Västergötland (land or people) in 1200, Sweden

The western land of the Götar, between Lake Vänern, Lake Vättern, the Göta river and the forests towards Halland and Småland.

It keeps its own law, the Västgöta law, written down in the early thirteenth century (partly at the urging of Eskil Magnusson, later its lawspeaker), and its own lawspeaker, chosen for life by the farmers from among themselves, the son of a landowner, who recites the law at the thing, speaks for the people before the king and, on the people's behalf, accepts a new king when he rides the Eriksgata (en.wikipedia). The list of its lawspeakers, copied by a priest of Vidhem in the 1320s, begins with Lum about the year 1000. The thing of all Götar meets at Skara, and despite its name covers only Västergötland and Dalsland (de.wikipedia).

Skara is also the oldest bishop's seat in Sweden. The land is the home ground of the Erik house (King Knut died at Eriksberg and lies at Varnhem) and holds Sweden's only western port, Lödöse.

Who holds it

Name: not pinned for 1 January 1200: the lawspeaker list in the Västgöta law makes Eskil Magnusson (in office by about 1217-19) the seventeenth, so his predecessor sat in 1200; that name is not checked here
Title: lawspeaker of Västergötland, with the thing of all Götar
Confidence: low

en.wikipedia (Lawspeaker; Westrogothic law; Eskil Magnusson); de.wikipedia (Skara)

Overlord

King Sverker II

What it holds

the thing of all Götar at Skara
the hundreds (härad) of the land, each with its own thing
the port of Lödöse (Lödöse)

How things stand that morning

At peace under Sverker; the land of the Erik house and of Varnhem and Skara. Across the Göta river lies Norwegian Ranrike with Konungahella (noe sheet); to the south Danish Halland (dkz sheet).

Threats

the Norwegian war on the far side of the Göta river
a king who refuses the land's law
the quarrel of the two royal houses, which will be fought out here at Lena in 1208

Law and courts

The Västgöta law and the thing of all Götar at Skara; the hundred things (härad); the lawspeaker as judge and spokesman. The bishop of Skara's courts for churchmen (Church map).

Why a province

The land, not a lord, is the body that governs: it keeps its own law, elects its lawspeaker and receives the king at its thing, and no royal officer governs it in 1200. The king's power here is his farms and his kinsmen; the Erik house's lands are drawn as a lord record.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

January 1208 (after this year)Erik Knutsson beats Sverker and his Danes at Lena in Västergötland.Depends on: the war of the royal houses (sws-sweden)

Places of note

Skara: the thing of all Götar and the bishop's seat

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The law, the thing and the lawspeaker are well attested, but by texts written down after 1200; the holder in 1200 is not named here.

On the map: Drawn as the modern municipalities that lie wholly in the old land, plus four outlines for the mixed edges: the Göta river mouth with southern Hisingen (Swedish after the medieval division: en.wikipedia), Lödöse's bank of the river, Väne hundred and Tiveden. The forest borders with Halland and Småland were marches, not lines.

Primary sources for Sweden

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

The Danish annals of Lund, Ryd and other houses (12th and 13th centuries; Lund continued to 1307, Ryd to 1288). Short dated entries from Lund, the archbishop's seat, and from Ryd in Schleswig. Read online
Deeds of the Danes, Saxo Grammaticus (about 1185 to 1208). Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. Read online
The saga of King Sverre of Norway, Karl Jónsson and a continuator (begun about 1185 under Sverre's own supervision, completed about 1210 to 1220). The king's own authorised saga. Read online
The sagas of the Baglers (about 1210 to 1220, in a shorter and a longer version). Begins with Sverre's death in March 1202 and the reigns of Hákon Sverrisson, Guttorm and Inge Bårdsson against the Bagler kings Erling Steinvegg and Philippus, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online
The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved. Read online
The Swedish diplomatarium and its main register, SDHK (documents of 817 to 1540). The register of every known Swedish medieval letter, with full texts for the early centuries. Read online
The law of the Gotlanders; The saga of the Gotlanders (Guta lag about 1220, Guta saga about 1220 to 1275; manuscript of about 1350). The law and the short history of the self-governing island. Read online

Sources and studies

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.