Warrior Kings of Sweden

by Gary Dean Peterson

  Magnus codified many of the laws, particularly those dealing with land ownership (the important Magnus Eriksson Land Law). It was in his reign that knighthood was established along with the associated frälse (freedom from taxation for providing heavy cavalry to the king). Church properties were also exempt from taxes which laid more of a burden on the remaining landowners. Society became even more stratified with the creation of other titles, hertig (duke), drots (vice king), kansler (chancellor), and marsk (marshal). Swedish society was becoming a complicated hierarchy of rank and privilege, taking on some of the trappings of feudalism.

  Magnus extracted a promise from the nobility and the Thing that upon his death his oldest son, Birger, would be anointed king. In 1290 Birger, at ten years of age, received the crown. A younger brother, Erik, was made duke of Sweden and the other brother, Valdemar, duke of Finland. Birger would marry the Danish princess Märta and Erik was promised to Ingeborg, the daughter of Häkon, king of Norway. This three way division of authority was certainly a recipe for intrigue and political chaos. To make matters worse all of the brothers seem to have been somewhat unbalanced.

  The only stable personality in the picture was the regent, Marshal Torgils Knudsson. He campaigned successfully in Finland, taking the western part of Karelia and building a fortress at Viborg which would become key in Sweden’s defense of her possessions against Novgorod. In 1306, however, the three brothers combined to get Torgils executed. They then went after one another, Norway backing the dukes, and Denmark, the king. The power struggle see-sawed back and forth. The dukes imprisoned the king and queen, then were forced to release them.

  Erik’s union with the Norwegian princess produced a son, Magnus, which Birger saw as a threat to his line. In 1317 he invited the dukes to a banquet, after which he had them thrown into the dungeon. The treacherous act came to be known as the Nyköping Banquette. This was too much for the Swedish people. They rose up in rebellion and assembled an army to overthrow their king. The army finally took Nyköping a year later, but not before Erik and Valdemar had died of starvation. Birger fled to Denmark where he died in 1321.

  In 1319 King Häkon died leaving his son, three-year-old Magnus Eriksson, heir to the Norwegian throne. That same year Magnus was also elected king of Sweden at Mora Meadows. For the first time Sweden and Norway were under the rule of one monarch. Complicating things, Magnus’s mother arranged a marriage between the king’s sister, Eufemia, and Albrekt of Mecklenburg. What seemed to be a good political move at the time would later become a problem for Sweden and a disaster for Magnus. Events, at first, unfolded in the new king’s favor. The king of Denmark, Kristofer, found himself in financial trouble and was looking for relief. By the Treaty of Varberg (1343) Denmark ceded Scania (Skåne, Halland and Blekinge) to Sweden for 34,000 marks. Magnus was, thus, the ruler of an empire that included Sweden, Norway, Finland and Scania. With the last came the fertile Skåne coastal lowlands, the thriving city of Mälmo and at least partial control of the Sound which could be used to tax ships passing between the North Sea and the Baltic. Sweden seemed to be once more in a position to take control of her own destiny becoming the leading power of northern Europe. But problems soon developed.

  Raising the 34,000 marks for the latest acquisition put a terrible tax burden on the population. Again, the exempt lands of the nobles (frälse) and Catholic Church properties came into play. At the same time the Black Death devastated Sweden in the late 1340s, reducing the population by one-third. The plague sapped the energy and spirit of the people. Cities were decimated. Lands lay uncultivated. Churches were filled with bodies, then abandoned. The country was on the verge of collapse.

  In the meantime, Denmark had recovered under a new king, Valdemar (Atterdag) and now regretted the loss of the Scanian lands. The Hanseatic League was suspicious of Sweden’s control of the Sound and worried about her increased power. The Swedish nobles, meanwhile, were searching for a way to regain power. With all these factions about to pounce on the country, Sweden’s empire would have a short life. Magnus, in an attempt to gain more control over Sweden, turned Norway over to his son Häkon in 1356. His other son, Eric, who was to inherit his father’s Swedish throne, decided he couldn’t wait and joined the nobles in a rebellion.

