Magnus Eriksson
Magnus IV & VII | |
---|---|
King of Norway | |
Reign | August 1319 – 1355 |
Predecessor | Haakon V |
Successor | Haakon VI |
Born | April or May 1316 Norway |
Died | Bømlafjorden, Norway (shipwreck) | 1 December 1374 (aged 58)
Spouse | |
Issue |
|
Eric, Duke of Södermanland | |
Mother | Ingeborg of Norway |
Magnus Eriksson (April or May 1316 – 1 December 1374) was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII from 1319 to 1355, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called Magnus Smek (English: Magnus the Caresser).
Medieval Swedish kings did not use regnal numbers as part of their title.[2] As King of Sweden he is sometimes referred to as Magnus II,[3][4] Magnus III,[5] or Magnus IV.[6] He is the second longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history after the current king Carl XVI Gustaf, who surpassed Magnus in 2018.[7]
Biography
Magnus was born in
Magnus was declared to have come of age at 15 in 1331. This provoked resistance in Norway, where a statute from 1302 stipulated that a king came of age at the age of 20, and a rising by Erling Vidkunsson and other Norwegian nobles ensued. In 1333, the rebels submitted to King Magnus.
In 1332 the King of Denmark, Christopher II, died as a "king without a country" after he and his older brother and predecessor had pawned Denmark piece by piece. King Magnus took advantage of his neighbour's distress, redeeming the pawn for the eastern Danish provinces for a huge amount of silver, and thus became ruler also of Scania.
On 21 July 1336 Magnus was crowned king of both Norway and Sweden in Stockholm. This caused further resentment in Norway, where the nobles and magnates desired a separate Norwegian coronation. A second rising by members of the high nobility of Norway ensued in 1338.
In 1335 he married
Opposition to Magnus' rule in Norway led to a settlement between the king and the Norwegian nobility at
Because of the increase in taxes to pay for the acquisition of the Scanian province, some Swedish nobles supported by the Church attempted to oust Magnus, setting up his elder son Erik Magnusson as king (Eric XII of Sweden), but Eric died supposedly of the plague in 1359, with his wife Beatrice of Bavaria and their two sons.
Peace of Nöteborg
On 12 August 1323, Magnus concluded the first
Outlawing thralldom (slavery)
In 1335, Magnus outlawed thralldom (slavery) for thralls "born by Christian parents" in Västergötland and Värend, being the last parts of Sweden where slavery had remained legal.[11] This put an end to Medieval Swedish slavery – though it was only applicable within the borders of Sweden, which left an opening – used long afterwards – for the 17th- and 18th-century Swedish slave trade.
Crusade against Novgorod
Relations were quiet between Sweden and
Greenland
In 1355 Magnus sent a ship (or ships) to Greenland to inspect its Western and Eastern Settlements. Sailors found settlements entirely Norse and Christian. The Greenland carrier (Groenlands Knorr) made the Greenland run at intervals till 1369, when she sank and was apparently not replaced.[14]
Later years
King Valdemar IV of Denmark reconquered Scania in 1360. He went on to conquer Gotland in 1361. On 27 July 1361, outside the city of Visby, the main city of Gotland, the final battle took place. It ended in a complete victory for Valdemar. Magnus had warned the inhabitants of Visby in a letter and started to gather troops to reconquer Scania. Valdemar went home to Denmark again in August and took a lot of plunder with him. Either in late 1361 or early 1362 the inhabitants of Visby raised themselves against the few Danish that Valdemar left behind and killed them.
In 1363, members of the Swedish Council of Aristocracy, led by
Evaluation of his reign
In spite of his many formal expansions his rule was considered a period of decline both for the Swedish royal power and for Sweden as a whole. Foreign nations like Denmark (after its recovery in 1340) and Mecklenburg intervened and Magnus does not seem to have been able to counter internal opposition that arose. He was regarded as a weak king and criticised for giving favourites too much power.
Magnus's young favourite courtier was
Russians drew up an allegedly autobiographical account known as the Testament of Magnus (Rukopisanie Magnusha) which was inserted into the Russian Sofia First Chronicle, composed in Novgorod; it claimed that Magnus did not, in fact, drown at sea, but saw the errors of his ways and converted to Orthodoxy, becoming a monk in a Novgorodian monastery in Karelia. The account is apocryphal.[18]
Popular culture
Most of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset takes place in Norway during Magnus's reign. He appears in one scene, and is presented in a relatively critical manner.
See also
- Unions of Sweden
- List of abolitionist forerunners
References
- ISBN 91-87064-35-9p. 22
- ISBN 978-91-87064-15-9.
- ^ "Magnus II Eriksson". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2024-03-25. Retrieved 2024-04-26.
- ^ a b Magnus 7 Eriksson (Norsk biografisk leksikon)
- ISBN 9189080262p. 135 ff. (in Swedish)
- ISBN 978-91-87064-15-9.
- ^ "King Carl XVI Gustaf now Sweden's longest-reigning monarch". The Local Sweden. 26 April 2018. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
- ^ "499-500 (Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 17. Lux - Mekanik)". 1912.
- ^ Michael C. Paul, "Archbishop Vasilii Kalika, the Fortress of Orekhov, and the Defense of Orthodoxy," in Alan V. Murray, Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2009):255
- ^ Paul, "Archbishop Vasilii Kalika," 264–5.
- ^ Träldom. Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 30. Tromsdalstind - Urakami /159-160, 1920. (In Swedish).
- ^ Paul, "Archbishop Vasilii Kalika", 266–267.
- ^ Paul, "Archbishop Vasilii Kalika," 268.
- ^ Gwyn Jones, "The Vikings", Folio Society, London 1997, p.292.
- ^ Libellus de Magno Erici Rege, in: Scriptores Rerum Svecicarum III,1, p.15–19
- ISBN 91-1-952122-7p. 288
- ^ Olle, Ferm (2009). Kung Magnus och hans smädenamn Smek.
- ^ Sofiiskaia Pervaia Letopis' in Polnoe Sobranie Russkikh Letopisei, vol. 5 (St. Petersburg: Eduard Prats, 1851)
Further reading
- Nordberg, Mikael. I kung Magnus tid (lit. 'In the Times of King Magnus'). ISBN 91-1-952122-7.
- Hergemöller, Bernd-Ulrich. Magnus versus Birgitta : der Kampf der heiligen Birgitta von Schweden gegen König Magnus Eriksson. Hamburg 2003 (in German).
External links
- Media related to Magnus IV of Sweden at Wikimedia Commons