Cecilia Knutsdotter - Cecilia's Father, Duke Canute

Cecilia's Father, Duke Canute

Who was that "Duke Knut", Cecilia's historically mentioned father?

Three sufficiently possible and credible alternatives have been proposed:

• jarl Knut Birgersson of the Bjelbo family, Riksjarl of Sweden who was killed in 1208 in battle of Lena
• Canute, Duke of Reval, holder of Blekinge in southern borders of Sweden - bastard son of king Valdemar II of Denmark and Helena, daughter of Swedish riksjarl Guttorm ("Örnfot")
• jarl Knut Haakonson, claimant of the throne of Norway in late 1220s (leader of Ribbunger party in Norway); son of jarl Haakon Galin (whose father was Folkvid, justiciar of Vermelandia, and mother was Cecilia Sigurdsdottir of Norway, daughter of king Sigurd II) and Kristin Nikolasdottir, daughter of Nikolas Blaka and Karin Eriksdotter of Sweden, daughter of king St.Eric of Sweden.

Knut Birgersson Jarl has been deemed somewhat uneasy choice because of chronological problems. That Knut died 1208, and because of her children's age and her own likely death date, Cecilia firstly need to have been born in the very end of Knut's life (c 1208) when Knut was already elderly (and several decades after birth of that Knut's other attested child/children); and even that makes Cecilia somewhat old for her own marriage and to give birth to her attested children, at last one of whom was executed in 1280 and Cecilia possibly was then living. Additionally, name Cecilia appears not in Knut's immediate family nor his direct ancestry.

Duke Canute is uneasy choice because his descendants married with presumed descendants of Cecilia in generations that were Cecilia his daughter and ancestress of that issue, there would have been a marriage of a lady and her first cousin's son, something not almost ever dispensated in those centuries by church. Additionally, name Cecilia appears not in that Knut's family nor his ancestry.

Finally, claimant Knut Haakonson of Ribbunger, earl of Norway, is uneasy choice (though possibly easiest of these) because he was not generally called duke. He probably would be called king, or earl, or lord, or master, but not easily duke which title was adopted to Norway in Knut's and Cecilia's lifetime as higher than earl (actually, to Knut's father-in-law duke Skule). However, his recognized title jarl is translated as Dux at least in Sweden. The name Cecilia certainly is present in that Knut's ancestry.