House of Erik

The House of Erik (Swedish: Erikska ätten) was a medieval Swedish royal dynasty with several pretenders to the throne between 1150 and 1220, rivaling for kingship of Sweden with the House of Sverker. The first king from the House of Erik was Erik Jedvardsson, later known as Saint Erik. Almost all the subsequent kings of Sweden have been descendants of the House of Erik.

The House of Erik favored the Varnhem Abbey, and several of its members are interred there.

The foremother of the dynasty was Saint Erik's wife Christina Björnsdotter, whom legend claims to have been the maternal granddaughter of Inge the Elder, the king who abolished paganism in Sweden.

The female first name Catherine seems to have been favored within the Erik dynasty.

History

The ancestral estates of the clan appear to have been Västergötland.

Two branches of the dynasty came into conflict in 1226. Knut Långe, allegedly the adult heir of Filip, younger son of Saint Erik, deposed the underage Erik Eriksson, the Lisp and Lame (läspe och halte), who resumed the kingship in 1234. Conflict continued between the royal senior branch and Knut's two sons until the sons were executed in 1248 and 1251.

Erik Eriksson was the last king of the male line of this dynasty. He died in 1250, apparently with no surviving children. His nephew Valdemar, the underage son of Erik's sister Ingeborg and Birger Jarl of the Bjälbo family, was elected king, with his father Birger acting as a regent.

Descent from this dynasty was regarded as such hard currency in medieval and early modern power games that King Karl Knutsson even fabricated a lineage (see Tofta, Adelsö) to claim that he, too, was an heir of the House of Erik.

See also

• List of Swedish monarchs

External links

• Media related to House of Eric at Wikimedia Commons