1.
Queen Silvia of Sweden
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Queen Silvia of Sweden is the spouse of King Carl XVI Gustaf and mother of the heir apparent to the throne, Crown Princess Victoria. In 2011, Silvia became the longest serving queen of Sweden, Silvia Renate Sommerlath was born in Heidelberg, Germany, on 23 December 1943, the only daughter of the late Alice and Walther Sommerlath. Her father was German and her mother was Brazilian and she has two older brothers, Ralf and Walther Sommerlath. They and their families were guests at the 2010 wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling and her third brother, Jörg Sommerlath, died in 2006. The Mother-Child House Jörg Sommerlath in Berlin, operated by Queen Silvias World Childhood Foundation, is named after him, the family returned to West Germany in 1957. She briefly worked as a flight attendant, a trained interpreter, Swedish is actually her sixth language. She speaks her native German, her mothers language of Portuguese, as well as French, Spanish and she has some fluency in Swedish Sign Language, a national sign language used by the deaf community in Sweden. During the 1972 Summer Olympics, Silvia Sommerlath met Crown Prince Carl Gustaf, in a later interview, the King explained how it just clicked when they met. After the death of King Gustaf VI Adolf on 15 September 1973 and he and Silvia announced their engagement on 12 March 1976 and were married three months later, on 19 June in Stockholm Cathedral in Stockholm. It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797, If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty and this was also the reason why Carl Gustafs uncle, Prince Bertil, did not marry until after Gustaf VI Adolfs death. The King and Queen of Sweden have three children and five grandchildren, Crown Princess Victoria, Duchess of Västergötland. She is married to Daniel Westling, and they have a daughter and he is married to Sofia Hellqvist, and they have a son, Prince Alexander, Duke of Södermanland Princess Madeleine, Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland. As the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet noted in 1994, on the occasion of the Queens 50th birthday and you could put it that way. Even if Silvias arrival was like kicking someone lying down, or hitting a guy with glasses. The guy with glasses was mostly to be found with the Social Democrats, a few lines in the party manifesto, ever more vague over the years. It has always been there, but nobody has ever done anything to implement it, as she told the Swedish news agency TT, If a person is hurt too much, the natural reaction is to withdraw. That is a pity, because I really think our children are natural and open toward other people
2.
History of Sweden
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During the 11th and 12th centuries, Sweden gradually became a unified Christian kingdom that later included what is today Finland. During the early Middle Ages, the Swedish state also expanded to control Norrland and Finland, Modern Sweden started out of the Kalmar Union formed in 1397 and by the unification of the country by King Gustav Vasa in the 16th century. Vasa fought for an independent Sweden and broke with the papacy, in the 17th century Sweden expanded its territories to form the Swedish empire. Most of these territories had to be given up during the 18th century. During the 17th century, after winning wars against Denmark, Russia, Swedens role in the Thirty Years War determined the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. The Russians won a war against Sweden in 1709, capturing much of the Swedish army, Sweden joined in the Enlightenment culture of the day in the arts, architecture, science and learning. Between 1570 and 1800 Sweden experienced two periods of urban expansion, Finland was lost to Russia in a war in 1808–1809. In the early 19th century Finland and the territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost. After its last war in 1814, Sweden entered into a union with Norway which lasted until 1905. Since 1814, Sweden has been at peace, adopting a foreign policy in peacetime. Sweden was neutral in World War I, post-war prosperity provided the foundations for the social welfare policies characteristic of modern Sweden. Sweden created a model of social democracy. Sweden remained neutral during World War II, avoiding the fate of occupied Norway, Sweden was one of the first non-participants of World War II to join the United Nations. Apart from this, the tried to stay out of alliances and remain officially neutral during the entire Cold War. The social democratic party held government for 44 years, the 1976 parliamentary elections brought a liberal/right-wing coalition to power. During the Cold War, Sweden was suspicious of the superpowers, with the end of the Cold War, that suspicion has lessened somewhat, although Sweden still chooses to remain nonaligned. The earliest images can, however, be found in the province of Jämtland and they depict wild animals such as elk, reindeer, bears and seals. The period 2300–500 BC was the most intensive carving period, with carvings of agriculture, warfare, ships, domesticated animals, also, petroglyphs with themes have been found in Bohuslän, these are dated from 800–500 BC
3.
Prehistoric Sweden
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The Pleistocene glaciations scoured the landscape clean and covered much of it in deep quaternary sediments. Therefore, no undisputed Early or Middle Palaeolithic sites or finds are known from Sweden, shortly before the close of the Younger Dryas, the west coast of Sweden was visited by hunter-gatherers from northern Germany. This cultural group is referred to as the Ahrensburgian and were engaged in fishing and sealing along the coast of western Sweden during seasonal rounds from the Continent. Currently, we refer to group as the Hensbacka culture and, in Norway. During the late Preboreal period, colonization continued as people move towards the north-east as the ice receded, archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that they arrived first from the south-west and, in time, also from the north-east and met half-way. An important consequence of de-glaciation was a continual land uplift as the Earths crust rebounded from the pressure exerted by the ice and this process, which was originally very rapid, continues to this day. It has had the consequence that originally shore-bound sites along much of Swedens coast are sorted chronologically by elevation, around the countrys capital, for instance, the earliest seal-hunter sites are now on inland mountain tops, and they grow progressively later as one moves downhill toward the sea. The Late Palaeolithic gave way to the first phase of the Mesolithic in c.9600 BC and this age, divided into the Maglemosian, Kongemosian and Ertebølle Periods, was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers with a microlithic flint technology. Where flint was not readily available, quartz and slate were used, in the later Ertebølle, semi-permanent fishing settlements with pottery and large inhumation cemeteries appeared. Farming and animal husbandry, along with monumental burial, polished flint axes and decorated pottery, whether this happened by diffusion of knowledge or by mass migration or both is controversial. In a century or two, all of Denmark and the third of Sweden became neolithised and much of the area became dotted with megalithic tombs. Farmers were capable of rearing calves to collect milk from cows all year round, the people of the countrys northern two thirds retained an essentially Mesolithic lifestyle into the 1st Millennium BC. Coastal south-eastern Sweden, likewise, reverted from neolithisation to a hunting and fishing economy after only a few centuries, in c.2800 BC the Funnel Beaker Culture gave way to the Battle Axe Culture, a regional version of the middle-European Corded Ware phenomenon. Again, diffusion of knowledge or mass migration is disputed, the Battle Axe and Pitted Ware people then coexisted as distinct archaeological entities until c.2400 BC, when they merged into a fairly homogeneous Late Neolithic culture. This culture produced the finest flintwork in Scandinavian Prehistory and the last megalithic tombs, Swedens southern third was part of the stock-keeping and agricultural Nordic Bronze Age Cultures area, most of it being peripheral to the cultures Danish centre. The period began in c.1700 BC with the start of bronze importation, first from Ireland and then increasingly from central Europe. Copper mining was never tried locally during this period, and Scandinavia has no tin deposits, Iron production began locally toward the periods end, apparently as a kind of trade secret among bronze casters, iron was almost exclusively used for tools to make bronze objects. The Nordic Bronze Age was entirely pre-urban, with living in hamlets
4.
Viking Age
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The Viking Age is the period from the late 8th century to the mid-11th century in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, following the Germanic Iron Age. It is the period of history when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation and conquest. Three Viking ships had beached in Weymouth Bay four years earlier, the Viking devastation of Northumbrias Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote, Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared. Vikings were portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. The chronicles of medieval England portrayed them as rapacious wolves among sheep, the first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a readership in Britain. Archaeologists began to dig up Britains Viking past, linguistics traced the Viking-Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas, the Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were chiefly pagans from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also settled in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland, Greenland and their North Germanic language, Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a central authority appears to have been established in Jutland. In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries, communities there remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in Denmark which is lowland. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway, the sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. It was in the 8th century that Scandinavians began to build ships of war, the North Sea rovers were traders, colonisers and explorers as well as plunderers. There are various theories concerning the causes of the Viking invasions, for people living along the coast, it would seem natural to seek new land by the sea. Another reason was that during this period England, Wales and Ireland, the Franks, however, had well-defended coasts and heavily fortified ports and harbours. Pure thirst for adventure may also have been a factor, a reason for the raids is believed by some to be over-population caused by technological advances, such as the use of iron, or a shortage of women due to selective female infanticide. Although another cause could well have been caused by the Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia. Consequently, these Vikings became raiders, in search of subsistence, There is ongoing debate among scholars as to why the Scandinavians began to expand during the 8th through 11th centuries
5.
Kalmar Union
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The Union was not quite continuous, there were several short interruptions. Legally the countries remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic, one main impetus for its formation was to block German expansion northward into the Baltic region. The main reason for its failure to survive was the struggle between the monarch, who wanted a strong unified state, and the Swedish and Danish nobility which did not. Diverging interests gave rise to a conflict that would hamper the union in several intervals from the 1430s until its breakup in 1523 when Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. Norway continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark–Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries until its dissolution in 1814. Then Union between Sweden and Norway lasted until 1905, when a grandson of the incumbent king of Denmark was elected its king, the union was the work of Scandinavian aristocracy wishing to counter the influence of the Hanseatic League. Margaret, a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, Margaret succeeded in having her son Olav recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark. In 1376 Olav inherited the crown of Denmark from his grandfather as King Oluf III, with his mother as guardian. The two kingdoms were united in a union under a child king, with the kings mother as his guardian, later. On 2 February the next year, she was recognized as regent of Norway. Their common enemy was the Hanseatic League and the growing German influence over the Scandinavian economy. The Nordic union was established on 17 June 1397 by the Treaty of Kalmar, signed in the Swedish castle of Kalmar on Swedens south-east coast, at each junction, installation of a new monarch tended to mean a break-up of the union for a while. Eric of Pomerania, however, became the monarch of all three kingdoms, at Kalmar, the 15-year-old Eric of Pomerania was crowned king of all three kingdoms by the archbishops of Denmark and Sweden, but Margaret managed to remain in control until her death in 1412. It is said that contemporaries of the Union would not recognize the term, Union of Kalmar—that they just understood that much of the time. While the term meaning Treaty of Kalmar was known already at the time, the Swedes were not happy with the Danes frequent wars on Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, which were a disturbance to Swedish exports to the European continent. Furthermore, the centralization of government in Denmark raised suspicions, the Swedish Privy Council wanted to retain a fair degree of self-government. The unity of the union eroded after the Danish defeat against the German Hanseatic League in the 1430s, even to the point of armed rebellion, erik was deposed as the union king and was succeeded by his nephew, the childless Christopher of Bavaria. In the power vacuum that arose following Christophers death, Sweden elected Charles VIII king with the intent to reestablish the union under a Swedish king, during the next seven decades struggle for power and the wars between Sweden and Denmark would dominate the union
6.
