Sune Sik

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Sune Sik Sverkersson (* 1154), one was a Swedish prince of the House of Sverker (Swedish: Sverkerska ätten) defined by his daughter Ingrid Ylva for ancestors of the later kings of Sweden from the Bjälbo sex was that since the 17th century, as the house of the Folkunger (Swedish: Folkungaätten) is called.

origin

Traditional image of King Sverker I.

Sune Sik came from the Swedish ruling house, which was called the Sverker family (Swedish: Sverkerska atten) after the first significant representative Sverker . It had its center of power in the province of Östergötland in southeast Sweden and came to power with Sverker († murdered December 25, 1156) first in Östergötland and then throughout Sweden, when he was recognized as king of all of Sweden after 1130.

According to the report of the learned historian, clergyman and reformer, Olaus Petri (actually: Olof Persson) (* 1493 in Örebro , † 1552 in Stockholm ), Sune Sik was a son of King Sverker I from his second marriage to Rikissa after 1140 of Poland (Polish: Ryksa Bolesławówna, Swedish: Rikissa Burislevsdotter, * April 12, 1116, † after December 25, 1156) the eldest daughter of Boleslaw III. Wry-mouthed (Polish: Bolesław III Krzywousty), Prince of Poland (1107-1138) of the dynasty of Piast . This view of Olaus Petri on the origin of Sune Sik is also shared by various modern researchers, such as Lars O. Lagerqvist and Nils Åberg. To others, this tendency does not seem entirely certain, which is why Charles Cawley does not mention it in his work "Medieval Lands".

Sune Sik's mother Rikissa was only married to Sune Sik's father in her third marriage. She married in her first marriage around 1127 a son of King Niels of Denmark, Magnus Nilsson , called "the strong", (* around 1106, † falls on June 4, 1134 in the battle of Fodevig ), who because of his mother, the Swedish Princess Margarethe Fredkulla , appeared as a pretender to the Swedish crown and ruled as king in parts of Sweden from 1125 to 1130.

Rikissa married after the death of her first husband around 1135/36 Volodar Gļebovič (* around 1090, † after 1167), the princes of Minsk and Grodno from the Rurikids . This marriage gave birth to the sons Vladimir, who succeeded his father as prince, and Wasilko and the daughter Sophia of Minsk .

Through his mother, Sune Sik was therefore a half-brother of her son's first marriage, Knut III. Magnusson (* around 1129, † August 9, 1157 in Roskilde ), who was King of Jutland in 1147, King of Denmark in 1154 and at the same time the husband of a (not named) half-sister of Sune Sik. His illegitimate son, Niels Knudsen "den Hellige" (the saint), known as "Saint Niels of Aarhus" (* before 1157, † around 1180 in Aarhus ) was venerated as a saint in Aarhus until the 18th century, although he was never canonized has been. His younger son, Waldemar Knutsen , was Bishop of Schleswig from 1182–1208 , a controversial archbishop of the Archbishopric of Bremen-Hamburg from 1192 to 1217 , strived for the crown himself, therefore called himself King of Denmark in the meantime, but became a monk in 1218, lived from 1220 in the Cistercian abbey of Citeaux in France , where he died on July 18, 1236.

Through his mother, Sune Sik was also a half-brother of Prince Vladimir of Minsk and Grodno and Sophia of Minsk (* around 1140; † May 5, 1198), who, as the wife of Valdemar I the Great, was Queen of Denmark from 1157 to 1182 was.

Life

No documented data have been preserved about the life of Sune Sik, but some circumstances of his life are known or can be inferred from contemporary developments.

Prince of Sweden

Sune Sik was 1154 as a Swedish prince and the youngest son of his father, King Sverker I. born. He had no prospect of ever succeeding his father as King of Sweden, as he had two half-brothers from his father's first marriage - Karl Sverkersson and Jon Sverkersson - and from his second marriage also an older full brother Burislev Sverkersson .

Murder of the father

Even without a prospect of the crown, his life was overshadowed by battles for the throne, as several magnate families fought for the Swedish crown. Already two years after his birth he lost his father, King Sverker I, as he was on the way to the monastery church of Alvastra (in Östergötland, south of the city of Vadstena ), where he wanted to take part in the Christmas mass on the morning of December 25, 1156, was killed. According to Saxo Grammaticus (* around 1140, † around 1220), a rival pretender to the throne, the Danish prince Magnus Henriksson, was suspected of instigating this crime, which was shocking even by medieval standards .

King Erik "the saint"

Magnus Henriksson, whose claims to the Kingdom of Sweden were based on his mother Ingrid Princess of Sweden († after 1161) from the family of Stenkil (Swedish: Stenkilka ätten), did not succeed in seizing power immediately because it there was another stronger rival for the crown - Erik Jedvardsson - who ruled Västergötland as sub-king . He is named in the list of kings as the successor to Sverker I and as a predecessor of Magnus Henriksson and is therefore likely to have ruled for only four years - from 1156 to 1160. Although he became the progenitor of the powerful Eriks dynasty (Swedish: Erikska atten), he shared the fate of his predecessor, because he, too, was murdered at the instigation of Magnus Henriksson on May 18, 1160 at the Trinity Church of Östra Aros ( Uppsala ). The legend took over his life and death, so that he was venerated as a saint as early as 1198 and is now considered the patron saint of Sweden.

