On 24 May 1567, three members of the Sture family were murdered at Uppsala Castle. The Stures were as distinguished a family as the Vasas. That year, Erik XIV had eight members of the aris- tocracy accused of treason. Six of them were killed in prison. The clothes which Svante Sture and his sons Nils and Erik were wearing when they died were kept by their survivors as secular relics in Uppsala Cathedral, including the jacket worn by Erik Sture in this painting. It is unique for a 16th- century costume depicted in a portrait to have been preserved.