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The Book of Years, a history of Sweden

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I vote for "A". Have only now read this AAR (then again, it started recently), and must say that in spite of a few bloopers ("In his 72nd year his illness worsened into pneumonia and he died that winter, he was 73 years old, having ruled for 38 years.") it is generally quite enjoyable. Really like the plans as well, and the fact that this isn't another world conquest game, with Sweden having both ups and downs.

The Muslims seem disturbingly mis-placed, though (then again, I didn't play the game for months now and didn't play it for long enough before...).
 
The reign of Johan I Stenkilsätten

Johan I Stenkilsätten (1299-1312)

Johan the 1st was the third and last incompetent king of Sweden in a row. He began his reign at the age of ten, heir to a father who had filled his head with tales of Swedish grandeur. He was inbred, a result of his fathers marriage to his own cousin, and thus lacked intelligence and judgement enough to properly judge these stories. He developed an intense pride and self-sufficiency. As king Johan was a disaster, his inept rule caused the first real civil war in Sweden and at the end of his reign the Kingdom was reduced to a shadow of its former glory.

In February 1300 the duchy of Norrland declared its independence, with the army fighting in Pommerania, king Johan was forced to accept this. He wowed never to let it happen again, then followed a series of defections which ate up the treasury and stressed the king into madness and schizophrenia. First the county of Tröndelag declared its independence and while the king’s army was sent to subdue this the duchy of Akershus rebelled. Reinforcements were raised and sent and eventually the rebellions were quelled. In order to reduce the size of his unwieldy demesne the king granted these titles to the count of Bergenshus, including the title duke of Akershus. His reward was another defection, this time by the new duke of Akershus, which meant that half of Norway was suddenly lost.

Over the next decade a series of continuous rebellions sapped the kingdom of its wealth, destroyed many of the provincial improvements and saw several waves of revolt roll across the lands. The duchy of Akershus was followed by the counties of Fyn and Stettin, these were followed by the county of Kemi, then Nyland, then Herjedalen and then Kalmar. When the newly installed duke of Finland, the kings half-brother rebelled the king finally wowed to have no new vassals and then he was forced to let Finland go. Shortly after this he became paranoid and as the county of Lappland and the Republic of Gotland both rebelled he had his only remaining vassal, the duke of Bergslagen, murdered. In the end only the duchy of Bergslagen remained within the fold and Sweden was a bankrupt and looted kingdom in unrest when Johan finally died of starvation in 1312. His paranoia had become so severe that he refused to eat, believing all food to be poisoned. He was succeeded by his brother Erik.

Sweden post civil war
 
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The reign of Erik III Stenkilsätten

Erik III Stenkilsätten (1312-1338)
Erik the third succeeded his paranoid brother as king of a diminished Sweden. He immediately set about rebuilding the kingdom, first he saw final peace as the republic of Gotland was let go (though they ceded Iceland) and then he finally gained a peace with the Fatimids. With the kingdom at peace and the civil war ended, the king started rebuilding at a great pace. During the first few years he rebuilt the courts that revolting peasants and burghers had torn down. After that he constructed many new smithies and built the new spinning mills and dye-works made possible by the new technology of clothmaking that was spreading up across the provinces from the south.

Slowly things were settling down and the kingdom was stabilizing, after 15 years the last of the revolts was put down and King Erik began to look abroad once more for his ambitions. Before he could begin his restoration of Swedish lands he embarked on a program of castle building, building new castles in four of his ten provinces, including starting the construction of the huge castle Tre Kronor (Three Crowns, from the Swedish coat of arms) in the capital.

In march 1331 the first of his campaigns saw the conquest of Naumadal, a Norwegian county that had been lost to the muslims during the last years of the previous century. At this point Sweden had enjoyed peace for 18 years, the longest continuous period of peace since the reign of Inge the 1st in the twelfth century, almost 200 years earlier! Next came the conquest of the duchy of Norrland which had embroiled itself in a long war with the duchy of Akershus. In true machiavellan style, two centuries before the famous Italian wrote down his doctrines, King Erik waited until both his rivals were exhausted before he used the first excuse he got to embroil himself in the war. In 1333 the count of Ångermanland grew tired of the incessant conflict and broke free of his liege the duke of Norrland, he then sought the protection of King Erik as a substitute. King Erik saw his opportunity and gladly took the offer, he now had the duty of protecting his new vassal against his former lord! By the end of the year the entire duchy of Norrland was back in Swedish hands.

