Early Swedish history
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This article covers the time following the Swedish pre-historic era and partly the Viking Age. It spans from circa 800 AD, when the process of Christianization began, up to 1523, when the king Gustav Vasa was crowned. The era in a way corresponds to the European Middle Ages.
During this period, Sweden was gradually consolidated. Scandinavia was fully Christianized around 1100 AD. The Kalmar Union between the Scandinavian countries was established in 1389 and lasted until Gustav Vasa broke off at seizing power.
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[edit] 9th century
Around 800, the Scandinavian people had settled in villages and established small societies based on petty kingdoms and their kings, mainly known from legends. The Scandinavian people now became more distinguished as separate people, and started going out on expedition to foreign countries, that lead them to accumulated some wealth. Nation borders were lain inside the country, because the seas were more easy to travel than the forests in the inland, which is why the southern territories, the Scanian lands, rather belonged to the Danish than the Swedish kingdom.
It is also around 800 that the earliest concrete influences from foreign countries are to be found, including early contact with Christianity and a development of the runic alphabet.
[edit] Viking expansions
The Danish and Norwegian vikings turned their attention to western countries, England, France and the Atlantic. The vikings of Sweden, however, traveled east into Russia. The large Russian mainland and its many navigable rivers offered good prospects for merchandice and, at times, plundering.
During the 9th century extensive Scandinavian settlements were made on the east side of the Baltic sea. The Russian Tale of Bygone Years (dated to 1113) writes about how the tribe Varangians arrived in Constantinople, and of piratical expeditions on the Black Sea and on the Caspian Sea. The legendary expeditions by Rurik (Rørik) and Askold (Haskuld) established settlements that resulted in Kievan Rus', a predecessor state of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
The Varangians accumulated some wealth from its foreigh trades. A centre of trade in northern Europe developed on the island Birka, not far from where Stockholm was later constructed, in midth Sweden. Birka was probably demolished already during the 11th century, but remains show its wealth in the 9th and 10th century. Thousands of graves, coins, jewelry and other luxury items have been found there. [1]
There are also other locations in Sweden where precious treasures have been found, revealing a widespread trade between Sweden and eastern countries down to Asia.
[edit] Early rulers
The earliest rulers of Sweden are all mainly found in legends and myths and are not considered verifiable by historians (See Semi-legendary kings of Sweden). The accounts are often based on brief mentions in the 13th century Hervarar saga.
The first confirmed king of Sweden was Eric the Victorious, who is believed to have lived circa 970–994. He was succeeded by King Olof (late 960s – circa 1020), the first Christian king of Sweden.
[edit] Christianization
Swedes had contact with Christianity from their early travels. Christian influence on burials can be traced to the late 8th century in some parts of Sweden. Additionally, Irish missionary monks were probably active in some parts of Sweden, as demonstrated by Irish saints that were worshipped in the Middle ages.
The earliest campain to introduce Christianity in Sweden were made by the monk Ansgar (801–865). Ansgar made his first visit to Birka in 829, was granted permission to build a church, and stayed as a missionary until 831. He then returned home and became Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. Around 850, he returned to Birka, where he saw that the previous congregation had been shattered. Ansgar tried to reestablish it, but it lasted but a few years. In the remainder of the 9th and most of the 10th century, there were only a few futile attempts of Christianization, which did not result in anything lasting. [2]
Under the King Olof of Sweden (surnamed Skötkonung; late 960s – circa 1020) Christianity was fully established in Sweden. The story as told – there are no concrete evidence of it taking place, and the year is also disputed – was that Olof was baptized in 1008 by the Saint Sigfrid of Sweden, at Husaby well in West Sweden.
When Emund the Old ascended to the throne, around 1050, he had converted to Christianity. But because of his quarrelles with Adalhard, Archbishop of Bremen, independence of the Church of Sweden was not obtained for another century. A decade later, in 1060, King Stenkil ascended to the throne. At the time, Christianity was firmly established throughout most of Sweden, with its chief strength in Västergötland. However, the people of Uppland, with their center in Uppsala, still held out the heathen faith. Adalhard had succeeded in destroying the idols in Västergötland, but was yet unable to persuade Stenkil to destroy the heathen Temple of Uppsala.
There is still much to be known about the earliest Swedish regents and their values. However, the last pagan king was clearly Blot-Sweyn, who reign 1084–1087. According to legend, Blot-Sweyn became king when his predecessor King Inge refused to sacrifised at Uppsala. His brother-in-law Sweyn stepped up and agreed to sacrifice, which gave him the pet name Blot, which means sacrifice. Inge got revenge three years later, when he entered Uppsala with a great force, set the template ablaza, and killed Sweyn as he attempted to flee.[3][4]
It wasn't until Eric the Saint (1150-1160) that the Church of Sweden was to be organized on the model prevalent elsewhere. According to legend, Erik also undertook it upon himself to preach the Gospel eastwards. His travels, not unjustifiedly described as a crusade, to the heathen Finns in Österland marked the beginning of Sweden's overseas endeavors east of the Gulf of Bothnia.
After the introduction of Christianity the importance of Uppsala began steadily to decline, and the kings no longer made it their residence. It was made the seat for the Swedish Archbishop in 1164. A cathedral was built on the place for the heathen Temple of Uppsala. One of the first to be consecrated there was the Swedish King Eric the Saint.
