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The nobles also enjoyed jurisdiction over their peasantry, levying
fines and imposing punishments at discretion (1483). The
Norwegian nobles were less favoured; they had no power of levying
fines from their tenantry, and their manor houses (Sædegaarde)
alone were exempt from taxation. The position of the townspeople
and the peasantry in Sweden gradually improved, and in 1471
Sten Sture ordained that the municipal authorities should
thenceforward consist of natives of the country instead of Germans. In
Norway, notwithstanding the opposition of several of the kings,
the Hanse merchants still held oppressive sway in the chief towns ;
but the peasantry were never, as in Denmark, subjected to
serfdom and compulsory services. They were generally owners of the
soil they cultivated, while those who were merely tenants enjoyed
entire liberty and were not asc.ripti glebae as in many other
countries. In Sweden the compulsory services exigible from the
peasantry by the lord of the soil were limited in the 15th cent, to
8-12 days, and those exigible by the king to 8 days. While this
class enjoyed less independence than in Norway, it attained
political importance and even admission to the supreme council at an
earlier period, owing to the influence of Engelbrekt, the Stures,
and other popular chiefs.
During the union Literature made considerable progress in
Sweden, while in Norway it languished and became well-nigh
extinct. In both countries the education of the clergy continued to
be carried on in the monasteries and cathedral schools, but towards
the close of this period universities were founded at Upsnla (1477)
and Copenhagen (1479), and gave rise to the publication of various
Teamed treatises in Latin. Among the religious works of this
period may be mentioned the revelations of St. Birgitta (d. 1373)
and the ‘Croniea Regni Gothorum’ of Ericus Olai (d. 1486), both
showing a tendency towards the principles of the Reformation.
Whilst about the beginning of the 14th cent, the native literature
of Norway became extinct, that of Sweden began to increase,
consisting chiefly of religious writings, rhyming chronicles, ballads,
and compilations of laws. In Sweden, moreover, the national
language, though not without difficulty, held its own against the
Danish, while in Norway the ‘Old Norsk’ was gradually displaced
by the tongue of the dominant race, and continued to be spoken
in several impure and uncultured dialects by the peasantry alone.
Sweden after the Dissolution of the Kalmar Union.
The necessity of making common cause against Christian II.,
the deposed monarch of the three kingdoms, led to an alliance
between Gustavus Vasa and Frederick I. of Denmark. Christian
attempted an invasion of Norway in 1531-32, but was taken
prisoner, and after Frederick’s death (1533) the Liibeekers made an
ineffectual attempt to restore the deposed king (1534-36). At
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