Swedish Empire
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The Swedish Empire refers to the Kingdom of Swedens territorial control of much of the Baltic region during the 17th and early 18th centuries, a time when Sweden was one of the great European powers. The beginning of the Empire is usually taken as the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, who ascended the throne in 1611, in Swedish history, the period is referred to as stormaktstiden, literally meaning the Great Power era. The interests of the high nobility contrasted with the uniformity policy, in territories acquired during the periods of de facto noble rule, serfdom was not abolished, and there was also a trend to set up respective estates in Sweden proper. The Great Reduction of 1680 put an end to efforts of the nobility. However, in the course of this war as well as in the subsequent Scanian War, Sweden was able to maintain her empire only with support of her closest ally. Charles XI of Sweden consolidated the empire and ensured a period of peace, before Russia, Saxony and Denmark started an attack on his successor. Sweden emerged as a great European power under Axel Oxenstierna and King Gustavus Adolphus, during the Thirty Years War, Sweden managed to conquer approximately half of the member states of the Holy Roman Empire. After France had intervened on the side as Sweden, the fortunes would shift again. As the war continued, it turned more and more grim, although exact population estimates do not exist, historians estimate that as many as one-third of the people in the Holy Roman Empire may have died as a result of the war. At the same time, Sweden joined the other important northern European nations in founding overseas colonies, New Sweden was founded in the valley of the Delaware River in 1638, and Sweden later laid claim to a number of Caribbean islands. A string of Swedish forts and trading posts was constructed along the coast of West Africa as well, at the conclusion of the Thirty Years War, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 granted Sweden territories as war reparations. Sweden demanded Silesia, Pomerania pay a sum of 200,000 Riksdaler out of the lands they would receive, or 2) surrender a fourth of the property itself. Against this, the over-taxed lower estates protested, and the Diet had to be suspended, the king intervened, not to quell the commons, as the senate insisted, but to compel the nobility to give way. He proposed a committee to investigate the matter before the meeting of the next Riksdag. Charles X Gustav had done his best to recover from the extravagance of Christina. However, his own desire for military glory may have caused problems for his country, in three days, he persuaded the Swedish estates of the potential of his attack on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, when he left Stockholm for Warsaw on July 10,1654, the Polish-Swedish War expanded into a general European war. He achieved passage over the Belts and emerged triumphant, only to die of sheer exhaustion, immediately after his death, a regency was appointed to govern Sweden during the minority of his only son and successor, Charles XI of Sweden, who was four years old
7.
Age of Liberty
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The shift of power from monarch to parliament was a direct effect of the Great Northern War, which was disastrous for Sweden. Suffrage under the government of the Age of Liberty was not universal. Although the taxed peasantry was represented in the Parliament, its influence was disproportionately small, at home the Reduction was cautiously pursued, while abroad the successful conclusion of the great peace congress at Ryswick was justly regarded as a signal triumph of Swedens peaceful diplomacy. From the very beginning of the Great Northern War, Sweden suffered from the inability of Charles XII to view the situation from anything and his great determination to avenge himself on enemies overpowered every other consideration. Again and again, during eighteen years of warfare, it was in his power to dictate a peace advantageous to Sweden. After initial setbacks, Charles, with the help of the combined English and Dutch fleet, defeated Fredrick IV, soon, Charles defeated the Russian forces at the Battle of Narva on 20 November 1700. But Charles, intent on dethroning the last member of the coalition against him, Augustus II of Poland, subsequently in 1701 he rejected a personal appeal from William III of England to conclude peace on his own terms. Moreover, two of Swedens Baltic provinces, Estonia and Ingria, had seized by the Tsar. Yet even now Charles, by a stroke of the pen, in 1707 Peter was ready to return everything except Saint Petersburg and the line of the Neva, and again Charles preferred risking the whole to saving the greater part of his Baltic possessions. When at last, after Charles catastrophic defeat in the Poltava in June 1709 and his flight into Turkey, he condescended to use methods, it was solely to prolong, not to terminate. Even now he could have made honorable terms with his numerous enemies, the resources of Sweden were still very far from being exhausted, and during 1710–1711 Magnus Stenbock, while Charles was still trapped at Bender, upheld her military supremacy in the north. But all the efforts of the Swedish government were wrecked by the determination of Charles XII to surrender nothing, at the beginning of 1719, peace overtures were made to Britain, Hanover, Prussia and Denmark. Northern Swedish Pomerania with Rügen which had come under Danish rule during the war, was retained by Sweden, negotiations were reopened with Russia at Nystad, in May 1720, but peace was not concluded till 30 August 1721 and then only under the direst pressure. By the Treaty of Nystad Sweden ceded to Russia Ingria and Estonia, Livonia, Finland west of Viborg and north of Käkisalmi was restored to Sweden. She also received an indemnity of two million Riksdaler and an undertaking of non-interference in her domestic affairs. All power was vested in the people as represented by the Riksdag, consisting, as before, of four estates, nobles, priests, burgesses. The conflicting interests of four independent assemblies, who sat and deliberated apart and with their mutual jealousies. No measure could now become law until it had obtained the assent of at least three of the four estates
8.
Gustavian era
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This is a History of Sweden from 1772 through 1809, more known as the Gustavian era of Kings Gustav III and Gustav IV, as well as the reign of King Charles XIII of Sweden. Adolf Frederick of Sweden died on February 12,1771, nothing could be done, however, till the return of the new king, Gustav III, from Paris. The new coronation oath contained three revolutionary clauses, The first aimed at making abdications in the impossible by binding the king to reign uninterruptedly. The third clause required him, in all cases of preferment, to be guided not principally as heretofore, all through 1771 the estates wrangled over the clauses. An attempt of the king to mediate foundered on the suspicions of the estate of burgesses, the non-noble Cap majority now proceeded to attack the Privy Council. The Riksrådet, the last stronghold of the Hats, and, on April 25 of that year and it was now, for the first time, that Gustav began to consider the possibility of a revolution. The new constitution of August 20,1772 which Gustav III imposed upon the Riksdag of the Estates, converted a weak and disunited republic into a strong, but these extensive powers were subjected to important checks. Thus, without the consent of the estates, no new law could be imposed, no old law abolished, no offensive war undertaken. The estates alone could tax themselves, they had the control of the Riksbank - the Bank of Sweden. In Sweden the change was most popular, but Gustavs first Riksdag, that of 1778, opened the eyes of the deputies to the fact that their political supremacy had departed. But it was not till after eight years more had elapsed that actual trouble began, the Riksdag of 1778 had been obsequious, the Riksdag of 1786 was mutinous. It rejected nearly all the royal measures outright, or so modified them that Gustav himself withdrew them, when he dismissed the estates, the speech from the throne held out no prospect of their speedy revocation. Nevertheless, within three years, the king was obliged to summon another Riksdag, which met at Stockholm on the January 26,1789 and his attempt in the interval to rule without a parliament had been disastrous. Abroad the Swedish revolution made a great sensation, unknown to party leaders, Gustav had renewed the Swedish alliance with France and had received solemn assurances of assistance from Louis XV if Gustav were to reestablish monarchical rule in Sweden. Moreover, France agreed to pay its outstanding subsidies to Sweden, amounting to 1.5 million livres annually, beginning from January 1772. Whats more, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, was to be sent to Stockholm to circumvent the designs of Russia just as he had previously done in the Sublime Porte at Constantinople, the new king, Gustav IV, still a minor, was brought up among Jacobins. During the kings minority, Gustaf Reuterholm virtually ruled Sweden, the negotiations with the French Jacobins exacerbated the hatred which Gustavs supporters felt for the Jacobin counselors of Charles, the duke-regent, later Charles XIII of Sweden. They formed a conspiracy to overthrow the government, led by Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, which was to have been supported by a Russian fleet, the conspiracy was discovered and vigorously suppressed
9.
Instrument of Government (1809)
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The Instrument of Government adopted on 6 June 1809 by the Riksdag of the Estates was one of the fundamental laws that made up the constitution of Sweden from 1809 to 1974. The coup enabled Gustav III to rule as an enlightened despot and this provided momentum for the Swedish nobility and other forces to depose the king and restore political power to the Estates. The aged and childless brother of Gustav III, Charles XIII was made king in 1809, but he was a puppet in the hands of the Estates. The rights of Bernadottes successors to accede to the Swedish throne were codified in an amendment to the constitution in the form of the Act of Succession, the Instrument of Government of 1809 replaced the Instrument of Government of 1772. It established a separation of powers between the branch and the legislative branch. The King and Riksdag possessed joint power over legislation, while the Riksdag had sole power over the budget, originally, ministers were politically responsible solely to the king, who appointed and dismissed them. However, they were responsible to the Riksdag and a special court according to a special statute. As the Riksdags authority grew, it increasingly difficult for a government to stay in office solely with the Crowns support. This culminated in 1907, when a government was chosen that was dependent more on the confidence of the Riksdag than on that of the King. After a great victory in 1917, it was obvious that the King could no longer pick a government entirely of his choosing. At that time, it was established that ministers were politically responsible to the Riksdag. From then on, while ministers were formally appointed by the King, convention required him to ensure they had the support of a majority in the Riksdag. In 1975, it was replaced by a new Instrument of Government, during the period when it was in force several important reforms took place without affecting its status. In 1866 the Four Estates were replaced by a bicameral parliament, in the early 20th century universal suffrage was introduced and the country became a de facto parliamentary monarchy. In 1970 the parliament was transformed from a bicameral legislature to a unicameral one, history of Sweden Politics of Sweden Constitution of Sweden King in Council Privy Council of Sweden Gustavian Party Regeringsform 1809 - at Wikisource Historiska dokument - at Wikisource
10.
Sweden in Union with Norway
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The Union between Sweden and Norway is an overriding theme of the history of Sweden in the 19th century. On 4 November 1814, the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway formed a union under one king. The two countries had separate institutions, except for the foreign service led by the king through the Swedish foreign minister. The Union was the realisation of an idea that had been nursed in Sweden for a long time, when it was finally accomplished, it was due to political circumstances beyond the borders of Scandinavia. The Napoleonic wars caused Finland to be separated from Sweden, Sweden actively exploited the opportunity, while Norway reluctantly submitted to another inevitable union. That initial disparity between the partners caused recurring political conflicts, and their different interpretations of the union eventually brought them apart and it was dissolved peacefully in 1905. Gustav IV Adolf ascended to the throne of Sweden in 1792, after the assassination of his father and his reign was ill-fated and was to end abruptly. After the conclusion of the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit, Sweden was invited to join the Continental System, the king instead entered into negotiations with Britain in order to prepare a joint attack against Denmark–Norway, with the intention of acquiring Norway. In the meantime, the preemptive British attack on the Danish navy, as Sweden in the meantime had sided with the British, Denmark-Norway was forced by Napoleon to declare war on Sweden on 29 February 1808. Sweden now faced a two-front war, as Russia had invaded Finland on 21 February, viewing the possibility of a joint Danish and French attack as the greater danger, king Gustav IV concentrated his army in southern Sweden and staged an invasion of Norway. The Norwegian army, commanded by the general Christian August of Augustenborg, viceroy of Norway and he refrained from pursuing the Swedish army beyond the border, while Sweden was hard pressed by the Russians in Finland, contrary to urgent requests from king Frederick VI. By the autumn of 1808, the Russians had occupied all of Finland, on 7 March 1809, when it was clear that Sweden would lose the war with Russia, officers who were resentful at the conduct of the war staged a coup détat and deposed the king. He was forced to abdicate on 29 March and was imprisoned with his family in Gripsholm castle, on 5 June the duke regent Charles XIII was proclaimed king after accepting a new liberal constitution, which was ratified by the Riksdag the next day. In December Gustav and his family were transported to Germany, Charles XIII was both infirm and childless. To secure the succession to the throne, he adopted Prince Christian August of Augustenborg as his heir, Christian August had been viceroy of Norway and commander-in-chief of the Norwegian army during its successful resistance to the Swedish invasion in 1808–09. His great popularity in Norway was considered an advantage to the Swedish plans for the acquisition of that country, in addition, he had demonstrated his interest in a rapprochement between the two countries by refraining from invading Sweden during the war with Russia. As crown prince of Sweden, he changed his name to Carl August of Augustenborg, after his mysterious death on 28 May 1810, the French marshal Bernadotte was adopted by Charles XIII and received the homage of the estates on 5 November 1810. The new crown prince was soon the most popular and the most powerful man in Sweden
11.
