Page:
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 |
Next
Under Blotsweyn's grand son, King Sverker
who permanently amalgamated the Swedes and Goths (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 govern ment. Eric IX. (1150-116o) organized the Swedish Church 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 (1164). But the greatest mediaeval states man of Sweden was Earl Birger, who practically ruled the land from 1248 to 1266. To him is attributed the foundation of Stock holm ; 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 Ladulas (I275-1 290) . Both these rulers adopted the dangerous expedient of creating a number of almost independent duchies in Sweden, but the danger of weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent corn plications. In 1319, the severed portions of Sweden were once more reunited. Meanwhile the political development of the state was steadily proceeding. The formation of separate orders, or estates, was pronounced by Magnus Ladulas, who extended the privileges of the clergy and founded an hereditary nobility (Ordi nance of Alsno, 128o). In connection with this institution we now hear of a heavily armed cavalry as the kernel of the national army. The knights too 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 execute legislative functions.
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, who had inherited the throne of Norway from his grandfather Haakon V., was in the same year elected king of Sweden (Convention of Oslo). A long minority weakened the royal influence in both countries, and Magnus lost both his king doms before his death. The Swedes, irritated by his misrule, superseded him by his nephew, Albert of Mecklenburg (1365).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, the king sum moned (1359) 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. In 1388, at the request of the Swedes themselves, Albert was driven out by Margaret, regent of Denmark and Norway; and, at a convention of the representatives of the three Scandi navian kingdoms held at Kalmar (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. (X.) Danish Plans for Union.—The Swedish nobles who were dis satisfied with the evil rule of Albrekt of Mecklenburg called in Margaret, Valdemar Atterdag's powerful daughter and successor on the Danish throne, and she became queen of Sweden also in 1389. Norway was already united with Denmark and Margaret's
plan was to bring all the three kingdoms together into a single union under Denmark. An Act of Union was drawn up at Kalmar in 1397 but was not proceeded with as the Queen was dis satisfied with some of its clauses. At the same time her relative, Eric of Pomerania, was elected future king of the three king doms. After Margaret's death in 1412 he assumed the Govern ment and proceeded to try to change Sweden into a vassal coun try with the help of a system of Danish bailiffs. The consequent oppression became so hard that the Swedish peasants rose in 1434 under the leadership of Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, a noble from Bergslagen. The national movement spread swiftly and the Danish strongholds were conquered. In the course of this fight for freedom Engelbrekt called together at Arboga, in Jan. 1435, the first Riksdag of nobles, priests, burghers and peasants. The Riksdag has never been done away with since, so that in 1935 Sweden's parliament will commemorate its 5th centenary. In 1436 Engelbrekt was murdered. For several decades a Party in favour of the Union, made up of the more important nobles and the clericals, with Danish support, proceeded to contend against a National Democratic Party under native leaders taken from the nobles. Danish kings were on several occasions recog nized as rightful sovereigns also of Sweden, among them, for instance, Christopher of Bavaria (144o-48) in whose reign there was enacted in 1442 a new general law which, with additions, held good until 1734, and Christian I.
In between, a Swedish nobleman, Karl VIII. Knutsson, was recognized as king during the years 1448-57, 1464-65 and 1467-70 (being twice expelled and twice re-instated). During the years that followed no native-born sovereigns were set up against the Danish kings, but the National Party was under the leadership of RiksfOre shindare, or Regents, in the persons of members of the Sture family. After Riksforestdndare Sten Sture the Elder
came the Danish King Hans (1497-1501), then Sten Sture again, (1501-03), and then Svante Sture (1504-12) and Sten Sture the Younger (1512-2o). The times were troubled and there were continual struggles with the Danes. Many Germans lived in the towns. After a Swedish victory over the Danes outside Stock holm in 1471 an old ordinance by which the Germans should have half the seats in the town councils was abolished. The country now became impoverished but the national feeling grew stronger than ever alongside a hatred of Denmark which inspired Sweden's foreign policy for 30o years and which was caused by Danish intrigues against Sweden. Things came to a climax when the Danish king Christian II. conquered the country and in 1520 had the foremost men of the National Party in Stockholm exe cuted ("The Stockholm Blood-Bath"). Among noteworthy events in this period may be mentioned the founding of Sweden's first university in Uppsala in
Gustavus Vasa, 1523-1560.—The Scandinavian Union was represented by the Danish king living in Copenhagen. Denmark and Norway held the south, and foreign trade lay in the hands of the German Hanseatic League. Sweden was a land of peasants, divided by provinces, and inspired by all the local patriotism that troublous times evoke. The Uppsala university had de teriorated, and the affairs of the Catholic Church had long been neglected by the Holy See.