Battle of Gestilren

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The Battle of Gestilren took place on July 17, 1210. The battle was fought between the exiled King of Sweden Sverker and the ruling King Eric X. Sverker had been beaten in the previous Battle of Lena, but returned with new forces. Sverker was however killed in the battle. The exact strength of the armies is unknown.

Sverker II had grown up in exile in Denmark and was accepted as king in 1195/96, to the detriment of the four sons of the previous King Canute I. He pursued a policy of strengthening the clerical estate, but ran into difficulties after twelve years of reign. The sole surviving son of Canute, Eric, was backed by the Birkebeiner party of Norway and ousted Sverker in 1207-08. Sverker sought assistance from King Valdemar the Victorious of Denmark and his powerful Danish in-laws. With a strong army he entered Västergötland in early 1208 but suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Lena. A very large part of the Danish army fell on the battlefield. Among the few survivors was Sverker himself who returned to Denmark. A later folksong emphasizes his determination and fatalism in the face of the disaster:

Pope Innocent III, impressed by Sverker's pro-papal policy, ordered Eric to settle the conflict with Sverker, or else take serious consequences. However, his admonitions did not have the desired effect. A new expedition was therefore equipped in Denmark in order to recapture the Swedish throne.

In the summer of 1210, Sverker once again invaded the Swedish kingdom where Eric had meanwhile adopted royal titles. The army came to a place called Gestilren where it was confronted by Eric's troops on 17 July (alternatively, 16 August). The available details about the battle are utterly meagre. The short chronicle of the Westrogothic law says that "the Folkungs took his life; his own brother-in-law did it to him in Gestilren". An annal entry informs us of "warfare in Gestilren, on the 16th of August; there fell King Sverker and Folke Jarl, and many Folkungs." Thus the Swedish troops scored a victory in spite of great losses where one of their commanders, Folke Jarl, was slain. With the dramatic fall of Sverker, the war that had plagued Sweden for two and a half years came to an end, and peace was quickly concluded with Denmark. The banner that King Eric used in the battle was later bequeathed to Folke Jarl's nephew Eskil Magnusson, the lawspeaker of Västergötland, and bestowed on the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson in 1219.

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