Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. The Swedish People - 1. Survey of its History. By E. Svensén
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
90
II. TIIB SWEDISH PEOPLE.
that, under his rule, they might govern just as they pleased. The reign of
Albrekt was the period of the greatest impotence of the monarchy, and of the
highest but not the most honorable power of the nobility. It happened that,
at this time, the ancient royal lines in the three kingdoms of the North almost
simultaneously became extinct, and the right of succession to them all fell upon
a woman, Queen Margaret of Denmark. The Swedish lords who were
discontented with King Albrekt, offered her the crown of Sweden; and after Albrekt
had been defeated at the battle of Falköping (1389), there came about the
union of the three kingdoms of the North, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This
was the beginning of the last period of the Middle Ages in Sweden — what
is called the Union of Kalmar.
The Folkunga Period, which had now came to an end, had been much more
productive of eminent personages than the preceding centuries in Sweden.
Birger Jarl, Magnus Ladulås, and Torgils Knutsson were all dominating
personalities of a notable rank; and moreover — what was assuredly a rare thing
in other countries during the Middle Ages — they were at the same time,
animated by a desire to promote the welfare of the lower people.1 The most
renowned personage in Sweden during the period, however, is a woman, St.
Bridget (Birgitta). St. Bridget is, indeed, the first Swede, whether man or
woman, since the days of the Viking expeditions, to become a figure of
international importance. Her memory is associated primarily with the order of St.
Bridget, which was founded by her, and whose principal convent in Sweden
was situated at Vadstena.
Of the events of the period, by far the most noteworthy was the "Great
Death", or the Black Plague, which raged throughout Europe about the year
1350. In the North its ravages seem to have been destructive in an ununsually
high degree, even if it be granted that the contemporary accounts must be
considered as exaggerated. It is a fact, however, that, in some places at least, the
cultivation of the soil at this time underwent such a retrogression that it could
not recover for centuries afterwards.
The boundaries of Sweden proper at the close of this period were unchanged
from those given on page 88. On the other hand, the conquest of Finland
was now completed.
The Kalmar Union (1389—1523). The Union of the northern kingdoms
at this time was, as Geijer’s famous phrase expresses it, "an event that looked
like a thought". The three kingdoms were, it is true, very closely related in
language and manners; but they each went their own ways in the main —
Denmark having its principal interests to the south, Norway to the west, and
Sweden (besides, indeed, its connections with south and west) to the east. The
great distances also formed a powerful hindrance to the realization of unity.
What, under other circumstances, might have been won by this approach to a
union, was therefore not gained; and at the dissolution of the union, the three
nations separated with but an increased feeling of independent distinctness, at
least as far as Sweden and Denmark were concerned.
The very next successor of Margaret, Erie of Pomerania (1412—39), by
his acts of feudal aggressions and the unbearable oppression exercised by his
Danish bailiffs, caused a rising of the peasantry of Sweden, which ended in
the deposition of the monarch, who finally lost Denmark and Norway too. This
popular insurrection (1434—36), under the leadership of the noble Engelbrekt,
is one of the most important events in Swedish history. In fact, it was then
1 The name "Ladulås", given to King Magnus means "a lock for the [peasant’s] barn",
and refers to the legal protection given by the king to the peasantry against the rapacious
higher classes — undoubtedly one of the most beautiful by-names ever received by a king.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
