Eric the Victorious
Eric the Victorious | |
---|---|
King of Sweden | |
Reign | c. 970 – c. 995[1] |
Successor | Olof Skötkonung |
Born | c. 945 |
Died | c. 995 |
Burial | |
Consorts |
|
Issue | Olof Skötkonung and daughter of unknown name |
House | Munsö |
Father |
|
Religion | Pagan, possibly briefly Christian |
Eric the Victorious (
Some sources have referred to Eric the Victorious as either King Eric V or Eric VI, modern inventions by counting backwards from Eric XIV (1560–1568), who adopted his numeral according to a 16th-century work on the history of Sweden, Historia de omnibus Gothorum Sueonumque regibus. Whether or not there were any Swedish monarchs named Eric before Eric the Victorious is disputed, with some historians claiming that there were several earlier Erics,[6] and others questioning the reliability of the primary sources used and the existence of these earlier monarchs.[7] The list of monarchs after him is also complicated and sketchy in some early periods, which makes the assignment of any numeral problematic (see Eric and Eric and Erik Årsäll) whether counting backward or forward.
Eric's kingdom
His original territory was in
The extent of Eric's kingdom is unknown. In addition to the Swedish heartland around lake Mälaren it may have extended down along the Baltic Sea as far south as Blekinge. According to Adam of Bremen, and Saxo Grammaticus he was also King of Denmark after defeating King Sweyn Forkbeard. The Stone of Eric also describes a Swedish attack against Denmark as mentioned by Adam of Bremen.
According to the
In all probability he also founded the town of Sigtuna, which still exists and where the first Swedish coins were minted for his son and successor King Olof.[14]
Saga sources
Eric the Victorious is named in a number of
Before that, Eric's brother Olaf died, and a new co-ruler was to be appointed, but the Swedes allegedly refused to accept Eric's rowdy nephew Styrbjörn as such. Eric granted Styrbjörn 60
Two
Saxo Grammaticus also mentions that Erik ruled over Denmark for seven years after an invasion. He does not question the validity of the Swedish conquest of Denmark and claims that the Swedish invasion of Denmark was retaliation for Harald Bluetooth's support of Styrbjörn the Strong. Saxo unlike Adam of Bremen mentions that Eric defeated Sweyn Forkbeard's army decisively in a battle in Scania for the throne of Denmark. [16] Snorri Sturlasson also mentions that Eric manfully defended the realm from invaders and that he also expanded the Swedish realm manfully.
According to saga sources, Eric also had a beautiful daughter. A Swede named Åke desired her. Eric however forbade his marriage proposal, since he knew a king in Russia that he wanted to marry her off to. Åke also was an unworthy man for his daughter. The saga uses the word fylkeskonung to describe the Russian king. The fylkeskonungs all paid tributes to the Uppsala king according to the Yngling Saga and are described as client kings of the kings of Uppsala.[17] Sometimes it means petty king.[18] After that marriage took place Åke got jealous and angry at the Russian king for taking his love. Erik married her off to the Russian king.
Åke retaliated by traveling to Russia with a friend and killing the king and taking Eric's daughter. Åke then allied himself with powerful Swedish jarls to avoid retaliation by Eric. Eric did not want to risk a confrontation since that would lead to much bloodshed in a possible civil war. For some years nothing happened and Åke had a son Edmund, father of Ingvar the Far-Travelled, leader of the Rus expedition to the Caspian Sea. Eric and Åke later had a good relationship and became friends once again.
Before the wedding,
Eric then started a plot for revenge. Eric armed his guards and killed Åke when he was leaving the party drunk together with his drunken bodyguards.
