Middle Ages
The first mentioning of the title "drots" in Sweden, concerns the reign of Magnus Ladulås and the year 1276. It is difficult to say anything definite about the status of the office at that time, but sources from the 14th century shows the width of the power of the Lord High Steward. The influence seems to have been vast, as long as the steward managed to stay out of doing things against the will of the king himself. The steward was the king's closest confidant and during the guardian regency at the time of Magnus Eriksson's adolescence (1319-1331), the title holder (mostly Knut Jonsson) was the mightiest man in Sweden.
In the latter stages of the 14th century, during conflicts between the king and the Swedish noblemen, the title became more independent and less attached to the king. The wealthiest and most famous of the Swedish aristocrats of the time was arguably steward Bo Jonsson Grip, who disposed of king Magnus Eriksson and then dominated the king he helped to install instead, Albrekt. After Jonsson Grip had died in 1386, no new steward was appointed until 1435, when the noblemen forced king Eric of Pomerania to do so.
Read more about this topic: Lord High Steward Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the words middle ages, middle and/or ages:
“Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
Which is most barbarous is the middle age
Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
But when we hover between fool and sage,
And don’t know justly what we would be at—
A period something like a printed page,
Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Complete courage and absolute cowardice are extremes that very few men fall into. The vast middle space contains all the intermediate kinds and degrees of courage; and these differ as much from one another as men’s faces or their humors do.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Neither the Ages of Faith nor the Age of Doubt had touched him; he was Phaethon in Tuscany driving a cab.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)