Gunhild Sveinsdotter

Gunhild Sveinsdotter (or Haraldsdotter), "Guda" or "Gyda", old Norse: "Gunnhildr" (d. after 1052), was a Swedish and Danish Mediavel and Viking age queen, queen consort of king Anund Jacob of Sweden and of king Sweyn II of Denmark. Her parentage is not confirmed; she is called Gunhild Svensdotter or Gunhild Haraldsdotter 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 Anundsdotter of Sweden, who is also known under her mother's name Gunhild.

Biography

The information about Queen Gunhild is often contradictive. 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 Holmfrid, daughter of king Olof Skötkonung and sister of king Emund the Old of Sweden.

Gunhild married Anund Jacob on an unknown date, and was the queen of Sweden for about thirty years (1022-1050). Sometimes the marriage is called childless; sometimes, they where said to have a daughter, called Gyda or Gunhild, and Gunhild and her daughter (or stepdaughter) are often confused with each other. Her daughter was married to king Sweyn II of Denmark in about 1047, who had spent some time at the Swedish court during his politicall exile from Denmark, but she soon died,(in 1048 or 1049).

In 1050, her husband died, and dowager queen Gunhild went to Denmark and married her former son-in-law, king Sven Estridsson of Denmark, widower of her daughter. The marriage did not last long; the church considered the marriage illegal, either because they were cousins, or because Swein had ben married to her daughter, and they where threatened with excommunication if they did not separate. Gunhild was thereby forced to return to Sweden, in 1051 or 1052. Gunhild and her daughters marriage with Swein have also often ben confused with each other.

Gunhild returned to her estate in Västergötland. According to legend, she was to have founded the convent of Gudhem Abbey in 1052, but this convent was in reality founded exactly one hundred years later (in 1152). Adam of Bremen calles her "Sanctissima" and describes her hospitability towards Christian missionarys which had ben turned away by king Emund the Old in the 1050s. She is said to have founded a studio of the making of textiles for clerical use.

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

References

* Herman Lindquist, "Historien om Sveriges drottningar"
* Herman Lindquist, "Historien om Sverige"
* Åke Ohlmarks, "Alla Sveriges drottningar".
* Alf Henriksson, "Danmarks historia".

Succession