[edit] Consolidation
King Sverker I of Sweden (1134-1155), quite possibly the grandson of Blotsweyn, is said to have permanently integrated Götaland with Sweden or Svealand, with each of the two parts supplying the king common to all Sweden alternately for the next hundred years. Sweden began to feel the advantage of a centralized monarchical government.
Anund Jacob of Sweden, now sole king, early in his reign allied himself with Olav II of Norway against Knut the Great, who had demanded the restitution of the rights possessed by his father King Sweyn in Norway. The allies took advantage of the Danish king’s absence to harry his land. On his return an indecisive battle was fought at Helgeå, and Anund returned to Sweden. Olaf was driven from Norway by the Danes, but returning in 1030 he raised a small army in Sweden and marched through Jämtland to Trondheim only to meet his death at the Battle of Stiklestad. After death he was worshipped in Sweden, especially in Götaland. We hear from Adam of Bremen that Anund was young in years but old in wisdom and cunning; he was called Kolbränna because he had the houses of evildoers burnt. Like Olof Skötkonung he caused coins to be struck at Sigtuna, of which a few remain. The coins of Anund surpass all that were struck during the next two centuries. He appears to have died about 1050, according to Adam of Bremen. He was succeeded by his brother Emund the Old, who Emund the had been previously passed over because, his mother was unfree, the daughter of a Slav prince and captured in war. This royal son had become a Christian, but when king soon quarrelled with Adalhard, archbishop of Bremen, and endeavoured to secure the independence of the Church of Sweden, which was not obtained for another century. Emund, who was given the name Slemme, had territorial disputes with Denmark in the early part of his reign. These disputes were settled by a rectification of boundaries, which assigned Blekinge to Denmark.
With the death of Emund, which took place in 1060, the old family of Swedish kings died out in male line. The successor of Emund the Old was a king Stenkil of Sweden who had married the daughter of his predecessor. He was the son of a certain Ragnvald, perhaps connected with Västergötland's Ragnvald, of the reign of Olaf Skötkonung. Stenkil was born in Västergötland and was warmly attached to the Christian religion. The Adalhard who had quarrelled with Emund the Old now sent a bishop, Adalhard the younger, to Skara.
During his reign grants of land in Värmland made by the king to the Norwegian earl Haakon Ivarsson led to a successful invasion of Götaland by the Hardrade Harald III of Norway of Norway. Stenkil also had disputes with Denmark. On his death in 1066 a civil war broke out in which the leaders were two obscure princes named Eric. Probably the division of feeling between Västergötland and Upland in the matter of religion was the real cause of this war, but nothing is known of the details, though we hear that both kings as well as the chief men of the land fell in it.
A prince called Haakon the Red now appears as king of Sweden and is said to have occupied the throne for thirteen years. In the Västergötland regnal lists he appears before Stenkil and it is possible that the authority of that king was not regularly acknowledged in the province. In 1081 we find the sons of Stenkil, Inge and Halsten Stenkilsson, reigning. Inge’s attachment to Christianity caused him to be expelled after a short time from Uppland by his brother-in-law Blot-Sweyn, famous from his revival of the old sacrifices. Sweyn retained Inge and the kingship only for three years. After that Blotsweyn interval Inge returned and slew him, and his fall marks the final overthrow of the old religion. The interesting account of Uppsala preserved by Adam of Bremen in his History (iv. 26) apparently dates from the period immediately preceding these events. He describes the temple at Uppsala as one of great splendour and covered with gilding.
[edit] 13th century
The greatest medieval statesman of Sweden, and one of the principal architects of its rise as a nation, was Birger Jarl the Regent, who practically ruled the land from 1248 to 1266. He is today revered as the founder of Stockholm and as the creator of national legislations. His wise reforms prepared the way for the abolition of serfdom. The increased respect - and power - which later royals owe to Birger Jarl was still further extended by his son, 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; the danger of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent and tragic complications by the opponents, the Folkung party. (Unfortunately, the term Folkung also later referred to Earl Birger's descendants, forming the royal Folkunge of Bjelbo dynasty.) Finally, in 1319, the severed portions of Sweden were once more reunited.
The formation of separate orders (classes of society), or estates, was promoted by Magnus Ladulås, who extended the privileges of the clergy and practically founded the formal Swedish nobility (see 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 (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, provincial codes of laws appear and the king and his council executed also legislative and judicial functions.
[edit] Union between Sweden and Norway
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, inherited the throne of Norway from his grandfather Haakon V and in the same year was elected King of Sweden, by the Convention of Oslo. The boy king's 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 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.
[edit] Kalmar Union
See also: Kalmar Union
In 1388, at the request of the Swedes themselves, Albert was driven out by Queen Margaret 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, although 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 member of the union) to impose her will on the Union's 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 Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, and after his murder they elected Karl Knutsson Bonde their king under the title of Charles VIII, 1436. In 1441 Charles VIII had to abdicate in favour of Christopher of Bavaria, who was already king of Denmark and Norway; however, upon the death of Christopher in 1448, a state of confusion ensued in the course of which Charles VIII was twice reinstated and twice expelled again. 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Andersson (1975), p.34
- ^ Andersson (1975), p.40-41
- ^ One early source is the Hervarar saga from the 13th century.
- ^ Another important primary source is found in the story of Saint Eskil, which was written down a few centuries later.
- Andersson, Ingvar, Sveriges historia, 7th edition (AB Kopia, Stockholm, 1975), ISBN 9127065987
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Nationalencyklopedin
