Riksdag was held at Vesteras, and we know that Olof was one of
two delegates sent by the burghers and the peasants to the King,
whom they implored "on their knees and with tears" to withdraw
his abdication. The Courtier's reference to Olof's debate with
Galle renders it still more uncertain whether we are in Stockholm
or in Vesteras. The Courtier also informs Olof of his appointment
as pastor of Greatchurch, the facts being that Olof was not
ordained until 1539 and received his appointment a year after the
events described in the last act of the play. In the metrical
version, Strindberg makes his most radical departure from the
historical course of events by letting Luther's marriage precede
and influence that of Olof, although in reality Olof's anticipated
that of Luther by several months.

The complaints of the Man from Smaland in the first scene of the
second act could scarcely have been warranted in 1524, when that
act takes place. The hold of the young King was far too
precarious at that early date to permit any regulations of the
kind referred to. The establishment of a maximum price on oxen
does not seem to have occurred until 1532, and a prohibition
against the shooting of deer by the peasants was actually issued
in 1538, both measures helping to provoke the widespread uprising
that broke out in Smaland in 1541. It was named the "Dacke feud"
after its principal leader, the peasant-chieftain Nils Dacke, to
whom the Sexton refers in the second scene of the last act--also
a little prematurely.

Whether these be conscious or unconscious anachronisms, they
matter very little when the general accuracy of the play is
considered. From the moment the Danes had been driven out of the