Feast of Nykoping
The feast in Nyköping in 1317 was the fatal conclusion to the dispute between the three sons of King Magnus Birgersson , which almost led to the fall of the Bjälbo family.
prehistory
King Magnus Birgersson had three sons, Birger , Erik and Waldemar . After King Magnus died in 1290, his confidante Reichsmarschall Torgils Knutsson took over the chairmanship of the guardianship government over the underage brothers. He managed to keep the external enemies away and to keep the inner peace. As the three brothers grew older, it became more and more difficult to maintain peace in the family as they became more and more argumentative. The oldest brother Birger was elected king at the age of 10. The younger brothers became dukes. When Birger came of age, the government initially remained with Torgils, which Birger also accepted, but not the two younger brothers. In 1303, Torgils saw that he could no longer keep the brothers away from the government, resigned his guardianship, but remained Reichsmarschall and in some matters the same as the young Birger, which the younger brothers did not like. Duke Erik had Södermanland and parts of Uppland as Duchy and Waldemar Finland . But that wasn't enough for them. They considered themselves better suited to the government of the empire than Birger. The conflict led them to be stripped of their duchies and bitterly withdrawn.
Erik now used his Norwegian contacts. He had received land there from the king and was also engaged to Princess Ingebjørg , daughter of King Håkon Magnusson . On the occasion of the engagement he had received parts of Båhuslän with the fortress Kungahälla from the king . Erik and Waldemar went there to start a riot. Since Kungahälla was a strategically important position for Sweden's westward trade, Birger immediately had a fortress Gullbergshed built in Västergötland to be able to counter any military campaigns by the brothers. The war broke out. After initial success, they were defeated in 1305. In the subsequent surrender negotiations, they had to recognize Birger's son Magnus as heir to the throne. But Birger von Torgils gradually felt threatened because of his success. On the occasion of a temporary reconciliation between the three brothers, he had him captured and executed near Stockholm for a crime of majesty.
After Torgil's death, hatred broke out again between the brothers. Erik was the driving force against Birger. In 1306, the two dukes planned another coup. In September 1306 the brothers as well as the archbishop and a number of aristocrats gathered for a festival at Birger's Håtuna estate north of Lake Mälaren . In the night after the party, Erik and Waldemar stormed into Birger's bedroom with soldiers and took him and his wife Märtha and the archbishop prisoner. However , they did not find his son Magnus . He was able to flee to Denmark. These events are called “Håtunaleken” (the Håtuna game) in Swedish historiography. The prisoners were taken to Nyköping. They stayed there for two years. In 1310 they forced him to share the government of the empire with them, with the smallest portion assigned to the king.
King Erik Menved of Denmark, enemy of the two dukes, immediately declared war on the dukes. Now Erik and Waldemar took control of the empire. But their power was not great enough to sit on Birger's throne. Many cities and fortress garrisons were loyal to King Birger. At the same time they were at war with Denmark. However, a peace agreement was reached because King Erik Menved had problems in his northern German possessions that did not allow a simultaneous war against Sweden. The dukes made concessions to calm the domestic opposition and released the archbishop. But Birger still had so many followers inside and outside the empire that the dukes felt compelled to release him too in 1308. There were further disputes until the brothers agreed in 1310 to divide Sweden into three domains. Birger got Hälsingland , Fjädrundaland (in Uppland), parts of Västmanland , Närke , Södermanland , Östergötland , Gotland , Tiohärad in Småland and Viborgs län in Finland as well as other possessions in other parts of the empire.
The feast
In the period that followed, there were several peasant uprisings over taxes. In 1317 a tax collector was even killed. During this time the conflict between the brothers seemed to have calmed down. Everyone sat in their own territory and they avoided each other. In 1317 King Birger invited his brothers to a festival in Nyköping, the place where Birger had previously been held. According to the Erik Chronicle , Erik is said to have been suspicious, but was persuaded by Waldemar to take part in the festival. The two brothers were warmly welcomed and well entertained. During the night they were woken up by Birger and his soldiers. According to the description in the chronicle, Birger is said to have reproached them: “Do you still remember Håtunaleken? I remember it very well! ”He instructed Marshal Johan von Brunkow to render harmless the men of the dukes who were still sleeping. The dukes were chained in a tower of Nykoping's fortress. There they died, probably of starvation. The Erik Chronicle and the imperial chronicles written at the same time in Germany depict this in the most gruesome colors, according to which they would have bitten each other when hungry. But none of the authors had their own knowledge of the events. Rather, the parallel to Dante's Divine Comedy XXXIII. The singing is striking where the Archbishop Ruggiero degli Ubaldini of Pisa imprisoned and starved his enemies, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca and his two underage sons. There, too, cannibalism occurs. That could have been a model for the poet of the Eriks Chronicle. The joint will of the dukes was able to be brought out of prison and is in the Swedish imperial archives. Afterwards they bequeathed large sums of money to the church, the monasteries and institutions for the poor, the elderly and the sick. One can also doubt the imminent death of the dukes, because on April 16, 1318 the Danish Duke Christoph von Halland and Samsø , the Archbishop Esger von Lund and the two Duchesses in Kalmar agreed that their husbands should definitely be freed. But it may also be that the contractors did not yet know anything about the starvation of the dukes. It was not until June 27, 1318 that Nyköpingshus was conquered and the dukes' deaths determined.
Aftermath
King Birger now believed that he could take power over all of Sweden. He was also allied with Erik Menved and so had his back free. To secure his support, he pledged areas of Småland to Denmark on February 27, 1318 . But Birger was wrong. A powerful coalition of Swedish nobles was formed against him. These allied with the aristocratic opposition in Denmark. There was a simultaneous uprising in Denmark and Sweden. The uprising in Sweden was led by Mathias Kettilmundsson from Uppland. The uprising spread rapidly and the peasants rose too. Soon several insurgent armies, noble and non-noble, were marching through Sweden. The Danish King Erik now intervened in the action and achieved some successes in Västergötland , but he did not come to central Sweden to horror Nyköpingshus. Birger continued the fight. He eventually had to flee to Denmark, where he died in 1321. In 1319 the three year old son of Duke Erik, Magnus, was elected king.
literature
- Mats Adolfsson: När borgarna brann. Svenska uppror. Forntiden – 1499. Stockholm 2007, ISBN 978-91-27-35689-4 .
- Sten Carlsson, Jerker Rosén: Den svenska historien . 2. Från Birger Jarl till Kalmarunionen. Stockholm 1992, ISBN 91-632-0003-1 .
- Michael Nordberg: I kung Magnus tid. 1995, ISBN 91-1-952122-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marshal was an office that arose in Sweden in the 13th century and is first mentioned in a letter from Waldemar Birgersson from 1268. It was the highest state office after the king. It is believed that he emerged from the position of commander of the king's horse retinue. N. Edén: Marsk . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 17 : Lux-Mekanik . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1912, Sp. 1078 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
- ^ Adolfsson p. 110.
- ^ Adolfsson p. 111.
- ^ Adolfsson p. 112.
- ↑ Carlsson / Rosén p. 17.
- ↑ Nordberg p. 19.
- ^ Adolfsson p. 115.
- ^ Adolfsson p. 117.
- ^ Adolfsson p. 121.
- ↑ a b Nordberg p. 23 f.
- ↑ Nordberg p. 22.
- ↑ Nordberg p. 24 f.
- ^ Adolfsson, p. 122.
- ^ Adolfsson p. 124.