In the late 1300s the crown of Sweden changed hands again and again. Turku Castle, and with it all of Finland, passed to one nobleman, then to his heirs, then to a man who welcomed pirates. In 1397 the three Nordic kingdoms got a single king.
A crown up for grabs
- Father and son. King Magnus Eriksson ruled Sweden. In 1362 his son Haakon was elected king and ruled beside him. That election is the subject of stop 7 Well documented.
- A German king. The great nobles turned against both. On 18 February 1364 they proclaimed Albert of Mecklenburg, Magnus’s own nephew, king at the Mora stones near Uppsala Well documented.
- Who really ruled? Albert needed the nobles who had put him on the throne, and they made him pay with castles and lands. The real power lay with them Likely.
One man owns Finland
- Bo Jonsson Grip was the strongest of those nobles. As a reward he gained the Finnish fiefs, and by 1374 he held all of Finland Well documented.
- Commander of Turku. From 1375 Bo Jonsson was himself commander of Turku Castle Well documented. He became the largest landowner Sweden and Finland have ever had.
- The will. Bo Jonsson died on 20 August 1386. His will left his huge lands to a group of executors. Their quarrel with King Albert over the inheritance pushed them towards Margaret, queen of Denmark and Norway Likely.
Margaret, Stockholm and the pirates
- Albert loses. In February 1389 Margaret’s side defeated and captured Albert at the battle of Åsle. Most of Sweden accepted her, but Albert’s German supporters held on to Stockholm Well documented.
- Food for Stockholm. In 1392 the dukes of Mecklenburg hired sea captains to bring supplies into the besieged city. They became the Victual Brothers, and soon pirates (see the next topic) Well documented.
- Turku in the middle. Knut Bosson, Bo Jonsson’s son, commanded Turku Castle from 1395 to 1398. He sided with the Mecklenburgers, and the Victual Brothers operated from the Turku archipelago Likely.
- The end of it. In 1398 the Teutonic Knights drove the pirates from Gotland, and in September the Hanseatic towns handed Stockholm over to Margaret. In 1399 Turku Castle passed to the union monarchs Well documented.
The Kalmar Union
- Coronation. On 17 June 1397 Margaret’s great-nephew and adopted son, Eric of Pomerania, was crowned at Kalmar as king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Finland, as part of Sweden, came with it Well documented.
- The real ruler. Eric was a teenager. Margaret held the power until her death in 1412 Well documented.
- A letter never finished? A letter setting out the rules of the union, dated 20 July 1397, survives. But it seems never to have been properly approved, and historians still argue about what it was meant to be Debated.
- How long? The union lasted, with breaks and wars, until 1523, when Gustav Vasa became king of an independent Sweden Well documented.
How do we know?
Most of what we know comes from letters and charters of kings and nobles, and from chronicles written in the Hanseatic towns. The list of Turku’s castle commanders has been pieced together from such documents, so some of its years are only approximate. Whether the pirates actually lived in the castle, no document tells us.