Daljunkern

Nils Stensson Sture (1512 – before 1527 or in 1528) may have been Daljunkern, a revolt-leader in Sweden. He was the central figure of the second of the Dalecarlian Rebellions.

Nils was born in 1512 as eldest son of the new ruler of Sweden, Sten Sture the Younger, Lord of Ekesiö, the country's Regent from January 1512 to his death on 3 February 1520; and his wife Dame Kristina Nilsdotter, a great-granddaughter of the late king Charles VIII of Sweden.

The boy received his name Nils in honor of both his late maternal grandfather Nils Gyllenstierna and his late paternal great-grandfather Nils Bosson Sture.

In early 1520, the Danish attacked Sweden, and Nils's father the regent Sten Sture died from battle wounds. The boy Nils was sent to safety in Danzig, under guardianship of Chancellor Peder Sunnanväder. Later they returned, but King Christian II arrested them and the boy was kept in custody in Denmark. In 1524 he was released by Frederick I, the new Danish king. Nils got to Kalmar Castle, which was held by sir Berend van Melen, a supporter of the Stures, who then rebelled against the Stures' kinsman Gustav, the new king of Sweden. Kalmar capitulated after king's troops isolated it, and young Nils was taken to Gustav's royal court. As pageboy, he is mentioned having shown difficult behavior.

The question whether Nils Sture died at the age of 14 years or younger, before the revolt; or was Daljunkern ("The young lord from Dalarna"), the symbolical head of the 1527 revolt against king Gustav I of Sweden and claimant of the throne, is controversial among current historians.

The rebel leader signed his letters "Nils Sture", but the traditional view, based on king Gustav's later propaganda, has been that Daljunkern was an impostor, a common farmhand named Jöns Hansson. However, critical research has questioned that, and indications have been found to support that actually Daljunkern was Nils Sture and not an impostor. Actually, in his contemporaneous letters, Gustav I himself did not refute the revolt leader's identity as Nils Sture. The historian and author Lars-Olof Larsson has been the leading proponent for Daljunkern having been the genuine Nils Sture.

...
Wikipedia