After that Eric started a purge where all jarls allied with Åke were mercilessly killed and their property was confiscated. He spared the child and raised it as his grandson and also spared his daughter and brought them home with him. [19][20]
Adam of Bremen
German ecclesiastic chronicler Adam of Bremen (around 1075) provides by far the oldest narrative about King Eric, and it differs substantially from the sagas. As his source he refers to the current King Sweyn II of Denmark whom he interviewed for his chronicle. Adam of Bremen also uses a similar epithet as the sagas "Victorius" for Erik the "Powerful" or Erik the "Great" the Latin word "potentissimus". [23] Adam places Eric's reign after that of a certain Emund Eriksson, without clarifying how they were related. He does not mention the Battle of Fýrisvellir but relates that Eric gathered a large army and invaded Denmark against King Sweyn Forkbeard. The direct reason for the attack is not given, but somehow it concerned an alliance between Eric and "the very powerful king of the Polans, Bolesław (992–1025). He gave Eric his sister or daughter in marriage".[24] That princess has been identified as Gunhild of Wenden, in some Nordic sources the daughter of a king Burislev (Bolesław).[25] According to other interpretations, she was identical with a woman known in later sagas as Sigrid the Haughty, whose name is possibly a misunderstanding of the Old Polish name Świętosława.[26] Eric's invasion of Denmark was successful. Several battles were fought at sea, and there the Danish forces, attacked from the east by Slavs, were annihilated.[27] After his victory, Eric kept Denmark for a time, while Sweyn was forced to flee, first to Norway, then to England, and finally to Scotland whose king received the refugee with kindness.[28]
According to Adam, Eric's rule in Denmark coincided with increased Viking activity in northern Germany. A fleet of Swedish and Danish ships sailed up the Elbe and landed at Stade in Saxony. A Saxon army confronted the invaders but was badly defeated. Several prominent Saxons were captured and brought to the ships, while the Vikings ravaged the province with no resistance. One of the prisoners, a Margrave Siegfried, managed to escape at night with the help of a fisherman. The infuriated Vikings then maimed their remaining prisoners and threw them ashore. However, Siegfried and Duke Benno soon raised a new army and raided the Vikings encamped at Stade. Another Viking detachment was tricked deep into the desolate marsh of Glindesmoor by a captured Saxon knight and annihilated by pursuing Germans.[29]
Adam characterises Eric as a
Adam's account seems to date the death of Eric the Victorious between 992, when the accession took place in Poland of his ally Boleslaw I (above), and 995, when his son Olof's coinage began in Sigtuna. According to
Family
Various sources and sagas (see above) list King Eric's wives as Sigrid, Świętosława, Gunhild and Aud, of which two or three may have been the same person but depicted differently and under different names. Such sources have also given Eric a total of four known children:
- Olof Skötkonung d. 1022, Eric's only historically attested child
- Emund, allegedly ruled over part of the realm under his brother Olof
- Holmfrid, sometimes credited as a daughter, not a sister, of Olof and married to Sweyn Haakonsson
- Daughter, married to an Åke and grandmother of Ingvar the Far-Travelled
Eric's nephew Styrbjörn and niece Gyrid were allegedly children of his semi-legendary brother and co-ruler Olof, mentioned in connection with Styrbjörn.
See also
- List of Swedish monarchs
- Adam of Bremen
- Icelandic sagas
Notes
References
- ISBN 91-8505763-0
- ISBN 0-521-47299-7
- ^ Listing Archived 2021-11-23 at the Wayback Machine the Royal Court of Sweden
- ^ a b Bolin, Sture, "Erik segersäll"
- Hervarar saga, Saga of Harald Fairhair and Styrbjörn's saga
- ISBN 91-87064-35-9pp. 8–9
- ISBN 978-91-1-302377-9
- ^ Alternatively, it has been speculated that he belonged to a Geatic clan that established its power in the Mälaren Valley and founded Sigtuna in c. 980; see Niels Lund (1995), "Scandinavia c. 700-1066", in Cambridge Medieval History Vol. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 202–27.
- ISBN 0-19-285063-6
- ISBN 978-91-981859-7-3
- ISBN 91-7192-984-3, archived from the originalon 2007-09-30, retrieved 2007-08-18
- ISBN 978-91-981859-7-3
- ISBN 91-7486-421-1
- ^ Ros, Jonas (2002) "Sigtuna och folklanden; den tidiga Sigtunamyntningen och den politiska geografin", Fornvännen 97:3, p. 170 [1] Archived 2017-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The saga of Yngvar the Traveller Archived June 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes, Books I-IX. Översättning av Peter Fisher (2002).
- ^ Snorre Sturlasson (1991). Nordiska kungasagor. 1, Från Ynglingasagan till Olav Tryggvasons saga. Stockholm: Fabel. sid. 59-66. Libris 1266026. ISBN 91-7842-122-5
- ^ Tunstall, Peter (2005). The Saga of Yngvar the Traveller. chapter 1 https://web.archive.org/web/20110726051430/http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/Yngvar.htm
- ^ "Erik Segersäll".
- ^ Sagan om Ingwar widtfarne och hans son Swen (in Swedish), 1762 , scanned pages, alt link
- ^ Finskt museum, Volym 23–29. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
- ^ Numismatiska forskningsgruppen: verksamhetsberättelse 1992-1993 (PDF). Retrieved 7 September 2015."Brenners bestämningsmetoder för mynten före 1300-talets mitt visar inga spår av vetenskaplighet eller analytisk förmåga." English: Brenner's determination methods for the coins before the mid-14th century show no trace of scientific or analytical ability.
- ^ "Erik Segersäll".
- ^ Adam av Bremen (1984) Historien om Hamburgstiftet och dess biskopar. Stockholm: Proprius Förlag, p. 119 (Book II, Scholion 24).
- ^ Adam av Bremen (1984), p. 268–9.
- ^ Fritz, Birgitta, "Sigrid storråda"
- ^ Adam av Bremen (1984) p. 86.
- ^ Adam av Bremen (1984) p. 88.
- ^ Adam av Bremen (1984) pp. 87–8 (Book II, Chapters 31-32).
- ^ Adam av Bremen (1984) p. 91 (Book II, Chapter 91).
- ^ Bolin, Sture, Artikel i Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Band 14 (1953). https://sok.riksarkivet.se/sbl/artikel/15407
- ^ Harrison, Dick (2009) Sveriges historia 600-1350. Stockholm: Norstedts, p. 121.
- ^ De danske runemindesmærker. by: Wimmer, Ludv. F. A., vol 1:2, p. 119 Publication date: 1893