|
Helena Sverkersdotter of Sweden (c. 1190 – 1247) was a Swedish princess and abbess, daughter of King Sverker II of Sweden and the mother of Queen Catherine of Sweden. She was also the Abbess of Vreta Abbey.
Helena was born the daughter of King Sverker II of Sweden and queen Benedikte. She was born in Denmark, where her father was an exile at that time. In 1195 or 1196, her father was crowned king of Sweden. In 1208, he was deposed, and in 1210, he died in battle.
Helena was the first of the three prominent victims of the Maid Abduction from Vreta, others being her daughter and granddaughter. Helena Sverkersdotter, the only daughter of the deposed King, was educated at Vreta Abbey at the time of her father's death. Her relatives would not even hear the proposal of young Sune Folkason (d.1247), son of an earl who had been among Sverker's opponents in the battle in which he himself fell. Sune Folkesson was of one of the two dynasties that had rivaled over the Swedish throne since 1130, and Helena was from the other, the Sverker dynasty. Sune Folkason abducted Princess Helena and took her, according to folklore, to the castle of Ymseborg. They married, and two daughters survived from the marriage. Thus, the two Swedish dynasties was united, but only in a sideline.
In 1216, the brother of Helena was made King John I of Sweden. When her brother king John died childless in 1222, lady Helena and her daughters were made heirs of the Sverker dynasty. One of her daughters, Catherine, was in 1243 married to King Eric XI of Sweden, thus finally uniting the two Swedish dynasties.
Late in life, she is said to have become the Abbess of Vreta Abbey.