Evaluation of His Reign
In spite of his many formal expansions his rule was considered a period of decrease both to the Swedish royal power and to Sweden as a whole. Foreign nations like Denmark (after its recovery in 1340) and Mecklenburg intervened and Magnus himself does not seem to have been able to resist the internal opposition. He was regarded a weak king and criticised for giving favourites too much power.
Magnus' young favourite courtier was Bengt Algotsson, whom he elevated to Duke of Finland and Halland, as well as Viceroy of the province of Scania. Because homosexuality was a mortal sin and vehemently scorned at that time, rumours about the king's alleged love relationship with Algotsson, and other erotic escapades, were spread by his enemies, particularly by some noblemen who referred to mystical visions of St. Bridget (Birgitta). The allegations earned Magnus the epithet of Magnus the Caresser and caused him a lot of harm, but there is no factual basis for them in historical sources.
In a bit of propagandist retaliations against Magnus, the Russians drew up an allegedly autobiographic account known as the Testament of Magnus (Rukopisanie Magnusha) which has been inserted into the Russian Sofia First Chronicle, composed in Novgorod, which claimed that Magnus in fact, did not drown at sea, but saw the errors of his ways and converted to Orthodoxy, becoming a monk in a Novgorodian monastery in Karelia. The account is apocryphal.
Read more about this topic: Magnus IV Of Sweden
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