He was a young man. Thus, he was probably born in the late 30s of the 7th century. Nothing is known about Wulfhere's childhood. He had two brothers, Peda and Ethelred, and two sisters, Kyneburga and Kyneswitha; it is also possible that Merewalch, king of Magonset, was Wulfhere's brother.
After the death of Penda's father and Peda's brother, all of Mercia came under the control of King Oswiu of Northumbria. However, around the end of 658, three Mercian nobles, Edbert, Epha, and Immin, ousted the governors of Oswiu and proclaimed Wulfhere king. Apparently, Oswiu was busy fighting the Picts in northern Britain, and therefore was unable to put down the Mercian uprising.
Unlike his father, Wulfhere was a Christian, but it is not known when and under what circumstances he was baptized. Perhaps this was one of the conditions for his reconciliation with Oswiu.
Under him, the first bishop, Trumher, appeared in Mercia, but the most famous church figures of his era are the bishops Jaruman, Chad and Wilfrid of York. Wulfhere continued to help the monastery at Medshamsted founded by Peda. He received Bishop Vigne, who had been expelled from Wessex, and helped him to take the see in London.
In 660 Wulfhere married Ermenhilde, daughter of Erconbert of Kent. This marriage was supposed to bring the two kingdoms closer together politically and economically and may also have been an important factor in the conversion of Wulfhere and his people to Christianity. Subsequently, Wulfhere supported his nephew Eadric against Hlothher in the struggle for the Kentish throne.
Wulfhere's relationship with Bishop Wilfrid is recorded in Eddius' Life of Wilfrid. During the years 667-669, while Wilfrid was living in Ripon, Wulfhere often invited him to Mercia when he needed the services of a bishop. According to Eddius, Wulfhere rewarded Wilfrid with "many allotments of land", on which Wilfrid "soon founded churches for the servants of God".
Under his reign, the abbey at Medeshamstead (in present-day Peterborough), founded by his brother Peda, became very prosperous. The king was very attached to him and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, spared neither silver, nor gold, nor lands on him. The monastery was completed in 664, in the seventh year of the reign of King Wulfhere, and solemnly consecrated. In addition to Wulfhere, King Oswiu of Northumbria, the kings of Essex Sigeher and Sebbi, the brother of King Ethelred, his sisters Kyneburga and Kyneswitha, as well as Archbishop Deusdedit, Bishop Jaruman of Mercia and many other church leaders of that era witnessed donations of land to the monastery.
Wulfhere pursued an active aggressive policy towards its neighbors. In 661 he defeated Cenwalch and captured Wessex as far as the valley of Meon. The West Saxons were forced to move their capital from Dorchester south to Winchester. About 665 Wulfhere subjugated Sussex and restored Christianity there. Wulfhere became the godfather of Ethelwalch of Sussex, helped him capture the Isle of Wight and sent the priest Eoppa there to preach Christianity. Wulfhere was no less active in the west. He brought Hvikke under his influence, as well as Rokenset and Magonset, which were formed on the site of the former British kingdom of Pengvern. Some of the subject kingdoms were ruled by relatives of Wulfhere, such as Frithuvold in Surrey and Merewalch in Magonset. Thus, Wulfhere became the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king, although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not include him among the Bretwalds.
Bede the Venerable does not list him among the rulers who exercised absolute power, but modern historians believe that the rise of the kingdom of Mercia began in his reign. He seems to have been effective overlord of Britain south of the Humber from the early 660s, although he was not overlord of Northumbria like his father. Although Bede does not mention Wulfhere in his list of High Kings, he no doubt wielded considerable power in Southern England. When he invaded Northumbria, his troops included troops from almost all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
A document called Tribal Hidage (Tribal Hidage) may date from the reign of Wulfhere. Compiled before many small peoples were absorbed into large kingdoms such as Mercia, this is a record of the peoples of Anglo-Saxon England, along with property valuations, including land. Since this document was apparently created after literacy was established in the area along with the Christian clergy, the Tribal Hidage was probably created in the middle or late seventh century. But so far the document is not exactly dated. Some scholars believe that the document appeared during the reign of either Offa of Mercia (757-796), or Edwin the Holy King of Northumbria (585-633), or Oswiu of Northumbria (612-670).
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 661, Wulfhere is recorded as having ravaged Eskesdun by the exhausting Ashdown, in West Saxon territory. The Gewisse, thought to be the original group from which the West Saxons descended, seem to have originally settled in the upper Thames valley, and that records survive into the sixth century show them active in that area. The Mercian surge under Wulfhere placed them under serious pressure. Also in the early 660s, West Saxon see Dorchester, in the same area was divided, and a new diocese set up in Winchester. This decision was probably a reaction to the Mercians' advance into the traditional center of the West Saxons, leaving Dorchester dangerously close to the border. Within a few years sees the Dorchester was abandoned; the exact date is not known, but it was probably in the mid 660s. In addition to attacking Ashdown, Wulfhere raided the Isle of Wight in 661. He subsequently gave both the island and the territory of Meonware, which run the full length of the river Meon, on the mainland north of the Isle of Wight, to his godson King Thelwealh of the South Saxons. It seems likely that the ruling dynasty on the island found these measures acceptable to some extent, since the West Saxons, under Cædwalla, massacred the entire family when they went on their own offensive on the island in 686. After conquering the Isle of Wight, Wulfhere ordered that the priest Eoppa provided baptism to the residents. According to the Chronicle, this was the first time a Christian's baptism reached the island. In the early 670s the Cenwealh King of Wessex died, and perhaps as a result of the stress caused by Wulfhere's military activity the fragmented West Saxon kingdom came to be ruled by the underkings, according to Bede. Eventually these underkings were defeated and the kingdom reunited, probably Cædwalla but possibly Centwine. A decade after Wulfhere's death, the West Saxons under Cædwalla began an aggressive eastward expansion, reversing much of Mercian progress. In addition to being Wulfhere's godson, King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons had a connection to the Mercians through marriage. His wife was Queen Eafe, daughter of Eanfrith Hwicce, a tribe whose territory is laid to the southwest of Mercia. The Hwicce had their own royal family, but it seems that at this date they were already dependent on Wulfhere: the marriage between Æthelwealh and Eafe may well have taken place at Wulfhere's court, since it is known that Æthelwealh was converted there. The kingdom of Hwicce is sometimes regarded as the creation of Penda's, but it is equally likely that the kingdom existed independently of Mercia, and that Penda and the influence of Wulfhere's increase in the area represented an expansion of Mercian power rather than the creation of a separate entity.
