Kingdom of the Swedes and the Götar

Who rules

Name

Sverker II Karlsson (Sverker the Younger)

Title

king of the Swedes and the Götar

Since

1196, chosen on the death of King Knut Eriksson (autumn 1195 or 8 April 1196)

Born

not pinned: before 1167 (en.wikipedia), about 1160 (de.wikipedia); so about 33 to 40 years old

Family

Son of King Karl Sverkersson, who was killed on Visingsö by Knut Eriksson's men in 1167 (fmg gives 12 April 1166), and of Kristina Stigsdotter of the Danish Hvide kindred, daughter of Stig Tokesen Hvide and Margrete, the daughter of Knud Lavard: so Sverker is a great-nephew of Valdemar I of Denmark and a kinsman of Canute VI. Grandson of King Sverker I (killed 1156). Wife on 1 January 1200: Benedikta (Bengta) Ebbesdotter, daughter of Ebbe Sunesen of the Hvide (the Galen branch), kin to Archbishop Absalon, married before 1190 while Sverker lived in Denmark; she dies in 1200 (en.wikipedia; day not pinned). Within the year he marries Ingegerd, daughter of Jarl Birger Brosa (en.wikipedia: 1200, soon after Benedikta's death; a minority view makes Ingegerd the first wife). Children living on 1 January 1200: Helena, the only well-attested daughter (later married to Sune Folkesson); possibly two more daughters, Kristina and Margareta, who later married North German princes (uncertain: de.wikipedia, en.wikipedia). A son Karl is said in Norwegian sources to have married a daughter of King Sverre and died in 1198 (fmg: murdered in the mountains near Trondheim), so he is dead by 1 January 1200 if he existed as told; the sources are confused. Johan, Sverker's only certain son, is born in 1201: not yet.

Confidence

high

en.wikipedia and de.wikipedia on Sverker II; fmg.ac Sweden; nothing in these places Sverker's own movements in the winter of 1199-1200.

What the realm holds

• the kingship of the Swedes and the Götar, accepted at the lands' things
• the crown's estates (the Uppsala öd) and royal farms (swn sheet for Svealand)
• the Sverker kindred's lands in Östergötland and the royal residence on Visingsö
• the levy fleet (ledung), led by the jarl
• the yearly tribute and ship duty of the Gutes (Gotland)
• the royal tower and harbour at Kalmar (about 1180)
• the mint at Lödöse

How it was acquired

Elected in 1196 on Knut Eriksson's death, passing over Knut's named heir; Birger Brosa is credited with arranging it (de.wikipedia). No coronation is proved (de.wikipedia).

Allies and rivals

Denmark is Sverker's second home: Canute VI is his kinsman, the Hvide his mother's and wife's kin, and Danish help will come to him in 1208. Jarl Birger Brosa is his partner and soon his father-in-law. Norway's King Sverre is married to Margareta Eriksdotter, King Knut's sister, so Knut's sons are Sverre's nephews by marriage, and the jarl's son Philip serves Sverre as a jarl: the Erik and Bjälbo houses lean to Sverre, the king to Denmark, which shelters Sverre's enemies (the exiled archbishop of Nidaros at Lund; the Bagler's Danish links: noe sheet).

No Swedish part in the Norwegian war is known for the winter of 1199-1200.

The realm that morning

Sverker holds the kingship unchallenged and at peace. Real power is shared: the jarl leads the levy and the great men; the lands keep their own law; the bishops and the Cistercians stand with the crown. Across the borders: Danish Halland, Scania and Blekinge to the south (dkz sheet), Norwegian Ranrike and Viken across the Göta river and beyond Dalsland and Värmland, where Sverre and the Bagler are at war (noe sheet), Svealand to the north (swn sheet), and Gotland, a tributary ally.

Wealth

The crown's farms and their dues, fines, the king's share of the levy dues, the Gotland tribute, the Lödöse mint and the trade of Lödöse and Kalmar. Iron from Bergslagen and the Småland bogs, cattle, butter and furs are the lands' wealth.

Military

No standing force: the king's own followers, the great men's retinues, the farmers' levy at need and the ledung at sea. Strongpoints: the tower at Kalmar (about 1180), the residence on Visingsö. Sweden's record in 1187-1199 is defensive: pagan Karelians burned Sigtuna and killed Archbishop Johannes in 1187 (en.wikipedia; other accounts blame Estonians or Curonians).

Threats

• King Knut's sons, one of them a named heir, living at Sverker's court
• the jarl's age: Birger Brosa dies on 9 January 1202, and the balance between the king and the Bjälbo house goes with him
• Danish entanglement on one side, Sverre's kin ties to the Erik house on the other
• pagan raiders from Karelia, Estonia and Courland in the sailing season
• the Norwegian civil war spilling over the Göta river, Dalsland and Värmland
• papal pressure over the Church's freedoms and the Uppsala bishops

Officers and household

The jarl, Birger Brosa of Bjälbo (jarl since about 1174; 'jarl of the Swedes and Götar', in Latin dux Sweorum et Guttorum), is the king's first man, leads the levy fleet (ledung) and takes a share of the royal dues, including part of Gotland's tribute (Guta saga). No chancellor, marshal or steward (drots) is pinned for 1200: the steward and the marshal belong to the later thirteenth century. The king's letters are written by churchmen; the Cistercian houses (Alvastra, Nydala, Varnhem, Roma on Gotland) and the bishops supply clerks.

