Sudreim claim
Encyclopedia
Sudreim-Bjarkøy
-Giske
was a dynasty of claimants and heirs to the Norwegian throne in 14th and 15th centuries.
of the kingdom together with the then king, Haakon V of Norway
.
King Haakon's only legitimate daughter, Ingeborg of Norway
received recognized rights of succession to the Hereditary Kingdom of Norway
for her descendants - but in the eventuality of her line dying out, it was determined that the issue of king's illegitimate daughter Agnes Haakonsdotter born to her in marriage to Havtore Jonsson (ca. 1275–1319) would then be entitled to succession.
Ingeborg's descendants brought the kingship to union with Sweden
, Terra Scania, Denmark
, and even with a variety of Northern German principalities. Norway's kings from her lineage regularly resided elsewhere than in Norway.
"Nationalistic" or "separatist" forces in Norway sometimes pursued having a native Norwegian king who was not to become any other country's ruler - and Agnes' descendants lived in Norway. Accordingly, their ancient right to inherit the throne was claimed and sometimes was to act upon.
Particularly when an Ingeborgian-line monarch died without own direct heirs (as did Olav IV of Norway
in 1387, Eric III of Norway, and Christopher of Norway in 1448), and in any case a remoter relative had to be found to become the successor, that was a situation where some native-minded Norwegians offered the throne to a Sudreim descendant - and always unsuccessfully.
Already in the mid-14th century, Jon Havtoresonn and Sigurd Havtoresonn, sons of Agnes Håkonsdatter referred to as Havtoresønnene, seem to have intrigued against their cousin Magnus VII of Norway (simultaneously king of Sweden), to take Norway from him.
Haakon Jonson, son of that Jon Havtoresonn, is recorded as having been offered the throne in 1387–88, when Olav IV had died. Olav's mother, Queen Margaret I of Denmark
, saved the situation for herself by taking a child, Bogislav of Pomerania (later renamed Eric, becoming Eric III, Eric XIII and Eric VII of countries of the Kalmar Union
) to a session of the Norwegian council and presenting him as legitimate heir. Bogislav-Eric was a maternal great-grandson of Eufemia, daughter of duchess Ingeborg Haakonsdottir, but he was also Margaret's elder sister's grandson - and thus descended from recent kings of all three countries. Haakon Jonson seems to have died childless.
In 1448, when Christopher of Bavaria
died, the Norwegian throne was offered to the elderly Sigurd Jonsson, who was grandson and ultimately the heir of Sigurd Havtoresonn and his wife Ingebjorg Erlingsdottir of Bjarkoy - but he declined. He was holding combined hereditary rights of the Stovreim line (Ingebjorg Erlingsdottir's ancestors) and Agnes Håkonsdatter's Sudreim line. The 1448 offer to the intended "Sigurd III" was made by more or less the same party who after his refusal, worked towards having Karl Knutsson from Sweden as Norway's king instead of Christian I of Denmark
.
The next intriguer of this "dynasty" seems to have been Knut Alvsonn, of the Swedish noble family Tre Rosor, Lord of Giske, Sigurd Jonson's sister's great-grandson, and his ultimate heir (after Sigurd's own son had died childless). He was a Royal Councillor of Norway, and holder of vast landed properties around Norway, having inherited such from his Giske-Bjarkoy-Sudreim ancestors. Knut Alvson was personal enemy of Lord Henrich Krummedige
, a Danish royal governor in Norway - that made Knut somewhat an opposer of the union; and he was anally of Sweden's anti-unionist Regent Sten Sture the Elder
. Knut Alvson is said to have built a basis to grab the Norwegian throne, starting in the late 15th century. He started an open rebellion against King John of Denmark, took some Norwegian castles, but was killed in 1502 by King Johns' minions.
That appears to be the end of this "dynasty"'s open claims to the Norwegian throne (and, "A Night of Centuries" ensued in Norway). However, Knut's granddaughter and ultimate heiress was lady Görvel Fadersdotter (Sparre)
(1516–1605), after Knut's sons were killed in 1520. Upon her death, the Giske-Bjarkoy-Sudreim succession right seems to have gone to descendants of the youngest son of the niece of Sigurd Jonsonn (because Gyrvhild did not have closer cousins living - she seems to have been the last survivor of the entire line of Alv of Giske). The heir of the said younger Tre Rosor line was, at that time, Johan Stensson, 4th Count of Bogesund, who died childless in c. 1612. His undisputed heir was his first cousin baron Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna
, later created 1st Count of Korsholma and Vaasa
in Finland
.
The above-explained family married with highest Norwegian nobility
and was a leading element of it well into early modern age.
Afterwards, Sweden seems to have supported certain lines to be Heir of Norway, in some competition with the King of Denmark.
Bjarkøy
Bjarkøy is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bjarkøy. The municipality is spread across several smaller islands, the biggest being the northern side of Grytøya...
-Giske
Giske
Giske is an island and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It lies north-northwest of the town of Ålesund in the Sunnmøre traditional district. The municipal center is the village of Nordstrand on the island of Valderøy. Other population centers include the villages of Roald and...
was a dynasty of claimants and heirs to the Norwegian throne in 14th and 15th centuries.
