WEBVTT - Murder, Madness, and Eric XIV 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.240 Before we begin on the podcast today, just a quick 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:07.760 note of housekeeping. If you want to support the show, 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:12.119 we're over on Patreon, Patreon dot com, slash Noble Blood Tales, 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.680 where I release episode scripts and where I do mini 0:00:15.720 --> 0:00:21.000 series is discussing mostly fictitious television shows based on royals. 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.760 Right now, I'm going through the old c W show 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:27.400 Rain episode by episode, So join the Patreon if that 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.480 interest to you. We also have merch at the website 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.760 df t b a dot com. We're selling pins, mugs, 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.599 We had totes. They might have sold out, but all 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.920 that's very exciting. And then one more announcement, I am 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:47.120 leading a pilgrimage to England this April through this amazing 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:50.559 company called common Grounds, and it's a pilgrimage where we're 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.760 talking about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, which I'm just like 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.200 absolutely thrilled to. There's a link in the episode description 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.120 if you're interested. I think there might still be a 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.040 few slots left. So if you're interested in joining me 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.200 and traveling throughout England and talking about Mary Shelley and 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.640 Frankenstein this spring, yeah, look into that. I think that'll 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:14.160 be really exciting. So, without further ado, here's the episode 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:19.280 m Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.560 Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:32.400 is advised. It was a spring morning when a stranger 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:36.200 appeared straggling out of the woods on the outskirts of 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.960 the small Swedish village of odin Sala. The man was filthy, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:47.600 wearing peasant clothes that fit poorly. They looked borrowed or stolen. Still, 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:50.440 even though the man looked like a beggar, there was 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:55.240 something familiar in his countenance, his blue eyes, his long, 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.919 red blonde beard. A whisper carried itself through odin Sala 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.120 faster than a horse could run. This stranger wasn't a 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.960 vagabond or a peasant. He was King Eric the four, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.400 the King of Sweden. Eric had been missing for three days, 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.120 ever since he ran off into the woods after what 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:22.040 had happened at Uppsala Castle. Had the King been raving 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.760 like a madman lost in the woods for three days straight, 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.520 or had he disguised himself as a peasant on purpose, 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.800 trying to invent a new life for himself. For years, 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.240 there had been rumors that the King's behavior was verging 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:41.800 on erratic that he was prone to mental instability. But 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.239 in May of fifteen sixty seven, those rumors would reach 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:51.240 a crisis point. King Eric would stain his soul with 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.520 murder and there would be no coming back for him. 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.320 Somehow word got to the capital that the king had 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.440 appeared in odin Sala, and the king was brought back 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.040 to Stockholm, where he was bathed, stripped out of his 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.400 rough peasant clothing, and redressed in the finery befitting of 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:14.280 a monarch. He still wasn't talking much sense. His servants 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.919 and advisers were scared to speak with him. Instead, they 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:21.040 brought in his stepmother and then his mistress to help 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.080 soothe him, to try to get him to explain what 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:29.919 had happened. All Eric could do was beg for forgiveness. Please, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.920 please forgive me, he said, over and over again. Heads 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:39.600 of state caused people's deaths all the time. Wars are 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.640 fought in their names, sentences carried out for their justice, 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:49.280 but those deaths are indirect. In his madness, King Eric 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:53.160 would go one step further. He had imprisoned a group 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:58.000 of nobles, a powerful rival family, on largely false charges, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.920 but merely containing them wouldn't soothe the nagging voice in 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.960 Eric's head, the paranoia and fear that had calcified into 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:14.880 a cancer. On May sixty seven, Eric went into the 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.000 cell where the nobleman Neil Store was being kept. Niels 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:24.360 was on his knees in prayer, already King. Eric raised 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:28.479 a dagger and stabbed him, and then Eric went to 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:33.400 the next cell over where Niel's father was imprisoned. Eric 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.400 raised the knife again and brought it down, whispering the 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:44.520 entire time, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. I'm