List of Swedish monarchs


This is a list of Swedish kings, queens, regents and viceroys of the Kalmar Union.

History

The earliest record of what is generally considered to be a Swedish king appears in Tacitus' work Germania, c. 100 AD. However, due to scant and unreliable sources before the 11th century, lists of succession traditionally start in the 10th century with king Olof Skötkonung, and his father Eric the Victorious, who also were the first Swedish kings to be baptized. There are, however, lists of Swedish pagan monarchs with far older dates, but in many cases these kings appear in sources of disputed historical reliability. These records notably deal with the legendary House of Yngling, and based on the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus, Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung have often been classified as belonging to the Swedish house of Ynglings, tracing them back to Sigurd Hring and Ragnar Lodbrok. However, according to Icelandic sources this line of kings was broken. As there is no evidence that Eric and Olof ever used the Yngling name themselves, modern historians instead refer to their family as the House of Munsö, the Old Dynasty or the House of Uppsala.
In the 16th century, Johannes Magnus constructed a mythical line of Swedish kings, beginning with Magog, the son of Japheth, to demonstrate the antiquity of the Swedish throne. On the basis of that list, Eric XIV and Charles IX chose to use high ordinals; previous monarchs with those names are traditionally numbered counting backward from Eric XIV and Charles IX. In contemporary Swedish usage, medieval kings are usually not given any ordinal at all.
A list of Swedish monarchs, represented on the map of the Estates of the Swedish Crown, created by French engraver Jacques Chiquet and published in Paris in 1719, starts with Canute I and shows Eric XIV and Charles IX as Eric IV and Charles II respectively, while the only Charles who holds his traditional ordinal in the list is Charles XII, being the highest enumerated.
Sweden has been ruled by queens regnant on three separate occasions: by Margaret, Christina and Ulrika Eleonora respectively, and earlier, briefly, by a female regent Duchess Ingeborg.
In addition to the list below, the Swedish throne was also claimed by the kings of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1599 to 1660. Following his abdication Sigismund continued to claim the throne from 1599 to his death in 1632. After his death the claim was continued by his sons, Vladislaus IV and John II Casimir.
The Swedish monarchs have been of the House of Bernadotte since 1818, based on the Swedish Act of Succession of 1810. The Constitution of 1809 assumed that the monarch would appoint his Cabinet as he saw fit, but growing calls for democratisation during the end of the 19th century made such an idea impossible to sustain. 1917 marks the end of any real political power for the Swedish monarch. The Constitution of 1974 codifies this development by removing all decision-making powers from the monarch, making it both de facto and de jure a ceremonial position, and today the Government has the chief executive power, not the king.
In 1980, the rule of succession was changed from agnatic to absolute primogeniture, to the benefit of Princess Victoria, the current heir apparent.

Monarchs and regents of Sweden

For lists of the prehistoric kings of Sweden see List of legendary kings of Sweden

[House of Munsö]

[House of Stenkil] and contemporary

House of Stenkil

Houses of Sverker">House of Sverker">Sverker and Eric">House of Eric">Eric

House of Estridsen
House of Eric
House of Sverker
House of Bjelbo

[House of Bjelbo]

House of Bjelbo
House of Estridsen
House of Wittelsbach

The House of Bjelbo is sometimes referred to as the House of Folkung

[House of Mecklenburg]

Monarchs during the [Kalmar Union] period and Regents (''Riksföreståndare'')

House of Estridsen
House of Wittelsbach
House of Oldenburg
House of Bjelbo
House of Vasa
House of Wittelsbach
House of Oldenburg

[House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken], a branch of the [House of Wittelsbach]

House of Wittelsbach
House of Oldenburg
House of Hesse

House of Hesse">Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel">House of Hesse

House of Hesse
House of Wittelsbach

Holstein-Gottorp (Swedish line)|House of Holstein-Gottorp]], a branch of the [House of Oldenburg]

House of Oldenburg

[House of Bernadotte]

