History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by S. A. Dunham

|1290 to 1305.|

Birger, the son of Magnus, being only eleven years old at his father’s death, the regency devolved on Thorkil, a noble Swede. Nothing can better illustrate the merit of Magnus than this choice. At home and abroad Thorkil evinced his talents and his patriotism. His expeditions against the Finns, the Carelians, and the Ingrians, were crowned with success. But his great object was to render the people happy. Having reason to fear the interruption of the social tranquillity, he arrested the sons of the late king Valdemar, who could not forget their claims to the throne. But as Birger rose up to manhood, he had still more cause of apprehension from Eric and Valdemar, brothers of his sovereign. Both evidently aspired to distinct governments. To strengthen his interests, the former married Ingeburga, daughter of Hako V., king of Norway. Seeing that he and Valdemar were acting more openly in pursuit of their treasonable object, yet unwilling to adopt extreme measures, Birger, with the advice of his minister, obtained from them a written pledge never to leave the kingdom, or approach the royal residence without permission; never to conspire against the government; never to maintain more than a given number of armed men; and always to obey the commands of their sovereign. But what engagement could bind spirits so restless, which were emboldened to attempt any thing by the success of preceding rebels? The princes still continued to plot; and to escape imprisonment, they fled into Denmark. The Danish king, however, being persuaded to abandon them, they took refuge in Norway, were friendly received by Hako, and enabled, from their new fiefs of Nydborg and Konghella, to lay waste the neighbouring provinces with fire and sword. A body of troops sent by Birger to repulse them, was defeated. A second army was raised; and the king marched in person to chastise his brothers. They were, however, at the head of a large force, not of their own partisans merely, but of the Norwegians; and to avoid the effusion of blood, a pacification was recommended. They were received into favour on the condition of their swearing obedience to the king: in return he conferred on duke Eric the fief of Varberg. The next feature of this transaction was the sacrifice of the able and patriotic Thorkil. The brothers could not forgive him for thwarting them in their rebellion; and Birger was made to believe the vilest calumnies respecting him. The aged minister was sent to Stockholm and beheaded. At the same time his daughter, the wife of Valdemar, was repudiated. Thus was a long course of public service rewarded!

|1305 to 1319.|

By this criminal weakness, Birger was righteously left to the intrigues of his brothers. By them he was surprised and made prisoner, together with his wife and children, and forced to resign the crown in favour of Eric. His eldest son, Magnus, escaped, and fled to Denmark, the king of which armed for the restoration of his sister’s husband. From this period to the close of Birger’s reign there was war, alternated by hollow peace. In 1307, he obtained his liberty, on the condition of his kingdom being dismembered in favour of his brother. To revoke this dangerous act he renewed his alliance with Denmark, and again obtained help; but his proceedings were not decisive, and a new pacification followed, on conditions similar to the preceding, except that Birger was now regarded as the liege superior of his brothers, who did homage to him for their fiefs. Unable to reduce them by force, he had recourse to the usual acts of the base. He pretended great affection for them, and sent them many presents. At length alluring them to his court at Nykoping, he arrested them in bed, and consigned them to dungeons with expression of triumphant insult more galling than the perfidy itself. One died of the wounds which he had received in the effort to escape: the other was starved to death. But from this deed of blood the king derived no advantage. The bodies of the murdered princes being exposed to the public, roused the wrath of the very numerous party hostile to his government. The civil war was now renewed by Matthias Kettlemundson in behalf of duke Eric’s son. Since the death of Thorkil, the king had become rapacious, tyrannical, and consequently unpopular. The people, who lamented the fate of the murdered princes, favoured the cause which Kettlemundson had espoused; the fortresses that still held for the king were soon reduced: Magnus, his son, was made prisoner; and he himself compelled to seek a refuge in Denmark, where he was coldly received.

|1319, 1320.|

Fate had not yet done its worst for this exiled prince. A diet was assembled to choose a successor. Such was the hatred borne towards him and his line, that his son Magnus was beheaded for his crimes. The suffrages of the electors united in favour of duke Eric’s son, a child three years old. Grief the following year (1320) brought Birger to the tomb. Whatever good signalised his reign must be attributed to his able and virtuous minister: his own conduct was dictated by odious vices. Thorkil caused a law to be passed against the sale of slaves, on the ground that it was in the highest degree criminal for Christians to sell men whom Christ had redeemed by his blood. This noble truth is the best testimony to the character of that minister: we may add that it is the most deplorable illustration of the king’s, who could, without a cause, sacrifice such a man. What better than fratricide could be expected from him?

|1319 to 1354.|

During the long minority of Magnus II., the regency was exercised by Kettlemundson, who had contributed so largely to the expulsion of Birger, and the execution of the blameless Magnus, the son of Birger. His administration, which continued eighteen years, is mentioned with respect; but it was signalised by no great exploit deserving the attention of history. Both his policy and that of his sovereign, in respect to Scania, has been related.[^[176]] In the administration of justice and the maintenance of the public tranquillity, he was successful. On his demise, Magnus assumed the reins of government; but did not give so much satisfaction as his minister. He undertook an expedition against the western provinces of Russia (then subject to their own princes), influenced only by a wild ambition. The result was not glorious. The taxes which he levied on the people for its support, gave rise to complaint. The pope too complained that he had appropriated to his own use the money, which, in virtue of Olaf Skotkonung’s act, should have gone to the Roman treasury. Still his necessities increased: the purchase of Scania was another channel of expenditure; and though he pledged some of the royal domains, he had still to exact more from his people, including the clergy, than their patience would support. For this cause he was excommunicated by the pope. Regardless of murmurs, he proceeded in his course: he was distinguished alike for rashness, feebleness, and irresolution. Governed by young favourites, and still more by his queen, who persuaded him that he might do whatever he pleased with impunity, and anxious to place a third crown on his brow (he had inherited Norway in right of his mother), he exhibited at once his silly ambition and his incapacity by embroiling himself with Denmark. So far from obtaining that crown, he lost his own. The diet insisted that he should resign Norway to Hako, and Sweden to Eric, his two sons. He fled into Scania; implored the aid of Valdemar; and in return ceded that province to the Danish crown.[^[177]] He was enabled by this means and by the support of a party (for what king was ever without one?) to carry on a war with Eric. Its ravages were deeply felt; its issue was dubious; and a diet was convoked at Jenkoping to avert by a pacification the ruin of the monarchy. Under the mediation of two princes connected with the royal family, it was decreed that the country should be divided between the father and the son: to the former were assigned Upland, the two Gothias, Vermeland, Dalecarlia, with the northern portion of Halland, and the isle of Oeland; to the latter, Finland, Smaland, the southern portion of Halland, and Scania.

|1354 to 1357.|

The indiscretions of Magnus had lost him the hearts of his people, which turned with ardour to Eric IV. This circumstance roused the jealousy of him and his queen, who are said to have conspired against the life of Eric. Whether he was removed by poison administered to him by his mother, or by the violence of conspirators, or by lawless banditti, or, finally, by natural causes, must for ever rest unknown, since ancient annals say nothing on the subject. The majority of historians, native and foreign, concur in fixing the guilt on queen Blanche; but until some better evidence than any they have adduced be brought to establish so unnatural a crime, the common feeling of mankind must compel them to doubt it. The only fact that is certain is that Eric died, and that Magnus profited by the event, since it restored him to the monarchy.