  This was the opportunity Valdemar had been waiting for. He invaded Skåne where the inhabitants joined him, having more allegiance to Denmark than to Sweden. He also attacked Gotland, but here the going was a bit tougher. He was able to defeat the farmer-fisherman militia of the island, inflicting horrific slaughter. Valdemar followed up this victory with a campaign of extermination and devastation reducing all of the island except for Visby. He could not take the port city with its stout fortifications and Hans-German defenders. Finally, Valdemar settled for a large ransom from the city and called off the campaign. The havoc he wrought on the island destroyed its prosperity. Centuries of rich farming, fishing and trade extending back to before the Viking age were ended; the island would never again reach a high level of affluence. It would slide into anonymity. Sweden and Denmark would fight over her and pirates would use her harbors as bases to raid the Baltic Sea. Gotland would never again be master of her own destiny. By the late fourteenth century the Hanseatic League and Teutonic Knights had gained control of the unfortunate island.

  Eric died in 1359 leaving the nobles without a champion. They looked around for another to lead them against their king and found Albrekt of Mecklenburg, the son of Magnus’s sister Eufemia. Twenty-year-old Albrekt and his father, the Duke Alberkt, arrived off the Swedish coast with a German fleet carrying soldiers and adventurers. Magnus gathered his troops along with soldiers sent to him by his son Häkon, king of Norway. The Swedish king mounted a stout defense but in the end was overwhelmed by the combination of German forces, Swedish nobility and the Hanseatic fleet. Magnus was taken prisoner by the Mecklenburgers, who proceeded to take control of not only the central government but the provinces as well. Then they began the systematic takeover of the large estates. Too late the nobles realized the mistake they had made inviting in the Germans.

  Next the Hanseatic League turned on Valdemar Atterdag. After a two year war they forced Copenhagen to surrender in 1370, acceding to Hanseatic demands. The Hansa seized the Skänian fisheries and fortified ports securing free and open passage through the Sound for all Hanseatic ships. Sweden was reduced to the status of occupied state. The Hanseatic League was at the height of its power, wealth and influence.

  The nobles, finding themselves dispossessed, joined the peasants in a war against the oppressive German foreigners. There was little they could do, however, without outside help. They appealed to Norway and Häkon responded, invading Sweden with a Norwegian army. Picking up support from both commoners and nobles as he crossed the countryside, he arrived outside Stockholm with an army that the Mecklenburgers could not defeat. A compromise was negotiated. Albrekt would retain the crown, but the nobility would be restored their estates and the provincial governments would be returned to Swedish control. However, before the conditions of the agreement could be carried out, Häkon died (1380). Once more at the mercy of the Germans, the Swedes cast about for a new champion and found one in Häkon’s seventeen year old son Olov. The Norwegian heir would be the figurehead and rallying point, but the real power would be exercised by his mother, Häkon’s wife. The widow Margareta would prove to be one of the most remarkable women in European history.

  2. The Kalmar Union

  Margareta was the daughter of Valdemar Attardag, king of Denmark. At the age of ten she was given in marriage to Häkon, king of Norway and son of Magnus Eriksson, king of Sweden. The marriage was not consummated for six years. The intervening time was spent with her Swedish foster-mother, Mareta Ulfsdotter, daughter of Saint Bridget. This was Bridget of Uppland, canonized in 1391, founder of the Bridgettine Order, who recorded her revelations in the widely read Revelationes Celestes. She was the most famous Swede of her day. From her foster mother, Margareta gained a thorough religi
ous education and close contact with the Swedish people and nobles. Her intimate association with all three courts and royal families gave her unusual access to internal and external affairs of state, commerce and the military. She seems to have taken advantage of her position.

  Margareta was religious, disciplined and intelligent with boundless energy. Her father said of her that she was an error in nature—she should have been created a man instead of a woman. Her main protagonist, King Albrekt, nicknamed her Kung Braklös (King Trouserless). She was said to be the perfect mistress of the art of diplomacy and statesmanship. She seemed to know instinctively what was politically attainable and when. Combined with these talents were a sincere Christian faith; she took the Vadstena Monastery, creation of her foster grandmother, under her wing and supported it as long as she lived. Margareta was, without question, one of the great monarchs of European history.