Union between Sweden and Norway
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The Norwegian government was presided over by viceroys, Swedes until 1829, Norwegians until 1856. That office was vacant and then abolished in 1873. Foreign policy was conducted through the Swedish foreign ministry until the dissolution of the union in 1905, by the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, the King of Denmark-Norway was forced to cede Norway to the King of Sweden. But Norway refused to submit to the treaty provisions, declared independence, after the adoption of the new Constitution of Norway on 17 May 1814, Prince Christian Frederick was elected king. On 4 November the Storting elected Charles XIII as the King of Norway, Sweden accepted the unions dissolution on 26 October. After a plebiscite confirming the election of Danish Prince Carl as the new king of Norway, he accepted the Stortings offer of the throne on 18 November and took the regnal name of Haakon VII. After the establishment of absolutism in 1660, a centralised form of government was established. The united kingdoms are referred to as Denmark-Norway by later historians, the ambitious wars waged by king Charles XII, however, led to the loss of that status after the Great Northern War, 1700–1721. Sweden also invaded Norway in 1567,1644,1658 and 1716, to wrest the country away from the union with Denmark, the repeated wars and invasions led to popular resentment against Sweden among Norwegians. During the 18th century, Norway enjoyed a period of great prosperity, the biggest growth industry was the export of planks, with Great Britain as the chief market. Some members of the aristocracy saw Sweden as a more natural partner. Around 1800, many prominent Norwegians secretly favoured a break with Denmark and their undeclared leader was Count Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg. The Swedish policy during the period was to cultivate contacts in Norway. King Gustav III actively approached circles in Norway that might favour a union with Sweden instead of Denmark, such endeavours on both sides of the border toward a rapprochement were far from realistic before the Napoleonic Wars created conditions that caused political upheavals in Scandinavia. Sweden and Denmark-Norway tried to remain neutral during the Napoleonic wars, both countries joined Russia and Prussia in a League of Armed Neutrality in 1800. Denmark-Norway was forced to withdraw from the League after the British raid on the navy during the first Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801, the league collapsed after the assassination of Tsar Paul I of Russia in 1801. Denmark-Norway was compelled into an alliance with France after the British preemptive second attack on the Danish navy, the defenceless capital had to surrender the navy after heavy bombardment, because the army was at the southern border to defend it against a possible French attack. As Sweden in the meantime had sided with the British, Denmark-Norway was forced by Napoleon to declare war on Sweden on 29 February 1808
12.
Sweden during the late 19th century
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At the accession of Oscar II to the throne on September 18,1872, the economic condition of Sweden was fairly satisfactory. In foreign affairs the security situation was good, politically, however, the situation was tense as the reforms inaugurated during the preceding reign did not answer expectations. Within three years of the introduction of the new electoral laws Louis De Geer ministry had forfeited much of its former popularity, the government stood midway between these conflicting majorities in the chambers, without support in either. The Swedish Lantmanna party was formed in 1867 and it consisted mostly of the larger and smaller peasant proprietors, who at the time of the old Riksdag of the Estates were always opposed to the nobility and the clergy. Such was the state of affairs when Oscar II of Sweden, surrounded by his late brothers advisers, began his reign. One of his first priorities was to increase the strength of his Royal Swedish Navy, in the first Riksdag, however, the so-called compromise, which afterwards played such an important part in Swedish political life, came into existence. The King himself perceived in the compromise a means of solving the conflicting questions and this motion having been rejected, De Geer resigned, and was succeeded by Count Arvid Posse. The new Prime Minister endeavoured to solve the question of defence in accordance with the views of the Lantmanna party, in this last connection the most suitable types of vessels for coast defence as for offence were determined upon. But Count Posse, deserted by his own party over the bill, resigned, and was succeeded on May 16,1884 by Robert Themptander. The government, availing itself of its right not to dissolve the chamber in which it had the support of a majority. The new Riksdag assembled in May with a free trade majority in the Second Chamber, the victory of the free traders was not to be of long duration. The protectionists obtained a majority in both chambers in the next Riksdag in 1888 and this singular way of electing members for the principal city in the kingdom could not fail further to irritate the parties. One result of the Stockholm election came at a convenient time for the Themptander ministry, the financial affairs of the country were found to be in a most unsatisfactory state. The new taxes, together with an increase of the duty on spirits. At a Council of State on October 12,1888 the king declared his wishes as to the way in which this surplus should be used and it is most likely that protectionism was a political concession made to a Otto Van Bismarck as an instrument of social cause. This was allowed because of the inability of the Swedish population to stand up to its King and it is ironical that a nation that pioneers in the study of economics fails to make use of its effort. – Amanbir Baron Bildt resigned as soon as the new system seemed settled, the latter, however, also soon resigned, and was succeeded on the July 10,1891 by Erik Gustaf Boström, a landed proprietor. The protectionist system gained in favour on the expiry of the treaty with France in 1892
13.
Sweden during World War I
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Sweden, following its long-standing policy of neutrality since the Napoleonic Wars, remained neutral throughout World War I between 28 July 1914 and 11 November 1918. However, this neutrality was not maintained without difficulty and Sweden at various times sympathised with different parties in the conflict, whilst King Gustaf was married to a German, the Swedish Riksmarskalk, Ludvig Douglas, was also known to be a strong proponent of an alliance with Germany. Rearmament was a concern in Sweden due to growing tensions in Europe. In response King Gustaf gave a written by the ardently pro-German explorer. When King Gustaf refused to tone down his rhetoric on the subject of defence spending, Sweden declared neutrality in the Austro-Serbian conflict on 31 July 1914, and in the general conflict of Germany against France and Russia on the 4th of August. Both declarations left open the possibility that Sweden might later change her position if other countries joined the conflict, apparently fearful that Germany might issue an ultimatum demanding Sweden choose sides Wallenberg also promised Franz von Reichenau that Swedish neutrality would be benevolent to Germany. The position of Norway also concerned Wallenberg, as he believed that the Norwegians would prefer to intervene on the British side if they entered the war. On the 8th of August the two issued a joint declaration of neutrality warning that they would maintain their neutrality against all belligerents. A further joint declaration was made by the three kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in December 1914, and the Swedish army units that had sent to the Finnish border were stood down. Douglas then conveyed this offer to King Gustaf on 8 June 1915, following this failure, Prince Max of Baden, a cousin of the Swedish Queen Victoria, made a further overture to King Gustaf. King Gustaf rejected this offer on 20 November 1915 as, without a casus belli. Whilst talk of an alliance eventually came to nothing, Sweden did favour Russia over the Germany in at least one important respect and this allowed the Germans to communicate with their embassies via Stockholm without their communications being so easily censored and intercepted by the British. Throughout the war Germany applied pressure on Sweden and Denmark to close the channels connecting the Baltic sea to the North Sea to Allied warships. Whilst Denmark had given into this pressure and mined the Danish Straits at the outbreak of the war, when Royal Navy submarines entered the Baltic through the sound in October 1914, the Germans demanded that the Swedes carry out their promise. In October 1915 British submarines operating in the Baltic successfully sank several German cargo ships as well as the armoured cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert, a German warship opened fire on a Swedish submarine HSwMS Hvalen killing a member of the crew. According to the captain of the Hvalen, the submarine was flying the Swedish naval flag at the time and was sailing in Swedish home waters, compensation was later paid to the widow of the crew-member and an apology was issued. The mining of the channel drew criticism from the Allied powers, causing them to describe Sweden as “neutral with reservations. ”Prior to the outbreak of war, the export of iron-ore from iron-ore mines in two iron-ore fields in Swedish Lapland had been a major export-business for Sweden. The iron-ore export business was run by an association in which the Swedish government was a member, the advent of war changed this
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Sweden during World War II
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Sweden maintained its policy of neutrality during World War II. When the war began on September 1,1939, the fate of Sweden was unclear, at the outbreak of hostilities, Sweden had held a neutral stance in international relations for more than a century, since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The Swedish Government made a few concessions, and sometimes breached the nations neutrality in favor of both Germany and the Western Allies, German soldiers traveling on leave between Norway and Germany were allowed passage through Sweden — the so-called permittenttrafik. Iron ore was sold to Germany throughout the war, and for the Allies, Sweden shared military intelligence and helped to train soldiers made up of refugees from Denmark and Norway, to be used in the liberation of their home countries. It also allowed the Allies to use Swedish airbases between 1944 and 1945, Sweden also became a refuge for anti-fascist and Jewish refugees from all over the region. In 1943, following an order to all of Denmarks Jewish population to concentration camps. Sweden also became a refuge for Norwegian Jews who fled from Nazi occupied Norway, between 1523 and Swedens final war with Russia in 1809, a state of war had existed between these two countries for 67 out of those 292 years. Russia was seen as the hereditary enemy of Sweden. In the peace that followed the Finnish War in 1809, all of Finland had been ceded to Russia, as the end of the 19th century approached, and the beginning of the 20th began, Sweden, like many other nations, became beset by strikes and public disorder. Appalling working conditions were no longer tolerated and the class was rising against the state. In 1908 alone, there were about 300 strikes in Sweden, by 1917, Sweden’s need for a new political system was apparent from these riots. In 1917, the rules of democracy were changed in Sweden, but even these reforms were seen as far too radical by some conservatives. Some wanted strong leadership and did not believe in democracy, in the 1920s and 1930s, confrontations between employers and employees in Sweden continued. In 1931, this culminated with the shootings, an incident where the military opened fire on a protest march. In the same year, a secret right-wing militia, the Munckska kåren, was exposed and it had recruited about 2000 men and had access to heavy weaponry. It was disbanded the next year, compromise and a parliamentary system were thought to stand in the way of a more equal and just society. A new cabinet led by the social democrats with Per Albin Hansson as Prime Minister, a policy of cooperation and consensus was pursued, which led to a furthering of the divide between the two socialist factions, the communists and the reformist left. The distance between two, at least at the ideological level, became so great that the communists often referred to the social democrats as the social fascists
15.