Half brother of the king

When Sune Sik was six years old, the presumed murderer of his father, the Danish prince Magnus Henriksson, came to power, but ruled as Magnus II King of Sweden for just under a year from 1160 to 1161. According to the royal chronicle, the sudden end of his reign goes back to the fact that he was defeated and killed in a battle by the half-brother of Sune Sik - Karl Sverkersson - in 1161 near the city of Örebro (in today's province of Örebro län ). The son thus avenged the murder of his father by killing his killer. Sune Sik was thus (half) brother of the new King of Sweden Charles VII. Sune Sik's mother had survived her husband in 1156, but since she is no longer mentioned in documents, she should have died soon afterwards. It can therefore be assumed that Sune Sik grew up in the household of his half-brother Karl Sverkersson, who had ruled as king in Östergötland since 1158 and was crowned king of all Sweden as Charles VII in 1161 . However, this was also not granted a long reign, as he was in the spring of 1167 on Visinggö by Knut Eriksson - the son of King Erik IX. Jedvardsson, the Saint - was ambushed and killed.

Fight against King Canute I. Eriksson

After his predecessor was eliminated, Knut Eriksson was crowned King of Sweden as Knut I and ruled until 1196.

With the death of his half-brother, King Charles VII, Sune Sik lost his protector again at the age of 13. The head of the Sverker family was now nominally his nephew Sverker Karlsson , the child son of Charles VII, but de facto Burislev Sverkersson , the older brother of Sune Sik. After the death of his half-brother Charles VII. In 1167, Burislev was proclaimed King of Sweden in Götaland and, together with his illegitimate half-brother Kol Sverkersson, took up the fight against the usurper, which his younger brother Sune Sik may have also joined. Burislev was defeated, however, and was either killed by the men of King Knut around 1169 or fled to Poland to his mother's relatives around this time. The fight was continued by Karl Johannsson and Burislav Johannsson, the sons of the half-brother of Sune Sik, Johann Sverkersson, who was murdered in 1153/54. However, they too were defeated and died in 1173 fighting against King Canute I Eriksson, who was able to consolidate his power in Sweden.

Grave monument from the 16th century. Füt Sune Sik in the monastery of Vreta

Whether Sune Sik fled to his mother's relatives in Poland in view of the defeat of his family and only came back to Sweden later, when, after the death of King Knut I Eriksson, his own nephew Sverker Karlsson became King of Sweden in 1196 as Sverker II (1196 –1210), seems possible, but, like his further fate, cannot be proven.

tomb

In the church of the oldest Swedish monastery, which was donated by King Inge I of Sweden and his wife around the year 1100 , the monastery Vreta in today's Swedish municipality Linköping , west of Lake Roxen , there is the tomb of a Sune Sik, where However, it is not entirely clear whether it is about Sune Sik, who is treated here, or a person of the same name who only lived at the end of the 13th century and who made a donation to the abbey in 1297. Various Swedish historians, such as Lars O. Lagerqvist, Nils Åberg and Nils Ahnlund, assume that it is the grave of the Swedish prince in question, which was subsequently changed.

Marriage and offspring

The name and origin of Sune Sik's wife are not known.

Children:

Family coat of arms of the Folkung dynasty ("Folkung lion")

Sune Sik had at least one known daughter:

  • Ingrid Ylva, † 1251, ⚭ Magnus Minnesköld zu Bjälbö (* around 1175, † died on January 31, 1208 in the Battle of Lena ). He came from the Bjälbo dynasty and through this marriage became the closer progenitor of the dynasty, later referred to as the “Folkunger”, which was connected to the older royal dynasty of the Sverker by Jngrid Ylva. Descendants (excerpts):

See also

List of kings of Sweden

literature

  • Lars O. Lagerqvist, Nils Åberg: Kings and Rulers of Sweden. Stockholm 2002, ISBN 91-87064-35-9 .
  • Nils Ahnlund: Historisk tidskrift. 1945, pp. 332-351.
  • Halfdan Koht: The Scandinavian Kingdoms until the end of the thirteenth century. Cambridge University Press, 1929.
  • Detlev Schwennike (Hrsg.): European family tables for the history of the European states. Verlag JA Stargardt, Marburg 1980 New series, Volume II.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b European Family Tables New Series. Volume II. Plate 115.
  2. ↑ a b Lars O. Lagerqvist, Nils Åberg: Kings and Rulers of Sweden. 2002, ISBN 91-87064-35-9 , p. 15.
  3. ^ Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands.
  4. ↑ a b European Family Tables New Series. Volume II. Plate 98.
  5. ↑ fmg.ac
  6. ^ Nils Ahnlund: Historisk tidskrift. 1945, pp. 332-351.
personal data
SURNAME Sune Sik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sune Sik Sverkersson (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish prince from the Sverker family (Swedish: Sverkerska ätten)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1154
DATE OF DEATH 12th Century