The royal bailiffs who ran the king's farms (bryte) are not named in any source for 1200.

Heirs

No son on 1 January 1200 (Karl, if he existed, died in 1198; Johan is born in 1201). King Knut Eriksson's sons are the obvious rival heirs: Knut had named one of them heir with the great men's consent (en.wikipedia), and they are adults or nearly so (Erik born about 1180).

Great men and kindreds

The house of Bjälbo (the jarl Birger Brosa, his sons Knut, Folke and Magnus, his son Philip in Norway, his younger brother Magnus Minnesköld at Bjälbo and Magnus's son Eskil, later lawspeaker of Västergötland); the Erik house (King Knut's sons; Knut's brother Filip Eriksson, who witnesses a Nydala charter dated about 1200 as 'Philippus frater regis Kanuti': fmg); the Sverker house itself. Queen Margareta of Norway, King Knut's sister, holds estates of her own in Västergötland and Värmland, to which she retires after 1202 (Store norske leksikon, as cited on the now sheet; not re-checked). The great men of Västergötland and Östergötland outside these houses are not named in the sources for 1200; the lawspeakers are the land's own leaders (see the Västergötland province record).

Royal estates

The crown's estates, the Uppsala öd, lie mainly in Svealand (swn sheet), with royal farms (the husabyar, managed by the king's bailiffs) scattered through the lands; the king lives by moving between them and by his right of hospitality. The Sverker kindred's own lands lie in Östergötland round Alvastra under Omberg, and the royal residence on Visingsö in Lake Vättern (the castle of Näs is named in 1216) serves both houses. The Erik kindred's farm of Eriksberg in Västergötland, where King Knut died, is their own.

Which Götaland farms were crown land in 1200 is not pinned.

Provinces and laws

Svealand: Uppland, Södermanland, Västmanland and Närke with their things (swn sheet). Götaland: Västergötland with Dalsland under the Västgöta law, its lawspeaker and the thing of all Götar at Skara (the law was written down in the early thirteenth century, the lawspeaker in 1200 is not pinned); Östergötland with the Lionga thing at or near Linköping, 'the most important thing in Östergötland' (en.wikipedia; its first named lawspeaker is of 1244); Småland's small lands, each with its own law and thing and the right, by tradition, to stay out of a king's war; Öland; Värmland, where a lawspeaker 'A.' is named about 1190 (en.wikipedia, incompletely identified). A new king rode the Eriksgata round the lands to be accepted at each thing (the custom is told in the thirteenth-century laws; Sverker's own ride is not recorded).

Levy fleet

The ledung: the coastal districts owe ships, men and food for the king's summer expeditions, organised in Uppland by ship districts (skeppslag, swn sheet). Gotland owes ships only against heathen lands (Guta saga gives seven). How the Götaland coasts were levied in 1200 is not pinned. The jarl leads the levy; no expedition is recorded under Sverker.

Coinage and mints

Minting restarted at Lödöse about 1150, and coins in the king's name (KANVTVS REX) were struck after about 1180 under Knut (en.wikipedia). Sverker's own coinage is not pinned.

Trade tolls fairs

Lödöse on the Göta river is the Götar's only port on the western sea, facing Norway and the North Sea routes. Kalmar, Söderköping and Gotland face the Baltic, Lübeck and Novgorod; iron, furs, butter, hides and cattle go out, salt, cloth and wine come in. Skänninge and Linköping are old markets; the Disting at Uppsala is the Svealand market (swn). Toll rights at these places are not pinned for 1200.

Church

The archbishopric of Uppsala (1164) under the primacy of Lund: Absalon is primate of Denmark and Sweden (campaign notes). Archbishop Olof Lambatunga since 1198; on Absalon's complaint Innocent III ordered him to remove two bishops his predecessor had consecrated who were sons of priests (campaign notes). Bishops at Skara, Linköping, Strängnäs, Västerås and Växjö (Church map). The oldest known Swedish church privilege, Sverker's grant freeing church land from royal dues and putting clerics under church courts, is dated 1200 in en.wikipedia but tied by de.wikipedia to Archbishop Valerius (archbishop from 1207): its date is not pinned.