After this short and successful war the realm was once more at peace. The huge castle of Tre Kronor was finished in april 1334 and the prestige of the King was considerably strengthened. After a new round of building spinning mills across the middle counties disaster befell the land as the bubonic plague arrived in Lappland in 1337. The next year it took root in Skåne as well, and by now both ends of the kingdom were threatened. That spring King Erik died, having made Sweden prosperous and secure once more. He ruled for 26 years.

Sweden in 1338
 
This AAR is nearly exactly as a game I played once. :eek:

Except from that Germany was crushed by the Mongols after their liberation of Spain. :p
 
The reign of Inge II Stenkilsätten

The reign of Inge II Stenkilsätten (1338-1354)

King Inge the 2nd was not a happy man. He lived his adult life in the shadow of the great bubonic plague that gripped his kingdom and having lost his father in adolescence he was constantly nervous about his prestige and the judgement of his court. His policies were dominated by the will of his much stronger marshal, the great strategist Guy d’Anjou. The strong-willed Frenchman was a descendant of the d’Anjou family which had come to the Swedish court having been exiled from France by the Kings of Germany and unlike his colleagues in court he had an ironclad constitution. The reason for his dominance was not only due to his greater willpower though, during King Inges reign he lost two chancellors to the plague and so there weren’t many voices to oppose the marshal. This also accounted for the King’s unwillingness to confide in others, they would all die anyway.

Under pressure from his marshal King Inge agreed to spend most of his reign bringing errant vassals back into the fold. At first with the mid-forties campaign against the absent Governor of Gotland. Since most of the republics forces were off fighting the Golden Horde in Russia the conquest was achieved relatively easily. The problem however was that the cost was difficult to bear. With most of the country suffering the ravages of the plague the royal coffers were emptied at a rapid pace. Luckily Governor Arpád yielded his titles to Öland and Gotland but kept the title of Governor on condition that he pay up an indemnity of 816 000 ducats! This solved all money problems and the kingdom was once again on a stable financial footing.

In 1349 King Inge declared war on the duchy of Akershus and after a yearlong campaign the counties of Telemark, Oppland and Vestfold were retaken. Now the Kingsom was slowly being returned to its former glory, and the plague was retreating from the middle counties as well. Prosperity would not come however, as the plague retreated farming declined. Many hamlets and villages had been decimated and the forests were once again growing larger, reclaiming fallow fields, this condition prohibited large construction projects. Although the country was poorer it wasn’t poor and since the soldiers were paid the stability of the realm was never threatened.

During the autumn of 1352 Queen Mecthild, 9 years the King’s senior, took ill and died. This devastated King Inge and his previous stress worsened into a depression. A loveless marriage with an old hag from the court of Germany was arranged but this marriage amounted to nothing and the King’s depression could not be alleviated. In 1354 the duke of Akershus died and was succeeded by his infant son. Since King Inge considered the remaining threat of revanchism to be gone he now commited suicide by stabbing himself and bleeding to death while lying on his dead wife’s grave. He left a stable, if somewhat impoverished, kingdom to his young son Asbjörn.

Sweden in 1354
 
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Sorry, but I'll bother you about your date-related typoes again:
1138-1154
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Whereas it should be 1338-1354, I think.

Anyway, good work as always, keep it up!
 
The reign of Asbjörn I Stenkilsätten

Asbjörn I Stenkilsätten (1354-1373)

King Asbjörn ruled the Kingdom of Sweden for 19 plague-ridden years, in his time the country suffered tremendously and the foundations for for the future demise of the kingdom were laid. King Asbjörn had been raised by his fathers marshal, Guy d’Anjou, and thus he was also dominated by this powerful man. Since the king was only 12 years old when he took the throne he saw fit to delegate the running of the kingdom to his marshal. Only when Guy died in 1361 did the king actively start his reign.

