Medieval Scandinavian Kingdoms (A.D. 875-1523)

[Excerpted from Israel Smith Clare, The Standard history of the World. Vol. 5 (Cincinnati: Standard Historical Society, 1921), pp. 2409-2419]

While the Northmen from Scandinavia were committing their ravages throughout Europe the three Scandinavian kingdoms took their rise. Denmark was founded by Gorm the Old, and Norway by Harald Fairhair, about A. D. 875 while Sweden was founded by the royal race of the Ynglingar about A. D. 900.

Political History of Denmark. Gorm the Old, who reigned over Denmark from 860 to 936, ravaged the northern coast of Germany with fire and sword, plundered Charlemagne's chapel at Aix la Chapelle, took part in the first siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885, and was overwhelmingly beaten by the German king Arnulf in the battle of Louvain in 891.

During Gorm's absence on his inroads into Germany and France his kingdom was ruled by his queen, Thyra, a woman of more than ordinary vigor of mind. Gorm the Old was a fierce pagan, but Thyra was favorably disposed toward Christianity. She caused the immense rampart of the Dannevirke to be erected across the peninsula of Denmark at the southern end of Schleswig. This rampart was eight miles long and from forty-five to seventy feet high, and was intended to protect Denmark from German invasions.

On the death of Gorm the Old, in 936, his son Harald Bluetooth became King of Denmark. Harald Bluetooth was a cruel and crafty king, and by treachery he succeeded in making Norway tributary to him for a time, but Norway soon regained its independence. Harald Bluetooth professed Christianity, and was baptized, along with his wife and his son Sweyn, by a German monk named Poppa, who also converted a considerable portion of the Danish people. Harald Bluetooth led several expeditions to France to aid young Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy.

Harald Bluetooth lost his life in battle in 985, and was succeeded on the throne of Denmark by his son Sweyn I., who invaded England in 994, during the reign of Ethelred the Unready, and conquered a large portion of that kingdom. This conquest occupied some years, and in 1014 Sweyn I. died at Gainesborough, in England. Though Sweyn had been baptized in childhood, he relapsed from Christianity into paganism when he attained maturer years.

Sweyn I. left two sons. One of these was Harald II., who was elected King of Denmark. The other was Canute the Great, who was then but fourteen years of age, and was assigned the crown of England. Canute the Great soon conquered the whole of England. Upon the death of Harald II., in 1018, Canute the Great also became King of Denmark. Canute the Great had been converted to Christianity in England, and he abolished the worship of Odin in Denmark, making Christianity the state religion. Canute the Great resided chiefly in England, and his reign belongs more to English than to Danish history. He conquered Sweden in 1025 and Norway in 1027, so that before his death he wore the crowns of four kingdoms, and had founded a great Scandinavian empire.

Canute the Great died in 1036, at the age of thirty-six years; and was succeeded on the throne of Denmark by Hardicanute, his son by his second wife, and on the throne of England by Harald Harefoot, his son by his first wife. On the death of Harald Harefoot, in 1039, Hardicanute also became King of England, after which he passed most of his time in that kingdom.

Upon the death of Hardicanute, in 1041, Magnus the Good, King of Norway, obtained the crown of Denmark. This was a great gain for the Danes, who enjoyed the benefits of the wise rule of Magnus the Good for five years. On the death of Magnus the Good, in 1047, SWEYN II., the nephew of Canute the Great, became King of Denmark, so that the crowns of Denmark and Norway were again separated.

Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, sought to defeat this arrangement, and for seventeen years he maintained a constant war with Denmark, inflicting great sufT!ering upon that kingdom, until peace was made in 1064. Sweyn II. was a good sovereign and a good man, and his reign was one of great prosperity for Denmark. In 1069 he endeavored to wrest England from William the Conqueror, but failed. This was the last of the Danish attempts upon England. Sweyn II. was an ardent friend of Pope Gregory VII. (Hildebrand), with whom he maintained a constant correspondence; but when Gregory VII. ordered this Oanish king to acknowledge himself a vassal of the Pope he refused to do so and resolutely maintained the independence of Denmark.