Danis Schwartz, 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:57.440 and this is noble blood. The trope of royal madness 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.680 is common and recurring, both in his dry and in 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:05.240 popular culture. Mad seems to be one of those words 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:10.080 that's used, like eccentric, to provide a euphemistic sheen to 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:15.600 mental illness when someone is wealthy or powerful. Princess Alexandra 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.039 of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a grand piano made 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:23.160 of glass, and that it remained intact inside her, threatening 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:27.039 to shatter at any moment. Charles the Fourth in France 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.080 was said to have suffered from the glass delusion as well, 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.239 believing that his own body parts were made of glass 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.880 instead of flesh. The stories of madness are seemingly endless, 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.320 and I've covered a fair share of them on this 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.560 podcast already. There's George the Third in England, who babbled 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.919 for days straight, Ludwig the Second in the hills of 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.280 southern Germany, who spoke to portraits as though they were 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.920 his dining companions, Carlotta, the ill fated Empress of Mexico, 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.760 and of course there's the Spanish princess known to popular 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:05.240 his story predominantly as Juana la Loca. Inbreeding is a 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:10.039 favorite armchair explanation for the prevalence of royal madness that 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:14.080 the family trees of Europe were so entangled that mental 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.880 illness as a genetic trait spun its away around royal 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.159 families the same way the prominent Habsburg chin did, or 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.720 the way hemophilia would after Queen Victoria. A few writers 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.160 throughout history have suggested that it actually might be the 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.760 pressures and privileges of being a royal itself that causes 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.599 a mind to teeter away from sanity. It's a theory, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.159 and not a very scientific one, mind you, known as 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.880 Caesar madness, the notion that unchecked power could give rise 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.200 to paranoia and megalomania. But whatever the cause of the 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.240 madness to come, there weren't any clues that it would 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.840 emerge at all. When Eric was a young prince, Eric 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.480 was the oldest son of King Gustav the First, sometimes 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:06.599 known as Gustav Vasa in many ways. Gustavasa is considered 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.880 to be the father of modern Sweden. It was under 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.400 his authority that Sweden broke from the Catholic Church and 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.400 began to establish itself in earnest as a Protestant power. 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.920 Eric was an excellent student, a quick study in languages, history, 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.120 and math. His mother had died when he was still 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.800 an infant, and his father had two more sons, John 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:34.080 and Charles, by his second wife. Eric would be tutored 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.960 alongside his younger brother John, the pair of them wheedling 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.520 each other, trying to show off for their esteemed tutor, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:47.200 the French Calvinist scholar Dionysus Bureaus. In addition to the 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.320 basic school subjects that one might have expected a young 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.720 prince to study, Eric also learned astrology, a fundamental tool 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.520 in any monarchs arsenal in the sixteenth century, when it 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.400 came to trying to predict the future. There was one 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:08.280 astrological prediction that's stuck with Eric for his entire life, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.440 that he would be undone by a fair headed man. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.480 A worrying prediction and also not a very specific one, 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.960 considering that our young prince was living in Sweden, where 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.200 fair headed men are pretty much a krona a dozen. 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:32.640 The sense that his crown might be taken away from 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.920 him was the central concern in Eric's life. One of 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.600 the most important things he could do in terms of 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:45.240 solidifying his power was making an advantageous marriage. Eric set 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:49.040 his sight on Queen Elizabeth, the first in England. His 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.000 requests for her hand in marriage were numerous. He started 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.240 before she even ascended to the throne, back when she 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.520 was just the sister of the Catholic Queen Mary, but 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.080 then he continued asking after Elizabeth became a Queen of 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:07.960 England in her own right. Eric sent multiple envoys to Elizabeth, 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.680 and he sent along a beautiful, full length portrait of 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:16.800 himself wearing a dashing orange outfit that I imagine he 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:23.520 believed would send Elizabeth swooning. After two unsuccessful ambassador missions 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.600 to secure the marriage, Eric sent his younger half brother, John, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.040 a Duke to England to plead his case in person. 