Frontiers

With Denmark: Danish Halland meets Västergötland on the coast between Askim (Swedish) and Särö (Danish) south of the Göta river mouth, and inland along the forests to Finnveden; Danish Scania (Göinge) meets Finnveden and Värend; Danish Blekinge meets Värend and Möre, with the Brömsebäck stream as the border at the coast. The forest border was old (by tradition settled in the mid-eleventh century: not re-checked) and quiet in 1200; who governs Halland and Blekinge for Canute VI is for the dkz sheet. With Norway: the Göta river from the sea past Lödöse, with Norwegian Konungahella (Kungälv) at the fork of the Nordre river and Hisingen divided (the southern quarter, Lundby and Tuve, Swedish; the rest Norwegian: en.wikipedia), then the forests west of Dal and Värmland against Ranrike, the Borg country, Eidaskog, Vinger and Solør, where the Birkebeiner and the Bagler fight (noe sheet).

With Svealand: Kolmården and Tiveden (swn sheet). At sea: Gotland, an ally, and beyond it the pagan coasts of Estonia, Saaremaa and Courland, whose raiders strike Sweden and Denmark in summer (en.wikipedia, Livonian Crusade).

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. 1200, day not pinned (en.wikipedia)Queen Benedikta dies.Depends on: her health; natural death on its date unless play changes her circumstances Stopped by: nothing in play known; the date may fall before 1 January (some genealogies give 1199)
2. 1200, soon after Benedikta's death (en.wikipedia)Sverker marries Ingegerd, daughter of Jarl Birger Brosa, binding the Bjälbo house to his line; their son Johan is born in 1201.Depends on: Benedikta's death and the jarl's consent Stopped by: a breach between king and jarl, a Danish match pressed by Sverker's kin, or the minority view that Ingegerd was already his wife
3. 1200, day not pinned (en.wikipedia on Birger Brosa)Philip Birgersson, the jarl's son and King Sverre's jarl, dies in Norway.Depends on: the Norwegian war (noe and now sheets) Stopped by: his circumstances in Norway changing
4. 1200 (en.wikipedia) or 1207 onward (de.wikipedia)Sverker grants the Church its first known privilege: church land free of royal dues and clerics judged by the Church.Depends on: Sverker needing the bishops' backing, perhaps with a coronation (de.wikipedia) Stopped by: a quarrel with the archbishop or the great men, who lose dues by it
5. spring 1200 (en.wikipedia)Bishop Albert of Livonia sails for the Dvina with a crusading fleet, partly recruited on Gotland in 1199 (Henry of Livonia, not re-checked); Riga is founded in 1201 with Gotland merchants.Depends on: German and Danish backing; the sailing season Stopped by: see sws-gotland

Later, on the likely course

1. 9 January 1202 (after this year)Birger Brosa dies; Sverker makes his infant son Johan jarl and keeps the jarl's estates in his own hand (de.wikipedia).Depends on: the jarl's natural death Stopped by: play changing the jarl's circumstances
2. 1203-1205 (after this year)Knut's sons claim the throne, are driven to Norway (winter 1204-05), return with Birkebeiner help and lose at Älgarås in November 1205, where three of them fall; Erik escapes.Depends on: the jarl's death and Sverker's refusal of their claims Stopped by: a settlement giving the sons land or a share
3. January 1208 and 17 July 1210 (after this year)Erik Knutsson beats Sverker and his Danish allies at Lena; Sverker falls at Gestilren in 1210 and Erik is crowned in November 1210.Depends on: the chain above

Places of note

• Visingsö (Näs): royal residence in Lake Vättern; Karl Sverkersson was killed here in 1167; the castle of Näs is named in 1216
• Alvastra: Cistercian abbey (1143) founded on the Sverker family's land under Omberg; burial place of the house (Church map)
• Bjälbo: the jarl's family seat
• Lödöse: west-coast port and mint
• Kalmar: royal tower and harbour on Kalmar Sound (about 1180)

Where the sources disagree

• Brief, Sverker's marriages: en.wikipedia dates Benedikta's death and the marriage to Ingegerd both to 1200 (order of the marriages debated; de.wikipedia says the order is unknown). On 1 January 1200 Benedikta is therefore taken as still alive and queen; the campaign may rule otherwise.
• Brief, 'Knut's sons': en.wikipedia says the sources do not give the names of Erik's three brothers. Names sometimes met in later writing are not used here.
• The church privilege: en.wikipedia dates it 1200 and also names Archbishop Valerius, who held Uppsala only from 1207 (de.wikipedia ties it to Valerius); the campaign notes have Olof Lambatunga archbishop since 1198, which fits a 1200 date only if the privilege was not issued to Valerius. Not pinned.
• Knut's sons' age: en.wikipedia says they were grown up when Knut died; de.wikipedia says they were still minors. Erik is born about 1180.

Evidence: The kings, the jarl and the dynastic war are well enough attested (Sverris saga, the Icelandic annals, the Västgöta law's king list, charters), but nearly all detail of government in 1200 is thin, and dates often rest on one late annal.

On the map: The realm is shown by its anchors and its provinces; Östergötland is drawn as its modern municipalities, whose outer border follows the old province line through Kolmården, Tiveden and the Småland forests, which in 1200 were forest marches rather than lines.

Primary sources for this realm

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