Sweyn II. died in 1076, and five of his fourteen sons reigned over Denmark in succession. The eldest of these, Harald the Simple, reigned from 1076 to 1080; Canute IV., from 1080 to 1086; Olaf the Hungry, from 1086 to 1095; Erik the Good, from 1095 to 1103; and Niels, from 1103 to 11s4. The reigns of these five kings were distracted by internal dissensions and civil war. The death of Niels was followed by a troublesome period, during which Denmark was successively ruled by Erik Harefoot, from 11s5 to 11s7; Erik the Lame, from 1137 to 1147; Swyen III. and Canute V., from 1147 to 1154; and Sweyn III. alone, from 1154 to 1157.

This distracted period was ended when Waldemar the Great became King of Denmark, in 1157. This sovereign found his kingdom poor, without an army and in great distress; but he left it a prosperous, well-defended and busy nation. He achieved great victories over the heathen Wends and Esthonians, on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic, compelling them to accept Christianity. Waldemar the Great died in 1182, and was succeeded by his son, Canute the Pious, who reduced all of Pomerania and a part of Eastern Prussia under the dominion of Denmark.

On the death of Canute the Pious, in 1202, his brother, Waldemar the Conqueror, became his successor. Waldemar the Conqueror was one of Denmark's greatest kings. He conquered and annesed the whole of Pomerania, and in 1217 the German Emperor granted to him and his successors all the terTitories north of the Elbe and the Elde, thus making Waldemar the Conqueror the actual master of most of Northern Germany.

With the sanction of Pope Honorius III., Waldemar the Conqueror undertook to compel the Esthonians to embrace Christianity in 1219, undertaking this task with an army of sisty thousand men and a fleet of fourteen hundred ships. He soon overran all of Esthonia, forcing many of the inhabitants to accept baptism. The Livonian Knights of the Sword bitterly opposed this Danish conversion of Esthonia, declaring that they alone had the right to convert the heathen of that region to Christianity. These knights took up arms to drive out the Danes, and in the several battles which followed between the contending forces the Danes were generally the victors.

When Waldemar the Conqueror returned from Esthonia to Denmark he seemed to be at the height of his power and greatness; but in 1225, while sleeping in his tent during a hunting e2mpedition, he was seized, gagged and bound, along with his eldest son, Prince Waldemar, by Count Henry of Schwerin, who conveyed his captives in a swift sailing vessel to Germany and imprisoned them in a dungeon in the Castle of Danneberg, in Hanover. Waldemar the Conqueror and his son were detained in this shameful captivity for several years, and were only released upon the payment of a ransom of forty-five thousand silver marks.

Waldemar the Conquerors vast empire fell to pieces during his cap; tivity, his German provinces reverting to the dominion of their Emperor. Waldemar was unable to avenge himself upon Count Henry of Schwerin, and he applied himself to the improvement of his kingdom.

In 1241 he gave Denmark her first uniform code of laws, a code which remained in force for almost four and a half centuries, and was not wholly abolished even then. Waldemar the Conqueror died three days after the Danish Diet had adopted his code, at the age of seventy-one years, A. D. 1241.

As Prince Waldemar had died before his father, Waldemar the Conqueror's second son, Erik IV., succeeded his father on the throne of Denmark. Erik IV. was assassinated in 1251 by his brother Abel, Duke of Schleswig, who then acquired the Danish crown. During Abel's short reign of less than two years the burgher class were first allowed representation in the Danehof, the yearly national assembly of Denmark. The burghers were also then granted important municipal privileges which they had not previously enJoyed. King Abel was assassinated in 1252 by a man whom he had wronged, and was succeeded by his brother Chrsitopher I.

On the death of Christopher I., in 1259, his son Erik Glipping, a child of ten years, became King of Denmark. On the death of Erik Glipping, in 1286, his son Erik Menved, also a child of ten years, succeeded to the Danish throne, and reigned until his death in 1s19. Under Erik Glipping and Erik Menved the royal power in Denmark rapidly declined, and the Hanseatic League dictated the terms UpOII which the Danes should engage in the fisheries.

Upon the death of Erik Menved, in 1319, his brother Christopher II. ascended the throne of Denmark. After electing Christopher II. king, the Danish nobles compelled him to sign a charter rendering them almost independent of the Danish crown and entirely exempting them from royal taxation, thus reducing vastly the royal revenues.

The efforts of Christopher II. to release himself from these hard conditions involved his kingdom in many civil wars. In 1325 the Danish nobles obtained the assistance of Count Gerhard of Holstein, who defeated Christopher II. and induced the Danes to dethrone their king. Count Gerhard then made his nephew, Waldemar of Schleswig, King of Denmark; but Count Gerhard was himself the real ruler of Denmark for fourteen years (A.D. 1326-1840), greatly oppressing the Danish people and thus incurring their bitter hatred. The deposed Christopher II. failed in many efforts to recover his throne, and died in 1332.

