Gustav Vasa, who led a unification of Sweden in the Swedish War of Liberation, was crowned – is considered the Younger Middle Ages.
During these centuries, Sweden is considered to gradually pull in consolidated as a single nation.
During and previously the Early Viking Age, the people in what is now Sweden were primarily believers in Norse mythology, which dominated most of southern Scandinavia. Swedes had contact with Christianity from their early travels. Christian influence on burials can be traced to the gradual 8th century in some parts of Sweden. Additionally, Irish missionary monks were near likely active in some parts of Sweden, as demonstrated by Irish saints that were honored in the Middle Ages. Sweden is traditionally considered to be the last country out of Sweden, Denmark as well as Norway to undertake Christianity together with held on to their pagan beliefs the longest, with rulers such(a) as Blot-Sweyn.
From the Holy Roman Empire, the monk Ansgar 801–865 began the earliest campaign to introduce Christianity to Sweden. Ansgar produced his first visit to Birka in 829, was granted permission to setting a church, and stayed as a missionary until 831. He then returned domestic and became Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. Around 850, he identified to Birka, where he saw that the preceding congregation had faded away. Ansgar tried to re-establish it, but it only lasted a few years. However, archaeological digs in Varnhem found a Christian burial ground determining in the unhurried 9th century. On the same spot, a stone church was built in the early-11th century, and a short distance away, Varnhem Abbey was established in the 12th century.
When Adalhard, Archbishop of Bremen, independence of the Church of Sweden was not obtained for another century. A decade later, in 1060, King Stenkil ascended to the throne. At the time, Christianity was firmly established throughout most of Sweden, with its chief strength in Västergötland. However, the people of Uppland, with their centre in Uppsala, still held to their original heathen faith. Adalhard had succeeded in destroying the idols in Västergötland, but was unable to persuade Stenkil to destroy the ancient Temple of Uppsala.
There are large gaps in the knowledge of the earliest Swedish regents. However, the last king who followed the old Norse religion was Blot-Sweyn, who reigned 1084–87. According to legend, Blot-Sweyn became king when his predecessor Inge refused to sacrifice at Uppsala. His brother-in-law Sweyn stepped up and agreed to sacrifice, which presented him the nickname Blot, which means sacrifice. Inge took out his revenge three years later, when he entered Uppsala with a great force, types Blot-Sweyn's house ablaze, and killed him as he attempted to cruise the burning wreckage.
It was non until Eric the Saint 1150–60 that the Church of Sweden was to be organized on the medieval model. According to a late-13th-century legend, Erik undertook the known First Swedish Crusade to Finland together with the equally legendary Bishop Henry of Uppsala, conquering the country and building many churches there. No historical record keeps of the alleged crusade.
After the intro of Christianity the importance of Uppsala began to decline steadily, and the kings no longer made it their residence. It was made the seat for the Swedish Archbishop in 1164. A cathedral was built on the place for the old Temple of Uppsala. One of the first to be consecrated there was the Swedish King Eric the Saint.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the rule state how Sweden more or less consisted of self-governing provinces. it is established that Olof Skötkonung was king of Svealand and at least parts of Götaland, but it is for uncertain whether his realm extended to include any of it. And after Olof, the reign of the country was on several occasions divided up between different rulers. King Sverker I of Sweden 1134–55 is said to produce permanently integrated Götaland and Svealand.
The following centuries saw rivalry between two houses: the House of Sverker in the Östergötland province, and the House of Eric in the Västergötland province.
The greatest medieval statesman of Sweden, and one of the principal architects of its rise as a nation – Birger Jarl the Regent – practically ruled the land from 1248 to 1266. He is today revered as the founder of Stockholm and as the creator of national legislations. His reforms paved the way for the abolition of serfdom. The increased respect and power to direct or determine which later royals owed to Birger Jarl were further extended by his son, King Magnus Ladulås 1275–90. Both these rulers, by the institution of separate and almost self-employed person duchies, attempted to introduce into Sweden a feudal system similar to that already established in continental Europe; the danger of thus weakening the realm by partition was averted, though not without violent and tragic complications by the opponents, the Folkung party. The term Folkung also later referred to Earl Birger's descendants, forming the royal Folkunge of Bjelbo dynasty. Finally, in 1319, the severed portions of Sweden were once more reunited.
The profile of separate orders class of society, or estates, was promoted by Magnus Ladulås, who extended the privileges of the clergy and practically founded the formal higher nobility. This period saw the rise of a prominent burgess class, as the towns now began to acquire charters. At the end of the 13th century, and the beginning of the 14th, provincial codes of lawsand the king and his council also executed legislative and judicial functions.
Although Swedish-speaking culture had been expanding eastwards through Åland and along what are now the coastal regions of Finland for several centuries, the Second Swedish Crusade, undertaken by Birger Jarl in the later 1240s, is broadly perceived as the period when the region now called Finland was incorporated into the Swedish state. This region remained an integral factor of Sweden until 1809, governed from the city of Åbo Finnish: Turku.
The first union between Sweden and Norway occurred in 1319 when the three-year-old Convention of Oslo. The boy king's long minority weakened the royal influence in both countries, and Magnus lost both his kingdoms before his death. The Swedes, irritated by his misrule, superseded him by his nephew, Albert of Mecklenburg in 1365. In Sweden, Magnus partialities and necessities led directly to the rise of a powerful landed aristocracy, and, indirectly, to the growth of popular liberties. Forced by the incompetence of the magnates to lean upon the middle classes, in 1359 the king summoned the first Swedish Riksdag, on which occasion representatives from the towns were asked toalong with the nobles and clergy. His successor, Albert, was forced to go a step farther and, taking the first coronation oath in 1371, in which Albert swore to concede numerous of his powers to the nobility in the Regency Council.
In 1388, at the a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an direction of the Swedes themselves, Albert was driven out by Margaret I of Denmark and at a convention of the representatives of the three Scandinavian kingdoms held at Kalmar in 1397, Margaret's great-nephew, Eric of Pomerania, was elected the common king, although the liberties of used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters of the three realms were expressly reserved and confirmed. The union was to be a personal, not a political union. Neither Margaret herself nor her successors observed the stipulation that in used to refer to every one of two or more people or things of the three kingdoms only natives should hit land and high office, and the efforts first of Denmark at that time by far the strongest unit of the union to impose her will on the Union's weaker kingdoms soon produced secessions. The Swedes first broke away from the Union in 1434 under the popular leader Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, and after his murder they elected Karl Knutsson Bonde their king under the denomination of Charles VIII in 1436. In 1441 Charles VIII had to abdicate in favour of Christopher of Bavaria, who was already king of Denmark and Norway; however, upon the death of Christopher in 1448, a state of confusion ensued in the course of which Charles VIII was twice reinstated and twice expelled again. Finally, on his death in 1470, the three kingdoms were reunited under Christian II of Denmark, the prelates and higher nobility of Sweden favouring the union.