House of Bernadotte
House of Hesse

Timeline of Swedish monarchs


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align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark: width:25 shift:
bar:eon color:eon
from: 970 till: 1060 color: al text:Munsö
from: 1060 till: 1126 color: du text:Stenkil
from: 1130 till: 1250 color: fa text:Sverker and Eric
from: 1250 till: 1364 color: cw text:Bjälbo
from: 1364 till: 1389 color: ba text:Mecklenburg
from: 1389 till: 1521 color: sw text:Kalmar Union
from: 1521 till: 1654 color: su text:Vasa
from: 1654 till: 1720 color: br text:Palatinate-Zweibrücken
from: 1720 till: 1751 color: cw text:Hesse
from: 1751 till: 1818 color: hg text:Holstein-Gottorp
from: 1818 till: 2017 color: eon text:Bernadotte
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
barset:Rulers
from: 970 till: 995 color:al text:Eric the Victorious
from: 995 till: 1022 color:al text:Olof Skötkonung
from: 1022 till: 1050 color:al text:Anund Jacob
from: 1050 till: 1060 color:al text:Emund the Old
from: 1060 till: 1066 color:du text:Stenkil
from: 1066 till: 1067 color:du text:Eric and Eric
from: 1067 till: 1070 color:du text:Halsten Stenkilsson
from: 1070 till: 1075 color:du text:Anund Gårdske
from: 1075 till: 1079 color:du text:Håkan the Red
from: 1079 till: 1105 color:du text:Inge the Elder
from: 1084 till: 1087 color:du text:Blot-Sweyn
from: 1105 till: 1118 color:du text:Philip
from: 1110 till: 1125 color:du text:Inge the Younger
from: 1125 till: 1126 color:du text:Ragnvald Knaphövde
from: 1126 till: 1130 color:du text:Magnus I
from: 1130 till: 1156 color:fa text:Sverker I
from: 1156 till: 1160 color:fa text:Eric the Holy
from: 1160 till: 1161 color:fa text:Magnus II
from: 1161 till: 1167 color:fa text:Charles VII
from: 1167 till: 1196 color:fa text:Canute I
from: 1196 till: 1208 color:fa text:Sverker II
from: 1208 till: 1216 color:fa text:Eric the Survivor
from: 1216 till: 1222 color:fa text:John I
from: 1222 till: 1229 color:fa text:Eric the Lisp and Lame
from: 1229 till: 1234 color:fa text:Canute II the Tall
from: 1234 till: 1250 color:fa text:Eric the Lisp and Lame
from: 1250 till: 1275 color:ba text:Valdemar
from: 1275 till: 1290 color:ba text:Magnus III
from: 1290 till: 1318 color:ba text:Birger
from: 1318 till: 1319 color:ba text:Mats Kettilmundsson
from: 1319 till: 1364 color:ba text:Magnus IV
from: 1356 till: 1359 color:ba text:Eric Magnuson
from: 1362 till: 1364 color:ba text:Håkan Magnuson
from: 1364 till: 1389 color:br text:Albert
from: 1389 till: 1412 color:sw text:Margaret
from: 1396 till: 1439 color:sw text:Eric the Pomeranian
from: 1438 till: 1440 color:sw text:Charles VIII
from: 1441 till: 1448 color:sw text:Christopher
from: 1448 till: 1470 color:sw text:Charles VIII
from: 1457 till: 1464 color:sw text:Christian I
from: 1470 till: 1497 color:sw text:Sten Sture the Elder
from: 1497 till: 1501 color:sw text:John II
from: 1501 till: 1503 color:sw text:Sten Sture the Elder
from: 1503 till: 1512 color:sw text:Svante Nilsson
from: 1512 till: 1512 color:sw text:Eric Trolle
from: 1512 till: 1520 color:sw text:Sten Sture the Younger
from: 1520 till: 1521 color:sw text:Christian II
from: 1521 till: 1560 color:su text:Gustav I
from: 1560 till: 1568 color:su text:Eric XIV
from: 1568 till: 1592 color:su text:John III
from: 1592 till: 1599 color:su text:Sigmund
from: 1599 till: 1611 color:su text:Charles IX
from: 1611 till: 1632 color:su text:Gustav II Adolph
from: 1632 till: 1654 color:su text:Christina
from: 1654 till: 1660 color:br text:Charles X Gustav
from: 1660 till: 1697 color:br text:Charles XI
from: 1697 till: 1718 color:br text:Charles XII
from: 1718 till: 1720 color:br text:Ulrica Eleanor

from: 1720 till: 1751 color:cw text:Frederick I
from: 1751 till: 1771 color:hg text:Adolf Frederick
from: 1771 till: 1792 color:hg text:Gustav III
from: 1792 till: 1809 color:hg text:Gustav IV Adolph
from: 1809 till: 1818 color:hg text:Charles XIII

from: 1818 till: 1844 color:eon text:Charles XIV John
from: 1844 till: 1859 color:eon text:Oscar I
from: 1859 till: 1872 color:eon text:Charles XV
from: 1872 till: 1907 color:eon text:Oscar II
from: 1907 till: 1950 color:eon text:Gustaf V
from: 1950 till: 1973 color:eon text:Gustaf VI Adolf
from: 1973 till: 2017 color:eon text:Carl XVI Gustaf
barset:skip

Citations