223 



QUSTAVUS ERICKSON. 



GUSTAVUS ERICKSON. 



230 



Gurwood.' The work extended, with a volume of index, to thirteen 

 volumes ; the publication of it occupied the colonel for a series of 

 years, and its popularity was unexpected and unexampled. No 

 collection of official documents of any length has ever found its way 

 into so many libraries and so many hands. A second edition was 

 called for, and an abridgment in one volume was issued to satisfy the 

 curiosity of those who could not purchase the complete edition. The 

 reputation of the Duke of Wellington appears to have been mate- 

 rially raised by the publication, and most of his popularity in later 

 life was based on the ' Despatches.' 



Colonel Gurwood urged him to give his consent to other publications 

 bearing on his military career, but did not always succeed. The colonel 

 was in the habit of showing his friends a paper by the duke cm the 

 battle of Waterloo, in answer to the observations on the subject by the 

 Prussian general Clausewitz, and was much surprised at finding that 

 one of those to whom he showed it was guilty of a breach of confi- 

 dence. The whole appeared in print in ' Fraser's Magazine ' as a 

 portion of a review of Captain Siborne's ' History of the Battle.' The 

 reader who is curious to see what Wellington had to say on Waterloo 

 may be assured that he will find it word for word in that magazine 

 for July 1844, without the slightest intimation from whose pen it 

 proceeds a fact which would indeed never be conjectured by any one 

 perusing the article without previous information as to its authorship. 

 The duke also supplied to the present Earl of Ellesmere some observa- 

 tions on the battle which are interwoven with his article on Alison's 

 'History of the War' in the 'Quarterly Review." In return for the 

 colonel's services the duke appointed him deputy-governor of the 

 Tower of London. He again visited Spain in company with Lord 

 Eliot, the present Earl of St. Germans, to endeavour to mitigate the 

 cruelties of the civil war between the Carlisle and Christines, in which 

 neither party gave quarter, and their mission was partially successful 



From the time of the publication of some portions of Napier's 

 'History of the Peninsular War' in 1840, Colonel Gurwood was 

 involved in a disagreeable controversy respecting the circumstances of 

 the capture of the governor of Ciudad Rodrigo. An officer of tbe rank 

 of major, who had commanded one of the storming parties, made a 

 statement in October 1S3S to the effect that he (the major) had 

 accepted the surrender of the governor ; that a sword, afterwards 

 found to be that of an aide-de-camp, had been presented to him in 

 token of surrender ; and that while he wag engaged with two officers 

 who laid hold of him for protection, one on each arm, Lieutenant 

 Gurwood came up and obtained the sword of the governor; on seeing 

 him present which on the ramparts, the major, according to his own 

 account, " turned on his heel and left the spot" The major died in 

 1839, and this statement was made pnblic in the following year in a 

 second edition of that portion of Napier's hiitory relating to the events 

 of Ciudad Rodrigo, the first having stated that " Mr. Gurwood, who 

 though wounded had been amongst the foremost at the leaser breach, 

 received the governor's sword." Colonel Gurwood had been in garrison 

 with the major in 1834 at Portsmouth, and always wore the sword 

 when in uniform ; but this circumstance had not produced any remark 

 from that officer. A long and vexations discussion ensued on the 

 point, which was brought to a close by a very singular incident. 

 Ourwood did not know tbe name of the French officer whom he had 

 rescued from Pat Lowe, and whose evidence would of course be most 

 important to show the justice of his claims, as the Frenchman had 

 guided the Englishman to the tower where the governor was found, 

 and witnessed what then took place. In turning over the duke's 

 papers in 1844, the colonel found a letter addressed to Lord Wellington 

 in 1812 by a captive French officer named Bonfilh, who might, he 

 inferred, be the person he was in search of. He made inquiries in 

 Paris to ascertain if M. Bonfilh was (till alive, found that he was, 

 wrote off to him, and received a letter dated the 1st of May 1844, in 

 which M. Bonfilh informed him that he was indeed the officer whose 

 life he had saved, and gave a statement of all that he remembered of 

 the night of the storm, which differed in some few unessential parti- 

 culars from the recollections of the colonel, but in all essential ones 

 confirmed bis statement, and was irreconcileable with that of the 

 major. The colonel read it with feelings which he declared it impos- 

 sible to describe. He visited M. Bonfilh at his residence in France, 

 and embodied the history of the whole affair in a pamphlet, of which 

 he printed only fifty copies for private circulation, from one of which 

 these particulars are taken. The preface is dated on the 14th of June 

 1846, and it was his last literary effort On the 25th of December in 

 the same year, in fit of temporary insanity, which was attributed at 

 the inquest to the effects of the wound he had received so many years 

 before at Ciudad Rodrigo, he terminated his life by his own hand at 

 Brighton, leaving a widow, a French lady, and three daughters. 



GL'.Sl'AVUS ERICKSO.V, or GUSl'AVUS I., King of Sweden, 

 commonly called QUOTA vus VASA, a descendant of the ancient kings 

 of Sweden, wai born May 2nd 1490 at Ockestadt, near Stockholm. 

 Sweden, which by virtue of the treaty of Calmar made in the year 1397 

 bad become a dependency of the crown of Denmark, had by a successful 

 insurrection thrown off the Danish yoke, and was at that time governed 

 by a Swedish stadtholder. Denmark however never relaxed her efforts 

 to regain her dominion, and she at length succeeded, with the assist- 

 of the Archbishop of Upsal, in the year 1519. Protestantism 

 I about this time to extend itself widely in Sweden, and on this 



account the pope and the archbishop of Upsal, the primate of the 

 kingdom, afforded to Christian of Denmark all possible help. Christian 

 seized upon the Swedish capital, and caused Erickson, of whom he 

 was most apprehensive, to be confined in Calloe, a Danish fortress. 

