is, that, he was the first king in Sweden who was crowned (1210). He died a natural death in 1216.
Erik XI., Eriksson, son of the preceding, and born after his father's death, was elected king in 1222, in his seventh year. He both lisped and was lame, but with these defects he was wise and prudent. During his minority the powerful family of the Folkungar held the reins of government, and afterwards rebelled against him, making in 1229 Knut, one of their relatives, king. Five years afterwards Erik returning from Denmark, whither he had fled with an army, a battle was fought in 1234 at Sparrsätra, where Knut was slain, though peace was not restored till Holmgeir, his son, was taken prisoner. The priests during this reign were forbidden to marry, and the pope claimed the right of nominating bishops. This king died, as was believed, by poison, in 1250, and the Erik dynasty, in the male line, expired in him; but from his sister Martha are descended the noble families of Sparre and Oxenstjerna.
Erik XII., eldest son of Magnus Smek, king of Sweden, and Blanch of Namur. Owing to his father's misgovernment, the power and privileges which he had heaped upon an unworthy favourite, and the evil lives of himself and his ambitious queen, Prince Erik was nominated at Skenninge in 1342, and received homage as his father's successor and co-regent. Erik, though young, endeavoured to fulfil the wishes of the nation, and drove the favourite Bengt Algotsson from the kingdom. He was twice in arms against his father; but peace being established between them in 1359, Queen Blanch invited him and his young queen to spend the Christmas with her, when he, his wife, and child, all died suddenly, some said of the plague, which had ravaged Sweden the preceding year; but Erik himself declared on his death-bed of poison given by his mother.
Erik XIII., commonly called Erik of Pomerania, king of the three northern kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, was son of Duke Wratislav of Pomerania and Marie of Mecklenburg, and nephew of Queen Margaret, who had united the three kingdoms. He was born about 1382. After the death of her son, King Oluf, Queen Margaret already, in 1389, appointed Erik her successor in Norway, taking upon herself the charge of his education. In 1396 he was elected king of Denmark and Sweden, and on Trinity Sunday, June 17th, of the following year, crowned by the archbishop. In 1412 Queen Margaret died of the plague, and King Erik began his reign, having two years before married Philippa, daughter of Henry IV. of England. A few good enactments marked the commencement of his reign, but his incapacity and capricious and tyrannical government soon alienated the affections of his Swedish subjects, who saw the Danes favoured and advanced at their expense; whilst, also, they and the people of Norway were burdened with heavy taxes, on account of his wars with the dukes of Holstein and the Hanseatic towns. These taxes, pressing heavily on the peasantry and the poorer classes of the nobility, roused a spirit of disaffection, the king not only turning a deaf ear to all the remonstrances of his people, but placing over them land-stewards, who treated them with the utmost cruelty. King Erik was also singularly unfortunate. The plague ravaged his dominions for some years; Stockholm was nearly burned down by lightning, and many hundred lives were lost in consequence; storms pursued him by sea; he suffered shipwreck; and when on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, was taken prisoner by the Turks, and only ransomed at great cost. During his absence from the kingdom, his queen carried on the war, and ruled with wisdom and justice; but on his return he treated her with great severity, and she soon afterwards died broken-hearted. Owing to the oppressions and misgovernment of his reign, the brave Dalmen or Dalicarlians rose in open revolt, headed by Engelbrecht Engelbrechtsson (see Engelbrechtsson). But nothing could teach Erik wisdom. His misgovernment even in Denmark alienated that people, and the two nations united to dethrone him. Erik fled with the archives and treasures of the kingdom, accompanied by his mistress, to the island of Gothland, when the offended Danes elected Duke Christopher of Bavaria, the son of his sister, for their king. The Swedes also withdrew their allegiance in 1439. Erik made no attempt to regain his kingdoms, and after a long life of indolence and dishonour in the island of Gothland, died in 1459.
