This is a part of the
History of Sweden series. It covers
Sweden from the
12th century to
1523.
Under King
Sverker I of Sweden[?] (
1134-
1155), the grandson of Blotsweyn, who permanently amalgamated
Svealand and
Götaland, each of the two nations supplying the common king alternately for the next hundred years. Sweden began to feel the advantage of a centralized monarchical government.
Eric the Saint[?] (
1150-
1160) organized the
Church of Sweden on the model prevalent elsewhere, and undertook a crusade against the heathen
Finlanders, which marks the beginning of Sweden’s overseas dominion. Under
Charles VII[?] the archbishopric of
Uppsala was founded, in
1164. But the greatest medieval statesman of Sweden was
Earl Birger, who practicaly ruled the land from
1248 to
1266. To him is attributed the foundation of
Stockholm; but he is best known as a legislator, and his wise reforms prepared the way for the abolition of
serfdom. The increased dignity which the royal power owed to Earl Birger was still further extended by King
Magnus Ladulås (
1275-
1290). Both these rulers, by the institution of separate and almost independent duchies, attempted to introduce into Sweden a feudal system similar to that already established elsewhere in Europe; but the danger of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent and tragic complications. Finally, in
1319, the severed portions of Sweden were once more reunited. Separation while the political development of the state was of the steadily proceeding. The formation of separate Estates orders, or estates, was promoted by Magnus Ladulås, who extended the privileges of the clergy and founded an hereditary
nobility (
Ordinance of Alsnö[?],
1280). In connection with this institution we now hear of a heavily armed cavalry as the kernel of the national army. The knights to new Nobles and Burghers, became distinguishable from the higher nobility. To this period belongs the rise of a prominent burgess class, as the towns now began to acquire charters. At the end of the
13th century, and the beginning of the
14th too,
provincial codes of laws appear and the king and his
council execute legislative functions.
A legendary list of kings gives to this Charles six predecessors of the same name. Subsequent kings of Sweden have always given this Charles the title of Charles VII.
The first union between
Sweden and
Norway occurred in
1319, when the three-year-old
Magnus, son of the Swedish royal duke Eric and of the Norwegian princess Ingeborg, with who had inherited the throne of Norway from his grandfather
Haakon V of Norway[?] was in the same year elected king of Sweden, by the
Convention of Oslo[?]. A long minority weakened the royal influence in both countries, and Magnus lost both his kingdoms before his death. The Swedes, irritated by his misrule, superseded him by his nephew,
Albert of Mecklenburg in
1365. In Sweden, Magnus’s partialities and necessities led directly to the rise of a powerful landed aristocracy, and, indirectly, to the growth of popular liberties. Forced by the unruliness of the magnates to lean upon the middle classes, in
1359 the king summoned the first Swedish
Riksdag, on which occasion representatives from the towns were invited to appear along with the nobles and clergy. His successor, Albert, was forced to go a step farther and, in
1371, to take the first coronation oath.
See also: Kalmar Union
In 1388, at the request of the Swedes themselves, Albert was driven out by Margaret, regent of Denmark and, at a convention of the representatives of the three Scandinavian kingdoms held at Kalmar in 1397, Margaret’s great-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, was elected the common king, but the liberties of each of the three realms were expressly reserved and confirmed. The union was to be a personal, not a political union.
Neither Margaret herself nor her successors observed the stipulation that in each of the three, kingdoms only natives should hold land and high office, and the efforts First of Denmark (at that time by far the strongest of member of the union) to impose her will on the the Union, weaker kingdoms soon produced a rupture, or rather a series of semi-ruptures. The Swedes first broke away from it in 1434 under the popular leader Engelbrecht[?], and after his murder they elected Karl Knutsson Bonde their king under the title of Charles VIII, 1436. In 1441 Charles VIII had to retire in. favour of Christopher of Bavaria, who was already king of Denmark and Norway; but, on the death of Christopher in 1448, a state of confusion ensued in the course of which Charles VIII was twice expelled and twice reinstated. Finally, on his death in 1470, the three kingdoms were reunited under Christian II of Denmark, the prelates and higher nobility of Sweden being favourable to the union, though the great majority of the Swedish people always detested it as a foreign usurpation. The national party was represented by the three great Riksföreståndare, or Viceroys, of the Sture family, who, with brief intervals, from 1470 to 1520 successively defended the independence of Sweden against the Danish kings and kept the national spirit alive. But the Viceroyship was too casual and anomalous, an institution to rally the nation round it permanently, and when the tyranny of Christian II became intolerable the Swedish people elected Gustavus Eriksson Vasa, who as viceroy had already driven out the Danes, king of Sweden at Strängnäs on June 6, 1523.
See also: List of Swedish monarchs, Provinces of Sweden, History of Finland, History of Norway, History of Denmark