page_title: Black Death in Sweden
section_title: Plague migration
hierarchical_section_title: Black Death in Sweden / Plague migration
caption_attribution_description: English: King Magnus Eriksson IV of Sweden, VII of Norway, on the title page of his Swedish national law (Magnus Erikssons landslag)
context_page_description: The Black Death was present in Sweden between 1350 and 1351. It was a major catastrophe which was said to have killed a third of the population, and Sweden was not to recover fully for three hundred years.
  The Black Death in Sweden is only mentioned directly in few contemporary documents; in a letter from the king, in a sermon by Saint Bridget of Sweden, in a letter from the city council in Visby to their colleagues in Lübeck, and in a letter from the Pope, replying to a letter from the Swedish king. There is, however, indirect contemporary information, as well as later descriptions of it.
context_section_description: The bubonic plague pandemic known as the Black Death reached Western Sweden from Norway in the late summer or autumn of 1350, and appears to have reached Central Sweden from Gotland during the spring and summer of the same year.
  The progress of the Black Death in Sweden is not directly described in contemporary sources, but it can be traced by indirect documentation such as wills and donations to the church, and by tracing the residence of the king, who continually moved from away from the plague to places where it had not yet arrived, or from where it had already passed.
  In 1349, king Magnus of Sweden and Norway issued a warning about the plague to his Swedish subjects. While the letter is not dated, it was likely written in Lödöse in September 1349, judging from the known place of residence and other letters issued by the king which has been dated. In the letter, it is clear that the plague had not reached Sweden and that the king issued a royal proclamation of public penance, in an attempt to soften the wrath of God to prevent the Black Death in Norway from reaching Sweden:
  "We proclaim to You, that we have been given tidings that are truly frightening, and of which every Christian should justly fear; that God has because of the Sins of Man cast a great misery upon the entire world, that of hasty evil death, so that most of the people who lived in the lands West of our land are now dead of that misery and it is now present in all of Norway and Halland and are progressing toward us, so that everywhere in those lands it is so strong that people [with no prior illness] falls down and dies, when a moment ago they were healthy [...]; and where ever it progresses not enough people are left who can bury those that die. Now We fear, because of the great love and care we have for you that, because of the Sins of Man, the same misery and death should come over our own subjects."
  In order to prevent the plague from reaching Sweden, the king issued several commands. In Europe, the plague was commonly believed to be a punishment from God for the Sins of humanity. Therefore, the commands of the king was of religious nature and designed to lessen the wrath of God. In the public royal letter, which was circulated to the Bishops of the Kingdom, all Swedes regardless of class, age or gender were commanded to regularly attend mass, give alms to the poor, confess and do penance, fast on water and bread every Friday and give what they could to the Virgin Mary, the church and the king.
  The Black Death first appeared in Sweden in the big port city of Visby on Gotland, likely by ship from Denmark or Germany, where it was present in May or at the latest July 1350. In July 1350, nine people was burned in Visby after having confessed under torture that they had caused the plague by poisoning. Two of them were priests who confessed that they had poisoned the mass cloth (which the parishioners kissed during mass) with plague during Whit Monday mass in May, and the other seven were men employed by the church who confessed to having poisoned wells and lakes in Stockholm, Västerås and Arboga and across the Swedish countryside. This case was described in a letter from July 1350 to the city council of Rostock in Germany received a letter from the city council of Visby in Sweden.
  In June 1350, the king was in Bergen in Norway, where the plague had died out by that time: he continued to Stockholm in August, but immediately left for Åland when the plague reached Stockholm the same month, and continued from Åland to Reval, where he stayed from December 1350 to May 1351, when he finally returned to Stockholm after the Black Death had begun to subside in Sweden.
  The Black Death appears to have first reached Gotland by sea in the spring or early summer of 1350, and spread across Eastern and Central Sweden during the summer and autumn: from Småland and Östergötland to Närke and Uppland between August and December 1350, with a presence in Stockholm and Uppsala in August. The progress of the plague in Western and Northern Sweden is not as clearly visible. I Sep
caption: Magnus IV of Sweden.
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