In 1340 Count Gerhard of Holstein was assassinated in the midst of his nobles and his troops by a Jutlander of rank named Niels Ebbeson. The Jutlanders instantly rallied under this intrepid leader and drove the German troops from Denmark. Count Henry of Holstein, Gerhard's son and successor, took up arms to avenge his father's murder, and defeated the Danes in the battle of Skandersborg, in which Niels Ebbeson was slain. Count Henry then retired to Holstein with his troops, leaving the Danes to manage their own aSairs.

The Danish nobles elected Waldemar Atterdag, the youngest son of Christopher II., King of Denmark. Waldemar Atterdag revived the power and credit of the Danish kingdom, and was successful in a war with the Hanseatic League. Desiring to secure the marriage of his daughter Margaret with the Crown Prince of Sweden and Norway, he seized the Princess Elizabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, who was betrothed to that. prince, and detained her in captivity until he had effected his daughter's marriage with the heir to the Swedish throne. This proceeding involved Waldemar Atterdag in a war with the Counts of Holstein, who formed an alliance with the Hanseatic League and some of the German princes against the Danish king. Waldemar Atterdag was defeated with the loss of a large part of his kingdom, and was obliged to flee from Denmark in 1368. The Hanseatic League managed the affairs of Denmark for four years, but permitted Waldemar Atterdag to return to the Danish throne in 1s72 on condition that the Hanseatic League should have a voice in the election of the Danish kings in the future.

Waldemar Atterdag died in 1375, whereupon the Danish nobles chose to the Danish throne Olaf V., the son of Margaret, Queen of Sweden and Norway, Waldemar Atterdag's daughter. Upon the death of Olaf V., in 1s87, at the age of seventeen, the Danish nobles elected his mother Margaret, " the Semiramis of the North," to the throne of Denmark. Soon afterward Margaret was crowned Queen of Norway, thus uniting Denmark and Norway under one crown.

Harald Farfager, or Harald Fairhair , the founder of the Kingdom of Norway, reigned from A. D. 863 to 933. The high-spirited Norse chieftains whom he reduced under his dominion could not endure their subjugation, and embarked with their followers in piratical expeditions against the coasts of all Europe. /

Upon Harald Fairhair s death, in 955, his son Erik the Cruel became King of Norway, and reigned five years. Exasperated bv his tyranny, his subjects rose against him in 938 and drove him from Norway, after which they conferred the Norwegian crown upon his brother Hakon the Good, who had been educated in England at the court of King Athelstan, from which circumstance he was called " Athelstan's foster son." Hakon the Good was a wise and good monarch, and the Norwegian people justly cherish his memory to this day. He gave Norway a code of laws, and also endeavored to introduce Christianity into his kingdom, but his subjects were staunch pagans, and it required three centuries for their conversion. The sons of Erik the Ctuel, aided by Denmark, made repeated efforts to seize the Norwegian crown; and Hakon the Good lost his life in battle with them in 963.

Political History of Norway. Erik Graafel, Erik the Cruel s son, and his cousin, Hakon Jarl', divided Norway between them until Hakon Jarl's death, in 995, when the Norwegians revolted, and placed Olaf Trygvaeson on the throne of Norway. Olaf Trygvaeson is one of the great heroes of Norwegian romance, and his exploits constitute a fruitful theme for the songs of poets. He destroyed the pagan temples, and founded the city of Drontheim. He was defeated by the Danes in a great naval battle in the year A. D. 1000, and when all was lost he sprang overboard in full armor to escape capture, and was drowned. For the next fifteen years Norway sufFered severely from Danish and Swedish attacks.

Olaf the Saint drove out the Danish and Swedish oppressors of Norway in 1015, thus restoring the independence and unity of Norway. Olaf the Saint completed the establishment of the Christian religion in Norway, but accomplished this result in so harsh and cruel a manner that all classes of his subjects were aroused against him. In 1027 Canute the Great of Denmark and England invaded Norway, defeated Olaf the Saint and drove him from his kingdom, and annexed Norway to his own dominions. Olaf the Saint afterward returned and made an effort to recover the Norwegian crown, but was defeated and slain in the battle of Stikklestad.

