ENGELBREKT ENGELBREKTSSON

'Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson' (1390s – May 4 1436) was a Swedish rebel leader and later statesman. He was the leader of the Engelbrekt rebellion in 1434 against Eric of Pomerania, king of the Kalmar Union.
Engelbrekt, whose family was probably of German origin, was a mine owner from Dalarna in Middle Sweden. Dissatisfied by misdeeds of the Danish local bailiffs and heavy taxation, he started a rebellion with the support of mine workers and peasants from his home area. The rebellion grew into a massive force sweeping the country.
In 1435 Engelbrekt was appointed commander of the national forces ''(rikshövitsman)'' at a ''Riksdag'' in Arboga that is often considered the first ''Riksdag'' in Sweden. He was not, however, able to withstand the Swedish nobility, who wanted to exploit the rebellion, and he was somewhat forced in to the background. On May 4, 1436 Engelbrekt was assassinated at a peninsula in Lake Hjälmaren by the aristocrat Måns Bengtsson, who lived in the nearby Göksholm Castle.
Engelbrekt created the foundation for the consolidation of the Swedish people into an independent and united nation. He made the Swedes masters in their own house, an inheritance which they never let themselves be robbed of. Engelbrekt’s victorious struggle against the Danish king’s despotism protected a free and law-based form of government, from which Sweden’s Constitution developed. Finally, Engelbrekt saved the Swedish peasants from sinking into bondage, thereby preventing the establishment of serfdom in Sweden (as by contrast it was elsewhere). Thus, Engelbrekt stands with Birger Jarl and Magnus Ladulås as a protector of the common woman and man – a free people in a free land.
Posterity has regarded Engelbrekt as one of the great heroes of Swedish history and his rebellion has been viewed the start of the "national awakening" of the Swedes, which triumphed in the victory of Gustav Vasa.