Kingdom of Sweden (800–1521)

The Kalmar Union between the Scandinavian countries was established in 1397 and lasted until King Gustav Vasa ended it upon seizing power during the Swedish War of Liberation, which concluded in 1523.

[6] Medieval Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon sources tell of Migration Age Swedish kings belonging to the Scylfing dynasty, also known as Ynglings.

Some sources, such as Íslendingabók, Ynglinga saga and Historia Norwegiæ trace the foundation of the Swedish kingdom back to the last centuries BC.

[b] Some of these sources, the Anglo-Saxon Widsith and Beowulf, may date to the 8th century in their present forms, but retain oral traditions that are considerably older.

Native Scandinavian sources are generally held to date no earlier than the 9th century in the form of skaldic poetry, such as Ynglingatal.

Before the 10th or 11th century, there were many different petty kings, who ruled over different parts of the future Sweden and a lot of fighting and disputes between different tribes, such as the Geats and Swedes, and different sources contradict each other.

During and before the Early Viking Age, the people in what is now Sweden were primarily believers in Norse mythology, which dominated most of southern Scandinavia.

Inge took out his revenge three years later, when he entered Uppsala with a great force, set Blot-Sweyn's house ablaze, and killed him as he attempted to flee the burning wreckage.

According to a late-13th-century legend, Erik undertook the so-called First Swedish Crusade to Finland together with the equally legendary Bishop Henry of Uppsala, conquering the country and building many churches there.

The greatest medieval statesman of Sweden, and one of the principal architects of its rise as a nation, Birger Jarl the Regent, practically ruled the land from 1248 to 1266.

The increased respect and power which later royals owed to Birger Jarl were further extended by his son, King Magnus Ladulås (1275–90).

Both these rulers, by the institution of separate and almost independent duchies, attempted to introduce into Sweden a feudal system similar to that already established in continental Europe; the danger of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent and tragic complications by the opponents, the Folkung party.

[11] The formation of separate orders (classes of society), or estates, was promoted by Magnus Ladulås, who extended the privileges of the clergy and practically founded the formal Swedish nobility (see Ordinance of Alsnö, 1280).

At the end of the 13th century, and the beginning of the 14th, provincial codes of laws appear and the king and his council also executed legislative and judicial functions.

The boy king's long minority weakened the royal influence in both countries, and Magnus lost both his kingdoms before his death.

In Sweden, Magnus' partialities and necessities led directly to the rise of a powerful landed aristocracy, and, indirectly, to the growth of popular liberties.

Forced by the incompetence of the magnates to lean upon the middle classes, in 1359 the king summoned the first Swedish Riksdag, on which occasion representatives from the towns were invited to appear along with the nobles and clergy.

The Swedes first broke away from the Union in 1434 under the popular leader Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, and after his murder they elected Karl Knutsson Bonde as their king with the title of Charles VIII in 1436.

Finally, on his death in 1470, the three kingdoms were reunited under Christian II of Denmark, the prelates and higher nobility of Sweden favouring the union.