Military history of Sweden
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During the prehistoric times, modern Sweden was divided into provinces and in the Svea and Göta kingdoms. There is said that wars were fought between Svear and Götar and that the former were victors, as the Icelandic sagas tell of many family feuds, one can assume that these were not uncommon in Sweden either, as the structure of the society was similar. During the early Middle Ages, many Vikings took recruitment in the fleet, the system of Leidang was used to organize the armies in the different parts of the country. In an alliance with the Danes, the Swedish king Olof Skötkonung won the war against the Norwegians at the battle of Svolder. The Russo-Swedish War was a result of an alliance between Ivan III of Russia and Hans of Denmark, who was waging war against the Sture family of Sweden in the hope of regaining the Swedish throne. Ivan III sent Princes Daniil Shchenya and Vasily Shuisky to lay siege to the Swedish castle of Vyborg. The siege lasted for three months and ended when a castellan set his supply of powder on fire, thus scaring the Muscovites out of their wits, the following year Russian generals Vasily Kosoy and Andrey Chelyadnin severely devastated Swedish Finland as far as Hämeenlinna. Another detachment sailed along the shore, forcing the Finns into subservience, the fortress was taken but was impossible to defend it for a considerable period of time — Svante Nilsson proposed to hand it over to the Knights, an offer which they declined. Thereupon the Swedes set the fortress ablaze and sailed home, after the Swedish throne fell to Hans of Denmark, hostilities were suspended until 1508, when Sweden and Russia ratified a peace treaty for 60 years. The campaign was a result of an alliance between Charles IX of Sweden and Vasili IV of Russia, whereby the latter promised to cede the County of Kexholm to Sweden. The combined Russo-Swedish forces set out from Novgorod late in 1609 and marched towards Moscow and they dispersed the supporters of False Dmitry II, who maintained an alternative court in Tushino near Moscow and challenged the authority of Vasily IV. In June 1610, De la Gardie and Dmitry Shuisky departed from Moscow in order to lift Żółkiewskis Siege of Smolensk, the campaign ended with most of De la Gardies forces being destroyed by the Polish hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski at the Battle of Klushino in 1610. The De la Gardie Campaign can be considered a prelude to the Ingrian War and it ended with a large Swedish territorial gain in the Treaty of Stolbovo which laid an important foundation to Swedens Age of Greatness. The Kalmar War was a war between Sweden and Denmark 1611 to 1613, Sweden sought an alternative trade route to avoid paying Denmarks Sound Toll through Northern Norway. This was not to Denmarks liking and they invaded southern Sweden, england and the Netherlands were also invested in the Baltic Sea trade, and pressured to curtail Denmarks power by ending the Kalmar War before a decisive victory could be attained. The Danes, while well-equipped and strong, had relied heavily on mercenary forces and Christian IV, with Englands intercession, the Treaty of Knäred was signed on January 20,1613. Denmark reached its victory, restoring Norwegian control of Swedens land route through Lapland by incorporating Lapland into Norway, further, Sweden had to pay a high ransom for two fortresses captured by Denmark. Sweden, however, achieved a major concession — the right of trade through the Sound Strait
16.
Monarchy of Sweden
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The Monarchy of Sweden concerns the monarchical head of state of Sweden, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Kingdom of Sweden has been a monarchy since time immemorial, Sweden in the present day is a representative democracy in a parliamentary system based on popular sovereignty, as defined in the current Instrument of Government. The monarch and the members of the Royal Family undertake a variety of official, unofficial and other duties within Sweden. Carl XVI Gustaf became King on 15 September 1973 on the death of his grandfather, Sweden has been a kingdom since prehistoric times. Originally, the Swedish king had combined powers limited to that of a war chief, a judge, the Royal Court of Sweden, however, does count Olofs father as Swedens first king. The king was elected from a favored dynasty at the Stones of Mora. The ceremonial stones were destroyed around 1515 and that dynasty formed a pre-Kalmar Union Sweden into a strong state, and finally king Magnus IV even ruled Norway and Scania. Following the Black Death, the union was weakened, and Scania was reunited with Denmark. In 1397, after the Black Death and domestic power struggles, Queen Margaret I of Denmark united Sweden, Denmark, continual tension within each country and the union led to open conflict between the Swedes and the Danes in the 15th century. The unions final disintegration in the early 16th century led to prolonged rivalry between Denmark-Norway and Sweden for centuries to come. Catholic bishops had supported the King of Denmark, Christian II, Gustav Vasa was elected King of Sweden by the Estates of the Realm, assembled in Strängnäs on 6 June 1523. Inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther, Gustav I used the Protestant Reformation to curb the power of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1527 he persuaded the Estates of the Realm, assembled in the city of Västerås, to church lands. At the same time, he broke with the papacy and established a state church. Legally Sweden has only been a monarchy since 1544 when the Riksdag of the Estates, through Västerås arvförening. Crown tax revenues increased, but more importantly the new system was perceived as fairer, a war with Lübeck in 1535 resulted in the expulsion of the Hanseatic traders, who previously had had a monopoly on foreign trade. With its own burghers in charge, Swedens economic strength grew rapidly, Sweden now built the first modern army in Europe, supported by a sophisticated tax system and an efficient bureaucracy. At the death of King Gustav I in 1560, he was succeeded by his oldest son Eric XIV and his reign was marked by Swedens entrance into the Livonian War and the Northern Seven Years War
17.
Regent
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A regent is a person appointed to administer a state because the monarch is a minor, is absent or is incapacitated. The rule of a regent or regents is called a regency, a regent or regency council may be formed ad hoc or in accordance with a constitutional rule. Regent is sometimes a formal title, if the formally appointed regent is unavailable or cannot serve on a temporary basis, a Regent ad interim may be appointed to fill the gap. In a monarchy, a regent usually governs due to one of these reasons and this was the case in the Kingdom of Finland and the Kingdom of Hungary, where the royal line was considered extinct in the aftermath of World War I. In Iceland, the regent represented the King of Denmark as sovereign of Iceland until the country became a republic in 1944, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, kings were elective, which often led to a fairly long interregnum. In the interim, it was the Roman Catholic Primate who served as the regent, in the small republic of San Marino, the two Captains Regent, or Capitani Reggenti, are elected semi-annually as joint heads of state and of government. Famous regency periods include that of the Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, giving rise to terms such as Regency era. Strictly this period lasted from 1811 to 1820, when his father George III was insane, as of 1 December 2016, Liechtenstein is the only country with an active regency. The term regent may refer to lower than the ruler of a country. The term may be used in the governance of organisations, typically as an equivalent of director, some university managers in North America are called regents and a management board for a college or university may be titled the Board of Regents. The term regent is used for members of governing bodies of institutions such as the national banks of France. This type of group portrait was popular in Dutch Golden Age painting during the 17th century, in the Dutch East Indies, a regent was a native prince allowed to rule de facto colonized state as a regentschap. Consequently, in the state of Indonesia, the term regent is used in English to mean a bupati. Again in Belgium and France, Regent is the title of a teacher in a lower secondary school. In the Philippines, specifically, the University of Santo Tomas, the Father Regent and they also form the Council of Regents that serves as the highest administrative council of the university. In the Society of Jesus, a regent is a training to be a Jesuit. A regent in the Jesuits is often assigned to teach in a school or some other academic institution as part of the formation toward final vows, list of regents Viceroy, an individual who, in a colony or province, exercised the power of a monarch on his behalf
18.
Viceroy
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A viceroy /ˈvaɪs. rɔɪ/ is a regal official who runs a country, colony, city, province, or sub-national state, in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning in the place of, a viceroys territory may be called a viceroyalty, though this term is not always applied. The adjectival form is viceregal, less often viceroyal, the term vicereine is sometimes used to indicate a female viceroy suo jure, although viceroy can serve as a gender-neutral term. Vicereine is more used to indicate a viceroys wife. The title was used by the Crown of Aragon, where beginning in the 14th century, it referred to the Spanish governors of Sardinia. In Europe, until the 18th century, the Habsburg crown appointed viceroys of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, with the ascension of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne, the historic Aragonese viceroyalties were replaced by new captaincies general. At the end of War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish monarchy was shorn of its Italian possessions and these Italian territories, however, continued to have viceroys under their new rulers for some time, Sardinia would have a viceroy until 1848. These large administrative territories became known as Viceroyalties, New viceroyalties were created for New Granada in 1717 and the Río de la Plata in 1776. These units gathered the local provinces which could be governed by either a crown official, audiencias primarily functioned as superior judicial tribunals, but unlike their European counterparts, the New World audiencias were granted by law both administrative and legislative powers. The Bourbon Reforms introduced the new office of the intendant, which was appointed directly by the crown and had broad fiscal and administrative powers in political and military issues. The government started six years after the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, in 1505, however the post was centered by governor Afonso de Albuquerque, who became plenipotentiary, and remained so. The duration in office was three years, possibly longer, given the power represented, of the thirty-four governors of India in the 16th century. After the end of the Iberian Union in 1640, the governors of Brazil that were members of the Portuguese high nobility started to use the title of Viceroy. Brazil became a permanent Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the State of Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, the designation Viceroy, although it was most frequently used in ordinary parlance, had no statutory authority, and was never employed by Parliament. The Governor-General continued to be the representative of the Crown. The viceroys reported directly to the Secretary of State for India in London and were advised by the Council of India, alongside the Commander-in-Chief, India, the viceroy was the public face of the British presence in India, attending to many ceremonial functions as well as political affairs. During the offices history, the Governors-General of India were based in two cities, Calcutta during the 19th century and New Delhi during the 20th century, additionally, whilst Calcutta was the capital of British India, the viceroys spent the summer months at Simla. The two historic residences of the viceroys still stand, the Viceroys House in New Delhi and Government House in Calcutta and they are used today as the official residences of the President of India and the Governor of West Bengal, respectively
19.
Tacitus
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Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and an historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors. These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus, in AD14, to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War, There are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts, including a gap in the Annals that is four books long. Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians, details about his personal life are scarce. What little is known comes from scattered hints throughout his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, and an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria. Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family, one scholars suggestion of Sextus has gained no approval. Most of the aristocratic families failed to survive the proscriptions which took place at the end of the Republic. The claim that he was descended from a freedman is derived from a speech in his writings which asserts that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen, but this is generally disputed. His father may have been the Cornelius Tacitus who served as procurator of Belgica and Germania, Pliny the Elder mentions that Cornelius had a son who aged rapidly, which implies an early death. There is no mention of Tacitus suffering such a condition, the friendship between the younger Pliny and Tacitus leads some scholars to conclude that they were both the offspring of wealthy provincial families. The province of his birth remains unknown, though various conjectures suggest Gallia Belgica, Gallia Narbonensis and his marriage to the daughter of Narbonensian senator Gnaeus Julius Agricola implies that he came from Gallia Narbonensis. Tacitus dedication to Fabius Iustus in the Dialogus may indicate a connection with Spain, no evidence exists, however, that Plinys friends from northern Italy knew Tacitus, nor do Plinys letters hint that the two men had a common background. Pliny Book 9, Letter 23 reports that, when he was asked if he was Italian or provincial, he gave an unclear answer, since Pliny was from Italy, some infer that Tacitus was from the provinces, probably Gallia Narbonensis. His ancestry, his skill in oratory, and his depiction of barbarians who resisted Roman rule have led some to suggest that he was a Celt. This belief stems from the fact that the Celts who had occupied Gaul prior to the Roman invasion were famous for their skill in oratory, and had been subjugated by Rome. As a young man, Tacitus studied rhetoric in Rome to prepare for a career in law and politics, like Pliny, in 77 or 78, he married Julia Agricola, daughter of the famous general Agricola. Little is known of their life, save that Tacitus loved hunting. He started his career under Vespasian, but entered political life as a quaestor in 81 or 82 under Titus
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Germania
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Germania was the Roman term for the geographical region in north-central Europe inhabited mainly by Germanic peoples. It extended from the Danube in the south to the Baltic Sea, the Roman portions formed two provinces of the Empire, Germania Inferior to the north, and Germania Superior to the south. Germania was inhabited mostly by Germanic tribes, but also Celts, early Slavs, Balts, the population mix changed over time by assimilation, and especially by migration. The ancient Greeks were the first to mention the tribes in the area, later, Julius Caesar wrote about warlike Germanic tribesmen and their threat to Roman Gaul, and there were military clashes between the Romans and the indigenous tribes. Tacitus wrote the most complete account of Germania that still survives, the origin of the term Germania is uncertain, but was known by Caesars time, and may be Gallic in origin. The name came into use after Julius Caesar and whether it was used widely before him amongst Romans is unknown, the term may be Gallic in origin. Tacitus wrote in AD98, For the rest, they affirm Germania to be a recent word, for those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germani. Names of Germany in English and some languages are derived from Germania, but German speakers call it Deutschland. Several modern languages use the name Germania, including Hebrew, Italian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Maltese, Greek, Germania extended from the Rhine eastward to the Vistula river, and from the Danube river northward to the Baltic Sea. The areas west of the Rhine were mainly Celtic and became part of the Roman Empire in the first century BC, the Roman parts of Germania, Lesser Germania, eventually formed two provinces of the empire, Germania Inferior, Lower Germania and Germania Superior. Important cities in Lesser Germania included Besançon, Strasbourg, Wiesbaden, the geography of Magna Germania was comprehensively described in Ptolemys Geography of around 150 C. E. via geographical coordinates of the main cities. Germania was inhabited by different tribes, most of them Germanic but also some Celtic, proto-Slavic, Baltic, the tribal and ethnic makeup changed over the centuries as a result of assimilation and, most importantly, migrations. The Germanic people spoke several different dialects, classical records show little about the people who inhabited the north of Europe before the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks were aware of a group they called Celts, herodotus also mentioned the Scythians but no other tribes. At around 320 BC, Pytheas of Massalia sailed around Britain and along the northern coast of Europe and he may have been the first Mediterranean to distinguish the Germanic people from the Celts. Contact between German tribes and the Roman Empire did take place and was not always hostile, Caesar described the cultural differences between the Germanic tribesmen, the Romans, and the Gauls. He said that the Gauls, although warlike, could be civilized and his accounts of barbaric northern tribes could be described as an expression of the superiority of Rome, including Roman Gaul. Caesars accounts portray the Roman fear of the Germanic tribes and the threat they posed, the perceived menace of the Germanic tribesmen proved accurate
21.