  At seventeen Margareta left Sweden to live with her thirty year old her husband, King Håkon of Norway. She moved to Akerhus Castle, just outside Oslo. In 1370 she gave birth to a boy, Olov. At first she ran only the household, but with the king absent most of the time on tours of the country and military campaigns, she gradually assumed more and more power in local politics.

  Then, in 1375 her father, Valdemar, died. Margareta rushed to Denmark to try and secure the throne for her son. It would be a difficult task. The Mecklenburgers were already there with a compelling case. Their candidate, Albrekt, was the grandson of Valdemar and Duke Albrekt. What’s more, the Germans were in a strong military position, having Sweden on the Danish northern border and Mecklenburg on her southern frontier. But all this proximity was just what worried the Danish nobility. They could see themselves becoming a Mecklenburg fief as had happened to Sweden. Margareta was quick to take advantage of these concerns and received the backing of most of the nobility. She then turned to the Hanseatic League, which had its own doubts about Mecklenburg’s rising power in their region of influence, and made agreements with them. Outmaneuvering the Mecklenburgers, she was able to get Olov named future king of Denmark.

  In 1380 Håkon died, leaving the Norwegian throne vacant. Margareta hurried back to Norway to ensure Olov would be heir to this throne as well. Again she was successful. Her son was now the future king of two Scandinavian countries. Margareta turned her attention to Sweden, the home of her youth.

  She renewed contacts with the Swedish nobility and to them Olov looked like the rallying point they needed to throw out Albrekt and the despised Mecklenburgers. She negotiated with the league again. Using their fear of Albrekt’s power, she gained control of the forts in Skåne. She was in the midst of negotiations with the Swedish nobility when the seventeen year old King Olov took sick and died, throwing Scandinavian politics into chaos.

  Two thrones were now vacant and the scramble for power began all over again. The Danes were once more faced with having a Mecklenburg prince for king, a prospect they did not relish. They considered, instead, breaking all the rules and customs of throne succession. Margareta was savvy, capable and far preferable to the Germans. They made her regent of Denmark and gave her the responsibility for selecting the next king. She was in fact, if not in name, monarch of Denmark.

  Norway came to the same conclusion and made the same arrangement. To ascend the throne of both countries, Margareta selected her niece’s son, Eric of Pomerania, then seven years old. This was a calculated choice leaving her mistress of both countries for a good long time.

  In Sweden, meanwhile, Albrekt was initiating another campaign to consolidate his hold over the country, which meant gaining control of the nobility. They were forced to act or be crushed. Following the example of the other two Scandinavian countries, the Swedish nobility drew up a document appointing Margareta “all powerful lady and rightful mistress” of all Sweden. This included the right to select the country’s next king. The nobility pledged fealty to Margareta, turning over all castles and fortresses under their control, creating a civil war.

  Albrekt brought in an army from Mecklenburg and Margareta fielded an army of Danes and Norwegians with such Swedish contingents as were able to join the force. The decisive battle was fought on the flats east of Falköping in Västergötland on February 24, 1389. Legend says that the heavily armored German knights’ horses foundered on the swampy ground, allowing the more lightly armored Scandinavian cavalry with their smaller horses to outmaneuver and defeat them. Though Margareta’s general was killed in the battle, the Scandinavians won the day. Albrekt and his son were taken captive. It would require more than a year for the Swedes to retake all the castles in the country, but the reign of the Mecklenburgers in Sweden was ended.

  The significance of this battle should not be underestimated. It was the turning point for Sweden and all Scandinavia in terms of the influence of the German states over the region. German merchants had controlled Baltic commerce and, in the case of Sweden, the government. German states now dominated the entire southern and eastern Baltic coast except Finland. Had Margareta’s forces not prevailed, all Scandinavia might have succumbed to German vassalage. Though it would be some time before these countries would themselves control the region, the tide had been reversed and, gradually, the Scandinavian countries began to direct their own destinies.

