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SURVEY OF ITS HISTORY.
S3
kings, with whom 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 by force 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 defeated and had to retire to the province of Västergötland —
by this time an entirely Christian province; but he soon succeeded in attacking
and killing his opponent, the pagan king Blotsven. This royal family, however,
seems to have periodically maintained its power, at least in its native province
of Östergötland, and great internal divisions prevailed, in consequence of which
Sweden lost Jämtland and Härjedalen to Norway in 1111.
Vadstena Church. In Östergötland.
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. For a century the male
descendants of Blotsven, the Sverker Line, with headquarters in Östergötland, competed
for the crown with his descendants on the female side, the Erie Line, with
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