Cecilia Johansdotter of Sweden
| Cecilia Johansdotter | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of Sweden | |
| Tenure | 1167–1190 |
| Spouse | Canute I of Sweden |
Cecilia Johansdotter of Sweden (fl. 1193) is the possible name of the Queen consort of King Canute I of Sweden and mother of King Eric X of Sweden.
Despite the fact that she was queen for over twenty years, the queen consort of King Canute is one of the most unknown of Swedish queens. Neither her name, her parents or her birth and death years are confirmed. Canute I stated in a letter to Pope Clement III that his bride was the only one who was of sufficiently high status to marry him, which may point to royal connections. Some sources guess that she was the daughter of John, son of King Sverker I of Sweden (d. 1156). The assumption that she carried that name rests on the hypothesis that an annal entry from the 14th century has been twisted. This text states that the mother of Eric the Saint (d. 1160) was called Cecilia, the sister of Ulf Jarl and Kol and the daughter of a king Sven (presumably alluding to Blot-Sweyn). This in turn can be compared with a genealogy that mentions Ubbe (Ulf), Kol and Burislev as the sons of John Sverkersson. Their implied sister Cecilia would then have been the mother of Eric X of Sweden, whose father was Canute I, rather than being the mother of Eric the Saint. The hypotheses might be strengthened by a 13th-century painting in the church of Dädesjö mentioning the names Canute and (possibly) Cecilia.
However, a marriage alliance between the two feuding royal clans of Sverker and Eric is not entirely plausible. A contemporary document shows that she was the sister of another nobleman called Canute, known in an (alleged) lost document as Canute Ulvhildsson. According to an alternative hypothesis, the Queen's brother Canute was the son of an Ingeborg, daughter of Sigvard. These three persons were all donators to Vårfruberga Abbey. Some early-modern writers allege that the queen was a sister of Jarl Birger Brosa which is considered highly unlikely. As a girl (juuencula), the lady was to have been married to Prince Canute Eriksson about the year 1160, but the murder of Eric the Saint forced her to enter a convent while Canute escaped. In 1167, seven years later, her husband became King and she was made Queen of Sweden.
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