Almost nothing is known about Mercian relations with East Anglia at this time. In 664 King Æthelwold of East Anglia died of the plague and was succeeded by Eldwulf, who ruled for fifty years. East Anglia had previously been dominated by Northumbria, but no evidence survives that this continued after Wulfhere's accession. In the same year 664 Swithhelm, king of the East Saxons, also died of the same plague, and was succeeded by his two sons Sigher and Sebbi; Trouble calls them - "rulers ... under Wulfhere, King of Mercia". Under the influence of the plague, Sigher left the Christian faith with part of his people and became an apostate. The king himself and most of his subjects, noble and common, began to restore abandoned temples and worship idols, as if this could protect them from the plague. As soon as King Wulfhere learned that part of the kingdom had renounced the faith, he sent Bishop Jaruman and other priests to correct the errors and return the kingdom to the true faith. Yaruman acted with great prudence, for he was a religious and kind man; having traveled far and wide, he succeeded in returning the people and King Sigher to the path of righteousness. As a result, they abandoned or destroyed the temples and altars they had erected and reopened the churches.
Yaruman was not the first Bishop of Lichfield; Bede mentions his predecessor Trumherr, but nothing is known of either Trumherr's actions or who appointed him. It is clear from these events that Oswiu's influence in the south had waned by this time (if not before), and that Wulfhere now dominated these areas. This becomes even clearer when, between 668 and 668, Wulfhere sold the episcopal see in London to a certain Wien, who was expelled from the West Saxon diocese by Kenwalch. London at that time was within the territory of the East Saxons.
Erconbert was king of Kent at Wulfhere's accession, and the two families became related when Wulfhere married Eorcenberht's daughter Eormenhild. In 664 Eorcenberht's son Egbert succeeded to the throne of Kentish. The situation in Kent at Egbert's death in 673 is not clearly recorded. It seems that a year passed before Hlothhere, Egbert's brother, became king. Wulfhere may have had an interest in succession, as through his marriage to Eormenhild he was the uncle of Egbert's two sons, Eadric and Wihtred. It has been speculated that Wulfhere acted as the effective ruler of Kent in the interregnum between Egbert's death and Hlothhere's accession. Another Mercian connection to Kent was through Merewalh, king of Magonsæte, and hence subking under Wulfhere. Merewalh, who may have been Wulfhere's brother, was married to Hlothhere's sister, Eormenburh. Surrey is not recorded as always being an independent kingdom, but was at least an area that was under the control of various neighbors at different times. It was ruled by Egbert until the early 670s, when a charter shows Wulfhere a confirmation of a grant made to Bishop Eorcenwald Frithuwold, a subking in Surrey, who may have extended north into present-day Buckinghamshire. Frithuwold himself was probably married to Wilburh, Wulfhere's sister. the charter made from Thame is dated between 673 and 675, and it was probably Egbert's death that prompted Wulfhere's intervention. A witness named Frithuric is chartered in the reign of Wulfhere's successor, Æthelred, making a grant to the monastery of Peterborough, and the alliteration common in Anglo-Saxon dynasties has led to the suggestion that the two men may have both descended from the Middle Anglo dynasty, with Wulfhere , possibly placing Frithuwold on the throne of Surrey. The charter is attested by three other sub-kings named Osric, Wigheard, and Æthelwold; their kingdoms are not identified, but the charter mentions Sonning, an area in what is now eastern Berkshire, and it may be that one of these sub-kings was the ruler of the Sunningas, the people of that area. This in turn would imply Wulfhere's dominance of that area by that time. Wulfhere's influence among Lindesfara, whose territory, Lindsey, lays aside what is now Lincolnshire, is known from information about episcopal authority. At least one of the bishops of Mercian Lichfield is known to have exercised authority there: Wynfrith, who became bishop on the death of Chad in 672. Moreover, it is known that Wulfhere gave land in the Hill on the Humber, in Lindsey, towards Chad, for a monastery. it is possible that Chad also had power there as a bishop, probably no later than 669. It may be that the political basis for the episcopal control of Mercian Lindesfara was laid early in Wulfhere's reign, under Trumhere and Jaruman, the two bishops who preceded Chad., but according to Eddius, Egfrith defeated Wulfhere, forced him to cede Lindsey to Lindsey, and pay tribute. Wulfhere survived this defeat, but apparently lost some degree of control over the south as a result; in. Other historians, however, suggest that Esquin succeeded in stopping the Mercian invasion of John of Worcester by the son of Wulfhere. Another possible son could be Bertwald, one of the dependent kings, who is attested as a nephew of Æthelred I. Wulfhere's daughter may have been Werburga the Saint, abbess of Els, attested as his daughter in an 11th-century manuscript.
An 11th-century history of St. Peter's Abbey at Gloucester names two other women, Eadburh and Eafe, as Wulfhere's wives, but this is unlikely. Wulfhere's widow Ermenhilde is believed to have later become abbess of Els.
He was the first Christian king of all Mercia, although it is not known when or how he was converted. His accession marked the end of Oswiu's Northumbrian overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that area. His campaigns against the West Saxons resulted in Mercian control of much of the Thames valley. He conquered the Isle of Wight and the Meon Valley and gave them to King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons. He also had influence in Surrey, Essex, and Kent.