Swedes (Germanic tribe)
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The Swedes (Swedish, svear, Old Norse, svíar / suar were a North Germanic tribe. The first author who wrote about the tribe is Tacitus, who in his Germania, Jordanes, in the sixth century, mentions Suehans and Sueones. According to early sources such as the sagas, especially Heimskringla, during the Viking Age they constituted the basis of the Varangian subset, the Vikings that travelled eastwards. As the dominions of the Swedish kings grew, the name of the tribe could be applied more generally during the Middle Ages to include also the Geats, later it again meant only the people inhabiting the original tribal lands in Svealand, rather than the Geats. In modern North Germanic languages, the adjectival form svensk and its plural svenskar have replaced the name svear and is, today, used to denote all the citizens of Sweden. Although this distinction is convention in modern Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, Icelandic and their primary dwellings were in eastern Svealand. Their territories also very early included the provinces of Västmanland, Södermanland, the region is still one of the most fertile and densely populated regions of Scandinavia. Their territories were called Svealand - Swede-land, Suithiod - Swede-people, the Æsir-cult centre in Gamla Uppsala, was the religious centre of the Swedes and where the Swedish king served as a priest during the sacrifices. Uppsala was also the centre of the Uppsala öd, the network of estates that financed the Swedish king. The form Suiones appears in the Roman author Tacituss Germania, a closely similar form, Sweon, is found in Old English and in the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum of Adam of Bremen about the Hamburg-Bremen archbishops who are denoted Sueones. Most scholars agree that Suiones and the attested Germanic forms of the name derive from the same Proto-Indo-European reflexive pronominal root, *se, the word must have meant ones own. In modern Scandinavian, the same appears in words such as svåger. The same root and original meaning is found in the ethnonym of the Germanic tribe Suebi, the details of the phonetic development vary between different proposals. Noréen proposed that Suiones is a Latin rendering of Proto-Germanic *Swihoniz, the form *Swihoniz would in Ulfilas Gothic become *Swaíhans, which later would result in the form Suehans that Jordanes mentioned as the name of the Swedes in Getica. Consequently, the Proto-Norse form would have been *Swehaniz which following the sound-changes in Old Norse resulted in Old West Norse Svíar, *Swe is also the form cited by V. Friesen, who regards the form Sviones as being originally an adjective, Proto-Germanic *Sweoniz, meaning kindred. Then the Gothic form would have been *Swians and the H in Suehans a epenthesis, the Proto-Norse form would then also have been *Sweoniz, which also would have resulted in the historically attested forms. The name became part of a compound, which in Old West Norse was Svíþjóð and he further mentions that the Suiones were much impressed by wealth, and the kings thus was absolute. Further, the Suiones did not normally bear arms, and that the weapons were guarded by a slave, after Tacitus mention of the Suiones, the sources are silent about them until the 6th century as Scandinavia still was in pre-historic times
22.
Eric the Victorious
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Eric the Victorious was the first Swedish king about whom anything definite is known. The list of monarchs after him is also complicated, which makes the assignment of any numeral problematic and his original territory lay in Uppland and neighbouring provinces. He acquired the name victorious because he defeated an invasion from the south in the Battle of Fýrisvellir located close to Uppsala, reports that Erics brother Olof was the father of his opponent in that battle, Styrbjörn the Strong, belong to the realm of myth. The extent of his kingdom is unknown, in addition to the Swedish heartland round lake Mälaren it may have extended down the Baltic Sea coast as far south as Blekinge. According to Adam of Bremen, he also briefly controlled Denmark after the defeat of Sweyn Forkbeard and he was probably responsible for the introduction of a system of universal conscription known as the ledung in the provinces around Mälaren. In all probability he founded the town of Sigtuna, which still exists, Eric the Victorious appears in a number of Norse sagas, the historical tales which nonetheless likely have a dose of fiction. In various stories, he is described as the son of Björn Eriksson, one saga describes his marriage to an infamous Sigrid the Haughty, daughter of the legendary Viking Skagul Toste, and how later on their divorce he gave her Götaland as a fief. According to Eymunds saga he took a new queen, Auð, the daughter of Haakon Sigurdsson, the ruler of Norway. Before this happened, his brother Olof died, and a new co-ruler had to be appointed, Eric granted Styrbjörn 60 longships in which he sailed away to live out a seafaring existence as a Viking. He would become the ruler of Jomsborg and an ally of the Danish king Harold Bluetooth whose sister he wed, Styrbjörn returned to Sweden with an army, although Harald and the Danish troops supposedly turned back. Eric won the Battle of Fýrisvellir, according to Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa after sacrificing to Odin and promising that if victorious, two scaldic verses composed by Thorvaldr Hjaltason are said to describe the battle. The Hällestad and Sjörup rune stones from Skåne, then a part of Denmark, do mention a battle at Uppsala characterized by the defeat and these stones have traditionally been associated with the battle, but present chronological problems and may actually date from the 11th century. The German ecclesiastic chronicler Adam of Bremen provides by far the oldest narrative about Eric that differs substantially from the sagas, as his spokesman he refers to the current Danish king Sven Estridson whom he interviewed for his chronicle. Adam omits the Battle of Fýrisvellir but relates that Eric gathered an army and invaded Denmark. The immediate reason for the attack is not disclosed by Adam, however, it had to do with an alliance between Eric and the very powerful king of the Polans, Boleslaw. He gave his sister or daughter in marriage to Eric and this princess has been identified as Gunhild of Wenden, who is mentioned in certain Nordic sources as the daughter of a king Burislev. According to another opinion, she is the known in the later sagas as Sigrid the Haughty. Erics invasion of Denmark was successful, several battles were fought at sea, with the result that the Danish forces, attacked from the east by the Slavs, were entirely annihilated
23.
Paganism
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Paganism is a term that derives from Latin word pagan, which means nonparticipant, one excluded from a more distinguished, professional group. The term was used in the 4th century, by early Christian community, the term competed with polytheism already in use in Judaism, by Philo in the 1st century. Pagans and paganism was a pejorative for the same polytheistic group, Paganism has broadly connoted religion of the peasantry, and for much of its history a derogatory term. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the group was hellene. In and after the Middle Ages, paganism was a pejorative that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, there has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan. In the 19th century, paganism was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. Forms of these religions, influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as contemporary or modern paganism, while most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans. It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised, the notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition, as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance and it is related to pangere and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church, elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan, and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. However, this idea has multiple problems, first, the words usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered on cities, the concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon, Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi. As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, in it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the invaders were not of the city or rural
24.
House of Yngling
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The Ynglings were the oldest known Scandinavian dynasty. It can refer to the clans of the Scylfings, the semi-legendary royal Swedish clan during the Age of Migrations, with such as Eadgils, Onela. Ynglings also refers to the Fairhair dynasty, descending from the kings of Oppland, according to surviving early sources, such as Ynglingatal and Íslendingabók, these kings were descended from the Swedish Scylfings of Uppland, Sweden. The House of Munsö, a Swedish dynasty, also falls under the definition of Yngling, the earliest kings of this dynasty that historians generally agree are historical are Eirik the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung. Some early kings were likely mythical, whereas others may have been real, Egil, Ottar, Ale and Adils are mentioned in several sources and are very likely to be real kings. In the Scandinavian sources they are the descendants of Yngvi-Frey of Vanaheim, Yngling means descendant of Frey, and in the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus they are called the sons of Frey. Several of these appear in Beowulf, Eadgils, Onela, and Ohthere. Snorri Sturluson hints at a less divine origin in Skáldskaparmál for this dynasty, One war-king was named Skelfir, and his house is called the House of Skilfings, his kindred is in the Eastern Land. In the 13th century, the official Swedish/Scandinavian term for the modern-day Southern Finland was Eastern Land, Österland, in Ynglinga Saga in 1220 AD, Snorri Sturluson discusses marriages between Swedish and Finnish royal families. According to Orkneyinga Saga in 1230 AD, Nór founded Norway and he was a direct descendant of Fornjótr, the King of Gotlandi, Kænlandi and Finnlandi. Many Scandinavian historians name Halfdan the Old as an ancestor to Rollo and he was William the Conquerors great-great-great-grandfather. In 1387 AD, Hversu Noregr byggðist is an account of the origin of various legendary Norwegian lineages, the Hversu account is closely paralleled by the opening of the Orkneyinga saga. The genealogies also claim that many heroic families famed in Scandinavian tradition but not located in Norway were of a Finn-Kven stock, almost all the lineages sprung from Halfdan are then shown to reconvert in the person of Harald Fairhair, the first king of all Norway. This information can be confirmed in other sources, another origin for the name skilfing is possible, Snorri described Erik and Alrik, the sons of Skjalf to be the de facto ancestors of this Norse-Finnish clan. The kings who resided at Upsal had been the supreme chiefs over the whole Swedish dominions until the death of Agne, when, as before related, a survivor Olof Trätälja was the ancestor of the Norwegian branch. However, both Snorri and Saxo described the clan as remaining in Sweden after this date, Saxo on the Battle of Bråvalla, Now the bravest of the Swedes were these, Arwakki, Keklu-Karl, Krok the Peasant, Gudfast and Gummi from Gislamark. These were kindred of the god Frey, and most faithful witnesses to the gods. Ingi also, and Oly, Alver, Folki, all sons of Elrik, embraced the service of Ring, they were men ready of hand, quick in counsel and they likewise held the god Frey to be the founder of their race
25.