History
When in the early 14th century it was foreseeable that the male line of Sverre dynasty would go extinct, Norwegian lords spiritual and temporal arranged the Order of successionNorwegian Law of Succession
The Norwegian Law of Succession was introduced in 1163. The law was an accord between Erling Skakke and Archbishop Øystein, whereby Erling's son Magnus Erlingsson inherited the throne, in exchange for greater power to the church...
of the kingdom together with the then king, Haakon V of Norway
Haakon V of Norway
Haakon V Magnusson was king of Norway from 1299 until 1319.-Biography:Haakon was the younger surviving son of Magnus the Lawmender, King of Norway, and his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Haakon was descended from king Saint Olav and is considered to have been the last Norwegian king in the Fairhair...
.
King Haakon's only legitimate daughter, Ingeborg of Norway
Ingeborg of Norway
Ingeborg of Norway , was a Norwegian and by marriage Swedish princess and royal duchess with a position in the regency governments in Norway and Sweden...
received recognized rights of succession to the Hereditary Kingdom of Norway
Hereditary Kingdom of Norway
The Kingdom of Norway as a unified realm was initiated by King Harald Fairhair in 9th century. His efforts in unifying the petty kingdoms of Norway, resulted in the first known Norwegian central government...
for her descendants - but in the eventuality of her line dying out, it was determined that the issue of king's illegitimate daughter Agnes Haakonsdotter born to her in marriage to Havtore Jonsson (ca. 1275–1319) would then be entitled to succession.
Ingeborg's descendants brought the kingship to union with Sweden
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....
, Terra Scania, 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...
, and even with a variety of Northern German principalities. Norway's kings from her lineage regularly resided elsewhere than in Norway.
"Nationalistic" or "separatist" forces in Norway sometimes pursued having a native Norwegian king who was not to become any other country's ruler - and Agnes' descendants lived in Norway. Accordingly, their ancient right to inherit the throne was claimed and sometimes was to act upon.
Particularly when an Ingeborgian-line monarch died without own direct heirs (as did Olav IV of Norway
Olav IV of Norway
Olaf II Haakonsson was king of Denmark as Olaf II and king of Norway as Olaf IV . Olaf was son of King Haakon VI of Norway and the grandson of King Magnus IV of Sweden. His mother was Queen Margaret I of Denmark which made him the grandson of King Valdemar IV of Denmark...
in 1387, Eric III of Norway, and Christopher of Norway in 1448), and in any case a remoter relative had to be found to become the successor, that was a situation where some native-minded Norwegians offered the throne to a Sudreim descendant - and always unsuccessfully.
Already in the mid-14th century, Jon Havtoresonn and Sigurd Havtoresonn, sons of Agnes Håkonsdatter referred to as Havtoresønnene, seem to have intrigued against their cousin Magnus VII of Norway (simultaneously king of Sweden), to take Norway from him.
Haakon Jonson, son of that Jon Havtoresonn, is recorded as having been offered the throne in 1387–88, when Olav IV had died. Olav's mother, Queen Margaret I of Denmark
Margaret I of Denmark
Margaret I was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and founder of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian countries for over a century. Although she acted as queen regnant, the laws of contemporary Danish succession denied her formal queenship. Her title in Denmark was derived from her...
, saved the situation for herself by taking a child, Bogislav of Pomerania (later renamed Eric, becoming Eric III, Eric XIII and Eric VII of countries of the Kalmar Union
Kalmar Union
The Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population...
) to a session of the Norwegian council and presenting him as legitimate heir. Bogislav-Eric was a maternal great-grandson of Eufemia, daughter of duchess Ingeborg Haakonsdottir, but he was also Margaret's elder sister's grandson - and thus descended from recent kings of all three countries. Haakon Jonson seems to have died childless.
In 1448, when Christopher of Bavaria
Christopher of Bavaria
Christopher of Bavaria or Christopher the Bavarian; as king named Christopher ; Danish and Norwegian: Christoffer af/av Bayern; Swedish Kristofer av Bayern was union king of Denmark , Sweden and Norway .-Biography:He was probably born at Neumarkt in...
died, the Norwegian throne was offered to the elderly Sigurd Jonsson, who was grandson and ultimately the heir of Sigurd Havtoresonn and his wife Ingebjorg Erlingsdottir of Bjarkoy - but he declined. He was holding combined hereditary rights of the Stovreim line (Ingebjorg Erlingsdottir's ancestors) and Agnes Håkonsdatter's Sudreim line. The 1448 offer to the intended "Sigurd III" was made by more or less the same party who after his refusal, worked towards having Karl Knutsson from Sweden as Norway's king instead of Christian I of Denmark
Christian I of Denmark
Christian I was a Danish monarch, king of Denmark , Norway and Sweden , under the Kalmar Union. In Sweden his short tenure as monarch was preceded by regents, Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and Erik Axelsson Tott and succeeded by regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa...
.