Canute the Great then assigned Norway to his son Sweyn II.; but in 1035 Sweyn II. was driven out by Magnus the Bastard, the illegitimate son of Olaf the Saint. Magnus the Bastard lost his life in battle with the Danes in 1047, and was succeeded on the throne of Norway by his uncle Harald Hardrada, who inflicted great suffering upon Denmark in a war of seventeen years. In 1066 Harald Hardrada invaded l England for the purpose of wresting that kingdom from Harold, the l last of its Saxon kings, but was defeated and killed in the battle of t Stamford Bridge, in Yorkshire, September 25, 1066.

Olaf III., the eldest son of Harald Hardrada, then became King of Norway. His reign was peaceful and prosperous, and he won the aft- fection of his subjects. He endeavored to introduce European civilization into his kingdom. Olaf III. died in 109S, and was succeeded on i the throne of Norway by his son Magnus Barefoot , who invaded and conquered the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, the Orkneys and the Shetlands. Magnus Barefoot also invaded Ireland, but was defeated and killed in battle with the Irish, A. D. 1103.

Upon the death of Magnus Barefoot the Norwegians made his three t. sons, Ejsten I., Sigurd I. and Olaf IV, joint Kings of Norway. Olaf IV died when a child, and Ejsten I. followed him in 112S, leaving Sigurd I. sole sovereign. Sigurd I. is one of the great heroes of Norway. He fought against the Moors, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and there joined his arms with those of King Baldwin, and captured and plundered Sidon.

After the death of Sigurd I., in 1130, Norway was afflicted with . anarchy and civil war for fifty-four years, various princes contending a for the Norwegian crown. Magnus IV. and Harald IV., the sons of Sigurd I., first rent the kingdom with turmoil. In 1136 Sigurd II., Inge I., Ejsten II., Hakon III. and Magnus V. claimed the sovereignty.

Sverre restored order and tranquillity to Norway in 1184. He pretended to be a son of Sigurd II., but was generally believed to be the son of a brushmaker. On Sverre's death, in 1202, his only son, Hakon III., became King of Norway. Hakon III. died in 12043 and was succeeded on the Norwegian throne by Guthrum, a grandson of Sverre. ( Guthrum was a mere child, and died after a reign of a few months; after which the Norwegian crown passed to Inge Baardsen, a nephew of Sverre. Inge Baardsen's entire reign was passed in civil wars with ] rival claimants for the Norwegian crown.

Upon Inge Baardsen's death, in 1217, Hakon IV., the son of Hakon III., ascended the throne of Norway. Hakon IV. was a wise and powerful monarch, and conquered Iceland in 1261. He made an efflort to subdue Scotland in 1262, but was defeated in a battle at the mouth of the Clyde, and soon afterward died in the Orkneys. Magnus VI., the son and successor of Hakon IV., sold the Hebrides to Scotland; and his son Erik married the daughter of the Scottish king, Alexander III. Magnus VI. was a good king, and greatly improved the laws of Norway.

On the death of Magnus VI., in 1280, his son Erik the Priest-hater became King of Norway. Erik the Priest-hater died in 1299; and, as he left no sons, he was succeeded by his only brother Hakon V., who was a good sovereign, and so won the aSections of his subjects that at his death in 1S19 they conferred the crown of Norway on Magnus Smcek, King of Sweden, who was the son of Ingeborg, the daughter of Hakon V., by her marriage with Erik, the brother of one of the previous Kings of Sweden.

In 1350 Magnus Smcek abdicated the crown of Norway in favor of E his second son Hakon VI., who had married Margaret of Denmark. Upon the death of Hakon VI., in 1s80, his son Olaf V., Olaf II. of Denmark, became King of Norway, under the regency of his mother Margaret. Upon the death of Olaf V., in 1387, Margaret of Denmark also became Queen of Norway.

Norway had steadily declined since the death of Hakon VI. in 1280. The kingdom was exhausted by the constant wars with Denmark, and the monopoly of trade which the Hanseatic League enjoyed interfered with the industry of the Norwegian people. The Black Plague, which spread over Europe in 1348, scourged the kingdom for two years, destroying more than two-thirds of its people; and Norway did not recover from its effects for centuries.

Politial history of Sweden. The authentic history of Sweden begins with Olaf the Lap-king, who began to reign A. D. 99S, and who received his surname from the circumstance that he had received the homage of his princes while he was an infant in his mother's arms. St. Ansgar, " the Apostle of the North," had introduced Christianity into Sweden in 829; but it had made slow progress. Olaf the Lap-king embraced the new religion and founded a bishopric at Skara, but he could not induce his subjects to accept Christianity, and they continued pagans for over a century longer.

