Söderköping

Söderköping kept its weight in the kingdom's affairs through the 14th and 15th centuries: an assembly here re-elected Magnus Eriksson king in 1359, and in 1436 Eric of Pomerania made peace in the town with Engelbrekt's rebels. Its decline came by degrees. Gustav Vasa closed the Franciscan friary, and after a Danish army ravaged the town in 1567 it never regained its old standing, though Duke Charles still summoned a Riksdag here in 1595 to strengthen his hand against King Sigismund. All the while the land was slowly rising, the shallow waterway grew ever harder going for the deep-draught Hanseatic cogs, and by the early 18th century the trade of the district had passed to Norrköping.