Massacre
On November 4, Christian was anointed by Gustavus Trolle in the Storkyrkan (the "grand church" in Stockholm), and took the usual oath to rule the kingdom through native-born Swedes only. A banquet was held for the next three days.
On November 7, the events of the Stockholm bloodbath began to unfold. On the evening of that day, Christian summoned many Swedish leaders to a private conference at the palace.
At dusk on November 8, Danish soldiers, with lanterns and torches, entered a great hall of the royal palace and took away several noble guests. Later in the evening, many others of the king's guests were imprisoned. All these people had previously been marked down on Archbishop Trolle's proscription list.
The following day, November 9, a council, headed by archbishop Trolle, sentenced the proscribed to death for being heretics; the main point of accusation was their having united in a pact to depose Trolle a few years earlier. However many of them were also leading men of the Sture party and thus potential opponents of the Danish kings. At noon, the anti-unionist bishops of Skara and Strängnäs were led out into the great square and beheaded. Fourteen noblemen, three burgomasters, fourteen town councillors and about twenty common citizens of Stockholm were then hanged or decapitated.
The executions continued throughout the following day (November 10). According to the chief executioner Jörgen Homuth 82 people were executed.
It is said that Christian also took revenge on Sten Sture's body, having it dug up and burnt, as well as the body of his little child. Sture's widow Dame Kristina, and many other noble Swedish ladies, were sent as prisoners to Denmark.
Read more about this topic: Stockholm Bloodbath
Famous quotes containing the word massacre:
“The bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of the very nature of totalitarian states in which massacre is only an administrative detail.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“The bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)