Ingeborg Eriksdottir of Norway

Ingeborg Eriksdottir
Duchess consort of Finland
File:Hertuginne Ingebjørg Eiriksdatter PI XIV 5.jpg Seal of Ingeborg.
Born	1297
Died	1357 (aged 59–60)
Spouse	Waldemar, Duke of Finland
House	House of Sverre
Father	Eric II of Norway
Mother	Isabel Bruce

Ingeborg Eriksdottir of Norway (Norwegian: Ingebjørg Eiriksdatter; 1297–1357) was a medieval Norwegian princess and by marriage a Swedish princess, Duchess of Uppland, Öland and Finland, with a seat in the regency government of her nephew, Magnus IV of Sweden.

Family

Ingeborg was the daughter of King Eric II of Norway and Isabel Bruce. Maternally, she was a niece of Robert the Bruce and first cousin of Marjorie Bruce. She and Marjorie were the same age, but never met. Ingeborg's half-sister, Margaret I of Scotland, died before Ingeborg was born.

She was probably named after her father's mother, also Ingeborg Eriksdotter, a Danish princess.

Life

File:Waldemar of Sweden (1280s) seal 1905.jpg

Seal of her husband, Valdemar, Duke of Finland.

Her father, Eric II, died on 15 July 1299, when Ingeborg was one or two years old. He is remembered as a weak and inoffensive king who was mostly guided by his councillors, and was succeeded by his younger brother Haakon V of Norway, as he died without sons. Her mother never remarried.

In 1300, Ingeborg's mother arranged her three-year-old daughter's engagement to Jon Magnusson, Earl of Orkney (died 1311). The marriage never took place; it is unclear whether the engagement was called off or if he died before her coming of age.

In a 1312 double wedding in Oslo (another match arranged by her mother), Ingeborg married Prince Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Finland, while her younger cousin Ingeborg of Norway, the only legitimate daughter of King Haakon, married Prince Eric Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland. Ingeborg Eriksdottir thus married the third son of King Magnus III of Sweden, while fifteen-year-old Ingeborg Haakonsdatter married Magnus' second son, and King Birger of Sweden became the brother-in-law of the two cousins Ingeborg.

Her dower included the island of Öland, whereby she was occasionally mentioned as Duchess of Öland. In 1316, she had a son who probably died young.

On the night between the tenth and eleventh of December 1317, her husband Valdemar and his brother Eric were arrested and chained during a call on their elder brother King Birger in Nyköping. At the imprisonment of her husband and brother-in-law, she and her cousin and sister-in-law, Ingeborg Håkansdotter, became the leaders of their spouses' followers. On 16 April 1318, "the two duchesses Ingeborg" made a treaty in Kalmar with the Danish duke Christoffer of Halland-Samsö and archbishop Esgar of Lund to free their husbands and not to make peace with the kings of Sweden and Denmark before they agreed to this, and the two duchesses promised to honour the promises they gave in return in the names of their husbands. Later the same year, their husbands were confirmed to have died. No one knows for certain how the two brothers died. They either starved to death or were murdered.

The "two Duchesses Ingeborg" are thus mentioned once in 1318 as acting for the government alongside Mats Kettilmundsson. It appears then as if Ingeborg had a seat at that time in the guardian government of her cousin Ingeborg's underage son, King Magnus, though there is no list of those seat members and no other evidence that she actually was on it. Her sister-in-law did remain a powerful politician for decades. Ingeborg Eriksdotter was styled Duchess of Öland from at least 1340, surviving her late husband long after his death and staying in Sweden until her own death.

Ancestry

Family of Ingeborg Eriksdottir of Norway

16. Håkon III of Norway               8. Haakon IV of Norway                       17. Inga of Varteig               4. Magnus VI of Norway                             18. Skule Bårdsson               9. Margrét Skúladóttir                       19. Ragnhild Jonsdotter               2. Eric II of Norway                                   20. Valdemar II of Denmark               10. Eric IV of Denmark                       21. Berengaria of Portugal               5. Ingeborg of Denmark                             22. Albert I, Duke of Saxony               11. Jutta of Saxony                       23. Agnes of Austria               1. Ingeborg Eriksdottir of Norway                                         24. Robert de Brus, 4th Lord of Annandale               12. Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale                       25. Isobel of Huntingdon               6. Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale                             26. Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Gloucester               13. Isabella of Gloucester and Hertford                       27. Isabel Marshal               3. Isabel Bruce                                   28. Cailean (Nicol) mac Donnchaidh               14. Niall, Earl of Carrick                       7. Marjorie, Countess of Carrick                             30. Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland               15. Margaret Stewart                       31. Bethóc of Angus

References

• Jerker Rosén : Den svenska historien 2. Medeltiden 1319-1520 (The Swedish history 2. The middleages 1319-1520) (1966)
• http://www.snl.no/.nbl_biografi/Isabella_Bruce/utdypning
• Nordberg, Michael (1995). I kung Magnus tid. Norstedts. ISBN 91-1-952122-7.
• Nationalencyklopedin, Bokförlaget Bra Böcker AB, Höganäs (1992)