Uppsala öd

Who he is

Name

Sverker II Karlsson (Sverker the Younger)

Title

king of the Swedes (Svear) and the Götar

Since

1195 or 1196, chosen without a fight after King Knut Eriksson died (autumn 1195 or 8 April 1196)

Born

before 1167

Family

Son of King Karl Sverkersson (killed on Visingsö in 1167) and Kristina of the Danish Hvide kindred; raised in Denmark among the Hvide. His queen, children and court are in the sws realm record (Sweden).

Confidence

high

en.wikipedia Sverker II of Sweden, Uppsala öd, Gamla Uppsala, Knut Eriksson, Birger Brosa; fmg.ac Sweden

What it holds

• Old Uppsala (Gamla Uppsala): the royal farm (kungsgård, the western part of the village) and the core of the Uppsala öd (the eastern part); the thing of all the Svear and the Disting fair meet here
• Fornsigtuna (Signhildsberg, Håtuna parish): old royal farm on Mälaren west of Sigtuna (named in the Uppsala öd lists)
• Hovgården on Adelsö (Alsnö): royal farm on Mälaren (named in the Uppsala öd lists; the Alsnö statute is issued here in 1279-80)
• Husby in Vendel, northern Tiundaland (named in the Uppsala öd lists)
• The king's farms (husabyar) of the Uppland hundreds known by name: Husby-Ärlinghundra, Husby-Långhundra, Husby-Lyhundra, Husby-Sjutolft, Kungs-Husby (royal status in 1200 inferred from the name)
• Södermanland: Ränninge on Fogdö (named in the Uppsala öd lists); Husby-Rekarne and Husby-Oppunda (inferred from the name)
• Västmanland and Dalarna: Kungsåra and Husby in southern Dalarna (inferred from the names; not pinned for 1200)
• The king's plot (kungsgårdstomten) in the middle of Sigtuna (Sigtuna)
• The levy fleet (ledung) of the Svear, raised from the ship districts (skeppslag) of the Roden on the Uppland coast
• Mora meadow (Mora äng, Lagga parish), where kings were later acclaimed on the Mora stone (first dated election there 1275)
• Södermanland: a land with its own law and thing (at Strängnäs) under its lawspeaker (not named); the king's farms above; the Hospitallers at Tuna (Hospitallers, Tuna); the coastal trading place at Aros, the later Nyköping
• Västmanland: a land with its own law and thing under its lawspeaker (not named); the bishop at Västerås; the iron country of the Bergslagen (Norberg)
• Närke: a land with its own law and lawspeaker (not named), in the diocese of Strängnäs since 1165; Jarl Birger Brosa's estates (sws) and the Cistercian nuns of Riseberga, attested from 1180 and endowed by the jarl and his wife Brigida (Church map); Örebro is first recorded only in the 13th century

How it was acquired

The Uppsala öd passes with the crown: the medieval Swedish laws say the estates go intact to each king, although in the 13th century much of it passed to nobles and the Church. Sverker took it when the Svear and the Götar accepted him in 1195-96 after Knut Eriksson's death, a peaceful succession that en.wikipedia credits largely to Jarl Birger Brosa.

Allies and rivals

With Sverker that winter: Jarl Birger Brosa of Bjälbo (jarl since 1174), who had served Knut Eriksson and made Sverker's accession; the jarl's estates lie in Östergötland, Närke, Värmland and Södermanland (en.wikipedia), and his record is sws's. Sverker's Danish kin, the Hvide of Zealand and Scania, and through them Archbishop Absalon of Lund. Archbishop Olof Lambatunga of Uppsala (since 1198; Church map). Not yet against him: the four sons of King Knut Eriksson, of the Erik line, youthful but not children (Erik was born about 1180), who live at Sverker's court and are raised by him.

One of them had been hailed as heir by the grandees in Knut's lifetime (en.wikipedia). They press their claim only after Birger Brosa's death (9 January 1202), about 1203, and flee to Norway. Their aunt Margrete, King Erik's daughter, is Queen of Norway as King Sverre's wife, so the Birkebeiner are their natural friends (now): in 1205 and 1208 they come back with Norwegian help. The Erik line's kingship had rested on the Svear: King Erik (St Erik), killed at Uppsala in 1160 (at Östra Aros, in his legend), lies in Old Uppsala cathedral.

That Uppland's men would rise for his grandsons in 1200 is a reasonable expectation, not a recorded fact.

How things stand that morning

Sverker holds the crown's estates in Svealand unchallenged on 1 January 1200. The kingdom is at peace: no rising, raid or siege is recorded in Svealand that winter. His own line's homeland is Östergötland (Alvastra, Visingsö) and his household moves between the lands; in Svealand his estates are run by bailiffs whose names are lost. Knut Eriksson's sons are at his court. In the north his lordship thins out: Gästrikland is a hundred of the Svear under their law; Hälsingland, Medelpad and Ångermanland are lands of free farmers under their own law and thing that acknowledge the Uppsala king and owe him dues and levy, but no royal officer is named there; beyond the farms of Ångermanland (north of Nordmaling and up the rivers into Lapland) there is no Swedish lordship at all.

