biography draft of Magnus Bengtson of Goksholm, a Swedish no

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M.Sjostrom

biography draft of Magnus Bengtson of Goksholm, a Swedish no

Legg inn av M.Sjostrom » 19 nov 2007 23:58:03

-constructive comments, corrections and amends
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Magnus Bengtson of Göksholm (dc 1476), baptismal name
also rendered in more vernacular mode as ‘Måns’, was
born presumably in 1410s, as the only known surviving
son and main heir of knight Bengt Stenson of Ekhult
and his first wife lady Kerstin Magnusdotter, heiress
of the Göksholm castle.
Göksholm castle has always been a private fortress,
located in Nericia, in a strategical place, near shore
of Lake Hjelmaren. Today, the current estate there,
its buildings including the old fortress, are in
private ownership of baron Eric Leijonhufvud, a
descendant of Magnus.

The highest root in Magnus' ancestry was seemingly the
descent from Danish kings and dukes, from Sverker
dynasty of Sweden, as well as from Swedish riksjarls
and from the Norwegian-Irish king Harald ‘Gille’, all
this through his great-great-grandmother Cecilia
Knutsdotter of Aspenes. Magnus’ other roots display,
in light of today’s genealogical and historical
knowledge, nothing special compared with regular
families of late medieval nobility.
His own agnatic family itself came to concoct a legend
of a specific descent from a king Sigtryg of Nericia,
a local purported monarch mentioned in Norse sagas,
contemporary with king Olav II the Saint of Norway -
which unhistorical family lore apparently was
connected with his maternal inheritance of Göksholm, a
central location in Nericia.

Magnus’ family was one of influential ones in Sweden.
The High Council of Sweden of that era on one hand
corresponds the government cabinet of today, on the
other hand was semi-hereditary constitutional hotbed
of aristocratic oligarchy.
Paternal grandfather had been knight Sten Bosson (d
1411), High Councilman in Sweden. His father, knight
Bengt was High Councilman at least since 1413, and
since 1410 justiciar of Nericia.
Of his uncles, knight Bo Stenson of Bergunda was also
High Councilman and married with Cathrine Svendsdatter
Sture, the heiress of the earlier privateer chieftain
Svend Nielsen Sture in Visby (this made his tad
younger contemporary, knight Nils Bosson Sture, lord
of Horningsholm, Ekesiö etc, bc 1426, as his first
cousin). Another paternal uncle, Nils Stenson of
Ekhult, was High Councilman too, and became known as
early opponent of his own brother-in-law Charles
Canuteson (thus uncle Nils came to flee to Gotland
where the deposed king Eric made him High Constable).
Magnus’ maternal aunt’s widower was High Councilman
Nils Erengislason of Hammersta. Their children
included Birgitta Nilsdotter of Hammersta, wife of
Erik Nilsson Puke, about whose operations as to
burning fortresses of one’s own aunts more details
below.
Young Magnus’ great-uncle Canutus Boetii (d 1436) was
yet bishop of Linköping, the richest diocese of all
Sweden. A paternal uncle, Birgerus Stenonis (d aft
1434) was archdeacon of Linköping.
Another paternal great-uncle, knight Nils Bosson of
Lindholmen (d aft 1432) was High Councilman.
The widower of a great-aunt was the High Councilman,
knight Algot Magnuson, lord of Revsnes (d 1426). Via
this kinship, Magnus came to have a second cousin once
removed at the helm of the state since 1470, when Sten
Sture (known as ‘Sten Sture the Old’) became Regent of
Sweden.
Magnus’ more remote cousins included the issue of late
high seneschal Bo Jonson of Gripsholm, Sweden's
wealthiest man throughout apparently all history.
And, finally, it behooves to mention that, as part of
high nobility’s general kinship network, many of
Magnus’ more distant cousins, and husbands of female
cousins, were High Councilmen and castellans – in
those days a circle which more or less held almost all
seats in the High Council.

Magnus' only known sister, Birgitta Bengtsdotter of
Göksholm (d bef 1462), married 1453 knight Arnd
Bengtson of Nynes, of the ancient House of Langnes.
She probably did not leave surviving issue.