The next intriguer of this "dynasty" seems to have been Knut Alvsonn, of the Swedish noble family Tre Rosor, Lord of Giske, Sigurd Jonson's sister's great-grandson, and his ultimate heir (after Sigurd's own son had died childless). He was a Royal Councillor of Norway, and holder of vast landed properties around Norway, having inherited such from his Giske-Bjarkoy-Sudreim ancestors. Knut Alvson was personal enemy of Lord Henrich Krummedige
Henrich Krummedige
Henrich Krummedige , was born circa 1464 in Norway and died in 1530. He was a Danish-Norwegian nobleman and a member of both the Norwegian and Danish National Councils and played an extensive role in the politics of the era...
, a Danish royal governor in Norway - that made Knut somewhat an opposer of the union; and he was anally of Sweden's anti-unionist Regent Sten Sture the Elder
Sten Sture the Elder
Sten Sture the Elder was a Swedish statesman and regent of Sweden from .-Background:...
. Knut Alvson is said to have built a basis to grab the Norwegian throne, starting in the late 15th century. He started an open rebellion against King John of Denmark, took some Norwegian castles, but was killed in 1502 by King Johns' minions.
That appears to be the end of this "dynasty"'s open claims to the Norwegian throne (and, "A Night of Centuries" ensued in Norway). However, Knut's granddaughter and ultimate heiress was lady Görvel Fadersdotter (Sparre)
Görvel Fadersdotter (Sparre)
Görvel Fadersdotter , was a Danish-Swedish landholder and county administrator.- Biography :She was the daughter of Fader Nilsson of Hjulsta and Ängsö Görvel Fadersdotter (Sparre) (Hjulsta, Sweden, 1509 or 1517 - Börringekloster, Scania, 20 April 1605), was a Danish-Swedish (Scanian) landholder...
(1516–1605), after Knut's sons were killed in 1520. Upon her death, the Giske-Bjarkoy-Sudreim succession right seems to have gone to descendants of the youngest son of the niece of Sigurd Jonsonn (because Gyrvhild did not have closer cousins living - she seems to have been the last survivor of the entire line of Alv of Giske). The heir of the said younger Tre Rosor line was, at that time, Johan Stensson, 4th Count of Bogesund, who died childless in c. 1612. His undisputed heir was his first cousin baron Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna
Gabriel Oxenstierna
Baron Gabriel Gustafsson Oxenstierna was a Swedish statesman.Born either in Tyresö, Sweden, or in Reval , he was the son of Privy Councillor Gustaf Gabrielsson Oxenstierna and Barbro Axelsdotter Bielke...
, later created 1st Count of Korsholma and Vaasa
Vaasa
Vaasa is a city on the west coast of Finland. It received its charter in 1606, during the reign of Charles IX of Sweden and is named after the Royal House of Vasa...
in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
.
The above-explained family married with highest Norwegian nobility
Norwegian nobility
Norwegian nobility are persons and families who in early times belonged to the supreme social, political, and military class and who later were members of the institutionalised nobility in the Kingdom of Norway. It has its historical roots in the group of chieftains and warriors which evolved...
and was a leading element of it well into early modern age.
Claimants to Norwegian throne
- Haakon Jonson of Sudreim, in 1387–88
- Sigurd Jonsson (died 1453), in 1448
- Knut AlvssonKnut AlvssonKnut Alvsson was a Norwegian nobleman and politician descended on his paternal grandfather’s side from the influential and wealthy Swedish Tre Rosor noble family, who was active during the period of the Kalmar Union....
(Tre Rosor), in 1499–1502
Heads of the Sudreim dynasty
- Haakon Sigurdsson (d. c. 1407)
- Sigurd Jonsson (d. 1453)
- Hans Sigurdson (d. 1464)
- Agnes Alvsdottir Bolt (c. 1398–1472)
- Alv Knutson
- Knut Alvsson (d. 1502)
- Karl Knutson (d. 1520)
- Eirik Knutson (d. 1520, some weeks after his elder brother)
- Görvel Fadersdotter (Sparre) of GiskeGiskeGiske is an island and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It lies north-northwest of the town of Ålesund in the Sunnmøre traditional district. The municipal center is the village of Nordstrand on the island of Valderøy. Other population centers include the villages of Roald and...
(c. 1516–1605)
- Count Johan of Bogesund (1592–c. 1612)
- Gabriel OxenstiernaGabriel OxenstiernaBaron Gabriel Gustafsson Oxenstierna was a Swedish statesman.Born either in Tyresö, Sweden, or in Reval , he was the son of Privy Councillor Gustaf Gabrielsson Oxenstierna and Barbro Axelsdotter Bielke...
, Count of Korsholma (1586–1656), sometime Governor-General of Finland (Swedish) and sometime Governor of EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
Afterwards, Sweden seems to have supported certain lines to be Heir of Norway, in some competition with the King of Denmark.
- (heir during 1709–58) Hedvig Oxenstjerne av Korsholm, Dowager Countess of Jakobsberg (1682–1758) - the godmother of the future king Karl II of Norway; her ancestry chart