Dalarna keeps its own law and thing; what it pays the king is not pinned. Across the borders: Götaland under the same king (sws); Jämtland and Härjedalen under King Sverre of Norway (now); Åland and the Finnish coasts, where no Swedish lordship stands (fin).

Wealth

Dues in kind (grain, malt, butter, cattle, iron) delivered at the king's farms; fines and the king's share of judgements; the levy and what is paid in place of it; the Mälaren trade and the king's plot at Sigtuna; iron from the mining districts north-west of Mälaren (the Old Norse Járnberaland, 'the land of the iron-carriers'; the Lapphyttan blast furnace at Norberg is dated to about 1150-1350, general knowledge, not checked online); copper from the Falun mountain in Dalarna, dug by farmers since about 1000 (first written record 1288).

Military

The levy fleet (ledung): the Roden of the Uppland coast is divided into ship districts (skeppslag), each manning and fitting out a ship when the king calls the levy; the Uppland law (1296) has the levy proclaimed at the Uppsala thing. The jarl leads it: Birger Brosa took an expedition to eastern Estonia in the 1190s (en.wikipedia, Knut Eriksson). No royal castle stands in Svealand in 1200 and Stockholm does not exist; a later tradition credits Knut Eriksson with a defensive tower at the Stockholm inlet and others at Skå and elsewhere after the raid of 1187 (en.wikipedia, Knut Eriksson; not proven).

Almarestäket, where the raiders killed Archbishop Johannes in 1187, is not yet fortified.

Threats

• The claim of Knut Eriksson's four sons, of age and at court, once Birger Brosa is gone (he dies 9 January 1202)
• Raiders from the eastern Baltic coming in through the Saltsjö inlets, as in 1187 when pagans from the east burned Sigtuna and killed Archbishop Johannes at Almarestäket
• The Norwegian civil war next door: both Sverre and the Bagler have friends in Sweden (Birger Brosa's son Filip serves Sverre and dies as his jarl in 1200, en.wikipedia)
• The Church's demand for freedom from royal courts and dues, pressed by Uppsala and Rome

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.

In 1200

1. late February or early March 1200The thing of all the Svear and the Disting fair at Old Uppsala, where (in later law) the king proclaims the levy for the year.Depends on: Custom holding; no 1200 meeting is recorded. Stopped by: War, a rising, or the king's absence.
2. 1200, day not pinnedSverker's letter of privilege to the Swedish Church, freeing church land and clergy from royal dues and lay courts: the oldest known Swedish church privilege. en.wikipedia dates it 1200 but names Archbishop Valerius, who was elected only in 1207.Depends on: The date of the letter (not pinned); Sverker's need of the Church's support. Stopped by: A quarrel between king and archbishop.
3. 1200, day not pinnedQueen Benedikta (of the Hvide) dies and Sverker marries Ingegerd, Birger Brosa's daughter, binding the jarl's kindred to the crown (sws).Depends on: Benedikta's death in 1200, after 1 January (en.wikipedia gives only the year). Stopped by: Benedikta living; the jarl refusing the match.

Later, on the likely course

1. 9 January 1202 (after this year)Birger Brosa dies; Knut Eriksson's sons press their claim about 1203 and are driven to Norway; Sverker beats them at Älgarås (1205) and is beaten by Erik at Lena (1208).Depends on: Natural death; the sons' claim. Stopped by: Play changing the jarl's health or the sons' place at court.

Places of note

• Old Uppsala royal farm: royal farm (kungsgård) and core of the Uppsala öd, beside the cathedral and the mounds
• Mora stones (Mora äng): meadow in Lagga parish where kings were acclaimed; first dated election 1275
• Fornsigtuna: royal farm of the Uppsala öd
• Hovgården, Adelsö: royal farm of the Uppsala öd
• Lapphyttan: blast furnace in Norberg, dated about 1150-1350: iron-making in the Bergslagen

Where the sources disagree

• en.wikipedia (Sverker II of Sweden) says Sverker confirmed privileges for the Church and Archbishop Valerius of Uppsala in a document dated 1200; en.wikipedia (Valerius) has Valerius elected in 1207, and the campaign notes have Olof Lambatunga archbishop since 1198. Either the letter is later than 1200 or it went to Olof: not pinned.
• en.wikipedia (Knut Eriksson) names Karelians as the raiders of 1187; en.wikipedia (Sigtuna) leaves it open between Curonians, Estonians from Ösel and Karelians; sv.wikipedia (Sigtuna) says the sources speak only of pagans from the east and the Erikskrönikan (about 1320) names Karelians.

Evidence: The king, the jarl and the court are well attested. The Uppsala öd and the husabyar are known from laws and lists of the late 13th and 14th centuries and from place names; which farms were the king's on 1 January 1200 is inferred, not documented. No royal officer in Svealand is named for 1200.

On the map: Each part is the parish round one royal farm; the farm itself was a fraction of its parish. Only the farms named in the Uppsala öd lists (Old Uppsala, Fornsigtuna, Hovgården, Vendel, Ränninge) are reasonably sure; the Husby farms are drawn from their names, and the many other royal farms of 1200 are unknown. The ground round them belonged to the farmers, the Church and the magnates.

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