In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of a benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character and was not able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar (in 1332) both provinces were united to Sweden. But the king had to pay heavy amounts in settlement, which were increased when Halland was procured in a similar way.
King Magnus was, at his height of power, one of the mightiest monarchs of Europe, having under his rule the entire Scandinavian peninsula and Finland, a realm stretching from the Sound at Elsinore to the Polar Sea, from the river Neva to Iceland and Greenland. In 1335 King Magnus rode his “Eriksgata,” when he announced that no Christian within his realm should remain a thrall, thus practically abolishing the remnants of slavery. In the following year he was crowned with his queen, Blanche of Namur.
Magnus took great interest in legislation. During his minority the provincial laws were revised. The king himself accomplished the great and noble task of having these united into a state law (landslag), appointing a committee of three justices to do the work. The clergy was consulted, but refused to have ecclesiastical laws made for the whole kingdom. The state law was first considered in 1347, and was put in practice in 1352, being both a digest and an elaboration of the ancient provincial laws. In many an instance of foreign or domestic conflicts, the people, through its enforcement, found help and shelter from the national spirit of this law.
To the financial difficulties which beset the reign of King Magnus and made his life a burden the great plague was added. “The Black Death,” in 1350, came from England to Norway and spread with great rapidity and the most disastrous consequences throughout the North. In certain parts of Sweden one-third of the population perished, in other parts even a greater percentage, the plague raging with equal violence throughout all classes of society. King Magnus had for a long time contemplated revenge against the invasions made by the Russians into Carelia. He undertook an expedition, under the pretext of a crusade, which ended badly, the Swedish fleet being shut in by the Russians and saved only by means of digging a canal. The king was severely criticised for this crusade, which was construed as a punishment for his sins, and, besides, largely increased his debts. The pope was among his creditors, who, upon non-payment, placed Magnus under his ban.
The union with Norway was not a happy one. As a minor, Magnus dwelt most of the time in Norway, but later principally in Sweden. This was contrary to the Act of Union, the state of things in Norway, furthermore, necessitating the almost continual presence of the king. For this reason his son, Hakon, was chosen king of Norway, in 1343, Magnus remaining in power until Hakon became of age, and his older son, Eric, chosen king, or heir-apparent, of Sweden, in 1344. It appears that King Magnus was in favor of this separation and had preconceived it in giving to his older son the Swedish name of Eric and to the younger the Norwegian name of Hakon, both equally characteristic of the royal lines of the respective countries. The two young kings caused their father considerable annoyance; but, upon the early death of Eric, Hakon entered more into harmony with King Magnus. Valdemar Atterdag, the crafty and enterprising king of Denmark, took an active part in the conflicts, pretending to support Magnus, while simultaneously depriving him of Scania, Halland and Bleking, which he captured almost without resistance. He landed in the island of Gothland, plundering Visby in a treacherous way. Upon his departure, his ships perished in a storm, the plundered treasures going down with these, the king himself escaping with difficulty. Valdemar arranged a marriage between his little daughter Margaret and King Hakon of Norway. Several Swedish nobles of great influence considered the treachery and impudence of Valdemar and the weakness of Magnus as going too far. They offered the Swedish crown to Albrecht, the son of King Magnus’s sister Euphemia. The offer was accepted by Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg, the father of the young Albrecht, in behalf of his son. He made a sudden assault upon Stockholm in 1363, capturing it. At the Stone of Mora, Albrecht the Younger was chosen king of Sweden. Magnus was defeated and made a prisoner at Enkœping.
King Magnus was taken to Stockholm and there imprisoned for some time, heavily laden with chains. King Valdemar deserted his cause, but the common people of Svealand, with whom Magnus had always been exceedingly popular, rose in order to free him. Soon King Hakon reached the very gates of Stockholm with a Norwegian army, whereupon Magnus was released. But he had to abdicate his throne, leaving for Norway, where he died, through an accident, in 1374.
Albrecht was the rightful king of Sweden. At the death of Eric he became heir-apparent to the Swedish throne, but for having sped on the course of events in his own interest, neither he nor his father acquired any popularity. They surrounded themselves by a great number of Germans, who, through their licentiousness and overbearing manner, enraged the people. The country was practically in the hands of a few Swedish nobles, among whom the drotsete, Bo Jonsson Grip, through his high office and his immense wealth, bore the supremacy. Bo Jonsson is said to have been the wealthiest man who ever lived in the North, his possessions, fiefs and castles being of an astounding number, the most famous among the latter being Gripsholm in the Lake Mælar. He loaned money to the king against new castles and fiefs in security, and held Albrecht in the most humiliating relation of dependence. His enemies he persecuted without mercy, killing one before the high altar in the Franciscan church of Stockholm. When Bo Jonsson died, in 1386, the king tried to better conditions by confiscating to the crown some of his possessions. But he met with opposition from the nobles, who claimed that he did so only to enrich his German favorites. The king was helpless against his councillors, to whom he had handed over all his power. They were in possession of all the fortified castles, and if one of them died, the king had no right to select a successor without their permission. The executors of Bo Jonsson’s will ended by offering the crown to Margaret, Valdemar’s daughter, and queen-dowager of Norway. She accepted, promising the nobles that they should remain in undisturbed enjoyment of their great privileges. Margaret sent an army into West Gothland, consisting of men from all three of the Scandinavian countries, under the command of the Swede, Eric Kettilsson. King Albrecht met with an army to a great extent composed of German troops, and was defeated and made a prisoner at Falkœping, February 24, 1389. Albrecht was imprisoned at Lindholm, in Scania, for seven years, later returning to Mecklenburg.
To the Folkung period belongs one of the most remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, herself, on her mother’s side, a Folkung, St. Birgitta, the daughter of the legislator and first justice of Upland, Birger Persson. Her parents were both pious and devoted to ascetic practices. As a child she had visions, the holy Mary appearing to her. When thirteen years of age she was married to Ulf Gumundsson, later justice of Nerike, also a pious man, with whom she made a pilgrimage to Spain. Birgitta lost her husband shortly afterward. At the Swedish court, where she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, she had seen political life at close range, gathering a deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful in the world. Her husband’s death moved her deeply, and the religious mysticism of her youth now burst forth with increased strength, her visions becoming numerous and important. That she believed in them herself there is no doubt, and she made the world believe her. At first she hurled admonitions and curses against King Magnus and his court; but the wretchedness of the whole world attracted her to its spiritual centre, Rome, where she lived for twenty-three years in continual and open protest against the vices of the popes and priests. She died in Rome, in 1373, at the age of seventy, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, seeing the two great ambitions of her life fulfilled: the pope returning to Rome from Avignon, and her creation, the order of St. Salvator, sanctioned by the pope. Birgitta was canonized by the pope in 1391, through the influence of Queen Margaret.
Birgitta was the greatest political-poetic genius of the mediæval North. Her revelations fill eight volumes. She wrote them in Swedish, and had a priest translate them into Latin. Some of her original Swedish work is preserved. Birgitta appears to have thought in artistic images, and these images are of plastic form, often of consummate beauty, sometimes witty, sometimes avowedly comic, always effective. The melancholy charm of Sweden’s nature suffuses all her writings and renders to her peculiar mediæval mysticism a national temperament. From Swedish sceneries and animal life she borrows her most beautiful images.