Saxo Grammaticus
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Saxo Grammaticus, also known as Saxo cognomine Longus, was a Danish historian, theologian and author. He is thought to have been a clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund and he is the author of the first full history of Denmark. The Jutland Chronicle gives evidence that Saxo was born in Zealand and it is unlikely he was born before 1150 and it is supposed that his death could have occurred around 1220. His name Saxo was a name in medieval Denmark. The name Grammaticus was first given to him in the Jutland Chronicle and he lived in a period of warfare and Danish expansion, led by Archbishop Absalon and the Valdemars. The Danes were also being threatened by the Wends who were making raids across the border, Valdemar I had also just won a civil war and later Valdemar II led an expedition across the Elbe to invade Holstein. Sven Aggesen, a Danish nobleman and author of an earlier history of Denmark than Saxos, describes his contemporary, Saxo. This gives evidence that Saxo and Sven might have soldiered in the Hird or royal guard since Sven used the word contubernium in reference to them, there is also a Saxo to be found on a list of clergy at Lund, where there was a Sven recorded as Archdeacon. Likewise there is Dean Saxo who died in 1190, however the date does not match what is known about Saxo. Both arguments, for a secular or religious Saxo, would confirm that he was educated, as clergy he would have received training in Latin. Saxo comes from a family and writes that he is himself committed to being a soldier. He tells us that he follows the ancient right of hereditary service, Saxos education and ability supports the idea that he was educated outside Denmark. Some suggest the title Grammaticus refers not to his education but rather his elaborate Latin style and we know from his writing that he was in the retinue and received the patronage of Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, who was the foremost advisor to King Valdemar I. In his will Absalon forgives his clerk Saxo a small debt of two and a half marks of silver and tells him to return two borrowed books to the monastery of Sorø, the legacy of Saxo Grammaticus is the sixteen book heroic history of the Danes called Gesta Danorum. In the preface to the work, Saxo writes that his patron Absalon, the history is thought to have been started about 1185, after Sven Aggesen wrote his history. The goal of Gesta Danorum was as Saxo writes to glorify our fatherland, Saxo also may have owed much to Plato, Cicero and also to more contemporary writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth. Saxos history of the Danes was compiled from sources that are of historical value. He drew on oral tales of the Icelanders, ancient volumes, letters carved on rocks and stone, the history is composed of sixteen books and extends from the time of the founders of the Danish people, Dan I of Denmark and Angul into about the year 1187
26.
Sigurd Hring
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Sigurd Hring was a legendary Swedish king mentioned in many old Scandinavian sagas. According to Bósa saga ok Herrauds, there was once a saga on Sigurd Hring, in the old sources, he is notable for winning the Battle of the Brávellir against Harald Wartooth and for being the father of Ragnar Lodbrok. The Hervarar saga tells that when Valdar died, his son Randver became the king of Sweden, then Harald conquered all of his grandfather Ivar Vidfamnes territory. After Randvers death, his son Sigurd Hring became the king of Sweden, Sigurd Ring and Harald fought the Battle of the Brávellir on the plains of Östergötland where Harald and many of his men died. Sigurd ruled Sweden and Denmark until his death and was succeeded by his son Ragnar Lodbrok, Harald Wartooths son Eysteinn Beli ruled Sweden as a jarl until he was killed by the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok. Harald Wartooth was beginning to feel old, so he made Sigurd the king of Sweden, Sigurd beat his uncle at the colossal Battle of Bråvalla, and became the ruler of Denmark as well. He made a shieldmaiden the ruler of Denmark, Sigurd married Alfhild, the daughter of king Alf of Álfheimr. Together with Alfhild, he had the son Ragnar Lodbrok, as Sigurd grew old, distant parts of his realm began to secede, and it is told how he lost England due to old age. One day, he was in Västergötland and was visited by his brothers-in-law and they asked him to join them in attacking king Eysteinn of Vestfold in Norway. In Vestfold, there were great blóts held at Skiringssal, however, the Skjöldunga saga is believed to be the original story on which Sögubrot is based and it continues the story. The Skjöldunga saga tells that Sigurd Ring was married to Alfhild, the daughter of king Alf of Alfheim, when Sigurd Ring was an old man, he came to Skiringssal to take part in the great blóts. There he spotted a beautiful girl named Alfsol, and she was the daughter of King Alf of Vendel. The girls two brothers refused to allow Sigurd to marry her, Sigurd fought with the brothers and killed them, but their sister had been given poison by her brothers so that Sigurd could never have her. When her corpse was carried to Sigurd, he went aboard a ship where he placed Alvsol. Then, he steered the ship with full sails out on the sea, Ragnar Lodbrok succeeded his father, but put a subking on the throne of Sweden, king Eysteinn Beli, who later was killed by Ragnars sons. According to Gesta Danorum, by Saxo Grammaticus, Hring was the son of the Danish king Randver and his father Ingjald had raped the sister of Harald, but the latter did not mind in order preserve the friendship with Ingjald. Ring fought with Harald Wartooth in the Battle of the Brávellir, Saxo then describes the different subkings and their adventures. In book 9, he returns to Sigurd Hring as Siward, surnamed Hring, according to Hversu Noregr byggdist, Sigurd was the son of Randver, the brother of Harald Wartooth
27.
Ragnar Lodbrok
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Ragnar Lodbrok or Lothbrok was a legendary viking leader and hero of Old Norse poetry and sagas from the Viking age. According to this literature, Ragnar distinguished himself by many raids against Francia and Anglo-Saxon England. According to the antiquarian Hilda Ellis Davidson, writing in 1980, as a figure of legend whose life only partially took place in times and places covered by written sources, the extent of Ragnars historicity is not quite clear. That is why many acts ascribed to Ragnar in the Gesta can be associated, through other sources, with various figures, some of which are more historically certain. So far, attempts to link the legendary Ragnar with one or several of those men have failed because of the difficulty in reconciling the various accounts
28.
Ingjald
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Ingjald illråde or Ingjaldr hinn illráði was a legendary Swedish king of the House of Ynglings, son and successor of king Anund, and the father and predecessor of king Olof Trätälja. Ingjald is mentioned in medieval historiographical sources including Ynglinga saga, Historia Norvegiæ, Hervarar saga, Upplendinga Konungum, Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar, the setting of Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar is roughly the 7th century. Johannes Magnus in his 16th-century list of kings places Ingjald in AD883, snorri Sturluson gave an extensive account on the life of Ingjald in the Ynglinga saga which is part of the Heimskringla. The Ynglinga saga, a part of the Heimskringla relates that the viceroy of Fjädrundaland was named Ingvar, Svipdag the Blind was the viceroy of Tiundaland, the province of Uppsala where the Tings and the Yule sacrifices were held. One Midwinter, when Ingjald and Alf were six years old, Alf and Ingjald played, but Ingjald found that he was the weaker boy and became so angry that he almost started to cry. His foster-brother Gautvid led him to his foster-father Svipdag the Blind and told Svipdag about Ingjalds lack of manliness, Svipdag said that it was a shame and the next day he gave Ingjald a roasted wolfs heart to eat. From that day, Ingjald became a very ferocious person and had a bad disposition, Anund arranged a marriage for his son Ingjald with Gauthild, the daughter of the Geatish king Algaut, who was the son of Gautrek the Mild and the grandson of Gaut. Gautrek consented as he believed that Ingjald had inherited his fathers disposition, gauthilds maternal grandfather was Olof the Sharp-sighted, the king of Närke. Snorri Sturluson relates that when his father Anund had died, Ingjald became the king of Sweden, the descendants of these two kings had spread, cleared land and settled new territories, until there were several petty kings. In honour of his own ascendance to the throne, Ingjald invited the kings and it was called the hall of the seven kings and had seven high seats. The kings filled all seven seats but one, all the prominent people of Sweden had seats, except for Ingjalds own court whom he had sent to his old hall in Uppsala. According to the custom of the time for those who inherited kings and jarls, then he was supposed to stand up, take the beaker and make solemn vows, after which he would ascend his fathers high seat. When all the prominent guests were drunk, he ordered Svipdags sons, Gautvid and Hylvid, to arm themselves and their men, outside, they set fire to the building which burnt down and those who tried to escape were killed. Thus Ingjald made himself the ruler of the domains of the murdered kings. Granmar won allies in his son-in-law the sea-king Hjörvard of the Ylfings and they successfully withstood Ingjalds invasion where Ingjald realised that the men from the provinces he had conquered were not loyal to him. After a long standstill there was peace for as long as the three kings lived, however, one night Ingjald and his men surrounded a farm where Granmar and Hjörvard were at a feast and burnt the house down. He later disposed of five kings, and he thus earned the name Illråde as he fulfilled his promise. Snorri Sturluson tells that it was a saying that Ingjald killed twelve kings by deceiving them that he only wished for peace
29.
Ivar Vidfamne
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Ivar Vidfamne was a legendary Scanian, Danish and Swedish mythological king hailing from Scania. He may have died c.700 in Karjálabotnar which is possibly been Kurkijoki in Karelia, according to the Heimskringla and the Hervarar saga, Ivar was also king of parts of Norway, Saxony and England. He began as king of Scania and conquered Sveariket by defeating Ingjald Illråde and he is then said to have conquered all of Scandinavia and parts of England. Because of his rule, many Swedes fled west and populated Värmland under its king Olof Trätälja. His last campaign was in North Eastern Europe where he died, defeated by Odin in disguise, the Ynglinga saga, Historia Norwegiæ, Hervarar saga and Upplendinga Konungum tell that Ivar conquered Sweden after Ingjalds suicide, and later returned to take Denmark. According to Hversu Noregr byggðist and Njáls saga, he was the son of Halfdan the Valiant, son of Harald the Old, son of Valdar, according to Hversu, Njals saga, the Lay of Hyndla and Sögubrot, Ivar had a daughter named Auðr the Deep-Minded. Hrœrekr and Auðr had the son Harald Wartooth, Ivar made Hrœrekr kill his brother Helgi, and after this, he attacked and killed Hrœrekr. However, Auðr arrived with the Zealand army and chased her father Ivar back to Sweden, the following year, Auðr went to Garðaríki with her son Harald and many powerful men and married its king Ráðbarðr. This was the opportunity for Ivar to conquer Zealand, the Hervarar saga does not mention any daughter named Auðr. Ivar gave her to Valdar whom Ivar made subking of Denmark, however, when Ivar learnt that Auðr had married without his permission, he marshalled a great leidang from Denmark and Sweden and went to Gardariki. He was very old at the time, however, when they had arrived at the borders of Raðbarðs kingdom, Karelia, he threw himself overboard. Harald then returned to Scania to become its ruler, in the Lay of Hyndla, Ivar, Auðr, Hrœrekr and Harald appear. Raðbarðr also appears, but there is no information about his relationship with them, Ivar the Boneless, proposed by Kirsten Møller in the book Vikingeætten from 1997 to be the same person as Ivar Vidfamne. No other writers or scholars seem to have taken up this idea of Kirsten Møller, Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks Lay of Hyndla Sögubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum Af Upplendinga konungum Ynglinga saga Njáls saga Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta Nerman, B, Det svenska rikets uppkomst. Engelhardt, P, Danerne fra fødsel til dåb, engholm, Carl, Danske kongeslægter i det 8
30.
