Svantepolk of Viby

Svantepolk Knutson (birth c1227, died ca. 1310) was a Swedish knight and councilor. He became a wealthy feudal lord in Östergötland. Biography His father was Knud Valdemarsen (ca. 1205-1260), Duke of Revelia, Blekinge and Lolland. Svantepolk was the oldest son, but his sister Marianna of Blekinge (d 1252) was probably older, because Marianna's engagement in 1238 and wedding in 1241 require a chronology that she must be born in or before 1226. His father was a son of King Valdemar II of Denmark (1170–1241) born in the non-wedded (but probably engagement-promised) espousing with a widowed Swedish lady, Helena, daughter of Earl Guttorm. His mother was a Pomeranian whose first name is not known although often she is presented as Jagviga, same as Hedvig, but who is indicated to have come from a Vendish princely family, perhaps of Pomerelia. The name Svantepolk may have recalled some maternal relative of Slavic princely dynasties. His youngest brother was Eric, Duke of Halland (c1255-1304). Svantepolk's younger sister is countess Lucia of Gleichen, the wife of Henry, Count of Gleichen, a Swedish and Danish aristocrat. Svantepolk may have in 1230 inherited the Swedish properties of his grandmother Helena Guttormsdotter. This is because Svantepolk is much later documented as owner of the great domain of Strömsrum in Strand near Kalmar, a property that (with properties on Öland island) are presumed to have belonged to Helena and to her father the riksjarl Guttorm. In 1241 Svantepolk got designated to inherit the Swedish landed properties of his grandfather King Valdemar II. Valdemar had inherited a vast landed fortune from his mother Sofie who as the sole surviving sibling of Burislev Sverkerson had inherited Burislev's personal property, located chiefly in Östergötland. Valdemar's heirs agreed that the troubles in preceding decades, caused by various Swedish regime's opposition towards the monarch of Denmark owning property inside borders of Sweden, is better to end totally. For this, making a clear separation, the young Svantepolk, son of illegitimate family branch, gets designated to be a Swede and to live as loyal subject/vassal of Sweden. Viby in Östergötland is probably the chief residence of that immense landed property.