Sophia of Minsk

Sophia of Minsk (also Sophia of Novgorod or Sofia Wolodarowna Minsk ) (* 1140, † 5. May 1198 ) was as a wife of Valdemar I 1157-1182 Queen of Denmark .

Life

Sophia was the daughter of Rikissa of Poland , a Polish king's daughter from the Piast family , and her second husband, Vladimir or Volodar of Minsk and Grodno, from the Rurikids family . The marriage was divorced in 1145. While Sophia returned to Poland with her mother, her brothers Wladimir (Wolodar) and Wisilko stayed with their father. From her mother's first marriage to the Danish prince and Swedish king Magnus , she had a half-brother who became King of Denmark in 1146 as Canute V.

In 1148 Ulvhild Håkonsdatter , the wife of Sverker I of Sweden , the former opponent of Rikissa's first husband, died. With him Rikissa concluded her third marriage. Sophia accompanies her mother to Sweden and grew up at the court of her stepfather. This supported the claims to the throne of Rikissa's eldest son in Denmark, took him on in Sweden when he in front of his fellow king Sven III. had to flee, and gave him his daughter Helena, Sophia's stepsister, to wife. When Knut V was able to regain his throne in 1154 with the support of his cousin Waldemar, the son of Knud Lavard , Sophia was betrothed to Knut's new fellow king Waldemar I to strengthen the alliance.

The wedding only took place after Knut V of Sven III. been murdered and Waldemar after defeating Sven III. on October 23, 1157 had become sole ruler of Denmark. According to legend, she murdered Tove, who had previously been Waldemar's lover, in the bathroom.

After Waldemar's death, Landgrave Ludwig III, who was ten years his junior, recruited . the Pious (around 1151–1190) of Thuringia about the Danish Queen. In 1184 Sophia traveled with a large retinue and from her son Knut VI. endowed with a rich dowry to Thuringia. But Ludwig rejected them before he set out on the Third Crusade . Sophia returned to Denmark, where she died in 1198 and was buried in the Marienkirche (today St. Bendt) in Ringsted next to Waldemar.

Queen Sophia's skull in the National Museum of Denmark (plaster cast)

progeny

With Waldemar I, Sophia had the following children:

• Sophia (* probably 1159; † 1208)
  • ⚭ 1181 Siegfried III. , Count of Orlamünde († 1206)
• Knut VI. (* probably 1162; † 1202), 1182 King of Denmark
  • ⚭ 1177 Gertrud von Sachsen , daughter of Heinrich the Lion ( Welfen )
• Margareta and Maria, nuns in Roskilde around 1188
• Waldemar II the victor (* 1170; † 1241), King of Denmark in 1202
  • ⚭ I 1205 Dagmar (Margareta) , daughter of Ottokar I. Přemysl , King of Bohemia ( Przemysliden )
  • ⚭ II 1214 Berengaria of Portugal ; † 1221, daughter of Sancho I , King of Portugal
• Ingeborg († 1237/38)
  • ⚭ 1193 Philip Augustus , King of France ; † 1223 ( list of the Capetians )
• Helena († 1233)
  • ⚭ 1202 Wilhelm , Duke of Lüneburg († 1213) ( Welfen )
• Rikissa of Denmark (1174-1220)
  • ⚭ 1210 Erik X. , 1208 King of Sweden († 1216)

The marriage with Ludwig the Pious of Thuringia remained childless.

literature

• Johannes Steenstrup: Sophia . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 16 : Skarpenberg – Sveistrup . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1902, p. 162-163 (Danish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

• Sophia's grave