Magnus used the Coat-of-Arms, lion with half a lily
but customarily called the leopard crest, of his
maternal grandfather, knight Magnus Håkanson. Magnus
Bengtson’s father's Coat-of-Arms were simply the
combination of a dark field and a light field, a
typical easy depictation for use of a lowly military
family of high medieval era, as distinct to
high-medieval complicated depictations of mythical
creatures typical to that era's high-nobility families
of Sweden. And that probably was behind Magnus'
choice: in his time, it was more exalted to have an
animal than just simple lines in one’s escutheon.

The youth of Magnus of Göksholm included the violent
context of the 1430s "peasant" revolt in Sweden, led
by the minor nobleman Engelbrekt Engelbrektson from
dalecarlia (from a hereditary mining community there)
against bailiffs of king Eric of the Scandinavian
union; which had taken the role of proto-nationalistic
Swedish, commoner-ingrained, independence movement
against the union and central government.
The revolt movement, successful in itself, had come to
include two mainstreams:
- the oligarchy-oriented, autonomy- or
independence-friendly Swedish high nobility, who
controlled the High Council of Sweden, and were lead
by Charles Canuteson, the newly chosen High Constable
of Sweden (that camp would have best appreciated an
aristocratic republic, seemingly)
- the (original) spirit of peasant and commoner
revolt, against tax-gatherers of the king, and by
extension against burdens caused by any central
government, mistrustful of the native lords'
intentions as to potential oppression and burdening
the commons. Erik Puke and Engelbrekt came to be
perceived as icons of that spirit. From the beginning,
Engelbrekt more or less asserted himself against the
old families of the High Council.
(this sort of camp, in developments of later
centuries, came to favor absolutist national monarchy
in Sweden)

There was a grave personal case of strife between on
one hand Engelbrekt (and the "peasant" rebels overall)
and on the other hand Bengt Stensson of Ekhult,
Magnus' father, a member of high nobility. Which,
presumably according to standards of the era, became a
family feud.
Knight Bengt had been among King Eric XIII's foremost
men and a royal official. The background of the
quarrel evidently had been that Bengt as governor of
Telje had confiscated property which belonged to the
Hanseatic League, whose protectibles had earlier
received a guarantee from Engelbrekt. Engelbrekt had
given another revolt leader Erik Nilsson Puke, his
ally (and married with Magnus’ one cousin, his
mother’s niece), the task of reducing Bengt's
insubordinance. Bengt's wife and Magnus' mother,
chatelaine Kristina, led the defense of the castle of
Telje against his niece’s husband Erik, but had to
surrender when besiegers put it to fire.
At Örebro Engelbrekt reached in early 1436 an
agreement with Bengt Stensson that their case should
be settled by the High Council. When Engelbrekt with a
retinue then was on travel toward Stockholm and
resting on a small island in Lake Hjelmaren near
Göksholm, on 27 April 1436 he was attacked and
murdered by Magnus, then a young squire, and his
henchmen. We can guess that it was particularly the
treatment of his noble mother which had infuriated
young Magnus, who presumably was around 20 at the
time.
Charles Canuteson, the future king, and at the time
the co-regent of Sweden with Engelbrekt, belonged to
old noble families and he gave Magnus, the murderer,
free safe conduct.

Engelbrekt had been a danger to the power of the old
families of high nobility, and more or less
specifically that fact resulted in his losing his
life. Erik Puke also became eliminated by being
convicted and executed early in the year of 1437.
Engelbrekt, his fame and martyrdom, was soon exploited
by leaders of struggle against union government and
the king. For the common people he became a martyr who
fell in the struggle against foreign bailiffs and
foreign misrule. And his name has resurrected now and
then, throughout centuries, in ideologies of
nationalistic Swedish movements.

What the revolt leader Engelbrekt had accomplished,
was chiefly that the victory of Hanseatic League over
Eric of Pomerania was settled, and in that way the
Hanseatic League won the Scandinavian union.

Magnus himself fled from Sweden and joined king Eric
in Gotland, becoming more or less a buccaneer like his
royal master. Magnus was there much the same time as
his uncle Nils, whose ‘exile’ was due to opposing
Charles Canuteson.
Magnus' father, high councillor Bengt (d 1451), became
after 1440 a more or less steady supporter of high
constable Charles Canuteson.