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.959 Elizabeth had been stringing Eric along in the most polite terms, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.920 never outright rejecting him, just in case his proposal might 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.280 serve a useful purpose when it came to leverage later on. 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:51.080 But eventually, even diplomatic Elizabeth had to be straightforward, writing 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:56.120 perhaps one of the most scorchingly devastating letters in history. 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:01.600 Translated from the Latin, it reads, A letter truly yours, 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:05.079 both in the writing and sentiment, was given to us 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:10.079 on December by your very dear brother, the Duke of Finland. 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.280 And while we perceive therefore in the zeal and love 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.680 of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.640 part we are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:26.199 Highness with the same kind of affection, And that indeed 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.200 does not happen because we doubt in any way of 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.480 your love and honor. But as often we have testified, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.959 both in words and in writing, that we have never 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:41.720 yet conceived a feeling of that kind of affection towards anyone. 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:46.920 We therefore beg your Serene Highness again and again that 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.480 you be pleased to set a limit to your love 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.440 that it advanced not beyond the laws of friendship for 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.480 the present, nor disregard them in the future. I have 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.120 always given both to your brother, who is a most 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:05.360 excellent prince and deservedly very dear to us, and also 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:10.120 to your ambassador. Likewise the same answer, with scarcely any 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:13.680 variation of the words, that we do not conceive in 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.000 our heart to take a husband, but highly commend the 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.520 single life, and hope that your serene Highness will not 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:25.119 longer spend time in waiting for us. Of course, Elizabeth 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.760 referring to herself as we and us is a prime 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:33.000 example of using the royal we. She's only referring to herself. 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:38.360 But even after this letter, Eric still wasn't deterred. He 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.000 decided to make the arrangements to go visit England in 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:47.800 person himself. Surely if Elizabeth saw him, his handsome long 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:52.560 beard in the Swedish style, his excellent fashion, surely then 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.280 she would understand just how excellent of a match the 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:05.560 pair of them would make. Luckily for Elizabeth, Eirik's plans 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.920 were curtailed. As he was making final arrangements to travel 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.000 to England, Eirik's father died, which meant that he Eirik 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.959 was now the king of Sweden. Eric took the regnal 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.680 name Eirik the fourteenth, even though there had not been 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:26.120 thirteen previous king Erik's of Sweden. He took that number 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:31.200 from the semi fictitious History of Sweden written by Olaus Magnus, 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.680 which traced the glorious Swedish monarchy back to Magog, the 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:41.160 grandson of Noah. So, as you can imagine, it's closer 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:45.720 to mythology than fact. But it's great pr not to 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.320 be just the seventh Eirik, as was more likely, but 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:54.559 the fourteenth merely the next in a long and illustrious lineage. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.520 One of his first moves as the newly crowned King 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.600 Erik the fourteenth was to summon representatives of all of 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.400 the estates of Sweden together in a Riksdag, a legislative 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.520 body almost like a parliament. The purpose of Eric's political 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.360 move was simple, to curtail the authority of his two 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:18.040 half brothers, the royal Dukes, and to minimize the role 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.480 of the nobility altogether. Instead of surrounding himself with the 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.960 usual quadre of noblemen, Eric selected one man, a commoner 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.760 named Gore and person who would go on to become 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:35.119 his closest adviser, and some would argue the Machiolvellian political 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:40.040 presence behind Eric's entire reign. Eric had some reason to 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.240 be suspicious of noblemen. His half brother John had married 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:49.480 a Polish princess without Eric's permission, which gave John powerful leverage. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.120 That was the sort of thing that could give someone 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.040 the power to overthrow Eric and to make matters worse 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.760 for the king. He was still unmarried, though he had 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:04.080 an number of illegitimate children by mistresses. Bastards did no 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.679 good when it came to having an heir to the throne. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.480 It makes a monarch all the more unstable if he 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.960 can't establish a clear cut dynasty. Eric tried proposing not 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.800 just to Queen Elizabeth, but to princesses and queens all 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.320 over Europe, including to Elizabeth's rival and cousin, Mary, Queen 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.480 of Scots, all to no avail. The only woman that 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.400 Eric seemed to be able to establish any real relationship 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:36.920 with was a Swedish commoner, a woman named Karen Man's daughter. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.800 Karen was the daughter of a corporal, and the way 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.200 the legend goes, she was selling nuts in a Christmas 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.600 marketplace when the king, strolling through town, saw her and 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.760 couldn't look away. The selling nuts in a marketplace story 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:57.320 is almost certainly fictitious. More grounded sources say that she 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.960 was a servant in the household of the king's face 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.800 ever at court musician, and that she was serving the 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.680 king as a waitress while he was drinking with his friend. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:10.440 But however they met, the King was besotted. She became 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.520 the King's mistress and was granted a room at court, 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.640 a significant wardrobe and servants. It was a small scandal, 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.160 the King making such a show about a woman with 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.360 such little pedigree. She must be a witch, people said 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.040 around the palace. How else could you explain how entranced 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.360 the King seemed by her all of a sudden. According 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.800 to one story, Karen Man's daughter was actually engaged to 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.400 another man before she caught the king's eye. She wisely 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.960 dumped her fiancee, but he reappeared sneaking into the palace 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.640 after Karen was elevated to her new chambers. He begged 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.760 her to come run away with him. The ex fiancee 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.400 was caught and brought before the King, who sentenced him 0:15:55.440 --> 0:16:04.160 to be executed. But even if Karen made the King 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.920 incredibly jealous, when they were together, she seemed to bring 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:12.280 out the best in him, calming him down, grounding him. 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.040 I've noticed that people tend to write about Eric like 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.600 he's King Kong. In one famous portrait of the King 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:22.200 and Karen, she's an angelic figure with long blonde hair, 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.680 wearing a white dress, leaning over Eric's right shoulder, while 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.960 the scheming Goren person hovers over the King's left shoulder, 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.280 a symbolic angel and devil of the King's decision making. 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.800 It was around this time, in fifteen sixty three that 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.240 the King's mental illness began to become more pronounced. He 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:49.280 would make arbitrary decisions, snap at people, become randomly violent, 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.880 and this period was marked by a profound paranoia that 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:58.000 the nobles were plotting against him, especially the nobles in 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:03.360 the powerful Steward family. The Store family patriarch was a 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:08.040 man named Savante Stenson Store. His wife, Martha, was the 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:11.720 sister of the King's second wife, the mother of Eric's 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:17.280 half brothers and apologies in advance for this incredibly confusing 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.159 family tree. Martha was also the aunt of the former 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:25.399 king's third wife, which, if you're constructing the mental map 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:28.639 in your head, means that, yes, the king married a 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:32.120 woman who died, married another woman who died, and then 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.800 married that second woman's niece. The details of the family 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.800 tree don't matter as much as the larger fact that 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:45.440 the Store family was powerful and deeply entrenched in Swedish nobility, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:50.680 and Savante's oldest son, Niels, was their shining golden boy. 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.400 The golden boy part was literal. Niels had light blonde hair. 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.000 Eric had never forgotten the prediction that he would be 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:02.119 usurped by a blond man. He became convinced that it 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:07.359 was Niel's steward. In fifteen sixty six, Eric had Nail's 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:11.600 arrested and accused of treason for a vague and all 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.199 but made up claim that he was quote neglecting his 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.800 duties by not having some peasants properly working at the 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.800 fortress port of Verin. Niels was forced to stand trial 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.640 before the High Court, and with Gore on Person standing 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.359 as chief prosecutor, Niels was found guilty and sentenced to death. