on problematic claims about medieval ancestry of Helena Snak

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M.Sjostrom

on problematic claims about medieval ancestry of Helena Snak

Legg inn av M.Sjostrom » 11 okt 2007 23:25:03

part I - comments to ODNB text

Thanks for sending the DNB biography.
(to the kind contributor who I assume wishes to remain
anonymous to the vast public)
Now I have the exact text about which I recollected as
having found problematic points.

And, verily, it seems to me that there is more
incorrect than correct in ODNB presentation about
Helena's medieval Scandinavian ancestry. Not going as
far as to say "they had everything possible wrong", I
must recommend that ODNB make a better version for
their next edition.

Helena Snakenborg's year of birth is a reliable
estimate, but afaik not exactly confirmed. c 1549.
ODNB mentions 1548.
This all presumably comes from the contemporary
mention of her age at certain time in England before
her marriage.

Her father, indeed Ulf Henriksson, presumably did not
live as long as even to 1583, because his widow Agneta
is known to have married secondly, at a time which has
been estimated to have been in late 1560s (1568,
1569). Ulf's death, of which not the exact info is
preserved, took place presumably in mid-1560s. ODNB is
fairly correct in mentioning its date being
necessarily between 1560-68.

Helena's mother Agneta was Agneta Knutsdotter,
"Knutsdotter" being her patronymic. ODNB has it wrong,
as written "Agneta Knuttson". It seems there is some
idea of seeing the patronymic as surname - practically
only in that way, would a female be "Knutsson", since
-son denotes a son, indeed an easy thing to spot.
However, patronymics froze as surnames in Sweden in
most cases only as late as in the 19th century, and
they are typically peasant surnames. Next to no noble
family has a surname that is directly a patronymic. It
is fairly anachronistic to think that Agneta
Knutsdotter, in 1500s, would have had that sort of
surname.
(Only some highly rare families, say the agnatic
descendants of field marshal Linnardt Torstenson, 1st
count of Ortala, had a frozen -son as established
family name in late 1600s and early 1700s).
Agneta Knutsdotter's family's later surname was Lillie
(from their inherited escutcheon, depicting three
lilies), and Agneta may have explicitly used it in
late stages of her long life.


CLAIM OF ORKNEY ANCESTRY

"her (= Helena's) mother was a descendant of the jarls
or earls of Orkney", as ODNB alleges without any
caution, is a claim unsupported by any historically
attested genealogy.

There exists no historically supported descent from
medieval earls of Orkney to any sustained
late-medieval families of (continental) Scandinavia.
None at all.
There may have been in the 1500s Scandinavian noble
culture (such as in their family stories) some
romantic or mythical descents from Orcadian viking
earls to Scandinavian families. None of such have
support in proper near-contemporary material as to
critical and necessary gateway points.

Which does not mean impossibility that some families
in continental Scandinavia may however at the time
believed their such descent.

There has been some idea that late-medieval kings of
Norway descended in some way from their kingdom's some
vassal earls of Orkney. No historical evidence of how
exactly that would have been possible, exists.
(I have seen an allegation that king Magnus III the
Barefoot's mother, who was king Olav III's concubine,
were daughter of an earl of Orkney, but it strikes as
less than plausible and certainly seems unattested.)

Medieval earls of Orkney have more or less well
attested descent lineages down to certain Scots noble
families. I expect British genealogists know more
about these lineages and weaknesses of their points.
But not to continental Norwegian families with known
descent in Scandinavia to much later eras.

What interests me in the ODNB's above-cited Orkneyan
allegation, is whether it is based on some genealogy
near-contemporary with Helena herself, or on some much
later genealogy or misunderstanding.

If it is a much later import to England (and to
sources used by ODNB contributors), I presume its
worth is next to nonexistent. See above details about
lack of attestation of such lineage.

If it however is a thing introduced by Helena herself
or her close ones to knowledge about her in England in
her own era, then it could signify about what Helena's
maternal family themselves at the time believed about
their ancestry.
Helena and/or her maternal family presumably knew well
who had been Helena's maternal grandmother's mother. A
thing which has in 1920s and 1930s (period when
Elgenstierna volumes were published) been under some
confusion in Swedish nobility genealogy. Two wives of
Göran Hansson of Norrnes and if the first wife left
children at all. Because at one place, Helena's
great-grandmother's identity is mentioned as being
Gertrud Nielsdatter Posse and at another place, being
Ingeborg of Bysta, the second wife.
Gertrud Nielsdatter was presumedly well-known as
lineal descendant of old Norwegian kings through a
bastard. Whereas in Ingeborg's ancestry, there seems
to be no useful link to Norwegian kings nor to their
insular vassals, instead Ingeborg was fairly much a
descendant of Swedish and eastern Danish nobility.
In that case, if an ancestral lineage to insular
Norwegian territories was among family beliefs of the
Norrnes family, it gives further support to the
otherwise also supported (by inheritance of
well-documented property rights, udal rights) idea
that the great-grandmother was the half-Norwegian
Gertrud Nielsdatter Posse, the first wife, and not the
second.


ODNB courageously writes "The name Snakenborg was
taken from her (= Helena's) mother's family, which was
originally from Mecklenburg."

It is well-documented that the name Snakenborg came to
Helena's lineage through his paternal grandfather's
paternal grandmother. Elin Henriksdotter Snakenborg.
That Snakenborg family, indeed, had originally come
from Northern Germany.
And there is no indication in any genealogies, either
good or bad, that Helena's mother, Agneta Knutsdotter,
descended in any way from any Snakenborg.
Thus the biography should read "...from her father's
family...", not "mother's"

That inheritance of the Snakenborg name appears to
have been like a cognatic inheritance after the
agnatic family of original nameholders went extinct.
And, several of marchioness Helena's kinsmen, agnatic
descendants of Elin Henriksdotter Snakenborg, used the
Snakenborg name as surname particularly when abroad,
and there presumably in need of surname, such as when
enrolling to matriculated in some German universities.


part II
DESCENT FROM A NIECE OF ST.BRIDGET OF SWEDEN

The following error is not in ODNB, it is a mistake in
other floating materials about marchioness Helena's
ancestry:

Elin Henriksdotter Snakenborg has an extensive number
of descendants today and had plenty of lineages from
her already in, say, 17th century, when lots of noble
genealogies in Sweden were decorated with desired
ancestries, usually in conjunction with registration
to the House of Knights and Nobility, and when that
institution collected initial stem tables that are
basis of family trees of Swedish nobility.
In many genealogies, her father, Henrik Gerhardsson
Snakenborg, has been written as son of Kristina
Bengtsdotter of Kraakerum, herself daughter of
jarlinna Ingeborg Magnusdotter, heiress of Loholm -
the last-mentioned being the attested daughter of
St.Bridget's elder sister.
However, Kristina's husband Gerhard Gerhardsson
Snakenborg is known to have been married two times,
and Henrik Gerhardsson is explained as son of his
other spouse and not Kristina by arguments given in
Äldre Svenska Frälsesläkter vol II nr 1 (publ 2001),
under the entry Snakenborg. That presentation is
regarded as current standard literature about the
older family of Snakenborg.


M.Sjöström




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