Magnus IV & VII | |
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Magnus on the title page of his Swedish national lawcode, c. 1350.
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King of Sweden | |
Reign | 8 July 1319 – February 1364 |
Coronation | 21 July 1336 (aged 20) |
Predecessor | Birger |
Successor | Albert |
King of Norway | |
Reign | August 1319 – 15 August 1343 |
Predecessor | Haakon V |
Successor | Haakon VI |
Born | April or May 1316 Norway |
Died | 1 December 1374 Bømlafjorden, Norway (shipwreck) |
(aged 58)
Burial | Varnhem Abbey |
Spouse | Blanche of Namur |
Issue |
Eric XII of Sweden Haakon VI of Norway |
House | Bjelbo |
Father | Eric, Duke of Södermanland |
Mother | Ingeborg of Norway |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Magnus IV (April or May 1316 – 1 December 1374; Swedish Magnus Eriksson) was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1364, King of Norway as Magnus VII (including Iceland and Greenland) from 1319 to 1343, and ruler of Scania from 1332 to 1360. By adversaries he has been called Magnus Smek (English: Magnus the Caresser).
Referring to Magnus Eriksson as Magnus II is incorrect. The Swedish Royal Court lists three Swedish kings before him of the same name.
Magnus was born in Norway in April or May 1316 to Eric, Duke of Södermanland and Ingeborg, a daughter of Haakon V of Norway. Magnus was elected king of Sweden on 8 July 1319, and acclaimed as hereditary king of Norway at the thing of the Haugating in Tønsberg in August the same year. Under the regencies of his grandmother, Helwig of Holstein, and his mother, Ingeborg of Norway, the countries were ruled by Knut Jonsson and Erling Vidkunsson.
Magnus was declared to have come of age at 15 in 1331. This provoked resistance in Norway, where a statute from 1302 stipulated that a king came of age at the age of 20, and a rising by Erling Vidkunsson and other Norwegian nobles ensued. In 1333, the rebels submitted to King Magnus.
In 1332 the King of Denmark, Christopher II, died as a "king without a country" after he and his older brother and predecessor had pawned Denmark piece by piece. King Magnus took advantage of his neighbour's distress, redeeming the pawn for the eastern Danish provinces for a huge amount of silver, and thus became ruler also of Skåneland.