Sweden. Victor Alfred Nilsson
made his first attempt to reach the throne of Sweden.
Already, in 1150, the Up-Swedes had in Eric, the son of Jedvard, found a man in their opinion better suited to rule Sweden than Sverker the Old. His mother is said to have been the daughter of Blot-Sven and the sister of Kol, while his father was “a good and rich yeoman.” Through a mistake he was named Eric IX., but is more commonly known as St. Eric. One source calls him “lawgiver,” although nothing is definitely known of his activity in this direction. At the death of Sverker, his son Charles was certainly of age, but the growing fame of King Eric made it useless for him to force his right, and Eric was recognized as king of the whole realm.
King Eric was a warm friend of the Christian propaganda in his own country, and by crusades spread the faith outside of its borders. It was only natural that Sweden should turn its attention to Finland, with which country it had stood in close relations since the remotest period, and where Swedish settlements in all times existed. Accompanied by Bishop Henric of Upsala, King Eric sailed with a fleet to the southwestern part of Finland, or the province now called Finland Proper, where the inhabitants were forced to receive baptism. This crusade must have taken place late in the fifties of the twelfth century. Eric soon returned, but Bishop Henric remained with other priests to have Christianity firmly established. These efforts met with considerable difficulty, and Henric was murdered by one of his converts. He was later worshipped as the patron saint of Finland.
The pious King Eric was attacked by the perfidious prince Magnus Henricsson at East Aros (the present or New Upsala), in 1160. It is said that Eric was attending mass at the Trinity Church, when he was told of the approach of his enemy. He remained till the service was over, after which he went to meet his fate. He was overcome and slain by the superior force. His pious life and virtues and the miracles which were said to have been worked at his grave made him the patron saint of Sweden, although never canonized by the Church of Rome. His bones are preserved in a shrine of gilt silver behind the high altar in the cathedral of Upsala, and were in Catholic days objects of worship. Oaths were taken “by the power of God and Saint Eric the King,” his banner was carried in war, and the city of Stockholm still has his image on its shield.
Charles Sverkersson (Charles VII.) now made valid his claims, the whole people rising to support him against the usurper Magnus. In the following year Magnus was killed by the indignant people. During the reign of Charles some important novelties in Church and State were introduced. Sweden received, in 1164, her first archbishop in Stefan, a monk of Alvastra. The archbishop’s seat was first Old Upsala. Instead of jarls in the various parts, there is from this time on a jarl for the whole kingdom at the side of the king, whom he assists in the government of the state, sometimes obtaining a power rivalling that of his master. The first jarl of the realm was Ulf, the second Gutorm. The rivalry noticeable between the different provinces, which all thought themselves called upon to select a new line to rule after Stenkil’s, ceased at the death of Saint Eric. What follows is a rivalry of interchanging dynasties. Charles Sverkersson was, in April, 1167, surprised by a pretender to the throne, Knut Ericsson, who deprived him of crown and life, while his little son Sverker was saved and carried away to the queen’s uncle, Valdemar the Great of Denmark.
Knut Ericsson was the son of Saint Eric, and ruled Sweden for twenty-five years in peace. In his youth he had made one unsuccessful attempt to reach the throne, after which he fled to Norway. After the death of King Charles he had to fight two pretenders, Kol and Burislev, the latter said to have been a son of King Sverker.
During this period the Baltic and its coasts were continually disturbed by heathen sea-rovers from the southern shores. A fleet of this kind entered Lake Mælar in 1187 and destroyed by fire the town of Sigtuna, which, as a mercantile centre, had succeeded the earlier destroyed Birka. The second archbishop of Sweden, John, was killed by the invaders. The first preliminary plan for the fortification of the present site of Stockholm was probably then laid, in order to prevent further invasions, and a little town commenced to grow up.
Conditions in Finland were not satisfactory. Invasions by Esthonians and Vends were frequent, while the Finns themselves were troublesome and little devoted to the new faith. Bishop Henric’s successor was killed, but Sweden continued to send bishops during the next hundred years.
The relations with foreign powers were peaceable, the first known treaty between Sweden and a German prince being entered into by King Knut and Duke Heinrich of Saxony and Bavaria, in regard to trade relations with Lubeck. King Knut died in the winter of 1195. He had four sons, but although he had selected one of them for his successor, “with general consent and through election by the foremost men in Sweden,” Sverker the Younger, the son of King Charles, succeeded him. That this could take place without serious objection of Knut’s sons can only be explained by the influence wielded by the Church and the nobles. The latter had already grown up to strength and importance. Their leader was the mighty jarl, Birger Brosa, who had succeeded Gutorm. He was of the influential family of Folkungs, which, one of the first in the land, soon aspired to the throne. Birger, himself married to a Norwegian princess, gave his own daughter Ingegerd in marriage to the new king, and remained in power.
King Sverker sought the favor of the Church by supporting its claims. In a document of the year 1200, by which he donates some property to the church of Upsala, historians have seen the privileges extended to the Church as an independent power of state, whose members could be arraigned before an ecclesiastic forum only, and whose property was to be exempt from taxation. This is the spirit of the document; but the king had not, at that period, the right to grant such extensive privileges. King Sverker, and probably each of his successors, in turn, gave only an assurance of their sympathy with the Church policy, which was to its full extent an assured victory only toward the close of the thirteenth century.
In 1202, Birger Brosa died, and with him the firm support against the pretenders had fallen. The sons of Knut now made open revolt, leaving their places at Sverker’s court. In 1205, Sverker gave battle to them at Elgaros, three of the brothers being killed and the fourth, Eric, fleeing to Norway. But a few years later he returned with an army, and Sverker found it safest to retire to Denmark, whence he returned with a splendid army, which King Valdemar II. Seier, had placed at his disposal. But this army was defeated at Lena, in West Gothland, in 1208, and Sverker returned to Denmark, now turning to the pope, Innocent III., who in vain threatened the pretender with his ban. Sverker entered Sweden with a new Danish army, but was killed at the battle of Gestilren, in West Gothland, in 1210.
Eric Knutsson now came to undisturbed possession of the throne and thus remained until his death in April, 1216, his reign being short and uneventful. He was the first king of Sweden of whom it is known with certainty that he was anointed and crowned, thus placing himself under the protection of the Church. His queen, Rikissa, a sister of Valdemar II., returned to Denmark after his death, there giving life to a son, who was named Eric, after his father. King Valdemar tried in vain to have this royal babe placed on the Swedish throne.
John Sverkersson succeeded King Eric, being, on account of his fifteen years of age, first surnamed the Young, later the Pious. By confirming and extending the rights of the Church which his father granted he won the favor of the ecclesiastics, and the attempts made by Valdemar to have his consecration prohibited proved futile. Toward the end of his short reign (in 1220) King John undertook a crusade to Esthonia, where he left behind him his jarl, Charles, a brother of Birger Brosa, and Bishop Charles of Linkœping, with a part of the army. These all perished in an onslaught made on them by the heathen in August of the same year, and the ravages by Esthonians continued as before. King John died in the island of Visingsœ, in Lake Vetter, in 1222, like several of his predecessors, and was, like them, buried in the monastery of Alvastra.
Eric Ericsson now became king of Sweden. The royal babe was then six years of age, a halting and lisping little creature. The Church took him under its protection, but there was no powerful man to take hold of the government during his minority. A pretender rose in the person of Knut the Tall, a great grandson of St. Eric, like the king himself. He defeated Eric’s troops at Olustra, in 1229. Eric fled to Denmark, where he remained until the short and restless reign of Knut came to an end through his death, in 1232. Eric resumed the reins of government, with the Folkung,