Olaf the Lap-king died in 1024, and was succeeded as King of Sweden by his son Edmund Colbrenner, who died in 1052, when his brother Edmund Slemme ascended the Swedish throne. Edmund Slemme was the last of the Upsala line of Swedish sovereigns, and died in 1055. His reign was mainly signalized by a great persecution of the Christians.

After the death of Edmund Slemme, in 1055, a fierce war broke out between the Goths and the Swedes, the two chief races in the kingdom; and the Goths succeeded in placing Stenkil, one of their own chiefs, upon the Swedish throne as King of the Goths and the Swedes. Stenkil was a Christian. Anarchy prevailed in the Swedish kingdom for the next century, and the period was signalized by the incessant struggles between the Swedes and the Goths. Stenkil's successors on the Swedish throne were Halstan, from 1066 to 1090; Ingo the Great, from 1090 to 1112; Philip, from 1112 to 1118; and Ingo II., from 1118 to 1135.

Sverker I., a Christian, became King of Sweden in 1135. He made great exertions for the establishment of Christianity in his kingdom, and erected many churches and monasteries. He restored order and prosperity to Sweden, and vastly improved the administration of justice. Sverker I. died in 1155, and was succeeded on the Swedish throne by his cousin Erik the Saint, who improved the laws of his kingdom and promoted the spread of Christianity. Erik the Saint conquered a large portion of Finland and forced it to accept the Christian religion. He died in 1160.

During the reigns of Charles Sverkersson (A.D. 1160-1167), Canute Eriksson (A.D. 1167-1195), Sverker II (A.D. 1195-1210), Erik Canutesson (A.D. 1210-1216), John Sverkersson (A>D> 1216-1222) and Eric Læspe (A.D. 1222-1250) Christianity spread rapidly in Sweden, and the clergy became the most powerful order in the kingdom. During this entire period of ninety years the only things to record in the affairs of Sweden are the dissensions, civil wars and assassinations of kings, and the disorder and misery of the entire kingdom. The Benedictine monks were the only class of men who did anything to lessen these evils, and many of them had come from England. These zealous men first taught the Swedes how to till the soil and plant gardens, to prepare salt, to build and work water-mills, and to make roads and bridges.

A more certain period of Swedish history commenced in 1250. Waldemar, the son of the chief of the powerful family of the Folkungar, was elected King of Sweden; and with him began the dynasty of the Folkungar. Waldemar died in 1275, and was succeeded on the Swedish throne by his brother, Magnus Barnlock, so called because he protected the granaries of his subjects from the rapacity of the nobles. He was a wise king, and greatly increased the royal power. After the death of Magnus Barnlock, in 1290, a long period of civil war ensued between his three sons.

Magnus Smejk, the grandson of Magnus Barnlock, became King of Sweden in 1s19, at the age of only three years. In 1s20 he became King of Norway by right of his mother. He afterward married his son Hakon to Margaret of Denmark, as already noticed, and placed him on the throne of Norway. As the three Scandinavian kingdoms were now so closely allied, Magnus Smtek undertook to abolish the Swedish Senate, but was dethroned; and in 1s63 Albert of Mecklenburg was elected King of Sweden. His reign closed the first period of Swedish history.

We have now reached an important epoch in the history of the three Scandinavian kingdoms. Queen Margaret of Denmark and Norway, " the Semiramis of the North," was one of the most remarkable women in history. She was a wise and good sovereign to both Denmark and Norway, and greatly endeared herself to her subjects. She adopted as her heir Erik of Pomerania, the grandson of her sister Ingeborg, and earnestly sought to render him worthy of his destiny. She made peace with her old enemies, and maintained good order among her subjects, winning both nobles and peasants to her side. She proceeded from castle to castle, and received the homage and faithful service of the great. She went from province to province, and looked well into matters of law and of right, until all obeyed and served her. Justice was done in her two kmgdorns; and even the high-born sea-robbers, who had plagued the kingdoms and defied the la~.7s for so long a period, were seized with terror and were glad to come forward and give surety in money for their future good behavior.

