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74

(1904) Author: Gustav Sundbärg
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74

II. TH B SWEDISH PEOPLE.

gifted but turbulent family in Östergötland, which soon gained the highest dignities
of the state, and made and unmade kings.

The period of transition in Sweden just described — first from Paganism to
Christianity, then from a confederacy of small states into a homogeneous kingdom,
and, finally, from an ancient Germanic peasant society to an aristocratic and
hierarchal one — must have been a time of great unrest, but unfortunately the
sources of our knowledge of the period are very scanty. As on so many other
occasions in Swedish history, great conflicting principles had to be fought out
during centuries, while the result of the struggle was not appreciably hastened by
the dictation of any central authority or foreign power. As a consequence of the
aftereffects of the Viking raids, and owing to the incessant intestine conflicts, this
period was undoubtedly one of weakness. Amongst noteworthy personages of the
epoch, we may mention: the Catholic patron saint of Sweden, St. Erie (see above)
and our greatest missionaries after Ansgarius, Sigfrid and Stephan, Germans; Eskil
and David, Englishmen; and Botvid, a Swede. Amongst remarkable events we
need only mention the great battle at Lena in Vestergötland (in the year
1208), where an army of Danish knights, called into the country by one of the
pretenders to the throne, was almost completely annihilated — an event which
survived in tale and song for centuries in the memory of the people. That a
rich intellectual life was present in our nation, at least at certain times and in
certain places, is proved by the fact that a great number of the Swedish
popular ballads probably originated during this period.

At the close of the period a beginning was made towards the re-conquest of
Finland; but not all the present Sweden then belonged to the country, Skåne,
Halland, and Blekinge forming part of Denmark, and Bohuslän, Jemtland, and
Herjedalen belonging to Norway. And a great part of northern Sweden (with
the exception of the coast-district) must have been a mere desolate region.

The Folkunga Period (1250/1389). Under the Folkunga Line, whose
most important personage was Birger Jarl, who ruled Sweden as Protector during
the minority of his son Valdemar (from 1250/1266), Sweden entered into closer
relations with the rest of Europe. It had now quite settled down into the new
conditions brought about by the introduction of Christianity, and the community
more and more assumed the same forms as in other countries. The peasant aristocracy
as formerly existing gave way completely to a thorough division into classes, in
which the Church appeared as a state within the State, and the Nobility
rose above the people, whose right of decision it commenced to usurp at the
diets of the lords, while its principal men, in the quality of Counsellors of State,
surrounded and, not seldom, ruled the king. The towns and their citizens developed
by means of a livelier internal and foreign trade. Communications with foreign
lands were brought about mostly by means of the Hanse towns, from which a number
of Germans migrated into Sweden, and there laid the foundation of a mining industry.

Within the country great activity prevailed in the field of legislation, under
the direction of the Kings. Here, too, general European standards of justice entered;
the position of women became ameliorated, and thraldom was abolished. The
laws of the old provinces were committed to paper, and collected, in 1347, into
one general state law which, at the end of the same century, was accepted by
all the provinces. Thus, a great step was taken towards uniting the ancient
Swedish confederacy of provinces into a single state. Nobility was secured by
the introduction of military service by Magnus Ladulås (about 1280), by which
mounted military service conferred exemption from taxation, and landed estates
were given in payment for service to the state. An organized, hereditary feudal
system, in the general European form, was not established, however, and feudalism
happily never won footing in Sweden.

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