670, when Oswiu died, Wulfhere was the most powerful king in southern Britain. He was effectively overlord of the British south of the Humber from the early 660s, although not overlord of Northumbria like his father was.
Under him, the war with Northumbria ended by the decision of the synod at Whitby, which established the final border between the two kingdoms (664).
He fought with all the surrounding kings, at different times and with different success, sometimes winning, and sometimes he was defeated. However, the details of these wars are little known to us. It is only certain that Wolfer captured the king of Sussex Adelvalk and, after conquering his kingdom, took him to Mercia. Adelwalh, while in captivity there, converted to Christianity and Wolfer gave him the island of Wigg conquered by him. There are reasons to think that Wolfer subjugated the king of Essex as well; for it is known that he elevated a certain Vinus to the bishopric of London to the bishopric.
When Wolfer took the throne, Mercia was still in idolatry, but he slowly accepted baptism and ordered his children to be raised in the Christian faith.
Origin and children
Bishop of Ezel
The 19-year-old Duke Magnus appeared in Ahrensburg (Esel Island) in the spring of the year. In the hope that he would be supported, the nobility of the island supported him.
Unlike Ezel, the Pilten monastic region was territorially fragmented and consisted of three parts - from the dioceses of Pilten, Donedangen, Ervalen in northern Courland, the dioceses of Hasenpot, Neuhausen, Amboten, lying isolated in the south, and the eparchy of Sackenhausen on the coast.
The young duke found himself in a difficult position. On the one hand, the existing one tried to protest the sale of Pilten and Ezel, since it had to be agreed with the order. On the other hand, the Russian state openly tried to take possession of the Baltic lands.
King of Livonia
Magnus brought only a small contingent of soldiers with him, but as king of Livonia he was appointed commander of the Russian troops sent against the Swedes. he moved with the Russian expeditionary army to Livonia. He began the siege.
Denmark did not send a fleet to help Magnus. The Russians did not have their own flotilla, only a few privateers based in Narva. The sea was thus dominated by the Swedes, who could send reinforcements and ammunition to the Reval garrison. Mr. Magnus was forced to lift the siege of Revel.
In general, the idea of creating a vassal kingdom turned out to be successful - Magnus, the son of a European king, was much more attractive in the eyes of the Livonian nobility. At the same time, his loyalty to Moscow was not in doubt.
The king gave the king of Livonia a small Estonian city. At this time, the bride of Magnus, Princess Euphemia Staritskaya, suddenly died. offered him the hand of her younger thirteen-year-old sister, Maria.
Break with Ivan the Terrible
In the year the Russian troops took the city. Under fear of the Russian capture of the city of Helmet, Ergeme and Ruyien chose to surrender to Magnus.
Trying to consolidate his precarious position in Magnus began secret negotiations with the king. Magnus called on the population to surrender if they did not want to be captured by Ivan the Terrible. Separately, it was noted that this is done for their further return to Polish possession. Thus, a number of cities were taken, including Kokenhausen and
THE HISTORY OF HOMELAND
WHOSE FAITH IS BETTER?
"... And the battle was on the Zhabets field"
The village of Tervolovo in the Leningrad region, formerly called the village of Voskresensky, is the birthplace of Pushkin's nanny Arina Rodionovna. The poet's parents got married in the local Ascension Church.
And in September 1941, the 265th artillery and machine-gun battalion, consisting of Leningrad students, schoolchildren, athletes, shipbuilders, died here in full strength ... Before the war, military engineer 3rd rank Kraminsky worked as the head of restoration workshops; Zaur Gagloev, who threw himself under a German tank with a bunch of grenades, was a student at the conservatory, Irina Orekhova was an athlete. This courageous scout girl died during a breakthrough from the encirclement. She led the militia in a final attack, but was killed by a shell fragment. Lev Aleinikov, a former master ship assembler, burned down along with his pillbox. Starley could have escaped, but did not want to - he could not leave the wounded.
Our soldiers did not know then that here, on the field where they died, their ancestors once defeated the German mercenaries of the Swedish king Magnus Eriksson. It happened on July 23, 1348, on the eve of the day of memory of Saints Boris and Gleb. So the fourth crusade against Novgorod was thwarted. “... And the battle was on the Zhabets field,” an ancient chronicle narrates. For a long time no one knew what kind of place this was. But the mention of Sabtzapola Odhe has been preserved in Swedish cadastres. By comparing written sources, ancient and modern maps, it was possible to find out that we are talking about the northeastern outskirts of Tervolovo.
Orthodox - Novgorodians, Vod and Izhora - under the command of the boyars Ontsifor Lukinich, Yakov Khotov and Mikhail Fefilatov attacked the mercenaries suddenly. There were four hundred of us. Half a thousand of the enemy they laid down on the spot, the rest were taken prisoner. Traitors from among the locals were executed. The war did not end there, but the backbone of the Swedish army was broken.
Now they stand side by side - two monuments. One - to those who died in the last war, the other - to those who fell on the Toad Field almost seven hundred years ago.
The heroes were almost forgotten, but on July 23, 2011, the living again came here to remember. After consecration and prayer, the military-historical clubs from St. Petersburg recreated the ancient battle. The day was hot, the armor heavy. As then, in 1348.
The king is going on a campaign
The archaeologist Ivan Stasyuk wrote well about how everything was. Let's give him the floor:
“In the spring of 1348, as soon as the Baltic was freed from ice and navigation opened on the Gulf of Finland, a powerful military flotilla set sail from the coast of Sweden. On board dozens of ships, there was an armored army - one of the strongest and most numerous ever assembled in Sweden. It was headed by King Magnus IV Eriksson himself. Shortly before this, the king sent ambassadors to Novgorod with an unusual proposal: let each side put forward its most sophisticated philosophers and theologians, and they will resolve a long-standing dispute in a learned dispute: whose faith is better? The loser will accept the faith of the winner and submit to him, like a vassal to a lord.
