did Johanne Barnumsdatter of Skarsholm leave issue or not?

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M.Sjostrom

did Johanne Barnumsdatter of Skarsholm leave issue or not?

Legg inn av M.Sjostrom » 19 nov 2007 10:26:01

In Denmark, in very early 1400s, there yet lived a
(presumably at least adolescent) noblewoman, lady
Johanne Barnamsdatter, heiress of Skarsholm, Uglerup
and Soetorp; who was daughter of the yet surviving
dowager, lady Edel Jacobsdatter af Hojbygaard, heiress
of Uglerup and Soetorp (flourished 1408), and her
deceased husband, Barnum Eriksen, lord of Skarsholm,
last agnate of his line (= an illegitimate branch of
the Danish Royal House of high medieval era [ESNF III,
table on Skarsholm family]), who had died before 30
March 1401.
It looks like that Johanne Barnumsdatter had inherited
Skarsholm from her father. She married a widower, Hans
Henningsen Podebusk [ESNF VIII table on Putbus]. That
Johanne married, should mean she were at least
adolescent, and probably a young adult.

It is recorded that in 1408, young Johanne's surviving
mother lady Edel, sold the Skarsholm property to the
Danish crown.

I believe that lady Johanne Barnamsdatter had deceased
before 1408, but after her father lord Barnam Eriksen
(dc 1401). And that lady Johanne Barnamsdatter's
marriage were without surviving children, probably
childless.
This is because of the inheritance pattern: a daughter
regularly inherited from her father, whereas father's
widow did not directly inherit. But if daughter died
heirless, the surviving widowed mother inherited by
common rule her deceased daughter, and thus became
owner of something which her late husband had
originally possessed.
The attested inheritance pattern (= dowager Edel owned
the property a while after her husband's death) is
strongest evidence that Johanne Barnumsdatter must
have been childless when she died.


However, there existed also a noblewoman, attested in
1437, lady Johanne Hansdatter Podebusk (d after 1437),
daughter of the said Hans Henningsen Podebusk, lady
Johanne Barnumsdatter's onetime husband.
Schwennicke in ESNF VIII (table on Putbus) has made
this Johanne Hansdatter as daughter of Johanne
Barnamsdatter.
I believe this is a mistake.

Johanne Hansdatter Podebusk married Mathias Nielsen,
Lord of Vindum (d bef 1428). From them, seemingly
descends a lineage of lords of Vindum and Viskum in
Denmark.

There is of course the identical baptismal name
Johanne of both, Johanne Barnamsdatter and Johanne
Hansdatter. This may lead to hasty conclusions, in
other words, due to identical baptismal names, one
would be the other's daughter.
However, in medieval Scandinavia, daughters
(particularly eldest ones) very rarely if ever got
their own mother's name. Preferably they were baptized
in honor of grandmothers (and often not been given
even a living grandmother's name, before her death),
and/or of a recently dead female close relative.
Fairly often, eldest daughter of the next wife of the
father, got his previous wife's baptismal name (as
sort of atonement, I think).

The name Johanne may simply come from father's family,
Johanne is female form for that "Hans", for example.

This Johanne Hansdatter more probably would be a child
of lord Hans Podebusk's other attested wife, Kirsten
Christensdatter af Vendelbo; herself daughter of
Danish councillor, knight Christen Pedersen af
Vendelbo, Lord of Truedsholm (dc 1400), and lady Ellen
Nielsdatter af Hald, heiress of Vosborg and
Stovringgaard.
Or Johanne Hansdatter were a daughter of lord Hans'
some unknown third spouse or partner.

It is almost a rule in medieval Scandinavian naming
that only in case where mother deceased in or soon
after the childbirth, before the child got her
baptismal name; mother's name could be given to the
surviving baby daughter.
But if the mother survived, a daughter would have been
given some other name than that of her mother.
This point weakens further the idea that Johanne
Hansdatter had been JOhanne Barnamsdatter's child.

However, as I argued, the main and strong point
against that filiation is the surmised inheritance
pattern.

If Johanne Barnumsdatter had left a surviving daughter
(whose survival is attested by her living to an age to
marry and have children to start that Vindum and
Viskum lineage), such daughter would, as a rule,
inherited Skarsholm. And there would be no power that
the dowager, lady Edel, were able to sell it.


I think this is either a mistake by Schwennicke, or
alternatively, if he had some non-contemporary,
somewhat later source for that filiation, then it
would be a case of fabrication for gain of a
spectacular pedigree, made by some later family.
Afterwards, when factual genealogy already was almost
forgotten, there very likely was high desire to
descend from Johanne Barnamsdatter of Skarsholm. Her
father Barnam Eriksen of Skarsholm descended in male
line from Knud Valdemarsen, Duke of Estonia, lord of
Laland and Blekinge, who was natural son of king
Valdemar II of Denmark. Royal blood could have been
claimed through Johanne Barnamsdatter, irrespective of
facts that support the conclusion she died issueless.

Barnum Eriksen actually is an interesting case in
another regard. In 1375, upon the death of king
Valdemar IV of Denmark, the legitimate agnatic line of
king Svend Estridsen (= Sweyn IV of Denmark) went
extinct.
In Viking-era Scandinavian tradition, illegitimate
males were also eligible to succeed to the royal
throne. Barnam Eriksen of Skarsholm, an agnate of the
dynasty through the said illegitimate lineage, was
very alive yet in 1375 and 1376 when the late king
Valdemar's daughter queen Margrethe managed to get her
underage son, Oluf Hagensen of Norway, a cognate,
chosen as king of Denmark (Oluf II of Denmark). And
the agnate Barnam Eriksen was yet very living when
young Oluf deceased in 1387 and Denmark fell into
regency-like situation of a few years without a male
monarch.
Something had radically changed from high medieval
centuries, in span of less than three centuries,
because it seems that Barnum Eriksen was not even
thought for the throne in those situations in 1375 and
1387.


M.Sjöström



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