Herdis Torvaldsdatter

Herdis Torvaldsdatter (on Norrøn : Herdis Þórvaldsdóttir ) (* around 1310, † 1363 ) was the woman with the largest property in Norway in the late Middle Ages.

Her parents were the Shetland Sýslumaður Torvald Toresson (around 1250 - after 1330) and his wife Ragndid Jonsdatter († after 1328). In her first marriage she married the royal treasurer Svein Sigurdsson († 1332), probably in a second marriage to an unknown nobleman.

Her life story shows how a woman in the Middle Ages was able to become the largest landowner in the country through marriage and inheritance.

She was a member of the highest social class in the country from birth. Her father was the most powerful man of his time in the Shetland Islands and the first in their history to be certain. Her mother came from the Sudrheim family, which belonged to the high nobility of Eastern Norway.

Her first husband came from the Kvåle family from Sogndal in Sogn, which had long belonged to the aristocracy of large landowners and many of whom were in royal service. When she married, she received a significant dowry from her parents. She also received a not insignificant fortune from her husband, mostly in the form of real estate in Sogn. That means Herdis was a good match for her significantly older husband. When her husband died in 1332, she was still a relatively young, childless and rich widow. Her fortune is estimated at at least 350 “ forngilde marks ”.

Presumably she married again, this time into a higher social class. Because as Svein's wife she is called "Frú" without the title of nobility. This suggests that Svein was not noble. After 1534 she was named "Frú". Peter Andreas Munch suspects that Herdis was married to the richest man from the most important sex at the time. Bjarne was the son of Erling Vidkunnsson , who owned the largest property in Norway during his lifetime. But that's not for sure.

1355 and 1360 Herdis is occupied in larger real estate deals on the Shetland Islands, where she acquired further lands. As a widow she had a more independent position in business and legal matters than other women.

According to an Icelandic annal , she lived in 1363 at the wedding of Håkon VI. with Margrete Waldemarsdotter in Copenhagen, also a sign of her high social position.

When Herdis died 30 years after the death of her first husband, she had no immediate heirs, neither children, nor parents, nor siblings or nephews. This means that during her lifetime she inherited her parents, her brother and her husband or husbands.

On her deathbed, Herdis determined her inheritance to establish a Cistercian monastery. There was after inheritance's then only allows ¹ / ₁₀ of the self inherited and ¹ / ₄ of the self-Acquired to bequeath the church, this decree required a waiver, which they both also received the King by the Pope. But the monastery was never founded. Rather, their cousins ​​Sigurd and Jon took possession of the estate. As a result, all of their paternal ancestors 'and husbands' holdings passed into their mother's family. This is how the largest real estate complex in the country, the Giske Bjarkøy Estate, came into being.

Individual evidence

The article is essentially taken from the Norsk biografisk leksikon. Any other information is shown separately.

1. ↑ Gottskálks annál to the year 1363: “… var þetta hof j Kaufmanna hofn. var þar svikin frv Blancia drottning og frv Herdis Þorvallds dotter og hertugi Christoforus son Valldimars kongs. "

literature

• Ingvild Øye: Article “Herdis Torvaldsdatter” in: Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on February 26, 2011.
• "Gottskálks annáll" in: Gustav Storm (Ed.) Islandske Annaler indtil 1578 . Christiania 1888. pp. 297-378.