During the 1350’s two major developments took place. The bubonic plague finally retreated and agriculture was slowly starting to improve again. Also, the inquisition gained a hold in the southern counties, a portent of things to come…

In the winter of 1361 the new and terrible pneumonic plague arrived in södermanland, wiping out the recovery of the previous decade. There it stayed until 1365 when the pneumonic plague spread like a wildfire across the realm, afflicting almost every county during one terrible summer. Meanwhile king Asbjörn had finally started his long anticipated campaign against the remainder of the duchy of Akershus. The duchy fell in 1362 and the former duke fled to England, and with that the last remaining power in Scandinavia besides Sweden had been crushed. In 1363 the sheikdom of Hålogaland fell, ending the incursion of muslim power on the peninsula.

In 1368 came the first of two seminal events in the history of the kingdom to take place during Asbjörns reign. The pope publicly questioned king Asbjörns faith. Since the king was a reputed sceptic this was not to be taken lightly and king Asbjörn was genuinely fearful of the church’s sentence. In 1366 king Konrad of Germany had been excommunicated and that realm was now broken into dozens of pieces. Consequently the king repented and paid a huge contribution to the papacy, ostensibly for its crusade against the heathens in Spain, in order to be rid of the charges.

The fall of Germany

Now the kingdom was in a shambles, the coffers were empty and the king was forced to sell many of his libraries, mines and spinning mills to the burghers in order to pay for the running of the realm. Buoyed by the prestige gained with the king’s public humiliation the inquisition now spread across the land, gaining hold in most of the middle counties. This development led to the second momentous occasion of Asbjörns regency, the riksdag (parliament) of 1369.

As the kingdom was bankrupt and the king had lost the means to rule the realm a parliament was called in the summer of 1369. Even though the king was seen as relatively powerless he was still an astute politician and thus he managed to get approval for his large contributions by playing the burghers against the nobles and using the peasants as leverage. Still, the contributions created a lot of resentment towards the crown and the seeds were sown for a mutual understanding between nobles and burghers that would lead to ever greater troubles for the kings of Sweden.

In the early 1370’s the pneumonic plague began a slow retreat from the land. Revenues were slowly climbing and things were returning to normal when the king suddenly died in 1373. His legacy and the judgment of historians is mixed. During his reign the last of the kingdoms old vassals in Scandinavia were conquered, securing the country from external threat. At the same time he lost the initiative in the long standing conflict with the papacy over the secular powers of the church. The fatal mistake for the monarchy however, was the parliament of ’69 where he lost his authority with both nobles and burghers alike. Over the coming decades these two trends, the struggle with the church and the growing power of the first and third estates, would become ever clearer. King Asbjörn was succeeded by his son Erik.

Sweden in 1373
 
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The reign of Erik IV Stenkilsätten

Erik IV Stenkilsätten (1373-1405)

Erik the 4th was the last of the great kings of the Stenkilsätten dynasty. His reign saw the foundation of the great Northern kingdom, a country encompassing all the lands of Sweden, Norway and Finland. This success came at a cost though, the authority of the king was weakened through a series of events that would lead to his son becoming the last ruler of his dynasty.

When Erik took the throne he was only eight years old, his early years were dominated by his Steward, the autocratic William de Beaumont, and this mans corrupt rule. William pressed ever more taxes out of the peasantry and thus precipitated rebellions in three provinces, they only ended when the steward died in 1377. The next year saw the final settlement of the decades-long power struggle between the papacy and the monarchy. The pope challenged the still adolescent king over the right to appoint church officials, the king saw no choice but to yield and from that moment on he built his fortunes on the backing of the clergy.

Papal ascendancy

During the course of the 1380’s the clergy ran rampant across the land, expelling moneylenders wherever they could be found. Many great merchant families were toppled as the conditions of their fortune were removed. The unrest among the burghers grew and many revolts had to be quashed brutally.

the expulsion of the merchants

In 1386 the young king came into his own when he started the first of his four campaigns with the conquest of the county of Agder. This was followed by an arduous two year struggle in the forests of Finland which resulted in the conquest of the counties of Åland and Finland. As the third campaign, this time against the county of Satakunta, began the kingdom was bankrupt. Like his father before him the king reacted by calling the parliament.

The parliament of 1389 was radically different from that of twenty years earlier. This king was no sly schemer but rather a brutish dictator. Backed by both the clergy and the docile peasantry he rammed home a massive contribution which was extracted from the burghers and nobles. After this the wronged estates began to actively plot rebellion. The new wealth thus achieved was used to fund the conquest of the counties of Satakunta and Tavasts. The kings plans were now almost complete but instead of immediately declaring war on the last remaining county to elude him, Rogaland, he decided to opt for peace.

