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Europe · The early medieval west
Kingdom of Sweden
drawn on the map AD 980–1401, 1502–1520, 1526–1611, 1905–present
Swedish Konungariket Sverige. Medieval Sweden coalesced under figures such as Birger Jarl (founder of Stockholm, mid-13th century).
- Shown on the map
- AD 980–1401, 1502–1520, 1526–1611, 1905–present (4 periods)
- Peak area
- 745k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
Swedish Konungariket Sverige. Medieval Sweden coalesced under figures such as Birger Jarl (founder of Stockholm, mid-13th century). Sweden joined the Kalmar Union (1397) but chafed under Danish dominance. The Stockholm Bloodbath (8–10 November 1520), Christian II's mass execution of Swedish nobles, provoked the revolt of Gustav Vasa, elected king on 6 June 1523, ending the union and founding the Vasa dynasty; Gustav made the monarchy hereditary and led the Swedish Reformation. Under Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II Adolf), Sweden became a great power: his intervention in the Thirty Years' War and victory at Breitenfeld (17 September 1631) secured Protestantism in Germany, though he fell at Lützen (1632). The Swedish Empire peaked before Charles XII's defeat at Poltava (8 July 1709) in the Great Northern War broke Swedish supremacy (concluded 1721). Sweden lost Finland to Russia in 1809, then adopted a new constitution and, in 1810, the French marshal Bernadotte as crown prince—founder of the Bernadotte dynasty (from 1818, Charles XIV John), which reigns still; Sweden acquired Norway in 1814 (union to 1905).
Common questions
- What was the Kingdom of Sweden?
- Swedish Konungariket Sverige. Medieval Sweden coalesced under figures such as Birger Jarl (founder of Stockholm, mid-13th century).
- When is the Kingdom of Sweden shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Kingdom of Sweden AD 980–1401, 1502–1520, 1526–1611, 1905–present, in 4 separate periods. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Kingdom of Sweden?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Sweden covered about 745,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, German History in Documents and Images, national institutions such as the Swiss Federal Council and the National Museum of Denmark, and the scholarship of Peter H. Wilson and Joachim Whaley on the Holy Roman Empire. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Sweden en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden
This entry was last updated .
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
Further reading in Knowledge
- People · Tsardom of Russia False Dmitry I: The Pretender Who Became Tsar Who was False Dmitry I? How a runaway monk claimed to be Ivan the Terrible's dead son, took Moscow in 1605, married Marina Mniszech and was killed in 1606.
- People · Tsardom of Russia Boris Godunov: The Real Tsar Behind Pushkin and Mussorgsky Boris Godunov ruled Russia as regent and tsar from 1585 to 1605. Did he murder Tsarevich Dmitry? And how did Karamzin, Pushkin and Mussorgsky make his legend?
- War & Warriors · Tsardom of Russia The Time of Troubles (1598–1613): Famine, Pretenders and the Poles in the Kremlin Russia's Time of Troubles, 1598–1613: the great famine, three False Dmitrys, the Poles in the Kremlin, Minin and Pozharsky and the first Romanov tsar.
- Sources & Evidence · Tsardom of Russia Ivan the Terrible and His Son: Repin's Painting and the Death of 1581 Repin's 1885 painting of Ivan the Terrible holding his dying son was banned, slashed in 1913 and attacked in 2018. What happened in November 1581?
- Trade & Travel · Novgorod Republic Sadko: The Novgorod Merchant Between Chronicle and Legend Sadko, the gusli-player who became Novgorod's richest merchant: what the bylina tells, what the chronicle says about a real Sotko, and Novgorod's trade.
- War & Warriors · Teutonic Order The Battle on the Ice (1242): What Really Happened on Lake Peipus The Battle on the Ice of 5 April 1242 in the sources: who fought, how many died, where it happened, and how the drowning knights entered the story.
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