Eric "X" of Sweden, Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

: Erik Knutsson; Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

: Eiríkr Knútsson (c. 1180 – April 10, 1216) was the King of Sweden between 1208 and 1216. Also known as Eric the Survivor (Swedish: "Erik som överlevde") when he became King, he was the only remaining son of King Canute I of Sweden

Canute I of Sweden

Canute I, Swedish: Knut Eriksson , was king over all of Sweden from 1173 to 1195...

 and his queen of an undetermined name, who probably was Cecilia Johansdotter

Cecilia Johansdotter of Sweden

Cecilia Johansdotter of Sweden, , is the traditional name of the Queen Consort of King Canute I of Sweden and mother of King Eric X of Sweden.- Biography :...

. He was born around 1180 in Eriksberg royal manor.

Referring to Erik Knutsson as King Eric X is a later invention, counting backwards from Eric XIV

Eric XIV of Sweden

-Family and descendants:Eric XIV had several relationships before his marriage. With Agda Persdotter he had four daughters:#Margareta Eriksdotter , married 1592 to Olov Simonsson, vicar of Horn....

 (1560–68). He and his brother Charles IX

Charles IX of Sweden

Charles IX of Sweden also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, brother of Eric XIV and John III of Sweden, and uncle of Sigismund III Vasa king of both Sweden and Poland...

 (1604–1611) adopted numerals according to a fictitious history of Sweden. The amount of Swedish monarchs named Eric before Eric XIV (at least seven) is unknown, going back into prehistory

Prehistory

Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

, and none of them used numerals. It would be speculative to try to affix a mathematically accurate one to this king.

When Eric's father, King Canute I, died peacefully in 1195, all his sons were only children. Eric apparently was not the eldest of them. Due to the influence of the mighty second-of-the-realm, Jarl Birger Brosa

Birger Brosa

Birger Brosa , jarl of Sweden 1174-1202, d. 9 January 1202 on Visingsö, was a son of Bengt Snivil and a member of the powerful House of Bjälbo...

, Sverker II, the head of the rival dynasty was chosen as King of Sweden, over the underaged boys.

King Canute's sons continued to live in the Swedish royal court, until 1203, when his brothers and family brought forward claims to the throne, and Sverker did not acquiesce, at which point Eric and his brothers escaped to Norway. In 1205, the brothers returned to Sweden with Norwegian support, but lost the Battle of Älgarås

Battle of Älgarås

The Battle of Älgarås took place at the royal estate of Älgarås in northernmost Västergötland in November 1205 between the House of Sverker and the House of Erik fighting for the Swedish crown. The brothers Jon, Joar, Knut and Erik Knutsson were staying at the estate when the Sverker clan attacked...

, where all three of Eric's brothers were killed.

In 1208 Eric returned to Sweden with Norwegian troops and defeated Sverker in the Battle of Lena

Battle of Lena

The Battle of Lena occurred on January 31, 1208, and probably took place near Kungslena , which is located in the Tidaholm Municipality in Västergötland, Sweden....

. Eric became thus chosen the king of Sweden.

Sverker attempted to reconquer the throne, but was defeated and killed in Battle of Gestilren

Battle of Gestilren

The Battle of Gestilren took place on July 17, 1210. The battle was fought between the exiled King of Sweden Sverker and the ruling King Eric. Sverker had been beaten in the previous Battle of Lena, but had returned with new forces. Sverker was killed in the battle...

 in 1210. The banner under which King Eric's troops fought, was preserved by his kinsman the lawspeaker

Lawspeaker

A lawspeaker is a unique Scandinavian legal office. It has its basis in a common Germanic oral tradition, where wise men were asked to recite the law, but it was only in Scandinavia that the function evolved into an office...

 Eskil Magnusson

Eskil Magnusson

-Biography:He was the son of Magnus Minniskiöld, and the elder brother of Birger Jarl, one of the most powerful men of his time in Scandinavia.Due to the location of his jurisdiction and his marriage to Kristina, the widow of the Norwegian earl Hakon the Mad , Eskil had good contacts in Norway and...

 of the Bjelbo clan in Skara

Skara

Skara is a locality and the seat of Skara Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 18595 inhabitants in 2005. Despite its small size, it has a long educational and ecclesiastical history. One of Sweden's oldest high schools, Katedralskolan , is situated in Skara...

, who in 1219 gave it as honorary to his visiting Icelandic colleague Snorre Sturlasson.

At that time, king Eric X married princess Richeza of Denmark, daughter of the late Valdemar I of Denmark

Valdemar I of Denmark

Valdemar I of Denmark , also known as Valdemar the Great, was King of Denmark from 1157 until 1182.-Biography:...

, and sister of the then reigning Valdemar II the Victorious. This was to make up relations with Denmark, which had traditionally supported the Sverker dynasty, against the Norwegian-supported dynasty of Eric.

Eric X was the first Swedish king who was crowned.

He died suddenly in fever in 1216 in the castle of Näs on the island of Visingsö. He was buried in the Varnhem Abbey Church.

Children

• Sophia Eriksdotter (died 1241), married Henry III of Rostock
• Martha Eriksdotter
  Martha Eriksdotter
  Martha Eriksdotter is supposed to have been the daughter of Erik X, King of Sweden. However, her existence has been doubted by modern Swedish historians, and she can have been made up by Charles VIII or his chroniclers to provide him with a more impressive background.She was supposed to have...
  
   married the Marshal
  Marshal
  Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
  
   Nils Sixtensson (Sparre)
• Ingeborg Eriksdotter
  Ingeborg Eriksdotter of Sweden
  Ingeborg Eriksdotter , was a Swedish Princess and Duchess, daughter of king Eric X of Sweden, eldest sibling of king Eric XI of Sweden, wife of Birger Jarl and mother of king Valdemar I of Sweden.- Biography :...
  
   (died 1254), married to Birger Jarl
  Birger jarl
  , or Birger Magnusson, was a Swedish statesman, Jarl of Sweden and a member of the House of Bjelbo, who played a pivotal role in the consolidation of Sweden. Birger also led the Second Swedish Crusade, which established Swedish rule in Finland. Additionally, he is traditionally attributed to have...
  
  , regent of Sweden
• Marianna, who married a duke of Pomerania
• Eric XI of Sweden (1216––1250)

Other

Skáldatal

Skáldatal

Skáldatal is a short prose work in Old Norse. It is preserved in two manuscripts: DG 11, or Codex Uppsaliensis, which is one of the four main manuscripts of the Prose Edda , and AM 761 a 4to , which also contains Skaldic poems...

mentions that Grani Hallbjarnarson was one of Eric's court skald

Skald

The skald was a member of a group of poets, whose courtly poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry .The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is...

s.