Ingeborg, Duchess of Öland

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. Her half-sister, Margaret I of Scotland, died before she was born.

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

Life

Seal of her husband, Duke Waldemar 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 1312, Ingeborg married Prince Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Finland in Oslo (another match arranged by her mother) in a double wedding with her younger cousin Ingeborg of Norway. (Ingeborg Håkansdotter was the only legitimate daughter of King Haakon.) Her cousin thus married the second son of the king of Sweden, while fifteen-year-old Ingeborg married the third son. Her dower included the island of Öland, whereby she was occasionally mentioned as Duchess of Öland. King Birger of Sweden became her brother-in-law.

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, survivng her late husband long after his death and staying in Sweden until her own death.

Ancestry

Family of Ingeborg, Duchess of Öland

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 9119521227.
• Nationalencyklopedin, Bokförlaget Bra Böcker AB, Höganäs (1992)