Family of Arnund Jacob of SWEDEN and Gunhild SVEINSDOTTER

Husband:	Arnund Jacob of SWEDEN (1008-1050)
Wife:	Gunhild SVEINSDOTTER (1010?-1060)
Children:	Gyda ANUNDSDOTTIR ( - )

Husband: Arnund Jacob of SWEDEN

Name:	Arnund Jacob of SWEDEN
Sex:	Male
Father:	Olaf SKOTKONUNG (980-1020)
Mother:	Astrid INEGRID (979-1022)
Birth	25 Jul 1008	Sigtuna, Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation		King of Sweden
Title	frm 1022 to 1050 (age 13-42)	King of Sweden
Death	1050 (age 41-42)

Wife: Gunhild SVEINSDOTTER

Child 1: Gyda ANUNDSDOTTIR

Name:	Gyda ANUNDSDOTTIR
Sex:	Female

Note on Husband: Arnund Jacob of SWEDEN

Anund Jacob, Swedish: Anund Jakob was King of Sweden from 1022 until around 1050. He is believed to have been born on July 25, in either 1008 or 1010 as Jakob.[1] When the Swedish Thing was to elect him the co-ruler of Sweden, the people objected to his non-Scandinavian name. They then gave him the pronomen Anund, which they did when they found a name too difficult. (See also the later Anund Gårdske). The line of kings appended to the Westrogothic law says that he was called Kolbränna ("Coal-burner") as he had the habit of burning down the houses of his opponents.

 

His political agenda included maintaining the balance of power in Scandinavia, which is why he supported the Norwegian kings Olaf II and Magnus I against Denmark's king Cnut the Great during the 1020s and 1030s. At the Battle of the Helgeå, Anund and Olaf were defeated by Cnut. Archeological finds have shown that Cnut minted coins in Sigtuna, so some historians have inferred that he subjugated the core provinces of Sweden around lake Mälaren for some time.

 

When Magnus I became king of Norway and Denmark in 1042, Anund Jakob supported him until the death of Magnus in 1047. Anund Jakob's reign has traditionally been dated from 1022 to approximately 1050, but there is a great uncertainty over the year he died. He was probably alive 1049, and his brother and successor Emund is certain to have ruled Sweden in the summer of 1060.

 

Two skalds are known to have served Anund Jacob: Sighvatr Þórðarson and Óttarr svarti.

 

The Hervarar saga has very little to tell about Anund:

 

Önundr hét sonr Óláfs konungs sænska, er konungdóm tók eptir hann ok varð sóttdauðr. Á hans dögum fell Óláfr konungr inn helgi á Stiklastöðum. Eymundr hét annarr sonr Óláfs sænska, er konungdóm tók eptir bróður sinn.[2]

King Olaf the Swede had a son called Önund who succeeded him. He died in his bed. In his day fell King Olaf the Saint at Stiklestad. Olaf the Swede had another son called Eymund, who came to the throne after his brother.[3]

 

 

According to Gudmund Jöran Adlerbeth of the Swedish Academy, not long after 1024 the king (as Jakun), blind and dressed in a gold suit, led a Swedish expedition eastward to the other side of the Baltic Sea and provided military reinforcements to his brother-in-law Yaroslav I the Wise in a battle against Mstislav of Chernigov

Note on Wife: Gunhild SVEINSDOTTER

 

Gunnhildr

Queen consort of Sweden

Reign 1022–1050

Spouse Anund Jacob of Sweden

Issue

Gyda of Sweden

Father Sveinn Hákonarson

Mother Holmfrid of Sweden

Born Norway

Died c. 1060

Gudhem, Västergötland, Sweden

Burial Gudhem, Västergötland, Sweden

 

Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttir or Gunnhildr Haraldsdóttir, Guda or Gyda. (Traditionally died in Gudhem, Västergötland, Sweden, c. 1060) was a queen consort of king Anund Jacob of Sweden and of king Sveinn II of Denmark. Her parentage is not confirmed; she is called Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttir or Gunnhildr Haraldsdóttir depending on parentage. She is also sometimes called Guda or Gyda, but this is probably because she is often confused with her daughter, Princess Gyda Anundsdóttir of Sweden, who is also known under her mother's name Gunnhildr.

 

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Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttir or Gunnhildr Haraldsdóttir, Guda or Gyda (traditionally died in Gudhem, Västergötland, Sweden, c. 1060) was a queen consort of king Anund Jacob of Sweden and of king Sveinn II of Denmark. Her parentage is not confirmed; she is called Gunnhildr Sveinsdóttir or Gunnhildr Haraldsdóttir depending on parentage. She is also sometimes called Guda or Gyda, but this is probably because she is often confused with her daughter, Princess Gyda Anundsdóttir of Sweden, who is also known under her mother's name Gunnhildr.

Contents

[hide]

 

1 Background

2 Queen of Sweden

3 Queen of Denmark

4 Later life

5 References

6 Succession

 

[edit] Background

 

The information about Queen Gunnhildr is often contradictory. Some sources claim that she was the child of the Norwegian Saint Harald, but the other suggested parentage is considered more likely. Here, she is said to be the child of the Norwegian jarl Svein Håkonsson and Princess Holmfrid of Sweden, daughter (or sister) of king Olof Skötkonung and sister of king Emund the Old of Sweden.

[edit] Queen of Sweden

 

Gunnhildr married king Anund Jacob on an unknown date. Sometimes, the marriage is called childless, and sometimes, they were said to have a daughter by the name of Gyda, sometimes also kalled Guda or Gunnhildr. It is possible that Gyda was the daughter of Anund by another woman, and that Gunnhildr was her stepmother. Gunnhildr and her daughter/stepdaughter Gyda are often confused with each other. Gyda was married to king Sveinn II of Denmark, who had spent some time at the Swedish court during his political exile from Denmark, in about 1047, but she soon died (in 1048/49).

[edit] Queen of Denmark

 

In 1050, King Anund Jacob died, and Queen Dowager Gunnhildr went to Denmark and married her stepdaughter's widower, her former son-in-law King Sveinn Estridsson of Denmark. The marriage did not last long; the church considered the marriage illegal because they were to closely related - either because they were cousins, or because Sveinn had been married to her daughter - and they were threatened with excommunication if they did not separate. Gunhild was thereby forced to return to Sweden, in 1051/52. Gunnhildr and her daughter's marriage with Sveinn have also been confused with each other.

[edit] Later life

 

Gunnhildr returned to her estates in Västergötland where she, according to tradition, spent her remaining days in pious repentance for her sins and religious acts. She is raported to have founded a studio of the making of textiles and habits for clerical use. Her most known work was a choirgown she made for the cathedral of Roskilde. According to legend, she was to have founded the convent of Gudhem Abbey in 1052/54. In reality, however, this convent was founded exactly one hundred years later (in 1152). It is possible that the legend of the convent came about because she and her women lived an isolated religious life and the making of churchrobes on her estates; one of her estates is believed to have been Gudhem. Adam of Bremen calls her Sanctissima, and describes her hospitability toward the missionary bishop Adalvard, who had been turned away from Skara by King Emund the Old. Tradition says she died in Gudhem, where she had "shown so much virtue" during her set-back, and was buried under a gravestone shaped to her likeness.

 

The years of her birth and death are not known, but she survived her first husband (d. 1050) and lived during the reign of king Emund the Old of Sweden (reign 1050–1061). One suggested date of her death is 1060.