Town · Kingdom of the Swedes and the Götar · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Sigtuna

The king's town on Mälaren, founded about 980, laid out along one street with the royal plot in the middle.

Coins were struck here from about 995. It was the first bishop's seat of the Svear (about 1060) until the see moved to Old Uppsala (1130 in sv.wikipedia). In 1187 'pagans from the east' burned it and killed Archbishop Johannes at Almarestäket: the Erikskrönikan (about 1320) names Karelians, modern writers also suggest Curonians or Estonians from Ösel.

Excavation has not confirmed a destruction of the town, and life went on. In 1200 Sigtuna is still the chief town of the Mälaren lands but past its height: its stone churches stand (St Olof, mid-11th century; St Per, 12th century), and land rise is slowly making its waters shallow. Revival comes in the 1230s with the Dominicans (1237); in the late 13th century Uppsala and Stockholm overtake it.

Who holds it

Name
King Sverker II; his reeve not named
Title
the king (lord of the town and its royal plot)
Since
1195-96
Confidence
high

sv.wikipedia and en.wikipedia Sigtuna; en.wikipedia Knut Eriksson

Lord in 1200

King Sverker II, whose royal plot (kungsgårdstomten) lies in the middle of the town; his officer there is not named.

How things stand that morning

A royal town, diminished but living, at peace on 1 January 1200. Thirteen years after the raid, the eastern pirates have not returned in any recorded attack.

Charter

None known for 1200.

Council

None recorded for 1200; nothing is known of the townsmen's own institutions at this date.

Communities

Townsmen and merchants on the king's plots; the clergy of several stone churches.

Militia

The townsmen, and the levy of Attundaland round it.

Walls and castle

No walls and no castle; the royal plot in the middle of the town.

Trade and crafts

The Mälaren trade: iron, furs and hides out, cloth, salt and silver in; crafts in metal, bone and antler.

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.

  1. 1237 (after this year)The Dominicans found St Mary's convent and the town revives.

Places of note

  • Almarestäket: narrows where the raiders killed Archbishop Johannes in 1187 (Almarestäket)

Where the sources disagree

  • sv.wikipedia (Sigtuna) gives 1130 for the move of the see to Old Uppsala in one place and 1190 for the archdiocese's cathedral in another.

Evidence: The town's founding, mint and churches are well known from archaeology; the raid of 1187 is in the annals and later chronicles, its authors disputed; the state of the town in 1200 is inferred.

On the map: The tierra is the town and its near land; the king's other farms round Sigtuna (Fornsigtuna) are in the crown record.

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

  1. Wikipedia (sv): Sigtuna
  2. Wikipedia (en): Sigtuna
  3. Wikipedia (en): Knut Eriksson

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