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Friedrich demanded an account of his brother’s guardianship and the return of 100,000 gylden extracted from Friedrich’s territories to pay their father’s debts. ”8 Duke Christian seems to have suspected that some of the lords in Aalborg favored his uncle Friedrich, a suspicion that may explain a message he sent to Eske Bille, the commander in Copenhagen. Christian warned Bille to admit no one to the castle whom Bille did not know well. The move ignored the council’s right to dispose of 7 8 Ture J¨onsson to Sten Sture Apr 10 1513, 1.

Union kings discovered the efficacy of reaching beyond the privileged orders, using commoners to achieve limited goals. Princes and the lords temporal and spiritual underestimated the forces in play under their very noses and out in the great world. In the late Middle Ages, Europe fostered a number of impersonal innovations whose effects were irresistible and incalculable. Professional warfare, involving mercenaries, artillery, and fortification, displaced homegrown defense. Although the North lagged behind in implementing these costly novelties, princes could not ignore them altogether.

In each of the kingdoms, council lords made territorial autonomy a primary concern, and kept the king on a short financial tether. , 59–62. , 62–64. 22 Reforming the North The privileged orders were convinced that they alone could preserve each kingdom’s laws, privileges, legal norms, and customs against the demands of a distant and alien crown. The council lords prevailed by taking charge of administrative offices, fiefs, and the powers of war and taxation. They ensured continued control by insisting on the electoral character of the crown.