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.800 Sentencing him to death sounds a little bit more dramatic 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:44.879 than it actually was. When Eric became king, he replaced 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.600 most of the nobles on the High Court with commoners 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.679 who were loyal to him, and of course he installed 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.639 his right hand man, Gore in Person as chief prosecutor. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.880 In the five years between fifteen sixty two and fifteen 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:03.280 sixty seven, the High Court sentenced over three hundred people 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.280 to death, but almost every one of those sentences were commuted. 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:10.560 Torture was only allowed to be used on people who 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.560 were already sentenced to death, so that sentence was something 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.199 of a loophole. Sentencing someone to death meant that you 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.240 could torture them to get whatever information you wanted out 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:25.000 of them, and then you would naturally commute the sentence. 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:28.880 So Niels to her sentence of death was almost immediately 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:33.320 reduced to merely humiliation. Nils was forced to wear a 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.719 crown made of straw, and he was paraded through the 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.399 streets of Stockholm in a broken down carriage so that 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:44.240 passers by could shout and throw things at him. During 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:49.400 his procession, Nils was still bleeding from torture. The idea, 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.840 insofar as King Eric had an idea, was to so 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.280 humiliate Neil Store that no one would ever see Neil's 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.920 as a plausible rival again, and Nils would also sir 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.440 as an example to the other nobles who might want 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:08.000 to undermine the king. The idea backfired completely. Neil Store's 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:13.240 punishment only further reminded the nobles how irrational and arbitrary 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.720 the King could be. It united the nobles against him. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.440 The king probably sensed that the Store family was whispering 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.719 and having secret meetings behind his back. At one point, 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.800 the King sent Neil Store post humiliation to try to 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:34.080 negotiate a marriage treaty with Princess Nada of Lorraine. Like 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.399 all of the kings would be marriages. It failed, but 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.280 the King got wind that maybe Nils had sabotaged him 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:46.199 on purpose, and so gathering evidence against the nobles. The 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.359 King announced that there was going to be a Reeks 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.000 dog in Upsala, which naturally all of the nobles would 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.240 have to attend. As they were making their way from 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.960 Stockholm to Upsala, Eric invited several prominent nobles to joy 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.879 in him at spart Show Castle. They came expecting to 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.480 be hosted by the King and his court. Instead, it 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:12.560 was in ambush. The nobles were arrested and tried before 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.480 the High Court. Those who fell for the trap were 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:20.760 Neil Store's brother Eric Store, Nils father Spante Store, Abraham 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:26.359 Sen Book, Stan Banner, Ivor Iverson, and Stan Ericsson. The 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:31.000 Reichstag was postponed. The ambush noblemen were sentenced to death 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.040 and sent to be imprisoned at Upsala Castle. A few 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.440 days later, Neil Store was arrested in Lorraine and brought 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:48.720 to Psala Castle to join his brother and father. The 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:53.800 delayed Reichstag eventually assembled, although for obvious reasons, it included 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:58.400 a smaller representative of nobles than normal. Eric was planning 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.199 on getting the Reichstag to discuss the sentencing of the 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.639 accused nobles, but when he stood up to speak before 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.000 the assembly, he realized he had lost the notes he 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.199 had prepared for his speech. Fumbling, he wasn't able to 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:17.240 speak at all. Meanwhile, Savante's wife, Martha, the sister of 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.360 the former queen, was desperate to try to figure out 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.400 how to get her family out of this terrible, unjust situation. 