Nor satisfied with her two kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, Margaret also claimed the crown of Sweden in right of her husband. In 1:389 she invaded that kingdom and defeated its king, Albert of Mecklenburg, and kept him a prisoner for six years. She assumed the government of Sweden immediately after her victory. In 1597 she proclaimed an act of union, known as the Unwon of Calmar, uniting the three Scandinavian kingdoms under one scepter, the king to be elected conjointly by the three nations. On this occasion Margaret caused her grandnephew, Erik of Pomerania, to be crowned with great state at Calmar as lying of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

After the Union of Calmar the Norwegians entirely lost their independence, and the Danish influence became supreme in Norway. The Norwegian nobles were destroyed as an order, and were obliged to give way to Danish immigrants. For several centuries after Margaret, Norway had no separate existence, being little more than a province of Denmark.

The Union of Calmar was distasteful to the Swedes, but remained in force for more than a century. This union might have been productive of good to the three Scandinavian kingdoms if Margaret's successors had been as good and as just as she had been. It was-true, as Margaret said, that each one of the three kingdoms alone was a poor, weak state, exposed to danger on all sides, but that the three united would make a monarchy sufficiently strong to defy the attacks and schemes of the Hanseatic League and all foes from the side of Germany, and would keep the Baltic clear of danger from foreigners. But none of Margaret's successors were equal to her, as none of her predecessors could be compared to her. After Margaret's sudden death, in 1412, Erik remained sole sovereign of Scandinavia.

Erik was a weak and incompetent monarch. During Margaret's last years he had exhibited signs of incapacity, but her abilities had saved him from the consequences of his blunders. He devoted his chief energies to the conquest of Holstein, but his operations were generally unsuccessful. He married Philippa, the daughter of King Henry IV. of England, and her remarkable abilities had much to do with prolonging his reign.

In 1435 the Swedes rose against Erik to resist his oppression of them, and in 1439 a council of state declared him deposed in Sweden. The Danes followed the example of the Swedes by deposing Erik in Denmark. Erik was then absent in the island of Gothland, and sought to return to Denmark, but was not permitted to land, and died in 1459, poor and neglected.

Christopher III., the son of the Duke of Bavaria and the nephew of Erik, was elected Ring of Denmark, and was crowned the same year, A. D. 1439. In 1442 he was also proclaimed lying of Sweden and Norway. He died in 1448, and Charles Canutesson became lying of Sweden.

The Danish nobles then conferred the crown of Denmark on Count * Christian of Oldenburg, a descendant of the ancient Danish kings, with the title of Christian I. He married the widow of Christopher III., and was readily acknowledged king by the Danes, thus establishing the House of Oldenburg, which has ever since occupied the throne of Denmark. In 1450 Christian I. was crowned lying of Norway, and he also claimed the crown of Sweden and strove hard to obtain it, but was unable to obtain a firm footing in that country. In 1469 Christian I. married his daughter Margaret to the young lying James III. of Scotland, and ceded the Orkney and Shetland Isles to that kingdom in lieu of her dowry.

Christian I. died in 1481, and was succeeded by his eldest son John, who obtained the crown of Denmark only by making hard terms with the Danish nobles, with whom he was unpopular. John failed in his efforts to obtain the crown of Swedeni but he defeated the Lubeck traders, and greatly restrained the insolence of the Hanseatic League. 4 John died in 151S, and was succeeded on the thrones of Denmark and Norway by his only son, Christian II.

After the death of Charles Canutesson, in 1471, Sweden came under the government of Steno Sture I., a valiant and sagacious ruler, who curbed the insolence of the Swedish nobles, elevated the peasant and burgher classes, founded the University of Upsala, and invited learned a men and printers from other countries into Sweden. Steno Sture I. governed Sweden with almost absolute power, and died in 1504. His second successor, Steno Sture II, who became ruler of Sweden in 151S, quarreled with the Archbishop of Upsala; whereupon the tyrannical Christian . II. of Denmark reestablished the Danish supremacy over Sweden. Steno Sture II. being defeated and mortally wounded in battle, A. D. 15!20; but the cruel massacre of ninety-four Swedish fl nobles at Stockholm led to Sweden's liberation by the valiant Gustavus

Vasa in 152S, of which we shall give a more full account in a subsequent part of this work.

Here the history of the medieval or feudal period of the three Scandinavian kingdoms ends. These remote Northern kingdoms formed a separate world, as it were, from the nations of Central, Western and Southern Europe, being looked upon as semi-civilized or barbarous by those nations, the latter being influenced and moulded by the remnants of ancient civilization and culture.