 By the aasiatance of the ecclesiastical party, Christian procured him- 

 self to be acknowledged king of Sweden by the assembled people, and 

 was crowned in their presence. Before his coronation he promised to 

 release all prisoners, and to maintain the rights and freedom of the 

 Swedish nation ; but within three days after his coronation, and on 

 the 8th of November 1520, he violated his solemn promise by ordering 

 the chiefs of the most respectable Swedish families, and also the 

 members of the senate, to be arrested, and afterwards beheaded in 

 the market-place. Thus perished in one day eighty-four persons, all 

 j belonging to the first families, and among them the father of Gustavus 

 Vasa. When the people who were assembled at the place of execution 

 could no longer restrain their feelings, and showed a disposition to 

 deliver their friends and countrymen from the hands of the executioner, 

 the Danish troops rushed upon the unarmed multitude, and massacred 

 all who fell into their hands, without distinction of age or sex. These 

 executions were continued for several days, and Christian thus hoped 

 to destroy every adherent of the Swedish party. The streets of Stock- 

 holm ran with human blood ; for three days several hundred dead 

 bodies lay upon the ground, and were at length burnt before the gates 

 of the city. 



In the meantime young Erickson had escaped from his prison ; and 

 after a short stay at Ltibeck, where, iu vain, he solicited the assistance 

 of that powerful town, had fled into the mountains of Dalecarlia. 

 Here he received intelligence of the bloody scenes enacted at Stock- 

 holm, and of the fate of his father. When Christian was apprised of 

 the escape of Gustavus, he set a price upon his head, and threatened 

 with death every one who gave him the least assistance. The dread 

 occasioned by these threats closed every door against him ; and even 

 an old servant, upon whose fidelity he had counted, not only forsook 

 him, but carried off all his money. Disguised in rags, he wandered 

 about in the mountains of Dalecarlia, till at length he found shelter 

 as a labourer in the mines of Fahlun. After a short time Gustavu? 

 left the mines, and entered as a day-labourer into the service of a 

 wealthy farmer at Wika, of the name of Fehrson ; but he was soon 

 recognised as the descendant of the kings of Sweden, and, through 

 fear of Christian, was refused an asylum. Wandering in the middle 

 of winter in this severe climate, he was in imminent danger of perishing 

 through cold and want. Some peasants, who found him in a wood 

 nearly frozen, brought him to Peterson, the owner of their village ; 

 but here also he was recognised, and while Peterson received him 

 with apparent kindness, he betrayed his abode to the Danish com- 

 mander of the district. Peterson's wife however, who abhorred the 

 treachery of her husband, saved Gustavus, who fled to the house of a 

 peasant of the name of Nilson, and concealed himself in a cart under 

 a load of straw, with which Nilson was. going to Kattwik, farther iu 

 the interior of Dalecarlia, On its way the cart was stopped by a party 

 of Danish soldiers, who drove their pikes into the straw iu different 

 places. Erickson received a deep wound in the thigh ; but fearing 

 capture more than death, ho endured in silence the danger and tho 

 pain, and succeeded in reaching Rattwik iu safety. 



Here Gustavus began his preparations for his great undertaking. 

 With unwearying zeal he went from house to house, and from hut to 

 hut, filling the hearts of the rough mountaineers with hatred against 

 the tyranny of Christian. His eloquence was so powerful, that he 

 soon found himself surrounded with a number of resolute combatants. 

 With this force he marched towards Stockholm ; his strength increased 

 with each step, for every one participated in the disgust and hatred 

 produced by the cruelties of the blood-thirsty Dane. In May 1521 

 Erickson was at the head of 15,000 men; and after a bloody battle, 

 took the town and fortress of Westeras. Victory crowned the arms 

 of the Dalecarlian?, to whom the inhabitants of the plains of Sweden 

 quickly united themselves. Christian exhausted himself in powerless 

 threats, while one town after another fell into the hands of Gustavus. 

 At length, after various vicissitudes, and after besieging it three times, 

 Stockholm fell into the hands of Gustavus, and Christian was forced 

 to withdraw to Denmark. The nation which he had freed, in their 

 grateful enthusiasm, offered Gustavus the crown of Sweden, but he 

 declined to accept the sovereignty over his countrymen. Under the 

 title of Stadtholder however he conducted the government of Sweden. 

 But the adherents of the Roman Catholic party and the expelled king 

 of Denmark still continued to disturb the country by their intrigues, 

 and the Swedes became convinced that it was only by the fixed 

 authority of a monarchical form of government, and by putting tho 

 power in the hands of Gustavus, that their country could obtain peace 

 and security. Accordingly they again solicited Gustavus to ascend 

 the throne; and in June 1527 he was solemnly crowned king 01 

 Sweden, and thus became the founder of a new dynasty. 



Gustavus Vasa reigned iu Sweden upwards of thirty-three years. 

 During this long period he displayed such virtues and talents for 

 government, that he acquired fresh and imperishable claims upou tho 

 gratitude of his country ; and his memory is still cherished by every 

 Swede. He died in 1559, and was succeeded by his son Erick XIV. 



(Comte Selly, La, Vie <le Oiatave Ericksan, 1807; Gachiclite von 

 Dalekarlien, am den Scliweditchen, 1818.) 



