Helena Pedersdatter Strange

Helena Pedersdatter
Queen consort of Sweden
Arms of the House of Ulfeldt
Reign	1229–1234
Spouse	Canute II of Sweden
Father	Peder Strangesson
Mother	Ingeborg Esbernsdatter
Born	1200
Died	1255

Helena Pedersdotter Strange (Danish: Helene; in Sweden also called Queen Elin) (ca. 1200–1255) was a Swedish Queen Consort, spouse of King Canute II of Sweden and of a Danish noble family later called Ulfeldt.

Her father was the Danish knight Peder Strangesson and her mother was Ingeborg Esbernsdatter, of the noble Hvide clan, a niece of Danish Archbishop Absalon. She is believed to have married the Swedish regent Knut Långe in about 1225, though the exact year is not known. Knut Långe was since 1222 the regent for the under-aged monarch, King Eric XI of Sweden, and took the throne himself in 1229, thereby making Helena, or Elin as she was often called in Sweden, Queen. Queen Elin used the same seal as her husband on official documents, a curious fact which indicates that she may have exerted some political influence.

In 1234, her husband died, and the deposed King Eric returned. Queen Dowager Elin remarried the nobleman Filip Lauresson. In 1247, she witnessed her son from her first marriage rebel against the new monarch; he failed, and was executed in 1248. Her second son was executed in 1251, and the same year, she became a widow. She died in about the year of 1255.

Children

1. Holmger Knutsson, d. 1248, executed in a rebellion after the Battle of Sparrsätra of 1247.
2. Filip Knutsson, executed in 1251.

References

• Åke Ohlmarks: Alla Sveriges drottningar (All the queens of Sweden) (Swedish)

Succession