Novgorodians, realizing what was hidden behind this desire of Magnus to violate the “eternal peace” concluded between Novgorod and Sweden in 1323, decided to gain time and answered evasively: “We adopted the faith from the Greeks, and it is not up to us to decide whether it is better or worse than Latin. Send this question to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and if you have any claims against us, say it straight out, we are ready to talk about that.” The king's answer revealed his plans. He presented the Novgorod emissaries with a chivalrous direct ultimatum: "Be baptized in my faith, or I will come against you with all my might."
Having landed on the Neva, Magnus laid siege to the Novgorod fortress Oreshek, and sent part of his army to the recalcitrant local population - Vod and Izhora. These Finnish-speaking tribes, who have long inhabited the coast of the Gulf of Finland and the Neva, were subject to Novgorod and were baptized according to the Russian rite. The Latins considered them pagans.
The blow was right. The possession of Oreshok gave Sweden control over the Nevsky waterway - the most important trade artery, through Ladoga and Volkhov connecting Novgorod with Western Europe. At the same time, control over the Neva cut off the Karelians, vassals of Novgorod, from their powerful patron. Deprived of Novgorod support, they were soon to submit to the Swedes, like sumi and emi. In the future, the possibility of conquering the entire Izhora land - Ingria - opened up. But the royal plan also had a strategic miscalculation, which eventually became fatal for Magnus. The Swedish army landed in the center of hostile territory. Warlike Karelians hung from the north, and no less warlike, although not so numerous, Izhora threatened from the south. In the west, there was the Vodskaya land of Veliky Novgorod, populated by Vod and Russians, with its center in the fortress of Koporye, from the east - the graveyards of the Lower Volkhov region and the fortress of Ladoga.
It was decided to beat the enemy in parts ... "
Orthodox North
It must be clarified here that the Swedes themselves were not entirely sure of the correctness of their new faith - Catholicism.
They were baptized together with the Norwegians by the legendary King Olaf, our Orthodox saint, who spent his childhood in Novgorod, then visited friends in Kyiv more than once. Russia and Scandinavia were at that time one whole. When the king fell at the hands of the rebellious boyars, we did not want to believe it. Legends were passed from mouth to mouth that he had miraculously escaped and was ascetic in a monastery in the Holy Land. In honor of St. Olaf, several churches were erected in our country, and there were many healings and other miracles through prayers to him.
Olaf's son Magnus was adopted by another saint - Yaroslav the Wise. Having become the king of Norway, he decided to take cruel revenge on the murderers of his father. The blade of Magnus the First did not dry with blood until the nameless skald awakened mercy in him with his song. This song influenced the king so much that he went down in history under the name Magnus I the Good.
Such were the Orthodox kings of Scandinavia. The Catholics did not immediately manage to break the resistance of our northern churches. St. Olaf belonged to the English Orthodox Church, whose influence extended from the Slavic Baltic, where the Swedish princess St. Anna of Novgorod ruled in Novgorod, to Ephesus in Asia Minor. In England itself, there were ten thousand churches for one and a half million people. The campaign against her was blessed by Pope Alexander II, who sent the banner to William the Conqueror. The last Orthodox king of England, Harold, died at the Battle of Hastings. His body was cut into pieces by the Normans, and his soul was anathematized in Rome. Then the terror began. Every fifth Englishman died, and everyone was robbed. English bishops were replaced by French ones, priests were forced to divorce, their families were thrown into the street. Those who had the means fled to Constantinople, Kyiv - to their own.
Ireland lasted longer. In 1154, Pope Hadrian issued a bull urging the Normans to plant "the true Christian faith" there. It took several decades to achieve the formal subordination of Zeleny Ostrov, and God knows how many centuries the Orthodox faith had to be eradicated there. Nor is it clear how long Scandinavian monasticism lasted. Life was slower then, and people were more stubborn.
Brigid of Sweden
Perhaps this explains the shadow of doubt in the actions of Magnus IV Eriksson.
It must be said that the idea of a crusade to Novgorod did not belong to him, but to the bishop of the city, Turk Hemming, and the spiritual mentor of the king, Brigid of Sweden, later canonized by the Church of Rome. She believed that for the sake of the unity of the Church, Orthodoxy must submit to Rome. Not to the popes, whom Brigid despised for their greed, but to Rome as a symbol of power over the world, which once so attracted the apostles. They were healed by the death of Christ and raised above the earth by His Resurrection. People, however, tend to repeat past mistakes.
Brigid's passion for unity in everything reached the point of pathology. For example, she was convinced that monasteries should not be divided into male and female. She arranged monasteries in Scandinavia, where monks and nuns lived in neighboring chambers. An idealist, staying in some kind of her own world, Brigid of Sweden was calm about the pagan Balts and even asked Magnus IV not to forcefully convert them to the Latin faith.
Not the Orthodox, who were for her schismatics, enemies, a challenge. The crusade to the East became a mania for this amazing woman lost in Heaven, whom Catholics call the patroness of Europe. At the same time, there are no Swedes or Norwegians among her admirers. Having split Christianity for the sake of unity, Catholicism was divided in itself. Scandinavia became Protestant and moved to Russia in new campaigns - no longer crusades, but still "in the name of God."
Victory
But in the fourteenth century, Novgorod remained the last part of the Orthodox North that did not fall under the rule of the Latins. Having defeated the Swedes and German mercenaries of Magnus on the Zhabtse-Polye, the Novgorodians, Izhora and Vod frustrated the plans of the king. And then he decided to strike back: to seize a bridgehead on the Neva, so that, having gathered new forces in Scandinavia, to continue expansion. Soon, the mercenaries managed to capture the Oreshek fortress without a fight, by cunning.
