Helena Pedersdotter Strange (Danish

Danish language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...

: Helene; in Sweden also called Queen Elin) (ca. 1200–1255) was a Swedish Queen Consort

Queen consort

A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...

, spouse of King Canute II of Sweden

Canute II of Sweden

Canute II Holmgersson, called the Tall , was King of Sweden from 1229 until his death 1234. He may have been a great grandson of Eric the Saint, for the sagas give Filip Eriksson, Eric's youngest son, as the father of Holmger, Canute's father...

 and of a Danish noble

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

 family later called Ulfeldt.

Born the child of the Danish knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 Peder Strangesson, she is believed to have married the Swedish regent Knut Långe in about 1225, though the exact year is not known. Knut Långe was since 1222 the regent for the under-aged monarch, King Eric XI of Sweden

Eric XI of Sweden

Eric "XI" of Sweden, or Eric the Lisp and Lame Swedish: Erik Eriksson läspe och halte; Old Norse: Eiríkr Eiríksson was king of Sweden in 1222–1229 and 1234–1250.-Background:...

, and took the throne himself in 1229, thereby making Helena, or Elin as she was often called in Sweden, Queen. Queen Elin used the same seal as her husband on official documents, a curious fact which indicates that she may have exerted some political influence.

In 1234, her husband died, and the deposed King Eric returned. Queen Dowager

Queen Dowager

A queen dowager or dowager queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. In the case of the widow of a deceased emperor, the title of empress dowager is used...

 Elin remarried the noble

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

man Filip Lauresson. In 1247, she witnessed her son from her first marriage rebel against the new monarch; he failed, and was executed in 1248. Her second son was executed in 1251, and the same year, she became a widow

Widow

A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...

. She died in about the year of 1255.

Children

1. Holmger Knutsson
   Holmger Knutsson
   Holmger Knutsson was a Swedish nobleman and a claimant to the Swedish throne during the reign of King Eric XI of Sweden.Holmger Knutsson was the eldest son of King Canute II of Sweden and Helena Pedersdatter Strange...
   
   , d. 1248, executed in a rebellion after the Battle of Sparrsätra of 1247.
2. Filip Knutsson, executed in 1251.

Succession