Page 33 - Hotel Tunnel's 100 Years of History

Ulfeldt's rooms, politics were being discussed and soon, a most revolting and tragic drama in the history of the North and the city was played out. With King Karl Gustav's new resolution on May 21st, Swedish customs were introduced in the Skåne cities, which was a violation of the princip- les of the March instruction, while the king put himself in opposition to the three-man commission. The king's plan to begin the Swedishization of Skåne provinces was already evident in the new resolution. The king denied the Skåne nobility's tax-free status and right to land rents, but sought to win the support of the nobility in other ways. The nobility, on the other hand, sought to make their old rights valid, and Ulfeldt suppor- ted their interests. In this struggle, he initially had the support of both Stenbock and Sparre, who later replaced Gyllenstjerna, but due to his antipathy towards Ulfeldt, who had taken the position of Skåne governor, Stenbock quickly used Ulfeldt's attitude towards the Skåne nobility in the matter of customs to accuse Ulfeldt of Karl Gustav.
Ulfeldt's attitude towards the nobles of Skåne in the matter of tolls led to suspicions about him among King Gustav. He succeeded in raising these suspicions. Ulfeldt's letter to the king on June 16th, in which he strong-
ly criticized the government's actions in Skåne, requested his departure from the Skåne commission and renounced the title of the king's privy councilor, further increased the tension between Gustav and Ulfeldt. Gus- tav's violation of peace and new war against Denmark in early August did not appeal to Ulfeldt either, and as he continued to show his dissatisfac- tion, the result was that the king's mistrust of him grew more and more. During the investigation into the Malmo conspiracy discovered in the middle of April 1659, which ended with the execution of three conspira- tors on Malmo's main square on December 22nd of that year, several of the people involved made accusations against Ulfeldt, claiming that he not only thwarted the Malmo plot but also, with the intention of recon- ciling with the Danish government, worked against Sweden in various ways and specifically provided the Danish government with information about Sweden's plans to storm Copenhagen in February 1659. The main organizer of the conspiracy, the owner of Limhamn's farm Bartholomeus Michelsen, among others, testified that Ulfeldt one day in late January or early February had summoned Michelsen to his house on Adelgatan and, using a paper he held in his hand, revealed to him the planned storming of Copenhagen and provided instructions on how the Danes should de- fend themselves, after which Ulfeldt threw the paper into the fire. Michel- sen later shared the storming plans with his fellow conspirators and even with the priest in Bunkeflo, Magister Hans Allesen, who took it to Copen- hagen for the Danish government to know.
After gathering what they believed to be enough evidence against Ulfeldt,
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