“The king promised to leave, taking a ransom from the city,” Ivan Stasyuk writes about this. - Then on August 6, the defenders of the fortress opened the gates. However, the knight did not keep his word given to the "pagans". Taking hostage several of the most noble boyars, including the Novgorod thousandth Abraham, he released the rest "of his own free will", and he himself, with an army battered in battles, occupied the fortress.
But autumn was approaching and the king did not dare to stay for the winter in a hostile country, cut off from the Swedish coast by the ice of the Gulf of Finland. Food supplies were limited, and plundering local residents would not have provided so many people with wintering. The vassals began to grumble, missing home, worrying about the abandoned household. In mid-August, Magnus with most of the troops sailed back to Sweden, leaving a strong garrison in Oreshek, which immediately fell to hard trials.
Already on August 15, the combined militia of the Novgorod land besieged the fortress. Eight hundred Swedish soldiers - a considerable detachment for that time - fought heroically on the walls of the blocked Oreshek for six months, until, in the end, by February 25, the fortress was taken by the Novgorodians, using throwing machines and incendiary shells. The royal adventure has failed."
Monk Gregory
Probably, people are still alive who remember the tombstone that once rested on Valaam. Now only a fragment of it remains, but before that this was what was carved there:
This is where the body is buried.
In 1371, it was betrayed to the earth,
Magnus, Swedish king,
Who, holy baptism of perception,
At baptism he was named Gregory.
He was born in Sweden in 1336,
1360 was elevated to the throne,
He had great strength and, by it he was enlisted,
Twice fought in Russia.
And he took an oath to end the war,
But, breaking the oath, Paki armed himself,
Then in the fierce waves plunged,
His army remained in Lake Ladoga,
And there were no signs of the armed fleet.
He himself was worn on the ship's board,
Three days and three nights God kept
Saved from drowning
Waves to the shore of this monastery are controlled,
Enochami was taken and brought into the monastery,
Enlightened by Orthodox baptism;
Then instead of the royal diadem
Dressed as monks, honored with a schema,
After living here for three days, he died,
Being in the crown, and crowned with the schema.
Now, instead of this slab, a white stone rests on the island with a laconic inscription: Schemamonk Gregory †1371. Swedish King Magnus. Let us clarify that the king was shipwrecked not in 1371 on Lake Ladoga, but in 1374, off the coast of Norway. But his grave appeared on Valaam in time immemorial.
In the capital, they became interested in her, apparently, under Peter the Great, then they forgot about her again. In 1785, academician Ozeretskovsky, who visited the holy islands, wrote: “I saw the grave of a certain Swedish prince. This grave does not have any tombstone, but lies on it a thin large slab, which, due to the negligence of the inhabitants, was crushed by a horse. According to the tales of the monks, the prince once buried there was brought to Valaam by a strong storm and, having lost his ship near this island, remained there until the end of his life.
The Valaam brethren did not seem to like this message, or maybe in St. Petersburg they became interested in what kind of prince this was. One way or another, but six years later, the rector of the monastery, hegumen Nazariy, publicized the name of the buried and thus made a sensation in Russia. Here is what he wrote:
“We announce to you that in 1374 the Swedish king was buried by the name of Magnus, in holy baptism Gregory. His life was alive in this monastery for 3 days. At the same time, at will, they tonsured him into the schema, and thus he died his life. And it was made on it in a cemetery above the ground with a small stone tower, there is another slab on top and there is no inscription on the slab. And from what is the rumor that he is buried here, that is, some part of a small story, with this report, it is sent to you. The "report" was accompanied by the "Manuscript of Magnusz" with an addition: "More than this, we have no information about this king."
Will
What handwriting are you talking about?
And this is just the most interesting. In 1374, the king disappeared into the waves of the fjord, and soon his “Manuscript” appeared in Novgorod, urging the Swedes never to go to Russia again (sorry, they didn’t listen): “In 6860 (1352) year. Testament of Magnus, King of Sweden. Here I am, Prince Magnush, King of Sweden, named Gregory in holy baptism, leaving this world, I write a will during my lifetime and order my children, and my brothers, and the whole land of Sweden: do not attack Russia if you kissed the cross in it; we are not lucky in this ... "
“And since that time, Swedish destruction has come to our land: flood, pestilence, famine and internecine war. The Lord took away my mind from me, and I sat in the ward for a year, chained to the wall with an iron chain, and I was imprisoned in this ward. And then my son Sakun arrived (Hakon. – V. G. ) from the Murmansk land, and took me from the ward, and took me to his land of Murmansk. And again a storm came up: my ships and my people were sunk by the wind, and I myself found myself at the bottom of the ship and, clinging to the board, swam for three days and three nights. And by God's command, the wind brought me to the monastery of the Holy Savior in the Full River, and the monks removed me from the board, and carried me into the monastery, and tonsured me as a monk and a schema; The Lord kept me alive for three days and three nights.
And all this is God's punishment for my pride, for having gone to war against Russia, violating the kiss of the cross. And now I order my children, and my brothers, and the whole land of Sweden: do not fight with Russia if you have concluded an agreement with it; and whoever goes, fire and water will be against him, which God also executed me with. And the Lord created all this for my salvation.”
Question of Authenticity
"The manuscript of Magnush, King of Sweden" was found in the Novgorod fourth chronicle, compiled in those times that we remember today. It is clear that we have a translation, with the introductory words: “In 6860 (1352). Testament of Magnus, king of Sweden”, belongs to the people of Novgorod. Apparently, they had the most vague ideas about the life of the king, because he went missing not in 1352, but many years later.