Johannes Magnus
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Johannes Magnus was the last functioning Catholic Archbishop in Sweden, and also a theologian, genealogist, and historian. Johannes Magnus was born in Linköping, son of the burgess Måns Pedersson, Magnus was selected by Gustav I Vasa to become Archbishop, in 1523. The papal bull declared the deposition of Trolle unlawful, however, Gustav Trolle was deemed a traitor to the country, and Gustav Vasa could not reinstate him. Instead he ignored the bull and took it upon himself to install Magnus without papal acceptance. Before long, however, Johannes Magnus rebelled by declaring his discontent with the Lutheran teachings spread by the brothers Olaus and Laurentius Petri, the King then sent him off to Russia as a diplomat in 1526. Johannes Magnus was careful not to return home during that time, Gustav Vasa appointed a new archbishop, Laurentius Petri, in 1531, and Johannes realized that his time as archbishop was over. His brother, Olaus Magnus, had travelled to Rome to explain the matter of Gustav Trolle to the Pope. In 1533 the Pope finished investigating the Trolle matter and decided that Magnus was the most appropriate successor, however, as Sweden now no longer took direction from the Vatican, both brothers remained in Italy for the remainder of their lives. After the death of Johannes in 1544, the line of Swedish archbishops consecrated by the Pope ended, the Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus is a work on Swedish history, which was printed posthumously in Rome in 1554, by Johannes brother Olaus Magnus. Olaus sent it to Sweden with a dedication to the dukes Eric, John, Magnus and it was subsequently republished several times. It appeared in a Swedish translation by Er, schroderus for the first time in 1620. It is an unreliable source for early Swedish history. Johannes Magnus made creative use of Jordanes Getica and of Saxo Grammaticus to depict a history of the Swedish people, of their kings and he states that Magog, son of Japheth, was Swedens first king. Johannes Magnus invented a list of kings of Sweden with six Erics before Eric the Victorious and he also invented six kings of the name Charles before Charles Sverkersson. This is how Gustav I Vasas sons could style themselves as Eric, while the work describes these fictional Erics and Charles in generally positive terms, it also includes a few invented tyrants with names similar to Gustav. The work is exceedingly patriotic and suggests that Denmark was populated by convicts exiled from Sweden, ballad of Eric List of Archbishops of Uppsala F. F. V. Söderberg, Johannes Magnus, Nordisk familjebok Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson, Magnus, Johannes, Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon, II, p.115
31.
Gog and Magog
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The Gog prophecy is meant to be fulfilled at the approach of what is called the end of days, but not necessarily the end of the world. Jewish eschatology viewed Gog and Magog as enemies to be defeated by the Messiah, christianitys interpretation is more starkly apocalyptic, making Gog and Magog allies of Satan against God at the end of the millennium, as can be read in the Book of Revelation. To Gog and Magog were also attached a legend, certainly current by the Roman period, romanized Jewish historian Josephus knew them as the tribe descended from Magog the Japhethite, as in Genesis, and explained them to be the Scythians. The legend of Gog and Magog and the gates were also interpolated into the Alexander Romances, in one version, Goth and Magoth are kings of the Unclean Nations, driven beyond a mountain pass by Alexander, and blocked from returning by his new wall. Gog and Magog are said to engage in cannibalism in the romances. They have also depicted on Medieval cosmological maps, or Mappa mundi. Gog and Magog appear in the Quran as Yajuj and Majuj, adversaries of Dhul-Qarnayn, widely equated with Cyrus the Great, Muslim geographers identified them at first with Turkic tribes from Central Asia and later with the Mongols. In modern times they remain associated with thinking, especially in the United States. In Revelation, Gog and Magog together are the nations of the world. Gog or Goug the Reubenite occurs in 1 Chronicles 5,4, the form Gog and Magog may have emerged as shorthand for Gog and/of the land of Magog, based on their usage in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. An example of this form in Hebrew has been found. The name Magog is equally obscure, but may come from the Assyrian mat-Gugu, Land of Gyges, alternatively, Gog may be derived from Magog rather than the other way round, and Magog may be code for Babylon. The Biblical Gog and Magog possibly gave derivation of the name Gogmagog, a later corrupted folk rendition in print altered the tradition around Gogmagog and Corineus with two giants Gog and Magog, with whom the Guildhall statues came to be identified. In the Old Testament, Gog only appears in chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, the Book records a series of visions received by the 6th-century BC prophet Ezekiel, a priest of Solomons Temple, who was among the captive during the Babylonian exile. The exile, he tells his fellow captives, is Gods punishment on Israel for turning away, the Gog oracle, as internal evidence indicates, was composed substantially later than the chapters around it. Son of man, direct your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal, say, Thus said the Lord, Behold, I am against you, Gog, the prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal. Persia, Cush and Put will be with you, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you. The confederation thus represents a multinational alliance surrounding Israel, why the prophets gaze should have focused on these particular nations is unclear, comments Biblical scholar Daniel I
32.
Japheth
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In medieval and early modern European tradition he was considered to be the progenitor of European and, later, East Asian peoples. Japheth first appears in the Book of Genesis as a one of the three sons of Noah, saved through the Ark, following the Flood he features in the story of Noahs drunkenness. ”. Scholars increasingly see this as a product of the Achaemenid Empire, almost none of the persons, places and stories in the first eleven chapters of Genesis are ever mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. This has led scholars to suppose that the History is a composition, attached to Genesis to serve as an introduction to that book. Japheth is a transliteration of the Greek Iapetos, the ancestor of the Hellenic peoples, however, Genesis 10,14 identifies their ancestor as Ham rather than Japheth. For those who take the genealogies of Genesis to be historically accurate, the link between Japheth and the Europeans stems from Genesis 10,5, which states, By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands. Prince Hal notes of such people. they will be kin to us, in the Bible, Japheth is ascribed seven sons, Gomer, Magog, Tiras, Javan, Meshech, Tubal, and Madai. Josephus subsequently detailed the nations supposed to have descended from the seven sons of Japheth, the Book of Jasher, published by Talmudic rabbis in the 17th century, provides some new names for Japheths grandchildren not found in the Bible, and provided a much more detailed genealogy. In the seventh century, Isidore of Seville published his noted history, scholars in almost every European nation continued to repeat and develop Saint Isidores assertion of descent from Noah through Japheth into the nineteenth century. In Scotland, histories tracing the Scottish people to Japheth were published as late as George Chalmers well-received Caledonia, the term Japhetic was also applied by William Jones and other early linguists to what became known as the Indo-European language group. In a different sense, it was used by the Soviet linguist Nikolai Marr in his Japhetic theory. Japheth is not mentioned by name in the Quran but is referred to indirectly in the narrative of Noah, Muslim exegesis, however, names all of Noahs sons, and these include Japheth. In identifying Japheths descendants, Muslim exegesis more-or-less agrees with the Biblical traditions and he is usually regarded as the ancestor of the Gog and Magog tribes, and, at times, of the Turks, Khazars, and Slavs. Some traditions narrated that 36 languages of the world could be traced back to Japheth
33.
Eric XIV of Sweden
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Eric XIV was King of Sweden from 1560 until he was deposed in 1568. Eric XIV was the eldest son of Gustav I and Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg and he was also ruler of Estonia, after its conquest by Sweden in 1561. Some scholars claim that his illness began early during his reign, Eric, having been deposed and imprisoned, was most likely murdered. An examination of his remains in 1958 confirmed that he died of arsenic poisoning. Eric XIV was born at Tre Kronor castle, at 9 oclock on the morning of 13 December 1533, before the age of two, he lost his mother. In 1536, his father, Gustav Vasa, married Margaret Leijonhufvud, Erics first teacher was the learned German Georg Norman, whose services were shortly thereafter needed elsewhere within the Swedish state. He was replaced by French Calvinist Dionysius Beurraeus, Dionysius taught both Eric and his brother John, and seems to have been appreciated by both. Eric was very successful in foreign languages and mathematics and he was also an informed historian, a good writer and familiar with astrology. When Eric started to appear in public, he was referred to as the king and after the meeting of parliament in Stockholm in 1560. In 1557, Eric was assigned the fiefdoms of Kalmar, Kronoberg and he took up residence in the city of Kalmar. Against his fathers wishes, Eric entered into negotiations with the future Queen Elizabeth I of England. Tensions between Eric and his father grew, Eric also made unsuccessful marriage proposals to, among others, Mary, Queen of Scots, Renata of Lorraine, Anna of Saxony and Christine of Hesse. He was crowned as Eric XIV, but was not necessarily the 14th king of Sweden named Eric and he and his brother Charles IX adopted regnal numbers according to Johannes Magnuss partly fictitious history of Sweden. There had, however, been at least six earlier Swedish kings with the name of Eric, in domestic politics, Erics ambitions were strongly opposed by the Swedish nobility, including his half-brother, the later John III of Sweden. John was the Duke of Finland and was married to a Polish princess, John pursued an expansionist policy in Livonia which led to contention between the brothers. In 1563, John was seized and tried for treason by Erics order. This expansionism resulted in a clash with his cousin, Frederick II of Denmark, from 1563 onwards, his insanity became pronounced, his rule became even more arbitrary and marked by violence. In 1567, suspicious of high treason, he killed several members of the Sture family, the King probably thought of the killing as an execution rather than murder
34.
Charles IX of Sweden
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Charles IX, also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I and his wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, brother of Eric XIV and John III. The Swedish kings Eric XIV and Charles IX took their numbers according to a fictitious History of Sweden and he was actually the third Swedish king called Charles. He came into the throne by championing the Protestant cause during the tense times of religious strife between competing sects of Christianity. In just over a decade, these would break out as the Thirty Years War and these conflicts had already caused the dynastic squabble rooted in religious freedom that deposed his nephew and brought him to rule as king of Sweden. His reign marked the start of the chapter of both the Reformation and Counter-reformation. With his brothers death in November 1592, the throne of Sweden went to his nephew and Habsburg ally, Sigismund of Poland, during these tense political times, Charles viewed the inheritance of the throne of Protestant Sweden by his devout Roman Catholic nephew with alarm. Thus, several years of controversy and discord followed. During the period, he and the Swedish privy council ruled in Sigismunds name while he stayed in Poland, after various preliminaries, the Riksens ständer forced Sigismund to abdicate the throne to Charles IX in 1595. In fact, it worsened European politics to the abandonment or prevention of settling events by diplomacy, in 1568 he was the real leader of the rebellion against Eric XIV. However, he took no part in the designs of his brother John III against the king after his deposition. Charless relations with John were always more or less strained and he had no sympathy with Johns High-Church tendencies on the one hand, and he sturdily resisted all the kings endeavours to restrict his authority as Duke of Södermanland on the other. The nobility and the majority of the Riksdag of the Estates supported John, however, in his endeavours to unify the realm, and Charles had consequently to resign his pretensions to autonomy within his duchy. But, steadfast Calvinist as he was, on the question he was immovable. The matter came to a crisis on the death of John III in 1592, the heir to the throne was Johns eldest son, Sigismund III Vasa, already king of Poland and a devoted Catholic. Under the agreement, Charles and the Swedish Privy Council shared power, in the ensuing years 1593—1595, Charless task was extraordinarily difficult. Finally, the Riksdag at Linköping,24 February 1604 declared that Sigismund abdicated the Swedish throne and he was declared king as Karl IX. Charless short reign was one of uninterrupted warfare, in all these struggles, he was more or less unsuccessful, owing partly to the fact that he and his forces had to oppose superior generals and partly to sheer ill-luck
35.
Queen regnant
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An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire. A queen regnant possesses and exercises sovereign powers, a queen consort shares her husbands rank and titles, but does not share the sovereignty of her husband. The husband of a queen regnant traditionally does not share his wifes rank, however, the concept of a king consort is not unheard of in contemporary or classical periods. A queen dowager is the widow of a king, a queen mother is a queen dowager who is also the mother of a reigning sovereign. The Byzantine Empress Irene sometimes called herself basileus, emperor, rather than basilissa, empress and Jadwiga of Poland was crowned as Rex Poloniae, King of Poland. Among the Davidic Monarchs of the Kingdom of Judah, there is mentioned a queen regnant, Athaliah. The much later Hasmonean Queen Salome Alexandra was highly popular, accession of a regnant occurs as a nations order of succession permits. The scope of succession may be matrilineal, patrilineal, or both, or, rarely, open to general election when necessary, the right of succession may be open to men and women, or limited to men only or women only. Historically, many realms forbade succession by women or through a line in obedience to the Salic law. No queen regnant ever ruled France, for example, only one woman, Maria Theresa, ruled Austria. As noted in the list below of widely known ruling queens, in the waning days of the 20th century and early days of the 21st, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg and the UK amended their acts of succession to absolute primogeniture. In some cases the change does not take effect during the lifetimes of people already in the line of succession at the time the law was passed, in 2011, the 16 Realms of the Commonwealth agreed to remove the rule of male-preference primogeniture. Once the necessary legislation was passed, this means that had Prince William had a daughter first, in China, Wu Zetian became the Chinese empress regnant and established the Zhou Dynasty after dismissing her sons. It should be noted, however, that Empress Wu used the title huangdi and in many European sources, although the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan is currently barred to women, this has not always been the case, throughout Japanese history there have been eight empresses regnant. Again, the Japanese language uses the term josei tennō for the position which would be empress regnant in English, monarch Order of succession Queen consort Rani Regent Salic law Sultana Monter, William. The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800, studies 30 women who exercised full sovereign authority in Europe
36.