  Margareta was now ruler of an empire that stretched from Lake Ladoga, next to Novgorod in the east, to the west coast of Greenland. She purchased Gotland from the grand master of the Teutonic Order in 1407. Margareta arranged the marriage of Eric to Philippa, daughter of Henry IV, king of England. She ruled the domain she had created until her death in 1412. Under the united kingdoms, which became known as the Kalmar Union because of a treaty negotiated at that Swedish fortress, there was not a blending of cultures. Each country retained its own individual laws, institutions, and customs. It was a confederation for mutual protection, mainly from the Germans, which ushered in a period of peaceful co-existence. Although there were many treaties and marriages to cement the union, there were still three separate nations held together by a skillful ruler and a common threat. When either of these elements was removed the union would begin to fall apart.

  With the death of Margareta, Sweden entered a century of political turmoil. Instead of a monarch of the union, the rulers became progressively more Danish in viewpoint, treating Sweden as an occupied territory. At the same time Sweden was evolving as a country with a rising spirit of nationalism replacing the old medieval system of allegiance to a person or office. The Swedish people began to develop a consciousness of themselves as a nation. To the south the Hundred Years War between France, England and Burgundia alternately smoldered and raged contributing to the instability further north. In Scandinavia the Kalmar Union, with all its promise of peace and prosperity, its effective defense against outside influences, particularly German encroachment, began to disintegrate. But it would not go easily.

  Eric of Pomerania had been the king of the Kalmar Union for several years when Margareta died in 1412 though she had wielded the real power. Still, Eric was established with the reigns of government firmly in his hands and no complications from a possible challenger. His first act was to consolidate his grip on the union by taking an extensive tour of his domains, even visiting Finnish territories. He quickly stirred up trouble, however.

  His first problem was with the church in Sweden. He continued a practice, started by Margareta, of appointing his own church officials and priests, then going directly to the Holy See in Rome for conformation instead of letting local church authorities make the selections. Swedes had hoped local control would be returned to them after Margareta’s death. Secondly, he outraged the nobility by appointing Danes and Germans as lawmen (judges), bailiffs and provincial officials. By Swedish law these offices were to be filled by Swedes, providing jobs for the nobility and petty nobility.

  Thirdly, he raised the ire of foreign factions. His ambition was to make the Baltic his domain. He already held Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Pomeranian coasts,
why not the whole Baltic? The Teutonic Knights had finally been defeated—by Polish and Lithuanian forces at Tanneburg (1410)—and were in decline. It seemed a good time to strike. Eric put together an army and attacked at Schleswig, but was driven off by the determined Count of Holstein. This aggression alerted the Hanseatic cities to his potential danger and they became wary of his purposes.

  Eric exacerbated the situation by fortifying the Öresund narrows (the Sound) and taxing non–Scandinavian shipping passing through the channel. He also imposed restrictions on the Skåne markets in an attempt to limit Hansa control. The league retaliated by blockading various Scandinavian ports. All this crippled Swedish commerce. Stifled trade combined with the heavier taxes to support Eric’s military adventures caused resentment against the union to run high in Sweden.

  Eventually, distrust and anger spilled over into an open revolt headed by Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, a petty noble from Dalarna. He led his Dalesmen against Eric’s Danes and the tough, independent miner-farmers earned a reputation as ferocious fighters. Engelbrekt was eventually murdered and become a legendary hero in Swedish story and song, a symbol of Sweden’s fight for independence. Gradually leadership passed from commoner and petty noble to the aristocracy, the great families (the magnates). Soon three peasant armies commanded by men from Sweden’s nobility marched though the country taking royal lands and fortifications. Eric sailed to Stockholm with a fleet. A battle was averted and compromises were made. Eric sailed home only to continue the same oppressive practices. Soon he was faced again with a rebellion in Sweden, but now he had other problems as well. A revolt broke out in Norway and even the Danish Council turned against him.