Eric XI of Sweden - Background

Background

Eric was the son of King Erik X of Sweden and Rikissa of Denmark, the daughter of King Valdemar I of Denmark. According to the chronicle Erikskrönikan written in the early 1320s, Eric is said to have been partly lame. Eric was born after his father, King Eric X, had already died, and in the meantime the fifteen-year-old John I of Sweden from the rival House of Sverker had been hailed king by the Swedish aristocracy, against the will of the Pope, who preferred Eric as king.

Referring to Eric Ericson as King Eric XI is a later invention, counting backwards from Eric XIV (1560–68). He and his brother Charles IX (1604–1611) adopted numerals according to a fictitious history of Sweden. The amount of Swedish monarchs named Eric before Eric XIV (at least seven) is unknown, going back into prehistory, and none of them used numerals. It would be speculative to try to affix a mathematically accurate one to this king.

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