The First Swedish Crusade was a possibly mythical military expedition in the 1150s to Southwestern Finland by Swedish King Eric IX and English Bishop Henry of

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

. The earliest written sources of the crusade are from the late 13th century. The main sources of the crusade, the legend of Saint Erik and the legend of Saint Henry, describe the crusade as caused by the multiple raids of pagan

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

on Sweden. The crusade has traditionally been seen as the beginning of Swedish rule over Finland and the first attempt of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

to convert Finnish pagans to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. However, the Christianisation of Southwestern Finland is known to have already started in the 10th century, and in the 12th century, the area was probably almost entirely Christian. According to legends, after the crusade, Bishop Henry was killed at Lake Köyliö by Lalli. Henry later became a central figure of the Catholic Church in Finland.

Veracity of the crusade

Academics debate whether this crusade actually took place. No archaeological data gives any support for it, and the earliest written sources are from much later. No surviving written source describes Finland under Swedish rule before the end of the 1240s. Furthermore, the diocese and the bishop of Finland are not listed among their Swedish counterparts before the 1250s. Also, the Christianisation of south-western Finland is known to have already started in the 10th century, and in the 12th century, the area was probably almost entirely Christian. The Swedish bishop who was normally involved in the eastern campaigns was the Bishop of Linköping, not the Bishop of Uppsala. The First Novgorod Chronicle relates that in 1142 a Swedish "prince" and bishop, accompanied by a fleet of 60 ships, plundered just three Novgorodian merchant vessels somewhere "on the other side of the sea".

Timing of the crusade

Almost every year of the 1150s has been suggested as the year that the crusade possibly took place. The most widely-supported years have been 1150, 1155, 1157 and 1158. Other candidates have been 1153, 1154 and 1156. At the time, leading the was the responsibility of the jarl. That gave rise to a theory that Eric had conducted the expedition before he became king or pretender to the throne. Legends give no year for the expedition, but all attempts to date it to an exact year in the 1150s have been much later speculations.

References

{{Catholic Church in Sweden 12th century in Sweden Finland under Swedish rule Northern Crusades Wars involving Sweden Military campaigns involving Sweden

Veracity of the crusade

Timing of the crusade

See also

References