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Updated: May 12, 2025
But the poor victims were to be thoroughly avenged, for the people were implacable in their wrath, and in a short time had so environed the king that the fortresses of Nyköping and Stegeborg were alone left to him, and both of these were besieged.
The bodies of the murdered dukes were carried to Stockholm, where they were buried with much ceremony. But the siege of the castle was continued until the garrison was forced to surrender. On obtaining possession of it the enraged people razed it to the ground. Stegeborg, where Prince Magnus, King Birger's son, was in command, held out much longer.
Towards noon we left the Baltic, and steamed up the long, narrow Bay of Söderköping, passing, on the way, the magnificent ruins of Stegeborg Castle, the first mediæval relic I had seen in Sweden. Its square massive walls, and tall round tower of grey stone, differed in no respect from those of contemporary ruins in Germany.
At Wadstena they took leave of their beneficent countryman, who furnished them amply with money and clothes for their journey, and ordered his son Matthew, a very amiable young man, to accompany them eight days journey on their way to Lodese, on the river Gotha; and where he lodged them in his own house for some time, till the ship in which they were to embark was ready to sail The chevalier Franco lent them his own horses all the way from his castle of Stegeborg; and, as Quirini was ill of a fever, he mounted him on a horse which had a wonderfully easy pace.
Brunke and his men leaped overboard, hoping to escape by swimming, but they were all taken and Brunke and three of his chiefs sent to Stockholm, where they were soon afterwards beheaded. Stegeborg was now in a desperate state and was soon forced to surrender, on the condition that the life of Prince Magnus should be spared.
The king and queen, with Brunke, their confederate, were in Gothland, which province alone they held, and from which they sent a number of ships to Stegeborg with provisions and troops. These had no sooner appeared in the river Skares, however, than they were attacked and taken, leaving Prince Magnus as bad off as ever.
Eight days after their arrival in Drontheim, the lord-lieutenant gave them two horses and a guide to conduct them to Stegeborg; and as Quirini had presented him with his share of the stockfish, a silver seal, and a silver girdle, he received in return a hat, a pair of boots and spurs, a leathern cloak-bag, a small axe, with the image of St Olave, and the lieutenants coat of arms engraved on it, a packet of herrings, some bread, and four Rhenish guilders.
Four days before they reached Stegeborg, they came to a town called Wadstena, in which St Bridget was born, and where she had founded a nunnery, together with chaplains of the same order. At this place the northern kings and princes have built a most magnificent church covered with copper, in which they counted sixty-two altars.
Gathering some vessels, he had them strongly planked all around, and loading these with provisions and the remainder of the king's forces, he set out for Stegeborg. On entering the Skares the people attacked him with stones and other missiles, but he and his men protected themselves behind the planks.
That they might avoid travelling too much by sea, which was not safe on account of the war, they were advised to apply to their countryman, Giovanne Franco, who had been knighted by the king of Denmark, and who resided at his castle of Stichimborg, or Stegeborg, in east Gothland, in the kingdom of Sweden, at the distance of fifty days journey from Drontheim.
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