The deathbed testimony on fru Inger and Peder the chancellor
DN 9/623 · 25 April 1529 · Throndhjem
What the letter says
The lawman of Trondheim, four councillors and a burgher testify on 25 April 1529 to what Jens Hansson, former servant of herr Peder the chancellor, said on his deathbed in the sickroom at Olavsgården. He stated that Peder the chancellor had fled from Trondheim to fru Inger Ottesdatter at Fosen, gave her a large gold ring and gold coins, and was hidden by her people until the archbishop's men had him handed over by a ruse. He also told how fru Inger in Bergen wanted to pass him off as the rebel King Gustav demanded handed over, and send him to Rostock. So he fled to Hamburg and made his way home over land.
The letter in modern English
We, Olav Vigfastsson, lawman in Trondheim, Jon Olsson, master Jakob the mint master, Nils Engelbrektsson and Olav Nilsson, councillors, and Peder Jyde, burgher of the same place, make known to all who see or hear this letter that on the day of St Mark the Evangelist [25 April] in the year 1529 we were asked by the prudent retainer Mogens Arnesson, our gracious lord the archbishop's bailiff at Olavsgården in the said Trondheim, to go up into the sickroom and hear and carefully note what words and account Jens Hansson, herr Peder the chancellor's lad [servant], could give about the time when he first came here to the country. For he lay gravely ill from the cold and frost he caught last winter on Dovrefjell, when he came back from Hamburg. First we asked him how herr Peder and he escaped from here, from the Greyfriars' friary [the Franciscan friary], where they were held under bail and pledge [a promise to stay], or on whose advice it was. He answered and said that herr Peder had written to fru Ingerd at Fosen asking whether he might safely flee and hide himself secretly from here and come to her, and it was so agreed between them. Then her men came to Trondheim on her errand around St Botolph's day [17 June], when my lord the archbishop, the lord dean, the lawman and most of the people had gone in to the law assembly.
Original text
Wy effterne Oluff Vifastsson lagmand i Trondem Jon Olsson mester Jacob myntemester Nils Engelbrictsson och Oluff Nilsson raadmen Peder Jwte borger i samme sted bekenne ffore alle som thette breff see eller høre at sancti Marcj ewangeliste dag anno etc. 29 wore wy tilbedne aff ffornwmstig swen Mogens Arne(son) wor naduge her erchebispens ffogett pa S: Oluffs gord i fforne Trondhem at wy skulde ther vpp gaa i siwkestugen høre och granneligen bemerke hwadt ord och skell som Jens Hansson her Per
Background
The testimony was taken at the request of Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson's bailiff Mogens Arnesson, which suggests that the archbishop was gathering evidence against fru Inger shortly before he took her fiefs that same spring. Herr Peder the chancellor was probably Peder Jakobsson (Sunnanväder), who had been chancellor to Sten Sture the Younger and fled to Norway after a conflict with Gustav Vasa. He was handed over to Sweden and executed in 1527. "Herr Sten's son" and "junker Nils" on the back of the letter are the Daljunker, a young man who called himself Nils Sture, son of Sten Sture the Younger, and who led a revolt in Dalarna. Fru Inger received him at Austrått, and he was executed in Rostock in 1528, which is probably what Jens refers to when he says "he" had been put to death. According to Jens, fru Inger wanted to use him as a scapegoat to save the Daljunker, but this is his own account, given to the archbishop's men.
People: Ingerd Ottesdatter (fru Inger)