Albert of Sweden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 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 place 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 unpopular 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 4, 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.
