Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (1390?-1436) was a Swedish national hero who led a successful rebellion from 1434 to 1436. In 1435, he called what is traditionally considered the first meeting of Sweden’s Riksdag, or parliament.
Engelbrekt was probably a mine owner descended from German miners who had come to central Sweden in the 1300’s. He twice took complaints about taxes and harsh royal officials to King Erik in Copenhagen, Denmark. Erik, known as Erik of Pomerania because he was originally from the German duchy of Pomerania, ruled Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, in what became known as the Union of Kalmar. The union, created in 1397, united the kingdoms under one monarch but preserved each country’s separate council and laws. Erik’s wars to gain even more land required heavy taxes and resulted in a blockade by foreign enemies that kept Swedish miners from selling their iron and copper abroad. Swedes also resented the many Danish and German officials the king appointed to posts in Sweden. But Swedish protests, such as those by Engelbrekt, produced little royal assistance.
In 1434, Engelbrekt raised an army of miners and peasants that forced the Swedish council to declare Erik deposed in Sweden. In January 1435, members of the clergy, nobility, and common people met at Arboga, near Köping, in what is usually considered the first gathering of a Swedish parliament. They gave Engelbrekt the title “Commander in Sweden.” King Erik negotiated a settlement with Sweden in 1435 but delayed carrying it out. Engelbrekt renewed the rebellion in January 1436. In May, he was murdered by the son of a personal enemy.
Engelbrekt had fought for the common people and for freedom from oppressive officials and taxes. After his death, Swedish nobles used his movement to gain greater power for themselves at the expense of the monarch. Sweden finally broke from the Union of Kalmar in 1523. Engelbrekt became a national symbol of the independence of Sweden from foreign rule.
See also Erik of Pomerania; Kalmar, Union of.