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:28.520 She and her daughter Anna came to Sparta to try 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:30.760 to get an audience with the king, but they were 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:35.280 turned away, not just rejected, but placed under house arrest 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.879 with guards in the nearby village. Martha kept trying to 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.840 figure out what was going on. She begged Karen Man's daughter, 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.240 the voice of reason in the King's ear, to intervene 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:49.159 on her behalf to ask the king to release the 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.119 stores who hadn't done anything wrong. Martha eventually made her 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.560 way Topsala Castle and met with Karen, who was able 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.439 to offer her reassurances that Eric promised her that he 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:04.400 wouldn't hurt the prisoners, but the king's promise didn't seem 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:09.160 to mean much. The King began acting erratically, stalking up 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.080 and down the hallways of Upsala Castle where the prisoners 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:18.159 were being kept, sometimes seeming angry, sometimes apologizing. At one point, 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:21.879 the King entered Sponte's door's cell, where he fell to 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:27.080 his knees begging for Sponte's forgiveness. I promise, the King said, 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:29.639 this will all be handled and there will be a 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:41.959 full reconciliation. There wasn't. On May twenty fourth, fifteen sixty seven, 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:45.639 in what might be characterized as a man estate, the 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:48.879 King ran into the chamber where they were keeping Niel's stour. 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:53.160 The King had a dagger drawn when he saw Niels, 0:23:53.200 --> 0:23:58.520 he shouted, so there thou art thou Trader. Allegedly, Niels 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.440 was reading a prayer book at the time. He had 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:04.160 only moments from when he saw the king coming at 0:24:04.240 --> 0:24:08.280 him to proclaim his innocence to pray for forgiveness, but 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:13.280 the King ignored him. King Eric stabbed Nail's store until 0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:18.040 he was dead. Eric's hand still shaking, still covered in blood, 0:24:18.080 --> 0:24:21.639 but still gripping the knife. Eric stood and went next 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:25.399 door into the room where Spante's door Nails as father 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:29.280 was imprisoned. The King fell to his knees before the 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:33.399 man for the second time, while Spante slowly absorbed what 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:37.920 had happened, the shouting he had heard the king before him, 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:42.280 covered in blood the knife. I'm sorry, the King said, 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:45.199 I'm so sorry, but I can never expect to you 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:47.440 to be able to forgive me for killing your son, 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:52.960 And then before Svante could react, King Eric stabbed him 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:57.399 as well. Leaving the room, Eric let the bloody dagger 0:24:57.480 --> 0:25:00.760 fall to his side, but he kept it in his hand. 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:04.320 He turned to the head guard, a royal provost marshal, 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:08.800 kill all of the other prisoners he ordered, except Harsten. 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:14.080 The guards obliged. Niels and Spante's store were already dead. 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:18.399 But the guards killed the remaining noblemen imprisoned in Upsala Castle. 0:25:19.200 --> 0:25:24.440 Two men were spared, Sten Axelsson and Sten Ericsson, because 0:25:24.480 --> 0:25:27.160 they were both named Sten, and none of the guards 0:25:27.240 --> 0:25:30.320 were sure which of them the king had been referring to. 0:25:31.400 --> 0:25:35.800 The king wandered outside the castle, still manic, covered in blood, 0:25:35.920 --> 0:25:40.680 holding the dagger. His old tutor, Dionysus Barris, found him 0:25:40.680 --> 0:25:43.280 and tried to calm the king down, but the king 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:47.320 was long gone. He shoved off his tutor. Kill him too, 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:51.280 he said to the guards, and they obliged. From there 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:54.840 the king wandered into the woods, where he disappeared for 0:25:54.920 --> 0:25:58.760 three days, only to reappear later dressed as a peasant 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:06.639 in a nearby village. The guards at Uppsala were ordered 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:09.520 to keep the deaths a secret, and so they still 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:13.160 stood guard and still received food deliveries and gifts from 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:16.080 the prisoners families, as if there were still men in 0:26:16.119 --> 0:26:20.080 the cells. It's likely that the Reichstag in session didn't 0:26:20.080 --> 0:26:24.120 know on Ma when Gore in Person arranged for them 0:26:24.160 --> 0:26:27.080 to sign to the fact the nobles had been traders 0:26:27.119 --> 0:26:29.960 and should be sentenced to death, that they were all 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:35.919 already dead. Person was covering the king's tracks, retroactively turning 0:26:35.960 --> 0:26:40.760 the murders into executions. After the king was brought back 0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:43.840 to Stockholm, no one dared speak to him or hold 0:26:43.920 --> 0:26:47.520 an audience with him. It was only the king's final stepmother, 0:26:48.000 --> 0:26:52.080 his father's third wife, who was brave enough to approach him. 0:26:52.160 --> 0:26:54.760 She was the first person to be granted an audience. 0:26:55.640 --> 0:26:59.280 Upon seeing the dowager Queen, the cousin of several of 0:26:59.320 --> 0:27:02.080 the men who had been killed, Eric fell to his 0:27:02.160 --> 0:27:06.280 knees and wept. He begged her for forgiveness and began 0:27:06.400 --> 0:27:10.200 working with her immediately on establishing some sort of settlement 0:27:10.320 --> 0:27:13.280 for the families of the men. The two Stints who 0:27:13.320 --> 0:27:17.640 had been spared were released, and Sfante's wife Martha soon 0:27:17.760 --> 0:27:22.720 arrived to help negotiate the reconciliation. The king agreed that 0:27:22.760 --> 0:27:26.560 there had been a quote venomous person who had advised 0:27:26.640 --> 0:27:30.640 him to do the executions, meaning really they were all 0:27:30.640 --> 0:27:34.320 the fault of gore on Person. That would be enough 0:27:34.520 --> 0:27:37.600 later on for the senators who would later be appointed 0:27:37.640 --> 0:27:41.800 to hold power. As Eric's faculties continued to slip, gore 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:45.360 on Person would be arrested and found guilty of percolation. 0:27:45.520 --> 0:27:49.720 And perjury. Although the senators wouldn't execute him, they would 0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:52.760 merely imprison him in case the king recovered his senses. 0:27:53.640 --> 0:27:56.240 But for the time being, Eric was still the king, 0:27:56.760 --> 0:28:00.160 and whether it was madness or love, he turned all 0:28:00.160 --> 0:28:04.280