The reasons for his sudden cautiousness can be found in his desire to first secure an heir, he had no son, and also to avoid further antagonising the merchants. For the entirety of the 1390’s the kingdom was at peace. Frequent changes in court officials prevented the build-up of the necessary expertise and prestige and thus caused the central authority to further decline. The king was not very interested in actually running the country and thus corruption spread within the court and clergy power was left unchecked in the provinces.

In 1405 the king judged that enough time had passed so as to mollify the merchants and he declared war on Rogaland. The problem with his analysis was that he didn’t take into account that the Bishopric of Rogaland was a vassal to the kingdom of England. While the English could not muster much of an army the country was one of the primary markets for Swedish goods and the severed trade ties hurt the burghers of Sweden, Stockholm in particular, very badly. For the merchants this was the final straw and when Rogaland fell and the king was preparing to embark for England they had him assassinated. King Erik died as king of a unified north. His legacy was that of a ruthless power monger and although the treasury was well filled the kingdom was in dire straits. It was in this situation that the nine year old prince Magnus found himself when he took the throne as Magnus II in 1405.
 
The continuing epic

Please join me tomorrow for the exiting account of the fall of the house of Stenkilsätten! This will be immediately followed by the start of the EU2 era and the tale of the first Republic!

Double post! Lots of pictures!! Blood and gore!!! Nekkid ladies!!!! No hang on, scratch that last part... :rolleyes:
 
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cuchulain said:
did these parliaments or assassinations really happen? or are you just role playing or whatever. nice touch though.
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The parliaments (general estates events) really happened, I just used them for roleplaying purposes since they only ask you how much meny you want to demand. The assasination was a simple battle death but I needed a more intriguing setting. Tomorrow I'll roleplay the transition from CK to EU2 and then I'll return to my normal narration.

Thanks for posting! It always helps with encouragement.
 
Btw, don't forget that eyewitness report you promised. ;)
 
The reign of Magnus II Stenkilsätten

Magnus II Stenkilsätten (1405-1411)

When Magnus took the throne in august 1405 he was but nine years old. His father was dead and since his mother was also dead he was left without guidance. Against better judgment his marshal decided to press on with the invasion of England that the late king had prepared. This invasion was crushed by the veteran troops of the English king on the plains of Northumbria.

When news of the defeat reached Stockholm the revolution broke out. The merchants and burghers had been preparing for this day and their armed militia swamped the castle guards at Tre Kronor, forcing the king and court to flee. They fled north to Mora in Dalarna where the loyal peasantry answered the call to arms. As both sides were arming themselves messengers were sent out and all through the winter armies were being raised in most of the middle and southern counties. By spring both sides were ready to move.

In april the armies of the boy king and the rebellion met outside the city of Västerås in Västmanland. Both armies were composed mainly of undisciplined rabble, levied peasantry on the royalist side and conscripted town militia on the side of the rebellion. The rebels did possess a core of knights that were provided by their noble allies from Södermanland. The battle which ensued was brutal and would most probably have ended in a rebel victory if the knights hadn’t charged the wrong flank. Since the royals were lined up in front of the rebels with their right flank anchored on a small stream and their left on a low forested hillock. Had the knights attacked either the left or the centre of the royal line they would have broken through and disintegrated their army. Instead they chose to charge the enemy right and in so doing they were helplessly bogged down in the soggy delta formed by the swollen stream. Reduced from a fearsome thunderous war-machine into helpless turtles caught on their backs they were set upon by an angry mob of peasants and slaughtered to the last man. After this the rebels withdrew into the city and a siege ensued. Neither side lost more than 500 men, but whereas the king could always raise more peasants the loss of well equipped and trained knights meant that the rebels were now confined to the city, unable to break out.

Even though the city was under siege it was never cut off, since the royals had no boats they could not stop the rebels from getting supplies via lake Mälaren and were thus unable to starve their foes into submission. By august the siege began to unravel as the peasants returned home for their harvest. In the first week of September the royals received word that the kings cousin, the duke of Norrland, had risen against him and they were forced to break the siege. This ended the campaign for 1406 and the war didn’t resume until the next spring.

In 1407 no real battles were fought but the royals started a siege of the rebel city of Sundsvall which was lifted when Duke Johan’s army approached. Both sides withdrew for the winter and worked on consolidating their gains.

