See also Helena of Sweden

Helena of Sweden

Helena Sverkersdotter of Sweden, , was a medieval Swedish princess and Danish queen, Queen consort of King Canute V of Denmark.-Biography:Helena, or Elin as she was also called, was born daughter of King Sverker I of Sweden...

Helena Sverkersdotter of Sweden (c. 1190 – 1247) was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 princess

Princess

Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....

 and abbess, daughter of King Sverker II of Sweden

Sverker II of Sweden

Sverker II was King of Sweden from 1196 to 1208.-Biography:...

 and the mother of Queen Catherine of Sweden

Catherine of Ymseborg

-Succession:...

. She was also the Abbess

Abbess

An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....

 of Vreta Abbey

Vreta Abbey

Vreta Abbey, Swedish Vreta Kloster, in operation from the beginning of the 12th century to 1582, was the first nunnery in Sweden, initially Benedictine and later Cistercian, and one of the oldest in Scandinavia. It was located in the municipality of Linköping in Östergötland.- History :The exact...

.

Biography

Helena was born the daughter of King Sverker II of Sweden

Sverker II of Sweden

Sverker II was King of Sweden from 1196 to 1208.-Biography:...

 and queen Benedikte

Benedikte Ebbesdotter of Hvide

Benedicta Ebbesdotter of Hvide was a Swedish queen consort, first consort of king Sverker II of Sweden. In Sweden she was often called Queen Bengta.-Biography:...

. She was born in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, where her father was an exile at that time. In 1195 or 1196, her father was crowned king of Sweden. In 1208, he was deposed, and in 1210, he died in battle.

Helena was the first of the three prominent victims of the Maid Abduction from Vreta, others being her daughter and granddaughter. Helena Sverkersdotter, the only daughter of the deposed King, was educated at Vreta Abbey

Vreta Abbey

Vreta Abbey, Swedish Vreta Kloster, in operation from the beginning of the 12th century to 1582, was the first nunnery in Sweden, initially Benedictine and later Cistercian, and one of the oldest in Scandinavia. It was located in the municipality of Linköping in Östergötland.- History :The exact...

 at the time of her father's death. Her relatives would not even hear the proposal of young Sune Folkason (d.1247), son of an earl who had been among Sverker's opponents in the battle in which he himself fell. Sune Folkesson was of one of the two dynasties that had rivaled over the Swedish throne since 1130, and Helena was from the other, the Sverker dynasty. Sune Folkason abducted Princess Helena and took her, according to folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

, to the castle of Ymseborg. They married, and two daughters survived from the marriage. Thus, the two Swedish dynasties was united, but only in a sideline.

In 1216, the brother of Helena was made King John I of Sweden

John I of Sweden

John I of Sweden was a Swedish king elected in 1216. -Background:John was the son of King Sverker II of Sweden of the House of Sverker and Queen Ingegerd of the Bjälbo dynasty. King Sverker had been beaten in the Battle of Lena and later killed in the Battle of Gestilren in 1210...

. When her brother king John died childless in 1222, lady Helena and her daughters were made heirs of the Sverker dynasty.
One of her daughters, Catherine, was in 1243 married to 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:...

, thus finally uniting the two Swedish dynasties.

Late in life, she is said to have become the Abbess of Vreta Abbey

Vreta Abbey

Vreta Abbey, Swedish Vreta Kloster, in operation from the beginning of the 12th century to 1582, was the first nunnery in Sweden, initially Benedictine and later Cistercian, and one of the oldest in Scandinavia. It was located in the municipality of Linköping in Östergötland.- History :The exact...

.