Kristin Håkonsdatter

Statue of Kristina at her burial site in Covarrubias

Sarcophagus of Princess Kristiana in the Covarrubias Monastery Church

Kristin Håkonsdatter (* 1234 in Bergen ; † 1262 in Seville ) was a Norwegian princess. In 1258 she married Prince Philip, brother of the Spanish King Alfonso X of Castile and León .

Life

Her parents were King Håkon Håkonsson and his wife Margarete Skulesdatter .

In the autumn of 1256 a delegation that King Alfonso X had sent to Tønsberg came to solicit Kristin for one of his brothers. King Håkon agreed that she should marry the brother she and her entourage liked best.

According to the Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar , she drove on a newly built Snekka first to Yarmouth , then to Normandy , then overland to Narbonne and from there traveled via Barcelona and Burgos to Valladolid in Castile. In their wake were some leading figures in Norway, including Bishop Peter von Hamar and Lodin Lepp . There she met King Alfonso, who introduced her to his brothers. She liked Philipp best. He was, however, destined to be Bishop of Seville , but had no inclination to the spiritual office. The wedding took place on March 31, 1258 in the collegiate church of Santa Maria la Mayor. They then moved to Seville and lived in the “Vib arragel” palace. There she died childless four years later. She was buried in a sarcophagus in Covarrubias .

Worth knowing

In Copenhagen there is a psalter that, according to the inscription, belonged to Kristin. This book is richly illustrated and produced in a workshop in Paris around 1230.

reception

The national romantic poet Andreas Munch published a poem about Kristin in 1861: “Kongedatterens brudefart” in twelve romances.

literature

• Audun Dybdahl: "Kristin Håkonsdatter" in: Norsk biografisk leksikon .