This proves that the document may be genuine. Its author knew so much about the history of Scandinavia and the fate of Magnus that the Novgorodians obviously had nothing to do with it. Perhaps, having inattentively studied the paper, they confused two different events: a shipwreck in Norway in 1374 and what happened in 1350, when the king almost died "at the mouth of the Narova River." As chronicles report this, "and the German army drowned (drowned) in the sea."
Of course, historians have tried many times to convince each other that the "Magnusz Manuscript" is a fake - it is too unusual, it looks like a retelling of some novel. For example, the Swedish scholar Olaf Dalin attributed the text to a "poor Greek monk," but this is pure fantasy. However, this is the only argument that deserves attention.
Of course, it can be assumed that the Novgorodians learned about the fate of King Magnus from Swedish or Norwegian merchants. But to "mow" your worst enemy in the "schema", and even insert the legend into the annalistic code - this is too much. It is no coincidence that Olaf Dalin had to convince himself of the existence of a cunning Greek. The Novgorodians showed no inclination to such tricks; It's one thing to embellish an event, it's another thing to invent it.
River Full
There are no number of those who were saved during shipwrecks - countless Christians repented of their transgressions. Real life is full of amazing twists and turns of fate. The fact that the Lord helped King Magnus atone for his guilt before his death may seem incredible to an armchair scholar, but Christians often have to deal with something like this.
Another question: what does Balaam have to do with it? Magnus was shipwrecked near the island of Lyngholm in Bemelfjord Bay, near the city of Bergen. To Valaam from there swim and swim. The "Manuscript..." also says nothing about Lake Ladoga. It is about the Polnaya River and the Monastery of the Savior. The Polnaya River is most likely the same Bemelfjord, and the Monastery of the Savior is one of the Norwegian monasteries (possibly crypto-Orthodox). What follows is a complete mystery. Where the grave of Magnus in Russia came from is unknown.
As the Russian historian Prince Pavel Vyazemsky carefully noted, “we know almost nothing about the relationship of the monasteries in the Finnish and Swedish lands to the Greek Church; Russian and Swedish monasteries in the 13th and 14th centuries could be in such a connection with each other that they looked at the events that took place in one monastery as if they were their own.
But it is interesting that the book “Description of the Valaam Monastery and Its Ascetics”, published in 1864, tells about such a case: Sweden, came to Valaam and asked to serve a memorial service on the tomb of King Magnus. They testified before the rector and some of the brethren who were with him that they were prompted to this by a wonderful dream vision.
As one of the Finns explained, he became seriously ill and prayed for recovery to St. Sergius and Herman of Valaam, whose help he especially hoped. And in a dream vision, Sergius and Herman appeared to him and said that he would be saved through the intercession of King Magnus.
It seems that King Magnus really became an Orthodox monk before his death, and his will is a free translation from Swedish. In any case, other versions seem even less convincing. And thirty years had not passed after the battle on Zhabts-Polye, where they tried to rebaptize Russia in the Latin faith, until Magnus accepted the schema in Orthodoxy. The Lord, in one way or another, always answers all the really important questions. Was the life of King Magnus the answer to his question, whose faith is better?
Vladimir GRIGORYAN
The Secret of King Magnus.
The grave of Magnus is located in the old fraternal cemetery of the Valaam Monastery, where he is called Schemamonk Gregory, Swedish King Magnus.
However, the Swedish Chronicle states that Magnus II drowned in 1374 off the coast of Norway. At the same time, his remains were not found, so there is no burial place in Sweden (and Norway).
King's grave on Valaam
A little about him. At the age of three he succeeded to the Norwegian throne and was elected to the Swedish throne.
Magnus displeased the nobility (1338); the opposition was especially strong in Norway, where in 1343 his son Hakon was elected king.
In 1344, Magnus' second son was chosen as his heir in Sweden. Magnus' attempts to capture Estonia and Livonia ended unsuccessfully. The embarrassment to which he subjected the German merchants who traded in Novgorod led to a clash with the Hanseatic. Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg repeatedly acted as an intermediary between the king and the cities.
To replenish the treasury, depleted by wars, Magnus appropriated part of the tithe that went to Rome. The Pope threatened him with excommunication. The clergy also joined the disgruntled nobles. At the head of all the dissatisfied stood the son of Magnus, Eric (1356). The king had to divide the kingdom with his son in 1357.
Hostile relations between them, however, soon resumed; this time, Magnus found an ally against Eric in Valdemar of Denmark. Eric's sudden death in 1359 rendered Valdemar's assistance unnecessary, and Magnus refused to cede to him the previously promised provinces. This was the cause of the war, in which success leaned on the side of Denmark.
The son of Magnus Gakon, in order to put an end to the war, married the daughter of Valdemar Margarita; but by this marriage he set against himself the whole aristocracy, who insisted on his marriage to Elizabeth of Holstein. The dissatisfied grouped around Duke Albrecht of Mecklenburg and proclaimed his son king. Albret arrived in Sweden in 1363, and the following year he was solemnly elected king in Uppsala. Region after region swore allegiance to the new king; in 1365, Magnus became a prisoner of Albrecht and was released only in 1371. He died in Norway in 1374. The internal reforms of Magnus touched the court, serf relations, zemstvo peace, etc.
Magnus Ericsson and the Valaam Monastery
Swedish chronicles claim that Magnus II drowned in 1374 off the coast of Norway. At the same time, his remains were not found, so there is no burial place in Sweden (and Norway).
However, the grave of Magnus is located in the old fraternal cemetery of the Valaam Monastery, where he is called Schemamonk Gregory, Swedish King Magnus.
According to this version of events, Magnus and his army intended to raid Valaam, or possibly one of the other Orthodox monasteries on Lake Ladoga. However, his ship was shipwrecked. After spending several days in a raging sea, the king, along with his companions, was picked up and rescued by the monks, who saw God's providence in his misfortune. After everything experienced, Magnus converted to the Orthodox faith and decided to dedicate the short rest of his days to God: he became a monk (great schema) with the name Gregory. Already a monk, Magnus wrote a testament addressed to the entire Swedish people, in which he ordered never to go to Novgorod by war, not to destroy Russian churches and not to be at enmity with the Orthodox faith. The text of this testament is contained in one of the Novgorod chronicles (in the Sofia First Chronicle). Shortly thereafter, the former king passed away.
