, and I will always gladly repay it with all my power. Dear lord, your grace wrote to me about the gjengjerd [extraordinary tax] that your grace is to collect here in your grace's diocese. I will gladly take trouble over it, have it announced at the things [uncertain reading: «lade tyngæ wd»] and collect it in the fiefs I hold, and give your grace an account of it according to the tax roll. Therefore I ask your grace to send me one of our dear lord's letters that I can have read to the common people. Otherwise they will not believe it unless they hear our dear gracious lord's letter, for the common people are otherwise suspicious in such matters, as your grace well understands. Dear lord, your grace tells me in your letter that the council of the realm in Denmark has written to your grace about junker Niels, that he is supposed to be a rogue and impostor or traitor. He seems to me far too simple to deceive anyone, and I understand that a man's enemies say nothing good about him. I also believe that herr Peder the chancellor, who was his godfather, our Per Grem and several others who served his father know him well.
Original text
Myn ydmygeligh kierlig hilsen altid forsent met wor herre Jesu Christo. kiære herræ tacker ethers naade ydmygelig oc kierlig for ethers store ære oc dygd som ethers naade meg oc mynne wenner altid bewist haffwer hues ethers naade then almegtistæ gwd løne oc ieg altid gerne forskillæ wil aff all myn mackt.
Background
Junker Nils, the Dalecarlian Junker, was Nils Stensson, who claimed to be the son of the Swedish regent Sten Sture the Younger and gathered the men of Dalarna in revolt against Gustav Vasa. In the autumn of 1527 he came to Norway and was well received at fru Inger's estates, and he was betrothed to her daughter Eline (see DN 9/612). Fru Inger writes that he is too simple to deceive anyone, and that it is customary to give a man safe conduct while his case is tried, and she recalls that Gustav Vasa himself was once an outlaw. The recess of Malmö was the agreement between Denmark and Sweden of 1524, and the Danish council held that the Norwegians had broken it by helping the Dalecarlian Junker. Gjengjerd was an extraordinary tax, and fru Inger was to collect it in her fiefs according to the manntall, the list of taxpayers. Anne and Lucie, who send greetings, are her daughters.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)