In 1408 the war picked up pace however as the peasants of Småland were raised in the kings defence. A battle was fought with the burghers of Linköping, in Östergötland on June 6th. This battle ended with a rebel victory but since they lacked any form of cavalry the royalists could withdraw and march northward to join their king in Dalarna.

Meanwhile a greater battle took place in Västmanland outside the town of Sala. During 1407 the rebel merchants of Stockholm had raised a new and better equipped army, and together with Duke Johan they were now advancing towards Mora. The royals decided to meet them and their peasant levy was now augmented by the forces of Ivar, Duke of Bergslagen. The battle was fought on a large field outside of town on the 12th of June and it was a close run affair.

The royal line consisted of three parts. The centre, mainly peasant levies and a company of Norwegian archers, the left flank, Duke Ivar’s heavy infantry and heavy knights and the right, a mix of woodsmen from Herjedalen and veteran crossbowmen from king Erik IV’s finnish wars.

The rebel line was comprised of four parts. The centre, consisting of town militia and conscripted peasants from Södermanland, the left flank, heavy infantry from the merchant fleets of the great trading families of Stockholm, the right, Duke Johan’s heavy knights and pikes and the reserve, light cavalry armed with spears and lances.

The royals were lined up from north to south, with their left flank on the northern end, facing the rebels who opposed them. All but the northern end of the field was strewn with rocks and boulders and this meant that all knights were forced to operate there. The battle began with a mutual charge of both sides knights, the royal left crashed into the rebel right and after a brief melee Duke Johan was killed by a sword to the throat and his knights broke. As the Duke Ivar and his forces pursued them they were in turn broken by the appearance of the pikes. Finally the entire right northern part of the field degenerated into a disorganised maelstrom of hand to hand fighting as the dismounted knights joined the infantry in the battle.

Meanwhile the rebels left flank had charged the royal right thinking that their greater experience and better equipment would crush the untrained woodsmen from the north. They were met with a hail of crossbow bolts and as they reached their enemies they were both decimated and shaken. The royals then counter-charged and drove the rebels in a rout, back towards their own centre. At this point the rebel right also broke since the pikemen found it impossible to defeat their axe and sword wielding opponents. The rebels were now defeated and to prevent a general collapse of the centre the militia there was ordered to withdraw. As they did the royal centre charged them and they would most likely have been crushed if this charge had consisted of trained troops. As it were the peasants that comprised the royal line couldn’t defend themselves against the light cavalry of the reserve and they broke, fleeing the field in terror. By nightfall neither side had anything that even resembled an organised force and both sides withdrew towards their bases.

In 1409 the country suffered a famine as the harvests were lost to a drought. Because of the primitive organisation of contemporary armies neither side was able to sustain an army in the field and thus no military operations were carried out. Instead there was a lot of political manoeuvring. The war with England had never been formally ended and since the king of England had decided interests in the merchant houses success he decided to recognize the rebels as the rightful rulers of the land. This meant that a large army of English mercenaries, paid for with rebel gold, was assembled and set sail for Västergötland in the early spring of 1410. The royals meanwhile, decided to raise as much of Norway as they could. The duke of Akershus sent a substantial force of archers and infantry and these arrived in April 1410 when the snows in the mountains had melted sufficiently to allow a march.

In early April the English mercenary army landed at Älvsborg in Västergötland and began marching inland to link up with the burghers coming out of Stockholm. The royals were suffering from the lack of loyalty and enthusiasm shown by the peasants and they dared not stray too far from their base.

In July the rebels linked up in Örebro and decided to march their combined force on Mora. In august the two armies met on the shores of Lake Siljan and the royals were soundly defeated. The king and his retinue fled to Mora where they were soon encircled and besieged. After four months the siege ended when the citizens of Mora gave up the keys to the city. The castle was stormed and the king killed. He was the last king of the house of Stenkilsätten and when his reign ended the Kingdom of Sweden was transformed into a republic.
 
The next chapter

Right. That was the saga of the house of Stekilsätten. The history of Sweden continues however. I hope you join me in the EU2 AAR forum later tonight when I tell the story of the beginnings of the Republic of Sweden. I will then also count the votes and announce next weeks choices.

Hope you enjoyed this AAR so far and see you in the Renaissance! :)
 
Great see you in EUII!
 
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