Magnus was knighted in or before 1442, possibly at a
coronation of the new Scandinavian union king,
Christopher from Bavaria. Some time in 1440s Magnus
returned to Sweden.

After Christopher’s unexpected death, Charles
Canuteson was electioneered as king of Sweden in 1448
at a so-called election in Mora Stones, surrounded by
his armed troops. Afterwards, Magnus was granted the
command of the unimportant fortress of Brandaborg,
then he became, since 1451, High Councilman, and
justiciar of Nericia as successor of his father.

However, his capricious rebelliousness was not over,
nohow. In mid-1450s Magnus joined the archbishop Jons
Bengtson's faction, in opposition to king Charles, and
in favor of oligarchy of nobility. They managed to get
king Charles exiled in 1457. A rapidly oscillating
period followed for a decade: Danish king recognized
as monarch, or a Swedish regent chosen by High
Council, or another regent, or return of king Charles,
or re-exiling him.

In mid-1460s Magnus joined the aristocratic opposition
against archbishop Jons, who had acted as regent for a
brief period. They made councillor Eric Axelson as
regent, and it meant the end of king Charles’ unlucky
years, because in 1467 he was recalled from his most
recent exile, and he was allowed to remain king for
the rest of his life, however strongly restricted by
powers of aristocratic leaders.
Magnus, then probably already over fifty years old, is
recorded as participant of the siege of Örebro
fortress in 1467, a pursuit where Iver Axelsen of the
island of Gotland, son-in-law of king Charles, acted
as warleader.

In 1470, king Charles deceased and his nephew, Sten
Sture of Revsnes, a kinsman of Magnus, took power as
Regent of Sweden.

High Councillor Magnus died between 1473 and 1477, his
inheritance becoming divided between heirs through two
separate proceedings in 1479 and 1481.

Magnus of Göksholm married thrice.
His first wife (married presumably in early 1440s, and
possibly while he yet was a deposed king's pirate) was
lady Merete Clausdatter 'Plata' (survived at least to
1456) of the originally Rugen house von Platen,
daughter of judge Claus Claussen 'Plata' and his wife
Cecilie Nielsdotter, herself widow of Cort Hermansen
Nipertz. This marriage made Magnus a brother-in-law to
Erik Cortsen Nipertz, lord of Koberg, and the
‘swarthy’ Aage Jensen the Skaaning, lord of Åkerö,
both High Councilmen and governors.

His second, apparently childless, wife (since 1458)
was lady Marta of Horshaga, daughter of a lord Maunu,
who succeeded after her ecclesiastic uncle, dominus
Benedict, bishop of Skara, as the heiress general of
the House of Nordhankaer and Hendelo, once ducals of
Osterlandia in person of duke Benedict II (dc 1360).
She was daughter of knight Maunu of Horshaga and his
wife Kristina of Aspenes. Marta is recorded as having
made her testament in 1463, and she certainly died,
without own surviving issue, before 1466, leaving her
younger sister(s) as her heirs.

And Magnus’ third wife, married in 1466 (when he was
already in his fifties) was the young lady Ermegaard
Fikkesdatter 'Bylow' (bc 1445, dc 1509) of the House
von Bülow, and namesaked niece of the late countess
Ermegaard in Gripsholm. She was heiress of Bro and
Sundby, daughter of knight Fikke Johansen 'Bylow',
lord of Bro, and his wife lady Hebbla Albrechtdatter
'Bydelsbak' (von Beutelsbach), whose second husband
(and Ermegaard's stepfather) was lord Arend Bengtson
of Nynes, of the ancient House of Langnes. Lady
Ermegaard was mostly of Wendic-German ancestral roots,
but from a family already many generations resident in
Sweden and Denmark.
Ermegaard, widowed after Magnus himself, came to
remarry as third wife the half-Norwegian nobleman
Joens Knutson, governor of Dalsland, high councilman
of Sweden, dc 1497, whose earlier wives had been
Ingerid Eiriksdottir av Rylanda og Vellinge and Arfrid
Aagesdatter af Åkerö.

Magnus had children of his first and third marriages:

Of the two daughters of the first wife,
Cecilia Magnusdotter (bc 1445, dc 1478) married
firstly knight Ogmund Peterson 'Bolt' (dc 1465) of the
Norwegian house of Sudreim whose branch had in part
settled in Sweden (Ervalla). She married secondly
squire Joens Ivarson of Svansholmen. Both her
marriages produced a son each, Ogmund (dc 1483?) and
?Iver?? (d ?).

