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72
II. TH B SWEDISH PEOPLE.
The Catholic Period (1060/1523).
The Period of Transition embraces the years 1060/1250. It is marked
by long and severe internal conflicts, chiefly between Christianity and Paganism,
but at the same time also between the different provinces: between the inhabitants of
Uppland, of Östergötland, and of Vestergötland, who could not agree on the question
of succession to the throne. During the course of these strifes, the kingdom by
degrees became an elective monarchy, in which the people of Uppland had
the acknowledged right to choose a king, who should afterwards be approved by
the Thing, or Parliament, of the other provinces. It was, however, difficult for this
new arrangement to take firm root and it was subjected to many violations.
It seems as if, at
the beginning, a
powerful family in
Vestergötland, called from its first
king the Stenkil Line,
had no difficulty in
taking possession of the
throne of the old kings,
with whose race the
Stenkil family was
related on the female side.
Inge, the son of
Stenkil, endeavoured, in
obedience to an order
from the great Pope
Gregory VII, to hasten
the conversion of the
pagans, but only
succeeded in irritating them
to opposition and a
renewed demand that he
should carry out the
sacrifices to the gods,
which had of old been
a duty of the kings.
At first he was
vanquished and had to
retire to the province of
Vestergötland — by this
time an entirely
Christian province — but
soon succeeded in
attacking and killing the
pagan king Blotsven,
his opponent. This royal
family seems, however,
to have periodically upheld its power, at least in its native province of
Östergötland; and great internal divisions prevailed, in consequence of which Sweden
had to surrender Jemtland and Herjedalen to Norway in 1111.
The Stenkil Line became extinct before 1130. By that time, the power of
paganism seems to have been broken, but the irreconcilableness of the three chief
tribes and of their claims still remained. The male descendants of Blotsven, the
Photo. K. Siiikxhladh j:r.
Portion of the Visby town wall. (Island of Gotland.)
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