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Jöran Persson, alternativelyGöran Persson (c. 1530 – September 1568), was KingEric XIV of Sweden'sfavorite, most trusted counsellor and head of the King's network of spies. He was widely seen as aMachiavellian figure, and as holding too much influence over Eric. On both occasions on which the King was removed from power, Persson was quickly arrested by the nobility; the second time he was executed shortly after his arrest.
Jöran Persson was born inSala, the son of a localpriest, Curatus Petrus (Per Joensson) andAnna Pehrsönernas moder, in about 1530. He had a brother, Christiern Persson.
During the early 1550s he studied at theUniversity of Wittenberg, where he proved to be a very gifted student and, according to legend, was highly regarded by the eminenttheologianPhilipp Melanchthon, who, on his journey back to Sweden in 1555, sent with him a recommendation letter to KingGustav I. Upon his return to Sweden he was given an annual pension and employment in the King's service, a year later he became personal secretary to the King and was given a castle inVyborg. In 1558 he received another important commission from the king, namely being put in charge of the King's inspectors inVästergötland in order to establish a register of the estates, which, to the detriment of the Crown, remained loyal toRome. To be entrusted with such an important matter showed that Jöran Persson, even at this early stage in his career, had made himself known in prominent circles as a man capable of getting difficult tasks done. Following the completion of his mission in Västergötland, Gustav allowed Jöran Persson to become personal secretary to his eldest son, Eric.
Jöran Persson had established a reputation for possessing a quick mind and a sharp wit, and of being ambitious, bold, and ruthless. It is also known that Jöran Persson was very familiar withastrology, which he believed to guide the lives of men to a certain extent; despite having been raised and educated in theProtestant tradition, he appears to have been anagnostic.
Following Erik's accession to the throne in 1560, Jöran Persson was raised into the nobility. He took acoat of arms bearing a design of three bricks, thefamily nameTegel and became the lord ofTrögds härad. He was married in 1561 to a woman namedAnna Andersdotter. The couple had two children: the renowned historian Erik Jöransson Tegel and his brother Anders Jöransson Tegel who married Brita Månsdotter Hand.
Jöran Persson played an important role in theKonungens nämnd (literally: King's committee, the highestcourt in Sweden), where he served simultaneously as a prosecutor and the King's representative. This meant that, as well as prosecuting, he also had some control over sentencing. It is not known how many of the 300 death sentences handed down by the court while he was part of it he was personally involved with, however he was regarded by many as the nation's foremostexecutioner (it is still a point of contention whether he took orders from the King in such matters, or whether he acted on his own initiative). Jöran soon became very unpopular among the public, as did his brother, Christiern Persson (d.1567), who also held a position at court. Among other things they were, chiefly among the public, thought to be under the "evil influence" of their motherAnna, who was widely believed to be awitch who influenced politics through the use ofsorcery.
Jöran Persson would go to great length to protect the King's power, the most famous example of this occurred in the summer of 1563 when he ruthlessly crushed the formative rebellion of the King's half-brother,Duke John of Finland. He ordered that John be imprisoned in his home,Turku Castle, along with his followers and that they were to be executed. However, instead of being executed, the Duke was shortly afterwards taken toVaxholm to meet with Jöran Persson. As the representative of the King, he decided that they should instead be detained in the much closerGripsholm Castle, so a watchful eye could be kept on the Duke and his wife at all times. Jöran Persson also personally saw to it that the couple's detention was harsh, far more so than the King had ordered.
Shortly after the imprisonment of Duke John, theNorthern Seven Years' War began between Sweden and a coalition ofDenmark-Norway,Lübeck and thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The war, which was particularly bloody, went well for Sweden at sea, but went very badly on land. The war became increasingly unpopular as Swedish towns were damaged and destroyed, and casualties mounted. As the aristocracy's frustration with Eric's reign became increasingly apparent, the King and Jöran Persson feared a new rebellion.
Eric, who at this stage was beginning to show signs ofmental illness, decided to take action to prevent a rebellion and he invited those he suspected of plotting against him toSvartsjö Castle in May 1567. Those suspected of being a threat to the King were arrested upon their arrival at the castle and they were tried inUppsala with Jöran Persson leading the prosecutions. All those tried were, unsurprisingly, found guilty and sentenced to death. The last nobleman to arrive at Svartsjö wasNils Svantesson Sture, the grandson of regentSten Sture the Younger, who had only just returned from a diplomatic mission toLorraine. The King had long regarded Sture as the most dangerous nobleman in Sweden; in 1566 he had ordered Sture's execution but ultimately decided against this and publicly humiliated him instead. Sture was arrested on 22 May, the following dayEric murdered him in his cell. Following the murder, Jöran Persson managed to convince a council of the nobility, who were unaware of Sture's murder, that those who had been arrested were traitors and that the death penalty was therefore justified; the assent of the nobility meant that the murder and the executions were legal.
The murder of Nils Sture, however, had a huge effect on Eric's health. Within weeks he was removed from the throne on grounds of insanity. The regents elected to rule in place of Eric decided to release John from prison, and decided to arrest Jöran Persson for ordering the deaths of the prisoners in Uppsala; it had become apparent by this stage that those executed were not traitors, but victims of the King's increasingparanoia.
The King recovered from his illness later in the year and was allowed to retake his throne; his first act following this was to release Jöran Persson. He did not, however, send his brother back to prison; on the contrary he reconciled with him. John used the first pretext he could find, Eric's marriage to the commonerKarin Månsdotter,to lead a rebellion against his brother. Almost the entirety of the nobility, desiring revenge for Eric's treatment of them, rallied behind John. This rebellion, somewhat conveniently, resulted in the King once again showing signs ofinsanity.
In September 1568, Eric was forced toabdicate and was succeeded by his brother, who took the title John III. Following this, Jöran Persson was once again arrested. John, who had never forgiven Jöran Persson for his treatment whilst imprisoned in Gripsholm, ordered his death following a very hasty trial, which found him guilty of a number of crimes involving his role in suppressing the nobility. Jöran Persson died very slowly; he was sentenced to thebreaking wheel and severely tortured before being beheaded at some point between 18 September and 21 September 1568. His mother was ordered to be executed with him, but threw herself off the horse on the way to the execution and died.
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