erik the holy

Now the king will ride his eriksgata, and the men of the country will follow him and give him hostages, such that he is safe and secure, and swear this oath that was said before. And the king must promise in every country and law that he will keep all his oaths to those he swore in Uppsala when he was first made king – Magnus Eriksson’s Landslag/law of the land, 1350.

Sweden’s current king, Carl XVI Gustaf, has completed what was called Eriksgata, both when he was crowned a few times over the years and now, most recently, in 2023, when he celebrated 50 years on the throne. But for a modern monarch, an Eriksgata is symbolic of showing off to his subjects.

Although there have been those who have protested against the monarchy over the years, they have no say in the matter; it was different in the past.

At that time, an Eriksgata was simply about the king, elected on Mora Meadow, being approved by the parts of the country whose representatives were absent.

We do not know how far back Eriksgatan as a tradition stretches.

The first documented one occurred in 1335 when Magnus Eriksson set out on the journey, but Eriksgatan is mentioned by Saxo Grammaticus as early as 1200. Nor do we know why it is called Eriksgata, but at least two theories have been put forward by historians: one that ”Erik” in some way can be derived from the word ”oath” and that it refers to those who met the king on his journey swore an oath of allegiance to him, as well as the oath the king took to serve his subjects.

The second refers to Erik the Holy, as the journey started from Uppsala, and his remains were already in Magnus Eriksson’s time in Uppsala Cathedral.

In Äldre Västgötalagen from the 13th century, one can read that the Swedes could elect and depose a king. Still, his person would also be identified and confirmed by other landscapes and law sagas, where the latter was not defined as landscape but areas where the same legislation applied.

The medieval Eriksgata passed by Anundshög

Upplandslagen mentions which regions should be visited: Södermanland, Östergötland, Tiohärad (largely Småland, with some deviations), Västergötland, Närke and Västmanland, and the journey would be made clockwise.

Under Eriksgatan, each place the king visited would provide him with hostages to ensure the approaching king and his entourage were not attacked or harmed.

One could think that this was seen as an insult by the affected regions and the law sagas, but in Old Västgötalagen, there is the story of King Ragnvald Knaphövde, who is said to have ridden Eriksgata in the years 1125 – 1126. He refused to take hostages to assure himself of safety, which angered the West Geats to the point that they beat him to death for his audacity in coming to their ting without fear:

• Tiundi war Ragnwaldær • konogær • baldær oc huxstor • reð • a • karllæpitt at vgisllædhu • oc fore þa sæwirðnigh han giorðe allum wæstgøtom • þa fek han skiæmðær døðhæ •

”The tenth* was King Ragnvald. Bold and aggressive rode (he) in Karleby without hostages. And for the deference he did to all the Västgeats, then he got a shameful death.”

In 1544, at the Parliament in Västerås, Gustav Vasa forced Sweden to have a hereditary monarchy instead of an electoral monarchy, and thus, parts of the reason for Eriksgatan disappeared.

The last king to ride Eriksgatan under the old law, without being elected, was Karl IX, who did so in the winter of 1609.

*The segment is from a list of Christian kings in early Medieval Sweden. Ragnvald was the tenth. They often ruled over small areas and were rarely long-lived.

Sources:

Källor:

Äldre Västgötalagen

Magnus Erikssons Landslag

Eriksgatan från medeltid till nutid – Lars G Holmblad

Sveriges Medeltid – Dick Harrison

Sweden has a national saint who is not really a saint. This because the Pope did not want to canonize him. Why is a little unclear, but a letter somewhere in the now thousand-year-old records mentioning a king who fought, drank, and in the end was murdered, and therefore did not deserve this exaltation.

Whether this concerns Erik Jedvardsson – Erik the Holy – is unclear. The Swedish Middle Ages, especially the early Middle Ages, had no shortage of violent kings, who drank and, in the end, were murdered by their opponents.

Erik Jedvardsson was born sometime between 1120 and 1125, the son of the magnate Jedvard – who is sometimes assumed to be an Englishman on uncertain grounds, mainly because how rare the name was in 12th-century Sweden – and his wife Cecilia.

It is difficult to say anything about Erik with certainty, as there is a complete lack of sources about his life that are contemporary with him.

We know, however, that Erik was married to Kristina Björnsdotter, daughter of the Danish prince Björn Haraldsson Ironside and the Swedish princess Katarina Ingesdotter, something that made Kristina a granddaughter of King Inge the Elder.

Together Erik and Kristina had four children: Knut Eriksson, Filip Eriksson, Katarina Eriksdotter and Margareta Eriksdotter.

According to a Danish chronicle from 1158, Erik became king of the western Geats in 1156. According to a letter written during the reign of his son Knut, he was also king of the Svealand region.

He owned Ängsö castle in Västmanland, which still stands where it stands today.

As king, he succeeded Sverker the Elder, who allegedly was murdered by the pretender to the Danish throne, Magnus Henriksson, on December 25, 1156.

According to the Erik legend, King Erik is said to have led a crusade against Finland in the 1150s. This started the colonization of the neighboring country to the east. However, the legend of Erik was written down just over 100 years later, and cannot be taken as absolute fact, not least since it, as a hagiographical text, aims to glorify Erik.

As it happened, Magnus Henriksson also murdered King Erik.

This must have happened on May 18, 1160, in connection with Erik being at a fair in Östra Aros, now Uppsala. The church was surrounded by men led by Magnus Henriksson. Erik, who chose to remain in church and hear the mass to the end despite his men asking him to flee to safety, was cut down as he left the church.

He is said to have been stabbed in the leg so that he could not fight or flee, and then decapitated while lying on the ground.

Where he died, a spring is said to have sprung up, at which miracles then occurred. Thus, the saint legend was born, and Sweden got a national saint Rome did not want.

His remains ended up in a saint’s casket kept in Uppsala Cathedral since 1273.

Magnus Henriksson, who also murdered Erik’s representative Sverker the Elder, later met his death at the Battle of Örebro, where Sverker’s son Knut Sverkersson killed him in 1161, according to “Västgötska kungalängden”, royal documents connected to the region of Västergötland.

During 2014–2015 osteological examinations of the remains were performed.

With the help of carbon-14, it was possible to establish that the man in front of the scientists lived during the same period as Erik. The osteological examinations revealed he most likely died in the way contemporary sources say; from decapitation after being injuried in his legs. The location of the injuries also suggests that he was wearing chain mail.

The scientists could establish that the man lying in the casket had been around 35 years old when he died, that he had been of strong build, that he had lived an active and healthy life and was 171 centimetres tall. The examination also showed that he ate a lot of fish, which is in line with the fact that he must have been a devout Catholic. Along with the remains, there was also a royal crown, the oldest in Sweden.

Sources:

Äldre Västgötalagen (The older Västgöta law)

Svensk Medeltid/The Swedish Middle Ages – Dick Harrison

Erikslegenden/The Erik Legend

National Archives

Images:

Ängsö Slott – Tor Svensson

Other photos – the blog owner

Etikett: erik the holy

Eriksgata, to introduce a King