Albert of Sweden
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Royal Seal of Albert of Sweden |
Albert of Sweden (or
Albrecht von Mecklenburg in German or
Albrekt av Mecklenburg in Swedish) was born in
1338 and became king of
Sweden in
1363. In
1384 he inherited the ducal title of
Mecklenburg and united the two countries in a personal union.
He was the second son of Duke
Albert II of Mecklenburg and
Euphemia of Sweden {Eriksdotter}, the daughter of duke
Erik Magnusson of
Södermanland and the sister of king
Magnus Eriksson of Sweden. He married
Richardis, daughter to count
Otto of
Schwerin; she died in
1377 and is today buried in
Stockholm.
Albert based his claims on two family ties with the
Sverker dynasty of Sweden, both through Albert's mother, through whom he was granted the first spot in the Swedish succession order, and through
Kristina Sverkersdotter, a daughter of
Sverker II Karlsson of Sweden, also known as Sverker the Young. Sverker II had been the king of Sweden between
1196 and
1208.
It was in 1363 when the members of the Swedish regency council led by
Bo Jonsson Grip arrived in the court of Mecklenburg. They had been banished from the country after first launching a revolt against the unpopulair king Magnus Eriksson in order to replace him with someone more suitable. At the nobles' request, Albert launched an invasion of Sweden supported by several German dukes and counts. Stockholm and
Kalmar with their high percentage of German population gladly invited the German duke's son and on
February 4th,
1363 he could already proclaim himself
King of Sweden. The coronation took place illegally at the
Stone of Mora, since the law only allowed native Swedes to be crowned king of Sweden.
This was the beginning of an eight year civil war. Magnus and his son king
Håkon VI of Norway were defeated by the Germans near
Enköping and the former was taken as prisoner by Albert in
1365. Now
Denmark decided to intervene on Håkon's side, and to counter this several
Hanseatic cities and dukes in Northern Germany expressed support of the new king. The Germans also gained another dangerous enemy this year, the Swedish peasants who weren't content with Albert's policy in appointing Germans as officials in all Swedish provinces. The peasants suffered tremendously under the oppression of those Germans so they revolted in support of the old king. With the help of his allies, Håkon managed to beat back Albert and lay siege to Stockholm in
1371.
The Swedish nobility now decided to help Albert militarily, and after forcing the king to promise to give almost all power in the country over to the regency council, they beat back the Norwegians and the Danes. A peace agreement was finally signed, on the condition that Magnus be released and free to travel back to Norway (where he spent the rest of his life). Albert kept the crown of Sweden, but most of western Sweden was still unhappy with the king and de facto independent.
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List of Swedish monarchs
