_Albrecht_ was the rightful king of Sweden. At the death of Eric he became heir-apparent to the Swedish throne, but for having sped on the course of events in his own interest, neither he nor his father acquired any popularity. They surrounded themselves by a great number of Germans, who, through their licentiousness and overbearing manner, enraged the people. The country was practically in the hands of a few Swedish nobles, among whom the drotsete, Bo Jonsson Grip, through his high office and his immense wealth, bore the supremacy. Bo Jonsson is said to have been the wealthiest man who ever lived in the North, his possessions, fiefs and castles being of an astounding number, the most famous among the latter being Gripsholm in the Lake Mælar. He loaned money to the king against new castles and fiefs in security, and held Albrecht in the most humiliating relation of dependence. His enemies he persecuted without mercy, killing one before the high altar in the Franciscan church of Stockholm. When Bo Jonsson died, in 1386, the king tried to better conditions by confiscating to the crown some of his possessions. But he met with opposition from the nobles, who claimed that he did so only to enrich his German favorites. The king was helpless against his councillors, to whom he had handed over all his power. They were in possession of all the fortified castles, and if one of them died, the king had no right to select a successor without their permission. The executors of Bo Jonsson’s will ended by offering the crown to Margaret, Valdemar’s daughter, and queen-dowager of Norway. She accepted, promising the nobles that they should remain in undisturbed enjoyment of their great privileges. Margaret sent an army into West Gothland, consisting of men from all three of the Scandinavian countries, under the command of the Swede, Eric Kettilsson. King Albrecht met with an army to a great extent composed of German troops, and was defeated and made a prisoner at Falkœping, February 24, 1389. Albrecht was imprisoned at Lindholm, in Scania, for seven years, later returning to Mecklenburg.
To the Folkung period belongs one of the most remarkable and renowned of Swedish women, herself, on her mother’s side, a Folkung, _St. Birgitta_, the daughter of the legislator and first justice of Upland, Birger Persson. Her parents were both pious and devoted to ascetic practices. As a child she had visions, the holy Mary appearing to her. When thirteen years of age she was married to Ulf Gumundsson, later justice of Nerike, also a pious man, with whom she made a pilgrimage to Spain. Birgitta lost her husband shortly afterward. At the Swedish court, where she was the highest functionary of Queen Blanche, she had seen political life at close range, gathering a deep and strong indignation against the mighty and powerful in the world. Her husband’s death moved her deeply, and the religious mysticism of her youth now burst forth with increased strength, her visions becoming numerous and important. That she believed in them herself there is no doubt, and she made the world believe her. At first she hurled admonitions and curses against King Magnus and his court; but the wretchedness of the whole world attracted her to its spiritual centre, Rome, where she lived for twenty-three years in continual and open protest against the vices of the popes and priests. She died in Rome, in 1373, at the age of seventy, after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, seeing the two great ambitions of her life fulfilled: the pope returning to Rome from Avignon, and her creation, the order of St. Salvator, sanctioned by the pope. Birgitta was canonized by the pope in 1391, through the influence of Queen Margaret.