Margaret I of Denmark
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Margaret I, was ruler and for a brief time monarch of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, though there are ambiguities regarding her specific titles. She was the founder of the Kalmar Union, which spanned Scandinavia for over a century, Margaret was known as a wise, energetic and capable leader, earning the nickname Semiramis of the North, or the Lady King. Though the latter was a nickname invented by her rival Albert of Mecklenburg. The youngest daughter of King Valdermar Atterdag, Margaret was born at the Søborg Castle and she did not leave any biological heirs, with the early demise of her only son, though some historians suggest she had an illegitimate daughter with Abraham Brodersson. Margaret was ultimately succeeded by a string of incompetent monarchs, despite her efforts to raise and educate her heir Eric of Pomerania, Philippa in particular was an excellent pupil, but died young. Ultimately, the Union into which she put so much effort, some historians have criticized Margaret for favouring Denmark and being too autocratic, though she is generally thought to have been highly regarded in Norway and respected in Denmark and Sweden. She was painted in a light in contemporary religious chronicles. Margaret is known in Denmark as Margrethe I to distinguish her from the current queen, Margaret was born in March 1353 as the sixth and youngest child of Valdemar IV of Denmark and Helvig of Schleswig. She was born in the prison of Søborg Castle, where her father had already confined her mother. She was baptised in Roskilde and in 1359, at the age of six, engaged to the 18-year-old King Haakon VI of Norway, Margarets marriage was thus a part of the Nordic power struggle. There was dissatisfaction with this in some circles, and the political activist Bridget of Sweden described the agreement in a letter to the Pope as children playing with dolls, the goal of the marriage for King Valdemar was regaining Scania, which since 1332 had been mortgaged to Sweden. The attack was ostensibly to support Magnus against Erik, but in June 1359, as a result, the balance of power changed, and all agreements between Magnus and Valdemar were terminated, including the marriage contract between Margaret and Haakon. This did not result in the withdrawal of Valdemar from Scania, Visby, which was populated by Germans, was the main town on the island and was the key to domination of the Baltic Sea. On 27 July 1361 a battle was fought between a well-equipped Danish army and an array of local Gotland peasants, the Danes won the battle and took Visby, while the Germans did not take part. King Magnus and the Hanseatic League could not disregard this provocation, at the same time, negotiations opened between King Magnus and Henry of Holstein about a marriage between Haakon and the latters sister Elizabeth. On 17 December 1362, a ship left with Elizabeth bound for Sweden, a storm, however, diverted her to the Danish island Bornholm, where the archbishop of Lund declared the wedding a violation of church law because Haakon had already been engaged to Margaret. The Swedish and Hanseatic armies also ultimately withdrew from their siege of Helsingborg, following this, a truce was concluded with the Hanseatic States and King Magnus abandoning the war, meaning the marriage of the now 10-year-old Margaret and King Haakon was again relevant. The wedding was held in Copenhagen on 9 April 1363, Merete Ulvsdatter was a distinguished noblewoman and daughter of Bridget of Sweden, as well as the wife of Knut Algotsson, who was one of King Magnuss faithful followers
37.
Christina, Queen of Sweden
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Christina reigned as Queen of Sweden from 1632 to 1654. She was the surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph. At the age of six, Christina succeeded her father on the throne upon his death at the Battle of Lützen, Christina is remembered as one of the most educated women of the 1600s. She was fond of books, manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures, with her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm, wanting the city to become the Athens of the North. She was intelligent, fickle and moody, she rejected what the role of a woman was at the time. She caused a scandal when she decided not to marry and in 1654 when she abdicated her throne and she changed her name from Kristina Augusta Wasa, adopting the name Christina Alexandra. At the age of 28, the Minerva of the North moved to Rome, the Pope described Christina as a queen without a realm, a Christian without faith, and a woman without shame. Notwithstanding all that, she became a leader of the theatrical and musical life and protected many Baroque artists, composers, being the guest of five consecutive popes, and a symbol of the Counter Reformation, she is one of the few women buried in the Vatican grotto. Her unconventional lifestyle and masculine dressing and behavior have been featured in novels, plays, opera. In all the biographies on Christina her gender and cultural identity play an important role, Christina was born in the royal castle Tre Kronor. The king had already sired two daughters – a nameless princess stillborn in 1620 and then the first princess Christina, who was born in 1623, excited expectation surrounded Maria Eleonoras third pregnancy in 1626. When the baby was born it was first thought to be a boy as it was hairy and screamed, with a strong and she later wrote in her autobiography that, Deep embarrassment spread among the women when they discovered their mistake. The king, though, was happy, stating, Shell be clever. From most accounts, Gustav Adolf appears to have been attached to his daughter. Her mother remained disappointed that Christina was a girl and her mother, of the House of Hohenzollern, was a woman of quite distraught temperament and was melancholic. It is possible she was insane, after the king died on 6 November 1632 on the battlefield, his corpse was brought home in a coffin, with his heart in a separate box. Maria Eleonora ordered that the king should not be buried until she could be buried with him and she also demanded that the coffin be kept open, and went to see it regularly, patting it and taking no notice of the putrefaction. Eventually, the embarrassed Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna, saw no other solution than to have a guard posted at the room to prevent further episodes, as a result, he was not buried until 22 June 1634, more than eighteen months later
38.
Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden
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Ulrika Eleonora or Ulrica Eleanor, also known as Ulrika Eleonora the Younger, was Queen regnant of Sweden from 5 December 1718 to 29 February 1720, and then Queen consort until her death. She was the youngest child of King Charles XI and Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, after the death of her brother King Charles XII in 1718, she claimed the throne. Her deceased older sister, Hedvig Sophia, had left a son, Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, Ulrika Eleonora asserted that she was the closest surviving relative of the late king and cited the precedent of Queen Christina. She was recognized as successor by the Riksdag after she had agreed to renounce the powers of absolute monarchy established by her father and she abdicated in 1720 in favor of her husband, Landgrave Frederick I of Hesse-Kassel. After their mothers death in 1693, Ulrika Eleonora and her siblings were placed in the care of their grandmother, however, her grandmother was known to favor her elder sister. During her childhood, Eleonora was somewhat overlooked in favor of this elder, more extroverted and talented sister, princess Hedvig Sophia. Her elder siblings enjoyed riding and dancing and reportedly somewhat looked down upon her as she did not have the courage to participate in their games and was brought to tears. She was described as friendly, modest and dignified, with posture and beautiful hands. Her grandmother, Hedwig Eleonora, described her as stubborn, and she was a talented musician, and when performing with her sister at court concerts, she would play the clavier while her sister sang. Ulrika Eleonora lived most of her life in the shadow of others, outshone by her brother the king, from 1700, she took care of her dominating grandmother, Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, during her brothers absence in the Great Northern War. Her older sister, Hedvig Sophia, was then the heir presumptive to the throne, as their brother Charles XII was unmarried and childless, Hedwig Sophia was regarded as a likely future heir to the throne, and was thereby attractive on the marriage market. In 1698, an alliance was suggested by marrying her to Prince Charles of Denmark and her brother to Princess Sophia Hedwig of Denmark. In 1700, there were negotiations of a marriage to Frederick William I of Prussia and these plans were about to be put into effect when they were disrupted, without motivation, by her brother. She was later made the god-mother of Louisa Ulrika of Prussia, in 1702, a marriage to the future King George II of Great Britain was suggested, but was postponed, and in the end nothing came of it. In 1710, she received a proposal from Prince Frederick of Hesse, the negotiations were handled by her favorite and confidante Emerentia von Düben. The engagement was announced on 23 January 1714, and the took place 24 March 1715. During the wedding, her brother Charles XII remarked, Tonight my sister is dancing away the crown, after her grandmothers death in 1715, she became the center of the court, and this was one of the happiest periods of her life. In 1715, she married Landgrave Frederick I of Hesse-Kassel, the marriage, which on her side was a love-match, became another attempt to use her as a political puppet
39.
Sigismund III Vasa
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He was the son of King John III of Sweden and his first wife, Catherine Jagellonica of Poland. Elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sigismund sought to create a union between the Commonwealth and Sweden, and succeeded for a time in 1592. After he had deposed in 1599 from the Swedish throne by his uncle, Charles IX of Sweden. Shortly after his victory over his enemies, Sigismund took advantage of a period of civil unrest in Muscovy and invaded Russia. In 1617 the Polish–Swedish conflict, which had been interrupted by an armistice in 1611, while Sigismunds army was also fighting Ottoman forces in Moldavia, King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden invaded Sigismunds lands, capturing Riga and seizing almost all of Polish Livonia. Sigismund, who concluded the Truce of Altmark with Sweden in 1629 and his Swedish wars resulted, moreover, in Polands loss of Livonia and in a diminution of the kingdoms international prestige. Sigismund remains a controversial figure in Poland. His long reign coincided with the apex of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealths prestige, power, on the other hand, it was during his reign that the symptoms of decline leading to the Commonwealths eventual demise surfaced. However, the question of whether the Commonwealths decline was caused by Sigismunds decisions or had its roots in historical processes beyond his personal control and he was commemorated in Warsaw with Sigismunds Column, commissioned by his son and successor, Władysław IV. Sigismund was born on 20 June 1566 to Catherine Jagiellon and the Grand Duke John of Finland at Gripsholm and his parents, at the time, were being held prisoner by King Eric XIV, but despite the Protestant domination of Sweden young Sigismund was raised as a Roman Catholic. In 1567 Sigismund and his parents where released from prison, and in 1568 Erik XIV was deposed, from 1568 Sigismund was the crown prince of Sweden. His mother was the daughter of Polish king Sigismund I the Old, in 1587 Sigismund stood for election to the Polish throne after the death of his uncle, King Stephen Bathory. He was supported by his aunt Queen Anna, Hetman Jan Zamoyski and it seemed that the issue of who would be King of Poland had been settled when Maximilian III invaded Poland to claim the crown. Hetman Jan Zamoyski defeated Maximilian at the Battle of Byczyna and took him prisoner, however, at the request of Pope Sixtus V, King Sigismund III released Maximilian, who surrendered his claim to Poland in 1589. King Sigismund also tried to maintain peace with his neighbor by marrying Archduchess Anne Habsburg in 1592. It was always his intention to maintain an alliance with Catholic Austria against the Protestant forces, when his father died King Sigismund III asked the Sejm to be allowed to claim his inheritance as the rightful King of Sweden. When he promised to respect Lutheranism as the religion of Sweden. Sigismund was crowned King of Sweden in 1594 and he appointed his uncle, Duke Charles, to rule as regent on his behalf in Sweden while he remained in Poland, since Sweden and the Commonwealth were only in a personal union, not united in one state
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