The suppression of this version of events by Swedish sources of that time is quite justified: in an era when the most important strategic goal of Western countries was the conversion of Orthodox lands to Catholicism, it was unprofitable to know about the king who abandoned this goal and zealously converted to Orthodoxy. It is therefore possible that the story of the sinking of Magnus off the coast of Norway is a deliberate falsification of a Roman origin.
EPISODES OF OLD HISTORY
But who is King Magnus and what happened to him? In 1316, in Sweden, a son named Magnus was born in the family of Duke Eirik Magnusson and Princess Ingeborg, daughter of the Norwegian king Hakon V. In 1319, Birger, Magnus' uncle, was deposed from the Swedish throne, and the three-year-old child became king. In the same year, his grandfather, the Norwegian king Hakon V, also died, and our hero received another throne. At the same time, he was officially called in Sweden Magnus II, and in Norway - Magnus VII.
At first, Magnus' mother was the regent. But in 1327 she married the Duke of Gotland Knut Porze, lost power in both kingdoms and influence on her son. Now a council of guardians ruled for the young king, led by Birger Person. In the year of Magnus' accession, Person's daughter, 16-year-old Birgitta (Brigitta), married Prince Alpha. After the death of her husband, Birgitta was seized by religious exaltation. For the rest of her life, the inconsolable widow was seized by two manias - a crusade to the East and the creation of "mixed monasteries".
For many, many centuries, Christian cloisters were either female or male. Birgitta, on the other hand, believed that faith would help a person "conquer his nature." In the monasteries she founded, women and men settled approximately equally. What happened there - I propose to judge for the readers themselves.
A simple person in the 14th century could easily end up at the stake for promoting such ideas. But Birgitta had three important trump cards: first, a huge fortune; secondly, influence on the young king, and, finally, taking possession of the lands of the Lord of Veliky Novgorod was an old dream of most Swedish feudal lords.
To be honest, the victory of Alexander Nevsky on the Neva River in 1240 was only an episode in a series of endless wars between Novgorod and Sweden. For example, on September 9, 1284, the Novgorodians at the mouth of the Neva killed the Swedish army of Governor Trunda. Very few managed to get away.
As a rule, following the next Swedish invasion, the Novgorod boat-ears were announced in the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia. So, in May 1318, Russian ships passed to the Abo-Aland skerries and along the "Full River" (Aurajoki) they went up to Abo (now Turku) - the then capital of Finland. On May 23, 1318, the city was taken and thoroughly destroyed, in particular, the Abovsky Cathedral was burned down. The Novgorodians seized the church tax collected over 5 years from all over Finland, intended to be sent to Rome, and then safely returned by sea to the mouth of the Neva and, as the annals say, "arrived in Novgorod in good health."
Swedish chronicles are full of complaints about "bloodthirsty Russians". Here is an entry under 1322: "George, the great king of Russ, besieged the castle of Vyborg with great force on the day of St. Clare." Modern Finnish historians estimate the number of the Novgorod army at 22 thousand people. In fact, the service prince of Novgorod Yuri Danilovich came to Vyborg with several hundred warriors. Vyborg was dormant, but Yury failed to take the stone castle.
On August 12, 1323, on Orekhovy Island at the source of the Neva, the Swedes concluded an "eternal peace" with Novgorod. Novgorodians did not want a long war and agreed to give the Swedes half of the Karelian Isthmus in the direction from south to north. Further, the border went to the basin of Lake Saimaa, and then to the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, where the Puzajoki River flows into it. It was an ancient tribal border between the Karelians and the Finns - Sumyu (Suomi), and it was confirmed and preserved. Thus, the whole of central Finland remained with the Lord Veliky Novgorod.
NEW WAR
For a quarter of a century after the conclusion of the treaty, peace somehow survived. But in the end, Birgitta, a kind of "Swedish Rasputin", convinced Magnus to start a new war. On August 6, 1348, the king managed to capture the Oreshek fortress (future Shlisselburg).
Magnus did not dare to spend the winter on the Neva. He left a garrison of 800 men in Oreshek and went to Sweden. As soon as the king left, on August 15, a strong Novgorod army appeared at the fortress. A thousand soldiers were sent to "cleanse" the outskirts of the city of Korela from the Swedes. The aliens were killed there along with their governor Ludka (probably Luder). Soon the Swedish army remained only in Oreshka. But it was his turn. On February 24, 1349, the Russian squads launched an assault. They managed to set fire to the wooden walls of the fortress and a number of buildings inside it. Some of the Swedes burned down, some were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner and sent to Novgorod.
At the beginning of the summer of 1350, Magnus made a new campaign against the Novgorodian possessions. According to Swedish sources, the king's fleet arrived at the mouth of the Narova River. However, after the approach of the Novgorod rati, the ships went to the Gulf of Finland and almost all of them died during the storm. Magnus himself barely survived and with the remnants of the army reached Sweden. In the Novgorod chronicle under 1350 there is the following message on this account: "And the German army drowned (drowned) in the sea."
MONK GREGORY AND SAINT BIRGITTA
But according to the documents of the Valaam Monastery, Magnus not only escaped during a storm, but later showed up not in Sweden at all, but ... on an island in Lake Ladoga. It is possible that at first the king was picked up and left by Russian monks from another monastery, and only then the unfortunate conqueror arrived at Valaam. Magnus took the vows as a monk under the name of Gregory and died in the rank of schemamonk in 1374 in the Valaam monastery.
