John Sverkersson succeeded King Eric, being, on account of his fifteen years of age, first surnamed the Young, later the Pious. By confirming and extending the rights of the Church which his father granted he won the favor of the ecclesiastics, and the attempts made by Valdemar to have his consecration prohibited proved futile. Toward the end of his short reign (in 1220) King John undertook a crusade to Esthonia, where he left behind him his jarl, Charles, a brother of Birger Brosa, and Bishop Charles of Linkœping, with a part of the army. These all perished in an onslaught made on them by the heathen in August of the same year, and the ravages by Esthonians continued as before. King John died in the island of Visingsœ, in Lake Vetter, in 1222, like several of his predecessors, and was, like them, buried in the monastery of Alvastra.
Eric Ericsson now became king of Sweden. The royal babe was then six years of age, a halting and lisping little creature. The Church took him under its protection, but there was no powerful man to take hold of the government during his minority. A pretender rose in the person of Knut the Tall, a great grandson of St. Eric, like the king himself. He defeated Eric’s troops at Olustra, in 1229. Eric fled to Denmark, where he remained until the short and restless reign of Knut came to an end through his death, in 1232. Eric resumed the reins of government, with the Folkung, Jarl Ulf, at the helm.
Pope Gregory IX., in 1230, gave commandment to the Swedish bishops to rouse the people to opposition against the ravages of the heathen in the Baltic provinces in the further parts of Finland. In 1237 he commands the Swedish bishops to have a crusade started against the heathen Tavasti in the interior of Finland. This crusade took place under the leadership of Birger Magnusson, who converted the barbarous Finns by the sword and erected a fort on the site of the later Tavastehus. Birger, according to Russian testimony, tried to extend the dominion of Swedish supremacy as far as to the river Neva, but was repulsed by the Russians.
Peace had reigned in Sweden for some time when new conflicts ensued. The peasants of Upland made an uprising in 1247, but were conquered at Sparrsætra and punished by heavier taxes. A pretender rose in the person of Holmger, the son of Knut the Tall. He was captured and beheaded in 1248.
A papal legate, Bishop William of Sabina, visited Sweden and arranged, in 1248, an ecclesiastical meeting at Skenninge, effecting the final separation of Church and State, and establishing the former as an independent power at the side of the latter. Archbishops and bishops were now to be elected by the ecclesiastics and not by the king. Celibacy, previously not enforced in the Swedish church, was then introduced, meeting with a good deal of opposition; for the ecclesiastical offices had already commenced getting hereditary, as had in earlier times the combined dignities of Asa priest and chieftain. Birger Magnusson had, shortly before the meeting of Skenninge, succeeded Ulf as jarl of the realm. This converter of the Tavasti was destined to play a most important part in Swedish history, shaping its destiny through the power of his iron will. He was the leader of the Folkung family and party, a nephew of Birger Brosa, and married to princess Ingeborg, a sister of the reigning king. Birger Jarl, as he is generally called, effected a satisfactory agreement with Norway at a meeting with Hakon in the summer of 1249, according to which the enemies of one realm should have no refuge, or support, in the other. Besides, it was agreed that the son of the Norwegian king should marry Rikissa, the daughter of Birger Jarl.
King Eric died in 1250, at the age of thirty-four. He called himself Eric III., while in later times, when St. Eric was supposed to have been the ninth king of that name, he has been called Eric XI. He was said to have been peaceful, just and kind.
[CHAPTER V]
The Mediæval State—The Folkung Dynasty
With Eric Ericsson the royal line of Saint Eric became extinct. The crown was, on account of his birthright, offered to Valdemar, the oldest son of Birger Jarl. He was crowned in Linkœping in 1251. From this period on, a new historic source is found in the rhymed chronicles, of which Swedish literature possesses several elaborate ones of more than 22,000 verses in all. Of these the Old, or Eric’s, Chronicle, was written about 1320, and, like all the rest, anonymously. The verses are fine, the language pure and powerful; the portraits of historical personages are roughly drawn but interesting. Unfortunately these rhymed chronicles in general, and the Eric’s Chronicle in particular, dwell rather on the description of impressive events of pomp and splendor than on historical facts; and the facts given are not always reliable. The Eric’s Chronicle gives a brief review of events during the reigns of Eric and Valdemar; then for the events up to 1319 more fully.