Erik XIV., King of Sweden, eldest son of Gustavus Wasa, was born in Stockholm, December 13, 1535, and ascended the throne in 1560. Gifted by nature with great abilities, well educated, eloquent and handsome, a lover and promoter of the fine arts, Erik commenced his reign by many excellent ordinances. He opened high-roads through the country, and the first regular highway inns were founded by him. He established in Stockholm a superior justiciary court; he founded armouries and docks and powder-mills for his army and navy; and by the creation of the dignity of count and baron, he gave to Sweden a higher order of nobility. But the suspicious disposition and violent temper, amounting almost to madness, in which he indulged, and which strengthened as he advanced in years, led him to many acts of cruelty of which he afterwards bitterly repented, and, together with his superstition and astrological tendency, betrayed him into actions which cost him both his crown and his life. His confidence in the chancellor, Göran Person, made him hated by the nobles, and his unfortunate war with Denmark, by his people. At length his brothers, John (whom he had twice imprisoned) and Charles, conspired against him, and in 1568 possessed themselves of Stockholm. John ascended the throne, and the unfortunate Erik was, in his turn, imprisoned. He suffered a cruel captivity, and finally died by poison in 1577. The judgment passed upon him by posterity has undergone great change. His immediate successors regarded him as a bloody tyrant. Gustav III. honoured him as a martyr, and erected over his tomb a magnificent monument in the cathedral of Wistcräs, removing the crown and sceptre from John's tomb in Upsala and placing them on his. Fryxell and Giejer have done justice to both. Amongst his other peculiarities, Erik was a general lover of the queens and princesses of his time. He was a suitor of our Queen Elizabeth, of Mary Queen of Scots, and a princess of Hesse, and, singularly enough, carried on two, if not all three of these love-suits at the same time. In the heart of the people, however, he lives as the faithful lover and husband of Catherine, or Karin Mänsdotter, the daughter of a corporal, and raised by him to be queen. The story of Erik and Karin Mänsdotter is a strange and melancholy romance, and is enshrined in the ballads and legends of their country. Erik was also a good poet, and his ballad to Karin, with its "thousand good nights," will live as long as the ballad poetry of his country. He also wrote hymns during his imprisonment, two of which are included in the Swedish national hymn-book; one of these, a most touching, heart-felt confession of penitence and faith in God, is appointed to be sung in Sweden as a penitentiary hymn at the execution of criminals.
Erik, Oric, or Horic, father and son, kings of Jylland in the heathen period. Erik the Old, and Erik the Young, lived about the middle of the ninth century, contemporary with Angarius, the apostle of the north, and known by their connection with him. By him, under the countenance of the king, the first christian church was founded in Hedeby or Sleswig. Erik gave him a letter of recommendation to King Oluf of Sweden, and whilst he was absent on this mission Erik was slain. Erik the Young, though at first persuaded to close the church, soon became friendly to the cause; the church was opened, a bell placed in it to summon the people to worship, and soon after a second church was built at Ribe. He also sent presents to Pope Nicolas I., and received a written acknowledgment with thanks, the first letter ever written by a pope to a Danish king.
Erik Eigod, or the Benign, King of Denmark from 1095 to 1103, son of Svend Estridson, and the fourth of five brothers, all of whom reigned in succession. Erik Eigod was an excellent king, and a friend of christianity, and the country flourished under him. He possessed great advantages both of body and mind, was eloquent at the Thing, and kind and just to all men, so that he obtained the beautiful surname which distinguishes him in history. In the year 1098 he undertook a journey to Rome, for the double purpose of having his murdered brother canonized, and to obtain for his country the right of choosing its own archbishop, both of which he accomplished. In the spring of 1103 he set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his wife, Queen Bothilde, and his eldest son. On their way they visited the Emperor Alexis Comnenus, but he never reached the Holy City, for he died of the plague at Cyprus, 10th July, 1103. His queen died a few months afterwards.
Erik, Emun, natural son of the foregoing, began his reign in 1134. He was of a cruel and ferocious character, the very opposite of his father. His reign, which lasted but three years, was a series of bloodshed, and he himself was murdered, 18th September, 1137, by a gentleman of Jutland, whose father had