Birgitta Magnusdotter (bc 1450, dc 1510), occasionally
vernacularized ‘Britta Månsdotter’, married firstly
1471 Swedish high councillor Abraham Kristerson of
Ekeberg (dc 1497) and secondly bailiff, squire Anders
Pedersen from Denmark (who was killed 1537 by
peasants).
Her first marriage progenited the lineage later known
with the surnames Löwenkopf, Lewenhaupt and
Leijonhufvud, from their Coat-of-Arms.

Magnus lived to see many of the children of his two
eldest daughters to be born. Their births took place
practically during same years as children of his own
third marriage.

The third marriage with Ermegaard produced three
surviving children, who were yet young when lord
Magnus passed away:

Kristina Magnusdotter, heiress of Sundby (bc 1467,
died after 1519), occasionally vernacularized ‘Kerstin
Månsdotter’, married 1486 the high councillor Sigge
Larsson, lord of Bysta and Aagarden (d 1509) as his
second wife. Sigge Larsson was son of squire Lars
Siggeson of Simonstorp and his second wife lady
Ingeborg Bengtsdotter, heiress of Bysta.
Kristina progenited a numerous family, to whom she
left her estate of Sundby, which was to become a
titular creation of the rank of count for one branch
among her male line descendency (Sparre counts of
Sundby).

Margareta Magnusdotter (bc 1469, dc 1520),
occasionally vernacularized ‘Märta Månsdotter’, who
married firstly the practically Norwegian, high
councillor Eirik Jonson av Falun, lord of Saem (dc
1507), son of her stepfather, governor Joens Knutson
of Dalsland by his first wife lady Ingerid
Eiriksdottir av Rylanda & Vellinge. She married
secondly 1508 high councillor Knut Lindormson of
Rossvik (killed in January 1520 at Bogesund/Aasunden
battle). From him, she seems to have received
Sjogeraas estate.
Margareta seems to have remained without surviving
issue.

Johan Magnuson, Lord of Bro and Göksholm (bc 1470, d
Spring 1520), who already at the advanced age of 22
years is (according to Elgenstierna) mentioned as High
Councillor of Sweden, a piece of information which
supports the hypothesis that among some genuine
appointees, late and ripe medieval memberships in the
Swedish high council were practically hereditary
privileges of magnate families and they expected
"appointment" as their right. He ended his career as
castellan of Kalmar fortress, bravely against the
onslaught of the Danish of king Christian II. His
first wife (since around 1499) was his step-sister,
Arfrid Joensdotter of Falun (presumably born when her
mother presumably died in childbirth in early 1480s,
died herself before 1507), daughter of the
half-Norwegian governor Joens Knutson of Dalsland by
his second wife, the half-Scanian lady Arfrid
Aagesdatter af Åkerö. His second, childless, wife was
lady Anna of Viipuri from Finland (d after 1525),
daughter of knight Eric, margrave of Viipuri, and his
formidable wife lady Gunilla Bese, heiress of great
Benhamra and manor of Herrsetra. Lady Anna, widow
after lord Johan, courageously continued leading the
defence of the castle of Kalmar against the Danes, in
same tradition of brave Dowager Chatelaines as her
mother lady Gunilla had done in Viipuri almost a
decade earlier.
The sons of lord Johan's first marriage, Magnus and
Aake, both progenited lineages which approximately two
centuries later became and today are known as 'Natt
och Dag', the agnatically most senior Noble House of
Sweden, being historically known in pure male line
since 1282. The today Natt och Dag do not hold any
hereditary honorific beyond that of 'herr', 'fru' and
'fröken', that branch having remained among untitled
nobility of Sweden throughout the history.

Magnus Bengtson appears a product of late medieval
magnate aristocracy, regarding himself and his peers,
petty kinglets, lordlings, as kings within their own
spheres of influence. One would possibly like to
compare them with pigs in each one’s own lair. His own
and his social class’ interests apparently were
paramount to him, at expense of peasants and, for
example, any uniform justice system. There is plenty
of features of tribal blood feuds in what he did.





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