Black Death in Sweden

At this point in time, Sweden was in a personal union with Norway under the same monarch, Magnus IV of Sweden. In 1348, the king had conducted a crusade against the Orthodox Russians in the border of Finland, and conducted another in 1350, the year of the plague.[1] Sweden was a nation progressing in many ways: the first national law constitutions, the Magnus Erikssons landslag and the Stadslagen, was introduced during this period.

Since the outbreak of the Black Death in the Crimea, it had reached Sicily by an Italian ship from the Crimea. After having spread across the Italian states, and from Italy to France from France to England, the plague reached Norway by a plague ship from England in the summer of 1349. In the summer of 1350, Sweden was surrounded by plague in Norway to the West and Denmark to the South.[2]

Finland was at this point a part of Sweden and it has sometimes been assumed that the plague was present there in 1351–1352. It is unconfirmed whether the Black Death ever reached Finland, as there are no direct references to its presence there. In 1352, the priests of Turku parish were forbidden to leave their parishes, which may be interpreted as a way to ban them from abandoning their parishioners during the plague, but the reason for this prohibition is not stated.[2] It is noted that Finland also had its "plague legends" about the Black Death, which are similar to those in Sweden.

It has been suggested that the plague never reached Finland because the contacts between Sweden and Finland was disconnected during the Black Death [3] or that it did reach Finland but had less impact, because the low population made it difficult for it to spread.[1] The Black Death did reach neighboring Russia, where it is known to have been present in 1352-1353 before tempering out; but it likely reached Russia by way of the Baltics, where the Black Death was present in 1351–1352 and to where it had migrated from Germany.[1]

No individual is positively identified as a victim of the Black Death in Sweden in 1350–1351. It is commonly assumed that the king's two stepbrothers, the sons of his mother Ingeborg of Norway and stepfather duke Canute Porse the Elder, died from the Black Death, as were many individuals who were noted to have died in 1350 or 1351, but in no case are there any contemporary documents which can verify it.[2]

While the deaths from the Black Death in Sweden is unknown, it was mentioned as a cause to why Sweden had such a low population for centuries, and it is clear that the plague caused a demographic shock, and that the population did not recover until the 17th century.[1]

Prior to the 15th century, very few people in Sweden below the social elite are documented in any large degree. Only the nobility and the priesthood class are sufficiently recorded to make estimations somewhat possible.[2]

It is noted that a disproportional number of the nobility died during the 1350-1351 plague years, particularly among the lower nobility, but less so among the higher levels: twelve of the fifteen members of the Royal Council survived, and of the remaining three who did die during the plague years, two were elderly and may have died of natural causes.[2] The priesthood was the most well documented class from this period in Sweden, and it appears half of the parish priests in Västerås and Strängnäs may have died judging from the fact that about half of them were replaced in the years after the Black Death, but only a quarter of the canons; it is also a fact, that all of the Bishops in Sweden-Finland survived the Black Death.[2] This appears to show that the elite survived better than the lower social levels, as the lower clergy and lower nobility were more severely affected than the higher levels of the same classes.[2]

The fact that the Swedish elite appear to have survived the Black Death is a contrast to neighboring Norway, where more of the elite classes appear to have died of the Black Death, which made Norway more vulnerable and destabilized following the Black Death and may have contributed to the different positions of Norway and Sweden during the Kalmar Union later that century, during which Sweden managed to keep more of its political independence than Norway.[1]

The population loss caused a crisis during which the nobility unsuccessfully attempted to introduce serfdom in the 15th century.[2] This was similar to Denmark, with the exception that in neighboring Denmark the nobility did succeed in introducing serfdom (Vornedskab). The Swedish nobility was however not to be so successful.

The great loss of lives contributed to higher demands from the surviving workers upon the elite, who responded with refusals and attempts at greater repression, which resulted in great social tensions. This was common for many countries after the Black Death. These events are not as documented in Sweden as elsewhere. A donation of a property from Lady Margareta, the widow of Avid of Risnäs, and her son Stefan to the Linköping Cathedral on 13 June 1353, is a rare example of this, as the document clearly states that they had to sell the property for a much lower price than its actual worth:

"...because of the great mortality recently, and the devastation of so many properties, which could hardly be sold for half of its worth because of the rarity of people who can work them."[1]

The higher demands of the workers and peasants and the lower incomes of the nobility caused social tensions that resulted in several local charters such as the Skara Charter of 1414 and the Växjö Charter of 1414, which attempted to introduce serfdom by forcing the tenant farmers to stay on the noble estates with heavy regulations, restricting their rights to move and raising their obligation to work on the noble estates and their taxes to the landlords; in Sweden, however, the power of the nobility and the feudal system was too weak for any serfdom to be successfully introduced, and these laws do not appear to have been effective.[1] During the 15th century, however, several peasant rebellions took place in Sweden and the century is described as one of crisis and social tensions.[1]

In the Engelbrektskrönikan ('Engelbrekt Chronicle') from the 1430s, there were complaints about the heavy taxes imposed by Eric of Pomerania with reference to the Black Death, as the king was criticized for demanding a tax which the country could no longer afford, as the population had decreased by the 'Great Death' since then, which devastated the land so that "where former one hundred farmers were, there are now but twenty".[1]

The Black Death was long remembered in Sweden as a catastrophe and referred to why Sweden had such a small population. For centuries, ruins in the forests were often explained as remains from towns and villages devastated by the "Great Death".[1]

Vadstena Abbey was not yet founded in 1350, but the Bridgettine monk Anders Lydekesson (d. 1410) nevertheless included a description of it in his chronicle from 1403 to 1408, in which he mentioned for the year of 1350:

"At that time a great mortality ravaged the Kingdom of Sweden; no one can recall that there has ever been such an epidemic before nor after."[1]

Bishop Peder Månsson of Västerås noted that many farms belonging to the Bishopric were still deserted because of the Black Death, and Olaus Petri attributed the small population of Sweden to the Black Death and referred to it as the cause to why there were wilderness and forests where there had previously been villages and farms.[1]

There are several local legends of the devastating effects of the plague. A common theme of them was, that in one parish, only one man survived, and in the neighboring parish, only one woman survived; that they found each other after having sounded the church bells, and that they married and became the ancestors of a new village.[1]