Was it so? A number of circumstantial evidence confirms the correctness of the Valaam documents (among which was the plan of the old cemetery indicating the location of the graves, later the monks were buried in a different place). However, a 100% guarantee can be given only by examining the DNA from the burial on Valaam and comparing it with the DNA of the remains of Magnus's relatives in Sweden. Russian archaeologists offered to conduct an examination to the Swedes, but they categorically refused.
Perhaps someone will treat the position of the Swedish authorities with understanding: they say, why should such a rich, but thrifty nation spend money on clarifying the “traditions of ancient times”?
But, alas, in 2003 millions of euros were found in the kingdom for pompous celebrations in honor of the celebration of the 700th anniversary of St. Birgitta. The fact is that Birgitta died in 1377 and was buried in a monastery in Pirite, a few kilometers from Revel (now Tallinn). The "mixed" monasteries created by her were immediately closed. Nevertheless, in 1391, the Pope canonized Birgitta for actively preaching crusades against schismatics, that is, Orthodox. The temple where she was buried was destroyed in 1577 by the troops of Ivan the Terrible during the Livonian War (1558–1583). But this was of little interest to the Swedes, Germans and Estonians, since by that time they had become Protestants.
In 1718, a magnificent statue of Venus (Aphrodite) was dug up in Rome - a Roman copy of a Greek statue of the 3rd century BC. BC. The find became the property of Pope Clement XI. The rumor about Venus reached St. Petersburg. Tsar Peter Alekseevich offered the Pope a large sum for her. But Clement was a great lover of antiquities and feminine charms and categorically refused to sell the statue. Then Peter I offered the pope to exchange the statue of the pagan goddess for the relics of St. Birgitta. Can you imagine the look on Clement's face?! I had to agree, and the statue went to the banks of the Neva. At one time, the sculpture stood in the Tauride Palace with Prince Grigory Potemkin, for which it received the name Tauride Venus. Now it is in the Hermitage.
As for Saint Birgitta, after the embarrassment with Venus, the Roman authorities forgot about her for a long time. Birgitte was remembered only after the collapse of the USSR (why?). In November 1999, John Paul II consecrated a sculpture of St. Birgitta in the Vatican, which he called the guardian angel of Europe. 23 people from Estonia arrived in the Vatican to participate in this ceremony, headed by the vice-speaker of the Estonian parliament, Tunne Kelam. A five-meter statue of St. Birgitta was installed in one of the outer niches of St. Peter's Basilica.
In 2003, in Sweden, in the solemn service, which was performed in the Vadstena Monastery, founded by St. Birgitta, was attended by the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, as well as the presidents of Finland, Latvia, Estonia and 1400 guests from around the world.
So, the schemnik king, who could become a symbol of reconciliation between the West and the East, is not needed by either the rulers or the church. On the other hand, a militant, although not quite normal in a sexual sense, nun is in demand, who in her “Revelation” accurately indicated the path to “Christian unity”: “start with exhortations, and in case of failure, act by force.”
Article by A. B. Shirokorad from the site
Magnus I the Good was born in the family of King Olaf the Holy and his wife Alfhild. It was named in honor of Charlemagne - the ruler of the Franks, Carolus Magnus. When Magnus was 4 years old, Olaf and his family had to flee from their country to Novgorod, where they were received by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. In 1030, Olaf decided to return to his homeland, but at the insistence of Princess Ingigerda (Alfhild's sister), he left Magnus in Novgorod. Olaf died in the same year in battle, and his son remained in the upbringing of Yaroslav in Novgorod.
Despite the years spent in Gardarik, Magnus still returns for the crown of Norway and receives support from Jarl Edmund. He had to defeat Sven, the son of Canute the Great, but the battle did not happen, because Sven's army, due to his unpopularity among the people, fled, only after learning about Magnus's approach to Trondheim. Sven went to Denmark to King Hardeknud, and Magnus was declared king of Norway, where he ruled from 1035 until his death.
Magnus began his reign with revenge for the betrayal of his father: he executed the guilty and confiscated the property and lands involved in the death of Olaf the Holy, and placed his relics in a specially made shrine. Revenge led to the fact that the population began to raise uprisings, and then Magnus had to establish a code of laws that regulated judicial and tax issues. Justice, generosity, generosity and courage in battle made Magnus a favorite among the people. That's why they called him Good.
In 1038/1039, Magnus and the Danish king Hardeknud concluded a peace treaty, according to which the one who dies first and leaves no heir will transfer his lands into the hands of the second. In 1042 Canute III died unexpectedly, having bequeathed Denmark and England to his brother Edward. Magnus gathers an army and goes to war on Danish lands, which are also claimed by Knud's brother Sven. The Danes chose the side of Magnus, proclaimed him king, but Sven was appointed jarl.
Magnus did not forget about England either and sent a message to Edward demanding the return of the lands. The English king justified his rights and made it clear to Magnus that he would solve this issue only with his life, and not with the lives of his people. Magnus realized that attacking Canute's legacy would be unwise and abandoned England. In 1044, Magnus goes on a campaign against the pagan Wends because of the uprising that happened in Jomsburg and, having destroyed the city, conquers the Jomsvikings.
In 1045, the struggle between Magnus and Sven for Denmark begins. Jarl Sven decided to become king, but he could not stand the fight with Magnus and after several battles he fled to Sweden. A year later, Sven found support from Harald the Severe - Magnus' uncle. The Norwegian king made Harald co-ruler, but the strife did not subside. The situation did not worsen only because of the imminent death of Magnus in October 1047. He managed to bequeath Norway to Harald, and Denmark to Sven.
The reign of Magnus I the Good for Norway was a significant period. Magnus made a strong state out of Norway, annexed Denmark, gave a set of first laws, freed from the pagan Wends. Although the male line of Olaf the Holy ended on Magnus, his great-grandson nevertheless became the king of Denmark.
